Repent: Belgian Pent Ale
Posted on September 01, 2005 at 08:41 PM EST
This evening I went to DuClaw Brewing Company in Hanover, MD for their exclusive Brewer’s Reserve Invitation to try their newest ale, Repent. The event kicked off at 6:00 p.m. and we arrived right when it started. The beer was served in a 12 oz. snifter glass and had a sweet, fruity taste with hints of caramel and toffee. It was a lot different that most of the beers that I normally drink. It tasted more like a wine than a beer. It had a nice kick to it since it has a whopping 14.6% alcohol by volume (abv). I would definitely order it again the next time I visit the brewery if it’s still available. I managed to pick up one of their limited edition glasses soon after I got there, which sold out in less than an hour.
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Tagged with beer, duclaw, microbrew
Dogfish Head's 90-Minute IPA Wins Battle of the Beers 2005
Posted on April 04, 2005 at 08:20 PM EST
My favorite beer, Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA, has just won RealBeer.com’s Battle of the Beers 2005 for the third consecutive year with over 2,700 votes! The tournament is set up similar to NCAA Basketball’s March Madness, except they call it RealBeer.com has held the tournament since 2002 where visitors select which beer they would rather drink. It starts off with 64 different American beers that are chosen by users of RealBeer.com and only one beer per brewery is entered. The beers are paired up that are vaguely alike then they are broken down into four groups of 16. Each time a beer wins it moves to a higher bracket. It started on March 1st and the winner is crowned champion coincidentally the same day the NCAA men’s championship game is played. Way to go Dogfish!
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2004 Lighthouse Beer & Wine Microbrewery Festival
Posted on October 17, 2004 at 01:05 PM EST
Yesterday, my wife and I went to the Lighthouse Beer & Wine Microbrewery Festival that took place at Hugh MacRae Park in Wilmington. It was a great day for the event. The weather was perfect; it was mostly sunny and the temperatures were in the low-70s. Over 35 microbreweries were there including one from Canada and another from Germany, along with a few live-bands and local restaurants. We arrived about 15 minutes before the festival started so we could get there before it got crowded.
The first brewery we went to was Dogfish Head. I hoped that they would have had more of a selection of their beers, but they only had their Shelter Pale Ale and 60 Minute IPA. One beer I was looking forward to trying was Highland Brewing Company’s Gaelic Ale. It poured a dark, amber color and had a nice caramel flavor in the malt then finished with a hoppy taste. All-in-all it was pretty good and I gave it a 4/5 rating. We learned of a new microbrewery that is opening here in Wilmington next month called the Azalea Coast Brewing Company. It’s good to know there’s another microbrewery that’s going to be in town!
Since it’s Fall, many of the breweries had their seasonal pumpkin ales which I really like. The Carolina Beer Company’s Cottonwood Pumpkin Spiced Ale was my favorite with Brooklyn Brewery’s Post Road Pumpkin Ale being a close second. I still like Dogfish Head Brewery’s Punkin’ Ale the most, but unfortunately they didn’t have it available since it’s over North Carolina’s lame 6% law that states that no beer can contain over 6% alchohol by volume (abv).
After about three hours, the alcohol was really starting to kick in and the lines to the port-a-jons were getting long so we decided to leave. We had a great time and discovered a lot of new beers that we really liked.
Listed below are all of the beers that I sampled at the festival along with my rating for each beer on a scale of 1-5.
| Microbrewery | Beer | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Apex Brewing Company | Sir Walter Raleigh Lager | 3 |
| Azalea Coast Brewing | Helles Lager | 3.5 |
| India Pale Ale | 4 | |
| Blue Moon Brewing Company | Harvest Pumpkin | 3.5 |
| Brooklyn Brewery | East India Pale Ale | 4 |
| Post Road Pumpkin Ale | 4 | |
| Carolina Beer Company | Cottonwood Pumpkin Spiced Ale | 4.5 |
| Dogfish Head Brewery | 60 Minute IPA | 4 |
| Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery | Amber Ale | 4 |
| Edenton Brewing Company | Joseph Hewes Revolutionary Ale | 4 |
| Pumpkinhead Ale | 4 | |
| Flying Dog Brewery | Road Dog Ale | 3 |
| Front Street Brewery | River City Raspberry Wheat Ale | 4.5 |
| Green Mountain Cidery | Woodchuck Draft Cider | 3.5 |
| Highland Brewing | Gaelic Ale | 4.5 |
| Pyramid Alehouse | Hefeweizen | 4 |
| Red Oak Brewery | Red Oak | 4 |
| Redhook Brewing Company | India Pale Ale | 4.5 |
| Winterhook | 4 | |
| Samuel Adams | Boston Lager | 4.5 |
| Sierra Nevada Brewing Company | Pale Ale | 4 |
| Spaten Brewery | Franziskaner Hefe Weiss | 4 |
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Tagged with beer, festival, microbrew, wilmington
Dogfish Head Brewery
Posted on October 11, 2004 at 10:03 PM EST
Last week I went up to visit my parents and sister in Maryland for a five-day trip. On Friday we drove out to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware to have dinner at Dogfish Head Brewery. On the way there we stopped at their brewing facility, which is roughly 25 minutes northwest of Rehoboth Beach. About 35 people had shown up for the tour which was a lot more than I had expected since it’s out in the boonies. During the sampling, they let us try their Lawnmower Ale, Shelter Pale Ale, 60 Minute IPA, 90 Minute IPA, and Punkin’ Ale which didn’t really have a beer taste but tasted just like spiced pumpkin.
At the restaurant, I couldn’t decide which beer I wanted (they were all really good on the tour) so i ended up getting a sampler that had their 60 Minute IPA, 90 Minute IPA, Punkin’ Ale, Raison D’Etre, and Chicory Stout. I then ordered their 120 Minute IPA, which they call the Holy Grail for Hopheads. It had a whopping 20% ABV (alcohol by volume) and it was served in a snifter glass. It was definitely one of the best beers I’ve ever had.
Dogfish Head is without a doubt my favorite microbrewery. They’re very original and have a creative approach with their beers and promotional materials. I like how they have a “let’s make whatever the heck we want” mindset because they’ll just toss in whatever ingredients they want such as raisins, currants, apricots, muscat grapes, pumpkins, etc. They also brew their own spirits which is the only microbrewery that I know of who does this.
I bought a four-pack of the 90 Minute IPA and took it home so my wife could give it a try. The beer was surprisingly very good and tasted just like the beer at the brewery, even though it was out of a bottle. It turns out that Lighthouse Beer & Wine, which is located in Wrightsville Beach (30 minutes away), carries some of their beer! Unfortunately, they cannot carry the 90 Minute IPA, 120 Minute IPA, or Punkin’ Ale because of North Carolina’s 6% law but I’ll gladly settle for what I can get.
I’ve posted some photos that I took of the brewery to flickr. I’ve also added a new page so I can keep track of all the different microbreweries I’ve visited.
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Tagged with beer, microbrew, microbrewery, travel
