A year ago, I would never have predicted that I would  be where I am today. If someone was to tell me that I would have met all of the people that I met, traveled to all of the places that I traveled, and experienced all of the things that I did, I would not have believed it.

Let us rewind it back and look at 2009:

Still living in Orlando, in MASSIVE transition, working at Seasons 52 — high-end seasonally inspired fresh grill and wine bar. At this time, The Wench seriously studies for Sommelier and Certified Specialist of Wine certifications. At this point, wine is The Wench’s profession and beer remains her hobby.

The last weekend of January, The Wench travels to California for the ZAP Zinfandel Festival. Met SEVERAL of my twitter followers over the course of a few days. Drank lots of amazing vino, took a day trip to Napa. Trip was way too short.

Drink with the Wench turns ONE on February 7th!

Towards the end of the month, The Wench attends the first dinner in a series of Twitter Taste Live dinner party tweetups at Dolce Debbie‘s house in Tampa, FL. The theme was Italian wines & Italian foods and was co-hosted with Matt Horbund from A Good Time With Wine.

At the beginning of the month, The Wench co-hosts a Twitter Taste Live with Dogfish Head.

The rest of the month is rather uneventful.

The beginning of the month starts out with a BANG. The Wench tri-hosts THE FIRST EVER Twitter Taste Live Beer vs. Wine Dinner at Dolce Debbie’s house in Tampa, FL. Dolce Debbie planned and cooked a beautiful five course menu, Matt Horbund paired four of the dishes with a wine and The Wench paired the same dishes with a beer. The verdict? A tie.

The Wench announces her desire to work in the beer industry by announcing The Wenchternship. No one bites and the project is quickly abandoned.

Things take a turn for the worse when The Wench gets in a bad car accident. Car accident results in several weeks off from work and 2 months of daily physical therapy.

Car accident results in a mini-depressive episode and a significant reduction of blog posts.

Plagued by a series of unfortunate an undesirable events in Orlando (including the car accident), The Wench is “saved” when she gets invited to live with Dolce Debbie and her husband Barry Frangipane in Tampa, FL. Without hesitation, The Wench moves to Tampa.

Things begin to look better for The Wench. She begins to gain momentum.

Happy Birthday to The Wench. Ashley turns 26 on June 13th. Dolce Debbie hosts the party of a lifetime in honor of the birthday twins — The Wench and Aging Backwards.

Early in the month, The Wench attempts to enter what she calls “No Man’s Land” by writing a series of posts featuring linear pairings between beer and wine. Although widely popular, the series is short lived — with potential to be revived in the new year.

The end of the month brings an invite by Samuel Adams to attend an expense paid trip to Charleston, SC in July to attend a beer dinner at The Culinary Institute.

Things get REALLY exciting this month.

The Wench flies to Charleston, SC to attend a Samuel Adams beer dinner at The Culinary Institute of Charleston. She has the honor of sitting next to Samuel Adam’s head brewer, Bob Cannon, for the duration of the dinner. Following the dinner, The Wench lands her very first brewer interview with Bob Cannon. She also interviews the head Chef of the beer dinner.

At the end of the month, Ashley find herself back in Wine Country, CA for the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference.

While in California, Ashley takes her first trip to Twisted Oak Winery in Murphy’s. It is here where she develops an obsession for the River of Skulls and meets the love of her life, her rubber chicken aptly named “Don Quixote.” After a day full of wine tasting in the town of Murphy’s, drinking gueze, feasting on tri-tip, swimming in the creek and wine blending, The Wench spends a wonderful night sleeping underneath the Twisted Oak Winery Twisted Oak Tree.

It is in this moment that The Wench has an epiphany and starts thinking about moving to CA.

Day one of the Wine Bloggers Conference reunites Ashley with many of her Twitter friends from across the country as well as gives her the opportunity to meet new followers. She also gets to meet the boys from Mutineer Magazine.

Day two of the Wine Bloggers Conference is EPIC. The day starts with Bloody Marys and ends with Absinthe. Bus Number Four becomes legendary.

Day three of the Wine Bloggers Conference gives Ashley the confidence she needs to make her declaration to move to CA. The gears start turning and she starts plotting a cross country trip with instant BFF Shana Ray.

This month is one of complete chaos and absolute insanity.

The Wench officially decides on a whim to pick up everything and move across country — with no job, prospect of a job or place to live.

Burnt out and needing an adventure, Shana Ray makes the spontaneous decision to book a flight to Florida and make the drive across country with Ashley. After hours of brainstorming, the ambitous pair create PROJECT Y-INE — the first social media expose focused on researching the beer & wine consumption behaviors of Generation Y.

