There Gose the Neighborhood (Against the Grain Brewing)

My friend Josh and I went out to a neighborhood that has a great little place for beer last week. Saison Market in Jackson Ward has been getting so pretty big whale beers for sometime now. I have purchased the coffee jesus from evil twin, and I've even seen them receive a case of Bo & Luke from against the grain.

Saison Market is right behind Saison restaurant in historic Jackson Ward. Jackson Ward is a National Historic Landmark, known for being a predominant african american neighborhood. The machine that is VCU has brought so many new people to the area, the neighborhood is getting invaded by business and residential to support the influx. Saison Market resides in one of these repurposed buildings and retains the rustic charm of the ward. It was damn hot that night and this was not the right beer for the time.

There Gose the Neighborhood, by Against the Grain, is a salty wheat beer with roasted red peppers, cilantro, calmansi limes, and is fermented with brett. It was created by some culinary types that were shooting for a fancy cocktail type beer. The roasted peppers took over this beer. I didn't not taste any brett and didn't get any salty gose flavors. I wouldn't suggest this beer unless you are following on instagram #gimmeallthegose. 

I love that label art doe.

Gravity Check (Kern River Brewing)

Please consider this post a retraction to my previous stance about session IPA's. Over the past three years starting immediately after stout season, a new session IPA was released. I felt assaulted, cheated and even went as far as to boycott them. This is about the time I began my hunt to drink every gose I could get my hands on. I'm really assuming that my taste in IPA's has changed, and I have had quite a few IPA's from breweries this year that are better than the regular IPA. Exhibit A, 21st Amendment Down to Earth, much preferred over Brew Free or Die. Less malty, good hop aroma and flavor, more drinkable. I know this might be sacrilege but I also prefer Easy Jack over Union Jack, and on that note I'll move on.

So I had a request for some beers from some old and new trading partners. Despite my desire to spend that money one something like shipping, I figured what the hell it's been a long time since I have sent beer mail. I went for the gusto and sent my west coast compadres a 15 pack of All Day IPA. At the time of purchase, the beer was only 4 days old, and still brilliant. Stuart was quick to fire back a care package and I have to be honest my old habit of thinking of session as the lesser of the IPA's took over. I was pleasantly surprised by this beer. Gravity Check is a bright and lively IPA, and taste like any other fantastic IPA. I kept having to check the label in disbelief that it was a session IPA. Stuart I apologize for doubting your taste. This beer was fantastic.

BCTC (Ommegang Brewery)

The beards were packed tight in the sprinter. Three coolers, cooling and the mighty unicorn was taking us the Brewery Ommegang for a festival like I have never seen before. Three former brown distributing employees gone separate ways reunited for weekend of dig swinging drunkenness. 

This was the second weekend this month I have been on the road headed to New York. I have to admit the weather was a fantastic break from the humid VA. The brewery experience around Kueka Lake was a bit underwhelming but this festival promised to hurt. My only expectation was there would be a fantastic formal dinner with the perfect beer pairings. I anticipated a lot of bottle sharing going around the camp site, but I was under selling the magnitude of the event completely.

The 90's theme smacked you currently in the face at the front gate. The Jurassic park gate, the goosebumps themed programs, and the nickelodeon themed volunteer shirts are still hilarious. We got in just in time to jump into the cocktail hour and dinner. We dropped our shit and headed to food. 

Duvel big bottles everywhere, the first circus tent for dinner must have had a thousand people ready to get down. The lines for all of the appetizers were so long we chose to quickly flock to the pig table. The first course came rather quickly, and was fish. I chose not to risk my allergy, but it looked really tasty.

The meat stick, aka Scottish egg was a welcome sight and provides a fantastic greasy base for a weekend of drinking. We also had a meat pie that was a touch dry, pictured below. Everything for the dinner flowed so well, the service was perfect and the vibe was very positive. The moment a bottle was empty it was replaced, danger danger!

I was very tired, so I retreated to the camping area, set up my tent, and I went to bed. There were two different camping areas, one for industry folk, and one for the public. The tents were piled on top of one another. The next day I walked around to get the full magnitude of the festival. Jockey boxes as far as the eye could see. The picture below was right across from our general tent area. Dogfish just out of the frame to the left, left hand straight ahead, six point and harpoon to the right. The VIP tasting sessions started at 1:00 and ran until 9? The main tent dinner in was transformed into a giant pouring tent, and there was another one parallel right next to it. There must have been nearly 70 breweries trying to woo everyone. It didn't take long before my tongue was so dead from tasting. That final night the Meat Puppets played some of my favorite cuts from the 90's. 

This event is the standard for beer get together and well worth the cost of admission, although I paid nothing. I really enjoyed the camaraderie of hanging with beer business peers. We have swirled around in employment for a while, as you do, and can still get together and truly appreciate this drank's ability to unite.