DerekRx

After a fun(?) day at SFNE, Nicole and I decided to take the 30 minute drive north to Amherst to visit the #1 rated place to have a beer in America, the Moan and Dove. In short, I'm glad we went.... ...because now I don't have to go back anytime soon. The atmosphere wasn't that great, the bottle list wasn't as amazing as I was expecting, the prices weren't good at all, and even the draft list had very few things that I hadn't tried or couldn't get at any other place I've been to. Having been to the #2 ranked Publick House in Boston, I didn't think it was that great, but we were there when it was really crowded, and even then they had some good beers on tap that I either hadn't had before, or could really enjoy and haven't had for quite some time. But Moan and Dove was empty and still wasn't impressive. Plus it's out in the middle of nowhere. For me, I'll stick with O'Brien's Pub in San Diego or one of Virginia's Capital Ale Houses, Pizza Ports, or even D's Sixpack and Dogs when I'm not hanging out at Selin's Grove Brewing Company or The Drafting Room or Victory. The Moan and Dove just didn't cut it for me. I got the Mahr's Weisse, really creamy with good banana and clove flavorings. Best beer I'll have at the Moan and Dove for quite some time, as I don't intend to revisit anytime soon. Definitely not as nice looking as the Capital Ale Houses The tap list, most of which I either had before, have at home in bottles, could get on tap near home, or had no desire to drink. Finally made it to the #1 Ranked place to have a beer in America, the Moan and Dove in Amherst, Massachusetts. Sure beats drinking in the overrated middle of nowhere, Massachusetts Instead of paying $10 for this $5 bottle of Lindemans Pomme at Moan and Dove, we broke out the bottle that Nicole brought with her from her purchase a few weeks ago in Niagara Falls when we got home

Friday I took the day off of work to head up to Albany to attend my cousin's graduation from high school. Of course, since I was driving, I was also determined to make the "lunch stop" be at a microbrewery on the way. Thanks to Yankee Brew News, I found one only 2 miles from the New York Thruway in New Paltz, a place that Elissa would definitely approve of, because the place was called the Gilded Otter Brewing Company! Onto the pics: and hey, Elissa, someone wants to know when he can head out to Cali? The place was really nice with great service and good beer, and is really easy to find, covering its own block outside of town with plenty of parking, and this cute sign in the front to prepare you This was pretty cool, the storage board for all the beers they brew currently not on tap. The bar can definitely handle a good crowd, it makes a giant J shape, meaning lots of seating for all Just to show how much blueberries are added in, just look at the color compared to the Three Pines IPA Hey Matt, this Back Porch Summer Lager has your name all over it, it's LOADED with blueberries! The Stone House Cream Stout was really milky with some good coffee bitterness as well and the Hefeweizen was loaded with banana flavoring with some clove for extra goodness The Rail Trail Pale Ale was pretty darn tasty, lots of good citrus notes As for Nan, she went with the New Paltz Crimson Lager, the red ale. Of course, since I was driving, I could only have 1 beer, so I wised up and ordered the sampler. Lots of variety including a pilsner, red ale, pale ale, ipa, hefe, stout, summer beer, and an alt. The tanks be located right inside the entrance of the place Cool random outdoorsy theming throughout the place (including the Fat Tire bike?!?!) The entire thing is home to Gilded Otter Brewing Big building just passed the village center of New Paltz, right on the river

Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags New England, yesterday, 3rd row with Nicole. At least I ended the day at SFNE on a good note. Not as good as I remember it being, but still pretty darn awesome

Most IPAs shouldn't be aged, the hops start getting funky after a while. Stouts though can be, as can Belgians. The higher the abv, the better your chances that it'll still be good down the line. Usually just find a place that is between 45 and 65F and that is cellar conditions. Also, try not to get beers that are already chilled if you can. Back to the New York theme tonight in preparation for the weekend. Lite, fruity, and very summery. This one actually tastes like blueberries, but not as strong as Sea Dog's Blueberry Wheat Finally, we'll end the night on a summery high note, Ellicottville's Blue Berry wheat It may taste extraordinary to Matt and his poor tastebuds, but this is the face of a guy drinking a not-even-up-to-par-with-ordinary ale After mowing, it's time for more greatness from Southern Tier, Phin and Matt's Extraordinary Ale, a "pale ale" 6 months later it's still a pretty tasty stout, lots of great coffee and chocolate flavors with some good bitter hop bites First day of Summer, let's break out some Winter, in the form of Mendicino's Winter Ale, brewed up in Saratoga Springs, NY as well as out on the West Coast

