Time and heat are not your friends…
2 Likes
Day #6, Beer #6
After a wonderful day in Chamonix, this was the surprise from the box:
The Piggy Brewing Company Coal Drop Dry Stout
This was pretty good. Coffee and smoke both on the nose and palate. Fresh and crisp rather than smoothly stouty but with all the stout flavor markers.
2 Likes
Day #7, Beer #7
I hadn’t had an Orval in 25 years. But 25-30 years ago, it was the “fancy” beer we would get when we felt Grey Pouponish.
Orval Bière Trappiste
My memories of that beer were of something with more caramel. I expect the beer didn’t change but my taste buds did. Crazy mousse on this, super expansive. Yeasty, bready with some caramel and citrus to balance it all out. Enjoyable beer that brought back fond memories. Chalk one up for Orval.
4 Likes
One beer wasn’t enough tonight:
William Bros. Brewing Co. March of the Penguins
Love that beer. Full of dark cocoa with a fresh bitter bite, enough fruit on the body and some spices on the finish. Well made beer.
3 Likes
One of my favorite Belgian beers, I kind of refer to it as the champagne of beers!
Right upon release from the brewery it can be less great, it even requires some aging to shine 
3 Likes
Day #8, Beer #8
All day in the kitchen today. Love that. I’m having some friends over for lunch tomorrow (one of the friend’s birthday) and I’m making a 4 course meal. It should be in the Wine Talk forum tomorrow.
Meanwhile, behind door #8 was a sour beer:
Prizm Brewing Co. Narita Sour
6% with the following fruit juices: white peach, lime, guava and passion fruit.
I’m not a fruit with beer guy. I’ve never enjoyed the lime wedge in a Corona or the orange slice in a Blue Moon. There aren’t many Krieks I enjoy. So, this was engaged on a slippery slope. Well, gosh darn it, I enjoyed this fruit juice! I wouldn’t buy another but on a hot day, next to the pool, I wouldn’t mind having one. The fruits really stand out in a separate way, it doesn’t taste like a “tropical” mix. There’s a slight hoppiness that reminds you it’s beer and a definite pucker on the finish.
1 Like
Day #10, Beer #9
I missed on my nightly beer yesterday as I had a wine tasting that dragged late into the day.
Back on the horse tonight and having this English ale:
Vocation Brewery Hop, Skip and Juice Hazy Pale Ale
5.7% in a 440ml format (where’s the rest of my pint?
). Made with Simcoe and Citra BBC. Citrusy nose with a hint of yeast. The palate is smooth on entry adding some bite on the mid-palate and lingering slightly with a touch of bitterness on the finish. It’s all peaches, pineapple and ripe citrus on the palate. Enjoyable and summery.
Day #11, Beers #10 and 11
Caught back up today after falling behind.
Cooper’s Brewery Original Pale Ale
4.5%, 375ml. I had never tried this unfiltered Australian beer. It didn’t give me a lasting impression but it disappeared quickly. Slight fruit with a touch of peony. Not much bitterness but pleasant balance.
Full Circle Brew Company Rotator
Hazy pale ale, 5.2%. This had less citrus but more yeast on the nose than yesterday’s Vocation beer. On the palate, this is very bright with medium acidity and a very pleasant crisp bitterness all the way to the decent finish. I really liked this.
Gotta roll that greenie (Coopers) before you drink it!
1 Like
Day #12, Beer #12
Brasserie des Légendes La Corne du Bois des Pendus Triple
10%, IBU 35. I like this a lot. The nose is very expressive with lots of ripe fruit and some white florals. Nicely balanced with a rich mouthfeel but no apparent sweetness despite the caramel that appears on the palate. I could have used a 500ml instead of the 330.
