Bits & Pieces

A few beer-related notes of interest taking place over the past couple of weeks:

I tried two more new beers from two of my favorite Southern craft brewers: Terrapin in Athens, GA, and Highland in Asheville, NC. The new (to me) Terrapin I tried was their India-style Nut Brown Ale. I had a bottle of it while at Maffiaoso's Pizza in Nashville (excellent pizza and a great beer selection). This is the best of both worlds combining the hoppiness of an IPA with the nutty flavoring of a Belgium-style brown ale. Delicious. I bet it's even better on draught. Gotta keep a close eye for that offering somewhere.

I was in Murfreesboro the other night meeting a friend for dinner and a movie and had just enough time to stop by the new Total Beverages Store that I discovered recently. After perusing over their vast selection of craft beers, I settled on a six-pack of a new seasonal offering by my old pals over in Asheville, Highland Brewing. It's called Black Mountain Bitter Pale Ale. I get the "Black Mountain" part - that's an area near Asheville whose most famous resident is probably Billy Graham. But the "Bitter" part threw me because this stuff is smooooth. Really reminded me more of a German-style bock than a pale ale, but I won't argue the point and will settle for just enjoying its crisp flavor and thirst-quenching appeal (an ice-cold one went down really smooth this weekend after working in the yard in the unseasonably warm mid-80 temps of late April...gulp, gulp...aaahhh).

I celebrated my 42nd birthday this past week and my dear wife, Ashlee, surprised me with a very unique little gift from what is clearly one of my favorite craft brewers, Stone Brewing in California. It was two small drinking glasses made from recycled Stone IPA beer bottles. She was really patting herself on the back with this gift choice since the day before I received them we were at Maffiaoso's Pizza as I mentioned above and my second beer selection was a Stone IPA. As you can see in the photo above, I have already put these little beauties to work in our house. It just so happened that Ashlee was also traveling this week of my birthday out on the west coast and was fortunate enough to get to visit the Stone Brewing Restaurant and Pub just outside San Diego (man, was I jealous). Her friend, Christian, is quite the beer nerd as well out in San Diego, and after taking her to Stone also took Ashlee to Port (Lost Abbey) Brewing where she nabbed me a very cool T-shirt. I have not had any of the Port/Lost Abbey brews and according to Ashlee's description it's a fairly small operation that looks mostly regional in distribution (according to their website, it's west coast and some up north only for now).

Finally, I am proud to report that I am now a "card-carrying member" of the Bosco's Beer Police Force. Yeah, it's just a customer-loyalty program, but you get a cool card and points for drinking beer...what's not to love!

Lost Wages - Gained Calories

Despite zero success on the poker tables on a recent visit to Las Vegas, some great beer was found most of which I consumed at the best ale house/restaurant I have ever been to.

As soon as I got to Vegas after checking into my room, I went and got my usual $3.50 pint of Guinness at the street bar of tiny O'Shea's Casino on The Strip. This place is dated and pretty much a dump, but they give a good pour (despite being in a plastic cup) which is absolutely vital to me while walking around Vegas. A block or so away is the Flamingo Hotel and Casino and overlooking their garden area inside is the new Sin City Brewing Bar. With only four craft brews on tap, it's obvious this microbrewery is just getting started. And to me, they have a long, long way to go. I was not impressed. From their limited selection, I chose their Octoberfest Amber Ale. Fairly boring and served in a plastic cup for the ridiculous price of $6. Laughable. I am not one who worries about the price of good beer, but this swill was mediocre in taste and you can't even give it to me in a glass? What a joke. I've got a real feeling that like the fake Eiffel Tower in front of the Paris Casino, the fake volcano in front of The Mirage and the fake Manhattan skyline in front of the New York, New York Casino, Sin City Brewing is basically a fake of a real craft brewery and should be considered just another Vegas tourist trap.

