Day 2: Chicken trucks, buses, and brews

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Leaving Poquoson

We started early with pancakes and coffee. Once Tracy showed up, we packed up and headed on the road. The first leg of our journey lasted to 7 –eleven for coffee. Then there was a discussion about chicken buses. See the blog post here for an account.

On a related note, I was flipping through my homebrew bible, The New Complete Joy of Hombrewing, by Charlie Papazian, and found a receipe for Cock Ale. Not kidding. If you can find it, please, please read it. The descripiton on the treatment of the rooster is quite amusing considering the wording.

16 Mile, Georgetown, Delaware http://16milebrewery.com/

The brewery is a fairly nondescript building, and I would not have known it was a brewery except for the large sign. The tour would have been fairly quick if had not engaged the tour guide, no name given, more. One interesting thing they do is import almost all of their malted barley from England. Also, he gave some information on how and why they distribute to the areas they are in. When we got there we started the tasting which consisted of 8 different beers. The first 6 are their “core” beers with 2 collaboration beers at the end. I didn't take very good tasting notes here but I will get better. Come-on, it's the first one.

1. Responders, Session Ale

Light gold color. Light body. Balanaced like an American Pilsner.

2. Blue’s Golden, Golden Ale

Gold color. Medium body. Leans more toward hops in flavor than Responders

3. Amber Sun, Amber Ale

4. Harvest, Southern English Brown

5. Inlet , IPA

6. Old Court, Dark Pale Ale

7. Hot Fudge Sundae Stout, Collaboration

8. Eastern Chef Brew, ESB, Collaboration

The guide had a disdain for IPAs in general. He was not a fan of overly bitter bears without a malt balance. He told us that the human tongue can only taste up to 60 IBUs. If that is true then all the, double and triple IPAs out there are just a marketing scam. Overall it was a small prodcution place but had big potential.

Fordham, Dover, Delaware www.fordhambrewing.com/

The brewery was kind of in the middle of nowhere but bigger than the previous. They had a quite a few 100 barrel fermenters. The brewery is co-owned with Old Dominion Brewery and they share equipment and brewers. One of the employees called them sisters, "Fordham is the sister that comes home at curfew and Old Dominion is the sister that stays out late...and is pregnant again." The tasting was a bit excessive because they provided 4 oz glasses. I’m not sure if they wanted us to taste the beer or get drunk. The tour this time was more traditional style. The guide, Kevin, told us about the ingredients and the process, from milling all the way through bottling and kegging. It was a nice surprise to see the kegging in process. The tasting room provided 8 beers but I only tried four. The first two are from Old Dominion and the last two are from Fordham.

1. Octoberfest, Lager, Old Dominion

Deep amber color. Medium body. Flavor leans toward malty sweet. Represents style well.

2. Oak Barrel Stout, Old Dominion

Black color. Full body. Smooth almost creamy mouthfeel. Nice coffee finish.

3. Tavern Ale, Pale Ale, Fordham

Hazy amber color. Medium body. Citrusy hop aroma. Piney hop finish.

4. Copperhead, Altbier, Fordham

Copper color. Light Body. Balanced malt and hops but light on flavors.

Dogfish Head, Milton, Delaware www.dogfish.com/

Unfortunatly we couldn’t get a tour for this one. I was especially upset about that, because I thoroughly enjoy their beers. Thoroughly. We were still able to get into the tasting room/gift shop. They definitely have their marketing team doing a great job there. Also, while walking up we got see them putting some final touches on some new fermenters outside. Tracy noticed that there was a wind sock on the new tanks but we could not come up with a reason why it was there. The “campus” was beautiful and you could see the expansion. It was a little out of place in quaint town but not all that noticeably so. The tasting consisted of 4 beers.

1. Namaste, Wheat beer with coriander and lemon grass

Hazy light gold color. Light body. Nice fruit aromas and flavors. Subtle grassyness.

2. My Antonia, Imperial Pilsner

Golden color. Medium body. More hops than usual for the style but well balanced with a nice bite

3. Burton Baton, Oak aged Imperial Pale ale

Deep amber color. Medium body. Sweet start to sour finish. Nice hop flavors. Very strong.

4. Bitches Brew, Stout

Dark brown color. Full body. Smooth mouthfeel. Very "stouty" as someone put it.

Iron Hill, Wilmington, Delaware www.ironhillbrewery.com/

This is actually a chain brewery/restaurant. So, again, no tours were available. At first we were planning on staying away from something so commercialized, but it does make it's own beer and that is the purpose of the trip. We called ahead for a reservation at 7:30pm, but we were making great time and got there an hour early. Tracy put our name on the wait list and we headed to the bar for some libations. We each tried a different offering and shortly we were seated. Our server was a boistrous older guy. While he was trying to enhance our experience there, it was a little over the top. During dinner, we got a second round and the pale ale I got was a perfect complement to the Fishermen's Stew. After dinner, I went around the back of the restaurant and found that there is a boardwalk along the river. The weird thing was that there was a parade of people with lit up balloons, going from downtown towards the baseball stadium. Not sure what that was all about.

1. Pig Iron Porter

Black color. Full body. Not as smooth as other porters. Nice toffee notes.

2. 8 Bit, Pale Ale

Amber color. Medium body. Hop foward flavors with citrusy and piney aromas.

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