Paradox Brewery - Another Beauty Among the Adirondacks

Before beginning the ascent into the Adirondack Mountains, theCompass Winery Brewery Distiller Locator alerted us to a small brewery off Schroon Lake (northeast of Lake George): Paradox Brewery. And after visiting I strongly recommend their beers; they were fantastic - starting with the Paradox Fest Lager. This version of an Oktoberfest is drier than most while still retaining malty flavor and an even keel of hops. I think my favorite Oktoberfest beer ever. Their Paradox Pumpkin Lager was similar, dry with subtle pumpkin and spices - not a sweet pie bomb. The Black Fly Porter was a solid porter with toasted chocolate and a rather bigger hoppy finish. And finally their Beaver Bite IPA is a dry hopped IPA with big citrus aromas and a delicious pale malt profile. Less than two years old, this microbrewery is making some beers to rival more established operations. Nicely done.

Exploring the Wilmington Craft Beer Scene

A family wedding lead me to Wilmington North Carolina where I found a thriving beer culture. Not only were their several excellent beer bars, a local bookstore (Old Books on Front St.) served beer, wine, and mead. And this port city is home to several breweries, most of which I was able to visit or at a minimum sample a beer. Regrets to BroomTail Craft Brews as the one brewery I completely missed.

We started the weekend with lunch at Front Street Brewery, a brewpub located in a 1865 era building and serving microbrews and southern styled pub food .  And don't leave without trying the 'Beers'wick Stew or Low Country Grit Cakes. Front Street is also the Granddaddy of the local beer movement having opened a decade ago. Year round they provide eight beers on tap, augmented by a couple seasonals. I thought the Coastal Kolsch was spot on with the Dram Tree Scottish Ale a decent wee heavy, although a bit on the sweeter side. The brewery also houses the largest whiskey selection I've ever seen, 300+, that made my eyes water in temptation. Wow. 

The bride and groom judiciously provided guests with a goody bag when checking into their hotel room and each bag contained a crowler of Wilmington Brewing Company Sneaky Goose Double IPA. Yes a crowler -- a 32 ounce canned container. Once the city's premier brewing supply store, the operation now includes a 3bbl brewery and tasting room. And good beer if the Sneaky Goose is any indication as it was heavy, but with a smooth backbone and plenty of aromatics. The brewery also offers a Kolsch, Stout, Saison, and Porter -- next trip.


Before the ceremony a few of us ventured a couple blocks to Ironclad Brewery, a newcomer that specializes in home grown beer and live music.  I tasted over half their menu and all were solid representatives of their respective styles starting with the Teach's Chocolate Stout. Plenty of smooth chocolate in this one. Two other smooth beers were their two lighter options Lydia's Lager (Munich Helles Lager) and the Old Baldy Golden Ale. And the Fish Tale Pale Ale was rather tasty as it had plenty of citrus in the tail. Wish we had more time to hangout.

It's not a beer trip unless we visit an aquarium or zoo and fortunately for the little one, there's one of each in the beaches south of Wilmington. And along the route theCompass alerted us to Good Hops Brewing in Carolina Beach. The brewery is the companion to Lookout Brewing Company in Black Mountain and brews daily on a 3 barrel system and provide a wide range of ales. A seasonal Saison and the Donna Golden Ale were nice starts to the session, but the clear favorites were the Flip Hop IPA and Bravehop Scotch Ale. The former is a clean IPA, big but refreshing on the palate. The later is currently a sour that requires a few sips to penetrate into the wee heavy flavors. A fantastic beer.


The final stop during the weekend was to the First Anniversary Party at Flytrap Brewing. And not just any party, a sour beer party. The lineup was stellar, unfortunately no samples so I stuck with the Gose and Belgium Blonde aged in Hungarian Oak. The Gose was very unique, stone fruits up front and slightly tart and salty on the back end. The oak aged Belgium was phenomenal; some funk and brett finishing slightly sour. Well worth the high price tag. The brewery was rocking that night with a large crowd and live music.  Seems like an appropriate metaphor to the overall Wilmington craft beer scene. Cheers.

