Yards bottles are back.
I went down to the Beer Yard for a few hours today to start trying to catch up with things. In what is an increasingly rare occurrence, Matt Guyer and I crossed paths. No fool I, I usually go in on the days he takes off. Don’t want the boss looking over your shoulder, ya know?
I was actually in the process of leaving when he arrived, carrying a huge tomato pie and giant chuck of brownies but he had me stay and poured two small samples of the newest beers to arrive on the premises: Yards Extra Special Ale (ESA), the flagship beer, and the reinvented Yards Brawler. These are first bottles out of the new brewery. And, better yet, he handed me a bottle of each to bring home.
I opened both tonight, in the order listed above. ESA in a bottle isn’t, and can’t be, ESA on a handpump the way it was intended to be, but this was, quite simply the best bottle of ESA I have ever had. Crisp, clean, and memory-inducing the days when it was the Big Bang of the developing Philly craft beer scene.
But the Brawler….oh my goodness! This British-style session ale, 4.3%, was just what this Malt Maven has been craving. Neatly balance, smooth on the palate and finishing with malt richness, it jumps right up there on my best new beer of the year list. What was once a draught-only nitro beer is now, in the words on the label, a “Pugilist Style Ale,” but I gotta tell you, it’s more suited for lovers than fighters.
And here’s the real kicker. When Tom Kehoe and the Bartons split last year, the dream for all of us, aside from wishing both sides well, that out of the break-up would come two great Philadelphia breweries, double the fun and all that.
I think that’s what we got, praise the gods. When Brawler got up there to the top of my “best” list, the beer it was bumping up against was Philadelphia Brewing Company’s Rowhouse Red.
By the way, both the Yards beers will be featured at the regular Friday Night Tasting at the Beer Yard tomorrow night.
Will you be there too Jack> I think I will come by.
Nah, can’t go to the Beer Yard two days in a row. It’s in my contract.
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[...] wishing both sides well, that out of the break-up would come two great Philadelphia breweries, Jack Curtin’s LIQUID DIET Blog Archive Yards bottles are back. Foobooz have to admit, I had an ESA on the engine the other night for the first time and it’s as [...]