Empire State Brewing and Music Festival
Well that was fun. Me and Lisa and Buck and Sharon went to this. As best I can reconstruct it, I tried the following beers:
Middle Ages: Druid Fluid (OK barley wine), Dragon Slayer (excellent imperial stout)
Victory: Hop Devil (always good)
Flying Bison: Some pale ale dry hopped with Cascades
Southern Tier: Some sort of Porter
Blue Point: Toasted Lager (pretty nice)
Wolaver's: Organic brown. So-so.
Dogfish Head: Sixty-Minute and Aprihop. Wish they had brought something more unusual.
Abita: Turbo Dog
Allagash: Dubbel (quite nice)
North Coast: Pranqster
Young's Double Chocolate
Smithwick's Bitter
Rogue: Shakespeare Stout (I think...)
Ommegang: Rare Vos (better than I remembered)
Lake Placid: Frostbite (really nice, high hop level)
Smuttynose: Old Brown Dog (best domestic beer of the evening--their beers are SO balanced)
Stone: Arrogant Bastard
Long Trail: Double Bag (Bad name--good beer--kind of a strong Altbier)
Landmark: Some dull red beer.
Sackets Harbor: Some sort of dull amber.
Rohrbach: A truly wretched pale ale.
Great Adirondack: Scotch ale--little off
Weyerbacher: Hop Infusion (pretty nice)
Boulder: Hazed and Infused. Very nice, dry-hopped middle weight IPA. I liked it.
Great Divide Brewing Co: This was a real discovery. Their Titan IPA is a knock-out and I'll have to look into the others when and if they're readily available. Very impressive.
Also had some Belgians from the Belgian tent: Orval, Maredsous Dubbel (better than I remembered), and a couple others. Not sure. BUT, I did have a Rodenbach. Hurray. It's back. Talked to the importer who says everything's straightened out and it's coming in right now after like 4 or 5 years of nonavailability in the states. The guy got all excited and shook my hand when I asked about the Grand Cru. Apparently most people ask about Alexander, their weaker, fruitier, less sour beer. Bring on the Rodenbach Grand Cru then.
So, yeah, that was fun. Unfortunately we then hit the wine tent and this sent two of the four of us spiralling into oblivion. Yes, I was one. I feel better now. . .
Some cool guy who overheard me rambling about Belgians said I had to go here:
Brilbecks Corner Market Inc. - Syracuse New York200 Avery Avenue, Syracuse NY 13204
Supposed to be a little Mom and Pop store with the best Belgian beer selection for miles around.
Middle Ages: Druid Fluid (OK barley wine), Dragon Slayer (excellent imperial stout)
Victory: Hop Devil (always good)
Flying Bison: Some pale ale dry hopped with Cascades
Southern Tier: Some sort of Porter
Blue Point: Toasted Lager (pretty nice)
Wolaver's: Organic brown. So-so.
Dogfish Head: Sixty-Minute and Aprihop. Wish they had brought something more unusual.
Abita: Turbo Dog
Allagash: Dubbel (quite nice)
North Coast: Pranqster
Young's Double Chocolate
Smithwick's Bitter
Rogue: Shakespeare Stout (I think...)
Ommegang: Rare Vos (better than I remembered)
Lake Placid: Frostbite (really nice, high hop level)
Smuttynose: Old Brown Dog (best domestic beer of the evening--their beers are SO balanced)
Stone: Arrogant Bastard
Long Trail: Double Bag (Bad name--good beer--kind of a strong Altbier)
Landmark: Some dull red beer.
Sackets Harbor: Some sort of dull amber.
Rohrbach: A truly wretched pale ale.
Great Adirondack: Scotch ale--little off
Weyerbacher: Hop Infusion (pretty nice)
Boulder: Hazed and Infused. Very nice, dry-hopped middle weight IPA. I liked it.
Great Divide Brewing Co: This was a real discovery. Their Titan IPA is a knock-out and I'll have to look into the others when and if they're readily available. Very impressive.
Also had some Belgians from the Belgian tent: Orval, Maredsous Dubbel (better than I remembered), and a couple others. Not sure. BUT, I did have a Rodenbach. Hurray. It's back. Talked to the importer who says everything's straightened out and it's coming in right now after like 4 or 5 years of nonavailability in the states. The guy got all excited and shook my hand when I asked about the Grand Cru. Apparently most people ask about Alexander, their weaker, fruitier, less sour beer. Bring on the Rodenbach Grand Cru then.
So, yeah, that was fun. Unfortunately we then hit the wine tent and this sent two of the four of us spiralling into oblivion. Yes, I was one. I feel better now. . .
Some cool guy who overheard me rambling about Belgians said I had to go here:
Brilbecks Corner Market Inc. - Syracuse New York200 Avery Avenue, Syracuse NY 13204
Supposed to be a little Mom and Pop store with the best Belgian beer selection for miles around.
posted by Jason | 7:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home