[BW] Beer Blog

I’ve been pondering this for quite some time, but I think there’s no better time than now. It is with a heavy heart that I must announce I will no longer be updating this blog.

This has been an incredibly fun project that has reaped rewards I never imagined. However, due to a combination of lack of time, fading interest, and recent health concerns, I can no longer allow myself to leave my readers wondering when the next post will be.

Thank you to everybody who has ever posted a comment, linked to my site, recommended a beer, or even sent a few cold ones my way. I’ll be sure to stay in touch with those of you who visit frequently. In the mean time, enjoy the site for however long I decide to leave it up.

Oh, and Eric, I’m still putting together quite a package for you =)

Thank you again!

-Rick

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Just want to let you all know that I am very much still alive. Posting new reviews has gotten mighty slow around here and I apologize.

In my day-to-day life, things have gotten insanely busy. Not only is my first year of grad school coming to a conclusion in about three weeks, but I’ve also been put in the position where I get to fill the role of two positions at once until the summer hits.

Truth be told, I also haven’t had any truly inspiring beers lately. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been taking the time to enjoy a brew every now and then, but none of the new ones I’ve tried lately have really sparked enough interest to write about them.

For example, a couple nights ago I had the chance to try Hale’s Mongoose IPA. Does everybody use the same recipe for IPAs? Is is that hard to make an IPA that actually tastes original? Perhaps my palate isn’t sophisticated enough to pick up on the intricacies of IPAs, but 99% of them taste exactly alike to me.

Hopefully this should all change in about three weeks when not only is the semester over, but I’m moving back to Oregon for the break. While I’m definitely enjoying my time out here for school, Pullman isn’t exactly a beer town. Expect much more frequent updates soon enough. Until that time comes, expect maybe a post a week if I’m lucky.

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Ever have one of those moments where, when put into perspective, something really hits you? I recently had one of those moments when I viewed this:

http://ru.fishki.net/picsw/012008/09/reklama/00cd5kd0.jpg

By no means am I saying we need to stop drinking beer and instead save the world, but I connected with this enough to send a few pints’ worth of money to a similar charity. I think most of us can spare a pint’s worth of cash to send along, so think about giving if you can.

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This last weekend I had the opportunity to visit Portland for a couple of days and made my requisite visit to the Belmont Beer Station. Usually Belmont is where I decide to pick up tons of seasonals, imperials, or other one-offs that I know I can’t get elsewhere. This time, however, I was a little nicer to my wallet and instead picked up mostly beers that I just hadn’t gotten around to trying yet. Here’s what I wound up with:

-22oz Bison Chocolate Stout (Have had once before, but did not review)
-22oz Roots Island Red
-22oz Mirimoto Black Obi (I love this stuff)
-Nøgne Ø #100 Barley Wine
-12oz Kiuchi Commemorative Ale

Along with that order were the three beers I picked up for Eric at Bearded Brewing as well. At this point I’ve realized that I need to do some serious beer drinking. Before buying those I still have seven other brews that I need to review. This brings my total to a dozen beers I have in my possession just waiting to be poured and reviewed for your reading pleasure.

I’ve also got four bottles of The Abyss =)

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As this site grows and becomes more popular, it seems I am frequently being made offers by members of the brewing community to shill their stuff. Each time this happens I have to admit, I stop and think about it for a second.

The most current example of this is an email sitting in my inbox from a major marketing company who wants to buy space on my site to advertise a product from a major American macro brewery. I’m sure many other beer blogs received this same offer, but the point is I have an email in my inbox essentially offering me money just to put up an advertisement.

For those of you who are long time readers, you all know that at no point have I ever had advertisements on my site. No banners, no Google Adsense, nothing aside from my “Made on a Mac” Apple logo on the bottom of my navigation bar. I’m at the point where I’m pulling enough traffic that my site could be self sustaining from advertisements, but to be completely honest my web hosting is only $5 per month. Is selling parts of my site to companies I fundamentally disagree with really worth it? I think not.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the offers as I certainly wasn’t getting this kind of attention a year ago. The problem is that I like to think readers enjoy my blog because of the lack of advertisements. If something is on this site then you know that it’s on here because I think its worth your time and my money to both buy it and pay to write about it.

