beernesday

and for last night's monday night football to pair with fish tacos (with tons of awesome guacamole):

just when i was patting myself on the back for having picked up a few bottles of hop in the dark when i was in seattle last weekend, deschutes tells me there is a new beer a-brewing! Have you heard? There's a new fresh hop beer in our Bond Street Series...Chasin' Freshies IPA. We're very excited and we're harvesting the hops (Heirloom Cascades) for this beer from Goschie Farms, Inc. on Monday! so, who's going to be in the states in october and can pick some up for me???

seattle magazine provides a list of the local brewers you need to know brewery heros from hangar 24 flying dog newsletter esquire rates black ipas - and two of my faves make the top ten (deschutes hop in the dark and 21st amendment back in black) the ultimate beer guide - by oxford of course and the half pints brewer's blog

oh, by the way firefly has a couple of cases of deschutes' hop in the dark in i of course relieved them of a few bottles of it!

the cask last monday night at st. augustine's was a dry-hopped esb from red racer (the hops were centennial) i think i must have had the bottom of the cask because it was chock-full of hop sediment and just a bitter little fiend i didn't enjoy it at all making my second pint the deschutes hop in the dark so happy the hop in the dark hit a tap near me! tuesday's cask at the railway club was a dry-hopped ipa from central city brewing (the hops were amarillo) it was a hit right outta the park! deliciously bitter! i had to have me a second one and yes, that is sun streaming in the window i like sun - i would like us to be having a whole lot more of it in vancouver you know, like an actual summer...

had me some hop in the dark at st. augustine's on the weekend!! i think this may be the best cda on the market! and while i was there it only made sense to have a sampler as well... i sampled (from left to right): elysian brewery's the wise esb (5.9%):  subtle smells of caramel, honey, citrus and grassy floral hops entice while the taste delivers a pleasantly bold hop flavor against a very strong malt backbone i found it well-balanced between strong malts and strong hops - it could do lots of push-ups without breaking a sweat! boundary bay inside passage ale (6.4%):  as one story goes, a shipwreck washed many cases of ipa to england's shore and the locals tasted the beverage... the rest is history i didn't find it inspirational, i mean its alright... but that's it, just alright hopworks organic rise-up red (7.0%):  100% organic.  this full bodied nw red is mahogany smooth and hopped to the rafters with locally grown cascade and centennial hops i find thi...

my friend scout is a very good friend indeed she was in portland recently and when i asked if she could make it a mission to find some deschutes hop in the dark for me, she did! she brought back a bottle for us to share after softball and another for me to enjoy at my leisure the bottle we shared on friday night was every bit as good as i remember last year's being and such a great treat! i'm hoarding the other bottle for a bit savouring the knowledge that it is there waiting for me i love having friends who understand the importance of beer and being willing to go out of their way to make sure i get me some otherwise unavailable bottles! a million thank yous scout!

just in time for my san francisco trip 21st amendment releases hop crisis imperial ipa aged in oak barrels! gonna find me some and bring it home to canadia, yes i am! please, please, please have some on draft in a drinking establishment i frequent and please, please, please let me find some at the store! 21st amendment ... DBI Beverage 2225 Jerrold Ave. San Francisco CA 94124 (415) 643-9900 i hope i can find this place... gah - its in south san francisco dagnabbit, that doesn't work bah - and california isn't getting any dogfish head 120 minute ipa either this is not going as well as i had hoped... hopefully my hop in dark has made it to canadia and i will be tasting that delicious nectar friday evening...

