Beering in Long Island: Bobbique

After we relax at the hotel and get changed for the wedding, we decide to squeeze in a trip to Bobbique. For one thing, we were going to a wedding with people from Kenya and what I think were West Indian. Basically we knew they would be late as all get out, and I didn't want to starve waiting them out.

So at Bobbique we walk in rather overdressed, but feeling right at home. Order a couple slices of pie and start a little beering with whatever's on draft. They had about 12 taps and maybe 60 beers, many of which I've never heard of. Awesome.

From memory, I got my hands on some Captain Lawrence's Freshchester. Very pleasant hoppy pale ale. Afterward, I got some Brooklyn Special Reserve: Backbreaker. The waitress couldn't tell me much about it but I surmised it was a light belgian pale ale due to the hint of sourness. Turns out it's an English pale ale that the brotha Garrett Oliver cracked the malts in himself in merry old England. Not a bad beer overall.

How we knew was the manager of the place, Eric, came by after we told the waitress we travel around beering it up. Very cool guy that hit us with the Yankee Brewnews and the Ale Street Newspaper. Even said we could go for half pints for whatevers on the bar. The brewmaster for Blue Point was there as well. Eric told us that we now have to go to a NY Mets game b/c Brooklyn Beer actually brews specific beers for the Mets that you can pretty much only get at the Mets game. The funny part is that the Mets suck so bad, that I shouldn't have any trouble getting tickets.

Back to Bobbique, we didn't get anything but desert, but we could clearly see the portions of the food, they are not playing around. The waitress we had could probably use a little help in tasting the beers on tap that day, as I think this place changes over taps damn near daily. Loved the atmosphere with the 50s rock and blues playing. Tons of bottles of beer everywhere. Eric told us of the best place to buy beer, but we didn't have the time. Maybe next time we're in the area, which I'm sure we'll do again.

Hold Up

Beer Log: Right Now

State: Polishing off a mug of homebrewed Apricot English Ale.

Sierra Nevada Estate

Grabbed this one at Specs on Jones Rd and 290. Ready to rock and roll on this one. Amber Sierra Nevada Copper color. White very lacy head. Cascady piney nose. Strong hoppiness but not overly bitter, if that makes sense. The hops is actually pretty grassy, probably due to the wet hopping. Very smooth and moderate Carbo. Another 4 star beer for Sierra Nevada, despite just not being perfectly balanced with the low malt. English ale smoothness and West Coast bitterness. 4 Stars. Even the wife likes it.

Ok.

Bobbique is what we need more of in this country. Great location in a small town, great food, and with a varied tap that changes probably daily, it's just what the doctor ordered.

Beering in Long Island: Brickhouse Brewery

The day after Christmas the wife and I hop in the car to drive from the Baltimore area to knee deep in Long Island, in Holbrook. It rained most of the way and I think I spent more money in tolls than Gasoline just getting through Delaware. The anal rape that is the northeastern toll road scene is ridiculous. It had to add a good HOUR to the trip, having to slow down every time the highway went over a damn puddle.

So we get there and have a late lunch at the Brickhouse Brewery in downtown Patchogue. I'm loving how our travels in beer have taken us now to Long Island, just a couple months after places like Oktoberfest. Looking for local beers and breweries a fantastic extra dimensions and a sense of fun for what could be the most mundane of trips.

We get seated in the back what damn sure is a brick structure, plenty of murals on the wall of probably what Patchogue looked like back in the olden days. Reading the history of the brewpub, we learn that this location was a dry goods store in the 1800s and was even a stop on the Underground railroad. How great is that.

I ordered up the meatball hero and some crab cakes while the wife gets a cheeseburger, and it's game time with a six beer sampler. I left my little notepad on the plane home, so hopefully I can remember all of this...

Street Light

Your basic light pilsner with a decent amount of toasty malt and hops. Like most samplers, I don't get much of a head and thus much of a scent. But everytime I try to smell these beers, I get the cinnamon from the pumpkin spice beer on the corner of the sampler tray, so everything is a little off. But a nice introductory beer for BMC drinkers.

Boys Red

Reddish amber color with a great malt, toast, and lightly hopped. Probably one of the better ambers I've ever head. Certainly the best on the menu.

Fresh Hop Kitty

At first sip I go this heavy headed beer to be a lighter cascadey hopped English IPA, but on the subsequent drinking the strength came out as it warmed up. Certainly a very American IPA and almost West Coast strength. Something I'll rarely get much of on the East coast. Very well done.

