WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2010
I got "good beer" coming out of my armpits
Oh me oh my!!
Where do I start?
Its been a very busy past couple weeks in my "beer life". So I thought it would only make sense if I take you through my journey the same way I came across it.
My brother Dan and his wife Kristin are celebrating the life of their new baby girl, Sophia Raye Sullivan. The first full day they were home, we decided that we would bring some food over to cook for them/have Dan help ME cook. haha. So I went out, snagged a couple nice sized filets, some potatoes and some large fresh asparagus. Naturally, I checked out my Beer Cloud app on my Droid to see what beer would combo best with filet mignon. My Beer Cloud told me that Belgian Ales or Nut Brown Ales would combo the flavors of the meat the best. So I headed off to my liquor store of choice, Dawson's Liquors and looked for my boys Danny and Matt to help me hook it up right. Well, they weren't there, so i was on my own. I headed right to the Belgians and noticed something I hadn't had before... This Belgian Nut Brown Ale, by Chauffe. A couple weeks earlier I tried Chauffe for the first time at Megan and Leo's going away party when I brought a Chauffe Belgian Dubbel IPA... Which was BANGIN!! Long story short, I picked up a couple different Belgians but BY FAR... Like seriously, its not even close!!! The Chauffe Belgian Brown Ale was the best brown ale I have EVER had. When you think of brown ale, you think of New Castle, which isnt bad by any means but Chauffe had a LOT of body to it and a whole lot of flavor. It was extremely smooth and I couldn't wait for the next taste.
My first recommendation is: Chauffe Belgian Brown Ale: http://www.achouffe.be/en
February 21st was my birthday, I turned 28. No biggy to me as birthdays for me are just another day, but whatev. The only thing I ever ask for my birthday is a dinner made by my Mom. Usually its White Spaghetti, but since my wife has learned to make it I haven't wanted it that bad anymore. But a couple weeks earlier I called my Mother and told her I was hankering for Linguine with Clam sauce. So once again i hit up the sommelier to see what goes best with the clams... I got a couple different directions I was aimed at, first clams themselves go best with Belgian ales but a "Seafood Pasta" was best served with a Hefeweizen. My palate doesn't naturally steer in the direction of Hefeweizens or even a lot of other European flavors as a whole, but I am trying to increase my awareness and appreciation for the very complex flavors they offer. So my intention was to select a six pack Hefeweizen or something... Not 5 SIX PACKS!!! wait... I picked up 3 different Hefeweizen's, the Spring Cider by Woodchuck and a 4 Pack of Fordham's Doppel Bock. I'll start with the Doppel Bock which I picked up because I've never seen it in a bottle before. I previously tried it with Jer at the Ram's Head Roadhouse where I was blown away by the complexities of the dark bock. It has a lot of the same smoky nodes of a Porter but wasn't quite to the same level in the thickness. It was very rich and malty with some great roasted fruit hints deep within it. STILL GREAT IN A BOTTLE!!
My second recommendation is: Fordham's Doppelbock - http://fordhambrewing.com/
So as I stated, it was pretty much Hefeweizenfest for my birthday!! The Hefeweizens I snagged were Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis, Magic Hat's Circus Boy and Flying Dog's In-Heat Wheat. We started off wrong... The first one we drank was the FlyingDog Hefe. I don't wanna leave you hangin... so I'll be real with you... It blew our minds!! Its unfiltered, just the way I like most of my beers much less hefes, but what really set it apart was the RICH flavor that was a joy to drink!! It was more full bodied and more flavorful than the other two.
The Next was the Magic Hat's Circus Boy. I have a pleasant history with this beer, trying it over a year ago at West End Bar and Grille when they had it on draft. And it was easily the best beer they had on draft there... and yet it didn't touch the flying dog. It was also unfiltered, but you wouldn't know it by how light and airy it was. Is that bad? No, but it just didn't stand up to the expectation that the Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat had already set and really left us wanting a lot more flavor.
The last was the Sierra Nevada Kellerwies. Typically I like but don't LOVE Sierra Nevada because I feel like a lot of them, much like most Sam Adams beers tend to have a similar flavor to them. I don't tend to taste such extreme similarities in most breweries but these two I do. Needless to say, there are couple Sierras that I feel deviate from this rule, first is the currant Spring beer, the Glisade Golden Bock and the Kellerwies. So the Kellerweis was a very pleasant bounce back from the disappointing drop off with the second beer. The Kellerweis is much more of a classic German hefeweizen taste and feel. A more medium body and unfiltered as the others were but gave us a lot more flavor than the last. Still... doesn't change my instant love of the In-heat.
