Some time before Thanksgiving, I think it was around Halloween, I was surfing the interwebs, up to no good, and bouncing around in the tubes (thank you George W.) I came across an article about beer snobbery which mentioned something called Black Tuesday from a company called The Bruery which happens to be located just a hop skip and a jump north of San Diego in Orange County.

Having no small interest in the topic of beer, I have enjoyed exploring some of the many offerings available in my adopted home town but I had not been apprised of the existence of anything special outside of San Diego County and had actually been told that Orange County is something of a wasteland (not just in terms of beer but that’s a post for a different blog), so I was surprised to learn that there was anything worth knowing about the swath of land between the populated areas of San Diego and Los Angeles.

But this Black Tuesday, it called my name. I am not a fan of stouts but an Imperial Stout sounds like something that one should try and when they mentioned that the beer was aged in bourbon barrels and has an ABV of 19%, my interest was beyond piqued. So I went to the website and was dismayed, pissed off even, to find out that this magical elixir is only available to those elite members of something called The Preservation Society. My disappointment was somewhat tempered by the fact that The Preservation Society turned out not to be some elitist establishment (as would befit Orange County) but a sort of Awesome Small Batch Beers of the Quarter club. For a mere $54 + tax and shipping, you receive 3 bottles of super special beer every 3 months.

Today my first shipment of beers arrived and I was hopping around the house like a kid on Christmas morning. I know this because I just saw my own kid hopping around the house on Christmas morning. I may have actually been a little less restrained than she was. I am having some trouble deciding where to start especially since I also have a bottle of the very enticing Goose Island Lolita chilling in the fridge.

Decisions, decisions…