Friday Night Cigar City Pints at Wine World

,Come join us for Friday Night Pints, we have got a good one. Wine World has not let us down with this one. Cigar City is here!

Cigar City Brewing has been brewing beer for about a year and a half, but still can't find their way to our market. Even though this brewery has been on the market for such a short time, they have already won golf metals at the Great American Beer Festival.

We are gracious enough to have a great beer store that will do what they can to bring this brewery to our area. Wine World has a store in Central Florida that is able to get Cigar City's beers. So, all they do is drive a truck down there and bring it back. Simple.

This Friday at 6PM Wine World in the new Publix shopping center will be tapping one of Cigar City's most recent creations, 110K+OT.
110K+OT is a rotating style that is always different. This is the third batch and it is a Double IPA. It is also being called "The other West Coast IPA", and I think that is because thir regular IPA (Jai Alai) is considered a West Coast style IPA. I can't get into details about how good it is because I have never had it.

So, 6PM on Friday. I am going to be at Wine World tasting the newest thing from CCB. I bet pints will run about $6, but if they are more expensive don't blame me. Get there on time because if this 5 gallon keg blows, that's it. No More of this in PCB ever again.

See ya there.

US Open and the rest of California

Hello all and thanks for being patient with my blogging. I am now back in Florida and looking back at the California trip. The trip was full of activities and really didn't have time to do any blogging. But now, I do.

The US Open was at Pebble Beach this year and I was there. About a year and three months ago, I applied to volunteer for the event and was assigned to be a hole marshal. The hole marshal is the guy that stands there telling folks to shut up and stand still. I was the best! They gave me the right to be rude to folks and I took them up on it. Not really, I was nice, most of the time. Pebble Beach is located south of Monterey about five miles and is basically a neighborhood with five golf courses. There is a historic road that travels through Pebble Beach named 17 mile Drive and it is full of scenic beaches and rocks to climb.
That is me conquering the rock. That was my first rock climbing adventure and it took me about two minutes, I am proud. The North Pacific Coast is very rocky and has a lot of cliffs. Beautiful area and I plan on returning some day.

But back to the golf. Pebble Beach has hosted several US Opens. The last one was in 2000 and Tiger Woods was the Champion that year.
The golf course was founded in 1919 and was designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant. Pebble Beach also hosts the annual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. The Pro Am was originally sponsored by Bing Crosby and has been played at Pebble Beach since 1946. So, Pebble Beach has a little bit of American History. Today, Pebble Beach is known by many to be one of the most beautiful courses and one of the hardest to play. At $495, it will be a while before I play it.
Designed along the Pacific Coast, you can't help but to watch the waves smash the rocks or try to catch a glimpse of a sea lion. This US Open was special to me for many reasons, but the golf course was special as well. In the photo, this is #7. It is a small Par 3 that played 99 yards the final day of the tournament. But with the hawling winds, the players had to hit their balls right of the green over the ocean and let the wind carry it back onto the green. I thought it was a great hole to watch players, and I often thought I could have done better.

Now back to the beer blog. Before heading south to Monterey, we hit several wineries and a hand full of breweries.
If you are wondering why I am hanging out with this bear, that's because I am at Bear Republic. This little brewery is not available in our area, but they make some great beers. Their flagship is called Racer 5
and it is one of the best American IPAs on the market. Racer 5 is a ctrusy IPA that drinks easy because it is not an over bitter IPA. Great Beer!

One of the other wonderful breweries was the World Renowned Russian River Brewing. This brewery is the maker of Pliny the Elder and it is ranked high on all the beer rating websites.
This IPA has a pine/grassy character that is not too overwhelming, but will give you a nice kick. At 8% ABV and an undetermined amount of IBUs, it is actually not a hard drinking beer. Pliny the Elder isn't the only beer they make. Russian River has a whole line of Belgian style ales as well. I tasted one, but let's just say it was the end of the night. I brought some bottles home, we'll do a tasting soon.

Well, I think that just about catches up the blog and now I am off for a Pliny.

Later

Sonoma and Napa

Sonoma and Napa are not known for beer, but are known for making some of the best wines in the world. Amy and I have spent the last four days in some of the most beautiful vineyards and tasted lots of great wine. I know this is a beer blog, but you are going to have to read a little about wine for a bit.

We started our journey in Sonoma and made some awesome friends on the way. Friday, I played a round of golf at Oakmont Golf and Country Club, not to be confused with The Oakmont Country Club. The Proshop paired me with a couple of local golfers, which happen to have some great local recommendations. The first recommendation we got was to a great Italian restaurant named Cafe Citti. Cafe Citti was recently showcased on Diners, Drive-in and Dives. All I have to say is that this place is not a dive.

