Wasatch Christmas Ale is the first of three at the brewpub

Sam, Jamie and I are finishing an exciting Oregon vs. Wisconsin Rose Bowl game at the Wasatch brewpub on Main St in Park City. With two big games on tonight and time to kill before dinner, it looks like this will be the first of several new beers for the blog.

The Christmas Ale is a copper colored ale that's dry hopped with Cascade and Amarillo hops, which creates a wonderful piney and earthy aroma that's warming me up already. While it finishes slightly malty, overall it's well balanced. This has a bit of spice thanks to the hops but it's also easy to drink. TRANSFORMERS rating and I'm looking forward for round two with Jamie and Sam.

Ninkasi reNew Irish Red Ale welcomes my new King Moonracer's Revenge Coasters

Ninkasi makes a different beer every year, and this is 2011's style. It's a 5.2% Irish red ale. The ReNew has a thin malt with slight caramel and hop bitterness. It's fun but not thirst quenching by any means. ARMAGEDDON rating. 

The highlight of my day was receiving these coasters from my friend Jamie R. I made a label for my first homebrew, the Christmas Ale King Moonracer's Revenge and she had someone make the label into a coaster. They're sturdy coasters and look great! I freaking love them. I've collected a ton of coasters this year and this is by far the best looking, probably because I spent way more time on the label than people spend on a coaster, but still; it's awesome. Thanks Jamie!

Ballast Point Sea Monster is King Neptune's Nemesis

David and I are having a nice little day trip down down in Manhattan Beach and Jamie's joined us. Manhattan BrewCo is the place to be for beer here (if Simmzy's is packed) and so we're here for some burgers and beer. After a warm up beer we're ready for the 10% Sea Monster Imperial Stout!

The alcohol knock my two front teeth out. It's a deeply roasted barley malt with heavy coffee tones. Really heavy. Jamie says it tastes like coffee dirt, which is...interesting. This is an aquatic Andre the Giant. It's King Neptunes Nemesis. People will either love this or be overwhelmed by it. David is literally singing this "beeeeer's a delight." THE ROCK rating.

Drake's Denogganizer Imperial IPA is the beer support I need for a big BBQ

The rain has stopped and the sun broke through the clouds, so I'm cooking up a big BBQ today. Three stacks of ribs, lines of cider-simmered bratwurst with onions and salmon with red-curry coconut sauce. Having a bunch of people over, mostly old friends but a few new ones as well, Heather, Jamie, Brent, Nick G, Beth, Sara, Josh, Lisa, Jake, Matt and Ri.

David's usually the cook but he's out of town, so I'm going to Emeril this shit up and I'm charging hard. I need a big beer to propel me through the day and Drake's comes through once again.

Deliciousness!

I love Drake's and at 9.75%, this beer is big and bad. This is more malt than IPA, but it's a bold malt and an accented bitterness. The beer may be dank but it's finely tuned. Love this and would love to create a home brew inspired by this. THE ROCK rating.


If the Discovery Channel was on hand filming the day, they would have mistook my friends for Jackals because all three racks of ribs were gone within the first half hour. Only a pile of cleanly picked bones were left as evidence of their existence. The Bratwurst and Salmon were met with love by everyone as well, and later we played Jenga while I finished off an Arrogant Bastard. Beautiful Day indeed and except for the war zone that is my kitchen, I'm one happy camper.

To Josh, Heather and Lisa for helping out with the curry sauce and manning the grill whilst I played host and/or boozed, thank you so much for your help!

The Bruery Provisions Series is Old Richland is the last of its kind

Karl, David and I are joined by Infamous Jamie as we head down for our third trip to The Bruery and Bootleggers. The new twist to the adventure is that we first hit up The Bruery Provisions store in Orange, which has a host of beers and cheese to sample.

We arrived to discover that two of the three Provisions brews, Gunga Galunga and Premiere, have gone the way of the pager and are now only available in people's cellars and local pawn shops. However, their third Provisions beer, the Old Richalnd, is available to taste. Whinnnna!

My taster included the Humulus Session, 7 Grain Saison, Saison De Lente, the exquisite Three French Hens and the Old Richland, beer o'day.

The Old Richland is a barelywine by style but DIPA by association. The Bruery's created a 9% barleywine then dry hopped it with Centennial, Simcoe and Sterling hops (these big boys - very acidic hops).

