Cigar City Jai Alai

I'm actually pretty surprised I've never written about this beer. Jai Alai is Cigar City's flagship IPA and is massively popular in Florida. We used to see a lot of it here in Philly but their popularity down South has grown exponentially so there has been a pretty long drought of Cigar City beer up here. It's a shame since they make good stuff, but maybe we're close to the end of that problem since we're seeing stuff in Philly again.

Lots of orange juice and citrus flavor in the nose with a little sugary sweetness. Body was similar in that it was basically bitter orange juice with a little caramel sweetness in the back. Enjoyable ipa with a slightly thicker than average body. Definitely makes sense why this would be their top seller in this age of hoppy beer. Always a good choice if you are looking for something not too strong that tastes great.

Dogfish Head Northfield Mount Hermon

Okay, this is a pretty random entry but bear with me. Every time we visited Jo's home town, I made it a point to go to a bar named Moe's. At this point, it has been open for over 5 years so I've gotten to know the owner, Josh, pretty well. It helped that Jo's father used to go there a lot, too. The random thing is that Josh went to high school with Sam Calagione, owner of Dogfish Head, and is still pretty good friends with him. As a result, when their 25th high school reunion rolled around, Sam and Dogfish Head brewed a beer specifically for their class. And, since Josh is awesome, he gave me one of his extra bottles when I visited last time. Now it should make sense why I had this and why it was named Northfield Mount Hermon.

Earthy bitter nose with hints of some maple. Body started with a little bitterness up front, some earthy smokiness or something, and finished with more maple sweetness. I'm betting the smoke flavor I got was  a mix of the maple and the hops, but that's the profile I got. Nice beer, solid enough. Must have been fun for the class to have this brewed for them at least.

Ithaca Flower Power

I've had Ithaca Flower Power on draft and cask, but this is the first time from the bottle. Fresh it's such a great IPA and I figured this wouldn't be any different.

Bright nose with a decent amount of citrusy vanilla. It started with a little sweetness and a little citrus bitterness and finished with some more bitterness. Reasonably dry body as well. This isn't an IPA that blows you out of the water but something that is just delicious and solid. Definitely buy it fresh as it ages quickly. If you are looking for something not too expensive that is real tasty, this is a great choice.

On a separate note, I've been meaning to share this link for a few days. If you have any interest about sour style beers and how the yeast and bacteria affect the formation of flavors, definitely check it out. It's not long so it's worth a look.

Founders All Day IPA

Another day, another Founders beer at Kite & Key. This batch of All Day IPA was released March 1st to all of their markets and it should stick around for about six months I think. Probably be a little limited at first as Stockertown distributes it evenly but it'll be readily available after that I'd say. And that's definitely a good thing based on this glass.

I didn't know what to expect from it but wow was this solid. Nice bright citrus nose. The body followed with more citrus up front and a light maltiness in the finish. Some lingering bitterness that dissipated pretty quickly. Real delicious and lots of flavor. With an ABV only slightly above 4.5%, a real great beer that you can enjoy without getting loopy.

Look for my write up on The Brewer's Plate from yesterday in the next day or two. Simply put, it was pretty awesome and I'm super glad I went.

Oakland Brewing Sticky Zipper

This was a gift from my sister in law for Christmas. I do so love getting beer as gifts. Sticky Zipper is an IPA from Oakland Brewing which seems like it is brewed in a place from San Jose.

Pretty decent nose, full of grapefruit citrus. Thin body, though, and quite bitter at first. Unfortunately, the body just seemed to be missing something. It was bitter and had a nice brightness, but it just felt empty in the middle. It actually felt like some homebrew I've had where the hoppy part is nice but the body suffers from lack of something. Still, it wasn't terrible, just a little boring. I've had worse that's for sure.

Deschutes Chasin' Freshies and 500th post

Well, this isn't nearly as epic as I expected my 500th post to be but whatever, I'll just have to reach 1000 and do something interesting for that. Right? Totally! So Chasin' Freshies is a fresh hop IPA from Deschutes given to me by my brother in law. I'm not sure when it was released, but we drank it the day before the best by date arrived. So I win this round, Deschutes, but just barely.

Bright, juicy nose. Very inviting. The body basically tasted like passion fruit to me with a light bitterness in the finish. Very pleasant even if it was at the tail end of its freshness. I don't know how well this would hold up past its best by date, but it was certainly still good before it. Very interesting flavors in this and quite enjoyable.

