Cask Mania 2010

OK FBP readers, sorry for that long hiatus, but I'm back now. Once I returned from a visit to my mom’s over the 4th of July weekend, I was immediately thrust deep into the run-up of our new store opening in Charlotte. Without boring you with the details, I basically had to re-price and reorganize our entire inventory for another state. How similar, organizationally, are beers aligned from state to state? Not much. Imagine a book that you very are familiar with. You’ve read it many times over, and virtually know it cover to cover. Then one day you open it and it is all in Chinese. Now unless you speak Chinese, that presents somewhat of a problem. Essentially I had to translate a long story (1000’s of products, package sizes, vendors and prices) into another language. The story is the same, but the words are all different. On top of that, there is quite a bit of beer up there that we don’t get here in GA, so I had to write a few new chapters in the book. The beer selection up there is going to look pretty sharp. Anyway, enough excuses, right?

Here is the important information that I promised you:

• Cask-Mania 2010 kicks off this coming Friday at Woodstock. How they managed to come up with a firkin of Heavy Seas Smoke On The Water, I have no idea. I do know that this beer, a lightly smoked porter, is awesome. The cask should be out of this world. We will be tapping it at 6:00pm. Maybe earlier if there are a bunch of thirsty people staring us down.
• CM’10 (that’s Cask-Mania 2010—pay attention! We have a lot to cover today & I need you to focus) keeps rolling along Thursday, August 5th at The Fred. We have a firkin of dry-hopped Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale to tap at 6:00pm. What is it dry-hopped with? Show up to find out. Why else would you care? I mean, if you didn’t drink it, why bother knowing all the sleazy details? Don’t you get geeky on me!
• Without barely resting (why start now?), CM’10 resumes the following night (Friday 8/6) with two—count 'em…TWO casks of Heavy Seas beers. If you go to Crabapple, Kevin Fox from the brewery will be there to tap a Hang Ten. That is a 10% ABV weizen-bock, and I love it. But I will be at Windward Pkwy tapping a Heavy Seas Loose Cannon IPA firkin. Haven’t had that yet? Then be there. These guys know how to do cask beer, and we have used Loose Cannon for many special events over the years. Want to try them both? These stores are only a few miles apart, so look at a map or something.
• On Wednesday the 11th CM’10 makes a stop at Metropolis with another of the Hang Ten Weizen Bock. I know, Wednesday is an odd day. You need to stay flexible people. Did the term “Cask-Mania” imply that this was going to follow some sort of orderly pattern? Here is the definition:

ma•ni•a
    [mey-nee-uh, meyn-yuh]
• –noun
1. Excessive excitement or enthusiasm; craze: The country
has a mania for soccer.

Soccer? I think America had a mania for soccer, but that was like a week ago. We have a lot of manias in this country though, mostly for TV shows where either strangers or celebrities sing and dance. But only celebrities who are not known for singing or dancing. I mean, why watch someone who is famous for something do what it is they are famous for? We want to see those people get caught with a prostitute or drugs or do something crazy (thank you Mel Gibson). Let’s watch the people not known for singing and dancing sing and dance. What….? Please explain this to me. I love watching football. But I do not have any interest in watching famous TV newscasters, for example, play football. I don’t really care to see Peyton Manning read the evening news either. He might be OK at it, and Katie Couric might throw a hell of a spiral, but that is not the point. The point is who cares if Katie Couric has a decent arm? She can’t throw the ball like Peyton Manning on his worst day, so why watch? And don’t get me started on the “singing nobodies” shows. They delivered Kelly Clarkson to us. That’s all I am going to say about that. Wait. One more thing: Kelly Clarkson sucks. Has she gone away or just died yet? No? Filthy career-ending sex scandal? Nothing? Just rotten, ear-piercing howling passed off on idiots and teenagers as “music”? Oh, she's still doing that. I see. Thank god there are things like firkins of high-gravity weizen-bock to drown out her caterwauling. Metropolis, Wednesday the 11th.

