3rd Wave Brewing’s 1st Wave IPA

One night, no one quite remembers exactly when or why, a brewery vanished. To be more accurate, the people working in the brewery vanished, leaving the building and the equipment to sit silently like a long forgotten shipwreck serving as nothing more than a reminder of the life and activity that had once filled its abandoned structure.

Where the old brewery workers went to, no one knows, but some say that they were whisked away to the far off realm of Mary’s Land.

And all remained quiet, until one night the brewery came to life with sound, and light, and smells. Once again the parking lot was a buzz with delivery trucks. The air smelled again of hops and malt. And the blur of activity could once again be seen in the dimly lit windows.

But who was responsible for this resurrection? Who had brought the brewery back to life? Well, locals whispered of two woman who had moved into the brewery and made it their new home with the intention of bring finely crafted beer back to the once silent structure.

Legend also says that one night, under the light of the full moon, these woman slipped into a nearby brewery and enticed a young man to follow them back to their home, a young man who had a gift of making good beers. The young man followed them back, and some say that he still wonders the brewery at night to this very day.

Or so it is said in legend.

………………………………..

OK, not really, but there is always an amount of truth to fables and legends. Lori Clough and Suellen Vickers did in fact buy the Delmar, Delaware brewing space that had been vacated by Evolution Brewing when that brewery decided to move up the road into Maryland.

They then reached out to John Panasiewicz who was brewing for the Iron Hill chain at the time and brought him on board to help brew their beers, many of them based on recipes that began on Suellen’s back porch.

The rest, if not legend, is at least history.

Tracey and I finally made it down to the brewery last October for our first Southern Swing (I probably should write about that someday, it was an awesome trip) and it’s just a quaint little place on a quiet road (that day, other days may vary) through the southern most town in Delaware.

3rd Wave started hitting the shelves in bottles, but after a while they started including beer in cans, something that I know long time readers know I’m a big fan of.

The beer I chose to hangout with this time is one of their bottled offerings, 1st Wave IPA, and since it’s 1st Wave, I decided to enjoy it while participating in some of the many firsts that have come around this time of year.

As always click on a photo to enlarge and cycle through them. You’ll find my thoughts on the beer after the gallery.

The first ribs of the season on the big smoker. More BBQ posts to come!

Tracey has decided to start making bread. Here she is working on her first loaves of chibatta bread.

Homemade pizza. Not really a first of anything, well maybe the first of the week. Rao’s sauce rocks.

The Eagles’ first pick in the 2017 draft – Derek Barnett. The board played favorably for the birds leaving three or four quality picks by the time they were on the clock. I think this was a good one – let’s hope.

The first leg of the triple crown. Luckily I didn’t put any money down as my horse didn’t do so well.

The first planting of the season. Flowers for the decks and boxes, and veggies and herbs for the garden. The corn is for the squirrels.

The first mow of the season.

Not my first cinemagraph, but the first using my new BE117 ballhead on my tripod (love it) and the first using a technique of forward/reverse film. Not as thrilled with it as some of the others I’ve been working on but still fun.

THEM: From their website – “Our American style IPA has a deep golden color and a great hop bitterness balanced with a malty sweetness. Brewed with American 2-row barley, Warrior, Northern Brewer and Cascade hops. The name stems from this being the first IPA beer we attempted.” 1st Wave clocks in at ~6.2ABV and ~63IBU.

BUZZ: Ratebeer (3.09/5), Beer Advocate (3.78/5), Untappd (3.36/5)

DE AVAILABILITY: Most fine beer outlets.

ME: My first two six packs of this were very enjoyable. 1st Wave pours a very pleasing orangish color with a topping of white fluffy foam.

The interesting thing that struck me about this beer is that although it’s billed as “American” I though it had a very English vibe to it. Maybe because of the northern brewer hops.

Malt/caramel are highly predominant in both the nose and the flavor, with the hops tucked in there nicely. This is not a “hop bomb” IPA, the flavor is well balanced on the malt base with the ending bitterness being a little more harsh than crisp, but just at the right level.

