Redhook Sweepstakes Celebrates Draft Day, Fantasy Picks and Trash Talk

Fantasy football players across the country are preparing for the most important event of the year: their draft day party. As players delve into intense stat checking and hours of ESPN watching, Redhook is offering fantasy football teams the chance to win a draft day party even NFL players would show up for. Beginning July 22, fantasy football fanatics can enter to win a Redhook ultimate draft day party at www.RedhookFantasyFootball.com. Entries must be submitted between July 22 and Aug. 8.

Click through to read full press release

I received a couple of emails today regarding Central Oregon's newest microbrewery, Three Creeks Brewing Company, located in Sisters. The first was from Wade Underwood, the owner, letting me know that they are officially open for business (a few weeks early).

The other was from Geoffrey of AllAroundBend.com, with a mini-review:

Three Creeks Brewery in Sisters is open as of today!

They had a real nice black ipa, a so-so blonde, and a good pale ale. Half a dozen other beers to come in the upcoming month.

Food was decent, staff was kinda green though. Overall a great addition to the beer scene. Definitely a good thing for Sisters.
Best part is they have a mug club where for $75 a year all pints are upgraded fro 16 to a 21oz, free merchandise, special pairing dinner initiations, etc. Looks like a great deal for locals.

(Emphasis mine. Naturally, I'm most interested in hearing about the beers.)

TCBC is located on the east side of Sisters, near the town's (only) movie house in their FivePine development. It's facing Highway 20. The theme is rustic, Old West livery stable. Some details from one of our local papers:

[T]he 6,000-square-foot facility will provide a full restaurant, a 10-barrel brewing system, a large bar area with large screen plasma TVs, two pool tables and a large patio.

I've said it before, Central Oregon is definitely becoming a beer destination; with Three Creeks we're up to seven breweries now. I'm hoping the Sisters location will be successful because it's definitely a town where a brewery could do well, I think.

In case it's not obvious by this point, I'm skipping Theme Week for July. No particular reason other than a kind of "summer vacation" and this month has been kind of all over the place—and this week in particular, there's a lot going on.

Blogging will otherwise continue as normal.

I can't believe I missed blogging about it (yesterday turned into a really busy, hectic day), but yesterday was International Brewers Day. Haven't heard of that holiday yet? Don't worry, you will—even though it's not an official holiday yet, I suspect that will change.

IBD is the brainchild of Jay Brooks, and here's the idea:

Ever since I saw this “Have You Hugged A Brewmaster Today?” sticker on the door to the brewery at San Francisco’s 21st Amendment Brewery & Restaurant, the idea of starting a holiday to honor the men and women who make the great beer we love has been percolating in my brain. So I’m proposing now that we set aside a day as International Brewer’s Day, a day to raise a toast and honor all the brewers in the world. For the date, I’m proposing July 18, which is the feast day for St. Anou of Metz (also known as Arnulf, Arnould, and most famously as St. Arnold), one of the patron saints of beer. This is the way holidays begin, just by a group of people deciding to start one and spreading it from there. The real trick is acceptance as a holiday. So I suggest we start out small and on July 18, similar to the Sessions (but only once a year), as many who are interested write about a brewer you feel is worthy of recognition.

I don't have a specific brewer in mind other than pointing out the many excellent brewers we have here in Central Oregon. Like Larry Sidor and Jimmy Seifert (the latter who I met) at Deschutes. And Tonya Cornett of Bend Brewing Company. And Tyler Reichert of Silver Moon Brewing. And Mark Henion of Cascade Lakes Brewing. And Paul Cook of Wildfire Brewing. And Mike White of McMenamin's Old St. Francis School.

(Is that everybody? I think that's everybody...)

Happy belated International Brewers Day.

I don't know if I'd call starting a small brewery a "start-up" (like a Bay Area tech company or something) but I like it. Joey of Cigar City Brewing writes:

I'm opening a small batch brewery in Tampa, FL and when I started I decided that I'd blog the entire process from start up on into production. We are currently about 3 months from opening and I think the blog is interesting both for people who are into craft beer and for people who have ever dreamed of opening a brewery. We have documented a lot of the major steps along the way which we think would be of interest to both craft beer fans and brewers.

