Summer's Last Fling

     The dog days are over now, the final days of summer are upon us. When it wasn't 110 degrees out, we would get 110 inches of rain. It was not a very happy medium this year. But before we rejoice the coming of fall, we have just a few more beer events to get out of the way.
     Tonight at ye olde Crafty Ale and Lager House, look and talk like a pirate, cause you will be walking the plank with the fine beers from Heavy Seas. I can say first hand that their Oktoberfest beer this year was a right smart bit o malt. It brought a smile to my pirate face.
     Tuesday is TNT, Tuesday Night Trouble. First over at Teresa's Next Door, it's Allagash night with a possible appearance by the Alla-lass. Look for several taps, bottles and a fine tasting menu to boot. Out here in this neck of the woods, the Railroad Street Bar is getting ready to hijack some livers when they tap at 6 pm,  Hill Farmstead Abner, Ballast Point Sculpin, Bruery Autumn Maple and a Stillwater State Saison or Autumn. This event smells like the work of Paul "Hitman" Havelin of Bella Vista.  Also they will join the ranks of ticket sellers for Beersgiving.
     Wednesday may be a break before we kick summer's sorry ass at yet another meeting of TNSC. Don't even get me started on falls event schedule, there ain't enough space in the blog o sphere to even begin writing it down.

                                      So let's leave on a most wonderful note, shall we?

And So It Ends

Another PBW in the books. Hard to believe that 12 days of pure insanity is finally over and we can go back to the normal of only  5 or 6 beer events a week. And now lets take a look at the final days.

                                                             June 8--Heat 1 Dan 0

I knew sooner or later this was going to bite me in my fat ass and sure enough it did. Working outside and driving around in truck with no ac was putting a severe hurting on my drinking soul. I was hoping at least to get to Capone's for the Deschutes event, but since I was out there two years ago, I broke down and used 5% of my new found maturity and went home and sucked up some AC. It was a good choice.

                                                           June 9--Heat1/2 Dan 1/2

If it got any hotter out I wouldn't be typing this right now as I would be lying right next to the melted wicked witch on the corner of Oz and Munchkin street. So instead of going to Local 44 for some Laurelwood Brewing Company beers, ( another place I was at two years ago) I sucked up 2 plus hours of AC and a good 25 minute cold shower and made my way to TND for Sierra Nevada night featuring 13 beers. It ain't your daddy's craft beer  no more. First off Kellerweis was on tap in an extra rare appearance. And as soon as I walked in there, I let the reps and Mr. Grossman know my displeasure in that very fact. Look for it never to be on sale in the area again... I worked my around several very rare beers including the Double IPA (very grassy and quite tasty), Weizenbock, which is becoming somewhat of a favorite of mine and of course Exportation, which I hope all you fun kids get a chance to try out and I also hope that they save a barrel of this to see how it ages. Not to bretty, not to sweet or winy tasting, but a very nice job of blending two very different flavors together. And then we all took a moment and thanked the rain gods for putting an end to our extreme heat misery.

     June 10--Jose Pistolas, Resurrection Ale House, Sidecar Bar and Gooddog Bar

Less heat equals more drinking. More drinking equals more fun. More fun equals less money in your bank account. We started our day at Jose's having a small bite to eat (nachos and tacos) running into various beer celebs and a drinking a couple of tasty Jolly Pumpkin beers.  We then grabbed a cab and hightailed it over to RAH for a quick Pho Phoune, if there is such a thing. It was quite a different scene in there for a Friday afternoon than it was the last time we were there. It was jammed, but we stilled managed to secure several glasses of this wonderful brew. After finishing up, we took a stroll to what is fast becoming one my favorites places in the city of brotherly drinking, Sidecar Bar. Our lovely hostess recognized us right away and even then she didn't throw us out. Mr. Parker was sitting at the bar doing what he does best, drinking and twittering away. Nebraska was the name of the game that night and they had three high priced beers out of 8 taps that were hitting the magic $12 a glass mark. But no worries man, Sidecar also has a nice sampler of 4 for the same price, so I got to try 7 of the 8 beers. Dang nab it, those corn huskers make a mighty fine product! It was getting near vittles time, so Mr. Parker upped and left to meet his wonderful wife at The Four Seasons and we decided to partake of the great menu at Sidecar. Yes meat lovers, I had their veggie black bean burger and it was so damn good I'm am thinking about a way to have them send me one.

The Champ



The Chump



Linner was over, but not our sordid tale of drinking debauchery as we heading into the heart of all that is evil, the firkin off at Gooddog Bar, featuring Sly Fox Standard Pils vs Southampton Keller Pils. I tried to warn the boys from Long Island that this wasn't going to be much of a contest, but they gave it the old college try. It wasn't pretty as Sly Fox put such a whupping on them that the referee had to step in and stop it before any more liver and palate damage could be done. For me, my 8 plus hour shift was done and it was time to head back to Kepler Mountain.

                                                           June 11--A Big Nada

 Dreams of heading into the city for the Nodding Head event of the Phunks and a couple of other things got pushed back till another day. Instead it ended up in Mt. Penn with my lovely faux daughter and Ms. DeMiel at Alebrije for some nice Mexican food and a couple of Pacifico's in a frosted glass. Oh, how the mighty has fallen...


                                              June 12--Russian River Brunch @ TDR

The grand finale for me was quite laid back as about a dozen of TNSC met for brunch and for a couple of RR beers and a glass of Hop Stupid from a firkin. Ran into even more crazy folks who ending up going to TND afterwords for some Hatter madness. Me, I went home and said no mas. It was over, really over. Three plus days of sobriety would now come and visit me. They didn't stay long.....

