Ska Euphoria

Pale ales have gotten a little boring for me. They're kind of like a beer geek's Amber. But, in pale ale's case, I have 3 that I really enjoy and are easy to get, Sierra Nevada, Boulevard and Lagunitas. I could really go the rest of my life and never have another pale ale other than those 3. I won't, but I could.

This is why I found it curious when my beery people starting filling up my Twitter feed with talk of Ska Euphoria and how wonderful it was. I really like Ska Modus Hoperandi, their IPA, but don't really care for their other beers. After reading for 2 days that Euphoria was really good I picked up a sixer when I saw it. After the kids went to bed, I popped one open, poured it into a glass and prepared myself for Euphoria. After all, with a name like Euphoria you have to be good. I was underwhelmed.

All the ingredients were there, a nice malty sweetness, some hop bitterness, a slight citrus flavor and a nice hoppy aftertaste. But, part of that aftertaste is a really bitter little pill to swallow bringing the whole experience down in a ball of flames. What's worse, that flavor is present in Modus Hoperandi it's just well hidden by the extra hops of the IPA. But, once you've had that taste in Euphoria, you can't go back to Modus Hoperandi. So, not only did I not really like Euphoria, it ruined Modus Hoperandi for me (for at least a couple of months).

Like I said, pale ale is a tough category with clearly superior beers. It's just not interesting enough to have a mediocre example like Euphoria. I don't understand why they would make a pale ale as a winter seasonal, but they can do what they want. I just wish it was better.

Boulevard Elbow Chocolate Ale

Boulevard announced today that they've just brewed up a batch of beer in collaboration with Christopher Elbow. Their tweet was as fully detailed as 140 characters could be, which is to say... not at all. Not that you should expect a whole lot of information from their official Twitter account, it seems like a poor public relations intern is forced at gunpoint to write something for it every few days. As vague as it is, it's still an announcement that Boulevard is brewing a chocolate beer, which is pretty cool.

The KC Star Economy Blog has a little more detail regarding the beer, saying it'll be a "Chocolate Ale" and not a stout or porter. I'd heard a little while back that the brewers thought there were already enough chocolate stouts and porters on the market so they wanted to do something different. No one, as of yet, has commented officially as to what the base style of this Chocolate Ale will be. If I had to guess I'd say it might be a bock, quad or dubbel. Boulevard has production quad and bock recipes they could tweak a little to bring up the alcohol and just add a little chocolate. Elbow has already used the Sixth Glass in his ice cream at Glacé so that might be the safest bet. We know Boulevard has had a dubbel in the works for quite some time and it's a style that is dark enough and rich enough for a nice chocolaty Valentine's Day treat. Then again it could be a chocolate Unfiltered Wheat...

The only concrete info we have about the Chocolate Ale right now is that no Elbow chocolate was harmed in the production of this beer, he was only along for flavor consulting, and that the Chocolate Ale will be out in time for Valentine's this coming February. It'll be a limited release Smokestack beer so be prepared to shell out $11.99 when, and if, you can find it.

Nutcracker Day

With a name like Nutcracker

I didn't think I'd be a backer

Yet, I love thee so

I get pretty low

When you're no longer around

Our time together is so short

I never get bored

With your wonderful taste

that is caramel based

I drink with too much haste.

Ooh, Nutcracker I do love you

And you love me too

You treat me right

We never fight

Even when there's too many of you in a night.

That's right, it's Nutcracker day. Boulevard Nutcracker is hitting shelves today, I got mine from Tipsy's, but you should be able to find it anywhere in town by the end of the week. If you want to exclaim your excitement for getting some, leave where you got it in comments.

There has been some speculation that Nutcracker changed the hops based on a quickly corrected error on Fat City. But, there has been no change. Nutcracker was, is always will (unless they change it) made from Chinook hops and is simply delightful.

Fall Classic

The stage is set, runners on 1st and 2nd, bottom of the ninth, 2 outs, the team up to the plate is down 1 run, the team's biggest power hitter is up facing the experienced closer on the other side. The game is on the line, the season is on the line, a championship will be won based on this at bat. Neither the closer nor the power hitter is you, but you feel every bit of tension, your head is thinking of every possibility, what if he throws the curve, can he slide it through the abandoned half of the infield (power hitter is a dead pull hitter so the shift is on). The count goes to 3-2. The next pitch decides things. It's too much pressure, all the hours you've spent watching this team, looking at the box scores, checking the scores on your phone, second guessing your manager, telling your friends all about how your guy is so clutch. It's all right now, every moment of the year compressed into one. You've got to have a drink to calm your nerves. What are you gonna reach for?

The situation I described just happened this weekend with Brian Wilson and Ryan Howard. I didn't have much vested in either team, the Giants or Phillies, though I like both teams (I actually like nearly every Phillie and find it hard to root against Raul Ibanez, I only like the Giants uniforms). The situation was unbelievably tense, if I were a fan of either team I would have experienced a myocardial infarction. As it was, I could hardly stand it. It was heartbreaking to see that pitch get called a strike and will probably ruin Ryan Howard's winter and spring. It's times like that I'm glad the Indians and Cubs both sucked this year. I've gone through the experience though. The 2003 Bartman game (not his fault) took a good 5 years off my life. 2007 with the Indians losing a big series lead to the Red Sox was a heartbreaker. I know that real fans need a drink while watching these games.

