Random beers

After starting out our Friday evening at the Northampton Brewery with a tasting of many beers, we (slightly) staggered out in search of some food to soak up the brews. On our scenic route side trip (read: getting lost) we came across edible Pioneer Valley a magazine focusing on locally produced food. This would be one of the guides we would use for the rest of the trip. An ad for Local Burger in Northampton made up our minds as to what dinner would be.

We are big fans of locally produced beef. Some of our best friends in the Catskills are beef farmers and there is truly nothing better than a great burger made with excellent beef. The Local Burger mission is to provide fresh, delicious, and well-priced food, while supporting the community through the use of local produce, products and services. Definitely an admirable mission. Mrs. Ohabeer went with a simple cheeseburger. I opted for the Westhampton Burger (all-natural Angus beef burger with bacon, cheddar cheese, bbq sauce, and ranch dressing). After having seen a basket on the tble next to me, I decided to get a side of onion rings as well. Unfortunately, drinks were only of the soft variety – and sadly I noticed only when leaving that we could have BYOB.

As to the burgers? Well, let me start by saying I have had very few burgers better than the ones I make at the OAB HQ. The burgers at Local Burger are good but not great. A little on the “eh” side when it came to flavor and actually a touch dry. I also felt the bacon on mine was a tad skimpy. On the other hand – see that picture on the right? The onion rings were excellent. Hot crispy oniony goodness served with a bit of spicy ketchup for dripping. I sort of wished I did not have to share with Mrs. Ohabeer. Thankfully, she left the majority for me. I do not think I would rush back to Local Burger, but at the same time if I wanted a decent burger, happened to be near Local Burger and it was open…sure why not.

Having re-fuelled with meat and deep fried onion, we struck out to find a bar recommended by the bartender at Northampton Brewery. The Tunnel Bar is located under the old Union Street Station in a rail tunnel. It is – without a doubt – one of the most gorgeous bars I’ve visited. The photo above does absolutely no justice. Low dark curved ceiling with just the right lighting accent and a beautiful dark wood bar. They are not really a beer bar – specializing more in the cocktail realm – but they do carry a fair amount of brews. When we visited, they has a Harpoon Leviathan Imperial IPA and Harpoon Summer Ale on tap. Mrs. Ohabeer went with the Summer Ale; I chose the Leviathan IPA. I had been wanting to try the Leviathan series, but at $10 a four pack, it was out of my current beer buying price range. I may have to break that range restriction. The Leviathan IPA is a big cloudy hop bomb. Great flowery hop scent and massive hop taste. Just enough malt on the back end to keep the hop in check. At 10% ABV – and after the many samples at Northampton – this IPA was starting to kick my butt a little. Definitely a big beer. The Summer Ale is a very nice simple wheat beer with a solid light body. Mrs. Ohabeer liked it more than I did.

After the beer at the Tunnel – and a mental note to return the next evening for a cocktail – we realized the day (and the beer) was starting ot catch up to us. One more stop – we said – and then back to the hotel. Mrs. Ohabeer is currently working on her ice cream making skills. As such, any chance we have to go to artisanal ice cream shops can be written off as “research”. We had read about Herrell’s on the way in and decided to end the evening with a bit of frozen goodness.

Approaching the shop, we’re struck by the fact it is 10pm and there is a line out the door. THAT’S a good sign. I was glad for thewait as there was a fair amount of flavors to choose. I decided to go with the slightly odd sounding “Burnt Sugar & Butter”; Mrs. Ohabeer went with “Cinnamon & Nutmeg”. (It should be stated one of Mrs. Ohabeer’s best ice creams is a Vietnamese cinnamon ice cream.)

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.

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.

Saturday March 7, 2009 meant a trip to Albany to check out The Watchmen. As there are no decent theatres in the general vicinity of Ohabeer HQ, we have to travel over an hour to see films (usually Albany or Kingston). For that reason, we generally only go to those films we feel are cinema worthy. It also usually means making a day of it wherever we choose to go see films.

With that in mind, we made plans after seeing the film to get a little lunch, grab a few home brewing supplies and finally get over to a legendary Albany pub.

