The Beer Chicks save Christmas

Count me as a big fan of the Beer Chicks and now with the holiday’s fast approaching they have multiple ways to help out the holiday craft beer shopper.

1“By popular demand and for a limited time (and a limited price), you can now buy a private 2 hour customized Beer Tasting for up to 8 people with one of The Beer Chicks as your guide! Its the ultimate foodie gift experience.”

2“Already bought your pain in the a, hard to shop for brother all the gift cards you could find at Costco? Well, now you can stop worrying and click right here for our new online gift certificates for the 8th Street Bottle Shop. You can buy them online to print out or email immediately, or request that we send out a pretty and enveloped copy to your very lucky so and so.”

Or you can just get your special beer someone this…..

Christmas Beer of the Day – Biere de Noel

BrewerySnake River

Beer Biere de Noel

The Details:
“A spiced Belgian style Ale for cozying up with, BDN has grains of paradise, Anise and dried figs added for festive revelry. Only available at the pub, we also have an extremely limited amount of bottle conditioned Biere De Noel which makes for a great present. Stop in and grab one before they’re all gone!”

Christmas Beer of the Day – Bad Santa

The BreweryPelican Brewery

The Beer – Bad Santa

The Details:
“You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, the brewers at Pelican are telling you why: Bad Santa will arrive November 3rd. This mysterious dark elixir is filled with complex malt flavors and aromas with toasted malt and roast character, blending seamlessly to the alluring herbal hop aroma that comes from copious amounts of Fuggle hops. Bad Santa doesn’t care if you’ve been naughty or nice, he wants this beer on your list.”

Session # 58


This month is hosted by Phil Hardy at the Beersay blog.

“The idea for me was based loosely around the visits of three ghosts to Ebenezer Scrooge, but relayed in a post about the beers of Christmas past, present and future.

What did you drink during Christmas holidays of old, have you plans for anything exciting this year and is there something you’d really like to do one day, perhaps when the kids have flown the nest?

Do you have your own interpretation, was Scrooge perhaps a beer geek?

Or maybe it’s all one day. What will you drink Christmas morning, Christmas afternoon and what will you top off the holiday with that evening?

Just a few examples there, but the idea was to keep the topic as open as possible to allow you free rein to write about a subject with a seasonal twist in whatever way the title grabs you.”

I was a bit stymied by this topic which is to be expected since Los Angeles is not known for needing wintry beers. For some reason the winter warmer tastes a bit better when there is a chill in the air. But then the fine folks behind the colLAboration beer gardens announced their winter beer garden at the new Golden Road brewery and a festivus of an idea popped into my head.

Every year I plan on going to the Holiday Ale Festival in Portland and every year, I miss out for one reason or another. But if the Ghost of Christmas Beers Past could grant me a wish, I would love to go back to last year’s festival and try the Cascade sours, the bourbon barrel ales and after enjoying Sleigh’r and Imperiale from Ninkasi Brewing, I really would like to have tried their Unconventional Imperial Stout with Lavendar , Taragon, and Heather.

The Ghost of Christmas Beer Present will not stop me from heading to Golden Road Brewing tomorrow. They will be debuting their next two brews at the latest colLAboration. They are “Brewer’s Choice” beers, which were “developed collectively by the entire GRB brewing team, are perfect for the holidays and an amazing follow up to the limited edition (and nearly gone!) Burning Bush IPA.”

My glass will be filled with Rye on the Palate and Shwartz Stout. And then I will buy more of the new Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale which is perfect for us in L.A. since it is a light, fruity IPA. Perfect for the typical warm days we have this time of year.

In the future, I hope to have my own December Ale festival. Hopefully, the Ghost of Christmas Beer Future will be able to help me think of a catchy name first. Because, I would love to have vertical tastings of Bruery “Days of Christmas” beers, Jubelale from Deschutes and maybe even Jubilee from my local, Eagle Rock Brewing.

Maybe I will start this year. From acorns do mighty oaks grow. I have some Anchor from ’08 down in the cellar somewhere.

Christmas Beer of the Day – Lagunitas Sucks

The BreweryLagunitas

The Beer – Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale

The Details
“This sad holiday season we didn’t have the brewing capacity to make our favorite seasonal brew, the widely feard BrownShugga’ Ale. So this substitute beer is a ‘Cereal Medley’ of Barley, Rye, Wheat, and Oats…. Full of complexishness from the 4 grains, and weighing in at 7.6% abv, Then joyously dry-hopped for that big aroma and resinous hop flavor.”

