T'Smisje Calva Reserva

I know it has been a few days since I last posted, but I actually have a reasonable excuse this time. I just didn't have anything to write about! Even with going to Weyerbacher on Saturday, I forgot to take pictures or write anything down. And then we went out to dinner that night so that was a no go too followed by Passover on Monday. So, yeah, I missed two days as a result.

Finally, though, last night I met some friends at The Belgian Cafe and took a few short notes. The T'Smisje Calva Reserva is out of Belgium and is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale aged in Calvados barrels.

Tons of apple, caramel, and vanilla in the nose. Most likely all from the barrel with just a bit coming from the base beer. Pretty well carbonated for a barrel aged beer. Not champagne level or anything, but it exists which is more than other beers like this. Body was similar to the nose with vanilla, caramel, apples, and a little bit of other fruit. Solidly delicious beer. I really should try whatever Calvados is at some point considering I keep getting things aged in those barrels and I don't even know what alcohol it is. I'm assuming it's brandy or something else sweet but I dunno. Regardless, this was tasty and it gives me high hopes for the JW Lees Harvest I have downstairs since it too was aged in Calvados barrels.

Jolly Pumpkin Noel De Calabaza

I wasn't able to get to the Kite & Key on Sunday for their latest Savage Sixtel Sunday, but when I showed up on Monday everything was actually still available. Lucky for me! Through a huge effort of will, I managed not to order the Goose Island Bourbon County even though I really wanted to because, well, I still have like 18 bottles at home. Kind of silly to get it on draft or at least that's what my wife keeps telling me. I'm not so sure she's right since it's awesome, but this time I listened. Instead I got a glass of Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza.

Tart plum and raisin flavors are the name of the game. All of Jolly Pumpkin's stuff is spontaneously fermented which is why most of their stuff has some basic tartness to it. Sort of clashing flavors though. Like a soured brown ale with a little roast, some bitterness, and finishing with a big tartness and some sour. The latter just didn't mix well with the former in my opinion though they got a bit better as I got used to them all.

It's a problem I've had with other Jolly Pumpkin beers where the tartness just doesn't sit well with the base. Oh well, the issue is definitely on my end since other people seem to really like their stuff. Maybe one day I'll find one I like more.

Troegs Mad Elf 2010

I was pulled away to Atlanta for work so didn't have a chance to write much last week. But, I'm back now and starting with a bottle I opened a week or two ago, a 2010 Troegs Mad Elf. I've been drinking Mad Elf for years now and it really may be my favorite beer. In fact, I have seven different pictures of it at this point for whatever reason. Considering I normally don't have more than one or two of most other beers, that's kind of funny.

I bought this bottle a couple years ago when my friend and I went to Troegs for the Splinter Blue release. Which also made me realize they haven't released a splinter beer in a long time. Too bad though Black wasn't that good so maybe not.

Honey, clove, and a little spiciness in the nose. Smelled smoother than a fresh one with a distinct lack of alcohol. Bananas, clove, honey, and hints of cherry followed in the body. The clove came and went, but the honey and the cherry hints were there through most of it. Some people find Mad Elf too sweet or medicinal but I just love it for some reason. I totally understand the issues, they just don't bother me.

Captain Lawrence Nor'Easter

The last bottle we opened over Labor Day was Captain Lawrence Nor'Easter, a bourbon barrel Winter Warmer brewed with Elderberries. I'm not sure how old this bottle is but I want to say my friend picked it up early last year.

Started normal with a bourbon vanilla nose, no heat either. Basically what you'd expect from a bourbon barrel beer. However, things change kind of dramatically upon the first sip. Lightly vanilla, some sour cream notes without being gross, and tart berry fruitiness. I'm not sure this was how it was supposed to taste but it wasn't metallic or gross, just sour, so it wasn't infected or anything. As I drank more, the bourbon returned as the sour faded a little bit which was nice. Overall, though, it was mainly sour cream vanilla with a fruity tartness.

Since it was brewed with elderberries I imagine that's how the sourness and tart berry flavors appeared. Pretty different and still quite tasty though. Definitely would drink again.

