Snug Harbor in Kearny, NJ

I traveled to a local bar in Kearny to visit one of the best bartenders in Hudson County and enjoy some delicious craft beer. Neither let me down. Snug Harbor is an interesting place- a dive bar with a great beer selection. I started off the night with one of my favorite beers, Firestone Double Jack, and like always it was amazing. The IPA trend continued with Kane Head High IPA before moving to some beers that wouldn't leave me stumbling out hammered- Guinness and Saranac Blueberry Blonde. The Guinness poured by one of Kearny's finest, Erin Murphy, was a bit on the colder side, but delicious nonetheless. The Saranac Blueberry wasn't bad either, having a not too overwhelming blueberry taste and refreshingly crisp finish. Not something I'd drink a lot of, but a nice change up from the heavy beers I started with.

Overall, it was a great visit to the Snug Harbor. The only place I have ever been that has 10 craft beers on tap and only charges $4.50 for each. Makes for a great evening of mixing beers and a terrible morning of pounding headaches.

Anchor Steam Summer Beer

On this blistering summer evening, there's nothing better than coming off the beach and drinking an ice cold summer beer.  Since basically every beer Anchor Steam puts out is delicious, I decided to try out their summer ale. It poured a much lighter color than i expected, almost as golden and light as an American light beer, but with a much bigger foamy head. According to the label the big head is from the wheat used when brewing this beer. The aroma wasnt very strong with only some slight wheat and maybe lemony scents. The taste was citrus and wheat at first before finishing with a smooth bready taste. Its definitely a great beer for the summer and although it doesnt blow you away with flavor, it has a good citrusy and bready taste.  It also doesnt overpower you with the wheat which is always a worry with these beers. Id definitely try it again.

Guinness @ Harrigan's in Sea Girt

This one comes a week late. I went to Harrigan's to see Mike Byrne sing, but was pleasantly surprised to be almost as happy with the Guinness as I was with the music. A delicious pint that was poured beautifully and presented with charm. While it wasn't a top contender it was a silky smoothy one that is definitely worthy of top 5 consideration. A delicious pint of Guinness and a great bar. Cheers!

THE BEEKMAN

Beekman, we meet again

Garden State Beer Expo

Overall it was a great event. Never had to wait longer than 2 minutes to get a beer and there were many solid brews. I thought the best breweries were Kane, Carton, Brooklyn and Wolavers.  Wolavers only had their oatmeal stout there but it was really delicious. Kane had an Imperial IPA which is always amazing and their summer seasonal - Single Fin. Carton brought a great selection of beers - BDG (a country brown ale that I go nuts for), Boat Beer (a delicious light IPA), 077XX (a good double IPA) and a Milk Stout that was pretty good. Brooklyn didn't have any tap beers which was kind of disappointing, but their delicious summer ale made up for it. Their East India Pale Ale was also good, but on a hot day the summer ale really hit the spot.  The other breweries put out some good stuff but nothing else really stood out and blew me away like these 4.  Definitely a great event and i hope they do it again.

Dogfish Head Tweason's Ale

Interesting. Smells like a strawberry margarita. Taste is very berry, sour. Some hops. Putting it up here because its so intriguing and different.

Carton Brunch. Dinner. Grub.

Probably my favorite beer of the day. Such a tasty brownish ale that is easy to drink bur so delicious. You should all flock to the Atlantic Highlands now to get some.  

Lagunitas Pale Ale

A solid pale ale that pushes the IPA line. Almost as good as their IPA.

Kane Overhead Imperial IPA

Have to give some love to my favorite brewery. Love this imperial IPA

Long Trail Double IPA

Always a solid Double IPA. One of my favorites.

Beach Haus Kick Back Ale

Solid ale for summer. Easy to drink but also flavorful.

Wolaver's Oatmeal Stout

First winner of the day. A delicious stout.

Garden State Beer Expo

A beautiful day for a beer expo in Holmdel, NJ. Really looking forward to the event as we wait for them to open the doors to heaven. We'll be reporting back with our favorites during the 3.5 hr event. Bottoms up!!!

Guinness @ Scotland Yard in Hoboken

I can't believe I haven't reviewed a Guinness here yet (or if I have, I don't remember). Scotland Yard is by far my favorite bar in Hoboken that combines Scotland, Colombia and frat house basement to create a great place. After work you'll find the usual happy hour regular businessmen there grabbing beers, shots or maybe just sipping on some Rumpelmintz. The entire bar is half off till 7 which means Guinness is $3. On the weekends you'll run into anyone looking for a reasonably priced beer or a game of beer pong.

As for the Guinness, it was a decent pour that wouldve been better if it wasn't in a Budweiser glass, but for $3 I'm not complaining. Taste was pretty much what you would expect a Scotland Yard Guinness to taste like, a bit too bitter and not so crisp, but definitely above average. While I'm not going to say its a contender for the perfect pour, I will give it a medal for best value. At $3 you can't beat it.

Guinness at Montclair Station

From the beginning this looked like a disaster - a Guinness being poured into a skinny glass with a handle. However, I was surprisingly delighted when I watched a very well thought out and efficient pour that was probably as good as you could do with the tools at hand. The beer was served a bit too cold, but it was decently smooth with slight bitterness. Overall, probably one of the more interesting ones I've had due to the glassware it was served in. Far from the perfect pour, but not bad either.

