One late breaking beer event for the Raleigh-Durham area. Aviator Brewing is having it's Grand Opening party tomorrow at 4pm.

I got to meet Mark Wednesday and he mentioned the party all are invited, so stop in and check out the fun.

November 29th - 4pm
Aviator Brewing Company Opening
5633 Piper Dr.
Fuquay Varina, NC 27526
(919) 975-5310

With the holiday season quickly approaching beer sponsored events seem to be dropping off in number until after the holidays. While I had thought this column would perhaps be weekly, I suspect there is only enough to run it bi-weekly. That said I did find a couple of beer tidbits for the week.

2nd Black Friday Beer Festival
Friday, November 28th - 3pm
Triangle Brewing Company
Durham, NC
Why fight crowds at the mall, when you can fight crowds at the bar instead! Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. The festival will be raising money for Cystic Fibrosis and will include live music, food, draft beer and a number of casks.

Big Boss and Duck Rabbit Dinner at Brixx
Wednesday, December 10th - 6:60pm
Brixx Restaurant
Chapel Hill
Vegetarian beer dinner with Big Boss and Duck Rabbit Breweries at Brixx in Chapel Hill. It will be $32.00 and include a five course meal, as well as a reception beer. Each course will be paired with either a Big Boss or Duck Rabbit beer. You can find tickets at the Big Boss brewery while they last.

I first heard of Mark on the website's announcement last month, no one seemed to know anything about him in any detail. I decided I should find out a bit more, so I emailed him and a few days later we had a couple of beers and had a good conversation.

Mark is originally from the Mid-Atlantic area but began his interest in beer as he was in Oregon in the early 1990s. This led him to a job as a keg washer at Deschutes in 1992. Then Mark worked his way up through the cellar, then brewer for the brewpub until he eventually brewed at the production brewery.

From there he studied at Siebels. After school he was hired by Blue Sky in Wilmington DE. The brewery did a lot of the planning stages of work but never quite opened.

At the time it was the late 90s when breweries were in decline and job market was tight for brewers. So Mark made a career change and got a law degree in Baltimore. After graduating an offer came his way to help open the Twin Lakes brewery and he jumped to be back into the field.

Now he has accepted an offer to be brewer for Boylan Bridge.

He has a lot experience working different brewing systems. He said a key to the experience is to remember that used equipment "was once someone's dream system" so they have their own unique quirks. He has many tales to share about his cross country brewing experiences, but ask him about Alaska if you want to hear a true beergeek one.

Mark brings a lot of energy to Boylan Bridge and while it has had it's delays I am confident he'll make it worth the wait once he gets settled into regular operations.

Holiday season is quickly approaching so you would think that means things would slow down for beer events, but the next few weeks show quite the contrary.

Big Boss Release Party for "Aces and Ates" Stout
Wednesday, November 5th - 5 p.m.
Horniblows Tavern - Big Boss Brewery
Raleigh, NC
The release for their infamous Coffee Stout, winter seasonal, at the Brewery tavern.

Stone Beer Dinner with Head Brewer at The Trappeze Pub
Thursday, November 6th - 7pm
Trappeze Pub
269 W Washington St
Athens, GA
Come join Mitch Steele, Stone's Head Brewer, as he guides beer and food aficionados through an exceptional six course meal. Rumor has it he will have some of the Stone 11th Anniversary Ale as well as a 2006 vintage of Double Bastard Ale

Triangle Brewing Cask Tasting
Friday, November 7th - 6pm
Bull McCabes
Durham, NC
Triangle Brewing Company will be tapping a cask of their Bourbon Aged Abbey Dubbel.

Big Boss Brewery Tour
Saturday, November 8th - 2pm
Big Boss Brewery
Raleigh, NC
In addition to the normal monthly tour this month they will have the people from Larry's Beans on hand to celebrate the "Aces and Ates" Coffee Stout release. They will be set up sampling their coffees, talking about their sustainable practices, and will offer coffee for sale.

Duck-Rabbit Open House and Release Party
Saturday, November 8th - 3pm
Duck-Rabbit Brewery
Farmville, NC
Duck-Rabbit will host an open-house to celebrate the release of the 2008 Baltic Porter. There will be food and some beer and some fun. You're all invited, so come on out to Farmville. (Via Beerinator)

Triangle Brewing Cask Tasting
Saturday, November 8th - 10pm
Broad Street Cafe
Durham, NC
Triangle Brewing Company will be tapping a cask of their Belgian Style Strong Golden Ale in conjunction with the Troika music festival.

