Yesterday I visited my older brother and his wife because I just adore them and felt like seeing them before I leave for Malawi this Friday. They had an appointment at the Apple store at the King of Prussia Mall for some uncooperative machines, so Kerin suggested going to Rock Bottom Brewery. The funny part was, they had decided on these plans before they remembered I was coming to visit. This worked out rather well for me!
Rock Bottom was great. Apparently this is a chain that is all over the place, and I would absolutely recommend it if you have one near you. We were there about 4.30PM on a Monday, so it was mostly empty, which was nice for our catching up purposes. It was Happy Hour, and the deals were pretty great: cheap pints, cheap appetizers. The food was mostly really good. Kerin had wings (which were apparently mediocre), Chris had seafood something or other (which he seemed pleased with), and we shared nachos (REALLY good) and fresh hot pretzels (which are brushed with beer and salted and really delicious).
And then there was the beer. Very enjoyable.
Kerin and I both had the Liquid Sun, which was an unfiltered wheat beer. It was like a dream come true to have a beer that I couldn't see through, that was made of wheat! Those are some of my favorite qualities in a beer that don't always go hand in hand. This was a good hefeweizen, though a little more bitter (less sweet) than I expected it to be. Still, quite nice.
Kerin continued with the Liquid Sun, but after we ate, I moved on to the Nevermore Lager, a German Schwarzbier. This was really dark and heavy, and tasted quite coffee-y. I liked it, but it was definitely heavy for having just housed a huge platter of nachos. This is a good beer to have for dessert.
Chris had their IPA and then an Amber Ale. I chose the latter for him because it was billed as being pretty malty, which I figured would be a good switch from the hoppiness of the IPA. However, stupidly, I did not taste either of these. What was I thinking? I mean, come on. Seriously. So perhaps he can let you know how they were, since apparently he's got this blog set up in his Google Reader? I was flattered to hear this. He gave me a crash course in how to use Google Reader and today I'm experimenting with it, but I don't have this blog in my own reader. Perhaps you do, though?
Colleen: 275
Paul: 270
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
staff meeting
Paul was up visiting his family this weekend before his youngest brother heads off to college. Despite it not being Pint Night, we got together at The Office with our friend Michael for a couple of rounds. I believe Paul had a new one, but I ran into a problem that happens every now and again: I had a beer that I thought was new for me, but it turns out it wasn't. Paul and I both keep pretty extensive databases about the brews we try, but it's impossible to commit 270+ beers to memory, especially when they aren't particularly memorable, which was exactly the case with Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale. I love Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout, LOVE it. And I've generally liked the other Sam Smiths I've tried (Imperial Stout, Nut Brown Ale, Lager, Winter Welcome Ale). But the Pale Ale was just really boring and forgettable. Bummer.
I have tried a couple of others recently though:
Troeg's Java Head Stout: Really nice, strong, dark beer. It obviously has a strong coffee flavor to it. This is one of those beers that kind of punches you in the face. If I'm going to get punched in the face by anything, I should hope it's a good beer. This totally fits the bill.
Flying Fish Exit 6 Wallonian Rye: Part of the New Jersey brewer's Exit Series, which celebrates the New Jersey Turnpike (which oddly enough, is one of my least favorite aspects of the state, since that's all most people see and there's a few unpleasant miles up toward the northern end of it that people assume the entire state is like. In the end though, it is an important part of NJ, and so I love it, just like everything else that's part of NJ, including this brewer!). This was a really nice witbier sort of brew, light and refreshing, with a nice rye flavor to it. I like rye. I like wheat beers. I LOVE New Jersey. This was a really wonderful situation.
And so, Paul: 270, Colleen: 273
I have tried a couple of others recently though:
Troeg's Java Head Stout: Really nice, strong, dark beer. It obviously has a strong coffee flavor to it. This is one of those beers that kind of punches you in the face. If I'm going to get punched in the face by anything, I should hope it's a good beer. This totally fits the bill.