We probably don't have that many Ranger or Giant fans in KC, but I think there's plenty of baseball fans that can use a drink to watch [hopefully] 7 games of 4 hour balls of tension. That drink should be Lagunitas Brown Shugga. At 9.9% ABV it has that alcohol kick that will soothe your nerves. Its sweetness coming from brown sugar mellows the hoppiness usually found in Lagunitas brews. The alcohol flavor is barely noticeable, but the alcohol effects are definitely present. You probably shouldn't drink more than 2 of these in a night so you may want to supplement Brown Shugga with some Goose Island Harvest Ale or your favorite Oktoberfest beer to get you through the first 5 innings. But Brown Shugga should definitely be your companion for the late innings when Jeremy Affeldt and Darren Oliver are involved. You're going to need it.

Schlafly 20

Schlafly has decided to celebrate their 20th anniversary with 4 different anniversary beers. To start things off they're going with an Imperial Pilsner. Distribution will be very limited so each of the 4 beers might be difficult to get in KC. The Imperial Pilsner, bottled in 750 ml bottles, will be released on December 26th but probably won't hit KC until after the new year. Hopefully, the next 3 will be a style I enjoy more than Imperial Pilsner. Since Schlafly is so good about brewing and bottling nearly every style of beer, I expect they will at least meet my expectations.

O'Fallon Black Hemp

O'Fallon Brewery of the east side of Missouri is adding a winter seasonal, O'Fallon Black Hemp. Apparently the fellas over at O'Fallon like working with hemp seeds since this is the second beer featuring hemp seeds in their lineup, Hemp Hop Rye is the other. Black Hemp is a black ale with a lot going on with Munich malt, 2 varieties of rye and golden naked oats with Citra and Amarilla hops in addition to the hemp seed. I'm no brewer but that seems like a bunch of diverse ingredients and may be hard to blend. But, if they get it right, it could be fabulous.

O'Fallon Black Hemp Ale will be available in sixers and on draft (though, I expect that will be quite limited in KC) around mid-January. Seems like a great beer to welcome in the cold of January and February.

Deconstruction Man

I've felt this way before. It was a while back, probably 1994 or 1995. I remember watching Demolition Man on HBO, it must have been during a free weekend because we never actually subscribed to any of the premium cable channels. I can't really say Demolition Man was a film epiphany, but it definitely changed the way I perceive film as a form of art. Never having been a fan of Sylvester Stallone's work, I didn't go into Demolition Man with the expectation that I was going to come away from it with a new found respect for his craft... I watched Demolition Man more because of Wesley Snipes than Stallone. Rising Sun and Passenger 57 were a big deal to me back then, and Wesley Snipes was the new Bruce Willis as far as I was concerned. It became apparent during the grim future scenes of Los Angeles, set in 1996, that I'd been selling Stallone short... Snipes was there just to compliment Stallone's role. I'd wanted Demolition Man to be about Simon Phoenix but I enjoyed it more when it was about John Spartan. That realization, the sense of discovery, only heightened my enjoyment of what was arguably and an otherwise forgettable mid-90s action movie.

Let's finish with all the Rip Van Winkle and get moving

Odell Brewing Company, arguably the best thing to come out of Fort Collins, recently released a new 750 which hit the shelves in Kansas a couple weeks ago. This beer was brewed to be a flavorful medium bodied golden ale which was then divvied up and left to age in wine barrels, bourbon barrel and fresh oak. The different variations of this beer were then blended back into a singular batch that was bottled and labeled Deconstruction. The label on this bottle says that this beer consists of 44% ale, 33% ale aged in oak, 20% ale aged in bourbon and 3% ale aged in wine barrels. That's a pretty intriguing mix of barrel flavors... Nearly half of this beer is regular ale, but the two stars who's names will sell the most tickets would have to be the oak and bourbon.

Personally, I can go either way on the whole oak aged beer thing. Sometimes it's a novelty, sometimes it adds a lot of character to a beer, and then sometimes it's just an oak aged version of a stout of porter I already like. The more I have barrel aged beer the less I enjoy it, I've just chalked that up to diminishing returns. Bourbon barrel aging still tickles my fancy though, so when I saw that a fifth of this beer was aged in bourbon barrels, I was intrigued.

Isn't there a thought repeating in that barbaric brain of yours? The name Friendly? Mr. Edgar Friendly?

Odell Deconstruction has an interesting cast of characters. There's the strong lead role of 33% oak aged ale supported by 20% bourbon aged ale. I went into this beer not really expecting to enjoy the oak aged aspect of it. I was looking more forward to the bourbon barrel flavors that may have been imparted. There's a lot more Stallone oak aged ale than bourbon here so I wasn't sure just how things would turn out.

The Deconstruction is just as action packed as Demolition Man. There aren't many beers that I've uncorked and had to hold over the sink because foam started rushing out... There seemed to be a lot of carbonation in this beer as I poured it into my glass, stopping at about halfway full to allow the head to settle. Only the head didn't settle, it just kept rising, and rising until it ran over the side of the glass. If I had to rate this beer on an MPAA scale I'd give it an R for its violent and gratuitous head.

