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.

Beers with Friends

My friends and I had been trying to get together for this bottle share for quite a few months, but one of them has a job that makes it a bit tough to schedule. However, he finally had a Monday off and so messaged us that it was time. As it happened I was walking home from Sabrina's, kind of drunk already, so of course I said totally! I was originally planning on not even drinking the Monday before Thanksgiving but oh well, sacrifices must be made right?

We started off with one of the better beers of the night, Goose Island Bourbon County Rare. This is a special version of Bourbon County, aged in barrels for two years instead of the eight months or so. It did sell for quite a bit more per bottle (about $40 vs $12 for two regular bourbon county).

The Bruery at Perch Pub

Last week, Perch Pub offered two special sixtels from The Bruery and was cool enough to sell them both as part of their happy hour half-price deal. They turned out to be so popular during that hour that they both kicked before they even had a chance to sell them for a regular price. Pretty impressive for two big sour beers. The first one I ordered was Tart of Darkness, a sour stout.

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.

Sours on Christmas Eve

Well, guess I decided to write about Christmas Eve instead of the Bell's event. Too lazy to get the pictures off my camera right now mostly. For Christmas Eve, I decided to do a sours theme because I wanted to see how the two Captain Lawrence beers were tasting and I needed to get the bottle of Duchesse de Bourgogne out of my beer fridge.

I started with the Cuvee De Castleton as the base for it is a blonde ale and I thought it would be the lightest flavored. It's aged with muscat grapes.

Musty nose with a bit of grape in it. Quite inviting. Super tart but no mustiness in the first sip with a bit of grapey sweetness. Pretty dry finish. Continued along those lines with a perfectly balanced tartness never becoming to dry or acetic. Really delicious.

Beerschooled - Sours Class

After the great intro to homebrewing class by Beerschooled, I knew I'd go to another as long as the topic was interesting to me.  I finally got my chance when they announced a sours tasting class.  The Hulmeville Inn was hosting a Cicerone exam proctored by certified Cicerone Nicole Erny and so Jeff (beerschooled Jeff, not Hulmeville Inn owner Jeff.  So many Jeffs) took advantage of that and asked her to teach a class on sours with a little bit on Belgium.  I arrived at the Hulmeville Inn a bit early so I got a glass of Rogue Shakespeare Stout, an oatmeal stout, to pass the time.

Another Sunday, Another trip to Capone's

Jo and I can't stop going to Capone's on Sundays.  Delicious, twenty five cent wings along with a great draft list keep dragging us back.  Their wings are great and at 25 cents they are an absolute steal.  We also got a Chicken Parm sandwich which was also delicious.  As usual their tap list was quite diverse although once again the list that I got in the email on Wednesday had things that had already kicked.  Kind of to be expected considering the quality of beer in the email but one of these days I'll get one.

I started with the Rodenbach Vintage 2007, a Flanders Red Ale.  I posted a while back about Rodenbach Vintage 2008.

Reading my old post, this seemed pretty similar to the 2008. Very sour smell, pretty close to a sweet vinegar.  As I've said before, it sounds bizarre but it's absolutely delicious.  This tastes of fruit (I get sour cherry but I'm sure it varies between people), some balsamic, and just general tartness.  Drinking more I got some apple flavor as well.  Really great beer and I was excited to get to try another vintage of it.  I love the Flemish Red style right now.

After that, I changed gears a little and got a glass of Allagash Odyssey, a Dark Wheat beer that's been aged half in stainless steel tanks and half in oak barrels and then blended together.

Let me first say that this beer just blew me away.  I thought it was fantastic.  The smell was interesting in that it was sort of floral and perfumy.  I got hints of wheat, some roasted notes from the dark malts, caramel, and bananas.  It had a nice body to it and was super smooth.  For what started as a Dunkel Weizen this ended up super complex and incredibly tasty.  As it warmed up, I also got some toffee and slight oak notes.  Just so good.

Finally, since I've heard a decent bit about it, I got a glass of Sierra Nevada's Celebration, an IPA.

I didn't actually realize it was an IPA when I ordered it, but it was pretty obvious when it came out.  Smelled very hoppy with some grapefruit.  It tasted a little sweet but was overall quite hoppy.  Surprisingly clean finish though.  It's quite popular on Beer Advocate and while it was good I'm not sure why.  IPAs aren't my thing though so maybe it's good for an IPA.  It was good and all but I just didn't find anything special about it.  Still, something to order if you want something relaxing and easy to drink.

Yet again a great visit to Capone's.  I love this place.  The bottle shop is so dangerous though and Jo encouraging me doesn't help.  I came out of it this time with three bottles.

I picked up Dark Horse Plead the 5th 2009, Stone's Russian Imperial Stout, and Avery Mephistopheles.  I can't wait to try them.

