Beer-Con, coming to San Diego August 27th

Tags

Anat Baron, beer con, beer con discount code, beer con promo code, dr bill sysak, Drew Beechum, greg koch, patrick rue, san diego beer convention, san diego beer-con

A few weeks ago Beer-Con, a beer convention being held August 27th at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley was quietly announced with a few tweets and links to the website. The one day convention appears to be aimed at both the regular craft beer drinker that wants to learn more about beer as well as industry folks hoping to learn from those that have successfully proved themselves in the beer world.

The full agenda hasn’t been posted yet but speakers will include Stone Brewing Co. Co-Founder and CEO Greg Koch, “Dr.” Bill Sysak, Beverage Supervisor at Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens, Patrick Rue Founder of The Bruery and more.

This will be the first Beer-Con but the organizers have a strong track record in the San Diego beer community. Those involved in putting on Beer-Con include Tap Hunter and Awesome Beer Drinkers.

August is still a few months away but the earlier you register the less you pay. Prices range between $175 and $299 depending upon when you register. Using the discount code “sdbeerblog” will save you an additional $50 at checkout. Click here for registration.

 

 

Updated 5/26/2011 to note that the discount code above is an affiliate code which if enough people register using it I will be offered a discount or free pass to the convention.

Advertisement

San Diego Beer Events April 28th – May 4th

Due to an error on my part I won’t have the weekly write up of events happening that’s usually here. But take a look at the calendar below or the Events page to see what’s happening this week. The regular events post should be back next week.

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.

International Rescue Committee Beer Tasting Benefit for Japan at Blind Lady Ale House

Tomorrow night (Monday, April 25th, 2011) Blind Lady Ale House is hosting a benefit to raise funds for the International Relief Committee’s fund for Japan. Tickets are $35 which gets you two flights (6-Five ounce glasses per flight) or four glasses of beer and food tastings that will include nibbles and noshes from area restaurants. Tickets are limited but there are still a few left for sale here.

They’ll be unveiling Automatic Brewing Co.’s latest beer, Automatic Quartz Japan IPA, brewed in collaboration with Cy Henley of Alpine Beer Company with ingredients donated from Alpine and Home Brew Mart. It’s a 7% ABV beer made with 12% rice in the grist and Nelson hops.

I’ll be volunteer bartending part of the evening, pouring beers to raise money for a good cause. Come on out to raise some money. There will also be a raffle with some awesome prizes. Read below for the full beer list and raffle prizes.

Farmhouse Friday: Boulevard Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale

Tags

boulevard brewing co, boulevard smokestack series, boulevard tank 7, tank 7

Boulevard Brewing Co.’s beers used to be distributed in San Diego until a year two ago when they pulled out of the market here. I’ve had a few of their beers, mostly those in the Smokestack Series (like this Tank 7 is one of the four year-round Smokestack Series beers). I’ve heard good things about both Tank 7 and Boulevard’s other Farmhouse beer, Saison-Brett, so when I had the opportunity to pick up a bottle of Tank 7 a few months ago while visiting Colorado I grabbed it and brought it home with me. I purchased this bottle in Durango, CO in early February and kept it refrigerated until I drank it a few weeks ago in early April. I may have sat on it longer than I should have, but the best by date on the bottle is listed as 05/2011. This was batch number 710141D.

I’ll start off by saying I wasn’t blown away by this beer. It wasn’t bad, certainly wasn’t a drain pour, I willingly drank it, but I couldn’t imagine this being a beer I would drink regularly if it were easily available. I guess Tank 7 could be considered an “Imperial Saison” based on it’s alcohol content. I’m all for “imperial-izing” beers but really felt the alcohol in this overpowered and distracted from everything else in the beer.

Tank 7 poured a fairly clear yellow/gold with a big white head that settled down to just a dusting across the top. The smell was slightly tart, maybe apple or pear, somewhat  sweet and spicy, pretty much what I think of as typical saison yeast smell. The taste on the other hand was anything but typical. It had quite a bit of alcohol heat right up front which was not what I was expecting and pretty distracting. Tank 7 is 8% ABV, but I typically don’t expect a strong alcohol taste in Saisons, even those with higher alcohol content. There was a slightly fruity and bitter hoppy grapefruit taste and then a sweet bready malt flavor. The familiar earthy and spicy saison yeast flavor, maybe a bit more clove/phenolic than usual was there was well but the whole time the alcohol heat distracted the rest of the flavors. The finish was peppery, clean and dry with a not unpleasant long lasting bitter aftertaste.

Overall not a bad beer, but not one I’ll search out again. I don’t mind higher alcohol content in beers, but the alcohol in this beer detracted from all the other flavors that should have stood out more. I do look forward to trying Boulevard’s Saison-Brett soon, even though it’s 8.5% ABV, I’m hoping the Brettanomyces adds something to keep the alcohol in check.

