The Beer Junction

Both Portland and Seattle have an epic amount of great stores to satisfy your beery needs. And now Seattle has a new entrant on the west side.

The Beer Junction is owned by Morgan Herzog and will be providing plenty of craft beer and Thursday night tastings too!

They join Seattle institutions like Bottleworks, Pike Street Beer & Wine, Full Throttle Bottles and 99 Bottles too. If you can’t find the beer for any occasion in Seattle, it is your own fault.

Sierra Nevada – Beer Camp pack

Even though I am still a bit bitter about not winning the Beer Camp contest, it will not stop me from sampling the proposed variety pack of Beer Camp beers that Sierra Nevada may be distributing.

Expect really unexpected beers. The Beer Campers have not hesitated to be extremely creative. Maybe we will see Hop Secret 393, Juniper Black Ale, Biggar Beer and Knightro packaged together?

XMAS BEER – Sun King’s Winter Storm Warning

I had my first sip of Sun King beer this year and now I want more!

Their winter offering comes with an ominous name and the word “imperial”. I recommend this beer because it is from a small place working in the shadow of 3 Floyds and because it is an ESB which is an undermade style the rest of the year. Let alone at Christmas.

Plus I love that these guys do the can beer thing too.

You + The Bruery =

a great homebrew contest!

Check out the full press release….
“In celebration of The Bruery’s continued growth, the incredible support from our fans across the country and our humble beginnings as homebrewers ourselves, we will be holding our third ever homebrew competition; this one set to determine our 300th batch.
The first place recipe of the competition will be brewed as our Batch No. 300 and the winner will have the opportunity to assist us in brewing the batch on our system if they so choose. The first, second and third place winners will also get various forms of swag.
Along with the chance to have one of your very own recipes brewed and distributed, you will also be helping us raise money for those in need, as the entire $10 entry fee will be donated to Lestonnac Free Clinic, devoted to providing free, comprehensive medical care to the poorest of the poor in Orange County, CA.
Please read the below rules carefully before submitting and good luck to all!
Cheers!
The Bruery

Entry information, terms and conditions
-Entries must be received at The Bruery by January 31st, 2011.
-Only the following BJCP categories will be accepted: 13F, 16, 17, 18, 22 & 23.
See http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/ for more information.
-This is an AHA/BJCP sanctioned event and all entrants must be AHA members (this way the resulting beer can be entered in the GABF Pro-Am competition!).
– This competition is only open to beers brewed by entrants at home, not at a commercial brewery or a Brew On Premise.
-Entries must be sent to 715 Dunn Way, Placentia, CA 92870, Attn: Batch 300
-Each entry has an “entry fee” of $10 (checks made out to “The Bruery”) – 100% to be donated to charity.
-Entrants can submit as many entries as they would like. Each submission must have it’s own recipe sheet and $10 entry fee.
-Each entry must consist of 3 bottles of 12oz or larger (but not bigger than 750ml).
-The downloadable form at www.thebruery.com/batch300 must be submitted along with your entry.
– In order for the winning batch to be brewed, we will require the winning brewer submit the recipe to us. The Bruery intends to produce this batch as a one-time offering, although we reserve the right to brew this recipe as a year-round or a seasonal offering without further compensation to the winning brewer. We will use our best efforts to brew this batch as similar to the winning beer as possible. However, there may be some variation due to the availability of ingredients and brewing system differences.
-The Bruery reserves the right to change the name of the beer.”

Open It!

Mark Dredge (who I had the pleasure to meet at the Beer Bloggers Conference) has come up with a great idea. A weekend where beer lovers open up their beer treasure chests and open up that craft beer they have been saving for a special occasion.

Here is the rationale behind the agenda:
“So here’s the idea: let’s create a special occasion. Let’s call this special occasion Open It! and let’s drink the good beers. Let’s find a bottle from the depth of the cellar and open it, drink it and then tell others about it (in blogs, blog comments or twitter or facebook).

Open it alone or open it with others; hold an Open It! party or take it to the pub to see what people think. Most importantly, get that bottle open and drink the thing and then tell everyone about it.

