World Gone Mad - More Beer Ice Cream

I was never interested in the Boulevard Elbow ice cream collaborations. Beer ice cream just doesn't sound that great to me, especially when you're already at Glace and have great ice cream flavors available to you already. The beer ones would be just about last on my list of flavors to try.

Well the fine folks at Waldo Pizza must have felt the same way about Elbow's Boulevard ice creams but instead of chucking the idea of beer ice cream altogether, they took it to a logical place and are now churning O'Fallon Wheach ice cream. Okay, they call it O'Fallon Peach Wheat ice cream but it's made from Wheach. I love peach ice cream and I don't see why a little beer flavor wouldn't be a welcome addition. For those who still don't want a beer ice cream they are also churning their own tomato basil, maple bacon, green tea sake and vegan cookies and cream ice creams.

Even if you aren't that interested in Wheach or other ice creams, the Waldo Tap Room now has Founder's Nemesis for $4.95/12 oz. goblet. I'm not that big a fan of barleywines, but I've heard good things about Nemesis. I hope they still have some after the Tour de BBQ on Saturday because I'm going to drop by for some ice cream and barleywine.

Rumble Gateway

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Boulevard Wheat, Fat Tire, Anchor Steam, Dixie Blackened Voodoo can all be considered gateway beers or beers that bring people into the craft beer world. These are all important beers because they bring a new audience to the world of drinking good tasting beer. Many people stop at their gateway beer and never stray too far. After all we are used to buying the same brands every time we need them and I'm not much different, I only buy Tide, Coca-Cola, Dawn, Q-Tips, Trojan, etc. but I rarely buy the same type of beer. It's very easy for a novice beer drinker to get stuck buying the same beer over and over again. There's nothing wrong with that, but it does leave them with a fairly limited understanding of what beer can be.

I bought a six pack of Great Divide's newest six pack beer, Rumble, an oak aged IPA, last week. And I know I declared a month or so ago that I was done with oak or barrel aged beers, but I really like Rumble. Mostly because Rumble barely has any of that oaky taste that is so prevalent in barrel aged beers. It has just a hint of oak and if tasting it blind I don't know if I would be able to pick it out. But, Rumble has a much more complex taste than Titan IPA (one of my favorite beers). Where Titan is full of grapefruit and hop flavor, you can taste some malt sweetness with the citrus in Rumble and really makes for a richer, full flavored beer. While I can't say I'd rather have Rumble than Titan, I can say I'd rather have Rumble than the Great Divide 16th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA or Odell Saboteur or any of the other oak aged behemoths I've tried.

This leads me to believe that Great Divide Rumble is a secondary gateway beer, a gateway to the big barrel aged beers. Most people never buy the big bottles or bombers in liquor stores, many of which are the barrel aged beers. There just hasn't been a good gateway to the big beers. You had to be a bit of a gambler, constantly trying new things, to even get to the bombers section of the liquor store. Most people who read this blog have gotten there, but many never do. Rumble is a great gateway to the bigger flavors present in many of the oak aged beers. And that may be my problem with barrel aging, I was never eased into it, instead just thrown to the wolves with the huge bourbon flavor of Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad or Bourbon County Stout. Maybe if I'd have eased into it with some Rumble I'd be all in on trying to find some Founders Kentucky Bourbon Stout.

Free Beer Wednesday

Budweiser, our land's biggest beer, is giving away free 6-12 oz. samples starting Wednesday. Because of our land's hundreds of different liquor laws, details are sketchy as to where you can actually get these free samples. My guess is, not in Kansas. You may have some "luck" in Missouri.

I propose, instead of going on a wild Bud chase, you go out to a bar and buy the cheapest craft beer draft they have. You'll be out $2-$3, but you'll be supporting a product that can use your support much more than Budweiser, part of an international behemoth of a company, does. Plus, you'll enjoy your beer much more. Go to McCoy's or 75th Street Brewery and try one of their home brewed beers. If you don't want to go to a bar, stop by your local liquor store and pick up a sixer of Boulevard Pilsner, Dundee Honey Brown, Schlafly No. 15 or Shiner Oktoberfest. All 3 of those beers are superior to Budweiser and only $1-$2 more expensive for a sixer.

