I'm Back!

Hey Ladies!

I've returned from the abyss. I was writing for another blog (www.presidentialdebateblog.com) that actually had some readership, strangely enough.

Anyway, I'm home. More writing about beer will soon follow.

In the interim, however, I feel that it is worth mentioning that I had a Simpler Times Lager recently.

All I'm going to say is that the Beer Purity Laws kept things simple. It doesn't make something "simpler" to include garbage adjuncts like corn. UGH.

Still, for the money, this beer is significantly better than its peer group. If you're a poor college student looking to get your drink on, this may be the way to go. Well-hidden high ABV also!

I (heart) Autumn

Between apple cider and falling leaves, football, and the High Holidays, who doesn’t love sweater season? (answer)

The best part of the coming of autumn may just be the beer. Fall brews were what really got me into beer in the first place. During my (removed for legal reasons) year of college, a friend poured me a glass of Sam Adams Octoberfest and, for the first time, I experienced a beer with flavor. For that simple reason, I have a soft spot for Marzens and for pretty much all fall beers.

To celebrate the coming of my favorite beer season, here’s are a few quality autumn brews you should try before the trees go completely bare:

Sam Adams Octoberfest –

As mentioned above, this is the brew that turned me into a beer-lover. It’s very malty but hopped enough to keep it from becoming sweet. The golden/amber color is very pretty (and matches the leaves in front of my house perfectly, by the by).

If you don’t believe me about how good this Marzen is, trust Bavarians: this was the first American beer ever allowed at Oktoberfest in Germany.

Wychwood Scarecrow–

Up until this year, I’ve always seen this beer as Circle Master (anyone know if “circle master” is a britishism for scarecrow?). Whatever the reason for the name change, it’s a solid pale ale. On the lighter side for a fall beer but relatively heavy for a pale ale, it serves as a good training wheel for those who aren’t quite ready to give up on the lighter summer brews. Also cool about this beer, it’s 100% organic and so it gets the TreeHugger seal of approval.

Der Hirschbrau Doppelhirsch–

I’ve discussed the Doppelhirsch before, but didn’t go into much detail. This is one you’re going to want to pour into nice big stein so you can take in the full experience. It’s got a great dark red/brown color with nice earthy aroma. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was malt heavy but the hops that are there balance it out nicely.

When I picture the last barbeque of the year, I’m standing over the fire, grilling knockwurst and sipping this beer.

Southern Tier Pumking –

Southern Tier continues their streak of surprising me and upping the ante for every other microbrewery with this one. Until I sampled Pumking, the only pumpkin beer I’d liked was my absolute favorite beer, Shipyard Pumpkinhead. I still like Shipyard’s more, but that’s like comparing apples to oranges or, more accurately, amber ales to imperials.

Pumking is heavy and has a high alcohol content for an autumn beer. It’s definitely not an everyday beer but next time you’re in the mood to get your mind blown, order one of these, and if you get the chance to have it on tap, do it.

Shipyard Pumpkinhead –

You already know how much I love this beer.

Donezo.

Battle of the Bulge

Sorry it’s taken me all week to give you my rundown of the Belgian Beer Fest we attended last Saturday. I certainly got my fill of that classic Belgian beer flavor and the lunch fare was certainly appropriate but overall, I don’t think I’ll be going back next year

This shouldn’t really be a surprise to any who’s heard me rant about Belgians before. While I appreciate Belgian brewers willingness to the push limits and try out new ideas, even when something seems really truly intriguing, most of the time I’m left wishing I’d ordered something else. Still, I went into this festival hoping they could make a convert out of me. Needless to say, this didn’t happen, but I still managed to find a few high quality brews among the over-carbonated, extra sweet, craziness that everyone around me was drinking.

Stone impressed me with their 08.08.08 Vertical Epic Ale, I had a nice conversation with one of their brewers and he explained that while the base of this beer is just plain old pale malt, they use oats, candi sugar, and a clove yeast, all of which combine to give it a light but really interesting flavor. There’s no fruit in this beer but the combination of hops they used create a citrusy flavor that was a hell of a lot more potent than my own attempts at citrus beers. It was weird for me to drink something from Stone that was as light as this; up until Saturday, Stone and Arrogant Bastard were pretty much synonymous to me. Kudos to these guys for being able to brew all over the spectrum.

I’d never had anything by Rohrbach before but I was drawn to them (perhaps because from across the room I misread their name). Their dubble and trippel were pretty standard but their Au Naturale Blonde was surprisingly good. Rohrbach is based in upstate New York, so unless a miracle happens, I probably won’t get the opportunity to try much more of their stuff.

Haverhill Brewery’s Honing Honey Pale Ale was fucking delicious. I spent the rest of the festival sampling other breweries' honings but none matched up. I was so intrigued by this one that I’ve already started researching honey beers and the best way to homebrew them. I love mead and I love beer so I should have known this day would come. Also Haverhill had the coolest taps at the festival. A staff member explained to me that when they moved into one of the old mill buildings they operate out of, they just found all these old wooden shoe molds and decided they couldn’t just toss them out. 10 bonus points right there.

Best in show would have to be Corsendonk’s Apple White. Hands down my favorite at the festival. I’d never had a good apple beer before and I’m not usually a witbier fan but the combination of the two, with relatively low carbonation, made for an exceptionally drinkable beer. The apple really was the strongest flavor but I don’t want you think this was like some strange apple juice concoction. This was still a beer, a beer with an awesome apple flavor.

Corsendonk’s people weren’t actually at the festival (an importer brought their stuff) so there wasn’t anyone well informed enough to answer my many questions about their brewing methods. I did do some research online afterwards and discovered that the Apple White is only 3.1% ABV! That’s incredibly low for any beer but especially for a Belgian. I knew it was light, but that’s lighter than Natty Light. This may be the least alcoholic good beer I’ve ever had. Could that be the secret to the maintaining the strong apple flavor? Nick = Confused. I have many many more questions about this beer’s lack of alcohol but for now let’s put all that aside and remember that it deserves a very strong endorsement.

Deciding on the worst beer at the festival may actually be the toughest question. I’ve narrowed it down to two, both from Lost Abbey: Orphan Annie and Ten Commandments. These beers had so much wrong with them (and that’s not counting being named after two movies that make me want to gouge out my eyeballs). There was a lot of buzz around the Orphan Annie because it’s left to ferment in used bourbon barrels. That’s a cool idea and an interesting piece of trivia but the beer still sucked. It was just too heavy and the alcohol taste was overpowering, which is pretty disappointing considering the many beers at the festival that had equal or higher ABVs and didn’t have nearly as much of alcohol taste. Mark said it tasted like a bad barley wine, which I think is an insult to barley wines.

Ten Commandments was equally awful. The guide provided by the festival called it a “Dark Farmhouse Ale with caramelized raisins, honey, rosemary, and Brettanomyces.” I call it sludge. Between this and Raison D’Etre, I am now completely convinced that raisins have no place in beer. Not to make this entire post about alcohol content, but this beer was listed at 9.5%, which is nothing to is nothing to scoff at and would definitely be a feat to mask completely, but like the Annie, the alcohol was the prominent flavor. Hey Lost Abbey, if I wanted to drink rubbing alcohol, I’d go to a rubbing alcohol festival but this is a beer festival.

All right, that’s my two cents on the Belgian Beer Fest. Hopefully, Mark will check in sometime soon with his take.

