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.

And So It Begins...(Belgium Trip Prologue)

I am sitting here in Atlanta Hartsfield airport waiting for a flight to Dulles Airport and then on to Brussels. Surprise! The flight is delayed.

So the question becomes where to spend my time. Atlanta Brewing Company used to have a pub here in the airport but it has been closed for sometime. Fortunately, Sweetwater Brewing has opened one of their own out in Terminal B. So I headed over for some lunch and a beer.

They have four Sweetwater brews on tap: 420 Pale Ale, IPA, Summer Hummer and Blue. I ordered a draft of the excellent IPA. Surprisingly, $6.90 buys you a big 20 oz draft, not a bad price for an airport pub. I ordered the hot wings and they were actually quite good as well. Spicy with plenty of sauce and blue cheese dressing, hot and fresh out of the kitchen. Nothing better to drink with your wings than Sweetwater IPA!. The staff was prompt and friendly on top of everything else.

Marooned in the Atlanta aiport? Get down to terminal B near gate 11. It'll do in a pinch...

Tasting Notes: Bell's Double Cream Stout

Brewery: Bell's Brewery
Style: Cream Stout
ABV: 7.5%
Date Poured: September 2008

One last Bell's beer to try in this flight. This time, a winter seasonal, a cream stout.

Pours jet black with a creamy dark brown head. Strong aromas of sweet dark malt. Creamy dark chocolate with hints of coffee.

There's some alcohol evident in the flavor but lots of creamy dark malt underpinned with the earthy dark chocolate and roasted coffee. An incredibly smooth mouth. Downright velvety. The roasted coffee flavors linger in the finish and aftertaste.

A little bit of everything in this one but it is still undoubtedly a cream stout. Very nice and very drinkable.


Bell's Brewery

Tasting Notes: Bell's Cherry Stout

Brewery: Bell's Brewery
Style: Cherry Stout
ABV: 7.0%
Date Poured: September 2008

After blasting Bell's Hopslam, I though it was only fair to drink a couple other of the Bell's beers I grabbed while down in Florida...some stouts! This is what Bell's does best so I was pretty excited to sample a couple that I have not tried before. First up is the Bell's Cherry Stout. This beer is a winter release so this is from last year's batch. It's a 7.0% ABV stout brewed with cherry juice.

Pours jet black with a thin brown head. No lacing. Roasty but very sweet aromas roasted malt, have to search a bit but the cherry aromas are there as well.

Cherry flavors much more evident in the taste. The tart cherry flavors blend nicely with the sweet roasted malt. Cherry is the prominent flavor but the malt takes a very close second. Sweet and roasty latte flavors intertwined with the tart cherry flavor and finishes quite sweet. The aftertaste is bitter chocolate and cherry juice.

Outstanding cherry stout! It's beers like these that Bell's should stick to.

Bell's Brewery

One Week 'Til Belgium

Literally YEARS of planning and preparation culminates next Thursday as I board a plane and wing my way to Belgium. Twelve years after my first visit and 11 years since my last, I will finally get back to Belgium and take the full beery trip I have always wanted to do.

Whereas my last trips were sidestops of larger trips or fortunate port of calls, this one will venture outside of the Antwerp\Brussels junkets I have done before into the countryside of Wallonia, the fields of West Flanders and the cities of Brugge and Gent.

Bags are beginning to be packed, reservations and deposits have been finalized and the itinerary is complete. A few resources that I found especially useful that I can pass along to others...

1) Tim Webb's Good Beer Guide to Belgium - I will know for sure once I go but I can't imagine that there is any better guide for a beer trip to Belgium anywhere on the market. Webb is an entertaining and opinionated writer and it's very thorough even for the smaller towns.

2) Belgian Beer Pub Map - While not as thorough as Tim Webb's guide, this website is maintained by Belgian beer fan Filip Geerts and features an easy to navigate map that enables you to see the worthy beer establishments in each town. There are a lot of little known gems in his lists and the best part is you can download all the data in a .ov file for use in your TomTom GPS. I imagine this will be very, very helpful during the car journey portion of the trip.

3) Belgian Beer Board - Another Geerts creation, the best part of this site is Filip's blog. He's turned me on to a few pubs and beer stores I had not heard of before and has been keeping up with the newest and best new beer releases in the West Flanders area. Excellent resource and excellent pictures to go with.

4) The Burgundian Babblebelt - Very useful for keeping up with the latest goings on in the Belgian beer scene. For example, the sad news of the closing of the Hopduvel cafe in Gent was reported there last week and I have seen no news of that anywhere else. Better to know now before going out of my way to visit only to find the place shuttered! Lots of expertise among the users who gave me some useful tips on some of the finer points of my planned visit. Also has city/province guides as well as many Babbler trip reports.

