Good Beer Days

Some days you get home from work and just want to sit back, relax with some HIMYM, and drink some cold, amazing beer. Ok, I'm lying here, I do this every day. But stick with it for a little. I notice some days I have two or three beers, and I'm pretty buzzed and I have to stop drinking. It saddens me my liver refuses to work properly, and I cry a little on the inside. Alas, there are just bad beer days. Days your body has had enough, and says "screw you, I'm going home." Sadly, as I get older, bad beer days are more common.

Enter good beer days. Days in which your body literally takes that sweet life giving liquid and lets you drink to your hearts content. You drink one beer, then two, then three, and realize you don't even feel buzzed. If you're lucky (or unlucky because you have to pay) you're at a great bar with 500 beers. You sit there with your friends, talking, drinking, eating, and drinking more. You go through 8 or 9 beers, and you feel nothing. You get to play games with the bartender, like one of The Great Trio's, in which he asks them to bring the most offensive beer out. You find beers you haven't had before and you literally just drink. Your day of relaxing is being able to drink with no regard, and you love every second of it.

These days I feel are few and far between. Yes, there are the normal days of drinking. Yes, there are days in which you goal it to get so drunk you need subtitles. But Good Beer Days, ones in which experiencing beer for beer sake are magical. So magical that somehow you wake up the next morning and aren't hung over, aren't tired, and somehow you didn't piss off your girlfriend, your friends, and you didn't urinate on the neighbor's cat. It's as if the little beer fairy loves you, and wants you to enjoy life to the fullest.

 Embrace these days, you don't know when they will happen, or if. Sometimes you really want them, like when you are at a beer tasting, but your body doesn't. If you find yourself in one of these days, think about home amazing beer is, and just drink more. Drink to your hearts content (but be safe, Uber it up.) Drink, love your friends, and love life. What else could be better?

Here's to hoping you have many good beer days!

Slainte

Beer, it makes you do crazy things...

College, a magical time in which everyone that goes has stories upon stories. From puking on your best friend, to burning your ex-boyfriend's clothes behind his car, beer (or some Tricky Ricky) helps turn inhibitions into reality. No, this post will not be stories like I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (my life is about 1/10th as cool) but what beer will make you do.

So my beer buddies, which for now on shall be called The Great Trio, were and always are in search of great brews. From scouring our local liquor stores, to visiting new ones, to checking our local liquor stores again (you know, just in case they put new beer out since you left an hour ago), to asking friends in different states to bring there local beer, we were always in search of the next best elixir. Enter Beer Advocate. This website is like the Silk Road for beer lovers. Anything you want to know about beer, how it’s made, what year the best Mad Elf was made, Beer Advocate has everything.

One day, we found out they rated beer and liquor stores. We spent an entire night figuring out who had the most and the best beer in Top 250. Discovering there was a great place in King of Prussia, about 90 minutes from Baltimore we decided we must go. So all three of us took off the very next day (a manager, and two senior staff nonetheless) and drove all the way up there to get our hands on some Russian River, Founders, and Firestone Beers. We had a lovely lunch together next to the Delaware River at a local brew pub, and talked like little school girls about the cutest beer we wanted to take home and have our way with. Excited was really the only thing we were. After lunch we finished our journey to Kunda Bev and were amazed with all the beer they had. Piles and piles of beer, from California to Louisiana, and of course a WHOLE AISLE OF BELGIANS! We looked and looked for the beer that they said they had in stock. None! Nooo! Not only did they not have any of the beer we were looking for except for Founder Breakfast Stout, but we forgot Pennsylvania has ABC laws that only allow case sales. So we had to pony up $175 for one case. It was a sad sad trip back home in which we thought we would bring home 24 different bottles back. But we only ended

up with 48 beers that were only ranked 19th in the world.

So there you have it, beer gave us an amazing story, and we were sober the entire time (well sort of.) We fully expected a car full of amazing beers, beers that would take us weeks to taste, to rate, and to lament over being so good (or horrible.) In the end we took home an great beer, and amazingly disappointing story, and a lesson to always remember other states ABC laws. But in the end, The Great Trio can always say beer made us do all those things.

Until Next Time,

Slainte

BBC's First Real Post

So I've already gone over the who, the what, and the where. But now we finally get to the real reason for this blog. Beer and everything that has to do with it. This is somewhat old news, but in all honesty, it gets me as giddy as a high school senior on prom night (funny thing, I feel asleep at 12 that night, don't ask. Actually, this isn't funny...)

