The Cat Is Out Of The Bag

OK, for those of you that did not already know, here is the secret that I have been hinting at lately. Underneath the new Taco Mac at The Prado is a special, separate beer bar. See photo above. The actual entrance is still being decided on, but if you are in the area and want to check it out, the managers in the restaurants upstairs will direct you. But wait! There's a catch. You have to be a Brewniversity member, and you have to have at least 13 beers on your list. Now here comes the disclaimer: We may raise the required number of beers for admission in the (possibly very near!) future. Why, you may be wondering, should you care? "Taco Mac is great!", you are thinking. "There's no reason for me to go anywhere else." Very true. Taco Mac has everything you need to have a good time drinking beer, watching the game, all of that stuff that we are known for.

The downstairs bar is a completely different animal. There are twenty draft beers, and about 40 bottled beers, plus some nice wine and high-end spirits. The beer selection looks like this:

• Draft beers have a seasonal specialty from all three of the local breweries, a Sierra Nevada seasonal, three Belgian lines, three German lines, some rare stuff and some vintage beers. We also try to represent some major beer styles with strong versions from breweries we like. You don't need to like extremely esoteric beers to enjoy coming here. We have a great amber ale, a great pilsner, etc. But if you want an '08 Victory Old Horizontal barley wine or St. Bernardus Christmas, we have those on draft too.


• Bottles beers have a few old favorites and style representatives, but this is where we stretch out a little. There are many large, cork-finished bottles of Belgian beers, plus some 500 ml and 12 oz. bottles of wacky foreign beers. Don't worry though. We also have things like Anchor Liberty if you are looking for a nice old standard (I love that beer, so it gets preferential treatment. When is the last time you had one?)
  
• The liquors are focusing on some more unique brands. We have some signature cocktails, as well as some more traditional, classic drinks. Fresh juice and premium ingredients transform old mundane drinks into something special. When is the last time you had a real whisky sour? Good stuff.
  
• Now if you are into light beer, we don't really have anything for you, and you probably wouldn't be reading this if light beer is your thing.

As you can tell from the photo, the decor is different than a Taco Mac as well. The concept that we are working on is heavy on the intimate pub thing, with quality conversation and company to match the libations. The crew is composed of some of our best employees culled from every corner of Taco Mac land. If I stole your favorite bartender from your favorite store, I'm sorry. They were not stolen, just relocated.

The rest of the story is yet to be told really. The future direction of this little thing we are doing depends a lot on your feedback and patronage. We also plan on doing some special events there in the upcoming months, so if you are not familiar with where the old Frankie's was, we are on Roswell Rd. just south of 285. If you know where 5 Seasons in sandy Springs is located, we are about three doors down. Hope to see you soon, and get to work on your Brewniversity lists!

Fall Beers Are Cask-ing A Spell

If anyone had problems with Pay Pal recently, everything is fixed now. Instead of selling 32 seats and saving 10 for me to use, it sold 10 and saved 32 for me. So if you tried to sign up for the Merchant du Vin dinner next Tuesday and got nowhere, that's why. People have been buying tickets just fine since Sunday. This is the last of the $50 beer dinners, and the last one in an intimate setting until February at the earliest. Our December dinner is in a larger, less secluded setting. We won't have any speakers to present each beer of the chef to talk about the courses. The holiday dinner is more of a big dinner party really. So if you want to learn about beer and beer/food pairings, next Tuesday in Duluth is for you.


Here is a cask beer update for you folks who like fresh and unique stuff:

• This Friday there will be a cask of Terrapin Hopsecutioner (oaked?) at Metropolis. This beer debuted at last week's beer dinner and stole the show. This is your chance to beat everyone else to the punch, because kegs of this beer are not in wide distribution yet.


• Next Friday we are doing two casks. Metropolis will have a firkin of Allagash Curieux that Donald sent to the brewery to be filled a few months ago. For those cave dwellers out there, Curieux (cure-ee-o) is a Belgian-style tripel aged in bourbon barrels. It is phenomenal. Mall of GA Taco Mac has a cask of Heavy Seas Hang Ten. This is a 10% ABV weizen dopplebock, and is also outstanding.


• The new Prado store opens Wednesday. The beer engine will be pouring a cask-conditioned keg of Rogue Mocha Porter. We have some other kegs for that beer engine, but I can't reveal all of my secrets at once.

