I came across this beer a week or so ago at RSVP. 10% abv, 67 ibu. This could be a fitting memorial to the recently lamented Stone Coast Brewing. I bought one to try, one to keep. Grab some if you see it, this is a keeper.
This beer has a lovely malty nose, and the mouth-filling sweet malty taste of a powerhouse brew. The hops surely are there, but buried right now. They made 8.5 bbl of this stuff.
I’m looking for more. Race you to Forest Ave.
The weather has finally turned a little more summer-like again up here in Maine, and just in time for a big beer weekend here in Portland. First up is Great Lost Bear’s All Hail IPA Night tonight. Those looking to get a hops fix can grab $2.50 pours between 5 and 9 o’clock of the following:
Following that up is Roguepalooza at Novare Res on Friday and Saturday. With too many left coast Portland beers to sample in one night, Eric Michaud is hosting the largest collection of Rogue beers on tap outside of Oregon for two nights. No official tap list has been published yet, but I’ll post my findings tomorrow night when I get back (or maybe Saturday morning when I wake up). Update: Novare Res has published the tap list (pdf link). Thanks, Jim, for the update.
Our August MBWG meeting featured some new members, a splendid brewery tour of the original Shipyard brewery, and some very tasty barley wine at Federal Jack’s in Kennebunkport. With one founder now out of state, another down with a stomach bug, and two members deciding to meet us at Fed Jack’s, four of us (and two DD’s, a.k.a. very patient wives) met at Great Lost Bear for a quick pint before heading down the Turnpike to Kennebunkport.
We arrived just before 7:00 PM on Wednesday to find the parking area jammed with cars. The rainy weather probably helped business, but the slow economy sure doesn’t seem to be hurting Kennebunkport’s tourism much. After Sean and Chris arrived, we shared a pint with brewer Mike Haley and then headed downstairs for a tour of the brewery where Alan Pugsley (and Fred Forsley) started Shipyard some 16 years ago.
We got a wonderful tour of what has to be the nicest 7 Bbl brewing system in the world. Brewers Mike Haley and Nick Marray run a fairly autonomous operation with minimal oversight from Portland. As something of a working museum to Shipyard and Pugsley’s widely-sold brewing system, there are numerous plexiglass windows showing the outside world what goes on inside. This, and Haley’s obsessive attention to detail, ensures that everything is clean and organized inside.
One thing that is painfully obvious to me this week is that I’m not in London.
This is the week of the Great British Beer Festival, the grand-daddy of all beer festivals and Mecca for lovers of cask ale. I last attended in 2005, so I’m feeling enormously deprived… (lol) The fact that several of my NERAX colleagues are there now helps not at all.
GBBF offers over 350 cask ales from all over Britain, as well as a foreign bar that serves about 50 American cask ales, many American bottle beers, and kegs and bottles from Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, and many other countries.
Outside the festival one is confronted with the pubs of London. If that’s not enough, there is Cricket on now both at Lords and The Oval.
Good Grief!
Sam and the folks from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery are making another Maine appearance tonight, this time at Great Lost Bear. The 60 and 90 Minutes IPAs and the Indian Brown Ale will all be poured for $2.50 per pint from 5-9 PM. I may have to go down and see if I can get a few more Dogfish Head glasses to complete my collection…
I just found a link to a very interesting survey site called MaineBAC.org. No, BAC doesn’t stand for blood-alcohol content in this case. It’s “Brief Alcohol Checkup” and it provides a simple, quick, and anonymous way to see whether you should be concerned about how much you drink. As a social drinker who likes his beer but only occasionally has more than two beers at a sitting, my risk factor for dependence is in the low range, according to the site.
At an average of only 5-6 drinks a week, I was surprised to find that I am in the upper third of alcohol consumption among men in my age range across the state (well, at least those who have taken the survey). If you’re not sure whether you should be concerned about your alcohol intake, or if you’re curious about how your drinking effects your BAC, take ten minutes and click through this survey. The comparisons only apply to Maine consumption, but the information about the effects of alcohol and risk factors applies universally.
As announced the other day, Great Lost Bear now features “Allagash Alley,” a new tap tower with five rare-on-tap brews from Portland’s own Belgian brewer. Amber and I stopped in for a late lunch on Saturday and I got to try two of them. I’ll be back on Friday as part of Beer, Maine & Me’s Bike to the Breweries (more on this in a later post) and plan to sample at least one more.
Fluxus ‘08 - a double white beer brewed with spices and fresh grated ginger. This one is reminiscent of their flagship White, but with a more pronounced citrus note. It’s a good deal more cloudy as well. The ginger is quite apparent in the nose here, and it yields a refreshing zing when you sip. My preference is toward darker Belgian ales, but this one blows its little brother (the White) out of the water. I paired it with GLB’s Thai Chili Chicken sandwich for a great lunch. Don’t Miss This One.
Musette - Rob and co.’s interpretation of a Belgian-brewed Scotch ale. This highly alcoholic beer (10% ABV) recalls the Scotch ales brought to Belgium during WWI. While they’ve lost popularity in Scotland, they are apparently still popular in Belgium (Jan or Marcus, can you confirm this for someone who hasn’t been to Belgium yet?). Dark fruits and some peat smoke are apparent in the nose and the taste. I really think this could be an excellent beer, but it didn’t go that well with the Fluxus that preceded it. I’ll try this one again. Perhaps we can get some from the barrel on Friday when we stop at Allagash for our tour? For now, I can only conclude this one is Worth Trying, but I may have to revise that after further “research.”
