Filed under: Beer Festivals, Beer Travel, Bottle Shops, Craft Brewed Beers, North Carolina, Travel, microbreweries
Julie said it all so well when she talked about the night before Brewgrass Eve. As one Ashevegas local put it last night as she stood in line to get her BrewDog tastings, “Thursday night is ‘going out night’ in Asheville”, and there was plenty to do!
Bruisin’ Ales was just the start of a great night – the Scotland brewery was well represented with Jason and Julie talking up the seven different BrewDog beers available (I think the site lists 5, and then there were two of their Paradox beers as well – smoked and unsmoked.) Everything was really good, but I was most impressed with Dogma – a 7.8% ale brewed Scottish heather honey and a blend of guarana, poppy seeds and kola nut. Five malts and both Bramling Cross and Amarillo hops contribute to the complexity of this easy-drinking ale.
From the tasting, we headed over to the Thirsty Monk for the 7 pm tapping Founder’s Canadian Breakfast Stout. Just when I keep thinking, “Enjoy this – you’ll never get it again!,” the seemingly impossible happens, and someone else is serving it! The Monk also featured a cask of New Belgium Hoptober and a keg of Ballast Point Sculpin. It was great to catch up with all of our friends who came into town for the night and enjoy these three terrific beers!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a few other stops on our way to Asheville. It was enjoyable, as always, to make a stop off in Afton, VA at Blue Mountain Brewery where the Big DIPA was on tap, as well as the Nitro Ale Imperial Porter. We ended our enjoyable evening at Blue Mountain by sharing a bottle of Mandolin – a 9% Tripel named for the brewer’s wife (Mandi Lynn).We pulled in at the same time as Uncle Jedi and Purple Hat Joan (as planned!), so it was great to catch up with them over dinner.
That evening, we were sleeping in Blacksburg, so we decided to check out The Cellar, which had Blacksburger Pils on tap – served in the proper glass! – and also, Shooting Creek Rebel Ale. It was a quiet night in the college town, and I’m pretty sure we closed the place.
So then it was back to the hotel, where Jim shared a growler of Stone 09.09.09 Vertical Epic Ale with us! I was tired, and frantically searching for my driver’s licence (which I seem to have lost or forgotten…), but kept pulling myself out of it to enjoy this Imperial Belgian Porter brewed with chocolate malt, dark candi sugar, vanilla bean, and tangerine peel, then aged on French Oak chips. This 8.7% beer boasts chocolate, tobacco, molasses, vanilla and hints of banana and clove. It was a great finish for the night!
Finally, one more stop to boast about on our way out of Blacksburg – Vintage Cellar – where we found an amazing selection of wines and an outstanding beer selection. In the hundreds of beers there, I managed to seek out the one we thought we’d missed out on…a stray six pack of Duck-Rabbit Schwarzbier!
It’s raining in Asheville this morning, so we’re making a lazy one of it, but look forward to visiting Pisgah (just ’cause we love it!), Highland (for the special release of 2009 Tasgall Scottish Ale at 4 PM today!) and Wedge, among other things we’ll do in town on Brewgrass Eve!
Filed under: Beer Travel, Cask Ale, Craft Brewed Beers, Michigan, Travel, microbreweries
With 13 beers available, and flavor combinations like parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, grapefruit, beets, lemon, maple, chocolate, ancho chili, vanilla, bourbon, cherries, and oranges, who wouldn’t be happy at Right Brain Brewery? I’m so glad this is where we chose to end the night. It’s a pub that, from a visitor’s perspective, gets overlooked by the very awesome Shorts Brewing in Bellaire. Granted, Shorts has a menu of delicious sandwiches and bottles for take-out, and they are pretty creative themselves (with 20 taps to choose from!) but Right Brain still wins for creativity.
We just missed a pale ale brewed with grilled asparagus and lemon peel, but we go the ancho chili dutch double chocolate porter, the Scarborough Fair spiced ale (brewed with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme), a cream stout brewed with orange marmalade and peel, a wheat brewed with oven-roasted beets, an amber brewed with chocolate malt and cherry juice, a cream ale with maple syrup, barleywine aged seven months on Madagascar vanilla beans in Woodford Reserve bourbon barrels…it just goes on!
A staff member told us that the brewer has produced approximately 90 different beers in the year-and-a-half they’ve been open! For instance, the Pale Ale is a new recipe every time – practically every two weeks!
