Why the Feds Banned Four Loko

I have no love for Four Loko. I wouldn't drink it if offered and I certainly won't buy it. I don't buy a lot of things. But, I don't think those things I don't like should be illegal. Sure, you say, but Four Loko's dangerous. But, there's no real evidence of that, just anecdotal. If the FDA can ban a product based on anecdotal evidence, they can ban anything. If a bunch of dumbass kids abuse Pliny the Elder or any of my list of badass beers, the precedent's been set and the FDA can ban high alcohol beers.

Red Bull and vodka, Irish coffee, rum and coke, etc. all share the same characteristics of Four Loko (with the exception of actually tasting good), they could be on the banned list in 2011. All it takes is some college party where a couple of kids abuse the hell out of liquor and the FDA and Chuck Schumer will swoop in to protect us all. For 2011, my new year's wish is that we quit rolling over and allowing the government to ban things.

Boulevard of No Landfill

Boulevard Brewery is going landfill free. They're even getting rid of their dumpster. Whatever waste they produce will either be recycled or turned into cement. This seems very ambitious for a manufacturing company. Surely there's something that simply needs to be thrown away. Apparently a lot of things can be turned into cement. I'll have to keep that in mind when writing about Boulevard, with such a cozy relationship with a cement company, it wouldn't take much to fit me with some cement boots.

Gents Holiday Party

Lava lamp

McCoy's Ursa Major 2008 and 2010, Ommegang Three Philosophers, Deschutes Inversion IPA, Weston Drop Kick Ale, Alaskan Amber, Port Santa's Helper, Schlafly Raspberry Coffee Stout, Delirium Noel, Goose Island Sophie, Boulevard Dubbel (test brew), Summit Pumpkin Porter, Sierra Nevada Porter, Left Hand Porter, Pliny the Elder, Cigar City Guava Grove, Stone Vertical Epic 2010, Voodoo Love Child, Bruery 3 French Hens, Pretty Things Once Upon a Time KK, Fantome Choklat, Boulevard Saison-Brett 2008, Dogfish Head Sah'tea, Duchesse de Bourgnonne, New Belgium La Folie 2008, Cigar City Sea Bass, Sam Adams Infinium, Victory Dark Intrigue.

What do these beers have in common? They were all poured at the Gents holiday party. All the regular Gents were there including Original Gent, Weston, all the way from his new outpost of China. We also welcomed Mrs. JJSKCK, Chambord and Mrs. Yeti to the mix. We were also joined by my friend Lee from I Love Beer and his wife Margaret. They were up from Austin for Christmas and were able to peel away from the family for an evening. We partied it up in The Foundry's upstairs party room which is like a cool retro beer lover's basement. It was the perfect room for our get together which was just going to be a beer drinking fiesta. Everyone was to bring whatever they wanted and we got quite the variety of beers.

Beef  O' Brady Bowl and Fireplace

Tobias, a brewer at McCoy's joined us for a beer at the beginning when we are all still drinking our Ursa Major verticals, a 2008 and 2010 pour of Ursa Major. The 2008 was nice and smooth, but the 2010 could use a little aging to mellow out, it was just a little too in your face for me. Tobias shared a McCoy's Toddy Stout with us that was just wonderful, the secret is cold pressing the coffee. It reminded me of the Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout (now available in Kansas for a limited time) with its non bitter coffee flavor.

Then the party started with a little Beef O'Brady Bowl on the tv in the background we popped open all the beers above. I'm not going to make this a 35,000 word post by writing my impression of each beer for a couple of reasons. First, I don't remember more than one or two things about each one. Two, I'd like to publish this thing only a week late rather than February. Three, Not many people would care. But, I can share a couple of highlights and lowlights.

