I’m sure you remember Luca Brasi, the coffee beer we made a while back.  Right around the time that beer was in the tank I found myself at Flying Fish to steal some yeast and Casey gave me a sneak preview of the Exit 13, their chocolate beer.  I tasted it and though “wow, this and Luca would make a great  South Jersey Mocha.”  So the next week I brought a half of a firken of Luca to Cherry Hill and we topped it off with Exit 13.  We also threw in some cocoa nibs and whole vanilla beans, then primed it with some actively fermenting Flying Fish Grand Cru just to add another twist.  We’ll be serving this firkin (dubbed “Jersey’s Finest”) here at the ‘Hill on Saturday Janurary 15th at noon.  Casey and I will be on hand to chat, give tours and of course drink some beer.  We’ll also be tapping  unadulterated sixtels of  both Luca Brasi and Exit 13, plus Casey will be bringing a sixtel of Grand Cru (at my request, it’s one of my favorite beers of the season).  Lastly we’ll have a firkin of “Half-Caff” on the beer engine.  It’s the Luca Brasi aged on the whole coffee beans, but without the addition of the cold press coffee extract.  I’m expecting a toned down version of Luca.  Of course we’ll be offering a sampler of all 5 beers. Anyhow I’m looking forward to it.  Flying Fish threw us a “welcome to New Jeresey” party in our own restaurant shortly after we opened and we had a great time then.  See you all on the 15th!

Cheers,

Chris

Hey all.  I just wanted to take a second to wish everyone a warm, safe and happy time during whatever holiday you choose to celebrate.  Just be sure to celebrate something!  Santa Finn dropped by yesterday afternoon.  He loaded up his sleigh in Wilmington with big bottles of Wee Heavy and handed it out to all of the staff!  I look forward to this every year.  I also wanted to let you know that we’ll be closing early tomorrow (the 24th) and will remain closed through the 25th so our staff can take a well-earned break and spend time with their loved ones.  We’ll be giving last call at 1:30 PM on the 24th.  If you need growlers for your celebration or big bottles as gifts make sure you get them tonight or early tomorrow!  Happy Holidays everyone and thanks for a great year.

Cheers,

Chris

You remember Pete right?  As in Pete’s Celebration Pete?  Well he’s in town for the holidays and he wants his beer.  The last of Pete’s Celebration was consumed two months ago.  Fortunately for him, back in late August, before it was even on tap, we racked some into a used bourbon barrel.  Pete has been silently chilling in that barrel for 3 and a half months now.  We figured since the Pete was in town, it was a good time to break out Bourbon Pete’s Celebration.  Jeff is kegging it as we speak.  I just snuck a sip and its good.  Dangerously good.  The Bourbon character really compliments the sweetness and malt complexity of the base beer.  Jeff will be in at 1 pm tomorrow (Saturday) to tap it.  He and Pete will be hanging around drinking in case you want to congratulate Pete on his engagement or Jeff on his recipe.

Cheers,

Chris

Oh and by the way, if that’s not enough, our Rye IPA will be on tap tomorrow.  In fact we’re tapping it at 5 pm tonight along with a single keg of Belgian Tripel.

When you finally get tired of the crowds at the mall, all you have to do is shoot 1/4 mile up Lenola road and grab some gifts for the beer lovers on your list.  And unlike the mall, you can  rest your weary feet and drink a beer while you’re waiting to pay for your purchase.  Big bottles are always a nice gift, but we’ve made them even better by putting a few packages together for you.  Click here for a list of our gift packages.