5) BeerAdvocate.com - The Belgium group in the Beer Forum is not nearly as active at the BBB but offers some good info on planning your Belgium trip, especially if you're coming from the U.S. Very good insights on brewery tours and arranging to buy Westvleteren at the abbey. The BeerFly feature also allow you to search various Belgian cities for notable pubs and beer stores.

6) Belgian Tourist Office Website - They devote a page to Beer Lovers coming to Belgium. While not comprehensive in content, it is comprehensive in the links it has to dozens and dozens of resources to learn more about Belgian beer. A good calendar for regular beer festivals and such. Also a good start for looking for accommodations and previewing non-beery attractions.

7) Michael Jackson's Great Beers of Belgium - My edition of this classic is fairly outdated but it was Jackson's writings that first made me aware of Belgium's brewing traditions and got me to buy my first Belgian beers. It's coming with me to Belgium if for nothing else but nostalgia.

Tasting Notes: Bell's Hopslam Ale

Brewery: Bell's Brewery

Style: Imperial IPA
ABV: 10.0%

Date Poured: August 2008

It pours a clear orangey copper with a frothy ivory head. Lots of fine spiderweb lacing. Beautiful smell. Floral and sweet citrusy hops. Hints of tangerine and apricot, orange rind and a hint of alcohol.

In the mouth, the alcohol is quite apparent. Quite hot actually. It is quite sweet but the malt provides very little body to offset the copious amounts of bitingly bitter hops. The hops are pretty unpleasant actually without the malt to offset the spice. It comes off exceedingly harsh. And thin! Long hoppy aftertaste.

Wow, really lacking as a double IPA. It's kind of a mess. Horrendously overrated on the various beer sites. A fantastic brewery (the best brewer of stouts in America in my estimation) but this is a beer that is surprisingly lacking in craftmanship and taste. Miss it.

Bell's Brewery

Tasting Notes: Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale

Brewery: Atlantic Brewing Company
Style: Blueberry Ale
ABV: 5.2%
Date Poured: August 2008

I am not a fan of fruit in my beer. Yes, the traditional lambics and the occasional well-crafted cherry stout may please my palate on occasion but generally I find fruit in beer to be gimmicky and the results lackluster at best. This goes double for American craft brewers who seem to believe that the quickest way to convert a female drinker is to brew the blandest wheat beer possible and then drown it in some flavor of fruity (peach, raspberry, cherry...take your pick) extract so it's nice and sweet for the delicate ladies. They taste just as bad as they sound.

However, it can be done properly. The Atlantic Brewing Company in Bar Harbor, Maine makes one of my favorite American fruit beers. First, they use real Maine blueberry puree instead of extract in the brewing process. Second, they have avoided using a bland wheat ale as a base. Instead, it's a maltier amber ale that mixes nicely with the blueberry flavor.

It pours a very clear, very bubbly clear copper topped by a thin but persistent and creamy tan head. The nose is filled with very aromatic blueberry and a biscuity malt.

Tastes of bready and lightly nutty malt. Some muted, lightly tart but lightly sweet blueberry flavors but the blueberry is not the main thrust. It merely acts as an accompaniment to the crisp and nutty malt. Just a hint of hops in the finish. Crisp and clean finish with a light sweetness in the aftertaste. Very good stuff and never gets old.

Atlantic Brewing Company

BA Barleywine Meet-up

For the second straight month, Tim at The 5th Earl Market organized a Beer Advocate gathering for another tasting. The theme this month: barleywines! No better way to pass a late summer day in Atlanta.

The list:

Rogue Old Crustacean 2004

Alaskan Barleywine 2007

Bridgeport Old Knucklehead

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2004

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #6

Green Flash Barleywine

Smuttynose Barleywine 2005

Smuttynose Wheat Wine

Clipper City Below Decks

Dogwood Excellent Adventure Barleywine

Stone Old Guardian Vertical 2002 through 2007

Anchor Old Foghorn 2007

There may have been a couple others...

Some highlights: KP was quite generous to bring the Old Guardian vertical as well as extra cups for everyone so we could try all 6 vintages side by side. (My opinion was that the 2003 vintage was the best.) Few would be so generous but few have assembled a beer cellar as impressive as KP's.

Another treat was brought by Jordan Fleetwood, current brewer at Twain's Billiards and Tap in Decatur and former brewer at the defunct Dogwood Brewing Company. The Excellent Adventure Barleywine was one of the last (if not the last) beers brewed at Dogwood and to the best of my knowledge was not commercially released. It may have been the best beer of the night.

There wasn't a bad beer in the bunch. Thanks again to Tim for organizing and everybody for bringing the beer! Hopefully, this will continue to be a regular event.

The 5th Earl Market

Tasting Notes: Florida Brewery Spotlight - Saint Somewhere Lectio Divina

Brewery: Saint Somewhere
Style: Belgian Amber (?)
ABV: 8%
Date Sampled: August 2008



The last beer in this Florida brewery spotlight is another offering from Saint Somewhere of Tarpon Springs.



