Jack Curtin's LIQUID DIET

For a variety of reasons, my Philly Beer Week participation this year was going to be minimal at best, but  a recent high blood pressure scare insured that and more..um, less. However, whil3e I may be drinking not nearly as much as I might’ve these days, I certainly haven’t gone cold turkey, especially not when I get an unexpected shot at two brand new beers well ahead of most of the crowd.

Two Roads Worker’s Comp Saison was a gift from Mike Jones at the Beer Yard, who cornered me earlier in the week to ask about Two Roads, the new brewery in Connecticut. I went off on a riff about Phil Markowski, who’s the brewmaster there, and his book, Farmhouse Ales, and was rewarded with the bottle at left. If I’d expanded the info to include our local connection–both Scott Morrison and Brian O’Reilly worked for and learned from Phil back in the day–I might have scored a second one.

Worker’s Comp is a well-made example of the style with all the traditional spicy, fruity notes and solid grain background. At 4.8%, it’s easy drinking and was a perfect aperitif sitting on the back deck, but perhaps not the attention-getter you might expect from a master of the style.

The other beer that arrive out of the blue was the first in a new collaborative limited edition series being done at 16 Mile Brewing with Copper Dragon Brewery from Yorkshire, England. It’s called the Heraldry Series and is “based on bringing English history to life in a pint,” according to sales & marketing guy Claus Hagelman. The idea is to chose famous moments in English history and find a way to bring those elements to life with the ingredients used. The Battle Of Waterloo Brew is a strong English Ale (8.1%) brewed with English malts, North German hops. Belgian Yeast and aged on Toasted French Oak spires soaked in Napoleon Brandy for five weeks. Complex indeed, and a pleasant companion while whiling away the evening with a good book.

Monk’s Cafe’s ubiquitous Tom Peters was down in Georgetown, Del. to help with the making of Battle of Waterloo and that raises a question: would it be easier to name the places Peters has not visited as guest brewer of late or the ones he has? He was part of the brewing of Manneken Penn for Philly Beer Week at Brasserie de la Senne with Weyerbacher’s Chris Wilson earlier this year, part of a group brew at Tired Hands with Jean Broillet IV a while back and was one of the creators of another PBW beer,Dock Street Trappiste Pale, along with the aforementioned Morrison and Home Sweet Homebrew’s George Hummel. A keg of Battle will be tapped at Monk’s at noon this Sunday if you want to give it a try.

By the way, I am currently scheduled to visit 16 Mile my ownself in October to collaborate in the brewing of an Oyster Stout as part of their ongoing Collaboration Brews for a Good Cause series.

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