Link to Day 7 Pictures
Link back to Day 6 ----- Link forward to Day 8
I took some time off work on Thursday (the first and only such occurrence during this year's PBW) since I had TBL Admin work to do related to the Amazing Beer Race I'm conducting on Sunday. I kept it to the straight and narrow with my appointments until I was crossing town from east to west (next destination: Local 44) and I punched up the iPhone app to ask it what was occurring and closest to my location....voila--the Dunk Tank for charity at London Grill.
I walked down 23rd street over an hour after the festivities had begun. Steve Mashington from Yards and Casey Hughes from Flying Fish had already been giving his dunking(s), but plenty more awaited Dan Conway (Left Hand) and Eric VanZile (Ithaca). Dogs were barking (the ones from PAWS that wanted to be adopted, money was being raised for Alex's Lemonade Stand among other charities, and great beer was being poured outside (like Yards Saison, Flying Fish Exit 6, and a few others).
I hung out long enough to pay my respects once again to the Hammer and do a bit of informal meet 'n' greet. Then, before finally heading to Local 44, I felt it prudent to stop in at long ago hang out Tavern on Green (currently The Belgian Café) to see Megan Maguire doing her own meet 'n' greet thing with her stable of Ommegang and Duvel beers. BPA, Triple Perfection, Duvel Green, Abbey Ale were just a few of the draft and bottle selections that she had pouring.
Had a pleasant conversation with a couple of guys who had just finished up their run for the day. We talked about the beautiful intersection of great tasting/craft beer and running. Maybe I'll see one or both of them on Sunday for my Run. It was just one and done as I still needed to make my stop at Local 44.
At Local 44, the draft list impressed as always, but what I was really there for was a one-year-old bottle of the timeless Orval beer. My lunch never happened earlier in the day, so I figured that provided I didn't want to be a wreck at the Philly Beer Geek Finals, I'd better put some food down there with my beer. And, food at Local 44 (or Memphis or Resurrection, for that matter) never disappoints.
This time it was a Falafel sandwich, quite possibly just about the last thing I'd picture myself ordering at Local 44. But, boy would that be a mistake. A tasty and satisfying sandwich, especially with a little siracha sauce drizzled over it. And, the Orval? Just as perfect as you'd expect this beer to be. Mostly dry, crisp, slightly dry and funky. A perfect beer a warm afternoon.
Then, it was off to gather Patty up at 30th Street Station and head out to Manayunk Brewery & Restaurant where I was to be announced as an "illustrious judge" and some nonesense about how great and helpful "my spreadsheet" was! But so far only one person has taken Jack to his advice for buying me a beer because of it. Even Jack last night reneged on the (at least) two beers that he owes me. What's going on around here anyway?!
Instead of trudging up the hill to Dawson Street (an old underage--sshhh--college hangout..I think the statute of limitations has worn out, yes?) to meet Jack and Carl for dinner, we ate out on Manayunk's patio amongst all the pretty and cool happy hour peoples. Some sushi, some pizza, and a Bills Pils. Not too shabby.
It was time to head upstairs just before 8:00pm for the introductions. Five judges, Six contestants. Two women and Four guys being judged by a motley crew of...well, motley Lew maybe?? Lew definitely tried to steal the show from the contestants as Jason Harris and Carolyn Smagalski tried their best to reign him in (occasionally) and contestants tried to keep straight faces.
There was a round of lightning trivia, stump the judges, blind beer tasting, open-ended/vague questions, and local beer philosophy. Through it all, two contestants stood head and shoulders above the rest. Steve Hawk and Kate Stewart wowed the crowd and us judges with their knowledge, quick wit, and composure...and a little bit of showmanship as well. Steve finished solidly in first place representing Hulmeville Inn and Kate in second for the Iron Abbey of Horsham. The others had flashes of brilliance and represented Philadelphia well with their mastery and geekerie of beer.
But, in the end, we judges convened outside on the patio for yet one more beer and a quick confirmation that the other four judges felt the same as I. The only question was to whom to award third place. We threw up a quick and hokey tie-breaker but it didn't change the outcome, so we left them tied for third.
And, with that a few hearty souls wandered back to Dawson Street and Patty and I slipped back to the Schuylkill Expressway to head home for the dogs.
As you head into the last 3 days of PBW...the iPhone has been updated earlier this week...now boasting "Same amount of beer, less head.....with Minor stability and performance enhancements." Sounds like a good thing.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Philly Beer Week 2010: My Event at Dock Street
On Sunday afternoon, it starts as my event with all of you in the streets of Philadelphia. Then, it continues as I hand off event control to Dock Street where I'll hand out prizes, a few different bands will play live music, and the grill and taps will be operating at full power.
Here's a re-pasting of the details I published last month. There's already a decent amount of people signed up; but, of course there's always room for more. Make sure you RSVP no later than 12 noon on Saturday. There are preparations that we need to do and I want to make sure that we don't leave from City Hall without you.
Face it, we've all taken in quite a few extra calories over the last week. Let's burn a few off.
---Philly Beer Run Quick Notes---
the 'Date': June 13, 2010
the 'Time': meet between 12pm-12:30pm
the 'Where': City Hall, northeast "apron"
the 'What': Pick your own route through Center City (this is not a group run), finish at Dock Street at 50th/Baltimore
the 'Twist': Make 4 stops along the way to complete a task/challenge (these will be very basic and require no special skills). You will learn more later about these stops.
the 'Why': Even though the route you choose to these stops and eventually to Dock Street will take up to 6-7 miles, these stops provide both a break as well as the chance to earn more points
the 'What are these points anyway?': Points will be accumulated by the runners and totaled at the finish as the basis for awarding prizes....beer prizes!!
the 'Anything else?': There will be live music and a cookout awaiting the runners at Dock Street
the 'Why are we doing this?': Because after 9 days of Philly Beer Week, this is a unique event that will help you to burn off some of those extra calories that you've put on during PBW and have fun at the same time!
After you RSVP, you will be on a distribution list from which you will receive instructions closer to Sunday.
Philly Beer Week 2010: Day 6 Wrap-Up
Day 6 Pictures are all displayed below--yes, there are only 4 of them and yes, one of them is a picture of food and the other of glassware...promise many more people pictures tomorrow.
Link back to Day 5 ----- Link forward to Day 7
Brew Lounge activity during Philly Beer Week 2010 has been brisk, but I can see that many of you are between 1 and 3 days behind in your reading and browsing. Fortunately, last night was a light and suburban night for me, so I've got very little to share today.
With my main goal of getting home for what turned out to be the last of the Stanley Cup Finals games last night and preparing (yes, preparing) for Philly Beer Geek tonight in Manayunk, I opted away from some of the big names and big lights of the city (Lambic Summit, Brewers Pub Crawl, and Vintage Happy Hour at Nodding Head, et cetera).
Instead, I made a quick stop in to see the guys at Exton Beverage and have a taste of a few porters and stouts that they were pouring. They've had a nice stream of people tasting and hanging out at each of the tastings that they've been conducting. They even got a completed job application from one of the tasters last night. Tonight is a sampling of a half dozen or so Belgians and Friday is canned beer (think: Sly Fox, Brooklyn, 21st Amendment...and I think I may have heard Red Racer, Caldera, and one or two others). Stop by, they're fun to hang out with after work---or whatever time of the day that is for you.
Then, I made my way to The Drafting Room where Bernie from Stockertown was going to be repping Bear Republic from Healdsburg, CA. Fortunately, the beers rep themselves well enough, because Bernie got stuck in Philly and wasn't able to make it. I figure that brewers and reps would have a difficult time cover the city, let alone the city and suburbs together with the jam-packed schedule that has them so spread thin during these ten days.
No matter, Racer 5 IPA on hand-pump? If this isn't a go-to cask-conditioned American IPA for you, you should really check it out and see if you agree. The Apex (one of my best-in-show at the Double IPA Festival in Hayward, CA two years ago) and the Crazy Ivan (Belgian Strong) were real crowd pleasers.
But what else did we spy on the bottom of the chalkboard menu? Why, under the Erie Pilsner, it was Lost Abbey Angel's Share on tap, something that many people were also dabbling and delighting in.
It was a solid crowd of people enjoy a lot of Bear Republic beer and take-home pint glassware. The Drafting Room has a nice-looking Great Lakes event tonight and Brooklyn on Friday...two more great reasons to pull in off of the madness of route 100 in Exton, PA.
Remember, that no matter where you are during Philly Beer Week, it's important to support your local guys (Bucks County? Hulmeville Inn; Delaware County? Iron Hill-Media; Montgomery County? Iron Abbey or Teresa's Next Door....just to name a few suburban spots participating in Philly Beer Week). Celebrate every week of the year with them like it was Philly Beer Week.
(Exton Beverage poured out the Stouts and Porters during Happy Hour in Exton, PA--Weyerbacher Old Heathen and Yards Thomas Jefferson were crowd favorites) 
(Exton Beverage poured out the Stouts and Porters during Happy Hour in Exton, PA--Weyerbacher Old Heathen and Yards Thomas Jefferson were crowd favorites) 
(tasty Pastrami eggrolls have replaced the cheesesteak eggrolls at The Drafting Room) 
(yes, this is really just a picture of Bear Republic glassware at The Drafting Room...that was their representation)
Link back to Day 5 ----- Link forward to Day 7
Brew Lounge activity during Philly Beer Week 2010 has been brisk, but I can see that many of you are between 1 and 3 days behind in your reading and browsing. Fortunately, last night was a light and suburban night for me, so I've got very little to share today.
With my main goal of getting home for what turned out to be the last of the Stanley Cup Finals games last night and preparing (yes, preparing) for Philly Beer Geek tonight in Manayunk, I opted away from some of the big names and big lights of the city (Lambic Summit, Brewers Pub Crawl, and Vintage Happy Hour at Nodding Head, et cetera).
Instead, I made a quick stop in to see the guys at Exton Beverage and have a taste of a few porters and stouts that they were pouring. They've had a nice stream of people tasting and hanging out at each of the tastings that they've been conducting. They even got a completed job application from one of the tasters last night. Tonight is a sampling of a half dozen or so Belgians and Friday is canned beer (think: Sly Fox, Brooklyn, 21st Amendment...and I think I may have heard Red Racer, Caldera, and one or two others). Stop by, they're fun to hang out with after work---or whatever time of the day that is for you.
Then, I made my way to The Drafting Room where Bernie from Stockertown was going to be repping Bear Republic from Healdsburg, CA. Fortunately, the beers rep themselves well enough, because Bernie got stuck in Philly and wasn't able to make it. I figure that brewers and reps would have a difficult time cover the city, let alone the city and suburbs together with the jam-packed schedule that has them so spread thin during these ten days.
No matter, Racer 5 IPA on hand-pump? If this isn't a go-to cask-conditioned American IPA for you, you should really check it out and see if you agree. The Apex (one of my best-in-show at the Double IPA Festival in Hayward, CA two years ago) and the Crazy Ivan (Belgian Strong) were real crowd pleasers.
But what else did we spy on the bottom of the chalkboard menu? Why, under the Erie Pilsner, it was Lost Abbey Angel's Share on tap, something that many people were also dabbling and delighting in.
It was a solid crowd of people enjoy a lot of Bear Republic beer and take-home pint glassware. The Drafting Room has a nice-looking Great Lakes event tonight and Brooklyn on Friday...two more great reasons to pull in off of the madness of route 100 in Exton, PA.
Remember, that no matter where you are during Philly Beer Week, it's important to support your local guys (Bucks County? Hulmeville Inn; Delaware County? Iron Hill-Media; Montgomery County? Iron Abbey or Teresa's Next Door....just to name a few suburban spots participating in Philly Beer Week). Celebrate every week of the year with them like it was Philly Beer Week.
Philly Beer Week 2010: Last minute planning for tonight (Thurs. June 10th)
Are you still looking for something fun to do tonight? Is the Philly Beer Geek Final on your calendar? Here are 6 reasons why you'd have a great time if you come to Manayunk Brewing Company on Main Street tonight.
~ because, admit it: You haven't been there in a while. Okay, if you won't, I will. And, that's a shame. Wanna know why?...