A free beer is no reason to turn your back on a better quality product. If somebody wants to give you a Bud for free, go ahead and drink it, but then go ahead and order a craft beer.

Raspberry Glee

I make no secret that I love the show "Glee". I'm not embarrassed by that. It's no "Dawson's Creek" on the teen drama front, but not much is. "Glee" is one of the few shows we watch the night it's on in the Vard Mansion. That's high praise. What embarrasses me about "Glee" is when I fast forward through the last set of commercials and I see we've reached the 50 minute mark of the show I think to myself, I sure hope they sing another song before it ends. Oh, it's also a little embarrassing that I identify most with Tina Cohen-Chang on the show.

Like "Glee" I'm not embarrassed by the fact that I like fruit beers, especially raspberry beers. I love raspberry beers as I'm sure regular readers know. What does embarrass me about my raspberry beer love is the fact that I let out a noticeable happy squeal when I see a new one at the liquor store. That squeal happened at Tipsy's yesterday when I saw the Crown Valley Raspberry Wheat beer.

Needless to say I bought the sixer of Crown Valley Raspberry Wheat, I played the squeal of delight off on the other sixer I purchased, Great Divide Rumble (I's got some stuff to say about it too, check back later). As I was being rung up some salesman from a beer distributor (he was an icky Broncos fan) noted that the Raspberry Wheat was Crown Valley's best beer. At the time, I thought maybe this was damning with faint praise. I've had the Crown Valley Pale Ale before and while it's not bad by any means, it's noticeably worse than Boulevard Pale Ale and I've never felt the need to pick up another sixer of it.

It was a long afternoon wait to crack the Raspberry Wheat open. 6 hours of anticipation only made it go down a little better. The raspberry wasn't overdone like the Schlafly Raspberry Hefeweizen, it was rather faint. This would have been fine with me if the wheat brought any kind of flavor, but it didn't. It's an easy drinking beer but doesn't really have a tremendous amount of flavor. That being said, I did enjoy it but mostly because it did have a raspberry flavor that wasn't too tart nor too sweet. If I were going to drink a six pack of something fruity, this would be what I would choose. I'm not embarrassed to say I'll buy more and I'm happy that I don't have to do a girly squeal the next time I see it.

Glacé Boulevard Seeyoulator Doppelbock Ice Cream

First things first, unlike last time I actually got my hands on a pint of Glacé's Boulevard ice cream. I'd heard that one of the ever elusive collaboration flavors were finally in stock this afternoon and I was hoping there'd be some left so I could take a little home. Much to my surprise it wasn't Bob's 47 or Sixth Glass they had in the cooler, but the new Seeyoulator Doppelbock flavor. Boulevard posted pictures of Steven Pauwels and Christopher Elbow brewing/mixing a batch of Seeyoulator ice cream to their Facebook on Monday. The note on the pictures says that the flavor would be available that afternoon (Monday). Since I wasn't within shouting distance of Glacé I figured there was no way I'd be able to get there in time to snag so much as a tasting spoon full of this ice cream. But it turns out Gambrinus was on my side and I now have about half a container of Seeyoulator ice cream chilling in the freezer.

So how does beer ice cream taste? Well, a lot like regular ice cream as you might imagine... It's cold, creamy and sweet. There's no big in your face flavor telling you there's a Doppelbock in here but there isn't a lot in the Seeyoulator telling you it's a Doppelbock either... Anyways, the Seeyoulator ice cream is malty, has a honey sweetness and a little caramel flavor. It leaves a little chalky coating on your tongue, which sounds a lot worse than it really is... it's actually quite nice. The flavor reminds me of the pralines and French vanilla flavor you can get from the grocery store, just maltier.

If you're a fan of Glacé bigger flavors and are looking for another off-the-wall ice cream, the Seeyoulator might be too tame for you. It's a great ice cream, sweet and malty, but it isn't a Thai Curry Peanut flavor... I haven't had the other Boulevard flavors, but I'm hopeful someone will screw up and actually make enough Sixth Glass ice cream to meet demand and I can finally try some.

Speaking of interesting flavors, Murray's in Westport has a Maple Bacon Walnut ice cream. Just saying...

