Three Out Of Three Ain't Bad

Thursday the 25, I primed myself for a trip to all my locals for a drop or two of beer and some of that socializing that goes on in between those pesky trips to the bar. Stop one led me to the mighty Manatawny river and Union Jacks for a Green Flash promo. The wonderful and lovely host Tom, was just getting ready to tap a firkin of Imperial IPA as I walked into door. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes lucky gets you. Well, lucky got me a big ass glass of Imperial IPA from Mr. Firkin. It took a lot of work to hold that glass by the look on my face. Needless to say I shared that or I still might be there.


After sharing my new found gains with a few folks, who should walk in but the king and queen of Douglasville, Dave and Sarah. We had a brew and talked about the little hubbub that brewed up over her review of the new Philly Beer Scene magazine. I think I see a future post or two about this subject down the road. Unfortunately time was a wasting, so I said my goodbyes and hopped in the truck and headed on over to The Northside.

Those nice folks were having a Stoudts promo featuring some 2004 big bottles of Abbey Triple and a few more on draft of Stoudts regular lineup. I had time for a quick bite and a wheat and a pils. The bottles didn't make their appearance by the time I was ready to go, so off I went to the CAH.

The rest of the famed TNSC club was there already, most of them were in a big bottle mode. I had a few sips of this and dat, and another quick bite, and using my new found powers, trucked on home. Operation Local was a success. This time.

15 Or 5?

I will let you fine folks decide what is more impressive, the Drafting Room 15th anniversary or their 5 year fling with Troegs making them some pretty tasty beer. Last Wednesday night I would call it a tie. The new batch of beer made with the Apollo hop, was flowing at 6 pm sharp and Mr. Firkin was pouring a few minutes later. The result is one damn tasty beverage. It has just a little bit of earthiness to it which reminded me a tad bit of Sierra's Southern Hemisphere. But this little hop (bomb)will stand on it's own with no problemo.


We were quite fortunate to end up having dinner with the Honorary Mayor of West Chester and his wife and of course, we ran into the Victory dance team, headed up by Wandering Joe and Mr. Ruch. By then everybody was starting to show up, including Mrs. Sierra Nevada or you can call her Doc, Mr.Larry and his wife Whitney and the main man behind it all J.T. Or Mr. Troegs to you.


Now I had the chance for a little conversation after dinner with the head honcho over something I saw back at their 10 anniversary party at the brewery. That is of course, the brett project. Now, unless he is really pulling my leg, the first release of this will be their former scratch number 3, which was a Belgian style triple. It will be out sometime next month in that good old cork and cage. It will only be sold at the brewery and if I can remember this right, only 200 cases will be made. Other releases will follow including the Troegenator all bretted up for your drinking pleasure. Of course if he was pulling my leg, what the hell do I care? Send him the angry e-mails.

What Do You Get?

If two beer bloggers named Brian walked into a bar, what do they get? A Woody! Hey, I'll be here all week at the Kepler Mountain Resort and Casino.

It was just another in a long line of fine events at TJ'S on the 13th, as it was billed as a beer battle between Ballast Point and Bear Republic. Mr. Stockertown Beverage himself, Bernie was there to help sway the votes toward the BR side of things.( Vote for me and you drink for free) Of course Mr. Chandler was there signing copies of his latest work.

But getting there proved to be quite a challenge as the heavens and hell dropped a ark like amount of rain on the way down. I think the covered wagons may have made it to California quicker than our ride on parts of 422. But once inside, the fine TJ'S staff was ready for bear, I mean ballast, I mean, what the hell do I mean? There were the familiar folks you see at most events and there was an extra good reason for that as Allagash Confluence was also on tap to take away some of the hop goodness of the two contestants. Dang, that was sum good stuff.

So, what beers did I think were worthy? Racer 5 on the hanpump has moved right smartly in my top ten or so of cask beer. It is that good. Racer 10 is a little too much on the boozy side. Ballast Points Big Eye and Sculpin weren't hurting my feelings too much. But Allagash stole my heart and my taste buds and a another sliver of my liver. I was surprised just how good that was on tap. Bottle was pretty damn good too.

We called it an early night (hello early night) and grabbed a couple of zebras and got on the ark and sailed on home. Till the next beer battle...........

And Now Back To Our Program

Already in progress. Ah yes, let us have a quick update
about the rest of my doings in late May. When a man gets the opportunity
to see a living legend in action, the one, the only, Patrick Mullin, well he grabs the bull by the horns (not any lower though) and heads off to TJ'S for the Sierra Nevada
event. The winner of the event wasn't so much the beer as it was the glasses. These right smart looking glasses were the cat's meow and maybe even the dog's bark. Holding a generous 8 ounces of whatever your drinking pleasure may be, they were the most talked about thing all night. But when Mr. Mullin and the former local head of the Sierra Local, Mr. Tommy Gannon, looking slim, tan and well rested, cornered me for an opinion about the most talked about beer of the spring, the Brown Saison, well, I reckon I had to tell them the bad news.


