Beer 400 will be remembered as the 2011 Old Stock Ale that knocked my socks off

The final day of a beer every day is upon me. Here it is, the nice big number and beer I wanted to it end with. I chose a beer that would age well so I could revisit a year from today. And it's glorious, a 11.9% old ale from North Coast called the 2011 Old Stock.

I had the 2009 whiskey barrel aged at a Whole Foods tasting with Karl and it was so incredible I bought an additional one to age. It was beyond superb. The 2011 isn't aged in whiskey barrels but still is incredibly smooth, leaving no trace of the orbital alcohol level, and there's a great aroma of butterscotch and tobacco too.

In terms of smoothness and richness, this one is up there with a Trappist quadruple, like a Rochefort or Le Trappe. The flavor profile has chocolate, caramel and brown sugar notes. I could drink something like this for the rest of my days. I love old ales for their unique complexity and this only strengthens my bond with them. Wow. Such a fantastic way to end the year. BAD BOYS rating.

Tonight I leave for a bachelor party in Vegas and will spend the weekend with my brother and college friends. For the first time I won't need to seek out new beers, which is a very odd feeling. It's hard to describe, I've dedicated myself to a daily ritual and now the ritual is gone. I can't say I'm not a little saddened. What's next? Life without a daily beer? Yikes. Like I'm going to let that happen. If my liver had arms he/she/it would be punching me in the face for saying that.

Tuesday I leave for Sydney, Australia, where I'm semi excited to try their beers, which I hear are incredibly malty. It'll be a big change from the hoptastic beers of Southern California. Thank you for following me this year! The beer year may be over, but I'm really excited to continue my exploration in the future.

Westvleteren 12 - BEER 365!

We're about an hour away from the crush of people coming to the Beer Every Day Great Success Party. David cracks open our last beer, the highest rated beer in the world, the Westvleteren 12, a quadruple. I'll let the video do most of the talking.

It really is the smoothest quadruple, at 10.2%, I've ever had. There isn't a whole lot of complexity, but jebus it tastes so good and smooth. BAD BOYS rating, obviously. I'm a little high on the excitement right now, I can't believe this milestone is happening.

A cookie and a cake, the best of both worlds. THANKS TIFFANY!

A lot of people didn't think we would actually drink a different beer every day. Most thought there weren't that many beers available, to which I respond with:

or:

I don't really blame them for thinking this, it's a huge commitment and required focused dedication. And let's be honest, my longest relationship with a girlfriend is 6 months. 3 years ago. This year has doubled my longest relationship and guess what baby? It's still go'n strong. So whoever out there thought that I would date someone for a year before I drank a beer for a year, you obviously didn't realize I had my priorities straight. Zing.

A few people I'm especially thankful for, who experienced so many of the beers with us, are Karl, Tiffany, and Nick G. You guys were incredible this year and I am so proud and thankful that you are my friends. Karl is the most mentioned person on the blog besides David and is tagged in over 40 posts, nearly 1/9th of the beer we had this year, which if you consider the number of nights David and I were sitting in our apartment or having beers across town or countries from each other, incredibly impressive.


And, if I can toot my horn for a minute, I'm freaking damn proud that I've written about each and everyone one of these beers. Half of life, some people say, is just showing up. Well I showed up, drank a beer, and then chronicled my experiences. Too-tooot.

Having a blog is a lot of work, but it's also immensely rewarding. 14 months ago I had never thought I would be a blogger, but I really encourage everyone if that have a passion, to write about it. Take a picture every other day. Express yourself. Even if you don't share the blog, just go online and write about anything and everything, your life will change for the better. Anywho...

THE PARTY
So for our party, Karl orchestrated a blind tasting of five different beers from the year for David and I to compete with. I'll let the video I put together tell the tale of that and the overall party. About 25 people came to celebrate and celebrate we did. The evening was an amazing way to end an incredible year. I joked the next day with David, that even though we just finished drinking a every day for the last year, apparently, we can still party.

I'm going to post in the forthcoming weeks additional posts describing my year and what it meant to me. In the meantime, I put together a video slide-show of photos created from freeze frames in the 60 minutes of footage to hold you over in the meantime until I can edit the film down to an viewable duration.