Badass Beer

I watched the Bourne Trilogy over the course of this week. Jason Bourne is a special kind of amazing, I just don't think he can be killed. It got me to thinking who the most badass, hard to kill movie or TV characters were. By badass, I don't mean cool, I just mean killers who can kill in any number of ways, guns, hand to hand combat, pipes laying around, knives, whatever. Then, because this is a beer blog, I've decided to pair the badass character with the most badass high alcohol beers available in town that I actually enjoy and have had.

Just a note for clarity, I'm only including characters in movies that I like and will gladly watch again. In doing a little bit of searching around to make sure I didn't forget anyone, I noticed that Jason Statham's character in "Crank" may very well be a badass, but I've never seen "Crank" so he's not included. Darth Vader and Han Solo are also excluded because I've only seen "Star Wars" and don't really care to see any of the other movies. On the same wavelength, I've never had Founder's Kentucky or Canadian Breakfast Stout so they can't be included in the beer list. Before you jump all over me for excluding it, I don't particularly enjoy Goose Island Bourbon County Stout so if you must let's just compare Bourbon County to Han Solo.

Jason Bourne - Avery Maharaja
Jason Bourne is the inspiration for this list and I think the most badass unkillable character in all of film history. He's very versatile, he can kill in any way imaginable, he's a master of escape and he's an extremely likable character. The versatility in Bourne is what makes me thinks of Avery Maharaja. The Maharaja is an equal opportunity badass beer. It goes great with a meal, before a meal or in no relation to a meal. It's great when it's hot out, when it's cool out or if you've been inside all day. The Maharaja has no weaknesses and is in the conversation if I had to choose only one beer to drink for the rest of my life.

Jack Bauer - Avery The Beast Grand Cru
Jack Bauer is 5 foot nothing, 100 and nothing, yet still can kill anyone in a fist fight, gun fight or holding your pee fight. The Beast is aptly named. It comes in as small a package as Jack Bauer in 12 oz. bottles, but it packs a bigger punch than all the other badass beers at 16.3% ABV and will knock you out.

John Rambo - B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout

Rambo entered a peaceful town in Washington to see an old war friend and left that town after seriously injuring a good portion of their police force. They should have paid attention to his war credentials. That's the way you feel drinking Boris, it's called The Crusher, it's an imperial stout. You should know better than drink this bad boy all by yourself, yet you do because it's just so good. For shame, it will injure you.

Tom Stall - Lagunitas Hop Stoopid

In an underappreciated movie, Tom Stall tries to live a new life leaving behind his gangster past. Trouble is, he's a badass and trouble always finds a badass. In this case, his old buddies in the mob find him and even though he tries to convince them he isn't who they think he is. But, there's no hiding your skills in self defense and he ends up killing them. Hop Stoopid is like Stall, it tries to convince you it's not an alcohol bomb because it's so cheap and unassuming. But, like Stall, it will put you down before you beat it. The 8% ABV comes with a wonderful hop flavor but is hidden by a slight fruit sweetness that's like Stall's new life with his wife.

Dalton - Bell's Hopslam
Dalton is one of my favorite characters ever. He gets hired to tame a bar in small town Missouri and inexplicably rents a house right across the lake from the town bad guy. Dalton wasn't looking for trouble, but, like Tom Stall, when you're a badass trouble finds you. When all was said and done, Bad Guy 1, Dalton 25 including a guy with the greatest line in the history of movies, "I used to [slang word for making love] guys like you in prison". Hopslam is like Dalton because it has one job, bring the hops. Like Dalton, it does it with force, but Hopslam "takes it outside" by somehow making a balanced, hop laden brew that brings the power at 10% ABV.

Bryan Mills - Boulevard Sixth Glass

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you." I've felt like the human trafficker at the other end of the line when I popped the cork on a Sixth Glass planning to drink a bottle by myself. And like Bryan Mills, Sixth Glass has always won.


John McClane - Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout
Creme Brulee Stout sure sounds like it's going to be a gentle drink, maybe be a little sweet. And it is all of that, but if you mess around with it too long, it's going to beat you. The 9.2% ABV gets ahold of you without you knowing it. You're as helpless as Hans Gruber is when John Mclane first gets his hands on a machine gun. Game over. John McClane is so likable from his first moment on screen, it's almost shocking at how effective of a killer he is.