How to #DrinkLocal at the 2015 #MLB Playoffs with #theCompassApp

With the 2015 Major League Baseball wildcard games over, baseball fans will be traveling to their favorite team's stadium or, if ambitious, to an away outing for the remainder of the playoffs.  Most fans will be content to chug mass produced lagers, but there must be a few among you who desire a richer beer experience.  That's where theCompass Winery, Brewery, Distillery Locator Mobile App comes into play. This application will help you find breweries, distilleries, and perhaps a winery near your destination. And for cities such as Kansas City and St. Louis, where the baseball stadiums are situated near two states, theCompass location and zip code search will find establishments across state boundaries.  Below are screenshots for each city, but I've also included a few suggestions near each stadium or in specific districts. Cheers and safe travels.

Chicago Cubs - Wrigley Field Dryhop Brewers Begyle Brewing Atlas Brewing Company Half Acre Beer Company Metropolitan Brewing Revolution Brewing Maplewood Brewery & Distillery Chicago Distilling Company Koval Distillery

Houston Astros - Minute Maid Park; Houston 8th Wonder Brewery Saint Arnold Brewing Company Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company

Kansas City Royals - Kaufmann Stadium Crane Brewing Company 75th Street Brewery Crossroads Art District: Border Brewing Co. Torn Label Brewing Company Double Shift Brewing Other:  Boulevard Brewing Company

Los Angeles Dodgers - Dodger Stadium Bonaventure Brewing Co Angel City Brewery Mumford Brewing Greenbar Craft Distillery

New York Mets - Citi Field Singlecut Beersmiths The Bronx Brewery Port Morris Distillery Big Alice Brewing Company Rockaway Brewing Company Transmitter Brewing Finback Brewery

St. Louis Cardinals - Busch Stadium Morgan Street Brewery 4 Hands Brewing Co Square One Brewery & Distillery Still 630 Ditillery Alpha Brewing Company Schlafly Tap Room

Texas Rangers - Globe Life Park in Arlington Humperdinks - Arlington Dallas: Deep Ellum Brewing Community Beer Company Peticolas Brewing Company Fort Worth: Panther Island Brewing Rahr & Sons Brewing Company

Toronto Bluejays - Rogers Centre Amsterdam Brewing Company Steam Whistle Brewing Mascot Brewery The 3 Brewers Yonge  Mill Street Brewery Bellwoods Brewery Duggan's Brewery Lansdowne Brewery Left Field Brewery

Black Squirrel, Rum from Maple Syrup But Don't Tell the TTB

New York state provides very liberal regulations for farm wineries, breweries, and distilleries provided they utilize New York grown agricultural products. As a result, the number of establishments within each of these categories are growing, with over 50 distillers of grain and fruit. You won't find much rum within this group from the obvious fact that sugarcane doesn't fare well in the Empire state. And thus NY distillery's that produce rum from imported molasses or sugarcane, such as The Noble Experiment NYC and The Albany Distilling Company, do not operate with a farm distillery license.

Enter Buffalo based Black Squirrel Distillery. This operation creates two rum products using a New England staple, maple syrup, Black Squirrel and Mapleshine™.   Bother are produced from New York harvested maple sap which, if you think of it, has the same texture as molasses and both are composed primarily of sucrose. And according to Jason Schwinger, maple syrup "adds some truly unique character that cane and molasses rums could only dream of". That being said, the Mapleshine™ is produced by fermenting and distilling this syrup; whereas the Black Squirrel is then aged in re-coopered French oak barrels and American oak.

Seems like a nice rum product right? Nope. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTP) which regulates the labeling of alcoholic products at the federal level will not classify this product as Rum. To the bureaucrats, rum is a "spirit distilled from fermented juice of sugar cane, sugar cane syrup, sugar cane molasses, or other sugar can by-products" -- not from maple syrup. Otherwise, as an uninformed  consumer you'd be confused.

Last month the distillery sent me a sample bottle of Black Squirrel and the first thought is there is only a slight hint that maple syrup was the spirit's primary ingredient. The nose exudes a honeyed nut aroma, with the flavor profile sweet caramel. Whether neat or with a drop of water, there is little noticeable burn - just a long smooth honeyed caramel finish. I also mixed as a base for my favorite rum cocktails like Hemingway's Josie Russell. Works perfectly, just like a classified rum spirit. Cheers.

A Brewery & Distillery Venture in Pittsburgh

It was time for another Nationals road trip, once again, Pittsburgh's PNC Park was our destination in hopes of quality baseball and beer. While driving towards the city, theCompass Winery, Brewery, Distillery Locator Mobile App informed me of several brewery options in the suburbs with Full Pint Brewing Company the closest. This is a hop head's paradise, plenty of strong IPAs - even a session version. But give me the White Lightening, a Belgium Wit, that's spicy and refreshing.

