Twas the night before Thanksgiving drinks

So last night I went to my best friend’s house for her annual “Twas the night before Thanksgiving” party. It twas a blast and had some great beers.
There were the standard Harpoon Brewery and Magic Hat beers. Then we had a few specialty beers like the new Corsendonk Christmas Ale – which to me got an A+. It is such a wonderful full body taste of a Belgium dark with just a hint of spices. Traditional Christmas beers are heavily spiced and over roasted malty. This was so not the case.
There was also plenty of Affligem Noel beer. To me it tasted a bit like a fruit cake – in the good way. Again not too spicy.
The host Doug created (at least it was new to me) a warm apple pie beer. It was a combo of a hard apple cider (I can’t recall what variety) and a Harpoon Dark.
All in all it was a great event with great beers

A typical homebrew day at the O.C. - 9 simple steps

The first rule of home brewing is………. Relax, don’t worry, and have a home brew. Done

So next, what are we going to brew? As it is my day, and we have not done this style in a while I decided to go for a traditional Czech Pilsner. Yummy.

Our brew days go a little something like this.

1. Get the water ready for the Mash.
a. Clean the kettle (in our case our customized keg)
b. Hook up the propane tank
c. Put in 2- 2.5 gallons of H2O. We do this so we can be on the same level as the spout on our kettle.
d. Light propane tank
e. Put in 6.5 gallons of water in the kettle as well as a thermometer and heat to 150 degrees. FYI - The water used changes depending on the beer.

2. Get the grains ready for the Mash – Because we are brewing a Czech Pilsner we are going to need a combo of Pilsner malt and Cara Pils malt.
a. Measure 1.5 lbs of Cara Pils malt
b. Measure 19 lbs of Pilsner malt
c. Crush all the grains
d. Clean mash container & manifold
e. Jam in manifold to our mash container (cooler) No need to jam if yours is constructed with great care and detail. As ours is more on the creative side, we need to jam.
f. Get water to the right temp, here we need about 170 degrees


3. Mashing
a. Add the water to the mash container and grab your grains and pour about 1/6 in and gently mix the two together. Be sure there are no clumps.
b. Repeat until all grains are mixed well with as much you need to get a proper ratio of 1 1/3 quarts per pound of grain. (thanks Steve for the details – I just knew it as “mix well”)
c. The grain/water mixture is your “mash”. Bring your mash temp to approximately 150 degrees.
d. Let sit for 1 hour, but stir it every 20 minutes or so.
e. Break and have another home brew or blog ;)

4. Sparging Water
a. Add 9 more gallons of water to the boiling kettle and heat this up 180
b. Pull a few quarts of the wart from the bottom of the tap (this is why we use a manifold) and pour it back on the top of the grains.
c. Get out a piece of tin foil, and poke a bunch of holes in it. Put this tin foil over the grains. We do this to disperse the sparge water over the grains.
d. At the same time “sparge” (aka – pour) the boiling water on top of the grains while simultaneously pouring the wort (the liquid portion of the mash) into the next boiling kettle. The sparge water should be flowing at the same rate as the wort leaving the tank.
e. Smell the mixture – it smells so yummy.
f. Take a few cups of wort and put it to the side to help the yeast get started.
a. Boil this wort in a pot and then cool it down to about 50 degrees.
b. Add this to your yeast mix. It is used as an appetizer for the yeast to get them hungry for dinner (beer).
g. Feel free to test the gravity of your wort to see what kind of “efficiency” you have. Basically how much sugars and other good stuff you were able to abstract from the grains.
h. Once the sparge is complete, put the kettle back on the burner. We move our burner to ground level because
i. It is heavy
ii. We don’t need to rely on gravity as much
i. Let this boil for about 1 hour adding hops when needed (see below)
j. Break and have another home brew or blog ;)

5. Adding hops – for this Pilsner we will have 4 rounds hops
a. After about 30 minutes of boiling, add 4oz of Saaz hops. Do not stir, just let it do its thing.
b. Smell the mixture now. So yummy again.
c. After another 20 minutes add another 4oz of Saaz hops.
d. About 10 more minutes after that add 2oz of Saaz hops.
e. And at the end of the boil add 2 more ounces of Saaz hops.

6. Cooling
a. Right after you take it off the burner add a dash of Irish moss to the mixture to help make the beer clear.
b. Put in a cooling coil and run cold water through the coils to cool down your wort. We want to get it to the 60-50 degree range.
c. You can stir your beer while cooling, but above 100 you want to stir slowly so you don’t add too much oxygen to the beer. Under 100, feel free to stir as hard as you like.

7. Fermentation
a. Transfer the cooled wort into your carboy (glass fermentation vessel) or other vessel.
b. Pitch (add) your yeast – ½ per container – unless you have a really large container, than add it all.
c. Put it in the fridge to ferment until it is done fermenting - Approximately 3 weeks or so.

8. Lagering
a. Once the fermentation process is complete you want to transfer the beer into your kegs or bottles to “lager” the beer – approximately another month or so.

9. Drinking – Enjoy your fresh home made beer.

Is there a shortage on seasonal brews?

So the night before last I went to a bar in Newburport MA and ordered a Harpoon Winter, and they were out. I know for certain (a little birdie in the industry told me) that Oktoberfest beers were hard to come by. Does this mean that there is a shortage of seasonal brews?

If I had to guess the production of seasonal brews has remained constant or has had moderate growth over the last few years, but the consumption has increased. I think that beer is starting to gain some notoriety (not the red-headed step child it once was – not sure it is PC to say that any more but hay this is my blog) and kick some wine butt.

