A little over a year ago, a few friends and I began an
experiment called the League of Extraordinary Beers. In
that time, I’ve sampled a lot of good beers, and if the club has done anything,
it has extended the reach of my friends and me, and allowed us to try a lot of
beers we otherwise would have never been exposed too. It’s not that they beers are hard to come by,
but when I am shopping, I tend to stick with beer or breweries I am familiar
with. Below are some of the best and
worst beers I’ve had in the last year because of this beer swap group.
WINNERS
Stone Sublimely Self Righteous – Jeremy Dwork (anything goes
round)
Firestone Wookie Jack – Vu Pham (Nor Cal Beers)
Allagash White – Brent Cole (“Light” Beers)
Ballast Point Victory at Sea – Shaun Healey (Porters and
Stouts)
Alpine Nelson – Shaun Healey (San Diego Beers and one of the
best beers of the year!)
Mission Brewery Carrack – Richard Heath (Religious Themed
beers, another outstanding one)
LOSERS
(Many of which are still good beers, the competition was tough in a few rounds)
Buffalo Bills Pumpkin Ale – Jin Sunk (anything goes round…Jin
is no longer in the group)
Anchor Brewing Anchor Christmas – Ryan Dawley (Nor Cal Beers…also
no longer in the group)
Dr. Fritz Berliner Weisse – Vu Pham (“Light Beers”, very interesting beer…but
a tough category)
Anchor Porter – Dave Edquilang (“Porters and Stouts…this
group just doesn’t like Anchor beer)
Karl Strauss Pintail Pale Ale – Rody Gallo (San Diego Beers)
Avery Karma – Will Carreras ( Religious Themed beers)
The locations
Half the fun is checking out new bars and breweries with
your friends, and introducing places you already love to them. Here is a quick list of the locations in San
Diego we’ve held meetings at.
Mission Brewery – Great
atmosphere and good beer, this was a great place to kick off the club.
The Regal Beagle – One
of San Diego’s many good beer bars. They even provided the beagle.
Counterpoint – This
place proves that size does not matter. It’s small, and has a moderate amount
of beers, but all of them are solid and the food is awesome.
High Dive – This place
was new to me and it was Ballast Point night.
Monkey Paw – One of
my favorite bars/breweries down town.
Just divey enough, good food and big beer selection.
Blind Lady Ale House
- Arguably one of the best and
definitely one of the most popular bars in SD.
I want to write about the places to buy beer in SD, but I
think I will save it for my next post.
The club started out as a group of people I personally know,
but out of the 10-12 core members, 5 of them were recruited outside of my inner
circle…yes… I made a few new friends.
Most of us aren’t experts, but we have a member that brews his own beer,
and it’s excellent, and a few members who really know there stuff and submit great
beers every time. It took 6 months to
weed out the scrubs, but it’s amazing how competitive it’s become.
The change we made in the group that I think will have the
most impact in year two is moving the selections out two months so we have more
time to find the right beers. So we announce the winners of the last round at
the meeting, and they select a location and theme for the round two months
later. We are also having “Mid Month”
events like tastings, white elephant
gift exchanges, and in March, we plan on doing a growler bracket that should be
a hoot.
Next month is “English Style”, and I’m hoping my Samuel
Smith Imperial Stout will show nicely.
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