Belgian Beer Fest

Tomorrow, Mark and I will be attending Beer Advocate's Belgian Beer Fest in Boston. While belgians certainly aren't my favorite beers I'm still extremely excited about this event.

It's sold out so we'll be sure to give you unlucky souls who can't be there in person a rundown of all the highs and lows next week.

Better Beer

It was a great night last night. Too bad the Sox brass couldn't get these guys anything better than Bud Lite.

White House Beer List

I haven't been able to get myself too fired up about this election so far but this may have just sealed the deal for me.

Do we really want four years of shit beer in the Oval Office. Come on, we've already had eight years of no beer, we need to get this country back on the right track and ensuring the quality of alcoholic beverages is as good a place to start as any.

This election just got a whole lot clearer: Which do you think is more presidential this or this?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

That's right boys and girls, after nine long hard months of waiting, it's Pumpkinhead season!

Yesterday was the first day this wonderful beer hit the shelves in my hometown so I dutifully bought my favorite liquor store's entire stock and placed orders at two more stores.

It's gonna be a good month.

BrewHappens Update

As promised, here's an update of my latest adventure in homebrewing. If you remember, the plan was to make a summertime beer with a hint of citrus in it without abandoning barley malts for wheat.

On Sunday, I opened the lighter of the two recipes. It's a lightly hopped Kölsch with the juice from 3 decent sized limes added at the end of the boil. The result was better than I ever could have expected. I was worried it would come out too light but it came out a very pretty color. Most importantly, the lime, while understated, is definitely there and I think adds a nice extra dimension. A bunch of us kicked back and drank this BeerHappens original while barbequing in the backyard.

Last night, I open up the other citrus beer I worked on. This one was meant to be an amber ale, again lightly hopped, but this one included both lemon and lime in the boil.

This tasting was disappointing for two reasons:
(1) I must have screwed up the priming sugar because, this beer was way over carbonated. The first bottle fizzed up as soon as I opened it and made a giant mess. Very sad. Very big waste of beer.
(2) Once it settled down and I was able actually drink beer instead of foam, there was really no citrus flavor to be found. I used a good amount of lemon and lime juice in this one but I guess it wasn't enough so it all got masked by the amber malts.

Besides that, it's a good beer. To use Mark's favorite term, it's a Dog Show Beer. It tastes just like was an amber ale should taste like. Nothing too remarkable about it, just what you'd expect from an amber. It's a bit of a downer for me, though, especially after the Kölsch was such a success the night before. In the end, you just have to look on the bright side: it's still beer. Exploding beer, but still beer.

Of these two, the Kölsch is definitely the winner and it has earned the right to be called Zitrus.

Victory Lap

As promised today’s post is dedicated to the far and away winners of the 2008 Ale-ympics, the Germans.

Best original German style? How do you choose? Altbier, Kölsch, Weizen, Bock, Helles, Roggenbier, Schwarzbier, Dunkel; they’re all German and they’re all fantastic. That’s eight styles I just came up with off the top of my head, each worthy of a 9 or 10. Some would even argue that it’s more appropriate to break up Bocks into the various different types (Urbock, Eisbock, Doppelbock, Maibock, etc.) because they vary so greatly. You know what, I’m not even going to pick one. It’s so hard to choose, let’s just agree that at least one of those styles is worthy of a 10 and move on.

Determining the single best German beer is probably a taller order than deciding on the best style, once again because there’s just so many. Once again, I could just cop out and say “We all know that one of these deserves a 10” and move on but I’m gonna use this as an opportunity to pitch Hirschbraus’s Doppel-Hirsch. It’s very hard to come by on the east coast and I only stumbled upon it up by accident (literally, I got home and was angry with myself for having grabbed the wrong bottle) but it has become of my favorite brews and is easily my favorite Doppelbock. Hirschbrau is a Bavarian brewery that only imports to the U.S. through an Oregon based company (yet another reason to move out west) but I’m dying to try some of their other offerings so I keep scouring the liquor stores. Anyways, another 10 for Deutschland.

As for the beer culture category, this is pretty much a cakewalk for the lederhosen wearing ale-thletes. One Word: Oktoberfest. That alone is worthy of a perfect score but Germany’s impact on beer culture goes way farther than that. Even when it comes to beers invented outside of Germany, the Germans have a knack for improving on other people’s work. Think of the Marzens I discussed in the last post. Hell, the pilsner wasn’t an original German invention but look at the close association with it today. And look at the amazing impact German immigrants have had on beer here in America. Without Jim Koch’s great-great-grandfather’s recipe, there would be no Sam Adams. The German impact on the beer world has been huge, so huge, in fact, that if I hadn’t already used the joke, I’d give them an 11, but since I can’t, they get a 10.

So congratulations to the German team Have fun celebrating guys, just don’t do go overboard.

And for any of you out there upset with the results of this illustrious competition, I’ll remind you, just like the events in the real Olympics, no one is going to give a shit about it for the next four years.

The bad news? Some of the athletes in Nicks ale-ympics were recently discovered by their competitors to be underage and in violation of sport rules.

The good news? Sometime this weekend, once I've had a little bit of sleep, the real beer Olympics will start. As soon as I think of a funny name for them.

Medal Round

Here we are, down to the final three. I’m so excited I can’t hold back any longer; let’s just dive in:

BRONZE
Austria
Original Style 9, Individual Beer 9, Culture 8
Total = 26

Austria just barely edges out the Irish to make it to the medal stand. They get high scores in all three categories but are led by their invention of Marzen/Oktoberfest. We usually associate Marzen with Bavaria, but the beer was first developed in Austria and was known as Weiner Typ (Vienna Style). Later, when the neighboring Bavarians enforced strict regulations on brewing in the hot summer months, this beer that's brewed in March but isn't ready until September or October, became extremely popular across the border and the new name took hold. These wonderful lagers almost make the end of summer not seem so bad.

For best individual Austrian beer, I’m going with the Augustiner Marzen. It’s hard to come by in the U.S. but if you ever see it, pick it up. A buddy of mine and I have been dreaming/planning of going on a brewery tour in Germany, but the prospect of having this beer on tap alone is enough to make me want to trek into Austria as well. It’s definitely the best Marzen I’ve had.

The culture score for Austria has got to be high but, at the same time, I don’t want to go too high because of the rather large overlap with and borrowing from Germany’s cultural contributions, hence the 8.

SILVER
United Kingdom
Original Style 9, Individual Beer 10, Culture 9
Total = 28

I went by Olympic rather than World Cup rules for dealing with the U.K. squad. In the World Cup England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland all compete separately but in the Olympics they all come together to form one U.K. team. Scotland and England could easily hold their own in this competition but seeing as I began this whole thing because of the Olympics, I’m going to follow the I.O.C.’s lead and judge them together. Don’t like it? Send your complaints here.

Best original beer style for the U.K. is a tough one: do I choose the I.P.A. or the E.S.B.? (I could also pick the Brown Ale, but come on, no acronym?). I’m going with the E.S.B. because when they’re good, they’re damn good (though, when they’re bad, well, when they’re bad they’re the one I made back in November).

My favorite U.K. beer is one I’ve already posted about. Traquair’s House Ale is a fantastic Scottish brew that, if it were more readily available, would have the serious potential to turn me into an alcoholic. I love this beer. Dear God, I love this beer.

