March will see the release of several big stouts.  Here's a quick rundown

• Great Lakes Blackout Stout is now available in Louisville, KY.  I know it was released a bit earlier, but it's just now hitting shelves and I'm damn excited about it.  Big, roasty, complex, and a touch of hops make this one a real winner.
• Goose Island will be releasing the first bottled variation to their uber-popular Bourbon County Stout in March, the Coffee Bourbon County Stout.  This is the standard BCS infused with Intelligentsia Black Cat espresso.  It will be available in 22 oz bottles and distribution is unknown.  PLEASE come to Louisville.  If not, I will be trading for this one.
• Goose Island will also release the Night Stalker in 22 oz bottles.  This is the base imperial stout used for the BCS and I can personally attest that this one is worth seeking out.
• DORIS the Destroyer, the bigger, maltier, hoppier big sister to BORIS the Crusher will be released by Hoppin' Frog.  Being that BORIS is one of my favorite RIS' of all time, I'll drive to Akron to get this one if I have to. 
• Surly is releasing 4, their iced double espresso milk stout, this month and I will be receiving this along with a Darkness in a trade from translucent (the man). 

Lots of big, dark, roasty stuff showing up on shelves for the stout lovers out there.  I hope to get my hands on all of them.  Cheers!

This may or may not be a new weekly feature for me, so we'll see.  I'm just going to re-cap the beer week that was.  Not the most original thing, but it will be a quick way to see what happened/what was learned/what to expect. 

• Surly makes good beer.  At least the two I tried this week.
• Sierra Nevada's 30th Anniversary website is up.  Check it out here.  The first collaboration is a big stout with Fritz Maytag.  Let's hope that bad-boy makes it to Louiville.
• Both the Founders Nemesis and the Bell's Batch 9000 made it to the local area this week.  Haven't had the Nemesis yet, but the Batch 9000 is a good beer with lots of potential over time.  Check the initial reviews here. 
• BBC's Bourbon Barrel Smoked Stout is good.
• BBC is putting the Heine Bros. Coffee Stout on draft in the near future.  That's great.
• BBC also has some Heine Bros. Coffee Stout aging in Woodford Reserve barrels and will be putting that on draft in the next month or two.  That's fantastic news and something I'll be anxiously awaiting. 
• The Louisville Beer Store is a damn cool place and somewhere I hope becomes a landmark for the emerging Louisville beer scene.  Tyler and Lori are extremely nice and the store has lots of potential.  Certainly check it out if you are in the area.  I'm going to be frequenting it more and more often.
• Speaking of which, lots of good stuff coming up on tap at the Louisville Beer Store, including a draft-only special from Founders.  Be excited.
• Gravity Head is not far away. 
• The first of (hopefully) many "meeting of the minds" occurred Wednesday between Gibby, Mike, and myself.  Great times and once again proves that good beer + good people + good location = a great evening with tons of good conversation.  It's part of the reason I love being a beer geek.
• One of the more interesting beer sequences I've ever had also occurred that night.  Here's how it went down, in order:  Founder's Breakfast Stout Draft, Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Draft, Geuze Boone sour bottle, Beer Here Dark Hops Hoppy Black Ale, and finally a Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen (aka: the bacon beer). That's an odd and varied group of beers.  It was fun. 
• I'm starting to get a real taste for sour/wild beers.  This could be interesting.

 That's about it.  Lots of stuff to review next week so keep an eye out.  I should be posting a lot.  Have a good weekend everyone! 

Lots of stuff has been going on in the past few weeks and I've been a bit lazy with the updates, so bare with me as there's a lot of stuff going on. 

