Lagerheads in Coal Center, PA

Monday is a long day at school for me. I have 4 classes at California University of Pennsylvania, and a 2 hour window between the 3rd and 4th. Yesterday, I decided I'd drive the mile or so down the road to Coal Center and stop in at Lagerheads, a bar a few friends and I occasionally would drink in when we were working toward our Bachelors Degrees.



Lagerheads is a red brick building on the corner of Spring St & Water St in Coal Center, PA. The establishment is a split with one side being the bar, the opposite being the restaurant. It has a log cabin look inside, but modernized, and mixed with brick & painted walls. There is a rectangle bar with 3 sides of seating available, offering about 18 stools at the bar itself.

Surrounding the bar are around 8 bar stool tables with 4 stools to each table. The place has a bunch of flat screen tv's, but I didn't find them terribly distracting. On to the beer!

Back in 2005-2006, when I was working toward my B.A. in History, Lagerheads was a typical dive, offering nothing but the most popular macros. Of course, they did have Yuengling Traditional Lager so I typically went with that. If I recall correctly, they used to offer it on tap for a buck.

Well, times have certainly changed, and so has Lagerheads. I was pleasantly surprised by the beer on tap I didn't recognize, and the Samuel Adams, Sierra Nevada, Terrapin, & Rogue in the cooler. I first went with the mystery brew on tap after I was told it was Shock Top, a beer I had heard of before, but had yet to try.

Shock Top Belgian White (Anheuser Busch, St. Louis, Missouri)



On-Tap, poured into what must have been a 10 oz mug (I'll explain later).
Shock Top Belgian White is a cloudy witbier. Rimmed top, not a lot of foam/head. Couldn't really smell anything at first, but the mug was frozen. The look: Orange-hue White

Tastes like sweet citrus--sort of like Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy meets Blue Moon's Belgian White. It offers a tiny bit of lacing, nothing to brag about. Wheat tones dry the mouth while citrus refreshes & body (medium) rounds it all out. The citrus is probably an orange, either a navel or valencia.

My brew was served at what felt like 40 degrees F. As it warmed it smelled like a peeled orange 4-5 feet away.

Next was a brew from Terrapin:

Terrapin Golden Ale (Athens, GA)



Poured 12 oz bottle into a....what the hell? The mug is without a doubt less than 12 oz. I'm willing to bet it was only a 10 oz mug because I had around 2 oz in the bottle that I couldn't fit into the mug. Head did not play a role in that dilemma. Moving on:

Golden look. Extremely malty smell and taste. Plenty of toasted malts. The qualities of the smell and taste are very contrasting in the face of the golden look of the brew.

It tastes like it smells, and smells like a beer kit with additional hops. The hops offer a dryness to the heavily malted taste. Maybe some chocolate raisin in the malted taste.

Not a lot of head, not a lot of lacing. A very pleasant feel to the beer. The alcohol doesn't get angry if lounging in your mouth for a few seconds.

Lastly, a brew from Rogue:

Santa's Private Reserve (Newport, OR)



Poured a 12 oz bottle into an insufficient 10 oz mug. Trust me, I'm right on that assertion.

Amber brown look. Excellent foam! Smells like X-Mas hops and friendly malts. Very roasted/hoppy flavor. A good amount of bitterness. Definitely a Christmas beer. I'd call it a Christmas version of an IPA.

A seething mouth feel; any sip demands to be swallowed. Bage-nougat looking foam. More on the taste: chocolate raisin covered in bitter, floral hops. Solid medium body. Respectable rim retention.

I couldn't drink too many, but Rogue's Santa's Private Reserve is a quality beer.

Stoudt's American Pale Ale

Whoa! The IBU's in this beer must be through the pint! I'm pretty happy I found a few rack spots offering a few brews from this brewery. I only read about Stoudt's brewery/restaurant & pub a few days ago and assumed it was sit in/take out only, not distributed. Glad I was wrong.



The APA from Stoudt's is amber-orange, and forms a strong, egg white, robust head with excellent lacing. The smell is a tiny bit sour, a little more sweet. The taste is pretty bitter, with a lot of hops handling their business. They're more dry than floral, with some grapefruit characteristics coming through in the finish.

