It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Barleywines are my favorite, favorite, favorite part of winter (beerically speaking). I’ve completely fallen in love with sipping on a nice, sweet-hoppy barleywine after I’ve done my schoolwork for the night and watched a little tube with the wife.

Since discovering them last Winter, I have prided myself on trying as many different brands as possible. Some of my favorites thus far: Victory Old Horizontal , the best that I’ve had so far. Makes a great argument for aging Barleywines, as it was way better than new or even 1yr. old OH’s.

Legend: I always say that they are hit and miss, but I think this one is a hit. Hoppy and warming in a balanced way.

Brooklyn Monster: More of an English Barleywine, as they say, it’s heavier on the malts and whatnot. Crisp, clean finish.

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot: The Granddaddy of American Craft Brewers they are probably more responsible for the resurrection of the Barley Wine style in the states than anyone (props to Anchor's Old Foghorn too). This is universally accepted as the epitome of the American style.

Great Divide Old Ruffian: no longer available in Va this is definitely one of the best, I would probably take it over the Bigfoot any time. I happened to have friends travel to Denver and they kindly filled my shopping list with this and some others I was wanting to try.

Flying Dog Horn Dog: available in their mix pack, this is one of my favorites from Flying Dog who I think makes their big beers better than their year-round offerings.

Old Dominion Millennium Ale: The best barleywine made in Va, but not for long as Dominion is soon moving to Maryland. Another reason beer distribution baffles me: dominion is located 90min or so from where I live, yet all we get in the stores here is their Oak Barreled stout-which is delicious-but I would love to find the Millennium Ale on a regular basis here. As it so happened, I stumbled upon a Jan’ “08 batch while in Baltimore last month. Very Tasty.

My favorite of all-time(so far) Stone Old Guardian 2008: I have put down a ton of these since they were released just over a year ago, and it has aged pretty well. I preferred it more when it was still fresh, but just finished off the last of my stash the other night and it was a bit mellowed, but delicious just the same. The 2009 version is a bit more DIPA-ish than last year’s, I think, but the last few sips are exquisite.

I like to drink my Barleywines at or above room temp, which at my house is 55+. Usually, I’ll stash it in the pantry until I am ready, then pop it in the freezer for 10-15min., depending on the season. They definitely need a snifter or some other sort of goblet, and open up tremendously.

What I love even more about the style is that the releases range nearly all Winter long, with the Monster release in December, while the Stone just hit town in the last week or so. That way, I don’t have to blow all my $$ at once trying to collect these lovely bottles of joy. They make Winter so much Better.

This is Why you Tip the Bartender

Tipping or specifically the lack thereof is always a hot-button issue in the world of restaurant and bar blogs. Craigslist’s local Rants n’ Raves section seems to debate the topic every other day it seems.

I’m not here to preach to you, by any means. But I do have an allegory for why it’s good to tip.

I’ll set the scenario: Friday night, 730 downtown. The bar I work in doesn’t really pick up (read: open) until later due to many reasons such as sloth, and lack of organization by management. We’re located right on Main St. in the middle of a 4block section that has no street parking after 4pm. This was not always a no parking block, but the city decided to make it so to “increase the flow of traffic” in this once busy bar and restaurant district. The real reason, if you ask me, is that the city built it’s own pay parking lot mere blocks away from this area . . . and sought to increase funds (it hasn’t-there’s rarely more than 10 cars out of what must be 100+ spots.

Anyways, a car parks on the street, directly in front of the bar, in a spot where the street sign has been long ago knocked off by a passing truck, only to have never been replaced by the city. Normally we do our good Samaritan deed for the day, stick our heads out the door and tell whoever is trying to park there that indeed, it is a no parking zone, and they will get towed soon.

As an aside: I never really understood how people think they are so incredibly luck as to try to park on FRIDAY NIGHT, only to find a WHOLE BLOCK of open parking, all for them! Really, do you think you’re that lucky/awesome?!?!?

So I go to the front of the bar in order to talk to the two girls getting out of the car, when I recognize one of them. She’s a big, goth girl, or at least she was goth when I last saw her. Two Halloweens ago, she came into the same bar when I was working and stiffed me. Not only did she stiff me, she paid cash as she went (she may have had a couple/3 beers, and a round or two of shots) and told me she’d “take care of me at the end”. Now, I know that is almost as bad as the dreaded Verbal Tip, but I’m a naïve boy sometimes.

