Weeelllll, that was the longest 28-day month ever! I made 28 PDFs to accompany 28 posts that featured 28 flagship beers after getting in touch with 28 breweries and putting my lips on 28 beers. 14 beers were consumed at the brewery and 14 were consumed at home. Every brewery had personal input, but I had 12 in-person conversations and 2 phone conversations to aid in building the profiles. It was more than 28 beers, as you might imagine, because some got left by the wayside, but the work was put in and I wouldn't trade a day or a beer for any of it. I can't tell you how long it's been since I've been so proud to be part of a group undertaking such as this in the beer industry.
See below for the full inventory and all the links to the individual beers and features. The style breakdown is as follows: IPA/DIPA (6); German-/Czech-style Pilsner (4); German-style Lager (3); Amber/Pale Ale (3); ESB (2); Porter (2); Stout (2); Barleywine (1); Belgian-style Dubbel (1); Belgian-style Tripel (1); Kolsch (1); Saison (1); California Common/Steam (1)
And hopefully you didn't miss the real reason this all got started -- FlagshipFebruary.com. While I featured Stoudts Gold here on Feb. 21, that was also the date where my full story about the Stoudt family and the Stoudts Gold Lager was featured amongst 27 other beer writers from around the world. Our project was to bring attention to the "beers that got us here". There was representation from Europe, South America, and North America. It was an incredible honor to be listed amongst them.
Go read up on the tag-team finale posting from Stephen Beaumont and Jay Brooks, the two primary guys behind the organizational undertaking that it was to corral 28 writers for 28 consecutive days.
Then let's meet up for a beer and we can talk more about the past, the present, and the future of great beer.
Fri. Feb. 01, 2019 - Flying Fish Abbey Dubbel - [Link to my Flying Fish feature]
Sat. Feb. 02, 2019 - Conshohocken Puddlers Row ESB - [Link to my Conshohocken feature]
Sun. Feb. 03, 2019 - Second District Bancroft Beer - [Link to my Second District feature]
Mon. Feb. 04, 2019 - Love City Lager - [Link to my Love City feature]
Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 - Tired Hands SaisonHands - [Link to my Tired Hands feature]
Wed. Feb. 06, 2019 - Victory HopDevil - [Link to my Victory feature]
Thu. Feb. 07, 2019 - Yards Extra Special Ale (ESA) - [Link to my Yards feature]
Fri. Feb. 08, 2019 - Iron Hill Pig Iron Porter - [Link to my Iron Hill feature]
Sat. Feb. 09, 2019 - Neshaminy Creek Trauger Pilsner - [Link to my Neshaminy Creek feature]
Sun. Feb. 10, 2019 - Crime & Punishment Space Race IPA - [Link to my Crime & Punishment feature]
Mon. Feb. 11, 2019 - Yuengling Black & Tan - [Link to my Yuengling feature]
Tue. Feb. 12, 2019 - Root Down Bine IPA - [Link to my Root Down feature]
Wed. Feb. 13, 2019 - Manayunk Monk From The 'Yunk - [Link to my Manayunk feature]
Thu. Feb. 14, 2019 - Lancaster Milk Stout - [Link to my Lancaster feature]
Fri. Feb. 15, 2019 - Tröegs HopBack Amber - [Link to my Tröegs feature]
Sat. Feb. 16, 2019 - Dock Street Bohemian Pilsner - [Link to my Dock Street feature]
Sun. Feb. 17, 2019 - La Cabra Hipster Catnip IPA - [Link to my La Cabra feature]
Mon. Feb. 18, 2019 - Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot - [Link to my Weyerbacher feature]
Tue. Feb. 19, 2019 - Workhorse Vienna Lager - [Link to my Workhorse feature]
Wed. Feb. 20, 2019 - 2SP Baby Bob Stout - [Link to my 2SP feature]
Thu. Feb. 21, 2019 - Stoudts Gold Lager - [Link to my Stoudts feature]
Fri. Feb. 22, 2019 - Free Will The Kragle IPA - [Link to my Free Will feature]
Sat. Feb. 23, 2019 - Sly Fox Pikeland Pils - [Link to my Sly Fox feature]
Sun. Feb. 24, 2019 - East Branch Der Bach - [Link to my East Branch feature]
Mon. Feb. 25, 2019 - Philadelphia Brewing Kenzinger Beer - [Link to my Philadelphia Brewing feature]
Tue. Feb. 26, 2019 - Sterling Pig Big Gunz Double IPA - [Link to my Sterling Pig feature]
Wed. Feb. 27, 2019 - Anchor Steam Beer - [Link to my Anchor feature]
Thu. Feb. 28, 2019 - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - [Link to my Sierra Nevada feature]
© Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge, 2019. 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
Showing posts with label Stephen Beaumont. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stephen Beaumont. Show all posts
Friday, March 01, 2019
Friday, February 01, 2019
Flagship February daily feature - Flying Fish Abbey Dubbel
Getting the month off to a start with a whole lotta alliteration there in that title.