El Mariachi - Bell's Expedition Stout

El Mariachi was on an expedition, an expedition of revenge, an expedition of killing, an expedition of blood. He masked his intentions with his guitar case, but once that case was opened, odds are you were going to die. Bell's Expedition masks its intentions by being in a six pack where you're not expecting a killer. But, killer is exactly what the Expedition is. And it tastes so good you could picture the Expedition sleeping with Salma Hayek.

Johnathan Cabot - Weston  Hot Pepper Ale
From the IMDB page for Gymkata:

Johnathan Cabot is a champion gymnast. In the tiny, yet savage, country of Parmistan, there is a perfect spot for a "star wars" site. For the US to get this site, they must compete in the brutal "Game". The government calls on Cabot, the son of a former operative, to win the game. Cabot must combine his gymnastics skills of the west with fighting secrets of the east and form GYMKATA!

If you haven't seen it, there's a scene where a fight takes place in a little village that just happened to have a pommel horse right in the middle of the street. The hot peppers in the Weston brew are a lot like that pommel horse, they simply don't belong.

Snake Plissken - Great Divide Yeti

Snake is a monster, but a redeemable monster. He's a former war hero, but also a condemned criminal. He's misunderstood. The Yeti is misunderstood, it's seen as a monster, but it's really not, it's a smooth sipping imperial stout that's just about as good as you can get. But, like Snake, the Yeti will get you with its 9.5% ABV.

Anton Chigurh - Old Rasputin

Chigurh has the most badass weapon of them all. You see him and he wants you dead, you will be dead. His haircut is so bad it's liable to kill you. Old Raspy has bad hair too and he has an awesome weapon of death, the best Russian imperial stout money can buy.

It seems I have 11 when I meant to have 10. One of these doesn't belong. I guess it's up to you to figure it out.

Firestone Walker coming to town

Our pal over at StL Hops is reporting that Firestone Walker Brewery is soon to be available in St. Louis. Leave it to someone from St. Louis to not care whether it will be available statewide in Missouri. It will. Firestone Walker will also be available in Kansas (though, to be fair to StL Hops, I'm not sure of distribution in Hays, Liberal or Garden City). We still have to wait a couple of months until November, but we'll have the following beers available for Thanksgiving weekend.

• Nectar IPA (12oz year-round, 2010 GABF Silver Medal Winner)
• Red Nectar (12oz year-round, 2010 GABF Gold Medal Winner)
• Nectar Hemp Ale (12oz year-round)
• Double Jack (22oz year-round)
• Walker’s Reserve (22oz year-round)
• Abacus (seasonal)
• Parabola (seasonal)
• Anniversary 14 (seasonal)

A couple of medal winners from this past weekends Great American Beer Festival. Firestone Walker is also the brewer of Trader Joe's house brands of beer which should arrive at Ward Parkway Center next summer. The KC Beer Blog will be celebrating Firestone Walker's arrival with poutine.

Showdown - Great Divide v. Schlafly

Our Setup at McCoy's

After a record 94 emails, frantic searches across town for beers and last minute cancellations, the Gents of KC got back together again for another showdown. We had 3 newcomers this time, OzBrau, McCoy and the Twitter famous Rod_Leviathan (nearly all of his body parts and one of his diseases, herpes, have their own Twitter accounts). The rest of the crew was JJSKCK, Yeti, Chimpotle, Paul A. Ner, Nate, Duff and myself. Our count this time was 10. Our venue changed this time as we went a little classier and McCoy was able to secure the old cigar room in between The Foundry and McCoy's.

Yeti and I walked into the room first and we had 5 tables, 12 glasses of ice water, a pitcher of water and an empty pitcher on each table and 2 boxes of tasting glasses. Yet we somehow needed more so we needled our waitress, the Mayor of McCoy's, Amelia, for a bucket filled with ice, some extra beers including the Schlafly India Brown on cask over at The Foundry. She was so compliant we wanted to see how far she would go before she'd say no, but we decided to be nice and not ask for a trough so we could relieve ourselves in the room and not have to trek through McCoys.