Our group had a rendezvous setup at the Rivertowne Pour House for a late lunch and beer. Rivertowne has an expansive beer selection and you can find their cans (brewed at Rivertowne Brewing Export, PA) throughout the region. I stuck with samples of their low abv beers - knowing it was going to be a long day and night. A few favorites were the Babbling Blonde, Czech-Mate Pilsner, and the Home Game West Coast Common Lager. The one exception to the low abv rule was the Bourbon Barrel Aged Baltic Porter, a high gravity porter aged in used bourbon barrels. Hot, but also creamy with soft vanilla notes.

Pittsburgh is a tailgating town, and even for a night game it starts early; cars started rolling in at 11:00 am - the same time some of the bars opened. My favorite Pittsburgh beers were from Draai Laag Brewing Company, where a couple are available at the The Beer Market. This brewery specializes in unique Belgian inspired ales, many of these sours - which nails my current flavor profile. One of these is the R2 Koelschip, an American Wild Ale style beer, perhaps not as wild as the name suggests but still some funk, brett, and mildly tart. But my go to beer was the Geestelijke Farmhouse Ale, on draft, and first fermented using open spontaneous fermentation. The wild yeast strain was later determined to be the Wild Angels strain. This beer is yeasty, tart, with a lemon profile. Next visit to Pittsburgh, I'm hitting this brewery first.

Uber is a great transportation medium for visiting city breweries and it served as well on this day. Four trips cost about $25 total, with the first leg taking us to Roundabout Brewery. A bartender at the Beer Market had recommended this brewery since they don't sell outside of their tap room and have a New Zealand flair - particularly the meat pies. I tried to remain in the low ABV range and choose the Berliner Weisse and Kolsh. The later was quite unique with the use of Lemon Drop hops adding a more citrusy component to the otherwise very clean beer. Their Berliner Weisse nailed the style: tart, light and refreshing with more lemon citrus. My companions went with the IPAs with the Pacific Ring IPA their favorite - brewed with Cascade and new Zealand Nelson Sauvin hops.

Out next destination was Church Brew Works, and this is a destination, in addition to be a brewery and restaurant. It is located in a 100+ year old former St. John the Baptist Church, a historical building where they kept most of the original interior and exterior intact. It is quite impressive, particularly the stained glass windows, spirals, and altar. And since our group consisted entirely of Catholics, a must visit. The brewery's Celestial Gold Pilsner and Pious Monk Dunkel are available throughout the city and at PNC Park, and showcase the German styled leaning of this operation. The hop head in our group went with the Thunder Hop IPA, brewed with nearly 3lbs of Australian Galaxy and American Chinook per barrel of beer. For me, it was another Berliner Weisse, this one still citrus but more of a grapefruit flavor than lemon.

Our final stop was the highly recommenced Wigle Whiskey. It seems that everyone we talked to praised this distillery, so off to the Strip District for us. The distillery is named after Phillip Wigle, who "defended his right to distill in a tussle with a tax collector. He unwittingly helped spark the Whiskey Rebellion, which pitted Pennsylvania distillers against George Washington's troops". As the story suggests, they specialize in whiskey, in particular, rye whiskey using Pennsylvania grown Monongahela Rye. There is also plenty of experimenting occurring at Wigle with the whiskey aged in different oak barrels such as Apple Wood, Cherry, and Maple. Tastings are conducted through various flights of 1 ounce pours of four spirits; and we went with the Aged and Experimental flights. The Aged Spirits flight consisted of the Organic Allegheny Wheat Whiskey, Organic Monongahela Rye Whiskey, Organic Barrel-Rested Ginever, and Barleywine Barrel-Rested Ginever. We definitely preferred the whiskey over the gin, with the rye slightly ahead of the wheat. For the Experimental flight, we sampled the Organic Wheat Whiskey Finished with Maple Wood, Wry Rebellion Whiskey, Four Grain Whiskey, and another version of the Barleywine Barrel-Rested Ginever. The Wry Rebellion was a favorite with the spirit based on a lower rye mash and finishing in a once-used Wild Turkey Bourbon barrel. This is a very smooth whiskey, full of honey and vanilla notes. The Maple Wood was also quite nice - with a slightly sweeter profile. The recommendations were correct, Wigle is a must visit.

