Exhausted and ready to unwind after a long day’s conferencing, I (and surprisingly many others) boldly and bravely went straight for CBC’s 14% ABV seasonal barleywine offering, Arquebus, brewed with local honey and white wine grapes and aged over French oak. Served still, the result was peachy and just barely tart, with not very much oak flavor, but all the mellow smoothness of a well aged spirit.

While we all chatted, I took the opportunity to (sanitarily, I like to think) sample my colleagues’ beers. The Hefe Weizen had the expected spice notes, mixed in with an unexpected wild yeast funk. The house Amber Ale was fruity, caramely, and finely balanced. Finally, the Heather Ale, bittered with heather and — I think — lavender, opened a lot of eyes to the joys of the woefully under appreciated gruit style.

My second proper round was Three Rings Belgian Pale Ale, a spicy, fruity, hoppy contrast to the beastly Arquebus. Dry and refreshing, I could have had five pints without getting tired of it, and it went magnificently with the house burger I ordered.

And what a burger it was! I first have to point out the doneness: I ordered my burger medium, and I’ll be damned if it wasn’t exactly medium. It’s been a long time since a cowardly restaurant gave me a burger that wasn’t overdone, especially since the weather has been so hot. But this beef patty was bright pink and juicy. It came with a cold and crunchy pickle, and a generous scoop of some of the best, certainly the crispiest, fries I’ve ever had. Other individuals at my table of 20 had similar luck with their veggie burgers, fish tacos, and pork barbecue.

Given that I was really only there for the conversation and to stop feeling so famished, you can imagine my delight at what an impressive offering Cambridge Brewing Company presented. If you crave perfect pub food and love some innovation in your beer, CBC is one great excuse to visit beautiful Cambridge.

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.

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.

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.

Wrong.

We were dining at Talula’s Table. The same restaurant that is considered one of the five toughest reservations to get. And we have our friends Jen and Derek — the latter of whom is the mind behind The Best Food Blog Ever — to thank for it.

Now, I’m not going to regale you with what possibly was the most amazing meal of my life — not because I can’t, but because I think Derek says it infinitely better. And he took notes, so he gets the credit. But what I will tell you is how excellent an opportunity it was to bring four 22 oz bottles of our beer to a table of strangers (save J & D) and have them give us honest opinions. And these were not all necessarily beer geeks.

I had spent an afternoon of my daily train commute pouring over The Brewmaster’s Table by Garrett Oliver, comparing Talula’s menu to the book, cross-referencing and jotting notes. It wasn’t the easiest thing to pick out four perfect pairings, but I heeded Oliver’s advice, and more often than not, went with my gut. I asked myself “What would I want to drink with the Wild King Salmon, Smokey New Potato Sauce, and Red Trout Caviar? Hmmm … salmon … our Dry Humour Dry Stout should go well with that.” And it did!

Along with the stout, we brought our Bee Sting Ale, Sweetheart Kölsch and Hefe the ORC. The pairings all went surprisingly well, and both Ray and I had the chance to formally introduce each beer to the table as it was served. And that was possibly one of the coolest things I have done all year.

For an in-depth look at the evening, including descriptions of each course and the beers we brought with us, check out Derek’s post at The Best Food Blog Ever.

Welcome to The Session, a monthly event for beer and brewing bloggers! This is Session #30, for which

Ahh dessert. The realm where I feel most comfortable because it’s one of my specialities — so much so that I just left my desk to go bake my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, although it doesn’t contain beer.

I have made 3 beer desserts I can recall. My first was a spice cake using Victory’s Storm King Imperial Stout, frosted with a quadrupel-spiced buttercream. I baked it for my 26th birthday, and guests seemed impressed.

We’ve made stout floats with Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout and a mocha java chip ice cream — and I think we’ve also used North Coast Brewing’s Old Rasputin and Stoudt’s Fat Dog.

I’ve also baked with liquid malt extract in place of molasses, creating my cherry oatmeal cookies, which were insanely good. Mmmm … cookies.