Ursa Major 2008 and 2010

The first beer we popped open was the Victory Dark Intrigue which is a bourbon barrel aged beer. It was a nice example of bourbon barrel aging should do to a beer as it was a complementary flavor rather than the dominant flavor. Another of the early beers was quite intriguing because I knew absolutely nothing of its existence, Pretty Little Things Once Upon a Time, KK. It's brewed by Buzzard's Bay Brewing that is doing a Dogfish Head like project of recreating old recipes. This recipe was from 1901 and was interesting, but had a real bitter finish. I'm glad I got to try it, but I don't think I will again. Hell, I'll probably never run across it again. But, I hope to run across other offerings from this series of beers. Cigar City Sea Bass was a real sour beer that tasted an awful lot like grape Big League Chew, not exactly the flavor I'm looking for. The Cigar City Guava Grove had a lot of fans in the room, but I was not one of them, it was just too sour for me.

The view from above The Foundry

At some point in the evening the Nightlife KC cameraman came up to the party room and got some action shots of some of us. I'd like to think I did everything I could to show up on Party People KC, it's my New Year's wish.

The Bruery's 3 French Hens, a Belgian Dark Ale, was very good. The Bruery would be a nice addition to KC. Duchesse de Bourgnonne was a nice sour beer and one of the few I got seconds on. I really loved Voodoo Love Child, it had a great raspberry flavor. I may have been a bit selfish with it as I carried the bottle around and had at least 2 glasses of it. Fantome Choklat was the disappointment of the evening, I thought it smelled like a St. Pauli Girl initially, but when Yeti said it smelled like Worlds of Fun, I had to concur. It didn't taste much better than either of those 2 smells. I really liked the Dogfish Head Sah'tea which Paul A. Ner has described as a gingerry Tank 7. Again, I have to concur. It was really good to me, several people felt the opposite. I think your judgment of Sah'tea would have to depend on your stance on ginger (the root, not the people, I think we can all agree that gingers are the devil's people). Pliny the Elder was indeed sublime.

Gents glassware

Overall, it was a great night. I had no idea that when I invited Chimpotle, Yeti and Weston over to try a sample bottle of Boulevard Rye on Rye along with a blind porter tasting that it would eventually turn into something like the Gents we did last week. Most of it wouldn't have happened without Chimpotle scheduling things, Yeti doing blind pours, McCoy getting us rooms at McCoy's, Paul A. Ner giving us someone to ridicule, Fancy Pants bringing great beers, J for documenting all the beers from that night, a couple of drivers etc. Gents night is about the best night of every month and next month's might be the best one yet. Stay tuned.

Repeal 10-211

Meet Joe. Joe is a wine enthusiast. He reads books on wine, understands wine and can name the best 10 wines of every varietal and every region. If you have a wine question, you ask Joe. It's Joe's dream to open up a little wine store, only selling quality wines and not bothering with liquor and beer which he knows very little about.

Meet Rick. Rick is like you and me. He loves beer. He knows every beer that's worth knowing. He loves to talk about beer and try new beers. His dream is to open up a little shop selling beers of the quality he chooses and not bothering with Budweiser and Coors. He doesn't know much about wine or liquor and he'd rather not have to deal with selling either.

Meet Ryan. Ryan loves cocktails. He knows all the best gins, vodkas and bourbons and knows how to mix them to really bring out the flavors of each ingredient. He has no use for the Bacardi's and Jack Daniel's of the liquor world, he likes craft distilleries making specialty spirits. He doesn't know much about beer or wine. Ryan's dream is to open a little mix shop selling liquors, bitters and juices for the ultimate cocktailer.

Ryan, Rick and Joe just happen to meet at a little party and tell each other about their dream shop. They don't really know each other so they don't want to go into business together, but they know a little strip mall on Troost near the Plaza that's virtually empty. There's a little neighborhood liquor store just down the street, but it really wouldn't be a competitor to any of their dream shops. They think it would be a great idea to have their 3 storefronts right next to each other creating a little shopping center for quality drinks.

Rick decides to do a little research and finds Kansas City's Statute 10-211 that doesn't allow more than one package liquor license for every 1500 people within a certain radius. Since a store already exists within that radius, they would only be able to get maybe one more license. Ryan, Rick and Joe aren't that politically savvy, they see a law and see something that prevents them from doing what they want. So they start looking around town for other locations that would fit in the ordinance. They can't find any. Their stores never open.

