Archive for July, 2009

• Redhook IPA while waiting for a pizza @ T-Bar in Roxbury,NY. Nice hoppy session IPA. Not too challenging but a great barstool IPA. #

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• Southern Tier Jah-va. Lovely coffee stout. A coffee lovers stout. Big bold & thick. Spice Girls "Wannabe" on iPod but that another story. #
• @SUjunkie most def. My first 21stA IPA. Hoping I can find more in NY. in reply to SUjunkie #
• @21stAmendment IPA on the deck. Brilliant hoppy summer beer. One of the best IPAs I've had this year. Love the can design. #

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Brewery: Berkshire Brewing Co.
Location: South Deerfield, MA
Style: Coffee porter

This is the second Berkshire we brought back on the Western Mass. Beer Run Road Trip. As Berkshire recommends refrigerating all of the ales, we decided to drink these first as they were taking up space in the fridge. I only wish we had bought more than a bottle.

I tend to prefer porters in the winter. I think they are a perfect lighter alternative to a big stout when sitting by the fireplace. I rarely ever consider a porter in the summer – though I often find them in sampler packs. If one thing can be said about Berkshire Brewing Coffeehouse Porter it is this: it’s a great summer porter. It’s not too thick or heavy but still packs a big dark ale flavor. I had this with steaks on the deck and it was a perfect match.

It pours a deep brown with a light brown creamy head. The head falls a bit too quickly for my tastes, but that’s nothing major really. The scent is thoroughly malt with a subtle coffee undertone. It’s not the big blast many coffee porters usually have. More like Berkshire is using a medium roast coffee than the typical dark roast or espresso. This is a fairly light bodied poret (as porters go). There a good malt flavor balanced nicely with the coffee. No bitterness but also none of the sweet cloyness some porters can have. Actually quite a refreshing porter for a summer evening. At 6.2% ABV it is not exactly a butt-kicker, but if drinking a bomber alone I suggest caution. It does sneak up on you a bit.

A bit about the coffee used. Turns out it is an extract (well I guess Berkshire can’t be cold brewing hundreds of gallons of actual coffee) made by New Salem, MA roasters Dean’s Beans. As coincidence would have it, I picked up some of Dean’s Beans Ahab’s Revenge on the same day we attempted to visit Berkshire Brewing. Dean’s Beans makes some excellent coffee and it shows in the extract they made for this porter. One of the few times I’ve felt an extract actually worked in a beer.

In our haste to escape Holyoke, we apparently headed east when we wanted to go west. Worse still – we were perhaps a half hour from Northampton via expressway, but we wanted to “experience” of traveling the country roads. Wrong direction and – admittedly beautiful – winding country roads added up to about three hours of wasted time. Time that should’ve been spent drinking and eating in Northampton.

Ah well…such are the pitfalls of spontaneous road tripping. (Of course, once we found a gas station with a map we sorted things out quickly. Yes – we should have gotten the map earlier…)

ANYWAY…finally pulled into Northampton, MA around 5pm. Found ourselves a Comfort Inn down the road in Hadley, cleaned up a bit and struck out for an evening on the town. First stop: Northampton Brewery. I am a fan of brewpubs. Always love the vibe and the crowd generally tends to be friendly. we always find ourselves striking up conversations with complete strangers. Thankfully – after the way our trip had started and getting lost – Northampton Brewery continued the tradition of friendly brewpubs.

While on the scenic route to Northampton from Holyoke via Ware (yes – those of you familiar will see our error), we had read about a burger place called Local Burger that did all local beef. So, we decided not to eat at Northampton Brewery and instead just go for a few beer flights. As luck would have it, there are exactly enough beers on the menu for two flights without duplication.

That’s my flight on the left; Mrs. Ohabeer’s on the right. I really hate taking photos in bars and restaurants – seriously don;t know how food bloggas do it – so these would bascially be the only flights we photographed all weekend. Turns out, I’d rather be drinking the beer than photographing it.

I also do not take massively detailed review notes. I’m there to be social, experience the pub and have (hopefully) some great craft beer. Hence the infrequent feature on OAB: Random Beers In Various Bars. I pretty much decided early on to use the Random Beers method for reviewing the many many road trip samplers.

NORTHAMPTON BREWERY FLIGHT
Four 6oz. glasses – personally that’s more than needed for a flight, but good when sharing.
Uncommon Ale
Northampton Pale Ale
Sand Shovel ESB
Imperial Stout
Nonotuck IPA
Weizenheimer
Weizen Berry
Wild Blue Funk

Uncommon Ale: Nice gold ale. Some what sweet. Wantsto be a honey amber but really does not make it. Doesn’t go big enough.

