Beer Group Meetups

Meetup.com is a website that brings like minded individuals together for a common interest. Right now in South Florida we have three active beer meetup groups. Some move from place to place and some are at one location. To get more info and to join each group you can just click on the title and it will take you to that meetup group.

South Florida Beer Drinkers Meetup
The South Florida Beer Drinkers Meetup has been around for a while now and is run by Chris who works for Fresh Beer Distribution. This gives Chris a chance to get the meet up group into different venues around the South Florida area(though it has mostly been in Miami). The meetups so far have been lots of fun. The meetup has been doing a BJCP(Beer Judge Certification Program) Style Guideline tasting every other Wednesday at Abraxas on South Beach. The next less informal meetup is going to be on Wednesday, July 1st at 7pm at Town Kitchen and Bar in South Miami. Join the meet up to get all the upcoming information on the them.

The Boca Beer Lovers Meetup
The Boca Beer Lovers Meetup is another meetup in the Boca/Palm Beach/Broward area. Jonathan from Case and Keg brought this meetup together. They usually meet once a month at the Case and Keg in Boca. Their next regular monthly meetup will be on Tuesday, July 21st. Jonathan is also getting together a roadtrip for Saturday, July 25th. They are renting a bus and hitting up some great spots north of Boca. You can see more info on the road trip here. Join the meetup group and stay up to date on all of their events.

Lola's "Beer Geeks Anonymous" Meetup
Lola's "Beer Geeks Anonymous" Meetup is a meetup at Lola's on Harrison in Hollywood. It is a weekly meetup that features five all you drink samples of craft beers and all you can eat chicken wings and nachos for $18 and $3 bottles on Wednesdays. The meetup also has various other beer dinner events, bar crawls and other activities at Lola's and around Hollywood. Join the group to get all the info on upcoming events.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

I know this is a beer blog and I promised myself I wouldn't post anything on here that didn't have to do with beer but I had to get this out. Today is quite a sad day for me. Michael Jackson had a big impact on my life. Anyone that know me personally knows that my whole life has revolved around music. Thriller was the first album and tape that I ever owned. I have fond memories of listening to Thriller on my front porch in Medford, MA. I played that tape until it wore out. I remember watching the Thriller video when it premiered and being scared shitless as a little kid and having nightmares about it but also knowing it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I don't know one person that dislikes Michael Jackson's music. My love of music started with Michael Jackson. I don't think my life would have gone the way it has or taken me to the places I've been without him. Michael, I thank you for making great music that had such an impact on my life. I drink this Founders Double Trouble right now in your honor. Everyone should raise a glass for him tonight. You will be missed.

South Florida Road Trip- Suggestions?

I'm looking to take little road trip out of Miami and hit up some other beer spots around South Florida in Broward and Palm Counties. I know a few spots to hit but I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions of places I should for sure check out. I'm looking for bars, breweries, beer stores or anything you think people should know about in South Florida. I think this trip will be happening on Friday so if anyone would want to meet up somewhere along the way let me know. Always like to meet people who are into beer. Leave your suggestions in the comments or you can also hit me up on Twitter and Facebook.

Review: Samuel Adams Black Lager

Over the last few weeks I've been going through my fridge and finally been getting to try some beers I had been sitting on for a little bit. I got this one in a variety pack a couple months ago and after drinking it wished I had had it sooner. Once I cracked open the bottle and poured it into my Sam Adams glass it looked and acted just like I had thought it would. It poured black but not as thick as a stout. You could still get some slight glimpses of light through it. The head was a tan brown color that stayed a good two fingers high. The head lasted til the end leaving a good amount of lacing on the glass. It immediately gave off aromas of coffee, sweet malt and a very slight hops. The mouth feel is most what I wasn't expecting. It had more carbonation than I was expecting it to have. It had about the mouth feel of a watery stout with more carbonation. The tastes where just what you were expecting from the smell. A coffee taste with some chocolate and a very slight hoppiness to it. It finished very smooth with a slight hop finish that dissipates quickly leaving you wanting another sip. Overall a very enjoyable beer that I would probably suggest to someone who doesn't enjoy stout's because of them being too heavy. Stout Light.

The Abbey Brewing Co. 14th Anniversary Celebration

On Sunday, June 28th The Abbey Brewing Co. will be celebrating it's 14th year of business and what is better to celebrate with than beer. From 1pm till 1am you will be able to drink all you want of select drafts for only $25. If you don't know The Abbey this would be the perfect time to come check it out. The Abbey has been one of the longest supporters of craft beer in South Florida. They brew some great beers of their own and also have plenty of other fine beers on tap and in bottles. I went by today and they even have some special 14th anniversary shirts that they had printed up for the event so be sure to pick up one of those as well and spread the word about one of the best bars in South Florida(if not all of Florida). Come out and help them celebrate another great year of business and hopefully many more as well.

