A few little trips and some other updates: May - July 2013

On a recent trip to New Orleans I was able to grab a few new-to-me brews including:

I started my visit to The Big Easy with a NOLA Brewing's Roasty IPA (not pictured above) and then the Perfect Tin Amber from Tin Roof Brewing over in Baton Rouge at Cajun Mike's Pub-n-Grub on the outskirts of The French Quarter.

The old Jax Beer Brewery building sitting on the Mississippi River near Jackson Square was the home to Jackson Brewing before it went bankrupt in the 70's.   The 1891structure has been turned into a shopping mall, but at least they have keep some memory of it including a small museum inside which I didn't get a chance to visit on this trip. 

I also revisited one of the first microbreweries I ever stepped foot into at the Crescent City Brewhouse down by Jackson Square in The French Quarter.  My wife, Ashlee, and I stopped in and grabbed a seat at their oyster bar to get out of the steamy temps for a while and have a couple cold ones. I had their Maibock and the Black Forest while we sat there and watched them shuck huge fresh oysters taken from the muddy waters nearby.


This was my lunch at The Stage Door Canteen at the new World War II National Museum in New Orleans.  The beer was the Hopitoulas IPA by NOLA Brewing and it was pretty good, but the bigger treat were the fried chicken gizzards (the original and naturally-made chicken nugget!!).  I haven't had these since I was a kid and never seen them available on a menu before (probably in high demand by the old vets who visit I guess).  They were as delicious as I remember and the dipping sauce to the left was primo! 

The open-container tolerance in New Orleans is another reason I love this dirty old city.  Over my weekend visit I walked the streets with a can of  Blackout Stout Ale from Indian Wells Brewing (California) and a bottle (poured into a plastic cup, of course) of Grimbergen 1128 Amber, a Belgian abbey ale.  Cheers, Big Easy!  See you again real soon I hope.

BACK AT HOME

My amazing wife went to Chicago on business recently and brought me back a ton of new-to-me beers.   Damn, she's awesome!  Here's a quick rundown:

Mad Hatter IPA - bottle from New Holland Brewing in Michigan
Columbia Common - bottle from Widmer Brothers in Portland, Oregon (seasonal spring ale)
Lucky U IPA - bottle from Breckenridge (CO) Brewing
Oktofest Ale - another great seasonal beer from Oregon's Widmer Brothers
Burning River Ale - Great Lakes Brewing, Cleveland, OH - extremely good and best of the bunch - I found out why... it's been a gold medal winner at the WBC
Midwestern Pale Ale - bottle from Bells Brewing in Michigan

We went and had a fancy 10-course dinner at The Catbird Seat in Nashville recently and I had a hoppy wheat concoction from Schlassberg (Germany) in conjunction with Brooklyn Brewing (according to the waiter) as one of the pairings.  I can't find a lot of info about such a beer on the Internet, but it was pretty good.

It's that time of year again!



No glass at Bonnaroo, so quality canned beer is the way to go out in the camping area.  This Bombshell Blonde pint can from Southern Star Brewing in Texas was deeee-lish!

Inside Bonnaroo at the Broo'ers Festival I had several draught samples of some great microbrews including:

Mountain Livin' Pale Ale - Crazy Mountain Brewing, Colorado
Space Dust IPA - Elysian Brewing, Seattle - more like space "bust" - where's the hops, dude??
Harpoon IPA - Happy 20th Anniversary!! - one of my original IPA loves
Henry Weinhard's Woodland Pass IPA - Blitz-Weinhard Brewing, Oregon
Sweetwater Blue - best malt liqouor on the planet!  The pride of Atlanta!
Narragansettt (Rhode Island) Lager
Hello My Name is Amber - just a sip from my wife's cup - Flat 12 Bierworks, Indianapolis, IN
Upside Down Blonde - also from Flat 12 Bierworks in Indy


I also returned to Vegas again recently and back to some good beer as well.

Great neon sign in the NYNY Casino where I was staying  Never heard of Bronx Cheer Beer and can't find any record of it online.  Would it be raspberry flavored since that's what a Bronx Cheer is???.

