june state beer challenge 2012

It's almost June and you know what that means!

Last year, I accepted (and royally beat) the challenge known as the June State Beer Challenge, a whole month of drinking only the beer produced in the state you are currently drinking in. Guess what, I'm taking on the challenge again. Starting June 1, I will only consume beer produced in the Lone Star state of Texas.

If you followed my adventures last year (you can re-live them here), you already know that I didn't have a very hard time completing this challenge. Why? Luckily I live in a city that truly embraces the local culture, including beer. Not only that, Texas makes some damn good beer too.

I really encourage all of you to take this challenge as well. It's not only fun (I mean seriously, you get to drink beer), but it is truly a wonderful way to embrace your local beer scene and cherish the heart and soul that is put into each and every one of the locally produced pints you drink.

If you want to take the challenge with me, do so by commenting below on where you will be taking the challenge.

Keep up with the challenge by following and using the Twitter hashtag #StateBeer. I will also be periodically posting updates on what I have been drinking and where. So join me on this quest!

If you need help on what you could drink, check out this list of active Texas breweries (there are plenty to choose from).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_breweries

Cheers, and Support Your Local Brewers!

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no hop left behind - current standings

An Austinite's Quest to Find the Best Hoppy Beer in Austin

Jester King Farmhouse Wytchmaker Rye IPA - 46
Jester King Wytchmaker Rye IPA - 45
Uncle Billy's 5th Anniversary Hop 'till You Drop IIPA - 45
Austin Beerworks Pearl Snap Pils - 45
(512) IPA - 44
Independence 7th Anniversary IPA - 43
Black Star Co-op Vulcan - 43
(512) Black IPA - 42.5
Hops & Grain Pale Dog - 42
Flix Brewhouse Dupulus - 41
Austin Beerworks Fire Eagle IPA - 41
Uncle Billy's Hop Summit IPA - 40
Uncle Billy's Hop Zombie IPA - 38
Twisted X Fuego - 37
Independence Stash IPA - 37

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hoppy mother's day - a tribute to meggie

As I am sitting here at the computer with Presley in my lap, I'm reminded of how lucky our growing little girl Presley is (along with myself) to have such a wonderful mother. The instant Presley was born and looked into your eyes, my love for you grew exponentially. The lyrics from Brad Praisley's song 'Then' seem to come to mind. To watch you transform into such a loving and caring mother has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I will always remember and cherish these amazing memories we are creating for our new family.

Meggie, it amazes me how much you have sacrificed to become the mother you are today. First, you carried and grew our child in your body for nine months, through one of the hottest summers on record in Texas I might add. After that, you gave birth to the most beautiful little girl I have ever laid eyes on. For the next eight months, a bond that I will never get to experience was formed between the two of you as you breast fed our child. I say it time and time again, but I am jealous of that amazingly special bond. As much as I know you would love to spend every single waking moment with her, you also made a noble and unselfish sacrifice by going back to work to help provide for this family.

I truly bow down to you my love. My only hope is that I am as good of a father as you are as a mother. I hope this is the most special Mother's Day ever for you since it is your first as a mother. I can't wait to watch with you, hand-in-hand, our kids grow old.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MY LOVE!

A note from Presley, pounding on the keyboard:
... k ckvj cj jk   //.o?
 ,UHHUBHUBHU MIKM CV  NCVCN            V NV

Baby Talk = I love you Mommy!

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my little hophead talking in the mirror

This has NOTHING to do with beer, but I just had to share this video of my sweet 8 month old daughter, Presley, discovering and talking to herself in the mirror. She's growing up too fast!

 

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no hop left behind - uncle billy's hop 'till you drop 5th anniversary iipa

An Austinite's Quest to Find the Best Hoppy Beer in Austin

Hop 'Till You Drop - 5th Anniversary IIPA

Stats:

Brewery: Uncle Billy's

IBU: 100

ABV: 9%

Hops: Summit, Simcoe, Centennial, Amarillo

Color: Light gold

Appearance - 9

The slightest bit of sediment gave this a 9 instead of a 10. This beer poured a beautiful light golden color with a thick white head. A real head turner!

Aroma - 9

Who the hell needs to go down to the tropics when you have this beer? I could have sat and smelled this beer all day, but that would just be weird, right? Huge floral aromas met with pine, mango, pineapple and papaya notes. I smell a perfume line coming on with this one.

