Day 1

On the first day of Christmas, Frank About Beer drank for me - Two To The Dome DIPA from 3 Stars Brewery.

This double India Pale Ale pours a dark, golden color with good carbonation. DIPAs tend to be higher in alcohol and, at 8.9% ABV, this one follows suit.

The taste is an interesting combination of the citrus-like hops of a west coast IPA, but also has the mild pine flavor of an east coast style. With all the hops flavors, you'd expect it to be bitter, but it's actually not that strong. There's a lot of great flavor going on with this beer, though.

Overall, it's a great DIPA that I've never had before, and would recommend it to IPA fans, whether you prefer ones with more citrus or pine. It's very drinkable, and would definitely be one I'd have again. 

Check back tomorrow for the next beer in our #12BeersofXmas series.

Cheers!

Christian & Eric

Weyerbach Mellow Monks Belgian pale ale

For Tasting Tuesday, Christian has a Belgian beer that's a milder version of another.

If you're a fan of Belgian beers (and are on the east coast), you're likely aware of Weyerbacher Brewing. One of their best  known beers is Merry Monks, a wonderful Belgian Tripel that's full of great flavor and, typical of a Tripel, pretty high in alcohol.

Enter Mellow Monks, a Belgian Pale Ale that's much lighter in both color and alcohol (only 4.5% ABV) while still retaining everything great about Belgian beers.

Mellow Monks pours a pale gold color with mild carbonation. The taste is typical of a Belgian pale - a little smokiness and a clove spice flavor, but this one actually has a mild sweetness that tastes like apples, and even a hint of bubble gum (seriously!). It's not overly bitter, and makes for a very drinkable beer.

Overall, this is a great one for Belgian beer fans, particularly if you like Blue Moon. Just skip the orange slice for this one.

Cheers!

Christian & Eric

10 Perfect Gifts for Beer Fans

With the holidays quickly approaching, the annual search for the perfect gift is well underway, right? To help you out, we came up with 10 great gift ideas for that beer fan in your life.

1. Beer

Naturally. But this time of year, there are a lot of rare, seasonal beers that make great gifts. Why bring wine to a party when you can bring a "bomber" bottle of bourbon-barrel aged stout, or a rich, winter ale? Plus, they start at just $5, and will age just fine if you're not giving them away for a month or so (just keep them out of sunlight).

2. Growlers

These are larger glass or ceramic jugs that can be purchased then filled straight from the tap. They're wonderful gifts for a beer fan or party gathering, and can be cleaned and refilled almost anywhere that offers growler fills. You do want to use up the beer in a few days, so if you purchase a filled growler, make sure you gift it soon afterward.

3. Charcuterie/sausage 

Few things go with beer as well as salted, cured meat. Strong spiced sausage works great with an IPA or sweeter brown ales, while charcuterie is accented nicely by lagers, pilsners and kolsch.

4. Cheese

Like the meats, fine cheeses are a good addition. Mild cheeses are good with stouts and porters, but stronger cheeses go great with ales, lagers and wheat beers.

5. Chocolate

Go upscale on some chocolates (my personal favorite is from Salazon), then pair it up with a coffee stout. 

6. Chips

Skip the Doritos - find some quality, kettle-cooked potato chips at your local market or deli, and they'll go GREAT with a number of beers. Just don't get too exotic with the flavors (like bacon horseradish dip flavor), and the beer fan you buy them for will have no problems pairing them.

7. Bottle openers

Every beer fan can use a cool bottle opener, and we're always surprised by what we come across. Tacky, fun ones can usually be found for a couple bucks at a number of small businesses, but some antique shops have some VERY cool vintage offerings worth looking into.

8. Vintage beer steins

Another cool find? Vintage beer steins. These can be found at antique & consignment stores, and can be had pretty inexpensively (though some old, ornate ones can go for hundreds of dollars). In fact, Christian uses a beer stein as a coffee mug.

