CBC Comes to Cape Cod

I hadn't had a beer in a few days and we drained the kegs I had going this weekend, so on the way home for work I had a crave to stop at a local store in Mashpee to see what beers they might have in the bottle for me to enjoy tonight.  Well, I found a very pleasant surprise in one of the beer fridges.  They had a couple of bottles from Cambridge Brewing Company on the shelf.  I didn't realize that CBC was distributing their beer beyond the brewpub these days but I'm thrilled to find out they are.  I got a bottle of "The Audacity of Hops" and "Triple Threat".

Audacity of Hops is as the name implies a hop bomb but one that is surprisingly thirst quenching.  They call it a Belgian style Double IPA.  Hey all I know is its a beautiful pale ale with loads of flavor and aroma hops thrown into and apparently done in a way that doesn't make the beer undrinkable.  I'll be looking for CBC beers wherever I can now that I know they're out in stores.

Cambridge Pub Crawl

I met up with my friends James and Michelle last weekend and we took the opportunity to do some reconaissance on a couple of pubs in Cambridge, MA.  We started out meeting at Boston Beer Works by the garden where I took my daughters to lunch before they headed into the Bruins game with friends.  The beer I had at Beer Works did not impress.  They can be hit or miss.  Sometimes I love the beers they've got on tap and other times they're just lame. 

After that we took the red line over to Kendall Square in Cambridge.  We probably would have gotten there quicker if we just walked.  Anyhow first stop was mainstay Cambridge Brewing Company (CBC). 

CBC are phenomenal brewers.  They didn't dissapoint this time either.  I had one of their seasonal specials called "Big Man IPA" a beatufully hopped beer.  James had the Nitro Stout and Michelle the Porter.  I thought the Stout the best of the three.  If I were smart I would have ordered one after the IPA but instead curiosity got the better of me and I got a snifter of the Barleywine.  It was a bit too strong for me but still very good. 

The "Blunderbuss" Barleywine.

Stacks of grain against the wall.

I could have stayed much longer at CBC and tried a couple more of their beers but we had work to do.  So next stop would be Lord Hobo.  Lord Hobo is a beer bar with a phenomenal selection.  I knew it was close to CBC.  A few blocks down the street from CBC.  Problem is I went in the wrong direction.  James pulled out his GPS device and informed that it was the other direction down Hampshire street.  No city messes with my sense of direction worse than Cambridge.  Anyhow it wasn't very far.  It had the look of a neighborhood dive bar complete with the old style windows that you can't see through.  It's not very big inside but they have a great selection of beer. 








James got the Spezial Rauchbier Lager and I ordered a Troegs Nugget Nectar (I wanted to see if my friend Dylan's praise of this beer was deserved) and I can't remember Michelle's choice.  The Nugget Nectar was excellent and very hoppy.  Quite a contrast from the Spezial Lager which is silky smooth.

I know I tried something else off the list but I can't remember what it was.  This is what I get for blogging a week after the fact.  Well here enjoy a picture of the bar and taps instead.

We had to walk back to the Kendall MBTA station and knew the Meadhall was somewhere around there so we would make one last stop to check out this other new beer bar in Kendall Square.  Meadhall is a cavernous beer hall with very little in the way of character but it's got a massive beer list and a huge chalkboard on the wall displaying what's on tap.  I was a bit skeptical going in because usually a place with such a large tap list fills it without a lot of subpar choices but not in this case.  The selection is quite good.

















And this is how I left my friends at the end of our little tour.  It appears we had a pretty good time.  I say we do it again before long.

Cambridge has got it pretty good in the beer department these days.

