You’ve gotta’ hear this. Chris ‘Lance Romace’ LaPerrier, Head brewer at IHB West Chester is riding his bike to Brewery Ommegnag in Cooperstown, New York for the Belgium Comes To Cooperstown 2008 event. This is, I my humble opinion, the best beer festival in the United States. I don’t throw that title out lightly. If you doubt let me just tell you that the tickets sold out in 12 hours this year. Yeah, that’s right 12 hours for a beer festival! I’ve got some history up there. Among other things it’s where I really started getting the attention of my soon-to-be-wife, brewer Whitney Thompson . She works for Troegs and is the one at the bottom of the steps in that photo. Lance, Joe Sixpack, and a few other cycling crazies are touring their way up to the fest. As you may be aware I too am a fan of all things outdoorish, and these guys are living the dream right now. Follow their exploits over here at the Brew Lounge. I’ll write more about the Ommegang fest when Whit and I get back from HAWAII! We leave SATURDAY for the World Brewering Congress and plan to be married on the beach. You’ve got to love a woman who wants to get married at a brewing conference…oh, and it was her idea, not mine! (She rocks)
This Friday is the first Friday of August, and will be the first of our First Friday parties. Wow! That was a lot of ‘firsts’ in one place. Here’s the rub: We’ve got a HUGE stash if super secret beer tucked away in the back of the cooler. I’ve been looking for an excuse to serve this beer that I think is ‘worthy’…but Doug tells me I am really just hoarding. I think he might be right and in an effort to better myself we will be releasing some of this Liquid Love the first friday of every month. I’ll have a complete listing of upcoming 1st beers, but the first thing we’ll be pouring is BOURBON RUSSIAN IMPERIAL STOUT!!!!! I already know people will be dissapointed when this runs out so get here early. Doug will be tapping one five gallon keg of this killer beer Friday at 5:00pm and it’ll be on ’til it’s gone. I can’t imagine it’ll last much past about 6:30pm, so plan accordingly.
Come and get it!
Stoudt’s Brewing Company hosted their first ever BATTLE OF THE BREWERY BANDS for charity and I was happy to attend representing Iron Hill. Iron Hill did not have an actual band in the battle of the bands…but hey, who’s counting? My good friend Casey Hughes over at Flying Fish Brewery has a great philosophy about beer events. He says all brewers should be at all of them all of the time even if they aren’t actually participating. (At least the ones he wants to go to) That sounds pretty straight forward, but you’ve really got to talk to him about it to get the real meaning. He has suggested showing up to a Not To Be Named beer festival in the Poconos in the uniform of his brewery with beer, a couch, beer, and a velvet rope. His dream is to set up his booth facing inward, rope it off, and drink without pouring for the entire event. I little out there, I know, but fun just the same. So I forked over my $20 and in fine Stoudt’s fashion I was treated to The Buffet: Sausage and with it. Lots of great craft beer was poured from the participating breweries and Ed and Carol Stoudt were gracious fun loving hosts as always. Highlights include Carol being sung to by a man dressed like Marylin Monroe, Ed singing…yes singing…a version of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”. He changed the lyrics to “What Wonderful Beers” and everyone cheered. Nice work Ed!
Bands came on one after another with lots of local breweries representing:
Brewery Bands participating –chosen charity
Tröeg’s “Starsan” - Capital Area Greenbelt Association
Victory’s “Brewers Blues” - A Hospital in Philadelphia
Legacy’s “Brews Brothers” - Humane Society
Union Barrel Work’s “Sunset Limited” - American Cancer Society
PA. HomeBrew Club’s “The Yeastie Boys” - Hospice
Stoudt’s “Bad Strudel” - Relay for Life
The Celebrity judge panel included some friends: Tom Peters - owner of the great Monk’s Cafe in Philly. Lew Bryson, Kevin Trayner - Ale Street News beer writer, Francine Scoboris - Berks County Living editor, and one wildcard from New England.
Top honors went to the band Starsan from Troegs. Starsan is HOTT, hot, hot, and are fronted by the lovely Future Mrs. Horwitz (Whitney Thompson, brewer). She helped them carry off the ‘Golden Keg’ and I am very proud. Yeah!
For the record, Brian O’rielly at Sly Fox had the idea for this event years ago…we kept talking about doing it and I’m not dissapointed that the Stoudt’s Crew got if off of the ground first. They did a great job and raised over $4700 for charity.
Thursday night was Homebrew mania for sure. I am good friends with the crew over at Keystone Homebrew and they were hosting their annual Keg Only Homebrew competition last Friday. For those you following the carrer of my faithful sidekick Doug Marchakitus, this is the comp he won last your with his killer Habanero Porter. Watch for that on tap here. We pull a little out from time to time. ANYWAY, let me tell you, this is a great way to spend your Friday night. Homebrewers can really blow up some incredible beers that I would never be able to make here at the IHB for lots of reasons. A great example is the Wormwood Triple made by ‘Dell Massey. This is one crazy beer made with the plant that yields absinthe! The event worked like this: club members each brought a 5 gallon keg of their homebrew. The event is Keg Only (K.O…knock out…brewer’s brawl, get it?) The Keystone guys and girls taped ALL of them at once, and a mad dash to taste every beer ensued. The event was basically a peoples choice competition, so after everyone tried all of the 
beers they voted for their favorites, and in a very democratic process the club members chose their own winners. I drank my way through the lineup once, couldn’t decide, drank through again, voted, and then hit the table once more just to be sure. MMMMmmmm, that’s my kind of event! Comp winners received, gift certificates to Keystone, t-shirt, and they get to serve their beers during Brew at the Zoo 2008, a beer festival at the Philadelphia Zoo. Yeah homebrew!
BREWERS BRAWL KO RESULTSThe following brewers took top honors:
1st Place, James Powell, Belgian Strong Dark Ale
2nd Place, Wardell Massey, Belgian Tripel Raspberry
3rd Place, Kim Small, Witbier
Other winners included Steve Robson (Cherry Hefeweizen), Dan Endicott (Ordinary Bitter), Dave Grosch (Red AIPA, Alt), Jack Kapusta (American Pale), and Rob Schlank (American Wheat & Rye Beer). Congratulations to all of the winners!
Yo, yo, yo! This Friday we are hosting a release party here at IHB North Wales. We are releasing the second beer in our “Hawk Presents” series. We are calling it Hawk’s Vengeance. It’s a Belgian Double IPA and it will knock your socks off. Here’s a funny story about making this beer. I recently received my annual performance review, which makes me very happy because I work for a great company and they do a wonderful job of giving me feedback about my performance. Oh, and I got a raise too! Any way, this year is was suggested that I could better serve our customers by making more hoppy beers. Now being the good employee that I am I hopped right on it with the HUGE HOPPY TANK OF LOVE!!! I get to chuckle, cause’ my boss saw the recipe and realized that I had just put a fat dent in our American hop inventory…there’s a huge hop shortage in the U.S. in case you didn’t know…and promptly gave me the what for. I am happy to announce that it was way too late to get the hops back out of Vengeance and it is now on tap to tickle your tongue with bitter love. This beer is a Belgian Double IPA (9%abv, 80ibus) and we will be having it’s official debut this Friday night for the Happiest of all hours…happy hour. I’ll be here with 3 liter bottles and tasters from about 5:00pm to 7:00ish, so stop by and check it out. Cheers!
