Some beers of late--

Founders Backwoods Bastard: Taylor left this at my house, so I drank it one night. I didn't like this beer because I don't like liquor, and it tastes like bourbon. It's technically a Scotch ale. That's about all I can say about it.

Heavy Seas Gold Ale: Hanging out with Paul on Thanksgiving Eve means plenty of interesting beer choices. This was one of the few in his fridge that I hadn't yet tried. It was pleasant and lighter feeling and tasting, and didn't overpower the homemade guacamole I brought to snack on. Win.

Sam Adams Old Fezziwig: Paul does not like this beer. Now, I can say the same. I split it with my friend (ok, and his fiancee) Laura, and neither of us were really crazy about it. It's just excessively underwhelming.

Sam Adams Black and Brew (coffee stout): I found this in the cooler on Thanksgiving after reaching in for a random handful of beers for my brothers and one of my uncles. Also in the handful: an Old Fezziwig (gave that to little brother), a Boston Lager (gave that to uncle) and a Becks (gave that to older brother). I totally disagree with the rating on Beer Advocate. This was a nice stout. It smells like coffee but tastes more chocolatey, isn't too heavy or strong, especially for being before I'd had anything more significant than crackers and baby carrots to eat. I approve of this stout. I kind of want to have it again, even.

Ommegang Rare Vos: I thought this was a solid Belgian with some extra awesome, which I thought was kind of pale ale like, but Brewery Ommegang reports as amber. Whatever, this was a great pint. Not too hoppy and not too boring. It's currently on tap at The Office, and definitely a steal on pint night.



In other beer news, I started brewing a stout last weekend, so I should have a case of that to share in January sometime. Once my fermenter is empty, I also have ingredients for an IPA, which takes way longer, so we'll see when I do that.

Also, I'm looking for suggestions for a good beer to buy for myself and put on a shelf until I get a job that actually utilizes my degrees (rather than the holiday retail purgatory I'm currently doing). Ideas?

fun, friends, falafel and beer

This year, I "watched" the Superbowl with Cheryl, Gurzo and Cristina at Cheryl and Gurzo's house. I may have been paying more attention to my friends, falafel and... there doesn't seem to be a synonym for drinks that starts with the letter F, so the alliteration ends there.

We split several 22 ounce bottles partially because good stuff came in them but also because I have realized that I do not have enough bottles for my homebrew, which I am set to bottle tomorrow (and will be buying more bottles in order to do so due to my poor planning).

HUB's Abominable Winter Ale: As much as I seem to have developed a taste for hoppy beers, I just felt like this was really unbalanced in favor of hops. It wasn't bad, just not particularly more interesting than a really hoppy beer.

Oakshire's Ill Tempered Gnome: This was relatively plain but had some nice spice to it, if that makes sense. It wasn't particularly complex tasting aside from the spices, I mean. Whatever. It was smooth and I enjoyed it and it seemed like a good beer to drink in winter when you're cold and just need something warm and spiced in your life.

Ninkas Oatis Oatmeal Stout: This was a little sweeter than the average oatmeal stout but very smooth and mellow. I liked it, but it's not about to win the favorite oatmeal stout award (that would most likely go to BORIS, Shakespeare or Samuel Smith, or the overly- built- up- in- my- mind- epic Southend Brewery Oatmeal Stout that I tried with the Mary Washington Geography Department at the SEDAAG conference in 2007).

Dogfish Head Sah'Tea: Ahhh, Dogfish Head, you almost never let me down. This was really excellent, like if beer and chai had a beautifully delicious spiced baby (my love of spiced chai is severe). You could kind of taste the spices and the tea, but it was just so unique and enjoyable. I was worried when I saw juniper berries in the description after not totally loving tree flavors in another beer, but no problem. It was a hint but not overpowering. Subtle and complimentary. Ah. Loved it. This also introduced me to a new type of brew: the sahti. I had never heard of it before. I suspect this is not super typical of the style though...

Fort Collins Brewery's Double Chocolate Stout: I had this on Tuesday in hopes that another 22 ounce bottle would alleviate the bottle crisis... not even close, but it was still a worthwhile beer. If you like offensive, sucker-punch flavored stouts, this is for you. I really enjoyed this. The chocolate was present but not super sweet. The stout was mostly just strong and... strong. Yep. Delicious. My kind of beer.

Long Trail Hibernator: My little brother gave me one of these this evening because I'm his favorite big sister (probably more because I picked up some snacks for him on my way home from choir tonight...). It was not as interesting when it was ridiculously cold from sitting in a fridge in our ridiculously cold garage, but once I let it sit for a few minutes, I got a hoppier- than- expected- but- not- overly- so kind of flavor. Decently balanced, pretty smooth going down. This was more delightful than I expected. It's reasonable and generally unoffensive.

So, tomorrow I bottle my first batch of beer! It will need a week or two to carbonate before I can find out if I did it right or not... I'm really nervous, but excited. In the meantime, I have a few beers around waiting to be tried, including Mikkeller's Coffee IPA (I got the last two available in the region as per my big brother's request), Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout (which I plan to use to get me through the latest round of thesis revisions... ugh) and Dogfish Head's My Antonia (which was purchased to cover up someone's worst boyfriend ever moment of drinking all of my beer).

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)

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.

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

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