Beer Travel: GrowlerQuest 2010! (Part 2)

On our way back through Harrisburg, heading west, I navigated a tangle of junctions for Interstates 83, 283 and state road 322 to reach the Lancaster Brewing Company, a restaurant bar that serves all the offerings from this brewery. I am a big fan of their Milk Stout but has not had a chance to try any of their other offerings. I went in, was directed back to the bar area and promptly was given a few samples.

Now, this was early July when the entire US east coast was sweltering through a heat wave. And coming in out of that 100+ degree heat, the Milk Stout, IPA and even the Hefeweizen all paled in comparison to the Lancaster Kolsch. It was crisp and lightly sweet with a wonderful flowery hop aroma. It was just what the doctor ordered. I ordered up a screw top growler full, paid the barkeep and moved on.

LBC of Harrisburg was a homey little restaurant and bar whose menu tries to skew to the upscale side of the normal pub fare. I'll have to get back here for a fuller experience.

As always, tasting notes to follow...

Beer Travel: GrowlerQuest 2010! (Part 1)

Back from vacation and, as I am wont to do, managed to squeeze in a bit of beer hunting during the break. Since we were going to be spending plenty of time in Pennsylvania, I decided to focus on getting some fresh growlers from some PA breweries. Georgia law prohibits growler sales and I miss my days in Maine when I could just drive down the road and get a refill from my favorite local brewery. So growlers it was!

The first stop would be at Tröegs Brewery in Harrisburg, PA. I have had my big 2-liter German-style Troegs growler for more than 6 years now and filled it often when I would pass through town but haven't had a chance to use it since this trip nearly three years ago.

I arrived during the mid-afternoon so the place was pretty empty. The first thing I noticed was the expansion of the hospitality area as there were now tables to sit and enjoy samples but an expanded store as well. But more importantly, the taps were in the same spot...so I headed over to the taps to get my growler filled.  

I perused the list of beer on draft and noticed one I did not recognize. I asked what "Mouflan" was. "That's a barleywine," said the barkeep. "I'll take it," I replied. 

$15 filled my growler with Flying Mouflan, a relatively new offering from Tröegs, hopped with Chinook, Warrior, Nugget and Simcoe and weighing in at 9.3% ABV. How on earth I will be able to finish a growler of such a beast in the appropriate time is beyond me. Obviously, I will have to share.

There were lots of barrels stacked in the brewery, obviously an expansion of earlier experiments involving adding wild yeasts to standard brews and barrel aging them. 

Tasting notes to follow...

Beer Travel: Kickbacks Gastropub, Jacksonville, FL

I headed down to Jacksonville, Florida this past weekend and, as I am want, tried to find a place to have a good pint with dinner. I succeeded.

I found Kickbacks Gastropub in the old historic district of Jacksonville. It's a bit of a contradiction. At first glance, it looks like a typical dive bar but boasts 60 taps and an extensive bottle list. It is filled with flat screen TVs but blasts loud music instead of the game. You wouldn't expect to be able to get much more than pub fare or a burger for food but they have quite the gourmet menu (at least, that's what they shoot for).

One of the first things you notice is the large board with neon writing on it that details the 60 taps available that evening. I decided to get a draft of Terrapin Oak Aged Wake N' Bake and figure out what to eat. The server was prompt, attentive and knew his beer. We talked about the beers he had on tap and he brought me out the extensive bottle list too.

I decided to go with The Harpoons; skewers of broiled bacon-wrapped shrimp and scallops and they were served with steamed broccoli and fried onion chips. They were very good, much better than most pub food I have had. Was it fantastic? No but they are aiming high and it's damn good...especially when you consider all the good beer.

The Terrapin Oak Aged Wake N Bake was very good. I usually don't think that oak aging stouts works that well but this one turned out pretty well. It doesn't really improve the beer any but it does make for some pleasant differences.The oak aging adds some nice dark fruit notes to the stout but doesn't overpower the roasty coffee flavors that make the beer so great.

I chatted with the server about a good local beer to try and he suggested something from Cigar City Brewing. Cigar City is based in Tampa and started brewing in 2008. I decided to try the Jai Alai IPA. And it was a good choice. It's well-balanced but with strong citrusy hop profile. Orange, grapefruit and apricot with a bready malt backbone. The website says it weighs in at 7.5%...really tasty and smooth even at that strength. I was impressed. (Between Cigar City and Saint Somewhere, I may have to revamp my entire thinking of what Florida breweries are capable of...)

Only one point of feedback...the draft beer list. It's on a couple of greaseboards (see the fist picture) and the writing is so small I had to get up and walk over to the list to read what was there. Maybe I'm just getting old. Or they could invest in a couple big chalkboards so you can read it from across the pub.

Kickbacks Gastropub is the best beer bar in Jacksonville. I wish this place had been open when I live here.

A couple beer sidenotes from the rest of the trip...

Stopped out by Singleton's Seafood Shack in Mayport as I always do. Even straight out of a bottle, Sam Adams Boston Lager goes great with fresh seafood.

Out at the The Baseball Grounds in Jacksonville, the European Street Cafe runs a "Biergarten" where you can get good beer while you watch the Jacksonville Suns play ball, which is always welcome.

