FOOLCiRCLE

Though they seemingly stole the idea of the name directly from Brewery Ommegang’s Begium Comes to Cooperstown, the event was all their own.

On Saturday after brewing the Honey Oatmeal Stout our group expanded to include DJ Voodoo, Mitchell, Robert, Dave, and Myself and we all went up to Iron Hill West Chester to check out there Belgian beer event, Belgium Comes to West Chester. This was the first time I had attended and I am not sure if this was the first time they have done it. It was pretty cool, lots of different Iron Hill beers from all of the different locations, plus lots of local featured Belgian style beers. I saw several of the Iron Hill brewers and crews from at least Stewart’s, Sly Fox, and Flying Fish – things were well represented. The restaurant on the whole seemed full but tame, but the back bar where the event was in full swing was rowdy in the best way possible. We all grabbed a table near the back, we could still feel the energy, but weren’t deep in the mix. Here is a list of at least some of the beers, I think there were 22 total, here’s like 17, enjoy:

Stumblin’ Monk – Stewart’s
Otay – Nodding Head
Mad Elf – Troeg’s
Saison Vos – Sly Fox
Tripel Lindy – Manayunk Brewery
Stoudt’s Tripel – Stoudts
Belgian Red Ale – Triumph
Biere de Framboises – General Lafayette Inn
Abbey 6 – Victory
Heywood – Iron Hill, West Chester
The Quadfather – Iron Hill, West Chester
Bourbon-aged Quadfather – Iron Hill, West Chester
The Cannibal – Iron Hill, West Chester
Imperial Wit – Iron Hill, Phoenixville
Fe10 – Iron Hill, Newark
Flemish Red – Iron Hill, North Wales
Rudolph’s Revenge – Iron Hill, Media

My two favorite of the night were easily the Flemish Red from Iron Hill, North Wales and the Fe10 from Iron Hill, Newark. The Flemish Red was a very tight tart bright red variation of the style. This is a style that very much has my attention right now and I want to learn more about it, and then brew it. Also, the Fe10 has finally really come to stand on its own. It has always been OK and has gotten better, but now it is a stand-out. One of my favorite comments last night was Mitchell after he tasted my Heywood from Iron Hill, West Chester. The Heywood is fermented completely in oak with 100% Brettanomyces, it was tart, complex, and funky, and I really enjoyed it once I settled in with it. But, Mitchell took a sip and had this look on his face like I just made him watch the BME Pain Olympics and tried to describe the aftertaste as a cross between cheese and feet. He then described how he imagined this beer being served with a hill-billy named “Heywood” with his shoes off and his feet in a barrel of spoiled beer. And whenever one was ordered ol’ Heywood would dip a glass into the barrel and pull out the beer to be served. It sounds kind of weird now, but it was very funny then.

So last night Mike, Karen, and I went up to the Tin Angel to go see our friends Erik and Robert play a short show at the Tin Angel.

They played the early show last night in a style they call “in the round” with two other artist Lizanne Knott and John Conahan. They also had another musician from Alaska open for them named Esther Golton. In the round means that each musician takes a turn playing one song, then it is the next musician’s turn until each person has had a turn and then it repeats the order again. I think each person got to play only four songs last night and then one song where they all played together. You could totally tell that the three of them have played in different formats together before because the on-stage playing around and joining in to enhance each other’s songs was pretty cool. I think the four songs Mitchell played were: In the Bayou, Piece of the Pie, “Apart at the Seams” (first time played, I do not know the title), and Morning After a Long Night. I do not know the name of any of the songs John and Lizanne played, but I’ll tell you what, John can rock your balls off, he really does a great job.

After the show things got a little messy for a bit. It appears as if there were about seven of us and two more coming looking for something to do after the show (it was still early, 9PM). Naturally we all turned to the two guys who just performed that we came up to see. They were a little preoccupied at first talking with the crowd, but after half an hour and no one could make up their mind it got a little disappointing. We eventually decided to just go down the street to Eulogy, but that turned into a bust, way to crowded on a Saturday to try and find a spot for like ten people. I got discouraged and decided it was time for us to leave. On the way home we decided to go to Iron Hill in Wilmington for something to do. From there we wound up at Dave & Jody’s for a short spell, and then eventually back at my place. It was a really great time at the Tin Angel with a really bad speed bump afterward that turned into a good night in the long run.

