10 favorite beers of last week (July 10-July 30)

If Beer Weeks can define a week as ten days (or eleven this past year in Philly?), then I'm going to take the liberty of defining my last week of favorite beers as covering 21 days! What can I say? Have I been slacking? Not at all.

Been busy on many fronts, including two weeks of travel to Winston-Salem, NC — you'll see below how that turned out to be such a worthy destination. The first week of this three week period did not have much to write home (or to you) about. But the last ten-plus days certainly made up for it. Read on and let me know if you agree.

(Rich, full, and balanced flavors in a big bottle.)
~ Uísque Fumaça (7%), by 2SP Brewing Company (Aston, Pa.)
    The brewery's website lists this under "Special Beers" and it certainly earns that right. Head Brewer Bob Barrar finished this smoked porter in both Cabernet Sauvignon barrels and Rye Whiskey barrels. My personal preference says the quality and the depth of flavor wins with the super smooth and perfectly balanced whiskey version.

(One of the most distinctive looking beers I've had in some time. The color gives this one away.)
~ Ghost Station Berliner Weisse w/ Raspberries (4%), by Crime & Punishment Brewing Company (Philadelphia, Pa.)
    It's all berry, all tart, and all refreshing. Perfect for summertime and perfect at 4% ABV. Had this during the brewery's 2nd anniversary party. It's the only beer I ordered twice. I love the inspiration behind C&P's beers and naming. With Ghost Station, on their website they describe it as being "Named in honor of the secret trains that ran between East and West Germany during the Cold War. Brewed with 126 pounds of red raspberry puree..."

(A work of art, both on paper and in the glass.)
~ Sofiya (6.1%), by Crime & Punishment Brewing Company (Philadelphia, Pa.)
    Lot of very good things happening (or shall I say, brewing) at Crime & Punishment on Girard Avenue. The brewery's first foray into bottling coincided with the anniversary and upon bringing a bottle home with me and later diving headfirst into it, I can report that the barrel-aged Saison (in Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc) turned out very, very well.

(Comfy and inviting environs in which to enjoy a Dark Mild, ESB, or Dry Stout.)
~ Dark Mild (3.7%), by Hoots Beer Co. (Winston-Salem, NC)
    Once you find Hoots in Winston-Salem's historic West End neighborhood, I challenge you to make it only a short visit. There's no food at the brewery, but the adjacent family-friendly Mexican restaurant - The Porch Kitchen & Cantina - has that covered with ease and you should not miss that either. At Hoots, brewer Dave McClure's (of award-winning brewing history at Foothills and Red Brick) Irish Dry Stout and the ESB are phenomenal, but if I was sessioning the evening away (or the day, for that matter, why not?) the Dark Mild is what you'd find in my hand. Guaranteed, and that's a challenge that I'm willing to take.

(Photogenic bar for a picture perfect beer.)
~ Sorachi Grace Saison (4.8%), by La Cabra Brewing Company (Berwyn, Pa.)
    Been a couple few too many weeks since I'd last been to La Cabra. That was thankfully rectified and I was justly rewarded with a nice herbal and citrus balance in this farmhouse ale.

(A lot to like about this airy brewpub outside of Lancaster.)
~ Frican Saison (6.2%), by Mad Chef Craft Brewing (East Petersburg, Pa.)
    Rounding out my three 2-year anniversary parties in three weekends as Mad Chef in the middle on July 22. Their food, as much as their beer, continues to really impress me. So, do I put up the American IPA (6.3%), the Frican Saison (6.2%), or the F-18 IPA (6.3%) up as my favorite of the week? Tough call, but Saison is unmistakably my favorite year-round go-to style. At Mad Chef, brewer Sean Raney has nailed it. If you're anywhere near Lancaster, Mad Chef should be on your list of three breweries to visit.

