So I was talking to Bob Barrar (Iron Hill Media Brewer) and he was trying to think of a way to help the tsunami torn people of Japan. Bob’s heart is as big as Bob. Here’s what he came up with:

“Here at Iron Hill we have been brewing a very popular beer we call Rising Sun IPA. It’s a beer flavored with a hop developed in Japan called Sorachi Ace. Japan is the land of the Rising Sun, which symbolizes new beginnings. We want to help the citizens of Japan, and those affected by the earthquake and tsunami throughout the Pacific with a new beginning.

Join us at any Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant location on Friday, April 15^th 2011 at 12:00p.m. when we will be tapping the Rising Sun IPA. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this beer on the 15th will go to benefit the American Red Cross Japanese relief effort.”

I can’t wait to do this! come join us as we reach out the the people of Japan.

Hey Gang! We have a menu for our Spring Beer dinner. Check it out:

BREWMASTER’S SPRING BEER DINNER
Friday, June 10th, 2011 7:00 pm
$65 pp Including Gratuity | Reservations Required

FIRST COURSE
AHI TUNA CEVICHE
duck fat croutons, poblano peppers, shallots and serrano ham
Paired with Abbey Dubbel

SECOND COURSE
COLORADO BISON SLIDER
caramelized red onions, brie cheese and baby arugula
on buttered brioche with shoe string sweet potatoes
Paired with American Brown Ale

THIRD COURSE
SEARED DIVER SEA SCALLOP
crispy lemon rings, tropical fruit carpaccio,
micro greens and lemon-habanero air
Paired with Saison

FOURTH COURSE
PAN ROASTED RACK OF LAMB
crispy white bean cake with bacon and piquillo peppers
and spring pea-mint puree
Paired with Vienna Lager

FIFTH COURSE
BELGIAN CHOCOLATE TORTE
caramelized rum soaked bananas and saffron custard
Paired with Russian Imperial Stout

Check out Jean in ‘Brewery Stadium’ with all of the entries for our annual Iron Brewer Competition! Every year the local Homebrew club B.U.Z.Z. helps us put together a competition where everyone starts with the same secret ingredient (our wort…not so secret, but it works) and use their wits and Homebrew skills to brew a batch of beer. There will be a public tasting on where the public will get to come and taste the top ten beers and pick a winner! We will brew the winning beer on our commercial system. I can’t wait to see what the group comes up with this year!

Back when I HAD hair it was pretty darn red. I mean freckled, pale skin, fire engine red. My sis too. There is undoubtely some Irish blood flowing through my veins.  That may be why I feel compelled to eat corned beef and drink Dry Irish stout like it’s my job at this time of the year. We are starting the celbration ahead of time this year, but just for the record, I think it’s plenty fine to celebrate all week! Here are the details:

Mug Club Appreciation

Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant West Chester

Friday March 11th 2011 5-7pm

Come drink big mugs of Irish Dry Stout and Irish Red ale during oru mug only pre-release. We will be tapping a firkin of traditional cask style Irish Red Ale and 6:00 p.m. so you’ll have options. Erin go Bragh

Remember, Anyone can be Irish for St. Patrick’s Day! (…or St. Patrick’s Week…)

Where: Iron Hill West Chester, back bar

When: Saturday January 29^th 2011. 12:00pm for mug club 1:00pm for everyone else

Man, the 2011 Belgium Comes to West Chester event sure has come up on us quickly. I can’t believe it has been a year already! If you’ve been to this event before you know it is usually a zoo filled with great brewers, guests, food, and a truly incredible beer list. This year should be no exception. Just a heads up for you veterans and friends out there: we’ve got a few changes for 2011 that should help everyone really get down on the excitement. First, the event is starting much earlier. Mug Club preview begins at 12:00p.m. sharp. This is totally special treatment for our most loyal fans. You can expect that we will completely run out of every last drop of the sweet sweet ungettable bub on the list by four or five, so please show up early if you want to experience the full array of beers. The event is open to the general public starting at 1:00p.m.Samplers will be split into 3 groups again, and the chef has a special menu of Belgo inspired food items to help you manage your hunger and alcohol counsumption. Expect a little ‘Super Secret’ beer stash in the brewery area again this year too. That was a great place to take a break last year and we will repeat for sure.

