Beer Monday: San Diego Edition

To celebrate my beloved San Diego Padres choking away the playoffs, beer Monday is all about San Diego. I guess a lot of my posts thus far have been, but San Diego has some amazing breweries that need to be heard.

I am recently realized I am an ale man. Any and every type of ale I love. Seems like San Diego is an ale town. A match made in heaven.

We start with my all time favorite brewery ever times 10: Stone. We go there whenever we go to San Diego. It is amazing (PS, we went 2 weekends ago and have yet to post about it. Stay tuned!). The brew for today is the Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA.



I sort of botched the pour, but this is a pretty amazing beer! I guess the best way to describe an Imperial IPA is an extra hoppy and extra alcoholic IPA. This beer has a pretty robust 8.9% Alcohol Content by Volume, which is pretty awesome. It is made in limited batched. You actually can't find it anymore. I bought a bottle right after it was released, about a month ago. Stone makes amazing IPAs. I am drinking this one as a write. I hope it makes sense. Should you be interested in more, check out Stone's site.

Additional, Amanda and I and a bunch of friends and family went to Disneyland over the weekend to celebrate Amanda's Birthday. More on that later. But at California Adventure they have a beer garden of sorts that sells Karl Strauss, another San Diego favorite. I went with the Red Trolley Ale.



As you can see, it was good.

Happy, beer drinking, birthday celebrating folks.



Until next time. More on Stone and Disneyland soon.

A slightly sick Beer Monday

So I am feeling a bit under the weather and it was a hectic weekend, but I have a wonderful beer to share. It is a San Diego beer that is pretty amazing.







This is the Pizza Port Good Grief Brown Ale. I drank a bit before I took the picture, clearly a rookie mistake. I don't like a lot of darker beers, but this is pretty fantastic. A little bit sweet and a little bit nutty, but really good. And any reference to Charlie Brown is amazing. I did a bit of research and this beer recently was awarded a Silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival a few weeks back. Pizza Port is one of a long line of amazing San Diego breweries so if you can find it, drink it! Or any of Pizza Port's brews. They also have, from what I understand, an amazing Brewpub in San Diego that Amanda and I will hit up ASAP...maybe sooner.



I should probably also say thanks to everyone who has voted(and hopefully continue to vote!) for us on Project Food Blog. We love you all. The meal Amanda made last night was amazingly good and something we had never made before. Have I ever mentioned how good of a cook Amanda is? She is currently busy making another amazing dinner. I'm lucky.

I write, I travel, I eat...I AM ANTHONY BOURDAIN!

So, rewind to July 5th, 2010. That is our anniversary. We are in Kauai, about to do some snorkeling. But first, it is a gift exchange. I gave Amanda a gift card to a local spa. She was pleased. Amanda gave me Anthony Bourdain's newest book, "Medium Raw" AND tickets to see him live September 18th in San Diego. Saturday was the 18th, so we saw Anthony Bourdain!!!

Amanda's edit: I have to thank Mama Pea for this one. I saw her blog about seeing him live and bought the tickets immediately after reading her post.

I love Bourdain. I love No Reservations, and I love his thoughts on how to travel and eat local. I try so hard when traveling to eat like the locals, but he makes it look way easy than it is. I find him hilarious on top of it. I love him on Top Chef. I love Kitchen Confidential. I love that if he read our blog he would think we were morons. I love his hate for vegans, equating them to terrorists organizations (I, of course, don't believe this true... just funny). I love his hate for Rachel Ray, Paula Dean, and Sandra Lee. I want to be Bourdain, minus the drug use. Ok, I have a man crush. Whatever.

So we were in the back, and the pictures didn't come out great, but that's ok.

Highlights:

1. The woman in front of us. So, we are sitting down and she sits down in front of us. Then she basically looks at us and others around us and sounds way too loud "I am surprised so many young people are here. I wouldn't think they could relate!" Amanda and I got the biggest laugh of the evening before the show started. Has this woman seen the show? He talked about The Ramones and the New York Dolls, which the woman was confused about. He talked about many sex acts that you don't bring up in polite company. He talked about eating the "poopchute" of a wild boar. The woman feel asleep about 20 minutes in. I'm not sure if she knew what she was getting into. I think she wanted Paula Dean's deep fried mac and cheese. She sucked, we laughed.

2. He talked about a few chapters of the book. McDonald's being evil and Ronald killing children. How fast food establishments might serve meat treated with ammonia. Sandra Lee molesting him. Funny, even if I knew the story.

