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Beer Tripping - Southern New Hampshire

John Kleinchester — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:00:50 +0000

Once a year or so I take a trip up to Southern New Hampshire to visit my sister and her family in Fitzwililam, NH. Unfortunately there aren't many breweries in the immediate area, but there is an excellent beer store just down the road: BrewTopia in Keene.

This was my second-ever stop in this fantastic craft beer oasis of a store and yet again, it did not disappoint. Zack Cooper, one of the two co-owners of the store has greeted me both times now with open arms and a willingness to share even his rarest bottles. Zack is extremely friendly and excited to discuss the latest and greatest beers to hit Southern NH.

The selection at BrewTopia is pretty tremendous and even includes an entire homebrew shop for local budding brewers. I would be a weekly regular there if I lived in the area. Of course, I was looking for anything that I can't get back in NJ/NYC and Zack was quick to help me with that. First he offered up their last bottle of Founders Doom which I just assumed I wouldn't be able to get my hands on. He also pointed me towards a bottle of Smuttynose Bloom which I was able to try just a small sample of at Brewer's Choice during NYC Beer Week and loved.

It's incredibly awesome and helpful when a beer store employee goes out of their way for you without even batting an eye. Among the other recommendations Zack gave me, I also picked up some White Birch Brewing from Hooksett, NH and Moat Mountain from North Conway, NH. It also didn't hurt that he busted out a Founders Backwoods Bastard for me as well.

Unfortunately my trip went nowhere near the Portsmouth area which is home to the Portsmouth Brewery, Throwback Brewery and of course Smuttynose. Hopefully I'll be remedying that this Summer.

Definitely check BrewTopia out if you're ever in the area. Great beers and great customer service. Full list of my haul below (L to R):

Otter Creek 20th Anniversary Ale
Black Diamond Jagged Edge IPA
Bar Harbor Cadillac Mountain Stout
White Birch Our Humble Porter
White Birch Oak-Aged Tripel 2011
Smuttynose Bloom
Founders Doom
Moat Mountain Imperial Stout
Moat Mountain Iron Mike Pale Ale
Whole Hog Six Hop IPA
Founders Backwoods Bastard

Beertography Shirts

John Kleinchester — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

You asked for it, and now they're here! Beertography T-Shirts are now available at our online store. Stock is extremely limited right now, so if the size/color combination you want is sold out, let us know. The Beertography T-Shirt is available in Medium, Large, XL and XXL. Our current color selections are Turquoise, Red and Kelly Green (pictured above). Not interested in one of those colors? Let us know which other colors you would want and we'll be sure to get them soon!

So what are you waiting for? Head on over to our store and get yours today! /shamelessplug

Red Bull Arena: Live Sports & Craft Beer (Updated 4/22/13)

John Kleinchester — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:30:33 +0000

Update 4/22/13: Upon visiting Red Bull Arena for the 2013 campaign, I discovered some changes in the beer lineup. The biggest change is the removal of all of the craft bottles in Secion 124, which is disappointing to lose the Long Trail options. The good news is that Section 124 now has Flying Fish Hopfish IPA on DRAUGHT! This is now by far your best option for craft beer at the venue. And additional props for having it be a New Jersey Craft Beer, something we suggested after scouring the options last time around. There were some other minor changes that I'll add to the end of the post, so scroll on down.

We continue our series on Live Sports & Craft Beer today with a sport that's all too often overlooked in America: Soccer. Thankfully things have started to look brighter for the sport in the US. Teams have been seeing an improvement in attendance and ratings, and soccer-specific stadiums have been popping up all over the country.

One such stadium is Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ. The Red Bulls clinched a playoff berth this past weekend, so it's the perfect time to check them out if you haven't because there are some very exciting matches coming up. If you'd like to read a bit more about how I got into soccer, head on over to Free Beer Movement (FBM is an awesome site that promotes American Soccer in all it's forms by the way of craft beer - know someone that doesn't like soccer? Buy them a beer and invite them to watch a game).

Red Bull Arena is one of the easiest arenas to get to in NY or NJ. New Yorkers may have a stigma about traveling to NJ on the PATH train, but it's actually a shorter trip from Manattan to Red Bull Arena than it is to Yankee Stadium or Citi Field. Check out the directions here. So now I've convinced you to check out the arena, bu what about the beer inside? Well, it's not stellar yet. But there are enough decent options to satisfy a craft beer fan.

Section 104: Yuengling Lager – medium $9, large $12
Section 105: Yuengling-Branded Stand, draught
Section 114: Brooklyn Lager – 16oz. cans $9
Section 124: Flying Fish Hopfish IPA (draught) - $12, Yuengling Lager Cans $12
Section 130: Yuengling-Branded Stand, draught
Section 102: Brooklyn Brewery branded stand – Brooklyn Lager & Guinness 16oz. cans - $9 (this stand is mobile so location may change) **CASH ONLY**

So there you have it. This is already a pretty big improvement over the past 2 seasons I've been attending matches, so hopefully the trend continues. Cheers, and lets go Red Bulls!