Pictures of Wallonie: Achouffe and La Roche-en-Ardenne

More pics from the Achouffe brewery and more...




Wallonie; Achouffe and La Roche-en-Ardenne

Belgium Trip, Day 4: Off to Wallonia

Monday morning I walked over a few blocks from the hostel and picked up the rental car, a Volkswagen Polo, and drove it back to the hostel to load up. We got a bit of a late start because I had to go get a new wireless NIC. Mine had died suddenly and since Skype was my primary form of communication home, I wanted to get one before heading out to the country. We grabbed some breakfast, loaded up the Polo and headed south toward the Ardennes.

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It was a drive of just under two hours to reach the village of Achouffe. Our destination? The Achouffe brewery and tavern of course! We got there at about 12:30 and went straight into the tavern for lunch.

The Achouffe tavern is rustic and eclectic. Lots of old exposed timbers, various old beer paraphernalia and plants. On top of this, there are chouffes and gnomes lurking everywhere! They are in nooks on the wall, on shelves, hanging from the ceiling, etc. Cozy, yet airy at the same time.

After seating ourselves, I started out with a Chouffe Royale thinking it was a special brew unique to the cafe. I was wrong! It was actually a mixed drink of La Chouffe and some sort of liqueur. Interesting but it really wasn't for me and I was disappointed that I wasted some of my sobriety on it.

They offered "menus" for multiple course meals. I picked the three course meal while Dave got a 5-course meal and we mixed and matched from there.

Highlights: My first course was warm goat cheese. It was actually two thick pieces of partially melted goat cheese on a large piece of toast. Heavenly. Dave shared some of his pate made with McChouffe beer. Wonderful. The cheese plate that came after the main course was really good too. I didn't catch what kind of cheese it was but it was creamy and soft.

I had some Chouffe Bok, a beer that I didn't think was even brewed anymore. Lovely malty beer and a real treat for me.

After a leisurely lunch, we headed over to the brewery store. I picked up a couple of Chouffe glasses, a big bottle of the Chouffe Bok and a McChouffe statue. A Chouffe statue was a must-get if I was going to make the trip out to Achouffe so now I only had to figure out how I was going to get it home!

After loading up the car, we took a walk around the countryside to ensure our sobriety and just take in the "sights"

After, we drove the 20 minutes to La Roche-en-Ardenne and checked into our campground located on the banks of the winding river Ourthe.

It was a fair hike into town and it was late in the afternoon. The sidewalks roll up early in La Roche and we missed visiting the famous medieval castle in the heart of the village. We found a great beer store open so we went in there and bought some beers from around the region, including beers from the La Rulles, Saint Monon and Sainte Helene breweries. Then we hit the local Delhaize supermarket to load up on supplies for the evening and next morning.

While it was not rainy that night, the ground was so waterlogged from previous days rains that we opted not to pitch the tent and decided to sleep in the car. We drank some beer, feasted on bread, cheese and pate and turned in early. All in all, not a bad day in the country. Turning in early worked out since we were going to be getting up early for a three hour drive to a true beer mecca...the abbey at Westvleteren.

Antwerp Slideshow

A quick pictoral wrap-up of Antwerp...

(A link to the full album is at the bottom of the post...)




Antwerp

Belgium Trip, Day 3: Still More Antwerp

Sunday we slept in a bit due to jet lag, grabbed some complementary breakfast and headed back downtown again. It had been drizzling on and off since Friday but it was still a manageable level of rainfall to handle while travelling by foot. Sunday…it really started to rain.We hit some of the Sunday morning flea markets and then ducked into the nearby Oud Arsenaal for some beers and some shelter. The Oud Arsenaal has been in business since 1924 and, like Quentin Mastijs, looks like very little has changed in the last 84 years. We grabbed some bench seating and checked out the menu. Not an enormous beer list but an impressively chosen one. But I ordered us bollekes of De Konninck to get started since Dave hadn’t had any yet. After that warm up, we delved deeper.

One of my objects during this trip was to get some Faro. This bar had Boon “Faro Pertotale” which was a faro mad eform half old lambic, half young lambic and sweetened with candy sugar. A true rarity, so I ordered a glass. Dave noticed that Rodenbach was the beer of the month and had never had it. Finding out that it was to be served with the traditional side of shrimp for no extra charge only sealed the decision.

The faro was tart and exhibited some light brett funk which was all softened a bit from the added sugar. The beer was quite still, nearly uncarbonated but offered a cider-like drinkability with a touch of finishing dryness. It was really good. The Rodenbach was Rodenbach, tart and acidic but refreshing and smooth at the same time.

And now a word about the privacy of Belgian toilets, especially in pubs and cafes. For men, there is little. Many times, the urinals are in plain site of either A) the women passing nearby to use the toilet or B) the other patrons sitting out in the bar. This is not to say that there is not at least partial obstruction but there are certainly many places where the doors to the WC remain wide open and the urinals are only partially obscured by the angle of the wall or a small half-door. It’s hard to explain but it’s certainly not the privacy of American standards!

