CU Beer Club April Edition

Tonight is the April edition of the Champaign Urbana Beer Club. It's theme is beers from west of the Mississippi. Eventually if you go far enough west you'll wind up here, so don't be put off if you don't have anything that seems "westerly".

Last month was beers from east of the Mississippi. It turned into stout-fest. That's not really a problem, as this area has some really great stouts, Bells, Founders, Great Lakes, Goose Island, 3 Floyds; then you can get to the smaller breweries, Central Waters, New Holland, Flossmoor... there's some great breweries in this area.

I commonly think of IPA's and DIPA's and Imperial IPA's when I think of west coast beers. Oregon, Washington, (Idaho)... that's the hops growing region, so they can make some really fresh and potent IPAs. There are several stouts from the west on Beer Advocate's top 100; Deschutes The Abyss; Alesmith Speedway; Port Older Viscosity... (I'm leaving out Colorado, even though they are west of the Mississippi, I'm talking about west coast, not central west, has Colorado ever been called central west before?). Most of the beers that the west coast is know for is the IPA's. The Pliney's, Firestone, Sierra Nevada, Blind Pig...

I'm not sure if tonight will be the Hopfest to counteract last months stoutfest. But it could happen.

I don't have any hop bombs to bring tonight, so I'll just haveta see what I can find in the basement. I do have a good idea though.

Beer Club starts at 6:30 at Crane Alley, on the second floor; beer will probably be opened around 7:30.

I don't have pool tonight, so I can focus all my energy on beer... as though I don't do that anyway.

CU there.