The Beer Traveller

I had arrived at Murray’s house in Matthews, NC.  Originally I planned on hitting a brewpub in Charlotte before going to his house, but per usual I was running late.  After  doing a quick catching up & meeting both his new (not really but 1st time I met her) lady & their dogs, it was off to the Hops Grill & Brewery. 
Hops had a major franchise feel to it; this may have had to do with the fact that it is indeed just that.  The smoking didn’t help matters either.  I was happy to have been able to hit another brewpub, but this place was sub-par at best.  The sampler came out & was set in front of me in no particular order w/ no labeling. Usually I can differentiate pretty well between beers, but when they’re very close in color & flavors are bland it can be near impossible.  Luckily our waitress gave me another run-down of what was what.  Everything from the Clearwater Light to the Hammerhead Red to the Hops Pale Ale fell under Drinkable.  They only had two Likables out of the bunch, the Alligator Ale (mahogany porter) & the Fun Zen Bock. As for the Lightening Bold Gold, it tasted of vinegar & received the dreaded Undrinkable.  The food was decent, but nothing spectacular.  Luckily for me I had some great company.  Thanks for footing the bill Mister Murray.

At first I thought my GPS was fucking with me when it said to turn on to Lowes road & all I saw was a Lowes.  Than off to the side across the way was Carolina Brewery. It didn’t look like much & felt kind of diner-ish when I walked in the restaurant door.  The bartender was sitting inside the door reading the paper, but immediately snapped to attention the second I walked in.  I was even greeted w/ the quintessential “Hun” that is so commonly used in the South.  The bar provided a little more atmosphere than the restaurant, but still wasn’t worth writing home about (blogging’s a different story). 
They only had 6 Beers on tap, but I’ll take 6 great Beers over 12 okay ones any day of the week.  As I was working on my notes, a gentleman a few stools over inquired where I had been travelling.  Turns out Jim had actually spent several years in Bainbridge Island; close to my home base of Seattle.  We chatted for quite a while as he filled me in on the local scene.
My lunch soon arrived.  I figured BBQ would be a good bet & I was right.  I lived in AL for a summer & remember how much better BBQ was in the South vs. the North.  Doesn’t mean you guys won the war!  Served in typical NC fashion with a vinegar sauce & coleslaw on the actual pulled pork.  Excellent.  The fries matched the restaurant…diner-ish. 
Back to the Beers…did I mention they were excellent.  Both the Flagship IPA & Oatmeal Porter were Exceptional.  As for the other 4 Beers, they all ranked Likable.  Keep up the great work guys!

Due to my late start & bad timing leaving DC I arrived in Cary, NC a little later than anticipated.  Cary is the home base of some family friends.  John & Mary went to school  with my parents in upstate NY & I spent the summers w/ their kids growing up on the St. Lawrence river.  I was a little disappointed that Aly had already left to head up north for some time on the river.  Sister Maggie was supposed to meet up w/ me & her father, but she later flaked.  Something about working too hard…I really can’t relate!  Big John was nice enough to take me to a local pub even though it was 9PM & he had to work the next day.  It was a nice place & we had a good chat.  Thanks Mr. D for picking up the tab & providing me a cool place to sleep.

After almost running over a couple of cops & having some Beers @ lunch, I decided to do the tourist thing.  After a few wrong turns, I actually found a prime parking spot right off of the Capitol Mall & a short distance from the Capitol building. I grabbed the camera & was off like a prom dress.  Nothing more to say other than walking around for 3 hours on a 95 degree day.  Looking at a map, I didn’t think it was too far from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial…boy was I wrong. The day went pretty smoothly until I started meandering my way back to the car & noticed the tow trucks were out in force.  I was thinking just how screwed I’d be if I got back & had been towed.  Let’s see…all my shit for the entire summer & my cell phone were all in it.  I luckily got back to find the baby was still there, no ticket either.  I have no idea where I landed on the 3 hour time allotment as I have pretty much stopped keeping time since leaving on this adventure.  The one thing I did take note of was the fact that I have a limited amount of clothes, no way to do laundry, & was sweating like Nixon @ the Watergate trial.  Ahhhhh perfect, I had made it back to the car just in time to hit DC rush hour.  Idiot!