Flying Fish Exit 6 Wallonian Rye: Part of the New Jersey brewer's Exit Series, which celebrates the New Jersey Turnpike (which oddly enough, is one of my least favorite aspects of the state, since that's all most people see and there's a few unpleasant miles up toward the northern end of it that people assume the entire state is like. In the end though, it is an important part of NJ, and so I love it, just like everything else that's part of NJ, including this brewer!). This was a really nice witbier sort of brew, light and refreshing, with a nice rye flavor to it. I like rye. I like wheat beers. I LOVE New Jersey. This was a really wonderful situation.
And so, Paul: 270, Colleen: 273
Saturday, August 7, 2010
It's been how long?
Note: I have reason to believe that certain parts of this site, i.e. the blogger navigation bar above, have been hacked. Please do not click on them until I manage to find a solution. Thanks.
I've ignored this place too long. Actually, ignored is a bad word. Life has gotten in the way for too long. All the while, I've been collecting little notes on backs of receipts in my wallet and keeping a master list of beers I've tried on my phone. All of these efforts have been with the intention of updating my count before Colleen ends her contract. I know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I have been doing some traveling. Laura and I went 2,100 miles in four days from Northern Virginia to Southwest Colorado. Along the way, we stopped at some ruins for a 12th Century Native American City in Illinois, saw the St. Louis Arch, drank at a micro-brewery in St. Louis (notice the lack of a certain macro-brewer), visited some cousins of mine in Kansas, and a lot of other stuff. You can read her blog entry on our trip here.
Harpoon Summer: This one has been lying in the fridge for a while. I'd say I've been getting really tired of summer style, specifically Kolsch beers, but we have so many reviews to go before the end. It was average as far as the Kolsch style goes, and by that I mean perfect on a hot summer day.
Budweiser: If you drink beer, you know this one....unfortunately. Bud-heavy, as it may be known, is sometimes a foreigner's impression of American Beer. I cry at night when I think of this. It isn't that bad, but there is just so much more to American Brewing than this staple. I'd lambaste this beer more, but among few of my reasons not to bash it further is they have hilarious commercials.
Miller Lite: I had this beer when out with my cousins in Georgetown. We were on a boat outside of Tony and Joe's along the water. Remember my review of Budweiser? Of course, you do - it was my last review. This beer was fine on a hot summer day, other than that avoid it. Don't let all those alleged world beer cup awards in the commercials fool you (more on this later).
Rebel: This is a Czech beer that I had while having dinner at Laura's parent's house (I'm not sure if that statement is grammatically correct, but you'll live with it). This is a Pilsner from the Czech Republic. For those of you scoring at home, this is where the Pilsner style was invented. As far as Pilsner's go, this was a quality beer. However, even reviewing pilsners, kolschs, and lagers is starting to wear on me.
Trader Joe's Bohemian Lager: Damn it, another Lager. This was another one that was graciously handed to my while at Laura's parent's house. I thought the beer was a little heavy bodied for a lager. I drank it from the bottle, so I didn't get a good read on the color of the beer. It just seemed a little too malty and full bodied for a Lager. Nonetheless, I am still thankful for this beer and the aforementioned one.
Laura tells me that I need to add more stories to this blog. However, I always try to weigh them with my own privacy, her privacy, and the privacy of our friends. It's not a perfect system, after all I have a blog, but it's something I weigh in my mind. For example, I tend to not specify the exact dates of my immediate travel plans, and I prefer to write about them after the fact. I'm not perfect at it, but I try.
When Laura and I visited St. Louis on our road trip, we stopped at Morgan Street Brewery. The brewery is about two blocks from the Mississippi River, and about 3/4 mile North of the Gateway Arch. After stopping by the Arch, we walked over to the brew-pub. As I said earlier, take a mental note of the other brewery options we could have visited. The food was pretty good. The sandwiches came with coniques, which I think were fried mashed potatoes.