You are an incredibly sensitive man, who inspires joy-joy feelings in all those around you

Drinking the Deconstruction was a lot like watching Demolition Man for the first time. I was familiar with the basic premise but the cast is what kept me engaged and ultimately made the experience memorable. Just like the movie, it wasn't the supporting actor (who I was most interested in seeing), but the star which made the movie worthwhile. The star of this beer is that 33% oak aged ale, this was the Stallone of the Deconstruction. It's big and loud but always come off as the more enjoyable cast member. The bourbon aged portion of this beer, the Wesley Snipes if you will, gets more action packed scenes and is an all-around bad ass, but loses out when it comes to likability.

44% of the Deconstruction's cast is made up of supporting characters like Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt and Rob Schneider. I got the impression that the base ale could make it on its own, but these characters just weren't as interesting without the stars. I imagine this plain Golden Ale would be as uneventful as when Rob Schneider and Benjamin Bratt do an air high five in the San Angeles Police Department. Definitely anti-climactic.

I've left someone out. There's still 3% of this beer unaccounted for, it's the wine barrel aged portion. This is the role only Denis Leary could play. Just as he did in Demolition Man, Leary's wine barrel aged character provides a dry flavor and comic relief like no one else could. It may only be 3% of the overall production, but it makes a big difference in the end.

Just don't ask where the meat comes from...

Odell Deconstruction is a great beer. It tastes like a sweet Biere de Garde or Saison that's been barrel aged and blended to be incredibly well balanced so all those strong flavors meld into complex yet cohesive experience. There's a little oak, some white wine and a lot of sweet citrus. This is easily one of the best beers I've had this year, and I plan on picking up some more bottles while I can. I have a feeling this one won't be on shelves for very long. As for Demolition Man, it's been probably been 15 years since you've seen this movie, so why not go ahead and revisit John Spartan, Simon Phoenix and Lenina Huxley... I think it's safe to say the film hasn't aged as well as the beer has, but it's still good for a laugh.

Be well.

The Worst Beer in the World

Ratebeer, a place for beer geeks to put a number rating on beers, has compiled a list of the worst beers in the world. I must say that I don't really disagree with the list. I was a little surprised that ice beers were handily represented. Ice and dry beers were especially prevalent when I was in college and I had my fair share of them.

Looking at this list must be like a retired teacher looking at a list of his worst students ever. Or it's like an old FBI agent looking at a list of the worst criminals he apprehended in his career. Or it's like a 35 year old Tri-Delt looking back on her list of drunken sex partners her sophomore year of college (it's only 50 beers long).

In case you don't want to click the link, the worst beer, ranked by Ratebeer's brand of beer geeks, is Olde English 800 3.2. Bud Light is 12, Coors Light is 32 and Miller Lite is 49. Pale lagers and malt liquors made up 92% of the list with the remaining 8% being frui/vegetable beers. It seems to me that Ratebeer's users may enjoy teeing off on pale lagers because it's really pretty easy. Pale lagers are to beer geeks what the goth kids are to high school football players. There is no way that Miller Lite is the 49th worst beer in the world. If it is, beer must be really great and hard to screw up.

Gents 9 - The Things They Drank

The Gents got back together for a night of drinking. This was a smaller group than normal as everyone who's on the invite had other plans and we didn't have our room at McCoy's. So the Gents met up at Yeti's house. In order to get this month's meeting in, we decided on not having a showdown, only tasting whatever rarities we had.

Each of the Gents carried their own bag. Duff had cherry cobbler and nacho cheese Doritos. Chimpotle had Surly. Paul A. Ner had hummus, bugles and an assortment of Oskar Blues. Yeti had peanuts, pretzels and glassware. I had the least well received bag containing, Boone's Watermelon, Manischewitz Blackberry, Night Train and Thunderbird to achieve my dream of a bum wine tasting.

It's safe to say that in a true drinking story nothing is ever absolutely true.

This is a true drinking story. We started with the bum wines. Boone's Watermelon was first and it tasted like a watermelon soda. It was nice and refreshing and was a lot like drinking some watered down watermelon cough syrup. Next was Thunderbird which is quite possibly the worst thing I've ever had in my mouth. We couldn't figure out where the nutty taste was coming from. I'd rather actually have nuts in my mouth than drink that rancid nut flavor again. Night Train came next. It's mildly enjoyable, not good, mind you, but you can get some enjoyment from it. It's a little like drinking some fruit juice made with slightly rotten fruit. The Manischewitz was real sweet and I'll be happy to never drink it again, but it wasn't the horrible or traumatizing event that drinking the Thunderbird was.

A true drinking story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a drinking story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true drinking story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.

The next bit of drinking came from Paul A. Ner's bag and his cans from Oskar Blues. We had Old Chub and Dale's Pale Ale. Old Chub is a fairly fantastic scotch ale, not my favorite style, but Chub is one I would buy on a regular basis if they would just distribute to their neighboring state. Dale's Pale is a fairly ordinary pale ale. It has a really strong hop aftertaste that I don't find enjoyable, your mileage may vary.

In any drinking story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way. The angles of vision are skewed. When hilarity ensues, you close your eyes and duck and float outside yourself. .. The pictures get jumbled, you tend to miss a lot. And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed.