After analyzing all possible routes across country, The Wench decides that the southern route would be the most ideal. She reaches out to her Twitter & beer blogger contacts in each city, setting up as many events allow the way as possible.

Even before the trip details are complete solidified, Ashley makes the spontaneous decision to plan a trip to the Midwest just days after her assumed arrival in California.

Shana flies in to Tampa on the 14th. Dolce Debbie hosts a bon-voyage dinner for The Wench at her favorite Tampa restaurant, Pellagia.

With tears in her eyes and a Starbucks gift card in hand, The Wench packs up her car, hugs her “parents” Debbie and Barry goodbye and embarks upon the cross country adventure of a lifetime.

First stop: New Orleans. The Wench meets up with fellow beer blogger, The Beer Buddha at The Avenue Pub. There she also meets Matt Austin and the entire team of NOLA Brewing Co. The first night took a turn for the more awesome (and worst in Shana’s case) when the ladies found themselves visiting the “exclusive” favorite watering hole of the NOLA locals — Snake and Jakes Christmas Club Lounge.

Day two in NOLA started out slow. The girls did not find themselves leaving the house until late afternoon. Matt Austin plays tour guide through the French Quarter. The Wench gets her palm read and buys the most kickass pirate hat. Dylan Lintern of NOLA Brewing Co. invites The Wench and posse to join him and his brother for a potluck beer tasting at their house — complete with a full L shaped bar, 6 taps and a digital karaoke machine. The tasting is epic. Events from that night inspire Matt to start writing his own beer blog: I’m Pouring.

Second stop: Houston, TX. The girls spend the night eating pizza and drinking local beer with Amy and Joe Power from Another Wine Blog. The night is capped off with chess, chocolate and vino. The next morning, the ladies find themselves visiting NASA.

Third stop: Austin. The girls almost never leave. Here they meet the most infamous @baconator from Twitter. He foolishly allows the girls to take over his house for 3 days. The trio of trouble makers then proceed to take Austin by storm. Local beer blogger, Chris Troutman of Beer Town Austin, organizes two beer events for The Wench: The Draught House Over A Pint Episode and Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que tour and tasting. Local food blogger, Jennie Chen of MisoHungry Makes it With Moonshine concocts some amazing beer desserts for the events.

The girls decide to stay in Austin and extra night and, as a result, spend 16 hours on the road driving to the Fourth stop: Phoenix. The Wench’s Uncle Terry Simpson hosts the girls for two nights.

Fifth stop: Los Angeles. Here The Wench meets up with fellow beer blogger, Chris Spradley of Breweries, Bars and Beer Food. Chris organizes a beer dinner at The Library Ale House which is followed by amazing beers at the Daily Pint. The next day, Chris hooks The Wench up with a video interview with Brian Lenzo at Blue Palms Brewhouse in Hollywood. The ladies cap the L.A. experience with a wenchmade (Whole Foods style) dinner party with Twisted Oak wines for Chris and the lovely bloggers from Hipster Enology.

After a scenic drive up Highway 1, the girls finally end the trip with beers at the Russian River Brewpub in Santa Rosa. They are joined by several wine country celebrities, including Rick Bakas of St Supery, Hardy Wallace of Dirty South Wine and Josh Hershberger of Pinot Blogger.

Whereas August was legendary, September is monumental.

With barely two weeks of California sunshine under her belt, The Wench whisks off to the Midwest for a 10 day beer extravaganza. The trip begins in Chicago and then works it way up to Wisconsin for Milwaukee beer week, a few beer dinners and The Great Lakes Brew Fest — where The Wench serves as a “mini mascot” and gets to lead the Pirate Parade.

The trip ends in Chicago where The Wench has the opportunity of a lifetime to have dinner at The Hop Leaf with Ray Daniels of the Cicerone Certification Program. Right before she jets back to California, Ashley grabs a few beers and a pizza with a small group of dudes (who would ultimately come good friends) that call themselves the #gents. One #gent in presence was the one and only Mr. Ken Hunnemeder from HopCast.

After less than 3 days back in California, the jet-setting Wench finds herself on yet another plane — this time to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival. Over a 5 day span, The Wench drinks her body weight (and then some) in amazing American beer from all over the country. She is reunited with old friends as well as has the opportunity to meet many of her Twitter friends in real life.

It is in Denver where Ashley first meets for the first time in person one of her best friends and fellow beer bloggers, PJ Hoberman from Starting a Brewery. She also meets Tim Cigeleske of Draft Magazine’s blog The Beer Runner, Chipper Dave of Fermentedly Challenged, Larry McIntosh of Madhouse Larry, Stef Ferrari of Girls For The Advancement of Craft Beer, Sarah Huska and many many others.

