The Ale House, Amesbury MA

One of the better spots for grabbing a unique brew in the area is in Amesbury. The Ale House is a beautiful space, with exceptional food, and brews on draft from all over the world.

Dave loves to come here, because they always have different foreign beers on draught, and they give you a sheet of paper with all the beers on it where you can check off what you like, what you've had, what you want to have again. Dave takes notes in the margins, and keeps track of what he has had or where he "wants to go next."

Bubbles, lace, beauty.

The bartender is awesome. He's super friendly and is really entertaining. He's quick with the samples in the tiny glasses so you can decide if you want something like the Dieu Du Ciel! Route Epices (no, you don't. It's awful).

There are so many beautiful and tasty options here. Most of them have too high an ABV for me to enjoy. For those of you who don't know, ABV is alcohol by volume. Check out the picture for the Mikkeller Black Hole from Denmark there. 13% is crazy too high for afternoon lunch drinking but that didn't stop me from having a sample. Most of the beers that we're used to up around here are between 4.5% and 5.5%, so if you have a couple of 8% and 13% brews you'd better have a designated driver.

And I'm pretty much the driver. SoI limit my intake to 2 beers usually. And Dave will enjoy a few more than that. He plots out his orders using the menu, like he's reading a road map, and he greatly enjoys the trek around the globe.

This particular day at the Ale House, Dave had a pizza and I had a Chicken Quesadilla (one of the best in the area). I enjoyed brews from the local Somerville outfit Pretty Things, and their Field Mouse is a perfect pair to the lovely Quesadilla. 

Dave had a Chimay, new on draught this month. It hadn't been there before on tap but only in the bottle. 

I took a lot of pictures on this trip, the lighting seemed lovely and we were there quite a while enjoying the atmosphere and the journey.

My lunch -- tremendously delicious.
With a Pretty Things Field Mouse Farewell, which I wish was in a glass that didn't bear another brewer's logo.

Chimay! Dave's Fave.  Served in its own glass.