Long live Hedonist Beer Jive

As of about a week ago, the man behind the Hedonist Beer Jive blog is going to - in his own words - "take a breather from beer writing and from the beer world in general for a short while". Well, that's a bit of a bummer for me because I always enjoyed his posts, especially since I could follow all the local SF references (beyond the great info on beer in general, from reviews to news to travelogues).

That said, I can totally understand wanting to wrap up a project like that for a while (he does say "I’ll come back"), or even just wrap it up altogether. Sometimes these things become more of a chore than a pure joy; even if you still *want* to continue, you might have other higher-priority calls on your time, at least temporarily.

And even though I've never met the man, I've already given him a toast (or two) for the entertaining work he's put out over the years on his beer blog. Long live the Hedonist Beer Jive! On that note, I'll leave the link up on the right under "Social Lubricants", given that there are plenty of posts in the archive I still need to read, gems to discover..

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One last beer note: The new seasonal from Sierra Nevada Brewing is pretty good; it's (somewhat confusingly) called an "ESB", which stands for - in their case only - "Early Spring Beer". Yeah, "ESB" usually stands for "Extra Special Bitter" and is a style of beer that is a little more hoppy than your average pale ale, but still usually balanced with some toasty, and sweet, malts; the alcohol is usually slightly higher as well. Check out a more thorough description at Beer Advocate).

In any case, the beer geeks at Beer Advocate have overlooked the awkward naming and seem to like it too. Nicely balanced; the hops are there, but not overpowering, and what makes it truly refreshing is this undercurrent of a very subtle sweetness. Per many of the review comments, it really *would* be a great session beer if it didn't weigh in at 5.8% abv.. although at this point in my drinking career, my liver can handle a few no problem. I mean, you should see the beer in my house; most of it is *at least* 6%, if not hovering around 10% abv.. and it's all oh-so-tasty! ;)

The bottom line is to check out Sierra's new seasonal "ESB", especially if you live in CA and are able to find it at every supermarket and corner store at a pretty good price. In fact, I picked up a 12 pack for $12 the other day; these days, I'm psyched to pick up dollar bottles of quality beer (and I'll be even more psyched if I can continue to do so as the hop storage runs into course over the next year or so).