Pub Crawlin’

What was supposed to be a travel day turned out to be a day with friends instead and we ALMOST stayed another night!

After my post this morning, we said our good-byes with our hosts, and drove into town for brunch, where we were greeted by James and Michelle. A tasty smoked trout and goat cheese omelet and a strong cup of organic coffee was my choice at Over Easy Cafe. It was delectable! Everyone seemed to enjoy their food, and the company was engrossing, so we stayed together for a few more hours.

As predicted, we walked up to Bruisin’ Ales for some shopping, and then back down to Barley’s for a glass of Valdez, which turned out to be glasses of Pisgah India Pale Ale, Pisgah Valdez, Pisgah Red Devil and Foothills Sexual Chocolate (BTW- anyone wondering where this name comes from should check out this video) - shared, of course. Can you tell that we like the Pisgah just a little bit?

On our way into town I mentioned to D that we visited most every place we could over the course of our three Asheville jaunts (Catawba was a miss, but I did meet brewer Scott Pyatt on Thursday at Barley’s), and while we’ve had Green Man brews at the Tasting Room, we’ve never been to Jack of the Wood. In talking with James and Michelle, we were reminded that this is one of their favorite places to go, and it wasn’t hard talking them into escorting us there.

Our short stop ended up lasting us all afternoon and into the evening. The atmosphere at Jack of the Wood was so captivating. In addition to spending hours talking to our friends, unexpectedly being joined by Philip (to whom we said our good-byes on Saturday night at the party, and again on Sunday a Bruisin’ Ales) and listening to an Irish jam session (featuring the sqeezebox, tin whistle, bodhran, fiddle, mandolin and others), we just really liked the place a lot. The beer line-up includes all Green Man products (ESB, Pale Ale, IPA, Porter and Imperial Stout) and a nice list of guest taps. (I particularly liked the chalkboards on the ladies room wall, where we could scratch notes to each other, and the hidden “Dora the Explorer” figurine; the staff were also pleasant, friendly and attentive.)

Finally, around 7 PM or so (and reluctantly because the bagpipes had just joined the jam session), we headed out of town with  a short stop at Earth Fare for some parting groceries and a vegan dinner of chickpea salad (imitation tuna salad) and a live green salad, along with some not-so-vegan spicy tuna and avocado sushi and a yogurt for the road.

So here we are outside Bristol, crashing for the night, and reflecting on how wonderful Asheville was. Yes, we stayed too late to reach our target of Horniblows Taproom in Raleigh, but today was much more fulfilling! Thanks, old and new Asheville friends (Melissa, John, Joey, John, Michelle, James, Julie, Jason, Philip, Chris, Trish, Mark, Terri, Jason…I’m forgetting names, which means I need some sleep) for making this a memorable trip!

We can’t thank the Kledis family enough - really for ALL of their hospitality, but also for putting on a great gathering last night. It was so much fun to join with people we met last year, and make a few new friends, during this major tasting. Everyone brought something great either to eat or to drink (or both), and I believe there were five cases of beer in total. We didn’t drink all of it, thank goodness, but we put a dent in the collection.

Here is the list that D came up with from his notes and I will back up with photographs.  They appear in no particular order, as we weren’t exactly careful about that:

• Westvleteren 12
• Southern Tier Gemini
• Southern Tier Choklat
• Voodoo Brewing Voodoo Love Child
• New Glarus Belgian Red
• New Glarus Raspberry Tart
• New Glarus Copper Kettle Weiss
• Mikkeller Black Stout
• Sprecher Abbey Tripel
• Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
• Dogfish Head Palo Santo
• Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine
• Catawba Valley Whiskey River Stout
• AleSmith Speedway Stout
• AleSmith Yule Tide
• Lost Abbey Lost and Found
• Lagunitas Under Cover Shut Down Brown
• Pisgah Cosmos
• Pisgah Baptista 2006
• Pisgah Baptista 2007
• Pike Old Bawdy Barleywine
• Fonteinen Oak Aged Kriek 2005
• Pizza Port Old Viscosity
• Pizza Port Santa’s Little Helper
• Alaskan Barleywine 2007
• Old Dominion Oak Aged Millenium Barleywine 2006
• DeSchutes Abyss 2007
• Saint Somewhere Saison Athene
• Jolly Pumpkin Bier de Mars
• Atlantic Brewing Company Cadillac Mt. Stout
• Fantome Chocolate
• Abbey de Saint Bon Chien 2005
• Three Floyd’s Dark Lord
• New Holland Dragon’s Milk
• Moylans Hopsickle
• Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock
• Surly Furious
• Lakefront Fuel Cafe
• Brutal Deluxe Dark IPA

