Brewery Tour – Fort Collins stop # 1 – Funkwerks


I was quite happy that I was able to get a taster of beer from Fort Collin’s Funkwerks. They along with Crooked Stave (which brews at their facility) have been getting a bit of beer praise and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. And I was impressed.

They focus on the saison style and have a primer on this now thoroughly Americanized style on their website HERE.

I had the Tropic King but their list of beers include ingredients like grapefruit, fennel, and green tea too. So after hitting New Belgium and Odell’s, head over and try a Belgian Oatmeal stout or a citrus saison.

FoodGPS Teaser – Turkey Day


Yes, it is Turkey Time. I think it is a great canvas to experiment with beer pairings. So many different flavors and crisp fall weather.

One beer style that I don’t talk about in my post on FoodGPS tomorrow is sours. Generally, I would stay away from this beer on a large gathering occasion. Too many people will turn up their nose. But if you are in charge of the gathering, maybe you can foist this beer on to the crowd.

I think a light sour like a Duchesse de Bourgogne or the newly released Ichico Highway from The Bruery would work. But a nice gose would do the trick too.

Let me know which sour beers you think would be a perfect foil for the turkey.

Brew Food


San Diego’s Chefs Press has a companion cookbook for the recently completed San Diego Beer Week, “BREW FOOD celebrates the incredible range and versatility of beer and its adaptability to the home kitchen. The book highlights the culinary creativity of chefs, dessertiers, pro brewers, brewery staffers, restaurateurs, and craft-beer-bar owners. It provides recipes that will inspire cooks of all skill levels and interests — everything from Hefeweizen-Coriander Baked Sea Bass to Quad-Braised Osso Buco to Spicy IPA Burgers and IPA Mac-n-Cheese.

Includes more than 90 recipes from pro brewers (AleSmith, Aztec, Ballast Point, Green Flash, Hess, Iron Fist, Karl Strauss, Lightning, Manzanita, Mission, Monkey Paw, Mother Earth, New English, Port/The Lost Abbey, Rock Bottom, San Diego Brewing, Stone), restaurants (Bo-Beau, Bunz, Gingham, Handlery Hotel San Diego, The Marine Room, MIHO Gastrotruck, Local Habit, The Grill at The Lodge at Torrey Pines, PubCakes, Ritual Tavern, Riviera Supper Club, Searsucker, SOL Markets, Urban Solace, Urge Gastropub, Vine Cottage Restaurant) and great craft beer bars (Churchill’s, Company Pub, Hamilton’s, High Dive, O’Brien’s, Small Bar, Tiger! Tiger!, Toronado).”

So, if you know someone who loves beer and to cook and is a fan of San Diego beers, your Christmas shopping just got easier.

Thirst Insurance

Belgium is a must see for a craft beer geek. And that is coming from someone who still hasn’t been. (So many items on my Beer Bucket List). And one place that I will add to the “Places to go Column” will be In de Verzekering Tegen de Grote Dorst which in English has the almost equally cool sounding name, In the Insurance Against the Great Thirst.

Here are some bottle highlights that prove the point….
3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze De Boeck 2002
Cantillon Bruocsella Lambic Grand Cru 2005
HORAL Megablend Oude Geuze 2009
Girardin Faro

‘Nuff said.

Shakespeare’s Local


How does this sound for beer and history. (Two great topics to me)….
“Welcome to the George Inn near London Bridge; a cosy, wood-pannelled, galleried coaching house a few minutes’ walk from the Thames. Grab yourself a pint, listen to the chatter of the locals and consider this: who else has made this their local over the last 600 years? Chaucer and his fellow pilgrims almost certainly drank in the George on their way out of London to Canterbury. Shakespeare may well have popped in from the nearby Globe for a pint, and we know that Dickens definitely did. Mail carriers changed their horses here, before heading to all four corners of Britain — while sailors drank here before visiting all four corners of the world… The pub, as Pete Brown points out, is the ‘primordial cell of British life’ and in the George he has found the perfect case study. All life is here, from murderers, highwaymen and ladies of the night to gossiping pedlars and hard-working clerks. So sit back and watch as buildings rise and fall over the centuries, and ‘the beer drinker’s Bill Bryson’ (TLS) takes us on an entertaining tour through six centuries of history, through the stories of everyone that ever drank in one pub.”

Click HERE to learn even more about the pints that flowed at the George

Thanks


I will be posting any and all Ohana news that I can because it is a “fresh face in beer”. So here is another beer from L.A. for you to be on the lookout for. This one might be made with Bill Walton in mind.

Sean suggests for November


If you haven’t beer shopped at Trader Joe’s then you are missing out. You can buy singles of practically everything they have and their private label beers are made by the likes of Firestone-Walker, Unibroue and Gordon Biersch. Not to shabby. They do sell some clinkers, like the Name Tag lager but when they strike a gold mine, the low prices make for a great bargain.

With that said, here are my shopping choices for November. You will probably be in Trader Joe’s anyway for Turkey day so pick up a beer too…..

November 2012 Suggestions

Coast to Coast

“The giant exravaganza called the Coast to Coast Toast, is taking place, tomorrow on November 15, 2012. It’s the largest single one day celebration of Belgian beer culture in the United States.”

Check out their this page to see what California spots are hosting a night and take part in the online and in glass festivities with your favorite Belgian beer or a new Belgian beer. Personally, Saison Dupont would be my choice. Then head to Untappd and get a badge for toasting too!