Is winter the best beer season?

Last summer I was really impressed with some good "summer ales" coming out. You know, not just the brewery's most bland offering, but some good crisp, often hoppy, and innovative ales. It's getting better, but winter is just the best, the absolute best. Not only do you get all the great special releases and holiday ales that come out, but you get the big stouts and barleywines for the cellar. But wait, it gets even better, then you get, the really great strong hoppy beers. I'm talking about Bell's Hopslam and Troeg's Nugget Nectar, two perennial late winter all-stars. But this year it got even better, there was Firestone Walker Double Jack and Founders Double Trouble, then Ithaca 13, then Fegley's Hop'solutely. Pretty awesome, I can't imagine it getting any better than this. I can drink a huge stout with a nice fresh double IPA to back it up, craft beer at its finest. I do wish it was warm though...

Psstt... Growlers

In case you haven't noticed, growlers are blowing up. From your favorite craft beer bar, to Duane Reade, to the home-distributor down the street, virtually ever type of beer-selling-place has growlers to go. A growler can really be any size must commonly the 64oz container. It's filled with draft beer and has a limited lifespan. Growlers are great in that they are reusable, but the onus often lies on the customer to insure that cleanliness before refill. Growlers provide the customer with draft beer at home; Draft beer is fresh beer and those qualities are carried over when a growler is consumed in a timely fashion at home. Another benefit is that many beers are released as draft-only, thus the goal of enjoying them at home is worth the premium. And often, it is a premium. I do like growlers, and have acquired many over the years, but sometimes I think the novelty seems to overcome the benefits. This novelty often results in higher prices with a deadline for consumption. A full size growler (64 oz) which is either 5.3 beers (12 oz 6 pk bottle size) or 4.5 beers (14 oz traditional bar pint), should hypothetically be cheaper then a 6 pk or it should definitely be cheaper than 4.5 beers at the bar, but often it's not. To the retailer, draft (keg) beer is significantly cheaper by volume than packaged beer, so what are the financial considerations and factors weighing into the price? I don't know, but I do know save for the premium I'm willing to pay for draft-only releases, I'm drinking a lot less growlers lately. The other consideration is this whole landscape of both on and off premise accounts selling growlers. On premise needs higher margins, but why sell growlers? There are so many questions and this post is a bit lengthy, so we will leave it there for now. But I think this is one we will have to come back to.

The Cellar 2011

OK, with my confessions out there regarding my credit card bills, I've redone the inventory. The cellar list will be updated and subsequent adventures documented. This is what I've been doing. Let's see just how far this whole movement can go.

Beer Collector Phobia

It's a serious problem affecting beer geeks throughout the continental US. Symptoms include prioritizing beer over everything else in life, but not the drinking of it. Other symptoms include the particular hoarding of rarer or whale beers because of their perceived value. I would like to say that as a hoarder, I have a serious problem. At what point have I gone too far -- stored up too much beer to drink, spent too much money? When have I reached the point that i'm not enjoying what I paid for? Well that's all perception. I do admit that I have a problem drinking my beers, I often ask my friends to pick something out because I am incapable of doing it. I know that's what the beers are for, but I understand why I do it; It's like being a kid again. I've always enjoyed collecting things -- baseball cards, comics and now beer. The difference among those is that beer is gone when I drink it and it also has a lifespan. I know it sounds odd to compare my childhood to buying an alcoholic beverage, but this is a new level. The hunt is so enjoyable for me. From the spotting of the release on beernews, to the tracking of the beer's movement on beeradvocate, beermenus and the various online beer stores, to the final purchase in the store, is a very satisfying process for me. I've kind of become addicted to it, but once the beers are home, well that's a different story...

