The Session #33: Framing Beer

This month's version of The Session is about "Framing Beer". I'm not sure what Andy had in mind exactly but my mind seized on this sentence:

I have not done much blind tasting, and I would be intrigued to hear about this ‘frameless’ evaluation of beer.

Well, I have never done any blind tasting and I have always wanted to do one. This installment of The Session gives me the perfect excuse.

Now, it wouldn't be a perfect blind tasting...I was having my wife pick out 4 12oz bottles out of my cellar. I am vaguely familiar with what is in my cellar so I imagine that this colors my "blindness" during the tasting but I have enough inventory that I can't keep it all straight. My wife grabbed the 4 bottles, poured me a sample of each and did not tell me what beers she had picked until after the entire tasting was complete. Here they are in chronological order.

Beer #1

Lots of dark fruit in the nose and a bit of alcohol. Taking a sip, big flavors from this one. Pronounced alcohol is evident first. Fruity, oaky...and roasty. The roastiness comes out more as it warms with lots of sweet dark fruit in the finish. Warming alcohol as it moves down the throat.

After sipping on this for a few minutes, I am pretty certain that this is am Imperial stout. It felt like a strong old ale at first but the dark roasted malt flavors gave it away. No idea what label the beer is but if you made me guess, I'd say a young version of Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout.

The Beer Revealed: Duck Rabbit Imperial Stout

I had the style right and I was pretty happy about that. Again, the roasted malt and strength of the alcohol flavors gave it away.

Beer #2

Big caramel aromas in the nose...some faint herbal hops too. The flavor takes a 180 from the smell. The aroma was big and rich, the taste is difficult to detect. Perhaps this is because it follows the Imperial stout but I struggle to get anything from my first couple sips. The body is thin and light, the finish is fairly clean. An American wheat beer? A golden ale? That doesn't go with the smell though. No idea on this one...I'm stumped. If I had to guess, I'd say a strong Belgian pale ale.

The Beer Revealed: Anchor Christmas 2005

Amazing. Without being able to see the beer, I picked up none of the porter-like elements I usually detect in this beer. The age on the beer explains the thinnish feel of the body.

Beer #3

Big malty caramel in the nose. Alcohol too and some pronounced bitter hops. For lack of a better phrase, it smells like a barleywine. In the mouth, big fruity and caramel malt. And hops. Lots of hops followed by an alcohol bite. The hops bite too but you can detect some citrusy notes there too. Some dark fruit and warming alcohol.

It's assuredly a barleywine, almost surely American. If I had to guess, I'd say Rogue Old Crustacean.

The Beer Revealed: 2004 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine

I am surprised that a nearly 6-year-old sample still has that much hop flavor going on. Wow.

Beer #4

Bright fruity aromas, roasted malt and no hops to speak of. Roasty dark malt in the mouth and a lot of carbonation, more than you would expect from what is almost certainly a stout. It's creamy and certainly thinner in body than the Imperial stout I had earlier. There's a character that I can't put my finger on that leads me to believe that this is not an ordinary stout. It got something extra...maybe a milk or cream stout?

The Beer Revealed: New Holland The Poet Oatmeal Stout

I love oatmeal stouts but couldn't identify that oatmeal quality beyond "something else".

Conclusion:

So what have I learned? I learned that, unsurprisingly, beers with big bold flavors are easier to identify than those with more muted and subtle ones. I was still pretty pleased that I was able to identify about 2.5 beer styles out of the 4 I sampled...I've seen blind tastings that go far worse. I am also curious what would happen if I sent my wife to the local Whole Foods with $10 and told her to bring back 4 random single bottles what this exercise would look like. Hmmmm........

For more entries for this month's installment of The Session, check out this post on I'll Have A Beer, this month's host.

The Session #32: Eastern Beers

This installment of The Session is hosted by Girl Likes Beer and the requirements were to select a beer brewed to the east of where you live and far enough east that it is brewed in a different country.

I am in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. So the beer I picked is technically brewed east of here...but much farther north than east I suppose. But it counts!

I am picking one of the fine beers from the Unibroue brewery in Chambly, Quebec, Canada. I selected Trois Pistoles, a dark Belgian-style ale and this particular bottle I've selected tonight has spent just under 5 years in my cellar.

Canada is best known for it's widely exported industrial lagers like Molson and Labatts but Unibroue was the first Canadian craft beer I ever tries and they were doing beers in a Belgian style, something that was rare for North American breweries at that time.

