River Horse sold

Joe Sixpack scoops again: Don Russell is reporting on his site that River Horse (as rumored earlier this year) has been sold.

River Horse sold -- A Philly investment group has purchased the Lambertville, N.J., brewery from its founders, Tim & Jim Bryan, for an undisclosed figure. The press release promises a major expansion. The Bryans will remain with the company.

Russell's got the beer reporting mojo working; hats off!

Independence: a little more bad news

Uncle Jack (who is dealing with the death of a dog, and my heart goes out to him) has been doing better on the local scene than I have with one metaphorical arm tied behind his back. He 's got some ugly details here on the Independence shutdown. It's not looking good for continuance as a brewpub.

This shouldn't come as a terrible surprise: the plans never allowed it to take off. Red Bell/Jim Bell, who originally planned this thing as a satellite brewpub to their mothership brewery at 31st and Jefferson, never intended to use enough of the expensive floor space for enough brewery to support a place that size. The plan was for specialties to be brewed there, with the bulk of the beer coming from the big brewery. For various reasons (for which you'll have to wait till Jack or Don write a book about it), Bell never opened it, and when it did open, there was no big microbrewery to back it up. It's been a struggle ever since.

Without being privy to any more details than you can read at his site, I think Jack's right. This looks like the end for the brewpub beside the market.

ROS Party a "moderate success"

We had the ROS Party Saturday. A perfect day, the weather couldn't have been better. Here are some pictures Dan Berger took (thanks, Dan!); I'll write more later -- got work to do!



1st pic: Cathy and I, just happy it's working so well.

2nd pic: Me & Stephen Beaumont, bothering Penderyn.




1st pic: the party, under the maple tree.


2nd pic: Dan "Mr. Northside Entertainment" Bengel, Larry Horwitz, and a somewhat looming Brian O'Reilly enjoy a few beers from the "Raries & Scaries" selection.

Independence brewpub closed

Don Russell is reporting that Independence brewpub in the Reading Terminal building has locked its doors:

Indy shuttered*
Independence Brew Pub in Center City was shut down on Friday (8/10). No details yet, but employees, including brewer Tim Roberts (who was in the middle of a brew at the time), were evicted with no notice. Signs on the door say the closure is temporary. This does not look good.
*Thanks to John Ahrens for this tip.

I'm with Don on this one: this does not look good. Just when brewpubs were starting to rebuild their reputation in Da City O' Brotherly Love, another one falls on its face.

Helsinki Göld

One thing about all this inventorying I'm doing for the ROS Party: I'm coming across beers I meant to review and lost in the shuffle. Like this beer-stop on the Otter Creek 15th Anniversary World Tour of beers: Helsinki Göld, a sahti-inspired beer brewed with juniper and rye. Happily, and appropriately, it's blowing cool through the window, a proper taste of Suomi to set the scene for my enjoyment of this not-quite transparently reddish-gold beer.

It is enjoyable, too. I've seen a number of 6.3% ABV for this beer, and it carries it well, spicy, sharp, but simultaneously creamy and smooth. The rye and juniper make for a pleasingly unfamilar tang, and cleans up the finish nicely: a twangy, gin-like Finnish finish. Heh. Sorry, had to.

I've enjoyed the whole World Tour series, actually, and might just get into another one -- Kilt Tilter -- tonight. Great idea, and great fun: the labels all otter-shtick, with otters placed in situ, a Finnish mama otter with a pitcher of beer in the door of a sauna on this one. Only one disappointment so far: the bottle of Otterbahn weizenbock I got was infected, a true bummer, given how I love that style...but when everything else is so darned good, I can forgive.

Keep an eye out for these babies, and love them while they're here.

“My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends It gives a lovely light!" -- Edna St. Vincent Millay

(Oh...this is my 200th post on STAG...yay, me. I guess. Milestones...whatever.)

The Pain and Joys of Hoarding

I realized earlier this year that I literally had too much beer. The Dedicated Beer Fridge was full to bursting, I had almost a case in our regular fridge, there were two cases sitting under the kitchen table, and 14 cases under the basement steps. Some of it was beer that was never meant to age -- I had most of that in the DBF -- some of it was probably over the hill, and I had no good storage space for more beer. Something had to give.

