Triangle Beer

Tuesday, February 25 - I took a solo trip to Raleigh/Durham today to see my beloved  6th-ranked Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team take on the Virginia Tech Hoakies in the first ACC home game at the beautiful and historic Cameron Indoor Stadium (74 years old this year) that I've ever seen live.  My wife was scheduled to go with me, but a last-minute "important" work meeting got scheduled that she felt she couldn't miss...when it wound up being cancelled last-minute, boy, was she hot, and I can't blame her!  Sorry, hon.  I still had a fun time and even found some good beer while I toured around The Triangle.

DURHAM

Wow! Has it really been over 14 years since I've been inside Cameron Indoor Stadium?  

Before the game, I had lunch at Bull City Burger and Brewery where I had a draught pint of their Single Hop IPA: HBC462 (SHIPA # 3) which was OK.  English-style IPAs just aren't hoppy enough for me.  I opted for a hot dog instead of a burger and it was tasty, especially with their home-made spicy mustard.

Tyler's Restaurant and Tap Room has an impressive array of beers to choose from and they do half-pints which as I have said before in this blog I am a big fan of for several common-sense reasons.  I started with the Seeing Double IPA from Foothills Brewing over in nearby Winston-Salem, NC.  This is how an IPA is done!!  Hoppy to the max!  Per the knowledgeable bartender's advice I tried the Jade IPA next which is also made by Foothills Brewing.  This was one of the best beers I have had in a while.  Very unique with the hoppiness of a true American IPA but with a surprising citrus finish and lightness.   It was hard to stop at a half-pint on this delicious brew.  I finished with a "dessert" of Fat Charley's Raspberry Chocolate Stout (my wife would have loved this one) from Double Barley Brewing over in Smithfield, NC.  This imperial double stout was ultra-smooth with a nice finish.  Another great recommendation from the barkeep (to someone else, but I listened in).  Tyler's is definitely my favorite place in Durham to have a cold one.

It was on to the game and my long-awaited returned to the beautiful confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium on the elegant and impressive Duke University campus.  My hotel was only a mile away and the weather was tolerable enough for a walk there and back without any difficulty.

Krzyzewskiville was in full gear outside Cameron Indoor Stadium as students endure the cold, damp winter conditions for precious tickets to tonight's game and the upcoming regular-season ending showdown with those Baby Blue Tar Heels from UNC just eight miles away in Chapel Hill.

My seat behind the goal was perfect not only to take in the game,
but to see the antics of the Duke students (Cameron Crazies) as well.

Did I mention there were antics?

A post-game victory stroll was allowed on Coach K Court.  This was a very special experience for me because I don't remember being allowed to do this after games I have been to in the past and if so I missed out on it until now.

I stole this image from Duke's Facebook Page after the game.  This was the boys' fourth game in 11 days.

Wednesday, February 26 - I had most of a day to kill before my evening flight back to Nashville, so I decided to check out the rest of The Triangle...and, of course, some beer along with it.

CHAPEL HILL

I stopped by Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery at lunch time.  I didn't eat because I was still full from a huge, delicious chicken and cheddar biscuit at  the nearby Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen, so I had a couple of their half-pint concoctions instead.  I started with the Big Bertha Brown which was good and moved on to their award-winning Ram's Head IPA which was impressive.  This is a beautiful facility and Chapel Hill is a lovely little town.

OK, we got it...you hate Duke....why not just pull for your own team and move on?  While I enjoyed my Chapel Hill beer and the town itself, the venture into "enemy territory" sure felt like that and I was ready to leave soon after arriving.  But, hey, if we are gonna sling hate I just want all Tar Heel fans to know that I drove around your campus and took a look at The Dean Dome and had a good laugh.  WHAT AN UGLY MONSTROSITY!!! LMAO!!!  It looks like it was pieced together out of spare materials!!  I mean, seriously???  Brick walls, metal roofing and a stupid white mini-dome top??   What a joke!  You should be embarrassed to put a team on the floor in that laugher of a facility.  What a bunch of tools!