Yesterday was the One Final Victory for Heavyweight event at The Drafting Room in Exton, PA and you know I was there.

The basis for the event was basically Victory was releasing a new beer, Baltic Thunder, which was  a remake of a Heavyweight beer, Perkuno’s Hammer. Supposedly the story goes like this, Heavyweight Brewery closed in 2006 after about ten years of mild success to a very devout fan base. One of the beers Heavyweight brewed was called Perkuno’s Hammer and was a Baltic Porter style beer, which is a beer style that not many people make and was one of their most popular. This beer was so popular that after they closed Victory came up with a way (bought the rights?) to re-brew the beer to make it still available as a Victory product. Well, all of this happened in the middle of 2007. After about six months of legal nonsense of name issues, and label issues, and bottling issues Victory finally released Baltic Thunder their Baltic Porter beer brewed in honor of Perkuno’s Hammer.

So yesterday at the event it was the official release of Baltic Thunder plus one of the last kegs of Perkuno’s Hammer was also tapped. Like most people I did a side-by-side tasting of the two beers to see how the original has held up and to see how similar the new one was. Unfortunately the Perkuno’s Hammer didn’t fair too well, it was slightly oxidized and sour, but the Baltic Thunder was fantastic. The Baltic Thunder was very rich and malty with a slight chocolate note in the back. I picked up a couple 22oz bottles at $8 a piece to only later find out they were selling them at Victory for $3, suckage.

They also had a lot of other really great beers on tap suck as Seven Threads Symposium Ale,  Heavyweight’s Baltus, Heavyweight’s Lunacy, Victory’s Harvest Ale and Pils, Victory’s Abbey 6, Victory’s Hop Wallop on cask, and a bunch of very limited Heavyweight bottles. The Symposium Ale was blended for 2005 Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia, this amalgamation consists of Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, Flying Fish Porter, Independence Oatmeal Stout (RIP), Iron Hill Pig Iron Porter, Nodding Head Grog, Stoudt’s Fat Dog Stout, Victory Storm King and Yard’s IPA. If you ask me that’s eight breweries not seven, go figure. Anyway it was a really neat beer that I’m sure will never be reproduced again.

I got lucky and Dave, Catherine, Lyric, and Colin came down and joined me for lunch. I called them to see if they were interested in grabbing lunch not really having any idea how far Exton was from their house or knowing if they were available. Lucky enough they were around and able to come down. I think everyone had a good time, I know my time was better because they were there. Overall it was a really cool little beer event, I wish there was a Drafting Room or similar type place closer to home.

Hopefully 2008 is finding everyone healthy and happy so far. This year for NYE we went down to Dogfish Head again for their five course beer dinner and NYE festivities.

This was Dave, Jody, Karen, and I’s second year going to DFH for NYE and it was even more fun this year than last year. Last year we went to the early seating (6PM) for dinner and then went back to the beach house to celebrate New Year’s. This year we went to the late seating (8PM) for dinner and then stayed at DFH to watch the band they had, Nate Myers and the Aces, and then stayed the night in Rehoboth at the Brighton Suites Hotel. The dinner turned out to be even better than I remember last years dinner being. Only the first course was a little off to me (capers and olives = double strike), but it was a great idea that just didn’t mesh with my taste buds. The band was pretty cool too. They kind of were heavy-harmonica blues-influenced rock. It seemed as if the room took a little bit to warm up to them, but by midnight the place was jumping especially with a great cover of Jump Around by House of Pain. Below is the menu from the dinner:

1st course
Ahi Tuna Nicoise Salad
With shallots, sweet potatoes, olives and capers
½ pint of Pangaea

2nd course
Crab Soufflé
With asparagus hollandaise
Pint of 60 Minute IPA

3rd course
Raspberry Fort Sorbet
With lime infusion

4th course
Grilled Duck Cassoulet
With Smoked oyster mushrooms and white truffle
Pint of 90 Minute IPA

5th course
Triple Chocolate Mousse Tower
With blue cheese anglaise
½ Pint of Chicory Stout with a shot of Blue Hen Chocolate Vodka

Midnight Champagne toast

And is if this post isn’t going to look too long already, here are the lyrics to a new song my friend Erik Mitchell has recently wrote that I think are very appropriate for New Year’s Day, well, at least for some up us. He also has these lyrics and a bunch of other stuff posted on his myspace page so go check him out there.