Northampton Pale Ale: Dark gold. Nice hop to malt balance. Solid bite on the back of the tongue. A crisp pale ale.

Sand Shovel ESB: It’s a nice reddish brown color with a malty hoppy scent. Not as bitter as I would like it to be. Just sort of there…until it warms a bit. Then it opens up nicely. Still not that bitter but gets a bit more caramely.

Imperial Stout: Mmmmm – big coffee raisin roasted malt goodness. Not incredibly thick but very delicious. This was the evening’s winner.

Nonotuck IPA: Definitely better than the Northampton Pale Ale. A bit of spiciness and a solid hop flavor. To this IPA’s credit, even hop-hating Mrs. Ohabeer was digging it.

Weizenheimer: This is an ok wheat. Fairly light with a bit of citrus in the aroma. Clearer than most wheats I like. Definitely an American wheat. Nice and clean.

Weizen Berry: The bartender confirms our suspicions: the berry here is extract. That makes this much like drinking a craft wheat downwind from an artificial flavor factory (to paraphrase Stephen Colbert). Not pleasant at all…

Wild Blue Funk: We got the final glass out of the keg and it showed. This had turned and turned badly. We ended up swapping it out for an Allagash (one of the guest beers not brewed in-house).

Allagash White: this is an OAB fave. A great yeasty wheaty white with a subtle spice.

After finishing the flights, we discovered they replaced the spent Wild Blue Funk with Maggie’s Wee Heavy Scottish Ale. As I usually cannot avoid a Scottish Ale, I decided to get a 12oz. glass to finish the night at Northamptom before heading to dinner.

Maggie’s Wee Heavy Scottish Ale: Beautiful dark brown ale. Big big malt with a ton of caramel. The big malt gets balanced with a slight hops edge in the after taste. This one made me quite buzzy, and yet I still had to sample one more thing…

Berkshire Mountain Distillers Ragged Mountain Rum:While aving the Wee Heavy, we asked the bartender if they carried any local spirits. She showed us a bottle of Berkshire Mountain Distillers Rum and we asked of a side neat. This is a beautiful rum. Light brown with a slightly oak scent. No alcohol harshness at all. Just a nice warm sweetness. We ended up bringing a botle back with us.

ROAD TRIP TOTALS
Beers Sampled: 13
Rum drank: 1
Towns visited: 3
Breweries visited: 2
Breweries open: 1

Next up: We slight sway out of the brewery and head out for local beer, a bar in a tunnel and the best.ice cream.evah.

Brewery: Berkshire Brewing Co.
Location: South Deerfield, MA
Style: Hefeweizen

On the label for Berkshire Brewing Hefeweizen Ale it states:

“Locally produced. Keep refrigerated.”

We were asked by the folks at Ryan and Casey Liquors if we had a way to keep the Berkshire brews cold on our trip as they arrive in refrigerated trucks. Luckily we had a cooler.

I have to say, I’ve never seen a beer specifically state it should be kept in the fridge. I somewhat understand – heat hurts beer – especially good beer. The “Keep refrigerated” label – however – was something new to me. If it makes the beer taste this good – though – I certainly am not going to one to question.

This is a lovely pale yellow slightly cloud beer with solid carbonation and a nice foamy head. There is a great yeasty wheat scent as you pour. That yeastiness carries over into the flavor balancing nicely with the wheat to give a fruity banana spice. There a touch of citrus in the aftertaste. A medium light body beer with 4.5% ABV, this is about as good a summer hefeweizen as you can get.

I now understand “Keep refrigerated”.

• @timomcd road trip to western mass. Ryan & Casey Liquors in Greenfield, MA. A 6 of wheat & a 6 of the 21A IPA came back to OAB HQ. in reply to timomcd #
• Had my 1st watermelon wheat tonite. Quite brilliant. @humphryslocombe: 21A Watermelon Wheat Beer Ice Cream sounds amazing. #
• Opa Opa Light with dinner. An actual GREAT craft low cal lager. Go figure! Nice mild hop light body beer. #
• Steaks Rolled In Hay not a massive success but a start. Need to get the hay to smoke then flame. A question of moisture balance. #grilling #
• @dubreddevil truly. Prefer the torpedo to the PA but easier to find the PA in my area. in reply to dubreddevil #
• @ab_iron most def. Without a doubt my fave big hop session beer. in reply to ab_iron #
• In the glass: Berkshire Brewing Coffeehouse Porter. Nice creamy porter w/ subtle coffee. Steaks Rolled In Hay heading for the grill. #

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Brennan’s Pub
173 High St
Holyoke, MA 01040

We decided to essentially start at the bottom of I-91 on the Yankee Brew News beer map. That meant Holyoke, MA. Specifically, we were headed for Paper City Brewing. Unfortunately – due to the spontaneous nature of this road trip – we did not do proper research into when the brewery would be open or even really where it was in town. (Well – we did have a street address.) Our journey took us into the High Street area of Holyoke. My mother always said if you do not have something nice to say – say nothing at all.

