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.

Pure Louisiana: Abita Brewing

I've talked about them before.  Okay, I've talked about them once when I managed to spirit away a bottle of their special Marti Gras brew.   But given my semi periodic trips to the Crescent city, it's kind of surprising that I hadn't talked about Abita brewing at any length. Well I'm gonna now.  It's happening...
yep...
any moment now...

Here's the deal.  Abita is to the South as Boulevard is to the Midwest or New Belgium is to the West or what Sam Adams is to... well the entire freaking country.  You find it out and around and for good reason, it's pretty good.

Like the breweries mentioned above, they have a flagship beer that is the go-to for most microbrew lovers in the area.  The Abita Amber is a fairly typical, slightly malty light amber ale in the same spirit as a Fat Tire.  It's got some mild roasted, nutty notes with just a hint of hops in the back that makes for a decent beer to sink in large quantities.  Best of all, it's available at just about any bar in Louisiana and elsewhere in the South.   That being said, I had the chance to track down some of their other beers during my last visit and this is what I came up with.

Jockamo IPA: The quasi-masochistic hop-heads from the Pacific Northwest would probably make farty sounds towards this IPA.  It doesn't come at you with that intense bitter flavor that is associated with the style.  It's aroma actually has some fruit notes alongside the tell-tale citrus.  There is some spicy, citrus hops but they kind of float on a tide of heavy, fruity malt sweetness.  It's a little out of sorts for the style, but a pleasant beer anyway.

Purple Haze: Raspberry beer and pretty decidedly so.  Lots of sweet fruit on the aroma and even more packed into the flavor.  A little too much for my tastes.

Hop Gator: The bartender at Lagers Taproom didn't know what kind of beer this was.  BeerAdvocate even seems to fumble over itself when it comes time to classify this.  It starts off with a very, very light spicy aroma.  The flavor reminded me much more of a pepper beer then anything else.  The green chili is especially pronounced at first, but it slowly melds into a more herbal hoppy finish.

SOS: This is a beer brewed to help the continuing cleaning efforts on the gulf coast (yes... they are still at it.  Thank you BP, good work).  A sweet, fruity pear flavor dominates this beer right off the top.  The finish is a little on the dry side with the hops adding a woody, pine flavor.  The two different flavor profiles actually clash rather nicely in this beer.

Andygator: Finishing with a specialty brew.  This is a helles dopplebock with a very light roasted aroma.  It's a big-bodied smooth beer that has some light, sweet toasted flavors that leads to a very drinkable beer.  What it's really doing, however, is skillfully hiding the upwards of 8% alcohol.  It's one of those beers that can be classified as dangerous.  You can drink a lot, yes you can.  And you can wake up with an imprint of the bathroom floor on the side of your face.  That's how they do things in Louisiana... so I am told.

Southwest in the Southeast: Altanta, GA

Finding good beer in the South is a slightly different prospect, as I have mentioned in the past.  It involves putting the nose to the air and sniffing out those strange little bars where, among other things, specialize in brewery wierdness.  One such place is a Georgia chain known as Taco Macs.

On the surface, Taco Macs is every other massive sports bar you've ever visited in Anytown USA when there is a game on the television that your television provider refuses to provide without signing over children to be used as their little evil minions.

That's how they plan to take over the world, by the way.  Armies of displaced kids snatched from the ranks of Americans that just want to watch the Big Game in their undies.  You heard it here first.

....Anyhoo!!!....

Along with the hundreds of televisions broadcasting every concievable sporting event on the planet and plates full of hot wings, they have a respectable beer selection.  They have two sections to the establishment I visited in the Western hinterlands of Atlanta, downstairs for general pop and a strict over-21 section upstairs.  The trouble is the bulk of the awesome beer is only available downstairs, which kinda sucks for anyone who likes to sink down a few pints of something interesting without the defening din that was pretty much pervasive and ear-piercing.    During my visit, the waitressess were nice enough to leg it up and down the stairs to bring me the awesomness from down below, which was really, really nice of them.

I stuck to a bit of local color this time around.  Taco Macs had a fairly complete selection of the local Sweetwater Brewing Company so I more or less stuck to their brews... ... more or less.  I was able to sample their flagship brew several months back, so this post should more or less round them out a bit.

Sweetwater Motorboat ESB: This selection has a nice, spicy, floral aroma.  Those floral herbal hops meld almost perfectly with some light roasted malt.  Finishes just a tad heavy on the hops, but it a very nice beer overall.

