Category: About the Search Party

General information about the blog.

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In the Tap Lines for October 2011


Here at BSP headquarters, we are working on these posts for the ghoulish month of October. Ghoulish because of the morning’s after all the L.A. Beer Week events.

Also, again thanks to Charissa Santos, for the above logo. If you like the look of it, check out her site HERE. She does branding, print and web design and she is easy to work with and she really made me take a hard look at where I am going and what my design does to help me get there.

~ e-visits to three breweries in Australia
~ video reviews of Halloween themed beers
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my opinion on the craft beer world
~ … and Session # 56 will converge bloggers onto a single topic
~ plus many more posts about new beers, beer products and breweries

Here are three events to get your October started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) October 9 – B.A.M. Beer-Art-Music in Santa Monica
2) October 10 – L.A. Beer Week kick-off at Naja’s Place
3) October 18th – Oskar Blues TenFidy tasting at Boneyard Bistro

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THANKS!

I want to thank all of you who voted send me on a trip to Canfest in Reno, Nevada.

Because of your votes, whether they came through Facebook, Twitter, Flicker or just plain old e-mail, I will be able to report on all of the canned brew festivities.

It may have taken just a few seconds to vote but I really appreciate that in this social media age that you took that time on my behalf.

And I also want to thank the other bloggers who made it a tight, tight race. The Blager, Daily Beer Review, Hoppy Beer Girl, Washington Beer Blog, Pints and Panels, Road Trips For Beer,
Girl From Arizona and especially BrewDad. I would have been disappointed but glad if any of you had won.

So stay tuned to this blog for more canned beer coverage in November.

P.S. I better see 7 Seas, Good People Beer and Sixpoint Ales at the festival. I will give Golden Road a break this year because they will start canning after the festival.

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Canfest 2011 – VOTE FOR SEAN

You may recall that I am in the running for a trip to Reno and Canfest 2011 courtesy of Buckbean Brewing.

Now is the time to celebrate your right to vote!
Here is the link to VOTE:
I am number one on the list – BEER SEARCH PARTY.

And please send to anyone who will vote!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CANFESTBloggerContest

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In the Tap Lines for September 2011


Here at BSP headquarters, we are working on these posts for September as we transition from summer to fall. And thanks to Charissa Santos, I will be rolling out some new logos for my recurring posts. Like the one above. If you like the look of it, check out her site HERE. She does branding, print and web design and she is easy to work with and she really made me take a hard look at where I am going and what my design does to help me get there.

~ e-visits to three breweries in Chicago
~ video reviews of beers picked up in Oregon at the Beer Bloggers Conference
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my opinion on the craft beer world
~ … and Session # 55 will converge bloggers onto a single topic
~ plus many more posts about new beers, beer products and breweries

Here are two events to get your September started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) September 6th – Beachwood BBQ Sourfest
2) September 15th – Ladyface Ales Beer Dinner at City Tavern

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In the Tap Lines for August 2011

Here at BSP headquarters, we are working on these posts for August.

~ e-visits to three breweries in Nebraska
~ video reviews of beers from Pretty Things Ale Project
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my opinion on the craft beer world
~ daily reports from the Beer Bloggers Conference
~ … and Session # 54 will talk about sours
~ plus many more posts about new beers, beer products and breweries AND a Beer spelling Bee

Here are two events to get your August started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) August 13th – Blue Palms 3rd Anniversary Party
2) August 20th – Stone 15th Anniversary Celebration

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In the Tap Lines for July 2011

July in California is the start of the broiling season. Fitting that the month starts with BBQ and fireworks. Here at BSP headquarters, we are working on these posts for this month.

~ e-visits to three breweries in Belgium
~ video reviews of beers from Surly Brewing
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my opinion on the craft beer world
~ my 2011 Beer challenge enters the next phase
~ … and Session # 53 will pose an interesting view on the beer world
~ plus many more posts about new beers, beer products and breweries

Here are two events to get your July started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) July 12th – Tuesday at Tony’s with Sequoia Brewing

2) July 16th – Lost Abbey’s Christmas in July

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1,000 – part 4

I have now rated 1,000+ beers on RateBeer. and so I have been looking at the figures to see what I have been drinking.

Last week I covered which cities make the best beer according to what I have rated. This week I take a step up and look at the states that are doing it right and which ones I have been sipping. As with last week, this is based on the RateBeer information.

Of the 1,000, 388 are from California and 157 from Oregon. So well over 1/2 of my ratings are from 2 states. That is something I hope to remedy. The 50 Beers from 50 States challenge helped but didn’t close the gap. Predictably Colorado was 3rd and Washington state was 4th.

Here is the average rating breakdown:
California – 3.20
Colorado – 3.10
Massachussets – 2.92
New York – 3.34
Oregon – 3.17
Pennsylvania – 3.18
Washington – 3.06

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1,000 – part 3

I have now rated 1,000+ beers on RateBeer. and so I have been uncovering golden nuggets of statistical information about what I have been drinking.

