So I took the winter off...

Hello there fellow beer lovers. I took the winter off, not from beerdom, just from writing about it. I took a really great brewery trip with some great friends the week after Christmas. We visited Spring House, Lancaster Brewing Company, St. Boniface, Union Barrel Works and Stoudts all in one week day. A super long writeup about all of that is still in the editing phase, but keep an eye out. I also had the chance to have some great beers over the holidays, the two highlights are featured in the photo to the right.

There are a few things that need updated, none of them really warrant their own post though, so grab a beer, here we go.

Troegs Nugget Nectar came out last Tuesday, I of course got my annual two cases. Lets first talk about availability, Troegs increased Nugget Nectar production 20-25% this year, and is likely to make even more next year. The brewing of NN was about a month late due to the move to the new Hershey Brewery location. When it comes to Troegs and their "special" beers, (Mad Elf, and Nugget Nectar specifically) I often wonder why they don't just "go for it". The business side of my brain realizes high demand for both of these beers exists, why not take advantage of it? On the other hand, the beer lovers side of my brain kind of likes it the way it is. Having to keep an eye on brew news, and call ahead to reserve cases make the release of beers like this special. The release of NN and Mad Elf are special times of the year for me, kind of like beer holidays, so the jury is still out on this one.

Nugget Nectar is a 7.5% ale, using plenty of Nugget, Warrior, Tomahawk, Simcoe, Palisade and whole leaf Nugget in the HopBack. This is an amazingly well balanced beer. I've had much hoppier beers, not saying that NN isn't hoppy, it just has a really nice malt base to keep the beer balanced. I've had it in both bottle, and on tap at Bistro 19, I also here it's on tap at Vitos. I prefer it out of a bottle, poured into a glass. It's "crisper" or whatever word you want to use there. On tap it just had too much body. When drinking a hoppy beer link this I like it to be crisp, finish and get out of there. The tap version just didn't do that for me, it stuck around too long.

Beer School. That's right, Beer School, it's exactly what it sounds like and it's awesome. Classes are put on by Beer Ace and hosted at Maewyns. Only one has taken place so far, it was a class on Dogfish Head Ancient Ales. Served up and discussed were, Sah Tea, Ta' Henket, Theobroma, and Chateau Jiahu. All were served with excellent food pairings. More information on Beer School can be found here.

In two weeks I'll be heading to Milton, DE for the 2012 Weekend of Compelling Ales at Dogfish Head. You can read last years write up about this event here.

It looks like there will be a pretty good line up this year: Aprihop,120 Minute IPA (2011),Immort Ale(2011),Midas Touch run through a Randall of limes and mint(Midas Jitos),Red & White(2011),Black & Blue 2011),My Antonia,
Namaste,Sah'tea,Ta Henket,Chateau Jiahu,Palo Santo Marron,Burton Baton,Dirty Fermentini (BeerAdvocate/Dogfish collab),Diablo Verdi(a small-batch creation by Dogfish co-workers). Expect a write up on this years event in mid-late March. Tickets were limited to 400 and sold out rather quickly. If you want to go next year, keep an eye on the Dogfish Head website.

I talked to Scott Eden, owner of Good Dog Taproom this morning, and he provided this update for us:

Despite some delays in the liquor license purchase and approvals in our architectural drawings, we are still shooting for a May opening. Major renovations will begin shortly, but we have been doing what we can such as building a stage and painting the many large windows. The walk-in cooler and draft system is being ordered this week, so hopefully we can all enjoy a variety of great draft and bottled beers very soon.

Sounds good Scott, keep fighting the good fight.

Spring is quickly approaching, as dates are announced for local brew fests I'll be posting them here, so keep an eye out.

Cheers.