Hobgoblin and the World of Beer in Viera

The Goblin has officially hit the east coast of Central Florida!!!  The approach of Halloween allows us for one month to get a sighting on the elusive and clever, yet friendly English Ale - Hobgoblin.

When the Renegades began putting together these little events to highlight the delicious Goblin and offered up  some really cool mugs to go with them, we had no idea what the demand would be, or that it would be so high!  Our idea was to get some Hobgoblin mugs out to a few bars and get some Goblin into the mugs and into the hands of consumers.  Not a lofty goal, but definitely something to build on, right?


As it turns out, the demand for the Goblin and the support mugs has been more tremendous than any of us expected and we have already run short on mugs.  In fact, every event that we have done with the Goblin has resulted in the mugs lasting no longer than 90 minutes and the Goblin being poured out so fast that the bartenders have to line up to get it poured.  The bars have even had to change the rules to allow for refills at a discount.  This has worked out extraordinarily well!

Renegade Rip was at this event at the World of Beer in Viera and had a great time.  The event itself began at 4:00 and (as earlier stated) the mugs did not last until the sun was down.

Luckily, the World of Beer staff was also carrying some of the sister components of the Hobgoblin family, Scarecow Organic Ale and Wychcraft.  The Scarecrow is in limited availability on draft here in Florida (I believe only 5 kegs came to the state) and its Organic stature makes it a beer that everyone wants to try and invariably enjoys.  Wychcraft was in bottle form.  The Wychcraft is a biscuit-y blonde sporting Fuggles and Styrian Golding hops to give it that "obviously English" character.

Scarecrow, himself on draft at this time, is a citrus-y Golden made with organic barley malt and hops.  Rarely seen in the United States on draft, it is very exciting to see the Scarecrow here in the states.


Between the three of these English brews, the night seemed to belong to England and her under-appreciated malted wonders.  It's great to see these brews gaining presence and getting their names out there.  I myself, am especially hopeful that I will get to try some Scarecrow on draft before it is gone.

Looks like Renegade Rip gets all the fun and I'm left having to write about his Adventures with the Renegade Reps.  But as I sit and pour myself a pint of Monty Python's Holy Ale, I do not feel so bad after all.  Cheers!

World of Beer Coconut Creek Pirate Event

Raising money for a good cause always makes the event a little better.  Everyone seems a little happier and the buzz you get seems a little sweeter.  Or maybe it's just me.

Either way, the event that Miss Alex of World of Beer in Coconut Creek invited us to turned out even better than we had imagined.

The event itself was to celebrate "Talk Like a Pirate Day" and included Anchor Brewing and Shipyard Brewing.  We don't have any "nautical" beers in our portfolio, so we were there in spirit alone.  BUT, we were invited to come to raise money for the Animal Rescue Konsortium (ARK) and we could not turn the opportunity down.

So we get to the World of Beer and set up our raffle table and are told that the Shipyard folks had made a giant pirate stand that you can take a picture with and they were going to charge $2 for it and donate all of the funds to the animal rescue.  Now THIS is community.  I dig it and I will forever give Shipyard my blessings for being so kind.

In the midst of all of the raffling, we had a band set up that was awesome.  I wish I had gotten their names because they were a great band and they covered House of the Rising Sun, which will always be a measuring stick of coolness for me.

The staff was awesome and we brought in some samples for them to try.  Rince Cochon of course (the next big Belgian beer in America by my prediction) and Brunehaut Gluten Free Belgian (the unquestionable BEST gluten free beer in the world).  They loved both and agreed to carry them both moving forward.  Soooooo, make sure you stop in to try some Cochon or Brunehaut if you don't have the constitution.

Needless to say, it was a great night and we were able to raise $186 for ARK and make many, many people happy in the process.  Cheers!

