Rich Goes to Media

My wife had to do some work at her job in Chester, so being the loving husband that I am, I volunteered to come along and meet her for lunch.  Unfortunately for me, I had to find a way to kill two and a half hours before she was finished.  Poor me.  My sacrifice included a trip to Pinocchio's followed by a visit to the Iron Hill nearby.  Can you believe that I was willing to do this for her?  Crazy nice, I know.

Beer Tasting 2

I held another get together for a few people this past Friday.  This is the second time I've done this with the first in October.  They each brought a couple bottles of beer they wanted to try and I supplied some pizza and banana brownies.  Some bought based on the labels (one bought his bottles because there were dogs on the label) and others (me) bought because there were some beers they wanted to try but never get around to picking up.  Either way, we ended up with another fun lineup.

From left to right, we have: Why I Oughta IPA (Pete G's Double Black IPA), Ballast Point Victory at Sea, Troegs Flying Mouflan, Uintas Labyrinth, Terrapin Big Daddy Vlady's, and Cigar City Bolita.

Saturday Beers!

What's a Saturday without some interesting things to drink?  Nothing, that's what.  I needed to do some beer shopping for a thing I'm having at my house on Friday, so Jo and I took a trip out to Capone's and the Wholefoods in Plymouth Meeting.

We arrived at Capone's and found out the restaurant is going to be closed on Sundays (at least until around April) which stinks since that was always when we went.  Ah well.  There was a lot to choose from, but they had Flying Fish Exit 13, a chocolate stout, and I've been wanting to try that for a while now.

Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout

Kentucky Breakfast Stout, usually known as KBS, is an imperial stout brewed with coffee that is then aged in bourbon barrels for over a year.  Strong smelling, strong flavored, this is not a beer that fools around.  Founders releases it around April and it's pretty readily available during that time.  If you've had their Breakfast Stout, you have an idea of what to expect from the base beer even though they are different recipes.

The smell is just wow.  Bourbon, coffee, chocolate, wood, vanilla.  Just crazy complex.  Initially, possibly because it was too cold, the flavors were constantly fighting with each other.  First bourbon, then coffee, then roast with very few stops in between.  As it warmed up though the beer took on a life of its own.  All the flavors started blending together with a pleasant chocolate finish.  The bourbon is finally subdued by the other flavors and blends instead of taking over.  I left a bit in the glass for a while and it was even better.  This is definitely a sipper and I'd suggest waiting until the chill leaves it as it would be much more enjoyable.  Much, much better warm.  Definitely enjoyable on a cold Friday night but I hesitate to recommend it to anyone but the most devout of stout drinkers.  Very strong bourbon notes make it a tough sell.

Troegs Nugget Nectar

Nugget Nectar is another seasonal that took the BeerAdvocate trading forum by storm for a couple weeks just like Hopslam.  I've been looking to try it and got my chance yesterday at the Kite & Key, a nice little bar on Callowhill near 19th street.  Nugget Nectar is an Amber Ale although it's 7.5% so it's a bit stronger than most.  (See, Andy, finally an Amber!)

It had a very earthy smelling nose.  It's made, reasonably enough, with nugget hops which apparently impart an herbal and spicy flavor to beers.  I can see that.  On the first sip, bitter hops give way to a little sweetness, finishing with a bready flavor that is reminiscent of the style to me.  Some lingering bitterness that built up as I drank more.  Reasonably good and a change of pace from the more citrusy double IPAs.  I can see why it's popular.  I think I preferred Hopslam but they aren't totally comparable considering the base style differences.  Along with Nugget Nectar, Troegs has another amber called Hopback Amber and the Flying Mouflan has a similar hop profile.  Be interesting to try all three in one night and work the way up the strength and bitterness scale just to compare the differences.

Lost Coast 8 Ball Stout

This was another Hanukkah present from my brother Dan and another good choice.  You may remember the first bottle from when I used it to make a Swedish Christmas Rye.  This time, it was all for me.

After all the Imperial Stouts I've been drinking, this oatmeal stout makes a nice counter point.  Sweet and roasty nose.  I felt the sweetness in the nose was very reminiscent of a milk stout.  While the mouthfeel was thing, it had some nice, bubbly carbonation.  Roast, some sweetness, and some fruitiness all finishing with more of the pleasant roastiness which then lingers for a bit.  This is a very drinkable oatmeal stout and a nice change of pace.

Jose Pistola's does Smoke!

