Piece of the Rock

One of the things about craft beer and New Jersey – more specifically South Jersey – is that if you want to try all of what the Garden State brews, you must travel.

What’s brewed in North Jersey – Climax, Cricket Hill and Ramstein (High Point) – isn’t widely (or readily) available to South Jersey. It’s a distributor/liquor store thing, certainly not something the breweries are doing wrong. (Yes, we know Climax self-distributes; South Jersey's a long haul from Roselle Park.)

Meanwhile, NJ’s brewpubs, stationed at all points of the compass, are locked into selling only on premise: filling pint glasses, growlers and offering kegs, unlike their counterparts in, for example, Pennsylvania, where beer makers (like Sly Fox, Stoudt's and Victory) enjoy the best of both worlds – production brewing and serving retail on premise. (Conversely, as most of us know, production brewers in Jersey can’t serve/sell you a pint on premise. More on this a bit.)

So if you want what the Garden State’s pubs brew, yes you must go to the mountain. In our case, Berkeley Heights, home of tree-lined streets and Trap Rock Restaurant & Brewery.

We hit TR last week on a return trip from a High Point open house, capitalizing on the fact it’s only about a half hour south of Butler, High Point’s home base.

Our only gripe about Trap Rock: we wish it were closer. There’s good beer all around at the pub; ditto for the food.

Ample sample
If you are doing the beer traveler thing and fear you may not get back soon, make your first round the sampler – six 5-ounce servings of three lagers, a raspberry-cherry wheat (that’s quite good, not overdone with the fruits), an IPA and an oatmeal stout. We usually pass on samplers and just order a pint from the beer board (so we can enjoy the range of that beer’s flavors, from the first sip to the bottom of the glass). But in this case we made an exception before settling into a couple of pints of TR’s William Tell, a session ale (4.7% ABV) on the hand pump; it’s hard to pass on real ale hopped with Kent Goldings. It’s hard to pass on the serene pleasures of real ale, period.

Our top picks: Raptor Trust IPA (7% ABV and brimming with hops); the Czech-German hybrid JP Pilsner (and it’s worth pointing out, as Tom E from the blog Destination Beer does, TR always has a lager on tap).

Our take-home beer: a roasty, chocolatey Capt. Carl’s Oatmeal Stout that was a silky, solid companion to some home-made pumped-up, shredded chicken nachos (plenty of jalapeños, diced tomatoes, pinto beans and chicken simmered in Sly Fox Pikeland Pils, topped with some organic pepper jack, gruyère and mahon reserva cheeses; more about our culinary prowess and beer soon).


Futurama
But there’s no sense in taking up any more space on what we had. Here’s what you can look forward to at Trap Rock. Brewer Charlie Schroeder has a smoky, caramelly Scotch ale (8% ABV) coming up toward the end of September. But don’t forget, Oktoberfest is the fast-approaching season, and TR has one (5-plus percent on the ABV, with Hallertau hops) due around the first week of September. Look for that same beer to lead a beer dinner around the end of next month; there’s another beer dinner to take place before Thanksgiving time.

Cha-cha-cha-changes
Now about those Jersey-brewing restrictions …

Charlie says Trap Rock’s beers are enjoying a good run, so much so, it’s all he can do to keep up. What does that mean for beer drinkers? Well, the up side is fresh beer’s always on tap; the down side is, it’s hard for Charlie to slip in a different style without coming at the expense of his mainstays. It also means TR’s keg availability is pretty tight right now.

But if New Jersey allowed brewpubs to also hold production licenses (or production brewers to have pubs) – bottle their beers and sell them retail – it opens the door to more styles and boosts the brand, not to mention creating another revenue stream for the brewpubs/restaurants, which have fairly high overhead and could use the financial backstop.

Charlie, who did a six-month stint at Victory Brewing in Pennsylvania, would love for Jersey’s restrictions to be relaxed, and says Trap Rock would look for the brewing space if things were changed.

The idea – one that’s not lost on others in the industry, nor beer enthusiasts – makes a world of sense. And after a decade-plus of craft brewing in New Jersey, it’s way past time to modernize the state’s brewing regulations.