Dogfish Head Beer Dinner at Porters Tavern
Wednesday, November 12th - 7:00 pm
Porter's City Tavern
2412 Hillsborough St
Raleigh, NC

Stone Beer v Wine Dinner At South Carolina's Tristan Restaurant
Thursday, November 13th - 7pm
Tristan Restaurant
55 S Market St
Charleston, SC

Bright Leaf Brew Fest
Saturday, November 15th
Danville Community Market
Danville, VA

2nd Black Friday Beer Festival
Friday, November 28th - 3pm
Triangle Brewing Company
Durham, NC
Why fight crowds at the mall, when you can fight crowds at the bar instead! Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. The festival will be raising money for Cystic Fibrosis and will include live music, food, draft beer and a number of casks!

When I wrote my post on the Triangle and Beyond the idea was that it would help get me ahead of the curve so beer events wouldn't sneak up on me. This post shows I'll need to work harder on that idea.

Tonight at Dockside in Wilmington a free Flying Dog tasting from 4-6pm.

Also Brian Yaeger Author of Red, White & Brew: An American Beer Odyssey will be at Tyler's Taproom Wednesday October 20th at 6pm. Also it's Pint Night in Durham so they will have Brooklyn's Black Chocolate Stout.

I won't be driving down to Wilmington tonight, but I may be able to arrange my schedule to see Brian and sample the Black Chocolate Stout.

This is a new, hopefully regular post on the beer world in the Raleigh-Durham area and beyond. Since I am digging into the new beer scene and learning about the events, people, and beers in the area I figure it's a way to share the knowledge. It will be hopefully a one stop post of the latest beer news and events. If you are a reader let me know what you think about the new segment or if you have something to dish about leave a comment or email me at geistbear[at]gmail[dot]com.

In the News
Boyton Bridge Brewery hires brewer Mark Fesche. Little details on where he brewed before, but I'll work on finding out more about Mark.

Stone coming soon to Florida. A friend in Florida was looking for Stone beer, so I asked for him. What I discovered is that by Thanksgiving you should be able to find your favorite Stone brews in the Sunshine state. No word to when exactly the release date is yet, but I am sure they will post details here.

Upcoming Events
Big Boss Celebrates Boss Day
Horniblows Tavern, Big Boss Brewery
Tonight, October 16th - 5pm
Link
For their Boss’ day party, Big Boss will be pulling some of their seasonal & specialty ales from the cellar. The beers will include Belle Wringer Double Wit, Coffee Stout (07), and Wooden Penny.

Lighthouse International Beer Festival
Hugh MacRae Park, Wilmington NC
October 18th
Link

Red Rocks Cafe Stone Dinner
Red Rocks Cafe at Birkdale Village
8712 Lindholm Drive, Huntersville, NC
October 22nd - 7pm
Link

Pig Stein Fest '08
October 25th - Noon to 8pm
Link
BBQ, Beer and the Outer Banks

Oktoberfest Wake Forest
Festival Park in Wake Forest
October 25th - Noon-7pm
Link
Homebrew demonstration provided by me in association with American Brewmaster. And since it's Oktoberfest of course there will be beer.

Stone Tasting at Flying Saucer
Flying Saucer Raleigh
October 30th - 7pm-Close
Link
They will have 2006 Double Bastard Ale so get there early, I suspect it won't last all night.

'Teach a Friend to Brew' Day
November 1st
American Brewmaster and CARBOY
Details To Be Announced

Skirmish in the Triad
November 1st
Link
Battleground Brewers homebrew contest

Saturday I got to experience my first World Beer Festival and I'll surely be going back. Not just that it's my nearest festival, but also how well the event was ran. It had a good representation of regional and World market beers and a few unique offerings as well.

This is obviously a popular festival, so much so that the tickets had quickly sold out online and when I went to find tickets I had to drive to Foothills Brewery out in Winston-Salem to find mine. Sidenote: It was a great brewpub so that I had to go visit was not a bad thing at all, I intend to go back at my soonest opportunity.

