Virginia Beer Tasting....and beyond

BEFORE... AFTER...

Thanks to my wife, Ashlee, and our friends, Nate and Ginny, for "helping" me with this great tasting.

Virginia is for Lagers

EDITORIAL NOTE: Beer in hand while blogging some of this entry - Backdraft Brown Ale in a bottle - Hook & Ladder Brewing, Wilkes-Barre, PA

While most of this post is about some wonderful beer I found on a road trip with my wife in Virginia over the New Year's holiday, that same road trip started in Atlantic City where I once again found myself at Firewaters Bar (see previous blog about Atlantic City) in the bottom of the Tropicana Casino with an old favorite, Stone IPA (Calif.), draught in hand (photo right). By the way, that Victory Brewing (Penn.) glass it was poured in somehow made it back with me in my suitcase. How odd? At least I am the Robin Hood of beer glass theivery as I plan to give it to my friend, Nate, who is a Victory fan. While I had nothing new while at Firewaters (even though they have 50 taps they were out of one of the few I had not tried), I did have something new at dinner earlier in the evening. It was an interesting German wheat-doppelbock (double-dark) ale called Aventinus from Schneider & Sohn Brewing. It was a little heavy after the great light seafood dinner I had, but still enjoyable and quite different in terms of wheat-based beer. Plus, its ABV of 8% was enjoyable.

Now, on to Virginia which as their tourism catch-phrase says truly "is for lovers"...beer lovers, that is. We stopped in Charlottesville for the night since it was about half way home and because it's the home of Starr Hill Brewing, one of my favorite new microbrewers in the Southern region. We were able to take a tasting and a tour of their modest facilities now housed in a section of a former chicken-processing plant in the nearby hamlet of Crozier, VA. Starr Hill, named after a Charlottesville neighborhood where it was conceived, got its start originally in Charlottesville as a downtown brew-pub and has seen enough success over the last few years to expand to the Crozier location. They now distribute to six states (including Tennessee. Thank you!) and recently signed a distribution contract with Anheiser-Busch which should see further expansion in the near future. Keep in mind this is a distribution-only contract, not a brewing contract. All Starr Hill products are still hand-produced from high quality ingredients (left) as our tour-guide, Shelley, mentions in a minute or so of his spiel in the video below.

As for the tasting my wife and I tried seven different brews. The Jomo Lager which I had already tried and had incidentally bought for our Christmas party and decorated my Beer Tree with (see previous blog). The Amber Ale which I had not tried but found to be good. The Love which was new to me. It's their wheat beer and I have to say was one of the best I have had and I am admittedly not the biggest wheat fan. Dave, who was pouring for us, shared a great hint with us to hold our nose before taking a sip, then swish it around and swallow whle releasing your nostrils. What happens? A wonderful taste of cloves and a hint of bananas. Are either of those tastes added to The Love? Heck, no!! Amazing! Next up was The Gift, a limited-edition holiday German bock.

Delcious. Next up was the reason I started to love Starr Hill, their Northern Lights IPA. This is one of my favorite regional IPAs holding a very close second in my heart to Sweetwater IPA out of Atlanta. Incredibly hoppy without being overly bitter. A true masterpiece. Fnally was the Dark Star Porter which I had before and thought was OK, but it was just a sample from a bottle. This sample I got on draught was much, much better. Not overly smokey like a lot of porters and actually quite light in body. Even my wife, Ashlee, was impressed with this one and dark beers are not her thing. Finally, after learning how far we had driven and still had to drive, our new friend and pourer, Dave, let us in on a little secret. From a tap with no handle on it he gave us two pours of their Tripel - a Belgium-style beer that is lightly sweet and sweetly light. What a great, great beer. Well done, Starr Hill, well done.

After our tour and tasting and hitting the sales counter pretty hard for ourselves and our friends back home - a growler of the Tripel, three pint bottles of The Gift and a six-pack of The Love -it was time for some lunch. From some literature available at Starr Hill we quickly learned that the area was rich with microbrewing and we settled on one nearby that also boasted a restaurant, Blue Mountain Brewing.

