Philly Beer Week Day 5: Founders & Funky Buddha

After my day of rest (hah!) on Monday, Tuesday was planned to be a long day. I had lunch at Jose Pistola's, a stop at Kite & Key, and then finally Prohibition Taproom. Maybe seems like a lot for a Tuesday, but Philly Beer Week! Woo! Okay, okay, I'm a little crazy, I know.

The first stop of the day was the Founders lunch at Jose Pistola's. They were going to have CBS, two years of KBS, Curmudgeon's Better Half, and a few others. To say it was going to be popular isn't giving the crowd the credit it deserves. I arrived about five minutes before opening and the crowd was already like forty or fifty people long.

For those that don't know Jose Pistola's, the entrance is over past the green sign in the middle so pretty far from where I was standing. Lucky for me, my friends showed up at about 11:10 and were twenty to thirty people ahead of me. Pays to have friends who took the day off, I guess.

Once it opened and Greg and Adam (the bartenders) managed to pour out a ridiculous number of glasses in like fifteen minutes, I managed to get into the bar and sit down with my friends to enjoy a glass of Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout aka CBS.

I know, lovely picture. I'm a fantastic photographer. They were pouring from bottles so this was from the release last October. Sweet bourbon nose with some coffee notes. Strong coffee started then some maple sweetness and vanilla followed. The bourbon and sweetness came out a bit more as the coffee calmed. Quite enjoyable though I didn't find it a ton different from at least the 2011 KBS.

After that I got something I hadn't had before, the Curmudgeon's Better Half, an old ale aged in maple bourbon barrels similar to CBS.

Now this is what I'm talking about. Faintly sweet nose but unexpectedly mild. However, the body totally made up for it. Nice sweet maple with some bourbon and vanilla notes that came and went. Incredibly nice and a great sipper.

We ordered a round of KBS too but I only took a few samples of them. I had to go back to work, you know. I finished up my awesome burrito and headed back to go to a couple meetings and such.

Later that day, once work was over, I stopped by Kite & Key to say hi and check out how their Founders event was going. Without CBS and some minimal advertising, it wasn't too crowded so it was easy to get another glass of Curmudgeon's Better Half. Their lineup was totally solid but I had been planning to go to Prohibition Taproom so one was plenty for me. I did get to see Jim and Jake (the owners) and a few others so the stop was totally worth it.

And, now, my last event of a busy day, Funky Buddha at Prohibition Taproom. Wow was it hugely crowded. Luckily there's a bit of standing room at Prohibition so it wasn't too bad, but what a popular event. All three beers even kicked in about 45 minutes. Apparently people are crazy for Funky Buddha!

I wrote about the Funky Buddha awesome berliners the other day, but for this event they brought along a few other beers instead. The first two we ordered were Bonita Applebaum, a spiced brown ale, and No Crusts, a peanut butter and jelly beer. I'm not kidding about the last one.

Bonita is on the left and No Crusts is on the right. My first thought about the No Crusts was that it was a revelation. Just absolutely amazing what they did with this one. The nose straight out smelled like peanut butter and jelly. I couldn't believe it. The body followed with the peanut butter starting and the jelly following just like eating pbj sandwich. I never knew I wanted to drink one but apparently I did as it was awesome. The bonita was appley and cinnamon and pretty good, but since I'm not a big fan of cinnamon in things it wasn't anywhere near the No Crusts.

Unfortunately we missed out on the Last Snow so I ended with a glass of Cigar City Apple Brandy Winter Warmer, their barleywine aged in barrels.

Super duper sweet nose, lots of brandy. Almost like maple syrup, Jo thought. Body basically followed with the brandy and sweet barleywine mixing into a syrupy flavor. I actually enjoyed it more than that sounds but I'll admit it was super sweet and it took me a while to drink. Still, interesting experiment though not astounding like the Apple Brandy Zhukov from Friday.

And that was my busy, busy day. I hadn't been to Jose Pistola's in a while so I was real happy to finally make it back. Getting CBS, Better Half, and KBS in one go was great. Following that with some more Founders and then the very awesome Funky Buddha brought the day to another level. Also, I learned that those guys brew on a one barrel system which meant that they were brewing 3 days a week for four or so months to provide enough beer for a few days of Philly Beer Week. Crazy stuff. Everyone said they were super nice too so hopefully we'll see them again next year.

Today is Jose Pistola's again for Hill Farmstead and then the With Love, Beer Garden at the Four Seasons for the new Beer Four All Seasons. Should be a fun but calm day I think. Tomorrow, though, tomorrow is finally Dark Horse at Hawthornes. Bourbon Plead the Fifth!