Sweetwater Blue: Wheat beer with a lemony sweet fruity aroma.  A refreshing beer for a hot humid summer with a sweet lemongrass flavor.

Sweetwater IPA: This is one of those IPA's I dearly love.  Brewed with Northwest hops for the floral citrus quality but balanced just right with malt to make for an enjoyable bitter beer.  Nothing particularly fancy or complex, but citrusy and floral hops done right.

Sweetwater Crank Tank: Pilsner beer with a grassy light malt aroma.  They really try and pack a lot of flavor into this light beer.  Lemony and floral hops dominate the profile to the point that it's more akin to a pale ale withiout the body and malty backbone.  Hops are almost too much since they are the only thing with any flavor.

One additional brewer on this post (I did say mostly Sweetwater afterall) is an offering from O'Dempsey's Brewing Company.

O'Dempsey's Your Black Heart: This Russian Imperial Stout has an intense fruity, woody aroma.  That fruity malty flavor melds with a hint of herbal licorice and spicy hop character that finishes a little on the dry side of the spectrum. 

Bottle Beer Tour 3: The Fermented Menace.

Okay, taking a short break from the road to empty out the beer fridge a little, (And yes, I have a refrigerator just for beer.  That's not weird, is it?)  Today is the day daylight savings time hits and to commemorate that fact we got about six inches of snow.  In typical midwest fashion, winter is going keep an icy hold as long as possible.

Tis the season of indecision, so we've got some winter beers, some summer beers and some nasty weather to drink away.

Abita Brewery, Marti Gras Bock:  Seasonal selection available only January through about mid February or something.   Pours clear and copper colored, with a very light herbal aroma.  Has a bit of a spicy, herbal bite to it.  Lots of caramel malts there as well, with a nice full body. 

Choc Brewery, Winter Stout: A winter stout with a wonderful chocolate, raisin coffee aroma.  The flavor has a lot of bitter coffee with some unsweetened chocolate. I also get just a hint of fruit somewhere in there, but I can't quite place it. 

 



Breckenridge Brewery, Agave Wheat:
Something a little different from a brewery halfway up a mountain.  This beer pours a cloudy golden color.  Slightly lemony and herbal. It has a kind of sour-sweet flavor.  Not like the sour of an infected beer, but more like green apple.  It has some slight herbal qualities on the back.  Lighter body, smooth mouthfeel.  Nothing all that astounding, but a nice summer beer anyway.

Huisbrouwerij Klein Duimpje, Erik De Noorman Dutch Barley Wine:  Okay stepping a little out of the United States a bit for the first time.  Pours cloudy and copper colored.  It has a raisin and plum aroma.  Full bodied with a slightly fizzy mouthfeel.  Sweet and malty with dark fruit flavors off the top with a slight bitter back and a dry finish.




This last one... I don't know if it even still qualifies as a microbrew.  I guess it is in the sense that Sam Adams is considered a micro brew by some.  Still, because I happen to have a bottle here, here's a midwest staple: Leinenkugles, Berry Wiess:  And it's pretty much as advertised.  Strong, fruity nose.  Very sweet raspberry flavor to the point of being a sparkling cider. 

Astride Beer Nation

Today's post is one of those where I take a bunch of random beers I've sampled in my travels and pack them into one post.  In this case, it is beer from literally all over the country.  There a some beers from Maine to California... and New York and Utah and Louisiana.  What I'm trying to say is I've got six random beers from five random states.

All five were from a couple of beer bars stuck here and there.  First, Lager's Ale House in New Orleans, which I have already spoken of.  The other was The Brit in San Jose.

A few words about that bar, overall it was a lot of fun.  The staff there was just fun.  Besides keeping the beer flowing they would hang around and bullshit, which was kind of cool given it was slow there.  They had a free beer tasting on the night I was there and a strange act where a guy drug his guitar onto the stage and invited patrons to sing karaoke-style while he played.  Ironically, less irritating then actual karaoke.  I think the thought of playing with actual musical accompaniment keeps the more tone-deaf away.

Anyway, beer!

Brooklyn Brewing Company, Brown Ale:  This beer has a malty caramel coffee aroma.  The flavors start off sweet with some light dark cherry flavors.  It finishes moderately dry with slightly bitter black coffee.

Abita Brewing, Raspberry Wheat: Pretty much as advertised, a very sweet, fruity beer.  That's about as simple as it gets.  This is the type of beer people talk about when they say, "I don't like fruit beer."