deschutes announces today that brewmaster larry sidor is leaving to start his own brewery at the end of this year but, but, but... i love hop in the dark i love inversion deschutes better not change the recipes! good luck larry, i'm interested to taste your new beers next year

for the april/may deschutes newsletter, click here especially exciting for me is the return of hop in the dark! HOP IN THE DARK Available late May-September Are you afraid of the dark? It appears not. In 2010, Draft Magazine and Wine Enthusiast Magazine called Hop in the Dark one of the top 25 beers of the year! This ominous looking liquid combines Northwest hops with roasted malts to create a black tinted India Pale Ale type beer. Its aromas come from Cascade, Amarillo, Citra, and Centennial hops that float over a gentle undercurrent of velvet malt complexities. Take the plunge - a hop, if you will - into this delectable Dark Cascadian Ale. Available in 22 oz bottles or on draft wherever Deschutes beer is sold. 6.5% Alc. by Vol. / 75 IBUs for the moylan's newsletter, click here for the rogue phillips pairing dinner, click here for the huffington post article about flying dog's raging bitch ipa, click here

and for saturday night's pre-party tipple, i chose deschutes brewery's hop trip part of the bond series of hop-forward beers, its the october-december offering and since i love the hop in the dark so much i figured i'd better try the other two offerings as well! deschutes has this to say about the bond series:   Inspired by the original Deschutes Brewery & Public House on Bond Street in downtown Bend, the Bond Street Series highlights a handful of our hop-forward beers that began at "the pub." These local favorites, both old & new, truly display Deschutes Brewery's diversity and creativity.  Available in 22 oz bottles and draft only. hop in the dark is a black ipa offered may to september: Can an IPA be black?  Semantics aside, this noir version adds deep roasted malts to alter the hue and slightly smooth the edges.  What emerges is something deeper, less orthodox, and all its own. “We’ve brewed 22 batches of this beer at both our Bend and ...

one last post about hopscotch 2010! i was lucky enough to be given a ticket to attend an invite only seminar on "history of deschutes and what the future holds" which involved getting several tasters of jubilale and hop trip while listening to the very entertaining lance mitchell, marketing manager for deschutes some of the high points: the jubilale was intended to run out between christmas and new year's but its so popular that it will be sold out by around december 6th so if you want some for christmas, you'd best be picking it up now! deschutes was founded in 1988 in bend, oregon by gary fish, who wanted to serve local foods and local beers to the locals it wasn't an easy road getting to where they are today 21 years ago all the beer got contaminated and they had to pour all of it out on christmas day and start over their new brew system is german it is 28 feet wide the road to bend is only 30 feet wide, so they got a police escort deschutes...

i attended the "evolution of the ipa" tasting at firefly last week i was so excited that they were having a whole night of ipas! and i wasn't disappointed there were only two ipas on the list that i hadn't yet tried (one because its limited release and the other because it was only just released) but that meant that i could focus more easily on comparing and contrasting the hops varieties, strengths and malt balances between the beers we got lots of great hand-outs a hops profile chart, a beer evaluation sheet, the history of ipas and a beer aroma wheel not to mention all the great information our fearless leaders had to impart i feel like i got a lot more than just a tasting we began the night with samuel smith's india ale (5%) from england this is one that i had tried just the night before and not liked i found it had a biscuity nose and felt kind of belgian but the further i got down my taster glass of this semi-traditional british ipa, the more ...

at lori's diner in san francisco, i got to sample the following six bits of ambrosia: green flash's le freak - 9.2% speakeasy big daddy ipa - 6.5% 21st amendment brew free or die ipa - 7% stone brewing arrogant bastard ale - 7.2% deschutes hop in the dark cda - 6.5% napa smith organic ipa - 7.1% le freak:  i was leery of trying this one because its a belgian style tripel crossed with an american double ipa... but fears were for naught!  the hops, love the hops!  it didn't taste belgiany to me.  clear and pale and delicious!  2 thumbs up! big daddy ipa:  definitely bananas and bread, not the hoppiest.  clear and pale.  at first i only gave it one thumb up because it wasn't doing it for me.  too fruity and not hoppy enough for me.  however, i helped one of my buddies drink theirs at the end, and i loved it!  so 2 thumbs up is my final decision! brew free or die ipa:  malty and hoppy - what a great combo!  cle...