beernesday

anchor and 21st amendment are expanding oh, spring in san francisco... 24 hours makes a contest to find canada's favourite beer and from fox news (sorry about the source) a list of wines high in arsenic

best beer cities by livability.com bellingham makes #8 on the list (san diego, denver and bend are the top three) those rascally liberals were warned that their happy hour pricing would result in an increase and bill tieleman warns it will be the same thing with "level playing field" pricing to liquor sellers the secret world of beer muling 12 bucket-list breweries is this new home-brew system a good idea or a disservice to home brewers? hop vodka from anchor distilling best and worst christmas ales according to paste magazine (american and belgian) craft beer in kamloops and i'm throwing this one in there to see if anyone's paying attention the feminist killjoy holiday gift guide nothing beer related on the list, but day-um, it's a good list!

i have been preparing all week for a beer tasting that goes at 4:30 today (wish me luck!) my office is holding it as a kick-off to the annual united way fundraising campaign and i gotta say, when planning a beer tasting, it's great to have minions! all i had to do for the tasting was pick the beers and do a presentation about them benton brothers did all the cheese and charcuterie pairings for me, the committee ordered the beer, the tables, the food and sent out the invitations leaving me to focus on the beers and coming up with tasting notes and information about each i am doing a very basic guided tasting of five beers, paired with cheese and charcuterie followed by a self-led tasting (with provided tasting notes) rounding out the evening for the guided tasting i am aiming to do a basic introduction to beer styles the method of tasting beer (appearance, aroma, taste, mouthfeel) and the basics of pairing food with these beers i have chosen to go with five ...

there is a craft beer connection to this year's super bowl showdown its not just the ravens vs. the 49ers its heavy seas vs. 21st amendment, anchor brewing and anderson valley click here for heavy sea's big words click here for 21st amendment's take on the bet me, i'm cheering for the 49ers but i have no beer riding on the outcome of the game so it'll be a good day for me either way!

its true! stop the presses! we finally bottled our first batch of homebrew! after doing almost everything either wrong or the hard way, our brew turned out quite well a little bottle conditioning and it should be very drinkable thank the beer gods! we're calling it "ass penny stout" after the story matt told us when we put pennies into the boil to prevent boil-overs, and the fact that we just kept pulling stuff out of our asses to make this brew actually happen its a pretty brew - dark as night the bottles of ass penny stout it took us all day saturday, but we got the bottles sterilized and sanitized, the bung out of the carboy, the dextrose into the beer and the beer from carboy into bottles and capped 'em. cleanliness is next to godliness in beer-making bridget puts a bottle in the pot to boil the bejesus out of it! checking to make sure the bejesus has in fact been boiled out! me, i was in charge of putting the sterilized bottles in ...

i got my brewdog share certificate!!! very much looking forward to receipt of my membership package in the weeks to come i didn't realize that brewdog owns part of anchor brewing... having gotten that anchor tattoo is looking like a better and better idea every day! have you bought your brewdog shares yet? need five good reasons why you should ?

i'm going to san francisco in june! yay! i love s.f.! gots to get me some anchor steam, some 21st amendment and what else? not opening in time for my visit this year, but a place i'd like to check out next time i'm in town is the monk's kettle's new enterprise (they had me at 24 taps) anywhere else i need to check out?

probably not the exhaustive list of beers i received for my birthday but i think its pretty close! baird beer's suruga bay imperial ipa howe sound's oatmeal stout rogue's dead guy ale russell's wee angry scotch ale anchor's porter (a whole six pack - yay!) howe sound's total eclipse of the hops howe sound's devil's elbow ipa ninkasi tricerahops double ipa sculler's ipa hopworks' secession cascadian dark ale tree's hop head ipa (a whole six pack - yay!) hopworks' ace of spades imperial ipa bear republic's hop rod rye mt. begbie's nasty habit driftwood's nasty hildegard howe sound's rockfish red fernie's sapsucker howe sound's hightide hemp ale (and that doesn't even include the two phillips hop boxes that stacy brought over for the party itself...) my friends rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!

