GABF 2008 is officially sold out!

If your planning on attending the Great American Beer Festival starting Oct. 9th, I hope you've already grabbed your tickets. If not... you may be shit-out-of-luck. For the first time ever GABF has sold out every session a record two-weeks early! Your only options are to win them on local Denver radio stations, and if you don't live there that may make it, well.... I think you get it. If your thinking of getting from a scalper beware. Most online purchases are "print your own" tickets. Each with a specific bar-code to be scanned upon entry. This could lead to very easy counterfeiting. Just an FYI. Sorry to be such a bummer....

Help Make It A Cold Day in Hell

Consumption of liquor, wine and beer is up in way-up in Utah and to accommodate imbibers the states is building bigger and better outlets at a record pace. Two new state stores are among 10 remodeling or building projects along the Wasatch Front and southern Utah, adding 40 percent more retail space for wine, heavy beer and distilled spirits.

While these are great and long overdue, there is still one thing that will be missing from these shiny new facilities. Beer coolers. With all the taxes that are paid, it's still hard to believe that the concept of a simple refrigerator unit per store is beyond the scope of reason. Now I'm aware of the excuses spewed forth from our LDS overlords. They believe a cold beer bought from a liquor store will be so enticing that we'll be chugging 'em down before we can get our heathen asses in our death Yugo's. It's amazing that societies out side of Utah can function without such keen guidance.

And it's not just about cold beer to be consumed sooner than later. The people in charge seem to forget or just plain don't care that beer is a perishable product that is better when fresh. For Christ sake many breweries won't even sell beer to Utah because of this arcane policy.

Well if you really want to do something about it, grab your mouse(your other mouse Doug) and follow this link to to sign an online petition to get refrigeration units in Utah State liquor stores. It's really a no brainer. If you've bought a single beer from a state liquor store in the past 100 years you'll immediately benefit from it.

Credit and thanks goes to Ross Metzger from Tributetobeer.com for getting this rolling. Tell everyone you can think of to get on this and sign today! Cheers!!!

The Fifth Season

One thing that separates Utah from the rest of the world is our lack of seasons. The rest of the world gets the standard four, you know spring, summer etc. But here in the intermountain west, we get seven months of winter, four months of summer and two weeks each for spring and fall.

To help break up the months in between extremes I propose we create a new fifth season. Leann (lionn) would begin right about now, dedicated to the best time of the year for beer. So, now that we've got that bullshit out of the way. I'd like to throw some good seasonal options out there to help celebrate our new season.

Squatters has quite a few on tap now.
Alt and In the Way: a German style Altbier Copper-colored and aged 35 days. Won a gold in the 2008 World Beer Cup competition.

BlackForest Schwarzbier: Dark and not too heavy with a good amount of hops. Another medal winner.

Cheshire Cream Ale: Pale straw color. Low hop bittering and some hop aroma.

Hop Rising: A well-hopped, classic American pale ale.

Wasatch BrewPub is offering,
Hopalicious Pale Ale: A Pale Ale on cask made from wild Utah hops. Limited supply. Only at the Wasatch Brew Pub.

Pumpkin Ale: An unfiltered fall brew, made with real pumpkin and pie spices. This is one of the better Pumpkin beers available in the country.

RedRock has,
Bamberg Rauchbier: An amber-colored smoke ale with a mild beech wood-esque smokiness.

Harvest Ale: An unfiltered hop monster with a great citrus nose and taste.

Desert Edge.
Desert Hell: A Bavarian Helles Bier. A light and slightly malty German lager with spicy hop character, but a bit more subdued and balanced than regular Czech lagers.

Radius: Is a white, golden ale made with ingredients grown within 150 miles (give or take) from Salt Lake City. Available in mid-October.

Hoppers is offering their take on the Altbier. Out of Bounds Alt: Extended conditioning mellows out the ale's fruitiness and produces an exceptionally smooth and delicate brew. A great balance of malt and hops.

