As most people who read this know (does anyone actually read this?!?), our new adventure is a 10 day, East Coast microbrew tour. Why? Because what's better than mixing hundreds of miles of driving with great beer! For the Moms reading this, don't worry, we brought our bikes!
Our first stop was not too far from Saratoga in a town that we have always wanted to visit, New Pulse. I'm not sure if it was the hippie draw or the town's wild obsession with the outdoors, but we both approved. While driving on the thuway, we called the infamous Jan (of Jan-Clean) for some help finding our first brewery. Out of all the websites of breweries in New Pulse (we found out later there were 3), the Gilded Otter Brewery looked the best. Jan explained that this was one of the better sites she had seen!
Our first impression was a massive brewpub hustling with the Friday night crowd. Amanda assumed that with the crazy amount of hub-bub, no would connect with our adventure.
We couldn't have been more wrong!
Sitting at the bar seemed to be the best idea to get full brew knowledge instead of a hurried server. Todd gave us some great hints of the town (like all of the beer names come from local road names and landmarks). AND he came our home-sweet-home, SARATOGA. He spent his life there before moving to New Pulse to climb and become a park ranger.
We split a burger and had a flight of beer. We tried the following beers:
- Huguenot St. American Lager
- Dusseldorf Altbier
- New Paltz Crimson Lager
- Three Pines India Pale Ale
- Stone House Oatmeal Stout
- Back Porch Summer Lager
- Hefeweizen
- Rail Trail Pale Ale
Out of the 8 beers that hit our palate, the unquestionable winner was the Rail Trail Pale Ale. Eric explained that the sweet toasty malts were in perfect balance with the fruity American Style Hops (probably the cascades??). Amanda could have drank it all night long...too bad for an upcoming 3-4 hour car ride! Some of our other favorites was the Oatmeal Stout and of course, the IPA.
Overall, the duo concluded that not only did the Gilded Otter Brewery have a rockin' website, but the beer, food and company were exceptional!
We ended the night sleeping on a utility road under a massive radio antenna...how romantic! Roxie (our Subaru Forester) provided us with the perfect den. Tomorrow...Asheville, NC here we come!
Amazing! This is so awesome, can we crash your brew tour??
ReplyDeleteAh, Rail Trail Pale, one of my all time favorites! Glad you got to spend a little time in my old stompin' grounds - have fun on the rest of the trip and we'll see you when you get back! Peace out Cub Scouts :)
ReplyDeleteYou know I never get your humor, but anyway, New Paltz.
ReplyDelete;)
Cheers