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.