• TONS of new beers hitting the shelves already or in the near future, one of which is Bell's Batch 9000.  Batch 9000 is a long-awaited imperial stout featuring molasses and brewer's licorice (hopefully it works better in a big stout than by itself) and weighs in at a hefty 12.5% abv.  Rumor is it will be around the same price-point as HopSlam (about $18/sixer) and is being much more widely distributed than most highly sought after imperial stouts.  Rumor is it will be available in the Louisville market this week and I'll be heading to Liquor Barn as soon as I hear of it's arrival.
• Speaking of big stouts, Sierra Nevada is celebrating their 30th anniversary with a series of collaboration brews, the first of which is an cork-and-caged imperial stout made with Fritz Maytag, the founder of Anchor Steam Brewing.  This is said to be a rich and roasty stout perfect for aging or enjoying as a sipper right now.  It will weigh in at 9.5% abv and given Sierra Nevada's track record, I am as excited about this one as any.
• Founder's Nemesis, a maple-syrup barrel-aged wheat-wine, is also out in the markets, though in very limited distribution.  Given Founders' incredible series of high-alcohol (this one weighs in at 12% abv) beers, especially darker, heavier ones, this is another can't miss if you happen to be lucky enough to find it. 
• On more of a hoppy note, Hoppin' Frog and Surly are both releasing brews catering to the hop-tooth in all of us.  Hop Dam Triple IPA, Hoppin' Frog's bigger brother to the already extreme Mean Manalishi, hits shelves just after Valentine's Day.  Any hop-head who has tried a fresh Mean Manalishi has to be excited about this one.  As for Surly, they are canning (yes, they can their beers) their uber-famous (and one-time brewed) 16-Grit IIPA and renaming it Abrasive Ale.   And lucky for me, I have some heading my way when it comes out in March.  Damn-straight I'm dancing a hop-jig about that fact.
• I recently discovered the hobby of beer trading, and it's taking over my thought process.  My first trade netted me some Surly Coffee Bender and Furious (AWESOME IPA) and has some of the previously mentioned Abrasive on its way and a second trade will net me a Surly Darkness (the super hard to find and top-25 rated RIS) and a Surly 4, their upcoming iced coffee imperial milk stout.  Also have one in the works for some Pliny the Elder and hopefully an Abyss and a Black Butte XXI from Deschutes.  It's damn fun and a great way to try beers from around the country/world.
• Spent a wonderful day with some fellow beer geeks in Bowling Green, KY.  Tons of good conversation, beer suggestions/opinions, and ideas about things to do in the future.  Hopefully Patrick, Blake, and crew will make it to Louisville sometime so we can share a few more brews together.  At least we have Dark Lord Day to look forward to together.
• Speaking of DLD, Gibby and I will be attending our first Dark Lord Day and I can't tell you how excited I am.  This is the biggest beer release party in the world and, according to the Blake, a beer-lover's dream.  April 24th can't get here soon enough.

That's about it for now.  Tons of beers to review (see my prior posting about the best beer week of 2010 to date) and tons more to get in the near future.  The first quarter of 2010 is turning into one hell of a beer experience.  Stick around to read all about it.  Cheers everyone!

The past 7 days have been damn successful on the beer front.  I completed my first trade for some MN brews, Gibby hooked me up with some stuff from Hawaii, I got to try a Mikkeller Black and the "bacon beer", and I had a DAMN successful trip to Bowling Green where I was fortunate enough to hang out with some fellow KY beer geeks and snag a few harder to find brews (Thanks Patrick and Blake!).  Here's the week-long haul:

• Gueuze Girardin 1882
• 2007 De Struise Brouwers Pannepot Old Farmehouse Ale
• Ithaca Ten
• Ithaca Old Habit
• 2007 Schlafly Reserve Imperial Stout Aged in Bourbon Barrels
• Surly Furious
• Surly Coffee Bender
• Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti
• Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel
• ift Bridge Beer Farm Girl Saison
• Peche' Mortal
• Troegs Mad Elf
• Great Lakes Commodore Perry
• Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald
• Founders Backwoods Bastard
• Dark Horse Crooked Tree
• Dark Horse Scotty Karate
• Kona Pipeline Porter
• Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale
• Kona Wailua
• Maui Breweing Big Swell IPA
• Maui Brewing Bikini Lager
• Sprecher Black Bavarian Lager

I have to say that is a successful week and gives me PLENTY of stuff to review over the next few weeks/month or so.  And to make it better I still have a Surly Darkness, Surly 4 and/or Smoke, Surly Abrasive, Bell's Batch 9000, and (hopefully) a Hop Dam Triple IPA from Hoppin' Frog.  All before Dark Lord Day in April.  This is easily turning out to be the best beer year I've ever had, and that may happen before half a year is over.  Cheers everyone!

 

Hop-Heads rejoice!!  One of the craft brewing community's favorite IIPAs and a bigger, badder version of an already big and bad IIPA will be released in the coming months. 