RALEIGH

I moved on to Raleigh next to finish the afternoon since I was flying from there later that day anyway.  This was my first time touring around the smallish state capital downtown, but it seems like a nice town.  That's my kinda silly-looking little rental car (a Chevy Sonic which actually drove pretty good) in front of  the huge cool globe at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.  I had to settle for a couple beer stops at two local draft houses.  I wanted to stop by a local brewery called Big Boss Brewing, but their tasting room didn't open until 4 PM.  I had a full pint of Hoptimist IPA from White Street Brewing over in Wake Forest, NC, with my lunch of Carolina BBQ sliders (yum!) at The Sawmill Taproom.  It wasn't bad.   I finished with a Deadeye Jack Porter that was smokey and delicious.  It's made by Lonerider Brewing here in Raleigh. Over near the airport later on I stopped at the Leesville Tap Room for my last pint of the trip.  It was the Peacemaker Pale Ale from Outlaw Brewing in Belgrade, Montana.  Not bad, but not my favorite of the trip.  With Southwest Airlines flying directly here now from Nashville, I definitely don't plan on waiting another 14 years to return to this area of great basketball and beer.

Local Beer and LP

2/18/14:  I had an unexpected bachelor evening in Nashville recently since my wife had to stay in Chattanooga with her mom who was in the hospital (dehydration, nothing serious), but she had to miss a concert we had planned on seeing together tonight, so I decided to go on alone and made an evening out of it with a couple new beer stops along the way:

The Hop Stop in East Nashville - this fairly-new draft house and growler filling station has an impressive 36 taps and also serve half-pints, a concept I love in terms of variety-tasting with lower caloric intake and the avoidance of a DUI.  I had the Basil Ryeman, a farmhouse ale from Tennessee Brew Works here in Nashville which was OK.  The beer was fine, but Belgium-style brewing is still not my favorite.  Next I had Randy's IPA from the Jubilee Brewing Company which is also here in Nashville.  This one was a disappointment to me in terms of IPA boldness and flavor.  I finished on a high note with the Werhner Von Brown Porter from Straight to Ale Brewing in Huntsville, AL, which was excellent.

Fat Bottom Brewing in East Nashville 

I finally made it to Fat Bottom!!  I was really impressed with the beautiful facility they have, and their beer has already become one of my local favorites over the past few years.  They were running a Tuesday-night special where if you ordered a burger, you got a free pint with it.  Serve it up!!  The burger was outstanding and the Java Jane Porter was spot on!  I will definitely be back to this great place for the food, atmosphere and excellent beer.

I finished the evening at classic Nashville venue, The Exit/In, to see one of my favorite singing voices in the business today:  a little ukulele-playing gal by the name of LP, who was opening for another band. Her solid 45-minute set was great, but since it was a school-night I didn't hang around for the opener, Kodaline, who I had never heard of anyway.  It was a fun evening.  I am sorry you missed it, honey.

A couple other local brews I had recently on different occasions included:

The Gerst Amber from Yazoo Brewing:  I am not a huge fan of malty German-style beers, but this one's pretty darn good!  It's a revival of a historic Nashville brewery that went defunct after prohibition and Yazoo has brought it back to life with the permission of the family that owns the recipe along with their still-remaining Gerst Haus German Restaurant here in downtown.  I had my first complimentary one over in East Nashville at a poster show that Yazoo was a sponsor of, and then I ordered another one at the new Barlines watering hole in the new Omni Hotel complex downtown before a concert at the Bridgestone Arena.  Well-done, Yazoo, on preserving good beer and Nashville history at the same time!

I also had a bottle of the Adam Bomb IPA from Blackstone Brewing here in Nashville at dinner the other night at Suzy Wong's House of Yum.  Blackstone just recently started bottling their beer and this one's a keeper!

