On Saturday, Ray and I and our two lovely friends LeeAnne and Ryan battled the bone-numbing cold to partake in High Street Grill’s Second Annual Winterfest. Drawn by promises of 40 different beers from 20 breweries, we were ready to sample til our hearts’ content — well, sample for 1 3/4 hours at least.

High Street offered 2 sessions –  one at 1 PM and the other at 3 PM — located in the enclosed and heated tent behind the restaurant in the municipal parking lot. And while there are MAJOR bonus points for keeping the tent nice and toasty, there were definitely two problems:

1. The 1 PM session, which we attended, was severely overcrowded. And unfortunately, overcrowded with a fair amount of people in their twenties who acted like loud, beer-swilling buffoons. The latter was not High Street’s problem (no fest organizer interviews ticket buyers to see if they are of the right “caliber”), however, getting a larger tent (and more room) would have made this an excellent fest, rather than simply good.
2. 1 3/4 hours for 40 samples just isn’t enough time. Factor in a supremely crowded space, and it’s damn near impossible to hit all the tables, chat with the brewers/brewery representatives and take thorough tasting notes. Sorry, we weren’t there to guzzle beer sample after beer sample; we were there to find new beers, chat with the breweries, and introduce our soon-to-be-homebrewing friend Ryan to a beer festival. If High Street could have swung two sessions that were at 12 PM and 3 PM, that might have worked out to everyone’s benefit.

But enough about the crowd. Let’s talk about the beers!

It was nice to see the Philly Metro area’s usual suspects: Victory, Sly Fox, Troeg’s and Yards. But what was even better? Drinking a sample of Oskar Blues’ Gordon, sipping some of Founder’s Imperial Stout, and snagging a pour of Left Hand’s Fade to Black seasonal. Notice something? These breweries are from Colorado, Michigan and Colorado, respectively. San Diego metro-based Stone Brewing was pouring some crowd favorites, Oaked Arrogant Bastard and the Pale Ale, while Fort Bragg Calif.’s North Coast Brewing Co. had samples of Red Seal and the wickedly delicious Old No. 38 on tap.

But back on our side of the Mississippi, it was great to see Jersey’s Riverhorse pouring the Oatmeal Milk Stout (one of our all-time favorites), as well as the Belgian Freeze, which was perfect for the weather. Our buddies from Stoudt’s were across the tent, pouring generous glasses of Old Fat Dog imperial oatmeal stout (nothing beats the Dog, nothing!) and the Winter Ale, which is a hoppy red for this season (we have a partially-decimated sixer chilling in our fridge currently). I got to chat with amicable Mike of Stoudts, where we had a Twitter connection — he had noticed me tweeting about the fest and how Ray and I recently got married at their brewery, so upon meeting there was an “Oh it’s you!” moment. Very cool. Great guy, phenomenal beers.

Major props have to go to the fellas manning Flying Dog’s table: up for grabs were the Gonzo imperial porter (soooo rich and chocolatey) and Raging Bitch, a Belgian-style IPA for their 20th anniversary that was so many kinds of right. Now, when going for my first Doggie sample, I snagged the porter, which I had yet to taste. The guys were telling me about the Bitch, and I said I would come back. Well, by the time I had the chance, the breweries were signaling the end of the session. Now, I’m not one to usually pull the girl card, but I wrestled through the crowd to get back to FD’s table. I met the guys with a small smile and signaled “just a little” towards my glass. They smiled and kindly gave me a half-pour so I could finally see what all the rage was about –  and let me tell you, it was good. Despite the wild name, the beer is balanced with its sweetness and hoppiness. A really nice end to the day.

However, I think the highlight of the entire fest had to be Boaks Beer, which we had never heard of — and they’re even from NJ! Boaks had 3 taps to offer: Monster Mash, a Russian imperial stout; 2 Blind Monks, a Belgian dubbel; and Abbey Brown, a Belgian brown ale. Ray, Ryan and I made quick work of this, each getting a different sample. I found Monster Mash to be a little odd — something about the nose. 2 Blind Monks was nice, but I think my sample of Abbey Brown stole the show, with a funky nose and little sourness in the mouth.

Following the fest, we wandered up and down High Street, where the annual Fire & Ice fest was taking place. It was fascinating to see the various ice sculptures, but I think this one takes the cake.