With the disappointment of Sin City Brewing (even their T-shirts were overpriced and cheap) and finishing two places off the money in two different poker tournaments on my first day, my trip to Vegas was not going that well on day one. But, as Scarlett O'Hara said so long ago, "Tomorrow is another day." And it certainly was. The poker didn't improve, in fact, it got worse with early exits as my pocket aces and pockets jacks got cracked in two successive tournaments respectively by awful players with awful hands - yup, that's poker. Before that first bust-out at the Planet Hollywood Casino I was wandering around waiting on the tournament to start and happened across the original location for Sin City Brewing - a small walk-up bar with just a few stools in PH's Miracle Mile shopping area. I gave them another chance for some reason (boredom more than anything probably) and tried their Irish Stout. Not bad, but nothing original. At least it was a buck cheaper than the Flamingo location but it was still served in a plastic cup. I asked the barkeep about IPAs and he said they actually had one coming out next month (I perked up a bit since I will be returning to Vegas at the end of next month), but he said it would a British-style IPA - hmmmph, never mind. I ran into that recently bottled (Greene King IPA) and did not care for it at all. Not hoppy enough for me to waste any more time or money on these guys ever again. I won't be trying it unless they are handing it out free on The Strip (don't see that happening).

After that first bad beat/bust-out, of my AA vs an unsuited J5 (uggh!) I was done with poker for a while and I had to find some real beer.

I had read rave reviews online of an ale house/restaurant with a location in Vegas called Yard House, so I decided to seek it out. Unfortunately, it's at the far, far end of Las Vegas Blvd., so I had to take a cab to get to it. Even the bellman when I told him where I was going to need a cab to said, "All right, excellent place!." I remained hopeful. It's a chain restaurant that mostly has locations out west (but a couple in Florida - note to self for future reference) and claim to have more beers on tap than anyone else (over 100). I concur. Wow! I know there are some bars with this many beers on tap, but they are not actual restaurants as well.

This place is amazing! If I were to design an ale house this is what it would look like: lots of great beer on tap in a beautifully-appointed building with food as good as the beer. I was as blown away by my lunch ( a hot pastrami sandwich infused with jalapenos - yummy) as I was the beer and the restaurant itself. Nirvana had been reached! As for the beer, I chose to stick with pints even though they had plenty of 3-foot-long "yards" of beer glasses to serve you with (see photo below hanging above the taps), hence the name of the place. I started with the Double Daddy IPA first. This product from Speakeasy Brewing in San Francisco was excellent. Double IPAs are my favorite style of beer. As the name implies, the brewer doubles the standard amount of hops and malt creating a ferociously heavy, alcohol-laden beer. The Double Daddy checks in at 9.5%...oh yeah. Double IPAs are also sort of hard to find since they absolutely reek of hops in aroma and taste, they're just not for everyone (wimps). My second choice was a bit of a miss (but then most everything would be to me after enjoying a good double IPA). It was Kona Fire Rock Ale from Kona Brewing in Hawaii. It was your basic Irish-style amber ale. Nothing memorable, but a decent product nonetheless and I get to mark Hawaii of my state list.

The poker woes continued that evening with JJ going down in flames to A2 (great hand, buddy) and as bad as I was running, I was going to have a hard time justifying another tournament the next day before I returned home in the evening. That fact was confirmed as I hung out in my hotel room the next morning and proceeded to win $75 in a small online tournament (take it any way you can get it I guess). I went ahead and checked out of my room around lunch time and decided to just spend the afternoon before flying home with the two things that would cost me the least amount of money and heartache in Vegas: sightseeing and beer. I wondered thru a couple of the big strip casinos that I had not been into before. The MGM was nice with its free lion exhibit. I thought it was cool that the lions basically work "shifts" in the casino and also get time in an outdoor facility away from the Vegas madness. The Luxor was nice as well (that's the pyramid-shaped one) and it is connected to the lovely Mandalay Bay Casino by an enclosed breeze-way full of shops and restaurants including the one I was looking for called simply Burger Bar.

This upscale burger joint was also recommended online as having a good selection of beer on tap. And they certainly did! 24 to be exact. My first choice (out of a nice collection of IPAs) was Hop Henge Experimental IPA from Deschutes Brewing out of Bend, Oregon. Super-hoppy and delicious (experiment a success, boys!). I was lucky to get this great beer looks like because according to their website it will only be available thru May. I am very interested in trying more of their many selections because it looks (from the website) and tastes (from this IPA) that these guys are the real deal when it comes to craft-brewing (hear that, Sin City Brewing - get with the program or get out). I opted not to eat at Burger Bar because I was still full from breakfast, but their food looked pretty good. Maybe next visit. I stayed on the IPA train and ordered a Ruination IPA from Stone Brewing in California. Stone is one of my favorite craft brewers and I dearly love their standard IPA on draught and in bottles (see next blog post for more on that) and I had heard of Ruination but never had a chance to try it. Very smooth and not as strong as the name might indicate (at least to me). An excellent pint start to finish and quite a different experience from their standard IPA. Well done, again, Stone-meisters.