Open It! over the first weekend in December — Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th — and then blog about it in the week after. Use the #openit hashtag on twitter while you are drinking it and like the Facebook group. It’s just about opening something special and enjoying it.”

I am thinking about popping open the Monstre Rouge on one of those days.

XMAS BEER – Coming Home from Grand Teton

What a great name for a Holiday beer! And it fits the Grand Teton image perfectly. I know that LA gets the big special bottles from these guys so I will be looking for it. In the meantime, check out the brewery description…

“The one exception to the rule is the holiday season, roughly Thanksgiving through Christmas. Between the holiday work parties, Thanksgiving dinners, and abundance of thoughtful friends who buy beer for gifts instead of electric socks, the holidays mean one little whirlwind of activity for brewers. In order to celebrate the holiday season, we here at GTBC have decided to brew an annual holiday ale. Unlike many other holiday ales which are often flavored with festive spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove, our inaugural edition refrains from additives and keeps it simple.

This Belgian-style Quadrupel ale is full-bodied and robust, boldly showcasing flavors of sweet dried fruits delivered on a smooth, velvety palate. Specialty malts and roasted barley give this beer a sweet malty aroma that complements its complex fruitiness. Brewed in the Belgian tradition with dark candi sugar and a Trappist ale yeast, Coming Home Holiday Ale is rich and flavorful, meant to be shared and savored among friends.”

Session # 46

Mike Lynch of Burgers and Brews has announced the topic for The Session #46: “An Unexpected Discovery.” He writes:

I recently drove out to Colorado for a concert, and realized this was a perfect opportunity to stop at as many “beer destinations” as I could. I researched, plotted routes, looked at maps, and generally planned the entire trip around beer. What I was surprised to find was that despite all the amazing stops I planned, one of the best beer experiences of the trip was completely accidental. I found great beer in the last place I thought to look for it.

Has this happened to you? Maybe you stumbled upon a no-name brewpub somewhere and found the perfect pale ale. Maybe, buried in the back of your local beer store, you found a dusty bottle of rare barleywine. Perhaps a friend turned you on to a beer that changed your mind about a brewery or a style. Write about a beer experience that took you by surprise.

Well, there was the time in 1995 when we stopped at the Cat’s Paw Casino in Bozeman, Montana. Maybe I’ll write about that Dec. 3.

You would think that with a blog called Beer Search Party that I would be discovering all kinds of craft beer surprises or accidentally finding that stunning brewery that only the locals know about.

I would pose two reasons why that doesn’t happen to me. One is that I check out a lot of different beer blogs, I subscribe to (at last count) three beer magazines and I attend my share of beery events. So, breaking news rarely gets by me for too long before I hear about it. Second, like our gracious session host, I enjoy the planning stage. Especially when craft beer is on the agenda. I will plot out vacations based on beer destinations and I rarely stray from my targets. When I visited Boulder, Colorado for the Beer Bloggers conference, I knew I wanted to visit Twisted Pine and Oskar Blues and taste beer from Upslope Brewing and Odell’s. All four goals, accomplished!
Now, having explained how I am never taken off guard, here is my “unexpected” story. It involves sitting in the right place at the right time, twice!

During this year’s LA Beer Week, I was helping out at the Beer Float Showdown at the Verdugo. (If you visit Los Angeles, this is one of “must” the beer stops). After my shift was done, I took a seat with a friend of mine and a fellow beer geek to enjoy the imaginative beer float creations. Beer talk was flowing as I finished my last sample and our tablemate brought out a new beer from Green Flash Brewing, Silva’s Stout. Before I could say anything, my glass was filled! It seemed that Lady Luck was smiling upon me as it was a tremendous beer and a special limited release to boot. I figured this type of good fortune wouldn’t happen again soon but….

Lo and behold it did!

A couple of months later, sitting at the Blue Palms in Hollywood (another “must” for beer geeks in LA); I was tasting the 14th anniversary beer from Firestone-Walker. The place was packed. But in the crowded space of the bar sat another generous soul with a growler from Kern River Brewing. Because I and my friend were in the seats near some acquaintances of his, we also got samples of the famed Citra IPA. On aroma alone, that beer is one of the best that I have had all year. Another surprise based solely on where I was sitting.

I certainly hope I get surprised again.