Day #5
Jose Pistol....er, Misconduct Tavern. I had planned on meeting my sister and out of town friends at Jose Pistolas for the Founders lunch takeover. My friends were running late, so I met with my sister Katie around 11:40 and there was a line around the block. We were both famished and and decided not to wait it out and head over to Misconduct, where I always get good food and good beer. I ordered the chicken caesar with a side of housemade hot dog (BBQ chicken) which is all natural and came with coleslaw and a grilled bun. Ballast Point Barmy Apricot was my first beer, which I had never seen before. Tasted very light and slightly fruity; deceiving since it weighs in at 10.7%. This is a beer I could drink all day, if it wouldn't end up knocking me on my ass after 3. Second beer was the Central Waters Bourbon Stout. My server said she preferred this beer to Founders KBS, but I disagreed. Same style and Central Waters is a great brewery, but this stout had a little too much raisin taste for me. I did enjoy the nose and overall taste, and would order again.
Once the craziness died down at Jose's, my friends got a table and even though the CBS kicked, they were able to get a glass of the KBS 2011. I met up with them and enjoyed the Cerise, which is a delicious red ale that is fermented with tart cherries and has a smooth, fruity taste.
Kite & Key. We left and met up with Steve to get some KBS for their Founder takeover. Last year, it was a madhouse. This year, they didn't have CBS, so it was fairly easy to get a seat at the bar and some KBS finally. We met up with lots of beer friends too - Rich, Matt, Inspector Bob.
They also had one of my favorite DIPAs, Double Trouble. It was a Founders wonderland - Breakfast Stout, KBS, Double Trouble, Backwoods Bastard, Better Half, Imperial Stout, Cerise, Centennial. If only beer week didn't have so many awesome events each day, I would've spent my day and evening with Founders.
Prohibition Taproom. They had Cigar City and Funky Buddha on tap and it was the busiest I've ever seen the place. Our good friend John, the general manager of Prohibition, has great taste in beer and runs one of my favorite bars.
Matt ordered us a bunch of the Funky Buddah beers before we got there, and Steve was double fisting as soon as we walked in. Those are our friends, Lindsay & Tony, from Elizabethtown. Lindsay & I went to college together and she now works with her husband at their restaurant, Black Gryphon. They're very passionate about local foods, craft beers, and craft cocktails - my kind of people!
I tasted 3 of the Funky beers - Last Snow, No Crusts, Applebum. Everyone was going nuts over the No Crusts, a PB&J beer. I wasn't too crazy about that one, but I loved the Applebum. It tasted like I dove head first into a warm homemade apple pie. I also really enjoyed the Last Snow, which is their porter made with white chocolate and coconut. I usually don't like coconut, but this was so well balanced with the chocolate, coffee, and vanilla.
Franklin Mortgage Investment Co. Lindsay and Tony haven't been to Philadelphia together before, so we wanted to take them to the best cocktail bar in the city. We had such a fun time at Franklin Mortgage, and it was a nice break from all the beer week madness. We got some small snacks and enjoyed quite a few (expensive) cocktails.
Barcade. Allagash takeover with founder and head brewed, Rob Tod. We hit up Barcade quite a bit during beer week, but this was mainly for our friends, who love Allagash and arcade games. It was pretty crowded, but they had TONS of Allagash beers to choose from.
I got to try Old HLT on tap, as well as Ghoulschip. I already knew I loved the HLT since we had some bottles from the brewery, but I wasn't sure about the Ghoulschip. It. Was. Awesome. It defintely had a sour nose, but you could also detect a hint of pumpkin seed. It started out sour, then as it warmed on my tongue, gave way to pumpkin, molasses, and a hint of lemon. It might be one of the most bizarre flavor profiles I've tasted, and I loved it.
Day #8
Hill Farmstead Day. Boilermaker was our only solid plan for Friday and it seemed that HF was flowing all over the city all day. We stopped at Prohibition beforehand and had an Oskar Blues Gubna, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Very piney, incredibly hoppy, citrus and floral notes, perfect ipa. We walked to BM and went upstairs, where they were already pouring HF beers and it was already pretty crowded. We eventually made our way to the end corner with friends and were able to enjoy tons of HF beers since they do small and big pours.
I tried to take some pictures, but since it was so dark, most of them didn't turn out too well. Luckily, there were tons of beers to occupy my time. I got to try about 9 of the beers, one of which was from Grassroots, the colaboration label.
Hill Farmstead fans : don't be jealous. Shaun recognized me from when Steve and I visited in May and it was awesome to talk to him again and see how his events were going in Philly. He asked me how many beers I had tried so far, and I responded with "almost all of them." I could go into depth about how amazing each and every beer was, but I feel like I would sound like a broken record. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Eventually, I fully intend to have beer reviews on my blog, but in time my friends, in time.
I know this is SUPER late, but thanks to you all who have decided to take a beer journey with me and I fully intend to stay on track in the future.
Cheers,
Megan