Today's featured Flagship Beer of February is Flying Fish Abbey Dubbel. It comes from the brewing team behind New Jersey's brewery that started out on the WWW in 1995 and began brewing in 1996.
The brewery has always been eco-conscious and a recent note from Lou Romano (president) and Kirk LaVecchia (sales) pointed out the current efforts: "We are the 18th largest brewery producer of solar energy 463 solar panels, we have rain gardens on-site to prevent erosion, we recapture steam in the brewing process and have an upcycle spent grain program with local farmers."
Now click the picture below for a full feature on Flying Fish Abbey Dubbel.
If you're just jumping in during the middle of this and want to know what this is all about, link back here to see the Flagship February overview as well as an ongoing list of all beers I'm featuring during the month of February.
Disclosure: For this project, I solely created the list of 28 beers featured here on The Brew Lounge. I was in contact with each brewery and neither required nor requested complimentary samples. I purchased today's Flying Fish beer at retail.
© Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge, 2019. 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
Today's featured Flagship Beer of February is Flying Fish Abbey Dubbel. It comes from the brewing team behind New Jersey's brewery that started out on the WWW in 1995 and began brewing in 1996.
The brewery has always been eco-conscious and a recent note from Lou Romano (president) and Kirk LaVecchia (sales) pointed out the current efforts: "We are the 18th largest brewery producer of solar energy 463 solar panels, we have rain gardens on-site to prevent erosion, we recapture steam in the brewing process and have an upcycle spent grain program with local farmers."
Now click the picture below for a full feature on Flying Fish Abbey Dubbel.
If you're just jumping in during the middle of this and want to know what this is all about, link back here to see the Flagship February overview as well as an ongoing list of all beers I'm featuring during the month of February.
Disclosure: For this project, I solely created the list of 28 beers featured here on The Brew Lounge. I was in contact with each brewery and neither required nor requested complimentary samples. I purchased today's Flying Fish beer at retail.
© Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge, 2019. 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
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Flagship February is going to be Fantastic!
There's a Bock Day. An IPA Day. A Stout Day. Probably more that I'm not familiar with. And, nearly every day in every major market, there's some sort of pop-up 4-pack beer release of current hottest and buzziest style.
And then there are Flagships. There have always been Flagships. And, an overwhelming majority of professional brewers and brewery owners will tell you, if they're being truthful, that a successful long-term strategy and vision for a brewery is centered around Flagships. Well-made, identifiable, and dependable. Beers that help build a critical mass of customers that will return for them time and again, dabbling in the creative sidetracks along the way.
That would explain why, when I contacted 28 different breweries (25 local to Philly and 3 out-of-market/national), all but four replied in less than a day to say that they were enthusiastically on board with Flagship February and whatever I needed to support my end of the deal. Some had heard of it, some had not. A few were extremely familiar with the concept.
Are you?
Quite possibly not, is my hunch. Let's back it up a few weeks.
Flagship February is a "movement", if you will, that really only got off the ground back in the first week of the new year. Instead of retelling the story here (it really isn't all that complicated), please take less than the five minutes required to read the background as told by beer writer (and much more) Steve Beaumont at Taps Magazine. This story over at Forbes and written by Tara Nurin is also a nice primer.
[Pause]
How was that? Pretty cool, eh? Thus far, I've seen very little negative reaction to it. Honestly, this ain't no get-off-my-lawn curmudgeon take on the beer industry. Those of us behind this little project and the many that will get on board love the industry and love the beer in all its many styles and possibilities. It's what many have always professed to love over more single-minded beverages. So whither the Pale Ale, the Stout, the Kolsch, the Pilsner....etc? For the breweries that make them on a regular basis, here they are -- in Flagship February. It's a website; it's a social media movement; it's an opportunity to drink great beer and reacquaint ourselves with some that we may not have enjoyed in far too long.
I mean, really, is there really any difficulty recognizing that longtime flagship beers from landmark breweries can still be very solid and well-made, very enjoyable beers? In today's market of 7,000+ breweries and a non-stop avalanche of new beers hitting the market for the growing segment of short-attention span beer drinkers, it's not unusual to hear something along the lines of "...oh, Sierra Nevada Pale? Solid beer, but can't tell you the last time I had it. Dependable, though. I'll order it if there's nothing else. And it'll always be there...."