The interesting thing that struck me about this beer is that although it’s billed as “American” I though it had a very English vibe to it. Maybe because of the northern brewer hops. Anyway, at one point I found myself wondering how this beer would work in a cask, maybe with a handful of Northern Brewer hops tossed in for good measure (no hot peppers or gummy bears, please).

The third six-pack was a mystery. The first two beers were dead on 1st Wave, but the next three tasted completely different. The beer had a more floral/Belgian note to it, and I though maybe the beer had started to turn (bottling date was October of 2016). But to be honest, if it did, it turned into something that was enjoyably drinkable as the beer showed no normal signs of infection – in other words a nasty, foamy mess. The final bottle of the six was back to normal.

Based on the first two six-packs I’d recommend checking 1st Wave IPA out. It’s a pretty solid beer.

Time for another beer….

Fordham’s Rosie Parks Oyster Stout

As I wrote in last week’s post, I’ve changed up my beer drinking habits lately in an attempt to get back to the simple pleasure of enjoying beer, while stepping away from all the usual frenzied brand snatching I’ve tended to do over the past couple of years.

This time I want to talk about Fordham’s Rosie Parks Oyster Stout, a beer that is no stranger to me as I named it as one of my six picks for Brian Roth’s Six-Pack Project as well as making no apologies for declaring it in the past as one of my favorite beers brewed in Delaware.

This hangout happened on a bit of a whim as I was getting ready for our yearly St Paddy’s day celebration, mulling over the possibility of adding some oysters to the menu. I loved the idea, but wasn’t digging the added expense or possible hassle of finding good oysters at the last minute when I remembered that I’d seen this very metaphorical (but adequate) substitute on one of my locals’ shelves.

So spending nothing but a quick stop after work the next day, plus the price of a six pack and bingo – “oysters” for St Paddy’s day.

Of course there was plenty of Murphy’s and Guinness as well, but Rosie didn’t seem to mind hanging out with the boys. This was a short hangout, just a couple of days, but it was very pleasurable.

The St Paddy’s celebration? Well long time readers know that I’m a bit of a St Paddy’s Day snob due to some culture programing by a Irish Jedi. So every year we get together with the kids and rock some Irish inspired food, drink and music. I’ll embed a couple of songs we added to the playlist this year at the bottom of this post. For now, let’s talk beer – and a little something else.

As always click on a photo to enlarge and cycle through the gallery to read a little comment or two about each photo

Continious Bubbles – Always good.

Late breakfast is always bangers and mash, and a beer (don’t judge).

Lamb stew starts with some knife work.

Irish Flowers

Out numbered but not out classed.

Champagne with a splash of Midori – Irish Bubbles

THEM: From a press release:

“Making a triumphant return, the Oyster Stout was formerly in the Fordham Brewing portfolio and retains a loyal group of followers. Containing Chesapeake Bay oysters and shells, contributing to a slight briny taste in the beer, this stout contains pale, torrified wheat, caramunich, roasted barley and chocolate malt. In addition, it is hopped with Bravo and Glacier hops. Black and 5.2% ABV, this beer is very distinctive.”

THE BUZZ: Ratebeer (3.18/5), Beer Advocate (3.55/5), Untappd (3.44/5)

DE AVAILABILITY: Most fine beer outlets.

ME: I’m going to admit, I didn’t really crawl into the glass during our celebration to re-analyze a beer I’ve had dozens of times. I simply enjoyed it throughout the day, which is what these types of reviews are all about. So let’s just go with my thoughts from my six-pack project post:

“Rosie is pure smooth drinking from front to back, with light chocolate and (even lighter) roasted notes, along with that kiss of mineral that comes from the added oyster shells.  The finish is clean and not bitter (24 IBUs) and the after taste is simply a slight roastiness.”

Yeah. Seems right. Don’t let the oyster thing turn you off, this is one fine beer and was a nice change of pace from the traditional dry stouts poured throughout the day.

Time for another beer….sing us out boys!

