Disqus - Latest Comments for jrizzo

Re: Beer Chat -- 12/16/16

jrizzo — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 14:41:20 -0000

IT'S PERSONAL, MIKE

But seriously, probably just weird lack of hours crossing and/or that I beeline for a barstool and totally never even look around. I'm usually there mid-week like 6:45-8ish? I would absolutely hang out with you guys there sometime. Oh and go drink Wicked Juicy. I had too many of them last night and I regret nothing.

Re: Beer Chat -- 12/16/16

jrizzo — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 13:32:39 -0000

Totally missed my deadline for Best Beers, but to finally get around to it -

Bottle Logic Lagerithm is so good, and if you ever see it on draft it should be the first thing you order. It is 4.8%, so feel free to crush it. It is dark and roasty without being heavy or too smoky. It's just out here to be a clean, easy dark beer and if they distributed in the Bay Area I would always have it in my fridge.

(A special secondary shoutout to Bottle Logic, known for all their mathy-named beers, because Calf Life, their milk stout, is the funniest beer joke I heard all year.)

For a couple reasons, Lagerithm comes in second to my very favorite beer of 2016: Every Single Pale Ale Cellarmaker Made All Damn Year.

Cellarmaker, with no exaggeration, has changed the way I drink beer. My evolution as a beer drinker over the last decade probably looks familiar to a lot of you: wheat beers, then darker and darker and heavier and more barrel-aged, then sours, then the hoppy, fresh place I'm in now. Fresh local beer is trendy, and I really hope it's a trend that stays. I am a creature of habit, and Cellarmaker is the only location I regularly visit that doesn't fall between my office and my house. I'm there twice a week. I order whatever's new and I am never disappointed. I'm an IPA drinker day to day and they have absolutely turned me into a person who wants whatever ~6% brand new thing they've put out. This week my favorite beer is Wicked Juicy, last week it was Barbarian Invasion, the week before that it was Questionable Origins #3.

And also to their credit: I can probably count on two hands the number of growlers I bought from them in the last year (all for parties), because I love BEING at Cellarmaker. It's usually shockingly asshole-free, the music is incredible, they show Warriors games without overwhelming the space and they've got the best damn bartending staff of any beer joint in this town. There's a reason Cellarmaker is such a club house for everyone in the industry. Never change, Cellarmaker.

Re: Beer Chat -- 4/17/15

jrizzo — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 17:02:48 -0000

Seconded on The Calling. Had it on tap at the brewery a couple weeks ago. Drank myself silly on it.

Re: Beer Chat -- 2/6/15 - BeerGraphs

jrizzo — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 18:10:46 -0000

Three hours until the gala and I swear to god I'm so excited I'm really worried I'm going to break something or someone. I hugged someone this afternoon and they referred to the hug as "aggressive", so.

So I've got some cool beer week things going for me.

Re: San Francisco Beer Week Preview

jrizzo — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 15:26:18 -0000

Good question, and a great idea. I actually don't know the answer - I think the Beer Talks plans are still coming together as we speak. I'll definitely forward on the interest!

Re: San Francisco Beer Week Preview

jrizzo — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 13:22:12 -0000

If NY Beer Week wasn't right after ours, I would totally come out for it some year. Cincinnati's is at the same time. So many beer weeks, so little time!

Re: San Francisco Beer Week Preview

jrizzo — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 12:36:37 -0000

Ooh, tricky. I've kind of had my fill of DIPA fest - six hours of double IPA is just a little more than my tastes are prepped to handle these days. Two hours in and everything becomes identical.

If it weren't for the distance, I'd say you could handle both - a couple hours of DIPA fest and then showing up to Beer Talks to calm it down a little bit before the night rush! (54 minutes. I checked.)

Re: Beer Chat Friday - BeerGraphs

jrizzo — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 14:34:25 -0000

I love watching a game at the Mission Rosamunde. Two TVs of decent size, not known for being a sports bar so it isn't packed during events, and if there's a big enough event they'll throw on the projector, too. They've been showing NFL games on it most Sundays. The TVs at Shotwell's are relatively small, too, but I like that atmosphere much better than trying to watch a game at Toronado.

Re: Beer Chat Friday - BeerGraphs

jrizzo — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:37:47 -0000

There's a little time. And if you make it to any of the Faction release parties, one of the beers they're pouring around town is a wet hop pale. Had it at Mikkeller last night. They're at the Trappist tonight, I think.

