My Journey Through Beer

Thursday, August 15, 2013

GABF

Breweries serving their beer at GABF 2013 on October 9-12. (512)Brewing 21st-AmendmentBrewery 23rdStreetBrewery 3StarsBrewing 7venthSunBrewing 903Brewers A AbitaBrewing ACGolden Adelbert’sBrewery AftershockBrewing AlamedaBrewing AlaskanBrewing AleSmithBrewing AlmanacBeer AmericanBrewing AnchorBrewing AndersonValleyBrewing Anheuser-Busch ApocalypseAleWorks ArvadaBeer AsherBrewing AshevilleBrewing AtwaterBrewing AuburnAlehouse AugustSchellBrewing AustinBeerGardenBrewing AustinBeerworks AvalancheBrewing AveryBrewing

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Pintley

I recently discovered a website that allows you to review beers that you have had, and then it uses an algorithm to recommend other beers. My goal is to review every beer on their site (19,000+). If you would like to sign up and find out about what beers you may like check out my link at http://hops.to/2lbrew. I look forward to sharing my tastes on here and at Pintley.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

SDBW

It is 2 days in to San Diego Beer Week and I have enjoyed some delights. Tonight we went to Stone and enjoyed some delicious Firestone Brews. I had four ounce tastes of Parabola, Abacus, and the new 14th Anniversary. Yesterday I had a taste of Stone's 10-10-10 Vertical Epic Ale, DFH Palo Santo Maron, and Stone's collaboration Session Ale. Check out SDBW.org for more info. I am continuing to work on my list of beers had and will eventually post it on here.

Cheers!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Saturday, September 11, 2010

A list of the beers I have drank...coming soon to a blog near you.

I think it is about time that I get a list going of the beers that I have consumed in the last 4 or 5 years. It will give me a chance to see where I have been and if there is anywhere else I would like to go. This may take me several days to compile, but I am going to start by what I have tasted in the past week. Last night we BBQ'ed and gathered wedding info at my padres casa and the daddy-o and I shared The Bruery's Saison de Lente and Meantime London Porter over 2 different types of chicken I marinated, some rice that M cooked up beautifully, and a salad mother made. Thursday night the loco one and I shared a Ska Brewing Nefarious Ten Pin porter compliments of a trade to Colorado and Mammoth Brewing Double IPA named "395 IPA". I had not had a porter in a while so it was a nice change. The 395 had some nice flavors to it, and it wasn't the usual biting hop taste you have when drinking a bomb like its style is so famous for. Last Saturday I shared the Stone collaboration El Camino (Un)real Ale with my boy Jdawg. Those were the standouts for me. I took back the recycling on Wednesday and stood in line for about an hour and got rid of my bottles from the past two months or so. I always feel really bad about getting rid of them because a lot of the bottles are ones that people would die to have on their shelves if they collect bottles. I also think about bringing the bottles to this company that turns the bottle into drinking glasses or candle holders, but they only collect at a certain farmers market in Hillcrest or somewhere. I have been thinking about what I am going to serve at M's Bday/ Oktoberfest this year and have some good options. I think I am going to break out some true gems and rarities to share with the good people who are coming to spend the day with my love on her special day. So that is that. I will be busy in my free time grading papers, listing beers, and updating here on the BLOGSPOT. Thank you to all of you who read this and I look forward to reading any comments you may want to leave.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

It's been a while

I apologize. I have been busy with summer/ school/ etc. I have made a couple of trades including one to Germany. I have been drinking some good brews as well. My buddy Jdawg brought down the Stone El Camino (Un)real ale. Picked up a nice selection today at Beverages4Less in Santee. I have Knolltobeerfest coming up in a week and a half and I will be featuring some nice brews as tasters there. I am hoping some where in the near future to have a tasting night where I can entertain and enlighten some people on certain styles and some good examples of those styles.

I am back to school and in my third week. Students are good. Schedule rocks. No complaints. Continuing the wedding planning. M and I took our "STD" pictures and are now awaiting the arrival of the cards so we can send out. That's that for now. If you have any interest in a tasting let me know and I can see about putting something together.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Del Mar Track Season Week 1

The track opened on Wednesday and it was packed. Worked the Employee Gate out in the dirt. Sold close to 150 tix. Then went in and ran valet. Have not driven any cool cars yet. Saw the new Porsche long body car and a new Rolls Royce. Lots of limos on Wednesday.

