We are winding down for the year 2014. To end summer I will be traveling around the NY Finger Lakes for 3 days visiting about 15 breweries and can't wait!
I also am currently planning my next tasting night..this time it will be a Fall Tasting with a mixture of Oktoberfest, Pumpkins, and Harvest beers.
In November I will be driving across country to San Diego and plan to hit up some of these countries best breweries I haven't made it to yet.
And of course continuing to drink new and great beers from all over the country. Until next time, cheers!
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Tasting
My last up to date tasting was my Sierra Nevada Beer Camp night. I got my hands on some Beer Camp, so I thought lets try them all in one night..but I cant drink them all alone so I invited people over. Then I saw Sierra Nevada has a mixed IPA 12 pack which included Torpedo, Black IPA, White IPA and a Session IPA. So I bought that! Then I said screw it I'll grab every Sierra Nevada beer I can find and we will make it a Sierra Nevada night!
The hands down winner of the night was one I wouldn't of picked and it was the Beer Camp beer with New Glarus called There and Back...it was an ESB. It had a good flavor, slight hop and was real smooth. A few other contenders included the Beer Camp collab with Ninaski which was a coffee milk stout called Double Latte, Nooner which is their Session IPA, Beer Camp collab with Bell's called Maillard's Odyessey which is explained as an imperial dark ale and the Beer Camp West Coast DIPA. The Porter and Hoptimum also were well liked.
Easy to say the least liked of the bunch was the Beer Camp collab with Cigar City called Yonger Bock which is a tropical maibock and the Russian River collab beer called Yvan the Great which was a belgian blonde.
It was fun to actually try all these Sierra Nevada beers. I have been turned off by them as of late, and while I probably won't go run out and buy them again soon I do appreciate the efforts they have made it's just unfortunately a lot of their beers have the same type of taste to them. But it did inspire me to do more brewery-themed tastings...just need to find breweries that have such a wide variety..perhaps Stone will be next!
Easy to say the least liked of the bunch was the Beer Camp collab with Cigar City called Yonger Bock which is a tropical maibock and the Russian River collab beer called Yvan the Great which was a belgian blonde.
It was fun to actually try all these Sierra Nevada beers. I have been turned off by them as of late, and while I probably won't go run out and buy them again soon I do appreciate the efforts they have made it's just unfortunately a lot of their beers have the same type of taste to them. But it did inspire me to do more brewery-themed tastings...just need to find breweries that have such a wide variety..perhaps Stone will be next!
Road Trip Tasting
We kicked all off with a few Hill Farmstead growlers. They included Society & Solitude #4, The Susan and The Abner. All were incredible but it seems the overall thought was Society and The Susan stood out just a little more than Abner..but all 3 were top IPAs I've ever had.
Who we are kidding with Heady Topper? Speaks for itself..but no worries that Heady lasted us a few weeks!
As for the others..they all had great things about them hence why I brought them home. The Maine Beer Co beers were cheap and bottled the day I was at the brewery. Unfortunately Lunch just didn't do it for us sadly in the bottle..on tap it was incredible dunno what happened. Mo, Zoe, and Another One though were incredible out of the bottle.
Trillium Brewing offered some FANTASTIC brews especially Fort Point Pale Ale which drinks like a hoppy IPA, Wake Robin Red was awesome and their Farmhouse was the best farmhouse I've ever had.
Allagash had a good effort for a Belgain IPA with fellow Maine brewers Maine Beer Co and Rising Tide. Speaking Rising Tide their Session IPA called Maine Beer Trail was in my top 3 Sessions.
SoMe from southern Maine was a session I picked up..it wasn't bad.
Harpoon had a Citra IPA I grabbed, great for Harpoon!
Jacks Abby made a great line of Bourbon beers with their Framingham base. The Coffee outshined the regular Bourbon Aged.
Lastly Anna from Hill Farmstead...well it speaks for itself..incredible.
Great line up and so glad I could bring home such wonderful beers from the East coast. These beers are hands down some of the best beers in the country, more specifically best IPAs.