Morgan Street Brewery Golden Pilsner: This beer is advertised as award winning, so I decided I should try it. I'm starting to wonder who these judges are exactly (Note to Colleen, figure out how we can be on the panel). For a Pilsner, I thought it was a bit malty. Other than that, it went down pretty smooth. After a long two days of travel, it hit the spot. Besides that, incorporate every other buzz word I've mentioned about summer beers.
Morgan Street Brewery Honey Wheat: Before we left, I asked the waitress if I weren't to be in the area again (which is reasonable to assume), which beer I should try. She mentioned that this beer was their most popular by far. As I think now, the popularity of their beers are probably determined mostly by St. Louis Cardinals fans who walk the few blocks there before or after a game. The lager was somewhere between filtered and unfiltered, and had a slight sweet taste to it - hence the honey.
The next day, we drove out to central Kansas to visit some cousin's of mine and stay the night. They were quite gracious hosts. They took us to a Mexican restaurant in town, their county fair, and their farm. It was quite a good time, and we both really appreciated their kind hospitality. When we went out for Mexican, and I had completed a drive of 450 miles behind the wheel. To say I needed a beer was an understatement.
Corona Extra: I had it with the Lime. It went well after a long drive and with my enchiladas. I wouldn't recommend it unless it's with Mexican food, you want to be polite, or it's one of my often referenced "hot summer days."
Upon arriving in Durango, CO after some bare knuckle driving the last 30 miles through the mountain pass during torrential rain, I decided I was too tired to get beer. In my defense, it had been over 2,000 miles, it was 8 PM (local, 10PM to me), and I had driven the final part of the day. Rest assured, I will man-up and find one of their brew-pubs in October when I go to travel back with Laura!
However, during my layover in the Denver airport I did manage to find a place with Colorado micro-brews. I've already had Fat Tire so I decided to try something else.
New Belgium Skinny Dip: Apparently, this is their low calorie, summer seasonal. As far as light beers go, it had a pretty good body to it. I'd say that was its greatest distinguishing factor from all the other summer beers. As an aside, I cannot wait for fall - just to have new styles of beer!
Odell 90 Shilling: This was a Scottish Ale. I was told it would be somewhat like New Castle. I thought it had a fuller body, and more taste to it. I don't have much experience with Scottish Ales, nor does Colleen since neither of us have "tagged" the term. Upon some further research, it does go with the style. It had a full-bodied malt taste, with little or no hop characteristic.
Just today I went out with my cousins for a birthday celebration at P.F. Chang's. It was my first time there, but I am more than familiar with Chinese Food. I thought the food was pretty good, and I still can't use chopsticks. I thought the next best thing was to get one of their beers, and a Japanese beer that was a repeat.
Tsingtao: The first words out of my mouth were, "That's not as awful as I expected." In my defense, the Chinese aren't really known for their beer. I thought it was no different than a Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Lite, etc. I'll give it more points though since it's harder to come across. It also went well with the food.
Kirin Ichiban: Hankering for another beer, and wanting to review another for the blog, I ordered this Japanese beer. I've already had it, so it doesn't count on my list. This is a light styled Lager, and it's certainly not any better than the American macro-brews that I have already mentioned. Again, it was yet another summer beer.
In the time I have written this, Colleen has decided to break our little, albeit temporary, tie. Congrats to her on that achievement. Also, best wishes on your trip and I hope this mess with the antibiotics can be over soon! By the way, I am jealous of your winter style beer - very jealous.
The scorecard:
Colleen - 271
Paul - 270 (no, not pounds)
I am sure that I will have more beers soon. However, my pace will be slowed by travel (as I've already mentioned) and a crazy schedule at work until the end of September.
Cheers,
Paul
I've ignored this place too long. Actually, ignored is a bad word. Life has gotten in the way for too long. All the while, I've been collecting little notes on backs of receipts in my wallet and keeping a master list of beers I've tried on my phone. All of these efforts have been with the intention of updating my count before Colleen ends her contract. I know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I have been doing some traveling. Laura and I went 2,100 miles in four days from Northern Virginia to Southwest Colorado. Along the way, we stopped at some ruins for a 12th Century Native American City in Illinois, saw the St. Louis Arch, drank at a micro-brewery in St. Louis (notice the lack of a certain macro-brewer), visited some cousins of mine in Kansas, and a lot of other stuff. You can read her blog entry on our trip here.