Thursday was much slower. Sold a total of 60 or so between the other seller and I. Ran Turf Club afterward. Afterward came home and had one of the trade beers (3 Floyds Robert the Bruce Scottish Ale) and Left Hand's Milk Stout (My new fav and M's fav brewery to visit).

This morning M and I went to VG's in Cardiff and got some breakfast. We also looked at some options for the wedding. Headed to work and had a boring 45 minute safety meeting. I came home after a long Friday (sold 160 or so tix) and M and I made some delicious pasta with a mix of regular and organic wheat pasta with mushrooms and meatballs and a marinara sauce. I had a '09 SN Celebration to compliment the pasta.

Tomorrow I go in at 11. I am hoping that the clouds that burned off today return to keep me cool. That's that for now. Update more later this weekend!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

A long drive to Longmont looking for Left Hand

Woke up this morning and went to the Bagelry. Then we headed to Pumphouse Brewery where M got some fish tacos and I got a Fried Chicken Salad with lettuce, tomatoes, 2 cheeses, avocado, fried chicken, and dijon mustard dressing. I had a house saison and M had a mango wheat. The bartender that was helping us saw M's ring and asked if we were engaged and then told us how she was getting married in 5 weeks. I got some stickers and we were on to Left Hand.

Left Hand was out of this world. I got the taster set (4 beers for $4). The beers were Milk Stout, Cask 400 lb. monkey, Juju spiced beer, and Haystack Wheat. Talked with the guy from San Diego (Rancho Penasquitos) and the other guy. Both were very entertaining and the locals in there were also fun to listen to. M got a visor, I got some Milk Stout, a six pack lunch cooler, and lots of stickers and coasters. After using the facilities we ventured onto Oskar Blues Liquids and Solids.

Before getting to OB, we stopped off at Twin Peaks liquor on a recommendation from the Left Hand guy. Went in while M stayed in the car and had a look see. After doing the loop and not buying anything we went onto OB. We got into OB and found the last two seats at the bar. I ordered another 4 set taster of OB Pond Scum, Blvd. Double Wit, Odell Saboteur, DFH Festina Peche, and Ska Modus Hoperandi. M got a berry cobbler that we split with blueberries and strawberries. I got some stickers and another work shirt (red this time).

On the way back to CK's we stopped off at Total Beverage and picked up an Arrogant Bastard glass (the one with the X) and a Blvd. glass. We found the wine stoppers we were looking for, for forever. And I picked up 4 brews.

We came home and had some pesto pasta with salmon mixed in and salad. Now we are trying to beat the heat (it was 100 degrees today) and will go meet up with our family members in Morrison for some ice cream.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Deep breaths...now bowl!

So I woke up this morning to the sound of crows. For a second I thought I was back in Carlsbad and the damn crows outside our window had started cawing. But I looked around the room and saw that we were still in Colorado. Last night CK and I had discussed going for a hike. But when I went out into the kitchen he said it was going to be too hot to hike and suggested we venture up to Mt. Evans, a 14,200 ft. peak. Luckily we didn't have to climb or hike our way up to the top, we could drive up the 14,000 feet and hike the last 200 to the top. So we left Evergreen and headed out to conquer this 14'er via car. It was about a two hour drive with stops at a meadow, lake, and the top before we got to the parking lot and began our hike up. My head was pounding a little bit and my ears were definitely clogged and hurting from the altitude gain. Along the way we also saw many different animals including marmots, mountain goats, and big horn sheep. We left the house at around 11 and did not make it down to Idaho Springs and Smokin' Yards BBQ for lunch until 3pm!!! That is a long, twisty drive. Not good for M who doesn't like all those twist and turns.

So we arrived to Smokin' Yards after I found it on yelp. The people all recommended getting the pulled pork so I did with two sides (Fried Okra and sweet potato fries). After lunch we shopped for dinner (pesto pasta with salmon burger patties cut up in the pasta and a salad. We came home and tried to think cool thoughts because the house and outside was blazing hot (84 or so up here in the mountains, 94 down in Denver). We rested for a bit and then got cleaned up and ready for Lucky Strike Lanes bowling Groupon. I had a Hazed and Infused before we left the house to try and cool myself off.

