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Archives for August 2019

August 3, 2019 by Tupper Leave a Comment

only beer pub 27 IMG_3154

 At Pub 27 in Pompeii

Tuppers AWOL.  We’ll be back soon

Date:  August forever , 2019  —  This post is in progress.  Return soon for it.  In the meantime, click “more reviews” below to see our most recent “Beer of the Day” posts.

The Story—The short story is above.  The long story is TMI for you, trust us. The medium story is that we’ve had something of a meltdown in trying to log our tasting notes into a form that we can use for these posts.  So for now and a little while longer, we’re sorting, shuffling and typing notes that we can use.

We’ll have some news and new brews up before long.

Drink well, travel safely!   — the Tuppers at CulturAle Press.

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.

It’s All-Star season.  MLB has finished theirs, but it seems like a new sport is showcasing exceptional talent almost every day.  So we’ll be presenting our own all-star brewing line up.  We don’t claim to present– or even know– what the best beers in America are, but out of the hundred or so that we taste every month, some are indeed special.   For the second couple of weeks in July, we’ll share some recent standouts in  a very crowded craft beer field. .

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.”

August 2, 2019 by Tupper Leave a Comment

only beer pub 27 IMG_3154

 At Pub 27 in Pompeii

Brewing All Stars #14: Pitt Street Articles of War Double IPA, Greenville, NC

Date:  August 2 , 2019  —

The Story— We talked about Greenville, NC in yesterday’s post.  The best beer bar in town is Winslow’s Tavern, but the best brewery is Pitt Street.   A spacious high-roofed brewery with a big tasting area draws an appreciative local crowd to its dozen or so taps and good range of beers.   I thought this “big hammer” double IPA is better than most; Ellie thought it was good, but not special.   Sometimes, though, we need to stop and realize we’re in <Greenville, NC> for crying in the pitcher.  How wonderful is it to have a brewery this good in almost anyplace you wind up staying these days?  In 1992 we would have rated this one of the best hundred breweries in the country — and we’d have been right.   It’s still easily one of the top hundred beers in eastern North Carolina and these days that’s actually something of a distinction.

The Beer-Huge fruit aroma and the beer swerves from deep tropical fruit to earth dank and back again.  Something of a meld with a fruit-earthiness at the end with a dank overlay.  Nice full bitter

Value —  Good.  Few brewery taps give away beer at bargain prices — the greater margin they make by selling beer at more or less the going rate at the source is why so many of them are doing pretty well.  Give thanks, shut up, and pay the money.

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.

It’s All-Star season.  MLB has finished theirs, but it seems like a new sport is showcasing exceptional talent almost every day.  So we’ll be presenting our own all-star brewing line up.  We don’t claim to present– or even know– what the best beers in America are, but out of the hundred or so that we taste every month, some are indeed special.   For the second couple of weeks in July, we’ll share some recent standouts in  a very crowded craft beer field. .

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.”

August 1, 2019 by Tupper Leave a Comment

only beer pub 27 IMG_3154

 At Pub 27 in Pompeii

Brewing All Stars #13: Wicked Weed Pernicious IPA, Asheville, NC

Date:  August 1 , 2019  —

The Story—  Wicked Weed is a boundary pushing brewery that AB-InBev bought to help them understand about boundary pushing.   Fortunately, they seem to have left the creative brewers pretty much alone and like the original Goose Island brewery in Chicago, good beer still flows from this Asheville icon.

We tasted the beer at Winslow’s Tavern in Greenville, NC.   If you get really sick in the eastern part of the tar heel state, you’re likely to wind up in Greenville which hosts a massive teaching hospital with some of the most respected health care on the east coast.   If you’re lucky enough not to be checked in, but are visiting someone who is, you have some good drinking options when visiting hours are over.

A couple of brew pubs are… a couple of brew pubs.   They’re fine, but pretty close to what you have within 10 miles of wherever you live.  The beer gem of the city, though, is Winslow’s Tavern a, rambling drinkery that’s part bar, part taphouse, part beer store and part restaurant.  It does pretty well at all of these.   Perhaps one of the best bargain drinking experiences in the state comes from their take out coolers — you can get cans and bottles at reasonable take out prices…. and drink them in.

The Beer–  Rich malt, big hops.  Clean pale 2-row malt with a spicy herbal broad-ranging fruit that blends and resolves as “just plain hoppy.” Slightly sticky as it drinks gives an additional nod to the hops and sit well as it drinks.

Value —  Very good to excellent.   Five and a quarter for an honest pint at Winslow’s. Expect to pay more elsewhere.

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.

It’s All-Star season.  MLB has finished theirs, but it seems like a new sport is showcasing exceptional talent almost every day.  So we’ll be presenting our own all-star brewing line up.  We don’t claim to present– or even know– what the best beers in America are, but out of the hundred or so that we taste every month, some are indeed special.   For the second couple of weeks in July, we’ll share some recent standouts in  a very crowded craft beer field. .

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.”

What’s New Inside

 Gold Metal Winning Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale Returns!

Join us at Dynasty Brewing on July 17 between 3PM and 8PM to savor the first batch of Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale in almost five years.  We’ll be there signing books at a huge discount and the brewery will be pouring the beer that was created to be “Hoppy enough for Bob and balanced enough for Ellie.”

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’ve collaborated with Dynasty’s head brewer Favio Garcia, the brewer who produced the last batch of Tuppers’ Hop Pocket at Old Dominion to reproduce an authentic version of the original.    Dynasty is in Ashburn, Virginia– almost within walking distance of the Old Dominion brewery that brewed the first batch just over 25 years ago.

NOW PLAYING: on Beer of the Day—  Some great beers in the San Francisco Bay area.  Scroll down below this entry to find the featured beer of the day.   >>>>>

Later — in July 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.

 

 

 

Beer of the Day

only beer pub 27 IMG_3154

 At Pub 27 in Pompeii

Far From India: India Pale Ales in the 21st Century.

Date:  March, 2019

The Story—

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.

In mid-March we’re taking a look at the incredible variety of IPAs.   The style is by far the biggest seller among craft beers in the US and probably in Europe as well.   Even century-old breweries in Reinheitsgebot-narrowed Germany are brewing IPAs (if the brewer calls it “ale” it doesn’t have to conform to the strict purity law).   But you have to ask these days: What is an IPA”?  We’ll take a look at almost a dozen recognized and semi-recognized styles of IPAs in the next couple of weeks.

 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.”

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