Firestone DBA

Firestone Walker Brewing, Firestone DBA (Double Barrel Ale):  This English bitter has really no aroma to speak of.  Flavor has just a hint of fruit sweetness before spicy, lemony hops dominate the flavor.  On the hoppier side of a session beer, but still a good choice to pour back a few.

Allahash White Ale: Tons of clove and banana in the aroma of this wheat beer.  I picked up a similar profile in the flavor with maybe a little bit of cider flavor added.  Finishes with floral hops.

Hermitage Hoptopia

Hermitage Brewery, Hoptopia IPA: Local selection while I was on the West Coast.  I got citrus and a hint of caramel on the aroma.   I got a hint of caramel and maybe peach off the top just before it was plowed the hell down by citrus hops and a whole lot of heavy bitter herbal, back of the throat flavor that was going to be there for a while.

Unita Brewing Company, Hop Notch:  Just a little bit of floral citrus aroma.  The flavor was a slightly different combination of hops then normal.  I got lots of light grassy flavors off the top followed by intense pine, medicinal flavors shortly after.  Not terribly good, but, like I said, different.

Back to more of the regular format next week for another report from San Jose.

Cheers!

Do You Know What it Means, To Miss New Orleans?: Louisiana

Back in New Orleans this week.  You know, there are worse places in the world to consistently find yourself.  This time it's Crescent City Brewhouse in the French Quarter.

This might be the first brewpub I've found in the south.  Most of the breweries down here focus their efforts entirely on beer, and that's not a bad thing.  It does, however, make locating their beer a little harder when they lack a nice, handy central location.  Crescent City is much more of the typical brewpub like you would find in the rest of the country.

Overall, it's nice.  They have live jazz music, which is a nice touch to an atmosphere that tells you to sit back, relax and, yes, go ahead and have just one more beer.  The food is a little on the expensive side, but it's the French Quarter, so what do you want?  It's not exactly the place people go trolling for deals, is what I am saying.   And the beer, it's mostly good.  Most of the available selection is rather boring, but the one or two beers that hit the mark, do so remarkably well. 

Crescent City Pilsner:  Pretty good for the style, but nothing all that spectacular.  It has a grassy aroma.  Flavor is light and refreshing.  Lemony, grassy hops slowly build in the back of the palate for a nice bite at the end. 

Red Stallion:  Again, just an amber ale.  Nothing really special to talk about.  The aroma is very, very light; just a hint of malt there.  Toasted malty flavor dominates the flavor profile with floral hops following in the back.  Good, but nothing to rave about.  A good session beer for those who like a malty option.

Crescent City Wiess:  By this time I was starting to worry about the selection here at the brewery.  This was the third beer and I still wasn't hitting anything all that memorable.  This beer has a banana aroma followed with a spicy banana flavor. I picked up some slight herbal hops on the back, but it's mostly dominated by the fruity esters for a simple, strait forward beer.

Black Forest: And then, we hit gold.  The black forest has a wonderful chocolate, fruit aroma that made me think of black cherry and currants.  The flavor is much the same with chocolate, black cherry and currant with a sharp roasted barley flavor in the back. This one quickly became one of my favorite beers.

Special Brew (IPA). Crescent city has a rotating selection of beer and the selection during my visit was an IPA.  The aroma was very light, bordering on non-existent.  The flavor started off very sweet for an IPA with light malt and a pear fruit flavor.  Hops gradually build and build in the background till they fill the palate with grassy floral hops.  A little on on the malty side of the scale for an IPA, but I wouldn't turn it down.

Trendsetters: West Palm Beach, Florida

I've been south for the past few weeks escaping the frozen hell-scape that is Nebraska during the winter.  Exchanging snowdrifts for sunshine and enjoying the fact I can walk outside without worrying about bits of me turning blue and dropping off.

City Place, West Palm Beach

I stopped by City Place near downtown West Palm beach.  It is one of the growing number of entertainment districts popping up around the country.  If you've visited Universal City Walk on either coast, you kind of have an idea what I am talking about.  It's a city block literally designed as a place for people to go and spend money.

At City Place there is a brewery nestled among the shops with things I can't afford and chain restruants designed by reality show chefs that scream a lot on television.  Brewzzi is part of a growing sect of microbrewing that exists because craft beer is popular now.  It's basically a resturant that brews it's own beer, not because they have a real interest in craft brewing but because the public increasingly does.