While baking my chocolate chip cookies and pondering beer desserts, I picked Ray’s brain for ideas. He thinks that any Belgian Strong, Tripel, Dubbel or Barleywine could be used with fruit somehow — so I suggested their use in a pie filling. Hmmm … a mincemeat pie dressed with a little English Barleywine in the filling? It could be delish. Ray also suggested making a reduction of a beer with some brown sugar and serving it over warmed fruit, with a spot of fresh whipped cream.

As for desserts we’ve ordered out, we have to tip our hats to the folks at Dogfish Head. We have shared the  Chocolate Chicory Stout Cheesecake, which interestingly enough, is made with blue cheese and is insanely rich, and we have also shared the DFH Stout Sundae, which consists of vanilla ice cream, Chicory Stout chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and a hop-infused brownie.

What I think is important to consider when creating a beer dessert is that you must have a plan of action for dealing with the bitterness. Balance is crucial. If you’re going to reduce a beer for a sauce, you don’t want to reduce it to an unappetizing sticky mess.

So I think this might mean no IPA-infused cookies. Nevertheless, I’m sure there’s a place for bright, grassy beers, just maybe not dessert.

Iron Hill Maple Shade, NJ

Imagine our excitement: on Monday, July 20, Iron Hill in Maple Shade NJ opened at 5:00 PM to what was probably a crowd of very thirsty folks. Why? Because, unfortunately, this area of South Jersey is a bit dry when it comes to great places to drink great beer.

Sure, we have Casey Hughes and the folks at Flying Fish Brewery in the Cherry Hill area who put out some mighty fine beer. And there’s Riverhorse in Lambertville, always sure to shake things up a bit. But great beer bars?

Before Iron Hill graced us with its presence, the only one I could think of is High Street Grill, which does a fantastic job of pairing excellent food with great craft beer — local brews, as well as some harder to find ones.

The new Iron Hill is, no contest, the nicest one yet.

But now we have Iron Hill, a successful chain — though I hate calling it that; it makes me think of McDonalds — that pairs creative craft brewing with top notch cuisine. Sometime earlier in the year, the food menu was expanded from 2 pages and a list of specials to probably 5-6 pages. The only complaint I’ve heard in regards to that is “There’s so much that looks good! I don’t know what to get!”

Originally we were going to wait until August — after my graduate school loan was finally paid off — to take a trip to Iron Hill, but somehow I managed to strong arm Ray into going this past Wednesday. The place looks fantastic, and though there was going to be a 40-minute wait, we took the time to sign up for the mug club and get our first official 24 oz. of Iron Hill beer. We both had the Black IPA, which uses a very small amount of roasted malts — later on the tour the assistant brewer mentioned it was black patent, though Carafa would have been preferred — to get the lovely dark color and subtle roast. The Black IPA was everything I was looking for: bright, citrusy, piney, and absolutely refreshing.

Some newbies learn about brewing for the first time from Iron Hill Maple Shade's assistant brewer (center).

To kill a little more time, we walked down the hall to the brewery and got invited in with a few other folks for a tour. The assistant brewer gave a great introduction to beer (the other part of the group knew nothing of the process), and we got to munch on some malt and sniff some hops. Unfortunately, our beeper for the table went off before we could really get into checking everything out, but we did catch wind of a possible homebrewer contest.

We were seated in a booth that could probably have seated 8, and our server was quick and friendly. We began our meal with an order of the pomme frites served with caramelized garlic-rosemary mayo. The fries were golden crisp and perfectly salted, and the mayo really rang with rosemary. Ray noticed that sipping the Black IPA after eating some of the fries really accentuated the roasty flavors as they melted through the fat of the frites, adding another level of complexity to the beer.

I could not care less how bad these probably are for me.

For dinner, Ray ordered the fish and chips, while I ordered the portabella mushroom sandwich, which had arugula, roasted red peppers, goat cheese, and the same garlic-rosemary mayo that the frites had. Both of our dishes were excellent — I have to say my portobella sandwich was actually mouthwatering, which is not something people tend to say in regard to a sandwich full of veggies.

