Posts

Posted on

Strong Ale Festival at Library Alehouse

When the shopping and tree trimming start to get you down, you need something strong to lift you back up and the Library AleHouse probably will have it on tap during their strong ale festival. Below are the details:(truncated a bit because the list was soooo damn long!)

“It’s our favorite time of year for beer at Library Alehouse. The weather cools down and the ABV goes up. It’s as though the universe is telling us to stay in inside and sip strong, dark beers. To that end, we are proud to announce our 2nd Annual Strong Ale Holiday Fest, running December 19-31, 2011. We’ve been stashing away big beers all year long and we’re finally ready to unleash them upon the drinking public. We expect the list to include the following beers:
• FiftyFifty Totality
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Elijah Craig 12
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Four Roses Single Barrel
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Elijah Craig 18 (Bottle Pour)
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Brandy (Bottle Pour)
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Grand Cru (Bottle Pour)
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Rittenhouse Rye (Bottle Pour)
• Lost Abbey Ad Lib
• Eagle Rock Jubilee
• Stone Double Bastard 2011
• Karl Strauss Two Tortugas
• North Coast Grand Cru
• Alaskan Smoked Porter 2010
• Alaskan Smoked Porter 2011
• Scaldis Noel 2011
• Bootlegger’s 78 Anniversary Ale
• TAPS Barleywine 2010
• Ommegang Adoration
• Ommegang Three Philosophers
• N’ice Chouffe
• Bruery Cuir
• Bruery 4 Calling Birds
• Bruery Melange #3
• Bruery Burly Gourd
• Bruery Smokin’ Wood
• Anchor Our Barrel Ale
• Anchor Christmas 2010
• Anchor Christmas 2011
• Anchor Old Foghorn
• Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Brewers Reserve Grand Cru
• Deschutes Black Butte XXIII
• Deschutes The Stoic
• Deschutes The Abyss
• Uinta Labyrinth
• Oskar Blues ODB
• Ballast Point Victory at Sea
• Ballast Point Indra Kunindra
• Dupont Avec Les Bon Voeux
• Evil Twin Christmas Eve in a NYC Hotel
• Emelisse Jack Daniel’s Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
• Emelisse Jack Daniel’s Barrel-Aged Barleywine
• De Dochter van de Korenaar Oak-Aged Embrasse
• Great Divide Hibernation

But we couldn’t stop there. We’ve also got an amazing series of events
lined up during the fest:

Monday December 19th, FiftyFifty Brewing Kickoff Event:
For our Strong Ale Holiday Fest Kickoff Event on December 19th, we welcome FiftyFifty Brewing from Truckee, CA and local ice cream
producer Sweet Rose Creamery to the Alehouse. We will we have FiftyFifty Owners Andy and Alicia Barr in the house, along with several
varieties of their much sought after Eclipse Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout and the base beer, Totality. Here’s what we’ll be pouring and serving:
DRAFT:
-Eclipse Four Roses Single Barrel
-Eclipse Elijah Craig 12
-Totality
BOTTLE POURS (Extremely Limited):
-Eclipse Elijah Craig 18
-Eclipse Rittenhouse Rye
-Eclipse Brandy
-Eclipse Grand Cru
FROM SWEET ROSE:
-Bacon Bourbon Sundae
-Spicy Chocolate Ice Cream
-Salted Caramel Ice Cream
But we didn’t quit there. Any Alehouse customer who purchases any serving size of any variety of Eclipse on the 19th will be given access to a special menu just across the street at our new neighbor Areal (2820 Main St). We’ve partnered with them to bring you the opportunity to taste the whiskeys that came out of the barrels in which Eclipse was aged. They have prepared a special menu, allowing you to taste a full flight of spirits, or try them a la carte. They’ve even prepared some special savory pairing bites for the occasion. It promises to be an excellent evening.

Wednesday December 21st, Ommegang & La Chouffe Keep the Glass Night:
On Wednesday, December 21st, we’ll play host to Ommegang and Brasserie d’Achouffe. Sales Representative Stuart Knight is bringing
three strong dark Belgian beers with him: N’Ice Chouffe, Three Philosophers and Adoration. We’ll have a limited amount of glassware
for you to take home with the purchase of any of those beers along with an available flight of all three.

Friday December 23rd, Horrible Holiday Music and Ugly Sweater Party:
We couldn’t just have an ugly sweater party, so we decided to dress it up with some terrible holiday music too! Come revel with us in the cheesiest fashion possible, listening to elevator music renditions of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and glam rock versions of “Frosty the Snowman.” Don’t forget to don your most hideous of holiday garments as anyone who sports an ugly sweater that evening will receive. $2 off their first draft beer.

