Letter from Zihuatanejo

Dear Bull,

Thanks for sending me the Boulevard Pilsner. As you know since I took up drinking again in 1983 when Red died I've been looking for a beer he would have enjoyed just as much as he liked that Bohemian style beer on the roof of the license plate factory with the boys in the spring of '49. Red always told me as we were sailing around Zihuatanejo that he was hoping to find a beer as good as that beer was. He tried all of the Mexican beers as we worked on rehabbing the boat. I will say that in my advance years I really enjoy a Pacifico after eating some tacos al pastor. Red never took to any of those. A couple of years after we watched "Smokey and the Bandit" in some rathole movie theater over in Barrio Nuevo (just up the coast from Zihuatenejo), Red really wanted to try Coors. When we got our hands on some in 1982 Red was quite disappointed and shortly after finally succumbed to old age. On the last day on this earth Red told me he wanted me to continue his quest to find a good Bohememian style beer.

It had been a long time since the malty hoppy goodness that is beer had passed through my lips. I remember vividly the last night I had drank a beer before Red's death. The events of that evening led directly to my current circumstances and your familiarity with me, no need to go into that anymore. The night of Red's funeral I drank a Coors banquet beer and a couple of times a year I drank a beer that I thought might have met Red's requirements. One evening about 10 years ago I tried a Sam Adams Lager and really enjoyed it, the first beer I've enjoyed since I first thought about voting for Thomas Dewey for President. I started to drink beer a little more often, nearly weekly and almost exclusively drank Sam Adams Lager. Oh sure I tried several of those microbrews as you kids call them. They're a little tough to get here in Zihuatanejo, but I do my best.

As always, I'm happy to receive packages from you, but I was quite surprised that this time you had sent beer along with your chess move. I didn't quite know what to make of it. I had to dig around for something to open the bottle with, I usually drink my beers at the bar. I wonder why they don't have screw top lids like Coca-Cola has. Once I got the beer cooled down and I tried it, I knew exactly what Red was talking about when he spoke of those beers the hardest screw to ever walk a turn at Shawshank had given the boys. The Boulevard Pilsner was so cold and refreshing with an actual taste to it that I never found in Coors or Budweiser or Miller Lite. I guess that is because the Pilsner uses 100% malt instead of using fillers like rice. I never understood why the Budweiser advertises that on the can.

Anyway, thank you for sending me the beer. I now feel that I have fulfilled Red's quest to find a beer the equivalent to the one on the roof. I'm now older than Red was when he passed on, and I can't help but think that beers equivalent to the Boulevard Pilsner should be more prevalent and easy to find. Between Red and I we've spent over 175 years on this earth (granted, a full 100 of those years were spent as children or in prison) and have only had 2 (maybe 3 if you include the Sam Adams Lager) great lager type beers with full flavor.

Oh one more thing, do you think you can send me an Olivia Wilde poster for my wall to replace this Jessica Alba one?

Your chess buddy and buddy in beer,

Andy Dufresne

All Things Boulevard

Boulevard's newest year round beer, Boulevard Pilsner, should show up on your local package store's shelves today and tomorrow. The pilsner is Boulevard's shot at a classic American lager and one of only 3 lagers Boulevard brews. I don't think Boulevard could have asked for a better week to release this pilsner since there's not really a substitute for a cold American lager on a hot day. I may even be tempted to mow my lawn in the hundred degree heat just so I can get full enjoyment from the Boulevard Pilsner. As always around here, call it out in comments when and where you find it and the price (I would guess $6.99/sixer).

Boulevard is also trying to make it a little easier to find their releases by adding a beer finder to their website. Enter in the product you're looking for, your zip and the beer finder will direct you to the nearest store carrying your beer.

Finally, Boulevard is adding beer luncheons to their repertoire to take even more advantage of their new tasting room.