(Just your run-of-the-mill Monday draft board at TJ's.)
~ Supplication (7%), by Russian River Brewing Company (Santa Rosa, Ca.)
    We're fortunate in the Philly area to have access to a near year-round supply of beers from the vaunted Russian River from California. When this sour cherry ale, aged in Pinot Noir barrels, can show up on a random Monday at TJ's in the suburban town of Paoli, yeah, you know were fortunate. This, btw, is likely my favorite from the brewery's sour side of the menu, as it sports the trifecta of brettanomyces, lactobacillus, and pediococcus while spending a year in the barrels.

(Solid summer beer to enjoy all day long.)
~ SRT Ale (4.6%), by Sly Fox Brewing Company (Pottstown & Phoenixville, Pa.)
    I recently picked up a sixtel of Saison Vos, the beer that has appeared in my home kegerator more than any other in the seven years of proud kegerator ownership, and while at the brewery also was fortuitous to come home with some canned Hop Project 002 and SRT Ale. The SRT makes an annual appearance in the spring and draws its inspiration from the SRT (Schuylkill River Trail), to which proceeds from this beer's sales are donated. It's a low-alcohol, hop-forward ale that I'm sorry I did get to sooner than mid-summer. The Hop Project is packaged in 16 oz. cans with the removable lid. This version in the series/project is sporting Centennial, Simcoe, and Denali hops and goes down all too easily.

(Two Old Hos hanging out together, one from '05 and the other from '06.)
~ Old Horizontal [2005] (11%), by Victory Brewing Company (Downingtown, Parkesburg, & Kennett Square, Pa.)
    If you follow me closely on social media (and, duh, why wouldn't you?! I use social media much more responsibly than some people. **handy FB link and Twitter link**), you may have noticed I've been working my way through a whole bunch of vintage beers. Many of which have very little business still being around 10+ years after bottling, much less five. This "Old Ho" from Victory has actually held up rather well after nearly 12 years. Not too much sherry or oxidation notes. Poured carefully to leave behind the sludge (though, surprisingly not too much), this is still a nice rather rich drinking barleywine that has held up similarly to certain Brooklyn Monster and Sierra Nevada Bigfoot barleywines.

(Plenty of both indoor and outdoor space to enjoy excellent beers from Wise Man.)
~ Week's Work English Mild (3.3%), by Wise Man Brewing Company (Winston-Salem, NC)
    Unlike Hoots, Wise Man is very easy to find. Just off the edge of downtown W-S, the 7-month-old brewery is making a strong impression with beers that wander into the extreme. Rebel Funk Brett Saison (6.3%) and Table of Brotherhood Tart Wheat IPA (5.5%) are two such examples. But, similar to Hoots, they really, really (did I say "really"?) caught my attention with their low alcohol offerings -- Week's Work English Mild, Scoop Dogg Cream Ale (5.6%), and Open Confession Scottish Ale (3.6%). The brewery is very kid friendly, very dog friendly, food truck friendly, and well good independent beer-friendly.


Click back here for an index of all beers that I've covered in the past.

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© Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge, 2017. All content is owned and uniquely created by Bryan J. Kolesar. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Kolesar is strictly prohibited. Excerpts, images, and links may be used with advance permission granted and only provided that full and clear credit is given to Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Contact Kolesar at TheBrewLounge@gmail.com

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January 2017: News update, part 2

News wire is heating up now that we've got the holidays packed up in a box behind us and 2017 squarely in front of us and under way. Here are some bits and bytes you should be aware of from the last few weeks.

~ On the way to Cape May....and another Final Four appearance? [link to Cape May Brewing Company blog]

~ This is very good. It's from Lew Bryson, so not a surprise. [link to The Daily Beast]

~ I, too, have found too many breweries and bars not taking enough time to care about things, like cask ale, that require both time and care. Very interesting read. [link to Your For Good Fermentables]

~ Last time here, it was Bell's Hopslam release schedule that I shared with you. If you like that one, I'm guessing that you'll find this one at least as interesting, or maybe more so. -- [link to Russian River's blog]

~ Mitch Steele nails it. [link to The Hop Tripper]

~ Closing in Philly. [link to Philly.com]

