Are you looking for FREE BEER?

Or do you just want to sample a few beers before you buy? Stop in to Bell Beverage in Philadelphia PA Fridays 4-6pm or Saturdays 11am-5pm and sample beers from a featured brewery each week. Here is a link to the event page for Bell.

http://www.bellbeverage.com/events

Where will you be in March 2009?

2008 brought the first ever Philly Beer Week (10 days of tastings, dinners, fests and all kind of BEER events) and it was a success. The 2009 dates have been announced and should be even better. This year there will be more events throughout not just Philly but the suburbs as well and more exciting things to come.

Heading West....Northwest actually!

Linda and I are heading to Seattle on 7/4/08. We will be in Seattle 7/4 through 7/6. We will be attending the Beerfest either 7/4 or 7/5. From there we are heading to Leavenworth and Lake Chilean on the Cascade Loop. Then back to Seattle for a day or two and flying home 7/12. We were here 5 years ago for a driving Honeymoon through the Cascade Mountains. Can't wait to go again........

Super Kitty and more....

I had to go to Long Island for work this week and of course I stopped into a local beer store to pick up some stuff I can not get around me. I got a 6 pack of Hurricane Kitty and a bottle of 2007 Super Kitty. I have not had Keegan Ales beers before but was excited to find Super Kitty as I hear it is very good and very limited each year.

I also picked up a 22 oz. bottle of Hoptimus Prime by Legacy which should be available near me but I was unable to find any and a bottle of AleSmith Grand Cru.

Can't wait.....

With Philly Beer Week fast approaching, one event I am looking forward to is the Local Brewers Self-Guided tour of Center City-Seven Philly breweries at EIGHT of Center City's best bars
Time TBA. Pay as you go
Stop in at these great bars and meet the brewers who make some of best beer in the region. Local brewers will be on hand for about 45 minutes at each stop.
Dock Street Espresso Porter at Good Dog, 224 S. 15th St.
Nodding Head BPA at Nodding Head Brewery, 1516 Sansom St.
Iron Hill Vienna Lager at Jose Pistola's, 263 S. 15th St.
Sly Fox Seamus Red Ale at Devil's Alley Bar & Grill, 1907 Chestnut St.
Troegs Nugget Nectar at Fergie's Pub, 1214 Sansom St.
Flying Fish Bourbon Abbey Dubbel at Misconduct Tavern, 1511 Locust St.
Yards Thomas Jefferson Tavern Ale at Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant, 247 S. 17th St.
The Tour culminates upstairs at McGillins Old Ale House, 1310 Drury St., where each brewery will be featured.

The main reason is to taste the Flying Fish Borbon Abbey Dubbel again. I had tried this a while back at the brewery and it was very good.......Can't wait to get it again and I am hoping with their new bottling line, this brew makes it to bottles sometime soon!

Pub Room

Since I posted the below picture from the Pub Room, here are two more.

Southern Tier Brewing

These guys have moved up in my mind to be quite an awesome brewery. This year alone they have come out with some excellent brews in their Blackwater series. All BIG Beers with 10%+ aqlcohol but man are they good. If you have not tried this year's newest ones, you should hunt them doen now:

Pumking-Probably can't find it now but this was a great pumpkin beer and I usually think most pumpkin beers are just OK. This ine smelled and tasted like dessert!

Oat-Their Oatmeal stout-Very Good

Jah-Va-Their coffee stout-Even Better!

Choklat-You guessed it, their chocolate stout. Another one that smells and tastes so chocolatey you would think it is dessert!

and then their 3 Hoppiest releases:

Unearthly, Hoppe and Gemini (which is a blend of the previous two and so smooth).

All of these beers are Imperial and very well balanced in my opinion! Check out my tribute to Southern Tier in my Pub room i nthe above photo.

Philly Beer Week

It's amost here, Philly Beer Week! Check out the calendar on their website for all the excitement:

http://www.phillybeerweek.org/index.html

WOW-It has been like 9 months since I posted....

Yeah-I really have not stayed up on this. Not sure why. Probably because I am not really sure what I want to accomplish here.....I am going to try and keep it up again. We'll see what happens with it...........

Rehoboth Trip-Part 2

OK-So I am a little late posting the rest of the details about the Rehoboth/Dogfish trip. On 3/31 we went to the brewery in Milton De for the 3:00 PM tour. As luck would have it, Sam Caligione was giving that days tour and it was a funny, informative tour with a lot of free sampling of great beers. This was the most generous brewery tour I have been on. The tour lasted a little over an hour and we sampled Raison D'Etre, 60 minute IPA, 90 minute IPA, Shelter Pale Ale and the Brown ale. As the owner and the one who created Dogfish, Sam was able to give a unique perspective on the brewery tour and on the state of craft beer. We really enjoyed the tour. After the tour we purchased some beer (2 bottles of Red & White, a bottle of Black & Blue, a 4 pack of Burton Baton and a 4 pack of 120 Minute). We then headed back to the Brewpub in rehoboth for dinner and we drank 90 minute IPA that was dry hopped using Randall the Enamel Animal! It was a really good two days of Dogfish!