The other golfer paired with me was the Head Groundskeeper at Chateau St. Jean.
Scott invited me and Amy to come visit the winery and hooked us up with some great wine tastings. Not only does Chateau St. Jean have some great wines, but they also have some great gardens. Scott's gardens are so amazing. We walked around the Chateau and soaked up the beautiful gardens that were there.
Well, like I mentioned, we are on vacation and I will post periodically about our trip. I am going to leave you with some photos that we have taken from our trip and I am going to relax. Believe it or not, but wine tasting is somewhat exhausting. Enjoy the photos.



Chateau Montelena, named after Mt. St. Helena



The Chateau Montelena




Vineyards



And Yes, that is a ring on Amy's finger!

California, Here I Come!?! Or, Here I am!

Last couple of days have been really crazy. Work, packing and getting little things done have taken up most of my time.
The JonJam beers are kegged and priming as we speak. There are really two different beers there. My brew-buddy Tony and I used two different types of yeasts, which gave each batch a different taste. We used some yeast from McGuire's and we used an English yeast named Nottingham. In my opinion, the McGuire's yeast gave of more of a dry finish. But that's my opinion. The Nottingham seemed a tad bit more of a sweeter flavor. There is a spice flavor in both, but that is due to the hops that were used.

Next on the menu, California! This is the trip Amy and I have spent the last year planning. We have a full schedule of breweries, wineries and golf lined up, so don't be angry if I only post every now and again. Usually, I will post regularly when I'm on vacation, but we have a full schedule.
Here is a little shot Amy took when we made it into the wine country. When we got into the area, we stopped at a little Brewery named Lagunita's. We Planned on just having a beer and some dinner before we retired for the night and we did just that. After all the traveling, we are beat and looking for some rest.
But Lagunita's was on our way to the hotel and is a great brewery. We get a ton of stuff in Panama City and there wasn't much that I hadn't had before. The tap room itself is very impressive. There were a number of folks there hanging out and more eating dinner. I liked it. I think Panama City Beach could use a place just like it.
There is an inside area and an outside area where live music is a common thing. Not to mention the brewery is right next door, so the selection is great.
The first beer for me was the Wilco Tango Foxtrot Cask Ale. We get this beer in Panama City Beach, but this was different. It was the raw/real thing that had been conditioned in casks for several months and it tasted as creamy as the picture looks. If you are not familiar with cask conditioned ale yet, get familiar. It rocks!
The food menu here was very simple. There was an appetizer section and a sandwich section, but Amy and I both agreed that they have great food. Paired with the right beer, any one of their sandwiches is a great meal.

But as for the title, Amy and I are in California. It is a different place. We figured that out very fast. This is the first stop on out trip and we are already amazed at the people...
I mean...come on...do you really need a homemade sign to tell people this? It is funny and all, but weird. You can't see it in the picture, but someone wrote under the last letters of the sign the initials for Wilco Tango Foxtrot with a question mark.

WTF?

JonJam 2010 Brew

Hello, I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day and remembered those who helped give us our freedom. I personally had to work all weekend and Monday morning, but had time to do a little brewing. I am brewing for JonJam.

A couple of weeks ago, I agreed to donate a couple of kegs to a benefit that is going on in Dothan on July 10. JonJam is a benefit to raise money for disabled individuals that are in need of special equipment. You can read more about Jon and JonJam from the website. Jon is a great dude.

On to the brew! I had a little help from Tony with this one. We did a 10 gallon Pale Ale with no real fancy additions. I thought a Pale Ale would be a nice and easy drinking beer for most folks, so that's what we did.
We still had Keith's grain mill, so we didn't have to screw around with my hand mill. This is such a great tool to have because we milled over 18 pounds of grain in minutes. It took longer to weigh the grain than it did to crush it. This thing ROCKS!

Also, since it was Memorial Day, we threw some stuff on the grill. On the right you may notice
some Conecuh. This is Alabama's greatest sausage and you can't beat it. I like it because it isn't real fatty. This was the hickory smoked style. On the left, those are Satan's Turds. They are Jalapeno Poppers on roids! Jalapenos filled with chili type stuff and cream cheese, then wrapped in bacon and grilled. You can tell those guys flamed up a lot. Tony also threw some Habanero cheddar in there too. They were hot!
After all the cooking took place, we sparged the grains to extract all the sugars from the grain. Looking at the color to the beer, I say it is going to be a Very Pale Ale. There is nearly no color. But it will taste like beer, I hope.
After all the festivities, Tony grabbed a Chili Beer for us. This is a very light Lager bottled with a chili in it. The chili is what's in my glass. This was possibly the worst beer I have ever tasted. It wasn't good and neither was the chili.

Well that just about does it for my Memorial Day. How was yours?