Racers, Pacers and Beer

May 25 - 27: 

I returned to the Indy 500 this year with my friend, Mike, who hadn't been before. 

We had a great time and found some good beer along the way. 



Our first stop Saturday, May 25, on the drive up to Indianapolis was for lunch (and beer) in New Albany, Indiana, just across the Ohio River from Louisville, KY. One of my favorite regional microbreweries is located there, New Albanian Brewing, and their food is outstanding as well. I tried a half-pint of their new Naughty Girl Blonde IPA and it was great. I followed that with my favorite of theirs, a half-pint of the Hoptimus Imperial IPA. As you can see from the label above, NABC continues with their stunning artwork on their products as well. Get some T-shirts already, folks!!!

Once we got to Indy and settled in to our hotel in the northeast suburb of Carmel, we found a new, small microbrewery nearby called Union Brewing.  These guys have only been open since December 2012, but they know what they are doing.  They only serve cask-conditioned beer and I tried a half-pint of their Sassy Pants Porter which was infused with sassafras.  Interesting and tasty.  Next I got a half-pint of one of their guest taps, the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale from Lexington Brewing, which is one of my regional favorites.


  Sunday, May 26 - RACE DAY and GAME DAY!!



We opted for infield general admission tickets for the race, and they were fine.  We saw plenty of racing action from several different aspects.  The weather held out perfectly for us.



Yep, that's him! The one and only Mario Andretti who nearly ran over my foot in his golf cart, but was kind enough to let us take a few pictures as he waited for traffic to clear after the race.

What a great sporting day it was in Indy today!  First the Indy 500 won by Tony Kanann (under caution..boo!!) and then Game 3 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals as the Pacers took on the Heat.  It turned into a blow-out for the Heat, but our last-minute StubHub.com seats were nice and it was a great experience.



Hey, it's Stephen A. Smith!  It was cool that the security folks let us mingle around near the hardwood before the game.



I am not his biggest fan, but there is no denying he's one of the best to ever play the game and to see "King James" in person was a treat.



Great seats!  And not overly priced.

NBA on TNT filmed live after the game out in the lobby of Bankers Life Fieldhouse.  It was another treat to see legends like Shaq, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley up close and personal.

Monday, May 26:  The drive home on Memorial Day was easy and smooth and we made good enough time to stop in Nashville for a late lunch at Drifter's BBQ where I had a Fat Bottom IPA with my meal.  The beer is from a new East Nashville brewery just around the corner from this eatery.



More updates and a shocking discovery in terms of light beer...

Here's a few more updates including a trip down to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where an actual use for light beer was discovered by me and my wife, Ashlee. 

By the way, can you take me to the airport?


Never mind...I got a ride.

3/2/13: Before a Pink concert in downtown Nashville tonight, I had a draught of Turtle Anarchy (love the name) Stout from nearby Franklin, TN, with dinner at Puckett's Grocery.   I have been wanting to try it for some time and it's been sold out at two other places I asked for it.  It was pretty darn good. 
I would like to give them a visit someone soon at their taproom over in Williamson County.

3/5/13:  On another jaunt into downtown Nashville I had a bottle of Barrel Trolley Nut Brown Ale (World Brews out of California) with dinner at Music City Flats in Nashville.  Not too bad, but nothing to crow about.  This World Brews place sounds kind of like a mass-producer/faux micro-brewer.



3/16/13:  I started St. Patty's Day off right with this lovely pint of Malacai Irish Red Ale  (beautiful color!) from The Terminal Brewhouse in Chattanooga out on their patio with a bad case of spring fever.

3/16/13: Tradition was not forgotten on St. Patty's Day as I made sure to have a shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey and a Guinness before lunch at the fancy burger shop called Urban Stack in Chattanooga.

3/16/13:  We finished up St. Patrick's Day in Chattanooga with a show at The Tivoli to see our favorite comedian, Jim Gaffigan, who we also met backstage.  After the show we headed back to The Terminal and I had a Dead Sexy Scottish Ale.  While we were there, who should show up?  None other than Jim Gaffigan (per our suggestion by the way!)



