Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #126. Melt Down Stout by Root Down Brewing Co.

I think I feel like having a Melt Down right about now.  That’s right, the beer brewed by new Root Down Brewing in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania in a collaboration project with Beer N.E.R.D.s (Network of Educated Refined Drinkers) to remind us all that life is too short to get our underpants in a bind over waiting for a pint.  How many beer lines have you waited in?  I understand it can definitely cause anxiety if you can’t count how many folding chairs there are in front of you.  According to the story behind this beer, which is rapidly becoming a BeerNERDs legend, a gentleman saddled up to the brewery’s bar, and got impatient after waiting for the bartender to serve him, so he stormed off the premises without getting a pint!  He ranted about his experience online, and someone checked the security camera footage to find out how long he actually waited.  Needless to say, people had very little sympathy when they found out the wait was only 107 seconds.  So that’s the reason this beer is 10.7% ABV.

People have melt downs over strange things sometimes, so that is why Root Down and BeerNERDs are giving a big amount of the proceeds to support Main Line Deputy Dog, a non profit that trains and maintains service animals for people with challenges in life.  Root Down has generated over $6,000 for the non-profit so far!  I will donate 10% of sales from this painting and prints to MLDD to help with the cause.  So don’t wait too long before making it into Root Down… You might just have a real melt down, instead of the chocolate oatmeal stout that comes in a cool can with the BeerNERDs logo on it.  My friend Rich from PA sent me a can of this beer, and it knocked my hat in the creek!

Cheers to bartenders who work fast to get us our pints!

The original oil painting sold. 52 limited-edition prints are available at our Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #126. Melt Down Stout by Root Down Brewing Co. 11″x14″, oil on panel. By Scott Clendaniel

Advertisement

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #95, October 20, 2016, Sunny Side Up Coffee Stout by Pizza Boy Brewing Co.

When we woke up this morning in the cabin in McCarthy, our iPhones didn’t have any service, so our first concern was that I wouldn’t be able to post a Thirsty Thursday beer painting for the first time since I started the project at the start of 2015!  The second thought that crossed our minds was that maybe the world had ended after last night’s Presidential Debate, and we had no way to find out, but then I remembered that I saw a jet fly by earlier.  We didn’t know whether we were the only ones having this problem, so when our neighbor stopped by for coffee, the first thing we asked him was wether his phone worked.  But he said it was low on power, and he hadn’t turned it on all morning, and left it at his cabin.  Luckily, someone, somewhere fixed the problem promptly, and now we’re connected to the outside world again.  

I painted this piece yesterday next to the burning wood stove in our cabin, but I drank the Sunny Side up Coffee Stout by Pizza Boy Brewing Co. a few days ago, and I can tell you that it would be a great way to start the day.  My friend Rich gave me this can when I visited him in Philadelphia last month, and I brought it all the way back to Anchorage in my luggage.  He says he feels sorry for anyone who’s never had this beer, and I agree.  Drinking this beer with your breakfast eggs would be kind of like starting the day with a rock concert.  This batch of Sunny Side Up is brewed with coffee from Little Amps Coffee Roasters in Harrisburg, PA, so that’s why there’s an amp on the beer can, and band instruments on a stage in the painting.  As my wife sipped on her share, she commented that this is a nice coffee beverage with some beer in it.  Well, not just a little bit of beer, considering its 9.5% ABV.  If you drink this beer after 4PM, you better have a concert to go to, because there is so much coffee in this tasty hybrid beverage that you won’t be sleeping until well after midnight.  Pause your morning band practice and raise that coffee cup full of brew in a toast to Pizza Boy and Little Amps, a marriage of flavors from two great companies!

This original oil painting, and 52 limited-edition prints are for sale at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #95 by Scott Clendaniel. October 20, 2016. Sunny Side Up Coffee Stout by Pizza Boy Brewing Co., 8″x10″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #92, September 29, 2016, Summit Hop Necessity IPA by Levante Brewing Co.

Today’s Thirsty Thursday beer painting is of Summit Hop Necessity IPA by Levante Brewing Company of West Chester, Pennsylvania.  I painted this live at the brewery.  Levante (La•vant•tay) is a relatively new brewery, having just completed its first year producing craft beer.  Finely crafted beer it is, too.  The brewery’s tagline is “Elevate your Craft,” which these guys are doing.  Sounds like they are expanding their craft as well.  I heard from an inside source that the place is growing and may be getting a bottling/canning line.  But that is mere speculation.  Growth for Levante is eminent, however, just where it is going, I don’t know.