Boulevard is teaming up with local restaurant partners to create a beer and food pairing educational experience unlike any other. Secure your spot for an exclusive VIP tour and luncheon with Boulevard’s brewmaster, Steven Pauwels, and a guest restaurateur as they share their inspired combinations. Tickets for this event, which include the tour, three-course lunch and a souvenir pint glass, are $35 each and seating is limited. To reserve your place at the table today please call 816.701.7210 and specify “Brewmaster Luncheon Reservation.”

The tour will begin from our tasting room promptly at 11:30am on the day of the event, with the meal concluding at approximately 1:30pm. Cancellations may be made up to 24 hours prior to the Luncheon; please notify us if you are unable to attend.

Brewmaster Luncheon Calendar:
(Future dates are subject to change)

* Friday, June 26th; featured food pairings by The Bristol
* Friday, July 17th; featured food pairings by Nick and Jakes
* Friday, August 14th; featured food pairings by Hereford House
* Friday, September 25th; featured food pairings by bluestem
* Friday, October 9th; featured food pairings by KC Hopps

The Bluestem (read JJSKCK's review, then subscribe to his blog)one sounds especially fantastic, but they all look worthwhile. Plus you get to spend time with the dude who should be the most popular guy in KC, Steven Pauwels, Boulevard's head brewer.

Three Men and a Hopsickle

As all of us beer folk know, Moylan's is now available in Missouri. I picked up a bomber of Hopsickle Imperial Ale a couple of weeks ago and I was saving it for a time when I was really in the mood to drink a good hoppy beer.

That time came last night as I sat down to watch TV. I settled upon "Three Men and a Baby" because the kids were still awake and they are completely fascinated with any movie with a kid in it.

I poured my Hopsickle into my new Dad glass I got from the Flying Saucer, I have no idea what kind of glass it is, it's closest relative would be the standard pint glass. It poured a kind of orange and was rather cloudy (I like cloudy beers and laugh at the Budweiser commercial where Rob Riggle holds the beer up and is excited to be able to see through it). The hops smell was definitely present. It tasted wonderful, starting off with a grapefruit taste then moving to a piney taste on the tongue and finishing down my throat with a grapefruit and maybe some apricot (I don't like apricots and I'm working on a theory that you don't like whatever fruit you grow at your house growing up, we had an apricot tree when I was a kid). The sweetness usually present in a double IPA wasn't there. Well, the sweetness was there but it didn't overpower anything, I knew I was drinking an IPA and wasn't confusing it with IPA syrup.*

*IPA syrup might be one of my greatest ideas ever. Do you think it would taste good on pancakes. I'm envisioning boiling down some super sweet double IPA (does Southern Tier make a double?) until it has a syruppy consistency. I'm unsure if it would be better on pancakes and waffles or used in cocktails like Rose's lime or simple syrup. Someone try this.

I haven't watched "Three Men and a Baby in over 15 years. Watching movies of this era is always fun because I like to pick out bit players that have made a pretty good career. It seems that Jim Brass from CSI always tends to make an appearance. As I was watching the movie and entertaining questions from the kids such as "where's the baby", "when is the baby coming back", "what are they going to do with the baby", I began to wonder if this movie could be remade today. I don't think we have the kind of virile men that Ted Danson, Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg were in 1987. This is Sam Malone, Magnum P.I. and Mahoney all in one movie, I think I grew an extra chest hair (total up to 7 now) just watching them last night. If Stella had been home she may have gotten pregnant again (just from watching). So I threw out the question on Twitter, who, today, could play these roles. The masses (ShaneAdams, Nuke718, TheDLC and PinchedPink) came up with McConaughey, Vin Diesel, Will Smith, Luke Wilson, Charlie Sheen, Ben Affleck, Hugh Jackman (I'm pretty sure this was a joke), Collin Ferrel, Jason Bateman and Simon Peg among others.

Now I'm not too sure on any combination of those so I would propose shaking things up and making it a Kevin Smith joint with Affleck, Jason Lee and Kevin Smith himself in the iconic roles. We've already seen Affleck fumble around changing a diaper in "Jersey Girl" but rather than watch that again we could have a whole new movie, that's actually really good. I think this should be done.