2011 Stone Oakquinox

Tags

bill sysak, dr bill, duck duck guava, Fifty Fifty Brewing Co., Fifty Fifty Eclipse, Fifty Fifty Eclipse Four Roses, marron acidifie, no randall required, Oakquinox, Stone Imperial Russian Stout aged in Bourbon Barrels

From the better late than never file…

The second annual Oakquinox beer festival at the Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens this past weekend was probably the best beer festival I’ve ever attended. Many beer festivals are in parking lots, Oakquinox was in a garden. Many beer festivals are crowded with long lines, Oakquinox was well attended but we weren’t packed in like sardines. With the exception of the bottle line (which still wasn’t too bad) I don’t think I waited more than about 2-3 minutes in line all day. And to say the beer list was phenomenal would be an understatement (check out the full list here).

A few of the highlights for me:

Lost Abbey’s Duck Duck Guava was the first beer I tried know it would be quick to run out. It wasn’t the first gone (that would be Hair of the Dog Cherry Adam from the Wood 2009) but it was second. Sour but not overly so with a good guava taste to it. I’m not sure how much of of this was made but check it out if you get the chance. Stone’s Jacob McKean described it as: “a blend of Mellow Yellow & Devotion fermented with Duck Duck Gueze cultures in French Oak barrels (previously containing Cuvee De Tomme) with 70 lbs of pineapple guava per barrel.”

The Bruery/Cigar City’s Marrón Acidifié. Some people love it, some people hate it but I fall in the “like it quite a bit category”. I got my first taste at Oakquinox and greatly enjoyed it, I didn’t taste nearly as much vinegar as some people have complained about. Looking forward to opening the bottle I have.

2008 Stone Imperial Russian Stout aged in Bourbon Barrels, this is the first spirit barrel aged beer from Stone I’ve had and it didn’t disappoint.

Fifty Fifty Eclipse 2010 – Four Roses was the last beer I had at Oakquinox and was a great way to end. Smooth bourbon, vanilla, oak.

Click below for a few pictures from Oakquinox.

San Diego Beer Events April 21st – April 27th

Tags

Automatic Quartz Japan IPA, Boon Kriek, cy henley, double jack, easter beer brunch, firkin friday, Garrett Marrero, john trogner, latis imports, maui brewing co, mitch steele, pale 31, palm, Rodenbach Grand Cru, Rodenbach Vintage 08, Steenbrugge Tripel, stone Cherry Chocolate Stout, stone collaboration, troegs brewing co., Trooper's Tipple IPA, union jack, Why Not? Wheat

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.  Not all of the beer events happening in a given week make it on the list below, I pick one or two per day to avoid information overload. Make sure to check out the Events page or the calendar below this post for all the week’s events.

Thursday April 21st:

Head down to Pizza Port Ocean Beach where they’ll be featuring New English Brewing Co. for their keep the glass night. They’ll have Why Not? Wheat and Troopers Tipple IPA for $5 with $3 refills (or if you have enough glasses already you can just enjoy a pint for $3).

Friday April 22nd:

Hamilton’s Tavern will host Firestone Walker for this week’s Firkin Friday. They’ll have Double Jack and Pale 31 on cask with Pale 31, Union Jack, Double Jack and an unannounced special beer on draft.

Saturday April 23rd:

Small Bar has a delicious brunch and for this month’s Beer for Breakfast they’re featuring the beers of Latis Imports. That includes Rodenbach Grand Cru and Rodenbach Vintage 08 as well as Boon Kriek, Steenbrugge Tripel, and Palm. They’ll even give you discounts on refills and send you home with a glass.

Sunday April 24th:

If you don’t have Easter plans with the family (or can convince your family that beer is a necessary component of brunch) head on up to URGE Gastropub for their Epic Beer Brunch. $45 presale ($50 day of) gets you a four course brunch with beer pairings. Tax and gratuity are included, this looks like quite the deal.

Monday April 25th:

Blind Lady Ale House is opening their doors Monday night for a special fundraiser for Japan. $35 tickets will get you food samples and beers (donated by many local breweries). They’ll also be debuting Automatic Brewing Co.’s latest beer, Automatic Quartz Japan IPA brewed with the help of Cy Henley from Alpine Beer Co. It’s 7% ABV and made with 12% rice grist and Nelson hops with ingredients donated by Alpine and Home Brew Mart. There will also be a raffle for some wonderful prizes. All money from ticket sales and the raffle go to International Relief Committee’s fund for Japan. The event is limited to 150, so make sure to get your tickets before it sells out.