The Morning After A Long Night
Words/Music: Erik Mitchell

Woke up this morning
Cigarette butt stuck to my head
Mumbling, fumbling, grumbling, bumbling
Stumbling my way out of bed
Made my way to the bathroom
Asked myself “What the hell did I done?”
The only thing that’s clear I had a fight with alcohol
And it won

It’s the morning after a long night
You know my head isn’t quite right now
The morning after a long night

My bloodshot eyes tell the story
So do the ink stamps on both of my hands
They’re not Livestrong bracelets
They’re over-21 wristbands
My head is propped up on the toilet
My body’s splayed out on the floor
I bargain with the porcelain god
But he knows I’ve been there before

It’s the morning after a long night
You know my head isn’t quite right now
The morning after a long night

You know it’s hard to remember
Everything that I had to drink
But considering the state I’m in
Looks like I got some time to think…
Bottle of rum and some 151
And shot of tequilla, a six-pack of Zima
Some SoCo and Lime, a carafe of white wine
Sex on the Beach, Schapps — PEACH!
Kahlua and cream and a dirty martini
The vodka was mild and the Turkey was Wild
Whisky Sours on the hour, Jagermeister!

It’s the morning after a long night
You know my head isn’t quite right now
The morning after a long night
It’s the morning after a long night
You know my head isn’t quite right now
The morning after a long night

©2007 Old City Music

Karen & I were invited out to dinner on Friday (12.21.07) by our friends Aimee & Jace for Aimee’s birthday.

Jace had received some gift certificates to a restaurant chain Roy’s Restaurant and there was one nearby in Philadelphia. He invited us to join them, their treat, sounds like a good plan to me. I had never heard of Roy’s before so I did what any modern idiot does and googled it. It turns out Roy’s specializes in Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine. I really had no idea what that meant, but it made me think of pineapples, fresh seafood, and the Polynesian from Disney World. After reading all I could on the website, I determined what my initial impressions weren’t off, but it also only appeared to be the tip of the iceberg. It appeared as if we were going to be in for a feast.

Here is what we ordered that I can remember:

• First Course: Sushi & Cocktails
  • Lakanilau Roll – Kobe beef, snow crab, avocado, and asparagus
  • Another Roll with lobster, caviar, and asparagus
  • And a Hawaii Martini each with pineapple, vanilla vodka, and coconut rum
• Second Course: Hot Appetizers
  • Crunchy Golden Lobster Potstickers
  • Kobe beef, jalapeno, and cheese dumplings
  • Vegetable spring rolls
• Third Course: Entries and Wine
  • A bottle of Stump Jump Red (blend: Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre)
  • I had amazing U10 scallops, with fantastic mashed root vegetables, a roasted yellow pepper puree, a small piece of fresh bacon , and a tamarind sauce that I never needed to use.
  • Karen had some sort of fish that actually looked over cooked but tasted OK (the only real negative of the night)
  • Jace had lamb lollipops served rare with an amazing savory bread pudding (this is what I almost ordered)
  • Aimee had a scallop and shrimp combo with rice and micro-greens
• Fourth Course: Dessert & Coffee
  • Hot Chocolate Souffle, a flourless chocolate cake with a hot molten chocolate center
  • Pineapple Upside-down Cake
  • Jace, Aimee, and I got coffees, Karen had a cappuccino and a hazelnut dessert martini

I would recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a nice place to eat in Philadelphia. I was never able to see the final bill, but I know it wasn’t cheap, maybe $300+ for the four of us. But we were also eating and drinking whatever we wanted knowing that it was mostly covered by gift certificates. Thanks again Aimee & Jace.