Under 6% Tasting
This tasting came about because I really started to get into Session IPAs and it was right before the start of summer which is the best time for Session-like beers. They were starting to pop up all over and I figured hey lets do a night where we try them all. Well after purchasing all the sessions I could get my hands on, I realized there wouldn't be enough beer for the tasting crowd. Therefore I made a decision..hey lets throw in a bunch of other low percent beers and I made 6% the cut off point. We ended up with 48 beers ranging from Session IPAs, to Wheats, to Pale Ales, to Pilsners and a couple single randoms like an Amber, Pale Lager and Wit. All of them are pictured below:
I would like to discuss each category as I review the results. To begin, the Session IPAs. There were some great ones here. Fat Heads Sunshine Daydream, Pizza Port S.I.P.A., Firestone Easy Jack, Stone Go To, Carton Brewing Boat Session were the top 5 for Sessions in no particular order. The other 7, Drakes Alpha, Southern Tier Farmers Tan, Troegs Scratch #143, Great Divide Lasso, Flying Dog Easy IPA, Founders All Day, and Goose Island Endless IPA were all very drinkable but we agreed just didn't match up when it came to hoppiness and full body flavor you want from a Session IPA.
As for the Pale Ales only a few here stood out. Local growler of Community Beerworks The Frank was real nice, Maine Mo was great, Half Acre Daisy Cutter and Southern Tier Live were the best of the crop. The others were ranging from pretty good to just not very good at all.
The Wheats had a hands down winner and that was Three Floyds Gumballhead. Half Acre Akari Shogun and Bells Oberon were a close second. The rest were all just typical wheats that didn't blow anyone away.
The Pilsners were a small crop and sadly none stood out to us but I would say the best out of the small crop was Firestone Pivo Pils.
As for the complete other random ones, Otter Creek Citra Mantra which is consider a Pale Lager was real good. The rest didn't impress me at all.
It was hard doing this tasting after the extremely successful IPA tasting, but it was still a blast with lots of good people and a lot of people left seeking out more of the Session-like beers to drink during the summer.
As for the Pale Ales only a few here stood out. Local growler of Community Beerworks The Frank was real nice, Maine Mo was great, Half Acre Daisy Cutter and Southern Tier Live were the best of the crop. The others were ranging from pretty good to just not very good at all.
The Wheats had a hands down winner and that was Three Floyds Gumballhead. Half Acre Akari Shogun and Bells Oberon were a close second. The rest were all just typical wheats that didn't blow anyone away.
The Pilsners were a small crop and sadly none stood out to us but I would say the best out of the small crop was Firestone Pivo Pils.
As for the complete other random ones, Otter Creek Citra Mantra which is consider a Pale Lager was real good. The rest didn't impress me at all.
It was hard doing this tasting after the extremely successful IPA tasting, but it was still a blast with lots of good people and a lot of people left seeking out more of the Session-like beers to drink during the summer.
IPA Tasting
Quite possibly one of, if not the, best night of drinking of my entire life. The timing was perfect. We had just came back from a trip to San Diego with some Pizza Port and Alpine brews. My friend was in Chicago just days before the tasting so he was able to snab some Three Floyds, Pipeworks, Surly, and Half Acre beers. And on a whim I quickly visited Cleveland to get growlers Fat Heads IBUsive and Columbus Bohdi. We had quite the turnout for this one, especially since everyone saw the line up leading into it. It was an incredible 6 hours of drinking, one I never will forget (although I did kind of slowly black out towards the end..so that part may always be forgotten). Take a look below at all the wonderful beers in the lineup:
Now unlike my other tastings, there were only a very small handful of beers that were unsatisfying. Let me discuss the big stand outs thought. Alpine Pure Hoppiness was a shock because we had it on tap in San Diego and preferred Nelson and Duet much more..but something happened to this bottle and it was out of this world good! The aroma hit you from feet away and the whole room were pure enjoyment as they sipped on it making it the clear winner.
Another big standout was shockingly enough Surly Abrasive. Now it is rated 100 on Beer Advocate, but it was a few months old so I expected it to lose a lot of its luster. It didn't...it was incredible. It's brothers...Furious and Overrated! were good..but didn't come close to Abrasive.
