Spending time in the CariBEERean

One of my goals during a recent Caribbean cruise was to try as many different beers as possible - wait a minute...isn't that my goal in life? Never mind...status quo....on to the beer.

San Juan, Puerto Rico:

Medalla Beer - I think "Medalla" is Spanish for "Miller" - pure pilsner piss. They love it down there...probably because it's cheap and plentiful. Y'all can keep it.

Old Harbor Brewery - located in Old Town San Juan - great place and the only microbrewery in Puerto Rico per my research. I had the Old Harbor Brew Pale Ale which was a solid contender. My wife, Ashlee, went light with the Coqui Lager. She only drank half of it and I polished it off, of course, so I am checking it off the list as well. It actually was a very pleasing for a light-colored lager.

St. Kitts:

Carib Beer - Think of it as a poor man's Red Stripe. Just like St. Kitts is a poor man's Jamaica. Excellent tropical lager brewed and bottled right on the island of St. Kitts (went by the brewery on a island tour - it was not much to look at). I think ice-cold light-colored lagers are only acceptable in warm tropical settings. I love Red Striple when I am in Key West (and avoid them when I am at home) and I had enough Caribs in St. Kitts and the next day in St. Maarten to say I love them when I am in the Caribbean.

Caribbean Sea:

Flying Dog In-Heat Hefeweizen - I ordered this craft beer on board the cruise ship since it was the only microbrew available via room service. Not bad for a wheat ale. Flying Dog is a legendary microbrewery out of Maryland that has been popular for many years.

Big Bear Hunting in South Florida

After a bit of hunting on busy University Blvd. in the south Florida town of Coral Springs, I had dinner and a couple of microbrews at Big Bear Brewing. This restaurant/microbrewery is a beautiful establishment and had people waiting outside to dine there on a Saturday night. Fortunately for me and my young nephew, Matt, who was accompanying me, the bar had a few seats available with no wait. Without hestitation I, of course, went for the Hibernation Pale Ale first and foremost- and in a word - well, make it three words: just about perfect. Despite not being dubbed an IPA this "aggressive" American pale ale had a great hoppy aroma and taste with a smooth finish. Since they don't label it an IPA, I have no qualms in calling it the best American Pale Ale I have ever had....and I have had a bunch. I regretted my second choice almost as I ordered it. Their Kodiak Belgian Dubble has won many awards including gold at the 2002 Great American Beer Festival in Denver (kind of the World Series of Beer) and I am sure has it's fans, I just don't happen to be one of them, but in retrospect I don't personally care for the Belgian style of brewing that much anyway. I have given it lots of chances and it just doesn't work with my palette I guess. I don't mind a mild nut brown ale now and then, but this beer had a biting aftertaste to me that the nutty aroma and taste just couldn't hide and I just did not enjoy it that much - finished it, mind you - just didn't enjoy it. My 17-year-old nephew had two pints of the Bruin that was on tap - easy there, folks, it's just a root beer that is also brewed on-site - and obviously thought it was delicious. It had it's own tap handle and everything. Very cool. I am surprised these guys aren't spread out all over South Florida as a chain. They have been doing this since 1996 and yet Coral Springs remains their only location. Can't say I don't love finding local gems like this, it just surprises me.

SIDENOTE: Earlier in the day after getting knocked out of a poker tournament in 14th place (rats! so close! They only paid the top 7) at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino and Dining/Shopping Complex, I ambled up to the outside bar of the Renegade Barbecue Company and tried their Renegade Red Ale. Pretty standard fare and nothing really memorable about it except the cost - $6 for maybe 10 ounces served up in a plastic cup - good grief, Charlie Brown! What a joke! Avoid this place like the plague if you are ever in the area. Maybe they ought to stick to making BBQ.

3 of a Kind in a Full House

Three more quick entries that I tried over the past couple of weeks obtained from local grocery stores.

Black Dog Ale - I bought this six-pack at the local Publix to cushion the blow of a house full of in-laws coming up for the holidays. God I love 'em, but God they are loud. Decent beer with a bit of an aftertaste that would probably prevent me from buying anymore of it. It's produced by Montana's Spanish Peak's Brewing which according to their website has been on a bit of a hiatus until recently. Cool website and I do like their affiliation with The Humane Society.

1554 Enlightened Black Ale - I bought this six-pack at the Kroger in Mt. Juliet on my way to play in a Friday night tournament at the Poker Barn. Great taste and excellent finish (which is more than I can say for my results at poker that night). This is a New Belgium product which is more famous for it's Fat Tire craft beer which I am seeing more advertising about recently around this area. Haven't tried the Fat Tire yet, but I am definitely encouraged to do so based on the 1554 Ale. New Belgium is a thriving Colorado microbrewery.

Trader Jose Dark Lager - My wife, Ashlee, was kind enough to snag this six-pack for me on her visit to the newly-opened Trader Joe's Market in Nashville. She said they had an expansive beer selection, so I am looking forward to checking that out myself in the near future. This dark lager that is actually produced in Mexico was actually very good and reminded me a lot of Negro Modelo. I sure would love to be sitting on a Mexican beach somewhere with some of it on ice right now!

