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.

Here’s a few photos from the Belgian Beer Party at Pizza Port Carlsbad yesterday.

Naturally, it was a huge beer list. This list is only one side of the bottle list. There was also a draft list and another list of “special” Belgians.

(Click on the image to see a full-sized, readable list)

This photo is just one corner of the bottle line-up. The full line was at least four times longer.

Here’s just a few of the beers on tap

That’s multi-award-winning home brewer, musician and man for all seasons, Julian Shrago looking cool after half a day of pouring excellent Belgians. (If you haven’t heard of this guy yet, you will soon — pretty much anything he brews is amazing and he’s working on opening his own brewery.)

You know those little plastic taster glasses you get at beer festivals? Yeah, well not here. All attendees got a nice Chimay glass. (Goofy look was optional, but frequently seen by the end of the evening.)

Two of the three party sponsors — Tomme Arthur (left) and Tom Nichol — taking a break seven hours into the party. You can’t see it from this angle, but in addition to his monk’s garb, Tom’s also sporting a nice tonsure. Tom’s a baseball fan, so I’m pretty sure he was channeling the San Diego Padres Friar. (Look for him on the JumboTron at the next Padres’ game.)

Sure, you’ve seen Duvel in those cute little bottles, but this is San Diego, home of Big Beer. Here, even the Belgian stuff comes in big bottles. Oh… and the opened a big bottle, Duvel, Chimay, and more (sometimes as big a 6 liters) every hour on the hour.

Former Stone Brewing meister and now brewing consultant to the stars, Lee Chase, got a new yellow hat for the party. (No word as to whether he also go a chimpanzee named George.)

Forget your regular beer festival food, how about fresh plates of steamed mussels to go along with your beer? (Outstanding, btw!)

Here’s Noah (left), head brewer at Pizza Port San Clemente (Beer Molly thinks he’s cute), Sean and PP Bottle Shop Manager Brad hanging out having a good time back by “the good stuff”.

Yup. Pretty much a Belgian beer lover’s playground.

One of the best surprises of the night was Port Brewing/Lost Abbey’s “12 Hour”, a blend of four barrel-aged beers created by the dopey looking guy on the right. That’s Sebastian “Bo” Winegarner, brewer over at Port Brewing/Lost Abbey, and he’s not as goofy as he looks in the photo. (He also makes really good beer.)

Belgian beer party ticket: $45; Shaggy haircut: $6; Hand knit Charlie Brown sweater to wear to the party: priceless.

To check out the all the photos from the party (and post your own comments), click on the photo below:

belgian-beer-party-08

Or you can just watch the slideshow from here:

Well, here it is Lent and time to give up all the good stuff. (Ha! Not really, we’re good Protestants. We don’t do that whole Lent thing.)

We do, however, do photos and we have a bunch from the first Carnevale di Lost Abbey held last Saturday in conjunction with the release of Lost Abbey Carnevale ale.

All these and more are also on the Lost Abbey website.

Today is the grand opening of the Liar’s Club in Alpine, CA The list of beers on tap is incredible! I can’t wait to go and try all of them! Well as many as I can that is.

Here’s the Draft list for the Party:

Plus all these:

And More!

And I am sure they will have many more in the bottle.

The address is:

Liars` Club Alpine Tavern & Grill
2806 Alpine Blvd
Alpine CA 91901

View Larger Map

We will be blogging live tonight. So check in and you can see all the fun! Yes, I got a new dirndl for this opening!

Cheers!

Beer Molly

Lost Abbey / Port Brewing has just announced that they’ll be celebrating the release of their new Carnevale Ale with a Masquerade party in the true Venetian tradition.

It just so happens that Carnevale di Venezia is held in the Piazza di San Marco, and coincidentally, Lost Abbey is located in San Marcos, which is as good a reason as any to get dressed up in costume and masks and do a little misbehaving before Lent.

The masquerade will feature live music, food and (of course) all of those great Lost Abbey beers. Anyone who wears a costume will be admitted to the party for free. All others must pay a nominal $10 at the door.

That evening Lost Abbey will also be releasing Carnevale Ale, which is a brand new release for them. It’s a blonde Saison accented with American hops — I had a little sample last week, and naturally it’s an outstanding beer. (Does Tomme and crew make any other kind?) It’ll be released in 750ml cork-finished bottles at $8.99 each.

The Masquerade and release party will be held February 2, 2008 from 6pm to 10pm.

All the details can be found on the Lost Abbey website right here. There’s also a flyer with all the details you can download (and email, print, etc.) right here.

This weekend in the 11th Annual Strong Ale Festival at Pizza Port, Carlsbad. It runs from 4pm to 11pm Friday (tonight), and from 11am to 11pm Saturday. There’s also a VIP session that runs from 1pm to 4pm today.

Alas, it’s raining right now, so the VIP event may be a little soggy (word has it they’re fixing that by covering the entire event area with canopies), but that’s okay because Molly and I won’t be there anyway ( ). We’ll be tending bar over at Lost Abbey instead.

We will, however, be in attendance for tomorrow’s session. The weatherman has promised clear skies and Molly has a new English wench dress she’s been dying to wear. We should be showing up around 5pm and hanging out through close, so make sure to say ‘howdy’ if you see us.

For all the details on the Strong Ale festival, check out the Pizza Port Website

Hello Everyone!

Tomorrow is Green Flash’s 5th Anniversary Party. The gang and I will all be in attendance for this event. I will be blogging live tomorrow and letting you know about all the good beer we will be drinking. The tickets are $20 a person and you get 10 – 4oz tasters. I am trying to decide what Dirndl to wear tomorrow. But I’m sure whatever one I pick will be fine. Tomorrow is Gina’s of Port Brewing’s Birthday as well. So, if you see her say Happy Birthday. Cheers!

65 cases, 140 people, Gone in 2 hours

Yep, that’s all it took for last Saturday’s much-anticipated release of Angel’s Share to go from “available” to “sold out for 2007”.

People started lining up at 8 am and by the 10 am opening the queue stretched across the parking lot. Fortunately, the details of the release — which was limited to 6 bottles per person — were thought out in advance, so the maximum number of people were able to get their share of the Angel’s Share.

While in line everyone placed a reserve on the number of bottles they were purchasing. Once inside, one simply walked up to the counter, showed ID and made their purchase. Then they were free to enjoy a few pints of the many other beers on tap that day with the confidence that their allotment of the good stuff would be waiting for them in the lobby upon exit. It all made for a festive and very relaxed atmosphere.

The most amusing note: A guy who couldn’t make the release, placed an ad on Craiglist for a stand-in. The stand-in’s name? Pabst.