Two thirds of this week's offerings are from west of the Mississippi...
• Black IPA (Otter Creek Brewing)
• Flipside Red IPA (Sierra Nevada Brewing Company)
• India Pale Ale (Avery Brewing Company)
• King's Peak Porter (Uinta Brewing Company)
• Oktoberfest (Great Lakes Brewing Company)
• Vanilla Porter (Breckenridge Brewery)
• All In Amber (Full Pint Brewing Company)
• Circus Boy (Magic Hat Brewing Company)
• Monkey Fist IPA (Shipyard Brewing Company)
• Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA (Flying Dog Brewery)
• Snapperhead IPA (Butternuts Beer & Ale)
• Stranger APA (Left Hand Brewing Company)
• Wildeman Farmhouse IPA (Flying Dog Brewery)
Got a couple of repeats this week -- BUT we also had beers from three previously unrepresented breweries, including a collaboration between a nano and a micro out of eastern Maryland. The Beer Club continues to bring good drinking and new discoveries...
• Bedlam! IPA (Ale Asylum)
• Genesis Dry Hopped Session Ale (Shmaltz Brewing Company)
• Hop Mountain Pale Ale (Old Dominion Brewing Company)
• Loser IPA (Elysian Brewing Company)
• Scratch 'N Sniff Red Rye IPA (collaboration between Pub Dog Brewing and Baying Hound Aleworks)
• Seneca Indian Pale Ale (Mountain State Brewing Company)
• Sprung (Evolution Craft Brewing Company)
A nice variety of styles this week.
• He'Brew Messiah Nut Brown Ale (Shmaltz Brewing Company)
• Headwaters Pale Ale (Victory Brewing Company)
• Saranac Red IPA (Matt Brewing Company)
• Striped Bass Pale Ale (Devils Backbone Brewing Company)
• Sundog Amber Ale (New Holland Brewing)
• Tell Tale Red Ale (Scuttlebutt Brewing Company)
• Baltimore Pale Ale (Full Tilt Brewing)
• Farmhouse Summer Ale (Flying Fish Brewing Company)
• Full Nelson Virginia Pale Ale (Blue Mountain Brewery)
• Oatmeal Stout (Breckenridge Brewery)
• Starr Pils (Starr Hill Brewery)
• Twisted Pine Hoppy Boy IPA (Twisted Pine Brewing Company)
• Wisteria Wheat (Fordham Brewing Company)
Phil would like you to know that Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company, formerly an authentic an independent brewery, is now a brand owned and produced by conglomerate SABMiller. We all get suckered sooner or later.
• Diesel (Sixpoint Brewery)
• Henry Weinhard's Woodland Pass IPA (Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company)
• Hop Hog India Pale Ale (Lancaster Brewing Company)
• Odyssey Imperial IPA (Sly Fox Brewing Company)
• Ruedrich's Red Seal Ale (North Coast Brewing Company)
• Summer Love (Victory Brewing Company)
• Geary's Pale Ale (D.L. Geary Brewing Company)
• Satin Solstice Imperial Stout (Central Waters Brewing Company)
• Extra Special Ale (Yard's Brewing Company)
• Swing Session Saison (Victory Brewing Company)
• Last Chance IPA (Weyerbacher Brewing Company)
• Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale (Flying Dog Brewery)
• Caldera IPA (Caldera Brewing Company)
• Dale's Pale Ale (Oskar Blues Brewery)
• Marooned on Hog Island (21st Amendment Brewery)
• Morning Glory Espresso Stout (Old Dominion Brewing Company)
• Oatmeal Stout (Mendocino Brewing Company)
• Rampant Imperial India Pale Ale (New Belgium Brewing Company)
• The Immortal IPA (Elysian Brewing Company)
A fantastic variety in this week's mix-pack!