Wow, first Tim, then Matt does 2 posts in less than a week, AND Joe does his first beer thread post, how awesome! What's next, Adam and Tom return!? Joe, welcome to the world of drinking good beers. May I suggest looking for some Terrapin Brewing beers, or perhaps Atlanta Brewing Co stuff in your area. I also believe Victory is now distributed down there, and you can probably get some good stuff from the Carolina area. As for me, I'm just planning on my return trip to New York by drinking some of their native stuff tonight. "Hi Matt, nice to see you posting again!":) I'll continue the New York stuff tomorrow, I've had about all I can handle from Southern Tier for one night. Time for good stuff to end this evening, in the form of Bells Two Hearted IPA Yeah, one of the weakest IPAs I've ever had. No real hoppy flavor, no real flavor whatsoever. Southern Tier should be renamed Bottom Tier because that's where their beers rank First up, the original "tree bark and chemicals", Southern Tier IPA!

^I'm sure that person would say they make the plaque for cost only and may even include a discount or something, in which case he'll be awarded "ACE Lifetime membership" in a few years for volunteering to make the plaques that plague the parks (try saying that 3 times fast!). Meanwhile, the cost of membership will go up another $30 a person to make up for that, the increased cost of mail, the cost of color print paper, and to rent out more space to hold all the plaques given to parks that have since had those rides bulldozed.

Glad to see you enjoyed yourself in Branson, Cameron. SDC is one of my favorite parks out there, everything from their extensive theming, attention to detail, cute little things you have to look for to notice, large amount of trees, hills, streams, waterfalls, fire, excellent food at a reasonable price, homemade craft places scattered throughout the park, staff hospitality, great operations, and their variety of nicely themed rides and coasters PLUS the cave tour makes it just one of those places I really want to get back to. I think I actually like this place better than Dollywood. Hopefully within the next 2 years I'll be able to return there for another 3 days or so. Three days at one park is something I'd rarely do, but I never once got bored at SDC. And Celebration City wasn't too bad either, it was a lot nicer than some of the big chain parks. Hopefully you got to enjoy the homemade ice cream, apple butter on a homemade apple turnover, and sasparilla. And did you get a chance to check out the tilt house and shooting darkride? Looking forward to your photos from SFSTL, I chose to skip that park on my last visit just so I could have more time at SDC.

^I would say that's a pretty smart thought and I'd have to agree with you.

^Yeah, the park opened with a coaster, lots of parks before that opened with one, lots of parks after it opened with one, and I doubt they all had coasters when they opened because they realized that Kings Island did and it was fantastic. Look at the olden days of Coney Island NY, all the parks there opened with coasters. Why didn't ones that opened post-WWII and Pre-Kings Island not open with coasters? Maybe it was the lack of wood or cost, not much desire for woodies anymore at the time, or the fact that they wanted to establish themselves before investing so much cash. Look at Disneyland and SFOT, both of those didn't open with coasters, and when they did add coasters, they were revolutionary, made out of tubular steel track. As others have said, Kings Island was pretty much just re-establishing Coney Island down the road because it kept flooding all the time. Of course the people are going to want a coaster, they had one at the old park, and instead of relocating the Wildcat, just build something else from scratch. And I hardly believe the entire world was noticing the park and calling their travel agents to get to Cincinnati. Point is, ACE shouldn't be wasting it's member's money giving every park some plaque for their coasters, it's already getting pretty pointless and meaningless, and will continue as ACE gives more and more plaques for the little things.

Right, lots of coasters are significant on the industry in some fashion or another, like Batman at SFGAm for being the first B&M invert, or Revolution for having the first modern day vertical loop, and Loch Ness Monster and Rebel Yell for essentially starting the club of ACE. However, not every park ACE visits each year needs to have a plaque. I believe Cyclone at Coney Island is getting one, why? It's already a National Historical Landmark, and everyone already knows about it. What purpose did it have on ACE or the industry, other than they're holding the Preservation Con at the park this year. Next year some coaster at SFOG will end up getting one for hosting their Con, what coaster there has had an influence on the industry or the club? Sure, Mind Bender and Georgia Cyclone and GASM are fairly good rides, but I don't think any of them has had such an influence on the coaster world that you saw dozens more of similar models pop up over the country and world. The following year's Con will be at SDC, and while that is a fantastic park, what coaster there is really worthy of being claimed an ACE Landmark? Not Wildfire or Powder Keg, they're too new, that leaves Thunderation, is that really worthy of a plaque?? Racer is hardly a revolutionizing ride, the only reason it got any recognition in its time at all was because the park was owned and operated by a television company who used their television shows to showcase the park. There have been plenty of racing coasters older than Racer that are still around (go look at Grand National or Racer at Kennywood), and the majority of the ones like Racer that were built were built for other parks in the chain. The Six Flags racers are a different style and used those coasters as no influence. And, as far as I know, Beast already has some ACE plaque that praises it for yadda yadda yadda. Point is, people don't care about the plaques, look how SFMMs was moved from Revolution after Tatsu construction. (and didn't Astroworld have one too from Texas Cyclone, what happened to that one? I think some ACEr ended up with it to add to the museum, which if ACE continues to shell out money for useless plaques, will never become a reality).

