Chimay Blue

So, I think something happened with these bottles. This time I successfully got the cage holding the cork on, but as soon as I pulled the cork off it began to gush... Man, I really want to know what happened. This is kind of annoying. I do not have that many more bottles in my cellar that moved or have corks but, again, I hope the rest are fine.

Appearance: This beer is very dark. Appears nearly black inside glass but when put up to the light it has a purple, grape juice/wine like shade. There is some sediment in my glass but I am writing that off as a side effect of my bottle gushing. It has a tan head that started off pretty big and settled over time. Very, very gorgeous in appearance.

Nose: The smell is sweet and alcoholic. In the other beers, I was hardly able to pull out the alcohol in the nose, but it is very prominent in this brew. I am not picking up the yeast like I thought I would.

Taste: I am getting a lot of dark fruits and it taste bready. Though, very mellow and somewhat malty. I picked up some plum... it kind of threw me off and I was thinking banana for a second, which didn't make much sense to me. I was expecting a lot more alcohol in the taste being I picked up quite a bit of it in the nose, but it is very well hidden (as it warms up, it really comes out). Though, I could not find the yeast in the nose like I expected, I found it during tasting. The dark fruits in this beer linger with you long into the finish as well as a slight spiciness, like if you put too much pepper on your food.

Mouthfeel: This beer feels really thick but has low carbonation within it. This beer really coats the mouth and if you run your tongue around after the swallow, it is feels really slick.

Overall, I really enjoyed this beer. I have never tasted anything like it and I have always heard great things about Chimay. I would love to have fresh/non issue bottles of these brews, but that will have to wait. This bottle seemed to be more like the bottle of Red that I had... except, this one gushed. I just wish I knew what happened to these beers.

Chimay White

I wonder if I did something wrong to this bottle. When I first went to unwrap the metal clamp holding the cork into the bottle it shot out of my hand and the cork went flying up to the ceiling. The bottle then began to slowly foam up...

I transported this bottle to Seattle with me but I did not do anything that I think would have hurt the bottle. I kept it within the proper temperature range and everything for the just about the whole trip minus the initial 7 hour drive, and then the last of the drive... I do not know what happened. None of the other bottles in which I opened from the cellar had this effect (I plan to open Chimay Blue tonight as well) so the only thing I can think of is infection, but I am sure I would have heard about that somewhere... and I purchased all three bottles at the same time and from the same location. I mean sure, they may not have transported together or were brewed at the same time, or stored in the same or best conditions, but this is just really weird for a beer...

Anyway...

As I did not have the proper Chalice for this beer, I drank it out of my Hair Of The Dog Tulip. I love this glass, it is probably one of my favorite glass types. I am so sad that my The Bruery glass is in storage. I will miss that thing ~tear~ I was very much looking forward to this beer because I love Triples... or at least all of the ones that I have had... well most...

Appearance: It is a hazy copper color and poured a huge white head. I am assuming this is a side effect to what ever is wrong with the bottle because as soon as it became, what I would call normal, the head was small, white, and beady. Very similar to what I experienced with The Red that I reviewed Here.

Nose: I get some yeast character. It is somewhat spicy but does not burn the nose and a little fruity... That of bananas? and cloves probably bring the spice I am referring to.

Taste: At first it tasted a little metallic. Which did not make much sense to me. It faded away after drinking a bit of this and then it became quite smooth, spicy, and somewhat citrusy. Alcohol lingers in the finish, but seems to be quite dry.

Mouthfeel: It has a high level of carbonation but it does not detract from the beer. I tend to like very little carbonation, but it all depends on the style. It feels right for this beer, but the beer seems a little thin underneath the carbonation. I guess that is where the flavors live and I did not notice it at all until I started trying to pick it out.

Overall I liked this beer. It is a good Tripel, but I would want to taste a fresh bottle or something because I do not believe that mine was in perfect condition. It behaved strangely but still tasted good so i guess I cannot complain too much. A very nice beer to have with only seven days left to go.

