Tag Archives: Beer

Geeking Out at Memphis Taproom


Weyer­bach­er Fireside
Orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by J T. Ramsay

I met Kei­th Fitzger­ald at Mem­phis Tap­room last night to talk about blogs, apps, and all the oth­er fun geek stuff our wives tell us “sounds fun” as we walk out the door.

Our won­der­ful con­ver­sa­tion was aid­ed and abet­ted by some deli­cious beer as the No Repeat Beer Week rolls on! I start­ed the night with a smoky Weyer­bach­er Fire­side (pic­tured) before delv­ing into a bunch of beefy IPAs. Here’s last night’s list:

I took it easy since it was a school night, but I can assure you I had no dif­fi­cul­ty get­ting up this morn­ing for a quick three-mile run.

Our con­ver­sa­tion end­ed with an inter­est­ing dis­cus­sion about how RSS is the blood cours­ing through the veins of the Inter­net, yet we still find our­selves join­ing every known social media plat­form that comes down the pike. Isn’t RSS sup­posed to make our lives real­ly simple?

Speak­ing of which, we also chat­ted about Pitch­fork’s head­scratch­er of a redesign. It remind­ed me of Paper Thin Walls after it was redesigned and made ready for a social net­work that nev­er took off. Ouch. I told Kei­th that Pitch­fork should’ve looked to ESPN.com’s redesign and focused on their video pro­duc­tion. Why they’re still mar­ried to the con­cept of a music webzine escapes me.

Kei­th also shared his pet project with me: a run­ning app for the 3G iPhone that should blow Map­MyRun and its ilk out of the water. I’m con­sid­er­ing buy­ing a new iPhone just to beta test it against my Garmin watch. It sounds great for begin­ners and advanced run­ners alike. There’s a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for an iPhone app like this to meet the needs of Garmin cus­tomers who’re still wait­ing for Garmin to roll out their Mac features.

It was a great night for geek­ing out on beer and the Inter­net. I’m look­ing for­ward to work­ing with Kei­th on tweak­ing and adding fea­tures to Kens­ing­ton Blues over the next few weeks. To that end, can any­one rec­om­mend a clean, free, 2‑column Word­Press theme?

Elysian Avatar IPA


Elysian Avatar IPA

Orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by J T. Ramsay

Helen and I stopped in at the Abbaye for brunch this morn­ing and I stum­bled upon yet anoth­er inter­est­ing brew from the good peo­ple at Elysian.

What made this IPA stand out is its sub­tle fla­vors. Elysian’s Avatar IPA does­n’t bowl you over with high alco­hol con­tent or over­pow­er­ing hops. A hint of jas­mine makes this an insane­ly refresh­ing IPA and at just 5.6%, it’s prac­ti­cal­ly eli­gi­ble for ses­sion beer status!

This could be a sta­ple at my house this sum­mer, if I can find it locally.

Philly Brewing Co. Birthday

Philly Beer Co. Birthday

Orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by J T. Ramsay

I was able to sneak over to cel­e­brate Philadel­phia Brew­ing Com­pa­ny’s first birth­day this after­noon with a cou­ple plas­tic cups of Ken­zinger. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a year since their brand of deli­cious brews flowed forth from the site that once housed the mighty Yards Brew­ery, which has since relo­cat­ed to Delaware Avenue.

In that time, they’ve deliv­ered some great local beers for a great price. If you’re look­ing for a ses­sion beer this sum­mer, look no fur­ther than Ken­zinger. For my mon­ey’s it has all the best aspects Yards Philly Pale Ale offered, but just a lit­tle more refreshing.

My per­son­al favorite? Row­house Red! It goes with just about every­thing, while main­tain­ing its own dis­tinct personality.

No Repeat Beer Week @ Memphis Taproom

Lest peo­ple start to think that this blog is going to focus exclu­sive­ly on the issues fac­ing the music indus­try, I’m writ­ing today about anoth­er one of my pas­sions: craft beer! In the past year or so I’ve got­ten very seri­ous about the beer I drink, thanks in no small part to Bren­dan, Leigh and every­one at my amaz­ing local bar, Mem­phis Tap­room. We Philadel­phi­ans are also for­tu­nate to have Lew Bryson and Joe Six­pack, two of the coun­try’s best beer crit­ics, right in our own back­yard! So while I’m not going to attend any of the offi­cial Philly Beer Week events, but I’m mak­ing the most of Mem­phis Tap­room’s No Repeat Beer Week…and then stum­bling home happy.

Last night Helen and I were joined by our friends — and new neigh­bors! — Rick and Grace for a nice din­ner, which ulti­mate­ly evolved into the girls going home and us boys geek­ing out to some new beers. I can’t think of a bet­ter way to wel­come them to the neighborhood!

What did I drink? Jess was kind enough to loan me a pen and I used one of their handy beer menus as a check­list. I tried one of each of the following:

What did I like? I’m par­tial to every­thing Elysian does. I enjoyed their Bifrost Win­ter Ale immense­ly and look for­ward to try­ing more of their stuff. My local dis­trib­u­tor’s even stock­ing it now! The Loki Lager had an amaz­ing fin­ish that demands your attention.

Any­one who knows me knows that I’m a suck­er for an IPA, even though I’m try­ing to break the habit of default­ing to these some­times over­pow­er­ing beers. What can I say? I’m a total hops-head!

Dog­fish Head makes some of the most nuanced beers I’ve ever tast­ed, and the Red and White was no excep­tion. They’re always work­ing on anoth­er lev­el in my opinion.

My sur­pris­ing favorite? The Ipswich Orig­i­nal Ale. I know! I’m shocked, too! Lew Bryson says it’s going to be a big year for ses­sion beers, and if they’re as sat­is­fy­ing as this one, who could deny him?

Let’s just say it was an amaz­ing way to cel­e­brate Philly Beer Week in my ‘hood! Be sure to stop by and sam­ple some of the great stuff they’re tap­ping this week at Mem­phis and Cumberland!

Let’s Now Praise Sly Fox Beer

One of the great things about meet­ing my folks halfway between Oley and Philly is hav­ing din­ner at Sly Fox Brew­ery in Roy­ers­ford. Sure, the food isn’t world-class, but I’m always eager to try their lat­est offer­ing of draught beer.

I tried two new beers tonight. I got a  20 oz. glass of their oat­meal stout, which I thought was fan­tas­tic, and their Sai­son Vos, which seemed fine­ly craft­ed, just not to my per­son­al taste. (I want­ed to try their Sai­son Vos because I’ve enjoyed the glass­es of Ommegang’s Rare Vos at Mem­phis Tap­room in the past few weeks.) No dice.

So what filled my growler before we head­ed back to Fish­town? Their tried-and-true Route 113 IPA. I had their award-win­ning Rauch Bier after my last vis­it, but want­ed to spend some more time with their IPA before I treat myself to some mon­ster hol­i­day brews as Christ­mas nears. I’m eye­ing up some Troegs Mad Elf already!

What have you been drink­ing this fall? What will you drink this win­ter? I’m always look­ing to try new beers, so share your favorites!