Happy anniversary, beer friends!
It is a great privilege and honor to wish Colleen and Paul a happy 'one year of being beer friends'. Their blogging about beer has been frequent and fun, and it feels appropriate at this time, as a third party to the shared beer experience, to wish them further happy quaffing.
In the spirit of sharing, Colleen has invited me to compose a guest blog regarding our mutual first drink of Flying Fish Grand Cru Winter Reserve. This stunning beer is a perfect mix of bottle-conditioned Belgian floral flavor with a subtle malty finish. In short, it's everything one would enjoy about a beer like Corsendonk or Hoegaarden, but with the warm lingering malt of a brown ale like Newcastle or a lager like Sam Adams.
After this shared experience, we set our sights in different directions. I opted for La Chouffe's Petit Houblon Dobbelen IPA Tripel, which at 9.0% ABV packs a strong punch in a highly aromatic start with a strong but balanced hop finish. The pour was yeast-tactic with a cloudiness that almost seemed "off". As our awesome bartender friend Jill put it, "it looked like a lava lamp". Colleen chose the Norse Porter from HaandBryggeriet. It's a Norwegian Dark Porter which poured out in a very fizzy way (causing Colleen a bit of discomfort when she tried to sip right from the bottle) but immediately gave a pungent chocolate aroma and followed with the same strong chocolatey porter flavor. Ironically, this heavily carbonated choice would imply that it should be bottle-sipped since it has a photoshopped-in set of fingerprints gripping around the bottle. In spite of exploding in Colleen's mouth, this fizzy deliciousness ranked well for Ms. Earp-Porterpants.
P.S. Happy belated birthday to the Colleenator herself, who shared her special day this year with turkeys and tofurkeys everywhere on November 25th.
Cheers,
Cheryl
Monday, November 29, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Thanks for the beers!
Thanksgiving is, without a doubt, my favorite holiday of the year. Good company, good food, plenty to be thankful for. This year I was thrilled to join some of my fellow Rutgers Graduate Geographers for a dinner on Tuesday evening in addition to my family's awesome celebration on Thursday.
On Tuesday, I had the sheer joy of eating stuffing for the first time in about seven years. I've been a vegetarian since then, and most stuffing is made using various meat stocks, etc. A fellow veggie did some label reading and discovered that Stovetop's pork stuffing mix is made without any sort of meat product! So making it without adding any sort of meat product means it's veggie friendly, and basically the highlight of my Tuesday. Also an integral part of the lovely evening hosted by Jennifer and Jeff: the beverages. Grad students need to relax sometimes. Jeff kindly shared with me a Lord Chesterfield (from Yuengling), which is basically like Yuengling lager plus hops. Definitely not the most impressive pale ale around, but definitely straightforward, enjoyable and generally awesome for its price.
On Thursday I traveled through the sleet and rain (sounds dramatic but really wasn't) to my uncle's house in northern NJ, where 25 people were gathered for a wonderful afternoon and evening. Aside from Thanksgiving, we were also celebrating my cousin Sean's recent engagement (congratulations!) with some bubbly, but there was also plenty of beer. I didn't actually have much (despite my uncle's knowledge of my efforts to constantly try new beers-- he's been saving some random ones for me in the past few weeks... I guess I'll have to visit him again soon since I didn't delve into those), but did try Brooklyn Brewery's Winter Ale. I thought it was pretty good, definitely a warm flavor, not too sweet or strong in any way. Got some hint of spice, somewhat akin to Sam Adam's Winter Lager but less sweet. It was nice.
I had Magic Hat's Circus Boy with dinner though. Old favorite. Very good. Love my hefeweizens.
Paul and I might be meeting up later because we're both in the same county right now. Perhaps we'll find a new beer to celebrate the imminent one year anniversary of this blog? But in the meantime:
Colleen: 331
Paul: 306 (though I know he has a partially written post saved... so that number does not reflect reality)
On Tuesday, I had the sheer joy of eating stuffing for the first time in about seven years. I've been a vegetarian since then, and most stuffing is made using various meat stocks, etc. A fellow veggie did some label reading and discovered that Stovetop's pork stuffing mix is made without any sort of meat product! So making it without adding any sort of meat product means it's veggie friendly, and basically the highlight of my Tuesday. Also an integral part of the lovely evening hosted by Jennifer and Jeff: the beverages. Grad students need to relax sometimes. Jeff kindly shared with me a Lord Chesterfield (from Yuengling), which is basically like Yuengling lager plus hops. Definitely not the most impressive pale ale around, but definitely straightforward, enjoyable and generally awesome for its price.
