Yards Trubbel De Yards

It's been a while since my last post and it'll be a bit after this one too since I'm heading to San Francisco soon. Oh well, it happens right? It's been a couple weeks since I had this Trubbel de Yards at Kite & Key, but no matter. It's sort of a mix of tripel and dubbel according to Yards.

Certainly looks more like a dubbel than a tripel. Taste went that way too. Lots of caramel with a little chocolate in the nose. Pretty nice. Medium body, not thin but not thick either. Flavor was a mix of caramel and banana bread with a little cocoa in the finish. Quite delicious, glad I got to try it. I thought they were planning on releasing this in 750mL bottles, but we'll see if that plan comes to fruition or not.

Yards 4th Annual Smoke 'Em

Last Sunday, Yards held their 4th Annual Smoke 'Em if Yous Got 'Em event. This is a celebration of all things smoked with amateur bbq and quite a few smoked beers. In a change from last year, though, Yards included other styles of beer and reduced the number of smoked ones to around 8-10 from a little over 20. It seems that people thought they were getting smoked out in year 3 and told Yards so in their feedback. Honestly, while I love smoked beers and had no problem drinking a ton last year, it does make more sense to balance the bbq food with non-smoked beers as the similarities in both can make everything taste the same instead of making flavors stand out.

This year the weather was absolutely beautiful and the tents were all set up when I arrived a few minutes before opening.

Yards Cape of Good Hope

This year's Cape of Good Hope has been out for a little over a month now and boy is it delicious. Last year, I stopped by the brewery for a growler and finished it all in one day, but this year I instead went the bottle route. Glad I did as I quite liked this Double IPA.

Pleasant tropical fruit nose, very clean and no bitterness to be found. Decent body, not too thick but not thin either. Things started off with more sweet tropical fruit, followed by some caramel in the middle, and then finished up slightly bitter. Never got too bitter because of the sweetness and the tropical fruit lasted throughout the whole glass. Just really tasty and I'm already looking forward to next year's version! Also, after reading last year's write-up, guess I liked this year's more. Could be my palate, could be a different recipe. Who knows.

Philly Beer Week Day 4: Goose Island

After our pretty crazy Sunday, it was refreshing to only have one event on Monday. This time we planned to head to City Tap House to check out some beers from Goose Island brewery. Goose Island entered Philly rather recently and, at least in beer nerd circles, is well know for a ridiculously great stout named Bourbon County Brand stout, a bourbon barrel stout that clocks in at 14.5%. I knew they were serving it at this event which is partly why I chose to go to that one instead of others.

When I arrived at 5 for the 6pm event, the place was actually still pretty empty. What a nice change of pace from the Monk's event. I got a seat at the bar ordered a glass of the Yards Bourbon Porter to pass the time until the Goose Island stuff was available.

Philly Beer Week Day 2: Kite & Key

Originally for day 2 of Philly Beer Week we were going to go down to South Philly for the saison event at Tapestry, but we decided instead to just hang in our neighborhood for the evening. So around 5pm we wandered over to Kite & Key, missing the Gladiator games part of the event but in time for great beers. The real event looked like a lot of fun but maybe next year. The beers being poured were a combo of Allagash, Dogfish Head, and Yards and at least all of their beers were still pouring when we arrived.

I started with a glass of the Yards Bourbon Bart, the bourbon barrel aged version of their Olde Bartholomew.

Yards 2009 Olde Bartholomew

I haven't been as great about getting to Kite & Key every week and then even writing about it when I do visit. But, oh well. A few weeks ago I went and was able to get a glass of Yards 2009 Olde Bartholomew which was left over from an event held there a few days earlier.

Sorry about the picture, still getting dark early. Sweet plum and caramel nose. Started with some plum, some caramel, and dark fruit and finished with some slight bitterness from the hops. Even after two years, I still got some alcohol notes but not a lot. I liked it decently enough though the two years on it may have helped with that. I have some fresh bottles so we'll see whether this year's is as good as the 2009.

Smoke 'Em If Yous Got 'Em

Last Friday, Yards held their third annual smoked beerfest named Smoke 'Em If Yous Got 'Em. Yards gathered around 20 different smoked beers of all different types plus a ton of different smoked food made by professionals and novices. Let me just say it was fantastic

This was my approach to the Yards building with the tents in front of me housing the novice bbq people. The only unfortunate thing was that it just started raining as I made my way to the building. However, Yards thought of everything and put all the beer pouring stations inside of their brewery so we wouldn't get wet. Hurray for Yards!

Yards Cape of Good Hope at Kite & Key

Now, I realize I recently wrote about Yards Cape of Good Hope after drinking an entire growler of it, but when I finally took notes, well, lets just say I was slightly inebriated. Slightly. So, since it was on draft at Kite & Key, I figured I'd get another taste of it to get some more useful comments.

It's definitely pretty. Nice deep, murky orange color. Nice citrusy nose, very clean. No bitterness to be found. Starts with grapefruit, followed by a nice maltiness, and finishing slightly bitter. Just a really well-balanced double IPA, no hint of the 8% ABV and quite tasty. So my notes weren't too off and this is mostly just a repeat. Oh well, you'll all live.

