New Arrivals For Friday August 21, 2009

It seems strange to be receiving "Oktoberfest" and pumpkin beers when the weather is pushing 90, but I guess it's just a continuation of the trend towards pushing seasonals out earlier and earlier. In any case they're nice and fresh right now, so you might as well drink them. We also got the first shipment of bottles from Upright Brewing, so if a light, refreshing farmhouse ale is more your speed we have you covered. On to the list:

• Boulevard - Bob's 47: (commercial description) Boulevard’s fall seasonal beer, Bob’s ’47 Oktoberfest is a medium-bodied, dark amber brew with a malty flavor and well-balanced hop character. With this Munich-style lager we solute our friend Bob Werkowitch, Master Brewer and 1947 graduate of the U.S. Brewer‘s Academy. Available from September through October in bottles and on draught.
• Bayern - Oktoberfest: Smooth, malty, clean, pretty much everything you want in a festival lager.
  
• Sam Adams - Oktoberfest: A dark amber lager with minimal hops and a smooth caramel/toffee malt flavor. One of the best in the Sam Adams line up.
  
• 3 Skulls - Hop the Plank IPA: 3 Skulls is an off-shoot of Baron Brewing in Seattle that gives them an opportunity to brew some NW-style ales without muddying up the German theme of their core lager brand. As a fairly new brewery there's very little in the way of reviews out there, but the distributor was kind enough to drop off samples, so we'll taste them on Sunday and I'll get back to you
  
• 3 Skulls - Black Bonney Porter: review coming soon...
  
• 3 Skulls - Pillagers Pale Ale: review coming soon...
  
• Buffalo Bill's - Pumpkin Ale: An amber ale with pumpkin spices. Not too shabby, but it can't hold a candle to the Elysian Night Owl.
  
• Upright - Four: A brilliantly balanced farmhouse wheat ale. Perfect for weather like this.
  

These aren't really "new", but Firestone Walker's products are pretty popular, so it's worth mentioning that their Pale 31, Double Barrel Ale, and Union Jack IPA are now available in 12oz singles and 6 packs for those times when a bomber just won't cut it.

That's it for now. Check back soon (or check the Twitter feed over there ----> ) for the latest on new tappings in the Biercafé and other info.

New Beer, New Equipment, New Photos

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so consider this my 3000 word treatise for the day.


New Beers!

From left to right: Bridgeport Hop Czar, Full Sail Keelhauler, Cascade The Vine, Laurelwood Hop Monkey IPA, and Lagunitas Gnarlywine.

Other new beers not pictured:

Alaskan - White Ale
Kona - Wailua Wheat
Bayern - Dragon's Breath Dunkelweizen
Bayern - Maibock
Buffalo Bill's - Orange Blossom
Lang Creek - Cherry Porter
Lang Creek - Huckleberry and Honey
Ommegang - Biere de Mars

New ciders, meads, and ciders:

Red Branch - Hard Lemonade
Red Branch - Apple and Honey Cider
Rabbit's Foot - Dry Mead
Rabbit's Foot - Sweet Mead
Rabbit's Foot - Apple Ceyser
Rabbit's Foot - Raspberry Mead
Rabbit's Foot - Diabhal Golden Ale
Rabbit's Foot - Biere de Miele Koelsch


New Equipment!


After much delay, we finally got our beer engine installed last week. A pint of well-kept cask-conditioned ale is one of life's most delicious pleasures, and we're happy to finally have the means to provide them. We've got Hopworks IPA on right now, and there's a keg of Beer Valley's Leafer Madness Imperial Pale lined up behind that. I can't give out any more info at the moment, but we may be tapping something very special in the next week, so keep your eye on the blog or twitter feed.