Here's the thing, they only have three regular beers on tap; a light beer, and amber and a dark beer, and they seem rather satisfied that this encapsulates the entirety of the wide world of craft brewing.  You kind of get the feeling that they might be missing the point, but it might be my personal geek-snobbery finding a target at which to be snobbishly snobbish.

In addition to their three regular beers, they have a rotating selection of two additional beers which I believe exist to keep beer snobs like me somewhat happy.  I get the feeling that those are the two beers where the brewmaster get's to roll up his sleeves and get creative with some grain.  Ideally I would have tried all five of their beers, but they don't have a tasters flight of beers.  They will pour a sample of any beer you request, but the servers get downright irate if you ask for a sample of each.  So I went with the following three, both of the rotating beers they have on tap along with one of their three regular beers.

Hurricane Hefe: This is a Belgian wheat beer with the tell-tale bannana clove aroma.  The flavor is about the same with just a bit of spice and a fairly strong hop presence in the back of the palate.  It's pretty good, but the herbal hops in the back just seem out of place and they kind of clash.

Belgian Double:  This beer has a rasin caramel aroma.  The flavor is malty with a kind of cider flavor up front with some very slight nutty notes mixed in as well.  It ends suprisingly dry with a bitter coffee flavor.

Black Duke: This is their dark selection.  I have to say I was plesantly suprised by the amout of flavor in this beer.  It has a charcoal coffee aroma.  The flavor adds some liqorice notes among the standard coffee and woody flavors.  It has a creamy feel to it and is a very good beer overall.

Big Easy Brew: New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans has been on my top ten list of cities to visit for a while.  Whereas elsewhere in the country cities seem to be slowly blending together, the Crescent City stands out with a drink in hand and a defiant middle finger raised.

Jackson Square, New Orleans

 The microbrew revolution has been slow spreading to the south as I have said before.  The idea of the brewpub, a staple among the Pacific Northwest is a rarity here.  Southern microbreweries tend to focus their efforts entirely on brewing and use local bars and ale houses to get their product to consumers.

Such is the case for NOLA (New Orleans Lager and Ale) Brewing.  It is possible to go to the brewery and check out the events that they host or tour the facilities, but to actually sit  and down a few pints you have to venture out and find them hidden among the tap handles in the bars and taverns that keep this city good and liquored up.

For this I found Lagers Ale House.  As beer bars go it has a fairly decent selection.  Not the best I have ever seen, not by a long shot, but something on par with the Old Chicago franchises peppered around the cities.  It has kind of an English pub ambiance and some pretty good Cajun fare.  All in all, it was a pretty nice place to hang out.  And here's what I found about NOLA.

NOLA Blonde: This is NOLA's flagship beer and the first beer they introduced when they started their business.  It's a pretty standard light ale, no aroma to speak of off the top.  The flavor is light with slightly more herbal bitterness then expected. Nothing all that exiting, but a pretty good, drinkable session beer.

Forground: NOLA Hopitoulus, Background: Hopzilla

NOLA Brown:  I liked this one because this brewery managed to pump quite a bit of flavor into a style that is unfortunately known for a lot of light, watery beers.  Chocolate, caramel and berry dominate the aroma. The flavor is very Malty with hints of chocolate, raspberry and a little roasted barley bite on the back and a creamy texture all the way down.   All in all a nice darkish beer.

NOLA Hopitoulus: We're getting into IPA territory now.  The Hopitoulus has a light citrus  hop aroma.  The flavor starts malty combined with a little citrus.  Pine and herbal hops eventually dominate and finish off the flavor profile.  Overall I like the balance on this beer, or at least I liked the balance a hell of a lot more then it's big brother...

NOLA Hopzilla: The aroma is slightly fruity aroma with hop overtones.  The flavor presents just lightly sweet off the top but, well... ever bite into a hot pepper?  You know that delay that happens where you take a bite and declare, "See?  It's not that hot!"?  You know, right before you frantically search for bread and milk?  This beer is like that with IBU's instead of capsaicin oil.  This beer is a  hop nuclear bomb.  By the end the flavor is nothing but intense spicy, herbal hop flavors that last almost until morning.  Approach with caution.

Next week I hop over to Florida for a few pints, it is my hope that I will have the taste of hops out of my mouth by then.  Seriously, it's freaking bitter, people.

Cheers!

Southern Hospitality: Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas

This is a slightly different post to start off the new year. Still on the road for a two-week long jaunt, and finding time to hammer something out is a challenge. Still found enough beer to talk about here in New Orleans and I wanted to get something written.

