Archive for July 27th, 2009

• @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

Sometimes you just need to get away.

It had been years since we had gotten away from work and the house (foamyindustries is located on the upper floor of our Catskill compound) and the stress was building. We needed to take some time off – get away for a couple of days – and leave work behind. De-stress in a major way.

Enter The Yankee Brew News…

We pick up The Yankee Brew News whenever we find it in our local brew pubs. We enjoy the read and have spent more than a few drinking session thinking: “We should strike out and follow one of their beer maps.”

So the weekend of July 24th that’s exactly what we did.

We decided to head for the closest area (the I-91 corridor in Massachusetts) in order to minimize travel time. We based the trip planning solely on the Brew News map, a bit of road trip whim and whatever came our way. I would say the success rate was about 60%, but what was great was REALLY great.

So, over the next few days I’m going to attempt to put all the notes and tasting and experiences together in a series of articles. A few opening statistics:

Number of touring hours: 52
Number of different beers sampled: 37
Number of breweries visited: 6
Number of breweries open: 3
Number of craft ice cream shops visited: 2
Number of incredible ice cream experiences: 2
Number of cocktails drank: 2
Number of kielbasa omlets ate: 1

Up next: I thank Brennan’s Pub for slightly rescuing a bad start in Holyoke.

My favorite alehouse in New York City – Blind Tiger Alehouse – is having another event that makes me regret ever leaving NYC in the first place. (Not that the OAB HQ in the mountains isn’t pleasant and all…)

Two Brothers @ Blind Tiger
Date: July 29, 2009
Time: 4pm
Location: Blind Tiger, 281 Bleecker St., NY, NY

Two Brothers Outlaw IPA
Two Brothers Oh Brother Triple
Two Brothers Northwind Russian Imperial Stout
Two Brothers Domaine DuPage Biere de Garde
Two Brothers Bitter End Pale Ale
Two Brothers Ebel’s Weiss Beer
Two Brothers Prairie Path Belgian Pale Ale
Two Brothers Heavy Handed IPA
Two Brothers Dog Days Lager
Two Brothers Cane And Ebel Rye Beer
Two Brothers Bare Tree 2008 (Wheat Wine)
Two Brothers Red Eye Coffee Porter
Two Brothers White Rye Ale
Two Brothers Flemish Ale
Two Brothers Philospher’s Stone Saison
Two Brothers Hop Juice Imperial IPA
Two Brothers Cane And Ebel (Gravity Keg)
Two Brothers Oak Aged Imp Stout NW (Gravity Keg)

(If anyone happens to go to this, please drop back by Oh…a beer and leave a review in the comments.)