The United Kingdom’s contribution to beer culture is one that I don’t think gets enough credit. Hell, just look at the three styles I had to choose from above. Can you imagine world without those three? This is the country that perfected the use of hopping (and came up with some great hop names, too). I also think that they deserve some serious points for their conservation efforts.

GOLD
Germany
Original Style 10, Individual Beer 10, Culture 10
Total = 30

Was there every really any doubt? Of course the Germans were going to win, the real question was by how much. I’ll save my Ode de Deutschland for tomorrow. Check back then for the victory lap.

Narrowing the Field

Welcome back to BeerHappens exclusive coverage of the 2008 Ale-ympics! In yesterday’s action, we saw Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Japan, and Mexico get eliminated from the competition, leaving us with today’s six Medal Round teams ready to duke it out and go for gold.

It’s a tough competition, but here’s how I see it playing out:

6. United States
Original Style: 5, Individual Beer: 10, Culture: 2
Total = 17

The best original style I selected for this is the California Common (a.k.a. steam beer). All the other “American beers” are really just knock-offs of older, better European styles. Steam beers are a solid entry but, while they represent a creative brewing achievement, the end product has never really blown me away in terms of taste. Anchor Steam is very good beer, but it doesn’t have that “Wow!” quality of some of the other styles we’ll get to later.

For the individual beer competition, I’m going to put forward my personal favorite, Shipyard’s Pumpkinhead. I’ve gushed about this beer a few too many times now, so I won’t go into it here, but if you’ve never had it, go pick up a six-pack when it hits the shelves in a couple weeks.

The American team really stumbles when we get to the culture category. The overarching U.S. beer paradigm is “Buy something cheap then drink a lot of it because being drunk is fun.” Overall, there’s a pretty strong argument that America has hurt beer culture more than it has contributed. Granted, we’ve been turning things around a bit recently, but until we get rid of this image, I can’t give the U.S. more than a 2.

5. Belgium
Original Style: 7, Individual Beer 9, Culture 7
Total = 23

The Belgians moved up and down in my rankings but in the end, I do think this is right spot for them. The original style competing is going to have to be the Belgian Tripel and it earns some quality points for being a high alcohol content brew that maintains a great flavor. However, I find Belgian beers to be too strongly carbonated, limiting the how much of the malts and hops you can actually savor and generally bringing down the brew.

Despite my general bias against Belgian beers, I had trouble picking my favorite offering. It was tough to choose between Chimay White and Kriek Boon, but ultimately, I’ll give it to the cherry lambic that has never done me wrong. Kriek deserves the 9.

Culture scores for the Belgians are hard to justify. There aren’t to many iconic Belgian beer images that spring to mind for most people but they deserve a solid 7 if only because of their influence on brewing in other parts of Western Europe.

4. Ireland
Original Style: 7, Individual Beer: 8, Culture: 9
Total = 24

I know Mark is going to rip my head off for this and another one of my Irish friends already screamed at me when I told him that the Irish wouldn’t be medaling, but here goes anyway:

Obviously, the original style choice is the Irish Stout, but as readers of this blog know, I’m not the world’s biggest stout fan. Not to mention, there’s a major historical question as to whether the stout really originated in Ireland. I’m already giving the benefit of the doubt on that one because I wouldn’t want to have to rate them based on the Irish Red.

The Irish individual beer entry is my favorite Irish Stout: Murphy’s. Some may be angry that I didn’t choose Guinness, but trust me, this isn’t meant as a knock on Guinness so much as a suggestion that you try a different stout for once.

The culture score is an easy 9 and would have been a perfect 10 if it weren’t for having to share soccer hooligans with the U.K. and the fact that St. Patrick’s Day didn’t become the crazy festival we know and love until the Irish migrated to the U.S.

That’s all for now but don’t forget to check back tomorrow when BeerHappens hands out the medals. Can you guess who will win gold?

Let's See NBC Cover This

Helllllllllooooo beer fans!

Given the current festivities going on in Peking, I thought it only appropriate to spend a little bit of time analyzing who would come out on top in the Olympics of Beer (or Ale-ympics if you prefer).

To govern this event, I will follow the lead of the real Olympics and have devised a judging system that will be poorly explained, horribly enforced, and completely irrational. Nations will be judged completely subjectively by my sleep-deprived self on a scale of 1 to 10 in the following three categories (1) best original beer style, (2) best individual beer, and (3) contribution to beer culture.

Right off the bat, let’s presume that only a handful of countries actually make it to the Ale-ympics (I like the sound of that more and more each time I say it) while the rest just got the shit kicked out of ‘em in the qualifying competition. Here’s what the field should look like: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the good ol’ US of A. Even amongst this group, it’s pretty clear that we can narrow it down a little further before we get to the Medal Round.

Let’s see who doesn’t quite make it into the finals:

Australia
Original Style: 1, Individual Beer: 2, Culture: 3
Basically, they gave us the giant beer can and that’s it.

Canada
Original Style: 1, Individual Beer: 2, Culture: 5
America’s Hat really only scores points for inventing (the sadly forgotten) McKenzie Brothers.

Czech Republic
Original Style: 6, Individual Beer: 4, Culture: 5
These guys just barely miss out. Their two problems being (a) I'm not a huge pilsner fan and (b) they may have invented it, but the Germans perfected the pilsner. Sorry guys, think of it this way, you're still doing better than the Slovaks.

France
Original Style: 1, Individual Beer: 5, Culture: 1
See my previous post.

Italy
Original Style: 1, Individual Beer: 1, Culture: 1
Italy’s greatest beer is essentially imported Milwaukee’s Best.

Japan
Original Style: 1, Individual Beer: 2, Culture: 1
If sake were beer, we could have a conversation. Since it’s not … just no.

Mexico
Original Style: 1, Individual Beer: 2, Culture: 3
The Austrians tried to teach them about beer but boy did that backfire.

That’s all for today but tune in tomorrow for BeerHappens continuing coverage of the 2008 Ale-ympics, where the Medal Round should be a real dog fight between the seasoned veteran European teams, but will the young upstarts from the United States have enough to earn a spot on the podium?

Wolfgang's Summer Bash

Whenever I brew, I feel compelled to turn the day into a celebration of all things beer and what better way to do that then to find some new beer and try it out while brewing? Usually, the goal is to find something that either (a) I’ve never heard of, (b) is similar to whatever it is I’m making that day, or (c) both. For my latest concoction, I went with option c and it turned out to be damn good choice.

I explained to the owner of my local package store that I was attempting to brew a lighter, citrusy ale for the summer months and he immediately grabbed me a 22 oz. bottle of Amadeus from Les Brasseurs de Gayant. Not only had I never heard of this beer, I’d never heard of the brewery. Hell, let’s be honest, I’d never heard anyone recommend a French beer.

I’ve seen French beers before, but not ones I would drink. Usually a French beer is just a poorly crafted Belgian. I mean come on, France? Beer? These things go together about as well as water and gasoline, Red Sox and Yankees, Ben Affleck and film. In a word association game, no one, literally, no one would hear France and say “beer.” Still, it came strongly recommended and he said it had a hint of lemon so I figured I’d buy it and at the very worst I’d have something new to make fun of France for.

Once I tried it, I was immediately humbled and began to question my many years of frog-bashing (well, okay, I didn’t question it that much). This is beer is a very high quality white ale. It’s light, smooth and refreshing with understated but not completely absent hops. The lemon gives it a great little bite at the end that makes you come back for more.

