#5 - Connecticut, "The Constitution State"

The UConn men's basketball team is on a tear. They won the Big East tournament title, and now they are in the Final Four where I think they're the favorites to win. Kemba Walker reminds me of Derek Rose when he was at Memphis, except Walker can shoot and doesn't have the supporting cast of professionals Rose had under John Calipari. Meanwhile Ben Hansbrough is sitting at home with nothing to show for an amazing year. To make matters worse, Calipari and his group of one-and-dones is back in the Final Four with Kentucky. It's horrible. I couldn't think of a worse end to the basketball season. I need a beer.

Beer Stats For Connecticut:

"Major" Cities: Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Stamford

# of Microbreweries: 5
# of Brewpubs: at least 12 (my team of researchers are being lazy and don't want to revise the total now that I, I mean, they have figured out that there are more than 12 brewpubs in CT.)

Population: 3.5 million
# of Final Four teams with cheating head coaches: 2 (C'mon UConn fans, don't begin to try to defend Calhoun as a clean coach. You know he's got dirt.)
# of Final Four teams with coaches that are less than 10 years older than me: 2

Connecticut is a rich and crowded state; highest income per capita, and 4th most densely populated (although only the 29th most populous overall). With all of that disposable income and hoards of people really close by to piss you off, you might expect that there would be a lot of beer to go around. And it seems that Connecticutters (I made that up) are figuring out that there is a rich, wine drinking population in need of conversion to Beerism (Made that up too, but it's probably a real religion). Several breweries are in the planning stages to go along with the 5 currently operational microbreweries.

One of them is East Haddam Brewery, with their awesome website, that just says their name. You know it's a new brewery when the 4th grade son of the brewmaster is making the website. I guess I'll check back later for more info about the brewery. It will be right alongside the book report about Harry Houdini.

(Side Note: I associate several things with my elementary school years, because I have never discussed them since being in elementary school. Harry Houdini is one of them. Electric eels, the Piedmont region of Virgina, and the Black Plague are some others. It's almost as if the teachers were like "we have HOW much more time that we have to teach these kids? Lets just make them think eels are going to be a huge part of their lives.")

These breweries are also in the planning stages;

• Overshores Brewing Company - Belgian style brewery, hopes to have beers available this year.
• Nor'Easter Brewing - Trying to find a location. Will have 4 year rounds, and 4 seasonals.
• Ten Point - Started in 2009, they are currently making beers, but are in the test phases.
• Back East - Haven't got going fully yet. 4 year rounds and seasonals will be what they start with.
• Half Full - Still in the planning stages. I think I'm gonna like this guy though. He sounds right up my alley from his website. Seems really passionate and not afraid to do what he wants. Pretty much what I'm trying to get through my own head right now.

Thomas Hooker Brewery - Bloomfield. Definitely the most recognizable brewery from Connecticut; it's the only one I've tried at the moment. I've had their Liberator Dopplebock which I really enjoy, and their American Pale Ale, which I have no lasting memories of. They have 8 year round beers (APA, IPA, Blonde, Munich Style, Barleywine, Imperial Porter, Red, and the Dopplebock) and 3 seasonals, one of which is a Watermelon beer. I have not found a single Watermelon beer that I like, so I'll have to try this one when it's available in the summer. Hooker distributes to CT, FL, GA, PA, NY, MA, and NJ. If you are on the East Coast, you can probably able to find them somewhere or make a quick drive to go get a case.

Cotrell Brewing Co - Pawcatuck. These guys are old school New Englanders. The Cotrell family had a printing press manufacturing company on the grounds of the current brewery. They have a horribly bland slogan ("The beer of choice in CT and RI") on their website, but at least they rhymed the slogan for their Mystic Bridge IPA. "Put a Bridge in your Fridge." They make two beers; the IPA, and the Old Yankee, which they have been making for at least 14 years now. They distribute to CT, RI, NY, DC, VA, IL, ME, and MA. Both beers get good reviews on Beer Advocate, so check them out if you're in Connecticut.

