New England Drinking
Posted In Beer
Armsby Abbey
I really can’t tell you if there’s a bus line that runs past this place, but parking nearby is either non-existent or will cost you the equivalent of a round of beers. Those metered spaces across the street are good for an hour only, not nearly enough time to attempt the draft list from left to right or top to bottom. But its close proximity to the DCU Center means there is a parking garage paradise within a few blocks radius. Walk off a beer or two!
Armsby Abbey is an “artisan” bar not only in terms of its beer selection (6 taps dedicated to Belgium and 16 other craft beers on tap) but the 30 foot bar was hand crafted out of South African mahogony by a local master craftsman. The menu changes often and features locally sourced, seasonal foods with an emphasis on slow cooking. I tried the Corned Beef Mac ‘n Cheese and sampled the Jerk Chicken sandwich, which had the perfect blend of spiciness and cinnamon sweetness. If you’re a spice pussy, order a salad.
What a great beer selection! 22 craft beers on tap and at least another 140 in bottles, including some very hard to find (and priced as such) beers like Lost Abbey Duck Duck Gooze and many of the limited edition Stone Brewery collaborations. The tap list included local beer like Mayflower Thanksgiving and Pretty Things Babayaga, a delicious winter seasonal of smoky malt and rosemary, and mouth-watering, lip-smacking Belgian ales like the cherry, oaky funk of Rodenbach Grand Cru 2007. Raise your tulip glass high!
Ebenezer’s
I’m still perplexed how one of the world’s finest drinking bars (often #1) is located in a forest where moose far outnumber craft beer drinkers, but the trip to the middle of nowhere is well worth it. My friends and I decided to recreate Sour Beer Ass 2008 (our trip to Belgium) starting with a fine assortment of lambics and a few other hard to find beers to prime our mouths for more tartness. We drafted our tap selections with Oude Beersel Framboise, 2006 Cantillon Kreik, Alvinne Oak Aged Balthazar, a heady Belgian strong ale brewed with ginger, coriander, and cardamom, and the Brasserie des Geants Goliath Tripel, a well-balanced tripel that uses only malt as it’s sugar source- no additional sugar or additives. Over time the yeast helps it develop a drier finish and takes on a little more of the Saaz hops. We moved onto bottles and tried the Fantome Pissenlet, a hoppy and spicy saison brewed with dandelions, which in uncooked form supposedly have a diuretic effect that could cause you to “pissenlet” or “wet the bed.” I let the Mythbusters test that theory.
It wasn’t a “dark and stormy night” per se, but the electricity did find times to make itself scarce. After two “lights out,” the well-versed bartender Jim threw some tealight candles in snifters so we wouldn’t have to drink in the dark. He also led us down to the beer utopia, er… cellar where we sampled a 1978 Hanssens Kreik (finally, a beer older than I am! And it was extraordinary!) and the Kabert, a Struise/Portsmouth collaboration of the #1 and #2 beers in the world, Kate the Great and Black Albert. “Oh if you could be my lips for just one moment and savor what they just did!” Our tour of the cellar ended abruptly at the onset of blackout #3 and we used cellphones to find our way back to the bar wishing I could have emptied a cellar shelf into the pockets of my jacket under the mask of darkness. Eventually, we wound our way to the B&B and passed out, only to wake up abruptly in the middle of the night to a thunderous sound which we discovered in the morning to be the splintered remains of 100+ foot pine tree. We departed the boonies as soon as the electricity went out again.