Making of Maskerpiece Porter

Recently I had the pleasure of taking part in a fun project that Masked Blogster and I came up with a while back. We decided that we wanted to brew a beer and record the process for an episode of the Masked Blogster's Maskerpiece Theatre
.

Chatting about our brew day

We decided we wanted to brew a porter (one of Blogster and I'd favorite beer styles). As we got talking, we decided we wanted to ad a little flavor to it, so we decided on a coffee chocolate vanilla porter, and we dubbed it "Maskerpiece Porter".
So, I contacted my friend "Braumeister Chris" and asked him if he could come up with a recipe for what we were looking to do, and he was happy to oblige!




So, one afternoon, we gathered in my garage, and set up Braumeister's brewing equipment, put plenty
of beer on ice, and spent the morning/afternoon brewing up a beer, drinking some beer, and recording the process as we went.
After a few weeks of fermentation, we again gathered together, this time in the official Maskerpiece Theatre studios, to sample the beer, and as always, chat about our thoughts on the beer, which, came out fantastic!

So, you can listen to the brewing, and tasting of Maskerpiece Porter,
you can check out the podcast here.....



You can check out a full set of photos from the entire event, check out our photo album on our Facebook page here.....

So, check it out, it was a lot of fun, and we are planning on doing it again sometime very soon!
I think we may try and Imperial version of Maskerpiece Porter!

Until next time
Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

Maskerpiece Theatre talks to Mother Road Brewing Company....

 

This this week, I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with The Masked Blogster as we chatting with my friend Dan Choiniere, Beer Ambassador for Mother Road Brewing Company in Flagstaff, AZ. Of coarse we talked about, and tried some Mother Road Beers (including their amazing Open Road English Summer Ale). We also chatted about craft beer here in Arizona, and the nation, and where we think Arizona beer is headed. As well as where we may see Mother Road in 5 or 10 years.

So, sit back, and have a listen. You can get the link to either stream, or download the podcast here...


To see some more photos from the evening, check out our Facebook photo album here...

For more on Mother Road Brewing company, check out there website, or Facebook page.

I am sure I speak on behalf of Blogster, when I say I want to thank Dan for taking the time to sit down with us, share is beer, his stories

and his knowledge with us. We greatly appricate it. If you see a Mother Road event, tap take over, or just a six pack on the shelf, check them out. I think this is an outstanding, and often (but not always) over looked Arizona Brewery. You will not be disappointed.



The beers we sampled on the podcast were;

Golden Road Kolsch style
Roadside American Pale Ale
Open Road English Summer Ale spiced with peppercorns
Lost Highway Black IPA (or American Stout)

If you want to try and find some Mother Road Brews, use the beer finder to track it down!



Thanks again to Dan, and the fine folks at Mother Road! Keep up the fantastic work you do!

Until next time
Bottoms up my friends!

The Beer Czar

My weekend at Comicon......

Well, this past weekend, I did something I had never done before, but have always sort of wanted too. I went to my first Comicon. Now, I am not a huge comic book fan, or sci fi geek or anything (although, I do love the Star Wars movies). I did go for a reason however, and that was to record an episode of the podcast "Maskerpiece Theatre" of which, if you follow this blog, you know I appear on fairly regularly. One of the perks of taking part in this panel, was that I got an all weekend media pass to the event. So, Thursday evening, I jumped on the light rail, and made my way to downtown Phoenix and the sprawling downtown Phoenix Convention Center, to not only record the podcast, but to take in all the sites and sounds this event has to offer....take a look at this quite video....

OK, so, not a lot of beer in this post, but let me point out a few things I learned at this event.




1. Its not all about comic books. This could be more accuratly described as a "pop culture festival". It wasn't all comic books (although that was a large portion of it) there was also a lot of Sci Fi, zombies, and just general TV and film paraphernalia. I saw a lot of Star Wars, a ton of Walking Dead etc.








