beer

Not much to report about Thanksgiving. Seemed like a short little break, but nice. I had another interesting row partner on my flight from Philly to Cleveland. She wasn't an alcoholic didn't attempt to cuddle with me. But she was really fucking cool and really cute and goes to IU. She grew up on a vineyard in the Catskills and is a singer. We had great conversation (I thought) the whole flight about our parents and whether or not Newark was the biggest NYC airport (I'm positive it is, she doubted it) and some other things. She also claimed that they never gave peanuts on flights anymore and I vehemently denied that. Then when the person came around with drinks he gave us peanuts. I asked for two extra bags and gave them to her just so she could stock up on airline peanuts. Anyway, unfortunately she's 19. I felt like a creep asking her for her number.

Moving right along, I have had quite the array of beers over the last week or so:

I had some Straub DRAFT at the Westline Inn near Bradford PA last Friday night which was fucking awesome. Straub is ok, but on draft at the Westline Inn in the middle of fucking nowhere Pennsylvania it's pretty tasty.

I had a Sierra Neveda Celebration Ale with my brother last Saturday. He brought have a case up to my grandmothers. That was enjoyable.

Then on Monday night I had a Two Hearted on draft at Encore and then a bunch of SNPA at the Vid...nothing new there.

I was layed over at Cleveland because of snow on Tuesday but luckily I was able to enjoy a bottle of Great Lake's Locktender Lager while talking with Mike Pell on the phone for about 30 minutes. It's a tasty Munich Helles style brew and he's a completely insane 27 year old whom I grew up with and whom now lives in the North Country.

On Wednesday my dad and I went clothes shopping at the outlets in Lancaster which was cool and on the way back we stopped at Victory where I had an Imperial Pint of Hop Wallop, their double IPA. I didn't really like it very much. The bitterness is way too sharp and the malt and body way too light for me. More like a triple Pilsner. Also at 9% abv perhaps the imperial pint was too much?

I then returned to Victory later that night with Adam Z., Ben W., Leigh S. and Mark R. for a beer or two before we headed into West Chester for the busiest bar night of the year: Thanksgiving eve. I had an imperial pint of the Harvest Pils, used with really fresh (like a day old) hops from New York. It was ok. Didn't really blow my socks off. I bet it's much better when the beer is really fresh. I think this ber was brewed several months ago.

Then we went to Spence Cafe in West Chester where I had a DFH 60 minute and an Arrogant Bastard and several Yuengling bottles. I have to drink at least a couple Yuenglings when I'm home.

On Thursday I didn't drink any beer. I know, I know, but we went to my Mormon relative's house in Annapolis MD and obviously they don't drink so much.

But then on Friday the drinking started in Earnest at 1:00pm. My good friend Adam Ziegler called me up and said he was going to grab some lunch if I was interested and I said hell yeah dude. We went to Murray's Deli, a new West Chester pub/deli thing on Market Street. Really cool decor etc., but the food was ok (I had a curry chicken salad sandwich and Adam had a chicken salad sandwich too) and the service was really slow, but we did get to enjoy two glasses of Magic Hat's #9 on draft which was decent. Not a great beer but it's nice that Magic Hat is available in West Chester. We then made our way to the Iron Hill brewpub where I was pleasantly surprised by their cask Strong Ale. Really nice beer.

We proceeded to Benwah's and with a mixed case of Victory bottles: Hop Wallop, Festbier, Storm King Imperial Stout and Hop Devil. That was nice. Then we went bowling and I drank a bunch more Yuengling Lager.

I brought back a 750ml bottle of Victory's Saison, a bottle of their Storm King and a precious bottle of Troeg's (Harrisburg PA) Mad Elf Christmas ale. An 11%abv Belgian dark ale brewed with Cherries. I'm going to review those here sometime soon.

All in all I'd say it was a good week for beer.