Barrel Adventures

In January of 2015, at the Upper Mississippi Mash Out, one of the biggest and baddest homebrew competitions around, I ended up talking to another beer judge Scot Schaar.  Scot is a distiller for the Mississippi River Distilling Company out of LeClaire, Iowa.  The distillery opened in 2010, and Scot has been bringing bottles of their spirits for the UMMO charity silent auction for years.  I've always wondered what the whiskey tasted like, but have never gone out of my way to look for it.  That year, I discovered that Scot had brought some small used oak barrels with him on this trip and that a few had not been claimed.  So I found myself in a chilly darkened parking lot hefting a heavy oaken barrel while my wife (giving me a significantly dirty look) handed this fine fellow a wad of cash.  On the barrel head so to speak...

The barrel is a 15 gallon oaken affair that previously held the Cody Road Rye Whiskey for approximately 14 months.  The rye grain for this spirit is grown in Illinois (my home state).  Typical larger producers of whiskeys and bourbons use 55 gallon barrels, but with the advent of smaller craft distilleries they've started using smaller barrels as well.  These are much more accessible to us homebrewers since we don't have to brew up 55 gallons of beer to fill one!  One reason distilleries use these smaller barrels is their increased surface area to volume ratio:  a smaller barrel has more spirit in direct contact with the oaken walls.  This results in faster color and  flavor transfer from the oak into the spirit.  Single malt Scotch is usually aged for 10+ years since they're using already "used" American bourbon or whiskey barrels.  So by using a smaller freshly charred barrel, distilleries can get a drinkable spirit out to market without waiting for 3-5 years.  This particular barrel was crafted at The Barrel Mill in close-by Avon, Minnesota from North American white oak.

What to use to fill this special barrel?  I went with an old stand-by, the only beer I brew every year: Olde Meconium Imperial Stout.  I've used oak chips and cubes in this beer before with mixed results, but have always wanted to try it in a genuine barrel to see if the results would differ.  My usual batch size for this beer is 6 gallons and it pushes the very limits of capacity for my 10 gallon brew system.  Olde Meconium is my most challenging beer to brew and I had no desire to brew it three times to fit in the barrel!  Luckily I managed to talk my friend and fellow Jack Of All Brews member Mike Lebben into helping me out.  Both of us did a modified version of the beer, adding some dry malt extract to the boil to be able to do an 8 gallon batch each.

This was the first time I had brewed since the previous November, and after new shelving had been built in my garage.  As a result, I spent a fair amount of time digging out equipment, refilling propane tanks, etc.  Not my smoothest or quickest batch ever.  I hit pretty close to my goal gravity though.  Fermentation went well, split between two carboys.  The 5 gallon batch I fermented with American ale yeast, and the 3 gallon batch with Nottingham ale yeast.  I've brewed this beer with both and thought combining the two might give me a flavor profile somewhere in between the two.  And I had those yeast already in my fridge, so why not?

One week in, Mike and I got together to fill the barrel up.  I found a spot for it under the stairs in the basement where it would be out of the way and have fairly consistent cool temperatures.  Both of our batches were still fermenting slightly with bubbles coming every 5-10 seconds, but I was concerned about how dry the barrel was getting and didn't want to wait much longer before filling it.  Once we added the beer--right up to the bung--it started to foam out at us!  I hooked up an improvised blow-off tube to avoid Imperial stout all over the walls!

After about 8 weeks in the barrel we tasted it and decided it was time to take out the beer.  The hardest part of that process?  Trying to lift the full barrel up high enough to siphon beer out of it!  My friend Rob Wengler helped me muscle it up on top of my kegerator for this event, risking hernia for the sake of beer!  Rob and I had actually brewed an English brown porter in the intervening weeks and that beer was ready to add now.  We moved the now lighter empty barrel back to its home in the closet and added our porter.  I did not rinse the barrel, wanting to keep what little whiskey character remained for this second and much smaller beer.  I regret that now!  Once the beer had been in the barrel for 12 hours it started to ferment again, bubbling over the airlock and making me hook up the blow-off tube again.  I'm not sure if there was some residual unfermented sugar in the beer, or if the quantity of healthy yeast left in the barrel just kicked back into gear, but it kept fermenting away for another several days before slowing down.

