Florida Beer

 

We decided to spend this Thanksgiving down at the beach.  Did you know you can find a picture of pretty much anything on the Internet including "a turkey on the beach"....

 

My wife found a sweet condo to rent just south of St. Augustine, Florida on Cinnamon Beach in the town of Palm Coast.  The color of the sand here obviously gives a correct description of this beautiful place.  The location was convenient with an ABC Liquor and Beer Store just up the street with a great selection of beer.  I got a variety four-pack of bottled brews to try over the holiday weekend that included a Toasted Coconut Porter from Thomas Creek Brewery (SC); a Swamp Ape Double IPA from Florida Beer Company in Melbourne, FL; a Burton Baton Double IPA from Dogfish Head Brewing (DE); and a Heelch O'Hops Double IPA from Anderson Valley Brewing (CA).  All were tasty and quite enjoyable while watching and listening to the Atlantic Ocean's pounding surf.

 

On Black Friday I was able to sneak off up the coast and play a little tournament poker at Bestbet Jacksonville.  Before the noon tournament began, I stopped by The Jacksonville Ale House and had a draught pint.  This place is part of a regional chain of Miller's Ale Houses but each one seems to have a little bit of it's own style instead of just a cookie-cutter duplicate from location to the next.  The JAH had a nice beer selection including a good amount of local craft beer.  I had the very good Old Battle Axe IPA from Engine 15 Brewing Company from nearby Jacksonville Beach, FL. 

After I got knocked out the tournament about halfway through (by this stunning young lady BTW - gotta love a gal who plays poker on Black Friday instead of shopping!!) I stopped by Mile Marker Brewing in St. Augustine on the way back down to our condo.  This little craft brewery is located in an industrial park and it was very crowded when I stopped by.  I had two half-pints (since I was driving) of Mile Marker 1513 Pecan De Leon Nut Brown Ale (tasty!) and Mile Marker 82 Islamorada (love that place) IPA which was pretty good.  A couple nights before this we had dinner at the A1A Ale Works in St. Augustine (I visited here for the first time back in September, see previous blog entry) where I had the seasonal Mosaic Pale Ale and a sip of my wife's seasonal Jolly Jack Pumpkin Ale.  Both were solidly good.  So after trying and liking both of these places, I have to say that St. Augustine's a pretty good little beer town!

 

Nashville Beer

I had a bit of a bachelor weekend at home recently and took in a couple new microbreweries and a watering hole that have sprang up in the Nashville area over the last few years  in between some other fun activities.

Saturday, November 23, 2013 - I stopped by the brand new Black Abbey Brewing Company over near 100 Oaks and had a pint of  POTUS 7 which is named after our 7th "POTUS" and Tennessee native son, Andrew Jackson.  It's a saison/farmhouse ale which wasn't bad given the fact that the Belgium-style of brewing is not my favorite. 

After the Black Abbey visit, my pal, Wayne and I , took in the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas show at TPAC downtown.  We had an extra seat to pile our coats in since my wife double-booked herself and couldn't go with us as planned.  Too bad.  She missed a great show!  Before the show we had dinner at Puckett's Grocery and  I had a Green Man IPA (Asheville, NC) with my chicken-and-waffles dinner.

Sunday, November 24 - Wayne and I hooked up again at the Opry Mills IMAX for a showing of Catching Fire, the second in The Hunger Games film series.  It was better than the first one (glad they got a new director!) and followed the book exactly.  Already looking forward to the next two films.

After the movie, I headed downtown to check out Jackalope Brewing.  These guys have been my favorite Nashville micro-brewers for the past few years, but this was actually my first visit to their facility which is very nice.  I had a four-sampler of brews that I hadn't had from them before that included:  the Wet Hopped American Summer pale ale, the Leghorn Rye IPA (my fav of the four), the Dire Wolf IPA and the Rainy Day Blues blueberry porter

After my Jackalope visit, I headed to the northwest side of Nashville to check out a cool location I had just learned about.  It's the now-defunct Tennessee State Prison whose facade might look a bit familiar to movie-lovers like me.  It's the front of "Shawshank Prison" from one of my favorite films, The Shawshank Redemption!  What an amazing structure!  This was as close as I could get for photos, but the nice security guard told me that they were cleaning the asbestos out of it and fixing a leaking roof in hopes of running tours through it in the future. Can't wait for that!

After my "prison visit" I stopped by one of the newest watering holes in Nashville with a supposedly-impressive beer list called Pour House.  Well, it was an impressive list.  I started with a bottle of Lucky Bucket IPA (Nebraska) and then had a draught pint of Turtle Anarchy's Another Way to Rye IPA from nearby Franklin, TN.  Both were excellent.  I will have to add Turtle Anarchy to my must-visit list for more local breweries plus Fat Bottom over in East Nashville and Mayday Brewing down in Murfreesboro.

