Party for the Senses

Hosting an event for Radeberger and Schöfferhofer at Disney's Epcot Center.
















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Finally the Stories and Pics from GABF2010

Okay, call me "Slacker". It's been almost a month since the close of GABF 2010 and I am just know getting around to posting something. We'll as a wise man once said "better late, than never". So grab a beer, here goes........

 On this adventure I was joined by two of my colleagues whom you may see in pictures or I will make reference to as we go. I will, to the best of my ability, try to accurately recount the the events as they happened, in the order they happened. Fair warning though what I can't remember, I'll make up, because as I will remind you this was the Great American Beer Festival so it's a wonder I remember anything at all.
 The first set back was at the Denver airport car rental desk. We were greeted by an absolutely pleasant agent who instructed us to proceed directly to the shuttle bus that would take us to our car located off site. A minute and a half into our bus ride, and well past the point of no return, our colleague realized he had us riding the wrong shuttle bus. So upon our arrival at the wrong agency we proceeded to re-board another bus for our return trip to where we had begone. Don't worry this is not going to be the "War and Peace" version. I just thought it was a funny story.
 First stop, Oskar Blues Brewing, for a well deserved beverage. Choices at their pub were plentiful and included, Dale's Pale Lager and a Barrel Aged Old Chub with Cherries.

Dale's Brew Pub

Dale's Fresh Off The Caning Line

Dale's Pale Lager

Fermenters

I think they need a bigger bucket....

Gubna Cans waiting to be filled

Ten Fidy Barel Aging

 Happy Little Dale's cans waiting to be shipped to a fine retail store near you.

  Click it or Ticket! They are all ready to go. Well this was the first of many stories, so keep checking back for further adventures.

 What?  Did you think I was going to try to write about the entire trip in one sitting? No way, I'm outta here...... Cheers!

Great American Beer Fest

Well I'm at the GABF and will post the exploits and pics when I get back. Follow me on Twitter for all the up to the minute play by play. Cheers!

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Abita SOS Update

Press release from Abita Brewery.....

ABITA SPRINGS, La. –  August 26, 2010, David Blossman of Abita Brewery will present New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond and Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans co-president Gordon Wadge with a check for $100,000 to help the church with their ongoing oil spill relief work. The $100,000 gift from Abita’s SOS Fund will be used to help 40 families affected by the oil spill with direct gifts of $2500 each.

But the project does not end here. According to brewery representatives SOS will remain in production for at least 8 more months. 100 % of the funds raised from the SOS project go directly to the charity. No administrative costs are incured.

For more information please visit: http://sos.abita.com

THEY'RE BACK!

  As happens every year those Pumpkin beers appear, but now it seems earlier than ever. Good ones, bad ones, ones you could care less about. So that begs the question, why is almost every craft brewery in North America trying their hand at brewing what everyone else is? God help us are they actually competing for "market share" like the big boys? Well if you're so inclined to sample the myriad of beer all brewed with pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla and other thanksgiving spices here's a look a just a few.. I'll wait for "The Great Pumpkin" with Snoopy. 

Dogfish Head: Bitches Brew Release

 

  Dogfish Head  celebrates the 40th anniversary of the landmark release of Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew".  This quintessential jazz album changed the face of jazz recordings since it's release in 1970. The improvisational trumpet style that Miles possessed was both controversial and revered. Recorded in three days, this monumental double album forever changed how musicians approached their instruments, recordings and musical style. If this album is not in your collection I would suggest you put it on the top of your list of new purchases. As for the beer, I have yet to try it but will. To quote the DFH site.. "we've created our own Bitches Brew - a bold, dark beer that's a fusion of three threads imperial stout and one thread honey beer with gesho root, a gustatory analog to Miles' masterpiece". So grab a bottle and the album and enjoy. Cheers!

For more information visit: DFH Bitches Brew

The Bruery: Coton

Okay, so every major craft brewery in north America and abroad, has jumped on the barrel aging bandwagon. So much so that an entire cottage industry has evolved to find those highly sought after oak barrels. But what sets The Bruery's "Coton" apart from the rest is that they not only limited the the aged portion to 25% of the over all volume but they did this by using a process called "Solera". Now at the risk of totally confusing you and myself. I decided to have Wiki explain it. Alright I'll come clean it is actually kinda hard to retain much information after a snifter of this  2010 anniversary ale which chimes in a robust 14.5%.
  Take it away Wiki.......
   In the solera process, a succession of containers are filled with the product over a series of equal aging intervals (usually a year). One container is filled for each interval. At the end of the interval after the last container is filled, the oldest container in the solera is tapped for part of its content, which is bottled. Then that container is refilled from the next oldest container, and that one in succession from the second-oldest, down to the youngest container, which is refilled with new product. This procedure is repeated at the end of each aging interval. The transferred product mixes with the older product in the next barrel.
  No container is ever drained, so some of the earlier product always remains in each container. This remnant diminishes to a tiny level, but there can be significant traces of product much older than the average, depending on the transfer fraction. In theory traces of the very first product placed in the solera may be present even after 50 or 100 cycles.
  The age of product from the first bottling is the number of containers times the aging interval. As the solera matures, the average age of product asymptotically approaches the difference between the number of containers (K) and the fraction of a container transferred or bottled (α), divided by the fraction of a container which is transferred or bottled {(K-α)/α}.
  For instance, suppose the solera consists of four barrels of wine, and half of each barrel is transferred once a year. At the end of the fourth year (and each subsequent year), half the fourth barrel is bottled. This first bottling is aged four years. The second bottling will be half four years old and half five years old (the wine left in the last barrel at the previous cycle), for an average age of four and a half years. The third bottling will be: one fourth wine that was six years in the fourth barrel, one fourth wine that was four years in the third barrel and one year in the fourth barrel, one fourth that was three years in the third barrel and two years in the fourth barrel, and one fourth that was two years in the second barrel, one year in the third, and one year in the fourth: average age five years. After 20 years, the output of the solera would be a mix of wine from 4 to 20 years old, averaging slightly under 7 years. The average age asymptotically converges on seven years as the solera continues.
 Are you still with me??? Well the beer geeks out there probably followed all that but I'm still left wishing i had passed Algebra in high school. None-the-less Coton is based on the Bruery's the original recipe for Papier, their first anniversary ale brued in the English style Old Ale tradition.
  Ideally served at 60 degrees this malty complected beer is wildely complex with flavors of dark fruit,vanilla, oak, and burnt sugar. It pours with a deep amber color and a robust beige head. Coton is a "big " beer in all respects. So if you can find it in your area by all means pick a bottle up. Mine was # 06372. Cheers!

Information courtesy of  Wikipedia.org