Year of Beer Paintings – Day 31

Today’s Year of Beer painting is of La Fin Du Monde by Unibroue.  Translated from French to mean “the end of the world”.  Unibroue, a Canadian brewery, makes delicious Belgian style beers that are fun to open on a special occasion due to the champagne cork!  I love to hear the sound of the cork popping out of the bottle.  They are also good for cellaring because they have high alcohol content.  I wouldn’t save this beer until the end of the world, because it would be a shame if it was left corked when the fire and brimstone sets in.  It needs to be kept in a dark place with even temperature though, or you could find that your delicious beer you were saving is past its prime.  I hate to make a toast to the end of the world, but I like to close my blog entries with a toast!  Here goes.  A toast to La Fin Du Monde, live every day like it is your last, drink up!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy Shop.

Year of Beer 01.31 La Fin Du Monde by Unibroue. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 30

Today’s Year of Beer painting is A Deal With the Devil barleywine by Anchorage Brewing Company.  This wicked brew has been creating quite a stir this year as it did last year.  Only 28 cases were released in Alaska, so La Bodega only sold one bottle per person at $30+ a bottle.  Recently, a bottle sold for $100 on Craigslist, as it is no longer available at any store in Anchorage.  I guess you can only sell your soul once a year?  I didn’t realize that my soul was only worth $30.  I tasted this barleywine at the Great Alaskan Beer and Barleywine festival.  I was frankly surprised that it took third place in the barleywine competition.  Oak aged in Cognac barrels, it is a cut above any other barley wine you will try this year, or next year, or even five years from now, which is when I will pop mine open.  Sure is smooth for a 17% alc/vol brew!  Making a toast to A Deal with the Devil goes against my Christian upbringing, but what the hell.  To A Deal With the Devil, the best barley wine I tried in 2014!  I sampled a lot of them!

The original painting sold. You can purchase a limited-edition print at my Etsy Shop.

Year of Beer 01.30 A Deal with the Devil by Anchorage Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 29

Today’s Year of Beer painting is Lagunitas IPA, a fine version of a single IPA, meaning it ain’t Hop Stoopid.  I portrayed this beer sitting in a redwood forest nearby Petaluma, California, home of Lagunitas Brewing Company.  This beer is crisp clean and full of hop flavor and malt body.  I could drink this beer all day in a proper redwood forest, and I bet if you like IPA, you would too.  Although this beer feels small next to the grandeur of the redwood giants, it feels like a mighty large beverage when I am enjoying it at home here in Alaska.

Cheers to great beers!  Good job Lagunitas Brewing Co. for making an exemplar version of IPA!

The original painting sold. You can purchase a limited edition print at my Etsy Shop.

View the complete Year of Beer Paintings gallery.

Year of Beer 01.29 Lagunitas IPA from Lagunitas Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 28

Today’s Year of Beer painting is Bitburger, Germany’s number one imported draft beer.  I like this pils because is has more flavor than some of the more balanced German pilsners.  It is what Miller Lite wishes it was.  If Miller would only drop all that corn and stay true to the Reinheitsgebot purity laws then it too could possibly be as good as Bitburger, well Miller would have to add a few more hops as well.  The brewery in Bitburg makes seven times as much brew as Sierra Nevada Brewing Company!  I drink this one when I am feeling nostalgic for German style pils, because it is an excellent example of this style.  There are only three others that I can remember that were as high on my list: Berliner Pils (not to be confused with the Berliner Weisse), Einbecker Pils, and Garley Pils.  Too bad you can’t buy any of them but Bitburger here in Alaska.

Ein prosit dem Reinheitsgebot alles Malzbier!

This original oil painting sold, but I painted a different version, and it’s available at my Etsy Shop.

Year of Beer 01.28 Bitburger. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 27

“If you’d been rocketed into space against your will, you might be a little bitter too.”
~21^st Amendment Brewery.

Today’s Year of Beer painting is Bitter American from 21^st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, CA.  It is the brewers’ tribute to “unsung, unwitting heroes everywhere.”  I love this craft brew not only because it has a space monkey on the label, but also because it tastes like a serious IPA without making me loopy in the brain.  I prefer craft brew in cans because the beer is safe from light and oxidation in a can, and the can is less likely to break than a bottle.

“To Infinity and beyond!”

The original painting sold. You can purchase a limited edition print at my Etsy Shop.