Today I finally couldn't take it anymore and opened up one of the bottles I've been saving for quite a few months, Founders Devil Dancer Triple IPA. The first time I had this it was just a sampling at the Extreme Beer Festival in Boston, Mass straight from the Founders tapped keg. This time, I had to settle for bottles, as if that was a problem! One fine IPA, going right up to the line of a barleywine but not crossing it. Loaded with pine and citrusy hops and a great sweetness to cover up most of the alcohol presence, until it really warmed up. Good thing I still got a bottle or two stashed away for later! Founders Devil Dancer Triple IPA. Weighing in at 13% ABV, this ain't no weak little British brew

I don't know what airport you're flying into and out of, but I kind of doubt everything can be done in that amount of time, and would be very expensive if you don't have passes. Your best bet would be to do something like Cypress Gardens and BGA on the 12th utilizing BGA's Howl-O-Scream event time to ride all the coasters there. The 13th do everything at Disney with a parkhopper, starting the day off at Animal Kingdom, then moving on to MGM-Studios, and then Epcot if you want to go there. Then buy a Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party ticket to get into Magic Kingdom for the evening. Spend the whole day Sunday at IOA and Universal on the 14th, and then hit SeaWorld on the 15th before your flight out (assuming you leave later than 1pm). That's the only way I can see you getting to do everything in that short of a span of time, by utilizing the late hours of the Halloween events. Of course, you'll have to put the coasters first and the haunted attractions second, and be up for a very long time the entire trip.

Hooray for Matt finally returning to the beer thread with pictures of him drinking beer! Now if we could only get him to do it more often, as well as seeing the return of Wally, Adam, Justin, Tom, and Tim and more of-age posters, I wouldn't feel like such a drunk! Nothing too special from me tonight, just another Stone Ruination IPA. I'm so glad they decided to put this in smaller bottles, it's just awesome, even hoppier than their regular IPA, which is also just fantastic. Loaded with hops, but not too overpowering. Definitely won't be burping pine cones from this one, though you may smell like those car air fresheners I was gonna go with a HopDevil, but I didn't have any chilled. Stone Ruination is a nice 2nd choice

^It has nothing to do with ACE Coaster Classics (another silly little title that means squat), ACE Landmarks are given every year to the parks that host the club's conventions. I mean, I think Twister II got one at Elitch the one year for the Preservation Con, because we all know how much of an improvement and important that ride was to preservation, same with SFMM's Revolution with its now undesired rideability with those stupid restraints. The point is, outside of ACE, no one cares about the plaque or that the ride was the tallest for 19 minutes back in 1975 before something else was built. The club pretty much just gives these away to any park, finding some reason or another why they should have one, making it even less "special". I'm thinking about building my own coaster in the backyard out of paper towel holders and invite the club over for one of their conventions, maybe I can get a plaque too to cover up a whole I have in the wall downstairs.

These days, pretty much any park that ACE visits gets some meaningless plaque for some coaster there. By the year 2245, PGAs Grizzly and Gouderix will both have plaques for their amazing contributions to the world of roller coasters and the unity and joy that it brought to the community of ACE....and the Roller Coaster Museum will still be in the planning stages

No, it's not our Julie (USRoadTripper) that was on O&A, it's a different ACER named Julie, though she did used to post over on RRC and some other sites I believe.

