new beers

This week, I had the good fortune of having a friend from southern California up to visit for the past few days. He brought up a couple of beers that aren't available in Oregon, that I'm eager to try. First, although he wasn't able to come up with any of the port/lost abbey special release beers, he did bring me a Hop 15 imperial IPA, as well as a Santa's little Helper imperial stout. I'm eagerly looking forward to getting into these. The Hop 15 sooner, rather than later, and the Santa's little helper probably closer to the holidays. He also brought up a Torrey Pines IPA from left coast brewing in San Clemente. I had never heard of this one, but it's another I'll probably be getting into soon. As for acquisitions I made on my own, I picked up this years St. Bernardus christmas beer, pike entire wood aged stout (hopefully without the funk this time around), and the De Proef/Bell's collaboration beer, Van Twee. I'm pretty excited about grabbing the last beer. It was the first beer that I had tried at the portland international beer festival this year, because I had read up on it before hand, and was really intrigued by the description. A blend of belgian porter and dubbel styles, made with cherries and cane sugar grown in Michigan, and fermented with brettanomyces.

While I thought this beer was really tasty at the festival, I also thought the brett hadn't been given quite enough time to present itself, so I look forward to holding onto one of these bottles for a few months to see if, given time, it can assert itself more fully.

I also found a couple of old LIFE magazines from the 60's in a closet here in the house. I was really hopeful to find some good old beer ads inside, but only found one; a nice full page schlitz ad showing a smiling man holding up an emptied chalice, full of beautiful lacing. It promises a light flavor with "just a kiss of the hops". "real gusto in a great light beer"

I also found an ad for a malt beverage I hadn't heard of before called Champale; which asks "What looks like champagne, pours like champagne, tastes like champagne, yet costs just pennies more than beer?" Champale Malt Liquor.

In addition to these two, I also found two great old crow ads. One for a slim designed fifth for "the man that's going places", and the other describing an encounter with Mark Twain, who apparently liked Old Crow so much, he visited the distillery in person to pick up bottles for his own private stock. The bottom of the ad offers a $250 reward for any proof of a connection between famous 19th century people and Old Crow.

I'd like to find some old weathered frames that look appropriate for ads as old as these, and frame them for the cave.

I'll see what I can dig up at the thrift store.