Tasting Notes: 2008 Longshot Beers

Brewery: Boston Beer Company
Date Poured: March 2008


Some notes from last month on the Sam Adams 2009 Longshot beers. More on the Longshot homebrew contest can be found here.

(The Longshot box usually contains 2 bottles of each winning beer. However, one of the winners this year was a Double IPA and Boston Beer was unable to secure the hops during this year's shortage. So one of the winning beers was postponed and 3 bottles of each of the following beer was included.)


First up is a weizenbock brewed by Rodney Kibzey of Chicago.

It's a murky opaque mahogany with a dense and creamy brown head that leaves sheeting lace behind. Sweet strong aroma of ripe banana and cloves, rich maltiness and just a hint of lemon in the nose.


Tastes of rich malt, banana estery flavors, lemony and spicy, especially clove and pepper. Rounded body and not nearly as full and sticky as I expected. Fairly clean finish for a weizenbock but a light sticky malt finish and aftertaste lets you know the beer was there.

Really, really good beer. It's got to be right up there behind Aventinus as the second best weizenbock I've tasted and there's certainly no shame in finishing second to that beer.

The next beer is called a Grape Pale Ale by the winning brewer Lily Hess. As the name implies, it's a pale ale brewed with grapes.

Pours a pale orangey copper with a frothy ivory head. Smell is quite sweet and grapey with the faint aroma of pale malt.


I was expecting this ale to be sweet in my mouth but it's actually quite dry with just a touch of sweetness in the finish. It's crisp and light, subtle and bright.


I wasn't expecting much from the grape ale as I don't like fruit in my beer as a rule. However it was surprisingly tasty and refreshing. I won't put it on par with the excellent weizenbock but it was no slouch either.




Boston Beer Company

Out of the Cellar: Hooker Imperial Porter

Brewery: Thomas Hooker
Style: Imperial Porter
ABV: 7.8%
Cellared: February 2007
Poured: April 2008


Even though I didn't buy or cellar this bottle until 2007, there is a label pasted over the flip-top cap that says 2006. The beer is usually released in late Fall so I'm going to assume the beer is actually 18 months in the bottle.

It pours opaque brown with nary a head even with a healthy vigorous pour. It has legs like wine when you swirl the glass. A little bit of alcohol in the nose surrounded by dark ripe fruit.

I am bracing myself for a flat blast of alcohol but am relieved that a very mild carbonation can still be detected on the tongue. The dark fruity flavors dominate (ripe plum and black currant) the rich maltiness with hints of vanilla. There's a lightly smoky flavor in the finish and hints of alcohol but not of the strength I was expecting.

I have to wonder about the wisdom of aging beers in these flip-top containers. I have only tried it twice in recent memory; the first was a Sweetwater Festive Ale which I aged for two years and it was flat and infected, so bad I couldn't even blog about it. The second is this beer which, while not horrible, is pretty unappetizing to me. I don't mind diminished carbonation but this beer is not helped by it at all.

I'll not be aging these flip-top bottles again and I would recommend drinking this Imperial Porter sooner rather than later.


Thomas Hooker Brewery

Tasting Notes: Schafly Stout

Brewery: St. Louis Brewery
Style: Oatmeal Stout
ABV: 5.7%
Date Poured: October 2007

More old notes from beers I got from my summer trip through the Midwest.

Pours very dark brown with ruby highlights peeking through, thin but (persistent) khaki head. Sweet, grainy oaty smells, creamy nose.

Roasty grain in the mouth. Hint of alcohol. Astringent but in a good way and creamy. A lingering roastiness and bitterness in the finish and aftertaste.

You can't go wrong with a good oatmeal stout as far as I'm concerned and this one isn't bad at all.


St. Louis Brewery

Tasting Notes: Opening Day Edition - Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale

Brewery: Clipper City Brewery
Style: IPA
ABV: 7.25%

(Rained out last night, the Orioles play a double header this afternoon against the Texas Rangers. It would have been cool if this beer was a Double IPA but hey, what are you gonna do? This is the 9th inning of sort as this is the last installment of the series of beers from Clipper City from Baltimore.)

It pours a crystal clear copper. Vibrant color in the body with a thin ivory head. Lots of citrusy hops in the nose.