Harpoon Summer: This one has been lying in the fridge for a while. I'd say I've been getting really tired of summer style, specifically Kolsch beers, but we have so many reviews to go before the end. It was average as far as the Kolsch style goes, and by that I mean perfect on a hot summer day.
Budweiser: If you drink beer, you know this one....unfortunately. Bud-heavy, as it may be known, is sometimes a foreigner's impression of American Beer. I cry at night when I think of this. It isn't that bad, but there is just so much more to American Brewing than this staple. I'd lambaste this beer more, but among few of my reasons not to bash it further is they have hilarious commercials.
Miller Lite: I had this beer when out with my cousins in Georgetown. We were on a boat outside of Tony and Joe's along the water. Remember my review of Budweiser? Of course, you do - it was my last review. This beer was fine on a hot summer day, other than that avoid it. Don't let all those alleged world beer cup awards in the commercials fool you (more on this later).
Rebel: This is a Czech beer that I had while having dinner at Laura's parent's house (I'm not sure if that statement is grammatically correct, but you'll live with it). This is a Pilsner from the Czech Republic. For those of you scoring at home, this is where the Pilsner style was invented. As far as Pilsner's go, this was a quality beer. However, even reviewing pilsners, kolschs, and lagers is starting to wear on me.
Trader Joe's Bohemian Lager: Damn it, another Lager. This was another one that was graciously handed to my while at Laura's parent's house. I thought the beer was a little heavy bodied for a lager. I drank it from the bottle, so I didn't get a good read on the color of the beer. It just seemed a little too malty and full bodied for a Lager. Nonetheless, I am still thankful for this beer and the aforementioned one.
Laura tells me that I need to add more stories to this blog. However, I always try to weigh them with my own privacy, her privacy, and the privacy of our friends. It's not a perfect system, after all I have a blog, but it's something I weigh in my mind. For example, I tend to not specify the exact dates of my immediate travel plans, and I prefer to write about them after the fact. I'm not perfect at it, but I try.
When Laura and I visited St. Louis on our road trip, we stopped at Morgan Street Brewery. The brewery is about two blocks from the Mississippi River, and about 3/4 mile North of the Gateway Arch. After stopping by the Arch, we walked over to the brew-pub. As I said earlier, take a mental note of the other brewery options we could have visited. The food was pretty good. The sandwiches came with coniques, which I think were fried mashed potatoes.
Morgan Street Brewery Golden Pilsner: This beer is advertised as award winning, so I decided I should try it. I'm starting to wonder who these judges are exactly (Note to Colleen, figure out how we can be on the panel). For a Pilsner, I thought it was a bit malty. Other than that, it went down pretty smooth. After a long two days of travel, it hit the spot. Besides that, incorporate every other buzz word I've mentioned about summer beers.
Morgan Street Brewery Honey Wheat: Before we left, I asked the waitress if I weren't to be in the area again (which is reasonable to assume), which beer I should try. She mentioned that this beer was their most popular by far. As I think now, the popularity of their beers are probably determined mostly by St. Louis Cardinals fans who walk the few blocks there before or after a game. The lager was somewhere between filtered and unfiltered, and had a slight sweet taste to it - hence the honey.
The next day, we drove out to central Kansas to visit some cousin's of mine and stay the night. They were quite gracious hosts. They took us to a Mexican restaurant in town, their county fair, and their farm. It was quite a good time, and we both really appreciated their kind hospitality. When we went out for Mexican, and I had completed a drive of 450 miles behind the wheel. To say I needed a beer was an understatement.
Corona Extra: I had it with the Lime. It went well after a long drive and with my enchiladas. I wouldn't recommend it unless it's with Mexican food, you want to be polite, or it's one of my often referenced "hot summer days."