Lastly, because I gotta run and get this new store off the ground, is my Brewniversity reminder. I told you folks on Saturday about getting your membership up to at least 13 beers because of a "thing" I can't discuss right now. Depending how things go, your membership level may become more and more important. So my advice is to start drinking different beers when you are in Taco Mac. If you are one of those people, like me, who gets on a streak with certain beers, it is time for you to diversify.

The picture above is of a "pit stop" on a tour of New Belgium Brewing Co. during GABF. Down in the underbelly of the brewery, about halfway through their tour, they put a cask of Hoptober for thirsty guests. Nice touch. Beer tasted great too.

New Haunts On Halloween

Happy Halloween readers! I am still alive, just busy with a new project these days. Since my last post we have had two beer dinners, with another one on the way. Last Monday was the Terrapin/Left Hand collaboration dinner. The beers were outstanding, with the menacing- sounding Terrapin Hopsecutioner making its debut outside of the brewery. It was great, and this new year-round beer should be hitting stores this week. We also saved a keg of their collaboration beer with Left Hand, Depth Charge It is the espresso milk stout that was around a month or so ago. It was tasty when it was fresh, but it really benefited from the time it got to mellow out. Great beer to go with a gourmet peanut butter cup with espresso ice cream to finish the meal.

The November dinner on the 10th in Duluth is with Merchant du Vin. If you don't know who MDV is, let me explain. They are an importer that carries some of the best European beers in the world. We are going to start with a relatively unknown Czech Pilsner called Zatec (crisp and delicious), then Lindemans Pomme (tart-apple lambic), followed by Ayinger Weizen-Bock, Samuel Smith's Yorkshire Stingo and Ayinger Celebrator dopplebock for dessert (pretty proud of that combo). The Stingo is a very rare strong ale from Samuel Smith's, aged in oak for a year. The state of GA received only 75 cases of 12 bottles about 4 months ago. We have been sitting on two of those cases in anticipation of this dinner. Go to http://www.tacomac.com/ to view the food that we are paring with these beers. It is going to be awesome.

For the record, this will be the last beer dinner in this format. We are going to be changing the program around in 2010, and they will be moving around to more locations. If you live in or around Duluth, we will not be there every other month anymore. You may want to jump on this one.

The "new haunt" that I referred to in the title is the new store that we are opening at The Prado. It is set to open on Wednesday, and the run-up to a new store opening is a busy time in my world. The beer selection is a matter of personal pride, so I have been pretty much living at the new place. I just want to warn everyone that is not a Brewniversity member that they really want to sign up now, and get to work on their lists. We have some special surprises at the new store for members above a certain level. I cannot divulge all of the details now. I have said too much already........

My only real adventure to speak of lately was last weekend on the 24th. I took a leisurely drive up I-85 towards Gainesville on a beautiful fall day. I was listening to a recording of a special concert I was at in San Francisco on 8-08-08. My friend Brittany was getting married in Dahlonega, and everything was going pretty darn alright so far. For those of you following my whereabouts, yes, this is a different wedding than the Terrapin guy's two weeks ago. You will recall my advice from that wedding, that it is always a good idea to have some beer on hand, because you just never know. And when have you complained that you had "too much beer"? So once I get to my hotel in Cleveland, GA, the lobby of the Days Inn smelled like a kitchen in Calcutta. Indian folks in Hall county? You are just as surprised as I was. Dinner time at 3 pm on Saturday? OK, whatever floats your boat.

So I check in, kind of hungry for some curry now, and called my friend who was also attending the wedding. He was about 30 minutes away, and we were going to take a cab together to the wedding. The group I would be with that night tends to drink a lot, and we were not interested to see the insides of any jails in that region. So, naturally I told my friend to take his time, and I would grab a beer somewhere. Anybody know where this story is going yet? I walked up the street a few blocks, no bars. No taverns, pubs, dives or saloons. Oh well, I'll just go over to this store and grab a six pack I thought. Go back to my room and watch a little football. Hmm....this store doesn't appear to sell any beer? That's odd. So I ask the guy behind the counter, "Hey man, where can I buy a little beer around here?"

He says to me, like I should know this already, "Umm...Helen I guess."

"But that's like another town."

"You in a dry county man!"

So it's true. Those places do exist. And people actually live there! Unbelievable. I failed to take my own advice, to have some beer on hand just in case, because I never factored this potentiality into the equation. Why is there not a liquor store on the border of that county with a huge sign that says, "Dude! You are not going to be able to buy any beer in this county if you don't stop here!"? And then a sign right after that saying, "Yes, I am serious. Dry county ahead!" Maybe that should be an app for those i-Phones. Dry country alert. You hear me Apple? Make it happen. Future customer over here!