It pours a deep amber with an enormous frothy head. The lace spiderwebs down the glass. Smells strongly of fruity malt with a faint alcohol. Red apple, pear and ripe cherry flavors evident in the aroma too.



Immensely sweet and fruity. Spiced apple, hints of pear and date. Sweet and sticky but surprisingly drinkable for such a big beer. Sweet spice in the finish. Very nice.

Tasting Notes: Florida Brewery Spotlight - Hurricane Reef Pale Ale

Brewery: Florida Beer Company

Style: Pale Ale

ABV: ???

Date Poured: August 2008

The second beer for the Florida Brewery Spotlight comes from...the Florida Beer Company based in Melbourne, Florida. The name of the brewery is not very creative, let's see how they did with the beer.

Pours a crystal clear copper with an creamy ivory head. Fruity malt and and herbal hop aromas wafting from the glass..

The mouthfeel is incredibly smooth and creamy but...the hop profile in the mouth is quite muted and not particularly tasty. Very little malt profile too, quite watery tasting overall. You could call it refreshing if it was actually pleasing to the tongue but it's really not. It's thin and what little hop flavor there is comes off as harsh and vegetal. Crisp finish.

They need to get more flavor in this one. The mouthfeel is great but it delivers a disappointing tasting ale.

Florida Beer Company

Tasting Notes: Florida Brewery Spotlight - Saint Somewhere Saison Athene

Brewery: Saint Somewhere
Style: Saison
ABV: 7.5%
Date Poured: August 2008

Saint Somewhere is a new brewery located in Tarpon Springs, on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Saint Somewhere has taken the unusual (for Florida) strategy of brewing Belgian-style ales and only distributing them in 750ml bottles.

Pours a bright lightly hazy straw color with a dense snow white head. The head is quite persistent with sheeting lace down the side of the glass. Smells spicy and lightly fruity with just hint of funk.

Sweet spice in the mouth and more hops apparent on the tongue than hinted at in the nose. It has a dry, light citrusy sweetness. Sweet spices shine through as well. Hints of cinnamon and black pepper. Earthy. Smooth mouthfeel but with enough heft for a significant sweet and spicy aftertaste to linger. Tasty. The only criticism would be that the spice is a tad heavy-handed but that's really nitpicking.

It is shocking to me that this beer comes from Florida! Very ambitious and a very good saison. Recommended.

Tasting Notes: Florida Brewery Spotlight - Holy Mackerel Mack in Black

Brewer: Gordash Brewing
Style: Imperial Black Ale
ABV: 8.00%
Date Poured: August 2008


A small spotlight on some beers brewed in Florida. Before I did some research for my trip last month, I couldn't have named a Florida brewery. But they do have a few.


The first offering is from a brand new contract brewed operation called Gordash Brewing. The brewer is a former homebrewer who won the Sam Adams World Homebrew Contest. Mack in Black is one of the two beers they have on the market and bills itself as an Imperial Black Ale.

Pours jet black. No light escaping from this one. A persistent but thin light brown head. The pomegranate juice is evident in the aroma buoyed by a sweet roasty malt.

Tastes of roasty malt with the fruity sweetness from the pomegranate. As it warms the pomegranate fades a bit and lets that big roastiness through. Big full body with a lingering sweetness.

My only complaint is that the pomegranate is a little heavy handed. The bottle says it can be aged for up to two years. I wonder if some age will mellow out the fruit. Three more bottles left. I plan to find out.


Gordash Brewing

Can The Brick Store Actually Get Better?

The Brick Store Pub in Decatur, GA is already one of the best beer bars on the east coast. It's getting better still.

Owen Ogletree, a writer for Southern Brew News, posted this video on YouTube. It's Dave Blanchard and Mike Gallagher, owners of the Brick Store, showing off their new beer cellar under the pub and detailing their plans for cellaring beers for the pub. Great stuff!

Free Beer? One Man's True Story

It's not everyday you get a chance for free beer so when it comes, you had better take advantage of it.

Thanks to a tip for a Beer Advocate buddy, I learned about a new Atlanta bar called Stout Irish Pub that is offering a free beer and lunch to announce their opening. Not one to leave free beer on the table, I took them up on the offer.

Stout (Stout's?) is not exactly a cozy bar. It's a hybrid of an Irish-themed pub and a sports bar. While the atmosphere was lacking, the service was not. The waitress was prompt and friendly and the beer menu was surprisingly good. The draft list is fair with the highlight being Rogue Chocolate Stout. The bottle list stands at 40 with highlights including Bridge Port Stout, Left Hand Imperial Stout, Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout, Sweetwater 420, Stoudts Double IPA and Duvel. Not a beer geek's dream but a very nice list. It would certainly be the best beer menu in the Buckhead neighborhood where this bar is.

