Beer Events Archives - Page 2 of 9 - Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club

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

Beyond the Bottle: Enjoy It While It Lasts

November 16, 2018 by Ken Weaver

All About Beer Magazine had been one of the leading beer publications in the country for 39-ish years. While I wouldn’t be surprised if the brand re-emerged in a different form, you can read more about what’s been going down over at Jeff Alworth’s Beervana blog—“After 39 Years, All About Beer Magazine is Dead”—or via the Forbes article “RIP All About Beer.”

It’s been a weird couple years.

I was one of the last folks to depart the All About Beer editorial team, though I kept doing my Trending column over there through the magazine’s final printed issues. That editorial team, led by John Holl and then Daniel Hartis up until the end, was the most supportive group of beer writers and editors I could’ve asked for. Managing editor Jon Page and our designer Jeff Quinn helped steer the mag to what I’m inclined to believe were some of its brightest years. And Hartis and I had some awesome theme issues planned that never saw the light of day.

For those of you who read the mag—thank you for supporting independent beer journalism. If you’re looking for something else to read, Holl’s an editor at Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine these days. I’ve got my first piece for the revamped BeerAdvocate Magazine in their latest issue. Support those publications that serve you well. They’re not going to be around forever.

Beyond the Bottle: Great American Beer Fest Notes

October 10, 2018 by Ken Weaver

Knocking out this latest column right after getting back from Denver. It was my fourth year judging out at the Great American Beer Festival, and it’s one of the parts of my involvement in the industry that’s particularly rewarding each year. Three days, and up to six flights a day, of beers across varying styles and executions, judged blind with some of the more thoughtful and experienced palates in the beer world. This year we were 298 judges across 12 countries, sensorily combing through approximately 8,650 beers entered by 2,400 American breweries.

Also: 391 entries in the new hazy/juicy IPA category. Which gives you a sense of tone.

Some clips from the highlights reel: The competition is in the process of transitioning fully to an eJudging platform, so I got to knock out some of my first-round notes with a tablet—which I think is guaranteed to streamline the process and clarity of notes going forward, and they’re rolling it out carefully. During the sessions of the beer festival itself: it was interesting to see lines snaking away from hazy-focused spots like Weldwerks and Great Notion, where that fanfare hadn’t quite crested a few years ago when we’d first seen them. Weldwerks’ end-corner booth had a dedicated side for brewers and judges; even that tended to have a line. I chatted with a few folks about what it means to have a competition with an increasingly less familiar set of names winning awards as the industry expands, and if that’s cause for concern. As expected: Certainly saw a number of Brut IPAs at the fest. On the Rare Beer Club front: shout out to The Bruery for taking a bronze for Mischief—their 10^th GABF medal to date.

The Lost Abbey Rare Beer Club Special Offer

July 13, 2018 by Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

We’re doing something a little different and unprecedented for this latest Rare Beer Club special offer. Tomme Arthur and the team at The Lost Abbey were recently tasting through the brewery’s archives to discover what was at its peak, and, given the long history between Tomme and the club—we’ve been loving his beer since the Pizza Port days—he reached out with some of the very best of The Lost Abbey’s rarest vintage beers. Five of the six offered score 100 points over on RateBeer (the other one’s a 98)—and this is ultimately one of the best collections we’ve ever been able to put together. A chance to taste Lost Abbey history.

NOTE: This the first time we’re offering 375mL bottles within the club! We want to be able to expand on the rare beers we’re able to offer our members going forward, and this seems like the best possible time to expand into smaller-format selections. Lost Abbey has less than 100 cases of each of these releases—for the 2017 Deliverance and 2018 Bat Out of Hell, for instance, there are less than 40 cases left—and once they’re gone, they’re gone. The final two beers offer up the great opportunity to try 2015 and 2018 Number of the Beast side-by-side.

To take part of this exciting offer, visit our Special Offer Page.

Rare Beer Club Naming Contest with Pints for Prostates and Rowley Farmhouse Ales

June 6, 2018 by Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

We need help naming a beer, and if you help us you can win a 6 month, 2-bottle membership to The Rare Beer Club®! Sounds fun right!?

This contest is our annual collaboration with Pints for Prostates, and this year Rick has secured Rowley Farmhouse Ales, located in Santa Fe, NM, to create their version of a Gotlandsdricka, the indigenous beer of Gotland, Sweden’s largest island. According to Founder and Head Brewer, John Rowley, “It’s our homage to Scandinavian farmhouse ales, which are lesser known, but have been brewed longer than the classic Belgian and French versions. Our take on this historic style contains a portion of birch smoked malt and was mashed and lautered over a false bottom of locally foraged juniper.” The beer will also contain locally foraged juniper berries, gathered from a favorite trail of John’s east of Santa Fe.

The limited-edition label will feature the Pints for Prostates logo, which includes the blue ribbon to remind people of the ongoing search for a cure to prostate cancer, a leading cause of death among American men. “The annual release of a special beer through The Rare Beer Club helps us to connect with guys and urge them to take charge of their health by getting screened for prostate cancer,” said Rick Lyke, a prostate cancer survivor who founded Pints for Prostates after successful prostate cancer surgery in April 2008.

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, June 6^th, 2018. Entrants will have until 2 pm PDT on Wednesday, June 20^th, to submit up to three names.

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 2018, or earlier, to receive this exclusive beer from Rowley Farmhouse Ales.

For more of the nitty gritty including contest rules and how to enter, visit our contest entry page.

Good luck!

Rare Beer Special Offer: Põhjala Brewery

May 14, 2018 by Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

We’ve had this Estonian brewery on our radar for a few years now, as they’ve been gradually gaining a significant presence across Europe and knocking out collaborations with folks like Stillwater Artisanal, To Øl and De Struise. We’ve collected four of our absolute favorites out of the brewery’s lineup for this offer, each packaged in a carefully designed, 12-ounce bottle: two riffs on imperial Baltic porter, as well as two exceptional imperial stouts. These four are each ideal for sharing, as even the smallest—this Cognac-barrel-aged Baltic porter—lands at 11%+ ABV. Despite the overall strengths of the picks, we singled these individual beers out for being especially smooth examples—and showcasing some truly unique special additions.

For each of these four beers, a total of just over 50 cases was recently brought into the U.S., and we’ve been allocated the majority of each for this Rare Beer Club special offer. (All four of these will otherwise only be available in small quantities at a handful of select accounts.)

To learn more about the beers and to order, visit our Special Offer page.

Cheers!

National Beer Day!

April 7, 2018 by Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

On March 22, 1933 President Franklin Roosevelt signed an amendment to the Volstead Act known as the Cullen-Harrison Act, a law to allow people to brew and sell beer (as long as it was under 4% ABV). Once signed, President Roosevelt was famously quoted “I think this would be a good time for a beer.”

On April 7, 1933 the Cullen-Harrison Act went into effect and for the first time in thirteen years hundreds of people gathered outside taverns, pubs, and breweries to buy and drink their first legal beer.

As you join in on the celebrations on National Beer Day, what brew are you reaching for?

Cheers!