On Thursday I traveled through the sleet and rain (sounds dramatic but really wasn't) to my uncle's house in northern NJ, where 25 people were gathered for a wonderful afternoon and evening. Aside from Thanksgiving, we were also celebrating my cousin Sean's recent engagement (congratulations!) with some bubbly, but there was also plenty of beer. I didn't actually have much (despite my uncle's knowledge of my efforts to constantly try new beers-- he's been saving some random ones for me in the past few weeks... I guess I'll have to visit him again soon since I didn't delve into those), but did try Brooklyn Brewery's Winter Ale. I thought it was pretty good, definitely a warm flavor, not too sweet or strong in any way. Got some hint of spice, somewhat akin to Sam Adam's Winter Lager but less sweet. It was nice.
I had Magic Hat's Circus Boy with dinner though. Old favorite. Very good. Love my hefeweizens.
Paul and I might be meeting up later because we're both in the same county right now. Perhaps we'll find a new beer to celebrate the imminent one year anniversary of this blog? But in the meantime:
Colleen: 331
Paul: 306 (though I know he has a partially written post saved... so that number does not reflect reality)
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
seals of approval
Paul summed up Mad Fox Brewing Company nicely, but I'll sum it up further: AWESOME. If you're in the area, it's worth a visit. Beer: awesome. French fries: awesome (especially the curry sauce they serve with them!). Also awesome, and to clarify one point of Paul's: yes, they make everything except the mayo and ice cream, but the ice cream is made from their beer. Our server brought us a sample of ice cream made with their porter. Oh my goodness amazing.
Right, on to the part where I tell you how I felt about the beers in more words than "awesome":
Oatmeal Stout: Probably my favorite brew of the evening. It was served on cask, which I don't think I've experienced before, but basically means smoother and less carbonated (which to me is a stellar thing). This was already a very smooth beer, not super overwhelming but definitely anything but wimpy. I approve.
Porter: This was good as a beer and also as an ice cream (I've mentioned before in this blog the merits of a beer float-- Mad Fox totally killed two birds with one stone for me here). A little sweeter but a similar weight and feel to the stout. Awesome.
Punkinator: This is the pumpkin beer I have been waiting for. It was smooth and had all of the spices I loved without being stupidly sweet. There was that nice vegetable flavor without being overwhelmed by that pie flavor that should really only be found in pies. Awesome.
Saison: While not as mind-bogglingly incredible as the Saison du BUFF I recently tried, this was still a very crisp, clean beer, lightweight and a little lemony. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it seemed slightly out of season (in that those flavors align better with summer than autumn, the beer tasted plenty fresh).
Wee Heavy: While initially super impressed with how not see-through it was, I was a little disappointed with how sweet it was. It wasn't bad, just wasn't my favorite beer ever. Paul's right, this one is for dessert.
Alt beer: You know, this one was a little disappointing. I had forgotten I tried it until Paul mentioned that we each tried six-- Taylor actually ordered this one but wasn't crazy about it either, so we shared it (thus surpassing the 4 oz requirement). It was just... boring. Forgettable. Not bad, I guess, just not awesome.
I was actually in Virginia for a wedding this past weekend, but as per usual, ventured out and visited as many people in the area as I could pack into one short weekend. I was going to do a separate post to review the rest of the new brews I tried, but then I realized there were only three, so I'll just tack 'em on here:
Bell's Best Brown Ale: This was quite good. Very smooth and a great example of what a malty beer should taste like. Enjoyed on a friend's back porch area on a cool fall day-- excellent.
Natty Bo: I tried this because a friend had bought a twelve pack and Taylor asked if I'd had it before, to which I had to answer... no. We all know I'm not crazy about light beers, but I can tolerate some (see here or here). However, this was dreadful. Ugh. Sorry Luke, thank you for the beer, but more for you, man.
Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout: Whoa. Whoa. Well done, Founders. This was incredible. I think this puts a three way tie for first place for stouts in my life, alongside Dogfish Head's Bitches Brew and World Wide Stout. This beer was really, really, really strong, super dark, incredible. I could taste a hint of maple, not in a sweet offensive way, but nicely balanced with some other strong stouty flavors (chocolate and coffee). I had first learned of this beer in an article that the now infamous Taylor had sent to me, and then he found a bar in D.C. that served it. I approve (of both the beer and the boy who brought me to it).
Other seals of approval given: to Mad Fox, of Taylor by Paul, and of Paul's intention to finally regain the lead-- come on, I have a thesis to finish.