Last but not least, I had the pleasure of attending a tasting at Bailey's Taproom on Wednesday night. It was comprised of mainly Beeradvocate users, with a few industry folks like myself, Ezra (the Samurai Artist), and Geoff, the owner of Bailey's. Geoff was kind enough to allow us to bring in outside bottles; a very generous offer considering his only source of revenue is alcohol. I tried taking a few photos to test out my tiny new pocket camera (a nice little Sony Cybershot), but between the poor lighting and my unfamiliarity with the device my pictures turned out mediocre at best. I did end up with one photo that (after a bit of tweaking) does a fairly accurate job of summarizing how I felt after plowing through a table full of strong, rare beer:


Highlights included several vintage sour ales, a growler of Russian river Sanctification, Brooklyn Local #2, Upland Cherry Lambic, HOTD Cherry Adam From the Wood, and Cave Creek Chili Beer.


I think that's it for now. Be sure to stop by the Biercafe on Tuesday to help us raise money for Mercy Corps - 25% of all food and draught sales in the cafe will be going directly to the NFP for their "Dine for Darfur" program. Click here for more information on Mercy Corps and Dine For Darfur.

New Arrivals For Tuesday 12.18.07

The Laughing Dog brews finally arrived, and we received a last minute addition to the mini-keg collection, but other than that there isn't much new to report today. We also got 15 more cases of Lagunitas Brown Shugga (the first 12 cases sold out in less than 24 hours) and this is likely to be all that we're alloted, so let me emphasize once more that if you want to have ANY hope of buying some Shugga this year you need to go out and find some today. Serious. That said, lets dig into todays' pile and see what we've got...


Laughing Dog - Cream Ale: (brewers' description) Our Cream Ale is a traditional Cream Ale fermented with both an ale and a lager yeast, which gives us the creamy smoothness of an ale with a nice dry crisp finish.

Laughing Dog - Pale Ale: (brewers' description) From out of the PAcific Northwest the Micro-brewers were born and with them came an ale that was unlike any other, the American Pale Ale. We brew our pale ale big, bold, and hoppy using five of the finiest hops from the fields in Yakima, WA. To balance the intense hop flavors, five different American grown malted barelys add malt flavor and smooth finish.

Laughing Dog - IPA: (brewers' description) A profound love of hops and big brews led to our IPA. A little over the top, it's a hophead's dream come true. An intense hop aroma and strong malt body are followed by a smooth clean finish.

Laughing Dog - Cold Nose Winter Ale: (brewers' description) After a romp in the snow on a cold winters day, this brew is just what's needed to warm you up. Dark and malty with a big hop presence, it is a great winter warmer

Full Sail - Slipknot Imperial IPA: Bracing. If I had to sum up Slipknot in one word, that would be the one. This is a serious IPA for serious hopheads. It's also a great way to get your Full Sail fix and tide yourself over until the Bourbon-aged Top Sail comes out in February...

Bayern - Dancing Trout: (Formerly known as Trout Slayer) I haven't had this beer in ages, but I seem to recall it nailing the style pretty well. If you're a fan of kristallweizen (aka filtered wheat beer) this one's definitely worth a try.

Monchshof - Weinachts Bier: What could be better for the holidays than a 5 liter mini-keg of tasty German beer? How about a 5 liter mini-keg with a picture of jolly old St. Nick on the side? A mini-keg of Bell's Two Hearted would top it, but I can't think of much else. Sorry if I got your hopes up (since Bell's isn't distributed in Oregon), but I just can't stop thinking about how nice it would be to have one of those mini-kegs in my fridge.

I think that's it for today. Remember, friends don't let friends drink crappy beer.

The Silence of the Blog

I apologize for the lack of posts recently but it has been incredibly busy (and chaotic) in my little corner of the beer world.

We've gotten a few new beers this week as well as a handful of returning favorites:

Local:
Alameda - Beaumont Bock

U.S. Micros:
Midnight Sun - Arctic Devil Barleywine
Midnight Sun - Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter
Hale's Ales - Nut Brown Ale
Bayern - Killarnny Red Irish Lager
Avery - Maharaja Imperial IPA
Boulder - Mojo Risin Imperial IPA
Marin - Tripel Dipsea (Belgian-style tripel)
Dogfish Head Pangaea (funky hybrid) and Fort (18%abv raspberry beer)

Imports:
St. Louis Framboise
Delirium Tremens returns after a long absence

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