In addition to meeting several bloggers and tweeters, Ashley is honored when she gets to meet industry celebrities such as Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head, Rob Tod from Allagash, Vinnie & Natalie Chilurzo from Russian River, Greg Koch from Stone, Steve Parkes from the American Brewers Guild, Dan Del Grande from Bison Brewing, Joey Redner from Cigar City, Patrick Rue from The Bruery and so on and so forth.

October is the month of wine. Thanks to her amazing friends Thea Dwelle of Luscious Lushes and Shana Ray of Breathe Media, Ashley attends several wine blogger events all over Sonoma & Napa Counties. The wineries include, but are not limited to: KAZ Winery, Micheal Schlumberger, Benziger, BV Vineyards (where Ashley partakes in a grape stomping competition), Arista, Rubissow (where Ashley helps harvest grapes), Conn Creek, Bella, Rodney Strong, Papa Pietro Perry, ZD, Titus and several more.

Ashley even gets the honor of sitting in on an episode of Wine Biz Radio — where she is deemed “The Being of Pure Id” by its host Randy Hall.

Mid month, Hardy Wallace of Dirty South Wine hosts his annual Taco-Toberfest. Ashley also takes a trip into San Francisco where she attends a Tequila tasting for the U.S. launch of Don Roberto Tequilas.

Later in the month, Sondra Bernstein from the girl and the fig rolls out the red carpet for The Wench and posse at her restaurant. The group follows up an epic lunch by attending a book signing with Gary Vee from Wine Library TV. Ashley proceeds to drink lots of wine and molest Gary Vee with her rubber chicken — Don Quixote. Oddly enough, Gary Vee doesn’t seem to mind and, in fact, seems to like it.

After a few weeks choked full of wine and food events, The Wench finds herself back on a plane to the Midwest — this time for the Great Lakes Craft Brewers and Water Conservation Conference organized by Lucy Saunders of BeerCook.Com. There she gets to rub elbows with many brewers and beer industry movers and shakers.

October ends with a St Supery tweetup on The Napa Valley Wine Train. Costumes optional.

There is only one word for November — EPIC.

Hardy Wallace kicks off the month by hosting two of the finalists from Top Chef Season 6 — Eli Kershtien and Kevin Gillespie — for a few nights of food & wine debauchery in Sonoma County.

Early month, Ashley finally gets to meet her “big sister” from Twitter, Taylor Shaw aka The Art of Beer. This fateful meeting ultimately triggers Ashley to book a flight to San Diego for beer week.

On November 8th, Ashley experiences a major climax in her life as a beer writer while attending the Life & Limb Release Beer Dinner in San Francisco. At the dinner, Ashley gets the once in a lifetime opportunity to interview one of her greatest and most respected beer mentors, Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head. She also gets to spend some quality time with one of the most respected and successful craft brewers in the industry, Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada.

Mid month, The Wench finds herself jet setting yet again in the name of beer. She heads down to San Diego for some of the most epic beer events of her “young” life. In San Diego, she meets up with her big sister Taylor Shaw and new best friend PJ Hoberman as well as many of her other great Twitter friends such as Alex P Davis, Jordan & Renee Rounds, Kristen & Martin Emde and the super sexy team of boys from New Brew Thursday: Stephen Johnson, John Holzer, Brad Kohlenburg.

The event highlights of San Diego Beer Week include: Meeting Dr. Bill Sysak, the 10 year vertical tasting of Double Bastard at Stone World Bistro, Lost Abbey Art Show & Beer Tasting, Firestone Walker 13th Anniversary tapping at Stone World Bistro, special VIP Twitter dinner with Greg Koch at Suite and Tender, Green Flash 7th Anniversary Festival, a VIP tasting of rare beers from Dr. Bill’s collection at Stone World Bistro, Belgian Beer & Cheese Pairing at Stone World Bistro and the Lost Abbey Rare Beer Tasting & Dinner.

At the end of the month, Ashley is invited to spend Thanksgiving with two of her amazing wine maker friends: Alan Baker and Serena Lourie of Cartograph Wines. Thanksgiving is a tremendous gourmet feast complimented by a stellar lineup of wine and beer.

Times, they are a changing. REALLY REALLY fast.

First of the month, Ashley gets the opportunity to meet the one and only Shaun O’ Sullivan of 21st Amendment. He brings samples of his newly released Monk’s Blood.

On a whim, Ashley throws caution to the wind and takes the first level of the Cicerone Certification Program. Without studying or any preparation, The Wench passes the test and becomes an Certified Beer Server.

