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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

2015 Will Bring More Rare Beer Club® Exclusives Than Any Previous Year!

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If you’ve been on the fence as to whether or not you want to join or give a gift membership to The Rare Beer Club®, allow me to give you 12 compelling reasons that the time is now. We had set a goal of featuring at least 12 Rare Beer Club exclusive beers in 2015 and with a full 3 weeks to go in this year, it’s looking like we should be able to exceed that as we’ve already either locked down or have gotten fairly solid verbal commitments from the following stellar breweries. It’s going to be a year to remember… If you’re a member!

Here’s what we’re working on:

  1. ssb-logo5Saint Somewhere is brewing a 10% version of their highly coveted Belgian Strong Ale, Lectio Divina.
  2. Les Trois Mousquetaires Signature Series Maibock – We love everything these guys put out and our members will be the first in the US to try this exceptional Maibock.
  3. Sudwerk Brewing’s Funke Hop Farm is a dry-hopped sour saison that only about 100 folks have tried so far. You’re gonna love it.
  4. Prairie Artisan Ales tossed out the notion of doing a Tequila Barrel Aged Imperial Stout last month at The Festival. My gut reaction? “Hell yeah!”
  5. TROIS-MOUSE-new-logoBierbrouwerij De Koningshoeven – La Trappe makes an outstanding bock and our members will be the first to try it in the US marketplace.
  6. Monkish Brewing Company – Everything we’ve ever tried from Monkish is rock solid. Henry wants to make a blended brett focused dry-hopped saison just for our members next year. We’re in.
  7. Brouwerij Wilderen Tripel Kanunnik – An outstanding Belgian Tripel never before distributed in the US.
  8. Jolly Pumpkin – When Ron says he’s game for creating something unique just for our members, we only have to ask when he can do it. Stay tuned.
  9. Telegraph Brewing is on the map as well for a 2015 exclusive. sudwerk1We’re about to rate their Silent Partner Saison.
  10. Odell Brewing – We’ve run a few of Eric’s one-offs over the years and are eager to see what he has in mind for the club next fall.
  11. Pints For Prostates Brewery Collaboration – Every year we partner with PFP and a US brewery to create something really cool for the club and to promote awareness for the organization. The brewery has yet to be named.
  12. Upright Brewing – Alex is doing some really cool stuff up in OR and we can’t wait to dig in with him on what he wants to do for our members.

If you got this far, you know that more than one of the styles above have yet to be determined so let us know what you want and we’ll toss it into the hopper for consideration.

Prost!
Kris

The 12 Beers of Christmas

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Here at The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club™, we love winter. It’s the time of year when some of the most bold, interesting, and fun beers are released. With so many holiday styles out there, check out our helpful Winter Beer Style guide. We’ve also put together a list of some of our favorite holiday offerings that we’ve featured over the years – some from our US Microbrewed Club, some from our International Beer Club, and still others from our exclusive Rare Beer Club:

These 12 Beers of Christmas are a great accompaniment to the holiday season, so be sure to pick some up – if you can find them! Or, if tracking down the best hand-crafted beers from around the world sounds like a lot of work, let us take care of it for you. Join or give a gift membership to The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club and make the joy of Christmas come each and every month.

Our thorough beer selection process, honed by over 20 years of experience in the craft beer industry, ensures you can relax knowing we’ve got the world’s best beers on their way to you or your gift recipient every month. It makes us feel a bit like Santa Claus, just without the reindeer.

Merry Christmas!
Brett

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Some Traditions are Better Than Others…

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Anchor Steam KCEvery year for the last 15 or so years, I’ve made a tradition out of hanging our lights and garland with the help Anchor Brewing’s Our Special Ale, their annual Christmas Ale offering.  This year I uncovered a misplaced sixer of last year’s release and decided to compare it to the 2014 release.

The only problem was, and I’m not sure if this really was a problem or not, that with two 5 year olds it now takes me 4 hours to get the job done when I used to be able to bang it out in 2 and after the first 4 beers, I’m not sure I could really tell the difference between the two releases!

Rest assured, I had a good time just the same.

Prost and Happy Holidays!
Kris

 

 

 

The Festival

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The FestivalI attended perhaps the best beer festival that I’ve ever gone to last weekend…And I’ve been to several hundred over the years. The Festival, put on by an importer that we work closely with, Shelton Brothers, had an amazing line up of beers. There wasn’t one bad one in the lot and I tried as many as I could. It was more productive than most as I got to catch up with many brewers we’ve worked with over the years as well as hang out with quite a few new ones to discuss special projects for 2015. We’re going to ramp up our game in The Rare Beer Club and feature even more exclusives that we ran this year (7 all tolled). Stay tuned for further updates on the following breweries: Mystic, Oxbow, Rappi bier factory, Rooie Dop, The Rare Barrel, Siren, Moor, and Side Project, among many, many others!

I only snapped one shot of the current 27 year old co-head brewer at De Molen, John Brus. After hearing a bit about his life and work, I asked him, “You know you’re living the dream, right?”. He knew.

Prost!
Kris

The Rare Beer Club™ November 2014 Special Offer

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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!

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

 

 

 

He That Seeketh, Findeth

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I went into this looking for a tasty beer that I haven’t had before and appropriate for the season. As I made my way through the isles perusing for the one… This beauty caught my eye, and if you know me you know I had to stop as soon as I saw the word SOUR. Not only that but it was surrounded by “dry-hopped” and “grapes.” Game. Over.

I bring you, Atomic Kangarue, a collaborative creation from two of my favorite breweries, The Bruery and Smog City Brewing. I must admit it was the name that first drew me in but the description sold me on it. The name must come from the two varietals used to make this wonderfully complex beauty. Semillon from what I gathered, first arrived in Australia in the 19th century and Viognier originated in the Rhone region of France but can also be found in regions of North and South America as well as Australia and New Zealand. These, along with the Brettanomyces Trois, work together in unison to make this delicious treat.

It pours a hazy rich golden yellow that reminds me of a ripe mango or a golden SoCal sunset, with a white head that fizzes and grows to about 2 inches before dissipating and clinging on to the glass for dear life. The nose is greeted with slight tartness that is definitely present but not prominent. There are also grape skins, fruity esters similar to white wine, hints of tropical fruit like mango from the Brett Trois, and a wild funky earthiness that comes out more as it warms up. How does it taste you ask? Well, there is initial tartness, a sharp acidity and sourness that hit the tongue right away. It’s followed by notes of mango, stone fruit, and green grape, then some funk and tannins come through in the middle. The sourness is there but not over the top. It has a refreshing funky finish that’s well balanced with lingering tropical fruit notes. So much going on here, my novice palate may not capture it all.

Overall this is a delectable and complex beer. Well balanced despite everything that’s going on and deceptively easy to drink coming in at 9.8%. Be easy on this one and respect it.

Salud!
David

Seven Swans a Swimming Special Offer

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The Bruery Glass on BarrelThe good news is that The Bruery is going to give us enough of this year’s 12 Days of Christmas offering to share with our members as a special offer in November.  The bad news is that due to a brewery expansion that’s caused some challenges in yield and the fact that the beer is fermenting slower than anticipated, we won’t get enough of it to run it as one of our Rare Beer Club November featured beers.  What a bummer.

Last year the government (and TTB) shutdown nixed this project and this year, other unforeseen complications have thwarted our best intentions.

Those collecting the series, keep a close eye out for the special offer mid November.

Prost!
Kris

The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club | 1-800-625-8238 (Outside USA call: 949-206-1904) | P.O. Box 1627, Lake Forest, CA 92609