Upon arriving in Durango, CO after some bare knuckle driving the last 30 miles through the mountain pass during torrential rain, I decided I was too tired to get beer. In my defense, it had been over 2,000 miles, it was 8 PM (local, 10PM to me), and I had driven the final part of the day. Rest assured, I will man-up and find one of their brew-pubs in October when I go to travel back with Laura!
However, during my layover in the Denver airport I did manage to find a place with Colorado micro-brews. I've already had Fat Tire so I decided to try something else.
New Belgium Skinny Dip: Apparently, this is their low calorie, summer seasonal. As far as light beers go, it had a pretty good body to it. I'd say that was its greatest distinguishing factor from all the other summer beers. As an aside, I cannot wait for fall - just to have new styles of beer!
Odell 90 Shilling: This was a Scottish Ale. I was told it would be somewhat like New Castle. I thought it had a fuller body, and more taste to it. I don't have much experience with Scottish Ales, nor does Colleen since neither of us have "tagged" the term. Upon some further research, it does go with the style. It had a full-bodied malt taste, with little or no hop characteristic.
Just today I went out with my cousins for a birthday celebration at P.F. Chang's. It was my first time there, but I am more than familiar with Chinese Food. I thought the food was pretty good, and I still can't use chopsticks. I thought the next best thing was to get one of their beers, and a Japanese beer that was a repeat.
Tsingtao: The first words out of my mouth were, "That's not as awful as I expected." In my defense, the Chinese aren't really known for their beer. I thought it was no different than a Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Lite, etc. I'll give it more points though since it's harder to come across. It also went well with the food.
Kirin Ichiban: Hankering for another beer, and wanting to review another for the blog, I ordered this Japanese beer. I've already had it, so it doesn't count on my list. This is a light styled Lager, and it's certainly not any better than the American macro-brews that I have already mentioned. Again, it was yet another summer beer.
In the time I have written this, Colleen has decided to break our little, albeit temporary, tie. Congrats to her on that achievement. Also, best wishes on your trip and I hope this mess with the antibiotics can be over soon! By the way, I am jealous of your winter style beer - very jealous.
The scorecard:
Colleen - 271
Paul - 270 (no, not pounds)
I am sure that I will have more beers soon. However, my pace will be slowed by travel (as I've already mentioned) and a crazy schedule at work until the end of September.
Cheers,
Paul
contract/time is up, Paul!
Dear Paul,
Hope you've been having an excellent month and a half without any competition. I'm sorry to report that your time is (sort of) up!
Sincerely,
Colleen
I can't believe how fast my summer at camp has gone. Six weeks! I'm at home now-- didn't really have any big plans for the end of my contract. I thought I might enjoy a Guinness... not even a new beer for the count! However, the circumstances of my life have, as per usual, lead to other endeavors.
As I've mentioned here and there, I'm going to Malawi, and soon! I will be there in less than two weeks. (And yes, I plan on trying African beers during my lengthy time on planes/in airports). Subsequently, I'm going to be taking some intense antibiotics as malaria prophylaxis starting a few days before my 20 August departure. However, I got a head start on the strong antibiotics by discovering a bullseye rash on my thigh a few weeks ago, so I am not to be consuming much alcohol, among other things. The doctor's antibiotic of choice for the Lyme is doxycycline, which carries the following advisory,
"Take this medication 2-3 hours before or after taking any products containing aluminum, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc or bismuth subsalicyclate. Some examples include antacids, certain forms of didanosine (chewable/dispersable buffered tablets or pediatric oral solution), quinapril, vitamins/minerals, dairy products (such as milk or yogurt) and calcium-enriched juice. These products bind with doxycycline, preventing your body from fully absorbing the drug."
Guinness is probably one of the main reasons I haven't had any issues with iron deficiency in the past few years. But thank you, antibiotics, for disallowing me from consuming much of anything good, much less a nice Guinness.