So yesterday (12.15.07) Guy had a stout tasting at his house. Fortunately I was available because the beers were not to disappoint.

First I’ll just show and list the beers that were available:

• Oak Aged Imperial Stout (2007)
  Left Hand Brewing Company | Longmont, Colorado
• Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
  Founders Brewing Company | Grand Rapids, Michigan
• AleSmith Speedway Stout
  AleSmith Brewing Company | San Diego, California
• Bourbon County Stout
  Goose Island | Chicago, Illinois
• Stoudt’s Barrel Aged Fat Dog (Imperial Oatmeal Stout)(2006)
  Stoudts Brewing Co. | Adamstown, Pennsylvania
• Stoudt’s Fat Dog (Imperial Oatmeal Stout)(2006)
  Stoudts Brewing Co. | Adamstown, Pennsylvania
• Jahva (Imperial Coffee Stout)
  Southern Tier Brewing Company | Lakewood, New York
• Cadillac Mtn. Stout
  Bar Harbor Brewing Company | Bar Harbor, Maine
• Dark Lord Imperial Stout (2007)
  Three Floyds Brewing Co. / Brewery & Pub | Munster, Indiana
• Older Viscosity
  The Lost Abbey / Port Brewing Company | San Marcos, California
• Ten FIDY
  Oskar Blues Grill & Brewery | Lyons, Colorado
• Chocolate Indulgence Stout
  Brewery Ommegang | Cooperstown, New York
• Old Rasputin X Anniversary Barrel Aged Stout
  North Coast Brewing Co. | Fort Bragg, California
• Black Sun Stout
  Three Floyds Brewing Co. / Brewery & Pub | Munster, Indiana
• XXX Warlock Double Imperial Stout
  Bristol Brewing Company | Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Bell’s Batch 7000 (2005)
  Bell’s Brewery, Inc. | Kalamazoo, Michigan
• Nøgne Ø Dark Horizon First Edition
  Nøgne Ø – det kompromissløse bryggeri | Lillesand, Norway
• Olde School Barleywine (2005)
  Dogfish Head Craft Brewery | Milton, Delaware
• SurlyFest
  Surly Brewing Company | Brooklyn Center, Minnesota

Guy broke out some serious cellar meat, I think all of these had to have been traded for and some of these are very rare and sought after. I also brought along a few of the beers, the two Fat Dogs and the Ommegang and another guy from BeerAdvocate brought along the Older Viscosity, the ’05 Olde School, and the SurlyFest. I think the only beers we didn’t get to last night were the SurlyFest, Jahva, and the Kentucy Breakfast Stout – but please feel free to correct me.

I think my favorite three (they were all good remember) were the Ten FIDY, the Bourbon County Stout, and the Older Viscosity. Some of these beers were just amazing, in particularly being able to try them back-to-back-to-back like we did, it really gave you a perspective on how good some of these beers really were. Ironically it also seemed to point out how much hype there is surrounding some of these beers, especially the Dark Lord. I love this beer, it’s great, I’ve tried the 2005, 06, and 07 versions and they are all amazing, BUT next to some of these other beers . . . you realize there are better Imperial Stouts than the legendary Dark Lord.

Thank you once again Guy, I hope I can return the favor one day.

So Friday (12.14.07) was Sly Fox Brewery’s annual IPA Day event. To say it was ridiculous fun would be an understatement.

See the rest of the pictures from this year here,

and the pictures from 2006 here.

This year it was Mike, Robert, Mitchell, and myself that made the journey. We all wound-up with the day off from work so we decided to meet early for breakfast and head on up to Sly Fox in Pheonixville. We met at my house and I decided to kick-it local style and made pork-roll, egg, and cheese on kaiser buns for breakfast, they were banging. We then hit the pike and went we to Sly Fox arriving around 10:30AM. This year Sly Fox had 15 different IPAs available. Last year they sold it as one giant 15 glass sampler, this year they sold it as three 5 glass flights. I liked the impression of the 15 glasser better, but the 5 glass flights really only made sense. We stayed for quite a while have all three flights each, lunch, and a couple additional pints. The day was wacky in the best sense. We got home maybe around 5PM, that’s some serious IPA dedication. I’m already looking forward to next year.

