Down the other leg of the Trousers of Time

Picked this up from Uncle Jack's site,and it's everything he says it is and a bag of crisps. A goofy, cheap-video look at what happened around here in 1996: Dogfish Head, Iron Hill, Flying Fish, Yards, and Victory opened, and pressed on when other places didn't (Independence, Red Bell, Brandywine, Valley Forge, etc.). But don't for a moment think it's serious; it's not. It's goofy and fun and effin' brilliant. Fire it up, have a laugh, and be glad these guys didn't give up.

Exit 1 & Harvest From the Hood

I dropped down to the Hulmeville Inn last night for a couple quick beers; not just any beer, but the new Flying Fish Exit 1 Bayshore Oyster Stout (thanks to big Tom Linquist for the tip on the Flying Fish Exit 1 firkin). I had dinner ready when Cathy got home at 5:45; 'Look, dear, casserole's ready in 20 minutes...but they're tapping a firkin of Oyster Stout at Hulmeville at 6 and those firkins never last long do you want to come along aw come on you can go oh gotta pack for Scranton okay see ya bye!' (If you talk fast enough, you can be out the door while the sound is still hanging in the air...)

So I walk in the door and there's big Tom sitting at the bar right across the room: Hey! I joined him, and the rest of the friendly pack of beer lovers at the Inn, and got a pint of Exit 1 off the gravity-pour firkin (you can see Tom tapping -- er, mostly -- the previous firkin, Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin, below; in Tom's defense, I'd use a bigger mallet). First off, the stuff's very dark, close to black. It was not what I'd call 'rich,' though there was a nice hint of bitter chocolate to it; this was dry stout, with a good nip of bitterness on the end, a kind of bite that did not get in the way of having another at all. Nice beer...exceptional beer? Maybe not, but a real good pint. Good enough that I had another (and paid for this one, thanks for the first one, Jeff!).

Then Jeff (Lavin, the owner) brought out some small glasses and a 12 oz. sample of harvest from the Hood, Philadelphia Brewing's new fresh hop beer, using hops grown at the brewery and Greensgrow Farms, Philly's urban CSA (just down the street from Memphis Taproom). The hop aroma was huge -- it oughta be, the label cheekily notes that it's "Sextuple Hops Brewed" -- but not what you'd call 'delicate' or 'refined,' more like "big." This one's about as subtle as the label: Hey, sailor! It's quite hoppy, and a bit rough around the edges, which I think fits the beer's Kensington roots perfectly. This beer's got terroir, dammit! Looking forward to trying it on tap (don't look for bottles, there were only about two cases made for bar samples).

At that point, I decided to go home and get some of that casserole. I sweet-talked Jeff into filling a 12 oz. "growler" for Cathy (a brown-glass flip-top I use for sampling; quite handy) -- thanks again, Jeff -- and headed up the hill to home.

Flying Fish Exit 1 video

Jeff Linkous ("Beer Stained Letter") does beer blogging and video. He just sent me this link to a video about the new Flying Fish Exit 1 Oyster Stout. He interviewed me for the piece (at Joe's Mill Hill Saloon, in Trenton; a good afternoon). Enjoy!

Flying Fish Exit 1: Foreign Export Oyster Stout

Just got this from Casey Hughes at Flying Fish:

"I just brewed Exit 1, Foreign Export Oyster Stout, this is my lunch today, stout boiled oysters on pizza!"

I'm looking forward to this one (very appropriate placement, too). Takes me back to the days when Yards would have a party when they brewed the first batch of Love Stout, and we'd all eat stout-boiled oysters. I think Casey should make this again; I'll bring the pie!

Flying Fish Exit 11, Swift Half, Goat Burritos, and all that

So much has been happening, I've fallen behind. I won't apologize, but I will try to get caught up!

I went to the launch party -- two of them, actually -- for Flying Fish's new special release, Exit 11 Hoppy American Wheat, last Tuesday. I first went to Standard Tap, parking right outside Cantina dos Segundos on 2nd St. (foreshadowing alert...). Went in, ran into PR ace Jennie Hatton and FF brewer/genius/loonie Casey Hughes, who jointly directed me upstairs, where I got into a round-the-room how-are-you pattern that took me five minutes to get through to the bar. I was early for the launch, so I got a Farmhouse Ale, and it was (according to my notes) "just perfect fresh, cold, and clean." I love the taps at Standard.

Then it was time for the Exit 11, an American wheat, on the big side at 6.2% (50/50 pale malt/wheat), hopped with Columbus, Palisades, and Amarillo, and then two whacking great lumps of Amarillos in dry-hopping.