Hop Usage - 9

Whole Amarillo hops in the hop back, 100 IBU, plus using almost all of my favorite hop varieties = huge success. I would have loved to see Cascade as well, but that's just because I fucking love Cascade. 

Overall Flavor - 18

If you bottle it, they will come. I honestly couldn't believe how great this beer was. The 100 IBU was almost completely hidden by the generous malt backbone plus all of the intense floral and tropical fruit notes. A slight bitterness lingered, but nothing intense. It was an incredibly refreshing beer, especially for an Imperial IPA. Well done Uncle Billy's, well done.

Total - 45

Did you get a chance to try this beer? What did you think of it?

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never-nude david cross and coors light video

The most famous never-nude, David Cross, pokes fun at the 'brilliant' innovations (wide mouth, cold acivation can) from Coors light. Hilarious video!

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cooking with beer - golden ale vinaigrette

Golden Ale Vinaigrette over blackened salmon

Tired of the same 'ol boring vinaigrette consisting of mustard, vinegar and oil? Time to spruce it up with some beer!

For this recipe, I took a typical vinaigrette and added Ranger Creek's Lucky Ol' Sun, a light and fruity Belgian style golden ale. I decided to use a golden ale because it typically has some fruity, almost acidic characteristics that would go into a vinaigrette anyway. Lucky Ol' Sun is light in alcohol but big in both aromas and flavor which are perfect for this recipe. However, go ahead and use any one of your favorite golden ales for this.

Suggestions: North Coast Pranqster, Avery Salvation, Alamo Golden Ale

IMPORTANT: Before making this vinaigrette, make sure you pour yourself a glass of the golden ale. If you don't, you have already failed.

Ingredients:

2-3 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Honey
Splash of Champagne Vinegar
1 Tbsp Whole grain or Dijon mustard
2-3 oz Golden ale
1 small Mined shallot
Salt and pepper

1. In a large jar, add all of the ingredients together
 - I typically like my vinaigrette on the acidic side, so I do a 2:1 ratio of oil to vinegar, or in this case, beer and vinegar
2. Close the jar
3. Find your inner Hulk
4. Shake the jar like you mean it!
 - I find shaking it much easier than whisking

When you open the jar, smell it first. The first thing I got on the nose was the fruity golden ale. The flavors were bright, fruity and crisp. I happened to pour this over a blackened piece of salmon and roasted veggies, which really helped brighten up the dish, but this would go great on any salad. Enjoy!

Cheers!

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no hop left behind - flix brewhouse dupulus

An Austinite's Quest to Find the Best Hoppy Beer in Austin

Dupulus

Stats:

Brewery: Flix Brewhouse

IBU: ?

ABV: 8.8%

Hops: Hallertauer, Tettnanger, Amarillo, Chinook

Color: Cloudy, pale

Appearance - 7

Beautiful vibrant straw color with a thin white head, but way too cloudy in my opinion. Still a beautiful beer.

Aroma - 9

Fruity Belgian esters meet with crisp and floral American hops, a great combination!

Hop Usage - 8

Two Germans and two Americans walk into a bar...

Overall Flavor - 17

Dupulus has a very smooth and dry finish with a lot of fruity undertones. A slight earthy bitterness lifts the light mouth feel while earthy and floral hops linger when all is said and done. At 8.8% abv, this one sneaks up on you and bites you in the ass with its drinkability. I'm a sucker for Belgian pale ales or Belgian IPAs and this one did not disappoint.

Total - 41

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rant of the day - today's beer geek

Remember that video I posted awhile back that poked fun at the modern day beer geek? I didn't realize there were five other videos, but here they are.

http://vimeo.com/user10854696

Anyway, I thought the first video was funny, the one about the new wave of beer geeks. I actually laughed, because that IS in fact how a lot of us beer geeks start out. I laughed because I laughed at myself in that video, since I saw a bit of me in it. I THOUGHT John Smith, the man behind these videos, was just having a little fun. Turns out, he was trying to make a statement through these videos. Check out what he has to say below, with my comments within each section.

John Smith's comments - Italicized
Mr. Awesome's (that's me) comments - Bold, because I have such a bold personality

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So this is where I come in and tell you exactly why I made these “Today’s Beer Geek” videos. For one, because it’s funny. And two, to really give these “internet beer geek” types a reality check.
Oh thank you so much John Smith, without you, I'd still be stuck in Candy Mountain!


