CU Beer Club April Edition, wrapup

Ok, there were no IPAs.

How can there be a beer club devoted to beers west of the Mississippi, and there be no IPAs?

Well, I didn't bring any. And apparently no one else did either.

Here's most of the beers.

Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti.
Deschutes The Abyss
Great lakes Barrel Aged Blackout Stout
Firestone Walker Porter Reserve
Russian River Consecration
Port Hot Rocks Lager
Port Old Viscosity
Avery Anniversary 12
The Bruery Orchard White
The Breuery Black Orchard
Hair of the Dog Fred
North Coast Old Rasputin
Pyramid Imperial Hefeweizen
Mendocino Black Eye
Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale (ok, there was 1 pale)

We also discussed Dark Lord Day events, and Great Taste of the Midwest.

CU Beer Club April Edition

Tonight is the April edition of the Champaign Urbana Beer Club. It's theme is beers from west of the Mississippi. Eventually if you go far enough west you'll wind up here, so don't be put off if you don't have anything that seems "westerly".

Last month was beers from east of the Mississippi. It turned into stout-fest. That's not really a problem, as this area has some really great stouts, Bells, Founders, Great Lakes, Goose Island, 3 Floyds; then you can get to the smaller breweries, Central Waters, New Holland, Flossmoor... there's some great breweries in this area.

I commonly think of IPA's and DIPA's and Imperial IPA's when I think of west coast beers. Oregon, Washington, (Idaho)... that's the hops growing region, so they can make some really fresh and potent IPAs. There are several stouts from the west on Beer Advocate's top 100; Deschutes The Abyss; Alesmith Speedway; Port Older Viscosity... (I'm leaving out Colorado, even though they are west of the Mississippi, I'm talking about west coast, not central west, has Colorado ever been called central west before?). Most of the beers that the west coast is know for is the IPA's. The Pliney's, Firestone, Sierra Nevada, Blind Pig...

I'm not sure if tonight will be the Hopfest to counteract last months stoutfest. But it could happen.

I don't have any hop bombs to bring tonight, so I'll just haveta see what I can find in the basement. I do have a good idea though.

Beer Club starts at 6:30 at Crane Alley, on the second floor; beer will probably be opened around 7:30.

I don't have pool tonight, so I can focus all my energy on beer... as though I don't do that anyway.

CU there.

Wendls softball

Wendls softball leagues have been pushed back a week. The start date is now April 20.

They are still looking for teams. So if you know 10 people, get them together.

Champaign parks district already has schedules out, so it's too late there.

If you are looking for a team, go to the Wend's page.

More commercials; HOPS

Miller Lite hops their beer three times during the brewing process.

I'm not sure if you knew this before or not, but apparently they do. I don't know if you've ever tasted the hops in their beer, but I don't think I have.

Here's the short version of the commercial.



This commercial is probably in retaliation to the Budweiser Idaho Hops commercial.



So, it's Idaho Hops, versus triple hops. Either way, there's no hops flavor whatsoever in the watered down version of beer.

Interestingly, in the Miller Lite commercial they ask "How does Miller Lite get all that great Pilsner taste?"

The answer should be pilsner malts and saaz hops. Miller just claims it's from triple hopping.

In the long version of the Miller Lite commercial, they show a brewer pouring hops into the brew kettle from a 5 gallon bucket. Doesn't Miller have an automated process for this? Heck, Dogfish Head has Sir Hops Alot, so they don't have to pour the Hops in 3 whole times during the brewing process. Does Miller use whole leaf hops as the commercial suggests? Don't they use hops extract?

Is Miller just trying to show themselves as a craft brewery? They tried that, it didn't go over well. Miller does own some darn fine breweries, and can produce some good beers if they want to. But parading around as a pilsner, that doesn't taste like pilsner (but is good for hydration) is misleading. Victory Prima Pils, is a good example of an American made pilsner. Miller Lite, Budweiser... aren't.

So, there's some more commercials I hate.

I'm sure you hate them too.

If anyone knows the URL to the long form of the Miller commercial, let me know.

There are several other blogs that complain about these commercials too, so I'm not the only one.

BeerJanglin'; Wine Snobs Become Bud Geeks!

Slashfood; Miller Lite Now Touting "Triple Hops"

There's more out there. See, I'm not the only one.

Beer Tickets You Wish You Had #2

Horray, they arrived. This will be the second in the series of Beer Tickets You Wish You Had.

The first was Great Taste of the Midwest. This one is Dark Lord Day 2009.

You'll note it says something like Bottle Limit Set on Day of Event.

You'll also note that it's more of a purple ticket with gold... hehe.

Skot has informed me, he got his. Sammons got his, Kridz got hers, and Paddy's were also at the house when I opened mine.

I attempted to TWEET it last night, but it didn't seem to go through as I also CC'd someone else on my phone that the tix were at the house.

Did everyone else get theirs?

They are already on Ebay, current price is $100 (make that $177)(make that $14,999.44... WTF???)(it seems that auction has been pulled) (but it's been reoffered by Mr. DB, and the bidding is up to 1 grand).

Also, some jackass is selling a (a, that's 1) ticket with a buy it now of $399, there are 5 available on EBay right now (make that 9 now).

Beers for Smart@ss. a hearty thanks

Smart@ss received news from his doctor today that he is now able to consume alcoholic beverages again.

So for all of you who drank a beer (or two), everyone who asked about it at Beer Club, everyone who was like "oh, SMAAAART@@@SSS" you can now raise your glass and he'll be able to raise one with you.

So now the question is: What should be his first beer in almost 6 months?

(I know I didn't keep up with the column on the side; but it's going to be coming down shortly.)

New Inventory Items

In my recent travels and purchases, the following beers have been acquired.

They mostly came from three trips, one was up to Bloomington to go meet Sammons. Another was to West Lakeview Liquors. The last was to Friar Tucks.

• Deschutes The Abyss
• Russian River Consecration
• Lost Abbey Carnevale
• Lost Abbey the Angel's Share 2008 (2)
• Black Flag Imperial Stout
• Harpoon Catamount Maple wheat
• Brooklyn Black OPS
• Nøgne Ø Dark Horizon
• Brouwerij De Molen Rasputin
• Amager Batch One
• Two Brothers Red Eye
• New Belgium Lips of Faith
• Southern Tier Creme Brulee (2)
• Southern Tier Iniquity
• Norrebro North Bridge Extreme
• Norrebro La Granja Espresso Stout
• Founders Cerise (2)
• Harpoon Leviathan
• Struisse Black Albert
• Avery Brabant
• Mikkeller Warrior Single Hop
• Founders KBS (5) (2 from Friar Tuck; 1 from WLV; 2 from another source)
• Brewdog Paradox Port Dundas 013 (this is apparently the 3rd bottle of this that I've gotten)
• Brewdog Paradox Glen Grant 003

The highlights are the Black Albert, the Angel's Share, the Abyss, and obviously the KBS.

Some of the beers have gone straight into storage, others went into my "Next in the Fridge" box.