I had a Flying Dog today–their summer seasonal … it is a Belgian-style Wit Beer. I thoroughly enjoyed this beer. I think they got this one right–excellent aroma, very nice flavor, I think the right ABV, and excellent finish … add all these up and this is a great summer drinking beer!
I recommend it!
Beer Mentor
Wow. What can I say — it’s good to be back in the USA, especially in the DC area! For those who enjoy a great craft brew, it’s hard to miss out when you can find great selections within a couple of miles of your house. Both Whole Foods AND “Total Wine and More” (focus on more) have excellent selections! I purchased a nice six-pack of these Dogfish Head 60-minute IPAs at my local Whole Foods.
I won’t go into the details of how they use a hopback, etc … but you can read it here. This is just a fantastic IPA … from the first look at the color to the wonderful hop aroma to the final finish. I love this beer.
Oh, and if you are in the mood to have it on tap (and you live in the DC area), just hop over (pun intended) to the Dogfish Head Alehouse in Seven Corners … and you can get all the other Dogfish Head brews there as well. Well worth the trip! DC is great!
Beer Mentor
If you are a “Lord of the Rings” fan AND a beer lover you will enjoy the Bilbo Baggins Cafe in Old Town Alexandria, VA. This place has an excellent beer menu (not large, but definitely a nice varierty). I think this place has been in Alexandria since the mid-80s, so it was a Lord of the Rings place before the movies actually came out.
They rotate their beer selection seasonally so I would check back frequently before heading over there. The pub/cafe is Lord-of-the-Rings-themed, but only subtly. You will see some murals, different references to characters/places, and just a comfortable place to be. I highly recommend the location for drinking beer (in the bar).
For those tempted to eat food there as well–apparently, according to reviews, the food selection is hit-or-miss … so eat at your own risk, but drink the beer on my recommendation!
Oh, so my beer for today was the Victory Stout on the menu. It was seriously dark, nice chocolaty aroma, and the flavor was right were I expected for a stout. The Victory folks have done a nice job with this beer.
Beer Mentor
The nice thing about being back in the USA is the availability of a wide range of brews. I can still get many of the German and Belgian beers I enjoy while sinking my teeth into all of the excellent offerings from the USA’s craft / micro-breweries.
One brewery I think that has been right on target recently is Southern Tier brewering. They are a New York brewery that is doing great things with beer. They have been pushing the envelope on flavor/ingredients and it has really struck a cord with me.
My beer for today is their Unearthly — a 11% ABV super-hopped up IPA. If you read the label, you’ll see they hop it up early in the wort, plus use a hopback, PLUS dry-hop the heck out of it. This beer is for you hop-fanatics … and fortunately, I am one! LOL!
I strongly recommend this beer … but don’t pour you a big 22oz like I did if you are going to drive. Fortunately (again) I was hanging around the house and had a nice buzz going about 1/2 way through this thing.
Beer Mentor
For my 190th beer I had a Kirin Ichiban. This isn’t really a memorable beer, but it hit the spot and fulfilled the purpose … oh, and it went quite well with my Sushi. So, for a short post today–I still had a German-style lager! Ha Ha!
Beer Mentor
You may have noticed I’ve been staying pretty close to the German/Belgian theme (that will change over the next few days) … so today I picked an American beer from the oldest active brewery in the US – Yuengling — and I had their Lager beer.
For an everyday drinking beer, this is quite good.
Beer Mentor
Today my friend Bobby and I had a little experiment with Orval Beers. If you’ve been keeping track, this is beer #188 … IF you think it is unique. Here are two bottles of Orval … the one on the left was purchased in the US (Whole Foods, Springfield, VA) and the one on the left was purchased at the actual Orval Brewery.
Here is a close-up picture of their labels. This is the US Label … I guess they needed to remind us in a big way that it is a Trappist Ale. Notice in the second picture the ABV is listed as 6.9%.
Here are two pictures of the Belgian labels … notice the ABV: 6.2%
If I just went by the labels, I would say these are two different beers and I can count this one as a different beer. However, since I’ve had the tour at the brewery, I can tell you that these beers are exactly the same. The reason the label is different for ABV is that the American standard for alcohol content is different from Europe. The tolerances are tighter in the US (I think 0.3% variance) as opposed to those in Belgium (up to 1% variance).
This beer is triple fermented with the final yeast added at bottling. This is called bottle-conditioning and the beer can vary widely in ABV — no Orval beer is exactly the same as any other … that’s why this beer is so good. Soooo, since this beer can range from about 5.2% up to 7.2% ABV based on several variables, the US label shows 6.9% to cover the possibility of a high-octane referementation. You will see in the following two pictures that these two beers (one brewed in 2008 and one in 2009) look exactly the same, and I can tell you that they tasted like Orval (again, they never taste exactly the same … that’s the beauty of this beer).
With all of this said, you probably think I didn’t have my 188th unique beer. Well …. I did. Because I knew they were the same, I pulled out a Hacker-Pschorr Weisse (you’ll notice this is my 4th Hacker-Pschorr) to hit my target! LOL!
Enjoy!
Beer Mentor
Most of you are probably aware of this, but there is a nice Czech/German brewery located in Texas … actually, the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas. They make a German-style Bock beer; it’s their flagship beer!
I love this beer for several reasons: 1) I’m from Texas, so I love to support Texas breweries, 2) It’s not your average crap light beer, and 3) I’m a Bohemian myself (on my Paternal Grandmother’s side of the family: Annie Lee Beckner).
So today, I enjoyed this beer — the color is excellent, the aroma is very nice and the flavor … just right! Hits the spot as usual!
Beer Mentor
I flew back today from Germany — it was an interesting adventure (I was basically awake for about 25 hours) … my wife and daughter picked me up and we drove back to the house — it was about 1130 pm and I knew I had to have something with which to relax … so I thought, why not a real American brew to celebrate my return to the States! So, I went with a nice Dogfish Head beer my wife had purchased (love her!): the Indian Brown Ale. Yummy! This beer had all the features I love in a Great American Craft Beer — a robust flavor, plenty of ABV, and a nice finish.
I should say, it’s good to be home!
Beer Mentor
I think it is only appropriate as I head back to Washington, DC that the last beer I have in Germany is a Hefeweizen. You may not recall — but the first beer I had on 4 November was a Hefeweizen.
So here I am 185 days later … and 185 beers later sampling another Hefeweizen … this one from Schoefferhofer.
This is a decent Hefeweizen … good flavor, nice color, sweet finish. Of course, the best beer to finish out my tour in Germany would be one of the Schneider Weisse brews … but I’ve had them! LOL!
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this tour through European (and beyond) beers — my blog will now continue with all the great Craft Beers available in the DC area. There are also about 4 places in DC on the 125 top places to drink beer list that I’ll be blogging about (plus several other nearby locales).
With that said — I lift my empty glass to the fantastic closure I’m putting on this tour through Germany/Belgium … I continue to have the time of my life wherever I am!
Beer Mentor
Random thoughts on beer ... and brewing.
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