Beer trek....
 

Last night Sam75 and I road tripped up to Richmond (VA) to meet up with a green board buddy and sample some fine brews at Capital Ale House .

I've never seen so many beers in my life. They had just about everything you could possibly think, and then some. We tried quite a few and I've found some new faves I think.

Some of the things I tried:

SN Celebration Ale on draft: It was good, but I think it is a little better out of the bottle. It might also be because my tastebuds were burned up from a 200+ IBU beer that we tried at our buddy's house before we left for the restaurant. He brewed that sucker 3 weeks ago, and it was already awesome.

Belhaven - Scottish Ale: This was tasty. I had never had it before--and I'm not a peat malt fan, but this was probably my favorite beer of the night. Very nice.

Flying Dog-Snake Dog: Pretty underwhelming after I had the Celebration and the 200+ IBU beer, but I have no doubt I'd enjoy it immensely if I had started with that. It is Flying Dog's IPA.

I also had a smoked porter that was really tasty, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. I do think however that mine will be better (got racked to a keg a few hours ago--for immediate carbonation ;) ), and a couple of other interesting beers. Sam will hopefully post here and help me out with that porter and some of the others that he tried.....

BTW--the atmosphere sucked in there, but when they have 200-300+ beers, who's going to complain? :D

I've had this one on several occasions. I like it a lot, but I think it could tone town the peaty flavor a BIT.

I bought a sixer of this a month or so ago. Pretty tastey stuff, but I think I had spoiled myself on Mash House Hoppy Hour IPA (that's a local brewery, and I don't know how widely available it is.)

Hoppy Hour is like Snake Dog cranked up a few notches in flavor. (For you Spinal Tap fans, "it goes to eleven!")

Sounds like it was a good time!

-walker

Was it in danger of being crushed by a dwarf?

Pretty amazing that they don't actually use any peated malt in that stuff, huh? There's definately a strong smokey flavor.

yep, no peated malt in the Belhaven Scottish Ale. i'm drink'n a Belhaven Saint Andrew's Ale rightnow. i bought a sixer of the Snake Dog IPA too. good, clean hoppy beer. liked it. i keep seeing people post about the SNCA so i bought asix pack of that for a Christmas party this weekend. looking forward to twist'n some of those tops.......
sounds like y'all had a fun night w/ some good brews.

Yeah, I got pretty tanked. :D

The smoked porter ORRELSE had was from Stone. Very nice.

I tried a sip of the Bellhaven, too. No peated malt, you say? Sure tastes like it to me. Where does that flavor come from?

I had a Hop Rod Rye....always awesome. I have a 90 Minute after that, and was actually underwhelmed. I didn't realize the Hop Rod was that hoppy.

I had an Imperial Pilsner from Legend Brewing in Richmond. I've tried their beers before, and was underwhelmed. This was also my first experience with the style, but man, this stuff was awesome. It was off the hand pump, so it wasn't very carbed, and warmish. I'd like to have one chilled and fully carbed.....yummy!

I might have had something else, but if I did, I don't recall. They seemed to have had every single beer I could think of, with the exception of Russian River. Like ORRELSE said, the place was a bit "upscale," so the atmosphere was lacking, IMO.

Sam, i e-mailed the/one of the brewer's at Belhaven and we exchanged a few. real nice guy, but not very divulging w/ his info and how they get the smokey flavor.

Dear Brian,

Thank you for you enquiry.

On the face of it this grist may give you some burnt roast character as a result of the roasted barley/crystal malts used.

The Belhaven "smokey" character however is primarily due to our direct fired external shell and tube wort boiler.

We do not use any peated malts within the brewery.

I hope this is useful.

Kind regards,

George.

i'm reading Scotch Ale (#8 in the classic beer style's books) and none of the recipes call for smoked peat malt. it comes from the roast barley and the brewing "process".

go figure!

I'll be damned. I've always heard that they don't actually use peated malt, but that it's one way to get there when trying to clone a Scottish. Guess I've got my proof, now.

I wonder what a "direct fired external shell and tube wort boiler" is? :eek: I think I'll just used peated malt. :)

Can't one of you guys from the kingdom run over there and figure this out for us? Orfy? Blighty? Caplan? One of you ought to be able to sneak in there and get some pics. TIA. :D

I'm convinced it's the mother of all smokers, and the brew kettle sits inside of it. :D