Rugged One

^ Still drinking that case of Nugget down I see. Speaking of Derek's beers... A bottle of the Sly Fox Odyssey 06 from the case that Derek picked up at the event back in December. Pretty much a straight up hop bomb.

I did see the Lake Front stuff (this was the brewery you were just at, right?) and I did pick something up from them. Just not the Holiday Lager though. Is that pretty good?

Well, like I said I allready knew on Sunday what I'd be drinking tonight and Tuesday. More of the delectable High Desert. Still fresh and tasty. I only wish this would keep longer than a couple of days.

Some random beer drinking business from this past weekend. After Friday night's little bout of impromptu drinking with Derek was concluded, Kim and I went down to Maryland to visit with our friends Dee & Chad down in Maryland. Lucky for us, they dont' live too far from the only (for now) Dogfish Head Ale House in Gaithersburg, MD. Kim and I had been here before back in 05, only a month or so after it had opened, so we were anxious to see if the establishment had "broken in" yet, or not. I figured since the High Desert was so good and we drove all the way down to VA to get it, a growler purchase was in order. I guess I know what I'll be drinking the next couple of nights. Kim being the good DD that she is goes for her old standby. The house rootbeer. ...because the High Desert Russian Imperial Stout was on draft! Just tapped the day before. And it was tasty as hell! Lots of coffee and chocolate up front with a nice hoppy and slighty alcholic finish. Very good! According to the board it's not but luckily the board was wrong... These are a chain of three Western themed brew restaurants in the Northern VA area. We had heard something tasty was supposed to be on tap. Our final stop was down the road a little bit to the Falls Church location of the Sweetwater Tavern. ...I went home with a few things. ....Bell's! Yes, this is where the Bell's product that used to go to Illinois is now being sent. Sorry Matt. Your lose is my gain, because as you can see... They had a rather nice selection (especially for a grocery store) including stuff that I can't even get singles and six-packs of in Maryland, like Stone, Lagunitas, Left Hand and... Uh yeah, it did. Yet another reason for me to hate the stupid beer laws here in PA. On Sunday morning, after leaving our friends, we headed a little further south down to Falls Church, VA (rather coincidentally the site of the new Dogfish Head Alehouse) but we had other business here. For starters, we heard that this Whole Foods Market h I finished up with a Chicory Stout, a rather tasty chicory and coffee laced Oatmeal Stout. Also known as the 75 min IPA, it's an equal mix of Dogfish Head 60 and 90 min IPA. It was fantastic even with with my side order of Chad's head. Chad also has a Shelter Pale Ale while I go for the Alehouse exclusive Alehouse 75 but what is that? The ladies start out with some light stuff. Dee with a Lawnmower Light and Kim with a Shelter Pale Ale. But heh, it's still got lots of tasty Dogfish Head adult beverages on tap. These alehouses are supposed to be some of the few places you can get their limited edition stuff on tap but unfortunately this weekend, there was none to be found. After having over a year to break in, we think that the place for the most part hadn't changed. Oh well, I guess it's just a product of the area it's in. Back to the Dogfish Head Alehouse in Gaithersburg MD. The last time we were here, Kim and I thought the whole place was a little too sterile and uppity, at least compared to the brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, DE.

^ I should have told you to save some of that Guiness for some Dirty Turtles tomorrow night. Tonight Kim helped me try out a couple of bottles from the new Sam Adams LongShot series, where homebrewers got the chance to have their creations brewed for a national audience. I really enjoyed this one. Very sweet with lots of dark fruit notes and slightly alcoholic. Very rum like. Next up, the Old Ale. Definitely heavy on the berries plus it was light enough so that Kim really enjoyed it as well. First up, the Boysenberry Wheat.

Well today I stuck to my guns that during truelly craptastic weather, only heavy stouts and winter brews should be consumed. With the day off from work, I was able to do just that and also add some respect back to the use of the Naked Fish glass. Finally, it was time to get my buzz on with the Bells Java Stout. Still very solid despite the blurry picture. Next up a new favorite. The Thirsty Dog Siberian Night Imperial Stout. Yum. Very smooth with a nice subtle hop kick thrown in. First up, an old favorite. The North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout. Despite being a fairly old bottle, it held up pretty darn well.