I had an Old Rasputin Imperial Stout with their burger. The burger was surprisingly good and they had malt vinegar and salt to put on the fries, always a plus in my book. I also sampled their "house beer" but that turned out to be the very disappointing Anheuser Busch product, Bareknuckle Stout.

Overall, great food and great beer make for a great experience. It's hardly a special trip destination but if I find myself in Buckhead, this would be the place to stop off for a pint.

Stout Irish Pub

Coaster: Samuel Smith's Old Brewery

This coaster was in a holiday pack of Samuel Smith beers along with a glass. Not much to say about it except that I like the way they incorporated the logo into the coaster. Very nice design.

BA Imperial Stout Meet-Up

This past Saturday, several Atlanta area BA's (Beer Advocates) met up in Decatur for an Imperial Stout tasting. Tim works at The 5th Earl Market so he provided the venue and organized the event.

The full list of beers (as far as I can remember) is as follows:

Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti
Southern Tier Oat
Southern Tier Jahva
Peche Mortel
Mikkeller Black
O'Dell's Imperial Stout
Brewdog Paradox (not sure which release...)
Eel River Raven's Eye
Lagunitas Imperial Stout
Great Lakes Blackout Stout
Weyerbacher Old Heathen
Weyerbacher XIII
Weyerbacher Heresey
Bell's Expedition
Samuel Smith's Imperial stout
Smuttynose Imperial Stout
Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout
Duck Rabbit Rabid Duck
Left Hand Imperial stout
Fish Tale Poseidon's Imperial Stout

Personal highlights included the Smuttynose Imperial Stout, Weyerbacher Heresey, Southern Tier Jahva and Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout. Samuel Smith's was quite a surprise as it held its own against this crew of American heavyweights. Mikkeller Black was the most unique tasting (this Danish stout clocks in at 17.5%) but probably need a couple years aging (at least) to reach its potential.

As far as food, one of group ordered the Newcastle Mussels which smelled amazing (I did not have any). Others were kind enough to share some blue cheese and crackers with the group and I discovered that drizzling a little honey on the blue chees is a fantastic combination.

A good time to be sure. Met some new people and reconnected with some old acquaintances. Drank some great beer.

(On a side note, I arrived early and had one of the bar's draft offerings, Allagash Hugh Malone. Very good stuff.)

Thanks to Tim and The 5th Earl Market for hosting the event. A few snapshots are below.





BA Imperial Stout Gathering

Out of the Cellar: Aventinus Weizen Eisbock

Brewery: Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider & Sohn
Style: Eisbock
ABV: 12%
Date Cellared: October 2004
Date Poured: April 2008

My notes from 2004 describe this as a very rich and complex beer but also hot, hot, hot! It wears all of its 12% ABV on its sleeve when young. More than three years later, I decided to crack open another one to see if time has reigned this wild one in.

Pours a very dark, nearly opaque brown. Very thin tan head. Aromas of dark fruit and toffee with vanilla and oaky notes. Just a hint of pipe tobacco and a hint of ripe banana.

The alcohol in this monster has really calmed down. It allows deeper malty, dark fruit, banana, cherry and ripe banana flavors to shine through. It's still boozy but does not dominate the palate. Very sticky mouth and huge body. Finish is not cloying (thank in part to the alcohol) but a long sticky sweetness lingers forever.

This beer takes 3.5 years in the cellar like a champ. It mellows and develops lots of crazy flavors. Easily age this one at least three years for best results. I would imagine it could go a year or two more.


Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider & Sohn

Tasting Notes: Flying Dog Garde Dog

Brewery: Flying Dog Brewery
Style: Biere de Garde
ABV: 5.5%
Date Poured: July 2008

I have a real love and hate relationship with Flying Dog. They have some beers I adore and others I can't stand. Either way, it's always a surprise. There are few Biere de Gardes made in the U.S. so I figured this was worth a try.

Bright yellow gold in the glass with a dense white head. Aromas are of citrusy , pale malt. Lightly vinous and fruity. Just a hint of clove and coriander.

The taste is quite spicy and the body is quite dry. These are traits that I typically love in a beer but somehow the combination is falling flat to me. Listless in the mouth with a peppery aftertaste.

It's not bad but it's not great either. I am unmoved.





Flying Dog Brewery

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.

Tasting Notes: The IPA Spotlight - Two Hearted Ale

Brewery: Bell's Brewery
Style: IPA
ABV: 7.0%
Date Poured: July 2008

I'm going to wrap up this IPA Spotlight with one of my favorite IPAs. Straight out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, it's Bell's Two Hearted Ale. Two years since I've had any so I thought it would be a good finale.

Pours a lightly hazy golden orange with a frothy ivory head (a recurring theme). The nose is filled with sweet citrusy hops. Pink grapefruit, apricots and oranges underpinned by a lightly fruity malt.

The beer is just so juicy and sweet, between the malt and the citrusy hops. Orange rind and tangerine, bitter but balanced by a decent pale malt backbone. Full mouth with a surprisingly clean finish. Floral bitterness in the finish and aftertaste. It's beautifully balanced and quite delicious. Bravo.