Okay, fictional story over. I'm not saying this story is true or even probable. But, it is imaginable. The reason we don't see specialty liquor stores like the ones described in the little story is because a liquor license is incredibly difficult to get and somewhat expensive. Once you have one, you want to sell as much stuff as you can. This is the main reason we don't see the kind of specialty liquor stores described in the story above.

But, silly little ordinances like 10-211 don't help matters any. I spoke with the manager of Regulated Industries for Kansas City, Gary Majors, about the ordinance last week. He's in charge of regulating and issuing liquor licenses for the city. I tried to contact Councilwoman Cathy Jolly and Councilman John Sharp to get their reasons why they didn't advocate for the repeal of 10-211. Cathy Jolly's office gave Mr. Majors my number which was 1000% better than Mr. Sharp's office which ignored my request for information. Apparently Mr. Sharp is only interested in questions that honor him for getting Trader Joe's an exemption for 10-211 (UPDATE: Mr. Sharp has responded, I put his emailed response in the comments below). Both Sharp and Jolly were sponsors of the Trader Joe's exemption.

Mr. Majors and I had a very good and spirited 20 minute conversation about 10-211. I made similar points to the ones I made in my previous post. But, my main point was the ordinance was unnecessary because prospective liquor licensees don't typically try to open stores that are already well served by other liquor licensees. Majors told me that they have rejected several licenses in the past year based on 10-211 and there is a dedicated bunch of Kansas Citians that are against any openings of licensees even well respected licensees like QuikTrip. QuikTrip was the last store before Trader Joe's to get an exemption and several city council members are already regretting the exemption, not because of QuikTrip, but because the exemption has to be given for a certain area. The QuikTrip exemption has led to a couple of other prospective package liquor licensees to be granted licenses.

To his credit, Majors said that his division tried its best to work with prospective licensees to get them licensed even giving me a real inside baseball story on the Trader Joe's licensing. I don't know if what he told me was true or not, but Majors seemed quite reasonable about my position and the position of his office. Unfortunately, he is just an administrator and couldn't tell me the reason why Jolly and Sharp didn't advocate for repeal of the ordinance. It's not his job and I didn't expect it.

I acknowledge there is a group of people in town that like this ordinance and feel very strongly about it. They don't want more liquor stores or bars in town. They're entitled to their opinion and I wouldn't want to exclude them from getting their fair say in the matter. But, their fair say shouldn't be a hurdle for Joe, Rick and Ryan. Joe, Rick and Ryan are the ones taking the risk, doing the work and employing people. The opponents of liquor stores do none of that. Their rights should be to petition the council to stop a licensing, not stand in the way of every license pro forma. The ordinance is exactly backwards.

Repealing this ordinance will not result in more liquor stores in town. What it will do is open up liquor stores to competition increasing the quality of stores in town. Rick, Ryan and Joe's liquor stores might drive out a garden variety all purpose neighborhood store that doesn't serve many needs well. The ordinance as is protects these little liquor stores. I don't think they should go out of business, but if they don't serve their customers well, there's no reason for them to be protected from competition.

I don't see why this should be a controversial issue. Everyone's rights and concerns can still be addressed but Joe, Rick and Ryan can have an easier path to securing their liquor licenses for stores that I don't think anyone but the staunchest alcohol prohibitionist would object to. We all joke about how liquor laws in Kansas and Missouri are pretty stupid. Repealing this ordinance won't change that, but it needs to start somewhere. Repealing this ordinance is a fine start.

'Tis the Season for Irish

Boulevard Irish Ale is available in Boulevard variety packs. If you go to a store with a good sell through of variety packs you can find it. It's a bit of a lottery though, some packs will have Nutcracker (which, I like better, but I have sixers of it) and others will have Irish.