This was an incredible year, thank you following along!

Slide-show below:

Tomorrow, David is going to take his first day off in 365 days from drinking a different beer, but I plan on continuing the experience until I reach a nice round number, maybe 400 or 425. And after that, I will absolutely still be reporting on beers and experiences. I can't just get enough.

Also, subscribe to the RSS feed above,or like our page on Facebook (to the right) to receive posts as soon as they are published.

Awesomeness prevails. Onward and upward!

365 Days, 365 Beers! IT'S HERE

Our Beerversary is upon us! 1 year ago today, we started our different beer every day quest and it's come full circle. I'm a couple days behind thanks to the potent combination of work, shark week and early on-set menopause but there are some great posts waiting to be published. That's a lie actually, I've been reading and doing a lot of research in my spare time, which is why I haven't posted. See, isn't the truth much more boring than the lie?

We finished our second to last trappist beer on Wednesday with our final midnight beer, the Westvleteren 8. And last night we had the 18% alcohol limited-release Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, which was a trip. Tonight we celebrate with the highest rated beer in the world, the Westvleteren 12. David and I plan to blow it out in style and there will be all sorts of video, pictures, and stories next week. Stay tuned!

15 BEERS LEFT IN THE YEAR!

July 21st, 2011 at 9pm PST, David and Walker reached another milestone - 350 different beers in 350 days.

For the first time this year, this month we had to actually map out which beers we were having each day. We recently finished a series of Rogue beers and a triplet of Great Divide. While I'm traveling the following two weekends, I hope to drink several more unique Bruery beers with David before launching into, what I hope to be, an epic conclusion.

9 of the 11 Trappist beers we will conclude the year with

While we have already drunk several trappist beers, noticably the three Rocheforts and an Achel, we've aquired almost all the remaining Belgian Trappist beers from Chimay, Orval, Le Trappe, Westmalle and thanks to Karl, the two highest rated beers in the world from Westvleteren (the other Achel is difficult to track down).

Our final two beers, the Westvleteren 8 and 12

On August 5th, 2011, we're celebrating the end of an amazing year with an epic party, possibly a goat sacrifice and then probably waking up in the desert wearing cowboy boots and no pants.

David and I are leaning towards a big blow out party at our apartment, drinking weird beers, having blind taste competitions and most likely beer pong - because with our friends, you can't stop them, you can only hope to contain them. We will begin the night drinking the world's highest rated beer, Westvleteran 12 and let the crazy come out afterward. I'll be videoing the entire evening, so everyone will see our shenanigans.

My friends didn't think we could drink everyday, let alone write everyday. I had my doubts too. But we're almost there, and I hope you especially tune in for the final two weeks. It's been a one of the best years of my life. Thank you for reading and I'm looking forward to ending in righteous style.

Walker

Lost Abbey Lost & Found is beer 350 but isn't the only big event of the night

Today is a milestone for our blog, but three particular noteworthy events happened tonight:

1. David and I enjoyed our 350th beer of the year
2. We hung out with our friend Cassie, who we haven't seen in at least 6 months
3. Someone was shot in our apartment complex

Whoa, whoa, what? Yeah...Let's start with the beer of the day.

The marked up calendar to the left will be our road map for the remaining 15 days. We've plotted out a few random brews, but for the most part we will be drinking 11 different trappist beers from 5 different breweries and some of the highest regarded beers in the world.

The Lost Abby Lost & Found was one of our favorite beers from our May San Diego trip. It is a Belgian Dubbel brewed with raisins and the label on the back serendipitously sums up why I, personally, started the blog - to give myself a renewed purpose and creative outlet - and in the process discovered a new community and passion for beer. On top of that, our friend Cassie is over sampling home brew and catching up on the last half year. It's getting all sorts of sentimental up in here, so let's drink to the Lost & Found.

Here is the label, which I'll type out below:

"A Life worth living is full of discovery and we are reminded everywhere there is opportunity. All it takes is desire to seek out and find those things, these moments and everything in between. We brewed Lost and Found Abbey Ale to pay homage to the great monastic breweries of Belgium. Like us, we hope you'll take the time to discover a beer that breathes aromas of figs, raisins and candied fruits. Please join us by raising your glass as we offer a toast to patience, perseverance, and all the things we have lost along the way and we somehow lucky enough to find once again."

