B-Dawg

And the lineup:

Armand somethingorother, Don Quijote, Pappy DL, Crianza, AftW, Sinner's 08, CBC Sour Brown, 3F 2000, Anna, Adam batch 6, Damon, Framboos, MS URANUS

FfaC batch 1, Veritas 007, CdT 2003, Wild One, 50n4e, Falling Rock La Folie blend, Eszett Gueuze, Wooden Hell

That HF lineup is bananas, nicely done.

I was lucky enough to get invited to some crazy ass tastings these past few months.

Papier Brandy, Rye, and Bourbon

1999 3F Oude Geuze

Those are the only pics I have from that tasting, but there were other delights like 1996 Cantillon Gueuze, 2012 BA Dark Lord lineup, NB Bottleworks X, 1991 De Neve Gueuze, DDG, Jean Chris Nomad, 3L EC18 Eclipse and 3L Rye Old Conundrum, 2007/2011/2012 Blabaer, and a ton of stuff I'm forgetting.

Then some individuals and a lineup from a going away wale harpooning:

Wooden Hell. If it's actually dropping off it must have been ridic before. One of the best, no doubt.

Cantillon kills it with their fruit lambic. Wish this wasn't so impossible to track down. More of a ripe juicy grape character than, say, Veritas 007/Malvasia Rosso/St. Lam.

2003 CdT. Delicious. Low carbonation, not everyone was into it, but I think it's worlds beyond what that beer has turned into.

Delicious side by side. Adam can really go the distance. Less sweet, heavy on tobacco and leather with so much age. And AftW is nicely complimented by the barrel character, though significantly sweeter by comparison.

Slowly but surely trying every vintage! This is 2000. Less funky and intense than 2001 or 1999. Still good but very mellow.

Another delicious HF beer. Awesome mouthfeel.

A wale because of the last batch and the small release, but it's just a really good framboise. It's super jammy, just bursting with raspberries. Given the price of admission, I'd say fresh LP Framboise is on par and a way better deal.

Oh man, I can't wait to pick up my Fruet! Those 100% -bal aged anniversary beers are ones I look forward to most.

^Hah, nice pics dude. The wax on that PVW? Eclipse on the table is completely ridiculous. How was that NG Iced Barleywine? Also, I want to tick Rorie's Ale. I'm jealous. :\

Sorry I missed your questions, yo. That was 2010 Brandy Eclipse, the lavender waxed ones were the first of the run when they were just mixing wax colors til it turned maroon.

Iced barleywine was tasty, had a few years on it but was aging gracefully with all the dark fruit and caramel you'd expect and hope for.

I almost skeeted when I saw that Rorie's ale brought out haha.

That Ren care package is teh hotness. Alpine is just so magical.

Grabbed a growler of day old Row 2 Hill 56. 1 liter mug was a must.

Their new IPA More Cowbell is good too. Nice tropical fruit hop character and nice and dry.

Crazy good prices on pours at Alembic in SF

George T Stagg $16

Pappy 20yr $15

Pappy 13yr Rye $12

My home collection hasn't grown much yet. More diverse in boozes than whiskey focused. Not many high quality sippers, more things for manhattans and old fashioneds.

Off the top of my head, I've got Laphroaig 10, Evan Williams 10yr single barrel, Black Maple hill, rittenhouse 100, bulleit rye, and breaking and entering, a bourbon from st. george spirits, which is about a mile from my house.

That's a bummer on the 07. The bottle I had over a year ago wasn't doing so well even then. I'm happy to report the 08 is tasting bawmb right now though.

My buddy just got back from Austin and brought a bottle of Das Wunderkind, a sour from Jester King. Pretty tasty.

A few randoms from lately

Track 3

Veritas 007 at City Beer

Monday nights are slow so we have little bottle shares

Bourbon Fred was improving, XII is dying quickly.

Almost skeeted when my boss broke these out:

Rorie's Ale is a wale from a defunct brewery. Quad with cherries (no bugs) aged in his brother's port barrels. Amazing. Veritas 007 is competing for best grape sour with 3F Malvasia Rosso.

Lineup from our meat smoking beer drinking extravaganza at a house on a lake

My homies posing with the greatest road sign of all time

Non-infected BA Yeti

Homeless dog, so I could roam around breaking into yards and taggin bitches in heat.

50" 720p plasma or 32" 1080p LED?

Burger:

Yo, ritual kills blue bottle on every level, i don't think anybody tried to say BB was better than ritual.

(full disclosure, my wife's cousin manages the ritualhayes valley spot)

The kiosk, right? Cameron be killin it over there. It's a must on my way back to BART from beers at Toronado.

It was an awesome month! By the by, anyone here on Untappd? It's an amusing novelty to be sure.

