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.

At the same time we also got a glass of Evil Twin Biscotti Break.

Both were pretty good with me liking the Victory@Sea and Jo liking the Biscotti Break more. I thought the vanilla brought the coffee to another level but she thought it was a little strong tasting. For the latter, I thought it was a tad thin but she liked how the coffee blended with everything. Either way, I got a glass of Mikkeler Koppi IPA to finish things up (basically tasted like an IPA) and then it was time to move on to Capone's!

Surprisingly it didn't take too long to get there once we got off 676 which was nice. The FiftyFifty event was already underway but again we managed to get a couple seats at the bar. This was the first time we'd been at Capone's in a while so it was nice to finally get back.

Rather than go through all of the beers I had since I had a few, I'll just say a couple things about the ones I really liked. The first was the Buffalo Trace version of Eclipse, a barrel aged imperial stout.

Slightly sweet boozy nose but nice. Solid bourbon flavor followed by a little roast from the base stout. A lot of vanilla bourbon in this, but in a really good way given you like that flavor. Very little heat too. Being aged in different types of barrels means all of the eclipse variations taste slightly different but this one was quite good.

My other favorite of the day was the Barrel Aged Trifecta, a tripel aged in bourbon barrels.

Now, I overheard some people say that they didn't like this one but I actually thought it was quite delicious. It had a similar bourbon sweetness to the eclipse but instead of roast, there was an interesting tartness backing it. Body followed with a lot of bourbon vanilla and just a little tartness again. Really enjoyable though maybe the small size helped with that.

Otherwise I got FiftyFifty Honey Rye and Totality. The former was a decent ipa but I didn't get any rye or honey really while the latter was interesting because I got to see how the stout tasted before being barreled for the eclipse. After talking to their brewmaster, Todd Ashman, for a bit (who was super nice) and eating some wings, it was yet again time to move on to the next event, Funky Buddha at Monk's!

After another surprisingly quick trip down 76, I got to Monk's around 3:45 and it was already kind of crazy in the back room. I should have learned from last year's Lost Abbey event but well I'm a sucker. Monk's was already five people deep, hot and uncomfortable. The event was so popular because everyone wanted to try the Berliner Weiss's from the little brewery from Boca Raton, Funky Buddha. Unfortunately that meant shoving like 100 people in Monk's tiny back room. An hour after the beers starting pouring (incredibly badly I might add), the poor, harried bartender was finally able to get me a Raspberry Berliner and a Peach Berliner. Lucky for me since they kicked just a few minutes later. Here's a vague picture of the peach which was nice and tart but balanced with peach sweetness.

Well, was it worth it? Honestly I don't know. The beers were excellent so I mean sort of but again the back room at Monk's is not really built for events this busy in my opinion. That and the fact that the beers poured so slowly that the bartenders couldn't even serve people quickly. I guess I'll just have to hope that with Funky Buddha's new brewery that they will start sending their berliners here more often and we won't have to go through this again next year. One can hope, right?

Phew, what a day. It wouldn't have been possible without Jo taking it easy to drive me around which was so cool of her. While I hope next year Eulogy has a few more options on their brunch menu, it's still a fun tradition and we'll definitely do it again. Capone's is always fun to visit even if it's out in the suburbs. And Monk's, well, at least I can say I wasn't surprised this year by the craziness. Still sort of annoyed me but that won't be the first or the last time. Funky Buddha was nearly worth it though. So good.

Tonight is our first trip to the brand new Tired Hands Cafe. Since the last time we visited the stairs didn't even exist, can't wait to check it out!