Brown Beer and Autumn Hikes: Two Great Tastes that Go Great Together!

The last two weekend I've gone hiking. After these hiking trips I have enjoyed a brown ale at a local watering hole. I thought I would share those with you.

The first hike was at Laurel River near Hot Springs, NC. It was a 7 mile hike total, which was a little long for someone like me. I really wanted to give up at about the 6 mile mark but where would I go? No helicopter would come rescue me, so I had to keep hiking.

After we did finally crawl back to the car we drove into the town of Hot Springs to the Spring Creek Tavern and had a seat at the bar. It is a really nice place with great atmosphere. We haven't tried their food yet, but we plan to next time we're up in Hot Springs.

I ordered a Bell's Best Brown, a great year round brown beer brewed by Bell's in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I consider Bell's my first craft brewery even though that is a slight exaggeration. I went to college in Kalamazoo but at the time I didn't drink beer at all so I can't really claim to have been a fan in the 90s. I'm willing to jump on that band wagon now, though.

This brown ale is one of my favorites when I am in the mood for malty goodness, which I usually am about this time of year. It is well balanced with just enough hops to give it some character but not too much to draw attention away from the roasted malt flavors.

If you like traditional browns with just a hint of something extra this one is a good bet for you. It is sweet and caramel-y. It is perfect for a crisp fall afternoon or for the first beer to quench your thirst after a long and strenuous hike.

For the second hike in as many weeks, we drove down to Tallulah Gorge in North Georgia and met up with some friends from Atlanta. The hike around the gorge is pretty easy with the most difficult being over 600 steps down to a suspension bridge and 500 steps back up to the top of the gorge. It took me a while to make it up the steps. I'm not really what you would call "in shape" and I have asthma so I puffed my way up one section of stairs at a time.

After our hike we drove up to the town of Clayton, Georgia and discovered their quaint downtown area. We stopped for dinner and drinks at the Universal Joint. I was surprised to find this place in such a small town. There is also a Universal Joint in Ashevlle.

There I ordered a Duck Rabbit Brown Ale which is brewed in Farmville, North Carolina. They served it to me in a Red Hare glass, which is a brewery out of Atlanta. It seemed appropriate. Duck Rabbit specializes in dark beers and their Milk Stout is one of my very favorites of all time, which I know is a pretty bold declaration.

Duck Rabbit Brown Ale is rich with a very well played bitterness to the hops profile. It is a strong beer that can stand up on its own if you like that sort of thing. The dominating flavors for me in this one is chocolate and coffee but neither are overwhelming. They play off each other and the hoppy bitterness very well. If you want a brown beer with a little more punch than most of them check out this one.

Have you been out hiking this fall? Have you stopped for a beer afterwards to quench your thirst? What have you been drinking?

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.

Recent Adventures in Beer

I've been absent from the Beer Blog lately and that isn't for lack of trying. The brown is still in the carboy brewing and the ESB has matured nicely in the bottles that it has lost that Belgian sugar taste.

 

Since that time, there have been a couple of beer related events. 

 

On April 28th, we went to our favorite local beer bar for the NFL Draft's opening night.  We intended to go to a super secret beer club, but when we arrived we discovered it was closed for a private event. We ended up at the public bar to watch the draft instead. While there, we talked with some other guys at the bar.  That is one of the things I love about beer. It is a great way to have a conversation with a total stranger.  It began with a discussion of Allagash beers, which was a favorite of one of the attendees.  Turns out he is also a regular but more regular than we are and also a member of the beer club with a lot more beers under his belt.  He knows his stuff when it comes to dealing with the beer club politics.  This conversation led to each of us trying a different Allagash beer.  Myself and another guy tried the Allagash White.  Matt tried the Allagsh Dubel and the Beer Chancelor and the fourth guy had the Allagash Tripel.  We discussed the various complexities of these beers and enjoyed conversation about that as well as about Football. 

 

Two days later, we went back to the same bar for their parking lot beer fest.  We got there early, went inside to have a pre-beerfest drink and then went out to the festival.  It was a really hot day though and I learned a very important lesson, kids.  Hydrate!  We had walked to the bar - about three miles - and by the time I had that first beer and not a lot of water I started to feel dizzy.  We didn't stay long.  I wish we could have, there were a lot of beers but the thought of just standing in the sun all day didn't sound like fun once we were out there. So, when we talk about drinking responsibly, there is more to it than not driving or useless bar ware. Make sure you keep hydrated.

 

The next day, though, we donned our Ye Old Renaissance Festival Costumes and joined some friends for a day of fun at the Georgia Renaissance Festival.  I was hoping for great local beer, but alas they were service Ye Old Wisconsin Leinenkugel.  They had the Amber and the Summer Shandy.  For as ridiculous as it sounds, the Summer Shandy was actually very satisfying and refreshing.  A good time was had by all. 

 

On Monday, we were out at the bar with some friends and I was able to introduce some folks to some of my favorite beers.  My friend Jack wanted to try some stouts so he had Bell's Java Stout and, my personal favorite stout, Duck Rabbit Milk Stout. He was pleased with my recommendations.  Several of us decided we should get together more often.  Beer brings people together.  

