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

20 Year Anniversary Beer Planning with Cigar City

March 11, 2014 by Kris Calef

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Cigar City’s head brewer, Wayne Wambles and owner Joey Redner last month to discuss the beer they’re crafting for us to celebrate our 20 year anniversary this year. First off, what cool couple of cats to spend a couple hours out of their day with me. They’re one of the hottest breweries in the country, growing like wildfire, in the midst of a major website update and brewery expansion, and they gave me all the time I wanted, never rushing me along.

I got even more excited about the Spanish Cedar aged Imperial IPA they’re making for us after Wayne walked me through the recipe and where he was going with this beer. He promised to make me a video that we can share with you all taking you through the recipe creation process. Suffice to say, it’s gonna rock your world.

Stay tuned for a contest to name the beer where you’ll have a chance to win a 3 month membership to The Rare Beer Club.

Prost!
Kris

Kris Calef on site in Cigar City's tasting room...And taste we did. — Kris Calef on site in Cigar City’s tasting room…And taste we did.

Wayne unveiling his new canning line set to go live later this year.

Status of The Bruery’s Six Geese a Layin’!

November 11, 2013 by Kris Calef

The-Bruery-6-Geese-A-Laying Each year, for the last five years, we’ve featured The Bruery’s current selection from their 12 Days of Christmas holiday vertical series and this year was to be no different…

As a new beer, it needed both Federal recipe and label approval and the ole government shutdown put everything in the queue in limbo, making Six Geese the second awesome beer intended to be featured in The Rare Beer Club™ to fall prey to the furlough. It gets worse. The Bruery didn’t make enough of it for us to feature it in December or January and it’s a seasonal beer that’s really meant to be enjoyed.

Are you ready for some good news? The approval finally came through last Thursday and we’re bringing in as much as we can get our hands on so that we can send a special offer to our members later today! That’s right babies, there won’t be any holes in your holiday stockings this year to let this one slip through the cracks…And no holes in the 12 beer line up for those collecting the entire series in order to host a vertical tasting 2019! We couldn’t let this beer pass you by.

Be sure to contact us at [email protected] or 800-625-8238 if you’re a member of The Rare Beer Club™ and don’t receive the offer for some reason (Think Spam Filters!)

Prost!
Kris

Our Newsletter Writer, Ken Weaver, Picks up 2 Prestigious Beer Writer Awards!

October 21, 2013 by Kris Calef

We’re pretty proud of what we do over here and feel pretty confident that no other beer club spends the time, money or energy both lining up special beers for our members or putting together a quality newsletter that we feel is a big part of the overall experience. So when one of our newsletter writers, Ken Weaver, picks up two, count ’em, two awards from The North American Guild of Beer Writers, we want to brag about him a bit.

Ken’s a freelance beer writer and editor. His first book is The Northern California Craft Beer Guide, a must for anyone either living in Northern California or planning a trip. He’s a frequent contributor to All About Beer magazine and editor of RateBeer Weekly. He’s also written for publications including DRAFT, Saveur, and Wine Enthusiast.

He recently received the following awards from the NAGBW:

1. Best Brewspaper/Free Zine Writing for his article,“The Big Show: Local brewers prepare for the Great American Beer Festival”, and

2. Best Beer and Food Writing for his article, “Genesis of a Beer Dinner”

Congratulations Ken! Well done.

Prost!
Kris

Government Shutdown Delays Delivery of Jolly Pumpkin RBC Exclusive, Los Vivos y Los Muertos

October 18, 2013 by Kris Calef

I have to tell you, this has been a really challenging month as the shutdown of the federal TTB office which approves new beer recipes and labels has impacted a number of beers we had slotted for Q4. The nature of the products featured in The Rare Beer Club™, which are often exclusive products brewed just for our members and new products to the US market, has made us much more susceptible to being affected by the government shutdown.