I only had limited time in DC as I was hoping to make it to Cary, NC for some free room & board.  I checked my usual source www.goodbeermaps.com for a list of local breweries, but for some reason this one map was not coming up.  Off to google & what pops up but Capitol City Brewing Company. What better place to hit than the first brew pub to open (1992) in our nations capitol after prohibition.  One of the only smart things the Gov’t has done; although it was preceded by the dumb-ass decision to outlaw alcohol in the 1st place.
The place was a little hard to find as they are actually located on the backside of what their address states.  Needless to say, if there is Beer…I will find it.  Kelly was lucky enough to be taking care of me as I ordered both a Blackend Ahi Tuna salad & Beer Sampler; not in that order.  I received more looks than usual as I started snapping photos & taking notes in this town of VIPS & extra security.  It was almost fun seeing how nervous I could make people.  Also noticed I was a lil’ underdressed for this establishment. My uniform of Beer Traveller shirt, shorts, & Birks stuck out like a Democrat @ a Ron Paul rally in this sea of suits. The Beers were better than expected considering the other crap that comes out of this city.  For the most part they were pretty average with the exception of the Extra Pale which received an Exceptional.  Unclear (like most things in DC) what makes it ‘extra’ since it had less hops & less bite than their regular Pale, Pale Rider Ale. Either way I’ll take a good Beer when I can.  The Capitol Kolsch was decent, but nothing special.  Fuel, the imperial coffee stout, was definitely strong (10% AWV), but somewhere lost the taste of both coffee & roasted malt.  The Hefe was very fruity & Likable.  ESB was all bite w/ no flavor, but the English Strong came back strong & balanced.

It was than off to do the tourist thing & Kelly was a dear in pointing me in the right (I was actually already there) direction.  Capitol City is a well done place with great food & decent brews.  They also have 2 other locations, one of which brews all their beer.

I wouldn’t consider myself a uptight or nervous driver, but DC is a nightmare if you don’t know where you’re going.  First fumble of the day consisted of almost running a couple of Capitol Policeman off the road.  Impatience got the best of me when I decided to pass a dump truck downtown.  After pulling over to the next lane I heard a honk behind me.  I was thinking who’s this asshole as I looked in my rearview & saw both a motorcycle cop & car cop.  Mind you, the truck that almost hit them had a huge “www.TheBeerTraveller.com” magnet on the back.  You want to talk about a recipe for getting pulled over.  The adrenaline tweaked & I nervously awaited that familiar site of the flashing lights.  As I pulled up to a stoplight the motorcycle cop pulled along side me & motioned for my window to be rolled down.  He informed me that I may want to use a signal light next time as I almost hit his partner.  And than…that was it.  I must say this was the coolest cop I ever ran into (no pun intended).  Thank goodness there’s more important people in that city than the Beer Traveller.  Guessing they had to escort some politician to their escort.

First off let me say that I greatly appreciate anyone putting me up for a night & this is no way a complaint.  But I do have an obligation to my 3 fans to provide them with some entertaining blog babble.
I had just seen Bob @ Geekapolooza, but Amy was unable to make it.  Crashing at their place also allowed me to see their 2nd child who I had never seen.  Amy & I caught up on the latest…beer drinking & baby making, while Bob did his thing.  It’s funny to see how both time & kids can change people so dramatically.  Amy & Bob are probably in the best shape of their lives, but turn into gram & gramps at about 8 PM.  They treated me to dinner & a few Molsen Canadians while I attempted to catch up on my internet duties.  After the kiddies were put down (not in the John Conner way of ‘putting down’) I joined the two for an evening of boob tube & reminiscing.  Bob is now into his bourbon phase & I figured it was about time for me to switch it up for a night.  It was soon time for Bob to hit the sack & Amy was fading fast after popping her sleep aid.
I finished up Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man; I thought I remembered that movie being good.  Than it was time for me to make my way upstairs.  As I ascended, I heard an evil static & figured someone may have left a TV on.  Than it became clear that there was a little box in the bathroom making this noise & this appeared to be on purpose.  I let the machine do it’s thing while I finished my nightly routine & than figured who ever needed this awful noise must be asleep by now.  Off.  There was more noise coming from one of the other bedrooms, but I had alleviated the worse of it.  About 20 minutes later I heard the oldest of the young-ins crying.  Than the voice of super Dad asking “what’s wrong with you?  why are you crying?”  Five minutes later my previous achievement was reverted back to its original setting of ON, volume 10.  There was a switch-up though; now instead of bad TV static, it had been switched to the haunting heart beat…thump…thump…thump!  At this point in my travels, I’ve learned to sleep through just about anything, but these were not the sounds of the Great Outdoors that I was used to.  Thank goodness for Beer & Bourbon!
The next morning I joked w/ Amy about it & she informed me they have 4 of these glorious machines.  Bob was already gone & Amy fixed me a fabulous snack pack for my travels.  A bye to the beautiful young-ins & I was off to my next destination.  Thanks again Bob & Amy.

