NOLA & THE ATL

I took a quick trip to New Orleans and Atlanta this past weekend and was able to try several new beers during my journey.

While in New Orleans, my wife, Ashlee, and I stopped in the International Beer House on Bourbon Street late on Friday night.  They had a good selection of craft beers on tap.  I settled for the locally-made Hopitoulas from Nola Brewing.  This 6% ABV West-Coast style IPA was delicious.  Ashlee had the Strawberry Ale from Covington's Brewing which is also Louisiana-based.   I had a sip of it and thought it was OK.

A classic sign on Bourbon Street.  Not good ones particularly, but definitely big ones.



Bright lights, Crescent City.



On Saturday I flew up to Atlanta to meet my friends Wayne, Jim and Ryan for our second annual G.A.M.E. (Grown-Ass Man Extravaganza) Weekend where we travel to see our beloved Tennessee Titans play a road game.  The night before the game we had dinner at Max Lager's Grill & Brewery.  The food was excellent and their house IPA, the Hopsplosion, was pretty darn good.

We spent A LOT of time at the Phillips Arena location of Atlanta's own regional chain, Taco Mac, where they have 130 beers on tap.  I did my best to try as many new ones that I could including the following:  Breckinridge 471 IPA (Colorado), Eye Patch IPA (Monday Night Brewing - Atlanta, GA), Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale (Monday Night Brewing), Sweetwater Crank Tank Rye'd Ale (Atlanta), Breckinridge Christmas Ale (Colorado) and Wild Heaven Ode to Mercy Brown Ale (Georgia).  My friend, Rex, who lives in Atlanta and was kind enough to show us around a little on Saturday night actually introduced me to the Wild Heaven brown ale at a very cool bar called Ormsby's, but I had a full pint the next day before the game back at Taco Mac.  I enjoyed them all with a nod to Monday Night and Wild Heaven for producing some great products out of fledgling local microbreweries.  Hats off to Taco Mac for continuing to make these unique beers available to the public in a great setting with delicious food as well.

The Titans unfortunately lost to the surging Falcons on Sunday afternoon, but we had a great time at the game and enjoyed some sweet seats near the field in the fabulous Georgia Dome.  The photo above was taken from our seats just before the game started.  Taco Mac has a set-up inside the dome as well,  but I didn't find it until late in the game.

Taking another gamble on good beer in Sin City

I got a couple of really cheap flights to Las Vegas recently ($150 RT!) and went out to play some poker and, of course, drink a little beer.  After a little research, I found a few new places that I hadn't been to before and also visited a few of my old favorite spots as well.

First up was Big Dogs Brewing Company.  They have 3 locations in the Las Vegas area and I chose the Draft House Barn in N. Las Vegas, Their beer was excellent.  I had the Dirty Dog IPA and their Red Ale.  I even got to meet their master brewer, Dave Otto.    A return here is without a doubt.



I found out about Barley's Casino and Brewing thanks to a buy-$50-in-gift-certificates-for-$25 deal I found online.  It's located over in Henderson, Nevada, which butts up to the east of Las Vegas.  I had their Red Rock Red Ale and their Black Mountain Stout.  Both were pretty good, but I will give a nod to the stout.  I used one of my $25 gift certificates to have the two pints and a huge sirloin steak that was delicious.  I returned on the second trip to use my other $25 gift certificate and had two more pints of the stout and another huge porterhouse steak while watching some NFL games.  The pints turned out to be only a dollar on NFL Sundays...wow!



On a non-beer note:  on my first trip, I stopped in Gold & Silver Pawn which is where The History Channel's "Pawn Stars" TV show is filmed.  None of the "pawn stars" where on site when I visited, but it was kind of cool just seeing the place which was packed with visitors.

Another non-beer Vegas first was that I actually got to see the volcano in front of The Mirage erupt.  I have been here a half-dozen times and never saw it occur in person even though it goes off every hour on the hour.

