Will run for beer!

It's been almost exactly three months to the day that I was inspired by Two Roads Brewing's Shore 2 the Pour 5K to get into a shape - a shape other than round - and run next year's race myself.

I am now 25 pounds lighter than that day and 17 pounds lighter than when I ran my first 5K two weeks later. I am in better physical condition than I've been in years - all due to exercising 2-3 hours every day and dieting. I managed to lose all that weight without eliminating beer from my diet. That's so not ever going to happen.

This weekend I ran another 5K; the first annual Beards & Beers 5k. Touted as "one of the manliest races you'll ever be a part of".  I don't know about that but there was beer at the finish. And that's all the reason I needed to participate.

Despite the frosty air, a lot of runners showed up to participate in the inaugural race. 

In attendance were many manly men sporting their No-Shave-November whiskers and lovely ladies donning (presumably) artificial facial hair.

Running alongside me were kindred spirits attesting to the fact that beer is the only motivation some of us need to cross the finish line.

How'd I do? Good for me, especially considering this is only my second 5K - 43:50.85. Thank you to my husband for hauling my fat ass across the finish line. Who ever's idea it was to put the finish at the summit of Mount Everest should be fired! Just sayin'.

The local breweries sponsoring the race were - Pioneer Beer, Olde Burnside Brewing, Hartford Better Beer, and Thomas Hooker Brewing.

I'd already had many of the brews being poured, so I focused my attention on those I hadn't yet had the opportunity to sample. I did, however, have at least one taste from each of the brewers.

Soft Spoken, a Biere de Table, by Thomas Hooker was my favorite beer of the day. It had loads of tingly champagne-like bubbles and a light wonderful Belgian-esque flavor. DE-lish!

A close second was The New Frontier, a double California style IPA, by Pioneer. Mmm, so crisp and fresh and hoppy. Yum!

Father Christmas Highland Ale, a Wee Heavy, Olde Burnside Brewing Company was also a very tasty offering!

Overall, it was a great day. A fun race for a good cause. And beer.

Willibrew Guest Taps

On a recent visit to Willimantic Brewing Company I had every single one of their house brews - all nine of them!  A flight of some, pints of others.

But WBC also has some amazing guest tap offerings.  And as much as I wanted to, I couldn't sample them all.  So, I opted for a flight of five.  The choices were difficult but I managed to make a decent selection.  

Several factors figured in my decision making. But I started out with all the guest brews from local breweries and then went with one of my favorites from elsewhere.

I really did want to try them all.  So many beers, so little time.  A girl can only consume so many beers before either falling off her stool or becoming unbearably obnoxious (or both).

This is what I got.  It's kind of funny that all the beers I picked out are all the same color and clarity.  I assure you, they are all very different!



Ten Penny Ale (5.6% ABV)  by Olde Burnside is a Connecticut brewery.  This is their version of Scottish ale that is characteristically rich and malty though lighter in alcohol than most Scotch ales. Malty, caramelly and delicious!  Overall: very good!

Arch Amber Ale (?% ABV) Hartford Better Beer is contract brewed at Shipyard Brewing Company so it's not as local as I thought but is the original recipe of the now defunct Hartford Brewery (Connecticut's first brewpub).  It is a clear amber.  The flavor is light and malty, promising but lacking.  Overall: good.

Hooker Irish Red (5.5% ABV) Hooker Beer Company.  I know that I can't like every beer I taste but this one was sadly disappointing.  The color was a beautiful clear amber.  However, the flavor was watery, dank and blah - almost moldy.  If this is any indication, between my husband and myself we didn't finish the 4-oz sample.  A dirty line?  A bad batch?  Overall: bad

Spring Ale (5.7% ABV) by Back East Brewing.  Like all the others in this flight, it is a clear amber color with a wisp of a head.  It is light and malty with a touch lemon.  Tasty but it comes up a bit short.  Overall: good

Aprihop (7% ABV) Dogfish Head.  This is a brew I've been meaning to try.  I haven't met a Dogfish Head beer I didn't like.  This was no exception.  The aroma is ripe with grapefruit and apricot.  The flavor is a lovely pairing of the two - lightly sweet, mildly bitter - very nicely balanced.  Overall: very good!


My recommendation is that if you're visiting Willimantic Brewing Company for the first time that you focus on their house brews.  They are always fresh and consistently good. You won't be disappointed.  But once you've tried them all, there is invariably a number of good brews on the guest taps.  

Cheers!

Ten Penny Ale - Olde Burnside Brewing

When I saw this tap head . . . it called to me. It was for a beer called Ten Penny Ale brewed by the Olde Burnside Brewing Company which is located in East Hartford, Connecticut.  That’s pretty darn local . . . to me. 

The brewing company is spinoff of the family-owned ice manufacturing business.   The ice business primarily services local businesses.   The owner of the company . . . a beer lover himself . . . became curious about the volume of water being carted off by regular consumers.  Upon asking what they were doing with all that water they replied that they were using it to make beer.  What made his water so special?  Well, it turns out that the source of the water used for the ice making business is similar in mineral characteristics to the waters of Burton-on-Trent, the source of water for many of the renowned ales of the United Kingdom.  Long story short . . . the brewery came to be. 

Ten Penny Ale . . . their flagship brew . . . got its name from the olden days.  At a time when a pint went for a nickel occasionally brewers would produce a special batch that they would charge a whole dime for . . . hence ten penny ale.

Ten Penny Ale is a version of Scottish ale.  Scotch ale is a variety of pale ale with a high alcohol content and characteristically rich and malty.  

 

Flavor-wise, I think that The Olde Burnside version of this ale falls in line with that description.  However, with a 5.6% ABV it isn’t quite as strong as the typical Scottish ale . . . its not unusual for Scotch ale to have an alcohol content that exceeds 9% ABV.

Ten Penny Ale is a clean, flavorful beer.  The malt flavor is very much in evidence with definite caramel notes.  It’s got great body and goes down way to easy.  A very good, well crafted beer, in my opinion.  God, I love micro-brews!


For more information visit their website.