Fordham’s Dilated Pupilz Golden Pils

I’ve been changing my drinking habits lately. Running around trying to grab every beer that one has never tried is a young man’s game, and I just don’t seem to have the energy for it like I used to. And yes, you can do the logic problem and conclude that I’m not a young man anymore.

Instead, I’ve been grabbing some local beers off the shelf and just kind of hanging out with them. Whether it be a six pack over a long weekend, or a couple (or maybe three) over a period of a couple of weeks (or months). I’ve been just hanging out with the beer, kicking back, relaxing, experiencing it at different times and in different situations, while trying not to let too many other beers distract me.

What is this beer? Does it have a story? Does the story change over time?

Will this improve my reviews? Probably not. But they’ll be changing a bit as well as the wordy intros will probably be whittled down to a few words so that the review is more concise and quicker for you to read.

I also want to use this beer ‘quality time’ to take some photos of the beer and let you all have a peek at what the beer and I are doing in our lives. And the truth is, I’d rather be playing in Lightroom and Photoshop lately than writing long, rambling reviews.

So  with that, let’s check out the first beer in this new format, Fordham Brewing’s Dilated Pupilz.

THEM: From the website – “Dilated Pupilz has a solid malt backbone and well balanced hop character.  This golden pilsner showcases a distinct hop nose and malty flavor up front but finishes with a floral bitterness. A great beer to enjoy any time of the year.”

The grain bill includes Vienna and Caraform malts, while Bravo, Tradition and Saaz hops balance the load. Pupilz clocks in at 5.0%ABV and 38IBU.

THE BUZZ: Ratebeer (no ratings), Beer Advocate (one rating), Untappd (3.4)

DE AVAILABILITY: Most fine beer outlets.

ME: As you can see by the below photos I’ve been drinking this one for a little while now. I’ve found it mostly to be a beer that drinks pretty nice in most situations without demanding too much attention on itself.

When stored in my super turbo beer over-chiller (aka, my fridge) Pupilz has a clean nose and a just apparent malt taste with some classic Pilsner hop flavors. Every now and then the beer tosses me a citrusy/lemon notes towards the end, not sure if that’s really there, or if it’s my palate doing some of that slight-of-hand stuff that it does sometimes. The end is pretty crisp and doesn’t linger.

I wasn’t sure I liked this beer at first, but in the end it really started to grow on me. In fact, once I had everything I needed for this review, I found myself picking up one last six-pack – you know, just for the hell of it.

As always click on a photo to enlarge and cycle through the gallery to read a little comment or two about each photo.

Time for another beer.

Last major snow storm of the year – last major snow clean up.

Dilated Pupilz is just the name, not the side effects, but still drink responsibly.

Of course after the snow finally thawed it was time to start leaf detail.

A little simmerinig tomato sauce on a Sunday, along with a beer or two.

I was sad to hear that Bill Paxton passed away so I grabbed a beer and cued up one of my favorite movies.

A pleasant surprise finding them both at my local.

Tasters – And The Dogs of Beer Turns Four

I’m FOUR! That’s right, this blog is slowly catching up to the age I act. Scary.

I’m not going to do a big anniversary post this year, I’ll save all the glitz and glamour for my year end post. Plus for some unfathomable reason, when WordPress.com updated its Stats Page it dropped “All Time” stats as an option. Thanks. So much for that awesome map of the US that I enjoyed posting every year to show all the great countries (some of them I didn’t even know existed) that visited. For the record I clicked “yes I love the old version of the stats page better” every time it asked me, but I guess I lost. The new page isn’t that bad, but the exclusion of the “ALL TIME” option does limit its usefulness.

But instead I want to take a few minutes to thank some folks who make this blog what it is (yeah, that’s right! It’s YOUR fault too, I’m taking you all down with me!).

I want to thank everyone who has stopped by to read anything I wrote, especially those who have made my posts on The Shawshank Redemption and Twin Lakes so satisfying to have written.

I want to thank all the other bloggers (AKA The Usual Suspects) who follow me (and that I follow) who have been a source of support and inspiration, whether it be a kind word or a great post idea which I’ve “borrowed”.