So, on the way out of town, we will stop off at Over Easy for brunch with the Raiford’s, Bruisin’ Ales for one last purchase (yes, we always think of something more, and that store is so awesome, it’s hard to pass up a visit!), and Barley’s for a final glass of Pisgah Valdez.

In case I really never do catch up with posting my travel notes for this trip, I at least feel obligated to my mother to post where I’ve been.  And now that I know Kramer (is that your name, or your hometown?) is reading daily, I feel even more obligated! I’ll list it all here with links to the places, and if I post later, I’ll link to my posts.  And then there are photos just waiting on my camera…ugh.

Thursday night in the Asheville area:

• Pisgah for the weekly Thursday night growler fill and tasting (hey, mom and dad, we got your something special, and it’s called Valdez…nothing to do with the oil spill or the peninsula…you’re gonna’ love it!)
• Bruisin’ Ales for the weekly Thursday evening tasting (this week with Sweetwater!)
• Barley’s in Asheville for dinner on Thursday night

Friday, starting with a foggy drive to Greenville, SC and ending with a pubcrawl in Asheville (designated driver included):

• Barley’s in Greenville for lunch, hoping to score a cask ale, but no such luck
• Blue Ridge Brewing Company for a taste of their products
• Thomas Creek Brewing Company for a tour and tasting with the owner
• Green’s Discount Beverage Store - because you can’t get it all in North Carolina!
• Back in Asheville at Bruisin’ Ales to do some big-time beer shopping (this is a daily trend)
• Dinner at Ed Boudreaux’s Bayou Bar-B-Que (can you believe I skipped the beer? not D…)
• Barley’s in Asheville for shared glasses of Valdez and Sexual Chocolate (this will become a daily trend for this particular trip!)
• Green Man, hoping to score Imperial Stout on cask, but finding it to be Porter
• Thirsty Monk for the “wow - what a great new beer place in town!” experience

Saturday:

• A drive to Dillsboro Smokehouse for barbeque
• Growler fill at Heinzelmännchen Brewery
Bruisin’ Ales to do some little-time beer shopping (did I mention this is a daily trend when we come to Asheville?)
Barley’s in Asheville for shared glasses of Valdez and Sexual Chocolate (I said daily!)

And now I better get myself downstairs, as all of the fun people in Asheville are coming to a party! (PS - even though my WordPress timeclock says it’s midnight, it’s not…it’s only 7 PM!)

I’ve found some time to post more notes from Thursday, so here is my report from our lunch at Foothills Brewing Company. There hasn’t been a whole lot of change since our last visit, so I won’t ramble on here about it. As expected, the draft selection was fabulous, but to start our day off slowly:

• I only had one - the Seeing Double IPA(9.5%; 110 IBUs), which is just a wonderful example of a double IPA. Nothing overpowers (other than the fact that it is a double IPA!); it’s just a warm, sweet nectar. It is served in a 10 oz glass, and the deep copper color is just beautiful. It has a light citrus aroma, and a pine hop bite. Cloudiness in the glass adds to the mystery of this double IPA.
• D had the Hoppyum IPA(6.75% ABV) to start, while his Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout had time to warm. This is so different from the Seeing Double IPA. It is a clear copper color with a crisp finish. Simply a pleasant American IPA.
• The Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout (10.5% ABV) was so much better than last February. Last year it was really hot - really to the point that I couldn’t drink it - it ruined my taste buds. This year, it still has an obvious high alcohol burn, but the rich flavors of chocolate and roasted malts, and the sweetness of dark fruits come through well. This beverage has a strong alcohol burn, which will mellow out over time. I believe last year I called the aroma flammable, but this year’s brew is sweet to the nose.