Fox & Firkin Pub (Colonie, NY)
112 Wolf Road, Colonie, New York 12205 (518) 453-2369
A bit of an update on the Fox & Firkin Pub. Back in February 2009, we had lunch here and were impressed by the beer selection. Sadly, one month later is appears they are “undergoing some changes” (said our mildly ineffective waitress) and I’m guessing that means LCD beer. Other than what I am guessing were some left over Dogfish Head 120 and 90 minute IPAs, all of the interesting crafts from a month ago were gone. I had a couple of the Dogfish 90s. Sadly, this really leaves us without ANY place to get a good beer and some lunch in the Colonie Center area. If anyone out there has suggestions leave them in the comments.

Hennessy Homebrew Emporium
470 North Greenbush Rd (Route 4) Rensselaer, NY 12144 (518) 283-7094
I needed to get a couple of cases of bottles for an upcoming stout bottling, so decided to check with the beer crowd on Twitter for Albany suggestions. Three of the four responses recommended Hennessy Homebrew Emporium. I would like to thank all those that did. It’s a great well stocked store with a friendly knowledgeable staff. I chatted for a bit about sanitizing options, possibly buying a few hops rhizomes, various options when I am done with this bottling thing (want to go keg) and beer in general. One just can’t help but fall into a conversation in a home brew store. The prices are great. It’s fairly easy to find. Plus, they give demonstrations and are hoping to expand soon. All in all an excellent find and some place I’ll be returning to often.

Mahar’s
1110 Madison Ave Albany, New York, 12208-2248 (518) 459-9416
We have been trying to make it to Mahar’s since a friend who knows we like great beer told us about it three years ago. Only problem is it does not open until 4pm and we’re usually no where near it at that time. This time – however – it worked out perfectly as it was (sort of) on the way back home from Hennessy’s. It’s a great smallish space with a very very authentic British local ale house feel. Very few seats – mostly bar rails to set your glass on while you stand. A fairly older mixed crowd – 30/40 somethings mixing easily with old timers. The beer list is massive focusing a great deal on European brews. They had six cask engines all running brews from Middle Ages Brewery in Syracuse, NY. As I am a cask fanatic, I set about having a few…

Mr. Ohabeer had:
Middle Ages Mahar’s 20th Anniversary Ale: nice simple dark ale. Slightly sweet with hints of caramel. (Cask engine)
Middle Ages Kilt Tilter Scotch Ale: Scotch style porter tasting greatly of chocolate and raisins. (Cask engine)
Middle Ages Wailing Wench: a strong ale with a big hops taste. (Cask engine)

Mrs. Ohabeer had:
Middle Ages Mahar’s 20th Anniversary Ale: nice simple dark ale. Slightly sweet with hints of caramel. (Cask engine)
Harpoon Winter Warmer:lovely copper ale with a nice spicy edge. (In bottle)
Middle Ages Mahar’s 20th Anniversary Ale: She decided to try this out on draught rather than cask engine. A completely different beer. More carbonation and much sweeter. Plus – as she put it – more “lacing, because I AM a sewer.”

Sadly a bit of a mar in the otherwise nice evening was the somewhat dick-ish attitudes of both the Slayer t-shirt wearing bartender and the biker dude/hippy owner. I get it – that whole “We got attitude so deal with it fuckwit! You don’t like? Then get out!” Really though. The owner refers to US craft brews as “US crap brews”. I’m quite glad we did not run into this guy until we were leaving. Probably would not have stayed as long as we did. Sad really – the beer is pretty good. The place is nice and chill. A couple of people actually brought in slow cookers with free chowder and chili. The attitude from behind the bar might just keep me from wanting to return very often. And I’m certain Mahar’s will not care one bit if I do…

February 27, 2009: Tax Prep Day. That meant a trip from the Catskill HQ of Ohabeer down to New York City to visit a god among CPAs Sam Nole. It also gave us a reason to hit some of the finer craft brew joints in our favorite areas – Greenwich Village and East Village.

Blind Tiger Ale House
281 Bleecker @ Jones, 212.462.4682
We had dinner reservations at Rare for 6:30pm and we made it to the Blind Tiger at 4pm. Do the math and you can tell we had a bit of time to kill. Luckily, Blind Tiger is one of our favorite places to kill time. Cozy and pubby, this is a true craft beer mecca. Beer, wine and sake are all they do. And oh the beers! I’m not even sure they have anything in the generic BMC beer realm. It a craft shop al the way!

This particular evening found them in the middle of a Stone Brewing festival. So many Stone brews to try. I – however – wanted to start with something on cask. I went with a Chelsea Brewing Sunset Red. The Red had a lovely – well – red color with a light sweetness and balanced malt flavor. Perfect kick off to a night of pub crawling. Not too heavy – not too light. Mrs. Ohabeer – however – went big from the get go by starting with a Stoudt’s Winter Ale on draught. This was a big dark beer – not the sort of winter “ale” one usually expects. Nice and chewy with coffee and chocolate notes.