You know the image Corona tries to convey: the perfectly relaxed couple sitting on the beach or by the pool without a care in the world? Well screw Corona, that should be this beer’s ad. It’s a light but flavorful hot weather brew I could sip all day long and forget how many I’ve had, because who cares? It’s summer!

Now if only I could afford to go on vacation…

A Beer Anecdote

My parents do not drink beer--what a sad existence that must be for them.

Anyway, neither is particularly pleased with my intense passion for all things beer. As a result, any beer that can be found in their house has been banished to the basement.

I really wanted a beer with dinner, tonight, so I headed to the basement, where I was relieved to find a decent number of bottles of Sam Adams Boston Lager, one of the favorite beers of both writers on this blog. Sadly, the most recent of them had passed its prime, according to the label, in April. Ugh. One had actually peaked in October 2007. In short, the beer was just old.

I decided, therefore, to pour out the stuff that was truly undrinkable, being sure to taste each bottle when I opened it, just in case. When my dad realized what I was doing, he asked me to return the acetone-beer to the basement, so that someone "who is a little less of a connoisseur can drink it the next time someone wants beer."

Irritating, irritating, irritating. An appreciation of good flavor and a dislike of nasty staleness is not an issue of pallet or knowledge--I'm far from a beer expert, I just don't like beer that doesn't taste good. (Unlike Nick, of course.)

So, what's the moral of my little anecdote? People may call you a beer snob, and they may laugh at you or think you're being ridiculous. But if you know what you like, and you know what you don't like, don't drink the latter--nobody laughs at wine freaks for being too into their wine. Stand proud, beer drinkers! Drink what's good, and ditch what's bad.

PS. I ended up settling for an Anchor Steam that I had forgotten buying about two months ago. A really good beer that will certainly be reviewed here soon, along with my thoughts on how Anchor saved American beer.

It's Not a Kind of Magic

First off, let’s set the record straight: Mark and I have only ever gotten into fisticuffs once (well, twice if you count when we head butted each other while celebrating on the greatest day ever) and it was certainly over something far more important than posting protocol on the beerblog.

As for the beer itself, I’m not actually so big on the #9. It’s not a bad beer but it doesn’t really do much for me either. Mark describes it as a drinkable, clean beer that “flies down.” Yeah, that’s all true – because it’s a boring beer. It’s a very basic, unobjectionable Pale Ale, which is fine but, for me it doesn’t merit being listed as one of the “real major good beers” as Mark so eloquently put it.

I know what you’re thinking: “But Nick, the apricot!” Fruit in beer is a great thing, but it has to serve a purpose. The apricot in the #9 is not nearly pronounced enough for it to make a real difference in my palate. It’s a dulled background flavor, which would provide a great accent to the other flavors in this beer, that is, if they existed.

Again, I’m not saying that I dislike this beer. It’s thirst-quenching and when it’s offered to me, I drink it, but overall I find it kind of disappointing that the brewery that makes so many other interesting offerings has such a bland flagship.

Come on, Mark, if only because of your wardrobe, I thought I could count you to take up the good fight against all things boring. If you’re not going to join me in this struggle that’s fine. We’ve always known that there can be only one.

A Little Bit of Magic

A little while back, Nick and I had a conversation about what to do with the real major good beers out there: Sam Adams Boston Lager, Guinness, Anchor Steam, Magic Hat #9, etc.

After much calm and rational discussion, we decided that for the really major beers, we would just review them whenever, and that both of us would try to chime in at around the same time.

I didn't bother to tell Nick that I was going to write this post, because I only just decided to do it. I'm sure he'll notice it tomorrow after he finishes his usual morning internet browsing, and that he'll provide us with an excellent review of his own.

On to the beer (Magic Hat's flagship #9), however:

I've reviewed the Dogfish Head Aprihop elsewhere, so you know that the use of apricots in beer is something that appeals to me. The thing about the #9 is that it's basically the cleanest beer you can imagine--the damn thing flies down. The apricots are there, and they add a nice/fairly interesting flavor, to be sure, but it's not that pronounced--what Magic Hat has really done is to create an INTENSELY drinkable APA. (That, if only for the benefit of TheLadyFriend, is an American Pale Ale.

Nick and I broke into a 12 pack of Magic Hat on a recent train ride--and while I happen to enjoy all of their brews, this one is a real classic. I'm a big Ultimate player. Big both in the sense that I love it, and in the sense that I'm fat. This evening, after a game, a bunch of us headed to the bar, as we occasionally do on a summer evening. On this night, as on most nights, when I walk into the bar hot, sweaty, and thirsty, there's really no choice to be made--the first beer I go for when I just want to be refreshed and rejuvenated before moving on to more interesting offerings is the #9.

Interesting sidenote that would make you readers jealous, if you consisted of more than my girlfriend and occasionally my sister: Nick and I have both had all three of the beers to which I linked immediately before this sentence. Yes, that includes the one to which "offerings" links.

Public Service Announcement

Hey Y'all-

It should be pretty obvious by now that Nick and I really like beer. But it's also worth mentioning (and probably even serves some legal benefit, though I wouldn't know, as they don't teach law in law school,) that we ABSOLUTELY DO NOT support irresponsible drinking decisions. If you're going to drink too much, please make sure you're doing so in an environment where you're not going to pose a risk to yourself or others.

In other words, please don't be this jackass. And if you do feel the need to drink that much, and you somehow don't die, please have a sober designated driver. And get yourself into AA.

No beer is worth your life or someone else's.

BrewHappens

For the first time in a long time, I’m going to be brewing a BeerHappens original beer. I started brewing almost two years ago but have been on hiatus for a little while because other obligations keep getting in the way. That all changes tonight when I whip up a batch of a new brew I’m calling “Zitrus.”

If you’ve been studying your German, you already know that the goal with this brew is to make something with a wonderful citrusy flavor. I’ve done wheat beers with lemon before and we all know how much I love Sam Summer, but I’m hoping to get that thirst quenching citrus flavor without abandoning barley malts. I’m also planning on using some lime juice which I admit is a little risky; I don’t want this to come out tasting like this (or worse, this). Still, I’ve got confidence in my brewing abilities and I’ll be sure to post in a few weeks when this ale is finished.

Wish me luck!

Top Tier

Sorry for the long absence. I swear I haven’t been away so long because of anything you did. Seriously, it’s not you, it’s me. I also want to assure you that I the reason I haven’t been posting is not because I went through some crazy transformation and decided to give up drinking. No, it’ll be a cold day in hell before that happens. Really, it had a lot more to do with my three least favorite things in the universe: stress, stress, and stress. However, certain things have gotten way better so I’m going to focus on that and get back to providing you with quality beer reviews.

Anyways, without further ado, allow me to introduce an absolutely fabulous brewery: Southern Tier

I was first introduced to this wonderful company back in February when Mark told me that he'd had a chocolate stout that he said I was sure to love. This seemed like a dubious claim given that I generally don't like chocolate stouts and increasingly the only time I have a stout of any kind is when drinking one of these. However, I was completely blown away by Southern Tier Choklat. At the next beer festival we went to, I made a beeline for the Southern Tier booth and tried everything they had and each sample was better than the one before it.

