picked up an Adelberts barrel of love
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this one looks interesting.... how much was it?

aggiemike - don't drink the Black Ops yet if you haven't already. It needs to age a while.

Booked my trip to Santa Rosa today.

Santa Rosa is sweet. Look out for the bums and stray cats.

Drinking Lakewood Brewing's The Temptress.

Nice, jh. When are you heading out there? Doing napa too?

love that on nitro

found out that my co-worker's bro-in-law is the owner/brewer of Prairie.

Sweet. Set up a special shipment of Bomb! for Texag posters.

she said he's currently organizing a road trip through the US where he will go to great breakfast places and do beer pairings.

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Nice, jh. When are you heading out there? Doing napa too?

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I'll be there the second week in April. I have no itinerary yet, but a day in Calistoga / St Helena is most likely in the cards. I think my wife has her heart set on finding good Pinot Noir on this trip, however.

I'm Santa Rosa bound the last weekend in February. Going to San Fran for a conference the following week, so decided to fly up early and spend the weekend up that way. Planning on hitting up RRBC Sunday for lunch. Haven't made any other concrete plans yet though.

As a side note, if any of y'all were in the Corps, Ol Army Ted lives there in Santa Rosa.

Totally unrelated to RR... But Jester King is releasing La Vie en Rose and Ambree at the brewery starting Friday. Too bad I'll have to make another trip out to the brewery...

I really enjoyed Ambree and La Vie had the raspberry of Atrial, but was a completely different beer.

Lots of good Sonoma Coast pinots are out that way, jh. And dry creek valley has great zins. And if course, St Helena and yountville are dining Meccas so you should be ok when you're there. Are you going to try to get in at French Laundry?

/In before take it to the wine thread.

For a non alcohol side trip, head out to Armstrong State Park to see some large redwoods. The drive to the top of the mountains gives some nice views.

jah, yea they were both good. i forgot how much of a solid beer Black Metal is

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/In before take it to the wine thread.

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Beat me to it! But I'm only complaining because I don't know anything about wine. I need to stroll over to the wine cellar thread one day.

I'm heading to Jester King next weekend, looks like my to go tab just went up!

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Lots of good Sonoma Coast pinots are out that way, jh. And dry creek valley has great zins. And if course, St Helena and yountville are dining Meccas so you should be ok when you're there. Are you going to try to get in at French Laundry?

/In before take it to the wine thread.

For a non alcohol side trip, head out to Armstrong State Park to see some large redwoods. The drive to the top of the mountains gives some nice views.

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As much as I'd like to do French Laundry, I'm going to wait a few years. Part of the reason for our trip is to celebrate my wife's 30th, and I'd prefer not to set the bar that high going forward.

Yeah, I hear you there. We had originally planned to wait til I turned 40 but moved that up for obvious reasons.

barrel of love was $15.

i will definitely hold on to the Black Ops, thanks for the advice.

Metal as ****

http://ow.ly/t7isx

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Bonded by mutual devotion to metal, Texas based craft brewery Real Ale Brewing Company will be collaborating with Indiana’s Three Floyds Brewing Co. and Minnesota’s Surly Brewing Co. on an upcoming double black IPA dubbed “Blakkr.”

Set to be released in all three breweries’ territories this spring, Real Ale Brewmaster Erik Ogershok gave us the background on the trinity’s impending brew.

“This has been in the works for years,” Ogershok said, tracing his first introduction to Three Floyds back to the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago in 2010. “I’d heard of Three Floyds. I didn’t know much [about them] at that point because it wasn’t available here [in Texas.] But I had heard about Alpha King, and Dark Lord, obviously, I just knew that I wanted to try their beers.”

So, Ogershok made his way to the Three Floyds booth, and requested to try their full catalog. While there, he spotted a guy hanging out in a metal t-shirt, and that guy ended up being Todd Haug, Head Brewer for Surly. Ogershok, Haug and the Three Floyds crew quickly found common ground.

“We were surprised because at the time, there’s more of us now, but there weren’t a lot of us [in craft beer] who were really into metal, who lived it, who were buying the records, who were going to the shows,” Ogershok said. “There are a lot of people who like metal, but it’s more casual, it wasn’t really casual for us, it’s more like engrained in our lifestyles.”

A stark contrast to the jam band lovin’ hippies craft beer consumers were sometimes pigeonholed as, the group stayed in touch and hung out at annual national beer events like the Craft Brewers Conference and The Great American Beer Festival in the following years.

“The beer [collaboration] thing might have come up around three years ago for the first time,” Ogershok said. “It’s overdue. It can be quite the challenge to get breweries to brew a beer together. [It’s] just that you’re so damn busy. And it’s just the climate of craft brewing right now. Ya know? You’re busy. And, if you’re not, there’s a problem.”

Fast forward to 2014 and brewhouse expansions, production schedules and general fires under the asses of the involved breweries have finally propelled the group to put the planning and brewing of the collaboration beer in motion.

“Coming up with the name was harder than coming up with the recipe,” Ogershok said.

The group went back and forth on metal inspired names before Haug did some digging and eventually discovered Blakkr, an Old Norse word meaning “black” or “dark.”

“We always knew we were going to do some black [style of] beer,” Ogershok said.

Eventually, the group settled on a Black Double IPA and collaborated on a recipe that will feature two massive dry hoppings. The specifics of which, well, they’re still sorta shrouded in darkness, err, uhh, blakkr.

“Let’s just say that Simcoe will be a prominent player in the beer,” Ogershok said.

wpid-publicViewAttachment-1
Blakkr’s label art was designed by Minneapolis based artist and SFX designer Michael Berglund. Berglund first developed a relationship with Surly when he was selected as the label artist for their 2011 release of Darkness Russian Imperial Stout.
For Ogershok, the influence of metal on this brew can’t be underscored enough.

