Apologies for the lack of posts lately!
I have been very busy, reviewing beer, brewing beer, and tasting beer, along with everything else that happens in life.
Look forward to two posts comparing Buffalo Bill’s, Smuttynose, and Dogfish Head’s pumpkin beers, and a review of Founder’s Harvest Ale.
After a long weekend for sports in Philadelphia, I looked forward to sitting down this evening with a beer. One of the pumpkin beers I grabbed from the Bottle Shop was Harpoon’s UFO Pumpkin.
I’m a fan of Harpoon’s other UFO (UnFiltered Offerings) beers, so I was excited to try the Pumpkin. It poured a very pretty hazy orange-amber color, and is only mildly sweet and spicy. It is very different from the very sweet Imperial Pumpking by Southern Tier. It smells a little sweeter than it tastes, but is a nice, drinkable pumpkin beer. I could definitely see having a few of these in one sitting without getting overwhelmed by pumpkin.
Let’s Go Phillies!
The MLB playoffs are here, and it seemed appropriate to watch my baseball team play game #3 while sipping on a Cape of Good Hope IPA from Yard’s Brewing.
It is an Imperial IPA, but the hop bitterness is not overwhelming at all. It has a bunch of spicy notes to it, and also a little bit of sweet. There is also a ton of maltiness here, which I think pairs well with the double-dry hopped. There are a ton of flavors, and it is very unlike any other IPA I’ve tried.
I think this would be a great Imperial IPA for those wary of the crazy hoppy bitterness associated with the style.
Yum.
This weekend I ran my first 5k!
All the beer drinking I do is lovely, but I like to hit the gym to keep fit and help work off all those delicious carbonated beverages I consume. I’ve been training for a 5K using the Couch to 5K program – found here. This Saturday, at the Rivercity festival, there was a fun run 5K, followed by the festival, that included a beer tent with Philadelphia Brewing Company and Brooklyn’s Six Point.
On tap, PBC had some of their flagships – Kenzinger (always a favorite!), Walt Wit, Newbold, and Joe Coffee Porter, and Six Point had their IPA, as well as Sweet Action Pale Ale.
There were many local vendors with food, crafts, and other merchandise for sale, as well as some bouncy things for the kids. The entertainment was fantastic too! All in all, it was a great afternoon and I can’t wait for next year!
Thanks to Groupon, a few friends and I went in and got tickets to the VIP Educational Tasting and Tour of Sand Castle Winery, right outside of New Hope, PA. We went up last weekend, to enjoy and learn about something other than beer.
The drive out to New Hope from Philadelphia was beautiful, and not too far for an afternoon trip. The winery is tucked away up a hill, with a gorgeous mountain view.
When it began, we were able to taste the unfermented juice of freshly squeezed grapes. Much sweeter than Welch’s! It was really neat to see the almost “wine-y” taste you get from just the grapes. Then, they sent us all into a big room, where Joseph gave a talk about the history of the winery, and about the types of grapes that they grow.
He was an excellent host, humorous and knowledgeable, and guided us all on how to properly examine, smell, and taste the 11 different wines, and also how to pair them with different flavors, such as thyme and rosemary.
After the tasting, we were able to make choices as to which, if any, bottles we would like to bring home, and then Joseph showed us thier wine cellar. We got to see the big fermenters, and the barrels of wine conditioning. We learned about the different types of oak that their wines age in, and the difference between using natural cork, plastic corks, or twist off wine caps.
The tour was lovely, and after we picked up our bottles of wine, we went upstairs to the art gallery. Here there were also doors that led outside and we were able to take in the magnificent view from the top of the castle.
I couldn’t believe how much fun I had during the hour and a half tour. I definitely can’t wait to be back.
Southampton’s Pumpkin Ale is an amber ale that is brewed with pumpkin and traditional pumpkin pie spices in New York.
I poured a 12 oz bottle into a standard pint glass. It was a very pretty orange-ish color, smelled slightly sweet and spicy. The first sip was very mellow, with mild sweetness and cinnamon and nutmeg coming though. I really liked how this beer was able to bring out all the delicious pumpkin pie flavors without tasting like a pie in a glass.