This beer pours a very dark brown with a thick and creamy light tan head. As with the beer when young, lots of ripe dark fruit in the nose. Raisins, plum and currant. Almost smells more like a ruby port than a beer.

Still a bit of alcohol in the mouth at first sip. A caramel sweetness still remains but the body has thinned out considerably and it's much drier than the last time I tried it. Still the dark fruit, still there is oakiness in the body but the flavors are harder to identify as everything has blended nicely as the age has taken effect. No unpleasant flavors from oxidation can be detected. A warming as it finishes, lightly sticky in the mouth but a fairly clean finish for such a big beer (9% ABV).

So what's different with this beer after 5 years? The spiciness that you expect from Unibroue (and that this beer displayed when young) is very muted and at most times undetectable. As a result, the malt shines through more than it once did. Not as balanced but the flavors all blend wonderfully.

Get some to drink now and some to drink later. Still fantastic after 5 years!


The blog Girl Likes Beer is hosting this month's edition of The Session. Head over there to link to more entires.

The Session: Beer Desserts

Almost 15 years ago, one of first beer books I ever bought was Beer Basics: A Quick and Easy Guide by Peter Lafrance. It, along with Michael Jackson's New World Guide to Beer, were my guides through my early days of learning styles and exploring the various American "microbrews" in the mid-1990's.

In the back of Lafrance's book is a chapter on beer and food and a few recipes can be found therein. Here's the recipe for a dessert called Naughty Gretchen:

Naughty Gretchen

(Yields: 1 serving)

2 scoops chocolate ice cream
1 12-oz bottle of dark or amber beer
One cherry

Place the ice cream in a blender. Add the beer to the ice cream and blend until frothy. Pour into a tall glass and place a cherry on top.

(Jim Gagnier - The Broome Street Bar, Manhattan, New York)

Now, I have a more strict recommendation for the recipe as I have exclusively used stout in this recipe, usually Guinness Extra Stout, and with stout it is delicious. I can't vouch for other styles.

Mr. Lafrance's book seems to be out of print but still available through various online resellers. Lafrance also has a website called Beer Basics with a couple of attached blogs and a newsletter.

The Session #21: What's Your Favorite?

This month's edition of The Session is being hosted by Matt over at A World of Brews.

The theme is "What is Your Favorite Beer and Why?"

Matt quickly follows the title of his theme with this comment: "Before you say I don't have a favorite beer or how do I pick just one, I say BS everyone has a favorite. "

Well, let me trump your BS with a bigger BS! It's BS that everyone has to have a favorite beer!

How would you determine that anyway? The beer you've been drinking the longest? The beer that you buy most often? The beer that you think tastes the best? The breadth of beer is too vast for that. How can I compare a great lager with a great Flemish red? How would I pick the best one? And why should I?

The title of Matt's blog says it all. "A World of Brews" It would be virtually impossible to select my favorite beer out of all the thousands of beers to choose from. So much of my preference depends on my mood, the season or what's for dinner. So I will choose a beer but don't mistake this for my absolute favorite beer.

I picked Oud Beersel Oude Kriek Vieille. It's not the best beer I've ever had but if you forced me to make a list of my favorites, this one would probably make the top 25. And since I had a bottle that had been in my cellar exactly four years, it seemed like an appropriate choice.

This beer is one of the best Kriek lambic beers I've ever tried. It's got just the right balance of brett funk and cherry sourness and while it delivers a significant "pucker factor", it's still quite refreshing and surprisingly drinkable.

It pours the color of cherry wood with a frothy pink head. The head on this aged bottle is nowhere near as big as the fresh sample I tried. But the aroma is still full of amazing sour cherry, barnyard funk and just a hint of wheaty sweetness.

The flavors have blended a bit over time and sometimes the funk and the sourness seem to be one in the same. The barnyard flavors actually seem a bit muted but the sourness form the cherries is there and builds as your drink it and as the beer warms. It's earthy and the body seems thinner than before but still retains a very champagne-like mouthfeel. The tart cherry lingers long past the finish and into the aftertaste.

At four years, this beer is developing nicely and it's status as one of my favorites is certainly cemented! If you like a sour, traditional but drinkable Kriek lambic, this is one you look for.

Brouwerij Oud Beersel

Check out more contributions of The Session over at A World of Brews. I'll post the exact link once Matt does...

