Mail-Order-Beer

If you had been talking to me last fall, there was only one thing that I had on my mind, and that was planning a beer excursion to Oregon for my 40th birthday. I had the places picked, including staying over the Rogue brewery (http://www.rogue.com/locations-bednbeer.html) on the coast. I think I had plans to hit twelve brewpubs in 6 days, as well as visiting the Horse Brass Pub (http://www.horsebrass.com/), one of the best beer bars in the country. And then the complications started. My birthday is right before Easter weekend, and my wife reminded me that I was a family man and really did want to see my kids hunting for their Easter baskets. So we moved the date and then American Airlines wouldn't honor any flights out of Albany. That's it, trip cancelled.

I get it, plans change. We need to learn to adapt and change. My wife and I may go to Belgium next year. But as my birthday is now getting closer (4/5/67, one of the coolest birthdays ever), I can't help but feel a little sad. I like to plan, I like to travel, and everone knows that I like to try new beers. I stayed home from work today with a fever and laryngitis (hard to give presentations with that combination), and in between naps I found Liquid Solutions (http://www.liquidsolutions.biz/main/). This mail-order-beer company is based out of Oregon, and they ship individual bottles. I was just looking, when I found Gueuze Girardin in their inventory. This bottle (the picture is pretty hard to read, but trust me, it is Gueuze Girardin) is a 3.5 star beer on the Michael Jackson beer list, and I swore that if I found one of these beers that I would get it.

I made my selections, an even case of 24 different beers that cost me $42, and $45 dollars in shipping. Not a bad price for finding a prize item. Here are some of the other items that I found:
- Caldera Pale Ale in a can, cans are becoming chic again for transporting beer
- Full Sail Session Lager, a lager before americans started adding adjuncts
- Fish Tale Winter Fish, maker of the "Wild Salmon" Pale Ale so I thought I'd give it a try
- Golden Valley Tannen Bomb, Liquid Solutions owner swore by this one
- Deschutes Buzzsaw Brown, a new release from a favorite Oregon Brewery
- Pike Tandem Double Ale, nice brewpub just a short fish throw away from being world famous
- Dick's Danger Ale, never new that Dick's could be dangerous (ha, ha)
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"The easiest way to spot a wanker in a pub is to look around and find who’s drinking a Corona with a slice of lemon in the neck." – Warwick Franks