Amanda's sister came over and we headed out around 7:15pm. Arrived to the Belmar shopping center area (reminded M and I of Cherry Creek shopping area) and found LS. We went in presented the Groupon and got our bowling shoes, beer pitcher coupon and lane assignment. We found lane 15 and laced up our shoes. CK entered a name and then hit start on accident. We got all the names in ordered a pitcher of Easy Street Wheat and M and I split a house salad. While there we bowled three games. One cool thing that this place offers is that if you bowl a strike in the fifth frame (Are you at the bottom of your fifth, well then head to Apple Jacks, sorry a personal joke for M) you win either a free game of bowling, a draft PBR, or a Root Beer Float. Our group ended up getting this 3 times and took one free game coupon and 2 root beer floats. Also the bowling alley had big projection screen televisions at the ends of the lanes and we were able to watch the Pads vs. Dbacks game

While we were there, a 20 year high school reunion was going on and the DJ was a complete TOOL (Not the band). At one point he said, "this is the song I lost my virginity to". Once he said that M said "and this is the reason I don't want a DJ at our wedding". But wait it gets better. After the song that he said he lost his virginity to ended, he came back on and said, "I was just kidding about losing my virginity to the last song, I really lost it while listening to the Titanic song. It gets me every time". Who was this guy you ask. He introduced himself when we first got there over the loud speakers as DJ Gatsby.

After finishing up our two hours of bowling we left and CK, M, and I went to Little Man Ice Cream so we could show him what he was missing in his own town. M and CK each got a gargantuan single scoop and I got a waffle cone which I ended up using like a spoon and ate some of the ice cream each had ordered. We left Little Man and had a little problem on the way home. M found a bug on her while she was driving and grabbed it and threw it in my direction as a knee jerk reaction. She didn't swerve or anything and I could never find the bug. We even came home and emptied out her whole purse to see if we could find it. No bug, so I think in the morning we will find it in the car waiting for us to come visit again.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Biscuits and Beer in Colorful Colorado

So we drove and drove yesterday, almost running out of gas. The warning light was on for a good 40 miles or so. We drove all that way with windows down, 10 under the speed limit (75 in Utah/ Col.) and NO AIR CONDITIONING. Boy did I learn my lesson to not chance that "we will make it" (Especially in a rental car that I had no idea about its gas tank characteristics). We made it across the border into Loma, CO and pulled into my new favorite gas station Conoco. Called up my brother from another mother "Mr. Lavish" and had a chat about wedding things. Then M and I made our way to Grand Junction and had lunch. After lunch (by this point it was 3pm or so) we drove the rest of the way and arrived at CK's around 7. We unpacked the car, brought up the bed we were going to sleep in from storage down stairs and then sat down outside since the house was so warm.

"Cue the lightning"

So we get through 3 or so hands of Quiddler with the occasional rain drops interrupting the game and lightning and thunder off in the distance, yet not out of sight. The cards had been dealt for the hand and I remember having a bunch of e's and i's and the brightest and closest lightning and loudest thunder that I have experienced in my life, sent us tearing inside. The lightning was at 2 o'clock on a watch and what seemed to be a mere half mile or less away. The thunder sound was baboom, baboom, baboom, baboom, baboom and as loud as a firework exploding its loudest possible on 4th of July. Need less to say we called a timeout from the game and remained inside the rest of the night.

Now on to today, July 15th. Woke up this morning and put the extra ticket we had on Craigslist. In the past I have had terrific luck with Craigslist. I put my dad's car on there that he had been trying to sell for 2 to 3 weeks and I sold it in 24 to 48 hours. So I put the ticket on there and less than 5 minutes later I had two calls and one email for buyers. We our meeting up with the seller at Red Rocks tonight to sell the ticket and see Citizen Cope and O.A.R.

After getting ready for the day M and I headed out to Denver Biscuit Company a.k.a. part pizza joint, part bar, part biscuit joint. We both got biscuit sandwiches. M got the Franklin, which contained a biscuit, freshly cooked fried chicken, cheese, vegetarian gravy (mushroom based), and bacon. She asked for no cheese and gave me the bacon. Mine was the Schooner with a biscuit, catfish, lettuce, tomato, and tartar sauce. M paired a New Belgium Skinny Dip with hers and I got Karma from Avery. Simply delicious. Afterward we ventured over to Hammond's Candy Factory for a free tour of how they make their candy and got a couple of tasters and a free hat (Think In-N-Out style). Then we headed to our favorite ice cream place here in Denver, The Little Man. I got a single scoop of Chocolate ice cream with Peanut Brittle Gelato. M got a single scoop of chocolate ice cream on a sugar cone. After suggesting to her to get a cup along with her cone she paid the ultimate price, a chocolate ice cream stain on a white shirt, the worst kind of stain out there.