After seeing the brewer Todd post on BA that they addressed complaints about lack of body and bottle inconsistency, I can tell that the body is definitely improved. It's definitely no Bourbon County, but I like that. It stands up better to the barrel treatment now, but is still drinkable and not overwhelming. Bottles of EC 18, HH Rye, and BT I have tasted have all been awesome.

2009 KBS

KBS 2010

To save space, tasting and washoes, back room at Toronado: Upright Fatali 4, New Belgium Bottleworks 10, Veritas 004, Temptation batch 001, Sanctification batch 003, Iris 2004, FW 13

3F Roos

3F Blauw

100% Barrel Aged Velvet Merkin at Brouwer's

Brouwer's Imagination 2009 at Brouwer's

Doggie Claws 2005

Sorry the images are so humongous, I am technologically challenged and this is what they look like straight off facebook. No vis: full Temptation vertical, Cherry Adam 2008, enough beer at the FiftyFifty Eclipse release party to be hung over for 2 days (including all 2010/2011 vatiations, Pappy van Winkle Eclipse, Drie Fonteinen 2002 vintage etc...). Cheers dudes, happy holidays.

2003 Bigfoot

2008 Cable Car

2009 Cable Car

2010 Cable Car

2011 Buffalo Trace Bourbon Barrel Aged Eclipse

Beatification pH1, brewed 2004

Beatification batch 002

Beatification 003

Beatification 004, brought generously by someone who was in town during the tiny release

Duck Duck Gooze

Been from Orange County to Truckee to Seattle this past month. Commence ridiculous image dump:

Flight at The Bruery Provisions: Cantillon Cuvee des Champions, Deschutes The Abyss 2011, 100% Barrel Aged Coton, Melange no. 3, Black Tuesday

The Bruery's Geuze style ale, Grand Funk Ale Road

2009 Cherry Adam from the Wood at Hair of the Dog

2007 Fred from the Wood

Cinnamon Cherry Bourbonic Plague from a live barrel at the Cascade Barrel House

2008 Vlad the ImpAler

2011 18 year Elijah Craig Bourbon Barrel Aged Eclipse

2007 Drie Fonteinen Hommage at Brouwer's in Seattle

2010 Matt

2002 Bigfoot

Epic BA tasting at Beer Revolution the other day, amongst things like '09 Cable Car, Surly 5, 1990's lambics, Chocolate Rain, and '08 barrel aged Yeti, was this:

Best Nelson I've ever had

Dat Gooze

BT

Cable Car Kriek '11

anyone in Nor Cal...

Gonna take my Dad on a trip to tour a brewery for his 60th, was thinking Lagunitas, but if anyone else has a recommendation I'd love to hear Hoping for something within 2 hours of Sac.

If you're specifically doing this with a tour in mind, you've gotta go to Lagunitas. They take you up into this crazy loft above the production facility and shower you in tons of (free) draft beer, then once you're good and buzzed, they take you (with a beer in hand, of course) on a tour through their huge and impressive brewery.

You can head to the Beer Sanctuary after for some food and beer, and most likely music. They have some decent to great beer, and the tour and vibe are tough to beat.

That said, if this ain't all about a tour, Russian River is it.

called my teacher mom in elementary school.. was embarrassed.

Did that shit in 10th grade (how the fuck did I do this at age 15?). She didn't hear cause I was calling out to ask her a question during a bio lab, but my friends and the group of chicks next to me did. Fuuuu..

I would totally love to take you up on it but I'll have to be back in the bay by then. I'll hit you up before I'm there though. I don't have any exact plans other than drinking at breweries and beer bars that Sunday and Monday.

Wish I was going to be there for the barrel night. I'm coming to LA/OC/SD from 10/22-10/27 for the Black Tuesday release party and general San Diego beer guzzling.

^Very nice B-Dawg. How different is the 23 than the regular Damnation?

Also, I just scored a 4th bottle of CBS off the shelves Pretty happy with my take after talking to so many people who couldn't even manage to get 1.

It's pretty different. At over 10%, it's got more body and sweetness (as you would expect from a tripel vs. a Belgian strong pale), less hops come through, and the oak provides soft vanilla and some tannic balance to the sweetness. I think it comes off a bit more estery as well.

As an aside, in the unlikely event you're able to acquire more CBS than you care to own I'd be interested in proxy or trade

bdawg I agree that it helped kill the line. I might be up there this weekend for it. mini SuFu meet?

I'm down, Ren. I'm working on Saturday (at an awesome Oakland beer bar called Beer Revolution, stop by if you're in the area!), but I'm thinking about heading back up to RR on Sunday.

The first day the framboise was on sale was great. Russian River's method here was brilliant. Only 238 cases, but they're doing 17 a day for 2 weeks with the 2 bottle limit; this totally killed the crowds. Walked in fifteen minutes after opening, found a bar seat, got my bottles, and had the simul-released Damnation 23 on tap.