Or something like that. Thing is, in the original story that prompted this outreach to Flagship beers, with well-documented black-and-white data that shows declining sales for the ol' tried-and-true, there's no guarantee that they will be forever available. It's a business, man. Can't make something that the market is buying less of.
Back to the long-term strategy. As trends in tastes and consumption change over time, as they always will, when that craze-of-the-day fades, will the brewery have rock-solid beers to fall back on? To introduce and transition their current customers over to?
Enough of the soapbox tutorial; I think you get the points being made here and how they fit into the Flagship February fun.
So you ask, how's this all coming together? What's happening? What's Bryan's role in this?
For starters, FlagshipFebruary.com is a sort of portal into the happenings and stories throughout the month? What are "stories", you ask?
I am honored, truly honored, to be one of 28 writers across the globe who are being featured during the month of February - one writer per day. Our task is to feature a Flagship beer. Could be from a seminal brewery or could be from a younger brewery. Judging from the roster that I see, I'm pretty sure all breweries being covered are at least twenty years old and/or have some historical significance. Regardless, the point is that the story will cover the specific beer, the brewery, the people, the place, some combination of all or some of those, and the value that the sum of it all brings to the brewery and to the industry. There'll be history woven with personal anecdotes.
I'll withhold for the time-being the brewery that I'll be featuring, but I'll share that my date is February 21.
What else am I doing? Well, if you have followed me here long enough, you know that I can't do much in a small way.
Therefore, what you'll see on TheBrewLounge.com is a daily feature of a Flagship beer from eastern PA, southern NJ, or DE. And, I'll keep it all organized in a sort-of Table of Contents over here on this page. For now, I'll only list the styles that I plan to feature and reveal the brewery and beer names as each day passes.
So...you on board with this too?
© Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge, 2019. 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
And then there are Flagships. There have always been Flagships. And, an overwhelming majority of professional brewers and brewery owners will tell you, if they're being truthful, that a successful long-term strategy and vision for a brewery is centered around Flagships. Well-made, identifiable, and dependable. Beers that help build a critical mass of customers that will return for them time and again, dabbling in the creative sidetracks along the way.
That would explain why, when I contacted 28 different breweries (25 local to Philly and 3 out-of-market/national), all but four replied in less than a day to say that they were enthusiastically on board with Flagship February and whatever I needed to support my end of the deal. Some had heard of it, some had not. A few were extremely familiar with the concept.
Are you?
Quite possibly not, is my hunch. Let's back it up a few weeks.
Flagship February is a "movement", if you will, that really only got off the ground back in the first week of the new year. Instead of retelling the story here (it really isn't all that complicated), please take less than the five minutes required to read the background as told by beer writer (and much more) Steve Beaumont at Taps Magazine. This story over at Forbes and written by Tara Nurin is also a nice primer.
[Pause]
How was that? Pretty cool, eh? Thus far, I've seen very little negative reaction to it. Honestly, this ain't no get-off-my-lawn curmudgeon take on the beer industry. Those of us behind this little project and the many that will get on board love the industry and love the beer in all its many styles and possibilities. It's what many have always professed to love over more single-minded beverages. So whither the Pale Ale, the Stout, the Kolsch, the Pilsner....etc? For the breweries that make them on a regular basis, here they are -- in Flagship February. It's a website; it's a social media movement; it's an opportunity to drink great beer and reacquaint ourselves with some that we may not have enjoyed in far too long.
I mean, really, is there really any difficulty recognizing that longtime flagship beers from landmark breweries can still be very solid and well-made, very enjoyable beers? In today's market of 7,000+ breweries and a non-stop avalanche of new beers hitting the market for the growing segment of short-attention span beer drinkers, it's not unusual to hear something along the lines of "...oh, Sierra Nevada Pale? Solid beer, but can't tell you the last time I had it. Dependable, though. I'll order it if there's nothing else. And it'll always be there...."
Or something like that. Thing is, in the original story that prompted this outreach to Flagship beers, with well-documented black-and-white data that shows declining sales for the ol' tried-and-true, there's no guarantee that they will be forever available. It's a business, man. Can't make something that the market is buying less of.
Back to the long-term strategy. As trends in tastes and consumption change over time, as they always will, when that craze-of-the-day fades, will the brewery have rock-solid beers to fall back on? To introduce and transition their current customers over to?
Enough of the soapbox tutorial; I think you get the points being made here and how they fit into the Flagship February fun.