3/17/13: It was hair-of-the-dog time the day after St. Patty's Day with a lovely draught of Highland Brewing's (Asheville, NC) Devil's Britches IPA draught at The Brewhaus in Chattanooga.

Some other newbies (to me) over the past couple months include:

-  New Albion Ale (special from Sam Adams) bottle, this was the last one from the Mt. Juliet Beer Company (MJBC) variety four-pack I mentioned in the previous blog entry.

- Blackheart IPA at Bosco's in Hillsboro Village in Nashville, their seasonal special draught.  Lovely.

- A couple Third-Shift Amber Lager bottles.  They were complimentary with our VIP tickets to the  Better Than Ezra show at The Cannery in Nashville.  It was pretty good beer, but the band was better!  After a little research I found out that this beer is a faux-micro produced by Coors.  Figures.

- Got a half a liter (half a growler) of Calfkiller Brewing's (Sparta, TN) Scorched Hooker (Black IPA) draught from MJBC to watch Duke play in the Sweet 16 on  3/29/13.  While I was at MJBC, I picked up another variety 4-pack to take to a new monthly poker game here in Lebanon that I started attending in April.  All of these were good.

Brooklyn Dry Irish Stout in a bottle
Southern Tier (Lakewood, NY) Eurotrash Pils(ner) in a bottle
Harpoon (Boston) Chocolate Stout
Rogue (Oregon) Dry-Hopped St. Rogue Red Ale

At the second poker game in May I had:

Good People (Huntsville, AL) IPA in a can
Good People Pale Ale in a can
Red Hook (Washington and NH) Audible Ale in a bottle
Kona (Hawaii) KoKo Brown in a bottle

Again, all were worth drinking.

4/20/13: I had a Jai Alai IPA draught from the local Cigar City Brewing during a layover in Tampa, Florida, on my birthday on the way to Puerto Rico.  Also had a Goose Island (Chicago) IPA draught.

OK, and now for the big news regarding LIGHT BEER.....I have actually found a decent use for it!!!

It can actually be used in a cocktail called "The Shandy" that I discovered while in Puerto Rico at our hotel restaurant...on the breakfast menu nonetheless.  Basically, it's a "redneck mimosa."  The simple recipe is light beer, citrus soda, ice and a lemon wedge.  Since the only Puerto Rican beer I could find was Medalla Light, a local pilsner, I ordered The Shandy with low expectations.  It was actually pleasantly refreshing.  For more on The Shandy see the link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandy



My wife and I made our own Shandies to take to the beach in Puerto Rico thanks to a Wal-Greens right around the corner that sold everything we needed including a 12-pack of Medalla Light in cans. The perfect beach drink.



Update Time!

It's been a while since I posted any beer-related happenings,
so here's a quick run-down of the past few months:

Saturday, December 1, 2012:  I had a draught of Chattanooga Brewing's Winter Warmer Iphoto above) at Good Dog in Chattanooga. I also had a Magnum PA (IPA) at Terminal Brewing in Chattanooga later that same evening.

I had a Monkeynaut IPA in a can at Taco Mac in Chattanooga.  It's made by Straight to Ale Brewing out of Huntsville, Alabama, and I was very impressed.  Along with the excellent Blue Pants Brewing,  Alabama has stepped up mightily in the craft beer race.  It's about time, Bama!

I had a Left Hand Brewing (Colorado) Fade to Black Ale draught and a Blue Pants Brewing (Madison, AL, just outside Huntsville) Coffee Stout draught at Brewhaus in Chattanooga.  This place has greatly improved since it opened a couple years ago.  They have much stronger beer list now including a great rotating set of taps, and excellent food.  Thank to my beer-loving friend, Nate, for re-introducing me to the place.