Beertographer of the Week - Ramiro Silva

John Kleinchester — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:07:26 +0000

We continue our Beertorapher of the Week series with a new friend I met via twitter. Ramiro Silva has been posting excellent beertography (that really makes me want to step up my game). If you take a quick scroll through his Twitter pictures, you'll see some amazing stuff. I asked Ramiro if he would mind being highlighted as this week's Beertographer of the Week and he gladly obliged! Here's what he had to say about his passion for Beertography:

I started photographing beer about 6 months ago. Mostly I photograph lifestyle, portraits, landscapes, the occasional concert or sporting event. I picked up my first SLR thirty years ago and my first craft brew not long after that. I’m not sure why it took me so long to photograph beer, I guess I tend to overlook things that are right in front of me. Anyway, I’m glad these two interests of mine have crossed paths and I look forward to many more years of beertography sessions. Special thanks to John for bringing together a community of beer drinking photographers!

Thanks Ramiro. Make sure you follow him on Google+ and Twitter below. Then scroll down to see his other fantastic shots.

Google+ https://plus.google.com/104263271542304648793/posts
Twitter https://twitter.com/silvatone

Beertographer of the Week - G-LO aka @boozedancing

John Kleinchester — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

We continue our Beertorapher of the Week series with a feature on G-LO from the fantastic site It's Just the Booze Dancing. I'm sure those of you who've been following me and the #beertography hashtag recognize his hand (@boozedancing) with as many awesome beer photos he puts out there. Anyways, enough from me! Now here's the man himself!

First of all, a big thank you to John for picking me as Beertographer of the Week. I am incredibly flattered and truly appreciate his support and encouragement throughout my Craft Beer and Beertography journey.

For those of you that don't know me, my name is G-LO and I am one of the writers at the "It's just the booze dancing..." blog which has been online since April of 2010. When we first started, our plan was to focus on whisky, but since we launched just weeks before the start of Philly Beer Week 2010, we quickly learned that also covering Craft Beer would be a great deal of fun since we basically live near Craft Beer central, i.e. the City of Brotherly Love.

I first started exploring the wonderful world of Craft Beer about five or six years ago, but it wasn't until that first Philly Beer Week experience that I realized how much there was to learn, and how little I actually knew. In one afternoon during Philly Beer Week, I had the opportunity to try beers from four breweries that I had never heard of, i.e. Avery, The Breury, Ballast Point, and Great Lakes. During that week, I also spent some time reading interviews with all of the different brewers that would be visiting Philly, so whenever they mentioned a particular beer that they truly loved or that served as the inspiration for a particular beer that they planned on brewing, I would put that beer high on my "must try" list.

Although I have always loved photography (my parents bought me my first SLR when I was a freshman in high school, a Canon AE-1 Program which I still own), it wasn't until we started the blog that I started taking photos on a regular basis. In the beginning, most of my photos for the blog were pretty much the same, i.e. no interesting lighting or unusual camera angles, but once I started seeing what other Craft Beer lovers were doing on Instagram, Untappd, and Twitter, I used their work as inspiration, and started experimenting a bit on my own.

The beauty of all this Social Media stuff is the instant feedback that you get and the non-stop conversations that occur. While there are plenty of Social Media horror stories out there, I can honestly say that all of my interactions have been incredibly positive, and I have met some truly wonderful people during this fantastic Craft Beer journey of mine.

Cheers to all the great Craft Beer lovers and Beertographers out there!

Check out and follow G-LO here:

The Blog: http://boozedancing.wordpress.com

Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, and Untappd

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boozedancing

And finally let's take a look at some of G-LO's greatest achievements in beertography:

Soccer Beertography Contest Winners

John Kleinchester — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000

#CheersToSoccer by @atxchristina

Some of you may have already seen the winners as announced by Free Beer Movement, but I have one thing left to add: My selection for Best in Beertography! But first head over to Free Beer Movement and check out the full list of the winners we selected!

As you can see there were some awesome entries, so it was very difficult making this decision but congrats to ATXChristina on winning a fancy beertography t-shirt!

Obviously this contest was good luck with two great results from the USMNT in World Cup Qualifiers this past week, so we'll have to do it again soon!

Cheers to Soccer!

Beertography 4th Anniversary Contest Winners

John Kleinchester — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Wow, what an amazing bunch of entries into our 4th Anniversary Contest. The response was overwhelming and I am honored that so many of you entered. When I set up the contest I was planning on only giving away one t-shirt but because there were so many great entries, I've decided to give away THREE! And here they are!

WINNERS:

@the_beer_truck

@beercycling

@thealemonger

You guys are just so amazingly creative, it's so great to see. I wish that I could give everyone who entered a shirt but I just don't have enough. I'd like to publish some of my other favorite entries too. We'll call them honorable mentions, but really everyone who entered did a fantastic job. Group hug!

Honorable Mentions:

And finally, another entry from @the_beer_truck:

Wow. Just.. wow.

Beer Marketing Genius: Ommegang's Game of Thrones Iron Throne Ale

John Kleinchester — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Call it awesome. Call it hokey. Call it geek-worlds colliding. But make no mistake, it's a big success. Brewery Ommegang's partnering with HBO for their new beer released in conjunction with the third season premiere of the wildly popular hit series Game of Thrones.

