Drinking in DC

DC Beer Week

2009-08-10T15:13:00.003-04:00

DCist has a great round up of the DC Beer Week events here.

I actually don't think we're going to attend any of these events... shocking, I know.

We thought about attending Granville Moore's event, but $75pp seems a bit pricey.

I will definitely not be going to the Black Squirrel since last time we went there, the beer selection wasn't great AND my food had a piece of plastic in it. When I pointed it out to the bartender, he didn't seem to care. Gross. I wanted to like the place, because, at the time, I lived in Adams Morgan. Don't plan to go back...

The other events seem ok, however, we have better beers at home, so we'll likely be drinking them instead. I'd love to see DC Beer Week happen again, with better events, and at more places!

In my ideal Beer Week world, there would be an event at the Brickskeller (Say what you want about the Brick, their events with breweries and Bob Tupper are overwhelmingly great), a dinner at Pizza Paradiso, and some sort of event at Rustico- preferably with beer director, Greg, speaking. Speaking of Rustico- the new menu additions are great. And they still have the duck confit pizza. Mmmm. I'm looking forward to some great new things from the new chef!

Thanks, City Paper!

2009-07-30T12:23:00.003-04:00

Shout out to the City Paper for this awesome deal they're offering.

What does this have to do with drinking in DC?

Because Dino is BYO wine (with free corkage on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). Not to mention GREAT food. This is a great opportunity for us to open up a couple bottles of great Napa wine from our wine clubs!

Commonwealth is a "British" Pub. We haven't been there yet, but this is a great reason to go.

We live in a great city.

To make this actual drinking related... we drank Lost Abbey's Bourbon Barrel Aged Angel's Share last night. It was fan-freaking-tastic. Who cares that it isn't carbonated much? It is still an amazing beer. Though Ben and I both like Cuvee de Tomme better...

Belgian Independence Day!

2009-07-24T12:44:00.004-04:00

Since I'm gainfully employed again, I have less time to blog. I'm trying my best!

On Tuesday, Ben and I headed to Brasserie Beck to celebrate Belgian Independence Day. For $75, you could drink as many beers and eat as much food (buffet provided) as you wanted.

We were able to have:
St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition
St. Feuillien Saison
Fantome Printemps
Lindemans Cuvee Rene
Antigoon
Troubadour Obscura Stout
Trappiste Rochefort 10
Chimay Grand Reserve
De Glazen Tore Cuvee Angelique
Corsendonk Agnus Dei
Saison Voisin
Hanssens Oud Gueuze
Blanche de Bruxelles
Malheur 10
Floreffe Tripel
Gouden Carolus Grand Cru of the Emperor (2000 Vintage)

Our favorite was definitely the Gouden Carolus, which we made sure to have several tastes of... to make sure it was still good, of course! Apparently this beer retails for about $60 a bottle, so it was great to be able to try it in this circumstance. We recognized a few other "beer geeks" at the event, but overall the crowd didn't seem to be familiar with beer. There were lots of people drinking Hoegaarden, and there's nothing wrong with that, I love a good Hoegaarden every now and then, but you could tell they were not so much a beer crowd. Everyone seemed happy and pleasant, so it had a good vibe. Plus, the plus side of a lack-of-knowledge-about-beer crowd is we never had to wait in line- even for the Gouden Carolus.

Foodwise, there was roast pork loin, green beans, potato gratin (my favorite), bbq pork sandwiches, little sausages and rolls, potato salad and ribs. There were also a few bowls of frites around, but we couldn't figure out how to get any. The dessert table held about 3 different kinds of tarts- my favorite was the lemon. Overall the food was good- the pork loin was hard to eat since there were very few tables, and the silverware was plastic.

Which brings me to the "not so great" parts of the evening.

#1 Poorly organized. When we arrived, we were given bracelets, with no indication of what to do next. For some reason, the hostess decided to tell the people who arrived a few minutes after us what to do, so we followed their lead. It would have been helpful for her to tell us, instead of just having us stand their awkwardly in the entrance.

#2 Not very helpful staff. I would like to preface this by saying that overall the men and women wearing blue (servers) were much more helpful than the men wearing suits (the exception being the beer guru, Thor who was gracious and helpful). We asked a man in a suit why the bartender wouldn't give us any Cuvee Rene. He went to find out... and never came back. Speaking of the bartenders in the front bar, if you had a bracelet, they pretty much waited on everyone else before you. I'm glad we paid $75 each to wait 10 minutes while you served everyone else.

#3 Not enough tables/chairs. My feet started to hurt after we'd been there for an hour and a half or so. There were no chairs to be found. We happened to be standing next to a door which led to the chair room. One of the aforementioned not very helpful "men in suits" walked by, and we asked if we could have a couple chairs. He said they were "working on it." Dude, just give us some chairs and we'll find a space out of the way. Luckily someone eventually stood up and we stole their chairs.

#4 Lack of frites. I'm sorry but frites are way cheaper to serve than roast loin of pork. Why did I have to ask for frites (and then they were not given to me)? Why wasn't there a large pile of frites somewhere for us to just grab? I feel like this is just common sense.

Overall, the beer was good, the food was good, but last year's Belgian Independence Day (half price on all draft beers) was superior.