Old Richland

It smells super sweet. Upon tasting, the hops and malt play well together. It's a smooth but passive beer - nothing jumps out at me. Barleywine tends to put you on your ass, so if I waned a high quality 'drinking to get drunk' style of beer, this would be it. Unfortunately, you probably won't be able to find it. Check out Stone's Old Guardian instead. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Karl and Infamous Jamie sample the nectar

The fun comes after the beer of the day is drunk. I tried Karl's sample of the Belgian Mint style beer called Aurora Borealis and it smells like a hospital. It tastes just as weird. Infamous Jamie says it tastes like Colgate. There you go. David was the only person who finished their sample of it.

I'm bitching about the 7 Grain Saison so Jamie grabs my taster and throws it back. "It's not bad" she responds and thereby rejects my perspective, "it tastes like pee." HA. Exactly, nice try Infamous Jamie. 
David and Karl finish off their cheese plates and we jet off to The Bruery. Low and behold they have their 10 year Anniversary beer on tap, the Coton! What a coup. It's sweet and delicious with hints of cocoa. THe Coton is like a beer equivalent of port. It's delicious but so dank that you can actually drink too much. 

When I drink Coton I forget about the everything else

The rest is history, or lack there of. We bought two growlers of Michief and made serious moves with them. I tried pacing myself but patience isn't my strong suit, so how do you think that turned out? By the time Laura and Michelle showed up fresh from Temecula Wine Country, I'd forgotten all about Bootleggers. 'Wait, we're going to another brewery?! Well I'll be a monkey's uncle...' Belgian style beer has a funny way of fogging up one's memory. We refilled our growlers and had a beer at Bootleggers before they closed, followed by In-and-Out, which our group definitely caused a raucous in. Your welcome Placentia for the Saturday night antics and entertainment. From there, we returned home to more beer and hammock napping. Another successful brewery run but next time it's my time to drive, D'Oh!

King Moonracer's Revenge - Walker's First Home Brew

So Thursday night, January 6th is my first official tasting of the home brew. Let me tell you about the name first...

King Moonracer's Revenge is a different name for a Christmas Ale, right? Here is the story behind the birth of the name. About week before I made the beer, I woke up one morning already thinking of the beer's name. I wanted the title set it apart from other Christmas beers, so what's the least Christmasy theme there could be? REVENGE. 30 seconds later I was on Wikipedia looking up the story of Rudolph. Unfortunately, that red-nosed outcast didn't piss anyone off when he was put on the sleigh team, but I did find the most excellent of names, King Moonracer. When Rudolph runs away from the North Pole he escapes and finds the Island of the Misfit toys and King Moonracer rules them. What a rad name! So I started thinking...this guy is a Griffin, half Eagle & Half Lion and he's king of the abused children? He should be king of the world! But he has a good heart and cares about the tykes, but Santa gets all the credit for being jolly and spreading joy around the world. Do you know the King? Nobody knows about King Moonracer! But guess what? He secretly makes some great fucking beer. And Santa doesn't get any of it. Booyah! Revenge is his.

I found the elements and gave them to my Houston friend Emily H and she put together a hilariously awesome label, thanks Em!

I poured a few bottles for everyone and then opened up a few more. The feedback was really great! 

Karl came over and you can see his guest here: Karl's Guest Post. AJ and Nic and Jamie R joined us and my coworker Tiffany surprised the group and brought a cake! She went above and beyond, and the night suddenly turned into a festivus for the rest of us (cake was really freaking good ). I was momentarily overwhelmed all that was going on but then I started drinking! The best part of making a home brew is enjoying it.

How happy does this guy look?

She even used the same colors in the icing as in the label! Tiffany = Awesomeness

This beer is my first beer and the recipe can be found here: K.M. Revenge Home Brew Recipe. Obviously, an enormous thank you and credit to David who helped me pick out the ingredients and together we cooked up the batch. I knew nothing about making beer and his guidance at every step was crucial to this beer's success.

Speaking of this beer, it turned out better than I expected. It's really drinkable. It's a golden pale ale with a hint of cloves at the end that provides the much needed Christmas spice. When we bottled the beer, the clove was overwhelming but it turned out quite nice. 'Infamous Jamie R' says that "she would buy this in a bar" and AJ and Nic agree. I'm simply happy having my beer not suck, let alone people actually saying nice things about it.

There's only a few bottles left and I'm going to have a hard time not drinking as soon as possible. I'm so happy it turned out well and to those who came over to celebrate with me (all except 1 are some of my oldest friends who I have known for 8+ years) thank you, it was a really great night with wings, cake and beer. As for a rating, I too would buy this in a store. King Moonracer is a hit! Next year I will develop the recipe and brew another batch. Get in line now ;) TRANSFORMERS rating