Year of Beer 01.27 Bitter American from 21st Amendment Brewery. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 26

Today’s Year of Beer painting is Murphy’s Stout in a draught can.  When you exit the train station in Edinburgh, Scotland (pronounced Eden•burr•oh), where this beer is brewed, you will see castles and cathedral rooflines in every direction.  We arrived at sunset, several hours late, because a train had caught on fire up the tracks on the way from London.  I really wanted to go to Scotland, as it is the base for my name, but also because I was looking for some vintage Scottish cashmere sweaters.  I did search every second hand store in town, giving me a pretty good idea of what Edinburgh is about.  No vintage sweaters were to be found despite our extensive search.  When we were leaving in a rainstorm by bicycles we explored the ancient Roman aqueducts, which amazingly flow over the top of freeways.  Bicycle touring in Scotland maybe was not the best idea, so after we crossed the island we booked it out of Scotland all the way back to Holland via conventional travel.  Drink a Murphy’s, one of the best Irish beers… brewed in Scotland!  Go figure.

You can purchase this painting, or a limited edition print at my Etsy Shop.

Year of Beer 01.26 Murphy’s Stout. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 25

Forest Ranger, Park Ranger, Army Ranger or even Strider from Lord of the Rings would dig an IPA as tasty and portable as Ranger IPA in the can from New Belgium Brewing of Colorado.  This beer feels at home in a deciduous forest, or under the glow of an Aspen ring.  I have long loved New Belgium since I was a freshman in college at WSC in Gunnison.  I am so glad that last year the brewery started distributing in Anchorage, Alaska.

Here’s a toast to all the rangers out in the world making our parks, forests, and middle earth a better place!

You can purchase this painting or a limited edition print at my Etsy Shop.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 24

Today’s Year of Beer painting is of Snowshoe White Belgian Style Wit by Midnight Sun Brewing Company.  The can is shown in the snow in front of a pair of snowshoes, because, unless you are a hare, you will find that getting around in deep snow is tiresome.  If you don’t have any snowshoes, at least grab a Snowshoe White; it will ease the tension as you sink to your hips and wallow around in Alaska snow.  Lets hope for snow like that as we have been having weird winter meltdown in January.  All Alaskans fear rain in the middle of winter; it’s not aesthetically pleasing and increases danger on the roads, parking lots and trails due to super slippery freezing ground ice!  I love a good witbeir in a can.  Reminds me of a couple of favorites I was drinking while bike touring across Holland.  Maybe I can include some of them in this series if I can get my hands on them.

“We Can Be Green” ~ MSBC motto

You can purchase the original painting or a limited-edition print at my Etsy Shop.

Year of Beer 01.24 Showshoe White from Midnight Sun Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 23

Today’s Year of Beer painting is Amber Ale from King Street Brewing Company!  The beer is pictured on the side of the Coastal Trail, with Anchor-town sights in the background.  This beer isn’t a tourist, it’s a hard core local!  King Street does not advocate illicitly drinking on the Coastal Trail, but if you are going to do it, at least do it with some style.  Amber Ale has always had mad Alaska character, from Alaskan Brewing Company’s flagship brew to Midnight Sun Brewing Company’s stylish Oosik Amber.  Almost every brewery has an Amber in Alaska.  King Street’s is a solid contender coming in right on par with the rest of the great Ambers out there.  Alaskans take beer drinking seriously and every brewer wants to be competitive.  Amber used to be my favorite style.  As my palette developed I have been drinking more and more IPA. Being a bit of a hophead makes returning to Ambers a malty experience!  Cheers to fresh beer wherever is near!

The original painting sold. You can purchase a limited-edition print at my Etsy Shop.

Year of Beer Paintings, 01.23, King Street Brewing Co. Amber. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 22

Today’s Year of Beer painting is Pale Ale from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.  This fine ale is a benchmark for quality, consistency, and positive influence in the community.  If you drank Sierra Nevada’s beer 15 years ago, you had to be a  “bitter beer lover”.  Now with hop-heavy beers present in all corners of our country, this Pale Ale seems pleasantly balanced.  This brewery was started by home-brewers Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi in 1980, which makes it one of the oldest craft breweries in the U.S.  Located in Chico, California, with pioneering efforts in green sustainability, the brewery is now not only the sixth largest craft brewery in America, making over 786,000 barrels of beer a year, but was also voted “Green Business of the Year” by The United Stated Environmental Protection Agency in 2010.  Solar panels, spent grain recycling, childcare available on premise and darn tasty brews add up to make this brewery a winner all around.

The original painting sold. You can purchase a limited-edition print at my Etsy Shop.

View the complete Year of Beer Paintings gallery.

Year of Beer 01.22. Pale Ale from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.