So you ask, how's this all coming together? What's happening? What's Bryan's role in this?
For starters, FlagshipFebruary.com is a sort of portal into the happenings and stories throughout the month? What are "stories", you ask?
I am honored, truly honored, to be one of 28 writers across the globe who are being featured during the month of February - one writer per day. Our task is to feature a Flagship beer. Could be from a seminal brewery or could be from a younger brewery. Judging from the roster that I see, I'm pretty sure all breweries being covered are at least twenty years old and/or have some historical significance. Regardless, the point is that the story will cover the specific beer, the brewery, the people, the place, some combination of all or some of those, and the value that the sum of it all brings to the brewery and to the industry. There'll be history woven with personal anecdotes.
I'll withhold for the time-being the brewery that I'll be featuring, but I'll share that my date is February 21.
What else am I doing? Well, if you have followed me here long enough, you know that I can't do much in a small way.
Therefore, what you'll see on TheBrewLounge.com is a daily feature of a Flagship beer from eastern PA, southern NJ, or DE. And, I'll keep it all organized in a sort-of Table of Contents over here on this page. For now, I'll only list the styles that I plan to feature and reveal the brewery and beer names as each day passes.
So...you on board with this too?
© Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge, 2019. 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
Friday, December 16, 2016
Beer books for Christmas - From the Mid-Atlantic to The World, read all about it
(US cover)
(UK cover)There's nothing like a good beer book to gift for those beer friends, and even yourself, at this holiday time of year. I'm sure you expect me to promote mine and I will later down below. But much more significantly is the second edition of the comprehensive second edition of World Atlas of Beer.
I've finally had some time to dig into the World Atlas of Beer, given to me when authors Stephen Beaumont and Tim Webb visited Philadelphia two months ago. Of the two covers above, I have the UK version which I actually prefer to the US version.
It had been four years since the first edition was released and, hard as it might be to believe, much has changed in the world of beer since then. Beaumont and Webb took notice in the foreward where Webb acknowledges that "Our greatest challenge has been to present the different types of ale, lager, lambic, and mixed-fermentation beers that populate a beer market liberated from the constraints of uniformity." In the introduction, Beaumont adds that "Today, we cast our gaze upon twice that number, including Switzerland and Poland, China, and Israel - nations that previously merited but a sentence of two and now boast their own sections."
The book then dispenses the requisite definition of beer, its ingredients, and the brewing process. An interesting twist is found on page 35, where beer styles of the world are contained within one table and annotated with six columns comparing the associated "folk origins", "classic status", "extreme credentials", "alcoholic strength", "serious intent", and "historic influence". Webb and Beaumont, no doubt, think about their beer as much as they drink it.
The remaining 200+ color- and fact-filled pages traverse the world by continent, country, and sometimes region/style within country, leaving no pallet unturned. Each section melds discussion of both the styles, breweries, and people sigificant to the beer culture of the area. Here in the northeast, veteran brewers from Yuengling to Allagash, Boston Beer, Brooklyn, Dogfish Head, and Victory are spotlighted as are new breweries in the past five years such as Bluejacket, Double Nickel, Maine, and Tired Hands.
Even when eventually getting to areas of the world with little to speak of beer-wise, "The Rest of the World" captures some nuggets worth knowing in "Israel & The Middle East", "India & Sri Lanka", "South Africa", and "The Rest of Africa".
The book concludes with a useful and comprehensive "Enjoying Beer" section that covers buying, storing, pouring, and pairing beer and even includes a couple of valuable pages concerned with the identification of off-flavors in beer.
It will take me some time to get through the entire book, but Webb and Beaumont as world tour guides have made the journey much more tastefully enjoyable.
Then there's my book — Beer Lover's Mid-Atlantic. As you know if you regularly check in here at The Brew Lounge, I've barely slouched at all in promoting it during the last year-and-a-half since it was first released. There's a risk that these kind of books can look dated over time.
I'm quite pleased to say that it now - two years after the manuscript was submitted to the publisher - continues to stand the test of time rather well. While I obviously have no control over openings and closings, I included in the book roughly 320 establishments that I vetted for the sake of being concerned about just this point. Of course, plenty of places have opened and I accounted for those that I knew about in 2013-2015. As we all know, many more have come since then.
As for closures, I'm happy to report that only three places have closed that I included in the book. Baying Hound in Rockville, Md. Gamble Mill in Bellefonte, Pa. And, Nodding Head in Philly. Not too bad if I do say so.