On my first trip I also returned to a couple of my favorite Vegas beer-spots also.  First was Yard House, a restaurant and bar chain which has over 100 beers on tap.  It was actually a new location for me as I visited the one near the Red Rock Casino which is about 10 miles west of the one I usually visit on Las Vegas Blvd.  I tried two of their "shortys"  i.e. half pints, that I hadn't had before.  They were the Squatters Hop Rising, a double IPA (9% ABV) from Utah, and the Firestone Union Jack IPA, out of California.  Both were excellent.  Back over on the The Strip,  I had the Deadlift Double IPA out of Oregon at Pour 24, a good beer bar in the NYNY Casino, and the Humboldt Hemp Brown Ale out of California at Burger Bar which is located between the Luxor and Mandalay Bay casinos.



On my second trip I checked out Ellis Island Casino and Brewery over on Koval Street which runs parallel to The Strip.  I had heard of this place for a while, but never had a chance (or the nerve)  to check it out since its in an albeit seedier side of Vegas.  I walked over since it's only a couple blocks from where I was staying up on Las Vegas Blvd. and made sure it was still daylight.  I encountered no problems and the place is actually not bad at all.  Their craft beer is pretty good and the kicker is that the pints of it are  free if you are gambling.  I had their pale ale which was OK, their stout which was better and their Octoberfest which was weak in color and so-so in taste.  I also made $6 playing video blackjack...so who's complaining.  By the way, if you don't gamble, their pints of beer are a whopping $1.75 each!   Hoo-ray for the "seedy" side of Vegas!!



Just a cool shot of the Bellagio Fountains going off around midnight on The Strip with Bally's and the Paris casinos in the background.



Another great non-beer find was Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area 20 miles west of Vegas.  This beautiful area has a cool 13-mile motor trail through it with some amazing vistas.  Yes, that's snow on the mountains in the background of this shot.  It actually spit snow on me at one point of my tour in a place accurately called Icebox Canyon.



I also got to be in the audience during part of the live filming of the final table of the 2011 World Series of Poker on ESPN.  First prize: $8.7 million.  The eventual winner was Pius Heinz from Germany (he's the one in the white hooded sweatshirt in Seat 6).

New HOPShire

My wife, Ashlee, and I took a trip recently up north to New Hampshire to visit our friends, Amy and Jeremy, who live in Portsmouth.  Happily, Amy and Jeremy share my love of good beer and a few beer stops were on the agenda.

Our first stop right off the plane was the Red Hook Brewery of New England outside Portsmouth.  This west-coast-founded  pioneer  in craft brewing (1981) set up shop in the northeast in 1996.  Pictured above is the largest beer cooler in the eastern United States.  They have a beautiful brewpub attached to the brewery with tasty food and all their beers on tap.  Ashlee and I both had their sampler paddle.  After lunch, we went on an entertaining (and generously-poured) tour of the brewery for $2.

Tiny Portsmouth Brewery is located in the charming downtown district near the famous seaport.  Their beer was good and their food wasn't bad either.  We ate there for lunch on our second day of the visit.  I had the Rye Not Pale Ale.  They have been doing it right here since 1991.

We found this place quite literally by accident on our way back from visiting The White Mountains on our last full day in New Hampshire.  Moat Mountain Brewing is a small brewpub located in the touristy town of North Conway.  We stopped for lunch and I was impressed with their beer selections.  I tried their pale ale and their IPA.  Moat Mountain, by the way, is one of the nearby peaks that make up The White Mountains.

A few other new-to-me beers I had on the trip were a bottle of Long Trail Ale (Vermont), a bottle of Hooksett Ale from White Birch Brewing in Hooksett, NH, and a bottle of Octoberfest Hex from Magic Hat Brewing over in Vermont.  Thanks to Amy and Jeremy for finding these great beers for us to try during our visit.

Speaking of travelin' and beer....

On our second music cruise of the year (and our second visit to Mexico), we docked in Cozumel (we were on  the smaller dingy to the left) and I got to try my first Victoria Cerveza in a bottle.  Not bad, just your basic light Caribbean-style lager beer.  But the day was hot and it was cold...can't ask for much more.

Brews New's - August/September 2011



Saturday, September 10, 2011:  A lovely Red Hook IPA at a harbour bar in Key West, FL while waiting for a rain shower to push through the area.

