Posts Tagged ‘Ommegang’

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

I haven’t really done much of a restock lately to the cellar. We’ve been a bit too busy around OAB HQ drinking various foamybeers – our own line of brews. A recent trip to pick up more brewing supplies lead us to drop by Oliver’s discount Beverage in Albany. so, the latest beerventory…

Growlers
Cave Mountain Hefeweizen (bought at the brewery on $8 browler Sundays)

6 packs
Widmer Drop Top Amber Ale
Widmer Drifter Pale Ale
Saranac Summer Brew
Wolaver Ben Gleason’s White Ale
Sherwood forest Friar’s Belgian White ale
Boulder Brewing Hazed & Infused
Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

12 Pack
Smutty Nose Sampler featuring Shoals Pale Ale, Old Brown Dog, IPA and Robust Porter

Bombers
Long Trail Brewmasters Series Double IPA
Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Amber Ale
Arcadia Ales Cocoa Loco
Arcadia Ales Cereal Killer
Southern Tier Jah-Va Imperial Coffee Stout
Southern Tier Iniquity Black Ale
Smuttynose Really Old Brown Dog Ale
Smuttynose Gravitation Belgian Quad
Ommegang Biere de Mars
He’Brew Jewbelation 12
Elysian Bifrost Winter Ale
Flying Dog Wild Dog Weizenbock

May 30th, 2009 was a beautiful blue sky day in the Catskill Mountains. A perfect day for outdoor craft beer drinking. Thankfully, the folks over at The Andes Hotel in Andes, NY chose to team up with Gasko & Meyer Distributors to present the 1st Andes Hotel American Craft Beer Festival. $20 admission got you a sampling mug and all you could sample from over 20 craft breweries. In addition, the Andes Hotel had a variety of beer friendly foods you could purchase to fortify you for the day.

Arriving at the fest, I found Ed O’Neill (the Andes Hotel owner) and got the hook-up for my sampling wrist band and mug plus a nice list/menu of the beers offered that day. Ed mentioned the Otter Creek offering – a Russian Imperial Stout on cask – had just been opened. Without hesitation, I decided to start the day with something VERY big. (Possibly not the wisest move…)

The Otter Creek Russian Imperial is a lovely creamy stout. Deep black color with a dark brown creamy head. Excellent coffee chocolate aroma that carries over into the tasting. Big body with a massive creaminess – not to mention a nice alcohol kick. A perfect start to the day – but I should have probably had food first…

I decided to head over to the Butternuts table next. I first ran into Butternuts Brewery with their Porkslap Pale Ale (with one of the best logo designs EVER and in cans!). Their “Nice Cans” tank top was quite the hit with the ladies (though a few of the male attendees might have qualified as well…) Keeping with kicking the day off with stouts – “It’s not just for breakfast anymore!” – I sampled the Butternuts Moo Thunder Stout. A nice milk stout somewhat sweet with a light body and very clean finish. Not a lot of creaminess, but definitely a fine American stout.

At this point, I decided it might be best to switch off the stouts for a bit and tried some of the Heineweisse – Butternuts’ Hefe. An excellent slightly spicy beer with a great color and a crisp body and yeasty aroma. Mrs. Ohabeer had already had the Heineweisse and had moved on to one of the unreleased brews Butternuts had brought: Harvest Ale. She told me I had to make this my next beer!

Good god! The Butternuts Harvest Ale is AMAZING! This is a big farmhouse ale made with pumpkin, squash, sweet potato, ginger, cinnamon, clove and allspice. It’s got a nice balance of sweet to sour (most farmhouse ales are a bit too sour for me) and a beautiful gold/amber color. Big frothy white head and a spicy aroma. The brewer (I forget his name) said he left this in open fermenters for a period to pick up wild yeasts from the Butternuts farm. The result is a medium body ale with a very complex flavor. The sweetness of the pumpkin and sweet potato open followed by the spices. Then it all closes out with a perfect amount of sourness. Add to this the fact it has quite a little kick and you’ve got the winner ale for the day.

Good news is Butternuts is considering bottling the Harvest Ale in 750ml with champagne corks. It would be the first bottles Butternuts has done. I certainly hope it happens as I want a few of these for the cellar.