This is a true story. I proclaimed myself an expert on nudity in movies from the '80's but somehow didn't remember that Billy Jayne had nude pictures hanging in his room and nipples were clearly evident. “But, “Just One of the Guys” was PG, there's no way you could get that much nudity in it” the children at the 1 year old's birthday party next door could have presumably heard come from my mouth. But, Chimpotle provided clear and incontrovertible evidence that it was indeed true. Chimpotle carried Netflix Instant.

A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth. On to the Nutsack, a beer that may be the most drank beer in KC that has never been bottled. Somehow, I had never before had the opportunity. I carry a love for Nutcracker that has no equal. I now declare that after I've had Nutsack, I can safely say it's a top 5 beer in my book. I went on a rant over how Boulevard is leaving a ton of, if not money, then certainly prestige by not bottling Nutcracker Special Reserve and doing the very limited release thing that Bell's, Founder's, Three Floyds and so many other breweries do. The Nutcracker Special Reserve release would be as big a day for midwest beer geeks as Dark Lord Day or Hopslam Day. Nutsack is that good. Luckily, we had procured 3 growlers of the sack so we were all able to have full glasses.

And this is where things get a little hazy. It's easy to forget what happened after the Nutsack. But the thing about remembering is that you don't forget. I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth. In some order we opened some Surly Cynic, Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad and Founder's Breakfast Stout.

Here's a story that's absolutely true. When the Breakfast Stout was being opened I still had 2 good drinks of Cynic left in my glass. I saw the Breakfast Stout being opened and quickly chugged my Cynic.

It was cold out there on Yeti's porch, the fire was dying down, the heat lamp had long ago ran out of propane. When I was out there that night I felt close to my own body, I could feel my blood moving, my skin and fingernails, everything, it's like I was full of electricity and was glowing in the dark – I was on fire almost – I was burning away into nothing - but it doesn't matter because I know exactly who I am. The Night Train and Thunderbird had gotten to me.

And, as the last of the logs for the fire was burning down to nothing, it was time to go. I packed up my bag and strapped it to my shoulders for my mile long bike ride home. With a drunk on and with fear of a long mile, it is difficult to put a helmet on your head. I headed out ahead of everyone and was startled by Chimpotle's car horn. I looked behind me and the whole night was right there in my stare. It says everything you can't ever say.

The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness. But there was very little aliveness in my body the next day.

Never again Night Train. Never again Thunderbird.

Yuengling Crossing the Mississippi

About a month ago someone on the KC Beer Blog Facebook page asked me when Yuengling was going to come to KC. I get this Yuengling question quite a bit. Either a disproportionate number of people who read this blog are from the east coast or Yuengling is the thing east coast transplants miss the most. I've never had a Yuengling before and for all I know it could be the greatest beer around. It doesn't rate very well on the beer rating sites so it must be a great nostalgia beer.

Anyway, I always take interest when I see something about Yuengling expanding so this article in the Wall Street Journal about Yuengling buying a brewing facility in Memphis piqued my interest. Yuengling has crossed the Mississippi for the first time, at least for brewing purposes. They are buying the facility to keep up with demand and hope to get enough capacity to add Ohio to its distribution in 2011. I would put Indiana, Illinois and Missouri as next on their list, if a list exists. So, Yuengling is still at least 2 years away from being available at your local KC bodega, but at least there's a chance for you east coasters transplanted in KC.

It's the Great Pumpkin

Found it. It's been a journey. I've gone from the super clovey Schlafly to the faint pumpkin taste of the Sam Adams. I've tried quite a few and have mostly been disappointed and nearly concluded that I just don't like pumpkin beers. But, I finally found it in the horribly named Hoppin' Frog Frog's Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale.

I love Hoppin' Frog beers so much. When I heard last week that K-7 Liquors in Shawnee's Godland had Hoppin' Frog BORIS for $5.99, I headed out there to pick up 3 bottles so I could always have some on hand. Unfortunately for me, I've already drank 2 of the bottles. I've been looking forward to Hoppin' Frog's foray into pumpkinland. I even did research to find out when it was coming out. I emailed a friend at the distributor to ask when it was going to be on shelves. So, while I was out near Gomer's in Lenexa I stopped in to pick up a bottle.

It was a long wait to get it open, maybe too long. We had some Shake Shack for dinner and then had to go down to Crown Center so Stella could pick up her packet for the KC Marathon. By the time we got the kids to bed and settled in for the evening it was 8:00. I set it out for 15 minutes to get it warmed up a little and I wish I'd waited longer, but I just couldn't wait.

My first sip was much different than the last. This is a tale of 2 beers, the chilled and the cellar temp. The chilled pumpkin had a bit of the clove aftertaste that I don't really like. The cellar temp version tasted like I imagine pumpkin wine would taste. Both versions had a perfect pumpkin taste, but the cellar temped part that I had was much more blended and had a simple pumpkin pie taste and feel. It felt like I was eating a bunch of pumpkin blended with Cool Whip. If that appeals to you, you're going to love the Hoppin' Frog Frog's Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale at cellar temp.

Aside from the name and drinking it pretty cold, I can't imagine a better experience with a pumpkin beer. It's everything I've been looking for in a pumpkin beer and was afraid I wasn't ever going to find. Hoppin' Frog is only available on the Kansas side and may be a little hard to find. Gomer's Lenexa is your best bet to find the Double Pumpkin.