Sounds good Ren. Not sure if/when they'll announce the framboise release, but I'd like to think I'll be there. I have already had the Bourbon Token, but any fresh Duet/Pure/Nelson you bring up would be awesome. Could just pay you back or bring some beer in.

Luckily this vintage is not a wit base! Anybody else hitting up the Russian River release?

This thread is amazing.

This was on a public bus, but worth sharing. I was heading to work in Oakland the other day, and this really old, frail Asian woman had just gotten on. Bus driver gotta keep moving to stay on schedule, so before she sits down, he starts driving. She, unfortunately, wasn't ready, and ate shit. Only she didn't just eat shit. She face planted directly into this morbidly obese black woman's muff. I am talkin' perfect aim here. Not into her gunt, not into her thigh, but straight into the muff. To make matters more comical, the acceleration coupled with her frailty kept her face firmly plastered to said muff for no less than a full 15 seconds.

*Just so nobody has to feel bad, she was uninjured.

The Chicago BA crew flew out for Toronado's 24th anniversary party, so we had a filthy ridiculous tasting the night before:

L->R across the arc: Alexander Rodenbach, Barrel Aged PBR, 1994 Cantillon Gueuze, Cigar City Jose Marti porter on french oak, Alesmith barrel aged Decadence, 2011 Utopias, 2010 Dark Lord, 100% barrel aged Coton, Stranahan whiskey barrel aged milk porter, brandy barrel Eclipse, Churchill's Finest Hour 2011, 1988 Eylenbosch Faro, 2001 and 2002 Lop Pepe Framboise, 1999 Lou Pepe Gueuze, Hill Farmstead barrel aged smoked porter, apple brandy Smoke from the Oak, Port Le Woody Brune, 2009 and 2010 Fou Foune, (Hand bottle from a privately owned keg of Veritas 004 and Armand Spirit in the back). Front Row: Cantillon Zwanze 2008 and Branantiae(!!!1!1), Brabantse Trotse geuze blended for an Ebeneezer's beer dinner, brandy barrel Dark Lord, vanilla bean brandy barrel Dark Lord, Dark Lord De Muerte, Pappy Van Winkle barrel aged Dark Lord, apple brandy barrel aged Hunahpu's

Sexy Dark Lords

Makin it rain at Toronado: some combination of Marron Acidifie, Foeder no. 3 (hand selected by the owner Dave from the sour project area of New Belgium), Toronado 20th Anniversary, 2010 Cable Car, 2008 Consecration

Hellshire I bourbon barrel aged barleywine from Oakshire in Eugene, OR. It's very intense and bitey, but I have a thing for bourbon barrel aged dark english barleywines. Sooooo good. My boss shared this, Dark Lord 2011, and some bombers of Alpine all while I was working!

Foothills Sexual Chocolate. Not bad. I would buy bombers from time to time if they were on the shelf for under ten bucks, but as a once a year brewery only thing people go crazy over I think it's overhyped. Shared at Toronado.

2005 Drie Fonteinen Oude Geuze, Beatification batch 001, and 2008 Cuvee de Tomme opened next

The money shot. Brewed in 2004, bottled in 2006

Dat Vertical: 003, 002, 001-PH1, and the recently enjoyed 001

Dat other vertical: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

Just moved down to the Bay Area, and finally got internet at my place. It's good to be back!

Jolly Pumpkin Biere de Mars Grand Reserve my buddy brought back from Michigan, best JP beer I've had hands down. Good to know they can make something truly special.

Dat Gooze

FiftyFifty Evan Williams Bourbon Barrel Aged Eclipse Imperial Stout and Hanssen's Bourbon Barrel Aged Jonge Lambic at City Beer in SF

Epic taplist at my new gig, Beer Revolution

High Water Brewing (Steve Altimari's new brewery after being fucked by the owners at Valley Brewing in Stockton) Hop Riot IPA.

My 1st day at Beer Rev, the owner/blender from Oud Beersel Lambik Brouwerij came in and shared this boxed Jonge (young) Lambic with us. This ain't yo mamma's Franzia! Lemony and stanky, delicious.

As overpriced as it was delicious

Drinking drakes denoggizer. It's considered an DIPA but it taste like an american strong ale similar to arrogant bastard at best.

That's probably not a very fresh keg/bottle. I won't say it's one of the best DIPAs, but I work at a beer bar a few miles from Drake's and I can smell the hoppy goodness just from pouring that beer. It is on the darker side, so I definitely see it going the way of Double Bastard withe a few months on it.

I know this has to have been discussed, prob a bunch, but just had my first Pliny the Elder (sp?) and it was amazing, probably the best beer I've had so far.

Drinking a 3 day old bottle right now. I forget how awesome this stuff is sometimes.