Early in the month, good friend Baconator visits Ashley & Shana for a week. Lots of wine, beer & food debauchery go down. Ashley gets the rare opportunity of a lifetime to have dinner at The French Laundry. Here she has the most intense food and beverage experience of her life. The Master Sommeler, Christopher Hoel, pairs 7 our of the 9 courses with both beer and wine. He chooses wine from her two most favorite regions in the world — Chateauneuf Du Pape and Piedmont — as well as two of her favorite beers of ALL time — Russian River’s Pliny the Elder and Consecration. That night will go down in history.

Drink With The Wench begins to heat up and gain momentum when Ashley decides to do a series of articles featuring interviews with fellow beer bloggers. The series is tremendously successful and will continue into the new year!

Things get really exciting around mid-month when Ashley’s “little brother” Brian Kropf of Mutineer Magazine visits from the East Coast on an Army leave. Taylor Shaw and Stephen Johnson travel up from Southern California to attend a series of beer events hosted in Brian’s honor. The group starts by reeking havoc on 21st Amendment on the 21st. They then take the North Bay by storm: Lunch at Russian River Brewing Company followed by a tour and tasting of Lagunitas Brewpub. Many “celebrity” beer writers come out for the Lagunitas event. They include: Shawn Paxton of The Home Brew Chef, Mario Rubio of Brewed For Thought and Jay Brooks of Brookston Bulletin.

After almost three months of “dating” a Berkeley Brewpub – Triple Rock Brewery & Alehouse – Ashley finally gets an official offer on December 30th to become the new Assistant General Manager.

On New Years Eve, The Wench is officially moving to Berkeley. And on New Year’s Day, The Wench will officially kickoff her career as Assistant General Manager of Triple Rock Brewery & Alehouse. As fate would have it, Ohio State is also playing in the Rose Bowl that day. January first is shaping up to be the most monumental launch to a new year in the life of The Beer Wench.

Special THANKS to my girl, Shana Ray. Without here, I might not be where I am at today. Our cross country trip was legendary. I’ve enjoyed every moment with her since then and look forward to more in the future! Cheers!

Also, big thanks to everyone who has made an impact in my life in 2009. I would not be the person I am today without meeting all of you — whether our friendship be in the virtual realm, the real world — or both. I love each and every person that has touched my life in some way shape or form. Thank you!

CHEERS!

Although San Diego was able to severely kick my a$$ on my first day of beer week, I was able to regain momentum and score a win for The Wench on the second day.

Morning came fast on Day 3. Unfortunately, our party of 4 (Pj, Alex, Tay & myself) dropped down to a party of 3 (we lost Alex to Law school — damn those smart kids). In order to sustain ourselves for the long day of beer consumption ahead, we chowed down on some whole wheat bagels with red onions, tomatoes, capers, cream cheese & lox — hey, we were just trying to be good Jews (and Jew wannabes).

Sometime before noon, the 3 Musketeers dragged our slightly disoriented butts up to San Diego Brewing Co. to meet up with head brewer, Dean Rouleau, for open house brew day with guest brewer Scott Jennings from the Sierra Nevada “Beer Camp” pilot brewery. We were greeted at the door and within seconds of being inside the bar, we had beers in our hands. Not a bad way to start a day, eh? I was pleasantly surprised by the scene inside San Diego Brewing Company’s brewpub. A bunch of homebrewers turned out for the event with several interesting brews in tow. But more importantly, almost every TV in the bar featured a Big Ten game. And if you have not learned by now, I’m obsessed with college … err … Big Ten … err Ohio State football. Dean was awesome enough to provide us with a tour of the SDBC facility. Just as the tour finished, it was time for the boys (Dean & Scott) to add the hops to the boil. The Cascade hops for the collaboration brew came from Star B Ranch Bison & Hops Farm in Pamona, CA.

Time quickly caught up to us and, before we could order another beer, we found ourselves running out the door to pick up our good friends Renee & Jordan Rounds for the 7th Anniversary Green Flash Charity Beer Festival. All proceeds from ticket sales to the 7th Anniversary Green Flash Charity Beer were donated to the FIGHT ALD ORG.

Adrenoleukodystropy (ALD) is a genetic disease that affects 1 in 15,000 boys in childhood but is most often diagnosed or goes undetected until it is too far progressed for treatment. A inexpensive blood test can easily identify boys at risk and it is treatable if caught before there is cerebral involvement.

Fight ALD educates medical professionals and the community about the early onset symptoms and diagnostic test with the hope that every affected boy will have a chance to win their fight with Adrenoleukodystrophy. On an interesting yet related side note, the President of Fight ALD, Bill Sherwood, is also the facilities manager for Stone Brewing Co. His wife Janis founded Fight ALD after loosing their son Sawyer back in 2003. Janis has visited at least 600 medical facilities in 22 states educating medical professionals on recognizing early symptoms of ALD. I had the honor of meeting Janis during the festival and I have tremendous respect for her amazing “one woman” fight against ALD. I’m just sorry that it was inspired by a loss. RIP Sawyer Benjamin Sherwood.