2. My preconceived notion about the type of people that attended this type of thing was somewhat  confirmed, but also modified to a fair degree. One on one, hardcore "geeks" can be hard to converse with, socially awkward (or down right inept) and just plain off, or weird, at the very least, admittedly a bit different then most. However, as a crowd or large group, they are pretty awesome. They are friendly, happy, polite, courteous and the one thing I noticed, and impressed me the most about them, they are all accepting. It didn't matter on your race, complexion,  social statues, mental or physical ability, or limitations, or age, everyone seemed to just melt into one large group. Everyone was accepted, and that, was probably the thing that surprised, and impressed me the most.

3. On the topic of beer, it seems that beer is a growing intreast among this community. Not only was there a craft beer booth set up (I got to meet Ryan of 8 Bit Brewing) but there were also a fair number of casual beer fans in the attendance at the podcast taping! Now, they don't geek out on beer as much as they do about comic books, or meeting Stan Lee, but they seemed to have a general appreciation for the art and craft of brewing, without having any sort of hipstir, snobby edge to them, and that to me, was also a pleasant, refreshing surprise as well.


I also want to give a quick shout out to Ryan, and 8- Bit Brewing, for donating a couple of glasses, and a t-shirt to our list of giveaways we had for the podcast! It was much appreciated. Also, congrats to Tim, for successfully answering the question "What Arizona Brewery was recently named "The best new brewery in the World" to win the glasses, and the t-shirt!


OK, now, for the main reason I was there, we did a live recording of Maskerpiece Theatre. Just about  all of the regular "guests" of Maskerpiece Theatre were there, myself included. Just over an hour long (we actually started early) we had a great time, chatting about the event, and a plethora of other topics as always.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking here.....

OK, so, while Comicon is not something I would do all the time, or even all weekend (I was there for a few hours Thursday night, and Friday morning, and that was plenty for me) it certainly was something to see, and take in, and I am glad I went. The fun, anything goes attitude was fun. An odd mixture of excited kids, dressed like Iron Man or Elsa, running past busty females, proudly displaying their cleavage dressed like Slave Leia or Mystique, and a chubby middle age man dressed as Wolverine, somehow just works. (Also, I'm not sure when dressing up like a favorite character became synonymies with excessive displays of cleavage, when that became a thing, but I'm fine with that.....it works for me. That is just a plus for attending Comicon........)

So, there you have it, I want to thank The Masked Blogster for the opportunity to take part in this fun event, I am already looking forward to next year!!!

If you want to see the entire photo album from my time there, you can check it out here.....
If you haven't already, you can "like" us on Facebook while you are there!


Until next time
Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

SLIF Vol. XVI.....

 

Its Friday again folks! That means its time for another edition of SLIF! A fairly short one, but its one none the less, so, crack open a beer, sit back, relax and enjoy the weekend!

I was so excited to get my glass of KBS,
I almost drank it all before I got a picture!

Founders hits Arizona!
This past Thursday, the 24th, Arizona was lucky enough to welcome yet another highly regarded brewery to the valley, Founders Brewing Company from Grand Rapids Michigan. Founders holds a few spots in top 25 of  Beer Advocates best 250 beers in the world (their Kentucky Breakfast Stout, KBS is currently rated #5, with a score of 100 out of 100!). They bring a SOLID line up for beers to our state. A couple of stand outs in their line up (aside from the ever popular, afromentioned KBS), their Centennial IPA is just outstanding, Their Porter, and Imperial Porter are a couple of the best porters I've ever had as well. Hopefully we will see such seasonal offerings as Devil Dancer as well. On a personal side note, Founders also happened to be the favorite hang out of the Late, Great Roving Beer Czar Correspondent Uncle Gary. So, if you see them on the shelf, grab some, and check um out!

Enjoy your beer, naked??
Something that has been going around the beer pages recently, is a "special" beer festival in Penn. What makes this beer festival so different then all the rest? You are required to attend it, buck ass naked! That's right, its at a nudist colony! I did a little follow up on it, its at the Sunny Rest Resort in Palmerton, PA. Your $18 ticket gets you UNLIMITED samples (I would need that many). Oh, and for those worried about this being a complete sausage fest, quite literally, tickets are only sold to couples, men attending must be accompanied by a female, so, its not just a bunch of horny naked drunk dudes hoping to see some female skin! So, all you need to pack is your sun screen! If you go (here is the site for all the info....) we would love a complete report!!! (check out a complete article about the festival here....)

