aggienaut | Entries tagged with beer

I am on an epic quest.

Bourbon County Brand Stout. It neither comes from a county named Bourbon, nor is that the brand (It is a product of Goose Island Brewing Company, Chicago, Il). It is, however a stout. It is thick as tar and black as my heart. Its flavours will overwhelm your senses like the smell of diesel in an engineroom, yet they are smooth and soothing like fresh rain on dirt. Short of Sam Adams' "Utopias" (which if you can find for less than $200 a bottle I will buy from you immediately) it is the most amazing thing that will happen to your mouth.

   Bourbon County Stout is only distributed in November every year, and even then is hard to find. Currently I'm down to only one bottle of 2007 BCS in my cellar (/pantry), so I'm desperate to stock up on a supply to last me through the next year.

   The search began in Bevmo. After determining that there was nothing where "Goose Island" would fall alphabetically on their craft beer shelf I ask an employee, and politely put up with him looking at the shelf himself as if I couldn't have handled that. Then as he's about to give up I prod him to look on his computer. I inform him the brewery is Goose Island and the distributor is Straub, and he sits there looking lost looking at the computer until another employee happens by, whom he asks who distributes Goose Island, and is told Straub, of course. He then determines that the Bevmo in Irvine has 200 units on order, but doesn't know when they'll come in.

   I call the Bevmo in Irvine and the guy sounds frankly annoyed to be asked such a question. He tells me "probably later today!" and I strongly suspect he just pulled that out of his posterior end.
   When I call back the next day the guy that answers the phone this time says "oh I don't think they've even bottled yet. I presume he hasn't the slightest idea what he's talking about either.

   At the local Total Wine & More they don't seem to know any more, but at least they don't try to bullshit me with fake news about it -- they tell me they don't know anything and maybe if I call back in a week they might.
   Later on I happen to be at the Total Wine in Thousand Oaks doing some other beer shopping but decide to ask what they have from Goose Island. I don't feel like getting into a world of voodoo rumours so I don't mention bourbon county. Even so, this simple inquiry causes two more employees to appear out of thin air, and after some flapping about like chickens they find the one bottle of Goose Island Pepe Nero. As they are departing however, one of them turns with a sly grin and says "no bourbon county here."

   At the local brewing supply store (O'Sheas) I've had better luck. The first time I talked to them they didn't know if they were getting any but the person I talked to at least sounded thoroughly informed of the matter. More recently O'Shea's has announced they will be getting some in "as soon as Straub can gather enough together to put on a pallet for us," and O'Shea's will then apportion it out so no one runs away with all of it (there goes my plan).

Unrelated Picture of the Day

And in unrelated news here's a picture I took the other day of the barque Star of India and the ship HMS Surprise (from the Master and Commander movie), taken from the schooner Amazing Grace

   Speaking of the White House, apparently their organic garden dreams are being mired by toxic sludge left over from the Clinton Administration. Gross. (Apparently the "Sludge Lobby" may have been responsible for putting it there!)
   No word on this sludge is affecting their bees. Speaking of their bees I think I read somewhere that the breed of bees they have there specifically is from Eastern Russia or something. Sounds suspiciously communist to me. ;D

   And while I'm making a post, today I had some time to kill before Chipotle opened at 11 so I wandered around the nearby Bevmo ... which of course resulted in me buying things. I'm very pleased with my purchases though, I bought:

Curieux - an ale aged in bourbon barrels by the Allagash brewery; and
Andygator Dopplebock - a dopplebock by the Abita brewery in Louisiana

   And speaking of Abita I grabbed a rootbeer by them while I was at it and it was pretty decent.

*** Edit: Beluga saves drowning diver's life!

   So the so-called "White House Beer Summit" occurred today. As a beer commentator I would of course be remiss not to offer some analysis on this.

   However, it appears a number of different political commentary blogs have already thoroughly analyzed it, so instead I'll just point you to the best of those that I have found.

   The basic breakdown is this. Beer choices:

Barack Obama	Bud Light
Sgt. Crowley	Blue Moon
Professor Gates	Red Stripe

   For a summit on racial undertones, the choices were actually rather unfortunate. Red Stripe is a Jamaican lager, Jamaica being a country of almost entirely black population. Blue Moon, a product of the Coors brewing company, is a Belgian Ale ... specifically a Belgian White Ale. Hrmmmmmm oops.

   Anyway, the above linked more thorough review is worth the read in my opinion.