Sorry for the hiatus

2009-07-10T13:33:00.006-04:00

Ben and I went on a nearly three week vacation, filled with lots of good food, good fun and of course good beer. I didn't take notes on the beers themselves, but I twittered a bunch about the breweries/beer in Asheville (Pisgah was the best!). You can check out my twitter here. Asheville is definitely THE beer destination on the east coast. It is also a beautiful part of the country (we swam in a waterfall!).

Another beer highlight was the beer tasting we did at the Brick Store Pub with Beer Advocate Lance. We got to taste the best beer ever again. The Brick Store Pub is a fantastic beer destination if you're in the Atlanta (Decatur) area. The staff are friendly and engaging and they always have great beer on tap. If I lived in Atlanta, I'd be there at least once a week.

We also hit up Sweetwater's brewery tour, and came home with a case of Donkey Punch Barleywine. I think it is called "DP" on the label...

Sweetwater was our savior in Alabama as well- in the beer section there was Bud, Miller, Coors and... Sweetwater! When we ran out of good beer we'd brought with us, we loaded up on their Blue and 420. Awesome.

A great trip, all around!

We're continuing the Lack of Responsibility Tour '09 with a trip to Connecticut on Monday. Next Saturday, we'll be attending Captain Lawrence's Cuvee de Castleton release in P-ville, NY. I'll try to post more next week.

Cheers!

Happy hour

2009-06-15T16:01:00.008-04:00

It would be an understatement to say we have a lot of beer in our condo. There's beer in the regular fridge, beer in the beer fridge, beer in the closet, beer in the living room... you get the idea.

Since Ben is extremely generous, he had the idea that we should have happy hour with a group of his friends/coworkers and do a little beer tasting. Luckily, one of them offered to host it (our place is under construction) if Ben provided the beer. We thought it would be fun to introduce them to good beers!

This is also exciting to me because I can see the top shelf of our fridge again, since the beer was cleaned out.

We started off the tasting with Abita Strawberry Harvest. I think this is a great summer beer. It definitely has a strawberry flavor, but it isn't cloying or fake tasting.

Second beer of the night was Kona Wailua Wheat. This is a really interesting beer- it tastes of passion fruit. Also a great summer beer.

Third was the 21st Amendment Watermelon Wheat. I abhor this beer... Ben loves it. I don't get it. I skipped it that night :)

Fourth was Founders Cerise (I promise, we drank more than just fruity beers- we got to the higher gravity stuff later on). I am glad we get Founders in the DC area now. They have some great offerings- one of which is this beer.

Fifth was Dogfish Head Aprihop. I'm also a fan of the Aprihop- it definitely marks the start of spring for me. Another good, solid beer.

Sixth was Laguintas Little Sumpin Sumpin. I already talked about this beer the other day, and it was great again. It smells of peaches and is a great hoppy wheat beer. One of my favorite Lagunitas beers.

Seventh was Founders Centennial Ale. This is one of Founders' IPAs, which is a great drinkable IPA.

Beer number eight was the Duck Rabbit Porter. I think you might know by now that I love Duck Rabbit. It is probably my favorite brewery! I love seeing it on the shelves around here! No more driving to NC to get it.

Nine was Southern Tier's Iniquity. Iniquity is a really interesting beer since it is a black IPA. There aren't a lot of those around! The only other one that comes to mind is Stone's Sublimely Self Righteous. I'm a big fan.

Ten was Duke Rabbit Milk Stout. I made sure to announce to the room that this was "MY FAVORITE BEER." It is true. Whenever I just want a beer and don't want to think about it, this is my go-to. I need to get me a Duck-Rabbit shirt!

Eleven was Avery Brabant. I think Brabant is a good introduction to the world of sour beers, if you aren't ready for them. We didn't do a good job of selling this beer to the newbies in the room- telling them to look for a funky smell of horse blanket or feet. Apparently wine drinkers are a lot more likely to enjoy sour beers than non-wine drinkers. If you're trying to get your non-beer-liking friends to enjoy beer, try a sour one!

Twelve was Arcadia Cereal Killer. I think for me, this was the least favorite beer we had that night (remember, I didn't actually drink that foul watermelon beer). I was sort of disappointed because I think the name is great. It wasn't bad, but I also have nothing to say about it because it wasn't that interesting.

Thirteen was Founders Double Trouble. I actually like Double Trouble more than the Centennial IPA- I would choose this if I had to.

Fourteen was Moylan's Hopsickle. Ben made sure to tell everyone that this was the hoppiest beer he'd ever had- and those who were brave enough to try it definitely agreed. It is extremely hoppy. However, it is pleasant enough (provided you like hops to begin with).

Fifteen was Duck Rabbit Rabid Duck. Rabid Duck is one of their seasonal offerings, a Russial Imperial Stout. As with the other Duck Rabbits, it is awesome. By the way, Duck Rabbit is not lying when they say they're "the dark beer specialist."

Sixteen was Stone's Double Bastard. I love Double Bastard. We're lucky we have a bunch of it left over from November, as we can continue to drink it throughout the year (and beyond, perhaps). I think I took actual tasting notes during the Stone beer dinner, so check out that post if you're interested in the details.

Seventeen (and last) was the Goose Island Bourbon County Stout. This is one of the best Bourbon infused stouts that I've had. It is absolutely fantastic, and it was a great way to end the beers for the evening.