Personal favorites would have to be their summer seasonal, Hop Sun, their IPA, and the aforementioned Choklat, but, hell, you should try them all. So far the only Southern Tier brew that I didn’t enjoy was their Jahva, but I’m not a coffee drinker so that really shouldn’t be held against them. Since February, it has become a major topic of conversation in BeerHappensLand as to whether Southern Tier is in fact our favorite brewery. I don’t know if Mark has officially made up his mind yet but I’m ready to give them the crown.

ADDENDUM: I was with Mark and some college friends the past few days for a weekend of nice quiet fun and we picked up a bottle of Souther Tier’s Crème Brulee Stout and I officially have a new Southern Tier favorite. Full disclosure, I’ve never met a crème brulee I didn’t like so maybe I came in with a bias, but let’s not kid ourselves either, this beer is not only delicious, it's a major brewing achievement. How on earth do you make a beer that tastes like the finest of the fine French desserts? It seems absurd to even suggest yet they did it. Once again, hats off to Southern Tier.

American Craft Beer Fest

Sorry, reader(s?) that this post is so highly delayed in its arrival. But behold:

THE WRITEUP OF THE BEERADVOCATE AMERICAN CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL!

Nick and I, along with a mutual friend from college and TheLadyFriend, attended aforementioned festival on Saturday June 21. Nick and I have experienced a few beer festivals, while our companions were both rookies. We came in, however, with a well-developed plan of attack: we would try many beers, but finish very few of our 2 oz. pours, choosing to drink only the truly excellent ones and the last few of the festival.

So, in no particular order, (though it is actually alpha by brewery,) I give you abbreviated reviews of… THE BEERS… or at least the ones I tried:

Bear Republic Brewing Company Hop Rod Rye—this is a VERY highly ranked beer on BeerAdvocate, so I was really looking forward to it. Honestly, it was nothing special—good, but a bit too heavy on the rye. I wouldn’t really recommend it.

Berkshire Brewing Company Marzen—billed as a “Strong German Lager,” this was a pretty good beer. Light, with a little bit of sugar throughout, this would make a pretty solid session brew—tasty, not too alcoholic (6.8%), and highly drinkable.

Blue Moon Chardonnay Blonde—an experimental brew from everyone’s favorite fake mega-owned microbrewery. Not bad, but barely any discernible taste difference from the regular ol’ Blue Moon. If you like Blue Moon (I do,) try this (I did). You’ll like it (I did,) and may even notice a slight extra grape/citrus kick (I did), but no promises whether you’ll like it. (I did.)

Samuel Adams Barleywine—All I jotted down on this beer (and remember how much I love anything Sam Adams,) was “Textbook.” This was a barleywine’s barleywine. If there were a dog show of beer, where individual entrants were judged based on how closely they matched the description of the archetypal beer of their category, this would win the barleywine category.

Sam Adams Sahti—a pretty cool Finnish beer, brewed with Juniper. I’d had it before on the brewery tour, but it’s still really nice. The juniper is not overwhelming (and as I understand it, is brewed in an employee’s backyard, hence the small batches,) and really adds a nice kick to an otherwise tasty but unremarkable beer. I’ll keep hoping they find a reliable juniper source.

Then, we get to the Brewery Ommegang; they of the cool Belgian twists. They brought seven offerings to the festival, and as they were my last stop of the day, I tried them all.

Hennepin Farmhouse Ale: a Saison with good balance and spice—another dogshow winner, for sure.

Abbey Ale: for a Belgian dubbel, surprisingly flat… not much of the texture and fun that marks the good Belgians, but nevertheless a tasty beer.

Biere de Mars: This one had a KICK to it. Presumably, Ommegang was going for some sort of red-hot flavor in reference to the red planet. While it wasn’t spicy by any means, there were some cool spice flavors going on. One of my two favorite offerings from one of my favorite breweries.

Ommegeddon: this was the other of my two favorites. A pretty classic Belgian with nice banana and clove going on, as well as that fantastic bubble gum pop that only the best Belgians provide. A beer worth drinking over and over again.

Witte: Ommegang goes for a traditional witbier—and succeed admirably. Nothing exemplary or unique, but a beer without any shortfall. I would’ve loved to have a lemon or orange around to get the full experience.

Rar Vos Amber: Ommegang’s weakest offering, but still a nice beer. This one’s a Belgian Amber without too much flavor on it, but the flavor that is there is quite nice.

Three Philosophers: do I need to say anything about this beer? It’s Ommegang’s flagship, and it’s fantastic, and it’s a classic. If you haven’t tried it, it’s tricky to call yourself a beer lover—it’s one of the essentials, and for good reason.

Cambridge Brewing Company Arquebus 2008—I have to be honest…. CBC seldom makes me very happy. I’ve hated EVERY beer of theirs I’ve tasted. Except this one. This was a tremendously good barleywine—not too sweet, not too syrupy, well balanced and crisp.

Cape Ann Fisherman’s Greenhorn Double IPA—reviewed elsewhere on this site. Just to reiterate: if you like Hops, you should befriend this beer immediately.

Fisherman’s Tea Party Barleywine—a pretty neat story. The brewery found a “tea historian” (can you imagine how boring that job would be?) and found out what kind of tea was chucked into the harbor during the Boston Tea Party—they then brewed a barleywine with that variety of tea. While not great, this was surprisingly good—it was very much like a less potent Sam Adams Utopia.

Clipper City Small Craft Warning—these guys make a great beer in their “Red Sky at Night,” but the Small Craft Warning, billed as an Imperial Pilsner, leaves something to be desired… it’s exceedingly watery, and I tasted almost nothing. At 7%, that may make it an excellent way to get loaded.

Flying Dog Double Dog—billed as a double pale ale, this one’s more like a triple-hopped hopfest. FANTASTIC, if you like hops.

Harpoon Old Rusty’s Red Rye Ale (100 Barrel Series)—I like Harpoon, usually, so I don’t want to badmouth them much… let’s just say it’s good they only made 100 barrels of this.

Harpoon Leviathan Triticus Wheatwine—ever tasted nail polish remover? Now you have.

High and Mighty Brewing Company Beer of the Gods—with a name like that, I was expecting great things, and it delivered. An exceptionally clean taste, despite the complex and diverse spices riding along the wheat.

High and Mighty Brewing Company Purity of Essence—perhaps a little too pure. I didn’t taste much of anything (including hops) in this “Hoppy Unfiltered Lager”.

Legacy Hoptimus Prime DIPA—for a double IPA, there were no hops in this beer. Hell, for a non-IPA, there were very few hops in this beer. Good name, though.

Mad River Steelhead Scotch Porter—I’m always up for a beer that claims to have struck a balance between a Scotch Ale and a Porter. And now I know why… this beer tasted a little bit like a caramel ice cream sundae. Only with alcohol. Delicious!

Magic Hat Berliner Weisse—this was actually the first brewery we visited, as we wanted to beat the lines that Magic Hat inevitable draws with its consistently exciting and excellent brews. I’m not entirely clear why this was an “experimental” brew, but it certainly is well made—a solid witbier with unusually clean flavor. So clean, in fact, that Magic Hat had several optional mix-ins. I opted for the sweet woodruff, which left my beer with a powerful, but not excessive sweet flavor. It was, as Nick described it, a bit like drinking Lucky Charms. A good beer, with or without the woodruff.

Otter Creek Otter-San—as part of their series of beers following the adventures of their lovable otter mascot around the world through different beer styles, Otter Creek brings us a Sake infused ale. Basically, this tasted like Sake, with no detectable hint of beer. Unfortunate, as it’s a neat idea from a brewery that has some excellent regular offerings.

