Beer Friday #7

Missed a few there.

I got really sick for a while; a head cold that knocked out my sense of smell, and a cough that kept me from getting any kind of decent sleep for about five days. Add to that a quick trip to Ireland to visit the new Tullamore Dew distillery (much more on that soon), on which I may have pushed things just a bit...and I was in no shape to even write a blog post, much less one in which I was reviewing beers or whiskeys. My apologies. But I'm back now, with enough of my senses and wits about me to get to work on this!

Music? I'm in Colonial Williamsburg for the Ales Through The Ages symposium this weekend (more on that very soon as well!), and I'm working right next to Chowning's Tavern, where this song, "Nottingham Ale" was recorded in 2010. Seems appropriate. Enjoy!


Hardywood Cream Ale, 4.4%

A fine pour

I totally crushed one of these when I arrived in Williamsburg last night after about six and a half hours on the road from Philly, and let me tell you: refreshing. Looking forward to a more relaxed and reflective sampling today. (My thanks to Carl and Joan Childs, my brother/sister-in-law, who are hosting me in Williamsburg this weekend, and whose refrigerator I'm raiding for these samples!)

Again, as I sit here on Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg, carriages and contemporary-clothed guides rolling and strolling by, I thought it would be a good idea to have a truly American beer, and cream ale is all that. Snarl and snark as you may about light, fizzy beers, cream ale is, in my opinion, the apotheosis of that whole category; light and fizzy brought to a peak of not lightness and fizzyness (because that would be this shit), but to the optimal intersection of light-mouthfeel-sweet-bitter-tasty-refreshing,

Hardywood's version zeroes in on that intersection pretty closely. I've been drinking a lot of the classic Genesee Cream Ale recently (the brothers-in-law in upstate NY always have a suitcase of it cold, and that's a long drive too!), and if anything, the Hardywood's maybe a little too flavorful. If so, that's a 'flaw' I'm more than happy to overlook. Nose is sweet, even a little fruity, with a yeasty-hoppy cut to it (the beer's unfiltered, and that's my only issue here: did it have to be hazy?), and that all follows through on the palate. The finish manages to be...wet, almost like a little splash on the tongue (and just a hint of bitter pull) that makes this such a refreshing beer that I'm a third of the way through it without intending to have had more than a sip or two. Beautiful session beer at 4.4%, too.

Very impressed with the way Hardywood Park Craft Brewery has handled beers from their barrel-aged big boys (including the vaunted Gingerbread Stout) down to this light, happy drinker; haven't had a bad beer from them yet. Add to that a cool sense of history: Richmond was where canned beer was first introduced, in 1935, so of course this comes in cans. Well done, Hardywood, well done.

Verdict: Good

Sierra Nevada Five Hop Experimental IPA, 5.8%

Oh, Sierra Nevada. It's been an interesting trip. First they were pioneers, then they were solid citizens, then they were staid and boring, then they were cutting-edge pros. Erm...from where I sat on my barstool, they never changed. They were simply, consistently, amazing. I've rarely been disappointed by Sierra Nevada.

That said, I've been let down through over-expectation, so I'm trying to tamp that down here. The new rush of experimental hop strains has not always left me impressed: "tropical" fruit, limp lemon, kinda-pine, wood grain, coconut...really? So I'm actually a bit skeptical going into this, but let's have at it.

Well...it has a beautiful cap of foam, I gotta say: Sierra Nevada brewing quality at work, there. The nose is full, but subtle; I want to say, it's this...but then I smell something else, too. Orange creamsicle, soft pine (sweet spruce?), and a fluffy general richness. A poofy pillow of a nose, but then the beer splashes in and it's sharper, brisk, and then hop-sticky on the back end. Nice change-up; you could make it to the majors with a pitch like that.

In the end, though...tasty, and well-made, but not exceptional. I'd have one, and keep hunting. Or maybe just launch another Torpedo.

Verdict: Okay

SweetWater Hash Session IPA, 4.2% 
(draft, at the Green Leafe, Williamsburg)

I wandered down to the Green Leafe, a student oasis, and it was cool and quiet on this summery March afternoon. What to have...the choices were good, but then I saw one I'd meant to try: the Hash Session IPA. SweetWater does this "hop hash" thing where there's more resin/lupulin and less leaf in the hop addition (I think that's right), and it's supposed to give the beer a more intense hop flavor/aroma without the "tannic" effect of the leaves. (Again, I think that's right.)