We filled up one of the tables with all of the beer that was brought, approximately 10 6 packs and 8 bombers and pushed 3 of the other tables together. At one point while we were sitting waiting for our food a preppy, corporate-y type guy walked through the room to get to The Foundry, he turned his head, looked at all the beer, looked at all of us sitting there and gave us the most delicious, hilarious, priceless, wtf scowl. A scowl that would be appropriate if Chimpotle had just asked him if he would like a Hot Carl. It was like he was actually angry with us and I guarantee that if he wasn't already angry with us he was after we started laughing uproariously before he made it into The Foundry. Anyway, with The Scowl out of the way and dinners consumed (Paul A. Ner got chicken fingers for dinner, I wanted him to eat them in a high chair) we got the showdown underway.

The Scores
Schlafly Kolsch 5 - Great Divide Samurai 5
Schlafly No. 15 6 - Great Divide Dunkelweiss 4
Schlafly Scotch Ale 7 - Great Divide Claymore Scotch Ale 3
Schlafly American Pale Ale 8 - Great Divide Denver Pale Ale 2

Down goes Great Divide, down goes Great Divide. The upset was secured, Schlafly won. Great Divide didn't pull out one win. There were no losers here though as it was quite difficult to pick a winner on nearly every matchup. This tasting was different than all the others we've done because we didn't know which beer was which in each matchup. With the exception of No. 15, I don't drink any of these on a regular basis. And I couldn't pick No. 15 out, Dunkelweiss was very similar to No. 15 and might serve as a good replacement when No. 15 leaves this earth in a couple of months. The only time I knew what something was was in the Scotch Ale matchup and the Claymore doesn't taste much like a Scotch Ale but it does taste like a Great Divide beer. I don't know how to describe that flavor but it was obvious to me I was drinking something from Great Divide when I was drinking Claymore.

Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti 8 v. Schlafly Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout 2

This one was quite close too. I think each of us deliberated quite a bit on this one, but Yeti won pretty big in the end. It was the chocolate. If the Schlafly had chocolate it probably would have been closer. This win gives Great Divide of whiff of respectability in the final tally 3-2-1. This was an upset on the level of Royals over Cardinals in 85 or Dodgers over A's in 89. None of us saw this coming and we were quite shocked.

I drank this dump pitcher

The shock made the post game festivities much more raucous. We bothered Amelia for another round of food mostly snacks and desserts. JJSKCK tried to anger Tony Muser by ordering cookies and milk, if he wasn't 7 feet tall I would have made the high chair joke with him too. I got some pretzels and I'm pretty sure Duff got some chicken fingers but he said it softly and hid his food from me when it got there. I had quite a challenge in front of me, 2 piping hot pretzels, a full bladder, fisting Martina Navratilova jokes and tales of the dirty plunger in the McCoys bathroom. The challenge was to eat the 2 pretzels while they were still hot which meant I couldn't go to the bathroom, but the laughter made me really have to go. I somehow got the pretzels eaten without going to the bathroom.

Gents Collaboration #1

We then cracked open the special beers, or the part of the evening I prefer to call "the haze". My first special beer was rod_leviathan, Paul A. Ner and my dump pitcher (we washed out our glasses after each round and dumped them in the dump pitcher). I think you could bottle it and call it Keystone Light Dunkel and sell it by the truckload. Next up was the Surly Bitter Brewer which was not good at all. Finally something from Surly that I hated. Then we tried some of Nate's homebrew barleywine one with port and one without. Both were astoundingly wonderful. I liked the port one a little better but the regular one is the best barleywine I've ever had (I don't like barleywines so I haven't had a bunch of them) and the port one is better than that. Nate's little home operation might be my favorite brewery in town. Rod_leviathan brought along some AleSmith Speedway Stout but I don't remember anything about it.

Collaboration #2

Then we were out of special beers, something that hasn't happened before. But we weren't ready to stop drinking and we still had a table full of our matchup beers. So we did what any group of 7 drunk idiots would do (JJSKCK, Nate and OzBrau were gone by then) we poured them into an empty pitcher and drank it. The first Gents collaboration was a bit overstirred and was pretty flat. But, it didn't taste bad at all.  Gents Collaboration #1 was a resounding success and called for a sequel that wasn't stirred quite as much. Gents Collaboration #2 was born. It had the extra ingredient of a full 1/4 cup of Speedway Stout to bring it over the top. Again Collab. 2 was a bit flat but was better than our first collaboration.

