Epic Brewing Brainless on Cherries

I haven't had much from Epic Brewing at this point. I'm not even sure they distribute to Philly actually. I picked this up after having Brainless on Peaches thinking I'd like it more since cherries work really well in most beers, but I was unfortunately wrong. Either my tastes have changed since February (not terribly likely) or this one isn't anywhere near as good as the Peach version which was really only above average.

Sort of an odd nose for a tripel, now that I think about it. I wrote that it smelled of wheat and spice with a little bit of clove. The odd part is the wheat notes but maybe I'm just crazy and smell wheat in everything. Who knows. Kind of a blah body, unfortunately. Lightly spicy but very sweet with only a hint of cherry. Got a little better as I drank more and the cherry became stronger but the base tripel just didn't do it for me. Compared to the peach version, I think the fruit just didn't cover up the inadequacy of the base tripel. Oh well.

Philly Beer Week Day 9: Nodding Head & Hawthornes

Finally, the last day of Philly Beer Week. Well, my last day at least. Others went out Sunday too. I was really excited for this Saturday from the beginning of beer week as the Dark Horse event at Hawthornes last year was one of my favorites. Adding the Nodding Head Second Saturday event on top of it just increased my excitement.

Starting off the day was the Second Saturday event at Nodding Head. This event was named Weird, Wacky, and Wonderful and consisted of a couple sours and couple variations of Crosby Tears. I started with a glass of Phreddie, a sour tripel.

Philly Beer Week Day 3: Eulogy, Capone's, and Monk's

Our Sunday was looking to be a pretty busy day as we had three different events we wanted to hit. Well, I wanted to hit. Luckily for me, Jo offered to drive me around from spot to spot. I'm really lucky. We started out with our new tradition of Eulogy's Coffee Beer Brunch. This event is pretty self-explanatory, as it's a brunch with a number of coffee beers on draft. Here are my thoughts from last year's event.

When we arrived, we happened to get a parking spot across the street and then found two seats at the bar. Really convenient. The brunch menu was a little small this year having only two dishes, but the chicken fried steak was pretty tasty so that sort of made up for it. Hopefully next year they have a couple more things available though. We ordered a Ballast Point Victory@Sea, a vanilla coffee porter, first.

Epic Brewing Brainless on Peaches

The other beer I opened Saturday night was Epic Brewing Company Brainless on Peaches, a tripel aged on peaches or brewed with peaches. Something with peaches at least. I'm actually not sure. Here's the website entry actually so yeah it was aged in oak on peaches and I've successfully argued with myself in the first paragraph.

Mostly smelled slightly peppery with a hint of the peaches. Taste basically followed with the spicy notes from the base tripel being the major point but with a bit more noticeable fruitiness. I will say that the base tripel didn't feel as dry as I like them but because of the fruit sweetness, I didn't actually mind it in this. I have a version aged on cherries which I look forward to trying. Curious if the tartness from the cherries will make it feel drier and come through a bit more than the peaches did. We'll see I guess.

River Horse Tripel Horse

Another of the beers left behind by my forgetful friends was River Horse Tripel Horse.

Hints of banana and clove with a decent amount of sweetness in the nose. Some alcohol too. Starts really sugary with clove and more hints of bananas. Mostly continues that way though the sweetness becomes a little much after about half the glass. Decent enough but it wasn't as good as the Heavy Seas Yule Tide from the other day.

Heavy Seas Yule Tide

One of the random side effects of the beer tasting I held a little while ago was that a bunch of beers were left in my refrigerator. I wanted people to take them home with them but they forgot. Oh well. Guess I'll just have to drink them. The sacrifices I make in life.

The Heavy Seas Yule Tide, a Tripel, was one of them.

Quite a sweet nose with hints of clove and some slight pepper notes. First sip was quite fruity, lots of apple flavor. Some peppery bitterness appeared as I drank more but the major point was the fruity sweetness. I think I like my tripels to be dryer as the sweetness in this one was a bit too much for such a big bottle.

Bell's Sparkling Ale

I missed my first visit to Kite & Key in a while last week but I totally had a good excuse in that it was the Dock Street bottle release party plus Thanksgiving. So yeah. Lets put that behind us and move on to the newest streak. This time, I ordered a Bell's Sparkling Ale, a tripel.

As far as I can tell, Sparkling Ale is a new offering from Bell's that made it to Philly relatively recently. I could be wrong, obviously, but I don't remember seeing it around before now. Slight Belgian nose, hints of clove and banana. Quite tasty. Started with a raisin flavor, cloves, a tiny hit of bitterness, and a dryish Belgiany finish. Continued along those lines with the raisin and clove being the major players but the dryness kept it from ever being too sweet. Really enjoyed this one and another good entry from Bell's.

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.

