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.

I Need A Bunny Suit- Stat!

The Terrapin visit on Saturday was fun. I must say that it was a little uneventful in regards to hilarious antics on behalf of my buddies, but I can't fault them for behaving and not amusing us at their expense. Sometimes the magic happens, sometimes it doesn't. I mean, one lost Blackberry doesn't really convey "wild & crazy". Plus housekeeping found the phone the next day.

We did get to try the newest Terrapin/Left Hand collaboration called Depth Charge. What is Depth Charge? Oh, just an espresso milk stout. Yes, it was as good as it sounds. The coffee taste was a little heavy for some people, but I like my coffee black with twp espresso shots, so I was happy with the beer just the way it was. The coffee came from local roaster Jittery Joe's in Athens. Terrapin is all about keeping it local whenever possible. That is certainly a policy I think we all need to follow as much as possible.

We also got to try a cask of oak-aged Gamma Ray (delicious) and the newest Terrapin Side Project, Pumpkin-Fest. Are pumpkin beers too cinnamon-y and spiced for you usually? Me too. Terrapin cut that taste by blending it with an Oktoberfest recipe. Genius. The result is either a very drinkable, malty pumpkin beer, or a lightly spiced Oktoberfest, your choice. Either way, look for this to come out in early September. If you can find it in a cask like we did, get some of that for sure.

OK, now don't freak out, but I'm going to talk about cocktails for a second. We went to a bar called High Wire that is owned by the people who own Trapeze. But instead of a high-end beer bar, they have a high-end (but not stuffy) cocktail bar. It also has a tasty beer selection, but it's small. We were drinking Bulleit bourbon with Blenheim's spicy ginger ale from South Carolina. These bad boys are addictive. Bulleit is an old-fashioned, family owned Kentucky distillery, and Blenheim's is a beverage I've never even heard of, which is rare. I like ginger ale (Vernor's from Detroit is my favorite, of course), but this stuff is the spicy kind you usually associate with Jamaica. Anyway, it's damn good with bourbon. Just keep your eye on your phone when you're drinking them. I think this may be the culprit to my friend's lost Blackberry.

So, the Terrapin trip was fun. You know that you are off to a good start when the desk clerk hands you a 6-pack of Terrapin Rye Pale Ale when you check in. Ice those down, head out for the evening, and your cold night caps are waiting for you when you get back to the room. Those Terrapin guys are a class act all they way.

If you are wondering when I was going to tell you about this week's Duck Rabbit cask, I hope that you left your calendar open Wednesday. I heard from brew master Paul P. on Friday that the cask will be Duck Rabbit Porter with fresh cherries added to the beer. If you are available Wednesday, we are tapping that cask at 5 pm. I expect it to go quickly. I will be there to enjoy a few before leaving around 7 pm. Flaming Lips are playing at Chastain, so I gotta head over there for that. Should be a wild multi-media kind of a freaky rock-n-roll thing with people dressed up like giant stuffed animals. Outside, in August. This is fun for some people.

If anyone is planning on going to GABF this year and needs a hotel room, please let me know. I got the Westin down to $165/night plus taxes, etc. Usually this is a $250/night hotel, and it is 8 blocks from the convention center. We are not able to use all of the rooms we have, so if you need a room, please take one of these off our hands. I will charge you exactly what we pay, not a dime more. I may have festival passes available as well. I will know more on that tomorrow.

Have a great week out there people. Hope to see you at Perimeter for the Cherry Porter cask. You miss that one, you won't get another chance at it for a long time. Bring some Blenheim's with you too.

No, Summer's Not Over. The Beer Just Got Better.

Hey folks. Not a ton of stuff to talk about today, but I just wanted to recap a few things from last week and remind you about this week's events.

• We had our first beer dinner in Newnan on Tuesday with the fabulous beers from Left Hand. The turnout was great in quantity and quality. Those folks always have a good showing. If I had to guess, I think the group was pretty split on their favorite beer between the 400 Lb. Monkey and the Nitro Milk Stout. Keep your eyes peeled for a keg of Coney Island Barrel-Aged Human Blockhead coming your way if Newnan is your home store. There are only two of them, and one should be there next week at the latest.
• We were also invited to Sweetwater on Friday to be present when the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper received their check from the proceeds we raised for them in June. We were not the only participants in the fundraiser, but Taco Mac alone raised over $25,000. So, if you contributed to that in any way, I watched your money get into the hands of the people it was intended for, and they were very happy. Great job Atlanta.
• This week is part of your "fall primer". The Falcons had their first pre-season game, Michael Vick is no longer unemployed(if anybody even cares about that anymore), and Oktoberfest beers are just starting to arrive. Remember that Red Brick has keg-conditioned some of these for our stores with beer engines, and we will be serving Red Brick Oktoberfest keller-bier style at those 5 stores. What 5 stores? Metropolis, Mall of GA, Canton, Decatur and Woodstock. This is the inaugural cask for the new beer engine in Woodstock. Also don't forget that Atlanta Brewing Co. personnel will be on had at each location to meet n' greet our customers. I hope that you can add this to your calendars this week, as this is a rare opportunity to taste a darker lager beer served in the old method. I have a thing at Philips Arena until about 6:30, so look for me at Metropolis around 7 pm. Otherwise, plan on these kegs getting tapped at 6:00 pm.
• Last but not least, if you are still unaware of the changes coming 9/1/09 to the Passport Club, you need to get up to speed. If you do not receive the Taco Mac newsletter e-mail that my co-worker and all-around goofball, Marie, puts out, then please let us know. We are making massive upgrades to the ever popular, yet slightly flawed system. There was a lot of planning and dial tweaking to get this thing right. So many new features will be available to make it more rewarding and interactive for the customers. We are very happy and excited to be releasing this for you current and future members. If you do not get Marie's newsletter, then e-mail us using the "Comments" section of the Taco Mac web site and we will make sure that you start receiving them.

That is all I have for you today. Sorry that it is all work and no play, but I have a 2-day training class Monday & Tuesday that is going to take up 2 full work days, so I am a little short on time tonight. Have a great week, and I will talk to you soon.