The ATL, The Super Bowl and some NYC Beer

A road trip, an airline trip and a big TV event recently 

gave me the opportunity to try a few more new-to-me brews:

2/1/14: While in Atlanta for a weekend trip my friend, Rex, who's a beer lover as well, took me and my wife to The Optimist Oyster Bar and Seafood Restaurant.  The food was excellent as was their beer list from which I chose to have the Blind Pirate Double IPA from Atlanta's own Monday Night Brewing and a Grapefruit Harvest IPA from Abita Brewing down in Louisiana.  Both were excellent.

2/1/14:  We got home from Atlanta in time to catch most of The Super Bowl and I decided to crack open the appropriately-named Super IPA (bomber bottle) from Alpine Brewing in California.  This was a Christmas present from  my wife, Ashlee, and it went down very well with the beat down of the Denver Broncos by my childhood favorite team, the Seattle Seahawks.

Off to New York City

My wife and I took a quick trip to New York City for the Valentine's Day/Presidents Day holiday weekend and I was able to grab a nice selection of beers while in The Big Apple.

2/14/14:  Our first meal in NYC was at the famous Katz's Deli where they have their own Katz's Ale made for them by nearby Brooklyn Brewery.  It was delish along with our monster pastrami sandwiches and potato knishes. 

No beer here.  Just funny NYC temporary signage and a lot of snow!!

2/15/14 - While at dinner at Goat Town Restaurant,  I had a can of White Thai Witbier from Westbrook Brewing in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina and a draught of  Liquid Gold Belgian Pale Ale from Captain Lawrence Brewing in Elmsford, NY.  Both were tasty as was the food.

We rented an apartment on the Lower West Side while were there and just down the street they had a small corner market with a pretty impressive beer selection of which you could buy singles from six-packs (love that concept!).  In no particular order over the weekend I had the following all in bottles:

- Peak Organic Brewing's IPA from Portland, Maine
- Captain Lawrence Brewing's IPA.  Another selection from the Elmsford, New York brewer.
- Brooklyn Pennant Ale '55 (English Pale Ale)
- Flower Power IPA from Ithaca (NY) Beer Company

2/16/14:  Around the corner from the apartment was an English-style pub called Croxley's Ale House where I had the Blood Orange Pale Ale from Great South Bay Brewing  in Bay Shore, NY. The place had an OK beer selection and was crazy-crowded, but you can't beat the slogan on their menu (photo above).   Across the street (and much less crowded) is the Sigmund Pretzel Shop where I had Smuttynose Brewing's Winter Ale out of Portsmouth, NH and a taste of my wife's choice, the Michigan-based Founder's Brewing Breakfast Stout which was tasty.

Hawaii Beer

               My wife and I took a great trip to Hawaii recently, a place that's been high on our bucket list for a while now:           

I got the vacation started right with an early-morning (hey, the bar was open) Samuel Adams Rebel IPA at a Buffalo Wild Wings in the Atlanta airport as we waited for our flight to depart.

Hawaii has unbelievable beauty and a pretty good amount of craft beer!

My first beer in Hawaii on the island of Maui was this CoCoNut Porter in a can
from Maui Brewing out on the patio of our ocean-view condo.  My wife, Ashlee, opted for a mai-tai.  I bought a six-pack of this since we had a fridge along with a fairly worthless Primo Island Lager (Bombucha) that was actually produced in California.  I now refer to it now as "the PBR of Hawaii."

I love how this glass at Maui Brewing (just around the corner from where we were staying on Maui) says brewed "ON" Maui instead of "in."  It's the little things, you know?  This was their excellent Big Swell IPA that I had with a delicious lunch at their brewpub.  I also had a taste of my wife's choice of the Imperial CoCoNut Porter which was impressive also.   I had a Castaway IPA draught from Kona Brewing the next night at dinner while still on Maui and I've got to give it to Maui Brewing for overall taste and hoppiness when comparing the two.

In the hip little town of Haia on the island of Maui, Gene Simmons of KISS fame, is having a bar built.  I like the name and hope the "brews" are going to be good ones.  Need to come back and find out!

