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

The Rare Beer Club™ May Special Offer

May 16, 2014 by Kris Calef

Attention Rare Beer Club™ Members and Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club™ Members!

We at The Rare Beer Club™ and The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club™ have some of the most fun when lining up special offers for our members (and for ourselves—we’d be lying if we said we didn’t stash a few bottles of each of these beers away for our own enjoyment). We look high and low, and sample a lot of beer to hone in on the ones that get us the most excited, and that we think you, our loyal members, will enjoy sampling as well. This month we’re very pleased with the fruits of our search: four outstanding beers that are both delicious and unique!

1. 1. De Ranke: XXX Bitter – This hoppy Belgian golden ale is like a boosted version of De Ranke’s excellent XX Bitter. Very dry and hugely drinkable, it boasts rounded malt toastiness, notes of white pepper, light cloves and hay, and one of the most fresh and generous mineral- and herb-focused hop characters we’ve ever tasted. 6% ABV.

2. Hofbrouwerijke: Flower Sour – Brewed with lavender, chamomile, heather, and dandelion, this smooth, inviting sour is much like a Flemish brown ale with a generous extraction of floral flavors and aromatics. The net effects include notes of black pepper, cinnamon, fresh ginger, and a refreshingly bright, lemony tart quality. 7% ABV.

3. Blaugies & Hill Farmstead: La Vermontoise – This spelt saison offers just incredible amounts of pepper and hay and toasty wheat qualities. Prickly carbonation adds ideal texture, while Amarillo hops appear in juicy, orangey fashion on the periphery. One of the best saisons we’ve had in a long time. 6% ABV.

4. MAD Beer: Salt – In some senses, this wild ale with salt conjures the commingling of a lambic and a gose. There’s an intricately developed citrusy tartness and funk, a nicely showcased salted plum quality, toasty wheat, and some touches of juicy hops along with the fruitier, tropical-y Brett. 4.5% ABV.

Flexible ordering allows you to order 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 total bottles, combining any of the 5 featured beers in any way to get there so that you can easily try all five. Orders ship after our May 20th cut-off date.

Order online or at 800-625-8238 Mon-Fri 7 am – 5 pm Pacific. If your 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.

**If you wish to get any of these limited selections, please respond to this special offer by 12:00 PM PST on Tuesday, May 20th.**

Prost!
Kris

Which Mad Beer to Run in Our Next Special Offer…

May 7, 2014 by Kris Calef

Mad Beer is a collaborative beer brand from Chef Jakob Mielcke and brewer Mikkel Borg Bjergso with the intent of creating a family of craft beers brewed specifically to be enjoyed with food.

Last Friday, we sat down and tried four from the line with the intent of picking a winner to include in our next Rare Beer Club™ special offer. We cracked open a bottle of Salt, Bitter, Umami and Sod, secretly hoping the Umami would be the clear winner as conceptually, it’s a pretty cool beer.

At the end of the day, they’re all pretty damn cool really, but we found Salt to be the most interesting of the lot. Its namesake is pretty prominent up front, but the beer takes you on a rollercoaster of flavors and moves into a more earthy, funky, and slightly sour middle pretty quickly. You get some stone fruit notes and nice bretty accents and a pronounced mineral characteristic throughout, the brett and the Ume plums flavors working very nicely together. The boys at Mad Beer suggest serving it with oysters, but feel it would compliment just about any kind of seafood nicely.

We’ll be offering it to members of The Rare Beer Club™ later this month in extremely limited quantities.

Prost!
Kris

20 Yr Beer Naming Contest Winner Announced!

April 14, 2014 by Kris Calef

The beer naming contest is over. The dust settled and we in fact have three Grand Prize three winners!

The Bruery: Smokey & The Bois submitted by Carlin C.
CigarCity: El Monstruo Lúpulo submitted by Tim D.
Shmaltz: Mazelhops! submitted by James T.

There were no duplicate entries for the winners of The Bruery and Cigar City beers and although there were no exact duplicates for Mazelhops!, and the winner was the first to enter any variation of that name, we’re going to award four contest entrants that had very similar submissions to Mazelhops! with a free month of the club of their choice. Well done Brielle G., Adam M., Elizabeth J., and Jeff B.!

There were so many great submissions that we’d also like to call out a few of our favorites as honorable mentions.

The Bruery

Pino Cedro
Zesta Punta Double IPA
Pomelo Paraíso
Bosque Sabroso
Cedro Abeto
Spanish Jade IPA
Pomelo Paraíso
Cedro y Cidra

CigarCity

Ménage-A-Bois
Trois du Bois
Bois Brûlé, Fume
Fumée de Chocolat
Smokin’ Black Bois
Black Bois Fume
Barils de Fumée

Shmaltz

Shmaltz- 3in

L’CHAIM PA
Chutzpah IPA
Oy Vey IPA
Rabbis Revenge
L’Chaim! Oy P A
Beer Mitzah
Yenta’s Elixir
Hop Mitzvah

Thank you all so much for being a part of our 20 year anniversary celebration.

Cheers,
Kris

20th Anniversary Beer Naming Contest Finalists

April 9, 2014 by Kris Calef

Thanks so much for being a part of our 20 Anniversary Beer naming contest. We received just under 2,000 name submissions making it pretty tough to narrow it down to the top 3 finalists for each of the three beers.