• G'Knight Imperial Red (Oskar Blues Brewery)
• Toasted Lager (Blue Point Brewing Company)
• Cadillac Mountain Stout (Bar Harbor Brewing Company)
• O’Ryely IPA (Widmer Brothers Brewing)
• Gunpowder Falls German-style Dunkel (Bauernhof Brewing Company)
• Double D Double IPA (Old Dominion Brewing Company)
On this chilly, cloudy Saturday, I journeyed by car, train, and bus to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for the Philly Craft Beer Festival. More than 80 breweries (at least 23 from Pennsylvania) dispensed samples of their brews under the shelter of two gigantic tents.
Below is a list of the most memorable beers I sampled, along with any specific recollections I can conjur.
• Coal Porter - Atlantic Brewing Company (Bar Harbor, ME) This was the first dark beer we tasted that day among an onslaught of IPAs. I was not familiar with Atlantic. They are still quite small, apparently, with distribution only in New England, the mid-Atlantic, and Ohio.
• Obovoid Oak-Aged Oatmeal Stout - Boulder Beer Company (Boulder, CO) This was served on nitro, so it had a dense, creamy head and velvety mouthfeel, even above what you'd already expect from an oatmeal stout. The woody note was nicely integrated with the dark malts. A real treat!
• Rye Stout - Lavery Brewing Company (Erie, PA) Very roasty, with a substantial rye spiciness. I didn't tasting anything else all day that was quite like this. Props to tiny Lavery!
• Rugbrød - The Bruery (Placentia, CA) A Danish-style dark rye ale -- can't claim to have had one of those before. Bread and toffee, with a sudden turn toward Belgian-type sourness at the end. Very unusual.
• Stegmaier Porter - Lion Brewery, Inc. (Wilkes-Barre, PA) The venerable old Stegmaier brand is perpetuated by the Lion Brewery, and this porter is very solid, with deep malt flavor and that faint smokiness I love in porters.
• Chocolate Stout - Appalachian Brewing Company (Gettysburg, PA) This was the last beer I sampled in the first tent, and it was among the best. Super dense and chocolatey. The pour was far more generous than the supposed 2 oz. limit, but I definitely wanted more.
• Hop Karma Brown IPA - Terrapin Beer Company (Athens, GA) To my surprise, one of the best beers I tasted all day. Nice caramel, crème brûlée flavor -- somewhat reminiscent of Tröegs' Flying Mouflan, hands down my favorite beer of the 2012 International Great Beer Expo.
• Ground Break American-style Saison - Ithaca Beer Company (Ithaca, NY) I loved the slightly heavy mouthfeel of this beer, and its apricot fruitiness and lemony but not overstated hop contribution.
• Doppelbock - Cottrell Brewing Company (Pawcatuck, CT) Although their website declares them "the oldest continuously brewed and bottled beer in Connecticut," Cottrell was another new discovery for me. I was impressed that this flavorful doppelbock was able to cut through my palate fatigue so late in the day and make a strong showing.
• Rise Up Stout - Evolution Craft Brewing Company (Salisbury, MD) My very last sample at the end of three hours of tasting. The ex-Delaware brewers delivered a wonderfully rich flavor in their coffee stout. I am told that they are doing remarkable things with their barrel-aged and blended Menagerie series, but, alas, it was too much to hope that they would bring their top-end products to a festival.
Apart from a slightly chaotic situation with the bus queues for returning to the subway terminal, this was a very enjoyable event that offered many new discoveries. Time to consider buying tickets to the International Great Beer Expo in June.
• Genesis Dry Hopped Session Ale (Shmaltz Brewing Company)
• New Albion Ale (Boston Beer Company)
• Righteous Ale (Sixpoint Brewery)
• Bête Blanche Tripel (Elysian Brewing Company)
• Scarlett Red Rye (Speakeasy Ales & Lagers)
• Old Heathen Imperial Stout (Weyerbacher Brewing Company)
Peak Organic and Southampton grace our Beer Club's brewery list for the first time. (Technically we've not had a Fordham beer either, although we have had three from Old Dominion.) Also glad to see seldom-submitted local brewers Sly Fox again. It's all about discovery!
• Samuel Adams Cream Stout (Boston Beer Company)
• Hop Noir (Peak Organic Brewing Company)
• Biere De Garde (Southampton Publick House)
• Odyssey Imperial IPA (Sly Fox Brewing Company)
• Ram's Head IPA (Fordham Brewing Company)
• Baba Black Lager (Uinta Brewing Company)
We've got a great variety of styles this week from all over the planet. Looking forward to making my way through these.