Pennichuck Shouboushi Ginger Pilsner—also from the weird beer additives department comes another glass of water masquerading as beer. Explain to me how you lose the flavor of ginger in beer. I don’t understand—again, a huge disappointment on a novel concept from a frequently excellent brewery.

Port Brewing Company Hop 15—finally, a beer that claims to be hoppy and delivers. Billed as a double IPA, but I’d say it’s more of a 2.5 IPA—nice variety on the hops, and a well hidden 9.5%. A fantastic beer for a hot day.



Rock Art Jasmine Pale Ale—we ran into Rock Art’s brewer, a really nice guy, who suggested we stop by and try the Jasmine. It’s an herbed pale ale brewed with jasmine, leading to a very easily drinkable ale with hints of iced tea… a great beer if you’re looking for something to sip cold on a hot day.

Rock Art Sunny and 75—not to overuse the dogshow analogy, but this wins the Belgian White category at my fantasy beer dogshow.

Rock Bottom Cinco de Mayo Lager—this beer claims to be brewed with jalapenos. While this doesn’t mean you expect the best beer ever, it means you expect something interesting, or at least something you can taste. This was, however, indistinguishable from water. Coupled with Nick’s previous jalapeno beer experience, I may pronounce a categorical rule: jalapenos do not belong in beer.

Sixpoint Stout—I’m not nuts about Sixpoint, and this festival did not give me much of a reason to change my mind. The stout was a usual microbrew stout—it tasted burned, oily, and smoked. Ugh.

Sixpoint Emasculator—should be called Sixpoint Emasculator… for its claims of being a dopplebock, this beer has almost no flavor.

Sixpoint Hop Obama—Sixpoint’s shining moment. While badly misnamed, this “indefinable” brew featured a number of excellent and complex flavors, but remained surprisingly drinkable. Almost no hops, however.

Southern Tier Brewing Company—as Nick and I have discussed, this is rapidly becoming our favorite brewery. Their offerings:

Big Red—badly named. This Imperial Red should be named “Enormous and Delicious Red.”

Cherry Saison—possibly the best beer at the festival—the cherries don’t hit until the very end of the beer, which is otherwise an excellent saison, but that flavor kick on the finish drives this beer into the realm of fantastic.

Jah-va—an imperial coffer stout with rich coffee flavor and only a slight hint of roastiness. I like it, but I’d love it if I could stand the taste of coffee.

Raspberry Porter—this one starts out a bit syrupy, with a strong raspberry lead, and finishes in a great porter with only a hint of raspberry.

Speakeasy Prohibition—an American Amber brewed with overwhelmingly strong, pungent, and tasty cascade hops. I’ll be trying to find this beer again.

Speakeasy White Lightning—absolutely no taste whatsoever. Not bad, just utterly flavorless—would probably be fantastic with a wedge of lemon or orange.
Tuckerman Headwall Alt—as a skier, I felt I had to try this one. A very drinkable German Brown… nothing special, but a fantastic and refreshing candidate for a reliable session beer.

Victory Braumeister Pils—having had a few great Victory beers in the past, I figured it was worth a shot… the lone drinkable pilsner of the day, this beer probably shouldn’t be called a pilsner—the hop attack is both exciting and a welcome surprise.

Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA—obviously (and don’t forget, it was the middle of the summer,) I had a number of very hoppy beers at the festival. While this wasn’t the best, it can most certainly hold it’s own—the simcoe flavor on this beer is absolutely delicious.

By my count, that’s 42 beers. Maybe we now know the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Our apologies, faithful readers... not that you exist yet, but that's OK.

We're sorry that we've been out of touch lately. Fear not, however--that doesn't mean that we've stopped drinking beer.

Quite the contrary... tomorrow, Nick and I will, along with a close mutual friend from college and TheLadyFriend, be attending BeerAdvocate's American Craft Beer Festival. Expect a long and detailed review, possibly written while we're both still feeling the magic of 75 breweries.

Check out the fun here: (I think there are still tickets) http://beeradvocate.com/acbf/beer

Rocky Mountain Crap

File this one under Things That Don't Make Sense :

Apparently the Democratic Party has signed a contract with Coors making them the “beer of choice” at the Convention this summer. First, what the hell does “beer of choice” mean? Is this an exclusive contract? Will they only be serving piss at the DNC? Even if this doesn’t preclude other beers, this is still a terrible decision.

I know Coors is (technically) a Colorado company and the convention is in Denver so I can see the Democrats taking that into consideration but they’ve also gotta know that Coors has been moving jobs out of state for years and Pete Coors ran for Senate as a Republican. The company has a history of supporting right-wing causes. And they're anti-union. And racist, too. Why would the Howard Dean let this beer within 100 miles of the convention?

It’s sure as hell not the taste. Coors is just plain bad beer and anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t know shit about shit. Beer is supposed to be made from hops, malts, yeast, and water. Not corn. As we covered in the last two posts, yes, fruits and spices can be included for flavor, but adjuncts like corn don’t serve as anything but filler. Adjuncts are used to weaken the impact of the malts, which is to say, remove flavor. Coors, Bud, and Miller have made lots of money by adding corn and producing bland, flavorless beers, but even among these awful beers, I hate Coors the most.

Seriously people, this is a beer company that doesn’t have anything better to say about their product than its temperature. It’s cold? Excuse me? That’s all your pitching me? You don’t have anything positive to say about how your beer tastes? How about the quality of your ingredients? Anything? And why is colder necessarily better? Have the people at Coors heard that some beers are actually meant to be served at room temperature? Plus, last time I checked, temperature is pretty variable. If my fridge is set to 45 degrees, the contents of my fridge will be about 45 degrees. If I set my fridge to 35 degrees, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that any beer in my fridge, Coors or not, will be about 35 degrees. Maybe there’s something I’m missing here but I do not believe there is anything you can do in the brewing process that will guarantee the beer you produce will be any warmer or colder than any other beer.

What makes all this worse is that Denver is a town with a ton of wonderful microbreweries. Even Denver’s mayor is a brewer! He’s a Democrat, too. Why didn’t they ask him to provide beer for the event? I’m at a loss.

No Zealot like a Convert

In between budget meetings here at work, I decided to make a quick check of the blog to see if Mark had recovered enough to post, only to find that he has insulted and misrepresented my taste in beer. I feel I must respond.

It is true that at one point in time I actually lectured Mark and many other people about how I felt fruit had no place in beer. I may have even invoked the Reinheitsgbot in defense of my position. To put it lightly, I was militant when it came to this issue. However, I have seen the error of my ways, I have repented, and I think the beer gods have forgiven me.

This is not to say that all fruit beers are good, Mark’s last post proved that pretty definitively (Note: I have always been against crunchberries in my Cap’n), and I’m still against any beer that requires the addition of fruit to make it drinkable. However, some of my absolute favorites are fruit based and I cannot imagine going back.

Here are a few fruit beers that get the Nick Seal of Approval:

Sam Adams Summer Ale - Mark and I share a love for this wheat ale brewed with lemon zest and the elusive grains of paradise. I can’t decide if this or Octoberfest is my favorite Sam offering.

Shipyard’s Pumpkinhead - My all time favorite beer, which along with the eponymous pumpkin, is spiced beautifully with cinnamon and nutmeg making it perfect for the fall weather.

