Virginia is not only for lovers, it is also for beer. Devil’s Backbone even puts lagers at the top of its beer list. Including a Vienna lager that you hardly ever see.
Very cool!
Horsetooth Brewing
As if I need another beer to try when I am at GABF. Here is a list of beers for this fledgling entry to the Fort Collins scene.
1. Old Town Ale
2. Cache la Porter
3. Stimulator Ale
We will also be doing some fun stuff in-between these batches as special releases.
I missed at Stone 13 – Boo
Here are their offerings…
Papago Orange Blossom Wheat Beer
Our most popular beer. A light American Wheat Ale flavored with Mandarin Orange and Vanilla. Like a liquid old fashioned creamsicle. 4.5% ABV
Papago El Robusto Porter
An Imperial Porter. Dark as night, rich and flavorful. One of our original beers since day one. A Bronze medal winner at the Great American Beer Festival. 8% ABV
Churchill’s Wheatwine
Strong like a barleywine but smooth because of the golden wheat used to brew it. Another one of our original beers. 9.6% ABV 60 IBU’s
Ryan’s Red Ale
An Irish Red Ale but really more of an Anglo-Irish Red Ale. Red and Malty like an Irish Red Ale but with a light dose of American hops. Named for our managing partner before she married a brewer and changed her name. 6% ABV
Papago Oude Zuipers
A truly authentic Belgian Tripel. “Old Drunk” is brewed for us in Belgium. Rich golden color, lots of Belgian yeast character. Very strong. 11% ABV
Papago Elsie’s Irish Coffee Milk Stout
An Irish car bomb in a glass. A rich milk stout with 1 pound of Irish Cream flavored coffee beans added per barrel. 5.5% ABV
Central Waters Brewing
A brewery that makes great beer and is enviromentally conscious? Excellent. Central Waters has just released “Shine On” an easy drinking red ale, made to commemorate our solar hot water system and our partnership with the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA). Enjoy a pint, and GET YOUR SHINE ON!
Southern Tier Brewing
The awesome Beer America folks brought this brewery to my attention and now I pay it forward to you…
Southern Tier Brewing is not, I repeat, not in the south. Their home is in Lakewood, New York. They have quite the line-up of beers.. Year-round | Seasonal | Local | Imperial | Ltd Imperial | Seasonal Imperial | Blackwater | Cuvée Series. What intrigued me the most was the Creme Brulee Imperial Milk Stout.
Beer Co-Op
The Black Star in Texas has taken the owned by thing seriously.
Owned by and for themselves, not some conglomerate of breweries they are close to being up and running and I applaud them.
I also thought this tidbit from their website was interesting…”Drinkability is a term that comes up frequently when we’re talking about our future Black Star beers, and with the majority of our recipes, I’ve tried to tweak them to be more “drinkable.”
From a recipe standpoint, this usually means lower finishing gravities, slightly higher carbonation levels (although this is debatably more drinkable), use of wheat, and a balance of maltiness, hoppiness, and alcohol. I would say drinkability is made up of mouthfeel, refreshinicity (yeah, you heard me), and inebriatability.”
more Alabama brew info
Today’s first post concerned a new beer column in Alabama and the first column written was about Good People Brewing.
Snake Handler Double IPA is one of their offerings and lagers are proposed for the future. But what I like most is that they have the typical story of how they brewed for the passion of it and fell into brewing as a business (or as they put it, “the business found us”).
Alamo Brewing Company
from Draft magazine…
Alamo Beer Company, a microbrewery near San Antonio, Texas, began selling its Alamo Golden Ale out of founder Eugene Simor’s minivan in 2003. Now, the brewery is upping the ante by calling on Dallas-based Ben E. Keith Beverages to distribute the brew throughout San Antonio.
The brewery describes Alamo Golden Ale, which is brewed with a self proclaimed “fiercely independent spirit,” as “a full-bodied, refreshingly lighter style ale with a smooth, velvety finish.”
“Our little beer now has a big distributor,” Simor says. Look for the beer on shelves in San Antonio now, and possibly all over Texas in the next few months — if it’s following the rags-to-riches musician example.
Six Points Brewery
Laboring under the shadow of the Brooklyn Brewery is the SixPoint Craft Ales.
They do a wide variety of styles. Belgian IPA to saison to Hop Obama (since retired).
Their beers are available mostly in New York but they are worth looking for when you need to try something new.
Christmas in July at Port / Lost Abbey
As I have mentioned previously, this is not a snarky, mean-spirited blog. I wish to be more at the Huell Howser end of the spectrum as opposed to Bill Maher but, at times, I will have to detour into criticism. This is one of those instances.
Now, I am a fan of Pizza Port beers (and the pizza). I enjoy the hop bombs they make and recently I really liked the Hot Rocks lager. Lost Abbey is hit and miss. Their wit is sub-par but Inferno ale is pretty good. I do appreciate the experimentation though which is why I wanted to check out this party in the first place.
So I was expecting a lot at their Christmas party. Maybe too much. My first problem was that they did not appear to be fully expecting a crowd. There was no signage as to where to line up for what so there was one medium, barely-moving line due to the second noticeable problem, only one person checking ID and only one person taking bottle orders and taking entrance money.
The third miscue was that you placed a bottle order for Duck, Duck, Gooze then you had to go stand in a new line to purchase it. A line with 1. Yes, only 1 credit card machine. Now that would be ok if the beers were $8.00 or $10.00 but if you are charging (and rightfully so) $30.00 you have to have at least two credit card machines because not everyone will have that much cash on hand. And forth, they ran out of some beers after three hours. Amigo lager? Sorry, all out. Shark Bite red? Nope. This is why, myself and others were at Stone enjoying a leisurely beer.
Here are my recommendations for fixing the situation. Separate the bottle sales from the party. This way people can come in, donate to charity, have some beer, get a photo with Santa and not have to navigate a humid room with a big line of cranky bottle buyers in the middle.
To speed the bottle sales, at least two credit card machines. Then hand people order slips as they wait in line. Also have two people as stock pickers to speed up the process. This way, the order is ready quicker from both the buyer and the seller’s sides. And it is only one line which may move faster. There is nothing worse than a line that inches forward then finding out you have to be in another line that inches forward.
The mantra should be to prepare for a big crowd and then scale down if needed. Because it is just too hard to scale up.