There's a specific brewery Ill talk about next week. For now here is a Southern Sampler from Lager's Ale House in New Orleans:

Parish Brewing, Canebreak Wheat: Parish is a fairly new brewery out of Broussard, Louisiana with only two beers currently available, their Canebreak Wheat Ale and their Grand Reserve Barleywine. Their wheat ale has a malty caramel aroma. The flavor is clean and very drinkable. Its fairly malty with a light hint of citrus.

Lazy Magnolia, Southern Pecan: The next beer is from Kiln Mississippi. Thier website claims this as the firs beer to use pecans in the brewing process; a hell if a claim in the eccentric microbrew culture if the United States, but a valid one. The South, the love them some pecans. They do things different in the South, and this is a good example of that. It has a nice sweet earthy aroma. The flavor is very different, it has a slightly malty start with a bitter woody flavor that ends very dry. A great beer for those who like the novelty of strange brews.

Saint Arnold Brewery, Fancy Lawnmower Kolch: Lastly, from Houston, Texas, we have a light, German style summer beer. It starts with a very very light lemon aroma. The flavor contains light malt sweetness with just a hint of lemon grass for a citrusy herbal feel. It's a very simple, but nice refreshing lighter beer.

Cheers for now. Stay tuned for a couple more dispatches from the American South.

Georgia Sampler: Atlanta, Georgia

Last week, (or whenever this actually gets published.  It's been a bit of a struggle as of late) I went on my little tirade about the difference in brewing culture here in the South.  For more details go to the last post but, suffice to say the idea of the brewpub hasn't really caught on here.  There are tons of local breweries, however, and the best place to find them is a put like the Midway Pub in East Atlanta.

The Midway pub has a lot to offer anyone that happens to find themselves thirsty in this part of Atlanta.  There is a large outdoor seating area, lots of good food and just a cool all-around atmosphere.  They do however cater heavily to beer lovers saying, "True beer lovers are not elitists. They know that all beers matter and they're all wonderful. There are Old Milwaukee Tall Boy days, Belgian-High-Gravity-in-a-Snifter days and all manners in between."
I've got old friends in Eugene that would disagree heavily with this statement, but I like the sentiment none-the-less.  
Their beer list is pretty extensive.  The vast majority are only available in bottles, and there are around 20 beers on tap at any given time, including a fairly large selection of local brews.  Listed below were the local beers they had on tap during my visit, over the course of two visits I managed to hit all of them, I think. 

Let there Be Light!

Wild Heaven Breweries
Let There Be Light.
Wild Heaven is a beer that specializes in full-bodied, high octane beer.  This particular beer is the exception and is listed as the only session beer from this particular brewery.  There is a light citrus flavor to accompany a medium body and malt profile.  The hops are fairly light and make for an extremely drinkable beer.

Sweetwater Brewery
420
An extra pale ale from this brewery, this beer comes out light gold with a citrusy aroma.  The malt is very light with a touch of lemongrass flavor.  The hops are mostly pine and floral hops.  The hops are well balanced by the malt and the beer finishes slightly sweet.


Red Brick Brewery
Hoplanta
This one comes out cloudy and kind of a dark yellow with a very light hoppy aroma.  There is not much in the way of malt here and the flavor is dominated by floral hops.

Terrapin Brewery
Hopsicutioner
A fairly well-balanced beer that still packs a lot of hop flavor.  It is light gold in color with a lemon aroma.  Lots of citrus and malt off the top.  The flavor profile gradually moves to more floral hops and ends dry with a kind of bitterness you can feel in the back of your throat.  On a side note it might be worth it to seek out a bottle if only for the label.  I'm not above buying a beer at least once for the label and I dare someone to argue that this one isn't cool. 



Dogfishhead
Aprihop
Okay not a local beer, but I honestly couldn't resist.  Those that follow beer culture have almost all heard of this Delaware brewery famous for the strange and unusual.  I stopped by one of their locations back in September.   This beer, following their standard operating procedure, is just slightly bizarre, but wonderful.  It's apricot aroma is very light, but it exists in there.  It starts sweet and fruity.  The apricot is obviously there, but not overpowering and it slowly gives way to floral hops.

Monks Mead.
Monks is currently Georgia's first and only producer of mead a style of alcohol that very slowly gaining in number around the country.  This particular example is slightly carbonated and closer to the dry side of the spectrum, but only just slightly.  It has a yeasty aftertaste that I didn't personally like as well as others, but it also wasn't overly sweet.