Re: Beer Chat Friday - BeerGraphs

jrizzo — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:36:53 -0000

My favorite moments as a homebrewer are when I have the opportunity to share it with actual brewers who aren't terrified to tell me why something about it sucks. I am very, very grateful for those friends. Don't just tell me it's good. That doesn't help. Tell me that I didn't ferment this saison warm enough and that's why it's horse blanket-y.

Re: Beer Chat Friday - BeerGraphs

jrizzo — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:31:33 -0000

Simple is good. Almost always. It's really tempting for homebrewers to go overboard on recipes, and rightly so - if you want a good pale, there are breweries who have done that better than you ever will. Totally understandable that homebrewers love to do all sorts of wacky shit.

But it usually leads to bad homebrew. If all someone wants out of that process is to learn and play and see what happens, then maybe bad homebrew isn't the worst thing that could happen. At least for your first few batches, though, I always recommend going relatively simple. That way if it turns out poorly, you can at least isolate variables and figure out where you went wrong, rather than wondering if it was too much of your juniper berries or cardamom or seashells or whatever it is everyone's throwing into a fermenter these days.

Re: Beer Chat Friday - BeerGraphs

jrizzo — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:24:56 -0000

English IPA, about 7%. I was brewing with a friend who was an experienced homebrewer, but aside from a little recipe guidance he largely let me take the reins and handle everything. It turned out pretty successfully, but was basically an English mild recipe with double the hops and a couple more pounds of extract. Glad we were doing partial mash instead of all-grain for my first one.

Re: Beer Chat Friday - BeerGraphs

jrizzo — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:23:33 -0000

I haven't had this year's; I've had most of the past years of it. It's a great beer. $80 for a bottle is absolutely ridiculous.

Re: My mother's craft beer epiphany

jrizzo — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 12:37:07 -0000

Fun story: When I was in KC at the end of June, a local brewery was pouring the saltiest gose I've ever had. I was delighted by it and felt like a genius when I handed it to Mom. She thought it was the most disgusting thing she had ever tried and looked at me like I was a monster.

Can't win 'em all, man.

Re: All Questions Answered Friday

jrizzo — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 12:35:40 -0000

"When I sit on the couch, everything is sessionable" is about to be my NFL beer mantra.

Re: All Questions Answered Friday

jrizzo — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 12:35:11 -0000

Slightly off-topic - god, I'm so glad Boulevard distributes in California now.

Re: All Questions Answered Friday

jrizzo — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 12:34:44 -0000

Ah, damn, I didn't even think to check if Bier Station was open on Sunday. Shoot! Do check out The Foundry, if you've been to the other two. Food's great, beer list is what you'd expect from the owners of McCoy's and BK. If the McCoy's gose is still on, please order it. I had my doubts and I was just blown away.

Gomer's is legit, as is Lukas Liquor - they've both been around forever and have a few locations. You might not find anything crazy rare, but they're great for anything with standard KC distribution. They're all on the Missouri side, which I only bring up because KS and MO have different distribution and I always forget that. Also don't buy beer in a gas station on the Kansas side, because it's going to end up being a lower ABV version and you won't realize that until you're in your hotel wondering why five beers didn't get you tipsy. This has been your voice of experience speaking.

Side note - if you don't have food plans, allow me to suggest Westside Local and The Farmhouse (great beer, too). That city's getting very, very good at farm-to-table. Always a great meal at both. And if you're into food and want to get real excited about someplace, make your way down to the East Bottoms and visit the team at Local Pig. Young butchers with an old-school mentality that made me fall in love with them the second I opened the door. Sort of out of the way, but not too far from River Market/The Farmhouse/downtown KCMO.

Re: All Questions Answered Friday

jrizzo — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 12:07:57 -0000

You should go to Bier Station. (I don't live in KC now, but grew up there and go back to visit once a year or so.) Also, do yourself a favor and go to Beer Kitchen and/or The Foundry, whichever is your speed. They're across the street from one another and owned by the same folks (as is McCoy's, next door). Both have great food. The Foundry is a little more hip, which generally isn't my thing, but they do have an awesome patio if the weather is good. But if you've got time for one and you're looking for a bottle shop, Bier Station is your best bet.

Re: All Questions Answered Friday

jrizzo — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 17:00:41 -0000

As Josh mentioned above, Boulevard's Smokestack Series is unbelievable. Love Child is one of the best American sours I've ever had. Saison-Brett is my favorite beer. I'm admittedly a bit of a barrel head, but I love Rye-on-Rye, too. It has been a serious pleasure that they've extended their reach into Northern California.