I have since returned to the Brewhaus and on my second visit I had Stone Brewing's (California, and my favorite U.S. brewery) Vertical Epic on draught as well as a Cold Mountain Winter Ale from Highland Brewing over in Asheville, NC.  Both were great.

I had a Sweetwater (Atlanta, and my favorite regional brewery) Slowryeder IPA draft at Urban Stack (great burgers) in Chattanooga.  Thumbs up!

I bought a four-pack of Green Flash (California) Friendship Brew in bottles that I got at Green Life Grocery in Chattanooga as a Christmas present to myself.  A great Belgian-style (not my favorite kind of beer brewing) farmhouse ale with tons of flavor.

I won a free growler of beer from the Mt. Juliet Beer Company as their Facebook friend of the week.  I chose the Black Betty Black IPA from another new local brewery set up in East Nashville's known as Fat Bottom Brewery.  It was delicious!

On a recent road trip south to see my beloved Duke Blue Devils take the hardwood against Florida State in Tallahassee, we stopped in the military-base town of Columbus, Georgia at the Cannon Brewpub located on the city's quaint square.  The beer was OK.  Nothing to get too excited about.  I had the seasonal Dinglewood Double Chocolate Banana Split Stout.  Despite the long and flavor-promising name, it wasn't really very special and a bit of a letdown honestly.  My wife and my friend, Mike, had their sampler paddle of beers.  none of which excited me, including a sip of the Special 'Ops IPA,  which, again, didn't do much for me.

Proof Brewing near the FSU campus in Tallahassee is a very cool beer bar with a strong, rotating draught and bottle beer list including a few of their own concoctions.  The bar is attached to a liquor store.  Talk about one stop shopping!  I had their "house" Guru IPA and it was excellent.

One other stop on the Duke road trip south worth mentioning was in Atlanta at The Vortex Grill,  We came for the food (which was awesome - great burgers), but I was also impressed with their beer list.  They are associated with Atlanta's Laughing Skull Brewing and I had one of their draught concoctions recommended on the menu called a Black Skull:  Half Left Hand (Colorado) Milk Stout and half Laughing Skull Amber Ale.  Yummy to the last drop!  I have got to come back to this place and try more of their nine different combos...and more of those burgers!!

When I picked up my free growler of beer at the Mt. Juliet Beer Company, I also bought a variety 4-pack of beers I had not had before.  I took three of  them to a local poker tournament and the winning continued as I chopped first place in it.  The three I had were:

Finch's Threadless IPA from Chicago - served in a pint can.  Loved it.
Lily Flagg Milk Stout - Straight to Ale Brewing - served in a 12 oz. can.  Another Alabama success!
Flying Dog Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout - served in a bottle and brewed with oysters.  Definitely different and not bad at all despite my lack of love for oysters.

2/12/13 - In my first attended game of the shortened NHL season this year, I saw a thrilling overtime win of 1-0 for my beloved Nashville Predators over the San Jose Sharks.  I had a Yazoo Dos Perros and a Yazoo Pale Ale at the game to keep it local and Nashville-loving.

Jamaica Time for some beer?

My wife and I took a quick trip down to Jamaica for New Year's and while the beer diversity is not great there, I did have some nice experiences with the local brews.

It was our first stay at an all-inclusive resort which meant our first wet bar in the room and a bunch of Red Stripe in the fridge restocked every other day!  Yea, mon!!

A salute to Jamaica looking out of our room and onto Bloody Bay.

Dead Jamaican soldiers' gravestones...

Red Stripe Light w/ Lime. OK, not the greatest beer in the world, but having it at Rick's Cafe on the high bluffs overlooking the beautiful blue water in Negril, Jamaica, made it taste a lot better.

The only other decent choice at Rick's was Guinness Foreign Extra Stout which is brewed right here in the Caribbean and is not as good at the original in my humble opinion, but again it's hard to beat the backdrop.



