The Beer Retard

Examination Over Retardation

2008-05-07T21:50:54Z

While my Seattle Beer Examiner blog is starting to hit its stride, this one is suffering. I've had a lot of stuff going on and plenty more is coming. On the way home last night, I was excited to find that we now have Racer 5 in six packs in Seattle. It took awhile (supposedly because Bear Republic has lousy distribution up here), but now I can walk three blocks down the hill to a grocery store and get a six whenever I want. I also tried what is reputed to be the most bitter Belgian beer around, the De Ranke XX Bitter (on tap at the Stumbling Monk right now). It lived up to its billing. I think I need another glass or two to know how I really feel about it, so I won't say much for now other than it finishes dry and bitter and the bitterness stays with you for awhile.

Some other stuff I've been doing includes: brewing my first batch of homebrew, trying a pretty good chili beer at the Pike and getting geared up for Brouwer's Sour Ale Festival this weekend.

Year in Beer Recognizes Seattle

2008-04-20T05:35:30Z

I don't know where to start. I have so much to write about for both the Seattle Beer Examiner and the Beer Retard. All I want to do is watch the rest of the Gene Wilder interview I Tivo'd off TCM and go to bed but I've got to spew out a few sentences on what I've been up to this week.

Since Chris and Merideth of thebeergeek.com flew in on Wednesday, it's been a whirlwind of beer drinking, bus riding, walking and hanging out. I've loved every minute of it because I've gotten to take them to my favorite spots (Brouwer's, Big Time & Stumbling Monk) and also experience places I've been wanting to visit (Baron, Laughing Buddha, Georgetown Brewing & Georgetown Liquor Company). Even with the exhaustion that's starting to set in, it's been a great time and a big reason for that is how much we enjoy each other's company. All the things we've experienced over the last few days have been noteworthy in their own right, but sharing it with kindred spirits makes it all the more memorable.

While I take some time to relax and get my ass in gear with my writing before I leave for DC on Tuesday, please take a look at the blog Chris and Merideth are keeping on their site. They update it daily when they're on a trip and it's fucking admirable. Most mornings after a day of serious beer hunting, I'm in a mood to do anything but write. I need to take inspiration from them and get my shit together. If I hope to become something more than just an ordinary beer douchetard, I need to find discipline.

They Seemed Like Great Ideas at the Time...

2008-04-17T15:38:18Z

Some brilliant ideas were kicked around over beers yesterday:

Beertender podcast

Punk rock beer zine

Pairing beers with guns

New column idea: Beer Douche of the Month

Brew a beer called Doucheifer (inspired by Lucifer but changing the style to an imperial raspberry lambicweizen)

Those are just the ones I wrote down! They definitely fall under the domain of the Beer Retard. The Seattle Beer Examiner would have nothing to do with any of this. Two of the ideas actually have merit. I'm not saying which...

Seattle Beer Examiner

2008-04-14T21:24:30Z

Well, I have a new home for my Seattle beer writing. Nothing against Metroblogging Seattle (I'm actually hoping to continue contributing non-beer posts there), but an opportunity came my way and I decided it would be foolish to let it pass me by. My new home is with Examiner.com, a digital news aggregator who are attempting to focus on local content by launching city-specific sites in fifty-nine locations. The first three (Seattle, Denver and Baltimore) went live today.

I believe each city will have a writer covering local beer and they've recruited Charlie Papazian to be the "National Beer Examiner." I was asked to contribute for Seattle, so I'll be writing about local beer stuff at least 3 times a week. They're calling me the Seattle Beer Examiner, a name many would consider a vast improvement over The Beer Retard.

The layout has some glitches and they haven't updated my bio, but I do have a couple of posts up, one on the Cooper's Alehouse IPA Fest and another on Big Time's Belgian-style Tripel, the Trombipulator. I hope you'll take a look when you get a chance.

I Fought the 120 and the 120 Won

2008-04-04T16:54:06Z

I know, I know...I said I needed to write every day and haven't done it. I'll go ahead and blame it on a ridiculous night out on Tuesday with a couple guys from Brouwer's. We started things off at Brouwer's with both the draft and bottled versions of Deviation. Deliciously sour stuff as expected. Then we moved on to Über for the 120 Minute IPA, the Port Shark Attack Imperial Red and tastes of a bunch of other stuff including Chateau Jiahu and some dark beer with a raven on the label. Finally, my dumb ass ignored whatever part of my brain knew I should go home and kept the evening going with more beers at Stumbling Monk.