The wedding was at a beautiful farm-type setting way down a country road and a mile up a winding dirt road into the mountains. Horses frolicking behind the bride and groom, live violinists, fall foliage on the mountains......not bad. Not bad at all. Congratulations Brittany and Vince (she is a blog reader). We had 420 and Yuengling on tap. Not sure if any booleggers or moonshiners were involved.

The picture above is from Left Hand when I was there in September. This is a smoker smoking malt for their Smoke Jumper Porter. Talk about hand crafted beer. I have been in a lot of breweries, and I don't recall seeing anyone smoke their own malt. I've smelled people smoking something at a brewery or two, but I don't think it was malt!

Have a great week everyone.

Got Much Luv For The Hooptie

Hooptie
1. An old piece of crap car.

Features include: a plume of blue oil-soaked smoke coming from the exhaust - general odor of beer vomit and french fries - a Kraco stereo with a 10 year old Nirvana cassette stuck in the player - flat white, flat blue and Bondo red in color.

Warning! For historical accuracy, some quotes in this post are R rated! I apologize to the vocabulary-sensitive readers out there, but these are actual quotes from real situations.

The above definition comes from www.urbandictionary.com, which if you have never spent (wasted) any time reading explanations of terms you may have never heard of, or heard but never understood, check it out. Hilarity guaranteed. My recent experience with a hooptie is as follows:

The weekend of October 10th I was in Athens for the wedding of my friend Dustin from Terrapin. The wedding was at a really cool farm out in the country, and the couple were wed under a gigantic ancient oak tree. The ceremony was out of the ordinary in many ways (the officiant was the owner of the expansive 5 Points Bottle Shop in Athens, fresh form receiving an on-line minister title from some alleged "church" in California, for example), which set the tone for things to come.

Since the reception was being held at the brewery, with special beers galore, I dropped my car off at the hotel (picked up a 6-pack on the way), and got a list of local cabs from the front desk. Now I wasn't about to call the first cabbie on the list. They're probably the busiest and will take the longest, right? Plus, everyone calls the first one. Maybe these guys on the bottom need some business. I'm always looking to help the underdogs of the world. So I call the number next to "Mark - taxi" at the bottom of the list.

"Hello?" No mention of this being a professional taxi company.
"Yes, I need a taxi to the Holiday Inn downtown Athens."
"Uhhh, I'm not working yet."
"Oh, OK. When do you start?"
"Well, not for like 45 minutes, maybe an hour." It must be nice to write your own schedule. This guy was a real go-getter.
"Alright, thanks. Bye"
Grunt.

So that was such a great experience, I called the next to last number on the list. With a name like "Much Luv" how could I go wrong? Ring, ring, ring.....
"Hello, Much Luv!" By the sound of the woman's voice, apparently there is a ghetto in Athens. Who knew?
"Yes, I need a cab to the Holiday Inn downtown." Long pause.
"Uh, yeah, I'm gonna need like 10-15 minute to get a hold of the driver." That is not a misprint. This woman didn't say "10-15 minutes". I guess plurals are obsolete now.
"OK. So about how long?"
"I'd say about 20 minute baby. Whas yo name?" Great. Now I am going to be late for the reception. Good thing I stopped for that 6-pack. That's a lesson for you folks out there. You never know how long something is going to take, so you better have some beer on hand just in case. When have you ever said, "Oh my god. We have too much beer!" Never. You may be thinking, "Why doesn't he just call another cab company?" Well, I already had the ball rolling with these people, and I assumed it would have taken just as long with someone else. Plus it was Saturday, so there was football on TV. About 15 minutes later I get a call:
"Hello?"
A man's voice this time, "Yeah, dis Greg? Dis Much Luv."
"No, this is Fred." Long pause.
"Well OK Fred, where you goin'?"
"I need to get over to Terrapin."
"The beer makin' place?"
"Yep, that's it."
"OK man. We be dere in about 20 minute. If you goin' by yourself, I gotta charge you 'bout twenty dollar." Well now I am going to be late, so I am not in a postion to haggle. I need this guy to get moving, and fast. So, fine, twenty bucks for a ten dollar cab ride. I told him my room number, hung up the phone and opened up another beer. Georgia was getting manhandled by Tennessee. About fifteen minutes later I get another call.
"Yo' man, we down front. I can't get the god-damned limo in the driveway, so we just park on the street. When you come out the front do', just look to the right." Like I could miss a limosine in front of a hotel. Thanks, Much Luv. Thanks for the help. Well, twenty bucks for a limo ride isn't bad. I guess I'll arrive in style.

