I consider myself pretty lucky that I get to work for myself and be my own boss, and on certain days I take full advantage. Case in point, Fridays. Man do I love Fridays. Especially ones that start with me playing golf. I always front load my weeks and leave Friday open for whatever needs to be done, which yesterday included playing golf, eating fish tacos, and drinking lots of craft beer.
Yesterday my buddy Austin and I did a quick 18 holes first thing in the morning. I love getting on the course early for a few reasons:
Post golf, we stopped for lunch at my favorite local restaurant, Farmers Gastropub. The food is incredible and they have a wicked tap selection (and one of the few restaurants that keeps classics like Weihenstephaner on draft year round). I opted for the fish tacos with an Avery Tangerine IPA, while Austin went with the pig ear tacos and a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA.
Fruit IPA's are all the rage right now and it seems like every brewery has some version of one. This Avery was along the vein of what I would expect: a classic American IPA with a hint of fruit, nice crackery malt base, a touch sweet, not exceptionally bitter but enough to complement the citrus fruit. I would recommend giving it a go if you see it available on draft.
Later in the day I met up again with my buddy Austin and our friend Sam to share some beers at our local bottle shop, Brown Derby International Wine Center. We ended up drinking some pretty high gravity beers and I got buzzed pretty quick, so I'll be keeping my thoughts on these beers short and sweet.
First up: Plan Bee Farm Brewery Karnij, a dark sour ale with Balaton cherries aged in whiskey barrels. This beer is somewhat of an Oud Bruin with cherries. Poured dark, muddy brown with a touch of crimson and very little head. Smells a bit boozy. The taste is actually pretty light with very little if any presence of the whiskey barrels. The cherries lend a touch of sweetness. I like this brewery quite a bit and have had several of their beers. They're in upstate NY and do small batch stuff with hand waxed bottles. So far all the beers I've had from them have been great, including a saison brewed with dill and cucumber (and called Pickle, go figure).
Second up: Cycle Brewing Friday, an imperial stout aged in Calvados Apple Brandy barrels. I like all the stouts I've had from Cycle. This one did not disappoint. It poured dark with small caramel colored head. The nose was intriguing and had I not already known this beer was in a brandy barrel I wouldn't have guessed it. Great mouthfeel, though less viscous than other offerings I've had. There was a cinnamon note that hit from the apple brandy barrel that was subtle. If you can get your hands on their stouts, I would highly recommend doing so, though you may have to use those same hands to give a wicked HJ to the person that's sending all their mules to buy the beer and corner the market. Cycle is located in downtown St. Petersburg Florida. I've actually been to Cycle's location in St. Petersburg before and it's a cool little tap room in a great area (I love St Pete!).
Third up: 2nd Shift Brewing Apricot Katy, a wine barrel aged saison with apricots. This brewery just moved into a new location on The Hill in St Louis and I'm so glad. They make awesome beer and needed a better location. The base beer, Katy, is one of my favorite readily available beers in our market and when they add fruit, the beer takes on every characteristic of its specific fruit perfectly and allows it to shine. In the glass it's hazy and straw colored with a thin head. Smells like an angel just shat out a fresh apricot. The taste follows behind and it's like you have just bitten into that shitty angel apricot and your life has just changed from the delicious stone fruit that's been showered upon you from heaven's anus.
Fourth up: Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Bourbon Maple Syrup Barrel Aged, which is a fucking mouthful to say and makes my hand hurt to type. This is a maple syrup bourbon barrel aged imperial porter. I purposely shared this bottle with others because I knew it was going to be one big sweet ass boozy beer. Poured dark with a nice tan head, smelled like a stack of pancakes with syrup. This beer is thick and rich and sweet and oh my god I think I just got Di-uh-beet-us. It's ridiculously good but so cloyingly sweet that a 4 oz pour is all anyone needs. Recommended if you need a serious blood sugar spike.
We drank more beers than this, but these were the ones that really deserved a few words said about them. We also had an Ayinger Bavarian Pils, which is apparently a new product for them. It was good but not noteworthy. We also had some Founders Doom and 4Hands Typhon, but again, nothing worth me typing more than the words you're reading here.
So I have this friend and his name is Charlie Murphy. Yes, go ahead and yuk yuk it up, I've already done all the jokes possible here. He is fully aware his name is the same as Eddie Murphy's now deceased brother. Charlie brews beer. Not only does he brew, he takes that shit to the next level. He invited us over after we drank the beers above, and we proceeded to drink more beer at his place. He has this ridiculous basement with his brew setup, his cellar, and a wicked bar with 6 different beers on tap, and a monitor that displays the beers available, as well as their IBU count. It reminded me of the Pony Bar on the upper east side Manhattan but scaled down for some local Missouri homers. We proceeded to try all his beers, including two IPA clones of Treehouse and Trillium, that were pretty damn good. The pinnacle, however, in my opinion was drinking a beer called P.A.R.K.A.S. from 2nd Shift Brewing (the same people that brew Katy, mentioned above). The acronym stands for Puppies And Rainbows Kittens and Shit. This beer is a collaboration with Side Project Brewing, also from St Louis, and is a barrel fermented and aged American Wild Ale. I absolutely love this beer. The color is this awesome cloudy light straw and has a super thin head. It smells like a bouquet of fresh picked Missouri wildflowers. It's light on the tongue, just a touch of prickly carbonation and a nice tartness that isn't overbearing. It's dry but with a lime-like juiciness that finishes perfectly. If you ever find this beer, kill the person holding it, then open it and immediately drink it over their quickly cooling lifeless body. You'll thank me later.
We drank a few other beers too, as you can tell by the picture. One was the Evil Twin BBA Bistcotti, which is basically just a bourbon barrel aged version of the maple version, sans maple. It's a classic BBA beer and the one last night did not disappoint. I'm not going to offer a breakdown of the rest of the beers, as I'm ready to throw in the towel for now (I've been drinking in STL all day and will have a post about my experience later). The last two beers were Rare Barrel (Berkeley, CA) Home Sour Home, which is always good and sour as all get out, and Une Anee Framboise. Une Anee is out of Illinois and is making some great sour beer. That's all for now folks. I need to rehydrate and reassess what I'm doing with my life.
