After the exertions of the last weekend (I'm sick of IPAs) I'm going on vacation. I'm heading to England to see what those people know about beer. Unfortunately, the family mansion I inherited from my great uncle has only recently installed flushable toilets so the likelihood of a daily blog dispatch is slim.
So, dear reader, you're on your own for three weeks.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Shameless Self Self-Promotion
Just in case you haven't heard, the Parkway IPA Fest is this Saturday August 22nd starting at 2pm and running all day and night. The usual pig and beef with some bratwurst thrown in.
37 IPAs should be enough for just about anyone to get drunk on so here's the almost complete list:
37 IPAs should be enough for just about anyone to get drunk on so here's the almost complete list:
Avery Maharaja Imperial
Big Al Hop Soup
Big Time Scarlett Fire
Big Time Bhagwan’s Cask
Boulevard Single Wide
Diamond Knot Dry-Hopped
Dick’s Bottleworks
Dogfish Head 120 Minute
Elysian Hubris
Firestone Walker Double Jack
Full Sail Dry-Hopped
Great Divide Wood-Aged Double
Hale’s Dry-Hopped Mongoose
Iron Horse Dry-Hopped
Lagunitas Hop Stoopid
Laughing Dog Alpha Dog Imperial
Maritime Pacific Dry-Hopped Imperial
Moylan’s Moylander Double
Our Lady Of The Hop
Port Brewing Hop 15
Port Townsend Cascade Single Hop
Rogue I²PA
Schooner Exact 3 Grid Firkin
Seven Seas Ballz Deep Double
Snipe’s Mountain
Southern Tier
Stone Dry-Hopped
Terminal Gravity
Two Beers’ Dry-Hopped Echo
Victory Hop Wallop
Walking Man Homo Erectus
Who Cares?
We hear, belatedly of course, that Tom Munoz is gone from Silver City Brewing. Word also reaches us that having reached out to a wider market Silver City have decided they can't handle the pressure and are withdrawing to their cozier, and less challenging, peninsula market. Sorry Knuckles.
Conflicting reports on the amount of finger lost at Elysian. The owners claim it was just a flesh wound but the brewing community is leaning toward the entire digit. We do hear that the former owner of said disputed digit is a nice guy and we wish him all the best and a swift recovery
When you peddle gossip the downside is you are always the last to hear it. But apparently the collaboration between Elysian and New Belgium involves more than just exchanging yeast strains. As in: "How about you and me get together sometime, and, errr, you know, collaborate."
Conflicting reports on the amount of finger lost at Elysian. The owners claim it was just a flesh wound but the brewing community is leaning toward the entire digit. We do hear that the former owner of said disputed digit is a nice guy and we wish him all the best and a swift recovery
When you peddle gossip the downside is you are always the last to hear it. But apparently the collaboration between Elysian and New Belgium involves more than just exchanging yeast strains. As in: "How about you and me get together sometime, and, errr, you know, collaborate."
Saturday, August 15, 2009
More Shameless Self-Promotion
From Chris at the Red Hot:
Tonight (Saturday 8-15), 7pm: Randall Battle with Schooner Exact Brewing! 3 Grid IPA through 2 Randalls...one with Amarillos, one with Cascades! Meet the brewers and geek out!
Tomorrow (Sunday 8-16), 1pm: Our anniversary party opens our beer garden at 1pm. On tap out there will be Elysian Koolsch (pub only from Elysian Fields), 7 Seas British Pale Ale, Port Townsend Hop Diggidy IPA through the Randall, and the debut of our beer engine with a cask of Big Al's Hop Soup IPA (11.1% ABV, holy crap!). At 5pm, we'll be tapping a firkin with our pals from Schooner Exact outside with their delicious dry-hopped 3 Grid IPA that we can't get enough of. At 6pm, the return of the annual hot dog eating competition! This year is all about speed, with each eater given 3 hotdogs and buns...whoever downs 'em the fastest, wins! The weather is going to be killer, sunny and 78, and we'll keep the garden open into the night. Hope to see all of our pals there to celebrate!
