Lawson's Finest Liquids: Farmer's Market 3/15

My wife and I made our first trip to Vermont for the last Lawson's Farmers Market.  We didn't know exactly what to expect, other than from the information Sean posts on his blog and the Beeradvocate forums.  We left Western Mass as the sun was coming up around 6:30 AM and arrived in Montpelier around 9:00 only to learn we were #172 in line and would likely miss out on many of the beers brought for the event.  I was a little bummed out, but certainly not devastated by any means.  I met up with a Beeradvocate friend who had secured some Heady Topper during the week and sold it to me at his cost, what a good guy.  Next, we traveled down to Main St and ate at the Skinny Pancake.  The crepes were amazing and we really enjoyed it.  Then we headed over to the Hunger Mountain Co-op to check out other local VT products.  We found a few things and headed back up to the market.  We had a really good time checking out the other vendors that were there and purchased a bunch of delicious meat and Vermont products.  Since it was still not time for us to pick up the Lawson's bottles we went and got lunch at the Mad Taco.  I was really disappointed with that place and sincerely think Chipotle tastes better.  Finally got our Lawson's bottles at the market, 8 Double Sunshines and 2 Maple Tripples and were on our way back to Massachusetts.  My lovely wife was exhausted and slept most of the way home.  We were back by 3:30pm.

This coming Saturday we are at it again, this time with an experience under our belt we have a more coherent plan.  Get there as early as possible, get our number, head to the Skinny Pancake for breakfast.  I am gonna hurry over to the Co-Op and try to secure some Heady Topper cans, then back to the market at 10 to check out the food vendors and wait our turns for Lawsons bottles.  Then on the way home, I have a few thrift stores in mind to hit and check out both in Vermont and Western New Hampshire.  I would love to stop at The Worthy Burger in South Royalton, but burgers are not really my love's favorite food, so we shall see if thats in the cards.  I will attempt to take some photographs during the trip.

Anyone else making a similar journey?

#PROPERGLASSWARE

It should come as no surprise that I am a huge fan of craft beer.  Something that I think is extremely important to tasting beer is the use of a glass.  Many beer drinkers go straight from the can or bottle, but this is a complete rookie mistake.  Beer is meant to be poured out of its container and into a glass, regardless of what John Kimmich says about Heady Topper.  #PROPERGLASSWARE is a bit of a meme in the beer trading/beer geek/untapped/twitter universe, that refers to drinking the beer out of the brewery's or even the specific beer's specialty glass (see above).  I don't get into quite that level, as my collection is still relatively small, though my wife and limited cabinet space disagree!

The workhorse for higher gravity beers is the tulip.  This can come as a much like a snifter or a little bit skinnier with a dip in the middle.  I have pictured both pieces below.  I generally use this kind of a glass for almost all of my beers, it is versatile and handsome.

Oktoberfest Bier Mug - This type of glass is typically oversized and perfect for mass quantities of lager or festbier.  These beers are very sessionable and designed for the biggest beer session of them all Octoberfest!

A variation of this style is "Das Boot" made popular by the movie "Beerfest," if you haven't seen it check out below!

The glass that most people will be familiar with is the pint.  This typically comes in a 16 oz format and is great for relatively sessionable beers and is referred to as a shaker pint.  This glass is usually very cheap, so feel free to grab a bunch from different breweries when you visit.

It's less popular, but equally useful brother is called the Nonic Pint Glass.  It features a notch at the top and is typically sized for a true English pint, 20 ounces.  This is ideal for a lower ABV brew, particularly a real or cask ale poured on tap.  

A goblet is perfect if you are pouring a high ABV Belgian brew like a tripel or quad.  These beers have a great yeast character, and this glass allows you to take a very deep smell of these unique beers.

Gueuze/Lambic glasses are popular for the sour styles originating out of Belgium.  The wild ale train is just getting started, and as they become more popular, the quality sours become more expensive to buy or even impossible in the case of Cantillon these days.  This glass works almost like a flute for Champagne.