To see Blue Mountain Brewing from the outside you might not be impressed. It's a simple looking one-story structure with a beautiful view towards...you guessed it...a blue-hazed mountain. Our expectations weren't too high, but we were hungry. When we stepped in our expectations grew a bit because the place was packed! Lots of eating and lots of beer sampling going on in every nook and cranny of the place. We felt fortunate when we were offered a couch and armchair and a corner of a coffee table to have our lunch. Sure beats waiting who knows how long on a real table! I immediately ordered the little 6-beer sampler (below) they offered as we looked over the food menu. As with the restaurant, my expectations weren't high about their beer and again I was grossly mistaken. This was some great beer! The menu and the beer were heavily German-influenced. From light to dark I had The Blue Mountain Lager, The Rockfish Wheat, The Full Nelson Pale Ale, MacHaydens, The Wee Scotch Ale and The Dark Hollow. I don't have a bad word to say about any of them. I immediately ordered a pint of The Full Nelson which was their hoppiest concotion, and we ordered a 750ml bottle of The Dark Hollow which I can easily say is my favorite stout of all time. No, seriously, this stuff is excellent. The big difference is that this Imperial Stout has been aged in fresh bourbon barrels and the taste payoff is amazing. Very unique and inventive. Another reason I like this place is the fact that they are also operating their own hop farm which is extremely rare (and a risk of time and money) in this part of the country. But as their website factually states, Virginia was the leading hop-grower in the United States when the nation got its start, so why not bring some of that tradition back. Plus, there are successful wineries all over the place here, so hops should do well. I will definitely keep up to date on this guys and their progress in hop production as well as excellent beer craftsmanship.

In a nutshell, this roadtrip showed me that central Virginia is not only a beautiful and surprisingly undeveloped area of culture and history, but also makes a lot of good damn beer and I cannot wait to get back and do more exploring.

Holiday Cheers

The wife asked me to decorate her SIXTH Christmas tree in our house which is located out on our sun-porch. She said I could decorate it anyway I wanted to. So be it.! I give you the Beer Tree! The surprising thing was she actually liked it! So I guess this will become a holiday tradition and will change yearly as it will reflect what I am currently partaking of during the holiday season. Plus, I got an idea for tinsel made of beer caps that has the potential of being pretty darn cool.

This year I went by the Mt. Juliet Beer Company Store and bought four six-packs to serve at our Christmas party. After popping the bottles in the ice bin for serving, it justed seemed appropriate to use the colorful, empty cartons as ornaments. From top to bottom there is the Backdraft Brown out of Pennsylvania, the Starr Hill Juno Lager out of Virginia, the Magic Hat Winter Ale out of Vermont and the Rogue Santa's Reserve Ale out of Oregon.

I also got a growler of Southern Pecan Brown Ale from Lazy Magnolia Brewing in Mississippi (don't let the Yazoo label on it fool you). I also placed a couple of other high-alcohol beers underneath which were bought in Chattanooga earlier this season. They were the Acme IPA (small bottle) out of California, and a pint oif Delirium Noel from Belgium (big bottle on the floor on the far right). Speaking of high-alcohol beer, I also received a four-pack of 10% ABV Dogfish Head 120-Minute IPA from my friend at work, Joy. My wife and I got a 12-pack containing six varieties of Flying Dog brews from our friends, John and Dorie. Then, my brother-in-law, Andy, got me two IPA growlers as well. One was Sierra Nevada and the other...he can't remember, but he will be investigating it again next week to get the name. Thank you so much, everybody!!

I will follow up this post in the next few weeks with a quick run-down of what I thought of all this beer. Gonna be a busy holiday season!!

A Lone Star but A Lot of Beer

During a recent weekend trip to Austin, Texas, I had a chance to sample a few local and non-local craft beers that were pretty good. When my wife and I arrived on Friday night to the house of our friends, Dianna and Johan, I was greeted with a cold bottle of Fireman's 4 Blond Ale from Real Ale Brewing there in Austin. A nice beer overall with good flavor and finish.

Saturday afternoon Johan took us out to Central Market which had an incredible beer section. Austinites are very lucky to be on the cutting edge of large supermarkets (they are the original home of Whole Foods which is now nationwide) that specialize in organic, fresh and unique products at reasonable prices... including beer. I selected two individual pint bottles to purchase with plans on having one later that afternoon and one on Sunday afternoon. The first one I picked up was Hop Stoopid from Lagunitas Brewing Company in Petaluma, California. I cracked it when we got back to the house and shared it with Johan. Incredible hoppy flavor as the name might imply and smooth finish and no bitter taste at all. A very, very good beer. After some research I found that this wonderful beer is considered a Double IPA - make that an "award-winning Double IPA" - which is by far my favorite sytle of beer.

