Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club

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^®

Beyond the Bottle: Exploring Non-Alcoholic Beer

May 10, 2021 by Ken Weaver

A friend recently brought over some bottles of Lagunitas’ IPNA for me to try, back when he was doing Dry January—and I’ve found myself picking up occasional six-packs of it since. If you’re not familiar: this is Lagunitas’ non-alcoholic IPA, which they released toward the end of 2020. For me it’s pretty comparable to an actual IPA and, as I’ve been trying to take more days off from alcohol throughout the week, it’s been a helpful option for taking the edge off. I’ve had minimal experience with non-alcoholic beers, but it’s made me curious to try more.

One of my local shops has a whole non-alcoholic beer section, and I’ve been slowly working through things, finding some good n/a options for the off days. Athletic Brewing’s IPA was a bit less satisfying, but they’ve got a whole range of n/a releases: from hazy IPA to gose to a maple brown. Paulaner Weizen-Radler did the trick, combining a subtle hefeweizen core and spritzy lemon juice, and these have been solid beside spicy chicken sausages as a lunch-beer alternative. Weihenstephaner has an n/a wheat beer I need to check out, and I’ll get around to the various spendy Mikkeller options out there (really enjoyed their Drink’in in the Sun a friend brought on a beach trip). Note that n/a options tend to be priced like normal beers; I see these as being an occasional pickup, when I’m looking for hops etc., just sans alcohol.

Have you headed down the non-alcoholic-beer path yet? Spelunked the non-alcoholic IPA caves? Finding anything particularly good? Hit us up on Twitter via @RareBeerClub.

Beyond the Bottle: Light at the End of the Tunnel

March 25, 2021 by Ken Weaver

Out here in Sonoma County, we’re finally heading out of the ‘Purple Tier’ phase of COVID times. The Purple Tier is basically the worst tier of California’s four-tier, color-coded system in their Blueprint for a Safer Economy, and we’ve never known any other tier. Watching the local case numbers drop steadily over the past few months, as folks get vaccinated and peaks from over the holidays wane, it’s been pretty fantastic to see our daily new cases dip down to double digits. As of March 14^th, we headed down into the Red Tier for the very first time.

This isn’t a huge shift for all businesses. Breweries and distilleries no longer are required (for whatever reason this existed in the first place…) to have people order food before ordering a beer, though they’re still only open for outdoor service. There’s also reservations involved, as well as a 90-minute time limit for guests, but it’s at least a little bit of progress. Bars still have to remain closed, but restaurants are now able to open up for indoor service at 25% capacity. Local COVID levels are still ‘Substantial’ in the Red Tier—but, finally, things are improving.

Personally I can’t friggin wait to get a vaccine and take advantage of indoor dining again, and I’m so looking forward to eventually getting to sit inside a pub and catch up with people I’ve not seen in forever. How are things looking in your neck of the woods? Have breweries had any of their restrictions lifted? Are you seeing positive changes where you’re at? Chime in on Twitter via @RareBeerClub. Hope things are finally clearing up wherever you’re at.

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^®

Beyond the Bottle: When This is All Over

December 15, 2020 by Ken Weaver

I’ll refrain from any form of 2020 recap. Pretty sure we all agree it could’ve gone better.

We’re still in purple Tier 1 (the worst tier) here in Sonoma County, with a little over 2% of the county having been tested positive for COVID thus far—such that we’re still pretty far away from bringing certain elements of daily life back safely. After feeling low during a large portion of this year, it feels especially good to know that it’s almost over. 2021 will likely do its best to make me regret typing that, but it’s hard not to look forward to this all being past.

On the beer front: I’m looking forward to having a pint at a bar again someday… INSIDE, even. Without a mask on, or in my pocket. Without constantly worrying about distances and others’ nose coverage. Presuming we find a vaccine that sticks, our bartender also won’t feel scared just to come to work. Brewery owners won’t be wondering if they’re shoveling money into a pit, adjusting to the latest reopening requirements, only for a new, different lockdown to emerge. Essential workers will be able to raise a pint more easily. We’ll be able to properly mourn all of this past year’s losses, with people we haven’t seen in way too friggin long.

It’s really, really hard not to look forward to these things. Here’s to a better 2021.

Beyond the Bottle: One Long-Ass Year

November 15, 2020 by Ken Weaver

Typing this in late October, I have no clue where anyone’s headspace will be when the club newsletter actually goes out. I’ll assume it’s been a really long year for everyone reading this. We’re still gonna be a long ways off from a widespread functional COVID vaccine (fingers crossed for 2021…), and most of our friends and fam—myself included—have been relying on our normal coping mechanisms way more than usual to get through 2020. Our kegerator has been getting a workout. We’ve been playing video games, or brewing, or working out, or doing chores, or doomscrolling way more than we normally might. What a friggin year.

I’ve definitely become more aware of my limits. After we hit a recent peak in wildfire season, I finally reached out to a therapist here in Sonoma County—something I’d been meaning to do back in February before this all started. Energy-wise, I’ve been scraping bottom, and that seems a pretty common vibe around here. We rely on the people around us for support, and when everybody’s going through months and months of shit together, it helps to try and be aware of when we’re hitting an unsustainable gear. Personally: my coping mechanisms were no match for 2020. Wherever you’re at, just remember you deserve a strong support system helping you through whatever the world’s throwing this week. Here’s to a better year ahead.

Beyond the Bottle: One Long-Ass Year

October 28, 2020 by Kristina Manning