Grapefruit Slam Ipa (Koochenvagner's Brewing Company)

 I have never heard of this brewery before, and to be honest when you first pick up the bottle it is not completely obvious who this beer is by. I have seen pictures and heard mention of this beer around the hopslam buzz this week. If you are not familiar with this buzz, is it like a tiny fly, a nat in your ear. I am just ready for it to go away. Something about the word project and grapefruit drew me to this beer plus the $9.99 price tag is the high end of retail for this beer. Stochasticity comes from the greek word to aim, so the project is aiming to make obvious choices in regards to what would be obvious to add to styles of beer? It is obvious to add grapefruit peel to this IPA, which is based on hop varieties from the great northwest. These hops from this area, Centennial, Chinook, and Magnum often best described as being big citrus, like a grape fruit. I hope the first project is well received so we can see what other obvious choices the brewers choose to execute. 

This beer was bottled 1/23/14, so it was a little over a month old. The nose is all citrus, with little to no floral hop presence.  The taste is dead on successful, big grapefruit in the back of my cheeks I can feel it. The underlying sweetness is nice, but the malt backbone is a little light. The bottle lists Koochenvagner's Brewing Company, Escondido, San Diego California as home. I tried to find more information about the brewery, but all signs point to this being a stone brewing company side project. The google search results don't turn up much, and the www.stochasticity.com website is very vague. There is really no more information on the beer on the Internet than there is one the bottle. Koochenvagers? Greg Koch? the aim is to make obvious beers? Stone makes a lot of IPA's, what makes this one any different? The 22 ounce format and the screen printed bottle seem to familiar. Is this what the hiatus is for? This new project? Stone brewing marketing experts, they keep there brand fresh. This beer must have been months in the making, especially getting label approval for a phony brewery. It was a fun journey, and I cannot wait for what else is to come out of this project. 

Top BA stouts bottle share

Surly Darkness 100/100 on BA

It was a share that seemed like it had been years in the making. The other half of the NOVA experiment and I share a cold, or sometimes room temperature beer after work occasionally. It would happen more often except he lives in Midlothian, south side, or the dirty if you will. I live barely a mile from our center of operation, BDC, or Tha Villa Park. Nathan does send me pictures of his beer mail, and we are constantly texting at work about various whales in the market. Things started to get heavy, and he mentioned he was collecting these beers for the most epic tasting. His dedication to chasing down all of these dark beauties is beyond what I could ever do. He spent a year mailing and negotiating for these beers far and wide. I had to get a little sip. 

We had kicked around dates for a while and finally, February first it was going down. The super bowl is the next day you say? This was our super bowl, plus Nathan was off the following Monday. It's amazing how when you finally get weekends off you manage to commit them so quickly to this and that. Well we started off with this Imperial Stout Trooper from New England brewing company, just a little 8.5% Russian imperial stout. When I got to his house we elected the best way to go through these beers was by level of intensity. We started in regular stouts, went through the coffees and ended up in the barrel aged insanity. The flavor of the first beer was perfect, the mouth feel and intensity of roasted grains put a solid baseline down for all that was to come.

The Abyss 100/96 on Beer Advocate

Then we got into beers I had only seen in pictures but never tried, the surley darkness, the speedway stout, and the abyss from deschutes. I had a chance to buy a speedway stout in New York but the price was insane and the dust was thick. I regret that decision to this day. Look at how dark the head on the abyss is compared to the previous beers. It was this intensity that spawned a little break for cigars. 

Black Tuesday 100/95 on Beer Advocate

I doubt I will have a chance to have most of these beers again, but the black Tuesday was probably one of the rarest we drank. The Bruery has a society, you pay dues, you get sick ass beer. This is one of those beers. Who gave it up for this tasting? I'm not sure but he was probably banished from California. I shouldn't make it sound like it was just two of us, there were four, thank god. I tried to call for back up once, and got denied. My mom dropped me off at said event. That is how serious I was about seeing this thing through and being safe.

BA plead the 5th 100/97 on Beer Advocate

Here is the money shot, the two OG's drunk as shit and still going. The picture doesn't show the true story. I had to tap out with in 30 minutes of this picture. These barrel aged plead the fifths rounds out my dark horse experience. We have been killing it selling their products for a little over a year, and I have drank nearly everything they make. I even have the aaron morse beard happening. My favorite stout remained bourbon county coffee but the abyss gave it a run for it's money. 