Sunday, June 28th
The Abbey Brewing Co.
1115 16TH Street
Miami Beach, Florida 33139
1pm-1am
$25 All you can drink of select drafts

Thanks New Times

Just wanted to thank Jacob Katel from the Miami New Times for mentioning my little blog in the Short Order section online. It's always a great read so be sure to check it out and tell them South Florida Beer Blog sent you.

Savor weekend- Washington D.C./North Carolina

The last few weeks have been kind of crazy so it took me a bit to get this post up. The weekend of May 30th was the greatly anticipated Savor Craft Beer and Food Festival in Washington, D.C., at The National Building Museum. I had purchased tickets to the festival for the best man at my wedding, Alex, as a present for being in the wedding. I didn't want him to have to go by himself so I thought I would be nice and buy myself a ticket as well. After the weekend I had before in New England I wasn't sure I would be able to top it with this but I think it did.

THURSDAY

I flew into Charlotte on Thursday afternoon and was greated by this as soon as I walked off the plane-

I knew that this was going to set the tone for the weekend. I was quickly scooped up by Alex and we headed to the warehouse of the beer distributor he works for to pick up some samples for the Belgian beer tasting he was holding that night. While we were there I was also able to get a few North Carolina treat that we don't have available in FL. I was able to pick up some stuff from French Broad, Thirsty Dog, Fort Collins and a ton of other stuff. After that we headed over to Brixx Pizza to have some lunch and enjoy New Belgium's Fat Tire which I haven't had in quite a while. It was nice to see a place like Brixx Pizza have such a great selection of beers.


After enjoying the Fat Tire and getting to have one of my favorite root beers, Thomas Kempner, on tap we went to Alex's house to get ready for the tasting. I grabbed a few beers that I had brought from home out of my bag and Alex grabbed a few beers he had been saving and we headed on over to Vitner Wine Market. Jeremy at Vitner is a homebrewer and is quite knowledgeable about all the beers they carry. At Vitner you can either buy the beer or wine and take it home or for a small corkage fee you can enjoy it at the market. They have a selection of cheese and other accompaniments to enjoy in the market with your drink. About 15 people showed up for the tasting. The tasting included St. Bernardus Blanche, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Abbaye des Rocs Brune, Val Dieu Triple and Bezelbuth. All of these are available in FL and if you haven't had them yet they are some of best beers in the world. After we had finished with the tasting we stuck around and had a few beers that we had brought along. We had a great home brew that Jeremy had made. If you ever make it to Vitner and Jeremy is working ask if he has any homebrews on hand you won't be dissapointed. We followed that up with what ended up being the highlight of the evening if not the whole weeknd, Allagash's Gargamel.


This is a limited release of only 500 bottles. I am lucky enough that my mom works next door to the brewery and was able to get me some. This is an amazingly balanced sour ale. The rasberry is not too sour and the vanilla adds a nice sweetness. The thing that made this for me was the graham cracker finish. If I had any beer to introduce people to sour ales with this would be the one. After we finished up at Vitner we headed over to Brixx Pizza again for some more beers with the highlight being the Alesmith Speedway Stout. This is one of the top stouts in the world and for good reason. Great coffee aroma and nice roasted coffee and dark chocolatey taste. We headed home after that to get a quick night sleep before heading off to D.C. in the morning.

FRIDAY

Getting up at 5:30am after the night we had the night before was a bit rough but we did it. We grabbed some Starbucks and hit the road. We got about an hour into the drive when we realized we needed some gas. Unlike South Florida their aren't gas stations off of every exit. We learned that very quickly. As we finally found one off an exit the car finally gave up and ran out of gas right at the entrance to the off ramp. Once we bought a $12 gallon container to get some gas we quickly were back on the road again. We finally rolled into the DC area around 2pm and headed over to the Dogfish Head Alehouse in Fall Church, VA just on the edge of DC. I have always been impressed with Dogfish Head's beer and was greatly looking forward to trying some of the beers that I love on tap finally.


We were waited on by the bartender, Chad, who got us started with our first beer that we had been looking forward to the, 75 Minute IPA. This unfortunately was not the 75 Minute that had been brewed as a special batch but was just a mixture of the 60 Minute IPA and the 90 Minute IPA. It was still really good and even though it wasn't what we really wanted it was still a great beer. Alex and I both order some lunch. I had the Slow Roasted Roast Beef sandwich and Alex had the special Chicken Salad sandwich. Both of our meals were amazing! This was one of the best roast beef sandwiches I've ever had. Once we finished up the meal we decided to split a 120 Minute IPA. This is dangerously good on tap. Very little alcohol taste for a beer that is 18%ABV. We had decided that we were just going to take it easy and finish things off with the 120 Minute but then we started talking with the bartender Chad. Chad asked if their were any other beers that we hadn't had on tap before. He then preceded to bring us over samples of all of them. We were able to try Midas Touch, Black and Blue, Palo Santo and Immort Ale. The only one that I thought was better in the bottle was the Midas Touch but it was still very good. We finally rolled out of the Alehouse and headed toward the hotel. Once at the hotel we decided to take a quick nap and rest up for the nights activities.