I truly believe people are trying to expand their beer palates but don’t know how to start so they go with the obvious choice a seasonal brew. To be honest it is not a bad choice.
Although I am not a fan of many winter brews – it is a personal choice – I don’t like nutmeg in beer - I hate to see beer choices limited and people forced back to ordering their same-old same-old just because they don’t know what to do.

So I plead to the breweries out there, please make enough seasonal brews to get us through this winter.

NERAX cask festival is coming to The Tap

I guess it has been a while since I wrote. The NERAX cask festival is coming, the NERAX cask festival is coming! It is one of the few times per year you can get multiple real cask conditioned beers. Most of the time (if you are lucky enough to find someone service cask) you get 1 option. To have 20-30 options is just awesome.
Setup for the festival started last weekend. With the kegs settling in, http://www.tapbrewpub.com/">The Tap is ready to start this show on Thursday. I will be there on the weekend, so be looking for me. I will be the one with the big smile on her face.
Come, drink, and enjoy some of the best beer in the world.

Refractometer - what the heck is that - NERAX is back!!!

So I totally forgot to take pictures yesterday of the brewing process. Steve braved the cold-ish temperatures and brewed a Porter. About half way through the process when he used his Refractometer to measure the density of the beer (this helps us we figure out the alcohol %) he realized that he forgot to account for the hard water of Amesbury. It is funny, but the water you use really really really does make a difference in your beer. Offsets are needed to negate the chemicals in the town water – especially when it comes to dark beers. Anyway it looks, smells and tastes good – so that is all that matters
Another note NERAX is back at The Tap from Nov 5-7th. This cask festival should not be missed. It is great way to taste some beers the way they were meant to be served. If you have never had cask – you may think you beer is flat – but that is the way it was designed to be served. Steve and possibly myself will be working this event. Come and say hi and drink some awesome beers.

Bluebird Bitter - it tastes like England.

Although I was sick and could not drink much of the beer, I had a few sips of the Coniston Brewery’s Bluebird Bitter, and I have to say – it tasted like England. I felt like I was in a local pub with my mates. Add a bit of chips and football and it would have been perfect. If you have never traveled to Great Britten but you would like to experience, simply get yourself a pint of the Bluebird Bitter and sip.

Grassroots Brewery - we need your support - PLEASE FOLLOW MY BLOG.

Will you follow my blog – PLEASE
We may have an investor!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!
If we are going to get serious about this brewery thing, we need to put the word out there. Steve and I were discussing some of the Grassroots options and I think it is time to kick this thin in high gear – especially since my old boss is calling me – for what I hope is only personal (fingers crossed that he does not want me back). But if we are going to do this………….. I say we do this.
First I will meet with my friend Dover Peter ;) about getting people to my blog. Next I am gong to head out and buy my friend Chris’s book (congrats on being on the NYT Best Sellers List) about social media, and third ask all my friends to follow me on my blog.
I would like to know from everyone out there – what do you think about my concept – Amesbury Brewing Company (ABC) teaching our drinkers the ABCs about beers from around the world? Would you buy a beer that gave you a short overview about what you are about to taste?
Let me know.

Brewery Meetings held at a bar

How cool is it that when people say let's talk seriously about the brewery we always hook up at a bar? I love it. The beer crowd is way cool.
So my idea for a mission statement for our brewery is "brining international beers local". I like this because it combines my 2 passions (outside family) together - beer and travel. I realize that this concept may not work everywhere in the US, but I think it will be well received in MA. Each beer will have a story and explanation of what they can expect, and why. I have found that people want to know more about beer, but they don’t want to ask and sound stupid. Not that it is stupid. But if we name our brewery the Amesbury Brewing Company (ABC) we can teach our drinkers the ABCs about beer.

How does this sound?

Comments appreciated.

Oktoberfest at the OC

I had an Oktoberfest party last weekend that was great. Our Stevefest (our homebrew) kegs got kicked before the Spaten Oktoberfest keg we bought. How awesome is that? We started it at the traditional early afternoon and made it to midnight. We had all the traditional Oktoberfest workings – friends, hats, pretzels, little chickens, cabbage and meat, potatoes pancakes, and so much more. It was a true depiction of the festival.
We also had brews like La Folis and Pliny The Elderr from Russian River, Canadian Chouffe & Du Di Ciel, and a boat load of brews from Alaskan Brewing Company. Some good some not so good.
All in all, it was a very successful party.

To start a brewery or to not start a brewery – that is the question!

I still have no idea or ideas. In my heart I really see this as a true possibility, it is the feasibility that I am concerned with. While on his West Coast tour, Steve chatted with a brew master from a brewery out there (I am pretty sure it was Alesmith’s – but don’t quote me on that) who was a founding staff member, but not a founding investor. So I don’t know how helpful the visit was. If nothing else a private tour – THANKS ABBY.

I have not made much progress one way or the other, but I refuse to give up on this dream quite yet.

Arranging Talks with Brewmasters

Well since our last conversation we have not really said too much about it. Just things here and there. However, I don’t work like that. I want to explore this as a true option. I am tired of working for companies, getting settled in, making a huge impact and having the company think that now that things are straightened out they can run it themselves. Let me tell you from experience, it will return to its former shape in no time.

I need to explore this brewery and see if it could be a reality. The next time I head to The Barking Dog – I will talk to the manager and see if he can put us in touch with the brew master/owner of Pretty Things. I hope Dan is up for a visit.

Starting a brewery - Maybe !!!!!!!!!!!!!

After being laid off from my work, my husband and I had our first REAL conversation about starting a brewery. We may actually do it - OMG that would be incredible. We are starting with just the business plan for now, meeting with other small brewery owners, and talking to potential investors (ie – my parents) to see if this could be a reality for us.

I plan to blog about my experience (good and bad) to let out some steam and share my experience.

To all my fan, please keep reading and passing the blog along.