While she nursed the Stoudt, I switched up to my own strong ale: Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard. This is an amazing beer. Creamy and a little bitter with a fruity bloom at the end. By the time the Arrogant Bastard was done, Mrs. Ohabeer was ready for a second. We asked Allan – the owner – for suggestions. Given her penchant for spicy beers, Allan suggested Mrs. Ohabeer get a Stone Cali-Belgique IPA. Think Belgian style IPA…spicy goodness with a nice light hoppiness.

I was looking for something unusual. Allan suggested – and gave me a taste of – the BFM Bon Chien. Uhhhh…no. Certainly unusual – very sour, looks a bit like a Cidre Breton, tasted like wine turning into vinegar. The taste I got was more than enough for me. (A good thing too as this is 15.50% ABV and I still had the night ahead of me…)

I ended up settling on – and ultimately having three – Alesmith Mikkeller Stone Belgian Style Tripel Ale. My god this was excellent. Lovely gold color with a bit of spice and an amazing hop/malt balance. Very very drinkable. As they are 8.7% ABV, this may have not been my best move. I certainly left for dinner feeling no pain…

Rare
228 Bleecker Street @ 6th Ave & Carmine, (212) 691-RARE (7273)
No craft selection here, but amazing burgers and fries to soak up the two hours at Blind Tiger. The Rare Murray’s Burger is not to be missed. Organic beef, artisanal cheese from Murray’s Cheese Shop and artisanal bacon. Best.burger.evah.

Half Pint
76 W. 3rd Street @ Thompson, 212.260.1088
I was surprised to find the former Harry’s Burrito Greenwich Village location was now a craft bar called Half Pint. Smallish space (then again most are in NYC) it was buzzing nicely at 9ish when we arrived. It appears one of their signature items is a 96oz tower of beer for $25. This evening it was Lion’s Head Pilsner. We did not go for the tower as I was firmly in cask search mode. (You cannot get much on cask in the Catskills.) I went for a Lagunitas Cruisin’ With Reuben & The Jets. An imperial stout that – at that moment in the evening – might not have been the best choice. Nice and thick, it was perhaps a bit too thick post-dinner. Mrs. Ohabeer went with a nice light Blue Point Spring Fling. Good hoppy balance with a pale ale edge.

East Village Tavern
158 Avenue C @ E. 10th St., 212.253.8400
After Half Pint, we headed out for the East Village. Plan was to have something at Standings (recommended by Eric the Ithaca Beer sales rep we met at Blind Tiger) and possibly Jimmy’s No. 43 on the way to East Village Tavern. Sadly, Standings was like some weird basement rec room sports bar with not that interesting a selection of beer. Jimmy’s No. 43 was just too crowded to wedge in. So, we jumped off and headed on to the final destination.

East Village Tavern is like most all bars in the East Village. Kind dumpy but in a good way. Unpretentious, decent jukebox and an array of clientele. We settled in at a table and got to work reading the menu. Still in search of the cask drawn, I went for the Troegs Nugget Nectar. Big hop taste with an amazing gold color and foamy head. The perfect end to the evening. Mrs. Ohabeer had the Goose Island Matilda. It was malty and a bit spicy. Our friend Annette had a Stoudt’s Pils. I’m not much of a pilsener fan, but this was fairly nice.

And so the evening ended. We headed back out into the night for the long trip back to Annette’s apartment in the Bronx. Looking forward to taking her up on the hospitality again and hitting more craft pubs in NYC.

Every so often, we strike out to explore a area we have been to before. As we had recently encountered Brown’s Brewing Co. Brown Ale, we decided to venture to Troy, NY and check out the brewery and tap room. This was actually sometime in late 2008, but I just discovered the notes from the day.

Holmes and Watson LTD (Troy, NY)
450 Broadway, Troy, NY 12180 (518) 273-8526
Nice British style pub. Stopped here after wandering Troy for a bit. Decided to have a pint of Guinness on draught. Not a real imperial pint but fairly well poured.