If I had stayed up and continued to drink the last beer it may have been fatal. 17 total stouts, and most of them at or above 10%. The last beer would have been my 700th check in on untapped. This was the aftermath the next morning. The marathon tasting went from 2P.M. to 2A.M. I don't think I will be going so hard if something like this pops up again. I have only had 3 beers since this sampling. I am getting to the point in my pursuit of beer where I need to take the cheap road. I really enjoy having beers with this guy, and he shares the same respect. The Biscotti Break share should be way easier, 4 beers?

Fullsteam Brewing (Durham, NC.)

Hello friends, as I get older I get less patient for trying to schedule outings with friends. I have probably blogged about it before but life is demanding and sometimes you just gotta go. That is exactly what I did 1/17/14, when I went to Durham for a 24 hour experience. Up at 2:30 AM Friday morning I worked through all the shit with my job and finally got on the road at 4:30 PM. I arrived at 7 and despite the hunger pushed through the party until crashing at 1 AM. There was supposed to be a midnight ride to this brewery, but then again breakfast was there the next morning. It felt like cheating, a get away with scooters and new breweries!

I am no brewery freshman, and am of the opinion that to be successful you have to create a destination for your patrons. It is very important to your local home that the mecca is a place they can spend some relaxing time and lots of money. Distribution is only a measurable piece of the business that reflects long term growth and worth. If you can stay small, keep your locals happy, and sell plenty of beer without distribution, it appears you can be profitable. The head aches one can avoid keeping business in house would be something I would go after. The entry way to this brewery is perfect reflection of that beer mecca that calls out to the local drunkards. Behind this door opens to a large welcoming space with lots of natural light, via sky lights, a small stage for bands, and a room with arcade games. The bar itself is a separate space and features not only fullsteam beers, but a plethora of other local beers. The customer service was great, and they offered half pints which I enjoy. Fruitcake . . . The beer, a piece of pride for the brewery was hot a confusing. I enjoyed all of the dark beers that I had, the smoked porter pictured below was great for the weather. 

Being as close as Durham is I would say I will definitely have to go back to this brewery again for a more even keeled review. I was so tired, and malnourished that I wasn't myself. I was a shell of a man having this experience, although I'm glad I went. It's a place that is far enough away you feel like you went somewhere, but it is farther than the beach! I was able to unplug from work, other than going to a brewery, and relax for 20 minutes or so. 

http://www.fullsteam.ag/beer/

http://freezeyourballsoff.wordpress.com/

Rose De Gambrinus (Cantillon)

The bottle looks unassuming, and the general style of sours do not sound appealing to most people. It is a style similar to IPAs, in that if you have a shitty one first you may not come back to the style. This is the third style of Cantillon that I have had, and my favorite so far. This beer is like a quiet conversation in the corner of a cafe somewhere in Europe. The flavor is a woven tapestry of fruit, bitterness, and funk. The mouth feel is robust, falling right in the middle. You'd probably expect it to be lighter.

Most brewers spend years working on cleanliness and sanitation, just a touch of unwanted bacteria can ruin the flavor that was the goal.  Lactobacillus and Brettanomyces are types of these bacteria that enjoy the high sugar of a fermenting mash. These bacteria create unwanted acids that give off flavors like band aids, metal, and even unwanted herbal aromas. The brewers who have been playing with this funk for years have the experience to kill the bacteria once the desired amount of funk is present. The people at Cantillon have been playing with fire for hundreds of years. It is obvious that these sours are above and beyond many of their American counter parts. I love getting to try these, and if you ever travel to Belgium or see these beers around, don't second guess yourself. This is the Whale of Whales!

http://www.cantillon.be/br/3_1

Bourbon County (Goose Island Brewing)

    This series of beer was the one that began my interest in cellaring bottles for later consumption. I really had no idea how the beer would change over time, but the Bourbon County Brand Stout was too hot for my taste. The flavor of alcohol was strong and any other subtle flavors didn't stand out against the heat. It was suggested that I hold on to a few for a while, maybe the booziness would calm with age.

    Last year around this time I was working in Richmond, and did not have a chance to buy any other Bourbon County labeled beer. I was only able to get my hands on a four pack of the regular stout, which I still have two bottles of with a price tag of $24.99, from Once Upon a Vine. From what I was told we missed the coffee all together. It was a mission of mine as well as many others to get at least a four pack of each this year, a lofty and expensive endeavor. I found the coffee in the back room, not even priced, yet already ravaged by the crazed customer. "remember that time you saw that case of BCBS coffee" I posted on Instagram, poking fun at this apparent ghost beer, heard but never seen. The beer angels must have smiled down on me that day.  