Continuing with the stemware trend, I am will move to the oversized wine glass.  You can use a regular wine glass in a pinch, but they are typically sized for smaller beers.  This works similar to a tulip, but usually the stem is much more elongated.  This makes for a more elegant experience.  My favorite beers for this style glass are saisons and other farmhouse ales made with Brettanomyces yeast.  I have included photographs of the Hill Farmstead and Pretty Things versions.

This next glass is called a Teku, and is a combination of the tulip and extended wine glass.  It features a 16 oz chamber, with a perfect shape for tasting beer.  Developed in Italy, more and more breweries that cater to beer geeks are having them made.  This is certainly on my wishlist, probably will end up with the Firestone Walker version.

Another glass recently developed is the so called IPA glass.  I know this was originally designed by Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada for their hop forward beers.  I don't know why but something about this glass doesn't excite me a ton.  Looks like it would break quite easily.

Finally, tasting glasses, a great variety of which are pictured below made by Three Floyds of Indiana for their Dark Lord beers.  These are great for tastings where a 22 oz bomber of beer is shared by 4+ people.  Plus they look very cool.  Pro tip: Crate and Barrel has mini snifters if you have a last minute tasting coming up!

If I am missing your favorite style of glassware or you want to get in on the conversation, jump in the comments or shoot me an email!

#PROPERGLASWARE

Recent Beers - April 2013

Been on a craft beer tear lately.  Trades through BeerAdvocate, sours, stouts, etc.  I still have a few cool things not photographed, but here are the beers I have enjoyed recently.

Firestone Walker - Sucaba '13 - Single best barleywine I have ever had, and one of my favorite beers.  Perfect for sipping over 2 hours on a Sunday night.  Barrel aged notes, boozy, delicious.

Had to do a lot of legwork to find 8 bottles of this stuff, but definitely lives up to the hype.

Traded 3 KBS for 6 Heady Topper, through a local BeerAdvocate trade.  First time trying this delicious brew and it did not disappoint.

Big fan of Game of Thrones, an excellent TV show.  As soon as I heard this beer was going to be released, I knew I had to track it down.  Picked up 2 bottles, so my brother in law can try it when he comes to visit from Brazil in a couple weeks.

Least favorite of the recent beers.  Sierra Nevada's Ovila line - Quad.  I didn't hate it, but why would I drink this over Rochefort?

New England Brewing: Ghandi-Bot Beer Review

Since moving to Connecticut, a few months back, this is the single beer that I have been hoping to try.  Brewed in New Haven County, CT, 45 minutes south, it is a bit hard to find, as it is such a desired commodity.  I was finally able to secure a 4 pack at Table and Vine in West Springfield, MA, for a fair price at $11.99, I also made sure to grab a sixer of New England Brewing's Sea Hag IPA at $7.99 too.

First off, I want to say that I love that this DIPA comes in a can.  The Alchemist's Heady Topper is the only other excellent DIPA that can say the same, as far as I know. All of New England Brewing's offerings come in cans, except for the Imperial Stout Trooper that comes in ~$20 750ml bottles.  The bright orange and interesting artwork make for an interesting looking can.  The name Ghandi-Bot is a great one too!

The beer pours a large, foamy head.  The color is a hazy orange, an excellent looking beer.  The smell is noticeable as soon as it is poured out.  The glorious American hops are just bursting out of the glass.  The hops are definitely American, with grapefruit, orange and pineapple smells all noticeable.

The first sip is that of sweet sweet hops, but with a strong malty background.  Although the beer is 8.80% ABV, which is fairly high, you can not tell from tasting it.  This is not a "balanced" IPA in any sense of the word balanced.  (check out local Berkshire Brewing's Lost Sailor, if that's what you are looking for!)

Amazing beer, best East Coast IPA/DIPA I have ever had.  Not as good as Pliny!