Well, I'm all for that. Let's try it. Light yellow, bright and clear, with a lemony-pine lilt to the nose. It's a bit thin on the palate, but not watery, and the good thing is that it's just right on the bitterness; it pulls and dries, but doesn't crush on the close. That's a nice beer: it's not overly bitter, it's not overly sweet, but it's not dull either. Thing is...does it call for another? I don't think so. I'm already thinking about my next beer, and it's not this one.

Verdict: Okay

Truman Cox: gone too soon

Truman (on right) and Valley Malt's Christian Stanley

I received tragic news today. My very good friend, Truman Cox, the young, gifted, and extremely personable master distiller at A. Smith Bowman in Fredericksburg, Va., died suddenly last night. I am devastated at this news, and my heart and prayers go out to his wife and daughter.
Truman had just reached his life goal; becoming a master distiller. He was enjoying his new job -- and bottling some excellent whiskey! -- having great fun as husband and father, and happy as a pig in shit. He was technically gifted, and had an absolutely honest pleasure in working, in explaining the distillery to visitors, and in spreading the good word about whiskey.

Truman Cox was one of my best friends, in or out of the industry, and I am missing him terribly already. Too young, too fast...oh, too bad, too bad!

Richbrau Closes

Just saw that Richbrau has closed its doors yesterday in the Shockoe Slip area of Richmond. Richbrau had issues, but the Porter was always good, the seasonals were great, and it was good to have a brewpub in this cool section of town. Sad to see you go, Richbrau.

A Whole Lot Of Lager

I've been pretty much off the air for five days. Hey, it was a holiday weekend! We dropped off the Corgis at a nice kennel and drove south to bro-in-law Carl's house south of Richmond for a family celebration: Carl's son Matthew graduated from high school this year, the first of the next generation of Cathy's family. He'd done very well in high school and was accepted as an Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia.

So we celebrated: way too much food, loud music (world music, Matt's studying a variety of languages and makes the cultures part of his study), and a 50 liter keg of Blue & Gray Classic Lager. Which was quite tasty, particularly since with the brewery's recent move, the only way they could sell Carl a keg -- Carl being a fairly regular customer -- was to give him unfiltered beer. Very tasty indeed, although when we had to move the last three gallons or so last night, it got real cloudy; lots of yeast in those last glasses!

We had some cans of Sly Fox Phoenix Pale Ale, too, and a Pike Place Monk's Uncle Triple (very nice golden color, pleasantly dry malt presentation (too many sappy tripels out there), with some great spicy notes -- quite a good beer, and I recommend it to you), and I got a bit sappy myself drinking some Old Charter 101, but mostly...we drank Lager. Mostly Carl and I drank Lager, although his brothers Chris and Curt helped. (Don't anyone's parents come to graduation parties any more?) We worked some of it off with a hike around the pond at Pocahontas State Park (that's Carl in the hat and Curt in the...skin).

Most of the family went home Sunday morning. We had breakfast with them before they left, then went to 11 AM mass, and took the rest of the day pretty darned easy as it rained almost all day. More Lager, of course.

Monday Cathy and Thomas and I toured University of Richmond and William & Mary, part of the reason for the trip. We're doing college visits this month. It was not as grueling as we'd feared: the weather was simply wonderful, high 80s with hardly any humidity. Of course, we were touring two beautiful campuses, which didn't hurt. We took the Johnstown-Scotland ferry back across the James River on the way back from Williamsburg, which was smooth, cool, and very pretty, then joined Carl and family for one last dinner (pizza and salad...and Lager).

Today was grueling. We left Carl's at 8:30, drove down I-85 and had breakfast at Brian's Steakhouse in South Hills, VA (excellent), then struck west on VA Rt. 58, a fun and gorgeous drive I've done in the past, and enjoyed again today. But...it was 1:15 by the time we made Wake Forest, and today was hotter (thank God for the breeze). After the talk and the tour (another nice campus, Thomas pulls a face when he notices me taking a picture), we toddled down to Little Richard's Bar-B-Que on Country Club Road.