~ Excellent piece on the growler. I'm in the same camp as the author, rarely ever filling growlers in the last couple of years and reconsidering my "collection". [link to Draft Magazine]

~ Here's a 2017 list to know. [link to Uwishunu]

~ More Flying Dog to come. [link to Area Development]

~ Now this sounds a bit confusing, does it not? [link to The Full Pint]

~ I liked Helltown so much, I included them in my book. Nice to see them growing into Pittsburgh. [link to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

~ Because I know you've been asking what came of Curt Decker from Nodding Head Brewery that closed nearly 2 1/2 years ago. [link to Philly.com]

~ Drink up, as if your kid's future depends upon it! [link to Joe Sixpack]

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© Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge, 2017. All content is owned and uniquely created by Bryan J. Kolesar. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Kolesar is strictly prohibited. Excerpts, images, and links may be used with advance permission granted and only provided that full and clear credit is given to Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Contact Kolesar at TheBrewLounge@gmail.com

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Writing this ship, Part IV (California, part 2)

If you'd like to catch up with the pieces leading up to this Part IV, head back and check out the "intro", Part I, Part II, and/or Part III.

In addition to the trip last July to San Francisco that I shared with you the other day, there have since been two others. The one in February has been shared...likely, you might fairly say, ad nauseum. That was the SF Beer Week trip that was shared adequately here and over here as well. We'll leave that one rest until next year.

In December, there was a bit more trippin' around the City and Sonoma County. In the spirit of keeping you engaged, this'll be shared through some random pictures below instead of all those wordy words that I typically like to write.

(Sunrise over San Francisco)
(Fog. In San Francisco. Who's heard of such a thing?!)
(Hills. In San Francisco. Have you heard of such a thing?!)
(Sushi. In San Francisco. At one my favorites, Sakana, near Union Square.)
(City Beer Store hangs 'em proudly)
(the premiere of 21st Amendment's Hog Island Oyster Stout with, wait for it...oysters! At the Ferry Building Marketplace)
(Tcho Chocolate, located along the Embarcadero, is one of the region's finest)
(Lagunitas in Petaluma, Calif.)
(The iconic beer list at Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, Calif.)
(The Fremont Diner in Sonoma, Calif.)
(Breakfast and a beer at The Fremont Diner in Sonoma, Calif.)

(The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa. Decadent. Relaxing. Convenient to some of the best of Sonoma County)
(Imagery Winery in Glen Ellen, Calif.)
(Imagery Winery in Glen Ellen, Calif.)

(A nice day to take the family for a drive and some scenery)

Writing this ship, Part II (all over the place, part 1)

If you keep up around here at The Brew Lounge on a regular basis, this may be an easy post to get through. In my continued effort to clear the backlog and bring us all up-to-date around here — and, in part, make amends for my perhaps perceived absence — Part II here focuses on a bunch of miscellaneous TBL activities from July 2012 through December 2012 mostly focused from New York through Delaware.

July
  - There was Ommegang's BCTC as has come to be a summer tradition since 2004. Of course, I wrote about it here at TBL as well as over at After Hours. They were both popular features and definitely gained some traction over there at TWT. Check 'em both out if you had previously not. Jury is still out whether I'll be making the trek again this year. The streak may finally be broken.

  - Also in July was the excellent Russian River beer dinner at the lovely Yardley Inn along the banks of the Delaware River. I wrote about it, as well, over at After Hours. I can only imagine that it was probably the only beer dinner where Russian River's beers were featured where there was a table that did not touch a drop of the five excellent beers set in front of them. They were close-minded wine people, whaddya want?

August
  - August brought an invitation to an excellent venue for a beer festival in Doylestown I'd not yet been to in the past. Certainly not your typical festival at not your typical place with not your typical beer festival people. I recommend keeping your eyes open for it this year if you've also not been.

September
  - You probably know that Sly Fox is up and running with their new production facility (and Tastin' Room) in Pottstown, Pa. The land around the brewery creates the perfect space for outdoor events. In September, they moved their Kan Jam from Phoenixville to Pottstown and added some excellent live music all day long.