Bell's Brewery

Tasting Notes: The IPA Spotlight - Indica IPA

Brewery: Lost Coast Brewery
Style: IPA
ABV: 6.5%
Date Poured: July 2008

To continue the series, another west coast IPA, this time from California.

It's a bright but opaque orange in the glass with a rocky eggshell colored head. Nice lacing. sweet cirtusy hops, faint tangerine and grapefruit and some floral hop aromas as well. Faint fruity malt and a hint of kiwi fruit. (?!?!)

Fruity malt with a strident citrusy bitterness. Grapefruit and faint tangerine., orange rind. Long bitter aftertaste very tasty, pale malt backbone but imparts little but body and sweetness.

Easy drinker and damn tasty. A good choice if you find it.


Lost Coast Brewery

65 Days To Go!

Just over two months to go before I set foot in Belgium and as you might imagine, I'm pretty psyched.

A few decisions on the itinerary for Belgium have been made:

Hostels/Campgrounds instead of Hotels/B&B's - I'm not going to Belgium for all the creature comforts of home; I'm going for the beer! I'm hardly a stranger to roughing it on vacations so I'm sure a hostel room, a trekkershut and a tent will be more than adequate. Not to mention, it's a cheaper way to go and I don't anticipate being in my room that much.

Only One Day for Brussels - Part of this decision is based on my travelling partner not getting to Belgium as quickly as we had hoped but really it just came down to robbing a day from Antwerp to spend a second day in Brussels. Antwerp and Brussels are the only cities in Belgium I have been to before and I have to say that as far as the beery experiences go, Antwerp wins hands down. There are better cafes and the prices are cheaper (or at least, they were). Also, Antwerp is a very underrated city for tourism, beer or otherwise. So, it will be parts of two or three days in Antwerp hitting the pubs and sightseeing and one very full day in Brussels seeing Cantillon, Bier Circus, Poechenellekelder and the like.

Renting A Car - This decision was really based on another one: Did we want to get out of the cities on this trip? We decided that we did. We'll be taking the car out to the Ardennes with the Achouffe Brewery as our primary target and do some camping. The car will also be handy to make a trek out to Westvleteren to visit In De Vrede. We won't have the car the whole time but it will make it much easier to hit some out of the way spots during the journey.

Not Buying Beer At Westvleteren! - To clarify, if they have the six-packs in the shop at In De Vrede, I'll pick a couple up. But I decided that to spend the time to make the reservations, wait in line at the brewery, potentially turn our itinerary upside down to get out there on the correct day and tote around a case of beer for the rest of the trip...well, it just isn't worth it to me. We will go to the cafe but no mass quantities of "the world's greatest beer". The American beer geek in me certainly wants to get as much Westvleteren 12 as I can...but there are so many other beers in Belgium that I can't get here in the U.S....can't sacrifice so much time for just one.

Eating on the Cheap - This is probably a big mistake and I will modify this decision once I get over there but eating out three meals a day is an expensive proposition. So I've got to pick my spots. Frites are a cheap foodstuff, supermarkets can provide an inexpensive light lunch and from what I can recall farmer's markets are fairly common for fruit and such. This doesn't mean that I won't be eating a few meals out in restaurants but I want to target food that is A) very good and B) preferably something uniquely Belgian, dishes I could not get here in the U.S.

So the rough itinerary is two days in Antwerp, a day in the Ardennes, two days in Brugge, a day in Gent and a day in Brussels. The trip will be quite slanted to hitting some great cafes but we are hoping to work in a couple of brewery visits (Cantillon, Straffe Hendrik and Achouffe) and hit a couple of Trappist tap houses (Westvleteren and Westmalle).

More to come...

Tasting Notes: The IPA Spotlight - Full Sail IPA

Brewery: Full Sail Brewing Company
Style: IPA
ABV: 6.0%
Date Poured: July 2008

This bottle was part of my Florida haul. Full Sail is based in Portland, Oregon but I have never seen their beers this far east.

Pours crystal clear pale copper with a frothy ivory head. Smells of grassy hops and fresh mown grass.

The mouth is full of quite biting bitter hops, herbal, piney and a bit harsh. Not much malt to back it up and the body feels a bit thin as a result. Long herbal bitterness with a clean finish.

This is just OK, it could be a little better with a boost to the malt profile.







Full Sail Brewing Company

Tasting Notes: The IPA Spotlight - Mikkeller Stateside IPA

Brewer: Mikkeller
Style: IPA
ABV: 7.0%
Date Poured: July 2008

An American style IPA brewed by a Denmark based brewing concern? Yep.

(On a side note, it's interesting to watch the evolution over the years as American craft brewers copied and even saved from extinction many European beer styles and now the American influence is transferring back to the "Old Country"...)