The idea was to leave this beer in for about a month and then fill it for the final time with the base beer for a lambic sour that would then sit around for 1-2 years getting funkier.  I did get my part of the batch brewed up, but had a hard time getting help for the second half.  Then life got busy with summer travel plans and time slipped away from me.  I eventually brewed up a second batch of lambic wort, but the porter stayed in there a bit too long.  When I tasted it, the beer had a strong oak tannin character as well as a hint of sourness.  Oops!  I ended up transferring the porter out into glass carboys and adding some dregs of Flanders red ales.  Those are coming along nicely now with a slowly developing complexity of sourness and creepy looking pellicle.

This time I dumped out the old yeast and rinsed out the inside of the barrel.  I quickly (before the staves could dry out and shrink) filled it again with my two batches of lambic.  I actually fermented the lambic wort in glass carboys with an American ale yeast first, but added 2 packs of Wyeast Lambic Blend yeast and some dregs from a bottle of Cantillon to the barrel.  I did get a kick-up of fermentation within 2 days that lasted for another week or so before settling down.  I just tried this beer and the sourness and brett character are starting to show up, but still pretty subtle.  This may live in the barrel for a year or longer.

The need to keep the barrel filled, and to plan ahead with brewing beers to fill it is the most difficult aspect of using it.  Since nearly all commercial barrels are big (most 55 gallons) you nearly always need help filling it and getting multiple people to brew according to a timeline is tough!  Even using a small barrel can be a pain, and requires some planning ahead and collaboration.

As a wrap-up, our first batch from this barrel--Barrel Aged Olde Meconium--won a gold medal at this year's Mashout!  Thanks to Scot for getting me that barrel, and to Mike for helping me brew this beast!  I do think this is the best beer I've ever brewed and the level of complexity from the barrel itself goes far above what I've been able to do with booze soaked oak cubes in the past.  This was an interesting experiment, and one I'd recommend, but taking care of a barrel is a bit of a chore.

A Whale A Week: Churchill's Finest Hour 2013

A Whale A Week is my attempt to share a rare beer with friends every week for the whole year of 2015, often accompanied by funky photo tricks.  This helps me get through my dragon's hoard of cellared beers as well as practice with beer photography.  This week we do another Bourbon Barrel aged Imperial Stout...

Churchill's Finest Hour 2013

Most folks have heard of Port Brewing in California, co-run with Lost Abbey and the Pizza Port brewpubs.  We still can't get those beers here in Minnesota, but I've got a few lurking in my cellar!  I have really liked Old Viscosity when I've had it in the past.  Every year since 2010 the brewery has released a special beer for Churchill's Pub and Grille in San Marcos, California.  The beer is a blend of up to three different beers to make a special and changing product each year.  The pub has a special Renaissance Day celebration each year which includes a ton of rare beers on tap and the release of this special beer.  Like a lot of these limited release events, folks have started showing up the night before and waiting in line for their entry and beers.

Knowing that a lot of effort went into getting this particular beer, I was excited to try it!  This week I had my good friend Rob Wengler share the beer with me.  Rob is known for his web based show Limited Release where he, Ron Johnson, (and occasionally me) travel to these special beer release parties and document the ensuing chaos.  And as usual, my wife Sarajo helped us to drink this beer.

I couldn't find much information about this specific beer, but I do know that it is 11% ABV and at least some of it is barrel aged.  The dark brown wax dipped top indicates that it is from 2013.  BeerAdvocate has a rating of 97 for this vintage, and RateBeer has a combined vintage score of 100.  I served this beer slightly warmer than I wanted to (60 degrees F.)

Fun with smoke effects!  I put some serious time into getting this just right, so enjoy it!

Aroma:
Eric: A mix of milk and semi-sweet chocolates.  Some strong nose-stinging alcohol and bourbon.  Vanilla and oak tannin.  No hop aroma.  There is a burnt coffee or overly roasted malt aroma as it is swirled.  Alcohol is very overpowering.
Rob: Dark cherries.  Dark toasted oak, vanilla and lots of tannin.  Alcohol heat. Candy, caramel/burnt sugar.  Slightly smoky.

Appearance:
Eric & Rob: Opaque black, no light is getting through this beer!  Large head with deep brown color.  Large bubbles that fade fairly quickly but are easily roused back again.

