PappyVanWise

Seriously, I can't win when it comes to MoCo. 3Beans was available in abundance at Arrowine today, and it's also showing up in the system as available at Total Wine in the area. I know MoCo has some draconian liquor laws, do they forbid coffee/alcohol combinations altogether?

Keeping in the spirit of hearty beers during cold weather months, I submit 3Beans from Sixpoint Brewery of Brooklyn, NY. I've seen this beer around in most stores, and Sixpoint has distribution in VA, DC, and MD. Sixpoint came onto the scene for me about a year ago with their Sweet Action cream ale, and I'm interested in trying their darker stuff. The brewery has been around since 2004, but I think they only start distributing outside of New York in the past two years. According to our friends at Beer Advocate, this particular recipe is a Baltic Porter weighing in at a whopping 10% ABV and it has a strong 91 rating from the field. Sixpoint beers come in four packs of cans, and the packaging is very informative. Instead of quoting the whole thing I'll just let you know that the three beans are Romano, Cacao, and Coffee Beans. The Cacao and Coffee are flavors you should easily recognize, the cacao husks are from Mast Brothers Chocolate and the coffee comes from Stumptown. In an interview with The Boston Phoenix's Beer Advocate column Sixpoint's founder Shane Welch said of the Romano Beans: "The third bean was infused in the mash, where high temperatures pulled out the starches, which were then converted to fermentable sugars thanks to enzymes in the barley malt. Why Romano beans? "We found that the Celts and Slavic tribes of Scandinavia and the Baltic regions used to make fermented beverages using beans as a portion of the mash," Welch explains. "Since the northern latitudes did not ensure a consistent, ample supply of barley, the inhabitants there used alternative starchy grains and legumes to boost the fermentability of the mash when making beer." Hopefully everyone can try some during this long weekend. Happy Drinking, Eric

Hey everyone, the third beer will be going up in time for the 3 day weekend. I've been using seekabrew to see who distributed to the whole DMV, and I think I found some good candidates.

Really all the hype goes to Hopslam, but I have a feeling if this came first it would be the one everyone is talking about. At less than half the price of Hopslam these days, I'd pick up two of these instead. I've been in touch with Lagunitas, and they might chime in. So if anyone has any questions for them, fire away.

Richmond's 2nd annual independent restaurant awards are this weekend, The Elbys. Peter Chang is up for best chef and best new restaurant.

This is a very good beer. Once "poured hard" from the Nitro bottle into a pint glass, the head rises from the bottom and sits on top. I poured two bottles, and for the second I turned the bottle directly upside down over the glass and got a much better foam. At first it looked like a soda, but the bubbles dissipated into the common foamy head you'd expect. While the foam is settling, you're basically smelling a mocha latte in your glass, which for some people could be a turnoff. Interestingly enough, the chocolate flavor is really what came forward for me on my first sip. The coffee and chocolate evened out over the course of the pint. It hit all the notes I look for in a stout. Specifically, it was creamy without being too heavy. Most stouts, I don't usually want a second glass, but that definitely wasn't the case here.

Some background on Longmont, Colorado's own Left Hand Brewing (hat tip wikipedia) Left Hand began in December 1990 with a homebrewing kit founder Dick Doore received from his brother. According to Dick, "it was all downhill from there." By 1993, Dick had teamed up with college buddy Eric Wallace and they resolved to start a brewery. In September 1993, they incorporated as Indian Peaks Brewing Company, and purchased a former meat-packing plant next to the St. Vrain River outside downtown Longmont, Colorado. A few weeks after beginning production, it was discovered that the name Indian Peaks was already in use by another Brewery, so the name was changed to Left Hand, in honor of Chief Niwot (the Arapahoe word for "left hand") whose tribe wintered in the local area.

Okay, take two...we're going to roll with Lagunitas Sucks. A little wikipedia sourced history of Lagunitas Brewing: "The brewery was founded in 1993 by Tony Magee in Lagunitas, California and moved a year later to nearby Petaluma, California when they quickly outgrew their original rural West Marin location. Since the mid-2000s, Lagunitas has been one of the fastest-growing craft breweries in the United States, increasing from 27,000 barrels in 2004 to 106,000 barrels in 2010." And the back story about this particular brew. Lagunitas had some construction going on at their brewing facility, and couldn't produce their usual seasonal winter brew Brown Shugga. So instead they brewed the self deprecating Lagunitas Sucks. I guess it would be considered a Double IPA, but beer classifications are an inexact science. This should be around 10.99 for the six pack and available most everywhere that sells craft beer.

Hey everyone following this, I'm going to go ahead and start a Lagunitas Sucks thread as well, just so we have a beer everyone in the area has access to.

E&C is apparently the official FC Barcelona bar on DC, or so Google would have me believe.

Elephant and Castle, Viva Barcelona

Ha, that was actually my own criteria, and I seemed to have failed miserably. I'll do a little more research on distribution next time. Maryland I get, but I figured anything in NoVa would be in DC. My apologies to the gang and hopefully swing #2 will result in something for everyone.

