Soccer at Philadelphia Bar & Restaurant

Last week, I decided I wanted to watch the gold medal match for women's soccer in the Olympics. Sure it started in the middle of the day, but whatever, my job is cool with me leaving at 2:30. After putting out some feelers on twitter and asking PhillyTapFinder if he had any opinions, I settled on Philadelphia Bar & Restaurant. While they didn't have the sound available on the tvs, the beer list was strong and the food there is pretty good. Plus it's convenient to get to since it's just off the blue line.

I started with a beer I've wanted to try for a while, Stoudts Old Abominable, a barleywine.

Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown

The fourth release in Founders special release series (I can't remember the name at the moment) was Frangelic Mountain Brown, a hazelnut coffee brown ale. Unlike the previous two, this wasn't barrel aged or anything like that so some people weren't as excited about this one as them it seemed. I thought it sounded cool though and was happy to get a bottle.

Very big hazelnut nose with some coffee too. Decent body, not too thin considering it's a brown ale at its base. Nice and nutty with some coffee coming up in the back. Slight roast too but it's mostly covered by the strong hazelnut coffee flavor. Honestly, it tasted straight like a cup of hazelnut coffee and I thought it was pretty great.

Boulder Farmhouse Saison

Stopped at Kite & Key yesterday and ordered a Boulder Farmhouse Saison. Thought since it was a warm day, it would be more refreshing than some of the other options.

Nice nose, really fits the saison style. Lightly spicy, peppery, and with a bit of fruitiness. Flavors followed the same path with a slight bite of pepper, fruitiness coming in after, and then a bready finish. Pretty flavorful and enjoyable beer. Good beer to look for during the summer.

Sharing Some Beers

I trekked out to the wilds of Collingswood, New Jersey last week to share some beers with a buddy. When another friend had to cancel after injuring himself playing basketball, we changed what we were going to open and instead decided to compare a normal version of one beer to the barrel aged version. We thought it would be interesting to see how much barrel aging can change a beer. Turns out quite a bit.

We started with the normal version of Flossmoor Station Hi-Fi Rye, a rye barleywine. Flossmoor Station is a small brewpub outside of Chicago for the curious.

Boulevard Rye on Rye

The other bottle I opened over the weekend was Boulevard Rye on Rye. This is also part of Smokestack Series and is a blend of 33% regular rye beer blended with 66% of it aged in Rye Whiskey barrels. I thought it sounded really awesome, but was unfortunately really disappointed by it.

Since you can't see the beer because of my awesome glass, there was some light, fluffy white head and it was brown in color. The nose was interesting, spicy whiskey character with a little bit of vanilla in back. However, the body didn't follow and was instead just sharply alcoholic and full of burning. Started with super hot alcohol, then there was a little bit of spicy, fruity character that almost made things okay, but then it finished with more burning. Really, it came down to mostly alcohol and bitterness and never progressed past that. It wasn't awful, just disappointing and kind of a hot mess. Oh well, can't win them all. I'll just have to stick to their Imperial Stout since that was pretty great.

Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster at Kite & Key

Stopped in at the Kite & Key on Monday like usual. This time, though, I had some trouble deciding on what to drink. It was either Maine Brewing Co. Peeper or the Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster. After trying a sample of each, I decided to go with the Great Lakes though it was also partially because I didn't feel like drinking a whole pint. I also got to see the end of the women's Olympic soccer match between the US and Canada. Man, what a finish.

Pretty sweet nose with a hint of citrusy hops. Thick body, even for a double IPA. Probably a result of the larger than average sweetness. Tasted like orange juice mixed with some sugary malt sweetness and finished with some really light bitterness. Definitely sweet for a double IPA though so if you're looking for a hop bomb, look elsewhere. Otherwise, it was pretty tasty.

Weyerbacher Whiskey Barrel Aged

This is the latest in Weyerbacher's Brewers' Select series. If you didn't know, they name each beer in the series after the military alphabet. Once getting to Whiskey, it only made sense to make a barrel aged beer. However, since you apparently can't name a beer after another alcohol according to the TTB, they added Barrel Aged to the name to avoid the issues. Makes the name a mouthful, but, whatever, laws. The beer itself start as a brown ale and spent about 2 months (I think) in whiskey barrels.

Light bourbon, some vanilla, and slight dark fruit in the back of the aroma. Body was thicker than I expected. The flavors began with a mix of bourbon and dark fruit with some vanilla in the finish. Basically the same as the nose. Got a little bit of graham cracker in the finish after a bit, mostly a result of the bourbon. The dark fruit came out a bit more as I got more used to the bourbon and drank more. Pretty good beer from Weyerbacher. Be interesting to see what is up next for X-Ray.

Karl Strauss 23rd Anniversary Old Ale

This was sent to me a little while by a friend in San Diego. He previously sent me the 22nd Anniversary beer which was a partially barrel aged imperial stout. The 23rd Anniversary built on that idea and was an Old Ale 100% aged in bourbon barrels instead of only partially.

Very clean nose, full of bourbon. Some vanilla and a little sweet fruit come in the back. Nice thick body. Started off a little hot with lots of bourbon flavor though the vanilla in the finish helped keep it from being overwhelming. A bit more alcohol in the finish too. I don't know if that makes me sound negative because I actually really enjoyed this. You do have to like the flavor of bourbon though as it's huge and ever present. Certainly makes me curious what they have up next for their 24th Anniversary and hope they continue getting better.

On a completely separate note, if you haven't bought tickets to the Yards Smoke 'Em if Yous Got 'Em beerfest, you're missing out. Last year was awesome and I imagine this year will be even better!

Doppelbocks at Brauhaus Schmitz

Jo and I went to Brauhaus Schmitz this past Saturday for some great German food and beer. It's been a long time since we'd been there and the last time I was kind of drunk already so I was excited to check it out again. When we arrived, there were some free seats at the front bar. If you haven't been recently, they have opened up a new back area that looks nice and spacious. This allowed them to make more room at the front bar by removing some tables, too, so there's a lot more standing room now. The bartender seemed really happy about that as it made getting to the front part of the restaurant way easier and removed a big roadblock to the servers.

The first beer I ordered was a Spaten Optimator, a doppelbock.

Boulevard Imperial Stout

The other bottle I opened with my friends last week was the Boulevard Imperial Stout. This is part of their Smokestack Series and is a blend of 50% imperial stout and 50% of the stout aged in whiskey barrels. Honestly, it's not exactly 50 / 50, but if you're curious you can buy it since the label has the exact amounts.

Sweet whiskey nose, really inviting. No alcohol, no heat, just graham cracker and vanilla. Yum. Flavor followed with tons of delicious whiskey yet still no heat and only light touches of the 11%. Light graham cracker, vanilla, whiskey and some roast from the stout finished things off. I thought it was really awesome and I was impressed that it had as much flavor from the barrel as it did considering it was a blend. I've had others where the barrel component wasn't very prevalent but Boulevard did a great job. Just delicious.