You can probably guess what happened at the end of the night, big Goth girl does the old, “Oops, I ran out of money, I’ll catch you next time” as she waddles in front of the bar, on her way out the door. Whatever, I’m used to it. Some people are just fucking cheap and have a hard time giving someone else money. But I never forget.

That’s where we come to present time. Now, I could easily have told the girls that they should move and it’s not like everyone cleared the block so that they could park and get their BabyDaddy tattoo touched up, but I stopped. And I thought. And I turned right back around and headed back behind the bar. What I was about to do was an act of social courtesy. And that’s pretty much what tipping is. Social courtesy. You don’t have to do it, but most people do, and it greases the wheels of society. It makes those that do it feel good, and it makes those that receive them feel good.

So I turned around. And waited for the tow truck.

Somedays, you just got it.

You know how sometimes when you were single, you could walk into a room and have any girl you wanted, just like that? Well, sometimes my tastebuds are so freaking on, and I'm in the zone that i wanna drink beer all night, 'cause who knows when you're going to hit that stride again.

Well, last weekend, my tastebuds were in that zone. I headed up to the Baltimore area for family services last week, and did away with my no beer M-Fr. a day early. Good thing, too, 'cause i found a nice, year-old 6er of Dominion Millenium Barleywine. This and their Oak Barrel Stout are their best brews, but they never really make their way to Central Va, it seems. I snatched up the 6er for trades and to hold onto for a bit, and also bought a Rogue Chocolate Stout bomber.

As we made it to the cousins' house, i opened the Millenium-and oh shit was it good! It had warmed nicely from being in the cooler at the liquor store and went down, nice and smooth. Sweet, honey and a ridiculous malty backbone had me seriously comparing this to my all-time fave barleywines.

I cracked the Rogue stout before too long, and it must have been the perfect temperature too, because that was the most chocolately it had ever tasted. I obviously like the beer-i've probably had 5-6 of them before, which is a lot for me to revisit a beer that much. But it's never tasted this fucking good, ever! I was trying to nail the chocolate flavor for comparison sake and couldn't quite do it, until the next day when my sister-in-law was munching on some M&M's next to me when the smell hit me! That's it, M&M's! I often eschew beers i like for bigger ABV beers or for new beers to try, but the Rogue Chocolate Stout is one of those i will have to pick up wherever i see one, it's just that good.

Finally, i drank a Legend Hopfest after dinner on Saturday night. I've always tried to support the local brewery, but sometimes it's just hard. I'm not really a fan of any of their year-round offerings, and their season/special releases tend to disappoint. But the Hopfest is something i had last year and really enjoyed. Last year's was a really good almost-DIPA that was hard and heavy on the hops. This year's is a fantastically well-balanced hoppy/malty brew that i felt was incredibly well balanced. I can't say enough how impressed i was with the Hopfest. It should be around for awhile, but I say pick one up now and drink it fresh, you won't be disappointed.

The Weekend in Beer.

As mentioned previously, i am trying to get back into my 2piece for couple of warm-weather spring trips, so i've cut back my beer consumption to weekends only.

This weekend i tried a couple of new brews. First off was the KonaPorter from Pipeline Brewing in Hawaii. I was looking forward to this one, and found a 6er for less than $9 in Waynesboro on our way to the cousins' hotel room for some catching up. I love porters, and i love coffee, so you can see why i was excited.



Well, i felt underwhelmed after two of these. I really couldn't make out much coffee flavor, and as a porter i felt there wasn't much malt presence either. It wasn't the worst porter i've ever tried, but i will probably give away the 2 remaining bottles that i still have. Worth a try.



On our stop at Blue Mountain, i tried the Evil 8 Dubbel on draft. Dubbels took a long time to make it there, but they still hold a special place in my heart. This attempt it quite interesting. Blue Mountain tends to hop the shit out of many of their beers, and this is no different. The difference between the Evil8 and say, the WeeHeavy mentioned below, is that it actually works well in the Dubbel. Somehow. They made a nice balance with the malted, yeasty goodness ( i know, yeasty isn't the best adjective to throw out here) as it went down crisp and clean. I would highly recommend this to anyone in the area that can find one. I've only seen these in one bar in the area in the year since they've been brewed, so good luck. Better option is make a nice drive to the area and pick some up. I'm still kicking myself for getting the MacHayden's filled in the growler over this.