While I claim to have nothing close to any talent in the realm of the guys behind the World Atlas of Beer, my book project represented a similarly ambitious endeavor focused on the beer world of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. I sure hope you have your own copy. If you don't, click here for quick delivery from Amazon, or drop an e-mail to me if you're local to southeastern PA and I'll personally hand off a signed copy to you in time for the holidays.
© Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge, 2016. 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
Monday, January 16, 2012
Weekly Brew Bits Update: 1/16/12
Here's a bunch of unrelated stuff from the great wide world of the craft brewing segment. This weekly update is usually Philly-centric, but there's a bit more randomness in here this week. Figured many of you will, nonetheless, enjoy most of it.
There's a lot here. My goal has never been to make these too long and overwhelming.
~ One of the best food and beer events of the year takes place right here in Philadelphia. Tickets to The Brewers Plate on 3/11/12 have gone on sale and can be purchased via this link. And, if you'd like to know more about this tremendous event, you can read my past reviews of 2011, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006. Lots of good and tasty stuff there, check it out. Don't know what happened to 2010's, but we can assume that it was equally "great".
~ Speaking of great events in the Philadelphia region, Iron Hill is gearing up again for its annual celebration of funk and fun on the last Saturday of January, 1/28/12. Belgium Comes to West Chester is a great showcase for Iron Hill's funky fantastic brews and also for nearly twenty other invited breweries. Check out the list of beers on their website.
~ Good friend and great writer, Stephen Beaumont, takes his unique approach to year-end lists in the form of things bartenders, patrons, writers, and raters should not do. Check 'em out and chime if you don't agree that almost all of them are rules we should all live by for a better beer experience.
~ I've passed through the Tampa airport [TPA] enough to find this interesting tidbit to pass along to you, in the case you find yourself there for spring training, spring break, or springing for a beer. Local brewery, Cigar City, will soon be making and serving up their highly sought after brews at its airport pub and Gerard at Road Trips for Beer shares some of the details.
~ After following a revealing piece from 2010 on Andrew Zimmern, I also stumbled across a nice piece on Philly boy, Michael Solomonov. He has had high-profile stops at Xochitl and Percy Street Barbecue and worked under Terence Feury, Patrick Feury, and Marc Vetri, with his last stop heading up Marigold Kitchen.
~ And, last but not least (or, least, depending upon your viewpoint), Dogfish Head has been in the news in more ways than one recently. For starters and in a positive light, they've got the gluton-free Tweason'ale and the Noble Rot both ready for the market. They both sound interesting to check out for, obviously, different reasons. Read more about the Tweason'Ale at the DFH website.
But then, oh boy, but then, brewery owner and industry poster boy Sam Calagione kicked up a bit of a storm within the storm that can often be found on the BeerAdvocate website forums. It was one of those typically routine and inane threads entitled "Most Overrated Brewery". Calagione's remarks were fairly well-measured and delivered. Yet, it only added to the debate amongst the geekerie think-tank about how effective criticism should be dealt and measured. Me? It reminded me why I rarely dip my toes into the waters of the frustrating forums at sites like this.
If you thought I might link to the forum, sorry. You'll have to go digging for it, if you really care. It really wasn't news, per se, but it sure did have people talking.
~ Then, when I thought I had this wrap-up completed, a couple more snuck in that I thought you may wish to read up on.
First, the CraftBeer.com website has a nice little guide for ordering and, if need be, refusing a beer in today's more enlightened world of beer consumption.
~ Then, a "story" about binge drinking. I found the article, the numbers, the analysis, the positioning, the half-baked conclusions confusing and misleading. What about you?
~ And, finally, a light-hearted story about dealing with potential litigation. Adam at BeerNews.org has the original story and link. Then, follows it up with a bit of post-mortem.
There's a lot here. My goal has never been to make these too long and overwhelming.
~ One of the best food and beer events of the year takes place right here in Philadelphia. Tickets to The Brewers Plate on 3/11/12 have gone on sale and can be purchased via this link. And, if you'd like to know more about this tremendous event, you can read my past reviews of 2011, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006. Lots of good and tasty stuff there, check it out. Don't know what happened to 2010's, but we can assume that it was equally "great".
~ Speaking of great events in the Philadelphia region, Iron Hill is gearing up again for its annual celebration of funk and fun on the last Saturday of January, 1/28/12. Belgium Comes to West Chester is a great showcase for Iron Hill's funky fantastic brews and also for nearly twenty other invited breweries. Check out the list of beers on their website.
~ Good friend and great writer, Stephen Beaumont, takes his unique approach to year-end lists in the form of things bartenders, patrons, writers, and raters should not do. Check 'em out and chime if you don't agree that almost all of them are rules we should all live by for a better beer experience.
