Have you been out to your favorite bottle shop in the last week? LA has a new Flemish Sour Red that is finally being distributed out here, and it’s popping up on shelves all over town.
I tried this stuff over the summer in Seattle and I fully credit it with turning me on to sour beers. Can you guess which beer I’m talking about by looking at this horribly back lit photo? (Answer after the jump)
A question I’ve been getting a lot lately is, “Dave, when are we going to see Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Breakfast Stout in LA??”
Truth is, I had no idea, and it killed me to not have an answer.
But just a few days ago, I stumbled upon Mikkel(ler)’s Blog, presumably written by brewer Mikkel Borg Bjergsøl.
According to a post written back in December, the next batch of Beer Geek Breakfast Stout will be brewed at Nøgne Ø.
In late january 2008 I will travel to Grimstad in Norway to brew two batches of Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast, which has been sold out worldwide for quite some time now….!
Allready beeing in Grimstad, Kjetil – the head brewer of Nøgne Ø – asked me to do a guestbrew with him. Together we have been working on a recipe for a pretty special brew….
So if this stuff is being brewed at the end of January, what can we extrapolate from that? Maybe we can expect it out here by March or April? Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Also interested to see what kind of Mikkeller/Nøgne Ø mashup is in the works. Maybe a Signature Ale of sorts?
Remember way back when, before I had ever tried Green Flash? Now it’s a semi-frequent part of my repertoire. Nut Brown, Imperial IPA, the Barleywine, they’re all fantastic. Picked this bottle up for $4.69 at Vendome Toluca Lake. Map it!
You are invited to a place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock, like the salmon of Capistrano. No, not Aspen. I’m talking about a little place called El Monte, California. And the beer will be flowing like water, or maybe even flowing like the oil in There Will Be Blood.
Yes, it’s been a full year since Skyscraper Brewing cut the red ribbon to much fanfare (Hey, it’s El Monte Mayor Ernie Guttierez! And is that local celebrity councilwoman Pat Wallach helping Phil cut the ribbon?!) at their Grand Opening Gala Event on January 20th, 2007. Continue reading
Let me be the first second to admit it: I’ve fallen off the beer blogging bandwagon. I’ve been missing Session deadlines left and right. Heck, the last time I participated was way back in August. Why the lack of posts?
I guess I had just gotten a bit bored with my pedestrian style of reviewing beers. After all, beer is one of my greatest passions. Can you really define your passion by deconstructing it and judging its value by assigning a grade based on a 50 point scale?
Jesus, what was I thinking?
Talk about taking all the fun out of something. So from here on out, I plan to leave all the heavy duty classification and grading to the fine folks at Beer Advocate and Rate Beer.
Thanks to friends and other assorted beer bloggers, I’ve been reminded not to neglect the most important source of creativity, the Muse. You can’t take the time to write about every half-decent beer that enters your glass, you’ve gotta wait for the one that makes you want to go out and buy it by the case. You’ve gotta find a beer that makes you rush to your computer and bang out a loving ode while your glass is still half full. You’ve gotta find the one that makes you phone in sick for work, just so you can spend one or two more hours of half-lucid bliss, snuggled up under the covers, wrapped in their embrace. You need to find the beer that’s so incredible, you can’t think of anything better to name your monthly beer news magazine after. Or for that matter, your beer blog. Hey, meta humor!
Ayinger Celebrator is at the pinnacle of those special beers. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been saving it in your fridge for 6 months, waiting for a special occasion to crack it open. The very occasion of opening an Ayinger Celebrator is special enough on it’s own.
Cracking the cap is enough to start your mouth watering. Dark dark brown beer, almost black, with a sudsy tan head that stays for the duration. Celebrator has a perfectly thin and bready maltiness. It doesn’t hammer you on the head with over-the-top complexity and brilliant flavors bursting left and right, it’s more subtle and refined than that. Balanced and delicate. I’ve only had it by itself, but if I could choose any meal to have accompany it, a great pairing would be braised lamb shanks and mashed potatoes.
I’m curious, have any of the Session writers out there NOT tried Ayinger Celebrator? With this post I am declaring my fervent and undying zealotry for this beer. Much like a Ron Paul supporter standing on a freeway overpass in the rain, waving a hand-stenciled “REVOLUTION 2008″ poster, I want to share this beer with you.
Now let’s go check out some of the doppelbocks that you guys have been drinking.
A special thank you to Wilson at Brewvana for hosting today’s Doppelbock Session.