The popularity was also clear as when we arrived shortly before the opening time we had about a 2 and half block line to the entrance. Those behind us went back for another block from the looks of it. But once the doors opened we moved at a surprisingly brisk pace towards the front door, I'd say only 10-15 minutes from once the line first moved until we were in the front door.

The first thing stood out was the white 3x3 plastic floor tiles that covered the outfield. They were obviously there to protect the new ballfield's turf, it felt a bit odd to walk on, but you got used to it.

There were three tents that held the various brews and then some food and other vendors along the back wall. There was no particular order to where the various breweries were, but the organizers did have a handy booklet grouped with both alphabetical and tents order based guides so you could quickly and easily find a specific brewery.

We started with a few random stops with solid beers, but nothing distinct of note until we got to Dogfish Head and I saw the famed Randall. The Randall held a spicy mix with peppers, coffee, and chocolate. It seems to be becoming a more popular option for beers, I tasted the Founder's Breakfast Stout through a Randall Thursday night at Flying Saucer and while they do have their problems, especially in pouring them effectively, it does present a new way for beer lovers to enjoy their favorite beers.

It was just after that I noticed David of Musings Over A Pint over by Flying Dog's booth. It was great to meet him in person. He also introduced me to Stephanie with Flying Dog. She seemed to be in for a busy week between this event and going to the Great American Beer Festival. I got to try the Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter and it was deliciously complex. I'll have to pickup some soon. Stephanie mentioned that the barrel version would be available soon and hopefully some of it will find it's way here, I'd love to see how that pumps up the beer's character.

Then I started to wander a bit and had Kuhnhenn Brewing Companies' Braggot which was every bit of smooth and sweet you would expect from such a mead-beer crossing. I also had a taste of the Fourth Dementia Olde Ale which was excellent as well, while I have never heard of them before yesterday I would keep an eye out for them, they had some wonderful brews.

Besides Kuhnhenn, Arcadia's Hopmouth Double IPA was also outstanding. They are from Michigan so is Bells, so while it's not thought of as a Beer Mecca perhaps there is more to the Michigan beer scene than meets the eye. Worth checking out further for sure.

Another surprise was New Belgium's attendance at the festival considering that Fat Tire and their other brews are not available in North Carolina yet. I had heard next Spring they would be making their arrival, though the festival volunteers seemed to think sometime in the next 90 days so I'll have to do some research to find out what the answer is exactly.

Of course the Big Boss crew was in attendance, I only briefly said hello as they were being swamped with people every time I tried to visit. They were a definite hit at the festival but then they had the Pumpkin ale and Blackberry ale in addition to the regular offerings I can't say I am surprised.

For all the discussion of AB's ownership of Old Dominion Brewing it seems they are not getting in their brewers way. Two of the more interested offerings I had that day were special beers the brewers had been playing with, so there is still a lot of interesting work going on there.

The festival finished with me running into Jay Brooks and Lew Bryson. It was great to see Jay again, he has been quite busy of late, but check his website I think he'll have some great stories to share shortly. Lew was quite a jovial sort and it was a pleasure to meet him.

If there is any sour note, I heard from a number of distributors both in the days leading to the event and at it that there are some folk stealing equipment at festivals, be it signs, ice tubs, and even keg boxes. Not just at this festival either it seems to be a problem throughout the region. Ultimately I can see this hurting everyone involved. So if you are attending a festival and see something that doesn't look right, find a festival staffer and let them know so they can do something about it.

Overall it was one of the better run festivals I have attended. The crowds were managed as well as one can expect. The variety of beers was great, it might be nice to see a couple of beers from Asia, Africa and Australia based on this festival's name, but any event with over 100 breweries isn't an easy job to organize. All About Beer is doing a great job of getting the word out on craft beer to it's community.

One of the things I have wanted to do for a while but haven't had the time nor opportunity is helping at a brewery. While brewing a batch of beer is the more glamorous job when Big Boss offered the chance to spend a day helping on bottling I leaped at the chance.

It was as much as I expected about six of the staff worked at various points on their bottling line and I helped along the way. Two guys made sure a constant stream of bottles were being feed to the system and kept an eye on the washing system. Another two made sure the bottles were being filled and capped properly. One person quality checked the bottles fill level and ensured the labeling machine did it's job. Last another person and myself grabbed the bottles and put them into cases as quickly as possible.

