Archive for December, 2009

Bear Republic – Racer 5 IPA

Dec 29

Posted by Joe in Beer Reviews | No Comments

A few months back on a trip out to California the wife and I took in the sights and flavors of wine country. That is we hit a couple of wineries and spent the rest of the time visiting local breweries. My wife is more of a wine girl but after a couple vineyards you’ve pretty much had it all. The breweries on the other hand, oh the breweries.

One of our stops was Bear Republic in Sonoma. It’s a brewpub that started back in 95 and has blown up over the years.  It was one of the first breweries I added to my list when we were picking out where we would hit. It was dreamy. The food was great and the beer was awesome. If you make it out that way I’d call you insane if you didn’t make a trip.

One of their beers you can probably find though is their Racer 5. A big old IPA that backs a big amount of hop flavor without being to over powering. Lots of citrus in the aroma, nice amount of fresh hops in there too. Like sunshine in a glass my friends. The taste has a nice hop bite to it without being too much. Very refreshing but still enough bitterness to be a great IPA. All around just a mighty tasty beer. Very drinkable for an IPA and has a nice punch to boot. Good times had by all.

Bear Republic - Racer 5 IPA

Bear Republic - Racer 5 IPA

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Long Trail Brewing Company – Winter White

Dec 24

Posted by Joe in Beer Reviews | 2 Comments

Here at Beer and Joe we don’t like to pick sides when it comes to Holidays. We like to keep it balanced you know, so no one is left out. That’s why I’m cracking open a Long Trailer Winter White today. Not a Christmas beer or something of that sort. No we’re making sure everyone can come to the party and tie one on. That’s the kind of nice people we are. Drink up Johnnie!

The beer is a part of Long Trail’s Brewmaster Series, a line of special beers they put out in small batches. I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying a couple other beers in this line and have been big time happy. You can toss a coffee stout and a double IPA in front of me though and 9 times out of 10 I’ll be happy. A Witbier on the other hand has got to have it’s shit together to make Joe happy. There’s a lot going on in the style and if anything is off it pops right out. So bring it mutha clucka!

Luckily for me Long Trail has done it again with this one. A nice citrus orange aroma coming off with a bit of yeast poking through. Pretty much what you’d expect and not overpowering. The taste is just dandy, peach flavor which is something I haven’t run across before but I like a lot. Almost tropical, doesn’t that sound nice? Some yeast aftertaste but all around a nice light clean beer. You could put down a few of these on whatever holiday you’re going to celebrate.

Long Trail Brewing Company - Winter White

Long Trail Brewing Company - Winter White

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Dogfish Head Brewery And Eats – Rehoboth Beach Delaware

Dec 15

Posted by Joe in From The Road | No Comments

I love Disney World, it’s by far my favorite place ever imagined, yeah I said it. It’s the happiest place on earth after all. But it doesn’t serve beer. Well alright Epcot does but still it’s a rough scene if you want to get a few in you, which I normally do.

Dogfish Head Brewery and Eats on the other hand serves beer, lots of beer in fact. And more importantly it’s all really wonderful. In fact you can get beer there that you can’t find in your local beer store. Beers that are being tried out and maybe one day will make it in a bottle, but maybe not. And for that fact alone Dogfish Head is my second favorite place on earth. Now I should be clear that there’s actually three locations, two of which I’ve been two. But the one in Rehoboth Beach holds a special place in my heart, mostly because it’s the original location where it all started and is only a few miles away from the brewery.

So a couple weeks back on our way home from Virginia my wife and I decided to stop at the brew pub. Actually we decided to make it our stopping point on the way home. We’d get into Rehoboth late on Saturday, stop at the pub for lunch on Sunday and head on home. But the moment we got into the car on Saturday I made it my mission to make it there in time for beers. What followed was a 6 hour drive into Delaware which landed us directly at the bar around 11 at night. We opted to go straight there and check into the hotel after which I thought was a good move.

Now by the time we got there the kitchen was closed. We were able to get a couple small pizzas but I was all about the beer. Their Chicory Stout might be one of my favorites so I started out with that sucker. It has a great coffee flavor with a big chicory punch to it. I’ve managed to find it in bottles recently but that’s a different post all together. But for me the best part of the night was getting to try their Wet Hop American Summer. Sure it’s a little late to be drinking a summer beer but it’s one of those I mentioned is only available at the brewpub so I wasn’t going to pass it up. It made me want to make a baby and it turns out it actually went on tap in October so it’s not a summer beer after all. Maybe a little misleading as far as a name but it’s a big hoppy lager, light and refreshing but still packs a nice hop back to it. I was a big fan.

The next day we headed over there for lunch. I should point out that the night before we actually closed the bar at 2 AM, something that’s pretty rare for my wife and I. But the next day we ended up having the same waitress. Awkward maybe but still kind of nice that most of the staff remembered us. The wife and I ordered a couple sandwiches and then I went to finish off the rest of the beer list. The 90 minute IPA is pretty easy to find around me but still it’s always a little better from the source. It also went pretty nicely with my jerk chicken sandwich which was lighting my mouth on fire. I had another chicory stout and then went for the other rare brew on tap. Their Black Thai is an Imperial Stout brewed with edamame and Thai basil. It is then fermented with a lager yeast and 250 pounds of pureed Oregon blackberries. In short it kicks ass. All around a great brew. Smooth and dangerous, you’d never know it’s an imperial. Finished off the meal well.

So spreading out the drinks over two days turned out to be a pretty good idea. The wife and I took the ferry back to NJ and by that time I had sobered up enough to finish off the drive. Everyone was happy! If you get the chance make the trip, it’s maybe not the best vacation spot for the middle of December but to a beer fan it’s worth the effort. Happy travels!

Let’s Get Sour! Southern Tier Brewing – Cherry Saison Imperial Oak Aged Cherry Ale

Dec 5

Posted by Joe in Beer Reviews | No Comments

It’s been a while hasn’t it. I’m sorry I left you for so long, I promise I’ll never do it again… Alright let’s be honest, this will happen again and probably pretty soon. But please don’t be bitter. But Sour, you can be sour all you want. Because that would play right into this posts theme. See how I did that?

So I’ve never hid the fact that I’m a big fan of Southern Tier’s beers. They put out some really great stuff but I’ve avoided their Cherry Saison for a while now. The style is always a little hit or miss for me and if I ever had a beer of theirs that I didn’t love I’m not sure what it would do to me. I just couldn’t take it. God that’s sick. Luckily for me this one was a big hit with old mister taste bud. The aroma is big on the cherries and spicy yeast. My wife thought it looked “pretty” so there’s that too. You like pretty stuff don’t you? The flavor is great. Now I don’t want to make it sound unclassy but it kind of reminded me of some sort of awesome soda with a nice sweet cherry flavor. Except you can also get tipsy on it. It’s still sour don’t get me wrong but no so sour that it overpowers the other flavors. The cherry flavor does a nice job of balanceing out the oak as well. The two play nicly together, like BFFs or something. The kind of beer that would be great on a hot summer day. Isn’t that useful information for the middle of winter? Oh and this is also a summer release so really I’m giving you nothing you can use here. You’re welcome.

Southern Tier Brewing Company - Imperial Cherry Saison

Southern Tier Brewing Company - Imperial Cherry Saison

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