 Some other recent "new to me beers" include:

Schafaly (St. Louis) American Pale Ale (Cask) draught at WOW Wingery in Mt. Juliet, TN

Triple Haze (New Orleans) draught at WOW Wingery

Napa (CA) Smith Organic IPA (bottle) at Buckley's Steak House in Memphis, TN

Hop Project # 56 draught at the new Yazoo Brewpub in Nashville, TN

Legend (VA) Brown Ale (bottle) at Diamond Shoal Restaurant in Buxton, NC (Outer Banks)

Post Road Pumpkin Ale draught from Brooklyn (NY) Brewing at WOW Wingery

Hoptober from Fat Tire (CO) draught also at WOW Wingery

Spechers Double IPA (Wisc.) bottle at Drifters BBQ in East Nashville

Jackalope (Nashville) Pale Ale draught at Grassy Knoll Movie Night in E. Nashville

Jackalope Maple Brown draught at Grassy Knoll

hIPA from Magic Hat Brewing (VT) bottle from Conch Republic Liquours in Key West, FL






August 26, 2011:  Enjoying a Ghost River Pale Ale atop The Madison Hotel in Memphis, TN where it is brewed.

 

Downtown Asheville Brewery Crawl

We drove up to Asheville, North Carolina, recently for the weekend to catch a concert and before the show on Saturday night, my wife, Ashlee, and I did an impromptu brewery-crawl from the music venue, The Orange Peel on Biltmore Avenue, and back.  Since Asheville boasts at least seven microbreweries in the area, you don't have to go very far to find great beer.  And, of course, that fact also makes Asheville one of my favorite towns in the South.  Our first stop was a repeat for us.  Asheville Brewing is one of the legends here in town and has been a favorite of ours for a long time.  Their air-conditioned brewpub a few blocks down on Coxe Avenue was a welcome stop from the summer heat.

Our second stop was a new one for us and a fairly new craft brewer on the Asheville scene. Craggie Brewing is located on Hilliard Avenue.  Started by a former assistant brewer at Highland (another big name in the Asheville brewing game), they are small, but serious about their beer including the delicious Antebellum Ale shown above.

Our next and last stop was Wedge Brewing, an even newer player n the Asheville craft beer circus.  They are located in the kooky, Bohemian-style River Art District in the Wedge Studios building down on Roberts Street.

Wedge Brewing's boisterous Third Rail IPA (photo above) is strong in taste and ABV.  How's 10% grab you?  Since it's an English-style IPA, I wasn't blown away by it, but I do appreciate the results and the mastery of its creation.  I was a bigger fan of their "Derailed" Hemp Ale.

With still a few minutes to go before the show, we stopped in a little restaurant/bar back up by The Orange Peel called Storm.  I was happy to see they had Green Man Ales on tap...yet another strong and talented Asheville craft brewer.  The beer selection inside The Orange Peel was even good and I enjoyed a bottle of Starr Hill Northern Lights IPA (one of my favs out of Virginia) during the show.

OBX Beer

On a recent trip to the beautiful Outer Banks (OBX) of North Carolina, I found a nice little trio of small brewpubs to visit.



The Weeping Radish isn't technically on the Outer Banks (it used to be we learned later), but it's close enough in Javisburg, NC, and was right on the way from our drive down from the airport in Norfolk, VA.  It's a German-based brewery with a half-dozen taps of beer made on the premises.  I tried their sampler and wasn't overly impressed to be honest.  Not their fault really, I am not the biggest fan of German-style beer (despite my heritage)...too much malt and not enough hops for my taste.  My favorite was their Black Raddish, a nice, smooth dark lager. I should mention that their food was very good including their amazing fresh-made sausage sampler platter.



The Full Moon Brewery and Cafe in Manteo, NC, was actually a surprise find.  We just happen to be staying two nights in Manteo and stumbled upon this place located near the lovely town harbor.  It was an easy walk from our B&B.  They are a fairly new establishment and their own beer was limited in variety and was OK in taste at best.  Their menu also featured some other regional beers and I had a good  pint of Endo IPA from Cottonwood/Carolina Brewing in Mooresville, NC.  Like the Weeping Radish, Full Moon's food was the best thing they had going, and my enchilada stuffed with local shrimp and crab was outstanding.