So. I wasn't planning on trying a new beer, but stopped by one of the better beer sources near home as I headed there tonight, and found Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale. I bought it for the following reasons:
1. I actually had my eye on Flying Fish's Exit 6 (how very New Jersey of me) but it was a larger bottle.
2. This was the next beer I noticed available in a single bottle that I hadn't tried before.
3. My mom keeps the house at winter-like temperatures, so I figured it was an appropriate homecoming beer.
So here I sit, very very slowly enjoying this beer. Seriously, I opened it about an hour ago and am halfway through. I'm enjoying it more as it nears room temperature, possibly because I'm sitting here in a hoodie and pajama pants and freezing (because I have water for blood now that my iron intake is severely reduced), but it's a good beer for winter. Very smooth, warm flavor, sort of like a nicely spiced pie or something. No, it's not fruity. I'm out of practice explaining what I think of beers. Let me try again: um... yeah. Really out of practice. Smooth. Accessible. Might compliment a warm pie. But doesn't taste like pie. That would be weird.
I'd recommend this. In winter. Or in my parents' house.
I know Paul is holding out on a pile of updates, but till then--
Paul: 259
Colleen: 271
PS: Oh snap! I viewed the blog in another window to see what our numbers were at, and it seems that Paul is updating at the same time as me! So if I post this first... then I'm ahead for like, five more minutes.
Hope you've been having an excellent month and a half without any competition. I'm sorry to report that your time is (sort of) up!
Sincerely,
Colleen
I can't believe how fast my summer at camp has gone. Six weeks! I'm at home now-- didn't really have any big plans for the end of my contract. I thought I might enjoy a Guinness... not even a new beer for the count! However, the circumstances of my life have, as per usual, lead to other endeavors.
As I've mentioned here and there, I'm going to Malawi, and soon! I will be there in less than two weeks. (And yes, I plan on trying African beers during my lengthy time on planes/in airports). Subsequently, I'm going to be taking some intense antibiotics as malaria prophylaxis starting a few days before my 20 August departure. However, I got a head start on the strong antibiotics by discovering a bullseye rash on my thigh a few weeks ago, so I am not to be consuming much alcohol, among other things. The doctor's antibiotic of choice for the Lyme is doxycycline, which carries the following advisory,
"Take this medication 2-3 hours before or after taking any products containing aluminum, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc or bismuth subsalicyclate. Some examples include antacids, certain forms of didanosine (chewable/dispersable buffered tablets or pediatric oral solution), quinapril, vitamins/minerals, dairy products (such as milk or yogurt) and calcium-enriched juice. These products bind with doxycycline, preventing your body from fully absorbing the drug."
Guinness is probably one of the main reasons I haven't had any issues with iron deficiency in the past few years. But thank you, antibiotics, for disallowing me from consuming much of anything good, much less a nice Guinness.
So. I wasn't planning on trying a new beer, but stopped by one of the better beer sources near home as I headed there tonight, and found Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale. I bought it for the following reasons:
1. I actually had my eye on Flying Fish's Exit 6 (how very New Jersey of me) but it was a larger bottle.
2. This was the next beer I noticed available in a single bottle that I hadn't tried before.
3. My mom keeps the house at winter-like temperatures, so I figured it was an appropriate homecoming beer.
So here I sit, very very slowly enjoying this beer. Seriously, I opened it about an hour ago and am halfway through. I'm enjoying it more as it nears room temperature, possibly because I'm sitting here in a hoodie and pajama pants and freezing (because I have water for blood now that my iron intake is severely reduced), but it's a good beer for winter. Very smooth, warm flavor, sort of like a nicely spiced pie or something. No, it's not fruity. I'm out of practice explaining what I think of beers. Let me try again: um... yeah. Really out of practice. Smooth. Accessible. Might compliment a warm pie. But doesn't taste like pie. That would be weird.
I'd recommend this. In winter. Or in my parents' house.
I know Paul is holding out on a pile of updates, but till then--
Paul: 259
Colleen: 271
PS: Oh snap! I viewed the blog in another window to see what our numbers were at, and it seems that Paul is updating at the same time as me! So if I post this first... then I'm ahead for like, five more minutes.
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