Friendship Brew

1. Weyerbacher Brewing Co. Blanche (D)

2. Brasserie St. Feullien/ Green Flash Collaboration: Biere De L'Amite (D)
3. Brasserie St. Feullien Brune (D)
4. Brasserie St. Feullien Triple (D)
5. Green Flash Brewing Co. Triple (D)
6. Lancaster Brewing Co. Cream Ale (D)
7. Furthermore Knot Stock (B)

8. Lagunitas A Little Sumtin' Sumtin' (D)

9. Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA (D)
10.Dock Street Espresso Satellite Stout (D)

11. Sly Fox Brewing Co. Ichor (D)

12. Bells Cherry Stout (B)

How does one recover after a Beercation? Well for starters you can start small. You can start with a flight. I was out in the Oley Valley at the Manatawny Inn and what to my wondering eye should appear...a list full of St. Feullian and Green Flash beer. Yes, it was a night of two brewers who just made an excellent collaboration, Biere de L'Amite. Belgian brewers St. Feullien had three delightful treats as did the U.S's Great Flash. But there was also a fourth and that was their collaborative effort of a Blond Belgian Strong Ale. Spicy, malty and heavily hopped, it was a blend of rye and wheat with St. Feullien's tradional yeast. Delicious.

On the local circuit, I was super impressed with Philadelphia's Dock Street Brewery this past week. We popped by Johnny Brenda's with The Slingluff Gallery owners the other night to one of the best local beer spots in the city. Dock Street's Espresso Satellite Stout is down-right ridiculously rich. Now it didn't say Espresso on the list, but as I raised my glass toward my nose the roasty sensation perked me out of my seat.

Let's interrupt this with a quote: "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons."

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock-T.S. Eliot

Okay, back to the beer. Jet black with a tan head it was nice and nutty. It was a bit too easy to drink, although I'm not sure if that is a negative thing. It was nothing like the Bell's Cherry Stout that I picked up from one of the greatest bottle shops west of the Schuylkill, Pinocchio's Beer Garden. If the Satellite Stout was black, then this cherry stout was motor oil. Well, there was a hint of red. Very tart, but enough malt to back it up. Think of cherry chocolate cake, rich chocolate cake that leaves your lips smacking. So let's end with a poem about this.

Cherry-Ripe

BY THOMAS CAMPION

There is a garden in her face

Where roses and white lilies blow;

A heavenly paradise is that place,

Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow:

There cherries grow which none may buy

Till “Cherry-ripe” themselves do cry.

Those cherries fairly do enclose

Of orient pearls a double row,

Which when her lovely laughter shows,

They look like rose-buds filled with snow;

Yet them no peer nor prince can buy

Till “Cherry-ripe” themselves do cry.

Her eyes like angels watch them still;

Her brows like bended bows do stand,

Threatening with piercing frowns to kill

All that attempt with eye or hand

Those sacred cherries to come nigh,

Till “Cherry-ripe” themselves do cry.

Cheers for now.