After that we split up the remaining beers to take home, paid our tabs and deserted the room we had reserved til 9 at about 11. McCoy's really made us feel like kings even though our agreed upon tagline is "obesity and sorrow". Thanks to McCoy's and Amelia for putting up with all of our odd requests and for giving us great service and a great room.

Obesity and Sorrow

Tour de BBQ

I've written it before, but there is nothing better after physical labor than barbecue and beer. The Tour de BBQ combines these 3 elements and promises to be a great time.

The Tour de BBQ is a nice bike ride (15, 30 or 60 miles) with pit stops at some of the greatest barbecue restaurants in town; Oklahoma Joe's, Fiorella's Jack Stack, Smokestack, Hayward's, Gates and Spin! Pizza (I know, not barbecue, but they will have a Tour de BBQ pizza for the event). This will be a bit of a ride obviously, going from the Power and Light District south all the way to Corporate Woods and back (routes have not been finalized), but with pit stops along the way, filling up on 'cue, even novice riders should be able to make it (at least the 15 mile ride). For the effort, you get barbecue at all the restaurants, a t-shirt, Boulevard and a big concert (the "national" act will be announced in a week or so UPDATE: The band is Smash Mouth) in the Power and Light Living Room.

Also, the whole thing benefits the Lance Armstrong Foundation and The University of Kansas Cancer Center. Registration is $40 for the 15 mile ride, $45 for the 30 and $55 for the 60. I don't have enough confidence that I can ride 60 miles in one day, so I'll be doing the 30 mile ride. The ride happens on LiveStrong Day, October 2 with a staggered start at 7:30 AM. This sounds like a great time to me, but I like bike riding. If you don't and you still want to take part they do need volunteers and do take donations. If you'd like to ride with me (at my pace) let me know in comments or email me.

Scenes from Flying Saucer Fall Fest

"What time is it?"
"12:30"
"Not many people over there yet"
"Let's grab lunch"
"There's Paul A. Ner"
"What up dick?"
"Whatcha drinkin?"
"Avery 17"
"How is it?"
"good"
"Can we get tasters of the Mikkeler It's Alive?"
"Wow, that's good, I'll have a full one and a slice of goat cheese pizza"
"I expected a bigger crowd"
"It's still early"
"This pizza's good"
"Shouldn't have started the day with such a big beer but it was so Belgiany funky with some honey sweet and citrus I couldn't not have it"
"Let's head over"
"What are you starting with?"
"Avery Kaiser, you?"
"Sofie"
"How's the Kaiser?
"A bit of a disappointment, Sofie?"
"I really like it with cheese, it's not the same without cheese"
"I'm getting one anyway"
...
"You Briggs?"
"Yes, and you are?"
"Bull E. Vard"
"Hey, nice to finally meet you. Nice shirt (I was wearing a Schlafly shirt and Briggs is the Schlafly guy in KC)"
"It was my only clean beer shirt"
"Because you don't ever wear it?"
"No, just because I hadn't worn it yet"
"Paul A. Ner is across the street"
"I know, we had lunch with him"
"Whatcha drinkin?"
"Sofie"
"I really like that"
"I like how it sits on the tongue and sparkles"
"It's like champagne in that way, have you had the Schlafly yet, we only have one keg?"
"Not yet, working my way up"
"Bad news for you, No. 15 is going away, probably end of December"
"That's heartbreaking, that's one I try to sell people on all the time"
"It's popular in KC, but KC is such a small percentage of sales, we couldn't keep it"
"That's a great beer, sad to see it go"
"We're going with 2 seasonals all the time, so plenty of new stuff will be coming out all the time"
"That's one of those things I like about Schlafly, they do so much each year"
"No one does more, you going to GABF?"
"No"
"You coming to Hop in the City in St. Louis?"
"No"
"Well it's next weekend too and we have everything Schlafly produced in the past year, it's all Schlafly, but it's a lot of stuff"
"That sound like a good time"
"You should hit up McCoy's on Monday, we're tapping a cask of [Schlafly] India Brown Ale, it won't last too long. Uh-oh, here come trouble"
"Oh no, it's the hockey jersey, I'm going to get another beer"
...