Getting to Levante in West Chester was easy, I just hopped in my buddy’s car at Tired Hands in Ardmore, and he drove me there via McKenzie Brewhouse.  Getting back to Mt. Airy via SEFTA before my hosts went to bed on a work night was a bit more trying.  I started my journey at Side Bar in West Chester at 7:00 PM.  I considered having a meal as I had been tasting beer all day, but felt full of good cereal grains, and opted to just hammer home.  According to Google Maps I could do it in just about two hours.  It is only about 40 miles.  Unfortunately, the way SEFTA works doesn’t make it easy to go from one neighborhood to another.  It is set up to get you in and out of the City Center.  Busses require exact change.  Trolleys have to be payed in advance. On the regional line, the big trains, you pay the attendant.  I learned all of this by blundering along.  I got on the first bus, and even though it said there was only one stop from West Chester to 69^th Street station, it was more like 49 stops.  Little to say, I sounded like an idiot when I asked if we were there yet after only one stop.  The bus driver informed me 69^th Street was the end of the line.  An hour later I was figuring out that the icon on Google Maps that looked like a bus was actually a small train called a Trolley.  It is a good thing it came every 10 minutes, because I missed the first one.  The Trolley from 69^th Street to 30^th Street in City Center was a little bit sketchy.  The gangsta-looking dudes riding the train looked at me with respect cause of my huge beard.  I was thankful for my beard the whole time, actually.  Since I missed the first trolley, my regional train wasn’t coming for 40 minutes.  I realized I wouldn’t get to Mt. Airy until 10PM.  Oops, kind of late on a work night for my hosts.  I booked it from the station to the house in Mt. Airy and arrived just in time to have a delicious bowl of frozen bananas!  Would not have been good to set off the alarm had I gotten there just a few minutes later!  So the word is that public transportation is good in Philadelphia, but West Chester is a long ride away from Mt. Airy! 

Elevate Your Craft, and expand your horizons!  Take a train home, because it’s the small adventures in life that make it great!  

This original oil painting, and 52 limited-edition prints are for sale at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #92 by Scott Clendaniel. September 29, 2016. Summit Hop Necessity IPA by Levante Brewing Co., 8″x10″, oil on panel.

 

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #91, September 22, 2016, High Road Double IPA by Tired Hands Brewing Co.

It’s Thirsty Thursday again, and I am on a little beer trip across the nation!  Just arrived to California through Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.  Purchased beer from some amazing stores across the nation along the way.  I would have liked to stop at a few breweries, but this was a beer transport and purchase mission.  The two fellows I was with, and I made strategic strikes at different retail establishments in various local distribution zones.  We made an efficient trip across the country in four days.

Before the drive, I spent four days in Philadelphia, a city that loves beer.  I visited the Tired Hands Brewing Fermentaria and painted this piece live right there.  How fitting that at the end of a road trip I get to release a painting of a beer called The High Road, considering we drove through the Eisenhower Tunnel in Colorado, a mere 11,115 feet above sea level.  The High Road DIPA from Tired Hands is a delightful beer.  I drank one last night after our crew drove 900 miles from Grand Junction, CO to Paso Robles, CA.  It was warmer than most would suggest for the serving temperature, but I think it may have been the best beer I have ever consumed, probably due to the thirst that driving for 13 hours creates.  I was slightly chilled, as it was about 55 degrees outside and windy, and I was dressed for Las Vegas heat.  Our road trip is over today, and we safely delivered several cases of terrific beer to Monterey for the wedding party.  One of the driver’s sons is tying the knot in Pebble Beach this weekend.

Right when I finished painting live at Tired Hands Brewing Company’s Fermentaria in Philadelphia, PA.

Thank you Tired Hands Brewing Company for making such a delectable beer, which perfectly commemorates this trip.  What a long trip it has been!  Now I get to enjoy the beach for a couple days, before flying back to Anchorage, where I hear it is storming.  Hoping that all the beer I bought along the way will make it to Alaska safely in my luggage.  I’ll need it for future beer paintings.

This original oil painting, and 52 limited-edition prints are for sale at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #91 by Scott Clendaniel. September 22, 2016. High Road Double IPA by Tired Hands Brewing Co., 8″x10″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #89, September 8, 2016, Alien Church IPA by Tired Hands Brewing Co.

This week’s beer painting is of Alien Church IPA by Tired Hands Brewing Company in Ardmore, PA.  Jean Broillet IV, the brewer/owner/founder of Tired Hands is knocking it out of the galaxy with this one.  I got a chance to chat with him and his wife, Julie Foster, at Culmination Beer Fest, hosted by Anchorage Brewing, and I tasted for the second time the deliciousness of the Alien Church India Pale Ale.  This IPA really brings a lot of serious dry hopped flavor, but is smooth and fruity at the same time.  The freshness is probably the best thing about canned beer, just like a brand new keg every time you open one.  I tried several other Tired Hands brews at Anchorage Brewing, including a collaboration beer brewed by Jean and Gabe Fletcher, called Works of Love, which was fabulously sour and fresh.  To me it was a work of art.  When I made this painting, I put the can of Alien Church inside an alien cathedral in front of alien stained glass.  I think that Jean and his crew were imagining beer made by alien monks when they came up with the recipe.  I can’t wait to go to the new Fermenteria in a couple weeks during my short trip to PA, followed by a cross-country drive in six days with my friend who is going on an epic beer run for his son’s wedding in CA.  I am hoping to make a cool painting inside this great new Tired Hands location, which I have heard so much about! 