Goose Island going Crazy

There are a couple of beers and breweries I attribute to really developing my interest in craft beer. None more important then the first time I had Goose Island Bourbon County Stout back in 2006. At the time, I was just getting into big stouts but this beer really changed my perception of what beer could be, especially in a 12 oz bottle. It was so expensive, but it was so good, it started a paradigm shift on how I focused my attention to beer and new beers, and is probably the beer to blame for the over two hundred bottles I now have sitting in a dark cool room. Not sure how long ago it was, but Anheuser-Busch bought Goose Island and contrary to my belief at the time, Goose Island has gotten better and gone crazy!
There is an assumption among hard-core beer geeks that the Big 3 are all evil and I tend to agree -- the mass dissemination of BMC in this country has given American beer a low class blue collar image especially in Europe and abroad. We know now that when A-B bought Goose Island, it really didn't hurt the brand, in fact it might have made them go crazy! In 2010, Goose Island came out with an insane amount of new beers and most excitingly, various iterations of Bourbon County Stout. The hype train rolled and the beers delivered. They also released a variety of Belgian Style sour beers that I really enjoyed as well. Which begs the question, did A-B help Goose Island? Take for example the beer -- Madame Rose that was released this year -- Greg Hall had special Cherry Trees brought over for Belgium and a care-taker implemented to have the cherries to make this beer. It's just really impressive, and the beers have all been stellar. In my opinion A-B is letting them do what they want and giving them the dollars to do it, and I couldn't be more happy about it, is this a benefit to the buy-out?

If I started posting again...

Would you guys come back and read it again? Just Kidding. Slacker doesn't even do justice to the complete absence of my blog in 2010. And believe me, I haven't stopped doing the craft thing, in fact I've often gone into debt over it and had many sleepless nights. I think I have finally completed my highest beer buying season of the year: The Holidays. I've spoken about it before, but I'll reiterate it here, that Winter is by far my favorite beer month. This season was no exception, with the release of many exciting (and expensive) beers.
NYC has just continued its craft beer snowballing effect. An influx of craft beer bars joins pre-existing bars going craft to create an almost unwieldy universe of bars and choices.
I want this blog to ultimately be the story of my adventures with craft beer in NYC and in the world. It's not beer reviews and it's not a calendar of events -- it is my observations on everything I see in my own biased view of the craft beer world. Hope you enjoy it.

Start Posting again!

So I obviously haven't posted for awhile, things have been difficult, and life needed some sorting out. But I should bring this blog back as it was something that I really enjoyed working on it. I need to update the cellar as much has changed, and there have been a lot of cultural changes continuing to the growth of craft beer. Beer related news is blowing up, it is almost becoming too much. When I first started reading beernews.org i guess it was 2 yrs ago. I would never miss a story, now there are ones I just have to skip because there just isn't enough time. I want to post commentary here, and I won't feel bad about it. As the craft beer industry expands, there just becomes too many choices (paradox of choice) -- you have to be selective, and some I will hate. But they are my opinions and should be taken as such. I feel its a grounded opinion, you decide.

Stay Tuned!

Cellar Raid

So I decided to raid the cellar yesterday. So much great beer down there, so much ready to drink, can't leave it in there forever can you? Anyways, I raided the cellar and pulled out some things that I believe are ready to drink, and somethings I just want to try. I know for a fact that 2002 Doggie Claws is ready to drink, but be sure I'll leave some until 2012.

Three left...

Went to Whole Foods Bowery today. You know the usual -- New Beer then Whole Foods. Well Whole Foods had the Atlantic IPA from Brewdog. In case you haven't heard this is a pretty special beer, and wait for it, it has a $29 per 12 oz bottle price tag. Wowza, that is an expensive beer. I mean damn, $20 OK? I guess, but wow, that is a lot of money for a beer, I mean I know what they did is special, but damn so expensive. OK, I've written expensive for the last time. As a I feebly debate with myself whether or not to buy it, I pick up a dry hopped growler of Dale's Pale from the cask. Uh yea, two left around 6:30...

Tidbits

Some interesting beer news lately. Sam Adams is coming out with a Barrel collection. The biggest "craft" brewer in the country, with an incredibly large distribution network and numerous contract breweries is coming out with a barrel-aged beer? Seems a little odd, I mean it's not like they are hurting or anything. But it shows the power of the trend - that is a key indicator. To keep pace with today's modern beer geek its not just IPAs and stouts anymore. It's big, bold adventuresome beers inspired by ingenuity as much as the craft. Sam Adams knows, they didn't get to the top because they weren't smart.

