On November 15, The Bistro in Hayward, California held their 3rd Annual West Coast Barrel Aged Beer Festival. On tap were over 60 Barrel Aged Beers, a few in bottles. The weather cooperated by being unseasonably warm with temperatures as high as 90! It was hard to believe it was the Ides of November. Vic Krajl, Bistro owner, had been inspired by GABF and set up a new tap system using PVC pipe and served beer from pitchers, allowing more beer to be served in smaller space, which had the added benefit of making getting a beer quicker, too.

There were a lot of very tasty beers this year, such as Deschutes’ Mirror Mirror, Fifity-Fifty’s BART (a blend of barleywine and oatmeal stout), He’Brew’s Bittersweet Lenny’s RIPA (a rye IPA aged in a rye whisky barrel), a 2006 vintage of the Lost Abbey’s Angel’s Share, Russian River’s newest beer — Consecration.

Some of the stand-out beers for me included Avery’s Vogelbekdieren, Marin’s Grand Funk, Veritas 002 from Port Brewing, Russian River’s Beatification, Schooners’ Vindecation, and Echt Kriekenbier from Verhaeghe, a Flemish cherry ale blend (of 1, 2, & 3 year olds) from the same brewery that makes Duchese De Bourgogne.

And speaking of Duchese De Bourgogne, a personal favorite, it was great to try some on draft since it’s usually only available in bottles. There were a few other beers at the festival on draft that were a treat to try just for that reason, which included Allagash’s Curieux and Rodenbach Grand Cru.

My favorite beer name was a three-way tie. First there was Bear Republic’s Cuvee du Bubba and Valley Brewing’s Effingreat. And Craig Cauwels’ homage to the sour beers that Vinnie Cilurzo makes at Russian River, Vindecation has an interesting back story. Craig originally submitted it to the TTB as “Vin.de.cation” but the feds rejected it because having it begin with “Vin” they felt might confuse consumers into thinking Schooner’s was implying it was a “vintage.” So the dots were removed, obscuring the meaning just a little bit. The name is actually a portmanteau, which is a word formed by combining elements of two or more words to create a new one. Vindecation stands for “Vinnie deserves a vacation.”

Bistro co-owner Vic Krajl and Tammy at the entrance to the festival.

For more photos from this year’s West Coast Barrel Aged Beer Festival at the Bistro, visit the photo gallery.
 

Though it won’t stop the deal from closing, the Department of Justice placed one condition on their approval, which was given on Friday, a mere two days after A-B shareholders approved it. DOJ approval was one of the remaining items on the laundry list of “to do” items that had be ticked off in order to complete the takeover of Anheuser-Busch by InBev.

That condition is that Labatt USA must be sold off within an unsepcificed period of time, though present contracts will remain in force for three years. The DOJ’s rationale was that without a sale by A-BIB of Labatt USA prices to consumers would be expected to rise in Buffalo and other parts of northern New York due to the sudden lack of competition the merger brings. About half of the Labatt beer sold in the U.S> is sold in that area.

The Buffalo News has the full story, and there’s an AP article as well.
 

Sadly, I can’t be everywhere at once, and I had at least five articles due this week. As a result, I had to decline an invitation to attend a beer dinner featuring Denise Jones’ beers from Moylan’s that was held Thursday at Noon’s Bar & Grill in Larkspur, California. Happily, Bulletin correspondent — and real-life newspaper man — Brent Ainsworth was on hand to give us his report on the beer dinner. Here’s what he had to say:

Taste buds were spoiled with a luxurious spa treatment Nov. 13 when Moylan’s ace brewer Denise Jones hosted a brewmasters dinner at Noonan’s Bar & Grill in Larkspur, Calif. Jones and her staff unveiled some special ales and executive chef Jose Flores delighted the diners with delectable treats including smoked oysters and quail.

Moylan’s brewmaster Denise Jones and Chef Jose Flores.

The menu:

A trio of passed hors d’oeuvres: poached white prawns with spicy tomato & pepper relish; Dungeness crab crostinis with tarragon aioli; smoked Point Reyes oysters. Served with Moylan’s ESB

Marinated Niman Ranch tenderloin of beef on a bed of arugula, fennel and orange with cilantro vinaigrette. Served with Moylan’s Oktoberfest Marzen

Banana leaf-wrapped Pacific rockfish in adobo sauce with vegetable-filled passilla pepper and queso fresco. Served with Moylan’s White Christmas Winter Lager

Wheat ale & lemon granita

Pan-roasted quail filled with dried cranberries, wild mushrooms and spinach with sauce Bernaise. Served with Moylan’s IPA

Walnut bread pudding with malted barley caramel reduction. Served with a trio of Moylan’s Ryan Sullivan Imperial Stout variations (bourbon barrel, espresso and chocolate infused, fresh raspberry).

Jones grew up hunting and fishing in eastern California’s rugged country, and she said she often craves the kind of fresh game she used to shoot as a kid. So she worked with Flores, a native of Mexico City, to hand-craft a menu that included flavors from her personal history. The roasted quail worked perfectly with the mushrooms, cranberries and spinach. “Quail is tricky to do because you have to make it moist,” Flores told the diners.