Beth's Cafe

Let me start off by saying that I am crazy and I have eaten the 12 Egg Ham & Cheese Omelette 4 times, and succeeded 3 times... The 4th, I finished everything but the Hash Browns and toast. One night I was watching a Man vs Food Marathon and he gave me good ideas about places that I want to eat as well as grossed me out a few times with his "accomplishments".

Speaking of which, Chunkys Four Horseman Burger is exactly what I will be eating once I get some privileges in San Antonio... Look it up, they don't really have a website, at least I cannot find one. But imagine an insanely hot burger with Ghost Chili Peppers among others... I want! Apparently only 3 People have succeeded in this challenge. I plan to suffer through it :D

So, the thing that annoyed me about one particular episode is that he was in my back yard and failed at something I have done time and time again. I had to step up and beat him at his own game.

Another side note, I noticed that the host of the show was getting fatter and fatter as the show progressed. In the marathon, the earlier episodes, he was a pretty clean cut guy. Not big, but not small and had this pretty kick ass leather jacket. As the show went on, his jacket got smaller on him and he seemed to stop taking care of himself... and turned into a fat man HAH!



So here it is. The Southwestern Exposure. 12 delicious eggs, filled with chili, steak, salsa, sour cream, cheddar cheese, hashbrowns, on top of a bed of hashbrowns, and topped with toast... Sounds like an orgasm #INMYMOUTH

I started off pretty strong and it reminded me of the times I have done this before. This one was way bigger than before but I was pretty confident I could do it. Bite after bite went down and I was powering my way through it. My strategy was to eat fast, otherwise I would get full.



After being about halfway through, I knew I was screwed... I felt like I did after finishing 9 eggs of the other omelette. I then pulled out a full 6oz chunk that one would normally order alone at any other restaurant. That pretty much sucked. I haven't touched my toast yet at this point but I was just about finished. I ate that steak and kept attacking the eggs. It was sooooooooo gooooooood, but so painful hahah! Everyone there told me that since I made it this far I had to keep going but it was hard. I powered through just over half of what I had left and then pulled out another steak chunk...



It was at this time that I was done. Out for the count. After seeing that I almost puked in my mouth a little bit... I didn't though, I just accepted defeat and asked for my box... not that I really wanted to take it home either though. Nikkee drew this awesome picture of my failure and added the final words to it that showed the world how much I sucked :p



There seems to have only been like 3 eggs left... and 2 pounds of all the stuffing... I can't believe that I wanted a beer after this. One of my old college friends wanted to go next door to this Australian bar and I wanted to drink so Australian beer so this worked out perfectly. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea though... not that it ended well but it took me over an hour to finish the ONLY Australian beer that they had in the whole bar... and it was not even on tap... I think they should revoke the license on this place...



It was just a BMC bar that had some good beer, i.e. Full Sail, but I came there to drink Australian beer. I only had one and left. Oh, well. I do not think my body could have held anything else. Coopers Sparkling Ale was not that good... 2/5 at best. I just went home and lounged out since I was stuffed as hell after this. YAY ME!

Deschutes & Hair Of The Dog

I wish I could have made it to Bend and check out the brewery there but I did not really want to make the 5/6 hour drive vs the 2 hour drive. Parking was ridiculous but who cares at this point. I had another Beergasm as we drove by the place.



It was really hard picking out what I wanted to drink. I ordered 2 taster trays since they did not have a preset taster menu and each came with 6 beers. They had about 20 on tap at the time. What made it really hard is I wanted to taste all of my favorites at the source, but they had so many limited and special brews that are only available at the brewpub too... I don't even think I looked at the food menu. I just ordered the special that my server told me about.

He was a really funny guy and was confused as hell when it took me about 15-20 minutes to decide on 12 beers. I decided to break it down by Malty and Hoppy Brews... sort of.





