We’ve made it perfectly clear in the past that Nerd City hearts the beer of Three Floyds Brewery from Munster, Indiana.  It was, however, just this past weekend that I finally got around to trying their Alpha Klaus Christmas Porter.  This is, for me, by far the beer of the season.  It boasts a strong hop flavor that reminds you of its Gumball Head or Alpha King cousins, but combines this with strong coffee, chocolate, and tobacco flavors.  Alpha Claus is suprisingly light and drinkable for a Christmas beer, too.  So, that’s cool.

Check out Three Floyds Brewery here.

The boys move to their new digs, Piece Brewery, and discuss beer, pizza, and the AIDS scare with Piece’s resident Brew Master Jonathan Cutler. Special super bonus: Nerd Citizen Chrysteena Lairamore stops by to deliver her new rap on why she hates the McRib. So sit back, grab a beer, and enjoy this, episode 28 of Nerd City.

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Starting this Monday, Dec. 8th, Nerd City will begin recording our podcast every Monday @ 5 pm at Piece Brewery,  1927 W. North Avenue, Chicago, Il. Stop by for beer specials, pizza, and nerd-related goodness. This Monday  our guest will be Piece brewer Jonathan Cutler. See you there.

Surly has announced that they will begin offering their coffee bender in cans, starting this winter.  Below is an example of the new can’s label:

The glassware for this beer is really cool too, and you can buy it from their gift store in the brewery.  It’s not yet clear exactly how much of this beer they’ll produce or how widely it will be distributed.  There are a couple of bars in Minneapolis where you can always find it on tap, otherwise it can be difficult to track down.  This is one of the better examples of coffee being used in beer; and it’s especially cool because it’s not some monster Imperial stout.

http://www.surlybrewing.com

Direct Youtube Link

How great is this commercial?

Schaefer Beer wiki

Edd Kalehoff wiki

Max has been drinking the shit out of Scrimshaw pilsner from California’s North Coast Brewing Company: “The Best Beers In This World…Or Any Other.” You hear that Heaven? Your beer sucks dick. They also have a cool slideshow about Acme beer here.

This man is Sam Calagione, and he got Max stinking drunk one time.  He is pictured above with Randall the Enamel Animal, a dry hop apparatus which has occasionally forced him into intimate moments with the TSA (pic taken from DFH’s website).  Once again, this is a beer which is not currently being distributed in my home state; but every time I go to Wisconsin to buy New Glarus, I always pick up some Dogfish Head too.  Their entire line-up is filled with everything from total hop bombs to beers with ancient and esoteric ingredients.  You might not enjoy everything they make, but you’ll never be bored by it.

This article is pretty long, but does a good job depicting the origin of the brewery and the mastermind/mad scientist behind it all.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_bilger

#25! Ben and Max celebrate their anniversary with beer buyer/nerd/Max’s roommate Bob Egan as they talk the state of beers, video games, and Nerd City North’s bathroom in this very special old-enough-to-rent-a-car episode. So sit back, relax, have a cigarette on the crapper and enjoy.

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This is a great article written by the Alstrom brothers from BeerAdvocate:

http://beeradvocate.com/articles/240

The other thing to keep in mind when bringing beer to a holiday event or serving it to guests is price.  For the same cost as two or three moderately priced bottles of wine, you can buy several large bottles of American craft beer and Belgian or Trappist beer.  Even the most rare and expensive beers can’t compare to the price you pay for even above average wine.  Most of your friends and family will already be familiar with the same old tired food and wine pairings, so this is a chance to introduce them to something new.

Last Saturday, I attended the Illinois Craft Brewers Association’s Sixth Annual Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beers at the Chicago Journeyman Plumbers’ Local Union 130 Stephen M. Bailey Auditorium, and it was the Shit.

Featuring cask aged beers from Three Floyds, Rock Bottom, Surly, Gordon Biersch, and our friends at Piece, and Half Acre, the festival was a boozy, barley-fueled good time. And how were the beers? Well let’s just say the casks weren’t the only ones with wood. For more info, including the winners, check out the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild here.

Brooklyn is not only a city on the rebound, their beer production is returning to national prominence.  Garrett Oliver has done a great job chronicling the city’s brewing history, and promoting beer in general.  His Brooklyn Brewery produces some great session beers and also some cool experimental stuff on occasion.  Greenpoint Beerworks has been around for awhile, and now they’re joined by Sixpoint Craft Ales, who have dramatically increased their production ability.  With a 60,000 bbl/yr capacity, they should be able to begin distribution regionally, if not nationally, when they hit peak production.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/dining/29beer.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

There are a number of cities across the US with great brewing traditions.  Every region used to have at least one large brewery, and almost every state had several local breweries.  After the consolidation in the 1970s and the homogenization of our food and drink, revivals of this sort are always welcome indicators that we’re making progress.

Ben and Max welcome Chicago graphic designer Lane Fujita as they discuss the state of design, the triumphant return of side scrollers, and how to be a successful freelance web designer, just like Lane on this skull-and-spinal-cord-beer-bong fueled episode of Nerd City

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Two things nerds love are tee shirts and Burger King, and this event has both. Featuring art by Nerd City Episode 20 legend, Veggiesomething, amongst others, this show features mural and tee shirt work, a self-screen-printing station, and beer, wine, and D.J’s. Sure it may be a corporate attempt to capitalize on talent in an increasingly popular art movement, but who gives a fuck, BEER!

Darkness is an annual release from Surly Brewing.  It’s a Russian Imperial Stout, currently rated an A+ on BeerAdvocate, and its ABV is around 10.3%.  Surly is a brewery in Minnesota which brews amazing, style-defying beer and presents it with really cool graphic design and a very savvy marketing approach.  They’ve rapidly expanded over the past three years, and are now being sold in Chicago as well.

Darkness Day occurs at the Brewery.  This is your only chance to buy Darkness in bottles, but you can find all of those details below.  It will be on tap locally, and usually lasts for a couple weeks.  I’ll be inside the brewery selling merchandise, so stop by and buy some shit.

http://www.surlybrewing.com

http://community.myfoxtwincities.com/blogs/brewhound_mpls/2008/10/21/Darkness_Day_is_Coming

The boys go barely legal as they celebrate the show turning 21 by discussing hillbilly horror movies, drinking fall beers, and pontificating on why Max is such a lady with Nerd City’s resident horror nerd Joey Gallimore in this very scary, uber-spooky episode of Nerd City. (creaking door, cat hiss, rattling chains, etc.)

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