Needless to say, I felt like freeze-dried dog shit on Wednesday morning. Any time you drink from 4pm-midnight and throw in 10 ounces of a 20% beer in the midst of it all, you're going to pay the price. I suffered through work, had no beer on Wednesday and slept for 10 hours that night. My liver and kidneys seem to be back on track now. I gingerly dipped my toes back into the beer waters last night with a can of the Oskar Blues Gordon at dinner.

This weekend marks the start of the Coopers Alehouse IPA Fest. There's not a lot out there on this one. The only information I could gather is that they're going to have over 40 IPAs (some rare and hard to find) rotated in over the course of the next three weeks. During the fest, they'll have some special tastings and events and, if it's like last year, they'll have samplers available. I was hoping to do an extensive preview of this on Metroblogging Seattle, but the email I sent to the folks at Coopers has gone unanswered. Guess I'll have to go down there and check things out.

Oh, in case you're wondering what I thought of the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, I'll say that I'm glad I got a chance to try it on tap. I wasn't crapping myself over it, but it was good. On the plus side, the smell of hops in the beer was amazing. Not quite as huffable as Pliny the Younger or Hop Crisis, but there was a lot of good hop aroma there. Unfortunately, the hops promised in the smell didn't come through as much in the flavor. As I'd heard and read, this beer is ridiculously sweet. The sweetness is as intense, maybe even more intense, than most barleywines. I wouldn't necessarily say cloying...thick and syrupy might be more accurate. This isn't surprising since the malt has to be dialed up considerably to make a 20% beer drinkable. That was actually the most impressive thing about this beer--the drinkability. There wasn't much of any alcohol burn as this went down. But man, with all the sweetness and the overall potency of the beer, a little went a long way (and I had more than a little). It's not something I feel I'll ever need to drink again...

Back in the Saddle

2008-03-31T21:55:28Z

Several people have advised me that I need to write every day. I now realize how right they are. Once you take some time off, it gets more and more difficult to get back on track. Thanks to this week's release of Bottleworks IX: Deviation, I'm back on the horse and I have to keep riding.

In addition to the appearance of Deviation, April Fool's Day also has a very dangerous event happening that involves the tapping of small kegs of Dogfish Head's Chateau Jiahu and 120 Minute IPA at Über Tavern. From what I understand, the Chateau Jiahu will be tapped at 4pm and the 120 Minute will come on the heels of the last pour of Jiahu or at 6pm (whichever comes first). Now here's the dangerous part: the 120 will be poured in ten ounce portions for $8. Ten ounces of a 20% beer? Jeezus, I really don't need that much! They should have a disclaimer: Instant Diabetic Coma May Occur. I'm hoping I can convince someone to split a pour with me or convince the Über folks to pour me 5 ounces (or less).

I've got a lot of stuff on tap both locally and otherwise, including a visit from my friends Chris and Merideth on their Year in Beer adventure and an East Coast trip at the end of April. I hope to drink as many East Coast beers as humanly possible in a week. I'll have a preview of the trip and, if I can really break tradition, maybe I'll post every day since I'll have internet access at my sister's place in DC. We'll see how that goes.

R.I.P. Brian McElhatton

2008-03-17T18:28:43Z

When I lived in San Francisco, I wasn't the beer fanatic I am now. Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Guinness were my regular beer choices. Okay, maybe I'd throw in an Anderson Valley Boont Amber or a Bear Republic Racer 5 if I was feeling adventurous. But I wasn't going to Toronado and attempting to try every beer ever made or taking bus trips up North to visit breweries. Back then, it was more about finding a comfortable spot with a pool table, a jukebox and any kind of beer on tap. Preferably a place close to where I lived, a place where I could go any day of the week either by myself or with a friend and always feel welcome. I think it's what they call a local. From 1998-2005, my local was the Dovre Club at 26th and Valencia in the Mission.

I had a lot of great times at the Dovre. My friend Kai and I shot a ridiculous amount of pool there and drank an equally ridiculous amount of Guinness and Anchor Steam. I must've heard the Pogues song "Dirty Old Town" about a million times there. I also met a lot of interesting people at the bar, everything from hard-drinking, Irish construction workers to Latino pool hustlers. I could go on and on telling stories about some of these people and the funny, crazy, memorable stuff that went down at the bar.

One of the things that made the Dovre so great was the laid-back, friendly personality of the owner, Brian McElhatton. He and his brother, Elvis, always made you feel welcome once you'd come into the bar a few times. They treated their regulars like extended members of the family and it really made you feel a loyalty to the bar. I remember shortly after the first time I'd been to the Dovre, I ran into Brian on the street one afternoon and he greeted me warmly with a smile and a "what's going on" even though I hadn't had much interaction with him in the bar yet. He was just a good guy.