What’s more, for a state that’s hopelessly in debt, can’t put together a budget without scrounging for cash and choking off money to schools and towns, and has resorted to talk about raising tolls or hocking its toll roads, you’d think that revenue-needy Trenton lawmakers would find ways to improve the business climate for those industries it collects excise and other taxes from. Like brewers.

A rising tide floats all boats. Whaddya say Jon, Dick and Joe?

Horse of a different color

A quick post off what tumbled into the mailbox today.

Look for River Horse's draft-only Oktoberfest beer next month. The brew's in the tanks now, says co-owner Glenn Bernabeo.

RH is skewing more toward dunkel with the style, and who can't help but high-five the name: Dunkel Fester (the moniker is the brainchild of Chris Walsh, the other co-owner). The liner notes point to toffee and chocolate.

We're all about Oktoberfest – some of our favorite beers – so we're naturally looking forward to this. RH's two-day O-fest event is Oct. 11-12 at the brewery in Lambertville. We went last year: plenty of occasion-themed food and lots of beer, of course. Plus, the bands RH lines up are really good.

Cherries jubilee
We have a sixpack of Batch #002, the Imperial Cherry Amber, the second of RH Brewer’s Reserve limited edition series. It goes into the pint glass lineup this weekend.

We've been trying to concentrate on the brewpubs lately – we've hit J.J. Bittings, The Ship Inn, Trap Rock and Pizzeria Uno in the past two weeks, with Harvest Moon up next – and have some of Trap Rock's oatmeal stout ready for the glass. Hence, the RH cherries have been on deck for a while.

We did speak to Chris and Glenn about the second installment of the Brewer's Reserve around the end of July. With this brew, don't look for a bowl of cherries. It's an aroma thing that subtly emerges as a flavor. As Chris said, they didn't want it to end up a Jolly Rancher.

Meanwhile
As we noted, we've been hitting the brewpubs, and we've got a post coming on Trap Rock, which is certainly a place that has us wishing it were closer to home base. But for now, we'll say TR has a kickin' IPA (which we'll be back for), and some fine ale on the handpump.

Winter on their minds

Say you have some left over beer and you don’t even want to think about it going to waste … what do you do?

You invite some friends over to help you make good cheer of it, right?

That’s what High Point Brewing (Butler) did with a leftover keg of their 2007 Ramstein Winter Wheat, a doppelbock that has a quite a fan base and has earned a measure of critical acclaim.

The open house on Saturday drew a crowd of about 100 or so beerheads armed with their growlers to the brewery, where they snapped up the doppelbock faster than you can say ice bock (or more aptly, eisbock), which is what it became after the brewery staff froze it, drew off the ice, and split it into sixtels, adding another dimension to a beer that's great to start with.

Clocking in around 12% ABV (the strongest offering from the brewery's lineup), the winter wheat/eisbock was definitely rich, deep, dark and inviting – even in the dog days of August, when you'd wonder if it was going to seem like the beer equivalent of a parka in summer.

But it was a really tasty offseason headliner, a pleasant surprise to the loyal Ramsteiners, accompanied, of course, by Ramstein's Classic Blonde and a pilsner and golden lager (which was our take-home beer; the bock ran out before we could think about getting a growler filled. Alas.)

If you missed the winter wheat, be patient. It’s the brewery’s November-release seasonal. It’ll be back around (and maybe the eis, too).

Meanwhile, we got an early taste of the 2008 Ramstein Oktoberfest ...

It’s still a little young and yeasty, with some hop presence that will fade and take its proper place behind the malt flavors by the time it’s ready for September release.

Speaking of debuts, circle Sept. 13 on your calendar. That’s when the brewery kicks off Oktoberfest with an oak barrel tapping.

Bring your growlers that day, too.

FOOTNOTE:
High Point will be pouring at the Stoudt’s Microfest Aug. 23 in Adamstown, Pa.