~ because, second reason: recently, former brewer Doug Marchakitus from Iron Hill's North Wales location has taken over the mash paddle at Manayunk and...
~ because, you see: he's doing some more interesting beers than I can recall coming out of Manayunk B.C. in quite some time. Oh, and...
~ because, did I mention?: I'm a judge in the Philly Beer Geek Finals this year. While that alone would be the worst reason to come out, you should come out...
~ because, one last thing: You'll get to see co-judges Joe Sixpack, Jack Curtin, Doug Marchakitus, and Nate Gefvert (Philly Beer Geek Champion '09) passing judgement on 5 well-qualified contestants vying to be crowned the third Philly Beer Geek Champion of all-time. Plus they get a chance to stump the judges---that should be fun all by itself.
~ because, just one very last thing: It's just plain ol' fun.
Festivities get underway at 8pm; no cover charge and its PAYG.
Manayunk Brewery & Restaurant
4120 Main Street
Philadelphia, PA 19127
(215) 482-8220
http://www.manayunkbrewery.com/
p.s. I'll warn you that the website says I've homebrewed in the all-grain format before. Oops, never. Actually, {admits sheepishly} avid homebrewer is a bit of a stretch--it's been way too long since I've homebrewed.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Philly Beer Week 2010: Day 5 Wrap-Up
Link to Day 5 Pictures
Link back to Day 4 ----- Link forward to Day 6
the Background Another beautiful weather day (PBW participants can't be too disappointed in the weather thusfar...though we've got some hiccups coming our way after the near-perfect last few days) was in store for Philly Beer Week revelers yesterday.
After Monday night in the suburbs and a preview taste of Armand Debelder's beers from Drie Fonteinen, I was completely ready to hop the train as soon as possible Tuesday afternoon to get into the City. A Lambic Dinner featuring Boon, Cantillon, and Drie Fonteinen (Frank Boon, Jean Van Roy, and Debelder, respectively) had been sold out almost as soon as it was scheduled last month. If it wasn't for a call from New Jersey-based beer writer, Mark Haynie, I likely wouldn't have had the privilege of attending this dinner. Though, I am disappointed to announce that a handful of seats did appear to go unfilled.
What will eat at me even more, I'm sure, (even more than their wonderfully sour beers in my stomach!) is missing the Lambic Summit tonight at the Museum at Penn. Hosted by Dan Shelton, and a steal at $50/person (why are tickets still available?!), this promises on paper to be a night to remember and likely one of PBW 2010's highlights. But, I haveyardwork (strike that) and a Flyers game to attend to....so there you go.
But, a taste at Teresa's Next Door on Monday and now an out-and-out slam dunk of a dinner at Monk's last night, maybe I should ask if I can be satisfied with "just that." :)
What to Do First things first, though. After jumping off the train at Suburban Station, I knew that I had some time to make at a brief appearance at one or two other events along my walk to Monk's. After a look at the iPhone app, tweets, and FB statuses, Good Dog and Misconduct made the cut. Nodding Head was going to be part of the plan (Mike Fava's text message alerting me to something about homebrew, mole, agave, lemongrass, piñatas, and tacos had me quite curious), but with it ending around 6pm, I figured I was better served to try and catch Yuseff Cherney of Ballast Point.
stop #1 at Good Dog Bar I guess you could say that I sorta caught him...as in, caught him walking down the street leaving Good Dog after completing his 3pm-5pm stint. No matter, it gave me a chance to easily slide into the bar (which was transitioning between his event and happy hour) and order up a Sculpin Triple-Dry-Hopped IPA from the firkin. Just seconds behind me entering the bar was Collin Flatt (he now of Ladder 15 consulting) with his constant partner-in-crime Kristen. With the hop blastmaster that is the Sculpin Triple-Hopped and Collin's equally palate-blasting Sour Wench, we decided to share and get the benefits of both. Not a bad idea since I could stomach (literally and figuratively) the Sculpin more than the raspberry-laden Sour Wench, but wouldn't have wanted a whole glass of either.
stop #2 at Misconduct Tavern So now I became a group of three and we decided Misconduct Tavern, just about 62 steps around the corner, would be our next stop. Figured it was to be a night of sours, so we went from Ballast Point and its Sour Wench at Good Dog to Ithaca's Brute on tap at Misconduct.
No sooner did we make our way to a table and the next to join our wandering party walked in the door: Jay Brooks, not 24 hours from arriving in from Washington, D.C. where he was attending the (third annual?) Savor festival. Jay was making his way to the Monk's Lambic Dinner as well and stopped for a quick one from Ithaca's lineup of (mostly) bottles and a Brute on tap. Brute, Le Bleu, 10, Old Habit, and AlphaAlpha were served up on their own or in a sampler flight.
A few sips into our glasses of Brute and we had yet another companion join our growing caravan of Monk's-bound lambic groupies: Sean McGettigan. Yes, the Sean of the recently-opened Station Taproom in Downingtown, PA. This guy, let me tell you, deserves a beer and night off if I've ever met one. Sean and his business partner Mark have been working almost non-stop for the past year trying to get their dream down to solid earth. I was surprised, but happy, to see him out on the town.
Monk's, Belgians, and Lambics await We got all the introductions out of the way, finished our beers, and then decided it was time to head over to Monk's a little early to see what we could still catch on tap from their mid-afternoon visit from Patrick Rue of southern California's The Bruery. Melange (a 17% yowza!) and Tradewinds did just the trick.
The crowd was already beginning to build at Monk's when we arrived around 6:30pm (maybe the earliest I've ever arrived for one of their dinners), a real who's-who of industry insiders and usual Monk's Beer Dinner suspects.
As expected, we got started just a little over 30 minutes late. Lost in the hoopla of the visiting brewers from Belgium was Brian Morin (beerbistro in Toronto, ON) in the kitchen. He'd overseen the menu for last year's Cantillon dinner and was back again to work with not only Cantillon's beer, but Drie Fonteinen's and Boon's as well. Not a bad gig for sure.
I realize I'm giving you guys a lot of daily content during PBW, so a full course-by-course rundown will not be included here. To sum things up nicely (you don't think I can do it, now do you?!), I simply need to recommend that if you have an open mind to the wide spectrum of what beer is and want to find beer and food pairings like you've likely never had before (and won't be surprised by a little sour--or sometimes a lot--in your beer), then you'll really want to check out a lambic-style dinner like this at some point.
a Little about Lambics If you're new to lambics, here's a very quick and very high-level tutorial. Lambic is a style of beer that results from spontaneous fermentation with specific "wild" yeasts under the open atmosphere, as opposed to fermentation that takes place under controlled and sanitized conditions. A gueuze is then a category of lambic beer, where multiple vintages of lambic are blended together. The addition of fruit and its natural sugars to the fermentation can make a kriek (cherries), framboise (raspberries), péché (peaches), or cassis (currants). Lambic production is an old style with deep Belgian roots, though American-based brewers are succeeding like never before in the world of both replicating old styles as well as creating new derivations of their own.
A nice gueuze can go so well with vinaigrette-dressed salads, soups, and certain light meats. Thinking of kriek can get you thinking about fruit-based compotes and accompaniments on meat dishes all the way to chocolate and fruit-laden desserts. Not only should drinking lambics help redefine how a newcomer to lambics thinks about beer, but also their approach to beer and food pairings.
Lambic and Food Pairings at Monk's At the risk of blasting you with too much more information from the dinner (which I promised not to do, did I not?), what can I leave you with? As usual, I saved a little from each beer as I went through the dinner to try a bit of mix/match experimentation with other courses than they were prescriptively intended.
The best, in my palate's opinion? Drie Fonteinen's Schaerbeekse with the strawberry shortcake dessert (two different types of sweet). Boon's Oude Gueuze with both the Crab Panna Cotta and the White Asparagus salad (oh, and the quail egg and white truffle vinaigrette....yes!). And, the Drie Fonteinen Doesjel with the Fish & Chips (with a unique twist using grilled salmon and garlic chips over top of braised leeks..the depth of the Doesjel held up well to the dominant flavors of the food). Cantillon's Classic Gueuze and the cave-aged cheese was another really nice (unscripted) pairing.
(see the pictures over at Picasa for full menu descriptions paired with mediocre low light photography)
all Good Things must eventually end, or at least pause With the closing of the dinner, it was obvious that other events across town were letting out, because a trickle of folks like Tomme Arthur and Curt Decker and assorted beer seekers started coming through the door around 10pm. Round Two at Monk's was about to begin. A bunch of people sounded like they might be headed over to Varga to partake in some late night antics with the cool kids of Captain Lawrence, Flying Fish, and Southampton. (That's one that I kinda wish I'd been able to stick around for.)
With an early morning schedule today, I opted to pretty quickly pay the bill and head off to 30th Street Station. Amtrak's new late night schedule has actually pushed back the last westbound train by 14 minutes (to 10:59pm). I thought I might actually need the extra 14 minutes after this dinner, but alas that was not to be.
And, now for the grand finale...get this. I've been sometimes tagged as the Bridgewater's guy in the past and am very quick to offer that it is the country's best train station beer bar (for the food, too). Last night? I did, of course, stop in with my extra minutes to kill before the departing train. But, I stopped in to see what was doing with the night's earlier Lancaster Brewing promotion. And, then?----I left...yes, my beer quotient for the night had been filled. Even between the Lancaster and the Schlenkerla on tap, nothing would likely measure up after this A+ dinner experience at Monk's Café.
Onward to Day 6.
p.s. because I also occasionally check in on Twitter (yes, actually, I really do!), I notice that tickets are still available as well for tonight's vintage Dogfish/Lost Abbey event at Nodding Head. Sam, Tomme, 10 vintage beers, live music. Really? I mean, will dinner really be better at your house? :-p
Link back to Day 4 ----- Link forward to Day 6
the Background Another beautiful weather day (PBW participants can't be too disappointed in the weather thusfar...though we've got some hiccups coming our way after the near-perfect last few days) was in store for Philly Beer Week revelers yesterday.
After Monday night in the suburbs and a preview taste of Armand Debelder's beers from Drie Fonteinen, I was completely ready to hop the train as soon as possible Tuesday afternoon to get into the City. A Lambic Dinner featuring Boon, Cantillon, and Drie Fonteinen (Frank Boon, Jean Van Roy, and Debelder, respectively) had been sold out almost as soon as it was scheduled last month. If it wasn't for a call from New Jersey-based beer writer, Mark Haynie, I likely wouldn't have had the privilege of attending this dinner. Though, I am disappointed to announce that a handful of seats did appear to go unfilled.
What will eat at me even more, I'm sure, (even more than their wonderfully sour beers in my stomach!) is missing the Lambic Summit tonight at the Museum at Penn. Hosted by Dan Shelton, and a steal at $50/person (why are tickets still available?!), this promises on paper to be a night to remember and likely one of PBW 2010's highlights. But, I have
But, a taste at Teresa's Next Door on Monday and now an out-and-out slam dunk of a dinner at Monk's last night, maybe I should ask if I can be satisfied with "just that." :)
What to Do First things first, though. After jumping off the train at Suburban Station, I knew that I had some time to make at a brief appearance at one or two other events along my walk to Monk's. After a look at the iPhone app, tweets, and FB statuses, Good Dog and Misconduct made the cut. Nodding Head was going to be part of the plan (Mike Fava's text message alerting me to something about homebrew, mole, agave, lemongrass, piñatas, and tacos had me quite curious), but with it ending around 6pm, I figured I was better served to try and catch Yuseff Cherney of Ballast Point.
stop #1 at Good Dog Bar I guess you could say that I sorta caught him...as in, caught him walking down the street leaving Good Dog after completing his 3pm-5pm stint. No matter, it gave me a chance to easily slide into the bar (which was transitioning between his event and happy hour) and order up a Sculpin Triple-Dry-Hopped IPA from the firkin. Just seconds behind me entering the bar was Collin Flatt (he now of Ladder 15 consulting) with his constant partner-in-crime Kristen. With the hop blastmaster that is the Sculpin Triple-Hopped and Collin's equally palate-blasting Sour Wench, we decided to share and get the benefits of both. Not a bad idea since I could stomach (literally and figuratively) the Sculpin more than the raspberry-laden Sour Wench, but wouldn't have wanted a whole glass of either.
stop #2 at Misconduct Tavern So now I became a group of three and we decided Misconduct Tavern, just about 62 steps around the corner, would be our next stop. Figured it was to be a night of sours, so we went from Ballast Point and its Sour Wench at Good Dog to Ithaca's Brute on tap at Misconduct.
