Beer Festivals go Virtual
It’s beer festival season, but most of us are under a stay-at-home order. You can do virtual beer tastings and tours from your home, but now, you can also do a beer festival from home – thanks to Rock Star Beer Festivals. When you buy a ticket to one of their “Virtual Edition” beer festivals, you’ll receive a package with 10 special local and regional brews, along with brewery swag, delivered to your home...
Deelat Motorized Ball Valves
One of the benefits of this blog is that I get to find out about some great products related to the beer industry. I was offered some Deelat motorized ball valves to try out. Fortunately, I’m helping a friend work on his new brewery, and these ball valves were offered at just the right time. My friend was impressed by the quality of the valves and loves that he can manually move the valve when things are powered down. One of the...
Duplication. I did it again!
DUPLICATION. No, it’s not a new beer from Russian River. I made a mistake, and had the same beer twice. If you’ve stuck with me the last several years, you’ll remember back in November 2012, when I discovered a mistake. At the time, I realized I had duplicated Schlafly’s Oktoberfest. Well, as you can tell by the headline, I did it again. This time, I was going back through the last hundred beers I’d had,...
Giveaway: Bike Chain Bottle Openers
The next giveaway for my halfway to 1000 beers celebration is a bottle opener from Resource Revival. The company, based in Oregon, creates some really fun, functional products from recycled bicycle parts. Every year, bike shops all over the United States send them tons of tons of greasy, used parts and their team of artists tinker with them until new products are born. Most recently, the company launched a new site –...
Poll: Which Beer Should be #500?
I dug deep into the beer fridge and cellar to see what I had been hiding for a special occasion. Please vote and help me decide among the selection of beers I’m looking at to mark the halfway point of my journey. [poll id=”2″] If you selected “Other” I must be able to get the beer locally in Central IL, or you must be willing to ship it to me. :) Your rating:Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens...
Giveaway: $40 in Beer Related Cards
Here’s the first giveaway of my halfway to 1000 beers online celebration! Hanukkah started this weekend, and Christmas is just around the corner. If you haven’t sent out cards yet, here’s your opportunity to get some cool beer-related cards. Our friends over at NobleWorks – www.nobleworkscards.com – are letting us give away $40 worth of cards to one lucky reader of 1000 Beers. If you’ve already...
Halfway There Party!
I’m only one beer away from the halfway mark to 1000 beers! It’s taken me a little over 2.5 years to get this far, but I’m hoping it won’t take me as long to finish. I’ve found the reviews take quite a bit of time, and when I go on a trip – like I did to Seattle last month – I tend to rack up a lot of new beers, with not much time to do the reviews. I’m hoping to get a little better...
A Recount Confirms a Mistake!!!
As I approach the halfway mark on my journey to 1000 beers, I started to reflect upon all the beers I’ve had. I went back through and read many of my reviews, proud of the fact that I think I’ve gotten better over the last couple years. Early on, I marked whether a particular beer I had was a draft beer, feeling that perhaps it was important to note this, as it seemed to have a good amount of impact on things like head...
Best Beers for Fall
Summer is coming to an end – school has started, football season is about to begin, and the shelves at the local store are starting to fill with pumpkin and Oktoberfest beers. It’s a time when our tastes start moving from light, crisp, refreshing beers to those with a bit more maltiness and warming alcohol content. For me, I’m not sure there’s anything better than sitting outside on a cool fall evening,...
Top 10 Best Pumpkin Beers
When I started homebrewing, I found Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale, but I couldn’t find any other similar beers, so I brewed my own. My Great Pumpkin Ale has become a favorite with family and friends, partially because, until the last 3-5 years, there were few other commercially available pumpkin beers. However, with the craft beer boom, many more craft breweries have introduced pumpkin beers. Last year (and already this year), we...