Walking point

Curious about the Budweiser foray into ale? Don "Joe Sixpack" Russell can give you the lowdown on this beer due to get pushed in September by bartenders whose employers went out on a limb and put it on tap.

After some searing commentary regarding the brew's liner notes, Don's blog entry gets down to brass tacks and tells you how it tastes. (We won't spoil it, just read it for yourself.)

But our prediction: Budweiser American Ale will be DOA. Why? Just based on a comment made to us at a party over the weekend when we offered some Climax ESB for tasting: "No thanks, I don't do dark beers."

Neither do Bud and Coors drinkers, nor fans of skunky Heineken. They're like Tareyton smokers (would rather fight than switch). And people already drinking craft beer, who may be slightly curious about the new kid, aren't switching, either. They've got far richer landscapes to explore from sources far more reliable than one they've been looking at with disdain for better than a decade now.

Plus in the modern business world, new owners who financed a $50 billion acquisition are probably going to really trim the bottom line and clean up the balance sheet by concentrating on core brands and quickly kill the marginal performers in the portfolio. Budweiser American Ale has that sword hanging over its foamy head, we suspect.

Sunny side up

Denny’s and IHOP may think they have a lock on breakfast, but here’s an angle the two chain (blecccchh) eateries didn’t think of: a breakfast beer for the shorts and tank top months.

But Cricket Hill did: Jersey Summer Breakfast Ale. (And yes we know it's getting into late summer, late for talking about hot-weather seasonals, what with Oktoberfest just around the bend. But we had to track this brew down, and it took a little bit of time.)

To be sure, part of the charm is the name, but as a bottle-conditioned Belgian summer beer that’s aimed as a full-bodied first step for some folks not quite into the full-bore saisons yet, this is a quite-drinkable brew. And as far as sales go, it’s also pulling some oars this summer for the Cricket (Fairfield in Essex County), outdoing its inaugural year (2007) when it was a draft-only beer.

Like a lot folks at the Garden State Craft Brewers Festival back in June, we ordered breakfast – JSBA was the first keg at the festival to kick – a few times over. Then we set out to find it the bottle, in the 12-packs that CH uses to market its seasonals (maibock and porter are two others).

It took a while, since CH doesn’t have much distribution in South Jersey. But we finally got our hands on it by heading up to Spirits Unlimited in Red Bank (Newman Springs Road & Route 35). We’ve been enjoying it with some revved up summer foods, tangy ones and practically anything you can put jalapeños on.

Try it with our very own burger recipe: douse a lean ground beef patty with some Caribbean jerk seasoning, grill a pineapple slice on both sides (sear it so the sugars caramelize), top the burger with the grilled pineapple, then top both with a slice of melted pepper jack cheese.

Like a good Jersey diner, Cricket Hill’s got breakfast whenever you want it.

On the horizon

Owner Rick Reed says CH is gearing up for version 2.0 of their bourbon-barrel brew. This year's is a small batch of naturally carbonated ESB, with some twists, that’ll stay parked in Jack Daniels oak (last year’s was aged in George Dickel barrels) until it’s time to be racked into four or five firkins (we did say small batch, didn’t we?) and maybe into some growlers for faithful followers.

Meanwhile, CH also has a Festivus for the best of us. OK, rest of us. We just didn’t want to be so linear with the Seinfeld reference. But yes, CH’s Fall Festivus amber ale is also on deck. Rick says it “tastes like the colors of fall.”

And yes, the name is borrowed from Frank Costanza’s contra-Christmas holiday. You’ll probably have to supply your own pole though.

Two steps closer to beer

Our hops have taken two steps closer to becoming beer.

We picked them on Sunday, and friend of the blog/South Jersey homebrewer Julian Mason has set them out to dry in a screen frame he made.

Julian (who took the pics here) will brew with ours, plus some Cascades and other varieties he and his co-worker Gerry Mann have been growing since May (we planted ours at the end of March, hence our picking them now). That's a beer to looking forward to.