We had a nice Irish Christmas last year as we randomly bought a variety pack that had Irish Ale in it. I think it was Stella's favorite part of Christmas last year.Sixers of Irish won't be available for a couple of weeks. So if you're an Irish Ale lover, go find yourself a variety pack.

So Long 15

You ever see "The Family Stone"? Stella and I watch it every Christmas season and is one of our favorites. It has some obvious flaws like Dermot Mulroney, but Luke Wilson is great and more than makes up for Mulroney. If you haven't seen it, it's the basic family home for Christmas with a new, controversial girlfriend (Sarah Jessica Parker) movie, only this family is the politically correct family ever (does the one son really have to be gay, deaf and married to a black guy, if you needed someone to be deaf, you could have chosen Mulroney). The twist and heart of the movie, though, is the matriarch of the family, Diane Keaton, is "sick", presumably from cancer which she has survived before.

Diane Keaton is wonderful in the movie, she's not a one note sticky sweet movie mom. She has complexity, she doesn't like Sarah Jessica Parker and seems a little too concerned with her daughter's (Rachel McAdams) cherry breaker. They don't overdo her illness and she only brings it up to one child (Mulroney absolutely murders the scene). It's just a real subtle role and you really care for her in the end when they unwrap the present that Sarah Jessica Parker bought for everyone in the family, a stunning picture of a pregnant Diane Keaton sitting in front of a sunny window. It's just a great movie moment. The movie closes with the next Christmas and the family decorating the tree without Keaton but with that picture hanging on the wall by the Christmas tree.

Maybe I'm a sap, but I was drinking the last Schlafly No. 15 in my possession. I'm not sure if there are any more out in stores or not, but, even if there are, they're not going to last until next Christmas. Schlafly is killing the beer, scratch that, they've killed the beer. It's out of production now. What's in stores now is all that's going to be available. I'm going to miss it. I love that beer, that beer is Sybil Stone to me.

Schlafly No. 15 I'm going to miss you.

Ursa Major for Solstice

Tonight is the long awaited Ursa Major Imperial Stout release party at McCoy's and The Foundry. They do this little party every year on the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. If you want to drink to the winter you could get a $7 commemorative glass full of Ursa Major at 5:38 PM and make Ursa Major your first beer of winter. If you're lucky you'll see one or more of the Gents who are also having their holiday party in the building.

Fade to Black - Smoked Edition

One can imagine the head brewer of Left Hand and the head brewer of Great Divide sat down together for lunch one day. After a couple of beers the 2 of them, acting like all guys after a couple of beers, decided to have the brewer's version of a penis measuring contest, a beer style throwdown. The beer style decided upon by the waitress was smoked Baltic porter and they had to release it to the public. I'm sure that's not the case, but one can imagine it pretty easily.

I confused myself when I saw that Left Hand's Fade to Black Vol. 2 (Left Hand is releasing a different Fade to Black every year) was a smoked Baltic porter. I wondered if they just rebranded the smoked Baltic porter I had just had a couple of weeks before. When I mentioned that to the clerk ringing me up I realized my mistake, the Smoked Baltic Porter from Great Divide certainly was not going to be found in bottles of Left Hand Fade to Black.

I kind of wish it did, because I enjoy the Great Divide version even more. But, Fade to Black is a very good beer. Fade to Black has just about the same amount of smoke flavor, maybe a little more. But the underlying porter tasted a little more burnt than Great Divide's. Fade to Black is a little more convenient to drink because it is cheaper and comes in sixer form rather than the big bottle of the Great Divide version. If you like smoke beers, or even if you don't, Fade to Black is worth picking up. It's definitely an enjoyable beer. But Great Divide's has a bigger penis.