SBG

Motreal Dieu Du Ciel, Brewtopia, & Methusaleh of beer!

I am swamped with real work stuff, so I have to keep this brief. But I wanted to blog about some of the fabulous beers I had on my vacation. I had no access (my choice) to the internet for almost my entire trip.
So I mentioned that we brewed all the beer for our friends wedding, and here are the cute names, and the beers we drank;
Grow Alt Together (my favorite name), BrideAle Maple Wheat, Wedding Saison, The Bride Wore Wit, Bride & Groom Bier de Guarde – all pretty self explanatory. We finished 6 out of the 10 kegs (soda size not regular) plus a methusaleh of a Belgium Triple. I would explain what that is, but it is way cooler to check out how large that is on your own.
After our trip to Vermont came Montreal where we visited Dieu Du Ciel and had some Peche Mortel and Hébergement. What is so amazing about this brewery is that they keep all 18 of their beers on tap all the time. That is something that is very rare and awesome.
We also visited (for the first time) Brutopia. We have been to Montréal a number of times and never made it there. In a wine filled city, this was such a wonderful haven for beer lovers.
On our way out of the country we of course had to take some beers with us, only about a case, and came across a really interesting fact. Chouffe outsources! What I mean by that is we grabbed a couple of Chouffe beers because of the different labels and upon further investigation (actually reading the label) we saw that it was brewed in Canada. Can’t wait to try!!!!!
Will let you know as we drink the rest our thoughts on the new (to us) beers.

Why did I Chouffety Chouffe Myself on Friday?

I’ve been Chouffed.

Well Friday night was a whopper. I won’t say where I went, as I do not want to get anyone in trouble – but wow – did I have fun on Friday. Saturday NOT so much.

It started off good. I had a Duvel Green (yes that is right) a mistake made by someone resulted in a rare find. Usually you can only get Duvel in bottle not on tap. I love Duvel Green and it is low in alcohol so why it should not be available all the time is beyond me.

Anyway off my rant and back to the blog. So I had a Duvel Green with my dinner French Onion soup and Seaweed Salad (so not the right meal for a heavy night of drinking). Mid way through the meal I ordered an Ommegang Rouge and made my non-beer geek friends try it. That was a hoot. If you don’t recall much about that beer it is a Flemish Sour – so it takes like drinking a sweet tart.

At the end of the meal I went for a Houblon Chouffe. I love the Houblon, it tastes so smooth you forget about the 9% part of the drink. I love the Chouffe. I have a cat named Chouffe, I spent my honeymoon in Achouffe - you would think that I would remember the alcohol % - BUT NO.

After our dinner companions went home (they have little ones) my single girl friends happened to be at the bar – and encouraged me to say for a while. So I shooed the hubby away and sat with the girls – and proceeded to drink 2-3 more Chouffes.

I will end my blog by saying because I Chouffed myself on Friday I Chouffed my entire Saturday. But most of all I would like to say I am sorry and owe my best friend a big apology – for wasting her Saturday.

Brewing our Oktoberfest beer today!

I’m not sure if it is the Hallertau hops or the decoction mash that has gotten to my head, but I am going to blog about brewing our Oktoberfest beer. If you are an avid reader of SBG you may recall that I recently fussed about Lakefront Brewery having their Oktoberfest on too early. Well since we are just brewing ours now, we are going to have ours way too late. But since we are not a brewery of any sort, just home brewers brewing up a small batch for a party in September I think it will all be OK. Still, I can’t believe my audacity.

DPA & Chouffe in a Chouffe hat!

Tuesday was one of the first hot summer nights in Massachusetts. Yes I know I know it is August and this should be common place, but not this summer. In celebration we had a little impromptu party.

The moment I got home, my hubby came to greet me with a kiss and an open Dale’s Pale Ale. I couldn’t say no. OK maybe I could have said no, but I was not going to. Who can say no to Dale?

Dale’s Pale Ale by Oskar Blues – the best canned beer in the US and #1 for hikers. OK I don’t really know if it is #1 with hikers, that is just a guess and really a suggestion. When we hike and we want beer that is #1 on our list.

Tonight on the menu is Houblon Chouffe in a Chouffe hat. For those of you who don’t know what a Chouffe is, it means gnome in Flemish (one of the 2 main languages of Belgium). When we went to the brewery we got 10 hats and love to wear them when drinking the beer. FYI they have a very cute web site.

I just hear that my favorite bar in Amesbury - The Ale House – which is part of the Barking Dog family – has the Chouffe on tap. So I am going to bring the very nice, but gruff looking manager a gnome hat – and make him wear it. Ever see a man with a fu-man-chu wearing a gnome hat? Me neither. Should be a hoot.

Milwaukee - Lakefront Brewery - Ye-haw!

First let me say that I went on this trip to Milwaukee to visit my best friend from college who is 7 months pregnant. I figured we would skip most of the beer stuff and opt for a quieter visit. Boy was I wrong. My friend (who I always though) was a rock star! Although she did not participate in the beer drinking she didn’t let that stop her from encouraging us to enjoy the local brews. So I did.

So let’s get to the stuff you are interested in – BEER.
Lakefront brewery – The “environmental” tour is perfect for everyone (beer lovers and non-beer lovers) because the tour was a hoot. It is lead by one of the owners and he is such a typical brewer. A little off skew but really nice.

He talked about the things he is doing to recycle and make the brewery as eco-friendly as possibly. That in itself is cool.

He was also very casual about the fact that they won first place in the big Los Angeles Barley Wine contest. Now if you are not as much as a beer geek as me, this may not seem like that big of deal. HOWEVER if you are a beer geek you realize that the most acclaimed Barley Wines in the US are from California breweries called Anchor Steam and Sierra Nevada To win that huge contest on home turf it big – yet the owner was casual about it.

