Nodding Head

Jo and I hadn't been to Nodding Heading in a long time so we decided last night was a good night to change that.  Nodding Head is a brewpub in Philadelphia between 15th and16th on Sansom St.  Someone from my home town is actually a brewer there now so I'm trying to convince my friend to visit so she can introduce me.

It's sort of hard to find as it's upstairs from a different restaurant and the door is really nondescript.  (So nondescript they just have a piece of paper with their name on it tacked to the door.)  There's two decent signs, but if you aren't looking for it you'll probably walk by it.

Still, it's one of my favorite places in the city because the bar is pretty large, the food is really good (since it's owned by the same people the menu is similar to Monk's and Belgian Cafe, just a little smaller), and their beer is excellent.  In fact, I thought the beer last night was the best their beer has been since I've been going (8 years at this point, on and off maybe?)

Taco Tuesday

Jo and I went to Lucky 7 on Tuesday since they have a great food deal and their tacos are pretty tasty.  I didn't find anything interesting on draft, so I picked a bottle of Victory V-Twelve.

Not a great picture, but it's a nice bottle.  Pours a middle brownish color with absolutely zero head.  When I poured some more into the glass, there was some foaming but it immediately disappeared.  Pretty normal for the style though.  It smelled fruity with a decent bit of alcohol.  First sip basically tastes the same.  Nice mouth feel, not quite syrupy but close.  Only a slight alcohol burn but it's enough to be pretty noticeable.  Unlike some high alcohol beers, the alcohol taste is consistent throughout the entire beer.  So far, the big alcohol flavor is the only negative to Victory's high octane beers as I had a similar feeling when I had Storm King on Saturday.  Still, I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Probably be really good after a year or two.

As a side note, Jo had a glass of Furthermore Fallen Apple.  It's a cream ale brewed with apple juice and basically tasted like a cider mixed with a beer.  Pretty interesting and Jo enjoyed it.  She said the apple flavor started strong but diminished as she drank it.  Check it out if you see it.

Not Every Beer is Good

Tonight I had a Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale.

And, yeah, as the title says, this beer just wasn't good.  The only good thing I can say about it is that at least it smells good.  Unfortunately, beer is for drinking and this beer was not good at that.  It even starts out with a pleasant blueberry flavor and I thought it was going to be at least decent.  Following that, though, is this bitter, cheap beer flavor that was just gross.  Jo thought it tasted a little like Amstel Light but all I remember about Amstel Light is that it sucks.  I realize that every beer in the world isn't going to be exceptional, but I expect everything to at least be drinkable.  This just tasted so blah and the after taste made me gag.  Since I can't help myself, I drank like half of it until I just couldn't stand it anymore.  Avoid!

Lew Bryson and some other beers

On Sunday, on top of the absolutely awesome bourbon beers I drank, I got to meet beer writer Lew Bryson.  I'll probably miss a few things he writes, but here's a small list.  His normal blog, his noplcb (no pennsylvania liquor control board) blog, and some really interesting articles on some random website in Massachusetts.  Seriously, you should check out that site.  I easily spent 2 hours reading those articles one day.  On top of that he also spends time writing for a whisky magazine named Malt Advocate. However, the thing he's most well known for (or at least the reason I really know him) is his awesome book on Pennsylvania breweries.  It's thorough, well written, and super interesting.  Jo and I have the 3rd edition of the book and just picked up the 4th edition on Sunday.  I'm reading through it now and there is just so much useful information about breweries, brew pubs, bars, and attractions in Pennsylvania.  Probably the best part is how for every brewery and brewpub, he lists places to visit in the area plus other bars to visit.  The former is super useful for those of us that have wives that insist everything can't be about beer and the latter is useful when visiting a brewery that won't have any food.  Go ahead and pick up a copy at amazon.  Trust me, it's well written and there are some really interesting facts in it.  On a more personal note, Lew was really receptive to chatting with me on Sunday and it's always awesome if people are willing to listen to me.  Sure, it helped that he was there to sell his book so he couldn't go anywhere, but still.  Seriously, though, nice guy and you all should read his blog and buy his book.  That way he'll make another edition in a few years for me to buy.

On top of that I tried two other beers Sunday at Hulmeville.  The best of the two was Rodenbach Vintage '08.

