Blind Belgian Tasting

 The Columbia Beer Enthusiasts had a blind Belgian tasting today at Phil's house. The finally tally is:

The winner: Urthel Samaranth Quad (the only genuine Belgian in the bunch)
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1339/15274

2nd Place: Choc Dubbel (Oklahoma)
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/4707/45566

3rd Place: Trippel (John Cannon's homebrew)

4th: Bruery Saison Rue (California)
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16866/42434

5th: Dubbel (David Bowen's homebrew)

6th: Old Ale (Phil Fuemmeler's homebrew)

7th: Bruery Orchard White Witbier (California) 
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16866/42433
8th: Trippel (brewed with British yeast) (John Cannon homebrew)

Thanks to Phil who hosted and created the scorecards to help us navigate our way through the Belgians. We scored each one on bouquet/aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, and overall impression. Just for fun, we also guessed whether each was really made in Belgium or not. The only was that was from Belgium ranked number one, the quad.

CBE mid-April Update

Sorry about the lag in posts, but there are some things to keep you up-to-date on...

Next week is Stone Week here in the Show-Me state. There are set to be events all over to welcome Stone to Missouri. The statewide details are here. Sycamore and Uprise Bar are set to host two events on Saturday, April 23rd. You can find the full list at Stone's site. Details for Columbia's events are below.

Sycamore 5pm-7pm

• Stone Pale Ale
• Arrogant Bastard Ale
• OAKED Arrogant Bastard Ale
• Stone Ruination IPA
• Stone Sublimley Self-Righteous Ale
• 2010 Stone Imperial Russian Stout

Uprise Bar 7:30pm-9:30pm

• Stone Smoked Porter
• Stone Cali-Belgique IPA
• 2010 Double Bastard Ale

The sign up for the April 30th field trip to Kansas City and the Parkville Microfest is still up. Transportation is still being figured out, depending on the final number of people who sign up. As of now, cost includes $25 for transportation, $20 to get in to the festival, and whatever you spend on lunch.

Finally, there is a Belgian vs. Non-Belgian tasting this Saturday. Folks are asked to bring a Belgian or Belgian-style beer wrapped in a paper bag. It is a blind tasting where participants will see if they can guess which is which. Details are on Facebook.

Wearin' O' the Beer

The smell of corned beef and cabbage...the sight of puked up neon green beer in the streets...What do these things have in common? Neither is Irish, actually.

I experienced one St. Patrick's Day while I was in Ireland for a semester, and the holiday is very simple: good Guinness, good music, good craic. That's it. Nothing is dyed green. There was supposed to be a big parade, but I was there during the big foot and mouth disease epidemic of 2001 and everything was canceled so the rural farmers wouldn't bring it into Galway. Wipe your feet, stay in the bars. And so we did. It was grand.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be one big gathering place for traditional music and people who don't want to drink green beer from Das Boot. Here are the events I have found going on in the area. Since St. Pat's Day is during the week, the events span both the weekend before and the weekend after. Some of the concerts are from The Central Missouri Celtic Arts website, so you can find links to the artists there.

Saturday March 12:
Jefferson City Irish Parade, 2:00
The headquarters is Paddy Malone's pub, a cozy pub just across the bridge.
The pub opens at noon. Irish Stew, Bacon & Cabbage served for lunch along with our regular menu items. All are welcome to join the parade or watch along the way. Live music with drinking songs and ballads after the parade.

Leprechaun-archy 6:30 til ?

If you participated in Santacon you know what this is all about...
One part flash mob, one part pub crawl, & eight parts debauchery you will likely forget before this train-wreck comes completely off the tracks! The order and location of the pubs will be posted on the Facebook page, so you can join in at your leisure. Oh, and it's FREE. Pace yourself.

Wednesday March 16th, 7:30PM
Concert: The Mairtin de Cogain Project
Songs and stories from County Cork, with award winning singer/songwriter/storyteller, Mairtin de Cogain of Carrigaline, County Cork! at Scene One Theatre, 121 East High Street. Advance tickets available at Paddy Malone's Pub. 700 W. Main St. Jefferson City

March 17, St. Pat's Day
44 Stone Pub: Traditional Irish music session, 6 to 9
No description required...just come on in to 44 Stone for house corned beef, colcannon and other traditional fare with contemporary American insight. We might also serve a few beers and whiskeys....We'll have live music all night as well to play some classic tunes. 44 Stone will have the classiest (but not necessarily the calmest) St Patty's Day in town. See you then.