  - Every year, the reputation of Yards' Smoke 'Em If Yous Got 'Em event seems to grow. It helps that craft beer lovers are finding their way to these unique beers more than ever. And, that there's excellent professional and amateur barbecue served up along side.

  - That was in September. So was the Dogfish Dash in Milton, Del. Good thing I do this running thing, especially when the the decadent Yards event was the week before.

October
  - As I was gearing up for the Harrisburg Marathon in November (well, actually, for the NYC Marathon, but I think we all know what happened there), there was one last beer dinner to squeeze in that'd been on my mind for quite some time at Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza. Here's the recap of a dinner at their Horsham, Pa. location with Victory Brewing Company as the beer pairing companion.

November
  - Not much to share with you from the beer world in November as I finished training for what would become my new all-time best marathon finishing time at the Harrisburg Marathon. But, as I can recite, to the second, each of eight marathon finishing times, I can also tell you the first beer I had after each marathon. Typically, I aim for something local to complete the association of the the race, the place, and the beer. In this case, it was a post-Marathon lunch and beer at nearby Tröegs in Hershey and the beer was a Scratch #78 Fresh Hop Ale. What they're doing at the brewery simply adds to making Hershey the Sweetest Place On Earth. If you haven't been, add it to your short list.


December
  - December, like November, was a fairly quiet month for me in terms of getting out into the beer events circuit. One that I wouldn't skip, however, was the Sly Fox Anniversary breakfast. It was one of several things that I would find over many of the last several "lost months" that went undocumented here in the pages of The Brew Lounge. While there are many beer events that can justify taking vacation time from work, breakfast with the Sly Fox folks is one that will both entertain and nourish you. I've added a few pictures here for your enjoyment.

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Writing this ship, Part I (California, part 1)

(Before I delve into the beginnings of my travel notebook from the last nine months or so, if you don't know what's behind this, you may wish to check back on what I wrote earlier this week.)

A week to Costa Rica in February 2012 may have been the beginning. Two weeks to Belgium in May 2012 may have taken me to the edge.


But, what likely began my fall from this beer writing habit was my one week in northern California last July. The backlog of e-mails not dealt with, RSVPs not responded to s'il vous plaît, my writings of beer and people and stories found along the way in Costa Rica and Belgium not written about all went permanently on the back burner when I arrived in San Francisco in early July.

I crashed. I didn't burn, but it was definitely the most significant crash I've had in the 90 or so months that I've been doing up this gig.

What ensued after this July trip last year only compounded matters and I haven't been quite right (write) since.

It's all good, though. Remember, as I said in the preceding post, my day job comes first and that's why I was in the Bay Area. Once the day job closes for the day, though, the night job of beer exploration begins.


Not a whole lot to discuss during the week while I was in the city. A few good beers around town at the typical spots from Magnolia to Toronado to 21st Amendment. Each highly recommended, in case you didn't know, each for different reasons, for your Bay Area beer travels. There was much more to talk about from my meanderings during my entry and exit weekends around the region.

The first days brought a visit with Jay Brooks and his beautiful family as well as a gastronomical visit with Sean Paxton and his equally beautiful family. These are guys whom you should track when exploring the northern California region. Paxton for his gastronomically-incredible food and beer events delivered under the name The Home Brew Chef and Brooks for his solidified stature as one of the most knowlegable industry voices with plenty to say and share on his Brookston Beer Bulletin.


Of course, when heading up into their neck of the woods, the trip would not be complete without a visit to Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa. This time, for me, a visit that included a sampling of as much as this 220-pound frame could handle, the excellent pizza, the beer bites and drew bites, and (during my return visit the following day) an equally excellent performance on stage by Midori and Ezra Boy.