We made our way back to the condo to get some relief from the heat before the concert. We stopped off at Apple Jack's before making it home and we decided on a Boulder Beer Brewers Dozen (3 of each type) of Sweaty Betty (M's fav), Hazed and Infused (cool label), Mojo IPA, and a mystery beer (Flashback, an India Brown Ale).

We just got back from the concert after hitting up Yardhouse HH and got 4 items for 23 bucks. It was so much we only at 3 and a half of the items and took the rest to go. Had a Hazed and Infused at the concert and made a new friend by selling my ticket. This girl was drunk by the time we got there and after making the transaction we thought we had seen the last of drunko Tara Reed. But what do you know, out of the 9500 people there, drunko comes stumbling by us and sits a few people away. Luckily she didn't see us until OAR came on and by that point she was done. Farewell Tara Reed! Came home and Marci was flipping through my Beer Traveler magazine put out by All About Beer and spotted the green and yellow beer hats in a photo of last years GABF. And the bachelor (Mr. Lavish) was the only one who I could truly make out in the picture. Good night. I will probably post some more on Saturday. Tomorrow we are going for a hike with my bro who is taking a Green Friday at National Geographic.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

A sad state (in my eyes) for beer

Well we left for Colorado this morning after dealing with Avis and their rental car not having a gas cap (Think 40 hours worth of driving and mondo elevation gains, not a good situation). We ate lunch at In-N-Out off of Sahara in Las Vegas (MAN was it hot!!!). I had a cheeseburger animal style hold the pickles and a fry. We made it into Utah and checked in to the hotel (Comfort Inn and Suites are nice). We hung out in the room after unloading the car and watched a bit of the All Star game (Congrats National League, now my Pads will have home field advantage). Then we headed out to dinner looking for Brunos Italian Diner. No such luck. We ended up looking for a half hour or so before settling on Wingers (Think of a Denny's setting mixed with Wing Stop/ Brett's BBQ style of food. I got the Wingers salad and a BLT sandwich. Salad was excellent, BLT was sub par. While there I asked what they had on tap. Not much. M also noticed on the restaurant listing at the front of the hotel that they designate restaurants that serve beer and spirits with a Martini glass. Not to many places here in Cedar City, UT have alcohol. The bar I called while at the restaurant said they were closing in a half hour or so. The only liquor store in town closes at 7 on weekdays and Wally World had a case full of BMC and a tiny corner with Wasatch beers and a few other craft beers. But the big guys couldn't even let them have their own space. Amber bock and some other products from the big 3 were mixed in with the craft brews. They had a single Boulevard Hefeweizen 12 pack that was stamped with best buy May 10th. Not a good situation. Wally worlds parking lot was packed at 10:15pm at night. We were thinking why are all these cars here and why is everyone shopping at 10pm on a Tuesday night. When we went in one of my hunches was true. The aisles were full of stockers. I would at least 4 people in each aisle of the food section and who knows how many more all over the store. It was Ca-Razy! After we left Wally Land, we went over to this new store called Fresh. They had a decent selection for a store but I didn't pull the trigger on anything. They had a couple of sampler packs that looked interesting and Uinta Brewing had some good stuff too. 4+ (Four plus brewing) was a new beer that I had never heard of or seen before. That's that for a state that believes liquor is evil but having multiple people in the same position in a family tree is right way to go. Update you when we get to Colorado.

P.S. No tickets so far in Utah (Thank you cruise control). I have terrible luck with the cops here because they have these fixed up patrol cars that look like car show displays and do not have lights on the outside of their cars nor the type of paint color you would expect to see on a cop car.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Cleaning and Packing

Happy 22 months fiance! The first part of today was all about getting ready for our trip out to Colorado to see Citizen Cope and O.A.R. Ran my errands and cleaned up around the house this morning. Came home and cooked up a salmon burger with lemonaise and pepper jack cheese and paired it with a beer that I received in a trade, Bell's Two Hearted IPA, served in the Deadlift IPA gift glass from D (Thank you!). Now it is time to go and pack for the trip and make sure I am ready to go. I will try and check in while on the trip to update all the GREAT Colorado beer I may be tasting. Have a great rest of the week.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Wurstküche and Los Doidgers

It was a great day today. Espana won over the Orangemen (I didn't care either way, but it gave me a chance to wear my Real Madrid (Thanks Voung) jersey. Also a thank you to my two brothers (Stone Cold and CK) for keeping me up to date on the overtime and eventual goal. Now to the great experience.

