In the country that created fast food, Thanksgiving is the exception where people typically take their time and put together a big elaborate meal with several courses and eat all day. This focus on slowing things down and appreciating a real meal makes it a perfect opportunity to introduce your family to some interesting beers that are both full of flavor and accompany the traditional Thanksgiving foods very well. Beer is a great choice for Thanksgiving because you can find a huge range of styles and flavors to accompany each type of food and it is also much lower in alcohol than other drinks so you won't say anything you regret in front of your family and you won't pass out before you get to your much anticipated food coma.

Serious Eats just wrote an article titled Serious Beer Pairings for Thanksgiving that includes some fantastic recommendations.

On my list of beers to pair with the dinner tomorrow are the Sierra Nevada Porter, a light bodied, low alcohol beer, with roasted chocolate flavors to go with both mashed sweet potatoes and the dessert pies. I also plan to drink the Southampton Biere de Garde with the turkey and stuffing. This beer has an earthy, toasted malt, caramel flavor that should go very well with traditional turkey and stuffing seasonings. If you have any unusual dishes with strong or over bearing flavor, I would recommend trying out a smoked beer. These beers most notably go well with barbecue food, but can also pair well with any dish with a very strong flavor. Some examples that I like are the Captain Lawrence Smoked Porter and the Stone Smoked Porter.

For further information about pairing beer with food I would highly recommend Garrett Oliver's book Brewmaster's Table

Ok, starting this week we are going to give shout-outs to the interesting cask beers we see added to BeerMenus. Cask beers are best fresh so we are going to send out alerts to announce many of the beers tapped.

Find the Harviestoun Schiehallion on cask here.

Recently tapped at Hackney's, the Bell's Oarsman is a session beer created using old German brewing techniques. Session beers are a rare breed these days and it is nice to see a flavorful low alcohol beer. This is the description from Bell's: "Designed as a flavorful session beer, Oarsman Ale uses a classic German brewing technique to impart a light, refreshing tartness. Oarsman Ale grew out of a desire to explore the tradition of session beers, trading intensity for finesse while still creating a worthwhile experience for the taster. The grain bill includes a healthy portion of wheat, while German hops lend herbal notes to the aroma. Fermented with Bell’s house ale yeast, Oarsman comes in at 4.0% alcohol by volume. Rather than being the dominant flavor note, the tartness in Oarsman takes on more of a palate-cleansing role, making it perfect for pairing with food."

Just opened on November 18th, Hawthornes is a new beer boutique located in Bella Vista. This place fills growlers, a personal favorite form of drinking when not at the bar and they also sell bottled beer. Listed on their site right now they have a personal favorite beer the Russian River Blind Pig, as well as the General Lafayette Wet Hop Harvest. Sounds like a great addition to the neighborhood.

We are excited to have Warehouse Liquors on BeerMenus. They already have over 50 great beers on their menu and they have said soon they will have an "influx" on additional brews on their list. Stay tuned for additions to the menu and in the meantime, grab a Brewdog Paradox Port Dundas, a pretty unusual find.

Sierra Nevada is one of the founding fathers of craft beer in the USA and one of my favorite breweries. The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was the first true hoppy beer I drank and it was my gateway beer that made me get into craft beer and hoppy beers in particular. It is to this day one of my favorite hoppy beers. With that said, some people probably think they only brew the Pale Ale these days. Quite to the contrary they have been brewing some very interesting beers from their annual fresh-hop harvest ale to their Celebration Ale, which is just coming out for the holiday season. In fact, they brew over 14 beers, four of which are seasonal harvest beers (my favorites). Most recently, Sierra Nevada is brewing a pair of collaboration beers with Dogfish Head Craft Ales. The two beers are called Life & Limb and Limb & Life.

Currently, you can find the Limb & Life at Swift Hibernian Lounge.

We are excited to have Brixie's on BeerMenus. Check out their impressive beer menu and thank them for providing better information on what beers they currently have.

Just tapped, The Pony is now pouring 23 lines of Victory Brewing Company beers, a selection that almost rivals the draft list at Victory Brewing Company itself. The selection includes the Victory Storm King and the Victory Yakima Twilight (fresh hop) beers on cask. Other personal favorites on tap include the Braumeister Pils, the Harvest Pils, and the Sunrise Weisse, among many others. Check out the beer menu

Track down the Port Brewing High Tide Fresh Hop IPA. According to Port: "While waiting for the tides to shift in your favor, might we suggest a High Tide IPA? Brewed only once each year to coincide with the Hop Harvest in Yakima Washington, High Tide IPA is made with 180 lbs of Fresh Hops per batch that are plucked from the vines and sent straight to our brewery. We skip the whole drying and processing stage which means the hops are ultra fresh and full of flavors we can't normally get. Like grapes, Hops are only harvested one time each year and as such, we make what we can when we get them."

Find it here

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I've found it quite surprising how few people seem to be as enthusiastic about wet-hop or fresh-hop beers as I am. To my knowledge, they really don't seem to get much attention other than Lucy Burningham's article a couple weeks ago. If you aren't familiar with the expression wet-hop or fresh-hop, I'd highly recommend her article.