Oud Arsenaal took this to extremes. The toilet was basically unisex. The toilets themselves are in tiny separate rooms within the larger restroom area, two are marked for ladies, one for men. But to get to the toilets what do you have to do? That’s right, walk right past the row of urinals! And that’s just what happened to me while I was downloading some urine. Three ladies walked right by toward the toilet. Startling wasn’t the word.

However, Oud Arsenaal was an inviting and cozy place, our server was quite helpful and friendly and outside of Kulminator, it may have been my favorite pub in Antwerp.

After a beer or three, the rain had let up so we headed further in toward the old city. Ducking in and out of shops, the rain had really started to soak us. So we ducked into a bar right next to the Cathedral called the Elfde Gebod (The Eleventh Commandment). This pub is filled with religious statues giving it the feel of an altar or the storage room for the nearby Cathedral. The roaring fireplace helped to take the chill out of our bones but we were looking for something to warm us from the inside too.

I ordered a Rochefort 10, a Trappist quadrupel that weighs in at 11% ABV. Boozy but lovely, it's a nice warmer on a dreary rainy day. Dave got another Trappist ale, the Westmalle Dubbel on draft.

Our server was a good guy named Kurt. He noticed what we were drinking and pointed out that St. Bernardus Tripel was available on draft. He brought us out a sample of the tripel so we could try it. That's a rarity where I live so I ordered the tripel next. Dave got the La Trappe Quadrupel, a beer from the Koningshoeven Trappist monastery in the Netherlands. Big malty beer at 10% alcohol.

After feeling considerably toasty, we thanked Kurt, he gave us his card for a new business venture called Belgium in a Box and we headed back out into the weather. I suggested that Dave needed to see Quentin Matsys so we took the three block walk.

Quentin Matsys was quite crowded this time around so we grabbed a couple seats at the bar. I ordered a De Koninck Tripel while Dave continued the high octane trip with a Kasteel Blond. Both were very good. Next we ordered a Gordon Finest Scotch Ale, mostly because we saw the amazing thistle glasses they served them in. But the ale was very good as well and gave us a rare chance to try a Belgian brewed Scotch ale.

We decided to move on and find some food since it was late afternoon but found we were not in any mood to keep fighting the rain. So we headed back to the hostel. On the way back I spotted a frituur so I doubled back and grabbed a couple orders of frites and brought them back to our room. We had frites and some Chimay Grand Cru cheese on crackers, washed it down with some Timmerman's Fruits de la Foret and some Lindemans Faro.

Antwerp had literally rained on our parade on Sunday but we were still able to get to three great pubs and make the best of a bad situation back at the room. We just tried our best to dry out our clothes, pack our bags and get ready for our drive out to Wallonie the next morning.

Belgium Trip, Day 2: More Antwerp

Having turned in so early the night before, I was up early on Saturday. I had time to kill. Dave’s plane wasn’t arriving in Brussels until 17:30. I grabbed some of the complimentary continental breakfast my hostel offered (toast with orange marmalade and a slice of cheese and salami on the side) and headed down to the old city to see what I could do.

Arriving at the Grote Markt so early allowed me to get some great photos of the square unencumbered by throngs of tourists. I grabbed a waffle and strolled around. I headed over to the Mayer Van Den Berg Museum (which was amazing) to kill some time until the pubs opened. It was now just after 11:00. With all that time to kill, I figured I’d head north out to a bar called t’Afspanning Waagstuk. This former coach house features a house beer called Zeppelin, a Belgian stout. Since Belgian stouts were one of the things I wanted to highlight on this trip, I thought it was worth the trip off the beaten path to get there.

The streets of Antwerp are tricky. They can literally change names from block to block, very few run in straight line and there are very few right angles at intersections. Subsequently, it took me some time to get my bearings. This is a veiled way of saying I got lost trying to find it. But after about a half an hour, I was able to locate it in the corner of a tiny square. And it was closed! Damn! One of the quirks you need to get used to is the seemingly arbitrary adherence of Belgian cafes owners to their advertised hours of operation. So, disappointed and thirsty, I headed back toward the Cathedral.

There, I was able to locate Quentin Matsys. No, not this guy but the café that is his namesake. It’s a 16th century bar and very little seems to have changed in the 450 years since it opened. It’s difficult to convey but if you look at the pictures, you’ll see a typical Belgian “brown bar” of a bygone era. They even had an old bar game on the premises as well. Not sure of the rules but something about rolling a wooden ball into holes with assigned point values. Renaissance skeeball?

I ordered some Ardense Pate and an Orval and had a tasty lunch. Orval is one of my favorites but this is the freshest bottle I’ve ever had. The hops dominate which is good if you like hops. Some suggest that Orval is not at its peak until 6-12 months after it is bottled. I can certainly understand that argument but I have to say I liked it fresh as well.

At that point, it was time to head back out to the airport to meet Dave. I hopped the requisite trains, we grabbed his bags, took the train back to Antwerp, dumped his stuff at the hostel and headed out. Saturday night was critical for this trip because it was the only night we would both be in Antwerp while the famous Kulminator would be open for business.

