Grumpy Beer Geek

David Keene, owner of Toronado, made an interesting discovery in the basement of the Toronado recently while doing a little clean up. A few assorted kegs close to 20 years old. Some of the original 60 Corny kegs that he bought to transport beer to and from breweries, way back in the beer stone ages, before microbreweries had any sort of distribution. One of those kegs, with a label withered but still readable might have been the first ever keg of Boont Amber.

Hopefully David will be able to find an empty spot on a wall somewhere to display this keg. Any who know what else he might find in that basement?

The greatest bar in the country, hell the greatest bar in the world turns 20 years old this weekend.

Toronado 20th Anniversary Celebration
Come help us celebrate our 20th Anniversary, Saturday
August 11th at the Toronado at 5:00PM.

Some of the Beers:

1. The Toronado 20th Anniversary Beer, brewed by
Russian River Brewing Company, on draught and for sale
in cork finished 750ml bottles.
I approached Vinnie two years ago about making a
beer for the Toronado Anniversary, my guidelines were
wood aged, big, and barnyard. We toyed with the idea of
making six beers and blending them into one, but agreed
this was too time consuming as Vinnie has a lot on his
plate. I was surprised when it came to light that he had
come up with 5, 1 year old, wood aged beers to blend.
Vinnie mixed 5 different blends and we tasted them
together, all were fine beers , blend #1 was so good that
we filled 1 keg with it calling it 50-50. After removing this
quantity of beer from the over all blend ,we decided on a
new blend halfway between blend #4 and blend #5. The
result, Vinnie says, is a 10.43 percent alcohol by volume
beer that is smooth and soft with a faint sourness — a
beer that hides its alcohol well. “It drinks like a 6-percent
beer.” I say thank you Vinnie, for an outstanding beer,
beyond my expectations. Awesome! The bottles will be
available for $20 each at the Toronado and Russian River
Brewing Co only.

2. Anchor Cask Conditioned Porter
Anchor Steam was the first draught beer at the
Toronado,so I think it only fitting to have something from
them for our 20th, Fritz Maytag answered the call, with a
cask conditioned Porter, to be served on handpump.
Thanks to Mark Carpenter for crafting this special product
and to Fritz for taking the time to recognize our
anniversary.

3. Lost Abbey/Pizza Port Cable Car on draught and in
bottles.

Tomme Arthur scoured his wood casks and blended a
beer for our Anniversary, we have 1 keg and a limited
number of bottles. I have not sampled this beer yet, but
have it on the authority of John Hansel, of the Malt
Advocate, that it in his opinion it is the best beer he has
had from Lost Abbey and perhaps in the entire USA. Can’t
wait to try it.

At last count there were 13 other rare beers that brewers
have made or are releasing from their cellars for this
event. I will get a complete list together when possible,

Hope to see you there.
Big Daddy

NBC 17 - News - Beer Festival Turns Durham Bulls Baseball Field Into Nightmarish Field 8000 beer drinkers + baseball field = trashed.

Beer For Dogs! Share a beer with your best friend! — if you really love your dog you’d give it a cat smoothie instead.

Researchers: Hops in Beer May Be Healthy - Yahoo! News — who knew? — no information on if that beer gut is healthy or not. I think I’ll keep mine just to make sure.

“As a longtime cheese aficionado, The Chronicle’s weekly cheese columnist and a nightly wine drinker, I’ve reluctantly concluded that many cheeses give wine, especially dry wine, a rough time. But after several weeks of “research, ” including two marathon tastings, I’m convinced that beer as a partner for cheese rarely stumbles. It takes some knowledge of beer and cheese to engineer the most harmonious marriages, but intolerable mismatches are rare.” — Janet Fletcher from “BEER & CHEESE - Forget wine and cheese parties — the true soul mate for fromage isn’t made from grape juice”

From NationalGeographic.com :: Sam Calagione of the Dogfish Head brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, used a recipe that included rice, honey, and grape and hawthorn fruits to create Midas Touch Golden Elixir. He got the formula from archaeologists who derived it from the residues of pottery jars found in the late Stone Age village of Jiahu in northern China.

“Just when I thought I was doing a good job drinking away my sorrows, Laminar Technologies has helped up my consumption of “Daddy’s Little Helper” with the new Turbo Tap. This beast can fill up a pint of brew in two seconds! The Turbo Tap really is revolutionary; it uses science—which is damn near to magic—to reduce the effects of gravity on beer. Gravity, velocity, forces, molecules, yeah they all have importance, but the real fact is that the Turbo Tap gets you beer, quick. Four times as quick. Now that is efficient alcoholism!”

[via Gizmodo]

“Here’s a HOWTO for converting cans of Guinness to popcicles by freezing them, slicing the bottom of the can, inserting a stick, cutting the top off the can, and sliding the can off. The results look beautiful and delicious.”  Just watch those sharp edges kids.

21st Amendment has brewed up a batch of Pete’s Wicked Ale using the
original 1986 recipe. It’s roasty, malty and yummy. On tap now - get it
while you can.