Upon arriving at the festival, we were distributed neon green wristbands with 10 tasting tokens, a meal ticket & a 7th Anniversary tasting glass. Being the clever professional photographer that she is, Renee Rounds shot a cool pic of the Green Flash Anniversary beer with the shadow from the glass.

Despite the large crowd, it was extremely easy to navigate the festival. In addition to Green Flash, other featured breweries included: AleSmith Brewery, Backstreet Brewery, Ballas Point, Coronado Brewing Co., FireHouse Brewery, Karl Strauss, La Jolla Brewhouse, Lightning Brewery, The Lost Abbey, Mission Brewery, OGGI’s, Pizza Port Brewing, Port Brewing Co., San Diego Brewer’s Guild, San Diego Brewing Co., San Marcos Brewery and Stone Brewing Co.

In need of a super refreshing “Pacific Northwest” hopped brew, I made a bee-line to Ballast Point for a sample of one of my favorite IPAs — Sculpin. After being refreshed by Sculpin, I found myself hitting up the Green Flash tent for samples of the Anniversary Ale, Hop Head Red Ale & Summer Saison. Somewhere along the way, around sample 4 or 5, we ran into our good pal Dr. Bill.

Dr. Bill convince us that we needed to go inside Green Flash’s tasting room where they were pouring tastes of a few limited special release beers. Not ones to turn down the opportunity to taste rare barrel-aged beers, the crew assembled and obediently marched to the tasting room where we ran into our new buddy Gordon, a brewer for Lost Abbey. Gordon poured us samples of Green Flash Little Freak — a barrel-aged Saison inoculated with Brett– as well as Green Flash Super Freak — the Green Flash LeFreak (Belgian-style IIPA) aged in San Pasqual Grenache wine barrels with brettanomyces. Little Freak was light and refreshing with hints of barnyard, while the Super Freak was more full-bodied and more complex. Gordon surprised us by whipping out a bottle of Lost Abbey Carnevale from underneath the table. Pj and Jordan got really really excited about that … as you can see.

For those of you unfamiliar with Lost Abbey Carnevale, it is a dry hopped saison ale sporting a hazy yellow color and moderately spicy nose with hints of oranges and tangerines from Amarillo and Simcoe hops. The yeast phenols add layers of clove and allspice. Weighs in around 6.5% with a medium-to-light body. It is seasonal and released around Lent.

After a few hours of quality beer drinking, it became apparent that the group needed to seek out some substance — in the form of meat products. The two food vendors for the day were Pizza Port & Kansas City Barbeque. On the way to the food tables, I ran into Greg Koch and got distracted by beer.

Before we knew it, the festival was wrapping up and it was time to embark upon yet another beer drinking mission. Dr. Bill invited the crew up to Stone Brewing Co. for a tasting of some rare beers from his collection. Once again, we are not ones to turn down opportunities to taste rare and interesting beers. Traffic was utterly unbearable and … sobering.

After what seemed like a year and a day, we arrived at Stone World Bistro & Gardens where Dr. Bill secured us the VIP section for our private tasting. Among many beers, Bill brought us Avery Dugana, De Dolle Special Reserva Ourbiera, the super exclusive (club membership only) Lost Abbey Sinners blend 09′, Hansens Oude Geuze, Hansens Oude Kriek and various vintages of Stone Double Bastard Ale.

Being that I had been distracted from obtaining food at the Green Flash Festival, Dr. Bill was also kind enough to provide us with a plentiful helping of Wild Boar Baby Back Ribs & Artisan sausages — which I devoured like it was my job. Earlier in the day, Stone hosted the Brewdog bahash bash where they tapped bashah, the latest collaboration brew by Scottish brewers BrewDog and Stone.

Bashah is the world’s first ever Black Belgian Double IPA. According to the BrewDog blog, there are five hops used in the beer: Hercules, Magnum, Warrior, Centennial and Amarillo. It is currently available in bottles. Dr. Bill couldn’t resist showing up the “disposable” keg in which bashah was distributed. Personally, I’ve never seen anything like it. It looks more like something you’d find at a NASA than a bar …

After getting our fill of meat products and amazing rare beers, it was once again time to hit the road in search of more beer week escapades. By the time we got to Taylors house, the crew was exhausted from hours of day drinking. We loaded up on a few cups of espresso while we debated our next stop. One of our friends, Beverly Bancroft, had charted a limo for the entire day and offered to send the limo to pick us up and bring us out on the town.