Cheers to Pittsburgh breweries and distilleries.

Ballparks & Brews: Harrisburg Senators & Zeroday Brewing Company

This past week we enjoyed more Minor League baseball with moon bounces, Monkey Rodeo, and Pennsylvania beer at the Harrisburg Senators Metro Bank Park. Although it's $2 Coors night on Thursdays, I found myself gravitating to the Appalachian Brewing Company beers located in the right field food court. Look for the Hershey signs. The Mountain Lager is a solid, refreshing beer. Troegs Brewing is also available at this stand as well as a couple others on the upper left field beer stands.

Now, if you'll looking for a good spot to tailgate before or after the game, I recommend Zeroday Brewing Company, located only a couple miles across the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg's Midtown district. theCompass Winery, Brewery, Distillery Locator Mobile Application can provide directions. The brewery opened this year, just in time for the 2015 season and brews a wide selection of beer from blondes to dark stouts.By far my favorite beer was the ROYGBIV Midtown Funk - a limited release Saison with plenty of funky depth which tastes more like a wine than beer. The Cheap Date is a solid blonde whereas the Dolce Vita (Chocolate & Hazelnut Sweet Stout) is nutella in a glass. For those who prefer wine or cider, the brewery offers local options from Knob Hall Winery and The Vineyard at Hershey's Weiser Orchards Honeycrisp Cider. Cheers to #pabeer and minor league baseball.

Update: the post was updated to include Zeroday Brewing. 

#VABreweryChallenge: Norfolk - O'Connor Brewing Co. (#23) & Smartmouth Brewing Co (#24)

While returning from the Outre Banks, we decided to spend the night in Norfolk, with the Virginia Zoo in one mind; the #VABreweryChallenge in the other. The Zoo is rather impression, primarily from it's botanical gardens, as our the two breweries we visited afterwards. Both are in located in the same proximity in the Ghent and Chelsea neighborhoods which made travel between the two very easy with theCompass Winery Brewery Distillery Locator. O'Connor Brewing Co. is the larger and older of the two; with owner/brewer Kevin O'Connor learning the brewing and wholesale side of the trade at St. George Brewing Company and Specialty Beverage. I've been a long time fan of their El Guapo Agave India Pale Ale as I've been able to aquire a bottle here and there. Just enough agave to make it interesting. For a summer ale, the Green Can is a solid light bodied ale; as is the Norfolk Canyon Pale Ale - the medium hops provide a mellow finish. For a stronger beer and a bit of history try the Great Dismal Black IPA - I remember riding on the outskirts along Route 17 long ago. 

Smartmouth Brewing Co opened two years after O'Connor in 2012 in the Chelsea neighborhood. The brewery hits a range of styles from German to Belgium to American and the first I saw was a low 2.5 % abv Berliner Weisse. Tart and refreshing. On the other side of the spectrum was the Hive Mind Barrel-Aged Honey Saison. Aged in used Chardonnay barrels, the beer has a creamy texture, with a slight sweet spot balanced by some spice. Quite nice. For the less adventurist, the Safety Dance Pilsner is slightly hoppy and refreshing and the hops head will like the Bandwagon 4.0 IPA single hopped with El Dorado. They joined the bandwagon. Well played Smartmouth. Cheers.

Another Unique #WineStudio Featured Rosé: Y. Rousseau 2014 Rosé of Tannat

"I don’t follow trend, I make wine of conviction. I make wine I want to enjoy myself." ~ Yannick Rousseau

The final Protocol #WineStudio Rosé series features Yannick Rousseau and his "one of a kind" Rosé of Tannat. Yannick was born in the Gascony region of South-West France and was introduced to wine making at an early age from his grandfather's homemade wine. As an adult he worked at various French wineries before relocating to Napa Valley in 1999 where he interned for Newton Vineyard and consulted at VGS Chateau Potelle Winery. In 2007 he set out to create his own brand, focusing on varietals from his native South-West France; first  with Colombard and then Tannat. Whereas Y. Rousseau Wines base of operation is in Napa, for this rosé he sourced fruit from Saralee’s Vineyard in Sonoma's Russian River Valley. During the tasting, Rousseau mentioned that producing a rosé using Tannat is very challenging - particularly with such a bold, dark grape. He also said his approach with Tannat is different from those produced in Madiran.  He wants his Tannats to be enjoyed early but also to age well.