Another shocker, well not for me since I have had it, was Pipeworks Derketo. It is a Belgian IPA which most would think isn't too great. They are wrong..it drinks like a great regular IPA, very hoppy and has a lightness to it even though it is around 10%. The other Pipeworks however were all pretty underwhelming which was sad since used to be so much better. I personally think they are pumping out too many different styles and not focusing on making just a few quality beers like they were at the beginning.
Three Floyds unfortunately while pumped up by me just couldn't make a big splash due to the two beers offered, Artic Panzer Wolf and Dreadnaught since they both tasted VERY alcoholic. Half Acre's Vallejo was real tasty and liked by most however. Good representation of Chicago beers.
Along with the Alpine beers, Pizza Port made a good splash for San Diego beers. The S.I.P.A. session was a big hit, especially since sessions were just starting to pop up all over. And Swami's IPA was also really tasty.
Our typical Ohio beers did great also. Fat Heads IBUSive growler was top 5 and a huge hit. Headhunter IPA and Sunshine Daydream Session were also popular. Brew Kettle White Rajah did well. And Columbus Bohdi growler was a big hit, while the Columbus IPA was just average.
As for the rest, they were mostly our typical local beers. Ghandi Bot was probably top 5 as usual...it is so good and rarely found around here. Ithaca Flower Power, Ballast Point Sculpin, Lagunitas Sucks, Stone Enjoy By, Great Lakes Rye of the Tiger, Bear Republic Apex and others were all staples around here and while very enjoyable just couldn't compete!
Such a great night of drinking that I could write about for hours since IPAs are my passion and I thought our lineup couldn't of gotten much better with the resources I am given. The only way to even possibly make it better was maybe to throw in a can of Heady and some Hill Farmstead growlers...but hey wasn't need and it was a GREAT night!
Another big standout was shockingly enough Surly Abrasive. Now it is rated 100 on Beer Advocate, but it was a few months old so I expected it to lose a lot of its luster. It didn't...it was incredible. It's brothers...Furious and Overrated! were good..but didn't come close to Abrasive.
Another shocker, well not for me since I have had it, was Pipeworks Derketo. It is a Belgian IPA which most would think isn't too great. They are wrong..it drinks like a great regular IPA, very hoppy and has a lightness to it even though it is around 10%. The other Pipeworks however were all pretty underwhelming which was sad since used to be so much better. I personally think they are pumping out too many different styles and not focusing on making just a few quality beers like they were at the beginning.
Three Floyds unfortunately while pumped up by me just couldn't make a big splash due to the two beers offered, Artic Panzer Wolf and Dreadnaught since they both tasted VERY alcoholic. Half Acre's Vallejo was real tasty and liked by most however. Good representation of Chicago beers.
Along with the Alpine beers, Pizza Port made a good splash for San Diego beers. The S.I.P.A. session was a big hit, especially since sessions were just starting to pop up all over. And Swami's IPA was also really tasty.
Our typical Ohio beers did great also. Fat Heads IBUSive growler was top 5 and a huge hit. Headhunter IPA and Sunshine Daydream Session were also popular. Brew Kettle White Rajah did well. And Columbus Bohdi growler was a big hit, while the Columbus IPA was just average.
As for the rest, they were mostly our typical local beers. Ghandi Bot was probably top 5 as usual...it is so good and rarely found around here. Ithaca Flower Power, Ballast Point Sculpin, Lagunitas Sucks, Stone Enjoy By, Great Lakes Rye of the Tiger, Bear Republic Apex and others were all staples around here and while very enjoyable just couldn't compete!
Such a great night of drinking that I could write about for hours since IPAs are my passion and I thought our lineup couldn't of gotten much better with the resources I am given. The only way to even possibly make it better was maybe to throw in a can of Heady and some Hill Farmstead growlers...but hey wasn't need and it was a GREAT night!