At  the Pour 24 Bar at NYNY I had a 4 beer draught sampler:

John Henry 3 Lick Spiker Ale - Minnesota
Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter - California (I visited this brewery a couple years back)
Red Hook Audible - New Hampshire - this summer ale was developed per a request from sportscaster, Dan Patrick. (I visited this brewery a few years back also)
Batch 19 Lager - Colorado - Coors (bleck!  they tricked with me this cleverly-named albeit mass-produced swill.)

Then over at my beloved Yard House I had:

Frog's Breath IPA - a half pint shorty draught - Coronado (CA) Brewing
Hop Notch IPA - a half pint shorty draught - Uinta Brewing, Salt Lake City, UT

My last Vegas beer stop was a new one.  Winchells Bar & Grill on the way to the airport where I had their  IPA and their Wheat - both were surprisingly excellent - barkeep said they were brewed by Lagunitas Brewing out of California which explains it.  Too bad the quad jacks I hit (photo above) were only a bet-one credit play, but the beer was free with play and the place was quiet and relaxing.  I see me coming here again on the way out of Sin City.

This has nothing to do with beer.  It's just a really cool sunset shot.



It's a shandy in a can!!  Yes ma'am!!  Made by the folks at Leinenkugel up in Wisconsin, the Summer Shandy is refreshing.   I enjoyed this one at an outdoor concert at Nashville's Tin Roof.  I recently discovered shandies (light beer and seven-up or fruit juice or ginger ale) on a trip to the Caribbean and I am happy to finally have a decent use for light beer!!  By the way, that's the band, John & Jacob, on stage and they are pretty darn good!

Last, but not least on the summer travel agenda was Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:

A great day (albeit a bit warm) for a game at PNC Park in downtown Pittsburgh.  The Pirates lost to their across-state rivals, the Phillies, but my wife and I didn't care.  We just enjoyed the scenery and the event itself.

Eating and drinking beer are BIG in The Steel City.

Bucket List Brewery Achieved!!  Check another one off the list!  I have wanted to visit Church Brew Works for many years now ever since I learned about the microbrewery's existence inside a (deconsecrated) Catholic church building.

My wife and I each had the eight, yes eight-, beer sampler (photo above) that included their Coffee Pale Ale, Bell Tower Brown Ale, Thunderhop (IPA), Heavenly Heff, Celestial Gold (pilsner), Pipe Organ Pale Ale, Pious Monk Dunkel and Coconut Stout.  I also had a bottle of the Celestial Gold at the aforementioned Pirates game.

There's a great, free Iphone app  for beer drinkers that my friend, Nate, turned me on to called: UNTAPPD.  It records what beers you have had, where you had them and what you thought of them.  Thanks to it I can report the following beers:

While still in Pittsburgh and having dinner at the famous Primanti Bros. (where they cram your French fries into your sandwich) I had a Curious Traveler Shandy from The Traveler Beer Company in Vermont.  Who can really mess up a shandy?  I also had an Orange Blossom Cream Ale which was really, really good.  It's produced by Buffalo Bill's Brewery in Hayward, CA.

On 7/18/13  back in Tennessee I had a Finch's (Chicago) Cut-throat Pale Ale pint can at Whole Foods in Chattanooga with my dinner.

Finally, I got to take a quick trip up to Louisville, KY, for a business conference recently.  The conference was OK, but the real fun came in the evenings when I got to slip across the river into Indiana to one of my favorite microbreweries, New Albanian Brewing, and have two new-to-me half pints of theirs including the Pickman's Pale Ale and the Bat out of Helles (cask).  Thanks again to UNTAPPD for "remembering" their excellent beers for me.

While in Louisville I got to play in three tournaments in the DennyCrum Poker Open, placing 4th in one and winning enough to cover my entry into all three tournaments.  But the real thrill was getting to sit at the same table as the NCAA legend himself for several hours during the second tournament.   He couldn't have been nicer.