Cheers,

Chris

You may remember an American-Belgian pale ale we had on tap last year called Digression.  Once in a while people ask about the name. I like the story, so here it is.  I schedule my brewing about two weeks in advance, and double check it every week to make sure I’m still on course.   I’ve got a spreadsheet that tells me what I need to brew and when in order to avoid running out of anything.  Of course it’s not perfect.  It doesn’t account for what beers our customers will prefer, how busy we’re going to be etc.  But its a pretty good system overall.  One Monday last year we mashed in a batch of our Ironbound Ale.  About an hour after we mashed in I ran my scheduling program.  Well apparently the IPA I had put on tap the previous week had squashed our Ironbound sales.  And apparently the Belgain seaonal I had just tapped was way more popular than I had expected it to be.  So everything shifted on me.  Now my program was telling me that the Ironbound I had just mashed in was a week early and that I was in danger of running out of Belgian beer!  So for the sake of Belgian beer lovers and the freshness of our hoppiest house beer, I had to turn this APA into a BPA.  Easy enough, the beer hadn’t been hopped yet and we were a long way off from pitching yeast.  So we reworked the recipe.  I added a bunch of dark Belgian candi sugar to the boil, changed the hop schedule, and hightailed it over to Flying Fish to beg some Belgian yeast off of Casey.   And so Digression was born (what else could I name it?).  I never thought about brewing it again because I never really considered it a recipe, more of a process change.  I don’t even have a legitimate brewsheet for it.  But people keep asking for it!   And looking back I remember it being pretty tasty.  So a few days ago we brewed Digression again.  This time on purpose!  You should see it on the “on tap” board in a few weeks.

Cheers,

Chris

Like the title says, please don’t come here tomorrow expecting to find these great beers, but if you feel like a journey…

I know that Lancaster is a bit of a haul for most of you, but Paul is hosting a pretty special event tomorrow.  If you were wondering what to do with your Saturday I’d suggest you find a way to 30th street station and hop a train to Lancaster.  It will take you to within a short pleasant walk from our restaurant out there.  I love taking Amtrak.  It’s like a little vacation.  Your only responsibility is to sleep, read, stare out the window or chat with your travelling companion.  It’s particularly convenient on your way to and from a beer event because there’s; A. a nice little tray table to put your beer on (yes, you can drink on Amtrak) and B. a bathroom.  Anyhow, that’s what I’ll be doing tomorrow.

Here are the details on the event;

Join us this Saturday, December 4th from 12:00-5:00 pm for our Brewer’s Reserve featuring WINTER WARMERS!  

         Reserve Beers on Tap:
                 

                   Old Ale 2010, Media
                   

                   Wee Heavy, Newark
      

         Russian Imperial Stout, North Wales
                

                  Tripel Sec, Phoenixville
        

             Pete’s Celebration, Maple Shade
            

                  Wheat Wine, West Chester
               

                     Dark Side, Wilmington
       

           Imperial Coffee Porter, Lancaster
             

                  Shokolad Stout, Lancaster

And to pair with all this great beer, Mario and the kitchen staff will be providing sausage spring rolls and pretzels for club members

Due to the high alcohol content of these beers, we strongly suggest you take public transportation, cab it, or appoint a designated driver.

Hope to see you there,

Paul and Chad

We lost Bruce Nichols today.  Co-founder of Philly beer week and friend to many. Tom Peters knew him much better than I did.  I’ll let him do the talking.  Rest in peace Bruce and thanks for everything.

If you’ve been in Iron Hill in the past couple of weeks you’ve probably noticed a new addition to our offerings.  Big bottles.  We’ve been working feverishly to bottle some of our favorite styles in hand-packaged, corked and caged 750 ml bottles.  As you know we’re always very generous with giving out tastes of our draft beers if you’re not quite sure whether you want to commit to a full glass of something we have on.  That’s not usually an option with bottled beers.  So tomorrow we’re popping the corks off of our reserve bottle offerings during a complimentary tasting from 5-8 pm.  We’re also going to be jumping into the holiday season in earnest with the release of the 2010-11 version of our Winter Warmer, bringing back an old favoirite in the Belgo Black, and premiering our newest recipe, the Eisenhugel Imperial Weizenbock.  See you then!

Every year I have to chuckle because every year someone does a piece on what wine to serve with Thanksgiving dinner.  Whether it’s a food or beverage magazine, mainstream newspaper, or a TV segment on the morning show the topic always pops up.  To me it’s a bit like doing a piece on the best way to dress your cat up like a turkey on Thanksgiving.  In both cases its going to be painful and the results will be questionable.  That’s not just me the beer–geek talking either.  Most wine experts will all but admit that wine just isn’t the best choice for Thanksgiving dinner.  I’ll let them speak for themselves; (the list is lengthy, feel free to scroll past but they’re all pretty entertaining)

“Thanksgiving is a tough holiday when it comes to wines.  Figuring out which wines to pair with such a wide assortment of foods is a challenge for even the most experienced sommelier”