Y. Rousseau, 2014 Rosé of Tannat Russian River Valley, Sonoma County ($24, 13.5%) - 100% Tannat from Saralee’s Vineyard – Matthew's Station; 75% pressed, 25% saignée; fermented in stainless steel; aged for 5 months on the lees with no stirring. The wine starts with a watermelon aroma moving towards strawberries on the elevated palate, finishes dry and acidic.

#WineStudio Rosé: 2014 Donelan Rosé Sonoma County Syrah / Grenache / Pinot Noir

The third week of the Protocol #WineStudio Rosé series features more Sonoma County rosé, this time from Donelan Family Wines in the 2014 Rosé Sonoma County Syrah / Grenache / Pinot Noir ($25, 13.3%). Now, we all enjoy a nice GSM wine, but a GSP? This shall be interesting.

But first, Donelan winemaker Joe Nielson answered our questions regarding the wine's production. It is made using the Saignee method, where the grapes are loaded into tanks and juice is pulled after short skin contact of 1 hr to 24 hrs. The extracted juice represents 5% to 20% of total volume as it serves a dual purpose of making the red wine, from the remaining juice, more concentrated and allowing for the production of a second wine - a rosé. The exact percentages in the blend is 55% Syrah, 29% Grenache and 16% Pinot Noir, with all juice fermented in neutral oak - similar to fermenting Chardonnay. Nielson believes prefers neutral oak over concrete/stainless steel because "it helps with micro-ox which keeps #rhone wine from stinkin'". The grapes were harvested across multiple Sonoma County vineyards with the lots interestingly named #babs #direstraits #DavidLeeRoth #Prince #BonJovi  - all #terroir driven personality. The one exception to the saignee juice came from the #Prince lot from Bennett Valley, which was lightly pressed.

The result is a wine where the acids comes alive providing a clear contrast to the creamy center and tropical nose. Mango and pineapple comprise those tropical attributes; the neutral oak rounds out the finish and contributes that creamy palate. The acids are key though, helped along by the Syrah harvested from the cooler Russian River Valley Walker Vine Hill and Kobler vineyards. This is a solid wine, one to savor. Well done. Cheers.

#VABreweryChallenge: Leesburg's Crooked Run Brewing (#15)

Sunday we continued the #VABreweryChallenge with a visit to Loudoun County and Leesburg's Crooked Run Brewing. The brewery is one of the top rest spots on the W&OD Bike Trail, located near mile marker 34 in the historic Market Station. And being a nano-brewery they are known for their experimental small batch concoctions. That will change slightly in the future. In early fall, they hope to open a larger facility in Chantilly where owner and brewer Jake Endres will concentrate on a core brand. Thankfully the current location will remain open, concentrating on smaller batches of experimental beers. And here were the small batch beers available on our visit:


Red Kolsch (4.5%) - This tastes exactly if an Irish Red was blended with a German Kolsch. Refreshing hoppy finish.
Bad Boy ESB (5.5%) - A little bite to this one, some spice, plenty of malt.
Bad Boy ESB Nitro (5.5%) - Smoother version of the previous.
Summer Night (7/5%) - This raspberry dark Saison was my favorite of the group. The fruit and chocolate blend seamlessly.

Pennsylvania Wine & Beer near Longwood Gardens

theCompass view of
Longwood Gardens

This Mother's Day, we headed to eastern Pennsylvania and the former DuPont estate, Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square. Yes, the estate is a gardeners and landscapers dream destination and well worth a visit. The gardens are located southwest of Philadelphia, within the Brandywine Valley, home to many wineries plus a small wine trail. Breweries are also abundant, with my favorite, Victory Brewing Company located due north of the gardens in Downingtown. You can begin your tour of this brewery at The Cafe, Longwood Garden's popular eatery, with their excellent Prima Pils. Sadly, that's the only local option within the garden complex. However, within Kennett Square proper there are two local options for a quick side trip, the Galer Estate Vineyard and Winery and soon to open Kennett Brewing Company. I will update the post once the brewery opens, but beware that Galer Estate has an over 21 only policy. Families, like us, must choose other options.

