PappyVanWise

Looks like Brown distributing picked up the Va rights for Cigar City. I've heard Jai Alai is already on the shelf at Norm's and the Whole Foods out in Fairfax. Should be popping up in Richmond this week, too.

Peter Chang's episode of Bizarre Foods America is airing tonight on the Travel Channel.

This episode is airing tonight on the Travel Channel. Local Richmond chef/owner Jason Alley of Pasture and Comfort is featured along with Chef Chang. http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/bizarre-foods/episodes/virginia-cicadas-cownose-rays

The St. Bernardus Christmas Ale is great. I drank it last night while watching my Chiefs wilt to the Broncos, but it made the game a little easier to watch. This is how I remembered the Delirium Noel, with cloves, orange peel, and sweet, malty goodness. The only drawback is the size of the bottle, it poured pretty heady into my glass, and the amount of beer to foam was a off. The bottle had about three solid pours in it, and the beer was warm by the end. I think a tulip glass or a more skilled hand might have been able to mitigate some of the foam loss, but that's my only real complaint. I picked up a Scaldis Noel this weekend too, looking forward to adding it to my list.

Any beer with a polar bear on the bottle is welcome in this discussion. Don't worry about it not being officially labeled a Christmas beer, all winter seasonal recipes are open for this discussion. I did have some Delirium Noel last night, and it didn't come close to matching my memories. It wasn't bad, but the flavor wasn't as satisfying as I remember it being. I did get the cloves and orange peel, but the flavors didn't blend as well with the maltiness of the beer like I would've wanted. Oh well, there's a lot more out there to try.

I don't know if we should start a new bourbon thread, but another under $40 bottle that people enjoyed at our last tasting was Belle Meade. A quick google search showed it's a relatively new entry into the market. I don't think it has VA distribution, but you should be able to find it in DC and MD. If you're looking in VA ABC, I like the Elmer T Lee and some of the more standard Four Roses bottles are pretty good, though the single barrel and special edition runs get a little pricier. Bourbon recommendations are hard, though, because everyone looks for something they like. I'm drawn towards vanilla flavors, and the ones I like tend to show them pretty well. Some of the wheatier and fruitier ones scored better with the other people at the tasting.

Looks like Arrowine is going to start carrying Hardywood, according to the latest newsletter: "More new breweries are becoming available to us every week, it seems. This week I'm happy to announce the arrival of Hardywood Park Craft Brewery from Richmond, Virginia! The Hardywood beers have been long-awaited by many of us up here (myself included), so this is good news indeed. Look for us to be showing off the Hardywood beers on our tasting table very soon."

Cigar City is part of the latest Lips of Faith collaboration with New Belgium, though pepper beer might not be your thing. Center of the Universe brewing in Ashland is having their one year anniversary party this weekend, featuring some Cigar City on tap. Other than that, I haven't seen it anywhere.

I really enjoyed the conversation around pumpkin beers that we have had for the past few months, and I thought we could just carry this into the new line of seasonal beers, the Christmas Ale. My first Christmas Ale was probably Delirium Noel, and as opposed to Pumpkin beers, I was instantly in love with the style. It was malty and spicy, and was somehow a perfect drink on a cold night. This was close to fifteen years ago, yet I still get excited when the Christmas beers start trickling onto the shelves. I went to Total Wine this week to put together my first Xmas beer collection, and here's what I picked up. Christmas Ale - St. Bernardus - This is the brewery that supposedly makes the same recipe as Westvleteren, but without the secrecy or cool monk backstory. I don't think I've ever had any of their beers, but am excited to try this one. Santa's Little Helper 2013 - Mikkeller (link to 2012 bottling) - Mikkeller is the gypsy brewery owned by to friends from Denmark. Each of their beers is brewed at someone's else brewery, some with collaboration and some just by Mikkeller. Here's the wikipedia page for more info, Mikkeller. This is a Belgian Dark Ale, so I'm assuming it's close to the Delirium in style. Delirium Noel 2013 - Brouwerij Huyghe - And back to the beginning for me. I hope this lives up to my memory, since it's probably been five years since I've had this. My memories of it are of gingerbready goodness with some orange peel and cloves. I wonder if the craft beer explosion and the amount of amazing beers available now will relegate this to the back of the pack. And finally I have two localish stouts that I've been aging for a year that I'm interested to try against this year's batches. I've found that I like my stouts, especially the high alcohol content ones, with a little bottle age. It mellows them out, and really brings the flavors forward. Gingerbread Stout - Hardywood Park Craft Brewery - This beer is what put Hardywood on the map, scoring a perfect 100 from the Beer Advocate boys (and a 96 from the field). I was able to get one bottle from the 2012 offering, but rumor around Richmond is that they upped production and it should be a little easier to find this year. So I haven't had it yet, but am very much looking forward to it. Silent Night - Mother Earth Brewing - I'll admit that I had a bottle of this a few months ago, and it blew everyone away. Unfortunately I didn't take any notes and don't really recall what people really liked about it. I do have another bottle of the 2012 batch, and hopefully I can get a 2013 bottle to compare it to. I know everyone has their favorites, so I'm hoping we can have another conversation in this thread about this season's offerings. Happy Drinking, Eric (And Yes, I get the irony of VikingJew loving Xmas ales, I just haven't been impressed with the Potato Latke Porters out there.)