I procured a full growler of Row 2 Hill 56 from the pub to bring back to my downtown hotel room during the week and that worked out quite nicely. Glad to see this very good homage beer to their hop growing farmers appearing from time to time on the draft board. At that point, I'd had it once previously at a Monk's Cafe dinner in Philly where Vinnie Cilurzo and Brian Grossman hosted a joint Russian River/Sierra Nevada dinner so I knew of the beer's solid profile.


Wandering around Sonoma County also brought my first visit (believe it or not) to Lagunitas Brewing Company. Intoxicating (that can be taken many ways, ha!), to say the least. What might have been a one hour visit turned in to almost three; it's that kind of place. It's close enough to Highway 101 that if you're trekking north to Santa Rosa, you're cheating your true beer self if you don't make the stop in Petaluma. And, if you're with family or others that have no interest in the brewery and its outdoor beer garden, the Petaluma Outlet Mall might be a pleasing alternative.


My meanderings also brought a visit to Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastapol for a couple of fine lager-based beers (from a co-founder of Gordon Biersch, natch), a light bite, and some outdoor live music and a bakery visit to the nearby Wild Flour Bread Bakery and their awesome sticky buns.


These sticky buns made their way back into the City with me and served as excellent breakfast bites each morning of the week.

After a week's worth of day-jobbing in and around the City, the second Saturday presented me with the opportunity to check out the lauded BreastFest beer for charity festival at the scenic Fort Mason overlooking Alcatraz, Marin County, and the Golden Gate Bridge. I said plenty about the festival in a piece over at After Hours, so head over there and check it out if you have previously not.

There's plenty more to say about California in parts 2 and 3, so I'll leave the Golden State until such time.

The more I think of it, I wonder if going to Germany on a two-week cruise with Stephen Beaumont in October 2010 might have been the original tipping point. More on that to come....some day. I promise...I think...maybe.

Until then.....

Cheers!
Bryan

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Pre-gaming Philly Beer Week with Russian River, Sierra Nevada, Brian Morin, and Monk's Café

Pre-gaming Philly Beer Week with Russian River, Sierra Nevada, Brian Morin, and Monk's Café

With so much eating, drinking, and writing on the horizon for the next two weeks, it's hard to imagine wanting to bite off (sorry) another assignment just days after returning from Belgium and days before embarking on the wild journey that will be Philly Beer Week #5.

But when a Cilurzo (Russian River), a Grossman (Sierra Nevada), and a Morin (beerbistro) conspire with a one Mr. Tom Peters at Monk's Café for a memorable beer dinner, well, it's just tough to say no.

There are not enough superlatives to describe last night's dinner at Monk's Café in Philadelphia. Russian River and Sierra Nevada Brewing Companies from northern California sent their top honchos in advance of Philly Beer Week to put on a dinner show of epic proportions. They each brought their wives as well.

To match the beer in the kitchen, Monk's brought in Brian Morin, a veteran of many Monk's Café dinners, from Toronto's famed beerbistro.

Let's get the menu out of the way up front this time.

Sierra Nevada Pilsner
~ served with an Amuse Bouche of toast point with local goat cheese and breakfast radish

Sierra Nevada/Russian River Brux
~ served with Smoked Black Cod with Brux crème fraîche and green papaya slaw

Russian River Row 2/Hill 56-The Story of Simcoe
~ served with Deckle Steak with local mushroom ragout and garlic scapes

Russian River/Sierra Nevada CBC Symposium Sour Brown
~ served with Foraged Salad with symposium vinaigrette

Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest
~ served with Pork Belly with grilled radicchio and asparagus

Russian River Defenestration
~ served with Lobster & Leek Ravioli

Russian River Supplication
~ served with Duck Breast with local, wild sour cherries

Sierra Nevada/Russian River ExPortation
~ served with a cheese plate of Monte Enebro (a Spanish goat's milk cheese) and Wilde Weide (an organic Dutch raw cow's milk cheese) and served with ExPortation honey

Sierra Nevada Knock on Wood
~ served with Bittersweet Chocolate Tart with espresso crème brûlée

Grossman and Cilurzo both led off the evening with comments regarding their deep love and appreciation for Philadelphia and its beer scene. They aren't sticking around for Philly Beer Week this time around, but when their friend, Peters, wants to include their beer in a dinner a few days prior to PBW, they made sure to clear their calendars.