So as I head out the door, I get a call from my friend Bob. He is working, and he is having some sort of crisis with a keg acting up or something. I am trying to help him, but as I get closer to the limo, I sort of stop paying attention to the conversation. The limo, which appears to be being driven by a wino of some sort, is from the early 80's. There is rust around the window trim and door handles, a mirror was missing from the passenger side, the wheel wells were dented, the widow tint was peeling terribly. Thirty feet of dilapidated hooptie, tires needed air, wino driving, needing badly to be put out of its misery. This thing was a piece of shit. I walk around to the entrance, still on the phone with Bob, and when I opened the door, all I could say was, "Bob, I gotta call you back....or something," and hung up immediately. The interior of this car was filthy. The carpet had dirty, oily streaks covering 80% of it. The seats were ripped. Where a TV monitor used to be recessed into the console there was a huge smashed out hole. Now a 17-inch home TV set was somehow wedged in there and wired up. Here is this guy sitting in the limo smiling up at me, white tank top, fake diamond ear rings, and not wearing any shoes. He is acting like this situation is normal.

"Whas up, Fred? I'm Much Luv" he says as I get in and sit next to him. His woman is at the other end of the limo, ten feet away at least. She was wearing a black tank top and dirty pink sweat pants. There was a Bravo movie on the TV. How do they get cable? Not only does she not have any use for plurals when she talks, she seems to have no use for a bra either. Anyway, that's not important to the story. Much Luv gives me the bro' handshake. You know, where your elbow is at a 45 degree angle and your thumb is facing back at you. And then you do the little mini-hug. Yeah, we did that. And damn did Much Luv have much BO. Much stank if you ask me. So I say, "What's goin' on man?"
"Oh, you know. We just doin' what we do baby. Tryin' to make a dollar." OK, so now I am pretty sure he is a drug dealer. Who rides around in a dirty-ass, busted up limo with a bra-less girlfriend, BO just kickin', no shoes, watching Bravo? What is the focus of your evening, when this is considered "doin' what we do"? So then he yells--this is my favorite part--at the top of his lungs to the scraggly-haired wino behind the steering wheel, "Go left up at the light, Doc!" As we pull up to the light, the driver is still in the right lane. Uh oh."God dammit, Doc! You make a lef' here. I done told you (....incoherent mumbling to himself....). Now someone is gonna come and take that lane like.......oh shit! Here come someone now. You dumb mutha fucker!" That was a real conversation. I had not gone a block from my hotel yet.
The wino, Doc, does not seem bothered by Much Luv's manner or tone. He calmly says, "I was gonna make a left from this lane 'cause the car's so long."
"Well OK then. Just don't miss this light. This man got somewhere to be!" I think he was referring to me. My guess is that he refers to himself in the third person. He would have said, "Much Luv got somewhere to be!" if he had somewhere to be. From there on out we just made small talk, he yelled directions to Doc, and I watched that Bravo movie until we got to Terrapin. Longest fifteen minutes of my life.

As it turned out, I was not late after all. In fact, there was a large number of people getting out of their cars as we rounded the last curve towards the brewery. Some of them looked at the white limo slowly approaching in the distance, and got out their cameras. They must have figured that this was the bride and groom, I guess. But as we got closer, and Doc methodically wheeled the enormous car into the parking lot, I could see the peoples' expressions quickly go from excitement to pure bewilderment. In short, they were totally puzzled. Eventually they looked away out of pity, I guess. I mean, who goes anywhere in a car like that? Then I get out. My friend Steve's wife, Melissa, was standing there She was one of the few people who didn't avert their eyes. She said, and I quote, "What the fuck is that?"
"That was Much Luv, and I need a beer. And a shower. Can I get a beer in a shower?"
The reception was great, of course. There were probably 8 Terrapin beers, a keg for Stone, Lagunitas, Left Hand and Bell's each. There was a special cask, cellared bottled beers, etc. Spike broke out some special things from his personal stash....you get the picture. It was, surprisingly, rather low-key though. Maybe I left too early, but everybody enjoyed themselves in a responsible manner. Odd for many people in that group to say the least, but it was a wedding, and nobody wants to be a bad memory for the happy couple on their wedding day.