Thus, at the conclusion of our garden visit, we took a beeline to Chaddsford Winery, one of the oldest in Pennsylvania by opening in 1982. Today, the winery is the largest in the Keystone State, producing over 25,000 cases annually. Many of these are festival styled sweet wines to satisfy local tastes, but there are several wines more suitable to drier palettes. One of these is evidently their Blaufränkisch, sadly not on the tasting menu, but a persistent medal winner.  Three on the tasting menu that I did enjoy were the Proprietors Reserve White ($15), the Barrel Select Chardonnay ($22), and the Pinot Noir ($25). The first was a rather tasty 50-50 blend of Seyval and Vidal with plenty of acids to compensate for the slight RS. The Chardonnay was my favorite, with a slight creamy middle, accentuated by partial oak treatment. And the Pinot was light bodied with tart cherry flavors and slightly spicy finish. These were solid local wines.

theCompass Winery, Brewery, Distillery Locator Mobile App displayed many other wineries and breweries that we couldn't visit due to time constraints. Ten Gallon Hat Winery is right down the road from Chaddsford with Penns Woods Winery and McKenzie Brew House - Chadds Ford not far away. West Chester is home to three breweries (Boxcar Brewing Co., Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, and Levante Brewing) and make sure you check out the four wineries in the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail. Next time. Cheers. 

#DCBreweryChallenge: Bluejacket Brewery - Historic Beers

Before a Washington Nationals game this week, I hit Metro early in order to visit Bluejacket Brewery - located just two blocks north of the stadium. The brewery has a vast and varied beer selection (at least 20 beers), ranging from Kolsch to Stout. I asked for something on the tart or sour side and the bartender recommended two styles of Farmhouse Ales or the 1812 Project - Blend Porter. Now, you normally don't associate this style with tartness, but the 1812 Project is quite unique. Under the direction of Beer Director and Sommelier Greg Engert's direction, Bluejacket is resurrecting historical beer recipes that were once brewed in the District. According to Mary Beth Albright, breweries were once the 2nd largest employer in Washington DC after the Federal Government and one of the very first breweries was Washington Brewery. Thus Bluejacket decided to produce three of their former beers: Table Ale, Strong Ale, and X Ale. Without the actual recipes they improvised.

So although Engert and his project collaborator Michael Stein didn’t have beer recipes, they set out to find the best ingredients to produce flavor profiles matching the pleasantly sour and complex beers of two centuries ago, when brewing methods allowed in more naturally-occurring bacteria. They located the oldest American-grown hop varietal, cluster hops, and their amber malt, used frequently in period brewing, came from 200-year-old maltster Thomas Fawcett.

Since the Washington Brewery advertised itself as a "Beer and Porter" brewery, the team blended the three beers as was the Porter style 200 years ago. The result is a masterpiece and nothing like modern day Porters. It's tart with a funky cherry depth that finishes with chocolate. The Table Ale and X Ale provide the tartness, fruit, and funk with the Strong Ale attributing the color, more funk, and chocolate. This is a limited release, so hurry up to a Nats game and enjoy from historic ales. Cheers.

#DCBreweryChallenge Powered by theCompass
Winery, Brewery, Distillery Locator Mobile App

Update:I've updated the post based on clarifications from Mike Stein.

#VABreweryChallenge - Purcellville's Beer Triangle

This Saturday we continued the #VABreweryChallenge with a visit to Purcellville in DC's Wine Country - Loudon County. Known mostly to Northern Virginia's as the terminus of the W&OD Bike Trail, Purcellville has a growing beer and spirits community in addition to the area wineries. The new tasting room and cocktail center at Catoctin Creek Distilling Company is a must visit, but for our purposes, we spent time at the three local breweries: Corcoran Brewing Company (#10), Adroit Theory Brewing Company (#11), and Belly Love Brewing Company (#12). And all three are very accessible to the bike trail and easy to navigate to using theCompass Winery, Brewery, Distillery Locator app.

Corcoran Brewing Company is a vertex of the Corcoran wine, beer, and cider triangle. Once housed in a renovated barn at the winery location, the brewery moved to a more spacious site off Hirst Road. the brewery focuses on solid, easy drinking beers that seemed to have captivated a market as two full buses rolled in during our visit. The beer names commemorate the LoCo area and Corky's family history, and I've always found the beers clean and representative to the style. Today's samples were The Commonwealth Kolcsh and Dutchman's Creek Hefeweisen, both low ABVs and refreshing - a perfect suit for a warmer than usual spring day.

