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.

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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.

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Welcome to The Session, a monthly event for beer and brewing bloggers! This is Session #29, for which Beer By BART writers Gail and Steve have chosen the topic, “Will Travel for Beer.”

As if our recent road trip wasn’t enough, we spent a 3-day weekend at the end of June in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware to relax our way up and down the boardwalk and partake liberally in the offerings at Dogfish Head’s brewpub, Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats. Over the course of two delicious meals, we got to try several Dogfish rarities.

I started with a pint of 90 Minute IPA, already one of my favorite Imperial IPAs, piped through Randall the Enamel Animal. After a trip through Randall, a lot of the carbonation is lost due to the turbulence, which allows the malt to shine through a bit more, and the extra helping of whole leaf hops adds a pungent flowery, citrusy aroma and flavor that takes a beer already cranked up to 11 well beyond the next level.

Then there was Mel’s pint of Grau Dunkel, a German style Dunkelweizen brewed with wheat malts smoked over the oak chips that Dogfish uses to age their Brown Honey Rum, giving the beer a complex combination of smokey vanilla, honey, and molasses flavors that could not compliment each other better.

Finally, Pale India Ale was a Belgian style pale ale brewed with Fenugreek, Big Elachi, Green Elachi, Kalonji Onion, Garam Masala, and Tamarind Paste. I don’t know what most of those are, either, but the result is nothing short of fascinating, with sweet, Belgian pale malt flavors and neutral hop bitterness mixing with prominent Indian spices, of which I found the two Elachi spices (cardamom) to be the most pronounced.

Each beer was completely unique, and only available at the brewpub. These were alongside various vintage beer offerings and Dogfish Head’s extensive line of delicious spirits. We picked up a bottle of Squall IPA, Sah’tea, a 2006 bottle of Immort Ale, and a bottle of BE, a distilled honey mead. These exclusive items got Mel and I thinking about the business strategy of building a wide-spanning bottle distribution while also maintaining a pub to call home base.

When it comes to raw numbers, I can’t imagine that Brewings & Eats contributes more than 10% of Dogfish Head’s yearly revenue stream. That may even be a bit high, actually. On paper, the pub appears to be nothing more than a nice little value-add for the books.

But man does it ever please the fanboys. Many, many people enjoy Dogfish Head’s beer; that is a given. Most of them will probably never go to the trouble of trekking through Slower Lower Delaware to get to the pub, but for potential hardcore fans, Brewings & Eats provides a sort of Mecca to which one can make a rewarding pilgrimage, drawn by visions of exclusive beers and unique souvenirs.

After a weekend of feasting on the pub’s excellent food and limited edition brews, weighed down with t-shirts and branded glassware and high on beached relaxation, patrons return home transformed into loyal minions spreading the news of just how very immensely great Dogfish Head is. If each visitor convinces even one acquaintance to take a trip to the pub for themselves, the word-of-mouth will explode into a cascade of consumer awareness.

As far as buzzwords go, you can’t get much more apt than “viral”.

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On Saturday, Ray and I participated in The Parkinson Council’s 8th Annual Walk for Parkinson’s in Philadelphia, along scenic Kelly Drive. As Team Betty—in honor of my grandmother Betty Ward who battled Parkinson’s for probably close to 20+ years—we raised $725 through the donations of friends and family, which will help with Parkinson’s research and education. We also were walking in support of our friend Alex Forte’s father, Michael Forte, who also has Parkinson Disease. According to the Council, a total of $131,902 was raised, which is more than 2008’s total. [Note: As of 6:30 AM 4/22, the total has climbed to $134,345.]

It was a beautiful morning, and Ray and I got to see Boathouse Row, as well as some sort of rowing competition—we even spotted the UD and Cornell women’s crews. We completed the 10 miles in 2.5 hours, and by the end we were seriously feeling it. All in all, we walked probably closer to 12 miles, because we spent the afternoon in the Fairmount neighborhood at The Belgian Cafe.

The Belgian Cafe is the brainchild of beer great Tom Peters, of Monk’s Cafe fame. As a treat for our hard work we had a leisurely lunch, beginning with a pint of Avery’s IPA for myself and Kira Wit for Ray. Both were wonderfully refreshing, and exactly what we needed after all that walking.