Monday, November 25, 2013 - I extended the bachelor weekend a bit and my time with my pal, Wayne, as we got some cheap lower-bowl tickets to see our Nashville Predators hockey team take on the Phoenix Coyotes tonight downtown at the Bridgestone Arena.  It was a thrilling 4-2 win for the boys in gold including a cool bank-shot empty-netter from tram captain,  Shea Weber, clear across the other end of the ice with just a few seconds remaining in the game. 

 Before the game as I waited for Wayne to arrive, I stopped in Pub 5 across the street from the arena and took advantage of their awesome happy hour with a couple of regional favs, a Terrapin Moo Hoo Chocolate Stout and a Sweetwater IPA, for a mere $2.50 each.  Before the game, we ate a little buffalo chicken mac-n-cheese for dinner at Pucks & Pints in the Patron Level of the arena and I had a bottle of Chaser Pale Ale from Blackstone Brewing from  here in Nashville with my meal.

I finished the evening over at Zanies Comedy Club with my friends, the Edmondsons (Danny and Brenda and their youngest son, Kyle), for a show by funnyman Mike Birbiglia who was using the club as a warm-up for an upcoming 80-city theater tour he is about to embark on.  His set was dryly funny, as usual, and Kyle even got his autograph after the show on a Birbigs T-shirt he was wearing.

Georgia Beer

The wife and I took a long weekend trip down to Atlanta with some friends recently for some concerts and got into some pretty good beer along the way.

The Porter Beer Bar over in the Little 5 Points neighborhood of Atlanta has an impressive beer list.  While there I had the Dank Tank Red Hot Mama, a double red ale from Atlanta's own, Sweetwater Brewing.  My second round was the Cedar Plank Pale Ale from Green Flash Brewing out in California which I have visited before.  I finished up with a Double Simcoe IPA from Weyerbacher Brewing out of Pennsylvania.  Thanks to my friend, Rex, for suggesting this great place and to my friend, Mike, for swiping the Weyerbacher glass that I wanted in his coat on the way out. Shhhh!!

Mark another one off the Bucket List!  I finally got to visit one of my favorite regional breweries, The Terrapin Beer Company, over in nearby Athens, Georgia, while on this trip. A total group of eight of us visited the large craft brewery during their open-to-the-public hours for tastings and tours.  It's a great deal with $10 getting you up to eight generous 1/4 pint pours of any of their available brews.  The place got packed fast as word of this good deal on great beer is obviously out.  Their huge hop-bag banners pictured above were a true sign I was where I belong!

So many hops, so little time!  While at The Terrapin Beer Company I tried the following 1/4 pint (sometimes more generous than that) pours:  Big Hoppy Monster, Moo Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout, So Fresh and So Green (American IPA) and of course, the good ol' Hopsectioner.

Also while in Athens while getting some dinner before a show at Momma Goldberg's Deli I just had to try Momma's Brew.  This rather rancid golden lager is cheap and plentiful...exactly what's wanted and needed in a college town like Athens.  Oh to be young and dumb again!

On our last night back in Atlanta I also had a pint of Bell's Brewing's Best Brown Ale while having dinner at Serpas True Food Restaurant.  This brewery out of Wisconsin continues to impress me with s and I definitely hope to visit their someday.

Back home here in Nashville the other night before a Titans game, I had a bottle of Kingpin Double Red Ale from Bridgeport (Oregon) Brewing at The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden over in East Nashville.  The beer menu at the place is outstanding and the food was pretty good as well.

St. Louis Beer

A couple friends, Craig and Barry, and I took a road trip to St. Louis recently to catch the Monday Night Football Game between the Seattle Seahawks vs. the St. Louis Rams.  The World Series happened to be in town also with the Cardinals playing the Boston Red Sox which made it quite the hopping town.  We traveled through five states (TN, KY, IL, MO and IN)  in our road-trip loop trip and had some good beer in a couple of them along the way.

Missouri

We were only outside looking in with the ticket prices being so high, but it was still exciting to be technically at a live World Series game.

The biggest reason for the trip was that we were celebrating Craig's birthday and since both of us grew up as displaced Seahawks fans and even took a trip out to Seattle way back in 1989 to see them play the Denver Broncos in the now-demolished Kingdome, it seemed like now, a mere 24 years later, we should see them play again in a dome.

Our first beer stop was new for me but not for Craig or for this blog since he wrote about his first visit to Morgan Street Brewery a few years ago as a guest-writer for this blog.  It was kind of cool to visit it now with him for my first time.  I had the Grizzly Bear, their IPA, which was tasty.  I finished the visit with their Pumpkin Ale which was good and their Thumper Hoppy Wheat which wasn't bad either.

I think we are in the right town

We had lunch on our first full day in St. Louis at Schlafly Bottle Works.  The food was good and their Tasmanian IPA (TIPA) was terrific!