Do you remember the days before BeerAdvocate and RateBeer? Nope. Remember going beer shopping? Can't you fax beers now? I'm lazy. You would buy something because it looked and/or sounded good. You explored. You had mostly no clue what was in the bottle until you tried it. I always hope it's beer. You purchased everything your local bottleshop(s) had to offer because there were no biased beer-consumer rating websites and smartphones to access those websites at retail to influence your purchasing decisions (which, these ratings progressively become more biased due to the fact that newer ratings are influenced by previous high ratings, and these guys consume these beers under the pre-conceived notion that it MUST be good and that they should give it a good rating). You're such a saint, I'm sure you NEVER go to IMDB beforehand to see if a movie is worth going to or to rent. I don't know about you, but I love purchasing crap, just to find out it's crap, but at least I found out by myself through my hard earned money! News flash, it can be argued that better beer is produced because of today's review sites (i.e RateBeer, Untappd, etc...). Brewers HAVE to step up their game, otherwise it will be heard through all of the social media sites. 


What ever happened to purchasing a beer SOLELY for enjoyment? I don't enjoy beer. I simply stare at it and imagine what it would be like to drink it. These “beer geeks” can’t enjoy a single beer without a.) posting a picture of it to Facebook, b.) logging that beer in on Untappd, c.) rating that beer on BeerAdvocate, and d.) copying and pasting their BeerAdvocate rating onto Ratebeer. I’ll tell you what, nothing beats leisurely enjoying a good beer in your backyard on a beautiful day. You know what really can't be beat? Big League Chew. What happened to that? I wouldn’t doubt if most of their beer drinking takes place at their desk all alone in front of their computer or something. I feel these “beer geek” types have completely lost themselves and have strayed too far from what enjoying a beer is all about. Who cares how many IBU it is, who cares how high the ABV is. How does it taste? Like it? We care, because that's what beer is all about. It's about what goes into it and how it got to be that fine elixir everyone loves. It's finding out about how much passion went into each and every crafted pint. You know what happened when everyone stopped caring and simply 'liked' beer? Pale lagers and under 40 breweries in the whole US. People started caring again and now we are back to around 2,000!


And just fyi, I do at times enjoy a beer at my desk. So sue me. Sorry, but when you are a full time work-at-home dad, it's hard to find time to get out of the house to enjoy beer bars and brewfests. I do, however, get to enjoy many beers in the comfort of my own home with my family, all while fully enjoying and tasting the beer. Isn't that what beer is all about?


I am going to vaguely break down for you each video I made and why I made them:


1.) TODAY’S NEW WAVE OF SO-CALLED “BEER GEEK”:
This is just a general outline of the process this “new wave of beer geek” takes to get into craft beer. He is on a lazy quest to become a beer expert; he has no intention of learning how to brew at home, and he has no intention of genuinely educating himself on what beer actually is and/or what certain brewing practices and techniques contribute to beer. I like to equate it to following major league baseball, but without actually ever playing catch or even having the intent to throw a ball around. My advice to consumers looking to dive in to craft beer … “stay off the internet.” That's like telling a baby not to poop. Seriously, stay off the internet? Haha. This is laughable. Taste is completely subjective and you will find, on your own, what you like, and also what you don’t like. I feel that the process taken to “get into beer” in this video can be damaging to an enthusiastic craft consumer the perception of the beer industry/community. Also, the Cicerone exam is stupid, pointless, a false accreditation, and nothing but a GENIUS business venture. So the Wine Sommelier program is stupid too? Without programs like these, there is no way to differentiate industry professionals from plain old fashioned enthusiasts. If the Cicerone program was created solely to promote and grow beer education, it would be an NPO, and fees would be limited to only covering administrative costs. However, I am all about capitalism, and so I commend Ray Daniels.


2.) TODAY’S “BEER GEEK” GOES BEER SHOPPING:
Self-explanatory. We’ve all seen this happen at retail one too many times. It cracks us up, but at the same time I think I can safely say “that guy” irritates the hell out of us. Why discriminate and disregard all of the other fantastic liquids other brewers produce just because it’s not Pliny? Try something new instead if no Pliny is available.