Since we weren’t quite ready to dig into lunch, we began with the pommes frites. It would be criminal to enter either The Belgian Cafe OR Monk’s Cafe and not order a basket of their frites, which are double fried, fresh cut fries served with Monk’s Cafe’s famous bourbon mayonnaise and The Belgian Cafe’s smoked ketchup for dipping. They were wondrous, and hit the spot.

We then placed our lunch order, which was the Brouwer burger for me (sauteed onions, mushrooms, and goat cheese) and the Delvaux burger for Ray (beer brined cheese and spicy sprouts). I ordered a bottle of Dr. Fritz’s 1809 Berliner Weiss, which was tart and refreshing, and Ray went a little more local with a pint of Philadelphia Brewing Co.’s Rowhouse Red. The burgers were delicious, and our beer selections provided to further pump the live back into us.

Since we just couldn’t resist one more round, I ordered a glass (most likely a 12 oz serving) of Dogfish Head’s Aprihop, a strong IPA brewed with apricots, and Ray had a glass of Avery’s IPA. Both were an excellent way to end our meal.

After paying the check, we limped down the street to the car and headed home. Though we were both sore as all hell, it was an accomplished soreness. I look forward to the walk next year, and hopefully by then I’ll have some better sneakers (and won’t be tromping about in my Doc Martens).

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I stepped through the metal detector and out the door of the Burlington County Courthouse, savoring the dry, wintry air that was my reward for having weathered a morning of lines, forms, introduction videos, more lines, more forms, and waiting (oh the waiting!) for an invisible judge to decide that she needed more jurors for her trial. My coccyx forcibly reprimanded me for the hours of sitting as I looked around and attempted to take in the unfamiliar surroundings.

I took out my GPS and searched my bookmarks for a place to get lunch. The device locked onto the satellites, and at the top of the list returned to me, I saw High Street Grill, not a block from where I was standing.

If I had known that the courthouse was 200 feet from one of our favorite taverns ever, I’d have asked for jury duty sooner.

I crossed the street, entered the tavern, and took a seat at the bar, ordering a Founders Breakfast Stout to sip while I read the menu. I ordered the pulled pork sandwich. While I waited, I struck up a conversation with Mike, the friendly bartender. After I coaxed a taste of Southern Tier’s Phin & Matts Extraordinary Ale out of him (which turned out to be sort of a Saison but hoppier), I finished the last of my Breakfast Stout and ordered a pint of Founders Curmugeon. As he poured my beer, Mike pointed out to me that River Horse’s head brewer, Christian Ryan, would be having a little meet ‘n’ greet at the grill that evening to introduce Hopalotamus — River Horse’s new Double IPA — and an Oatmeal Milk Stout.

I texted Mel and told her that we now had plans for the night.

We returned to High Street Grill at about 7 o’clock and sat at a four-top near the bar. Mel started with the stout, and I started with Hopalotamus.

The best way I could describe River Horse’s Oatmeal Milk Stout is to call it assertive. This is a beer that, as soon as it gets within six inches of your face, tells you in plain, uncertain tones, “Ahm a big damn stoht, ya li’l Jessy.” A big blast of roasty chocolate and coffee aromas and flavors are coupled with a medium-heavy body and a smooth, milky finish. Coyly subtle figgy notes round the whole thing out.

I’ve said for a while now that American IPAs lack balance, for which people criticize me on the grounds that this is like saying that a particular brand of socks is bad because people keep putting their feet in them. I invite my detractors to take a sip of Hopalotamus. Behind a ton of Perle hops lies an entirely separate ton of caramel malts, both sets of flavors playing back and forth on each other as if to invoke images of Olympic table tennis. The sweet caramel, toffee, toasty malt notes accentuate the citrusy, grapefruity, piney hop notes, and vice-versa. Neither half of Hopalotamus can shine without the other. That, dear readers, is how you balance a Double IPA.

After finishing a plate of wings, a pulled pork sandwich for Mel, and an ostrich burger for me, I set to figuring out which back to slap for these two outstanding beers.

