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Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club

A craft beer blog written by the experts of The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

Fünke Hop Farm delivers the goods! Another Rare Beer Club® Exclusive

March 16, 2015 by Kris Calef

I’m really excited about this beer. We worked with Sudwerk damn near 20 years ago in The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club™ as they were, and continue to be, one of the best US craft beer producing lager houses. Honestly, I’m not sure why we didn’t connect again until 2015, but I’m really glad we did. I noticed that they were branching out into some barrel aged, small batch, creative stuff and reached out to them last year to discuss an exclusive project for The Rare Beer Club®. They were all for it and sent us down a number of experimental beers that they were playing around with to run by the panel: Velvet Jackhammer, an 8% Helles Bock; Game Changer, a 7% funky wild lambic; and a bourbon barrel aged dry stout. Suffice to say, we dug them all, but then they sent us down a bottle of Fünke Hop Farm, a Dry-Hopped Blended Sour Saison, and it moved rapidly to the top of the queue.

You’re going to LOVE this beer. It’s brewed with oats and wheat and fermented out with two strains of saison yeast. About 6-9 months in an assortment of barrels (Petite Sirah, Grenache, & Chardonnay) all while being fermented with Brett and Lactobacillus. These various treatments are then blended with an all-Brett beer that’s barrel-aged separately, bringing in more tropical and guava notes. Then it’s dry-hopped with Simcoe, Nelson, and Citra. Suffice to say, Sudwerk busted out all the moves on this beer and it shows.

We’re proud to feature it.

Prost!
Kris

brewers-cut-v.3-FORPRINT

Posted in: Featured Selections, Interesting Beer Info, Notes from the Panel

February 2015 Rare Beer Club Special Offer

February 10, 2015 by Kris Calef

RBC_main_logo

 

Today we’re excited to announce our first Rare Beer Club® Special Offer of 2015! 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.

We sampled a lot of beer during the last few months in order to home in on four outstanding brews. These standouts really impressed us, and each in their own unique way. We know you’ll enjoy them as much as we did. Cheers!

  • Brasserie du Flo: Cuvée St. Antoine Blonde – Brewed on a tiny 2-bbl system by Didier Cornet, a friend of Fantôme’s Dany Prignon, this superb beer comes through as a mixture of bready blonde ale and peppery saison, with layers of intermingling yeast, firm and funky acidity, well-fermented dryness, and plush fruity esters. 7.5% ABV.
  • Brouwerij Kerkom: Reuss – A blend of 80% blonde and 20% lambic, Reuss delivers a heady, toasty, yeasty aroma with a citrusy tart backdrop, while the juicy, acidic tang and subtle funk of a precise gueuze comes forward in the flavor, with a touch of herbal hop bitterness throughout. Approx. 6.5% ABV.
  • Mikkeller: Frelser – Brewed by Mikkeller at De Proef, Frelser is a massive, hugely appointed überbock delivering deeply caramelized sugars, dried dark fruits, some dark roast, leather, and a ton of rich, intricate maltiness – all within a soft, finely carbonated texture. 11% ABV.
  • Epic Brewing (New Zealand): Epicurean Coffee & Fig – An impressively unique imperial oatmeal stout featuring Turkish figs and conditioned on toasted Philippine coconut & Kenyan coffee beans. Pouring jet black, there’s tons of roasted coffee and subtler chocolate, while figs play off the coffee, and the coconut offers a toasty, slightly tropical backdrop. 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 February 18th 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 Wednesday, February 18th.

Cheers!
Kris Sig

Posted in: Beer Events, Featured Selections, In the News, Notes from the Panel

The Rare Beer Club™ November 2014 Special Offer

November 14, 2014 by Kris Calef

RBC_main_logo

We’re excited to announce another special offer from The Rare Beer Club™. You can read a summary below or visit the special offer page for full tasting notes and access to the order form.

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.

We geared this special offer decidedly towards keeping warm through the cooler winter weather that approaches. Please note that the two Seven Sins/Zeven Zonden beers come in 500ml bottles instead of the usual 750ml that we feature in the club. Both Luxuria (“Lust”) and Gula (“Gluttony”) are Herbed Belgian Strong Dark Ales perfect for the holiday season, but they have considerably different characters. Additionally, we’re excited to bring you the very hard-to-find Green Jack Baltic Trader, which truly knocked our socks off, plus the next iteration of The Bruery’s Twelve Days of Christmas series – a delightful, true-to-style quad that’ll hold up for at least the next five years. Cheers!