River Horse Summer Blonde Ale

River Horse is one of many solid New Jersey breweries and is located out West in Lambertville. I don't think I've reviewed many of their beers on here, but I've never had a bad one from there. Their Summer Blonde Ale, which featues the female river horse on the bottle, did not disappoint again. I'm usually a hard person to please with a summer ale because although I want something a little lighter for those hot days, I don't want just a watered down beer that tastes like Coors Light with lemon. The Summer Blonde was bready with some slight citrus nodes, but not nearly as citrusy as I expected. It also finished with some faint earthy hops (wouldve liked it to have been a bit hoppier). Overall, a very refreshing beer that fits the bill for a good 90+ degree day drinking beer. I would've liked a little more flavor and hops, but its a far cry from some of the watered down summer beers you'll find, but won't see on here.

Newcastle Brown Ale on tap @ Gallagher's Pub

After a brief hiatus of buying beers for my mini-kegerator I decided to try the Newcastle Brown Ale one. I've had the Heineken Light one on tap here a few times and even though I'm not a fan of Heineken, it was pretty good out of the keg. The Newcastle Brown Ale was much the same. I've had Newcastle in bottles and never was a big fan, probably because they use clear bottles which equals skunking. Out of the mini-keg though, its quite delightful. A heavier, but very smooth beer that has a very nice taste to it. It's aroma was much like the taste - caramel and nutty. Aftertaste was a bit metallic, but not too bad and it went down very smooth. I think the best part of it was the mouthful which was soft, medium-bodied and silky smooth. Very delightful. Overall, the lack of hops brought it down a bit, but not bad at all - 100 times better on tap vs the bottle for sure. I'd say its my favorite mini-keg so far for sure.

Guinness @ Tierney's

What a Guinness should look like, courtesy of Doug

Guinness @ Victoria Hotel Bar and Grill in Hoboken

I hate writing 2 terrible reviews in a row, but I am trying to go back in chronological order so unfortunately I have to. While I've been going throughout the US trying to find the best pint of Guinness, I have stumbled upon a few bad ones, but this one was by far the absolute worst. To start, it took the bartender 10 minutes to pour it. I am not exaggerating at all, I think they hired this guy without watching him pour a beer. I sat in disbelief and horror as I watched him pour the Guinness 3/4 of the way, stop, pour half out because it was half head, pour it back up, stop, pour more out, etc. Obviously there was an issue with the tap so that's not his fault, but it is his fault for not doing anything about it and wasting God's liquid gold. This continued on for a good 5 minutes until he finally just let it sit there for 2 minutes before revisiting his brilliant plan again. After struggling with this for another 2-3 minutes he finally just gave in and presented the Imperfect Pour, a Guinness that was 65% black and 35% head on my estimation. After I stopped laughing, I gave the beer a try and, as expected, it tasted like the worst Guinness ever. In fact, I would rather not call it a Guinness because that tarnishes the good name of Ireland's finest export. However, I did finish it because you can't waste a Guinness, even if it is a bad one. Congrats Victoria Hotel Bar and Grill you have officially been awarded the Worst Pour Award. Stanley will be dropping off your certificate when he figures out how to walk.

Blue Moon Samplers

Well hello there! I have a backload of reviews I need to put up, so I'll start with the Blue Moon sampler that I did at Texas Arizona yesterday. To start, I'm not a huge fan of Blue Moon because it really violates everything about macro-breweries that I hate. Its owner by MillerCoors, but spun off as if it is it's own micro-brewery producing Belgian wheat beers that too many idiots believe. All you need to do is a little research to see that its produced by MC in Colorado ... WEAK! That being said, I decided to give this sample thing a shot at Texas Arizona since you got to sample 3 different beers that aren't technically released yet (even though by being on tap @ TX-ARI they are). The point of it is to have people sample the 3 and vote on which one they like the best, the winner will be Blue Moon's next seasonal beer. Cool idea .. cooler if it was done by a real micro brewery.
As for the beers: The first one I had was a blackberry wheat beer that tasted like cough medicine mixed with crappy beer. That's all of the analysis it deserves.

#2 was a apple flavored one that had a metallic aftertaste to it. I saw people @ the bar asking for pints of it post-sampler, I like to refer to these people as FOOLS.

#3 was tolerable, not so much because it was a quality beer, but because it was intriguing. They called it a Dark Chocolate and Bacon Porter. Now, I've had chocolate covered bacon before from this guy who works in my office and dresses like the Terminator on Fridays, so I know what a great combination it is (until you feel like you're having a heart attack 3 minutes after eating it, but I'll leave it at that since this isn't "Born to Eat"). The porter itself started off chocolatey and finished with a bacon aftertaste. It wasn't bad tasting and actually made me want bacon. That being said, if I'm judging it as a beer, it was awful. I basically just tasted a crappy porter mixed with bacon and chocolate. I think I couldve brewed this one at home and gotten the same results (I am considering it). On top of all this I was absolutely ignored at the bar by the 2 Blue Moon girls there giving out shirts (they had a box full of 50 and I didn't see anyone get one) and handing out voting cards to rank them. Maybe they could tell by my reaction to each sip that I thought they were all crap and would've told them to take all 3 back to Colorado and put them wherever they keep the cases of Coors Light that people send back because they ordered beer not water. Regardless, I was not impressed and highly recommend never drinking Blue Moon.