Flavor: 
Eric: Semi-sweet chocolate like in the aroma.  Following that is very firm alcohol warming, bordering on burning.  Hints of vanilla and oak tannins.  There is sweetness here, but more like a dry Belgian beer than a sticky RIS.  Molasses and prune flavors as I get past the strong alcohol.  Body only medium, probably from the dry boozy finish, tannins and abundant roasted/burnt malt.  As it warms I pick up on some smoke.  Carbonation higher than expected from appearance.
Rob: Smooth/harmonious, very even.  Slightly smoky-makes me think of Scotch more than bourbon.  Just sweet enough.  Subtle spices, maybe a touch of cinnamon?  Hot and effervescent.  Carbonation makes it seem lighter bodied.

Overall:
Eric: Very tasty overall.  The alcohol is so strong that it covers a lot of the other flavors lurking under the hood.  Pleasant and fun to try, but lacks complexity.  Feeling the burn!  I would be interested in trying other vintages to see what those are like.  4
Rob: Not as heavy as I'd expect for 11%.  Main flavor for me is Scotch.  This might be subdued more if we drank this colder. 4
Sarajo: It's OK. 4

A cool and rare beer to try with an interesting back story.  We all liked it, but serving it warm may have hurt this a bit.  That being said, I've had my share of RIS beers served warm that I gave higher ratings to.  I'd love to know if they actually used Scotch barrels for this batch.

A Whale A Week: Fifty Fifty Eclipse 2012 Old Fitzgerald

A Whale A Week is my attempt to force myself to not only drink some amazing rare beers I've been hording, but share and blog about it.  I welcome folks to play along and link up their pages/blogs if you have one of these beers to try yourself.  Last week my intrepid friends helped me study and savor the smooth flavors of Westvleteren 12.  For this Whale A Week we move to Imperial Stout territory with...

Fifty Fifty Eclipse Old Fitzgerald 2012 Vintage


Fifty Fifty Brewing Company, is a smaller brewery and restaurant located in the somewhat remote Truckee, California.  They are most famous for their Imperial stout called Totality, which has won three GABF medals over the past seven years.  Not bad for a small brewpub!  Until 2014, their brewer was Todd Ashman, formerly of Illinois' Flossmoor Station Brewpub.  Interestingly, I got to Flossmoor after Todd had originally left it and the "award winning" beers we had there were pretty mediocre at best.  Todd has since returned to his former haunts in Illinois to help open Flossmoor's production facility.  This past year his protege, Alyssa Shook took over as head brewer for Fifty Fifty.  I have not tried their beer since the change, so I can't comment on current quality.

I spent some serious time working on this photo for my weekly post!

For the production of Eclipse, they brew a 300 gallon batch of Totality around March or April, and age it in a mix of used oak barrels for at least 6 months.  They mostly use whiskey or bourbon barrels, but have been known to throw in some rum barrels and other surprises as well such as coffee versions.  Each version of this beer is then hand-dipped in a different color of wax for future reference.  There is a Style Guide on their website with a list of the colors so you can figure out what you have lurking in your cellar.

Eclipse was first brewed in 2007 and aged in Old Fitzgerald barrels.  I have several versions of this beer in my cellar, but decided to go back to the beginning and try the 2012 version of the Old Fitzgerald aged beer.  According to the Internet Old Fitz was pot distilled in Kentucky during the 1870's for the rail and steamship trade, and released to the general public around 1900.  During prohibition, Old Fitz was one of the few bourbons allowed to be used for "medicinal purposes".  At one point the brewery was bought by the now incredibly famous Pappy Van Winkle, and is currently owned by Heaven Hill Distillery.  With that much history behind it, it must be good!

Each year, for the special release of Eclipse, the brewery hosts a small ticketed event to celebrate.  There, one can try all the versions of the beer and buy bottles.  Entry isn't cheep and is hard to come by, as demand for this beer is off the charts!  In 2013 my friends Rob Wengler and Ron Johnson, of the web-based beer hunting show Limited Release, were able to gain entry to the event for the show.  Later that year Rob hosted a tasting party at his home on the day of a crazy ice storm and we tried all of these beers at one sitting.  Wow!  At that point these beers were amazing, but still young.  I haven't tried once since...until now!

I received this bottle in a mass trade from a local guy looking to weed his cellar a bit.  He had stored this in a cool basement out of the light, so it looks like the beer has been treated well over the past few years.  On Beer Advocate it is currently ranked a 94, and RateBeer gives it a solid 100.