Okay, for anyone who has been following, this is how the Virtual Beer Tastings (VBTs) will get going. I'll post a topic starting thread, and provide a little background. Then instead of everyone trying the beer at the same time, we'll leave the thread open, and people can post their thoughts as they have them. Eventually it sounds like there will be a tasting subforum. Left Hand Brewing Company's Milk Stout "Nitro," Longmont, Colorado And here's a little background on the Nitro technology thanks to Boston.com's Steve Greenlee and his 99 Bottles Blog: "When a beer -- typically a stout -- is dispensed with a lot of nitrogen, it pours creamy and contains less carbonation. Most draught beer is dispensed with either pure carbon dioxide or a blend that contains a little nitrogen. Some bars put a stout or two "on nitro," using a mix that is roughly 75 percent nitrogen. Some canned beers -- Guinness, for instance -- are packaged with nitrogen, and a ball-like widget floating in the can helps create creamy head. Left Hand's Milk Stout Nitro accomplishes the same thing in a bottle, without a widget. The brewery says the bottle is specially designed to help create a creamy head, so long as the beer is "poured hard" into a glass." So definitely do not drink it out of the bottle, this beer is meant to be poured into a glass. I've seen the beer in Arlington at Arrowine, Whole Foods, and Westover, so it should be easy to find. Cheers, Eric

Hey everyone, I thought I'd start a separate thread, just in case that are people who would be interested but aren't visiting the Hopslam thread. I figure we can also start brainstorming here. Please feel free to move this post to Events and Gatherings if that makes more sense, but I know the audience has been posting in this forum recently. A little background: The idea of virtual beer tastings has come up a few times, and Don suggested someone should begin rolling the boulder down the hill. I've participate in virtual tastings on WineBerserkers so I can lend a little bit of experience to this process. One important thing is to make sure the beers we choose are easily sourced in VA, DC, and MD at least. I know everyone would like to taste Canadian Breakfast Stout, but that would be nearly impossible to facilitate. Another thing we need to decide is should there be a separate thread for each tasting, or just a master thread where everyone constantly posts their thoughts. Should we choose one night where everyone tastes, or a starting date, and ask everyone taste and post by a certain date? There are two new beers available in our market, that I think would make good guinea pigs, Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro or Lagunitas Sucks. These are both available in six packs, so I don't know if people would want to team up due to fear of commitment...or find stores selling single bottles. So let us know your thoughts, and if we get enough interest in one of the other, we can try to have the first one by the end of the month. -Eric

I think I hit my personal price ceiling today for beer. Westover was selling Avery's Odio Equum for $17.99 per 12 oz bottle today. Typically the 12 oz barrel aged Avery's go for $8-$11 a pop. To put things in perspective, I bought the Westvleteren 12 "6 pack" for $85, so around $14.50 per bottle, plus the two branded glasses. I think someone needs to rethink their pricing strategy or hope it was just a cash register error.

Hey Don et al, This lines up pretty well with my I Want Our Community back post, and I'd like to throw my hat in the ring to help coordinate virtual tastings. One drawback, though, I am currently wrapped up in a relocation plan from Arlington to Richmond. So while I can get the ball rolling up here, it might be harder to keep it going once the moving begins (April/Mayish). Should we break this off into a separate thread? And for those who watched football last night, our first tasting will not be Budweiser Black Crown, sorry. Also, I'm not ITB, just a beer enthusiast, so if someone with more experience/connections wants to help out or take the lead, I'm on board with whatever. -Eric

Don's picture is Earl's. I almost took a photo of the baseball card wall decorations last week to play, but didn't know if restrooms would take this game down a bad path.

I'm going to throw my guess in for Ris as the ravioli restaurant. And my dreams is the location of the fried pickle plate.

Since this thread is popping back up, I'll have to remind everyone of the treasure we have in Earl's. I think the original in Clarendon is still running on all cylinders, even with the second location in Ballston. In fact, we just went for lunch today, I had the fish and fries sandwich while Mrs. Viking had the crabcake, both are consistently good.

I'd just like to thank Bakeshop for keeping a variety of vegan cupcakes in stock (at least on a Saturday). It would've been very sad to see a 15 month old with lactose issues watch her 4 year old sister devour some birthday cake, without getting something of her own. Also, I think the link in the dining guide points to the old website, their new site is http://www.bakeshopva.com/, fully embracing their Clarendon home.

There's another deal going on Living Social, so another chance to susidize the coupon gropers. I'm sure if match up their monthly cheese/charcuterie special with the voucher, you can get a pretty good price. Or you can do what we usually do, and treat it as buy one get one free deal for epoisses.

My Richmond-based family heard a rumor that Peter Chang is opening up a dim sum place in either The Fan or in Carytown. I know that Peter Chang rumors are a dime-a-dozen, but the source seemed a little more reliable than idle speculation. For those of you thinking of heading to Richmond to eat at his restaurant, a second downtown location would make a much nicer trip than his current Short Pump digs.

To my daughter, on her 4th birthday.

To Andy Reid, may he bring the Chiefs back to some sort of glory.

I had the Bourbon Barrel Porter a year or so ago, and your sentiments are similar to mine. Wasn't the best aged porter, but I remember thinking they did a pretty good job with it. I think there might be another one in my cellar, and I'll be interested to taste it after a few years of aging. My big issue with AleWerks is that their name is too similar to AleSmith, who don't have distribution around here. So it's a little bit of a letdown when I realize it's AleWerks I see on the shelf, and then resentment builds and I end up buying something else.