On the second pour of the Hopsickle the flavors changed a little with the increased temperature. The beer became a little more balanced than it was when just out of the refrigerator and also had a much more aggressive head. I also noticed the bottle said it was triple hoppy and not triple hop brewed, which I've been led to believe by Miller is a sign of quality. The triple hoppy refers to the Danson, Selleck and Guttenberg of hops included in Hopsickle, Tomahawk, Cascade and Centennial.

The Hopsickle is quality despite the lack of being triple hop brewed and it should be for $9.99. Double IPA's aren't typically my favorite kinds of brews, but the Hopsickle could very well be my favorite of the style. I look forward to trying more from Moylans (Kilt Lifter, a Scotch Ale is on tap at the Flying Saucer) in the coming weeks. You should too. Their beers are only available in 22 oz. bombers.

Beer Appreciation 101

I am a man with severely underdeveloped tastes. I grew up as a child during the fast food boom with a father who tolerated little spice or seasoning. During the week, I would enjoy a piece of unseasoned chicken warmed in a skillet, while dining exclusively at hot spots like Chili’s and Cracker Barrel on the weekend. While there are still a number of things I refuse to try and/or eat, I have developed into quite the culinary adventurer over the past few years. The thing I credit the most for that is my love for beer. Like my food beginnings, I was introduced to beer by flavorless guides like Keystone Light. Through curiosity and beer tours like those at Old Chicago and the Flying Saucer, I’ve reached a point where there is no beer I’m not willing to try. While it’s all well and good to be able to power through even the skankiest of beers, I wanted some way to learn more about what I was drinking and the flavors and characteristics that made me like a beer. Enter Beer Appreciation 101 at Boulevard Brewing.

I took Beer Appreciation back at the beginning of the year. There is a new session coming up starting August 18th. It is put on through UMKC’s Communiversity program and you can find the information in their summer catalog under food (#3302 A). The class is limited to 20 people and consists of two sessions.

Our class, as well as the upcoming one, was lead by Neil Witte, field quality manager for Boulevard. He was assisted by Elizabeth Belden who does in house quality assurance for the brewery. The first class started off with the standard Boulevard tour video, followed by a more in depth tour of the brewery than I had gotten my previous two times through. The hops room was like a small slice of heaven. We then returned back to the tasting room where we ran down the taste profiles of Boulevard’s four flagship brews before Elizabeth schooled us in the varieties of skunked Boulevard Wheat. Drinking skunky beer is almost a treat when you’re actually expecting it and trying to figure out the flavor of foulness. I’ll leave the three we tried under wraps (take the class) but they did describe one that tasted like baby vomit, which I’m glad we missed out on.

The second session was a lot more in depth in terms of learning about beer and the reason I highly recommend the class to anyone. The first half of the class was spent running down the various styles of beer and what differentiates each. The discussion was accompanied by small samples to help illustrate the points being discussed. The second half of class was spent on pairing food and beer together, which is something I really benefited from. I don’t drink beer while I eat because the flavor always seems off, and I am normally too busy shoveling to pick up my glass. I’ve always been more concerned with ordering a beer I want and the food I want rather than considering how each would compliment the other. They started off with two cheeses that I would never consider eating in my normal world. I tried the pairings though, and found one to be actually tolerable. The other cheese reminded me of eating Provel during my bachelor party and almost hurling, but it did have quite the interesting effect on the flavor notes of the beer. There was a meat/beer pairing in the middle before moving on to a couple of chocolates, which I never would have considered eating with beer. I was amazed at how the bitterness of a chocolate could make a Dry Stout nearly taste like water. This final hour of the class was worth the $29 tuition alone in my book.

If any of this sounds remotely interesting to you, I encourage you to sign up for the new session. I can’t do this material half the justice that Neil and Elizabeth presented it with. My class was filled with a range of people from seasoned beer drinkers to a girl who never really drank beer prior to the class. There is something that most anyone can take away.