Monday, August 25, 2014
Christmas Tasting
Shortly after Stout Tasting Night, I threw in a Christmas Tasting right before the holidays. There are so many holiday beers but they have an interesting range to them. There are the Christmas spiced beers, the Winter ales, Winter stouts, Winter IPAs and others. So of course I wanted to share the Christmas love and have people over to sample all these great brews. This night saw more of random stop ins by family and friends then a solid gathering which was just as fun.
My favorite style for the season is the Christmas spiced beers. In that family, the big standouts were Southern Tier 2XMas and Great Lakes Christmas Ale. Both have that really nice spiced flavor and when I drink them it just feels like Christmas. Another standout for spiced but not pictured because it was a late addition is Hoppin Frog Frosted Frog..I can honestly say this may be my favorite Christmas beer ever..and 5 people at the tasting agreed with me. Some good Winter beers we enjoyed were Victory Winter Cheers, Bells Winter Warmer Ale and Sierra Nevada Celebration. From what I recall none of the other beers really blew us away whatsoever, but it was a great time and a great way to kick off the holiday week!
Stout Tasting
My second big tasting at my place was Stout night. I had seen so many stouts from all over and wanted an opportunity to not only try each one but share them with others since it is hard to drink a lot of stouts completely on your own. You will see below there is a massive number of stouts compared to my other tastings and I can say we did not make it through more than 60-70% of them. This tasting had a very good turnout with about 10 people tasting. Stouts have such a good variety. In our tastings we had Milk Stouts, Bourbon Aged Stouts, Chocolate Stouts, Russian Imperial Stouts, Imperial Stouts, Coffee Stouts and a few other random kinds.
Since it has been over 8 months and I didn't use a rating system for this night, I am strictly going off a shady memory. I do recall that the Yeti's were popular from Great Divide...that included the Oatmeal, the Chocolate and the Espresso. I also recall my shock when Butternut's Beer & Ale's Moo Thunder Milk Stout was adored by many of the girls at the tasting. A few other stand outs were Alesmith Speedway Stout, Founders Breakfast Stout, Full Pint's Night of the Living Stout, and Southern Tier Choklat. Lastly, Sam Adams Gingerbread Stout from what I can remember may have been the nights winner with a strong but not overpowering taste of gingerbread and smooth backbone. This beer night was very filling to say the least, but introduced people to a lot of new stouts and weeks following a lot of the tasters would tell me they went out and bought so and so beer since they loved it at the tasting...so I did the job right and created new fans of the delicious stouts!
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Pumpkin Tasting
My first official beer tasting at my place was the Pumpkin Tasting in October of 2013. This was planned to allow people to come and taste the great pumpkin beers the Fall season offers. Pictured below are the group of beers that were included in the tasting.
We had a decent crowd show up for the event. Thankfully we made it through all of the beers. Most of these I had never tried. Among the top rated were Southern Tier Pumking, Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale, and Shipyard Pumpkinhead. The two latter are very poorly reviewed online but were favorites for their strong pumpkin flavor. Southern Tier Warlock is advertised as a Chocolate Stout/Pumking Mix but it tasted extremely similar to Pumking with just a darker color. Many others had that watered down pumpkin flavor. None really made me want to run out and buy another with the exception of the 3 I mentioned.
This year for Fall beers we plan to focus on all Fall beers including Pumpkins, Oktoberfest and Harvest beers. I will update those results once we celebrate that event.
Beer Tastings
For the past year, I have been holding beer tastings at my apartments for all different types of styles of beers. This whole idea started because for the past 3 summers we have done an IPA tasting with some out of town family members. I enjoy introducing new styles and new beers to friends and family. Typically what I do is making a list of all the beers, and as we taste each one we rate it anywhere from 1-10. Each time I do these tastings I have new people show up and I highly believe I have changed some non-beer drinkers into beer drinkers...people who don't like IPAs into people who like IPAs...etc. Since the summer tastings are what started this I would like to share those experiences now with pictures of our lineups and which we thought were the best....
Pictured above is our 2012 line up. This was the first year we did this. All the beers were found at our local beer store. If memory serves me correctly the winner was Hop Red Rye by Bear Republic. Another contender was Flower Power by Ithaca Beer Co. But we had a great time, caught a great buzz and it really started something with some family members were never big beer drinkers.
