Crooked Stave St. Bretta Spring

This beer came to me by way of PhillyTapFinder from Colorado which was awesome of him. Thanks Jared! I guess St. Bretta by Crooked Stave is released year round but as a different season each time. This bottle was labeled Spring and is, at its base, a wheat beer but is so much more due to the brett fermentation.

I didn't really know what to expect from this just going by the style and the name. The nose definitely gave credence to the brett fermented on the label with dry, lightly funky notes and a bit of citrus. The body, however, changed things up a bit and added in some tart orange juice right up front with some earthy bitterness in the back. The funkiness from the nose was a bit more subdued too. Quite delicious really and I definitely get why people like Crooked Stave. I'm not sure if this is the first beer I've had from them, but it's the first I remember. I picked up a different bottle of Crooked Stave while in Vermont and I'm excited to try that now.

Allagash Midnight Brett at Kite & Key

Took my customary trip to Kite & Key this past Tuesday and, lo and behold, all but one of the Allagash beers was still available from the previous week's event. Huzzah! There were actually quite a few beers I could have chosen but I ended up going with Midnight Brett, a mix of a beer made with brett and some midnight wheat which must be a slightly roasted version of wheat plus some other stuff.

I didn't really know what to expect from this beer. Sure, there was a description, but it more described the ingredients than anything. The nose was a lot of sour cherry with something behind it that I couldn't quite place. Medium bodied, slightly on the thicker side. Vanilla cherry up front, followed by some berry fruit, and then finished with a little bitterness. As I drank more, I got a little roastiness that blended with the cherry pretty well. The tart fruit was the main flavor throughout. Pretty good beer, glad I gave it a try.

On a separate note, if anyone was thinking about going to the Epic Beer Fest (mentioned at the bottom of this post), I was sent a coupon code of MBL2013 which gets you $10 off a GA ticket until October 20th, max four tickets per purchase. As I said, I'll be at the evening session for a while if you are choosing between the two.

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

I haven't had much luck with Jolly Pumpkin honestly. Their bombers trend a bit more expensive in Philly and I've never been terribly happy with the dollar to taste ratio after buying them. It's funny, too, because some people absolutely love this brewery. I mean, good for them, I just don't get it. However, I'd read about La Roja and thought it could be their one beer that I actually like and enjoy. Turns out I was correct!

Vinegary nose with a hint of caramel. Right away, I had a good feeling about it. In the body, the vinegar was a bit more muted than the nose, but still the major flavor. Mixed in sharp bite from the oak barrel, vanilla, and then some acetic sourness in the finish. Jo thought the oak was almost bitter in the beginning but got used to it as she worked through her glass. I agreed though I didn't mind as much. Either way, the bitterness faded after a while and it became even more enjoyable. This was worth buying and I was happy to finally give it a try.

Goose Island Matilda Lambicus

Things are going pretty well with my weekly visit to Kite & Key. It's back on Tuesday now, too, which means I don't have to go to the gym afterwards. Way easier. This trip I was lucky enough to get one of the leftovers from their Goose Island event last Friday, Matilda Lambicus, a special version of Matilda that seems to undergo secondary fermentation with some brett yeast. Or something like that.

Unfortunately, I don't have a clear recollection of the regular Matilda to do a good comparison so we'll just have to treat this as its own beer. Fruity nose, almost melon like. Not too strong but present. Body was similar with a slight melon flavor up front, some nuttiness from the malt, and then a bit more sweet fruit in the finish. Didn't change much as it warmed up. I didn't feel like I got much from the secondary brett fermentation though maybe the melon like fruit flavor was from it. Totally a fine beer, but didn't really feel the difference like I did between Sofie and Sofie Paradisi.

Kevin Mudrick's Tomato Lambic

Yes, you read that title right, a beer made with tomatoes. At this point, though, this sour is a couple years old so the fruit (or vegetable?) would have faded quite a bit. Not sure how old exactly, but I'm sure Kevin will chime in when I post this to twitter. He's very helpful like that. I'm not really sure on the base style of this either other than calling it an American Wild Ale even though he called it a lambic. I don't think he blended different years together as a homebrewer though. Maybe I'm wrong! Regardless, I've been super intrigued to try this ever since he gave it to me so I finally opened it the other night.