On Sunday evening we headed over to Brookline and one of the top rated beer bars around, The Publick House. Allthough our anniversary was the day before, we treated this as our romantic anniversary dinner. Ahhhh, isn't that special? The Publick House most definitely lived up to expectations. A great atmosphere, excellent bottle selection, and a nice (and reasonable) draft selection made for a great time. We'll definitely be back! All in all, it was a fantastic anniversary dinner. Cheers! For dessert, I went with a Belgian sampler. The Gouden Carolus Noel, Houblon Choufee, Chimay Tripel, and Afflagem Blonde. Kim enjoys the heck out of her baked macaroni and cheese. They like to cook alot of their meals with beer at the Publick House. Here's my meatloaf with Arrogant Bastard gravy. Mmmmmm. Jay was so impressed by my Breakfast Stout, that he had to get one too. Next, I continue my education of Founder's brews with a Black Rye. Needless to say, they were fantastic! For an appetizer we started out with the moules frites, mussels steamed with La Rulles Triple, tomato, spinach, asiago and garlic bread crumbs. Jay goes for the Cisco Brewing Whales Tale Pale Ale. Once again, you have to start out with breakfast first. With some Founder's Breakfast Stout. Perhaps the finest coffee stout I've had yet! Luckily we got there early enough and got a table without waiting. I love the feel to this place. Lots of wood and dim lights. It just makes you want to sit around and sip a fine Belgian. Here we are at the #2 best place to have a beer in America accordign to BeerAdvocate.com. They may be a little Boston biased but it's still a pretty darn good beer bar.

^ ^Yeah, their Imperial Stout was a complete disappointment. Looking at other people's online reviews of it, it's looking like I'm not the only one who didn't like it. The good news is that Derek and I have some other Two Brothers stuff coming up for tastings, so hopefully we'll have better luck with them. Time for some pics from this past weekend in Boston. The trip originally started with just Kim and I going up to visit with our friends Jay & Marsha and taking it the Extreme Beer Fest. Soon, we got Adam and Ellen on board and then finally talked Derek into going and next thing we knew, it was a full on BACT ATTACK! Adam and I end the session showing just what we thought of the fest. An all around great time with a load of fantastic beers. The American Beer Fest is going to be happening here in June. Hmmmm.... Derek's not rubbing it in or anything as he trys a sample of something from Goose Island that Matt probably hasn't even had. Special thanks to Jay and Marsha for putting Kim and I up for the weekend and showing us around Boston. Here Jay has The Wind Cried Mari from Cambridge Brewing while I try The Imperial Death March Stout from Milly's Tavern. The event itself was pretty crowded but luckily we only had to put up with a few drunk a$$holes here and there. Of course they encourage everyone to have plenty of water and food to counteract all the high ABV stuff. Adam and Ellen obviously know how to take good advice! One of many pics I have of Derek and I that I have no idea what we're drinking. He probably had an IPA and me a Stout.;P Of course you have to start out your day with a hearty breakfast. In this case, The Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout. Just as good as advertised and one of the few samples that I took my good old sweet time with. The group ready to rock the hell out of the fest! Trust me, there was too much beer at this thing for even all of us to try! Waiting in line to enter the Cyclorama and this year's Extreme Beer Fest. I'm glad we all got there somewhat early as the line eventually became 1,500 people strong.

Since we are currently having some craptastic winter weather right now, I thought that a nice Imperial Stout would be in order to help warm me up tonight. I've heard good things about the beers from Two Brothers Brewing in Warrenville, Illinios. They brew an Imperial Stout. Sounds like a logical good choice, right? Wrong! Blech! I've got almost nothing nice to say about this one. Thin, watery body. Overly sweet. Bland finish. For the style, I just didn't dig this at all. The Two Brothers Northwind Imperial Stout. Much like Old Man Winter on the label and the current weather outside, IT BLOWS!