Drinkinaz
If you haven't liked or checked out Drinkinaz yet, please do so! Click on the "badge" to the right of the screen to check out the blog, or find them on Youtube. Check it out for all the latest news, and information about the Arizona craft beer and spirits scene. I am lucky enough to have been invited back, to sit in, and act as "co-host" again for a couple more episodes. We got to chat with Dylan of  Cartel Coffee Lab and Brewery, as well as Cory and Bryne (sp?) of  Southern Nevada Brewing Company, a name I think you might be hearing more from in the very near future!

Comicon!!!

Also, don't forget, mark your calendar's and plan on attending Phoenix Comicon this June, where you can see yours truly, take place in a panel discussion with the fine folks at Masterpiece Theatre. I will have a lot more details to come as they become available. You can get what info I have here......







So, there it is, all the news that's fit to report, and some that isn't.....

As always my friends, have a great weekend, enjoy some great beer, with some great company, but as always, be smart, and be safe.

Until next time
Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

SLIF Vol. XV

Can you believe it, its Friday already! And you know what that means, its time for another installment of SLIF. Exciting stuff here, so lets just get to it, shall we.......so here we go!

Arizona Wilderness boys, in Esquire Magazine?
Well, the props and coverage just keep coming for our friends over at Arizona Wilderness Brewery. Check it out, as they sit down with Jon and talk about where they've been, and how they got there. Also, some great pic's of the guys, and their beer, check it out here.....

The Beer Czar at.......Comicon?
Yeah, you read that correctly! I will be appearing at Comicon, along with my good friends at Maskerpiece Theatre! I will be taking part in a panel discussion on the first night of Comicon. Come check it out, it should be a ton of fun, and a great place to do some people watching! Check out the info here...



Drinkinaz Beer Podcast

There is a new podcast in Arizona for beer lovers. Its called Drinkinaz. George Lindbloom hosts the podcast, so listen in as he takes you through interviews, news, fun specials features and more. I was lucky enough to be invited to sit in and join George and his crew as we chatted about the craft beer buddle, and talked with the guys from Grand Canyon Brewing. We also got to chat with Brett Haertl, the rep. for one of the newest brewerys available here in Arizona, Hanger 24! Check out Drinkinaz's site here, to check out previous episodes, as well as other helpful information. I will be posting links to the episode I appeared on as soon as they are up!! Check them out!

Portable Kegs?
I normally like to feature a cool new product on SLIF. This week, I was made aware of this little gem. A friend informed me he has just ordered one, and should be arriving today! So, I haven't been able to review it yet, but the idea looks intriguing to say the least. Anyone tried one of these "tap it caps"? It basically turns your growler into a little mini keg of sorts. The idea seems like a no brainer. Check the site out here (they have other products as well). If you have use one of these in the past, please, let me know what you thought/think of it. I might just be ordering one soon.....product runs $45.



Speaking of Podcasts.....

Masked Blogster with The Beer Czar

I appeared on the latest installment of Maskerpiece Theatre this week. The episode just posted this morning, check it out here. Masked Blogster and I talk about the beer of the week, La Fin de Monde, other great summer beers; weird things we've seen in public bathrooms; Captain America, Winter Soldier, and Agents of Shield; and we discuss ideas just as brewing a beer live on air, and making a beer trip to New Mexico (and was able to slip in a shout out to my friends at Craft Brewed Clothing!)











So, there you have it folks, this weeks SLIF! So, grab your favorite beers, settle in, and get your weekend going right!

As always, have fun, but remember to be smart, and safe, be responsible.

Until next time
Bottoms up my friends!

The Beer Czar

The Beer Czar appearing at.......Comicon?