   There was also another one that didn't really say anything new except it had Gates' second choice (Beck's) and analysis of that ("Either way, while both in the lager/pilsner/watery camp, these beers exist at the polar ends of the brand spectrum, suggesting a bifurcated sense of self ... Having trouble choosing between a Red Stripe and a Beck's is like looking up from a menu and saying to the waiter, "I can't decide between the jerk chicken or the bratwurst." Or, in Professor Gates' case, I can't decide whether to politely ask you to leave my house, or threaten to blitzkrieg your career.")

furzicle brought up another good point though. Upon hearing of this upcoming summit the heads of the various beer companies must have looked at eachother and said "holy shit there hasn't been so prominent a drinking of a few cold ones in this country in decades! We NEED to make sure it's OUR drink they're drinking!" So in rushes the beer lobby all up in everyone involved's business ... and voila Budweiser and Coors are each there.

Beer Summits: They Can Work For YOU
Actually, long before today's famous incident, I was already making use of the political beer summit. Back in my student government days when I was the Chief Justice of the Associated Students of UC Davis (ASUCD was no small potatoe, they had a $9.8 million dollar budget!) I twice used "I'll buy you a beer" to diffuse major political tensions (such as when Senator Roy tried to impeach me!), and I distinctly remember telling my successor about the tactic's usefulness.

   Beer tasting. I go every Tuesday to the beer tasting at the local Bevmo (for those from Far Away Lands, Beverages & More is like a grocery store sized liquor store).
   At first I thought it was a hoot that half the people new my name and half of THEM knew my taste in beer (so I'd come walking up and people would be like "ooh we're having lagers today you're not gonna like it!"). That was only the beginning.
   Regulars started bringing cookies and brownies to the tasting that they'd baked themselves. I of course brought beer I'd brewed. We probably violated all kinds of FDA regulations.
   Once four guys who didn't know eachother beforehand got to talking at a Friday tasting and all decided to go straight from there to Vegas for the weekend (one had a room comped), and they did!
   Anyway, yesterday we reached a new level of silly. As I walked in, extremely late (wearing a santa hat), Jeff, the host, said "dude, you're late, we're out of beer!" to which I responded "thats okay, I'm kind of sick, wasn't really looking forward to drinking anyway" ... ie now I'm showing up at beer tasting with no intent to drink?! (though while I was there I bought another four pack of official best beeer ever* -- Goose Island Brewing "Bourbon County Brand Stout" (thick as tar, black as my heart & 13% ABV!).

   Oh and earlier in the day I emptied Bevmo's shelves of their (3) four liter jugs of Carlo Rossi Burgundy... O:)

* Not including Sam Adams Utopias, but thats on a whole new level, if you can find it for less than $200 please inform me immediately

Yesterday we spent the day at work distilling tequila from agave juice. If you're interested in hearing more about that, see my post in homedistilling.
Also, I went to Bevmo to get the aforementioned jugs of wine so that we can give making brandy a try today. (=

And as long as I'm reporting real world happenings (in reverse order), this past weekend I actually got invited to a college party at UC Irvine and partied it up over there.
And then totally almost forgot about my own work holiday party

Random: This was recently brought to my attention and I find it hilarious: They're Made of Meat?!

Current Music: Thin Lizzy - Whiskey in the Jar

   So last Saturday the lovely Miss Marla Santoyo rather sponteniously decided to visit. It was a very pleasant turn of events, in my opinion.

   Saturday evening we rented the movies Strangebrew and In Bruges.
   Strangebrew: All I knew about it was that it was about a brewery and featured the very bottling line that we'd be seeing the next day in the Stone Brewery. Turns out the movie was absolutely terrible. Its about these two idiot Canadian brothers who are unbearably annoying after about 30 seconds of the way into the film. We turned it off after about maybe 20 minutes. Or maybe it was ten but felt like twenty. F
   In Bruges: I'd never heard of this movie but we saw it on the shelf and Marlinator said she heard it was good. Its about two hitmen who are told by their boss to go on vacation to Bruges, Belgium. Of course, hijinks ensue involving people trying to kill them and such. Its hilarious without ever seeming like its trying to be, and suprisingly serious. I quite liked this movie. A

   Sunday we went with Mark and Jeff down to the Stone Brewery. It so happened that it was "the Ratebeer.com Summer Gathering" which meant that they had brought out all their beers! Mark and Jeff took the opportunity to try the oldest of vintages of each of their styles, I went for the barrel aged versions of all their styles.

Barrel-Agedness: Previous to this I would have guessed that "barrel-aging" a beer was just a cheap gimmick that didn't have much effect. However, after thorough research I can confidently say no, barrel-aging beer DOES have significant effect on a beer, and it is usually a good one.

