Fleur de Lehigh

If you remember, I got a sample bottle of the new batch of Fleur de Lehigh back on my Pliny Day. Well...I took a ride today, and decided after I got back that a nice springy day like this was perfect to taste-test it.

To quote PBC rep Tony Madjor (from last year), "Fleur is an unfiltered Golden Ale brewed with ginger, lemongrass, rhubarb root, cardamom seed, and rose hips. Alcohol is 4.75%...amber color."

Fleur is indeed amber, and it is unfiltered: it's a uniformly hazy amber. But it is not uniform in taste, it's like no other beer I know, almost gruit-like in its spicy, herbal, vegetative intensity. It's like running through a hot meadow full of the blooming variety of summer, kicking up the warmed aromas released as you flash through the fields. It is perhaps my very favorite spiced beer, moreso than all the spiced winter beers and witbiers. Fleur is a beauty, an unabashed blast of flavors that meld into a beautifully intense experience. I intend to grab all of it I can get.

Philly Brewing keeps it local with Harvest From The Hood

Philly Brewing has done it again: another batch of Harvest From The Hood is on the streets, featuring a retro cheesecake-lite label (I can see the tops of her hose!) and righteous hops aroma from locally-grown hops. Yeah, locally-grown, as in "inside Philadelphia County." This video, with its Red Army Choir soundtrack and a narrator who sounds like John Facenda after a few shots of Powers, is something I'd love to see more of. Celebrate your beer!

Pick-up and delivery

Yesterday was the day. I drove up to Stackpole Books in Mechanicsburg and met with my editor, Kyle Weaver...and took delivery of Pennsylvania Breweries, 4th Edition. A lot of books. We went to lunch at Grandpa's Growler (Guinness and chili; always a fave lunch), and then I hit the road. I drove down to my mother's, and delivered a signed copy, a tradition we've been following through the Breweries book. It was tough not having my father there. This edition is dedicated to him:

To Lewis M. Bryson II

Always at my side

Yeah. Anyway, I left, picked up Nora at school, and got home in time to tidy up, change shirts, and head down to the Hulmeville Inn for the first signing for the book. It was fun -- it always is there -- and we had some great beers from Philadelphia Brewing: three firkins pouring Newbold IPA, Pennsylvania Pale Ale (my first beer of the night; seemed appropriate, and even more so once I got that razory hoppiness in me), and Joe Coffee Porter, which was awesome out of the firkin: smooth, round, a really good porter and a really good coffee beer.

It was a good night. And Pennsylvania Breweries is on the road. See you soon: Weyerbacher and the Bulls Head tomorrow.

Area breweries are growing

Not really news, because it happened back in late September, but better late than never, I suppose: Philadelphia Brewing and Victory both made some major additions to their tankage. That's Philly Brewing's four new 60-bbl. tanks arriving at the brewery (and yeah, the leaves kinda give me away on the tardiness factor...); gotta assume they're gonna be seeing some Kenzinger usage.

Now, the tanks Victory put in are somewhat bigger: four 400-bbl. tanks. I remember my shock when I first saw 200 bbl. tanks at a microbrewery (Blue Ridge, in Frederick), and thought, Wow, I guess you've made it when you need 200 bbl. tanks. Victory's put four of 'em in, in a structure that's built to take twelve. Craft beer just keeps growing...and I don't see that stopping any time soon.

Philadelphia Brewing Holiday Party

There's been a holiday party at the big old brewery in Kensington every year Yards moved in, and now that it's Philadelphia Brewing, the tradition has not changed. Here's the deal:

The festivities will be from 2 o'clock - 5 o'clock on Saturday November 28th. Santa will be here along with Delco Nightingale playing classic Christmas favorites and DJ DNA. We will also be debuting our new Winter Ale! In the spirit of the season we will be asking for donations for Flat Iron Wildcats - $$, cat food, fleece blankets, etc.

Good times, folks.

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.

Joe Under Glass

Just got news from Philadelphia Brewing Company: their Joe Porter, laced with coffee, is going to make a short appearance in bottles, sometime in September, in their assortment cases. This is excellent news; PBC's everyday year-round beers -- Kenzinger, Newbold, Rowhouse, and Walt Wit -- are good, but their limited release beers like Joe, Fleur de Lehigh, and Shackamaximum Imperial Stout have been outstanding. Getting more Joe is a good, good thing. Thanks, PBC!

Tria and Jose's: a great Friday night

I had an event at Tria last night, and Cathy got to go along. It was a very good evening, lots of fun. We started at Tria Washington West, at 12th and Spruce, where we tasted small samples of five of the featured beers from the class that was to follow: Pennichuck Pozharnik imperial stout, Victory Old Horizontal, De Dolle Stille Nacht, Gouden Carolus Grand Cru, and Aventinus Eisbock. (The class also got Brooklyn Black Ops, Fuller's Vintage Ale 2008, and Samichlaus -- as you can see, it was NOT a SBP-approved evening!) This was a kind of consolation happy hour for the class selling out so quickly. The class went very well -- we were loose, we had fun, and the Tria staff was having fun right with us.

