Two Brothers / Brasserie Castelain Diversey & Lillie

It had been three weeks since I'd last been to the Kite & Key but I finally made it back this past Monday. Between Labor Day weekend and just being busy, I just haven't had the time until now. This week I wavered between drinking Alesmith Speedway Stout again because it's awesome or something new. Of course, I went with something new because I'm a sucker for new beers. So, I ordered the collaboration beer between Two Brothers and Brewery Castelain, a french brewery, named Diversey & Lille. This is a Biere de Garde.

Very fruity and sweet malty nose. Some bready notes too. Body followed with more fruit sweetness, kind of a berry flavor, a little bready malt, and then more fruitiness in the finish. Solid beer though nothing super surprising. Totally worth giving a try if you find it on draft or if the bottles aren't too expensive.

Also, as an aside, I had another glass of Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Stout last night at St. Stephen's Green. It is so good. So good. Should be on draft around Philly for a bit too it seems like. Check PhillyTapFinder for updates.

Two for Tuesday, Redux

I had to drop some beer off at a friend's house in South Philadelphia so Jo and I went to Devil's Den for dinner.  The food was good and the beer was better.

The first beer I had was a collaboration between Two Brothers and Urthel called Moaten.

You can see it's a dark reddish-brown color with a small amount of head.  Pretty much what you'd expect from a Flanders Red Ale.  The initial taste is similar to apple juice and that flavor really sticks with you throughout the entire beer.  I wasn't terribly impressed with this since there was nothing really separating it from other beers in the style.  It would make a good introduction to the style as it is really mild, but compared to other offerings such as the Ichtegem's I posted about it was just kind of boring.  Nothing bad, but nothing interesting either.

The second beer I had was Ballast Point Sculpin.

I'm not a huge fan of IPAs as I prefer darker, maltier beers, but I've read a lot about Sculpin on Beer Advocate and had to find out what all the fuss was about.  I put the glass in front of a candle for the picture so the color is odd, but it was what you'd expect from an IPA, light brown and very little head.  The smell was all grapefruit.  Probably a little overwhelming if you don't like grapefruit, but it's what you'd expect from a good IPA.  The initial taste follows the smell of grapefruit, but impressively enough the bitterness doesn't linger at all.  I've had some beers that go overboard with the bitterness and that's all that is left on your tongue, but this one was incredibly good.  If you like IPAs definitely search this one out.  I know it's available in bottles at some of the distributors around here but it may only be in the 22oz cases.  Still worth it if this is your type of style.