biking and beers

Teri and I got out of work early on Friday being that the office was about empty anyway. We headed to Mad Fox for some good food and beer. My first beer was their Defender APA on cask which is one of my favorites. I also brought home another growler of Orange Whip IPA.

Then on Saturday Teri and I rode bikes to ChurchKey for a few beers. It was a nice ride there and not too overwhelmingly hot. Here are the beers I sampled at the bar:

Oliver's Cask Punk (dry-hopped w/ Amarillo and Citra Hops in the Cask)

Pratt st. Ale House - English IPA - 7% - full glass

Snake Dog on cask

Flying Dog - American IPA - 7.1%

The Public

DC Brau - American Pale Ale - 6%

Face Plant IPA

Lost Rhino - American IPA - 6.2%

Blanda Drops (blend of 4 different Haandbryggeriet ales)

Haandbryggeriet - Belgian Dark Ale - 5%

Aphrodite (Brett beer w/ raspberries and pears added in fermentation)

Ommegang - saison - 8.9%

120 Minute IPA (hopped for 2 hours, dry-hopped in fermenter for 1 month then aged one month on flower hops)

Dogfish Head - Imperial IPA - 18%

I believe I'm missing one of the beers I tried because their menu is out of date. Teri had a nice saison flight and a belgian blonde flight. We split the 18% 120 Minute so we could still bike home.

Lots of great tastes. We tried the cheese board for the first time. The bartender did a good job pairing the three cheeses with three beers. A smoked beer was paired with the cheddar. The Aphrodite was paired with a creamy cheese. And the last mild blue cheese was paired with some beer I can't remember. We watched the first half of the Manchester United vs Barcelona soccer game that was going on here in DC. Then we rode back to my place to watch the second half.

I think the Aphrodite was our favorite beer of the day.

Smuttynose tasting

Rustico in Ballston had a Smuttynose event with beers previously unavailable in the area and the brewer in attendance. Five minutes before 5:00 I escaped from the office and ran home so I could get a decent seat for this lineup. After a bike ride home and a refreshing shower I was able to get a seat at the bar not much after 5:45.

My first round I got a full serving of the Smuttynose A'muttonator '08. It is a dunkles doppelbock at 9.6% ABV. I’m a fan of dunkle beers which is a big reason why I started with this one. Then I noticed a dunkles doppelbock from Duck-Rabbit so I ordered a sample of the Duck-Rabbitor which comes in at 8.5% for a comparison.

For the next round I got three sample size tastings of strong ales. There was the New Holland Beethoven Triple at 9%. And the Epic Brainless on Cherries which is a Belgian strong ale with cherries at 10.8%. And the third one was the Smuttynose Homuculus '11. It is a Belgian strong blonde at 9% and is the debut of this beer in Virginia.

The third round was another mix of samples. First was the Smuttynose Wheat Wine at 12% ABV. It was a great beer, quite mellow; I didn’t taste any alcohol at all. The Smuttynose Gravitation '09 was another good one. There are 200 lbs of raisin puree added to each batch which provided that grape taste. I thought the raisins and aging brought out a very wine like character. The third was the Smuttynose Imperial Stout at 10.1%. It was dry hopped with Cascade pellets then matured with Cascade & Columbus whole flowers. It was very good, hard to say why, maybe because it is a dark beer without the roasted aftertaste?

The last round was an Oskar Blues G'Knight Imperial Red/Double IPA at 8.7% ABV. It was on cask which made it that much better. The Oskar Blues beers are full of favor and I assume they all would taste great from a cask.

Before I left I noticed Tom hanging out at the bar who used to hook me up at my local Whole Foods. I haven’t seen him for awhile and it sounds like he is inbetween jobs. He said if he hooks up the job he is lining up I’ll get 30% off my beer in the future. I’m crossing my figures for him!

Tuesday Tapping

On some Tuesdays Mad Fox will tap a new beer that isn’t currently on their rotation. Often its either a new beer or one they haven’t had in awhile. Previously Teri and I have hit up the Tuesday Tapping of their Strawberry Blonde. On this Tuesday they were tapping their very popular Orange Whip IPA. From what Bill and his bartenders tell me this is by far their customer favorite. The citrus hops give it that very citrus taste. As has been mentioned before on this blog I believe the reason he doesn’t brew it more often is the lack of citrus hops on the market.

I did the metro/bike combo a few weeks ago during the Mad Fox 1st Anniversary. They had some special food, some special beer, and a band playing that weekend. They had 250 1st Anniversary glasses that they gave out and went quick. It was a hot day but I took the metro to Falls Church and rode my bike the rest of the way. It was a short metro and bike ride. That day I hung out with a home brewer and ran in to Teri who was there to pick up a growler.

I did the metro/bike combo again today. It only takes about 35 minutes or less to metro or bike the whole way. It was crowded and there wasn’t any room at the bar. I asked to share a bar table and met an F1 fan and biker. The best part of the night was getting a growler of Orange Whip IPA for less than my pint. Their Tuesday Tapping special is half price on growler fills. The 2 liters of Orange Whip I took home only cost $5. Not bad for one of my favorite beers.