This morning, I was shocked and saddened to learn that Brian passed away in January. He died of brain cancer at age 38. So fucking sad. There's an excellent article in today's SF Chronicle about Brian and the history of the Dovre. I'll be lifting a glass to him tonight.

The State of My Beer Enthusiasm

2008-03-04T06:18:37Z

I haven't been able to write about beer lately. My motivation has been slipping. Part of it is laziness, but a big part is an aversion to the language used to describe beer. As the craft beer phenomenon continues to gain steam, it's taken on a strong element of snobbery and geekiness. I've encountered people who can only talk about all the rare beers they've bought and how they're "laying down" certain beers and can't wait to see how the flavor will become more "rounded" and "reveal greater complexities" after a year or two in their cellar. Then there are the people who have to know the IBUs, ABVs and OGs of every beer they try. When I go to beer events and certain bars, I feel like I'm stuck in the middle of a group of snobs and nerds who are either taking shit way too seriously or are way too caught up in the status of what they're doing. It's starting to take the fun out of it for me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still loving beer. My fridge is stocked full of beers I'm excited to try and I've been going out several nights a week and drinking good beer at Elysian, Big Time, Brouwer's, Hopvine, etc. I just haven't had the desire to write about it. Seems like every beer review I read or podcast I listen to has been rubbing me the wrong way. I'm sick of hearing about "notes of raisins and toffee" or "awash with citrus and pine and a hint of pepper" on the tongue. I'm not just talking about the people on Beer Advocate or Rate Beer here. Even some writers and podcasters that I respect and know are anything but snobby are using the type of language that makes me wince. When I look back at things I've written, I can see that I've also used many of those same phrases that I can't stand to read or hear. There are only so many words available to describe beer and that method of approaching the subject is starting to feel done to death. Maybe I'm being a little knee-jerk with my feelings, but that's just how it is for me right now.

I think I need to spend more time finding a voice for my writing. I need to find a way of talking about my enthusiasm for beer in a language that gets across how I see things and what it's all about for me. Hell if I know what that means. I'm hoping I'll figure it out if I make the effort. In the meantime, I'll just keep drinking beer. The picture you see above is my first growler. You'd think, with all the beer I drink, that I would've had one or more by now (guys like Mike the Hop Hunter have 20 or more). Maybe it's because I get around on my feet and the bus. Not always easy to tote around growlers when you're out on the streets and won't be home for hours. Anyway, I bought it at Pike Brewing, got it filled with their IPA and since then I've gotten it filled a couple more times with the Snoqualmie Steam Train Porter and the Schooner Exact 3-Grid IPA. It costs from $8-12 to get it filled (depending on where you go) and gives you 4-5 pints worth. The beer stays really fresh for the first 48 hours or so. After that, not so much (but I usually have no trouble polishing it off in 2 days). I've enjoyed having it so far and look forward to the next refill.

Pliny the Younger Says We're Going Through a Hop Crisis

2008-02-21T20:01:01Z

I survived Beerapalooza 2008.

Maybe I should put that on my beer resume. As expected, it was a pretty crazy weekend in the Bay Area. I had a great time and came through it tired, but in relatively good shape. I could and should write a long, rambling account of all the beers I drank, people I met and places I went. I'll try to get it all out over the next few days, but first I feel like I need to organize my thoughts into something coherent.

A couple of things I'll get off my chest right now. Russian River's Pliny the Younger is an absolutely incredible thing to experience, a "wow" beer if there ever was one. For those that don't know, the Younger is a strong, hoppy pale ale (or triple IPA if you have to categorize) brewed by Vinnie Cilurzo once a year. It has three times the hops of their standard IPA and it's dry hopped four times. I think I huffed the first glass I had of it for a good 2-3 minutes. It smelled so good, I almost didn't want to drink it. Scratch that. I wanted to somehow bottle the smell and then drink it. I knew it was a fleeting moment I was having and desperately wish I could've preserved it. It was that good. The flavor was every bit the equal of the aroma--delicious and impossibly smooth for an 11+% beer.

Right alongside the Younger for most memorable beer of the weekend was the 21st Amendment Hop Crisis, a beer cut from the same cloth as the Younger. It also had an amazing hop aroma and flavor and a deceptive smoothness that made it's high alcohol content (11.8%) impossible to believe. Forget about the Barleywine Festival, having the Younger and Hop Crisis was the highlight of my weekend.