Colleen: 328
Paul: 306
Wait, PS: Upon returning to New Jersey on Monday, I did meet the usual suspects for a short while, where I ended up having New Jersey Brewing Co's Hudson Pale Ale because I love and had just returned to NJ. Gurzo really liked it, but I found it to be extremely mediocre. It was clean tasting and fine, but not super memorable. We have discussed lately though that sometimes that's ok. So I'm actually at 329.
Right, on to the part where I tell you how I felt about the beers in more words than "awesome":
Oatmeal Stout: Probably my favorite brew of the evening. It was served on cask, which I don't think I've experienced before, but basically means smoother and less carbonated (which to me is a stellar thing). This was already a very smooth beer, not super overwhelming but definitely anything but wimpy. I approve.
Porter: This was good as a beer and also as an ice cream (I've mentioned before in this blog the merits of a beer float-- Mad Fox totally killed two birds with one stone for me here). A little sweeter but a similar weight and feel to the stout. Awesome.
Punkinator: This is the pumpkin beer I have been waiting for. It was smooth and had all of the spices I loved without being stupidly sweet. There was that nice vegetable flavor without being overwhelmed by that pie flavor that should really only be found in pies. Awesome.
Saison: While not as mind-bogglingly incredible as the Saison du BUFF I recently tried, this was still a very crisp, clean beer, lightweight and a little lemony. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it seemed slightly out of season (in that those flavors align better with summer than autumn, the beer tasted plenty fresh).
Wee Heavy: While initially super impressed with how not see-through it was, I was a little disappointed with how sweet it was. It wasn't bad, just wasn't my favorite beer ever. Paul's right, this one is for dessert.
Alt beer: You know, this one was a little disappointing. I had forgotten I tried it until Paul mentioned that we each tried six-- Taylor actually ordered this one but wasn't crazy about it either, so we shared it (thus surpassing the 4 oz requirement). It was just... boring. Forgettable. Not bad, I guess, just not awesome.
I was actually in Virginia for a wedding this past weekend, but as per usual, ventured out and visited as many people in the area as I could pack into one short weekend. I was going to do a separate post to review the rest of the new brews I tried, but then I realized there were only three, so I'll just tack 'em on here:
Bell's Best Brown Ale: This was quite good. Very smooth and a great example of what a malty beer should taste like. Enjoyed on a friend's back porch area on a cool fall day-- excellent.
Natty Bo: I tried this because a friend had bought a twelve pack and Taylor asked if I'd had it before, to which I had to answer... no. We all know I'm not crazy about light beers, but I can tolerate some (see here or here). However, this was dreadful. Ugh. Sorry Luke, thank you for the beer, but more for you, man.
Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout: Whoa. Whoa. Well done, Founders. This was incredible. I think this puts a three way tie for first place for stouts in my life, alongside Dogfish Head's Bitches Brew and World Wide Stout. This beer was really, really, really strong, super dark, incredible. I could taste a hint of maple, not in a sweet offensive way, but nicely balanced with some other strong stouty flavors (chocolate and coffee). I had first learned of this beer in an article that the now infamous Taylor had sent to me, and then he found a bar in D.C. that served it. I approve (of both the beer and the boy who brought me to it).
Other seals of approval given: to Mad Fox, of Taylor by Paul, and of Paul's intention to finally regain the lead-- come on, I have a thesis to finish.
Colleen: 328
Paul: 306
Wait, PS: Upon returning to New Jersey on Monday, I did meet the usual suspects for a short while, where I ended up having New Jersey Brewing Co's Hudson Pale Ale because I love and had just returned to NJ. Gurzo really liked it, but I found it to be extremely mediocre. It was clean tasting and fine, but not super memorable. We have discussed lately though that sometimes that's ok. So I'm actually at 329.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Staff Meeting & A Double Date
On Friday night, Laura and I met Colleen and her new boyfriend, Taylor, at Mad Fox Brewing in Falls Church, VA. Despite my suspicions, traffic did no suck for our 5 PM meeting time. It was awesome to see Colleen and meet her boyfriend (he seems really cool). The beer, I thought, was worth the trip. They definitely did some things better than others, but that's typical of most brewers. The restaurant makes everything they serve (from local ingredients too) - with the lone exceptions being the mayo and ice cream. If you combine all of that with great people, little traffic, and a good conversation, it would be hard to create a better night.
I took a fair amount of ribbing for trailing Colleen in the count for so long. I've actually been having a lot of repeats (for several reasons), but this sparked me to try a lot more beers in the near future. Colleen and I both had samplers (4 beers at 4 oz a piece), plus we each tried two other beers a piece. We effectively prevented the other from getting a lead on the night; however, I am sure she has tried several more this weekend. Fortunately, I anticipated this and made two custom six packs at Total Wine - expect updates on those beers to come post haste. For now though, here are my reviews of Mad Fox's beers - expect Colleen to review some of these as well.