3.) TODAY’S “BEER GEEK” GOES TO A BREWFEST:
If it’s not hoppy and boasting a high ABV, “beer geeks” don’t want it. Actually, there's a huge trend with us 'beer geeks' right now, going back to session beers (at or below 5% abv). There are trends in every single aspect of society and these happen to be a couple examples of trends in the craft beer world. So what? Often times at these festivals, these guys will immediately dive into consuming IPAs. And here’s something that shows just how uneducated these guys are … they do not realize just how much of a palate killer IPAs really are, and that’s basic knowledge. I love diving into IPAs first sometimes, it's my 'go-to' style. I love hops! I happen to be quite educated in the 'beer-verse' and guess what, this is what I do. I clean my palate afterwards and move on. After one or two, everything tastes the same (tastes like chicken) (which is another reason why “IPA fests” can be pretty pointless to attend). I was at a brewfest recently in which Russian River was attending (lucky) (it was actually a distributor pouring that day), and the first five guys in line to get in kept talking about “Pliny Pliny Pliny …”; and immediately when they opened the gates to the festival, they bolted, at full speed, to the Russian River booth to get a taste of Pliny. If there were any other beers there that could have potentially struck a chord with each of them individually, they would have missed out because they had began their day consuming palate-killing imperial IPA. Again, your palate isn't wrecked for the entire day. If you're excited about something, it's pretty hard to get past that.


4.) TODAY’S “BEER GEEK” LEARNS HOW TO HOMEBREW:
He actually doesn’t learn how to homebrew because he spends all of his money (which could go toward brewing equipment and ingredients) buying expensive “top list” beers and spends all of his time (which could be spent on a good ol’ fashioned brew day and BBQ with friends) blogging and rating them online. A high count of beer ratings on your BeerAdvocate and RateBeer profiles does not make you cool, Last time I checked, it did. it is meaningless. Sunglasses, however, make you cool.


5.) TODAY’S “BEER GEEK” OBTAINS A GLASS OF PLINY THE YOUNGER:
Self-explanatory; it’s just beer.


The videos I made were created with no intention of malice or hate. They were simply created to poke fun and, to an extent, deliver a bit of a reality check to these guys straying from what beer is intended for. Are you sure YOU know what it's intended for? It is merely a consumer product intended to promote social activity, fun, and flat-out enjoyment. It is never to be taken too seriously. Seems to me you're taking this 'beer geek' thing too seriously. I became a little curious recently and ended up doing a little digging to find some consumer feedback on these videos in some favorite consumer beer-centric sites, and WOW … these people really dissected these videos and some even took great offense. Often times I wanted to chime in and say “alright guys come on now, they were just created for fun. Simple as that. If you can’t laugh at yourself, then you should probably try and lighten up a bit. It’s only beer.”


Each video I made took weeks of producing written scripts, Amazing dialog, oscar worthy. storyboards, editing, etc. I put my blood, sweat, and tears into those videos, and I hope you enjoyed them. I use the name “John Smith” because knowledge of who created these videos could be damaging to my professional career.


Cheers, guys.


I'm a beer geek, and I'm proud of it. I do what I do, which is blog about beer, because I'm passionate about it and want other people to find out what it means to enjoy great craft beer. And if that makes me part of this 'new wave' then so be it. Cheers!

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rant of the day - miller lite punch top can

Beer drinkers rejoice, there is now a can that offers not one, but TWO different ways to open it! Presenting the Miller Lite Punch Top Can, the newest and most innovative way for beer drinkers to enjoy that fresh pilsner taste.

I don't know about you, but I find opening a beer can so boring and dull, I often get frustrated and just put the beer back in the fridge, leading to beer neglect over time. Luckily for me, the geniuses over at Miller have come up with a way for consumers to have fun with the can. After you open the can the 'old fashioned way,' there is a new hole to punch open. That just sounds like the potential for so much fun.

"Miller Lite is giving beer lovers an even more enjoyable drinking experience with the breakthrough Punch Top Can," said Amy Breeze, director of innovation and activation for Miller Lite. "In our testing, consumers told us they prefer the Punch Top Can three-to-one over the standard beer can because it's more like drinking from a pilsner glass. We're proud of our product and think everyone will have a blast exploring different ways to open it."

Amy Breeze knows me so well, I am going to have such a blast exploring the different ways to open the new can! I've already come up with a few fun and safe ideas.

• Use a magnifying glass to concentrate the sun's energy to burn a hole in the new punch top. Not only is this a fun way to learn more about science, your GI Joe action figures will also jump up for joy.
• Hire Javier Bardem to use a captive bolt pistol to punch a hole in the punch top. 
• Train a woodpecker to punch a hole in the punch top.
• Throw the new can into a black hole. Could the black hole's immense gravitational force punch a hole in the new punch top? I'm so excited to find out!

Okay, I want to end this sarcastic post by saying that I want to punch whomever came up with this idea.

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