How is it? Buzzing with Amarillo, buster: peppery citrus with some sweet malt under it, and that slicey-acidic cut from well-done wheat. Why wheat, I asked Casey, because if there's one craft beer style I just cannot figure out the reason for its continued existence, it's American wheat. "Because I wanted to make a wheat I liked," he said, confirming my judgment of both American wheat and Casey Hughes.

There were some other food/beer press folks there -- Felicia D'Ambrosio, Kirsten Henri (who'd just fired up Grub Street Philadelphia, congrats) -- and bloggers (yeah, I mean you, Bryan), and some folks who looked suspiciously mainstream. When we moved over to Swift Half (more on that shortly) CBS 3 showed up. Whatdahell?

Well, it's all about the free publicity the whackos at MADD New Jersey gave Flying Fish by fulminating that the Exit Series was somehow insulting to them. "The combination of a roadway and advertising for any kind of a beer doesn't make any kind of sense," executive director Mindy Lazar was quoted in a wide-spread AP story. "This is almost a mockery." Almost? Honey, you are a mockery...of your own crazy self. Happily, there has been an almost universal reaction to this: MADD is over the top, silly, and taking itself way too seriously. Hey, MADD: go back to what you do best, raising awareness about drunk driving.

Ah, me. Anyway, as I said, after a while, a lot of us trooped over to Swift Half, the new bar at the Piazza at Schmidt's. The Piazza is quite pleasing, and will lure even more folks to this area (hopefully not more drug dealers and murderers...), a space that should be emulated elsewhere. Swift Half is very nice, especially the relatively large outdoor space on the piazza. Good beer selection, but I wanted a stout, and they had none at the time. So I got a Dark and Stormy, and it was good.

Sipped that for a while, then had some of the new (recipe) Yards Saison (Okay, what happened was that Steve Mashington asked me how come I never wrote about Yards beers, and I asked him how come everyone else sent me samples...and he bought me a half of Saison (which, by the way, is the great freakin' thing about Swift Half, you can get a pint, or half a pint, something more beer bars should do -- like every one of them, hmm?)). It's ballsier than the old Saison, which always seemed more like a slightly gutsier witbier to me...but I'd like it to be a bit more attenuated, this is almost more like a spicy biere de garde. Note to brewers: Lew's a pain in the butt. (Yes, I know, it's not really news.)

I finally decided it was time to get home, but I was hungry. Mashington suggested Paesano's and I was all for it, but when I got to the Jetta (not too far to walk to Paesano's, but I wanted to be able to hop in it and go home when I was done)...there was dos Segundos, and I was hungry now, and I saw the word "goat." Long story short, I went in, sat at the bar, and had a goat burrito with a side of refried black beans and a Sunshine Pils. Good? The burrito was good, plenty of goat in it, the beans were good. Beer was okay, and cold. Bad? Took forever to get the bartender to understand that yes, I knew that there were beans in the burrito, but yes, I did indeed want a side of refries. I finally had to say, "Look, I like beans, okay?" And the side of beans was 3 bucks, which seems a bit stiff to me (beans? Cheap like dirt, brother). So a goat burrito, beans, and one beer was $17, in a place that was dark, noisy, and very detached in service. I think I should have listened to Mashington.

Anyway, that was my day last week. All in all, a good evening.

Now brewing: Pils Jay's Way

I see on Facebook that Patrick Jones and Flying Fish brewer Casey Hughes are currently brewing a special batch of pilsner at the Triumph brewpub in Old City Philadelphia. It's "Pils Jay's Way." After I wrote a eulogy for Jay Misson here on the blog, I met and corresponded with a lot of his friends. As often happens, I learned a lot about a good friend after he died. I hate that, but I loved it, too.

One of those friends of Jay was Peter Kruse, who interned with Jay at Gordon Biersch back in 1996. He got in touch with me through the blog, and wound up mailing me a copy of a handwritten recipe Jay had given him: "Pils -- Jay's Way." I got it into Patrick and Casey's hands, and today they're brewing it. It's got just a touch of smoked malt in it, and I'm very curious to see how it comes out. It should be ready for a pilsner night Triumph is putting on Thursday March 12th of Philly Beer Week, the "Klash of the Kaisers"; more about that here. (And more about today's brew here; thanks for the note, Felicia!)

Tough to be at home while this is going on, but all I'd do is watch and take pictures. Drinking it is what I'm good at.

Thanks to Peter, and Patrick and Casey. Cheers, Jay!

Flying Fish Imperial Espresso Porter

I interviewed Flying Fish owner Gene Muller just about a year ago for the entry in New Jersey Breweries. We had a real good interview, and at the end, Gene says he knows I've had most of their beers, and knows I liked the (discontinued) Porter; how about you try this bottle of the new Imperial Espresso Porter? Cool, I said, thanks...took the bottle home, put it in the fridge for later, and promptly forgot it.

Hey, I forgot a growler for three months one time!