Now that I've gotten the hop worship out of the way, I'll turn my attention to the weekend's events in my next few posts. Quickly, I should mention what's going on here in Seattle. Perhaps our busiest beer time of the year is upon us. First out of the gate are the 4th Annual Real Strong Beer Festival at Collins Pub and the 12th Annual Winter Beer Festival at Elysian. I wrote about each at Metroblogging Seattle:

4th Annual Real Strong Beer Festival at Collins Pub

12th Annual Winter Beer Festival at Elysian Brewing

Beer Retard Business Cards?!?

2008-02-13T05:09:59Z

When it comes up that I blog about beer, people often ask "what's the name of your site?" I usually tell them to Google "beer retard." In anticipation of this weekend's Bay Area Beerapalooza events, I decided to print up some cards. This way if I'm drunk on barleywine and other strong beers, I can just palm off a card on someone.

In case you don't get it, the cards are half-assed on purpose (but they do look a damn sight better in person than in the picture you see above). While I admire some people's swanky business cards, I knew that I wanted something that was done quickly without much thought or effort. My lady friend's a graphic designer and she deserves a lot of the credit for the finished product. I'm pretty happy with the results.

One thing I wanted to mention about the name Beer Retard. A few days ago, a friend told me she didn't get the name. She didn't know what it had to do with beer or my relation to beer or what I was all about. I tried to explain to her that when I got my first email account several years ago, the word "socialretard" instantly popped into my mind because it summed up who I was at that moment. Everything retard-related came from that.

When I started blogging, it was natural to take the retard moniker and apply it to whatever subject I tackled. For awhile I had a movie blog called Movieretard and now I have a beer blog called Beer Retard. It's actually kind of fitting since I'm so into beer that you could say I'm just retarded about it. Whatever. Some people seem to like the name and others think it's stupid and could be seen as offensive.

When the day comes that someone tells me the name is offensive...say they're a brewer with a handicapped child and they think it's in bad taste. Well, that would be the day I'd consider finding a new name. For now I will continue to be The Beer Retard.

Getting Jewbilant about He'Brew + Seattle V-Day Beer Dinners

2008-02-11T21:04:47Z

Still fighting the good fight on the residual effects of the cold. I thought about giving up beer for a couple days to let the immune system recharge, but I have to keep my drinking tolerance up for the coming apocalypse of the Bay Area Beerapalooza events I'm attending this weekend.

At least I can taste beer again. I'm still mostly sticking with IPAs until I'm sure I can handle subtlety. Last night, I split a bottle of the He'Brew Jewbilation 11. Jeezus, what a beer. 11 hops, 11 malts, 11% alcohol. So much going on flavor-wise and so potent yet so drinkable. I'm glad I split it. It's going to be interesting to see how the brewers at Shmaltz keep the Jewbilation drinkable as we move up to 12 and beyond. They've done a pretty great job with 10 and 11.

As some know, this week marks the dreaded annual V-Day. As my only acknowledgement of it, I've written up a post on Seattle Valentine's Day Beer Dinners for Metroblogging Seattle.

Can't Taste Beer + Mighty Arrow + American Belgians

2008-02-06T17:40:42Z

I now know the absolute worst thing about having a cold. It's not the stuffy head, sore throat, runny nose thing. It's the almost complete inability to taste beer! Despite my cold, I decided to split a bottle of Sierra Bigfoot last night and it was sad. All I could taste was some bitterness. The plugged nasal passages really made it impossible to get any kind of flavor. I might as well just drink macros until I can breathe freely again!

Was at my local grocery store the other night and saw a 12 pack from New Belgium that advertised a new beer available only in the 12-er: Mighty Arrow Pale Ale. Kind of sucks that you have to get the 12 to try it since the other 9 beers are 3 each of the Fat Tire, Mothership Wit and 1554. I guess I could always give away the Fat Tires and one or two Wits and drink the rest. But is it worth $14.99 to try Mighty Arrow?

Forgot to mention that my latest post at Metroblogging Seattle is up. It's on the American Belgian Fest at Collins Pub.

January: My Month of Beer

2008-02-04T17:06:34Z

I'm not sure anyone will be interested in this. It's pretty obsessive, but I'm keeping track of every beer I drink in 2008. It's a challenge and I'm not sure I'm going to stick with it. But with January in the books, I figured I'd do a recap of the month complete with all sorts of useless stats and information. The bottom line is I drank a shit ton of beer last month. 86 beers to be exact, which is almost 3 a day. That's a lot, even for a beer geek like me. I drank at least one beer on all 31 days of January and one day I had 7 (spread out over an entire Saturday). For a more freakish OCD breakdown, please continue:

Draft beer:
Pints - 41
Cask pints - 8
Schooners/Goblets/Tulips/Snifters - 6

Bottled beer:
12 oz. - 23
22 oz. - 1
12 oz. or 330 ml split 2 ways - 1
22 oz. or 750 ml split 2 ways - 6

I tried 22 beers that were new to me. That includes seasonals I've had before but are essentially a new experience each year. Four of them are highly recommended and should be sought out immediately (although two are only available if you can get to Big Time in Seattle's U-District).