Tuesday December 27th, Anchor Our Barrel Ale Release:
You know Anchor for their classic Christmas Ale, but they’ve also quietly started a superb barrel-aging program. They’ve blended together some of those barrel-aged beers to make “Our Barrel Ale”, a beer previously only available for purchase at the brewery. We’ll have a small keg of Our Barrel Ale along with Old Foghorn, Christmas 2011 and Christmas 2010 for this special event. A flight of all four beers will be available. We also welcome LACBC to Alehouse this night, with 10% of sales going to the charity. So if you love bikes and beer, or just one of the two, make sure you come by on the 27th.

Thursday December 29th, The Bruery Belated Christmas:
A Strong Ale Fest wouldn’t be complete without a visit from those masters of all things high-ABV, The Bruery. We saved a keg of Autumn
Maple for this event and we’ll also have Melange #3, Smokin’ Wood, Burly Gourd, 4 Calling Birds, and Cuir (Anniversary Old Ale). Beer
flights will only make the evening tastier.

As though all this weren’t enough, we’re holding a Glassware Garage Sale for the entire month of December. We’ve amassed quite a collection of tulips, pokals, pint glasses and goblets over the years and we’re giving you the opportunity to add them to your collection (or to someone else’s as a gift). Premium glasses will be $4 each and all others will be $2 each. Spend $25 (before tax and gratuity) in a single visit to the Alehouse and buy up to two premium glasses for $2 each or any two others for $1 each. Spend $100 or more in a single visit and buy as much as you want at the reduced rate. Also, be on the lookout for keep the glass promotions littered throughout the Beer Menu during the garage sale. The glassware selection will change every day so make sure you visit often.”

Posted on

Where Santa might Stop – Red Jacket

While flying over Michigan, Kris Kringle may pause at Red Jacket which is inside the Michigan House Cafe.

They brew a 1/2 barrel at a time and produce a coffee oatmeal stout with the same type of ingredients that breweries used before prohibition. It has 13 shots of espresso that should keep Santa going well into the night.

Posted on

Cellar Experiment # 1

Since 2009, I have been slowly but surely amassing what I think is a quality beer cellar. And with beer space getting tight, it is time to start cracking open some of these aged brews to see what time has done to them. Since, I am not a deranged millionaire like John Hodgman, I usually only have one bottle which precludes comparing with other aged beers but if I have sampled the beer before, I will include my initial review as a counterpoint.

The impetus for breaking some of these bottles out was a lovely bottle share party that I attended last night at Casa de Gev. Many great beers were poured from other peoples collections. Including:

Dogfish Head meets 3 Floyds
a rare Jive Old Ale courtesy of Victor from TAPS
A 2005 Baladin from Skipp

Enough of the luxurious rarities, here are my notes and photos from the first of what I am calling my cellar experiments.

The Beer – Red and White
The Brewery – Dogfish Head

My initial review on June 15th of this year – “Pours a red/orange color. Aroma is a bit off-putting. I am getting medicinal notes. Kind of harsh. maybe it’s the combination of wine and spice that cancel each other out. not a favorite.” I rated it 2.6 out of 5.

Aged from the bottle Red & White was a lot better than the initial review. It still had some harsh medicinal qualities and it lacked a certain fizz that would undercut that note but it was certainly an improvement. It paled though in comparison to the CismonTAPS barrel aged saison and the Dogfish Head / 3 Floyds collaboration Poppaskull that were also being passed around. I do think that more age would improve it and give it more texture and sweetness and continue to offset the medicine notes that I tasted.

Overall a good start to my cellaring experiment.

Posted on

the December beer shopping list


Sean suggests for this grand, holiday month two beers from the snowy state of Colorado and one from the cold state of Oregon.
December 2011
Click on the link twice (maybe less depending on the computer you are on) and you will have a handy beer shopping list for the most wonderful time of the year. Holiday beer time!

Posted on

Christmas Beer of the Day – Northstar Imperial Porter

The Brewery– Twisted Pine

The Beer – Northstar Imperial Porter

The Details
“Northstar, which carries a 98 on ratebeer.com, is black as a moonless night and gives off an aroma of toffee and dark fruit laced with licorice. Once the porter hits the palate, the tongue dances to notes of chocolate-covered raisins which harmonize well with subtle traces of roasted nuts and molasses. The beer is dry enough to punctuate the flavors with a crisp finish, while just silky enough to leave a stamp of the epic experience behind for a while. An ABV of 9.1% provides a slight warming glow that grows up the chest as the ale drops in the glass. Northstar was awarded a gold medal at the 2010 Colorado State Fair, a silver in the 2006 World Beer Cup, and a bronze in 2008’s State Fair.”

Posted on

Christmas Beer of the Day – Frosted Frog

The Brewery – Hoppin’ Frog

The Beer – Frosted Frog (Barrel aged)

The Details
“Barrel-Aged Frosted Frog Christmas Ale has a familiar and satisfying combination of carefully blended Christmas spices in a flavorful nut-brown ale, its like a Christmas cookie in a glass! The extended barrel aging in oak Bourbon casks adds a vanilla-like flavor, creating a smooth character that perfectly compliments the cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, unlike any other Christmas beer.”