Rugged One

Glad your'e enjoying the brews Tom. I'm glad to see you posting again. On a side note, no more posts until next Monday or Tuesday. We're leaving for 4 days in Florida in the morning. Of course I'll take lots of pics of whatever beer adventures await. Probably some happy hour at IOA will be in order, free samples at the Busch parks, the International Food & Wine Festival at Epcot, and a visit to the new home of the Tampa Bay Brewing Company. On with the pics from tonights DuClaw release.. I'll finish with a pic of me getting festive with some Mad Bishop and a pretty kick ass free mug. Thanks for reading. All rise. The Mad Bishop will how begin his sermon (i.e. now on tap). ....and then Ripley shows up and after witnessing a superimposed beer rise up out of a facehugger pod, torches them all. Trust me, you had to be there. It was funny. The release video was pretty good. It used footage from Aliens of the Colonial Marines searching for signs of beer on a planet... Preview time and it's the one everyone looks forward to each year. The Devil's Milk Barleywine! ...and some more Oktoberfest nuggets. ...Marzens... ...Oktoberfest... Trivia time. Of course it had to do with famous Bishops... Check it out, they brought the Mayhem Weizenbock back! They were out during last month's release. They must have found some extra kegs lying around. I went with this month's special release dinner, the Bayou Penne Pasta. Spicey stuff! While we wait for our food, I peruse the latest issue of the Mid Atlantic Brew News, complete with front page article on pumpkin ales. Gotta kick things off with some Venom. Anyway, this month's release is a good one and is one of the year's most popular. The Mad Bishop Oktoberfest! Right outside the window from where we're sitting. Back at DuClaw for this month's release. Complete with the best rock star parking yet!

^ It was good Tom. Very good for the style. Nice balance between the hops and malt. Had another good Oktoberfest as well tonight, of the Stoudt's variety. The Stoudt's Oktoberfest. Rather tasty and it's local to boot!

^ No problem bud! I'm glad too see your enjoying them. Tonight's fall selection comes courtesy of Tom. An Oktoberfest from Left Hand Brewing, out in Colorado. The Left Hand Oktoberfest. Good stuff!

Still smarting over the closer of our favorite local beer bar, KClingers Publik House in Yocumtown, we decided to head to Hanover on Sunday afternoon to get back to it's sister bar, KClingers Tavern. The Tavern is alot less of a "beer bar" than it's closed down cousin and more of a "townie bar" but it still has a lot of great stuff on tap. While they were out of the majority of the stuff that I wanted to try (sorry Tom, no Post Road Pumpkin review ), they did still have some other new stuff for me to check out. With some good beers and a bunch of rather enthusiastic local Eagles fans to help me cheer on my Birds take down those hated Cowpies, it turned out to be a pretty good visit. Finally, because of a screw up, I got a free pint of Speakeasy Double Daddy. Guess what? It's still a let down of a Double IPA. The "kick the keg" special of the afternoon was the North Coast Brother Thelonious, a Belgian Strong Ale. Very good. Lots of flavor and fairly mellow for a strong ale. I next get things back on track with a Thirsty Dog Hoppus Maximus. Decent hoppy amber. Not sure what type of hops they use for this but the hop bite at the end had a very perculiar taste to it. I start things out with a New Holland Ichabod Pumpkin Ale. This was very light and thin and hardly tasted like pumpkin. Don't be fooled by the smile, it was disappointing. Welcome to Hanover, PA. Home to the only KClingers that is currently open.

Finally got into my growler of East End Big Hop Harvest Ale last night. Great stuff! I'm ready to head back to Pittsburgh now for a refill.

Kim and I will be arriving around 2 pm or so. Depends on how much fun we have beforehands in Selinsgrove. 1. Mark 2. Nicole (niiicolaaah) 3. Kyle (raptorboyasu) 4. Craiggers (TokenYankeeGuy) 5. Katie (CoastinKatie) 6. Ted (CoasterFanatic) 7. Derek (DerekRx) 8. Jay (Hercules) 9. Rich (Coaster 05) 10. Melanie (Funkybadger) 11. Larry (larrygator) 12. Heath (Rugged One)

$32= Great zoo Free= Crummy zoo I guess you get what you pay for?::

