Philly Beer Week, Days 8 and 9

As I write this, the sun is up and shining and it's the last day of Beer Week. As usually happens, I met this day with a sense of relief. No, I don't have to go out every day during Beer Week, and I obviously didn't. But I still went out much more than usual, and I'm looking forward to my usual routing kicking back in.

Having said that, here is my wrap up of Days 8 and 9.

Day 8
Day 8 was an exciting one for me - John was coming home. I knew I'd have some time to kill before I had to meet him at the airport, so had decided to head to South Philly, where it would be easy for me to jump on 95 to pick him up. I wound up at P.O.P.E. with some friends, and while they weren't doing anything specifically for Beer Week at that time, they had the Allagash Yakuza on tap. Yakuza is the Tripel dry hopped with Sorachi Ace and Cascade hops. It's a big beer at 9%, but extremely well balanced and tasty. I think it's pretty rare - there's only 2 reviews for it on Beer Advocate and 3 on Rate Beer! I also had the Elysian Loser Pale Ale, one of my favorite pale ales. So flavorful!

After getting John from the airport, we headed to Misconduct Tavern. I love their burgers and we were both hungry for some dinner. I had the Harpoon Catamount Maple Wheat, a wheat beer brewed with Vermont maple syrup, which was quite good. After dinner we headed to Monk's, because even with all their great beer events I hadn't been there during the week. Again, nothing really going on per se, but they did have some great Russian River brews on tap, including one of my all-time faves, the Blind Pig, which is what I eagerly ordered.

Decided to take a little bit of a walk on to the other side of Broad Street, and found ourselves at Varga, where they were having Weyerbacher night. I had the Weyerbacher Victor, an India Red Ale, and their latest in the Brewer's Select Series. Really drinkable and delicious, and only 5.8%. I also had the Last Chance IPA, which I'd had earlier in the week.

We found ourselves at Tria after leaving Varga. Grabbed more food and I actually switched to a glass of wine at that point. Having only water probably would have been smarter, but I enjoyed the wine nonetheless.

Home was next on our agenda, and much needed at that point.

Day 9
I could tell Beer Week was getting to me, as I slept until 10:30, which I never do. Had a bit of leisurely morning - John was acclimating back to east coast time, and he slept until noon. He probably would have slept later if I hadn't woken up, but my stomach was telling me that some serious food was in order. We headed over the Memphis Taproom where they were having a home brew event. After having brunch (and a Brussels Calling from Brasserie de la Senne) we headed out to the beer garden where the beers of several home brewers were being showcased. Really fun event. We got to try some different beers, and met people that I'd been following on Twitter that I hadn't met in person before. I had a lovely lavendar saison brewed by Bombshell Brewing, a Candadian Bacon IPA (two of my favorite things in one drink!), a Wit or Witout (Belgian Wit) from St. Benjamin Brewing, an English Pale Ale by Mellody Brewing, Fishtown Smally (a Trappist-style table beer), Summer Blonde, and Love Bite (English Ruby Mild).

Headed over the Royal Tavern, because we were both hungry again. They had a Troegs Tap Takeover, and I had the Sunshine Pils, one of my favorite summer beers.

From there we headed out to celebrate a friend's birthday. So once again, Beer Week fun ended but the party continued on.

Not sure what's on the agenda today. May head out for one last hurrah, or may start the detox process. I guess we'll see soon enough!