Local 44 (44th & Spruce) wants your help tonight.
They will be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but before they take a well deserved break they need you to come help finish all the beer left in the lines. So tonight starting at 9pm when everything on draft is just $3, until the kegs run dry!
Monk's Cafe (16th & Spruce) is pulling out all the holiday stops starting Monday at 11:30am. They'll be tapping 15 Christmas kegs plus dozens of bottles. The keg list:
From Belgium
Alvinne brings us the Three Wise Men:
Alvinne Balthazar (spiced w/ginger, cardamon & coriander)
Alvinne Gaspar (lots of hops)
Alvinne Melichior (with mustard seed)
Corsendonk Christmas Ale
De Koninck Winter Koninck
DeRanke Pere Noel
Dupont Avec Les Bon Veoux
Geants Noel
La Rulles Cuvée Meilleurs Voeux
Scaldis Noel
St Bernardus Christmas Ale
St. Feuillien Cuvee Noel
From the United States
Bell’s Christmas Ale
Lost Abbey Gift of the Magi
Port Brewing Santa’s Little Helper
This Saturday you can get your drink on at the Khyber Pass (56 S. 2nd St) and benefit friends of the four-legged variety.
The Khyber will be hosting a Firkins For Our Furry Friends party from 1 PM - 8 PM (or until the beer kicks). $25 gets you bottomless of cups of some amazing beers – all being poured from firkins!
The line-up includes:
Yards Porter
Stoudts Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout
PBC Shackamaximum
Sly Fox Chester County Bitter
All of the beers have been graciously donated by the breweries, and 100% of the proceeds will go to PAWS.
Flying Fish does not do much that is ordinary so it is no surprise that beer should be out of the ordinary. This is not your usual winter ale, but a Belgian-style strong golden ale that really stands out.
It pours a golden orange with some sediment and a white, fluffy head. The aroma is sweet, spicy and fruity.
The taste is where the winter part of its name kicks in. The fruit notes are easily balanced by the strong malt flavor. While this Belgian strong is extremely full-bodied (7.2% ABV), it is smooth, dry and easy to drink.
This is a delicious change of pace to the standard winter warmers. B+
For those who are vegetarian or veggie-friendly, AND likes the well-crafted brew, there is a get-together planned for Wednesday December 30 from 7-11pm at the wonderful Earth Bread + Brewery (7136 Germantown Ave, Mt. Airy). This sounds like a nice break from the typical beer-tasting events I normally attend. I am sucker for anyplace promoting good healthy food and great beer.
You can find more details at vegandrinksphilly.blogspot.com.
Tomorrow night at 7:30, Havertown's own Oakmont National Pub (31 East Eagle Road) welcomes Don Russell (aka Joe Sixpack) for a book signing featuring his new Christmas beers book and a tasting of Troege's Mad Elf Ale.
Craig LeBan takes notice of the new Hawthornes (738 S. 11th St).
With the arrival of Hawthornes, the charming new panini cafe and take-out beer paradise in South Philly, our brew revolution has officially entered its "growler phase." That's the thirsty moment when our take-home selection leaped beyond mere bottles to big reusable jugs (roughly the size of four pints) that capture the frothy goodness of rarities available on draft.
Opened by Heather Annechiarico and her fiancé, Chris Fetfatzes, in the former shell of his family's since-expanded Bella Vista Beer Distributor, Hawthornes does have 900-some bottles in the fridge. But it was the ever-changing menu of 16 growler drafts that caught my eye, with current pours of a nutty Maduro Brown by Tampa's Cigar City and a high-powered Damnation from Russian River. Fetfatzes even invented his own filling system that supposedly preserves the fizz for seven months unopened. Yeah - like a bottle of beer with a screwtop is going to last that long in my fridge.
Finally got to sit down and try Victory's new seasonal Yakima Twilight Ale. Just reading their teasing description ("The tenacious grip of big, juicy hop aroma and character slides smoothly into rich, dark malts") had piqued my interest. As with most Victory brews, this one does not disappoint.
It pours dark and aromatic with a huge frothy tan head. It recedes slowly leaving some lovely lacing behind.
Intriguing smells quickly arise of hops, fruit and chocolate malt. Definitely a lure to anyone sitting next to you.
The taste echos the aroma and is a tantalizing mixture of the dark chocolate malts and the bitter citrus hops. This fascinating combination words remarkably well together and I found myself draining the bottle quickly.
This American Strong Ale wasn't that easy to find around here but I would definitely recommend grabbing a few for the holidays since I believe this is due to go out of circulation in January.
B+
Dogfish Head Brewery and Beeradvocate.com are teaming up for a Name Our Beer Competition for their Extreme Beer Fest coming up this February in Boston. They will be brewing a new beer to be the official beer of EBF.
All the details are here.
Michael Klein in the Inquirer says that Doc Watson's (216 S. 11th St.)will be sold and converted into an English pub called Sherlock's Tavern. Wonder if they'll develop a rivalry with Moriarty's?
Well this should help those tense family holiday get-togethers:
Philadelphia, PA (Dec 2009) - Dock Street is pleased to present our first-ever bottled beer that's been produced and packaged on-site at our new brewery - and just in time for the holidays.
Dock Street Barleywine Style Ale is brewed with the best of both American and English traditions in mind. We stuff so much malt into our mash-tun, it can't possibly hold any more. It's hopped in the kettle with copious amounts of Brewer's Gold and English East Kent Golding hops, to a bracing 76 IBU's. Its massive maltiness and tremendous bitterness are partnered with the burn from its 10.5% ABV. All of these intense individual characteristics are married through extended aging at cellar temperatures.
This very special batch of our immense ale has been tempered by 10 months of quiet aging in oak barrels that had previously been the home of Chadds Ford Pinot Noir wine. The result is a sensual synthesis of the worlds of beer, oak, and wine. The aromatics leave the drinkers to believe that they may be about to taste a port wine or brandy. The malt is the true star here, with the bitterness of the hops dying away to reveal flavors of coconut, caramel, and rum. It all comes together with a slightly acidic and tannic woody finish. The initial hint of alcohol slowly fades into a warming burn.
This Dock Street Barley Wine has been lovingly hand bottled strait from the barrels, and bottle-conditioned by our brewers. The carbonation was left intentionally low so you can taste how it did pulled right from the cask.
Available only in 750ml Champagne bottles and in very limited quantities, you may find this new release exclusively at the Monks Café Holiday Dinner (12/15/09), the Grey Lodge, and of course The Dock Street Brewery and Restaurant.
