When it rains, it pours.  When the sun is bright, it’s blinding! Since we don’t delve too much into our personal lives, some of you may or may not know details of what goes on for us on a day to day basis.  But in the interest of getting to know you better and for you to do the same, I’m going to write a bit of recent personal history. Andrea and I moved to California slightly over one year ago for her to work on a Ph.D, and it was very tough from the beginning.  The whole thing started with me trying to transfer with a company (Lowe’s) that I had been with for about a year and a half.  The whole time I was an exemplary employee.  But lost in the amorphous mass of corporate structure, I had to take what was only a part-time job here.  On top of this, I was working another part time job, and so I was driving about 1 ½ hours a day.  When I landed a full-time job elsewhere, I was thrilled. Well, it turned out to be a place with quite possibly the highest level of disfunction imaginable.  At any rate, my time ...

Nate appealed to us saying that we should drink a lambic for our SWUS festivities.  My brother and I went to The Lost Abbey, so sipping some Amorosa was a no brainer.  Actually, my brother went with the intention of buying some Isabel Proximus or Duck Duck Gooze...stumped on both accounts.  I would loved to been able to post a review on those beers.  No matter, I got my second taste of Amorosa and here is what I thought. The Pour: Trust me when I tell you, that, if you get this beer, let it settle and cool for a day or so.  I imagine that perhaps too much yeast or unfermented raspberry got into the bottle we drank because the cork started coming out on its own accord.  (The only other brew I remember doing something similar was the Gueuze from Hanssens I drank; it contained Mead, so those sugars made the cork really pop.)  Once the bottle was open (good thing it was thick), it was too late.  The Amorosa was gushing out.  Fortunately, we acted quickly and saved most of the brew (we probably lost an ounce or so).  At any rate, we gently poured our brews into a couple ...

Every once in a while—okay, almost all the time—I've got a backlog of beers that I've taken notes on but not posted. Also, I sometimes realize that the list is getting far too long. So, I proposed to myself that I could write a few of the same brewery in one post. So, here are some Lost Abbey reviews to suck on. 10 Commandments: I first tried this beer at Dark Lord Day last year.  I remembered thinking it was pretty good.  I know that Nate and my brother simply loved it.  It's a seasonal brew, so, whenever the time came, I picked up a few bottles.  One to try and a couple to age for future use.  FYI 10 Commandments was $11.99 per bottle, which is not too bad a price for a 750ml bottle at 9% ABV. The Pour:  Strange to say, this beer was a deep, dark color with an almost purple highlight to it.  Odd to look at indeed.  A nice, light brown, foamy and stable head sat atop this beauty.  As I sipped the glass, the lacing was evident and nice looking on the glass. The Nose:  Given that this brew has rosemary in it, the nose certainly had remnants of ...

For Sip with us Saturday, I said I was going to drink something by Stone...sort of true.  My chosen tipple was a collaborative brew by Stone, Firestone Walker, and 21st Amendment.  The beer itself was an interesting collaboration, and Stone used a version of Firestone's Union system for the brew.  Cool stuff.  The beer is simply classified as a Black Ale—and a strong one at that.  At 9.5%, it's not a small beer.  The price tag was $3.99 for a 12 ounce bottle.  On to the brew. The Pour: Black would be an accurate description for the color of El Camino.  In fact, stout-like in color is maybe the best descriptor.  The creamy, light brown, and very stable head added to the stout perception.  At any rate, I thought the beer was very nice looking.  A small amount of lacing occurred as I sipped it down. The Nose: Given the El Camino was 9.5% ABV, it wasn't a surprise to catch some of the alcohol notes on the nose.  Citrusy hops also dominated.  In this way, the beer certainly had Stone's signature on it.  However, the hops were not simply the piney/grapefruity hops that I'm used to; they had a very nice orange ...

As I've mentioned on other posts, this brew is a reincarnation of Stone's 11th anniversary Ale.  From what I understand, people clamored until Stone starting making this beer on a regular basis (I guess the squeaky wheel does get the grease after all; the black grease beer, that is).  Other sites defer by calling this an American Strong Ale, which seems to be a catch-pan category for the "what the hell should we call this?" sentiment.  Maybe I'm a simpleton, but I'd call it a stout.  Of course, Stone calls the 11th anniversary a black IPA, so it would stand to reason that they would designate this beer with the same nomenclature. The Pour: As I hinted, this beer is fairly dark in complexion.  Maybe it's not quite grease, but it was black/very dark brown in it color.  The head was a very stable, off-white cloud.  The body, being semi-active, helped to prop it up for the duration of drinking.  Additionally, some decent lacing appeared as I sipped the brew. The Nose: It's almost a foregone conclusion that citrusy, piney hop aspects will make it into most of Stone's products.  I'm not saying this negatively, but it is a predictable aspect of their ...