I want to thank all the Delaware/local brewers, bar owners, and representatives whose great beers and willingness to take the time to talk to me have made this fun and very informative over the years. I want to thank my fellow admins Patrick Huff and Dana Dillon of the Delaware Craft Beer and Wine Lovers, and all of its members for the kick ass beer events, looking forward to the ones we have coming up.

I want to thank Cindy Small of the Delaware Wine and Beer Festival as she’s always been so gracious to this blog. I greatly appreciate it.

And of course I want to thank Tracey who makes all the trips and events amazingly fun. And, reluctantly I suppose, a joy killing, non-team player who thinks he’s too cool to have a little fun for the benefit of helping this blog celebrate a significant milestone.

Hey, I said no hat this year!

 

Awww, but you looked so cute in it last year.

Yeah, well the rubber strap pulled my fur.

 

Poor kitty…..

Go chase a squirrel, biped!

 

Anyway, since someone thinks he’s above playing along this year, I guess I will just share some “four” related beertography. Thanks again to everyone, and let’s continue the fun in year 5!!

Whenever someone says they live in NJ, the correct followup question isn’t, “Where?”, it’s “What exit?” I grew up at Exit 1.

There’s always time for some Allagash in your day.

Of course, I picked up this Brasserie de Jandrain-Jandrenouille Saison because of the big IV on the label but it ended up being a very good farmhouse style ale.

Any great celebration should have multiple drink options, so I pulled out some mead/cider in the form of Four Quarters Meadery’s Harvest Fruit Cyser.

Time to start working on year 5….

Tasters – Blogtography Continued, Out With Winter

So spring is right around the corner and I can think of no better way to help expedite its arrival than to purge all the photos of winter from my camera and phone. And of course, that means another collection of photographs that never got used in the blog. No other set up needed, let’s move on to the pixels.

 

Scaldis Noel is one of my favorite Christmas season beers. And the bottle is nice as well, so of course it’s picture worthy.

Cindy Small who organizes the Delaware Wine and Beer Festival once referred to me on the event’s Facebook page as “celebrity beer blogger Ed”, much to the amusement of my friends. So Tracey stepped up for Christmas this year and got me four etched beer glasses. Three say “Dogs of Beer”. The fourth is pictured below.

 Delirium Noel is my default Christmas Eve beer. Once I set up the shot, I realized what was really making the scene work was the blinking lights so I attempted my first animated GIF in Photoshop.

 

My little slice of Narnia.

Yes, we did go to some events over the past couple of months. Here’s a gentleman enjoying his novelty plate from the 16 Mile Brewing Company. The photo was taken at the Wine About What Ales You event in Historic New Castle.

Can’t upset the editor and not have a pizza picture. Tracey and I voting for the Disco Brisket pizza (Iron Hill Brewery) at Argilla Brewing’s Brewers Pizza Night. Sadly, the Betty Boop (Pizza By Elizabeths) won. Don’t get me wrong, Elizabeths made a damn fine pie, but Iron Hill’s had duck bacon. DUCK BACON!!

After a day long ice storm the weather broke and icicles were falling from everywhere. You could actually stand on my back deck and listen to them snap and fall from the trees, gutters, whatever. So…..

Speaking of the editor, when you have a black dog who loves the snow the shoot just screams “black and white” and if you couldn’t tell, I love to pump up the contrast on my black and whites.

Coming up on the photo-side – you’ve captured the perfect image and can’t wait to share it with your followers. But how you display it in WordPress may make a difference on how your readers see it. We’ll take a look as several of the options available, and how they impact your photos.

 

 

Tasters – Another Blogtography Post

I thought it was probably time to do another “Tasters” post. Since my previous (and inaugural) post was back in July, I won’t feel hurt if you don’t remember the premise.

These are photos (beer related or otherwise) that I’ve taken that never got used in the blog (although with a couple of these, “not yet” would be more adequate). Short little blurbs helped out by 500 pixels x 350 pixels of whatever imagery that was running around in my head that my camera happened to capture. Little ideas that never became big posts.