9. Beer koozies

These foam and neoprene covers are readily available, and come in handy in the summer, or so you don't freeze your hand to the beer can or bottle while tailgating during football season. They're usually available with team logos and beer brands, so pick a favorite.

10. Gift cards/certificates

Why not pay a bar tab? Most small businesses offer gift cards or certificates will happily sell you one so your beer fan will get exactly what they want.

Tasting Tuesday: Homebrewed Honey Porter

For this week's Tasting Tuesday, Christian tries a VERY small-batch beer with a VERY cool story.

As beer bloggers, we're often asked to try some interesting beers, and give our opinions. Once it was an experimental mint chocolate stout from a brewery. Once it was a first sample of a new, contract-brewed "chaos beer". Once was even Budweiser wort (which is actually DELICIOUS).

Frequently, though, we're handed a bottle or invited over to try some homebrewed beer. 

Recently, a friend of ours, Joey, handed us a bottle of his homebrewed beer. Joey's been brewing since 2009 under his own private label which he's dubbed, "Ashton Aleworks", and the bottle he gave us was his White House Honey Porter.

Why the name? "The White House Honey Porter was inspired by several home brewers who worked at the White House in 2012."

It's 6.4% ABV English Porter that, interestingly, pours a very dark purplish black with good carbonation.

These tend to be slightly malty with a touch of sourness, which this has. There's a strong fruit taste, similar to plums or raisins, and the finish is a little bready and slightly dry with a mild bitterness that quickly dissipates. In short, it's a spot-on English Porter, and it's delicious. "It's better straight out of my kegerator," Joey reports.

It's beers like Joey's that remind us of where beer comes from, and where every great brewer started. There's a great purity to homebrewing, and few things as great as the confident smile you get from a brewer handing you the beer they're most proud of. And we'll forever be grateful and flattered to have these beers shared with us.

Want to hear more about brewing at The White House? Here's a great link worth reading.

Cheers!
Christian & Eric

Tasting Tuesday: A beer made with scrapple

For this week's Tasting Tuesday, Christian has a beer that's a strange duck, er, pig.

It started innocently enough with an email from our friends at Donno's Higher Ground Tattoo (Bryson City, NC). "We can't get this here, but we think you need to try it." They also sent a link to Dogfish Head's Beer for Breakfast stout - made with scrapple.

For those of you not located in, or adjacent to, the great state of Pennsylvania, scrapple is a local delicacy made of cornmeal, spices, and pig parts formed into loaves, then pan fried into a hard, greasy patty. It's an acquired taste, and definitely not for everybody.

However, Dogfish Head uses 25 pounds of it to brew their Beer For Breakfast Stout, a 7.4% milk stout that's said to also feature maple syrup, spices and cold-pressed coffee.

The result is a black, opaque stout with mild carbonation. The big flavors in this are the coffee and LOTS of smoke. There is a lot of sweetness from the malt, and maybe the maple syrup, but I don't get much maple taste. I also get an odd spice that I'm thinking is either sage or pepper from the scrapple.

Oddly, there's a salty aftertaste that shows up about two seconds after you swallow it, and the finish isn't great - I actually feel like  the inside of my mouth has a fine coating of grease with a weird chemical aftertaste.

The coffee is good, but overpowering, and you'd likely never know this was made with scrapple - just that something doesn't seem right.

So I'm not a fan, but I've talked to several other beer friends, and am wondering if I ended up with a bad batch because they can't get enough of this stout. To me, it's disgusting (I really might pour out the rest).

As we always say, everyone's tastes are different, so give this one a try if you come across it. At the very least, it's a great conversation starter that makes for a great story.

Nonetheless, we appreciate the suggestion from the folks at Donno's (check them out for your tattoo & piercing needs), and definitely won't hold this against them. In fact, we might have to save a bottle for you guys.

Do you have a suggestion for a beer we need to try? Drop us a PM or email us at FrankAboutBeer@gmail.com. We'll even try your home brews. 😎🍺

Cheers!