The best thing about our visit was that we got to meet Jamie Bartholomaus, the owner and brewer of Foothills, and a Pennsylvania native. It was so kind of his wife, Sarah, to stop by and check on our table. She talked with us a bit, and picked up on the fact that we were interested in meeting him. He was able to sit down, taking time to chat for awhile.

We learned his interesting history in brewing, and one of his former brewing experiences was at Olde Hickory Brewing Company, and the former brewing facility (now more of a restaurant and small batch brewing facility) was on the way out of town.  We confirmed our suspicion that the Sexual Chocolate was brewed a little earlier this year (October) and tweaked just enough to make it more enjoyable in February (in time for the bottle release, although our bottles will certainly sit for awhile longer!) It sounds like it will be easy to find a glass in Asheville (and other locations for anyone not visiting Asheville!), but he held back at least 12 kegs for aging and release throughout the year. Naturally, Foothills will be at Brewgrass, but also he mentioned a food/beer pairing he’ll be attending called Savor in DC. He gave us a sample of the People’s Porter as well. It would have been lovely to stay longer and drink a whole glass, but we needed to move on.

But I would be remiss in ending this post without talking about the food. Our waiter, Stephen, was quite conscientious despite the busy lunch crowd. He talked to us about some of the menu changes (they dropped the salad with chevre, oranges and snow peas that I loved so much!), but he made other recommendations. I had the Greek salad made with romaine and spinach, topped with balsamic onions, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts and feta. The green goddess dressing (made with cream cheese) was a bit too thick for my taste, so I had the balsamic vinaigrette. Along with it, I enjoyed a cup of the creamy She Crab Soup, which had a little zip to it, and small pieces of shell, just so you know it’s authentic! D had the Cuban sandwich, which came with some terrific fries and a wonderful garlic dill pickle spear.

It’s hard not to enjoy yourself at Foothills, but do take quarters for the meter (only 25-cents an hour) and keep it fed!

Amos Howard’s Restaurant & Brew Works is located at the former brewing facility for Olde Hickory. The new Olde Hickory Brewing Company facility opened in 2000 and does no serving; the Olde Hickory Taproom was already established, so the OLD Olde Hickory was renamed Amos Howard’s in 2002, and provides Olde Hickory beers as well as a small brewing facility that is sometimes used. Confused?

We stopped by after lunch at Foothills - it is close enough to be on the way to Asheville, but far enough that I could take a nap on the way there. We actually passed it, and I was pleased to learn that our friend Dave did, too, on his visit. Once found, it looks very plain on the outside (almost abandoned!), and inside it is on the verge of being just another smoky North Carolina dive bar.

We entered by walking through a great big barrel to the hostess station and giggled a little about the barrel booths (chintzy and unique!) We chose seating at the bar, which was also a unique shape. Instead of being one straight line, three “mini bars” branch out from the main bar, allowing patrons to sit together and talk face to face in small groups. Marilyn Manson was playing loudly on the jukebox, and combine with the cigarette smoke, I was thinking that maybe beer wasn’t even in order here.

But we ordered. D had a Weizenbock, and tasters of the Poor Richard’s Ale and the Sinatra Barley Wine (12.5% ABV.) I had the Hickory Stick Stout. Pints here are 20 oz, but our bartender offered to pour me a half (which really looked more like 2/3, but I appreciate the effort. Eleven house taps were on at Amos Howard’s:

• Piedmont Pilsner
• Brown Mountain Light
• Ruby Lager
• Poor Richard’s
• Crawdad Red
• Table Rock Pale Ale
• Hickory Stick Stout
• Hefeweizen
• Weizenbock (8% ABV)
• Nessie’s Scotch Ale (8% ABV)
• Sinatra Barleywine (12.5% ABV)

Once the music stopped playing, the beers were enjoyable. I didn’t take the time to take notes, as nothing was outstanding on the good or bad side. 

