Its almost time for Ameri-Can Canned Beer Festival!

I've made it perfectly clear, I am an HUGE fan of the Ameri-Can Canned Beer Festival.

Everything about this festival makes it great! The Venue (Scottsdale Civic Center) is fantastic, outdoor, open air, shade, lots of grass, live music and enough room so you are bumping elbows with everyone there. The lines are always reasonable as well. I've never had to stand in line for very long at all at this festival (something that makes it VERY different from most good beer festivals). However, what I like most about this festival, this is all CANNED beer! So, for the most part, its all flagship beers and popular seasonal brews. No standing in mile long lines for 3oz of barrel aged infused goodness that you sadly, and likely will never even sniff again. This is all beer you can pick up at most any good bottle shop. If you love a beer you find at this festival, the most trouble you will have getting your hands on it, is that if that beer may not be sold here in AZ. Just need to find a friend from a state that they distribute too, offer a trade, and there you go. Easy as that, and its yours.

The festival is coming up, May 14th, Noon to 6. 1 pm entrance for non VIP I believe, but I will clarify that.

So, mark your calendars, get there early, and look for me, I will surely be there!!

Get all the info at their website here.......

I really hope to see you there!

Until next time

Bottoms up my friends!

The Beer Czar

It's BACK! AmeriCAN Canned Beer Festival!! (here is the beer list!)

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Well, for me at least. Its almost time for one of my favorite Arizona Beer Festivals. Now in its 5th year, the festival is returning to the Scottsdale Civic Center to celebrate and showcase some of the best craft beer to be found in cans! I'll just add, if you are one of those people that still insists beer just isn't as good in cans, you can stop reading now, and continue to deny yourself some of the best beer in America!

Doors open at 1 (VIP opens at Noon), tickets are $35 presale ($45 day of) that includes your adorable souvenir 4 oz. can, and 20 4 oz. pours!

What I love about this event, its canned beer, so for the most part, you are getting a breweries core line up, their flagship brews, and some seasons offerings. There aren't these special, super limited, once in a life time barrel aged, sour beers that people stand in line for days for. Not that there is anything wrong with that, those beers are wonderful, but for me, this festival showcases what makes the breweries who they are. This is a great festival for the beer snob in you to find new favorites, and a wonderful festival for the person that may just be getting into craft, and still trying to find those styles they love. Its a great time, with great people, great beer, wonderful food, and a great location. This one has it all....


"Ok Beer Czar, but what beers can I expect to find there?" Only 300+ canned beers, representing not only Arizona breweries, but breweries from all over the country, and some that aren't in regular distribution here in our state. What's that, you want me to be more specific? Ok, well, here is a list of the beers you will find next weekend.....

Abita Brewing, Purple Haze, Strawberry Lager and Jockamo IPA

Alameda Brewing, Klickitat Pale Ale, P-Town Pilsner and Yellow Wolf Imperial IPA

Alaskan Brewing, Amber and APA

Anchor Brewing, California Lager, IPA and Summer Wheat

Anderson Valley Brewing, Hop Ottin’ IPA, Summer Solstice, Kimmie, Yink and Holy Gose

Austin Beerworks, Black Thunder, Fire Eagle, Peacemaker, Pearl-Snap and Heavy Machinery Half IPA           

Avery Brewing, White Rascal, Ellie’s Brown Ale and Avery IPA

Ballast Point Brewing, Longfin Lager, Pale Ale, Sculpin IPA and Big Eye IPA

Barrio Brewing, Barrio Blonde, Barrio Rojo and Barrio Blanco

Bell’s Brewery,Two Hearted and Oberon

Big Sky Brewing, Moose Drool, Big Sky IPA, Trout Slayer, Scape Goat, Pygmy Owl and Summer Honey

Black Market Brewing, Hefeweizen, Deception, Rye IPA and Aftermath

Borderlands Brewing, Noche Dulce

Boulder Brewing, Hazed Hoppy Session Ale, Mojo IPA, Buffalo Gold and Singletrack

Caldera Brewing, Caldera IPA, Pilot Rock Porter, Hopportunity Knocks, Lawnmower Lager, Caldera Pale Ale and Ashland Amber