The evening turned out to be quite the who's-who of beer in Philadelphia. It seemed as if half the crowd (both the front and back rooms, including barstools, were seated for this dinner) was a recognizable face from brewers to distributors to reps. It was a great chance to catch up with everyone, particularly just prior to the impending PBW madness.

Philly's own Beer Lass, and Allagash representative, Suzanne Woods tweeted something to the effect of "am I the only person not at tonight's dinner at Monk's?"

Some combination of Cilurzo, Grossman, and Peters introduced almost every pairing of the extravagant 9-course meal. The most interesting stories on the beer side of the table involved the Russian River Row 2/Hill 56 Simcoe as Cilurzo described the brewery's deepening ties to the hop farmers (in this case those that source his Simcoe hops from one of the three Yakima Valley farms that source all of the world's Simcoe), the Symposium Brown, and of course the collaborative Brux.

Cilurzo talked a bit about how the Symposium Brown came together for the 2011 Craft Brewers Conference with Ken Grossman (yeast), Brian (recipe), Fritz Maytag (barrels), and himself ("shepherd") each playing their respective role in crafting this fine sour beer with no fruit involved.

The new Brux is one of the more talked-about beers of 2012 if, as Grossman explained, for no other reason than getting the "old man (his father, Ken) to relent after 32 years of trying to keep Brettanomyces out of the brewery".

This was the first commercial pouring of the beer outside the northern California brewery walls.

Originally code-named Global Warming, this beer was born in Brian (and Gina) Grossman's kitchen, for father's fear at the time of introducing a wild yeast into the brewery operations. For my palate, the beer is a refreshing sour, not overly bracing, and displays lemon citrus flavors. The funk registers fairly low and it should be a beer that is interesting to follow as it ages in the bottle. It will be distributed through the Sierra Nevada network, though availability is promised to be extremely thin even in the Philadelphia market.

As for the food, the success of the kitchen on this particular night seemed to grow upon itself course after course. Morin began with a pleasing amuse bouche of radishes and goat cheese and moved into a delectable hunk of smoked, black cod. As well done as these first two bites were, the execution of some of the following courses — namely the steak, ravioli, duck, and chocolate tart — were delivered as perfectly as the words on the menu suggested they would be. There's nothing more disappointing than having high hopes after initially reading a menu be crushed when the fork hits the mouth. Not on this night.

How about those pairings, right? Morin had the chance to sit down with the beers ahead of time in Toronto to give himself the best chance for success in building the menu. In this guy's book, he scored the most points with the Brux and papaya slaw under the black cod, the Simcoe beer with the mushroom ragout on the steak plate, the Supplication and duck breasts with sour cherries, and (you could've guessed) the Knock on Wood and chocolate tart.

Special thanks to dining companion, Keith, for reminding me of Supplication and duck playing nicely together over five years ago at Monk's. Strong memory, this one has!

The Knock on Wood, since I haven't described it until this point (and hadn't even heard of such a beer until the dinner), is basically SN's Hellraiser beer, a chipotle/chocolate stout aged for 16 months in Heaven Hill barrels. Any hint of pepper had basically yielded to the barrel-aging effects and scored one last winning note on a menu full of tasty treats.

Yet, after all the superlatives, no amount of insults is greater than the ones that I'm boomeranging at myself this morning for one of the worst displays of inferior, offensive, and amateur pictures from the dinner. I suppose it proves that you can give a big boy a big camera, but that it guarantees nothing. To be fair, I was up for Beer Writer of the Year, not photographer. Still, I've included a few of the pictures that I snapped from the dinner, even (regrettfully) the well-composed one of Grossman, Peters, Cilurzo, and Morin. The only way I could make it halfway presentable for you was to turn it to black-and-white.