Fast forward one year later and we have our 2013 line up. Half the beers were out of town beers I picked up on my 2013 road trip. It also introduced some black IPAs into the lineup. The hands down winner this year was shockingly enough the only non-IPA or Pale Ale beer in the tasting and that is Gumballhead by Three Floyd's. It is a hopped up Wheat, and since we had more people join the tasting who weren't huge IPA drinkers I think this beer helped since it is smooth, crisp, hoppy but not too hoppy.
Lastly is our 2014 line up. Consisting mostly of beers that I got on different road trips and some newer stuff to our area. Since I try not to repeat any IPAs I couldn't use most the regulars so it was fun to try a bunch of new ones including many new Sessions that have been hitting the market. We successfully made it through all of them. The lowest rated of the day was the Harpoon IPA and a local IPA made by our brewery Resurgence...however I think that's partially due to a horrible growler fill at the brewery. There were a few beers with great ratings including Heady Topper, Rising Tide's Session IPA, and Brew Kettle White Rajah..but the winner isn't even pictured and it was our local IPA made by Community Beer Works.
I will begin sharing all my tastings night over the next few days which include Pumpkin Night, Stout Night, Christmas Night, IPA Night and Beers Under 6% night.
I will begin sharing all my tastings night over the next few days which include Pumpkin Night, Stout Night, Christmas Night, IPA Night and Beers Under 6% night.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Resurgence Brewing - Buffalo, NY
Earlier 2014 we were welcomed in Buffalo to a brand new brewery called Resurgence. The name comes from the fact that Buffalo is building itself back up and in a resurgence in this city. We were there opening day and I have been back a few times including a private Yelp event.
I have tasted most their beers, and from day one til now you can already see improvements. Their Road Trip IPA in which they traveled to pick up some hops was fantastic when I first had..unfortunately days later it lost a lot of steam but not sure why. Their IPA is real nice. The Session IPA I hated at first, but just weeks later I was big fan. Loganberry Wheat is good for a wheat, except I never got much loganberry. Summer Saison is nice for a saison. Spongecandy Stout is a nice stout coming in at only 6% but again..didn't get much spongecandy flavor.
I am so glad to have this place only minutes from me. Lots of space, a great bier garden, and a very nice staff. If the crowds daily are an indication this place should do very well for itself. Check them out for yourself..www.resurgencebrewing.com/
Pearl Street Brewery - Buffalo, NY
I have visited well over 100 breweries and it took me this long to finally get to Pearl Street Brewery and Grill in my hometown just minutes away. I knew going into it that they weren't very well known for having amazing beer but I just had to say I've been there.
This place is massive. I can probably say it's the biggest brewery I have been to because it is like 5 floors including private venues, a basement, tons of back patios on each floor and a huge restaurant on the main floor.
We got a sampler of all the beers. As I expected, beers were all pretty unimpressive. Their stouts are what stood out. The Raspberry Stout had a great raspberry flavor with a good stout backbone. And the oatmeal stout was pretty good too. So I would say if you like stouts then order a stout on your visit here.
I have to promote my local beer scene. It isn't the best brewery in Buffalo, but they have been going strong for a long time and people love it. I won't be in a rush to go back, but I am glad we have it in our city. Check out their info...buffalobrewerydistrict.com/pearl/node/29
This place is massive. I can probably say it's the biggest brewery I have been to because it is like 5 floors including private venues, a basement, tons of back patios on each floor and a huge restaurant on the main floor.
Another awesome roadtrip!
The 2014 Summer Road Trip had come to an end sadly...Boston, Vermont, Portland, New Hampshire, and Salem were all great! As my last post for this trip I wanted to show all the goodies I can home with...growlers of Hill Farmstead, cases of Heady Topper, lots of other great local beers I grabbed and of course fun different types of glasses from great breweries..enjoy!
Hill Farmstead - Greensboro Bend, VT
Hill Farmstead is very well known among beer geeks or beer enthusiasts or beer nerds..whoever they are they know this brewery. Located about an hour outside of Waterbury..home of the Alchemist, this place is hidden in the middle of lots of farmland and thank god for a GPS because I would have had no clue where I was going.