Bell's Darkest Day at Devil's Den

Okay, so this event was over two weeks ago at this point, but it was such a great time, I don't want to just skip writing about it. The event took place on December 21st, the shortest day of the year hence the name,  Darkest Day. Devil's Den got about 6 different Bell's beers including the incredibly rare Black Note. When the event was first announced at the end of November, I quickly put it on my calendar since I knew I couldn't miss it. Now, maybe I was a little too excited because when I got there at 4, there were only three other people in the bar and they all left before the event making me the first to arrive for it. I even took a picture!

See, empty bar. Luckily, I knew the next four people that walked in after me so I had plenty of company to pass the time.

Weyerbacher Tango

The Weyerbacher Tango is the newest Brewer's Select beer from Weyerbacher. It's a Belgian Strong Dark Ale brewed with cherries.

Seeing as how this is a Belgian from Weyerbacher, I had certain biases going into it since their Belgians mostly all have the same base flavor. The nose had a strong flavor of bananas without much else. Didn't find any cherry in it. Taste followed with banana then some hints of clove. As I drank more of it, I got some flashes of cherry but nothing really strong or obvious. It was slightly reminiscent of Troegs Mad Elf although not quite as sweet and the Belgian yeast flavors were a bit stronger. Decently enjoyable but I do find the Belgian flavors from Weyerbacher's yeast to be a bit much at times. Probably wouldn't want more than a glass of this as a result.

Lost Abbey 10 Commandments at Kite & Key

Had a really excellent beer at Kite & Key this past Tuesday, Lost Abbey 10 Commandments, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale.

Smelled of dark fruits, plums, and caramel. Really inviting nose. Started with caramel, edging towards chocolate, with some light banana flavors in the background. Very light Belgian notes which blended really well with the stronger plum and caramel flavors. The light touch is really welcome compared to some other beers in this style. I really enjoyed this. Another great draft offering from Lost Abbey.

I also found out that Kite & Key's Savage Sixtel Sunday was actually named after their Sunday night bartender, Jim Savage. Only reason I found that out was because he was filling in this Tuesday. Funny as I always thought it was named that just because the owner was putting on awesome beers.

A Small Bottle Share

I had some friends over this weekend and and they brought a couple of bottles over to share. We started with one of my bottles, a Captain Lawrence Smoke from the Oak. This one was an Imperial Smoked Porter that was aged in wine barrels.

Very smoky aroma with a slight hint of red wine. On my first sip, the major flavor was smoke. Not harsh, more pleasant campfire. The wine part of it though sort of came and went and was sort of interesting. Not bad, just interesting. The major issue is the barrel flavors and the smoke flavors didn't blend well. Luckily, they didn't clash either but without the blending the beer just doesn't come together. Also, even with the smoke not being overwhelming, I'm not sure how a big glass of it would have gone down. I have bottles of rum barrel and apple brandy barrel and hope their flavors blend a bit better and cause the smoke to relax some.

Avery at Kraftwork

Now we come to what turned out to be my second favorite event of Philly Beer Week. The London Grill dinner was my top favorite, but this night came pretty close. There were two reasons I found this event at Kraftwork so cool. One, the Avery draft list was quite amazing and I got to try a whole lot of them because of their awesome flight deal. And, two, they hired a group called the Olde City Sideshow who were pretty awesome. Kraftwork is located on Girard St. in North Philly. Decently large bar with tables ringing the room. Avery is a brewery out of Colorado best known for, hmm, probably their Joe's Pilsener but for me it's their super high octane beers like Mephistopheles, Samael's, and The Beast. Thursday's event was named "The Greatest Show on Earth", I believe, and some of the staff actually dressed the part which was cool. Nice to see a bar have an actual theme and then follow through on it.

When we arrived, there wasn't any room at the bar so we stood near a friend's table and I enjoyed a glass of Avery Dihos Dactylion, an American Wild Ale.

Lunch at Eulogy

Met up with my buddy Greg at Eulogy, a bar in Old City, this past Sunday.  I haven't been there in quite a while and it was near the theater so there we go.  Nice place for those of you that haven't been.  Two floors (useful knowledge since the first floor gets busy) with a number of tables on both.  It does get busy at night (or at least it used to) but just go earlier and it's fine.  When I got there it wasn't too busy though the bar was pretty full.  I got a pretty tasty burger (blue cheese and onions, yum) and Greg got what looked like a decent grilled cheese.  They also had the usual Belgian stuff, Mussels etcs, as well if you are into that.  All in all a great place to go.