Coming Soon: Reunion '09 Double Wheat, Lost Abbey 10 Commandments, Port Townsend Scotch Ale NITRO, Double Mountain Hop Lava IPA, Laurelwood Hop Monkey IPA, Walking Man Homo Erectus IPA, SESSION FEST, NBB BIKE IN MOVIE, & MORE!
Tonight (Saturday 8-15), 7pm: Randall Battle with Schooner Exact Brewing! 3 Grid IPA through 2 Randalls...one with Amarillos, one with Cascades! Meet the brewers and geek out!
Tomorrow (Sunday 8-16), 1pm: Our anniversary party opens our beer garden at 1pm. On tap out there will be Elysian Koolsch (pub only from Elysian Fields), 7 Seas British Pale Ale, Port Townsend Hop Diggidy IPA through the Randall, and the debut of our beer engine with a cask of Big Al's Hop Soup IPA (11.1% ABV, holy crap!). At 5pm, we'll be tapping a firkin with our pals from Schooner Exact outside with their delicious dry-hopped 3 Grid IPA that we can't get enough of. At 6pm, the return of the annual hot dog eating competition! This year is all about speed, with each eater given 3 hotdogs and buns...whoever downs 'em the fastest, wins! The weather is going to be killer, sunny and 78, and we'll keep the garden open into the night. Hope to see all of our pals there to celebrate!
Coming Soon: Reunion '09 Double Wheat, Lost Abbey 10 Commandments, Port Townsend Scotch Ale NITRO, Double Mountain Hop Lava IPA, Laurelwood Hop Monkey IPA, Walking Man Homo Erectus IPA, SESSION FEST, NBB BIKE IN MOVIE, & MORE!
Shameless Self-Promotion
From me ol' pal Bazz at the Rosewood with his current line-up:
"Walking Man Dry Hopped Red (straight from the brewery, not from the distributor that is supposed to be carrying their beer, but never has any in stock)
Hale's Kolsch (B.Y.O.U-bring your own umlaut)
Elysian Avatar IPA (if you are going to put extra crap in beer at least make it classy, like Jasmine!)
Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale (one of the biggest breweries, yet they can hardly make a bad beer in my worthless opinion)"
I hear the red is very, very, good.
"Walking Man Dry Hopped Red (straight from the brewery, not from the distributor that is supposed to be carrying their beer, but never has any in stock)
Hale's Kolsch (B.Y.O.U-bring your own umlaut)
Elysian Avatar IPA (if you are going to put extra crap in beer at least make it classy, like Jasmine!)
Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale (one of the biggest breweries, yet they can hardly make a bad beer in my worthless opinion)"
I hear the red is very, very, good.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
We Drink Bad Beer So You Don't Have To Too
Once again I have a stack of curling, beer soaked, tasting notes that I have been ignoring. Trying to figure out a way of organizing them, and avoid writing them up, I hit upon the perfect solution. So here's the worst, but not all bad, beers we have tasted in the last month:
Anchor
Summer Beer American Wheat ABV 4.6%
Tastes like a wheat heavy non-alcohol beer, someone said Kaliber, not sure how they would know that. Effervescent with a tart macro lager finish. If it ever gets back into the high 90s, and you are stupid enough to mow your brown lawn, drink something else.
1 out of 5
Great Divide
Dunkel Weiss ABV 6.4%
Clean start, middle and finish. Maybe too clean because this beer is just plain dull. Even the hint of breadiness that someone detected in the middle is Wonder bread not rich roasty baguette. Thin and watery.
1 out of 5
Bells
Cherry Stout ABV 7%
Medicinal prescription cough syrup, a little chocolate with a sharp tartness. Woodiness is too tanic with a little hop bitterness. Drink it from a snifter with cheese or chocolate. Other serving suggestions from these notes are "with a hooker and a cheeseburger." You decide.
