The Mother Lode IPA

This Tuesday the BBC arranged to have a few of us BBC Sandwich beer club members go to the Mayflower brewery in Plymouth to cask two firkins of IPA one of which will be served at a near future beer club meeting.  Of course I jumped at the chance. 

First you enter the beautiful tasting room where one of the brewers greeted us and gave us some samples.  He tells us that the bar was built by local carpenters in exchange for .... you guessed it .... beer.  Really who doesn't work for beer?

Mash tun and wort kettle:

Fermentation in progress:

Some unfiltered Golden Ale straight from the fermentation tank:

The motley crew from BBC getting ready to fill the cask from left to right (Uncle Rico, Soto, yours truly, and some nice hippy lady whose name I've forgotten but I know she likes to make mead and wine at home).

We would dry hop the cask, add the clarifier and priming sugar, and then pour the beer into the cask from the fermentation tank before hammering in the bung.

And finally the end result.  They let us name the beer and Soto came up with the name "Mother Lode".  Works for me.

Really nice of the folks at Mayflower letting us visit to do this.  As I said before in a previous blog post, they brew really solid beer and now I know the people behind are really cool too.

Burlington, VT

I took Stephanie to visit Keene State College this weekend.  Afterwards we drove up to Burlington, VT to visit my niece and spend the night in town.  Steph spent the night with her cousin on campus while I stayed at a hotel downtown.  So guess what I did that night?  If you guessed that I curled up to a good book in the hotel room you guessed wrong and you need your head checked.  If you guessed that I went on a Burlington pub crawl you are correct but don't deserve any kudos because it's totally fucking obvious. 

Firstly a side note, we stopped at Elm City Brewpub in Keene for lunch.  I can't really comment as I only tried a couple of the beers.  One decent and one not so good.  Food was meh.  But I wouldn't rule it out for a future stop based on that limited sampling.

The weather was gorgeous in Burlington.  First thing I did was take a photo of Lake Champlaign across from my hotel:

Then I walked up to the Church street market area where all the pubs and shops are:

It's a really nice town.

I let my niece Katie select the restaurant where we would meet for dinner.  I swear on all that is holy that I did not attempt to influence her decision in the slightest.  She's an Andersen for crying out loud.  Of course she chose Vermont Pub and Brewery. 

First beer I had there was a cask ale.  It was in poor condition.  Not even picture worthy.  Next I had a porter brewed with coconuts.  This was better. 

We had a nice dinner.  The girls went back to campus and I continued my tour.  Next up The Farmhouse.  I'd say this is my favorite place in Burlington.  I almost equate it to Novare Res in Portland, Maine (although Novare Res is still my favorite beer pub in New England).  Great beer selection at the Farmhouse including several beers from Hill Farmstead Brewery and a few little surprises like Schlenkerla Fastenbier.  For some reason though I decided to have the cask Saison that they had going.  I never had a Saison from a cask before and it was quite enjoyable.

But not as good as the Schlenkerla Fastenbier:

or the Hill Farmstead "Columbus" - pale ale with plenty of Columbus hops:

They conveniently got the up to date beer list written on chalkboards above the bar.  This was one of three boards filled out:

It's a nice place.  Very relaxing.  The staff and other customers are pretty laid back.  I really should have just stayed in my bar stool and kept on with the Columbus but after finishing a plate of local cheese I decided to wander.

I didn't wander far though.  I went to the downstairs bar and ordered a Hill Farmstead "Double Galaxy".  Not a great idea as strong and really hoppy was probably not what I needed at the time.

After the "Double Galaxy" I left and wandered down the street to American Flatbread/Zero Gravity Brewing.  They had a "session" ale on tap called "London Calling".  Perfect, I thought, and low alcohol English Bitter.  Problems is that it sucked.  Totally bland.  So I tried the "Altbier".  Even worse.  I'm sorry but you can't brew an ale with Ringwood yeast and crappy malt and rightfully call it an Altbier.  I took two sips, put the beer on the bar, and walked out.  It was crowded and I really didn't want to make a fuss and ask for my money back.  So I just left.

Before I crashed for the night I just had to visit one last place.  This last place is ........ "DAS BIERHAUS!!!"

It's a kitschy, little, German themed pub on the other side of main street and has two stories with a beer garden on the roof.  For my nightcap I had a huge pretzel and an unfiltered lager from Baden Wurttemburg (brewery is called Arcobrau I think).  You know what, that might have been the best beer of the evening.