Christian & Eric

Here's why we're thankful for YOU

Friends, as we sit here on the eve of Thanksgiving, we can't help but look back on the past couple of years and reflect on all the things we have to be thankful for. 

Beer, yes, but also the breweries and pubs who continue to be awesome hosts to us. Most importantly, however, we're most thankful to you, the friends of Frank About Beer..

It's been AMAZING meeting so many of you in our travels, or at Beer Club, or even at the dentist's office (yes, really) and becoming not only fellow beer lovers, but friends.

One we're particularly thankful for is Joey, a longtime fan of Frank About Beer who Christian had the pleasure of meeting at this year's Sykesville Chili & Beer fest. We'll let him tell the story.

The beer gods must have been looking out for us that day because Joey and I were paired up to pour beer for DuClaw Brewing Co. Joey's an avid homebrewer, and by the time I'd arrived at the tent, he'd assembled the taps and had the lines routed properly through the cooler and ready to go. 

At this point, I was admittedly nervous. 

After all, I figured out pretty quickly that Joey was incredibly knowledgeable about beer. The bar of beer knowledge had been set pretty high - and we hadn't even started pouring beers yet!

As it turned out, I had nothing to fear. We quickly fell into a rhythm, slinging glasses of Sweet Baby Jesus (DuClaw's peanut butter porter) and The Funk (blueberry wheat) while working the crowd like madmen! Calls of, "HALLELUJAH that's good beer!" were balanced with calls to the crowd to, "get DOWN with The Funk!" amid off-key strains of George Clinton and Parliament. 

Then we came up with the idea of a Beer Fest exclusive - a black & tan made from the two beers. It was christened "The Funky Jesus," and word spread up and down the block.

We had a line that stretched across the street, and doubled back on itself. My voice was used up by 3pm.

But wow, did we have fun. And we hadn't had a drop to drink! This was taken care of shortly after the end of our shift when the two of us, accompanied by Melisa from GrogDog, worked our way through the beer tents, all the while stopping to take photos with fans and toasting this great event.

The thing is, there are a lot of Joeys that we've met over the years - and many, maybe like you, who we can't wait to meet. 

So THANK YOU for your continued support, comments, and friendship. We are unbelievably thankful to have you with us. 

Cheers!

Christian & Eric

Tasting Tuesday: Short's Huma Lupa Licious IPA

Have you ever trusted a store clerk for a beer recommendation? For Tasting Tuesday, Christian did just that.

While on a trip to Ohio, I needed to stop off and pick up some beer to bring to a friend's house. A quick search led me to Meijer's, a midwest chain of stores where you could pick up dress pants, a vacuum cleaner, and lunchmeat in one trip. And, much to my surprise, they have a pretty good craft beer (and wine) selection.

It was while I was perusing the local beers that I noticed a young gent nearby restocking the Coors Light. After a few minutes of watching me inspect several bottles of beer, he put down the silver box, and said, "Nah - that one's not very good." He then walked over, and handed me a bottle of Short's Huma Lupa Licious IPA. "This one's to die for."

Named for the hop blossom, Humulus lupulus, this IPA is built around some strong hop flavor - but keep reading.

It pours a dark, hazy gold color with good carbonation and a strong, fruity aroma. And at 7.7% abv, the alcohol content is on par with most IPAs. 

The taste is really complex, with a slight bit of pine and citrus flavors (mostly grapefruit and orange). The key to making this work is the mix of malts, which gives a sweet flavor to balance out the strong hops. It's hoppy, but not overly bitter despite its high 96 IBU bitterness rating.

As it turned out, the guy had great taste. This was a very drinkable beer that is one I would recommend to any fan of pale ales & IPAs. It's delicious, but I honestly think you really need to like hops to enjoy this one. 

Unfortunately, this is the only beer I've had from Short's, but it's great enough that I'll be on the lookout for others the next time I'm in the midwest. And you should, too.

Are you a fan of Short's? Tell us your favorite in the comments below - we'd love to know what you thought.

Cheers!

Christian & Eric