Another great event at Jose Pistola's last Friday.  They had three smoked beers and three smoked food specials.  When I entered it smelled fantastic in there as they had just thrown some smoke chips on a stove downstairs and the whole place had a nice haze of smoke.  Really set the mood for the event.  The three smoked beers they had were: Aecht Schlenkerla Oak Smoke (I think it's their Eiche), Weyerbacher Fireside Ale, and Left Hand Fade To Black Vol. 2 (a smoked baltic porter).  Since it was a work lunch I obviously couldn't drink too much (stop laughing) but I did try two of them.  I swear I only got the second because the chili I ordered was so damn spicy I needed something to pair with it.  Adam warned me and then laughed at me when I kept saying how spicy it was but man.

Wise Guy Weizen

I opened up my buddy Pete's homebrew the other day.  He recently gave me three and this one was a dark sour wheat and named Wise Guy Weizen.  And, yes, all have a Three Stooges theme.

Fluffy head that dissipated quickly.  I smelled bananas, some caramel and a tiny bit of tanginess.  First sip and my thought was, "Wow that's unique."  Bananas and an odd fruity edge followed by a musty wheatiness.  As it warmed, it had a pleasant sweetness mixed with a little sourness.  Kind of goes back and forth.  Not bad and certainly unique.  Nice Pete.

Bell's Hopslam

I can always tell when something new and interesting is coming out because the BeerAdvocate trading forum goes absolutely crazy.  Recently, the newest feeding frenzy beers were Bell's Hopslam and Troegs Nugget Nectar.  Luckily, Jose Pistolas put Bell's Hopslam on draft yesterday so I was able to try it without buying an entire six pack of it.  Let me say, it holds up to the hype.

Hopslam is a Double IPA offered by Bell's every January although at 11% it's higher than most other Double IPAs.  Bell's brews this with a number of different types of hops, a lot of malt and some honey.  From all that I've read, the honey only imparts some residual flavors on the beer and not sweetness.  It's used because it's a fully fermentable sugar so a brewer can raise the ABV and lower the gravity (thus drying out the sweetness) without adding other sugar to it.  Take that with a grain of salt though since it's not like I've done any real research on it.

The first thing I noticed was the aroma.  Just a huge amount of citrus mixed with grapefruit or pineapple notes (I honestly don't know if I can tell the difference just by smell, so sue me).  First sip I got a face full of sharp citrus which slowly recedes into a pleasing sweetness.  Very slight lingering bitterness, but it quickly disappears.  Even at 11%, I barely noticed the alcohol at all.  Compared to Brew Works Hop'solutely this beer was a dream to drink.  Maybe it was the glass size, but Hopslam was much closer to a Double IPA than the Hopwine style I got from Hop'solutely.  This should be available anywhere Bell's distributes at least for a week or two, so search out a six-pack.  Only negative is the six-packs are anywhere from $16-$20 so be ready for that.

If anyone is around, look for me at Jose Pistola's on Friday around noon.  They are doing a smoked event and will have 3 smoked beers and some smoked food specials.  Should be a tasty lunch.

Absolutely Awesome Stout Tasting

Before attending the Troegs Splinter Black release, I was sent a message on BeerAdvocate asking if I'd be up for trading a bottle to a local in Philly.  I said if I got some extra bottles, we could work something out.  However, after seeing what he had to offer we both decided that instead of trading for more bottles to sit on our shelves, lonely and undrunk, it would be a lot more fun to get together and do a tasting where I'd bring a bottle of Splinter Black and he'd bring some stuff.  It may seem odd meeting up with a total stranger, but I'm an odd guy so it evens out.  We met up at The Belgian Cafe just before Christmas to ensure that neither of us was a crazy murderer and, after realizing we were both relatively normal (well, almost normal), decided to do the tasting some time in January.

We talked a bit more after Christmas and came up with the date of January 15th.  He invited a friend of his who also lived nearby and after a few more messages we decided to make it a stout tasting.  For this one, we were doing it at my apartment.  They arrived around 3:15 and, lo and behold, his friend Josh turned out to be one of the random guys we met on the way to the POPE during the Craft Beer Express.  I honestly couldn't believe the coincidence.  Just really random.  We quickly set out the six bottles on the table and couldn't wait to get started.

From left to right, we had: Olde Hickory The Event Horizon, Olde Hickory Hickory Stick Stout, Big Sky Ivan the Terrible, Surly Darkness (finally!), Troegs Splinter Black, and Dock Street Prince Myshkin.