Holy Crap, this stuff's delicious... Boxcar Pumpkin Porter

I sat down at the bar at Barley's, an Asheville institution, and looked up at the chalk board above the taps. My eye was immediately drawn to the word "pumpkin." 

Then I noticed the other words around it "Starr Hill Brewing Boxcar" and then, "Porter."

A porter? What deliciousness is this?

I don't have too much experience with Starr Hill, a brewery out of Virginia. I know I've tried a few of their beers before, but they haven't stood out to me before.

Until now.

As I have mentioned before there are two types of pumpkin beers - pumpkin flavor and pumpkin spice flavor. I am firmly in the pumpkin spice camp.

This pumpkin porter was a near perfect example of the style. The dark, rich porter was an excellent base for the pie spices. Porters can be heavy beers but this one made me want to go back for more. Seriously, if you have any desire for a pumpkin spice flavored beer, this is one of the best offerings I've had in town. Get thee to Barley's before it is gone!

If you're not in Asheville, check out the Starr Hill Beer Finder here!  

Beer City USA Poll Open Until Friday, May 10th

Taps at Green Man Brewery, AKA Dirty Jack's, in Asheville

There are just a couple of day left to vote for Beer City USA. Check out the poll here if you haven't voted yet.

I cast my vote on Monday. I voted for Asheville, of course. There are 22 cities on the list and I am extremely proud to live in one of them.

I am extremely happy to live in a city where there is such an amazing beer culture. I love that I can walk between several top notch breweries within the downtown area. I am excited that more will be opening their doors.

I decided on Monday that I was only going to drink Asheville beer until the voting was closed. Not that it would do anything to influence the vote. I just love Asheville beer. I just decided that for one week I want to support the local brewers only. It is for me more than them.

Wall o' beer at Bell's Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo

Asheville has been Beer City USA for four years in a row, tying last year with Grand Rapids, Michigan. I think we have some great competition this year. I was surprised to see three Michigan cities on the list (Along with Grand Rapids are Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor). My fear is that this will split the Michigan vote. Out of the three, I personally prefer Kalamazoo - home of Bell's Brewery - because I went to college there and I love the beer.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter who wins the most unscientific internet poll. What I do know is that Asheville has a fantastic beer culture and we like to share it with the rest of the country. Want to see what it is all about? Then come on down to Asheville.

Asheville beer week starts on May 25th, eventually culminating with Beer City Fest on June 1st. We will be at various events around town so we hope to see you there.

Sweeping Declaration: I know the Best Beer in Asheville

Okay, okay...I know. Beer taste is entirely subjective. You might prefer stouts or you might like hyper-hoppy double IPAs. That means making a sweeping declaration like The Best Beer in Asheville is really completely meaningless. That isn't going to stop me from saying it.

A couple weeks ago, Wicked Weed was unleashed on a pretty saturated Asheville beer scene. A couple of things could have happened. Either it wasn't all it was cracked up to be and would become a footnote on the pages of Asheville Beer History, or it would be awesome.

Spoiler - it's awesome.

The restaurant and casual bar upstairs is a great place to grab a pint and eat some delicious food. I might recommend the Caesar Salad which is made with Napa cabbage instead of romaine lettuce which makes it so much better that your average Caesar Salad. Downstairs is the practically steampunk themed bar serving half pints of some more experimental brews. After 4pm the place starts to get mega-crowded both upstairs and down so get there early if you can.

Which brings me to my Sweeping Declaration.

I am about to say it. Buckle up.

The best beer in all of Asheville is Heresy Brown Ale from Wicked Weed Brewery. 

You really need to try this beer. It is a dry hopped brown ale and the blend of malty goodness and the perfectly balanced hops is exquisite.

There is no other shoe to drop, either. Try anything else at Wicked Weed and you will likely be impressed. Most of the things they brew and serve are delicious. In fact, I shouldn't say most. I haven't had a beer there that I didn't like. I even had to admit that some of the styles that I don't normally like were very well done. If you want something more like a Trappist beer try the Abigail Dubbel. If you want an easy drinking beer with a surprising amount of complexity try their lowest alcohol offering; Sir Ryan the Pounder. But if you want something really special and you like hops and malt, seriously consider the Heresy Brown Ale. 

Oskar Blues in Brevard

Oskar Blues Brewery, out of Colorado, has recently opened a facility near Asheville in Brevard, NC.

