Sunday, March 18, 2007

Recap: St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl

Several of us set out on a St. Paddy's day crawl Saturday, hitting some of Dayton's better beer bars. It's been about 3 years in the making--Alex and I were to do a crawl a few years ago, but each year, it hasn't worked out. Finally, this year, the stars aligned.

We started the morning at Boston's Bistro. They opened at 6 am, and business was steady and picking up when we arrived at 10:30. Boston's has a great selection of beers, and the draft selection featured most of Barrelhouse's line. Between the three of us, we sampled the Boss Cox Double Dark IPA (cask), the Red Legg ale, the Cumberland Pale Ale, the Hocking Hills Hefeweizen, and the Scotch Ale, as well as some requisite Guinness pints.

Lunchtime found us trekking across town to Taggart's (with a quick stop at Pug's Dog House for some Chicago-style hot dogs). Taggart's is a neighborhood bar that my wife's stepsister's husband co-owns with his sister. Taggart's is a great bar (round the corner from my house), with a regular following. We watch OSU football games there. Recently, Mike has been stocking more and more craft beers. For a while, you could get Beamish for $2.50 a pint and the Goose Island beers always seem to be on special. Recently, they've brought in Arrogant Bastard, which Mike tells me has been selling well.

We caught part of the OSU/Xavier basketball game, drinking Goose Island Kilgubbin's, Guinness, and Murphy's stouts, before mixing in shots of bourbon.

After picking up a cigar from the smoke shop next door, we headed to Tank's, where Benjamin joined us. More food and more bourbon. For the life of me, I can't recall which beer I had (that's probably due to the bourbon), but Tank's regularly has a great selection of bottled and draft beers.

Later, we parted ways with Benjamin and headed out to the clubhouse, a warehouse studio hangout that Shane rents with another mutual friend. Complete with a pool table, a bourbon bar, a killer record collection, and huge picture windows that offer great views of the city, the clubhouse is a perfect place to whittle away an afternoon or evening. Kyle and Nathan eventually joined us, and Kyle brought some Mt. Carmel's copper ale and some Dogfish Head Blue & White.

Finally, one last stop: the Trolley Stop, to see our friend Denise. The Trolley is another local hangout that usually has several interesting beers on tap. Saturday, we ordered rounds of Dogfish Head 60 min. IPA. Needless to say, after that beer, most of us were done for the night. But it was great to hit some Dayton beer hot spots without suffering the ubiquitous green beer.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Dewey's was stocking Mt. Carmel Copper when I was last there.

And a St. Paddy's day crawl as well while in Chicago. ok, I stayed at one bar but it had lots of good beer and was pleasantly not overcrowded on the drinkingest day of the year.

I hit the Hopleaf and had Dogfish too, only I had the 90min IPA. Tasty stuff. And was sad because didn't realize they had 120 min IPA until I was done, although to my credit it may not have been in stock. Also had: 3 Flloyds Alpha King (a repeat from the night out on Friday), Founders Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale.

On Sunday, I tried something completely different: Oud Beersel Kriek, which was pleasantly not sappy sweet thanks to the tartness of cherries. A table favorite, although the rest were drinking lambics and not beer people. It was a happy medium and a perfect drink since I wasn't in a beer mood anymore and I was also wine'd out from catching up with everyone all week(end).

KevBrews said...

Glad to hear that you liked the Oud Beersel Kreik. Wonder if I can get it around here.

Quite the hoppy Saturday! Sounds like fun, fun.

Yeah, the Dewey's near us has the Copper Ale, too. Quite good. I got it and a Rogue Kells Lager. Loved the Mt. Carmel, didn't care for the Rogue.