(above photo by Phil Sears of the Tallahassee Democrat)
Happy New Year! Thank you very much to everyone who came out to ring in the new year with us. We were very flattered by how many of you chose to celebrate the holiday with us in the lounge. At midnight, like a drunken angel, the ball erratically descended down to our front patio. We shortly realized that the ball blocked the front door and immediately raised it back up. It promptly got caught on the second floor Christmas lights and remains trapped there, dangling in a glowing limbo.
Welcome to 2009. It is going to be a fun year at Fermentation Lounge.
New Year’s Eve is shaping up to be a fun night at the Lounge. We will have some specials going on the larger bottles of beer, Rogue Old Crustacean barley wine available in shot glasses, and will be selling champagne by the glass at midnight. The tap list is coming together and is going to be extra delicious. I’ll have a post about it as soon as all of the kegs have arrived, but expect both La Chouffe and Okocim to be available on draft. Also, we are going to attempt to lower a lighted ball from the third floor balcony at midnight. So come join us for the big New Year’s countdown and ball drop, or possibly just hang out on our sidewalk and see if an out of control glowing ball comes plummeting down from the sky. Either way, it should be a lot of fun.
Here’s a sneak peek of the still under construction ball:
We are thrilled to finally have some beer from Stone Brewing in San Diego sitting in the cooler. We have two kegs that will be tapped shortly: Ruination IPA and Arrogant Bastard. Ruination is a douple IPA, very strongly hopped and just a fantastic beer. As for the Arrogant Bastard…let’s just have Stone’s description speak for it:
This is an aggressive beer. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory - maybe something with a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at convincing you it’s made in a little brewery, or one that implies that their tasteless fizzy yellow beer will give you more sex appeal. Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you’re mouthing your words as you read this.
Both will be available as soon as we finish up something else on tap. Which usually means within a day or two.
Join us this Sunday at 7:00 and 9:00 to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail. While you are here, enjoy some Holy Grail Ale…it’s a surprisingly well rounded and delicious brew!
St. Bernardus ABT 12 is now on tap! A strong Belgian dark, clocking in at 10% ABV and some of the most complex flavor around.
Lost Coast 8 Ball Stout is back on tap. One of our most popular beers has returned!
Onto the new bottles for the week:
Acme Pale Ale - Delicious pale ale that is lightly hopped. Easy to drink a few, and a great introduction to the style.
Bell’s Amber Ale - Sweet and well balanced. We love Bell’s, and their take on the amber ale is great.
Lagunitas Maximus - A great double IPA in a 22oz bomber at a cheap price. This is sort of a tease, as we got this in on Tuesday and are rapidly selling out. We might still have one or two left, so be sure to ask us.
Okocim OK Beer - A crisp lager out of Poland. Delicious, light, and refreshing. New to beer, or just want something smooth and sessionable? Give this one a shot.
Rogue Brutal Bitter - Don’t be scared by the name, this is smooth with a light hop punch at the end.
Schneider Aventinus - A dark, strong weizenbock this is much maltier that a normal wheat beer. Also, it tastes like a little bit of awesome.
Remember, Friday and Saturday we will be doing ice cream floats (in Young’s Double Chocolate, pear ciders, and anything else you can imagine) and adding shots of Lindeman’s Framboise by request!
This interview was done the day before our grand opening back in October. Cocktails with the Calendar Girl is a weekly show filmed at Tallahassee watering holes, and features interviews with local business owners and people just doing interesting things. My interview is in two parts, and you can find it here and here.
It’s interesting to hear the discussion of the Lost Coast 8 Ball stout, and my concern about whether or not it would sell with Guinness also on tap. As it turned out, the 8 Ball has become one of our best selling beers and we wound up putting the Guinness on special in order to get it to move.
If you didn’t make it in this past weekend, you missed some interesting stuff. On Friday we brought in some vanilla ice cream to make floats out of Young’s Double Chocolate and those turned out greats. Our good friend Sarah had the idea of adding the ice cream to her pear cider and that turned out to be amazing. On Saturday night, Tyler cracked open some Lindeman’s Framboise and added it to drafts of Young’s as well as Hoegaarden. He named them the Lady Godiva and the Dirty Ho. Both were incredibly tasty. Look for all of this to show up again this weekend.
We have some cool new beers coming in this week. I’ll post an update about them as soon as they arrive.