KC Beer Blog Certified Happy Hour

Well, well, well it appears that the KC Beer Blog does work. A couple of weeks ago I dedicated a couple of posts to a bad happy hour and the attributes of a good happy hour. The posts were brought on by the new coffee and wine bar Savvy in the Power and Light district. Savvy has changed their happy hour to comply with the rules set forth in the good happy hour post.

I think enough of the KC Beer Blog's readers went in and told them their happy hour special wasn't very special. The new happy hour specials are:

Happy Hour 4 - 7 M-F
$1 off glasses of wine
$2 domestic bottles
$3 Boulevards
1/2 price appetizers with purchase of bottle of wine

This new happy hour complies with rules 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7. I haven't been so I can't comment on rule 6. Rule 5 (discounted food) is not in compliance but 5 (possibly 6) out of 7 means that Savvy's happy hour is now KC Beer Blog certified. Now I can go take advantage of it someday.

My Intro To Let You Know

I'll keep this short and to the point. I'm in your beer blog, writen sum postz.

You may recognize me from the comments section or homoerotic references in various posts. You will learn more about my drinking tendencies here. You can learn more about my life and interests here. You can learn the contents of my GI tract and why I spend three hours a day on the toilet here.

Schlafly Beer Dinner

When I used the restroom the other night at One80 I became fascinated with something. Wait, that didn't come out right...let's start over.

I noticed the other night in the bathroom at One80 a flyer for a rather fabulous beer dinner. I don't usually go for such things because they're always real expensive and if I'm going to spend $40 on a meal, I'm going to go to Bluestem or Michael Smith. That being said, I'm a sucker for cassoulet so this beer dinner sounds pretty worthwhile; the Schlafly 6 Course Beer Dinner at McCoy's Public House (you should also check out McCoy's blog). The beers featured are Biere de Garde, Grand Cru, Tripel, Quadrupel, Barrel Aged Imperial Stout and Oak Aged Barley Wine. All beers are high alcohol so you're sure to have a good time (they lie when they say that you can have fun without alcohol). All the beers will be presented by Schlafly brewmaster Steven Hale. Check out the flyer for the food and beer pairings. Reservations are required so call McCoy's at 816-960-0866 or email them here.
For a slightly cheaper option with less food, the Saucer has a Schlafly beer dinner also presented by Steven Hale on Monday, July 6. Refer to the below flyer for info.

SunRyes Abomination

Brother Bean announces his presence with authority by absolutely savaging O'Malley's SunRyes Ale.

Little known fact; Bean was looking for suggestions of a bad beer to review, I told him he should try the SunRyes. He said he'd already written that but didn't publish it because it seemed too mean. Honesty isn't mean.

My thoughts on SunRyes can be found buried in this post.

The Foundry One80

After a long day of manual labor, a couple of good beers and a nice steak Stella and I were ready for some cocktails. Stella wanted to go somewhere new and I've been wanting to go to Manifesto (a modern day speakeasy) in the basement of 1924 Main. While she was getting ready I tried texting Manifesto for reservations. They texted back that they only accept reservations for 4 or more people. Since the place only takes 40 people you may have to have a "short" wait. We thought it might be worth it so we headed downtown to Manifesto.

We got to 19th and Main and looked around for the "secret" entrance, unfortunately we were looking at the back of Tootsie's instead of 1924 Main (they're a block apart and, in my defense, look alike from behind). Once the mistake was realized and Stella cemented in my mind that we wouldn't be good partners on the Amazing Race we made the block walk over to Manifesto. We found the "secret" back door (look for the purple lighting) and rang the buzzer. A guy came up the stairs and told us there would be a "short" wait and took my phone number so they could call or text when they were ready for us. Then he led us to the bar at 1924 Main and we sat. Approximately 48 hours later I still haven't got a call or text.

We waited around for about 10 minutes before giving up, 3 or 4 couples were ahead of us and not a one of them had gotten in yet so we figured we'd be waiting at least an hour. We don't get out enough to wait around for an hour, there are many acceptable places to go for a cocktail. I'm sure Manifesto is great, I'm just not waiting around.