5 Seasons and the Start of Another

November 13 - 14, 2012

I  took a quick trip down to Atlanta to catch my favorite team, the Duke Blue Devils, in a huge match-up with the Kentucky Wildcats to kick off the 2012/13 college basketball season.  Thanks to my long-time friend and past contributor to this blog, Craig, for going along with me (even though he's an NC State fan) in place of my wife, Ashlee, who was staying with her mother due to illness.  Since Craig is a fan of good beer as well, we made sure to incorporate a bit of that into our trip as well.

We toasted the trip the night before at my house with a couple of pints of Bearwalker Maple Brown from Jackalope Brewing in Nashville.  I had gotten a growler of it at the Mt. Juliet Beer store after trying it at a new local establishment the day before called JB's Pour House over on the east end of Hermitage.  I also had a pint of Jackalope's Thunder Ann Pale Ale while at JB's.  While it's a nice place overall, and they boast at having 36 beers on tap, other than the Jackalope products, I can't say I was overly impressed with JB's overall selection.  That's too bad since I just heard our local WOW Wingery is closing in November 2012 which is very sad. That's the place where my friend Nate and I got our photos on the wall for drinking 50 different beers.  The owner and our friend, Brad, took great strides in bringing good craft beer to the area and we are going to miss it.  The place is becoming a "Piranhas Bar & Grill" and supposedly Brad will still be a partner and is going to try and keep the good beer vibe going, but we shall see since the Piranhas in downtown Nashville is terrible in terms of beer selection.

On to Atlanta....

I got a great rate at the downtown Hilton and it was just a quick cab ride over to the Taco Mac that is built into the Phillips Arena next door to the Georgia Dome where the game was being played for some pregame food...and beer...of course.  Taco Mac has an amazing selection of beer on draft and always something new and interesting. On this visit I had the Rogue Yellow Snow IPA (excellent!) and then Atlanta's own Red Brick Brewing offering, the Hoplanta IPA (also very good).  I had a sip of Craig's order, the Vanilla Gorilla Smoked Porter also from Red Brick and it was very tasty.



They closed off half the Georgia Dome in Atlanta to make a fairly intimate
early-season college basketball setting for the State Farm Champions Classic. 
Tickets were reasonable and we also got to see a great match-up of
Kansas vs. Michigan State in the first game for the same price with
MSU pulling the upset in a close game down to the wire.

It was cool to see ESPN's College Gameday broadcasting live before, during and
after the game.  In this shot analysts, Digger Phelps, (left) and Duke's own. Jay
Bilas, discuss one of the two games going on.  We even got on TV a bit as
Craig's family spotted us in the background a couple times during the pregame show.



Our seats were decent at about 50 rows from the court and on the aisle.  Except for the one annoying UK fan behind us, it was a nice set-up.

The win was sweet as a Duke fan especially given the fact that the place was overrun with UK fans and the especially-rude one behind us got a nice big serving of "Shut Up" delivered hot and fresh to him.




A little bonus we found on the way home in north Atlanta was the Big Wood Forest Preserve in the suburb of Sandy Springs.  We took a great morning hike through this lush and surprisingly large suburban oasis.



Our true reason for being in Sandy Springs was to have an early lunch (and a couple brews) at 5 Seasons Brewing before heading back north.  This is a nice brewpub with a large patio and deck that I am sure stay busy in the warmer months.  I had their seasonal Pumpkin Head Lager which was pretty good followed by a room-temperature serving (they were having cooler issues this morning) of the Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale which was actually very good.  Thanks to Groupon.com for the deal that brought us here as well that got us 4 beers and two appetizers for half price.

Dead Buffalo Soliders

October 20 - 22, 2012

Some friends and I recently took our 3rd Annual G.A.M.E. (Grown-Ass Man Extravaganza) trip to see the Tennessee Titans play on the road way up in Buffalo, New York.  We checked out Niagara Falls while we were in the area while staying just across the Canadian border.  There was also some pretty good beer found along the way as well.