Also of note at this great happy hour... we were lucky to try an armangnac from 1962. I can't even describe how amazing it was. Suffice to say, it was absolutely ridiculously good.

We're hoping to have more of these "educational" happy hours in the future- hopefully our friends will turn into beer geeks too!

Hops, barley and yeast (oh my)

2009-06-11T15:26:00.002-04:00

The other night, we drank a Ninkasi Tricerahops Double IPA. It smells like pine and citrus, and is hoppy but balanced. It tastes of pine, grass, citrus and earth. I would rank it a 4.

We also took a little trip to Stafford VA so I could meet with my grad school advisor, and we followed that up with a trip to the Fredericksburg Capital Ale House (they have a few locations throughout VA). There, we had a nice lunch along with Sierra Nevada IDEA and Rodenbach Grand Cru. Both were great, but I didn't take notes on them.

That night, we also had a Lost Abbey Brother Levonian.
It smells like spices- ginger and cloves- and peaches. It tastes like cloves and oranges. I would rank it a 4.

Sorry Ben, I keep forgetting to ask you what you rank things :)

Weekend Beers

2009-06-08T16:41:00.003-04:00

I'm not good at this whole "take notes while you're drinking at home" thing yet... so, unfortunately I don't have notes on Cascade Cuvee du Jongleur (AWESOME), Troeg's Nugget Nectar (still hoppy despite being in the fridge for a few months- it held up well), Lagunitas A Little Sumpin Sumpin (really good!), and 21st Amendment's Hell or High Watermelon (I think this beer is horrible, Ben loves it). We also used a Duck Rabbit Milk Stout to cook some pork, and I drank the leftover for breakfast on Sunday. Breakfast of champions.

However, I do have a few notes on:
Russian River's Damnation Batch 23 (46)
It is aged on oak chips and 10.75% (compared to regular Damnation which is about 8%). It smells like a hefeweizen, and bubblegum. Tastes like licorice, bubblegum, slightly oaky, tropical fruits and banana. It is definitely a step up from regular Damnation, and hopefully we'll be able to get more sometime! We both ranked this a 4.

Hair of the Dog's Fred from the Wood 2008
It smells oaky, probably because it is aged in new American oak barrels. In our experience, American oak always flavors the beer more than French oak. It tastes like wood and chewing on oak ("in a good way"), smoke, tobacco, tropical fruits, candy sugar, and dark rum. It is sweet but not cloying. We forgot to rank this, but I'm going to go ahead and rank it a 5. Ben can rank it in the comments if he wants :)

DC Beer Week- Stone Tasting

2009-06-05T15:22:00.003-04:00

This is the last event for DC beer week. It was on Monday- Bob Tupper was the host and Greg Koch of Stone was the guest. Last year, Greg was part of the Lupulin Reunulin, but he had his own tasting this year. We tasted 9 beers at this event. I'm pretty glad we had Sunday off in order to recover from SAVOR/the rest of beer week. I'm not sure I would have been up for drinking 9 beers if all of the events had been in a row!

Levitation: smells slightly of pine and tasted of hops, but not a huge presence. It had a dry finish. It is a pleasant enough, drinkable beer, but I wouldn't drink it all the time. It is 4.4% abv, so it is a good "session" beer. We both ranked this a 3.

Vertical Epic 2007: smells of ginger, clove and rosemary and tastes of ginger, Belgian sugar and citrus. It aged really nicely! This was probably my favorite beer of the night. It is 8.4% abv. We both ranked this a 5.

Vertical Epic 2006: the aroma of dark fruit was barely there, and it tasted of chocolate, coffee, licorice and wheat. It was sweet. It is 8.4% abv. We both ranked this a 5.

Arrogant Bastard: smells of pinetrees and tastes piney. It is 7.2% abv. I don't have a lot to say about Arrogant Bastard because I've had it so many times. It is a great beer. We both ranked this a 4.

Oaked Arrogant Bastard: smells of pineapple and hops, tasted like piney hops. It is the same beer as Arrogant Bastard, except they brewed it with oak chips. It was interesting to taste them next to each other- there is a big difference. Also 7.2% abv. We both ranked this a 4.

Ruination: smells of pine, tastes of pine, resin and grapefruit. At some point a not-so-beer-geek asked why it was called "Ruination." Really? She couldn't tell it ruins palates? We both ranked this a 4.

Red Wine Barrel Aged Old Guardian 2008: smells of grapes, alcohol and candy and tastes like alcohol, fruit, raisins and butterscotch. It is 11.4% abv. We were lucky to have this on tap at Max's in Baltimore a few weeks ago- it is a great barrel aged barleywine! We both ranked it a 5.

Imperial Russian Stout: smells of smoke and roastiness, tastes like chocolate, roasted malt. Really smooth. It is 10.8% abv. Ben ranked this a 5 and I ranked it a 4.

Double Bastard 2006: smells of candy corn, tastes complex- sugar, pineapple, butter, vanilla, plum, gummy bears, cherry and peaches. Ben ranked this a 5 and I ranked it a 6. I love this beer!

While I'm sad DC Beer Week is over, my liver is pretty glad. Sadly there probably won't be another beer event for awhile, but I do plan to regale the blogosphere with reviews of the beers we drink at home.

