Brewsday: Peticolas Brewery Tour

A few weekends ago (after I recuperated from my week long Philly work conference coma) Josh and I enjoyed a longgggggg relaxing weekend in Dallas.

Finally.

Although we live here, we rarely have a spare weekend (that can involve alcohol)

If we aren't busy with a wedding/shower/engagementparty/vacation then we are only in Dallas for the weekend because I am on call.

We decided to test out one of the newer breweries in town: the Peticolas Brewery.

Josh has been wanting to go on this tour forever.
He's annointed this local beer as his all-time favorite in the area.

It sometimes seems like their beers are pretty hard to find around here, and we quickly learned why.

The man who started the brewery is Michael Peticolas.

He's a lawyer with an excellent taste for good quality beer. 

He only recently hired employees, and from overhearing a few conversations during the tour, I gathered that it's pretty darn hard to get hired by him.

He's quite the cocky confident fellow, but we loved it.

He gives each tour himself, and if you are standing around chatting with your friends distracting others from learning all about beer, then he promptly and loudly asks you to leave the room (via his megaphone)

He was awesome.

He doesn't advertise or bottle his beer.

He relies on the power of the people to spread the love for his beer via word of mouth.

If you like his beer, you go to a bar and ask if they have it on draft.

If enough people ask for it then the bar will start thinking "What the heck is this Peticolas and how can we get some?"

It may sound crazy, but it's working.

They only do tours every 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month.

If you are in the area and have some spare time, I'd highly recommend checking it out!
If you can't, then find some on draft and take in all the hoppy goodness.

Brewsday: Deep Ellum Brewing Company

For Josh's birthday, we were finally able to visit the Deep Ellum Brewing Company.

This was one of the first free weekends we had in Dallas where I wasn't on call, so we took full advantage of our time.

The brewery offers tours every Thursday and Saturday, and while we were there they also had live music and the Easy Slider food truck!

(Which, coincidentally has been topping our list of places to eat around Dallas)

The tour was only $10, which got you a pint glass and three beer tickets.

I had the Dallas Blonde and Farmhouse Wit, and Josh tried the IPA, Rye Pilsner, and also a Double Bourbon IPA.

Despite the lovely Texas heat, it was a beautiful day in the city for awesome beer and great food.

We had an absolute blast at the brewery, and we are already planning to return!

Josh loves catching photos of me in my most attractive moments.

P.S.

The Easy Slider homemade salted caramels are phenomenal.

Find them, now.

Oh the sliders are pretty ridic too.

To see more of our brewery adventures around the country click here!

The Beer of all Beers: Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA

Josh and I have always been really into microbrews and craft beers.

On vacation we are always looking for local breweries to sample their creations.

You can catch up on some of our "Brewsday" posts here.

One of the main breweries we haven't had the chance to go to yet is the DogFish Head brewery.

They create tons of incredible beers, but there's one beer that is often referred to as The Holy Grail.

So much so that one day Josh and I were walking out of a bar, Josh casually mentioned "DogfishHead 120 minute IPA" in conversation, and a complete stranger walked up to us asking if we had any.

It was then that we knew we had to try it.

The brewery only makes it a few times a year in such a small quantity that it only gets distributed to a few lucky buyers. 

We searched local bars and stores for a few years, but we have always come up empty handed (up until last week when I saw on Whiskey Cake's Facebook page that they had some)

Without thinking twice Josh and I drove straight there, sat down at the bar, and ordered two.

We had been waiting years for this.

We drank the beer with smiles on our faces and loved every second of it.

The bartender asked us if we wanted to keep the bottle caps, which we thought was pretty silly at the time.

A few employees even came up to ask us about it.

For a split second I would say we almost felt like celebs.

Until we got this . . .

. . . anddddddd goodnight.

Plenty of blog posts coming soon about our adventures last weekend, as soon as I figure out how to add a 25th and 26th hour to the day. 

I still can't wrap my head around how bloggers with children make time to blog.

. . . and they always seem to be the best bloggers?

Anyways, this week is going to be nuts, only because I'm off work again next week.

