A Bit of Southern Hospitality: Raleigh NC

So I had to rush South for the weekend recently.  Time was short and, as I've bemoaned to the point of becoming a theme on this blog, brewpubs just aren't how they do things in the South.  They just don't.  The brewers brew.  The restaurateurs... er... restaurant?

So one has to go looking.  I looked and I found the Carolina Ale House.  It's a family restaurant / sports bar and grill that basically has a lot of beer.  Nothing special, but nothing to complain about either.

I focused on beers from North Carolina and this is the sample I came up with:

Big Boss Brewing - Bad Penny: This is a dark ale from a local Raleigh brewery.  There was a light, sweet caramel aroma.  The flavors were on the light side.  A kind of bitter, woody flavor mixed with a bit of roasted malt and caramel sweetness.  Herbal, floral hops came in toward the end and gave this beer a dry finish.

Red Oak Brewing: Red Oak Lager: Red Oak is all about simplicity.  There are breweries that churn out a multitude of different beers that leaves malt heads staring at beer menu like a child that's been told he can have all the candy.  Red Oak has two.  One of those is their German Lager.  I  picked up a very light fruit aroma.  The fruit sweetness continued on the top of the flavor with a tiny hint of noble hops in the back.  Very refreshing session beer.

Foothills Brewing Company - Foothills Torch Pilsner:  A light lager from the next town over.  This beer was surprisingly heavy on the hops for a style that tends to favor the light flavors.  There seemed to be very little malt here so the lemongrass, herbal flavor from the hops were kind of allowed to run the show.  I liked it for the fact that it had a decent amount of flavor, but the hops could be scaled back a tad.

Pints at the Station: Baltimore, Maryland

Way out on the East Coast and Baltimore this week.  I was banished to the suburbs this time, but it put me close to a nice little restaurant and brewpub that might normally be too far out to make the trip worthwhile.

The Redbrick Station is mostly a grill and bar type restaurant.  I don't know if beer is really their specialty, it was good, but it didn't seem to be the focus.  It was good, but not spectacular.  The beer was more or less what you would expect from the styles although they did have a cask conditioned beer available, so that's a pretty big mark in their favor.

I would both recommend and warn against the fish and chips here.  They are awesome.  At the same time they pile the plate high with french fries and big-old cuts of battered fish.  If you missed lunch, like I did that day, you might be tempted to eat the whole thing.  It was delicious, but it did create a gastronomical adventure later in the evening.

I guess, what i am saying, enjoy in moderation.

Now, the beer.

Honey Go Light: A light honey ale that makes the honey known in a very pleasing aroma.  The dry, sweet flavor is fairly prominent off the top followed by bread flavors and a fizzy mouthfeel.  As light ales go, this was pretty good.  Probably not something to reach for everyday, but refreshing when summer starts cranking the heat up,

Avenue Ale: There was a very light citrus aroma here.  I could detect the hops in the aroma, but not nearly as much in the flavor.  There was some slightly roasted, bread and malt flavor.  The citrus was there but overall this beer just didn't have the flavor I like in a pale.

Something Red: No aroma I could detect here.  The flavor was first dominated by malty flavors with hints of dark cherry fruit.  Pine and floral hops started very, very light and slowly climbed to give the beer a dry, bitter flavor.

Cask Conditioned Red Ale: The same beer as above served just below room temperature and naturally carbonated.  This really brought out a malty aroma that just wasn't there before.  There was a little bit of caramel sweetness with the malt and dark cherry in the flavor.  There was more sweetness here, but the hops still managed to cut through it at the end.

Daily Crisis IPA: Just a hint of citrus in the aroma.  As far as IPA's go this was a bit different.  First there is lots of light malt but almost no hops.  You have to wait a bit.  Give it a few seconds.  Keep waiting... hold... there it is.  Pine and floral hops eventually show up almost after the rest of the flavor has already passed.  I enjoyed it to a certain degree but I think those who really, really like an IPA would find this disappointing and they would probably be right to think that.

Spooners Stout: Intense coffee aroma here.  Kind of a drier Guinness clone although I did get hints of chocolate peaking out from the creamy roasted grain flavor.

Scotch Ale: This packed a hell of a hop wallop for the style. Sweet roasted malt with light cherry fruit carried most of the flavor but there was a very distinct pine bitterness.

The Bounty Part 2: The Others

Okay, so I wasn't quite done with Layffette Brewing Company.  As I said last week, their beer is pretty much awesome and it is plentiful.  However, if for some reason some person were to glance up at their beer board and dismiss it with both a 'phooey' and maybe even a 'pesha' you do have options.

Oh so many options.

Since I already drank my way through what they had to offer, I went back to wade farther into Indiana beer. 

Sun King - Sunlight Cream Ale: This was the last of Sun King's regular brews I hadn't gotten my hands on.  I talked about the Osiris IPA and the Wee Mac in a previous post.  I picked up a sweet lemon grass aroma.  True to the nature of a cream ale, it had some extra body and a good dose of sweet cream flavor.  There was maybe a hint of citrus in the back, but mostly pretty much what you would expect from the style.  Not bad in any sense, but lacks a bit of complexity.