With a bit of a stumble to my bumble, I decided to walk off some of these calories by heading south thru the Mandalay Bay Casino and back out on to Las Vegas Boulevard toward the Town Square Mall area where the Yard House is located. I made sure to drink some water while at Burger Bar in preparation for the mile or so hike in the already mid-90s heat of Las Vegas. Of course, it's a dry heat there in Las Vegas and as I heard one comedian say "That's what they tell as they are loading you in to the ambulance."

I made the walk with no problem. Poked around in a few of the stores there and awaited the clock to strike 3 PM when Happy Hour starts at the Yard House...hoo-ray!!! My second visit to the YH started with Lost Coast Brewing's Indica IPA. I was able to try some Lost Coast brews in the past (8 Ball Stout, Alley Cat Amber and Downtown Brown Ale ) and liked what they were doing, and that goes definitely for their IPA concoction as well. Wonderfully smooth with a refereshing finish. And it goes good with Asian flavors, since I ordered the lettuce wraps off the half-off appetizer menu to go with it. Same as yesterday...great, great food. Before heading out to catch a cab back to the airport, I finished off my visit with the Alaskan IPA. It was actually a bit dull compared to some of the other wonderful IPAs I had tried in Vegas the past few days, but not awful. It still made anything Sin City Brewing was doing look like bilge water.

Thank goodness for good beer or my Vegas trip would have been pretty much a bust, but the weather was perfect and Vegas is always worth a gander. Now, I have more good reasons to come back than just poker. As I mentioned, I do have a trip planned late next month over Memorial Day weekend back to Vegas with the in-laws, and I hope to add a couple more beer-related stops on that visit including Boulder City Brewing over near the Hoover Dam and another great ale house in the old part of Vegas.

"Beer Wars" - A BOCK-umentary

Last night my friend, Nate, and I attended the live premiere of Beer Wars, a documentary focusing on the beer industry in America that in the last 20 years since the legalization of home-brewing has become a struggle for a multi-billion dollar business between the big, established mega-brewers (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Coors) and the nearly 1,500 craft breweries sprinkled across the country.


Overall, it was a good film, but not great. Beer Wars does a good job of exposing the mega-brewers for what they really are - big businesses driven by the almighty bottom-line dollar with the sacrifice of quality of product, individuality and even sometimes, ethics. However, the underdog heroes of the film, the independent brewers, are not given nearly enough focus, in my opinion. The director admits that this documentary took almost three years to make, yet to me it almost looked like a rushed production that is a good idea and an interesting topic, but could have been so much more. Here's why:


- Only about a half dozen craft brewers are even included in the film. Of those only a couple are really focused on: Dogfish Head Brewing out of Delaware (an excellent success story/work ethic) and some caffeine-infused beer called Moon Shot - they never mentioned where it is brewed, but instead focus on one woman's struggle to introduce it into the already crowded market of New York and Boston. New Belgium Brewing of Colorado and Stone Brewing in California also have brief "cameos."


- Of the few craft brewers mentioned, all were fairly regionalized with most of the focus staying on the East Coast. Zero mention of some of the great southern craft brewing success stories such as Shiner, Sweetwater, Terrapin, Bluegrass, Yazoo and Highland.


- Advertising for this movie was almost non-existent. I feel lucky to have found out about it myself and it was purely by accident while surfing on the Internet. It was promoted by Fathom Events (http://www.fathomevents.com/) which uses movie theatres nationwide to broadcast opera, concerts, comedy, plays and in this case, documentaries usually in a live format. I have Fathom bookmarked on my computer because I like the idea of using movie theatres for more than just Hollywood films and it was while browsing their event list that I came across Beer Wars. Even local Yazoo Brewery owner/brew master, Linus Hall, mentioned to me in his blog ( http://www.yazoobrew.blogspot.com/) that little effort was made by the film's producers to work with craft brewers to spread the word about it. In fact, Yazoo had already made conflicting plans for last night before they even heard about the film's premiere broadcast, thus negating any chance to perhaps have a pre- and post-screening party. Even the theatre in L.A. where the live pre- and post-film broadcasts were being held was not full?

- The cost for the movie was a staggering $15. That's way too much to get anyone but real beer enthusiasts off their couch and into a movie theatre (a movie theatre which doesn't serve beer - see my next knock against this movie) and those people already know most of the points being made in the film anyway. I mean for Pete's sake, my wife and I are going to the Nashville Film Festival's world premiere of William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet tonight with Capt. Kirk himself scheduled to be in attendance and those tickets were only $11 each.