Lew Bryson and some other beers

On Sunday, on top of the absolutely awesome bourbon beers I drank, I got to meet beer writer Lew Bryson.  I'll probably miss a few things he writes, but here's a small list.  His normal blog, his noplcb (no pennsylvania liquor control board) blog, and some really interesting articles on some random website in Massachusetts.  Seriously, you should check out that site.  I easily spent 2 hours reading those articles one day.  On top of that he also spends time writing for a whisky magazine named Malt Advocate. However, the thing he's most well known for (or at least the reason I really know him) is his awesome book on Pennsylvania breweries.  It's thorough, well written, and super interesting.  Jo and I have the 3rd edition of the book and just picked up the 4th edition on Sunday.  I'm reading through it now and there is just so much useful information about breweries, brew pubs, bars, and attractions in Pennsylvania.  Probably the best part is how for every brewery and brewpub, he lists places to visit in the area plus other bars to visit.  The former is super useful for those of us that have wives that insist everything can't be about beer and the latter is useful when visiting a brewery that won't have any food.  Go ahead and pick up a copy at amazon.  Trust me, it's well written and there are some really interesting facts in it.  On a more personal note, Lew was really receptive to chatting with me on Sunday and it's always awesome if people are willing to listen to me.  Sure, it helped that he was there to sell his book so he couldn't go anywhere, but still.  Seriously, though, nice guy and you all should read his blog and buy his book.  That way he'll make another edition in a few years for me to buy.

On top of that I tried two other beers Sunday at Hulmeville.  The best of the two was Rodenbach Vintage '08.

Hulmeville served it in their sweet chalice and it poured with very little head.  Similar look to other Flemish Red Ales with some darker notes.  This variety is actually a 2008 vintage that the Rodenbach brewery aged themselves.  Since I haven't had it in a while (if ever) I can't do a comparison, but man, this was one smooth beer.  It had a sweet and sour nose on it with a mild apple juice backing.  Not as strong as some Flanders Red Ales but this is 2 years old already so I'm guessing the apple juicy smell and flavor mellows out over time.  The taste followed the smell with more sweet and sour notes, each taking a turn.  Super easy drinking and really good.  The cool thing is that aging beers is a big thing in Europe so you may find stuff like this around.  I know Capone's has the 2007 on draft right now although it's probably close to finished.

I finished up the night with something completely different in the form of Rock Art Pumpkin Imperial Spruce Stout.

To be honest, while I have some notes about this one, I can't believe it's a stout.  Jo claims Hulmeville's description mentioned this, but it didn't feel like one to me.  If anyone has ever had this, let me know.  Not much of a smell to it and surprisingly very little pumpkin taste.  The overwhelming flavor to it was spruce.  Yes, spruce, just like the tree.  It wasn't bad, mostly surprising.  Throughout the whole glass, spruce was the major flavor and it actually was more enjoyable than expected.  However, if you are looking for a pumpkin beer this is not where to start.  Neither Jo nor I got any pumpkin flavor from it at all

That's the end of the 10/10/10 Beer Geek BBQ at Hulmeville Inn.  Meeting and chatting with Lew Bryson was way more fun than I expected and the bourbon aged beers were just incredible.  Jeff does a great job with that place and I look forward to the next special event.

Saturday in Lee, Massachusetts

Spent the weekend in Lee, Massachusetts so that means a trip to Moe's! Moe's is a bar on Main Street in Lee and it's as good as any beer bar you can find. It has about 10 different rotating taps and the owner Josh brings in as many interesting beers as he can.  He had Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout last weekend for example. Any time I go to Lee I make a point of going there just because I usually find something good to drink there. On top of that, his bartenders are willing to talk to me about beer and know their stuff.  Plus who am I to say no to a trip to a beer bar? So if you're ever around exit 2 on the Mass Pike and want a beer, head into Lee and check out Moe's. If Josh is around, tell 'em Rich sent you.

Yesterday I got to have Sierra Nevada's Jack & Ken's again plus Gritty McDuff's Black Fly Stout. The Jack & Ken's was amazing again. (I talked about it here.)  That is such a great barleywine. After that I had a glass of Gritty McDuff's Black Fly Stout.

First, stouts on nitro are so freaking pretty.  The nitro tap and a proper pour is what gives that great foamy head.  This is a Dry Irish stout same as Guinness but way better.  It has way more flavor and it's just way more creamy.  This style is very easy drinking and this was no exception.  The Black Fly was just a little more bitter, but it was still really good.  Totally a nice way to cap off my visit to Moe's.

After that, Jo and I went back home where I decided to try two of the beers that my sister-in-law brought me from California.  One I asked for and one was a surprise.  The first was a Swedish beer named Oppigards Winter Ale.