Last week I covered my top beer in each style. Today, we delve into which cities make the best beer according to what I have rated. This means a city needs to have a minimum of 10 ratings and more than one brewery. As with last week, this is based on the RateBeer information.

City – Average Rating
Ashland, Oregon – 3.11
Bend, Oregon – 3.18
Boston, Mass. – 2.89
Boulder, Colorado – 3.03
Copenhagen, Denmark – 3.31
Denver, Colorado – 3.22
Eugene, Oregon – 3.20
Fort Collins, Colorado – 3.17
Hood River, Oregon – 3.06
Los Angeles, California – 3.25
Portland, Oregon – 3.18
San Diego, California – 3.19 (not inlcuding Stone or Port)
San Francisco, California – 3.12
Seattle, Washington – 2.98

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1,000 – part 2

I have now rated 1,000+ beers on RateBeer. and so I have been falling down the rabbit hole into some real statistical geekery.

Last week I covered the top and bottom 10 this week I give you my top beer in each style. These are the top beer in each style that I have had at least 10 different beers to judge against. So Zwickel will have to wait until I sample 8 more.

New Belgium Lips of Faith – Fall Wild Ale-Abbey Dubbel
Sawyers Triple-Abbey Tripel
The Bruery Loakal Red-Amber Ale
Drakes Alpha Session Ale-American Pale Ale
Hair of the Dog Matt-American Strong Ale
The Bruery Provisions Series: Old Richland-Barley Wine
The Bruery Humulus Blonde-Belgian Ale
Brooklyn Cuvee de Cardoz-Belgian Strong Ale
Brùton Bianca-Belgian White (Witbier)
Widmer Brothers W’10 Pitch Black IPA-Black IPA
Rogue John John Hazelnut Ale –Brown Ale
Magic Hat #9-Fruit Beer
Firestone Walker Hefeweizen-German Hefeweizen
New Belgium Hoptober Golden Ale-Golden Ale/Blond Ale
The Bruery Humulus Cornballer-Imperial Pils/Strong Pale Lager
The Bruery Chocolate Rain-Imperial Stout
Kern River Citra DIPA-Imperial/Double IPA
BrewDog Punk IPA (5.6%)-IPA
Angel City Che-Pale Lager
Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter-Porter
Rubicon ESB-Premium Bitter/ESB
Sierra Nevada Summerfest-Premium Lager
Pelican Saison du Pelican-Saison
Ommegang Cup o Kyndness-Scotch Ale
The Bruery Melange #1-Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Upright Six (#6)-Specialty Grain
Hair of the Dog Greg-Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Youngs Double Chocolate Stout-Stout
Hair of the Dog Cherry Adam from the Wood-Traditional Ale
Speakeasy White Lightning American Wheat Beer-Wheat Ale

What pops out at me is how many Bruery and Hair of the Dog beers there are on this list. When I think of favorite breweries those two don’t immediately come to mind. And yet, here they are in a wide variety of styles.

Also the style that I have reviewed the most? IPA’s by a large margin with 107. Not including 60 DIPA’s or 15 Black IPA’s.

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1,000 – part 1

I have now rated 1,000+ beers on RateBeer. and it is time to break down into some real statistical geekery.

Over the last few weeks, I have been parsing the data to look for interesting trends or factoids from my craft beer drinking. Not just the usual top 10 / bottom 10 (though that’s here too).

So let’s dig into the numbers……
First, my average score was 3.14 out of a possible 5.00. Which to me is good because it means I am not being too generous or too stingy with my scores. It also signifies that I am not drinking crappy beer.

And speaking of, here are the bottom 10 finishers….
Tecate 1.80
Ukiah Willits Wit 1.80
Eagle Rock Sriracha 1.80
Liefman 1.70
McMenamins Jalapeño Wheat 1.60
Miller High Life 1.50
The Bruery Provisions Series: Salt of the Earth 1.50
Game Day Ice 1.40
Coors Light 1.40
Budweiser 1.20

The usual suspects are here so I will skip flogging that vortex bottle but there are a couple surprises. First off, I hate peppers and scovill heat so the Sriracha and Jalapeno are only here because of that, not due to anything else. The Liefman is there due to exceeding amounts of sugar which may are may not have been part of the plan. The huge shock to some (who haven’t tried it) is the Bruery being in the bottom. Well, the beer tasted like salad dressing and smelt worse. And the worse sin was it took a lovely style that I adore and made it undrinkable.

Kern River Citra DIPA 4.40
The Bruery Chocolate Rain 4.30
Magic Hat #9 4.30
The Bruery Melange #1 4.30
Ballast Point Victory at Sea 4.20
BrewDog Punk IPA (5.6%) 4.10
Hair of the Dog Cherry Adam from the Wood 4.10
The Bruery Loakal Red 4.10
Hair of the Dog Matt 4.10
Russian River Sanctification 4.10

I don’t think there is too much to argue with here. Magic Hat is probably rated too high (1.24 higher than the average Ratebeer score) but both times I have had it on a hot summer day and it has delivered. The Punk IPA is probably a skosh over as well but still within a 1/2 point from the average.

More 1000 ratings data coming up on future posts.