Yesterday was the Decatur beer festival. Great turnout as usual, and the beers were outstanding. Atlanta Brewing Co. really wowed everyone with a cask of their porter blended with their Belgian-style Winter, both aged in Pappy Van Winkle bourbon barrels. The weather was a little chilly, but that did not stop anyone from having a good time. I took a picture for you in case you were not there. These folks do taxes for a living. Awesome people. I want my accountant to appreciate my beer expenditures, don't you? Thanks for reading, and the next time you are in Athens, call Much Luv. The memories are worth twice what I paid for the ride.

The Duvel/Ommegang/Chouffe/Maredsous dinner in Duluth on Tuesday actually has some open seats. I am confused as to why one of the best beer line-ups we have ever featured is lacking in attendance. Duvel glassware and pouring techniques will be available for take-home as well. November and December dinners are still in the planning stage. Have a great week folks!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! A big shout out to Rich! He is a reader from Atlanta who I just bumped into at Manuel's Tavern on Friday. If you see me out and about, say hello please. I am not hard to find. Just sniff out the good beer, and I am not far away.

Butt Jokes. Who Knew?

Thank you everyone for the feedback on last week's post. I guess farts are funny. Who knew? Apparently adults are still amused by flatulence, stories about flatulence, even the mere utterance of the word "flatulence", etc. In "Galapagos" by Kurt Vonnegut, the futuristic world is inhabited only by a species of highly advanced dolphin-like creatures. Their only similarity to humans as we know them, is that they still laugh when someone farts. Kurt Vonnegut was one of the brightest and most thought-provoking minds of the modern era, and even he had to give props to the humor of farting. If you have not ever read his "Slaughterhouse Five", you need to get yourself a copy. It isn't about killing animals for food. It's about war, and is one of the most monumental works of fiction in the pantheon of human creativity. A poignant message to humanity then, now, and forever. No farting in that book, though.

So, moving on.....Tonight there is a cask of Terrapin BIG Hoppy Monster at Metropolis. I am headed that way once I am through here. Saturday there is the 1st Annual West GA Beer Festival. Click on this link for more info: http://www.westgabeerfestival.com/. This is going to be a great event, with all of the proceeds benefiting Camp Twin Lakes, which is Taco Mac's main charitable cause every year. Beer people (that means you) have a superb history of supporting good causes while having fun. Doing good (i.e. drinking beer) never felt so good. Unfortunately I will not be able to be there. There is a wedding in Athens that I need to attend. Who? The guy in the viking helmet from April's posts. He's the sales and marketing genius from Terrapin. Reception is at the brewery, and the super-secret stash is getting broken wide open for this bash. Nope, not gonna suck.

Next Saturday is the Decatur Beer Fest. I have been known to make an appearance there, and intend to do so this year for sure. If anyone is having a hard time finding beer events these days, they are blind. In fact, next year I am thinking of sponsoring the 1st Annual Atlanta Beer Fest For The Blind, just to make sure that every man, woman and inner child in metro Atlanta has a beer fest just for them. But seriously, this town has gone beer crazy lately, and who doesn't like to get out and mingle with other like-minded people, drink beer and enjoy the sunshine?

My second trip to Denver in two weeks was great. I brought back a good amount of beer in my checked bag. The problem was that it was in the same bag as my computer, so I was especially nervous that if there was any breakage, my computer would be soaked in beer. Yeah, this is a work computer, so I would have to explain that. "I, um, have no idea why beer is dripping out of it. Total mystery. I mean, it was fine when I went to bed, and I woke up and it's like someone just poured beer all over it. ALL over it, and inside of it. Crazy. Hmmpff." So as I waited for the conveyor to start sending the bags crashing onto the roundabout thing, I was especially concerned. I was actually thinking about how I would in fact explain why I needed a new computer when I got to work the next day. "Holy shit! I got robbed. Guy just ran up on me and stole my computer. Didn't even get a look at him. Total pro. Wow. Thank god no one was hurt though, you know. I mean, that's what's important, right? Everything else, computers, it's just stuff. So, yeah. I'm gonna need a new one I guess." And all of a sudden, my bag was the very first one off the conveyor! Show of hands of who has ever had that happen. Uh-huh, that's what I thought. Bag was totally dry, all beers in tact, why did I even doubt myself? Like I don't cram beer in my luggage every time I fly somewhere cool. Some of that beer will accompany me to Metropolis tonight.

