Doppelbocks at Brauhaus Schmitz

Jo and I went to Brauhaus Schmitz this past Saturday for some great German food and beer. It's been a long time since we'd been there and the last time I was kind of drunk already so I was excited to check it out again. When we arrived, there were some free seats at the front bar. If you haven't been recently, they have opened up a new back area that looks nice and spacious. This allowed them to make more room at the front bar by removing some tables, too, so there's a lot more standing room now. The bartender seemed really happy about that as it made getting to the front part of the restaurant way easier and removed a big roadblock to the servers.

The first beer I ordered was a Spaten Optimator, a doppelbock.

Spaten Optimator

Spaten Optimator is a doppelbock from a famous brewery in Germany.

We stopped by this random German deli in DC and it had three Spaten beers on tap: Oktoberfest, Helles, and Optimator. Since I'm a sucker for doppelbocks, I knew I had to order the Optimator.

Inviting sweet caramel nose. Makes you want to dive right in. Thick body. Started with a caramel sweetness and ended with a caramel sweetness. With the thick body and the maltiness backing it, sort of reminded me of delicious loaf of bread soaked in caramel sauce. Yum. Really great aftertaste too. Just a great, well made doppelbock.

Voodoo at the Khyber Pass Pub

After a great couple of beers at Capone's for lunch, Jo and I took a few hours off to run some errands and prepared for dinner and beers at the Khyber Pass Pub. The event Saturday night was with the Voodoo Brewery with head brewer Matt Allyn and his assistant. Voodoo is a Pennsylvania brewery located all the way on the west side of state. It's a really small brewery with just Matt and his assistant as the employees and then a group of volunteers for when they need more people. They make a few really good beers that can be found in Philly although I don't know how far their distribution really gets. On Saturday, the Khyber also still had some taps from their Ballast Point event the night before, some Duck Rabbit stuff, and then a whole bunch of other awesome beers on their 20 taps. So it really wasn't just a Voodoo night as far as beers go which allowed for variety.

Great Lakes Doppelrock

I needed to wait for my wife on Sunday so I stepped into London Grill and got a glass of Great Lakes Doppelrock, surprisingly enough, a doppelbock.

Had a nice sweet caramel nose.  Not quite as sweet smelling as some doppelbocks, but close.  Initially, some bread notes, some caramel and some toffee.  Mostly caramel and toffee were apparent as I drank more of it.  Pretty tasty and glad I got to try it as I love doppelbocks.  Love them.  So much.

Rich Goes to Media

My wife had to do some work at her job in Chester, so being the loving husband that I am, I volunteered to come along and meet her for lunch.  Unfortunately for me, I had to find a way to kill two and a half hours before she was finished.  Poor me.  My sacrifice included a trip to Pinocchio's followed by a visit to the Iron Hill nearby.  Can you believe that I was willing to do this for her?  Crazy nice, I know.

The start of vacation beers!

Wednesday night, I opened a bottle of Founders Imperial Stout that was bottled in 2009.

Poured with no head but it still had a little carbonation.  Mild coffee smell.  First sip had some pleasant roasted notes with some coffee notes.  A little bitterness and some slight fruitiness are found, but they quickly disappear.  Nice thick mouthfeel on it.  Considering it's 10%, the alcohol is really well hidden.  Enjoyable Imperial Stout and another good one from Founders, a brewery out of Michigan.  Their more well known stouts are Breakfast Stout or Kentucky Breakfast Stout, but this one compares positively especially if you aren't looking for a mouth full of coffee.

Lucky 7 and the Phillies

Jo and I decided to catch the Wednesday Phillies game at Lucky 7.  Not Taco Tuesday, unfortunately, but you can't win 'em all.  Food was pretty good again and we really like the feel of the bar so it worked out.  It never got too crowded, but it was full which is pretty much perfect for watching a baseball game.

For my first beer, I got a draft of Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA.

Poured an orange color which is pretty normal for an IPA.  Nice floral, citrusy smell from all the hops.  The smell is one of the best parts of a good IPA.  First bit was hoppy but backed up nicely with a bit of sweetness.  Keeps it from being overbearingly bitter.  Good touch.  Decent body on it, a little bit of thickness.  Nothing crazy, but it makes drinking it more interesting.  On top of that, only a mildly bitter aftertaste to it.  I'm not a huge fan of IPAs in general, but maybe I'm getting more used to them.  This was quite good and another good offering from Dark Horse Brewing.

The last beer I had was Paulaner Salvator.

This is a Doppel Bock, the same style as Troegenator from Troegs.  The smell of this Salvator was super sweet and malty and smelled really inviting.  Tasted of caramel, toffee and malt.  Just incredibly smooth and sweet.  As expected, the after taste was sweet too.  Nice thick body on it.  Some of the sweetness and smoothness may be because this bottle was apparently from June '08.  (As long as the bottled on date of 06/08 means June '08 that is.)  I don't know how the bar has a 2+ year old bottle but hey it tasted amazing.  I've never had a beer with such a smooth, sweet flavor.

Good time at Lucky 7 even if the Phillies are kind of sucking right now.

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.

Troegs Troegenator

I picked up a growler of Troegs Troegenator from Troegs brewery on my crazy trip and had some of it yesterday.

It pours a dark brown with quite a bit of head.  It smells sweet and bready with no hop character at all.  Really smells delicious.  The first sip has a little bit of alcohol flavor to it but fades quickly into caramel and malt.  As I continued to drink it, the alcohol edge in front disappeared and the caramel flavor became the focal point.  Really good beer and I'd definitely order it again.  And just because, here's a picture of the Troegenator logo that was on a van parked outside the brewery.