Beer of the Week: Stone Cali-Belgique IPA

This weeks beer of the week is Stone Brewing Belgium inspired IPA, Cali-Belgique IPA. Stone’s Cali-Belgique IPA is 6.9% abv and has 77 IBUs. The beer is named for the combination of California style (Cali) and Belgique for the Belgium style (witch is how the French speaking Belgiums pronounce it). This beer was first released in late 2008 and is a limited release 22oz bottle. Stone discribes this beer as a California IPA that grew up in Belgium. The beer pours a golden yellow color with a nice thick one inch head. The aroma of this beer is dominated by a citrus hop aroma. The beer is more carbonated then the normal IPA but it is more in line with the Belgium style. The first flavor that hits your mouth is a bitter pine hop flavor followed by that distinct hearty Belgium yeast flavor. The beer finishes with that same hop flavor that you started with. This is an amazing example of this new emerging style coming from southern California. Green Flash Brewing also does a great version of a California IPA with a Belgium yeast strain called Le Freak. Th Stone Cali-Belgique IPA  can be found at your better beer stores from $5-$6.

Breweries at Boonvile Beer Fest

Here is a list of breweries that are going to be at the 13 Annual Boonvile Beer Fest tomorrow May 2nd. This is not every brewery that will attend just the ones that were confirmed when the latest Celebrator magazine was published.

Alpine Brewing Co – 21st Amendment – Anacapa Brewing Co – Angel City Brewing Co – Backstreet Brewery – Ballast Point Brewing Co – Baron Brewing Co – Beach Chalet Brewery – Bear Republic Brewing Co – Beer Valley – Black Diamond Brewing – Blu Frog Gog and Grill – Buckbean Brewing Co – Buffalo Bills Brewing Co – Cucapa Brewing Co – Deschutes Brewery – Double Mountain Brewing Co – Drake’s Brewing – Eel River – Eire brewing C0 – E.J. Phair Brewing Co – El Toro Brewing Co – Elysian Brewing Co – Firestone Walker Brwing Co – Fox barrel Cider Co – Gordon Biersch – Fifty-Fifty Brewing – Half Moon Bay Brewing Co – Hoppy Brewing Co – Iron Springs Pub and Brewery – Kona Brewing Co – Lagunitas Brewing Co – Lost Cost Brewery – Mad River Brewing Co – Marin Brewing Co – Mate Veza brewing Co – Mendocino Brewing Co – Moonlight Brewing Co – Moylan’s brewing Co – Mt. Shasta Brewing Co. – Mt. Tallac brewery – New Belgium Brewing Co – Ninkasi Brewing Co – North Cost Brewing Co – Oskar Blues Brewing Co – River City Brewing Co – Redhook Ale Brewery – Rockbottom Brewery – Rubicon Brewing Co – Russian River Brewing Co – Ruth Mcgowan’s Brewpub – Santa Cruz Ale Works – Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing – Seabright Brewery – Sierra Nevada – Six Rivers Brewery – Speakeasy Ales and Lagers – Stone Brewing Co – Stumptown – Suderk Privarbrauei Hubsch – Third Street Ale Works – Triple Rock Ale Works – Trumer Brauerei – Tustin Brewing Co – Two Rivers Cider Co – Ukiah Brewing Co – Widmer Brewing Co

13th Annual Legendary Boonville Beer Fest

This Saturday May 2 is one of the great beer festivals in northern California. It is the 13th annual Anderson Valley beer fest held at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds. Tickets are $40 ahead of time, $50 at the gate and $5 for the designated driver. The ticket includes all of your beer once inside. I have received word today that there will 78 breweries attending this event. I am working on getting a more detailed list in the next two days. The gates will open at 12:45 and the the taps will be open at 1pm and will be flowing until 5pm. For those of you that want there will be camping available on the fairgrounds Friday and Saturday nights for $12 a night.

If you plan on making up to this festival this weekend I would suggest that the first thing you do is go and pick up Anderson Valley Brewing’s 7 Year Port Barrel Stout that will be on sale for one day only. If you have not heard of this beer they took their Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout and aged it in a California port barrel for over 8 years. This beer is limited to only 150 bottles (750 ml) and only two per customer  so they will go fast.

If you still would like to purchase tickets ahead of time the on-line sales are over but you can still pick them up and some of your favorite local beer spots. Here is a list of places that still had tickets as of Thursday afternoon:

• 21st Amendment (San Francisco)
• All That Good Stuff (Boonville)
• Bear Republic Brewing Co. (Healdsburg)
• Bilcos Billiards (Napa)
• Eel River Brewing (Fortuna
• Harvest Market (Fort Bragg)
• Mad River Brewing (Blue Lake)
• Rubicon Brewing (Sacramento)
• Ruth McGowans Brew Pub (Cloverdale)
• Seabright Brewing (Santa Cruz)

For more information please visit Anderson Valley Brewing Company website.

New Beer “Tax” Proposal

A friend of mine sent me a link to an article in the San Jose Mercury News today about a proposed increase to the tax on alcohol in the Sate of California. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, has proposed that a ten cent per drink “fee” not tax be added to the sale of beer, wine and spirits in the state. He is calling it a fee and not a tax because it will only need a majority vote to pass not a super majority that a tax would need. He is doing this because he proposed a similar bill last year and it failed miserably. This fee does not sound like a lot at first but when you look at the numbers a little bit closer it is a staggering increase to the fee that is in place now. This fee would raise the now 20 cents a gallon fee to a staggering $1.27 witch is a more than 500% increase and the increase is even higher on wine which comes in at a over1200% increase. This fee when based down to the consumer means roughly a 75 cents per six pack increase at the cash register. Jim Beall says that this bill is going to help the people of the state by funding alcohol related programs in the state. But what he does not bother to bring up is what effect this is going to have on both the wine and beer industries which employ hundreds of thousands of people in the state. We need to stand up and fight to stop this bill from being passed.

Here is the link to the full article.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12186881?source=email