I apologize for this not being another beer review, but I thought I’d update you all on some of the current events involving my blog. I’m always looking for feedback as well, so please feel free to either leave a comment or shoot me an email at any time. Look forward to a new beer review or two within the next couple days.

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Every time I think I’ve got a handle on the larger beer blogs out there, I stumble upon one that I’ve never heard of that I wish I knew about earlier. The newest blog of this description is Chris O’Brien’s Beer Activist Blog.

It’s no secret that I’m somewhat of an environmentalist and am a huge fan of the organic brewing movement. Chris takes this even further and looks at the sustainability and environmental impact of EVERY aspect of brewing. In his latest column, Chris analyzes the entire building of a pub.

Chris has even written a book titled Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World. The guy definitely knows his stuff and I highly suggest you check out his site if this is something that interests you.

Beer Activist Blog - http://beeractivist.wordpress.com

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Brewery: Oskar Blues
Style: Pale Ale
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: B+ (Community), D+ (The Brothers)
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.75 (95th percentile)
Serving: 12oz aluminum can

Note: What you’re about to read may lead you to disregard all credibility you may have given me in the past. I promise I’ll try my best with the next few reviews to aid in recovering my credibility as a respected beer reviewer. Enjoy!

I’m breaking from my regular review format because, well, this isn’t about a regular beer. Recently I noticed that my local beer store started carrying Dale’s Pale Ale. What’s the big deal about Dale’s? It’s in a can!

So why am I breaking from my standard review process? I believe it has something to do with the can. In short, Dale’s itself is a very delicious, slightly hoppy pale ale that any brewer would be proud to brew. By no means is it very unique in taste, but it hits the genre spot on. However, through my journey of drinking beer I have associated cans with session drinking. Well, to cut the crap, cans mean I’m doing to get drunk. I’m not going to pour this stuff into a glass, I’m not going to tell you how it smells, and I really don’t care if the hues change as it warms. I probably should, but I don’t. Brew this stuff in a bottle next time and I’m all over it, but that’s not the case. So, for the first time on BobWoodshed.org I’m going to share with you my journey through a case of Dale’s.

It was Friday night and my two friends and I had a fridge full of delicious beer. To entertain us through our journey we had the opportunity to borrow the video game Rock Band for the first time. For those of you not familiar with Rock Band, it’s a video game where you have two fake guitar controllers, one fake drum set controller, and a very real microphone. The idea is that up to four people can play together as a band; three playing fake instruments and one actually singing into the microphone. Here’s kind of how the night went:

8:00 - Guitar, bass, and drums are called for. Microphone isn’t even plugged in.

9:00 - Plugged in microphone just for fun to see how it works. No actual singing.

10:00 - Still no singing

11:00 - Friend 1 picks up the microphone and sings the first song. Man this guy sucks!

11:30 - Other friend begins to sing and damn, he sucks too.

12:00 - Wow, my friends can’t sing worth shit. Looks like I better save the day and play the vocal assassin on the mic. I’ll have a lot more time to sing now that I’m out of beer.

1:00 - I’m the greatest lead singer of all time.

1:15 - Pass out.

You see folks, without Dale’s Pale Ale I would have never found out that in my opinion I am an amazing singer. Sure I could have gotten drunk enough to think I’m awesome with any beer in the world, but it’s Dale’s that gave me the confidence to loudly slur “Creep” by Radiohead and I owe it all to the fact that they brew craft beer in cans. Oskar Blues really has something unique going on with their idea to exclusively bottle in cans. Pick some up if you get the chance, but please, friends don’t let friends sing drunk.