(edit: The link to all contributions to The Session are now here.)

The Session #18: Happy Anniversary

For this 18th edition of The Session, the theme was selected by Ray of Barley Blog. It reads:

For August, the theme is “Happy Anniversary”.

Use this as an excuse to celebrate. Open a limited release anniversary beer from your favorite brewer. Enjoy that special beer you normally only open on your wedding anniversary or birthday. Either way, tell us about it. Why is it a beer you may only drink once a year? Why is that brewery’s annual release the one you selected?

Only open on a wedding anniversary or a birthday? A beer I only drink once a year? Perhaps I am not sentimental enough but these concepts are foreign to me.

I wouldn't even celebrate my birthday if not for my wife and kids sake. I find it self-indulgent and silly for a grown man to get all worked up over his own birthday. And wedding anniversary? That's for sharing with my wife and while she likes beer too, a bottle of wine is usually what we end up splitting.

I guess it all boils down to this: Any day is a good day to break out that special beer.

I have a nice collection in my cellar. I could crack open something "special" everyday for a year or two and not run out of beer to drink. The specialness these days is finding the time to relax and indulge myself in, for example, a good aged barleywine. Kids do take up your time and energy you know.

So that leaves me to pick out something that was a one-off or a limited edition beer. While Unibroue is not my favorite brewer, they are a long-time favorite. So I decided to crack open a bottle of Unibroue Edition 2004. Why? I have quite a few of these bottles left!

It pours an orangey almond with a wispy ivory head. Some floaties (yeast) in the beer. Truly wicked fruity aromas emanating from the glass. Spiced apples and plums. Pears. Sweet spices like coriander and nutmeg with just a hint of cinnamon, toffee and vanilla. Some lightly sour green apple in the nose as well.

Explodes with flavor in the mouth. Very spicy earthy yeastiness and a decadent fruitiness form the malt. Ripe pears, plums, nutmeg, coriander and green apples underpinned by oaky toffee and vanilla. Just a hint of alcohol in the finish helps to dry the body out a bit but leaves a sticky sweet aftertaste in the mouth.

So while I'm not a "special occasion beer" guy, thanks to Ray for giving me an excuse to break out a beer that is worthy of a special occasion.

More entries for The Session can be found over here at this month's host, Barley Blog.

The Session # 16: Beer Festivals

Beer festivals. I've been to some great ones. I've been to some lousy ones. Now, in my mid-thirties, I've figured out two essential ingredients to knowing what will make a beer festival enjoyable for me.

1) There have to be beers at the festival that I would have difficulty sampling otherwise because of geography, cost or limited availability.

2) There either has to be an early session of the festival or the doors have to open early in the afternoon. If you go early, you tend to miss the drunken louts who show up after dark simply to get loaded.

Thus, my best beer festival experiences have been ones that I have travelled out of state to attend. Lots of new beer to sample in those cases and the festival format allows you to sample much in a limited amount of time.

But my favorite festival that I attended was one in Maine while I was living in that state. It was the Southwest Harbor Oktoberfest and the last one I attended was probably in 2003.

Maine had a lot of craft breweries per capita (at one point it was more per capita than any state in the union but that may have changed since) but some were draft only, brewpubs or a very limited availability. Some breweries literally serviced only a 45 mile radius from the brewery. So even if a brewery was in-state, you might not be able to find the beer. So this was a great chance to sample beers from all over the state and even meet many of the brewers.

Some highlights:

I got to meet Rob Tod of Allagash Brewing. It was my first chance to try beers from Sheepscot Valley Brewing and from the Narrow Gauge Brewpub (Narrow Gauge is gone now but had a great cream ale). The Liberal Cup, Gritty McDuff's and The Bear brewpubs were all there too.

It was outside at a campground and the weather was great. There was the beer tent and another tent with live music and still another for crafts and artists. You could bring the whole family if you wanted to.

If you find yourself near Mt. Desert Island in Maine this fall, you can check it out for yourself.

And if you remember those two rules, you'll probably find any beer festival that meets them worthwhile.

For more entries for this month's The Session, head over to Geistbear Brewing Blog where it's being hosted.

The Session #15: Seeing The Light

For this month's version of The Session, we were asked to write about when we knew we were hooked on beer. I know the exact night it happened. It's not an incredibly exciting story but here it is.