Four+(Uinta). Punk'n: spicier and dryer than Wasatch's with cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and allspice.

Roosters. Oktoberfest: Dark copper in color, full-bodied, rich and toasty.

So get your slacker-asses out there and drink-up these seasonals before they're gone. Or you'll be sad lil' beer geeks. Cheers!

Local Beers, Grown Locally

I'm a big fan of supporting local small businesses. I try to spend my money with our local entrepreneurs rather than national chains as often as I can. If your like-minded, consider heading over to the Desert Edge Brewery this October, where Brew master Chris Haas has put together a special beer made from all local ingredients. Radius, will be made with ingredients grown within 150 miles of the Wasatch Front(yeast too???). Chris says he found the malt just over the state line in Idaho and personally picked the hops locally. I'm not sure of what style he's planning on brewing yet, but I'm sure it'll be unique. Radius will be available on draft beginning in mid-October at the brew pub in Salt Lake City. 602 E. 500 South. Cheers!

Prohibition is Back!

This is just another example of why it's a bad idea to have non-drinkers regulating what they don't understand. The state of Utah has inadvertently introduced a de facto ban on flavored malt beverages, beers and ales. On Oct. 1, flavored malt beverages, such as Smirnoff Ice, Jack Daniel's Original Hard Cola and Bacardi Silver, must be off grocery store shelves and moved to state-controlled liquor outlets. But it's unlikely any of the products will be available in state liquor outlets by the Oct. 1 deadline.

"All Anheuser-Busch flavored malt beverages will no longer be available in Utah," said Michael Brennan, president of General Distributing Co., the state's largest beer distributor. "I don't think the public understands that 3.2 flavored beverages will be gone." The new law also targets traditional beers and ales containing flavorings such as apricot or raspberry.

So basically, If you enjoy a lager or ale that is flavored with food extracts made with distilled alcohol. It's unlikely that Utah distributors will continue to carry them. Why? It's problematic for manufacturers to comply with a bevy of regulations from a single state, particularly when the product is part of a national distribution chain and a small niche in the beer industry. It leads one to suspect that many companies may have some reluctance to incur all these additional expenses that Utah regulators are levying on them. If this is what the Utah Legislature and the governor wanted to accomplish, they've done it.

Note: this only applies to beverages that contain extracts. Malt beverages and beers that are made with "real fruit" do not fall under this this new fucked-up regulation. Thank God for small favors...

Obama Beer

Well these photos say it all. And that's good enough for me. And I'm pretty certain they're not one of Cindy McCain's Budweiser's.

2008 Utah Brewers Festival

CLICK HERE FOR FESTIVAL UPDATE It's been a tough couple years for the Utah Brewers Festival. After trying to convert back from the previous Blues and Brew fest and last years bad weather, this years fest met it's demise due to Salt Lake City's new 20% take on ticket sales and concessions. So, organizers have opted to concentrate on an all new '09 beer fest rather than a hurried half-assed beer fest for this year. So mark the dates in your beer calendar for the 2009 Utah Brewers Festival. August 21-23. Yup, three days!

It's like Disney Land... with Beer!

If your planning on attending this years Great American Beer Festival you'd better get on it. Its only a short seven weeks away! It's kinda-like the Disney Land of beer... except for the rides... and the kids. Other than that it's truly a "magical kingdom" for three days. People don their festive head-gear,(aka mouse ears) are greeted by colorful characters(just don't hug 'em) and just have kid-like fun... only with beer.

There will also be many opportunities to learn more about your favorite brews and styles as well as book signings, food & beer pairing seminars featuring an A-list of America's brewers and national celebrity chefs and of course the world's largest and most prestigious beer tasting competition featuring 400+ breweries, sampling nearly 1900 beers.

GABF runs from Oct 9-11 with a total of four public tastings. Get your tickets soon. Or you'll be shit-out-of-luck. Trust me.