LeeAnne rocks the plunger

I bet that's cold on the butt

After this photo, we all had AMAZING cake and coffee at Robin’s Nest. `Cuz that’s what you do after festing on the coldest day in January.

Brewfests, Craft Beer 1 Comment »

In Part I, I covered our visits to Great Divide, Boulder Beer and Oskar Blues. Now, on to the remaining 4 breweries/brewpubs that we visited on our Denver honeymoon back in November:

Left Hand's tap room was PACKED!

Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont, CO: Ray and I are big fans of Left Hand’s Milk Stout, and because they were only a 15 minute drive away from the Tasty Weasel, we knew we had to drop by. The taproom was bustling, and it looked like they have a steady stream of regulars that keep the bar stools warm — always a pleasant thing to witness. I grabbed a table that reminded me of the octagonal lab tables I used to sit at in high school biology, and Ray ordered a sampler. Aside from the fantastic Milk Stout, we got to sample beers like Sawtooth Ale (ESB), Black Jack Porter, Polestar Pilsner, and Fade to Black — a Foreign Export Stout and new seasonal for the brewery.

Mountain Sun served up a fierce burger.

Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery in Boulder CO: It’s hard to recall Mountain Sun because it was the last stop on our whirlwind 4-brewery/pub day. We stopped in for dinner and the place was hopping! Ray wrestled his way over to the bar and returned with a Raspberry Wheat for me (I always like to check out the fruit beers and I needed something light after the day of drinking). Twenty minutes later we snagged a table and happened to mention we were honeymooning in Denver. This resulted in the bartender removing our first round of drinks from our tab, saying they were on him. Score!

I wish we had stopped by Mountain Sun a different day so we could have tried more of their beers; judging from their beer menu, they’re a pretty creative group there. The burgers we ordered were excellent, and most likely contributed to heartburn, but that was our own damn fault.

Wynkoop's gernerous sampler

Wynkoop Brewing Co. in Denver, CO: We had possibly one of our best meals of the week at Wynkoop, but before having dinner there, we had stopped in for a quick pint earlier in the week at the bar. There was a home game that day, and I found it interesting to watch Denver and Steelers fans sit shoulder to shoulder in the pub without even a sneer or growl (I’m used to Philly fans I suppose). We ordered the Mile HI.P.A and Monkeys Fist IPA and were pleased with both. Following up our hop bombs, Ray obtained a sample of Patty’s Chile Beer, which was surprisingly balanced and had just the right amount of chile.

A few nights later, we treated ourselves to one of the best dinners in Denver. I had the Venison Bourguignonne, braised in red wine with mushrooms and onions and served with mashed potatoes. The venison simply melted in my mouth and the sauce was delicious. But what topped that was Ray’s entree, the Colorado Lamb Sirloin. This dish is made with local lamb that has been marinated and grilled, served with a creamy mushroom risotto. Ray described it on the comment card as the single most perfectly prepared piece of meat he had ever had. A total show stealer, so much so that I can’t remember a lot about the beer we ordered. Ray had the Silverback Smoked Porter, which wasn’t too smoky and fairly balanced, and I — out of character — ordered the Drunkin’ Pumpkin ale.

Bull & Bush Pub & Brewery in Denver, CO: We visited the Bull & Bush our last night in Denver, after hearing how great the beers are. Though the pub’s exterior seemed to be more reminiscent of a German-style pub, the interior was most definitely English. I could have done without the multitude of flat screen TVs plastered all about, but we were here for the beer.

To get acquainted with Bull & Bush’s offering, we ordered a sampler that contained Big Ben Brown Ale, Stonehenge Stout, Allgood Ale (amber ale), The Tower ESB., Patio’s Vat-Dunkel Weiss and a couple others … probably an IPA of sorts. I really enjoyed the Big Ben Brown Ale, which had a lot more complexity than most browns — thick and chewy with molasses, pit fruit and toffee. Ray had the ESB to start, and I remember finishing the night with the MAN BEER, which was a citrusy IPA.

The night ended with us stepping out into more than 3 inches of snow, which was a bit of a shocker because less than 2 hours before the ground had been dry. Oh, and the rental car didn’t have any snow clearing equipment, so Ray used his corduroy coat to beat the snow off the car while I shivered in my snow-soaked Chucks. We laughed a lot on the car ride back to the hotel.