We are super proud of the list this year and I thought I’d let everyone know why we chose the beers. They are all special to me for one reason or another, so here are a few notes from me about everyone coming:

1)      Flemish Red Ale
Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant
Maple Shade, NJ
This beer is the real deal from Chris L. at Iron Hill Maple shade. We have this in bottles too and it has become one of my House beers…at my actual house. Back off Rodenbach!

2)      Sour Dubbel
Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant
North Wales, PA
I left a Super Secret bug barrel for Vindog in North Wales and he has continued to use it to pump out AMAZING sour beers. Tastes like an old friend.

3)      Wee Funky
Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant
Media, PA

Brett Beer from Bob! Need I say more? He puts on his pants one leg at a time just like everyone else…except his pants are shorts (even in winter) and when his shorts are on he makes gold records! (or gold medal beers). Love Bobbie long time.

4)      Saison
Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant
West Chester, PA
Best Dessert Island / Food pairing beer ever. It seems like we are brewing this at least once a quarter now and I’m happy about that.

5)      Quadrupel
Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant
Wilmington, PA
If Brian wins any more awards for this beer we are going to have him bronzed. Huge, sweet, aweseome. Quad used to be a ‘Not’ style. Brian had the foresight to brew it any way. Aren’t we glad? Yes we are.

6)      Ichor
Sly Fox Brewing
Royersford, PA
Brian O from Sly Fox is my BFF and he was the first person to introduce me to this style…and the first person to show me that brewpubs could fill and sell 750ml bottles of world class beer for their patrons. I had this beer high in the Rocky Mountains with Brian while we were camping. There’s a life changing moment for sure.

7)      Black Tulip – Trippel Ale
New Holland Brewing
New Holland, MI
I grew up in the Midwest….straight south of Holland. Hags is a great flatlander friend of mine who shares a lot of my views about beer, brewing, drinking, eating, etc. His local sales rep is man we all lovingly call Dr. Joel. New world meets old world. Oh, and the beer is KILLER.

8)      Stumblin’ Monk
Stewart’s Brewing Company
Bear, DE
Ric’s internet handle is Beeradmiral. Indeed. Ric makes some of the best malt beverage I’ve ever tasted on a rig that is the brewing equivalent of a horse drawn plow. His daughter can give better brew tours than most beer nerds I know too!

9)      Scratch 34: Tim’s Belgian Brown
Troeg’s Brewing Company
Harrisburg, PA
The Mrs. used to work at Troegs. The brothers are real life great people and I am happy to see that there brand is exploding all over the market. The scratch series is one of those ideas that shouldn’t make sense, but totally does. Who would have thought that a series of ‘one off’ beers would be so important?

10)   Dark Abby
Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company
Roseland, VA
Jason aka ‘The Gooch’ Oliver moved from D. C. metro to the sticks to brew for DB. It paid off. Last year he won GABF small brewpub of the year with an un-ending run of medals for styles ranging the spectrum. His pact with The Devil has kicked in fully and you should take advantage of this opportunity to drink his totally un-gettable beer. Rumor has a micro in the works for DB. Ask him!

11)   Trubbel de Yards
Yards Brewing company
Philadelphia, PA
One of the oldest Craft Belgian Beers from the Philly market.  Mr. Mayor (Tom Kehoe) and crew have been increasing the quality and quantity of Yards beer at a pace that is dizzying. I know we are doing a Belgian event and I’m totally stoked to have the Trubbel, but make sure you get a Brawler and an ESA this year. You owe yourself.

12)   Tripel
Stout’s Brewing Company
Adamstown, PA
Carol Stoudt is the reason craft beer is legal in Pennsylvania. She was the first craft brewer in the state and her products never fail to impress.

13)   Rudy’s Kung Fu Grip
Nodding Head Brewing Company
Philadelphia, PA
Named for an incident involving a big bird named Rudy. Gordo and Curt are people to me, and the fact that they would give up even an ounce of beer from their Uber Busy center city brewpub is a gesture that I respect. Thanks guys.

