Birthday Beers!

My birthday was the other day and instead of hitting a great bar like last year (we went to Farmer's Cabinet), Jo and I decided to go to an awesome BYOB and bring a couple of my many beers to open. And, man, what a great decision. The dinner at Modo Mio was freaking delicious and the beers went perfectly. The first we opened was The Bruery Oude Tart, a Flanders Red Ale.

House Beers at Farmer's Cabinet

Jo had some stuff to do this past Sunday, so I decided to head to the Farmer's Cabinet for lunch and to try some of Terry Hawbaker's new beers. I've mentioned him before, but if you don't remember Terry used to brew at the Bullfrog in Williamsport and moved to Philly to brew for the restaurant. While they had planned to create a brewery in the restaurant itself, it turned out to be impractical for a number of reasons and so the owners bought a brewery down in Virginia instead. Of course, the one they bought turned out to be a disaster, but Terry put a lot of work into cleaning it up and it's finally starting to produce results. Delicious results.

I started with a glass of the Roggen-Son, a saison brewed with rye.

Light rye nose, more sweet than spicy. Started with some rye spiciness, then a nice sweetness, and finished dry with a little bitterness. I really enjoyed the mix of sweetness and rye spice and thought this was pretty great.

Birthday Dinner at The Farmer's Cabinet

While Jo and I went to The Farmer's Cabinet for the first time for drinks with my Canadian buddy, I had originally planned to make my first visit my birthday dinner.  Walking into the restaurant the beer bar is on your left with a bunch of bar stools in front of it.  There are wooden signs on the wall with the draft beer options plus a spot reserved for the beers that will be brewed by Terry Hawbaker of Bullfrog Fame which I absolutely cannot wait to try.  The bartender, Chris (who also happened to be Terry's roommate), said the brewing equipment is set up but there are still some things to finish up so it'll still be a bit.  One cool thing was that they already have a rack of barrels set up on the restaurant wall for him to age stuff.  It'll be neat to see when they are full of delicious beer.