Well we had another busy weekend and anyone who's been following along knows that we often hit quite a few places in a day... Saturday was no different! We started off our day at A&P Liquors in Mystic to see what they had cold - as we figured we would grab some lunch over at Sea Swirl and bring some beer along. This is what we found....
Long Trail (VT) Green Blaze IPA 6.5%
This beer is new for Long Trail - and we were pleasantly surprised! Definitely a great summer beer! We also received some likes and a comment from them on our Facebook page about this beer check-in/photo! That's our first comment from a major brewing company! Pretty cool! Thanks for watching Long Trail - great brew!
Haven't been to Sea Swirl in quite some time... the long dogs and fish sandwich were better than what I remember... and they have sweet potato fries now! Eeeep! Love! If you're a local, then you know that Sea Swirl is a staple seasonal eatery. Good seafood, dogs, burgs, ice cream. If you didn't know, now you do. Good call on bringing beer along, (Chris's idea of course), this brew went perfect with our lunch. SCORE!
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We then shot over to one of our favorite local breweries - Beer'd Brewing in Stonington borough, (located in the Velvet Mill), which is only about 4 miles down the way from Sea Swirl. Perfect!
It just so happened that our good friend, (and also Meg's cousin), Greg, was working and was gracious enough to do a little video and talk beer with us. He's super knowledgeable and really good at this on the fly video stuff - maybe HE needs a blog!? We were excited to see they had Frank + Berry DIPA on - one of our faves!
Beer'd Brewing (CT) Frank + Berry DIPA 9.2%
Hump's Rating:
Since we were in the area, we made another short drive over to Pawcatuck, to one of CT's oldest breweries, Cottrell. They opened their doors in 1997 and have made a name for themselves locally and afar - specifically with their Mystic Bridge IPA 6% and Perry's Revenge Ale 8.5% - just to name a few. Chris and I have literally been drinking these brews for years and if you get the chance, do drink em! You never know what they may have to try in the tasting room, so we figured we'd check it out!
We chatted and and sampled a few new ones we hadn't yet tried, thanks to Pat Boyle and Tim Maynard in the tasting room. These guys rock and really know their stuff. We actually did a video with Pat & Tim about the Mystic Bridge IPA, but it was *somehow* accidentally deleted! Whoops! While it may have been for the best, (we had sampled many brews by this point in the day), it was an epic fail on my part. We promise to get back soon, and maybe we'll get get a chance to shoot another video with them if we didn't annoy them too much! FYI, the Mystic Bridge IPA is one of the most popular brews from Cottrell - it features cascade and nugget hops and is fairly mild clocking in at 6%.
We sampled Hard-A-Port scotch ale 8.5% - which is actually Perry's Revenge ale aged in Jonathan Edwards Winery (North Stonington, CT) Port Barrels - yeah its amazing! They popped a regular Perry's Revenge so we could compare. We also tasted the 19th Anniversary Barleywine 10% which they do annually and is aged in Bulleit Bourbon barrels for 30 days. I don't usually get into barley wines that much, but it was sweet and the right amount of boozy, if that makes sense. Good stuff.
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Hump's Rating:
We also tried 8 Days a Week pale ale brewed with blood oranges 6.7% - it was so incredibly delicious!!! You can find Beer'd in numerous restaurants and bars around the region and of course please make sure to stop down to the brewery and grab a pint, growler or just to taste the
brews! We promise you won't be disappointed! Huge thanks to Greg and Beer'd - we love this brewery!!
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We chatted and and sampled a few new ones we hadn't yet tried, thanks to Pat Boyle and Tim Maynard in the tasting room. These guys rock and really know their stuff. We actually did a video with Pat & Tim about the Mystic Bridge IPA, but it was *somehow* accidentally deleted! Whoops! While it may have been for the best, (we had sampled many brews by this point in the day), it was an epic fail on my part. We promise to get back soon, and maybe we'll get get a chance to shoot another video with them if we didn't annoy them too much! FYI, the Mystic Bridge IPA is one of the most popular brews from Cottrell - it features cascade and nugget hops and is fairly mild clocking in at 6%.
