Video: Stone RuinTen

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Last year, Stone Brewing released a special, 10 year anniversary version of their Ruination IPA. RuinTen proved to be so popular, that they’ve brought it back.

This should be out on shelves now, so rush out and get some. Last year’s bottles were gone in an instant, so good luck.

One place I know you can try it for sure is at BeerCraft in Rohnert Park on Thursday night. They will be having a free tasting of Stone beers, and they will have RuinTen on tap. I know, too good to be true. Get thee to BeerCraft!

Video: Portsmouth Bravely Tries On-Tap

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Here’s a fun little video in which the brewers from Portsmouth Brewery try the Pale Ale Flavor Enhancing Syrup (TM) from OnTap.

Not vomit-inducing, which is a start. What I glean from the video is the OnTap flavor magic is kind of artificial tasting, and not at all Pale Ale tasting. Fear not, I will be performing this same experiment soon, and I’ll let you know the outcome.

Contest: California Beer Festival

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Alright, here it is, your chance to be a winner. At stake, 2 tickets to the California Beer Festival held in Novato on June 29th. All you have to do is answer this trivia question and the tickets are yours. Please, post your answer in the comments. I will go off of the time stamp on the comment to determine the winner. And don’t worry if I don’t respond right way; I will be working my day job (boo!) today, but I will check in periodically to see how things are going. Ready? The Question is after the jump. Continue reading →

Beer of the Week: Hangar 24 Columbus IPA

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Ah single hop IPAs. I love trying these beers, because you really get a good sense of the actual flavor and aroma profiles of a particular hop. Sure, if you drink enough IPAs you can start to notice patterns if you know what hops they used, but in single hop beers, there is no doubt where those flavors/aromas are coming from.

I had the joy of trying this beer at one of BeerCraft’s free tastings last week, and it was so damn good, I took a bottle home with me. And, now here it is, for your virtual pleasure: Hangar 24 Columbus IPA. Continue reading →

A Beer Invention That Will Change Your Life. For the Worst.

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Look at that hot, syrupy action.

If you’re like me, and I’m betting you are, you often find yourself sitting around the house (wearing only underwear, of course) thinking “Man. I wish I had some sort of a way to make this shitty, tasteless, poorly made American Industrial Lager taste better. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like how easy drinking it is, but I just wish it had a little more ‘oomph.’” Well, brothers and sisters, have I got something for you!

The creators of Crystal Pepsi and that stuff you put in your gas tank to give you better gas mileage bring you (not fact checked, but I’m pretty sure it’s true): OnTap Liquid Beer Enhancer. Yes, gone are the days of having to suffer through shitty beer. Now, all you have to do is bust out one of their Syrup of the Gods dispensers and BAM! Instant Craft Beer (not flavor tested).

From the website

Just squeeze a few drops of one of OnTap’s great flavors in to a glass of beer and you’ll get a unique and great tasting beverage. Make each bottle or glass the same, or make each one different. It’s up to you how each one tastes

Yes, it’s up to you to see what horrors you can craft in the privacy of your own home. And I highly recommend doing this in the privacy of your own home. Unless you don’t like having friends.

Add our liquid flavor enhancer to a domestic light lager and enjoy a craft brew taste at a fraction of the cost. One bottle of OnTap holds enough to improve the flavor of a full 18-pack of standard 12oz. beers, depending on how much you use.

What better way to create a better beer experience for yourself than to add artificial flavoring to an already kind of artificial tasting beer. I mean, it’s not like there are that many options at the beer store, right?

The flavor “packets” (or whatever the hell they’re calling them) cost $4.99. So when you add that to the 12 pack of crappy beer you bought for $10.99, it actually costs more than a 12 pack of actual Craft Beer!! Now, don’t you all put on your pants all at once and order these; you’ll crash their servers. And then we’ll all be sad.

In all seriousness, you don’t have to put on any pants, You can order these online, so you don’t have to leave your house. Oh, and if you’re ordering one of these, nobody likes you anyway, so who cares if you have pants on or not?