Cappuccino Stout Weekend

Up until the summer of 2010, we'd always had a little ditty on the side here that was a peon(sic) to a good old hot Cup o'Joe. It was built on the bones of the 23rd Psalm and went sumpin' like "Coffee is my shepherd, I shall not..." but that was where the trouble started. Turns out taking(sic) about Coffee's happy side on a ale label is verboten now in Amerika. So, the things that I am allowed to say about it are that the coffee is delicious; that the ale is delicious; and that together they are not worse than the sum of their individual deliciousness', most all of which are delicious. The label is glued on real well too, we make darn sure there are no holes in the glass, and the cap stays put. We are proud of this and wish to brag about it all on this label, which is allowed by law. Thanks! Call us! 707-769-4495

So says the label of the Lagunitas big bottle winter seasonal, Cappuccino Stout. I can attest to its deliciousness as a whole, the FDA has no power over me. As I wrote on Twitter when I was in the throes of a Lagunitas passion session (a Brown Shugga' and whole bottle of Cappuccino Stout's 8.8% ABV), "it's like drinking  really good coffee, but beerlike". I thought I would come up with something better, but I didn't. Unlike most coffee beers, which I don't typically enjoy, the Cappuccino Stout didn't have a burnt flavor, it just tasted like good coffee.

I'm not going to jump and down and demand that you go out and buy this beer. If you don't like coffee, I don't know if you'll like the Cappuccino Stout. What I will do is tell you that, at this time, there are only 30 cases (which is less than the amount of Infinium that hit town) of this coffee goodness spread throughout the Missouri side of the state line. 20% of it is in the Lukas Liquor in Martin City. It won't be the easiest to find elsewhere and it won't last long. If you're like me and love coffee but always dislike coffee beers, Cappuccino Stout is the beer to try. If you already like coffee beers, you may proclaim this the best one. I do.

*Full disclosure, I received this bottle gratis with no conditions on what I write about it. My opinion is my own, but you can be the judge. Cappuccino Stout retails for around $4.

To Infinium & Beyond

Like a lot of readers of this blog, I was caught up in Infinium-fever yesterday to the point that I called three liquor stores and visited two others spanning the length of the metro. For anyone still looking to acquire a bottle, Bubbles on North Oak is supposed to get their shipment today...so I would guess some of the other Northland stores (Red X, Gomer's Parkville, etc) may be in the same boat.

Anyways, I toyed with a couple of ideas on how to set my review apart from the rest. The first was to make a crude attempt at a Black & Tan with Infinium and Utopias. That could still be on the table since I bought two bottles. Instead, I went with a side-by-side comparison: the champagne-like Sam Adams Infinium against the champagne of beers, Miller High Life.

I started off with Infinium. The suggested retail price for this is about $20, and you'll be getting about 25oz of 10.3% ABV beer. You're paying a premium based off of what you can get in bomber bottles from other breweries, but that's what these breweries are going after with their rare/collaborative efforts. Speaking of which, Sam Adams collaborated with Weihenstephan to create this one. There's a lot of other special details I could get into, but I'm writing a review comparing it to High Life so I obviously don't give a crap.

The bottom line is that Infinium is good beer. The musk and the carbonation certainly echo the champagne-like description, but there is enough of a fruity twinge to the taste that makes it much more drinkable compared to the dryness of a good champagne. It really kind of reminds me of the cheap champagne my wife likes that we had at our wedding. I'm very happy that I grabbed two bottles of this beer. Hell, I may grab another bottle from the Northlanders.

I was so excited to drink the Infinium, that I initially forgot about the High Life. I poured a taster for the wife, sipped a bit of my Infinium and then saw the mason jar I set out for the champagne of beers. While I was at Gomer's, I was a bit surprised to see that the champagne of beers was at a 90% discount compared to a beer that was simply champagne-like. You also get 7 more ounces of beer than with the Infinium, but at 4.7% ABV you're only getting about half as drunk.

I took a small sip of Infinium for reference and then grabbed the High Life. The nose actually made my stomach turn. Luckily, the flavor was reminiscent of water thanks to the flavor-packed Infinium. I ended up drinking the entire bottle of Infinium before really digging into the High Life. Oh yeah, I finished them both. Thankfully, the High Life stayed cold in it's can after being left alone for an hour. The sweetness is overpowering to the point that I'm not sure why someone would want to drink 32oz at one-time.