I was tempted to ride all the way home but I did jump on the metro. Now I’m enjoying an Orange Whip IPA at home in my Mad Fox 1st Anniversary glass. Having access to such great beer is a wonderful thing.

riding free

I wish I was a kid again...

Take Away The Worry

a couple fine fruit beers

On Tuesday’s Mad Fox often taps a new beer. On this Tuesday they tapped their first ever fruit beer. It took Teri and I forever to get there because a truck full of hay caught fire on I-66. Not too many people were there although they said the beer had been popular that day. It is a wheat beer made with strawberries called Strawberry Blonde. It was very mellow and refreshing. Perfect for the sweltering summer days. It reminded me of 21st Amendment’s Hell or High Watermelon Wheat that Teri was drinking at Super Ball. Probably because they are both wheat beers. Bill’s Strawberry Blonde was excellent though and I took home a growler fill. Teri dropped me off at the metro and took off to Michelle’s.

Once home I jumped on my bike and headed to ChurchKey. I hadn’t ridden my bike in the dark much yet this season. They had sent out a tweet earlier that day about tapping Founder’s Blushing Monk. This is a very special beer by Founder’s. They last brewed it in 2007 and it has been highly requested since. It is a Belgian Raspberry Ale made with real raspberries. It is 9.2% ABV. It was not as sweet as the Lindemans Framboise of course. It had the perfect carbonation. A bit of a tart after taste. It was very good. You could tell it was made with real raspberries. Definitely a sipping beer.

The next beer I had was DC Brau’s The Corruption. It was excellent. Dry hopped I think. I wonder if it was so tasty because of its freshness being a DC beer?

When I went back out to my bike I had a flat tire. Not exactly what you want to fix after a few beers in the evening. I’ve gotten quick at it though on my road bike and was riding home in no time. I had stage 4 of the Tour de France to watch that night.

4th of July

Teri, Matt, and I went to the office to watch the fireworks after driving home from Super Ball. Robie and his family were supposed to be there. I was worried about who else might be there. Thankfully no one was there other than Robie’s clan. I met his son Robie and saw his brother Jodie again. All their kids were there. Teri, Matt, and I hung out in my office while drinking beers and eating some chips and dip. It is the perfect view. It was amazing how many other firework shows we saw. Pretty much from 8:30 on there were fireworks non-stop on the horizon. It was really cool to see. I wish I had a camera set up to take a time lapse shot. You would see fireworks across the whole horizon all at once.

The DC fireworks were nice. A few seemed to go off pretty low. Lots of shaped fireworks such as hearts. It seemed like a lot of fireworks over the 15 or 20 minute period. The river was full of boats as usual. Our location in Rosslyn was perfect because we didn’t have to deal with all the crowds. We decided to walk back. Teri attempted to take the metro but gave up when she saw the line of people waiting to get in. Next year maybe I’ll bike down to the mall again.

Picture by Kevin Ambrose of the Washington Post

Phish Super Ball IX

The big three day Phish festival called Super Ball IX came quick with lots of events preceding it the last few weeks. I think I originally planned to drive up on Thursday but because of the lack of planning we ended up taking off early Friday morning. Matt was coming in from Spain and because I was supposed to leave during the day on Thursday he got a ride from Brent who came from PA to pick him up. Opps. Teri and I drove up an acquaintance who had to work Thursday night. The new plan was to leave at 6am Friday morning. The first set was scheduled for 7:30 that evening. We wanted to plan for a long line getting in and some time to set up camp. At the last minute I found out that we could not take the charcoal grill we wanted to use to cook. I also found out it was a good thing we got canned beer because bottles were not allowed.

While I was waiting outside to get picked up Teri was waking up late. She jumped in her car and headed over to my place from her new Crystal City apartment. We packed up all my gear and the cooler and set off. It was about a 5.5 hour drive on mostly secondary highways in the rural country of MD, PA, and NY. It took awhile but I was finally able to find a method to listen to the Bunny radio station on site at the concert. They were playing great tunes and giving info about the weekend and the process for getting through the gate.

I saw a few Amish folk in PA. Our 3rd person drove the last leg and was following his broken iPhone to Watkins Glen the city. We didn’t get too far before I noticed and we swung over to the race track. We were in the VIP camping site which had a special entrance on the opposite side of the track. At the first entrance we went in they pointed us around to the other side of the track. Then when we got there the cop told us they just opened another entrance and we should head that way because it would probably be quicker. We figured with his radio he knew what he was talking about but he did not. We ended up back at the entrance where they turned us around last time. So we turned around again and got back in line where the cop had been. After walking up to the front I found out that the VIP camping had its own line and we were able to get in relatively quickly. While waiting we were entertained by some guys who worked at the track and got their pickup stuck in the mud on the side of the road. The security to get in the lot was strict. You had to get out of your car and they searched it top to bottom. Lots of people were getting all of their beer and much of their food confiscated because it was in glass bottles. I saw people in line with multiple coolers full of glass bottles and they didn’t know what they were going to do with it all.