I will drink Bell's Two Hearted any time I see it on tap. I don't care what else is in the bar. It will always be my first beer. I had no idea, going to college in Cincinnati, that I would look back years later and think about how lucky I was that it could be my go-to.

Full disclosure, I occasionally pour for both breweries, because I'm good friends with multiple employees: Almanac and Drake's are knocking it out of the park in the Bay Area, and their southern California reach is expanding by the day, too. The Farmer's Reserve series from Almanac is perfect and their Dogpatch Sour is unbelievable. The regular lineup at Drake's is solid (1500!), but their seasonals (Aroma Coma, Alpha Session) and one-offs (Blue Bottle Drakonic, their ever-rotating sours) are wonderful. We are spoiled with Russian River.

If you are in Portland, go to Cascade. No question. Also go to Upright. There are easily ten places I think you should go in Portland, but you should go directly to Cascade from the airport and drink every single sour that's up on the board.

Sixpoint didn't really exist on the Eastern side of the country when I lived there, but I have come to seriously enjoy their beers every time I'm in their distribution area.

And a special shoutout to New Glarus, which I have never had the pleasure of seeing on tap or in a distribution area, but have consumed quite a bit of from generous friends who make it to Wisconsin regularly.

Re: All Questions Answered Friday

jrizzo — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 12:29:34 -0000

There was a great writeup about wet hop beers on the SF Brewers Guild blog this morning, too, which is definitely geared locally but has lots of great history and information: http://sfbrewersguild.org/b...

Re: All Questions Answered Friday

jrizzo — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 11:58:10 -0000

The major exception, I think, is Sam Adams. We can debate all day over whether they count as craft or macro (I am completely on the craft side for them, for what that's worth), but their commercials are great. They started a campaign a couple of years ago that's aimed at actual education about the brewing process. There's definitely a lifestyle-esque bent to them, but overall I really find it to be a fascinating campaign.

Somewhat related, I will forever love Breckenridge for this: http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: All Questions Answered Friday

jrizzo — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 11:52:47 -0000

If you have access to Sixpoint beers, my west coast-biased suggestions may not be available, but:

I really like the wet hop version of Mirror Pond from Deschutes. It's a solid enough pale on its own, but the wet hop version is great. They made a beer last year called Chasin' Freshies that looked a lot like a one-off, and I'm not sure if they're bringing it back this year, but it was great. SN Estate is delicious. Maltier than most. Great Divide makes an excellent one (which I think might just be called Fresh Hop).

The season is almost upon us! Can't wait.

Re: On (Potentially) Being A (Definite) Beersnob

jrizzo — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 16:36:30 -0000

We'd later learn that apparently his family makes ham with lots of cloves in it. So, you know, a hef tastes like ham. (Even with that knowledge, I wasn't really able to do much. Offered to pour him another beer. Feared what he'd say about our hoppy session option.)

Re: On (Potentially) Being A (Definite) Beersnob

jrizzo — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:33:00 -0000

Accessibility is definitely a huge thing. I've always been fascinated by the craft beer habits here in San Francisco. We boast huge numbers of craft beer sales - I read a stat the other day that's something like 24% of beer sales here are craft. As proud as I am of that information and as much as I'd like to think it's exclusively a reflection on our culture and abundance of great local beer, it's also due to how hard it is to find a non-craft beer in this city. Thinking through the list of bars closest to my apartment, most of them only have macro beers in bottle if at all, and they're unlikely to save you much money.

And at the same time, that IS a reflection of the culture here, to a degree. Craft beer's been blowing up, sure, but if we really had a huge populace that was demanding macros, I'd imagine that some bar owners would put more of a focus there. It's just known at this point that if you're going to open a bar or restaurant in San Francisco, you have to pay attention to the beer list.

Luckily, too, I've noticed as a bartender that I can generally find something that the College Bro Joe set is interested in. There are always going to be people that get angry when we don't have "regular" beer, but for the most part I can convince a Bud Light drinker to have a Prima Pils; Blue Moon drinkers seem pleased with another hef or a Belgian wit.

I did pour a hef for someone at a festival last weekend that declared "This tastes like ham!", though. I was a little unsure where to go with that one.

Re: fixation. - I sent this photo to a couple of people today....

jrizzo — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:03:27 -0000

Thanks, friend. :) That's a very kind thing to say, and your comment made me smile an awful lot.