Big Time Lift Ticket Winter Ale - Hops rule the day here, but malt is big too. Like all of Big Time's hoppy beers, this one is a winner. Shame that it's too strong and full-bodied to drink more than one or two.

Big Time The Maine Thing - Collaboration between Big Time brewer Bill Jenkins and Kevin West (formerly of Far West brewing now at Stone Coast in Maine). It's a delicious and easy to drink (5.5%) hoppy pale ale with those Simcoes I love so much. The cask version of this was ridiculously good.

Deschutes The Abyss 2007 - A much-hyped beer that disappears from shelves the minute it arrives, but this one is actually worthy of the fuss. So roasty it almost has a burnt quality (in a good way), but this isn't all the beer has to offer. It's complex, with a lot of interesting flavors going on. It's strong but not too hot with the alcohol. A sipper, but a smooth one.

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2008 - I've been staying away from barleywines since I'm going to get more than my share from mid-February through mid-March, but I had to grab a six of this when I saw it on sale. As usual, it's great. Maybe I'll get all snobby and "lay some down" and see what it tastes like in a year. Fuck...I can't believe I just said that.

Crazy About Simcoes

2008-02-01T16:58:35Z

I was drinking a Big Sky IPA last night and there it was--that distinctive hop flavor that I like the most. Kind of piney or woodsy but also a little bit citrusy. Really bitter in a pleasant way, it's a taste that lingers a bit but doesn't overwhelm. The Anacortes IPA has this flavor as do the Avery Maharaja, the Northern Lights Winter Ale and Russian River's Pliny The Elder. The one thing they all have in common is Simcoe hops. For a great overview on the history of the Simcoe, check out this 2006 Joe Sixpack column. Interesting that the initial research for developing this hop hybrid was sparked by the macrobrewers wanting to save money on hop field acreage. Fitting that, in the end, it was the craft brewer and craft beer enthusiast that benefited from the hop's development.

I like the description of Simcoes as "Cascades on steroids." It's too bad there's a hop shortage going on because I'd planned to brew for the first time this year and a Simcoe IPA wouldn't be a bad first beer. Who knows if I can find them and if I do, I'm sure it'll cost me.

By the way, the Big Sky IPA is delicious. That distinctive Simcoe flavor is complemented by a solid malt backbone. It's not exactly a drinker, but I'd say one or two in a sitting would go down easily. I think a six pack will be finding its way into my fridge very soon. I also need to put the Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA on my must try list for my East Coast trip in April.

Noir & Beer

2008-01-24T22:39:00Z

I'm hoping the Seattle Metroblogging folks won't think I'm a huge slacker for only posting once my first week. It's been a busy week and now I'm headed to San Francisco early tomorrow morning for 3 days of film noir and beer. I'll have to make up for it with 3 Seattle posts next week.

In SF, I'll be trying out The Monk's Kettle for lunch tomorrow and I should be able to carve out some good beer drinking time on Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening. That means Toronado and City Beer. Man, I wish Toronado had a current tap list. Then I could foam at the mouth in anticipation. It looks like between The Monk's Kettle and City Beer, I should be able to get my first crack at Moonlight's Toast. Craig at City Beer also just tapped some Abyss and has the Lagunitas Hop Stoopid and Marin Breakout Stout on draft as well.

Anyone in SF that I know or hope to get to know should email me and let me know if you want to meet up.

February = Strong Beer Month (in San Francisco)

2008-01-23T00:10:27Z

President's Day weekend (February 16-18) is going to be epic. Saturday is the Toronado Barleywine Festival in SF. Sunday is Celebrator's 20th Anniversary party in Oakland. I have my plane ticket and a place to stay. Somehow in the midst of all this craziness, I'm going to have to make it to both Magnolia and 21st Amendment and try at least half of the 12 beers they're making for Strong Beer Month (not sure about Watermelon Wheat Wine, though). Luckily, I'll have some time on Friday and maybe Saturday if I'm sober enough after all those barleywines. It's gonna be an insane couple of days.

Oh yeah...nice AC/DC tribute.