Right Brain is in the warehouse district of Traverse City, MI and located behind Salon Saloon, where “you sip, we snip”. It’s non-smoking, and the menu is limited to popcorn, tortilla chips and hummus. You are encouraged to bring your own food from outside, and sit at the bar, at one of the tables, or in a barber chair. There is no television, but they play music and have darts. There is a mug club, and the mugs are colorfully displayed on the wall. Windows also overlook the Salon Saloon.
Right Brain always has one beer on cask, and will serve Pints for $4.75 and half-pints for $3.25. Also, there are sample trays of six 8-oz pours for $15. Happy Hour on Monday – Friday from 3-6 PM means $3 pints, and there are growlers to go (and they will fill ANY growler – not just their own!)
If you find yourself anywhere near Traverse City, this place is absolutely worth the stop for rare and creative beers!
Filed under: Beer Travel, Craft Brewed Beers, Michigan, Travel, microbreweries
It’s the beginning of a “beer-cation”, and we travelled straight to Michigan for the start. There’s a little brewpub in Milan, Michigan that we have missed out on so many times coming through this area. We made it a point to get here today, and Original Gravity does not disappoint!
One block off what appears to be a “town square” (or maybe it was my sleepy-eyed perspective), at 440 County Street, is a little brick building with a packed parking lot. Arrive between 3 and 11 on Monday, and it will be Happy Hour all day. On Tuesday through Friday, it goes from 3 PM – 6 PM (and they remain open until 11.) Happy hour means a tall (20 oz) for the price of a small (10 oz.) We missed that, but it’s okay because neither of us needed talls…there are so many good beers to choose from! BTW – Original Gravity also keeps Saturday hours from 11:30 AM to 11 PM, and the owner/brewer told us he will often “open” when he’s here other hours.
Brad Sancho is the owner/brewer, and he was fairly quick to come and greet us. He seems to be friendly with all of the customers, and willing to make recommendations up and down the bar. The bar seats about 15 people, and wraps around the taps with the brewing area behind. A larger L-shaped dining room wraps around the bar, and some of the tables stick out as being unique – doors refurbished as tables. A shelf of games gives the impression that you are welcome to come and stay awhile, and outdoor seating to the back of the place looks welcoming on a warm, dry day.
Currently on tap are seven beers, and so far, not a bad one among them! We’re finding the following (I’m stealing some of the descriptive language from the web site):
- Southpaw IPA (O.G = 1.064; ABV 6.6%) has a pronounced hop flavor and aroma. It’s deliciously citrusy from tons of Cascade and Amarillo hops.
- Belgian Training Wheels (O.G. = 1.054; ABV 5.7%) is a Belgian Golden Ale brewed with Belgian candi sugar, wheat, and pilsner malt. The unique Belgian yeast strain gives this beer a citrusy and slight tart finish.
- Mason Brewer (O.G = 1.050; AVB 5.2%) is an English style Special Bitter named after Brad’s son. It is brewed with a variety of English malts, including wheat and rye.
- County Street Amber (O.G. = 1.054; ABV 5.5%) is a roasty Red Ale with caramel notes, balanced with loads of Cascade and Amarillo hops. With OG’s opening during the hops shortage, this was his substitute for an IPA for some time, and it holds up the hops!
- Primordial Porter (O.G = 1.058; ABV 5.3%) was the very first beer brewed here, and it is a robust porter! Almost black in color with a complex malt profile, it balances chocolate and coffee roastiness.
- Orange Peel Wheels(O.G. = 1.054; ABV 5.7%) is the Belgian Training Wheels infused with dried orange peel. It has a delicate citrus flavor and aroma, lending to a delicious starter beer for the evening.
- Vanilla Java Porter(O.G = 1.05O8; ABV 5.3%) has a description of “beer, coffee, vanilla… Mmm” on the board, menu and web site. It is a slightly aromatic and sweet porter, so dark that not a speck of light comes through. The roasty quality of the porter is strong enough to keep this from being a sugar-coated girly beer.
There is a nice menu of sandwiches, and fortunately we were attracted to the same thing. Not only did they let us share, but served the halves in separate baskets with a pickle for each of us (no fighting!) Our mesquite-smoked turkey with guacamole and Vermont cheddar was served on panini bread with a bag of Brickman’s Original Kettle Crunch chips (made in Grand Rapids.) On the side, we shared a Landjaeger* Sausage (yummm!)
Original Gravity beers range from $3 to $3.50 for a 10-oz pour and a $4.50 – $5 for a 20-oz. In addition to the sandwich menu (which includes deli and veggie combos, grilled cheese and PB&J), there are peanuts, pretzels and chips with salsa. Additionally there are Sprecher sodas available (root beer, cream soda, cherry cola (Dain, I think you owe me one of these!) and orange cream.