Olde Burnside Brewery - East Hartford. Brews here are done in the traditional Scottish style, which means nothing is different except that everyone wears kilts and bagpipes are pumped through the sound system of the brewery. Sorry. Not every joke can be a smash hit. They make three styles of beer; Ten Penny Ale (amber colored Scottish Ale), the Penny Weiz (a Belgian Witbier), and the Dirty Penny Ale (a black and tan). Then they take their Ten Penny Ale and make a stronger version; The Ten Penny Ale Reserve. They age that Reserve in Whiskey barrels for six months to get the Amazing Grace. They also make a Christmas seasonal. It looks like you can only get their beer in growlers or on tap but it says they distribute to CT, NY, ME, MA, RI, and VT, so look for it on your next trip to the Northeast.

Cavalry Brewing Company - Oxford. This brewery was started by a former soldier who served in Iraq in and in active duty and the reserves for 19 years before that. He started the brewery in 2008 and as of now makes 4 different beers, each named after someone he served with. They make ales and stouts in the traditional English style. They have an English Ale, a Golden Ale, a Porter, and a Stout, which are all strangely in the 4-5% ABV range. Seems low for a Stout or a Porter. Right now they are just distributed to liquor stores and bars/restaurants in Connecticut. If you are there for any reason order one up at dinner and take a case home. We have to support our veterans.

New England Brewing Co. - Woodbridge. Snazzy website, guys. I always love a site that's simple and easily to navigate. If you can't run a good website for your business in these days, it's almost like you just don't care. Also, they don't bottle. They can. Ballers. They're like, "our stuff is so good we can put it in any container and you'll like it." They make an Amber, an IPA, and a German Pilsner. They also are only distributed in Connecticut, but the owner has been at this craft for a long time, so I think they will be expanding at some point.

So, since each of those breweries interests me, it looks like I have a lot of beer to try. Better take a trip to Boston and swing through for a bar crawl in Connecticut on my way. Don't worry. I'll have my wife drive.

Trailies:
Best Beer Name: Dog Soldier Golden Ale, Cavalry Brewing.
Best Concept: Watermelon Ale, Hooker. A lot of traditional beers brewing in Connecticut, so I'll give it to the brewery who is at least using one non-traditional ingredient.
Best Label Art:  Hatch Plug Ale, Cavalry Brewing. Overall I like their artwork, and no other brewery really even places in this category. But specifically I love the Hatch Plug label. I think the guy is supposed to look intimidating, but to me it looks like he is trying to squeeze himself out of the tank. So I immediately imagine a guy who has been in that tank so long with way too many Oreos and Cheez Its and no place to exercise, who is now trying to get out, in the heat of battle, only to realize that he's put on too many lbs to fit through the hole. Probably not the intended message, but awesome nonetheless.

 

Most Tree Related Beer:  Elm City Lager, New England Brewing Co. Connecticutters love their trees.

Road Trips:
I assume that tree watching is a pretty popular activity in Connecticut, because the two times I've driven through, that's pretty much all I've seen. I know highways on the East coast are generally surrounded by trees, but usually you can see some town or a farm or even a rest stop more frequently than every 60 miles. That being said, I enjoyed Connecticut the one time that I stayed over night there, which was for a friend's wedding in 2009. They got married outside of Hartford and the drive from Hartford to the country club about 45 minutes away was beautiful. Tree covered of course, but still really nicely tucked into the hills. One word of caution; McDonalds' in Connecticut do not serve people who walk through the drive-thru at 2 in the morning. The counter-clockwise road trip from New England Brewing Company to Cotrell Brewing, hitting the other three on the way, is only 133 miles. If you drove straight through, you could make it from the first to the last of the five breweries in about 3 hours according to Google. You wouldn't want to drive past the breweries and not stop in for a taste, so you could easily make a nice 2-3 day weekend of sampling beers in Connecticut.