KC Beerfest Four

KC Beerfest will be returning to the Legends for a fourth installment of the event in KCK this Saturday starting at 2PM. The Beerfest came under fire back in May when they held their first event in the Westport area and all but a few local breweries' beers were gone in a drunken flash. Some argued that the Beerfest shouldn't be put under such scrutiny since it is a charity event, but those people obviously weren't looking to get tanked like the angry masses were. It appears as though the people associated with KC Beerfest took the criticism to heart and are coming back armed with a plan to succeed.

First of all, there will be new glasses (pictured right). I'm not sure if the red line will be there or not on the actual glasses, but there is a solid chance of it due to the pouring restrictions being implemented. That's right, 2oz pours will be the standard, which puts the Beerfest more in line with an actual tasting event rather than a drunken afternoon with random fights and people urinating off of three-story parking garages. Speaking of, the event has been moved to a ground-level parking area that can only aid the flow of people moving between sample tables and the gauntlet of portable toilets.

While I can appreciate the pour restrictions in an effort to maximize the number of samples from beers with limited supplies, I'd like to see the Beerfest try to bring in more rare beers that warrant being strung along as far as possible. If you've been to a KC Beerfest event before, you've probably had the chance to drink most of the beers available on Saturday. Apparently, there will be specific maps at the event that point out the beers with the shortest supply, so you'll want to show up early with your running shoes if there's something you really want to get. You may also want to use those shoes to run away from Green Mountain Beverage's table if their limited release is Pumpkin Cider. Nothing really jumps out to me as a must try when I look at the current listing. Curiosity will probably lead me to High Noon Saloon and their Oregon Trail Raspberry Wheat. Desire will lead me to hang out at the Boulevard area in hopes of a nutsac(k) sighting.

Since this is 2 days before the event, a ticket is pretty much going to cost you $30 at the door. Designated Driver tickets are $10 and include a chair massage and some Jones Soda. You might as well check it out if you've got nothing better to do. The time corresponds with the Nebraska/Texas game, so a number of douchebags are already eliminated from the equation. If it sucks, there are worse things to do with $30 than donate to charity.

Le Apartomatic de Stella

I love Wes Anderson movies. They may be a little boring in places or a little too quirky, but they always look wonderful. Perfect for a commercial. Anderson and another indie filmmaker Roman Coppola teamed up to make an ad for Stella Artois, a beer that I used to drink quite regularly and still enjoy. I love the look of this commercial even though it doesn't do much to sell beer. It's like a cross between Mad Men and Austin Powers and it does make me want to drink a Stella. Mission accomplished.

Stone Coming to Town

When I heard the news that Stone Brewing was looking to add Missouri to its distribution in 2011 it made me want to sing. Feel free to join along.

The Stone'll come out 

Tomorrow

Bet your bottom dollar 

That tomorrow 

There'll be Stone! 

Just thinkin' about

Tomorrow 

Clears away the cobwebs, 

And the sorrow 

'Til there's none! 

When I'm stuck a day 

That's gray, 

And lonely, 

I just stick out my chin 

And Grin, 

And Say, 

Oh! 

The Stone'll come out

Tomorrow 

So ya gotta hang on 

'Til tomorrow 

Come what may 

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

I love ya Tomorrow! 

You're always

A day

A way! 

When the Vards go to another state that has Stone we always pick up some Arrogant Bastard and Ruination. It will be nice to get a shot at some of their special releases as well.

Finally a Doodle

Doodle Brewing of Liberty, Missouri has been on my radar for nearly 2 years. Those were heady days when I was looking forward to 2 new brewers coming on the scene, Dead Canary and Doodle. Dead Canary seems to be dead in the water and I thought Doodle was pretty much in the same boat. Nick Vaughn, the brains behind Doodle has a blog and would infrequently post something about bank loan approvals or licensing approvals so there was always something. But the long silences led me to believe it wasn't going to happen. The whole Doodle thing seems like a lesson in determination and overcoming the world of red tape that makes it so hard and expensive to start a brewery.

Then over the weekend the news broke that Doodle had gotten label approval, the final regulatory step for a new beer, for Doodle Dubbel, a 22 oz. bomber of Belgian goodness. Drunk Monkey interviewed Nick Vaughn and found out that Vaughn hopes to be on store shelves by the end of this month but mid-November seems a little more likely. Whether Doodle Dubbel or any of the other beers in the Doodle pipeline are any good is a question for another day and I have some faith that they will be good. Nick Vaughn is to be congratulated for crawling through the mind numbing paperwork of titanic proportions I can't even imagine to realize his dream of delivering beer to the great people of KC and hopefully elsewhere.

Smoke on the Baltic

Smoked beers to me are what oak aged beers are to others. I enjoy the flavors of the smoked malts and drinking one always makes me hungry for a pulled pork sandwich. The Star's article about collaborations with the local food and beverage world brought me the most exciting idea I've read in a while. John from the Wort Hog blog (KC's best beer blog) wants to see Boulevard and LC's pair up to smoke the wheat for Boulevard Wheat and make a smoked wheat beer with it. I'm in love with this idea though I think Woodyard might be a better partner than LC's (mostly because they're pretty close to each other and the name Boulevard Woodyard Wheat has a nice ring to it). It seems a natural fit to have a Kansas City brewer put out a great smoked beer or two (who would be opposed to a smoked Bully). But, instead of focusing on pie in the sky ideas, I picked up a bottle of Great Divide's latest beer, Smoked Baltic Porter.