14)   Exit 4 Hoppy Tripel
Flying Fish Brewing Company
Cherry Hill, NJ
Casey Hughes is on my kidney list, and he may actually be the friend who needs it! The exit series of beers has changed beer at the Fish for the better, and I can’t wait to see what they brew next.

15)   Golden Monkey
Victory Brewing Company
Downingtown, PA
Bill and Ron are local pioneers and their brand has gone nationwide. Did I mention that my wife works there? This beer is made for bad decisions late at night. Yum.

16)   Tripel Threat
Cambridge Brewing Company
Cambridge, MA
Will has been around forever and has done things in the CBC brewpub for years now that used to be thought of as just plain crazy.  Most of us take things like Barrel aged and fermented beer for granted…and at CBC they’ve done all of these crazy projects with a tiny space. Will is an industry innovator for sure. He started doing beer swaps with us a few years ago and I look forward to every opportunity we have to share pints. Note: Women’s collaboration beer coming soon.

17)   Red and White
Dogfish Head Craft Brewing
Rehobeth, DE
Sam is crazy. Tomas Edison crazy. If you’d have told me 15 years ago there’d be a guy selling 100K bbls of beer like they make at DF I’d have told you you were nuts. I am totally glad I was wrong ‘cause they blend flavors into beer that are out of left field and that I love. This hybrid of beer and wine totally opened my eyes to the possibility of brewing with grapes. The wine-ohs in your life will lose bets to you on this.

18)   Brute
Ithaca Beer Company
Ithaca, NY
Chief is the man. Gold medal sour beer….bam! Oh, and his kid peed on the Iron Hill Van. To be fair, I think it smelled better after.

19)   Frites & Geeks
Harpoon Brewing Company
Boston, MA
Harpoon gave us Chris Laperrier and we thank them. There beer is pretty good too!

20)   Sorachi Ace Saison
Brooklyn Brewing Company
Brooklyn, NY
Count on Garrett to find the ‘next big thing’ in crazy imported beer flavors. Sorachi may be the most unique and flavorful hop on the market in the last ten years, and The Master Oliver has blended it expertly into this bottle conditioned wonder. Saison is my dessert island beer. Sorachi saison is my ‘Best Case’ dessert island beer.

21)   Local One
Brooklyn Brewing Company
Brooklyn, NY
May not have been the first big-American-bottle-conditioned-Belgoish-Strong-Ale but certainly one of the best. Every time I drink one I’m pissed I didn’t do it this well.

22)   Yunker’s Nocturnum
Manayunk Brewing Company
Philadelphia, pa
Brewer Doug Marchakitus was my more than able bodied assistant at Iron Hill North Wales, and I used to be the Head Brewer at the Manayunk Brewing Company. It’s a small world in which we live and work. Check out this super solid offering from another friend of mine.

Ok, so the Oy! to the World event has kind of gotten out of hand….in addition to our own Holiday ale and Winter wheat wine we suddenly have  a ton of stuff for drinking tomorrow. One of the most exciting things is a total of 3 vintages of Jewbilation. Check out the updated list. Happy Holidays and I’ll see you on Saturday!

It’s in the can. All wrapped up. Whewww. I’ve got to tell you that every year we bring in more and more pumpkin beer and you guys just keep drinking it faster and faster! we had 12 different types and they are almost all completly gone right now. The only one we have left is vintage Ichabod imperial pumpkin ale. Awesome! Highlights this year included pumkin Berliner Weisse from Cambridge, Dark o from Elysian, the awesome new sampler trays that we’ve been using for this type of event (you can carry them around with you. nice) and our very own Ronald tapping the pumpkin firkin of Ichabod Imperial Pumpkin ale. Thanks again to everyone who came by. I hope you enjoy the photos. Hope to see everyone this friday for the Winter Wheat Wine release party!

A good old friend of mine works for Maxium and is now in charge of the Maxium Beer blog. He interviewed me about the Great Amerian Beer Festival! Check it out over here.