A Tale of Two Blogs

2008-01-22T18:07:35Z

For the time being, you may not see as much Seattle beer content here. The reason for that being that I'm now doing local beer blogging for Metroblogging Seattle. I'll still be writing stuff here about all the trips I take and all the beers I try. If you'd like to subscribe to my Seattle beer posts on the Metroblogging site, check out my profile page for the link to an RSS feed.

My first post: Schooner Exact Brewing: One Year Anniversary

What I've Been Drinking

2008-01-12T18:27:23Z

So much for my resolutions about writing more and paying greater attention to less hoppy beers. I've written next to nothing and I've been drinking hoppy ales like they're going out of style (and with the hop shortage...who knows). I've kept track of every beer I've had and it's making me think maybe I have a drinking problem. Okay, maybe not. I'm only having two beers a day on average.

While I've been enjoying drinking whatever I want (which has meant a lot of Sierra Nevada Celebration) instead of forcing myself to sample something new every day, I'm still trying to mix in some new-to-me beers. So far I've tried four:

Port Santa's Little Helper Imperial Stout - Medium-bodied and roasty with some some alcohol warmth and a touch of sweetness. Not the most distinctive impy stout I've ever had, but a good one. I need to do a horizontal tasting of this style sometime because a lot of the ones I've had are similar to the point where I couldn't really tell you how one differs from another.

Lost Abbey Lost & Found Ale - Has some of the hallmarks of the Belgian dubbel style in that it's sweet and somewhat fruity and the taste does makes you think of raisins. The head on this disappeared quickly and the flavors didn't come across more strongly as the beer warmed (which they usually do). A good beer, but honestly a bit underwhelming. This is the third Lost Abbey beer I've tried and the only one that's wowed me has been the Red Barn. Granted, I haven't gotten to sample their special releases and those are the ones people rave about.

Deschutes Green Lakes Organic Ale - The first organic beer from Deschutes and the first to use Salmon-Safe certified hops. I like this one a lot. Billed as an amber ale, but it's much hoppier than your usual amber. It starts out malty and sweet and finishes with a strong hoppy bitterness. The flavors are clean and, even though it's medium-bodied, it's still very drinkable at 5% ABV.

Radeberger Pilsner - With the exception of the Trumer Pils, this style is one I've yet to embrace. I can't say that the Radeberger is going to convert me to a pilsner man. It had enough character to it, I guess. There was a balance there and the flavors were good. But it also had that metallic edge that I don't care for. I've been told that's called the "noble hop twang." My feeling is that further tasting and education on this style are needed.

Good Present For The Beer Geek

2008-01-02T21:40:33Z

Not a huge fan of Borders, but today I went in armed with a $20 gift card and one of the things I got (along with a copy of the book The Omnivore's Dilemma) was the Beer-a-Day calendar you see pictured above. It's something any beer geek would want to have. Each day has information about a different beer and some other beer factoids.

Maybe I'll try to hunt down each beer of the day. Today's is the Courage Best Bitter (which they may have at Pike St. Beer & Wine). Yesterday's was the Dupont Les Bon Voeux (which I'm pretty sure they have on tap at the Stumbling Monk).

All calendars at Borders are 50% off right now, so if you need one it might be worth paying them a visit even if you prefer to spend your money at a small, independent store.

Beer Log - 01/01/08

2008-01-02T19:31:49Z

After going to Über Tavern's New Year's Eve party and enjoying some Stone and Avery beers at special prices, my New Year's Day was spent relaxing at home and watching DVDs. We had planned to break our record by watching six movies in one day, but we only got through four. I also managed to drink a couple beers, but didn't reach for anything new. I still had four beers left in a sixpack of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, so I had two of those. The Celebration Ale is such a go-to beer at this time of year. Whenever you're not sure what kind of beer to drink, but know you don't feel like a holiday spiced beer or a high octane malt/alcohol bomb...Celebration is the one to have. Style-wise, it's pretty much an IPA, but with a bit more body than your average hoppy pale ale. I'm pretty sure that sixes of it are still on sale at Seattle QFC stores for $5.99. I think I'll have to pick up a few more before they disappear not to return for ten months.

