What Was the Last Beer You Drank?

[DerekRx]

I spent the weekend with my mom instead of riding coasters and stuff. But she's understanding, and made sure to accommodate my desire for beer!

and then back home for some more HopDevil and hummus (which I picked up at Wegmans on the way home)

Got me some goods for the week!

No trip to Baltimore would be complete without a stop at Shawan Liquors

and to finish, I went with one of their Belgian Tripels, the Green Peppercorn Tripel. Really nice and spicy, but not all pepper, strong alcohol too.

I got the Tomato, Artichoke, and Gorgonzola salad. Yum!

Mom decided to skip the beers again and just ate a Caesar Salad

As far as beers go, I started with the Sluggo, their summer sessional. Really lite, but hoppy and a good Belgiany finish

This is the dining room

The place has lots of different rooms, upstairs bar, downstairs bar, downstairs lounge, upstairs dining room, and the upstairs lounge. This would be the upstairs lounge

They only open at 4pm, and only start serving dinner at 5:30, so just lite fare for us today. Here's the upstairs bar

After the Aquarium, we headed to Brewer's Art for dinner. The #44 place to have a beer eluded me for some time, but that's all gone now

I was going to get the Hefeweizen, but they were out of it. Then I thought about the Fuel which was on tap, but figured an Imperial Stout was a little much for the first drink of the day. I settled on the Capitol Kolsch. Nice flavors and easy to drink

That's right, Baltimore's Capitol City location is right there in Inner Harbor. Before it decides to skip town, I better have another brew

Saturday saw us at Inner Harbor, in need of lunch before hitting the aquarium. Lucky me I know just the place!

Friday night I arrived home to find she purchased some HopDevil for me. How'd she know I liked that?! She stuck with her Cabernet Savignon after smelling the HopDevil

[Juggler]

OK, not so much a last beer I drank but a last beer I brewed report. It's the first time I've done a complete brew from scratch using malt, hops and yeast.

 

It's just a basic bitter to start with so that I get used to the process and also the equipment.

Finally it's down to the right temperature and the boiler is emptied into the fermenting bin. Next the yeast is added and the fermenter sealed and left for 5 to 7 days.

So after collected and boiled with Hops for 90 minutes the wort needs to be cooled rapidly. The contraption in the wort is a cooling coil which has cold water running through it.

Now the tricky bit. Sparging! The mash needs to be rinsed with hot water. The liquid from this is collected in the boiler.

Here's the Mash prior to popping the lid on. Looks like a large batch of porridge. This is the grain mixed with 11.25 litres of hot water.

Close up of the grain.

Here's the kit. Boiler to the left (boiling up the mashing water), 4.5kg of malt grain central, Fermenting bin just to the right and the blue box is the Mash Tun.

[DerekRx]

Back home tonight with the usual stuff, but usual ain't so bad here.

yeah, I can't even fake a smile on this one. Definitely not like the tripel I had yesterday at Brewer's Art. Luckily, this is the last one I have to drink from Southern Tier

and while I'm clearing out the refrigerator, let's get rid of some more Southern Tier stuff, like the Tripel

mmmm, true yumminess. Excellent citrus and pine flavors

Time for some fresher stuff, Ruination IPA, thanks to Stone

Not bad, as good as Magic Hat has been as of late, still pretty drinkable

First up, a bottle of Magic Hat #9 that's been in my fridge for like, um 2 years

[Rugged One]

Well originally, we were going to head down to Northern VA to do some beer hopping and sightseeing but instead, with a big drive coming up next weekend, we decided to save some gas and miles on our car and just hang out a little more locally in Baltimore.

Wow, with both a Peche and Framboise Lambic on deck, it looks like we'll be returning here sooner rather than later.

Kim wants in on some of this action too! This was actually really good. The coconut (and I don't even like coconut!) really came out in the finish as it warmed and nicely complimented the chocolate of the porter.

Of course! It's a Coconut Porter that was actually the result of a local homebrew competition. The winners got to brew their creation here at the brewpub on their smaller 4.5 barrel brewhouse.

Uh oh, what's that I spy up on the board? Could I actually get the chance to try one of their small limited batches that they brew here?

I start out with July's monthly release. And a new one to the lineup too. The Dom Blonde Kolsch. Quite refreshing, with a nice perfume like fruitiness and a good hop bite at the end.

Earlier today, we had some business up near Harrisburg, so we decided to drop in at an ABC. Since we hadn't visited the Camp Hill location since last fall, it seemed like the logical place to stop by. I'm glad we did!

