Philly Beer Week, Part III: The return of the hops

So Wednesday was a much needed night at home. Did this stop me from enjoying a beer? Of course not. I had the Avery Fourteen, a beer brewed specifically for their 14th anniversary.

On Thursday, we headed to Old City. The first stop was Eulogy where their were having a Harviestoun night, featuring their beers aged in Highland Park scotch casks of 12, 16 and 30 years. The beers were pricy so I only had one, the 16. It was an incredibly rich beer with lots of flavors coming from the cask. The scotch flavor was not overpowering which made for a surprisingly easy drinking beer for something of its strength. The bartender informed me that the 30 year supposedly tastes more like scotch than beer, but alas at $22 for a 12oz bottle it was a bit out of my range. For dinner I had their mussels with bacon and potatos and a side of Belgian fries. I was not too impressed with their fries or dipping sauce (Monk's is definitely better). The main reason is that they were too thick. With my dinner I had a Swedish beer called Fiori (I wrote down the full name, but don't have it on me). It was light with a bit of spice, not overly impressive.

After Eulogy we made the long journey across the street to Triumph for their pilsner gala. Now in reality this was more lager gala as there were other lagers besides pilsner (e.g., bocks). Triumph was featuring about 5 of their own beers combined with about 10 from other, mostly local, breweries. This lead to some confusion with the bartenders who are used to serving only their own beers. I started with the Victory Biermeister pils, and I'm glad I did because they ran out soon after. Its a light beer in color, but with a pretty decent hop flavor. I have not had their Prima pils in a little while, but I think this may be a touch better. I guess I should have ordered both. For my second beer I went with the Sly Fox Rauchbier. If you've been following my beer week posts you'll know I'm crazy about this style. The Sly Fox version is on the low end of rauchbiers that I've had (could have been smokier) but that still makes it a good beer. I also had the opportunity to meet Lew Bryson, who was "hosting" the event and Stephen Beaumont, both were very friendly and shared stories with me. For example, I learned about the first double IPA, made by the current Russian River brewer solely because he did not trust some new equipment and decided to cover up the flaws with twice the hops. I also got some stories about Michael Jackson (the beer writer) from Lew, who used to edit a lot of Michael's writings, specifically for Malt Advocate. It was already late after Triumph so we called it a night.

Friday I once again ventured into center city and had plans for hitting several events. First stop was Nodding Head for a meet the brewers happy hour. There were several brewers I wanted to talk with, but the place was mobbed, couldn't even find a place to stand, so we left. Our next stop was Tria (on 12th), where they were having an Allagash night. Strike 2. They were so packed that we were actually rejected at the door for fire code reasons (bars enforce that???). Ok, on to Good Dog who was featuring Sly Fox and Southampton. And strike 3, again too packed to even stand. I attribute the problems to normal Friday happy hour crowds combined with beer week, but I wasn't happy. Those were the 3 places on my list and we failed at all of them. So on to an improvised agenda. Jose Pistolas for dinner, where we were able to find a table. I had the shrimp and chorizo tacos which were very tasty and soem tortillas and salsa as an appetizer. To drink I had the Bells Lager of the Lakes (kind of bland) and the Atwater Voodoo Vator (a decent doppelbock).

Afterward, we wandered around a bit, and then made it to Grace Tavern. It was our first time there and we loved the place. It was exactly the type of neighborhood bar that makes Philly great, good crowd, good beer, good bartenders, etc. I drank the Sierra Nevada Schwarzbier, which I did not even know that they made. It was quite tasty. We called it a night after Grace Tavern and headed home.

Saturday did not involve any beer week activities, although I did do some drinking in honor of st patrick's day, hitting Moriarity's (which was fun) and McGillin's (which was a little too crowded). We finished the night at Old Eagle where I tried some Sly fox Seamus Red and the Flying Fish Espresso Porter.

Sunday I had other commitments that prevented beer week activities, although I had a few while playing darts.

Overall, a lot of drinking in 10 days, but a lot of fun. Keep an eye out for my Philly beer week recap.