They had a weird beer with lemonade in it and I was not a fan HAHA! but I am so happy that I finally got to try Conflux 2. I wish I could have had one but 2 was great. It was very mellow and flavorful without being overpowering for an IPA. I loved it, again.

I really hate Deschutes for releasing Black Butte XXIII. I am sure all the previous years were amazing as well, but this was the first one I had. It totally ruined Black Butte for me. Not saying Black Butte is not good, it is actually one of my favorite Porters but after having XXIII, it is just not the same. The flavor profile seems out of this world. I wish it was a year round release but I understand why it is not.

Again, I ran into another brewery that did not have any growlers :( this made me very sad because I was so looking forward to getting one from here. You know, being it is one of my all time favorite breweries. I will make it out to the Bend Pub one day though and do the tour and get a Growler! To make up for my misfortune though, I bought a Bottle of Black Butte XXIII and the pint glass :D It will suffice for now...

My next stop was Full Sail Brewing. I have never had any of their beers but decided why not go there. There are so many breweries in the area and I could have gone to anywhere and I did not do enough research to just move on. Not that I thought Full Sail would have been a bad choice.

We got to the location and guess what I found out... I WAS AT THE RIGHT PLACE!!! but they do not have a tasting room at their MAIN brewery... sucks... I am so glad I did not pay for parking even though I drove around for like 10 minutes trying to find a spot... Since we were just in Portland for the day I figured that we would just head home (and later that night I found out that people were heading into town for BBC11... Beer Bloggers Conference... ugh, if I knew that I would have planned this trip so differently. Oh, well... there is always next year right?

Traffic was out of control so instead of staying on the Highway, we got off and headed to Hair of The Dog because it was right off of the exit. I recognized their labels but have never had any of their beer. I ordered their whole collection of Beers, aka Walk The Dog and The Little Dogs Too.



I heard some great stories about their beers and their brewing schedule, (5 brews in one day to fill the fermenter) but the beers did not really stand out to me. Some of them had this taste that I had before in the Hermitage Brewing Beers that I cannot stand. They were a lot more minor in these brews. I have to figure out what it is... I have not had it often though.

I paired the beers with their Chuck Norris Duck Wings. I was told they were supposed to be really hot but meh, they were nothing really. They had some good flavor though. I think the description said something about kicking me in the mouth and punching my throat.

I thought these small samples were very doable but I do not think I could have a whole pint of any of these beers... that being said... I asked for a Growler :p they were out of glass as well, but I did take home one of their glasses. Again, another trophy for my collection.

Pike Brewing Co

Pike Brewing Company is totally one of those places that you have to go to if you ever visit Seattle and are at Pike Place Market. Honestly the beer was just ok in my opinion. I really appreciated that they brewed a Scotch Ale.

We headed up here to meet up with an old friend since we finally made it back to Seattle and I was very hungry by the time we got there already. I figured if I was going to eat, why not do it at the brewery :D

I ordered the Fish and Chips, which seems like one of those things you have to do if you are eating on the water front. It was a great choice. I got my growler and then ran away. It was a totally over sized growler and that was awesome. They sold the standard one too but I did not want another twist top growler. I don't really like the style but whatever. This was one expensive piece of glass though.



After this we went and did a few other things, like took a look at The Famous Gum Wall. It was so gross and you could smell the bums in the areas. I wish I was chewing some gum to add to the wall but NOPE! I haven't chewed since High School. I was addicted to Ice Breakers back then. There is an antique shop not that far from Pike Place and I found some real gems there.

I found some Carboys with plugs and airlocks still intac, VHS tapes of Star Trek, and Tap Handles from numberous breweries. I found a Sierra Nevada one, Pyramid, and a New Belgium among others. Guess what I did...


TOOK IT HOME!!!!!!!!

I cannot wait to get my brewery set back up again and put this on my kegerator.