“Ahem…Nothing at all.”

Look – I know many urban breweries are pioneers. They spring up in industrial areas and often lead to a renaissance. I pray Paper City does this for Holyoke because there are some serious dodgy areas in route to the brewery – and I used to live in downtown Detroit. Sadly, we could not determine if the brewery was actually open – we arrived around noon – so we decided to bail and try to find a bit of food and drink.

Once again…“Nothing at all.” I mean REALLY?!?! Aren’t there a couple of colleges around this town? I know the economy has hit everyone hard, but DAMN! This was not a great start to our road trip.

Then – after turning back on to High St. to head for our car and get the hell out of Holyoke – we spotted Brennan’s Pub. While I found the Bud logos next to the clovers on an Irish pub sign a bit off-putting, I was encouraged by the Sierra Nevada and Guinness neon. At this point, we were more than hungry, thirsty and frazzled so we gave it a shot.

We are certainly glad we did. This is one of those great local Irish pubs where the folks are friendly, the pints are proper and the walls are filled with a variety of photos, beer mirrors, neon and ephemera. The menu is of the solid pub grub/sandwiches variety. The televisons were playing an array of sports and CNN coverage. We decided we couldn’t possibly do better from what we had seen of Holyoke.

We settled in and ordered opur first beer of the trip: Berkshire Brewing Steel Rail. It’s a clean crisp extra pale ale with a nice slightly barley malt edge and good hoppiness. Running 5.3% ABV, it’s a great bar session beer and went well with our lunch. Brennan’s served it in 14 oz. pints very cold. We would discover through the course of the road trip almost every bar had Steel Rail on tap. It became the fall back if look for a simple light bodied beer.

As for the food, I had a Mexsteak sandwich. Essentially a kicked up cheesesteak with big fresh jalapenos and a nicely spicy chipotle sauce. Mrs. Ohabeer had some sort of wrap with a ton of sour cream, but I was enjoying the Mexsteak too much to care about her lunch. Oh yes – and the lunch with curly fries only cost $5. Gotta love a good pub grub bargain!

We decided to have a second round after lunch choosing to try the two Wachusett beers they had in bottles. The Wachusett Blueberry Ale was a simple pale ale with a subtle blueberry scent but not much in the way of blueberry flavor. Mrs. Ohabeer thought is was ok, but not really all that impressive. We also got a bottle of the Wachusett Green Monsta Ale. This is a nice big pale ale with a bunch of hops. As is usually the case, Mres. Ohabeer thought it too hoppy. I thought it was quite nice. Not really a hop bomb, but definitely hoppier than your usual pale. A nice flowery scent with a good malt balance. I could easily see this as a favorite session if available anywhere near me.

While at Brennan’s, we discovered Paper City does a Friday evening open house/tasting starting at 6pm. Unfortunately it was only 2pm and really we could not take hanging out in Holyoke for another 4 hours. So with the Wachusetts finished, we paid the bill – thanked the bartender – and headed out for far greener and hopefully more fruitful pastures.

We now know if heading into Holyoke on a Friday, get there around 3pm. Head over to Brennan’s for a bit of afternoon snack and beer. Then drive – do not walk – over to Paper City for their Friday night open house.

Beers Sampled: 3
Towns visited: 1
Breweries visited: 1
Breweries open: 0

Up next: We’re off to Northampton as soon as we point the car in the right direction.

Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Location: Chico, CA
Style: Extra IPA

I’m a bit late getting around to this one even though I picked it up (and drank it all) months ago. When I heard on teh internets that Sierra Nevada was coming out with a hop bomb, I was definitely intrigued. I’m a Sierra fan though I’ve always felt their pale ale was – well – pale. So, when I ran into Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA I grabbed a six.

Checking out, the clerk at the beer store asked if I had tried it before. I said no, but I was looking forward to it. He had a less than stellar review – calling it WAY too hoppy and very very dry. Didn’t exactly hate it – but said he would not recommend it.

Well, I WILL recommend it.