( Reviews of specific barrel-aged beers )

Other: And of course, the onion rings at the Stone Brewery are always to die for. Seriously, check out this onion ring. NOTE how thats about a quarter of an onion ring and its as big as my friggen hand!!!

   Monday, among other things, Marlasupial and I visited the seal pups at the Marine Mammel Rescue in Laguna Beach and poked around the tidepools at Dana Point (she's a big fan of animals (= )
   Monday evening she went home (Davis). )=

   Since then I've been holding down the fort here by myself. Defending the chickens from coyote attacks and such.

   Its time for more beer reviews. As much for my future reference as anyone elses.

   So I've been going to the BevMo beer tastings most Tuesdays and Fridays. There's a group of other people that also do this, and we all recognize eachother. I missed last Tuesday since I was with Marla, but the week before that when I showed up several people there saw me and were like "hey Kris!! oohhh you're not gonna like the beer today!" And I was amused that not only did they recognize me and know my name, but the other beer tasting frequenters knew my tastes as well! (It was a lot of Belgian and white beers that day). Yesterday I walked in and they all commented about how I no longer had a beard, and asked me where I'd been on Tuesday.

   Anyway, notes from yesterday:
Brother David Ale: (Belgian) tastes like candied bananas! I didn't like it but someone else there bought a bottle of it after tasting.
ESB: (Pale Ale) Apparently ESB stands for "extra special beer" (!!). Anyway, we decided it was "extremely forgettable." Which isn't to say its undrinkable -- quite the contrary, I think if someone put a bunch in front of me I'd probably keep forgetting I'd just had a glass (which isn't to say it tastes good either!). It was amazingly unmemorable.
Boont Pale Ale: AKA Anderson Valley Boont Pale Ale or something. Its the beers with a moose with antlers on the bottles. I don't know why they write both "Boont" and "Anderson Valley Brewing Company" on the bottles, as if they can't decide which one is the name of their brewery. Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of pale ales but I really liked this one. It tasted really nice and crisp.
Long Hammer: (Pale Ale), falls somewhere between the above. I'd say its a relatively mediocre pale ale. Not a very intense flavour. Not bad either though. I suppose one might like it if one wants sometihng in a pale ale direction but not as intense as most pale ales are.
Ayinger Celebrator Dopplebock: This one wasn't actually part of the BevMo tasting. Rather I had it last time I went to Yardhouse and really liked it. When I was at YH again this week I couldn't remember what the beer I'd had last time and really liked was, but I texted Marla and she miraculously remembered (!!), so then I bought a bottle at BevMo yesterday. And it was indeed delicious. I really like dopplebocks. They're actually technically lagers but with darkly roasted malt and more thickness to them they taste more like less stout stouts.

   After we'd all tried each of the beers yesterday, we played a game where the host puts a beer in our glass while we're looking away and then we try to guess which one it was. I got 2 of 3 on the first try (but mistook ESB for Long Hammer O= )

Picture of the Day

This thing was monstrous!
Note also: I love a good hot dog. I'd rather eat a delicious grilled hot dog than a chocolate cake I think.

   (A) I've remembered my dreams for the last few nights, which is a bit unusual. (i) Three nights ago I dremt I was a political prisoner; (ii) The night before last I dremt I was an adventurer in Saudi Arabia around the turn of the century. Lawrence of Arabia style (not that I've seen the movie actually, but I'm guessing), riding around on horses involved in inter-tribal political intrigue, battling with rifles and sabers... (iii) Last night I dremt that a friend and I got lost and left behind by a group somewhere in the mountains and we walked for like two weeks before we made it back home.

