Archive for July 28th, 2009

• @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…