We all attended a concert later that evening and dined at a local chain eatery beforehand called Opal Divine's. I was delighted to see that they carried a great beer selection including several products from Austin's own, Live Oak Brewing. I chose their IPA, of course, and it wasn't bad. I may have liked it more if I didn't still have the smooth taste of the Hop Stoopid Ale still in mind. The folks at Live Oak do a tour of their small microbrewery as well which I would like to check out next time I am down this way. The beer selection at the music venue was typical and boring, but I did get a kick out of having one my favorite "mass-produced" beers, Shiner Bock, for the first time in a can. All four of us actually toured the Shiner Brewery (in nearby Shiner, Texas) the last time we visited Austin and it was a great tour. Shiner is a great success story in terms a small brewery producing great products and gaining some amazing national success.

Sunday afternoon before our flight home I popped the cap on the second pint bottle I had bought at Central Market. This was was called Small Batch 471 Double IPA from Breckenridge Brewing in Colorado. Double IPAs as I mentioned above are my favorite style of beer and this was the first one I had gotten in a bottle and I have to say I was fairly disappointed. It wasn't a bad brew overall, but it really lacked the pure hoppiness of double IPAs I had tried in the past, and still had the coarse bitterness of an English-style IPA - totally different from American IPAs.


Thanks to Johan and Dianna for showing us such a great time and thanks to Austin for providing great opportunities to try really good beer in a great American city.

Getting Off the El for Some Ale

On a recent day-trip to Chicago, my wife, Ashlee and I, and our friend, Joy, rode the El from downtown north a few stops and took a walking food tour of the Wicker Park/Bucktown neighborhoods. The tour was excellent and the food superb and one of the six stops included Piece Pizza and Brewery in the Wicker Park area. This small microbrewery produces several medal-winning beers. Including in our tour was a taste of their Golden Arm Kolsch. Not bad but way too light for my liking, so while everyone was enjoying their delicious pizza I slipped up to the bar and ordered a glass of their Camel Toe Double IPA (photo above). Now we are talking! Excellent hoppy aroma and taste and 9% AC. Dark amber color with full body and smooth finish. Definitely gotta come back up this way and try a few more of their products (photo right).

I was also able to try a glass of Goose Island Seasonal Winter Ale at the nearby Wicker Park Tavern while Ashlee and Joy did a bit of shopping. Goose Island is also produced in the Chicago-land area and their winter ale was strong and smooth with a beautiful copper color. Not a great aftertaste, but a good beer overall.

A Long Hiatus...

I have been on a self-imposed hiatus from drinking any beer thanks to a low-carb diet that my wife and I have been on for a month or so. It has been worth the sacrifice since I have shed over ten pounds that I needed to lose. I have more pounds to lose, but enough is enough!! I had to have some beer and attending the Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival in downtown Nashville this weekend was just the thing. This is a traveling festival that visits a lot of large cities and this was its second annual stop here. My friend and mutual real beer lover, Nate, attended last year and said it was pretty good, so I agreed to go with him and his new girlfriend, Ginny, this year as well as my wife, Ashlee.

As Nate had said, it is a pretty good little festival with 60 beers to taste (not all microbrews, but you take what you can get), 40 different bourbons and several choices of local BBQ. They had tasting stations set up in the bottom floor of Nashville Municipal Auditorium and the $25 entry price got you a tasting glass, a T-shirt and all the hooch you could down in a 6-hour span (the BBQ was extra). Most of the beer samples were poured from bottles although a few brewers had kegs on site for draught pours. There was also a tasting class offered by New Belgium Brewing out of Colorado that included three of their newer concoctions. These three, plus any new ones I tried at the tasting stations, are listed below in no certain order along with a quick judgement:

- Leinenkugel's Amber Lager- decent but not worth a second taste

-Brooklyn Winter Ale - pretty good with a nice finish
-McSorley's Irish Black Lager - OK, but not great especially compared to some of the great Irish brews I had recently on The Emerald Isle.

-New Belgium Bierre de Mars - nice color and finish to this fragrant ale

-New Belgium La Folie - a wood-aged sour brown ale (it was definitely brown and it was most definitely sour)

-New Belgium Blue Paddle - their first attempt at a lager. Not bad, but not as smooth as the Bierre de Mars

- Schafly # 15 Oatmeal Stout - actually a bit watery and fairly disappointing

- Mike's Apple Spice - OK, not technically a beer but this stuff was great - they warmed it and it was a great fall treat - and yes I like Mike's Hard Lemonade as well

- Kona Pipelane Pale Ale - decent brew with a nice color

- Stone Mill Organic Ale - Yuck! The big boys strike again with a faux-microbrew that's just a soapy-tasting mess. Stick with what you know, Michelob.