1 Like
Day #13, Beer #13
Brewery Lupulus Lupulus Hibernatus Bière d’hiver
Belgian dark, 9.5%, 35 IBU. Not super expressive on the nose (glass and/or temperature maybe?) but very assertive on the palate: dates, dried figs, coffee liqueur and a little bit of gingerbread. No apparent sweetness, the alcohol stands out a bit but with the flavor profile, it works. Good.
1 Like
Wow! Where in Oregon?
This was at the Cedar Mill Market of Choice.
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There’s a distributor in town that brings in rare beers this time of year. Our business is seasonal enough that many breweries have excess capacity this time of year. Maine is just shipping beer out here because they can’t sell it at home. It pisses off the local breweries like crazy. At the time of year when it is hardest to sell beer, all of a sudden we get some fucking “flavor of the month” brought in. Brewers from other parts of the country love the idea of selling beer in “Beervana”.
Distributors suck.
Curious what the process is these days if you’re out of a distribution area? They used to do a crazy online lottery where you first win the lottery to buy tickets, then literally drive to the brewery in Kernville (tiny mountain town east of Bakersfield) and show and ID to get your beer (back then it was in bottles, and only 6). No ID and ticket, no beer, no refund! Funny though, you could visit town on a random winter weekend and stop in after flyfishing for the day, Citra might be flowing in an almost empty brewpub. When this stuff was hot the brewery singlehandedly bumped hotel, restaurant etc business. People would drive hundreds of miles for 6 bottles of this stuff.
Here’s from one of their Citra lottery emails from 2016, right around when Pliny the Younger is released each year:
Citra Lottery is now Open! Pick-up window is February 19th to 28th
DUE TO THE EVENT SETUP, YOU CANNOT REGISTER WITH A MOBILE DEVICE. YOU NEED THE FULL WEB PAGE FOR REGISTRATION. Sorry for any inconvenience.
OK, long read, but here is how it works. We will hold three Brown Paper Ticket Events for the sale of 22 oz bottles of our Citra Double IPA. The first event (this one) is a FREE lottery event where winners will then be able to purchase 6 bottles of Citra. The second event is the bottle sale to the lottery winners. The third event is the “firesale” to the lottery losers. More details below…
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Lottery Event 1 - Free lottery registration is open until Sunday, January 31st. You may only enter the lottery once. Anyone deemed trying to circumvent this rule will be disqualified. So really, no shenanigans.
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Sale Event 2 (Feb 3-10) - You will be notified via e-mail as to whether you have won or lost by Wednesday, February 3rd. Each winner agrees to purchase a “ticket” for 6 bottles of Citra at $8 per bottle plus CRV + Tax + BPT ticket charges (somewhere around $54 total). This will happen during the second BPT sale that will last until Wednesday, February 10th.
IMPORTANT - due to the high rate of success of SPAM filters, you might not get an e-mail as to whether you have won or lost. You can either e-mail KRBC to find out, or (preferably) try your passcode (Driver’s License #) in the actual BPT bottle sale - if it works, you have won!
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Sale Event 3 (Feb 11 6 pm) - All lottery winners who do not purchase their ticket by the end of the second BPT sale will forfeit their right to purchase their bottles. All unused tickets will then be available for purchase in the third “fire sale” event (first-come-first serve). This will start at 6 pm on Thursday, February 11th.
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Pick-up at Brewery (Feb 19-28) - Bottles must be picked up by the actual lottery winner (ID required) at the brewery during normal business hours between Friday, February 19th and Sunday, February 28th. If you cannot do this, please do not enter the lottery.
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If you do not pick up your bottles during the time period described above, your bottles will be forfeited and no refund will be given.
Please do not call the brewery with questions - we are a full service restaurant and most likely the person you reach won’t be able to help you. E-mail us instead with any questions you may have.
Pretty simple really. Enter lottery. Win (or not). Buy bottles online through BPT (or through fire sale). Come to brewery and pick them up. Enjoy fresh bottles with friends or hoard for yourself.
Don’t get too excited about it, MBC rots on the shelves in Ohio at this point 
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