That's it from the American South.  As of now I'm back in the Midwest for a while, getting reacquainted with home.  In the next few I get to travel the back roads of Iowa.  There is no cellphone coverage, but there is beer and wine strangely enough.

Just a wee bit different: North Carolina

Just as the title suggests, I'm doing something kind of new in this post.  It seemed almost necissary given my regional subject matter as of late.  Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I am used to a different system of microbrew distribution; a brewpub model if you will.  By that I mean that most every brewery operates a bar that's primary function is to sell beer directly to the customers.  Many breweries also bottle beer and and a few even manage to get their beer on tap at other local bars and restraunts, but the epicenter of the operation is at the brewery itself. 

Well, as is so often the case, they do things differently down South.


As I mentioned a couple of posts back, New Liberty in Myrtle Beach offers tours through their facility, but don't sell a whole lot of beer on sight.  The vast majority of their sales come from bottled (or canned) beer sold to the customers through specialty shops and grocery stores and from a select group of restaurants and bars.

So once again I ventured to the Liberty Tap Room in Myrtle Beach, SC.  The Liberty Tap Room is part of a chain with several locations in South Carolina.  The specialize in regional and local fare and act as lightning rod for the resurgence of microbrewing in the area.  The result is large selection of beer from all over the South.  Their Myrtle Beach location became a favorite hangout of mine during my time there.  The food there was always excellent, the atmosphere was relaxing and the staff was extremely friendly. 

The downside to this system is the fact that the amount of beer they have from one particular brewery is rather limited.  For example, today I am throwing a spotlight on a little brewery in Asheville, North Carolina.  The Highlands Brewing Company's website boasts five different beers and five additional seasonal beers available.  Liberty had only two on tap.... so it will be a rather short post.

Gaelic Ale: Little to no aroma on this one, but the flavor really sneaks up on ya.  It's an amber ale with a body of a much bigger beer.  Lots of caramel and chocolate with a creamy mouthfeel to go with it.  It ends with just moderate bitterness. 

Oatmeal Porter: The very first thing I notice about this beer is the smoky aroma and flavor along with a slightly woody flavor.  As I continued a lot more of the malty sweetness, coffee and chocolate flavors started to become more apparent.  It ends with just a little floral hop flavor.

That's all from me for now.  I've got one more dispatch from the South before I return to Yankee territory this time from Atlanta, Georgia. 
Until then, Cheers!

Wine of the Carolina Coast: South Carolina, North Carolina

This post is a little odd.  The Southeastern United States actually has an impressive number of wineries.  Driving back home from this area of the country is always a bit of an exercise in willpower as a seemly endless stream of billboards advertising nearby wineries pass by on the Interstate.  But all of that is mostly inland around the Appalachians.  In the coastal area choices are a little harder to find, but not impossible provided you are armed, as I was, with Google maps, a GPS device and a determination that boarders on a mental disorder.  With that in mind:
 
Boardwalk Winery:


Boardwalk Winery

The first stop is in a tourist-aimed area known as the Boardwalk.  It has all the trappings one would expect; restaurants, bars, a small amusement park and various other trappings for out-of-towners.  The winery itself is located in a docked boat... or at least a building that is built to resemble one.  Apparently it is against state law in South Carolina to offer free samples of alcohol, so wine tasting costs $5 here and they let you pick six different wines to sample.  Their wine list is quite expansive at first glance.  A closer look reveals that they offer the same wines in various levels of sweetness.  For example, you can buy a bottle of the Blueberry wine in three different sweetness levels:  Semi-dry, Semi-sweet and Sweet.  The latter probably should be followed by an insulin shot, just to give you an idea of the relative scale we are talking about.  Unless you like your wine so sweet that it boarders on alcoholic Kool-Aid, Semi-Sweet is probably as far down on that scale you will want to go.  Here were my selections:

High tide: Carmel and dark fruit aroma.  Lots of spicy pepper and smokey flavors and tobacco.  It lacks a lot of the body of a really good red wine, but it's not bad.  I was informed that the grapes are grown on old tobacco fields and that was how the grapes developed their smoky tobacco flavor.  I'm sceptical, but it's a good story so I will keep it.

Merlot: A young, un-oaked Merlot.  Very strange.  Has almost none of the usual flavors associated with a Merlot.  It has a very fruity aroma.  Lots of raspberry, blueberry and dark cherry flavors.  Almost none of the dryness that is usually associated.  Keep in mind that this is this wineries version of a dry wine.