    It didn't take me long to get it cold and poured into a glass. I was so excited to finally get to try it, and I wasn't disappointed. It's rich deep coffee aroma, with the bitter astringency, still had a good bit of alcohol zest to it. If I could get another four pack of any of this series this would be the one. I had the barley wine for the first time, and was expecting to be blown away. I wasn't, I'm not passing judgement, I have one more for sampling. It may have been a busted palette. The beer did seem to improve as it warmed up. I will take the credit for operator error. I still have only one back yard rye, and I have heard it is amaze balls, so I will crack that open for Christmas. 

    I have heard countless bloggers, and pod casters speak poorly of goose island, due to the association of AB-INBEV. I could care less, year after year I look forward to these beers coming out and they never let me down. I wish all of this haters would stop buying it so I could get more.

RBE bottle share

    On December first, 2013, a large group of Richmond Beer Elite followers met at Gallery 5 on west marshall street for the 8th time. It was my first year going, and I had no expectations. I was invited by a co-worker, who I have complete trust in. I felt honored, and unworthy of such an invite. I don't go out to beer bars much, and merely observe the conversations that occur on the beer elite face book group. Through business I knew a hand full of people at the event, mostly brewers. It has been a tough time financially keeping up with the flow of quality products in the past few months. I dug out the jewel that has been in the back of my fridge for 7 months, the cantillon classic gueze.

I stole this photo from Jacob Brunnow

   I have to admit that often I feel my job in sales has ruined my ability to converse without there being some sort of sales pitch. I clang on to the couple of people I thought wouldn't mind me soaking in the knowledge and conversation. Then I got paranoid and just walked side to side checking each table for new bottles and things I've been dying to try. As you can see from the picture below one may get hung between tables, in the middle of the room. Yet, being in the middle of the room also got good beer poured in my glass, shucks!

   There was a bottle of Pliney, I saw it and it was gone. I was just as excited to try blind pig for the first time. Is it amateur of me to say that? How many people on the east coast have had it without going to California? From what I hear it seems that the pig is just as hard to get. I have never heard of anyone getting anything from lost abbey, so that was cool. My brother in-law just posted a picture of some New Glarus, now I have seen selections like this! The whole time I was walking around mouth agape, texting pics, and checking in on untapped. It was insane.  

    The real treat and confirmation for me was the spotting of this monster 29, from Dark Horse Brewing. If the normal high ABV beers from these guys wasn't enough, this 17.5% barrel aged barleywine beast will definitely warm you up. I have been selling these guys beers for nearly a year now and can't seem to convince everyone that they are a big deal legit craft brewer. If one of their barrel age beers shows up at a heavy hitting share like this? That is all the confirmation I need. These dudes put out this beer and barrel aged plead at the same party!

   Finally, I wasn't the only one with Cantillon. Which was good, when he went for a wine key, I opened mine as well. The thing about sours is the perception and burn of the funk. These two both had a lot of funk, the Kriek had more tart bite up front. They both finished as pretty and smooth as anyone could ask for. I had no fear of getting sour belly after having a got little piece of these. I really enjoy craft beer and sharing the experience, with the right people. Everyone who turned out for this event definitely did it right, as a group. Thank you to all who were involved in organizing, and I look forward to next years! 

http://www.richmondmagazine.com/blogs.php?blogID=208532ebc1a73c4f4efb4687d9a3f114

Dirt Wolf (Victory Brewing Company)

    My old friend Victory Brewing. Resist prohibition we will, and we have. You have brought me such joy as Hop Devil, Hop Wallop, Storm King, The Headwaters Series and my personal favorite up until now, Old Horizontal. That last one is as strong as it sounds, he make you lay down go sleep. If you look back through my earlier blog entries I may have even reviewed one of Victories libations before. Podcast beer folk say libations a lot, I'm going to give it a go. I was a bit confused when I saw a new IPA from victory, and had to try it.    

    I was instantly in love. This has to be one of the best most well balanced IPA's from this side the missisip I have had in a while. I will not be reviewing Hardywood the Great Return for fear of brewery over saturation, but also is in the same category. I checked, as was encouraged by their website to check rate beer, beer advocate, and untapped. This joker has a 96 on rate beer, a 98 on rate beer, and a 4 out of 5 on untapped. It isn't just me, people agree this is a good beer. That agreement is more rare than pliney. I will spend the rest of the night trying to find the asshole who doesn't like this beer. I also believe it is easy to find and maybe around for a while. Mark my words John Q. Public, we will be seeing a lot more of mind blowing IPA's this year. The supply of Citra, and Simcoe is stronger than ever! These beers was the first non single beer purchase I have made in some time, I'm just lucky like that I guess. Good work Victory! I am sure we have other new treats to come, maybe a barrel aged old horizontal? Stay tuned to www.victorybeer.com to find out.