The last beer that i tried (okay, retried) was the Nugget Nectar. I wasn't really seeking this one out because i bought a 6er last year-which i really liked-but someone picked up a bomber for me and it's not like i wasn't going to drink it fresh. I felt underwhelmed by the NN, but i don't kno w why. Was it they hype? The fact that i had some last year, and its newness wore off? Maybe because i've moved away from all the hop boms recently and have been drinking the shit out of Barleywines and Belgian Ales, my tastebuds weren't as appreciative or something.

I did sneak a beer or two on Wednesday in a moment of weakness. But I always have weakness for a good Barleywine!. I shared half of a JW Lees 2005 ale, aged in Calvudos apple brandy cask (good thing i only had half) and it was abso-fucking-lutely delicious. I am dying to find another that they age in Lagavulin casks. Lemme know if you got one, i'll drink it any day of the week.

Supply and Demand?

Last week I was "fortunate" to get my hands on some Hopslam before it seemingly disappeared in the RVA, and this week a buddy of mine picked grabbed a bomber of Nugget Nectar for me that i put down last night. This leads me to beg the question, "if these beers were year-round offerings, would they be so highly rated and sought-after"?

Don't get me wrong, i liked both of these beers, probably the Hopslam moreso, but I don't really see all the fuss over either one. There are plenty of other DIPA's out there that i could manage with to get me through the winter, and while the Imperial Amber is under-represented as a style, Imperial is all the rage these days and I wouldn't really miss the Nectar, though again, it is a fine and tasty brew. Last year I thought that both of these were fantastic offerings, so maybe it's me and my tastes and maybe my outlook that is different.

There was a time when i could have tried these and thought "holy shit, is this the shizz-nit" but not anymore.

In other beer-related news, on our way from Lynchburg to the mountains last weekend, we were detoured aroung the new Devil's Backbone Brewpub that sits at the entrance to Wintergreen. Man, that place was packed on a Saturday afternoon. That whole Cracker-area is a haven for upper-crusters to drive out and enjoy some home-area beer and wine, as we found out later.

On our way home on Sunday, we stopped into Blue Mountain Brewery for some suds and grub and after talking to some folks, realized that nice weather days (like last weekend) are big days for people in the Charlottesville area to take a drive to one of the many Wineries, organic farms and Breweries in the area. We got to BMB around 12:30 sunday, ahead of the Church crowd, and by the time we left an hour or so later, they were pretty much in the Weeds.

We both tried the newly tapped MacHayden's Wee Heavy- which i had mixed feelings and tastes on- and actually grabbed some food as alluded to above. Normally we stop in after visiting the in-laws and have our dog with us. We really don't want to leave him in the car for too long-God forbid some nosey cracker calls the cops on us again for it when it's a beautiful, balmy day. Anyways, we grabbed an pint of the wee-heavy, which i promptly drank half of and gave HB the other half of in order to have the Evil 8 Dubbel on draft and a nice meat and cheese plate which paired well.

HB had a pulled pork BBQ sandwich from Surrey pork, and loved it with her Wee Heavy. BMB is kind of a ghost in our neck of the woods, as the C'Ville and Valley areas usually snap up the Breweries outputs, leaving the Richmond aread to fight over scraps, so we try to stop in whenever we are in the area and are never disappointed.

We happened to catch them in the fall of '07 when they had just released their first batch of the Dark Hallow, which was rather sloppy. They seemed to have redeemed themselves, because when i was at Capital AleHouse for their Blue Moonday, the DoubleBarrel Aged version was all i heard anyone talking about-among the staff, patrons and even the management of CAH.

We would have liked to have popped into the newly opened Backbone, but had some family obligations to fill Saturday and I didn't really know we would be passing directly in front of it, as I was following the FIL on a shortcut. I will say one thing, when i do go to the Backbone, I will bring a Designated Driver-Fucking A, I don't want to get behind the wheel after 1 or 2 and hit those switchbacks up and over Wintergreen, thank you very much. Maybe I'll just grab a growler and go!

Since I've been trying to lighten up a bit in the belly, and in my wallet, I have been abstaining from beer during the normal (M-F) week. I'm usually up late-ish nights, and all those late night carbs from the high gravity beers that i so love don't seem to be jiving well with the ever-growing Senor Belly.

So, i now consume all of my weekly beers from Friday midnight, to Sunday midnight. But the clearer headed me during the week-and lighter in the wallet to boot-gives me much time to plan out my weekend consumption calendar and lineup.