Breweries, Brewpubs, Craft Beer, Pubs, Restaurants Add Comment »

Whu— Oh, hey. Hey! Hey, wow, how’s it going? Yeah, I’ve been meaning to blog, it’s just been— I’ve been so busy with… work and… stuff. Well, hey, you look like you’re doing well! Ha ha…

I’m just gonna get to talking about this beer now, yeah?

Appearance: Light-to-golden amber. Very clear. Fluffy, bone white head. Lots of effervescence.

Nose: Tart berries. Cloves. Faintly alcoholic.

Taste: A perfect mix of sweet and tart. Hop bitterness takes a back seat to the tartness. Cloves, oranges, berries. Noticeable alcohol could stand to be masked a bit more, but doesn’t detract significantly.

Mouthfeel: Light to medium body, yet somehow slightly viscous, especially as it warms up. Coats the tongue. A little bit of an alcohol sting.

Overall: Not utterly hefeweizen-like, but there is just enough clove to at least suggest that it might have been a hefe in another life, maybe one that was born in Germany but raised in Belgium. The raisins are not as overt as we would have liked, but we love the tartness from the cranberries, which is assertive without completely drowning out the orange. The dryness could also prove to make this a great gateway beer for wine aficionados.

In a word, Hefe the ORC is totallyfreakingexcellentnoseriouslyguysholycrap. It’s results like this that make brewing such a fun hobby. It’s barely the hefeweizen we advertised it to be, but that’s fine, because Hefe the ORC has so much weirdness and complexity that we stopped caring what arbitrary style it fits into long ago. It’s simply a delicious and fragrant beer, and we could not be happier with it.

Homebrewing, Our Brew Days, Tasting 1 Comment »

When it came to planning our honeymoon, we decided Europe was out — we didn’t have enough time to do it justice — and a cruise was out because nothing left the same weekend as the wedding (there was NO way we were going back to work for a week!). So what to do?

Honeymoon in Denver.

Think about it: mountains, fresh air, great restaurants, and breweries and brewpubs. How does that not make for a great honeymoon for a couple of mountain-loving foodie homebrewers?

While in Denver, we visited:

Great Divide's bustling taproom

Great Divide Brewing Co. in Denver, CO: On our first full day in Denver we hoofed it over to Great Divide’s tap room and brewery. We were able to take a quick tour, sample a variety of their beers, as well as buy a couple of pints.

GD’s Yeti Imperial Stout (both regular and oak aged) was fantastic to have fresh off of the tap. For the heck of it we sampled Samurai, which is hailed as an unfiltered rice ale. A little too close to the mass-produced macro brews for my personal taste, but the flavor was clean. Ray fell in love with Hibernation, a bold and chewy old/strong ale, while we were both pleasantly surprised by Wild Raspberry Ale, which had a lot more to offer than most fruit beers.

Boulder's sampler of delish

Boulder Beer Co. in Boulder, Co: For some [stupid] reason we had always underestimated Boulder Beer. Maybe it’s because we don’t tend to see a lot of it out on the East Coast, but let me tell you, our eyes were opened.

We ordered a full sample of everything they had on tap, as well as a few pints. From flagships to seasonals, we had a fantastic time with these beers. Ray declared Planet Porter as one of the best he’s tasted; my pint of Cold Hop, an English-style ale that danced on the edge of pale ale/IPA, was refreshing with just the right amount of hop bite; and we both loved Obovoid (oak-aged oatmeal stout) and Killer Penguin (ruby-red barleywine-style ale).

Never again will we underestimate Boulder. In a fitting sense, we stopped in at the Boulder Beer pub in the Denver airport on our last day of the honeymoon for a goodbye pint and lunch.

Tasty Weasel Tap Room: Home of Ten Fidy, Gordon and Barrels of Awesome

Oskar Blues Tasty Weasel Tap Room in Longmont, CO: Great space, eclectically decorated, with high ceilings shared with the brewery located right behind the tap room wall. We sat down to a full sampler of everything that was on tap: Mama’s Little Yella Pils, Dale’s Pale Ale, Old Chub (Scottish-style ale), Gordon (imperial red/double IPA), Ten Fidy (imperial stout), the last three of which also came in barrel aged versions.