The head retention is one of the most notable elements to this brew. The taste and overall feel is unquestionably first in line. Cheers!

Terrapin: Ryle Pale Ale

I was at a bar called the Castle Tavern when I first saw a beer from Terrapin.  It was only a few months ago, the beer was on tap, and it tasted like it was brewed with grapefruit and a lot of hops.  Long story short, I really liked the beer, although I can't remember which brew from Terrapin it was.



I picked up Terrapin's Rye Pale Ale at GunTown Beer just yesterday.  Into my nonic pint glass (english pub pint glass) the beer went, threatening to never reveal a foamy top.  At the end of the pour a tiny, thin as string foam came up, if only to offer a rim.

I like the look: cloudy amber color; pretty much what I would assume a honey mead beverage to look like (I still haven't had the pleasure of seeing one for myself).

I like the smell: a little aromatic hoppiness, a little sweet malt, a little roasted malt, maybe even some raisin.

The taste is balanced: a good level of bitterness, hops, and malts to round out the body.

The top of the beer has begun to be a bit more active and less tepid than the initial impression.  Not even halfway through the 12 oz portion, head retention is showing some guts relative to it's condition, and a little lacing has entered the building.  This beer looks to be unfiltered, too, which is a big plus in my opinion.

Terrapin's Rye Pale Ale: if you see it, try it out.  Cheers!

Leinenkugel's 1888 Bock

I was in my local 6-pack shop looking for randoms to pick up when I saw this:  Leinenkugel's 1888 Bock.  I'm a fan of Leinenkugel Brewery (Jacob Leinenkugel Brewery to be exact).  Based out of Chippewa Falls, WI, the only beers of theirs that I'm either opposed to drinking or haven't thought were that great were Berry Weiss & Classic Amber.  Berry Weiss is close to wine in sweetness/intensity, and Classic Amber is earthy and unflattering.  But try them both and decide for yourself.



Today was the first day I've ever seen 1888 Bock.  The beer is dark brown, maybe mahogany.  Lacing does not exist in this beer's world.  As you can see in the picture, a healthy head establishes itself at first, but it turns out only to be a card carrying bluff.  There is a rim of foam after a few minutes, but it's quality is similar to that of a settling soda.

The smell emits sweet malts, a little alcohol, and an oak barrel.  The taste is about the same, with sweet malts coming out the most, but balanced with an alcohol bite.  I would assume the bite is also derived from hops, but I can't really distinguish hops from alcohol in this beer.  Bitterness is present, but nothing overwhelming.  If you like bocks you shouldn't be disappointed or taken aback.  It goes down nicely without a fuss, and the body is a standard medium.

I'm happy to say that this is another Leinenkugel brew that I approve of.

Side Note: I bought this beer for 98 cents.  It had acquired the cardboard box dust around the shoulders of the bottle, a condition that always makes me question whether my purchase will be satisfying or just plain disappointing.  I'd have to say that although this one example doesn't prove anything 100%, dust on the bottle doesn't necessarily mean the beer has been sitting around too long for it to be consumed.

Howl!: Magic Hat's Black as Night Winter Lager

I read about this beer through a review in Beer Advocate Magazine.  What struck my curiosity was the description that said it smelled like "old coins and fresh bloody steak."  I also have had very little experience with schwarzbier's (black beer) so I wanted to try my hand on this one; the last schwarzbier I tried was in the Saranac Winter Pack, 2009.



The look of this beer is definitely black as night.  A nice foam sits on top with pretty good head retention.  The lacing is healthy.  I smell toasted bread, possibly burnt.  It also smells like a smoked beer.  The taste is similar, with burnt coffee notes, raw meat, and smoky firewood.

The mouthfeel and finish is outstanding.  Who would have thought that a brewery could develop a beer with this kind of smell and taste and still pull off a lighter, less offensive finish?  And no I'm not that uneducated.  I'm very much aware that that is the point of schwarbier: to offer dark notes and tones while sticking to a lighter body and overall taste.

This beer is just another example of why I'm really starting to fall in love with winter offerings.  If you haven't tried this one, do yourself a favor and do so before it's gone.  Cheers!