The perfect beer to pour while reminiscing upon an incredible year with friends, right? This is an 8% dubbel. The raisins add a complexity to the dark fruit flavor not possible through using just grains and the result is a sublimely balanced beer between the dark fruit, sweetness and raisins. The carbonation creates a really crisp beer, nice Lost Abbey! This is a very unique beer and is something you should try. THE ROCK rating.

I could tell you I saved this beer for the 350th milestone months ago when it was purchased, or maybe that I planned this out on my chicken-scratch calendar pictured above a couple weeks ago, but then I'd be a big fat liar instead of a nerd and a gentleman

Truth is, this was all chance. I picked our beer tonight by looking into the refrigerator for a good 30 seconds and randomly selecting Lost Abbey. And fortuitously so, it was the perfect beer for the occasion. Like so many events this year, in particular the night before our halfway point, an experience that reminded me of our beereveryday mission in a unique way: Lips of Faith Erics Ale reunites me with old friends (the point I'm referring to is just under the beer picture).

My point is, you really don't know what's around the corner. We live in Marin del Rey, right on the water (as you can tell from many of our pictures). It's an extremely quiet community dominated by large complexes that are fairly disconnected from the energy of Venice. We also don't have any crime. Up until tonight I thought the Marina was Pleasantville. Right after we'd popped the bottle on the Lost Abbey, the three of us heard the unmistakable sound of gunshots (4-5 of them). The problem was, we couldn't tell you where they were coming from because everything echoes off the water. We go back to drinking, a little disturbed but unable to really do anything. Then we heard sirens.

I'm not gonna go into too much detail, but basically our complex sits above an open carport style garage and there's about 20 yards of asphalt in between the building and the sailboats for parking, specifically for boat owners. The woman was shot right by the car port on the other side of the complex, maybe 80 yards away. After the police and paramedics arrived, I went out on my balcony and if I peered through palm branches, could see her from the edge of my deck.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Woman-Shot-in-Robbery-Attempt-in-Marina-Del-Rey-126007118.html

Thankfully and luckily, she survived. What's really shocking about the experience, is how it happened. She gave the robber her purse and then was shot in the back while walking away. She did everything right and still got f**ked. Yikes. They still haven't caught the guy. Looking back I wish that I would've run out to the balcony and tried to glimpse the attempted murderer, but we had no idea where it was. There were people above us on the third floor who were asking us what was happening, and they had a better view of the street.

It's scary stuff and she was very fortunate the robber had horrendous aim and was only shot once. As you can see in the news photo, there were multiple bullet casings near the body. We the ambulance leave for the hospital and peering through its window, she didn't look good. Pretty soon we bid Cassie adieu, locked our doors sliding glass doors to the balcony and turned in.

Milestone 350: You never know what's around the corner, and if you lose something, maybe what you'll find will be something even greater.


That reminds me of...

“But that’s life. One minute you’re on top of the world, the next minute some secretary’s running you over with a lawn mower.”

                                                Season 3, Episode 3: “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency” 

Victory Old Horizontal Barleywine celebrates our 300th beer!

Even though barleywines are one of my favorite styles of brew-ha-ha's, I wasn't aware tonight was our landmark 300th beer at the time of opening the Old Victory. If I had realized, I would've gone with the Lost Abbey Judgment Day or a Quadruple we have stored up. Maybe the Westvleteren Blonde. We'll properly celebrate tomorrow or Friday. Until then, apparently it's the right time to barleywine. 

Old Victory Barleywine is surprisingly bitter, but not from hops, who are the usual suspects. David notes that it tastes malty without being sweet. Eureka, that's why it's bitter. Barleywines usually have a big caramel flavor that join forces with dark fruit and even unusual flavors like tobacco. Here, there is simply a big malt taste that expertly camouflages the whopping 11% alcohol and no residual sweetness.