I, like 8.5 people out of ten, didn't really care for it. I like the idea, didn't like the execution of it. It reminding me more of a hellerbock or something along those lines. It's not bad enough not to try one, but I sure don't want another. But one beer I had no problem singing the praises for was the Kellerweisse. This was some old school magic at work. Open fermentation gives that extra oomph, flavor and drinkabilty. Why even the Mayor and his wife from West Chester could agree on that.

Another beer that has been given the transformation was Dock Street's Dunkel Berliner Weisse. So when those crazy kids from West Philly showed up on the Northside patio bar, I braved the freezing temps and the howling wind and duh, the rain, to try some out. The verdict, it is as advertised. Which means it is a darker version of the standard, but not heavy in any way. A good fall or spring beer for those sourheads out there.

And so another birthday month comes to a close. It is time to move on. It's freaking June for God's sake!

And Now A Message From Our Sponsor

When Joe Sixpack's guerrilla marketing machine sent out the news a few days ago about this fine event coming up, I felt almost special, like I was one of those fancy schancy boys and girls in the beer biz. But when my free press pass didn't show up, well, I knew I was just a messenger or a drinker, whatever comes first.

Anywho, all kidding aside, it looks like to be a lovely day in the No Lib section of town. Mr. Russel has talked to the weather man and asked for sunny skies and it looks like he just might get it. But inquiring minds want to know a little bit more about this event. Let's try and break it down, shall we?

First is the cost, $75 smack-a-roos, which goes to the Firstpersonarts program. Sounds good, so far.


It is all inclusive (Scandals is in No Libs?) Good too.


Joe Sixpack is talking and walking, not bad, though it would be more fun if he showed up on a bike and people had to chase him to all the said places.

Last and most certainly not least is...what do you get for that $75 bucks?
I know beer and some munchies for sure, and of course the satisfaction of helping out the arts.

So Joe, what else do you know about this last piece of business? Will the fine people of the great city of brotherly love feel like they got a good return on their hard earned money?

Daily inquiring minds need to know.

Twas The Days Around My Birthday

Birthdays sure are fun till some smart ass reminds you of how old you are, as if I didn't know that first hand already. If I had half a mind...I guess I would have double what I got now. Anywho the Thursday the 7th was spent at our lovely little local place, The Craft Ale House. This was strictly a practice session for the big day on Friday. I think I saw a few folks pull a hamy from practicing too hard.

Friday brought us all to those old stomping ground of Zieglerville, The Northside. The wonderful Ms. Sara with a h was working her voodoo, I mean magic with a right smart busy bar and dining room. The outside bar was suppose to be open by now, but it was delayed another week, cause she said so. Things got ugly later on as they usually do, as more bottles that even the night before appeared upon the bar. As the Sarge said in Stripes, "I'm getting too old for this shit".

Saturday was a recovery day and also a partial work day. Sunday brought the four of us some free Phillies tickets in the Bob Uecker sections of CBP. The winds that Mothers Day were clocked at 100 miles per hour and was coming out of the northwestern part of the North Pole. We of course were sitting in the shade hoping we wouldn't get killed by a flying straw or french fry. To say we were getting cold would be a slight misunderstanding of the color blue. Lucky for us, we saw that some of our in-laws had seats in the glorious sun at the same game. So we marched down there and threw them out on their keisters and slowly thawed out.

Monday night the 11th brought the famed Monday Night Tasting group to the CAH. (As seen in this picture above.) Criminally amounts of beer were brought and tasted along with some homemade hooch from a former Allagash brewer that Mr. Bob got from a recent trip to Maine. I, using what brains cells I had left, ran to my car after we were done the tasting. I knew what evil could lurk if I stayed any longer.

Another year down and 49 more to go. Thanks folks for making this a pretty good one.

Look Who's Back.....

Back again. Did ya miss me? Are you ready for a right smart bit of fun? Want to know what the hell I've been doing the last month? What has TNSC been up to? When will the t-shirts and glasses come out? Do I look like the answer man? What's with all these questions?



Well, wait no more children of the corn, here is little something to get your day started.

First up from the UJ's Hopfest is two fine ladies. One is sometimes bitter and the other likes to drinks really bitter beer. You pick em out.











Next up is the last known picture of Father Tom with a cigarette in his hand. He's a cold turkey kind of guy now. Should wooden Indians smoke?










Last and most certainly not least, is a group of...um,
drinkers is the most polite way of saying it, showing up at the same said event with some very special bottles cause all those hop bombs make them really thirsty.



Ah yes, catch up sure is fun. Stayed tuned for more catching up right here, cause where would you be without me?