Typically on brewery tours they talk about how brewing is in their family history – and to be like the larger breweries he talked about how his grandfather drove the Schlitz street sweeper and delivery truck (but his delivery on that story had us all laughing).

When you buy you ticket for the tour, you get 4 beer tokens, and they encourage you to use them. They are also generous about the pours and about sampling. In fact, about half way through the tour he took us on a pit stop to refill our beers – HOW cool is that!
The bartender at the main bar is nice, but not knowledgeable. He did not find it strange that they had their Oktoberfest on tap already. And when I asked him what kind of Wheat beer they had he said he was not sure what kind of wheat they used. LOL.

I don’t want to over blog, so I will conclude by saying a few last things about my trip to this beer city.
Hofbrauhaus – free beer every Friday at 6:00 – Ye-haw.
Bell’s Two Hearted – It really is as good as they say.
Last but not least – I can’t wait to head back to this city.

Milwaukee breweries here I come

I feel bad that it has taken me so long to blog. Especially since I have had so many wonderful beers in the past few weeks.

Instead of recapping what I did drink, I will blog about what I hope to drink this weekend in Milwaukee WI.
First I would like to try and have a nice fresh Bell’s 2 heart. Second, I hope to have some Sprecker South African banana beer. For the life of me I can’t recall what the name of it is, but I can recall the fabulous flavors. Third I hope to have some Lake Front Brewery beer. I have never had a single drop by this brewery. Last, but not least, I would like to have a Leinenkugel. Yes I do know it is owned by Miller, but when it is fresh it is fantastic.

I will have no Schlitz, however I will be staying in the old Schlitz brewery.

List of beers I drank this weekend.

So I realized that I have not blogged in a while, and I am really sorry to my 2 fans. As I was about to do a write up about my 4th of July holiday weekend, I decided to let you guys decide how my weekend went. Below is a list of all the beers I tried/drank over the weekend.
Ommegang – Hennepin
Foret Farmhouse Ale
Fin Du Mont - Ephemere
Caracol - Saxo
Rogue Dead Guy Ale
Red Hook- Triple – Limited release
Weihenstephaner
Dogfish Head - Red & White
Dogfish Head – 60 Minute IPA
Long Trail – Belgian White
Long Trail – Blackberry Wheat
Long Trail – Ale
Samuel Adams - Summer
Samuel Adams – Blackberry Witbier
Samuel Adams - Lite
Samuel Adams – Pale Ale
Carona (we had it there)
Allagash – Triple
Allagash – White
Allagash – Black
Allagash – Curieux
Allagash – Four Ale
Southern Tier – Imperial Choklat Stout
Castle Brewery – Kasteel Rouge
Blend the last 2 together and you get a cherry tootsie pop!

So whether you are a pessimist (thinking hang over) or an optimist (that is me) I am sure you will have to agree that the drink choices were great.

SBG

Ohio Rocks - Bodega Cafe - is a must see in Columbus

I had to go to Columbus on a business trip. No biggie. So I looked on Beer Advocate for a nice place to go and grab a few local brews. Boy was I in for a surprise.

Less than 20 minutes from my hotel (in Short-North as the locals call it) was a bar called Bodega Café – with 50 (yes that is fifty) beers on tap, and 3 fridges full of bottles – ALL at Happy Hour prices. We don’t have Happy Hour in MA, so that in itself would have made it a great place for me.

But if that was not enough, they served half pints. So often when I travel I face the issue of which beer to choose when I am driving. I have a steadfast rule max 2 when driving. With the half pint option I was able to try 4 different local brews!

Bodega also serves food. The menu was decent – quite a nice selection for a vegetarian. Although I am not a veggie, I eat veggie most of the time.

The folks in the bar were friendly. I met another female beer geek and we chatted for hours about brews we liked, brews we did not like, and even a little bit about wine. The crowd was mixed. There was my fellow beer geek, as well as people who like to go there because it is trendy. I kid you not, one guy ordered like this - verbatim - “you know, the beer with the dog with a hat on it”? (Seadog Blueberry). I could not resist teasing him and his girlfriend about it. He was surprised and awed that I knew which beer he was talking about. I said that I was from the North East and it was very common.

The staff was eah.

The only unfortunate thing about the visit is that I forgot what I drank. I do recall sampling Great Lakes, and 2 other local brews, but as per the variety I could not tell you.

All in all I would have to give Bodega Café a double thumbs up and an A rating.

Gulu Gulu Cafe - a European Oasis in Salem MA

As I seemed to let another weekend escape from me with out blogging (to be honest I have been helping a friend that is out of work build a resume and get ready to enter the corporate world) so I decided to blog on my lunch break.

This past weekend we went to the Gulu Gulu Café in Salem MA. It is like a European oasis close to home. They offer a solid beer and cheese selection and let you sit and enjoy as long as you like. No rush to move on or move out. It was fantastic. Their menu consisted of simple wraps, salads, and sandwiches, but with the added twits of crepes. YUMMY. Their beer selection made it real easy to pair your food with just the right drink. I personally went for a classic Delirium Tremens but don’t let that fool you their selection is stellar.

If you want to sit, drinks, eat some great cheese and enjoy the company of your friends I totally recommend you give this place a shot.

Brewing a Triple on a Saturday AM

As a wedding gift to our friends Z&D, we offered to brew all the beer for their wedding. So far this brewing project has been a blast. After many discussions (beer/food pairing) we decided on the following; Farmhouse Ale, Saison, Alt, and a Maple Wheat. These should pair nicely with their locally grown, organic, farmhouse meal.

As a little surprise, we will also be giving them a 6 liter bottle of our own recipe Belgium Triple. We are going to cork and label it just for them so they can pop this ridiculously huge bottle. Please see the picture to grasp the size of this bottle.

