Dock Street Abt 12

Jo and I were recently at Dock Street after a fun trip to the zoo with Paxton and the PhillyTapFinder family and I saw they were selling bottles of this. I'm a sucker for quads and so decided I needed to try it. At $12 it wasn't too expensive either. Also, I'm pretty sure this was a Scott Morrison beer and his belgian style ones were usually quite good so it seemed worth the risk. If you want to try anything by him, he's actually now at the Barren Hill Brewpub.

Nose was a mix of caramel, a little apple, and some sugary sweetness. Really nice and inviting. Body followed with lots of caramel, some plums, apple, and finished with a slight alcohol burn. Medium mouthfeel, not thick but not thin either. Quite delicious especially as the alcohol faded by the time I finished the glass. I haven't had a genuine Belgian quad in a while and so really enjoyed this. Definitely glad I bought it.

Dock Street Barrel Aged Prince Myshkin

Okay so I lied about not being lazy the other day. I probably should write a longer one since I have more time today but we'll manage to get over our disappointment, right? A week or two ago I drank one of my two bottles of Barrel Aged Prince Myshkin from Dock Street, a beer that's definitely getting a little long in the tooth at this point. It's from 2010 at least so it's no real surprise.

A mix of red wine, roast, and chocolate in the nose. Still as interesting as the last time I had it and pretty intriguing. Thick mouthfeel but a thin body. I know that sounds weird, but that's how it felt. Chocolate, roast, a little oxidation (sort of a cardboard flavor), and some apple fruitiness. As the flavors blended more, a molasses like flavor came out as well. Pretty flavorful still, but the age really is starting to show in the body structure and the added flavors from oxidation. Probably better off drinking my last bottle soon, though maybe I'll bring it to the upcoming bottle share instead. We'll see.

On a separate note, a bunch of really cool events are coming up. This Thursday is Cisco at Barcade with some great sours, Saturday is Founders at Kite & Key, Sunday is the PhillyTapFinder and PhillyBeerScene bottle share, and next Thursday is Goose Island at Prohibition. Busy busy busy!

A Very Merry Dock Street Christmas

I had a few bottles of various Dock Street bottles burning a hole in my basement so what better time to open a few than during Christmas? I planned on opening four different ones but never made it to the fourth bottle as I kind of forgot to put it into the refrigerator. Oh well, I just had to deal with only three, woe is me.

Since it was the newest one, I started with the Man Full of Funk Porter, their porter dosed with Brettanomyces and then aged in apple brandy barrels for like three years.

Fun at Dock Street

Just before Thanksgiving, Dock Street had their annual bottle release (I think it can be called annual since they have had it for a few years now). This year they had quite a few different styles for sale including a couple of old gems. Probably the last year for the Barrel Aged Barleywine and Barrel Aged Prince Myshkin though as they finally may have exhausted their cellar reserves. We'll see next year if that's true!

After ordering bottles for myself and a couple friends that put in orders, I got a glass of their newest batch of Barleywine.

Philly Beer Week Day 8: Jose Pistola's & A Beer Garden

We're almost to the end of Philly Beer Week! Just two more relatively full days and I'll be done and you can go back to reading shorter posts. On this Friday, Jo had the day off so we were going to have lunch at Jose Pistola's and I had planned to check out the With Love Beer Garden later on. We also ended up with an unscheduled stop at St. Stephen's Green for dinner which turned out great because they still had a bunch of great beers on tap.

As I said, the day started at my favorite lunch spot, Jose Pistola's. They were hosting a lunch for Hill Farmstead and how could I miss that? For those that don't know, Hill Farmstead is really well known for their hoppier stuff though Shaun Hill has a deft touch with mostly everything he brews as far as I can tell. I started with a glass of Florence, a saison.

A Beer Four All Seasons - Spring Version

It's Spring now and there has been a little more than three months since the last Beer Four All Seasons from Dock Street and the Four Seasons. What that means is it's time for the second one! The first, if you remember (which, well, you might not), was a Truffled Old Ale and was quite good which made me excited for the next one. The first we heard about the collaboration was a tweet of a picture of two chili peppers and that was some time in March I think. It turns out the newest one is called Caliente Golden Ale and it's a Belgian Strong Ale brewed with Agave Nectar which was then aged on two types of chile peppers (Guajillo and Ancho to be specific).

A Beer Four All Seasons

Yesterday, I was invited to a press tasting for the collaboration between Dock Street and the Four Seasons hotel. The overall series is named "A Beer Four All Seasons" as there will be four beers this year, one basically in each season. The gist is that the Four Seasons is providing the ingredients and various ideas and then Dock Street works with them to create something unique. For the first beer, they created a Truffled Old Ale, an old ale aged in Chardonnay barrels and then blended with black truffles. Sounds bizarre, yes, but it turned out to be tasty.

When I got the invite I honestly didn't know what to expect as I've never been to anything resembling a press event. I arrived at the hotel and walked back to the Swann Lounge where they were holding the event. I didn't recognize anyone at first, but then saw Bryan Kolesar and Lew Bryson so at least I knew a couple people. After a few minutes, they started opening some bottles for us to try.

Dock Street and Local 44

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Dock Street decided to have a bottle release party for their Prisoner of Hell. Included with that release were bottles of last years Prince Myshkin and their '09 Barleywine. I realize I already have one of each of those two but, well, a second means when I drink one I still have one. Brilliant right? I think so at least and that's what matters to me. Plus, I met up with some friends for dinner so it wasn't totally just about the bottles.

When I got there, they hadn't started pouring the flemish red yet so I ordered the Rye IPA.