Head brewer Christian was nice enough to sit down with us for nearly an hour to talk about beer and brewing. A striking departure from most of the other brewer’s we’ve met, Christian was dressed in jeans and a hoodie, with short, messy hair, an unshaped beard, and hipster glasses. I’d be surprised if he’s any older than 35.

After complimenting him for the stout and 2xIPA, we talked briefly about the quickly fading hop shortage, which, in Christian’s words, “blew.” Christian also filled us in on some of River Horse’s plans vis a vis the Brewer’s Reserve. A promised huckleberry wheat was particularly enticing, as was the news that the Double White would become a regular offering soon.

Particularly intriguing were two small experimental beer batches that Christian brought to Kennett Square this year: a green tea ale, and a strange monstrosity called Honey Bunches of Ants, an ale brewed with Mexican black ants. The latter drew a long line of curious festgoers, who mostly described it as, “Huh. Interesting.” Christian himself said that it was just a silly experiment, but all three of us agreed that silly experiments are one of the greatest joys of brewing. It doesn’t have to be delicious, as long as you’re having fun doing it, but if you do end up with a happy accident (which is what Hopalotamus was), then all the better.

Mel and I swapped our journeyman homebrew stories with his expert ones for a while longer before the school night got the better of us and we headed home.

River Horse distributes throughout the mid-Atlantic and southern New England regions. I highly recommend anything you can find made by them.

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My last entry about Tria was really only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the late Sunday afternoon we spent there. Aside from the Sunday school beer and cheese offerings, Ray and I ordered the Herbed Potato Chips with Truffle Aioli and Roasted Beets with Bulgarian Feta Cheese. The beets had a very earthy-topsoil aroma that was very interesting, but I was not crazy about; Ray, however, quite enjoyed them. The herbed potato chips were simply divine and could easily be eaten by the pound, with or without the aioli.

For my entree I ordered the Mixed Greens with Mission Figs, Gorgonzola, Pine Nuts and Gorgonzola-Pine Nut Vinaigrette. It was the perfect portion, had just enough vinagrette, and extremely crisp greens. The only issue I had was that I think I reacted to the pine nuts — the roof of my mouth felt quite funny, and Ray’s mouth also reacted. Oh well. I ate it anyway, and rather enjoyed it. Ray ordered the Spanish Tuna with Black Olive-Red Pepper Tapenade and Arugula Sandwich and was also happy with it, despite having to spend five minutes in the bathroom trying to wash all of the oil off. For beverages, I ordered Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout, which came in a fantastic bottle. At 6.1 ABV it’s not too strong, and on the web site it’s described as “sweeter and smoother than the Kalamazoo Stout.” Well I was sold.

Ray was able to order a brew he had been very eager to try: Weyerbacher’s Harvest Ale, and he did a proper tasting of it:

Appearance: White head with lots of lacing. Clear amber gold.
Nose: Super-floral and sweet. Hops are clearly the focus, but are somehow mellow.
Taste: Bitterness is subdued, giving the stage to the hops’ flavor, which is citrusy and slightly earthy/grassy. Again, subdued despite being so prominent.
Mouthfeel: Crisp, bitey, very refreshing. Hop bitterness lingers on the back of the tongue and throat.

To end our trip, we ordered dessert, as well as the Meantime Coffee Porter to share. We ordered the Rogue Chocolate Stout Bread Pudding with Allagash Cherry Sauce and the Nutella Panino. According to the bottle, each serving of the British coffee porter is equal to one cup of coffee, caffeine-wise. We noticed it had a hint of sour to it, but were not sure if it was intentional. I think Ray enjoyed the beer, while I wasn’t terribly crazy about it.

Our servers were knowledgeable and friendly, and we even scored some swag! Cape Ann’s brewer Jeremy had one of Tria’s staff bring us a baseball cap and a t-shirt from the brewery. “For the homebrewers …” the staff member (I feel like he might have been the owner?) said with a smile. So cool!

We joined the Tria loyalty club, paid our affordable bill, and then headed out into the early autumn night, elated that we found a new place to get lost in … maybe every Sunday.