- Broadcasting in theatres that don't even sell beer made no real sense either. Another point Linus from Yazoo made on his blog was that such a film really belongs in an art-house theatre such as the Belcourt here in Nashville (which serves beer). I couldn't agree more. Nate and I made up for this fact by stopping by the nearby Music City Bar and Grill (a decent little bar trapped in the Tourist Hell that is Opryland/Music Valley Drive) before and after the movie and had a few Fat Tire pints (from Colorado's New Belgium Brewing). Linus, if you read this, see if you can't talk those guys into serving Yazoo. They serve a ton of tourists looking for "local beer" according to the bartender we talked to.


- The "live" introduction and follow-up round table discussion hosted by Ben Stein (who seemed very unprepared and not even a fan of craft brewing) were very brief and fairly unorganized. I mean I know it's live, but you are broadcasting nationwide with months to prepare...so have your shit together already!

Despite all the flaws, I did enjoy the movie. I wouldn't run right out and buy it when it comes out on DVD and I probably would only recommend it to other beer lovers, but I did learn a thing or two from it:

- like the fact that when Anheuser-Busch bought out Rolling Rock several years back they closed the Rolling Rock Brewery and continued production in their own brewery...they paid for the facilities but only wanted the name....disgusting.

And that although there are nearly 1,500 Lilliputian craft breweries in the U.S., combined they only make up 5 to 6 percent of the market share dominated by the Gulliver-sized mass producers.

And I did get a few laughs from it:

Two of the funniest parts of the film (that probably weren't meant to be) was the fact that the director doesn't drink beer (she's allergic to alcohol...WTF?), but got her start in the business by successfully hawking Mike's Hard Lemonade....OK? The other was the "brew master" at Anheuser-Busch promoting some new rip-off craft-style of beer they were brewing and he just dumps it in a glass with a huge head on it....hilarious....way to show your love for your product, dude.

Well, It Sure Beats Hard-Boiled Eggs

If the Easter Bunny can hide plastic containers full of goodies for the kiddies, why can't he do the same for responsible adults in glass containers? Well, it probably won't catch on, at least not by producers of good beer, but an Easter Growler Hunt sounds like a great marketing idea to me!!!

Ok, ok, it's a staged photo, but since my birthday falls fairly close to Easter, I was given a nice present today in Chattanooga by my brother- and sister-in-law, Paige and Andy, while we were visiting for the holiday.

Paige swung by the Riverside Beverage Store yesterday and picked up two growlers, one filled with Shiva IPA from Asheville Pizza & Brewing (yet another top-notch craft brewing group from this amazing little North Carolina mountain city) and the other was filled with French Broad Altbier also from the Asheville area. The amazing thing was that while I have had both of these beers in very small samples (the Shiva at the Southern Brewers Festival in Chattanooga two years ago, pre-blog, and the Alt Bier from Riverside Beverage the last time I was there when their keg ran out and the guy in the store was nice enough to give me about a half a glass sample to try), Paige didn't know squat about what to get and nailed exactly what I would have gotten had I been there myself. Kudos, sis (and thanks for contributing the photo as well).

The Shiva was really interesting. While calling itself an IPA, it's color and aroma indicated neither. No hoppy aroma and the light golden look of almost a pilsner when poured in the glass (it did look a bit darker in the volume of the growler). The taste didn't have the opening bite of a "real" IPA but with a nice hoppy finish, and that seems to be what they are going for with this solid brew.

Altbier ("old beer" in German) is an amber ale brewed in a traditional Bavarian style that blends malt and hops flawlessly. It's an excellent choice for any beer lover since it has a little something for everyone in terms of body, taste, refreshment and weight.

Thanks again to Paige and Andy for this great birthday present.

ADDENDUM: Who knew one of the best bottled IPAs in the U.S. I have found so far comes from the South. I bought a six-pack of Sweetwater IPA at our local Publix last weekend and it was a wonderful surprise. Made in Atlanta with a strong hoppy aroma and flavor with no bitter aftertaste and an easy-flowing body that leaves it refreshing and not the least bit heavy. Sweetwater Brewing gains popularity each year in the craft brewing industry and it seems like now I see why. Got to check these guys out on a draught level as soon as I get a chance.