Contest Details
You may cast only one vote for each of the three beers, but if you’re one of the finalists, you’re certainly welcome to encourage your friends and family to vote as well. All votes must be in no later than Monday, April 14th at 10 am PDT. The winners will be announced later that day and will be contacted directly to claim their 6-month memberships.

Duplicate Name Submissions: If any of the final names chosen were submitted by more than one contestant, the 6-month club membership will be awarded to the entrant that submitted the name first.

Cast your votes at www.beermonthclub.com/beer-naming-contest-20-years. If you want to read descriptions of each beer, please see our blog post on the contest.

Check out current naming contests here.

Cheers!
Kris

20 Year Anniversary Beer Naming Contest Finalists Update

April 9, 2014 by Kris Calef

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick update on the contest. We intended to have the finalists posted and begin the voting process yesterday, but we’re waiting to hear back from one of the 3 breweries on our final name selections. Naturally, the Craft Brewer’s Conference started today so the timing is not optimal for a group of folks that are already pretty busy!

Rest assured, we’ll notify anyone that entered the contest directly via the email submitted upon entry as soon as the voting page has been updated with the finalists so you won’t miss out on the chance to vote. Hopefully we’ll hear back from the 3rd brewery today and have the finalists posted later today. Voting will take place on the same page that original submissions to the contest so feel free to check back on that page over the next couple of days just in case the email notification hits your spam filter: http://www.beermonthclub.com/beer-naming-contest-20-years

Thanks for your patience.

Cheers,
Kris

20th Anniversary Beer Naming Contest!

March 31, 2014 by Kris Calef

As part of our 20 Year Anniversary celebration this year, we’re having 3 beers brewed exclusively for our members and we thought it would be fun to let you name them. If the name you submitted is used for any of the three beers, we’ll hook you up with a 6-month membership to the club that beer will be featured in.

Contest Details

Submit your responses by noon Monday, 4-7-14 at 2 pm PST. Three finalists for each beer will be announced on Tuesday April 8th at which time contest entrants, club members and the general public will be allowed to vote for their favorite choices. Contest winners will be announced on Monday April 14th. If your beer name is used for the any of the 3 final labels, we’ll hook you up with a 6-month membership to the club that the beer will be featured.

So be sure to submit a name for each beer. If you’re really good, you might win more than one 6 month membership! We’d suggest you check out current beer names for each brewery to note their current voice and naming conventions. Cigar City | The Bruery | Shmaltz

Here’s what you need to know about each beer:

Brewery: Cigar City Brewing Co.
Club Featured: The Rare Beer Club — July 2014
The Beer: This one’s going to be a big (9%+ abv) American IPA inspired from Cigar City’s Humidor Series Jai Alai IPA. It’ll be aged lightly on Spanish cedar and smaller amounts of spruce using an infusion method to reduce oxidation caused from barrel aging which is not optimal for hoppy beers. It’ll contain no less than 8 different hop varieties including Pacific Jade to tie the Spanish cedar as both have a white grapefruit expression, and Chinook to accent the spruce as both have a piney character.

Brewery: The Bruery
Club Featured: The Rare Beer Club — Q3 Special Offer
The Beer: It’s going to be a big barrel aged blended beer, north of 15% abv. It’ll be comprised of three of The Bruery’s prized beers, Bois, a bourbon barrel aged old ale, Black Tuesday, a massive bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stout, and Smokin’ Wood, an imperial smoked porter, brewed with beachwood and cherrywood smoked malt, and aged in rye whiskey barrels. Cacao nibs from one of our favorite featured chocolatiers, Mindo Chocolates, will be added to one of the three beers’ barrels as its aged.

Brewery: Shmaltz Brewing Co.
Club Featured: The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club — July 2014
The Beer: Shmaltz is one of the more inventive breweries we’ve worked with over the years and after 17 years as a contract brewer, they’ve recently built their own playland of steel and concrete. They’re creating a new IPA for us that will combine amarillo, crystal, cascade, and other classics of the Pacific NW genre with an intended juicy citrus, passionfruit, and peachy hop profile. Shmaltz in fact means “chicken fat” in Yiddish – a classic indulgent comfort food – and also an irreverent yet nostalgic sense of humor so have fun with this one! L’Chaim!

Note: The Rare Beer Club = two 750ml bottles each month.

To receive the exclusive selections featured in each club, you’ll need to be an active member of either The Rare Beer Club™ or the Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club in July of 2014. The Bruery’s exclusive beer will be made available to members of either club in Q3 2014.

Visit the form below to submit your entry:

www.beermonthclub.com/beer-naming-contest-20-years/

Cheers,
Kris Calef

The Abyss Delivers the Goods!

March 19, 2014 by Kris Calef

Have you tried Deschutes’ The Abyss yet? ‘Cause if you haven’t and you dig barrel aged imperial stouts, you’ve got to get your hands on a bottle. I busted into a bottle from their 2012 batch that I had been sitting on the other day and forgot how much I loved this beer. It’s complex as hell, offering notes of anise, big molasses flavors paired with a complex roasted malt profile all kissed with just enough bourbon and wood to make it all come together in an extremely well-integrated, flavorful beer.

What’s your favorite Imperial Stout? This one’s on my top 10.

Prost!
Kris