~ I've passed through the Tampa airport [TPA] enough to find this interesting tidbit to pass along to you, in the case you find yourself there for spring training, spring break, or springing for a beer. Local brewery, Cigar City, will soon be making and serving up their highly sought after brews at its airport pub and Gerard at Road Trips for Beer shares some of the details.
~ After following a revealing piece from 2010 on Andrew Zimmern, I also stumbled across a nice piece on Philly boy, Michael Solomonov. He has had high-profile stops at Xochitl and Percy Street Barbecue and worked under Terence Feury, Patrick Feury, and Marc Vetri, with his last stop heading up Marigold Kitchen.
~ And, last but not least (or, least, depending upon your viewpoint), Dogfish Head has been in the news in more ways than one recently. For starters and in a positive light, they've got the gluton-free Tweason'ale and the Noble Rot both ready for the market. They both sound interesting to check out for, obviously, different reasons. Read more about the Tweason'Ale at the DFH website.
But then, oh boy, but then, brewery owner and industry poster boy Sam Calagione kicked up a bit of a storm within the storm that can often be found on the BeerAdvocate website forums. It was one of those typically routine and inane threads entitled "Most Overrated Brewery". Calagione's remarks were fairly well-measured and delivered. Yet, it only added to the debate amongst the geekerie think-tank about how effective criticism should be dealt and measured. Me? It reminded me why I rarely dip my toes into the waters of the frustrating forums at sites like this.
If you thought I might link to the forum, sorry. You'll have to go digging for it, if you really care. It really wasn't news, per se, but it sure did have people talking.
~ Then, when I thought I had this wrap-up completed, a couple more snuck in that I thought you may wish to read up on.
First, the CraftBeer.com website has a nice little guide for ordering and, if need be, refusing a beer in today's more enlightened world of beer consumption.
~ Then, a "story" about binge drinking. I found the article, the numbers, the analysis, the positioning, the half-baked conclusions confusing and misleading. What about you?
~ And, finally, a light-hearted story about dealing with potential litigation. Adam at BeerNews.org has the original story and link. Then, follows it up with a bit of post-mortem.
Friday, October 29, 2010
On the Rhine with The Brew Lounge, part 0.5
It will take some time to finally get into all that transpired from Amsterdam to Zurich. At least in the spirit of kicking things off (or procrastination, if you'd rather), here's a guide of where I'll take you over the coming weeks (probably months). The following list is the official itinerary for the cruise up the Rhine and Moselle rivers through Holland, Germany, Luxembourg, France, and Switzerland. Interlaced is Steve Beaumont's 'Beers on the Rhine' agenda.
Prequel Days 1-3
How better to leave home before taking the train to PHL than to pay a 20 minute visit to TJs for a bon voyage beer? We even managed to squeeze in an informal tasting amongst five or so of us with my long-promised Maui CocoNut Porter that I brought back from Hawaii almost a year ago to the day. Changing trains in Philly at 30th Street Station gave us another opportunity for a birthday beer for me at Bridgewater's...and a light bite. After our red-eye flight to Amsterdam, we checked-in to our hotel, took a short nap, then set off to discover Amsterdam's canals, architecture, and pub culture over the next 48 hours.
DAY 4: Amsterdam
Welcome aboard after 48 hours of exploring everything that Amsterdam has to offer...well, not quite everything.
DAY 5: Amsterdam
In the morning, we took an excursion out to the country to visit the windmills, see a demonstration of manufacturing iconic wooden shoes, and stop at a cheese factory. After returning to Amsterdam, we headed out to Brouwerij 't IJ where Beaumont walked his beer group through a few beers and the planned itinerary for the following 11 days.
DAY 6: Nijmegen
We skipped the official walking tour and instead did a bit of our own instead. We walked around the Belvédère Castle and Tower and through De Hoge Veluwe National Park, saw local sites, and picked up some light snacks and beer from a grocery store for back on board. Speaking of on board, Beaumont conducted a pre-dinner tasting of Dutch Bok (Bock) beers.
DAY 7: Bonn
Again, we skipped the walking tour and I went for an early morning run through the city and along the river. The afternoon saw the Beaumont Beer Express head out for a few hours in Cologne, certainly one of the highlights, albeit too short, of the trip. Later, we drank a Liefmans Kriek in the room. An Orval too. Both purchased from the market in Nijmegen. Oh, and an Ithaca Brute and Tröegs Troegenator brought from home to be shared with new friends.