Hulmeville served it in their sweet chalice and it poured with very little head.  Similar look to other Flemish Red Ales with some darker notes.  This variety is actually a 2008 vintage that the Rodenbach brewery aged themselves.  Since I haven't had it in a while (if ever) I can't do a comparison, but man, this was one smooth beer.  It had a sweet and sour nose on it with a mild apple juice backing.  Not as strong as some Flanders Red Ales but this is 2 years old already so I'm guessing the apple juicy smell and flavor mellows out over time.  The taste followed the smell with more sweet and sour notes, each taking a turn.  Super easy drinking and really good.  The cool thing is that aging beers is a big thing in Europe so you may find stuff like this around.  I know Capone's has the 2007 on draft right now although it's probably close to finished.

I finished up the night with something completely different in the form of Rock Art Pumpkin Imperial Spruce Stout.

To be honest, while I have some notes about this one, I can't believe it's a stout.  Jo claims Hulmeville's description mentioned this, but it didn't feel like one to me.  If anyone has ever had this, let me know.  Not much of a smell to it and surprisingly very little pumpkin taste.  The overwhelming flavor to it was spruce.  Yes, spruce, just like the tree.  It wasn't bad, mostly surprising.  Throughout the whole glass, spruce was the major flavor and it actually was more enjoyable than expected.  However, if you are looking for a pumpkin beer this is not where to start.  Neither Jo nor I got any pumpkin flavor from it at all

That's the end of the 10/10/10 Beer Geek BBQ at Hulmeville Inn.  Meeting and chatting with Lew Bryson was way more fun than I expected and the bourbon aged beers were just incredible.  Jeff does a great job with that place and I look forward to the next special event.

It's a Bourbon (Beer) Afternoon

Hulmeville Inn hosted their second annual Beer Geek BBQ on Sunday and had a really great tap list to go along with it.  While I had quite a few awesome beers, the stand outs for me were the three bourbon barrel aged beers: Dark Horse Bourbon Aged Plead the Fifth, Allagash Bourbon Black, and Port Older Viscosity.  The first is a barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout, the Allagash is a barrel aged Belgian Strong Ale and the Older Viscosity is a barrel aged Imperial Stout.  Hulmeville had them all in different sizes and availability which was pretty nice considering their strength.

Victory and Yards

Jo and I were going to head out to Lancaster brewing and Spring House brewing, but our plans changed so we instead went to Victory brewing and Yards brewing.  First we drove out to Victory and then we circled back to go to Yards.

The last time we had been to Victory was before they renovated their brew pub and we couldn't believe the difference between now and then.  Before, it was like a creepy school cafeteria and the food was only okay.  Now, the brewpub had really nice atmosphere, the tables looked really comfortable, and the bar was really inviting.

I had read about the renovations to their brewpub but I was not expecting such a significant upgrade.  Now, I'd totally be willing to bring people to the brewery whereas before there is no way I'd suggest it as a place to visit and this is just based on first impressions and has nothing really to do with the beer.

Russian River!

My sister in law brought me an awesome extra beer, Pliny the Elder when I asked her to get me some stuff from California.  Since I had some other Russian River beers I decided to make a night of them.

I figured starting with the Pliny the Elder would be a better idea since the strong sour flavors of the Consecration would definitely over power the hops in the Pliny.

Pliny the Elder is a double IPA which generally means that they use "double" the amount of ingredients (malt, hops, etc) resulting in an IPA that has more alcohol, more hops, more everything.  The result is a really hoppy, but in my opinion, more balanced beer.  The smell of this reminded me mostly of grapefruit with some other mild citrus flavors.  No hint of the 8% alcohol in it. The first taste followed with mostly grapefruit, but it was backed nicely by some residual sweetness.  After each sip, though, the hop bitterness lingered quite a bit.  Not unpleasantly but if you don't like hoppy beers it would drive you slightly nuts.  As it warmed up, the hops really mellowed out and Pliny became very smooth.  By the bottom of the glass, it tasted almost like a different beer.  Some of that is getting used the heavy hop flavor, but the warmer beer was much sweeter at the end with much less hop presence.  Pliny the Elder isn't available in bottles in Philly (Russian River only sends kegs over here) so this was a rare treat.  Really happy I got to try it.