Feel free to click on the links above to check out the pictures to form your own opinions on what kind of day it was.

Couple weeks ago now (11.09.07) we did it again, another infamous tournament. This time it was the best fictional hero of all time, non-seeded and randomly drawn again.

Click on the image above for a large view.

So, if you regularly frequent this website at all you’ll have realized that this is the third of these style tournaments that Erik, Robert, and myself have done this fall. The first was the Greatest Front-Man of all times and the second was the Greatest Villain of all time. Because the last tournament was the greatest villain we couldn’t resist doing a Greatest Heroes tournament too, so that’s how this one came about. We had a ton of names to start with this time and we had to wean them down to the top 128. Again the names were randomly drawn from a bowl to flush out the brackets, two at a time and then that was the match-up. After the initial 64 match-ups the tournament would run as a normal tournament would, well except for out “nah” rule.

Here’s a re-cap of our “nah” rules in case you haven’t understood them yet; in the first round each of us were given two “power nahs” in which we were able to say “nah” to any match-up that was pulled out of the bowl. If we used a “power nah” then that match-up would be thrown back into the bowl to be re-pulled in a different combination later. This was typically used to keep heavy hitters from going up against each other too early. For example, if Superman and Optimus Prime went up against each other in the first round then someone might use a “power nah” to throw their names back into the bowl so a big decision like that wouldn’t have to be made too early in the game. After the first round each of us was also given two regular “nahs” that could be used in the second, third, and fourth rounds. What these “nahs” did was basically give the loser of a match-up a second chance. The winner of the match-up had to get a 2 out of 3 vote to stay in verses the normal 50/50 chance – make sense?

Now remember, none of us fully agree with this, this is just what happen when the three of us ran this tournament. It would probably be different with any three people and obviously with any random drawing. There were actually a couple really tough match-ups, a couple that some people totally disagreed with, and a couple that I looked at afterwards and thought ‘how did that happen?’ You’ll also notice that this is the first time we’ve really had “teams” or big groups involved which I think totally made some potentially smaller players into big players. Regardless, I’m not going to argue with these results, but I am going to say there were a few surprises. If you don’t recognize some of the names go ahead and ask or look them up yourselves, you may be surprised who did and didn’t make the cut. And just for fun, I’ll include the “Jobbers” bracket too. This is the bracket of guys who didn’t make the initial 120 out of all the names and had to really fight to get one of the last eight spots, whatever. Click on the picture for a larger shot of it.

Enjoy!

Here’s another quick one for you. Last night I went out to Rox’s Bar & Grill to see DC’s band The Kinda Blue Band tear it up for the night-before-Thanksgiving festivities.

Dave’s band was booked once again at Rox’s Bar & Grill in Wilmington, DE by Price’s Corner. Originally I wasn’t going to have the opportunity to go based on the fact that another show I had said I was already going to go to was that night also, that being the Big D Turkey Testicle Music Festival. Well, during the zero hour before the show there was a punt and it was received and we wound up at Rox’s to see The Kinda Blue Band instead. Rox’s is kind of a dive bar type atmosphere that can’t decide how it wants to grow up. Supposedly under it’s old name and management it was know for being a “biker bar” with all the attributes that come from being one. It now has cleaned up its act (or tried) and can’t quite nail down the feel it wants. Is it going to be a bar with pub games (darts/billiards/video slots), a music venue with new and returning bands on a regular schedule, or just let the old crowd back in and return to its roots. To say the least I have mixed emotions about the venue.