The Tunes:
Rivers Cuomo of Weezer fame grew up in Connecticut. I've been a huge fan of Weezer ever since my roommate junior year of college would listen to "Pink Triangle" and "Jamie" while destroying our room before Notre Dame football games. No lie, I came back to our room after a game one day and the metal trash can was smashed in half, there were broken CDs all over the floor, and there was peanut butter on the wall. I asked him why he did it, and he said "it wasn't me, someone broke into our room during the game and did it." Sure, Charlie, I believe that someone came in and broke all of your CDs, didn't touch mine, threw peanut butter on the wall and neglected to take either of our laptops. And I'm not kidding, I really honestly started loving Weezer that year because of the deep cuts Charlie would rage to. They are a great band. I don't think we cleaned that peanut butter up for months either.

That story reminds me; only 5 months till college football. And probably 3-4 weeks before we make the quick drive to Massachusetts for my next post.

Connecticut Brewery Map

#4 - Georgia, "The Peach State"

Peanuts. That's one thing I have heard of that Jimmy Carter was good for. I wasn't alive while he was President, and I try to stay away from politics, but my in-laws have a particular disdain for Carter that I like to imagine comes from a contentious personal feud they had with him over Carter's hatred of white tuxedos in the early 1980s. Hey, my mother-in-law worked on Capitol Hill, it very well could have happened if Carter had caught a glimpse of a picture from their wedding. He would have had issue with my parents' wedding too. I wish I could get away with that now. I guess I need a white-guy afro to pull off that look now, huh Dad?

The second thing that Carter graced us with was the law that he signed in 1979 legalizing home brewing and allowing any person to brew up to 100 gallons per year for personal use. One thing led to another, and we are where we are today, with upwards of 1500 craft breweries and brew pubs in the U.S.

So, since Jimmy Carter is from Georgia, here's the rundown of the Peach State breweries.

Beer Stats For Georgia:
Major Cities: Atlanta, Savannah, Macon, Athens
# of Microbreweries: 4
Population: 9,687,653
People being denied equal access to good microbreweries by the powers that be: 9,687,652. There's always that one guy. What a dick.


Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the Constitution and become part of the United States. Besides New York, Georgia is the most populated state on the East Coast. So you would expect they would have a fairly healthy amount of microbreweries. And you would be dead wrong. They have 4. I have at least 4 microbreweries within a 30 minute drive of my house, and the entire state of Georgia only has 4. I would bet that this is due to the fact that Southern states are not known for their alcohol-friendly laws. Although, regardless of their states' desire to control alcohol consumption, people from the South are the closest thing to a race of functional alcoholics that I know of. They love their liquor. I base this on my friends from college from the south, but I think they are a pretty representative sample.

I've only had beer from one of the GA breweries, so I'm not an expert. Each of the four have fairly interesting histories.

Terrapin Beer Co is based in Athens, home of the University of Georgia, making it the main hub for hippies and rich southern kids. So, what better business to run than an environmentally friendly microbrewery. I have a sixer of their Hop Karma Brown IPA. It seems like everyone has gone hop crazy lately and makes a double IPA. So it's good to see that a few breweries are trying some IPAs that have other flavors than bitter. The bottle has a hippy looking turtle drinking a beer with what might be a sitar. I love brown ales, and I like a pale ale, so I love this beer, which is a combo of the two.  Terrapin makes a lot of unique beers and they are distributed extensively in GA, NC, SC, and VA. You can also find them in FL, TN, AL, PA, and NJ like I did. I'm sold after one beer, so you may as well try some too.

Red Brick Brewing is run by Atlanta Brewing Company, which is Georgia's oldest brewery, opening in 1983. You're only going to be able to get it if you are in the South, as they want to remain a regional brewery for the South, with no plans of expanding to a nationwide market. I respect that. They've decided that they want to focus on where they are from and become a staple in a very promising market that is not super-saturated with breweries like the West Coast or the Northeast. They make nine separate beers. Next time I'm in Georgia, which I'm embarrassed to say will be the first time, I'm going to get a Red Brick Porter.