Evolution Lot Three

I had Evolution Lot Six a while ago at Capone's and really enjoyed it. So when I saw Lot Three on tap at Kite & Key I figured I'd give it a try and see how Evolution does with regular IPAs.

Pleasant citrusy, grapefruit nose. Not strong, but noticeable. Bitter up front then a little sweetness and caramel appeared in the middle. Not strongly sweet, but present. There was a little breadiness hiding in there too. Bitter aftertaste and somewhat lingering. Decent enough though I found the breadiness slightly odd in an IPA. I liked the Lot Six a little better I'll admit but this was pretty good.

Mad Fox Orange Whip

Over Labor Day, one of my friends brought down a growler from the Mad Fox brewpub in Falls Church, VA. Orange Whip is an IPA made with purely citra hops, as far as I know. This is actually the second time I've had it as another friend brought a growler to my house a couple weeks ago. I was excited to get another chance to drink it since I really liked it.

Kind of a dank nose. Lots of orange citrus with an interesting earthy component that mixes really well. Very light body though and kind of thin. Not really a detriment, but I don't feel it benefits from it either. Grapefruit was the major flavor in the body, followed by some vanilla notes for whatever reason, and then a pretty clean finish.

Delicious both times I've had it though I worry about the longevity of flavors considering the thin body and small malt presence. This didn't seem like something built to last but it's a brewpub, draft only beer, so it can totally get away with it. Fairly popular too as far as I know which means the kegs get finished quickly. So, really, Mad Fox has nothing much to worry about as far as Orange Whip other than making more!

Philly Beer Week Day 9: Nodding Head & Hawthornes

Finally, the last day of Philly Beer Week. Well, my last day at least. Others went out Sunday too. I was really excited for this Saturday from the beginning of beer week as the Dark Horse event at Hawthornes last year was one of my favorites. Adding the Nodding Head Second Saturday event on top of it just increased my excitement.

Starting off the day was the Second Saturday event at Nodding Head. This event was named Weird, Wacky, and Wonderful and consisted of a couple sours and couple variations of Crosby Tears. I started with a glass of Phreddie, a sour tripel.

Pete Giovinco 60 (Min)otaur IPA

My buddy Pete gave me a bottle of his homebrew IPA and I finally opened it last night. They named it 60 (Min)otaur IPA. Get it? Pretty sure they didn't hop it for sixty continuous minutes though.

Nice bright citrusy nose. No hint of bitterness. Really impressive nose for an IPA, forget a homebrew. Decent body. Not thick, but nice. Started with mild flavors of orange juice and some sweetness. No hint of bitterness in the finish. I don't know if it was lightly hopped in the beginning of the boil and then more heavily near the end or what but however they made it, they did a real good job. We'll see if the thyme beer they gave me is as good.

Maine Beer Company Lunch

I finally got my hands on some bottles of Maine Brewing Co. Lunch, their IPA. This is one I've been wanting to try for a bit as I've heard great things about it and I wasn't disappointed.

Wonderful citrusy nose, very bright and inviting. Big orange juice flavor with some mild bitterness in it on the first sip. A nice dry finish followed with some lingering bitterness but very pleasant, no astringency at all. As I drank more and got used to the bitterness in the body, a little more sweetness appeared and kept it from drying my mouth out completely. All in all, very delicious with a lot going for it.

Farmer's Cabinet De Struise Pig Dinner

About a week and a half ago (the last Thursday in March whenever that was), the Farmer's Cabinet held a ridiculously awesome beer dinner. I first heard about it in February and even though Jo and I were heading to Beer for Beasts the weekend directly after the dinner was being held, we decided I should go to this. Urbain (pronounced urban which I didn't actually know), the head brewer from De Struise brewery in Belgium, was coming to brew with Terry of the Cabinet Brewhouse (the Farmer's Cabinet brewery) and so they asked him to attend a dinner at the restaurant while in town. They bought a 300 pound pig from outside Lancaster, PA, brought it in and made every single course of the meal from a different part of it. With each course, they also paired a different beer from De Struise. Just a really impressive idea. If you expand the menu, you should be able to get an idea of the different courses.