Taste is dominated by hops, herbal and citrusy. Strident bitterness, orange rind and grapefruit. There's a nice bready malt to support the hops. Lightly sticky, nary a hint of alcohol with lingering bitterness in the finish. It's very nice.

Clipper City Brewing

Tasting Notes: Opening Day Edition - Clipper City Peg Leg Imperial Stout

Brewery: Clipper City Brewing
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 8.0%

(The Orioles continue their improbable run to open the season, now at 6-1 and still leading the AL East. Here's the third installment of this series from Baltimore's own Clipper City brewing.)

It pours deep black but you can pick up a hint of mahogany highlight every so often. In the nose, bitter hops, almost smell like noble hops...(Fuggles and Goldings actually, British style...) Some roasty aromas from the malt

First impressions are that it seems bit overcarbonated in the mouth. Very creamy and sweetish, almost like an imperial milk stout! Tasting lots of that herbal hop character in the flavor. Quite hoppy for an Imperial Stout. But it's yummy.

It's bottle conditioned so the last two bottles go into my cellar. Maybe I'll break one out when the O's reach the World Series in October. Nah, who am I kidding...

Clipper City Brewing

Tasting Notes: Opening Day Edition - Clipper City Small Craft Warning

Brewery: Clipper City Brewery
Style: Imperial Pilsner
ABV: 7.25%


(Oriole update: The O's are 5-1, they sit atop the AL East and have a 4-0 lead over the Texas Rangers as I type. Sweet victories and sweet beer!)

Part two of a four part series dedicated to the beginning of the baseball season, my Baltimore Orioles and Baltimore's own Clipper City brewery. Next up to bat is Small Craft Warning, a beer I would call an Imperial Pilsner but they describe as an Uber Pils.


As you can see, it pours a luminous pale coppery gold with a billowy snow white head. It leaves big thick lacing down the sides of the pilsner glass. Nose is sweet pilsner malt and noble hops.

Lots of noble hops in the mouth. The website mentions amarillo but all I'm getting is the saaz and tettanger. Otherwise, the body is quite sweet and the mouthfeel is sticky but it's not cloying.


Another good one. More Clipper City to come tomorrow.



Let's go O's!





Clipper City Brewing

Tasting Notes: Opening Day Edition - Clipper City Winter Storm

Brewer: Clipper City Brewing
Style: Imperial ESB
ABV: 7.5%

I should have thought of this last week but I guess various other commitments would've made this impossible last week...

Seeing that the baseball season kicked off last week and that I am a die hard Baltimore Orioles fan (and that the O's started an impressive and unexpectedly great 4-1 this week) I thought I would highlight some beers straight out of Baltimore.

We are lucky enough here in Atlanta to be able to get Clipper City beers (straight out of Baltimore!), at least the Heavy Seas Series (a line of beers that could best be described as "extreme"). I picked up a 12-pack sampler and will be making my way through them in tribute to the upstart Orioles this week.

First up is Winter Storm, described as an Imperial ESB. It's still pretty rainy and cold down here in northeast Georgia so these beers are going to hit the spot.

Pours an orangey (black and orangey?) copper with a thin but persistent ivory head. Some light lacing.

Lots of big citrusy hops in the nose buoyed by bready malt aromas.

The first sips reveal big hops but this beer is not just a hops delivery vehicle. Although it does that quite well. It's strangely balanced with the sweet and considerable bready malt profile. Bitter herbal and citrusy hops dominate the finish and aftertaste. Their website says they use American and English hops and I believe it. Not sure I've ever tasted this combination of hops working in such balance before.

Hell of a good start! I'd never tried this one before but tomorrow I'll be revisiting an old friend...

Clipper City Brewing

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.

Coaster: Cisco Brewers

The distinctive design of the Cisco Brewers graces this coaster. Cisco is one third of a facility that also houses a winery and a distillery on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Want to find the brewery? The coaster is functional in two ways: a resting place for your beer and a map to find your way back.

I've never been to the brewery but whenever I was in Boston I made a special effort to pick up some of their beers. Cisco had unusual packaging as all their beers were only available in capped 750ml bottles only. Standouts include their Moor Porter and Whale's Tail Pale Ale. Their blond ale, one of surprising complexity, was Bailey's Golden Ale and was a staple of my Maine summers for several years.

Cisco is now distributed down the east coast, from Massachusetts to as far south as Washington D.C.