My friend John had been taking part in the Beer Advocate pubcrawl for most of the day and they were ending at the sold out Lupulin Reunulin at R.F.D. bar in downtown Washington D.C. Alex and I headed down to meet up with John at R.F.D. and just enjoy the beer selection at the bar. When we got there John hurried us into the the back room to the Lupulin. We were waiting for people to ask us to leave but all that happen was that we were given beers and told to enjoy. This was a great event. Not only did we get to have great beers but they were also presented by the brewers. We got to try the following beers:

Dogfish Head- Hoppy Onion(special experimental beer)
Lost Abbey- Carnevale
Avery- Mahahraja
Allagash- Hugh Malone
Vintage 50- Head Knocker
Port Brewing- 3rd Anniversary Pale
Russian River- Consecration
Dogfish Head- Palo Santo Marron
Avery- Mephistopheles
Vintage 50- Wee Heavy 2002


It was great to hear all these brewers talking about their beers and to see how they all had a great affinity for each other and the beers they create. It was also very cool to see other brewers that were in town for Savor there supporting each other. Greg Koch from Stone, and Ken and Brian Grossman from Sierra Nevada were in attendance and from time to time would get on the mic to give their thoughts on what the other brewers were talking about. One of the highlights was getting to hear Ken Grossman talk about starting Sierra Nevada and the inspiration he got from Anchor Brewing. The event was the perfect place to actually get to talk to the brewers in a relaxed atmosphere. The audience got to ask questions as well which ranged from humorous(Asking about the brewers martial status) to very business(how they plan to keep make their products with great ingredients while keeping the price reasonable). The whole event was very informative and a great time. Once we had finished up the event Alex and I headed out to check out the White House at night. I must tell you this is the way to see Washington. It is nice and cool outside and you don't have to deal with any crowds. After we walked around for a bit we headed back to the hotel for a good night sleep for the main event of Savor the next day.

SATURDAY

We started the day off rather late by heading over to Chevy Chase Wine and Spirits. We were told this was the place to check out to pick up some individual bottles of stuff. They had some great finds that I haven't been able to get in Florida. I picked up some stuff from Troeg, Founders, Brew Dog and River Horse.


After Alex and I had finished raiding Chevy Chase we grabbed some lunch before we started our afternoon of checking out our nations capital in the daylight. It has been probably 10 years since the last time I had checked out the sites in D.C. It is still as impressive as the first time I saw it. You forget about all this countries great history until your are actually standing infront of the Declaration Of Independance and the Bill Of Rights. Once we had finished seeing the sites we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the main event of the evening, the Savor Craft Beer and Food festival. We jumped on the metro and headed to the National Building Museum for what was sure to be an eventful night.


After a short wait in line we grabbed our tasting glasses and programs and headed out on to the floor. We headed straight for the Firestone Walker table to checkout their beers. We tried both the Union Jack IPA and the Double Barrel Ale. Both were great and paired well with the Mini Sirloin Sliders. The beer selection on the floor was beyond belief. The food pairings for the most part were great as well. The oyster bar had some of the best oysters I've ever had. Huge, fresh and succulent. Their were a lot of beers that had a ton of buzz around them, that I had been looking forward to having, that didn't quite live up to the hype. I was pleasantly surprise by a bunch of beers that I had never heard much about. The highlights of the evening were:
-Arcadia Cocoa-Loco Triple Chocolate Milk Stout- one of the the best milk stouts I've ever had but unfortunately the brewery has no plans to distribute to Florida
-Blackfoot River Single Malt IPA- This beer has the great smokiness from the single malt with that nice warmth you get from a good single malt scotch. This is different then just being stored in scotch barrels.
-The Bruery's Saison Rue- A great representation of a well rounded saison
-Captain Lawrence Xtra Gold American Triple- One of the smoothest triples I've ever had. The 10% alcohol is untraceable.
-Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale- With all of the extreme beers available at Savor this was a great change. This is a beer I could drink every day... if it was just available in Florida.
-Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold- This was another nice change for the palete. A nice dry crisp lager. Another beer that would be a good session beer.
-The Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme- Angel Share was the big hype of Savor but I enjoyed this much more. This was a nice barrel aged sour ale.
-Moon River Rosemary Swamp Fox IPA- This was the biggest surprise of Savor. I never thought a beer made with rosemary would work this well. The rosemary worked well with the hops in the IPA. This would be great paired with a nice roast.