Jack's Abbey

It's a great time to be a beer lover in New England.  It seems like a few new microbreweries pop-up every couple of years.  One that has intrigued me since they've come on the scene in 2011 is Jack's Abbey Brewing in Framingham, Mass.  What caught my attention about these guys is that they are dedicated to brewing lagers and doing so with plenty of creativity.  Let's face it recipe creativity and commercial lager brewering haven't typically gone hand in hand.  On top of that a lager microbrewery in the US and even more so here in New England is a real rarity.  Okay so Jack's Abbey breaks the mold so the next question is, are their beers any good?  A few of use tried their "Smoke and Dagger" beer on Cask at the recent NERAX cask ale festival in Haverhill.  We all liked it a lot.  It is lightly smoked dark lager.  When I visited the brewery they told me they only used about 10% smoked malt but it's enough to be noticeable.  But they have a lot more beers to choose from.  So I had no choice but to go and investigate this new, upstart brewery.  So a couple of weeks ago I headed up there on a late Friday afternoon to do just that.

They're just outside Framingham center in a small industrial park off of route 135.  I had trouble finding the place at first so I gave them a call and got directions.  Its set in an old brick industrial building and you walk right into their retail storefront.  The first thing you see is the growler filling/sample serving area that consists of an about 8 ft bar with some stools to sit at.  On the wall to the left is some Germany brewery paraphenalia (coasters, etc.) hinting that the guys running the brewery have done some personal R&D into lager brewering and drinking in Germany (a very good sign).  There's a big glass window behind the serving counter giving the customers a view into the brewery shop floor.  I  noticed what appeard to be a large walk in largering room.  Next to the window is a whiteboard listing all the beers they currently had on tap.  They had an impressive selection of 7 beers on tap at the time.  I got there just in time to get the last growler of Dopplebock as they took that off tap and put the newly release Baltic Porter on right before I arrived.  What timing!!

One of the things that immediately struck me is that there were a handful of customers sitting at the serving counter enjoying plenty of samples while waiting for growlers to be filled.   The folks at Jack's Abbey are plenty generous with their visitors.

They were very busy filling growlers for locals popping in and stocking up for the weekend.  I knew it was going to be a significant wait but I didn't mind since plenty of samples were to be had in the meantime.  They asked me what I wanted and my reply was "One growler of each!".  This brought some curious looks from the other customers but when I explained that I came all the way from the Cape just to try their beer and I would be damned if I left without one of each I think they understood.  Now they just thought I was crazy from driving all the way from the Cape.  Oh well. 

While waiting and enjoying samples I scoped out the brewery, the tshirts for sale, paraphenalia, etc. and talked about beer with the other visitors. 

I was there for about 1 hour and probably sampled at least one of each beer while getting all seven growlers filled.  They gave me a free beer glass as a souvenier and of course I bought a TShirt.  I haven't been clothes shopping in a while and my wardrobe is beer and sports based so buying a TShirt was kind of mandatory.

The guys that own and run the place are really nice folks and very hospitable and you can tell they really enjoy what they're doing.  I look forward to going back and now that I'm on the last growler as we speak (Baltic Porter btw) a return visit is imminent.

Here's the rundown of the beers I left with:

Jabby Brau - This is the one probably most like a standard Pilsener or even Bavarian Helles lager.  Their weakest beer at 4.5% but tasted quite good.  Unfortunately as I got near the bottom of the growler it got really murky and not very drinkable but luckily I didn't have that problem with the others.

Smoke and Dagger - Dark and a bit smokey but not at all heavily smoked.  Probably my favorite beer of theirs.

Hoponius Union - A super hoppy lager. They call it an India Pale Lager (eyeroll) but it's a seriously tasty beer.  I broke this growler open last weekend at a feast we had at my house and everyone that tried it liked it a lot. 

Cascadian Schwarzbier.  -  Bloody hell I don't remember drinking this one.  I think I opened this at the tail end of a long brew day.  A dark lager with loads of citrusy hops.  I wish I could remember it.

Hey Diddle Diddle - Double India Dunkle Lager (another eyeroll).  Okay basically a amber lager with loads of hops in both quantity and variety.  To my surprise, I really enjoyed it.  I prefer a smooth, nutty, almost sweetish Dunkle so I figured this one would be somewhat revolting but not so.  Another growler that bit the dust on a brewday.  Maybe I drank this one first, at 8% ABV, and that's why I don't remember the other one?

