East Coast Beer

A trip to the East Coast for few weeks this summer provided a chance for me to try some interesting beers I can't find in California. 

Scorpius Morchella, a double IPA from Toppling Goliath Brewing Company, is a beer brewed to celebrate the brewery's annual morel mushroom hunt.  I am not sure if Topping Goliath brewed Scorpius Morchella with mushrooms, but it was an earthy IPA.  I found it boozy, too, hotter than its 7.8% abv.  When I had it I thought I tasted mushrooms, but maybe I took the name and its dark vegetal flavors too literal. 

Lord Hobo's 617 Title Town IPA (pictured) is a New England IPA, of course, but of course, in typical NE IPA fashion, it was fine but not memorable. I had it dining outside on a warm evening, which was nicer than the beer. I expected a beer as brash and pretentious as its name, but came away with an unfulfilled '80's Red Sox and Patriot vibe, close but never good enough.

Clown Shoes' Baked Goods is a delicious 5.5% abv American pale ale.  With a sharp citrus bitterness, Baked Goods' last drink was as good, if not better, than its first drink.  An excellent beer with an abv that does serve as a drinking governor.  I could see myself putting away several Baked Goods without thinking twice, or slipping into stupidity.

Allagash White is a national beer, but it is ubiquitous on North Eastern tap lists, and that is marvelous.  It is such a good beer, one of the craft beer classics.

I broke my East Coast beer focus once, at Madison Square Garden, where I had Sierra Nevada's Hazy Little Thing IPA, which has become craft beer's new classic.  It was served in a cup that required a lid, so I started to drink the beer with a straw.  Taking the lid off and on for each drink annoyed me and proved messy, so I just kept drinking with the straw.  I am not sure I ever drank a beer with a straw before, I don't plan to again, but this one time was worth it.