Bell's Hopslam finally hit the area Wednesday, and Thursday morning i bought my 6er. $17 this year, which is a dollar more than i shelled out last year, i think. Oh well, if you put it in Bomber pricing, it doesn't seem to hurt as much. So Friday's new beer tasting was said Hopslam. I didn't enjoy it as much this year, I don't think. Maybe my expectations were upped because of all the limited availabiltiy-hype and the fact that i've tried a ton of other DIPA's since last year's batch. I'm not saying it wasn't good, ne great, but it didn't really blow me away. I still give it an A, and if it was available year-round in Bombers, i would buy it on a fairly regular basis.

While i was buying the hopslam, i noticed a fresh batch of HopWallop, from Victory. This is probably the 1st DIPA i ever tried, and i wanted to compare it to my memories of earlier tastings, as well as compare it to the Hopslam. I waited until Sunday evening to drink this one, as I worked Saturday night and didn't have time for a tasting.

We ordered pizza from our new favorite Pizzeria, Tarantino's and I cracked the Wallop-at cellar temp-and climed into a piping-hot bath. I was sore from playing carpenter's assistant to the Father in law on Saturday and then getting absolutely crushed working the bar that same night. That left my back and legs aching by Sunday and I felt that a nice hot bath was deserved. The HopWallop did not disappoint at all. It has much more of a grapefruit up front hop characteristic, which apparently i am appreciative of. It wasn't nearly as overpowering as I remembered, but it has been many months and many beers since i last had one, so i'm sure my tasters have become a bit more adherent to strong and what were once overpowering hops. Tarantino's has a nice spicy red sauce, so my choice was made partly to pair with the pizza and it was a good call. I'd have to give the HopWallop an A also, as I do with much of the Victory profiles that i have tried.

While watching the game I had a cellar temp Pranqster, from NorthCoast brewing, makers of Old Rasputin, Red Seal Ale, and Brother Thelonius Ale. The Pranqster is a very nice Belgian Golden Ale-think Duvel-and I was seriously surprised with this choice. They nailed the yeasty-carbonated tase on the nose. It was all I could do to let it warm up a bit in the snifter after i first tried it. It did get better as it warmed, but not tremendously as it would in a Tripel or a Quad.

Last Beer was an Oak Barrel Stout from Old Dominion Brewery. This label recently returned to the area, as there has been a shakeup in the Richmond Distribution companies and it's been months since I had seen this in stores. I was lucky to snag a single of this on Sunday from Patterson Express and did not want to wait to try it.

I'm not a big fan of regular stouts, i.e. Guiness or any other 4-6% stouts. But this is probably the best one that i have tried. Seriously. The oak aging gave it a very nice, roasted profile and the vanilla was a nice secondary flavor underneath. Man, i wish this were an imperial stout. With a nearly over the top hop and alcohol profile, i would drink that up in a heartbeat. I am impressed. And lucky. It's not often that i have 3 A quality beers in a row like that.

Next week, i should have a report on the Nugget Nectar that a friend is holding for me, and probably a Barleywine or too. I still have a 2006 Old Crustacean in the basement, and Bigfoot is in the area along with the newest SNV ale, the Torpedo.

Cheers.

An Exhausting Weekend of Crackerdom

I take every other Saturday off from the bars for my mental and physical health. I can certainly handle working 4nights a week-which is usually 40hours or so-but for the sake of my marital and social life a Saturday spent doing normal things is good for the wife and me. Closing the bar on Friday, going back in at 4 on Saturday and not getting home until 4am simply makes for a shitty, tired Sunday where all i want to do is sleep or be lazy when there are things to be done either around the house or with friends and family.

This weekend was full of just these types of things. While I worked my usual Friday night shift, the wife was out with her ScissorSister, celebrating SS's Birthday with about 10 others. They pre-gamed at a couple hotspot bars-one of which i joined them at-ate some Sushi and settled in at a quiet Pub for the night. They only beat me to the house by 45min or so but they were pretty housed and were in bed before i set foot in the house. While I was home early, I did take the time after closing to re-establish NewBeer Friday. I originally established this late Friday night tasting to keep me and my fellow co-worker from drinking all of the delicious tap offerings that my boss/friend had available. I try to keep it going now because I have been tiring of the same beers there, and it's not good to down a couple of 11% barleywines past 2am. This is learned the hard way.