I have the feeling that the brewers set out to make specifically this style of barleywine, one that hides the alcohol and isn't sweet. But to me this is the anti-barleywine. I enjoy barlreywines like Stone's Old Guardian or even The Bruery's Old Richland, to a lesser extant, that knock you in the teeth. I like barleywines the way I like my women; big, bold and complex with lots of daddy issues. If that sounds like you, call me, wink. This is a very subtle barleywine and although it's a well made beer, the style it's made doesn't appeal to me. ARMAGEDDON rating

Duvel Tripel Hop and the parental units celebrate our Halfway Milestone

Ma and Pa Davis are in town and took Karl, David and I out to Enterprise Fish Co for some good seafood and one bomb-ass bread puff lobster bisque.

This deliciousness marks the beginning of a food filled weekend with the 'rents

It developed into an amusing dinner because I've never had a waiter who was so sardonic and disgruntled about the restaurant which he'd worked at for the past two years. He didn't take any crap and I loved it. He began the meal informing us the special Dine-LA menu was 'really stupid' unless you got the lobster (which no one did). Then he took one look at David's ginger sauce and said that it was 'god awful.' He apparently returned to the kitchen and argued with the chef until she made new sauce and the forced her to bring  it out herself (he really relished winning that power struggle). He then ended the meal by regaling us about the biggest tumbleweeds he'd ever seen in Texas/Arizona. You know, normal stories waiters animatedly tell customers.  After thoroughly stuffing ourselves, the group headed back to the marina to celebrate beer number 183 and our halfway mark through the year.

Glorious, glorious nectar

Duvel is David's all time favorite beer and we'd been eying the Duvel Tripel Hop for quite some time. David finally bought it a couple weeks ago. Friday morning I made an executive decision and 'discretely' placed the beer in the fridge and the tag on David's wallet letting him know the time has come for us to drink the nectar.

Beer nerds celebrate

Wow, HOPS! They weren't messing around when they made this with tripel hops. Take a Duvel and add Saaz (which you can taste upfront), Syrian Goldings and Amarillo hops and you can imagine what the Tripel Hop tastes like. They kept it simple and didn't change much. Sadly, Karl doesn't like Duvel but even he is warming up to thanks to this bottle's crispness. I love the bottle design too. It's fitting that Karl is here and personally happy I'm happy because he's been a major part of the last 6 months.

Very fortunate to have Platt and Carolyn in town for the occasion!

Duvel is in the hall of Mt. Olympus as one of the greatest beers in the world. The original Duvel is hard to beat, but the tripel hop is an interesting and ultimately satisfying twist on the original. BAD BOYS rating.

Fantastic way to celebrate the halfway milestone. As I went to sleep, I didn't count sheep and instead counted beer -- 182 beers left on the wall, 182 two beers left. Take one down, pass it around, 181 beers on the wall...

HALFWAY THROUGH THE YEAR!!!

Last night we had beer #182 and tonight's beer is # 183. We have officially crossed the halfway point of our beer every day quest. I philosophized about it in yesterday's entry but here's how I'm addressing the milestone today:

We drank a hell of a lot more than 183 beers-

I've learned so much about beer and home brewing and through this experience I have very much grown personally over the last 6 months. Having a different beer as the focal point of each day has made life interesting in numerous way. Moreover, I looked back through each one of my entries today and thanks to the pictures, could recall some detail of nearly each night which is pretty amazing. I am overwhelmingly happy and grateful to have this experience, especially with my long term friend and roommate David, and with everyone who has tasted along the way.

That being said, we still have a lot more to go-

And tonight David and I plan to celebrate the only way we know how-

Party on Wayne-

Party on Garth-

90 DAYS!

Today marks the 90th day of our beer journey. For those English majors, that means we're essentially1/4 of the way through. We've had so much different beer, it's hard to imagine that we still have 275 left. Wow.

That being said, it's been everything I hoped for and more. I'm loving all the new beers and experiences that I could only have drinking a different beer every day. Such as, our weekly trip to the Beverage Warehouse for our week's beer selection is like opening presents Christmas morning - EVERY TIME. It's such a cool feeling, and I don't feel it will ever get old. On a related note, I'm really sexy now:

Heeyyyyyyyy

Looking forward to the next 90!