The limo took us to Toronado in South Park, San Diego — where we met up our new Twitter beer geek buddies Tab Brewer and Beverly & Mark Bancroft. My heart stopped when Tab ordered a bottle of (the rare) 2003 Boon Mariage Parfait. Some of you may not be aware (bad stalkers!) of my obsession with the gueuze. Long story short, the gueze is one of my all-time favorite styles of beer and I’ve put myself on a mission to taste as many variations of the style from as many brewers possible.

When Tab handed me the glass of Mariage I felt like a giddy little school girl who just got passed a love note from her biggest crush. It was bright golden in color with a, what is in my opinion, pleasant earthy, hay & barnyard aroma typical of Brett Bruxellensis. Overall, I found Boon Mariage Parfait to be light-bodied, highly carbonated & tart with a crisp, dry finish. That beer definitely had it going on. And I was really digging the funk … until of course I reached the bottom of the glass. Which was a very, very sad moment. But I quickly cheered up when the server delivered my beer brat smoothers in peppers and onions in a toasted pun with housemade potato salad on the side.

Now, I know what you are probably thinking. And yes, I have a bottomless pit for a stomach. Especially, when drinking beer in vast quantities. And especially when it comes to pork products.

I have a weakness for the pig.

You see, I was deprived of most pork products as a child. This is because my mother has been a vegetarian for 30+ years as well as a health & fitness fanatic. I’m oddly grateful that she never introduced me to the beautiful world of bacon, sausage, brats, pulled pork, BBQ ribs and so on and so forth — for I think I may have been an obese child if she had.

In Autumn of 2008, I tried bacon for the FIRST time — EVER. (FYI: I was 25 years old). And then I had my first bratwurst, first pulled pork sandwich, first rack of ribs etc… Food was never the same. And to come to think of it, either was my waistline. (Bacon belly anyone?)

Being both a beer connoisseur & pork fiend, it was pertinent that I try Toronado’s beer sausage — even if I had just previously pigged out (no pun intended) on sausage at Stone Brewing Co.  Toronado’s houesmade sausage was very juicy with a perfect blend of spices. It was so tasty, in fact, that it made me extremely thirsty for more beer. Hamilton’s must have been the go-to spot that evening because by the time I was ready for another beer, the entire bar was packed. It took some elbow swinging, but eventually I was able to make it to the bar.

If you’ve never been to Toronado (in either San Francisco or San Diego), than you probably are not familiar with the amazingness that is its beer menu. Toronado boasts and extremely impressive and slightly overwhelming tap and bottle list. Being surrounded by hardcore beer geeks, the pressue was on. One poor decision, and I was going to be fed to the wolves. After the gueze, I was on a Belgian beer kick. I decided to order a bottle of Fantome Printemps — a bottle-conditioned Spring seasonal Saison from Belgium. Fantome exclusively produces the Saison style and releases a different twist to the style every season. I’ve been lucky enough several of Fantome’s Saison variations as well as have a few older vintages in my cellar.

Feeling confident with my decision, I presented the bottle of Fantome Printemps to the group. Unfortunately, the beer did not win the hearts of my fellow beer geeks, who were quick to reject it. I blame it on palate exhaustion. To be fairl, it is really hard to expect people who’ve been quaffing high gravity, super intense & extreme beers all day to drink a Saison. It would be like asking someone whose been drinking Bordeaux & Barolo to sip on a rose. Seems like water in comparison.

So being the sulky face hurt puppy dog that I was after being rejected, I took the whole bottle of Fantome Printemps and sat in my own little corner where I enjoyed every last drop of it.

As the crowd started to dwindle, it became apparent that our time was up and the bar was getting ready to close. But instead of throwing the towel in, a small contingent of loyal party-goers headed back to Taylor’s place for a nightcap and some Kill Bill Volume 1 action. Yet, just as I was thinking that I had won the third round, San Diego beer week snuck up on me fast. Halfway through my beer and even less through Kill Bill, I was out like a light.

However, this round was not a complete loss. For the first time during the trip, I was the first person to be awake and productive the next morning. I even made breakfast for everyone. And so San Diego, although you wore me down and put me to bed before everyone else, you did not win right out. Instead, we will call this a tie.

THE WENCH = 1.5 & SAN DIEGO = 1.5

Stay tuned for the 4th Round and last installment of: The Wench vs. San Diego Beer Week! Cheers!

I must apologize for leaving you all hanging on the San Diego beer week updates. I’ve recently been plagued with a series of unfortunate events and have fallen off of the Internet map.

So where were we?

I last left off with the score: San Diego = 1. The Wench = 0. Truth be told, San Diego kicked my butt on my first day of beer week. The combination of going to sleep at 7:30AM and drinking high-gravity beer for 16 hours straight did me in.