After the kick of the Butternuts Harvest Ale, it seemed like a good idea to perhaps get some food. Over the course of the day, Mrs. Ohabeer and I ended up having two meals – such is the case with much free beer sampling. I started with the Wild Boar Chili. I mean – really – if you see Wild Boar Chili on a menu you simply MUST order WIld Boar Chili. The boar was nice and tender, but sadly a bit bland. I prefer a much spicer (and thicker) chili. This was a bit more like a Wild Boar Soup, but it went down well with a Geary’s Hampshire Special Ale. The Geary’s is a medium bodied malty ale with a nice sweetness and a touch of hops.

Later in the day – as shown on the right above – when the sampling had gotten WAY out of control – we went back in for a Bratwurst as we were looking for some starch to soak up the alcohol. Good snappiness to the brat – though again a bit bland for my taste. Nice tasty brat bun and great kraut. The potato salad also helped in the alcohol soaking. I had the Butternut Outrage with the brat. A medium bodied IPA with a big cascade taste. Worked nicely with the sausage.

With a bit of food consumed, it was back to the sampling. We had noticed Ommegang was in the Summer Shack by the bar and wondered if perhaps they had brought any off menu beers. In particular, we were looking to sample Biere de Mars. The OAB HQ are big fans of Ommegang (it is actually required by law if living in the Catskills) but the $16 for a bottle of Biere de Mars kept us from picking it up without a tasting. Thankfully, Ommegang came with several bottles for tasting. For those who are also wondering if it is worth it, the answer is definitely yes. This is a lovely deep brown Belgain ale. Tons of sweet malty goodness with a massive backend kick. It’s a big beer and one well worth the price of admission.

While all the beers were great, there was one other major standout for the day: Southern Tier Iniquity Black IPA. It’s sort of the bastard offspring of a medium stout/dark ale crossed with a hop bomb. Jet black color with a solid malty front than ends with a massive hop punch. Such a great beer and an excellent twist on the usual hop bomb. A perfect summer drink when you want both a stoutish ale and a ton of citrusy hops.

Mrs. Ohabeer had two fascinating bathroom experiences during the fest. First, she had to endure complaints about the lack of Bud Lite at a craft beer fest. That almost caused her to storm the men’s room and use it instead. Her second encounter featured the group discussing what a great place a beer fest is to meet guys. “It’s like 5 to 1 here!” “Ummm, yes,” thought Mrs. Ohabeer ” there are a lot of guys here. though perhaps not many who realize if you’re going to drink big craft beers – you have to exercise…” By the way – who the hell wears shoes like this to an outdoor beer fest in the Catskills when you’re drinking and walking in a field?

All in all an absolutely remarkable day. Perfect weather, a great band (The Roundhouse Rockers), nice crowd, good food and excellent beer. I ended up skipping any beer I was familiar with in order to give myself the ability to drink a bit more of the unfamiliar and not end up comatose.

Here are quick takes on the rest of my samplings:

Rogue American Ale: a malty caramel amber. Deep amber color with big body and heavy caramel sugar taste.

Allagash White Ale: citrusy spicy nice cloudy wit with a solid yeasty edge.

Captain Lawrence Frescheater Pale Ale: Fresh hopped pale. Nice gold color. Great citrusy hops flavor. Excellent flowery aroma.

Anchor Liberty Ale: Clear medium body pale ale. Nice hoppiness very mellow flavor. Crisp and clean.

Victory Prima Pils: Not bad on the hoppiness but really not a pilsner fan. A bit too light for me. Especially this late in the fest given I had been drinking big bold beers for about two hours.

Stoudts Scarlet lady. Hmmm not sure. English bitter with a malt nose. Again, might have been more impressive earlier in the day.

Otter Creek Oktoberfest: Not bad but again a bit too late in the day. A little sweet with a decent malt to hop balance.

