The Nottoway Plantation Beer Fest is this Saturday and if you’re a craft beer lover in/near South Louisiana, you won’t want to miss it. The beer lineup looks excellent, throw in some homebrews, and you’ve got the makings of a good time. Plus you get to visit beautiful Nottoway Plantation in White Castle.
Hope to see some of y’all out there.
Beer of the month for November is Bell’s Two Hearted Ale. Not only is it one of my favorite IPAs and no doubt one of the best in the land, but it also features a brook trout on the bottle and packaging – in that regard I like to think of it as the fly fisherman’s beer. Sadly you won’t find Bell’s in Louisiana, which is something that I hope changes in the near future, but you can find it in Georgia, which is where I was able to find it last week. What Bell’s has to say about the Two Hearted Ale:
“Bell’s Two Hearted Ale is defined by its intense hop aroma and malt balance. Hopped exclusively with the Centennial hop varietal from the Pacific Northwest, massive additions in the kettle and again in the fermenter lend their characteristic grapefruit and pine resin aromas. A significant malt body balances this hop presence; together with the signature fruity aromas of Bell’s house yeast, this leads to a remarkably drinkable American-style India Pale Ale.
Alcohol by Volume: 7.0%
Original Gravity: 1.064
Shelf Life: 6 months
Dates Available: Year Round
Available Packages: Bottle (6-packs), 16 oz. cans (4-pcks) and draft”
What the beer geeks have to say about Two Hearted Ale:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/1093/
I didn’t do a good job of posting my monthly staples, beer and fly, in October so I am doing it now. The beer of the month for October was the Milk Stout Nitro from Left Hand Brewing in Longmont, Colorado. I got turned onto milk stouts by an old high school pal of mine one night when I was back home for Thanksgiving. He did a little bartending while in college up at Indiana, so I was privy to his recommendation. I wasn’t much of a stout drinker at the time, but a good milk stout will certainly turn a man. I’m not sure if the Nitro is what we were drinking, but it has been my favorite of the style thus far. I’m kind of bummed that the one time I went through Longmont, CO I didn’t make it over to the brewery, we went to Oskar Blues instead (not too shabby for Longmont to have both Oskar Blues and Left Hand in the same town). There is a damn fine fly shop in Longmont and plenty of good fishing nearby so maybe I’ll make my way up there again in the future. This is a Nitro:
And this is how you pour it – hard:
What the beer geeks have to say about it:
http://allthesamebeer.com/2013/01/24/beer-review-0313-left-hand-milk-stout-nitro/
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/418/115076/
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/left-hand-milk-stout-nitro/155990/
Mountains to Marsh 