A moment ago, they were called frites. Now, they're called chips.

My portobella sandwich.

We finished off the night with the hefeweizen for Ray, and I had a beer they called the Kellerbound Ale, which is an unfiltered version of the Ironbound Ale on nitro. Both, of course, were excellent.

To the Iron Hill folks — thanks for looking across the water to Jersey. We needed you, and you’ve come through for us, once again. Cheers!

Welcome to The Session, a monthly event for beer and brewing bloggers! This is Session #29, for which

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”.

We arrived just in time for lunch and happily stocked their fridge with homebrews. Then it was off to Flying Bison Brewery, tucked away in the city, but not too hard to find. We were greeted by hop bines growing off the loading dock, which is always a good sign. Rach was a little skeeved out by the location (not the best in town) but we knew what would await us beyond the loading dock.

Once inside, we got right to business, sampling Flying Bison’s selections, which were diverse. We were impressed with the Blackbird Stout and Aviator Red, as well as a number of pilot brews. Even their lager was impressive! It was great to find out that Flying Bison’s brews are in high-demand throughout the region as well.

We got a nice, indepth tour, where our guide explained Flying Bison’s specific process, as opposed to the more high-level “beer is made of four ingredients” talks we usually get on brewery tours. We even got to climb up and look into the mash tun! Rach was an excellent sport, often not understanding  exactly what was being discussed — it was her first tour — but enjoying our reactions to what we were learning.

Flying Bison employs four people — including the owner Tim — which is pretty damn impressive considering everything they have going on. All in all we walked away with a growler of Blackbird stout for Rach’s husband and a mixed six-pack of the Buffalo Lager, Blizzard Bock and The “Herc”, a “C-130 Barleywine ale” (PUN!) that Ray found simply divine.

After our tour we headed back to Rach’s beautiful home where we lazed about and ate chips and Bison-brand French onion dip. It was here that I was reminded of my years in college where Rach and I would debate “pop” vs. “soda” and Helluva Good brand chip dip vs. Buffalo-based Bison brand. For the record, Bison chip dip is excellent, but don’t pronounce it wrong — you say it bi-zon, not bi-son. Though if you’re me, you sound like an ESL student trying to wrap her mouth around the word “specific.” (Watch it in person some time. It’s hilarious.)

For dinner we headed to Pearl Street Grill & Brewery, where I tried a couple of their fruit brews: the Blue-eyed Blueberry Blonde and the Don Cherry Wheat. Both were smooth, subtle, and refreshing. Definitely an interesting brewpub.

We ended our evening in Buffalo on Rach and Dave’s back porch, pouring selections of the homebrews we brought them and watching a tumultuous thunder storm. They were both impressed with our beers, and we’re hoping the homebrew bug might bite them right in the ass.

For the remainder of our trip we were in southwestern Ohio, celebrating my cousin Kerry’s liberation from the confines of high school and on to higher learning at Kent State. Here Ray got to meet the rest of my family and earned the approval of my 5 uncles — I think the fact that he got their niece into homebrewing might have a lot to do with that. We served a few of our homebrews throughout our stay and were met with astonishment and delight: “You MADE this?!” was the most often heard comment, to which we replied, “Yes. Yes we did.”

On November 4th, Mitch braved the airlines to trek all the way out from San Diego to Philadelphia, where he headed up Tria’s Election Night edition of Fermentation School in a lecture entitled “Get Stoned on Election Day”.

To accompany the lecture, Mitch brought seven of Stone’s best beers: Pale Ale, IPA, Arrogant Bastard, Ruination IPA, 11th Anniversary Ale, 07.07.07 Vertical Epic aged in red wine barrels, and a 2006 vintage of Double Bastard aged in brandy barrels. Tria, for its part, paired all of this with two cheeses (creamy Cherry Grove Toma from Lawrenceville, NJ, and smoky smooth Vella Dry Monterey Jack from Sonoma, CA) along with spiced, toasted almonds, a few slices of prosciutto, and soft Philly pretzels.

