phillybeerguy.com

posted by Jim

After an amazing kick-off to our trip at Bavarian Barbarian, we took a short walk over to Bullfrog Brewery where we were set to have lunch and meet up with brewmaster Terry Hawbaker.  Terry has quickly built up quite a reputation for his barrel-aged beers and even has a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in the category.  Needless to say, we were stoked to check out what the pub would have in store for us.

Upon entering, we were greeted by a bustling Friday lunch crowd and an absolutely sick tap list.  Three seats at the bar had our names on them, and I asked the bartender if Terry was around.

“It depends.  Are you the guys from Philadelphia?”
“Yes.  Yes we are.”
“Well then yes he is.  He stepped out for a bit but will be back shortly.”

We’re at the right place.

A couple of beer flights were the first order of business, and they quickly arrived containing 10 glasses of Bullfrog’s intoxicating elixir.  The highlights included Extra Stout (a foreign-style stout), Thai PA (a Belgian IPA with lemon grass, ginger, and Thai lime leaves), Rogg n’ Roll (an authentic German roggenbier), Citra-delic (a summer wheat beer hopped with the best hop of all time, Citra), El Diablo (a Belgian golden ale aged on French oak), Knotty Kilt (the day’s Kegs Gone Wild - a scotch ale innoculated with the kitchen sink of bugs), and of course the old standby: Edgar IPA.

Our growler fills were decided (Extra Stout, Citra-delic, and El Diablo), lunch was inhaled (very tasty), and by that time Terry had returned and suggested we begin our look around.

The first thing that struck me was that the shiny copper brew kettle and mash tun in the front window was it.  That’s the whole brewery right in the center of the restaurant.  Terry has to come in well before the ass-crack of dawn to brew and make sure he’s finished by the time they open for service at 11am.  When we commented on how nice and shiny the copper was he remarked, “Yes, but my assistant doesn’t really like it.  Or should I call him my ‘Chief Polisher’.”  But was that it?  That was literally a 20 second tour of the brewery space.  Now what?

The cellar is what.  Terry escorted us down a flight of stairs into a narrow corridor filled with beer and magic.  Four barrels filled with various ales greeted us at the bottom of the stairs, but it proved merely a harbinger of what was to come.  Around every nook and cranny, another rack of barrels sat.  All filled with amazing beers; most spiked with a bacteria cocktail to satiate even the most discerning sour beer palate.  Some highlights included Chocolate Chili Christmas Thingy, this past year’s Christmas beer which had been aging sans ghost peppers in the barrel since December.  Also notable was Hublonius Maximus, described as a quintuple-IPA that clocks in at above 14% ABV and has enough hops to remove the enamel from your teeth.  Both beers were quite young, as Terry indicated he prefers to leave the sour beers in the barrel for 18 months to 2 years.  Despite that, I have it on good authority that the beers are maturing quite nicely (the word ‘wine thief’ may or may not have have been involved in there somewhere.)

Terry was a really great guy, and he’s lucky that the ownership gives him such free reign to brew whatever he pleases.  It’s clearly paid off as Bullfrog is an immensely popular brewpub with gold-medal-winning beers to it’s name.  But on this day, it was the three of us who we considered the lucky ones.  It was an unforgettable experience and one that we’re likely never to experience again.