Of
Love and Regret opened 3 months ago as the home of brewer Brian Stillwater’s
Stillwater Artisan Ales. Brian was a
gypsy (like Danish brewers Mikkeller and his Evil Twin) brewer, brewing at
different facilities. He opened this bar
to showcase his brews, taking advantage of an available spot in a location that
is full of development. The bar doesn’t
look like much from the outside, but has been well restored inside with updated
brick work, a long bar, and a friendly staff that were very knowledgeable on
the different beer offerings. Our
bartender Ryan had recently moved down from Maine to support Brian, and we
found out through our conversation that he knew Todd Mott, the former brewer at
Portsmouth Brewery. When I told him the
story how my buddy Wayne had fixed Todd’s miller (see May 11th blog
entry), Ryan was at Portsmouth the following week and had heard the story form
Todd (small beer world, isn’t it). Of
Love and Regret is working on their upstairs area, but we were allowed to go up
and see the full picture that a portion is used on their Jaded bottles. I even got a chance to get a whiff of the
Pappy Van Winkle bourbon barrel that a version of their Folklore beer is aged
in. It’s a great bar, at an easy to get
to location (2 minutes off of I-895), and definitely worth a stop.
Wow,
a whole paragraph and I haven’t even mentioned the beer or the food. We were fortunate to get there for brunch, so
Jenn got a chicken salad club that she was quite happy with (and she wasn’t
sure if she wanted to go in), and I got the Stillwater Eggs Benedict. Their version used andouille sausage, potato
hash, and covered with a beer cheese sauce (that’s right, beer cheese). It was awesome! For the beer, I had the As Follows and the
Bronze Age on draft. The As Follows is a
Belgian Strong Pale Ale, and the Bronze Age is a saison brewed in conjunction
with Hof Ten Dormaal. Both were great,
as was the conversation and the décor.
Did I say before that I really liked this place? I asked about the
bourbon barrel aged Folklore, but they wouldn’t sell the bottles to go and
confided that only a few places in the state might have any. So I thanked our host and headed back to
Jersey, stopping at one of those places that MIGHT have a good shot of having
the beer, State Line Liquors. 
State
Line Liquors is located at the MD / DE border, and has a great microbrew
selection. I’m on a bit of budget, so I
limited myself to only a few beers to bring home and enjoy later. I got the New Belgium Super IPA, part of
their Lips of Faith series and a collaboration with Alpine brewery, one of my
cousin Brian’s favorites (we’ll split it later on that night). I also found two Stillwater beers, the As
Follows and the Autumnal, and I had to get both to cap off my Baltimore
experience. I didn’t find the Folklore,
so I asked and sure enough, they kept the brew in the back and would sell me
one bottle. Entitled Stillwater
Folklore, The Tale of Van Winkle, I think I’ll put this beer down for a long
nap to open on a special occasion.
It
was a great trip. We picked up the kids
and headed home the next day. Unfortunately,
the Odyssey blew its transmission and I needed to take a tow truck ride back to
Clifton Park while my parents drove up to let Jenn use their spare car to get
home (what lifesavers). We have some
decisions to make, and we are a little stressed, but I can always look back to
the wonderful week away with my lovely wife.
– 6100/12746
“Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world.” - Kaiser Wilhelm
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