Great Guinness - Win!

Raise your glass for a Guinness Toast! The famous Guinness story began in 1752 when Arthur inherited 100 pounds from his godfather. It wasn't until three years later that 34-year-old Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease for his new Dublin brewery 250 years ago on September 24, 1759, and began brewing stout, a very dark beer the world knows and loves today.

Today is Arthur's Day, and a global toast is organized to take place at 17:59 Dublin local time around the world. That is about 7 hours from now, or midnight for us Midwesterners. I won't be up that late tonight, I am afraid, but the kind folks at Guinness have sent me a lovely little care package to celebrate the day. It includes a bar towel, glass, baseball cap and an autographed glossy photo of Guinness Master Brewer Fergal Murray. I don't have enough readers to try a radio station style contest (250th commenter wins!) but I probably can still up enough of you for 25th commenter, right?

Comment away friends. 25th commenter wins the package. I'll contact you for shipping info.

Buy a movie ticket, get a free gift

If you're thinking about going to the movies on Friday, why not head out to AMC's Fork & Screen Studio 30 in Olathe? Boulevard Brewery is having release party of their seasonal beer, Zon, from 5 – 8PM. (Yes, I know Zon has been out in stores for a bit already, but they decided to throw the party now.) There will be free beer sampling with Boulevard staff on-site to talk about their beers and the brewery, free food sampling that goes well with the flavors, and movie swag from the movie “The Hangover” that comes out on Friday – t-shirts, shot glasses, etc. Get your free gift with movie ticket purchase this week.

Boulevard gives the best presents

Boulevard is like the childless aunt and uncle you had when you were a kid. They give the BEST presents. (Although admittedly, as a really young girl, I didn't fully appreciate the Sergio Valente jeans my aunt gave me for my birthday one year. I could have only been 5 years old at the time.)

But Boulevard did better than Sergio Valente jeans. They gave beer bloggers a big Smokestake Series-sized bottle of a stout they are working on. It was available for pickup after 3 pm yesterday, and I lost track of time, as I am prone to do. I called their front desk at 5 minutes before 5 pm and begged Amy to wait a few minutes past 5 for me. I was there in 4 minutes. :) THANK YOU AMY!!


I really wanted to enjoy it while watching the debate last night, and graciously shared it with my husband. (I am not so gracious w/beer at times, so I felt I earned extra points for this.) The bottle included a note of thanks for blogging about Boulevard (of course) and some info about the brew contained within. It is a non-release brew that may become a Smokestack Series beer over time. It is based on an Imperial Russian Stout, fermented w/Belgian yeast, and contains a whole variety of hops, malted barleys, rye and oats. Imperial Russian Stout definition from BeerAdvocate:

Inspired by brewers back in the 1800's to win over the Russian Czar, this is the king of stouts, boasting high alcohol by volumes and plenty of malt character. Low to moderate levels of carbonation with huge roasted, chocolate and burnt malt flavours. Often dry. Suggestions of dark fruit and flavors of higher alcohols are quite evident. Hop character can vary from none, to balanced to aggressive.


It poured prettily, with a thick pillowy head that took some time to settle down. Good! It left lacing along the glass throughout. Good! It smelled like roasted goodness, with a healthy hint that this beer has teeth. I could tell it would be heavy in ABV from a sniff. It was 9%, which makes sense with the style. First sip was good, echoing the roasted, burnt smell, a little bitter, perhaps from a hops bite, and dry. Very dry. I kept associating the alcohol burn with the bitter taste, but I couldn't tell you if that is really what it WAS. I thought it was MUCH more bitter, bite-y, and dry in the first few sips. By the time we finished the bottle, I was really enjoying it, finding more sweet and roasted elements than harsh.

I really liked this beer. My husband REALLY liked this beer, and that doesn't always happen with ye old beer blog selections. More often than not, one glass is more than enough for him, but this time he wanted half of whatever was left. Which, again, graciously, I shared. I think it was the bite. He's always been a decent hop head, just not into Belgians, I suppose.

Thank you SO MUCH, friends at Boulevard. The Big Stout was awesome, and I am so happy to hear that you all are working on new artisan beers to add to the Smokestack Series over time. It was cool to be included in that process, even to a small degree.

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Buckbean Brew Review

It is about darn time that I posted this review! I had a most enjoyable 3 day weekend, but I left my camera cable at work, and I wasn't about to head into the office on a holiday weekend, just so I could retrieve some beer pics. I hope you all understand. Now, on the the beer! As you may remember, the Buckbean Brewing Company sent me some free beer. This was most exciting.

I also received a large "media kit," aka a folder full of official propaganda on the company. The gist of it was that people who adore beer start their own brewery, and decide that cans are much better for the environment. Probably cheaper too. They seem to only brew two styles/flavors of beer, and I got 2 of each. My husband Paul & I sampled the first two cans on Tuesday. My friend Sheri came over last week to help me finish reviewing the last 2 cans the Buckbean Brewery Company sent to me. I wanted to see if different people had different opinions. The bottom result was not really - Sheri, Paul & I all had similar opinions.

