When a friend offered me a six-pack of beer from his hometown in exchange for a disused computer part, I immediately took him up on the offer. Into my possession came a mixed six-pack from Rivertowne Brewing, a new brewery just outside of Pittsburgh, PA. I sampled a few of the offerings that night, but saved a few others for later reviews.
While zooming around the Finger Lakes region of New York with my family a few weeks ago on a wine tour, we stumbled upon the best of both worlds – a winery with a brewery attached. The winery was Wagner Vineyards and the brewery is Wagner Valley Brewing. Splitting from the main group with a few others I sampled all the beers that Wagner Valley had to offer that day. One of those was the Sugar House Maple Porter, which I slipped a bottle of it into a mixed six pack planning to review.
Ommegang has teamed up with HBO to release the first in their “Game of Thrones” series beers. Iron Throne is a Belgian-style Blonde Ale at 6.50% ABV in signature corked and caged 750 ml bottles. Since hearing about this a few months ago, we’ve been eager to get our hands on some!
Spring House Brewing Company out of Conestoga, PA makes their first appearance on the show with Big Gruesome, a Chocolate Peanut Butter Imperial Stout. As one of their signature beers, Big Gruesome is brewed quite frequently and has recently seen bottles more often. We were lucky enough to get our hands on some!
As we approach what I consider to be the day of stout beer, St. Patrick’s Day, I decided to remove from my beer fridge and sample the Big John Imperial Stout from Goose Island. To help combat the 11.5% ABV, Goose Island added cacao nips to this beer which should add some nice chocolate notes.