Sounds to me like it's probably "Buddy Holly" by Weezer

^ Nicole drinking stouts Yesterday Heath, Kim, and myself headed to Harrisburg for their annual beer festival, with all proceeds going to Cystic Fibrosis. Lots of breweries were representing; Victory, Dogfish Head, Penn, Troegs, ABC, Iron Hill, Southampton, Stone, Bullfrog, Weyerbacher, Abbey Wright, Clipper City, Ithaca, Ommegang, Marzonis, Ottos, etc. The day was split between 2 sessions, and since we chose the 2nd session so we'd have less heat to worry about, we had some time to kill until 5pm, time to pre-fest! As the sun sets, we stumble back to the car for the quick drive home. Next time we'll have to take a break from drinking to get some food. Southampton Publick House also brought some impressive stuff, including their Abbot 12 (a Belgian Quadruple) and their Grand Cru and Secret Ale Lots of places brought some of their merch with them. Good thing we didn't have much cash on us and as crowded as it was, Bethlehem Brew Works had no lines. Wonder why? Iron Hill's selection was pretty impressive, bringing 4 different beers including a Saison and a Maibock Kim's brother, his wife, and their friends came to see what all the drinking was about A shout out to the Borg BACTers Clipper City was enjoyable, with theys Loose Cannon IPA and Small Craft Warning Uber Pils. Yaaargh! The crowd really picked up, the event was sold out, and the only thing worse than lots of stupid people is lots of drunk stupid people. Heath heads for some Dogfish Raison D'Etre Brewer's Art showed up and was pouring their Resurrection Dubbel and Ozzy Belgian Pale Ale They actually just block off the street for the fest. Pretty cool, but with all the tents being connected, it was kinda hard to see what brewery was where. Plus it got really crowded One of our first stops was Church Brew Works to enjoy their Thunderhop IPA and Pious Monk Dunkel Time to drink! After parking on City Island, we got to walk across this bridge to get to the fest area. Lots of people out enjoying the nice weather Time to head into the heart of the city. How's it going, Justin! Nope, not yet, but we can still sample some goodies like the Sunshine Pils and HopBack Amber still time to kill, let's stop by Troegs and see if the new Scratch beer is out yet Probably the last time we'll be able to get this this year, the Phoenix Kriek, yet another wonderful brew from SGBC back to the drinkings, India Pale Ale for me, really excellent stuff loaded with hops. Booya! and some great Curried Chicken and veggies Selins Grove always has awesome stuff to eat too, like today's soup, Tomato Cheddar even Kim got in on the drinking with a summertime sangria and Heath went with Wilder's Hefe Weisen, only $4 for this giant glass First for me, the Hoppy Monk, a Belgian style IPA. Looks like they were hit hard again, but they've still got some goodies on tap First stop of the day, Selins Grove of course. We haven't been here in a few weeks, so there is bound to be something new on tap.

^Caring about others, especially animals that aren't rodents?? OK, who stole Elissa's screen name, Jahan? Mike? Robb?

Just a few more new brews to add to my credit list, but they's was pretty good things, not just cha-chings. The count is now 995, which means I'll break 1000 different beers tomorrow night while doing my typical Hangin' With Heath Friday. Stay tuned! ...some Bells Two Hearted! Not that he could find it near him even if he could drink. And not like he'd post pictures of it anyway, even if he could. and when I get home, just because Jaco's too sick to drink this... and credit #995 is UBWs newest brew, the Hefeweizen. Great hefe with good spices and banana flavors, as well as lemon Wobbly Bob and tap friends all say "cheerio!" Seeing how it's been a while since I've visited, I figured I should head back to Union Barrel Works on my way back from shopping I'm not a big fan of brown ales, but this one was pretty tasty, even more as it warmed up First up to bat, Rogue's Monk Madness, an American brown ale. Totally different from the Rogue Mad Monk, which doesn't even exist

"Falling On"- Finger Eleven

Great stuff, Chuck. LOVE the captions! Glad you finally got up to Penn's Woods, as elusive as this state is.

Since our wacky British friends have joined us again this evening in the beer thread, I figured I'd throw a shout out to them this time. I haven't had any British beers in almost a year (with the exception of some Young's Double Chocolate Stout, etc) but I picked this up a few weeks ago and figured why not bust it out now. Yeah, now this is some good stuff. Drinking this Bells reminds me...Hey Matt, where were those pictures you promised us? Back to full flavorings with the Bell's Java Stout Some flavor, lots of fruity flavors, but overall fairly good, as far as English Pale Ales are concerned. Cheers love! Black Sheep Brewing's Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale, an English Pale Ale, all the way from Ripon, England

What the heck did they do to my Mickey ear loop?? Stupid f*cking mania! (well, stupid Disney for putting F*cking Toy Story Mania there). First the removal of my peanut butter and jelly pizza, and now this?? DCA, you're not making yourself any more appealing to me.

That is fantastic news. I loved my stay at the Hotel Phantasia, with the great theming and closeness to the park. I'm sure this one will be equally as cool.