I've been looking forward to this one for a while now. My own BGBM meter was through the roof with this one, The (R) or rarity is high with smoked and the (D) or deliciousness of porter makes my scale go darn near to the top. Pair that with the Smoked Baltic Porter coming from Great Divide, one of my top 3 favorite breweries and I just couldn't wait to get it. It was quite exciting to find a bomber on the shelf at Gomer's in Lenexa.

It was a little lighter brown than I was expecting. I thought it was going to be black like coal but it had more of a dark chocolate color. I could smell the smoke in it as I carried it over to my Archie Bunker chair as I was settling in to watch Tim Lincecum pitch a playoff gem (16 k's and 2 hits, I'm not sure if he wasn't more impressive than Roy Halladay). The smoke flavor wasn't overpowering and meshed nicely with the chocolate and toffee flavors of the porter. As the beer warmed the smoke flavor dissipated a little but it stayed in the nose so you always got that smoky feel. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to get another.

Smoke beers or rauchbiers are kind of hard to find. Not many breweries make any version of a smoke beer. The most widely available this summer was the Shiner Smokehaus which I've yet to figure out what I think of it. Not many beers confound me, but that one does. I think it might be the perfect session beer for a barbecue dinner. It's definitely worth trying and I'm pretty sure I liked it. it might be a bit hard to find now since it's Shiner's summer seasonal, but I saw it at Gomer's yesterday so it's still around. It's only $6.99/sixer too so it might be a nice introduction to smoke beers if you haven't had one. Fort Collins Brewery also has a rauchbier, Z Lager, but I didn't think much of it when I had it, the smoke flavor just wasn't prevalent enough and it seemed to be a rather boring beer without the smoke. I'm sure commenters have some other rauchbiers or smoke beers they enjoy, I know Paul A. Ner does, so make sure you check the comments if you want to get your smoke on.

KU - K-State Rivarly Party

I went to Wichita State after Lew Perkins killed our football program, we never had a real fall homecoming because of having no football (we had something called Shocktoberfest though, so that kinda made up for no football, okay, no it didn't). We never had a rivalry week or excitement on the campus on fall Saturdays. One time, probably in 1994, both KU and K-State were pretty good so a friend and I traveled up to Lawrence to party at our fraternity chapter at KU after the game. We were introduced to just what utter and total douches KU fraternity guys could be. I threw up after attempting my first (and only) keg stand, we hit on some KU basketball and volleyball players and we didn't pay for a damn thing. We even almost made it back for classes the next day (the game was a Thursday night televised night game). Aside from being at MU on MU-KU rivalry week, that is my only experience with college football.

So far this year I've maintained my nearly 20 year long streak of not watching an entire college football game. It's not that I don't enjoy college football, it's just that I don't care about it. But, I know a bunch of people do, mostly K-State fans because KU fans only care about appearances and wouldn't be caught dead rooting for a crappy football team. So for all of those people, Boulevard and Fox Sports Midwest will be holding a little shindig at Boulevard's home away from home, the Oread Hotel in Lawrence, to pregame before the KU-K-State football game on October 14th. Fans are encouraged to wear their school's gear and the party will be shown on Rivalries Live, the Fox pregame show. Doors open at 3:30 and Boulevard Amber, Pale Ale and Bob's 47 will be on tap as well as aluminum Boulevard Wheat bottles. The party will be on the 9th floor terrace of the Oread.

While we're on the subject of Boulevard, it seems some people are having trouble finding Seeyoulator around town. My favorite store Tipsy's has had it readily available for a couple of days, but not everyone's been so lucky. If you've seen it around town, let us know where in comments. The dopplebock fans thank you.

Beer Kitchen

I first went to Beer Kitchen (in Westport across from McCoy's Public House) a couple of days after they opened. I picked up a quick couple of beers and some fries before our Gents KC meeting at McCoy's. I sat at the bar, ordered a Nogne O and an order of Belgian style fries with the malt vinegar aioli dipping sauce. Three things were great about this. 1, fries are a perfect thing to eat while drinking beer and at only $3 you shouldn't even think twice about ordering them. 2, besides the Nogne O being a great beer to have on tap, you get the option of ordering a small 4 or 6 oz. glass so you can drink many different beers if you were so inclined. 3, you get a nice selection of aiolis to choose from: Roasted Garlic, Smoked Chipotle, Malt Vinegar, Horseradish, Cucumber-Dill, Sweet Thai Chili.

My fries arrived in a little bucket and were quite wonderful, everything you hope a fry will be. They were nice and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. These were not the limp fries that can bend in break when dipping in something substantial like mayonnaise or an aioli. My only complaint with them on that night was they were extremely salty. Each fry had about 10 specks of kosher salt on it. The malt vinegar aioli was wonderful, just the right amount of that vinegar kick. I also tried all 3 of the house condiments, ketchup, chipotle ketchup and whiskey barbecue sauce. All 3 were great, I found myself using the chipotle ketchup the most with plenty of dips in the whiskey bbq as well. The house made ketchup would be the star at any other burger place, the other 2 are just better than that.