Cigar City Brewing, Jai Alai, Maduro, Invasion, Florida Cracker and Tocobaga

College Street Brewhouse & Pub, Big Blue Van and Fraternity Of Hops

DC Brau Brewing, The Public Pale, The Corruption India Ale, The Citizen Belgian Style Pale, El Hefe Speaks, Penn Quarter Porter and On the Wings of Armageddon

DESTIHL Brewery, Vertex IPA, Hoperation Overload Double IPA, Abbey’s Single and Wild Sour Series

Epic Brewing, Escape to Colorado and Lil’ Brainless Raspberries

Firestone Walker Brewing, Union Jack IPA, Pivo Pils and Easy Jack IPA

Fort George Brewery, 1811 Lager Quick Wit, Sunrise Oatmeal Pale Ale and Cavatica Stout

Founders Brewing, All-Day IPA

Four Peaks Brewing, 8th Street Pale Ale, Sunbru, Hop Knot, Peach Ale and Kilt Lifter

Golden Road Brewing, Golden Road Hefeweizen, Point the Way IPA and Wolf Among Weeds IPA

GoodLife Brewing, Descender IPA, Mountain Rescue Dry Hop Pale Ale and Sweet As Pacific Ale

Goose Island Beer, 312 Urban Wheat Ale, 312 Urban Pale Ale and Goose IPA

Grand Canyon Brewing, White Water Wheat, American Pilsner, Sunset Amber Ale and Black Iron IPA

Hops & Grain Brewing, Greenhouse IPA, Pale Dog, PorterCulture and The One They Call Zoe

Huss Brewing, Scottsdale Blonde, Magic In the Ivy and That’ll Do IPA

Joseph James Brewing, Hop Box and Fox Tail

Lumberyard Brewing, Diamond Down Lager, Flagstaff IPA, Lumberyard Red and Knotty Pine Pale

Ale

Marble Brewery, India Pale Ale and Pilsner

Maui Brewing, Bikini Blonde Lager, Coconut Porter and Mana Wheat                               

Mike Hess Brewing, Claritas Kolsch, Grazias Vienna Cream, Jucundus Orange Honey Wheat, Solis Occasus IPA and Habitus Rye IPA

Mission Brewing, Cortez Gold, IPA, El Conquistador and Shipwrecked Double IPA

Moab Brewery, Johnnys IPA, Red Rye IPA, Rocket Bike Lager and Squeaky Bike Nut Brown

Mudshark Brewing, Full Moon, Desert Magic IPA, Wild Water Melon Wheat and Upriver Light Lager

Nebraska Brewing, Brunette Nut Brown Ale, EOS Hefeweizen, Cardinal Pale Ale, India Pale Ale and Alestorm Blonde Ale

NOLA Brewing, NOLA Brown, 7th Street Wheat, MECHA, Irish Channel Stout and Rebirth Pale Ale

Oskar Blues Brewery, Dales Pale Ale, Mama’s Little Yella Pils, Old Chub Scotch Ale, G’Knight Imperial Red IPA, Deviant Dale’s, Pinner and Gubna Imperial IPA

Papago Brewing, Orange Blossom

Phoenix Ale Brewery, Camelback IPA, Watermelon Ale and Biltmore Blonde

Prescott Brewing, Achocolypse, Ponderosa IPA and Liquid Amber

Rahr & Sons Brewing, Rahr’s Blonde, Pride of Texas and Bucking Bock

Revolution Brewing, Anti-Hero, A Little Crazy, Bottom Up Wit and Eugene and Fist City

