Bell's Light Hearted Ale

I'll admit it: I shamed Larry Bell into sending me a sample of this beer.

I am not embarrassed to admit that. I saw this beer on my friend John Holl's Facebook timeline, and I lusted for it. So I said in a comment, "Hey, Larry Bell! Where's the love, brother?" and tagged Larry. And sure enough, he sent me a sweet little sixpack, tightly-packaged, a thing of compact beauty, and a mere 110 calories per 3.7% 12 oz. can.

But let me tell you something. It wasn't so much the beer that made me want it, or John's loving description.

It was the name. 

Bell's Two Hearted Ale has been a favorite of mine for years. When it came out in cans, my wife and I giggled with glee, and bought cases of it. Then the Double Two Hearted Ale came out: YOW! I loved it, too, but damn, watch out, you know?

And then... Light. Hearted. Ale. Had to happen. Had to have it. So pitter patter.

Gorgeous light amber, big billowy head. Yum, say my eyes. Fresh bread and sweet citrus aromas. Damn, says my nose. Shut up and drink!, says my mouth.

It is light. Light in feel, light and bright in taste, light and crisply bitter on the finish. It is clearly Son Of Two Hearted, and on a hot day, this is going to be a crusher. And with me looking to lose weight right now? I may have found my moving buddy. It drinks easily, it's bitter without being gaggy (which, sorry, in too light a beer can definitely happen), and the flavor is light and rolling, very, very pleasant. I like the idea of a 110 calorie beer that has some real pale ale flavor.

Thanks, Larry (and thank you, John). I appreciate the sample, and I'll be sharing the other five around. This is good stuff, keep making it!

Hell's Bells...

I understand that Bell's will be bringing the dark to Devil's Den on December 21st: appropriate, as the winter solstice is a dark day indeed. "Bringing the dark" is, of course, all about stouts, which has been an obsession of Larry Bell's since the earliest days. The goodies at Devil's Den will include the rare and wonderful Black Note, for only the second time in Philly; we're told that the first time it showed, the keg kicked in minutes ten. Be forewarned!

If I can't manage to get to Selin's Grove for the anniversary celebrations...might just have to get down with the blackness at Devil's Den.

Okay...one wild Philly Beer Week thing

I told myself I wasn't going to get into pimping PBW events -- cuz you know, with over 900 listed events (suck that, "other" so-called "beer weaks") it's not fair to pick and choose -- other than my own, of course. But one event is setting another world beer record here in Philly, for a while at least, and I wanted to talk a bit about the venue, too, so...

City Tap House will be pouring 31 different draft Bell's beers on Monday night, June 7. This is more different Bell's beers than have ever poured anywhere else, including Bell's Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo, even in Larry Bell's house. That's all draft beers, pouring on City Tap House's very nice tap system. Some of these are Philly Beer Week exclusives, and you may see them around town next week, but you'll only see all of them here. What? You want a list?

Okay:

Porter, Le Pianiste Ale, Two Hearted, Le Contrebassiste Ale,
Third Coast Old Ale, Le Batteur Ale, Kalamazoo Stout, Smoked Lager (vienna), Oberon, Golden Funk Ale, Double Cream Stout, Kal-Haven Rye Ale, Oarsman, The Wild One, Expo, Pastel Raspberry Ale, Lager, Consecrator, Wheat Love, Wheat 2, Cherry Stout, Wedding Ale, Black Note, BB Hell Hath, Harry Magill's, Q Falls, Debs' Red, The Oracle,
Sparkling, Batch 9000, Batch X000 (undecided as yet; "something from the archives"). 

How's that? Pretty damned sweet, no? Well, let me tell you about City Tap House a little, you want to talk about sweet. Cathy and I went to the opening a couple weeks ago, and I was impressed. First, it's a huge space; two immense rooms (bar and dining room) plus a very large outdoor...what, more than a deck of a balcony, something the size of a helipad, with big open gas firepits. The food: they were bringing around samples of stuff like lamb lollichops (with a delicious dipping sauce), bruschetta, and a variety of pizzas including one with truffle-oiled mushrooms and what looked like a fried free-range egg in the center (really good, but kind of hard to split up).

Enough about that, let's talk beer. Their taplist was simply sick, okay? They were not wasting taps on so-so stuff, at least, not the craft taps, of which there were about 50. Flying Fish Exit 4, Dark Horse, Duvel Green, plenty of locals, Founders, the usual suspects and others. Which is great, but what about my concerns that these taps would sit ignored as "them collitch kids" drank up the Yuengling and Stella? I popped that question to bar manager Andy Farrell, right after I came out of the impressively tech'd-up keg cooler (please to ignore the clearly goofy Mr. Kolesar, overwhelmed by the steel-encased wonderfulness he was surrounded by).

He had interesting news, to wit: the craft taps had been handily outselling the mainstream taps for the ten days that they'd been open. In fact, he said, they were shipping kegs of mainstream to their other operations (Field House and Public House) because they were sitting unused at the Tap House. Now, it's still very early, but it looks like Penn kids like to get their drink on with craft beer. God knows, they have the money to afford it.

Maybe we really will have a big-assed multitap that succeeds in Philly. Good thing, bad thing? I'll need to see it in action for a while longer. In the meantime...I might just mosey on down there for this Bell's thing... (Parking wasn't horrible, either.)