  • Seven Sins/Zeven Zonden Luxuria (500ml) – Herbed Belgian Strong Dark Ale – 9% ABV
  • Seven Sins/Zeven Zonden Gula (500ml) – Herbed Belgian Strong Dark Ale – 11% ABV
  • Green Jack Baltic Trader – English Export Stout – 10.5% ABV
  • The Bruery 7 Swans-a-Swimming – Belgian-style Quadrupel – 11% 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 November 18th 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.

If you wish to get any of these limited selections, please respond to this special offer by 12:00 PM Pacific on Tuesday, November 18th.

Cheers!

Kris Sig

 

 

 

Posted in: Beer Events, Featured Selections, In the News, Notes from the Panel

We’re working with Grand Teton to create still yet another Rare Beer Club™ Exclusive!

September 30, 2014 by Kris Calef

Grand Teton Brewing Company LabelI love what I do…How cool is this?

Grand Teton calls me up and says that they want to put some of their XX Bitch Creek Double ESB in some barrels and create an RBC exclusive for us.  Initially I like the idea and ask how they feel about doing aging it in something a little more off the beaten path… I’m thinking like Rum maybe or Brandy… They dig it and started looking for sources for barrels.  Later, I toss out the idea of cranking up the ABV closer to 8 or 9% (it’s normally weighs in about 7.5%).  They like it and the brewmaster’s suggestion is to blend it with another one of their bigger special releases to get there.  So now it’s really getting cool.

We’re still working out the details, but it’s slotted for December as we wanted to give our Rare Beer Club™ members a little sumpin’ special in their stockings this year!

Prost!
Kris

Posted in: Featured Selections, In the News, Notes from the Panel

Six Amazing Logsdon Beers Coming your way next week!

September 12, 2014 by Kris Calef

LogsdonWe’re really excited to have been able to put together a special offer with David Logsdon of Logsdon Farmhouse Ales.  A master yeast wrangler, David’s beers are all unlike anything you’ve ever tried before, each one truly special.  The first time I tried his Seizoen Bretta, I was blown away. It was, and still is, quite simply my personal favorite saison. And I’ve tried a bunch of them.

Next week, we’re bringing our members the opportunity to try six of David’s beers in a Logsdon Special Offer, two of which, Far West Vlaming and Oak Aged Bretta, are uber rare.  We’ll also be offering Logsdon’s Straffe Drieling Triple, Seizoen, Seizoen Bretta and Kili Wit.  All six are nothing short of amazing and worth trying.

Prost!
Kris

Posted in: Beer Events, Featured Selections, In the News, Notes from the Panel

Smokey and the Bois Special Offer

July 8, 2014 by Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

smokeytheboisToday we’re excited to announce a special offer on a beer very close to our hearts. This month marks our company’s 20th Anniversary, and to celebrate we teamed up with The Bruery in Placentia, CA to develop a beer worthy of such a momentous occasion. The result is a unique blended beer, Smokey and the Bois, available only to our club members and The Bruery’s Reserve and Hoarders Societies.

We worked personally with The Bruery to develop this beer, sampling a large number of blends at their barrel warehouse before we all reached a unanimous and very enthusiastic decision on the final blend.

Smokey and the Bois is crafted from three different Bruery beers: Black Tuesday (The Bruery’s famous ~20% ABV imperial stout), Bois (an exceptional, bourbon-barrel-aged old ale), and Smoking Wood (an imperial rye porter brewed with beech- and cherrywood smoked malts). And, for even more dimension and complexity, Smokey and the Bois has been aged with vanilla beans and Ecuadorian Nacional cacao nibs.

We have fewer than 100 cases available, and once it’s gone it’s gone. This bad boy is very big, and capable of many years of aging, so stock your cellar now.

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

Flexible ordering allows you to order 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 total bottles. Orders ship after our July 15th cut off date.

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

To take advantage of this special offer, please respond by 12:00 PM PST on Tuesday, July 15th.

Cheers!

Posted in: Featured Selections, In the News, Notes from the Panel

Bottling Day – El Monstruo Lupulo – July 14

July 2, 2014 by Kristina Manning

El Monstruo Lupulo Bottling
El Monstruo Lupulo Bottling

EML bottling line 5

Cigar City’s new Rare Beer Club-exclusive double IPA, El Monstruo Lúpulo is on the bottling line today!
We held a national naming contest to determine the final identity of each collaboration beer, and it was El Monstruo Lúpulo that was picked as the best one for our Cigar City collaboration beer.

Look for this exciting special double IPA in your July shipments.

Prost

Kristina

 

 

Posted in: Featured Selections, In the News

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