Mikkeller even named their IPA "Stateside IPA" in a tribute to the style (or tastes) of the American brewer. It comes in just at my arbitrary limit ABV for a "single" IPA at 7%. (I am usually not so strict about my styles but I had to pick a dividing line between double IPA and regular IPA for the sake of this series...)

It pours a hazy orange copper with a billowing ivory head that leaves sheeting lace but dissipates to a wispy forth fairly quickly. Lots of hops in the nose. Herbal spicy hops, hints of tangerine and a lightly earthy malt aroma. Very nice!

The combo of hops that make the nose so good make the flavor a bit haphazard. Juicy sweet citrusy hops intermingled with some coarse herbal hops, like amarillo or something of that nature. Quite bitter but there's a decent bready malt backbone to hold it all together.

(edit: after checking the website, they do indeed use amarillo hops, as well as cascade and chinook...)

A sweet grapefruity finish and aftertaste followed by a long lingering bitterness.

Pretty tasty. I wish the bittering hops blended more nicely. If they did, it would be stellar.


Mikkeller

Coaster: Augustiner

These are two sides of the same beer coaster. I picked this up from the Augustiner bierhall in Munich during a trip in 1996. The coaster celebrates 500 years of Reinheitsgebot in Munich but that was 9 years before I visited.

Augustiner had great dunkelweizen and great sauerbraten served in a classic German bierhall complete with bench seating. It was a good time!

Tasting Notes: The IPA Spotlight - Sea Dog IPA

Brewer: Sea Dog Brewing
Style: IPA
ABV: 6.2%
Date Sampled: July 2008

For the second installment of The IPA Spotlight, I picked a beer I was able to lay my hands on in Florida but was an old favorite when I lived in Maine. It's the Sea Dog Old East India Pale Ale. This is clearly an attempt at an English style IPA. It is stated specifically on their website that this ale is a tribute to the ones made in Burton-on-Trent.

Pours a sparkly amber with a half inch of frothy head. The head was persistent and had nice lacing on the glass. Smells of English style hops, perhaps East Kent Goldings. Taste is sweet and malty but quickly gives you a strident balance or herbal hops. I found it well balanced with a medium body. A bit of creaminess in the texture. Aftertaste lingers on the palate for several minutes and is dominated by the hops. Certainly drinkable and truly smooth. A very good product from an under appreciated brewer.



Sea Dog Brewing

Beer Hunting: Southwest Florida

Southwest Florida (well, anywhere in Florida really) is not exactly what one would consider a top notch destination for beer. And it's probably not. But whenever I travel, I try to have at least one beer in mind that I want to get that I cannot get here in metro Atlanta. This time, it was the beers of Saint Somewhere Brewery.

Saint Somewhere has only been producing beer for less than a year and took the unusual strategy of brewing Belgian style beers and only releasing them in 750ml caged and corked bottles. I suppose this wouldn't be too unusual for many microbreweries but Florida breweries are notorious for being "safe" and unimaginative. That's not to say they don't make good beer in Florida, it just tends to be lagers or light ales.

I was going to be staying near Fort Myers with my sister. As this was going to be a family vacation, there wasn't going to be a lot of time for going to the pub so I targeted beer stores instead. The Total Wine in Fort Meyers looked to be my best best.

At Total Wine, I was pleased find beers from Bell's Brewery there and immediately targeted some Two Hearted Ale, one of my all-time favorites. I also picked up a six pack of Penn Pilsner, a tasty but unassuming pilsner from Pennsylvania, as my "utility" beer while in Florida. It was a beer you can enjoy without having to think too much about it.

Other finds included offering from Hawaii's Kona Brewing Company, Oregon's Full Sail, New England Brewing and Lost Coast among others. Various mixed sixers covered it.

That was pretty much it for the beer hunting until we started for home. We were making various stops on the Gulf Coast and had reservations at a hotel in Spring Hill, FL. Imagine my surprise when pulling into the hotel to see a Belgian brewpub across the parking lot from our hotel! Imagine my disappointment when I realized it was out of business!

The St. Sebastiaan Belgian Microbrewery looks to have been closed for about a year now. After some research, I found that it was created by a daughter company of the Sterkens Brewery based in Meer, Belgium. How great would it have been to put the family to bed and go have a couple pints? But now, the grass is overgrown and the outside is in disrepair as the pictures show.



St. Sebastiaan

Instead, I got in the van and decided to try to find some Saint Somewhere beers one last time. We were just north of Tarpon Springs (where the brewery is located) so I headed south to see if I could score some.

The local ABC Liquor store was no help, as I expected. So I headed further south to the Clearwater location of Total Wine. There I found two bottles from Saint Somewhere, the Saison Athene and the Lectio Divina. The Lectio Divina was listed as an amber but at 8% ABV, it certainly isn't an ordinary amber. Mission accomplished...but it was only a bottle of each. So it was onward...