Jailhouse Brewing Company brews in Hampton, GA. Their story is pretty well documented on their website and it's a worn out story that, honestly, I'm just tired of hearing. Guy likes beer, guy buys 1920's era jailhouse in small town, guy completely renovates jail, guy buys brewing equipment from defunct brewery, guy waits for Georgia to give him a license, guy brews beer. They started brewing in October of 2009, so they are pretty much just getting started, but their beers are available in and around Atlanta in bars and beer stores. Not shockingly, all of their beers have Jail themed names (Mugshot IPA, Breakout Stout, the Solitary Confinement Series.) They currently have three year round beers, and from reading over their website, they seem to have a lot of passion and desire to do well, which is enough for me to want to give them a try. However, eventually the newness will wear off and they'll have to let their beers speak for themselves.

SweetWater Brewing Company is in midtown Atlanta and has been there since 2004. They began as a brewery in 1997 when two guys from Colorado figured Atlanta needed a microbrewery. They brew 5 year round beers, 5 seasonals, and some more special edition stuff. Their slogan is Don't Float the Mainstream, and they seem to be serious about brewing without taking themselves too seriously. They say that their beers are unpasteurized so they are best within 90 days. The distribute in AL, FL, NC, SC, TN, and of course GA. It would probably be a fun place to visit and it's probably very convenient to downtown Atlanta, making it a definite day/evening pre-gaming tour possibility.

Trailies:
Best Beer Name: So Fresh and So Green, Green - Terrapin. This beer uses fresh hops from Washington's Yakima valley that are flown in over night prior to brew day. Plus, any homage to Andre 3000 and Big Boi gets my vote.
The Make a Movie About These Guys Award: Jailhouse. Could be a murder mystery/comedy about a brewer who happens upon a murder in the act, setting in motion a long and drawn out investigation, only to find out that the murder was just a scene from a high school student's movie for English class, called "Trouble's Brewin' " Could be a horror film, where the jailhouse ghost haunts the brewmaster and continually makes him mess up and brew Miller Light called "Less Taste, More Thrilling." Ok I'm on a roll, but I'll stop there.
Most Likely to have been Phish fans in High School: Sweetwater. They're from Colorado and they have a 420 Extra Pale Ale. Case closed.

Road Trips:
I can't personally recommend anything, but, I'm sure there is a lot to do in Atlanta, which would get you close to two of the breweries, Atlanta and Sweetwater. Hampton is only a 45 minute drive south of Atlanta, so that's an easy day trip if you are staying in the city. I love going to college towns, and Athens has a great music scene, so I think my first choice brewery to visit in Georgia would have to be Terrapin. Hang out, listen to some up and comers play in a small bar, while drinking unique beers. Sounds like a great trip for the fall. Maybe catch a football game between the hedges at UGA while I'm there. Just need a way to quit my job.... please read my blog.

Music:
Like I said, Athens is known for its music scene, so a lot of bands have gotten their start there. REM and B-52s cut their teeth in Athens. Brian Burton, aka, Danger Mouse, is from New York, but got his big break in Athens after winning a contest to open a show for Outkast and Goodie Mob (two big Atlanta hip-hop groups. I personally love everything Outkast has ever done. Spottieottiedopalicious is #1 a spectacular name, but #2, also a great song. Sorry for the long parenthesis) After the show he gave his demo tape to Cee-Lo Green, and eventually they formed Gnarls Barkley which made both mega-stars. Since then Burton teamed up with the lead singer of the Shins and they put out an album last year as Broken Bells. It's a great mix of beats and catchy melodies, like folk with a hip-hop/electronica beat background. Almost like if Bubba Sparxx learned to play guitar. Nevermind. Nothing could be that good. Burton is one of those musicians that seems to want to explore every type of music possible in an effort to find the one that really fits him. My guess is that he will keep doing collaborations with people from all different genres. I'll keep on tuning in. You should check out the album. It's self titled.