The coolest part - they offer a TROLLEY that picks you up in downtown Asheville and takes you all the way to the brewery then brings you back to town as soon as the brewery closes. What awesomeness is that. They are doing this on Saturdays and it leaves from behind Thirsty Monk off of Coxe at 5pm. Drops you off in the same spot.

So it is pretty awesome to get a ride out to the brewery and not have to drive but on top of that their beers are delicious. My favorite was the G'Knight, an imperial red ale. Yum.

I started drinking it before I remembered to take a photo of it.

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! 

Writing about beer quite a bit...just not here

I have been doing quite a bit of writing about beer, thanks for asking. Fortunately for me those posts are going up at Beer City Guide instead of here. So If you're looking for great new beer content from me, go there and check it out. While you're there, check out some of the other stuff. It is all good.

I am really enjoying these opportunities to check out breweries in the Asheville area. I've been able to review old favorites as well as brand new operations in the area.

Seriously, go read them. I might cry if you don't.

In the tiny glasses laid before me were the Porter, the ESB, a cask ESB, the IPA, and their summer seasonal Wheat. Our bartender, Autumn, declared the ESB the best beer but said that IPA was most popular. She did concede that it was popular for potentially all the wrong reasons – everyone (*cough* hipsters *cough*) wants to try IPAs even if they don’t like them. The ESB has been my favorite since I discovered it, though. It is a delicious example of a bitter beer with just the right caramel notes. I was surprised to find myself unimpressed with the cask ESB, however. I thought the regular tap was more complex while the cask tasted strongly of the caramel and chocolate with less hops coming through.

Oh the places you'll go...with beer!

Quitting my job and moving to Asheville to pursue writing full time has proven to be most advantageous. Among my favorite new projects is writing for the Asheville Beer City Guide.  Seriously, check it out!

I began my exploration of all that Beer Week has to offer by starting the day at Mellow Mushroom. At 11am Tuesday they offered specials on Southern Tier; all two styles available. I enjoyed a 2XIPA, but that wasn’t the most exciting part of the experience. Talking to a colorful gentleman visiting from Atlanta about jail and leather bondage gear was way more fun. There is no limit to the things you might discuss with strangers in Asheville.

There are several more projects that I am very excited about and I can't wait to share them with you!

First Big Asheville Beer Adventure

I just moved to the Asheville area on Wednesday, May 9th. The move had been planned, to one degree or another, for about three years so it is super exciting to actually be here and settled in.  You can read about that adventure here.

Now that we're here, we decided to spend our first Saturday on a grand beer adventure to the great city of Black Mountain NC, home of Pisgah Brewing.

The day actually started out pretty early with a trip to the Asheville City Market - a farmer's market. We had signed up for a CSA before our move and this was the first day they would be set up at the market. It started at 8am but we figured we'd get there around 9ish, so we did.  But once we were out we didn't want to go back home.  We put our findings in a cooler and made our way out to Black Mountain.

The town is only about 20 minutes east of Asheville so it didn't take long. We parked in the little downtown area and just wandered about. We stopped at a couple little shops including the general store and then just kept walking until lunchtime. At this point, we found a new place called Trailhead.  It is owned, in part, by one of the owners of Pisgah Brewing so they had a lot of Pisgah beers on tap. We sat down, ordered a beer and some food.  Matt got the Pisgah Pale, a beer that is pretty popular in this area.  I ordered the Riverbend Brown. But out of curiosity, we couldn't pass up a tap labeled "Bacon". I'll tell you a little more about this beer soon, but when we tried a small sample glass as Trailhead we were surprised that is was kind of good. I'm not a fan of smokey beers, which seem to be very popular these days. In fact, I have written about how much I disliked smokey beers in the past. I wouldn't drink a pint of the Pisgah bacon, but it really wasn't that bad.

After lunch, we found a little walking path around a lake near the downtown area and went for a stroll. The ultimate endgame for the afternoon was to end up at Pisgah's tasting room but it was too early right after lunch to head out that way. We walked and talked and enjoyed the slightly overcast day in the mountains. We started to make our way toward the brewery, but since we had only been there once over a year ago, we couldn't precisely remember how to get there.  So we drove around a lot, mostly making wrong turns. Eventually we called for directions and finally we made it to the brewery.  We bellied up to the bar and each ordered an IPA when a gentleman walked up to us to let us know a tour was about to happen. Awesome! As soon as we got our beers we caught the back of the tour line and walked into the belly of the beast.