Rogue Ales, Rogue American Amber Ale

Saint Archer Brewing, Blonde Ale, White Ale, Pale Ale and IPA

Samuel Adams, Boston Lager, Sam Adams Summer Ale and Rebel IPA

Santa Fe Brewing, Happy Camper IPA, Black IPA, Java Stout and Freestyle Pilsner

SanTan Brewing, Devil’s Ale, Mr. Pineapple, HopShock IPA, Hefeweizen, SunSpot Gold and Fat AleBert

Sierra Nevada Brewing, Pale Ale, Torpedo Extra IPA and Nooner

Ska Brewing, Modus Hoperandi, Mexican Logger and True Blonde

Sleepy Dog Brewery, Red Rover Irish Amber Ale, Wet Snout Milk Stout and Tail Chaser IPA

Snake River Brewing, Monarch Pilsner, Snake River Lager, Snow King Pale Ale, Snake River Pale Ale, Pako’s IPA and Zonker Stout

Sun King Brewing, Sunlight Cream Ale, Wee Mac Scottish Ale, Osiris Pale Ale, Fistful of Hops, Indian’s Lager and Afternoon Delight

Traveler Beer, Curious Traveler

Two Brothers Brewing, Wobble, Ebel’s Weiss, Outlaw, Dog Days and Side Kick

Uinta Brewing, Ba Ba Black Lager, Hop Nosh IPA, Wyld Pale and Sum’R Ale

Upslope Brewing, Upslope Pale Ale, Upslope IPA, Upslope Brown Ale and Upslope Craft Lager

Victory Brewing, Summer Love

Worthy Brewing, Worthy IPA, Lights Out Stout, PreFunk Pale Ale and Easy Day Kolsch 

If you can't find something you like in this list, well then you are a first rate beer snob, and I can't

help you.   

ALSO,  local restaurants and food vendors will serve up some delicious grub including Brat Haus, Honey Bear’s BBQ, Craft 64, Arizona BBQ Club, Burgers & Fries, and Treatery.

There is live music too! The entertainment lineup includes Two Tone Lizard Kings, Dry River Yacht Club, Catfish Mustache and DJ Slippe.

This is a 21 and older event, no exceptions.

For more information on this event, go to the official event website here.....

If you go, keep en eye out for me, I get there early, so expect to see me there as the gates open, and stop by, and say hello, I'd love to meet you!

Until next time (or next Saturday!)
Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

A look at "The AmeriCAN Canned Beer Festival"

OK, I am going to try and keep this as brief as I can. However, given my penchant to ramble on and on when I get excited, this might be tough! Anyone that attended the 3rd Annual AmeriCAn Canned Beer Festival this passed weekend, will now why I am excited. In a word, it was awesome! OK, I've been to festivals that had a bigger selection of beers, and breweries, maybe a wider array of beers sure. This festival however, had an awful lot of things that most others do not! Where do I begin???

OK, lets start from the beginning  My wife and it got there right about noon, when the gates opened. We grabbed our tickets, and waited in the line to get in. I have to say, I got a little nervous right off the bat when I saw the line to get in. It was long! As soon as we got in line, we started hearing people complaining about the line. Much to our relief, the line moved rather quickly, and we were standing in it for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, so, not bad at all. Besides, as my experiences with beer festivals, I figured waiting in line was something we should probably be ready to do a lot of this afternoon. Well, I was soon to learn, that the short, 10 minute wait to get it, was by far, the low point of the afternoon!

The stage

Upon walking in, we were handed our little (maybe) 4 oz topless tasting can, and "passport" with a map of the festival. There was a rather large crowd mingling right at the entrance, so we made our way through, walking down the sidewalk a couple of dozen yards, where the festival opened up into a large, grassy area with a little hill, circled by brewery and vendor tents, with a nice sort of pond/water feature in the middle of it, with a good size stage placed half over the water, where various bands played throughout the afternoon.
One of the first thing I said to my wife upon seeing this was "what a PERFECT spot for a beer festival!" It was green, and opened, with a ring of tree's circling it, provided a pretty decent amount of shade

for the brewer's and volunteers pouring samples for the thirsty masses. The weather didn't hurt matters either. Calling for a high of 92 that day, it couldn't have been much warmer then the high 80's when we got there, with a nice breeze blowing to help keep you cool(er). Really, you couldn't have designed a much nicer day for an outdoor festival.