No sooner did we make our way to a table and the next to join our wandering party walked in the door: Jay Brooks, not 24 hours from arriving in from Washington, D.C. where he was attending the (third annual?) Savor festival. Jay was making his way to the Monk's Lambic Dinner as well and stopped for a quick one from Ithaca's lineup of (mostly) bottles and a Brute on tap. Brute, Le Bleu, 10, Old Habit, and AlphaAlpha were served up on their own or in a sampler flight.
A few sips into our glasses of Brute and we had yet another companion join our growing caravan of Monk's-bound lambic groupies: Sean McGettigan. Yes, the Sean of the recently-opened Station Taproom in Downingtown, PA. This guy, let me tell you, deserves a beer and night off if I've ever met one. Sean and his business partner Mark have been working almost non-stop for the past year trying to get their dream down to solid earth. I was surprised, but happy, to see him out on the town.
Monk's, Belgians, and Lambics await We got all the introductions out of the way, finished our beers, and then decided it was time to head over to Monk's a little early to see what we could still catch on tap from their mid-afternoon visit from Patrick Rue of southern California's The Bruery. Melange (a 17% yowza!) and Tradewinds did just the trick.
The crowd was already beginning to build at Monk's when we arrived around 6:30pm (maybe the earliest I've ever arrived for one of their dinners), a real who's-who of industry insiders and usual Monk's Beer Dinner suspects.
As expected, we got started just a little over 30 minutes late. Lost in the hoopla of the visiting brewers from Belgium was Brian Morin (beerbistro in Toronto, ON) in the kitchen. He'd overseen the menu for last year's Cantillon dinner and was back again to work with not only Cantillon's beer, but Drie Fonteinen's and Boon's as well. Not a bad gig for sure.
I realize I'm giving you guys a lot of daily content during PBW, so a full course-by-course rundown will not be included here. To sum things up nicely (you don't think I can do it, now do you?!), I simply need to recommend that if you have an open mind to the wide spectrum of what beer is and want to find beer and food pairings like you've likely never had before (and won't be surprised by a little sour--or sometimes a lot--in your beer), then you'll really want to check out a lambic-style dinner like this at some point.
a Little about Lambics If you're new to lambics, here's a very quick and very high-level tutorial. Lambic is a style of beer that results from spontaneous fermentation with specific "wild" yeasts under the open atmosphere, as opposed to fermentation that takes place under controlled and sanitized conditions. A gueuze is then a category of lambic beer, where multiple vintages of lambic are blended together. The addition of fruit and its natural sugars to the fermentation can make a kriek (cherries), framboise (raspberries), péché (peaches), or cassis (currants). Lambic production is an old style with deep Belgian roots, though American-based brewers are succeeding like never before in the world of both replicating old styles as well as creating new derivations of their own.
A nice gueuze can go so well with vinaigrette-dressed salads, soups, and certain light meats. Thinking of kriek can get you thinking about fruit-based compotes and accompaniments on meat dishes all the way to chocolate and fruit-laden desserts. Not only should drinking lambics help redefine how a newcomer to lambics thinks about beer, but also their approach to beer and food pairings.
Lambic and Food Pairings at Monk's At the risk of blasting you with too much more information from the dinner (which I promised not to do, did I not?), what can I leave you with? As usual, I saved a little from each beer as I went through the dinner to try a bit of mix/match experimentation with other courses than they were prescriptively intended.
The best, in my palate's opinion? Drie Fonteinen's Schaerbeekse with the strawberry shortcake dessert (two different types of sweet). Boon's Oude Gueuze with both the Crab Panna Cotta and the White Asparagus salad (oh, and the quail egg and white truffle vinaigrette....yes!). And, the Drie Fonteinen Doesjel with the Fish & Chips (with a unique twist using grilled salmon and garlic chips over top of braised leeks..the depth of the Doesjel held up well to the dominant flavors of the food). Cantillon's Classic Gueuze and the cave-aged cheese was another really nice (unscripted) pairing.
(see the pictures over at Picasa for full menu descriptions paired with mediocre low light photography)
all Good Things must eventually end, or at least pause With the closing of the dinner, it was obvious that other events across town were letting out, because a trickle of folks like Tomme Arthur and Curt Decker and assorted beer seekers started coming through the door around 10pm. Round Two at Monk's was about to begin. A bunch of people sounded like they might be headed over to Varga to partake in some late night antics with the cool kids of Captain Lawrence, Flying Fish, and Southampton. (That's one that I kinda wish I'd been able to stick around for.)
With an early morning schedule today, I opted to pretty quickly pay the bill and head off to 30th Street Station. Amtrak's new late night schedule has actually pushed back the last westbound train by 14 minutes (to 10:59pm). I thought I might actually need the extra 14 minutes after this dinner, but alas that was not to be.
And, now for the grand finale...get this. I've been sometimes tagged as the Bridgewater's guy in the past and am very quick to offer that it is the country's best train station beer bar (for the food, too). Last night? I did, of course, stop in with my extra minutes to kill before the departing train. But, I stopped in to see what was doing with the night's earlier Lancaster Brewing promotion. And, then?----I left...yes, my beer quotient for the night had been filled. Even between the Lancaster and the Schlenkerla on tap, nothing would likely measure up after this A+ dinner experience at Monk's Café.
Onward to Day 6.
p.s. because I also occasionally check in on Twitter (yes, actually, I really do!), I notice that tickets are still available as well for tonight's vintage Dogfish/Lost Abbey event at Nodding Head. Sam, Tomme, 10 vintage beers, live music. Really? I mean, will dinner really be better at your house? :-p
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Philly Beer Week 2010: Day 4 Wrap-Up
Link to Day 4 Pictures
Link back to Day 3 ----- Link forward to Day 5
(Building on yesterday's parenthetically-preposterous posting, here's one more that I meant to cover yesterday. As I meandered down Germantown Avenue, Fairmount Avenue, and Girard Avenue, I tested out the PBW iPhone app. True to specs, as I made my way from one block to one neighborhood to the next, the "Closest" feature that lists the nearest current events to your determined GPS location worked extremely well. Not sure exactly how many people are truly using this feature in practice, but the concept alone is pretty cool and appears to work as designed.) Onward to Day Four!
Day Four of Philly Beer Week 2010 brought my day job back into the picture. Gotta work hard to play hard, or something like that, right? But, the Beer By BART duo (Steve and Gail) was coming out of the City to see how we do things in the western suburbs. Between Teresa's Next Door in Wayne and TJs in Paoli, they were able to do a bit of 'Beer By SEPTA' research in case they're ever looking to expand their website service :)
After a bunch of backing and forthing, texting and messaging, toing and froing if you will, we settled finally on stopping in first at TJs with a second, longer stop at Teresa's Next Door.
The concept at Teresa's was pretty simple. A text message from Andy Dickerson before 9am said that he was braising Veal Cheeks in Kriek after they'd been soaking overnight. Oh boy, I thought, this is gonna be a do-not-miss. At 5pm, food and beer pairings were to be made available. Then between 6:30pm-7:00pm, Armand Debelder of the celebrated Drie Fonteinen in Belgium was to appear and talk shop with what would be expected to be a full house.
Down the road a piece at TJs, owners Jeff and Teri were due back from their annual vacation to Aruba just in the nick of time for their slightly more complicated evening event. Well, complicated only in the sense that they were expecting to see a large contingent of folks from the likes of St. Somewhere, Cigar City, 12% Imports, Voodoo, Boulder, Ballast Point, and Stillwater.
Unfortunately, based on this timing, the brewers and reps were long gone by the time that we and others were arriving after our day jobs. Not to say they didn't leave their beer behind for us to enjoy. I got to know Stillwater, a new brewery out of Maryland, by way of its Cellar Door Saison. Nice, dry, and a light snappy tartness made this a nice early pre-dinner beer. Apparently, Stillwater has just begun flowing in Pennsylvania within the past few months and isn't much older in the brewhouse. I'll look forward to catching up with some more Stillwater in the near future.
But, since the "brewers" that we thought we'd be "meeting" were gone and our ultimate dinner was to be at Teresa's Next Door, we opted for one beer and then the door and took the Beer By BART crew (Steve Shapiro and Gail Williams) along with us to meet up with Armand Debelder of Drie Fonteinen Belgian beer brewing and blending fame. He was accompanied by Dan Shelton's importing/distributing team and the restaurant/bar was filled nicely (though, it doesn't take much to quickly make TND feel crowded) with folks looking to taste some of Armand's artfully blended and aged lambics.
After almost an hour of kibitzing and tasting, we sat for a dinner that made us all happy with our decision to spend most of the night at Teresa's. The veal cheeks? So very well worth the overnight soaking and early morning braising. So tender and so tasty in their gravy and paired with a slightly creamy barley risotto side accompaniment. And a side by side comparison of '05 kriek and '08 kriek made for a perfect experience, with the '05 predictably bringing a softer tartness than the newer, more bracing '08 version.
But first we'd started with a nice salad of slightly underipe apricots, blue cheese, and light greens doused with a pleasantly tart vinaigrette. Which of course you'll say went perfectly with the Doesjel, right? I said so as well! So much so, I had two glasses of it.
All this great eating and drinking came on the heels of chatting for 10 to 15 minutes with Mr. Debelder who shared his passion for the brewing, the aging, the blending of his beer. He has been more than pleased to watch a younger market and demographic taking an interest in lambics and the type of mind-opening beers and processes that he creates.
After Patty stole the show with her Day 1 pictures, I've continued for yet another day a string of disappointing pictures. However, this time, it's not necessarily the quality of the pictures...no, this time it's that the "people pictures" are on Gail Williams camera (Beer By BART) and I'll be waiting for a while I'm sure until she gets back to San Francisco and begins to sort through her hundreds of pictures from hers and Steve's PBW trip to Philadelphia. Something inside of me said, "she's already got her camera out and is snapping away; instead of overwhelming Armand and the bar crowd with multiple cameras and flashes, I'll just get copies of the pictures from her later." Brilliant, kid, simply brilliant.
Then again, I'll have another opportunity for people pictures on my own camera ready to share with you tomorrow after tonight's Lambic Dinner at Monk's Cafe. As usual, it promises to be a memorable night on 16th Street.
Link back to Day 3 ----- Link forward to Day 5
(Building on yesterday's parenthetically-preposterous posting, here's one more that I meant to cover yesterday. As I meandered down Germantown Avenue, Fairmount Avenue, and Girard Avenue, I tested out the PBW iPhone app. True to specs, as I made my way from one block to one neighborhood to the next, the "Closest" feature that lists the nearest current events to your determined GPS location worked extremely well. Not sure exactly how many people are truly using this feature in practice, but the concept alone is pretty cool and appears to work as designed.) Onward to Day Four!
Day Four of Philly Beer Week 2010 brought my day job back into the picture. Gotta work hard to play hard, or something like that, right? But, the Beer By BART duo (Steve and Gail) was coming out of the City to see how we do things in the western suburbs. Between Teresa's Next Door in Wayne and TJs in Paoli, they were able to do a bit of 'Beer By SEPTA' research in case they're ever looking to expand their website service :)
After a bunch of backing and forthing, texting and messaging, toing and froing if you will, we settled finally on stopping in first at TJs with a second, longer stop at Teresa's Next Door.
The concept at Teresa's was pretty simple. A text message from Andy Dickerson before 9am said that he was braising Veal Cheeks in Kriek after they'd been soaking overnight. Oh boy, I thought, this is gonna be a do-not-miss. At 5pm, food and beer pairings were to be made available. Then between 6:30pm-7:00pm, Armand Debelder of the celebrated Drie Fonteinen in Belgium was to appear and talk shop with what would be expected to be a full house.
Down the road a piece at TJs, owners Jeff and Teri were due back from their annual vacation to Aruba just in the nick of time for their slightly more complicated evening event. Well, complicated only in the sense that they were expecting to see a large contingent of folks from the likes of St. Somewhere, Cigar City, 12% Imports, Voodoo, Boulder, Ballast Point, and Stillwater.