Adroit Theory Brewing Company is located a very short distance down Hirst from Corcoran. Besides proximity to each, any similarities with the two brewers end as this brewery specializes and high alcohol, funky, wood aged beers.  The lowest abv beer weighed in at 7.8% with several over 10%.  The most interesting beer this visit was the Trendy Triple IPA aged in used Tequila barrels. The barrels actually mellow the beer and provide a soft agave finish. The Chocolate Rye Farmhouse Ale was also tasty with its spicy chocolate character. But, my favorite was the Tart Rambuten Saison - hits the sweet spot in both dryness and tartness - and one I could drink all day, 8.8% abv permitting.

Our final stop was the newly opened Belly Love Brewing Company, located in a pedestrian area of a strip mall off Main Street.  The first thing we noticed was a food menu and the soft pretzel and scotch eggs helped ease hunger pains. As for the beer, I stayed on the lighter side with the Narcissist Helles which I found to be bright, rich in flavor, and refreshing. We also had to try the Shut the Fook Up Pale Ale - with a nice balance between the malt and hops. And for a gluten free alternative try the Insatiable Bread Substitute (IBS) Cream Ale; I preferred the Narcissist but not too bad. Altogether, this is a relaxing environment and filled quickly as the dinner and nighttime crowd starting moving in.

#VABreweryChallenge Powered by theCompass
Winery, Brewery, Distillery Locator Mobile App

#VABreweryChallenge - #9 Ocelot Brewing Company

Friday night we continued our #VABreweryChallenge by visiting newly opened Ocelot Brewing Company located in Sterling Virginia not far from Dulles Airport. They are located in a rather expansive warehouse with a large supply of fermentation and aging tanks already installed. Currently the brewery has three beers available with many more in the queue - particular I hear a lactos laced sour. Whereas these three available beers were tasty, only one seemed to match the style - the Tangerine Trees IPA. The My Only Friend Russian Imperial Stout was quite bitter and hoppy to be labeled as such and the Lemon Yellow Sun Wheat was more IPA than wheat. However, this was my favorite beer. Made from 50% white wheat it had a clean refreshing citrus flavor and a clean hoppy finish with a hint of sweetness. Not a wheat beer but a fine pale ale. Good luck to Ocelot, cheers, and safe travels.

#VABreweryChallenge Powered by theCompass
Winery, Brewery, Distillery Locator Mobile App

#Florida #Beer & #Wine Along the Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail

For those cyclists who live or are visiting Florida's Suncoast near Tampa, the Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail is worth a ride in order to visit the many breweries along the trail. The trail measures 38 miles between Tarpon Springs and St. Petersburg along abandoned rail lines. And throughout it's length, theCompass Winery Brewery Distillery app shows several appropriate rest stops.



From the north you will want to start or end your ride in Tarpon Springs with some Belgium styled ales from Saint Somewhere Brewing which is due west off the Elfers Spur. Closer to the trail in downtown Tarpon Springs the newly opened Silverking Brewing Company and Tarpon Springs Castle Winery are waiting. Then head 11 miles south to Dunedin, home to Florida's first craft brewery, Dunedin Brewery, as well as brett specialists 7venth Sun Brewery. And on Friday evenings, Cotherman Distilling opens their doors for some spirits tasting. Clearwater is the next major town heading south, but unfortunately any breweries are further east, so continue until you reach Largo and head less than .5 miles east of the trail on West Bay Drive to  Barley Mow Brewing Company. This stop is highly recommended.  The trail bottoms out in South Pasadina and Gulf Port where you can take short side trips to the Florida Orange Groves and Winery on Pasadena Avenue South or Peg's Cantina and Brewpub on Beach Blvd - the birthplace of Cycle Brewing.

The trail officially ends in downtown St. Petersburg, although it connects with the Pinellas Community Trail for a few additional miles. Start your St. Petersburg beer tour by heading north on 22nd Street to 3 Daughters Brewing. Continue a couple blocks on 2nd Avenue east, then 1 block north on 2oth Street to the soon to be opened Pinellas Ale Works. Pick up the trail again at 2nd Avenue and just after Tropicana Field turn left at 11th Street. Two blocks later you will see Green Bench Brewing Co. on Baum Avenue. Then head east on 1st or Central Avenues until you hit the St. Pete Brewing Company or Cycle Brewing - both a block away from each other. Both have ample space to stretch your muscles and relax with a good craft beer. Cheers and safe riding.

7venth Sun Brewery

Beers at Cycle Brewing

St. Pete Brewing Company

Sampler at Barley Mow Brewery