Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month 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

The Lost Abbey Special Offer Rare Beer Club

September 10, 2020 by Kristina Manning

It’s hard to believe that it’s been two years since we asked Tomme Arthur at The Lost Abbey to part with some of his coveted limited run vintage offerings from the brewery’s cellar. You all responded so well to that offer that we figured it was time to see what else we could try and secure from Tomme. We couldn’t be more happy with the collection of beers they were willing to share with us. Some really special stuff. All limited run, all big gravity bombs. Four vintage beers from 2016-2019 and two 2020 offerings, two of which are barrel aged beers previously only offered to the brewery’s Sinners and Saints club. You’ll want to try all six, trust us.

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.

additional exciting and hard-to-find beers. Cheers!

Lost Abbey Gnoel de Abbey (2019) – Holiday Brown Ale. 8.5% ABV.
Lost Abbey Serpent’s Stout – Imperial Stout. 11% ABV.
Lost Abbey Judgment Day – Abbey Quadrupel w/ raisins. 10.2% ABV.
Lost Abbey Ten Commandments (2016) – Belgian Strong Dark Farmhouse Ale w/ blackened raisins and rosemary. 11% ABV.
Lost Abbey Sinner’s Blend (2019) – Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout w/ Ecuadorian Coffee, Cacao & Mexican spices. 13.7% ABV.
Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme (2017) – Blended Bourbon- and Wine-Barrel-Aged Dark Wild Ale w/ Sour Cherries. 11% 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, September 24th. Orders will begin shipping out about a week later.

Cheers!

Kris Calef
President, The Rare Beer Club^®

Beyond the Bottle: Beer and Survival

September 1, 2020 by Ken Weaver

In recent months I’ve been checking in on how breweries here in Sonoma County have been handling COVID-19 complications, including California’s statewide closure of indoor dining on July 13^th. With that pitch-perfect 2020 timing: we now have wildfire season upon us. Here in Petaluma (20-ish minutes south of Sonoma County’s biggest city, Santa Rosa) we’ve only seen ash and smoke thus far, but there are 500+ fires and 750,000+ acres burned statewide. Hazy skies. Scary-ass sunsets. Regularly checking our local air-quality numbers. Got our bug-out bags repacked. My wife just sent me over a Google spreadsheet of our “What would we grab in 20 minutes?” list. The house is prepped, in case friends need to evacuate here again.

For our local breweries, which had been finding COVID-19 workarounds like outdoor beer gardens, it means one more step backwards. All of the Santa Rosa breweries I mentioned last month—Russian River, Moonlight, and Cooperage—have had to temporarily suspend their outdoor operations due to air-quality issues, all switching to take-out only for the moment. Here’s hoping air-quality levels improve soon and fire season won’t be as bad as it looks.

That said… this is familiar turf. We’ve endured wildfires, and everything 2020’s thrown so far. We had N95 masks way before COVID. We’ll get through this too. Here’s hoping you are holding up ok through everything. Support the small businesses you want to stay open. Stay strong. I’m gonna go crack an apocalypse beer and fall asleep on our bug-out bag.

Beyond the Bottle: Re-Re-Reopenings

August 20, 2020 by Ken Weaver

Last month, I mentioned how the beer scene was looking out here in Sonoma County, with the particularly troubling sidebar that we could be losing 40+% of the restaurants in Santa Rosa as a result of the pandemic. Santa Rosa’s the biggest city in Sonoma County—home to breweries like Russian River, Moonlight, Cooperage, and HenHouse, among others. With a recent uptick in COVID-19 cases across the state, California closed indoor dining statewide as of July 13^th. The new restrictions, while addressing the fact that indoor transmission is way more problematic, impose a pretty curious handicap on places like breweries, brewpubs, and distilleries—all of which can serve beer outdoors, but only in the same transaction as a meal.

Wineries and tasting rooms, in a move that pokes the most cynical buttons in my brain, have no such restriction. <dramatic villain music>

I’ll focus on how our local folks have been responding. Lagunitas here in Petaluma already had most of its seating outdoors, and is open for curbside pickup and outdoor dining, with the restriction of one household per seating area. Moonlight, Cooperage, and Russian River (the latter getting a boost from Santa Rosa’s decision to shut down 4^th Street in downtown for businesses to operate outdoors) have all been creating makeshift beer gardens, satisfying the meal requirements through either an existing kitchen (RR) or rotating food trucks. And the two HenHouse locations, with smaller outdoor spaces, have been curbside pickup only.

Hope you’re holding up ok through this. How are breweries adjusting to things in your area? Have things reopened, or re-reopened? Get in touch on Twitter via @RareBeerClub.

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^®