My brother and I hosted a bourbon tasting last night, and you could go blind trying to read all of the small print on the backs of the bottles. After successfully reading all the small print, you'd then go crazy trying to separate the BS from the stories that might have some truth. The winner of the night for me was Black Maple Hill, which is the best $40 bourbon I've found. Added bonus is that there's no marketing fluff on the package.

According to Full Pull Wines, the Owen Roe partners have split up. "Partnerships are not easy, and sometimes they run their course. Such is the case for Owen Roe Winery, where partners David O'Reilly and Jerry Owen have split up after many successful years together. My understanding (admittedly secondhand) is that O'Reilly keeps the Owen Roe name, while Owen keeps the winery and the production winemaker (Erik Brasher). Which in turn means that Jerry Owen needs a new label: Lady Hill"

Had the Gold Rush this weekend, along with another cider or two, and it was hands-down the winner for the evening. Crisp, clean, and just enough sweetness.

The Pumpkin Beer thread has been such a hit over in the VBT, maybe we should start one for Ciders. It's definitely booming here in Richmond as well, with Blue Bee Cider opening this past summer.

The Peanut Butter could also be the, what I can only imagine is repugnant, Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate, Banana, Peanut Butter Ale. Though I haven't tried this one, I did have the previous Rogue/Voodoo Doughnut collaboration, Maple Bacon Ale, and it was a challenge finishing a glass. To keep away from thread drift, I finally finished my original six pack. The Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale was as described and expected, tasted like a regular watery pilsner that someone dumped some cinnamon and nutmeg into right before it was bottled. I also had the New Holland Ichabod Ale that Don loved at TNT, though mine was from the bottle. It was one of the few that I could see myself having more than one of in one sitting, but I still preferred the tartness of the Pumpkick from the ones I've tried. And I added one more to the mix, Hardywood Farmhouse Pumpkin. This was a farmhouse saison style, so didn't have the heaviness of some of the other beers. I was pretty impressed with the pumpkin and yeast contrasts, as opposed some of the other ones that paired pumpkin with the malt flavors.

The Avery Rumpkin is really good, but hard to find and usually around $10+ for a 12 oz bottle. I have a few in my cellar from last fall, but haven't seen any around this year.

Tried yet another last night, New Belgium Pumpkick. I hadn't read the label closely before drinking, and after a few sips I knew this was one was a bit different than the others. New Belgium added cranberry juice to add some tartness, and it really made this beer shine. Probably the best of the bunch so far. This wasn't an IPA with pumpkin juice or a too sweet dessert beer, just a well-balanced and interesting variation of the style. From the bottle: "What's that bite of tartness doing in a pumpkin beer? Adding the unexpected kick of cranberry juice to brighten this traditionally spiced seasonal ale. PUMPKICK is brewed with plenty of pumpkin juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, but it's the cranberries and touch of lemongrass that send your taste buds sailing."

