I did a beer tasting at The Jug Shop in San Francisco. 13 beers for $15. All of them were Belgian except the Sammi Claus'; of which they had the original and the Helles. The helles being even stronger on my palate and tasting a bit like cherries. Maybe that was because it comes in a red label. Funny how the mind works like that.
Now I swear that Sammi Claus used to say on the bottle, "the strongest beer in the world. " That was most likely the reason why I bought it in the first place. Even when I was broke, beer was still something I would splurge on.
The Sammi Causes were the only two that came in 12oz. bottles. Everything else was in a 750ml, some of which resembled the Champagne silhouette more than anything else. The first beer they poured was aged in oak barrels for, I believe he said, two years - and it sells for $50. People simply refered to it as, "The Expensive One."
I started geeking-out with a guy named Brian Yeager, modest as he may have been, it was his girlfriend who told me he has just published a book... on beer. They gave me a sticker and I found his website the following morning. www.beerodyssey.com - "Red White and Brew," it looks like a fun travel book about driving across the country in a Prius and drinking beer.