Funny fact: While cleaning this bottle I happened to notice that although there is probably $10 worth of glass in this bottle there is only a 10 cent deposit 5 in most states. It is really funny.

We will be adding a bit of Coriander to this brew, and it will be our first time using this spice. Many of the greatest Belgium beers like Rochefort and Triple Karmilit use this spice, so we should give it a try.

If nothing else this has already proven to be a fun Saturday AM project.

Ommegang Rouge on tap

It seems like I am always saying sorry for the delay. I guess I just have to live with the fact that although I may be religious about drinking good brews, my blogging could use some help.

With that said I went to the Ale House in Amesbury the other day where they had Ommegang Rouge on tap – which received a rating of A- on Beer Advocate. I have to say that I totally concur with the rating. To me it was a shining example of true traditional Flemish sour ale. So good.

After the Rouge I went for something lighter, the new Victory Sunrise Hefeweizen. It was a great summer beer. I am only an average Victory beer enthusiast, I like their Prima Pills, but not many others. I am glad to be able to add another to my list.

I did have a funny thing happen to me the other day. Some Joe at the liquor store tried to out beer me. I was polite and only said that I could hold my own in a conversation and that was about it. FYI – I could have totally have thrown down on him, but I did not.

If this blog does nothing else I hope it lets people know that girls do and can love beer – for some of us it is even our passion.

Ephemere after work

OK, so I have owed my reader (oh yes just have 1)a new blog update. So here it is. Tuesday we had a Cinco de Mayo office party and I brought in some homebrew Pale Ale for the office. Over all a success.
But more importantly right now we are Ephemere and Chimay Blu(ing) it up. It is so nice to sit on the porch and drink some good beers. Got to love the weekend.
SBG

A Rarity at The Barking Dog - Kentucky Breakfast Stout

Last night The Barking Dog in my town we had KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) by Founders. It may not sound like much, but wow it is good. It had a smell and consistency of a think European coffee. If you like a strong brew this is a good beer for you.

Our local pub also acquired 2 new varieties of Dieu Du Cie - One of those the Peche Mortel is on my top 5 favorite beer list.

I also partook in St. Bernardus Apt 12, and received a lot of unjustified grief over that choice. I was told it was a good beer, “but so common”. I would just like to say that just because a beer is common does not make it bad. It is a fantastic beer, and a great pairing for our cheese plate and seaweed salad dinner.

Luv The Pub - want to go there

So I pushed my sales reps really hard this month. In appreciation I wanted to take them out to lunch. Since I am in HQ in Boston, and they are in our Columbus OH office, it was not possible for me to be physically there. So I said “expense it”. You would not believe what they did. They went to a pub Luv The Pub that has TAPS IN THE TABLE. They know how much I love a good brew, and they knew how jealous I would be and they had to rub it in when they got back from lunch.

This place looks really cool. I can’t speak to the actual beer selection as I did not find it (to be honest I didn’t look that hard), but the concept seems cool.

Check it out.

Catamount and Guinness 250 - Fun In The Sun (with beer of course)

So yesterday in the first true great summer day we had a little brewing party. It was a blast. We made a nice farmhouse ale and enjoyed 8 hours in the sun. If you have ever read anything about brewing you will know that the first rule of brewing is “Relax, have a home brew”. So in keeping up with the traditions of beer brewing, we drank. And drank, and drank.

First we drank a home brew (we had a nice bock & saison on tap).

Next we had a combination of Star Island Single by Smuttynose (http://www.smuttynose.com/beers/full_time_beers/star_island_single.html) . This is labeled a Session ale brewed with spices. The beer was OK, but I don’t agree with their categorization. I would say it is a simple summer ale. Nice on a hot day, but not something I would probably buy again.

Third we enjoyed some more home brews.

Fourth came the recent Irish immigrant – the Guinness 250 (http://www2.guinness.com/en-IE/Pages/250.aspx?me=ctdw3c55r12xa0i5neq3wf55) . This beer was released in the US only 1 week ago in celebration of Guinness’s 250^th anniversary. I really liked it. It was not crazy spectacular, but it was good.

Fifth round we went for something more stiff. Great Divide’s (http://www.greatdivide.com) Espresso Oak Age Yeti. It is a keeper. Strong and powerful and definitely a sipper. It would pare nicely with a desert.

Sixth round we went back to homebrew. Yummy.

Seventh round we went for another special. It was the Double IPA from the LongTrail Brew master Series. (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/94/48780 ).

The eighth was really water first, and than more homebrew.

Ninth we had a Harpoon 100 Barrel Series – Catamount Maple Wheat. I know, I know. Because I am right there with you. Maple in a beer. But it was goooooooood. I realize I had a few brews in me, but I thought it was subtle but spectacular. We unintentionally did save the best for last. (http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/index.cfm?cdid=124616&pid=28516)

Totally forgot to mention Black Albert and It's Alive

Last night we had this funky beer (I mean literally funky, as it was a Flemish sour ale or possibly just a sour ale) called It's Alive. The beer was OK, but the name rocked. I would totally order it again, not for the beer but for the wine.

AND....... just remembered that she learned a little trivia - the Black Albert brewed by the Struisse Brewery of Belgium references her favorite Maine (the entire state) bar. Ebenezer's Kezker Pub in Lovell Maine. I totally remember our friend Chris (the owner) telling us about it but totally blanked (or Blacked - sorry could not stop the pun from coming out) on it. It was so cool to see. Chris is such a great guy and his bar rocks, if anyone ever reads this blog if they take anything away from it - please take the suggestion to visit the pub.

www.ebenezerpub.com

Belgium Beer Bar Novare Rez SUCKS - Beers good – staff sucks – bad cask!!!!