I happened to talk to Scott "The Dude" Morrison about my problem. "Dude, R.O.S.!" he said, with a big Dude grin. R.O.S.? "You need to have a Really Old Shit party! Get it all out and drink it!"

Great idea. So I'm planning an R.O.S. party, and I've been inventorying. It's sick. I've got a case of 24 different American barleywines (only one in multiple years: 5 years of OD MIllennium, the newest from 2002); 20+ Baltic porters (some mid-90s Okocim, Dojlidy, Koff, Baltika, Pripps, OD Winter, and of course The Hammer); 3 cases of Christmas beers dating back to 1998; some precious few bottles of King & Barnes Christmas, one of the very best beers I've ever had; a lot of Anchor OSA, going back to 1986; Samichlaus back to 1992; almost a whole case of SNCA 1996; a bunch of one-off brewpub bottlings; some wonderful anniversary beers; Batch #1 of Immort Ale; some Weyerbacher Triple from about 1998 that's tasting wonderful; and so much more.

I'm inviting a bunch of beer folks over, not allowing anyone to bring beer, and we're gonna drink it. Because I don't want to mis-treat beer like this anymore. Hoarding is a bad thing, folks. Like I keep saying about whiskey: they make this stuff to drink. I apologize to The Great Beer Gods; I humbly abase myself. I offer this R.O.S. party as appeasement.

And I'm going to thaw out all my hoarded home-made sausage and grill it for the party, too. O Great Sausage Gods...

Knight's Head Pale Ale

What was once a big anniversary IPA...is now a pale ale. Sic transit lupula mundi (or something like that; it's approxiLatin for "So passes the hoppiness of the world").

Knight's Head Pale Ale is a beer being made under contract by The Lion for Round Table Brewing, and it's essentially the well-remembered Lion Anniversary IPA that shocked and rocked us with its sub-$20 a case intensity. KHPA is different: it's all-malt, which shows in its more supple flow on the palate and smooth character from first swallow, and it's not as crushing in its hop blast, though the follow-thrust is every bit as powerful. This is about where the LAIPA was after five or six months in the bottle: KHPA is pretty damned drinkable right now. Not sure what they're getting for this, but if it's under $25 a case, it's a steal.

National Rum Day

Bourbon may get a month, but even rum gets a day. Thursday, August 16, has been declared -- by someone...does it really matter who when you're looking for an excuse to have a good drink? -- NATIONAL RUM DAY. So get you some good rum, some lime, and maybe some mint, and have you a drink, man. I'll be joining you.

Here's Ed "Ministry of Rum" Hamilton's recipe for 'Ti Punch* (say "tee punch", it's short for 'petit punch') Where you get the sugar cane syrup is up to you; I'd suggest a Caribbean market, if you have one nearby. As for the rum, it's worth it to go out of your way to get rhum agricole; if you haven't enjoyed this luscious stuff, no time like the present to start.

1/4 tsp of Petite Canne sugar cane syrup
lime juice
Rhum

Pour a splash of sugar cane syrup in a glass. Squeeze a small slice of lime, cut from the side of the lime, over the cane syrup. Add a measure of Rhum Agricole Blanc. Stir and add ice. Allow the ice to chill the cocktail while the flavor of the rhum, sugar cane syrup and lime blossoms.


*(It's copied from www.cocktailtimes.com, and I would have just put a link, but...the site tried to bomb my PC with all kinds of pop-ups and crapware, so sorry, guys, I'm copying in courtesy to my readers.)

Things are better

My dog's home, and he's fine, happy, and looking good. Thanks, everyone who tried to cheer me up. I feel silly, in retrospect.

Things that suck

Once again, I won't be at the Great British Beer Festival (where Hobson's Mild was just named Champion Beer of Britain...and I won't get any).

I dropped a half-full growler of Victory Kölsch yesterday.

People still drink malternatives.

My dog's away for almost two days, getting snipped and chipped at the vet.

There are no bars within walking distance of my house.

It's hotter than the brass hinges of Hades out there.

Not being at the GBBF sucks so much I have to say it twice.

There is no brewpub in Newtown.

Philly's non-smoking in bars and restaurants, but PA is not.

Stan Rogers is still dead, dammit.

The things that don't suck are not enough to make me happy...right now.

Before anyone gets a bad impression: Hobsons Mild does NOT suck. As far as I know. I've never had any. Which sucks. And reminds me of another: not being able to put captions on graphics in Blogger.