It’s quite possible that Ten Fidy stole the show — viscous and black like motor oil, the imperial stout instantly won us over with its roasty-chocolate-coffee-bomb. I don’t think I have ever seen a beer poured with such a dark head.

Next up in Part II: Stay tuned for the rest of our escapades at Left Hand Brewing Co., Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery, Wynkoop Brewing Co. and Bull and Bush Pub & Brewery.

Breweries, Brewpubs, Craft Beer, Pubs, Restaurants 3 Comments »

Holy crap, where did 2009 go? It feels like the year just began, and now it has come full circle.

Last January we made some brewing resolutions. I resolved to brew new styles, which we definitely accomplished: Dry Irish Stout, dry-hopped Dubbel, Kölsch, hybrid Pale Ale (the Bee Sting!), hybrid Belgian Hefe, Barleywine, IPA, Tripel and Oatmeal Stout. The only overlaps from 2008 would be the tripel (or Ginpel), which uses our original Tripel recipe, but adds classic gin aromatics.

We also kept to a fairly regular brew schedule, and essentially kicked fruit extract to the curb—simply because we didn’t brew with fruit this year, unless you count dried cranberries and raisins. Ray kept to his resolution of being adventurous—his recipe for Hefe the ORC was bold and playful, which came out in the beer’s flavor, aroma, and of course, its name.

In 2009 we went back to the Brandywine Craft Brewers’ Festival, glad to be back after missing it in 2008. We also attended the Philly Beer Fest at the Navy Yard, which was mammoth but good, and a Winterfest at Stoudts in late February. Hopefully in 2010 we’ll make it back to Savor, and possibly GABF for the first time.

Maybe most important, we got married in 2009. In a brewery. Stoudts Brewery to be exact. It’s pretty hard to top that, and we were told by a number of our guests that it was one of the best weddings they had been to. We loved the fact that we had over 11 beers on tap to choose from, including Smooth Hoperator, Stoudts’ Winter Ale (this year it was a hoppy red), Gold (a Munich-style Helles), Pils, Double IPA, Scarlet Lady (an ESB), a robust porter, Stoudt’s Pale Ale, Peppercorn Pumpkin Ale (aka Peppercornhole), Oktoberfest, and for our wedding toast: Old Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout (for me) and Stoudts’ Tripel (for Ray). Then we honeymooned in Denver, one of the other great beer cities in the US.

Also in November, I was selected to be the Philadelphia Homebrewing Examiner for Examiner.com. It’s an exciting experience that’s providing me with the tools and initiative to dig deeper into our local homebrewing community. Next stop: writing for the BA’s publications—someday, hopefully.

2009 has been great, but I’ve got a feeling that 2010 has a lot of great things pushed up its sleeves. Until then, Happy New Year!

Homebrewing, Miscellany 2 Comments »

Long time, no write … I know, I know. We’ve been bad. The Ginpel (Ray’s Belgian tripel with rosemary, juniper berries, and other traditional spices) we brewed back in August — it’s in the secondary, waiting patiently for the herbs and spices to be added. Boris the Spider Chai Oatmeal Stout that we concocted in late September — it’s hanging out in the bathtub in its secondary as well, waiting for me to finally wade through all my various chai recipes I’ve worked on.

We’ll get to them. I mean, heck, the culmination of 14 months of wedding planning and DIY projects finally hit on Saturday, Nov. 7. Ray and I tied the knot and shared a pint (or four). But that will be for another post where we can regale you with stories of what it’s like to bring together 75 people into the brewery that Carol and Ed Stoudt built and how the best open bar is the one with more than 10 local craft beers on tap.

Until then, here are couple more photos from our amazingly talented photographer, Georgi Anastasov.

Breweries, Craft Beer, Miscellany 2 Comments »

I am a child of rock n’ roll. Not like, child of Led Zepplin groupies, but more like child of a dad that played Led Zepplin and other classic rock on the way to and from church Sunday mornings. How many 5-year-olds have a classic rock radio station bumper sticker on their bikes?

Months ago I was driving home from work and heard The Who’s “Boris the Spider” come on and I fell in love. I danced in the car, bouncing around to the music, probably looking like an idiot in traffic. I consider it one of my “happy songs.”