Saxonator Dopplebock - Enjoyed this at Dana's brewday last weekend.  Not bad.  I think Dana and I both agreed that we liked the Cape Cod Old Man Winter Ale better.  I really think it's hard to create a truly great Dopplebock without a triple decoction and I don't think Jack's does that. But maybe I'm wrong.  Don't get me wrong, this beer was very good and the growler died a respectable death but it didn't quite stack up to some of the great Bavarian/Franconian bock beers I've had.  But I'd buy it again, just for the record.  I've been spoiled when it comes to bock beers.

Framinghammer Baltic Porter - I'm having a glass of this now.  It's thick and strong (10% ABV).  There's no doubt when you first taste this that it's got a kick but it's more of a pleasant alcohol warming taste combined with plenty of malty/chocolate/roasty flavors.  They could have called this an Imperial Stout and I wouldn't know the difference.

Jack's Abbey is a stellar addition to the Massachusetts beer world.  I'm heading back for refills soon. 

Dogfish

Sometime around New Years I decided to collect a batch of different Dogfish Head beers and give them all a try.  My main reason being that I really hadn't drank any Dogfish beers in a few years and I was a bit intrigued by the variety coming from them that I saw on the store shelves.  Plus I figured they deserved a fair shake and a slice of my liver.

This turned out to be a bigger challenge than I thought.  Firstly, they've got a shit ton of different beers to choose from and finding them all at the same store was pretty much impossible.  Secondly, some of the beers are expensive and to try all of them would put a big dent in the wallet.  Lastly, most are strong beers so having more than one in a single session would be tough.  So this all wound up taking me about a month and visits to multiple different stores in the area.

End result is that I tried about 14 different beers.  Out of those there were 7 that I can honestly say I liked a lot and would spend the money on again.  3 that were good but not memorable and only 4 that I didn't really like at all.  The clunkers for me were Hellhound, Pearl Jam, Chateau Jiahu, and Raison D'Etra.  Hey to each his own let's move on.  Ta Henket, 90 min IPA, and Chicory Stout were beers that I thought okay but nothing I'd buy off the shelf again given the choices out there today.  The ones I liked in no particular order:

60 minute IPA.  I know, I know.  It's everyone's obvious choice.  The beer that I'm guessing pays a lot of the bills at Dogfish.  It's a great beer and very easy to drink.  I did have some of this years ago and forgot that I really liked it.  They've got it on tap at the local BBC and now it's one of my go to's when I'm there. 

My Antonia.  I guess you'd call this a Imperial Pilsener or something to that affect.  I like the name My Antonia better.  This is arguably my favorite of the whole lot.  Thanks go to my friend Aaron Bennett for providing some background atmosphere to our beer sampling.  It was a good New Years Eve.  We tried many beers including I think 3 Dogfish ones.

Probably the one that surprised me the most, since my expectations of it were low for some reason, was the Palo Santo Marron.  A dark, rich, strong brown ale that is aged in wooden vessels.  This is one of the new regular beers that you can get in a 6-pack or maybe just a 4-pak?  A wonderful beer that comes in at a whopping 12% but it's a dangerous 12 because you really can't tell that its quite that strong.  I could easily knock back 4-5 of these then realize after it was too late what I had done.

Sah'tea - I can't really even begin to describe this beer.  It's brewed with Juniper Berries and a whole slew of other ingredients and is a bit reminiscent of a weizen beer.  Well go figure it is fermented with a German Weizen yeast.   Too many flavors to get my head around but who cares I really enjoyed it and want to try it again so that's good enough for me.

Pangae - How can you really go wrong with a beer brewed with ginger?  Unless you don't like ginger for some strange reason.  Weird name for a beer though.  Pangae is one of  the map selections when you start a game of Civilization IV or V.  It's not a beer.  Whatever, I liked the beer a lot.  I bet some of the people in the Dogfish marketing department are a bunch of stuck up wine drinkers.  They're probably drinking a glass of Pinot Grigio right now while the come up with the next pretentious beer name.  Just saying.