The fact that I just happened to be wearing my Jolly Pumpkin t-shirt on the day that we rated a potential replacement beer for their Los Vivos y Los Muertos, a pumpkin lime saison brewed exclusively for The Rare Beer Club™, was bittersweet to say the least. We’re all pretty bummed that we had to delay bringing this special beer to our members, but after we tasted Malheur’s Zestig, labeled a Belgian strong golden ale (we all felt was more of a strong Belgian IPA), we began to feel a bit like there was in fact a silver lining to the predicament we were facing.

Man, did we ever get lucky finding a solid replacement for JP. We called dozens of importers, distributors and breweries before stumbling across Zestig. The fact that Malheur translates to “misfortune” seems a bit ironic as this is a brand new product from the brewery and only a little over a 100 cases have been sold in the US in very limited distribution. It was indeed our good fortune that we were able to secure all but about 60 cases of what the importer has left on the floor for our members. So you could say it’s got a good “rareness” story…but how’s the beer? One word: Outstanding. You’re gonna love it. What an impressive beer. We were all blown away and felt that in some strange way this was all meant to be as we now can bring our members both outstanding beers, both of which are virtually RBC exclusives. We’ll have the full tasting notes for Zestig up on our site early next week if you’re interested.

One last parting thought. I want to reassure our members that we will in fact get Los Vivos y Los Muertos to you one way or another, either as a special offer or in a future month. Thank you for your patience.

Prost!
Kris

Odell’s Footprint is a sweet concept well executed

October 16, 2013 by Kris Calef

I love the concept of this beer almost as much as I enjoyed the beer itself. Odell’s “distribution footprint” is comprised of 10 states and each one of those states made a unique contribution to to the beer resulting in a crafty collective of regional flavors:

Colorado – Hops & Barley
Arizona – Prickly Pear
Idaho – Barley & Hops
Kansas – Wheat
Minnesota – Wild Rice
Missouri – Oak Barrels
Nebraska – Corn
New Mexico – Green Chilis
S. Dakota – Barley & Honey
Wyoming – Wheat

Worth trying if you can get your hands on it.

Prost!
Kris

Government Shutdown Impacts Breweries and Potentially The Rare Beer Club

October 14, 2013 by Kris Calef

In case you’re wondering just how the government shutdown might directly impact you, here’s a pretty interesting read posted by Adam Nason over at BeerPulse that outlines the significant impact it’s already had on the brewing industry. As many of our own Rare Beer Club featured beers are new to the US market or were created exclusively for the club, they require federal recipe and/or label approval and sadly this has put at risk two outstanding up and coming featured selections, Jolly Pumpkin’s Los Vivos y Los Muertos, a pumpkin lime saison slotted to go out this month and The Bruery’s Six Geese a Laying, the sixth release in their 12 days of Christmas holiday vertical offering. Both beers await federal label approval and may have to be pushed to a later month. Rest assured, we have several equally impressive beers slotted for future months that we’ll simply move up if we have to push those not approved.

To read more, visit www.BeerPulse.com.

Prost!
Kris

Cigar City Spanish Cedar Barrel Aged Imperial IPA for 2nd MonthlyClubs.com 20 Year Anniversary Beer

October 9, 2013 by Kris Calef

Since we’re doing two 20 year Anniversary beers for The Rare Beer Club™ next year, I figured it would be cool to have two completely different offerings. We’ve got a big ABV, multiple barrel aged blended old ale covered with The Bruery so I figured it would be fun to focus on hops with Cigar City.

Still in the early stages of crafting the vision on this one, but out of the gate we know it will be something with a fairly hefty ABV, aggressively hopped and more than likely aged in several barrels including Spanish Cedar and perhaps spruce. Starting with a base of something akin to Cigar City’s Humidor Series IPA seems like a good idea. Love, love, love that beer.

This one will be featured in The Rare Beer Club™ in September of 2014. More updates after we connect with brewmaster, Wayne Wambles. Should be a fun process.

Prost!
Kris