I thought it had a light vinegar nose with a hint of acidity while my wife thought it was super strong. Her nose is more sensitive than mine so it probably was stronger than I'm saying. Body followed the nose with a ton of vinegar and a bit of a bite in the finish. Unfortunately, there really wasn't any hint of tomato except maybe the slight acidity most likely as result of the age. Not sure if it was stronger fresh. It was also super flat and Kevin said that is why he prefers kegging his sours since you are carbing them on the spot. Honestly, it almost reminded me of a barrel sample which was kind of fun. Anyway, for a homebrew, it was pretty cool and a really neat idea. One note, but a delicious note for someone who likes acetic sours. Side comment, if you want to try a beer made with tomatoes after reading this, it seems that Tired Hands just brewed an heirloom tomato berliner weiss so that should be available soon.

On the actual blog front, I'm clearly not keeping up with it right now. I'm hoping things will settle back into routine once Pax goes into daycare but we'll see. In the mean time, bear with me and my sporadic posting and hopefully I can get things back on track in the future.

Haven't gone away yet

Disregarding my anemic post count for June, I'm still interested in writing this blog. It's been a lot of fun over the years and I've met a ton of people because of it. With Pax being here, though, it's been a tough transition in the morning from having around an hour to do stuff to having like fifteen minutes and being tired while doing it. I'm still going to try to post stuff but things will almost definitely still be random and lackluster until he goes to day care in August and Jo goes back to work. We'll see, though, maybe I'll finally get a schedule together and it will get better. Pigs may fly, too, you never know.

In the mean time, here's a couple pictures from the class I took at Tria over Philly Beer Week with Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey.

That's all the beers we got to try during the class. The two on the left were full, blended sours and were Duck Duck Gooze and Cable Car, left to right. Amazing beers with Cable Car being the better of the two to me. The former is being re-released later this year but Cable Car is basically only available on site at Toronado in San Francisco or San Diego so it's hard to get to say the least. I'm definitely interested in trying it again though and will try to get a bottle when I'm in San Francisco again. The others on the mat are barrel samples which were totally still, aka, uncarbonated. Amazing to get to try the different barrel flavors before they were blended. Some were almost undrinkable which shows how much of an effect blending has on turning out something good. Just a neat experience that you get very rarely.

Cascade Sang Noir

I picked this bottle up when my wife was pregnant with the express purpose of waiting for her to be able to drink it. Well, Pax is here, she can finally enjoy beer again, and so we opened the Sang Noir this weekend. This is a complex sour, aged in two types of barrels and then with bing cherries added to it. Or something close to that.

Lots of vanilla creaminess and a decent amount of sour cherry in the nose. Draws you in for sure. Thick body, low carbonation too. First sip is a bit of a punch in the mouth. Hugely acetic and then a large amount of sour cherry in the finish. Even with the crazy start, I felt like it ended remarkably smooth. As I drank more, the cherry presence was much stronger as well. Solidly powerful sour, probably not one for novices, but fun for those that like a bit of brashness in their wilds.

The Bruery and Hangar 24 Ichigo Highway

Phew, what a week. I thought I was getting back into things last week and then I barely had any time in the morning during this one. But Pax is asleep on me at the moment so lets get something written. Ichigo Highway is a sour aged with strawberries brought to you by the good people from The Bruery and Hangar 24. If you've never heard of the latter, no real surprise as they are a smallish brewery outside San Diego (or that's where I think they are. They could be outside LA too. Somewhere in California at least). I only have this because of my generous friend that lives near there.

I'd actually heard positive and negative things about Ichigo Highway so didn't know what to expect. Honestly, though, I quite enjoyed it. Fruity, candy like nose with quite a bit of strawberry. I was a bit worried as Bottleworks XII was brewed with strawberries and had a big, sulfur like nose but this one didn't have any of those notes. Some funk and a lot of acid also showed up though. Body was crazy sour with a big helping of lactic and acetic acid. Since acetic acid presents as vinegar, it could have easily been the accented by the strawberries. At times, some slightly odd notes showed up but they disappeared quickly as well so whatever. Maybe someone more sensitive would be bothered by those flavors hence the bad reviews. Quite happy to try this and nice to see a fruit different than cherry and raspberry being used.

