Spring House Planet Bean

I was very excited when I got to the Kite & Key this week and saw the Spring House Planet Bean available. I've had it once before and thought it was a fantastic coffee stout so I was happy to be able to try it again.

Really delicious. Tons of coffee in the nose, not bitter, but pretty close to black and very inviting. Body followed with a little roast and a ton more black coffee with a medium mouthfeel. Very clean flavors and no real bitterness follow with a very strong coffee element. I liked this one quite a bit and it's really one of the best coffee stouts out there in my opinion.

Visit to Taproom Spring House

My wife and I finally had a free weekend and managed to combine it with a visit to the Spring House Brewing Company Taproom and the new Troegs brewery. I'm going to start with the Spring House taproom and make a post about the Troegs brewery in a few days. We've been trying to get out to Lancaster to visit Spring House for going on three months probably. I think we must have planned at least 2 or 3 other visits and had to cancel them all for one reason or another so lets just say I was excited.

I first learned about Spring House a few years ago, probably in August of 2009 or so, when I bought a case of their Kerplunk Chocolate Stout. Previous to this past Saturday, I had managed one visit out to the brewery which is actually a barn next to the brewer's (Matt Keasey) house but it must have been over two years ago at this point since I didn't write about it. I imagine if I had started the blog I would have written something. That visit was quite cool just because the brewery was so rustic. I mean it was in a barn, how much more rustic could it get? However Matt finally realized he needed to do something about the large number of people that were visiting the barn and parking on his tiny street and so he opened the Taproom to alleviate the crowds. I'm glad he did since it was quite impressive and well put together.

Spring House Kerplunk '09

In preparation for our trip to the Spring House Taproom, Jo suggested I open one of my bottles of their Kerplunk Chocolate Imperial Stout in order to compare it to a fresh sample. Figuring I'd get to drink a delicious beer even if for some reason it turned out not to be on tap anymore, I opened my second to last bottle.

Some chocolate in the nose with a bit of dark fruit or something. Thinner body than I remember, probably a result of sitting for two and a half years. It was still quite tasty though I think it may be past its prime a bit. Nice clean chocolate flavors, a few hints of oxidation in the middle, and then a decent chocolate finish. There wasn't much roast or coffee in this stout, but lots of nice chocolate flavor made for an enjoyable beer. At this point, I have one bottle left and based on this one I should probably drink it soon as it's definitely not getting better anymore but we'll see how well I follow that plan.

Capone's!

To prepare our livers for our six brewery tour over New Years, Jo and I decided to head to Capone's for some lunch and drinks.  We haven't been there in a while and missed their delicious wings.  I also got a tasty cheese steak hoagie.

Once again, I started with a sampler of four great beers.