The Triangle

Issue date: 8/28/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Starfish Junction Productions

Media Credit: Starfish Junction Productions

As the heat of the summer months rises above and behind us, we welcome the leisure of the cooled afternoons and evenings to come. Before long, temperatures will be dropping and beer drinking will become both a tasting experience and an even more practical hobby. There are a lot of craft brews I look forward to reviewing. But today, I'm going to step away from the fridge and lose a few of those good ole' calories walking around The Great International Beer Expo. This is a beer festival that showcases a wide variety of wonderful, and sometimes not so wonderful, beers you can expect to find at your local beer distributor of choice-- represented are 50+ brewers and 100+ beers and I had three hours to experience them.

On August 15 at 12:30 p.m. I was standing in line - at least, near the line - with my favorite beer-drinking partners, under the bus stop awning outside of 5100 South Broad Street, in the Navy Yards of South Philly. With the weather being less than pleasant - familiarly, I recall waiting in cold rain for Slyfox Brewery to crown a champion goat - we finally had the security guard's permission to enter a wonderfully air-conditioned, deceptively spacious building.

Inside, we were gifted two-ounce tasting glasses, and then promptly ushered around the oncoming delivery van to the first leg of our "world tour." First up - a table sporting Czechvar, Lowenbrau, Harbin and Kirin. Czechvar, if some of you do not know, is traditionally called Budvar. This may sound familiar, but after all, this is the town where Budweiser's recipe and name originated. Due to patent rights Anheuser-Busch prevented the sale of the beer in America under its original name. If you have the chance, try it - this is a true pilsner. The other two beers, Kirin Ichiban of Japan and Harbin Lager of China, were surprisingly refreshing. I have largely ignored these brands because of bland experiences I've had with other beverages from these regions; I do not hate myself for being closed minded, but I can admit I'm at fault. These were far better than I could have expected, being pleasantly spicy and unexpectedly invigorating.

Moving around the world, so to speak, we found several UK beers - Fuller's and O'Hara's -- which shared a long table with several Caribbean brews. From Fuller's we had samples of both London Pride and London Porter, the latter being the favorite - it's a smooth, slightly roasty mealtime beer. O'Hara's has been on my radar for a while but I've always had an excuse to try something different. No excuses now, and I'm a better man for it - they are absolutely fantastic. Their Irish Stout is a full-bodied, silky stout-porter well deserving the praise advertised on bright posters. A stout not expected was placed right next to these otherwise familiar faces - the Trinidadian Carib Brewery, and its Royal Extra Stout. This was a sweet candy-like stout with traces of dissolved sweet tarts and more banana than I could have ever thought possible to introduce into a beer, without actually adding a real banana. This is largely an effect of the Caribbean's tropical climate, and I probably could not drink more than one of these without a stomachache, but damn, it was tasty! Next time I will crack one of these open with an equally fine dessert, to enhance the experience.

Towards the end of the hall we located the local breweries, which featured Riverhorse, General Lafayette, and Lancaster Brewing. Lancaster's Strawberry Wheat and Hop Hog are always crowd pleasers, with a nice strawberry afterthought on the former, and a friendly, cleansing bitterness in the latter. General Lafayette had their Abbey Single and Chocolate Thunder on tap. The latter you may remember from Philly Beer Week's Opening Tap. If you still haven't had it, do yourself a favor and look for it. It has a great coffee and chocolate flavor though this keg seemed to impart an additional buttery flavor.

One dud we did find here was a Mexican beer called Mexicali Red Pig. Normally I really enjoy the smell of brewing beer - the boiling wort, the fermenting beer - but this tasted like they forgot to add the yeast altogether. It has a strong sugary wort taste, but was this supposed to be the finished product?

I almost forgot to mention, two of the "stores" present were BeerHeads.com and AmeriKilt - American Casual Kilts. Yeah, there were people running around in camouflage and khaki kilts, but we're here to drink beer. I've watched goats race. On the other hand, what are you going to be doing in Philadelphia that would welcome the particular use of a desert-print camo kilt? When these questions become too frustrating I just sample another beer. BeerHeads, meanwhile, is the company responsible for putting out shirts with witty quotes attributed to famous drinkers. They've expanded their line, however. Is anyonein dire need of a hop-print "Rockmount shirt?"

Moving beyond these interesting "sights," we found a second offering of Caribbean, Polish, Italian, and Portuguese beers. The Jamaican beer, Black Dragon, was incredibly similar to the Royal Extra we found earlier - including the overwhelming banana flavoring. It was still tasty, but less desirable at this point in the day. Lech, from Poland, was a pleasant tasting beer, but somewhat forgettable. I almost forgot! Innis & Gunn had a beer for tasting here. It was an oak-aged, English Strong ale, a standard for them, and it hits you with a huge smack of butter toffee and maple syrup. I had been really looking forward to trying anything from this famous Scottish brewery, but I feel the apparent butter flavor was too powerful for such a well-known beer.

Making the loop back up, we came across Asahi - one of the tables we were forcefully guided around at the beginning. I've had Asahi before and it was less than stellar in my opinion. However, today they also had a new beer - Asahi Black. This was a dark beer, a black lager specifically, with fuller flavor and body than I have come to expect from this brand. Did I mention their awesome Rising Sun and Godzilla posters?

In this corner of the room we also found Hometown Beverages, Ithaca Brewing, Butternuts and Rogue. Hometown brews several simple lagers named after New York and Pennsylvania, and operates out of New Jersey and Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Ithaca had their IPA on tap and since I enjoy my IPAs, I felt this was a nice cleansing beer. Rogue was showing off their Dead Guy and American Amber, both top quality choices that are two of my personal favorites.

It was unfortunate that throughout the day many beers seemed to exhibit a skunked flavor or aroma. Some of the cases appeared to have been mistreated during transit - I'd enjoyed them in the past, while their Expo incarnations were disappointing. It didn't ruin the days events, but I feel that the festivities would have faired far better had these little "black sheep" not shown their faces in such a loathsome manner.

After making our rounds we decided to get home, before the crowd reached its inevitable, saturated inebriation. To avoid being included in such a lot, we ventured out into glaring summer sun- it was hot, but a good day for the beer drinkers of Philly.

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