My Maine Yankee heart skipped a beat when I stopped by the market in the Grove Arcade on Tuesday. There, for sale in Asheville, were two beers from the D. L. Geary Brewing Company of my home town of Portland, Maine. While I absolutely love the great beers from North Carolina's many breweries I still long occasionally for a Geary's Hampshire Special Ale, a classic "winter warmer." It was on the shelf along with the new Summer Ale which I had not had before. Needless to say I did not leave the store empty handed. The summer brew is a less hoppy version of Geary's flagship pale ale. I detected some citrus-like flavors as well. In taste it was sort of halfway between a hefeweisen and a kolsch. Definitely worth buying.
Now that Hampshire Special is available in Asheville I'm looking forward to colder weather so I can sip one by the fireplace. Now if we could only get the cask-conditioned version on handpump here!
you wouldn't happen to know whre I could get my hands on some Old Peculiar? I heard that it is no longer being imported into the US. this makes me sad. I have been trying to replicate it at home, but can't find a good clone receipe anywhere.
ReplyDeleteanyway...cool blog!
I'll see what I can find out about Old Peculiar. Now that you mention it I haven't seen it for awhile. It used to be available widely in the Asheville area.
ReplyDeleteThere is a clone recipe in Tess and Mark Szamatulski's Clonebrews: Homebrew Recipes for 150 Commercial Beers. (Storey, 1998) but I haven't tried it.
Thanks for the feedback!