Unfortunately, based on this timing, the brewers and reps were long gone by the time that we and others were arriving after our day jobs. Not to say they didn't leave their beer behind for us to enjoy. I got to know Stillwater, a new brewery out of Maryland, by way of its Cellar Door Saison. Nice, dry, and a light snappy tartness made this a nice early pre-dinner beer. Apparently, Stillwater has just begun flowing in Pennsylvania within the past few months and isn't much older in the brewhouse. I'll look forward to catching up with some more Stillwater in the near future.
But, since the "brewers" that we thought we'd be "meeting" were gone and our ultimate dinner was to be at Teresa's Next Door, we opted for one beer and then the door and took the Beer By BART crew (Steve Shapiro and Gail Williams) along with us to meet up with Armand Debelder of Drie Fonteinen Belgian beer brewing and blending fame. He was accompanied by Dan Shelton's importing/distributing team and the restaurant/bar was filled nicely (though, it doesn't take much to quickly make TND feel crowded) with folks looking to taste some of Armand's artfully blended and aged lambics.
After almost an hour of kibitzing and tasting, we sat for a dinner that made us all happy with our decision to spend most of the night at Teresa's. The veal cheeks? So very well worth the overnight soaking and early morning braising. So tender and so tasty in their gravy and paired with a slightly creamy barley risotto side accompaniment. And a side by side comparison of '05 kriek and '08 kriek made for a perfect experience, with the '05 predictably bringing a softer tartness than the newer, more bracing '08 version.
But first we'd started with a nice salad of slightly underipe apricots, blue cheese, and light greens doused with a pleasantly tart vinaigrette. Which of course you'll say went perfectly with the Doesjel, right? I said so as well! So much so, I had two glasses of it.
All this great eating and drinking came on the heels of chatting for 10 to 15 minutes with Mr. Debelder who shared his passion for the brewing, the aging, the blending of his beer. He has been more than pleased to watch a younger market and demographic taking an interest in lambics and the type of mind-opening beers and processes that he creates.
After Patty stole the show with her Day 1 pictures, I've continued for yet another day a string of disappointing pictures. However, this time, it's not necessarily the quality of the pictures...no, this time it's that the "people pictures" are on Gail Williams camera (Beer By BART) and I'll be waiting for a while I'm sure until she gets back to San Francisco and begins to sort through her hundreds of pictures from hers and Steve's PBW trip to Philadelphia. Something inside of me said, "she's already got her camera out and is snapping away; instead of overwhelming Armand and the bar crowd with multiple cameras and flashes, I'll just get copies of the pictures from her later." Brilliant, kid, simply brilliant.
Then again, I'll have another opportunity for people pictures on my own camera ready to share with you tomorrow after tonight's Lambic Dinner at Monk's Cafe. As usual, it promises to be a memorable night on 16th Street.
Monday, June 07, 2010
Philly Beer Week 2010: Day 3 Wrap-Up
Link to Day 3 Pictures
Link back to Day 2 ----- Link forward to Day 4
What Saturday lacked in The Brew Lounge's participation in Philly Beer Week 2010 (see Day 2 if you don't know of what I speak) was completely made up for with a very pleasant Sunday outing. With Patty staying at home, this means, however, that you'll be subjected once again to my quite suspect photography skills (you'd never guess that I was the photography editor of my high school yearbook, now would you?). Though, she was pleased to see her work recognized by the esteemed Jack Curtin who commented on her keen eye and quick shutter finger in capturing William Reed, nightclub dancers, and other activity from Day One.
I began my Sunday with a solid breakfast at home of eggs, bacon, bagels, juice, and coffee. No way I was going to be undernourished on Day 3.
I figured with the city likely to be one traffic nightmare after another (related to the annual Bike Race that takes place in Philly...one of Philly's truly great sporting events/assets to be sure), I opted to begin my Sunday with a quick pop-in at Capone's just outside Norristown on Germantown Avenue. This would then facilitate the Germantown Avenue tour That I planned to take into the City, thus avoiding the Manayunk Mess of people, logjammed traffic, and people leaving SOGO ;-) (if you don't know SOGO, then you don't know! but ask, and maybe I'll tell you)
Quick? HA! This was not to be from the moment I spied my barstool, looked across the bar, and was beckoned by Mr. Dan Bengel. Here we go, I thought...the slippery slope! My 30 minute planned stop turned into around 90 minutes, with as perfect of a sampler as I could have imagined (3 from St. Somewhere and 1 from Cigar City). But then, a special midwestern brew from Boulevard was offered up by John, another fellow barstool jockey, and then, Mr. Big Dan insisted we split an appropriately small glass of Cigar City's brandy barrel-aged Hunahpu. My first experience with this incredible imperial stout was a wonderful one, but certainly an indicator that my time at Capone's must come to a close if I was to stick to the rest of my so-called schedule.
Bob Sylvester stopped in with Jordan Fetfatzes (Bella Vista Beverages) for a couple of hours at Capone's. The affable Bob took time to stop at each table to talk Florida Beer with the folks who had come out to taste some of his fine beers, especially the Saison Athene...this one particularly shone when served after being aged 18 months in wood.
Even though this event was not part of the official 2010 PBW Calendar, I felt it important (as apparently have many others during the restaurant's 4 events that they've conducted over the past 3 days) to stop in for a visit at one of the region's must-stops for great beer and great beer events. My Philly Beer Week is really to be about focusing on the positive, and that's what this stop-in was all about.
Off I went, but not before bumping into Sara (formerly of Ortino's Northside) who was heading in to meet up with Brian, Dan, and John. So, I can only imagine that the leisurely Sunday afternoon lollygagging continued on for a couple of more hours.
Next up on Germantown Avenue was General Lafayette Inn & Brewery in Lafayette Hill, just on the suburban side of the city's northwestern boundary. Chris DePeppe (Beerheads) was there hosting a dog-friendly event called Suds 'n' Buds where the dogs got to play freely behind the restaurant in the bed and breakfast's fenced-in front yard. Maybe 15 people, 10 dogs came out for this event? It seemed like a nice afternoon for the folks to kick back and enjoy some beer while allowing their dogs to get some quality social time and exercise.
Me? I was hoping to try the Copper Crow IPA, one that's been getting some nice reviews. But, alas, the second (or was it third?) batch had just been kicked earlier during brunch, so I went to my fallback beer--and the beer that put Chris Leonard and Russ Czajka on the map for me--the Chocolate Thunder porter. And, just like that it was time to move on.
I'd fallen a bit behind schedule due to the maniacal machinations of Big Dan back at Capone's (fine, fine! I'll take some responsibility as well). I was still intent on hitting up Johnny Brenda's and City Tap House, with not much room for error on the Schuylkill Expressway to get me home in time for the puck drop at 8:20.
I was pleasantly surprised at my ability to easily slide through the city coming down Henry Avenue (I opted off Germantown Avenue at this point since Earth Bread + Brewery was not opening until 4:30pm), Hunting Park, Kelly Drive (now just having been reopened after the Bike Race with virtually no cars yet on the road), to 33rd Street, to Girard....across town hitting most lights 'green' to Girard and Frankford where Casey Hughes (Flying Fish) and Nick Johnson (Tröegs) sat outside like beacons (or sirens?) calling me to crash on the rocks of Johnny Brenda's.
A parking spot out front was not too difficult to come by. Johnny Brenda's remains one of my favorite venues in the city...the building's got real honest-to-goodness character, to say the least. And, to be hosting a solid brewery like Tröegs, its brothers (Chris and John) and "ambassador" (Nick) paired up with some right solid local music (some of which included brewery employees like Ed Yashinsky), this quickly became one of my early favorite events of PBW 2010 thusfar. At least, shall we say, favorite of those I've attended. Otherwise, the Hammer of Glory Tour might instead be at the top of my list.
Some rockin' music, great beer peeps to hang out with, some rockin' beers (roggen beer, yes! the Citra hop-based Scratch 31, yes! in a new oak barrel? yes!) made for a great way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon. Then, it was time to add my one last stop before heading home for the Stanley Cup Finals game five.
Mr. (or Brother?) Woody Chandler had stopped in to Johnny Brenda's and although he has been working his way into a Driver's Permit and License (yes, you read that correctly...like how I buried that deep within this posting?!...let's see which of you fastidious readers pick up on it), he's always up for a ride across town. He hadn't been to City Tap House yet and was also interested in checking out the Deschutes premiere that was scheduled.
After dropping off Woody and parking the car (feels like 'Driving Mr. Woody', eh?!), I made my up the elevator and inside to dip into some Hop Henge and The Abyss, two wonderful beers which I've previously only had on the West Coast or GABF...unless you count the bottles that I've flown home with me to drink in the backyard.
We'd arrived too late to get a picture with the brewer, but in enough time to find John Doherty, a couple of Fishtown Beer Runners, The Philly Beer Girl (Helene), and numerous other fans of Deschutes beer.
But, the place certainly would not have been what you'd call crowded. Unless perhaps it was busier closer to the kickoff of the event at 4pm? But, then again, neither was Johnny Brenda's...and these were two very solid events of interesting and unique offerings. Now, of course, Smoke 'Em if Yous Got 'Em at Yards was occurring simultaneously as were dozens of other events, but from reports I've picked up on along the way, attendance at most events has not exactly what I'm guessing most would have hoped for or wanted.
It then brings me back to the question I posed the other day: Is 1000 events too many? (Well, actually, I stated that in my opinion it is, but I am asking for your own feedback as well.) I'll continue to think it is, but will reserve final judgement for a week from now when the post mortem begins. Thus far, though, it seems that in this warmer weather, just as many potential participants (maybe) are doing not as many things as in past years and they're being stretched across almost twice as many "events" as last year. I'll be anxious to hear more from the proprietors and event organizers as the week wears on.
Until then, it's Day 4. Happy (continued) Philly Beer Week 2010! Today and tomorrow may turn out to be the two best weather days of PBW 2010. Enjoy and be safe.
and thus endeth (perhaps) the TBL posting with the most parentheticals ever (?)
Link back to Day 2 ----- Link forward to Day 4
What Saturday lacked in The Brew Lounge's participation in Philly Beer Week 2010 (see Day 2 if you don't know of what I speak) was completely made up for with a very pleasant Sunday outing. With Patty staying at home, this means, however, that you'll be subjected once again to my quite suspect photography skills (you'd never guess that I was the photography editor of my high school yearbook, now would you?). Though, she was pleased to see her work recognized by the esteemed Jack Curtin who commented on her keen eye and quick shutter finger in capturing William Reed, nightclub dancers, and other activity from Day One.
I began my Sunday with a solid breakfast at home of eggs, bacon, bagels, juice, and coffee. No way I was going to be undernourished on Day 3.
I figured with the city likely to be one traffic nightmare after another (related to the annual Bike Race that takes place in Philly...one of Philly's truly great sporting events/assets to be sure), I opted to begin my Sunday with a quick pop-in at Capone's just outside Norristown on Germantown Avenue. This would then facilitate the Germantown Avenue tour That I planned to take into the City, thus avoiding the Manayunk Mess of people, logjammed traffic, and people leaving SOGO ;-) (if you don't know SOGO, then you don't know! but ask, and maybe I'll tell you)
Quick? HA! This was not to be from the moment I spied my barstool, looked across the bar, and was beckoned by Mr. Dan Bengel. Here we go, I thought...the slippery slope! My 30 minute planned stop turned into around 90 minutes, with as perfect of a sampler as I could have imagined (3 from St. Somewhere and 1 from Cigar City). But then, a special midwestern brew from Boulevard was offered up by John, another fellow barstool jockey, and then, Mr. Big Dan insisted we split an appropriately small glass of Cigar City's brandy barrel-aged Hunahpu. My first experience with this incredible imperial stout was a wonderful one, but certainly an indicator that my time at Capone's must come to a close if I was to stick to the rest of my so-called schedule.
Bob Sylvester stopped in with Jordan Fetfatzes (Bella Vista Beverages) for a couple of hours at Capone's. The affable Bob took time to stop at each table to talk Florida Beer with the folks who had come out to taste some of his fine beers, especially the Saison Athene...this one particularly shone when served after being aged 18 months in wood.
