Some Philly Favorites of 2010

Happy new year everyone!

I hope your holidays were as wonderful as mine. I finally got over my cold and joined John in the great Midwest. I met some wonderful new people, saw some old friends, visited a part of the country I'd never been to before, and got to try some great new beers. A terrific end to 2010 and a perfect beginning to 2011.

One of these days I'm going to have some real time to sit down and compile my end-of-year list. I'd like to write about my favorite beers, moments, songs, movies, etc from last year.

That day, however, is not today. I do have some intersting information to share, though, thanks to my good friends at PhillyTapFinder.com. Launched in September of last year, PhillyTapFinder.com is a great way for you to find out where your favorite beers are being served. As a matter of fact, I did a write up on the site that you can read here.

But back to the interesting information. Jared, the President of PTF, looked at the most popular beer and bar searches from the launch of the site through the end of the year. Below are his findings.

Top 5 beer searches:
1. Russian River Pliny the Elder (a favorite of mine whose review you can read here)
2. Troegs Mad Elf
3. Southern Tier Pumking (probably my favorite pumpkin beer. You can read what I had to say about it here)
4. Russian River Blind Pig (another one I've reviewed)
5. Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

All great brews! Obviously some of them are seasonal, and so the list is expected to change, but it's fun to see nonetheless.

The top 3 neighborhoods were Rittenhouse, Art Museum/Fairmount, and South Philly.

The top 3 beer styles were IPAs (YES!), porters/stouts, and sours/wild fermented ales.

Finally, the top 5 bars searched were:
1. Kraftwork
2. Devil's Den
3. Monk's
4. Eulogy
5. POPE

Probably no real surprises to anyone, and again, it will be interesting to see the difference at the end of 2011 when the site will have been live for over a year.

In the meantime, don't forget to check PhillyTapFinder.com (from your computer or mobile device) when you want to find your favorite beer on tap.

Cheers!

Philly Beer Week 2010 - Days 5 - 8

Beer Week is drawing to a close, although there are still 2 good days left. What a week it's been! Yesterday was one of the best for me, but I'll get there in a minute.

After staying in Monday night, I was ready to go again on Tuesday. I started with a great event at Smokin' Bettys - Broads & Brews. It featured women owners and brewers from Stoudt's, Dock Street, Flying Fish, and Philadelphia Brewing Company. It was really interesting to meet all these great women, drink their beer (of course), and be able to talk to them about their start in the business.

From there I went to Zavino's Wine Bar (where they also serve beer). Although not part of PBW, I did drink some Dogfish Head. Ended the night at Varga Bar. I know I said before I'd write down all the beers that I had so I could correctly identify them, but I didn't do that at Varga and I honestly can't remember what I drank. I can, however, remember what I sang - a very mumbled version of "Wonderwall" and a very good version of "The Scientist". Suffice it to say it was a very fun night.

Wednesday was pretty devoid of any PBW festivities. I went to a BYO for dinner and had a Sierra Nevada Torpedo. After dinner went to McGillin's, which was the ending point for a bar crawl with local brewers that had been going on. I hadn't gone on the bar crawl, but was glad enough to be there when we were able to get pitchers of the Flying Fish Exit 6 (easily one of the favorite beers I got to try earlier in the week). Was there for the Flyers game, which while a great game, ultimately ended in a Flyers loss and the end of their Stanley Cup run. Still, made for a good evening.

I took Thursday off. Needed time to recharge my batteries. It was well worth it when I was able to go for a run Friday morning and get an early start.

As I mentioned earlier, Friday was a great day and I got to try some really different beers. I went to Monk's for their Belgian brewers lunch. I tried the St. Bernardus Abt 12, Abbaye Val-Dieu Grand Cru, and Brasserie des Rocs Grand Cru. All very different than what I typically drink and all very good. It was really interesting to meet the brewers, too. I love everyone from Belgium that I've met and it makes me more anxious to get there ASAP.

From Monk's, I went to Jose Pistolas for their Weyerbacher lunch (having not eaten at Monk's, it was time for some food). I had the Weyerbacher Verboten (loved!) and the Saison.