We decided to hit up the Foundry since Stella likes the Cheryl Tiegs martini (raspberry vodka, triple sec, champagne, pineapple and cranberry juice) they have there. We sat down on the patio and got our drinks, Cheryl Tiegs for Stella and a McCoy's belgian wit for me. Stella was somehow hungry and decided to get the beer pretzels, I think because of the beer cheese fondue that comes with them. We really liked them when they came even though they were more like pretzel loaves and not all bendy like regular pretzels. The stout mustard that came with them was really spicy hot and the honey mustard was wonderfully sweet. I wish that we had gotten more pretzels to eat with the dipping sauces.

We settled in and did some good old fasioned Westport people watching from the patio. I think I should have gone with a Goose Island Matilda or any of the fine Belgian beers the Foundry has to choose from. I just haven't enjoyed much that I've drank from McCoy's in the past year, maybe because the last time my beer had pinky toe toenail clipping sediment. Once we finished up our drinks we decided to head over to One80 across the street.

We were able to find a nice booth to sit and perused the list of cocktails. I immediately decided upon a French martini which is my new go to cocktail because it includes 2 of my favorite things, raspberry and pineapple. Stella decided upon a mango mojito. I don't know if One80 is a scratch bar, I'm pretty sure they're not, but my French martini was pretty fabulous. Stella's mango mojito seemed to lack any mango flavor but I consider that a feature, not a bug. Stella liked it anyway but she decided to get a French martini for her second drink. I decided upon a McCoy's IPA more to get some liquid in me and I chose the IPA as my delivery device.

As we were drinking we were noticing a couple who had obviously come from the Royals game. Stella asked if people usually drink Red Bull from the can in a bar and I thought it is usually mixed in a cocktail. Well the guy WAS drinking Red Bull from the can at 11 PM and his little pixie in her blue sundress was had this look like she knew she was going to get schtuped all night. I hesitate to call the guy a douche since he had a freebie KC Royals t-shirt on not an Ed Hardy t-shirt, but I would call him a tool. I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't go into the bathroom, do a couple of rails and come out and have a real drink, it wouldn't make a dime's worth of difference in his alert level and he could really enjoy a nice drink. Drinking Red Bull is a really good indicator of a person's level of toolitude. Anyway, I felt kind of sorry for the girl that was with this guy, she's probably still sore and turned out.

One80 was a really great place aside from the music being a little loud, but I'm old and don't get the whole DJ thing. But the music was pretty good, the cocktails were great, the crowd was pretty cool (except for Red Bull guy) and the prices were pretty reasonable.

Brew Day with a Wort Hog

Stella and I have had quite the extended weekend mostly centered around painting the kitchen and dining room and kitchen cabinets. It's been a crap ton amount of work, but mostly for Stella since I can't be trusted to do any of the final coats of paint on the cabinets or do any trim work.

Anyway we spent most of Saturday just painting the kitchen and dining room. We finally finished up all the painting except for one more coat on the cabinet doors about 4. Then we got all cleaned up and headed over to Amy (The Wort Hog) and John's house for the brew party. I'm sure that if they actually thought I would come over I would not have been invited. But, every once in a while I like to do the unexpected and after a long day of painting a brew party is just what you need.

I didn't have time to get something truly interesting so I just grabbed a bottle of Two Jokers I had sitting around kind of hoping that, while it's not hard to find (anymore), most people hadn't tried it yet. As we walked up to the house a couple of people were out on the porch watching their wort (or is it mash at that point, who knows) boil. They directed us inside where Amy and John were hanging out.

It must be weird to have someone walk into your house and you have no idea who they are, but John seemed okay with it as we were walking towards him. Then I told him that I was Bull E. Vard (how embarassing). Then he actually seemed pleased, though he quickly ran to get Amy. Amy appeared and John corralled us a couple of glasses and they let me root around in their fridge looking for a beer. I thought to myself that if Owen was there he would have found the makings for a sandwich, grab them and prepare himself a sandwich declaring "F... you, I work for the Pitch" when everyone gave him a dirty look. I grabbed myself a homebrew brown ale and then we went to the beer fridge downstairs to grab Stella a beer. She chose a Tin Mill Maibock.