I decide to skip the Mayhem Weizenbock and go for something a little quicker to drink. A Venom of course!

Our waiter was pretty cool and started talking beer with us. He hooked me up with a sample of their Bad Moon Porter that they just starting pouring on nitro. Mmmm, good as always, and now with extra creaminess.

The bartender screwed up and didn't pour mine in a Pint Club glass, so we got another one for free. Kim is all too happy to take care of it for me.

And it was a nice one too. Nice underlying notes of banana and spice.

We hadn't been to a DuClaw since April, so we had some catching up to do with some of the last couple of month's releases. The main one being the 13 Degrees Hefe.

Aftert stopping at those fine establishment, it was time to do a different kind of shopping. That's right, the kind at a mall. The Arundel Mills Mall to be exact, for some shopping, movie watching, and of course...DuClaw!

They often carry stuff that Shawan doesn't and this trip was no different. I've got a lot of drinking to do now!

Oh, but we're not done yet. Next stop, The Wine Source.

Luckily we survived and loaded up some great new stuff.

I've noticed lately, that my beer selection was getting a little lite on the summery ales. I figured now is as good as time as any to get some beer shopping done. First stop Shawan Liquors. Complete with a giant finger about to crush the buidling. Better get in quick!

[Rugged One]

Allright, time for some Summertime drinking!

Ah, this was one easy drinking Wit. Nice but light notes of pepper, coriander, and fruit. A pretty solid effort from Flying Dog.

The latest seasonal release from Flying Dog, the Woody Creek White. A Belgian style Wit Beer.

[DerekRx]

Time to try some new stuff tonight, fresh from Baltimore comes Clipper City's newly released Hang Ten Weizen Dopplebock, an unfiltered double wheat bock in their Heavy Seas Series of beers.

More sessionable, but not as flavorful as the Dopplebock.

Follow up with something lighter from another part of Maryland, Flying Dog's Classic Pale Ale

Good banana and clove flavors as well as raisons and yeast. Very alcohol taste at the beginning though, being 10%abv and all

Clipper City's Hang Ten, very dark and cloudy from the unfiltered yeastiness

[Bubba83]

^ That Doppelbock looks and sounds excellent Derek. I love banana and clove flavors in beer.

 

I need to go to BevMo as I am fresh out again, but I hope you enjoyed my BJ's trip.

[Rugged One]

Time to revisit a favorite from last Summer.

Ah, just a clean, crisp, summer sipper. Heh Wally, how about a pic for old times sake?

The Pyramid Curve Ball Kolsh Style Ale. Fruity and sweet up front with a nice dry light hoppiness in the finale.

[DerekRx]

Over the weekend I managed to pick up another single bottle of something from Matt's precious Lakefront Brewing. Could this newest beer of theirs actually redeem all the crap they've brewed so far?

So much better than anything Lakefront could concoct. Loaded with citrusy hops, this one just screams grapefruit, and it has wonderful flavor all throughout. Nothing boring about this, one of Bell's "simpler" ales.

I will not be sharing good beers with Matt, as he supports boring breweries. No Bell's Two Hearted IPA for Matt, EVER! Better drink it myself

Of course, this is Lamefront we're talking about. Overall just spices, a little bit of a cherry taste, lite maltiness, and a nice clean, crisp finish with no flavor. Once again, no dice for Lakefront or Matt

Up to bat this time for Lakefront, Cherry Lager, made with Wisconsin cherries, so you'd think it should taste something similar to the acclaimed New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red

[moofygirl]

I had a Corona this evening.

[mcjaco]

That is a Lakefront brew I have not yet tried. I'm telling you, I don't like all of their stuff, just a couple. Their Cream City (I giggle at the name), is my favorite of thiers. I certainly wouldn't put Lakefront in a great brewery category, but it's local.

 

Besides, New Belgium is now here, I don't need any stinking Bell's.

[Mr Pete]

Another 3 from me tonight.

A mix of Malted Barley and hops, makes for a nice refreshing ale.

An Englishman likes his TEA, So that's what I had. Traditional English Ale from Hogs Back Brewery.

Could not really pick up any Chocolate taste, but has nice amount of Roasted Malt's. Really enjoyable

Next up was Black Chocolate Stout from Brooklyn Brewery

Nice Citrus aroma, and taste to it. A very nice Summer Ale.

First up was Taiphoon from Hopback brewery.

[ParkTrips]

I haven't done nearly as much beer thread posting as beer consuming, but here are a couple pics from last night... as usual I apologize for the cellphone pics

To end the night, and to spend some time sobering up, we left Taco Mac and hit up a Coldstone. MMMMMM what a night!