Stats:
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale (12 oz. bottle poured into pint glass X 2)

Beer Resolutions for 2008

2008-01-02T18:25:14Z

2007 was a great beer year for me. I tried a ridiculous number of beers, took beer-centric trips to San Diego, Portland, New Orleans, Las Vegas and the Bay Area, attended several beer festivals (including my first Oregon Brewers Festival) and met some cool beer people both locally and up and down the West Coast. All the things I've done have substantially increased my beer IQ, but I still have a long way to go. Bearing that in mind, here are my Beer Resolutions for 2008:

Buy homebrew supplies and brew my own beer

Take several beer trips, including ones to the East Coast, Bend (OR), Portland (for another OBF), Denver (GABF) and either Victoria or Vancouver

Write about beer 3-4 times a week

Attend as many of the local beer festivals and events as possible and continue to make friends in the local beer community

Try at least 200 beers I've never had

Give podcasting another go with a new, revitalized format

Pay more attention to less hoppy styles of beer

Take steps toward being able to leave my current job and make a living doing something beer-related

Take list-making and documenting to new OCD heights by keeping track of every beer I drink (see how long that lasts)

The Beers of 2007

2007-12-31T18:03:06Z

It's safe to say that I drank more beer in 2007 than during any other year of my life. There were only two days in the year that I went beer-less and both of those were due to a stomach bug and not a lack of desire to have a beer. The year's quest to try 365 new-to-me beers was met on December 22nd. The beer was the Left Hand Snowbound Ale. I'd hoped for number 365 to be a special beer (Westvleteren 12 or Sam Adams Utopias) but that didn't happen. So perhaps reaching the goal was a bit anticlimactic, but it was still a satisfying moment. After a trip to Port Townsend over the weekend, the list is up to 374. I may hit 375 tonight since I'll have the chance to sample the Avery Fourteen.

You may have figured out that I'm a borderline-OCD freak who can't stop making lists, so I had to make one of the beers I enjoyed the most this year. I found it difficult since beers I've had over the last month or two are still very fresh in my mind, while memories of beers I sampled in January are suffering from the passing of time (and the sheer number of beers consumed). Since I'm still in the hophead phase of my beer journey, I've decided to make two lists. One for my 10 favorite IPAs/hoppy beers and one for my 10 favorite beers encompassing all other styles. If I just made one list, it might be too IPA-heavy and that wouldn't be fair to the other amazing beers I've enjoyed. Listed in their order of preference, here are the two lists:

IPAs/hoppy ales:
1. Russian River Pliny the Elder
2. Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale
3. Big Time Double Decade IPA
4. Russian River Blind Pig IPA
5. Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA
6. Alpine Pure Hoppiness
7. Moylans Hopsickle (note that the bottles I had earlier in the year that made me love it taste much different than the one I had more recently)
8. Ballast Point Big Eye IPA
9. Green Flash West Coast IPA
10. Schooner Exact 3-Grid IPA

Not far behind: Water Street Strange Brew Single Hop Ale, Lagunitas Kill Ugly Radio (draft not bottle), Anacortes IPA, Great Divide Hercules Double IPA, Big Time Perspective Dry-Hopped IPA, Auburn IPA, Rubicon IPA, Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, Lagunitas Hop Stoopid, Sam Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner (not an ale, but belongs here anyway).

All other styles:
1. New Belgium Le Terroir
2. Hair of the Dog Fred From the Wood
3. Cantillon Vigneronne
4. Big Time Yulefest Christmas Ale (the cask version)
5. Lost Abbey Red Barn Ale
6. Gulden Draak
7. Avery the Reverend
8. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen
9. Big Time Old Wooly Barleywine
10. Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

other notables: Petrus Aged Pale, Cantillon Organic Gueuze, Unibroue Maudite, Stone Imperial Russian Stout, Russian River Bravo, Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere, Deschutes The Abyss.

2007 Not Going Out Quietly

2007-12-17T21:13:45Z

Never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually a little beered out right now. I'm at 362 in my 365 quest and I may take a day or two off from beer to recharge my batteries. There are several posts percolating and, as usual, I'm procrastinating their completion. Rather over-ambitiously, I'm also planning to put together a print zine documenting my 2007 Year of Beer. I hope to have that done sometime in early January. Maybe I should also make some beer resolutions for 2008.

For now, I'll keep it brief and mention what the last two weeks have in store here in Western Washington.

12/24 - Über Tavern will be tapping a keg of 2006 De Dolle Stille Nacht when they open at 2pm [fortunately, I have no holiday plans and will be there for this].

12/27 - Beveridge Place Pub will be tapping some kegs they've been saving up for a special night: Stone 11th Anniversary, Dogfish Head Festina Peche, Sierra Nevada Harvest, Boulder Obovoid Empirical Stout, Allagash Curieux, Water St. Balls To the Wahlstrom, Lang Creek 100X Zeppelin, and just for kicks, a cask of Jolly Roger on the bartop [holy crap, I'm going to have to be careful at this one]

12/29 or 12/30 - A day in Port Townsend visiting Water Street Brewing and Port Townsend Brewing. [they're running a ferry from Seattle direct to Port Townsend until 1/05/08. Gotta take advantage and drink the WS & PT beers at the source].