Lunch at Jose Pistola's

I haven't been back to Jose Pistola's since Philly Beer Week so I decided to head there for lunch last Friday. It had just been too long since I had a beer and a giant burrito there. I started with a glass of Allagash Victoria, a tripel aged with grapes, something I've been wanting to try for a long time now.

Tripel like aroma, slightly belgian, nice dryness. Very tasty first sip. Slightly tart, hint of grapes, very clean finish. As I drank more, the tartness never grew and was quite delicious. Never a hint of the alcohol either considering it's 9%. This was one tasty beer.

End of a Crazy Weekend

Capped off what was a pretty crazy weekend by going to Capone's with my wife.  I wanted to have her check it out and also pick up a bottle I had reserved.  Turns out Sunday is a decent day to go since it's 25 cent wings nearly all day.  Wings, sports and beer make a fun Sunday.

There were way more things on draft than I could possibly drink in one sitting so I decided to start with a sampler.

Clockwise, starting with the light one in the front, I got: Jolly Pumpkin Weizen Bam, Rogue Double Chocolate Stout, Dark Horse Plead the 5th, and Allagash Curieux.  The Weizen Bam is a Farmhouse Ale, the Double Chocolate and Plead the 5th are both Imperial Stouts (although taste very different) and the Curieux was a Tripel aged in bourbon barrels.  All of them were really different from each other which was really cool.

The Allagash Curieux smelled of coconut oil and that was about it.  The taste was very unusual.  Some coconut, some general sweetness, and some alcohol.  I was pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted.  The Jolly Pumpkin Weizen Bam had a fruity, sour smell to it that sort of reminded me of sour wheat.  Jo thought it was a bit perfumy and floral.  This was a really, really different beer that I thought worked really well.  Jolly Pumpkin is known for their wild ales and after having this one I definitely will search them out again.

Switching gears, I started in on the Rogue Double Chocolate Stout.  This beer wasn't kidding around with the chocolate.  Huge, huge chocolate smell.  Initial taste on this was again chocolate which then slowly blended into some nice nuttiness and roasted flavors.  Good stuff but since it's Rogue it's probably terribly expensive in bottles.  Ah well.  Finally, the Dark Horse Plead the 5th.  This is a Russian Imperial Stout that is not fooling around at 12%.  Smells a little of coffee from the roasted malts.  Initial impression is that it had an excellent mouth feel and not too boozy for the strength.  The thickness is just about right and it totally coats your mouth and leaves you wanting more.  Has an almost nutty, smoky flavor to it.  I thought this was really great and would have gotten a full glass if it had been a Saturday.

Instead I finished up my meal with a Founders Breakfast Stout.

Founders just started shipping out Breakfast Stout so I was excited to get it on draft already.  Really strong coffee smell as it's an Imperial Espresso Stout.  Jo thought the Plead the 5th smelled stronger of coffee than this one but I think she's crazy.  First sip is basically coffee but after a few more the coffee takes a back seat to the stout part.  I really, really like this beer.  It's just so drinkable and just delicious.  It's a seasonal, though, so get it while you can!

Lunch at Jose Pistolas

Grabbed lunch at Jose Pistola's which is becoming one of my favorite lunch places in the city right now.  Their draft list is always different and interesting and their food, mostly Mexican so burritos, nachos, tacos, is really good. On multiple visits, I've had a couple different types of burritos, a sandwich, and my wife has had the nachos and they have been tasty every time.  Honestly though the real reason I like going there is that during the day the bartender, Adam, is also the guy who orders their beer.  He's always been willing to talk to me about different styles, offer suggestions of things to try, and really just listen to me blather on about beer.  If I can find someone that is willing to listen to me talk, then I'm going to be happy.

Today I had two different beers.  The first beer I had was the Dark Horse Tripel.

As you can see, the color of it was honestly quite odd.  It basically looked like Apple Cider.  The taste, however, was pure tripel and really good.  The flavor had hints of banana and spices, basically what you'd expect from a tripel.  At 9%, it's pretty damn strong too.

The last beer I had was the Left Hand Imperial Stout.

This beer was really freaking amazing.  It was probably one of the best Imperial Stouts I've had in a long time.  At 10%, it was ridiculously, some would say dangerously, smooth and drinkable.  There was absolutely no hint of the strength in the beer.  It was just a smooth, creamy, chocolaty stout and I'm really glad I took Adam's suggestion and had it.  Left Hand makes really good beers so it's not that surprising but I'll definitely be on the look out to try this one again.

On Sunday I'm going back to Jose Pistola's for their 3 year anniversary party.  They are supposed to have a 4 year old barleywine plus Russian River's Supplication and possibly some other cool stuff.  I'll arrive around 1:30, 2 and stay for at least a couple hours.  Look for me at the front bar if you come by.  The address for those too lazy to use google is 263 South 15th Street.  It's between Locust and Spruce, closer to Spruce.