Well I'm also in to beer and have been to many loca breweries as well as ones in england and out west
Here is a little snipit from a beer new letter from the Package store i go to
""Belgian Beer Tasting at My Place Restaurant (Newtown) Tuesday, March 8th at 7:00 p.m. Mark Tambascio has resurrected our regular beer tasting events which will be run bi-monthly. Our guest speaker will be Greg Glazer--author, beer traveler and bon vivant. We will be tasting Belgian styled beers, mostly from Belgium with a couple of Belgian styled U.S. “ringers� thrown in. If you have attended these sessions, you know we taste the beers blind, discussing style and flavor profiles. It is informative and fun and Mark and I try to find the rare and exotic beers that many of you haven’t had a chance to try. The cost is $35 per person which includes food and at least 12 different beers. Seating is limited so please contact Mark directly at
[email protected].
Troutbrook Brewery Tasting at Mountview Plaza Wines & Liquors, Friday March 25th from 5 – 8 p.m.. Stop in and meet brewer Paul Davis who will be tasting two vintages of the Hooker Liberator Doppelbock and two vintages of the Old Marley Barleywine Ale (2005 just released). Stop by and meet one of CT’s top brewers and see how these serious endeavors from Troutbrook age.
Eleventh Annual CT Craft Brewer’s Beer Festival Sat. May 21, 2005 “under the bigtop� at Jesse Camille’s Restaurant. Same format and cost as in past years ($25 for all beer and two food items�hamburgers or hot dogs). There should be around 40 different breweries/brewpubs offering over 100 different craft brewed beers. Participating breweries will be updated to our website (wineCT.com/Mountview) in April. Live music will be provided with the event starting at 5 p.m. winding down around 9:00 p.m. Tickets go on sale April 1st . All proceeds go to the Camille Perugini Memorial Trust Fund which awards college scholarships to deserving high school students in the Waterbury area.
New Arrivals
While there are not a lot of new arrivals this time of year, there are some very interesting items.
United States
Extreme Coastal Brewing (Newport Storm) Limited Edition 2004 (RI)
Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA (DE)
Harpoon Union Street Revival Ale “100 BBL Series� – Limited (MA)
Magic Hat HIPA (VT)
New England Brewing 3 Judges Barleywine 12% abv (CT)
Olde Burnside Dirty Penny “Scottish Black & Tan� in 64oz growlers (CT)
Ommegang Cave Aged Abbey Ale, very limited (NY)
Rogue XS Series Imperial Pale Ale, Russian Imperial Stout & Old Crustacean in
750ml ceramic bottles (OR)
Sam Adams Black Lager & White Ale (MA)
Saranac IPA (NY)
Troutbrook’s Liberator Doppelbock & Old Marley Barleywine 2005 (CT)
Victory V-12, 12% strong Belgian golden (PA)
Imports
J..W. Lee’s Manchester Star, 1884 Baltic Porter recipe, arriving mid- March (UK)
J.W. Lee’s Harvest Ale Barleywine 2003 & 2004, arriving mid- March (UK)
Schwelmer Hefeweizen & Pils (Germany)
Lammin Kataja Olut (Finland)
Beer News
At long last Olde Burnside’s Dirty Penny Ale, a blend of their Ten Penny Scottish Ale and an Irish stout brewed at their brewery in East Hartford, has been released in 64 oz. Growlers. This is a great session beer. If you haven’t tried it (previously it has been only available on draft), I highly recommend it. One note of caution on Olde Burnside’s beers, if you buy their growlers or 1.0L swing top seasonals, you must keep them refrigerated. These are bottle conditioned and will begin refermentation is left at room temperature for a period of time.
Mattias Neidhart of B. United International has (as always) a lot of interesting beers on the horizon. First out will probably be the long awaited reserve beers from DeDolle Brouwers. Both the Oerbier Reserva and Dulle Teve Reserva, aged in oak casks, should be arriving in early April. These brews have been aged since last fall and should be very interesting. Kep problem�very limited amounts are being imported. If you want some, pre-porders are strongly recommended. They will be in small bottles and probably retail for around $4.99. Some other beers in the works: Uerige Double Sticke (specifically designed for B. Untied International); Cassissona from Italy [
http://www.birrificio.it/ENGLISH/cassissona.htm ]; the new (old) DeDolle Brouwers Oerbier with its prior sweet-sour lactic flavor profile (the brewer has bas been working on the yeast strain to get back to their old styled beers); Klosterbrauerei’s Ettal Dunkel and Herzoglich-Bayerisches Brauhaus am Tegernsee’s Helles. Mark Tambascio at My Place Restaurant is working with Matthias to set up a B. United International Spring Portfolio Tasting in May (tentatively May 10th)
Several beers which I had expected to arrive have failed to materialize because of my distributors’ failure to order them. These include: Tremont’s Old Scratch Barleywine Ale, Flying Dog’s Imperial Pale Ale (available in the eastern half of the state, however), and DeKoninck’s Winter Ale. Hopefully they will get on board the next time around for these beers. My apologies but there is nothing I can do if my distributors don’t order beers.
On another sad note, Dogfish Head’s Burton Baton (featured at the CT Real Ale Festival) will not be coming to CT this time around. Although some cases had been earmarked for CT, the beer was not registered in time and CT’s allocation was given to another state. Hopefully next time…
More bad news…the producers of Mestreech Aajt, a terrific Flemish sour red style ale, have decided not to purchase/replace their old barrels. Therefore, there will not be any more of this beer brewed. There are about 20 cases left at the importers and I am trying to get a couple for the store. If you haven’t tried this beer, do so. It is the closest thing I have tasted to Rodenbach Grand Cru (although a bit lighter in body). There are also kegs available.
I am now able to get Anchor Steam Beer in logs (1/6 bbl.) for home use. I am working to convince my distributor to keep these regularly in stock but it’s an uphill battle. The initial feedback on the ones sold so far is terrific (how could it not be!).
There is a good possibility that NJ’s Horse River Brewery’s beers will be coming to CT. Discussions continue with Middle Ages Brewery as well. I will keep you posted.
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