It got even more delicious as it warmed up to just below room temperature. I will definitely keep my eye out for more of this later in the season.
Yum!
Rainy Friday. Long week.
What does this call for? A delicious cider. Cider is one of my favorite fall time beverages. Sweet, dry, carbonated, still – I love them all. The other day I spied a Woodchuck Fall release at my bottle shop, and cracked it open tonight. This may be one of my most favorite ciders, ever.
It pours a beautiful amber color, with only slight carbonation. It smells sweet, of apples, and a bit spicy. The first sip is slightly sweet, but also slightly dry. Hints of cinnamon, clove, maybe even allspice are all found. It reminded me of a well seasoned apple pie.
As it warmed up, more spices came though, but I drank it to fast to get a taste at room temperature! I sure wish I could buy a case of this one its own!
Southern Tier Pumking. I’ve heard this regarded as THE pumpkin beer to have. That it would be impossible to get once October came around. With all the praise floating around, I knew I had to make sure I snagged a few bottles for myself. A dear friend was able to get two bottles for me, and I was able to find a cold one at a local bottle shop. I’ve been hoarding these waiting for the best time to try one. Yesterday was that day.
I had a long, tiring day of work and the fall chill was in the air, leaving me longing for summer nights, but a Pumking seemed like just the thing to turn the day around and celebrate the fall.
I cracked open the bottle, and poured it into a 22 oz Goose Island glass, as I don’t have a goblet or a tulip glass. The color was a beautiful hazy orange and it smelled almost like a pumpkin pie. The first sip exploded with spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, maybe even allspice and clove? The second sip was good, I could really taste the sweetness come through.
As it warmed up, it did start to taste a little boozy, and at 8.6% it is easy to see why.
Overall, it was tasty, but I think I was expecting it to be a little more phenomenal. I will gladly drink up my other two bottles, but will continue on a quest for my favorite pumpkin beer this year.
Today was set to be a busy day – moving my Edmund Fitzgerald Porter clone into a secondary fermenter, bottling a pale ale, and brewing a partial mash dunkelweizen. However, life happened, and fermentation must have been slow going. I measured the gravity of the pale ale, and it was .010 over target, so I decided to not bottle and let the yeast finish their thing. I was able to move the porter though, so I should be able to brew twice this weekend.
And since I had a little bit of time, I decided to attempt to make yogurt. I figured I might as well ferment something, even if it wasn’t beer! I will post about that adventure in the coming days. However, the best part of the night was definitely the homemade pizzas with Dogfish Head’s Red & White ale.
My boyfriend and I visited Dogfish Head’s brew pub in Rehoboth, DE back in March. We had a lovely time and I fell in love with their Red & White ale. It is by far one of the strangest, yet best, tasting beers I have had. After a few flights to try their different offerings and dinner I brought home four 750 mL bottles to enjoy. For dinner, one of the entrees we sampled was a flatbread pizza, with caramelized onions, pears, and goat cheese. This pizza was the inspiration for dinner tonight.
To start, I made my own pizza dough – the key to delicious homemade pizza. I split it into two pies and pre baked the crusts for about 5 minutes to ensure the middles would be done.
I topped one with brie, bosc pears, and caramelized onions.
I had caramelized the onions in a nonstick pan over high heat. My only complaint is that I should have used more! I was worried about the onions overwhelming the pie, but since the dough was thicker it wasn’t an issue.
Prior to baking:
Out of the oven:
The second had tinned tomato sauce, colby jack, mushrooms and veggie pepperoni. This pie was delicious.
Ingredients all lined up:
After baking:
To go with dinner, we opened up a bottle of the Red & White, a Belgian style Wit with orange and coriander, fermented with Pinot Noir juice, and aged in oak barrels. It has a Beer Advocate rating of B+. This beer comes in at 10% ABV, so it was great for sharing. We poured it into my “generic wine glasses”. It had a lovely orange-pinkish hue and smelled deliciously fruity. The first sip is a little boozy and tastes like a wit, but finishes like a wine. It really seems to be the marriage of two of my favorites – a Pinot Noir and a Belgian Wit, and I’ve never tasted anything else quite like it.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Hoppiness 