We had a really nice time at OG – the bartender, Stephanos (sp?), took great care of us and the locals were all chatty. It’s down on our list of places that “if I lived here, I would come here all the time!” I hope if you are reading this and you live there, you go often. It’s worth it!
* pork and beef, garlic, coarse ground, semi-dried German Hunter sausage from Usunger’s summer sausage collection, served in bite-sized slices for $2.50.
Filed under: Beer News, Brown Ale, Craft Brewed Beers, Non-Smoking, Pennsylvania, Travel, microbreweries
Be among the first to try Elk Creek Café + Aleworks Mid State Trail Ale at the 40th Anniversary party for the Mid State Trail.
On Sunday, July 12th, 2009 from 2:00PM to 4:00PM, the Mid State Trail Association is sponsoring a party in honor of the trail. All are invited to join the MSTA for this mixer and to share experiences on Pennsylvania’s wildest footpath. A portion of the proceeds from each beer sold will be donated to the Mid State Trail Association.
Mid State Trail Ale is a Northern English Brown Ale, described by brewer Tim Yarrington as a beer with a profile designed for balance in a quote for the Summer 2009 MSTA newsletter, the ‘Brushwhacker’:
“The Northern English Brown Ale style is a rich yet approachable English style ale, brewed with English malt and Fuggle hops. The Mid State Trail Ale will be well balanced, with moderate alcohol content, making it a drinkable and satisfying beer.”
Brown Ales pair well with all types of foods, but I will highly recommend the tofu sautéed with spinach and caramelized onions, any trout dish available or Chicken Liver Toast. Also for sale that day will be the trail map and guide.
Make a day, or a weekend, of it – take a hike and go for the beer!
The Mid State Trail System (MST) is Pennsylvania’s longest and wildest footpath, suitable for day-hiking and backpacking. It is now more than 300 miles in length, beginning at the Mason-Dixon Line near Artemas, and traveling through the Seven Mountains and Pennsylvania Wilds Regions to end in Tioga County. It travels through the Bald Eagle State Forest, including Harry John’s picnic area, Poe Paddy State Park or R.B. Winter State Park - all within 30 minutes drive of Millheim.
Filed under: American Pale Ale, Beer News, Brown Ale, Craft Brewed Beers, Florida, Oatmeal Stout, Organic, Travel
Our first meal at Disney World was outstanding. We went to The Wave at the Contemporary Resort, where I was looking forward to the flight of Orlando Brewing organic ales they advertised on the website. Not that I thought they would be very special – probably not as interesting as some other beers, but more interesting than a regular A-M-C line-up.
As it turns out, The Wave JUST (like, in the last month) changed their organic beer carrier, and it’s now Wolaver ales from Middlebury, VT – the organic line of Otter Creek Brewing Company. Last night on the menu, they had the Pale Ale, Brown Ale and Oatmeal Stout.
Hearing this news, I decided not to pay Disney prices for beer I know I have either had or can get elsewhere, but I was pleased to see the quality of beer was worthy of such a nice restaurant.
We chose a lovely wine for the table, which paired well with my “Sustainable Fish of the Day” over edamame stew with cilantro chutney (this was outstanding!) I enjoyed the multi-grain bread with red wine sea salt butter, and mini-deserts like lemon yogurt sorbet with blueberry compote and chocolate-mint mousse made for a nice finish.
We don’t even go into the parks until Tuesday, and already, it’s simply magical!
I knew there isn’t any beer in the Magic Kingdom, but I was doing a little search on beer at Walt Disney World in preparation for my upcoming trip. I’ve been to the Big River Grille & Brewing Works at the BoardWalk more than once. And from both experience and the BeerTravelers website, I knew that in Epcot several beers are available:
- Dos Equis Lager in “Mexico,”
- Ringnes Lager in “Norway,”
- Becks in “Germany,”
- Tsingtao in “China,”
- Kirin in “Japan” and
- Moosehead, Labatt’s and several Molson ales in “Canada,”
but wondered if anything new cropped up in the past 13 months.
Then I read this disconcerting blog post from May of 2008. (Spoiler alert – click to read the post before you read on here, or you won’t get the same effect.)
Yeah – it’s a joke. A very funny joke, indeed! And because my last visit was December 2007, I almost fell for it, except that my sister mentioned certified organic ales from Orlando Brewing are on the menu at The Wave. It turns out I will get a chance to try one or more of these three:
Also on the menu is gluten-free Redbridge lager, produced by A-B; I won’t be having that.