Ninkasi

Pizza, Awesome Patio and Great Craft Beer. This almost sums up this place... almost. You have to experience it for yourself. I am not sure if the Pizza is always there, it seemed like one of those food trucks but different but I am glad it was there when I got there.

We ended up here after leaving Chico and being on the road forever and needed to fill up my tank... Though, this was one of the originally planned stops. We ended up getting to our final destination very late due to this stop but it was completely worth it.


I got a little anxious before taking the picture.

They have a very simple line up of 5 year round beers and a few seasonal on their 8 taps. I found pretty much all of them very tasty. The only ones that were not on my list of must have these beers every time I find them were the DIPAs. SURPRISE! One of my favorite things about the beer was the fact that they gave you trading cards wtih all of the info on them. Loved it.

They had a lot of cool designs around the place and it is fairly large. We got a lot of attention while we were there because we brought Bebop, aka Bun Light with us and I guess animals on the patio is very rare.



The one thing that dissapointed me about this place is that they do not sell growlers due to their licensing... Oh, well. I got a Pint Glass but I would have loved to brought something home with me... then again their beers are fairly cheap. I think the most I've seen a Bomber of their beers going for was like $3.00. SCORE YEAH!

Sierra Nevada

Wow... Just Wow...



I don't really know what to say about this place. It was a beyond amazing experience coming here. I really wish that I would have gotten into town earlier or was able to stay another day here but yeah. I really wanted to do the tour and see everything hidden in that place, especially since I didn't get into Beer Camp :'(

The restaurant and tasting room were fricken ridiculous. It was like a 5 Star Restaurant... or at least what I image one to be like. It totally fits the brewery but I was expecting something a lot different. I don't really know, but not what I saw. It was sooooooo nice... and I was amazed by the beer.



As if you did not know that already. I got to taste several beers I have been looking for and found one of the worlds most secret, amazing tasting porters. I understand that the Pale is their Flagship beer, but people should really find this Porter. I used to only drink their Pale and Torpedo, being they are also more widely available than any of their other beers. In my area anyway. I finally got to taste Life And Limb and retried Big Foot 2011. I really have to find bottles of L&L and get a 6er of Big Foot 2012 to taste against my 2011 and future batches.

I thought it was pretty damn cool too that the whole parking lot was filled with Solar Panels. The lot also looked into their hop fields. I wanted to just run through them but I figured hopping the fence would have been more trouble than it was worth. I cannot wait to go back there again. I got my growler filled with their Porter and next time I go, I want to ride my bike.

Westvleteren 12

Thank You So Much Louie! This beer was so damn excellent! It was so mellow and very delicious hahah!



S - You can definitely pick out the yeastyness of this brew, but it work out perfectly. The dark malts and a bit of sweetness is there as well. You taste all of this and more... There seems to be a perfect harmony of all of these scents and flavors though.

T - This beer was really Smooth... There is really no where to express this one. It had literally no bite, and tasted amazing. I see why it is rated the #1 beer on Beer Advocate. Like any good Belgian Quad, this has that dark Fruit flavor that totally does not over power. The Alcohol is not noticeable at all. I do not know how they do it. Caramel lacing my mouth, and the yeast came through in the best ways. This is a very flavorful ale... You must try to find a bottle of this to understand.

M - So smoooooooooooooooooooootheeee.... Yup. No other way to describe it. It seems really light in your mouth (at least before I let it warm up) but it does not seem that way at all.... I don't know what I mean or what I am saying. It has the perfect mouthfeel. Lets just say that.

21st Amendment

So yeah... 21st Amendment. First off, driving in San Fransisco SUCKS!!! Never do it. Secondly, Do some research before you head into a city with horrible traffic. Apparently I went to town on a Gameday... Yup... Ugh, anyway.

When we first got here we had a bit of a wait. Which, was to be expected and not an issue. We were finally seated and then we were getting some above par service. Apparently they do not do tasters on game days, but I was brought out a few anyway. I had three of their beers before hand and thought one was great, Hell or High Watermelon, and thought the others were just meh.