Speaking of weird names the next two top the last.  Namaste and Theobroma.  Really?  What the fuck is that?!  This is beer we're talking about for cry eye!!  Well they are great beers anyhow.  The Namaste is a great summer beer and Theobroma is another weird recipe with things like Ancho Chilies (no idea what those are) and cocoa nibs  (what's a nib?).  Whatever it is it works though.  Two more lovely beers to round out my favorites list.

So there was recently a brouhahah over on the Beer Advocate forum about overrated breweries and Dogfish's name was brought up by a lot of the posters over there until Sam C. of Dogfish should up and gave them a smackdown.  Seriously though I really don't think Dogfish is overrated at all.  They're putting out a huge variety of beers and many of them are terrific beers.  If I had any complaint at all it's only that some of them are expensive but then again they're not beers that you'd be drinking all the time and a lot of these 22oz beers on the shelf these days are just as costly.  Overall I'm impressed and more importantly there are more than a handful that I want to drink again.

But now I can take a rest from Dogfish and move onto another brewery.  Jack's Abbey in Framingham up next.

Mayflower Brewing Company, Plymouth, MA

I've decided to do an occasional blog post that focuses on one particular American brewery at a time.  One reason for doing this is simply that I enjoy doing this.  It's an opportunity .... okay I admit it more like an excuse .... to try as many of the range of beers of one particular brewery that I can get my hands on.  It's not possible for me to do this in one sitting because many of these breweries will have at least 1/2 dozen beers and some of them are very strong.  I think the timing is good because I've recently gotten into discussions online and in person with folks about how American brewing really gets a bad rap because of it's long black hole period from post prohibition up until the craft beer explosion in the last couple of decades.  The truth of the matter is that the American brewing industry has seen a massive explosion of number of breweries, variety, and quality in the last 20 years or so that I think might be unprecendented in the history of beer brewing.  I think this fact sometimes goes unnoticed by many people that still identify American beer as cheap industrial lager like Budweiser, Miller, etc.

Okay so here goes with blog Post #1 in this series.  I figured I'd start local with a set of beers that I drink from time to time and that is Mayflower Brewing Company based in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Mayflower is only about a 30 minute drive from my home and when you first drive up to it you would think it was just an office building but they do indeed brew their own beers and have a bottling line and like a lot of small breweries in Mass. they distribute the beer themselves thus circumventing the archaic and unhelpful distribution system that is in place in this state. 

I think most microbreweries kind of have a certain character or identity to them.  In other words, what is this particular brewery trying to accomplish with it's products?  What styles are they focusing on and why?  Mayflower is kind of a no-brainer.  They are for the most part brewing classic english style beers and being that Plymouth is one of the original British American colonies I think that creates a nice synergy that makes a lot of sense considering the history of the town they reside in.  Also the fact that the town of Plymouth itself definately has an English feel to it.  On the website, the founder and president of Mayflower Brewing claims to be a descendant of John Alden.  I'm sure he wouldn't make that claim if it weren't true since the people of Plymouth tend to be very persnickety about claiming lineage to original members of the original settlement in Plymouth.  So again there is more synergy. 
Reading between the lines, it seems the founder of the brewery made a fair bit of money and contacts in his previous career as an investment banker and invested that into a nice little brewery in Plymouth.  Nice idea.

So like I said they brew a range of beers that is definately English derived.  Their core/year round beers are a Golden Ale, IPA, Porter, and Pale Ale.  Like most microbreweries they also do seasonal beers such as Imperial Stout, Thanksgiving Ale (Barleywine), Oatmeal Stout, Summer Rye Ale, and Autumn Wheat.  I didn't have access to all the seasonals at the time but I got 3 out of the 5.

I started out with the Golden Ale.  This one might be the sleeper in the whole bunch.  Very refreshing beer with a nice little hop zing (but not too much) to it.

The Pale Ale was just average for the style but no complaints.  I'd certainly order it in a bar if it was available. 