Labels Approved for Boulevard Little Smokies

Saint Louis' Wine and Cheese Place has confirmed that Boulevard has gotten approval for their 12oz Smokestack labels. It looks like the labels will be almost exactly the same, just smaller and with "12 FLUID OUNCES" in the lower left.

You may remember earlier this summer we heard from Steven Pauwels that Boulevard is looking to release 4-packs of 12oz Smokestack beers this November. The image I lifted from the Wine and Cheese Place blog is of the Double-Wide IPA. I could be wrong but I remember hearing that Sixth Glass, Tank 7 and Dark Truth (?) were the other Smokestacks making it into the custom Boulevard branded 12oz bottles (similar to New Belgium's bottles).

We've taken to calling the 12oz Smokestack beers Little Smokies, I'm hoping the name sticks. I'm also hoping Dark Truth is indeed one of the beers chosen because it'll mean one of two things. Either Dark Truth is going to be a year round Smokestack, or one of the Little Smokey spots is reserved for a seasonal Smokestack beer.

I haven't heard anything about the release date changing so I'd still expect these to hit shelves sometime in November. If I had to guess at a price point I'd have to say $12.99 to $14.99 since they're essentially twice as much beer as a 750 Smokestack, but with more packaging... That's all speculation on my part, so I guess we'll have to wait until November to find out.

The BGBM Meter

A special congratulations are in order for McCoy's Public House for their perfect score on the Beer Geek Buzzword Meter. In case you haven't heard of it, the Beer Geek Buzzword Meter (the BGBM) measures just how much a beer geek's adrenaline is increased at the mere mention of a beer's name. A higher score is attained by stringing together words that may seem like nonsense to non beer geeks but have very specific meaning to beer geeks. The equation is (R)more rare the word (ingredient or method) * (D)deliciousness of the word when applied / (i)instances of the word used in beers * (E)exoticness of the ingredient or method to the power of (u)usage of the word in everyday normal people's language or the most nonsensical use of an everyday word. 

RD/i * E^u

The International Board of BGBM Values (YMTND, the acronym is Belgian) meets 4 times a year to determine the value of each beer buzzword to keep the BGBM as relevant and accurate as possible. The previous title holder was Founder's Canadian Breakfast Stout with a total score of 1745, impressive indeed when you take into account most beers fail to score anything more than 850.

McCoy's has really delivered a blow to Founder's Canadian Breakfast Stout with their new beer, Sorachi Ace Randall Hopped Pale. The Sorachi Ace Randall Hopped Pale scores a perfect 1868 on the BGBM. Sorachi Ace (a new Japanese originated breed of hop) is the highest ranked word on the BGBM scale this quarter. Randall Hopped (a method of hopping beer developed by Dogfish Head where hops are continuously during the boiling process) was briefly the highest ranked word on the BGBM for 2 quarters in 2006 and is now third (barrel aged is second in case you were wondering). The combination of these 2 ingredients/methods gives it an i of 1 and the use of the word Randall makes u = 5 the highest value available for u. Hans Bobek of the YMTND, when informed of the name McCoy's chose immediately declared the name "Viagra for beer geeks".

The Sorachi Ace Randall Hopped Pale is now available at McCoy's Public House in Westport. For more info on the record setting beer check out the McCoy's blog here.

Fall Fest Beer List

The long awaited beer list for the Flying Saucer Fall Fest was released today. I'm not sure what I expected, but I'm a little underwhelmed. I guess I expected the whole thing to be like the You're Not Worthy tent. But, then, I do view myself as worthy, so I guess that's my fault.

Local Tent: Boulevard Bob's 47, Schlafly Dry Hopped APA, Tallgrass Kold, Free State Ad Astra

East of Eden: Bell's Oarsman, Founders Reds Rye, Southern Tier rotators (Iniquity, Krampus, Pumpking and more), Goose Island Sophie

West of Eden: Lagunitas A Lil Sumpin Sumpin, New Belgium Tripel, North Coast Scrimshaw Pilsner, Breckenridge Flying Saucer 15th Anniversary Ale

Captain Keith's Picks: Schlafly Pumpkin, Big Sky Double IPA, Tallgrass Oasis, Ska Modus Hoperandi

You're Not Worthy: Avery Kaiser 2009, Boulevard Dark Truth, Schlafly Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout, Sierra Nevada Fritz & Ken's Ale

I guess I will spend my time East of Eden trying to figure out a way to get lettuce east by train and then trying to convince the fellas that I am indeed worthy in the You're Not Worthy tent. I'll venture by the West of Eden tent around 4:20 to pick up a Lil Sumpin Sumpin and give the Flying Saucer 15th Anniversary Ale a shot. Then I'll probably fill up on Ad Astra until it's time to go home. That's my initial plan at least. Plans change.

