Beergrimmage Booty Part 1

Here's what we brought home from Belgium, purchased at the Beir Tempel in Brussels and smuggled using bubble wrap in our luggage. 24/24 intact! Recognize anything?

We also purchased another case at Beer Planet, also in Brussels. We had this shipped and should be getting it soon. Should have had it all shipped...this would have been more cost effective, but we wanted to diversify our risk a little bit.

The Beergrimage

After my wife, Desiree, completes the PA and NJ bar exam, we'll be celebrating by taking a trip to the old world - specifically, Germany and Belgium. The goal - visit as many breweries as possible (well, that's just my goal, as a couple we have a few others.)

After a few relaxing days in the German countryside of Oberwesel, we'll migrate west to Belgium, one of the most celebrated beer regions in the world. We'll spend a few days in the beautiful and historic Bruges, and visit Brouwerij Halve de Maan, brewers of the Bruges Zot Belgian Pale Ale. 

Next on the itinerary is the village Poperinge, where Brouwerij Van Eecke and St. Bernardus await us in nearby Watou. Poperinge also serves as the launching pad for our beergrimage within the beergrimage - a trip to one of the most celebrated breweries on the planet: The Abbey of St. Sixtus in Westvleteren. I've blogged about beer hype a few times before, and the Westvleteren 12 quadrupel is the perfect storm of rarity and (alleged - I'll let you know) deliciousness to be oft named the best beer in the world. The Trappist monks at Westvleteren are not as interested in building a commercial empire as some of their brethren in monasteries like Chimay and Orval (not that there's anything wrong with that) and consequently, the demand for their beer far outstrips the supply.

After this glorious visit, we'll move onto Brussels, aka Lambic land, where the highly acclaimed Cantillon brews lambics and geuezes. A brief trip south of the city will land us in Beersel, where Drie Fountainen blends some of geuezes of tremendous repute.

Our last beer-related stop will be to Beer Mania, a Belgian beer retailer, where I'll be able to send a case or two of some of the best Belgian beers home to some of my friends outside of the Commonwealth.

Our 10 day journey begins on August 2, and I'll be posting photos and anecdotes shortly afterward.

Registration

I told the story behind Registration Ale a few weeks back on DrinkPhilly.com. This weekend, I benefitted from the prudent patience of Jeff from TJ's Restaurant and Drinkery in Paoli, who had the foresight to save his keg of Registration for an event a week after Philly Beer Week. Not only did I get to have this lovely hop bomb of an IPA again, I actually ended up with a growler to take home (as did most of the other Beer Advocate types who showed up for the event.)
Here's why this matters: The geekiest of us beer folk are always on the look out for those special one-off beers that I referred to in my last post. In fact, Russian River's Pliny the Younger is almost synonymous for "I ain't gettin' any younger while I'm waiting in this line outside the bar for the Pliny event." By the time you get through all of the barriers to entry to getting PtY, it psychologically results in you thinking it was the best beer you ever had, even if they served you a Bud Light Lime. I should know, I waited an hour outside Tria on a very nasty day  for it.
But with the confluence of events that led up to the TJ's event, the lines just didn't show up for Registration the way they do for PtY, even though Registration is rarer and possibly just as vaunted. Maybe its name isn't as big, maybe the Philly area beer geeks were tapped out from Beer Week, maybe all of the Main Line snobs were on vacation. Whatever it was, I genuinely lost sleep when I heard through Twitter that the Registration got tapped a night early, thinking that I would lose my chance to have it one more time, only to find the keg still running strong the next morning (hey, it was 5 o'clock somewhere).
Incidentally, this one was made specifically for Philly, so even the beer folk who live right next to the Russian River brewery in Santa Clara, California, were out of luck for this one. That's a limited release, my friends.
The point is that the score was so profound that some of my lucky fellow beer geeks are now using their Registration growlers as barter for some serious whales from around the world.
Personally, I don't like the hassle, so I'm just going to enjoy Registration for the next week, a little at a time.