I knew I wanted to use the song as an inspiration point for a brew. Spiders tend to be black … I’d be brewing in the fall … I love oatmeal stouts in the colder months … I was introduced to chai in college by a close friend and the smell of the spiced tea makes me think of chilly autumn days in Western New York … spiders and stouts are black …

So there you have it. A wild stream of consciousness that brought me to this: Boris the Spider Chai Oatmeal Stout. I could totally see Pete Townshend drinking this.

20 September 2009
Boris the Spider Chai Oatmeal Stout
Extract w/ grains
5 gallons, 60 minute boil, 30 minute steep

6.0 lbs Light Liquid Malt Extract (60 min)
1.0 lb Dried Malt Extract (60 min)

Specialty Grains:
1.5 lbs Flaked Oats
9.00 oz Crystal 60L
8.00 oz Chocolate Malt
8.00 oz German Carafa II
4.00 oz Roasted Barley

1.00 oz Sterling Hops [7.0% AA] (60 min)
2.00 oz UK Kent Golding [4.2% AA] (60 min)
1.00 oz UK Kent Golding [4.2% AA] (5 min)

Custom cold-brewed chai tea with traditional spices (recipe to come)

1 tablet Whirlfloc (20 min – clarifier)

White Labs Irish Ale Yeast (WLP004)

4 oz corn sugar (bottling)

—

Create a yeast starter 2-3 days in advance.

Add 3 gallons of water to kettle. Bring to boil.

Steep grains at 155°F for 30 minutes.

Remove grains, turn off heat and add 1.0 lb dried malt extract and 6.0 lbs liquid malt extract. Bring to a boil. Add bittering hops.

At 20 minutes, add Whirlfloc tablet.

At 5 minutes, add remaining hops.

At end of boil, remove all hops. Chill wort to 75°F. Rack to fermenter and dilute to 5 gallons. Decant yeast starter and pitch yeast. Aerate thoroughly. Ferment at 70-75°F.

Rack fermented beer to secondary fermenter. Age for 1 – 2 weeks.

Rack to bottling bucket. Add cold-brewed chai tea strained of spices. Boil corn sugar with 1 c filtered water and add to beer. Mix well.

Bottle. Age for 2 – 3 weeks.

I’m still working on my chai recipe, but I can tell you that I will be mixing it myself. Chai is typically brewed with Indian Assam tea, but I didn’t have the best of luck finding this tea. So instead I picked up Twinings of London’s English Breakfast Tea, which is a blend of Kenyan and Assam. I have a wonderful stash of spices to work with, so I’m excited!

Homebrewing, Our Brew Days, Recipes 1 Comment »

We were in the Stoudt’s area this past weekend taking care of wedding-related tasks. During a break between appointments, we decided to have a couple rounds at our future wedding venue, and while we were there, co-founder Ed Stoudt, taking a break from shucking oysters, called out to the room, “Brewery tour!”

And so we followed one of Pennsylvania’s beer godfathers over to the brewery, where Ed began the tour with a rousing monologue about beer, prohibition, macrobreweries, and more.

We were taken completely off guard, but I managed to get most of it on video. It’s shaky, washed out, and noisy, and due to a corrupted file that I didn’t notice until it was too late to fix it, we’re missing about a third of Ed’s thirty-minute speech, but it’s something. It’s just a shame, because he made a lot of great points about how prohibition devastated America’s taste in beer during the missing ten minutes, points that he only briefly returned to later on.

But here’s what still exists, in three parts (2 and 3 are the best — he mostly just talks about the process in Part 1):

Breweries, Brewpubs, Craft Beer, Opinion 1 Comment »

The Mug Club at the new Iron Hill in Maple Shade is already proving to be a great deal. The ceramic mug you get when you join is probably enough to offset at least $10 out of the $35 membership fee, and then you also get 24 oz beers for the price of a pint as long as you maintain your membership every year. If you figure on $6 per beer, you’re effectively saving $3 every round, which means you’ve broken even after 8 1/3 beers.

That should have already been enough to justify joining, but then Iron Hill held their first Mug Club Party this past Saturday, offering free appetizers, t-shirts, door prizes, and an exclusive beer tasting to any Mug Club member who cared to partake. If they keep throwing these shindigs every quarter like they’re promising, then the club will prove to be an even more tremendous value than we expected.