Thursday at Nodding Head

I needed to kill some time while waiting to meet my wife for dinner so I thought what better way to do that than spend an hour reading at Nodding Head and enjoying some beer.  I did a little research using Philly Tap Finder but decided I really wanted to try the Belgian Chocolate Stout so headed to Nodding Head.

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.

Capone's!

To prepare our livers for our six brewery tour over New Years, Jo and I decided to head to Capone's for some lunch and drinks.  We haven't been there in a while and missed their delicious wings.  I also got a tasty cheese steak hoagie.

Once again, I started with a sampler of four great beers.

Vacation Beers 4: The Final Night

Twas the last night of vacation,
and all through the house,
I was drinking beer,
not just one but four.

Okay enough of that.  The last night of our trip to Vermont I went through a bunch of quality beers and had a grand old time.  After discovering that absolutely everything was closed in Brattleboro on Christmas Day including McNeill's brewpub, we stopped at Brattleboro Discount Liquors on our way back to the house.  I like to check random beer stores in hopes that they have interesting things.  Nothing super here although they had some local stuff so we picked some up including bottles from McNeill's.

Mad Elf Madness

My friends had been talking about Troegs Mad Elf so I finally decided to do my small two bottle vertical.  For those that don't now the term, a vertical is drinking different years of the same beer to compare the differences caused by aging.  Most people do verticals with 4+ years to get a nice range, but they also tend to do them with other people because otherwise they'd get wasted by the end.  As I was by myself, I decided comparing the 2008 to the 2010 would be plenty.

In the above picture, the 2010 is on the left and the 2008 is on the right.  As you may be able to see, they were both a ruby brown color but the 2010 was much clearer.  I was actually surprised by how different they ended up being.

Troegs Mad Elf 2009

I met up with some friends at the Kite & Key on Monday and while they still had a few Allagash left from their Craft Beer Express Event, I saw they had a Mad Elf from 2009 and had to get it.

Not much of a smell to this one.  First sip, I got lots of sugary notes.  A little bit of caramel comes out but it doesn't stray too far from my first impression of sugar flavors.  The cherries were basically non-existent after a year.  I've heard from people that have had many different ages of Mad Elf and they all agreed that the cherry flavor comes and goes each year.  I'm excited to try the 2008 and the 2010 I have to compare them to this one.

Sunday at Capone's

Jo and I went to Capone's and enjoyed some great buffalo wings and beers.  As usual, their draft list was excellent and they have 25 cent wings on Sunday so it's a great place to watch some football.  They are doing some construction on the place, but the back entrance is open so don't think they are closed because of the closed front doors.

I started off with a sampler of 4 beers.

Starting with the front left beer and going clockwise I got: Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela, The Bruery Autumn Maple, Amager Imperial Stout, and Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout. 

The Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela was interesting.  It's supposedly a Pumpkin Ale but I couldn't detect pumpkin in it at all.  It smelled lemony and sort of tart.  Just a little bit of head on the sampler, but I'm guessing there would be a bit more in a full glass.  The first sip was mildly tart as well but not too strong.  Very smooth flavor.  It was similar to Nodding Head's Berliner Weiss but with more body and not quite as tart.  As I drank more of it, the beer got more tart but nothing crazy.

After that was the Bruery Autumn Maple.  Smelled mildly Belgian as it's made with some Belgian yeast.  At first, there was only some yam flavor with a mild sweetness.  Hard to find the Belgian flavors in the beer as a result of the yams and maple.  Nice thick mouth feel to it.  The second full sip I took was just full of yams.  I couldn't believe it and took another sip just to be sure I was sure of the flavor.  Super interesting to be drinking that taste out of a glass.  I liked it but a full glass may have been a bit much.

Following that was the Amager Imperial Stout.  Amager is apparently a brewery in Denmark, who knew.  The Imperial Stout had some slight roasty notes and a little alcohol on the nose.  The taste, however, was full of roasted malt flavor with no alcohol presence.  As it warmed up, the alcohol was slightly noticeable, but not out of place.  Not a bad Imperial Stout but nothing too special to me.