Nitro Boom Stout

Strong roasty coffee nose and flavor. They nitro'd this one, so it was very smooth and low carbonation. I think this would be a great one for those that drink coffee and claim they don't like beer. The bitterness reminded me of pure unsweetened chocolate, not the candy bar version.

Blitzen

A jacked up beer that had a lot going on, pretty complex and cinnamon sweet. Memory fading...

Pumpkin Spice

A smooth beer, probably poured with nitro, that had cinnamon sprinkled on it. Orange colored with a lasting white head and cinnamon all over it. For some reason, whenever I taste straight cinnamon I get the taste of dirt. It needs to be cooked or something. Regardless, somewhere under that cinnamon was a wheat beer with some pumpkin garnishment. Not bad at all.

Later on while still working on my hero, I got the Blue Point Toasted Lager, the local microbrewery. Fantastic area right? If there's one style I love, it's toasty Amber lagers. And this one did not dissapoint. Light malt, toast, but not quite English Muffiny like the Bud Am Ale. Loving it.

Great spot overall. We were looking for the steps where they hid the runaway slaves in the underground railroad, but they said you have to be in the brewhouse to see it. Oh well. I just love the spot, food was fantastic, very nice High 3 Star beer. Wish we could get some of that down here in Houston, though we'd probably have it an an old Plantation house or something.

Beering in Maryland: 21st Amendment

Well we went to Corridor in Laurel and just went crazy stocking up with beer. We got variety packs from Weyerbacher and Erie brewing. Not to mention some random belgian beers imported by the Shelton Brothers and a case of random bombers. Many of these made the trip back, so those reviews are coming soon. I will say we went to town on the Weyerbachers a couple nights ago with the wife's family, but I was able to save one of each style to bring back to Houston.

So I go to my uncle-in-law's house and he and his girl say they try random beers all the time. I picked up some Watermelon Wheat and some IPA both from 21st Amendment. I was super fired up about the WW, not because I'm black, but because I'm a huge huge fan of The Brewing Network. I'm about 2.5 years behind schedule on their podcasts, but one of their sponsors is the Two-One-A, so it's almost like a big deal to try their beer though I've never set foot in California. Not to mention it's in a can, ensuring it's ultra fresh.

Beer Log: Christmas Eve

State: Hanging out with the wife's fam.

The WW had a huge amount of watermelon throughout, without much body from the wheat. This thing truly features watermelon, and sadly a little bit of water. I found it ok but kind of boring. In all reality, this beer would be good for introducing Bud-Miller-Coors drinkers to craft beer. In all reality, probably good to give this to women. Not so much that it's all that great, but it's a representation of what we can do with beer. High 2 Stars. Don't take that ranking to the bank as I didn't do a formal review, which would include my pouring it in a glass. We just drank it out of the can.

My uncle tells me that he and his girl actually make it a point to check out the local breweries when they travel, now that's a FAMU man for ya, and he prefers much hoppier beers. So we ditch the WW and pick up 21st's Brew Free or Die IPA. This is MUCH more like it. Right out of the can I got a very strong cascade hop flavor, great body, and just enough malt for balance. We both agree that this beer is fantastic and much more what we need from the west coast. Not an Imperial IPA, but very strong. 4 Stars. I got a couple of those beers with me back here in Houston.

Jolly Pumpkin: Noel de Calabaza Special Ale

Nose is a bit sour and grapey. Big head from high carbo or shaking (or both). Isos says: Could it be from a bad pour by the Brotha?

Taste: Sourness hits you, but not overpowering. There is sweetness to balance it out, but not all the way. Dry, no aftertaste. Maybe better in a champagne flute? Maybe some bret.... Isos says: I don't think he has this beer figured out at all :) Maybe served a little too warm. Isos says: I told him we could wait for it to chill.

That's it for now....

Beering in Maryland: Butternuts Anyone?

So we made it into Maryland last night and after sloshing around the roads to drop off the baby. We hit up Fridays for various forms of fried chicken and Blue Moon, then over to Latellas. Latellas is this liquor store in that Glen Burnie area has a HUGE walk-in fridge with all kinds of craft beer and some assorted champagnes. You know the place is on top of things as you walk in and they got some random Bollywood movie on the screen. The wife is still out of commission drinking wise, so instead of picking up single bottles, I just get a variety pack of something we've never heard of, figuring I can sample of that now.

Enter Butternuts Beer and Ale.

This variety pack has 4 different beers, all in cans. Fantastic. And this one had an IPA, Pale Ale, Stout, and a wheat beer. The labels look like something out of a Nick Jr Cartoon on acid, pretty much what Yo Gabba Gabba is now.