Put the Sunshine into Moonshine

Did you know it's illegal to distill liquor in your home? Did you know if you did distill liquor in your home you could be a resident of jail for up to 5 years? I must admit that I did not, I've never given it any thought. The video below is a must watch on the subject.

It's been over 30 years since Jimmy Carter brought homebrewing into the realm of legal activities. Since then the United States went from a moribund beer culture into the most creative, diverse and greatest beer producer in the world. Imagine 30 years from now, if Obama somehow legalized home distilling, what kind of whiskeys, vodkas and rums you could go to a store and buy.

It amazes me that home distilling is illegal. As someone says in the video, the obligation on us isn't to find a reason for "moonshine" to be legal, it's up to the government to give us the reasons it's illegal. I can't think of a single reason moonshine should be illegal. I don't think anybody's going blind from 'shine but even if they were it would be such a small number that it wouldn't make sense to make the entire enterprise illegal. Think about how many people get food poisoning from undercooked meat each year. You wouldn't think about making cooking meat at home illegal.

This whole thing is just silly. Legalize it, nothing will happen other than people might enjoy some wonderful new liquor concoctions.

KC Irish Fest

The time is upon us again, KC Irish Fest. This is many people's favorite festival of the year and a must attend at least once in your time in KC. I say that, but I've never been and I'm not going again. My only reason is that they insist on calling KC "cowtown". KC is not "cowtown". Cowtown is a Wichita tourist attraction (like Old Shawnee that we used to get dragged to every year for school field trips). It always annoys me when KC people call KC Cowtown. I prefer the Weston Irish Fest for my Irishing.

But, for those of you desperately seeking Amber, the Irish Fest is the only place in KC you'll be able to get it on tap. So if I absolutely positively had to get some Boulevard Amber I would venture down to Crown Center (buy your tickets in advance at Hy-Vee for $10) and get some. If you don't want to be near that many Irish folks you can drive up to German, Polish and Czech dominated Omaha and find Amber on tap. Those are your choices for Amber on tap this weekend.

Tumbler, the Tim McGraw of Beers

I have a theory that no one hates Tim McGraw. You might not like his music but I just can't imagine that you could dislike him. I just don't think there's a nit to pick on the guy. He's wildly successful, undeniably talented, has a great looking wife, I can't think of any bad press I've ever read about him, he's in good movies. The only bad thing about him is that he's bald and I think that only serves to endear people to him. Seriously, have you ever had a bad thought about Tim McGraw? He even made a character as creepy and mean as Billingsley's dad in the "Friday Night Lights" movie kinda likable let alone what he did with Sean Tuohy in "The Blind Side". He's the kind of person people would love to hate, I just don't think anyone could find it in their heart to hate him. I can think of only 2 other people in this class, Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear. That's it. Everyone else has their detractors for right or wrong.

Tonight, I had my first bottle of Sierra Nevada Tumbler. It's a good beer. It's not my favorite beer. It's not the most technically perfect beer. But, there's nothing wrong with it and much to like. I think it might be the Tim McGraw of beers. There's nothing bad anybody could say about Tumbler. I think it's very similar to a Newcastle Brown but with a little hoppier finish. In the hands of a beer novice, Tumbler would be a great beer with a lot of malty taste with maybe a little bit too much hop bitterness at the end. In the hands of the geekiest of beer geeks, Tumbler would be a nice session beer but not that complex. But, both ends of the spectrum will drink the hell out of Tumbler if given the chance.

To somehow skirt the divide between novice and geek is difficult in both the celebrity world and beer world is a difficult task. You have to somehow be uncontroversial, yet offer substance. You can't play down to your audience but you can't go all arty on them either. Sierra Nevada has satisfied both bases nearly perfectly with Tumbler.