Schlafly had a nice little museum on the history of beer in St. Louis which included this cool Falstaff display.

Monday Night Countdown was in town of course and we got to see the stars of it live and in person before the game including (L to R) the lovely Suzy Kolber, Hall-of-Famer and Super Bowl Winner Steve Young,  Super Bowl winner Trent Dilfer and the show's newest addition, soon-to-be Hall of Famer and Super Bowl winner, Ray Lewis.

Our lower-bowl end-zone seats were pretty good and really cheap!

Seahawks defensive-star, Richard Sherman, came out after the close win over the Rams to talk to the Monday Night crew and give the nice contingent of Seattle fans still in the building an extra thrill. (Editors note:  Guess who won the Super Bowl this season??  Guess who's not a thug???)

The weather was perfect in St. Louis while we are there and we enjoyed a walk around and beneath the famous arch.

Indiana

We went a bit out of our way on the way back home to Tennessee to have lunch (and a beer sampler) at Tin Man Brewing in Evansville, Indiana.  The food and beer were really good and well worth the side-trip.  The robot-theme the brewery incorporates is pretty nifty.  Here's a run-down of the six samples I had:
Overlord IPACircuit Bohemian Pilsner

Rivet Irish Red Ale

Alloy American IPA (my favorite)

3 Gear Robust Porter

Dry Cell Irish Dry Stout

Seattle Beer

Five friends and I flew out to Seattle recently to catch an NFL game between our beloved Tennessee Titans taking on the Seattle Seahawks.  We made a mini-vacation out of the long weekend which included not only going to the game (in a rented yacht no less), renting a cool house out on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound near Seattle, and a float plane trip up to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands and back including a pick-up at the house.  There was even some beer consumed along the way...imagine that....

Our sweet rental house on Vashon Island slept the six of us easily.

Our seaplane ride up to the San Juan Islands included a pick-up and drop-off at our rental house.

A nice view of Bainbridge  Island from the seaplane on the ride north.

Downtown Seattle came into view far in the distance on our flight back.

Enemy territory!  The new Seahawks stadium is pretty awesome and our seats were great.  Too bad the outcome wasn't a win but Seattle's having a great season and very hard to beat at home.  It was a competitive game at least.  And we had a great time while we were there and the Seahawk fans couldn't have been nicer. (Editors' note:  Seattle was Super Bowl champs this year!).

Our awesome ride to and from the game was the Mary Adda, a 1928 fully-restored wooden yacht.  Our captain, Kevin, picked us up at our house on Vashon Island and returned us back after the game.  Not a bad way to SEA the game!!  Those are my friends Danny (rockin' the McNair jersey - RIP) and Wayne (with the awesome blue Afro).

Mt. Rainier  was even "out" a bit on our way back from the game.

We took a great hike out at Mt. Pilchuk in the Cascades the day after the game.

And as my UNTAPPD app on my IPhone indicates in the screen-shot here, yes, there was some drinking.

Not a bad little trip. and did I mention the beer was outstanding!!   Well it was.  Seattle has a ton of microbreweries and we planned on visiting a few until we got to the rather remote Vashon Island and went in local Thriftway Grocery Store.  We were hoping for the best that the place would at least a little decent beer for the house and maybe some Kokannee, a BC-made mass produced pilsner that isn't half bad.  What we got was one of the most amazing beer aisles I have ever seen!!  And I have seen a lot of good beer aisles, but was never expecting this at a place with "Thrift" in the name.  I am kicking myself that I didn't get a picture of the beer aisle because it was so good that we never made to to a microbrewery and didn't need to with this vast selection of quality beer here.

Here's a little run-down of what I had over the four-day stint:

Hoppy Bitch IPA (love that name!) - Northwest Brewing Company (Pacific, WA) - in bottles

Kokanee Lager (made by Labatt Brewing) - in bottles

Pike Brewing (Seattle) IPA - bottles - outstanding IPA!

Lucille's California Pale Ale (Bayhawk Ales in Irvine, CA) - bottles

Blackcat Porter - Mac and Jack's Brewing (Redmond, WA) - bottles

The Mens Room Original Red (Ale) - yes, we got it for the hilarious name, but it wasn't half-bad and didn't "taste like piss" or "smell like shit" as the name might imply!! - bottles - Elysian Brewing (Seattle)

Evolutionary IPA - Two Beers Brewing (Seattle) - cans

Apocalypse IPA - (10 Barrel Brewing - Bend, Oregon) - on tap at the local pizza parlor - this island is awesome!!

Oatis Oatmeal Stout (Ninkasi Brewing - Eugene, Oregon) - on tap at a pizza parlor north of Seattle.

And finally....Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate,Peanut Butter and Banana Ale (Rogue Brewing - Oregon) - bought this bomber and drank most of it myself.  It was strangely sweet, but enjoyable.