^ I had looked into checking out Penn Brewing Ted but from what I could gather on their website, it didn't look like they were open on Sunday and Saturday we got into town too late to spend any kind of quality time there before we had to be at Fright Nights. That's why I tried their Octoberfest at Fatheads. We'll get to it on the next trip though. More pics from Pittsburgh: The Dead Guy representing over the urinal. I love this place! Thanks for reading. Yes, I said Frank Zappa tribute ale. I finish up with a bomber of Lagunitas Freak Out IPA, the Frank Zappa tribute ale. After getting denied both Great Lakes and Sierra Nevada Octoberfests, I finally got to try something else I've been wanting to check out. The Great Lakes Nosferatu, a nicely hopped red ale. It's mexican restaurants, with a crapload of craft beers on tap. Ah man, why can't we have something like this around here? Uh oh, I see taps... Afterwards, we decided to finish up with a stop at the Monroeville location of the Mad Mex, a chain of "edgey" mexican restaurants. But why you may ask? ...while I kick back with my cornbeef and a Iron City beer. Kim enjoy her knockwurst sandwitch... Our sandwitches were good but they weren't quite as big as we thought they were going to be. This is the original location and though on the smallish side, it still has a lot of character and one of the friendliest staffs around. They made everyone feel like a local. Late Sunday morning we made our way to a Pittsburgh institution: Primanti Brothers!

Happy B-Day buddy! Now go enjoy yourself one of those Hopdevils!

After East End, we still had a little time, so we checked out a Pittsburgh drinking institution, Fatheads! This sports/beer bar was packed but they had a great beer selection and a nice vibe. We'll definitley be back when college games aren't on the TV. Did I mention how cool Fatheads was? This pic should pretty much sum it up. Stone getting some love. I wanted a bottle of SRIS but at $7 a bottle, I passed until next time. ...and six pack shop, where you can mix and match. Upstairs is the gift shop... ...and their photo wall where people send in photos of themselves from all over, wearing their Fatheads gear. Check out all the kick ass beer graphics on the wall... ...which ended up being a Penn Brewing Oktoberfest. They still had some great stuff on tap though. I wish I had time for more than one... Being dinner time and with college football games on, needless to say, the place was packed. Welcome to Fatheads!

So Saturday, we headed to Pittsburgh to finally check out Phantom Fright Nights at Kennywood. Once we got into the "Burgh" we wanted to do our civic duty as beer lovers and give a little love to a start up brewery that is pretty much the definition of the phrase. East End Brewing is a true one man operation. Brewer Scott does everything himself although he occassionally gets some volunteers to help him out (like on growler fill days). Right now he's doing just kegs for local places and growlers fills twice a week. Scott's a hell of a nice guy and will gladly stand around and talk shop with ya as you sample some his great beers. If your in the area, definitley stop by and help this small operation out, as I can easily see it going big time soon. ...and leave with a growler full of Harvest Ale. East End was awesome! It's really cool to see a guy doing something like this from the ground up. We will most definitley be back! I wind up the sampling with their excellent Black Strap Stout... He also allready has down a key component of any good brewery. The merch! Scott runs this 10 barrel setup all by his lonesome. I do a comparison between the normal and extra hopped up Harvest Ale. Which was better? Who cares! Next up is the Big Hop Harvest Ale. Complete with some extra hops thrown in for measure! I try the Big Hop IPA. Fantastic! Kim really enjoys the East End Witte, a really tasty wit beer. They even let us run loose back there! The staff was very friendly as they happily poured us some samples. Welcome to East End Brewing. The most innocuous brewery facade yet!

Sweet, your're getting us fired up for our visit next month! Unfortunately, as far as the Eat to the Beat Concert series goes, our visit is going to be wedged right between Loverboy and the Beach Boys. I don't even know who David Sanborn is!

*Cough* O'Briens *Cough*::

Mmmmm, Shipyard Pumpkinhead.

Uh oh, that if officially the second time I've seen Derek doing his new "signature move." Good times.

^Mmmm, looks good Wally. I've had some of that Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin (and shall dip into some more this season) and I remember it being pretty decent. So with fall officially starting yesterday, I figured it's time to start getting into some fall beer drinking. We'll kick things off with The Kaiser, an Imperial Oktoberfest from Avery Brewing. It's pretty much what it sounds like too. The tasty sweet maltiness up front, subtle hoppiness on the backend and bold flavors of a traditional marzen jacked up a notch. Just a good job of a bigger, bolder style. Now this was a 2005 bottle. My understanding is that this year's batch is even higher on alcohol content and taste. The Avery Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest. A great way to get the fall beer season underway.