So lat night I went to Novare Res in Portland Maine. Their beer selection is ridiculous, they have hundreds of beers to choose from which is awesome. What is not so awesome is how difficult it is to actually get one of those beers. Our waitress who was not nice or bright was so annoyingly absent from the main seating section. If you were able to track her down and put your order in with her, well she didn't always bring you your beers. She forgot on 2-3 separate occasions to bring us our beers and was not really surprised when she did forget. Kind of like the character Lisa Kudrow played on the 90's sitcom Mad About You.

Another puzzling thing about my night last night was that this Belgium beer bar doesn't carry Chouffe. also one of their cask conditioned beers was bad. Our waitress showed her lack of beer knowledge (and I understand that not everyone needs to be a beer geek like me, but don't work in a crazy beer bar and act like you know so much about beer when you don't) when she was overly rude when we had to send back the beer. She said that is how it should be served. We know what cask beer is like, we travel the world for cask beer, we go hunting for cask beer, and let me tell you, that beer was flat. Anyone that knows anything about cask will agree that beer you server like that needs to be drank in a very short period of time. That is why we don't have as much of it here in the US. Cask sitting around for weeks (as their 40 was last PM) is not always good.

Dogfish Head Red and White - A drink for beer and wine folks to enjoy

Well I may not be as regimented as I originally hoped at blogging, but I do think it is always worth the wait. This Saturday I tried Dogfish Head’s Red and White. And boy was it delicious. OMG. When it was being described I thought, oh no it is a barley wine, but it is nothing of the sort. Red & White is made with Pinto Noir juice (so it has a smooth aftertaste) and aged in oak barrels. So the ingredients and process are skewed towards wine, but it is still a beer. FANTASTIC. I would recommend it to everyone – beer and wine drinkers alike.

http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occassional-rarities/red-white.htm

Passover is hard on beer lovers

This Passover has been unusually hard on this beer girl. Typically the time flies by and Passover is over before I know it. This year, not so much. As I sit on my couch on this cold and rainy day and we try and figure out what to do, I have to keep shooting down ideas because I can't drink any beer. I don't want to waste my $ or my time if I can only observe. So sad. BeerAdvocate has become a tease today. So what is a girl to do? IDK – anyone got any ideas? Let me know or I will end up wasting this entire Saturday.

New concept - sober blogging – NERAX deserves it!!!

Sorry again to my fan base (now possibly at 3??) for the latency of my blogging.

This past weekend I went to a NERAX the New England Real Ale Exhibition festival. For those of you not familiar with it, it is basically a cask-conditioned ale fair. Cask- conditioned ail is served flat and warm (on purpose), and can be considered by North Americans an acquired taste. For beer geeks, it allows us to taste the true flavor of the beer.

The NEREX fest in Somerville MA is one of the largest in the US, but it is still not that big. It is a total beer geek fest. The first time I attended one of these the Fullers ESB was so good, that I almost immediately scheduled a trip to England – just for beer. We decided to make vacation out of it and visit Hungary, but the #1 reason we went was beer. This was not the first, nor the last time a good beer has ignited a trip.

We attended the last day of the fair, so the beer selection was a bit limited. That is to be expected at this event. They still had a solid 30ish British and Americans on tap, so all was well.

My favorite for the night – the classic – Old Speckled Hen. Yum.

I doubled my fan base

So, tonight as I was hanging out in the work conference employee lounge I heard that there was another beer blogger at my company. My immediate thought is that I had to meet him. So I did. Although I found out he is not so much a beer blogger, as he is a beer lover. We were able to chat beer for a while. Although he could not name me his favorite IPA/Pale Ale (which I can totally understand as I put him on the spot) I though he/Kris was great. He did name his current favorite, Guinness on tap in Ireland.

His buddy (a customer of his) was a “hoot and a holler”, and has the BEST geographically located work place ever. He is within viewing distance of New Belgium, O’Dells, Budweiser, and Coors (I believe that is the 4th one). How great is that. If that was not enough, he goes to every major sporting event you can think of – but in the front row. It is so cool.
Anyway we had a great PM of drinking Yazoo. Their Pale Ale rocks. You can really taste the Cascade hops in the beer. Yum.

G2G and sleep a bit.

Yowza for Yazoo - Sly Rye Porter

I only have 5 minutes, but I wanted to blog quickly about the Yazoo Rye Porter I had last night. It was the first time I have had that combo of rye and porter. It was great. I want to try it at home! Good job Yazoo. Alhtough I have never heard of it before I would recomend it to everyone.
SBG

Finz Sucks - Portsmouth Rocks

OK, so I have not blogged in a week. Sorry. Quick recap. I had a quite week until Friday. Friday I went to a place called Finz in Salem MA. Yuck. Bad service, bad food, and bad beer. The beer selection was quite lame, but worst of all they had a waitstaff that knew nothing about beer. Finz had on tap the Harpoon St. Patrick’s day special beer ( I believe it is called Celtic) and I was told by the waitress that it was like an IPA. It was a red! That is not even the worst part about it. When I traded my crappy holiday red in for the standard Harpoon IPA you could tell that they NEVER CLEAN THEIR LINES. Ug. I realize that I am a beer snob, but hey if you are reading this, it is the name of my blog.

Thankfully on Saturday we went to Portsmouth NH. We started off at The Portsmouth Brewery, which I am only so-so about, but they had this amazing Flemish red. It was a terrific beer. I don’t think I would wait hours in line for this one like many people do for the Kate the Great beer (noted on Beer Advocate to be one of the world’s top 5 beers), but definitely worth a trip. We had a few other types all decent.