The place started dying down and so did the amount of attention that we got... which did not make sense to me. I was repeatedly offered IPAs as well after telling the waitress that I did not want any. She kept telling me that, Well these low ABV beers are not worth it. If you are going to have anything get one of these... I honestly do not care about ABV, as I am sure many of you know and I wanted to drink The Blonde!

Everything just got more and more annoying. After not too long I just decided to get out of here. It then took us 20 minutes and asking 3 different people to get our check. I suggested that we just stand up and walk out the door but SWMBO was totally against that. Nobody would have even noticed. Out of all the beers I had, I still only liked one and was highly annoyed. Yeah, I didn't even ask for a growler or glassware... don't believe I missed out on anything.

Drink What You Damn Well Please Day

WOOT! West Coast Circle Jerk! I mean, wait... The first International IPA Day or something like that. My original intention were not to drink a single IPA today but I guess my plans totally messed this one up. I planned to head to a brewery today... Bear Republic.



The one thing that makes me mad about my visit here is I FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF MY AMAZING HAMBURGER!!! Before I go on, This burger was A Half Pound, Jalapeno Poppers wrapped in Bacon, with Onion Rings, Pepper Jack, and some crazy sauce. LOVED THIS BURGER! I want to have it again.

I loved this Brewery. As we were walking by I found some very delicious treats.


I kind of wanted to steal this spent grain to make something with, or remash and make a small beer.



Here is the spread. Some very awesome, awesome brews. Racer 5 got me my IPA Day Badge and there were many great beers to be had after that. Honestly though, Racer 5 has never tasted so good. As we left I saw something very exciting...



Guess where I decided to go!



I think this may have been a bad idea. I had very many, many great craft beers. Take a look.



18 4oz pours... This did not end well, well it did not end bad I survived though my palate was beyond crashed. The Beer Sanctuary was very nice... a few too many dogs for my taste, especially seeing as that there was never a dog for Lagunitas (learned that one on the tour), several of their beers were named after towns and apparently all of their beers start as seasonal releases and then if they are liked they move into the year round sector.

I got about halfway through this taster tray before I figured that if I were going to make it all the way, I would have to taste everything right now. I tried to take the best tasting notes possible but after a while everything began tasting like toffee. I love toffee but it did not seem right.

There were several beers that I went back to the next day in order to actually find out what I was tasting. I thought their growlers were kind of a rip, I mean it was cool that they gave it to me in a Mason Jar but they did not even brand it... wtf?

Russian River and Random Brewery Run In

After arriving in Cotati I did not waste anytime finding the breweries I added to my list. My first Stop ended up being Russian River... Yum. We were supposed to be meeting our Cousin there but she was running really late and I decided I was not going to wait any longer to experience the mind explosion waiting to happen.



A few people from Twitter were giving me a major break down on this brewery and what to do and what to order. Not that it would have been hard to figure out what I wanted to drink, I WANTED IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!



But one thing I did not know about this place that was brought to my attention was the New Albion sign that was right above the bar, (I did not get a picture of this. I tried to make a trip back in order to get it but it did not happen in the time that I was there. I will get back in order to get it now that I have learned so much about it. I don't think that parenthesis are supposed to go this long.)Apparently they were the first brewery to brew a stout after the end of Prohibition. The company went under but they still have a place in the brewing world today. Just last year Sierra Nevada released Jack and Kens 30th Anniversary BarleyWine, (have a bottle in the cellar), that is based off of the New Albion recipe from so long ago... man, I wish I would have snapped that picture... Oh well,... for now...

Anyway, drinking here was a delight, and the pizza was pretty damn good too. I remember I was looking forward so much to Consecration... and I was not really a fan. Let me know if you or anyone else had got these notes, but I swear I tasted Tobacco in this beer... It was very weird... Though, I did find and love Supplication! Highly recommend! I was in love with literally all of the beers here and I had some fun.