The staff were friendly and attentive, and told us that some - very little, but some - of the brewing is still done here. In the brewing room window, we noticed 5 liter mini kegs of five different beers. That’s kind of unique for such a small place. And the bottle selection at Amos Howard’s was very nice - sure beats running into W-S to City Beverage every time you want something unique! Unfortunately, many of the other customers were not looking for unique. There was a LOT of Budweiser being consumed and put on to cool for the evening crowd.

One thing I noticed is that their website says, “Here at OHB we are proud to offer something you can get nowhere else around town, or in NC for that matter. Our Cask-Conditioned Ale, served off a real British Beer Engine, the way it was meant to be, Real Ale.” As a lover of cask ale, I was downhearted to learn there was nothing on cask. Also, I need to point out that Foothills does cask ales (they just did Seeing Double!), and so do Green Man and Big Boss (and probably others if I took time to do the research.)

Wednesday night of trip was littered with traffic faux pas! It took us almost twice as long to travel I-81 last night because of a minor snow storm that nearly put traffic to a crawl (we were stopped for no apparent reason for almost 30 minutes, and much of the time traveling under 20 MPH!) And today we attempted to travel on I-40, but multiple exit ramps to enter westbound were closed.  But we finally made it to Winston-Salem, and, by design, we arrive before Foothills opened.

Just a few blocks away (and one block off 4th Street) is City Beverage. With a name like that, it sure doesn’t sound special. But one walk in the door, and we were already suitably impressed. We were greeted by Spencer, who was friendly and knowledgeable, but not overbearingly attentive. There are two fairly distinct rooms - the more distant room was the beer room, and the entrance room was the wine shop (which also housed a chilled beer selection, homebrewing and wine making supplies area, and a nice selection of glassware, primarily stocked with Reidel for every liquid imaginable.

The beer area was a large room lined with polished dark wood shelves. They had an extremely complete collection, including most everything available in North Carolina (I don’t personally know the list, but it sure looked that way!) There was a great variety of American products, but also Belgian, English, German and Eastern European. The shelving layout was like a library full of beer - okay, maybe only a librarian would say that, but everything seemed to be well organized, and there were no hidden nooks in which the bottles could get lost and go bad.

There is a bar area with comfy leather couches and chairs, and tables constructed of barrels, where customers can select a pint to enjoy while shopping - and the tap list was limited to three, but three very good beers!  We did not have anything to drink there, but we spent some money on bottles!

We’re so busy with visiting friends and enjoying the area now that we’re in Asheville and I just don’t have time to post (and certainly not time to upload photos), but I’m keeping notes…  Foothills report will be next, and then as much of the amazing scene in Asheville that I can provide.

I’m so behind on posting about this fabulous event, held back on Sept. 22.  My tardiness is based on several factors:

1. we had such an AMAZING time over a period of five days in Asheville that I don’t even know how to begin writing about it all, who to thank, or how to fit, in all of the beer,
2. there was no time to post during the weekend,
3. and the days following were spent driving the Blue Ridge Parkway (so peaceful) and then back to my hectic job.

Now that I’m done whining, let me shout out my heartfelt thanks to John & Melissa for playing host to us.  They were so kind to open their home and I really enjoyed getting to know them.  They have an amazing family, and it was so nice to spend time together.  It was relaxing to be in their home, and they treated us to some fabulous beers.  I hope one day we can reciprocate.

Credit for our great weekend goes to Bruisin’ Ales, too.  Not just for having the best beer selection in the east (we shopped there EVERY DAY because every day we realized there was something else in stock we wanted to get our hands on), but also because Jason and Julie are such fun people; full of enthusiasm for great beer.  We always enjoy hanging out with these Asheville “beer-lebrities”.

We were also pleased that we got to know James and Michelle over the course of our weekend.  It is always so interesting to read everything he has to share on the Asheville Pubcrawl blog, and they are such terrific people - our weekend in Asheville ended on such a nice note enjoying brunch at Tupelo Honey with them.