2 out of 5
Firestone-Walker
Double Barrel Pale ABV 5%
Not much nose. A decent body with a slight toasty vanilla finish. A bit puzzling and difficult to pin down. Is it a pale or a bitter? Does double barrel mean something? We figure it's better than a lot of ambers out there.
2 out of 5
Founders
Double Trouble Imperial IPA ABV 9.4%
An odd sweet and sour nose. May have lost something in transit because it seems like it could be complex and interesting if it were fresher. Some potential if you lived in Michigan.
2 out of 5
Schlitz
Bull Ice Malt Liquor ABV 8.2%
Smells like the industrial steel vat it spewed out of. Sickeningly sweet with a nasty alcohol burn. We need a government program to stop people drinking this garbage.
0 out of 5
Norrebro Bryghus
North Bridge Extreme Imperial IPA ABV 9.6%
Smells like chicken bouillon still in cube form but tastes like beef gravy. Ratebeer scores this a 99 which is 99 more than we give it.
0 out of 5
Big Al
Belgian IPA
Smells like Bazooka Joe bubblegum but definitely a lot less funny. Tastes like rock sugar. One of Big Al's better beers.
2 out of 5
Next up: the beers the self-appointed, self-important, and self-inebriated Panel members thought were worth drinking.
Anchor
Summer Beer American Wheat ABV 4.6%
Tastes like a wheat heavy non-alcohol beer, someone said Kaliber, not sure how they would know that. Effervescent with a tart macro lager finish. If it ever gets back into the high 90s, and you are stupid enough to mow your brown lawn, drink something else.
1 out of 5
Great Divide
Dunkel Weiss ABV 6.4%
Clean start, middle and finish. Maybe too clean because this beer is just plain dull. Even the hint of breadiness that someone detected in the middle is Wonder bread not rich roasty baguette. Thin and watery.
1 out of 5
Bells
Cherry Stout ABV 7%
Medicinal prescription cough syrup, a little chocolate with a sharp tartness. Woodiness is too tanic with a little hop bitterness. Drink it from a snifter with cheese or chocolate. Other serving suggestions from these notes are "with a hooker and a cheeseburger." You decide.
2 out of 5
Firestone-Walker
Double Barrel Pale ABV 5%
Not much nose. A decent body with a slight toasty vanilla finish. A bit puzzling and difficult to pin down. Is it a pale or a bitter? Does double barrel mean something? We figure it's better than a lot of ambers out there.
2 out of 5
Founders
Double Trouble Imperial IPA ABV 9.4%
An odd sweet and sour nose. May have lost something in transit because it seems like it could be complex and interesting if it were fresher. Some potential if you lived in Michigan.
2 out of 5
Schlitz
Bull Ice Malt Liquor ABV 8.2%
Smells like the industrial steel vat it spewed out of. Sickeningly sweet with a nasty alcohol burn. We need a government program to stop people drinking this garbage.
0 out of 5
Norrebro Bryghus
North Bridge Extreme Imperial IPA ABV 9.6%
Smells like chicken bouillon still in cube form but tastes like beef gravy. Ratebeer scores this a 99 which is 99 more than we give it.
0 out of 5
Big Al
Belgian IPA
Smells like Bazooka Joe bubblegum but definitely a lot less funny. Tastes like rock sugar. One of Big Al's better beers.
2 out of 5
Next up: the beers the self-appointed, self-important, and self-inebriated Panel members thought were worth drinking.
Digital Hubris
Alright, you didn't hear it from me and you know how I don't like to spread gossip or unfounded rumors. Going against my usual rigorous journalistic standards I haven't bothered to double check the "facts" but this is too meaty to let go.
Word reaches TBT Towers that Elysian had to dump a whole batch of their Hubris Imperial IPA because one of the brewers lost his finger in it.
