Total Wine Boulder Rare Beer Tasting

 We put together a great event this past Friday night that left me both invigorated and dreading the 2-hour drive back to my hometown afterward.  Thanks to Total Wine in Jacksonville and their resident beer guy, Mr. Steve Rushe - we put together a pretty kick-ass shindig.

First, the lineup.  I was extremely excited that the brewery was willing to send some product that we really don;t get in Florida, but are some of my favorites, as well as a few vintage and one beer that I worked very hard to get, but was worth the wait and here they are:




1.  Buffalo Gold
2.  Singletrack Copper
3.  Planet Porter
4.  Obovoid Oatmeal Stout
5.  Hazed and Infused
6.  Kinda Blue
7.  Mojo Risin' Double IPA
8.  3 Year Verticle of Killer Penguin Barleywine years 2009, 2010, 2011
9.  Growler fill of the VERY LIMITED Bad Moon Risin' Double Black IPA

My good bud from Champion Brands, Kyle, helped me get everything set up along with the help of a few of the staff members from Total Wine.  Add some pies from Mellow Mushroom and we are on our way.

To explain - the Gold, Copper, and Porter are classic brews from before the brewery started their "Looking Glass" line.  Very sessionable but still full of flavor, I'm disappointed that they do not have more legs here in Florida.  I especially love the smokiness of the porter and am hoping to have it in the market here soon on Nitro Draft.  Keep your eyes peeled for it, as it will be in limited release when and if we ever get it.

Woefully, the Obovoid Oatmeal Stout is going to be discoed after this year, so we were very fortunate to be able to share a last tasting before it leaves the market forever, and even more unfortunately becasue it went over with the crowd very well.........  Oh well, always more good stuff behind it.

Moving into the relatively easy to obtain Hazed and Kinda Blue, I was very excited to tell the story of these brews and to inform the crowd of 25 or so how unique Hazed is into itself and how special it becomes when you learn the nuances of the dry-hopped beauty.

The Mojo Risin' is a beer I look forward to every year.  A very easy drinking 10% DIPA, I am always proud to show this one off to a crowd and watch a few non-IPA drinkers say "wow, I didn't think I liked IPA's."  The citrus in this one is massive and the dry-hopping throws a HUGE aroma when it is fresh.  When I see it on draft, I always know it won;t be there for long so I tend to drink this one heavily when it is in season.

On to the Killer Penguin Vertical........  We had a great mix of veteran and newbie craft beer drinkers, so I was sure to warn them of the "love it or hate it" nature of barleywines and the unique flavors they would encounter.  I especially like Killer Penguin because it is ready to drink when it is released.  Not real harsh when fresh, KP brings massive aromas of raisins and caramel that I dig without a huge hop bite on the palate.  We began with the 2009 and moved our way to fresher.  The hops of course dissipated with the older vintages and the overwhelming majority preferred the older to the newer.  I lucked out and my predictions came true.  Made me look good - blind squirrel found a nut.

As expected, half the crowd drank 90% of the vertical.    

The growler of Bad Moon Risin' I sourced from World of Beer in Port Orange.  There were only 3 kegs in the state of Florida, so to get a taste was a treat.  A 12% Black IPA, this beer began its life as a mistake when the brewers threw some black malt on top of a batch of Mojo Risin'.  Needless to say, it went over VERY well.  As it turns out, we will never see Bad Moon Risin' again because there is apparently another brewery in Maryland that carries a brew with the same name, so they issued a cease and desist.  However, we MAY see the beer again.  I'm pushing for the name "Black Betty".