Bound for Beer

This post is part of a 13 part series, if you want to start from the beginning, click here . Newark and Lisbon Airports, and the First Beer of the Trip Zoigl Trip - Part 3 of 13  Back in 2020, I told my buddy Billy Ross about the weird Germany brewery hike I had planned and he enthusiastically agreed to join the excursion. And he was still in when it could finally happen in 2023.  Newark and Lisbon Airports (Not about beer, flyover if you wish) Billy wanted to fly through Portugal, we so ended up flying out of Newark. Getting there from Abington PA was a four seat journey. Relatively easy and drama free, but a trek nonetheless.  Having flown out of Newark before, I knew the food options were limited. Not only limited, but expensive, and surprisingly difficult to give them your money. Despite it being 10 hours since I last ate, I opted out. I didn’t have the energy to deal with it. They should be feeding us something on TAP Air Portugal anyway. And they did. We had a...

This post is part of a 13 part series, if you want to start from the beginning, click here . The (Zoigl) Stars Align 24 Years Later with Rich Carbonara the Beer Wanderer Zoigl Trip - Part 2 of 13 Back Story I’ve known Rich Carbonara since the early days of craft beer in Philadelphia. Back when the Philadelphia craft beer world was a small, tight community that was bound together by a great local beer press. Rich and his buddy Ed would make the drive from North Wildwood for the early Friday the Firkinteenths. Often they would crash at my place.  At that time, Rich worked summers at his family’s motel in Wildwood, and globe-trotted the rest of the year. In his travels, Rich met a lovely German lass, Doreen, and they would eventually settle in Munich.  During the 24 year run of the Grey Lodge Pub, without fail, I would send out a monthly email. Rich responded to one encouraging me to come to Munich for Oktoberfest. Rich and Doreen would be moving to Florida to be with his elderly...

  Zoigl… Whatgl?  Zoigl Trip - Part 1 of 13  I was at a gathering with a bunch of Philly craft beer legends recently. Bopping from one-on-one conversation to another, I mentioned that I just got back from a Zoigl brewery tour. Several of the craft beer gods had no idea what I was talking about. So if you’ve never heard of Zoigl, you’re in good company. If you follow this series of posts, we'll learn about this amazing beer subculture together. Decades Ago, Zoigl First Appears on My Radar The first I heard of Zoigl is when I bought  a half of Appalachian Zoigl Star Lager for the Grey Lodge Pub way, way back in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Researching what kind of beer Zoigl was led me down a Web rabbit hole, which started a travel itch that took about two and half decades to scratch. 

Here we are smack dab in the middle of Philly Beer Week 2023.  I will have posts later this week about the Hammer of Glory Relay last Friday, and Logjammin' last Saturday.  There's still loads of Philly Beer Week fun left. The full calendar of events is here: http://www.phillylovesbeer.com/copy-of-submit Here are three that caught my eye: Tue, 06 Jun Monk’s Cafe - freak folk bier Visitation - 5:00 PM Monk's Cafe is proud to introduce Ryan and Lillian of freak folk bier in Waterbury, Vermont to beer savvy Philadelphians at at 5pm on Tuesday, June 6. After reading an article about their just-opened brewery, I sent an email asking if I could swing by to chat. Ryan said he had a malt delivery coming at 9 AM the next day, so I offered to help him unload the truck. The delivery was running late and I left before it arrived. Whew! Ryan showed me his setup and we tasted a few of his beers, which were all well made.  He climbed up to his storage loft to grab a couple of bottles fo...

Philly Beer Week 2023 kicks off on Friday, 02 June with the annual Hammer of Glory Relay.  Since the second year of Philly Beer Week, the Hammer of Glory has traveled around on a set route from venue to venue until it arrived on time (usually) to tap the first keg for Philly Beer Week.  Philly Beer Week 2023 After missing two years due to Covid, the Relay returned last year. Opening Tap and Philly Beer Week as an official organization didn’t survive Covid, but Philly Beer Week lives on semi-officially.  The list of 2023 Philly Beer Week events is here. http://www.phillylovesbeer.com/copy-of-submit 2023 Hammer of Glory Relay The timetable for this year’s HOG Relay is here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vT0m25FoR3gIoLGNX0Ye58GKBVRsMj0R0b79xgi7kck0hrJ2cEzGiqyFj_OszbjVz8x1aXmd6G_vhIu/pubhtml?gid=1114866072&single=true Historically each venue tried to outdo each other and some fun times were had lemme tell ya. I look forward to seeing what everyone has in...

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. While I've done a lot of beer things and been to a lot of beer places, it didn't occur to me that I'm a beer writer again and to take pix and make notes. (Note to self: stop enjoying the moment so much and start taking pix). Posting more on this blog/socials is on now my To Do list.  What spurred this post is that I had my first (and second) Sierra Nevada Celebration of the season last night. Sometimes you go to party not expecting find great beer and you get a surprise. As if the Eagles whipping the Cowboys wasn't great enough.  Sierra Nevada Celebration is an old school favorite. I always knew it as a seasonal treat that showed up in Philly around Xmas. Doing a little Googling (great link below), I was shocked that Celebration has been brewed for over 40 years! At some point they renamed from "Celebration Ale" to "Celebration Fresh Hop IPA".  It was only last year that I learned it was, and always has been, a fr...

There were 7 Trappist breweries, which back in the late 1990s, seemed like how it always was and always would be. And to be fair, back then the youngest Trappist, Orval, dated to 1931. Nothing had changed for a long time.   Here in the USA, due to a variety of factors, Trappist beers were rather expensive, special occasion beers. Filled with mystery and legend to match their out of the ordinary flavors. But times always be a changin (eventually). Between 2012 and 2016, 5 more Trappist breweries opened up, usually in countries not known for Trappist beer.  The most recent, from 2016,  is Tynt Meadow, from Mount St Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire, England. Imported by Merchant du Vin, Tynt Meadow is now available here in the USA. This arrival was met with silence for the most part. This only crossed my radar, when I saw a post from Hopleaf Bar in Chicago. I figured if nobody else seemed to be writing about it, why not me? Photo from Wikipedia by Funkimunk - Own work, C...