• OK, then on Thursday the 12th the Kelly Clarkson fan club is meeting at The Fred for a cask of Oskar Blues Old Chub. That’s right, the entire KCFC will be there. Both of them. Just kidding. She doesn’t have two fans. But a cask of Old Chub is a beautiful thing, so if you can find your way into The Fred on the 12th, this cask will be delicious. Anyone singing “Since You’ve Been Gone” will be asked to be, uh…gone. If you even hum it, you have to sit in the corner by yourself and nobody will bring you a beer. If you have it playing in your head, that’s your own damn problem. See if alcohol helps. I didn’t say that it would. I just said that you could try.
• The last thing I have for you event-wise is a rare keg of Rogue 21 Ale. This is a special barley wine to commemorate the 21 different beers that Rogue has made for the 21 consecutive Oregon Brewer’s Festival. Yes, they have made a new and distinct beer every year for this event. Two kegs are coming to Atlanta. One will be at The Fred on….the 21st. Get it. Rogue 21 on 8/21. It’s a Saturday and we open at 5:00. You can get the beer then. These are 11 oz. pours and there should be about 130 of them, so no need to camp out overnight outside the door. The beer was made with some Rogue-grown malts and hops, oats and also some brewer’s licorice. I can’t wait to taste it.
• Somewhere on the horizon there are firkins of Left Hand Twin Sisters Double IPA (4), Terrapin PumpkinFest and Hopsecutioner. Those may even arrive in August, or CM’10 could roll all the way into September. Who knows?

I do apologize for the long absence in posting something to my blog. But hey, at least I came back with some strong offerings beer-wise.

I hope that everyone enjoyed the Christmas In July calendar on the http://www.tacomac.com/ web site. We are going to keep that calendar posted and rename it once July is over. The link will say “Click Here For Great Beer”. It will contain all of these dates, plus others. Each store will be able to let you know when they are tapping certain notable kegs. Not all vintage dated things like in July, just certain less-than-common kegs that people like you might be interested in knowing about. If I can get a link to the calendar here I will. I know that it sounds simple, but it isn’t.

That is all I have for now. Here is picture of my mom’s lake from her deck. In case your only ideas about Michigan involve metro Detroit, there you go. My home state is getting a bad rap these days, but it has a lot to offer. If you ever go, let me make some recommendations. Have a great week everyone.

More Info To Come....Sorry For The Absence!

I am getting ready to unload a ton of info on you guys. I am a little buried with preparations for our upcoming Charlotte store opening. Trust me, my absence has not been an idle one. Hopefully I can get more done tomorrow, but a few of these dates are being firmed up as we speak. So check back soon for some exciting beer events. I am serious, there is a stack of them.

I am trying to link a calendar to this blog, but it is giving me problems. I asked the computer, "Do you feel lucky punk? Well, do ya?" but it did not respond either way. Apparently it's giving me the silent treatment in hopes of deferring my anger that way. I can tell you that the silent treatment did not prevent Clint Eastwood from kicking anyone's ass. In the meantime, the Christmas In July calendar at www.tacomac.com will continue to be posted there. After July it will be called something else. It will remain a reference point for beer events all around Taco Mac land. Hope that helps you keep your important appointments organized.

Now if I can just get it to be linked here....

Christmas In July Calendar

Go to the www.tacomac.com web site to find a link to a calendar that tells you what every store is selling, plus the day they will start selling them, during the big Christmas In July program. There are vintage-dated cellared beers being made available throughout the month to help you deal with the typical slow down in unique beers that we always experience in the middle of summer. Once you get to the main page of the Taco Mac web site, look at the very bottom for the link (a small amount of scrolling may be needed). Once I get back from visiting family in Michigan, I will try to set up a link here. That is a new function for me, and I don't want to put my family through the barrage of cursing and screaming that usually accompanies me trying something on a computer for the first time. There are, after all, children around who don't yet know some of the words that just come naturally to me.

I hope you enjoy getting to taste some of these beers, and hopefully you get into a store or two that may be new to you as well. That is kind of the idea of publishing this calendar. It will give the credit hunters a chance for some rare items that most likely will never be seen again. Important: Be sure to call for availability if you are stopping by on a date other than the release date. Some of these are in short supply and may go quickly. The phone numbers for all of our stores are also listed on the web site. Just click on "Locations", and it gets pretty easy after that. Have fun with this and be careful. Most beers that age well are pretty strong, but you folks already knew that. Have a great holiday weekend, and Merry July everyone!

PS-- Don't blow up anything important on the 4th, but be sure to blow something up. It is a patriotic duty. Your nation is counting on you.

"Blame Canada" For What? Being Awesome?

Before we get into my recent trip to Canada, let’s talk upcoming events:

1. Peak casks are being tapped at Perimeter (5:00) and Duluth (6:00) Friday, June 25th (could be TODAY!). Both are IPA, but it is possible a Brown Ale shows up. Long story.
2. Another Peak IPA cask is being tapped at Mall of GA on Saturday, June 26th (6:00). The new Terrapin Reunion Beer 2010 will be debuting at The Fred with a cask event on Saturday as well. This one is at 4:00 though.
3. Come out and meet the guys behind 21st Amendment Brewing Co. from San Francisco at Metropolis on Monday, June 28th from 6:00 to 8:00. Their “Brew Free Or Die IPA” and “Hell Or High Watermelon” are just recently available here in Atlanta.
4. More Peak casks being tapped the following week at Suwanee on Tuesday, June 29th (6:00) and Ellard Village on Friday, July 2nd (6:00). Both of these should be Brown Ale but like I said, long story.
5. The beer dinner menu for Matt & Fred’s Big Picnic 2 has been posted on the Taco Mac web site. This is one of two special dinners we do each year (the other is in December). They are bigger than our usual dinners, with some tricks up our sleeves. You have to try the “Jean Girard”. Gregory loves it, and you will too.

And now for some errant rambling for your amusement:

Let’s see….how do I put this bluntly? Holy crap I have been busy! A lot of folks think that I have some cake job where I just get to run around drinking beer all the time. While that may be partially true some of the time (and entirely true at other times), I actually have relatively boring desk duties that don’t get done when I am off doing more interesting “work”. But let’s face it; you don’t really care to hear about any of that. You can probably find real life bitching and moaning right there in your own life. You don’t need the internet for that.

So let me tell you about Montreal. If I didn’t like you, I would tell that it was terrible and that you should never go there. However, it was everything I just said, except the absolute opposite. It was beautiful, cool & breezy, clean and it hosts one of the best beer festivals I have ever been to. What was so great about Mondial de la Biere? Well the fact that I had never seen 90% of the beers there is a start. The venue—an old stone building with opaque cantilevered ceilings and enormous courtyard—was another. Throw in the plethora of beautiful women in low-cut shirts everywhere, drinking beer and speaking French and you are starting to get the picture. So what is the deal with French Canadian brewing? Oh, just a ton of excellently made beers heavily influenced by Belgian and U.S. craft brewing, that’s all. I mean, who knew? Who had a clue that a ridiculously good beer culture was percolating just north of Vermont in Quebec? Sure, Unibroue is great. Dieu du Ciel is known as an outstanding brewery to people who can afford it. But the breadth and scope of what I discovered was pretty astounding.

"Like what, Fred?” Settle down. We will get to that later. First of all, I was the guest of Unibroue. If you don’t know who they are, look at the labels of Maudite, La Fin du Monde, Trois Pistoles or any of those beers that you (hopefully) are familiar with by now. The brewery that makes them is called Uniborue, and it is outside of Montreal in a little town called Chambly. We went there, but that comes later in the story. The festival ran from Wednesday to Sunday and from 11 am to 10 pm. The cost of admission was free. Before you get too excited, I should tell you that the beer was not free. You bought tickets for beer, and each beer was “priced” according to how strong or rare or wacky they were. I really like this format because you could move around as you pleased—even leaving for dinner or whatever you needed to do—and not feel like you were missing out on anything. The festival would be there when you got back, even if that was tomorrow. And the pour sizes, since you were paying for them, were substantial enough that you did not feel rushed into getting any refills. Thanks to the fine people at Unibroue, who rightfully had a huge booth at the event, I had a VIP pass that got me as much of their beer as I wanted. For zero tickets. That was hard to walk away from, let me tell you, especially their new “U Blonde”. Not available in the states yet, but delicious. There was lavender and lemongrass in it plus one other thing that I can’t remember right now. This is a new recipe, so ignore any reviews that you might read on it. They nailed this one, and the Mondial de la Biere was the debut of the new formulation.

So you want to hear about some other beers? OK, so imagine a Belgian tripel, a really well-made one. Delicious, right? I’ve seen them aged in bourbon barrels before. And there is no shortage of them hopped up like an IPA. Love those. But have you ever had one aged in a red wine barrel? Specifically in a Canadian-grow cabernet barrel? Oh it wasn’t good, this beer they call Vent d’Anges was out of this world. Broadway Pub in Shawinigan, Quebec is a brew pub owned by a guy named Marc who used to brew for Unibroue. No wonder his beers rocked. He also has a beer called simply “Dandelion”. It is a Belgian-style blonde that has—you guessed it!—dandelion flowers, stems and roots in it that Marc hand- picks from his and his neighbors’ yards. And the hops he uses? None. Absolutely zero hops, which I have only seen done in one other place. That is at Hair Of The Dog in Portland, OR. The beer called Hair Of The Dog Greg is bittered using a ton of winter squash (green ones with whites stripes). I had it back in 2007, and it was great.

The Dieu du Ciel people had about 8 of their beers that we can get here in bottles, but at Mondial they had them all on draft. Yes, Peche Mortel of draft. Yes it was out of control! I had one of their beers called Routes des épices (The Spice Route) that had black peppercorns and other spices in it. Very good. Dieu du Ciel also makes a beer called Pionnière that is black IPA. As if that is not enough beer porn for you, then let me tell you about their Isseki Nicho. It is an “Imperial Dark Saison” weighing in at 9.4% and hopped with Japanese hops. Those last two beers pretty much destroyed the known beer universe as far as I am concerned.

I could go on for hours about a bunch of beers that most of you haven’t seen before, but that gets boring after a while. I think you get the picture. Mondial is where it’s at people. Especially if you can see the tower of your hotel from the festival site. We literally stayed across the street from the thing. You can look at the slide show and get a pretty good idea of how this whole thing went down. I will tell you that once we got friendly with some of these people behind the counters (and they all had deluxe bar/booth set-ups), they stopped taking our tickets. We got caught behind the velvet ropes at St. Sylvestre’s table (they make 3 Monts & Gavroche among other beers). These people were just shoveling beers and little appetizers at us. I guess a guy from Kentucky who knew a guy from Athens that I was with knew the VP of the brewery from some beer dinner or something. So we were in with those folks big time. Nice group of people there.

We had a chance to visit one of their brew pubs in Montreal (there are 4 or 5, I think) called Benelux. A friend of mine from Terrapin recommended it, and we were all glad we took his advice. The beers were outstanding, and we had a plate of local cheeses and stuff like that while we were there. The place is in an old bank I guess, because they have a private sitting area that is in the old vault. There was the big vault door swung open and everything. It was very cool.

The food we ate was great everywhere we went in Montreal. I had some rabbit with green lentils at this one place, and steak au Poivre at another. The last night we went to this restaurant that specialized in mussels. I had a big pot of mussels in a white wine/Dijon mustard broth. They rocked.

We arrived in Montreal Wednesday evening and left Saturday morning. It was a short trip, but well worth the time in the air. The highlight of the whole shebang was our Friday afternoon journey to Chambly. Unfortunately we could not go to the brewery that day. There was a labor dispute going on, and I guess some angry employees were making things inhospitable. But we still took a bus full of Unibroue reps from around the country and their customers (people like me) across the river about 30 minutes to the picturesque little town of Chambly. On the outskirts of town is the Le Fourquet-Forchette, a restaurant owned by the brewery (which is in Chambly, in case you were not paying attention earlier). The name refers to the French words for “fork” and the paddle-looking thing that brewers used to use to stir the mash in the old days. The name symbolizes the harmony of well-paired beer and food.

First off, the restaurant is next to a castle (the one on the Blanch de Chambly bottle), at the intersection of two rivers that make a large lake. Sound nice? It was beautiful. Add into this scenario that it was 75 degrees and sunny, with big puffy white clouds in the brilliantly blue sky. The restaurant had a tent behind it (facing the water) on their stone patio. Under the tent were long tables, all decked out with buckets full of corked & wire-locked 750 ml Unibroue beers. Before we were seated we were given a reception “beer cocktail”. That is basically what you call it when you mix beer with something else, like if you mixed a Quel Q’Chose with Champagne. What we got was their Raftman amber ale mixed with a small amount of concentrated sweet tea, a lemon slice, and a few ice cubes. Sound crazy? It was. I mean it was crazy delicious. I was very skeptical at first. I mean, why f*#k up a good beer, you know? Well this was so good that we are serving it at our July beer dinner as our reception beer. OK, so I stole their idea. Or was it really theirs in the first place…?

After that we were seated and introduced to the artist that does their amazing labels, their brewmaster, and their chef. If you go to their web site and see the guy talking about the beers and the stories behind them, it was that guy. He told us all about the region and some of its history, and then a lot of the legends and lore of French Canada. Mainly we learned about how these things tie in with the names and label art of their beers. If you ever get a chance, it would be worthwhile to know some of these stories if you are at all interested in history. In fact, as Americans we don’t really focus much on the history of our colonial neighbor, and the fact is that they are very much intertwined.

Then lunch was served. We started with a butternut squash soup. Then we received a placemat that had a circle on it that looked a pie cut into 12 pieces, maybe more. The words in the “slice” described the food that came on that part of the plate once it was served. The edge of the circle had the label of the beer you were supposed to drink corresponding to each food’s description. The servers were dressed like colonial milk maids or something. All very rustic and colonial themes going on everywhere. The plate had different meats and cheeses and things like that gong around in a circle, very tightly compacted. The theme, again, was local and colonial. On the plate with the local cheeses, among other things, was cured duck and salmon, smoked scallops, bison meat, and something called pemmican. If you don’t know what pemmican is (and it is not the beef jerky of the same name), let me explain. First of all, Native Americans ate or used ALL of the animals they killed. Apparently not every part of the animal tastes good. I am here to tell you that right now. Basically pemmican is a small amount of dried meat, nuts and (in this case) dried cranberries mixed with animal fat to make sort of a pâté consistency. We also had some regular pâté that was delicious, I would like to add, but the pemmican had too strong a flavor and oily consistency for me. I am a pretty bold eater, but I had to draw the line there. Everything else was great, so I am not complaining. Plus we were opening beer after beer after beer. Using these small, curvy, stemmed glasses they had out, we could taste almost every beer they make over a very long lunch. It is safe to say that I got over the pemmican pretty quickly. I took a lot of pictures here, so enjoy those if you have time. Between the setting, the hospitality and the beer, this rates as one of the peak beer experiences I have ever had. And I have had a few.

So that is it for Montreal. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I will be gone part of next week for a visit back home to see mom and the family. All other travel plans are on hold for now as we get prepared to open out first store in Charlotte, NC. Then there is Deckard’s (more details to follow) opening in September, so the rest of summer is jammed. I do have a notable birthday coming up once all of that is over, and that trip is shaping up nicely. Stay tuned. Have a great weekend and Fourth of July. Talk to you soon.