Like Scuzz we have a lot of smaller venues popping up here too. A lot of them are microbreweries or brewpubs too, so the beer is about as local as you can get. We also have a strange third type, a mix of bottle shop/craft beer bar. You can go and have a small selection of beers on tap, or pick up some harder to find choices in bottles to take home.
@Ginger_Yellow that’s sad news to hear, though I guess adding food doesn’t mean they can’t still be very, pub-ish.
Oh, definitely not. Among the chains, there can be quite a bit of a line blurring between pub and family restaurant, but for tenanted pubs generally they’re just ordinary pubs that happen to offer hot food, or gastropubs.
If you’re ever in NE Portland, OR, my good friend owns a nice pub (Caldera) and bottle shop/taproom (Beer Bunker). I may be biased, but both are great places to hang out.
The only one of those that I know about here closed down after about 6 months. I think a combination of location and competition probably killed it.
The one no food brew pub we go to is next to an Italian restaurant and a Pho restaurant. While I can’t see having Pho with beer the place allows food from anywhere to be brought in.
There is a large chain that does that, World of Beer. They even offer menus from nearby restaurants and they handle the ordering and have the delivery brought to your table. I don’t remember if it was a separate tab or not, it’s been a while since I went to one.
From what I understand it was a bit of a headache for them and they have been shifting to their own menu. In most states that also meant they required different alcohol licensing.
Pretty fascinating read, thanks for the link to this. I’ve used many different yeasts when homebrewing and understand a bit about how they work, but it was cool to understand just how much we’ve affected yeast strains and their continuation over time.
I finally got around to having a can of TenFidy. “Finally” because I don’t often reach for a stout at the beer store. Very good stuff (though I’ll still not hit the ‘stout’ button any more often).
What really separated it from the Left Hand is the mouthfeel. If I pour an ink-black beer, I expect to have to chew it. Left Hand doesn’t give me that, it feels way too thin and watery to me compared to what I expect from the look of it.
TenFidy? I think I wore out a couple of molars…
Yeah, that’s what I love about it, and look for in robust stouts. Often that feel though comes with a pretty high ABV, though it’s possible to keep it low-ish. But TenFidy is quite nice.
For a good mouthfeel but not necessarily a high ABV, look for an oatmeal stout. Oatmeal, in this case, is just another grain in the mash, but similar to the liquid with oatmeal when we eat it, it retains just a little bit of body, and in the case of beer is a great mouthfeel in a stout. It rarely leaves any oatmeal flavor, but sometimes breweries will toast it so that you get just a little bit in the beer.
I’m so happy TenFidy type beers are out there. It’s awesome getting one that sits you down occasionally. I think Oskar Blues did a great job on it.
Good Mouthfeel is one of those 60’s bands that just never quite took off, unfortunately.
-xtien
@ChristienMurawski you should look for some Russian imperial stouts at your local store. I doubt they are Tom’s cup of tea but I think you would like them. Also look for Porters.
I freaking loved the Wake Up Dead nitro I posted about above, that a friend brought over a couple of weeks ago. I’m a huge fan of Russian Imperial Stouts.
Also, you told me about a porter I need to be on the lookout for; I need to go upthread to remind myself what its name was.
-xtien
See if your local store have any beer by Founders. It is all good quality and they have Porters and stouts.
So we have a local brewery that specializes in German style beers only. They are Charlotte’s second oldest craft brewery. Being honest, I’m not a huge fan. Especially as the owner is adamant about brewing things in the traditional Greman beer laws that don’t allow, to my tastes anyway, things that are awesome about new American craft beers, new hops, flavors, styles, etc.
So it was with some great surprise tonight I tried their new release, OMB’s Frost Warning. It’s called a dunkelhefebock. So a beer with darker malts - dunkel, with a wheat yeast - hefewisen, and higher ABV - bock.
It. Is. Amazing. Such a great combo of tasty malts, with just a tad of the clove taste from the hefewisen yeast giving it a light spice flavor. It has a hazy look and great mouthful from the wheat malt, and a warm aftertaste from the higher ABV, 7%.
I’m eating crow right now. If any of you NC folks like wheat beers, definitely give this one a shot when it heads your way.
Here’s a long story about Heady Topper. I had a few of them last week. It’s good – but didn’t really blow my mind and wasn’t worth the shenanigans required to acquire it.
It’s good, I’ve had it maybe 5-6 times. But everything about it is some of the annoying things about my beer loving friends that drive me insane. It’s a beer whale. If anyone here has not heard that term, similar to Moby Dick, it’s the thing that is the ultimate want for people. There are many beer whales. There are groups of people that travel around the country to new beer releases in search of new beer whales that they then trade for other beer whales with other beer geeks. I’ve done it some myself.
What caught me and eventually annoyed me is the fact that people in that mode will completely thumb their noses at EXCELLENT beers just because said beers are easily available. It’s like those annoying Magic the Gathering players that were more interested in playing all the rare cards on you than just playing the damned game and enjoying it as a game. It makes zero sense.
Clay, you can understand this one, it’s local to us both. I had a discussion at the bar with someone about Foothills Jade versus some new hard to find IPA with someone recently. He went on and on about how this new IPA was great, used some awesome new hops, and was going to be the next big thing. And then I asked him, how do I get it? “Well they have a release next month, but that is only for people who are on the list for the release event.” My response was, “well, here is a Jade, it’s from Foothills, about 2 hours away. You can buy it here at the bar or at the grocery store, or at the brewery any day they are open.” And he tried it, and he loved it. No lines, no wait list, no fuss, just a damned great beer.
I’ll be happy if I never wait in a beer release line again.
Yeah, that culture annoys me, too. The Bottle Revolution stores near my house are always filled with people pretending they are hot shit because they know of some microbrew out of somewhere that is super rare, etc… Then I get looks of disdain when I just grab some cold beers from the fridge, without judging them, make my purchase and leave.
I guess I’m too old to play the pretentious about beer game.