DC Beer Week- SAVOR

2009-06-04T14:40:00.004-04:00

SAVOR is the reason for all of the previous events. It is a once-a-year festival of craft beer and food pairings put on by the Brewers Association and various supporters (Dogfish Head is one of the main supporters).

This year, it was held in the National Building Museum, and there was only one session. Last year, there were three sessions which were held in a different venue (I can't remember off the top of my head what it is called but it is in downtown DC).

There were 68 breweries in attendance, and I didn't bring paper/pen to take notes. So, I'll list off the beers we tried. The ones we really liked get a +.

Allagash Curieux +
Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA +
Blue Point Brewing Co. Rastafar Rye
Boscos Ghost River Hefeweizen
Boscos Ghost River Golden
Boulevard Brewing Co. Boulevard Saison +
Breckenridge Brewery 471 IPA +
Breckenridge Brewery Extra ESB
Brooklyn Brewery Local 2 +
Brown's Brewing Company Oatmeal Stout
Brown's Brewing Company ESB
The Bruery Saison Rue + (and they're coming to DC soon!!)
The Bruery Trade Wind Tripel +
Captain Lawrence Xtra Gold American Tripel
Captain Lawrence Captain's Reserve Imperial IPA +
Clipper City Loose Cannon IPA
Firestone Walker DBA (Double Barrel Ale)
Florida Beer Company Hurricane Reef Pale Ale
Florida Beer Company Key West Southernmost Wheat
Foothills Hoppyum IPA
Foothills Sexual Chocolate
Full Sail Brewing Company Session Premium Lager +
Full Sail Pale Ale
Great Lakes Brewing Company Burning River
Great Lakes Brewing Company Dortmunder Gold
Harpoon Leviathan Imperial IPA +
Heiner Brau Kolsch +
Heiner Brau Maerzen +
The Lost Abbey Angel's Share (Brandy) +
The Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme +
Moon River Brewing Co. Wild Wacky Wit
Moon River Rosemary Swamp Fox IPA +
New Belgium Brewing Company Biere de Mars +
New Holland Brewing Co. Dragon's Milk Oak Aged Ale
New Holland Golden Cap Saison
Rock Art Brewery The Vermonster +
Rock Art Brewery Belvidere +
Russian River Pliny the Elder +
Russian River Consecration +
The Saint Louis Brewery Schlafly Oak Aged Barleywine +
The Saint Louis Brewery Schlafly Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout +
Shmaltz Brewing Co. Lenny's RIPA +
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Brown Saison +
Ska Brewing Co. True Blonde Ale
Ska Brewing co. Steel Toe Stout Milk Stout
Sprecher Brewing Company Black Bavarian +
Stevens Point Brewery Nude Beach Summer Wheat
Stevens Point Brewery Point Amber Classic
Stone Brewing Co. Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale +
Two Brothers Brewing Company Cane & Abel Red Rye Ale +
Two Brothers Brewing Company Domaine Dupage French Style Country Ale +
Uinta Brewing Co. Barleywine

We couldn't believe that Foothills HAD NO LINE the entire night. We got Sexual Chocolate 4 times. The Foothills representatives were awesome- so nice and pleasant, and they gave me a pint glass!

Russian River and The Lost Abbey had long lines all night... but my "hometown" brewery (ok not so much hometown, but they're pretty close to my parents' house and I adore them) Captain Lawrence ran out of beer before them. I heard Captain Lawrence getting rave reviews, which made me very happy.

Moon River's Rosemary Swamp Fox IPA was the biggest surprise of the night. It was fantastic, and I'd never heard of that brewery before. Another reason I need to check out Savannah sometime.

On the "could be better" hand... the food. They could have paired a different food to each beer.

Also the personal touch that SAVOR had last year (no lines for any of the beers, you could talk to the brewers for a long time, less of the "we're just here to get drunk" crowd) was lost this year. There was almost always someone behind us, so we couldn't take the time to talk to brewers about their beer. I hope SAVOR doesn't turn into just another beer fest with anonymous folks pouring the beers. Part of what makes SAVOR great is the opportunity to talk to the men and women behind the beers.

Overall, we had a great time. We talked to our new Beer Advocate friends, met some people who are also Rustico regulars and had a nice conversation with them, and had our fill of Sexual Chocolate. Actually that last one is not true, I was we had more of that!

DC Beer Week- Lupulin Reunulin

2009-06-03T15:43:00.004-04:00

Friday we attended the gem of DC Beer Week (or one of the gems anyway): the Lupulin Reunulin at RFD. What could be better than drinking a bunch of beers and listening to a panel of brewers make fun of each other?

However, before heading to RFD, we met up with some Beer Advocates at the bar crawl Todd Alstrom organized. We had a couple beers at the DC Chop House. It was really cool to meet some other beer geeks, and hopefully we can hang out again!

Before I get into the beer reviews, I'd like to give a shout out to the random girl who was sitting next to me. This brilliant girl took a look at the RFD menu and decided she didn't want to eat bar food, despite the fact she had a beer list in front of her with FIFTEEN (and we were soon to learn, SIXTEEN) beers on it. She then proceeded to flat out chug the first 6 beers. And then, she pretty much passed out at the table. I was really irritated because I had to keep looking behind me to see if she was close to puking. Eventually, around beer 9, she got up from the table and didn't come back until the end. It was slightly amusing that her date didn't go look for her until approximately beer 14. Really not impressive, random girl.

