Bike Ride Beer

I've had a few good rides lately with either a beer stop, or with cold brew waiting at the end. When you're sweating bullets in the summer heat, even a well-rounded drinker like myself, will grab for the lighter, drinkable beers. Here's a few of the fine ales I've been sipping when I get out of the saddle.


Namaste
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Witbier | 5.00% ABV

B+ / 4
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | drink: 4

I split a large bottle at Little Ortino's in Schwencksville, PA. The beer poured a hazy light gold with a soft white head. The mix of subtle spice dominates the flavor (not in a bad way) while there's a smooth Belgian wheat background. The individual spices don't stand out so much as just melt together from the orange peel, to the coriander, then lemongrass. All in all a tasty beer, near the top of the style.


Stegmaier Summer Stock Lager
Lion Brewery, Inc.
American Pale Lager | 5.00% ABV

B / 3.65
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | drink: 4

Picked up a case (under the name Summer Stock Pils) while visiting friends in Scranton. Not a bad beer at all. The label has some nonsense about being a German style pils, but I think the flavor is plainly American. The malt is smoother, bready, and with just a hint of inoffensive corn. This is followed up by a grassy hop kick with a share of orange rind. The lager finishes with a mild, spicy bitterness. All in all, it seems like a tasty and somewhat traditional American take on the pilsner.


Devotion Ale
The Lost Abbey
Belgian Pale Ale | 6.25% ABV

B+ / 4
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | drink: 4.5
rDev: +2.7%

On-tap from a friend's kegerator. I know it's a touch strong, but this comes off like a Belgian session ale. It's light, tasty, and I could drink it all day.

The Tettanger hops had a slightly sharp and interesting herbal flavor in addition to the spicy citrus background. There's a smooth grain and bread flavor with hint of subtle Belgian fruit esters. My only complaint is that the flavor can seem a touch muted at times. I suppose this is on the hoppy side of a Belgian pale ale, but it's still very drinkable. Check this beer out.

Riding like a Belgian

I took a vacation day recently to spend 8 hours on my bike, or at least near it and enjoying a beer.



I went out with local mechanic extraordinaire, Taylor, and stopped for lunch at the Phoenixville Iron Hill Brewery. Before my Belgian meatballs came out, we had an order of frites with spicy mayo and a round of the house witbier. Later on, I enjoyed an even tastier tripel.

Witbier
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant
Witbier

B+ / 3.85
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | drink: 4

I biked into town on a hot day and ordered the wit first thing. Came out in a tall pilsner sort of glass with an orange slice which I quickly removed. While the beer was very drinkable, like a good wit, the flavor felt a little fuller and lacked the small subtle spice flavors of a great wit. Instead it was a simpler sweet vanilla wheat with pepper and orange spice. Certainly not bad, but not my favorite wit.

Belgian Tripel
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant
Tripel
A- / 4.1
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 4.5

I ordered a goblet with my meal of Belgian meatballs and though the meatballs were lackluster, this beer kicked ass. It appeared a clear gold with a short head. I suppose I really liked it because it so closely mimicked Maredsous 10 (a fav of mine). It's not the driest tripel, but there's a delicious orange and spice yeast profile with hint of pepper, vanilla, and apricot. Very tasty. Try this beer.

Writing about beer for real

Whenever possible I write about beer and actually get paid for it. Of course, a lot of people like to get paid to write about beer (not to mention get samples), so the gigs are limited. Still, I had an article go up recently on Bicycling.com. Among athletes, I like to believe that cyclists are a particularly good beer drinkers. And I mean that both in their level of taste and overall zeal.

Check it out.

It's hard to pick a favorite out of the bunch, though the Squatter's Full-Suspension Pale Ale, Oskar Blues Gordon, and La Rulles Estivale stood out in my mind. I held a tasting of the 11 beers with about as many tasters and nobody could agree on a favorite. Seeing that just backed up my long-held (well at least the last few years) belief that in life there's no need to worry, because there's always more good beer.