Kriek Boon – I already linked to this above but it’s worth mentioning twice. It’s a cherry infused lambic that I can’t get enough of, and that’s coming from a guy who hates lambics.

All in all, I am a fruit beer proponent. Like I said before, there are a lot of bad fruit beers out there, but you can’t judge an entire group based on the performance of the a few individuals.

Fruit in Beer

Nick and I sharply disagree on this. I firmly believe that fruit belongs in beer... he firmly believes that fruit has no place in beer. Incidentally, he's wrong, but only sometimes.

Anyway, we just recently finished our exams here, so Wednesday night was a ROUGH evening. I was in no mood to even be within 100 yards of alcohol until last night. I was back at the neighborhood bar, and figured I'd try an interesting looking tap-- the Opa Opa Watermelon.

This is one of those cases where Nick was RIGHT. Holy hell, this was one of the worst things I've ever tasted.

I'm not even going to dignify it with a full review (plus, I spent too much time creating those damn links... how DO you do it, Nick?)...

Suffice it to say, it looks innocuous enough, though a little bit lighter and clearer than you'd expect from any beer... then I remembered it's WATERMELON. Of course it's going to look like urine.

Aroma? There isn't one. It smells like water... literally--there was nothing coming off the glass at all.

And the flavor is the coup de grace. I was literally unable to distinguish this beer from the taste of Cap'n Crunch. WITH Crunchberries. The only two differences I can determine: a) this is liquid, and b) as one of the people I was with pointed out, at least this will get you drunk... but for that to happen, you'd have to drink WAY more of this beer than anyone should be willing to drink. BLECH.

Ménage à Traquair

I promised that I would use this post to review a beer that people keep telling me I have to try and I challenged whether it could live up to the hype. The beer in question is Traquair’s House Ale. I’ll admit, I was skeptical. The only other Traquair brew I’ve had is the Jacobite, which, while fantastic, is not exactly an everyday beer, so I was just a little bit worried that the House Ale would be on the extreme end of the extreme beer category and leave me wanting. However, my fears were unwarranted.

Let’s get this straight, I’d been told this beer was good. I’d been told it was very good. My buddy Jason actually uttered the word “best” and followed it with the words “beer ever.” I just finished it. My response: Holy shit!

About 1/3 of the way through the bottle, I couldn’t resist myself any longer. I picked up the phone and called Mark. Here’s how the conversation went:

M – “Hey. How’re you?”
N – “Are you near a liquor store?”
M – “What?”
N – “Are you near a liquor store?”
M – “Umm, there’s one across the street.”
N – “Go there. Now.”

That’s how good this beer is. It’s “Get it now” worthy. It’s sweet but with a finish that’s got just the right amount of bitterness. As soon as I opened the bottle, the sweet smell overwhelmed my senses. At first it looks like a beautiful dark brown color but when the light shines through it you see that it’s actually a deep red. Perfect carbonation level with a nice, not too foamy head and, it’s oh so smooth. Seriously, it’s so smooth, you forget it’s 7.2%. Despite the distinct alcohol smell when I first took a whiff, you don’t taste it. There’s no bite at all. None. Just easy drinking.

After nursing this beer for an hour, here’s the analogy that kept bouncing through my head. It’s crazy and probably says more about me than the beer, but bare with:

This beer should be drunk the way you should have a threeway with Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman. Sure, you could lose you mind and be done with it in 5 minutes, it’d still be great, and no one would probably blame you, but how much better would it be to draw it out and savor every last moment of this event that will sure as hell never happen again? Same goes with the beer, it’s got an amazing flavor and it’s so smooth, I could just pound it back quickly but that would be such a waste. It’s just so good you have to make it last.

I love this beer. This beer is like Spinal Tap, it turns it up to 11. I may name my first born son “Traquair.” No that won’t work, Traquair would be better as a girl’s name. I’ll name my first born daughter Traquair. My kids are going to love me.

A Great Place to get Beer and an Okay Beer

The other day my buddy Jason picked out a couple of brews for me at our favorite local liquor store. Nikki’s Liquors is quite simply the best place to buy beer in Rhode Island. I know of no other place in the state, or anywhere else for that matter, with such a wide variety and such a helpful staff. On top of that, they do tastings on Fridays (something I need to take advantage of more often) and they let you mix your own six-pack and even give you a 10% discount when you do “mix-a-six.” Though I’ve never done it, you can also mix a case and they give you 20% off. Hands down, the best place around.

The first beer I tried was Flying Dog’s Tire Bite Golden Ale. Despite its name, this beer is actually a Kölsch and not a Golden Ale, the main difference being the origin of the ingredients and the prominence of the hops. Kölsches are a traditionally from the Cologne area in Germany and, while their not as hopped as an IPA, they certainly get more flavor from those wonderful flowers than their English cousin, which was originally brewed to compete with mass popularity of the always mild Pilsners.

Snobbish nit-picking aside, I was pretty excited to try this beer after some very nice encounters with the Flying Dog brewers at local beer festivals. The guys behind the taps were very friendly and eager to talk about their different brews. Unlike some other brewers I’ve met at those events, they didn’t get phased when I admited that I didn’t really like one of their options. Instead, they took it as constructive criticism and served up something they thought would be more to my liking. Really classy guys.

This brew is pretty solid but, honestly, nothing too special either. I love Kölsches and I’m dying for the chance to visit Cologne and get authentic experience of drinking with the locals and being served by a Köbes (for more info, read this) so maybe I’m unfairly setting the bar high whenever I have this fantastic beer variety.

Tire Bite is a light bordering on medium beer and, while on the hoppier end of the spectrum, it’s not overly bitter (plus, there’s just something about the taste of Hallertauer hops and I can’t get enough of). The toned down malts were a nice reprieve from all the malty beers I’ve been trying recently but, in general, I’d prefer if it if they were a bit more pronounced. There’s only an okay finish to this beer; you can taste a tiny bit of citrus but not enough to really make it interesting.

This is a good beer, but it just didn’t blow me out of the water. It’s smooth, it’s drinkable, it’s got a nice hop flavor, but I was still somehow left wanting. Maybe if I try it again with a traditional german dinner, I’ll feel better about it, but right now I can’t give it more than a B.

My next post will focus on the other brew we got from Nikki’s, which I’ve been repeatedly told is “one of the best beers on the planet.” We’ll see if it lives up to it’s rep.

PS – I didn’t bring the funny for this review but hopefully this will make up for it.

7 At One Throw

The bar next to my building is pretty fantastic; they have 24 constantly rotating taps, and very reasonably priced brews. The food's also pretty good, but you really go for the beer. It's pretty much THE hangout for folks in my program.

Anyway, they offer a sampler--four beers for $5.95. I'm not entirely sure how much each of their mini-glasses holds, but looking at a 2 oz. pour glass from the 2008 Extreme Beer Fest for comparison, I'd guess it's about 4-5 oz. per brew.

I was there recently with TheLadyFriend for dinner, and the rotating tap list looked, as always, INCREDIBLE. We both went for the sampler--she took the Long Trail Blackberry Wheat, Dogfish Head Aprihop, Allagash Tripel, and the Victory Abbey. I told her that the last two would taste very similar, and asked her if she was sure she liked Belgians. She asked me what a Belgian was, and I decided to let the matter drop.