My third recommendation is: Flying Dog's In-Heat Wheat - http://www.flyingdogales.com/Default.aspx
Busy beer week would continue you two days later at the Lure's Bar and Grille Beer Club. This had already been pushed back a couple weeks due to snow and I barely got off work to make it, but WHOA was it awesome!!! The beer of the month for club was Troegs Brewing Company. I found out a lot about Troegs, including that it was started by two brothers who went separate ways for careers and decided to pull together to come up with this great brewery out of PA. I'm not a veteran Troegs drinker, although I gave it my Winter Beer of the Year award with Mad Elf =. So I was very excited to dig in and try all these cool new beers to me. It was kind of neat being that in addition to having 4 beers to try, we also had a Firkin of their spring beer, Nugget Nectar. This beer comes from the same recipe as one of their year-round beers, Hop Back, except they through a bazilly amount if hops in it to dry hop it. Nugget Nectar is super hopping and so flavorful and the fact that I got to drink the delicious unfiltered Firkin just made it better than I could imagine. We also tasted Troegs Hop Back, Dream Weaver Hefe( I probably would have put it in 2nd out of the 4 Hefes I had in those days), Mad Elf and finally a Gold Award Winner this year, Troegenator Double Bock. I LOVE dark, rich, flavorful beers and this one totally hit on all nodes for me. After the event was over I got a chance to try one last beer. I love Rogue's Dead Guy Ale, but they had a new one on draft: Rogue's John John Dead Guy Ale. It's the same recipe as the classic dead Guy except they age it in Bourbon barrels which gives it a new oaky, full on bourbon flavor on top of an already delicious beer. I pretty much called it Bourbon-Lite. :)
My forth recommendation is: Troeg's Nugget Nectar - http://www.troegs.com - SPRING ONLY, get it while its hot!!
Bare with me, as this last Tuesday was another great day for beer lovers. Started off around 12 in the afternoon when my brother Adam came up front Fort Washington so we could brew some beer. We headed to Annapolis Home Brew and after some questioning decided upon an Imperial Pale Ale. I'll keep it simple, but I'll be intrigued to see how it turns out after I think we may have had a couple sanitation issues. Like that isn't always the story with a home brew, but we shall see ;). We were just pitching the yeast as we needed to head out the door and over to Dawson's Liquors where Matt Crow and the Flying Dog Winnebago was waiting to take us up to Frederick for an evening tour of the brewery. You might know them for their crazy labels(Ralph Steadman design) or the association to Hunter S. Thompson but they go so much harder than just a couple cool names. We got to taste some amazing beers and I really came away with a big time appreciation for the quality of delicious beers they put out. To start, I think its note worthy that they were just selected as Mid-Sized Brewery of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival in addition the master brewer won Brewer of the Year as well. The tour was a blast and they were actually brewing even when we got there. They thoroughly impressed me with the great flavor of the beers and the care that goes into craft such awesome brews. On the bottom I included some pictures I took on my cell of the brewer and our post tour fun as well as a rank and some short notes on some of the beers we loved.
1. 20th Anniversary Beer: Raging Bitch Belgian IPA - A pleasure to drink and plenty of hops to cure the itch but a lot of additional complexities from the Belgian yeast.
2. Gonzo Imperial Porter: Rockin a hearty 7.8 on the richtor, this beer had a lot of rich flavors that makes your jaw drop.
3. Snake Dog IPA: One of the better IPAs I've had recently, it also packed a wollup at 7.1 with loads of hoppy flavor. Just a shade under the flavor of the Raging Bitch, but still awesome.
4. Doggie Style Pale Ale: I was stuck between this and the Old Scratch Amer Lager, but chose this because at first you might think it was actually the Snake Dog, but it wasen't. Just a delicious classic American Pale Ale that didn't leave you hanging.
I hope you made it to the bottom of this, but if not... well than you aren't even reading this, so I don't know why I am still talking. But if you wanna check out more from Flying Dog, they will be bringing a bunch of brews including the Dog Schwarz Double Lager to Lures Beer Club, Tuesday March 9th. I have to work, but Im trying to get things switched up so I can make it and it would be great to see you there.
Thanks for hanging out and I hope you enjoyed everything.
-Sully
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