Featured Selections Archives - Page 2 of 12 - Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club

Beyond the Bottle: Go-To Glassware

November 15, 2021 by Ken Weaver

I like geeking out on glassware. We used to fill RateBeer forum threads with detailed and honest-to-god-100%-interested discussions of shape, volume, glass thickness, the benefits and drawbacks of nucleation points, whether those varietal-specific wine glasses were 100% or only partly bullshit… Important matters such as these. Does beer really taste different if it lands on a different section of my tongue first? Is the concavity of that shape improving the aromatics? God I miss that free time. More recently, I designed a few of my own glasses for a project I was doing, including a multicolored pattern on a stemless wine glass. It ended up being my favorite glass for photos, because you could spin it to match your beer: greens and reds popped with stouts; IPAs amplified blues and pinks, and the whole thing kinda glowed.

Before the pandemic, I would’ve pegged my go-to glassware as the Riedel Veritas beer glass I’d picked up maybe five years back. Featherweight (like some older Duvel glasses, and less fragile, thankfully), super thin, beautiful details, just a pleasure to drink from… Now, we’re a little less fussy. We’ve usually got an IPA pouring on our house’s kegerator, and a handful of curvy, medium-size nonics have become the go-to: the English-style pub glasses that are one of the fixtures at local brewpubs. Our most recent are from Russian River’s Windsor spot.

Beyond the Bottle: Kegerator Life

October 15, 2021 by Ken Weaver

Shortly after the pandemic started last year, my wife brought up the purchase of a kegerator. She’d put together a spreadsheet, and—given how ubiquitous and expensive four-packs had gotten in the Bay Area, at least—that spreadsheet indicated that the payback time for a used kegerator would be pretty quick (especially given the prospect of having to bunker down for many months). We bought a two-tap used kegerator from a guy up in Healdsburg soon after my wife wooed me with data, and it’s proven to be one of our smartest beer purchases yet.

First, quick downsides: Kegerators obviously aren’t for everyone, and ideally the purchase of one would increase the quality of beer consumed rather than the quantity. Take good care of yourself, first and foremost, and recognize that the ability to pour any amount of beer at any time is probably one of those “With great power comes great responsibility” situations. That said… the upsides have been many. Beyond accumulated cost savings, we’ve never been able to have such consistently fresh beer—particularly with a lot of retail beers sitting on shelves, and/or stuff only being available for curbside pickup (i.e., no chance to look at date codes). We make fewer trips for beer acquisition, reducing our risk factors during a pandemic. And, given the shambled state of draft beer out here, a lot of our local breweries that didn’t offer kegs direct to consumers before have started to, significantly expanding local options. When we do buy cans and bottles now, it’s stuff we’re excited about rather than overpriced staples.

Have you taken the kegerator plunge yet? Been considering it? What’s your favorite part of kegerator life—or, what’s been keeping you from it? Hit us up on Twitter @RareBeerClub.

Beyond the Bottle: The Drunken Botanist

July 15, 2021 by Ken Weaver

I’ve amassed a pretty decent library of beer- and alcohol-related books over the years as part of my work, but it’s rare to encounter one that fundamentally shifts how I think about beer. I finally got around to reading Amy Stewart’s The Drunken Botanist (had gotten it as a gift off my wish list a few years back), subtitled “The Plants that Create The World’s Great Drinks.” It approaches alcoholic drinks through the lens of botany, starting with the main sources of fermentable sugars—from agave to wheat—before heading into briefer sections that discuss the numerous herbs, spices, flowers, fruits, trees, nuts, seeds, vegetables, etc. that are used to infuse, mix, and garnish our drinks. Just about everything we imbibe starts out as a plant.

While not beer specific, The Drunken Botanist includes sections on barley, hops, and yeast, as well as so many of the special additions that contribute unique flavors and aromatics to beer. The book’s broken into easily manageable chunks—five pages focused on oak, for example; a few pages on lemon verbena; a single page for lesser-used things like tamarind—sprinkled with both botanical science and key historical tidbits, and it was ideal for picking up during lunch or whenever I had a spare half-hour. I learned about how fungi-infected rye might’ve influenced the Salem Witch Trials. How modern citrus trees likely trace their origins back to early versions of the pomelo, citron, and/or mandarin. And how basically all modern plums in the U.S. originate from the plant breeding of Sonoma County’s own Luther Burbank (my wife and I lived on the same block as the Luther Burbank Gardens for a number of years; it was also the first time I had allergies). Overall, the book succeeds in bringing to life the many historic and contemporary ties between the plant world and the alcoholic beverages we love.

Have you checked out The Drunken Botanist yet? Found other good beer-related books over the last year you think are worth digging into? Let us know on Twitter via @RareBeerClub.

Nebraska Brewing Company Special Offer

June 10, 2021 by Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

For this Special Offer, we’re excited to have the opportunity to work once again with our friends over at Nebraska Brewing Company to offer our RBC members four of our favorite barrel-aged ales from their lineup. If you’ve never had the opportunity to sample any of their complexly layered Barrel Aged Reserve Series offerings, you’re in for a treat. Each beer is capable of additional cellaring, but they are drinking perfectly now.

A list of the beers appears below, but we encourage you to visit the special offer page for full tasting notes and access to the order form.

Please Note: All beers are 500-ml (16.9-oz) bottles.

