Green Man Schadenfreude

Jo and I took a trip through Asheville last year on our way to Atlanta. It was right before New Years and we thought if we were heading all the way down there, why not make a bit of trip out of it. As a result, I was able to check out a couple beer stores and I bought this Green Man Schadenfreude at one of them. It was actually only made possible because I started talking to one of the employees and he was like, "Buy this, it's good and you'll like." So I grabbed it because why not. I always like trying new berliners especially since I can split them with Jo unlike stouts and barleywines.

Bretty, earthy nose. Very inviting and very promising. Basically a bit funky with a few other things going on. Body, though, was a lot of lemony lactic acid and pretty tart up front with none of those flavors. Luckily, some of the notes promised by the nose came through in the finish cleaning up some of that lemony sourness and balancing things. Just quite delicious and Jo enjoyed it a lot too. Made me wish I had bought another bottle actually. Not sure what else Green Man makes, but seems like their sours are worth a try at least.

Bear Republic Tartare at Kite & Key

This past Sunday was the first Savage Sixtel Sunday at Kite & Key since Beer Week in June, but I was still a bit drunk from the Smoke 'Em beer fest at Yards so I didn't make it. However, everything was still pouring yesterday when I stopped in for my normal Monday visit! Huzzah! Specifically, I couldn't wait to try the Bear Republic Tartare, a berliner weiss I've heard a lot of great things about.

Fantastic nose. Definitely a wheat base but a delicious base, lemony and tart. At first, decently sour with a lot of lemon acidity. However, I got used to the sourness pretty quickly and it developed in complexity with the lemon, the wheat, and the tartness blending incredibly well. This totally lived up to my expectations and it is definitely a top two or three berliner weiss. Just awesome.

I also got to meet a guy who works at Akkurat in Sweden. Lots of really interesting information about how they serve beer, importing US craft stuff, and prices. We can complain about beer prices all we want, but man stuff is expensive in Sweden.

Tired Hands Visit

Took a visit to Tired Hands after work last week to try out some of their new beers. The nice thing about them going through a ridiculous amount of beer is that they'll always have something new for me to try! I had read about the sour wheat beer, Brothers, they had on draft and knew that would be the first I'd order.

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.

Nodding Head's Spring Fling

It's the middle of the month which means it's time for Nodding Head's Second Saturday event! This month's theme was Spring Fling though I'm not really sure how it relate to the the beers. But, whatever. Since I can't drink the theme, it's the beers that matter and there were a few gems this time.

Bell's Oarsman

I've had this bottle for a while now and haven't found time to open it until now. Bell's Oarsman is a berliner weiss style beer and is a regular seasonal from Bell's.

Sort of a sour wheat nose which totally smells better than it sounds honestly. Slightly tart, hint of wheaty earthiness. The finish has a slight bitterness which fades quickly. Really, slight is the name of the game here. Everything is balanced and it's super easy drinking. It comes out some time in the summer, I think, which would make sense because on a hot summer day this would be awesome. Really enjoyed this.

Nodding Head

Jo and I hadn't been to Nodding Heading in a long time so we decided last night was a good night to change that.  Nodding Head is a brewpub in Philadelphia between 15th and16th on Sansom St.  Someone from my home town is actually a brewer there now so I'm trying to convince my friend to visit so she can introduce me.

It's sort of hard to find as it's upstairs from a different restaurant and the door is really nondescript.  (So nondescript they just have a piece of paper with their name on it tacked to the door.)  There's two decent signs, but if you aren't looking for it you'll probably walk by it.

Still, it's one of my favorite places in the city because the bar is pretty large, the food is really good (since it's owned by the same people the menu is similar to Monk's and Belgian Cafe, just a little smaller), and their beer is excellent.  In fact, I thought the beer last night was the best their beer has been since I've been going (8 years at this point, on and off maybe?)

Friday Night Beers, Redux

I had two beers tonight.  One really really good one and one, well, wasn't so good.

The first beer was Dogfish Head's Festina Peche.

Dogfish Head bills this beer as a Neo-Berliner Weiss and while I don't know what the Neo part really adds, this is definitely a Berliner Weiss.  You can see it poured an orange - yellow color with very minimal head.  It smells of mild apple juice and other sour flavors.  The smell is very similar to the Flanders Red Ales I've been writing about.  The first taste follows the smell of apple juice but is quickly overtaken by the sour notes of the beer.  The taste continues to be mildly sour but has a very clean aftertaste.  The sour doesn't overwhelm your palate or make you pucker or anything, but it's very much the point of the beer.  As for the peach notes that are supposedly in it, I didn't really notice them very much.  It may be that the peach flavor is just so mild you don't notice it, but who knows.  All in all, though, this beer was really excellent.  I've been wanting to try it for a long time because of the style and I'm glad I finally got a chance.  While it is a bit sour, I feel like I could drink quite a few of these in one night without much of a problem.

However, the second beer I had last night wasn't quite so exciting as the Dogfish Head.  It was Ithaca's Apricot Wheat.

It poured a dark orange color with minimal head as well.  (Yes I'm too lazy to use a different style of glass for this even though I'm probably supposed to.)  The smell is all apricots, all the time.  Just totally fills your nose with it.  Following the smell, the taste is also completely of apricot flavor.  I say flavor because it tastes more like apricot syrup than actual apricots.  That leads to my biggest problem with the beer.  It basically tastes like a wheat beer that had a ton of apricot extract dumped into it.  It was thick, cloying, and way, way overly sweet.  While it did mellow out a little as it warmed up, this is definitely not something I'd suggest ordering at a bar.  Yes, some of my friends now have 3 bottles of it, but, well, at least it's only 3 bottles.  It's not undrinkable and maybe some people would like it, but I did not enjoy it very much.