Even though this event was not part of the official 2010 PBW Calendar, I felt it important (as apparently have many others during the restaurant's 4 events that they've conducted over the past 3 days) to stop in for a visit at one of the region's must-stops for great beer and great beer events. My Philly Beer Week is really to be about focusing on the positive, and that's what this stop-in was all about.
Off I went, but not before bumping into Sara (formerly of Ortino's Northside) who was heading in to meet up with Brian, Dan, and John. So, I can only imagine that the leisurely Sunday afternoon lollygagging continued on for a couple of more hours.
Next up on Germantown Avenue was General Lafayette Inn & Brewery in Lafayette Hill, just on the suburban side of the city's northwestern boundary. Chris DePeppe (Beerheads) was there hosting a dog-friendly event called Suds 'n' Buds where the dogs got to play freely behind the restaurant in the bed and breakfast's fenced-in front yard. Maybe 15 people, 10 dogs came out for this event? It seemed like a nice afternoon for the folks to kick back and enjoy some beer while allowing their dogs to get some quality social time and exercise.
Me? I was hoping to try the Copper Crow IPA, one that's been getting some nice reviews. But, alas, the second (or was it third?) batch had just been kicked earlier during brunch, so I went to my fallback beer--and the beer that put Chris Leonard and Russ Czajka on the map for me--the Chocolate Thunder porter. And, just like that it was time to move on.
I'd fallen a bit behind schedule due to the maniacal machinations of Big Dan back at Capone's (fine, fine! I'll take some responsibility as well). I was still intent on hitting up Johnny Brenda's and City Tap House, with not much room for error on the Schuylkill Expressway to get me home in time for the puck drop at 8:20.
I was pleasantly surprised at my ability to easily slide through the city coming down Henry Avenue (I opted off Germantown Avenue at this point since Earth Bread + Brewery was not opening until 4:30pm), Hunting Park, Kelly Drive (now just having been reopened after the Bike Race with virtually no cars yet on the road), to 33rd Street, to Girard....across town hitting most lights 'green' to Girard and Frankford where Casey Hughes (Flying Fish) and Nick Johnson (Tröegs) sat outside like beacons (or sirens?) calling me to crash on the rocks of Johnny Brenda's.
A parking spot out front was not too difficult to come by. Johnny Brenda's remains one of my favorite venues in the city...the building's got real honest-to-goodness character, to say the least. And, to be hosting a solid brewery like Tröegs, its brothers (Chris and John) and "ambassador" (Nick) paired up with some right solid local music (some of which included brewery employees like Ed Yashinsky), this quickly became one of my early favorite events of PBW 2010 thusfar. At least, shall we say, favorite of those I've attended. Otherwise, the Hammer of Glory Tour might instead be at the top of my list.
Some rockin' music, great beer peeps to hang out with, some rockin' beers (roggen beer, yes! the Citra hop-based Scratch 31, yes! in a new oak barrel? yes!) made for a great way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon. Then, it was time to add my one last stop before heading home for the Stanley Cup Finals game five.
Mr. (or Brother?) Woody Chandler had stopped in to Johnny Brenda's and although he has been working his way into a Driver's Permit and License (yes, you read that correctly...like how I buried that deep within this posting?!...let's see which of you fastidious readers pick up on it), he's always up for a ride across town. He hadn't been to City Tap House yet and was also interested in checking out the Deschutes premiere that was scheduled.
After dropping off Woody and parking the car (feels like 'Driving Mr. Woody', eh?!), I made my up the elevator and inside to dip into some Hop Henge and The Abyss, two wonderful beers which I've previously only had on the West Coast or GABF...unless you count the bottles that I've flown home with me to drink in the backyard.
We'd arrived too late to get a picture with the brewer, but in enough time to find John Doherty, a couple of Fishtown Beer Runners, The Philly Beer Girl (Helene), and numerous other fans of Deschutes beer.
But, the place certainly would not have been what you'd call crowded. Unless perhaps it was busier closer to the kickoff of the event at 4pm? But, then again, neither was Johnny Brenda's...and these were two very solid events of interesting and unique offerings. Now, of course, Smoke 'Em if Yous Got 'Em at Yards was occurring simultaneously as were dozens of other events, but from reports I've picked up on along the way, attendance at most events has not exactly what I'm guessing most would have hoped for or wanted.
It then brings me back to the question I posed the other day: Is 1000 events too many? (Well, actually, I stated that in my opinion it is, but I am asking for your own feedback as well.) I'll continue to think it is, but will reserve final judgement for a week from now when the post mortem begins. Thus far, though, it seems that in this warmer weather, just as many potential participants (maybe) are doing not as many things as in past years and they're being stretched across almost twice as many "events" as last year. I'll be anxious to hear more from the proprietors and event organizers as the week wears on.
Until then, it's Day 4. Happy (continued) Philly Beer Week 2010! Today and tomorrow may turn out to be the two best weather days of PBW 2010. Enjoy and be safe.
and thus endeth (perhaps) the TBL posting with the most parentheticals ever (?)
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Philly Beer Week 2010: Day 2 Wrap-Up
No Day 2 Pictures, sorry...check back tomorrow for more.
Link back to Day 1 ----- Link forward to Day 3
Allow my lesson learned on Friday (or, Saturday morning) to be a lesson for all of you savages as you strive to make your through Philly Beer Week 2010.
In this warmer weather, there is no such thing as being too well hydrated.
Even given my 1/2 gallon of water consumed during the day at my office desk on Friday....given four glasses of water with my dinner and two beers....a small bit of water at Opening Tap, one at Varga, and one at Bridgewater's Pub at 30th Street Station. Even one 20-ounce glass before bed was not enough.
Over six hours, I did not drink to excess though half the beers I had were higher in alcohol than your typical session-y type of beer. But, an assessment of my personal condition during the night said I was doing pretty well. The train ride and subsequent short drive home all went fine....dogs let out, etc. All signs pointed to a great Saturday follow-up.
Then, Saturday happened. It wasn't a sickening type of hangover, it was a complete lack of energy type of hangover. Absolutely no energy to do anything but to stare at the TV and take a nap. And a headache of fluctuating and wandering knocks around my noggin.
So, that meant....
...no Wheat Beer Brunch or Laughing Like Lew at Grey Lodge Pub ...no stop-ins at any other city-based events during the afternoon ...no suburban join-in during the Phoenixville Pub Crawl
What I did when I finally shook out all of the cobwebs and loaded up on a few bits of energy was go to a backyard bachelor party where Belgians, not babes, were the focal point of the sendoff for the groom-to-be.
I spent a few hours with some great beer folk, one of whom has just returned from more than a couple of years working in Europe. You may recall me linking to his blog of words and pictures of his and his wife's beer excursions across Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Italy, England, Switzerland, and Germany.
So while I didn't do anything specifically on the PBW calendar, I closed out my Day 2 with a night of rare and special Belgian beers brought back from the source. Lambics, Saisons, and the like dominated and that turned out to be just fine given my condition.
Let this be a lesson to us all: As your PBW goes along this week, always make sure that you're matching each beer with a glass/bottle of water. You'll thank yourself later for it (plus, you'll look like a more experienced beer drinker to your bartender).
Cheers...
Link back to Day 1 ----- Link forward to Day 3
Allow my lesson learned on Friday (or, Saturday morning) to be a lesson for all of you savages as you strive to make your through Philly Beer Week 2010.
In this warmer weather, there is no such thing as being too well hydrated.
Even given my 1/2 gallon of water consumed during the day at my office desk on Friday....given four glasses of water with my dinner and two beers....a small bit of water at Opening Tap, one at Varga, and one at Bridgewater's Pub at 30th Street Station. Even one 20-ounce glass before bed was not enough.
Over six hours, I did not drink to excess though half the beers I had were higher in alcohol than your typical session-y type of beer. But, an assessment of my personal condition during the night said I was doing pretty well. The train ride and subsequent short drive home all went fine....dogs let out, etc. All signs pointed to a great Saturday follow-up.
Then, Saturday happened. It wasn't a sickening type of hangover, it was a complete lack of energy type of hangover. Absolutely no energy to do anything but to stare at the TV and take a nap. And a headache of fluctuating and wandering knocks around my noggin.
So, that meant....
...no Wheat Beer Brunch or Laughing Like Lew at Grey Lodge Pub ...no stop-ins at any other city-based events during the afternoon ...no suburban join-in during the Phoenixville Pub Crawl
What I did when I finally shook out all of the cobwebs and loaded up on a few bits of energy was go to a backyard bachelor party where Belgians, not babes, were the focal point of the sendoff for the groom-to-be.
I spent a few hours with some great beer folk, one of whom has just returned from more than a couple of years working in Europe. You may recall me linking to his blog of words and pictures of his and his wife's beer excursions across Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Italy, England, Switzerland, and Germany.
So while I didn't do anything specifically on the PBW calendar, I closed out my Day 2 with a night of rare and special Belgian beers brought back from the source. Lambics, Saisons, and the like dominated and that turned out to be just fine given my condition.
Let this be a lesson to us all: As your PBW goes along this week, always make sure that you're matching each beer with a glass/bottle of water. You'll thank yourself later for it (plus, you'll look like a more experienced beer drinker to your bartender).
Cheers...
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Philly Beer Week 2010: Day 1 Wrap-Up
Link to Day 1 Pictures
Link forward to Day 2
Wow! What a way to begin. While I didn't get to personally experience the Hammer of Glory tour, Patty was out capturing some of the sights and sounds of the tour. She stopped in at Standard Tap, Kite and Key, and Nodding Head before meeting up with me.
She crossed paths with the likes of Jennie Hatton, co-captain of this big amazing thing called Philly Beer Week; Steve Shapiro/Gail Williams, visiting BeerByBart founders from San Francisco; and a gaggle of brewers and reps, bar owners and assorted beer fans. The antics that she experienced along the way sound unparalleled. Maybe someday she'd like to write here on TBL, but for now you'll simply need to see what she experienced yesterday through the photos she took (see the link at the top of this posting....or just click it here again).
And, I've confirmed that she still doesn't look to be paid for her work...she simply wants to be given credit for the work that she did. Sometimes credit is the most important thing that can be given, don't you think?!
So, I finally jumped off the train and met her at the Oyster House, which was in the midst of celebrating its 1-year anniversary since it's makeover and reopening in 2009. The Stoudt's crew was there as well, finishing up dinner after having tapped a firkin of their Double IPA. At first, I thought a $7 hit for what appeared to be a 12-ish ounce glass might have been a wee bit side of expensive, but I later learned that the keg does not exactly come cheap from the brewery.
I never thought I'd be starting PBW with a shellfish dinner on Sansom Street, but this worked out real nicely, particularly as I was chasing some oysters with the hoppy brew from Stoudts.
We finished up with dinner and made our way across town to the Independence Visitor Center where the Hammer had already shown up and Mayor Michael Nutter had already tapped the First Firkin of Sly Fox Collaboration BS1 beer. I caught up with that mayhem last year and I figured that the pictures and scene would look much the same, so we took our time finishing dinner and showed up just after 8pm at Opening Tap. I trust that pictures will be slowly filtering their way out to the Web and when they do, I'll link to them here.
Just after 8pm, the line still strung out to a good 100 people or so down Market Street. This being my second beer event at the Visitor Center (the first being Brewer's Plate), I'll stick to my standing position: I can't see this as a viable venue for beer events. The Brewer's Plate was contained mostly to the first floor and kept everyone tightly packed mostly in a long chute of tables and samples.
This year for Opening Tap, the venue was opened up a bit more, but I'm afraid too much so. When I talked with people in the room upstairs more than a few had said they had no clue what was going on downstairs where a few handfuls of brewery tables were setup. People were either drawn to the open air patio upstairs and/or the large screen television which was showing the Flyers game or they came in the Market Street entrance and bee-lined to the back of the venue's first floor.
It was very crowded and warm upstairs. Downstairs, a few tables greeted folks as they were given their bracelets and glassware. Then a short empty stretch, save for some food and non-alcoholic beverages. In the back of the space was another cluster of tables which gathered folks around several hanging TVs showing the Stanley Cup Finals game 4. I realize that I'm not doing a great job of explaining why this venue does not work so well. But, there's something lacking in the layout and continuity/flow of the space and the people.