World of Beer is a small store but it has an enormous selection. The owner knows his beer and even keeps the place dimly lit to protect the beer from getting light struck. I found more bottles of Saint Somewhere but there was more. Mikkeller had just come into the market so I grabbed a Stateside IPA and Mikkeller Black, a 17.5% ABV imperial stout. To top it off a La Granja Espresso Stout from Norrebro Bryghus in Denmark. Fantastic.

To complete the trilogy, I headed over to Luekens Big Town Liquors in Dunedin to see what else I could find. There, I found Holy Mackeral Mack in Black from Gordash Brewing Company. Gordash is another new brewing concern in Florida but has their beer contract brewed at this point. Add another mixed sixer that included some old favorites from Maine breweries and my evening was complete.

Tasting Notes: The IPA Spotlight - Jockamo IPA

Brewer: Abita Brewing Company
Style: IPA
ABV: 6.5%
Date Poured: July 2008

In this age of imperial everything in the American craft beer scene, double and even triple IPAs have stolen the spotlight from their forbears. "Single" IPAs have been forgotten. There was a day when IPA's were the ultimate showcase for hops but are now often dismissed as not being hoppy enough!

So I wanted to highlight a few good IPA's over the next couple of weeks. Not Imperial IPA, not Double IPA, just good honest IPAs. They're still out there.

First up is Jockamo IPA, a new beer from Abita Brewing out of New Orleans.

It pours a bright clear amber with a frothy ivory head. Lots of lacing. Copious amounts of herbal hops in the nose with a touch of fruity malt aroma.

Bitingly bitter herbal hops. Quite snappy with a fruity malt backbone. The hops linger long on the tongue in addition to the long herbal hop aftertaste. It's yummy.


Abita Brewing Company

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.

Duvel Moortgat Acquires Liefmans

Duvel has acquired Liefmans! The transaction, including real estate that Duvel had bought earlier in the year, will total 4.5 million euros.

This is very good news. Not only will the Liefmans brands survive, they will be controlled by a brewer I quite respect. Good news. Goudenband lives on!

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 Brick Store Pub: 11th Anniversary

I have not been out and about to drink beer in many months due to many different issues going on in my life but with things finally getting back to normal, I was looking for an excuse to get out and enjoy some good beer.

When you are out to enjoy good beer in the Atlanta metro area, the first place that springs to mind is the Brick Store Pub in Decatur. This Saturday kicked off the 11th anniversary celebrations at the Brick Store so I decided to be down there when they tapped the special kegs they brought in for the occasion.

The fact that a place like the Brick Store could survive 11 years in Georgia is amazing in itself. It's even more amazing considering that until 4 years ago, no beer over 6% ABV could be sold in the state. But they did survive and since the ABV cap was lifted in 2004, they have thrived. It is the best beer bar in the state and certainly one of the best on the East Coast.

I got there just after 3 PM and Dave was on the steps giving a speech and thanking everyone for coming out to celebrate and introduce the special kegs for that day. After he was done, I headed upstairs to the "Belgian Bar" and sample the beers.

The first beer was Guido by Brouwerij De Regenboog. Happily, I knew nothing of this beer before I tried it. Had I known in advance that it was brewed with honey and raisins, I may have passed it up.

Guido poured a hazy brownish orange with a frothy but thinnish head. Very sweet fruity smells, raisin and other assorted dark fruit. The flavor is really amazing. Very sweet and fruity, with raisins and dark plum but the noble hops are there too to provide a bit of balance. Lots of spicy, yeast flavors too with a touch of alcohol burn. It's sweet but not cloying. Very unique and very tasty.

The second beer was J.W. Lees Lagavulin vintage 2001. This particular beer is the J.W. Lees Harvest Ale aged in a cask that once held Lagavulin whiskey. The Brick Store got a pin keg and I was lucky to get a glass. I have not been a huge fan of the Harvest Ale in the past but this one was fantastic.

It pours a lightly hazy dark amber with no head to speak of. I could have just smelled this beer and been satisfied. Peaty and earthy, sweet malt and whiskey from the cask. Beautiful. The taste matches the smell. Very boozy and quite sweet but always with that peaty, whisky flavor permeating throughout. Very fruity with hints of toffee and vanilla. Sweetish finish with the whisky flavor lingering.

Both beers are not ones that I would have normally tried but both were fantastic.

I went in by myself but had nice conversation with a couple of guys named Lee. One was the bartender and the other was a guy I had met at a Beer Advocate event late last year.

Normally, the beer menu would suck me in for the better part of an afternoon but I had places to go and people to meet. If you come within 100 miles of Atlanta, you have to get to the Brick Store.

The Brick Store Pub

Out of The Cellar: Cherish Kriek

Brewer: Brouwerij Van Steenberge
Date Cellared: October 2003
Date Sampled: June 2008
Style: Kriek Lambic
ABV: ???