For today's tasting we gathered a panel of experts...Ok, people who like beer.  Included were:  Me--Homebrewer, BJCP judge.  My wife Sj--Fan of Imperial stouts.  Dave Manley--JAB member, homebrewer, cellared beer expert.  Jim Stroner--Beer enthusiast and photographer.  Rick Spaulding--Also beer enthusiast, biker, and photographer.  With this varied dream team assembled we got to work!  Twenty minutes later, after I had hacked my way through the incredibly thick and tenacious layer of blue wax on the bottle, we finally got to try the beer...

Aroma:
Eric: Notable bourbon and wood character of vanilla and even toasted coconut.  Roasted malts.  Chocolate milk.  Honey?  No hop aroma.
Dave: Molasses, sweet bourbon, sticky toffee, black licorice.
Jim: Dark Fruit, faint booze
Rick: Dark fruit, molasses, bourbon, vanilla.

Appearance:
Very dark brown, but not as black as expected for Russian Imperial stout.  Not opaque--can see through at edge of glass with ruby highlights.  Fine, wispy, tan head that fades quickly.

Flavor:
Eric: Very sweet.  Strong flavors of vanilla, molasses.  Light toasted coconut.  Milk chocolate.  Body is medium, but I expected more fullness.  Not creamy. Slightly astringent finish but not too distracting.  Not as much dark fruit as I expected but hints present.  No hop flavor, but certainly some bittering going on.  Slight sherry from oxidation, but not much for the age of the beer.  Fair amount of alcohol to it but not overly "hot".  Carbonation is slightly low.
Dave: Molasses.  Reminds me of my grandma's gingersnap cookies.  Not hot.  Fig newtons.
Jim: Light booze.  Sweet.  Molasses, dates, faint tobacco.  Soft mouthfeel, not much carbonation.
Rick: Dates, figs, rootbeer barrel candy, brown sugar, toffee.  Decent amount of heat.  Soft, medium body.

Overall:
Discussing this as a group, we all got plenty of complexity and interesting flavors.  For a Russian Imperial, the body is a little low and the color is a bit light--more like an Imperial porter.  A very tasty beer overall.

Grades: On a 0-5 scale
Eric: 5 "Really great!"
Dave: 4 "Very nice."
Jim: 4.5 "Yummy!"
Rick: 4
Sj: 4

Has anyone else tried this beer?  What do you think?  And more importantly, has anyone tried the beer from 2014?  Is it still up to par?

I have some more bottles of the other versions and may open them up as the year goes by for a future A Whale A Week so stay tuned!

Below check out the 13 minute Limited Release show about the trip out to Tuckee for the Eclipse release party in 2013!

Limited Release Episode 12: Barrel Aged Abraxas!

Yay!  The newest episode of Limited Release is up.  For those who haven't seen the show before: Old school mates of mine from Hopkins, Ron Johnson and Rob Wengler, travel the country in search of special beer releases.  They wait in the long lines so you don't have to!  This particular episode is special to me because I was there!  We took a long weekend trip to St. Louis for the release of Barrel Aged Abraxas at Perennial Artisan Ales, also stopping in at 4 Hands and Civil Life. 

Since I was reading Hunter S. Thompson on the trip I wrote up two blog posts about the trip in gonzo style.  You can read Beer & Loathing in St. Louis  here and here...

Watch the episode for a good run-down of the St. Louis beer scene, brewer interviews, and lots of Hodor.  Share it with others so all that hard work (drinking, traveling, editing, animating, etc) will be worth it!  Also watch the old episodes if you haven't seen them yet.  I'm in most of them as designated beer taster and judge. 

Limited Release Episode 11: 5050 Eclipse

Hey folks, the newest edition of Limited Release is out!  In this Episode Rob Wengler and Ron Johnson take a trip to Truckee, California for the special 5050 Eclipse release event.  As usual, brewer interviews and gratuitous animation scenes abound!

Check the link below for the episode and check out the main Limited Release page to see the older episodes.

http://vimeo.com/89372184

If you are interested in some expanded coverage, I did a blog post earlier in the year about our Eclipse vertical tasting at Rob's place.  You can read up on that here.

Next Up:  More on my recent Belgium Beertrip!

