Day 250, Sept 9 / Michelob Original Lager

Day 250, September 9, 2011

Michelob Original Lager

Michelob Brewing Co (InBev)  /  St. Louis, MO

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“Where you’re going, it's Michelob"

 

“Weekends were made for Michelob"

"The night belongs to Michelob"

"Some days are better than others."

Growing up, I remember two things about Michelob:

1. It was too expensive for my Dad to buy.  Michelob was the premium American beer of the 1970’s and 1980’s.  It was then, as now, one of the few American macro-brews to use all malt, with no corn or rice adjuncts.
2. After 1981, when I was old enough to buy one, if you were able to peel the tab off the label and capture the the two EE’s in BEER, your wish would come true.  But since my wish was usually that the girl at the other end of the bar that looked like Cheryl Ladd would come over and talk to me, I think this was a myth, because that never happened.

We tried a new restaurant Friday night that I had purchased a Groupon for – Rocco’s Italian Restaurant in McLean, Virginia.  This was a pleasant surprise.  Rocco’s is a small, family restaurant, and many of the customers were greeted by the staff as if they were regulars.  Between my wife’s chicky chicky parm parm with a side of spaghetti with meat sauce, my linguine with white clam sauce, and my daughter’s meatball sub, we were all impressed with the food, and will definitely return.

As expected, the beer selection was limited, so I just selected a Michelob draft, which I haven’t had in years.  It was a clear golden color, with a smooth, crisp taste, no noticeable hop character.  Like Budweiser, only a little better.

Some days are better than others.

Day 251, Sep 8 / Liberty Ale

Day 251, September 8, 2011

Liberty Ale

Anchor Brewing Company / 

San Francisco, CA

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This day sucked!

What a day!  Yes, that’s a shop vac behind my beer.

I’m still fighting this cold (I know, call the wahhhh-mbulance), so I wanted to leave work early.  But my boss asked to me to stick around so we could review a project with her boss.  Well, that didn’t happen until about 5:00 pm.

By this time it was just pouring outside, and several roads had flooded, so getting home was a bit of a challenge.  What should have been a 35 minute drive was a 90 minute drive, with several detours and crawling traffic.

When I get home, I find my wife and daughter mopping, sopping and bailing out 2” of water from our basement – it looks like our foundation sprung a couple leaks and couldn’t handle 5 inches of rain in a 5 hour period, especially with the ground already saturated.

So an evening where I wanted to chill on the coach, watch the series finale of “Rescue Me” on the DVR, and go to bed early, found me squeegeeing the basement floor, sucking up 20 gallons of water out of the rugs with the shop vac, and mourning the loss of the Pergo floor I installed on my hands and knees 4 years ago.  No, Pergo is not waterproof.  I’ll be ripping that floor out this weekend.

So I guess the highlight of the day was the Anchor Liberty Ale.  Liberty Ale was first introduced in 1975 to commemorate the bicentennial of the famous ride by Paul Revere.  I didn’t pour it into a glass, so I won’t comment on the color and clarity.  But this is a solid, American Pale Ale.  It’s got a great balance of malt and hops, and definitely could be an “everyday” beer, if you’re one of those people who drinks the same beer everyday.

Day 250, Sept 7 / Avery IPA

Day 250, September 7, 2011

Avery IPA

Avery Brewing Company / Boulder, CO

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Named after my great grandfather (purely coincidentally, I’m sure), Avery IPA poured light orange, slight hazy into my glass.  This is a classic IPA, bitter, crisp and hoppy.  Definitely more bitter than the Long Trail IPA reviewed earlier this month.

HHH – I think this is the last of the beers you brought me – thanks!

Day 249, Sept 6 / Pacifico Clara

Day 249, September 6, 2011

Pacifico Clara

Grupo Modelo  /  Mexico City Mexico

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Have a little faith in me…

As expected, there weren’t a whole lot of beer choices at the Mexican restaurant where we met some friends for dinner before catching the John Hiatt show at Wolf Trap last night.  Given the choice between Corona and Pacifico, I’ll take Pacifico.  Given the choice between Pacifico and any decent craft beer… well, I think you know what I’d pick.

