What you see below is what I hope to be the first of many Beer Trail maps. Take a look and let me know if anything is hard to read or distracting.  Also, let me know if I have missed any breweries along the way.  The only requirement is that the brewery must be located in a town that lies along the 101 in SoCal or the Central Coast.

Once I get some feedback I will tweak the map. In the meantime, I will be contacting breweries along the trail to see if they will offer some sort of discount to customers if they bring the map in with them.

So I here there is a big beer drinking holiday coming up this weekend. Do you yourself a favor and stay away from any green beer.  The only beer a bar would turn green isn't worth its weight in food coloring, that's for sure! Besides, what Irishman or woman would ever drink something so vile?

There are alternatives to green beer, though. You are sure to find Guinness no matter where you are at but I know some of you don't care for Guinness, at least that is what I hear every time someone tells me about the beer they don't like, so I have put together a list ten stouts you can try instead.  You may find Great Divide, Firestone Walker or Left Hand on tap in some regions of the country but for the most part you will have to make a trip to the store if you are gonna try any stouts in my list.

If you do find yourself in a bar on St. Patrick's day keep your eye open for stouts by Murphy's or Young's.  Most likely they will be poured out of a nitro tap and be wonderfully creamy, not to mention delicious.  If you have a stout that you can't live without then be sure to add in the comments.


In brewery order.
1. Alesmith's Speedway Stout
2. Allagash's Black
3. Avery's Czar
4. De Dolle's Extra Export
5. Firestone Walker's Velvet Merlin
6. Founder's KBS (Kentucky Bourbon Stout)
7. Great Divide's Yeti
8. Lefthand's Milk Stout
9. Murphy's Irish Stout
10. Young's Double Chocolate

My submission to the world of "what do _____ do?" posters. This is indeed what beer bloggers do..

It was the perfect combination of innuendo and illustration!  Congratulations to the winner, Sean, your schwag is in the mail!

Ok, here are the finalists in the coaster caption contest.  The funniest entries, in my opinion anyway, came from the first two coasters. were Vote for your favorite a don't be ashamed of soliciting your friends to vote for you!-)

Google translated to say "The beer that tastes just always"  I am guessing that it means "The beer that always tastes just right." 

Not sure why the dog "prosting"  although that does help explain the guy's reaction.  Must've been an early test image for Spuds McKenzy.