Blue Hill Tavern

1)One row of taps at Blue Hill Tavern (first floor)

2)Flowing water display behind liquor wall (first floor)

3)Picture of my Magic Hat seasonal beer, apparently beet juice was added

4)Taplist (blurry, apologies), about 12 beers, mostly common stuff but the Magic Hat was tasty.

Basics

Blue Hill Tavern is a relatively new establishment in Canton in the Brewer's Hill neighborhood. They have complimentary valet parking. Its really classy looking, very open air (at least while the weather is nice) high ceilings, two floors, and some nice city views in the upstairs dining area.

There is an upstairs bar and a first floor bar stocked with the 12 or so tap beers and a few bottled offerings. Its a beautiful place, worth a stop for a beer or two.

Back Into The Swing of Things

Went to Frisco Grille's Troegs Brewing pint night last night, and forgot to pick up a free pint, d'oh! Whatever, a good time was had. While in San Diego I saw in their beer list they had Magic Hat's Odd Notion sour beer and I really wanted to try a taster of that. Sadly, it disappointed. It had some sourness, but as Oliver the bartender said, it tasted like one of those spritzy lime sodas, wayyyyy too light.

Keeping with the theme, they had Troegs' Mad Elf, Hopback Amber and Dreamweaver Wheat on tap. The Mad Elf is a wildly popular, high-alcohol winter ale brewed with honey and cherries. Its a really unique taste, not too sweet, a bit watery/on the light side as far as body/mouthfeel, but good. I'd had a six pack at home and wanted to try it on tap, pretty much the same but always fun to get something fresh out of the keg. I was less interested in the Hopback and Dreamweaver so left those for other patrons.

One interesting thing I saw was a customer ordering a "Mad Dream" where they combined the Mad Elf with the Dreamweaver. The Troegs rep was there as well, nice guy, handed out some literature and whatnot. Sounds like they'll have another Troegs event at Frisco Grille in January to mark the release of Troegs' wildly popular Nugget Nectar, so be on the ready for that if Nugget Nectar makes you happy.

After that it was a pint of the Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale and the Southern Tier IPA. Both were delicious, particularly that Southern Tier. Not all of their offerings are great, but some really hit the spot.

Frisco has clearly become my top spot. It took a little getting used to but the gentlemen behind the bar as well as owner Adam are all nice people, they keep a ton of interesting beers on, the menu's good, and occasionally I can pick up a copy of the latest Mid-Atlantic Brewing News or Beer Advocate if they haven't already been picked over by other customers. Good stuff.

Mojo Is Beer Friendly

If Comcast happens to be your cable TV provider.

If you have their HD package.

If you have an HD television.

You've got Mojo. More specifically, you've got InHD Channel, which is another name for Mojo. Mojo is an all-HD cable network with some fairly interesting programming. Notable within their lineup: Three Sheets and Beer Nutz.

Three Sheets is a personal favorite of mine and has a bit of a cult following. It's a show hosted by Zane Lamprey, who travels the world and participates in its various booze cultures. Lamprey is equal parts comedian, host and guinea pig. Despite the title, there isn't too much embarrassing drunkenness. Instead, the viewer gets a snappy, well-edited local profile of his various stops and their beverage cultures.

Beer isn't so much the focus of this show. If the show stops in France, the obvious focus is on Champagne and wine. In Kentucky: bourbon. In Ireland: Guinness. You get the picture. Watch the New Year's Even NYC Pub Crawl Episode or the full Croatia episodes here for a taste of the magic of Three Sheets. The show's fans have even developed a fun drinking game that meshes well with the content of the episodes.



The lesser of the two booze-related programs is Beer Nutz. Its two hosts travel around the U.S. sampling and rating beers, breweries and brewers. Beer Nutz provides a decent look into the beer culture of the featured cities. The hosts are nice guys but seem a bit aloof to the intricacies of beer which could make the show more informative.

As for a local connection ... there isn't one. Neither show has spent any time in Charm City. However, several local establishments feature beers from Magic Hat (I've seen #9 on draft at Greene Turtle and bottles of Circus Boy at Victoria), a strange but well-regarded brewery in Vermont that was featured in an episode of Beer Nutz.