World Beer Cup Champion Brewery Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey will be celebrating its second anniversary next weekend with a big party, music, food, and (of course) lost of Port / Lost Abbey beers.

Additionally, they’ll be putting out three new releases including Port 2nd Anniversary (a huge double IPA), Inferno (one hell of a golden strong ale) and Cuvee de Tomme (GABF and WBC Gold medal winner).

There’s only going to be 150 cases of CdT released, with a 6 bottle max per person, so if you want some, I recommend you get there early.

All the details on the party and special releases are on the Lost Abbey website right here.

Yikes — and I thought Tomme Arthur’s beers were expensive

But Carlsberg at $400 a bottle takes the cake.

&raquo Link (Via Bloomberg)

National Public Radio announced this morning that the Four Points Hotel chain’s “Chief Beer Officer” position was their pick for the “Job of 2007″. (No kidding…)

Draft Magazine founder, Scott Kerkmans, landed the position back in March of 2007 after more than 7,000 people applied. The part-time job involves visiting breweries, festivals and bars in search of beer for the hotel chain.

I, of course, have be engaged in the same occupation for quite some time — just for free. (Anyone willing to pay me, please drop me a note.)

The NPR broadcast snippet is available online right here. (Via NPR)

Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey has three reasons you need to drop that leftover turkey leg and get on down to the brewery this weekend — Namely Older Viscosity, Amazing Grace and Gift of the Maji.

These are three new releases available in limited quantities only at the brewery this Saturday the 24th.

Older V and Amazing Grace are barrel-aged wonders and Gift of the Maji is the first release of brewery’s new Winter seasonal.

I’ve had Older V and Amazing Grace (both awesome naturally) , but GOTM has never passed my lips. Given that it’s a Biere de Garde bottle conditioned with Brett, I’ve no doubt that it’s amazing and gets more so as time goes on. (A lot like my wife.)

All the details of the release are on the Lost Abbey website.

Fans of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut will recall the movie’s climactic scene in which Tom Cruise sneaks into a mansion to discover a masked orgy (Warning: NSFW).

Under contract with Warner Bros. to deliver an “R” rated movie in the U.S., Kubrick was forced was forced to alter the sex scene for American audiences by using computer-generated “silhouettes” to obscure the offending adult behavior. (European audiences got to view the scene in all its original naked glory.)

I mention this because Port Brewing released its holiday Russian Imperial Stout, Santa’s Little Helper, this week and it seems that brewer Tomme Arthur ran into much the same problem as Kubrick and came up with a very similar solution.

Turns out that allowing Santa Claus to appear on a beer label is a big no-no to some authorities. (No word on masked orgies.) As a result Port Brewing was forced to alter the SLR label by using a printing press-generated silhouette to obscure the offending fat man in the red suit. Take a look (click for larger image):

The “no Santa rule” exists supposedly to prevent children from being enticed into drinking 9.5% Imperial Stouts and I have to admit, now that it’s an elf, a cartoon reindeer and a mysterious silhouette, the label really is far less “child-friendly”. (More amusing, note that the blacked-out figure’s gloved hand still appears.)

I guess we Americans can once again rest assured now that our government has protected us from another scourge on society.

No word yet on whether those decadent Europeans are getting the uncensored label.

Yeah, the cat’s a bit out of the bag (I’ve seen the news on the beer forums), but if you hadn’t heard, Lost Abbey’s The Angel’s Share is out this Saturday, November 10th!

Brewery doors open at 10am and everyone is limited to 6 bottles (and they’re taking ID, so don’t bother to try and come back for more). Cost is going to be $15/bottle and the supply is pretty limited, so get there early. (It’s not going into distribution — brewery sale only.)

Full details are on the Lost Abbey website.

We were there last weekend for th bottling. Here’s a few photos for your viewing pleasure:

Baumer (left) lines up empty bottles on the left while Adam and Damien (center) fill and move them to the right

Bottles lined up on the filler

Tomme (second from right) runs the corker and Bo (far right) the wire capper.

Corked bottles awaiting their caps and wires. Is one of those bottles yours?

Saturday September 8th we’re heading out to Stone Brewing’s 11th Anniversary party.

It’ll be our fourth time at the festival, and we always have a great time. There will be 39 breweries from as far away as Holland and Germany pouring beer that weekend, plus a lot of great food and fun
people.

It’s been ungodly hot here lately (well into the upper 90’s / low 100’s), so we’re hoping that it cools down before Saturday — especially since they’ve moved the festival to the upper parking lot this year, which is a giant heat-dish of black asphalt. If you’re thinking of going to the celebration, make sure to say hi to Molly and me. We’ll be at the second session which starts around 2:45 pm.

Before the Stone thingy we’ll be at Port Brewing (only 5 minutes away) for their big “pre-Stone” brunch. Tomme and Vince lay out a huge spread food — eggs, pancakes, toast, tortillas, and at least half a dozen pork products (sausage, bacon, ham, chorizo, you name it) — to chow down on while you enjoy some tasty Port and Lost Abbey brews.

It’s a perfect way to lay down a solid meat and starch foundation to get you through the Stone party. (Or to get you through a day of hanging at Port Brewing — which many people do.)

The Port brunch starts at 8:30am and runs to… well, usually whenever. I recommend getting there early, however, as the crowds get pretty large. The food is free and the beers are a very reasonable $3 or so a pint. Tomme is also threatening to pull some magic out of the barrel room, so you might also be treated to some real rarities in the beer world.

Naturally Molly and I will be there first thing in the morning. Look for Molly in one of her beer festival dirndls. I’ll probably do sometihng special too — like wear a clean t-shirt. If you don’t run into us at Stone, make sure to give us a shout while you’re there.

» More info & Tickets for Stone Brewing’s 11th Anniversary

» More info on the Prot Brewing Pre-Stone Brunch

I’ve been to quite a few beer festivals, but I don’t think I’ll be attending any in Serbia any time soon. From the article:

BELGRADE, Serbia (Reuters) — A 23-year old Serb was found dead and half-eaten in the bear cage of Belgrade Zoo at the weekend during the annual beer festival.

The man was found naked, with his clothes lying intact inside the cage. Two adult bears, Masha and Misha, had dragged the body to their feeding corner and reacted angrily when keepers tried to recover it.

“There’s a good chance he was drunk or drugged. Only an idiot would jump into the bear cage,” zoo director Vuk Bojovic told Reuters.

Local media reported that police found several mobile phones inside the cage, as well as bricks, stones and beer cans.

Gotta love the zoo director’s quote. “Drunk”, “drugged”, or “an idiot.” I’ve seen all three at beer festivals before (sometimes in the same person) — just never with a couple of bears involved. If you ask me, that’s Darwinism at work.

Via CNN.com