Beer #2 for the evening was Duvel. It too was very good though not quite up to the standards of the first brew. Either that, or the St Bernardus just overshadowed it.

Look at that sexy beer. I thought the taste was pretty damn incredible, it is by far my favorite beer to date. It went down smooth and the malty aroma was to die for. I didn't even really notice the alcohol either

The first beer of the night, St Bernardus Abt 12, at $8.25 a bottle it wasn't cheap...

This is what I drove through to get beer... but at least it ended up being worth it!

[Rugged One]

Something new tonight. Another crazy collaboration between Garett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewing and a foreign brewery. This time with Schneider brewmaster Hans-Peter Drexler. The beer was brewed just the other week in Brooklyn, fermented with yeast from Schneider and dry hopped with American hops personally selected by Hans-Peter Drexler himself.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse.

All international disputes should be settled by brewing a beer together. Make beer, not war!

Wow, I think I'm in love! I really dig hopped up wheat beers and this hoppy hefe did just the trick. The hop punch up front and banana & clove sweetness in the back made for a fantastic combination.

[DerekRx]

Before I head out of state for the rest of the week, I decided to make tonight Dogfish Head night, starting with their newly bottled and released Festina Peche, a Berliner Weisse inspired style.

Lots of pine flavors in this one, with great citrus notes as well.

Gotta follow it up with some 60 Minute IPA, one of the best out there

Really tart with nice peach and lemon flavors. A great, though odd, summertime brew

Dogfish Head's Festina Peche, a summer release wheat made with warm-fermenting yeast and lactobacillus cultures and some peach concentrate

[mr_teisco_delrey]

Tonight is Great Lakes Brewing's Burning River. Very nice. I apologize for the lack of pictures.

[Rugged One]

Last post for the weekend. Look for a huge update (hopefully on Monday) of our weekend beer (with a few coasters thrown in) trip towards points North and beyond.

Hmmm. Quite the watery mouthfull. A nice effort from my boys in Petaluma but they've done way better.

The Lagunitas Imperial Stout. Still not sure what to think about this one. The roasty chocolate and deep malty flavor was nice and it hid it's 8% ABV really well but boy was this thing lacking in body.

[Jonathan]

Friday night I tried some new things.

 

I got a German sampler which had the following:

 

Spaten Lager (on tap) - Pretty much crap; incredibly weak and light. I can't imagine going to Munich and ordering one of these

 

Weihenstephan Hefe-Weizen (on tap) - This one was quite good. Fruity taste with apples. Maybe a little too strong on the fruits for me, but still very good.

 

Spaten Oktoberfest (on tap) - A malty red colored beer. This one was good but a little uninteresting to me. A lot of people seem to love this, though.

 

Paulaner Hefe (on tap) - This was the best. Citrus, spices, carbonated pretty much the way I like it. A wheat beer.

 

Warsteiner (on tap) - The biggest selling beer in Germany. And it pretty much sucks.

 

I also had:

 

Lindemans Framboise (on tap) - I got this as two of my friends highly recommended it. It tasted really good, but could not possibly taste any less like beer. Honestly, it tasted like a raspberry soda. If someone had handed it to me in a cup I would have never known it was beer or even had alcohol in it. So if you don't like beer, this is the beer for you.

 

Lion Stout (bottle) - One of my favorite beers that I have ever had. The strongest flavor is chocolate, but it isn't overpowering and is very drinkable. Some roasted flavors there as well, and fruits too. Basically, just a ton of flavors and it goes down real well.

[Bubba83]

Oh my gosh, I'm back!!!

 

I was out of beer for almost a week, how depressing. My mom feinted and had to go to the Hospital and stuff so that sucked and I've been trying to take care of her and and all this other crap going on. But, enough about that, the bottomline is, my uncle and I went to BevMo for a rather large purchase of beers that should hold me over for a while.

 

It seemed like they changed their inventory quite a bit since I was there 3-4 weeks ago. That's a good thing in my book since it just gives me more new things to try.

 

Anyway, onto the beers we drank last night in his garage.

One of the best wheat beers I've had to date. I like the fact that it doesn't taste like lemon, you can really taste the wheat. Lovely...

Coastal Fog's Bavarian Wheat Beer. These guys brew in Gilroy, CA. Nice color in the glass. Oh, check out the Beer and Cheddar chips we got!!! Delicious.