-RachelRay.com

“Sweet potatoes, butternut squash, cornbread stuffing and cranberry sauce can make wines taste sour because of their sweetness.  Vegetables can also be challenging to pair with wines, especially cruciferous ones like Brussel sprouts.  Their sulfury aroma and taste can make wine taste sharp and angular”

-Christine Hanna, hannawinery.com

“Thanksgiving dinner can be a wine connoisseur’s hardest wine-pairing day of the year”

-wine.lovetoknow.com

“The medley of flavors at the dinner table, not to mention the myriad of palates that will be sitting at it, can make pairing wines on Thanksgiving Day a brutal task”

-Jacob Harkins, huffingtonpost.com

“I love Autumn (Fall colors & Football), but I hate at least three things whose approaches are heralded by the falling leaves;

1 Raking those falling leaves

2 Thanksgiving / Holiday food & wine pairings

3 The Dallas Cowboys”

-1winedude.com

So I’ve got to ask why do it?  A “brutal task” on a holiday?  Why struggle to fit a square peg in a round hole?  Why not just serve a beverage that slips right into place?

And one of my favorite parts is how many of these articles end.  With big fat cop outs.

“I understand it is a special occasion, but stop being so uptight about having that perfect wine with your turkey and sides – It’s a freaking celebration dude! So celebrate and have fun!”

-winegeeks.com

“Enjoy your Thanksgiving, wherever you are, and don’t stress too much about the wine.  People love to be welcomed into other’s homes, and no one will excuse themselves from the table because they don’t think the wine you’re serving is the perfect match for the food?”

-Christine Hanna, wine maker and author, food52.com

“When it is all said and done, choosing a Thanksgiving Day wine is truly about what you prefer and what your guests will enjoy.  There are no hard and fast turkey pairing rules, just plenty of pairing options to experiment with.”

-wine.about.com

“Relax, ignore the traditional wine-pairing rules of the other 364 days of the year.   Forget about every food that’s on the Thanksgiving table, actually.  Have fun with it, don’t be intimidated by it”

-Eric Arnold, Forbes.com

“My number one piece of advice for Thanksgiving is the same as for any other day: Drink what you like.  Matching wine with your own palate is easier than matching it with any food.”

-www.chow.com

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think beer, wine or food should be over thought either.  It should be enjoyed.  I often take an epicurean approach.  But when statements like these come at the end of an article about pairing wine with Thanksgiving dinner they make me just a bit suspicious.  I mean, how often do you hear a sommelier say “just relax and enjoy man”?

I’m not a wine hater.  I love a glass of wine now and then, and any brewer that says they don’ t is just being pig-headed.  I even like wine with food sometimes.  (Malbec and ribeye, mmmmm)  But why challenge yourself with a task that even oenephiles shy away from?  Putting on Thanksgiving dinner is stressful enough.  Here are my picks, with no excuse-laden preambles,  caveats or cop outs.

Saison- One of the biggest challenges wine lovers face at Thanksgiving is the breadth of bodies, flavors and textures on the table. Unlike food or wine dinners that pair specific dishes with specific libations, the turkey table is a free-for-all.  Everything on the menu is on your plate at the same time.  A wine or beer that may go great with turkey could get squashed by the richness and sweetness of sweet potato pie.  Saisons are known for going with everything.   They’re complex enough to stand up to anything, but dry enough that they won’t trample anything but the most delicate of dishes.  They’re peppery and spicy, fruity, and bitter all at the same time.

Vienna Lager or Octoberfest- The caramel malts work well with the caramelization of roasted meats and sweetness of many Thanksgiving accompaniments.  But they’re balanced, so they won’t be out of place with the green beans and they’ve got just enough spicy continental hop character to match the herbs in the stuffing.

Porter for dessert- It’s got caramel and chocolate malts that will act as flavor hooks with the sweetness of those pies, but its got roast and bitterness to keep the experience from getting cloying.  And those coffee notes, who doesn’t like coffee with dessert?

Avoid the IPAs. I love my hops too, and I can’t think of a better accompaniment for spicy Thai or Mexican foods.  But thanksgiving is about sweet, not heat.  All that bitterness and those tropical and citrusy hop aromas won’t feel at home this Thursday.  See that?  I can admit when a beer won’t work!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Chris