After only having about six or so samples, I was shocked to see how fast time had flown as we were being hustled out by the security crew. The cab companies must have been on alert, because many were pulling up ready to take us off to the next stop in our journey. That worked well.
We decided to watch the third period with a bunch of great people (including BeerByBart's Steve Sharpiro and Gail Williams, visiting from San Francisco) at Varga. Funny how this was our first visit, while it was already Steve's and Gail's second.
Varga became a great place to meet Brendan McLane from Oskar Blues and drink of their Gubna and Gordon. The third period became much more important to watch as the Blackhawks were actually attempting to make a game of it. Varga, a nice addition to the neighborhood corner pub that many have raved about, turned out to be a great venue to watch game four.
Several other beery types of folk wandered through the door while we were there, so apparently they get a lot of industry insider attention as well. I'm anxious to head back soon to sit down for a few more drinks and a plate or two of food to give Varga a proper review. 10th and Spruce Streets for those of you who'd like to try it out for yourselves.
There was no way we were going to take the 1:15am train out of the city (the 12:15 was the more responsible choice), so we polished off our beers, said our thank-yous and good-nights and grabbed a cab back to 30th Street Station where, you guessed it, we had our one last. Great Lakes Brewery from Cleveland and one of its brewers was there during happy hour with several of their beers. It seemed like a good time to put down an Edmund Fitzgerald Porter before grabbing the train. According to the bartender, whether it was PBW, a summer Friday, the Flyers, or the Phillies, or just another typical happy hour, the Great Lakes event was reportedly well-received.
And, while most city beer stories for us tend to end at Bridgewater's before taking the train, this one had one last wrinkle (not TJs in Paoli as you might have (wisely) guessed). As we board the crowded, almost full, train, we were looking for two seats and lo and behold we wind up sitting with Greg and Sue Ramirez who were returning from the Flyers game...well, of course, they made their own pitstops from the subway to the regional train. You just never know...
Link forward to Day 2
Wow! What a way to begin. While I didn't get to personally experience the Hammer of Glory tour, Patty was out capturing some of the sights and sounds of the tour. She stopped in at Standard Tap, Kite and Key, and Nodding Head before meeting up with me.
She crossed paths with the likes of Jennie Hatton, co-captain of this big amazing thing called Philly Beer Week; Steve Shapiro/Gail Williams, visiting BeerByBart founders from San Francisco; and a gaggle of brewers and reps, bar owners and assorted beer fans. The antics that she experienced along the way sound unparalleled. Maybe someday she'd like to write here on TBL, but for now you'll simply need to see what she experienced yesterday through the photos she took (see the link at the top of this posting....or just click it here again).
And, I've confirmed that she still doesn't look to be paid for her work...she simply wants to be given credit for the work that she did. Sometimes credit is the most important thing that can be given, don't you think?!
So, I finally jumped off the train and met her at the Oyster House, which was in the midst of celebrating its 1-year anniversary since it's makeover and reopening in 2009. The Stoudt's crew was there as well, finishing up dinner after having tapped a firkin of their Double IPA. At first, I thought a $7 hit for what appeared to be a 12-ish ounce glass might have been a wee bit side of expensive, but I later learned that the keg does not exactly come cheap from the brewery.
I never thought I'd be starting PBW with a shellfish dinner on Sansom Street, but this worked out real nicely, particularly as I was chasing some oysters with the hoppy brew from Stoudts.
We finished up with dinner and made our way across town to the Independence Visitor Center where the Hammer had already shown up and Mayor Michael Nutter had already tapped the First Firkin of Sly Fox Collaboration BS1 beer. I caught up with that mayhem last year and I figured that the pictures and scene would look much the same, so we took our time finishing dinner and showed up just after 8pm at Opening Tap. I trust that pictures will be slowly filtering their way out to the Web and when they do, I'll link to them here.
Just after 8pm, the line still strung out to a good 100 people or so down Market Street. This being my second beer event at the Visitor Center (the first being Brewer's Plate), I'll stick to my standing position: I can't see this as a viable venue for beer events. The Brewer's Plate was contained mostly to the first floor and kept everyone tightly packed mostly in a long chute of tables and samples.
This year for Opening Tap, the venue was opened up a bit more, but I'm afraid too much so. When I talked with people in the room upstairs more than a few had said they had no clue what was going on downstairs where a few handfuls of brewery tables were setup. People were either drawn to the open air patio upstairs and/or the large screen television which was showing the Flyers game or they came in the Market Street entrance and bee-lined to the back of the venue's first floor.
It was very crowded and warm upstairs. Downstairs, a few tables greeted folks as they were given their bracelets and glassware. Then a short empty stretch, save for some food and non-alcoholic beverages. In the back of the space was another cluster of tables which gathered folks around several hanging TVs showing the Stanley Cup Finals game 4. I realize that I'm not doing a great job of explaining why this venue does not work so well. But, there's something lacking in the layout and continuity/flow of the space and the people.
After only having about six or so samples, I was shocked to see how fast time had flown as we were being hustled out by the security crew. The cab companies must have been on alert, because many were pulling up ready to take us off to the next stop in our journey. That worked well.
We decided to watch the third period with a bunch of great people (including BeerByBart's Steve Sharpiro and Gail Williams, visiting from San Francisco) at Varga. Funny how this was our first visit, while it was already Steve's and Gail's second.
Varga became a great place to meet Brendan McLane from Oskar Blues and drink of their Gubna and Gordon. The third period became much more important to watch as the Blackhawks were actually attempting to make a game of it. Varga, a nice addition to the neighborhood corner pub that many have raved about, turned out to be a great venue to watch game four.
Several other beery types of folk wandered through the door while we were there, so apparently they get a lot of industry insider attention as well. I'm anxious to head back soon to sit down for a few more drinks and a plate or two of food to give Varga a proper review. 10th and Spruce Streets for those of you who'd like to try it out for yourselves.
There was no way we were going to take the 1:15am train out of the city (the 12:15 was the more responsible choice), so we polished off our beers, said our thank-yous and good-nights and grabbed a cab back to 30th Street Station where, you guessed it, we had our one last. Great Lakes Brewery from Cleveland and one of its brewers was there during happy hour with several of their beers. It seemed like a good time to put down an Edmund Fitzgerald Porter before grabbing the train. According to the bartender, whether it was PBW, a summer Friday, the Flyers, or the Phillies, or just another typical happy hour, the Great Lakes event was reportedly well-received.
And, while most city beer stories for us tend to end at Bridgewater's before taking the train, this one had one last wrinkle (not TJs in Paoli as you might have (wisely) guessed). As we board the crowded, almost full, train, we were looking for two seats and lo and behold we wind up sitting with Greg and Sue Ramirez who were returning from the Flyers game...well, of course, they made their own pitstops from the subway to the regional train. You just never know...
Friday, June 04, 2010
Philly Beer Week 2010 has apparently begun...
...and Mrs. Brew Lounge appears to be upholding her end of the deal. I hope she doesn't think this is a paid position :)
(William Reed with the ceremonial first cask tapping at Standard Tap in Northern Liberties)
Thursday, June 03, 2010
PBW 2010: I love the creative ones
More than anything in Philly Beer Week history, I think I enjoy the creativity of the events the most. Last year, for example, it was the Kite & Key pairing up with Tom Kehoe's Yards Brewery to put on a memorable early afternoon in Fairmount. Remember? No? Check it out.
This year, there are a handful of creative minds at work for events to enjoy, but perhaps none more so than the modes of transportation that the Hammer of Glory will take tomorrow as it traverses the city...by tricycle, by zip line, by dirndl, by hearse, by Rocky...and on and on. Close to 20 joints in all before reaching the Opening Tap event to officially kickoff the Imperial Week of Philly Beer.
Go check out the itinerary and let me know if you'll be joining in along the way. Missus Brew Lounge may be filling in for me during the afternoon. Apparently, she's made some suspicious-sounding plans with a guy named Foley. I've just learned of this.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Philly Beer Week is here and Yes: There IS an app for that!
My weekly calendar here will be on hold for the next two weeks as most of what is going on around Philadelphia is on the official Philly Beer Week Calendar. There are, obviously, a few other things happening that are not on the PBW Calendar, and you can find most of them over on my monthly Calendar of Events.
Here's a quick rundown of what's on my mind in terms of Philly Beer Week 2010, now that it is finally upon us. I was going to follow the same template as last year in terms of giving you day-by-day rundowns of what's going on and what I do, but that may not pan out this year. We shall see how it develops over the next week and a half.
~ the iPhone app has finally been released. It's living up to almost every spec I laid out for it last year. I'm a huge smartphone fan and believer that it's one of the most siginificant advances in personal technology in recent years; so I'm obviously thrilled to see PBW embrace it. I'd tell you specifically what I like about it, but Adam at BB2 has hit on most of the salient points. Plus, I haven't linked to him in a while...two missions accomplished :)
~ there's a lot more going on during Opening Tap (looks like tickets are still available) on the first Friday than ever before. That's a good thing for those looking for PAYG-type events on Opening Night.
~ The Hammer of Glory tour looks pretty damn cool. Wonder how many people are taking off work in the afternoon to join in?
~ I've created my own personal priority list each day for both a suburban-based agenda and a city-based agenda, so that I can react to what I feel like doing each day as they come. But, I already know with the busy-ness of life in June, I'll be doing significantly less than in either of the past two years.
~ Busy-ness includes things as mundane as house, lawn, and garden work. I'm hoping Mother Nature will cooperate tomorrow so that I can get the mowing and trimming, etc. done before the weekend hits. But, unless there's a drought, I'll be back at these chores again during the next week.
~ in the past two years, I've had my 10 days of PBW fairly well planned out ahead of time, knowing what I'd like to do each day, knowing which days I was definitely going to do things, which one or two days I was taking off, and allowing for some flexibility for those "things that come up/calls and texts that you get along the way."
~ this year, so far I only know for certain that I'm going to the Monk's lambic dinner on Tuesday, Beer Geek Finals in Manayunk on Thursday, and my running event at Dock Street on the last Sunday (there's a cookout and live music afterwards---you don't need to be a runner to show up at Dock Street)
~ there are two big homebrewing events (at Jose Pistolas and at Varga); I'd love to make it to one of them.
~ did I mention that I'm a judge at the Philly Beer Geek Finals? jury too :)
~ so, for those of you have asked, my calendar still has barely been set in pencil
~ a primary reason I can't really nail down a preference for what to do otherwise is that I've convinced myself that a list of 1000 events is too many....I've heard many others say the same
~ which reminds me of a couple of PBW "principals" who mentioned after PBW 2008 (when there were merely a couple of hundred events scheduled), that 200 events were too many and that in future years they should concentrate on quality and not quantity...even if it meant less than 100 events
~ I wonder how many smaller events will suffer because there are only so many attendees to be spread across, say for example, 140 events on Wednesday?
~ Which leads me to a question I've raised in each of the past years: What constitutes an "event"? and, How is "success" defined?
~ Needless to say, once all of the kvetching is done and we get our collective PBW's on, there will be plenty of stories to be told and urban folklore to create. I, for one, can't wait to finally get this thing started!
What are YOU doing? Will I see you along the way?
HAPPY PHILLY BEER WEEK 2010!
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Beer Sessions added to short list of must-listen podcasts
For 4-5 years now, I've had a steady stream of beer-related podcasts filling my ears with varied material covering the rich subject from different angles. In addition to reading, researching, and "doing", following these podcasts has given me yet another way in which to keep a finger on the pulse of the industry.
The Brewing Network - based out of the San Francisco Bay Area...for professional craft brewing, homebrewing, and general entertainment
Craft Beer Radio - based out of Pittsburgh...for beer tasting and reviews; event coverage as well
Basic Brewing - based out of northwest Arkansas...both video and audio focused on homebrewing and occasionally some (food) cooking/beer pairing as well
And now, after 14 episodes, I'm adding Beer Sessions which is airing under the Heritage Radio Network Banner. It's co-hosted by publicans Jimmy Carbone (Jimmy's No. 43) and Ray Deter (d.b.a.)
