Good Dog(fish)

Lots of happenings going on at this end and most of them have nothing to do with beer. The biggest and most enjoyable life twist is the addition of the fur ball pictured above. Murphy is our 12 week old black Labrador Retriever that became part of the family this past Saturday. I've wanted a dog for years and patiently waited until Kelleigh and I had a place with a substantial yard and a decent amount of indoor space. Now that we are with canine it means my days start a little earlier, the so called extra time in my schedule is dedicated to training and I continue to find creative ways to keep a 15 lb cat from filleting the dog. It all means I've missed a few beer events but it's more than worth it to hang with the little guy.

Since I haven't been out for a beer recently I decided to pull a bottle from The Beer Fridge to toast our new addition. Dogfish Head Punkin' Ale seemed an appropriate choice. He's a dog, at this point a bit of a punk, albeit a sweet punk, and it is pumpkin season. Ok, it's a stretch. Sure a bottle of Spanish Peaks Black Dog Ale would of been more fitting but I can only work with what I have. Besides I am still riding a pumpkin beer high that isn't fading anytime soon.

Dogfish Punkin' Ale has always been one of my favorites. Years ago when I first started drinking pumpkin beer it was my first. No wonder it holds a special place in my ale filled heart. A good pumpkin flavor leans this beer in the direction of pie-in-a-glass but doesn't over do it with in your face spice and over the top sweetness. You know you are drinking a beer not a pumpkin soda. The hop bitterness balances out the sweet and a touch of alcohol towards the end does nothing to prevent a smooth finish.

Here's to ya Murphy!!!

Big Boooozy Pumpkin Thursday and the Weekend too

Yeah I know I mentioned this just a few posts back but I've been slammed with work and the creative side of my brain is currently napping. Besides I am a sucker for pumpkin beers and there are a few more details on what will pour at the Devil's Den tonight and continue to pour through the upcoming weeks. Get your pumpkin on!!!

Southern Tier Pumpking
Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale (tapped once the Pumking is gone)
Bruery Autumn Maple
Lakefront Pumpkin
Terrapin Pumpkin Fest
South Hampton Pumpkin Ale
Cape Ann Pumpkin Stout

More pumpkin beer treats for the upcoming weeks
Saranac Pumpkin Ale
Shipyard Pumpkin Head
Elysan Night Owl Pumplin
Dogfish Head Pumpkin Ale
Steamworks Ale Diablo
Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale
Dock Street Great Pumpkin
Wild Goose Pumpkin Patch
New Holland Ichabod Ale
Heavy Seas Great Pumpkin
Gritty’s Ales BOO

Can't make it to the city tonight, then head to the burbs this weekend for your pumpkin fix. Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester is celebrating the Gathering of the Gourds.

Saturday, October 24
2:00 PM - Beer runs out
Featuring Pumpkin Beers from Iron Hill: Ichabod Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Boom Sticke Pumpkin Alt, Bruce Camp-ale and Punktoberfest
Guest Pumpkin Beers
Elysian Brewing Company, Cambridge Brewing Company and Stewart's Brewing Company
Special Tapping
Join us at 5:00 when we tap a ginormous pumpkin filled with ichabod Imperial Pumpkin Ale
"Guerilla" Costumes
Don a costume inspired by Guerilla Drive In's screening of Evil Dead: Army of Darkness, and receive a complementary beer and complementary pumpkin hors d'oeuvres

Here is a little video from last year's Pumpkin Fest at Iron Hill Brewery in North Wales. I am sure you know the guys doin' the tapping and if you don't just keep watching.

TJ's East Coast/West Coast Throwdown

Yeah, this time it's an east coast vs west coast thang. In TJ's ongoing regional beer battles the tag team from New York Ithaca/Southern Tier takes on California's Stone/Coronado. Throwdown goes 7pm-12am. Can't we all just get along?


(West Coast):
Stone IRS
Stone Vertical Epic 09.09.09
Stone Cali-Belgique
Stone Ruination
Stone 13th Anniversary
Coronado Hoppy Daze
Coronado Islander IPA
Coronado Red Devil
Coronado 12th Anniversary Stoopid Stout
Sierra Nevada Estate Harvest or Moylan's Hopsickle

(East Coast):
Ithaca Flower Power
Ithaca Eleven
Ithaca Cold Front
Ithaca Cascazilla
Ithaca Outdoor Harvest Ale
Ithaca Brute
Ithaca alpHalpHa (CASK)
Southern Tier Pumking
Southern Tier Mokah
Southern Tier Creme Brulee
Southern Tier Unearthly
Southern Tier Cuvee II
Southern Tier Harvest
General Lafayette Bier de Cerise

2nd Annual East Coast Cask Festival & Pig Roast: Spinnerstown Hotel

These pictures are from last year's West Coast Cask event at the Spinnerstown Hotel and it looks as if the rain is returning with the firkins. This year it's time to focus on the east. The Cask Festival and Pig Roast will feature 10 breweries from Maine to Georgia. Rain and cold weather be damned we shall eat pork and drink ale. Noon-5pm. PAYG

Featured Casks

Allagash Curieux
Southern Tier Pumpking Imperial Pumpkin Ale
Blue Point Hoptical Illusion
Sly Fox Palisades Parkway Pale Ale
The Duck-Rabbit Wine Barrel Aged Brown Ale
Terrapin Farmhouse Saison with
Bitter Sweet Orange Peel and Corriander
Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA
Manayunk California Dreamin DIPA
Rock Bottom IPA
Victory Storm King Imperial Stout

Dirty Snow? She Did it for the Beer.