The thing about Disney is that there is SO MUCH to see and do, it’s hard to find time to sit and enjoy a glass of beer. But if I do, you’ll probably read about it on here.
Filed under: Beer Travel, Bottle Shops, Craft Brewed Beers, Illinois, Indiana, Travel, Wisconsin, microbreweries
It’s only day 2, and I just can’t keep up. Drink beer or blog – those are my choices, and I choose beer.
So for those who care, let me just tell you where we’ve been, and not elaborate on how much tremendous fun we are having (or how horrible the traffic has been.) We are heading into Madison tonight, but our day went something like this:
- Liquor Stop distributor in Highland, IN was our first stop for bottles of Three Floyd’s and other things we can’t get in PA (I also got a good deal on Chateau St. Jean CabSav – 2003)
- Piece in Chicago for awesome (AWESOME!) beer and pizza
- Lakefront in Milwaukee for a tour and tasting (where I got to be “Shirley” (of Laverne and…), and we got lots of free beer and a pint glass!); you can take your own tour at their site
- and now we are sitting at Tyranena, using the wi-fi and enjoying Scurvy IPA
Tonight we will end up in Madison, where there are many, many special release parties all over town, 105 breweries represented at the festival tomorrow, and more parties in town again tomorrow night. Hooray for a town with fabulous public transportation!
I’ll write when I can, but don’t hold your breath!
If you are reading this from a state that allows grocery store sales of beer, you might not understand the significance of this, but two weekends ago we took this photo of me (shortly before 11 AM on Sunday, so I couldn’t actually buy.)
Beer Sales in a PA Grocery
Wegmans in Williamsport (PA), as well as Bethlehem, Dickson City, Lower Nazareth, State College and Wilkes-Barre, received approval for a restaurant license, which allow beer, wine and hard liquor to be sold for consumption inside an eating establishment, and the equivalent of 12 16-ounce containers of beer for takeout. Our local Wegmans, in Silver Spring Township, applied for a similar license ans the application is currently pending.
Although the arguement was made that Wegmans offers a restaurant that happens to be based in a grocery store, not a grocery store selling beer, I really see it as the latter, and find no shame in that.
Wegmans customers do have to pay for their beer inside the cafe, not at normal checkout lanes with other grocery items. The clerks need to pass LCP training and a mandatory course Wegmans offers on how to identify a false ID, spot signs of intoxication and prevent third-party sales to minors. And the company requires cashiers to “card” everyone, no matter what their apparent age. Even Uncle Rick!
Filed under: Beer Festivals, Beer Research & Information, Beer Travel, Craft Brewed Beers, Pennsylvania, Travel, microbreweries
Over the period of a week in late June, we were on the road drinking beer to support charitable causes – a beer festival, a pub crawl and a special beer on the menu were the impetus for our travels.
On June 21, Tröegs Brewery teamed up with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Central Pennsylvania to put on the annual Harrisburg Brewers Fest® – an outdoor beer and music festival downtown. There were two sessions to reduce the crowds of people filling Locust and Third streets and a special VIP session, complete with gift bags.
The festival was advertised with 35 breweries. We know that some didn’t show up, but there was no lack of beverage to be tried. D had to work, and I had a child’s birthday party to attend, so we worked very hard to stick to just the things that were new to us and/or special beers. And with the small plastic sample mugs, it was easy to remain sober.
We had a few favorites from the day, including Lovitz Lager – a watermelon lager from Roy Pitz Brewing Company, Coconut Stout from Church Brew Works, Lichtenhainer – a sour, smoked Berliner Weissbier brewed as a collaboration between Marzoni’s and East End Brewing Company and is based on an obscure German style, Barrel-aged Beekeeper (part of the bottle-conditioned collection at Bullfrog Brewery, and previous to aging, known as the Beesting Saison) and a firkin of Scratch #12-2008, an English-style IPA from Tröegs.
It was good, clean fun in downtown Harrisburg. Live bands played, including one that we really like at the early session (Herbie), and people were generally polite. I picked up an Otto’s tattoo, which finally wore off last weekend, and my favorite tshotshke was the heavy-duty bottle opener from Straub.
At the Harrisburg Brewers Fest®, we learned about the Bavarian Ramble – a fundraiser organized by Mike Hiller, Chief Barbarian at Bavarian Barbarian Brewing Company, to support the Uptown Music Collective. Since we planned to be in the area for the weekend of June 28 anyway, we decided to join in on the ramble around downtown Williamsport.