PS After my computer bit the dust the other week, I have been thinking about what photo software to use. I do have a few pictures, but they need some work to say the least.





                                                         

                                                   

TNSC Report

Dateline September 23. The place, CAH. The event, Turn To Stone starring Lee "Flanagan's Boathouse, Spinnerstown Hotel, Legacy Brewery and now Mid Atlantic Sales Rep of Stone" Marren. Mr. Marren arrived at 6:01 pm, a new record for him. The beer that won my fancy that night was Sublimely Self Righteous, which at one time was their 11 Anniversary beer. It was right smart. Drunken frivolity ensued but hardly in a responsible way. A three liter bottle of Double Bastard 08 was opened later on in the night and was given out in sample glasses to the crowd. The crowd was happy. So were we.

Dateline September 24. The place, TDR. The event, Weyerbacher Anniversary tasting. Taps of 12, 13, 14 and bottles of Riserva were pouring. Chris from brewery was given a hard time from yours truly for not buying our table a bottle of Riserva. He laughed and gave me a nice glass instead to take home. I said there's no Riserva in it. Drunken frivolity ensued but in a responsible way.

Dateline September 26. The place, Northside. The event, Oktoberfest. It was raining so the event ended up being inside. It was crowded and hot. We all got a table to eat. Breckenridge Autumn fest was the sleeper of the night. Drunken frivolity ensued but in a responsible way.

Dateline October 1. the place, TND. The event, Troegs night. 13 taps of Troegs beer and Chris and his honor, Nicky the J. Highlights, Dead Reckoning and Java Head on the handpump. Nugget Nectar in a firkin. And last but not least, Scratch 23, a fest beer which was quite interesting. Maybe a new fall seasonal from the boys in Harrisburg? Only frivolity ensued but in a responsible way as I was driving. CAH was my last stop before home for a pint of HopGarden from Dock Street out of a firkin. Drunken frivolity ensued in a somewhat responsible way.

Dateline October 3. The place, The Farmhouse. The event, how to blow a 100 gift certificate on food and beer. A little Pumking for dessert and Sierra Nevada Imperial Smoked Porter from the handpump with dinner. But the beer that stole my heart was De Proef La Grande Blanche. Maybe one of the best beers I have had all year. To make sure I had another. Yep, I was right. Very little drunken frivolity ensued cause I woke up at 4:30 am and was fading fast.

This has been a TNSC report. Mr. Dan signing off.

One Small Step For Dan, A Giant Leap For Dankind

Thursday November 20, roughly 5:30pm. On the 26th day without drinking, I reached into my fridge and pulled out a beer. It was nothing great, just a Lager, lite actually. There was no way I was going to attempt anything out of my own beer cellar. I might not be here typing this if I did. I was going to TND and I was not going in cold in case something crazy happened. If you wish to remember your teenage years, just do what I did and not drink for a month. The first swallow I took I swear I could hear the alcohol molecules saying "Look it's virgin territory!" They weren't far from the truth. Even though I raped and pillaged that territory for 30 plus years, apparently a lot of scrub brush has grown back. After half a glass I was done. I already had a small buzz and besides, how much corn can a man drink? So we got into the car and started our trek down. Of course it would turn out to be more like a marathon. As soon as we hit Oaks, things came to a standstill. Traffic was just starting to move in the westbound lanes after an accident. So what was the hubbub on this side? Well, something happened on the so called expressway and that backed up traffic on every single road in the area. If we don't have more than 2 days to evacuate this area in case of an emergency, we are all doomed. After well over an hour, we finally found a parking spot in town and walked up in the snow to TND. All the usual celebrities were there for this fine event and it was damn good to see them. Andy and gang at TND always puts together some real nice menu choices to go with a beer event. It just wasn't going to happen with me unfortunately. I attempted a glass of Fox Oatmeal Stout from the hand pump and drank maybe half of it. When the heat from the kitchen started putting a whammy on me, Uncle Jack was quite correct in saying that I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. A tad over a hour later it was time to go home in a blinding snow shower. I guess this isn't going to be easy?

The Good, The Bad And The Fucking Ugly

This past weekend was a mixed one to say the least. The study in contrast started when Teresa's Next Door and Teresa's Cafe had this lovely event to help raise some much needed money for the cause. I thought it would be a few raffle tickets and a couple of happy winners. I was way wrong. The owners turned the cafe into a sea of people bidding on some rare beers and getting those raffle tickets winners some great baskets of beer and gift certificates donated from such places as the Drafting Room and of course the Beeryard. The fine folks of the Next Door threw out frites, cheeses, sandwiches and beer. Rare beers to bid on you say? How about several bottles of Black Albert? A 2000 (750ml) bottle of Still Nacht? One bottle of 20th Anniversary Toronado. A real nice selection of wines and port. With some fine folks forking out some money like Dr.Joel, Peter Cherpack, Tracy from Victory and the host Matt Guyer, it turned out to be one hell of a day. It got even better when we all found out that they raised more than 3 times what they thought they would. That was the good, unfortunately what I read earlier that morning was as ugly as it gets. The absolute senseless of it is just mind boggling. One of the great things about the whole craft beer business has been one of comradely, not fights or riots. That stuff only happens with the low brow beer doesn't it?. The "I drank a case of (fill in the blank) before noon". The bad part of this post is simple. How much time in jail does a rich spoiled kid get? I'm guessing not much.