Mischief Gone Wild celebrates Nic and AJ's matrimony

Nick G, Beth, David and I head north to Paso Robles to watch our close friends Nic and AJ tie the knot. David and Christi rearranged the hotel sign in hilarious tribute.

Wedding was damn beautiful and so was the bride.

Here is the new couple, Nic Ewok and Amdrea Bear

I had my emotions on lockdown but the groom (who is a screenwriter) wrote vows which weaved a line from TRUE ROMANCE, "You are so cool," to become a metaphor to say "I love you" to his bride. It was pretty brilliant and I'll be damned if David and I almost succumbed to what many men refer to as, "as expulsion of eye water due to female-like irrationality." But we held it together.

The Beereverday boys dressed to impress.

After we helped the caterers dispose of their wine, the ceremony moved to the barn dance floor and we popped open a special Mischief 'Gone Wild.'

Someone brought a bomber of Pliny the Elder out to party as well. Love that Mischief label

The good fellows at The Bruery brewed up a batch of Mischief but rather than use their typical yeast to ferment the wort, they used Brettanomyces, a type of yeast used primarily in lambic and sour ales ales but is also popular among several Belgian brewers, including the trappist beer Orval who introduces the yeast at bottling. Many American craft breweries have had great success utilizing it, but brettanomyces is a notoriously difficult yeast for a homebrewer to cultivate and use correctly. It's not as easy as popping a smack pack or unscrewing a White Labs yeast; rather, people buy barrels which already have the yeast in it from older sour ale fermentations and then capture airborne yeast which is then cultivated and then saturated in the oak. Here is an interesting article from a blog I subscribe to: ambient spontaneous yeast starters.

My previous Mischief post is here: Bruery Mischief. It's easily one of our favorite beers this year and we're both looking forward to this twist on the classic. True to the original Mischief, the Gone Wild has the belgian strong pale ale body with exceptional carbonation and the Brettanomyces add a lively fruit and floral flavor as it goes down. Lively is putting it mildly, it's like a floral left cross to the tongue. The more I drink, the more I feel like describing it as Mischief on Redbull. It's got an "oomph" to it that's hard to describe. Turbocharged? You get it. I feel privileged for being able to try this limited run. I wouldn't trade the Gone Wild for the original Mischief, but but I certainly enjoyed it. TRANSFORMERS rating.

We certainly weren't done drinking yet (not by a long shot). One of Nic's best men Dallas Hammons was awesome enough to bring out his first homebrews, a bold Imperial Wheat. Check out his blog here. http://www.hammonshomebrew.com/

This was a fantastic weekend spent with close friends and their beer. Loving life.