Eclipse Imperial Stout Tasting

 

This past Friday Rob Wengler and Ron Johnson (of Limited Release fame) hosted an epic beer tasting event for the ages.  This small group of beer geeks gathered in Rob's home for an evening of great food, camaraderie, and crazy good Imperial stouts!  Rob and Ron have been doing their show for a couple years now, going to many special beer releases and events, documenting it all lovingly so the rest of us can share in the fun.  I have been lucky enough to be involved in many of these as their "Beer Expert" and Rob has shared many of these White Whale beers with me for tasting notes in the episodes.  They are up to 10 episodes now and if you haven't watched them, start catching up HERE.  They are fun, informative, and usually have some pretty hilarious animations.  Not to mention that they have been getting a lot more good interviews with brewers as they have grown in popularity.  And many episodes have me looking uncomfortable on film and/or being duped into drinking Mickey's Malt Liquor!  It just doesn't get any better than that!  During their travels, these guys have accumulated a bunch of crazy beers and this dinner was a way to finally drink some of these beers in a setting that would be conducive to vertical tasting and comparing the various vintages. 

First off, I'd like to give props to Rob as one of the best home cooks I know, second only to one of my partners at work.  I would have gladly come to this event even without the lure of amazing beer, just for a chance at some of his cooking!  He fixed us an amazing prime rib that had been sous vide in a sauce made of Lagunitas Imperial Stout, then dropped the slow cooked and tender meat into a hot oil bath for a few minutes to get a crazy crispy and flavorful crust on it.  This method he terms: "The Uber Fondue-ber."  Sides included roasted fresh Brussels spouts with crisped pancetta, truffled mashed potatoes, and crazy good mache salad.  Seriously, you don't find better food outside of The Happy Gnome...

We were unlucky enough to have a spectacular ice and snow storm the day prior to the tasting, resulting in hard packed snow and ice on all the roads.  Driving from Waconia to Minnetonka, the trip usually takes about 25 minutes, but on this particular day it was closer to an hour of slip-sliding across dangerous intersections and risking life and limb.  Several of our dinner-mates were not able to make it due to road conditions and those that did come were all late.  Poor Chris posted a picture later from home wearing his 5050 shirt and sipping one of his own bottles--at least he was there with us in spirit!  So we took this time to sit around shooting the breeze, watching Rob do his cooking magic and sipping on rare beers like Pliny the Elder and Snake Venom.  Ron was staying in town from California and it was good to have some time to catch up with him as well.

After a wonderful dinner fit for kings, we all settled in for our evaluation of Eclipse.  FiftyFifty is a smaller brewery out of Truckee, CA.  They do a limited release party every year for their Eclipse Imperial Stout, with tasting of older vintages and several different barrel aged versions of the current year's batch.  Each Eclipse is brewed in small 300 gallon batches.  Rob and Ron managed to make it to this event and brought back several bottles for us to try!  They are currently working on post-production for the corresponding Limited Release episode and I'm looking forward to watching it.  Hopefully some of the footage from our tasting will be usable for it.  Of course trying to tape 8 people drinking strong ales is not easy...

With Andrew's expert knife skills we (unsafely) cut the tenacious wax from the tops of six different versions of Eclipse, all from the 2013 release.  With a wax color key, we slowly worked our way through pouring all these beers into snifter glasses marked with chalkboard paint.

Here is a quick run down (from a somewhat foggy memory, so forgive me):

Evan Williams (Black Wax): Our overall least favorite of the night.  This one seemed a bit harsh and tannic, with some higher alcohols.  Even as hard-luck loser, I would drink this any other day with gusto.
Elijah Craig 12 year (Purple Wax): One of the top contenders for most of us.  I think the final tally may have had this as the winner overall, but it was a close fight with the Pappy.  Overall very smooth and drinkable with a balanced sweetness and strong vanilla character.
High West Rye (Tangerine Wax): This was my 3rd favorite, but most of the other folks found it less exciting.  It was drier than most of the others and the bourbon was fairly restrained in this one and I got more of the base beer in tasting. 
Four Roses (Bright Red Wax): This was a bit unbalanced, with more booze and a bit too sweet.
Rum (Fuchsia Wax): This was interesting, and stood out in the top 3 for many of our tasters.  It has a thicker mouthfeel and sweeter finish than most.  I'm just not a rum guy, so it only made it to 4th place for me.  I noticed a trend to start doing rum beers at this year's Winterfest, so I think we'll be seeing more of these over the next few years.
Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year (Pink Wax): This was wonderful.  The bourbon really took front and added tons of complexity to the beer.  Lots of vanilla, tannins and booze to it.  Not as well balanced as Elijah Craig...but Pappy!

