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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