Iron Throne Blonde Ale hit the shelves in NYC and NJ this past week and quickly sold out pretty much everywhere. For myself, both a fan of Brewery Ommegang as well as HBO's Game of Thrones, I was geeked to hear the news when it came out last December.

Cut to this past week, when my local beer shop announced that it had received it's shipment. I quickly made my way over and picked up a bottle (the store was selling only one per customer). Then, this past Friday after work I made a stop in at the Whole Foods Bowery Beer Room, a craft beer beacon in Manhattan. Whilst perusing the store, I overheard customer after customer asking for a bottle of the "Game of Thrones beer". Unfortunately, Whole Foods Bowery had already sold out of their allotment. I was only there for about 20 minutes, but I counted at least 15 people who were looking for Iron Throne. Wow.

This wasn't an isolated incident. A brief perusal of twitter that evening revealed that many people were striking out in the area. Like this tweet from ABC Beer Co. on Sunday evening:

We have SOLD OUT of the Game of Thrones bottles! Days ago...I think we're averaging 15 phone calls and walk-ins an hour inquiring. Sorry! :(

Not to deride the quality of the beer, but it is interesting to see people seeking out a Blonde Ale with the same furvor that they usually do for rare barrel-aged beers like Founders KBS (which is also scheduled to start hitting the NYC area this week).

I for one will be buying the next beer in the series as well, which according to BeerPulse will be called "Take the Black". At the very least I suspect we'll see a lot more breweries doing similar releases. Maybe we'll see a Walking Dead / Terrapin team-up? Perhaps a DC Brau / Homeland collaboration? Hopefully never a Breaking Bad Blue Meth Beer though.

So what are your thoughts on this marketing crossover?

Celebrating 4 Years of Beertography (With a Contest)

John Kleinchester — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:17:42 +0000

Today marks the four year anniversary of the very first post on beertography.com. It's unreal to me that it's already been four years. I remember coming up with "beertography" and laughing because it was so silly. It was one of those terms that I thought of and assumed someone MUST already be using. I'm never that original. But a google search revealed that this ridiculous term had not been implemented yet.

Little did I know that coming up with the term would open the door to a side of the world of craft beer I didn't know existed yet (not to mention meeting countless new awesome people). I would like to give a special shout out to John Holl and Jared Walkowitz who have been my among biggest motivators and champions along the way. Thanks guys.

Four years. The length of a President's term. I hope you'll re-elect me to office for four more years. Or at least four more beers.

Anyway, enough with the mush, you're probably here for the contest! Well, those of you who have been following the site for a while are probably familiar with my Memorial and Labor Day Contests. This one will be similarly simple. All you have to do is take some beergraphy (of any kind) and either tweet it or instagram it with the hashtag #beertography4th. That's it. And this time, I'm giving away a Beertography T-Shirt as the prize. The contest will run from right this very second until next Wednesday March 27th at 11:59 EDT. Maybe if there are enough awesome entries I'll give out a second prize as well.

What: Beertography Contest
When: Now until 3/27 11:59pm EDT
Huh?: Take some beertography, duh.
Where: Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #beertography4th. You're welcome to post it to the Beertography Facebook Page as well.
Prize: Beertography T-Shirt featuring the below design that also adorns the top of the Facebook Page.

Beertographer of the Week - Sean M. Buchan

John Kleinchester — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:00:00 +0000

New Belgium Brewing Company's Famous Brewhouse 2

When I started this Beertographer of the Week feature, there were a few people out there that I knew I had to have among the first few entries. One of which is featured here today: Sean M. Buchan aka Beertographer!

Sean is a great beertographer (well he should be since he IS @Beertographer right?) whom I've been following for a while now. We did a great beer trade and were finally able to meet out in Denver last Fall during the Denver Rare Beer Tasting and he's a great guy as well. Enough from me, how about we let Sean tell you about himself?

I can’t claim to be one of those photographers that have been carrying a camera since they were 5. I also can’t say I went to school for photography…because I didn’t. I do, however, love taking pictures. I consider myself extremely fortunate that I am able to spend time doing what I love.

I also spend time as a writer/photographer for Denver off the Wagon, a website dedicated to craft beer/alcohol news and events in Denver, Colorado as well as Serious Eats: Drinks. They’ve allowed me to combine my love for craft beer and photography with a great group of writers. Thus, it’s not uncommon to find me spending my weekends touring Colorado breweries or attending craft beer events.

I've also developed a (semi)recent love for home brewing. If I'm not out taking pictures of people brewing beer, I'm making it at home. I guess I just have a knack for expensive hobbies.

Check out and follow Sean in the following places:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Beertographer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Beertographer

Instagram: http://instagram.com/beertographer

Google+: https://plus.google.com/100854768458341712959/posts

Website: http://beertographer.com

And check out a few samples of Sean's awesome beertography:

Cascade hops growing at Voss Farms in Arvada, Colorado

Nitro pour at Copper Kettle Brewing Company

Prost's Brewmaster Bill Eye fights a boil over on their massive 70bbl copper brewhouse