Next it was off to Fat Belly’s for a nice Red Hook ESB & Long Hammer IPA. Since we were only a mere 5 miles from the brewery itself, the beer was wonderfully fresh.
Third stop of the night was over to an Italian restaurant, where the staff was fantastic. We had great beers (can’t recall which ones, but I do recall a good selection), great food, great scotches, and threw dollar bills on the ceiling. I would go back Rosa’s in a minute.
Last stop of the night was…. Well I can’t recall the name, but I can recall that we had more Red Hook.

So all in all it was a good weekend. This week I am gearing up to taste some southern beers as I am off to Nashville TN on Friday. Not sure what I am going to fine, but it will be fun to try.

What to do?

As a sales manager it is my duty (in this case pleasure) to take the sales representatives who come to the office out to dinner. The rep in town this week happens to be a beer experimentalist – meaning she is willing to try new beers. Although really a wine enthusiast she is happy to willing to taste beers I recommend. It is great. However she is also a foodie. So deciding where to take her this evening is not going to be easy. Do I take her somewhere to try new beers, to somewhere where we can get a good meal, or somewhere close to the office? The answer to this is IDK. I am working on it now. Originally I had thought about going to The Publik House in Brookline (but that is too far) next I was thinking heading to Allston to Sunset Bar & Grill (but a local rep said that that was too far), next I was thinking about going somewhere close to my house (as it is also close to work), but none of those seem right. IDK what to do. Suggestions anyone?

Stone Ruination - Blackberry Mead - Aged Beers

The other night I went out and had a Stone Ruination IPA & Stone Levitation Ale Contrary to the names they is not that scary. Like most Stone beers ( www.stonebrew.com) the flavors were strong but not obscene. I have found that aging Stone beers only improves the taste.
I realize that there are some people out there that do not believe in aging a beer, but let me tell you from personal experience that aging a beer can make it better.
About 3+ years ago my husband and I made a blackberry mead. It was fantastic after the normal gestation period (roughly 1 year), however year 2 and 3 have only made it so much better. The only complaint I have about that mead is that we are running out.

So my blog note for today. Aged beer can been great.

Beer Haus' of Munich - HofbreauHaus, Weisses, Augstiner, and Pauliner

I am sorry to my fan (possibly fans if I can get JP to look on his own) that is has been so long since I have blogged. The only excuse I have is that I was working – in GERMANY. I wish I could say it was the beer that distracted me, however it was the work. L Thankfully at ALL our evening events we were supplied with FranzisKaner beer. It was fresh on top.

I was able to slip in a little play time. My only free PM in Munich was Tuesday and I was able to make it to 4 brew houses. The is order is favorite to least favorite.
HofbreauHaus - if you go to Munich you have to go there. It was my quintessential vision of a brew house. It is huge, expanding 4-5 rooms, long wooden tables and benches, mass (large – what we refer to as liter) and klien (small- what we refer to as 16oz beers) – but of course they assume you want the liter, oompa band on stage, wait staff in traditional lederhosen and dirndls. It is awesome. The beer itself was good. Nothing personally wild and crazy for me, but good. I know it is cheesy touristy, but I loved it.
Weisses Brew Haus - (home of the Aventis & Schneider Weiss beers)– on the other hand was a less touristy and more typical Munich brew houses. The food was authentic, and the beer was great.
Augustiner Brew Haus – Another tradition brew house with good beer, but more tourists. We headed to one (as they have many locations) that was a little further out of the center, but it was still loaded with tourists. What I loved about the Augustiner Haus was that they held true to the table sharing tradition. If you were not aware, it is traditional that if there are open seats at your table, if someone wants to join you, they ask and you permit them to sit with you. Conversation usually ensues. In our case we did not speak German, so no conversation was had with the folks that joined us at our table.
Pauliner Brew Haus – This location (again they had multiple locations) was the last destination for the PM, we had had a few beers in us already which could have possibly clouded our judgment, but to me felt more upscale than necessary. Smaller rounder and square tables with table cloths and candles. Good beer, atmosphere just ok.
So in conclusion I would have to say that although it is known as a tourist trap, the Hoffbrauhaus ROCKS and is a must see in Munich.

Final words about Prague

As I am running out of time, because I have to hit the Autobahn to Munich, I wanted to give my final assessment, beer wise of course of Prague. Let me start by saying the city is amazing and I had a blast. The beers I did try were very good, nothing I would call amazing or add to my top 10 list, although Budvar dark may receive an alternate position, all in all I would have to say is good country, and good beer. However if you are looking for variety, Prague is not your country. What they do offer they do well, but the offering is small. From this beer lovers point of view definitely go, but don’t go for the beers.

Medvidku maker of Oldgott - awesome bar in Czech Republic

As promised I wanted to tell my readers about the Czech Republic. We arrived yesterday to Munich and immediately drove to Prague. A very short simple trip. We were greeted by friendly people and great beer. For those of you who don’t know, the Czech’s created the original Budweiser – which we have enjoyed many times in the US. This time we had it on tap. We went to a place called Medvidku – an awesome micro brewery – that looks small from the outside, however when you went it there were 3-5 beer hall rooms, plus a brewery on the 2nd floor – that was in use. The smell of fresh hops and grains lingered in the air (only on the 2nd floor) because of the no smoking laws – that it, there are NO smoking laws so you can smoke wherever. We also enjoyed a fresh homebrew called Oldgott which had a great rich flavor. We did not try the X33 – one of the worlds most potent beers – that we are brining home to try with our friends.

Well off I go again to drink more beers.

