Internationally Speaking!

For Christmas, I ordered myself an International gift box of beer from Craftshack. The gift box was a great way to go as Craftshack’s, in my opinion, website is not exactly user friendly.

Anyway the pack included the following:

 - Omnipollo Bianca Peanut Butter and Jelly. This was a gose from Sweden that packed 6% abv, strong for a gose. I gave it an A. Great beer with the PB&J not overpowering.

 - Pasteur Cyclo Imperial Chocolate Stout. This was from Singapore and was 13% abv. I gave it a B. A good stout but the alcohol gave off a strong taste.

 - Pohjala Tuk Tuk Drama. Gotta love beer names! This was a milkshake IPA from Estonia with a 5.3% abv. I gave it a B- rating which is pretty good for me with IPA’s. I actually drank the whole thing!

 - To Ol Marmelade. This was a fruit beer that was berry intensive! It was 7% and was from Denmark. It was an A for me. Really enjoyed it.

 - Victory Art’s Ivan. This was a 13.1% Imperial Stout from Russia. I gave it a B+. Had it been lower in alcohol, with the same taste, it definitely would have been an A.

 - Carakale Dead Sea-rious. Another all name beer! This was a 5% gose from Jordan. A real treat! I scored it an AA!

 - Mikkeller SpontanLingonBerry 2018. I had to look up what a lingonberry was. It does exist! This was a 7.7% Sour from Belgium. I gave it an A.

So, all in all, a very fun, tasty gift for myself. Hope Craftshack does it again, next Christmas. It was a very nice selection of variety!

Holidays 2019

Thanksgiving is only a week away, so, that means Christmas decorations, Hallmark movies and Christmas music have been going up/on for several weeks! No wonder I drink!

I have found three stand out holiday beers, so far. An oldie but goodie is Ayinger Celebrator. It is a great spiced beer complete with an ornament on the bottle. At 6.7% it will warm you on the chilly nights. The next is the 2019 version of Anchor’s Christmas Ale. In my opinion this is their best one yet, and they have been brewing Christmas Ales for many years. Wonderful aroma and spiced taste!
Third is a Cranberry Berliner from Jack’s Abby. This is a highly refreshing Gose perfect for Thanksgiving when the oven is on all day.

Finally, for dessert on Turkey Day, may I recommend Prairie Artisanal’s Rainbow Sherbet?
Another refreshing Gose with strawberry and banana notes.

Happy Holidays
Cheers!

Discovery

As fall, and it’s cooler temperatures, rolls in, I have gotten to do some exploring while in search of fall colors. My first discovery was Riverside Brewing Company in Cambridge Springs, Pa. A fire leveled a magnificent old hotel and dinner theater a few years back. Rising from the ashes is a new brewery. It is magnificent! The architecture is awesome. Food and beer is great. There is a brunch on Sunday, often with live music. If you are within an hours drive of it, it is worth the trip.
My next new find was Bradford Brew Station in Bradford, Pa. Again, very nicely done. It pays homage to the oil industry in the area with very cool pictures and decor. Also, again, great food and beer. It is also worth the drive. You can combine it with a drive to the Kinzua Bridge Museum!
Finally, it looks like a local brewery, Bent Run, will finally be opening in its
new Warren location next month! Can’t wait! Cheers!

A new season!

Football, I mean fall, is here. Most of our travel for the year is out of the way. That’s good. Now I can enjoy football, I mean fall. I made two amazing beer discoveries this year. The first was Marathon’s 26.2. It was brewed to be a refreshing post marathon recovery drink. It has Mongolian Sea Salt to help with the recovery. Well, I have never run a marathon, and never will, but, this is a great beer after a bicycle ride, mowing the lawn or even during/after a round of golf on a hot day! At 4%, it’s light and refreshing.  It must be tried. Marathon, I believe, is a project by Boston Beer aka Samuel Adams.
The second discovery was not really a revelation to me! It was Trophy Brewing’s Trophy Husband!
I knew someone would brew a beer to honor me someday! Actually, this was the second. Southern Tier brewed a beer a few years back and named it Steve! But Trophy Husband was true, and accurate. I must admit I bought this very good Witbier for the can. It sits proudly on my wife’s mantel. I had to put it there, but still, it’s there! But, the fact that it was excellent was a real bonus!
Cheers!

Dog days of summer.

Summer arrived late, but it did arrive. This is a great beer drinking season! I, personally, like the lighter, lower alcohol beers available this time of year. My long time summer go to has been Schoefferhofer Hefe Grapefruit. At a light 2.5% these are truly crushable on a hot summer day!
Burial’s Inner Tube at 3.5% is also crushable and very refreshing. Wicked Weed’s Uncle Rick’s Pilsner, although 5.1% is a very refreshing beer. The latter two are from NC, while the former is from Germany. Casita’s Uno Mas is a Mexican Style Lager. One of the best I’ve had. It, too, is from NC. And, a great summer beer. Today beer is yet another NC beer - NoDa’s Margarita. Another very refreshing beer and just 4%. And it does taste like a Margarita. But, my best NC discovery was Blue Blazes’ Pink Blaze. This is an outstanding Hefe scoring a rare AA from me. I think I’ll be making a return trip to NC, soon!
Cheers!

Canadian Craft Beer

Cweed and I just completed a trip to the Maritime Provinces of Canada and Quebec City. A great trip!  Craft beer in Canada is growing as fast as here in the US! Upstreet, Unibroue, Noctem Artisans, Gahan and Copper Bottom are all names to remember on such a trip. And there were many others! The biggest surprise was a beer from Moosehead! Their “Alpine” was a great refreshing beer. For a long time, it was only available in Nova Scotia but now they seem to be sharing better. The highlight of the beer portion of the tour was in Quebec. I stumbled upon Alafut brewery. Their wild ales, namely Dolgo a Gogo and Boulet Funky were awesome. Definitely worth seeking out. Hoping to get back in December for the Christmas Market. What a present that would be! Cheers!

I’m a brewer!

So, virtually every time I tell my “beer story”, the question is asked, do you make your own beer? Until now, the answer has always been, no, it doesn’t interest me. Too much work. I liken it to a carpenter remodeling a room. First there is demolition, then construction. Demolition is often brute force with not a lot of finesse. Construction involves a lot of skilled finish work. I am better at demolition! And, my guess is that I am better at drinking beer than making it!
So, to see if I was right, and to be able to say that I had brewed, I contacted a friend that owns a beer supply store and asked if I could use his equipment to brew a batch. I brewed a batch of Weed’s Killer Kolsch. I choose that name because I figured, worst case, it would kill me, or, best case, it would be “killer” good. Time would tell. Without the boring details, it turned out that my vision of brewing was right on. There was measuring, reading gauges, mixing and, occasionally, reading directions. It was like finish work. The most fun was bottling and capping. That was more like demolition. The process ended yesterday with the first tasting. It was good! Now I know where the interest in brewing comes in. I made a good beer! But still, it’s one and done for me. Too much detail.
Glad I did it. Never again! The best thing about beer is drinking it. I’m thankful that talented people like to brew beer! Cheers!