I had to go to the Great Northwest to get the southern tradition of catfish for breakfast for the first time at a cool little restaurant aptly named The Southern Kitchen over in Tacoma, Washington on our last day there.

A great (and true) poster at the restaurant we had lunch at in Friday Harbor.

The mountain was really OUT on my flight home not to mention the one behind it and the left much farther away. We were fortunate to have great weather four days we were in Seattle which is kind of rare.

China Beer

August 28 - September 7, 2013:

My wife and I recently took an amazing 10-day trip to China.  It is a fascinating place and culture that I highly recommend seeing in person.  And yes, there was beer in China, lots of it actually.  You could buy it on the street in most areas and walk around with it.  Unfortunately, most of it was of the watery lager variety and sat at about 3% to 5% alcohol, but, hey, it was cheaper than bottled water most of the time so when in the Far East why not do as the Far Easterners do!!



We set it up to have an overnight layover in Seattle before heading to Beijing and while we were in "The Emerald City" we stopped at Emerald City Brewing for a discounted 4-beer sampler (thanks Groupon.com).  I had the Dottie Seattle Lager, the Ivana Pale Lager, their Pilsner (a harbinger of what was about to come I think) and on a guest tap, the Lucille IPA from Georgetown Brewing (also Seattle).   The ECB beer is decent but they focus on the lighter styles of beer which aren't my particular favorites.   But I forgive them since their pin-up girl logo artwork including Dottie herself (photo above) are definitely worth a look and a toast.

 My first beer in China was in Beijing.  This is Yanjing 10 Degree Beer, a pale lager rice-based beer from one of the largest breweries in Asia.  It's nothing special and pretty much the common-style of beer found here.

"I got the Green Bottle Blues."
Same Yanjing Beer as above, different bottle (and brewing process?)....not that I could tell.



What makes The Great Wall a little greater?  Why a cheap, cold beer, of course.  A little old man was selling this can of Tsingtao Lager (which is common even in the U.S.)and a few other beverages right on the famous wall.  His display of wares, as well as the other couple ones I saw, were fairly small and unobtrusive to the overall power and beauty of this unbelievable structure.



No idea what this version of Tsingtao is called.  But, hey, it's another green bottle of watery lager/pilsner...

This is a Tsingtao "Draft" with a shot of good ol' American-made Jack Daniels for it to chase after.

We took an overnight sleeper train to the city of Xi'an from Beijing and they were selling beer on it as well.   I didn't even have to get out of beer as the guy was selling it from a cart in the hallway.  This is a Kingway, another popular pale lager made in Shenzhen, China.

Tsingtao 9 Degrees, this time for dinner with one of our G Adventures traveling companions in the background, the lovely, Natalie, from London.  The 9 degrees didn't help the taste or quality, by the way.



According to our guide this is actually a craft/local beer made near the famous West Lake and translates to "West Lake Beer" as it's name.  I bought it at a street-side stand near the lake.  I didn't see a whole of difference in it, but it did seem perhaps a bit fresher than a few of the others I had.



Hoo-ray! It's clear bottle time, but still the same style and taste as the green bottles, so don't get too excited.  This is the amusingly-named Cheerday Beer.  I thought their website was kind of a hoot.  Check it out:
http://www.qdhbeer.com/index1.php

The beer wasn't great but we had a good time with it.  Here's my wife, Ashlee, making the best of low-alcohol spirits at a street-side table next to a barbecue grill where they just cooked us a large squid on a stick.  Yep, you heard me.

And there was LOTS of consumption by our group.  I hadn't seen this many "dead soldiers" since we left the Terra Cotta Warriors back in Xi'an!!



Another clear bottle.  Good luck with the name of it?  Does it matter really?  It's all the same!!

Another can of Tsingtao from our hotel room fridge in Shanghai with a view of The Pearl Tower in the background.  Shanghai's an amazing city and I would jump at the chance to visit there again.  Cheers!

Suntory Premium....yet, it tastes the same as "non-premium" Chinese beer...but it's from Japan...threw you a curve there, didn't I...that's about the most interesting thing about it unfortunately.

Holy crap!! Is that a dark beer?? Yep, it's a German-style Fest Beer (dark ale) from a microbrewery in Shanghai just around the corner from our hotel (a lucky happenstance that I stumbled  upon) called The Bund Brewing Company.  Granted the place only had 3 styles of beer they made and this was the only dark one, but it's a start.  With the embrace of modern technology and style in this city, I could see the rise of  good craft beer booming here quickly

Another Suntory Premium bought and drank while street shopping in Shanghai (bargains galore by the way)

One last complimentary can of Tsingtao on the plane home from Shanghai along with the sweet entertainment set-up  in the background offered by China Eastern Airlines (even in economy class).

Great trip. hum-ho beer but an unforgettable experience.