Much has been written about the Kulminator and now I’m going to write a little more. The short story is the husband and wife team of Dirk Van Dyck and Leen Boudewij had opened the café in 1979 with the idea of offering rare beers. What they started to do next is cellar some beers for sale later. That is mainly what they are known for today. In addition to an extensive and well-chosen list of “fresh” beers, there is an extensive list (the size of a phone book) detailing their extensive collection in the cellar. There is really nothing else like it in the world.

I had attempted in vain to locate Kulminator 11 years ago and had missed it twice in efforts to locate it on Friday. But Saturday morning, I had studied the maps again and taken my GPS with me as well. I had finally found it and committed the route to memory so I could find it in the dark. Thus, we arrived at the Kulminator before 19:30. And we were most pleased.

Kulminator is not as small as the Paters Vajtje but we were lucky to find the last table open in what was a relatively full house. We were presented our enormous beer menus which took us a full 10 minutes to absorb on a cursory level. And that didn’t even include the impressive list of draft beers they had available!

I was not particularly looking to try any beers from the cellar. I’m not sure why but I just didn’t’ think that the extra cost involved would be worth it. But Dave was intrigued and to my surprise I saw that there were many aged beers that I considered to be reasonably priced. So I decided to take the plunge and try a beer from the cellar to start the evening.

My selection was a 2000 Boon Oude Gueze Marriage Parfait. This beer is one of my favorites but I had never had any aged Boon lambics, certainly not a eight year old vintage. Dave went back even further with a 1995 Saison Regal. He also ordered a plate of smoked cheese which he generously shared with yours truly.

I can’t say enough about how great my Marriage Parfait was. If you can use these words to describe a beer, elegant and exquisite would be the first ones to mind. It was so smooth and the flavors were meshing so well. It was tart and funky and dry at the perfect levels and in all the right places. It is one of the great eye-opening beer experiences of my life. I age beer myself but for the first time I see what perfect conditions and time will do to create such a delicate balance of flavor.

Dave’s Saison Regal was very good too. The age had darkened the beer a bit and the oxidation was surely evident in the nose. But it the mouth the beer was so smooth and spicy with just a hint of oaky and vanilla oxidation. Again, a great example of what the right conditions can coax out a beer.

In the meantime, the crowded conditions had brought a couple locals to the table so we picked their brains about beer and the best places for frties in Antwerp. A father and son group came in with a guitar and clarinet and serenaded the crowd with jazz standards, Sinatra and a strange but endearing version of Tom Jones’ song “It’s Not Unusual”.

Next, Dave’s interest in Abbey style beers prompted me to point him toward St. Bernardus Prior 8 (a smooth and flavorful Abbey Dubbel…St. Bernardus doesn’t make a bad beer.) while I tried the Gouden Carolus Christmas beer on tap. The Gouden Carolus had a unique spicing to it which I could not identify. Dave has correctly able to identify it as anise or licorice and it was a good compliment to the rich fruity dark malt.

Hunger and calls to home drew us away from the Kulminator and back down to the main square. Upon recommendations from the locals, we stopped at Frituur No. 1 for an order of frites topped with mayonnaise. They were good but a little mayo on my fries goes a long way. I vowed I would try some other style of sauce the next time we hit a frituur.

Belgium Trip, Day 1: Antwerp

It was a steady drizzle when I finally got off the train in Antwerp. That made the walk down the hostel a bit unpleasant but I was too tired to care. Larry the Dirty Hippy™ had decided to lay his seat back in my lap all the way to Brussels so sleep had been rare and sporadic. That coupled with an exceptionally long slow-moving line at Customs, lugging my bags around the airport and then the Brussels Centraal station had left me worn out upon my arrival in Antwerp. Instead of looking for a beer, I was looking for a bed.

I was early but the hostel let me drop off my bags even though my room wasn’t ready yet. This was just before 10:00 so it was expected. The clerk told me my room would be done by noon so I headed out to find something to occupy my time for a couple hours. I didn’t want to go to the old town just yet. I wanted to rest up and do that correctly. Instead, I headed for the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Royal Museum of Fine Arts) to stroll around and see if I could find some good Brueghel and such to occupy my time. And I did.

I was hungry though and after an hour and a half decided to try to find t’ Pakhuis, a brewpub a few blocks from the museum. Sleep deprivation torpedoed those plans however as I had completely forgotten my maps at the hostel and my senses were such that I could not remember the address nor get my bearing in that part of town. But it was noon now so I decided to cut bait and head back to the hostel. A two-three hour nap and I would be ready to hit the cafes in earnest.

But upon my return, the room still wasn’t ready! I gave up on the nap and not wanting to make more trips back and forth, I packed up my supplies in the backpack and headed for the old city. I was just going to have to go for as long as I could and then turn in early. Some first night in Antwerp…

As I walked around the old town, I was surprised and disappointed to see no “frietkots” like I had seen on my previous visits. Frites had been my first choice for sustenance but I did not know which of the storefront “frituurs” made the frites in the traditional way. So I passed and went to a restaurant that specialized in “doner”. Imagine a gyro without the pita and a garlic sauce on the meat. It came with a small salad and some fries (not good) so that hit the spot in absence of other foods.