As we entered our camp ground I started making fun of some people who had to park up front next to a bunch of fire department vehicles. Then we quickly realized that we were being directed to that location. It actually turned out to be a very nice spot. Not only were we 100 feet from the entrance to the venue but we had twice as much room as most people and shade. The fire guys kept to themselves. I would have been more worried if they were cops. We got there with plenty of time to set up camp, meet our neighbors, and touch base with Matt & Brent.

I’m more equipped for backpacking rather than car camping so my tent is small and I don’t have an EZ Up canopy for cover like most festival goers. We also didn’t have a stove/grill not being allowed to take the charcoal grill. We could have easily used it without any issue. We brought enough munchies and found enough food on site. Matt said he didn’t buy anything all weekend. I loved the jalapeno cheddar hush puppies the best. Although the southern fried chicken tacos were quite good too. The jambalaya wasn’t too bad. I only had one grilled cheese the whole weekend.

Everyone was running out of power for their cell phones. There was plenty of service but not many ways to charge your battery. The guys next to us killed the battery on their SUV. There was a charging station in the venue that was usually quite full. My Solio solar charger didn’t work that well because I had to have it out in the sun at all times and I wasn’t at camp all the time. It wasn’t until Sunday that we noticed the piece of equipment next to our camp being used for either the vendors or the stage. It was a black case with a few racks of 12v outlets as well as a wifi router and a panel for some type of system adjustments. From that point on we had all the power we needed right at our camp site. Unfortunately we found it on the third day. I could have charged people money for powering up their cell phones.

The bathrooms in our VIP campground were a bit cleaner than most I think. The best part was being able to run out during the show to our bathrooms or campsite. The entrance/exit was right near the stage and our campsite. We’d go to skip the long bathroom lines in the venue or to sneak beer back in the venue. It was perfect. On Saturday I visited the executive bathroom trailer which was quite nice. It was all decked out with fake wood and fake marble and had A/C and music. Very luxurious. On Sunday I was able to be the first one in a port-o-potty after it had been cleaned. That is always a big score to get a clean port-o-potty. Teri and I both took showers right after the concert ended each night in the shower trailers. That way we had warm water and no lines and could pass out in the tent clean. It was very dirty all weekend with all the dust. During the day the lines for the showers and bathrooms could get long.

It was a great three days of music. It only sprinkled a little bit one day. Everything worked out well and the trip home with Matt went quick. Saturday was a long day of music with three scheduled sets and then a surprise late night set. Teri and I happened to be right in the middle of the action by accident when the late night set started. We hung out with Matt and Brent for a lot of the weekend. Everyone had fun with all the activities such as the waffle ball tournament, 5K run, running of the bulls, and other stuff. Our neighbors got to fourth place in the waffle ball tournament. I wish I would have gotten on the ferris wheel. Of course balls were the theme of the weekend and there were hundreds of beach balls floating around during the shows. Phish even brought out their own super huge balls during AC/DC’s Big Balls. Being that there were about 8 sets of music throughout the weekend I won’t list it all here (go here for setlists). You can see the official videos for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and a special fan based video. And of course my pics and videos.

120 Minute IPA

After what I heard on my search last Saturday I assumed there was no way I was going to get any Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA this year. Only 20 cases were supposed to come in VA (or Northern VA). So only a few lucky stores were going to get it and they were only going to get one case each. It was going to go quick so if it arrived in the middle of a week day as it was scheduled I didn’t see how I could get any. There was a limit to one bottle per person at all the places I talked to. The one Total Wine that did get it in the previous week said it sold out in two hours. I made some phone calls on Monday to see what was up but didn’t have much hope. When I called the Chantilly Total Wine they claimed to have a couple cases. I didn’t ask questions and took off during lunch to make the long drive. Once I arrived there was no 120 Minute IPA. Their case had not yet come in. They said none of the Total Wines in the area had it yet. The person on the phone must have confused it with 90 Minute or something. So on the way back I called Norm’s Beer and Wine in Vienna. I assumed theirs would go in minutes being that they are the popular non-chain beer store in the area with lots of loyal customers. The woman on the phone said that they got their case in two days ago but that not everyone had come in to pick up their bottle and they had one or two they could give away. Thirty minutes later I had my 2011 bottle of 120 Minute in my hand. Only $10 for the 12 ounces.

The next day I tried again at the McLean Total Wine. They said they were getting their case in that Tuesday. When I called at 11:00 they said the truck was there and the beer should be in the store within the hour. I showed up around 1:30 and they said I was the 15th person and that it wouldn’t last the hour. I now had my second bottle.

On Wednesday the Springfield Total Wine location was supposed to get theirs so again I went during lunch. Apparently they have a different distributor and got two cases. I was allowed to get two bottles. I gave one to Robie being that he has been talking about how much he likes 90 Minute IPA lately.

On Thursday the Alexandria location was supposed to get their two cases. I called around 10:30 and they didn’t have it yet. When Teri called around 1:30 it was all gone.

It was a lot of time and effort to get my four bottles and I figured I was very lucky to get any so I called off my search. After assuming last Saturday that I wouldn’t get any I’m happy to have three bottles for my beer stock. I’ll drink at least one now and save at least one for a few years. The third one will be opened for some special occasion. Maybe at the same time I open my 2008 bottle.