Anyway, on to the good part of the evening! The panel was Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head, Tomme Arthur from Port Brewing/Lost Abbey, Adam Avery from Avery Brewing Co., Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River, Rob Tod from Allagash and Bill Madden from Vintage 50. The moderator was Julie Johnson. I'm sure Julie is a nice woman but she wasn't a good moderator for this event. Every time the panel members said something remotely inappropriate ("the stripper was lactating") she interrupted them and called for the next beer. I think I'd have preferred Bob Tupper because he's my favorite beer host. He, however, was off brewing Tupper's Hop Pocket, so he wasn't available.

As I mentioned, we tasted 16 beers.

Dogfish Head Festina Peche: smells sour, tasted tart, refreshing and sour. We've had this beer before and it is pleasant enough, we both rated it a 3.

Port Brewing Hot Rocks Stein Lager: smells like raisins and grass, tasted very unlike typical lagers. It tasted of raisins and was sweet, but dry. It was 6.5% abv. We both rated this a 3.

Avery Brabant: smells of sour cherries, tastes sour but sweet and also of horse blanket and wet dog (gotta love that Brett). This was 10.5% abv. We both rated this a 5. I'm glad we have a bunch of this in our fridge.

Vintage 50 Molotov Cocktail: smells of pinetrees, citrus and soap. It tastes about like it smells, and a lot like lemons. We both rated this a 3. I'm looking forward to Bill Madden opening a new brew pub in Falls Church. I think overall his beers are really interesting, and I welcome a new beer place to add into our rotation!

Allagash Confluence: smells of jolly ranchers and peaches, tasted slightly tart, barnyardish and apples. We both rated this a 5. I'm also glad to know we have a bunch of this in the fridge as well! (Yeah we pretty much have no food, only beer)

Russian River Blind Pig IPA: Vinnie showed up right before this beer was served- good timing. I've also had this beer on tap at the brewery, and it is a great IPA. It smells floral and of pine, and tastes like pinetrees. It is a wonderful west coast IPA. It iwas 6.1% abv. We both rated this a 5.

Dogfish Head Hoppy Onion: It is unclear if this is the actual name of the beer. We're pretty sure it isn't. This is a new beer that Dogfish is going to be premiering sometime in the future. Hopefully soon. It smells of ginger and Thai food. It tastes of onions, Thai ginger chicken and Indian spices. It is actually made from Indian spices, so my nose/palate are not quite fine-tuned. This was the most interesting new beer of the night (I've had Consecration, Brabant, Confluence, etc. before). I think it was a love it or hate it kind of beer because I heard a lot of people around saying they didn't like it. I loved it. Ben rated it a 5 and I rated it a 6. However, once it becomes widely available I'll probably lower that rating to a 5. I think there's a flaw in the rating system based on availability, but that's ok ;)

Lost Abbey Carnevale: We got to have Carnevale again! It smells of wet dog and tasted of citrus. Ben rated it a 5 and I rated it a 4.

Avery The Maharaja: smells of hops and pine. It tastes dry, and also of pine and strawberries. It has 10.3% abv. This is a great IPA, and we both rated it a 4.

Allagash Hugh Malone: (not Huge Melons unfortunately). Smells like a tripel. Tastes of Belgian sugar and tropical fruits. We both rated this a 4.

Vintage 50 Headknocker: I couldn't quite place the aroma of this one- it was not very pungent. This beer was served on cask, and it was sweet. I don't have any other notes about it other than we both rated it a 3. It was good, but didn't really stand out.

Port Brewing 3rd Anniversary Pale Strong Ale: smells of rye bread and tasted sweet and of rye. We both rated this a 4.

Russian River Consecration: smells sour. Tasted sour to the point of puckering, and of dark fruit. This beer is amazing. We both rated it a 6.

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron: doesn't really have an aroma. Tastes woody, smokey and chocolatey. Ben rated this a 5 and I rated it a 4. It is a good beer, and one of the go-to beers at the Dogfish brewpub.

Avery Mephistopheles Stout: smells of coffee and alcohol. Tastes like coffee, chocolate and candy. Ben rated this a 5 and I rated it a 4.

Vintage 50 Wee Heavy 2002: smells of dark fruit and sourness. Tasted of prunes, raisins and cherries. We both rated this a 4.

After all of those beers, we were sipping the last few and talking over the event with our new Beer Advocate friend. None other than the grandfather of craft brewing, Ken Grossman (of Sierra Nevada) sat down at our table just to chat about the event. How freaking cool is that? I don't know of any other industry where someone of that level would just randomly sit down at a table with three nerds and entertain their questions for a few minutes.

We introduced ourselves to Candice Alstrom who was absolutely hilarious and one of the highlights of the evening. Seriously, I haven't laughed so hard in a long time!

I love this event, and wish it was more than once a year!

DC Beer Week- Stoudt's Tasting

2009-06-02T10:45:00.004-04:00

As I mentioned earlier, we went to the Lost Abbey beer dinner on Thursday night, and instead of going home headed over to the Brickskeller. Not because we're that obsessed with beer... well, maybe a little. But the real reason is because we got the 4-pack of Brickskeller/RFD tastings in order to guarantee we got a place at the Lupulin Reunion. We probably wouldn't have gone to the Stoudt's tasting if we hadn't gotten the 4-pack, but we ended up being glad we went!