The rockfish was actually corvina, a member of the seabass family, that Flores had brought in from Ecuador. The gravita, a granular sorbet, was a cool breeze after the fish and before the quail.

Beerwise, the dinner got off to a smooth start as the extra special bitter almost stepped aside graciously to let the hors d’oeourves show off their deep-sea flavor. Jones’ Oktoberfest Marzen was light in body and crisp in autumn flavor, “almost a German cousin to an Irish red,” she said. The combination of the fish and the White Christmas Winter Lager was a sweet pre-holiday treat, and the bitterness of Jones’ signature IPA helped the quail take a posthumous flight as the meal’s star attraction.

Then came the three stouts – a style dear to Jones’ heart. The bourbon barrel version was aged only about 3-4 months, according to brewer Jim Grbac, and was intentionally more subtle than more monstrous bourbon barrel stouts floating around. The espresso/chocolate had a nose to die for thanks to Wolf Coffee Sumatra blend and Scharffen Berger dark chocolate. The raspberry stout went down like a 20-year-old cabernet sauvignon.

“These three stouts are the same age, same basic ingredients, same everything except for the infusions, and we’ve come up with three very different results,” Jones said.

Thanks to Brent Ainsworth for that great glimpse into the beer dinner. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there, its all looks delicious.

Portland’s Green Dragon, one of the newest bars on the scene (and trying to be a brewery) has been in a trouble almost from the beginning, despite vigorous support from the Portland community. It was founded, at least in part, by my good friend Jim Parker. It’s a great space and I’ve had a few wonderful times there. But it appears that Rogue is close to inking a deal to buy the location. According to the Brewpublic, the deal could close as early as sometime today. Brewpublic and others seem oddly opposed to it on a variety of levels, and rumors abound about the Green Dragon’s fate, and that of its employees. Rogue has responded that there are negotiations, but that’s all that’s known for sure at this time.

The Green Dragon during this year’s OBF.

Here is a chart of the latest style trends broken out by the top six selling styles, based on eighteen-month’s worth of sales as of November 2, 2008, courtesy of DBBB, the Domestic Brewers Bottled Brands. They publish the book, “The Essential Reference of Domestic Brewers and Their Bottled Brands” and have a website, which offers monthly online updates of the book.

The chart is based on IRI Data showing sales of beer from May 2007 through November 2nd of this year by beer style. IRI is short for Information Resources, Inc., a company that surveys sales of beer (and everything else) from over 15,000 retailers (mostly groceries) in the U.S. As a result, their data is invariably skewed toward the national and regional brands since it doesn’t take into account direct sales and sales from small mom & pop stores. I used to get IRI data from almost every medium to large brewer who called on me when I was the beer buyer for BevMo. And while it’s not as accurate for craft beer in specific, it does give you a general idea of certain trends, especially when you follow it over a period of time.

Today was the 4th annual Guinness World Records Day and several new records were set. Anita Schwartz, a German barmaid set a new world record for “Most Beer Steins Carried Over 40 Meters” by carrying 19 of them.

The BBC has video of her record-setting 40-meter journey onto the records book.

Congratulations to Ms. Schwartz on her record setting performance.

Chow, the food magazine, has an interview with Russian River brewer/co-owner Vinnie Cilurzo on their website called Vinnie Cilurzo Gets Funky. It’s a fun little interview, but where dd they get that photo? Sheesh.

Moving one step closer to a reality, Anheuser-Busch shareholders voted earlier today to approve the takeover by InBev, whose shareholders likewise approved the deal on September 29. The merger is now expected to close by the end of this year, pending regulatory approvals and other conditions stipulated under the contract.

From the press release:

“The proposed merger between Anheuser-Busch and InBev under consideration today was a difficult decision for our board to make,” said August A. Busch IV, president and CEO, in comments made during the meeting. “In the end, the board determined that the InBev proposal is in the best interest of our shareholders. The merger also provides a promising future for our beer brands and for all stakeholders — employees, wholesalers, retailers and our consumers.”

“Under the merger, the new company will expand Budweiser into new markets around the world, fulfilling the global ambitions my family has long dreamed about for this great American brand. I’m proud that the Budweiser tradition and our 150-year commitment to delivering the best brewed beer in the world will live on,” said Busch. “I want to sincerely thank our shareholders for the support they have given me and this great company for so many years.”

August A. Busch IV will be a director of the newly combined company, which will take the name Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Despite some recent rumors about problems with obtaining the financing under the present global economic downturn, all seems to be going along smoothly. It now looks like, barring any additional financial market calamity, there’s nothing standing in the way of this merger taking place and closing before 2009.

My one quibble with A-B’s statement today — there’s always something, right — is Busch’s comment that “[t]he merger also provides a promising future for our beer brands and for all stakeholders — employees, wholesalers, retailers and our consumers.” Maybe, but it certainly does not do so equally or evenly. Many of the employees who will be laid off might not feel that their futures have been made better by the merger. Likewise, distributor shakeups will inevitably take place, which I’m skeptical will be for the better. As for how it affects consumers, only time will tell.