Marin’s California Beer Festival is Fast Approaching

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The final Saturday of this month, June 29th, will feature the Marin version of the California Beer Festival. Held at Stafford Lake in Novato, the festival features 30 or so breweries from around the area, with names like Lagunitas, Stone, and Sierra Nevada among the group. As if great beer wasn’t enough, this year will feature an all-new BBQ cook-off, and what better to pair with your delicious Craft Beer than some delicious BBQ ribs?

Tickets are $40, which gets you beer samples, one BBQ sample and a souvenir cup. There are also VIP tickets for $65, which gets you in a little earlier and a food voucher to spend at one of the vendors attending. Kids 12 and under are free, and while I’m told that there are not any children’s activities per-se, there is a pretty rad park there. The festival runs from 12:30 PM to 5 PM, and the organizers are suggesting the use of public transportation, as the parking there is a little on the small side. There is also a shuttle available from Rowland Blvd, but you must buy your tickets in advance on the website.

Don’t want to buy tickets? Well, you may be in luck. Check back early next week, when I should have two tickets to give away. Hope to see you there!

Fresh Squeezed IPA from Deschutes Debuting This Week

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Image from Beerpulse.com

A day in which a new beer from Deschutes is announced is a good day. Looks like today is a good one, as the brewery announced that bottles of their Fresh Squeezed IPA will ship out this week.

From the press release:

This mouthwateringly delicious IPA is a “citrus bomb” in every way. Juicy citrus flavor and aroma spring from a heavy helping of Citra, Nugget and Mosaic hops. An unimposing malt profile of Pale, Crystal, and Munich malts allow the citrus stars to shine.

“We’re constantly tinkering and experimenting with beers and styles in our pubs,” said Veronica Vega, Assistant Brewmaster, responsible for brewing operations at the company’s Bend, Oregon brewpub. “Some are so consistently popular with our visitors and fans that we decide to share the wealth through our Bond Street series. Based on its enthusiastic reception in our pubs, we’re sure this new beer will be welcomed by the masses!”

I don’t really have anything else to add. Deschutes is an amazing brewery and this sounds great. I’ll be all over this one. 22 ounce bottles of the 6% should be hitting shelves over the next few weeks.

An Interactive Map of the American Craft Beer Landscape

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The New Yorker recently scoured the data provided by the Brewers Association and produced a very cool interactive map. The map shows such data as the Newest Breweries, Fastest Growing Breweries and Total Number of Breweries. You can also mouse over each state and see a data table that will show Total Number of Breweries (number and per capita), Production Numbers, and change in Production Numbers. This is a very handy map for data crunchers, and also just fun to look at if you’re a nerd.

They also produced a graph showing the change in brewery numbers in America since 1887:

An interesting piece of data that comes from this graph is the amount of breweries per 500,000 people (this is my math, and is based on rough estimates of numbers, so I could be wrong): in 1900, there was roughly 11 breweries per 500,000 people. In 2012, there was roughly 4 breweries per 500,000. For all the talk about the Craft Bubble “bursting” or the industry reaching a saturation point, this may not actually be the case. Clearly, there are certain locations in America that are reaching saturation points, but there is still a lot of room for growth in some areas.

Population numbers come from here and here.

BeerCraft Beer Club May 2013

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Welcome to the Beer Craft Beer Club Review! Each month, I will review the four beers featured in the beer club, and rank them on a scale of 5 Gorillas, with 5/5 Gorillas being the Silverback of the beer world, and 1 being a scrawny baby gorilla.

Midnight Sun Meltdown Double IPA: A summer seasonal from Anchorage, Alaska, meant to be a sessionable IPA for the warm weather. It has a bright, golden-orange body with an off-white head. Lots of citrus on the nose, with aromas of orange and tangerine, as well as tones of honey, spice and cracker malts. Flavors are malt forward at first, with biscuit and caramel flavors. Hint of honey followed by a big pine bitterness, and some citric zest. The bitterness is a little overwhelming, making this beer not as easy drinking as the brewery was intending it to be.

3/5 Gorillas Continue reading →