And now, a shameless plug. Good seats are still available for tomorrow night’s Food and Beer class at Delish! on Elmwood. We’ll be celebrating the season by pairing up a bunch of sausages with a bunch o’ beers, Oktoberfest-like. Joe from Spars is in charge of the food side of the equation, he tells me the dishes will incorporate smoked German sauage, bavarian sausage, and weisswurst. To go with, we’ll be trying Flying Bison’s collaborative beer (made with High Falls in Rochester; a Dopplebok style), a filtered heffeweizen, and a traditional german style called rauchbier.

It all goes down at 6:00 pm. Delish! is located at 802 Elmwood; tix are $45.00 per person. For more information, visit their website or call 881-2022

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After a quiet Summer, Jim @ Ulrich’s Tavern is breaking out the 07-08 season of the Hasenpfeffer Club. For those that don’t know, the club is named for the original, Prohibition-breaking club that used the upstairs at Ulrich’s as a clandestine (well, not so very) bar. Jim even has in his possession the original gavel that called these sessions to order. The modern interpretation of the club meets to celebrate Buffalo’s social history of drinking, to promote craft beers, local and otherwise, and generally: to meet people and have fun! Last season, we had activities that ranged from touring some of Buffalo’s remaining ‘locals’ and other celebrated watering holes to tasting and food pairings at Ulrichs, alongside short lectures on history or brewing (or the history of brewing.) As the Irish say, the craic is mighty- and the beer on the bus is provided by Flying Bison, often something otherwise unavailable.

Tomorrow, Tuesday 25th September, the club meets at 6pm for food and beer at Ulrich’s… Click through for the details.

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Saturday saw the release of yet another small-batch beer from local brewery Flying Bison. Over the course of the last few years, they’ve really stepped up their production of single-batch experimental beers- from collaborations with High Falls, to cask-conditioned beers tapped at Mr. Goodbar’s Friday cask events, I’ve been pretty impressed with the ones […]

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Between server problems down at WNYM, ongoing “Dude, where’s my editor?” issues, and the uptick in demands with my ‘real’ job, BOV has been lagging of late, there’s no question. I apologize, and I assure you that there’s a bunch of stuff in the pipeline just waiting to be squeezed out. If that metaphor seems only slightly more related to plumbing than gastrointestinal functions, you’re reading it right.

In the very short term, however, one bit of local beery news for passing on: Flying Bison will have a release party tomorrow, from 2-6, for their new Imperial Red Ale. If you were lucky enough to score a coupon for the limited release 3rd Anniversary Goodbeer Club bottles, tomorrow’s your first chance to get yours. The Flying Bison brewery is at 491 Ontario Street; for more details call 716.873.1557.

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BOV & Family hit the road for Labor day, finally visiting family in VT after promising to do so for far too long. The timing was pretty beer-tastic, because only days before, a new issue of Beer Advocate arrived at my door complete with a focus on Vermont craft breweries in their regular beer destination column. I’m not The Beer Geek or anything, but we share one thing, which is having wives who indulge, even join in with, us when every journey is planned with reference to good beer possibilites along the way. We sampled well, hitting the Long Trail brewery and otherwise quaffing some mighty Rock Art barley wine, Harpoon IPA, Otter Creek 15th Anniversary IPA, Southampton Dubel and Switchback Pale Ale. Click through for the travelogue!

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The Session is a monthly happening in the Beer-Blogsphere, conceived of by author Stan Hieronymus over at his fantastic site. The concept is simple- on an appointed day, beer bloggers all review a beer with a common style or theme. Last month, for example, led to a flurry of reviews of Fruit Beers; previous editions have focused on other styles or themes. This month’s Session was hosted by Rick over at Lyke2Drink, who suggested the theme of “The Brew Zoo”, or beers featuring animals in the title, company or label. My contribution, then: Orkney’s Dragonhead Stout.
Click through for the rest…

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When I saw this one on the shelves at Consumer’s on Elmwood, my first thought was “Nice label, but do I really want to drink that?” Then I reflected on the awesome banana bread recipe that we tasted at one of my food/beer pairings at Delish!, the mushy, overripe bananas in my freezer, and the fact that banana aromas and flavors are really part-and-parcel of some beer styles, and grabbed the bottle. After all, I love monkeys drinking beer: my original name for the site & show was going to be “BeerMonkey”, but sadly, “Brewmonkey” was already out there. So… would a domesticated ape such as yourself–or I–like this beer? Click through for the review!

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When you’ve done celebrating labor over the weekend–I assume by striking somewhere, yeah?–you sould strongly consider saving time on the night of Wed, 5th September for what will surely go down as the most excellent Mr. Goodbar Goodbar Club in, well… Three Years! That’s right, Bobby Rabb’s been at it for fully 36 tastings, and he’s lined up a pretty special night- click through for details!

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