I know d.b.a. very well from visits in New Orleans and in Manhattan. A more recent opening of the third location in Brooklyn is still on my upcoming hitlist. I shared a table with Ray and others during a Monk's beer dinner once upon a time. Jimmy, on the other hand, and his No. 43 restaurant is gaining some nice reviews, but I've yet to meet either him or his establishment. That will need to be rectified soon.
The format of the shows is very predictable and artfully managed by Jimmy and Ray. Each show is right around 45 minutes, typically split into three 15 segments, broken up by interesting and fun music interludes. Information and conversation is clear and well-delivered by the hosts and the guests.
I'll link you into two recent episodes with a Philadelphia tie-in. The first is a link to a "session" with Spencer Niebuhr from Southampton Publick House and AJ Boglioli from Tröegs. They talk up the Philly brewing scene (and PBW) primarily with AJ and discuss SPH with Spencer, who can often be found cavorting around Philly.
Two episodes later, Corey Reid and Brian O'Reilly stop in to talk all about Sly Fox and the growth of the brewery and expansion into NYC.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Beer Dates in History: June Anniversaries
20 years
Belmont Brewing
Etna Brewing
15 years
Allagash
Blue Ridge Brewing
Coddington Brewing
Dogfish Head
Twisted Pine
5 years
Gritty McDuff's (Lewiston)
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Capone's will be closed for two days....with a twist
While the bottle shop at Capone's will remain open for both Sunday and Monday of this Memorial Day weekend (pretty standard for Capone's on holidays), the restaurant/bar will be closed.
That's not necessarily the news nor the twist.
The twist is that he'll fill growlers for you from the restaurant via the bottle shop and if you call ahead, they will be pre-filled for you to reduce your wait time once you're there. Maybe I haven't paid attention in the past and perhaps that is also SOP, but nonetheless, I thought it would be worthwhile to share this news with you...since, I know there's always some sort of mad scramble around on holidays to find beer at just the time you need it.
By the way, while plugging Capone's here, I might as well go ahead and share with you a new Beer Week: Capone's Beer Week....and it just so happens to coincide with Philly Beer Week ;-)
Here's the lineup: (Visit their site for all event details)
Fri 6/4 (6:30pm-9:30pm) Old Dominion. Meet all the Brewers Keep the Pint Glass!
Sat 6/5 (11am to 2pm) Cigar City Meet Joey The Head Brewer
Sun 6/6 (11am-3pm) Brunch w/St. Somewhere
Sun 6/6 (3pm-6pm) Meet owner and founder Tim Suprise of Arcadia Ale's and Rick Suarez
Mon 6/7 (1pm-3:30pm) Boon Brewery Meet Frank Boon
Mon 6/7 (4pm) Dogfish Head Brewery on Draft
Tue 6/8 (4pm-6pm) Ayinger Meet Brewer Franz
Tue 6/8 (7pm-9pm) Meet 12% Imports Brian Ewing/ also Brian from Stillwater & and at least Three other Belgian Brewers
Wed 6/9 (7pm-9:30pm) Meet the Brewer From Weyerbacher
Thu 6/10 (4pm-7pm) Meet Rob The Head Brewer from Prism Brewing
Thu 6/10 Founders Night Meet Dave the owner and Mike Bell
Fri 6/11 (2pm-4pm) Odell's Meet the Brewer 1st time on East Coast
Does all of this make Matt Capone the hardest-working or most accommodating publican around these parts? Well, surely you know I would never go that far! (It'd be too unfair to many others doing the same.) But, we can safely say that Matt is going beyond the call to uphold his end of the deal. Well, I guess that's not necessarily news to most of you either.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Beer Calendar: What To Do in June 2010
Maybe all this June 2010 calendar needs is one entry: PHILLY BEER WEEK 2010. There's no way in the world that I'm going to list out every event here, so here's...
~ A link to The Brew Lounge spreadsheet Calendar of Events...and,
~ A link to Beer Valley's transformation of the Spreadsheet into a Google Calendar...and,
~ A link to the Official Philly Beer Week Website...and,
~ A link to the *new* My.PhillyBeerWeek.org
~ A link to The Brew Lounge's Daily PBW Time Capsule (coming June 2nd)
So, that means that anything on the official PBW calendar from June 4th-June 13th will not appear below. Otherwise, let's see what we can dig up to do that's either not during Philly Beer Week or not (technically) a part of Philly Beer Week. (Though, let's admit, we're ALL a part of what makes Philly Beer great, whether we're on the official calendar or not)
If I'm missing any that you feel should be on here, let me know.
$20 and under, down to and including FREE...Pay As You Go (PAYG) also included here
Philadelphia
Wed. 6/2 - Victory Tröegs and Old Dominion Sampling @Hawthornes, Philadelphia, PA (6:00pm-8:00pm; Free)
Sat. 6/11-Mon. 6/14 - World Cup Action @Brauhaus Schmitz, Philadelphia, PA (PAYG)
Fri. 6/18 - Beer Sampling (Brooklyn Brewing) @Bell Beverage, Philadelphia, PA (4:00pm-6:00pm; Free)
Wed. 6/23 - Weyerbacher Sampling @Hawthornes, Philadelphia, PA (6:00pm-8:00pm; Free)
Thu. 6/24 - St. Jean-Baptist Day @Grey Lodge Pub, Philadelphia, PA (10:00am-10:00pm; PAYG)
Fri. 6/25 - Beer Sampling (Yuengling) @Bell Beverage, Philadelphia, PA (4:00pm-6:00pm; Free)
Philadelphia's close suburbs
Wed. 6/2 - Specialty Keg Wednesday (Dark Horse Sapient Trip Ale) @Isaac Newton's, Newtown, PA (7:00pm-9:00pm; PAYG)
Thu. 6/3 - Brewery Night (Bear Republic) @Pickering Creek Inn, Phoenixville, PA (7:00pm-9:00pm; PAYG)
Thu. 6/3 - Brewery Promo Night (Boulder) @Isaac Newton's, Newtown, PA (7:00pm-9:00pm; PAYG)
Fri. 6/4 - Friday Night Tasting (Founders) @B&B Beverage, Doylestown, PA (4:30pm-6:30pm; Free)
Fri. 6/4 - Old Dominion @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (6:30pm-9:30pm; PAYG)
Fri. 6/4 - Incubus Friday @Sly Fox, Phoenixville, PA (all day; PAYG)
Sat. 6/5 - Cigar City @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (11:00am-2:00pm; PAYG)
Sun. 6/6 - Brunch with St. Somewhere @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (11:00am-3:00pm; PAYG)
Sun. 6/6 - Uinta @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (3:00pm-5:00pm; PAYG)
Mon. 6/7 - Boon @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (1:00pm-3:30pm; PAYG)
Mon. 6/7 - Dogfish Head @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (4:00pm-7:00pm; PAYG)
Tue. 6/8 - Ayinger @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (1:00pm-3:30pm; PAYG)
Tue. 6/8 - Flying Fish @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (3:30pm-5:00pm; PAYG)
Tue. 6/8 - 12% Imports @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (7:00pm-9:00pm; PAYG)
Wed. 6/9 - Weyerbacher @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (7:00pm-9:30pm; PAYG)
Thu. 6/10 - Founders @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (7:00pm-9:00pm; PAYG)
Thu. 6/10 - Founders @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (7:00pm-9:00pm; PAYG)
Fri. 6/11 - Odell @Capone's Restaurant, Norristown, PA (2:00pm-4:00pm; PAYG)
Fri. 6/11 - Friday Night Tasting (Rogue) @B&B Beverage, Doylestown, PA (4:30pm-6:30pm; Free)
Thu. 6/17 - Blues Brews 'n' BBQ @Ron's Original, Exton, PA (PAYG)
Fri. 6/18 - Friday Night Tasting (Bear Republic) @B&B Beverage, Doylestown, PA (4:30pm-6:30pm; Free)
Fri. 6/25 - Friday Night Tasting (Old Dominion) @B&B Beverage, Doylestown, PA (4:30pm-6:30pm; Free)
Greater Philadelphia Metro / Eastern Pennsylvania
Events Over $20
Philadelphia
Sat. 6/5 & Sat. 6/19 - Craft Beer & Artisanal Cheese Tour @Old City, Philadelphia, PA (3:30pm-5:30pm; $45)
Philadelphia's close suburbs
Sun. 6/20 - Beer Dinner with Dad @Victory Brewing Co., Downingtown, PA (4:00pm; $50)
Thu. 6/24 - Bangin' BBQ, Blues & Brews @Faunbrook Bed & Breakfast, West Chester, PA (6:00pm-9:00pm; $50/$85)
Wed. 6/30 - Victory Beer Dinner @Bridgets Steak House, Ambler, PA (6:30pm; $TBD)
Greater Philadelphia Metro / Eastern Pennsylvania
Tue. 6/1 - Summer Picnic Beer Dinner @Union Barrel Works, Reamstown, PA (6:30pm; $40)
Wed. 6/2 - Meet The Brewer Series Presents… (Twin Lakes Brewing) @Spinnerstown Hotel, Spinnerstown, PA (7:00pm; $40)
Fri. 6/18 - Lancaster vs North Wales Cask Challenge @Iron Hill, Lancaster, PA (5:00pm-9:00pm; PAYG)
Tue. 6/22 - Brooklyn Beer Dinner @Tap and Table, Emmaus, PA (7:00pm; $55)
Thu. 6/24 - Third Thursday Beer Dinner (Victory) @The Farmhouse, Emmaus, PA (6:30pm; $35)
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Weekly Beer Calendar Update: May 27th-June 3rd
This weekly calendar will take you right up to the doorstep of Philly Beer Week, which begins on June 4th.
Check out the entire May 2010 calendar over here.... or the June Calendar over here.
Free Tastings and PAYG sampling
@B&B Beverage, Doylestown, PA--- Fri. 5/28 - Friday Night Tasting (4:30pm-6:30pm; Free tasting samples of Flying Fish)
@Exton Beverage, Exton, PA--- Fri. 5/28 - Friday Night Tasting (4:00pm-7:00pm; Free tasting samples of Victory)
@Hawthornes, Philadelphia, PA--- Wed. 6/2 - Beer Sampling (6:00pm-8:00pm; Free tasting samples of Victory, Tröegs, and Old Dominion)
@Isaac Newton's, Newtown, PA--- Wed. 6/2 - Specialty Keg Wednesday (7:00pm-9:00pm; PAYG for Dark Horse's Sapient Trip Ale)
@Isaac Newton's, Newtown, PA--- Thu. 6/3 - Brewery Promo Night (7:00pm-9:00pm; PAYG for a lineup of Boulder Beer from Colorado)
@The Foodery, Philadelphia, PA--- Thu. 5/27 - Free Tastings (6:00pm-8:00pm; Free tasting samples of Victory)
Beer and Food go together like Food and Beer
@Spinnerstown Hotel, Spinnerstown, PA--- Wed. 6/2 - Meet The Brewer Series Presents… (7:00pm; $40 for a night with Twin Lakes Brewing)
@Tria Café, Philadelphia, PA--- Thu. 5/27 - Meet Your (Cheese) Maker (6:30pm-8:00pm; $48 for Birchrun Hills Farm’s cheeses and an all-local lineup of quaffable brews)
@Union Barrel Works, Reamstown, PA--- Tue. 6/1 - Summer Picnic Beer Dinner (6:30pm; $40 for a 5-course meal paired with Uncle Fester, Kölsch, Hop Knockers IPA, Mai Bock, Wobbly Bob, Hefeweizen, and Brugge Bastaard)
After it's all done, go burn some calories
@Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, PA--- Sun. 5/30 - Run for Victory 5k (1:00pm; $20/$10...the run is currently sold out)
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Beer, University City (Tap House), Cheese, Craft Ale House, New Holland Brewing.....or.....I can't come up with a better title for this
Closing the book here on a couple of odds 'n' ends from last week. Though, nothing so odd about them at all. Unless you consider odd seeing Dr. Joel Armato of New Holland Brewing two consecutive nights...which I understand is just as many times as you can count on seeing him during Philly Beer Week. Or odd having a 70 tap setup of mostly good craft and imported beer in University City....okay maybe that's one is a little on the south side of odd. Or if you think that beer and cheese together is odd...which in that case, you'd best get paying attention and studying up.