I'll be back in a month or so with Connecticut.

Georgia Brewery Map

#3 - New Jersey, "The Garden State"

Lately when anyone outside of the New Jersey/NY/Philadelphia region hears the words New Jersey they immediately think of fist pumping, slicked back hair, and Snooki. Me, I don't watch that show, so I think of not being allowed to turn left, urban blight, and vast populations of people who are probably related to my ancestors but who just weren't lucky enough to get out like my family. 


I'm only (half) kidding. I like New Jersey. And although I have told my wife that we will never have a New Jersey address, I have some very strong ties to the state. Two of my best friends are residents; one from South Jersey and one from North Jersey. My wife's family has a vacation place in at the Shore, so we have spent a lot of time there during the summers. And my sister-in-law and her husband live in the NYC suburbs.


I feel just about the same way about my personal ties to New Jersey as I do about the beer from the state. I only care to have tried a few beers, but the beers I have tried, I like a lot.

Stats for New Jersey:

Most Well Known Cities: Newark, Trenton, Camden, Atlantic City, Princeton (one of these things is not like the other.)

# of Microbreweries: 6
# of Brewpubs: 15 
# of Governors who look like they are either in the mob or in a lot of gambling debt with the mob: 1

There seems to be a common theme among the Jersey breweries. They tackle the classic styles of beer that are not too far out there on the taste spectrum and then just try to do them really well. I am not sure why, but maybe it's to appeal to a diverse audience, which is something you will definitely find in New Jersey. Could be a coincidence too. I took statistics back in high school and I don't think 6 is a very large sample size.


River Horse is based in Lambertville, which is right outside Trenton. One night I was home alone and I was watching a movie sittin on my couch. I had gotten some River Horse Tripel Horse at my most recent beer swap. I had one then had another over the course of the hour or hour and a half movie. I stood up when it was over and almost fell over. That stuff hits you. It's like 11% alcohol, so I had essentially had 6 Bud Lights. Didn't really realize it till it got away from me a bit. I should have known because there is a strong alcohol taste to that beer. You live and you learn. I like this brewery. I've had several of their beers and never have been disappointed. Their website sucks so I have no background history or distribution info, but I know they distribute at least in NJ and PA. Their label art is pretty cool with the hippos and lettering that looks like it was written by a hippo, or at least someone with hippo hands. Check em out. 


Flying Fish is probably the most recognizable New Jersey brewery. They distribute to NJ, DE, MD, DC, and PA. I would say that they are also the most creative of the Garden States craft beer scene. I like their logo too. It's a fish skeleton with two props on it so that it's flying. Get it? They actually also try to make drinkable beers but they are all about trying to pair their beer with food, even giving some beer related recipes on their website. I've had the Grand Cru Winter Reserve, the Farmhouse Summer Ale, and the Exit 4. That is the first in their Exit series, which is a great concept. They make beers inspired by the specific exits of the New Jersey Turnpike. For example the Exit 1 is a Bayshore Oyster Stout, inspired by the bay lifestyle. They make 6 so far in the series and I had the Exit 4 last weekend (American Trippel.) I enjoyed it. Sweeter and smoother than I expect for a Trippel. This is a well run brewery and they are based in Cherry Hill, outside of Philadelphia. So I need to cross the Walt Whitman someday and check out their facility. So do you. 

New Jersey Beer Company is a new company based in North Bergen. Their bottling line is broken, so they are only distributing kegs and only in NJ. You'll have to find them on tap somewhere in the third state. If you ask, you might find a Belgian abbey style session beer called 1787, which is the year New Jersey became a state. I wager that they chose that name because they knew I was writing this blog and they wanted to get mentioned. Thanks for giving me relevant topics, guys, but you're out of luck because I am the only one who reads this.