While guiding us through the beer list, Mitch fed us piles upon piles of rich, chewy insight into American brewing. Did you know that 19th century brewers actually prided themselves on their use of rice and corn in their beers, even going so far as to make it a selling point? Did you know that today, it’s actually more expensive to cut beer with those grains instead of simply using nothing but malted barley? Or that a lot of double IPAs are fermented with additional sugar in order to get the ABV nice and high without having to use a lot of malt?

My favorite fact was how Stone stumbles upon some of their recipes. The brewery maintains a 20-gallon pilot brewing system that employees are free to putz around with, creating a democratic process that leads Mitch and his brewers to beers that they wouldn’t have otherwise invented. National phenomenon Arrogant Bastard is one direct result of this system (turns out it was all just a big mistake that happened to taste really good), as is Stone’s impossibly delicious 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout.

Which brings us to the beers themselves. You’re probably already familiar with the first three beers on the list. Stone’s Pale Ale smells sweet and floral and fills your mouth with just enough hoppy bitterness to make you want to drink way too much of it; the Centennial dry-hopped IPA fills your nose and mouth with earthy, citrusy hop flavors; and legendary Arrogant Bastard was its usual mysterious self, assaulting you with a barrage of malts and hops. Stone is very protective of the recipe for Arrogant Bastard, even going to far as to deny it a classification, and Mitch refused to say a single word about how it is made.

Ruination IPA is Stone’s Double IPA, though double may be the wrong word. A typical American Double IPA is essentially a regular IPA with twice the malt and twice the hops, but Stone is Stone — double won’t cut it. And so, Ruination IPA uses quadruple the hops of Stone’s standard IPA recipe, and it shows. The beer is crisp and refreshing, yet somehow massive, probably owing to the sheer weight of hop oils swirling through the glass. The nose is so hugely sweet and hoppy that I wouldn’t judge anyone for using this beer as an air freshener.

Needless to say, Stone is famous for their liberal use of hops, but the last three beers show that they have more than a few other tricks up their sleeves.

The 11th Anniversary Ale is an innovative Black IPA, which combines a big IPA — bittered with Chinook and dry-hopped with Simcoe and Amarillo — with a German dark lager. Thanks to a generous helping of German Carafa malts (dark, dehusked malts that provide all of the flavors of roasted malt without the gritty bitterness), the beer boasts a complex balance, beginning with huge hop flavors and aromas and leaving in its wake lots of roasty malt. Everyone in the room agreed that this was a spectacular beer, so we were all pleased to hear that Stone is currently working on making this a year-round offering. All they need, Mitch told us, is a name.

The 07.07.07 Vertical Epic is a 10% ABV Belgian-style strong ale, spiced with grapefruit peel, lemon peel, cardamom, and ginger, and aged in red wine barrels. The nose pops with lots of spice, oak, and dry red wine aromas, making your tongue tingle in anticipation… That might have been a little too colorful. Ah well, it stays. It was delicious, okay?

The brandy-aged Double Bastard is a work of unrelenting madness. I theorize that Mitch peeled back the veils of perception and gazed into the maw of blistered, horrifying reality to bind himself to this mania. Already sinister by way of a doubled Arrogant Bastard recipe, this particular vintage of Double Bastard did hard time in a disused brandy barrel, emerging changed, mutated into a display of smooth oak, spicy brandy, and, you know, a shit ton of malts and hops. Stone claims that this beer is only 10% ABV — I think they lie. I can still feel it more than a week later.

After the lecture, I managed to grab Mitch’s attention for a few minutes to talk about his time with Anheuser-Busch. He explained that, as a managing brewer, he had quite a bit more freedom of creativity than the other brewers in the company had. He even listed several recent Michelob brews that can be credited to him. That said, he was emphatic to point out that he was a big exception: Most macrobrewers are trapped by their company’s recipes, and even Mitch didn’t have carte blanche in his work. It was easy to see that he was leagues happier working for Stone.

We extended a verbal wedding invitation to Mitch before making our way back down to street level, buzzy and full, but satisfied by our generous look into the commercial craft beer world.