This weekend: NYC

Next weekend: Grand Cayman

Please pardon my absences, but prepare for more blog (and Instagram) explosions to come.

Happy Ending!

Last year on our Sweetwater Brewery tour, we invested in two bottles of their Happy Ending beer, which is one of their seasonal "Catch and Release" beers.

It is an Imperial Stout that supposedly only improves with age, so we saved a bottle for New Years Eve this year and next year.

We are such huge Sweetwater fans! Hope everyone has a Happy Ending to 2011!

Brewsday: Dogfish Head Brewery

I first got interested in Dogfish Head Brewery and its owner Sam Calagione when I caught an episode of Brew Masters on the Discovery Channel.
Sam first got interested in the whole brew scene when he was working at a bar in New York City and decided to start home brewing.
After a ton of home brew experiments he decided to write up the Dogfish Head Brewery business plan and put his English degree to the test.
After a lot of hard work and creativity, Sam's idea became a reality and a pretty awesome reality at that.
He is still the brains behind all the crazy cool stuff that go on at Dogfish Head.
Side note: Their motto is "Off centered stuff for off centered people"

(Hence, this music video him and his buddy from the brewery made)

Sam is the guy that got me interested in the home brew scene. 

I picked up a copy of his book, Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship, and it is probably on of the greatest book on business I have read.

The truth is I have never tasted a Dogfish Head brew that I didn't love.
All of their beers are made with the freshest and coolest ingredients along with the coolest recipes. For example, Midas Touch is made with the exact recipe of the actual oldest-known fermented beverage in the world. It is an ancient Turkish recipe using the original ingredients from the 2,700 year old drinking vessels discovered in the tomb of King Midas.
The Dogfish brewers say it is a beer that falls somewhere between wine and mead.

Perhaps the coolest, most awesome idea for a beer ever is Dogfish Head's Pangea. 

Sam got the idea for the beer when he was looking through one of his kids books about the world and saw a picture of the super continent Pangea. 

He decided it would be cool to make a beer that had ingredients from each of the seven continents. 

Pangea is brewed with crystallized ginger from Australia, water from Antarctica, basmati rice from Asia, muscavado sugar from Africa, quinoa from South America, yeast from Europe, and maize from North America.

Some of the employees got together to make a video for the release of Pangea:

What I would give to work there . . .

We are also big fans of the Festina Peche, which Em & I used in some "man cakes" this summer.

We haven't had a chance to visit this brewery yet, but it's definitely next on our list!
The Dogfish Head website has a "Fish Finder" which allows you to search your area for specific brews.
Next time you get a chance to try a Dogfish Head beer, don't pass it up!

-Josh

Brewsday: Russian River Brewery

A lot of people will tell you that you should go to Sonoma County, CA just for wine right? 

Au contraire (french for on the contrary in case you didn't know).

 You see, in the midst of all the hills of grapes lies Santa Rosa.

 Santa Rosa is for beer, what Napa is for wine. 

It has some of the best beer (with 5 award winning breweries all within a 35 mile radius) and the best mountain biking on the west coast. 

Luckily, when we visited Santa Rosa last May, our bikes hadn't been stolen yet.

We had also already learned by then how to fashion a makeshift sling to transport our growlers via bike. 

We got to hit up three breweries while we were there, but Russian River Brewery was the by far the best, or the bees knees if you will. 

Pliny the Elder was one of our favorite beers. 

It is an 8.00% Double IPA that has won many awards. 

Needless to say, Pliny the Elder made us very hoppy (get it?) 

IPA's are known for their strong presence of hops + it made us happy = pure hoppiness 

They also had brilllllliant coasters which served as roofie blockers/seat savers/beer savers when you left to pee

This is also where Em fell in love with barrel aged beers and barleywine.

They age the beer in old wine barrels for 12 months, which allows for a slight taste of wine to absorb into the beer.

It was her heaven.

Coolest sign I have ever seen in a brewery. Found one on ebay and will be purchasing.

Pliny the Elder was the beer we chose to fill our growlers with. 