Beer Log: Last Night
State: Relaxing, watching the Las Vegas bowl on the massive HD screen at the mother-in-law's house.


Snapperhead IPA
This ipa has a very nice head and a deep amber color. No need to run away from this one, it hits the nail on the head with balanced caramel malt and citrus hop flavors. Not quite west coast strength either, but it represent Upstate New York well. I would say this one beats out Broken Halo as a good basic American IPA. High 3 Stars.

Moo Thunder Stout
At this point, I notice that every can has "Farmhouse Ale" written on it. I at first think there's no way these are brewed in the farmhouse ale tradition, or I'd expect a lot more sourness and high carbo. Turns out this stout had a touch more of both. Great roastiness and smooth choco all the way around. The nose matched the flavor. Fantastic. High 3 Stars.

Sometime much later on that night I try the Pale Ale. I was a little alcoholed out at that point, so I'll try to review that one later. Overall, a great start to Christmas vacation.

It looks like the wife is out with my mother in law to find a dress, and they say they won't be back until 1PM. Which means they won't be back until 3 PM. Which means I can take the baby, my soon to be stepfather-in-law, and hit the means streets looking for some brewpubbing in Baltimore. OR I can leave the baby with my great grandmother and great aunt (all in law), and we can hit the seedy beer bars of Fell's Point, and still be back before the Misses. Either way. Holla.

One time for Upstate New York and shouts out to Western New York as well. Loving it.

Old New Orleans Rum: Cajun Spice

To continue, I'm expanding my alcohol consumption to now include rum. Living in the Gulf Coast and going to school in Florida, you can't really get away from rum. The whole sugar cane heritage is very real, and that tradition has maintained past the colonial era. A friend of mine highly suggested I try this micro-distillery called Old New Orleans Rum. Started out in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans and now calling my beloved Frenchmen Street home, Celebration Distillation now has what seems to be a nice following in the Crescent City. Since 1999, they've racked up the awards and even managed to keep the party going after Katrina with their most aged barrels sitting up the highest in the distillery.

I actually found all three of their brands in the Specs in Houston at Jones and 290. So why not cop all three. Word on the street, their Cajun Spice is their best brand, so I'm going for it right out the gate.

Beer Log: Right now

State: Just finished packing for the trip to B-More. Wife and baby are asleep finally. Watching Reno 911 reruns.

Old New Orleans Rum Cajun Spice

Clear amber colored liquor. Plenty of legs around my Hennessy goblet. The first swirl liberates too much alcohol masking what the second smell tells me syrup, cinnamon, and plenty of peppery alcohol. This one comes on strong with the sweet cinnaspice and pepper. I love how it all comes together with the sugar sweetness. I do the tequila tasting I learned on the Cazadores website where I take a sip, inhale through my mouth, and exhale through my nose, liberating even more cinnamon. This rum is KILLER. Very sweet, spicy, and at 80 proof will put some hair on your chest. Fantastic experience. 4 out of 5 um cane sticks.

So Much Beer, So Little Time

I'm sitting here in the Dentist's office while the wife gets some wisdom teeth pulled. Luckily I can hop on some random wireless network so I can blog about nothing in particular errr get some work done. We are doing pretty well right now I'm looking at my beertinerary for our upcoming trip to the Mid-Atlantic, and I am blown at how much opportunity we'll have.

First off we will fly out of Bush Intercontinental, so we can prep with some Heineken on draft. Not great, but we land in BWI and they have a slew of brewpubs and beer bars in the Baltimore/DC area. I don't care who your daddy is, we're going to Brickskeller in DC. They say it's the best beer bar in the city. Maybe I'll get my main man Obama to come have a beer with me. But I'm looking at hollering at Fell's Point once again in Baltimore and just wallow in the good beering.

Afterward we're taking a trip to Long Island for a wedding. While we're there, we'll be down the street from a meadery, and just a couple miles from places like Bobbique's for some good beering. Turns out a brewpub out there has Watermelon Wheat in a can from 21st Amendment. Almost worth the trip to find that beer.

After a couple more days back in Maryland, we hit up Lafayette, LA for another wedding. Probably just relax at Zea and party it up for New Year's Eve. And then we'll relax.

Um what else is going on. I've lost just over 4 lbs after getting back on Weight Watchers. Good stuff, but we're racking up on beer b/c I only have points for maybe one 12 oz a night.

I tried some Old New Orleans Cajun Spiced Rum. Had a LOT of alcohol in this one, but not enough to overpower all the random spices they threw in this thing. Formal review coming later. Holla.