Hoppin' Frog, pride of Akron, OH (outside of Lebron James, of course) will be releasing Hop Dam Triple IPA around mid February.  Tapped at 10% abv with "High IBUs", this one is sure to please the hop lover in all of us.  And if it's even more hoppy than the obscenely-hopped Mean Manalishi Double IPA (168 IBUs), then be ready for a palate-crushing, hop-slap of an experience.  Rumors are that Hoppin' Frog is expanding to two new states this year, so here's to hoping KY is one of those.   

Surly also released information about their upcoming Abrasive Ale, a canned double IPA being released this spring.  Abrasive is a rebirth of the incredibly popular 16-Grit IIPA, which was created for an event marking the last time Surly could sell growlers in Minnesota.  No official specs for Abrasive have been released, but the original 16-Grit had 9% abv, 110 IBUs, and dry-hopped twice with Glacier and Amarillo hops.  As an added bonus, this will be released in cans.  After trying my first IPA in cans a month or so ago (the Ska Modus Hoperandi), I can attest that the aluminum packaging does nothing to deter the hop profile of a beer.  Surly is limited in their distribution, but this, along with a few other Surly beers, might just give me enough of an incentive to make the trek up to the Gopher State this spring.   

I find it kind of hard to believe that I have been going to Chicago several times a month for the past year or so and have yet to visit the 3Floyds brewery/brewpub in Munster, IN, a mere 30ish miles from downtown Chicago.  Well this Saturday that small snafu will finally be corrected.  Kelley and I are heading to the brewpub for lunch and I'm very excited.  Here's the link to this week's beer list and I already have my line-up ready to go. 

First up is the Dreadnaught IIPA-  Had it before and it's amazing.  One of my favorite IIPAs, so trying it fresh on draft is going to be a treat.

Next is the Artic Panzer Wolf, a IIPA that will "leave your palate it's hapless victim".  It's a draft only beer for the area and I'm hoping it's a more hop-forward version of the Dreadnaught, but we will see.  A IIPA comparison will be fun.

Next I go to a 2007 Stone Imperial Russian Stout.  This is a guest draft and seeing that the Stone IRS is one of my favorite RIS', I can't wait to try one a few years old on draft. 

And to finish things off I'm going with the Raspberry Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, an imp. stout brewed by Pete Crowley, a friend of 3Floyds (or so the website says). 

I'll also share a pizza with the fiance' at some point in that mix.  And luckily she will be there to drive me back to her place to watch the Cats play.  Now if that doesn't sound like a great Saturday afternoon, I don't know what does.  I'll check back in next week to let everyone know how it was, pics included.  Cheers!

Goose Island, makers of the highly popular and even more potent Bourbon Country Stout, has announced several additions to the Bourbon County Stout line-up.  Bourbon County Coffee Stout, Bourbon Country Vanilla Stout, and Bourbon Country Rare Stout will all see limited release in 2010. 

• Bourbon County Coffee Stout was brewed in 2008 and has aged in Heaven Hill barrels for about 15 months.  It is then blended with Intelligentsia Black Cat Espresso.  Available in March in 22 oz bottles.

• Bourbon Country Vanilla Stout is a vanilla stout also aged in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels and will be available in October in 22 oz bottles.

• Bourbon Country Rare Stout was brewed in 2008, aged for 24 months in 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle barrels.  This will be a one time bottling and will be available in November in 22 oz bottles.

 Also available in March is the Night Stalker Imperial Stout, which was originally produced last March.  It is the same base stout as is used in the Bourbon County Stout, but instead of aging in bourbon barrels, this version is dry-hopped, giving it a bit of a dry-hop aroma to go along with all the big imperial stout goodness.  I was lucky enough to try this last spring when it was avaialbe and I can say from experience that this is one damn good stout. 

I can't wait for all of these to come out and will do everything I can to get a few bottles of each.  The "standard" (it really can't be called standard) Bourbon County Stout is now available in both 4-packs and 22 oz bottles and can even be found on draft at select locations (Sergio's). 