3. His thoughts on all sorts of food personalities and shows. He likes Giada, even if she has a giant head. He likes Adam Richman, even if he is probably one more buffalo wing away from a massive coronary. He like Andrew Zimmern, who has had similar substance abuse issues as Tony. He likes Alton Brown, despite his hacky Iron Chef America show. He doesn't like Bobby Flay so much.

4. He took audience questions. I asked him a questions. I asked "So, I love Top Chef, but it appears to me that Padma hates the contestants, hates everything she eats, hates Tom and certainly hates you. Does she?" He replied that he doesn't really know her well enough, but that Gail is lovely. Read: "I can't say, because I like that gig and they pay me well. But yeah, she is a Bitch. Gail, however, is super attractive and if I wasn't married we would have a nice relationship."

5. Bad audience questions. I hope mine wasn't stupid. But compared to the 3 people asking him for jobs, the guy that asked why there was a viewer discretion advised warning before each episode, and the woman asking him if he ever smokes pot, I have a feeling I didn't suck so hard.

6. I love his thoughts on travel. So he shared how to get into other cultures and eat what they eat and live how they live. Makes me instantly want to travel more. So we will.

This is the back of my head, Tony listening intently.

After, we went to a local brewery which we have raved about in the past, Stone, and enjoyed a beer.

I look way too happy. I love you Anthony Bourdain. Thanks for a great evening. If I was a shameless self promoter I would have mentioned by blog to you. I didn't. I don't suck.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

Here is the next installment of Beer Monday. I get to wax about stuff I don't know about, while pretending I do.

Amanda and I have sort of fell in love with this beer from Dogfish Head:

Dogfish Head Festina Peche! I don't know how to pronounce it, but is is amazing. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it. It is sort of champagne light and bubbly but tastes like peaches and is a malt beverage. It is a great, light, and refreshing summer time beer. We love it, and it is probably going away (or already gone!...wait until next year.) We found it at Whole Foods.

I am double dipping today. Here is another beer we tried this week:

From the makers of Blue Moon, Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale. It is not nearly as intense and delicious as the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. It is a great beer to enjoy with a fall-ish meal. We had with with some spaghetti squash, which I thought was great. You can tell it is mass produced and doesn't have the same love or quality of the DFH ale, but it isn't as full bodied either, which could appeal to people. I don't love it or hate it, just sort of indifferent, but I have no problem drinking it in large amounts. It is a brown ale with a bit of pumpkin spices.

So, best fall beer? I know last week people gave a ton of amazing suggestions, so Amanda and I will see if we can find some of them soon. Also, Oktoberfest starts soon, so I think we might need some amazing Oktoberfest beers. I have some favorites for sure, what about you?

I Have a Dream

Sometimes I sit up late at night and I think about things I should do. One evening the following conversation took place between Amanda and I.

Me: I have a great idea! I should blog, once a week, about new beer to try!

Amanda: ok.

You can see the indifference.

So, this is what I plan to do. Spurred by the start of the National Football League (Go Chargers!), I think every Monday will be Beer Monday. Here is the real brain child. I didn't like beer at all until about 2 years ago. To that point, I didn't drink alcohol at all until I was 22 or 23. Why? I don't know. I didn't really care for most of my friends growing up who act like degenerates while intoxicated. Then I went to a "party school" in San Diego State, and saw way too many people of questionable morals. So I didn't drink, until one day I decided that I should. So I do, and I think I do so responsibly.

Fast forward to now, and my quest is to find good beer. Which essentially boils down to good American craft beers. So here I am today.

Last week I bought a bottle of this

Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA. As stated in the past, I love IPAs. I heard good things about this one, and it is a native of California...Sonoma County. What is not to love? It was ridiculously good. One of my favorite IPAs.

I really have nothing else to say. I don't want to be a snob, I have no idea how to describe beer as far as color, taste, body, or anything else goes. I know IPAs are really hoppy. I know I love that. Do I need to know more? Maybe I do. I think often we get too bogged down with details when all that really matters is: did I enjoy it?

The real quest here is I want to know more and taste more. Try different, new, beers. If you have anything good, I want to try it.

So, tell me your favorite.

I should also share my new favorite website for all things beer, http://www.beeradvocate.com/. Check it out!

14th Anniversary Stone Brewing Company Festival

This is a few weeks in the making and Amanda wanted me to do it. I just started work again, and the beginning of the school year is hectic and weird. But I have a little time now and I don't want to grade essays yet (but if you want to grade them for me, I can pay you in cookies!)