Finally my cousin showed up... well, kind of. She called us and asked where we were sitting because she was "here" and could not find us. Turned out that she was AT ANOTHER BREWERY RIGHT DOWN THE STREET!!!!!!!! I ordered my Growler of Pliny The Elder and guess where I went next!

Third Street Aleworks!



They gave me a massive flight of 13 4 ounce pours! They had pretty average beer overall but nothing was bad. They only sell their beer at that one location and not in stores so their mission is pretty straight forward. I was surprised with the Kolsch they brewed. Not many people make one, and not everyone should, but there should be more of them out there. Just saying.

I have several more stops here. So it is time to move on...

Good Bye Los Angeles Part Duex

Two days in a row I got together with people to give my last goodbyes and day two was almost just as busy as day one...

First stop, Eagle Rock Brewing. I have always wanted to come to this place but nobodies schedule ever worked out with mine. It is a very good thing that I was able to convince Louie, Monica, and his cousin Jorge to get out here :D

The building was very small and kind of hidden but that doesn't make a difference at all when it comes to good beer... and good art.



I figured that if I were coming to this brewery I was going to taste everything they had. I had a couple of their beers previously but those were hard to find and limited release brews. I talked to Jeremy, the owner, for a few minutes as he was on his way out. I have met him once before but figured now I am in his court so why not just talk a bit.



The beers of the night were Manifesto, Ginger Saison, Stimulus, Solidarity, Nitro Solidarity, Revolution, Populist, and Citrus Solidarity. It was hard to say which one of these were my favorite, but out of all the Eagle Rock beers I had Yearling is definitely my number 1. One thing that disappointed me about this place is that they had no more growlers when I showed up :'( I really wanted one to add to my collection. I do not know why I did not think to see if they had any other glassware I could purchase, like a pint glass or something but I just figured, oh well. Especially since I got a hold of Kyle and Rachel and we all decided to go to Beer Belly Again! (2 nights in a row)


Untapped Check in party.

We left here and headed to Beer Belly where HopHeadJim was waiting to try some of my homebrew. As soon as we got to the bar he popped open my Pirates Booty, an Oaked Rum Porter, that I brought to him the night before. This is every ones favorite of my homebrews and he loved it as well. I had another Black Butte XXIII and questioned if this was a good beer to start out the night after leaving a brewery...

Nikkee, Rachel, and Monica were tired of us boys and decided to get another table. Nikkee ordered the Root Beer Float Flight, Five Rootbeers Floats... Yum, and had fun adding her Ice Cream to the glasses to get some very interesting reactions...



I ordered myself a Twilight ale, (another from the Deschutes event but a summer seasonal not rare release), since I had never had it before and always wanted to try it. I was not disappointed. HopHeadJim then brought us a few flights of Craftsman Triple White Sage and Batch 300. Top Notch Beers.

It was finally time to say goodbye. We were hitting the road the next day for Santa Rosa and still had a lot to do in the way of packing. It was a sad moment but it was a great night. Thank You All.

Goodbye Los Angeles

The time is nearing and I figured I have to do everything I wanted to get done before I headed out. I know I would regret it otherwise. My first trip was City Tavern, I know I was just there, but I wanted to go again HAHA!) This may be a long post... I may break it into several.



This time the choices were a bit different. I had a Le Merle, (a Saison that I was trying to have a week before at Eureka Burger but they SOLD out as I was ordering it... O well. I was damn well worth the wait.), a Blonde and a Triple by Brouwerij West, (never heard of the company but they made a pretty good triple.) and then Witch's Wit, (a Lost Abbey beer that I did not know existed when I went to the Brewery).

Besides that though, I always forget to snap some pictures before I dig into my food! We were brought a very sweet tray with a grilled cheese sandwich on it :D and stuffed and fried squash, and an heirloom tomato. I really wish I got a picture of it. Again, I suck.

