Welcome Home

Whew! This is my first week back from vacation and boy have I been busy! Not necessarily with beer related items or activities, but with life in general. Last week Mallory and I spent a few days in New York City with our boys and her parents...Yes, the in-laws (really not bad as most would think!) We drove to New Jersey on Wednesday morning, getting there in time to attend the Yankee/Ranger game that night. In preparation for the game my father-in-law and I went out in search of some good craft brews (a great thing about my father in law... he like himself a craft beer...or two) We arrived at a local liquor store in East Rutherford, NJ with hopes that they will have a decent selection with brews that I cannot usually get in Northern Virginia. You can understand how horrified I was when all I saw was horrible Budweiser and Bud Lite. Yet like a shinning light from God there was one shelf full of Samuel Adams Octoberfest!

You may be surprised when I tell you this, but it was my first time ever having this Samuel Adams beer. I have never really been into fall seasonal beers mainly because I have never liked anything with pumpkin in it, but this is not a pumpkin beer and I am a bit more open minded now. So with no pretense in mind I cracked a few bottles in the parking lot waiting to go into the game and I must say I was very pleased. The beer was very smooth, with a great blend of the malty flavor you would expect from a beer better suited for the fall season than the summer. However, the malt flavor was actually a great choice since it was a rainy evening and the game was rain delayed.

Once inside the stadium I figured that I would not find anything worth drinking, but again I was pleasantly surprised when I found Goose Island IPA on tap at each stand. Again this was a beer I had not had before and found myself enjoying it immensely. It did not pucker your mouth like some IPA's, which is not a bad thing some times, but this beer was sweet like IPA's yet not overly so. Very drinkable which will leave you the ability to drink more than a couple before being down and out for the night, which is always a plus.  I would not hesitate to get this IPA again and will be looking for it at my local Wegmans.

Thursday's plan was to venture into the city and do some exploring, this is where the kids got really excited, they thought when we said World Trade Center we meant World TRAIN Center, crazy boys! This was not a beer excursion so no major opportunities to search the city of its wonderful hidden gems of beer goodness, but I was able to get a good idea that I want to go back just Mallory and I and really spend time exploring the concrete jungle that is New York City. We did stop for lunch/drinks in Battery Park where we found a Beer Garden featuring Victory Brewing Company, here I had their lager and Festbier, both of which were as good as you would expect from Victory Brewing. I was a bit surprised that a Philadelphia brewery would be in Manhattan and not a New York brewer, but that's a story for a different time. For dinner we stopped at an alehouse in the Upper West Side called Amsterdam Alehouse. This was a great place with great beer, with my dinner I had a Dale's Pale Ale drawn from a cask. For those not in the know a cask is just like a keg however the carbonation is lighter than what is usually found in beer (yes I know this is not an in depth description, but that's not what I am here for tonight).

All in all this was a good trip, it was the kids first time to the Big Apple and they had a good time. It was a quick trip that seemed longer just because of all of the walking around the city. I highly suggest spending a weekend to tour the city of your choice be it for the beer or just for the city experience I am sure you will have a good time. Best of all I was able to spend some great quality time with Mallory and the kids away from work!

Cheers!

International IPA Day

Hoppy IPA Day everyone...get it, hoppy!? I make myself laugh sometimes (admittedly more often than other people really). If you have not already heard , which if you are reading this I doubt thats the case; today is the second official IPA Day(IPA Day history). IPA day was created by online personalities Ashley Routson of Bison Brewing in California (Bison Brewing) and Ryan Ross of Karl Strauss Brewing Company (Karl Strauss Brewing Company). They wanted something that would unite the whole craft beer world, from California to Maine to Europe and beyond. I think it worked. I saw some statistics today and there were 6.4 thousand tweets with hashtag #IPADay and 4.7 thousand blogs/posts. It is amazing to me that the craft beer world is still so small and that people have not caught on yet!

I must admit that I have been excited and anxious about writing this particular blog post for the past week or so. The IPA beer has become the staple of just about every American Craft Brewery, and no two brews are alike while some breweries like Sierra Nevada and Oskar Blues have two different strong Pale Ales, so I knew I had to find a brew that was new (at least to me) and write a poignant and informative review. I have succeeded in finding a newer IPA I even went with a Double IPA and hopefully I will succeed in the latter.

Tonight was my last evening of manual labor with my dad for a little while, how long, I do not know. It is also the last night that I have to stay home alone and dress myself in the morning! The dressing myself is the scary part..trust me, I can however tie my own tie...YAY ME!

The beer that I am drinking tonight is from the Long Trail Brewmaster Series: Double IPA. It clocks in at 8.6% ABV with an 86 IBU rating. What this means to you is that this is a strong, bitter beer, at least in theory. Long Trail has brewed this IPA with the decidedly American Chinook and Cascade Hops. The Cascade hops give the beer a distinctive floral and "citrusy" taste while the Chinook hops give smokey and herbal flavors. This special bottle gives the drinker instructions on how to pour as well as what kind of glass to pour into. This being the big beer it is you will want to pour slowly so that the head does not get so big that you cannot drink right away. You will also want to serve this beer chilled at around 45-50 degrees, which in my opinion is to keep the alcohol flavor somewhat suppressed.

Upon tasting this DIPA your mouth is hit with the hops and all the floral and citrus flavors, but what Long Trail has done really well is bring out the malt flavor. If you let the brew sit on your tongue (its hard not to swallow good beer right away as I am sure you know this already) you can really feel the low carbonation of the beer and the alcohol softly hits the back of your nose. This beer gets better as you continue to sip and I will say my second glass was a lot better than my first, which is very impressive.

I am considering the purchase of another 1.6 pint bottle for ageing purposes, just to see how the character will change. Overall I enjoyed this beer, maybe not one I would get for an everyday drinking session, but one I would get for special occasions or special dinners, but make sure you are having a strong meat like beef brisket or grilled Lamb...at least that's what Long Trail says! Don't take my word for it, take theirs!

Happy reading and Cheers!

My Journey

I started my journey into the world of craft beer almost a year ago now. It all started when I became fed up with being told that I should be drinking what everyone else was; fizzy yellow water! My solution to getting away from macro brewed beer? Try/look for a new beer at my local grocery store or Total Wine every week, luckily both do a great job of procuring craft beer from around the country.

At this point I do not remember what my first adventure was (other than Sam Adams and their long list of craft brews) however I do remember my mouth exploding with flavor. I found beer and flavors that stretched and in some cases exceeded limits of what was considered beer by most standards (and mine up until this point).

During the past year I have made it my mission to learn all that I could about craft beer and the brewing process. While on my search I have found that I was not alone in my quest for great beer. The craft beer community is full of great people who enjoy conversing, sharing and drinking everything that is craft beer. It seems we all have one goal in mind...TRY MORE GREAT BEER!

Although my journey is a great one and I generally believe I am up for the challenge to try every beer ever made, I could not have gotten this far had it not been for my wife who has allowed me to bore her with details of each beer and consenting to taste tests right a long with me!

So as we embark on the next leg of my journey we go together, I will share the beers I am tasting and buying, as well as things that are going on in my life at that moment...I will post pictures here, on instagram, twitter and Facebook feel free to follow (maamrb5, andrewbutler85 and Andrew Butler).

Thanks for reading and Cheers!