City Tap House
Tuesday night saw Patty and I hop the train for Center City to take in a private showing of the new City Tap House. From best I could gather, the city's latest entry into what has seemed to be a steady stream of new bars over the last year or two already opened to the public---and had a soft opening---and now this past week played host to a friends/family/media type of private event. Not sure how traditionally linear of an approach this was but, no matter, in a nutshell City Tap House is open and they are pouring many fine domestic craft and imported beers, one after another on numerous (6?) draft towers, interrupted only occasionally by one of "those beers" that many of us here around The Brew Lounge don't particularly care for.
(on the terrace at City Tap House)
A rough count of a hundred or so media folk, brewers, publicans, sales reps, distributors, and the like turned out just as the rainy weather was clearing for the evening. It was slightly cool outside, so the open firepits on the "green" rooftop patio were a welcome part of the ambiance for many. I can see this becoming prime real estate in the cooler weather.
Approaching CTH (yes, yet another acronym has been introduced!) from Walnut Street, there's not much indication of the restaurant other than from a glance upward to the patio where you can see the tips of the dancing flames. A walk through a simply marked door and then a short ride up an elevator gets you in to the bar.
(night falls over the firepits at City Tap House, a nice addition to the al fresco city landscape)
Inside, a tasteful mix of wood and industrial metal (hey, I never claimed to be an interior designer!) provide for a real comfortable session at the bar or in the restaurant. The press release says that they're shooting for a mountain lodge feel; I suppose I can get with that, though it's not the first striking reaction that I have when I look around...no matter.
(clipboard menus of very good beers spanning the flavor spectrum)
A long rectangular bar allows bartenders to circle the bar to reach all of the six (I believe it is six...or seven?) draft towers. A clipboard menu of the pretty decent looking draft menu allows patrons to thumb through and make sense of the Saison Duponts, the Harpoon Single Hop ESBs, the New Holland Black Tulips, the Sly Foxes, Victorys, Yardses, and on and on. I think you get the picture.
(one stall in the cold box per draft tower...keeps things nicely organized)
Along with several others, we were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the cold box storage for the draft beer delivery system. It's not often that you see such meticulous care taken in the organization of the kegs and their draft lines. Basically speaking, the cooler has one "stall" for each set of taps on a draft tower. Lines are zip-tied and labeled, dials are clearly postitioned to monitor beer flow pressure (didn't see any spelling errors, in case the PLCB is still worried). With around 70 taps, organization becomes an even more important thing. Not too shabby!
And, if the concept of this level of choice is too much for and you'd like to remember what you've enjoyed in the past, CTH has a system for logging your purchases into a database for your future reference---should we trust that the privacy policy here is stronger than at Facebook?! ;-o (private tasting room can be reserved for you and your bestest beer drinking friends)
One other unique feature at CTH (did I mention the firepits?!) is the private tasting room. Say you want to get together the team from the office, maybe 15 or 20 of you. You have the idea to make it beer-centric and help introduce your co-workers to your favorite beverage. Behind the reception desk at CTH, there's a private room with a set of unique taps that can be setup to your specification for your private event. There's room to mingle and have light bites to eat while you're sampling from your specially-selected beers.
Before we headed back to the train out of the City, we cabbed it over to Brauhaus Schmitz for a taste of the qualifying round for the Philly Beer Geek competition. Turned out it was much less pomp than I was expecting. In fact, the winner had already cleaned up and claimed his spot in the semi-finals...which I see were held just last night and in which he moved on to the finals....which did I mention I'll be donning a robe for as a 2010 PBW Finals Judge? Yes, you read that correctly. Nonetheless, we had an hour to kill so that allowed me to dabble in both a Gose and a Beliner Weisse....i.e. Prost!
Did I mention that we had one time for one last once at America's Best Train Station Beer Bar? (plug)
New Holland, Cheese, and Craft Ale House
Calkins Creamery from above Scranton, PA. New Holland Brewing from Michigan. Last Wednesday, Craft Ale House in Limerick served as the meeting place for the two and their respective cheeses and beers. Jay Montgomery from Calkins Creamery made the trip down the turnpike to share some of his cheeses with one of its most pairworthy relatives: beer.
(Joel Armato, New Holland Brewing, and Jay Montgomery of Calkins Creamery show off their favorite tasty treats at Craft Ale House to a roomful of barley and dairy lovers)
This actually formed the basis of my dinner for the evening. Seriously, beer+cheese+bread = dinner, am I right? And while I didn't settle on any "awards" for best beer and cheese pairings of the evening (though the Golden Cap Saison and the Skinner Falls Basket-style Tomme was pretty damned near close to perfect), I believe I found a new "it" beer of the year...at least from New Holland, that is. El Mole Ocho! (at Craft Ale House in Limerick, PA...cheese from Calkins Creamery and beer from New Holland Brewery)
This made for a very pleasant way to grocery shop at Wegmans in Collegeville on the way home. I've never mentioned the beer selection at Wegmans; I'm beginning to feel like, at least around southeastern Pennsylvania, it's more noteworthy to talk of places NOT serving the kind of beer that we all enjoy. In other words, as many of you already know, this particular Wegmans has a very impressive selection of bottled beer for sale to go. Makes me curious as to the Wegmans that will very soon open less than 1/2 mile from our house in Malvern.
I didn't inquire much into how this works, but I suppose that any given point you should be able to get some sort of report at the bar of what you've had in the past. To be able to check it out online at home with an account would be useful too. I can't recall that I've ever seen or heard of another bar doing something like this.
I thought previously that Charkoota Rye was one my favorite 'most interesting' beers from this brewery. The Ocho blew it away. Complex layers of a little roast, a little smoke, a little pepper, a little chocolate, all created a lot of interesting flavor and aroma. A very pleasing beer to say the least and one that I better find more of before it's too late!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Philly Beer Week, buy a real nice shirt for a great cause
Brad Hosbach has put together a real sharp looking t-shirt design and made it available to you at a great price. It's the kind of thing you'd want to be seen in during Philly Beer Week as well as beer events during the rest of the year. Drop a note to him, get a t-shirt, and help support a great cause.
Instead of putting any more of my own spin on it, here's the concept in Brad's words:
If you are in need of a fresh t-shirt, buy this one to represent "America's greatest beer drinking city" and 3 dollars will be donated to Alex's Lemonade Foundation (to fight childhood cancer)
- shirts come in 3 styles; add $2 for xxl, xxxl, $3 for xxxxl
- Hanes Beefy Tee $10 (sizes are pretty true)
- American Apparel soft tee $15 (run a bit tight, but not hipster tight)
- Alt Apparel Girl fitted tee $15 (a bit snug, order a size up if needed)
- links for each are below if you want more sizing specifics
- all shirts will be navy or royal blue with white ink.
- if you really want a specific color, request it and I'll try to make it happen.
- shirts can be shipped for an extra $3
- I accept paypal, check, pesos, etc.
- to order reply with size(s) and let me know where to ship or if you want to pick up. thanks in advance for your support, Brad.
https://www.alphashirt.com/cgi-bin/online/webshr/prod-detail.w?sr=5170&q=5170
https://www.alphashirt.com/cgi-bin/online/webshr/prod-detail.w?sr=BB401¤tColor=
https://www.alphashirt.com/cgi-bin/online/webshr/prod-detail.w?sr=AA393¤tColor=
If you are in need of a fresh t-shirt, buy this one to represent "America's greatest beer drinking city" and 3 dollars will be donated to Alex's Lemonade Foundation (to fight childhood cancer)
- shirts come in 3 styles; add $2 for xxl, xxxl, $3 for xxxxl
- Hanes Beefy Tee $10 (sizes are pretty true)
- American Apparel soft tee $15 (run a bit tight, but not hipster tight)
- Alt Apparel Girl fitted tee $15 (a bit snug, order a size up if needed)
- links for each are below if you want more sizing specifics
- all shirts will be navy or royal blue with white ink.
- if you really want a specific color, request it and I'll try to make it happen.
- shirts can be shipped for an extra $3
- I accept paypal, check, pesos, etc.
- to order reply with size(s) and let me know where to ship or if you want to pick up. thanks in advance for your support, Brad.
https://www.alphashirt.com/cgi-bin/online/webshr/prod-detail.w?sr=5170&q=5170
https://www.alphashirt.com/cgi-bin/online/webshr/prod-detail.w?sr=BB401¤tColor=
https://www.alphashirt.com/cgi-bin/online/webshr/prod-detail.w?sr=AA393¤tColor=
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Happy Monday, It's a PBW update-Hear ye, Read all about it, Now Get Planning
Welcome back to your desk job and to this, your Monday Morning Productivity Killer. Though, to be fair, everyone defines productive just a little bit differently.
The official calendar over at Philly Beer Week's website is reportedly "locked." However, I wouldn't rule out last minute changes. I'll keep an eye on it, but I'm releasing this latest update to you with the anticipation that it won't change much. I'm looking to lock down my own schedule. It's a busy time of year, but I'll look to squeeze as much in as possible, though it certainly will be less than in each of the last two years.
I'm going to continue to point you over to the original page where the link to the spreadsheet is contained. I've rearranged a couple of the columns. Also, I've completed reseeded the spreadsheet.
We're now up to 10 printed pages. Over the past week, there have been enough additions, deletions, changes/edits that it was just easier to do a fresh load of the calendar. Hopefully, this doesn't screw too many of you up...those of you that have been planning for a couple of weeks now.
So, go get it. Take some time...focus...Check it out. Maybe look at just one day at a time...narrow it down Free/PAYG versus big ticket items....city versus suburbs...day versus evening versus late night...everyone has their own method.
===>And now there's a Google Calendar to go along with it, courtesy of Jake Ludwinski at BeerValley.com
As you peruse, you may find interesting things along the way as did I. You may even give out some preliminary awards, as also did I. For your enjoyment...or, if for nothing else, to continue the erosion of your Monday Morning Productivity. Your boss can thank me later, preferably with a beer at a PBW event.
Best and Longest Event Names (plus a gratuitous nod to profanity for good measure): Fergie's
Best well-deserved Dig against the PLCB: Memphis Taproom's Brunch
Best non-brewer to have an event named in his honor: Sparks
Most ambiguous event name: British Invasion....paired with a blank description, this is not a good way for me to reconsider my years-long personal boycott of Elephant & Castle
Worst non-textbook Marketing: any of the roughly 50 "events" that have very little to the name and absolutely no description. In amongst almost 900 events, I'm not even giving a sideways glance to these while looking down the list...fact is, they get lost for lack of any details.
Worst example of proofreading: perhaps I'm nitpicking, but sixtle is spelled sixtel...Oscar is Oskar...and not only is Franzeskanner, Franziskaner...but heffe is hefe...and Tria is located in PA, not NY (oops, nevermind, I see that's now been fixed)
Most represented brewery: I didn't scientifically count each occurrence of an event for these guys, but I saw a heck of a lot of Sierra, Victory, and Voodoo on the calendar.
The "what's up with Afternoon Delight?"award: Don't know if there was any coordination to these events, but I seemed to notice a handful, or so, of events named along the lines of "...Afternoon Delight..." Don't know what it means, but if it's an inside secret, maybe someone will let me in on it.
The older but wiser award: Lord Chesterfield better have taken his meds, 'cause this guy is putting in some serious time during PBW.
The We Try Harder award: Can't wait to see how all of these brewers and reps are going to cover all of these bars over all of these days. Better be a reliable car service...it's an amazingly staggering lineup of events for these folks to cover in 10 days.
Name that Target Market award: Delilah's, Le Bec Fin, Four Seasons, Jose Garces...maybe the traditional hard core beer geek crowd is considered played out. This year, more than ever, "non-traditional venues" are hosting beer events. If it's part of a year-round education and foray into better beer, then it's probably a good thing.
Biggest unanswered question: How will a June-based PBW go over with the masses? I'm going into it cautiously optimistic, but I've heard from numerous who have already mentioned that their available time for PBW this year is going to be reduced simply because of too many other commitments at this busy time of year. We shall see.
Any observations from the calendar that you'd like to share?
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