For those who asked last time, I’ll give a reminder: All photos taken with either my HTC phone, or my Canon T3i. Post processing done in either Digital Photo Professional (Canon software, for RAW files), Paint.net (for JPG files) or a combination of both.

So with that….

I’ve always said that Twin Lakes’ Greenville Pale Ale can go with me anywhere. In this case in accompanied me to the Motley Crue/Alice Cooper show at the Susquehanna Bank Center, NJ.

 

Another tailgate photo from the MC/AC show. If you’re going to have a friend who’s only found one Belgian beer he likes, it doesn’t hurt that it’s Brouwerij Van Steenberge Piraat Ale. Apple Dixie cups optional.

 

We were all excited to learn that Pizza By Elizabeths was going to start brewing their own beer. Their honey, basil ale was a decent enough first offering (although Tracey and I though it tasted a bit soapy). They’ve made other beer since, but we haven’t been back, and so far PbE is flying under the radar not having really joined in with the community of other brewers in Delaware.

 

This is from the lunar eclipse back in October. I admit there’s some color correction and a lot of sharpening post process on this one, but it didn’t turn out bad for a snapshot off of a tripod.

 

Tracey and I relaxing at The Cat’s Eye, Fells Point, Baltimore.

 

Sharing pizza and a beer with my son at Argilla Brewing.

Do you suffer from Sicilizymurinstaphobia?

 

What?

The irrational fear of eating pizza with a beer and not taking a picture of it to post on social media.

 

Ha. Ha. Funny. If you must know, wait…what’s that?

What?

 

That picture next to your words.

OH! That’s my avatar. Like it?

 

Avatar? What the hell?

Well we were talking at the last Friday afternoon meeting and we thought it would be beneficial for your readers to really know when it’s me interjecting into your post and an avatar seemed to be the best way to do it.

I told you, we don’t have Friday afternoon meetings.

Sure we do, just because you think you’re to cool to show up to them doesn’t mean they don’t happen!

 

WE DO NOT HAVE FRIDAY MEETINGS!

You can keep saying that, but it doesn’t make it true. Anyway, like I said, we decided that this would help your readers follow our conversations more easily.

Who the hell is WE?

Everyone who was at the Friday meeting. There was me, the three geese, bear, Simba, bunny, a tennis ball..

 

YOU AND YOUR TOYS DO NOT HAVE FRIDAY MEETINGS! AND YOU DO NOT MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT THIS BLOG!

So you say, yet there the avatar is…

 

God, we are so going to have a talk when I get home. In the mean time, can I please continue with the post.

Sure. You go for it.  Bet you have another picture of pizza. It’s like a sickness.

 

Shut up!

The boys from the Roaming Raven food truck take a break from serving food at this year’s Delaware Wine and Beer Festival to have a little fun with me (full post to come).

 

This is a cheat. I took this photo probably 15 years ago at the pier in New Castle, DE and had the a digital copy dupped off of a slide. Lots of color popping here to bring out the rainbow. It’s no longer possible to take this picture as the put up an ugly safety fence around the pier.

 

I drank several Left Coast Voodoo American Stouts over the Halloween season. I recommend it highly. The skull is lit from a light above, I got lucky that it made the eyes glow. The bottle label is lit during exposure with a small hand held light. Green and reds are boosted in post processing to make the shot more vibrant.

And finally…

finally…

Go ahead, I have ALL day…

 

Damn, you…

Pizza and beer at Lancaster Brewing (Full Post to come).

BAH!!!!!! I was right. You have a sickness. A deep, perverted sickness.

 

Shut up couch licker.

We thought Buddy should get a little experience running with The Dogs if he’s going to be editor. So we brought him the Highland Games in Fairhill, MD. As you can see, he found the event very exciting, and very tiring.

I wasn’t tired! I’m trying to shut out the bagpipes from my head!

 

The bagpipes sounded great.

Maybe to you! Try it around 45,000mhz! You know there’s subliminal messaging up in that range telling you to “eat more haggis”.

 

No there is not!

Yes there is. Or in your case it probably says, “eat more pizza. And take a picture.”

 

Sigh, wait until I get home.