Tuesday April 26th:
The monthly QUAFF homebrew club meeting takes place at All American Grill in Mission Valley at 7pm, but if you need some homebrew goals to aspire to, head up to Stone Brewing Co. from 4-6pm for their Meet the Brewers: Collaboration Day Wrap-Up. Stone’s Mitch Steele is teaming up with Kevin Sheppard and Jason Fields, homebrewers whose Cherry Chocolate Stout won Stone’s Homebrew Competition last month and will now be brewed on Stone’s brewing system for commercial release. As with most (all?) previous Stone collaborations, they’ve also invited another commercial brewer, this time it’s John Trogner of Pennsylvania’s Tröegs Brewing Co. helping out with the brew.

Wednesday April 27th:

Maui Brewing Co. might be based in Hawaii, but founder Garrett Marrero grew up here in San Diego. He’ll be at URGE Gastropub with seven Maui beers. The first two-hundred people will also take home a Maui Brewing Co. pint glass and a festive lei.

Deschutes Base Camp San Diego

Tags

deschutes base camp san diego, deschutes brewery, deschutes jake harper, deschutes san diego, deschutes the abyss, deschutes woody, deschutes woody san diego

I had no idea until recently, when the Brewers Association released their annual report on the Top 50 Craft Breweries by Sales Volume that Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery made so much beer. They’re fifth on the BA list, which means they make a lot of beer. I always figured they must be somewhat sizeable based on their distribution, but I had no idea they were one of the top producers of craft beer in the country. But knowing how big they are, it makes sense that they’re rolling into town for a week as part of their Base Camp tour.

Deschutes Brewery is bringing Woody and will be spending some time here in San Diego over the next few days. They have ten events lined up over five days starting Tuesday when they’ll be at Toronado. Throughout the week they’ll be pouring a great lineup of beers including various vintages of The Abyss their barrel-aged Imperial Stout, Jubel 2010 (released once every ten years) and plenty of others at bars and restaurants including a two year vertical of The Abyss at Olive Tree Market, a beer pairing dinner at Churchill’s Pub and Grille, a Bourbon Beers and BBQ at Downtown Johnny Brown’s and more. Deschutes brewer Jake Harper will also be at many of the events .

Head on over to the Events page or read below for the full schedule of events from Deschutes.

Farmhouse Friday: Pretty Things Jack D’Or

Tags

hoppy saison, jack d'or, pretty things beer and ale project, pretty things jack d'or, Saison Americain

Jack D’Or is my first beer from Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project. Their solid reputation drew me to the beer in the first place, but the awesome label artwork sealed the deal (yes, I realize this is the second Farmhouse Friday in row I’ve more or less picked a beer because of nice label art, I don’t plan on making it a regular thing, although I haven’t been disappointed with either). Jack D’Or is Pretty Things flagship beer and is described as a “Saison Americain”. I couldn’t find a description of what they meant by that term, but I imagine it to be a typical Belgian style saison with a decent dose of American hops. Jack D’Or uses no spices, only malt, oats, sugar, hops and yeast.

I picked this 22oz bottle up at Best Damn Beer Shop for $8.99. It was labeled “Batch 22, Bottled Feb 2011”.

I poured Jack D’Or into a large glass, but quite a bit of cloudy beer remained in the bottle. In the glass it was pretty clear, a straw color with lots of tiny bubbles and not much head. The smell was slightly sweet like bubble gum, with some citrus fruit and peppery spices. The taste wasn’t as sweet as I expected. Lemony, citrus and grassy hops with some peppery spice. Not to grainy at all. Pretty clean with a very dry finish. The mouthfeel was a bit thin but inline with the majority of saisons I’ve had, so probably right on for the style.

Pretty Things Jack D’Or is an American hop forward saison, prefect if you want something a bit different. It seems to have roots in both the traditional saison style and hoppy American beers (I wouldn’t call this an IPA/Saison hybrid, it’s not quite that hoppy). I’ll gladly drink it again.

Founders Brewing Company KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout)

Tags

breakfast stout, founders brewing company, founders kbs, founders kentucky breakfast stout

Founders Brewing Company Kentucky Breakfast Stout is a highly rated and sought after beer for good reason. It’s delicious. It’s not the rarest beer around, Founders distributes in about 15 states, but only in the Midwest and East Coast. One of the first things I liked about it is the fact that it comes in 12oz bottles. When drinking a beer like KBS, 11.2% ABV and 70 IBU, I’d much rather have to open two 12oz bottles than throw out or recap a 22oz bottle. And the price wasn’t bad, I got this beer in trade and he told me it cost $5 a bottle (which would be about the equivalent of an $10.50 22oz bomber). I think Founders sells KBS in four-packs, but from what I hear many stores break them up to sell individually because of the demand.

