The Bruery Rye Whiskey Smoking Wood

Let's start with how it's always interesting trying to talk about the brewery named The Bruery. I get that it is partially based on the owner's name, Patrick Rue, but really all it does is cause a Laurel and Hardy Who's on First reaction. Maybe that's the point, I don't know, but it does get confusing at times. With that off my chest, Smoking Wood is a smoked imperial porter aged in Rye Whiskey barrels. I think there are some variants of this which is why the specific type of spirit barrel is named.

I split the bottle with a friend of mine and I'm pretty happy I did. Super smoky nose with some whiskey sweetness in the back. First sip was also ridiculously smoky, more campfire like than bacony. Some nice vanilla and light whiskey tones come out following the smoke but they never overcome it. The smoke is a bit overpowering actually. It was a tasty enough 12 ounces but I think it would have been a bit too much if I drank the whole 750. Honestly, you could say that about a lot of The Bruery beers, but that's because they probably expect you to share them. Considering the ABV, it makes sense to share them. In the end, if you like smoke, this is a good one to try though it's a bit pricey just so you all know.

Wrecking Bar Brewpub in Atlanta

I recently had to go to Atlanta for work and what does that mean? It means I find somewhere sweet to eat dinner the first night! After a little research on BeerAdvocate, I settled on the Wrecking Bar brewpub because I love brewpubs and it had quite a few positive reviews. Turns out it was also two blocks from my friend's apartment so that worked out real well.

After a long cab ride from the airport followed by a short walk, I arrived in the Little Five Points area of the city and the Wrecking Bar. Nice looking place, smallish bar with about fifteen seats. A decent number of tables too. Not a ton of people were there when I walked in around 6 but it was a Tuesday and it did fill up during the few hours I was there though. The first thing I did was order a flight which came with six of their nine or so beers.

Three Floyds Amon Amarth Ragnarok

I was sent this a while ago by a buddy who lives in Chicago. It's some sort of smoked porter with honey or something.

Mostly grapefruit in the nose although there was something else that neither Jo nor I could clearly identify. It was probably either roastiness or smoke, but the grapefruit was strong enough that it muddled everything else. Started hoppy followed by some slight dark fruit sweetness. Finished with roast and more grapefruit bitterness. Pretty complex with the dark fruit coming and going between the grapefruit, roast and hints of smoke. As I drank more, I felt like I noticed the smoke more but it could have been my mind thinking it should find smoke so it did. All in all, quite tasty and easy to drink. Thanks Matt!

Two by 8 Wired

Saturday night I decided to open two bottles my wife had picked up a little while ago when she was in Massachusetts. They were from a brewery named 8 Wired located in New Zealand.

The first I opened was their smoked porter, The Big Smoke.

A Small Bottle Share

I had some friends over this weekend and and they brought a couple of bottles over to share. We started with one of my bottles, a Captain Lawrence Smoke from the Oak. This one was an Imperial Smoked Porter that was aged in wine barrels.

Very smoky aroma with a slight hint of red wine. On my first sip, the major flavor was smoke. Not harsh, more pleasant campfire. The wine part of it though sort of came and went and was sort of interesting. Not bad, just interesting. The major issue is the barrel flavors and the smoke flavors didn't blend well. Luckily, they didn't clash either but without the blending the beer just doesn't come together. Also, even with the smoke not being overwhelming, I'm not sure how a big glass of it would have gone down. I have bottles of rum barrel and apple brandy barrel and hope their flavors blend a bit better and cause the smoke to relax some.

Jose Pistola's does Smoke!

Another great event at Jose Pistola's last Friday.  They had three smoked beers and three smoked food specials.  When I entered it smelled fantastic in there as they had just thrown some smoke chips on a stove downstairs and the whole place had a nice haze of smoke.  Really set the mood for the event.  The three smoked beers they had were: Aecht Schlenkerla Oak Smoke (I think it's their Eiche), Weyerbacher Fireside Ale, and Left Hand Fade To Black Vol. 2 (a smoked baltic porter).  Since it was a work lunch I obviously couldn't drink too much (stop laughing) but I did try two of them.  I swear I only got the second because the chili I ordered was so damn spicy I needed something to pair with it.  Adam warned me and then laughed at me when I kept saying how spicy it was but man.

Day of Three Floyds

Three Floyds is a brewery located in Indiana.  Their distribution area is very small, mainly only available in three or so states around Indiana.  Apparently they used to be available in Philadelphia but it stretched them too thin so they pulled out of the state a few years ago.  Right now you're probably asking yourself why the heck is Rich talking about a random brewery whose beer I can't even buy?  Well, shut up, that's why.  I'll get to the point when I'm good and ready.

Recently I visited DeCicco's in Ardsley, NY to buy myself a Captain Lawrence gift pack (see cellar sidebar for beers in it) and decided since it seemed to be popular that I'd find someone interested in trading some Three Floyds stuff for one.  After getting my wife's permission (stop looking at me like that), I posted on BeerAdvocate about it and ten minutes later I had everything set up.  I was primarily interested in Dark Lord, a Russian Imperial Stout only available one day a year from the brewery, and so I left it up to my contact, Adam, to provide me with that plus a few other bottles from Three Floyds that he'd pick out.  I ended up with Dark Lord, Moloko, an oatmeal milk stout, Black Sun, an Irish Dry Stout, Dreadnaught, a double IPA, and a bottle of the guy's homebrew Smoked Porter.  So this past Saturday I got together with two friends of mine, Greg and Kevin, to try them all and finally see why everyone loves Three Floyds so much.