Parmesan fries

Paul A. Ner and Yeti arrived shortly after I got my fries and they each got a Nogne O. Paul got the parmesan truffle fries with the roasted garlic aioli. Paul A. Ner is to truffle oil as the father in A Christmas Story is to turkey. He loves it, he's even offered to suck truffle oil off Josh Eans' sweet 'stache. He loved the parmesan truffle fries at Beer Kitchen and I've heard several other people proclaim their love for them. I had a couple of them and I don't get it, they're too parmesany for me. I also didn't like the roasted garlic aioli that much, but I'm not much on garlic so take that opinion with a grain of salt (like you don't already).

Based on my first experience with the Beer Kitchen I knew I was going to be back to try a burger. Stella and I finally had our chance this weekend after the Tour de BBQ (and a visit to la manse du Vard's jacuzzi). Mind you, I'd had 6 beers and at least 4 barbecue sandwiches in the previous 5 hours before we got there but I was still famished. We got there for happy hour which meant the McCoy's beer on tap, Oktoberfest, was only $3. Stella loves marzens so this was quite nice. I had water, I had reached the rehydrating portion of my day. Stella got the Bravo burger and I got the Smokestack and we got an order of happy hour fries (the Belgian style fries without the aioli) to share.

The Bravo burger is a burger with crispy prosciutto, maytag blue cheese, fontina, sun-dried tomato relish, baby arugula & roasted garlic aioli on brioche bun . The key words for Stella in the description were "crispy prosciutto", "fontina" and "baby arugula". The brioche bun didn't hurt. The Smokestack burger's description is smoked gouda & burnt end-stuffed burger, whisky bbq glaze, chipotle aioli & crispy jalapeno straws on potato bun. My key words were "burnt end stuffed" and "crispy jalapeno straws".

Our burgers were sights to behold when they came out. Unfortunately for me Stella won the ordering contest as her burger, in her eyes and taste, was flawless. Every bite perfect. The blue cheese and arugula adding a nice bitterness to the sun-dried tomato relish and the crispy prosciutto throwing the whole thing over the top. I had a bite of it too and I'll be hard pressed to order any other burger at Beer Kitchen in the future. My Smokestack burger was good, but nothing special. I could have used double the amount of jalapeno strings and I would have liked for them to be actually be crispy. I barely got any whiskey bbq glaze and chipotle aioli leaving the burger kind of dry and one note. I don't want to be to harsh on it because I ate every bite of it, but I think there's got to be better options on the Beer Kitchen menu for me. I was also impressed with the fries this time as they weren't oversalted. I also tried the pickle slices that came with my burger. I don't like pickles generally, but these were really good pickles.

In short, I can't wait to go back. In my mind it's the perfect place to eat dinner, drink some great beer with 8 rotating taps and numerous bottled beers that have obviously been chosen with care, have a late night snack, enjoy a good happy hour (though their happy hour specials are hardly publicized with not enough drink specials, no KC Beer Blog certified happy hour here) or just pop in for a good beer. Beer Kitchen is definitely a welcome addition to the KC beer scene.

Fake Beer Drinking

I was watching tonight's 30 for 30 about the Red Sox beating the Yankees in 2004, "4 Days in October". I don't really care about the Red Sox or the Yankees (though I am a huge Derek Jeter fan) and get pretty tired of all the Red Sox and Yankees hype. But, in this case, the hype is deserved. The Red Sox pulled off the biggest upset, comeback, reversal of history in the history of baseball and it truly was magnificent. Plus, I love watching what is known as "The Steal", when Dave Roberts steals second to put the tying run in scoring position. Everything about the play is perfect, Roberts' jump, Posada receiving the pitch and in one fluid motion delivering a great throw to Jeter standing in the perfect position to receive the ball and tag Roberts who delivers himself with a perfect head first slide as his hand touches the back corner of the bag. On this occasion Roberts was quicker than the throw and really threw the momentum of baseball history on its ear.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there, what really threw me off in the doc was the fake beer drinking going on by Bill Simmons and Lenny Clarke. For some reason this really irks me. I wrote about it when the show "After the Catch" did it and now I'm writing about for this movie.

It irks me because I don't think Simmons drinks beer. I've read every column of his since 2001, I've listened to every podcast and I've read his books (okay book, I'm not going to read 700 pages on the NBA, but I read Paul Shirley's book because he recommended it, that should count). I know when he drinks, he drinks Patron or flavored vodka drinks with water.

This leads me to believe he had a conversation with the set dresser telling him just the right amount of beer to put in his glass. Throughout the movie, the level never changes, so he definitely never took a drink of it (Lenny Clarke's never changed either). Plus, I'm sure he wanted a beer there because it makes him seem like the blue collar Boston guy he tries to portray himself as. This is a guy who's first car was a Porsche. I'd just like to know if he was nice about asking the guy to dump some beer out so it looked like he drank some or if he was a jerk about it.  The whole thing just made their little barroom interaction/everyman scenes ring false. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

Seeyoulator Today

Boulevard Seeyoulator is going to hit liquor store shelves in the KC area today (you may have been able to find them yesterday).