I was visiting one of my college roommates at his parent's place in Wilmington, Delaware. We were preparing for an evening in the basement, shooting pool, watching baseball and drinking beer. We were heading out for a beer run and Tom suggested we go to Total Beverage because they had this great feature where you could "create your own six-pack". This was the early 90's and while I had started drinking "better beer", I really hadn't explored that much. This new concept of a mixed sixer would allow me to do just that.

We went to Total Beverage. I got two mixed sixers. I still remember the beers.

Anchor Steam

Anchor Liberty Ale

Anchor Porter

Sam Adams Boston Lager

Sam Adams Cream Stout

Sam Adams Honey Porter

Orkney Skullsplitter

Rhino Chasers Amber Ale

Rhino Chasers American Ale

Sierra Nevada Stout

Pete's Wicked Ale

Guinness Extra Stout

I had no idea what I was buying. I was just making selections based on what were my favorite beers at the time (Sam Adams Boston Lager and Guinness Draft) and how cool the labels looked. but I lucked into a few really good ones and somewhere in the middle of all those beer that night, I knew I was hooked. It solidified my new found love of stouts and porters, gave me my first tastes of an IPA and introduced me to a whole new style of beer (Wee Heavy).

Outside of Pete's Wicked and Rhino Chasers American Ale, all of those beers became regulars in my drinking rotation and set the stage nicely for the beer journey to come.

All thanks to Tom, a huge corporate beverage entity and Wilmington, DE (one of the ugliest cities you've ever seen).

More entries for The Session can be found here on Boak and Bailey's UK Beer Blog.

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.

The Session #13: Organic Beer

I was always looking to try organic beers from the first time I saw them. Unfortunately, I found most of them lacking.

That has changed in the last 4 years or so as the range of organic beers has gotten better and, I think, the quality of the organic ingredients available for brewing has gotten better as well.

So what to choose? I wanted to get a beer from Pisagh Brewing up in Black Mountain, NC who brew all their beer to USDA organic standards. Their Vortex II Imperial Stout was one of the best beers I've ever tasted, organic or otherwise. Sadly, they do not distribute to Georgia and I wasn't going to make it up to North Carolina this month.

My next thought was to go with a bottle of Foret (marketed as Moinette Biologique in Belgium) brewed by Brasserie Dupont. It is brewed with 100% organic barley and hops and is certified organic by ECOCET in Belgium. But technically it does not have the USDA organic label so I decided to try and find something else. If you're looking for a good organic saison though, Foret is highly recommended.

So I decided to go with Lakefront Brewery's Organic E.S.B. Lakefront is based in Milwaukee and has just arrived in Georgia within the last few months.

It pours a deep amber with a thinnish, but persistent ivory head. Plenty of fine lacing. Smells quite biscuity from the malt, thin herbal bitterness but an overall sweetish aroma.

Taste is much like the aroma. A very British style ESB, lots of biscuity malt and a present but understated herbal hops presence. Finished very, very clean. Mouth is a bit on the thin side. If I had to pin this beer down to one style I would probably say it's just a bitter instead of an Extra Special Bitter.

It's not bad at all but could bring a little more as far as flavor. Good session beer.


Lakefront Brewery



Make sure you check out the other entries from the 13th edition of The Session. The rundown is over at Chris O'Brien's Beer Activist Blog.

The Session #11: Doppelbock

"The (Paulaner) brewery Has its origins...with a community of monks of St. Paul, who became well known throughout the city for the strong beer they brewed, call Salvator (Saviour) to sustain themselves during Lent...Most other double-bock beers echo the Saviour's brew by bearing names ending in -ator."

- Michael Jackson


With these words echoing in my head, I got off the train in Munich. Did I say I? I mean "we". It was the fall of 1996 and I was with my girlfriend (eventually my wife) K. It was my first proper stop in Germany and the day was going to spent hopping about the various biergartens and I was like a kid in a candystore.

Being on small budget during this backpacking excursion around Europe, many lunches were bought at local grocery stores in the form of bread, chesse and various suasages. Munich was no different and to go with lunch, I bought my first Salvator...in a .5 litre can! Barbarian that I was I drank it from the can as well! Even so, it had a profound effect (from both a spiritual and physical sense) on me and I spent most of the rest of the day trying to sample as many examples of the style as I could, as well as getting a proper serving of Salvator in a glass later that afternoon.