Amy's beer selection was really large and varied with many beers not available in Missouri or Kansas, I guess is a benefit of travelling for work. Amy told us a good story about John drinking beer from a frisbee in Portland which John didn't include in his top 2 Portland stories (the mojito party story was truly rivetting). Amy hooked me up with a glass of Three Floyds Dark Lord which I knew nothing about (if I had known how hard it is to get I would have declined a glass and gone with something else I'd never had). I also got to meet KC Hop Head who I've been incredibly rude to over the course of writing on this blog (he made an NBA all star team vs. an NBA all-time great team compared to beers as a complement to my beer roster, yet I never took the time to comment). Luckily for everyone involved, I found a way to be rude to him again at the brew party. I think we know who the real winner is, that's right, KC Hop Head.

I sampled some more of John's homebrew, an IPA and an English Mild. I enjoyed both but I would buy the IPA pretty regularly if given the opportunity. I talked with John about his 3 tap kegerator and we shared justifications for going to the Flying Saucer while staying away from all other things Power and Light (because it faces away from the Power and Light Live! district is the number one reason).

After too short of a time Stella and I had to go catch some dinner leaving the rest of them to actually enjoy themselves. I can't be sure but as we were getting in the car I could hear them say "I'm glad they're finally gone".

We went to Houlihan's and absolutely destroyed a couple of sirloins that we never would have ordered if we wouldn't have had that sirloin at the free blogger dinner we went to last fall. Our steaks were almost as good as they were that night.

We headed home to finish off the last coat of paint on the cabinet doors and change clothes yet one more time for an evening out which is to be a post of its own.

Boulevard Cheese

For those of us able to shun the government cheese, Boulevard now has 2 cheese flights for sale. I saw them at Gomer's Midtown for $19.99 each. One was labeled Boulevard Pale Ale, the other Wheat. I can only assume they are meant to be eaten with the respective beers.

The Case of the Missing Stout

It was a normal evening in the Vard mansion when the mystery began. Stella had picked up a Boulevard variety pack and loaded it into the refrigerator adding to the couple of bottles of Single Wide IPA already there. Over the next couple of days I drank the Bully Porters with hamburgers, drank a couple of Single Wides with some salsa and had a Wheat after I mowed. Stella drank the Lunar Ales and Pale Ales.

One night I simply had to go to bed because I wasn't feeling very well. I had sneezed most of the day and couldn't keep my eyes open. Stella wasn't ready for bed yet and decided to stay up to watch the Real Housewives of New Jersey.

A couple of days later Stella bought another Boulevard variety pack and loaded up the refrigerator. As she was loading it I noticed there was no Boulevard Dry Stout. I hadn't drank them, where could they be. I thought it odd that they weren't there because Stella isn't much of a stout drinker. Where could the stouts have gone?

A. Stella drank them while I was asleep
B. The mailman drank them while I was at work
C. Boulevard puts Single Wide in the variety pack instead of Dry Stout
D. One of the kids drank them

If you guessed B you must know my mailman, but you'd be incorrect. Stella or the kids didn't drink them. C is the correct answer, Dry Stout has been thrown out of the variety pack in lieu of the Single Wide IPA.

I don't know if they will switch it back in the winter months or if this is a permanent change. But I did find it interesting.

We Want Our $2

I'm trying to expand my social life to actually being out on the town past 6 p.m. In trying to achieve this goal Stella and I made our way over to the Flying Saucer to try the tap nite beer, New Holland's Black Tulip Trippel. We were able to secure one of my favorite booths by the windows overlooking the street. It's a great people watching spot.

I ordered the Black Tulip Trippel and Stella got the Fire Sale beer, a Schlafly Summer Lager. The Black Tulip was really quite great. It had a weird, but good sweetness, which the description says is like pop rocks. While that may not sound that great it was. It was a great beer to sip while watching the people head to the concert over in the Live section of the P&L.