Finally, the Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout.  I talked about the family of Yeti stouts from Great Divide in this post, my first time at Capone's.  This will be the second of the four I've had and hopefully I'll be able to have the other two at some point.  Jo smelled some wood flavors in this but I didn't notice much of anything.  Pretty big espresso flavor in the first sip, but it wasn't crazy.  Nothing like Founders Breakfast Stout for example.  The coffee does sit on the tongue after each sip though.  Nice thick mouth feel to this one.  As it warmed up, the espresso becomes more noticeable but again not bad.

After the sampler, I tried to get a glass of Rodenbach Vintage 2007 but they were out.  Instead, I got a Southern Tier Pumking

There wasn't any head on it but you'll just have to trust me since I forgot to take a picture before drinking a bunch.  It smelled of pumpkin and a lot of spices.  Interesting smell, pretty much what a lot of people think of when they hear of a pumpkin beer.  The Pumking was very sweet with a lot of spices.  Kind of crazy how much pumpkin pie flavor they packed into this beer.  Even with all the spices and the high sweetness, it was still quite drinkable.

Went into the bottle shop before we left and man I love that place.  They have so many good beers.  Even if the prices can be a little high, there's just so much to find.  Every nook and cranny is just jammed with random beers.  I could come out of there with so many if I didn't care about money.  Ended up getting a Hoppin' Frog Boris the Crusher, an Oatmeal Imperial Stout, and a 2008 Rogue Imperial Porter.  The Rogue had an absolutely sweet bottle although it's no real surprise because if there is one thing Rogue does well it's make cool bottles.

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.

Belgian Cafe!

Jo and I went to the Belgian Cafe last night before going to the haunted house at the Eastern State Penitentiary.  While the beer selection (at least drafts) isn't quite as good as Monk's, the Belgian Cafe more than makes up for it in atmosphere.  The bar area is way more wide open, the bar itself is larger, and it's not a crowded mess like Monk's usually is.  (I'm comparing them just because they are both owned by the same person for those that didn't know.)  The food is pretty similar between the two and I had a great Monk's burger last night.  Leeks and blue cheese are excellent on a burger.

The first beer I had was St. Bernardus 12.

The 12 is a Belgian Quad so it's a strong beer (around 10%.)  It pours a brownish, purple color with very minimal head and smells sweet with hints of fruit and caramel.  Like a lot of quads, it has great mouthfeel.  It's not syrupy, but is thick enough that it really feels good drinking it.  Sort of tastes minimally of plums and has a really sweet finish.  The alcohol is there, but I didn't notice it a terribly large amount.  Jo thought it tasted a bit boozy but she's more sensitive to it than me.

The next beer I had was from Brouwerij De Dochter van de Korenaar called Embrasse.

It's a Belgian Strong Dark Ale so sort of the opposite of the Russian River Damnation I posted a week or two back.  Pours a dark brown color also with minimal head.  This is also quite strong at 9% but unlike the St. Bernardus the alcohol is pretty well hidden.  This will sound odd, but it almost smelled "cold."  I'm honestly not sure how to describe what that means, but that's how Jo and I both felt.  Super useful, I know.  Overall though it reminded me a lot of grapes in both smell and taste.  I enjoyed this beer a lot but I really like Belgian Strong Dark Ales so it's pretty much to be expected.

Finally I finished with something quite a bit milder from Scotland.  It was Harviestoun's Old Engine Oil.

Unfortunately the picture sucks so it's impossible to tell, but it was a really nice looking pour.  About 2 centimeters of nice brown head that slowly fizzled down over about a minute.  The smell was pretty mild, but had a little bit of smokiness and roast to it.  The first sip was full of woody caramel flavors.  Lots of flavor to it through the first bit of it.  However, as I drank more, the mouth feel was really disappointing.  It was very thin so while it was pretty flavorful, it just got kind of boring to drink by the end.  Not a bad beer by any means, just sort of boring near the end.

I'd type more but I'm heading to Hulmeville Inn soon.  Expect some more posts Sunday!