After reading plenty of reviews, I knew this place gets packed early and you can expect to wait. We arrived about 30 minutes early and already had about 20 people in line. We waited, and waited, finally opened! You then go inside a building where you wait again. Very basic farm house here with an organized process of getting you your beers. You step up, tell them what you want, they take your growlers and you wait a few minutes and boom..it's done!
The one nice thing is when you get close to the counter, a nice woman comes and takes an order for 4 samples for 5$. You can choose any 4 of the beers and she brings them to you one by one.
Between me and my girlfriend and friend we got 9 growlers. The Susan is just an incredible IPA. Society and Solitude #4 outstanding. Abner was really good. The Walden Session was a really nice session. And for a porter the Everett was incredible. But for growlers it was all about Society and Solitude #4 and Susan...they killed it!
They have a few t-shirts and very nice stemmed glasses for sale. They also sell bottles of different beers they make..none of the IPAs or anything, usually sours and farmhouse ale type beers.
I wouldn't make the trek out here again, too far and too much work for a few growlers. BUT it did look like they were constructing a tasting room perhaps, and in Waterbury you can get most the beers on tap..so I would stick to that. They update their taplist daily and are open most days expect Monday and Tuesdays I believe, check them out...www.hillfarmstead.com/
The one nice thing is when you get close to the counter, a nice woman comes and takes an order for 4 samples for 5$. You can choose any 4 of the beers and she brings them to you one by one.
Between me and my girlfriend and friend we got 9 growlers. The Susan is just an incredible IPA. Society and Solitude #4 outstanding. Abner was really good. The Walden Session was a really nice session. And for a porter the Everett was incredible. But for growlers it was all about Society and Solitude #4 and Susan...they killed it!
Magic Hat Brewing Co - South Burlington, VT
One word will describe my experience here..SHOCKED. Now my experiences with Magic Hat isn't much expect that I had tried it once or twice and was never a huge fan. But I figured hey..it's in the area why not check it out? Now if I had to describe this brewery in one word it would be..Eclectic.
Upon arriving you are greeted by a giant lighthouse type structure near the entrance and a giant steel door to walk through. In the building there is a giant room with dim lighting and just a green lit feel to it. Tons of merchandise..all sorts of cool little things I haven't seen at other breweries. Even a free photo booth that allows you to take fun pictures and they get emailed to you for free.
As for the beer you get 4 free samples you can choose from the 6-8 beers they typically have on tap. Being such a long day already, I can't even recall each one I had but I will say I did enjoy them and that surprised me.
They offer tours, which from the looks of the brewery I bet are pretty unique tours. I bought some merchandise, enjoyed the beers and now I can proudly say I am a Magic Hat fan. I probably won't be buying their buys on a constant basis but I do look for them now every once in a while and want to give them a chance. If you are in the Burlington area do yourself a favor and check them out...www.magichat.net/
Otter Creek Brewing Co - Middlebury, VT
Having a little free time we decided to take a hike to Otter Creek Brewing Company located outside of Burlington about 35 minutes. Quite in the middle of no where we arrived to a packed house on a Wednesday afternoon. Granted it was July 3rd so maybe a lot of people were off?
When we first walked in we saw the head brewer, headband and all sitting at the beer drinking. If you drink Otter Creek you know the guy on the label with the headband. We got a seat at the bar and ordered a full sampler. This gave us all Otter Creek beers, along with Wolavers and Shedd. The beers can all be seen below. The highlights were the Otter Creek Session Ale, Black IPA and Wolavers Wheat was better than I expected. The rest were okay.
We grabbed a cheese plate which had some fantastic local cheeses and definetely worth the money.
There is a small gift shop with merchandise and plenty of 6 packs to take home. I would recommend this place if you have time to spare or are driving through the area, but I wouldn't go super out of the way since you can get most the beers in beer stores. Their hours are really nice and they're open daily. Check them out...www.ottercreekbrewing.com/
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