When the class was over at 8:00, we hung around talking for a bit, and then took a great tip from Art "FooBooz" Etchells (who took his own advice and attended the class; great to finally meet you, Art!) and went to Jose Pistolas for dinner. I was real happy to look at the beer list and see Philly Brewing's Joe coffee porter: I've been hoping to get a chance to try that, and it was excellent, one of the better coffee beers I've had. I hope to see that in their regular line-up (and I'd love to see an occasional appearance by the base porter, too).

But what a good chow-down: I decided to have the Sunrise Burrito since I was having a cup of coffee, and it was the best breakfast-type burrito I've ever had, without question, fat, cheesy, solid and grippable. And Cathy's Chili Relleno special was outstanding, the biggest stuffed chili I remember seeing, and chunky with chorizo. Mighty nice!

We headed home, happy to get a night out before Cathy goes back to work on Monday. Thanks to the folks at Tria for extending the opportunity to present a class at the Fermentation School space: always a pleasure!

Busy, busy, busy

I've got a lot to do today and tomorrow before leaving for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival on Thursday, so I'm going to shove a lot into this post and get back to work.

Let's see...last Friday I got a call from Dean Browne, the big Canadian fella (who, concidentally, I spent some quality time with sipping whiskey at last year's Kentucky Bourbon Festival) who does brewing and all-round stuff at Philadelphia Brewing Co. (while working as a...software wallah of some kind, I'm not clear on that). His third job is brewing for Porterhouse Pub out in Lahaska, which is why he called. Dean has four lagers on at the Pub now, and he asked me if I wanted to come out and taste them. So I did.

Dean lined up four lagers for me: Phightin' Philsner, Left Field, North, and Peacekeeper. All four were clean, well-brewed, and drinkable; a little detail is in order, because I think they maybe need some small tweaks. The Philsner was good -- hoppy, drinkable -- but needed to be crisper; it had a bit too much body for a pils. Left Field was a Vienna style, and I pretty much liked it the way it was, and it was the beer I went for a pint of; could maybe use a bit deeper color, but that's quibbling. North was a dry-hopped deep amber; good, but if you're going to dry-hop, I'd go a bit bigger on that. Peacekeeper is a Baltic porter (named in honor of the Canadian Armed Forces and their usual mission) that was pretty damned good for a 6% Baltic (before any of you go off, there are Baltics in that range); I'd maybe like to see some more attenuation here...but you want some beef to a Baltic, so maybe I'm just being picky. Wouldn't hurt to go a bit bigger and pick up beef that way. Anyway, four good lagers (plus PBC beers like Walt Wit and Kenzinger) makes a good reason to visit Porterhouse (as if the excellent food and sweet ambiance weren't enough). Nice job, Dean; and I only pick cuz you asked.

Yesterday Cathy and I were invited to Iron Hill North Wales to sample their new Oktoberfest two-course Oktoberfest dinner...and hang out with brewer Larry Horwitz on his birthday, since his new wife, Whitney, had to work late. I had a glass of Dunkel, which was delicious: clean, malty, just a hint of chocolate. Two courses: a sausage 'salad' of grilled bratwurst and knockwurst arranged on a nicely done warm lentil salad, with mustard and some kind of watercress-like greens; and roasted pork loin (Iron Hill chefs are pig-meat geniuses) with gingersnap gravy, chunky mashed potatoes, and baby carrots. A very nice meal, quite German (except for those greens!), and perfect with another glass of Dunkel. I had coffee with a piece of apple-raspberry pie we split three ways; also very good, with a sweet streusel topping. Whew. Gonna have to hit the bike trail mid-day.

Later this week, as I said, I'm headed for Kentucky. Dinner with Maker's Mark Man Bill Samuels, the Bourbon Hall of Fame induction ceremony, the Bourbonian Taster of the Year competition, and, of course, The Gala: a full schedule, and I will definitely attempt to blog more of it this year. (Honestly, Sam, the real issue is finding wi-fi in Bardstown!) I'll also be hitting the liquor stores to find only-in-Kentucky bottlings...because I don't have enough bourbon...

And then the following weekend, September 27, Mark and I will be signing New Jersey Breweries at the Borders in Marlton, from 1 to 3 in the afternoon (and you might find me picking up a pizza for dinner at Pietro's, after). Come on out and see us!

Of course...if you do, that means that you, like us, will be missing the Philly Oktoberfest '08, a big gala of German and German-type beers put on at the 23rd Street Armory: food, music, and BEER. Tickets are $45, there's also a $75 VIP ticket, and it runs from 1 to 5 PM (VIP session starts at noon). Get all the info here. Believe me, if I weren't at the booksigning, I'd be there.

Philadelphia Brewing Co. nails two good ones

A quick note: I haven't written very much at all here about Philadelphia Brewing Co., the new company formed by Bill and Nancy Barton when Tom Kehoe split with the Yards name. That is not because of any reason other than I've just been real busy.

I'm very happy to say that I had my first two official PBC beers today, and they were excellent. Walt Wit, with a very cool pencil taphandle, was dry, bitter, spicy, and a pleasingly distinctive take on the witbier category that's so popular in Philly. It would have been easy to have been just like someone else: Walt Wit's like its namesake, definitely different. Kenzinger, described as a cross between a pilsner and a kölsch, may have strained my belief on the description, but it drank very easy: hoppy, crisp, poundable...this may be my new summertime keg beer, given the still-mourned demise of Steg Summer Stock.