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Philly Beer Week 2009: Winding Down and Wrapping Up

I promise this will be the last Beer Week post until next year—because Beer Week is over. *sniff*

My Beer Week ended with a whimper rather than a bang. For the last three days of Beer Week, I strayed rather far from my “plans,” such as they were. On Friday, I was planning to head solo to Eulogy Belgian Tavern for Brasserie d’Achouffe night, but when Anne expressed an interest in some Beer Week action, we switched the plan and headed back to Teresa's Next Door for Chimay Night.

Although Chimay is one of the most widely-available Belgians, I believe I have only had one before. We ordered a flight of three: Red, White, and Blue. (I should repeat this on Flag Day.) All were very fine, but I particularly liked the spicy White (the tripel is my favorite Belgian style). As good as the Chimay was, the big surprise and thrill of the evening was tasting Monk's Café Sour Ale (a “Flanders Oud Bruin”). I have only had a couple of sour ales before, and I think this was my favorite, mostly because I felt it was well-balanced and not too sour or too anything.

Saturday came and went with no beer outings. On Sunday we stopped at Moriarty’s (after the Go Green Expo), because they were one of the places hosting Ballast Point. They still had two on tap: Abandon Ship Smoked Lager and Black Marlin Porter. I had the porter, which was exceptionally smooth and satisfying without any heaviness.

I didn’t come out of this year’s Beer Week with much of a shopping list, but I did make mental notes of a lot of new places I would like to get to during the year. In that respect, the promotional side of Beer Week in lifting the profile of local bars is working very well indeed.