This is one of those inadvertent cellarings. It's a beer I bought for my wife years ago but it has languished in the cellar for over 4 1/2 years. I'm not crazy about the more "commercial" examples of Kriek Lambic but I was curious to see what would happen to it after all this time. I was pretty sure this is a pasteurized beer but did any of the brettanomyces survive? Would there be any added funk or sourness imparted by the age?

Logically, I know the answer is probably not. But what's done is done. Let's check it out.

It pours a a deep copper color with a hint of red and is topped by wispy thin ivory head. Smells of tart cherry and just a slight hint of toffee.

There's a lot of tart cherry flavors with just a twinge of toffee. The body is much thinner. There's sweetness but it's not that sweet. It finishes with a light sticky aftertaste.

Firstly, there was no funky brett character at all. The pasteurization is complete and thorough! Second, the tart fruitiness does seem to be stronger in the flavor profile but I would imagine that is some of the fruity oxidation flavors blending with the cherries.

Chalk it up to experience. An interesting accident but nothing more.


Brouwerij Van Steenberge

Tasting Notes: Foret

Brewer: Brasserie Dupont
Style: Saison
ABV: 7.5%
Date Poured: June 2008

Foret is an amazing beer. I was at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur, Georgia a couple of years ago and was in the mood to have a Saison Dupont on draft. They were out but they had just tapped some Foret and offered me that instead. I took it. How bad could it be? Turns out it was even better than Saison Dupont! But instead of reminiscing, I'll talk about the bottle of Foret I've got right in front of me.

It pours crystal clear. I mean, the clarity in quite dramatic on this beer. Clear copper with a dense creamy ivory head and sheeting lace on the sides of the glass.

Smells of lemon, sweet spice and banana of all things. Light peppery spice also fills the nose.

In the mouth, a strident noble hop character takes over, something I did not detect in the nose. Peppery flavors and yeastiness underneath. A driness in the finish, some bright citrusy fruitiness from the malt. It's lovely. A symphony of flavors in the tongue.

On top of all this, Foret is certified organic by Ecocert. (It goes by Moinette Bio in Europe)

Run, don't walk.


Brasserie Dupont

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.

Tasting Notes: Agave Wheat

Brewer: Breckenridge Brewery
Style: American Wheat\Agave Wheat ?
ABV: 4.2%
Date Poured: June 2008

Once I made the move to Georgia several years ago, I learned a new appreciation for wheat beers. It's hot down here and a good witbier or hefeweizen really hits the spot. I particularly dove into exploring German hefes and then, as I am prone to do, started looking for some good examples made by American brewers.

I was sorely disappointed. Beers that claimed to be "hefeweizens" turned out to have none of the characteristics of their German equivalents. Where was that banana/lemon/bubblegum flavor imparted by that typical hefe yeast? Nowhere, it seemed. American witbiers were better but most seemed flabby and lacking, even compared to industrial examples like Hoegaarden. And the ales labeled simply "wheat beer" were crisp but soulless. Little flavor and even less enjoyment.

I believe that American brewers can make great examples of any style in the world but with wheat beers they come up short. I can only think of two stellar examples: Allagash White from Allagash Brewery in Portland, Maine and Gumballhead from Three Floyds Brewery in Munster, Indiana.

But that doesn't stop me from continuing to look. Colorado's Breckenridge Brewery has released a wheat beer flavored with the nectar of the Salmiana Agave. And since I have never heard of a brewery doing such a thing, I had to give it a shot.

It pours a very hazy pale gold (it is unfiltered) with a 1/4 inch snow white head. A pretty typical appearance for an American wheat beer. Sweet wheat malt aromas mixed with aromatics from some sort of lemony fruit. Maybe this is from the agave?

In the mouth, a lightly sweet wheat malt imparts a light crispness. It starts out quite dry in the mouth too. There's a lime-like flavor in there which I am assuming is the agave nectar. It still finishes clean and crisp but with just a hint of stickiness in the aftertaste.

The addition of agave is interesting to be sure and does save this beer from still being just another limp American wheat beer. But it doesn't make it great. Extra credit for trying something different. I wouldn't have thought of agave in a million years. I will say that this is a cut above your average American wheat beer.


Breckenridge Brewery

Tasting Notes: Highland Kashmir IPA

Brewer: Highland Brewing
Style: IPA
ABV: 5.6%
Date Poured: June 2008

Jumping back into the beer tasting, I was really wanting an IPA. I decided starting with an IPA from the southeast US (where I am) would be a good place to start. So, it's the Kashmir IPA from Highland Brewing in Asheville, North Carolina.

It's got a lightly hazy and very pale gold body with a frothy ivory head. Sheets of lace left on the glass. Light herbal hop aromas with a hint of citrus.

Herbal bitterness that builds as you drink it. No sweet citrus here. Lightly sweet pale malt and bitter finish, lightly sticky. Medium bodied with a biting bitter aftertaste.

Not bad. Quite a solid single IPA.


Highland Brewing Company