California

I've had this beer once before, and it cost me $40... Well, I think the check actually got split at the end of the night, but there was definitely a charge on there for one (1) $40 bottle of The Bruery's Autumn Maple on there somewhere. It was after a long drive from Kansas City to Denver, followed by more than a couple rounds of beers at Falling Rock and then another round or two at Euclid Hall... so my recollection is a little hazy, but I remember thinking this was the best fall beer I'd ever had. That was a year ago, almost to the day. This bottle of Autumn Maple has been in my basement for a couple weeks now and I've been eagerly awaiting a 60 degree fall day so I'd have a good reason to crack it open.

TWO DOLLARS. TWO. DOLLARS. That's right, two dollars is all it costs to take home 22 ounces of Mission St. Brown Ale. Well, the sticker price is actually $1.99, but whatever... This is the cheapest bomber I've ever seen, cheaper than Stone and even cheaper than Lagunitas. I don't make a point to drink the cheapest beer on the shelf but I've had a couple really good Mission St. beers and figured I couldn't pass up this Brown Ale. I mean, $2 for a bottle of beer that's (more or less) brewed by Firestone Walker? That's just crazy cheap...

I've never been a big fan of Stone's beer, but there have been a few bottles I've enjoyed on occasion so I keep bringing Stone beer home with me. I've been trying to pick my battles a little better, so instead of buying up one of each Stone beer (mostly because there are just so damn many of them) I'm sticking with the styles I tend to enjoy the most ...but of course there are exceptions, like this bottle of Stone IPA. IPA is hit or miss style for me, I think too many brewers just throw a ton of hops at a kettle and call it a day. That was my fear with this beer based off of some other Stone beers I've had before. So why's I make an exception and bring home a bomber of their IPA? Easy, it's got a note to Kansas City printed on the back. Beer drinkers are a fickle bunch.

Trader Joe's recently opened up in Kansas City. There was much fanfare and at least a week's worth of massive lines as people clamored for cheap wine and slightly-better-than-Aldi-quality food. I patiently waited a couple weeks until stopping by and picking up a sixer of Mission St. Pale Ale. I'd heard a lot of good things about this beer but was always reluctant to bring any home from out of town because it's essentially just another relabeled product and I figured a beer that's contract brewed for a discount grocery couldn't be all that great, right? Well, it did kinda win a gold medal at GABF...

North Coast's Grand Cru is a new limited release version of the brewery's 20th anniversary ale from 2008. This beer, like the rest of North Coast's offerings, has deceptively boring packaging. It comes in a corked and caged 500ml bottle that looks like a slimmed down Champagne bottle. I wouldn't have given this beer a second thought in the liquor store if I hadn't known it was 12.9% alcohol and brewed with agave nectar. North Coast does some pretty interesting stuff with their limit release beers, it just seems like they don't want anyone to know about it...

Rye Beer isn't a style I reach for very often. Most beers that I've had which have been brewed with Rye, have been overly spicy and bitter. It's a grainy bitterness that I don't particularly enjoy. It's not that I have anything against rye, I just don't think it makes the best main ingredient in a beer based off of the Rye Beers I've had so far. I've waited a while to open this bottle of The Bruery Rugbrød because it's a "JuleBryg-Style Dark Rye Ale". I don't know the first thing about JuleBryg style beers... but rye is a familiar ingredient. I wasn't in a hurry to open this, going off of the assumption that I won't be that crazy about it. Today I decided to just get it over with. Let's see if JuleBryg is a style worth differentiating from other Rye Beers.

I have a thing for the Weizenbock style, and I've been hearing a lot about the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp offerings this year, so when I saw bottles of Beer Camp Weizenbock at my local liquor store I didn't think twice about picking one up. The Beer Camp program is a sort of invitational Pro-Am event that takes place at Sierra Nevada in Chico. The group collaborates on a couple styles of beer and, if they turn out pretty decent, Sierra Nevada will bottle and release the beers to retail. It's a cool program, I'm anxious to see how the beer turned out.

I really enjoy going to a new liquor store and finding bottles of beer I'd never heard of before. This bottle of The Bruery Mischief came from a liquor store in Maryland I visited over the weekend. I've had a couple beers from The Bruery before but I've never seen this one on a menu or at a liquor store. The label says the Mischief is a Belgian-style Ale, golden & hoppy. Sounds good to me. I haven't had a bad beer from The Bruery yet, but they have all been, more-or-less, Saison style ales. I'm hoping this Mischief will be something a little different.

21st Amendment is an interesting brewery. I had the pleasure of visiting their brewpub in San Francisco last year and I really enjoyed it. It's a tiny little place with about a dozen different beers on tap at a time. 21st Amendment doesn't bottle, but they do can their beer for export to other markets. Since my trip to San Francisco I've managed to have a few more 21st Amendment beers and I've liked each one better than the last. I have heard a lot of good things about the Monk's Blood, a Belgian style Strong Ale, and I can't wait to try it. I really like the Belgian styles, but I've never had one out of a can before... this should be interesting.

"A liquid poem to the glory of the hop!" That's what it says on the front of this bottle of Stone Ruination IPA. Stone's beers have nearly has much hyperbole in the bottle as they have hops. Ruination is a beer I've been in no hurry to try because I feel that I've already got a really good idea of what it's going to taste like, based off of the other Stone beers I've had before. Don't get me wrong, Stone makes some really interesting beer. In my opinion, those interesting beers are the ones that are hybrid Belgo-styles, big Imperial Stouts or are otherwise less hoppy than a west coast IPA. Ruination is one of Stone's west coast IPAs and I'm convinced there won't be much for me to look forward to in this beer. We'll see...