Beer Events and Stuff

The next couple weeks should be filled with some very nice opportunities to have great beer. On Saturday, January 19th, The Lost Abbey is releasing its Flanders-style red ale Red Poppy. I will be down there standing in line before 10am to buy the 4 bottles they are allotting each person who gets there in time. I've said it before but Red Poppy was my favorite beer amongst all the great beers tasted at the Lost Abbey First Annual Barrel Tasting.

The following Saturday and Sunday, January 26th/27th, is the start of a 2-day grand opening party for the recently relocated Liars' Club, now in Alpine. The tap list blows away anything I've ever seen before with some of these special treats on tap- Russian River Toronado 20th, Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig, Damnation; Pizza Port Carlsbad AtTENuation; Alpine Duet, Pure and Exponential Hoppiness; La Folie; as well as stuff from Alesmith, Green Flash, Allagash, Craftsman, Moonlight, Rubicon, Ballast Point and others.

Also on Sunday the 27th starts the Stone Winter Storm, an event in which all 30-something taps will be filled by Stone beers alone. If last year was any indication we'll be seeing most, if not all, of the Vertical Epic's, many of the Anniversary ales, and many vintages of certain beers (last year I think they had Stone IRS back to '02 or so). There will also be a bunch of the standard beers with altered hops or hopping processes (ie Double Dry Hopped Stone IPA, or Stone IPA with "X" hops). This event runs though Saturday, February 2nd.

That gives us a good 2 week break before the next big event which thankfully happens to be a bit closer to home. I'm talking about Lucky Baldwin's 9th Belgian Beer Festival taking place from February 16th to March 2nd. It will be at both the Pasadena and Sierra Madre locations.