We’re in the process of some redesigning that should make the site more informative and interactive. Stay tuned. Still working –( Sunday Feb 28) –new posts coming soon! Meanwhile, all the posts for the past several weeks are available — just click around in the blog section. Cheers!
Archives for February 2016
What’s New
Gold Metal Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale Returns in July 2019!
It hasn’t been easy to resurrect Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale, winner of a gold metal at the GBBF in the ’90s when well hopped beers were rare and almost non-existent in the east. We’re collaborating again for a return with a brew date set for June 5th. It’s an authentic version of the original and comes from Dynasty Brewing in Ashburn, Virginia– almost within walking distance of the Old Dominion brewery that brewed the first batch just over 25 years ago. Favio Garcia, a former brewer at Old Dominion who brewed dozens of batches of the original is making it happen. Stay tuned for more details on where to find it. You read it here first.
NOW PLAYING: on Beer of the Day— Some of our recent favorite finds. Scroll down below this entry to find the featured beer of the day. >>>>>
Later — in June we resume some great weekend destinations for beer travelers that we’ve found researching our guide to breweries and inns of the Mid Atlantic. Whether you’re looking for a turn of the (20th) century 100 year old quaint and slightly rickety hotel, an engaging B&B or a magnificent survivor of the great era of railroad hotels, we’ve found hem– within walking distance of a brewery. We’ll present more previews of the book’s best here rolling up to Pennsylvania before we’re through.
When Is a Kölsch not a Kölsch? When it’s American. Even so, DuClaw’s version is true Gold.
A fresh keg of Kölsch slides into place at Sion
February 19, 2016 Post 0016 It looks simple, the taste is subtle, and most of the the basic ingredients are easy enough to obtain. Yet it may be the hardest beer in the world to brew well. Kölsch. Almost every brew pub has one, or what they think is one. However, the real Kölsch brewers of Cologne are so protective of their process that while we know much about the style, truly family-held secrets remain.
While some accounts link it to the 19th century, Kölsch as we know it today is almost an accidental style.
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How Could We Have Left This Pub Out of the Book?!?
February 15, 2016 Post 0015. Travelers who know us well have no qualms about berating us for omitting their favorite watering hole. One response is that some of our favorite pubs didn’t make the cut either. In London, our decision to restrict recommendations to the center area required us to ignore many nearby icons. The White Horse in Parsons Green is such an icon.
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Hopping Around Here: From a Bombshell to a Black Eye (PA) in North Carolina
February 11, 2016 Post 0014. The drive from Cary to Angier in North Carolina takes well less than an hour if you don’t stop at the seven craft breweries along the way. If you have a designated driver or a will of steel you can visit them all in a day. We took a couple of days so we could spend more time savoring their beers. The range of size, location and styles isn’t all that unusual in the States these days, but there is almost nothing equivalent in Europe except possibly in Italy.
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