There would be runs as long as an hour of constant bottling until a minor adjustment issue would slow activity to a crawl and give us a chance to make sure we had all the equipment we needed close at hand. Because I was new to the process I was slower at boxing than the person I was working with but it didn't seem I was so slow to get in anyone's way. Occasionally someone would help us at the end of the process making sure the full boxes got on the pallet, but otherwise I think I held my own.

What was the work like? It was hard work, the room was warm and humid and we had the repetitive motion of moving around four bottles into a box until full then moving the box down to the pallets. Four bottles of beer don't sound like much to move, but when you do it a few thousand times it is quite a workout.

I walked away tired, sweaty, and thirsty for a beer or two. But it also provided me an insight into how much hard work goes into those bottles of craft beer in our refrigerators. That craft beers are very much a labor intensive work place for a smaller craft brewer and not just that but they are ultimately a labor of love.

Last, now that Big Boss has announced it's on tap I got to sample the Black Diamond Express before it went to tavern. This new beer is a light Belgian ale brewed with lemon and orange peel, and aged on blackberries. It had a light berry aroma and the flavor was light on the palette too not overwhelming as some fruit beers can be. As my sample warmed I noticed a bit of clove character become apparent as well which was a great counter point to the berry character. So head down to Horniblows Tavern if you are in the Raleigh area and check it out, you won't be disappointed.

From my first Arrogant Bastard toast at the Made in the Shade beer festival to the look of horror on a buddy's brother face (Bud Light drinker) when he sampled my glass of Double Bastard, Stone beers have been some of my favorite and most memorable.

That is why one of the disappointments when I moved to North Carolina was that I'd have to road trip to find those tasty ales.

Thankfully I haven't had to suffer for long, I heard through friends and confirmed through Stone's sales folk that we will soon have the chance to enjoy Stone beer here in the Tarheel state.

The kick off will be at Tyler's Taproom in Durham on September 17th with it showing up in local bars and retail locations soon there after. I know I am planning on making the kick off because if you check their website you'll see a great selection of their offerings. Even Ruination will be making an appearance and if there has been one thing I have missed since my departure from the West is a good hopbomb.

If anyone has questions about where to find Stone in their area leave a comment and I'll try to find out for you.

This is just my first impression based on the beers I have tasted the last few weeks and not indepth looks at specific breweries but I'll get there in due time. The beer scene is pretty decent, while there aren't a large number of breweries, as many as Flagstaff by my count, they are making some good quality beers.

Furthermore the local beer stores and grocery stores offer a good range of options and while Belgian and hop bombs seem to be in short supply otherwise there are plentiful options to sample. I have seen such names as Dogfish Head, Magic Hat, Saranac, Brooklyn, Bells, and even Laganitas on the shelves here. The Bells was of particular surprise and delight to me. No offerings from Stone as of yet, but as Asheville Beer blog mentioned they should be in the area in short order.

Last and should be noted there is a definite difference between the hop level of East Coast and West Coast beers. Pale ales aren't nearly as hoppy as their West Coast cousins, they are more malt based flavored ales. While I have seen some highly hopped ales the number of hop bombs lags behind the Western US. I don't think that there is anything wrong with that. Tastes vary to region and it gets reflected in the locally popular brewing styles.

More to come on the particular beers and breweries of the area.

I hesitated to write this the last week or so, but I realized I am not going to be posting regularly until I get established in North Carolina sometime after the 4th of July. I'll try to get a few posts in between now and then but frankly the preparations and packing has begun in earnest and the time I could spend blogging can be better spent getting things ready.

Be back soon...

I am in San Francisco for the weekend to attend the BN Anniversary party and enjoy many great beers. But a change is in the winds, we'll be moving to North Carolina in a few short weeks.

The Beer Geek in me looks forward to seeing what the beer scene is like in the Raleigh-Durham area. It will certainly be a change from the cool mountains of Flagstaff, but change and new surroundings are a good thing, it gives life a fresh perspective.

I'll likely get to see some East Coast friends I have missed the last few years a little more often. Besides what fun is life without a new adventure occasionally.