   (B) Recently Larry, and I, went to the Stone Brewery, where the Sam & his girlfriend Allison met up with us. As most of the group had never been to the Stone Brewery, everyone was impressed by their nice grounds and garden.
   I was extremely pleased to find that they had the hard-to-find Meantime Coffee Porter, so of course I got it asap and it was delicious as always. Next I had Young's Old Nick Barleywine, which was also delicious. I definitely think barleywine is my favourite variety of beer after sweet stouts (such as the ubiquitous Young's Chocolate Stout, or my personal very favourite beer Mackeson Triple XXX Stout). Following this the server gave me a sample of Alesmith Speedway Stout and Coronada Brewing Company Outlet Stout, of which I believe we all preferred the Outlet Stout (interestingly Speedway has a higher average review on beeradvocate.com) and I proceeded to get a glass of such. It was good but I found myself wishing I'd gotten another barleywine.
   Perhaps the most noteworthy beer I got a chance to taste, however, was the Stone Brewing Company's Wine Barrel Aged 2007 Vertical Epic Ale that Larry got. It was extremely flavourful - tasted like it was going to be bitter but then didn't have an unpleasant bite. I only had a sip of Larry's but now I definitely want to do further research as to whether the more readily available non-barrel-aged Vertical Epic is as good.
   After the abovementioned barleywine and sweet stout varieties I think I like "American Strong Ale" (AKA most things just labeled "ale" I think). I have long tried to avoid all lagers, but Larry made me try Landshark the other day and it wasnt' bad. I agree with Larry's description of it being "like Corona, only much better." So I recommend you all immediately replace Corona with it in your drinking habits (its readily available from BevMo). Also I'm starting to consider IPAs something I try to avoid.
   While poking around on beeradvocate.com I was amused to find that most of the extremely mass produced beers ("macro lagers") such as Corona, bud light, coors light, etc etc all have either D- or F average reviews (by both the users in general and the professionals) (interestingly, the oft derided PBR has better reviews than most of the other "macro lagers"). Personally I'd rather drink tapwater and therefore tend to grab a bottle of Old Guardian for myself before I head to parties. And speaking of which I filled my two liter growler with 2008 Old Guardian Barleywine on the way out.

Picture of the Day

( See Also )

   Yesterday I went to Veronica's "Elegant California Casual" graduation party. It was quite pleasant. Turns out most of the guys had come to a consensus that "elegant california casual" meant nice jeans and an untucked button-up shirt. It was fun, I got along with most of the people there pretty well. Two other guys there had been lifeguards with me at Wild Rivers in ancient times, so it was cool catching up with them.

   Today, despite having other kinds of beer in stock here, we didn't have any Mackeson Triple Stout, so I scampered over to Trader Joes to get some more. Got the last two six packs ... and then after the cashier handed me the bags the handle on the grocery bag ripped and it fell on the floor, spilling its thick black (delicious) mackeson blood!! )=!! Guy asked me if I wanted to get two six-packs of something else. I was like "ummm...... can I just have the unbroken bottles?" Fortunately it turned out that only two had broken. A travesty nevertheless! )=
   And then who should come pushing a cart over to the checkout line, but miss Veronica Borrowdale herself!

Picture of the Day

My take on "elegant California casual"
More pictures from the party!

Also, fyi: The illustrious Aaron Aviv just informed me that he's coming to California on Sept 11th for two weeks. Plan accordingly.

Current Music: Tiger Army - Where the Moss Slowly Grows

After extensive research and testing, I think I have determined that Mackeson Triple Stout may be my very favourite beer, surpassing previous champion Black Hart Irish Stout (both available from Trader Joes). This is unfortunate because I think Black Hart has a much cooler name. (=

Random Poll Time
[Poll #1021410]
Discuss.

Current Music: Pistol Grip - Black Heart

   The highlight of today was that Jeremy and I were near his house in Huntington Beach around lunchtime, so we stopped in there and made ourselves hotdogs for lunch. I love hotdogs.
   The only other memorably occurance at work today was that a guy called us back for one wasp nest. One wasp nest on first floor eaves. We tried to tell him "You know, for liability reasons I can't tell you this, but if your neighbour were to tell you you could probably just shoot it with Raid and knock it down with a stick, he'd probably be right...." but to no avail. Seriously, what a ninny.

   This evening I saw "Evan Almighty" with Miss Alex Hughes. It was, of course, alarmingly filled with sappiness -- but at least it wasn't a chick flick no?

   Yesterday I had this Mackeson Triple Stout (from Trader Joes) for the first time. It was highly excellent. It just MIGHT be a contender for Best Beer Ever -- I'm going to have to try it side-by-side with Black Hart (our current champion -- also can only be found in Trader Joes).

Picture of the Day

Taco Tuesday tomorrow!!

Current Music: Against Me! - Walking is Still Honest

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Page Summary

Ode to Bourbon County Stout, II
Attack of the Killer White House Sludge
The Beer Summit
Beer Tasting, Distilling, Other Typical Activities
Do A Barrel Roll!
Beer Reviews
Beer
Post Party
Mackeson: The New Champion
If Your Neighbour Were To Tell You

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The Agrinautica

Tales of a Beekeeper Errant

Entries tagged with beer

Ode to Bourbon County Stout, II

Attack of the Killer White House Sludge

The Beer Summit

Beer Tasting, Distilling, Other Typical Activities

Do A Barrel Roll!

Beer Reviews

Beer

Post Party

Mackeson: The New Champion

If Your Neighbour Were To Tell You