So a few weeks ago Amanda and I went to San Diego with a few friends to attend the 14th Anniversary Stone Brewing Company Festival. This is one of my favorite breweries and is about 5 miles from where I grew up. Every year they hold a little B-Day party where they get breweries from all over the world and sample beers. You basically get 3 hours and 10 pours(I think they are about 3 oz.). The festival was on the campus of Cal State San Marcos, but the brewery is located about 5 miles east of the school in Escondido. So our day of drinking in the sun began at the brewery. We tried to do a tour of the brewery but it was packed, so we just ate at the brewery...and drank. This place has amazing food! And has an really nice patio garden you can sit in.

Amanda started with some Cider. She orders this fairly often. It is pretty good and not too sweet.

We shared some hummus.

On to lunch!

Beer mac n cheese.

BBQ Boar Ribs!

Duck tacos

Ceviche!

We drank a lot too. I had the Stone IPA, which is fantastic. I have no idea what others had. But they were all good.

On to the fest!

Cheers! Taster glasses.

The first beer I went with was the 14th Anniversary Stone Imperial IPA. Damn was it good!

I love IPA's. I love hoppy beer. I don't know too many people that enjoy them as much as I do. This was pretty fantastic.

I really wanted to pull a scene from Sideways and drink from the bucket...but I didn't. This is me and my good friend Brett and his friend Jen. That is a lot of warm, nasty beer.

One of the best parts was the free food. They had this cheese called Mike's Beer Cheese that they gave samples of. We dominated it. Amazing stuff.

And here is Amanda and I with "Mike." I don't know if this is legitmately the guy who makes it, or just a random gentleman, but he was eager to hug.

What you can't see is that I had just has my bandage taken off my arm and my elbow was super sore. I couldn't bend it. The look on my face is pain. I didn't want to look bad in front of "Mike," so I sucked it up.

The rest of the day was basically going tent to tent to get sample of beer. Some were amazing, so were weird. They had this collaboration beer between Victory, Stone, and Dogfish Head. It was horrible. Like drinking sweaty gym socks. You can't win them all. Here are just more pictures. Some favorite breweries and beers we tasted.

Deadliest Catch fans? This is Captain Sig's brew!

I look nuts because I couldn't bend my right arm.

Amanda is cute.

Now to relate a conversation that happen as we were leaving. None of us were drunk. We actually didn't even drink all 10 pours we were allowed. Amanda and Jen sold a few for $5. But some folks drank too much. As we were leaving, a lovely, drunk young lady had the following conversation with me:

Drunky: Hey, do you have a girlfriend?

Me: Umm, I am married.

Drunky: *shoves me away, moves on to someone else*

It is good to know drunk girls will still hit on me.

So, any beer suggestions? I love trying new, interesting beers. If you have never had Stone, try the Stone Pale Ale or Stone IPA. Or Dogfish Head 60 min or 90 min IPA. Stone also makes Arrogant Bastard Ale which is great. What are you drinking?

Note from Amanda: I am way too excited for pumpkin beer!

Don't forget to enter our Maranatha Nut Butter giveaway! Click here to enter

Disney's Food and Wine Festival

Wow! I love going to Disneyland and California Adventure but I love it ten times more during the Food & Wine Festival!



We started the day off right with a ham, egg and cheese crossiant.



Here we are with our best friends Tiffany and Gary.



After breakfast, we went to see Captain EO. I'm not going to lie it kind of freaked me out. The 80's were a weird time.



A few hours later, we met up with more best friends to attend the festival.



We started off with small bites. These plates were priced from $2-$5 and were cute and tiny. I got a White Cheddar & Beer soup. TDF!



And an assortment of cheddar cheeses with raisins. I hate raisins so I pawned them off and split some cheese with my friends.



Andy ordered a beef slider.



Friends! Gary, Brett, Adina, Andy and Tiffany.



After our snack, we were on to the wine! They had $10 wine samplings. You got 4 half-pours. We tried wines from California first.





I'm no wine snob, I drank them all!



A few hours later I got another White Cheddar soup. It was that good.



And Adina got a profiterole. I sampled the cream filling. Superb.



We attended another wine tasting. This one was only $1!



A chardonnay, pinot noir and a zinfandel.



Gary, Tiffany and I just cracked up the entire time. We are very mature.









I don't even remember the guy's wine-talk. Sad.



Brett, Adina, Andy and Gary attended a beer walk while Tiffany and I scouted out more wine. Tiffany and I were a little tipsy at this point...







Don't ask.





Amazing! I'll definitely hit up the Food & Wine Festival next year!

--I ran a 5k today! I'll recap tomorrow! :)