I can confidently say, I like this IPA better than Stone's. The main difference between the two is that Racer 5 is much more piney, and Stone's is much more citrusy. I like the pine, it smelled and tasted marvelous.

If you can remember what I had from the last time I went to BevMo, I bought a Stone IPA six pack. Well, this time I picked up a sixer of Racer 5 IPA by Bear Republic. 7.0% ABV.

A much more typical Stout than the St. Peters Cream Stout. Nice roasty flavors with a little tinge of chocolate and coffee. Better mouthfeel than St. Peters Cream Stout as well.

Lost Coast's 8 Ball Stout. 6.3% ABV. Found this nice bomber at BevMo finally.

The texture could best be described as motor oil. It was syrupy as I poured it into the glass, and had an oily mouthfeel. The flavors were very good, chocolate up front, with a bittersweet finish. Very impressed with this brewery from Suffolk, UK.

You may remember my uncle found a St. Peters Golden Ale a ways back, that we really enjoyed. Well BevMo had St. Peters Cream Stout. 6.5% ABV.

I wasn't terribly impressed with this beer, but it's one of the better Kölsches I've had from a bottle, which isn't saying much. Faultline's Kölsch on tap is so amazing.

First up, Flying Dog's Tire Bite. It's a Kölsch with 5.12% ABV.

[DerekRx]

I'm back from my Northern Excursion with Nicole. Along the way we did plenty of stuff, all BACT style, hitting some coasters and beer. The coasters will come later in the other forum, but for now here's the beer!

 

Thursday: I had to drive up to Albany, so on the way I decided to stop off at another brewpub on the way for dinner. Since I was coming up from Jersey, my options there were limited to next to nothing, so I just held out until I got up to New York. Luckily for me, Keegan Ales in Kingston just opened their microbrewery into a brewpub as well.

As I was about to make my pint glass purchase, the bartender told me it was buy the pint glass and get it filled for free night, so I lucked out and also got to try the White Ale. Very good, perfect for summer

Next up would be the Mother's Milk Stout, also very good with nice chocolate and coffee flavors

Check out those frosty taps!

The bar area is pretty small, but there's also picnic tables, sofas, and chairs as well as a ledge all around the place. Very beatnik

First up the Hurricane Kitty, an IPA that had a really great flavor. I gotta get me some bottles of that sometime

A little after 8 I finally arrived for dinner at Keegan Ales in Kingston, NY, which had just recently opened their brewpub from just a microbrewery

Time to spice it up by adding a dog eating roast beef to the equation! The beer's still lame, but free, and I at least got to spend some time with the dog

Getting to my aunt's house I had some time to kill before Nicole arrived. The only thing that didn't have caffeine in it was Budweiser, so I had to drink that. It tasted like Sierra Mist after the good beers I had earlier, and just dull

[DerekRx]

Friday would see us at The Great Escape, and since we were already up in Lake George, we decided to hit up the Adirondack Brewery and Pub for lunch before moving on up to Canada. Adirondack was a pretty cool little place, nice atmosphere though it was pretty empty when we were there. The beers were good, as was the food. Next time we'll stay for the make your own smores dessert!

 

After that we stopped off at the Plattsburg location of Lake Placid Craft Brewery since it was raining pretty frequently up there, and Montreal looked to be worse.

Stopping off for some merch at Lake Placid in Plattsburg

The newest seasonal, Dirty Blonde Ale was a pretty good hoppy wheat.

Even Nicole got in on the action by sampling everything I had. Here she is with the Snow Trout Stout. Her favorite was the Hunter Mt. Hefe, but she liked the Bear Naked Ale for its pint glass

The Inman Pond Blonde was really light, but also very flavorful and one of my favorite beers there

Since I was driving, and Heathless, all my beer tastings had to be done sampler style

Lots of good stuff on tap

Time for lunch, just 5 minutes down the road from The Great Escape, same road and everything, Adirondack Brewery and Pub

[DerekRx]

Saturday we were originally going to attempt to hit 3 brewpubs on the way back from La Ronde, but because of the rain closing the park on Friday, we stayed later than anticipated on Saturday to get on everything, therefore draining ourselves. We decided to just stop off at 1 place assuming we could cross the border easier than when we were going up to Canada. Luckily we succeeded and ended up just south of The Great Escape in Glens Falls, NY to check out Davidson Brother's brewing. Turns out it was a really awesome place with excellent beers, great food, and a nice atmosphere. We definitely want to go back there again.

