Arcadia Sky High Rye

Arcadia is a tough brewery for me. They make beers in styles that I like, but I haven't been impressed by anything I've had by them but I still keep buying their stuff. I'm weird like that, I guess. Sky High Rye is a rye beer as expected by the name.

Lemony nose with some light rye spiciness. Nice for a rye beer. Body started with a little sweet caramel followed by some melon like fruitiness and a little citrus. There was some slight breadiness before it finished with some bitterness to clean things up. Well, there's a first time for everything and I actually enjoyed this one even with it being a number of months old. Very solid rye beer and tasty. Probably even better fresh, too.

We'll see if Arcadia can keep up this streak when I try their Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout tonight. I have high hopes considering they spent time waxing a 12oz bottle. Who would do that if the beer wasn't awesome, right? Right?

Magnolia Brewing in San Francisco

I was recently in San Francisco and since we were there to visit my sister in law and not for me to go around drinking everywhere, I didn't get a chance to get to too many places. A shame I know, blame my wife. However, I did get her to agree that we'd have lunch at Magnolia, a brewpub I've been meaning to visit for a while now but never had the chance. Lucky for me, February is also strong beer month for them so they had a whole lineup of unique stuff for me to try! I mean, look at this list, very cool right?

Pete Giovinco Holy Smoked Rye Lager

Pete gave me this near the end of August and I sort of misplaced it in a box with some other beer. I was a little worried it wouldn't be as good now since it's a few months older, but turns out it was still pretty tasty. I'm assuming it's a smoked rye lager as otherwise the name would just be confusing.

Chocolate, caramel, roast, and slightly smoky in the nose. Pretty complex. Smoky rye body followed with chocolate and caramel finishing things up. Nice creaminess to it all as well. The rye adds a little spice, keeping it from being too sweet which is good. Really enjoyed this one. Nice job by Pete and his friends.

Founders Red's Rye at Kite & Key

Even with a slightly crazy weekend of drinking and eating, I wasn't going to miss my Monday stop at Kite & Key. I did, however, choose something a little lighter in the form of Founders Red's Rye. Only a little though since it is still 6.6%.

Citrus nose with just a hint of rye spiciness and some malty sweetness. The body was slightly bitter up front but mostly sweet malt and rye spiciness with the citrus hops taking a back seat. This is just a really solid beer, very smooth and tasty. An added benefit is it comes in the Founders variety case and it isn't too expensive.

Also got to chat with Jim for a bit which was fun. First time I've seen him in a while. Kite & Key has some great stuff lined up over the next few months and I cannot wait for more Savage Sixtel Sundays.

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.

Boulevard Rye on Rye

The other bottle I opened over the weekend was Boulevard Rye on Rye. This is also part of Smokestack Series and is a blend of 33% regular rye beer blended with 66% of it aged in Rye Whiskey barrels. I thought it sounded really awesome, but was unfortunately really disappointed by it.

Since you can't see the beer because of my awesome glass, there was some light, fluffy white head and it was brown in color. The nose was interesting, spicy whiskey character with a little bit of vanilla in back. However, the body didn't follow and was instead just sharply alcoholic and full of burning. Started with super hot alcohol, then there was a little bit of spicy, fruity character that almost made things okay, but then it finished with more burning. Really, it came down to mostly alcohol and bitterness and never progressed past that. It wasn't awful, just disappointing and kind of a hot mess. Oh well, can't win them all. I'll just have to stick to their Imperial Stout since that was pretty great.

Philly Beer Week Day 3: Eulogy, Capone's, and Monk's

Our Sunday was looking to be a pretty busy day as we had three different events we wanted to hit. Well, I wanted to hit. Luckily for me, Jo offered to drive me around from spot to spot. I'm really lucky. We started out with our new tradition of Eulogy's Coffee Beer Brunch. This event is pretty self-explanatory, as it's a brunch with a number of coffee beers on draft. Here are my thoughts from last year's event.

When we arrived, we happened to get a parking spot across the street and then found two seats at the bar. Really convenient. The brunch menu was a little small this year having only two dishes, but the chicken fried steak was pretty tasty so that sort of made up for it. Hopefully next year they have a couple more things available though. We ordered a Ballast Point Victory@Sea, a vanilla coffee porter, first.

Dock Street and Local 44

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Dock Street decided to have a bottle release party for their Prisoner of Hell. Included with that release were bottles of last years Prince Myshkin and their '09 Barleywine. I realize I already have one of each of those two but, well, a second means when I drink one I still have one. Brilliant right? I think so at least and that's what matters to me. Plus, I met up with some friends for dinner so it wasn't totally just about the bottles.

When I got there, they hadn't started pouring the flemish red yet so I ordered the Rye IPA.

Grapefruit nose, slight rye spice. Started with the same slight rye flavor, moved on to being slightly bitter, and finished slightly peppery. Nice, balanced rye IPA without being too over the top with anything. Good way to start the visit.

Sixpoint Righteous Ale

Sixpoint brewery is based out of New York City although I'm not sure where their canning line is situated. I've been meaning to try their beers for a while but haven't made the time until now. I picked Righteous since it's a rye beer and I've gotten on the rye beer train lately.

Mildly hoppy, slightly spicy nose. Some sweetness in the beginning, then a tiny bit bitter, and finishing with some rye spiciness. Not a lot but some. As I drank more, the rye spiciness took over with the sweetness taking a back seat and the bitterness disappearing. Really enjoyed it and the flavors worked really well with dinner.