Back safe and sound from a fun filled weekend in Boston. The Extreme Beerfest was even better than I had hoped and last night we had an awesome dinner at The Publick House. Hopefully I'll get some of the pics up tomorrow. In the meantime, tonight I had another Terrapin gem that I had my buddy Greg bring up from down South for me and it's one I have really, really have been wanting to try. The Terrapin Wake-N-Bake Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout. Wow, it's pretty freaking good too. Especially if you like coffee, as that's pretty much what you get the whole way through. It's brewed with a special blend created by the Jittery Joes chain in Athens, GA. Of course, the beer itself is brewed in Maryland. Go figure. Definitely up there as a top coffee stout! The Terrapin Wake-N-Bake Coffee Stout. The state of GA had deemed that name unfit to be printed on the bottle but that's what everyone still calls it. Stupid GA...

^ Oh we allways have loads of fun at these release parties. Can't wait to see the pics from a UK beer festival. Look for lots of pics from this coming weekend as BACT invades Boston and the Extreme Beer Festival!

Last nights invasion of DuClaw by Team Extreme... See what I mean! Until next time. Thanks for reading. ...and then finally attacked the Naked Fish right out of Roger's (Kim's co-worker who had shown up for a drink) hand! He was Naked Fish crazed! ...but then grabbed mine and started making fish faces... Dont' even get me started though on the craziness that happened when this sweet nectar touched Derek's lips. First he was OK with just his... It was pretty freaking awesome too! Dave, if you and Mary can make it this month, definitely go for it! For dinner, I had the release special. Beef tenderloin and beef short rib braised in Naked Fish Stout. Ah, there's my baby. It's been way too long. And I say "Show me your fins! Show me your fins!" Derek says "Drink Naked!" Luckily there were no "3rd Nip" sightings. Allright, Naked Fish is now on tap. ...they used footage from the Family Guy spoof episode where Peter gets to visit the Pawtucket Patriot Brewery. The release video was pretty good. Of course since the theme of the release was "If Willy Wonka Brewed a Beer"... Next months it's time to get pissed, with the Celtic Fury Irish Stout! ....and everyone's favorite. Six Degrees of Naked Fish! ...fish... ...chocolate raspberries... ...raspberries... Trivia time. Of course it had to everything with chocolate... ...and a Venom for Derek. Next we reverse things. Some Derekslayer for me... Derek likes that cuz now he can get this rather weak ass beer credit without actually having to pay for it. Kim surprises us two releases in a row now and get's a beer. The Misfit Red to be exact. Of course we need some happy hour appetizers, consisting of nachos, wings, and Derekfingers. Derek has to be a rebel though and instead first go for some Derekslayer! Yes the name sticks, no matter what happened last time. ;P Let's not waste any time and get right into some Venom! ...actually it's the best fish smell of all! Chocolate and raspberries! Mmmmm... Time for this month's DuClaw release but something smells awefully fishy down on the Bond Street Wharf tonight. Don't worry though, we promise it's a good fish smell ....

The Flyers stink. I've moved on. Maybe I should get a Sabres one, huh?

Still pretty darn cold today. No better way to get warmed up than with a nice Imperial Stout. In this case the Dragonslayer from Middle Ages Brewing in Syracuse, NY. It's no Derekslayer but is still a pretty servicable Imperial Stout. Decent Imperial. Nice roasty chocolate and fruits upfront. It had a fairly thin body however but masked it's almost 10% abv pretty darn well.

^ Heh, heh. That could be it!

With extremely cold temps (for PA anyways) currently freezing our collective butts, it's time for a new winter warmer tonight. The Smuttynose Winter Ale, a rather sweet and somewhat spicey winter warmer. I don't know what the lady on the bottle is laughing about. It's freaking freezing around here!

I figure some other pics will be up shortly from this weekends Eastcoaster Party festivities (either here or in other threads) but I thought that I'd kick things off with some pics from when the weekend started for Kim and I. Meeting some of the BACT crew for lunch at Whichbrew in Easton on Saturday. ...while Derek graces us with a self photo of he and his Boonville Hop Ottin' IPA. For round #2, Tom and I went for the Wychwood Hobgoblin Ale.... Whichbrew has some really great food as well. Here I have their awesome Margherita pizza with a side of their equally awesome fries. And hear we all are laughing at Adam and Tim, who chose to actually go to Eastcoaster, instead of enjoying some tasty beverages. Was the meat parade really worth it guys? Here we are all, getting ready to enjoy our tasty beverages. Needless to say, Derek and I were pretty freaking pleased with it. We nearly choked on the citrus and hops in this real ale version of an allready spectacular beer. One of the highlights of this visit was the fact that the night before, they had just put on a cask of Troegs Nugget Nectar. Back at one of the cooler beer bars around here in PA. The rather spookily themed Whichbrew in Easton.