I'm really not in the mood to discuss how the Cowboys played on Sunday. It was a beautiful day to be at Invesco/Mile High, and the fans were almost as great as the seats I had. However, I can still smell Tony Romo's performance. He stunk worse than the GABF on Saturday night. He stunk worse than New Orleans in the summer. Oh yeah, that bad, because New Orleans reeks. Hey, Dallas Cowboys, you need to score more than 10 points to win on the road. Pathetic.

OK, so that's it for now. Cask tonight, wedding in Athens tomorrow, back to work on Monday. Enjoy the weekend people. And if Dallas loses to KC on Sunday, I'm going to need a deal on a new TV, because a beer bottle is going through the one in my living room.

Photo 1 is pretty obviously the start of the game last week. Photo 2 is of the casks and "foeders" at New Belgium. They are pronounced "food-ers", and are giant wooden wine fermenters from France. New Belg. ferments different beers in them, and blend them sometimes to create different sour ales, etc. They have a permanent spigot on the side, about 1/3 of the way from the floor. We got to pull samples from Foeder #13. It was the one that one a big award at GABF. Extra special tasty for real. Great people at that brewery that honestly love their work. More pictures to follow. You can probably tell that this Google blog thing is not treating me right regarding photos. It seems to have a mind of its own.

Dear Mr./Ms. Computer Engineer-

Here in the real world, where not everyone is some egg-headed genius, it would be totally awesome if you stopped making the machines do what you think we want them to do. You can go back to making the machines do what we tell them to do instead, and that would be great. Thanks.

Sincerely-

Every Other Person Besides Yourself.

I Return To Much "Jewbelation"!

That's right folks. Despite the many attempts by purveyors of many delicious alcoholic beverages, I have returned safely from a personal odyssey of sorts. Like Ulysses, I was beset with many pitfalls along the way. When you are surrounded by awesome beer after awesome beer, in the absolute ground zero of American craft beer brewing, there is only one way out. Start drinking, and don't stop until you find yourself back in an airplane, headed out of the belly of the beast. Once you are clear of the danger, accurately assess that everything--personal gear and actual person--is in tact. Then just recline your seat and hand that flight attendant $5 for a can of Heineken. It's almost nap time.

Actually I came back, left again, returned a second time, left yet again, and now am back in Atlanta for a whopping 4 days. Then I leave again on Friday. Sound fun? Depends how you feel about airplanes. And drinking. And drinking on airplanes. If you don't mind those things, like me, then it has been great. D.C., Nor Cal, Denver, and back to Denver in 32 days by the time I get home next Monday. Why do I do it to myself? Some people like to climb mountains. I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that very well. But, I know damn well there aren't many mountain climbers that could handle my month of September.

What have I been doing? Well first I visited my brother and his family in D.C. I know, it does not sound very strenuous or exciting. But, knowing what lay in store for me in the weeks to come, I had been avoiding sick people in Atlanta the whole week prior. Then I show up in D.C., and there is a sick 4 year-old that wanted to jump all over Uncle Fred. What can I say, I'm pretty irresistible. I managed to get out there in pretty good shape.

I then was home for one day before heading to California. This was an 8-day trip centered around The Skunk Train. For new readers, the Skunk Train is an old 1800's steam engine that you can ride through the redwood-covered mountains of northern California. It's basically a tourist thing. You pay money, and it takes you through some beautiful mountain countryside, over rivers, through tunnels, etc. Scenic and relaxing. Two of the train cars are open-air deals. Not impressed yet? Well on the Saturday after Labor Day, the train is reserved for employees, friends and family of 4 of the most dynamite breweries in northern California. Picture a raucous keg party, on a train, in the redwoods. Half-way through the trip we get off the train for a barbecue, and the breweries set up their kegs and coolers and all that. There's a live band, a bunch of crazy people that started drinking in the morning, and general awesomeness everywhere. The ride back into town is typically more subdued than the ride out. People are pretty......um, tired? You could call it that. In fact, many are so tired, that they are just taking a nap for the hell of it. You might say that they were passed out, but only if you wanted to be 100% accurate. Trust me, pacing yourself is the key to this thing. If you don't pace yourself, and you wind up "napping" on the ride back, there will be plenty of people having a lot of fun at your expense. Sounds childish, I know, but consider just how far your judgment can be compromised by alcohol. Playing with passed out strangers is amusing, I don't care what anyone says.