Syndicate Brewing in Niagara Falls, Ontario, is a great little brewpub and was just a few minutes from our hotel.  Their Sinister Sam IPA was very good.  Their seasonal Pumpkin 3.14 (Pi - get it) was decent as well.  Their food was outstanding.  I know buffalo wings are famous just south of here, but the ones here are pretty darn good.



Go Titans and the MINIVAN BAR is now open!  Tailgating was a lot of fun in the suburban setting of Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, NY,  just outside Buffalo.  Notice the growler of Sinister Sam IPA"smuggled" back across the border from Canada among several other libations.

 

We took a ride on the famous Maid of the Mist to get an up-close and soggy look at Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of Niagara.  Even our rain ponchos were in support of breast cancer awareness.

After the game we decided to find some of the edibles that make Buffalo famous.  They say there are none better than at Duff's and I have to agree.  They were excellent.



The view from our room at the Double Tree Fallsview was pretty spectacular.  We also got a chance to go up in the Skylon Tower, silhouetted in this shot, for a bird's eye view of Niagara Falls.



The game was a  thriller with the Titans pulling out a win at the end of the game by a score of 35-34.  Our lower-bowl end zone seats were pretty good and the Bills fans for the most part were pretty good folks to us. The weather couldn't have been much nicer.

On our way back to the airport in Buffalo for our trip home, we stopped at the Lake Effect Diner for brunch.  I heard of the place thru the great Food Network TV Show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and it totally met our expectations with great food, friendly service and even some good beer - I had a bottle of the Oktoberfest Lager from Great Lakes Brewing over in Cleveland, Ohio, which was decent.

A few more beer notes:

I had a bottle of Lakefront Brewing's (Milwaukee,, WI)  Fixed Gear Red Ale at the Midway Airport in Chicago on our connection going to Buffalo.  It was OK.

Thanks to my friends Wayne, Chris and John for coming along on the trip.  Can't wait to do it again next season!

To San Fran and Back Again - A west coast trip and other updates

We took a trip out San Francisco plus a bit more of Northern California with several friends over the Labor Day weekend for an early celebration of my wife's birthday.  I had a few beer highlights on the trip but not as many as I planned since I just didn't have time to visit too many brewpubs while in the area.

On our first night there we had dinner at Magnolia Pub & Brewery on famous Haight Street near our rental house.  Their speciality was Belgium-style beers which I have said many times are not my favorite.  But I did try their Tillies Union Ale on tap which was decent.  They also had some "guest" taps and I tried the Bombay by Boat IPA draught by Moonlight Brewing over in Santa Roza and it was great.

A few other new-to-me beers that I had while on the trip was Stone Brewing's Cali-Belgiaque IPA at NOPA Restaurant.  I split this pint bottle with our friend, Roman, who lives out here which was good because I wasn't crazy about it.  I had a bottle of Napa Brewing's Lost Dog Red Ale at Napa Valley Burgers after a bicycle ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to the lovely seaside town of Sausilito.  It was decent.  On our last day there I had a bottle of California's Marin Brewing's IPA at Q Restaurant and Wine Bar, a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives recommendation.  The food was excellent and the beer was pretty good.

A couple of non-beer related items of late worth noting include:

I was able to catch a show from actor and comedian, Jay Mohr "(Bob Sugar is a child!") at Zanies Comedy Club in Nashville on Tuesday, September 25.  Thanks to my friend, Danny, for going with me as he filled in for my wife, Ashlee, who couldn't make it since she was in Chattanooga with her ailing mother.

I also attended the SOLD OUT Henry Rollins' show at The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville on October 12.  This was Henry's stop in Tennessee's capital for his Capitalism Tour which hit every U.S. capital before election day.  Whether you agree with his politics or not, you have to admire a spoken word artist who can go 2 hours and 40 minutes without an intermission or even a sip of water.  Amazing!  Thanks to my friends Mike and Wayne (filling in for Ashlee again) for attending with me.

Hill City IPA @ Good Dog, Chattanooga, TN
November 2, 2012.  Very hoppy!