Complete list of beers at the 2009 fest:

Anchor Brewing (San Francisco, CA)
- Steam
- Porter
- Liberty Ale

Allagash Brewing (Portland, ME)
- White Ale

Abita Brewing Co. (Abita Springs, LA)
- Turbo Dog
- Purple Haze

Butternuts Brewing (Garrattsville, NY)
- Snapperhead IPA
- Moo Thunder Stout
- Heinnieweisse
- Porkslap Pale Ale
- Harvest Ale
- Outrage

Captain Lawrence Brewing (Pleasantville, NY)
- Freschester Pale Ale

Flying Dog Brewing (Frederick, MD)
- Doggie Style Ale

Geary’s Brewing (Portland, ME)
- Hampshire Ale

Ommegang Brewing (Cooperstown, NY)
- Hennipin
- Rare Vos
- Witte
- Biere de Mars

Otter Creek Brewing (Middlebury, VT)
- Oktoberfest
= Russian Imperial Stout (cask)

Rogue Brewing (Newport, OR)
- American Ale

Southern Tier Brewing (Lakewood, NY)
- Iniquity Black IPA

Stoudts Brewing (Adamstown, PA)
- Scarlet Lady

Victory Brewing (Downington, PA)
- Prima Pils

For the most part, Mrs. Ohabeer and I tend to stick around OAB HQ choosing in the spring/summer/fall to drink on our deck or in the winter by the fireplace. Every so often – however – we get the itch to get out of the house, try a new place and perhaps meet some new people. The opportunity to have good craft beers at a pub in our area of New York State is fairly thin. So we were extremely happy to have ventured to The Andes Hotel last winter. After reviewing it in a Random Beers in Various Bars, I received a note from the owner – Ed O’Neill – about an event he’s got coming up on May 30th.

When: Saturday May 30th : 2pm – 6pm
What: American Craft Beer Fest
Where: Andes Hotel
(110 Main St., Andes, NY : 845 – 676-3980)
Admission: $20 for unlimited beer tastings

They are having an American Craft Beer Fest in their “Summer Shack”. (The “Summer Shack” is a great pole barn bar with plenty of picnic tables.) The $20 admission will get you unlimited tastings of the participating breweries. Plus there will be beer friendly food (not included in the admission) and music by The Roundhouse Rockers. It’s a rain or shine event and certainly where you’ll find the Ohabeer HQ on May 30th.

Ed says some of the breweries will have reps there so you can beer geek out and there might be a few rarities/surprises. Here’s the list of participating breweries: Ommegang, Allagash, Geary’s, Anchor, Stoudts, Victory, Abita, Otter Creek, Butternuts, Southern Tier, Harpoon, Captain Lawrence and Flying Dog.

It’s going to be a great time! If you happen to come by, ask around for Mr. Ohabeer and say hi.

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…)

While I am not a massive Belgian fan (Mrs. Ohabeer loves them), I nonetheless like the Belgian style. I’ve had my fair share of Duvel over the years and – because Iive in the Catskills – am required by law to have all of the Ommegangs. So, this would not be the biggest event for me other than the fact there are – as usual – several rare selections.

Duvel/Ommegang @ Blind Tiger Alehouse NYC
Date: April 29, 2009
Time: 4pm

The List:
Duvel Green
Maredsous Blonde
Maredsous Brune
Maredsous Triple
La Chouffe
Mc Chouffe
Houblon Chouffe
Ommegang Rouge
Ommegang Witte
Ommegang Hennepin
Ommegang Rare Vos
Ommegang Three Philosophers
Ommegang Abbey
Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence
Ommegang Biere de Mars in 25oz Bottles

As always, there will be free cheese from our friends at Murray’s Cheese…

For all you true loyal Tigerites, they are working very hard on getting some new (stronger) ACs, ASAP…

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

Brewery: Ommegang
Location: Cooperstown, NY
Style: Belgian dubbel

As a resident of upstate NY and a craft beer fan, it is basically a requirement to drink Ommegang brews. They are one of the few NY crafts readily available even in the local gas station. Sampler packs, 4 packs and 750ml bottles can be found practically everywhere. So on a recent bulk shopping trip to BJs Club, we ended up grabbing a 12 pack sampler of the four main Ommegang brews.

Next up: Abbey Ale. This is a Belgian dubbel. Dark copper in color with a thick creamy head. A very thick spicy Belgian scent and taste. Not exactly “chewy” but certainly not a light drink. Nice bold flavor has a good balance between deep malts and spices and a hop bitter. A great fortifier for winter snow-b-quing.

Brewery: Ommegang
Location: Cooperstown, NY
Style: Belgian style amber ale

As a resident of upstate NY and a craft beer fan, it is basically a requirement to drink Ommegang brews. They are one of the few NY crafts readily available even in the local gas station. Sampler packs, 4 packs and 750ml bottles can be found practically everywhere. So on a recent bulk shopping trip to BJs Club, we ended up grabbing a 12 pack sampler of the four main Ommegang brews.

