Port Brewing 5th Anniversary celebrates hops and our new beer closet

We bought Port Brewing's 5th Anniversary Ale during our San Diego trip (a month later we're still drinking off what we bought there). I love anniversary beers because brewers pull out all the stops for them. It's their guilty pleasure beer. The Bruery has a 14.5% Old Ale aged in oak barrels that's mixed in with previous anniversary batches. Port Brewing has a 10% Double IPA for their anniversary beer, and judging from the comments on beeradvocate, they're only getting better with age. Anniversary beers are absolutely gratuitous, usually ridiculous and always delicious, so on behalf of everyone, YUM and THANK YOU.

Bought this gem in NYC at the Union Square Park

The label calls it a Hop Monster. But the first sip tells me it's not a Bigfoot-type monster, but more a Godzilla-type beast. The 5th Anniversary is a full bodied golden ale that is hopped to the extreme. The hops are raw, grassy, even minty and stick to your tongue. You can taste the 10% alcohol as it finishes but up until then, it's a hop show. I love it, but it's definitely overwhelming. It's like a supercharged Stone Ruination - and do you know why they call it a ruination? - because it's so hoppy that it ruins your palate. If your a hop-lover, buy this at Whole Foods before they run out. BAD BOYS rating.

With brewing equipment strewn around the apartment - under the living room table, in David's room - and five cases of beer stacked in my room with an additional four cases currently fermenting (we'll have over 108 22oz bottles by July 4th for those at home counting), I decided Tuesday night it was high time we had a beer closet. There was just one problem with the closet available -

There was a little game I liked to play with the hall closet called, "Don't hit me in the face." See, I had something I needed to store in the hall closet, so I'd open the door real slow, and if nothing fell then I'd toss the object to the top of the stack and shut the door real quick. Problem was sometimes, whatever I threw up there (see above kickball) wouldn't like his new accommodations and felt the need to escape; usually landing on my face. Ha-haa I'd say to the hall closet, real funny asshole. Boy it loved those games...

When I told my dad about my predicament, he told me about a radio and tv show he grew up listening to with a running gag.

When we move out of our apartment, I'll wag my finger at the hall closet and say, "gee whiz, we sure had some good times. And by we I mean you."

Tuesday night I threw everything out on the ground, covering the living room floor. Through a little black magic of my own, I reorganized David's walk in closet to fit most of the material (David's due for a surprise when he returns from San Francisco tomorrow), stuff a couple things behind the washing machine and give a few items away. Tonight I ran to Home Depot for a shelf and then after a paint job, the closet has a miraculous makeover -

Think the space needs a beer poster, don't you?

I might just start calling it the Miracle in the Marina. Thanks to our brewing passion, the apartment is considerably more organized - except behind the washer.

"To alcohol, the cause of and solution to, all of life's problems"  Homer Simpson