We hopped on the Dupont/Georgetown bus which was luckily pretty much outside Pizza Paradiso when we stepped outside, and ended up getting to the Brick at about 9pm. Of course we were about 2 hours late, but the staff was awesome about letting us sit in the back, and gave us all of the beers we'd missed. We weren't expecting that- we thought we'd get to try the last few beers, so hats off to the Brick for being accommodating!

We checked the tap list when we sat down and were excited to see some VERY vintage beers were available ON THAT DAY ONLY. Despite the fact that we had 5 beers each in front of us to catch up on... we ordered two beers:

Thomas Hardy's 1988. This beer was absolutely incredible. In fact, in my notes I have a quote from Ben: "Holy shit this is fucking amazing." And rarely does he express himself in swear words! It was the most complex beer we'd ever tasted- raisins, prunes, dark fruits, chocolate, caramel, coffee, molasses, vanilla and licorice were all present- and if we we're 6 beers in, I'm sure we could have tasted more! It was very port-like. We both agreed this was the best $5 we'd spent on a beer. And we ordered a second tasting of it later on. As you might expect, we rated this beer the elusive "6." We'll likely never get to taste it again, but man, it was awesome.

Vapeur d'ANTAN 1996. This was a slightly sour saison. It was also delicious, and tasting of granny smith apples and was very dry and refreshing. We both rated this a 5.

Thanks to the Brick for putting out those amazing beers.

Now, on to the Stoudt's tasting. We tasted 8 Stoudt's beers. Carol Stoudt was the guest and Bob Tupper was the host.

Stoudt's Kolsch: smells of straw and bubblegum and tasted fruity- we couldn't tell which type of fruit. We both rated this a 3.

Stoudt's Pils: smells slightly sweet and tasted like bread. We didn't think it was anything special, but it is still better than Bud. We both rated it a 2.

Stoudt's Heifer in Wheat: smells like banana and tasted like banana cloves and ginger. We both rated it a 2. The name makes me uncomfortable.

Stoudt's Gold Lager: smells of hops and tasted grassy. We thought it was very drinkable. We both rated it a 3.

Stoudt's Scarlet Lady ESB: smells of raisins, tasted of candy corn and slight hops. We thought it was too light and not very flavorful. We rated it 2.

Stoudt's American Pale: smells of grass and tastes slightly hoppy, very drinkable. We rated this a 3.

Stoudt's Double IPA: smells sweeter than just about any other IPA I've encountered, and tastes too sweet. It wasn't balanced and was cloying. Ben rated it a 3 and I rated it a 2.

Stoudt's Fat Dog Stout: smells of smoky malts and tasted much sweeter than it looked. We both rated it a 3.

Overall it was a really great evening. I wanted to like Stoudt's beers more because of the feminism factor, but I didn't feel excited about most of the beers. They were true to style, but I think I'm more interested in beers that step out of the box a bit.

DC Beer Week- Lost Abbey Dinner

2009-06-01T09:32:00.002-04:00

Thursday, we attended the Lost Abbey Beer Dinner at Pizzaria Paradiso. We absolutely love the beer dinners at Pizza Paradiso. Not only is the food top notch, but Greg the beer manager, brings in some really amazing beers. He also has been spot on with the pairings to every beer dinner we've attended (a lot!).

The Lost Abbey beer dinner was no exception. We had 6 courses, each paired with a different Lost Abbey beer. Tomme Arthur was in attendance to tell us about each beer, as well as some background on the brewery.

Because I'm obsessed with citing my sources (honor code from college and all), I want to point out that my description of each course is taken directly from the menu.

Course 1 was an artichoke spoon- a roasted artichoke with an Avant Garde Hollandaise. It was served with Avant Garde. The bite of artichoke was delicious; I love anything to do with artichokes. The beer was a cross between a Belgian pale ale and a saison. It was light, slightly sweet, herbal and grassy. It was 7% abv.

Course 2 was a gazpacho- cold tomato soup, serve with chopped cucumber, red peppers, hot cherry peppers, garlic, cilantro, parsley, topped with an orange and Devotion cream. It was served with Devotion. The gazpacho was really good, but I'm not used to gazpacho having chunks in it. I'm used to it being smooth and creamy, so since this gazpacho had pieces of vegetables in it, it took a little getting used to for me. The flavor was delicious, however, it was spicy, and really peppery (hence all of the peppers). The orange cream was a nice addition, and helped temper the spice a bit. Devotion is dry, blond and fresh tasting.

Course 3 was Carnevale Salad- warm diced potato, radish and spring onion salad served with frisee and a slice of Cambozola dressed in Carnevale vinaigrette. It was served with (surprise!) Carnevale. This was a perfect pairing. The salad reminded me of a hash because of the warm potato mixture. The cheese was similar to a blue cheese/camembert and was just the right amount of stinky. Carnevale is a saison with the yeast brettanomyces. It tasted of Belgian sugar, herbs and citrus, and of course the distinctive "slight barnyard" that accompanies most brett beers.

Course 4 was a Hell Pie- cherry peppers, beets, roasted red, yellow and orange peppers, proscuitto, goat cheese and mozzarella. It was served with Inferno. The Hell Pie was my favorite of the two pizzas- I love both beets and goat cheese, and it was really interesting to see them on a pizza together! The beer tasted of raisins, grapefruit and bread.