DAY 8: Cochem
We arrived in Cochem late after what felt like freshman-hazing on the river, where we got bumped back several places in line awaiting our turn for the locks. Here, we didn't do a whole lot save for a short walk around the quaint little town with (of course) a castle perched atop a large hill. Beaumont and the beer crew were picked up and driven to the Bitburger brewery; Patty and I took this opportunity for some down time.
DAY 9: Bernkastel-Kues, Trier
Trier was a nice excursion that strangely brought back zero recollection to my trip here in 1987. Nonetheless, back at the docking port of Bernkastel-Kues (one city on one side of the river, the other on the other side), Beaumont's beer group and I took a ferry ride to the Kloster Machern brewery and enjoyed a few beers on the site of a former abbey/monastery.
DAY 10: Luxembourg
Even the though this particular excursion was a bit of a bust in most our opinions, five of us beer volk broke off and found some champagne, mediocre beer, and prosciutto.....on a quiet Sunday morning in Luxembourg. Lovely, but a shame, because I understood that Mousel's Cantine would have been a fine sudsy stop.
DAY 11: Rüdesheim – Rhine Gorge
Stunning vistas of castles perched above the steep vine-covered slopes is how the tour company described this day of cruising the Rhine Gorge, beginning from Koblenz. A perfect day (albeit a bit chilly) for sitting on the deck, snapping pictures of castles and grapevines, and learning the legend of the Lorelei. It was a flashback to my trip here all the way back in 1987. On board, Beaumont conducted an Oktoberfest tasting of all six breweries that serve their beer at the annual festival.
DAY 12: Heidelberg
Heidelberg is one of Germany’s most beautiful towns. We participated in the official castle tour and then broke off to do a little shopping on our own before joining up with Beaumont and company at the Kulturbrauerei Heidelberg for an excellent tour and beers to sample. Steve wrote about it on his blog from the ship, check it out.
DAY 13: Baden-Baden
A 250-year-old casino was at the heart of the official tour excursion itinerary. Patty and I (and a new friend, Jerri) opted for the famous thermal hot springs and spa, then met up with Beaumont and the rest of the brew group at Amadeus Hausbrau in the heart of Baden-Baden.
DAY 14: Kehl, Strasbourg
We skipped the official walking tour of Strasbourg and instead did a walking tour with Beaumont to taste some beers represented at this year's Mondial de la Bière, which we missed by a mere day. Also, picked up some to-go beer from a decent bottle shop in the heart of lovely Strasbourg.
DAY 15: Basel
We took yet another pass on the guided tours which by this point we had grown fairly tired of (at least for the ones that we did join). Instead, we did something much more interesting and visited--wait for it--another brewery! This time it was Basel's Unser Bier, tucked away in a residential neighborhood south of downtown. It required two trolley rides to get there and the payoff was in the beer.
DAY 16: Basel
Disembark and onward to Zurich where we discovered its main train station has a bottle shop to rival many "normal" bottle shops, a Swiss/German brew house of questionable character, excellent Swiss chocolate, and pleasant walking around the visually appealing city of Zurich. These were a few things that filled our last day in Europe. Oh, and a 50-foot high glass-enclosed wine tower with "angels" flying around the tower to retrieve from the roughly 4,000 bottles within. You'll have to wait for the whole story!
DAY 17: Zurich
Flight home...because all good things must, as "they" say, eventually come to an end.
And, if I ever manage through all of this material, here are just a few more topics that I've got in the works that you may eventually see one day. But, no promises. Providence for Beer; Meddlesome Moth surprise in Dallas; Sierra Nevada's 30th anniversary celebration; Pyramid's seasonal brews; and many more.
Monday, October 25, 2010
While I was out....
....on a Rhine and Moselle Rivers cruise with the esteemed Mr. Stephen Beaumont (beer cruise tour director of 'Beers on the Rhine'), things appeared to be humming along as per usual in and around Philadelphia.
As I continue to dig out from around 2,000 emails, 3,000 RSS feeds, hundreds of missed Facebook and Twitter connections, and hundreds of podcasts, it will be nearly impossible to catch up with everything that I might have missed.
But, that was the intentional direction of this trip--it was designed to be a vacation away from everything. For almost 17 days, I did absolutely no Facebook updates or RSS surfing and replied only to the emails that looked like they required a timely reply.
Prior to leaving on October 8th (Happy Birthday to me :), I wrote around eight articles to be posted on a scheduled basis at both The Brew Lounge and After Hours at The Brew Lounge (Washington Times Communities). So, while it may have looked to some of you that I was still actively on line, nothing could have been farther from the truth--and, it was good!
Now, I'm back and getting re-engaged. Here's a bit of what I missed that I could glean from various sources. If I missed something important, like responding to your email, please forgive me and gently nudge me with a follow-up e-mail.