First up: Rare Vos. This is a fairly simple but lovely Belgian style amber ale. A slightly cloudy amber color with a nice big foamy head. A solid malty aroma with hints of spice and fruit. This is – however – not a fruit beer. It is a great spicy ale. Coriander, orange and cinnamon dominate with an somewhat fruity after taste. A fairly light drinking ale but big on flavor. Probably my favorite out of the Ommegang standard line.

A recent trip to Albany took me to Oliver’s Beverage Center. Oliver’s does not carry nearly the range of brews as Half Time (yes – I’m a bit obsessed with them) and shopping at Oliver’s is akin to hitting the warehouse, but they do have the best selection of craft brews in the Capitol region.

So, while I have not had a chance to do a full beerventory, here’s a list of the new items bought at Oliver’s:

Wolaver’s Will Steven’s Certified Organic Pumpkin Ale (VT)
Otter Creek Raspberry Brown Winter Ale (VT)
Rogue Dead Guy Ale (OR)
Rogue Double Dead Guy 2008
Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve
Rogue Yellow Snow IPA
He’Brew Origin Pomegranate Ale
Flying Dog Wild Dog Weizenbock Ale
Flying Dog Wild Dog Open Source Collaborator Dopplebock

While doing a bit of warehouse club shopping, I snagged this at BJ’s Club:

10 pack of Ommegang featuring 2 bottles each of:
Three Philosophers
Hennepin
Abbey Ale
Rare Vos
Witte

I’m quite familiar with all of the Ommegang’s and the Wolaver’s Pumpkin, but the rest will be first time drinks.

I’m a bit late on this. Got too busy around the holidays. We actually restocked the celler for NYE and made the trip to the Half Time in Poughkeepsie (the temple of craft beer in upstate NY).

Here’s what was in the Oh…a beer cellar over the holidays:

GROWLERS
Cave Mountain Nut Brown Ale
Cave Mountain Spiced Winter Ale

SPECIALS
Goose Island Bourbon County Stout 2008 [12oz/13%]
Fort Collins Double Chocolate Stout [650ml/8.1%]
Cisco Brewers Moor Porter [650ml]
Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Stout [12oz/7.8%]
Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock [650ml/5.5%]
Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence [750ml/7%]
Sly Fox Raspberry Reserve (bottle conditioned) [750ml]
Rogue MoM Hefeweizen [650ml]

BOTTLES
Blue Point Toasted Lager
Mad River Steelhead Scotch Style Ale [6%]
Heavy Seas Winter Storm “Category 5″ Ale [7.5%]
Anchor Porter
Stoudts Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout
Dundee Festive Ale
Troegs Dead Reckoning Porter
Ithaca Nut Brown Ale
Guinness Extra Stout
Wolaver’s Oatmeal Stout
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
Troegs Rugged Trail Nut Brown Ale [4.4%]
Left Hand Black Jack Porter
Samuel Adams Cream Stout
Samuel Adams Boston Lager
Samuel Adams Holiday Porter
Goose Island Nut Brown Ale
Lagunitas Brown Shugga [9.5%]
Flying Dog Road Dog Porter [6%]
Dragon Stout [7.5%]

Kicking off the first regular feature: What’s in the beer cellar. Sadly, I did not have a chance to go to Half Time in Poughkeepsie (the temple of craft beer in upstate NY), so I had to make do with the selection at Brice’s in Kingston.

Currently in the Oh…a beer cellar:

GROWLERS
Cave Mountain Spiced Winter Ale (Windham, NY)
Cave Mountain English Nut Brown Ale (Windham, NY)
Keegan’s Joe Mama (Mother’s Milk Stout brewed with Muddy Cup coffee) (Kingston, NY)

SPECIALS
Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence (750 mls/7% abv) [brewed with Belgian chocolate]
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout (12oz/135 abv) [casked brewed in bourbon barrels]
Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter
Lagunitas Brown Shugga’

BOTTLES
Heavy Seas Winter Ale
Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout
Flying Dog Road Dog Porter
Anchor Porter
Dundee Festive Ale
Troegs Dead Reckoning Porter
Wolaver’s Oatmeal Stout
Ithaca Nut Brown Ale
Dragon Stout (Kingston Jamaica)
Guinness Extra Stout

VARIETY PACK
Sam Adams Winter Classics (12 pack)