For a $10 donation, we received 5-10% discounts off food and beverages at The Pub, Rumrunners, Franco’s and the 4th Street Grille and Ale House. The evening ended with a private party at the Bavarian Barbarian Brewing Company where we were treated to a terrific performance by students from the Collective.
We met up with Mike at The Pub – one of my college hang-outs. This complete dive bar for college kids has transformed into a pretty nice little place. In addition to Bavarian Barbarian beers, there were several other very decent brews on tap, and a sizable bottle selection (for Williamsport) behind a large, beautiful honey-toned bar. I couldn’t get over the cleanliness of this place in comparison to my days of hanging there. Even the bathroom was clean and bright, and while I didn’t check it out, I understand there is outdoor courtyard seating.
Rumrunners is a Caribbean-themed restaurant with a huge selection of shelf drinks. I had only been in this building once, and it was so dark I couldn’t see my own hand. Now it is bright and cheery, and the menu looks serviceable. We ate at Franco’s out of nostalgia, but were thrilled to find Tröegs Nugget Nectar on cask there. I enjoyed a wonderful fresh gazpacho and an artichoke and olive salad with balsamic vinegar. We shared the chicken liver and toast appetizer, and D had a pesto with garlic pasta dish. With our discount, it was amazingly inexpensive, and as always, the staff at Franco’s made us feel welcome.
We managed to get a hotel downtown on Priceline, so it wasn’t expensive to stay downtown, walking to all of the Ramble locations, and we got a ride home from the party at Bavarian Barbarian. Kira and Mike were such wonderful hosts, and the guys in the band were so professional. It was a really nice night out for a really good cause, and also a good opportunity to let me stroll down memory lane a bit (I love Bullfrog Brewing dearly, but I miss exploring all of the other wonderful food opportunities in Williamsport.)
We ended our weekend with scenic drives through the mountains, taking Rt. 445 from Lamar to Millheim, and then driving a back road north of Winkleblech and Sharpback Mountains as a long way to Selinsgrove. In addition to a nice little hike, we stopped at the breweries (Elk Creek Cafe and Selin’s Grove, respectively.) At Elk Creek, we were drinking Old Bertha’s Red 99 – a beer created to support the Millheim Fire Company which has been assisting in the community for 99 years. 50-cents from each pint sold goes to the fire company, so we were happy to help (AND it was a good beer to go with my brunch!)
What a great week of drinking beer for the benefit of others!
Filed under: Beer Travel, Craft Brewed Beers, Quebec Canada, Travel, Vermont, microbreweries
We went to bed when the sun came up on Sunday in Montreal. After four days of Mondial de la Bière, including beer bars, brewpubs, tasting parties, a cookout, ethnic restaurants, bagels, poutine and a walk in the park, we were ready to hit the road. I couldn’t even bring myself to go see Lucy Saunders speak – we spent a quiet morning on the deck, and then slipped quietly out of town.
It wasn’t a long drive, however, to stop for another tasting. Bedondaine & Bedons in Chambly is both a microbrewery/pub and a museum of beer memorabelia. The beers we chose were all herbal in nature: La Grenouille (a Wit made with green tea), L’Ensorceleuse (made with wild flower honey, coriander seeds, orange rind and created for the brewer’s wedding; also tasted a version of it that was aged 7 months); and La Mentheuse (made with mint leaves, juniper berries and rye.) Charles and Lewis took great care of us, and we chatted with them about their upcoming trip to the Vermont Brewer’s Festival.
Then it was back to Burlington where Beth was resting up to take us out for work on our passport. In case I forgot to mention it, when we arrived there on Wednesday, we started working on our Vermont Brewery Challenge passport that night with visits to Magic Hat (where I really enjoyed the Orlio Organic Beer),American Flat Bread/Zero Gravity Brewing (mmmm…cask ale!), Vermont Pub & Brewery and Three Needs Brewery and Tap Room (NICE!) By collecting stamps from the 18 breweries/brewpubs in the state, we can claim “Drink Vermont Beer” related prizes – and who doesn’t like prizes? These four stamps earned us a bottle opener magnet.
(Beth or Jim’s completed passport scanned in below)
On this second night in Vermont, Beth had a plan – we were going to hit The Bobcat Cafe & Brewery, The Alchemist Pub & Brewery and The Shed Restaurant and Brewery. That would bring us up to seven stamps on the passport, and we could manage three more stops on the way home Monday (all of which didn’t serve more than a small taster.) Ten stamps are worth a t-shirt. We did all three that night, enjoying a great dinner and very nice pints at the Bobcat Cafe, and a couple of baskets of popcorn at The Shed, but forgetting a stamp there (grrrrrr…) and a single beer at The Alchemist.