The rest of that 8 days involved visiting and touring breweries: Sierra Nevada, Bear Republic, Russian River, 3rd St. Ale Works, Lagunitas, Anderson Valley, North Coast, Moylan's and Magnolia. We watched football in Santa Rosa at a place called John & Zeke's. Early NFL games start at 10 am out there! To translate: After drinking heavily due to vacation excitement for 3 days, the Skunk Train has you drinking beer (I started w/ Lagunitas L'il Sumpin' Extra at 8-ish %) at 11 am, then the following day, football games start at 10 am. Let me see mountain climbers order Racer 5 IPA before breakfast. We went to a Chargers/Raiders game (opening Monday night game) at The Coliseum in Oakland--20-yard line, lower level. The game was won in the last 18 seconds. Pretty sweet. We attended a gourmet food show in the Presidio (thank you, Lagunitas for making us "employees" for the day), and bummed around San Francisco for a day. Did we go to Fisherman's Wharf? No. Cable cars? Try again. Coit Tower? Have you seen that hill? Do I look like a mountain climber? Right, we didn't go there either. But, if you would like to know about The Gold Cane, Zeitgeist, or many other weird SF bars, just ask. Then we came home. We met some interesting people along the way, took some great pictures, learned what the Cupid Shuffle is (worse than the Stankey Leg), and drank a god-awful amount of beer. Luckily the hotel in SF had a giant scale we could weigh our luggage with. We took on a lot of cargo (i.e. beer), and had to adjust our gear to avoid airline surcharges. Relax, all of the beer made it home safely.

Four days after that was over, it was GABF time. It was my 3rd year in a row. Great event, great atmosphere in town, tons of industry and non-industry events, some seedy places mixed in; GABF has it all. For those of you who have never been, let me warn you about one aspect of this thing that you may not be prepared for without my help. First of all, the number of beers and breweries there is out of this world. Look at the winners at www.gabf.org. Some local brewers brought home some hardware. Norm from "Cheers" speaks before the medals are given out. A carnival atmosphere, for beer lovers. I mean, what more can you ask for? Well, for one thing, I would like everyone to stop farting so much. All over the place. Thank god the ceilings are high and there is adequate ventilation. Are there that many people with unstoppable flatulence, and how did they all wind up in the same place? I mean, there is more crop dusting going on in that place than.....I can't even think of an analogy. Cut it out fellas. Be a little more considerate regarding your intake of beans, or sauerkraut, or whatever it is that you seem to be eating an awful lot of before this event. If you suddenly and unexpectedly walk into a noxious gas cloud, don't look around and try to guess who it was, because someone else is going to do it again before you can isolate who dealt the first one. Just be pissed off at everyone, because if they didn't fart in your general area, they did it in someone else's a few minutes ago. I figure, hey, all these smelly bastards are guilty. Other than the methane level, it really is a good time. Just don't say I didn't warn you. We also visited New Belgium, Oskar Blues, O'Dell's and Left Hand while we were there.

OK, now the title reference of this post. Tomorrow (Friday) at Metropolis, we have a cask of He'Brew Jewbelation 13. This beer debuted at GABF (it did not, to my knowledge, fart on anyone), and is outstanding. It was made with 13 different malts, 13 different hops, and is roughly 13% alcohol. Wow. This one comes in an 11 oz. glass, so if you are concerned about driving, just don't have two. Darren Quinlan will be on hand with the technical specs on the beer, and will be happy to talk about beer, GABF, bar mitzvahs, whatever. Great guy, go check him out.

There should be two beer dinner menus on the Taco Mac web site, with Pay Pal links if you are interested in coming. The first one (10/20 at Duluth) is with Duvel, and the other brands they own. You may have heard of Ommegang, Chouffe (yes, that one) and Maredsous. This dinner is going to be for Belgian beer lovers, and people interested in learning more about them, alike. The second one is a collaboration between Terrapin and Left Hand. It is the first of a four-dinners-in-four-cities tour they are doing together. It is 10/26 at Lindbergh, and there will be some specialty beers being served. What are you waiting for? Sign up already!

The picture is of our table at the pub at North Coast Brewing Co. in Ft. Bragg, CA. The beers are a whiskey barrel-aged Old Rasputin and their 20th Anniversary Ale, which is a barrel-aged strong ale brewed with agave. Both were outstanding. This is right before the platters of oysters, crab cakes and crab legs came out. We followed that up with prime rib. Memorable dinner to say the least. I will get a slide show together eventually, I promise. Anyone out there who can show me how to do that, I would appreciate the help. I am new to this whole digital picture thing. If I have to figure it out on my own, it is going to take an eternity.