As we were sitting there discussing LeBron dismantling Orlando (really this just involved me talking about LeBron as Stella was Ebaying on her iPod) a bunch of KCMO bike cops congregated right outside our window. Then a regular KCMO police patrol car pulled up and that policeman got out of the car to BS with the bike cops. I told Stella that I would hate to be as gray as that cop was and look as young as he did. His hair was about half gray and the other half was obviously graying yet he couldn't have been more than 40. As the cops were having a gay old time a Chevy Suburban with a Missouri Fraternal Order of Police logo on its doors pulled up and parked right in front of the valet stand (in a No Parking zone) and right at the entrance to the Live district and 6 people dressed to party piled out. They gave officer gray a friendly wave and went in to the party. The Suburban was parked there for the rest of our time at the Saucer. I guess it's better to let the populace of KC see that the rules don't apply to KC cops than spend $2 to park in the garage which is only slightly less convenient. I really enjoyed watching the KCPD flaunt the law. Good job Officer gray driving the 422 car, bicycle cops and FOP guy with license plate FOP-1, we appreciate the work you're doing for us, glad you could save yourself $2.

Anyway, after I finished my Black Tulip I ordered the Schlafly Summer Lager. When I took my first drink, I winced, it was really bad. It kind of tasted like a Miller Lite with some rusted chain link fence soaking in it. I don't think that is the taste they were shooting for.

We were quite surprised at how full the Saucer was on a Thursday night. I don't think there were more than 2 or 3 open tables by the time we left.

Berbiglia Wine Tasting

Stella and I decided to go to the big Berbiglia (not Beerbiglia) wine tasting that I read about on Fat City yesterday. It promised to have 75 wines to sample and while I didn't count them, I would say they were pretty close.

We decided to spend the $10 to get a couple of Riedel wine glasses because the thought of drinking nice wines out of a 1 oz. medicine cup made me gag just a little bit. Quite a few people were also enjoying the wine tasting meaning every table full of wine required a little bit of effort to sidle up to. It took a good minute to get each pour of wine.


As Stella and I were drinking our first or second sample of wine near the front door, Owen from Fat City walked in the door. Watching Owen walk in the door of any establishment is a little like watching the opening credits sequence of “Reservoir Dogs” or the scene in “Dazed and Confused” when Wooderson, Mitch, Don and Pink walk through the pool hall with the Dylan classic “Hurricane” blaring. Everything just kind of slows down and everyone turns to watch the Owen strut which practically screams “F you, I work for the Pitch”.

Owen and I discussed some of bloggy goings on around town, some of our posts from the past couple of weeks and discussed the ownership of Savvy. I would disappear for a minute or two to get another wine sample and we would pick up our conversation. At one point Owen went to look at the beer and brought back a bottle of Boulevard Two Jokers (which was also a wine at the sampling). Owen jokingly thought about opening it and drinking it in the store, “I don't think they would mind” was his justification.

As Stella and I proceeded to hit more tables we ended up near a beer cooler*. I had been telling Owen how I found O'Malley's beer offerings completely sub-par and basically bad mouthing O'Malley's quite a bit. Stella came up and told me to watch what I'm saying because the O'Malley's guy was in the next aisle pouring samples. I'd hate to get a beat down in the middle of a wine tasting. I suspect it would look a little like the fight at the end of “Bridget Jones Diary” but I don't know, the O'Malley's guy may be Irish which would mean the fight might look a little like Tyson-Spinks with me being Spinks of course.

*I noticed on the cooler door to the Boulevard selections a flyer that said something negative about Big Sky Moose Drool while trying to sell Boulevard products. Something to the effect of "Moose Drool, sounds tasty right? Drink Boulevard, a local beer, instead". I don't know if this sign was Berbiglia's idea or Boulevard's or even some joker who took an opportunity with a full store to post a sign. I do know that I considered it bad form to denigrate another microbrew in furtherance of another microbrew's sales. It's bush league, beat them on the merits of your beer. Moose Drool is a fine beer and shouldn't be singled out for ridicule by Boulevard or Berbiglia. I hope I don't see such a sign again.

