Underappreciated Beer People

You often hear about special beers, great brewers/breweries or what bars have to offer on tap but seldom do you hear about someones beertender (unless they were awful). One Saturday recently we went into Lowell Beer Works just to stop in and try the new Beers of the Month then head home where we had some beers and snacks lined up for the night. As we walked in we saw Paul , one of our favorite beertenders, behind the bar and my face lit up because I knew our plans had changed for the better. Once we realized Paul was teamed with Amy, another favorite beertender, our quick stop for a couple sample racks had changed to an all-night session. A nights plans changed by one person, the bartender. So this got me thinking what makes up a good beertender? Do you have a favorite? What qualities does he/she have to be your favorite? For us we like both Paul and Amy because they are outgoing and can carry a coversation even on the busiest of nights, they have a good sense of humor though completely differant, Amy dry & sarcastic and Paul jovial & self depricating and they are knowledgable about what they serve enough so if you need help with a choice whether beer or food they can help. As with any relationship (for lack of a better word), the relationship with a regular beertender is fostered over time and they get to know your habits maybe what type of beers you like, the glassware you prefer( yes my "princess glass" Amy) maybe sometimes you do not even have to order because they already know what you want. So if you have not yet done it acknowledge your better beertender. Also let us know your favorites and why they are.
P.S. If you are ever in Lowell Beer Works look for Big Paul and Amy and tell them we sent you.

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Sea Dog Brewpub Woburn,MA

Our group of seven took a trip to the new Sea Dog Brewpub in Woburn, MA. The pub is part of a chain with another Brewpub in Hull, MA and three brewing locations in Bangor, South Portland and Topsham ME. It was a very open place with a comfortable waiting area furnished with cushioned chairs and sofa, a nice sized bar area with plenty of bar tables. The pub was dimly lit with a few Sea Dog wall paintings scattered throughout the establishment and one end of the bar was covered with Mugclub mugs.
When we arrived there was a bit of a wait (no doubt that was due to it being the "new place in town") so we decided to take up residence at a small side-bar area and order some appetizers and beer of course. The appetizer list was standard with some variations like Sweet Potato Skins, Lobster Tempura and Buffalo Wings that were grilled. There were also your regular appetizers like nachos and chicken fingers. Even though we didn't order entrees their small menu seemed to hit all areas sandwiches, burgers, pasta, chicken and it was heavy on the Sea(dog)food. Overall our service was great even though we did have to wait a little in between orders but that is most likely because it was so busy.
On to the main reason we went there, the beer. They listed eight standard beers Owls Head Light, Wind Jammer Blonde Ale, Sea Dog Pale Ale (not available when we visited), Old East India Pale Ale, Old Gollywobbler Brown Ale, Riverdriver Hazelnut Porter, Sea Dog Stout, and Blueberry Wheat. They also had a Seasonal which was a Winter Ale, they had a Raspberry that was not listed and unfortunately they had no Cask Conditioned Ales. The highlights for our group were 1) the IPA- an english style IPA with a light floral aroma, crisp clean balanced flavor and a tinge of bitterness 2) the Hazelnut Porter- dark near black having a big sweet nose the flavor started almost surgary followed by a rush of hazelnut then backed with dark malt bitterness 3) Blueberry Wheat- was the surprise of the night with most turning their noses up to a fruit beer at first, you could smell the blueberry from a distance and it had a big blast of sweetness that was nicely balanced with the sour from the blueberries floating in the beer.
Overall a great establishment that is worth checking out, good beer and good food always make for an enjoyable experience.

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Beer Trading

A new area of the beer world for us has been beer trading. Trading is easy enough to get into, the two ways we have arranged trades has been through Beer Advocate (www.beeradvocate.com) and Twitter . Beer Advocate gives you plenty of routes to trades with a "beer trading group" , member profiles can contain beers people want (wants) or beers they have (gots) and you can look up specific beers and see who "wants" or "gots" it. Trades via Twitter you have to be a little more lucky/daring/social for them to get done but we did an epic trade with @agirlandherbeer, a fellow tweeter, that we will discuss in another post.
Although not technically our first trade but our first completed trade was with a member of Beer Advocate. After several Beer Mails , intra-website emails on Beer Advocate, over the course of a few weeks we aquired a six pack of beer mostly from the Delaware area. The highlight of the trade was four beers from an up and coming brewery Evolution Craft Brewing Company ( www.evolutioncraftbrewing.com ). Evolution has just recently expanded their distribution and aquired more equipment so hopefully they will reach Mass soon so I don't have to trade for them. The beers we received were Exile ESB, No.3IPA, Lucky 7 Porter and Primal Pale Ale. All excellent beers with the Primal Pale Ale being my favorite. The other two beers we got as extras (beers or items added to the trade that were not discussed in the deal these enhance the trade ,a form of beer thank you/cheers) in the trade were Flying Fish Grand Cru Winter Reserve and Bells Christmas Ale. Also thrown in as an extra was a very nice tasting glass seen in the picture above.
Trading can be very rewarding with the chance to get beers not available in your area but it can get expensive. So if you haven't tried trading yet give it a go you never know what you might be able to get, small local brewery beers that don't distribute to your area or some rare beers that are hard to find no matter where you live. Good Luck happy trading.

