Can you feel the chill in the air? In NYC the leaves have fallen and snow is in the forecast – it’s Stout season. Stout season is wonderful how that dark beer you avoided in the hot months, suddenly becomes the brew you reach for to warm you up. Traditionally, stouts should be served at room temperature – but depending on how lazy your landlord is… room temperature can vary drastically. This week we try Left Hand Brewing Company‘s Imperial Stout – Wake Up Dead. Left Hand is a favorite (see Milk Stout below) and recently featured on hashtag battles representing the Denver Broncos. They are a favorite because the quality brews they have and continue to impress with Sawtooth on Nitro and the Fade to Black series. Winter! Dark Brews! Beer!
In the spirit of competition, Beer Friends would like to invite everyone to our second season of NFL hashtag battles! Using hashtagbattle.com we will pit two breweries against each other when their NFL counterparts are facing off on the gridiron. Are you ready for some football? And drinking? And #hashtag battle?!?!?!
What’s a hashtag battle? When you’re drinking a beer of a brewery competing in the battle, throw a #hashtag of the brewery and tweet it (or setup your foursquare or untappd to push to tweet and include the #hashtag) and we’ll use hashtagbattle.com to declare a winner after the Monday Night football game on ESPN. Support your team, support your beer, drink local and hashtag battle!
Week Five – Denver Broncos at New England Patriots (#lefthandbeer vs #samadamsbeer)
Today we revisit a favorite brewery on the Colorado Brewery Tour 2010 – Left Hand Brewing. Left Hand is moving across the US with the much anticipated (for this Beer Friend at least) Milk Stout Nitro, so in the meantime we figured we’d feature a special release as the SPotW to tide us over. Fade to Black is a great series in which Left Hand brews a dark beer with a different twist each year. Volume 1 was a Stout that poured of licorice and with a 8.5 ABV was nothing to mess with. Volume 2 was a Smoked Baltic Porter with 7.8 ABV and a decent smoky taste, and finally Volume 3, a Pepper Porter at 7.2 ABV. The ABV is a good thing because if the pepper taste doesn’t slow you down, maybe the higher ABV will. Spicy! Series beers! Metallica!
This week’s Six Pack of the Week (SPotW) comes from Longmont, Colorado, Gordon from the Oskar Blues Brewery. This was a highlight on the Colorado Brewery tour in August and most Beer Friends will jump at the chance to order a Oskar Blues beer on draft.
Throughout the review you’ll notice the Beer Friends constantly on their phones – this isn’t because we don’t care what each other is saying but more that we were trying to find out more info on Gordon. What we found out: Gordon is classified as a mixture between a Imperial Red and Double IPA BUT is now discontinued in favor of G’Knight a Imperial Red from Oskar Blues. So yeah… beer!
Recently the trend in craft brewing has been cans instead of bottles. This is a point of high contention amongst the Beer Friends and we have a 6 month running conversation about why switch to cans, why not start with cans, whats the stereotype/stigma behind cans, etc… While in Colorado we visited one of the leaders in the Craft Can Beer revolution, Oskar Blues, then hung out, took a tour and gained more ammo for the Cans vs Bottles conversation. Now Oskar Blues produces some pretty high quality beers – here is the Beer Friends take on same: (more…)
The recap of the Colorado Brewery Tour 2010 continues! This week we re-visit Longmont, Colorado – home of Left Hand AND Oskar Blues! Longmont is a great stop on the brewery tour and Oskar Blues was so great, it changed one Beer Friends mind about them.
Dale’s Pale Ale is our SPotW, a excellent hopped Pale Ale that ranks up there with the best. Enjoy!
When traveling anywhere around the Front Range area, yeah even Pueblo, try to get to Longmont to visit Left Hand Brewery. Left Hand has established itself as an excellent craft beer in Colorado AND all the way out here in NYC. Left Hand Milk Stout had a great showing in the BFFF and for good reason, it’s an excellent beer which the Beer Friends got to try on Nitro pour at the brewery’s tap room. The Beer Friends visited Left Hand and had a few beers and a really good time. Special thanks to Joshua Goldberg, the Head Bartender who provided great conversation and slung pints that would make any NYC bartender proud! (more…)
A few weeks after getting back from our Colorado Brewery Trip the Beer Friends were getting nostalgic – so we picked up a six pack of Left Hand Brewing Company‘s Sawtooth Ale. Our SPotW is Left Hand Sawtooth Ale, a excellent basic ale that’s easy on the palate – but don’t take our word for it… find your own! Beer!
This week’s Six Pack of the Week (SPotW?) is Left Hand Breweries Milk Stout. A popular pour at beer festivals and a Finalist in the first ever BFFF, this Milk Stout might be slightly out of season, but the Beer Friends can always enjoy a good dark pour! Cheers!
dingerc
Brad
Corporate Kerouac
Phil