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I honestly had a much more serious beer-related post ready to go tonight, but what you are about to watch is just too good to pass up. I saw this today posted on Digg and it turns out that this is a Chinese beer commercial for Bavaria beer. I have no idea what they’re saying, but that didn’t keep me from watching it half a dozen times. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHsYhORsQPo

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Rarely do I ever create a whole post to announce a new blog I’m adding to my list of blog links, but this one is especially caught my eye. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you the Utah Beer (http://utahbeer.blogspot.com/) blog.

Why do I love this blog so much? Because Utah is probably the whackiest state in the entire US when it comes to alcohol laws. Mike does an incredible job describing them in his post about Utah Liquor Laws. In a nut shell, Utah’s liquor laws are largely based on the religious affiliation of its greater demographic.

For instance, let’s say you walk into a tavern and order a beer. That beer, by law, cannot be over 4% abv. These beers are commonly known as “Utah beer” in the rest of the US. Mmm…watered down beer.

I suppose the most appealing aspect of this blog is that Mike is a true craft beer fan living in an area that seems to despise good beer. Mike, you are a brave man and I commend your reporting from the inside.

Utah Beer
http://utahbeer.blogspot.com

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Today has been a fantastic day. For the first time I had the opportunity to visit two places I just hadn’t had an opportunity to check off of my list of places to go: Belmont Beer Station and the Horse Brass Pub.

Belmont Beer Station
The Belmont Beer Station is THE beer store in the Portland Metro area. At any given time they have over 1000 different kinds of beers from countries all over the world. While not as physically large as University Market in Corvallis, the variety is definitely larger; especially in the international beer arena.

Also notable about Belmont is they have a Biercafe. Located in the back half of the store, the Biercafe is where you can enjoy any of the beers available to purchase, partake in tasting sessions, have a pint of select beers they have on tap, and even enjoy food from their deli.

Here’s a list of what I ended up walking out with:
-Bison Gingerbread Ale (2×22oz bottles)
-Bison Winter Warmer (1×22oz bottle)
-Laurelwood Vinter Varmer (1×22oz bottle)
-Laurelwood Tree Hugger Porter (1×12oz bottle)
-Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown (1×22oz bottle)
-Rogue Santas Private Reserve (1×220z bottle)
-Nøgne Ø Winter Ale (1x 1pt .9oz bottle)
-Hale’s Troll Porter (1×220z bottle)

Looks forward to reviews for all of these. Also, check out Belmont’s Beer Blog. It’s definitely a blog to check even if you don’t live in the Portland Metro area.

Horse Brass Pub
The Horse Brass Pub is an English-style pub located on the east side of Portland at 4534 SE Belmont. This is definitely one of the more popular pubs in the Portland area for beer enthusiasts due to not their awesome selection of beer from around the world, but the great atmosphere as well. They’re also the only pub I know in the area that shows English Premier League soccer.

What especially caught my eye was their selection of cask-conditioned beers. However, I didn’t see this section of the beer menu until after I ordered. You see, their beer menu is a standard menu consisting of five pages of beer (three of spirits), a supplemental menu that’s four pages of guest beers on tap and beers to come, and then two hand written boards at the front of the pub showing even more beers they have. I guarantee you’ll find something you like.

I showed up for lunch, so I also had the opportunity to try their cuisine. Their menu consists of traditionally English-style food ranging from the quintessential fish and chips to beef and kidney pies. I ended up ordering a chicken pot pie and it was very delicious. To wash it down I had a pint of Willamette Brewing Espresso Stout. From the menu:

With the equivalent to one shot of espresso in every pint, this stout is surprisingly light and refreshing and the perfect pick-me-up for those long winter days

This appealed to me as I was kind of dragging ass and needed a pick-me-up. While I wouldn’t call this beer a masterpiece of craft brewing, I will say it is exactly what it claims to me. Espresso espresso espresso! Went down incredibly smooth and could have had a few more if I wanted to make an afternoon of it.

Final Thoughts
All in all it has been a great day so far. If you ever get a chance to visit Portland or live in the area and just haven’t gotten around to Belmont or Horse Brass, take an afternoon and head on out to the east side. Thanks to everybody at both Belmont Beer Station and the Horse Brass Pub for being so friendly and doing what you do.

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