I got down near the Cathedral (beautiful as ever) and found myself in view of the Paters Vaetje. It's a small pub but what it lacks in physical size, it makes up for with an impressive beer list. I sat down and ordered a “bolleke”. I thought that my first beer in Antwerp should be Antwerp’s most popular beer.

In Pennsylvania, there is a phenomenon in bars where customers just ask for “a lager” and are brought a Yuengling without hesitation. In Antwerp, you call for a “bolleke” and you are brought a goblet of De Koninck with a small 25cl pour. It is the beer I drank most when I was here 11 years ago and one that I was looking forward to having when I came back. (I have had the bottled version back in the U.S. and it was extremely disappointing. De Koninck is a beer that needs to be served quite fresh to truly shine.)

De Koninck did not disappoint. It is an amber ale that clocks in at a 5% ABV which by Belgian standards is fairly puny. It is easy to dismiss this beer at first taste because it is quite light and there doesn’t seem to be a lot going on. But if you stick with it, you’ll start to pick up a lot of subtle flavors that battle for supremacy on the tongue. One sip will give you fruitiness, the next is crisp and clean. One sip reveals breadiness and earthy qualities and the next highlights a surprising hop profile. So simple but so complex. I had wondered if my memories had been playing tricks on me but this ale was as good as ever.

As I finished my second beer, (Cuvee de Trolls, a 7% ABV blonde ale seasoned with orange peel, brewed by Dubuisson) I could already feel the waves of sleep starting to come strong over me. I had a fair walk back to the hostel so I headed back, stopping off at a grocery store to pick up some cheap beer glasses, some Timmerman’s lambic and some snacks. I finally got settled into my clean room, had some Chimay cheese and bread with the Timmerman’s and turned in. It was only 19:30. Lame. Outside of a couple highlights, a disappointing first day in Belgium.

New England, July 2005: Part 4 - Kennebec River Brewery, Quebec City and the Seas Dog

(I kept putting this last installment off because I thought I had pics from this leg of the trip. I guess I was wrong. So here it is...)

We arrived at The Forks, Maine early on Saturday afternoon. Our target was the Northern Outdoors resort where we would be camping out and taking advantage of a fringe benefit; that this resort also has a working brewery/brewpub.

We pitched our tent right at a site within a stone's throw of the Kennebec River and headed up to the lodge for some lunch.

We ordered some burgers and some brews. I had the Penobscot Porter with my burger and it was very tasty. Creamy and roasty, very smooth and sessionable. Did I mention they serve their beers in mason jars?

At the time, they also had a blueberry ale (not bad), a hazelnut brown ale (a tad heavy handed with the hazelnut) and their Magic Hole IPA. Magic Hole is one of the overlooked IPA's in New England. It is hopped exclusively with East Kent Goldings (at least it was at the time) and is just a fine, snappy and tasty IPA. In the age of the Imperial IPA, I guess I can see how many would overlook it.

Over the course of the day and a half we were at the resort, all the beers were sampled. In between the kayaking, the hiking or the hot tub, we found ourselves in the pub drinking beer or at our campsite drinking the beer we got at Oak Pond Brewery the day before. Not a bad way to spend a couple of days. My only regret is I didn't snap a few pictures on this part of the trip!

Sunday morning we decided to take a cannonball trip across the border and go beer hunting in Quebec City. We arrived late in the morning and found a pub to grab a sandwich and a couple beers.

At the Pub St-Alexandre, I enjoyed a Blanche de Bruxelles witbier with my ham and cheese panino and followed that up with the excellent Raftman from Unibroue, a Belgian-style ale made with smoked whiskey malt.

After lunch, we took a stroll around Le Marché du Vieux-Port de Québec, what could best be described as a sort of indoor farmer's market on the St. Lawrence River. We bought some outstanding artisinal cheeses and some Canadian ice wine and started the drive home.

On our way out of town, we stopped off at a Metro grocery store to look for beer. I picked up some Raftman, some Ephemere Cassis and some Irresistible Blonde and Brune, all from Unibroue. Dave picked up some Leffe Brune and we made our way back to Bangor.

On Monday, I had some time to kill before driving back to Logan Airport. I visited one of my favorite places for beer in Bangor, the Sea Dog Brewpub. The beer they serve are always tasty and, more importantly, they always have an offering on cask. Today it was a brown ale called Old Gollywobbler and I had one with lunch. I can't always recommend the food at the Sea Dog but the lobster roll I had that day was pretty good.

Rental car returned and bags checked, I headed to the Harpoon Brewery tap at the terminal to have a couple beers before the plane took off. I started with a Harpoon UFO (an unfiltered wheat which was fair at best) and then realized they had an offering from their 100 Barrel series...Triticus Wheat Wine. The Triticus was very, very good and weighs in at 11.5% ABV. As you might imagine, I was feeling very mellow as I boarded the plane for home.

All in all, a very good trip and quite a nice haul of beer was brought home.

Coaster: Boston Beer Works

This coaster was picked up during my New England trip in 2004. I went to the location near Fenway Park.

They made a nice IPA but I couldn't get served fast enough to try a second beer. They seemed quite understaffed and the place wasn't even crowded. It would be worth a second trip though.

