Mining for Gold

Sunday night but a holiday Sunday night so what is there to do?

I checked out the draught menus before leaving the house but it looks like a dry spell has hit the western suburbs of Philadelphia. Nobody has anything worth traveling for, and I'll travel a good distance for a good beer.

Since I didn't get to try Pickering Creek Inn last night I thought I'd try there again. The parking lot tells me I won't have trouble finding a seat at the bar. The sign on the door (open 4:00 Sunday) tells me I'll finally get to check this place out. The deadbolt on the heavy wooden door tells me otherwise. I'm not sure what's going on there but it will be a while until I try that place again.

Off to TJ's Everyday in Paoli, PA. I suspect I am in for a nice sandwich but the draught menu I looked at on-line was not encouraging.

First up was a Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA. It smelled great. It tasted nice. Then came the aftertaste. Not so good. I finished that one quickly in order to get a shot at something that would make my trip worthwhile.

Up next, a Lagunitas Lucky 13 Amber Ale. I haven't had a Lagunitas that I didn't like (forgive me Roy). Ok, now we are getting somewhere. This was a well-balanced beer with plenty of hops and plenty of malt flavor. I can't wait to have another one of these. Damn that rule of mine where I can't order the same beer on the same day.

I order a Mojo Panini for dinner. It turns out to be a very good sandwich and I'm sure I'll get it again on some future trip to TJ's.

Back to the beer. I am one for two working on a draught menu that isn't that great. Can I mine another diamond out of this mess? Bartender...pour me a Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald porter. So far I have been impressed with the Great Lakes label and it is hard to mess up a dark beer like a porter or stout. Excellent. This is a great porter. I will look for this in the future as I travel along.

I feel like a miner coming out tonight with low expectations (usually I see that somebody has something on draught that I really want to try), finding nothing of import on the menu at TJ's and then picking through the rubble and finding a couple of jewels. Two out of three ain't bad.

Cheers!