Had the Brooklyn Brewery Post Road Pumpkin Ale with lunch yesterday. I'd call it in the better half of the beers I've tried so far. It was from a bottle, but very cold, so it was quite refreshing on an 80 degree October afternoon. It was more along the lines of a solid ale with hints of pumpkin, and went really well with a pastrami on rye with mustard.

I'm halfway through this six pack, and my first real conclusion is pumpkin beers still ain't my thing. I haven't tried the Shipyard yet, but I'm excited to try out something that is universally reviled. So far Festina Peche has been the low bar for me, and from everything I've read Pumpkinhead should set the new standard. I agree with Jen that the Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale was both sweet and heavy on the pumpkin pie flavor. It didn't turn me off, though. Maybe since it was my first one and I didn't know what to expect, I wasn't disappointed by the overpowering pieness (hee hee). If this had been the only variation I tried, then I'd left with the impression that Pumpkin ales are supposed to be made this way, sweet and heavy-handed. The next one I tried was the Cisco Pumple Drumkin Ale, and now it is what I expect the others to taste like. This was more of an IPA with some pumpkin essence to it. I liked this too, but after the heaviness of the Weyerbacher, it was a tad underwhelming towards the end of the bottle. If I had started with this one, I probably couldn't have finished the Weyerbacher, but I think it didn't get a chance to shine as the second in the lineup. Third was the Anchor Big Leaf Maple Autumn Red, and it was nothing special. I know Anchor has its fan out there, but this one didn't have much going for it. The maple was barely noticeable, and the beer tasted pretty watered down. I haven't had a Killian's in almost a decade, but it might hold up better than this. I'll try the next few soon, looking forward to being wildly disappointed in the Shipyard, but I have faith that New Belgium and New Holland will more than make up for it.

After a smattering of postings about pumpkin beers both inside and out of the VBT forum, I thought it might make sense to open up a Pumpkin beer thread. With all the options out there it proved a bit difficult to just pick one beer for everyone to try. This way people can post their notes, letting us know what beers to try and which to avoid. This is a bit of a change from how we normally do things, but hopefully people check this thread out and start posting. Hopefully this thread can stay active throughout the season, and feel free to include other seasonal offerings even if they don't feature pumpkin. Going into this tasting, I can't admit to being a fan of pumpkin beers, but I had never really sought them out before. When the weather gets colder I veer towards the aged stouts and darker beers. Since we have this community going, I thought it would be fun to try something new. Here's what I picked up for my initial tasting: Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale New Holland Ichabod Ale Cisco Pumple Drumkin Ale Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale New Belgium Pumpkick Anchor Big Leaf Maple Autumn Red (Not a pumpkin beer, but being sold as an Autumn ale)

I'm not much of a margarita drinker, but friends have reported good results using Patron Citronage. I think they're going for the Cointreau audience based on bottle shape alone.

I was out shopping for our next VBT beer, and the amount of pumpkin/autumn themed beers is pretty overwhelming. Anyone agree with the upthread notion that we should just start a pumpkin beer thread for the next few months? I was thinking of doing a make your own six pack and trying a bunch out this weekend. The Ichabod Crandall and Schafly version along with a few others. This could also help ease the burden of getting stuck with 5 extra pumpkin beers if we misfire on selecting a single brewery. I saw a few placed had Maple and Yam autumn beers out, so I'll throw a few of those in the mix as well. Thoughts?

Thank you for at least waiting until Sept 1st to post a pumpkin beer. They just don't seem right until football season starts.

Anything new and noteworthy to check out in Vegas, on the lower side of the splurge scale? I'll be there with a ton of extended family, so sneaking of to someplace like Chada definitely appeals to me.

I think another worry about using real names in profiles and as usernames is data scrapes from bots and spammers. Over at Wineberserkers, there's a real names policy, but you're encouraged to use symbols, initials, or spaces in place of letters. So I'd do something like Er!c W!se or EF Wise (which I actually use) when I post there.

I've never been, but Epic Smokehouse supposedly has a good bourbon selection. They were on a "Places to find Pappy" list earlier this year.