Gewurztaminer (Semi-dry): Citrus herbal peach aroma.  This is sweeter again, but I kind of enjoyed this wine.  There was it there was some peach and citrus and I picked up some herbal notes that made me think green tea or something.



Resling (Semi-dry): Citrus pear and grapefruit aroma.  Like the others, this was mostly sweeter with lots and lots of fruit.



Blueberry (Semi-sweet): Made with South Caroline blueberries with a little sugar added for sweetness.  A bit of caramel and sour fruit accompany the blueberry flavors in this wine.



Endless Summer (Semi-sweet): This one is a blend of mango and peach wine.  This one borders on a dessert wine. The flavor is pretty self-explanatory.  I wish I could talk about the levels and levels of flavor that I noted, but they just aren't there.  Peach and mango... simple.

Mango: There is a medium and a sweet version of this and I tried the sweet version.  And it is sweet. It pours like syrup and it tastes like someone took a slice of mango and dipped it in sugar.    It would probably be wonderful drizzled over ice cream, but by itself... just not for me.



Carolina Winery:

This Winery is so similar to the Boardwalk Winery, that I thought this was the Boardwalk winery location in North Myrtle Beach. They both share the same specialty in sweet and fruit wines, they have a similar system of adding sugar in different grades,they are both located in tourist shopping and dining centers in each city and they even give the sheet of information about their wines look strikingly similar.  They do offer slightly different wines, but that's about the only difference.

Merlot: I can't be sure without doing a side by side taste test, but this tasted exactly like the wine at Boardwalk.



Amythist: This did not appear at the other winery, this is a blend of Merlot and elderberry wine.  Lots of fruit flavors with just a hint of pepper and some herbal notes that made me think of mint or peppermint.



Syrah: Smokey fruity and peppery.  It had a lot of same tobacco notes that I noted in the High Tide.



Elderberry: I've never actually had an elderberry, and I kind of assumed some of the flavors I couldn't identify in the Amethyst was a product of this fruit, but I'm not so sure now.  This had a sour cherry, raspberry flavor with some caramel sweetness.



Crescent Moon: A chardonnay, peach wine blend.  It had a very crisp refreshing mouthfeel.  Peach more or less dominated the flavor profile, I didn't taste any acidic or buttery notes I usually associate with chardonnay.



Southern Belle: Peach and plum wine mix.  This had a very creamy, rich mouthfeel that had me thinking about peaches and ice-cream.  The plum wine added some body and some caramel and dark fruit notes to the peach wine.


La Belle Armie:

La Belle Armie Vineyard
It was time to head farther North and get out of the cities and into wine country proper... such as it was.  This particular winery had it's own eccentricity, though. It's not unusual in my experience for a winery to specialize in a particular style, but this winery specializes in a single grape varietal.

Anyone that didn't grow up in the South has probably never heard of the Muscadine grape.  They are a type of grape native to the Southern United States and is really the only grape they can grow in the climate around the coast of South Carolina.  They are good eaten strait of the vine (or so I am told, I would need to be here around September to find out first hand) or made into a variety of different wines.

In total they make eight different wines using the Muscadine varietal.  I sampled four of them.  The all share a similar flavor profile: sweet pear or peach flavors combined with earth and nutty notes, and vary mostly in color and sweet vs dry.  For example: The Southern Gentleman is a drier rose' as opposed to the Goddess which has quite a bit more sweetness and a lighter color.  All four were fantastic, and defiantly unique.  It's hard to describe the unique flavor in words alone; it probably should be experienced to be truly appreciated.


Outside of their speciality, they do produce other wines as well.  I found myself so engrossed in the Muscadine, that I really didn't spend a lot of time with the others, but I did try a couple:

Heavenly Body: A dry red Cabernet. I picked up a lot of pepper, lots of dark cherry and acidic qualities.

Poor Bastard: La Belle's Merlot.  Lots of spice, acid, dark fruit and an incredibly dry finish.  Still doesn't have the body of most merlot and it has considerably more sour fruit flavor than I am accustomed to. 



One additional interesting fact about this vineyard, you're going to hear the word, "bitch" thrown around a lot, mostly by the two women behind the counter talking about wine and the incredible health benefits of muscadine grapes.  Although to be fair, the word is probably more accurately written as, "B.I.T.C.H"; as in Babes In Total Control of Herself (or Babes in Total Control of Him, depending on the situation.).  That's just a single example of the 'education' I received at this winery.