 

 

 

 

Tasters – A New Series in Blogtography

This post starts a new semi-regular series dedicated to blogtography, in which I will share photos I’ve taken, but never used in one of my posts.  It’s a series idea that I shamelessly admit to stealing from other bloggers, that I hope will become a regular feature here at tDoB.  How regular? To be honest, I don’t know.  I’m going free form on this one.  Maybe it will come down to when I think I have enough pictures to share.

You’ll notice it’s blogtography and not beertography, there’s a reason behind that.  Although a lot of my photographs center around activities concerning the main focus of my blog, some do not.  So from time to time some non-beer stuff will sneak in here as well.  After all, when I started this blog it wasn’t supposed to be just about beer, it just sorta…turned out that way.

That means photos of me right?

No Buddy, that does not mean photos of you.

Oh come on!  I think as photo editor I should appear in at least one photo in every post about photography.

We’re not turning this into Buddytography.  Now back off.  I got this.

Oh, you mean like you “got” the clogged toilet the other day.

Hey, I don’t want to know what the hell someone put down there, but that flood was not my fault!  Now if you don’t mind…

So why is it called “Tasters”?  Well, craft beer bars will sometimes have little pours of beer that your can buy, 6oz, 8oz, big enough to really experience the beer, but not so big that you end up drinking more beer than you want.  In several of the bars I go to, these are referred to as tasters.  And that’s what most of these pictures will be; photos I took for reviews that I never wrote, or ideas for posts that never coalesced, events that never got their own write up, or simply photos I shared on Facebook and Twitter (yes even with the new camera some of these with be phonetographs), but never used in on my blog.  Little ideas that never became big ones, but are still worthy of a sentence or two.

I think that’s all you need to know.  So let’s do this…

A glass of Stumbling Monk at Stewart’s Brewery.  If you’re ever in Delaware and it’s on tap, I highly recommend you stopping by.  It took me a few tries to get the refractions in focus.

 

Swing into Spring.

 

Not a great photo with the focus point at the pile of empty glasses on the bar.  But I love the clutter and the blur of motion.  I think it captures the commotion of Max’s Belgian Fest pretty well.

How come I’ve never been there?

Because dogs aren’t allowed.

What?!?! There are places like that? Don’t people know?  Why isn’t something being done about this!?

 

I wish the edges of the mug were a little sharper in this one. Still, I like the composition of this picture I took at Two Stones Pub.

 

I love “down the bar” shots, and thought this one was nice.  I would have liked the head of the beer to be a little more in focus however.  I always find that I like pictures of beer better if the head is sharp. Tria’s in Philly.

 

Not a really good picture, but one with a good lesson.  If you’re going to take wine photos, remember to remove the price label first.

BAH !!!!!!!!! You left the price tag on!  Slick move, Ansel Adams!

Shut up.

Champagne on Sunday.

 

We had homemade egg rolls the other night and when we were done, we had two wrappers left. So Tracey mixed bananas, peanut butter and a little chocolate sauce; froze the mixture a bit, wrapped, and deep fried it. Scary good.

 

Sabon Estate’s Zinfandel Port. Sharon at Total Wine recommended it to us for a wine dinner when we were asked to bring something that would go good with chocolate cake. Sharon says that Sabon pairs well with anything chocolate, and in a pinch, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Highly recommended.

 

Flying Dog teamed up with CAO cigars to release a “Pairing Pack“, four cigars that are each paired with a different Flying Dog beer.  And although I couldn’t get a hold of the pack, my cigar store does sell CAO.  This is CAO’s “Gold” which they suggest pairing with Raging Bitch.  Although I’m not an expert on cigar/beer pairings, I will say that cigar was really good, and didn’t fight with the beer at all.

 

The required editor photo.

And the best picture of the bunch if I must say.

Shocking.  You’re just lucky I didn’t Photoshop a price sticker on your forehead.

Well that’s a good start I think.  Like I said, a majority of these are from “posts that could have been”, while others are just things I felt like taking a photo of.

He takes a lot of pictures of his food.

Shut up.

It’s REALLY embarrassing.

Go play.