Our Centennials have a nice piney aroma to 'em and should go well with the Cascades. Makes you think of SlyFox's Phoenix Pale Ale (a Pennsylvania beer that's won permanent shelf space in our main fridge; yeah, this is a Jersey beer blog, but there's room for some outside influence).

For the record, we picked just under a half pound, basically off two first-year plants. We may get another 4 ounces of the remaining two plants we have in the ground that lagged behind. They've got cones beginning to mature on 'em, and one is still throwing burs that will bud up into cones soon.

That may seem like a small yield, but these, as we noted, are first-year plants, which expend a lot of their energy getting their roots established, as well as flowering. Plus, it takes a lot of hop cones to make a pound.

Still, they were hardy this season. Will be next year, too.

See, beer enjoys a rich, comedic heritage

It's all about the beer (and the book)

Some scenes from the first Garden State book signing Friday evening for New Jersey Breweries. A good time at J.J. Bitting brewpub in the heart of Woodbridge, in the heart of Jersey. Are New Jersey beer drinkers thirsty for some words with their pints? Well, in a word, yes. The book, fresh from Lew Bryson and Mark Haynie, was the must read of the evening. OK, maybe the must browse, read later, drink now ... And it's always a bonus if you can hoist that pint with the authors and talk beer. Cheers!

Published images, imagine that

Check out the new issue of Beeradvocate. Our photos of Dan Weirback run with his first-person account of jumping into hop yarding (pages 32 and 33).

And unlike some publications we know of (we're looking at you Ale Street News – ya did it to us again), Beeradvocate obliged us with a credit for the images. Thanks, Jason and Todd. And nice work, Dan.

It's still fun to see our byline or photo credit, even though we've had plenty of pictures published before and been paid for 'em (all of us here at the blog have spent 20-plus years in the news or advertising business in New Jersey; we supplied the images of Dan's hop yard for free, which is why Ale Street's brain fart kind of annoys us).

Anyway, nice way to start the day with the fresh copy of Beeradvocate in the mailbox. Good mag, Alströms; keep earning that umlaut. The rest of you get back to respecting beer.

PS: A storm last weekend postponed picking our hops. Should happen this Sunday with the help of South Jersey homebrewer Julian Mason, who makes great beer and will use our Centennials in some of his brews when the weather turns cooler.

Reminder

Lew Bryson and Mark Haynie will be at J.J. Bitting brewpub in Woodbridge on Friday for their first Garden State appearance to support their just-released book, New Jersey Breweries. Look for 'em from 5-8 p.m. or so.

If you miss that appearance, they’ll be at the Tun Tavern in Atlantic City 1-4 p.m. on Saturday. The actual kickoff for the book promotion was last Sunday at the Grey Lodge in Philly, a few books sold and some elbows bent in slàinte and salut!

Lew, whose other pursuits are writing for a CondeNast mag, his blog and web site (not to mention his staring contest with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board) was kind enough to take some time and talk about New Jersey Breweries in an on-camera at The Ship Inn in Milford on Tuesday, a trip that’s not too far – but also not a run to the corner grocery – from his home in Pennsylvania.

If you’ve wondered why just about every corner of the mid-Atlantic region has had its breweries showcased by Stackpole Books except New Jersey – land where the drive-in theater was born, the home of Thomas Edison, heck, the place where George Washington scored a win to make the post season in that armed dispute we call the American Revolution – well Lew has some answers.

Lew's an affable guy with a hearty laugh and an appearance that vaguely resembles James L. Brooks (one of the subversively creative minds that jump-started TV comedy with The Simpsons all those years ago, and who grew up in Hudson County, by the way). Lew and Mark, who's from Somers Point down in Atlantic County, have been on the beer scene in the New Jersey-Philadelphia area (and, for Lew, the rest of Pennsylvania) pretty much since the region caught the craft beer wave. They know their worts-worth.

A word about the brewery books …
They aren’t instant books, done by some trend-sniffing writer who parachutes in, takes a few notes and beats a retreat to his desk to bang out a requisite number of pages to make the publication look viable and sell a boatload of copies, get rich and move to Hawaii.

