Weeping Radish Brewery and Bavarian Restaraunt

Weeping Radish
Outer Banks, North Carolina

So before I jump into this, I need to tell you that although advertised as a Brewery, the Weeping Radish recently moved all their brewing operations off site, but they still only have their hand crafted beers on tap (i assume they relocated in an effort to expand). Also, I have never actually ate at the restaraunt, but what I hear from close friends I understand it is very good. Now onto what I do know about the place...Well first of all the atmosphere is amazing, even though I have never been to Germany, I can imagine the Weeping Radish's decor represents the country quite well. In addition to that they exclusivly use hand crafted glasses from Germany to serve their beer in. So at the Weeping Radish they have 5 beers all year round, Corolla Gold (Helles), Corolla Light, a Heffeweizen, Black Radish (a black lager), and their Fest beer (which i'm not quite sure what it was), and normally they have 2 seasonals on draft, which when I was there was the Kolsh and I believe the Farm beer. Also all of their beers are available in bottles (1 liter or a Pint 9oz bottle), or by the case. When I was there I only had the Black Radish, which was amazing (I will write a seperate article on this), but I know from drinking the other beers out of the bottle in prior years that they are equaly as good. There was only one waitress in the bar area but she stayed on top of her respective, and we were waited on in a timely fashion. Also they have authentic german pretzles (That's what they say but they are basically super pretzles, but who cares), so those were a great snack while drinking some beer. Also If you have family who isn't interested in sitting in a bar or whatnot, they do have other shops connected to the outside (I have not been in them in some years but I imagine they are the typical Outer Banks nick-nack shops), and a play ground for children. Finally make sure to check out their gift store, not only can you buy their beers in bottles but they have tons of nifty t-shirts and other cool merch (including their glasses they use in the bar, which are really expensive now due to a glass shortage or something in germany, or atleast that's what the guy with the german accent told me). So yeah, if you are ever in the outer banks and want to drink some good craft beer, I highly suggest you either get your ass up to the weeping radish or try their beer in some way, I leave you with a saying they printed on a T-Shirt i purchased...

Those who drink beer sleep well,

Those who sleep well cannot sin,

Those who cannot sin goto heaven

Amen.

Unibroue 15

Brewer: Unibroue
ABV: 10%
COLOR: Golden/Copper
Aroma: Smelled like a belgian beer
Flavor: La Fin Du Monde + Champaign
Opinion: So the other day when i had that Jamaican Style Red Ale, my friend and I decided to grab two big Belgian beers from Dee's...now as i stated before, this blog is a sanctuary for drunkards, who want to know about beer, and being drunkards ourselves, we bought these with 100% intentions of getting messed up, you know since Belgian beers are quite alcoholic and seem to do the job of getting you messed up quite well. So, my friend grabbed a Unibroue La Fin Du Monde (which is one of my favorite Belgian style beers, even though it really isn't because it's made in Canada, but it is still fucking great and gets a good buzz goin), so going with the theme of Unibroue i decided to grab one, of equal (in fact higher) alcohol content, and that I haven't had before, which was the Unibroue 15, the celebration of 15 years of their brewery. So he and I decided to drink these on a weeknight, see if we could get all messed up. So when i opened the beer there was alot more force behind it then a typical Belgian beer 1 liter 9 oz bottle (halfway between typical big Belgian and champaign), it foamed a bit, but then it settled down. Once i started drinking this, I though man, this really tastes like La Fin Du Monde and Champaign, I tasted my friends La Fin Du Monde, and by god I was right. Seriously, I really like Unibroue beer a lot, but I really do not like champaign at all. So overall I am going to have to say from the perspective of this beer hound, this is a beer that I would personally pass up, also considering the greatness of Unibroue's other selections. Stick with the standard line up, not this shitty celebration of 15 years.