Our other group of new acquaintances is almost too large to mention.  I felt like I met all of Alabama that weekend, and we spent time with many people associated with Free the Hops.  “Uncle Jedi” is one of the ringleaders - BTW, he can’t be thanked enough for sharing a 1996 Samiclaus with us (1996 was the last year it was brewed at Hürlimann) - Brent was great to chat with, and KP organized the very nice Friday pubcrawl which was a nice way to meet up with other beer lovers.  I also met another AL girl who loved IPAs and I dragged her through a few lines with me while we chatted - never did remember her name.

Yeah…so about the beers.  Really, reading posts in other blogs or at Beer Advocate and Rate Beer you’ll find more comprehensive lists and descriptions.  Asheville Beer Blog covers it well, FastFreds has great photos including D’s butt and Julie’s panties, Mountain Xpress gives a preview run-down on Asheville locations associated with the event, and I located 48-seconds of video coverage.

• I couldn’t wait to try Sexual Chocolate from Foothills.  I had it back in February, and it was pretty young then.  It was so smooth and perfect now.  Heavy for the hot day (84F), but it just danced on my tongue.  I loved it.
• Imperial Kashmir IPA from Highland Brewing was such a treat.  It made a debut at the festival, and sold the next day ($8 for a 22-oz bottle; 10.2% ABV) during a very sedate release event at the brewery.  The brewer of this delightful treat was on-site (he’s as cute in person as he sounds in his podcast; couldn’t find a link to that, but found the article.)
• Duck Rabbit and Pisgah were both there, and as always, they served up some of the finest beers in North Carolina.
• Brooklyn served up Schneider Hoffen-Wiesse (mmm, mmm, good!)
• The controversial Sweetwater Donkey Punch was a lovely barleywine

Then there was the music.  I REALLY enjoyed Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand and enjoyed what I heard and saw of Carolina Chocolate Drops.  The event was held in a terrific venue, except it was hard to enjoy the music AND the beer AND the people all at the same time.

Well, now I have to get back to my busy life, but I feel less guilt that I’ve posted something about this weekend that I’m STILL talking about every chance I get!

These are the great places (let’s not even talk about the great EXPERIENCES!) I still need to blog about…

Highland Brewing Company (where we hae a wonderful time, and a wonderful tour!) Thanks to Tony Kiss for being a great host, and the people at Highland for showing off their fabulous facility!

Green Man Brewing at Dirty Jack’s

Heinzelmannchen in Sylva, NC

Westville Pub (where we met up with Mark and Jean - this was the start of a great night out on the town!)

Root Bar Number One

Depot Street in Tennesee

I got too caught up in the craft brew scene to post while we were traveling, and I got too caught up in life when we returned home.  Big event this weekend, and then I will get caught up…  Meanwhile, Tony posted the Podcast (and we LOVE the music selection!), so you can listen in on our Asheville adventures.

After lunch, we returned to the Biltmore Village area seeking out French Broad Brewing Company.  We found it across the railroad tracks in a non-descript building with a small parking area.Inside we found a couple of tables and a small bar – just a few square feet of space for pints, and the rest of the visible space was for making beer.  It is a great facility, and neat to see how they convert a small part of the brewery into a music venue. 

D had a conversation with the brewer while I talked to some other patrons (who, strangely, seemed familiar to both D and I, but neither of us can place how or why we would know them.)

Knowing we would have plenty to drink later in the day, we stuck with taster glasses of the six beers on tap:

Goldenrod Pilsner 4.2%

Marzen Amber Lager 4.5% - an Ocktoberfest style

Cellar Reserve Lambic-style Beer - blackberry, aged over 3 years and blended with Grand Cru

13 Rebels ESB 4.8%

Barley Legal Barleywine 10.5%

In my humble opinion French Creek has some work to do to keep up with all the other brewpubs in
Asheville.  This was the first place we didn’t see a crowd.  People weren’t coming in to fill growlers, and the only patrons were tourists (I’m guessing the crowd grows when the music starts playing, and there was a line-up of bands!) 

The beers were simply okay.  Nothing got me really excited, and I was especially unimpressed by the lambic attempt.  The ESB was probably the best of the low-alcohol beers, and the Barleywine stood out, but nothing was pint-worthy.  I’m all about the underdog – smaller, more intimate pubs are generally my favorite places, but this place just didn’t do much for me.