Of Bikes and Beer: Roller Wars

In an exhibition showing on the second floor of the Allentown Brew Works, a handful of brave souls went head to head on the Lehigh Wheelmen's vintage rollers. Check it out, this is Ryan "The Flask" Pomajevich versus Kurt "The Chappa" Begemann (that's chopper with a South African accent). And if anyone is wondering, that is a Gucci-styled skinsuit on the right.



Then, of course, there was the beer too. I tried a pale ale and red ale with mixed results. While I give the Brew Works credit for hosting bike races, the beers lack consistency.

Copper Kettle Pale Ale
Allentown Brew Works
American Pale Ale

B / 3.7
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | drink: 4

Aside from a being fairly dark red color for a pale ale, this was good beer. The aroma is full of spicy, herbal hops and the flavor has a balance of dry biscuit (think bisquik) malts and more citrus hop flavors. The body is on the light side of medium and the carbonation is crisp enough to make this a good session beer. Worth trying if you stop by the brewpub.

West End Red
Allentown Brew Works
American Amber/Red Ale

C / 2.9
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | drink: 3

In a word, disappointing. The malt somehow manages to hide while an uninspiring and typical of the brew works hops profile dominates the flavor. The hops, to be more specific, are the same grassy, spicy, herbal taste I've recently had in the Copper Kettle Pale Ale and the CH-47 pale ale at the Bethlehem location. I'm guessing the house yeast strain simply acts a bit funny with American hops, but the result here is not good. Pass.

One more thing about Le Tour

Christian VandeVelde finishes 5th.



For anything not familiar with BikeSnobNYC, the above image is made in homage to his rendering of Rip Torn's mug shot (RTMS).

Beer, Bikes, Etc: Things I like this week

1) Christian VandeVelde


Taking on the world's best in the Tour de France.

2) Mighty Muffins


The perfect 10:30AM snack.

3) Squatter's Full Suspension Pale Ale


B+ / 3.9
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | drink: 4

On-tap at the Porcupine outside SLC. Served in a pint glass.

Aside from a hazy appearance, there's nothing really off on this beer. In fact, my hat is off to Squatters on this one. They're pushing the limits of what Utah beer can be and it reminds me of a less subtle Surly Bitter Brewer. Juicy citrus hops dominate this beer with fresh, dry-hop subtley that reminds me of sniffing hops pellets at my homebrew shop. Yum. There's a slight malt background for balance and a moderately strong bitterness. Worth trying just to see what there's guys can do with only 4.0% abv.

The 56 Mile Bar Crawl

I'll be honest about this, if there were any decent form of public transportation in MN or a willing designated driver, we wouldn't have touched our bikes. This was a journey of necessity, that necessity being the need to drink Minneapolis's best beer. So on a recent, unseasonably warm Saturday, I set out with a couple friends from deep within the suburbs to East and West banks of the University of MN campus. We were able to take bike trails nearly the entire distance and followed the Mississippi most of the way.

We first hit up Stub and Herb's, taking advantage of their $1.50 off pints for happy hour. A couple highlights were the Leiney's Big Eddy Imperial Stout - beer that has the audacity to be big, delicious, and made by a brewery partially owner by Miller - and Surly Mild, a full-flavored English ale with only 4.2% abv.

Surly Mild
B+ / 3.95
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | drink: 4.5

Basically and big-flavored beer with great drinkability. The aroma is pretty subtle, with toffee and roasted-caramel malts. That same caramel makes up the main flavor, with lighter caramel and toffee around it. As it fades into the aftertaste, the malt continues to develop turns into a creamier candy flavor. If I wasn't on a mission to try other new beers, I'd be ordering a second and third pint. Just like Surly's Bitter Brewer, it makes a lot of flavor out of a litter grain and then develops as you drink it.