The Session # 14: Beer People

This is a tough installment of The Session for me since I really don't know many people in the brewing industry personally and I didn't really have a "beer guru" who introduced me to the wonders of craft/artisanal beer. Also, I have covered some of this ground before during The Session (#5 - Atmosphere) as I consider people to be the ultimate atmosphere when it comes to drinking.

So in the absence of a true beer person, I'll rehash a bit about my "beer partner" in my explorations, my good friend Dave.

The world of beer began to open up a bit in college from the day we discovered we could get a beer called Genessee 12 Horse Ale for the same price they were selling Busch Lite and the ilk at our favorite music bar. 12 Horse was not a great beer by objective standards but it turned the light on for us. It was quite different from the American industrial lagers we knew as "beer". And it was actually tasty!

Once we were able to buy beer legitimately (after the age of 21, 1991/1992), it was Sam Adams Boston Lager that opened our eyes even further and we began to delve more deeply into the American microbreweries as well as downing pint after pint of Guinness on the weekends. (Now that I think about it, Dave introduced me to Guinness and, in turn, to all stouts)

From there I remember discovering great beers and Dave was always in the vicinity. There was the party in DC when we walked down to the corner market and discovered Old Rasputin. My girlfriend split to study in Europe and that evening was my first taste of La Fin Du Monde.

After that there was a split as far as our beer journey. I joined the Navy and had already began to turn to the malt side. Belgian ales and big malty German lagers began to be my beers of choice. From 1995-99 I was either overseas or in the beer desert of northern Florida. Good beer began to be synonymous with imports and the big malt flavors many of them imparted became my preference. Ports of call in Belgium, The Netherlands, Great Britain and a backpacking trip through Germany solidified this thinking.

Meanwhile, Dave remained in the Washington D.C. area during the boom (and bust) of the initial American craft beer movement. Dave was cutting his teeth on lots of American craft beers and the hops were prominent in these brews.

So when I got out of the Navy, our tastes were quite different. Dave was quite the hophead while my tastes craved the malt and yeasty esters. I considered the big IPA's overdone and heavy-handed. He considered many of the beers I championed quite boring.

I moved to Maine and he joined me a couple years later. At that point, he was able to show me the appeal of some of these hoppy beers (Tupper's Hop Pocket Ale, Troeg's Hopback Amber and finally Stone Ruination got me over the hump) while I was able to introduce the Belgian styles and the new-found microbreweries in Maine, which were, by and large, quite dedicated to making English style ales.

I've been gone from Maine for four years now but he still ships me the occasional package of Cadillac Mountain Stout and I send him Sweetwater IPA. Even from a distance the education continues.

So what's the moral to this story? I guess if you're not going to have mentor as you begin your journey into beer, at least get yourself a good foil and/or a good friend. You learn more that way.

More entries in this month's installment of The Session can be found over here at Stonch's Beer Blog.

New England, July 2005: Part 3 - Oak Pond Brewing

Having packed up all our camping gear the night before, Dave and I got up, left his wife and their 100 year old farmhouse behind and headed west on I-95. (Yes, it was actually I-95 South but it goes west in this part of the state, trust me.)

About an hour into the trip, we stopped by a general store in Skowhegan to pick up a few provisions. We grabbed some snacks and some breakfast and then something in the cooler caught my eye. It was a bomber labeled "Oak Pond Brewing Dooryard Ale". The reason it caught my eye is that I had lived in Maine for over four years and prided myself as knowing a bit about all the in-state breweries. However, this brewery had seemed to escape my attention. I grabbed the bomber figuring it was time to sample some of Oak Pond's offerings.

The clerk who checked us out commented on how much he liked Dooryard Ale and after chatting about it for a a minute, we learned that Oak Pond Brewing was right there in Skowhegan and virtually around the corner. After learning that, we decided we couldn't leave town without at least stopping by.

We pulled the car into the "dooryard" at Oak Pond and the brewery was indeed open for business. Oak Pond resides in what once was a chicken barn. It started up in 1999 but the current owner has only been there since 2003. The owner, Don (Chandler, as I later found out), was manning the operation that morning, showing people around the brewery and selling growlers and bottles of his ales and lagers. Did I say lager? Maine brewers don't make lagers. There was an Oktoberfest for sale and I asked Don if it was indeed a lager or simply an Oktoberfest-style ale. Don reported that it was indeed a lager beer. A pleasant surprise as, at that time, Oak Pond was the only brewery in Maine producing a lager. (As of 2008, I believe this is still the case).

Don let us try some samples of some of the beers he had on tap. Of all the brews sampled, it was the Nut Brown Ale that grabbed me. Nutty, malty and smooth as velvet. I bought a growler to go. Dave took to the Oktoberfest and picked up a bomber of that. With that, we had a pretty nice haul to drink around the campfire that night.

Oak Pond Brewing is one of those hidden gems that I love finding when I'm travelling. They do not make "extreme" beers (although they do make a seasonal Doppelbock) and the average beer snob would dismiss their beers as "boring". That's their loss. Oak Pond makes well-crafted, sessionable beers and is truly local. I would imagine that most of Don's sales come from Skowhegan and within a 60 mile radius of the brewery. He's your neighbor...who just happens to make some damn good beer. That's one of the many things I miss about living in Maine.

