Thanks to everyone who came out last night for the kick-ass tasting of De Proef. Pretty amazing stuff. After dinner at the Yacht Club, we thanked Don by sampling a bit from the bruisin’ beer cellar—which is again disorganized after our trip to Five Points Bottle Shop the other week. (We just aren’t as organized as KP.)

Anyhoo! Four little beauties were shared for a mighty fine end to an evening.

The Lost Abbey: The Angel’s Share ‘08 Bourbon Barrel Aged
From the Patron Sinner’s club, this 375ml is a truly heavenly beer—same recipe as The Angel’s Share, but aged in bourbon barrels. Pours dark and thick with nice dose of carbonation. Smells divine with notes of vanilla from the wood. Though still pretty “hot” on the alcohol side, a good balance keeps it quaffable. Basically, you can smell this one with the glass in your lap and feel it as it goes down, warming your throat. There are a load of overlapping flavors, though mainly caramel and bourbon. From the label: “Way down in Kentucky and across the pond in Scotland, distillers age their whiskeys for many years in oak barrels. Over time, some whiskey is lost to evaporation. They refer to this loss of spirits as The Angel’s Share. Each time a barrel is filled, a measure of this liquid seeps into the oak and is lost forever.”

Montegioco: Dolii Raptor
We could kick ourselves for not ordering this when we picked-up Bran, but did acquire a bottle. Dolii Raptor is Demon Hunter aged in Barbera wine barrels. Pours a dark orange color with a nice fluffy head. Dark fruit is immediately noted on the nose with hints of plums and grapes. The nifty surprise with this one is the little hop-kick at the end. You just don’t expect it, adding a nice touch.

Barley: BB Dexi
The only one of the bunch to be found in-store, we have been waiting for a special time to crack this one open. BB Dexi (aka BB10) blew us away. Though pricey at $30, hands-down, it’s worth it. We were expecting a barleywine and instead were surprised at a hefty, stout-like, winter warmer. What makes this so special is its tie to Italian wines (like Dolii Raptor), as the beer is spiced with “Sapa of Cannonau”—the boiled wort of Italian Cannonau red wine grapes. Thick and so, so yummy, we take you to B. United, who can sum it up better than we can: “A natural ‘vinosity’ accompanies us along the trip, from the warm and sumptuos scent of caramel, cocoa, dried plum, morello cherry and ’strawberry’ grapes to the palate rich of complex avors such as caramel, chocolate, liquorice, and plums with notes of sweet dried fruits such as grapes and sultana.”

Saint Somewhere: Saison Athene
New Florida brewery, Saint Somewhere, only puts out three beers to date. This saison is spiced of cinnamon and nutmeg, slightly hoppy with a hint of funk on the finish. Never had a saison like it. (It’s currently a favorite of Philip’s, too.) We were all remarking how wonderful this would be during the holidays as an alternative to the pumpkin ales. If you head to Florida for business or pleasure, pick up some Somewhere.

Weyerbacher is having a party
If you happen to be in Easton, Pa., on June 13, you’re in luck. Weyerbacher is hosting a “first of its kind event” to debut three new beers: Thirteen (Belgian-inspired Stout); Riserva (Oak-aged Wild Ale); and Alpha (Belgian Pale). Look for Merry Monks in 750ml’s soon, too, as a “semi-regular” release—now bottle-conditioned for secondary fermentation and higher carbonation.

Update from the Incredibly Stupid Department, Part Deux
Today’s strapped-in-beer-with-child-on-floor story brought to you from the land down under. “Four adults were in the car, two in the front seats and two in the back. The carton of beer, which contained 30 bottles, was strapped in between the two adults in the back. ‘The child was sitting in the lump in the centre, unrestrained,’ Burnett added.” Remember this happened before in Florida.

Baltika buys a brewery in Azer…bye…
Baltika just purchased a brewery in Azerbaijan, where it currently holds 3.5% of the beer market. This is Azerbaijan. Pretty slick move, considering the country’s capital, Baku, is a contender for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

NPR is worried about the beer
Comedic writer, Dennis O’Toole, calls on the US to create a strategic hops reserve and a beer tax holiday. Amen, brother.

Was it worth it?
In Montgomery, Ala., people will shoot you (twice) for a 12-pack of Bud Light. Beer thievery is always wrong, but seriously, if someone wants your Bud Light, just please give it to them.

We heart Iron Chef
The Fine Living Network (which honestly we’d never even noticed before) started replaying the original Iron Chef this week—as in the Japanese version, not the crappy American spin-off with bobblehead chefs Bobby Flay and that Italian dude. This is the real deal with Chairman Kaga in all his flamboyant glory in Kitchen Stadium. Back in the day, we spent many a Friday night watching this oddly mesmerizing show. Nothing says quality television like chefs in shiny colorful costumes rising on hydraulics. And the secret ingredient? It’s just too much. It’s like food theater!

That’s how we got hooked on Masaharu Morimoto, the Iron Chef of Japanese cooking. We have had the pleasure of meeting him twice at his restaurant in Philadelphia, where he was actually making our sushi. (And give the guy credit for launching his Rogue line of beer.) Anyway, if you’ve never seen Iron Chef, you must. Every night at 11pm. 
[photo: fineliving.com/Fuji Television Network]

Tom Waits playing in Knoxville
We picked up a Mountain Xpress yesterday and flipping through, out of nowhere, we see this big picture of Tom Waits. He’s touring. And playing Knoxville. The Glitter and Doom Tour went on sale at 9am this morning. The awesome hubby got us orchestra seats, though a credit card glitch bumped us from row C to row T. At $85 per ticket, it’s pricey, but being that he tours so infrequently—and we had a Tom Waits song as our non-traditional bridal dance—we would not miss it for the world. For more stuff on Tom, go to the Library.

“We’re going to the deep south where they still love a man who wears red pants and they make him feel welcome.”

We leave you with this fine performance of 1985’s Rain Dogs.

We love this! In NYC, two disgruntled corporate guys (and brothers) launched a new site, Beermenus.com. Will and Eric Stephens’ site is dedicated to providing beer menus of restaurants in the NYC metro area—”a growing compendium that lists 263 beer menus and 1,386 different beers from pubs around Manhattan and, now, Brooklyn.” As the popularity of beer continues to grow, this could easily expand into something for big beer cities across the country. 

“The site, which went live on April 24, is deviously simple to use. You can search for a pub, a beer or a neighborhood. Each pub listing includes an address, phone, hours and Google map. The list of beers includes the brewery, alcohol by volume and price per bottle or glass. Click on the name of a beer and you are then taken to a list of pubs that sell it.”

While one of our favorite BeerAdvocate tools, BeerFly, does a great job in telling you where to find good beer in a particular area when your planning for travel, no one to date (that we know of) has provided beer menus along with a dynamic searching option.

The Bruisin’ Ales Tech Department upgraded to the new Wordpress last night (still the best free blogging program out there) and sure enough, reformatting is a bitch. Now that they’ve added this nifty little “insert custom character” button, you can do those fancy accents and stuff right in the visual editor.

Seems all our previous posts that included special characters—which were done by the old school ALTkey coding—have replaced themselves with mumble-jumble. It’s mostly still readable, but if you visit the archives, we appear to not speak English and/or have poor spelling.