After about 4 hours of sleep, I was awakened by the smell of bacon and sound of voices coming from the kitchen. Never one to to down bacon (or pork products for that matter), I dragged my tired, hungry & dehydrated body into the kitchen. Much to my delight, another Twitter obsessed beer geek friend of ours had just arrived from the L.A. area. Unfortunate for him, his first real life impression of The Wench was a bit ugly.

But, even a massive hangover could not hold me back from San Diego beer week. And so we rounded up our ever-growing crew of Twitter beer geeks for some more beer adventures. After filling myself up on bacon, eggs and buttery biscuits from my big sis Taylor and chugging down some Duck Duck Gooze compliments of Alex, The Wench was almost ready to put the “game face” back on.

This time, we were smart about it and chartered a shuttle van. Which was actually relatively cheap and easy to do. The Beer Van’s first stop was, yes you guessed it, Stone Brewing Co. Although Firestone Walker was set to “officially” launch their latest cult beer — the 13th Anniversary Ale — on November 14th, the magical Dr. Bill used his Don Juan skills to persuade them to tap it a night early at Stone. It made more sense anyways tapping the Firestone Walker 13th on Friday the 13th.

Word of the special release spread like wild fire and Stone had a tremendous beer geek turnout for the event. Firestone Walker stepped up to the challenge and not only tapped its 13th Anniversary, but also tapped its 12th Anniversary side by side. A lucky few also got to sample the bottle conditioned 11th.

Before anyone was allowed to taste the 12th and 13th, we were first primed with the original beers that were blended to create the 13th. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. In order to understand the beer, you need to know more about Firestone first.

Since its birth in 1996, Firestone Walker has been specializing in the “rare” art of brewing beer in oak barrels. On it’s 10th birthday, Firestone Walker created the first of its Anniversary series — The 10. For the special release they created a Barrel Aging and Blending Program, which they refer to as “Quercus Alba” (which means White Oak, FYI).

THE VISION BEHIND QUERCUS ALBA

• The GOAL: To create complexity centering on oak, in a multitude of forms, by brewing high gravity beers in complementary styles, aging them in different barrel formats and then blending them together to achieve harmonious new flavors.
• The PUZZLE: To blend these various components (or lots) to create a synergistic whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. This is done with the help of a few neighboring Paso Robles winemakers who are practicing experts in the art of blending.
• The INSPIRATION: Firestone Walker’s oak brewing tradition and connection to winemaking. Of course until the advent of stainless steel, brewing was intimately linked to wood barrels and vessels. Brewing has a deeply rooted history in the alchemy of blending.
• The BARRELS: The individual lots were aged in oak barrels, many of which were hand selected from premium Kentucky spirits producers by Tom Griffin, who is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about bourbon barrels and beer. Each barrel lents its own influence to the final blend.

So shall we talk about the beer?

THE COMPONENTS OF FIRESTONE 13th:

• 39% of final blend = PARABOLA (13% abv) — Russian Imperial Oatmeal Stout aged in bourbon barrels
• 15% of final blend = VELVET MERKIN (6% abv) — Traditional Oatmeal Stout aged in bourbon barrels
• 6% of final blend = RUFUS (11% abv) — Continental Imperial Amber Ale aged in rye barrels
• 4% of final blend = SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS (9%abv) — Belgian Strong Ale aged in bourbon barrels
• 24% of final blend = BRAVO (11% abv) — Imperial Brown Ale aged in 50% bourbon barrels and 50% in brandy barrels
• 6 % of final blend = OPAL (11% abv) Wheat Wine aged in rye barrels
• 6 % of the final blend = DOUBLE DOUBLE BARREL ALE (10.9%) — Double English Pale Ale aged in 100% in retired FW union barrels

Most of us started the night out with Parabola, which made it hard to move onto anything else. After all, it was definitely the biggest and boldest of all the beers on tap that night. Parabola was thick, rich & viscous with lots of hints of vanilla, oak, toast & bourbon. It was a very warming beer, without the alcohol being too potent.

While we waited for the special tapping of the 13th Anniversary, the group of us chowed down on several of the items from the Stone World Bistro & Gardens menu. The highlight was, hands down, the beer mac & cheese — tender macaroni, Stone Porter Cheese, sun dried tomatoes, basil, Stone Smoked Porter Sausage  topped off with some baked bread crumbs. In one word -orgasmic.

As I mentioned earlier, the event had a tremendous turnout. There were many “celebrity” beer and twitter personalities in the “house” that night. These included: Greg Koch (CEO of Stone), Dr. Bill of Stone Brewing Co., several members of the Firestone Walker team, Stephen Johnson of New Brew Thursday (and his wife), my big sister Taylor Shaw, PJ Hoberman of Starting a Brewery, Kristen & Marin Emde of GoBeering.com, adorable homebrewers Renee & Jordan Rounds, beer connoisseur Alex P. Davis, talented photographer Declan, JJ Bagley of Mutineer Magazine, Chris Richards of Six Palms Entertainment and many others I cannot recall at this moment.