12/31 - This is going down at Über:
THE SICK:
Stone Double Bastard
Stone 11th Anniversary
Stone IRS (Imperial Russian Stout)

THE WRONG:
Avery 14
Avery "The Czar" Imperial Stout (VINTAGE FROM LAST YEAR)
Avery Collaboration Not Litigation
Avery Kaiser Imperial Ur-Marzen
Avery Maharaja Double IPA (BATCH 4! Remember the very first batch out here? THAT ONE.)

The 5 Avery beers will be $4 each (reg $5.50)
The 3 Stone beers will be $3 each (reg $4)

"Vegas, baby. Vegas"

2007-12-07T21:39:45Z

The Beer Retard is headed to Las Vegas for the weekend. It'll be my first time in Vegas and it's thanks to absintheavcscre. He lives there and that gives me an opportunity to experience the town in a different way than if I was staying at some hotel on the Strip. As you might imagine, beer will be the focus of my weekend (along with hanging with my host and finding out what he's been up to of late). Surprisingly (to me), Las Vegas has plenty of beer options. My research has uncovered brewpubs like Big Dog's, Chicago and Boulder Dam. There are also beer bars, the main one being The Freakin Frog. There's even a restaurant called Burger Bar at Mandalay Place that has 20+ beers on tap. It should be a fun weekend. If anyone knows of any must-try places in Vegas, please let me know.

I'll be back on Monday with tales from Sin City and the long overdue Big Wood Festival recap. Also coming up in the near future (as in a week from Saturday): a visit to the West Side and Silver City Brewery.

Winter Beer Festival 2007

2007-12-04T22:09:18Z

My liver is still functioning. I've made two trips to the Big Wood Festival and have one more before I regale you with details. For now I'll wax ineloquent about the Winter Beer Festival. Last year around this time, this festival was the first I'd ever attended. Looking back on the last twelve months, I can see how far I've come in terms of beer knowledge (and also how far I have to go). This past Friday, I got over to Hale's Brewery for the 2007 incarnation of the Winter Beer Fest. This year's event was much more enjoyable for me for a variety of reasons.

First of all, I know more people than I did last year. My friend Steve was there (as he was in 2006), but this year I've come to know a few of the brewers and other local beer people. Also, as I mentioned above, I'm now armed with a greater overall knowledge of beer. While I haven't homebrewed or gotten a chance to take BJCP classes, I do feel that all the tasting and reading I've done over the last twelve months is starting to pay dividends. I feel more comfortable at these kinds of events and almost feel like I'm part of the beer community (or something like that).

One thing that made the event more enjoyable this year was better planning by its organizers. A key change was expanding the event's space and giving brewers additional room to set up. It created a much less crowded and claustrophobic feeling (something that's pretty rare at these types of things). They also cut down on the number of tokens handed out for the $23 admission fee. This year's number declined from ten to six. Part of me was happy with this change since the overall level of drunkenness seemed to be much lower than 2006. I include myself in that drunk group since, to the best of my recollection, the final few tastes I had last year were not ones that lingered in my memory for more than a few minutes. With the rich flavors and high alcohol of the winter beers, a little bit goes a long way. However, I do think six might be a bit on the low side. Eight would've been a good compromise. I ended up having an extra taste or two thanks to Matt from Schooner Exact and I left in good enough condition to enjoy a meal with friends and not be overly obnoxious.

All seven beers I tried were good to very good. Nothing stood out as a completely mind-blowing experience, but a couple were ones I will seek out again soon. Those are:

Northern Lights Winter Ale - less of a winter ale than an IPA (albeit a stronger than usual one), this beer had an intense hop flavor and aroma that appealed to me. I was told that it was the use of Simcoe hops that did it.

Schooner Exact Hoppy Holidays Ale - deliciously hoppy like the Northern Lights, but more of a winter ale in appearance and complexity of flavor. Can't wait to drink more of this while it's still around.

I also tried and enjoyed:

Snoqualmie Avalanche Ale - enjoyed this one much more than I did last year. Maybe I only had it out of the bottle and not the keg. It was cut from the same hoppy cloth as the Northern Lights and Schooner Exact, but with a more complex malt profile than the Northern Lights.

Finally, there's the following (which I sadly didn't take notes on and can't do justice to days later):

Anacortes Noel Ale (cask)
Silver City Imperial Stout 2006
Diamond Knot Industrial Ho Ho 2006 - think I enjoyed the 2007 I had a couple weeks ago more than this version
Iron Horse Belgian Black Ale