GINGER MAN: TWO GREAT BREWS

If you've never heard me blather on about Ginger Man before, all you need to know is that they focus on beer and get it right, featuring 70 taps and hundreds of top notch beers on their menu. During our Jeffuary visit, we were once again we were greeted by bartender Kate The Adequate (if you can call her emotionless inquiries a "greeting") who served us up some fantastic beers. (Quick question: when someone says they are involved in "various artistic endeavors, let's just keep it at that", doesn't that mean they're stripping on the side?)



Dogfish Head Red & White. I'll say one thing about Delaware's Dogfish Head Brewery: though their brews can be hit or miss, even when they miss at least they're throwing it out there. However, they definitely have a hit on their hands with Red & White, a white ale aged in red wine barrels. It's smooth and full bodied with carbonation like a fine champagne, with a fruity, wine taste at the finish. Definitely the tastiest and most complex DFH beer I've ever had (and hard to believe it's 10% ABV).



Brooklyn Black Ops. In case I haven't mentioned this before, Brooklyn brewmaster Garrett Oliver is my hero. I'm going to have to meet him just to say "thank you for getting it", and flying in the face of the macrobrews of the world and succeeding. As for the Black Ops, as the label exclaims, this beer does not exist. If it did, it would be a bourbon-y, chocolatey, fantastic brew like . . . I imagine this one might be. And at 10.7% ABV it (allegedly) packed a wallop, sending us walking out into the brisk winter night.

(Little did we know, the walk from Ginger Man to Lansdowne Road was 1.2 miles across town. We won't make that mistake again. Unless there's a REALLY good hockey game on.)

Speaking of Garrett Oliver, this is a great video:



"You show up in your average decent restaurant, and you get a beer list that looks like it came from a gas station."