Hooten Hallers St. Paddy's Day at Blue Fugue, 10:00

Hooten Hallers, Lunar Mansion, Vulvette! Irish Hairpulling Contest! Free Leprechaun Toenails! Double Rainbow Buckets of Gold. Lineup: Vulvette opens, then get ripped by Mansion, tear down the house with Hooten Hallers!

Mojos
Join us and The Three Tree Crew for a St. Patrick's day you wish you could remember!! 4 bands, no cover, and more beers on tap than you can shake a Blarney Stone at! So don your finest green, stretch out your cheers-ing arm, and ramble on down for a night packed with great FREE live music! St. Patty's Day Brew Ha Ha feat. Holyfield (playing a full set of Irish Drinking Songs!!), Sunifyde, A Perfect Fifth, Baboonz - FREE!! / 8:30 pm

Broadway Brewery
Enjoy Traditional Irish Specials paired with craft brews all week long.

Sycamore Restaurant: Schlafly beer dinner is almost sold out, so you may be out of luck. However, after the dinner, there may still be kegs of barrel-aged Imperial Stout, and Irish Extra Stout; and bottles of several vintages of Reserve Bourbon Barrel-Aged Barley Wine.

St. Patrick's Day at Paddy Malone's Pub
Raffle drawings, party favors, etc. etc. Corned Beef and Cabbage beginning at 11am and served until it is gone! Live music beginning at 4pm with the reunion of THE BOW & THE BARDS (Rick Stokes, Allen Tatman, and Tom Schultz). Come raise a toast to Dear auld Ireland!

March 25, 2011, 8 p.m.
Concert with Bruce Molsky
Fiddle, banjo, guitar and voice. Old-Time American and Celtic music.
Location: Unity Center, 1600 W. Broadway

Don't forget in the middle of all this that Firestone Walker beer is making its debut in Columbia at Sycamore! If I missed any events, let me know!

Snowpocalypse Edition

Here is a list of upcoming events that have somehow survived the snow...

• Super Bowl Party - The location has been updated. There are limited seats on the couch, so RSVP ASAP. Also, plan to bring food and beer (of course). This event is open to non-members.
• Homebrew Only Tasting - This was promised and Josh Rein delivered. On February 13th at 4:00 PM, Josh will host a tasting limited to homebrews only. More details to come. Relax. Don't Worry. Have a homebrew. This event is open to non-members, but is limited to 10 guests.
  
• Porters/Stout Tasting - Bring a stout, porter, or one of those cellared beers you saved for the cancelled tasting this past week to Flat Branch on February 27th at 4:00. This is for members and all regular charges apply (membership OR $10 if you don't bring beer and $5 if you do bring beer).
• The last of the Hopslam is set to be unleashed on the public at Uprise Bar this Wednesday. If this doesn't happen on Wednesday, I won't bother posting anything more on Hopslam.
• There will be a field trip to Kansas City in April. Contact a CBE officer for details. If you don't know a CBE officer, leave a comment here and we'll get back to you.

That should do for now. Carry on.

January and February Events

Inspired by Jade's initiative to post on this blog, I figured you all would like to know what's going on...

January has nearly passed us by without so much as one tasting. Luckily for you, the CBE has one event before February. Additionally, there are two more events planned for next month.

On Monday, January 31st, Broadway Brewery will be hosting our cellared beer/barley wine tasting. So, dust off those bottles in the back of your cellar and bring them in for this tasting. If you are not one to save beers for more than a year, there are plenty of options in the stores. Besides finding newer versions of some of the proposed beers on hand, a careful inspection of labels will reveal there are many already-cellared beers waiting for you. I've personally noticed several vintages of Schlafly's barley wines and imperial stouts from previous years still occupying shelf space all around Columbia.

To RSVP, go to either the Facebook group or the CBE Groups site. Be sure to list the beer(s) you plan to bring. The tasting will get underway around 8:00 PM. We'll conduct the tasting differently as we'll ask that you give your beers to a CBE officer so that we can pace and sequence the beers. As usual, the tasting fees apply if you are not a CBE member. $5 with beer, $10 without.

The following Sunday, February 6th, is the Super Bowl party, hosted by members Kate and David. Although the pregame show starts sometime this week, our hosts ask that you show up around 5:00 PM. Kids and family members are welcome. This is a free CBE event. There will be food, but contributing to the effort (both food and beer) is encouraged. RSVP here and/or here and list any beer and food you plan to bring.

