beers of the east coast

On my recent vacation to the DC area I tried as many different east coast beers as I could find. I generally went for pale-ales -> some were hoppy (smuttynose), some weren't (fire rock), all were good. My favorite was probably the Starr Hill Amber Ale, which was quite refreshing on a hot day at Monticello.

Amber Ale - Starr Hill , Charlottesville VA

Rugged Trail Ale - Troegs, Harrisburg PA

Black&Tan - Yuengling, Pottsville PA

Shoals Pale Ale - Smuttynose, Portsmouth NH

Chesapeake Pale Ale - Alewerks, Williamsburg VA

Fire Rock Pale Ale - Kona, Hawaii by way of Portsmouth NH

Pale Ale - Chownings Tavern, Willamsburg VA

Pale Ale - O'Connells Pub, Alexandria VA

Other beer tried but not pictured

Dominion Pale Ale - Old Dominion, Ashburn VA

Raison D'Etre - Dogfish Head, Milton DE
Lucky Kat - Magic Hat, Burlington VT
Pale Ale - American Cafe, Alexandria VA

he's whooped every man in the parrish

Noel and I had a laid back St. Patty's day. Lots of eating and drinking - veggie ruebens and black & tans. Possibly a little too much drinking for me. The trick about black & tans is that you can't drink just one. I used the upside down spoon trick, which worked well enough the first time - second time (shown below) - not so good. Might have to invest in a Bass Brolly for next year. Noel was supposed to be drinking Smithwicks - but I ended up drinking that too.

To cap of the evening we watched "Darby O'Gill and the Little People". As King Brian sings in the Wishing Song:

"Singing's no sin

And drinking's no crime

If you have one drink only

Just one at a time"

this week in beer news

3 items of interest

1) My american-style lager of choice Miller High Life is running 1-second ads at the superbowl, which goes along well with their unpretentious philosophy.

2) The aluminum can turned 50 last Friday. I am going to go out on a limb and say this invention truly improved life for mankind.

3) Since Jason already announced the legislative bid towards ridding the alcohol ban in Nebraska's state parks - I'll just go ahead and mention that there are just 37 days left until EXTREME BEERFEST!

Holiday Gift 12-Pack - Holiday Porter

I apologize for missing last week. I had a cold and consequently my taste buds were not working properly. So I will have to do 2 next week to get them done in time before xmas.

This week I tried the Holiday Porter. Porter yes / Holiday maybe. It was a good porter. I could definitely taste the chocolate malt that they used, but that was the only nonbeer flavor I got out of it - so if by Holiday they mean chocolate then I guess the name fits. All the same it wasn't overly chocolately - just a hint. Good mouthfeel, moved across the tounge like sandpaper. Good balance, robust but not thick, light enough to be able to drink a few. All in all a descent beer.

Holiday Gift 12-Pack - Cranberry Lambic

The tasting continues, this time with the Cranberry Lambic. After reading the description on the bottle, which described it as more or less a wheat beer with cranberry juice and after hearing from others about this beer - I went in with low expectations. The beer had that phenolly smell I associate with belgian beers, especially the lambics. The taste on the other hand was not what I expected. It was almost creamy / fruity but not overpowering. I only really noticed a subtle cranberry flavor on the back of the tounge and in the aftertaste. The body was lighter like a good wheat beer, but without the normal yeastyness. If pushed to describe the mouthfeel I'd go for tangy. Color => Red. I liked it, could easily drink a 6er, but probably wouldn't seek it out as I am not a big lambic fan, and I prefer NB frambozen over this.

Holiday Gift 12-Pack - Old Fezziwig

Noel's dad is a huge Sam Adams fan - basically that is all he drinks anymore when it comes to beer. So after seeing that Sam Adams had a holiday gift 12-pack of "winter classics" for sale, we bought him one as an improptu christmas gift idea. Of course then we found out that he had also seen the gift 12-pack and bought himself one. So not wanting to let the beers go to waste - I decided to not only drink them, but share them here as well.

There are 6 different beers in the 12-pack and 5 weeks till christmas. Since everyone should know what regular Sam Adams tastes like I am going to skip it and describe one of the remaining "winter classics" each week. Feel free to buy your own 12-pack and add your comments.

OLD FEZZIWIG ALE

Starting off dark, which I am guessing is going to be the start of a trend. This beer verges on a porter but is not quite that dark. Good body - roughish mouthfeel - sits somewhere between a traditional brown and porter for my palate - but with a creamy aftertaste. The beer toutes having orange peel, cinnamon, and ginger spices, which are just barely noticible. I think I tasted a little cinnamon. I maybe would have liked a little more spice flavor to settle my own curiosity, but would be wary of too much more. This beer has a little higher alcohol content at 5.8abv, however I would never have guessed it. A nice and filling beer that would be good for the holidays.

On a side note - I kinda wish I would have waited till later on this beer. From the description on the bottle, this beer should be very similar to the holiday ale I am currently making. Would have been curious to try them side by side (I had to drink both bottles to properly assess the Fezziwig ale), which means I may have to buy another holiday 12-pack.

BEER < GAS????

Thanks Brian for the forward!

I actually saw this T-shirt when on my honeymoon last November (our layover flight was in Milwaukee). I almost bought it, but after careful consideration - resisted.

At the time I was thinking - IT IS!!! $3 for a gallon of gas, $2 for an Old Style at the bar.... Then I started thinking more deeply on it (it was a 3hr layover). Really comparing a gallon of gas to a pint of beer isn't a fair comparison. Granted you can't get very far with only 1 of each, but it takes 13gallons to fill my tank and if I had that many at the bar - I wouldn't get home.

