Have You Seen My Pictures? No? Me Either.

First I need to update everyone on some upcoming events. By upcoming, I mean that they could be either over or ongoing by the time you read this. So get ready, because here we go:

1. Tonight there is a cask of Abita Vanilla Turbo Dog at Metropolis. Scott from Abita will be there with some freebies. Go meet Scott. He's a good man to know.
2. Tonight is The Fred's one-year anniversary. There will be a cask of Rogue Brutal Bitter upstairs and a cask of Terrapin Moo-Hoo downstairs. There will also be a bunch of special beers on tap & in the bottle downstairs. Need more details? Show up.
3. Next Friday the 12th is the Kennesaw store's three-year anniversary. Here's the line up: Terrapin Moo-Hoo cask, kegs of Founders Breakfast Stout, the Left-Hand/Terrapin collaboration Oxymoron, Brooklyn Detonation, Terrapin Hopzilla, DFH Chateau Jaihu, Red Brick Vanilla Gorilla, Bell's Sparkling Ale & Smuttynose Really Old Brown Dog. That is not a really old keg of Smutty OBD by the way. That is a special high gravity brown ale from Smuttynose; more like an old ale than a brown ale. Very rare. That is pretty stellar line-up.
4. Also on the 12th you can meet Jeremy Cowan, owner and founder of Shmaltz Brewing. If you are not a big beer label reader, you may not recognize the name of Shmaltz. They are the brewers behind the He'Brew & Coney Island brands. Jeremy has written a book about the formation of his company, which literally started with cases of beer being hand delivered by Jeremy. His story is also unique in the aspect that when you think of beer magnates, not a lot of Jewish names pop up right away. If you are able to get a copy of his book, he will be available to sign them. They will have a few copies of the first run on hand for purchase. There are only 150 in existence right now, but the first big printing is happening very soon. And.....there will be special beer, of course. More about this guy's beer in a minute.
5. On Sunday the 21st we are going to have a viewing party of a new Discovery Channel show called "Brew Master". Basically the show is going to feature Sam Calagione, the mastermind behind Dogfish Head, and the crazy things that he does around the globe. Sam is known for using odd ingredients, ancient recipes, brewing with other renown brewers and brewing in exotic places. So imagine all of that in front of a camera. He is also a really intelligent and engaging person with an infectious wealth of knowledge about everything beer. It should be a cool show. The viewing party details are getting fleshed out right now, but here is the basic framework: The first episode involves the brewing of Bitches Brew, which was made to commemorate the 40th anniversary and release of the landmark Miles Davis album of the same name. So the evening will involve some Miles Davis, maybe a viewing of the documentary "Beer Wars", and then the Brew Master show on Discovery. Oh, and some free stuff. Plus some wacky DFH beers. Will we have a keg of Bitches Brew? Maybe....But if we don't, attendees will get an invite to a private event when the beer shows up. Stay tuned for more details as they come into focus. This will take place at The Fred and should run from 7:30 to 11:00 pm.

I mentioned a while ago about a multi-day beer event that you would really want to be a part of, and here it comes. I also mentioned that there would be more discussion about Jeremy Cowan's beers, and guess what? They are tied into each other. Didn't see that one coming, did you? Here is the breakdown:

1. Every year there is a new He'Brew Jewbliation to commemorate their anniversary. This year we have Jewbilation 14 to mark their 14th anniversary. It is made with 14 malts, 14 hops and is 14% alcohol. Last year's Jewbilation 13 was made with 13 malts, 13 hops....you get the picture. The beers are outstanding.
2. This year they re-brewed the recipes of all of the Jewbilation beers going back to Jewbilation 8 (8 malts, 8....). We are going to serve each one on a consecutive day leading up to Vertical Jewbilation on the 8th day. What, you may be wondering, is Vertical Jewbilation? Read on.....
3. They took some of each Jewbilation 8 through 14 and blended them together. Sounds good, right? Then they aged that beer in a sazerac barrel. Now it is a 10.5% barrel-aged blend of seven different recipes that is ready to rock your world.
4. We are starting this event at Mall of GA on Wednesday, November 24th. Why? Because that coincides with the holiday shopping season. After that mess, everyone needs a strong drink to squelch the desire to kill mass amounts of people brought on by all of that god-damned Christmas music everywhere. Why do we all have to listen to that same music every year for six weeks? It is not that good! What other collection of 28, maybe 32 songs would anyone even attempt to bear at any other time? Let's take Led Zepplin's first four albums. Classics. We can all agree on that, right? Now put them on Shuffle, and listen to nothing else, and tell me how you feel about "Misty Mountain Hop" in six weeks. I hate Christmas music. Hate it. Play it for a week and I could deal with it small doses. SMALL doses. "Gee...how can we make a mall experience suck even worse? I got it! Play this shit all day and night for basically ever!" And can't someone make a Christmas soundtrack for the South? Why are we hearing "Let It Snow"?  Have you been here when it snows? It shuts down the whole city! We don't want that. "Walking In A Winter Wonderland"? Where? It's gray and rainy here in the winter. That's not a wonderland, pal. Make a Christmas song aboud cold rain and not having a warm enough jacket because it's only like that once in a while. Call it, "Jesus Christ! This Sucks!". More of a rock song really.....
5. The other three stores participating in this eight-day beer bonanza are Crabapple, Newnan and Kennesaw. They will be starting on Wednesday, December 1st. Why? Because that coincides with Hanukkah, which may or may not have terrible music. I am not aware that it does, but I am not aware that it does not either. So...the jury is still out on that one. 
6. Please remember that these beers are not going to be on tapped all at once. Each keg is only good for about fifty 11oz. pours. So the Jewbilation 8 getting taped on Day One may be gone by the time they tap Jewbilation 11 on Day Four. In addition to that, the stores are spread out geographically to draw customers from the entire region, not just the immediate vicinity. Not to mention, you would not want to sit down and drink all of these beers at once. You would be babbling incoherently and most likely piss your pants. Please enjoy Jewbilation 8 through Vertical responsibly.
7. Intrepid credit seekers may be wondering about these beers being "new credits" since they are old recipes. The answer is "yes". Jewbilation 10 will be named Jewbilation 10 '10, for example, to indicate that this is the recipe for Jewbilation 10 brewed in 2010, not 2006 when it was originally produced. All of the Jewbilations numbered 8 through 13 will have that special "10" and be completely new credits. Any questions? Yes, you, in the back......I see. The question was, "How did you come up with such an awesome idea?" Well, ma'am, it wasn't my idea. The guys from the brewery cooked it up. Yes, they are geniuses, I agree.

I know I promised you great pictures and stories from my trip to San Diego, so here it is in a nutshell:

• San Diego and its breweries were 100% awesome. Plan a trip as soon as possible. Use one of the multiple van services that do brewery tours. We saw two companies where that is all that they do. They take people around to some of the 30 breweries in San Diego County.
• I lost my camera. It was (maybe still is?) full of pictures of Stone, Lost Abbey, Green Flash, Pizza Port in Solana Beach, Alesmith and Ballast Point. The last place I had it was at the counter at Ballast Point, gathering up beer and t-shirts and Bloody Mary mix. Must have left it on the counter or something. I am beyond angry with myself, because I don't lose things. I have had the same sunglasses since 2007, and they were half the price of that camera. In fact, if you see me put my sunglasses down, please steal them. I want a new pair, but can't exactly justify that while I have a perfectly good pair that I am just bored with. Not to mention, now I need a new camera, so actually, don't steal my sunglasses. I need them for a little while longer now.
• Beautiful city, amazing beer, lots of personal tours and tasting and free beer, free beer, and more free beer. Then we paid for a lot of beer, went to the Chargers/Titans game (great seats--too bad I can't show you a picture!) and came home on Monday.

So in lieu of a slide show of San Diego breweries (and a distillery with a secret speakeasy room!) and Qualcomm Stadium on a beautifully sunny 80 degree day, there's a picture of our marketing VP, Bruce with Jim Koch. He owns Samuel Adams, you may remeber him from such places as....TV. He is the guy in the ads talking about beer and beer stuff. He was at Metropolis on Wednesday. We had lunch and a beer. So the next time I see hum on TV I can be like, "I had a beer with that guy!". He was very cool and extremely knowledgeable about what he does. I can certainly say that I am very glad to be able to say that I have met the founder of Samuel Adams. A true pioneer and an iconic figure in the brewing world, right there at Taco Mac in midtown.

Have a great weekend everyone. Don't be at mad at me about the loss of the pictures. I am mad enough at myself for all of us. Luckily there are no major trips or events planned between now and when I will be able to buy another one. See ya.