But for me, the main three reasons to go last night was to see DC’s band play, to see Karen sing with them (6 songs I think), and to hang with all of my friends who would be up there doing the same. Dave’s band did well and sounded better than last time. Last time Dave’s bongos were either turned up too loud, or everything else was turned down too low. This time they got their sound much more in check. Johnny Z on guitar probably could have still been turned up a little and Dave’s bongo’s probably could have still been turned down a little, but all in all much better sounding. While Karen was up singing she sounded good, but again she was turned down to quiet like last time, but that was remedied by the end of the first song. Once she loosens up on stage a little bit more she is going to be an even better addition when ever the guys ask her to join them. Really the only other complaint I have about the music is that there felt like there were too many long gaps between the songs. Kind of like the band would draw us in and hold our attention for what ever song they were playing then take a minute plus long break in between songs and have to regain our attention. If they could just come up with a tight set list and follow it without to many long pauses (it doesn’t have to be continuous, just not long pauses) I bet they could really rock the crowd. All in all I had a good night out and am not disappointed at all that I missed Big D.

This weekend had the potential to be a diverse beer weekend for me, instead it got off to a rough start and never really started rolling.

 

On Friday Iron Hill Brewery in Wilmington was hosting one of their Mug Club parties. Essentially these are a way for Iron Hill to show their appreciation to some of their most loyal customers (ie – Mug Club members), and a way for the Mug Club members to come out enjoy Iron Hill in a more intimate way through basically a cooler extended happy hour. I think each location does at least two Mug Club parties per year, and with six locations and number seven on its way, that’s potential to go to a lot of these parties. This time the party was approximately 7-9PM at the Wilmington location. They were doing free 1oz pours of a bunch of their bottled beers which is really cool because they are typically some of their best beers, but at an average of about $18-20 a bottle it’s a little steep to typically buy one. I tried the Oak-aged Quad, 2004 Old Ale, 2005 Old Ale, and the Russian Imperial Stout. They also had three special beers on tap that night, their Bourbon Porter, Oak-aged Fe10, and the Hopkowski. These three beers were $3 a mug (20oz), not bad. They also put out a spread of free appetizers, some bruchetta, nachos, hummus, and wings. And towards the end of the night they had a raffle where they were giving away bottles of beer, gift certificates, dinners for two, and a year membership to the Mug Club – pretty cool. I had the Oak-aged Fe10 which was pretty much the best that I’ve had the Fe10 yet, but a mug was a lot of that beer, a 10ozer would have been better. Then I had a Bourbon Porter, which is one of my all time favorite Iron Hill beers. I decided the wings and nachos were a good idea too, but I should have skipped the sour cream and blue cheese that had been sitting out for at least an hour. I’ll let everyone use their imagination at this point and I’ll just say that something didn’t sit right with me. I barely made it home before my body forcefully evacuated (Tom Jones!?) everything from it’s system that it could. To say the least this put me in bad shape for the next 12-18 hours, not cool. Mug Club party was cool and I had a great time, next time I’m going to skip the white creamy stuff that has been sitting out for public consumption for over an hour. Just a guess, but my bad.

 

So on Saturday we had plans to go to Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown, PA for my brother’s annual birthday celebration. By the time we were getting ready to head up I was just starting to feel “normal” from the night before and the last thing I was thinking about was food and beer, but I didn’t want to miss out and we had already planned on going. Dave has had his birthday get together at Victory for the past seven years or so I would guess and I would have to say that this was one of my favorite times so far. Originally when he was trying to make reservations Victory informed him that they do not take reservations for Friday or Saturday any longer regardless of the size of the party. I’ve seen Dave’s table size grow into the 15+ numbers so I was worried that we would be waiting for a table all night, but fortunately the table size this year was only 10 and Dave went down early to try and secure a spot and everything seemed to work out just fine. I enjoyed a cask-conditioned Storm King Stout and a Hop Wallop along with my chicken Caesar salad while I was there. The Storm King was perfect, right were I was at, the Hop Wallop was a little too much last night, but I finished it all the same. Overall it was a pretty positive experience. I often have issues when we go to Victory for one thing or another especially Dave’s gatherings, but this time was probably one of the better times. Victory felt less crowded, the wait for food felt shorter than in the past, the waitress was relatively attentive, there were only 10 of us versus the monster group, the noise level in Victory seemed much better (Dave pointed out they put noise dampeners in the ceiling), no headaches from the beer (some reason beers on tap at Victory almost always give me a headache), and we left before we ran into the typical “there isn’t enough money for the bill” fiasco. So as of now, I am looking forward to my next Victory experience.