I had the City Tavern Brew Burger! for dinner. It is one of their signature burgers that is built on a Pretzel Bun, with an onion ring, a special pub cheese, and a mustard aioli... This burger was seriously a delight, I would honestly think so even if I were not obsessed with stuffing beef in my mouth and pretzels.... Maybe bacon and jalepenos would make this better but this would not be the same burger that they sell :p That would be my dream burger. Especailly if the Jalepenos were stuffed with cream cheese.......... YUM!



This was also my time to say goodbye to Bierkast :'( I hope all goes well for them in the future and that I can soon come back and drink their beer in a bar somewhere in LA. I am really looking forward to the future of LA Aleworks and hoping that I can come visit them and brew with them one day in the brewery. That would be awesome.

The next night my buddy Kyle wanted to go to 38 Degrees Alehouse and since this is one of the last time I knew I would see him in a while I could not say no ;p I am damn glad I did go too.

I was just being a doof and I called the restaurant to see if they had Cabernale on tap for Nikkee, which they did, and the guy who answered the phone was none other than the owner... Clay. I was pretty damn excited being I had always wanted to meet him since he ran a number of events around the city and owned this place, DUH! so as soon as we got there I started asking around for him.


Got a little excited and drank before the picture :p

In the meantime, I drank a few beers I knew I liked, one I wanted to try, and one that just fell into my lap... Not really a fan of the Blue House Citra Pale. For some reason everyone wants Citra hops right now (at least that is what they tell me) but after having this beer I would not want to go out and buy any hops that had a similar taste to this. Heritage by Bear Republic, always a good choice. Not my favorite brew from this company, but then again I've only had four HAH!

Another brew that I had before that I knew I loved was the Abbey Grand Cru from New Belgium. The thing that sucked about this beer on this night is that, the server had entered all the beers for both mine and Kyles flights, but the bartenders did not process or print them seperatly... I HAD TO GUESS WHAT BEER WAS WHAT BASED ON COLOR!!!!!!!!!!! So, it was the Abbey or Cuvee Des Jacobins Rouge that I was down to and I had to drink...

I figured it out pretty quick but still... If I have never had either one of those beers before I would not know which one I loved and which one I do not know if I could drink more than just a taster of...

Pretty much about the time we were ready to leave, Clay finally showed up and Kyle talked his ear off ;) it was a good time and after he heard that I was heading out he gave me a bottle of the brand new Stone Collaboration brew, Cherry Chocolate Stout, (That I was obsessing over and trying to find a place that sold it since it was only 3 days old at the time). Oh My GEEEZZZ!!! I have yet to crack it open, but I will give it a special review. Believe that. I hope it lives up to the high hopes that I gave it knowing nothing about it.



Once again, I blame this on Kyle and his lack of visiting any bars in LA... I told him that Beer Belly was an awesome spot and that he had to see it. The night before they had a Deschutes Beer event that I was not able to attend. Black Butte XXIII was there and Conflux #2.

As soon as we got to the bar I got a Batch 300 from The Bruery. I have been going back and forth on buying a bottle of this but never made the jump. I am glad they had it on tap here but I would have been just as happy buying the bottle.... I LOVED IT! After this beer I asked for the Black Butte XXIII. Black Butte is already one of my favorite beers, but man... It just got better. Everything I loved about Black Butte was amplified and the oak aging really set it off.

I asked about the Conflux next but the keg had kicked just before we got there. It was getting pretty late by this time anyway but I noticed a LadyFace growler in HopHeadJims cellar so I decided to ask what it was... I had no idea that LadyFace made Mead. He asked us if we wanted to try some, so we did and OMG! It was damn good (it was my very first mead as well). It clocked in at about 15% and I guess that is kind of high, but I really have no idea. I am kind of on the hunt for more meads now.