304. The Bruery – Mischief Belgian Style Ale
I’m hanging out at The Abbey Brewing Company in Miami Beach, Florida this afternoon. I’ve tried their Immaculate IPA and Father Theodore’s Stout, while having a nice conversation with their Brewmaster/President Raymond Rigazio. He had to leave, but I stuck around for a bit nursing my stout. Since it’s Easter/Passover this week, things were extremely slow at the bar. So, I got to know Carlos the bartender,...
Mom
In my last several posts, I talked about being in Austin, TX for a few conferences, including SXSW. While I was at SXSW, I found out that my mom was having some heart issues again, but they were trying to treat it without surgery. The last day of SXSW, my dad called and said she was going into surgery and I needed to get home immediately. I jumped on a plane and was back that night while she was in surgery. We went through...
SXSW and New Beers
As you can tell by my last several posts, I was at SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX. During the 5 days, I got a chance to try several new beers that I could have added to the list. Looking back on my untappd tab, I had Rio Blanco Pale Ale from Real Ale Brewing, Lone Star from Pabst, and several others. However, I promised myself that I wouldn’t post a beer unless I took a picture of it and was able to jot down a few notes about it...
288. Live Oak Brewing – Liberation Ale Draft
After a long day, I wanted to stop at The Gingerman for a few beers. It’s a beer bar in Austin (they have a few other locations) that has a ton of beers on tap. For me, it’s a good opportunity to try some new and local stuff. I didn’t even know what this beer was, but it was local, so I wanted to give the Liberation Ale from Live Oak Brewing a try. At liveoakbrewing.com, it says, “Liberation Ale is light in...
Thank You Capital Brewery
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll remember my Oktoberfest Challenge back in October, where I had a seasonal Oktoberfest or pumpkin beer every day during the month. I never thought it would be so hard to find so many seasonal beers. On one trip to the local liquor store, I found a beer from Capital Brewing simply labled “Fest Seasonal beer.” I naturally assumed it was their Oktoberfest. When I...
Holiday Food & Beer Pairings
Condensed from an article in the Huffington Post – Holiday Food & Beer Pairings by Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Cheeses This is the de facto way into many a holiday meal and, while wines may go pretty well with some cheeses, the carbonation and diversity in beer make it a better partner. The bubbles in beer exfoliate the tongue of the fatty weight of the cheese to prepare you for the next bite. Some great combinations:...
Oktoberfest Challenge – Completed
Well, the Oktoberfest Challenge is complete, and it’s been a great month. There were only 2 days during the month when I didn’t have an Oktoberfest or Pumpkin beer (or even a beer that day). I know this sounds a bit cheesy, but I actually learned a lot during this month-long challenge. First, I gained much more respect for folks like Dave Selden of the 999 beers blog and Beer Drinker Rob of the Daily Beer Review. It...
Oktoberfest Challenge – Seasonal Beers
One of the inspirations for this blog was the 999 beers blog by Dave Selden. His quest is to drink 999 beers in 999 days, and he provides excellent tasting notes on each beer. I’m not trying to “one-up” Dave, as I often don’t have a beer every single day. HOWEVER, for the month of October, I’ve challenged myself to try to have a beer every day AND ensure that it is a seasonal beer that relates to every beer lovers...
177. Bluegrass Brewing Company – BBC APA Draft
This was my second last minute trip for work in the last two weeks, however, the one last week gave me a chance to go to the Great American Beer Festival. This week we found ourselves in Louisville, Kentucky for work, and just down the street from Bluegrass Brewing Company. So, we just had to stop in for a bite to eat and a beer. I felt like something a little hoppy, so I went with the APA, which I thought stood for American Pale...
2010 Great American Beer Festival GABF
I was thrilled when I found out I was going to be in Denver for work this week. And, just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, I called the crew from Full Sail Brewing from my Brewmaster Cuisinternship, and they allowed me to extend my internship for just one more day. They let me use one of their brewer’s passes to attend GABF. I really can’t thank them enough, and I really didn’t mind being called...
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