After that I finished off the night savoring a Consecration.

Consecration is one of Russian River's American Wild Ales.  What this means is they start with a base beer, in this case some sort of brown ale, add brettanomyces and some other bacteria, and put the beer in a barrel to age it.  In the case of Consecration and Supplication they add currants and cherries, respectively, to the barrel before aging it.  The Consecration is aged in cabernet sauvignon barrels while the Supplication is aged in a different type of wine barrel (I can't remember, so sue me).

The first thing I noticed about the beer is the smell.  It was so strong that I could smell it from nearly a foot away.  It smelled of apple juice but with a hint of something that kept it from being over powering.  The color was a beautiful brown caramel with just a small ring of head on it.  So far, everything about the beer is just great.  The first sip was sweet, sour and all around interesting.  I felt that the brown ale base came through a bit in the sweetness of it but everything else about it was a result of the wood, the aging, and the currants.  There was a sharp front with a puckering aftertaste to it.  After a few sips, I still couldn't find the 10% alcohol.  It was just really well hidden.  As the beer warmed up, the flavors became a bit smoother and the mouth feel was a bit thicker.  Near the bottom it became sweeter with less of the sharpness the beginning had.  Throughout the glass though the flavors just lingered and lingered after each sip similar to some of the other sours I've had.  Probably the weirdest part (maybe influenced by the bottle mentioning it) is the hint of tobacco flavor that I could pick out.  It's probably a result of the wood aging or the brett yeast but still not a flavor I usually associate with beer.  By the end, the last sips were just sugary and delicious (but that may have been the 10% talking.)

All in all Russian River always impresses me.  Everything that I've tried by them is always excellent.  (See these posts for my impressions of Damnation and Supplication.)  Next time, though, I'm going to need to get a bottle of Supplication so I can finally end my flip flopping and decide which I like better, the Consecration or Supplication.  No real good reason for needing to decide but it gives me a great excuse to buy a bottle of Supplication.

Las Vegas Beer

Got to Las Vegas early enough to get some dinner and a nice beer.  Walked over to Mandalay Bay to go to the Burger Bar, a place I read about on Beer Advocate.  Turned out to be a pretty good place with a good beer list.

Since I can't get it around here, I decided to get the Deschutes Black Butte Porter.

This porter was really quite good.  It had a roasty aroma to it that was very inviting.  First taste was nutty and smooth.  Working my way through the beer the nutty flavor started to remind me of hazelnuts.  All in all, this was a good choice.  If I was able to get Deschutes in the area I'd get this again.  Plus this makes me super excited to try the Jubel 2010 if their regular beers are this good.

Saturday in Lee, Massachusetts

Spent the weekend in Lee, Massachusetts so that means a trip to Moe's! Moe's is a bar on Main Street in Lee and it's as good as any beer bar you can find. It has about 10 different rotating taps and the owner Josh brings in as many interesting beers as he can.  He had Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout last weekend for example. Any time I go to Lee I make a point of going there just because I usually find something good to drink there. On top of that, his bartenders are willing to talk to me about beer and know their stuff.  Plus who am I to say no to a trip to a beer bar? So if you're ever around exit 2 on the Mass Pike and want a beer, head into Lee and check out Moe's. If Josh is around, tell 'em Rich sent you.

Yesterday I got to have Sierra Nevada's Jack & Ken's again plus Gritty McDuff's Black Fly Stout. The Jack & Ken's was amazing again. (I talked about it here.)  That is such a great barleywine. After that I had a glass of Gritty McDuff's Black Fly Stout.

First, stouts on nitro are so freaking pretty.  The nitro tap and a proper pour is what gives that great foamy head.  This is a Dry Irish stout same as Guinness but way better.  It has way more flavor and it's just way more creamy.  This style is very easy drinking and this was no exception.  The Black Fly was just a little more bitter, but it was still really good.  Totally a nice way to cap off my visit to Moe's.

After that, Jo and I went back home where I decided to try two of the beers that my sister-in-law brought me from California.  One I asked for and one was a surprise.  The first was a Swedish beer named Oppigards Winter Ale.

It poured a brown color with a small amount of bubbly white head.  Had a mild fruit smell to it.  Not strong like a quad, just really mild and pleasant.  It tasted slightly spicy with a decent amount of sweetness.  I really didn't know what to expect from this but it was very good.  A really nice surprise since I didn't ask for this.