Craft beer people are some of the best human beings on the planet.  My interview with The Bruery, interactions with people at the Lost Abbey, and the fact that Phil at Skyscraper gave me (although it was brief because of monetary issues) an opportunity to work in a micro setting, show that I'm the first to point out how great these guys really are.  Time and again, I've seen Sam from DFH take a few minutes to give and interview to a blogger, like Peter from Simply Beer.  I've also seen Garrett Oliver give Peter the same time and effort.  I could go on because craft brewers are people who easily and without contrivance ingratiate themselves to you. Nate and I love craft beer brewers and don't exactly keep it a secret.  I'm personally one of the first to give craft brewers acclamation and praise where it's due.  And I also make it an effort to be honest about my experiences and interactions with them.  It's from that place that this post comes, so I hope you understand that I'm not being vindictive when I write this next bit; I'm simply being honest about the one craft beer jerk out there ...

I got this Angel's Share at Whole Foods, and a friend picked up the Tomme at the Whole Foods in Glendale.  My buddy David found the latter and called to see if I wanted to go halfsies.  I think my response was something like %*&# yeah!  Anyway, I'm excited to post my reviews of these great brews.  Let's just jump into it. Angel's Share: I don't think that Lost Abbey makes anything for the faint of heart, and this is certainly one of their heartiest brews.  I think I paid about $15.99 for the 375 ml  bottle of beer (minus my 20% discount).  For such a rare beer and opportunity, I just had to do it.  At any rate, I'm very glad that  I did get the beer, which is their Judgement Day beer aged, in this case, in brandy barrels. The Pour: Angel's Share was a murky brown ale reminscent of a barley-wine, a feature that was actually prescient for the remainder of the brew.  Like much of Lost Abbey's brews, this one didn't have a ton of head retention (also like many a barley-wine).  The forboding murkiness kept calling me forward, so I decided to dive into the nose part of ...

Folding boxes.  That's what I did for about an hour at the Lost Abbey last Sunday while we were waiting on some friends who were caught in traffic. I saw that the Lost Abbey had tweeted about having a 1,000 boxes to fold.  I'm not intending to brag, but Andrea and I make a great team. We killed 200 or so boxes in a very short time. Right after we started working, Terry (the bar keep) came over and asked me what I wanted to drink.  Fortunately, I'd seen a Tweet the day before containing this phrase, "Gozer the gatekeeper sent me."  Confessedly, this was an odd phrase, but the gate entrance yielded something pretty special.  That phrase secured me a pint of Bourbon-aged Angel's Share. This is not an un-coveted brew, so I sipped it discerningly and slowly.  Not a bad start to the day. Upon the completion of my task, which incidentally, I would have done for the sheer joy of folding those boxes at a brewery, I retired to take a repast with my comrades.  They were sipping some Carnivale, also a delightful brew by the Lost Abbey.  Let's face it, this brewery doesn't make bad stuff. While we were ...

Good stuff is really starting to happen in the Los Angeles (and surrounding area) beer scene.  One of those places is in the works right now. Tony's Darts Away on Magnolia in Burbank is well on its way to opening.  The full-on opening is a month or so away, but I encourage those of us who are in the L.A. area to start amassing the troops and spreading the news about the opening of this place. Let me tell you that they have some info on their site already and are exclusively focusing on California craft beer.  Too often I've seen places that claim 200 taps--but when you get there they've got commonplace stuff and very little room for personal decision, and one of the first casualties these establishments is local/area craft beer (instead, Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat is on tap); no local stouts, only national ones, can be found. California has some great breweries and some terrific beers.  It's with this in mind that I commend Tony's to you, especially those of you who are locally minded.  Let's shore up the foundations of California beer by supporting this place when it opens.  Spread the word and your arms...get some brew at Tony's. ...

Many of you know that I normally don't go after an IPA.  I find rye beers interesting, though, so I struck a compromise.  Hop Rod is a Rye P.A. of sorts, and it's not something I would normally pick up.  However, since it was "Gamble with us Saturday," I decided that this might be just the beer for the occasion—and who knows, I might be able to find out whether or not it was actually a good beer.  I've reviewed one or two other things by Bear Republic, and they've been okay but not great, so I was hoping that my gamble wouldn't turn up to be snake eyes. The Pour:  I'm assuming it's due to darker rye malts that this beer was a slightly darker version of an IPA.  Not black or brown, just deeper.  A touch of haziness was part of the overall appearance of Hop Rod, while the body was active and propped up a stable head, which incidentally, left very nice lacing as I drank it. The Nose: Ever ubiquitous and perhaps starting to grow on me (to an infinitely tiny degree), grapefruity hops were a part of the nose. The citrusy nose was under-girded by a touch ...