Later, we made our way to Town Hall Brewery, home of the infamous Masala Mama IPA. There was an interesting Dr Irish Stout on tap brewed with potatoes. I basically tasted like a fine stout, a big step up from Guinness, but there was mild potato taste that might not be for everyone.

Pot Of Gold Potato Stout
B+ / 3.8
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | drink: 4

Served on nitro, this beer is pitch black with a creamy light tan head that leaves thick lacing. The aroma gives off a hint of mashed baked white potatoes complete with skin mixed with burnt malt. The flavor is fairly mellow, but slowly develops from the cold coffee, potato note, cocoa, black malt to dry, herbal hops. Yum. There are a few better dry stouts (Sly Fox's and Victory's) come to mind, but none are as interesting as this. Definitely worth a try.


After a good long while of enjoying the sun and fine beer, we realized the sun would be dropping soon, so we scrambled over the the Acadia Cafe for one last round. I had a goblet of Rogue Ales' Charlie 1981 Ale, an American Strong Ale (think Arrogant Bastard) made in honor of homebrewing and craft beer pioneer Charlie Papazian.

Charlie 1981
A- / 4.2
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | drink: 4

JLS Release #33, Charlie 2008 on-tap at the Acadia Cafe. Served in a Duvel tulip. I'm not sure where this review is supposed to be, so hopefully this is good enough.

This beer is just big on everything and immediately reminds me of Arrogant Bastard. The grains are a touch rough with rich caramel, toffee, and biscuit flavors. Big piney hops rock the bitterness with slightly earthy and citrus flavors. Medium body and carbonation. Very tasty and fairly drinkable. A must-order if you see it on tap.

All in all, there were 4 hours of biking and 4 hours of great beer. What more can you ask for out of a Saturday?

No Class Today

When you only have one class on Tuesdays, sooner or later you're bound to have a day off. I took advantage of this time to drink beer and write (about beer). I'm started on roughly five of the eight articles for Draft that are due at the end of the month, and should have beer samples for one of them in the mail. Horay free beer!

I also took a little time to have a trainer rider on my mountain bike while catching up on season 3 of Scrubs. Afterward I felt guilty about the dirty state of my bike. The dirt was thanks to a messy road ride a couple weeks ago, the poor thing hasn't seen trails yet. Of course, it was too cold outside, so I cleaned it the only other way I know how - I took a shower with it.

Here it is crammed into my tiny bathroom before the cleaning:


Here it is all clean, sitting in front of my ugly chairs:


Now it's mid-April and someone might wonder why I'd do an indoor bike, when it's Spring out. This picture from Monday morning should explain that:


The six inches of wet snow was a nice surprise after having to work the overnight shift at the Newhouse lab help desk. Here's one last picture to show how Christine left about the snow and being at work until 7AM:


Anyways here's a couple beers I've had:

Victory Storm King Stout: Very hoppy for an imperial stout. A nice, but not amazing mix of hops and chocolate flavors.

Konig Pilsener: Another nice pils. Has a good balance of hops and malt, like a German version of a pale ale.

New month, new beer

March was a big month for me, I set record for new beers tried. I will quickly point out, I was still nowhere close my record alcohol consumption, and that's a-ok with me. But I had 36 new beers in 31 days. That put me at about 410 beers reviewed.
I also went out for my first real road ride of the year. Naturally, I figured the best way to get into the swing of things was for a painful 1:45 ride to Lafayette and back. The ride started with a dull pain in the teardrop quad muscle next to the knee, and moved out to the rest of my legs. what can I say, I had a good ride. I averaged about 16.5 mph on the hilly ride and hit a top speed of 40 mph. Hills are fun.

Here's a couple new beers I've had that were both pretty awesome:

Michigan Brewing Co. Peninsula Porter: A great example of the style with a dry bitter (in a good way) coffee and cocoa flavor.

Sled Dog Trippel Bock: It's really a doppelbock, just a relatively rich one. Sweet brown sugar and fruit flavor with some balancing bitterness.