The largest, most well-known microbrewery in the OBX is The Outer Banks Brewing Station.  We stopped in here briefly for a beer sampler and were pleased with the results.  Nice hoppiness in their pale ale.  This was the best beer in the area that we found and we will definitely come back here.  We didn't eat here, but the food looked good and smelled great.





The coolest thing about The Outer Banks Brewing Station is that it is the first and only (so far) brewpub in the U.S. that is completely wind-powered.  Note the windmill behind the building.  Its location near famous Jockey's Ridge in Kitty Hawk made the choice to harness the ample wind power a smart and obvious one.



I also had a pint of Sky Blue Golden Ale at a pub up in Corolla, NC. It's brewed by Carolina Brewing as well and was good going down after a hot day on the beach and dunes of The Outer Banks.

Beer in "The Middle"

Some beer encounters in "The Middle of America" from two recent road trips to and through Indiana, some of Illinois and a little of western Ohio,  for the Indy 500 in May and then for a couple of concerts in Cincinnati and Chicago the following weekend:

Three great words on a sign in downtown Nashville, Indiana



Big Woods Brewing is a relatively new microbrewery located in Nashville...no, not that one...Nashville, Indiana, a very cool little town in the regionally popular Brown County. It's about an hour south of Indianapolis.  Their beer was pretty good and their food was excellent.  The brewpub is a very nice place with a hunting lodge type of feel to it.  Favorite beer I tried was the Busted Knuckle Red Ale.





The generous tasting sampler from Lafayette Brewing Company in Lafayette, Indiana, near Purdue University.  Wonderful beer and their food was excellent as well. 

A craft beer veteran that opened their doors way back in 1993.



I had this pint can of  hoppy beauty in downtown Chicago at Stanley's Kitchen & Tap.   Half Acre Brewing is a Chicago-based brewery that I will have to check out next time I am in The Windy City.  I also had a pint of Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale from Lagunitas, CA, at The Pubic House bar in downtown Chicago. It was excellent.



A couple Goose Island Brewing (Chicago-area-based) craft taps at Stanley's in Chicago plus their own "house" beer, SKT.  I had the Green Line which is an American pale ale.  It was pretty good.

Other stops in "the middle" included a re-visit to New Albanian Brewing just across the river from Louisville in New Albany, IN, where I had their Henna Black IPA.    Also stopped at Powerhouse Brewing in Columbus, Indiana, but wasn't real impressed with their beer.  Their Two Daves IPA was yucky sweet in taste.  Oaken Barrel Brewing in Greenwood, Indiana, on the outskirts of Indianapolis was much better.  I enjoyed their Razz-Wheat and their Super Fly IPA. We took a six-pack of the Razz-Wheat with us to the Indy 500.

One of our favorite stops was 3 Floyds Brewing just before the Illinois state line in Munster, Indiana.  All of their products are superb with specials nods going to the Artic Panzer Wolf IPA, the Dreadnought IPA and the Alpha King Pale Ale.  One of their guest taps was none other than from California's Pizza Port Brewing which my wife has visited and is acquainted with a gal pal who works with them.  I had a pint of their A.B.L.E. (Above Life's Expectations) American Imperial Double Stout which was tremendous..  3 Floyd's beer was so good that we brought a good amount of it home and invited over some folks for another beer tasting.  This one had an Indiana theme since we also brought some of the Oaken Barrel product back as well.

During a food tour in downtown Cincinnati, I also had a half pint of cask-conditioned Alba Scots Ale from Williams Bros. Brewing in Scotland at a cool pub called Nicholson's.

EXTRAS:

In a recent variety six-pack from the Mt. Juliet Beer Company near home I had a few new-to-me's including:  Sarnac Summer Ale (NY), Black Hawk Stout (NY), Truckstop Honey Brown Ale (Back Forty Brewing, Birmingham, AL), wild Blueberry Wheat Ale (Sea Dog Brewing,  Maine)

Attended my first beer tasting hosted by WOW Wingery in Mt. Juliet featuring several beers from Schlafly Brewing out of St. Louis. This is third tasting that has been done out on the patio at WOW and hopefully there will be many more to come because it was great.