It’s more like there’s a lot of legwork, some of it inconvenient and not exactly budget friendly; there's time away from family, whether on the road or in that headspace that shoves out all extraneous voices so some serious writing can be done. And the dividends come less from sales, but more from the satisfaction of accomplishment, bragging rights and, if you’re into craft beer, maybe a sense of duty to the movement.

So, support the book, go to a signing, buy a copy and have a beer, or two. You’re also helping to raise the profile of the good beer brewed in the Garden State.

Postscript: A special thanks to The Ship Inn for letting us use their space for the video. (By the by, if you board the Ship any time soon, we do recommend the Black Death stout. Take some home; we did.)

Stirred, not shaken

We're heading to Milford, hometown to New Jersey's first brewpub, The Ship Inn, tomorrow, so this is something we gotta ask about at the bar: a 2.1 magnitude tremor with an epicenter a mile north of town.

Here's the story, courtesy of WPVI-TV in Philly.

Wonder if the barware shook, or if jostled folks put their pint glasses down and thought "enough for today, I'm going home ..."

Actually, the quake happened just before lunch, so presumably no imbibing yet. And apparently 2.1 magnitude isn't much of a shaker, just enough to stir a little attention.

Coincidentally enough, we were just in Milford on Thursday for a quick dinner after a pass through Flemington and other Hunterdon County environs.

The ESB is good, but the Black Death stout is to die for.

In the glass

“Pffftttt!!! Honey wheat ... You should put on a nice helles instead.”

– Jay Misson 1962-2008
(Seen on beer board at Triumph, New Hope, Pa.)

If you’re a regular at Triumph (Princeton, New Hope and Philadelphia), you’ve probably noticed a honey wheat on the beer board just about every time you go in.

Pick a location, it’s usually on everywhere they pour. We’ve been at the New Hope location loads of times lately, owing to a video project we’re producing on River Horse Brewing, which is just a bridge stroll away in Lambertville.

When we popped in at Triumph late last week, we saw the wheat was gone. We weren’t exactly looking for it, but rather a Bohemian pilsner that we’d read was on the board. We drained a pint of the pils to great satisfaction and saved the usual take-home order for something else – Munich helles, a 5% ABV charmer that, never mind the great flavor, the aroma alone had you convinced you’re having seconds.

Bartender Dan talked up the helles (he didn’t have to do much convincing) and noted it was on in place of the wheat. Then he pointed out why, an homage to Jay Misson, Triumph's director of brewing and a champion of lager beers who died in June.

What better way to pay tribute to a well-respected lager enthusiast, whose brewing talents served Triumph well, than to take home four pints of a great-tasting, thirst-quenching beer like that helles? So we did, with a return trip in mind.

Oh, and by the way, that Czech pilsner, well let’s say it’s crisp and inviting, and maybe we didn’t take a growler of that home, but we’re glad it was the beer that drew us in this time.

Where have these people been?

The AP reports extreme beers are finding more drinkers. Geez, where has that sweatshop news agency been, in a cave?

The New York Times wrote this story almost three years ago, and a few folks have begun circling back around to session beers and extolling their virtues.

Oh well, you can't spell crap without AP.

Hops Project (Update)

Some progress to note with Weyerbacher Brewing’s hop yard …

Owner Dan Weirback tells us they’ve got plenty of well-formed cones on the bines and he’s estimating a total yield of more than 500 pounds, maybe even double that. (By the way, that's an upwardly revised estimate from a couple of months ago.)

Looks like harvest time for the mix of Nugget and Cascades is around the third week of August. And if you recall, Dan’s plan is to brew an ale themed to the project, using the hops still “wet,” not dried, as is the traditional form. That’ll happen fairly soon after the hops are picked.

A ready-to-go brew speaks to the horticultural question of what do you do when you’re primarily an end user of hops, not a producer, and not set up to process and protectively store the hops so they don’t oxidize and become more worthy of mulch than beer.

We’ve been an enthusiastic supporter of the hop project since we first learned about it from the Rutgers agriculture folks, whose hop-growing research done at the Snyder Farm in Hunterdon County from several years ago was supplied to Dan and his wife, Sue.

