My girlfriend Courtney had the great opportunity to travel up the east coast from Georgia to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls with her dad’s company Sylvan Sport. Sylvan Sport makes a pop-up camper that will blow your mind. It’s small, light, and converts from a tow-behind trailer that is capable of hauling ATV’s, motorcycles, bikes, and kayaks. If you haven’t seen this thing, you really should check it out. Sylvan Sport was having a contest in which people searched the United States in search of one of these campers loaded down with outdoor gear and prizes using Geocaching. The final clues lead them to the Niagara Falls location, and the first person to reach the camper with a secret passphrase one the prize package. I sent Courtney with some cash to find me beers along the way, as they drove up the coast all the way to Canada. She searched several states in search of beers that Jordan and I either had never tried, or were unable to get here in the South.
When she returned, I was shocked at the number of beers she brought home, and the variety that she had chosen. She did an incredible job, and I couldn’t wait to charge through them tasting and enjoying them with Courtney and Jordan. Saturday night I called Jordan up and the tasting began. While the list would be a bit overkill if I named off every beer, there will be a picture following this post that you can see each of them. We had several beers from Long Trail Brewing, several more from Stoudt’s, several from Eerie Brewing Co., a beer from Great Lakes Brewing, another from Star Hill Brewing, a few from Molson, Straub, and one from Mountaineer Brewing. While we didn’t make it through all the beers, we put a big dent in them, trying 14 different beers that night.
For this post, instead of reviewing each of the 14, we decided we would share with you guys which beers stood out from the pack. We will create a new post as we finish out the rest of the beers we didn’t get to. Of the 14 we tried, there were 3 obvious picks for beers that impressed us. These three beers were Great Lakes Brewing Co.’s Dortmunder Gold, Eerie Brewing Company’s Misery Bay IPA (the name alone deserves an award!), and last but not least Stoudt’s Scarlet Lady ESB. If you are in the Northeastern United States it would not be a bad idea to give any or all of these beers a try, but definitely those three. As always, the Beer Apostles will be sure to keep you up to date as we finish sampling and critiquing these beers!
– Will