Anyway, we paid for the beer, got back in the car and started our drive north, up through the Appalachian Mountains toward The Forks.

Oak Pond Brewing

New England Trip, July 2005: Part 2: - Beerhunting Through New England

It's only about 3-4 hours from Boston to Bangor and since Dave wasn't going to be off work until Friday evening, it was time for some beer hunting at the area liquor stores.

Heading north, the first place I stopped off at was Portsmouth, NH at a little place called Gary's Beverages. Gary's doesn't look like much from the outside. In fact, it could be mistaken for just about any bottle shop in northern New England. In truth, it's the best beer store in Portsmouth. The selection is great but the store is a bit cramped and disorganized so hunting for beer takes on a whole new meaning. I stopped here specifically for Smuttynose beer (especially the Big Beer series) and I was not disappointed. I got hold of some Smutty Barleywine, Wheat Wine and some Big "A" IPA. Also found some bottles of the Harpoon 100 Barrel Series, in this case it was the Triticus wheat wine.

Crossing into Maine, the next stop was Tully's in Wells. Tully's is housed in a shopping center anchored by a Hannaford and is easily the best beer store south of Portland and north of the New Hampshire border. That makes it a popular stop for people from Massachusetts and New Hampshire to find Maine beers that are not distributed outside of the state. (Can you say Cadillac Mountain Stout?) Tully's had expanded their selection since my last visit and had anything you could want as far as Maine brewed products. The selection of Belgian beers was also notable.

Next up was a stop to RSVP in Portland. RSVP is not the best beer store in Portland but it is reasonably easy to get to from the interstate. It's dingy and they don't dedicate near enough of their ample floor space to beer but the selection is still very good, they even sell growlers from draft-only Maine brewers. Again, lots of Maine beers but tons of micros "from away", certainly better than when I lived in state. RSVP also benefits from being in close proximity to the The Great Lost Bear, the best beer bar in Portland. Alas, the GLB was not yet open. That may have been a good thing as a quick lunch at GLB can quickly turn into a lost afternoon and I still had to get further north.

For kicks, I stopped off at Lou's Beverage Barn in Augusta. Lou's always had a great selection but notoriously kept really old beer in the store. It's no different now. I left without buying a thing. Back on 95 North.

Arriving in Bangor, I stopped off at the Natural Living Center and was pleasantly surprised that their beer selection was greatly improved. Natural Living Store had always been the best place for beer in Bangor by default (this is no longer the case, several stores in the area have stepped it up in recent years) but now it was worthy on its merits. Lots of singles, lots of in and out of state micros. I picked up some singles of old friends and some I wanted to become acquainted with...and headed further north still.

I know my destination was Bangor but up in downtown Orono (home of the University of Maine) is Burby and Bates, a fine little liquor store with an emphasis on fine wines and, more importantly, fine beers. You can mix your sixers, they have fresh growlers from area breweries but today I was all about the Dogfish Head. Georgia had recently raised the ABV limit on beer but that was only up to 14%. Hello World Wide Stout and 120 Minute IPA!

I had made better time than I had expected so it was down the street to sample some beer at the Bear Brewpub. Not the most imaginative name for a Maine brewpub, I'll grant you. Still it was a drizzly afternoon and I decided to grab a late lunch and kill some time over a pint or two. The salmon chowder was excellent and I had the house IPA with it. Was it a master stroke of beer pairing? No but the wicked herbal hoppiness did cut the creaminess of the chowder nicely. Not a bad little IPA here. After a couple hours, it was off to Dave's place for a good night's sleep before we ventured out on the next leg of the journey...

The Haul

Harpoon Triticus

Smuttynose Finest Kind IPA

Smuttynose Big A IPA

Smuttynose Summer Weizen

Smuttynose Barleywine

Smuttynose Wheat Wine

Allagash Summer Ale

Allagash 4

Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

Sea Dog Winter Ale "Cabin Fever"
Dogfish Head World Wide Stout

Dogfish Head 120 Min IPA

Atlantic Special Old Bitter (S.O.B.)

Atlantic Brother Adams Honey Bragget Ale

Geary's London Porter

Magic Hat Blind Faith

Casco Bay Pale Ale

Frye's Leap IPA

Unibroue La Terrible

Maine Coast Irish Stout

Unibroue Ephemere Cassis

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Beer Travel: Troeg's Brewery

OK, I'll write this up even though I lost all the damn pictures I took during my visit to the brewery! Argh!



Anyhow, this past weekend (September 1) I was passing through Harrisburg and went to tour the Troeg's brewery as well as to fill up my old Troeg's growler with some tasty beverage. I arrived about 15 minutes early for the tour but they were serving free samples so I decided to partake. The first beer I tried was a very spicy tripel they had brewed called Scratch Beer #3. It clocks in at 10% ABV and showed it a bit in the taste but a very nice tripel for sure. Also sampled some of their new fall seasonal, a porter named Dead Reckoning. Very hoppy for a porter! I ended up filling my growler with that beer so more on that at a later date.