Holy crap, it was good. I got the coarse-chopped tray with slaw, hush puppies, and fries (why do these places insist on deep-frying 'krinkle-kut' "fries"? Make some damned fresh-cuts, willya?), and tossed the meat up with Little Richard's "dip," the Lexington-style sauce that is just hypnotic to the tongue. Yum-damnit-yum, and the hushpuppies were plentiful and crisp, the slaw diced with dip, and the meat...well, I'm very glad that Little Richard's actually smokes their 'que. 'Nuff said. The side of beans was disappointing: if they weren't lightly doctored canned beans, they were putting too much effort into making something that tasted just like lightly doctored canned beans.

Somehow we managed to realize that dessert -- banana pudding! -- would just not have been -- chocolate pie! -- a good idea, and hit the road at 5:15...for Charlottesville. Argh. The Jetta's nice, don't get me wrong, but four people in it for eight hours? We got a little snarky at times. The driving was fabulous (once we got off I-40 onto Rt. 29 North); hills, practically deserted four lane highway, beautiful vistas of forests, even the waves of kudzu looked good. We got to Ch'ville at 9, and dossed down in our hotel room. Know how grueling all that driving was? I didn't have the energy to drive into town to take in the excellent beers at South Street. I feel like I've let you down, but I was just not getting back in that car again till tomorrow morning!

Tomorrow we tour UVA, probably grab lunch at either Michael's or the Mellow Mushroom (fast good pizza, one pint for the road), then drop in to take a look at the Dickinson College campus before picking up the Corgis and going home. In other words...we're looking at another six and a half hours in the car. Although the last hour and a half will be in both cars, with the Corgis, which will be much better. Talk to you later!

Do you remember Blacksburg Brewing Co.?

Way back, about five years ago, when I was writing Virginia, Maryland and Delaware Breweries, my dad and I made a long trip down along the spine of the Appalachians: Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia. After a very satisfactory breakfast at The Roanoker (country ham and red-eye gravy, with some excellent biscuits; no, I don't know why I remember this stuff either), we headed over the mountains in foggy drizzle to wind our way down to Blacksburg. We visited a couple very good bars, the great beer selection at Vintage Cellar, and Blacksburg Brewing, where John Bryce was brewing some very good beers on a system I swear sounded like a huge hair dryer, the only forced-air heated brewkettle I've ever seen. I did the interview, wrote the entry for the book, and just before sending off the manuscript, heard that John had to close down the brewery. Bummer!

I followed John's career after that, attempts to raise cash for a brewpub in B-burg, working his skinny ass off at Cap City making kölsch, and going to brewer school in Germany. Then today I got this (and the picture you see above):

The release of Blacksburger Pils is ~3 weeks away. Beer will be available draft-only in Blacksburg area bars and restaurants. The retailers page will be updated to reflect availability once beer is released. The BBC website is still under construction - this news feed and the merchandise page are not yet complete. Look for beer and more updates in late January.

Best news I've heard so far this year. Well...to be honest, second-best. I'm still working on the other story, and will share that soon. And you Pennsylvania people are gonna love it.

Blue & Gray Oktoberfest

A bit out of my local area, but a fun event at a chronically overlooked brewery:

Blue & Gray Brewing in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is having their 6th annual Oktoberfest this weekend. We've been to this in the past, and it's a great time: oompah, sausage, beer, the whole thing, and believe me, the beer is excellent. Check the schedule at the link above, but it's very reasonable (and yes, they're doing it rain or shine; the rain should have passed through by Saturday afternoon). Stop by and see these phenomenally friendly bunch of folks, and enjoy a little Virginia-style gemütlichkeit!

Holy crap: Old Dominion's brewpub closes

It's true: just lookie here.

"The closing of the brewpub will allow Old Dominion Brewing Company to focus on its primary objective - producing authentic, high-quality craft beers and sodas.

This decision will have no impact on other operations of Coastal Brewing Company. Brands under both the Old Dominion and Fordham names will continue to be distributed and marketed along the east coast of the U.S.

We apologize for any convenience this may cause."

Yeah. It really does say "We apologize for any convenience this may cause." A sad tale, and one which could lead to all kinds of bootless speculation. Here's my take. The pub is in an inconvenient spot, it always was; and it does not fall into Coastal's plan or desires. A-B doesn't do pubs; Ram's Head does their own. This thing was a thorn in their sides. It took them a while to realize that...and then they closed it. Too bad for all the regulars, guess they'll just have to go somewhere else. "We apologize for any convenience this may cause."

(Update: it's been changed, and now says "inconvenience." Typo? Or snarky in-joke?)