On to The Big Island as my UNTAPPED app indicates here.  We stayed at the beautiful Sheraton Kona Resort the first couple nights we were here and poolside I ordered a Fire Rock Pale Ale from nearby Kona Brewing Company which was pretty good.  I have had it before state-side.  I also had a Big Wave Golden Ale from Kona Brewing while at the ocean-side pool that I really liked.  It was actually hoppier than their IPA I had gotten over on Maui.

Volcanoes National Park selfie.  My giant head is blocking a beautiful sea arch.

On our way out of town, we stopped at the nearby and well-known Kona Brewing Company for lunch.  The food was excellent (a local fresh catch sandwich) and their beer samplers my wife and I had were tasty as well.   I had (from L to R) the Lavaman Red Ale, the Wailua Ale, the Black Sand Porter (my favorite) and the Hula Hefeweizen.

Over on the other side of The Big Island we had an early dinner at The Hilo Burger Joint where it was happy-hour and I got the Mehana Mauna Kea Pale Ale by Hawai'i Nui Brewing located right here in Hilo.  It was very good.  I also had a sip of the Hapa Brown Ale also from Hawai'i Nui that my wife ordered and I really liked it as well.  Too bad we didn't have time to visit this small microbrewery.  Maybe next visit, and there will be another I hope!

This was the "burger" I chose at The Hilo Burger Joint.  It's called a "loco moco bowl" which is a bun-less burger on top of two scoops of rice with an egg (scrambled per my choice) and doused in brown gravy.  It was heavenly and sinful all at the same time!

Really?  You live in Hawaii and you're gonna carry that kind of bad karma around?   It was still pretty funny though.

How can you not love a place where at sunset the breaking waves look like beer?

Holiday Beer

Here's a quick list of what I enjoyed

 over the 2013 Christmas/New Year's holidays:

Good People Brown Ale (Birmingham, AL) - (can) -   I gave a 6-pack Christmas gift to my brother-in-law and he gave me one in return.  Thanks, Andy!

Boulder (CO) Brewing Chocolate Stout draught at The Pharmacy Burger Bar in East Nashville

Blind Faith English IPA bottle from Magic Hat (VT) at home from the MJBC - last of a variety 4-pack

East India Pale Ale  in a can from Brooklyn (NY) Brewing at The Slider House in Nashville (where they only serve canned beer)

At our New Year's Eve party - Kentucky Bourbon Ale (bottle), Einstok Olgerid Iceland White Ale, Shake Chocolate Porter from Boulder (CO) (bottle), Lacto-Matic Milk Stout from Flat 12 Bierworks (IN) - (bottle), Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale from Wells & Young's Brewing (England) - (bottle), Accumulation Winter White IPA from New Belgium (CO)- (bottle)

Lily Flagg Milk Stout from Straight to Ale Brewing in Huntsville, AL, in a bottle at The Flying Saucer in Nashville

Deviant Dale's from Oskar Blue's (CO)  in a pint can also at The Flying Saucer

1/5 - Moo Hoo White Chocolate Stout (Athens, GA) (bomber bottle).  This VERY limited production was a surprise Christmas stocking stuffer for my wife, Ashlee, who loves their regular Moo Hoo.  She was nice enough to share it with me one cold weekend along with some delicious chili she had made. Special thanks to Mike at the Mt. Juliet Beer Company for the hook-up.  Don't worry, Mike, no one reads this blog, so your secret is safe.

1/9 - I had a bottle of Shocktop Chocolate Wheat - Ann./Busch (MO) - (not bad for a mass-produced beer) and Snake Dog IPA from Flying Dog Brewing (MD) while playing poker locally here in Lebanon with a group of 9 other guys who invited me this year to play once a month for a chance to play in the WSOP Main Event.  I was eliminated from chance to play in the 2014 World Series, but came in 3rd in points overall, so not bad for my first year, and I get a small piece of the winner if he happens to cash at the event in July.  Can't wait to give it another whirl this year!

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.