I actually was surprised by the Autumn Wheat.  I didn't expect to like it much because I'm not a huge American Wheat beer fan in the first place but this one was very nice.  It was kind of Altbier-ish (i.e. nice caramel flavor) and I think making it an Autumn seasonal is a good choice not that I'd complain if someone handed me a glass in April.

Their Porter is very solid.  One of the nicest microbrewed Porters I've had.  Very, very drinkable.

The IPA is definately more like a modern American version of the style rather than classic English.  It is quite bitter.  A perfectly fine beer but not one I can drink a lot of.

Now we get to the heavy hitters.  First off the Thanksgiving Ale.  To be honest I don't like it much.  Too much alcohol flavor in it.  Now in fairness, I'm not a fan of Barleywines to begin with and this is very reminscent of a Barleywine (I'm not sure if that was their intention or not).  It is very strong and that fact is not hidden.  It's a tough one for me to get to the bottom of.  I could probably enjoy it more in smaller doses.  I think maybe I need to turn the Pilsner Urquell log around when taking these pictures. 

But now to finish off with the real winner in the whole lot.  The Imperial Stout.  Absolutely, frigging delicous.  One of the best Imperial Stouts I've had.  This one I savored.

So all in all Mayflower brews very solid beers.  I don't love all of them but that's only natural.  A couple are just "meh" and then there are 3 or 4 that I really enjoyed (Golden Ale, Autumn Wheat, Porter, and Imperial Stout).  I think they really focus on doing a solid job with the range of beers that they have. 

So where is the best place to enjoy a pint or three of Mayflower beer.  Well the BBC in Plymouth of course.  They usually have several of their offerings on tap and I think sometimes in the cask as well.  Also it's a beautiful little shoebox size pub right off main street Plymouth with a great selection of beer for the size of the place.  IMO it's the best pub (for beer and atmosphere only) in the BBC chain.

The Altbiers of Dusseldorf

I've said it before and last week only reinforced it for me, Dusseldorf is perhaps the greatest single- night pub crawl in the world for a beer lover.  If I had to spend a week in a city I'd choose Bamberg over Dusseldorf because there is more variety of beer and pubs in and around the city.  However, if I had only one night, you simply can't beat Dusseldorf IMO. 

There are five breweries in Dusseldorf that brew Altbier on site at their own pub.  Four of them are in the Altstadt and the fifth, while it's main brewpub is outside the Altstadt, also has a nice outlet pub in the Altstadt where you can enjoy their beer.

What really struck me on this visit about the five different Altbiers is how each one of them has it's own unique taste.  In other words, they don't taste the same.  They range from the dry and hoppy Uerige to the sweet, caramelly Kuerzer and the others fall in between with Schlussel being the most balanced and my personal favorite of the five.  I'll give a rundown of them (with photos) in order from my least favorite to my most favorite.  I will say though that even my least favorite of the five is an excellent beer and I would gladly sit in that pub right now if it were possible.

So let's start with Brauerei Kuerzer.  This is the new kid on the block.  While the other four have been around a long time this one is only about 2 years old.  The atmosphere is a more modern brewpub style.  You can go in the back and look at the brewing equipment much like many of the modern American brewpubs that we're used to.  They differ also from the others in that they don't serve it from the oak barrel.  Their beer is served from some kind of contraption on the bar that they boast as an endless keg.  It appears to be some kind of glass keg that they continuously pump beer into from the cellar below. 

Kuerzer's beer is the sweetest of the five with a very pronounced caramel flavor.   It's quite drinkable though and I suspect those that don't like hoppy beer would really enjoy it. 

We were joined on the pub crawl by our friend Severin whom I met a few years ago through Ingmar and Severin had given me my first pub tour of Dusseldorf.  I make it a point to get in contact with him when I visit and this was our third Altstadt pub crawl together. 

Here's Dorff and Severin enjoying a laugh and the Kuerzer Alt.

I tried to get a shot of the "bottomless keg" on the bar.  I should have just got up closer to take the phote but I'm too lazy.