Pacifico is a light yellow, light tasting beer, best accompanied by a slice of lime to add a little taste to this bland beer.  However, I do have a soft spot for Pacifico, because it reminds me of a good friend we lost to cancer a couple years ago, who enjoyed Pacificos on the beach as a warm up to her evening vodkas!

John Hiatt put on a good show on a rainy night at Wolf Trap.  The lawn was empty, and the house was maybe only 2/3 full, but John and the combo rocked a 90 minute set, with a solid opening blues / rock set by Big Head Todd and the Monsters.

Day 248, Sept 5 / Long Trail IPA

Day 248, September 5, 2011

Long Trail IPA

Long Trail Brewing Company / Bridgewater Corners, VT

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Still fighting the cold, but this IPA stood out.  Long Trail’s IPA is a crisp, IPA with just the right balance of Nugget and Cascade hops.  It was a nice golden color, with rings of lacing lining the glass as I finished it with dinner.

Happy Labor Day!

Day 247, Sep 4 / Full Circle Kolsch Style Beer

Day 247, September 4, 2011

Full Circle Kolsch Style Beer

New Holland Brewing Company / Holland, MI

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I’m trying to fight off a cold today, so I’m not in the most creative mood tonight.  And my taste buds may be off a bit, so I’ll give these beers the benefit of the doubt.

The Full Circle Kolsch was a decent beer, but I think I saw a few things floating in it.  It was a light, crisp beer with a distinctive kolsch taste.

Did You Miss a Beer Run?

Hey, in case you missed a Beer Run, here's a year to date recap of all the Beer Runs this year. Click on the image to see all the posts in each Beer Run.

Who am I kidding? This post is a shameless attempt to get these images to show up when you do a Google image search on "Beer Run." Let's give it a few days and see if it works!

Aug 29 - Sept 2 August 18 - 23 July 25 - 29 July 10-14 June 1 - 30 May 19-24 May 5 - 10 April 18-22 March 13 - 18 February 22-28 February 2 - 15 January 17 - 20

Day 246, September 3 / Cooper’s Premium Lager

Day 246, September 3, 2011

Cooper’s Premium Lager

Coopers’ Brewery Ltd.  /  Leabrook, Australia

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As you’d expect, there’s limited beer choices for a beer geek at Outback Steakhouse.  But they did have 2 beers from Cooper’s Brewery in Australia, mate.  After checking the mobile Premium Lager.

Note to self – any beer that declares itself “Premium”, usually isn’t.

Cooper’s Premium is nothing special.  Just a light lager, good for washing down a steak.

Day 245, September 2 / Brekle’s Brown

Day 245 / September 2, 2011

Brekle’s Brown

Anchor Brewing Company  / 
San Francisco, CA

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I got lucky at the airport!

I had a 3 pm flight out of SFO Friday, so I figured that would give me enough time for lunch and a beer at the airport. I did some online recon and really lucked out - there were Gordon Biersch and Anchor Steam restaurants and bars very close to my gate.

After I got through the insanely long (but quick moving) security line, I headed for Anchor Steam.  I figured I could go to Gordon Biersch back home, and who knows where the beer is actually made.

I got the last seat at the bar and tried to read the tap handles.  Looked like Anchor Steam, Porter, Summer and Liberty Ale.  Porter was going to be the choice, until the bartender told me they had brown ale too.  Could this be the elusive Brekle's Brown?  Yes, indeed it was!

What makes this beer elusive?  I had read about it online earlier this year, but unfortunately it wasn’t going to be distributed outside of the local San Francisco area.  A guy at Lefty O'Douls was singing its praises, but said that it was only available on tap in a few bars, and that most bars had already sold out.