- Lew Bryson reported on PBC's Harvest from the Hood. I saw a shelf-full's worth at Wegmans this morning and, if it wan't 5am (y'know...jet lag...the body clock thing), would have purchased a bottle or two to bring home. This is a fine beer to do such a thing.
- Adam the NonconFermist was busy. Not only did he finish his garage floor in preparation for a new homebrew system, but he was able to sneak some time in at Iron Hill's West Chester location where they were conducting a homebrew contest. (And, here's a link to Iron Hill's take on the event.)
- Victory will be at Rattle 'n' Hum in NYC on 11/2/10. Lots of their beer like only Rattle 'n' Hum can do it. Reportedly 40 lines, plus cask, and Bill Covaleski too.
- More from Lew...he'll be at Craft Ale House in Limerick tomorrow (10/26) and he's fond of their Pennsylvania lineup in honor of his book promotion tour that he'll be there for. Check it out and see if you agree.
- I haven't quite figured out the whos and whats of Thirsty Girl yet, but Whitney Thompson of Victory Brewing is one of them. A nice bit of reading about her over on the Facebook page.
- Just a few miles south down I-95, Alexander Mitchell covered Baltimore Beer Week with passion and a lot of ambition and motivation. Check out his site and scroll through some of the fun stuff that he posted along the way. I get a feeling that if we hadn't been out of the country, an overnight trip to Baltimore during BBW would not have been out of the question.
- Back home here in Philly, Joe Sixpack discussed pre-Prohibition as both a time period for beers as well as a modern-day style. He also touches on the very cool event occurring this coming weekend in a cemetery--yes, a cemetery.
- Jack Curtin, last but certainly never least, kvetched a bit over session beers. I'm not sure if there was any motivation to the posting other than wanting to start a conversation. Basically, my response is that a session beer is very personal when it comes to ABV level. Because of my size and my eating and drinking habits, I've always considered my own "session level" to be at around 5.0%-5.5% Do you feel differently? Go to Jack's site and contribute to the conversation.
- Bringing this full circle to Steve Beaumont, he, on the other hand, did take his laptop with him and manage to squeeze in some blog posts and Facebook updates. Scroll through and find a couple of Rhine-related postings of his over here.
My telling of the 16+ days in Europe will have to wait until I can wade through 1,000+ pictures, dozens of videos, and scribbled notes (oh, typed ones, too, on my iPhone) and determine just exactly how to present some slimmed down portion of them to you.
Until such time...
Monday, February 15, 2010
Beaumont, Beer, and The Brew Lounge on the Rhine
Patty and I had been working on the planning of a "big trip" for the year, when Stephen Beaumont posted this over on his site. A river boat cruise down (as in, the Netherlands in the North to Switzerland in the South) the Rhine River through a handful of European countries....Brew on the Rhine, as it's being called.
"Hey Patty," I said, "Isn't this the same trip that we were looking at the other day? Well, guess what? Now it can be a beer vacation too!"
So, on the day that my SF trip cancellation became official, we decided to finalize this trip to Europe. I guess you could say that helped assuage the letdown of missing SFBW.
I don't have much else to say about this at this point, other then you can imagine how we were anticipating this trip even before it was planned. Now, with even more of a beer angle than it had to begin with, the 8 months wait will be tougher.
Talking with both the booking company and Stephen the other day, it sounds like the boat has filled up quickly. If you want to join in on the floating fun of frothy fermentation (sorry), you'll need to, as they say, act now!
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Some fine insights from North of the Border
'Til I get around to (finally) updating my Recommended Links page, I charge you with checking out the fine insights from Stephen Beaumont at Blogging at World of Beer. I can probably count on one hand (likely, less) the number of times that I've linked to any of his rich writing; and, that's a misstep on my part.
Perhaps it's a bit of a kinship that I feel that helps me enjoy his writing. His viewpoints, his penchant for running and fitness. (I saw him last at Philly Beer Week's Brewer's Run and Lew's Session Beer Event.) Or perhaps it's the direct approach in expressing opinions that makes it such an easy recommendation to make to you.
Take, for example, Trends from 2009-2010, Goals for 2010, or Lessons Learned in 2009. There's no mincing of words, no need to re-read, nothing particularly inflammatory. (Certainly not to say that Stephen doesn't take solid stands on hotly debated topics.)
Of course, those could be construed simply as my subjective takes on his writing. So don't take my word for it, go check out what Beaumont has to say. I'll bet if you're not already a subscriber, you will be soon thereafter.
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