I went over to the O'Malley's table to try their new Sunryes Ale, sticking to my rule of trying every Rye beer I come across. After drinking it, I stick to my assessment that O'Malley's beer is completely unacceptable. I had trouble drinking my ounce of the Sunryes, I can only imagine how I would get a 12 oz. bottle down.

In all, I tried about 15 wines and 1 beer, with the Michel-Schlumberger Cab and Chateau Montelana Cab (made famous by the "Bottle Shock" movie) being the star performers. We found a couple of malbecs that we liked which would be good for everyday drinking. I have a tough time recommending wines because I'm not an oenophile and don't pretend to be one. I think wine is much more personal, everyone likes different things in a wine and wines I don't like, might be great to someone else. Since this is a beer blog, I try not to enter the wine fray.

For $10 (the price of the 2 wine glasses which we got to keep) the Berbiglia wine tasting was quite nice. Stella and I had a good time with only one incident. Some lady complained to Stella that I cut in front of her (I did not), not knowing that Stella was with me. She bad mouthed me for a minute before Stella told her that I was with her which led the lady to backtrack a little. It was kind of a funny little incident because the lady was completely wrong (I think she was trying to jump ahead of me, but I never even noticed her since she was behind me). The event was a little crowded at times (not at the O'Malleys table) but well worth it. To be notified of Berbiglia events in the future you can subscribe to their email list here or for other dining events you can sign up for the Pitch's Dining newsletter here.

What Makes a Good Happy Hour

I realized that I'm wasting some of my best stuff (which isn't that great anyway) in our comments section which approximately 3% of our readers actually read. In response to the previous post about the worst happy hour special I've run across, a couple of commenters and I were laying out the reasons why that special (buy a bottle of wine get a 1/2 price appetizer) sucked. So I think we should lay out some rules for a good happy hour.

1. At least 3 hours long (4-7), this lets the people who leave work at 4 or 5 at least 2 hours of happy hour good times. Why discriminate against early risers or late risers? Be inclusive.
2. The drink special should be on single serving drinks. Happy hour is a social occasion, but people are paying their own tab. They're not sharing bottles of wine. Bottles of wine are for dates or family occasions, happy hours are neither.
3. The drink special should be heavily discounted OR very cheap. $2 Boulevard bottles, $3 microbrew draws, $4 martinis, etc. or something like $1 shots or $1 PBR cans. A special should be just that, special.
4. Make it easy to take advantage of the happy hour, people are coming and going constantly so you don't want it to be complicated. Buy X get Y for 1/2 price is annoying, just give us Y for 1/2 price. The goal is to get people to drink in your place, not get them to buy something you're not willing to discount.
5. Food specials. Give me some $2 wings or $2 pretzels. Portion size doesn't really matter. We've been working all day, we need a snack before we go home. Just make a couple of food items really cheap. Feature something that you want us to come back for at dinner if you want, just keep it cheap.
6. Have plenty of servers on hand. We're not there to sit around and wait, we're there to get a drink quickly and socialize with coworkers or friends. The longer time commitment I have to make to go to your happy hour, the less likely I am to go. Quick service is key.
7. Display your happy hour specials on the sidewalk or on your front door. Definitely feature it on your website. Your specials drive new business, let us know easily and with no commitment from me. I don't want to walk in your place and feel obligated to buy something without knowing what kind of special you have.

That's all I can come up with for now. Let me know in comments anything I may have missed.

If you didn't read the comments from the previous post, the worst happy hour was found at Savvy Coffee and Wine Bar in the Power and Light. I don't really want to say anything bad about the place because I haven't been there. But their happy hour special breaks rules 1-5. They nailed rule #7 because I saw it displayed on a sandwich board in front when I walked by at lunch time.[UPDATE: THIS HAS BEEN CORRECTED, SAVVY CHANGED THEIR HAPPY HOUR] I would like for them to succeed because it seems like a nice place. They're just feeling their way around still so go in and let them know they're breaking the KC Beer Blog's rules for happy hours.