D's SixPax & Dogz

D's SixPax & Dogz Menu

So unlike previous posts about beer, this is a great place to get great beer and great food. This is located in the Regent Square area of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania (down the street from frick park). This place has probably 100 brads of beers cold (in a walk in cooler), that you can just walk up and get whenever you want while you are eating or hanging out, so no need to wait for the waiter, and probably 10-15 beers on tap (also available to go in growler form). They do a very good job of rotating through the beers on tap, and do keep changing beers up in the walk in cooler. Also another nice thing is when you are done eating, or if you just want to buy some beer to take home, in the back they have warm beer in their beer cave, probably around 200 or so brands where you can make your own six pack to bring home.

As for the food they have a fairly typical bar menu, everything that i have had there so far has been excellent. Normally I stick with the hot dogs or sandwiches, but their pizza and wings were also fairly good.

Price wise, the beer is not expensive at all and I would even go as far as to say it is affordable (especially when compared to other beer snob hangouts), their food is a little on the pricey side, but normally worth it when you consider the beer and the overall atmosphere.

Mad River Brewing Co's Jamaica Brand Red Ale

Brewer: Mad River Brewing Company
ABV: 6.6%
Color: Dark Amber color
Aroma: Sweet aroma, mainly caramel malts
Flavor: Very strong caramel malt flavor, a bit hoppier then expected
Opinion: So i first picked this up at a local make your own six pack place (D's SixPax & Dogz) expecting it to be on the level of an Irish Red beer, after looking at the description on the label I found out that in fact it was an Amber Ale, but the waitress already opened it, and really, i don't care that much...beer for the most part is beer, and I trust the fine proprietors of Dee's to pick out only the best of beers to offer...none the less, when it was first opened, i'm guessing they do some sort of bottle conditioning because there was some muddy goo on the top part of the neck...easy to fix, got a cup poured it in, no yeast or sediment in my beer...none the less, once i poured it I really knew there was no way this was a red, alot darker and more muddy...now this is one of those beers that I classify under the category of drinkable and enjoyable...and this is not a negative thing in the world of beer, but a positive thing. What I am saying is when I drank this, I did not jump out of my seat in amazement of the flavor but it still was good. Nothing special, but enjoyable...is the best way to describe the experience. It was a bit on the sweet side, but there was a bit of bitterness the first few sips (after that you barely notice), and the hop flavor did not stand out to much (meaning that you knew they were there but no specific characteristics could be seen)...Like i said, nothing that I am going to jump out of my seat to recommend, but a good brew none the less

Otter Creek Fine Ale's Copper Ale

Brewer: Otter Creek Fine Ales
ABV: 5.40%
Color: Dark Golden Color
Aroma: Toasted malts with a hint of caramel
Flavor: Overall very malty (mainly toasted malts) has a hint of hoppiness at the end but nothing overwhelming or obvious
Opinion: So I grabbed this case at a local beer distributer in the "Organic" section, now I really am not a big "organic" kind of person (personally I'd take giant eagle over whole foods any day), but it was only 25 bucks so i thought what the hell I'll give it a shot. When reading the description on the bottle it is discovered that it is inspired by German altbiers, which i do not have much experience with. Now myself, I am personally more of a malt man then a hop man, I like hops alot, but most of the time I would take a malty beer over a hoppy beer, and that is exactly what it is. Although it claims to be made with 3 different types of hops, i suspect that by having 6 different malts caused the maltiness to take over the hop flavor. Now this may be a problem for some people (my friend a supposed poster on this blog but he seems to be too lazy as of now to contribute) may not like this but i find it just fine. Not to say there is not hop flavor, a few seconds after each swig i find a slight hop presence in my mouth to even off the taste. Overall i find that this is a good beer, but nothing amazing, I have had samples of their Porter, which i thought was fantastic, and I would like to try their pale ale, both of which i suppose will be better overall (but to be fair I like those types better then altbiers).

Rating: I have decided overall ratings are stupid so i will no longer post them...jackass