The day is quite hazy or I'd run down all the places we went. Let's just say a day in Munich is a marathon and not a sprint. K took a liking to doppelbocks too and paid to price for it by evening's end!

These days I tend to neglect the original doppelbock. Up in Helen, GA there's a little German restaurant called the Old Bavaria Inn. Sometimes, you can get a bottle of Salvator on special for $1.50. A hell of a deal that I never pass up. Because of this, when I see a bottle of Salvator (like the one non the table before me) I can't help but think of camping up in the north GA mountains.

So to wrap up this tribute to the original doppelbock, some quick tasting notes from tonight's bottle.

The body is a luminous orangey brown with a frothy ivory colored head. You can get a wisp of alcohol in the nose, it's a fairly fresh sample (bottled in October) but mostly you get that rich nutty malt character typical of a doppelbock. I have never been able to put that aroma (or flavor) into words but once you try a few doppelbocks, you'll see what I mean. A doppelbock has a distinct flavor and aroma imparted by the malt.

The flavor is dominated by that same maltiness, some nutty caramel with just a bit of fruitiness too. It's velvetey smooth and drinks easy, masking it's strength. Why don't I pick this up more often? Sometimes the constant search for the new makes you overlook the old reliable. But make no mistake, this is still classic.

For more posts for The Session, pop over to Brewvana who is hosting this month's session.

The Session #5: Atmosphere

Atmosphere. This was a tough one for me because typically, I don't care that much about atmosphere when I'm drinking. Outside of a cool jukebox selection and a good beer list, I require little else from a drinking establishment. Why is that? Well, I think it's because I figured out that who I'm drinking with has more to do with my enjoyment than where I'm drinking it. So I decided to write about two of my longest running drinking partners and highlight a few of the memorable places we have shared a fine brew or three.

My Wife

I am fortunate that my wife has an adventurous palate and after a rocky start (she hated the first Sam Adams I bought for her) has developed a fine appreciation for craft brew, especially Imperial Stouts. We have drank all over the world, so here's the top five places I remember sharing a beer with her.

Manorbier, Wales

We stayed in a small B&B in this tiny village in 1997 that boasted little more than a ruined castle, an old church, access to the nearby cliffs and a tiny pub where we would end our evenings. They had Theakston's Old Peculier...on cask. Nothing like enjoying cask ale at a classic Welsh village pub with your girl.

Antwerp, Belgium

We arrived in Antwerp in the Fall of 1996 quite by accident and only because we were unable to find affordable lodging in Brussels. After stashing our backpacks, I dragged her out to the first promising cafe I could find. It was my first trip into Belgium and I was delighted to see that I could order a Duvel in a bar for the first time in my life (this was long before specialty beer bars had made an appearance where I lived...). She ordered a Kriek of some sort, they brought us our beers, each with it's own distinctive glass and I was in heaven.

Jacksonville, FL

The Fly's Tie was an Irish pub near Jacksonville Beach. You wouldn't think so but it had been decorated and furnished in such a way that it had a very authentic fell and the live Celtic music they featured didn't hurt things. We enjoyed many a night downing pints of Guinness, Black and Tan's and Snakebites in the early days of our marriage.

Quebec City, Quebec

Quebec City is one of the most underrated cities ever. The old city is as beautiful as any place I have ever been. There are many cafe's with outdoor seating and we had the pleasure of enjoying some Blanche de Chambly outdoors on a cool Sunday afternoon in early May while all the bells of the various cathedrals pealed out around us. Awesome.

Munich, Germany

We got a little carried away with our Biergarten "crawl" around Munich, it was all so good. But my favorite place we found that day was one of the Augustiner biergartens with the traditional bench seating and the traditional sauerbraten for dinner. The big mugs of dunkelweizen we shared weren't bad either.

Dave

The first time I enjoyed a craft beer (called "microbrews" in the early 90's) it was with Dave and it was a Samuel Adams Boston Lager. We have been exploring beer together ever since (and before that really). Our careers and families have led us far away form each other, then back together and apart again but we always remain in touch, always share our beery experiences (among other things) and we will finally be taking the "Holy Grail" trip we have planned on for years (ever since I returned from my brief Belgian encounters 11 years ago), the Belgium trip this spring.