Grapefruit nose, slight rye spice. Started with the same slight rye flavor, moved on to being slightly bitter, and finished slightly peppery. Nice, balanced rye IPA without being too over the top with anything. Good way to start the visit.

Fourth Anniversary at Dock Street

I'll admit, Jo and I don't get out to Dock Street particularly often, but the past few times we've been out there for their special events have been quite excellent. Their pizza is top notch and the atmosphere is pretty unique and friendly. The reason for this visit was their fourth anniversary and the release of a two and a half year old sour Flemish Red. I'm a sucker for sours so I knew we had to go.

IPA Block Party outside Hawthornes Cafe

This past Saturday, Hawthornes Cafe held their second annual IPA Block Party.  They claimed they had 24 different IPAs on draft and I had no reason to doubt them.  They were also supposed to have something special from Dark Horse, but unfortunately that never made it.  However, I was still able to try a bunch of different IPAs I've never had before and finally got to meet the owners of PhillyTapFinder so it was a pretty great day.

Absolutely Awesome Stout Tasting

Before attending the Troegs Splinter Black release, I was sent a message on BeerAdvocate asking if I'd be up for trading a bottle to a local in Philly.  I said if I got some extra bottles, we could work something out.  However, after seeing what he had to offer we both decided that instead of trading for more bottles to sit on our shelves, lonely and undrunk, it would be a lot more fun to get together and do a tasting where I'd bring a bottle of Splinter Black and he'd bring some stuff.  It may seem odd meeting up with a total stranger, but I'm an odd guy so it evens out.  We met up at The Belgian Cafe just before Christmas to ensure that neither of us was a crazy murderer and, after realizing we were both relatively normal (well, almost normal), decided to do the tasting some time in January.

We talked a bit more after Christmas and came up with the date of January 15th.  He invited a friend of his who also lived nearby and after a few more messages we decided to make it a stout tasting.  For this one, we were doing it at my apartment.  They arrived around 3:15 and, lo and behold, his friend Josh turned out to be one of the random guys we met on the way to the POPE during the Craft Beer Express.  I honestly couldn't believe the coincidence.  Just really random.  We quickly set out the six bottles on the table and couldn't wait to get started.

From left to right, we had: Olde Hickory The Event Horizon, Olde Hickory Hickory Stick Stout, Big Sky Ivan the Terrible, Surly Darkness (finally!), Troegs Splinter Black, and Dock Street Prince Myshkin.

Dock Street Tuesday

Before driving to Troegs on Wednesday, Jo and I went to Dock Street Brewpub Tuesday night.  Dock Street is located at 50th and Baltimore (basically) and serves pizza and some other food.  It's an interesting neighborhood place and their pizza is quite good.  We went (well, I went) because they were doing a release of their Russian Imperial Stout, Prince Myshkin, and also had a few bottles (40) of their 2009 Barleywine for sale with it.  The barleywine had been aged in Pinot Noir wine barrels for 10 months and then set down in their cellar for a year.  The Prince Myshkin was aged for 11 months in the same barrels which means it pulled flavors from the oak, some wine flavors and whatever the barleywine imparted.  It sounded too interesting not to take a short trip on the green line to head up there.

Pre-Concert Hulmeville

Before going to the Black Diamond Skye show, I met up with a buddy at Hulmeville Inn to kill some time.

I started with the Brew Dog Tokyo* as I've been wanting to try it since they put it on draft two weeks ago.

Pours an almost black color with a surprising amount of light brown head.  I was expecting zero head on this considering the strength, but as can be seen there was quite a bit of it.  Smells mostly of alcohol which isn't terribly surprising considering it's 18%.  I expected it to taste like jet fuel, but it ended up amazingly drinkable.  I would almost say it was dangerously drinkable if you aren't careful because it's so hard to tell its strength.  I thought it tasted like alcoholic chocolate.  I really enjoyed this and thought it was remarkable considering its strength.

After that, I tried a series of coffee beers which were both great in different ways.  The first was Brooklyn's Intensified Coffee Stout.

It poured a nice brown color with head up to the top of the glass that quickly dissipated.  Close to no smell on it which surprised me since I thought it would smell strongly of coffee.  Turns out, all of the coffee was in the taste.  For a stout, it had a thinner mouth feel, but it was very close to drinking a cup of black coffee.  Kind of crazy but delicious if you like coffee.  The end had a nice, mild sweetness as well which was very nice.

Following that was Dark Horse Perkulator.

It was a brown color with basically no head on it.  As it's a coffee doppelbock, the beer poured very similar to the Troegenator from the other day.  Surprisingly enough this also had very little smell.  Maybe some slight coffee notes, but basically the same as the Brooklyn.  The initial taste had a much more subdued level of coffee in it but the beer as a whole was bit more flavorful.  Notes of caramel and malts come through the coffee really nicely.  I liked this a little bit more than the Brooklyn as it felt like the beer was more balanced around the coffee which made for a better drinking experience.  I'd get both again, but I'd get the Perkulator first.

I finished up with the Dock Street Great Pumpkin just because it's fall and why not.  Plus Dock Street is in Philadelphia and it's always good to support a local brewery.

Poured a near orange with a little bit of head that created some nice lacing on the glass.  It smelled faintly of cinnamon but that was all of the spices that are usually found in pumpkin beers.  The first taste had a lot of the same.  Hops quickly took the fore and the beer, at least to me, became really bitter and disappointing.  Considering most pumpkins are either spicy or sweet, this is possibly a pumpkin for hop heads but it didn't feel like the cinnamon and bitterness blended very well.  Not a terribly great way to end the night but you can't win 'em all.