Course 5 was a Snake in the Grass pizza- tomato, buffalo mozzarella, roasted asparagus, roasted garlic chive blossoms. It was served with Serpent's Stout. This pizza was also great, but the Hell Pie had more interesting flavors on a pizza. The beer was roasty and sweet, but not too sweet. It tasted of chocolate, oak and vanilla. This was a great beer with pizza- I think we all agreed the easier pairing would have been to pair this stout with dessert. Pizza Paradiso doesn't take the easy way out though!

Course 6 was spring shortcakes- strawberries and rhubarb shortcakes topped with chocolate pieces, toasted almonds and vanilla whipped cream. It was served with Lost & Found. Tomme commented that he'd never thought anyone would choose to end with Lost & Found because it isn't as high alcohol as some of the other beers. We all (or at least our table agreed with Tomme) that this was a great pairing. The beer smelled fruiting and tasted of strawberries- so it was a great match to the dessert. I gave my strawberries to Ben. I did discover that I do like rhubarb now though (used to hate it). The shortcakes were good!

This was a great beer tasting. I think the only thing we wanted was more of the rarer Lost Abbey/Port Brewing beers. All of the beers on the menu were great, and you can't easily get your hands on them in the DC area. However, we were hoping for some Phunky Duck (had it at the Extreme Beer Festival in Boston and it is AMAZING), or Older Viscosity, or Cuvee de Tomme. I think we understand that those beers are not for the novice palette, and may have been hard to pair with food. It didn't stop us from wanting them though!

Stay tuned, because while you might think our Thursday night was over after 6 beers and way too much food... it wasn't. A write up of the Stoudt's beer tasting will follow...

DC Beer Week- Flying Dog Tasting

2009-05-27T12:58:00.003-04:00

A good time to resurrect a beer blog is during DC Beer Week, no?

We went to the Brickskeller for the Flying Dog tasting last night. We've been feeling like the Brick has not been up to par- however, the one exception is the tasting events. They're well-priced and they're great. The Brick Burger is acceptable (I just tell myself not to think about how the kitchen probably looks), and the beer is always available in large supply.

Last night we drank 9 beers.

Wild Goose IPA: it smelled grassy, and was a light pale ale. It was not hoppy. It is 4%abv. and the brewer said it is new to the DC area. Ben and I both rated this a 2 (on Ben's scale, a 2 is "Below Average. The beer is lacking in many ways. Although not necessarily a bad beer, there are many better beers within this style. I will never buy or order this beer again, but if given to me, I might drink it.").

Flying Dog Kerberos Tripel: it smelled like a tripel (descriptive, I know). I thought it was a good Belgian-style beer. It was sugary, and not as complex as some other Belgians/faux Belgians around. It is 9% abv. Ben and I both rated this a 3 (on the scale, a 3 is "Average to Good. This beer does a fair job of representing the style. It's not one of the standouts of the style, but there are no noticeable flaws either. If I saw this beer in a store or at a bar, I would not purchase unless I really wanted some beer and there were no better options. However, if given to me, I would definitely drink it.")

Wild Dog "Diablo Dog" Belgian Style IPA (Diablo Dog is the house name - it doesn't have an official name... yet): it smelled like grapefruit and rosemary or thyme (yeah I need to get my spices straight). It was dry, and tasted like rosemary or thyme. It was one of the best beers of the night, and possibly the best Belgian IPA I've had! It was also the world premiere of the beer outside the brewery. They made it was a fun beer, but I'm hopeful they'll decide to bottle it. I would definitely drink it again! Ben and I both rated this a 4 (Very Good to Excellent. This is a standout beer for the style, and one of my favorites within the style. There is a level of complexity not tasted in lower scores. I would keep this beer in my fridge as a go-to beer and only cellar the ones that I know would give great results. This is a beer I would buy on a regular basis.)

Wild Dog Dog Schwarz (Black Lager): smells of smoke and sausage. Tasted of smoke and roasty malts, and the smoke really stays with you after you but the beer down. It is 8% abv. We already knew we liked this beer, as we have had a bottle before, and we have another bottle in the fridge. It was great on draft. We both rated this a 4.

Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter: I couldn't think of what it smelled like. It didn't have a strong aroma. It tasted of dark malts and slight hops. It is about 7.8% abv. Overall, it is a good beer, but not that exciting. We both rated it a 3.

Flying Dog Dry Hopped Gonzo: This version smelled of pinetrees. It was much hoppier than the regular Gonzo, and in my opinion, much better as well. It was also on cask which may have contributed to its greatness. We both rated this a 4.

Flying Dog Barrel Aged Gonzo: This version smells sweeter than the last two, and smells and of vanilla and whiskey. It tasted of bourbon/whiskey (it was aged in whiskey barrels, but I swear it tasted like bourbon), and it had a nice carmelized taste. It was slightly higher alcohol than the other two Gonzos at about 8% abv. I rated this a 4 and Ben rated it a 5 (Outstanding - World Class. This beer is not only at the top of the style, but one of the best beers in the world. I would purchase this beer whenever found and cellar many of these beers.)

Flying Dog Horn Dog Barleywine: This smelled of caramel. It tasted of candy and candy corn. It also reminded me of something from my childhood, but I can't recall what it was! We thought this would be better if it was aged a few years. We both rated it a 3.