A nice way to end the weekend

and getting home tonight, time for something tasty and local, Troegs

Nonic glass is empty, that means it's time to go home, but Mahar's is definitely another place I'll return to. Definitely dug it there, much more than Moan and Dove

and because I wanted something on Cask and it was Hop Back Brewing's Odyssey Best Bitter all the way from England, this would be my British Face

as far as the beers went, Nicole downed a Lindeman's Framboise. This is her "yay! lambic" face

Lots of beer stuff everywhere, and check out the books being used to "level" the bar

and I give mad love to anywhere that puts HopDevil on the middle tap between Rogue's John's Private Locker Stock and Stone's Arrogant Bastard!

You gotta respect a place that has 6 things on Cask

I was told it was sort of a rude place, but it was actually really cool and almost sophisticated college-like. Everyone was passionate about the beer, and hooray for New York being nonsmoking, we could actually hang out here for a good while

But wait! Bonus! The food and beer at Davidson Bros revitalized us enough that we decided to check out the #12 place to have a beer in America, Mahar's Public Bar in Albany after all

In all, we really dug Davidson Brothers, the only sad thing was they didn't have pub fries on the appetizer menu for Nicole

Heath, this merch is for you!

We ate outside because it was a lovely evening, but inside was equally as nice, almost like a mini-Great Lakes Brewpub

and Nicole got the Crab and Spinach salad with cranberry vineagarette.

and for Elissa, just look at this Tomato Mozzarella salad, and all that Balsamic!

Oh yeah, besides good beers, they've also got awesome food, like this Buffalo chicken soup, with wing sauce, blue cheese, chicken, and celery all inside. Excellent!

As far as the Oatmeal Stout credit, Nicole said "Leave that one to me!" And she got a full pint of it. I call dibs!

my sampler checklist

and the Hop Scotch was just plain weird tasting, but in a good way!

The Smoked Porter was really good stuff, nice burnt flavors

The Wheat Ale wasn't bad, though it was British based and more bitter and hopped than the hefe style

The brewer's choice was the Swimming Cow, a Rye Ale. Awesome!

Once again, sampler for me

It's another late dinner for us, but at least we're back in the States and at a brewpub, Davidson Brothers in Glens Falls, NY

[SharkTums]

Mmmm Tomato and Mozzarella!!!!

[FlyerACE1]

This weekend, Ellen and I were in Boston for a Red Sox game. Of course, being in Boston (a great beer town), there is only one place we both really felt the need to return to- Sunset Grille and Tap in Allston. This is an amazingly great beer bar with 112 brews on tap, a bible of bottled beers and a super huge food menu. So, we met up with Matt Bacoulis for lunch today and ended up spending over 3 hours there. Here are some photos...

See ya Sunset! Til the Boston BA Beer Fest next February!

When in Boston, there MUST be a Red Sox game on.

Here's a photo of the actual bar (this is only one side, it wraps around and taps are EVERYWHERE).

Matt's last beer was recommended by the waiter and it was excellent. BBC's (not sure what it stands for) Coffee Haus Porter.

Here's the written description of the beer on the back of the bottle.

I call this my British Face. Listed as an ESB, I totally see why. Wells Banana Bread has a great Banana Bread smell but only tastes in the undertones. Typical of an English brew, the beer was quite bitter. Still, not bad. I liked it better than Ellen.

A nod to Juggler and our beer thread friends from across the pond, Ellen found this on the bottled list! We HAD to have a try.

Not pictured is me with my second beer- Harpoon Peche brewed locally in Boston. At first, I was so-so on the beer but I ultimately really enjoyed. Much more drinkable than DFH's Festina Peche.

Matt is tickled pink over the Wittekerke.

Check out that pour!

Next up for Ellen was this beer in a kick ass can! Straight from Belgium, Wittekerke Rose. This was actually a very good raspberry brew.

The waiter was nice enough to take this. Ellen has mixed feelings on the Watermelon. I liked it better than she did.

I go with the awesome Clipper City Hang Ten Weisen Bock. At 10% APV, this dark wheat bock had a nice bite. I have yet to have a Clipper City I don't like.

First up, Ellen tries an Opa Opa Watermelon.

Ok, this is the draft menu! I kid you not. There are at least 8-10 pages of bottles that are this long as well.

Here we are- Sunset Grille and Tap!

[Bubba83]

I was outdone again! Son of a *****. Derek went all out this weekend, haha. Also, nice post Adam.

 

I've had a question on my mind for a while now Derek... When you say you're at the "Xth best place to have a beer in America" where are you getting that list from? I don't seem to be able to find it on beeradvocate.com

 

Just curious to see how certain places around here rate...