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Roughly a week and a half ago I decided to take a venture down to The Kite & Key on the corner of 19th and Callowhill in Philly for lunch. I was promptly met by one of the staff when I entered the main dining/tavern area and told I could sit anywhere, so I chose the hightop by the large doors that had been opened up allowing the server to pass from the bar to the outside tables easily. Unfortunately, she had to close those doors after the group sitting outside deemed it too cold (wusses), came in, and asked her to close the doors behind them.

Nevertheless, I had a fairly extensive draught list to choose from, as well as a bottle list. I went with Sly Fox’s O’Reilly’s Stout and paired it with a mixed greens salad with grape tomatoes, goat cheese and raspberry mint vinagrette. Delish.

The Kite & Key’s interior is dark wood, and it has another dining area that extends past the bar area. The bar itself seats about 12, and has several tables located in the front room with it. On one side of the bar was an authentic brass hand pump on display (sadly, not in use), and the chalkboard by the door had a lengthy lunch special list that looked inviting as well.

All in all, it was a nice 15 minute walk down to the pub and an excellent lunch. Makes me wish I had more than 45 minutes for my lunch break!

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As mentioned in my recent post, Ray and I enjoyed a night out on the town a week ago. We had such a great time at The Khyber, but knew that there was plenty more beer real estate to check out before we headed back across the water.

Our next stop was Eulogy Belgian Tavern, known simply as Eulogy by most folks. The place was packed, both down- and upstairs, so we wriggled over to the bar, ordered a round of draughts, and quickly snagged a table near the stairs. I ordered Brooklyn Brewery’s Brooklyn Grand Cru, while Ray ordered Founder’s Centennial IPA. Both were quite tasty, and we decided to order a basket of traditional Belgian-style frites. They were seasoned well, but I think I like the frites at Monk’s Cafe better.

Eulogy has an extensive bottle list, but Ray and I both found it a tad difficult to navigate. The hustle and bustle was a bit much as well, since the bar is on the small side, so we decided to head out to Triumph after our first round. Nonetheless, we’d like to go back on either a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, when we have more time to browse the bottle menu and enjoy a little more personal space.

Seriously, it’s freaking huge.

At Triumph we quickly snagged seats at the bar. Ray ordered a Belgian Golden Ale, while I was sucked in by their Coffee and Cream stout. However, at the end of the stout, there was a slightly off taste. Ray asked the bartender and we received a quick answer that the beer was fine, it’s tasted like that since it was tapped, but if I wanted to replace it, I could.

I didn’t, because I was reminded by Nodding Head’s disclaimer (paraphrased, “It’s not our beer, it’s you”) and I stuck with it. The beer started off great, I just wasn’t thrilled with the finish. Ray enjoyed his Belgian, and we decided to trek back to the train station after one round. It was getting late, and it’s never fun riding the train into NJ with the late-night wackos.

Hopefully in the coming weeks we’ll make it out to Tria’s Sunday School and see what the taps are like at Lucky Strike Lanes. Until then, it’s Rock Band and store-bought bottles for us. What a hard life, right?

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It was Saturday night and we were fixin’ for some action … sort of. Earlier in the day we had snagged fresh produce and chicken sausage at our local farmers’ market, donated a car-load of stuff to Goodwill, brewed our third beer (Steph and Tim’s Tropical Foreign Extra Stout), and had a dinner of stir-fry steak, broccoli and corn by 6 PM. Such accomplishment should have exhausted us, putting us to bed by 9 PM after a nightcap of Rock Band and Merry Monks.

Au contraire.

Ray suggested we take the train into Philly, and I grabbed my trusty guidebook to see what we should hit up. This was going to be awesome.

Our first stop was The Khyber. We dug the fact that it wasn’t packed and immediately grabbed the end of the bar by the bathrooms — which were labeled “Sit” and “Stand.”

The chalkboard draught list offered some favorites, as well as new brews, but the first thing that sold me on this bar was that it had a tap handle proudly displaying Middle Ages Brewery’s Beast Bitter! My parents currently live just north of Syracuse, NY, so Middle Ages is technically my hometown brewery. They make excellent brews in the fashion of medieval England. Get a load of this, sourced from their Web site:

“To maintain the tradition and tastes of English ales of the Middle Ages, the brewery uses two-row malted barley imported from Munton and Fisson Plc., in Stowmarket, Suffolk, England. The malt is germinated barley that has been kiln dried. ‘Our yeast strain is a direct descendent of brewing yeast originating in Yorkshire, England. It has been cultivated for the past 150 years,’ Marc [Rubenstein, head brewer and owner] said. We figure it should bear a resemblance to the Medieval yeasts.’ Middle Ages Brewing harvests its yeast from batch to batch, mixing it with warm beer to activate it.”