The brewing equipment was directly behind the bar area.









So I quite liked Kuerzer and will make sure to stop in again.

The next visit was a pub call Im Goldener Kessel about 1 block away (next street over) in the Altstadt.  Here is the Altstadt outlet for Brauerei Schumacher.  I have never been to the Schumacher brewpub itself mainly because it is not in the Altstadt and would require a long walk or a cab ride to get to.  I really should make the effort someday because I hear it is terrific.  But we stopped at Im Goldener Kessel for two Schumacher beers and just drank them outside.  I was quite pleased that even though it was December would could still stand outside and have beer served to us.  As you can see, Severin and I really enjoy this pub crawl.

The Schumacher beer isn't very hoppy but not as sweet as Kuerzer.  I really need to try the Schumacher more often as I vaguely remember it's taste and we didn't linger there long.

The next one though is unforgettable.  The very dry, hoppy, and amazing Brauerei Uerige.  In addition to this great Altbier it is one of the most beautiful pubs in the world.  There are multiple rooms that make up the pub each one a little different.

We first stood in the open room next to the brewery where they allow smoking.  It did get too smokey for me but the crowd in there was lively and enjoyable and we could watch the Kobe's rolling new barrels of beer past us from time to time.

Afterward we decided to go into the adjacent room to sit around a barrel.  No smoke in this room but it is still one of the more informal rooms where you go to just drink the beer and not worry about having to order food.  I paid this room a visit earlier in the day while Dorff was napping and got a kick out of the listening to the locals having a laugh and teasing the other patrons and staff when they walked by.

Another thing I truly love about the Dusseldorf pub crawl is that not only is the service fantastic (you're almost never without a beer - they just keep bringing them until you tell them to stop) but the Kobes (waiters in blue) are very entertaining.  They are the perfect balance between kick ass service and a don't give a fuck, cheeky, sarcastic attitude.  The one we had at Uerige got Dorff a bit riled up so we took some pictures of Dorff joking around with him while other patrons had a good laugh at the scene.

Uerige is just brilliant in every possible way.  It's my favorite pub worldwide.

However, before we got to Kuerzer, Schumacher, and Uerige we met Severin at my second favorite Altbier brewery Brauerei im Fuchschen.  Not quite as hoppy as Uerige but I think the second most hoppiest.  Also another magnificient pub.  We stood in the entrance hallway in front of the bar and watched the barrel changing process while we had a few.  It was hard to leave this place as the beer is so damn good and the atmosphere is really cozy.

Here is the entrance to Fuchschen.

Then we have the serving area.  Notice the two barrels on the bar.  One of them is in serving position and the other is upright.  The upright barrel is on top of an elevator that is used to lower empty barrels into the cellar and raise up a full one a few minutes later.  This happened twice while we were standing there.

Oh and what a beautiful beer it is.  A perfect Altbier.  Just look at that color.  Believe me, it tastes as good as it looks.









Dorff was happy with Fuchschen:

Now I've saved the best for last.  Or at least I've saved my favorite for last.  Brauerei Schluessel.

The perfect Altbier.  The perfect balance of hoppiness and maltiness in one glass all served in the dead center of the Altstadt in one of the most gorgeous pubs I've ever seen.  My friends I give you Schlussel.  The pictures speak for themselves.

Dorff and I also had a nice dinner at Schlussel.  They have a very traditional, regional menu.  I had a venison goulash with red cabbage that was brilliant.

Yeah you can tell I love Dusseldorf.  I've tried to put it into words the best I can but it's tough to really capture how great it truly is.  It really is one of the worlds greatest beer crawls one can possibly find.  It's worth going out of the way for even if only for one night.  It is so easy to visit all five Altbier pubs in one crawl as you don't have to wait around for service and you don't have to go in and sit down at a table if you just want to step up and try the beer at a counter or even outside.  In other words, they don't make you work for it.  I think it is the most beer lover friendly place I've ever been.  Okay, I've talked myself into it.  I need to go back as soon as possible.