Fegley's Brew Works Framboise

We met a friend at Philadelphia Bar & Restaurant and when I looked at the draft list I knew I had to try the Brew Works Framboise. I'm a sucker for sours and heard some decent things about this one.

Solid nose on it, smelled of fermenting raspberries and caramel. The raspberry part smelled pretty natural which is always a nice sign in brewing. Fake ingredients can up the flavor but are still fake. Tart raspberry up front, light caramel followed, and a slightly bitter or something finish. The raspberry and tartness was really nice in this and the natural flavor was pretty good. The only negative on this was the slightly odd, kind of bitter flavor in the finish. It didn't ruin the beer or anything, just threw me off a little. This is definitely worth trying if you see it though just to experience it.

Update: Oddly enough, The Brew Works just posted a blog entry about their lambics over here.

Cisco Brewing at Barcade

Last week, I kicked off my two weeks of beer events with my second trip to Barcade, located in Fishtown. The point of Barcade is the ability to drink great beer while playing old school arcade games. Of course, I sat down and then never got up to play any of those games, but the option is there if you want it. I went because they were having Cisco Brewing in the house with them taking over quite a few of their taps. I was excited to be able to try the sours without committing to spending $20-$30 on bottles.

Not knowing what to try first, I decided on the Monomoy Kriek, a barrel aged sour with cherries.

New Belgium Tart Lychee

This was sent to me by my buddy from San Diego. I'd heard that it was pretty good and was real happy to see it in the box when I opened it. Totally why I like not knowing everything before it arrives since surprises make receiving beer even more fun. Tart Lychee is an American Wild Ale.

Smelled quite tropical with a little sourness. Inviting. (I say this a lot don't I? Oh well.) First sip was a nice mix of sweet and sour balanced with some tropical fruit. Continued that way throughout the whole bottle, never becoming too sour or too sweet. Nothing mind blowing, but considering it was relatively cheap, it's totally solid. Probably a great way to slowly introduce people to a sour beer, too. My wife enjoyed this which is always a plus as well. This is basically what I expect from a New Belgium sour, well balanced and not overwhelming. I'm not sure if that sounds sarcastic, but I mean it as a positive since it means you know what you'll get. Always a good thing when buying new beers.

Cascade Blueberry

Last week I splurged and decided to pick up a bottle of Cascade Blueberry. It's a blueberry sour from out in Oregon. I actually thought it was a Cascade pub exclusive and didn't expected to find it here in Philly, but it was available and so I figured I'd give it a try.

Strong blueberry nose with a hint of funk. It's nice to actually smell the fruit instead of just crazy vinegar or sourness. Very impressive flavor. Blueberry up front, balanced by a pleasant sourness that isn't too strong. The fruit actually grew a bit as I got used to the sourness and it was just really flavorful. This may be the first blueberry beer I've actually liked! Not too surprising it's in a sour. I'm honestly inclined to say this is nearly worth the price or at least worth splurging on once. Also makes me wonder if the Apricot sour they often sell is worth the steep cost. Maybe I'll find out at some point.

A Very Merry Dock Street Christmas

I had a few bottles of various Dock Street bottles burning a hole in my basement so what better time to open a few than during Christmas? I planned on opening four different ones but never made it to the fourth bottle as I kind of forgot to put it into the refrigerator. Oh well, I just had to deal with only three, woe is me.

Since it was the newest one, I started with the Man Full of Funk Porter, their porter dosed with Brettanomyces and then aged in apple brandy barrels for like three years.

Beers at Sabrina's

Just before Thanksgiving, some friends of mine decided that their cellars were getting too large. To try and start to fix the issue, they asked on twitter if people wanted to go to a BYOB and share some beers and have dinner. I had nothing to do that night and Jo didn't care about eating dinner alone so I figured why not. After some back and forth, we decided on Sabrina's in Fairmount as I figured it wouldn't be too busy as it's mostly a brunch place and it's informal enough that they wouldn't mind us sitting around drinking forever.

After ordering some food and settling in we decided to start with Deschutes The Dissident, the one sour Matt brought along.