It poured a brown color with a small amount of bubbly white head.  Had a mild fruit smell to it.  Not strong like a quad, just really mild and pleasant.  It tasted slightly spicy with a decent amount of sweetness.  I really didn't know what to expect from this but it was very good.  A really nice surprise since I didn't ask for this.

The beer I asked for was New Belgium's La Folie.

Unfortunately New Belgium isn't available in Philadelphia so this was a real treat for me.  La Folie is part of New Belgium's Lips of Faith series.  It's their Flanders Red Ale and they claim it's aged in barrels for 1 to 3 years.  It poured a dark brown color with zero head.  It's the sort of pour I'm learning to expect from this style of beer.  Great, super unique smells from this.  I smelled tart, sour notes with hints of vinegar but balanced with some nice lemony, citrus edges.  I was really psyched to try this out and my interest bore fruit with hints of caramel, slight vinegar and a nice tart end.  La Folie was really well balanced and I had no problems getting through the whole glass.  On top of that the bottle was super cool looking which is fun.

All in all a good weekend.  I got to go to Moe's and to try some more new stuff.  Plus I got this bunch of bottles (two of which I already drank) so I have a whole bunch of great stuff to try in the future.

From left to right it's: Deschutes Jubel 2010 (super psyched about this one, thanks Sean!), Russian River Temptation, Oppigards Winter Ale, Russian River Pliny the Elder (another fun surprise) and New Belgium La Folie.

Also note that I'm headed to Las Vegas tomorrow so there may not be any blogs this week until Friday or so.  We'll see though.

Two for Tuesday, Redux

I had to drop some beer off at a friend's house in South Philadelphia so Jo and I went to Devil's Den for dinner.  The food was good and the beer was better.

The first beer I had was a collaboration between Two Brothers and Urthel called Moaten.

You can see it's a dark reddish-brown color with a small amount of head.  Pretty much what you'd expect from a Flanders Red Ale.  The initial taste is similar to apple juice and that flavor really sticks with you throughout the entire beer.  I wasn't terribly impressed with this since there was nothing really separating it from other beers in the style.  It would make a good introduction to the style as it is really mild, but compared to other offerings such as the Ichtegem's I posted about it was just kind of boring.  Nothing bad, but nothing interesting either.

The second beer I had was Ballast Point Sculpin.

I'm not a huge fan of IPAs as I prefer darker, maltier beers, but I've read a lot about Sculpin on Beer Advocate and had to find out what all the fuss was about.  I put the glass in front of a candle for the picture so the color is odd, but it was what you'd expect from an IPA, light brown and very little head.  The smell was all grapefruit.  Probably a little overwhelming if you don't like grapefruit, but it's what you'd expect from a good IPA.  The initial taste follows the smell of grapefruit, but impressively enough the bitterness doesn't linger at all.  I've had some beers that go overboard with the bitterness and that's all that is left on your tongue, but this one was incredibly good.  If you like IPAs definitely search this one out.  I know it's available in bottles at some of the distributors around here but it may only be in the 22oz cases.  Still worth it if this is your type of style.

Sours, sours, sours!

I was out for a couple hours going to a bunch of beer distributors today and ended up across the street from Hawthornes, a bottle shop / bar in South Philly.  I wanted to get a draft of Victory's new Coffee Brown Ale but it wasn't available yet so instead I picked up two different sours from Belgium.

The first I drank was Ichtegem's Grand Cru.

The beer is a really beautiful reddish brown and is really inviting.  The style of it is a Flemish Red Ale according to the bottle.  I've had a couple Flemish Red ales (although Beer Advocate calls them Flanders Red Ale for whatever reason) and the ones I've had have been pretty similar to this.  One you might see a lot is Duchesse du Bourgogne, at least in Philly.  Ichtegem's was quite good.  It smelled sour, tart, and mildly like vinegar.  Sort of like a really mild balsamic I'd say.  It sounds odd, but man it's really good.  The taste was sour and then sweet with a really slight bitterness at the end.  Reminds me of cherries to a certain extent.  As I drank it, the sourness started to build which happens with a lot of those beers and really accentuates the flavor.

The second beer I got was Petrus Aged Pale.

I had this a couple weeks ago during Devil's Den's sourfest and really, really liked it.  I thought it was the best of the bunch that I tried that day.  It smells like sour apples basically.  Unlike the Ichtegem's, there's no hint of vinegar in it.  It's just sourness all the way down.  The initial taste is so good, so sour.  Just like the smell, the taste is reminiscent of sour apples and again with a slight bitterness at the end.  Unlike the red above, this beer is pure sour without any of the vinegar edge.  The one thing that's great about this one, though, is that a case is only $80 or so at Global Beer.  Really reasonable compared to other Belgians you see.