• Dominion Baltic Porter (Old Dominion Brewing Company)
• Full Sail IPA (Full Sail Brewery)
• Red Rocket Ale (Bear Republic Brewery)
• Sky High Rye (Arcadia Brewing Company)
• St. Rogue Red Ale (Rogue Ales)
• Theakston Old Peculier (T & R Theakston Ltd.)
• Wolaver's Alta Gracia Coffee Porter (Otter Creek Brewing Company)
It was the first mix day in a while when all seven members contributed. We got another great batch of beers.
• Bell's Pale Ale (Bell's Brewery)
• Bell's Porter (Bell's Brewery)
• Exit 16 (Flying Fish Brewing Company)
• Köstritzer Schwartzbier (Köstritzer Schwarzbierbrauerei)
• Milk Stout Nitro (Left Hand Brewing Company)
• Mission IPA (Mission Brewery)
• Oak Barrel Stout (Old Dominion Brewing Company)
Even though only five of us chipped in this week, we still came up with three breweries that are new to the list. Good stuff!
• Bass India Pale Ale (Anheuser-Busch InBev)
• Sculpin India Pale Ale (Ballast Point Brewing Company)
• Sierra Nevada Porter (Sierra Nevada Brewing Company)
• Boulder Bend Dunkelweizen (Fish Brewing Company)
• Loch Down Scotch Ale (Arcadia Brewing Company)
Another great and varied assortment, introducing three breweries -- Boulevard of Kansas City, MO, Evil Genius (contract brewed through Cooperstown Brewing Company of Milford, NY), and Starr Hill of Charlottesville, VA -- that have not appeared in the lineup before.
• Fireside Chat (21st Amendment Brewery)
• Dark Starr Stout (Starr Hill Brewery)
• Evil Eye PA (Evil Genius Beer Company)
• Claymore Scotch Ale (Great Divide Brewing Company)
• Single-Wide IPA (Boulevard Brewing)
• Poor Richard's Tavern Spruce (Yards Brewing Company)
Only five beers this week, but a great batch -- mostly dark beauties.
• Baba Black Lager (Uinta Brewing Company)
• Bristlecone Brown Ale (Uinta Brewing Company)
• Heart of Darkness Stout (Magic Hat Brewing Company)
• Old Rasputin RIS (North Coast Brewing Company)
• Red Fish (Flying Fish Brewing Company)
One bonus did come to me via Deputy Features Editor Patty Talorico: an elaborately packaged sample of the 10th anniversary release of Samuel Adams Utopias. A review of that will be forthcoming in a future "Quench" column in The News Journal.
My Beer Club homies brought strong game this week, introducing two breweries previously unrepresented, and repeating no styles within the mix-pack. Good job, kids!
• ACME California IPA (North Coast Brewing Company)
• Barking Squirrel Lager (Hop City Brewing Company)
• Harvest (Long Trail Brewing Company)
• Hazelnut Brown Nectar (Rogue Brewery)
• Mocha Porter (Rogue Brewery)
• Resin (Sixpoint Brewery)
• Hi.P.A. (Magic Hat Brewing Company)
• HopFish IPA (Flying Fish Brewing Company)
• Hoptical Illusion (Blue Point Brewing Company)
• Humboldt Brown Hemp Ale (Nectar Ales/Firestone Walker)
• Otter Creek Oktoberfest (Otter Creek Brewing)
• Responders Ale (16 Mile Brewing Company)
• Undercover Investigation Shut-down Ale (Lagunitas Brewing Company)
• Hopalicious (Ale Asylum)
• Outburst Imperial IPA (Pyramid Brewing Company)
• Restoration Pale Ale (Abita Brewing Company)
• Saranac Blueberry Blonde Ale (Matt Brewing Company)
• Shaddock IPA (Rotator Series) (Widmer Brothers Brewing Co.)
• The Duck-Rabbit Porter (The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery)