Mad Fox Oatmeal Stout: This was the first one I tried from the sampler, since I was told this was one of their best beers. The oatmeal stout was casked as opposed to kegged, which generally means less carbonation. I thought it was a nice, heavy oatmeal stout. I picked up the chocolate malt in the flavor.
Mad Fox Porter: Stouts and porters are closely related. Stouts tend to be heavier and have more malts, and porters tend to have a little more hop to them. To most people this would be splitting hairs, so you'll have to bear with me. That said, I thought this was a decent porter, but I liked the oatmeal stout more.
Mad Fox American Pale Ale: In Pale Ales, hops influence the flavor of the beer more than the malts. However, the balance isn't tipped as far as an IPA, for instance. When picking my four beers, I wanted two dark beers, a middle beer, and a light beer. This was my middle beer. I thought it was pretty pleasant. The hops came out more than the malts, but they weren't overwhelming.
Mad Fox Kolsch: I don't like Kolsch as a style. I often find them to be too light in color and taste. This beer pretty much fit it's style rather well. If Kolsch is your thing, it's mediocre. Otherwise, it does a pretty good job of clearing your palette before your next beer.
Mad Fox Wee Heavy: This beer is categorized as a Scotch Ale. Colleen thought it was sweet/sugary. I agreed there was a sweetness to the beer, but it didn't seem overly prevalent. The beer was served in a brandy sniffer. There was a slight fruit taste to it as well. It probably wouldn't be a bad dessert beer - if such a thing exists.
Mad Fox Alt: This beer was medium bodied and overall very forgettable. I seem to remember that neither Colleen or I were very impressed with this selection. There was very little hop flavor, and only a slight malt characteristic. Unfortunately, it came as an entire pint. In retrospect, I would have much preferred to have a pint of the oatmeal stout and a 4 oz of this.
I have some other beer reviews lying around (if I can find them all). I'll post them up later. I'd rather let a fun Friday night stand alone though.
The scorecard:
Colleen - 319 (expect at least another six since she matched me)
Paul - 306
Cheers,
Paul
I took a fair amount of ribbing for trailing Colleen in the count for so long. I've actually been having a lot of repeats (for several reasons), but this sparked me to try a lot more beers in the near future. Colleen and I both had samplers (4 beers at 4 oz a piece), plus we each tried two other beers a piece. We effectively prevented the other from getting a lead on the night; however, I am sure she has tried several more this weekend. Fortunately, I anticipated this and made two custom six packs at Total Wine - expect updates on those beers to come post haste. For now though, here are my reviews of Mad Fox's beers - expect Colleen to review some of these as well.
Mad Fox Oatmeal Stout: This was the first one I tried from the sampler, since I was told this was one of their best beers. The oatmeal stout was casked as opposed to kegged, which generally means less carbonation. I thought it was a nice, heavy oatmeal stout. I picked up the chocolate malt in the flavor.
Mad Fox Porter: Stouts and porters are closely related. Stouts tend to be heavier and have more malts, and porters tend to have a little more hop to them. To most people this would be splitting hairs, so you'll have to bear with me. That said, I thought this was a decent porter, but I liked the oatmeal stout more.
Mad Fox American Pale Ale: In Pale Ales, hops influence the flavor of the beer more than the malts. However, the balance isn't tipped as far as an IPA, for instance. When picking my four beers, I wanted two dark beers, a middle beer, and a light beer. This was my middle beer. I thought it was pretty pleasant. The hops came out more than the malts, but they weren't overwhelming.
Mad Fox Kolsch: I don't like Kolsch as a style. I often find them to be too light in color and taste. This beer pretty much fit it's style rather well. If Kolsch is your thing, it's mediocre. Otherwise, it does a pretty good job of clearing your palette before your next beer.
Mad Fox Wee Heavy: This beer is categorized as a Scotch Ale. Colleen thought it was sweet/sugary. I agreed there was a sweetness to the beer, but it didn't seem overly prevalent. The beer was served in a brandy sniffer. There was a slight fruit taste to it as well. It probably wouldn't be a bad dessert beer - if such a thing exists.
Mad Fox Alt: This beer was medium bodied and overall very forgettable. I seem to remember that neither Colleen or I were very impressed with this selection. There was very little hop flavor, and only a slight malt characteristic. Unfortunately, it came as an entire pint. In retrospect, I would have much preferred to have a pint of the oatmeal stout and a 4 oz of this.
I have some other beer reviews lying around (if I can find them all). I'll post them up later. I'd rather let a fun Friday night stand alone though.
