Insider's Guide to the FotB Anniversary Party on Friday!

Our first Anniversary Party is on Friday and, as you well know, we are really pulling out the big guns for this one. I've got some insider tips into the 16 beers that will be available to you. Also, for each beer you order on this list, you'll receive a raffle ticket to win cool stuff from the breweries. If you read this blog, then you need to come over and hang out. Please come by and say hi. If we've never met, just ask around for Eric, Isaac, and Dan, and introduce yourself!

Details
5pm till close at Trinity Brewing
Pay per drink / Raffle ticket per drink on this list / A portion of the proceeds will go to the blog.

I can't really tell you which beers you should get first because, honestly, all these beers are pretty special (I will say that the Deschutes Abyss has been one of my all-time favorite beers for years. I drink one Abyss every New Years Eve). The beers range from highly experimental, to very rare, to special seasonals, to one-offs, to beers that are normally exclusive to other bars and taprooms. Here's what we've got coming your way:

Avery Brewing - Piglet Purgatory
4.5% ABV
A special beer for sure. This one is half the beer that the famous Hog Heaven is, half the ABV, half the IBUs, making it fittingly Piglet Purgatory.

Crooked Stave - Chardonnay Barrel Aged Good Glory
5.4% ABV   
Good Glory, an earthy spring sipper with lavender, German malts, and a special Belgian yeast is normally exclusive to Euclid Hall in Denver, but Crooked Stave aged this one in some French Chardonnay barrels for five months and sent it down south! Expect some extra white grape notes, some Brettanomyces funkiness and some oak with this version.

Deschutes - The Abyss
11% ABV
One of Eric's (founder of Focus on the Beer) all-time favorites! A deep, dark Imperial Stout with huge amounts of depth and complexity. Double mashes included brewer’s licorice and blackstrap molasses. Tempered with vanilla bean and cherry bark and aged in Bourbon, Pinot Noir and Oregon Oak barrels.

Firestone Walker - 15th Anniversary   
12.5% ABV   
A blend of 8 different bourbon-barrel-aged beers that at first looks chaotic and potentially disjointed, however, a closer look reveals an interesting theme: 76% Barley Wine style beers, 19% Stout and 5% Imperial IPA. Helldorado, DDBA, Parabola, Velvet Merkin, Bravo, Good Foot and Double Jack.

Funkwerks - Cherry Saison
9.5% ABV   
Cherry Saison is back! For 2011, we started with a dark Saison fermented with our house yeast, then added 600 pounds of fresh picked Montmorency cherries. The result is a luscious blend of tart cherry and chocolaty malt with hints of almond and spice.

Great Divide - Hibernation - Vertical 09, 10, 11   
8.1% ABV (this year)   
Aged for three months over the summer, this winter warmer is rich and full with a complex malt and hop character. Normally only available for six weeks out of the year, this is your chance to compare the last three year's worth of this beer all at the same time.

New Belgium - Ken's Beer       
Normally only available in Ft. Collins and at GABF. This is a special, golden colored wheat beer brewed by the NB Fermentology Master Ken, has an aroma of fresh bread dough, spicy clove, peppercorn, and fruitiness. The yeast carries a subtle floral and fruity flavor with slight sweetness, a strong peppery punch, and a clean spicy finish.

Odell Brewing - Nitro Oil Can Double Stout   
9.2% ABV
Originally brewed for Odell's Dark Days of November, exclusively for their taproom. This one is smooth and creamy with a very full bodied mouth feel. This stout was the result of two separate mashes combining into one boil. The strength of this brew is well balanced and some would say it is chocolate cake in a glass.

Oskar Blues - Smiddy   
4.8% ABV  
A 'small beer' made with second runnings from a FIDY mash, Smiddy has huge roasted barley and chocolate malt aroma and flavor balanced with a generous dosage of Glacier hops. Still a hearty brew with plenty of body, but at less than 5% ABV it's a sessionable quaff that's perfect for Fall and the impending Winter.

Phantom Canyon - Methuselah Rookie Card
Around 5% ABV
Multiple ales were blended and spontaneously fermented in French oak barrels (where a close to a pound of cherries per gallon were added) and aged for two years to sour and acquire subtle cherry flavors.

Rockyard - Blonde       
7.7% ABV
This light-bodied Belgian-style Blonde Ale is brewed with raw wheat and homemade invert sugar (don’t ask). Don’t let her color fool you though, she’s a man-eater at 7.7% ABV. Take care of our guests and don’t let them get blonded by the light.

Ska Brewing - Sethvleteren 8       
8% ABV
Brewed for the Pro AM competition at this year's Great American Beer Festival and bottled for Ska's Local Series. This beer is an Organic Belgian Dubbel, strong and yeasty with banana clove notes, caramel, and malt richness.

Trinity Brewing - Soul Aged on Coconut   
5.5% ABV   
Everything you love about the caramel, toffee and chocolatey maltiness of Trinity's flagship Soul Horkey but this version has been aged on some coconut! Sounds good to me.

Twisted Pine - Poison Fish
5.5% ABV
Twisted Pine, creators of some of the spiciest beers bring us this experimental offering with adjunct ingredients of ginger, wasabi, horseradish root, and mustard seed, which creates some complexity for this earthy Brown Ale. It sounds a little crazy, I know, but we love crazy.

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