Chimay in costco!!

Wow, look what's selling in costco !!
Looks like there are enough serious beer drinkers (read serious-beer, and not beer-drinker) around :))

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Darmstädter Ratskeller Hausbrauerei

Stayed at the Bockshaut hotel near marktplatz in Darmstadt. The brewery was right next door.

Currently 2 beers being brewed - light and dark. This is the dark. Nice..."FRESH" is the word :))

Toasted Lager - Blue Point Brewing - Long Island

From last winter ..

Found one bottle of ommegang adoration at the "paces bottle shop" nearby and thought it is way too early to start seeing this years brews.

Confirmed with the storekeeper - a little aged bottle from last year - perfect !

:)

Affligem Blond

Really liked it. No need to worry about food pairings. Just the beer makes a great dinner :)

Oregon Again

A week's trip to Oregon - got the chance to try out a some good beers. first was the black butte porter from deschutes brewery, portland oregon. really good.

http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/brew/black-butte-porter

the next was spring reign from ninkasi brewery, eugene OR. Very hoppy, and absolutely wonderful.

http://www.ninkasibrewing.com/beers/spring_reign

And the Dead Guy Ale from Rogue Ales. Another great beer to end the great week :)

http://www.rogue.com/beers/dead-guy-ale.php

Abita Amber and Turbodog

Abita brewing company's trademark "turbodog" and their amber.

So that's how they do it in Tennessee !

Went looking for beer on a trip to Memphis. Did not look at beer advocate for recommended places to find some good beer. Stopped at the first store I found, walked in, and was completely shocked - a wall of glass, all the bottles are inside and i have to stand at a small window and order. Seeing my surprised look, the storekeeper shouted across "u lookin for beer? try at the gas station across the street". I said "thank you" and told myself - "thats how they do it in Tennessee!". I did read up on-line later and figured the good stuff would have been available in the store anyway.

So went across the street to the gas station. It was all the usual marketed brands and nothing much else. Found a couple of odd looking bottles in one corner and picked them up. Both were Samuel Smith's, one was the oatmeal stout - a slightly bigger than normal bottle (was 355 ml i think) in a 4-pack, and the other was nut brown ale in a single bottle slightly smaller than the normal big bottle (around 550ml i think). No price stickers on either. Looked like been sitting around for a while.

Turns out the guy at the counter had no idea of the prices. We mutually agreed on some price that sounded reasonable I got out of there.

Loved both beers, and were both washed down with some dry ribs from corky's :) Rest of the information I read up online and found both had an A or above rating on beer advocate.

From wiki: The Old Brewery in Tadcaster, Yorkshire, in the North of England, was established in 1758.

From their website: Oatmeal stout - At one time promoted as a drink for lactating mothers, oatmeal stout was described as nutritional on early labels !!

Hennepin - Ommegang

They call it a farmhouse ale, and saison - seasonal. I call it "Nice".

Sweetwater 420 and Georgia Brown

Got to sweetwater beers..after 3 years in Atlanta !! It is like one of those things you never get to, coz it is right in your backyard. You keep telling yourself - that can be done anytime !! So now that we may be finally moving out of Atlanta by mid year, I had to rush out and get some sweetwater beers. They are not distributed widely - read somewhere that they are not pasteurized, so only locally distributed.

Loved the 420, really really good and balanced beer. Georgia brown was not great, but definitely okay.

We lived in Jersey for about 2.5 years, about 45 minutes drive from the statue of liberty. Never went there though - always thought we could go see it anytime, it is right here in our backyard :) and before we knew it, here we were in the ATL.

The Russian UFO !

Alex has been asking me to try UFO out for ages. Somehow I had an impression this was a russian beer (not really somehow...Alex > Russia > Alex's Fav beer!). Finally got to meet the UFO at Alex's weekend barbecue.

Well, far from russian. It is the german style made in the US of A :)) from Harpoon brewery.

Good drinking beer. Not the best in its style though !

Duvel

Picked up a gift set of duvel which included the glass and 4 that sized bottles on a recent trip to CT - from a store right next to our hotel. We had this in the hotel lobby - it was not chilled but was cool enough - and still tasted great !

We ordered some food from the lobby bar - the waitress looked completely stoned. We did not see here after taking the order anyway !!

Family controlled belgian brewery - should add "recent" for a belgian brewery (est. only in 1871!) :)

Was reading up on Duvel and was surprised to learn that they took over brewery ommegang in 2003 - love those beers.

The color & taste of this one will fool you - it is 9% abv

rating on beer advocate http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/222/695

Full Sail Amber

Was in portland and have long heard this is the "beervana" and the land of craft brews. But if you look around in a regular grocery, you pretty much find only the big names on display.

Have seen Full Sail brews all around the country, but never tried one.

Picked the amber (http://www.fullsailbrewing.com/beers/amber.cfm) - without knowing it was the flagship brand and that it won all these awards.

Very good beer. Ratings here (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/5316/213)

Schuttinger - Bremen Germany

In a land with breweries that have been around for hundreds of years, it felt odd to try out one that said "anno 1990".

This is right in the middle of bremen downtown, down some alleys, and inside is dimly lit and everything maintains a very "old time" feel.

few varieties, primarily the light and dark (dunkel). I tried only the dunkel both times we went there. Great beer and some great food.

And lots of options in volume - from 200cl to huge casks that you can take home with a small deposit :)

Website: http://www.schuettinger.de/

Pictures to Words

Have been putting pictures and brief comments about the beers we try out on Facebook. But moving over to the blog format so there is more space for words :)