So tonight I happened on it as I was grilling turkey "tenderloins" for dinner. What the hell, let's pop it. Why did I wait so long? This baby was delish: not so much espresso as milk chocolate, sweet and darkly malty like an Okocim Porter without the beefy body. Drinkable, not sickly sweet -- more like cake sweet, cookie sweet -- and with enough complexity to keep it interesting. Cathy and I enjoyed it without any hesitation. I'll be looking for more.

Two German Pilsners

I'm slowly -- sorry -- working my way through a bunch of German samples sent to me by a new import company...so new that I've lost the press release and can't find it anywhere online. I'm pretty sure they're either associated with or piggybacking on Schwelmer Beer Imports in Brooklyn, so if you're interested, I'd start there.

In fact, one of the two beers I sampled tonight was Schwelmer Pils. It comes in a cute little 330 ml swingtop bottle with a decorative label, at 4.7% ABV. I remember having Schwelmer beers at a party a few years ago, and this bottle brought that back: quite solid, good malt underpinnings, hops sufficient unto the day, and quite good with tonight's pizza.

The second beer was Lammsbräu Organic Pilsner, at 4.8% ABV. They've been all-organic since 1986, according to their website, which is fairly early even for Europe. They have evidently been at it long enough to get good at it: this was quite nice. Drinkable, not overly crisp, good hop bitterness, and not cloying. Kind of sorry there was only one in the sample box: this is a three-glasser.

(I also had some Puckerfish at Flying Fish tonight, where Mark and I had our most successful signing for New Jersey Breweries so far. The Puckerfish was solidly sour, with the body to back it up, a beer with some depth. Casey Hughes shocked me by telling me it was around 8.2%; it drank like a much lighter beer. If you see this -- and there's not much of it -- grab some. I think you'll be surprised it's Flying Fish.)

Fall is here, and lots of events

It's officially fall beer season, now that Fall's officially begun and the Munich Oktoberfest is under way. So here's some of the stuff going on around the greater Philadelphia area.

This weekend, as I mentioned here, is the Philly Oktoberfest. I also have two book signings with Mark Haynie for New Jersey Breweries: the first, the fun, the big one at the Flying Fish Brewery in Cherry Hill, Friday night 5-7. Talked to Casey Hughes last night, and he's talking about breaking out some Puckerfish and maybe some other fun stuff. The other signing is at the Borders in Marlton, NJ, Saturday afternoon, 1-3. Can't promise you beer, but we'll tell you all kinds of stories about what we went through to get the book done. And as Uncle Jack mentions, this weekend is also the Victory Fallfest on Saturday and the venerable Sippin' By The River on Sunday (a worthy benefit for IBD and Crohn's Disease research).

Now, the following weekend is a big one. The Lion hosts their 4th annual Oktoberfest, and the event and the beer just keep getting better (Friday and Saturday, Oct 3-4). The 4th is the justly famed Kennett Square Brewfest, and if I weren't speaking at the World Beer Festival in Durham, I guarantee you I'd be in Kennett. And the Grey Lodge has 10-4 Good Buddy, a celebration of small plates and small beers, which should be fun too.

The next weekend, well, there's some stuff going on, but I'll be in San Francisco for WhiskyFest, and most of the brewers will be in Denver for GABF, so you're on your own. You might want to check out the River Horse Oktoberfest in Lambertville -- they've been doing some excellent beers lately; Double White, anyone? -- which is no admission, pay as you go, with live music, both days 12-5.

But the following weekend is big. There's the Stoudt's Micro Fest on Saturday (two sessions), the Newtown Brewfest on Saturday (long sold out; I couldn't even get a ticket), World Cafe Live will have another one of their neat little indoor beerfests with thirty German brewers (including folks like Weltenburger, Schneider, Flensburger, and and Weihenstephaner, along with the usual suspects), and a little farther off, the 5th Annual Chesapeake Bay Real Ale Festival in Baltimore, at the Wharf Rat (27 firkins!). Then Sunday, October 19, join me at the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild Oktoberfest in Newark! From 1-5, you can get all the best from NJ's award-winning brewers and get your copy of New Jersey Breweries signed; what more could you ask?

Well, maybe one more thing. I got a nice little e-mail from Chick's Cafe, where, yes, Katie Loeb is still PhillyMag's most innovative cocktail creator of the year. They have received their license for sidewalk drinking, so enjoy the mellow evenings of autumn. Might have to do a little of that myself.

Another BIG New Jersey Breweries signing

I was so busy this morning that I forgot to mention a big New Jersey Breweries signing next week: Mark and I will be at Flying Fish Brewing on Sptember 26 from 5-7 pm. Come by after work, hang out for a while, get a book, talk to me and Mark and the Flying Fish gang. We'll have a good time, and have some fun. Start your Friday off right!