We started making our way around to the various breweries, and were happy to find (or rather not find) any real lines at any of the tents. I never had to wait for more then 2 or 3 people to get my sample, and even got to stop and chat with a few of the brewer's and reps pouring as well. Everyone seemed to happy, and excited to be there, and were gracious, and accommodating to everyone that I saw. I was able to get about a dozen or so samples, all of beer I had never tried before, and in a few cases, never even heard of. All the beer was nice and cold when served. In a few cases, I walked around and let it warm a bit before drinking, but with the weather, and the sun, this only took a minute or so in those cases.

Beer for Brains

Me with James Swann

My wife and I were able to walk around, take in the sights, sounds and smells of the festival. Taking our time to chat with some friends and acquaintances we saw there. Got a chance to catch up with Louis from Beer for Brains. We ran into Brett Dettler of Arizona Wilderness Brewing. Of coarse, got to say a quick hello to James Swann as well, pouring beer for Mudshark, and as normal, he had a line of enthusiasts waiting to chat with Arizona's always friendly beer guru.

Santa Fe Brewing

Cigar City

We were lucky enough to meet some other folks there I had yet to meet. I finally got a chance to meet and chat with John "Hoppymoto" Alvarado, owner of Arizona Brewery Tours, someone I have been wanting to meet for a while now. If you get a chance, please check out his business, it looks awesome, and hope to join a tour here very soon, so I can give you a first hand account of it.

Marble Brewing, NM

Also, had a chance to meet and chat with the fine folks at Santa Fa Brewing, and Cigar City (FINALLY got a chance to try Jia Alai, fantastic!), and Marble Brewing.  I will add, I think the best beer I had on this great afternoon of great beer, was Golden Road's Wolf Among Weeds, a spectacular Imperial IPA that made me almost double take on my first sip!

What I love about beer festivals like this, is getting to chat with folks that make the beer, they obviously love it, and are passionate about it. Which is one of the reasons I love drinking local beer. You learn so much more from someone that got their hands dirty making the very beer you are drinking. I love this part of festival's like this the most!

I will say this again, this was a great festival! I still think maybe Arizona Strong Beer Festival might be the

The Beer Czar

best beer festival in Arizona. However, I can see the AmeriCAN Festival taking its place in the years to come. With the popularity and acceptance of canned beer in the craft beer community, and more and more breweries opening up each year, and canning their beers, there is no reason to believe that this festival can't continue to grow, and improve in the years to come. Let me also ad, while hard core beer folks love this festival,  I think this festival would be a great experience for anyone new to the beer community, or looking to get into it. Or even just those casual beer fans that like beer, like to try different beers and aren't afraid to branch out out a bit.

A hat tip to San Tan Brewery, and HDE Agency for putting on just a phenomenal festival. I am looking forward to next year already!!!

Well done, and thank you for giving Arizona one more reason to take pride in our beer community!

Until next time
Bottoms up my friends!

The Beer Czar

Meet King Can-Brinus, King of Canned Beer?

Cool shirt!

As many of you know, the Ameri-CAN Canned Beer Festival is fast approaching (read more about it here). Well, the good folks at Brew Bros have come up with a great shirt to sort of "commemorate" the event.

Check out the shirt, and the story behind it here.....

So, see you soon at the Ameri-CAN Canned Beer Festival, less then 2 weeks away!!!

Until next time

Bottoms up my friends!

The Beer Czar

San Tan Seasonal coming in Cans this Fall!!!!

So, great news for beer fans in Arizona! Chandlers San Tan Brewery, the fastest growing brewery in Arizona, is releasing its Rail Slide Imperial Spiced Ale in cans this fall!!! San Tan has been a leader in the craft can movement, and this is just one more step to put San Tan even further in front of the pack!