Definitely Phantom's Revenge but if only counting true Morgans, I'd go with Steel Eel. Just nutty ejector air. Much better than any I've found on the other three U.S. hypers.

Jeez, one of these days, we'll eventually get a proper BRT of New Belgium out of you Matt. Wow, Adam's "hairy eyeball" looking exactly like the one on the bottle. Creepy. I had this earlier in the month out in Pittsburgh and thought it was really good. I remember a lot of fruit character to it. So tonight I went with another excellent brew that I had Greg bring me up from down South. Once again I find it funny that this stuff is brewed less than 1 1/2 hours from me, yet I have to get my friend from the Carolinas to bring me up some. Hopefully Maryland with start distributing Terrapin sometime in 2007! Oh my god, this stuff was good! An almost perfect blend of malt and hops as I've ever tasted in a beer. Damn, I knew I should have had him bring up 2 four-packs of this! The Fall 2006 edition of the Terrapin Monster Beer Tour. The Big Hoppy Monster Imperial Red.

No beer tonight. Going to try and cut back the next couple of weeks. For now, here's some pics from Sunday's adventures. Really good stuff. Sweet and malty like a winter warmer but still balanced out with nice sublte hops at the end. I finished up with a bottle of the Powder Hound Strong Ale from Big Sky Brewing in Montanna. Greg liked the sample so much, he decided to go for a full pint. Even Kim has some beer, in the form of a sample of Vanilla Porter from the Breckenridge Brewery and Pub in Breckenridge, Colorado. And they still did! Greg gets that, while I dive into some Stone Smoked Porter. We had wanted to get Greg some Mad Elf on draft sometime during the course of the weekend. I remembered that the Brewhouse Grille had had it when we were there a couple of weeks ago.

Time for a little something special that Greg brought up for me from down South. Straight from the Atlanta Brewing Company, it's their Red Brick Winter Brew 06. A Double Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. Yummy! And this was a good one. Nice and sweet and smooth with lots of coffee and chocolate. Wish I had more than one.

^Is the camera going to work this time Matt?

So my good buddy Greg is up from Charlotte visiting for the weekend. He's my former beer buddy when I lived down South. Of course when he comes up to visit, we always have to get some good quality beer drinking done. When he was last up, last February, we checked out the highly fun Victory 10th Anniversary celebration. What kind of mischief will we get into this weekend? Who knows but look for updates during the weekend from myself (and probably Derek too). Fantastic stuff. We were going to finish up with some Double Bastard but kind of crapped out before we could get to it. Maybe later this weekend. Let's finish up with some oaked liquid Arrogance. Time to show Greg what a real IPA tastes like. Too bad I didn't still have any Pizza Port left. What can I say, we are feeling a little Arrogant right now. Next, it was time to get a little liquid Arrogance. The Stone 10th was a great intro. It's starting to mellow out somewhat but still packs a nice punch. They don't carry Stone down in the Carolinas so I figured Greg was due a lesson in beers with attitude! And look, he was nice enough to bring some beer love from down south. The last couple of Monster Series beers from Terrapin. And the TSA notice of baggage inspection too. What a good friend. Yeah, Greg's here! Say hi Greg.

Uh oh, dude. I think she's trying to tell you that you need to give up beer.

^ Yeah, it looks like the goods arrived. Went with something new from Ruth Brewing (ie. Southern Tier) tonight, the Big Red Imperial Red Ale. I was a little suprised by this one. I was kinda expecting more of a nice hoppy amber type but instead was greeted by a very spicey, malty, hoppy, and very alcoholic tasting red ale. I actually switched to a snifter after a few sips. Yes it was that kind of beer. The Southern Tier Big Red. Somehow I don't think this pic is Derek approved.