I had gotten a later start than I had wanted from Brownville & was aiming to hit York, PA by nightfall.  But I would be traveling through my hometown & though I’d give a shout-out to the ol’ man to see if he was free for lunch.  Unfortunately he had an appt & wouldn’t be free till about 2PM.  This was going to put me behind schedule, but I’ve come to realize how important it is to take family time whenever you can get it.
I arrived a little early & made my way underground to Empire Brewing Company.  The place was empty other than a few of the employees chatting around the bar.  I proceeded to order a sampler.  As sometimes is the case, as soon as I started taking pics & notes, someone decided to stop over & find out what I was hope to.  I was lucky enough to have it be Tim Butler, the head brewer. I gave him the low down on my little adventure & he was more than accommodating, offering to pick-up my sampler as well as sample me anything more I wanted.  Dad showed up & said I’d be having 2 more surprise guests. Shortly thereafter, Megan the other half of Melissa showed.  We commenced ordering while Kim the bartender raved about how good my plan was.  Commenting on the possible potential once I take myself off the beer circuit.  While we were awaiting our food, Tim came back over & offered a tour of the brewing facilities. This guy knows his stuff (hence all the awards) & I soon found out knows how to brew a great batch of beer.
Stars of the show were the IPA & Aphrodisiac Ale.  The IPA was extremely well balanced while the Aphro had a lot of flavor, incorporating honey, ginger, & lavender.  He only had one beer towards the bottom, the Instigator Dopplebock.  Although fairly high in alcohol, it received a Drinkable for tasting a little watery.  Other his other brews received above average markings of Likable. 
Tim & Kim were great, the food was superb, & Empire sported a uniques atmosphere of being subterranean.

Sunday was hangover day after the big party, but I didn’t have to drive to PA, MA, or FL like some of the folks that actually have jobs. John’s oldest son, Wally, had offered to take me to Sackets Harbor Brewing Company to try some of their beers. Unlike some of the other towns in which I find brewpubs, Sackets Harbor is a great town to visit. It’s located in a little harbor (obviously) right off of Lake Ontario. Some interesting history on the town is in 1812 U. S. declared war on Great Britain. Sackets Harbor become headquarters for the U. S. Navy and Army on the northern frontier. 
The brewpub is located right on the water w/ a couple of outdoor patios. Inside is cramped in both the bar & restaurant portion, but the decor makes up for it. For the most part, the beers were average with the Independence Wheat sticking out & getting an Exceptional. I had brought a few bottles of beer from Tim @ Flying Bison to give to Andy (brewer of SH), but was unable to catch up with Andy. Don’t worry Tim, I still left the beer for him. Stacy the bartender was bubbly & had some mutual friend w/ Wally. Small towns tend to be like that.
There was a minor irritation in the establishment & that was a patron who was a little off his rocker. After talking up & down that he knew all the brewers & that one of the bar pictures was one of them, Stacy informed me that the picture was not who he said it was & she had never seen him before. Other than about an hr ago when he had come in a bought his 1st beer. This second he was paying with change. The gentleman than told me his name was Bruce Lee & offered to sell me a business that wasn’t worth anything. Luckily I wasn’t too drunk or else I may have fallen for it.

Geekapooloza is a get together of a bunch of us that went to college together, all for Paper Science & Engineering. It was named after the music festival lolllapalooza & consists of a bunch of highly intelligent individuals, who now have families & good jobs, trying to re-live their college partying days for one weekend a year. Every year someone (w/ spouse’s permission) agrees to host the event. This year it was held in a little town called Brownville by the gracious John & Kathy. It involved a lot of talking shit, quotes out of context, beer pong, horseshoes (who doesn’t like heaving heavy things @ each other when their drinking), frisbee, & ladder golf. John & Kathy also had some local friends & their 3 sons in town. I’d like to say more, but things are a bit fuzzy & how much can you really say about a party. It’s about being there…right Brian, Stuckey, & Amy?

I will be posting pics in my photo album section of the website.