From 4-7 PM on Sunday, February 27th, Flat Branch will host our porter/stout tasting. Again, tasting fees apply to non-CBE members. RSVP here and/or here.

Also, in February, we are tying to organize a homebrew-only tasting. If you have any interest in participating and/or hosting, please let a CBE officer know or leave a comment on this blog.

We are still working on a road trip to Kansas City in April. There will be more word on that as information is gathered. CBE members will get first dibs on spots in the van. So, it behooves one to join ASAP.

As always, keep up with CBE happenings on Facebook, Groups, Twitter, and through our Google Calendar.

News/Rumors/Happenings

Social media is great, but sometimes overwhelming when you get a lot of news coming at you from different places. I thought I'd condense it, since there's a lot in my RSS feed today.

Evan Benn of Hip Hops column in the STL Post-Dispatch reports on the opening of the new Urban Chestnut Brewery on Wednesday with 5 of their beers on tap. Read more about the brewery and sign up for their newsletter or read their blog here. He also talks about the new Parma Grill (not quite open yet) that will take over Mattingly Brewery's former space.

In addition, a Hip Hops mobile beer app will be unveiled on Friday. I can only assume it will focus on St. Louis breweries and stores, but good to know for future roadtrips. Between that and OnTapKC, we can find out about beer releases sooner. Now all we need is an app for CoMo. Developers....? I've been playing around with Untappd which is a mobile website rather than an app, so you can share your beers/location with your friends through that site, and choose whether to also post on Facebook or not. You earn badges for adding certain beers to your roster.

The other rumor going around is that Green Flash Brewery is scouting around in Missouri. That would be another welcome addition to our shelves in 2011. Stl Hops got it straight from the horse's mouth that it will be July/August. I brought a bottle of their stout back from California and found Le Freak in Chicago and enjoyed them both. Oh, and in case you're wondering which Firestone Walker beers are coming, here you go.

Locally, the Hopslam frenzy is nearly over, but we're still waiting to hear when Uprise Bar at Ragtag will tap their keg and bring out last year's bottles they saved. CBE has several events coming up: the cellared/aged beer tasting on Jan. 31st, the Super Bowl party, and the stout/porter tasting in Feb. Be sure to RSVP and report what you're bringing on our Facebook page.

Update: Hip Hops also posted a good St. Louis Brewery Guide today.

2011 Schedule of Events

Recently, using some of the survey results, the CBE officers got together and mapped out the year's events. None of the dates nor sequence is set in stone, but this schedule should allow CBE members and potential members to stock their cellars and beer fridges with beers to share at future tastings. Also, this schedule should help in planning out your calendars for the year.

More details as far as specific times, dates, and locations are still to be determined. We are looking to schedule events at a variety of times and locations so that we can include as many members and interested parties as possible. In the meantime, look through the lists below and leave suggestions in the comments. There are at least two events planned per month.

Tasting Schedule:
January: (Look for these dates and locations to be determined in the coming weeks.)

• Cellared Beer/Barley Wine
• CBE BowlingNight*

February:

• Stout/Porter
• Super Bowl Party - February 20, 2011*

March:

• Out of Market Beers Only (beers only available outside of Missouri)
• Chocolate & Beer Pairing (featuring Patric Chocolate)

April:

• Blind Tasting (Belgians vs. Non-Belgians)
• KC Field Trip**

May:

• Rye/Black IPA
• Introduction to Beer Tasting*

June:

• Wild Night
• Cheese & Beer Pairing

July:

• West Coast Beers
• Picnic*

August:

• Summer Beers
• Members Only

September:

• Bring Whatever
• Cooking w/Beer Potluck

October:

• Beers from Michigan
• High Gravity Beers

November:

• Fall Seasonal
• CBE Bonfire*

December:

• Holiday Seasonal
• Yankee Swap 

* Open to anyone. No membership fees required.
** Open first to members. Non-members will have an opportunity if there are empty slots.

The homebrew events will be open to anyone who is interested. We're even more flexible with these events so as to meet the needs of the homebrewers in the group.

Homebrewing Schedule:
Feb. - Homebrew Only Tasting
April -  Homebrewing w/John Cannon
June -  Homebrew Demo
Aug. -  Mini-Hoembrew Contest
Oct. - Homebrew night to discuss what different hops can add to a

beer

Dec. - Homebrew night to discuss what different grains can add to a
beer (or yeast)

What are you thoughts on this tasting schedule? Are we missing something? Which events would you attend?

If you can provide space for any events, either leave a comment or contact a CBE officer.