Cisco Brewers

Coaster: Celis Brewery

This one's from the now defunct Celis Brewery in Austin, Texas (obviously). Pierre Celis (of Hoegaarden fame) started the brewery in 1991 making primarily a witbier called Celis White. Unfortunately, Pierre made the poor decision to allow Miller Brewing to buy a controlling interest and in 2001 they closed the brewery.

The Celis line is still produced by Michigan Brewing who bought the rights to produce the beers after the brewery closed.

Somebody must have brought this to me because I have been to Texas only twice and I have never had Celis White (must get around to that someday) as far as I can remember so somebody must have brought this coaster to me.

Sam Adams Glass, Grätzer and Belgium

I've been meaning to write a little note about these new Samuel Adams glasses for awhile and now is as good a time as any. Boston Beer released these glasses in 2007 after (supposedly) painstaking scientific research on what would be the best glass for their flagship beer. I received two of the glasses as a thank you for being a founding subscriber to Beer Advocate magazine.

I don't know if all the claims and marketing are accurate but there are two great things about the glass. First, it absolutely delivers the hop aromas to your nose better than most glasses, Second, it feels great in your hand, very ergo friendly. They are great glasses for any kind of lager (even doppelbocks) and light ales and since I was short on good lager glasses, they get quite a workout at my place. Recommended.

*****

I can't say enough about how great it is to read the beery gems mined over at Shut Up About Barclay Perkins. I have always considered myself to be fairly knowledgeable about beer styles and the history of brewing but Ron keeps digging up new styles and redefining the old ones. I'm especially enjoying the posts about the Polish style Grodziskie/Grätzer.

*****

Looks like Tim Webb will have a new edition of the Good Guide to Belgian Beer out soon. Now I have to get the new one!

Tasting Notes: Narragansett Lager

Brewery: Narragansett Brewing Company
Date Poured: January 2008
ABV: 5.0%

My Mainer friend Dave sent me this beer in a box full of Cadillac Mountain Stout. Talk about a rough in the diamonds.

The story of Narragansett mirrors the story of many an American regional brewer in the second half of the 20th century.

Narragansett was a regional brewery based out of Rhode Island and founded in the 1880's. It was quite popular around southern New England for years. It was a sponsor of the Red Sox in the old days and Robert Shaw's character in Jaws drank cans of Narrangansett.

The Haffenreffer brewery (of Boston, where Boston Beer now houses their test brewery and Sam Adams tour) became closely involved with Narrangansett in the early 60's as many regional brewers struggled to survive. Eventually, the Haffenreffer lines would become part of Narrangansett and then all were swallowed by the Falstaff Brewing company. The brewery in Rhode Island was closed in the early 80's and the brand quickly declined in quality and sales. The brand has changed hands many times over the years but in 2005 it was purchased by an interest that revitalised the recipe and the brand and it is now being contract brewed by High Falls Brewing (JW Dundee, Saranac) in New York.



Pours bright yellow gold with a creamy white head, lots of lacing, persistent but becomes thin. Lot's of bubbles Lightly sweet and bready pale pilsener malt, light twinge of noble hops.

Taste is basically the same. Sweetish aftertaste. Inoffensive but I wish it had a bit more crispness in the mouth.

This is a nostalgic brand. Being that I am not a native of New England I can say it's no better or no worse than a lot of industrial lagers but doesn't particularly appeal to me.



Narragansett Beer

Tasting Notes: Houblon Chouffe

Brewery: Brasserie Achouffe

Date Poured: January 2008

ABV: 9%

A burgeoning style, the Belgian IPA, is taken on by Brasserie Achouffe. But hell, if you're reading this blog, you know all about this beer. On to the notes!

Pours a pale, lightly hazy, yellow gold with a huge billowy ivory head that is the consistency of whipped cream. Lots of huge chunky lacing. Citrusy hop aroma, fruity Belgian yeast. Lots of estery, bready aromas.

Very hoppy flavors and bready, yeasty tripel type flavors. The perfect marriage of a tripel and IPA. The combination of Amarillo, Tomahawk and Saaz is odd enough. Then combine that with a fruity, earthy tripel...well that's nothing you see everyday. Dry in the mouth, lots of hops in the finish and aftertaste. Really drinkable for my tastes. Some hints of alcohol in there but the 9% ABV is masked nicely. Still unlike anything I have ever had before. Totally unique. Totally quaffable. It's amazing.