After I had my fill of chips and tacos, I headed over to Hawthorne's for a Brewdog meet-the-brewer event. What an event it turned out to be! I got to try two of the most extreme beers out there - the Tactical Nautical Penguin, which comes in at a whopping 32% ABV and the Sink the Bismarck, which comes in at... wait for it... 41% ABV!! I think this may be the strongest beer in the world. I only had a taste of each, but believe me, that's all I needed. I got to also try the Tokyo, which seemed fairly tame at just 18.2%, and the Punk IPA, whose 6% ABV hardly seems worth mentioning. Incredible beers from an incredible brewer.

The day didn't end there. Up next was Supper. Not a PBW event, but great happy hour specials got my attention. 1/2 priced apps (selected ones) and a 1/2 priced featured beer, which yesterday was the SlyFox Pikeland Pils. After a couple of those, headed over to Good Dog, where there was a kick-the-firkin (I think it was a firkin) competition being held. It was a SlyFox bitter vs. a Southampton beer (I don't remember which it was since I didn't have one, but I think that was a bitter as well). I believe my friend got the last SlyFox pour, handing them the win.

Whew! What a Friday! Actually, I wound up going to Continental after for some food, and then my night was officially over.

On tap today? Devil's Den at noon for the Franziskaner/Spaten lunch. Then off to watch the USA in the World Cup. Not sure what - if anything - will come after that, but it's a beautiful day here in Philly and I can only imagine fun times ahead.

Pliny the Younger

Since getting in to craft beer over the past year, there are some beers that I constantly hear about. Pliny the Younger is one of them. It started over the summer when I wrote about Pliny the Elder. I received comments that if I liked Elder I had to search out the Younger. At the time I didn't realize just how rare Younger is. Actually, I never really gave much thought to the distribution or availability of any beer since those I was used to drinking (Miller Lite, Amstel Lite, etc) were available anywhere, anytime. I'm much smarter about things now.

Anyway, yesterday was a banner day for this beer drinker. Philly has been lucky enough to receive a number of kegs of the Younger. I know it's been tapped at a couple of places, and it kicks within minutes. I learned that a keg was going to be tapped at 11:30 Monday morning at Monk's Cafe. I'd heard that there would be a line, but I figured it was a Monday morning, people had to work, it wouldn't be too bad. Work seemed to be an afterthought for the folks who were lined up by the time I got there, a little after 11 am. The line wasn't too bad, though, and the doors opened promptly at 11:30. People piled in to the small front bar. It was packed, but the crowd was composed. All waited patiently for their chance to order a beer. And patience paid off when I was handed my first (and what would be my only) glass of the elusive Younger.

I was a bit worried that the beer wouldn't live up to my expectations. After all, this is the top-rated beer in the world! I'm happy to say it was all that I hoped it would be and more, starting with the pour. A beautiful golden, amber. And the smell - ah, the smell. An amazing hop smell that had me sniffing over and over again. Citrus, pine, it was all there. And the taste followed. Grapefruit, pine, and some sweet malt coming through to balance it all out. This is a big beer (11% ABV) but it is so well balanced that it's extremely drinkable - almost dangerously so. Funny side note, I was talking to a guy standing next to me and asked what he thought the ABV was. His answer? "Probably about 5 or 6%". I almost laughed out loud. Maybe I did laugh out loud. Really? A sessionable DIPA? Ha!

I was about 1/2 way through my beer when word went 'round the bar that the keg had kicked (about 30 to 40 minutes after it was tapped). I didn't think I was going to have another one (it was, after all, such a big beer) and I was so glad that I'd gotten my first taste. There are other events featuring the Younger throughout the next few weeks, so I'm hopeful to get another taste before it's all gone.

Another interesting note - it wasn't just the Younger that was tapped that morning, and that wasn't the only beer that brought the crowd. There was also Supplication, Temptation, and Consecration (barrel-aged sours) that had people swooning, and those all kicked before the Blind Pig or Pliny the Elder, which was fine with me since I had a Blind Pig to follow up the Younger. I've said it before and I'll say it again - Russian River does no wrong!