Cricket Hill is based in Fairfield, which is in Northern Jersey, just far enough west that you forget that you are in New Jersey, but not far enough west to escape the accents. Cricket Hill is another one of the breweries that is interested in a middle of the road menu. They don't want anything wacky, they just want to stick to the classics and make 'em well. They call it the gateway philosophy, almost like they want to get your business before you get hooked on the hard stuff and start spending your rent money on $160 cases of 14% Imperial Pumpernickel Stouts. I had them at a beer festival last year, but again, it was a beer festival so no lingering memories about the taste. They have a slick cricket logo and distribute in NJ, NY, Maine, PA, and VA.


Climax Brewing is celebrating 10 years brewing and are a father-son operation based in Roselle Park, which is an NYC suburb. They brew "authentic" beers with simple descriptive names. They distribute in NJ at stores and restaurants. Nothing fancy at all about them.


High Point Wheat started brewing in 1994 as the first American brewery to specialize in wheat beers. Their beers are brewed under the Ramstein name and use only wheat, barley, hops, and yeast that are imported directly from Germany. They are essentially a German brewery that happens to reside in Butler, NJ, and they make traditional wheat beers and lagers. They distribute to NJ, NY, and Eastern PA.


Let's hand out some hardware.


Trailies:

Best Beer Name: River Horse Hop-a-lot-a-mus (Unfiltered Double IPA)
Best Concept: Flying Fish Exit 16 Wild Rice IPA. Based on the exit where the Meadowlands are, where surprisingly, there is a lot of wildlife. The rice apparently ferments and dries out this beer to let the flavor of the 5 types of hops come through even more. They added a lot of hops with fruity profiles. Sounds too hoppy for me, but I would try it. It's supposed to be paired with spicy food or seafood.

Beer That Best Represents Jersey Shore: Cricket Hill Jersey Summer Breakfast Ale

Best Label Art: River Horse

Road Trips:

Take a road trip up the coast on route 9 and stop off at some of the amazingly packed beach towns from Cape May to Atlantic City to the home of the Boss in Asbury Park. Cape May is a clean little family town with very good restaurants and Atlantic city is essentially the exact opposite of that, although there is still good food. You can drive from the bottom of the Garden State parkway at exit 0 (Cape May) to the NY State Line in about 3 hours, without traffic, so you could definitely get to every brewery within a three day weekend if you wanted to do it. 

Music:
Gaslight Anthem is from New Brunswick, New Jersey and they opened up for Weezer at a few shows around here this past summer. I have their album The '59 sound, and yeah, they sound a lot like they copied Springsteen, and yes, a lot of their songs have the exact same lyrical and production style but they at least do what they do pretty well. I like the song "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" because it's a slightly slower song which is a departure from the rest of the album.


New Jersey Beer Trail Map

#2b - Pennsylvania, "The Keystone State" (Harrisburg and West)

One of my friends from college was from outside of Pittsburgh and he raved about Iron City beer. So, when a bunch of us went to Pittsburgh for a football game in 2005 I was expecting big things. What I got was run of the mill light beer in an aluminum bottle, before aluminum bottles really took off. So kudos on early adaptation of environmental stewardship, but I won't be buying a case of Iron City any time soon.

But now looking back, his love of Iron City makes me realize just how unifying crappy beer can be for a region. Regional beers, like Natty Boh in Baltimore and Genesee in upstate New York, along with many others, become ingrained in a local culture. Disrespect those beers to a person from those areas and you directly disrespect them. Even if these beers are clearly no better than hop flavored water. That being said, there are so many better beers than Iron City that are brewed in Western PA. Sorry Tony. At least you made up for your bad beer taste by being good at Mario Tennis.

Beer Stats for Western PA:

Cities: Pittsburgh, Erie, Harrisburg, Altoona

# of Microbreweries: 16, mostly small batch and local, but 9 with significant regional or state distribution
# of Brewpubs: 14
Cities that I have never considered living in: 4 (although I was pleasantly surprised with how cool Pittsburgh was and I've never been to any of the others)

I'm going to be honest and say that I have not tried the majority of the breweries that are listed on beermapping.com. Just off the top of my head, it looks like I've had beers from 3 breweries and I've been to one of the brewpubs. So, since at my current pace I'll finish looking at the breweries of all 50 states when I am staring down my 30th birthday, I'll just talk about the four that I've had. 