Founders makes a Breakfast Stout, but according to a note on Beer Advocate KBS is not just Breakfast Stout aged in bourbon barrels, they say it is an entirely different beer. Here’s what Founders has to say about KBS on their website:

What we’ve got here is an imperial stout brewed with a massive amount of coffee and chocolates, then cave-aged in oak bourbon barrels for an entire year to make sure wonderful bourbon undertones come through in the finish. Makes your taste buds squeal with delight.

Needless to say I was pretty excited to try my first KBS (first beer from Founders all together) after hearing so much about it.

KBS is dark, I’d say as black as a beer can be and it looks thick and viscous pouring out of the bottle. If I hadn’t held the bottle about a foot above the glass I’m sure there would have been no head at all on this beer. As it was there was a fluffy mocha colored head that died down to almost nothing.

There wasn’t much bourbon in the smell which surprised me. It smelled sweet and roasty, a lot of vanilla and some oak and no chocolate either. The first sip brought oak and vanilla just as the smell led me to believe it would. There was a lot of roasted flavors, not necessarily coffee flavors but it reminded me of coffee. There was some caramel or even burnt sugar flavors and the finish and aftertaste were bitter. I wouldn’t have guessed this beer is 70 IBU, but I’m sure the hops mellowed out quite a bit due to aging. It was apparent this is a strong beer, but the alcohol wasn’t over the top. This beer is definitely one to sip on and spend some time with. I think it took me over an hour to finish the 12oz’s. The consistency was nice and creamy, although not nearly as thick as the pour indicated.

Overall this is a great beer for a great price. Unfortunately it’s not available at all out West. If you’re into beer trading or travel to the Midwest/East Coast I’d say search this one out.

San Diego Beer Events April 14th – April 20th

Tags

2008 Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine Aged in Red Wine Barrels, Beer and Chocolate pairings, bitter and sour night, Bombay By Boat IPA, Death and Taxes Black Beer, DoBelgo DIPA, downtown johnny brown's bitter and sour night, Ginger Big Eye, Master Pairings Beer and Chocolate, miho gastrotruck, moonlight brewing, Oakquinox, pizza port real ale festival, real ale festival, Reality Czeck Pils, stone oakquinox, Two Weeks Notice Gruit Ale

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.

Thursday April 14th: It’s not often that beers from Santa Rosa’s Moonlight Brewing show up down here in San Diego, but the folks at The Linkery will have four Moonlight beers on tap starting Thursday. They’ll have Death and Taxes Black Beer, Bombay By Boat IPA, Reality Czeck Pils, and Two Weeks Notice Gruit Ale. The Death and Taxes is in honor of Tax Day the following day.

Friday April 15th: The Real Ale Festival at Pizza Port Carlsbad gets underway, they’ll have over 50 cask conditioned beers which makes it the largest selection of real ale on the west coast. It takes place all day Saturday as well.

Another Tax Day celebration, Downtown Johnny Brown’s is doing their 3rd Annual Bitter and Sour Night featuring some of the best IPAs and sours around. The lineup looks stellar, if you’re a fan of either of those styles (which if you’re reading this blog I would guess you like one of them if not both) this night is highly recommended.

Saturday April 16th: The Real Ale Festival is happening all day, from 11am to 11pm. $30 gets you in with eight 4oz tasters. Starting at 7pm they’ll let you in for $20.

Sunday April 17th: If you don’t already have tickets for Stone Oakquinox you’re out of luck, it’s sold out. But do if you happen by Stone make sure you have your growler with you, they’ll be doing 2008 Stone Old Guardian  Barley Wine Aged in  Red Wine Barrels growler fills.

Monday April 18th: It’s $3 local pint night at Toronado from 6pm to close. I think Eleven is still doing their pint night as well (all draft beers) but I haven’t heard much about it lately. I’ve sent an email over to the folks at Eleven to confirm their Monday night special is still on. I’ll update this post when I hear back.

Tuesday April 19th: The Master Pairings Beer and Chocolate pairing at Stone sounds delicious. I’m not sure what beers they’ll be serving but it’s sure to not disappoint.

Wednesday April 20th: Third Wednesday of the month means it’s time for the DrinkAbout. No word on any of the specials this month but it’s sure to be a good time as always.

They’re also doing another beer pairing dinner at Homebrew Mart/Ballast Point Linda Vista with MIHO Gastrotruck and Fiji Yogurt. Fiji is making a Ballast Point Even Keel wort based Lemonade Ginger Sorbet flavored with Cascade Hop Oil. They’ll have a ton of great beers on tap including Ginger Big Eye and DoBelgo DIPA (Dorado with Belgian Yeast).