On a side note, I just realized I've been doing this for almost a year. Not sure if I'll drink something fun on the 1 year anniversary, but we'll see.

Yards Cape of Good Hope

I've been awaiting the release of Yards new double IPA, Cape of Good Hope, ever since it got announced a couple months just because it sounded like it would be interesting. When Yards tweeted that it was available at the brewery, I decided I'd go grab a growler of it and see what the fuss was about.

First, let me say when drinking an entire growler by yourself, take notes on the first glass and not the third. Mild grapefruit nose with a little bit of pine.  Starts slightly citrusy and slightly bitter with a slight malty finish. Very balanced with all of the slight flavors adding up to being quite tasty. Some slight (yep, again) lingering bitterness. It wasn't spectacular or anything, but I enjoyed it and really want to try it again out of the bottle just out of curiosity.

Visit to Yards on July 3rd

My wife's family and I were relaxing at a bar and her little sister asked if there were any breweries located in the city. We happened to have been drinking Yards at the time so I had a pretty easy answer. Lucky for us, their brewery and pub were open on Sunday July 3rd so I cleaned my growler and we went on our way. We got there around one and, funny enough, their head brewer Steve Mashington and owner Tom Kehoe were chilling at the bar, drinking beers. Always nice to see brewery personnel enjoying their own beers.

We started with two flights: one of their regular lineup and one of their Ales of the Revolution series. All of them were quite decent and drank really easily, a trademark of Yards in my opinion. I especially enjoyed the Brawler and IPA, with the former being one of my wife's favorite beers.

Prohibition Taproom

Jo and I picked the Prohibition Taproom to visit before our chocolate tour of Philadelphia.  We were looking for somewhere new and this was close to Reading Terminal so we decided to check it out.  It's at 501 N. 13th Street, just south of Spring Garden.  Nondescript outside with a sign that said bar or something.  Neither of us can remember.  Inside, there were only a few tables and a pretty neat looking bar.  It was made of solid wood and had some islands that jutted out from it into the middle of the room.  Interesting set up that we've never seen before.  Might be hell for the wait staff, but our bartender said she didn't much mind it.  Our food was actually quite good and their draft selection was pretty varied.

I started with Avery Old Jubilation, a winter warmer.

It smelled a little roasty with some sweet malt.  I got hints of some caramel, a few more roast notes, and some other sweet flavors.  Interesting and quite good.  I'm really looking forward to trying Avery's Mephistopheles after having this.  I haven't had enough from them considering the quality of this one.

After that I had a glass of Yards Hoppy Lil' Hudson, an IPA.  (Yards brews this in collaboration with the Prohibition Taproom.)

Decent hop smell once again reminding me of grapefruits.  Almost an inch of head, but this came off cask which is why it looks so creamy.  Very smooth mouth feel also possibly a result of being on cask.  Some bitterness in it but there was none in the after taste.  Pretty pleasant to drink.  Very smooth flavor, very smooth finish.  Felt like drinking creamy hops which is pretty different than a lot of IPAs.  Once again I enjoyed an IPA quite a bit.

After that we went on to do our Chocolate Tour which was pretty fun.  A couple hours later we ended up at Tria and I got a glass of Port Older Viscosity, an imperial stout.  I talked about it during the Hulmeville Beer Geek BBQ event.

Similar thoughts to last time except I thought this glass had a bit more bourbon flavor in it.  Some wood flavors as well but not a ton of sweetness.  Second sip had a lot of chocolate notes.  As I drank more, the chocolate, wood and bourbon flavors blended reasonably well together.  Strong beer, but one glass is a good choice if you savor it.

Victory and Yards

Jo and I were going to head out to Lancaster brewing and Spring House brewing, but our plans changed so we instead went to Victory brewing and Yards brewing.  First we drove out to Victory and then we circled back to go to Yards.

The last time we had been to Victory was before they renovated their brew pub and we couldn't believe the difference between now and then.  Before, it was like a creepy school cafeteria and the food was only okay.  Now, the brewpub had really nice atmosphere, the tables looked really comfortable, and the bar was really inviting.

I had read about the renovations to their brewpub but I was not expecting such a significant upgrade.  Now, I'd totally be willing to bring people to the brewery whereas before there is no way I'd suggest it as a place to visit and this is just based on first impressions and has nothing really to do with the beer.

Yards Love Stout

Went to Jose Pistola's today for a bite to eat.  Had a great chicken burrito and a nice chat with the bartender Greg.  They had the new release of Yards Love Stout on draft so I gave it a try.

The most noticeable thing is that it is a really beautiful pour.  The head is thick and creamy and had a nice cream flavor.  Not much smell to go along with the pour, but the taste made up for it.  Really smooth, really creamy.  Sort of reminds you of Guinness, but way better.  Yards apparently changed the recipe this year and brewed it using oyster shells for the first time in a few years.  I can't say I noticed any oyster or fish flavor in it but it must do something since you see oyster stouts from time to time.  Still, Love Stout should be pretty cheap in the Philadelphia area and it is a super easy drinking stout so definitely give it a try.