November 21, 2014: This Week in Winter Beer

This week in winter beer was strong right out of the gate.

The season kicked off for me at the Highland Brewing Cold Mountain Release party. Cold Mountain is the seasonal offering from Highland Brewing right here in Asheville. The recipe starts with the same base but each year they change up the flavoring agents. And this year they've hit it out of the ball park. The release party spanned three days last week - Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Matt and I hit the Friday event and enjoyed a regular pint of Cold Mountain and two of their flavor infusions: coconut and chocolate. From what we understand the brewery ran out of Cold Mountain on tap by mid-day Saturday. Some locals consider the hype to be overkill. Once the beer hits store shelves people go a little crazy to get their hands on it. But this year especially the hype is well-deserved. (I have a couple 22oz bottles in my fridge and I was able to get some on tap at King James Public House the instant they tapped their keg). If you have never tried Cold Mountain before I think this is the year.

Later this week I found myself at a local bar where two winter seasonals were on tap. Since "Winter Seasonal" isn't a specific style many breweries are just making any old beer and slapping a wintery name on them to sell more this time of year. That is how I feel about New Belgium's Accumulation White IPA. The kicker is that New Belgium has made a number of really good winter seasonals in the past that are no longer in production. Accumulation was available last year at least and maybe the year before so I was hoping they would have a new offering this year. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I found it lacking in much flavor that would differentiate it from anything else. I knew I wasn't going to like it but in an effort to make this blog as content rich as possible I thought I should give it another try. It was slightly watery and lacked body. However, if you like IPAs you may enjoy this one.

That same night I also drank this year's batch of Sierra Nevada's Celebration. Now here is a winter IPA I can get behind. It was rich, well balance, and a gorgeous holiday red color. Sierra Nevada, who recently opened a facility near Asheville, is known for their IPAs so it makes a lot of sense that they would concentrate on this flavor profile for their holiday beer. Several of the people I was with ordered more than one pint of this beer which I believe speaks to its drinkability. If you do like IPAs I would advise drinking this rather than Accumulation.

But then, the most amazing thing happen. Just yesterday I found myself at the local spot called Asheville Brewing. It is a relatively small scale brewery that seems very focused on maintaining their local status. They put out really good beers but most of them can only be found on tap at the brewery itself (they have three locations in town). They can a few of their flagship beers but the specialty brews are draft only. We were at the movie theater in the back of the restaurant, known as the Brew n' View, for another event all together. Some friends (ZaPow Gallery) had been featured in a PBS series called Start Up and they were screening the episode. What I wasn't expecting to find when I got there was my current favorite winter seasonal. Seriously, I just wanted to drink all kinds of it. The best part - it's called Ninjabread Porter. It is based on their popular Ninja Porter, which has won several awards around the country, but there was added ginger, raisins and some other stuff the bartender-guy said that I don't remember. Seriously, they had me at Ninjabread! I definitely plan on getting more of this while it lasts. So seriously, leave me some! 

I believe that Ninjabread is the perfect antidote for the people who believe that Cold Mountain is over-hyped.

That's my winter beer list for this week. I'm going to try to update every Friday - though with the holiday next week it may not happen as planned. However, I am specifically going on a beer hunt this weekend to find some great seasonals to pair with Thanksgiving dinner. If you have any suggestions please feel free to make them in the comments - including where to find them.

How About Some Browns

When I started this series I suggested that classic American Brown Ales were also "Fall Beers." There is no real reason for this except my personal preference. Unlike Oktoberfests and Pumpkin ales, you can get brown beers all year round but the comforting roasty flavors of browns make me thing of the cooling weather and falling leaves so I drink them this time of year.

Here are a couple browns that I've had recently.

Sweet Josie Brown.

Lonerider Brewery out of Raleigh, North Carolina, brews a fine brown beer called Sweet Josie Brown. It is, in fact, a pretty sweet little brown ale. It is very dark and the head is thick and creamy. It has a delightful sweet chocolate malt flavor with some light hops to balance it out, but not to many to make it an overly bitter beer. This is a really great drinking brown and goes well with a lot of flavors. I admit to drinking this one other times of the year as well if the desire to have a brown ale strikes me.

(I didn't have any good props for the photo of Sweet Josie Brown)

Beer Guy Grown.

Here in Asheville there is a local beer guy named Tony Kiss. In fact, people here do call him "The Beer Guy." Asheville Brewing created a tribute beer of sorts called Beer Guy Brown that they release again from time to time. I hadn't been able to grab it on tap there...until yesterday. The Asheville Brewing location on Merrimon Rd. in North Asheville is also known as the Brew N' View where you can see $3 second run movies and order a pizza and beer at the same time. Super fun times!  This week we went to see The Wolverine when I saw the tap labeled "Beer Guy Brown." I was finally able to give this delicious beer a try. It is a really drinkable beer - what people in the know call "sessionable." This just means it would make a great afternoon sipper for leaf watching from your back patio. Or something. It went very well with my buffalo chicken salad as well.I'm not sure how long this batch of Beer Guy Brown will last at Asheville Brewing, but I highly recommend getting out to give it a try.