For my first sampler, I ordered the Dogfish Head as well, along with a Clipper City Red Sky at Night Saison, an Ayinger Celebrator, and a Great Divide Titan IPA.

On to the beers:

The Dogfish Head was really interesting. I've had some truly great beers from Dogfish Head, but they also brewed one of the worst things I've ever tasted. (In fairness, the Raison D'Etre is usually reviewed as being a perfectly reasonable beer, so I might have caught a bad batch.) The Aprihop hits you with a cascade aroma pretty sharply, but there's clearly something else going on underneath--a clear hint of sweetness. The taste starts out with that sweetness--I don't think I've ever had an actual apricot, but if this is what they taste like, sign me up! It's an eminently drinkable beer, finishing with a citrus-tinged hop flavor... a great summer brew, and an excellent companion for my burger.

Saisons are apparently making a comeback, and the Clipper City made it clear why. The beer feels incredibly light--some interesting, subtle flavors, and a bit of spice on the finish. Nothing stunning, but a really tasty beer--the only possible downside is the stealthy 8% ABV--the alcohol is barely present in the taste, and I could imagine it sneaking up on someone mistaking this brew for a good session beer.

I'm not really an IPA-head, but I have been starting to drink more and more of them. The Great Divide was a better than average IPA--not nearly as good as the Boulder Mojo IPA or the scinitillatingly named Offshore IPA, but mildly interesting, very hoppy and unoffensive. I'd order it again if I were in the mood for an IPA--if nothing else, Great Divide has clearly missed the memo about the current hop shortage.

Lastly, the Ayinger. A quick search of the internet has revealed that this is one of the highest-rated beers on the face of the Earth--it's relatively easy to see why. The Celebrator is a pretty big dopplebock, packing an impressive flavor punch from the get-go: dark fruits, some slightly bitter caramel, and the tiniest hint of hops. The only downsides: I waited too damn long to drink the whole thing, and as it warmed up, the alcohol became a little too dominant for my tastes--it also developed the slightest oily feel as it became warmer and warmer. Still, my fault for ordering a dopplebock with a cheeseburger on a hot day.

TheLadyFriend didn't want a full beer after her sampler, but really wanted more of the Long Trail. For my second sampler, I got her a Long Trail, got one for myself, and added a Cape Ann Greenhorn Double IPA and a Southern Tier Uber Sun.

Probably my fault for drinking a blackberry wheat beer immediately after finishing the Celebrator, but I could taste almost nothing on this beer--I will absolutely try it fresh sometime, because TheLadyFriend really loved it. The other two, however, were really good.

I don't know anything about Cape Ann, and an internet search for the Greenhorn reveals only that it hasn't been reviewed widely, and that it's a limited release. I'm really bummed about that last part, because this was a hell of a beer. Hop punch like you can't believe--I think they were Simcoe hops, and Cape Ann made sure you could taste the difference. Some really faint citrus in the background of this one, but it was mostly just hopped up on hops.

Lastly, the Uber Sun. This puppy was basically an imperial wheat ale, at least according to the menu. It turned out to be so much more--all of the flavors you'd expect were there, kind of; the graininess just vanishes into the background, and fast--this beer has a ton of really tasty, complex, and surprising hops going on. I think that calling it an American Pale Wheat, (which the bar did,) is a huge mistake. It more or less defies any sort of classification in a single beer style. A pretty fantastic beer, though no less than I expected from Southern Tier, brewers of the greatest beer in the history of the world. At the rate this young brewery is going, they may well become my favorite brewery fairly soon.

A Beer Grows in Brooklyn, Part III

The last day of my journey in the capital of the world brought me to the source of all things evil: Yankee Stadium. Granted, the purpose of my visit to the Evil Empire was not beer related (it had a lot more to do with showing off my favorite hat to the local fans), but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to enjoy a few cold ones while I was there.

As is unfortunately the case at most stadiums, the beer options were quite limited and the prices were through the roof. Fenway’s not much better in terms of price, but at least you have the option of upgrading to something of actual quality if you want to. At a Sox game earlier this year, vendors had Guinness and multiple varieties of Sam Adams. In the Bronx, if you don’t want to drink yellow water, your only other option is imported yellow water. That’s kind of sad, especially when you consider that even my minor league Providence Bruins have some local offerings at their games. Oh well, maybe they’ll throw us beer aficionados a bone when they finish the new stadium.

After the game we were all itching for something drinkable so we headed over to the Alligator Lounge. It’s pretty much a standard bar with a handful of nice options on tap but what makes it special is that you get a free personal pan pizza with your first beer. It’s not like they’re microwaving some Domino's crap either, this was coming straight out of a brick oven and was made to order. Call me cheap, but I thought this was fantastic.

Knowing nothing about it, I ordered a Ramstein Classic. (It was the name that got me. It called out to my German ancestry and, come on, who doesn’t love “Du Hast”?) I did some research later and learned that it’s produced by the New Jersey based High Point Brewing Company, which specializes in wheat beers.

This was much darker than other wheat beers I’ve had. Even the darkest dunkelweizens aren’t opaque like this beer is and the head was an off white/tan color, reminiscent of some of the poorer stouts I’ve tried. I normally love dark beers but this one just didn’t work for me. Also, it really didn’t drink like a dark beer (which probably makes about as much sense as this). It's not particularly full bodied and, honestly, the flavor was virtually non-existent. It’s brewed with Tettnanger hops, which are some my favorites when homebrewing because of their great taste and pungent aroma, but I didn’t even know they were there until I looked at High Point’s website. After seeing all the wonderfully flavorful ingredients that go into this completely bland beer, I think what's most impressive is the brewers’ ability to mask them so effectively.

I found a review that called the Ramstein Classic a “guide for what a 21st century dunkelweizen might be.” I sure as hell hope not.

A Beer Grows in Brooklyn, Part II

Having just come back from Brooklyn, I thought I’d use today’s post to talk about the beer that really did grow in Brooklyn: Brooklyn Lager

There’s actually a cool story behind this beer: Steve Hindy was a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press who learned to homebrew in the early eighties while on assignment in Saudi Arabia, where the sale of alcohol is illegal. When he came home to New York, he shared his new passion with his friend and neighbor, Tom Potter. In 1984, the pair quit their jobs to pursue their brewing dream. At first, they paid a Utica based brewery to produce their beer but by 1996, were able to purchase an old Williamsburg matzah ball factory and turned it into the first functional brewery in Brooklyn in decades. These guys are the Jim Kochs of New York and deserve some major respect for laying it all on the line for their dreams.

Brooklyn Beer Co.’s flagship is an amber lager that packs a powerful malty punch. You get the nice cascade hop aroma on this beer but, once you take a sip, the malts take over. These are heavier malts than you would normally expect in a lager but it’s still nice and smooth all the way down. You get a good taste of the caramel malts in the finish, which is really the icing on the cake for this brew.

(Side-note: I’ve always found it kind of amusing that Boston Lager has such a fantastic hop-dominant flavor while Brooklyn Lager is so malt driven. There’s a part of me that wants to turn this into yet another aspect of the Boston-New York rivalry, but you really can’t do it. I mean, there’s nothing inherently evil about maltiness, so it just doesn’t fit.)

Brooklyn Lager is one of my favorite go-to brews. It matches up well with just about any meal and, while I normally think of it as more of a fall/winter drink, it’s definitely not too heavy for warmer weather. Go pick up a six-pack and enjoy this extremely drinkable beer.