Sometimes We Just Stay Home and Drink: #3 – One more Remarkable Tröegs: When in Doubt Helles

Date:  May 31, 2019  —

The Story—   We’ve stayed at the Hershey Hotel that looms over the town, and over Tröegs brewery.  Their van takes you to and from and even though you could probably walk it, we were grateful for the ride up hill.   The sad part was actually having to leave the brewery.  So with these posts, we’ll stay another hour to savor one of the best Helles biers we’ve tasted outside the state of Bavaria.  It’s brewed infrequently and despite all my pleading, they wouldn’t agree to sell me a half barrel a month year round.

The Beer– Absolutely echt (authentic) Bavarian Helles – Mild gold malt with some bread finishing.  Sweet with some JFH and a flower or two. Gently chewy. Just a touch of late water is OK considering the 4.3% booze, which is very low even for session Bavarian beers.

Value — Excellent.  Like their Keller Pils, you’ll need to fly to Germany to do better.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

Sometimes we just stay home and drink beer — hundreds of them over the course of the year as we hunt for a new favorite.  The searching for the beer of the day never stops, so for a while, there will be fewer travel-oriented posts and just some to-the-point descriptions of beers we’ve enjoyed.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Sometimes We Just Stay Home and Drink: #2- Tröegs Scratch #362 Krausened Keller Pils

Date:  May 30, 2019  —

The Story—  It’s hard to leave Tröegs, and maybe we can give you a sense of the “want to stay all night” in these back-to-back Tröegs posts.  German brewers Krausen beers by adding freshly fermenting wort to mature beer for a final natural carbonation.  It produces a gloriously smooth carbonation.   FX Matt used to run adds featuring cartoons of Utica Club’s “tiny bubbles.” At one point that Utica, NY, brewery (now Saranac) was one of only five in the US that used the process.   Both our Hop Pocket and our Tuppers’ Keller Pils were Krausened, though, and we’re sure it played a part in their success.

We loved the Tröegs Sunshine Pils at first taste, and it was one of the beers on the table as we tried to explain what needed to happento brew the St. George (Hampton, Virginia) version of the Tuppers’ Gold and Bronze Medal winner.   The St. George beer had difficulty traveling to the DC area, but fresh at the brewery it was one of the best pilsners we’ve ever had.  We were, of course intrigued when we saw Tröegs had done a Krausened version of their Sunshine Pils.   It did not disappoint.

The Beer– The Sunshine is one of the best European style pilsners in the US but this tops it.  Exceptional balance of pils malt, smoothing yeast and a late mildly spicy bitter that commands a return.  Herbal with hints of grass in and out as it drinks.  A slight hint of sulfur really doesn’t detract much.

Value — Excellent.   To get another beer this good would cost you a trans-Atlantic airfare.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

Sometimes we just stay home and drink beer — hundreds of them over the course of the year as we hunt for a new favorite.  The searching for the beer of the day never stops, so for a while, there will be fewer travel-oriented posts and just some to-the-point descriptions of beers we’ve enjoyed.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Sometimes We Just Stay Home and Drink: #1: Tröegs Dead Reckoning Porter

Date:  May 29 , 2019  —

The Story—  We start with a misnomer, for we had this beer at the brewery.   But we we not, for a change, researching for the next book, though this beer is so good it might make it into it. We detour to Tröegs when we’re anywhere near.  The place is spectacular, food may be hit and miss,  but except for the wild and crazies you know are a risk, the beers are almost always spot on.

This porter might have been called a Stout Porter in an earlier day.  At just a bit under 6% it’s a mouthful, but every sip is a joy.   It’s unfiltered and sports a huge range of flavors that include Pilsner, Caramel, Chocolate and Roasted malts along with Chinook and Vanguard hops.  The 53 IBUs create a remarkable balance.

The Beer– Husky dark malt with a rounder finish with some chocolate malt and some herbal and fruity notes late.  Toffee shows as it drinks.

Value — Good to very good.  Tröegs doesn’t operate as a charity, but they don’t cheat you either.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

Sometimes we just stay home and drink beer — hundreds of them over the course of the year as we hunt for a new favorite.  The searching for the beer of the day never stops, so for a while, there will be fewer travel-oriented posts and just some to-the-point descriptions of beers we’ve enjoyed.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Short Pump Weekend: Intermission Brewing

Date:  May 28, 2019  — This is incomplete, we know.   Technical problems (ie personal complications) have ground us to a halt.   We’ll come back later with a proper write up of Intermission’s good beers.

Tomorrow we’ll divert from our weekend brewery trips to look at some really good beer that’s probably not going to end up in anything we publish.

The Story— We talked about Intermission’s skill with a brew kit that does not guarantee success.  They’ve hit the “skill” level with a range of their beers.

In addition to a good range of beers with no serious mistakes, you can spend the evening watching silent films and shorts projected on the wall at the end of the tasting room.  Pink Panther cartoons and Charlie Chaplin films seem to get better with age.  They’ve strung together over 100 of them – all in public domain– so you’ll never see the same one twice in a night and even regulars haven’t seen them all.

Intermission a bit tricky to find and doesn’t show up well on some GPS systems. The best way to find it is to program in the Courtyard (Glen Allen) and as you approach the hotel (it’s on the left), you’ll see the beer garden on the right.  To get to it, drive a few feet past the hotel, take a right and another right into the Goodyear Tire store’s lot.   The brewery occupies the end of the Goodyear building.

The Beer–

Value —

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

May and early June are some of the best times to take a weekend and go brewery hunting.  Most rates haven’t reached their out-of-school peak, and the chances for good weather are … pretty good.  So for a few weeks, we’ll give you some Mid Atlantic suggestions for weekend excursions.

Richmond is one of the best cities for beer in the Mid Atlantic, but it requires a good deal of ubering or a designated driver.   Today and tomorrow we’ll feature a very interesting brewery with good beers only steps from a Marriott Courtyard where you can sleep it off,

We’re including beers and breweries we’ve found in researching our guide to breweries and inns of the Mid Atlantic.  We won’t adhere to the “must be walkable” rule here, though.  Once again we present our standard caveat: only a few of the beers we describe will be at the brewery if you go there, but they’ll probably have a beer that’s close to the style and if they do one stout well, they’ll probably do others about as well.  We hope the “story” will be at least as valuable as the actual beer review.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”