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October 24, 2005
Virgil's Real Barbecue
Virgil's Real Barbecue tops my list for the best BBQ in the Northeast. On my first visit with my wife, we shared a pulled pork sandwich and a Leffe Brown ale. I was so impressed with this meal that I had to visit a second time. This time around my company sent me on a business trip to New York. Ironically, the trip was providing technical support for Weight Watchers search engine launch. :) They covered the cost of the food which left me more money for beer!
Virgil's beer menu is quite nice with a wide variety to choose from. I decided to try a regional beer from America's oldest brewery, a Yuengling Traditional Lager. Here are a few other prominent examples from the beer menu that show their diversity.
Pilsner Urquell
Ayinger Celebrator
Chimay Red
Celis Grotten Brown
Hoegaarden White
Brooklyn India Pale Ale
Lindeman's Framboise
Gaffel Kolsch
Now what did I pair that crisp lager with? How about their two meat combo! Virgil's smokes meat with a blend of hickory, oak and fruit woods. This imparts multiple levels of flavor and color to the smoke rings. The flavor of their Pulled Carolia Pork was incredible. I was so impressed with the delicate texture and perfect smoky tanginess. The two meat combo comes with cornbread and a choice of two sides. The mashed potatoes came with a wonderful brown gravy that clearly had a splash of their signature barbecue sauce. Finally, the Georgia Pecan rice added some more spice and texture...and I love
pecans! Virgil's Real Barbecue has an ingredients list on their website, so I thought I would share here to get your taste buds tempted.
Sliced Texas Beef Brisket - Ten ounce portion of brisket of beef marinated overnight in a dry rub and smoked for 12 to 14 hours. Lightly topped with mild sauce
Pulled Carolina Pork - Ten ounce portion of pork shoulder marinated over night in a dry rub and smoked for 12 to 14 hours. Served tossed with our Carolina vinegar sauce
Georgia Pecan Rice - Rice, chicken stock, sausage, pecans, green peppers, bacon, pimentos, scallions, spices and herbs
Mached Potatoes - Idaho potatoes, butter, milk, cream, salt, white pepper
Virgil's brings Southern style BBQ to the Northeast like no other. They pull together many styles of BBQ, from Memphis, Kansas, Carolina, and Texas and blend
them into a mouth watering menu. Their choices of beers complements any of the many flavors you can find. If you like good BBQ and beer, this place cannot be missed.
Virgil's Real Barbecue
152 West 44th Street
New York City
Phone: 212 921-9494
Posted by BrewChef at 09:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 17, 2005
Drink Nude Beer by the Pool
Fully nude...beer? My recent Las Vegas trip has proved to be extremely interesting. Nothing short of nude women by the pool! Well, at least the beer brought on the girls. Nude Beer comes in glass bottles with a circular label that says 'Peel Here'. Behind the sticker is a hoppy pale ale and some ta-ta's! This full-bodied beer certainly has got the marketing down. The label itself sells the beer, especially when lounging by the pool in the summer-like heat of Las Vegas.
This pale ale almost comes across as an IPA, with a large hop palate. It has hop flavor and a solid bitter hop background. All around it was a decent beer, but the nude women make the beer worth the novelty alone.
Posted by BrewChef at 10:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 06, 2005
Sam Adams Boston 375 Colonial Ale Reviewed
Sam Adams recently revealed a new brew representative of the colonial American ales one may have found in Boston 375 years ago. I had a chance to sample this prior to the official release at their Jamaica Plain brewery. I found the flavor to be a little sharp as would be expected when a beer is brewed with molasses. When I asked how long they condition the ale, I was suprised to hear it was only aged two weeks. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised... it is a large scale brewery! Anyway, rather than try to describe my small four ounce tasting, I will leave that to Beer Advocate. Here is a snippet of what they had to say.
"Boston 375 Colonial Ale" is a hearty and unfiltered brew made with blackstrap molasses. This traditional ingredient of the colonial-era provided one-third of the fermentable sugars for this brew, turning into carbon dioxide and alcohol, and lending an old-school sweet edge to the beer. To provide some depth, caramel and Munich malts were added, plus a touch of German smoked malt to lend a bit of tradition - as once upon a time all malts were dried over wood flame. The result? You're in luck, as we had a chance to hang with Jim Koch and have a pint.
Read the full review at BeerAdvocate.com: Boston 375 Colonial Ale Reviewed
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