This past week I was in Texas and had the opportunity to drive through Austin.  I checked out the list of 125 Places to Drink Beer (see earlier post) and realized The Gingerman was on the list at number 110.

Of course, I keep looking at this list as a ranking … I know, I shouldn’t … but then I think — this place should not be number 110 … it should be higher!  Then, I just laugh … because, it doesn’t really matter.  This place is awesome!

Their beer selection had both my favorite Weizen Bock (Aventinus from Schneider-weisse) and an excellent range of Texas brews.

I tried a brew from the 512 brewery in Austin … surprise, their IPA!  This beer was quite pleasant — definitely a West Coast variety IPA (in my opinion).  Well balanced, but the hops really come through … I thoroughly enjoyed it and would drink another if possible …

Oh, they also have a beer garden … but it was a little too warm this day — maybe another trip!

This is place #18 off the list for me … only 7 more to go this year!

Enjoy,

Beer Mentor

A couple of weekends ago I was heading up to Ottawa to visit some wonderful friends and I realized that there were two places on the “All About Beer” Top 125 places list in Syracuse, NY (on my way).  Well, I obviously had to stop!  I chose my namesake location on the way up–Clark’s Ale House–and planned on stopping at the Blue Tusk on the way back.  Unfortunately the Blue Tusk was closed on Sundays (they were cleaning the tap lines when I was there–yes! I love the place and haven’t even been there yet!).

Well, Clark’s Ale House was open and wow!  What a neat place … They had a wonderful selection of beers PLUS a hand-pulled casker … sweet.  I ‘think’ it was a hand-pulled Middle Ages brew (the local brewery!).

You could tell they really loved their beer and beer selection and they took care of offering it to you at the right temperature … this place is worthy of being on this list!

Oh, did I say their Roast Beef sandwiches are phenomenal?  Well, they are!  Worth a stop … even if it’s out of your way.

Enjoy,

Beer Mentor

As I stated in yesterday’s post, we went to Delirium Cafe … and we stayed late.  So late that I’m counting the last beer I had at Delirium as today’s beer (say 1am for my sake).

This is a fantastic beer bar that has 2000+ beers on the menu.  We spent most of our time upstairs in the “Hoppy Bar” drinking hopped-up Belgian Beers.  However, I couldn’t get out of here without having the Delirium Tremens.  Yes, an awesome beer … and on tap.

This place rocks!

Beer Mentor

Today found me downtown in the evening again … in Brussels.    A friend of mine told me that there are three places in Brussels on “All About Beers” list of the 125 Best Places to Drink Beer in the World.   I have a couple to add to their list … but that’s another post.  The three places are 1) Grand Place (did that yesterday) (#2), 2) Le Bier Circus (#80), and 3) Delirium Cafe (#66) (did that one yesterday, too … but doing it again today!).  So we covered #2 and #3 above today.

First, we went to Le Bier Circus for dinner.

I had a fish dish (I am in Belgium) which was made with an Orval Beer sauce (my favorite Belgian Beer!) and covered by Cheese from the Orval monastery (see picture). It was wonderful.

I followed this up with the beer they’ve had the longest on tap as my “beer of the day.”  It is La Chouffe–a blonde beer.  It, too, was very good.

I have to agree (so far) with the All About Beer list … Le Bier Circus, Delirium Cafe, and the Grand Place all deserve to be on their list.

Beer Mentor

I was in Brussels for business and found myself downtown in the evening.  Of course, with Brussels, everything is about the beer — maybe you can see the sign behind me here … but it says “250 beers of Belgium.”  That was just the start …

I knew I might as well get my new beer out of the way early … so I had myself an Affligem Brune.

Affligem is an Abbey brewery … although incorporated, the beer is still brewed to the traditional recipe from the Abbey.  The beer menu (see below) said Brune; this was actually the Affligem Dubbel — an excellent beer to kick off my latest visit to Belgium.

What made it even more special was the fact I consumed this nice beverage on the “Grand Place.”  Wow.  I will try to post another entry on this location … What more can I say.

Next stop(s): Delirium Cafe and Le Bier Circus.

Beer Mentor

While I’ve been in Germany, I’ve mixed up my trips to include mountain biking, “architectural touring,” and beer-related trips.  When I can combine the three of them, that makes for a great outing.  Three times before I’ve been to the brewery AND the monastery: Ettal, Zwiefalten, and Weltenburg.  This trip combined two of the three — architecture with beer.

Since November, I’ve visited eight different German monasteries/abbeys: Andechs, Bebenhausen, Ettal, Irsee, Maulbronn, Ottobeuren, Weltenburg, and Zwiefalten.  Six of these are still producing beers as part of their livelihood.  Today I visited three of these (Ottobeuren, Irsee, and Andechs), and I had a brew from two of them — Andechs and Irsee.

I have to say, hands down, I enjoyed the time I spent at Irsee a lot more than I did at Andechs.  Andechs was  a lot more commercialized than Irsee — it was very comfortable at Irsee … and the beer was amazingly good.

Today I had the Irseer Klosterbrau UrDunkel.  Very nice!   Oh, and you can see by the picture below that it was another successful trip … my wife must be getting tired of all the glasses I’m sending home! Ha!

Beer Mentor

Don’t you hate it when you type in a long post and your computer freezes!?!?!!!

Today was awesome!  First I visited a Hop Farm — I will have another post on that soon.  The family who owned the farm (Mr. Lagache and his son) were excellent hosts.  They showed me around, answered all my questions — they even let me use their camera when my battery died! Very nice folks.

After the tour of the farm, I headed to Sint Sixtus Abbey to pick up my two cases of Westvleteren 12.  Of course I had to go over to In De Vrede (cafe near the abbey) and sample the “Paterskaas” and one of the Westvleteren Blondes.  The blonde was so smooth and tasty — I can’t decide which is my favorite!  However, I will keep trying all three of them to truly decide what I like.  I took these photos when I got back to the room — I had to recharge my battery.

You will notice no label on the bottle.  The Monks at this abbey use distinctive bottle caps to differentiate their beers.  In this picture you can see it is a blond and it was bottled on 10/20/09 — so it will be best to drink it by the date on the cap: 10/20/10.   5 days after my birthday! Happy B’Day to me!

Beer Mentor

I will recap our trip in two ways — first i will recap our beer purchases.  Next I will recap the monastery visits.  To remind everyone: there are seven (7) Trappist breweries of which 6 we visited: Orval, Westvleteren, Westmalle, Achel, Rochefort, and Chimay.  The beers they make (that are available): Orval (1), Westvleteren (3), Westmalle (2 to buy, 1 “Extra” [see previous post]), Achel (2), Rochefort (3), Chimay (3 to buy, 2 to drink at Auberge), Konigshoeven (6 to buy).  Total beers available are 20 to buy and 23 to possibly drink.

As stated previously, we drank the Extra from Westmalle and the Witte and the Trippel on tap at the Auberge.   However, we were able to purchase 18 of the 20 to buy.  We found the Konigshoeven beers at Achel; so we purchased the beers pictured below (there are 19 bottles in the picture–one is the Westmalle Extra bottle):

The one without a label is the Westvleteren 12.  The two we were not able to obtain were the Westvleteren Blonde and the 8.  I think we purchased (not including the glasses, cheese, schnapps, and miscellaneous items) about 10 cases of beer (plus several 0.75 liter bottles) — and we put this all in my little Mercedes.  Here’s a couple of pictures:

Once we got back, we separated the “load” in both vehicles — here’s the picture of those just before we drove off in happiness having completed our “Trappist Thanksgiving Quest for the Holy Ale!”

Beer Mentor