Say it ain't so. Ms. White is a chain smokin woman of loose morals? Well the Disney animated icon is certainly showing a different side in ads for Jamieson Brewery in Australia, as reported by The Daily Telegraph. Jamieson is using a likeness of Snow White to advertise their Raspberry Ale as "anything but sweet". The image gets right to the point. Don't worry mom and dad the names of the dwarves and America's sweetheart have been changed to protect the innocent. Snow White is Ho White (seems appropriate) and Sleepy, Happy and Doc are now Filthy, Smarmy and Randy (?). As you may have figured mega media corp Disney isn't too happy. The campaign creators, The Foundry, reported that they had "a little bit of contact" with Disney. Kids can we say cease and desist order? Yes we can!

Pumpkin Madness @ South Philly Tap Room and Devil's Den

Pumpkin fans rejoice. Pumpkin beer fans really rejoice. Two of South Philly's best beer locations are going all out pumpkin.

First

The Great Pumpkin Road Show
South Philly Tap Room
Sunday October 18th
4-8pm, PAYG

David Buhler travels to town from Elysian Brewing bringing in 6 of his pumpkin brews on draft. Add to that 6 more pumpkin beers from other breweries and you have 12 pumpkiny offerings flowing. Also look for pumpkin and squash dinner specials and a fall pumpkin carving contest. Pure pumpkin bliss.

Second

Pumpkin Fest

Devil's Den

Thursday October 22nd

7-10pm, PAYG

Time for your after work pumpkin fix. A variety of pumpkin and fall beers along with a pumpkin decorating contest and special pumpkin menu items from the kitchen. The final beer list is TBD.

NYC Beer Trippin' to the Yankees (PT2): Heartland Brewery & Rotisserie

The Yankees have already swept the Minnesota Twins and the Phillies have done away with the Colorado Rockies, however before all this October playoff pandemonium started I took the train up to NYC to meet a few friends for my first visit to Yankee Stadium. Since I am a fly-by-night baseball fan my trip to the Big Apple served another purpose. I made sure to arrive early enough to explore a few good beer bars before meeting the group. The afternoon started at the very impressive Rattle-N-Hum and then moved half a block west to Heartland Brewery & Rotisserie (350 5th Ave) located in the Empire State Building.

My first experience with Heartland happened a few years back while visiting friends in midtown. Kelleigh and I stopped by Heartland's original location in Union Square. Since I'm known to drift into the closest brewery no matter where I am a Heartland stop was inevitable. Unfortunately the only thing that stood out from that experience was that nothing stood out from that experience. The food was decent but I remember the beer being fairly average. Not bad just nothing to shout about. Kelleigh had made the point that the place might work better for someone who was trying craft beer for the first time. There was good variety with nothing too over the top to scare off the macro minded beer drinker. In a sense what Red Lobster is to seafood, Heartland is to beer. Fast forward to now. So why did I decide to stop in on this trip? Besides having to pass the front door on the way to The Ginger Man (more on that later) HB&R brews one of my guilty autumn pleasures, a pumpkin beer.

Put pumpkin in it and I'm on it: cake, pie, latte, ice cream, soup, yadda, yadda, yadda. Every fall for the past several years my never-fail-me pumpkin beers have been Southern Tier Pumking and Dogfish Head Punkin' Ale. Wishful thinking had me penciling in Heartland's fall classic Smiling Pumpkin Ale. The brewery website states: "Our Famous autumn colored beer is made with honey-roasted pumpkins and simmered with ginger, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. A sweet and spicy harvest treat that goes down smoothly". Tasty brewery speak.

Smiling Pumpkin starts out with the big aromas of fall. Nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander and allspice are all present. Sadly the first sip revealed a taste that didn't quite reach the level of the aroma. Some light spice and sweetness came through with a touch of pumpkin flavor. The honey-roasting isn't detectable. Overall a little too thin for my taste. Since I am more of a pie-in-the-glass guy I was hoping for a bolder spicier beer with a maltier background. However it does fall in line with their other middle of the road offerings.

My quick stop at Heartland allowed me just enough time to toss back the pint and look around the place. The most notable point about the Empire State location were the bars. Upstairs reminded me of a slightly fancier Friday's (where is your flare?) while the dimly lit, quiet downstairs seemed like a trendier spot for the evening. A great space but either way I wish the beer had made the big impression. Onward to the Ginger Man.

To be continued...

Happy Anniversary Earth Bread + Brewery

Wow, has it been a year of drinking great beer and tossing down yummy flatbread in Mt. Airy? I guess it has. Congrads Tom and Peggy on Earth Bread + Brewery's success!!!

