The Grey Lodge: Sweet & Sour 16th

One of my earliest Grey Lodge pix, circa 1996.

A significant note from Scoats just showed up in my email. Now...I was at Victory before it opened. I was at Stoudt's way back in the late 1980s. I was at Memphis Taproom the day it opened. But...me and Scoats and the Grey Lodge, we have a special relationship. Although I live in another county, 16 miles away...I usually tell people that my local pub is The Grey Lodge.

Maybe it's because it's out in the Northeast, maybe it's because of the beer selection, maybe it's the constant change. But a lot of it is that when Scoats took over the place, he never dumped the regulars, never made anyone feel unwelcome. Which is why you'll still see guys sitting at the bar on Friday the Firkinteenth...drinking a bottle of Miller Lite. And that makes some people's heads explode -- it caught me off guard at first -- but I've realized that I love it. These are people, this is a bar that gets the idea that it's about the bar and the people first and always, and a great selection of beer (and whiskey!) can only help that, not be more important.

Groundhog Day, note the t-shirt date...

So I'm happy to put up this note about the Grey Lodge's 16th Anniversary Sweet and Sour 16 Party, this Saturday. I may or may not make it -- I have to sing early Sunday morning up in Lancaster -- but I will be there on Saturday at some time. It's family. Happy Anniversary, Scoats!

Ah, the good old days...

Hello Lew,

The Grey Lodge will celebrate its 16th Anniversary this Saturday, the 11th, from 5pm to 10pm. We don't celebrate our anniversary too often, but when we do, we try to do it epicly. This time around, it's just one day but the beer list is truly epic. Since we don't seem to anything normal-like, our Sweet 16 will be a Sweet and Sour 16, with all sour beers on tap. We'll have a greatest hits of canned beer too.
- 10 sour beers on tap, ranging from very accessible to truly extreme. Several of these beers we have been holding onto for years.
- big prize for the oldest Grey Lodge T-shirt
- prizes for any vintage Grey Lodge shirt
- free cake!

Full details at http://greylodge.com/sweet16.html

Thanks!

P.S. Thanks for your support and encouragement over the years. It has meant a lot.

To me, too, Scoats. Me too!

Groundhog Day 2012

Where There's Smoke, there's Lew

Wanted to get in a plug for an event I really thought would cut through the noise of Philly Beer Week, if only because so many people being repulsed by it: Scoats and I, with chef Kevin McDevitt, are putting on an all-smoked dinner at Hop Angel Brauhaus tomorrow night. The menu is below, and you'll notice: everything is smoked, even the dessert. I know a lot of you don't like smoked beers, but for those of you that do...this is smokin', baby. Please note the seafood course, where we have a beer that is technically not smoked (Schlenkerla Helles uses no smoked malt, but picks up smoke hints from the brewing system that otherwise does exclusively smoked beers), and the return of Unibroue Raftman, the best peat-smoked beer I know of. We've got some beauts here, and if you've never had Bruder Basil cheese...you're in for a treat.
Come out tomorrow night. PAYG starts at 5, we'll have a more formal served dinner at 7 for $50 that includes all the beers and all the foods (at a significant savings).

Smoked Beer Dinner with Lew Bryson

1st

Three smoked cheese plate served with apple and raison compote and lingonberries

paired with: Roy Pitz Ludwig's Revenge, Sly Fox Rauchbier

2nd

Smoked mussels and Trout salad

paired with: Schlenkerla Helles, Unibroue Raftman

3rd

Choice of Hungarian and smoked whip with an onion gravy and sauerkraut or rolled Roulade with gravy and mashed potatoes

paired with: Stone Smoked Porter, Victory Scarlet Fire

4th

Carmel covered vanilla bean ice cream and a smoked salt

paired with: Schlenkerla Oak Smoke

Will you feel lucky this Friday?

What can it mean?

• Cigar City Humidor IPA
• Cricket Hill Reserve Series Brown
• Dock Street TBA
• Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA
• Flying Fish Farmhouse
• Fullers London Pride
• Lancaster Milk Stout
• Manayunk Brewerytown Brown Ale
• Manayunk Hop Phanatic
• Nodding Head Marauder
• Philly Fleur de Lehigh
• Prism Bitto Honey
• Sixpoint Modern Rye
• Sly Fox 113 IPA
• Sly Fox Chester County Bitter
• Stouts Pils
• Stouts special bourbon barrel aged Scarlet Lady ESB
• Troegs Hopback Amber
• Troegs Javahead
• Victory Headwaters Pale Ale
• Wells Banana Bread
• Wells Bombadier
• Weyerbacher Verboten with camomille tea
• Yards ESA 

It can only mean one thing: Friday the Firkinteenth. Starts at noon, this Friday.

Good stuff from Uncle Jack

Jack Curtin has two newsy notes of great interest to Philly-area beer fans (and if they aren't of great interest to you, I have to question your depth of fandom...). Here he has the word on Scoats's latest, the opening of Hop Angel Brauhaus (the old Blue Ox, across from Rieker's Deli, and you will love that, my friends); and here, a less-happy note, is a quote from ex-Triumph brewer Patrick Jones on why he's an ex-Triumph brewer, what he's planning (or not), and a tip of the hat to another well-regarded ex-brewer.

Word to people with money and brains: a well-trained, multiple-medal winning brewer like Jones will not be on the sidewalk forever. Get your brewery plan together and snap this guy up. Or maybe...Gordon Biersch will finally get their heads out of their collective butt and come to Philly, and Patrick can re-enter that fold. Or even better, my grand Yuengling Philadelphia Brewpub scheme could come to fruition... Dreaming, I'm dreaming. I should go back to bed.