Mind you, we’re under no illusions that we’re spending less money by being in the Mug Club, but it sure feels that way. We just prefer to, you know, downplay the fact that we’re going out for beer twice as often as we normally would.

It’s a pretty brilliant strategy, and almost resembles a sort of perverse bonds program. From our perspective, we buy into the program for a nominal fee, and essentially get a larger payout from it the longer we stay invested. For Iron Hill, though, they’ve effectively convinced the public to pay them for the opportunity to spend money there more often.

Genius.

Head brewer, Chris, serving the ravenous hoards.

Commentary aside, there were two exclusive beer offerings at the party, available only to Mug Club members. The first was a Cherry Vanilla Porter, aged on whole Mexican vanilla beans and concentrated sour Montmorency cherry juice from King Orchards in Michigan. It tasted like Cherry Garcia. They also had a grotesque chimera of a beer called Entirely Inappropriate, which was made by priming Octoberfest with actively fermenting Tripel wort in a firken, and then dry hopping it with Amarillo hops. I bet it was delicious, but unfortunately, the last person to get to try it was the guy in front of me in line.

The beers were not free, but the food was. At the far end of the bar area, the staff had set up a spread of hummus with feta and tapenade, nachos, and HUGE, inch-thick sweet potato fries with dipping sauce.

'Twas of the tasty persuasion.

The party was capped off with a very limited tasting of a 2003 bottle of Barleywine. Throw a steak into a cage of hungry lions, and you’ll get an idea of how this played out, but those who held their hand out quickly enough (I managed it twice, once for me and once for Mel) were treated to a smooth, complex elixir of malt and alcohol that had clearly weathered the last six years in that bottle with great enthusiasm.

Theoretically, one could have spent $7 that afternoon on an entire, albeit not very healthy, meal, but once we were in the door, it was pretty hard to resist the siren’s call of a juicy burger, a portabella mushroom sandwich, and a growler of IPA for the ride home, proving once again that the best way to get people to part with their money is to make them pay for the privilege.

Brewpubs, Opinion, Restaurants 1 Comment »

Back in May, we talked about my experiment mixing gin with our Tripel, and how wonderfully wonderful it was. We were inspired to try brewing a tripel with juniper and rosemary, and that happened yesterday:

23 August 2009
Ginpel
Extract w/ grains
5 gallons, 60 minute boil, 30 minute steep

5.0 lbs Pilsner Liquid Malt Extract (60 min)
4.0 lbs Pilsner Liquid Malt Extract (15 min)
2.0 lbs Demerara sugar (15 min)

Specialty Grains:
1.0 lbs Crystal Malt 15L
1.0 lbs Carafoam Malt

1.00 oz Sterling Hops [7.0% AA] (60 min)
2.00 oz Sterling Hops [7.0% AA] (5 min)

1.00 oz Crushed coriander seed
1.00 oz Sweet orange peel
1.00 oz Juniper berries
0.50 oz Grains of paradise
0.50 oz Rosemary

1 tablet Whirlfloc (20 min – clarifier)

White Labs Trappist Ale Yeast (WLP500)

4 oz corn sugar (bottling)

—

Create a yeast starter 2-3 days in advance.

Add 3 gallons of water to kettle. Bring to boil.

Steep grains at 155°F for 30 minutes.

Remove grains, turn off heat and add 5.0 lbs malt extract. Bring to a boil. Add bittering hops.

At 20 minutes, add Whirlfloc tablet.

At 15 minutes, turn off heat. Add remaining malt extract while stirring. Return to boil.

At 5 minutes, add remaining hops.

At end of boil, remove all hops. Chill wort to 75°F. Rack to fermenter and dilute to 5 gallons. Decant yeast starter and pitch yeast. Aerate thoroughly. Ferment at 70-75°F.

Rack fermented beer to secondary fermenter. Add coriander, orange peel, juniper berries, grains of paradise, and rosemary. Age for 1 – 2 weeks.

Rack to bottling bucket. Boil corn sugar with 1 c filtered water and add to beer. Mix well.

Bottle. Age for 2 – 3 weeks.

Definitely one of our odder recipes. I have a feeling the juniper and rosemary will end up being over-emphasized, but nothing ventured! *fingers crossed*

Homebrewing, Our Brew Days, Recipes Add Comment »