Morgantown, WV

While attending WVU in the early-90's we spent way too much time at the Nyabinghi Dance Hall, a bar/music venue. We saw many musical acts there; Rusted Root, Royal Crescent Mob, Rasta Rafiki, They Might Be Giants, Tooling For Bovines, The Blake Babies and countless others. However, one of the things I remember best was the night we figured out that we could get Genesee 12 Horse for the same price as Busch Light ($.75 a bottle) and that it was much, much better! Genesee 12 Horse was our beer of choice from then on. Nyabinghi has long since been gutted by fire and Genesee stopped making 12 Horse, revived it, then discontinued it again but both of them hold fond places in my heart to this day.

Alexandria, VA

I drank a lot of Guinness at one point and Ireland's Own was one of our regular hangouts. It's also long gone (President Reagan visited once or twice, a fact they promoted a lot but at the time it was a very popular place to go drink, listen to music and just generally have a good time. This was a staple location for Dave and I until I joined the Navy.

The Forks, ME

We camped on the Northern Outdoors property up in north central Maine, which, not so coincidentally, also housed a brewpub. But the best part of the drinking day was not spent inside the lodge drinking their beers (although the Magic Hole IPA and the Penobscot Porter are highly recommended) but back at out tent site, right on the banks of the Kennebec River, sipping the brown ale we had purchased growlers of earlier in the day straight from the Oak Pond Brewery in Skowhegan sitting by the campfire.

Rockland, ME
The Waterworks Pub in Rockland poured brews from the (now defunct) Rocky Bay Brewing Company including the wonderful Viking Plunder in the winter. Good brunch there too. Since Dave lived just north in Camden, this made a natural spot for the occasional pint. And the nearness to Rockland Harbor didn't hurt either.

Boston, MA

The first Beer Advocate Extreme Beer Fest in 2003 was the first beerfest Dave and I attended together and was a revelation to us both. Where else are you going to enjoy Cantillon Vigeronne, Oaked Arrogant Bastard, Peanut Butter Porter and Seaweed Ale all in the space of a couple of hours. Jim Koch told us about his quest for "beer that burns" and Sam Caligione spoke about pairing beer with various musical acts. We overindulged. It was good.

The Session #4: Local Brew

I'm a newbie to this beer blogging thing but I saw The Session post over at Lew Bryson's blog and became intrigued with the concept. I was wholly unprepared for this but did have a couple local beers in the fridge that met the criteria so I figured I'd pick up the flag for the Atlanta area.

Terrapin Rye Pale Ale

Terrapin is based out of Athens, GA (even though all their bottles are contract brewed in Maryland) and since the ABV cap on beer was popped nearly three years ago have built a reputation on their seasonal "Monster Beer Tour" extreme beers. However, their flagship beer manages to be pretty innovative, if not extreme. Rye Pale Ale is made with (duh) rye, in addition to other specialty malts but at about 5% ABV makes a decent session beer as well.

The beer pours a slightly hazy copper with a billowy ivory head. The sweet, citrusy hops are evident immediately in the nose but the real payoff for this beer is when it hits your lips and the lightly grainy malt flavor melds with the orange rind flavored hops. The mouth is real creamy. Above all, this is just a really enjoyable and tasty brew. I was happy that one of my local favorites was in the fridge. I must be doing my job, supporting my local brewery and all that.

Sweetwater Road Trip

If you were to rank the best breweries in Georgia, Terrapin and Sweetwater would be ranked 1 and 1A and you couldn't go wrong with either in the top spot. (Some would argue that only Sweetwater is a true GA brewer since Terrapin contract brews elsewhere but I don't subscribe to that argument.) While Terrapin only offers two year-round offerings (their Golden Ale and the aforementioned Rye Pale Ale), Sweetwater offers five and has very recently put an emphasis of their seasonals by thinking outside the box (well, for them anyway). They bottled their Happy Ending imperial stout this winter and this spring have released Road Trip, a beer they bill as a double pilsner recipe in which they subbed ale yeast for the lager yeast.

Road Trip pours crystal clear with a bright golden hue. The head is snow-white and dense and the aroma is dominated by noble hops. The hops (Saaz?) dominate the tongue as you sip this beer but do not completely overwhelm the malt. The mouth is not crisp like a pilsner but softer and creamier (I'm guessing from the ale yeast...). To call this a double pilsner is incorrect; it's what may be the world's first Imperial Cream Ale! (The extreme beer movement's next logical step...) I have a soft spot for a good cream ale so this beer is right up my alley.

Well, I've enjoyed my first post for The Session and think this is a great idea. Support your local brewery!