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Review of Beer Summit Winter Jubillee

On Jan 14th and 15th of 2011 was the annual Beer Summitt Winter Jubillee held at the Park Plaza Castle. This years fest was incredible with aproximately 60 breweries and 200 beers. The fest seemed more organized and steamlined than past years. It also appeared to have more open spaces to relax in, as previous events left you feeling sardine like. The crowd as usual was very enthusiastic but not overly vocal as some other events with no known altercations happening at our session. As far as breweries mentioning all would be to much but for a rundown of our favorite/best of fest.
Brewery- Fishermans with two outstanding beers there Stout run thru coffee and the Accidental Eis-DIPA (keg partially froze in brewers trunk)
Blend- "CHUCK-BERRRRRRRYYY" which was Woodchuck Cider with Seadog Blueberry
Innovative Idea- Choklat Float a medallion of vanilla ice cream floated on Southern Tier Choklat.
Surprise- Cody Brewing after having a bad experience at another fest with their beer Cody came roaring back and blew us away. Their Brown was to form and the Whiskey Aged Stout phenominal (if bottled I need this)
New to Us- BNektar Meadary Mead is a new beverage for us and these guys really opened our eyes to the range of flavor available with T loving their Pyment (mead w/ grapes)
There were several other excellent showings Haverhill/TAP with their Joshua Norton Stout , Ithica 13 , Watch City 1yr old Kingpin Imperial Stout , Clown Shoes Tramp Stamp , as well as beers from DogFishHead , Lagunitas , Founders , Brooklyn , Victory Sam Adams and many others.

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New Years Eve 12/31/2010

New Years Eve 12/31/2010 , the perfect day to start up our blog. We decided to stay in and enjoy our 1st Beer and Cheese pairing and allow the "rookies" their night out. We picked up three cheeses to match with beers we already had at home.
Our 1st pair was Widmer The Drifter labeled as a Pale Ale with a Sharp Cheddar that had been aged for 2yrs. T noted that The Drifter seemed to have more characteristics of an IPA, even being a little cold it had a very hoppy aroma and a bitter bite. The Cheddar was delicious ,though I may be biased it being my favorite type of cheese, having a very sharp mouth watering taste. The mix of the two was very surprising the beer seemed to make the cheese almost creamy and the beer lost some of its bitterness and became more floral and citric in taste.
Next we moved on to Parmesan (due to a aweful Brie choice by A) paired with Maui Coconut Porter. The Parm was pretty standard in taste with a very grainy texture. The Porter was on point for a Robust Porter but we both had trouble picking up any coconut. Paired together they didn't blend as well as the 1st pairing but the earthy roasted quality of the Porter was subdued by the Parm and a subtle sweetness was brought out .
The final pairing of the night was the most intimidating of the 3, Anchor Foghorn and Stilton. The Stilton was very imposing not looking very appealing and definetly giving off some funk and tasting highly salty with lots of Umami (fun word to say). Anchor Foghorn a big beer (Barleywine) big in every way alcohol, maltiness and hops. We were having trouble seeing how these two could pair well, no matter what we read about pairings. After building a little courage (no doubt fortified by earlier beers) we dove into the pairing and both of us were surprised at how well they blended no longer to salty or funky of a cheese nor was the beer to big an experience tough to descibe .
To sum up the pairings I feel the Old Foghorn and Stilton paired the best followed by the Drifter and Cheddar with the Maui Coconut Porter and Parmesan coming in 3rd (slightly unfair to judge because it was a last second swap out of cheese for this pair).
We learned a lot in our 1st pairing of cheese with beer. 1)take some chances, try differant/new cheeses. 2)be prepared for mishaps, like picking a cheese that seems to have gone bad(dummy). 3) have fun with it food pairing guidelines are just that guidelines not hardcore rules.
To add 1 final footnote I would like to thank @agirlandherbeer from Twitter for the Maui Coconut Porter that she sent to us in a beer trade that I will blog about later.

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