After all of these amazing beers, we managed to badger Rob into cracking his Java and Vanilla versions of Eclipse as well.  Both were amazing, but the Vanilla took my medal for best beer of the night!  We may have also tasted of a Chocolate Rain and Grey Monday from The Bruery.  But it gets blurry around there...

Luckily for Sj, myself, and Ron, Rob let us crash at his place rather than brave the deadly roads.  And come morning Rob fixed us some much needed home-made malted waffles and crisp bacon.  Overall I had a fantastic time and am glad that I was included in such an epic beer dinner event.  Times like these elevate the beer drinking experience to a truly higher level!

Limited Release Episode 10: Firestone Walker 17th Anniversary

Hey all!  The 10th episode of Limited Release is now up for viewing!  This time Rob and Ron travel to Paso Robles, California to visit Firestone Walker's 17th anniversary bash.  Since their 10th anniversary, the brewery has been blending several of their beers together to create a special release beer.  The Limited Release team also continue to check out other places with a visit to the nearby BarrelHouse Brewing Company.

Watch through to the end and you can watch me (looking somewhat undead) giving my opinion of the beer!

If you like the episode, please share it on Facebook, Twitter, etc!  Also catch up on older episodes if you haven't watched them yet.

Watch the video HERE!

Limited Release Episode 7: Dark Lord Redux

Episode 7 of Limited Release is now out on the interwebs and I wanted to encourage my friends to watch it!  Rob and Ron did an episode on Dark Lord Day in 2012 that was quite fun to watch, so if you haven't seen that episode yet--watch it first!  This is the Redux episode where their fans overwhelmingly suggested that they go back to Dark Lord Day for a second try.  On the way they stopped at Solemn Oath Brewery in Illinois and include a nice interview with the head brewer, John Barley (seriously I can't make this up!) 

Rob brought over a growler of Solemn Oath IPA for us to sample for the cameras. Tim Roets (currently working on re-opening the historic Jordan Brewery) and myself are in the episode giving our impressions of the beer and adding local color!  And no Mickie's was harmed in the making of this episode...

Watch it HERE!  I couldn't embed it properly in this blog....

So check out the episode (and the old ones if you haven't seen them yet) to get a feel for how these limited release parties really go down.  Share the episode on social media and like the guys on Facebook and Twitter to be up to date on the series and involved in promotions and giveaways.  The next episode is based on the Firestone Walker Invitational and should have some great footage and brewer interviews so stay tuned...

Limited Release Episode 6: Hunahpu!

The newest shiny edition of Limited Release is on tap now!  This time Rob and Ron visit Cigar City in Tampa, Florida for the release of the spicy chocolate American Stout, Hunahpu.  I really liked tasting this beer for the episode, but wish I could have made it down to the release with the guys!

This episode, the guys also focused on some other nearby smaller breweries as well as Cigar City, including interviews with three brewers.  If you haven't watched the previous episodes: do it now!  Make sure to like Limited Release on facebook, tweet it, whatever...that is how these guys can gain enough popularity to get some funding and afford better equipment!  They also often have special give-aways for their fans.
The next episode will be a second trip out to Dark Lord Day where things did not go quite as planned...

Please comment and tell me what you think of the episode and how I did in my tasting portion.  Interestingly, yesterday at the Steel Toe Taproom I met a cool guy named Joseph who actually recognized me from watching episodes of this show!  Of course he liked the Mickey's episode the best.  I'll never live that one down!

Limited Release Episode 5: Pliny the Younger

Episode 5 of my favorite web-based beer show is now up and live!  This recent outing by Rob and Ron takes them to sunny California for their first non-Imperial stout limited release beer event--the unveiling of this year's Pliny the Younger.  Well worth checking out the episode, as it includes an exclusive interview with Vinnie Cilurzo (there is also an extended version of that on the website if you just can's get enough of him!) 

I swear I'll get to one of these of events with them one of these days. 

As usual I was enlisted as their beer expert, and those dirty sneaky hobbitses played a little trick on me...

Here is the link to the website: Check out Episode 5 and watch the rest if you haven't seen them yet!  Like them on facebook and twitter too, show the love.  They often do give-aways for their fans (Dark Lord, Darkness, ABR tix, etc.)

Upcoming: They have already filmed for Cigar City Hunahpu and are in post production on that one.  I hope they brought me a bottle to sample! 