Brown’s Taproom (Troy, NY)
417 River Street Troy, NY 12180, 518.273.BEER(2337)
Great big tap room and restaurant. It was jumping with a Saturday happy hour when we arrived. Sat at the bar in order to check our the beer listings and chat with folks. Great selection of house brewed beers running the spectrum from light ales to massive stouts. A few we had or sampled: Brown’s Cherry Raspberry Ale – nice light ale without the cloyness of some fruit beers. That said – not enough of a fruit taste. Brown’s Imperial Stout – excellent thick stout with a heavy chocolate edge. Another of what I call a U.S. “sweet” stout but with leanings toward an Irish stout. I had a lovely buzz after two of these. Brown’s Rauchbier – why do Rauchbiers always taste like shoes/feet? I want them to be a bit smokey – which they sort of are – but usually nothing like the delicious Z Smoked Ale. Decided not to do dinner here opting for Jose Malone’s Mexican Irish Restaurant (yes – you read that right) next door.

Jose Malone’s Mexican Irish Restaurant (Troy, NY)
405 River St, Troy, NY 12180, (518) 273-2196
I think I had margaritas here. They definitely were not memorable – and proof I need to stick with beer in Upstate NY. No – I was not too buzzed to remember. This was a just ok restaurant. Nothing to exciting – though I was intrigued by the corn beef and cabbage quesadillas (but not enough to actually order them). I don;t expect to return here.

When Mrs. Ohabeer and I venture our of the Ohabeer HQ and end up in a bar, it is most likely I am ordering beer. Living in upstate NY does not often afford one the opportunity for the fine art of mixology – I haven’t had a decent margarita since leaving NYC – so that the beer gods for the in roads made by craft beers even at local bars. Invariably, I’ll bring along the handy iPod Touch to see if there is WiFi in the bar (thus allowing for twittering while drinking) and to make notes on the beers drank. As I am attempting to be social while out drinking, I do not take any sort of detailled tasting note, but just something quick and simple.

So, here is the first installment of Random Beers in Various Bars wherein I clean out the notes I have on recent nights out.

Fox & Firkin Pub (Colonie, NY)
112 Wolf Road, Colonie, New York 12205 (518) 453-2369
When heading to the Colonie/Albany area for shopping, we used to hit the Old Chicago for some lunch and a great selection of craft beer. Sadly, they went out of business in January 2009. Luckily, this chain pub is located right across the street. It’s the usual ersatz English pub filtered through a marketer’s vision, but that do have an excellent beer menu. With lunch I had a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA (on tap. lovely hoppy pale ale) and Rogue Dead Guy Ale (in a bottle. nice cloudy copper color. Smooth ale with what tastes like a hint of honey). They also carried the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, but as I had more shopping to do, I took a pass.

Andes Hotel (Andes, NY)
110 Main St., Andes, NY 13731 (845) 676-4408
You just have to love a bar with snowmobile parking. We ventured here one Saturday drawn by their local cable ads claiming the most craft beers in the area. Given the area we live in, that could have meant three. Luckily, it was around 30 with several on tap. Started with the Southern Tier Unearthly Imperial IPA on tap served in a goblet. Very hoppy rich gold ale with a thick head. 11% ABV limited me to one of these. Followed with a pint of Southampton Porter on tap. A thinnish head on a nice deep chocolate colored brew. Good balance of maltiness to chocoloate sweetness with a slight coffee back end. Finished the night with a Snapperhead IPA on tap. This might have been a mistake after the Southern Tier IPA. There is a bit of hoppiness, but mostly I am getting nothing. Could have fried the tastebuds? Might have to try this another time. Though the more I drank, the better it got. Also available at Andes Hotel: Weyerbach, Abita, Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Brooklyn, Yuengling, Ommegang, Magic Hat, Leinenkugel and more. They even have a few imported Belgians.

Baba Louie’s Pizza (Hudson, NY)
517 Warren Street, Hudson, NY 12534 518.751.2155
Had lunch here. Very nice artisanal pizzas. Excellent toppings. Had a couple of C.H. Evans Kick-Ass Brown Ales. Solid simple brown ale.

Spotty Dog Books & Ale (Hudson, NY)
440 Warren Street, Hudson, NY 12534 .T 518 671 6006
This was an amazing find. They were having a beer tasting that evening, but we could not stay that late. It is a bookstore with a bar. Nice selection of crafts on tap. The real story is it is located in what was the original C.H. Evans brewery space and so their core beers are from C.H. Evans. I went with a Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre (on tap) as I had not had it in a while. Such a great brew. I love the fact you can taste the raisins without it being too cloy. Mrs. Ohabeer had a Chatham Porter (also on tap). Nice rich color and a decent porter taste.