Continuing on the theme of my last few blogs, I'm going to cover another great tap takeover this week as well as my unofficial kickoff of fall beer season. 

Several members of the A Beer a Day team attended the Firestone Walker event at Rattle n Hum in NYC last week. It was great to meet the guys and get together to talk beer and knock back a few great brews from one of my favorite West Coast breweries. The tap list was impressive. The star of the show was Parabola, Firestone Walker's top of the line bourbon barrel aged imperial stout. It's right up there with other top end stouts, including Bourbon County and KBS. It weighs in at 13.0% ABV but drinks much easier than that would indicate. It is really smooth. Strong smells of chocolate and tasting notes of the oakey vanilla bourbon flavor you hope for in a bourbon barrel aged stout. The finish was a little more bitter, with some tobacco notes like you'd get from a cigar. Parabola is now firmly entrenched in my top tier of beers.

I also tried Firestone Walker's Agrestic. This is a sour red ale with a tart, refreshing cherry fruit flavor. Definitely a sour i'd drink again if i see it available.

Here in NYC, the summer is sadly almost over with Labor Day just a day away. As the fall begins so does pumpkin beer season. My favorite pumpkin beer, by a long shot, and one of my favorite of all seasonal beers is Southern Tier's Pumking. It must be a lot of other people's favorite too because it is now readily available in the city. My local supermarket in LIC, Food Cellar, has already had two shipments in, and the Whole Foods at Columbus Circle had quite the Pumking display. I had my first Pumking of the season this weekend when i brought up to share with some friends at their lake house up in the Adirondacks on Lake Sacandaga. It was nice and cool at night, making it feel like autumn came early, perfect for Pumking. It was as good as remembered, and one of many more to be had in the coming months. I'm also looking forward to a Pumking vertical with Scott and Mike, where we'll go back in time to 2011 to taste some well aged king.

What's your favorite seasonal beer? Let us know in the comments section!

A note from Scott: 

The Firestone Walker tasting was a great experience. We had a big group together to taste Parabola, Stickee Monkee, Double Jack, Agrestic and more. I personally went with the Parabola and Agrestic, and both were phenomenal.

The Parabola was served on tap and poured into an 8 oz pony glass. Poured a deep black color with a thin tan foam head. Smells were of bourbon, tobacco and dark fruits. Carbonation was light with a very full body. Taste was like the smell. Rich bourbon leads the way, with dark fruits such as raisins, figs or plums complement with hints of tobacco. There was a certain creaminess to it as well. Finished with mostly bourbon. Overall, this beer was one of the best I have ever had. Definitely gets a 100/100 in my book, and in terms of stouts is only behind Goose Island Bourbon County Coffee (though may even be tied). If you ever have the opportunity to buy a bottle or try this on tap, but as many as you can. You will not be disappointed

As Eric alluded to, we will do a Pumking vertical tasting soon to see the effects of aging on the beer. I have had the "King" a few times already this almost-fall season, and will need to stock up soon since it flies off the shelves. Additionally, I plan on doing a fall-seasonal article at some point in the next few weeks. As Eric said, we would love to hear about our viewers favorite seasonal beers. Please let us know in the comments section either here or on Facebook. If there is anything you'd like us to try and review we can do that too!

Cheers!
Scott & Eric

Written By: Eric Talve

This week I want to follow up on my previous blog about tap takeovers. I'm also going to talk about the joy that is finding good beer at unexpected locations. 

I mentioned I'd be going to a Founders tap take over at the Blind Tiger in Greenwich Village. The featured offering was their new IPL, Dissenter. The reason I went, however, was for three simple letters, KBS. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, aged in bourbon barrels, is one of the best reviewed beers out there, and Blind Tiger happened to have two vintages on tap, 2011 and 2014. I had limited time that night so I had one of each, at $6 for a 6oz pour. While that may seem steep, I've paid $10 for an 8oz pour at other KBS tappings. The 2011 was good, not great. The extra aging didn't really give it more depth of flavor, if anything it gave it a slight metallic taste. The Founders rep on site said back in 2011 the brewery was using leased kegs, so it's possible the keg holding the beer these past 3 years wasn't the best vessel to hold this goodness. The 2014, on the other hand, was flawless. As it says on the KBS bottles, it's everything a flavored stout should be. It goes without saying, if you hear of a KBS tapping, you need to go. And you also need to let me know when and where, cause I'm going too. 

As craft beer becomes more popular it's beginning to show up in some surprising places. I've gone to two such places recently, and both of them are Asian restaurants. The first was Han Dynasty, home of some of the spiciest Chinese food I've ever had. Dan dan noodles, wontons in hot chili, spicy cucumbers. After all that hot food, I needed something to cool it off and the surprisingly strong tap list did the trick. I opted for the Goose Island Sofie saison. The crisp, citricity of this farmhouse ale helped keep the heat in check. There were some other solid options as well, with beers from Singlecut, Sixpoint and Lagunitas. Highly recommend this place if you like your Chinese with some kick!

Another recent find was at Aura, a little hole in the wall Thai restaurant in Hell's Kitchen that up until a few months ago literally had a hole in the wall to walk through to the adjoining restaurant. The bad news is the hole has since been walled over. The good news is they still have a solid tap and bottle list which is offered at half price every day of the week from 4pm - 8pm. Most recently I had the Ommegang Hennepin, served beautifully in a gold rimmed Hennepin goblet, for $4 bucks(!) to go with my pad kee mao. I like a saison with my spicy Asian food, what can I say. They also had on tap Bluepoint Toasted Lager, Lagunitas IPA, amongst others and a large bottle list as well. A highly recommended option for a cheap meal and some beers before an event at the Garden. 

Do you have any surprising beer locations? Let us know in the comments!

This week i'm going to talk about different ways craft brew pubs in NYC are keeping things exciting for the craft brew enthusiast. 

First up is one of my favorite craft brew bars in the city: Valhalla. Valhalla consistently rolls out top notch selections on tap. They rotate their lines almost daily. What separates Valhalla from the pack is an incredible lunch special. For $12 you get any draft and anything from their bar menu, which includes sliders, bratwurst and some other quality choices. When you consider some of the beers are $9 on their own it's a real steal. If you're in Midtown West during lunch, definitely stop by Valhalla. And if you're not, it's worth the trip. I haven't found any other deal in the city that can compare.

Next up is something several craft beer bars have been doing more of recently: the tap takeover. The bar taps several kegs from one top notch brewery, typically featuring around a dozen or so different beers, often accompanied by a rep from the brewery who talks about the different beers. These events are always great because you get to try a variety of different beers and learn about them at the same time. The takeovers also often feature some really rare, hard to find, high quality beers. I've recently been to a Dogfish Head tap takeover at Rattle n Hum and will be attending a Firestone Walker takeover there in a few weeks that will feature their bourbon barrel aged stout, Parabola. I'm attending a Founders takeover this week downtown at the Blind Tiger. Founders will be debuting a new beer that night, Dissenter IPL, as well as showcasing some other great beers, including KBS. Very much looking forward to trying a few of these. I'll have a full report in next week's blog.

I've found the best way to keep in the loop about these events is by following your favorite breweries and bars on twitter, and checking their websites event's sections regularly. Rattle n Hum does a great job of keeping their events list up to date, with some more awesome events coming up over the next several weeks.