Bottoms Up

Odd bits…This is truly odd…according to the New York Times…all official vehicles at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August will be pwoered by ethanol made from beer by (gasp) Coors using discarded beer. Proves, I guess, that it’s corn not rice that makes Coors sweet and watery. I always thought Bud and Coors were rice beers and Miller’s wss corn.

Or can you make ethanol from rice as well as corn? Comments anyone. By all means read the whole post

Caught Rodger Davis, the former Drake’s brewer, who now handles Drake’s sales while he gathers his energies and cash investors for his own brewery. Here’s the skinny on the Drake’s beers being tapped tonight beginning at 6 p.m. at the Toronado in San Francisco:

There will be five beers and they’re a bit like one of those Russian souvenir dolls, the kind where there’s a smaller doll inside each doll inside each doll…

• According to Rodger this all began with a Belgian-style double he and Melissa Myers made back in 2006. He split the batch into two fermentations. One became the Beer Especiale, the Belgian-style double, 6.5 percent alcohol by volume, which will be poured tonight, now two years old.
• The second half of the batch was put into Merlot wine barrels and re-fermented with brettanomyces, a wild yeast. More on that in a minute.
• Then, there’s a new Batch 2000, a Belgian-style tripel, 8.5 percent alcohol by volume.
• Then there’s a blend of Batch 2000 and the beer aged in Merlot barrels. The first blend is 50/50. The second blend’s 25 percent Batch 2000 and 75 percent barrel-aged.
• Finally, they’re pouring a straight out of the barrel version.

Onward…Dale’s Pale Ale, almost the first craft beer in cans that I can remember (Pete’s Wicked Ale was first, I think, but never saw those cans) is coming to…Southern California? Huh? It’s true. This comes from Marty Jones of Oskar Blues…

At long last, we’re sending our history-making canned brews to the discerning beer lovers of Southern California.

Cans of Dale’s, Old Chub and Gordon are now appearing on shelves in fine-beer stores across the area. Select bars have these beers on draft, too.

This week some of our crew will be doing promotional events in the San Diego area, starting with a debut bash tomorrow night, 6-18-08, at the incredible Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens. (Stone is carrying our beer there in SoCal.)

Thursday evening we’ll have an Oskar Blues Pint night at The Tap Room in Pacific Beach. Friday evening there will be an Oskar Blues Pint Night at Churchill’s Pub in San Marcos.

On Saturday our beers will be in the Craft Beer Festival at the San Diego County Fair, the event runs from 11am to 8pm.

Why not us Marty?