I was browsing around on beeradvocate.com today and found the long-running beer porn posting.  What is beer porn you ask?  Beer porn is what we beer geeks/beer lovers call pictures of beer collections/beer cellars/any other groups of good beer.  While my collection isn't quite as impressive as many found on BA (or even Gibby's collection for that matter), I am starting to build a decent set of beers for future sampling.  Here's what I have going so far (and multiples of a lot of them):

• Brooklyn Black Ops Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
• Hoppin' Frog BORIS the Crusher
• Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout
• Great Divide Yeti Stout
• Mikkeler Beer Geek Breakfast Coffee Stout
• 2009 Stone Imperial Russian Stout
• St Bernardus Abt 12
• Dogfish Head/Sierra Nevada Life & Limb
• Sam Adams Triple Bock
• Trappist Rochefort 10 (with about 2 years age on it)
• Founders Imperial Stout
• Founders Breakfast Stout
• Bells Java Stout
• Sam Adams Double Bock
• Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
• North Coast Old Rasputin' RIS
• 2009 Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
• Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel Peche Mortal 
• 2008 Avery the Czar RIS
• Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad

Like I said, it's not the most impressive collection, but it's growing. Any big stout I get going forward I'm going to grab an extra or two (depending on size of bottle) just for cellaring.  There are several I already have on my plate to grab next time I make a trip to Keg Liquors across the river (this weekend possibly?) and will periodically keep everyone updated as to how the collection is going.  If you have any pictures or collections you want to share, please do so in the comments section.  We would love to hear what everyone else is sitting on.  Cheers.

HopSlam that is.  And it's better than ever.  A super hoppy explosion of mango/grapefruit/pineapple flavors and aromas with hints of all sorts of other goodness.  This is THE best IIPA east of California and can hold its own with about anything from out there.  One hell of a beer. 

 

Side note:  I also grabbed a bottle of the near-impossible to find Brooklyn Black Ops Imperial Stout and one of the new Avery DuganA IIPAs.   Very successful trip to Liquor Barn on this snowy, cold Thursday.  

Folks, it's been a great year for me, both in the craft beer world and the regular world.  I mean I got engaged, got my MBA, had a blast at the GABF, and even got to watch my beloved Cats bounce back (catch that, you Calipari fans?) from a putrid 2008/2009 campaign.  Below are a few of my beer highlights for the year (or at least the ones I can remember). 

• Pliny the Elder.  It is all that it is cracked up to be.   
• the Bluegrass Brewing Company has grown to titanic levels of fondness in my heart.  They know my name, they treat me well, and I have a great time every time I'm there.  That place is awesome.
• Colorado knows how to make a damn fine IPA.  I know Cali is the real king of the hoppy stuff, but two of my favorite standard IPAs come from the Centennial State.  Odell IPA and Great Divide's Titan IPA are both fantastic and worthy of praise usually reserved for the California breweries. 
• The Awards Session of the Great American Beer Festival.  Not many places you have the opportunity to try over 1,000 craft beers from across the US and bump shoulders with industry big-wigs like Garret Oliver and Jim Koch. 
• If there's a word for someone who is addicted to hops, that word describes me to a "T".  I just don't think hop-head is quite strong enough anymore. 
• Also discovered my love for imperial stouts, hoppy ambers (like Bear Republic's Hop Rod Rye), and dopplebocks. 
• The Traditional Bock from Sam Adams 2009 Longshot 6-pack is a perfect beer for grilling brats.  I wish they could make this year round. 
• As for the stouts, I tried a boat-load of the big ones this year.  Here are my stand-outs:  Hoppin' Frog's BORIS the Crusher (technically tried it in 2008, but fell in love with it in 2009), Founder's Breakfast Stout (never thought I would love a coffee stout, but this one proved me wrong), Great Divide the Yeti, and a 2007 Avery the Czar, which was possibly the best stout I've ever had. 
• I'm typically a US craft beer guy, but dopplebocks are damn tasty.  Why can't American brewers make more of these? 
• Did I mention Pliny the Elder is fantastic? 
• Sierra Nevada has cemented its status as one of the absolute best breweries out there.... amazing consistency and a line-up packed with high-quality brews.  The Torpedo alone is enough for me to love this brewery.  It's hard to think of another brewery with a list of beers as consistently good as Sierra Nevada. 

There's a lot on the table for 2010 and a lot of beers I plan on trying.  Hopefully Gibby and I can take the site to a new level (you should see how far it's come since this time last year).  I hope everyone had as good a 2009 as I had and I hope everyone has a happy (and safe) New Year's.  I know this post is a few days early, but I may not be back on before heading out of town for 5 days on Weds.  Take care everyone.  Cheers.