That's right! I will be at Comicon in Phoenix this summer (June 5th through the 8th, at Phoenix  Convention Center). I will be taking part in the podcasts "Maskerpiece Theater" forum discussion. For those of you that read this blog on a normal basis will recognize that show. I've appeared on it a few times over the last year, including their inaugural episode, and our Pumpkin Beer Tasting that we broadcast from my garage. We are going on the first night (June 8th) at 8:00 to 9:00 pm in room "North 225A". This should be a great time, and a fun talk. Content hasn't been completely worked out at this point, and given the cast of characters that will be taking part, it will be a fun time.

Oh, ok, I'll go....

For those of you that are not "comic book fans" or Star Wars geeks or whatever, well, neither them I (aside from being a fan of the Star Wars movies, and most of the Marvel movies). You don't really have to be. If you are into people watching, there is probably no better place to do it then at a Comic Con. If you are into Comic Books, a ton of writers and artists will  be there, including the man, Stan Lee himself (on Sunday)(again, I am not a comic book fan, but even I know who Stan Lee is!).

Cliff!!!

Fans of TV, there will be celebs from TV shows as well. Including Mark Sheppard (Crowly, from Supernatural). The star of cult classic "Evil Dead" Bruce Campbell will be there. Oh, and on a somewhat beer related not, Cliff Clavin himself, John Ratzenburger will be there!! (I have to try and get a pic with him!).
Also, MacGyver himself, Richard Dean Anderson will be there as well!

So, it should be a great time. Stay tuned for more information as I get it, and if you plan on being at Comic Con, come check it out, opening night, Thursday the 8th,  at 8pm!


Phoenix Comicon home page here.....
List of Movie and TV stars that will be there here.....
Maskerpiece Theater Home Page here...
See the show info page here  (Show Announcement Page)


Until next time
Bottoms up my friends!

The Beer Czar




Look, Ken Morrison, aka The Beer Czar!

S.L.I.F. (Sorry Liver its Friday) Vol. II

Welcome to the second installment of S.L.I.F.!!!! Lots of great stuff in this post! Beer Czar on the radio, craft beer getting a NASCAR, a local pumpkin beer, and more! Check it out!

Pamala, Bruce and Mike of The Bruce St James Show

Thirsty Thursday on KTAR

Mike Russell of the "Bruce St Jame's Show" (you might recall my chat I had with the show's co host, Pamala Hughes) on 92.3 KTAR has started a new weekly segment "Thirsty Thursday" giving weekly tips and advice regarding craft beer. The Beer Czar was the first guest! You can listen to our discussion right here...... And make sure you listen to 'The Bruce St James Show" on KTAR 92.3, Mon-Fri 9 am to Noon! 

Win tickets to San Tan's Oktoberfest!!

San Tan Brewing Co.'s Oktoberfest is next week. You can win tickets to it from The Beer Czar by emailing us at thebeerczar@gmail.com and put the word "tickets" in the subject line. Check out all the info here....

Four Peaks Pumpkin Porter

One of my favorite local seasonal beers is Four Peaks Pumpkin Porter. They were on Fox 10 showing it off, check it out here....

Craft beer gets a NASCAR!!

Oskar Blue's is sponsoring driver Landon Cassill!! Cassill will pilot the No. 4 Oskar Blues Brewery Chevrolet at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Dollar General 300 on Friday, October 11. OK, I might actually watch a NASCAR race for the first time in, well 40 years.....Check out the full story on Beer Pulse here....

Oskar Blues Colorado Flood Relief Fund

Speaking of Oskar Blues, they are raising money to help the victims of the Colorado floods. You can get all the info, and donate at their page here....

The 1st Annual Pumpkin Beer Tasting

1st Annual Pumpkin Beer Tasting with The Masked Blogster!

Last weekend, Masked Blogster and I co-hosted a Pumpkin Beer tasting. I wrote about it beginning of this week (you can read it here). Well, Masked Blogster recorded the event, you can listen to all the fun here!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Until next time

Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

1st Annual Pumpkin Beer Tasting

The Beer Czar pumpkin keg!