We sampled Hard-A-Port scotch ale 8.5% - which is actually Perry's Revenge ale aged in Jonathan Edwards Winery (North Stonington, CT) Port Barrels - yeah its amazing! They popped a regular Perry's Revenge so we could compare. We also tasted the 19th Anniversary Barleywine 10% which they do annually and is aged in Bulleit Bourbon barrels for 30 days. I don't usually get into barley wines that much, but it was sweet and the right amount of boozy, if that makes sense. Good stuff.
The guys also told us that they are working out logistics to serve pints in their tasting room in the near future, which is awesome and will be a huge level up for these guys. Currently you can go and sample their brews, buy bottles and other swag to take home!
Cool fact: other local greats such as Revival Brewing, Whalers Brewing and Safe Harbor are bottled here!
Cool fact: other local greats such as Revival Brewing, Whalers Brewing and Safe Harbor are bottled here!
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After our Cottrell visit we swung over to Dick's World of Wines. We've mentioned this packy before. We dig this place - great selection of craft beer - great knowledgeable people that run it. It's just over the CT/RI border in Westerly so they get different brews than what we can get in CT due to different state distribution. This visit we got really lucky and found some DuClaw Brewing (MD)!!! Sweet Baby Jesus chocolate peanut butter porter 6.2%, Dirty Little Freak Coconut Caramel Chocolate Brown Ale 5.8% and Neon Gypsy golden IPA 6.5%. We pop these in the next blog post with the guys from Outer Light... check it out here.
After filling up on dinner, Jeff and Judy suggested we walk up to Mia's Prime Time Cafe (just a few blocks up) to try a beer they knew was on tap and would be perfect for dessert... Winnie coffee maple honey oatmeal stout 6.9% by Cold Creek Brewery (Ellington CT). Wooo-boy was this amazing!!! I'm not too familiar with this brewery yet, but after sampling this brew we will definitely have to make a trip and visit! Obviously our friends were correct - this is the perfect dessert beer! I actually shared mine with Chris as I really don't drink caffeine any more - which stinks because I LOVE coffee. Mia even gave us a straw, haha! This beer had such an amazing flavor. If you like coffee stouts, this is the one to try! It's not overly sweet, and it's not crazy heavy... but yes: perfect dessert beer! Well done Cold Creek!!
Now let me tell you about Mia's Prime Time Cafe!! They are located on the CT side of the Pawcatuck River which is part of the downtown Westerly community. They're only a short walk from other Westerly faves such as Malted Barley and 84 Tavern. In addition to the sweet craft beer selection, (which is often hard to find stuff that Dean personally oversees)... they're open for breakfast, lunch and dinner serving local seafood, pasta, gluten/vegetarian options and hand crafted baked goods! Owners Mia and Dean were very gracious and let us try their "Sin-a-bon" cinnamon bun with maple and bacon that was on the menu for the next morning! This thing was certainly "sinful" - holy amazing!!!!!! Huge thanks to Mia and Dean, this was a wonderful surprise and what a great end to the evening! Can't say enough great things about this place - we'll be back soon - do check them out!
Beer geek note: because Mia's is in CT and 84 Tavern and the Malted Barley are in RI, they often get different beers from one another, once again due to different state distribution. For example, you may see New England Brewing at Mia's which the other places in Westerly aren't able to get yet and vice versa. It's pretty cool and will really make you want to walk to all three places, which you should do anyway! Happy beer geeking!!
Beer geek note: because Mia's is in CT and 84 Tavern and the Malted Barley are in RI, they often get different beers from one another, once again due to different state distribution. For example, you may see New England Brewing at Mia's which the other places in Westerly aren't able to get yet and vice versa. It's pretty cool and will really make you want to walk to all three places, which you should do anyway! Happy beer geeking!!