Limited Release Episode 4: Black Tuesday!

Over the last two years my friends Rob Wengler and Ron Johnson (with help from some other cool beer geeks) have been putting together episodes of a web based show called Limited Release.  The idea of this show is to demonstrate the trials and tribulations of two men as they brave the elements, crowds, and drunkenness to get some of the most sought after beers in the world.  The first three episodes covered Kate The Great, Dark Lord and Surly Darkness, all amazing Imperial stouts.  I have been fortunate enough to have become their resident "beer expert" and they let me share their hard-won spoils for performing on camera.  I have always had a bit of social phobia, especially about public speaking, so I never in a million years thought I'd be talking in front of a camera.  So if I come off a bit strange in the episodes, bear with me!  The things I do for beer. 

This new episode is for The Bruery out in California during the release of their incredible bourbon barrel aged Imperial stout Black Tuesday.  I watched the rough preview of the episode a few weeks ago and thought it was looking good.  I guess some of the audio got erased during part of the episode, requiring them to use the lower quality camera mic audio instead, so there is a bit of uneven recording for that part.  I haven't seen my section yet so hopefully through editing they will make me not look like a crazed robot.

http://www.limitedreleasebeer.com/the-beer/black-tuesday/

Please watch and share either this link or the video link with your beer geek friends.  The only way these web shows succeed is by lots of people seeing them!  Also check out the old episodes is you haven't watched them.

As of this writing Rob and Ron are currently waiting in line for Russian River Pliny the Younger and filming for the next episode...

Addendum:  OK I watched the whole thing and think they did a great job with it.  They even have the unedited version of my tasting notes as a separate area on the web page if you really want to watch me squirm. 

Limited Release Ep. 3: Surly Darkness Day

Rob Wengler and Ron Johnson, some old friends of mine from High School, have been working on a web-based show called Limited Release over the last 2 years.  The idea is to get to some of the special release days for those incredibly hard to find and rare beers that most of us beer geeks only dream of getting to try.  Since most of these events require lots of time waiting in lines and often travel to other states, this is a great way to see what the fuss is all about without actually getting there.  The downside?  Not getting to actually the amazing beer they are talking about! (Follow the link above for the current episode and the website.)

What sets this show above a lot of podcast/blogs is the work that goes into each episode. There is a lot of post-production and prep to get these looking and sounding good.  The first episode's sound quality was a bit suspect, but that apparently was due to a computer crash causing a loss of the better sound files.  They have greatly improved that over the next two episodes.  Also included in each episode are some fun animations ranging in style from South Park to Atari computer graphics.

Rob and Ron always include a good amount of background info on the beers and the breweries, filming in places like my bar, The Four Firkins and The Bruery's Barrel Room.  They usually manage to organize an exclusive interview with the brewer, and in this episode they get to talk a bit to Todd Haug from Surly.

Hard at work or checking Facebook?

My favorite part of the episodes so far is where Rob lets me try the rare and expensive beer and give my impressions as a "Beer Expert."  I like the free awesome beer part, but always feel a little (a lot) weird about being on camera.  Last month Rob brought over his camera and a bottle of 2012 Darkness for us to try.  We filmed at my basement bar over a couple of hours, ending up with a clip about a minute long in the final version of the episode.  Post-production and editing can make anyone seem like they know their stuff!  There was a brief cameo from my cat Freya, and I think she handled being in the lime-light better than I.  During our filming she actually started licking the crap out of the Darkness bottle sitting on the bar, but we didn't get a good enough shot to use in the episode.

Freya enjoying her time in the spot-lights

The next episode is The Bruery's Black Tuesday (currently in post-production) and I'm hoping I get tapped as expert witness again!  They plan on heading out to film Pliny the Younger as a break from all those Imperial stouts, but since that one is draft only I might not get a chance to try it.  Dang!

I'm a big fan of these guys and what they do.  If you like what you see in the episodes like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.  In the past they have given away bottles of Dark Lord and Autumn Brew Review tickets as special prizes for their fans.  Share the links with your beer-geek friends too!  For now this is purely for fun, but they would love to be able to get some funding/sponsorship for the show to allow for more travel and better equipment, and the best way to do that is getting the word out.  Also tell us what you think!  What do you want more of?  What do you want less of? (and don't say me!)  http://www.limitedreleasebeer.com/the-beer/darkness-day/