So I did some math. My favorite cheapest of the cheap beers is the High Life. In my book, the champagne of beers provides the best bang for the buck. Last time I bought High Life it was ~$12 for a 30 pack of cans. Doing the math that comes down to ~$12 for 2.8gallons or $4.26/gallon of beer.

Currently the price of gas in these parts is around $3.25/gallon. I can't recall the highest it has gotten, but I know we haven't broke the $4 mark yet. Now I realize other parts of the country have had higher gas prices than Nebraska, but they pay more for their beer too. Therefore, I predict it will take 1 more year before beer is actually cheaper than gas!

Omaha Beer Props

So I'd fallen behind in my "beer of the day" desk calendar and decided to play catch up today. Apparently Sunday, April 6th was dedicated to a nearby brewery - Upstream in Omaha. It was nice to see a familiar place as most of the beers listed on the calendar hail from the west coast and don't make it this far east.

To be honest I'm not sure if I've ever had their Firehouse ESB. One of these days I'm going to have to make it a point to stop by and get a sample of all their beers. From the description on my calendar the Firehouse ESB sounds like citrusy sugary goodness. I learned an other thing from my calendar as well. Apparently the Old Market Upstream building was a Firehouse at the turn of the century - makes sense.

On a side note - anyone know what's up with Jobber's Canyon? The rumor I heard was that they were just catering now, but their website makes them sound open.

EXTREME BEERFEST

EXTREME BEERFEST is tomorrow and beertopia has posted the list of the some 90 beers they will be serving. I'm only familiar with a few off the list so I decided to pick my top 10 favorites by the merit of their name alone, which will go down on my must try list. I believe they will be supplying a program, so I'll hopefully be able to make a more informed decision tomorrow on the rest of the beers I will be drinking.

Mac Queen’s Nessie
La Terrible
Boulevard Smokestack Series - Sixth Glass
Delirium Nocturnum
Carlsberg Elephant
Old Engine Oil Special Reserve
Gonzo Porter
Old Foghorn
Smoked Goosinator
Great Divide Old Ruffian
Batch 1000 – Upstream

Yeah I know there's 11 listed there - I couldn't decide.

The Sexiest of Beers

As my computer was grinding away on this project I'm working on today, I decided to do a quick internet search for "valentines" and "beer" given the holiday. To my surprise an article by Michael Jackson (the late world renowned beer authority -> not the singer) popped up titled "In search of the sexiest brew". It's a humorous article that provides some interesting info on the history of chocolate, cherry and honey flavored beers. Although MJ does not crown a "sexiest beer", my vote would be for the one that gets her drunk.

Wet Your Whistle

Today's beer fact comes from my handy dandy daily beer calendar. 'English pubs used to bake a whistle into the rims of their beer mugs as a way for customers to order more beer, hence the phrase, "wet your whistle."' I am going to superglue a whistle to my beer mug at home and see if Noel brings me another beer.

BAS Bimonthly Belgian Brew - Chimay Rouge

Tonight the Belgian American Society of Omaha Nebraska will have it's inaugural bimonthly belgian beer tasting. This month is Chimay Premiere.
References:
http://www.chimay.com/
The Brewmaster's Table by Garrett Oliver

Beer of Today - Kasteel

So I got this "Beer of the Day" desk calendar the other day from Barnes and Noble. It was on clearance for $3 and I needed a calendar for my desk at work anyways, so I figured why not. Today's the first day I've used it and found a beer I recognize from the stores but have never tried - so I decided to do some snooping.

Kasteel is a blonde beer that has all kinds of fruity / nutty / clovey flavors and packs a punch at 11%abv. It is brewed in Ingelmunster, Belgium ina castle that dates back to 1075. The castle was built on the ruins of a monastery inhabited by English monks in 640. They only started brewing in the castle in 1986, but the brewery dates back to 1900.

The thing I found most interesting about the brewery is that it's only a couple miles from the home-towns of both of my great-grandparents, Meulebeke and Oostrozebeke. Seeing as how I probably have distant relatives who drink the stuff on a regular basis, I am definately going ot have to give it a try. Check out their website!

Hop Crisis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did any of you see the hop shortage article in the Omaha World Herald yesterday? Apparently hop prices have gone up about 8-fold lately. I remember hearing there was fear the price of beer was going to go up. This was a while back though, not too long after that fire that burnt down a huge hop warehouse somewhere in the pacific northwest. After not noticing any changes I kinda forgot about it, but it looks like it's going to happen. The big boys aren't really going to be affected, but seeing as how I pretty much only drink ale's anymore, I guess I'll be forking out some extra cash.

Fortunately there hasn't been much change in price for homebrew kits yet. Kirk's kits went up a couple of bucks recently, but that only amounts to about 4cents a beer. If homebrew prices stay the same and store bought prices go up I might have to get another keg.

Follow Your Folly

For whatever reason beer has become my new hobby. Probably just one of those inevitable things in life. My work, on the other hand, is water resources engineering. So to kick off my new blog, which will most likely be filled with beer and environmental related info, I thought I'd do a post on my favorite brewery.

New Belgium of Fort Collins, CO makes great beer with green technology. They have a related website called Follow Your Folly, which features all kinds of grassroots stuff and is worth a gander. I joined team wonderbike, although I've been slacking of late with the icy weather.