Keep reading and I will keep posting.
SBG

It is about time for a new post

I have been asked many times what is my favorite bar. Domestically I would have to say hands down, it is a little place in Lovell Maine called Ebenezer’s Pub Check them out - http://ebenezerspub.net

The beer selection is amazing. There is stuff there that you simply can not get in any other New England state. How the owner does it, I don’t know, and I don’t care. It is one of the few places I can walk into and ask the owner Chris, or his wife Jenny to pick something out for me. They know beer and they know me. We typically take 3-5 minutes deciding, but just about every time I am extremely happy with the selection. They will hold 1-2 beers that are hard to find and they think we would like. The owner is also one of the most colorful characters I have ever met in my life. He loves beer more than I, and more than anyone else I know, and that true passion shines through. Of course you have to take everything he says with a grain of salt.

Last night I was given a Kiren Light instead of a Kiren, and I have to say not bad. Not as good as the Bar Harbor Real Ale by Atlantic Brewing Company (Bar Harbor ME) that I had when I got home, but not bad.

Let me know some good beers you have tried.
SBG

Nugget Nectar

I wanted to mention how much good the Nugget Nectar beer by Troegs is awesome. It has a ranking of A on Beer Advocate. I have to agree. If you can get it, try it.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/694/15881

Traveling outside the US for Work - and beer!

OK, so I know the economy sucks, but you still need to vacation right? Well my company is sending me to Munich Germany for a conference. So what is a girl to do? Here is what I am going to do - invite her husband to go with her and head to the Czech Republic prior to the conference.
Due to the limited funds and the limited time the question now becomes…….
Do we stop by Pilsner (the original home of the most sacred of styles) or the Czechvar brewery? For those of you who don’t know Czechvar (which is called Budvar in all other countries) was originally called Budviser. Sound familiar? Well us patent laws made them (even though they were around for many many years before Budweiser)change their name to Czechvar. However they could not make them change the beer – it is one of the best Pilsners in the world.
So you see our dilemma? Oh wait there is no big dilemma, rather just a choice that has to be made. Either way I will be partaking in some of the world’s best beers.

The Barking Dog, Purple Haze by Abita

So this weekend I went to my favorite local joint, The Barking Dog and was served by one of my favorite bartenders Jeff. Jeff is a sweet young (compared to me) guy who always is right on the money for beer suggestions. So you would imagine my surprise when he was cut early from his shift and sat down to have some dinner and a drink or so. Low and behold what was he drinking, Bud Light. This is the same man who came up with the McConehey. A mixture of Purple Haze and some kind of Porter– a masterpiece!!!!

I read this article that talks about some fancy chef who is adding 24 taps at his restaurant. The guy who wrote the article obviously doesn't know much about beer. "He said But his flagship restaurant hasn't totally flipped from grand cru to brew". This guy didn't even know there is a style of beer called Grand Cru.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01282009/entertainment/food/brew_love_152395.htm

What I had last night

Hello World,
To be honest, I had not one single beer last PM. I was too busy with that whole darn work thing. However this PM I am hoping to go to my favorite bar The Barking Dog in Amesbury MA. It is my local pub. The beer selection is good, not fantastic, but they do switch it up quite a bit so sometimes it is better than other times. However the service, esp the managers and bar tenders are awesome. We have even created a few custom drinks, The Blue Otto and the McConehey - both are amazing creations. For the recipe please send me a note - you won't be sorry.
B

Beer and Food Pairing

Hello World,
Well I wanted to blog during the weekend, but I was too hung over. In efforts to educate others on beer my hubby and I had a few people over for a dinner party. This was no ordinary dinner party, but rather a beer and food paring party.
To start off we had

Appetizers -
Food: chips, veggies, & potato skins – We parried this off (as it was also the beginning of the evening) with;
Saison Dupont , Triple Karmeliet , and Black Sheep Ale. Also on tap (on our home made keg-o-rator) for those that did not care for the Belgium Style was Smuttynose IPA.

Inter Mezzo (between dinner and apps) – we had Long Trail IPA, Geary’s Pale Ale, Nora beer (Italian – who knew they made beer)I don't agree with the Beer Advocate rating on this beer, Belgium Dark Homebrew, and more SmuttyNose http://www.smuttynose.com/.

Dinner –
Food – Italian Chicken, Meatloaf muffins, Falafel, Lentil salad, green salad, rice pilaf, veggie medley and fresh baked bread – paired up with
Ephemere, Chimay Blue, De Dolle, Quintime Ambre, Regenboog (cask editions), alogn with all the above mentioned under the Inter Mezzo.

Desert –
Chocolate Mousse- paired up with
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Holiday Porter (vanilla and cinnamon – one of our most popular homebrews)

The Chicken and Ephemere was the best pairing of the night. 2nd to Holiday Porter and Chocolate Mousse.

If you have had any great combinations please let me know.

Normally I am not the type to put a wedding picture up....

However if you look close you will see we are surrounded by HOPS! Oh that is right I got married under a tussle of Cacase and Nugget hops.

Beer Gardens

The other night I went to a place called Brighton Beer Garden. It is a relatively new addition to the Brighton beer scene. As a beer fanatic I am always excited to try a new place.
However, when I entered this bar I knew something was wrong. The layout was individual tables (not long connecting), there were TVs all over the place, and every staff member was wearing some kind of Boston sports jersey.
I walk towards the bar that was loaded with bottles of hard alcohol, and asked the bar tender if they had cask. He responded with “what”? I thought maybe I spoke too quietly and said “cast conditioned”. Immediately he said “No”. All of a sudden it hit me, this was not a Beer Garden. This was a Beah Ghaden! As in Boston Garden!!!!
Although the beer menu appeared to be large I believe it had more to do with font than # of items, but phonetics did get the best of me. I was able to find Stone Cat IPA, so the evening was not lost.

Women do like (and in my case love) beer.

Hello World,
I wanted to start a blog to let people out there know that many women, including myself do love beer. I have traveled the world for beer. I want to try and spread the word to entice more people to try different styles of beer before they cast it aside.

Beer Girl