Talk about friggin’ cool!

Beast Bitter was my first pint of the night. It had a coppery color, and a delicious, balanced hop flavor. Standing at 5.3% ABV, this hometown favorite would make an excellent session beer. Ray ordered Sly Fox’s O’Reilly’s Stout, an Irish dry stout. It’s often described as “Guinness, but better.” We both loved how creamy it was (thank you, nitro tap), and we ended up just sharing the beers, since I kept sipping Ray’s pint.

For my next drink, I ordered Sly Fox’s Blob Ale, a seasonal imperial red ale brewed in honor of the annual Blob Fest in Phoenixville, PA held each July. It was surprisingly nutty and roasty, and I had no idea it was an imperial red until I looked it up later — it’s that smooth!

Ray ordered Atwaters‘ Vanilla Java Porter for his second round, but it left a bad taste in his mouth — literally. The beer had oxidized, leaving an icky vegetable taste smack dab in the middle of each sip and making it undrinkable. Ray mentioned it to the bartender who at first simply pointed to a loud-mouthed, half-witted brunette and her dopey husband and said, “Well they’ve been drinking it and loving it.” However, a minute later, after taking care of a long backlog of customers, the bartender came back to us with a sample in hand, leaned over the bar and said, “You know what, there is something wrong with this.”

The bartender quickly apologized and let Ray replace the beer with Paper City’s Blonde Hop Monster, which was an astounding imperial IPA. Served in a tulip glass to allow the nose to really show its stuff, it started with the sweet smell of flowers and gummy bears and filled the mouth with a big, malty, citrusy explosion. Meanwhile, the other couple at the bar ordered another round of the oxidized Atwater Vanilla Brocolli Porter.

Check back in later to see how the rest of our night panned out at Eulogy and Triumph!

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I shall begin this review by saying one thing:

Wow.

Joe Sixpack’s Philly Beer Guide, by the award-winning Philadelphia Daily News columnist Don Russell, is the kind of book you should carry everywhere when you’re in the general Philadelphia vicinity. Oh, and you should probably enjoy good beer too … if you’re one of those BudMillerCoorsHorsePiss people, then it shouldn’t be too hard for you to find an adequate-enough watering hole. But the rest of us -– those who drink Stoudt’s and Victory and go to Monk’s and the Standard Tap -– will greatly appreciate this essential Philly beer almanac.

I had the pleasure of meeting Don Russell at the NJ Brewfest back in late June. I’d already bought one copy of the book as a birthday gift, but since I knew we needed it for our shelves, I went over to Don’s table, told him what a great book it was (I admit, I leafed through some of the gift copy’s pages before wrapping it) and put $15 directly into his hand, denying the book store its undeserved cut. He kindly signed it to both Ray and me, claiming, “Save a cold one for me!” Well sir, if you’d like to try one of our delectable ESBs, let me know where to send the bottle.

But let’s cut to the chase: This truly is a great book for: A. Anyone who loves good craft beer; B. Anyone who loves Philly; and C. Anyone who loves history. He covers all the bases, letting you know what to drink, where to drink, and some more of what to drink. Russell is not a god-on-high “You must drink this or be condemned by your fellow beer snobs” kind of guy, but instead lets you know that if, for example, you’re looking for a tasty Belgian, here are 6 different beers to look for and 5 different pubs that you can find them in. He gives options, as well as his opinions, and he keeps the writing quick, palatable, and with just the right amount of snark.

Russell covers all the essentials: beer tours, breweries, brew pubs, beer styles, beer history, festivals and events, beer and food, where and how to buy beer, homebrewing, and more. Every bar has either an address, phone number, Web site, or all three, making it easy for the reader to obtain whatever outside information necessary for planning an evening out and about with craft beer.

I don’t want to go on and on, so I will put it simply:

BUY THIS BOOK!

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