Silver Coast Winery:
I decided to visit one more location while I was in the area.   I continued even farther North and  crossed the border into North Carolina.  It's been an interesting trip.  They do a lot of things differently in the South and I suppose that it's only fitting that wine be one of those.  However there was something familiar about Silver Coast.  Maybe it was the fact that my desire for a full-bodied dry red wine was finally satisfied.  Maybe it was the fact that they kept the residual sugars below a level shared by most cola products.  Although that is not to say that it wasn't without it's little surprises:



Seyval Blanc: A crisp, semi-sparkling white wine. I picked up citrus, melon and grapefruit notes.  It is a very smooth wine with a sweet, refreshing finish.



Rose: A blend of several different varietals, I picked up sour fruit, citrus, strawberry.  Pretty good balance between acidic and sweet flavors.



White Merlot: A bit of a misnomer, the wine is actually closer to a rose' or a blush in terms of color.  This wine picks up these qualities because they only allow the wine to sit on the rinds and seeds for a little over a day before they are removed.  The result is a lighter, crisper version of a Merlot.  It still has many characteristics, I picked up some pepper, leather and dark fruit notes, but it lacks a lot of the dryness and body associated with a merlot.



Georgia Merlot: A lot like the white merlot but more so.  This one comes out with a lot of body and finishes a lot drier.  It packs in a little more peppery flavors as well as some chocolate and cherry flavors.



Touriga (Cape Fear Blood Wine): Remember the surprises I was talking about?  Here it is. I am finishing with this one, and it might be my favorite of the entire tour.  The blood grape is a varietal that originates in Portugal.  It is so named because unlike other grapes that have a clear juice when the grape is first squeezed, the juice of the blood grape is dark red.   The wine has a lot of earthy qualities along with smoke, black pepper plum and cherry and finishes very dry.

Still have a couple of dispatches to go from Dixieland before I head back up to Yankee territory.  Until then, cheers!

Beer on the Beach: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

From the Northwest to the Midwest and into the South. This week I'm in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

When it comes to craft brewing the south is still fairly spare especially away from the main cities. At the beach there is really only one game in town, New South Brewing Company.

This posts covers the beers sampled over a couple of days.  First at the Liberty Tap Room and then samples during a tour of the actual brewery.  I'll get more into the Liberty Tap room in a future post; for now I will just say this.  If you like beer and your in the Myrtle Beach area, this is your destination.  On the New South Brewing Company.

New South Brewing Company, Myrtle Beach SC.

New South doesn't have a pub on sight, rather they sell kegs to local restaurant and can the rest for sale directly to local customers.  They do run fairly regular tours.  They take an hour or so and they give out a few samples of the beer they have on tap.  Currently on the menu during my visit were:

New South IPA and White Ale

New South White Ale: A beer inspired by Blue Moon, or at least remarkably similar to it. There is a marked difference in the aroma, it contains a lot more of the tropical fruit Belgian yeast characteristics. Flavor is sweeter with wheat bread flavor and a slight amount of citrus with a fizzy mouthfeel.

Bourbon barrel aged Porter. Sweet fruity aroma mixed with whiskey. The flavor is not too heavy on the flavors from the barrel and mixes well with the chocolate, cherry and coffee. Finishes slightly dry and bitter.

New South Brown Ale: Pretty simple flavor profile. There are lots of coffee and chocolate in the aroma and in the flavor. This one also finishes with a load of English bitter hops.  It's that kind of bitter that you really don't taste in the profile as much as you feel it in the aftertaste.

I sampled the following beers at the Liberty Tap Room:

New South IPA: The aroma of this IPA has lemon grass, grass and pine hops filling it. The flavor has a lot if malt to back it up... one could even argue that it is too much. Herbal and pine hops come through at the end with a dry bitter finish that reminds me of an English IPA.

New South Stout

New South Stout:  This was the current seasonal selection from the brewery.  Sweet roasted grain and chocolate aroma.  Full-bodied and creamy mouthfeel with the typical chocolate, coffee flavors.  Like most of New South's brews it also ended with a strange bitter flavor at the end of the palate.  It works fine with most of their beers, but I don't really like that quality in a stout.

New South Red Ale: Floral hop aroma.  Starts off with sweet caramel on the palate before a load of pine and floral hops really hits.  Maybe a little hoppy for the style, but pretty good overall.

I'm actually stranded in the South for a good amount of time for the next few weeks.  It is proving to be quite a learning experience all around.
Cheers!