As a home brewer, small commercial breweries fascinate me. While I use couple pounds of malts, I love to see the bags and bags and bags lining the walls of a production facility.  We were told that they muscle all of the grains by hand into the mill and then into the mash tun.  You could tell from the tour that Pisgah was truly a labor of love.  And what makes Pisgah truly unique is that everything they brew is certified organic.  And that, my friends, is why it tastes so damn delicious.

It was at this tour that we learned more about the Bacon Stout. They used a chocolate stout base but added 60 pounds of USDA certified organic bacon to the secondary fermentation. Yes, you read that right. Real, actual, bacon. They seasoned and smoked it up before adding it to the beer process and then let it do the magic.  When it was ready, everyone at the brewery tried a glass and quickly realized that while it wasn't bad it was also about half grease. They let the beer sit a little longer until the grease separated out and then it was ready for the public. 

I failed to get the name of our tour guide, but he was very informative and fun to listen to.  I was glad we accidentally stumbled in right as the tour started.  Because it is a pretty small brewery, the presentation didn't last too long so we were able to sit in the outdoor area for a while enjoying our beers.

We eventually made it back to Asheville and stopped at Barley's Tap Room for some pizza and a couple more local beers - this time favorites from French Broad. We were still back at our little mountain home before dark to put away our stash from the farmer's market and settle in for the night.
The beer scene in Asheville is super inspiring. Lots of fun events coming up, including the Beer City Festival in just a couple of weeks. I suspect that this sadly neglected blog will be getting some additional attention now that we live in Beer City USA.

The consequences of questionable decisions

There are a lot of poor decisions that beer consumption can lead to*. "Drink Responsibly" is not just a catch phrase in advertising for alcoholic beverages. Understanding your own responsibility when it comes to beer is probably the most important thing you can consider before enjoying that beverage.

There are some lesser infractions, however. This Super Bowl Sunday, I gave in to one of those. The "Free Beer Glass" decision. I love collecting beer glasses. I have a growing collection. Occasionally, though, it is probably a good idea just to say no.

As you may have seen recently, I just spent a week's vacation traveling in the south east. On that trip, with friends, we went to a local sports bar to watch the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Being a Detroit Lions fan, it is sometimes difficult for me to get really into the super bowl game. We arrived by cab at this sports bar a little before the game and planned to stay until about half time and get some wings and have a couple of drinks. The waitress approached and told us about her specials, which included "blah blah blah blah with free football shaped beer glass blah blah blah blah." I was sold. I didn't care what it was, I wanted that beer glass. She even told us that since we get to keep the glass after we drink the first beer we could just get pitchers of other beer and use the glasses. This sounded like the best idea ever.

Turns out, the beer was Coors Light. Now, if you enjoy Coors, that is fine for you. What ever you like, I'm okay with that. I do not, however, like it. Many years ago, our friend Dann (who we were traveling with) offered me a Coors Light style beer when we first met and I looked at him and said "No! Beer Yucky!" which he thought was hilarious. It was a shock to him when he learned I was enjoying beer at all. Well, for me Coors is the epitome of "Beer Yucky." But for the good of the Football Shaped Beer Glass (tm), I was willing to suffer through.

Thankfully, we did have that option to purchase pitchers to fill up our Coors Light glasses after the first sampling. We resolved that problem with Sweetwater 420. Interestingly enough, I am just starting to explore pale ales. I find that this Atlanta brewery's flagship beer is a very drinkable beer.

Later in the week, I felt the need to make reparations for the partially regretted decision to get the Football Shaped Beer Glasses (tm). While on a visit to the beautiful Biltmore in Asheville on the last day of our vacation, Matt and I enjoyed some Biltmore brewed beers and acquired a more sophisticated pair of pints. I enjoyed the brown ale and Matt had the pale ale.

I suppose this will not be the last time I fall victim for the free glass with purchase trap. Sometimes you get nice glasses, and sometimes you get Football Shaped Beer Glasses (tm).

*Please be aware that this video is pretty intense. No matter how intense it is, the Australian PSA might be one of the most powerful drunk driving commercials anyone can watch.