This passed weekend, I had the pleasure of co-hosting a pumpkin beer tasting with my good friend Masked Blogster! The event was even recorded by the Masked Blogsters podcast, Maskerpiece Theatre, Hear what people thought about each beer, and some witty banter between Liger and Masked Blogster. You can listen to the podcast here... I even jumped on the mic from time to time to give some insight, and ad what I could to what was going on.
The event was small, friendly and laid back. We tasting a total of 7 pumpkin beers, blindly. Then the participants ranked each of the beers, and at the end of the night, we tallied up the scores to come up with a list "top pumpkin beers" to recommend to you all!

Masked Blogster 

We had a panel of six tasters, grading the beer on a scale of 1 to 5, in the areas of  appearance, aroma, taste, mouthfeel, and overall. They gave each area a grade of 1 being the worst, 5 being the best, and added up the scores for each beer. We later entered those scores into a spread sheet, which averaged up the scores, and ranked them in order of highest to lowest scores, giving us a 1st through 7th place.

Bobby and Mrs Blogster getting started

So without further ado, I will go over the list of beers we tried, in the order we tried them, along with a few notes about each one that the attendee's had to say, then I will give you the rank in which each beer fell. Just a quick note, if you want to read more about the beers flavors, I provided a link to the Beeradvocate reviews for each beer, just clink the link on the beer name, and it will take you to those reviews. OK, here we go...

Daniell giving her thoughts one of the beers

1. Shipyard Pumpkinhead, Portland Maine. Pumpkin Ale, 4.7% abv. For the first beer of the evening, was described as "light in color, but smooth", "nice aroma", "subtle pumpkin-iness" "sweet" and "too sweet" , and even a "love it"!

2. Wasatch Pumpkin Seasonal Ale, Wasatch Brewing/Utah Brewers Collaborative 4% abv. Terms ranging from  "more cinnamon and spice then pumpkin", "overall, quite good", "weird taste", "subtle pumpkin, enjoyable spiceyness" all the way to "blah, not a fan at all".


3. Pumpkick, New Belgium Brewing, Fort Collins, CO, 6.0% abv. Seemed to be a popular beer at the time of the tasting, people stating "pleasant finish" and "it leaves a great after taste", and some less enthusiastic "better then #2" and "not my favorite".

4. Fall Hornin', Anderson Valley Brewing Company, Booneville, CA 6.0% abv. This was the only beer we tried in a can, and it seemed to go over well. Heard things like "a little bitter", "more like a red ale", "really good finish", "smells awesome" and even a "loved it, favorite so far!".

5. Small Batch Pumpkin Harvest Ale, Tommyknocker Brewing Company, Idaho Springs CO, 5% abv. "Smells of caramel and chocolate", "looks good, smells great...", "..getting a lot of coffee in this one", and some "light on flavor" and even a "watery taste" and "thin mouthfeel"

Mrs Czar, not impressed!

6. Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin, Pugsley's Signature Series, Shipyard Brewing, Portland ME, 9% abv. This one had the widest range of comments by far. Seems the group either just loved this beer, and just absolutely hated it. Most terms were either "awful", "yuck" "horrible flavor" to "wow, best so far" to a "this is awesome!". This one it seems you'll have to try for yourself to figure it out! (note, it was one of my favorites of the evening as well)

MB and Liger giving the play by play

7. Peaceful Pumpkin, Mudshark Brewing Company, Lake Havasu City, Arizona 5.2% abv, Our only local Arizona beer of the evening. Not sure if it was tasting fatigue, or the late hour, but reaction to this one was a little muted, and not very enthusiastic, but it wasn't bad either. Had a hard time gauging this one at the time of the tasting.


After the tastings was wrapped up, I tallied up the votes, and here are the results, in the order they scored, and the scores they received.

The line up!

Beer Name                                      Score

1. New Belgium Pumpkick,              16.33

2. Mudshark Peaceful Pumpkin        15.83

3. Anderson Valley's Fall Hornin'      15.5

4. Shipyard's Pumpkinhead               14.33

5. Wasatch Pumpkin Seasonal          14.00

6. Tommyknocker Small Batch         13.67

7. Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin          12.37

The group!