The story of Anchor Brewery begins shortly after gold was discovered in nearby Sutter’s Mill. That’s when German brewer “Gottlieb Brekle arrived in San Francisco with his wife Marie and infant son Frederick.” In 1854, Brekle applied for U.S. citizenship and 1871 bought an old beer-and-billiards saloon near Russian Hill. That location became “a little San Francisco brewery on Pacific, between Larkin and Hyde,” and 25-years later was known as Anchor Brewery.

Brekle’s Brown was brewed this year to pay tribute to Gottleib Brekle, who was brewmaster from 1871 to 1888.  It is an all-malt, single (citra) hop brown ale.  It was very good, tasting something like an English bitter with a crisp finish.

And so ends the San Francisco Beer Run!

Day 244, September 1 / Prohibition Ale

Day 244 / September 1, 2011

Prohibition Ale

Speakeasy Ales and Lagers  / 
San Francisco, CA

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Schmoozing can be exhausting...

Thursday was the last night of my conference in San Francisco, with 2 cocktail parties to attend – one up the hill from my hotel and the other down the hill..  I tell ya, walking around the city, eating and drinking on the vendor's dime can really wear you out!  (Wah...)

I anticipated the high probability that neither one of these receptions would have a beer that met the requirements of my San Francisco Beer Run.  I tried to find a pub on the way to the first reception, but the only ones I came across were a couple fancy hotel bars.  I did find one corner bar, but the only local beer that had was Anchor Steam (had that already).

The only thing close to a craft beer at the first reception was Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (from Chico, California, 3 hours north of San Francisco).  I had scoped out a bar on the walk to the convention center that looked like it may have a couple local beers, so I stopped in there with a co-worker between receptions. 

Sure enough, they had another beer from Speakeasy, Prohibition American Style Amber Ale.  This was a nice reddish color, with a good balance of malt and somewhat aggressive hoppiness.

And it’s a good thing I stopped in here, because the beer selection at the secnd reception – which was actually a very good party – consisted only of Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Draft, and Coors (the Banquet Beer).

Day 243, Aug 31 / Golden Vanilla Ale

Golden Vanilla Ale

Thirsty Bear Brewing Company / San Francisco, CA

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A very crowded, thirsty bear...

Continuing the San Francisco Beer Run, I stopped into the Thirsty Bear Brewpub near the Moscone Convention Center after my conference ended yesterday. And so did everyone else! The place was packed!

After I elbowed my way up to the bar, I checked out the beers and ales brewed on premise. There was a pilsner, a stout, an ESB, a "Blue Moon" type orange wheat beer, and a golden vanilla ale. Well, that last one sounded interesting - I've never had that type of beer before.

The Golden Vanilla was an extremely mild (not bitter) ale, clocking in at only 15 IBUs (point of reference: Budweiser is 11 IBUs, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is 38 IBUs). The vanilla taste was present in both the smell and taste of the beer, but not overpowering or obnoxious.

Ok, I'll say it - this is a girl beer. Now some girls like a fuller, more complex beer, but not most girls. But I'd say most girls would probably enjoy this beer.

Day 242, August 30 / Gubby's Pale Ale

Gubby's Pale Ale

21st Amendment Brewing Company / San Francisco, CA

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Gubby, Dammit!

Last night I met up with a former co-worker, and decided to track down a 21st Amendment beer in its natural environment, the 21st Amendment Brewery and Restaurant. The brewpub is located in the SOMA (south of Market) area of San Francisco, and has a cool, rustic decor. Lots of exposed beams and bricks, with large portraits of employees (brewers and wait staff) along one wall.

The food was pretty good - your standard selection of salads, sandwiches, burgers and entrees. The French onion soup was good (maybe a little too sweet), and the pot roast with mashed potatoes and root vegetables was also good (but maybe a little too fatty).

Now for the beer. The Gubby's Pale Ale was a nice copper color, with a thin head with nice lacing. It was mildly hoppy (40 IBUs), with a crisp taste. Decent beer, nothing too exceptional.

Tonight... Thirsty Bear!