It's a crowded world of beer events around Philadelphia. Always has been and has only continued get more so over the years. Still, if you've not treated yourself to a special beer dinner at Monk's Café, then you've not yet experienced some of the best that the Philadelphia beer scene has to offer.

Philly Beer Week. It's on.

(from left: Brian Grossman-Sierra Nevada; Tom Peter's-Monk's Café; Vinnie Cilurzo-Russian River; Brian Morin-beerbistro)

(Chef Brian Morin, post-dinner, looking like he barely broke a sweat)

(the Monk's-ville Nine - what a lineup)

(Sierra Nevada Pilsner and Amuse Bouche)

(Sierra Nevada/Russian River Brux and Smoked Black Cod)

(Russian River Row 2/Hill 56 Simcoe and Deckle Steak)

(Russian River Defenestration and Lobster & Leek Ravioli)

(Russian River Supplication and Duck Breast)

(Sierra Nevada/Russian River ExPortation and the cheese plate)

(Sierra Nevada Knock on Wood and Chocolate Tart)

For your listening pleasure: Vinnie Cilurzo at NHC

James Spencer and his team over at Basic Brewing continue to do what they have done for over six years. That is, produce some of the highest-quality podcasted audio and video, mostly on the topic of homebrewing.

On a drive yesterday, I was able to take in a recently-posted audio cast that Spencer put up after this year's NHC in San Diego.

The keynote address was provided by Russian River's Vinnie Cilurzo. If you know Cilurzo, have spoken with him, or heard him speak, you already know that he is one of the nicest and well-spoken guys in the industry.

He speaks at NHC of his fascinating journey to Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa and all of the various levels of fun encountered along the way. His engaging style of presentation makes the hour go by quite easily.

And, if you have not encountered him in the past, then all the more reason to check out Basic Brewing's podcasted version of the address. Only thing better might have been to see the pictures that Vinnie put up on the screen. Maybe they'll be on this page eventually.

p.s. There's also some video from NHC Club Night on Basic Brewing's video page also worth checking out. Grab a beer, sit back, and enjoy.

Teresa's is Sweet on Sours

Around Philadelphia, this weekend began with so many possibilities, beer and otherwise. Some of you attempted to take full advantage of numerous events from the city to the far reaches of the 'burbs.

After much contemplation, we dialed it back both in intensity and in travel time. We stopped in mid-afternoon for some bites and sours at Teresa's Next Door.

As usual, the quality did not disappoint. Add to that the takeout bottle clearance sale (some ridiculous steals) and it made for a fine way to while away a perfectly beautiful day outdoors...indoors.

During special beer events at TND, there is typically a special food menu developed to pair with the special beers of the day.

One of the most memorable food and beer pairings in recent memory made a stop in front of me at the bar. Humboldt Fog grilled cheese sandwich.

If you stop by here often, you know that I've written recently about the joy I find in a block of Humboldt Fog cheese. Melt it, add some sliced strawberries doused in balsamic vinegar, pile on a handful of greens, and stick it all between two slices of a toasted roll and you've got a delicious lunch.

Wash it all down with a sour beer (pick any of them, and you're pretty sure to be delighted) and you've got a little slice of heaven at TND...a good thing particularly if the rapture was not to be.

If you happen to be heading into Wayne, Pa. tonight (Sunday), here's a bit of what you can still find on the (sour) beer menu. And, if you ask real nicely, you might get one of the last 4 or 5 Grilled Humboldts left in the kitchen. You shouldn't be sorry.

Allagash Interlude ['09] (very light, won't last the night)
Allagash Vrienden 'East' (very light, won't last the night)
Allagash Confluence
Boon Kriek
Fantôme hiver
Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere
Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo
Jolly Pumpkin Madrugada
Petrus Aged Pale
Rodenbach ['08]
Russian River Damnation
Russian River Sanctification
Russian River Supplication 5 (very light, won't last the night)
Russian River Supplication 6
't Gaverhopke Extra
Cantillon St. Lamvinus, on the hand pump (oops, sorry just kicked a few minutes ago)