Alaska 2004 Remembered

I was looking through a photo album of a trip to Alaska that I took in 2004 with my good friends, Chris and Craig, when I came across two beer bottle labels that I saved from the trip. Granted, I don't remember a whole lot about the beer (other than it was pretty good or I would not have kept the labels), but it was such a wonderful trip that I felt this blog entry was a great way to honor it.

The first label was from a bottle of Alaskan Oatmeal Stout from the Alaska Brewing Company in Juneau. The second was a Kodiak-Brown Nut Brown Ale which indicates that it was brewed and bottled in Salt Lake City by Uinta Brewing Co. for Midnight Sun Brewing of Anchorage, Alaska then shipped to Alaska where I bought it. Strange. I should also pay tribute to a great pizzeria and brewpub in Anchorage that we visited that I fondly remember (and have a T-shirt from) called The Moose's Tooth which draws it's name from a famous rock outcroppingo on Mt. McKinley. Excellent food and beer including the one draught I remember having - The Pipeline Stout (also on the T-shirt).

A salute to Alaska and it's beer (even if it's brewed in Utah)!!

The Little Microbrewery That Could

Saturday, November 29th, 20,08

Since we were in Chattanooga for the Thanksgiving weekend, I was happy to find out that a relatively new microbrewery was giving tours during a holiday festival in the St. Elmo area. Moccasin Bend Brewing Company started a couple of years ago as a dream of a few local guys who shared a love of beer and developed an interest in home-brewing as well. The results are definitely coming to fruition as their product is being served regularly on tap at a few local restaurants already and in bottles in a local grocery store. The "tour" of their "facility" wound up being about a dozen people huddled into their 400 sq. feet of warehouse space that looked more like a boys-club than a business. Despite their meager set-up and lack of space including this make-shift Igloo cooler-tap (photo above), their products were pretty darn good. We tried samples of six brews they had going including a smooth porter, a pumpkinseed ale, a hoppy pale ale they called Centennial, a very interesting ale made with juniper berries and a pumpkin-flavored seasonal ale. I got three pints with my $6 tour price and chose the juniper berry and two pours of the Centennial. Good luck to these guys and their little microbrewery that could. I hope to see and drink more of their success in the future. Check out their website for more information:
http://bendbrewingbeer.com/index.htm

Detroit BOCK City

My friend, Wayne, and I had a great little trip to Detroit over the Thanksgiving holiday to see the Titans hammer on the woeful Lions at beautiful Ford Field and after the game (and after a bit of searching) we found the Detroit Beer Company, a downtown microbrewery with a good reputation. It's a great little restaurant/bar built around the microbrewery itself. They had several brews on tap and I started with...what else...the IPA. The "Local 1529 IPA" to be exact. Excellent aroma, hoppy taste and finish. I moved on to "The Detroit Dwarf" next which they tout as their house special and it has a medal from The Great American Beer Festival to prove it. It's an interesting combination of lager and ale that I found light and refreshing, but the overall taste didn't blow me away. A good beer nonetheless. Third was the "People Mover Porter" (see photo above courtesy of Wayne's Blackberry) which was as dark as some of the scary alleys Wayne and I stayed away from while walking in downtown Detroit. It was much lighter than I was expecting and had a satisfying finish. I finished with...what else...another IPA which was a good as the first one and ranks high on my list of favorite microbrews I have encountered up until now.

Let's Go Krogering...again

Another snoop down the beer aisle of the Mt. Juliet Kroger revealed a couple more "ales of interest" to me and I made the purchase. The first was Moe's Backroom Amber Ale from Tap Room No. 21. Brewing (what an annoyingly long name). This brewery name seems to be complete BS and is actually brewed by City Brewing in Wisconsin. While their website says they are a quality regional brewery, the "plain brown wrapper" labeling and title with personalization (i.e. who the hell is Moe?) seems to be a clever ruse to trick the buyer into thinking it's a true microbrew...which it most certainly is not. The beer as well was lackluster and not worth a second look. Weak aroma and taste leads me to believe this is definitely a mass-produced bilge-water of a beer that you can get for a buck less a six-pack with a much shorter and more recognizable name called Bud.

And now for something on the positive side -- I give you Red Brick Peachtree Pale Ale (another long-named brew) from Atlanta Brewing in Charlotte, North Carolina (ha, ha - just making sure you are paying attention). Of course it's brewed in Atlanta, GA, and it's an actual microbrewery and Red Brick is a very good beer. Good body and nice aftertaste. Ashlee and I are headed to Atlanta next weekend for a concert and it would have been great to visit this little brewery, but they only run tours during the week (?). Goes the same with Sweetwater Brewing, another pretty good microbrewery in the Atlanta area that I have had a few swigs of in the past....what up, folks? don't you want tourists checking out your facilities and buying stuff on the weekends? Oh well, maybe they are spending their weekends perfecting their brews. If so, keep up the good work!