In the Tap lines for December 2011


December is all about the holiday ales. I started highlighting individual seasonal offerings right after Thanksgiving. So we all could celebrate each holiday in it’s proper time. It will end with a review of Anchor Christmas on Christmas.

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 beer-y spots that might catch Santa’s eye
~ video reviews of three wintertime beers including Anchor’s holiday offering on Christmas Day
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my opinion on the craft beer world
~ … and Session # 58 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 December started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) December 3th ColLAboration Holiday Pop-Up Beer Garden
2) December 10th – Jingle Bell Jubilee at Blue Palms

The Firkin for November 2011

From the Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious file, “…the U.S. Postal Service faces a growing financial crisis, U.S. senators think the agency can solve some of its problems by turning to alcohol. Lawmakers introduced a bipartisan reform plan Wednesday that would, among other things, allow postal workers to deliver wine and beer in a bid to boost revenues.” (source of quote, unknown)

Ya’ think? I guess necessity and/or bankruptcy is truly the mother of invention. For years, it has been illegal for me or anyone else to send a beer to anyone through the mail. But apparently, when it is that or losing massive amounts of money, the rules are suddenly open to debate.

This is something that should have been allowed years ago. Archaic laws that allow some states to ship to others or forbids a brewer from sending to a customer are plain stupid. If Republican’s are looking for a job killer, here’s one. I know of more than one brewery that would ship their beer across the U.S. if the laws were not so Byzantine. And if breweries were allowed to ship, that would probably require at least a part time person be added. And that person would have more money to spend and the economy might start trickling up (like it usually does). And not only breweries would be in the game, I would expect bottle shops to become major shippers. Especially if they have any limited releases in stock.

If there was one simple national standard that allowed for actual interstate commerce, then I truly believe that breweries would be adding buy buttons on their websites and beer traders would send even more beer than they do now without fear or reprisal. The USPS has the infrastucture to take advantage of it. They could have a special box that they sold for alcohol shipments. They could even charge extra for “fragile” delivery. Bubble wrap and packing peanuts would become a commodity they could sell too.

This country needs to “see” which industries are growing and “help” them by either enacting laws or flat out ignoring the stupid ones on the book. Our government cannot just bow to the whims of whoever is lobbying with larger wads of cash. Last time I checked, those were the people laying off employees.

So what is holding this up Post Office?

Review – Vertical Epic 11/11/11

The latest Vertical Epic from Stone Brewing is next for review…..

All you need to know about the latest Epic
11.11.11 Vertical Epic Ale, the penultimate installment of its legendary series. Begun on February 2nd, 2002 (02.02.02), these bottle-conditioned ales have all been Belgian-influenced, but they share little else in common, with each year’s release revealing its own twist and turn in the plotline.

Each beer is unveiled one year, one month and one day from the previous year’s edition, with all of them designed to be aged until sometime after 12.12.12, at which point they can all be enjoyed during an epic “vertical” tasting. This year’s recipe starts with a base beer akin to a Belgian amber, and is tweaked with the addition of mild but flavorful Anaheim chilies from New Mexico’s Hatch Valley and cracked cinnamon sticks.

“Stone 11.11.11 Vertical Epic Ale is NOT your typical chili beer!” explains Brewmaster Mitch Steele. “The famous mild green chilies from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico add layers of delicious flavor with a very mild heat component. And the cinnamon doesn’t dominate the beer’s flavor by any means, instead adding a subtly complex spice note that blends amazingly well with the Hatch chilies and the banana esters present from the yeast.”

Christmas Beer of the Day – Bifrost

The BreweryElysian

The BeerBifrost

The Details
“Pours golden with orange highlights. Smells alluringly sweet like caramel apples with a little spice and orange zest. Taste is bold and balanced with a good amount of citrus and earthy hop bitters to offset the malt character. Finishes dry with a bit of fruit.”

Cannery # 3 – Southern Star


Since this is CanFest month, my featured breweries don’t come from just one state or region but share the commonality of canning!

Southern Star got on my radar due to their Buried Hatchet stout. And due to recent expansions to brewing capacity and the canning line more canned beers will be flowing out of this Texas brewery. And that might include seasonal cans to!