Yuengling's Lord Chesterfield Ale

This isn't my first Lord Chesterfield Ale. I first had it on-tap at a bar called "Ernie's Freestyle" in Washington, PA. Of course, since it came under the Yuengling name I vouched for it instantly. I had several, and although I didn't hate the beer, I didn't love it either. I actually thought the hop content was kind of offensive, but that was on-tap in a plastic cup, so it tastes a lot different to me now.

I had a few with a friend a few weeks ago, along with some Yuengling Porter, which I finally found in store, and finally had a chance to try. I picked up another six-pack of Lord Chester earlier this week.


Tonight I'm drinking out of a weizen glass. I must say, this beer was almost made for it. The lacing seems to embrace the shape of the glass. The lacing has got to be one of the most notable features to this beer.
A good hop content comes through, while the malts create a body to surround the hoppy bitter-notes. 
I smell fairly aromatic hops.

For an ale, I could do with a little less carbonation. Especially since this is an APA, it almost seems like they want this beer to be a lager. The appearance looks much like Miller Lite & Bud Light, but the head retention is a lot stronger in the Chesterfield, and although the two macro's formerly mentioned are more drinkable, I'd walk into any bar and have a few Lord Chesterfield Ale's before I spent a whole night drinking Miller or Bud Light.

A Huge Homebrewing Mistake or Two

I haven't been homebrewing for very long.  I started about a year ago, and have failed every time.  At my level, it's pretty stressful.  After all the cleaning, boiling, pouring, and cleaning again, you wait for 2 or 3 weeks only to try a beer that tastes like watered down whiskey.

Today I tried again for the first time in over half a year.  After being laid off and then moving back to this area (Washington, PA), I was drinking a good amount of beer, reading a lot of books, and looking for a job, leaving no time for brewing.  Today represented my third or fourth shot at brewing, one that definitely turned out to be an experience that will sustain itself as a negative reminder of what not to do again.

I brew 3 gallons of bad beer.  I use a 3-gallon carboy (glass fermenter), and today used one Cooper's Bitter Beer Kit (a hopped malt extract) at 3.75 Lb's a can.  Here's where my mistakes come in: I boiled the malt extract with too much water, and not just because I was mistaken about how much I poured in.  I intended on pouring in 1.5 gallons of water, but it turns out it was more like 1.8-1.9 when I checked again.  But I shouldn't even have had 1.5 gallons of water.  I would wager to say it would have been a better idea to boil the malt extract with 1 gallon of water.

My second mistake was described by the amount of cold water I poured in the carboy: 1.5 gallons.  I originally considered that it may be too much, but wasn't prudent enough to take the measure of dumping about a half gallon out.  This resulted in just under a half gallon of wort (boiled ingredients) which had no space in the fermenter to hang out and do it's thing.  I regretfully dumped the half gallon of wort down the drain.  If I'm lucky, in a few weeks I won't be too disappointed.

Take it from me: it's better to be safe than sorry.  The latter mistake will most likely be more detrimental to the condition/outcome of the fermented beer than the former because its occurrence, or better yet, my lack of precaution, my carelessness, forced me to throw away wort when I should have been tossing water.

At least the one positive result of today's experience was the amount of stress that mounted up afterward.  I drove to GunTown Beer & bought a six-pack of Yuengling's Lord Chesterfield Ale.  Cheers!

Bell's Christmas Ale: I'm Feeling Ambivalent

This review was originally posted @ BeerAdvocate.com:



This beer reminds me of Great Divide's Hibernation Ale, which I bought a case of for the Christmas holiday. Compared to Hibernation Ale, it is a lot drier, with less sweet raisin flavor. Bell's Christmas is dry with a taste that is sort of thick, between a porter and a stout.  Solid head retention, with a nice nougat-colored foam.  A lot of roasted coffee notes.  The smell and look of the beer are both pretty remarkable elements.  I like it, but I don't know if I could have more than a few. I'm not sure what the ABV is (I'm going to check afterward), but considering how I felt after having one at McGrogan's (Canonsburg, PA), I'd say it's sitting at 6% or higher (maybe I'm off, they serve 20 oz glasses - practically two beers).

Definitely worth a try, but definitely a strong one to finish. A Christmas treat for sure, but I'm not exactly in love with it.

Serving type: on-tap

Update: BeerAdvocate.com shows Bell's Christmas Ale residing @ 5.4%