Mon, 10 Dec 2012

This Week at The Grey Lodge Pub

All Week (pretty much) - our Toys for Beer for Toys for Tots program has been extended until the 15th. Bring in a new unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots (no dollar store junk) and have a free beer (or other beverage) on us! ($5 max value of beverage)

Monday - today starts Week Three of Beer Season. The Grey Lodge's week always starts on Monday. This week's beer is Czechvar. The reason why this beer is iconic is that in some of the rest of the world, this beer is known as Budweiser. There, this beer is named for the town it comes from, Budweis, Czech Republic. In the late 1800s, Augustus Busch named his pilsner style beer for the city of Budweis, way before his company ever expected to be a global company. Decades later, Anheiser Busch's Budweiser was American's largest selling beer and Anheiser Busch had to muscle to expand production globally. All went well until they got to Europe and there was another Budweiser... ack! AB attempted to buy the smaller company numerous times, but were always rebuffed. Decades of nasty trademark disputes between the two companies followed. Eventually the Czech Budweiser was able to be legally imported to us here in the USA, but under the name Czechvar. After all that fuss, nobody really much cared and we never seem to hear any chatter about Czechvar. Still it's an interesting story, which took some typing and much editing to tell. Taste it side by side with the St. Louis Budweiser if you wish. Or even better get a bunch of friends to share tastes of the US version, while you each keep a bottle of Czcehvar for yourselves.

Tuesday - this Tuesday is the 2nd Tuesday of the month, which means it's time for a Lucky 13 Homebrew Club meeting. This month's meeting is extra special because 1) it's the holiday party, and 2) it takes place at Hop Angel Brauhaus. The holiday party is open to members and their families. The more the merrier. Hop Angel will be providing free snacks. Everyone attending the party is asked to bring a gift worth $5 for Pirate Pollyanna.

Wednesday - as usual, if it's Wednesday, it's Quizzo. This week's quizmaster is James with a special 80s Culture Quizzo. James promises a visual round worth seeing. 8pm on our 2nd floor. http://greylodge.com/quizzo.html

Friday -  at 6pm, it's Rogue John John No More No More Night. So here's the deal. Rogue's brewer is named John and their distiller is also named John. Rogue's John John series featured Rogue Ales (John #1) aged in Rogue Spirits barrels (John #2). We are told they ended this program, hence the "no more no more". Hearing that we jumped on the last two John John kegs left here in Philly. Rogue John John Juniper is Rogue Juniper Ale aged in Gin barrels. "To craft the beer, Couchot aged the gin in oak barrels, which is not typical of gin, so the barrels would soak up the flavor of the gin, before the beer was put into the barrels." Rogue John John Hazelnut is Rogue's heavenly Hazelnut Brown Ale aged in hazelnut rum barrels. A keg of Rogue 15K just arrived, so we will tap that too. 15K is Rogue Ales brewmaster John Maier's 15,000th brew! It's a Belgian stout. Rogue only released 1,515 bottles of this beer, which are/were only available on-line. Who needs bottles, we got a keg! So we will be tapping three rare Rogue beers; you can say that twice if you'd like.

Saturday and Sunday - from 10am to 3pm, it's Brunch. Our brunch special this week will be creamed chipped beef over truffled home fries.

And up in Fox Chase, Hop Angel has a lot going on this week too.


Draft Beer Update
Kicked: Lancaster Gold Star Pilsner, Stone Double Bastard, DuClaw Mysterium, Allagsh White, and Brooklyn Weisse.

Tapped:
Port Brewing Santa's Little Helper - this is a big, big Imperial Stout made for Christmas.

Lost Abbey Avant Garde - this one is a Biere de Garde. Biere de Gardes are French style saisons. From Wikipedia: Bière de Garde ("beer for keeping") is a strong pale ale or keeping beer traditionally brewed in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France. These beers were originally brewed in farmhouses during the winter and spring, to avoid unpredictable problems with the yeast during the summertime. Farmhouse production is now supplemented by commercial production, although most Bière de Garde brewers are small businesses. Typically, beers of this tradition are of a copper colour or golden colour, and as the name suggests the origins of this style lies in the tradition that it was matured/cellared for a period of time once bottled (and most sealed with a cork), to be consumed later in the year, akin to a Belgian Saison. Most varieties are top-fermented and unfiltered, although bottom-fermented and/or filtered versions exist. Particularly authentic products, using only regional ingredients, are entitled to use the Appellation d'origine contrôlée, "Pas de Calais/Region du Nord. Lost Abbey's version weighs in at 7% ABV.

Rock Art Imperial Pumpkin Spruce - this pumpkin spruce stout had to come off to make room for the two Anchor OSAs we tapped last Friday. It's back, tasty as ever.

Allagash White - this is the third and final Allagash White from last week's Beer Season beer of the week run. Allagash White is a truly an iconic beer. Yum yum.