Of the three, I was most looking forward to The Alchemist, but I ended up falling in love with the Bobcat Cafe. The town of Bristol, nestled in the Green Mountains, is so beautiful and quaint. The beers are very fine, the food menu offered a tasty assortment of snacks and meals, and the decor felt warm and welcoming. There were seven house beers on tap, and six guest taps – I particularly enjoyed the Appalachian Gap Simcoe IPAat 5% ABV and 69 IBUs. There were six beers on at The Shed, and of them, the Russian Imperial Stout, which I did not note the name of, was very nice. There were seven beers on at The Alchemist, but sadly, none on cask. I settled for the Broken Spokepale ale , weighing in at 5.3% ABV and 30 IBUs. This was an Amarillo-based ale, and lacked aroma but had a wonderful hoppy flavor.
To get between Bristol and Waterbury, we took Lincoln Gap Road, crossing the Long Trail – it was a beautiful ride, which we thought we’d never do again. With only a few hours of sleep, I found it difficult to fully appreciate these spots.
But in the morning, with the goal of hitting another three spots to get stamps AND needing to make up for the one we missed, we mapped out a plan which included another trip on Lincoln Gap Road. We said good-bye to Beth and the wonderful Molly-dog, fueled up with freshly baked Montreal-style Bagels from Myers Bagels (a facility that is expanding) and fresh-roasted coffee from Speeder and Earl’s before hitting our first brewery of the day.
We stopped in at Switchback Brewing Co.for a stamp and small tasters of their brews, which are available in kegs only, and chatted with Tony, the brewer. Next, we trekked back to The Shed for the missing stamp, stopping off at Ben & Jerry’s in Waterbury (but not taking the tour), and then headed to Rock Art Brewery, which we found on the far edge of Morrisville. Andrea gave us a short brewery tour, and we bought some $3 bombers to go with our merch. Rock Art is doing a nice expansion project in the sales area, so things were a little dismantled, but the product was as great as ever!
Our final beer passport stamp was picked up at Otter Creek Brewing, where I especially enjoyed my taster of Wolaver’s Oatmeal Stout from the organic line, and D had the Otter San from the World Tour Series. After getting a photo with the Otter and viewing the brewing operation through the large windows, we picked up a few bottles and some Vermont cheese there, and then headed to town for a late lunch at Tully & Marie’s. We we sat outside overlooking the water enjoying fresh Vermont food. With ten stamps on our passport, I stowed them safely away for mailing or perhaps a return trip to VT at the end of the month.
There was one stop more to make on the way home, and that was in Albany, NY. We were looking forward to cask ale at Mahar’s Public House. But this place was a real disappointment after a week of great beers and friendly destinations. They have a good thing going – I can’t deny that. There are at least 26 taps of rotating micros and imports, an extensive bottle collection (which probably suffers from being lightstruck, as I could see it through the window), and six casks. To my disappointment, all six were from Middle Ages Brewing Co. - a fine brewery, but thumbs down to Mahar’s for not mixing it up a little! My schizophrenic feelings of respect and dismay for the place are reflected in the comments of others, so I won’t waste space discussing the condescending and ignorant bartender. I should have expected so much from a place with a website that ”eShouts” every word, doesn’t care to mention it’s own name or address there, and has a distinct set of rules, but shame on me for not reading reviews first.
On the other hand, the place is very interesting – stark decor, but a great collection of tap handles, select-yourself cheese fridge and a self-serve database where you can print a beer list and maintain your Beer Tour membership (drink 50 for a Mahars T-shirt, 125 for a mug engraved with your choice image and good for 20% off future beers, 200 for a free case of your favorite beer, 500 for a brass plate with your name engraved – take THAT KClinger’s!!!) I didn’t take any photos, but check out this collection of photos by another visitor. I’m sure people who live there and love beer the way we do find a way to work out these issues, but I left thinking I’m so glad we don’t go through Albany often because I would have to go back often simply for the selection. I did very much appreciate that the beers come in three sizes: Imperial pint, 16-oz and 8-oz.
It was a great trip, and I have many more things I want to post about, but that will have to wait for another night. If you are looking for additional Mondial commentary, check out the many postings on the Liquid Solutions blog – his story is told so well, and I can’t find anyone else talking about it…
