Whenever one tour closes, many bottles open

I'm about to head off to the Mac Store downtown (SF), which means that my next round of events begins now. That also means my week of R'n'R is over, which is why I haven't blogged since then. As I gear up for a couple NorCal events and several SoCal ones since I'll be down that-a-way for Thanksgiving (mental note: pick up some bottles of The Bruery's Autumn Maple beer with yams), here's a look back on what I have to show for the big, international tour, bottle-wise.

Initially, I put myself on a “bomber a day” diet. The goal: buy just one 22 oz. bottle of beer from wherever I found myself that day. Miraculously, and tragically, I stuck to it more or less:
15 bombers.
6 750-ml bottles or larger
23 12-oz bottles.

Very few duplicates (a six-pack of Bell’s Oberon b/c some friends made me, and a whole case of the infamous Mama Mia Pizza Beer, meaning 1 to try, 3 as a gift and 20 bottles to trade.) But for the sake of argument, 44 different beers altogether. I was on the road 41 days.

To save lots of time, I am not hyperlinking to the breweries, but you know quite well how to Google. If you have any questions about anything below, just ask.

In road trip order:
Wasatch (Salt Lake City, UT), The Devastator double bock
Tommyknocker (Idaho Springs, CO) Imperial Nut Brown Ale & a Butthead doppelbock
Ska (Durango, CO) Nefarious Ten Pin imperial porter
New Belgium (Ft. Collins) La Folie wood-aged Belgian ale
Upstream (Omaha, NE) Oak-Aged IPA (hand labeled #533 of 621)
Goose Island (Chicago, IL) Imperial Brown Goose bourbon-barrel-aged brown ale & Bourbon County Stout & Harvest Ale
America’s Brewing Co/Walter Payton’s Roundhouse brewpub (Aurora, IL) Imperial Stout Bourbon Barrel
O’Fallon Brewing (O’Fallon, MO) Smoke smoked porter
Three Floyds (Munster, IN) Moloko milk stout
Bell’s (Kalamazoo, MI) sampler: Cherry Stout, Third Coast Beer, Porter, Double Cream Stout, Imperial Stout, Oberon wheat
Founder’s (Grand Rapids, MI) Breakfast Stout double chocolate coffee oatmeal stout
Church Brew Works (Pittsburgh, PA) Trippel (2000)
Harpoon (Boston, MA) 100 Barrel Series Glacier Harvest ’08 wet hop beer
Southern Tier (Lakewood, NY) Pumking imperial pumpkin ale
French Broad (Ashville, NC) Dunkel-Witte dark-white ale
Highland (Ashville, NC) Black Mocha Stout
Duck Rabbit (Farmville, NC) Milk Stout & Porter
Sweetwater (Atlanta, GA) 420 pale ale
Terrapin Beer Co (Athens, GA) Imperial Coffee Stout
Dixie (New Orleans, LA) Blackened Voodoo black lager
Abita (Abita Sprints, LA) Restoration Ale
Real Ale Brewing (Blanco, TX)
Orf (Austin, TX, opening eventually) Rhum Porter
Four Peaks (Tempe, AZ) Kiltlifter Scotch ale & 8th Ave pale ale
Renegade (Siletz, OR) Spruce Ale
Caldera (Ashland, OR) Pale Ale
Elysian (Seattle, WA) Dragonstoth Stoud & Night Owl pumpkin ale
Laughing Buddha (Seattle, WA) Ginger Pale Ale
Phillips (Victoria, BC) Blackberry Hefeweizen & Dirty Squirrel hazelnut brown
Howe Sound (Squamish, BC) Father John’s Winter Ale (1 litre. Made with “four different malts, Nugget & Hallertau hops, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, treacle, honey, and yellow sugar.)


Breweries visited & therefore sampled amply:
Rockslide (Grand Junction, CO)
Tommyknockers (Idaho Springs, CO)
New Belgium (Ft. Collins, CO
Great Divide (Denver, CO)
Upstream (Omaha, NE)
Three Floyds (Munster, IN)
Bell’s (Kalamazoo, MI)
Church Brew Works (Pittsburgh, PA)
Legend (Richmond, VA)
Montgomery (Montgomery, AL)
NOLA (coming soon, New Orleans, LA)
Two Rows (Houston, TX)
512 (Austin, TX)
Orf (coming soon, Austin, TX)
Four Peaks (Tempe, AZ)
Telegraph (Santa Barbara, CA)
Lucky Lab (Portland, OR)
Hopworks Urban Brewery (Portland, OR)
Elysian Fields (Seattle, WA)
Hale’s Ales (Seattle, WA)

Rough estimate of how many other beers I tried not listed above: only 50 at Great American Beer Fest in Denver, and only around 40 elsewhere.

CHEERS!