“It’s very important,” he said. “It’s very important in my life, and it’s very important to all of us making the beer. Metal is at the heart of this project, it’s how we all met. Between all of us, it’s a part of who we are, so it’s definitely going to be a part of what goes into the beer. I mean, it’s what got us to this point, we’re not just a bunch of dudes who said “hey let’s make a beer together” we’re a bunch of dudes who like metal and said “hey, let’s make a beer together”.”

Naturally, that fact will influence the brew day tunes.

“We’re always playing a lot of metal at the brewery, and I’m sure when those guys are here we’ll be playing a lot more,” Ogershok said. “I don’t know what we’ll listen to, I’m sure some Emperor will be played.”

The Real Ale, Three Floyds and Surly teams will brew the beer three times, a batch at each of their respective breweries, with Real Ale being the first host January 13.

Real Ale is planning to release the beer during South by Southwest in March, with Three Floyds and Surly likely planning releases in their territories during the same March to April time frame. As for release format, Real Ale’s Blakkr will be available in four packs of 12oz cans, Surly will release in their signature 16oz pounders and Three Floyds will be packaging in bombers.

For each of the breweries, this collaboration will mean having one of their brews available in numerous territories where they do not distribute, a reality perhaps most dichotomous for Real Ale whose regular distribution is consciously confined to the Lone Star state.

“I think it’s cool,” Ogershok said. “You want to show people what we can do down here in Texas, that we’re not just some jerkwater place for brewing, that we’re down here making good beer. Ya know, I definitely think that there was a perception for a long time that we didn’t know what the **** we were doing down here. So, getting our name out, even in markets where we don’t sell beer, I still think it’s good.”

As for all the Texans who will now get a taste of a beer from Three Floyds and Surly on their local shelves, two pretty highly lauded brewers of many a craft brew du jour, Ogershok certainly understands the anticipation, but is ultimately excited just to be collaborating with friends.

“I knew that a lot of people would be excited about that because those beers aren’t available here and those breweries are probably not going to be able to come here for a while,” Ogershok said. “I was excited about it just to be doing a beer with friends. That’s ultimately what drives it, just [wanting] to work with somebody. It just so happens that Surly and Three Floyds have profile, and that doesn’t hurt. I think we’re all excited to be involved in a project with some cool dudes and gals at some good breweries.”

Blakkr will be brewed at each of the collaborating breweries in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for specifics on its release.

-Caroline

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[This message has been edited by La Fours (edited 1/30/2014 11:31a).]

[This message has been edited by La Fours (edited 1/30/2014 11:33a).]

That sounds pretty exciting. Definitely gonna keep an eye out for that in a few months.

Quick run to the liquor store today

Meh.

Nice Jock.

anyone know where I can still find some BBA Temptress around Houston??

CURSE YOU JESTER KING. I was gonna spend a nice, relaxing weekend in Houston and not deal with driving and spending money but NOOOO. You gotta go and release bottles of your stupid delicious beers. Thanks a lot.

First world problems, I suppose.

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CURSE YOU JESTER KING. I was gonna spend a nice, relaxing weekend in Houston and not deal with driving and spending money but NOOOO. You gotta go and release bottles of your stupid delicious beers. Thanks a lot.

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They are so inconsiderate aren't they? I might make a trek over there Friday night to grab a bottle of La Vie... Although, the fact that more bottles will be available in a week or two might keep me home. I'll certainly grab a few Ambree's as well, but I think those will stick around a while. Oh... and while I'm there I might as well grab an Atrial and RU... and maybe a Funk Metal...

Batch 60 is the shiznittlebamsnipsnapsack.

Please report back on St Bretta Winter so I know how much to buy on Saturday.

That is if the weather cooperates. I don't know what you ******* would do facing a storm of 6-8 inches. ZOMG RAID THE GROCERY STORE ITS THE APOCALYPSE.

drinking temptress.

stupid dog ended up taking an emergency trip to the vet, so i'm drinking instead of working out.

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Quick run to the liquor store today

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o251/texaggie2007/97705559-7764-4BEB-83E6-35D0310C0980_zpsoci4vitl.jpg

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Damn, wish I could just head to the liquor store and bring home Pliny

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CURSE YOU JESTER KING. I was gonna spend a nice, relaxing weekend in Houston and not deal with driving and spending money but NOOOO. You gotta go and release bottles of your stupid delicious beers. Thanks a lot.

First world problems, I suppose.

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I might be in the minority, but after sharing a bottle on Sunday, I'm not a huge La Vie en Rose fan.

I liked Vie en Rose, but didn't love it on the level of some of the other JK beers. Thought it was a less impressive version of Atrial. That said.. I still really want a bottle, but trying to talk myself out of driving tomorrow.

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Metal as ****

http://ow.ly/t7isx

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There is a brewery in denver that is run by some metal heads the labels, names etc. are all metal. Even the whole bar.

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Damn, wish I could just head to the liquor store and bring home Pliny

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Don't feel too bad, I only happen to find it once every 4-6 months. I just got lucky today that I happened to be in the area of the store that I've had the most luck finding them at and they had just gotten a shipment in earlier in the day. I think this is the freshest I've gotten. It was bottled on the 6th of this month. Plan on opening it after I get home from work Sat morning. Lookin forward to trying the CS. I wasn't as big a fan of the nightmare as I thought I would be. I was happy to talk my way into getting the bottle of BCBS and was told that the owner of the store had a stash of the barleywine that he might sell so I'm holding out hope on that.

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Metal as ****

http://ow.ly/t7isx

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There is a brewery in denver that is run by some metal heads the labels, names etc. are all metal. Even the whole bar.

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TRVE. I've been there. Well I think I've been there. That night is a little fuzzy.