Double Dog Double Pale Ale: This both smelled and tasted of pinetrees. It was 11% abv. It was a not-bad IPA, but nothing particularly outstanding. We both rated it a 3.

Overall, this was a really good tasting. It was fun to taste the three different Gonzos side by side.

Also, Bob Malone was a great speaker and had lots of insight into the business, since he's been brewing for 16 years. He stopped by our table when the program was over, and we talked about his beers. He really seemed to want the feedback, and it was great to talk to him! I really hope they start bottling the "Diablo Dog" or whatever they end up calling it. We'll definitely be on the lookout for the Barrel Aged Gonzo when it comes out too (he thought maybe in December).

Happy accident

2008-11-22T12:13:00.004-05:00

Last year at some point, we were in a liquor store in Cleveland Park... I can't remember the name of it, but it is right by Dino. We got a bottle of Brown Shugga from Lagunitas. We never got around to drinking it when it was in my fridge, but it survived the move to Ben's. We finally opened it.

We definitely knew it would be somewhat more aged, but Ben was convinced it wouldn't age much while it was in the cold fridge. It was smooth and perfect, although neither of us wanted to drink the excess yeast at the bottom (I bet that yeast was happily propagating with all of the sugar in that beer and some probable oxidation).

I am the accidental master of aging beers.

Meanwhile, Ben jumped on the bandwagon (haha) this year, and his second closet is full of cases of beer he's aging. I'm excited to try them; aged beer is generally high alcohol and it turns into an almost port experience.

On another Brown Shugga note... at the Pizza Paradiso Lagunitas beer dinner we had creme brulee made with Brown Shugga and it was amazing. Does anyone know how to make creme brulee?

Beer chili

2008-11-03T18:08:00.003-05:00

We've decided to try cooking with beer more often. Our first foray into this was beer chili. I found this chili on All Recipes, and decided it was a good base.

We made a few changes to the basic recipe- we used one pound ground beef and one pound ground turkey. We fried up the sausage and then cut it up into bite-size pieces instead of doing whatever it is they were trying to get us to do with the sausage.

We couldn't find chili beans with a spicy sauce, so we just left those out.

I accidentally dumped out the tomato juice from the diced tomatoes, but that was also ok since we used an entire can of beer instead of the 1/2 cup the recipe called for. We used Old Chub

We just used jarred jalapenos because we couldn't find nice fresh ones in the Giant.

Other than that, we put it in the pot and let it simmer all day. We stirred it occasionally. It was really easy, especially when you have someone help you chop up all the ingredients.

It was awesome. Seriously. It was great, amazing chili. Next time, we've decided to use an imperial stout because we think it will impart more flavor. You should make this chili because it will change your life.

Another thing that will change your life: drinking this chili with Rauchbier. It is the most perfect pairing in the history of chili and beer. Try it.

An Open Letter to Dogfish Head

2008-10-27T21:44:00.003-04:00

Dear Dogfish,

I love your alehouse, that's no secret. I have your number plugged into my phone, and I regularly call to see which beers you have on tap (side note, please educate your phone answerers that when I ask for "limited release beers" this does not include your "Lawnmower Light" and "Shelter Pale Ale" and any of the other regular, year-round beers. I've been there enough times that I pretty much have your regular beer menu memorized. I want to know the interesting beers that aren't always there... hence "limited release beers" in my original inquiry. Anyway, moving on...).

We came to your beer dinner tonight and while it was enjoyable enough, I have a few critiques.

1) You served your beers at the wrong temperature. We had to hold the Theobroma and Midas Touch in our hands for a good 10 minutes before it was borderline warm enough, and even then, it could have been warmer. You're an alehouse and you only serve your own beers. Serve them the way they're meant to be.

2) What was up with the salad dressing? You gave us one tiny container to share. We asked for a second one and the server never came back. Is there a salad dressing shortage I'm not aware of?

3)Sauerbraten is sour. You served us roast beef with gravy. Personally, I like roast beef with gravy. However, I was expecting sauerbraten because, well, that's what you advertised. I was disappointed.

Seriously, Dogfish, I am one of your biggest fans. Your entire line-up of beers is solid, and we look forward to all of your new, interesting releases, as well as our old favorites- World Wide Stout, 120 min., etc. I'll still be calling once a week to see if you have great things on tap, but I would think twice about another beer dinner in the near future.

XOXO,
Heather

Road trip!

2008-08-18T19:17:00.007-04:00

Drinking in DC went on a road trip recently. I'd like to state, for the record, that the best beer I've had in quite some time was Catawba's Firewater IPA.

I wish they bottled their beers! We'll have to take another trip to Asheville, I guess.

Duck-Rabbit Porter and Milk Stout are a close second/third. Can't wait for them to come north... I hear they might be up to the DC area in the next few months. Here's hoping. We did bring back some porter with us, so I'm satisfied for a little while anyway.

We visited Foothills Brewery as well, naively hoping there would be some Sexual Chocolate to be had. Sadly (happily?) everyone loves it as much as we do, so of course we weren't able to get our hands on it. We did get to enjoy Hoppyum IPA, Rainbow Trout ESB, and Total Eclipse Stout.

Cheers to beers.

Hellooooo Blogosphere

2008-02-07T15:34:00.001-05:00

Hi Ben.