Lost Abbey & New Belgium Brett Beer

We opened this the same night as the Lime-A-Rita so at least we knew it would be better than it's competition even before opening the bottle. This was a collaboration between Lost Abbey and New Belgium and given the bottle design, came out of New Belgium specifically. Brett Beer seems to be a pale ale base that was fully fermented with brettanomyces yeast in order to best showcase how that yeast strain affects a beer.

Dry earthy nose with some pineapple fruitiness in it. Following was a fruity body with pineapple and some bread notes along with faint spiciness. A little bitterness and a little earthiness finished things up. This was quite decent and the pineapple was real nice and clear. It was a great example of the kind of  flavors brett can impart. Usually those flavors are overpowered by lactic or acetic acid especially in American Wild Ales so it's nice to get a clean version of them.

The Bruery at Perch Pub

Last week, Perch Pub offered two special sixtels from The Bruery and was cool enough to sell them both as part of their happy hour half-price deal. They turned out to be so popular during that hour that they both kicked before they even had a chance to sell them for a regular price. Pretty impressive for two big sour beers. The first one I ordered was Tart of Darkness, a sour stout.

Sharing Some Beers

I trekked out to the wilds of Collingswood, New Jersey last week to share some beers with a buddy. When another friend had to cancel after injuring himself playing basketball, we changed what we were going to open and instead decided to compare a normal version of one beer to the barrel aged version. We thought it would be interesting to see how much barrel aging can change a beer. Turns out quite a bit.

We started with the normal version of Flossmoor Station Hi-Fi Rye, a rye barleywine. Flossmoor Station is a small brewpub outside of Chicago for the curious.

Weyerbacher Sour Black + Beer Blondies

Last Friday Weyerbacher released their newest sour beer, Sour Black. It was a black ale aged in the same wine barrels that previously held Rapture. They were doing a similar release to the past few so Jo and I drove up to Easton to check it out. When we arrived, there were already quite a few people in the brewery and samples were being served by the always friendly Weyerbacher staff. The first thing we tried was the Sour Black and both Jo and I thought it was quite good. Next I tried the Whiskey, the newest Brewer's Select, which was also quite delicious.

After wandering around a bit, talking to Natalie, and offering Beer Blondies (see recipe below) to people we made our way to the front and picked up some Whiskey, Sour Black and some Blasphemy. I totally forgot to take pictures though so you'll just have to use your imagination about how things looked. I do love how Weyerbacher offers samples of what they are selling you though. I realize it's because they have enough beer to actually be able to do so, but it's nice to be able to try things before deciding on how much to buy.

I was really curious if a full bottle of Sour Black would be as good as the small sample we had so Jo suggested we open one while watching the Euro Cup finals on Sunday.

Philly Beer Week Day 7: De Dolle & Deschutes

For the seventh day of Philly Beer Week, the beer gods gave me De Dolle and Deschutes. Originally I had only planned on the Deschutes event but it turned out that De Dolle was at Monks when I got there so win win! Of course all of this meant that I had to brave the waters of Monk's back room again but I was hoping that it wouldn't be as bad as Sunday's Funky Buddha event. For the most part I was correct though it did get pretty busy later during the Deschutes stuff possibly because Monk's was the only place they visited during Beer Week..

When I arrived the back room was only a little crowded and so it wasn't too hard to get my first beer. I realize I was at a De Dolle event, but I didn't feel like one of their beers. Instead I went with the intriguing De Molen Bakker Wort Brouwer, a whisky barrel aged imperial stout.

Philly Beer Week Day 4: Goose Island

After our pretty crazy Sunday, it was refreshing to only have one event on Monday. This time we planned to head to City Tap House to check out some beers from Goose Island brewery. Goose Island entered Philly rather recently and, at least in beer nerd circles, is well know for a ridiculously great stout named Bourbon County Brand stout, a bourbon barrel stout that clocks in at 14.5%. I knew they were serving it at this event which is partly why I chose to go to that one instead of others.

When I arrived at 5 for the 6pm event, the place was actually still pretty empty. What a nice change of pace from the Monk's event. I got a seat at the bar ordered a glass of the Yards Bourbon Porter to pass the time until the Goose Island stuff was available.