Pizza Party! ASBMB Day 4

Schlafly "House in Session"

After the last couple of nights of relatively heavy drinking, I was looking forward to just relaxing over a nice dinner and enjoying a brew or 2 from "Pizza Paradiso", a pizza place here in DC that prides itself on having great food and even better beers! I found out about this place because Saint Louis' own Schlafly Brewery has made a beer to support The "Small BREW Act", a piece of legislation designed to ensure small breweries can succeed in a struggling economy. You can read more about Schlafly's "House in Session Ale" and about the small BREW Act HERE.

Cheers with Lex as I drink another HIS

In my opinion, House in Session (HIS) is one of Schlafly's finest brews and its a shame that we will not be tasting this in Saint Louis. HIS is a dry hopped and dark bodied pale ale that hop heads will love. It doesn't have much of the citrus-y notes that I tend to gravitate to, however it does have overwhelming floral notes and drinkability that I love! This beer comes in at a meager 4.7% ABV meaning that you can drink lots of it over a pizza dinner and not feel too intoxicated! I liked this beer so much in fact, that I may have to find one of the other 3 bars in DC that are serving it before I leave to taste it one more time because it is soooo tasty!

New Holland "The Poet"

Being at the beer mecca that is "Pizza Paradiso", I could not limit myself to only drinking HIS. My next beer was New Holland's "The Poet", a rich and dark stout that had wonderful coffee and chocolate notes. New Holland is a Michigan based brewery that my wife turned me on to. Having gone to college at Hope College in Holland Michigan, she touted the virtues of New Holland beers before I even knew that they existed! Now that I have experienced some of their beers, I understand why she loved New Holland so much in college!

Since I already made my transition to "the dark side" and started drinking dark beers, I figured I would try Avery Brewing Company's "New World Porter". New World Porter is qualified as a "Black IPA". It was a hop bomb with the sugary and malty notes I expect from a good porter or stout. Super Flavorful and very satisfying, without being overwhelmingly alcoholic (7.5 ABV).

 After a night of drinking, nothing is better than Krispy Kreme Doughnuts... We got the ones that were hot and fresh from the machine and boy was it a nice way to finish dinner!

Upon returning to the hotel, I had one more Southern Tier 2xIPA that I had left over from a previous blog post and then broke into Lexy's stash of beer and nabbed one of her 21st Amendment Brewing Company's "Back in Black". I particularly like the fact that 21A cans their beer for distribution instead of bottling. Canning ensures that the beer does not get exposed to light and maintains a good product. BiB is a Black IPA; a dark and rich, hop loaded ale that is as dark as a porter with all the hop flavors of a west coast style IPA. This was a real treat and I was happy that Lex was kind enough to share her beers with me. This beer has piqued my interest in some of the other brews that this San Francisco based Brewery make and I look forward to trying more of their delicious beers!

As I fell asleep (kind of intoxicated) I reflected on how great a night tonight was. There is nothing better than drinking good beer and eating good food with great friends! In fact, I think nights like tonight are the reason I continue to write this blog, because nights like tonight make life worth living! Cheers!

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