Chip the Beer Guy Rock 107 – Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier

It’s been a very busy & chaotic work-week and I’ve done nothing but write all week, so I thought today’s show would be in business format….i.e. bullets!

• Chip’s beer-quest adventure this week takes us to St Catherine’s to a Mexican restaurant that smelled like stale beer and bleach, and Irish pub with Keith’s Lager and the Merchant Ale House…where the beers are less-hoppy and the kitchen is closed.
• In Canada you can apparently brew & sell your own beer, much more easily than you can in the states (i.e. no TTB or LCB to tap dance around).
• Chip brought back some Niagara’s Best Beer, which sounds like a pico brewery to me. The guys (and Ruthie) sampled the Blonde (complete with a BLOND on the label), and the Lager (complete with a LOGGER on the label). Unfortunately it sounded like the beers weren’t exactly the “Best” the guys had tasted…I believe Ruthie’s was even a dumper.
• We coined a new phrase on the show….this tastes very “Beer-y.” I like it and I know what you’re describing Ruthie. I will use that phrase (actually I hope I don’t have a beer that I need to use it with but who knows.)
• I actually heard Jay Daniels taste a beer & speak. Now I’ll admit I’m never completely sure who’s talking at any given point in the show, but Jay always seems so quiet or not there at all; it surprised me to hear him. Cheers Jay and welcome to the show….and I mean this sincerely. I’m a long-time listener of the guys (back to the Swami Salami days) and they still are my favorite radio team.
• Ruthie & Chip haven’t previously tasted a Strawberry Wheat…well now’s your chance. Elmer Sudds is currently tapping our very own Lancaster Strawberry Wheat (Wilkes-Barre, PA). Very refreshing beer I might add.
• The beer of the day was the brewers select Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier. Every time I hear about this beer I’m reminded how beer tasting is so very subjective. I sampled the Sample B (Coffee Stout) and Sample A (Blackberry Witbier) with some friends @ River St Ale House. We unanimously loved the Stout and thought the witbier was extremely perfume-y tasting…and the witbier wins by almost 2 to 1. Just goes to show you everybody has an opinion, and there’s no right or wrong…especially with beers.

I’ll break out of bullet style for the closing since it involves a mybeerbuzz fond memory. A few years back Mrs Beerbuzz and I (and the beerbuzz extended family), toured Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Cape Bretton Highlands. These were all incredibly beautiful places and everywhere we went the beer was Alexander Keiths. Now mind you the Keith’s IPA was hardly an IPA and not a great beer….BUT the Keith’s Red was actually a very tasty and drinkable beer. To hear Chip mention Keith’s in the show today brought me back to that trip and the Keith’s Brewery in Halifax….Cheers guys and thanks for the fond memories.