No School Like the Old School

     My friend Jana at work saw me looking at brewing stuff on line last year, and it got us talking about some great beers we'd tried recently.  She told me about this black lager (Kostritzer Schwartbier) from a German Brewery, Kostritzer, that her husband brings home from Germany when he travels over there, and a few days later she brought me a bottle!  I was touched that she would share it with me, even more so after I tried it.  It's a delicious, smooth black lager with a medium tan head.  The hops are light and the predominant flavor is that of the toasted malts.  As with many deutsche beers, it's a clean, no nonsense example of the type of beer it says it is. 
     Now, I don't speak (or read) German, but I'm pretty sure the label says the brewery (brauerei) was established (seit) in 1543 (1543).  That means they've been making beer for almost 4000 years.  I don't do math in German either. 
     A little over a month ago I got a message from Jana saying her husband had come back from Germany, this time with a CASE of Kostritzer for me!  Once again blown away by Jana's thoughtfulness, I've had enough to share with friends and family who all agree that this old school brewery knows what they're doing.  Their 4 millennia of practice has certainly payed off.  Until next time, Cheers!

Lauren's Generous Reward

     As I've mentioned before, my wife Lauren is pregnant (with my child).  She's about 12 weeks along at this point, and since she's not yet showing we wanted to take one last little vacation, just the two of us.  We made our way down to coast to Jekyll Island, GA and stayed at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, a really nice turn-of-the-last-century hotel with charm and style. 
     Vacations aren't really my thing, but being married to Lauren I understand they are necessary.  I usually have a good time anyway, but to sweeten the deal for me, Lauren usually finds a pub to take me to wherever we go.  This trip she took me to Vincent's Pub on the hotel grounds.  It's a tiny little place (its 2 rooms couldn't accommodate more than 20 people) with an 8 foot bar, 1 tap, and 18 beers by the bottle.  The atmosphere here is very cool, they have autographed photos of past Masters winners and towels from past Ryder's Cup winners (dried sweat and all) framed all over the place.  The beer selection includes a couple offerings from Terrapin Beer Company, a Georgia brewery.
     I ordered a Terrapin Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout.  The bartender felt the need to warn me that it was an $8 bottle of beer (she seemed to have PTSD from a previous patron's response to the bill), but it was worth every penny.  It's dark-brown to black with a creamy brown head.  The overwhelming flavor is that of dark roasted coffee with hints of chocolate and toffee.  Not too much of alcohol taste despite a high gravity.  Epic.  Delicious.  I wish I had one right now.
     Until next time, Cheers!

Beer, roasted

     So, my department at work has a Roast every year (the thing where people get up and say really mean but hopefully funny things about one another), and this year I got invited to speak.  I hadn't attended in years past because I heard that the roasters were really offensive and mean, and I didn't want to participate in that.  But since I was part of it this year, I got to hear about half of it before hand and it wasn't so bad (and it was hilarious).  Well, the half that I didn't hear beforehand turned out to be pretty vulgar, crude and mean spirited, but that's beside the point.
     The point IS that I met a guy named Dave Cave (husband to one of my bosses), who's a promoter and distributor of craft beers in the Charleston area.  He didn't as much as say so, but it sounds like he's responsible for many of the amazing beers we enjoy in Charleston being available there.  Example, he was telling me about when New Belgium was wanting to break into the Charleston market and he convinced several pubs and restaurants to start carrying it.  Now you can get a Fat Tire just about anywhere.
     Needless to say, after 2 hours of going back and forth between laughing and cringing during the roast, it was refreshing to talk beer with a guy who really understands and enjoys it.  He had a cooler with him and introduced me to 2 brews I'd not had before.
     The first is Merry Monks' Ale from Weyerbacher Brewing Co.  It's a tripel (take my car keys) that is yellow/orange with a thick white head.  The flavor is slightly sweet with fruit flavors I couldn't quite place, something like banana.  The hops are more citrus-y than floral and are pretty strong.  I liked it very much, even though tripels and doubels aren't my thing.
     The second was Palm Export from Brouwerij Palm NV.  That's a brewery in Belgium, which I think is why it's called Palm Export.  Anywho, it's a really nice pale ale, very clean and tasty.  Yellowish copper in color (or colour if we're being European), it is not overly hoppy.  Dave Cave described it as "sessionable" and I can see what he means; I could definitely drink a couple-three of these.
     Until next time, Cheers!