So, quickly after we had closed and cleaned up, me and my buddy Chico split a bomber of Southern Tier Gemini. A 50/50 mix of their unfiltered Hoppe and Unearlthy, I was actually let down by the beer. Maybe I was too tired or my tastebuds were off, but i couldn't really discern a good profile of the mixture and I was probably too lazy to pinpoint the flavors. I think I was just in the mood to drink a beer without thinking too much about it. Their big special release series is always phenomenal. Every one that i've tried has been great except for a Creme Brulee stout that was entirely too sweet for me. I would have poured it down the drain, but the wife likes the sweet beers and gladlytook it off my hands. Southern Tier does the best job of all the breweries, in my opinion, of hiding the alcohol in their beers. They usually top off more than 10% and you really have to try hard to find it in the profile. That being said, i'll take the hit on the Gemini and decline badmouthing them until i've had a chance to try the Gemini again.

Saturday morning we were all up early, 930 or so, as the wife and i made a huge, hangover-curing breakfast for the friends that had stayed the night. We ate and socialiezed for a while before they left. That left us a little time before we had to get ready for Chico's son's birthday party. We showed fashionably late, as the wife was still hungover and had some trouble completing her/our food contribution to the festivities.

The party was fun for a child's party, as I am getting more and more used to the kids parties with my siblings all having spit out a bunch of kids in the last five years or so. Plus, more and more couples our age and profile have been having the kids also, so the idea of attending these is not so foreign or unsettling to me.

The wife was tired/hungover still, so we left the party and headed home. She layed down to nap, and i took this opportunity to head over to Legend Brewery inorder to try their 15th Anniversary Belgian Quad. This is only available on tap, and for a short time, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to have one, seeing as how I am abstaining from the Beer during the week and the wife is a seven day abstainer for the near future. She still really enjoys the brews, but it's not fair to drag her to a brewpub and watch me be all nerdy with a beer while she's stuck with a Vodka/Soda.

The anniversary ale was o.k. It started out very promising. Had some nice raisin and plum hints to it, the yeast profile was alright. But as the Quad warmed, the taste began to disappoint. I find that the majority of good beers change for the better as they warm, but this did not, in fact it stayed much the same without any new flavorings or complexity showing up. I really liked Legend's Tripel, both last year and this, but brewing Beligian beers is difficult and maybe they bit off more than they could chew, so to speak.

We went to dinner at a local cafe, where I had some spicy pasta jambalaya, paired with an Allagash Black Belgian Stout, delicious on tap. Then we had some beers at a local pub. I had a Sierra Nevada Celebration-always delicious-but it put my tastebuds out of commission for the night, so my 2nd and last pint was a Jever Pilsner.

Back at the house to watch a movie, I cracked a DogfishHead Barleywine. This thing was a sipper in the truest sense of the word. Very Syruppy and 16% or so. Not really my thing, and i do love my barleywines.

After pulling a short bar shift Sunday, we sampled an Orkney Skullsplitter- a WeeHeavy Scotch ale from Scotland. Brown, malty and delicious, those who tried it were pleasantly surprised. I picked up a Smuttynose Big Beer for dinner, as we had some friends coming over, and i always try to educate/impress with beer. This season's selection is the Really Old Brown Dog ale. A tasty English Dark Ale, i found it shared some similarities with the Orkney that we had tried earlier. This is one of those Ales that reminds you that craft beer is not all about the hops.

I really enjoy the Smuttynose Big Beer Series. Every one of those big offerings is delicious, and i actively seek them out when around town. When i think of the styles of beer that they cover in the series, i find myself using their beers as the benchmark for those styles more often than not. Their MaiBock is amazing, and their Saison Farmhouse ale blew me away.

I ended my weekend beer drinking with one of my favorite barleywines, the Stone Old Guardian 2008. It's not as tasty now as when it was "hot" when first released, but i enjoyed it all the same. I probably should have paired that with dinner instead of the Smuttynose, but not everyone is a barleywine fan, and i was in a sharing mood earlier.

All in all a fun and busy weekend. I still have a ton of schoolwork to catch up on-Sundays from here on out are going to be library day-but it's still way early in the semester and i do have time to make up the readings. The next 6weeks are going to be busy leading up to Spring Break, but i've gotten used to setting enough time aside to get things done while spending time with the wife and having some wind-down time. It's all part of getting older, i guess.