Chris Troeg, one of the two brothers who are the brewery's namesake, gave the tour and it was fairly informative without getting too technical and going over the heads of the non-beer geek crowd. What was interesting to me is how small Troegs still is. You see their beers all over Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania so you get the impression that they would be a bigger operation. Their bottling line in downright tiny!



Anyway, it was a typical brewery tour. They are building some new, bigger fermenters and looking to expand a bit. The most unusual part of the tour is that when it was done, Chris let us basically have the run of the place so we could take a look around. It was then that I found (where the new fermenters were going to be located) several new oak barrels with names of beers scrawled in chalk. There was the name of a beer and then a date (ex: Naked Elf 071407) I did not know that Troegs barrel aged any of their beers so it was quite a surprise to find these.



On my way out, I was paying for my growler and Chris was nearby and I asked him if they were releasing any oak aged beers in the future. He said that no they weren't and that those barrels were holding beer that was being treated with wild yeasts as an experiment. You mean like brett is being added? Yes, he replied. Cool.

New England Trip, July 2005: Day 1, Boston

I flew into Logan Friday morning. I was originally going to meet my buddy Dave that morning for a quick Boston pub crawl before heading out to Jamaica Plain for the Beer Advocate Boston Beer Company Tour but work responsibilities prevented him from coming down from Maine that day. I was left to my own devices and with an afternoon to kill, I headed to the T to hit a couple brewpubs before the tour began that evening.

First on my list was Cambridge Brewing Company which enjoyed a very good reputation in Boston and deservedly so. I ordered the salmon chowder (which really hit the spot) and a draft of Three Threads. Three Threads is a porter made in the traditional way by blending three different beers together. In this case, they blended a brown ale, a sour Flemish-style ale and their Red God IPA. While this made for a porter that starts a bit sour, after a couple sips that sourness seems to fade and a roasted coffee bitterness takes over. Some persistent hoppiness too. The flavors were all very distinct at first but them began to mesh into a smooth drinking, amazing porter. If you ever have a chance to try a traditionally blended porter, I highly recommend it. It really gives you a new perspective on flavors and blending beers.

I hopped back on the T and headed down to the Fenway Park area, first to visit the Boston Beer Works location and second to tour Fenway Park. The Beer Works was nearly empty and I thought I had time for a couple drafts. Unfortunately the service was so slow, I barely had time to drink one in the 45 minutes I was there. It wasn't the bartender's fault as she was covering the bar area and a couple tables in the next room as well. Many taps were available; there were 10 house beers on tap. I had a Back Bay IPA from the tap which had a biting herbal bitterness and was really tasty but I had no time for another as the Green Monster was calling.

After the (very cool) tour of Fenway Park, I hopped on the T and headed over to Jamaica Plain where the Sam Adams Brewhouse is housed in the old Haffenreffer Brewery building. While most of Boston Brewing’s production takes place in Cincinnati and other breweries through contract, this is the test brewery and produces a lot of special releases especially in keg form for the Boston market.

It had been arranged by Beer Advocate to have Jim Koch give us the tour that day. While we waited for everyone to arrive, Jim sent some pitchers of Boston Lager and Summer Ale for everyone to enjoy.

From watching him on the Sam Adams commercials, you wouldn’t think that Jim Koch would be a dynamic public speaker but he is so passionate and so knowledgeable about his product that he is very entertaining to listen to.

He talked about the history of Boston Beer, the colorful characters that used to populate Jamaica Plain when they first bought the property, passed around a bunch of fresh hops and then showed off the brew kettles. “I could explain the intricacies of the brewing process but you guys know how that works. Would you rather just head to the tasting room?”, asked Jim. A cheer of approval from the crowd and we were on our way.

First up, Jim brought out glasses of the Boston Lager. He said that he doesn't believe that any of the beers that Boston Beer have brewed have ever surpassed the first beer they brewed. In a weird way, I think he really believes that.

Next were two beers that were soon to be unveiled in the first "Drinker's Choice" promotion for later that year. The first was a crisp and hoppy Bohemian style pilsener that I liked quite a bit. The second was a brown ale (that eventually won; it's now a regular product) that Jim kept tasting and saying "it's not ready yet" but he let us try anyway. I would have voted for the pilsener regardless.

Imagine this scene: Jim Koch carrying a tray with dozens of snifters containing Utopias and placing them on your table. I don't have to imagine this because that is exactly what happened next. Utopias famously sells for over $100 a bottle so this was indeed a rare treat. It drinks more like a sherry (Jim Koch described it in terms of a cognac but I've never had cognac...), it's rich and oaky with vanilla and toffee notes. No head whatsoever. Again, if I didn't know it was a beer, I would guess it's an aged sherry. I had my snifter and another given to me by a lady who did not want to try hers.


I met some pretty nice people, especially a gentleman from Denmark and his wife. I found the Alstrom Brothers and thanked them for the event. They asked if I wanted to continue the festivities over at Doyle's Cafe but I needed to go get some sleep and get on the road the next morning. I was on my way to Bangor the next day...