Kris Calef, Author at Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club

Rare Beer Club Naming Contest with Pints for Prostates and Atom Brewing Company

May 8, 2019 by Kris Calef

It’s been awhile since we crowd sourced a beer name for one of our exclusives so we thought this one was the perfect opportunity. As we’ve done in the past, if your name is selected, you’ll win a 6 month, 2-bottle membership to The Rare Beer Club®. I mean, really, how can you resist? This is a no-brainer. So head down to the beer fridge, pick out something that will inspire your creativity and bust out your legal pad and pencil baby!

Each year, for over 10 years now, we’ve teamed up with Rick Lyke over at Pints for Prostates and a US craft brewery to create a super cool Rare Beer Club exclusive beer to help promote the importance of prostate cancer screening in the beer community. We’re super pumped to be working with Jeff and Chris at Atom Brewing Company. They’re small and they’re good. A true farmhouse operation, from their custom oak fermenters to the cedar lined ceiling that allows wild microflora to flourish, Atom is creating exceptional small-batch, hand-crafted beers. I love that they’re packaging their beers still (uncarbonated). Not a lot of breweries doing that these days.

So when Jeff pitched an open-fermented, Imperial Farmhouse Stout incorporating sunflower seeds and cacao, aged in his custom oak fermenters using a house blend of wild yeast, I was like… “Hang on a sec Jeff. I need to consult my team on this one. Actually, I really don’t. This one’s going to go over just peachy man.”

Wait. Don’t power down just yet. Are you still there? There’s some stuff you gotta know first.

Entering the Beer Naming Contest

Although the new beer will only be available to members of The Rare Beer Club, both members and non-members are invited to enter the contest and submit up to three names for the new beer. The contest officially begins on Wednesday, May 8^th, 2019. Entrants will have until 2 pm PDT on Wednesday, May 22^nd, to submit up to three names. That gives you a week to think about each name! You can do this!

Finalists will be chosen by The Rare Beer Club and Atom Brewing Company on May 23^rd at which time contestants, club members, and the general public can vote for their favorite name. The winning entry will be announced on Friday, May 31^stand the contest winner will receive a 6-month, 2-bottle membership to The Rare Beer Club.

To receive this special beer, and many more, join the Rare Beer Club online or call 800-625-8238. Be sure to start your membership by September 2019, or earlier, to receive this exclusive beer from Atom Brewing Company.

Have fun!

Prost!
Kris

5 Beer Holiday Traditions
That You Should Embrace

November 27, 2018 by Kris Calef

Tradition #1: Pick a kick-ass holiday seasonal beer and hoist that baby every year when you’re hanging your lights

Let’s face it, hanging lights sucks. It’s a cold, lonely, and thankless job, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Each year, I put down 3-4 bottles of Anchor’s Christmas Ale, which more than likely makes a 2-hour job into a 3-hour job, but ever since I started this tradition, I look forward to hanging those babies. This year, a good buddy donated some aged samples for the cause, and I have some going back as far as 2005, so it may be a 5-hour job when it’s all said and done.

Our legal team would like us to inform you that MonthlyClubs.com® and The Rare Beer Club® in no way endorse drinking while hanging Christmas lights, i.e. don’t be climbing any ladders with a few winter warmers in your gullet!

Tradition #2: Share a massive ABV, barrel-aged beer with someone who claims to not like beer

I love doing this, and as a member of The Bruery’s Reserve Society for a couple of years, far too often I’d bust out some variation for Black Tuesday, their 19-20%+ ABV bourbon-barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout, on some unsuspecting non-believer. Most are shocked and had no idea that beer could be so good. It’s fun. Give it a try.

Tradition #3: Buy & drink five new holiday seasonal beers you’ve never tried

This one may be a no-brainer and add no value to the reader what so ever, but I felt inclined to point out the obvious. We’ve all got our favorite go-to’s. Set sail from that safe harbor and challenge your palate a bit on a couple of styles. Maybe plan to drink one each Friday leading up to the 25^th…Or whenever you’re thirsty. You can even make it fun by creating a Craft Beer Advent Calendar stuffed with holiday and winter beer styles you’ve never tried.

Tradition #4: Find one of your favorite holiday beers on draft at a cool bar and kick it with your favorite peeps

I used to live on Balboa Island in my 20s and we’d hit this sweet beach bar called The Saloon on the Peninsula every year in late November to lap up many, many pints of Anchor’s Christmas Ale over few games of darts and pool. It doesn’t get much better. Damn, Anchor’s getting some good press outta me today.