It was great to be able to have the chance to try all of these beers that you have been hearing about for so long. Some held up to the hype and others were slightly disappointing. Over all the people I got to speak with and beer and food were all a great combination. No other beer festival I've ever been to even remotely compares to this. This is a group of people who truely care about the beer and not just getting drunk. I would give Savor two big thumbs up and would recommend it to anyone else that loves good craft beer to take the trek up to Washington D.C. for it.

The whole weekend was a ton of fun. I wanted to thank Alex for making it a great weekend and to John for helping to get us into Lupulin. Nothing better then enjoying good beers with good friends.

Beer Events Calendar

I have now added a Beer Events Calendar at the bottom of the page. I will be trying to update the calendar as frequently as possible with any new events I hear of. If you know of any going on around South Florida be sure to get in touch with me and let me know and I will add them to the calendar.

New Beers for June

Here are the new beers that should be available this June in FL. Make sure to ask your local stores to order it if they don't have it.

-Stone 13th Anniversary
-Dogfish Head Festina Peche
-Full Sail Grandsun of Spot
-Highland Cattail Peak
-Ommegang Ommegeddon
-Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale
-Terrapin Gamma Ray
-Weyerbacher Zotten
-North Coast Barrel-Aged Rasputin XII
-Full Sail Limited LTD 03 Lager
-Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale
-Bells Batch 9000
-Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu
-Allagash Interlude
-Sierra Nevada Kellerweis
-Weyerbacher Riserva
-Dogfish Head Sahtea

If you have seen any of these yet please leave a comment and let others know where they can find them.

Help to stop the raising of taxes on beer

This week the US Senate is considering a proposal that could raise the federal excise tax on beer as a way to offset the cost of health care reform. This could raise the tax on 4.5%ABV beers up to triple what they are now and beers with higher ABV rates up even more. Since a lot of craft brewers make beers that are over 4.5%ABV, this would hurt a lot of them and us, in that they would either A) have to raise their prices which means more expensive beer for us, B) they wouldn't be able to afford to make the great craft beers that they do now or C) would hurt the amount of money they are making now thus, hurting jobs at the brewery. I don't think we want any of these things to happen. Florida Senator, Bill Nelson, is on the Senate Finance Committee and is one of the people introducing this proposal. We need to let Senator Nelson know that this proposal is not going to help the American people but will hurt small businesses and their employees. You can contact Senator Bill Nelson by either calling his office at (202) 224-5274 or by emailing him here. Though you won't actually get to talk to Senator Nelson, they do log all calls and emails. His staffers report what he has gotten the most calls about and are there to focus largely on just that. The more calls and emails the better. When you call or email make sure to touch on these points:

ISSUES OF IMPORTANCE TO SMALL BREWERS - EXCISE TAXES

Small brewers are small Main street businesses, typically employing 10 to 50 employees.

• Small brewers represent only 4% of the entire U.S. beer market by volume, with 95% of them being very small businesses (producing 15,000 barrels or less per year).

We strongly oppose proposals to increase the excise tax on beer.

• Proposals to increase and equalize the tax among all types of alcohol will tax small brewers at the highest rates because their specialty, gourmet and innovative beers typically have higher alcohol contents.
• Brewers already pay a disproportionately higher share of taxes compared with other products – federal, state and local taxes represent over 40% of the retail price for beer while the same taxes equal nearly 24% of the price for all other purchases.

Higher taxes will worsen the economic recession – resulting in less competitive products, reduced sales and revenues, lost jobs and, for some small brewers, business closures.

• $1 per case excise tax increase will typically cost the consumer at least $1.69 due to successive mark-ups as the case moves from brewer to wholesaler to retailer.
• Many small brewers are already struggling to deal with the consequences of the 2008 spike in ingredient and operational costs.

Club Yard House?

When I lived up in Gainesville their was a Publix near the UF campus that whenever I went I swear people were dressed up like they were going out to a club so we would always call it Club Publix. Thus when I went to the Yard House in Coral Gables Thursday night I was greeted by a line at the door with a door man letting people in. People were dressed like they were going to a nightclub not to a restaurant. It was great to see the Yard House doing so well so shortly after it had opened but when you want to just go to get a good beer and not have to stand in a line or be crammed in with a bunch of people it looks like the Yard House isn't the place to go on a Thursday night. I will have to just hit up the Yard House earlier in the day. I hope that the people that are going are enjoying the great beer selection and will help get other bars and stores in the area to carry these beers.