I love Trappist Beers. As a good Catholic, the Pope states I must drink at least 1 liter of Trappist beer a day in order to get into heaven. Jokes on the Pope, because I find this task easy, and I'm in heaven every time I drink a Rochefort 8. Joking and heresy aside (somewhat true though) I have a soft spot of Trappists. These Monks have 3 beers in the top 50, and have been producing beer the old fashion way for hundreds of years (in the case of Rochefort since 1595.) They have gone through 2 World Wars in which the Germans "salvaged" all but the one breweries copper kettles. The monks take pride in their work, as to them it is prayer, and produce arguable the best beer in the world. Do they make tons of money doing it? No, they only produce enough to keep the monastery open for the next year. Not only is their beer amazing, but it's actually pretty rare. Collectively, the 8 Trappist monasteries  produce just over 12.1 million gallons of beer world wide. Take Budweiser who makes over 5 billion gallons a year. So whats the news? In December of 2014 the International Trappist Association will welcome a 9th brewery. Exciting! More exciting is this abbey will be the first outside of Europe, and will be located in the great US of A.

I know for a fact that I will be one of the first ones knocking on their doors, begging for their new brew. I will sip said beer, look to heavens, and thank God that beer exists!

Here is an article if you want to know more.

Hopefully my love of Trappists will rub off on you.

Till Next Time,

Slainte!

What the BBC is all about

I first thought of the Baltimore Beer Collective when two close friends and I gathered together almost once a week drinking what else but beer. Sure, we drank together almost everyday after work, but these days were special days. Day's in which we gathered, bought beers that we never have had, and just drank, and drank, and drank. We found that a bomber or a 750ml split 3 ways would enable us to drink as much beer as possible before getting madly sloshed. Usually we would go through 4 or 5 bombers, or on days we all had off the next day (ok, when ONE of us had off the next day) we would drink about 10. (Note, this wasn't without repercussion, as one of my beer friends puked on my house. ON my house, not in, ON!) Anyways, in these little beer gatherings, we would pick a theme. One day would be Belgians, the next would be Sours, the next would be IPA's. All in all, we drank, tons. And we loved it. We discussed the beers, we rated them, we argued the political agenda of the Benghazi Attacks, and we just plain argued. But we loved it, and we looked forward to it every time.
This, is where the BBC started, and in all honesty, the BBC is just three friends who loved beer, who loved to argue, and who loved to share their passion of beer.

So there you have it my beer minions, the BBC is about sharing the passion of beer. Pure and Simple. I won't bore you with non-beer stuff (I hope) but if it happens, find me, and throw a giant penguin at me.

Until next time Slainte!

A Short Introduction Part 2

My last entry was a short intro on how I came to love beer so much. But before I continue on how, I'll share just who I am. In all honesty, if you don't care just who I am personally and want to skip through, do just that. I won't be offended...really. I swear. And no, I am not being passive aggressive. No, not at all...go on...

Anyways, to continue, my name is Rob. I was born in California and live, of course in the "great" city of Baltimore. I have lived in 5 states, and traveled extensively within the confines of the US. In high school and college I ran track and field as was a pole vaulter. During college I picked up climbing in a very bad way. Just remember, beer and climbing go together like...well beer and climbing. With climbing, I have been to dozens of states, and hundreds of cities in which I have found...what else but beer! I am currently a Bike Shop Manager (my other passion) in Annapolis in which I think about bikes, beer, and just how come Dura-Ace and Ultegra aren't 100% compatible. Lastly, and probably my second point of of pride (after my love of beer) is I coach a girls high school track team. Believe me, after dealing with 80+ girls for 2 to 3 hours a day, you will love any sweet, sweet beer you can get your hands on!

So there you have it my beer minions, there is short intro to my life!

Slainte!

A Short Introduction Part 1

For the past two years, I have gone from a beer drinker, to a beer lover, to a beer brewer, to what many consider a beer snob. Luckily, most of my friends enjoy beer almost (if not the same as I) and we make it our mission to drink as many different beers and styles that we can get our hands (and mouths!) on. So why am I blogging? One, I have horrible hand writing. Two, types is much easier and faster. Three, I just plain love beer.

My love of beer started not in high school (I swear I didn't drink in high school) but mid-college. I was a camp counselor in the Highlands of North Carolina, and many of my friends were from Tri-Cities Tennessee/Virginia. They kept asking "have you been to Kingsport Grocery?" My answer was always "no, why does it matter?!" In my head, Tennessee -like most of the south- had "cities" which were glorified suburbs, with little to no distinct culture, and the Kingsport Grocery was just a "amazing" grocery* store. Little did I know, it was an amazing bar/restaurant/tavern. Each floor had a beer selection based upon the Appalachian region. Four different floors, four distinct tap selections. Needless to say, I was in awe. What is this beer? There is so much, and the US sucks for beer. Oh, how wrong I was. This ladies and gentlemen, was my first foray in the wonderful world of beer.

And so, I hope you read and stop by every now and then. I'll be reviewing beers, talking about my home brews, and other beer related news.

Finally, as my good friend taps glasses and cheers to:

Slainte

*Note, I was getting used to southerners having different words for things, like a Toboggan is a hat, not a sled. Really? WTF!?!