I think I fit into both categories (into craft beer and (pipe)dreamed of opening a brewery), and since there seems to be a dearth of breweries in Florida this is doubly interesting. They're already brewing test batches, too (I presume in somebody's kitchen somewhere; I haven't read that far yet).

The first link I posted above is to their actual website, which is still under construction; the blog itself is here. I've subscribed, you should too.

Christmas in July? No, not really, just the review—I drank this back in March. Regardless, this was the 2007 vintage of Anchor's Christmas Ale (formally known as Our Special Ale), which, as many doubtless know, is a seasonal offering brewed from a different recipe every year. Shockingly, I think this was my first ever Christmas Ale from Anchor—doubly shocking since it's been brewed since 1975 and I'm supposed to be all about the beer.

C'est la vie, I suppose.

This 2007 version has an alcohol strength of 5.5% by volume and its recipe, as always, is secret.

Appearance: Deep amber-brown color, very deep red when held to the light. Thinnish light tan head that fell quickly.

Smell: Dark, roasty, licorice, some molasses. Some spices—ginger(?), maybe nutmeg.

Taste: That spicy winter warmer character with a bit of heat and some nice dry roasty notes. Nutty character... a roast hazelnut? Turns into a dry finish, which leads us to...

Mouthfeel: Light of medium-bodied, with a thin presentation and a long dry finish.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores high accolades with a grade of A-. On RateBeer, it scores 3.57 out of 5 and is in their 88th percentile.

Also, with this review I'm also adding a link to the beer (still available) on Liquid Solutions. As I'd mentioned already, I'm now a LS affiliate so if you click through the link below and buy some of this beer, I'll get a percentage.

Anchor Christmas Ale 2007

I don't know whether Brouwerij De Troch's fruit lambics are any more "authentic" than Lindemans, but I picked up a bottle of their Chapeau Banana Lambic when we did our last trip to John's Marketplace earlier in the year simply because it intrigued me.

Apparently they have an extensive line of these fruit lambics, some of which are of the usual variety (apricot, cherry, raspberry) while other are decidedly not-your-everyday-beer-fruits: pineapple, lemon, plum. They all seem to be in the neighborhood of 3.5% alcohol by volume (like this banana).

It's unusual, but I rather liked it, as it turned out.

Appearance: Pale yellow-orange—golden, almost—bubbly. White head was fizzy but didn't last long.

Smell: Delicate notes of sweet banana, slightly clovey. There's a musty, horsey tang of Brett yeast... very delicate.

Taste: Tart green apple thing going on with sweet, very ripe bananas playing the background. Crisp. Pretty tasty. I want to say "Jolly Rancher" but not in the annoying way that Lindemans Pomme is. Nice interplay of sweet and tart.

Mouthfeel: Light, but a tad puckery, leaves a bit of a cloying aftertaste behind, but very drinkable.

Overall: Yum! Unusual but I like it.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores a grade of C+. On RateBeer, it scores 2.3 out of 5, and is in their 12th percentile.

You can't hardly swing a dead cat around the beer blogosphere the last couple of days without running into chatter about the InBev takeover of Anheuser-Busch. (Latest news: A-B accepted the offer at $70/share, or about $52 billion.) I've avoided writing about any of it (until now) because, frankly, I'd rather write about beer than about the business of giant corporations. And I really have nothing to add.

If you want the quality coverage, check out Jay Brooks' tireless efforts; he's been staying on top of the entire deal and even provides this eye opening thought:

Once the takeover of Anheuser-Busch by InBev is completed, a curious thing will happen to the landscape of American brewing. It’s certainly something I never expected to be writing in my lifetime, but it’s true. The Boston Beer Co., who brew the Samuel Adams line of beers, will be the biggest brewer in America.

All the largest, corporate brewers are (will be) owned by foreign interests: InBev/A-B by a Belgian company; MolsonCoors by a Canadian company; and SABMiller by a South African company. The largest American-owned and operated brewers will now be Samuel Adams, Yuengling, and Sierra Nevada.

That's awesome.

I've written a few times about Deschutes Brewery's traveling barrel, "Woody"... I think the thing is endlessly amusing and a great marketing tool. This weekend, at the Bend Summer Festival, I finally saw it, and snapped off a few pictures.

(I also had a couple cups of their 20th Anniversary Wit at the 'Fest. From the Barrel, of course.)

I've briefly mentioned Liquid Solutions in passing in the past; it's one of the best online beer stores out there—indeed, it's one of the only beer stores that I've found online. (Which, in this day of ubiquitous ecommerce, you'd think there would be more of...)

Liquid Solutions has an impressively large inventory, and carries mead, wine, cider, and more (not just beer). What helps is they also have a physical store location—here in Oregon, natch. I haven't been—yet—but having a brick-and-mortar as well as a good online presence allows them to do some cool things like their vintage auctions.

Plus, they offer an affiliate program (which ultimately is the point of this post). Affiliates can link to products on the Liquid Solutions site and if a purchase is made, they get a commission from the sale—much in the same way that the Amazon.com affiliate program works. I'm pleased to announce that The Brew Site is now a Liquid Solutions affiliate.

What this means is that on posts where I'll review beer, I'll also be directly linking to the beer (if available) on Liquid Solutions, to give the option of purchase. And at some point I might be building out an online "beer store" with LS affiliate links, but that's down the road—if it happens at all. For right now I'll just be playing around with the program and seeing how much it might generate.

The next Session (#18) is coming to us August 1st courtesy of The Barley Blog:

For August, the theme is “Happy Anniversary”.

Use this as an excuse to celebrate. Open a limited release anniversary beer from your favorite brewer. Enjoy that special beer you normally only open on your wedding anniversary or birthday. Either way, tell us about it. Why is it a beer you may only drink once a year? Why is that brewery’s annual release the one you selected?

Going along with the press release about new packaging for Redhook's Long Hammer IPA, I received a package from their PR company containing, naturally, beer.

The 22-ounce bottle of Long Hammer came in a neat wooden box with a copy of the press release and a glossy press kit pamphlet. The irony? The bottle doesn't have the new package design—instead, there was a note saying the new ones weren't available yet but they didn't want to send out materials without a sample (I'm paraphrasing). Suits me; I'll drink the beer and write a mini-review. (Maybe in real time.)

Meanwhile, here's a picture of what came:

The beer lineup for this year's Oregon Brewers Festival is out; you can view the summary list here but earlier this week full specs (stats and description) were sent out to media contacts. Many of the beers are the standard fare but there are a few that I would really like to try; unfortunately this is a year that I won't be able to make it. (I'll just have to content myself with living vicariously.)

I've included the expanded list here (below), so everyone can read through and pick their ultimate tasting list.

Click through for full beer lineup

Time for some more Deschutes love. You all knew it was coming, right? It's been my thing for a while now. Tonight it's the review of their Reserve Series Black Butte XX (which the Brewery sent to me as a PR sampler).

You probably remember (by now) that this is their 20th anniversary Reserve Series, "double" version of their Black Butte Porter, brewed with chocolate and coffee, partially aged in whiskey barrels, and 11% alcohol by volume. It's exclusively bottled in 22-ounce, wax-dipped bombers and on sale for $10 a bottle. I've tried this beer (in various incarnations) and written about it several times; and finally (finally!) I've got my "official" review.

Appearance: Pours coffee-black, thick, with a dense, creamy brown head.

Smell: Coffee, dark chocolate first. Then dark roasted malts, something like black patent paired with licorice.

Taste: Creamy coffee and dark notes of alcohol—"dark" as in dark fruits and oaky. Lots of coffee going on. Bittersweet dark chocolate. It's not really heavy though—to me it still has the lightness of Black Butte Porter with all the dry, roasted, smoky notes. (Maybe a Baltic porter thing going on.)

Mouthfeel: Chewy and syrupy but paradoxically not too thick. Full and smooth and finishes nicely dry with drawn-out coffee notes.

Overall: I love it, but I'll just repeat what I wrote here:

holy crap this is a seriously awesome beer.... It's absolutely outstanding. Coffee, chocolate, black licorice, all right there immediately, then you get the oaky smoothness of the barrel aging... oh my. This is like The Abyss, and I could drink it all the time.

A note on the inevitable Abyss comparison. If these beers were going head-to-head, I'd pick The Abyss. But fortunately, they're not; these are two different styles of beer and by that measure, Black Butte XX is just as good—different, but good.

On BeerAdvocate, it's already garnered an A grade. On RateBeer, it scores 4.17 out of 5 and (holy smokes) it's sitting at their 100th percentile... that was fast.

It's the first Friday of the month, and that means among the beer blogosphere it's time for The Session! Beer bloggers everywhere get together (in a virtual sense) and write about a given theme which is selected by that month's host. Said host will then round up all the various Session writings and link and summarize them in one place.

(I haven't yet downloaded the new Session logos that you'll see elsewhere today.)

This month's hosting duties fall on Rob DeNunzio of the amusingly-named Pfiff! blog: Drinking anti-seasonally.

Up here in the Northern hemisphere, we're fast approaching the summer solstice, when the sun opts to beat down on us for as long as possible, and the marketing eye of brewing's Sauron becomes firmly targeted on light, easily quaffable, lawnmower beers, which we're all supposedly to dumbly chug down after demonstrably wiping our brows with the brim of the sweat-beaded can (cuz it's hot!) while wearing our mothball-scented aloha shirts and comically over-sized, personalized suede bbq mitts.

The subject for July's Session could be summed up thusly: Drinking anti-seasonally. Think of this as the unorthodox cousin of such topics as "beer and food" and "beer and music". Beer and weather, perhaps? More like beer despite the weather, I guess. Cracking open a Guinness on the beach, finishing a day of yardwork with a Speedway Stout, or whatever else you do that raises an eyebrow (again, beer-related, please), do us all a favor and take a few moments to share your non-conformist tale (again, you kangaroos and lemurs down there, your take on this could be even more peculiar, so do chime in, please).

I thought about this one for awhile. I mean, it's not exactly hard to come up with an "anti summer beer", but making it too easy would feel like cheating somehow.

I first considered taking this opportunity to review the Black Butte XX from Deschutes Brewery; after all, at 10.5% alcohol and a thick, dark, chocolate-nibbed, coffee-infused beer, this is right up there with being as anti-seasonally summer as you can get.

But I figured, the heavy, strong, dark beers are the obvious choice for going anti-summer, and those are likely the ones many people will write about. Not that there's anything wrong with that—but I expect to read a lot of reviews of stouts (Imperial and otherwise), barleywines, strong barrel-aged IPAs, and so on. Instead, I settled on another beer (and style) that fits the theme perfectly: Elysian Brewing's Night Owl Pumpkin Ale.

Regular readers know that I am all about the pumpkin beers: I brew a pretty good one, I've tasted a fair number, and I definitely know a good one when I taste it. And pumpkin seemed like a great "anti summer" style to tackle: these are almost only brewed in the fall and early winter (when pumpkins are available) and—depending on the beer, of course—tend towards heavier, spiced brews.

Elysian's version is the real deal. They brew it with 150 pounds of pumpkin in each batch, which (according to their info) goes into the mash, the boil, and the fermenter. Not only that, they use real spices (nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger and allspice) during conditioning. And not only that, but they do something else I've not seen anyone else do, including myself: add roasted pumpkin seeds. The end result is a fantastic pumpkin ale with 6.5% alcohol by volume.

(To add to Elysian's pumpkin cred, they also host an annual Pumpkin Beer Festival wherein they provide several of their own different pumpkin beers, including a "pumpkin conditioned" one—secondary fermentation inside a giant pumpkin.)

I also really like the label on this beer. Simple, but eye-catching.

Appearance: Hazy amber-brown with a minimal head. Reminds me of my homebrewed version.

Smell: Nice pumpkin ale aroma—sweet malts and caramelized sugars, that sweet-earthy pumpkin aroma, and subtle spices.

Taste: Now that is a delicious beer... right off the bat there's caramelized sugar and roasted pumpkin—sweet and just a tad cloying. Spices follow without being overwhelming, tangy cinnamon and allspice, veering into almost peppery territory. Very tasty, very "pie" without overdoing it.

Mouthfeel: A bit thicker than medium-bodied and nicely chewy and crisp at the same time. Great aftertaste.

Overall: This might well be my new favorite pumpkin beer—it's really, really good.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores a grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.45 out of 5, and is in their 81st percentile.

Happy Session, and Happy Fourth of July everybody!