Wow, what a great year for the 8th annual Brewery Ommegang Belgium Comes to Cooperstown festival. We’re back here in West Chester, and I am happy to report that everyone had a great time as usual. Like I said last year this is one of the best beer festivals anywhere. We rolled in on Friday about mid-day to find most of the usual suspects either already there and set up, or arriving around us. Nick Johnson (Troeg’s Rep Extrodinare) grabbed us a prime spot in front of the brewery and our tent city came to life. Friday night highlights incuded a keg of Superfriends Brett IPA, a pile of food from just about everyone, and great company from the Ithaca crew: Hutch and Wibby, Capt. Lawrence: Scott V. and the soon-to-be Mrs. Scott V., William Reed, owner of Standard Tap, Nick and Meg Johnson from Troegs, Curt Decker from Nodding Head, Dogfish Wendy, Clan Neibor from Southampton Publick House and Manhattan bev (Great to see Phil too), Chris Claire and the B.U.Z.Z. crew, Wardell, Tom, and Kevin from the Pottstown Homebrew crew, Bryan from the Brew Lounge, Drew and the Harpoon Crew, Not-so-Little John from the Brewery Ommegang crew who camped with us….and let us ride his golf cart! I missed the V.I.P. beer dinner this year (tickets were very pricey) but I hear it was out of this world as usual. The brewery always has a bonfire on Friday night and some live entertainment and friends old and new reveled until the wee hours on Saturday.

We slept a bit, and then got up and headed to nearby Glimmerglass state park for a refreshing dip in the lake and a little sun time. The fest kicked off offically at 3:00p.m. but you’d never really know that it ‘started’ as folks just sort of start showing up at the booth. We drank some world class beer throughout the afternoon. Beer highlights from the weekend included Ithica Brut and LaBlue, Rodenbach Grand crew, Cuvee Rene, Linemanns Ommegang Zur, Westmalle Tripel, Gardin Geuze, all of the beers from 12% importers including the ungettable, t’gaverhopke, the unending supply of Duvel / Ommegang beers, the aforementioned Superfriends IPA, Capt. Lawrence Pale (soooo nice to have a hoppy beer after a day of Belgian maddness).

After the fest we headed back to camp for a HUGE pig roast feast followed by the Bob Barrar Sunday bar. Yeah, he hauled icecream and toppings all the way out the the middle of nowhere. Dig his cool icecream man costume. Nice work Bobby. Saturday night featured the movie Caddy Shack (19th hole was the theme this year), Fireworks, and a great folk band. There was  a poker game, a huge hot dice game, pork forever and a TON of beer. It took us about 3 hours to clean up the mess on Sunday and then we headed south. California weather the whole way. Can’t wait for next year!

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Monday night was the First Annual Annual R5 Pub Crawl! Now you may remember that the R5 IS the train that caught fire a few years back. We didn’t have anything to do with that but we are located very near that particular SEPTA regional rail line. The R5 is basically the Main Line train from Philadelphia along route 30 to Downingtown. It was pointed out to me not too long ago that some of my favorite beer bars in the ‘burbs are within walking distance of train stations along that route. Nice. I do enjoy Adult Style Craft Beers…and I prefer not to tangle with ‘The Man’ so taking the train to drink seems fun AND responsible. How often does that happen? In any case, I mentioned the idea to some of the crew here at IHB and they pretty much just decided it was on. The only bit of real planning we did other than the date was to determine that you can ride SEPTA all day long for $10 with an Independence Fun Pass!!! I will be using that little tid bit of info in the future for sure. It’s cheaper than a round trip ticket from my house to the city! How long before they catch onto THAT I wonder? anyway….

Here’s how it went down: We rallied at Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown for a quick beer, headed to the Station Taproom right across from the train in D-town for another quick beer, rode to Malvern for a beer at the Flying Pig, hopped back on for the short trip to Paoli and TJs Everyday (Sasion Dupont on draft. nice.) Re-boared for Wayne where we finally landed at Teresa’s Next Door for dinner.  It was still pretty early and real trouble was avoided as there are more bars further in…

R5 Redux is already in the works. Anyone know of R5 bars we’ve missed???

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