This will be the first season canning of one of their beers. Until now, San Tans staple beers were all you could get in cans, limiting the seasonal stuff to the pub, or limited locations throughout the valley. Which, for me personally, is great news, since their four core beers are pretty good, their seasonal offerings, at least the ones i have had, have been outstanding! Their Winter Warmer, Mr Pineapple, and Sex Panther are all great beers! I haven't had their Imperial Spiced Ale yet, but I will be on the look out this one for sure.

Set for a November 1st release, in both keg and cans. The Imperial Spiced Ale clocks in at a modest 8.1% abv, with 35 IBU's.

You can read more about it here

Beer in Cans, its OK, really, it is!

OK, this is something that has sort of bothered me for a while now, but lately, I am getting a lot of "comments" regarding beer in cans, so I thought I would make my feelings known on the issue.

Bottles vs Cans?

I've heard a lot of people making comments, discounting beer in cans, completely! Most simply say "beer from cans tastes like metal" Really? No it doesn't, I promise you. Let me ask you this, do you say that about draft beer as well? Because, NEWS FLASH, that draft beer you are drinking could have come from a keg made from aluminum as well, and I have never heard anyone complain about their draft beer tasting like metal (as a reader pointed out, some kegs are also made of stainless steel, either way, both are metal, kegs are not made of glass, thank you Hughes!). Truth is, the beer never even makes contact with the aluminum, thanks to a synthetic lining that has been gracing the inside of your hated beer can since, oh, before WWII! (1935 to be exact!). Truth it, the "metal" taste, its all in your head, I promise.

To try and prove this, I've done little "experiments on friends. I've taken beers available in both bottles and cans, and had them do a blind taste taste. I would pour it in two cups, and ask them to tell me which one was the canned, and which was the bottle. As you would expect, they were only ever correct about 50% of the time, which, you could chalk up to just a lucky guess. So, I would take it further. I would give them each a cup, and tell them this is the can, and this is the bottle (however, I would tell them incorrectly, telling them the bottled beer was the canned, and vice verse), and almost every time, they would tell me the one they thought was the bottled beer tasted better (see, all in your head). Next, I didn't tell them which was which, and ask them to pick the best beer, 3 out of 4 times, they would tell me the canned beer was better. So, no matter what, no one will ever convince me that canned beer is worse then bottled. If there is a differance in taste, canned beer is better, and here is why....

One of my favorite beers, and it comes in a can!

Cans are actually a better way to store beer. They are completely air tight, no chance of the cap leaking, or oxidizing, and rusting. Also, one of beers biggest enemies is light, and cans let absolutely ZERO light in. Bottles let in some light, depending on the color of the bottle, that is why brown bottles are best. (the other, and probably dumbest thing people will tell me "I only drink beer from green bottles" O really, why is that, you like that awful skunk flavor?).

Another thing people say is, bottles keep my beer cold longer then cans do. Well, this is certianly the case, all I can say is, if you are drinking beer directly from the bottle or can, you aren't completely tasting the beer anyway, since you can't completely take in the aroma of the beer drinking right from the bottle or can anyway.

There are many other advantages to cans as well. They are cheaper, lighter (making them cheaper to ship), canning lines are faster then bottling lines, as well as less expensive, easier to open (don't need a can opener)...you get the point.

So please, turning up your nose at canned beer, is really just ignorant, and snobbish (that is my opinion). I challenge you to go out, and try a few craft beers in cans, you will be pleasantly surprised. More and more craft brewers are making their beer available in cans, most notable, Sierra Navada. Some, like Oskar Blues beers are only available in cans, and I have to tell you, their Ten Fidy Stout (at 10.5% abv) is one of the best Russian Imperial Stouts on the market, bottle or can!

So lets stop all this "cans are bad" bull, and get these false ideas out of our heads, and start loving beer for whats inside the can or bottle, and not what it comes it, I assure you, you will not be disappointed!

If you do try some beer in cans, and you are surprised by the results, please, let me know, I would love to hear your story!

Bottoms up my friends!