Pete Giovinco Socktoberfest

The other bottle Pete gave me was his Socktoberfest. While I didn't feel yesterday's beer suffered from the age, I'm thinking this one faded quite a bit since it was fresh way back when. Not sure when he brewed it either so it might even be a bit older than August.

Sweet caramel nose though a little milder than I expect it used to be. Caramel and apple started things off, which were nice, but then a little bit of oxidation and cardboard flavors came out. The latter flavors are almost definitely from the age of the bottle which is totally my fault. If it tasted only like the initial caramel flavor when it was fresh, then this was probably pretty decent then. As it is, it was totally fine and still enjoyable but not as good as his Holy Smoked Rye Lager.

Left Hand Oktoberfest

Things are getting back to normal at Kite & Key after last weeks Savage Sixtel Sunday leftovers. At this point, the only thing left was the keg of Nugget Nectar. So, yesterday, I tried a Left Hand Oktoberfest.

Malty biscuit nose, nice. Body followed with a caramel maltiness, breadiness, and a fruity finish. Some hops appeared near the end making it crisper and kept the sweetness from coming on too strong. I'm not much of an expert in oktoberfest beers as I don't drink them very often, but this one seemed pretty decent. It's sweet, but never too sweet as the hops keep it clean. Worth a try.

Sharing Beers

It's been a while but I finally met up with my friend Craig at his new house this past Wednesday and we availed ourselves of a few beers. When he lived up the street from me we were doing this a little more often but he lives in New Jersey now so I have to change states and who wants to do that? Okay fine, me, but still it's harder to get there but totally worth it.

We started with one we've talked about opening ever since we met the first time early last year, Big Sky Olde Bluehair, a bourbon barrel barleywine.

Great Divide Hoss

That's it for pumpkin week for now. I still have a few more but I needed a change of pace for a few days. To start, I opened a bottle of Great Divide Hoss.

Hoss is a lager brewed with some rye. Sweet bready nose, basically what you'd expect from a good lager. Very clean. Has a nice bready malt flavor with some slight rye spiciness in the finish. The maltiness was really pleasant and the rye added a nice second dimension to the lager. Really clean, well made lager and very enjoyable.

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.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp

London Grill had an event tonight where they showcased two of Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp beers plus an anniversary ale (Jack and Ken's), the pale ale, and the Tumbler autumn brown ale.

I talked to the Sierra Nevada rep about Beer Camp and it was pretty damn cool.  They invite bar owners and some other popular beer figures from around the US to their brewery and let them decide on a style of beer to brew.  I can't find how many have been done but since it started early 2009 and seems to occur every 2 months, my bet is there have been around 8.  Who knows though.  The point being that tonight at London Grill they were doing a Beer Camp vs. Beer Camp event.  For Philly beer week, Sierra Nevada invited Philadelphia area bar owners to Beer Camp and they came out of the event with ExPorter.  Apparently, the owner of London Grill really wanted to put almonds into the beer, but got out voted by everyone else in the camp.  Of course, the next camp group decided to put almonds into their beer and ended up with Almond Marzen Project.  The result of all of this is that Sierra Nevada felt bad and sent London Grill a keg of the Almond Marzen Project and as a result we have tonight's event.  It's actually pretty impressive of Sierra Nevada because they had to go through the whole pain of registering the beer for one single night and paying whatever costs that involves.  Stupid PA beer laws.