I promise not to go so long between posts in the future. I have been busy trying to get caught up with my actual work in between these trips, and this blog became a casualty of my time limitations. I have to go now, because my flight leaves in the morning. Back to Denver for a brewery visit and a Cowboys vs. Broncos game in the Mile-High city. Don't hate me, but I love the Dallas Cowboys. I know.....I've heard it all.

P.S.- Michael Irvin was framed, and I can prove it.

Left My Home In Norfolk, Virginia....

Last week was the end of a big month filled with lots of beer events. Unfortunately the Super-Wacky He'Brew/Coney Island End-Of -Month Keg-O-Rama got pushed back a little while. The truck had to roll from the brewery before the special cask was ready, so we will reschedule that once we get an ETA on that cask. The rest of the pieces are already in place (translation: We have the rest of the beer in house currently). Stay tuned.

The cask of Duck Rabbit Porter with cherries (sour ones from northern Michigan) was tasty last Wednesday. Great turnout, too. Vanessa (above, tapping the cask) set the record for the most bling on a cask tapper thus far. Nice earrings V! If you missed it, it was a who's-who of NC brewing. Paul Phillipon of Duck Rabbit there as expected, and Oscar Wong, owner of Highland Brewing Co. made a surprise appearance. Those are two of the greatest beer people you could meet, in a business full of great people. The Flaming Lips show at Chastain that night was eye-opening, to say the least. Confetti cannons, 5-foot diameter balloons, dancing girls in silver 60's-era Star Trek suits, a giant catfish in a Captain Kangaroo-type suit, white wolves, smoke machine, exploding things. You know, pretty much a normal Wednesday night. Nothing unusual there.....

Get ready for a whole new look on the Taco Mac web site starting Tuesday. New company, new bells & whistles, new format, etc. Preliminary peeks look great. Due to these changes, the September beer dinner has not been posted yet. Why? I promise to NEVER bore you with technical jargon. This is no exception. The only thing worse that reading that kind of crap is writing it. Just trust me, everyone will be happier once this new web company takes over for the morons who used to take our money for screwing up our business. We decided not to give them any more chances to mess anything up going into the stretch. So, if you are interested in signing up for the Cajun/Creole inspired beer dinner featuring Abita beers at Lindbergh on 9/22, you need to contact me. Use the "Beer Dinner" link on the web site, and I will get the e-mail. Once the new company launches our web site Tuesday, we will eventually go back to using the Pay Pal service, but until then, sign-ups go through me. The menu looks great, and I can send you a copy via your e-mail address. We have two planned in October: the first one is with Duvel/Ommegang/Maredsous/Chouffe (all owned by the same company, in case you were confused), and then a collaborative dinner with Terrapin & Left Hand (see last post regarding their collaboration beer-Depth Charge).

Lastly, this is the final time you will hear me say, "Passport Club". On Tuesday we officially announce the new Taco Mac Brewniversity. I offered everyone the newsletter describing the improvements to our current system a few weeks ago. If you are still in the dark, the news goes live with the new web site Tuesday. We are going to do some "Card Swap Parties" in the next few weeks. The first one is Thursday at our Crabapple store. If you are in the area Thursday night, stop in to get your info swapped from the old card to the new card, ask questions about the improvements, or just sign up if you are still not a card holder. We should be there until 7 or 8 pm, I am not really sure. I just go where they tell me to go.

I actually will be in Virginia on Friday, but not in Norfolk. I will be in Fairfax to visit my brother and his family for Labor Day. But the title of this post is a line from a famous song about travelling, and right after Labor Day, the Beer Travel season begins. Not familiar with the Beer Travel Season? That's is when I spend 8 days in northern CA visiting brewery after brewery, some days as many as 3. By the time I get my laundry done and caught up at work, it is GABF time. Five days after that I am back to Colorado for a brewery trip that spans into the beginning of October. That, folks, is what September is like in my world. Add into that my birthday and football season, and you could say that I am partial to this month basically every year. I promise to take lots of pictures with my new camera. Luckily it does not have any problems focusing while I am drinking. The downside to all of this travelling is that I may not have much time for writing here, so once a week will be about all that I can muster. The upside is the material I will have once I cool my heels.

Have a great week everyone. Let me know if you want to take a look at that Abita menu. Once we post it on the new web site, sign-ups will be brisk. Talk to you soon.