The original oil painting sold, but you can purchase a limited-edition print, or commission a custom painting at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #89 by Scott Clendaniel. September 8, 2016. Alien Church IPA by Tired Hands Brewing Co., 8″x10″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #54, January 7, 2016, Conshohocken Brewing IPA

Today is the first Thirsty Thursday of 2016!  I know I said I wouldn’t promise to release a new beer painting every week this year, but I have some great beers lined up that I just have to immortalize in oil paint.  So, without further ado, the first Thirsty Thursday beer painting of 2016 is of Conshohocken Brewing IPA from Pennsylvania.  This can was mailed to me all the way from PA (thanks again Rich)!  Conshohocken is a borough of Pennsylvania that was a developing industrial district during the 19^th century, a time when Velocipedes (bikes with the front wheel as the drive wheel) ruled the day.  A time when bowler hats were the “fizzing”, and to “crook the elbow” meant to drink from a pint.  Conshohocken Brewing is keeping the days of old young and putting out a mean “heavy wet.”  A good IPA is difficult to make, requiring the precision that only American ingenuity is capable of creating, and CB is doing a good job of it!  I hope to get to try a few more of their delectable liquids.  Be careful when donning your velocipede, as everyone who rides a fixed geared bike knows the brakes are directly related to destroying your knees.

Cheers to Conshohocken IPA, the beer in the lime green can with the cool bike on the label.  The beer that speaks of a time that was more elegant than today.  An era when local breweries were normal, and boxing happened in the streets. 

The original oil painting, and limited-edition prints are for sale at my Etsy shop.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #54 by Scott Clendaniel. January 7, 2016. Conshohocken Brewing IPA. 11″x14″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #40, October 1, 2015

Happy Thirsty Thursday! I am on the road tracking down tasty beers in the Pacific Northwest for the next two weeks. Although I am in the PNW, I am posting a painting of a recent acquisition from Pennsylvania – Cuvee Du Soleil by McKenzie Brew House. This is a lovely multigrain Grisette, lightly spiced with orange peel, ginger, grains of paradise and a dose of exotic Jaggery sugar. Barrel aged in a Chadds Ford cask, this beer is light and refreshing with complex flavors that intrigue the palate. McKenzie Brew House has three establishments in Pennsylvania. If the food there is as good as this example of brew, I will be sure to visit on my next trip to PA. Rich Morgan, my BEER N.E.R.D friend from West Chester has been communicating with the brewer who sent me the reference material for the backdrop in this painting. I eagerly await the barrel-aged quad that will be coming out next! Great work McKenzie Brew House!

The original oil painting, and limited-edition prints are for sale at my Etsy shop.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #40 by Scott Clendaniel. October 1, 2015. Cuvee Du Soleil Grisette by McKenzie Brew House. 8″x10″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #27, July 2, 2015

Wow, Fourth of July is right around the corner!  I can hardly believe that it is already this far through the 2015 year!  My friend from Philly sent me this bottle of Sour Monkey Brett Tripel by Victory Brewing, which I really wanted to try, but couldn’t get here in Anchorage, even though Victory distributes to us.  Thanks Rich!  It is the standard Golden Monkey Belgian-Style Tripel, but with a sour twist of Brettanomyces added.  I found it to be a nice, refreshing sour beer, especially in the summer time.  I love popping a champagne cork out of a bottle of the good stuff.  At 9.5% (same percentage as the Golden Monkey), it is a good idea to share a bottle of this.  Maria and I enjoyed every last drop.  Sours are becoming more popular, and it is a good thing to develop your palate to enjoy this type of brew, as well as solid bitter pilsners, hop-aromatic IPAs and sweet Belgians.  Beer is like a rainbow of flavor — there are so many different kinds of tongue-tantalizing varieties.  I just returned from the annual Salmon harvest on the Kasilof River and finished smoking ten big Sockeye Reds late last night.  Makes me think of smoked beers.  Here’s an idea for Ron and Bill, Smoked Monkey!  I bet it would be great!

Cheers to the wild Sour Monkey — a great beer with a great label!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #27 by Scott Clendaniel. July 2, 2015. Sour Monkey Brett Tripel by Victory Brewing Co. 8″x10″, oil on panel.