Posts

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Birthday Beer

Only one post today, too busy celebrating the latest birthday with……

Here is the description of this North Coast beer, “Old Stock Ale Cellar Reserve 2009”

“In an exercise of humanitarian charity and to demonstrate just how very much we care about our friends, North Coast brewmaster, Mark Ruedrich, has just now released an exceptional batch of 2009 Old Stock Ale that has been aged for 18 months in oak Bourbon barrels. In this latest example of the cunning of his hand, Brewmaster Ruedrich has set new standards for the brewers’ art. To say that it’s amazing would be an understatement. Look for Old Stock Cellar Reserve in the special decorated bottle, as they say, wherever fine beers are sold. There’s not much, and it will go fast, so be vigilant.”

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Odd Animal labels

Label Art is subjective. I generally side with the less is more school. I think the Bruery does a great job with their style choices. I like the distinctive B of Brooklyn Brewery. Just two examples off the top of my head.

In my interwebs beer travels, I come across other labels and wonder what the heck is going on? So intermittently, I will post up some labels and make my snarky comments then let the readers take over, if the muse of commenting strikes.

Here is the Craft Beer label discussion – Animal Edition

First up is Bitter American from 21st Amendment

I get the whole monkey and space thing. But I can’t quite make the leap from Bitter American to outer space. I am sure there is an explanation but I can’t imagine that it is a simple one. Plus the monkey looks damn old. It looks like the same artist did Fireside Chat and that also looked a little off. Makes you look at it twice. Maybe that was the aim.

Our second label is from Captured by Porches with Cuddly Panda Porter

I like the bright color palette that CbP uses. But the traditional bird morphed into a bear strikes me as off. Seems a little shoe-horned to me. As in trying to stick with a theme (birds) when maybe a little more change like just a bear drawing would have worked better.

That’s my cockeyed opinion. What say you?

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Drink Deck

I heard about this beer-y product on the fabulous Beer O’Clock radio show and am now finally getting around to sharing it with you. Drink Deck are a combination of playing card and bar coupon. It started with a Chicago deck then to Portland and later this year San Francisco and New Orleans among others.

These are bar-centric as opposed to all beer but here is what you get…
“featuring 52 – $10 gift certificates (no expiration) rolled into a deck of poker sized playing cards that celebrates the best bar scenes in PDX!”

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Let’s Tour – Mac Brewing

Our second beery stop in New Zealand is at Macs.

I heard about this brewery from one of my friends parents who was traveling there and just raved about the stout and asked me if they could buy it here in America. Alas, I have not found it here, yet!

Here are some of their signature brews:
Black Mac – they call it a dark beer. a porter
Currant – yup, made with currant berries
Sassy Red – English style bitter.
Hop Rocker – you would think IPA but it’s their pilsner

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Building a better beer future

First I want you to click HERE for this Sacramento Bee article.

Whenever people bemoan what may become of craft beer in the future. I point to articles like this or the one I did about OSU. Innovative beer is always lurking on the horizon.

Kudos to Rich Rosen for alerting me to this article.

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Community

One of my favorite shows is Community. Part of the NBC comedy block on Thursdays. Of course only 4 of those 6 six shows are funny to me but that leads to this great post on the RateBeer HopPress about beer blogging.

Now that you are back from reading there, I want to add my two cents. I love having an opinion (see above) but what I am learning is how to listen better to other’s words. Because the more I listen, the more I learn. AND if I disagree, it teaches me how to frame an argument. I may have been too scared to enter a debate class in high school but the beer world is filled with opinions and I love to talk about them.

Because apathy leads to a world of cheez whiz, white bread and water lagers. Let’s get the discussion going. It can be heated but at the end of the night it should lead to both sides learning something and buying each other a beer. SO keep talking. In bars, during brewery tours or online, it doesn’t matter as long as you are discussing and not hurling words at somebody.

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Los Angeles Brewing history

Last month, I visited Strand Brewing and there on the desk in front of me as I drank 24th Street Pale Ale was this old beer can…..

The back of the can had this wonderful copy on it. “Our beer is packed in this modern container for your protection and convenience. This container is designed to afford all possible protection to the quality and flavor of this brew, which is the result of the use of choice materials and many years of brewing experience.” And it had this crazy cone top.

To learn more about the history of Los Angeles Brewing and the fate of Eastside beer click HERE

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El Segundo Brewing

There are reports on the food blogs such as Grub Street about a new brewery in El Segundo (near LAX).

They have the prototypical initial beers: a pale ale, a red ale, an IPA and a stout under the Blue House name plate.

They may be opening soon but as faithful readers will know, these openings are never set in stone.

More news and reviews when the beer becomes available.