In summation, if you're reading a blog like this, you probably enjoy craft beers, and Infinium is completely worth the trouble of tracking it down and throwing $20 on the counter. There's lots of hate going around, but if a champagne-like beer is something that actually interests you, this beer delivers. If you don't like champagne, I'd guess you definitely won't like this beer. If you like passing out at multiple places in your house before 10pm, you should totally pitch in $2 for the High Life chaser.

Infinium is Upon Us

Sam Adams Infinium will be hitting Missouri store shelves today. Infinium claims to be an entirely new style of beer and the first new style created under the Reinheitsgebot, the German purity law. It looks more like  champagne than beer with a 10.3% ABV. It costs a cool $20 but comes with its own champagne type flute. This one's going to go fast. As always, let us know in comments where you found it and what you think of it. Your chances of getting it are better the sooner you're on the prowl. Ask for Lagunitas while you're looking.

The Trader Joe's Exemption

A prospective business known for selling cheap beer and wine is seeking an exemption to laws that restrict liquor licenses near residential areas. There should be no exemption made, the law should be repealed. Trader Joe's is the prospective business in this case, so the city of Kansas City is going to bend over backwards to change the rules for their real masters, the corporate class.

Mind you, I want Trader Joe's to be in Kansas City. The location in question is less than 10 minutes from my house. But, I don't think the city should give them an exemption from a law that has probably prevented many a local small businessman to scrap his plans. There should be no expemption, the law should be repealed.

Before you say, but Trader Joe's is good for the community, they'll bring more tax dollars to town. Well, that's probably true, but it's also true that their are many street corners in town with 4 empty storefronts on a corner. It would be good for the tax base if one of those empty storefronts was occupied with a business selling wine and liquor. Unfortunately, the type of businessperson likely to open such a storefront isn't going to be a corporation with thousands of dollars to give to city council members and lawyers. No, that businessman is just told no and must figure out some other business to own in that spot. There should be no exemption, the law should be repealed.

Laws should either be binding to everyone, or to no one. Giving the city council the tools to give exemptions to laws also gives them the tools for grift. There should be no exemption, the law should be repealed. To say otherwise is to wish for a city council bought and paid for by Wal-Mart, DST, H&R Block and AEG.

Keep this in mind when you Kansas Citians are calling your council members to get them to do something. There should be no exemption, the law should be repealed.

Lagunitas Needs Us

Have you ever been walking around in a crowded place and have an incredible ball itch? You don't want to reach down and grab yourself and give yourself the scratch you so richly deserve, but you simply must scratch yourself. You give yourself one shot, as you turn a corner or turn from a group of people, you make it look as natural as you can, you disguise it as best as you can and you scratch that itch. And it feels divine as it sends a shiver down your spine. To me, Lagunitas is that ball scratch. The exact opposite of this feeling is watching the Judds episode of Oprah.

I've written about Lagunitas brews several times in very glowing terms. Once Schlafly No. 15 is retired I will count Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin' as my favorite beer. I always have Lagunitas New Dogtown Pale Ale on hand because it's a top 5 beer for me. Lagunitas IPA is widely regarded as one of the best IPA's in the world. Hop Stoopid is stoopid cheap and a comparable beer to Bell's Hopslam which is 5 times as expensive. Brown Shugga' is one of my highlights of the fall so far. Little Sumpin' Wild seems like a disappointment when compared to other Lagunitas beers, but I've bought 5 22 oz. bottles of it this month. What I'm trying to say is Lagunitas is my favorite brewery at the moment and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Because of the "Brew Masters" show liquor stores around town are being inundated with calls about Dogfish Head. I love Dogfish Head just as much as anybody, but they're not coming to Missouri or Kansas anytime soon. It's not a distributor issue or a retailer issue, Dogfish Head just doesn't produce enough beer to supply Missouri in addition to the rest of their distribution area. Lagunitas is already here and is happy to supply the drinkers of the KC metro. But, we're not doing our job because we don't get all the beers Lagunitas will supply us with. We can't go to the liquor store and buy Maximus, a double IPA, or Lagunitas Imperial Stout. To me this is a shame and I couldn't figure out why. I decided to do a little bit of detective work to figure this out.