Photo of Renee Rounds & Taylor Shaw -- By: Declan

Declan did an excellent job of capturing the party on his camera. According to Greg Koch, I totally rocked the camera in this pic:

Photo of The Beer Wench -- By: Declan

However, I think that the best photo in the bunch is the one of Alex P. Davis and I rocking the “too cool for school” Top Gun look. Rock. Stars.

Photo of Alex Davis & The Wench -- By: Declan

I also had the honor of meeting more of of my Twitter friends at the Firestone Walker 13th event at Stone Brewing Company — including (but not limited to) @BrewBud, @IPABev and @BeerMark.

Ultimately, the Firestone 13th and 12th were tapped. A line of beer lovers desiring to be among the first to taste the 13th wrapped around the bar area. Being the lazy line hater that I am, I procrastinated getting on line. But when I realized that the line was not going to die down anytime soon, I bit the bullet and joined PJ in line — with some “line” beers in hand, of course.

The verdict? Both the 13th and 12th are extremely complex beers with multiple levels of flavor. At the time, I preferred the 12th. But this does not mean the 13th was bad, by any means. In fact, it rocked. With a little bit age, the 13th can only get better. By the looks of it, I think Stephen (New Brew Thursday) enjoyed both of his Firestone Anniversary beers …

Photo of Stephen Johnson -- By: Declan

The original plan was to follow the Firestone Walker 13th event up with a Stone Brewing Co. dinner at Kitchen 1540 at the L’Auberge resort in Del Mar. Unfortunately, unforeseeable and very understandable circumstances (including sickness) prevented Chef Paul McCabe from being available for the dinner — and the event was cancelled. I was bummed that I did not have the chance to meet Chef McCabe, but then I completely understand his situation and agree whole heartedly with the decision. And who knows, maybe Chef McCabe was lucky not to have met me — as I have a reputation for being a predator and “groupie” of extremely talented chefs.

Chef Paul McCabe (adorable, no?)

A big group of us were planning on attending the Kitchen 1540 dinner and, in lieu of completely forfeiting the event, I approached Greg Koch about organizing a substitution dinner. Greg was able to track down a substitute option — a 3 course Stone pairing menu at Suite & Tender in downtown San Diego. Lucky for us, Suite & Tender was willing to accommodate a last minute reservation for 17.

After a fantastic time at the FireStone Walker event. The Beer Van headed back downtown for a private beer dinner with Greg Koch. The pairing menu was pretty impressive. We were given two choices on three of the pairings. Being that both choices sounded amazing, it was hard to chose. So instead of choosing, Alex & I decided to order one of each course and split them.

The Menu was as follows:

FIRST COURSE

• Fish Tacos w/ Stone IPA
• Crispy Lump Crab Cakes w/ Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale

SECOND COURSE

• Baby Spinach Salad (BACON, pine nut butter, crispy shallots, crab apple & caramel vinaigrette) w/ Stone Levitation Ale
• Hearts of Romain Salad (parmesan cheese, garlic croutons, anchovies & caesar dressing) w/ Stone Pale Ale

THIRD COURSE

• Filet Mignon (garlic mashed potatoes, seasonal mushrooms) w/ 2009 Stone Old Guardian Barleywine
• Grilled King Salmon (warm potato salad, sweet onion, herb creme) w/ Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale

There was one other option, but Alex and I passed on it:

• Pan-roasted Chicken Breast (cornbread stuffing, oyster mushrooms, pan sauce) w/ Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale

FOURTH COURSE

• Stone Smoked Porter Pecan Pie & Smoked Porter Fudge swirled ice cream w/ Stone Smoked Porter

The service and presentation of the dinner was slightly unusual yet, despite the last minute notice, it was executed pretty well. The food was extremely tasty — although, it was a group consensus that the beer pairings were a bit off. Not really sure what the method in the madness behind the beer — food pairings was, but at the end of the day I left the dinner stuffed to the brim with great beers and food. So, can’t really complain!

After the dinner, the group dissipated. A few people went back to Taylor’s place for a few beers. I joined Greg for a nightcap before returning to Tay’s pad. By the time I returned, everyone was asleep. Which was probably for the better since we had a big day of beer ahead of us starting the next morning. And so to bed The Wench went, with visions of Green Flash and rare beers in her head.

San Diego = 1 … The Wench = 1

Stay tuned for ROUND 3 of San Diego Beer Week! CHEERS!