Today is our 1 year anniversay!!
There will be 11 of Tom's beers on tap.
$1 off on all flatbreads (just wait until we're 5 or 10 years open!)
Anniversary pint glasses - growlers - Tshirts

Wegmans and the Business of Beer

This Sunday (10/11) is the big opening of Wegmans supermarket in Collegeville. Most of the beer people I know have had this date marked on their calenders and are specifically awaiting the opening of the Pub inside the Market Street Cafe. The availability of hundreds of beers in a restaurant setting, along with single bottle and six pack sales will give many a reason to head to the market for more than the normal weekly shopping trip. Of course all is not happy in the land of hops and malt. The MBDA ( Malt Beverage Distributors Association) of Pennsylvania still has issues with retailers selling beer and believes supermarkets are managing to slide by established state laws. Currently a lawsuit filed against the LCB by the MBDA is expected to be heard shortly by the state Supreme Court. The hot topic is covered in depth in the current issue of Philadelphia Business Journal

I Love the Smell of Wood in the Morning

If you aren't headed to the sold out Kennett Square Brewfest or maybe if you are and just need to make your day of beer drinking a little longer head to Union Jack's Inn on the Manatawny. UJ is providing some serious morning wood ***insert chuckle here*** with a Wood Barrel Aged Beer Fest featuring 15 barrel aged beers on tap. A 9am start means you will have to break your rule of no drinks before noon. Who am I kidding? I'm sure most of you reading this won't have a problem sipping on your first cold one at a time when you are more accustom to tossing back bacon, eggs and double caramel lattes. PAYG 9am-???

DRAFT LIST (SO FAR):

STONE RED WINE BARREL AGED OLD GUARDIAN

ALLAGASH INTERLUDE

OMMEGANG ROUGE

PENNICHUCK POZHARNIK

FOUNDERS MAPLE MOUNTAIN BROWN

SAINT SOMEWHERE LECTIO DU CHENE

FOUNDERS BACKWOODS BASTARD 07

TERRAPIN SUBSTANCE ABUSE

TERRAPIN BIG HOPPY MONSTER

NEW HOLLAND DRAGONS MILK 07

LEFT HAND OAKED IMPERIAL STOUT

RUSSIAN RIVER CONSECRATION

FOUNDERS HAND OF DOOM

Le Trou Du Diable La Claymore Cerise

Le Trou Du Diable Brandy Barrel La Buteuse

A firkin of Harviestoun Ola Dubh 12

NYC Beer Trippin' to the Yankees (PT1): Rattle-N-Hum

So what does a die hard football fan from Pittsburgh who places the importance of baseball dead last on the list of the four major sports do when asked to go to a Yankees game? I go, of course. Sure my love of baseball died around the same time Barry Bonds took a jet out of Pittsburgh back in 92 but even I can't deny the excitement of the New York Yankees and their new ballpark. Now if this were a sports blog I'd go on nostalgically about my childhood love of the game, the great ballpark memorabilia or the Yankees walk-off victory but here it's about the beer.

The good beer in this Yankees journey started with a short walk form Penn Station down 33rd to Rattle-N-Hum. There is an Irish flag over the door but a closer look at the beer signs tell you this isn't your average Irish American pub. While taking a seat at the long bar, one quick look at the hand written draft board and immediately you know this place takes its craft beer serious. There are 40 beers on tap and another 4 on cask at a separate cask bar at the back of the room. The place has the classic warm, been-there-forever pub feel. Surprising since it opened only a little over a year ago. The dimly lit room is trimmed in dark wood and has enough craft beer swag on the ceiling and walls to put the fear of God into a Coors Light drinker. Visiting for the first time I kicked myself for not taking time to make it up during their huge cask event for the recent NYC Craft Beer Week. In honor of real ale I decided on a Clipper City Brewing Hang 10 Weizen Dopplebock accompanied by a side of IPA brined fries (double fried perfection).

I am a big fan of Weizenbock and Hang 10 (bottle) is one of my top three American versions of the style. Penn Brewing Weizen Bock and Victory Moonglow Weizen Bock top my list. This was my first experience with H10 on cask and it didn't disappoint.

The pour was deep amber with a thin head that quickly faded. Banana bread came to mind with the first sniff; a good bit of sweet malt, spice and yeast. The fruit effect really comes out in this beer; raisins, apples, banana and a malt sweetness followed by a slight sourness towards the end. This was a very good sipper. The alcohol is well hidden. The fact that it's 10% abv still amazes me. If I didn't have an entire night of activity in front of me I would of loved to explore the rest of the cask list.

Midtown Village Fall Festival

There's a chill is in the air, the leaves are beginning to change and I have an urge to drink beer in the street. It must be time for the Midtown Village Fall Festival. Saturday October 3rd (noon-8pm) is the 4th year for the event that picked up where the former Ludwig's Oktoberfest left off. It's grown to include a multitude of shops, vendors, bars and restaurants all offering a grand afternoon of merriment in the streets of Midtown. The beer will flow from the usual locations; Fergie's, Vintage, Time and McGillin's Olde Ale House. For the Oktoberfest experience McGillin's will shut down Drury Street to create a beer garden with German beer, food and entertainment. Prost!!!