Kim and I had dinner and movie plans with some friends Saturday night up in the Harrisburg area, so we decided to head up early and run some errands beforehand. Of course, I had to fit a little beer in there somewhere. Kim has some of their Root Beer that they brew right there on site. Good stuff. I have to say I really enjoyed it. Some nice underlying hops that really stuck in your mouth for awhile afterwards. The Major Hops Olde Ale. This actually started out as a single batch over at the ABC in Gettysburg but I guess was popular enough to put into the monthly rotation. Finally, we stopped over at the ABC Harrisburg, which was all decked out for Oktoberfest, to check out their newest seasonal offering. I leave Troegs with a full growler of Hopback and a big smile on my face. I next try some of my favorite, the Troegenator. ...while Kim has the same. I check out the tasty Hopback Amber... The crowd this time wasn't so bad. We were going to do the tour to check out the new fermenter they recently added but decided to skip it. I wanted to fill up the growler for dinner that night, so we decided to hit up Troegs for a little sampling. Started out our day with lunch at my favorite place to grab a quick burger and a beer. Red Robin! In this case, the Sam Adams Octoberfest. I'll leave you with a shot of the Troegs themed Honda Element over at the brewery. Wow, I'd like to tool around in one of those!

Thanks for the info. I figured maybe they had just sold them back when the ride debuted and now they don't have them anymore.

^ Glad you like the Pumpkinhead. It's easily the most drinkable of the ones I've had. Keep trying whatever ones you can get your hands on. They all have their own little differences. Said goodbye to Summer last night with my last Sierra Nevada Summerfest. Now my favorite beer drinking season starts.8) So long Summer of beer drinking. It was a good one.

Nice pics of the event Wes. ACE Southeast always puts on a great event. I just have 2 questions: 1. When did they start selling Goliath hoodies at SFOG? I didn't see any when I was there in July. 2. Are there any locals that would be willing to hook me up with one via mail?

Had to chance to crack into something that I've been wanting to try for awhile now. One of the higher rated doppelbocks out there. The Liberator from Thomas Hooker Brewing in Hartford, CT. I'm happy to say that it didn't disappoint. Hints of choclolate, coffe, some fruity stuff maybe. Nice malty backbone that then finished with some light hops at the end. It really hid it's 8% ABV well too. A little too qauffable maybe. I need to hunt down some more stuff from these guys when I'm up that way next month. Gonna have to bust out the HF for this one. To all my friends headed to Oktoberfest this weekend. I say "Go forth and drink good German beer!" The Thomas Hooker Liberator Doppelbock.

I'm glad to hear that. I'm doing the same thing right now. Need to cut the beer consumption down a little. Put the ole jeans on for the first time in awhile this weekend and they were a little snug. Time to debloat. Yeah, Mikes back in the beer thread! Figured I'd throw up the pics from last Thursday's DuClaw release: Trying the Twisted Kilt and it's great. Mmmm, sweet and malty and a little spicey. Just like any good Scottish Ale should be. Thanks for reading. This new style glass was pretty cool. Kinda like a goblet or something or other. Kim models our free shirts. Twisted Kilt is now on tap! The release was pretty funny. It teased the Loch Ness Monster but then cut to a scene from the Simpsons of Groundskeeper Willie accidently flashing a crowd thanks to Bart. Good stuff. Preview time and next month, the Bishop is back! The Mad Bishop Oktoberfest. Yeah! ...and even Six Degrees of Twisted Kilt! ...Scottish things in general... ...Scottish beer... ....kind of Scots... Trivia time! Of course it had to do with famous Scots... Mmmm, I have another with this month's special dinner release. The blackberry ribs. Yum! Start things out with the Venom of course! I still can't believe how much more I love this stuff with each pint. The Twisted Kilt Scotch Ale! Welcome to rainy Fells Point for this month's beer release at DuClaw...

Nicole, that pic did turn out pretty good didn't it? Wally, what's up with all the bottles of Stone IPA man? I thought you were retiring form beer. Don't tell me that your trip to Stone rekindled your love for the good stuff. Over Labor Day weekend, I stopped into a 7-11 in Carlsbad and not only did they have 22 bombers of Stone 10th IPA but bombers of Fat Tire as well. IN THE FREAKING 7-11! Needless to say Kim is working on her job transfer now.

^ Well since Hauntworld recently crowned it the #6 best Haunt of 2006: "Next on our list is Shocktoberfest in Reading, Pennsylvania, which features three haunted attractions including a 3D maze, a massive haunted prison and one of the best haunted hayrides in the industry. Shocktoberfest also produces other events on the property such as a major Christmas attraction. There is no question that Shocktoberfest is one of our industries best operated and most successful haunted houses." Doesn't sound lame to me. I thought we'd give it a look. It can't be any worse than Jason's Woods, Field of Screams, the Haunted Mill or any of the others around here. Back to the roll call.

Or you could be cool like us and go to Shocktoberfest the night before. Maybe we should grab Ted and all go to Selinsgrove!