Yes – it is a big hoppy beer. It uses something called a “hop torpedo” that dry hops the beer in a new way. (Or at least that what the press release states.) This results is a big hop aroma and flavor. No surprise – Mrs. Ohabeer is not a fan and lets me have the sixes of this all to myself. That’s just fine with me.

This pours a clear copper amber color with a medium head. Right away you’re hit with the hop aroma. Big flowery scent with a slight fruit undertone. The taste is extremely dry – like desert arid. Big hop whollop up front rolls out into a slight maltiness. Definitely a hop bomb. The hops definitely tug at the palette keeping whatever sweetness there might be in check. that’s not to say there isn’t a balance here. This is not like some extreme “sucking on a hops cone with a bit of water” beer. The hops play between a flowery/grassy taste and a semi-citrus bitter all the while raiding on a nice subtle sweetness.

Medium bodied with 7.2% ABV, it’s definitely not a session beer. Still, I find a couple after work on the deck during spring/summer just the thing to ease out of the day. I was quite pleased to find the bywater bistro in Rosendale, NY had it on the menu during a recent visit. Always nice to see a big hoppy beer on a restaurant menu.

Need to remember to grab some more for the cellar next time I see it…

• @timomcd picked up a coffee porter in addition to the hefe. Need to get back to MA to get more. in reply to timomcd #
• Grass fed beef burgers w/cinnamon basil & mushroom on grill. Berkshire Brewing Hefeweizen to drink. The hefe was amazing. Yeasty goodness. #
• Also: Gambrinus' Mug Recipe Exchange: http://brewery.org/gambmug/ #
• The Cat's Meow Home Brew Recipe database: http://brewery.org/brewery/cm3/CatsMeow3.html #
• Sports Bars that serve #craftbeer – try advertsing that. $1.50 Coors Lite: I'm not coming in. Flying Dog&Berkshire Brewing on tap? Oh yes! #
• Planning a Barrington area trip so we skipped that this time. Stuck mostly to the I-91 corridor. Several reports coming to ohabeer.com #
• @techcommdood Stopped by Berkshire Brewing: only 1 tour @ 1pm Sat. & we were there @ 11am. Possibly next time. Brought some BBC back in reply to techcommdood #
• Back to work after West. Mass. weekend. Faves: People's Pint (Greenfield) Amherst Brewing (Amherst) Sierra Grille, Tunnel Bar (Northampton) #

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I’m calling this the “Western Mass. Edition” due to a weekend OAB roadtrip to the I-91 corridor of Massachusetts. We decided we needed to get out of town for the weekend and decided to use the beer map in Yankee Brew News as our guide. There are many upcoming articles about the trip, but I decided to kick things off with a beerventory update that is now decidedly Massachusetts heavy.

As we were staying in the Northampton area, we THOUGHT we would do the beer run at Spirit Haus in Amherst on our way out. No such luck. We’ve see great reviews for this place, but the selection on a Sunday morning pretty much sucked. Perhaps we missed something other than the weak selection of bombers and 6/12 packs on the floor near the register. Perhaps it had been a heavy Saturday night – though to me most of the shelves looked stocked.

Thankfully, we had gone to Greenfield, MA on Saturday and looked around in Ryan and Casey Liquors. So after the Spirit Haus disappointment, we hit the highway, headed up to Greenfield and stocked up before heading back to OAB HQ. Looking forward to the coming weeks and drinking these. (Also looking forward to another beer run to Massachusetts.

Bombers
Berkshire Brewing Hefeweizen Ale
Berkshire Brewing Coffeehouse Porter
People’s Pint Pied pIPA
People’s Pint shWheat Ale
People’s Pint Natural Blonde
High & Mighty Two-Headed Beast Chocolate Stout
High & Mighty St. Hubbins Abbey
High & Mighty Purity Of Essence Lager
High & Mighty Beer of the Gods
Pretty Things Baby Tree Quad with Dried Plums
Pretty Things St. Botoisph’s Town Rustic Dark Ale
McNeill’s Ruby Ale
Southern Tier Mokah Stout
Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Amber Ale
Arcadia Ales Cocoa Loco
Arcadia Ales Cereal Killer
Southern Tier Jah-Va Imperial Coffee Stout
Ommegang Biere de Mars
Flying Dog Wild Dog Weizenbock

40 oz.
People’s Pint Tap & Die Malt Liquor

12 Pack
Opa Opa Sampler featuring Opa Opa Light, Red Rock Amber Ale and Opa Opa IPA

6 packs : cans
21st Amendment Brew Free! or Die IPA
21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon Wheat

6 packs : bottle
Saranac Summer Brew