I was lucky enough to receive an advance bottle from the fine folks at Boulevard and drank it Sunday. Dopplebocks aren't my cup of tea, but the Seeyoulator is enjoyable. The cedar flavor in it adds just enough flavor to the heavy malt to make it enjoyable. I know Seeyoulator is at least a little anticipated because I teased about it on Twitter a couple of times over the weekend and got several responses asking where I got it.

While we're talking about Boulevard, I would be remiss if I didn't link to the KC Star article about local food and beverage collaborations. The article created a bit of a tizzy with at least one hockey jersey wearing beer blogger because John McDonald expressed his unsire (shutup, I can make up words if I want to) to collaborate with Roasterie on a coffee stout. McDonald rightly says there are too many coffee stouts out there. In my opinion 90% of those coffee stouts aren't very good. McDonald doesn't like fruit beers either (is coffee fruit? it comes from beans. are beans fruit? if they're not, why aren't they?). He's built a pretty big brewery based on his tastes, I think it's okay if he doesn't brew what he doesn't like. Several months ago Paul A. Ner put together a list of some collaborations he'd like to see.

Tour de BBQ - The Best and Worst

I rode in the Tour de BBQ on Saturday. I'm not enough of a cyclist to ride 60 miles and I'm barely enough of a cyclist to ride 35 miles, but I did it and it's probably my most significant athletic achievement I've ever accomplished. Along the way, I ran into some of the best and worst of Kansas City.

The best - Riding down Grand downtown in a pack of hundreds of bicycles
The worst - Riding uphill on Main from Crown Center up to the Plaza

The best - Not embarrassing myself by falling behind the group
The worst - Not getting to Smokestack BBQ quick enough to avoid a huge crowd scene at the food line forcing me to skip eating at Smokestack

The best - Seeing my kids cheer me on in Corporate Woods
The worst - The cubes of fatty meat that were served at Hayward's

The best - The greatest sandwich I will ever eat, the Oklahoma Joe's bbq shredded beef (?) sandwich after riding 29 miles
The worst - The headwind we faced riding through the hills of Fairway, Mission Hills, and KCMO on the way to Oklahoma Joe's.

The best - Turning onto Walnut at 20th (or wherever we were) and seeing the finish line and hearing the volunteers cheering for the people finishing. (If I find the picture of me finishing I'll put it up on this post, because I must have looked like the most miserable yet elated son of a bitch on the planet).
The worst - Lifting my bike up to put it on the rack

The best - The little Kit Kat bar someone gave me as I crossed the finish line
The best - I had the greatest Boulevard Wheat I'll ever have. I made my way straight through the barbecue tent, got me a Wheat and savored every drink of it. It was truly wonderful and made me all happy inside.
The best - A little open faced Gates BBQ ham sandwich on white bread. It was literally a piece of ham on white bread to which I added some Gates Original sauce. It was fabulous. I had 3.
The worst - Johnny's BBQ had ham and a roll that was not good. I dumped it.

The best - A second Boulevard Wheat.
The best - A slice of Spin! Pizza's pepperoni. I was really hungry for some pizza back around mile 20.
The best - Heading to the Saucer and drinking a Free State Octoberfest.
The worst - Rogue John John Hazelnut Brown. I don't say this about too many beers, but that one was truly awful, it tasted like a glass of cheap rum you've left sitting out too long and all the ice melted making it a watery whiskey. I really was looking forward to that one.

The best - Having my Saucer bartender dump the Rogue John John Hazelnut and getting me a Milk Stout. On this day milk was truly a great choice.
The worst - Going to the bathroom for the first time since I left the house and seeing the sad shape my friend was in, like George said on "Seinfeld", he's like a frightened turtle. Don't judge people's bulges in their bicycle shorts.

The best - Talking to the bearded Matt about Mort's in Wichita.
The best - The little taster Matt got me of the Grand Teton Whiskey Dopplebock. Even though I'm an avowed hater of whiskey beers, I could appreciate this one.
The worst - My feelings for the people who were just finishing a full 2 hours after I did. Granted they probably went the full 60 but 6 hours is a long time to ride a bike especially in the heavy wind we faced on the way back downtown.

The Tour de BBQ was a great time. It was pretty cool to see the reflection of nearly 2000 people on bikes in the Sprint Center glass before the 60 mile group got started. They were hoping to get to 800 people this year and they far exceeded that total more than quadrupling the total from last year. With that kind of growth again we could be seeing 10,000 cyclists taking over KC for a day. I'm sure the Lance Armstrong Foundation and KU Cancer Center made quite a large amount of money to beat cancer. For all the volunteers for the day and all of the drivers who waved some bicyclists through a stop sign and the people who stood on their driveways and cheered us on and all of the bicyclists that gave a rank amateur a break and not yelling at me for weaving or going slow, I give you a great big thank you. It was a great time.

Bell's 25th Anniversary Ale

Bell's 25th Anniversary Ale has hit KC store shelves. Gomer's South has it and says you'd better get there tout de suite to get it. They're not taking reservations or phone purchases. You've got to show up and get it (they have it held back so you have to ask for it and you can only buy one sixer).

Bell's 25th Anniversary Ale is an American Strong Ale with caramel and toffee flavors with a strong hop presence. Bell's doesn't make a bad beer so this is definitely worth checking out. It's going to be tough to find around town so once you get yours tell us where you got it in comments and help your fellow beer travelers out.