Hop Devil Bust

Have to call this out...big time. Went there on Monday for their "world beer" event as per the NY Craft beer website...absolutely nothing but your standard tequila bar taps, so I walked out. But the "Daze of the Devil" fest was an annual tradition, a great tradition at that. But again nothing. This time it was listed on beermenus too and I was pretty disappointed. You can not do that. Advertise for events that don't exist to maybe try and drum up your shitty business? Do not go to the Hop Devil, it's been busted!

Go get growlers from New Beer

Just got back from New Beer distributors. Had to run over after getting the email telling me that they have the Bruery Melange #3 which I previously rated. And then Bourbon Barrel Ten Fidy which I'm sipping on now and his incredible smoothness and complexity. So head over there and bring your growlers!

Couple of events today and tommorow

For those in Williamsburg there is a nice set of activities tonight in honor of craft beer week. Head over to DBA around 8 for their "liquids of interest" tasting that will certainly be beer-oriented. And don't forget Barcade is having Fisherman's night tonight too.
Tomorrow I might have to check out the Hop Devil Grill. Ah the Hop Devil, bastard if there ever was one. The bar more than any other that got me to where I am in craft beer now had to be the Hop Devil. Circa 2005-7, this was the place to be. You name it they had it: Kuhnhenn, Bell's, Heavyweight. But then something happened, it closed for renovations and opened back up as a "southwestern tequila and beer bar" around 2008 and it's just been beyond mediocre since. Anyways, what I'm getting at, is it might be time to test the waters again for tomorrow's Daze of the Devil fest, which is a pre-southwest tradition. This could definitely be worth checking out -- i.e. they might have Kuhnhenn.

Any traders out there?

Anybody out there see anything on this blog that they might want, please contact me for trade. I'm actually having an apparent hard time making some trades with my apparent "lack" of cred.

Great Cask Fest! NYC Craft beer week rolls on...

Made a quick stop at Rattle-n-Hum last night to check out the kick-off of the cask fest and boy was it awesome. Good reasonable prices I thought for some incredibly rare beers on cask! Barcade should be fun today with some good looking Harpoon drafts! Probably have to make my way back to that cask fest too.

NYC Craft Beer Week

NYC Craft Beer Week starts today with a huge cask festival kick-off at Rattle-n-Hum. Check out the list: here. Do I need to say anymore other than Sculpin IPA on cask, not to mention Nugget Nectar and Ten Fidy...looks ridiculous. My suggestion is to hit this up...early if you can. I'll be detailing a few other events as the week tags along, but I will probably hit up Barcade for a few of their events.

Capt Lawrence Smoke from the Oak Apple Brandy

Got an email earlier today from Capt. Lawrence. They are releasing Smoke from the Oak Apple Brandy barrel this Saturday. Depending on what I am doing, I may or may not go up there, but I think it will hit retail around here.

The Cellar Unveiled!

I Wanted to finally put up some pics of the cellar for people to get an idea of the size and location of it. As you can see it is just in the crawlspace of the house underground. Unfortunately there is no room to chill and drink in there (you can't stand up), but the conditions are perfect -- always dark and static in temperature.

The Pony Bar

Heading over to the Pony Bar this evening before a concert at Terminal 5, so pretty excited about both. The Pony Bar is fairly new and they only serve American craft beer ala Barcade. I can't really see myself going there unless it blows me away, it's out there on 10th ave. I mean it looks great on paper so let's give it a go.

Random Beer Tasting Notes

I went to a beer tasting last weekend, where I tasted the Midnight Sun M. To those who have heard of this legendary beer, good job, to those who haven't I highly recommend them and the 'beer I will never taste again.' The M actually was worth the hype. I would have given anything just for another little sample, so rich, so decadent. Hard to distinguish a Belgian quality to it, but nonetheless, it was legendary. Other highlights included a lot of other Midnight Sun - Sloth and Greed. Anyways, have at the pics, some serious beer porn. Anybody guess where it was?