There will be bottling soon. I'll update on the brown when that happens.  The next project will be using what I learned in Designing Great Beer to create my own recipe. First plan - a wheat. 

Two Beer Events in One Week

This has been a very good week in the world of beer for both Atlanta GA and Asheville NC.

On Thursday, January 20th we went to the Taco Mac in Kennesaw for the introduction of the California brewery Lost Abbey in Georgia. I learned about Lost Abbey earlier this year when there was some controversy surrounding their summer beer, Witch's Wit.  Throughout the online discussions, I often wondered whether or not the beer was worth all of the attention.  I had wanted to try it, but it wasn't yet available in Georgia, until this past week.

We met some friends at the Kennesaw restaurant and enjoyed dinner and conversation.  Then we dove headfirst into the beer selections.  The bar had several available on tap and a few bottles.  I tried the Lost Abbey Red Barn at first and honestly I didn't really like it.  That wasn't because it was a bad beer, but because it had flavors that I don't prefer.  It is a Belgian style beer with a lot of complexity, but it was heavy with the hops and I'm not a friend of hops. I want to be able to understand the intense flowery taste of hops more, but this beer featured more than my palate could really handle.  In fact, the taste was so strong it lingered after I finished this beer and may have affected my taste of the second beer that I tried. 

Which brings me to that second beer.  I had read about Gift of The Magi back in November and was quite intrigued.  It is brewed with Frankincense and Myrrh for Christmastime.  I wasn't sure if that would be gimmicky or good, so I really wanted to experience it.  As I said before, I'm not certain I got the full flavor profile because the Red Barn affected my taste buds, but I did enjoy the beer.  It was a spicy Belgian style beer that I believe lived up to my expectations.

However, the winning beer of the evening was the Couvee de Tomme which was enjoyed by two of my bar-going companions, Emily and Robin.  As you can see, Emily endorses it highly.   It is a strong wild ale with a heavy secondary fermentation with cherries which made it taste, as my friend's described, like a really good cherry wine.  Lost Abbey does consider several of their beers to be more wine-like than traditional beer, so I can see where this fit that description.  I tried several sips of the beer and while it was fruitier than I typically like my beer to be these days I can agree it is a very good fruit beer.  It is exactly the kind of beer I would have liked when I first started exploring lambics.

The second beer themed event that I attended this week was the Winter Warmer Beer Festival in Asheville.  On Saturday, Matt and I left for Asheville and arrived in town in time for lunch, which we enjoyed at the Twisted Crape.    From there we made our way to the Civic Center for the festival. The event had sold out, but we got there pretty early and were near the front of the entrance line.  Matt and I were both wearing our knitted Beer Hats, which as a side note we had no less than 4 comments on throughout the event.  We even pointed someone to our friend Susan's knitting website and told her to leave a comment about the hats because she wanted a pattern to knit one for herself. 

At the festival were all breweries from the South East.  Mostly North and South Carolina, two breweries from Tennessee and one from Georgia.  I make no excuses when I say that "Local Beer" is my favorite kind of beer.  I love local beer because it is typically the freshest available.  I love tasting local beer wherever I go.  There were some definite highlights.  We tried to start out with beer that we hadn't had before so we purposefully skipped over several of the Asheville breweries.  We had heard about a German-style brewery from Sylva, NC called Heinzelmannchen.  I had their Black Forest Stout which was a crisp beer with caramel and coffee flavors.  We also tried Lonerider from Raleigh.  Matt really liked their Peacemaker Pale Ale and I liked their Sweet Josie Brown.  The real star of the beer festival for us was a Tennessee brewery called Yazoo.  Matt had their Sue and I tried their Sly Rye Porter, which we shared tastes of with each other.  Both beers were premium examples of their styles.  We talked with one of the guys from Yazoo and asked them where they were located (Nashville) and where they were distributed.  He said they didn't distribute at all and the only reason they come to the Asheville beer festivals is because they love the people and the city and it is just fun for them.  I would definitely check out Yazoo if we find ourselves in Nashville. 

Once we had tried several new beers, we went back to some of the breweries that we were already familiar with.  Duck Rabbit Milk Stout is one of my favorite beers, so I couldn't pass that up.  Atlanta brewery SweetWater did not have any of the beers that I like so I tried their flagship beer, 420.  It is a pale ale and as I have mentioned I have not yet cultivated a relationship with hops.  I wanted to try more hoppy beers this year even if in the end I determine that I don't like them.  420 is not bad.  It isn't as hoppy as other beers I have tried and it is all around drinkable. I don't think I would have it a lot, but I might try it again.  However, out of the tried-and-true breweries I have to say I enjoyed Pisgah Porter the best.  This led to a discussion of what makes a really good beer.  One of the reasons I like Pisgah Porter so much is that no matter where I am when I taste that beer I know it is Pisgah beer.  It tasted like Black Mountain NC.  It has some IT-factor that I am not sure I can define.  We came to the conclusion that the flavor is actually "Consistency", but I think it might actually be, as cliche as it sounds, "Love."  Of course, we tried a lot of other beers as well but these are the ones I wanted to share here. 

All of the beer events this week were a lot of fun as well as an educational exploration of beer styles and brands.  This is why I love the art of beer.