Brasserie Achouffe

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

Belgium Trip Update

I finally have my airline ticket to Brussels so I have been paying a bit more attention to what's happening in the world of Belgian beer and getting some tips from other bloggers on what to look for when I go.

The photo I used for this post is courtesy of BoakandBailey.com. They have offered some of their beer photography for free use by other bloggers. This photo is of a neon Kasteel sign in Brussels.

This post over at BeerAdvocate.com eventually led me to find this hopeful article about the fate of Liefmans Brewery. Looks like the Duvel Moortgat brewery will be taking over brewing operations in preparation to make an offer to take over the Liefmans operation. Good news indeed!

Lew Bryson reports that Orval (one of my favorites) is a completely different animal when fresh. That hadn't occurred to me so I will have to make sure that I get a bottle when I get over there.

For the few of you who may be reading this and/or may actually have experience with this, I have a question. Is Westvleteren worth it? We will definitely be going to In de Vrede and sampling all the Westvleteren ales but I haven't decided if it's worth it to spend a bunch of time calling the monastery and spending another big chunk of time waiting in line at the monastery for my beer. Any thoughts are welcome.

I love De Koninck. One of the things I'm looking forward to most on this trip will be having another bolleke of fresh De Koninck in Antwerp. I have had bottled versions on this side of the Atlantic but in my experience the broad group of beers known as "Belgian Pale Ales/Ambers" do not travel well. At least not off of the continent. So it was nice to see that The Beer Tourist had a writeup of this fantastic ale from last September. Even nicer, I learned that the old unofficial brewery tap, Café Pelgrim, closed last March. The new unofficial brewery tap is Afspanning De Hand. I need to add that one to my list of stops in Antwerp.

Coaster: Great Guinness Toast 1998

I really need to work on my photography skills for these coaster posts. Anyway...

This coaster is from 10 years ago. K and I actually went and participated in this toast at a little Irish bar called The Fly's Tie in Jacksonville Beach, FL.

The beer situation in Jacksonville in the late nineties was pretty dire. You could get some decent beer at a few upscale specialty shops but you could forget about that when you went out to eat or drink.

The Fly's Tie was not far from our apartment and at the very least took pride in their taps. Nothing earth shattering, mostly Guinness, Bass, the occasional Sam Adams seasonal, some cider and Harp lager. But it was always a quality pint at a fair price in a very traditional Irish pub atmosphere. Good times.

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.

Out of the Cellar: Unibroue Trois Pistoles

Date Cellared: March 2004

Date Sampled: February 2008

ABV: 9%

Straight out of Quebec, one of the great North American breweries is Unibroue. They specialize in Belgian style ales and one of their best ales is Trois Pistoles. The beer is named after a village in the Les Basques region.

I have had mixed results aging Unibroue beers and the shelf life on this one is only supposed to be 3 years. Let's see what happens.

It pours an opaque brown with a huge creamy tan head. The aroma is dominated by the signature Unibroue yeast. Ahh, that spicy Unibroue yeast! Bready and earthy, rich dark malt, sweet, lush candy sugar.

Surprisingly smooth body, lightly dry considering the sweetness of this beer. Some breadiness in the malt, some peppery spice, still a hint of alcohol and the body has thinned out a bit from when fresh. Sweetish finish some alcohol warming. Lightly bitter in the finish.

Success! This one ages beautifully. I have more so we'll check it out again in a few months.

Unibroue

Tasting Notes: Mojo IPA

Brewery: Boulder Beer
Date Poured: August 2007
ABV: 7.0%

Never one to turn down an IPA, I picked this one up this summer during the trip to the Great Midwest.

It's a lightly hazy but bright copper in the glass. The head is snowy white with tons of lace. Crazy hop aromas here. The hops provide herbal, citrusy and floral aromas.

As expected, a nice amount of hops delivered in this beer. It's snappy and spicy in the mouth. A bit of pale malt but nicely showcasing the hops in this one. Hops dominate the finish and the aftertaste. A nicely hopped ale, at least for a regular IPA.

This is a nice beer and a nice surprise. I was disappointed with the dry-hopped Hazed and Infused but this beer delivers. Recommended.

Boulder Beer

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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