The rest of the festival was spent visiting with old, familiar friends like Sweetwater 420, Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA and Magic Hat #9.

PUBlin, Ireland

I took a rather quick trip to Ireland with my wife, Ashlee, and besides a whole lot of Guinness (16 pints if I counted right) I found some pretty good less known Irish beers and microbrews along the way.

The first came while still in the U.S. at the Newark Airport as we awaited our flight to Dublin. I had a Brooklyn IPA 20 oz. draught that was excellent. Brooklyn's a strong contender in the U.S. microbrew market and I have been pleased with their product in the past and they did not disappoint with their IPA.

Of course, no trip to Dublin is complete without a visit to the amazing Guinness Brewery. The story of the Guinness empire is great, the tour was great and the beer is great (sorry, I didn't taste a real difference between a pint in Ireland vs. a pint in the U.S. although it may be a just a hint more watery here, but that may not have anything to do with the brewing process). I highly recommend a visit and a tour and will probably do it again if I get a chance because jet lag kicked in during our tour and I do feel I missed a few things because the place is enormous. It was also cool to visit the brewery during their 250th Anniversary...not that they are making a big deal of it or anything (ha ha).

Also while in Dublin we had a great pub crawl thanks to a little research on the internet by yours truly before our trip. Our first stop was The Bull & Castle - a pub, German-style beer hall and restaurant all rolled into one. They specialize in microbrews including several Irish brands. I started with the Galway Hooker IPA draught. It was extremely good with great body and finish, but not chock full of hops as I was hoping. Although it's named after the famous Irish fishing boats of the port city of Galway, it's always fun to order up "a hooker."

Next I ordered a small O'Hara's Stout draught. This dark and yummy concoction is heavier than Guinness and with less carbonation. It is made my Carlow Brewing and their motto is that O"hara's is the way beer "used to taste in Ireland" - an obvious dig at the worldwide monster that is Guinness.

We moved on to The Brazen Head Pub, one of Dublin's oldest pubs (Est. 1198). A very cool, charming place. Here I ordered a Macardle Ale draught. It was dark red and good to the last drop. Macardle's was an original Irish brewery that I have since discovered was closed in 2001. It was swallowed up by the Guinness empire in the 60's and is still produced by them I suppose.

Next stop, The Porterhouse. This place has no history to speak of. It's a fairly new microbrewery chain actually. However, they are producing some tremendous beer. I started with their Hop Head Ale draught. It was very hoppy as the name promised and I loved it. I deemed it best of the trip up to this point. Next up was the high-alcohol brew, Brain Blasta (photo above). It had a good taste, but my memory seems a little foggy after drinking it.

We finished our crawl at Messrs. Maguire, an excellent three-story pub overlooking the River Liffey. They also brew their own beer and I started with the Rusty Ale draught, their version of a red Irish ale. I had recovered enough from the Brain Blasta to recall that this was a good tasting beer, but nothing to go on and on about. I finished with their Bock which was also had a good taste and body.

During a day trip to the famous Blarney Castle we stopped in the village of Bunratty and I was able to try Kilkenny Smooth Ale (photo below) at the original Durty Nelly's Pub. This was a very rich orange in color ale that I enjoyed very much and would currently rank a close second in my "Best of Ireland" ranking.

On our last full day in Ireland, we went back to The Bull & Castle not only for the beer, but because it was where we had our best meal of the trip as well. I switched to some of their bottled brews on this visit and started with the Chotworthy Dobbin, a dark, bitter from Whitewater Brewing. It was OK and there was plenty of it since it came in a true pint bottle. I turned next to Belfast Ale also from Whitewater Brewing. I enjoyed this dark ale more than the Dobbin and again it came in a huge pint bottle.

My first trip to Dublin was everything I was hoping for in terms of being a tourist and a beer drinker. I hope to return someday and continue being both again.

FOOTNOTE: Back in Nashville: I had an Amarillo Pale Ale draught from Yazoo at La Paz Mexican Restaurant. It was served with a lime. It had a beautiful copper color and good clean taste that complimented the south of the border fare just right.