best breweries in america! the top 50 named by the brewers association very happy to see so many of my faves on the list!! Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies (Based on 2010 beer sales volume) 1. Boston Beer Co. Boston MA 2 Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Chico CA 3 New Belgium Brewing Co. Fort Collins CO 4 Spoetzl Brewery* Shiner TX 5 Deschutes Brewery Bend OR 6 Independent Brewers United (IBU)* Burlington VT 7 Matt Brewing Co. Utica NY 8 Bell's Brewery, Inc. Galesburg MI 9 Harpoon Brewery Boston MA 10 Boulevard Brewing Co. Kansas City MO 11 Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Milton DE 12 Alaskan Brewing and Bottling Co. Juneau AK 13 Long Trail Brewing Co. Bridgewater Corners VT 14 Stone Brewing Co. Escondido CA 15 Abita Brewing Co. Abita Springs LA 16 Brooklyn Brewery Brooklyn NY 17 Lagunitas Brewing Co. Petaluma CA 18 Full Sail Brewing Co. Hood River OR 19 Shipyard Brewing Co. Portland ME 20 Summit Brewing Co. St. Paul MN 21 New Glarus Brewing Co. N...

from last week's beernesday at st. augustine's: i began my night with a sampler dead frog's christmas beeracle!  5%  a festive, rich, warm amber ale with a medley of spices including cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. cannery's no jail pale ale:  3.05% a lower-alcohol beer with an authentic ale taste!  a clean, crisp ale with a bright hop finish and about 40% less alcohol than conventional beer salt spring's golden spike ale:  5%  voted "best golden ale" at the canadian brewing awards paddock wood's london porter:  5.3%  a dark ale based on a recipe from 1850 which lets chocolate malt take the lead.  smoother than stout, but still holds a deep roast profile i very much liked the christmas beeracle! gingery goodness (reminiscent of the steamworks ginger from last spring) and no vanilla!! i would definitely have this one again and i don't say that about many christmas or winter ales bridget liked it a lot too! the no jail was a little...

do you know how hard it is to take a photo of your own arm? i didn't and its harder than i had imagined... anyway, here are a couple of self-portaits of the latest ode to beer tattoo: note the anchor brewing anchor waves inspired by brewdog's atlantic ipa colour on the anchor and a bit of shading in the waves and clouds to follow later this month... hopefully photos of the finished product before christmas/solstice/kwanza/festivus!

look, i finally put up a shelf for my beer glassware and with it the anchor swag i got in the summer at the canada cup of beer!

good lord, i must really love beer cuz here i am, getting another beer inspired tattoo! this time is the anchor steam anchor and brewdog 's atlantic ipa label that have inspired me! so far the tattoo is just outlined and grey-washed colour to come after i find me a job!! photo to come after the tattoo stops flaking!

i went to san francisco and i got 2 for 1 anchor steam at the bar! oh happy day!

no sooner do i post about my beer snobbery and lack of enthusiasm for most bars' beer lists than i find an amazing watering hole! praise the lord! apparently its been a little while since i ventured out to the biltmore and stayed out far too late on a school night because since i was last there they have started carrying a plethora of really great craft brews! they had six taps on the go (for $5.50) phillips blue buck lighthouse ipa okanagan springs 1516 okanagan springs black lager okanagan springs something else and something else (might have been cider actually) great memory i have eh? and then the bottles!  i only wish i could remember half of them but alas, i cannot what i do remember is:  anchor steam, phillips hop circle, deschutes mirror pond, heineken, leffe... cans of pabst blue ribbon... what did i have? well, i'm glad you asked! i had a pint of the lighthouse ipa first (and second) followed by a bottle of mirror pond followed...

jumping back to the canada cup of beer... just to be different, jack daniels had a booth at the beer festival - pushing their new jack daniels pre-mixed drinks.  they had a jack and lemonade mix and a jack and cola mix.  i tried the jack and lemonade.  whoa!  definitely taste the jack!  they were only giving away 2oz pours, which judging by the boozy taste was probably a very smart thing!  they were also giving away drink cozies to anyone who parted with a token, and jack daniels hats by donation.  i got me a cozy! next up we hit the booth offering imports dab and estrella.  the rep gave me a big long spiel about the estrella, the only beer brewed (by a chef no less) with the intention of making the perfect food paired libation.  its 70% lager, 30% unfiltered wheat, with notes of coriander, licorice and citrus.  you serve it chilled in a wine glass.  "Pronounced intensity with a complex aroma.  Very fruity and floral on th...