A Cask of Mojo is a Party

Renegade Rip set up our first firkin of Mojo IPA event at the World of Beer - UCF this past week.  I'm so excited to be finally able to get our variety of casks going out to our various suppliers and being filled with delicious goodness.  As fortune would have it, this cask was also flanked by draft of Sweaty Betty, Hazed & Infused, Mojo, Hoopla, Hoopla on nitro, and Planet Porter.

If you are not yet initiated into the idea of a firkin - it is basically a vessel (think of a keg) sitting around 10.5 gallons that you put a live beer into and pour it directly out of the keg. As opposed to a keg that uses CO2 or Nitrogen Mix to pushthe beer out, it is simply the act of nature that pours this one.  The downside is that you have to drink it pretty much within a few days or it goes bad.  The good news is that you get the freshest version of the beer that you can get with the added benefit of a fairly low carbonation level that creates a completely different experience than if you had the beer of the tap.

If you are not yet initiated into Mojo IPA from Boulder Brewing - well you are just passing up an amazing experience.  The brewery describes Mojo as such:

Mo-Jo: 1: A magic spell or charm; magical power; 2. Herbaceous ale that summons hop attacks. 

Pale in color but packed with flavor, MoJo reflects the perfect balance of hop bitterness and malt character. The unique Amarillo hop adds a slight citrus flavor to an ultra-crisp dry finish.

Ratebeer. com rates the beer at 95 out of 100 and at 7.2%, it packs a delicious, citrusy punch.  

Mojo was the fourth beer in Boulder Brewing's Looking Glass Series, which was begun by the legendary Hazed & Infused Dry Hopped Ale.
 
But the beer means so much more to me than just hops and alcohol. There is something about this beer that makes me extra proud to represent the brewery.  It is uncompromising but at the same time mellow.  A 7.2% single IPA is pretty heady, but this one maintains an easy drinking nature.  For someone who does not like to have the enamel burned off their teeth (aka those like me), this beer is for them.  

So the event commenced and followed with a great crowd who, according to Renegade Rip, was completely enamored with the Sweaty Betty Heffeweizen.  No shocker to me as this is a shamefully under-appreciated beer that is just waiting for its day in Florida to bust out.  I'm looking forward to the day when it is huge and I can cross my arms like Lebron James and say "I told ya so."  

Keep your eyes peeled for more firkins popping up from Boulder Brewing, Lazy Magnolia, and the such.  We have got them getting out and about and they are an instant hit.  Cheers!

St. Peters Ale Night at World of Beer in Carrollwood

First, I'd like to thank Mr. Tyler Sankey for hosting us for our first St. Peters Event.  I love this brand and feel it is very under-appreciated in this ever-crowded beer market we are seeing in the state of Florida.  The brew itself is great, the packaging is awesome, and it is a very rounded brand.  I'm very excited to get the chance to help them grow in Florida.

A little about the brewery.  As always, I feel it can be best described by the folks themselves, so here is a little blurb from their website describing who they are:


"The St. Peter’s Brewery company is based at St. Peter, South Elmham, near Bungay in Suffolk. The brewery itself was built in 1996 is housed in an attractive range of traditional former agricultural buildings adjacent to St. Peter’s Hall.



Siting the brewery at St. Peter’s was ideal because of the excellent water quality from our own deep bore-hole. Locally malted barley is used, together with Kentish hops to produce a range of classical English cask-conditioned ales. In addition the company produces a range of superb bottled beers.


We brew 'traditional' beers - bitters, mild etc. - as well as some more unusual beers such as honey porter and fruit beer. (We are replicating what was common practice up to the Nineteenth Century to add fruits and honey to beers to create special seasonal brews.)

Thus blackcurrant and gooseberry beers would be brewed when soft fruits were readily available while at Christmas-time dried fruits, spices and orange peel would be added to ceate a special Christmas Ale.



At St. Peter’s we aim to carry on traditional brewing practices but hope always to have something new and exciting for you to try."




As you can see, this is the type of brewery that you like to imagine in your head when you're pouring a delicious glass of brew and enjoying with friends and family.  