The problem is Lagunitas just doesn't have the name recognition from retailers in the area and retailers are not willing to give up 2 or 3 more facings for Lagunitas if they have any at all. Over the summer only 22 liquor stores in Kansas (there's around 40 in KS) carried Little Sumpin' Sumpin' and of those 22, 7 of them carried less than 3 cases. Even fewer stores are carrying Brown Shugga'. What we need to do is let these stores know that they should be carrying more Lagunitas.

Fairway Liquor, which is in the little strip mall by Oklahoma Joe's on 47th Street, was on my list of stores that got more than 5 cases of Little Sumpin' Sumpin'. I made a phone call to them in the hope that they still had some Little Sumpin' Sumpin'. What I found on that phone call was the friendliest and most helpful liquor store employee I've ever found. He not only told me they didn't have Little Sumpin' Sumpin' but looked up when they sold their last one. This friendliness warranted an in-person visit from me. I found a run of the mill neighborhood liquor store with empty slots in the cooler and no Brown Shugga' (though they did have some bottles of Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad and a great Smokestack display). I picked up a sixer of Lagunitas IPA and mentioned I was looking for Brown Shugga'. The clerks couldn't have been more friendly and I'm going to give them the crown of friendliest liquor store in town. They just need a little help deciding what they need to stock regularly. This process of going into a store, buying a Lagunitas product and inquiring about a Lagunitas product they don't have needs to happen 100x over. I don't have the time to visit all these stores, but it needs to happen.

The following stores in town received 1 case of Little Sumpin' Sumpin' and I'm willing to bet that they don't carry Brown Shugga'.

Beer Cave (10037 W. 87th)
K-7 Liquor (22088 W. 66th)
Metcalf Liquor (7527 Metcalf)
Mission Wine & Spirits (5801 Johnson Dr.)
Valley Wine & Spirits (10103 Cherry Lane)

A couple of visits by you to these stores or other small stores in Kansas can and will increase the amount of Lagunitas the distributor can sell. Only 2700 cases of Lagunitas have been sold in Kansas this year (8200 have been sold in MO) which is pretty shameful. The distributor can't carry Maximus, Imperial Stout and Pils unless they're sure they can sell through. Smaller liquor stores only have so many facings and can't carry everything. Considering they pretty much must carry all the Boulevard and Free State regulars, at least 12 facings are taken. If a store is going to carry Lagunitas they have to know that it's a big seller. Running a small liquor store is a pretty hard deal because the beer salesmen don't give them the kind of help they need and since Lagunitas is pretty new to the area, the smaller retailers just don't know about it. The best way they can find out what they need to carry is to have their customers tell them (if you don't care about Lagunitas ask for what you care about).

There really is no reason we don't get all that Lagunitas has to offer. But, it's going to take a little work by us to get it sold. I can't think of a more deserving brewery. 

One last thing, most every bottle of Lagunitas has a phone number on it and says to go ahead and call. I did and had a great 20 minute conversation with the guy who answered. I encourage you to do the same with a recently purchased bottle of Lagunitas.

A Wintering We Will Go

For me, winter beer is all about Nutcracker, Frambozen and increasingly Shiner Holiday Cheer (for the warmer days in winter). But, I've forced myself off the reservation to try out some other winter beers just to see if I could find something else to add to the pantheon of winter beer.

Breckenridge Christmas Ale
Christmas Ale is a solid beer and priced right at $8.99/sixer. It's pretty cheap when you consider that it has a 7.4% ABV. The problem with it is it's completely forgettable. I never eagerly anticipated drinking one though I did enjoy the dark fruit and spice taste of it. Christmas Ale just didn't do its thing for me and I don't think I'll be going back to it this season.