The scorecard:
Colleen - 319 (expect at least another six since she matched me)
Paul - 306
Cheers,
Paul
Monday, November 8, 2010
another single beer post
I feel funny updating once again with only a single beer, but also feel the need to be up to date before I meet up with Paul this Friday for a Dear Beer Friends Staff Meeting/...double date?!? What?! Yes, it's true. The beer in this entry may be single, but the girl writing about it is not.
Cheesiest opening paragraph ever.
My apologies. Moving on.
This past weekend we visited New York City, and among other adventures, stopped by the Coffee Bar near Union Square to kill time before a movie. Inspired by the IPA fan I was out with and the fact that it was the only beer on tap that I hadn't tried, I ordered Goose Island IPA. My assessment is: pretty good. I didn't totally hate it. I'm going to have to stop using that as a descriptor of IPAs soon, since my personal list of tolerable/good IPAs has grown substantially in the past few months. This one was perhaps a little sweeter than some of the others, but still had that bitterness typical of this hoppy style of beer. Not my favorite IPA (that's probably one of the Dogfish Heads or that Lagunitas I recently tried), but still recommendable.
Colleen: 319
Paul: 300 (I'm sure that's not an accurate reflection of real life...)
Cheesiest opening paragraph ever.
My apologies. Moving on.This past weekend we visited New York City, and among other adventures, stopped by the Coffee Bar near Union Square to kill time before a movie. Inspired by the IPA fan I was out with and the fact that it was the only beer on tap that I hadn't tried, I ordered Goose Island IPA. My assessment is: pretty good. I didn't totally hate it. I'm going to have to stop using that as a descriptor of IPAs soon, since my personal list of tolerable/good IPAs has grown substantially in the past few months. This one was perhaps a little sweeter than some of the others, but still had that bitterness typical of this hoppy style of beer. Not my favorite IPA (that's probably one of the Dogfish Heads or that Lagunitas I recently tried), but still recommendable.
Colleen: 319
Paul: 300 (I'm sure that's not an accurate reflection of real life...)
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Cheers to Lauren!
Last night I had the distinct pleasure of attending the reception for my good friend Lauren's display at Triumph Brewery. This is awesome for several reasons, in no particular order:
1. I lived with Lauren this past summer as well as summer 2005, and she is fabulous.
2. Her paintings are really incredible. I love the way this woman captures color and light. Witnessing the process was also really sweet.
(The final product of this one can be viewed here.)
3. I attended the show with my good friend Bailey and her very funny boyfriend Matt, but also got to see countless awesome friends from camp.
4. Triumph Brewery is great unto itself, and this was a pretty excellent excuse to visit!
Last time I went, I had the sampler and tried quite a few of their beers. However, they were out of Pumpkin Ale, so I tried it last night before the reception started. It was pretty good! I've expressed that I prefer my pumpkin beers to taste like beer rather than pie. This was totally a pie beer. However, it was well done. Not offensively sweet or artificial. Very real pumpkin pie flavor in a very smooth ale. Nice.
The reception provided Pumpkin Ale and Honey Blond. Bailey and Matt and I shared some fries (good fries! They put herbs on 'em so they're like a roasted potato-french fry hybrid. A delicious, delicious hybrid.) but there were also fried pickles and hummus provided for those appreciating Lauren's art in conjunction with the brew pub. All in all, excellent evening. Congratulations on being talented and amazing, Lauren Scott!
Colleen: 318
Paul: 300
1. I lived with Lauren this past summer as well as summer 2005, and she is fabulous.
2. Her paintings are really incredible. I love the way this woman captures color and light. Witnessing the process was also really sweet.
(The final product of this one can be viewed here.)
3. I attended the show with my good friend Bailey and her very funny boyfriend Matt, but also got to see countless awesome friends from camp.
4. Triumph Brewery is great unto itself, and this was a pretty excellent excuse to visit!
Last time I went, I had the sampler and tried quite a few of their beers. However, they were out of Pumpkin Ale, so I tried it last night before the reception started. It was pretty good! I've expressed that I prefer my pumpkin beers to taste like beer rather than pie. This was totally a pie beer. However, it was well done. Not offensively sweet or artificial. Very real pumpkin pie flavor in a very smooth ale. Nice.
The reception provided Pumpkin Ale and Honey Blond. Bailey and Matt and I shared some fries (good fries! They put herbs on 'em so they're like a roasted potato-french fry hybrid. A delicious, delicious hybrid.) but there were also fried pickles and hummus provided for those appreciating Lauren's art in conjunction with the brew pub. All in all, excellent evening. Congratulations on being talented and amazing, Lauren Scott!
Colleen: 318
Paul: 300
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