Barrel Aged Reserve Series: Mélange à Trois – Belgian-Style Strong Blonde Ale aged in Chardonnay barrels. 10% ABV.
Barrel Aged Reserve Series: Fathead – Barleywine-Style Ale, aged 6 months in Whiskey barrels. 12.1% ABV.
Barrel Aged Reserve Series: Black Betty – Imperial Stout, aged 6 months in fresh Whiskey barrels. 10.6% ABV.
Barrel Aged Reserve Series: M.O.A.B. – Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon barrels. 13.7% ABV.

Flexible ordering allows you to order 4, 6, 8, 12, 18, 24, or 48 total bottles, combining any of the six featured beers in any way to get there so that you can easily try them all.

ORDER ONLINE or at 800-625-8238 Mon – Fri, 7am – 4 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.

Learn More for full tasting notes, and to access the order form.

The order cut-off for this Special Offer is 12:00 PM Pacific on Thursday, June 18th. Orders will begin shipping out about a week later.

Cheers!

Kris Calef
President, The Rare Beer Club^®

Maui Brewing Company Special Offer

February 3, 2021 by Kristina Manning

As a follow-up to Maui Brewing Company’s Grandma’s Coffee Cake Imperial Porter which we featured recently as a Rare Beer Club exclusive, we’re pleased to have been able to work with the brewery to bring our members four additional limited-release, high-gravity beers. All four are perfect for this time of year, and we know you’ll love them as much as we did. Enjoy!

A list of the beers appears below, but we encourage you to visit the special offer page for full tasting notes and access to the order form.

Old Fashioned Barleywine – Barleywine aged in Bourbon Barrels w/ Bitters, Orange Zest, & Fresh Cherries. 9% ABV.
Wee Heavy Strong Ale – Wee Heavy / Strong Scottish-Style Ale. 11% ABV.
White Russian Golden Imperial Porter – Golden Imperial Porter w/ Maui-roasted Origin Coffee & freshly toasted coconut. 9% ABV.
Crème Brûlée Imperial Milk Stout – Imperial Milk Stout aged in Bourbon barrels w/ Caramel, Vanilla, & Lactose. 11.4% ABV.

Flexible ordering allows you to order 4, 6, 8, 12, 18, 24, or 48 total bottles, combining any of the six featured beers in any way to get there so that you can easily try them all.

Learn More for full tasting notes, and to access the order form.

The order cut-off for this Special Offer is 12:00 PM Pacific on Tuesday, February 16th. Orders will begin shipping out about a week later.

Cheers!

Kris Calef
President, The Rare Beer Club^®

Mikkeller Rare Beer Club Special Offer

July 13, 2020 by Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

We’re excited to announce another Rare Beer Club® Special Offer!

We’re happy to have had the opportunity to work with the Mikkeller team to bring our members a selection of delicious and hard to find brews this month which exemplify Mikkeller’s creativity and skill. We sampled an array of beers to home in on six particularly engaging selections that we couldn’t put down, and that you won’t want to miss!

A list of the beers appears below, but we encourage you to visit the special offer page for full tasting notes and access to the order form. NOTE: All beers are 330-ml bottles, except for the 12″ Winale which is 375-ml.

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. Cheers!

Beer Geek Flat White – Oatmeal Stout w/ Coffee & Lactose. 7.5% ABV. 330-ml.
Beer Geek Limfjords Porter – Porter w/ Licorice & Coffee. 7.7% ABV. 330-ml.
Beer Hop Breakfast – Black IPA w/ Coffee. 7.5% ABV. 330-ml.
Mexas Ranger – Ale w/ Spices, Almond Milk, Cocoa, Chili, Black Beans, & Avocado Leaves. 6.6% ABV. 330-ml.
Spontandryhop Citra – Dry Hop Citra Sour Ale. 5.5% ABV. 330-ml.
12″ Winale – Ale brewed w/ Wine Grape Juice & Champagne yeast. 8.1% ABV. 375-ml.

Flexible ordering allows you to order 4, 6, 8, 12, 18, 24, or 48 total bottles, combining any of the six featured beers in any way to get there so that you can easily try them all.

Learn More for full tasting notes, and to access the order form.

The order cut-off for this Special Offer is 12:00 PM Pacific on Monday, July 20th. Orders will begin shipping out about a week later.

Cheers!

Kris Calef
President, The Rare Beer Club^®

Beyond the Bottle: Shoutout to the Beer Artists

May 15, 2020 by Ken Weaver

I’m really digging the label art featured on Sudwerk’s Microfauna, created by the brewery’s in-house label artist Gregory Shilling and featuring, I think, a tardigrade (aka ‘moss piglet’) double-fisting some beer cans, surrounded by microbial drinking buddies. It’s super weird, evocative, scientifically questionable… but I think it’s great, and it nails the overall surreal and world-building vibe that permeates so many beer labels and beer artworks these days.

I love this creative space. And, while we’re all bunkered down for the indeterminate future, now seems an ideal time to shout out some of the folks contributing a ton within the space of label design and beer-related artwork. First off, AJ Keirans with @16ozCanvas has been rounding up a bunch of us for podcasts and features, and his archive of podcasts very likely has your favorite artist in there somewhere, going into detail about process, influences, and inspiration. Em Sauter’s been creating daily educational beer drawings and comics over at @pintsandpanels. And Nicolas Fullmer (@beyondtheale) has been sharing his increasingly detailed beer illustrations on the regular—predominantly in his label designs for Monkish.

I’ve missed a ton of folks. In Cali: the labels of HenHouse, Cooperage, and Modern Times all come to mind. Who do you find inspiring in the world of beer art? Whose label artwork do you think deserves some attention? Let us know on Twitter at @RareBeerClub.