(As you might imagine, it is difficult to get a photo of a beer in a dark movie theater.)

What kind of brown ales do you love this time of year?

Asheville Beer Week 2013: Sunday through Tuesday

This weekend kicked off the second annual Asheville Beer Week. I have been waiting 365 days for this week long, city wide event.

Matt on the Bus

A rival from Grand Rapids MI

The week started off with a bang. On Sunday afternoon we went on the LaZoom Comedy Tour which featured a special Beer Week performance by local sketch comedy group The Ferrel Chihuahuas. I will say I had no idea what to expect but it was a crazy good time. Beer was supplied on the bus by Bruisin' Ales and Asheville beer celebrity Julie Atallah was on hand for the tour. The comedy was top notch and we stopped at not one but two breweries along the way. (Wedge and Dirty Jack's, if you're keeping score.) As a side note, at the Green Man tasting room (AKA Dirty Jack's) we were able to check out their Rush Tribute Beer to celebrate the Canadian band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As a lifelong Rush fan this was kind of exciting and the Red Barchetta did not disappoint. The trip was so crazy that a friend sitting on the patio of a local bar heard us drive by while we were singing the fantastic song, "A Moocher is a person in your Beer-borhood." You know the tune - from Sesame Street. Other versus included the Hipster and the Beer Snob. Fantastic. I've had the song stuck in my head for days now.

I find it hard to believe that much will top the LaZoom and Ferrel Chihuahua Comedy Beer Tour.

On Monday we took things easy and went to dinner at Jack of Hearts where we are Monday regulars.

Laundry beer

Then yesterday (Tuesday if you're keeping track) we made it to three total places. First, we had to make a stop at Bar of Soap mostly because we had to do laundry. I love their canned beer selection and a current favorite is Uinta Brewing's Sum'r ale which is easy to drink and only 4% alcohol.

In spite of the photographic evidence I do not recommend the consumption of laundry soap with your beer. Also, in case your wondering, the sock change purse is where we keep our laundry quarters. It made sense. You know, because it is a sock.

Milk Stout Float

After our Laundry was done we went right up the street to Luella's BBQ which was hosting a "Duck. Rabbit. Pig." event with Duck Rabbit Brewing out of Farmville, NC. We were able to meet the beer rep from Duck Rabbit, but unfortunately I don't not remember his name - though we did talk with him for quite a white. Luella's had prepared several small plates so we ordered one of each and they were amazing. The best being apple, bacon, and cheddar fritters with a molasses butter sauce. I would eat those every day. We also had a Duck Rabbit Milk Stout float made with the stout, of course, and Ultimate Ice Cream's salted caramel flavor ice cream. It was absolutely delicious and decadent.

After Luella's we walked up to the Asheville Brewing Company's Brew and View on Merrimon. We wanted to try their special Beer Week release of the Perfect Day IPA. It was very hoppy and quite refreshing. At this point I had forgotten I was trying to take photos so you're just going to have to imagine it.

There are more events for the rest of the week - including the Beer City Festival on Saturday. Stick around and I'll share more about our fun times.

Beer and Now: The Future!

Hello Beer and Now readers! I'm sorry there hasn't been much content here lately. I have big plans for the site though, so stay tuned.

I'm afraid I have been spending quite a bit of time focusing on tiny houses. See, I started writing for two tiny house blogs and I have my first book due out in March. You can check out my other site, 120squarefeet.com for more information about that.

However, I intend to revive this blog a bit not only writing about beer making, which I will be doing again soon, but also about the Asheville beer scene. There is so much awesome beer and related beer culture in this city that I should be writing about here. I hope to be able to pay some attention to this blog even while everything with the tiny house writing is going on.

In the meantime, here are some beer related photos for your viewing pleasure.

Delicious Dogfish Head beers from a pint night at Thirsty Monk in May.

A tiny taste of Asheville Brewing's Summer beer, District 12 back in May. Look at my tiny orange! 

And then the Asheville Summer Beer Festival

Mmm... bacon and beer.

And we went to the Oktoberfest celebration downtown. It was Fall and I could finally wear my beer hat! 

And Matt got this tiny beer at Thirsty Monk.

And, finally, I had this delicious Cold Mountain while sitting on the patio of the Grove Park Inn overlooking Asheville.

I'm glad you've stuck around. Be prepared for some new content and possibly big changes here at Beer and Now!