The growlers at this brewery were awesome too by the way.
They sold carrier you could buy for your growler, but why waste you money when you can make a
"Quick makeshift bike lock growler carrier sling"?

or a "Quick makeshift brown leather belt growler carrier sling?"

More Brewsdays and Totally Terrific Tunedays coming soon!

-Josh

Brewsday: Sweetwater Brewing Co.

We came across the Sweetwater Brewery after my parents moved to Woodstock, Ga last year. 

On our first trip up there, naturally the first thing we did was google breweries near Woodstock. Sweetwater happened to be nearby, so we made plans to do a brewery tour. Out of all the breweries we've been to, it's by far one of our favorites.

Sweetwater was started by two old college buddies Freddie Bensch and Kevin McNerney in Boulder, Co. They realized that they liked brewing more than books and got jobs washing kegs at a local brewery for free beer. After they graduated they decided instead of getting real jobs they would move out west and attend the American Brewers Guild in California. They worked a while at local breweries and finally decided that the Atlanta area was the perfect location for a west coast style brewery. It was then that Sweetwater Brewing Co. was born.

The tour only cost $7 and you got a 7 tickets with a pretty cool fancy Sweetwater glass. Each of those tickets allowed you to get a full glass of any beer on tap.

A full glass!

Nuts.

Anyone in the Atlanta area lookin for a cheap first date?? 

Bartender photo bomb.

During the tour, the guide told us about his favorite beer "Happy Ending" Imperial Stout which is best served once it has aged a few years. 

We bought a few bottle to save up for this coming New Year's Eve, as well as the next one.

Dank Tank might possibly be the coolest thing of all the cool things Sweetwater has to offer.
It's a series of rarely released randomness that is never the same beer. The brewers develop a new batch every few months, it's kinda their chance to get creative and come up with something crazy. Our favorite beer from the Dank Tank that we have got to try so far is the Border Hopper Double IPA. It is 8.6% alcohol and delicious. Kinda grapefruity and citrusy and delicious.

-Josh

Saturday Breakfast: Mancakes

A while back, Josh came across this genius recipe for Mancakes.

Pancakes made with beer and caramelized bacon.

We love breakfast, bacon, and beer . . . and it would only make sense to combine them all into one delightful little concoction.

(Which just so happens to probably be the most healthy meal in America) 

Here's the actual recipe from Betty Crocker, but Josh came to visit this weekend and we added our own little twist . . .

Dogfish Head Festina Peche Beer

The first (and truthfully, the only step that matters) is the bacon.

The recipe calls for 8 strips, but who's really counting. 

We did a fewwww extra.

You know in case any come out a little funny looking. 

Heat the oven to 350, lay the strips out on a foil covered cookie sheet, bake for 10 minutes, flip the bacon, sprinkle with brown sugar, bake for 10 more minutes, flip, sprinkle, bake 10 more mins

. . . and voila.

Magical sugary heavenly crunchy bacon.

There's truly nothing better than that.

In the universe.

Charles was pretty pissed that he's a dog and can't eat human food.

. . . but we gave him some anyways.

Anyways, to make the batter you blend 2 eggs, 2 cups pancake mix, and 1 cup of beer.

Break the bacon up into small pieces and

then stir whatever you didn't eat during preparation . . . 

. . . into the batter.

Then just cook them like normal 'ol pancakes.

. . . and then stack them up so they look super awesome and professional and pretty for their picture.

. . . and then you have a realllllly happy boyfriend

Texas ain't half bad...

Thank you Texas for giving us such great things...

I found my new favorite seasonal beer today... sorry Strawberry Abita.

Shiner's Ruby Redbird 

It's made with Texas Rio red grapefruit & ginger.

(I know, strange combo...but it's great.)

I have a picture of me and my dad in front of the Shiner Brewery when I was only 6 months old.

So maybe there was some type of subliminal thing going on that influenced my developing brain into loving Shiner products...once I turned 21, of course.

Apparently these are hard to keep on the shelves, so our mission today was to stock up. We ended up finding a store with an impressive selection of beer...and cleaned house.

We also found some Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA and Raison D'Etre!

We are huuuuuuge Dogfish Head fans...now if I could just get my hands on their Barleywine...