Annual Visit to Russian River

It's been a little over two weeks since our visit to Russian River, but that's not going to stop me writing about it. Last year, I was lucky enough to go to the brewpub when they had Younger on draft but this year I just had to settle for all of their regular stuff. Luckily their regular drafts are pretty amazing so it's not like I was disappointed or anything. The brewpub itself is actually pretty small with a long bar running the length of it and tables lining the walls on the right. We ordered some food this year and it turns out their pizzas are quite good. But, really, you aren't going here for the food so don't fool yourself. You're going for the beer.

See, look at all those beers! And on the bottom right you can see all of their sours which is of course where I started.

Dugges Never Mind the Bollox

Still feeling lazy today so you get a Swedish beer from Dugges named Never Mind the Bollox. If you remember, Jared brought a bottle of their 1/2 Idjit to our Swedish party a while back.

Besides the fact that I love the name, this was quite an interesting beer. It's labeled as an IPA but from the start it didn't seem like that style at all. Big malty nose with the smell of aged hops. Spicy and earthy but not bitter. Big sweet body with lots of dark fruit and some malty breadiness. Sort of continues that way with the earthy hops perking up every once and a while to keep it from being too sweet. While the bottle clearly wasn't fresh, I thought it had been bottled in November 2011. However, I just saw a review on BeerAdvocate from February 2011 that claims to have seen the same notching so it must have been quite an old bottle. However, I can safely say it didn't actually hurt this beer and it was still pretty decent. I do wonder what it was like fresh though.

Founders Lunch at Jose Pistolas

Just like usual, it's been a while since I've been to Jose Pistolas for lunch so I decided to fix that problem last Friday. I wasn't really planning on it but Adam put together a last minute Founders themed lunch so I figured that was as good a reason as any. I don't remember everything they had, but the main ones were the Wet Hop Harvest and bottles of 2010 KBS. Since I was going during work, I decided KBS was a bit much so went for the Harvest IPA instead. People seem to be excited about it so why not, right?

Troegs Tap Takeover at the Khyber

While I wasn't actually planning on attending the Troegs night at the Khyber, my wife and decided we needed a night out and, well, happy coincidences. The Khyber had about 16-20 different Troegs beers, some from the regular lineup and a bunch from the scratch series.

It was pretty crowded when we first go there, but lucky for us some people got up from the bar a few minutes later and we got seats. To start with I ordered a glass of Scratch 46, named Naked Elf, because it's the base of their popular Mad Elf beer. I've been interested in trying it since I first heard about it. While Mad Elf is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, this is more considered a Belgian Strong Pale Ale although it wasn't pale at all.

Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye

I've had Hop Rod Rye on draft before and really liked it so I was very excited to open a bottle. Happily, in the bottle is just as good as on draft.

Smelled of hoppy grapefruit with some slight rye spiciness. Started a little citrusy up front, followed by some caramel and rye bread sweetness, and finished with a mouth-coating bitterness. Luckily, the bitterness lessened while the sweetness grew which made it quite enjoyable. I really like this one and you should give it a try if you see it.

Weyerbacher Harvest at the Kite & Key

I stopped by the Kite & Key like usual this past Tuesday and decided on the Weyerbacher Harvest Ale, an IPA brewed with fresh hops. If you want to learn a bit more about how the hops were picked, check out the Hops & Circumstances entry about it here.

Pungent grapefruit nose. No real bitterness which is nice. Started with some grapefruit, then some slightly grassy notes. It wasn't too bitter or dry which made the Harvest a nice drinking IPA. Quite enjoyable.

20th Anniversary of London Grill

This past Monday was the 20th Anniversary party for London Grill. Pretty Impressive. For the party they had a really nice beer list but considering my weekend and the fact that it was Monday I unfortunately didn't have much will to participate. When I arrived around 5:30 the place was already pretty full. A lot of industry folks, some brewers, and a few others I recognized. You could really tell what London Grill and the owner Terry mean to the area and the industry just by looking around the room.

I started with a glass of something I've talked about a bunch but I don't even care because it's so awesome, Deschutes The Abyss.

Firestone Walker Union Jack

I stopped in at Kite & Key, as usual, and ordered a Firestone Walker Union Jack, an IPA.

Orange and grapefruit in the aroma, no real bitterness. The first sip gives mostly grapefruit with a hint of oranges followed by a bit of bitterness. No real sweetness at all, but the bitterness is mild enough that the beer isn't too dry. Some bitterness lingers, but not long. Very easy drinking even at 7.5%. Glad the bartender suggested I try it.