First up was the Original Orange Blossom Ale
The materials sent by the brewing company stated explicitly that this is not a fruit beer. It is made with orange blossom water, but not oranges. Both Paul & Sheri were a bit confused as to why it is not a fruit beer. It tasted like a fruit beer. It smelled a little reminiscent of BLVD's Lunar Ale, a little zesty, like orange flowers. When poured from the pint can into a pint glass, the first can had no head, and the second resulted in a thin head that ended up with minimal to no lacing down the sides of the glass. The taste was also zesty, fruity, a little hoppy, and very much like summery, chick beer. Paul preferred the other beer, so I drank the rest of this one on our first taste test. Sheri liked it a lot, so drank it during the second round. If I lived in Reno, this would probably be my favorite.



The second beer I received was the Black Noddy Lager. Poured into a pint glass, it was suprisingly dark for a lager. I KNOW it has Black in the name, but it reminded us of a Coke pouring out of the can. It smelled like dark caramel mixed with licorice. The mouthfeel was interesting, because due to the dark color, everyone expected it to be thick, but it is not. Very smooth, however. The taste was the great divider. It tasted like malts, and licorice. The after taste was odd and lingering, almost like Good & Plentys. Paul liked it, I thought the after taste was a little too chemical for me, and Sheri despised it, being a non-fan of licorice in any form. Anything dark & chock full of flavor like this works better for me when it is cooler out. The end of August wasn't probably the best time of year to try this one on for size, but all in all, it was still pretty tasty.

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Buckbean Brewing

I received my free cans of Buckbean's Orange Blossom Ale and Black Noddy Lager (2 of each) on Monday. I was so excited, you would think that I would have tried them that night, right? No. I left them in my office overnight. Du'oh! I took them home yesterday & refrigerated them for a bit. The Husband & I both sampled each type of beer last night, and I am saving the last 2 for tonight. Unfortunately, I left my camera with beer pics at home today. (Why yes, there is a theme to this post, and it is forgetfulness. I also drop stuff often, if it makes you feel better to know that too. Awkward turtle, right here. ) So I am going to save any further review/unveiling until I am sitting down with another pint of each all to myself tonight. Stay tuned...

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it

My blog traffic is back up to the levels I had in 2005. Who says blogging is dead? It is just now part of a family of things like twitter, plurk, brightkite and the ever present spaces & books. My little beer blog even appears on AllTop's site, under BEER. Which is why we got the glassware giveaway. Yay. This week I was contacted by a PR person, on behalf of the Buckbean Brewing Company, located in Reno, NV. Right now their beers are really only available in Nevada, and not even widely available at that. But they are beating their drums well, and getting good reviews, so who knows what will happen in the future. The best part is that they are going to SEND ME SOME BEER! Whee! I've been at this for 4 years now. This is my first freebie. I'm so excited.

Part of the email I received from Constance, on behalf of the brewer:

Buckbean Brewing Company
We specialize in microbrews, two in particular, The Original Orange Blossom Ale and Black Noddy Larger. Our company prides themselves in being environmentally friendly by packing the beer only in cans. Beer in cans brings a positive spin on the environment because:

• Cans aren’t packed in cardboard, so they don’t have to be rinsed of packing dust, which cuts back on water use
• Cans are lighter than bottles, so they require less fuel to ship. When bottled beer is shipped a truck cannot be completely filled because of weight issues.
• Unlike bottles, cans don’t require energy to be expended on producing and applying glue and labels.
• A case of cans uses about 70% less paper and cardboard than a case of bottles
• Cans are the most easily recyclable material

Locally, we're featured in over a hundred bars and stores, and we're quickly expanding into other regions.

Free Beer

I was contacted by someone from Awesomedeals911.com, and they'd really like to give something away to the readers of this blog. They offered up a lanyard, two choices of bottle openers, and glassware. I thought the glassware might be the most popular, so that's what I chose.
That means one of you, readers, will get to win some glassware. A set of 2 Tall Pilsner Glasses, 22 oz each, with the Piels brand name emblazoned on the side.

So we need to have a contest. I thought of resuscitating the old name-that-tune game we used to play here, but any mistakes I make in correctly awarding the winner would be a bigger deal now that there really is a prize. So instead, I say leave your answer to my question below in the comments. In one week, on Wednesday, August 6th, I will write down the names of everyone who had the correct answer on pieces of paper and put them into a hat, and pull one winner. We'll document the process. Whoever wins just needs to supply name and shipping address to the people at Awesomedeals911.com, and they'll ship the glasses to you!

Cool?

OK, here's the question:

Piel Bros Beer was founded in what year, and in what city?

ALL ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED 8/6 1:36PM

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