Hi again beer lovers and welcome to Friday! Pop in and have a cold one with FNBB.
With the holidays upon us, writers in every publication in America offer one of their easiest columns of the year, the gift suggestions. So far I've seen beer gift lists from Weekly Pint (gimmicky stuff) and Jay Brooks (mostly books including "Complete Guide to San Diego Breweries", which at the current rate of expansion was incomplete before it reached the printer).
All the holiday beers are out now too of course. Let us know what you've tasted lately. Brooks writes about Anchor's well known Christmas ale, and the He'Brew clowns are making sure that Hanukkah is represented.
I'm going to gift myself at least two bottles of Firestone 18th Anniversary ale. They sell it fresh on tap but that's a waste when it will get so much better. Earlier this year I drank some of the 14, over 3 years in bottle, and damn it was amazing stuff. Very hard to find unless you go to one of the Firestone taprooms, but I'll be driving past both locations to visit my family at Christmas.
I'll be out drinking with the homebrew club; we're doing a special tasting of barrel-aged beers and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Firestone 18 is on the menu. I definitely expect Bourbon County stout, the guy who did the shopping worships that stuff. Small quantities of big strong heavy ales. We should also have some of the club's own special recipe imperial stout, at last year's tasting the consensus put it second behind only the Bourbon County.
What are you drinking? Who's brewing?