Word reaches TBT Towers that Elysian had to dump a whole batch of their Hubris Imperial IPA because one of the brewers lost his finger in it.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Shit Hot
Because of my recent bender and subsequent time in rehab I haven't devoted enough time here to my favorite watering hole, the delightful, and ambience drenched, Red Hot.
The Red Hot has established itself, in two short years, as a Tacoma icon. Chris is probably the hardest working guy in the Tacoma beer scene: Tirelessly striving to put the best suds in front of his loyal customers. I hope you all appreciate that because I know I do.
I also appreciate his friendly and accommodating staff. Many times when I have been kicked out of every other respectable bar in town I have been welcomed at the Red Hot with a sympathetic "John, put your shirt on, have a beer, and I'll give you a ride home." Now, that's service!
I think they only close early just to get me out the door, but that's another matter altogether.
If you're not aware, the Red Hot is celebrating their 2nd anniversary on Sunday August 16th. Here's what Chris has to say about that:
The Red Hot has established itself, in two short years, as a Tacoma icon. Chris is probably the hardest working guy in the Tacoma beer scene: Tirelessly striving to put the best suds in front of his loyal customers. I hope you all appreciate that because I know I do.
I also appreciate his friendly and accommodating staff. Many times when I have been kicked out of every other respectable bar in town I have been welcomed at the Red Hot with a sympathetic "John, put your shirt on, have a beer, and I'll give you a ride home." Now, that's service!
I think they only close early just to get me out the door, but that's another matter altogether.
If you're not aware, the Red Hot is celebrating their 2nd anniversary on Sunday August 16th. Here's what Chris has to say about that:
"Sunday August 16th is our 2 Year Anniversary. We will be celebrating from open to close (1pm til 10pm). We'll have some special beers outside in the beer garden (like a keg of Elysian Koolsch brought down from Fields), The Randall will be flowing on something special, and even another KILLER firkin cask of Schooner Exact dry-hopped 3 Grid IPA, and some other hijinks (hotdog eating contest, anyone?). We hope to see all our pals!"
Oh No, Not More Breweries
Here's another Seattle wannabe microbrewery:
Mellifluous Productions at this address, doesn't that look lovely! Looks like a restaurant is coming soon, too, but the website isn't quite ready to go.
And on the, kind of, home front, I bumped into Rhett Burris, you know him as a former brewer at the Ram, and he's going forward with plans for the Burris Brewing Company. He plans to use excess capacity at Lazy Boy to produce his own line of beers. Right now he's in the "I have the logo, can I have some cash?" phase of his master plan. So if anyone has a couple of large ones lying around doing nothing send them his way.
Seven Seas is finally up and running and the esteemed Beer Panel got a chance to guzzle down a taster of their Ballz Deep Double IPA. Here's what those beer snobs thought:
"Good orangey pith nose and orange creamsicle mouthfeel but lacks depth. More hoppy fragrance and freshness would greatly improve this." 3 out of 5.
There you have it, of course we were all drunk by the time the Ballz Deep surfaced, so go out and try it yourself.
Mellifluous Productions at this address, doesn't that look lovely! Looks like a restaurant is coming soon, too, but the website isn't quite ready to go.
And on the, kind of, home front, I bumped into Rhett Burris, you know him as a former brewer at the Ram, and he's going forward with plans for the Burris Brewing Company. He plans to use excess capacity at Lazy Boy to produce his own line of beers. Right now he's in the "I have the logo, can I have some cash?" phase of his master plan. So if anyone has a couple of large ones lying around doing nothing send them his way.
Seven Seas is finally up and running and the esteemed Beer Panel got a chance to guzzle down a taster of their Ballz Deep Double IPA. Here's what those beer snobs thought:
"Good orangey pith nose and orange creamsicle mouthfeel but lacks depth. More hoppy fragrance and freshness would greatly improve this." 3 out of 5.
There you have it, of course we were all drunk by the time the Ballz Deep surfaced, so go out and try it yourself.
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