All in all, I think it was a pretty successful event, and we had a ton of fun! The event was recorded by the Masked Blogsters podcast, I will post a link to the podcast here as soon as it is posted! Hear what people thought about each beer, and some witty banter between Liger and Masked Blogster. I even jumped on the mic from time to time to give some insight, and ad what I could to what was going on.

Look forward to more tastings to come from the Masked Blogster and I. I am thinking maybe  "The First Annual Ugly sweater and Christmas beer tasting"??? Has a nice ring to it....

If you have an idea for a tasting, or would like to host a tasting, please contact us at thebeerczar@gmail.com and we will make those arrangements!

For a complete look at all the photos of this event, check out The Beer Czar on Facebook here, and like us while you are there!!!    (link to photo album)


Until next time
Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

The best beer in the world, is the one in your hand....

This is something I've been saying for a long time now. Like many a newbie beer geek, I started getting excited about limited release beers, or beers that were hot on the top of Ratebeer, or Beeradvocate's top lists. It got to the pointwith me, and many others where you get so obsessed with these hard to find, rare gems that you ignore or forget about the wonderful beer being brewed just a few miles, or in some lucky cases, just blocks from your home. Beer geekery can be a lot of fun. However, I found, it can also be frustrating, exhausting, and VERY expensive. If I hear about a beer I want to try, I will go to one, maybe two places to find it, if its not there, I stop. I am not about to waste time, gas and money driving all over the valley for an IPA I may never have again, or worse yet, may not even like in the first place. This has always been my frustration with the "beer geek". I don't dwell on it, I will mention it from time to time but never really spent much time on, and sort of forgot about doing a full write up on it.

However, this passed week, Andy Ingram of our beloved local brewery Four Peaks in Tempe, wrote up a piece in the local "paper" about much this same topic, however, he wrapped it up a lot better, and far more eloquent then I could, or did.  So I wanted to share his thoughts with you here....

The most important beer? Is the one you like.....

So there you have it, thank you Andy, very well said! I couldn't say it any better. Reminds me of a conversation I had with Masked Blogster on his podcast a few weeks ago. Judge brewery's by their flagships, not by the beer that has been sitting in a barrel, in the cellar for that last 4 years. Judge them on the beer the make the most of, not the least. And most importantly, don't spend so much time and energy on looking for hard to find, rare gems, that you forget about the gem you have in your hand already! Don't get me wrong, getting your hands on these rare beers can be fun, and more often then not, they are very good. I just think its important to find that balance between the two.

Until next time

Bottoms up my friends!

The Beer Czar

The Beer Czar, co-hosting Maskerpiece Theater Podcast again!

This week, I sat down with The Masked Blogster, for this weeks installment of Maskerpiece Theater! Listen in, as we tape this week at Pop Culture Paradise Comic shop in downtown Tempe AZ. Where we discuss Miley Cyrus at the VMAs, the "new" Batman, Marble Brewing, and how some people or company's market and brand themselves. We also discuss the rapid growth of the East Valley Beer scene, and of coarse, the "Bronson of the Week" (beer of the week for you non regular listeners). Just a quick note, the first 10 minutes and 30 seconds is an interview with an adult film star, so, if that sort of thing offends you, please don't listen to it, and then complain to me it offended you, either don't listen, or skip ahead to 10:30, that is where I join in the conversation...

Listen here....

So, until next time

Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

The Beer Czar, the guest on a pod cast!

Beer Czar and Masked Blogster

A while ago, I was interviewed for the podcast "Maskerpiece Theater" This week, The Beer Czar was asked to to join the Masked Blogster again, as a guest on his weekly panel. Listen to the Masked Blogster, Beer Czar, along with Maser and Mr. E Marquee as they discuss not only the beer of the week (refereed to as the "Bronson of the Week" on the show) which was Oberon Ale, we also discuss Aaron Hernandez, Paula Dean, NBA draft and a few other things. Check it out here.....

Maskerpiece Theater Podcast episode #8

Listen each week, The Beer Czar is going to be the sponsor of the "Bronson of the Week" and may even appear once in a while to discuss the beer! You can get to Maskerpiece Theaters site here to access the link to listen.

Until next time

Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar