Brother Tom Amongst Beer Geeks

This morning, upon request of the three beer club members in Mexico, I stopped by Town Hall Brewery to pick up a growler of their first release for Big and Barrel Aged Week. Here's a list of what they have to offer



I had no idea that the beers are released at noon each day, and since I got there around 11:45 I found myself in the midst of a large number of beer geeks lined up for the release. They were all males who showed up alone with a few empty growlers. Most of them had knit winter hats, and they all had a lot of questions for the young female bartender. No pretzel necklaces, though.

Anyways, I managed to pick up a growler of their Big Ben Double IPA. It's brewed with 5 different kinds of hops (that I don't remember), and comes in at 8.6% ABV. It's the first time this beer has been released, so I'm excited to review it next week at our next meeting. It will be a challenge not to drink the whole thing on Wednesday after my test is over. (Ed Note: I drank the whole thing after my test was over)

Friday Night Special

Last Friday, Brothers Colin, Tom, and Brent found themselves at Brent's new home on the Golden Valley/St. Louis Park border, along with a few other party-goers and potential beer club members. Since Tom brought along a bottle of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, we found ourselves having a discussion as to how many Beer Club members need to be present in order for it to be an official review. Clearly it wasn't an official meeting, because it wasn't scheduled, the beer wasn't split evenly, and everybody wasn't present. However, we believe that a post should be in order since there were three of us there and we all sampled it.

As for the beer, it's an imperial stout that comes in at 13% ABV. My first impression was 'bourbon' all the way. The taste is fairly chocolatey, with vanilla, a little coffee, and some booze heat. It's a solid stout, that's for sure, but not one of my favorites. Brent and Colin both seemed to like it quite a bit, though. We may have to get another bottle for further review, because it's readily available and reasonably priced.

First Meeting

The theme of the first meeting was California beers that aren't distributed in MN. I brought back 6 bottles to share from my weekend trip to San Diego, and a 7th one that went to Brent as a special present.

The first beer we tried was the Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye. It's an American IPA brewed with rye. I found it to be pretty good, but it didn't knock my socks off.

The second we tried was Stone Double Bastard. An American Strong Ale that comes in at 10.5% ABV, DB was well received by all the Brothers.

The third sample was Port Brewing Hop 15. Port Brewing is the distribution name for Pizza Port, which is a chain of 3 brewpub/pizza places in the San Diego area. I managed to make a stop at the Solana Beach location and get far too drunk for a Sunday night in public. As for the Hop 15, I thought it was one of the best Double IPAs I've ever had. It was really citrusy, and didn't taste like 10% of it was sweet, sweet booze. Need to get me some more of this, mm hmm.

Our fourth beer was a break from the Cali theme. Brother Brent brought a bottle of Steenbrugge Tripel to "challenge our palettes," as he said. I thought it was a pretty good tripel. I have a special love for tripels, so even a pretty good one is much better than most other beers. It seemed to go over well with the rest of the club members.

The next Cali beer we tried was Firestone Walker's Pale 31. It is a session Pale Ale, which turned out to be pretty good. It featured light hops and a light flavor. We were in agreement that we could drink 15-20 of these in one session, preferably in the summer.

The sixth beer we tried was AleSmith Speedway Stout. It's a highly regarded imperial stout on BA that came in at 12% ABV. We all thought it was a really good IS with a heavy coffee flavor- moreso than Darkness or Dark Lord. High marks from the whole gang.

The last beer is the famous Russian River Pliny the Elder. It's #5 on BA, and is another Double IPA. It's citrusy, hoppy, and needless to say, delicious.

We all agreed we gained some insight on delicious west coast-ian beer and more than a slight buzz. We'll have some more specific reviews on the next meeting report.

The Founding of the Beer Club

On the cold night of February 18, 2010, five young gentlemen came together at the house of Thomas J Bequette and Derek M Weinberger at 2440 Valders Ave N in the snowy midwestern hamlet of Golden Valley. Joined shortly thereafter by Joseph S Byers, Colin A McCarty, and Brent R Wiessner, they formed the Wild Turkey Beer Drinking Club. While the club has been practiced in spirit for the previous decade, it was decided that it would become an official association with the creation of a blog page.

Brother Thomas had recently returned from the Spanish coastal colony of Saint Diego in the Republic of California, and with him he brought 6 beers of mysterious origin. An idea came over the Five Brothers via Electronic Mail, that we would sample such exotic brews upon the eve of the 18th. The idea turnt to plans, and plans turnt to action. The meeting was such a success that plans for future meetings and reactions to previous meetings shall on this page be displayed henceforth!