Tradition #5: Buy a magnum of something cool and bring it to a party

So this one has the benefit of not only making you look like some kind of super stud when you show up with a magnum in hand when everyone else is sporting a bottle of wine, but also ensures that you’ll be drinking good beer for at least the first 2-3 beers…Stay close to the prize.

Do all five traditions, Grasshopper, and it is time for you to leave… the year behind.

Prost!
Kris

Brewiety Merges with The Rare Beer Club

March 30, 2018 by Kris Calef

We are excited to announce that Brewiety, an innovative beer club focused on delivering outstanding beers from the nation’s most respected brewers, has recently merged with The Rare Beer Club®.

After a long drought and having not received a shipment since last year, existing Brewiety members have been excited to learn how their club membership has improved as a result of the merger and were allowed to customize their first shipment from a list of over 15 truly rare, outstanding beers, many of which were brewed exclusively for The Rare Beer Club.

Learn More About The Brewiety – Rare Beer Club Merger

2017 Holiday Special Offer!!

November 7, 2017 by Kris Calef

It’s our pleasure to bring you another Rare Beer Club® Special Offer! This 2017 Holiday Offer features four limited-production and limited-distribution beers, each of which impressed us greatly and truly represent excellent choices to accompany good times during the holiday period. You can read a summary below or visit the special offer page for full tasting notes and access to the order form.

If you’re new to the club: welcome! One of the best things about being a member is that, in addition to our normal monthly selections, you can take advantage of our periodic special offers on additional exciting and hard-to-find beers.

The Spencer Brewery: 2015 Trappist Holiday Ale – (Authentic Trappist Holiday Ale) A lightly spiced holiday ale from Spencer, after two+ years of cellaring behind it, it’s developed into something sublime. Aged notes of rich caramels and more contribute layers that expand this beer into something else, giving it entirely new dimensions. 9% ABV.
Brouwerij Van Steenberge: Piraat Special Reserve – (Rum-Barrel-Aged Piraat Ale (Belgian Strong Golden Ale))That sweet and floral underlying character from the rum barrel is a great match to the peppery, honeyed core of Piraat, and together these things do magical stuff. 10.5% ABV.
Humbolt Brewing Company: 2015 Black Xantus – (Barrel-Aged Imperial Java Stout)An imperial java stout, brewed with a fair-trade, organic coffee sourced from Joebella Coffee Roasters in the nearby town of Atascadero, and it then gets barrel-aged for six months in a combination of bourbon, wine and Firestone Union barrels. It’s unlike anything else we’ve had. 11% ABV.
The Bruery: White Chocolate – (Bourbon-Barrel-Aged Wheatwine Ale w/ TCHO Cacao Nibs & Fresh Vanilla Beans)This beer is an experience. A mischievously pale, golden-orange offering that simultaneously provides a deftly balanced impact of bourbon, chocolate and cocoa. The TCHO cacao nibs and fresh vanilla beans that go into the core profile of this beer do exceptional work, providing a dense main structure for the rest of this to unfold. 13.8% ABV.

Flexible ordering allows you to order 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 total bottles, combining any of the 4 featured beers in any way to get there so that you can easily try all four. Orders ship after our July 31 cut off date.

Order online or at 800-625-8238 Mon-Fri 7 am – 5 pm Pacific. If your Rare Beer Club^®membership was a gift, you will be contacted by one of our team members for payment information if you submit your order online.

Click the “Learn More” button for full tasting notes, and to access the order form.

If you wish to get any of these limited selections, please respond to this special offer by 12:00 PM Pacific on Monday, November 20, 2017.

Cheers!

What Exactly is a Holiday Beer?

October 30, 2017 by Kris Calef

So right about this time of year we, get a lot of questions from our customers about Christmas Beers and Winter Warmers. It’s no real surprise as the definition of what constitutes a holiday beer is somewhat blurry, as are the lines of traditional beer styles in general. So I sat down and penciled out a few thoughts on the matter which led me to think about what some of my favorite holiday seasonals were over the years. I went back pretty far and dug up a few we ran over a decade ago. Give it a read and let us know what you think! I’d also like to know what some of your favorite holiday beers are so let us know.

For a fun holiday gift, check out how to make your own Craft Beer Advent Calendar!

Prost!
Kris