Triton Brewing Company - Rail Splitter: A flagship IPA from another Indianapolis brewery that appeared on my radar.  I picked up citrus hops on the aroma and really, really picked it up in the flavor.  The floral and citrus was pretty intense but is was tempered to a certain degree by some caramel malt.  Hoppy IPA, but not so much that it can only be enjoyed by someone who can check the IBU's in their bloodstream.

Flat 12 Bierwerks - Pogues Run Porter: A regular brew from another Indianapolis Brewery that appeared on my radar (The damn things must be breeding somehow). The name of this porter tips its hat to the British working-class origins of the style.  The name and label also appear to be a shout-out to Shane McGowen of the Pogues.   I'm not a hundred percent sure but I'll let you be the judge:

If nothing else, a reminder to floss regularly.

Anyway, I liked the licorice, coffee aroma on this beer.  Lots of that same bitter coffee as well as some chocolate make this a pretty typical porter.  A decent amount of wood and pine hops add just a hint of complexity that give it a something extra. A typical porter with a kick, you might say.

And with the above image forever burned into your brain, that's it for Indiana for now... I swear.  At least for a week.  Maybe more.  We will see.

Cheers.

The Bounty: Lafayette Brewing Company

Maybe it's the disturbing amount of time I've spent here over the years, but I find that Indiana is a little-known gem in the world of awesome grain-based beverages.  Every time I find myself wandering this weird little state in the middle of the country looking for beer, I find it.  And every time I figure that, this time, I'm probably getting to the bottom of the barrel.  When I come back, I realize that there is more beer underneath.

For today's post I had to venture far from the welcoming lights of Indianapolis, but not too far.

Lafayette Brewing boasts award winning beers brewed locally.  Not exactly a unique stance for a local brewery, but well deserved in any case.  The first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of different styles they had available during my visit.  There's something about staring down at three sampler trays that makes you slowly push your car keys to the other side of the table and steel yourself for a long battle.

They were plentiful and, for the most part, they were excellent.  As I go through the line there were, I think two that really didn't resonate.  Really, I don't think they were bad as much as I don't think they weren't as good as their siblings.

Overall I was impressed.   There's a bunch to talk about, so let's not stand on ceremony.  Time to pull up a pint... or two...

...or twelve.

HMS Porter: Pretty standard charcoal and coffee aroma that hides something a bit unusual for a porter. The flavor is heavy on some bitter herbal hops with some bitter coffee flavors that blend surprisingly well. The flavors are propped up with some creamy sweetness that leads to a very nice and rather complex porter.

East Side Bitter:  I couldn't pick up much of an aroma here. This turned out to be a pretty simple, nice session beer. Toasty caramel sweetness with a bitter herbal back.  Nothing earth shattering but very nice.

Black Angus Oatmeal Stout: I picked up a little liquorice on the aroma here.  The flavor had lots of bitter for a stout beer. I picked up lots of smoky, woody flavors along with a pretty heavy herbal flavor.

Take Flight APA: American Pale with a heavy citrus floral aroma.  This is one of the few I didn't really dig since it was pretty heavy on the hops dancing dangerously close to triggering a hop bomb. It would be okay for an IPA but it was too much for a pale.

Electric Oatmeal Stout:  They do love their oatmeal here.  This also presented with a woody aroma, but the flavor and mouthfeel were much smoother.  This stayed on the sweeter side of the equation and mixed the woody leather flavors with some coffee and sweet chocolate.  Nice contrast to the Black Angus.

Cask Aged Hazelnut HMS Porter: I picked up a very light herbal aroma here, a different variation from it's draught brother. The flavor was also richer with a heavy dose of vanilla to mix with the coffee and chocolate with very little to none of the bitterness shown from the last.

Tippecanoe Common Ale: Light hoppy aroma here.  This the hop bill on this one was similar to the pale although not half as intense.  The citrusy, floral hops and the light malt made this one feel more like a pale.

Marley VSOP:  There was some debate on the meaning of the acronym, VSOP.  I don't think two members of the bar staff gave me the same answer.  It's a very special... something or other at any rate.  The light chocolate aroma of this dark beer was very nice, but the flavor was quite complex.  I picked up hints of coffee, chocolate, red wine flavor and the slight bit of herbs and vanilla.

Star City Lager: Now for something completely different, a light beer with a hint of hops in the aroma.  There was nothing much light in the flavor, however.   There were some sweet, bread flavors right off the top with some grassy pine hops that follow fast and hard and made for a surprisingly flavorful light beer. 

Bumpy face Agave Wheat Wine: This is where things got interesting.  The aroma had just a bit of sweet, light fruit that I could just sit and smell all day.  I picked up apple, pear in the heavy-bodied light malt and it finished with a touch of citrusy floral hops.  

Otis Brown:  Actually I lied.  I don't know if it was the heavy flavors from the bumpy face or if the last two beers in the sample were just kinda.... meh, but it tapered off here at the end.   This brown ale had no aroma I could find.  Light sweet caramel flavor with a medium body and that's all one can really say about it.  It avoided being watery which is so often the hazard with this style, I'll give it that.

Phantom Sun:  No aroma again.  This beer combined some sweet toasty flavors with a decent amount of   citrus floral hops.

I made it through.  Was sober enough for a pint of the Bumpy Face before it was time to venture into that good night.

I woke up three days later with this blog post scrawled on a hobo's chest.  He didn't seem to mind.