Beers at Sabrina's

Just before Thanksgiving, some friends of mine decided that their cellars were getting too large. To try and start to fix the issue, they asked on twitter if people wanted to go to a BYOB and share some beers and have dinner. I had nothing to do that night and Jo didn't care about eating dinner alone so I figured why not. After some back and forth, we decided on Sabrina's in Fairmount as I figured it wouldn't be too busy as it's mostly a brunch place and it's informal enough that they wouldn't mind us sitting around drinking forever.

After ordering some food and settling in we decided to start with Deschutes The Dissident, the one sour Matt brought along.

Three Floyds Dreadnaught

Three Floyds isn't available in Philly as it doesn't get distributed here, but last weekend I was able to get a glass of their Dreadnaught, a double IPA, at a local establishment. Now, they were doing their best to keep it on the down low so I won't name the place but, well, it's not hard to figure it out if you really want to. I'll admit the draft was definitely a bit expensive but it's not available around here so I was willing to pay for one glass.

Great grapefruit nose with some light bitterness. The first sip followed with sweet grapefruit up front then some bitterness. I was happily surprised that the finish was quite dry despite the sweetness. I can see why people go out of their way for this one in its normal markets. Quite a good double IPA.

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!

Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow

Last Friday, I opened up the bottle of Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow that my buddy Matt got me. It's a double IPA made with lactose sugar.

Sweet citrusy nose. First sip was impressive. Orange juice, caramel, a little milkiness. Not too bitter which made it very easy to drink as well. Very interesting beer. Since the hops were coming through very citrusy without any bitterness, it resulted in a pretty unique flavor. As I drank more of it, I could find the lactose in it, but maybe that was because it said so on the description. I'm really glad Matt was able to get me this as it was pretty great and definitely unique.

Bed & Brews at the Inn at Cooperstown - Friday night

My wife and I recently traveled up to Cooperstown, NY to participate in the Bed & Brews weekend at The Inn at Cooperstown.  Besides the two awesome nights which I'll describe in detail later, you also get as part of the package:

• One rare commemorative Ommegang Abbey Ale jeroboam (3L bottle), signed by the Brew master - Limit 1 per reservation
• One Ommegang Abbey Ale Chalis per person
• One Brewery Ommegang sweatshirt or two t-shirts

The jeroboam is a giant 3L bottle of Abbey and the glasses are very nice chalices with an Ommegang logo and a nice gold rim.  On top of that, Friday night is a tasting where all the guests at the Inn share their favorite beers (or homebrew or whatever).  Saturday night is a private tour of Ommegang by one of their brewers plus a very delicious dinner with beer pairings at their new Cafe.  All in all an excellent package.  Check out some pictures on their website under the "Packages" tab.

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.