Beertography of the Week - July 7th

This week's #beertography of the week is a Double Feature from our friends Stephen C. Van Buren and Scotty Hayes. Obviously the shot above is the wonderful Summertime classic, Bell's Two-Hearted Ale. Two-Hearted is among my top 5 favorite beers that aren't distributed to NY/NJ, so that shot really got me thirsty.



The second photo they submitted here features the Arbor Brewing Company barrel-aged Blonde Ale "Sodibo". It also features one of the awesomest dogs I've ever seen.

Check out Stephen & Scotty's other photos here.

Don't forget to email your beertography to beertography@gmail.com or you can just tag your tweet with #beertography and I'll save it for next week's entry.

21st Amendment Hop Crisis

The craft can frenzy continues! This time, 21st Amendment Brewery ups the ante and releases their newest entry into the market, Hop Crisis Oak-Aged Imperial IPA. At 9.7% ABV, this is not a beer to consume in mass quantities.

Hops Used in the Crisis: Columbus, Centennial, Cascade (bittering); Simcoe, Ahtanum, Amarillo, Cascade (dry hops)



It pours a super clear amber with a sticky, slightly off-white head. Bringing the glass anywhere near your face and you get smacked with the hoppy aromas. The Simcoe hops are the most obvious but the Amarillo are in there as well. Take a sip and its malty and full-bodied. There's a good deal of bitterness up front but that quickly gets balanced out by the malt, only to have the hops kick back in on the back end. No overt oak character, instead it sits slightly muted in the background. On top of all of that, there is little to no alcohol warmth which makes for a fairly dangerous beer.

I also really enjoyed how I received the sample of this beer. As you can see in the first photo, whole-leaf hops were used to help protect the can during shipment. Its the little geeky beer things that keep me going.

Hop Crisis is the second in 21A's "Insurrection Series", the first being Monk's Blood. This beer is available now in the following states: CA, OR, WA, AK, ID, MN, OH, MA, NY, NJ, DC, MD, PA, VA and GA.

Alexander Keith's

A few weeks ago I was asked to participate in a online webcast launch of Alexander Keith's beers from Nova Scotia in the United States. Having never heard of this brand of beer before, I decided to give them a shot.



Their lineup includes a lager, pale ale and brown ale, check out their descriptions:

Alexander Keith’s Nova Scotia Style Lager is brewed with noble hops prized for their subtle, spicy character, and the beer features a deep amber color and a crisp finish with an assertive but clean bitterness.

Alexander Keith’s Nova Scotia Style Pale Ale is brewed with traditional two-row malt for a full, malty flavor with a burst of fruity, spicy and citrusy hop nose. The beer features a deep golden color with a balanced bitterness.

Alexander Keith’s Nova Scotia Style Brown Ale is a classic full-bodied brown ale, with hints of honey and caramel balanced with a fresh hop aroma provided by the addition of cascade hops.

Now as it turns out, Alexander Keith's is brewed by Budweiser in NY state. But that doesn't stop these beers from being decent examples of their styles. I found the lager the most enjoyable of the bunch. I think we'll see more and more Budweiser-backed brews enter the market inconspicuously.

Beertography of the Week - July 4th Weekend Edition

photo by Evan of @beercycling - "Enjoying the view (and Scottish craft beer) from the peak of Ben Lawer."

Its been a hectic week or two with my recent Vermont beer trip (posts & photos coming soon), but I've received some great #beertography! So much so that I'm posting FOUR today in celebration of the impending Fourth of July holiday weekend.

photo by @jcshithead - Elysian Brewing Triacula at Barcade Jersey City

photo by Sean Buchan aka @beertographer - love the twitter handle! which used to be me!

photo by @ExtendedPints - "Is the Hoopla worthy of a party?" - check out their post here.

Ok that's it for now folks. I've got a bunch more great submissions but I'll save those for next week. Hope everyone has a fantastic 4th. Bonus points to anyone who submits Fourth of July themed #beertography over the weekend.

Don't forget to email your beertography to beertography@gmail.com or you can just tag your tweet with #beertography and I'll save it for next week's entry.

To The Green Mountain State!

Tonight, my friends and I begin a journey North for a whirlwind tour of the best breweries and brewpubs of Vermont. Check out our planned stops:

Hill Farmstead Brewery
The Warren Store in Warren, VT (where they sell bottles of Lawson's Finest Liquids)
The Alchemist
Trapp Family Lodge & Brewery
Vermont Pub & Brewery
American Flatbread / Zero Gravity Brewing
The Farmhouse Tap & Grill
Three Penny Taproom

Its quite an ambitious schedule for 4 days including hiking Mt. Mansfield on Saturday morning, but we're determined. Out of everything listed I've only had a few Hill Farmstead offerings before (luckily enough some do make their way to NYC occasionally). You may notice that a brewery not on the list but featured in the lead photo is Magic Hat. Even though it is Vermont's most prominent brewery and we will be a few miles away, we've elected to pass it up. They make a few good beers but I think the other smaller breweries blow them away. Who knows, maybe plans will change...but for now, no Magic Hat.

We'll also be making a stop at Valley Malt in Hadley, MA, run by husband & wife team Andrea and Christian Stanley who we met at Brooklyn Wort. The couple is bringing back artisanal, local malt and we will be using it in our upcoming homebrews!

If you follow me on twitter, I will be tweeting our adventures and untappd'ing everything (provided there's some kind of cell service in the mountains) we drink. If you have any other suggestions of places to stop in at in VT, feel free to send them my way!

Cheers!