Earlier this week my brother Eric and I went on a pub crawl seeking out exclusively wet-hopped beers to celebrate the hop harvest season and to take advantage of this unique time of the year when hops are at their freshest. Eric pointed out that it may be my interest in gardening that makes me so obsessed with wet-hop beers. Either way, the combination of my obsession with hoppy beers and my my obsession with gardening makes this season the best time of the year for me. As with all food products, the ingredients are the most important part and beers made during the hop harvest season are some of the best you will find all year. In New York, my brother and I were able to go on a great pub crawl sampling the Sierra Nevada 13th Anniversary Wet Hop, the Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA Wet Hop, and the Victory Yakima Twighlight on a quick pub crawl in Brooklyn. I have made it to the Foodery to get a few beers that are tough to find as well. By far, my favorite two have been the Sierra Nevada 13th Anniversary Wet Hop and the Victory Harvest Pils.

In Philly, you guys are lucky to have the Wet Hop Rodeo. On Saturday November 14th Johnny Brenda's will be pouring 9 wet-hop beers. The beers include: Victory Harvest Pils, Victory Harvest Ale, Weyerbacher Harvest Ale, Philadelphia Brewing Company, Harvest from the Hood, Manayunk Brewing Hop Harvest, Port Brewing High Tide, Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale, Rogue Wet Hop Ale, Iron Hill Wet Hopped Ale firkin. These beers come and go quickly so make sure to try one this season.

We would like to give a warm welcome to our friends at Finnegan's Irish Pub. These guys have been one of our most frequent menu updaters since we launched in Chicago and they are continually rotating an impressive selection of craft beers. Their most recent addition is the 2009 Sam Adams Utopias, a beer that just reached the market this week. Check them out and thank them for updating their menu so often.

We are excited to have Local Option on BeerMenus. Check out their awesome beer selection and thank them for going above and beyond to update their beer menu!

According to Michael Kline's article today, there will be a new place in South Philly selling counter-pressure filled growlers. The place is called Hawthorne's and will be pouring 16 different beers for growler fill. The place is expected to open November 18th and offer a collection of bottled beer and food to-go. Chris Fetfatzes says that he has created a way to avoid letting oxygen touch the beer while filling the growler and claims growlers will stay fresh for 8 months. It is great to see people put in the effort to better serve growler beer. As someone who used to work at Bierkraft, which has been pouring counter-pressure filled growlers for years using their proprietary system, I am excited to see the setup at Hawthornes.

A special thanks to Alex Hall, of the Gotham Imbiber for organizing the upcoming 'Cask Head' Cask Festival. If you are a lover of cask ale, this event is a godsend. If you have not gotten into cask ale yet, this event will undoubtedly convert you. The event will take place this weekend from Nov. 6-9 (Fri-Sun). Alex has just announced the provisional list (subject to a few changes here and there):

There will be 12 casks tapped at a time. Pay as you go.

Arbor (Corner) 'Tally Wacker'
Big Rock Chop House 'Norm's Raggedy Ass Ale'
Chelsea '90 Shilling Scotch Ale'
Clipper City 'Hang Ten'
Dark Horse 'Amber Ale'
Dark Horse 'Toasted Wheat Wine'(Dry hopped: Amarillo)
Dark Star 'Old Chestnut' -UK brewed
Dark Star 'Golden Gate' -UK brewed
Dark Star 'Sunburst' -UK brewed
Firestone Walker 'Nectar IPA'
Flying Bison 'Blackbird Oatmeal Stout'
Flying Bison 'Rusty Chain'
Flying Bison 'Inferno Pod Ale'
Harpoon 'Oktoberfest' (Dry hopped: Vanguard)
Harpoon 'IPA' (Dry hopped: Chinook)
Heartland 'Not Tonight Honey Porter' (aged nearly a year)
Left Hand 'Oak Aged Imperial Stout'
The Livery '555 IPA'
The Livery 'Fuggelicious Wet Hopped Harvest Ale'
The Livery 'Liberty Ale' (Dry hopped: Fuggles)
Michigan 'Big Mac'
Otter Creek 'Imperial India Pale Ale'
Shawnee 'Entire'
Shmaltz 'Coney Island Human Blockhead'
Shmaltz 'Coney Island Sword Swallower'
Sly Fox 'Chester County Bitter'
Smuttynose 'Baltic Porter'
Smuttynose 'Chai Porter'
Speakeasy 'Oak Aged Big Daddy IPA' (Dry hopped: Cascade)
Stoudt's 'Medium Pumpkin'
Three Floyds 'Alpha King'
Tröegs 'Dead Reckoning Porter'
Tröegs 'JavaHead Stout'
Tröegs 'Nugget Nectar'
Victory 'Yakima Twilight Ale'
Warwick Valley 'Doc's Pear Cider'

The Sly Fox is new, don't confuse with Chester County Brown Ale.
Cheers!