So we can’t wait to taste that beer.

Meanwhile, our own Centennial hops (pictured above) will get picked this weekend.

Biergarten beer in the Garden State

In the glass this week, some growler beers we picked up on a jaunt across the north and central parts of the state …

From High Point Brewing, a really great kellerbier (5.5% ABV) and an abbey red (6.5%); from J.J. Bitting brewpub a tasty bitter (5.7%).

High Point’s draft-only keller comes via a request by the folks who bring you Brooklyn’s top-notch beer bar Spuyten Duyvil (Dutch for spitting devil) and BBQ restaurant Fette Sau (auf deutsch for fat pig), two establishments where Ramstein beers claim tap handles and the keller goes by the name Ramstein Fette Sau Pils.

Greg Zaccardi, High Point’s owner, says the Duyvil and Sau’s owners were looking for a brew that was off the beaten path, yet invited you to relax and enjoy another round without feeling six beers plowed.

High Point happily took the challenge and produced this excellent unfiltered pilsner, which is probably the best beer we’ve had all summer. The brewery had a few extra kegs left after filling the Duyvil/Sau order and put ’em tap for tours and growlers. A biergarten beer in the Garden State, as Greg says.

Interestingly enough, the Ramstein keller’s origins echo those of the brewery’s Oktoberfest. That beer also came via special request from a restaurant, and fortunately for everyone, has stuck around. The Oktoberfest brew is now in its seventh season, one of a number of lagers – maibock, amber lager, golden lager – and a pale ale that High Point brews to round out its lineup of wheat beers.

Also while at High Point this week, we grabbed some Project X, a Belgian red brewed for the Harvest Restaurant Group, which has establishments across North Jersey (and owns Trap Rock brewpub in Berkeley Heights.) Think Chimay red with this drinkable brew, produced with yeast from Trap Rock.

Meanwhile, sometimes you have to scratch an itch, and for us that quite often means a Brit ale. J.J. Bitting’s Best Bitter does just that; it happily reminds us of a homebrew we made over and over and over in the ’90s that we dubbed Cross-eyed Mary, a hop-and-malt homage to Jethro Tull’s Aqualung album that won us a few compliments from tailgating friends at Tull shows.

Hey, August, we still have the label we made for Cross-Eyed Mary (we even have one signed by Ian Anderson) in case you want to rename your brew. Ha!

Central Jersey Beer Fest 2.0

We popped up to Woodbridge for a chat with J.J. Bitting Brewing owner Mike Cerami and his brewer, August Lightfoot (pictured below), for a handful of reasons, one being to enjoy a Best Bitter on the handpump (it’s got this creamy, dense head that clings to the sides of the glass, a great beer for English ale fans like us).

But the headline on our mind was an update on plans for a second Central Jersey Beer Fest, the Indian summer answer to the state’s more widely known craft beer event held in June, which seems to be anchored on the decks of the USS New Jersey in Camden, something that’s made a few beer drinkers north of Interstate 195 flinch at the travel distance and say, “Pass.”

The folks at J.J. Bitting got the Central Jersey festival rolling last year with the blessing of Woodbridge town hall, attracting two other brewpubs (Atlantic City’s Tun Tavern and Pizzeria Uno in nearby Metuchen) and production brewer Climax Brewing (Roselle Park) to pour with them at the event. Turnout at Parker Press Park was great (see video from last year here), and those in the crowd were quite appreciative to have a festival not too far away.

Version 2.0 of the festival is set for Sept. 20 at the park, which is within walking distance of the NJ Transit train stop. The lineup right now looks like Climax, Cricket Hill, River Horse and Pennsylvania brewer Weyerbacher, as well as J.J. Bitting. Mike says he’s still doing some follow-up on invitations to other brewers, so hopefully more will follow suit.

Note: The festival on the battleship is sponsored by the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild, while the Woodbridge soiree is organized independently of that group (although J.J. Bitting is a guild member). Still, the Central Jersey fest has a lot of promise as a craft beer event (the town itself worked the festival into its lineup of Main Street happenings) and is worth the trip. And yes we know the guild has an October festival planned for Newark. We're saving that for a future post.