So despite the fact that St. Peters is not the "next new thing," Mr. Tyler asked us to set up something a little different and we got this great event going.

The staff embraced the brand right away and I am very thankful to the folks at World of Beer for carrying the Golden Ale, the IPA, the Old Style Porter, and the Cream Stout.  Tyler also snagged a keg for the event,  and I was able to have St. Peters on draft for the first time!  Additionally, they had traditional English pints to serve the draft in.  This was great!  I was even able to meet one of their most loyal customers who dedicated himself to having the entire line of St. Peters while he was there and I got a great shot of him sitting in front of the empties of these interesting little medicine bottles.  Diggit!

As we were hanging, we also had some of our new brews, Rince Cochon (Cheers Big Ears!) and 3 Monts to sample out and get the folks at WOB to try out.  Rip and I got to hang with Tyler and his brother, enjoy some St. Peters and share around the two that we are also very happy to get out in the market.  This was a great night.  Cheers!

World of Beer - Westchase ARK Event

We had an opportunity to raise some money for the animal rescue at this event, and a huge thanks to Nicole and the other folks at WOB for helping us make this happen.  This is the happiest of situations for me in this business.  I love selling beer and I love making people happy.  But what I really love is to round all of this out with helping animals.  It's warming to have large and diverse groups of people come together, make the plans to help a good cause, and lots of people show up to support it.

Also, the folks at WOB agreed to donate $1 to ARK for every pint of Boulder Beer sold!  Again, a HUGE thanks to the folks at World of Beer.

Of course, this is a beer event and I was excited as all get-out to try the Nitro Flashback for the first time.  Boulder makes Flashback year-round, but this is a special occasion that they charge it with Nitro and I have yet to have had it.


Flashback is a dry hopped brown ale at just under 7% alcohol that has 5 additions of Cascade hops.  Massive citrus on this one and the balance created with the chocolate malt make for a very complex brew.  The nitrogen adds such a creamy characteristic to this beer and it also moderates some of the hops a tad.  The nitro is a beer that could do well as a year-round offering.

It began pouring rain, of course, at about 5:00 and the forecast showed no sign of reprieve.  This really sucked because the folks from ARK traveled all the way from DeLand for this event and I wanted it to be as successful as possible for the doggies.  They set up at the front of the building and created a nice showing as we were also auctioning off our limited release Sweaty Betty and Hazed & Infused posters.  This meant we were going to be taking donations at the door, WOB was making a very generous donation, and we were auctioning posters so this event was bound to be a success.

I met up with Beth from JJ Taylor and Nicole from World of Beer and we started getting some drink on.  I was also able to meet some of the doggies in the bunch including a beautiful and well-behave Pit Bull puppy that belonged to one of the bartenders.  It's always great to see the love that people have with their dogs, and especially to see them bring a Pit Bull out and show the world that they are not vicious killers.  


For Boulder drafts, they had Kinda Blue, Mojo Risin', and the aforementioned Flashback Nitro.   We began the night drinking on some Kinda Blue and needless to say I moved pretty quickly to the Risin' and to the Flashback, and back to the Risin', and back to the Flashback, and so on and so dizzy.  As I always say -  I love my job.  But I love it more when we get to make people happy AND support a great cause.  Cheers to everyone!  


NOTE:  When I was packing for my trip, I threw in a bottle of Port Brewing's Older Viscosity; a 12% bourbon barrel aged strong dark ale that pours like a river of 30 weight.  This brew is pretty rare and I have been waiting to share it for 2 years.  This seemed like the perfect time given the generosity of World of Beer and the hard work that everyone put into this event.  Needless to say it didn't disappoint.  This brew rates 100 out of 100 on ratebeer and it definitely was apparent why.  To make things even better, there was a loyal WOB customer who had just reached his 1000th beer, so we were able to share it with him.  Made for a great time and everyone loved this beer.