Erie Brewing - I was first introduced to Erie Brewing at one of my beer swaps. One of my co-workers brought Ol' Red Cease and Desist Ale. It's what they call a Wee Heavy Ale and it's definitely a strong dark red. They say on their website that it was originally called Red Ryder BIG BEER, but apparently they received multiple cease and desist letters telling them they had to change the name. I can only assume that the company that makes the bb gun with the same name didn't want their young customers accidentally drinking a beer that's 10.1% alcohol and then suing them when they shoot their eye out. So they changed the name to C & D. Pretty good story for a beer that I really liked. Erie opened as a brewpub in 1993 and became a full fledged brewery 6 years later. It's distributed in 15 states and D.C.

Troegs - Troegs is based in Harrisburg and I've had almost all of their beers. They have very bright and detailed label art, which I think is used to distract you from the fact that there is a a 75% that you are about to be assaulted by hops. They seem to be a hop-heavy brewery, which is fine with me in certain instances and certainly not their only niche. Their Nugget Nectar is insanely hopped, they have an 11% winter seasonal called Mad Elf, and then they have my personal favorite, Dead Reckoning. It's a very smooth porter with strong caramel flavors an a good hop taste to it that doesn't linger because of all of the normal coffee, chocolate, and malt flavors that come with a lot of porters. They distribute to 8 states and D.C., so if you are in NY, NJ, DE, PA, OH, MD, MA or VA listen to what people are ordering because it's always fun to see people try to pronounce their name.  

Iron City - I didn't mean to knock Iron City in the first couple paragraphs, because they clearly have a strong following and everyone needs a beer to stock up the fridge or bring to the tailgate. I'm just personally more into beer that is creative and has flavor. 

That previous paragraph was this month's Backhanded Compliment brought to you by your local microbrewery.

Otto's Brewpub - I went to Otto's this past fall on a weekend trip up to State College with some friends. The bar was enormous and the restaurant was pretty spacious but it was still extremely packed, so it's definitely a local favorite. We sat there for an hour or so and had a few of the beers on tap while we ate lunch. The food was what I've come to know as standard for most brewpubs, which is a compliment, because it was high quality sandwiches and appetizers. We had a great time and I wish I remembered specifics about the beer, but I know that I liked the brews that I tried. I recommend State College in the fall. It's a classic college town with great local shops, bars, and restaurants. And if you have time you could even visit the grave of longtime head football coach Joe Paterno. Wait, I'm being informed he's still alive and is still the head coach of a Division 1 program. Truly astonishing. If you want a good laugh, check out this radio interview he recently did. Terrible radio idea to do a phoner with an 84 year old guy who can't hear, but comedy gold.

Trailies:

Best Beer Name: Gotta go with Ol' Red Cease and Desist Wee Heavy Ale. It's a mouthful of a name, and every time I say "Wee Heavy" in my head, the accent is what I would think an old Scottish guy with 4 teeth would sound like.

Trippiest Label Art:  Troegs is the winner by far. 

Best Unintentional Comedian: JoePa. We love you Joe. We said WE LOVE YOU JOE. You know what, nevermind. Go recruit 18 year olds and make snarky comments at press conferences.  

Road Trips:

Besides spending a fall weekend in State College, there are good sites to see all over PA. If you like baseball or football and are near Pittsburgh. Catch a game at either PNC Park or Heinz Field. They are in a great location, overlooking the skyline and the rivers. If you are near Troegs in Harrisburg, the Appalachian trail crosses right through there, so if you are into hiking, you can't beat that. 

Music:

I couldn't find any bands that I liked that are from western PA, so here's a random recommendation. Throw some Spoon in your iPod. I have their album Gimme Fiction and it is part of the regular rotation on my commute. I don't know how to classify them, but I know I like them.


PA West Beer Trail Map