Found some cheap seats on stubhub late last week. They were loge for 11 per ticket (Normal price was $30 or so). I went on yelp last night (I am sorry for not posting, but I finished off my 750 ml Double Dead Guy from Friday night) and found Wurstküche in LA just below Chavez Ravine. They are a hole in the wall bar/ restaurant that serves amazing beers and amazing brats.

On the way up to LA we picked up M's parents and ventured on to Boyle Heights. I had no idea where we were going to but when we told M's parents the exit they kind of were worried. I could tell as we got off the freeway and saw nothing but warehouse and industrial buildings with a few drug dealers sprinkled in here and there. We circled the restaurant because there was absolutely no parking (tons of cars everywhere, which made me feel a little safer) and eventually found a spot down the street.

We walked up and heard a lot of noise coming from within the restaurant and noticed the few tables on the patio were taken. This had me worried that the place may still be crazy from the Espana/ Nederlander game. We went in and took a gander at the menu before placing our orders. Our receipt had the following items listed...Sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella cheese brat topped with caramelized onions and sweet peppers, chicken and apple sausage topped with caramelized onions and sweet peppers, veggie smoked apple sage sausage topped with sweet peppers and sauerkraut, and my exotic duck and bacon w/ jalapeno peppers topped with sweet peppers and sauerkraut, some twice cooked frites with Thai Peanut Sauce and Pesto Mayo dipping sauce. We washed it all down with a Fruli (witbier fermented with strawberries, 4.1% abv, 8oz pour). Available to drink is also some cucumber flavor water that tasted so refreshing. They also give you some mustard choices (regular, Dijon, honey mustard, and authentic German seed mustard).

Pure deliciousness was the food and beer. The cucumber flavor disappeared from the water the more I ate, but I could still catch a little hint of it as I drank my last sip before leaving. I will have to venture back here and try more of their beers and more of the brats.

We drove up to Elysian Park and made our way into the stadium. Got close parking and found our way to the loge section. Enjoyed a first inning of 1, 2, 3 scoreless baseball for the cubs and a 3 run bottom of the first inning for the Doidgers. Padilla carried a no hitter into the 6th inning or so. I got a helmet ice cream with vanilla soup and some nuts. Ended up getting out of the stadium pretty quickly and made our way onto the parking lot known as the 101. Got off to get some gas and took some surface roads past M's dads work to the 605 to the 405 back to the 5 and La Paz where we dropped off the parents and then continued the rest of the way home. Going to hit the pillows now and recharge the batteries for the long drive on Tuesday to Cedar City. Good night.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Dead Guy Ale

After a day of looking at wedding sites and having the most delicious pancakes at Claire's (Blueberry and Banana) I came home to hopefully find the site of our wedding. Also on a positive note I found the missing camera charger. We looked at both sites at UCSD today with M's parents and looked at a possible ceremony site (Windansea Beach). We came home and I was watching D cubed and saw a delicious hot dog. However we are going to Wurst$*%(^ in LA on Sunday before the Doidgers game so we got some BJs pizza and salad. Came home and complemented the pineapple pizza with a 22 Double Dead Guy Ale. Padres were up, but ended up losing 8 to 10 thanks to Greg Gregerson. Tomorrow we are off to WAP with M's sister and bro in law. It should be a good weekend! Hope yours is also. Cheers!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Getting Started

I have been on my journey of beer for about the past three years or so. It began after I met my co-worker Bob and we went out to play some pool at a local bar. He introduced me to Stone Brewing's Pale Ale. The next three years took me all over the US and Europe in search of beer bars/ brewpubs and tasting all the beers that are (and aren't) available in California. I have participated in three beer trades and have taken a break for a year in order to plan a wedding with my fiance. I have been to two Great American Beer Fests in Colorado and once to the American Craft Beer Fest in Boston. I have brewed beer twice at a Brew on Premise (BOP) in Huntington Beach, CA. I have bought and drank beers as expensive as $25 or so and been celaring beer to share in the near future. The last beer I drank was a Weyerbacher Double Simicoe IPA. My favorite style of beer would probably be a Hefeweisse/ Wit or maltier style beer. I like hops, but sometimes they can be a little much. I also collect beer glasses and have a collection of around 150 or so.

You can expect to see beer thoughts, beer tastes, beer places, and everything and nothing to do with beer. Cheers!