Strong Beer Month 2010 - kickoff!

It's my first return visit to Magnolia, since moving out of the old hood, and I plan to try my luck at imbibing all 12 of this year's Strong Beer line up. Not in one sitting, of course.
As an interesting aside, I've not been in here since the big remodel, which may have been 2+ years ago. The distressed wood furniture and wall coverings give it an old saloon feel which is quite nice. The old hippy-scape mural is gone, and it is really missed. It was unique and really tied this place to the history of the Haight area. The replacement gold leaf walls just seem to be begging for something more. It's just a bunch of dead space now. I've never really been enamored with this place and that has not changed.
Anyway, moving on...First up is Delilah Jones Rye (10.2%). It's got a good amount of grassy flavors, which I'd attribute to the rye. There's not much of a nose and it's rather light bodied. A little bit of hop-induced bitterness is detectable, but no real flavor. It's very drinkable and hides the alcohol well, but I'm a little disappointed in the overall beer.
Next down the gullet is Four Winds Quadrupel (9.1%). It's an immediate explosion of flavor! A slight dried fruit aroma, maybe a whiff of prune, and lots of funky flavors fill the mouth. It's very full bodied and on the sweet side of the spectrum. This will probably be my favorite, but we shall see.

The Evil Empires' holdings

A couple of real bloggers have recently posted some interesting lists, so I thought I'd put a link to them on my blog. Check out these links to see what brands of beer fall under AB-InBev and MillerCoors:

http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/the-big-brewers-brands/
http://beerwarsmovie.com/2009/12/01/who-owns-what/

While most of the beers in this list don't fit my current tastes, it's always interesting to know where your beer money goes. I prefer to keep mine as local as possible.

Burger Bar SF - Beer Fun

Last week, we managed to make it into the somewhat new Burger Bar in the Macy's at Union Square. The burgers were awesome, but an unexpected surprise was the beer selection and beer-centric items.
There was a wide selection of local craft brews as well as micros from around the US. During our visit, a house specialty beer was on tap that had been brewed by Speakeasy, though it might just be a re-named version of their blonde or Pils. I passed on the lighter beer and went for the Racer 5 that paired very nicely with my Black Jack Burger. As for the burger, the meat was a bit charred on the outside and juicy on the inside and the tapenade added a nice zesty zing to it all. Most excellent.
I filled up quickly on the burger and fries, so I didn't get to try some of the fun things like beer floats and beer cocktails. They offered a platter of 5 different beer floats (taster size) that ranged from porters to Belgian-style beers and vanilla to fruity sorbet. The beer cocktails all sounded a little scary, but they were definitely unique. This was the middle of the day, and my wife wasn't going to put up with more shopping plus a drunk husband, so we wisely moved on after the great lunch.
It all points to many reasons to make a return trip, though the 30 minute wait for a table might get a bit tiresome if it keeps up.

One night in Calgary...

After several previous trips in Calgary that consisted of all work/sleep and no play, I finally had the chance to check out some local establishment for the consumption of beer. I was stuck at the airport hotel for the night, but managed to find the local bus (#57) that got me to the C-train station (Whitehorn) that whisked me into downtown.
On the way into downtown I got to see two homeless dudes beating the crap out of each other in the middle of a street. After seeing that, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect for the evening, but I then quickly found Bottlescrew Bill's, which claims to have a couple of hundred beer options. They appeared to come close to that claim, but lacked many Canadian options. I did try their house beer, Buzzards Breath Ale, which was an okay amber ale without much hop flavor or aroma. Then I found the best beer of the night in a Brown Ale brewed by Wild Rose Brewery located in Calgary (they also brew the house beer). It was very good. Malty, bisquity, and slightly nutty, it really hit the spot and went great with my almost rare Alberta bison steak.
I then wandered for a few blocks until I saw an interesting place called Belgo. It attempted to be a Belgian Brasserie, and had plenty of Belgian beers on tap and in the bottle. It even had some Rogue Ales from the US. They did a good job of pouring and presenting the beers and the decor was nice. I did get a weird vibe from the place - it wasn't very crowded, and the manager/door guy seemded to be turning people away, and even remarked to me that I was 'allowed to stay'.
To wrap up the night I witnessed another fight on the train platform as I was headed back to the hotel. It was three against one and it did not end well for the one. At least the police got involved in this one.
That's all the fun for my one night in Calgary.

No beer excitement - VR fun in Calgary!

If you ever get stuck in the Calgary Airport for awhile, head up to the 2nd level food court. At one end is Spaceport. It's mostly for kids, but they have a few Virtual Reality Simulators. One is a fighter jet. You get strapped in, locked up, and then fly a plane around blowing things up. The even better part is that the 'cockpit' has full range of motion, so if you do a loop in the simulator, you really do turn upside down. It was fun, and a nice break from boring ass airport time.
As an added bonus, the airport also has free wireless, which is allowing me to post this mesage. Too bad no one ever reads this.

First Brew at New House

It took a while, but I finally found the time to brew some beer at the new house last night. The big question was: what to brew? After careful thought, I decided that an IPA would be most fitting. It's just about our favorite style and my last few recipes have been quite good, if I do say some my own self. So with a few hours of brewing last night, batch #47 is now five gallons of bubblin' beer in the garage. Yippee.

Raley Field Beer Festival - Sacramento

This posting is a little late, but here it is:
Last Saturday, May 9, we headed to Sacramento for a beer festival at the local minor league ball park, Raley Field. There were about 30 breweries present. Most of them were the typical northern California ones, but we did get to try some new ones. The two that stood out were Sacramento Brewing (http://www.sacbrew.com) and Lockdown Brewing (http://www.lockdownbrewingcompany.com/). Both had really tasty beers (IPA, Pale) and Lockdown had some of the best marketing material I've seen in awhile. They're located in Folsom, so the claim to be home of the "Folsom Prison Brews". Anyway, the weather was great and the venue was good. We'll need to head back for a minor league game at some point.