The beer I asked for was New Belgium's La Folie.

Unfortunately New Belgium isn't available in Philadelphia so this was a real treat for me.  La Folie is part of New Belgium's Lips of Faith series.  It's their Flanders Red Ale and they claim it's aged in barrels for 1 to 3 years.  It poured a dark brown color with zero head.  It's the sort of pour I'm learning to expect from this style of beer.  Great, super unique smells from this.  I smelled tart, sour notes with hints of vinegar but balanced with some nice lemony, citrus edges.  I was really psyched to try this out and my interest bore fruit with hints of caramel, slight vinegar and a nice tart end.  La Folie was really well balanced and I had no problems getting through the whole glass.  On top of that the bottle was super cool looking which is fun.

All in all a good weekend.  I got to go to Moe's and to try some more new stuff.  Plus I got this bunch of bottles (two of which I already drank) so I have a whole bunch of great stuff to try in the future.

From left to right it's: Deschutes Jubel 2010 (super psyched about this one, thanks Sean!), Russian River Temptation, Oppigards Winter Ale, Russian River Pliny the Elder (another fun surprise) and New Belgium La Folie.

Also note that I'm headed to Las Vegas tomorrow so there may not be any blogs this week until Friday or so.  We'll see though.

Troegs Night at Varga

On Thursday, Troegs Brewery hosted an event at Varga Bar.  I was excited because they were supposed to have the new Scratch 34 plus an undisclosed firkin of something.  I was hoping that the firkin would be Java Head with vanilla beans since it was delicious but we wouldn't know until we got there.  Of course, the weather Thursday night was abysmal but we ventured out anyway.

Varga is at 10th and Spruce and is a small place on the corner.  Possibly because of the weather there weren't too many people there when we arrived.  We picked a spot at the bar and waited for the Troegs beers to come on draft.  (Let me say that I had a bad cold Thursday so my descriptions won't be incredibly great since it was hard to taste or smell anything.  It's the reason I haven't posted at all this past week.)

I started with a glass of Troegs Dead Reckoning which is an American Porter.

It poured a basically black color with a small brown head.  Looks like what you'd expect from a porter.  I couldn't smell anything because of my cold so I'll skip that section this time.  Surprisingly, the first taste had quite a large hop character to it.  Porters are almost always roasty and malty, but this one had a much more up front hop taste to it.  It was actually really enjoyable since it gave it a really unique taste.  The hops blended into the roasted malt to create a mildly sweet flavor that I really liked.  I want to try this again when I can smell and taste better.

The next I had was the new Scratch 34, a Belgian Brown.  (Also known as an Abbey Dubbel I'm pretty sure.)

Scratch 34 was a really, deep brown with very minimal head on it.  The first taste was all Belgian.  I could taste bananas, a bit of sweetness, and exactly what is expected from a Belgian beer.  It was really enjoyable.  Apparently it's bottle conditioning right now so I'm hoping I'll be able to get a bottle of it at Capone's when Troegs finally releases it.

Finally I capped off the night with a glass of their Java Head. 

It's listed as an Oatmeal Stout on Beer Advocate, but it reminds me more of a coffee stout than anything else.  Poured a nearly black color with a nice, foamy brown head on it.  Looked really nice.  I don't have very clear impressions from this honestly but I did like it.  Jo said it had a mild coffee flavor to it.  I'll have to try it again at the next Troegs night at some other bar and write a better report then.

The event itself was put together by a guy named Nick who is the Troegs representative for the area.  I talked to him for a while and he's a really nice guy.  He mentioned he puts together events like this all over the city so I'm excited to check them out over the next few months.  On top of that he said that he had a keg of Mad Elf from '09 for an event so definitely want to check that out.  The only disappointing thing about the event was that the firkin he tried to get wasn't filled for him so the undisclosed firkin never made an appearance.  They did end up with a Dry Hopped version of their Dead Reckoning on hand pump, but since I already had a glass of that before finding out about it I didn't get a chance to try it.  Probably would be pretty interesting though.

I'm in Massachusetts today and heading to my favorite bar in Lee, Mass.  It's called Moe's and it's a little spot of beer heaven in a small town.