Jersey Date
While we’re talking about J.J. Bitting, Lew Bryson and Mark Haynie will hold their first Garden State signing party for their just-released New Jersey Breweries book on Aug. 1, from 5-8 p.m. (the kickoff is July 27th in Philadelphia), right around happy hour. Salut!

New! Jersey's breweries get book treatment

Fourteen years in the making ... 1994, that's the headwaters of the Garden State's era of microbrewing, with the founding of Climax Brewing in Union County and High Point Brewing in Morris County.

The taps were opened, and more would flow, whether pub or production brewery. And they're all in Lew Bryson and Mark Haynie's freshly poured book, New Jersey Breweries (148 pages).

We got our hands on a copy a little sooner than the July 27th kickoff at the Grey Lodge (thanks, Mark). We've read it once and are taking another spin through it.

It's a fun read and makes you wish brewing in the Garden State were more vibrant, especially when you tally up the brewery attempts that turned bitter and toast the successes that make you say "I'll have another."

But more than anything, it guides you through what New Jersey brews, from North Jersey, across to the Skylands, down the Shore and back to the Delaware, as it says, "New Jersey and beer, perfect together."

Put that in your pint glass and drink it, Tom Kean.

Cheers!

InHeuser-Bevusch

This just in: Reuters and the New York Times report Anheuser-Busch has relented and agreed to a takeover by InBev, to the tune of $50 billion big ones. Cash.

The new name of the company? Anheuser-Busch InBev, the mother of all brewers on planet Earth.

Honestly, we like our name idea better.

Bine of the times

More pictures (shot July 13th) ... Not much to add on the homegrown hops front but to quote fellow hobby-grower Ray Gourley of South Jersey: "They are fun to watch grow."

Useless trivia/botany lesson:
Hops grow on bines (with a B, not V), if you want to know the technical word for their long flexible stems with tiny bristles that let 'em latch on to things and climb. When you see the word in writing, it always looks like a typo, given that V and B keys are side by side on the keyboard.

RH factor

Calendar note:
River Horse rolls out a second offering in its Brewers Reserve series, this time an imperial cherry amber ale, at the High Street Grill in Mount Holly on Tuesday (July 15th; check the restaurant’s web site for the time).

We got an advance bottle of this a month or so ago. Seemed like it could use a little more cherry, but we were enjoying some spicy Thai food when we tried it, so some beer flavors may gotten dwarfed by the food. Plus, our bottle came from a pilot batch, so we’re betting the finer points have been worked out since then.

You may recall, RH’s Brewers Reserve series began with a well-received Belgian Double White back in March. Owners Glenn Bernabeo and Chris Walsh say there’s more in the brewers reserve to come down the road.

The High Street has earned a reputation as a restaurant that puts a lot thought and care into how beer and food complement one another. If you go early, pop in over at Red White and Brew, a great packaged goods place that specializes in craft beers (including some Jersey-brewed craft beers from the state's northern half that a frustratingly hard to get in South Jersey). RWB is a no-sweat stroll from the restaurant.

Meanwhile, followers of Bucks County Brewing’s PennBrook Lager, a River Horse brew marketed under a Pennsylvania moniker, may be interested to know RH has taken steps to ensure the amber brew’s availability in New Jersey and Pennsylvania where RH distributes.

River Horse struck a deal with Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to contract brew PennBrook, a beer geared more for people looking to step up from Bud or Coors to something fuller-bodied, yet not exotic, imperial or hop-heavy. (FYI: Lion currently contract-brews Yards, while their new Philly brewery is under construction.)

For RH, PennBrook was sort of an on-again, off-again brew, based on production capacity, and that sometimes kept it out of the hands of those who were looking for it. And although it’s not the magnetic type of beer that mesmerizes the beer geeks, Glenn and Chris thought it was an important enough brew in the RH lineup to give it the boost that a deal with Lion could provide.