New Belgium 2 Below
Oh New Belgium, I do believe I've outgrown you. I enjoyed 2 Below as recently as 2 years ago and I kind of looked forward to drinking my sixer of it. 2 Below is chock full of bready flavors with a pretty strong hop flavor on top. There's nothing wrong with 2 Below and I found myself anticipating it but it continually left me disappointed which sums up my thoughts on New Belgium now (with the very notable exception of Frambozen).

Anderson Valley Winter Solstice
For some reason, I've never had an Anderson Valley beer. I decided to rectify that by trying out Winter Solstice. I'm better for the experience. I looked forward to drinking every one of them and rather enjoyed each of them. It's got a real light mouthfeel for a winter warmer style beer. It's rather sweet and has a good spice and fruit flavor. I'm not adding Winter Solstice to the pantheon or anything but I'll probably have another sixer. The only downside to Winter Solstice is the $10.50 price tag on a sixer.

Sam Adams Winter Lager
Sam Adams main seasonals are some of my favorite Sam Adams beers. I very rarely buy one of their year round offerings but I truly enjoy Summer Ale, Octoberfest and Noble Pils. Winter Lager is no different. It's quite hoppy but has a nice crisp taste. It's better for a warmer winter day than the other 3 and was my favorite of this bunch (Winter Solstice was very close). I could easily drink Winter Lager all evening and it joins Goose Island Mild Winter and Lagunitas Brown Shugga' at a level just below the pantheon of winter beers.

BBQ Day

Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad (BBQ) will be hitting your favorite local package store today. BBQ goes fast so if BBQ is your bag, you better find you some today. As you find it, make sure you leave a comment where you found it and the price. This is a limited release and will only be available in the 750 mL bottles so the price will be around $12.

Look at Frenchy's $1m smile. The Royals  will pay him $15m for 3 years

BBQ is not my favorite of the Smokestack bunch because of my dislike of barrel aging. Plus, we've had a glass of it at about 6 straight Gents meetings. But, after a long day yesterday of kids bickering, not wanting to pick up, etc. I was scouring the house for some high alcohol bliss after they went to bed. The best thing I could find was some Breckenridge Christmas Ale. While Breckenridge Christmas is a fine beer it did not send me on a journey of looking for (probably future Royal, maybe as early as today) Jeff Francouer beefcake pictures (okay, I did do that, but I didn't send out any inappropriate tweets or harass Chimpotle like last time I drank a whole bottle of BBQ). If I had some BBQ on hand, I totally would have drank that bottle last night. That's why it's important to buy it while you can.

The Magic Man

I read over at the Wort Hog blog about the magician at Waldo Pizza that was shot in the head last week after his shift. Thankfully, magicians can take a gunshot to the head and Eric the magician is doing as well as could be expected in the hospital. The fine folks at Waldo Pizza have set up a fund to help Eric pay the hospital bills and make up for his loss of income while he recovers.

We have established a fund for Eric called the Eric Price Help at Hand Fund. You can bring (or mail) your much appreciated donations to either Waldo Pizza location or to the UMB Bank at 8442 Wornall KC, MO 64114. Thank you very much. Please keep Eric in your thoughts!

So, if you're able, head over to Waldo Pizza, get a great beer on tap and leave a little cash for Eric, who has helped make Waldo Pizza a neighborhood delight for families. You can follow Eric's progress on the Waldo Pizza Facebook site.

Sam the Sixth Glass Man

At the end of Monday's episode of "Brew Masters" I thought I noticed a bottle of Sixth Glass sitting on Sam's desk. I paused the show, got up and walked to the TV to get a closer look to verify it being Sixth Glass. I didn't think it was, the font on what would say Sixth Glass looked different and the picture of the Sixth Glass man didn't seem the same. Then last night Paul A. Ner posted the same picture I looked at and when I blow it up it definitely looks like the Sixth Glass man on the picture but the lettering still doesn't look right to me. The bottle just doesn't look like it says Sixth Glass to me, but it doesn't look like any other beer so I'd say I'm 85% sure it's Sixth Glass. Anyway, here's the picture, let us know what you think. Also note the sockless Pony look.