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Hop Talk

GourmetBryggeriet

  • Permalink for 'GourmetBryggeriet/2010/09/03/Tilbud_i_G%c3%a5rdbutikken_%e2%80%93_september'

    Tilbud i Gårdbutikken – september

    Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 7:33pm CEST by slo

    Gourmetbryggeriet fejrer 5 års fødselsdag, derfor har vi et særligt godt tilbud i vores gårdbutik, der gælder i hele september.

    5 kasser GourmetBryggeriet i 33 cl. flasker for kr. 500,- + pant.

    Der gives ikke yderligere rabat på ovenstående tilbud.

    Gårdbutikken har åbent fredag mellem 12 og 17.

Hop Talk

  • Permalink for 'Hop_Talk/2010/09/03/Crispin_Lansdowne'

    Crispin Lansdowne

    Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 11:57am CEST by Ron

    ©Hop Talk - Use of this feed on other sites without express permission is prohibited

    I have the whole lot of Crispin’s to write about but I’m going to start with their latest release from their Artisanal Reserve series, the Lansdowne cloudy hard cider.

    This is what they are calling a Stout cider, or, Unfiltered Extra Stout Bodied Super-Premium Export Quality – a marketing phrase for sure, but yes, it is premium and stout is is quite apropo.

    Crispin crosses the best of the craft of brewing apple cider (hard cider) and the craft of brewing beer by using beer yeasts in this series of ciders. They are all natural which is something I’m becoming a bigger fan of every day. This Lansdowne is brewed with Irish stout yeast and organic molasses.

    Let’s talk about what is in this (lovely) beverage… 140 calories, no preservatives, no added sugar, no added spirits or grains for added alcohol (still 6.9% ABV), gluten free, naturally fermented with an irish ale yeast. (how great does that sound!?!)

    Let’s talk about how it tastes… I found this much like a Irish stout as it relates to the style points - very sweet but balanced with tartness from the apple. It is also strong, aka: stout. But it is all apple, and tastes like the cider I get from the farm down the road from my house in the fall but with added piquant essence.

    A full bodied, confident & imposing cider. It produces a slight hint of butterscotch, balanced by a subtle fruitiness and slightly dry crisp finish and a uniquely full & buttery mouthfeel.

    Small batch, hand crafted, super-premium hard apple cider smoothed with pure organic molasses and a kiss of organic honey for a complex, bold, heady flavor.


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The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/09/03/Antibiotic_beer_brewed_2000_years_ago'

    Antibiotic beer brewed 2000 years ago

    Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 7:58am CEST by Jon

    There’s a fascinating science story just out, revealing that ancient Nubians two millennia ago were consuming large amounts of the antibiotic tetracycline most likely in the form of beer. Yet another reason beer is healthy! There are several sites running the story, but Wired has the most beer-centric version:

    Chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Sudanese Nubians who lived nearly 2000 years ago shows they were ingesting the antibiotic tetracycline on a regular basis, likely from a special brew of beer. The find is the strongest yet that antibiotics were previously discovered by humans before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928.

    “The bones of these ancient people were saturated with tetracycline, showing that they had been taking it for a long time,” Nelson said in a press release August 30. “I’m convinced that they had the science of fermentation under control and were purposely producing the drug.”

    Armelagos, who specializes in reconstructing ancient diets, proposed that the Nubians made the tetracycline in their beer. There is evidence they knew how to make it, he says. Tetracycline is produced by a soil bacteria called streptomyces, which is how it was discovered by modern society in the 1940s. Streptomyces thrives in warm, arid regions such as that of ancient Nubia, and likely contaminated a batch of beer.

    They must have known how to propagate the beer because they were doing it to make wine, Nelson says. There was also so much of it in their bones that it is near impossible that the tetracycline-laced beer was a fluke event.

    To make sure that making the antibiotic beer was possible, Armelagos had his graduate students give it a try.

    “What they were making wasn’t like a Bud Light but a cereal gruel,” Armelagos said. “My students said that it was ‘not bad,’ but it is like a sour porridge substance. The ancient people would have drained the liquid off and also eaten the gruel.”

    (They would have drained the liquid off? Then what part are they calling “beer”?)

    In addition to having discovered the healthy benefits of their beer, they would have been drinking it for the other health reason all societies took up with beer: it was safer than the water.

    At any rate, I wonder how long it will be before everyone’s favorite brewer of ancient beers takes a crack at this?

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/09/03/Pennsylvania__Flying_Mouflan__Troegs__Harrisburg'

    Pennsylvania, Flying Mouflan, Troegs, Harrisburg

    Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 2:37am CEST by Alan McLeod

    Bought this at Kappy's last week for $6.99 for the bomber. There was some statement that this beer blew away last year's Nugget Nectar in terms of hops and lavished the discerning palate with a face filling bunch of other flavours. I was sold at the $6.99 myself given the sad lack of Troegs beer in my life.

    Pretty nice stuff. It pours a swell chestnut with a mocha froth and rim. The aroma is booze, date and brown bread. A pretty thick beer on the swally with a lot of pine and white grapefruit hops going shoulder to shoulder with date, cocoa, milk chocolate, hazelnut. The brewer's notes recommend the very four months this bottle waited from production to pour. Probably could be classified as a Dauphin County Brown Double IPA. That's it. A DCBDIPA. Maybe the best I have ever had.

    BAers have the love.

Hop Talk

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/09/02/Hop_Press__Deschutes_Brewery_VIP_Tour_and_Media_Event'

    Hop Press: Deschutes Brewery VIP Tour and Media Event

    Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 8:45am CEST by Jon

    Last week I was invited to a special VIP tour and media event over at Deschutes Brewery, and I wrote about it for my weekend Hop Press article. It was pretty cool, and there are a number of interesting tidbits I learned.

    Green Lakes Organic Ale: The Brewery loves this beer, even though it’s more problematic to brew than other beers—due to it’s certified organic status. For instance, not only do the ingredients need to be certifiably organic (or at minimum in the case of hops, salmon safe), but they have to properly prep the equipment before brewing to remove the residue of previous (non-organic) batches—things like vacuuming out the grain conveyors.

    Twilight Ale: The breakout summer seasonal—actually one of Deschutes’ most popular seasonals—the hop schedule for Twilight is most interesting. They want to get lots of hop flavor and aroma into the beer without making it bitter like an IPA (“clean” beers are what the Brewery strives for), so to get that with Twilight there is hardly any first-hopping (merely 4 pounds per 150 gallons), no second-hopping, and a ton of third hopping (finishing and aroma hops). And then more hops are added to the whirlpool (the stage where they’re separating hops from the wort).

    More to read at the link.

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/09/02/Why_Do_Names_For_This_New_Beer_Style_Kinda_Suck_'

    Why Do Names For This New Beer Style Kinda Suck?

    Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 2:58am CEST by Alan McLeod

    Forget the question of whether styles are real and essential. Forget the question of whether beer styles have been accurately described and traced historically. The real issue is that the names of beer styles are a mess and cause consumer confusion. Andy raises the question of the name of one black hoppy brew and seeks resolution for this very good reason:

    Well, I believe that styles are important, if for no other reason than consumers can have some reasonable understanding of what they might be getting when they select a certain beer. It is in the hopes of creating some logical détente that I humbly offer the following suggestions for resolving this seemingly intractable debate.

    He then goes on to ask us to choose from a number of choices that have been bouncing around beer nerd circles like Black IPA, India Black Ale, and Cascadian Dark Ale. There is only one problem. They all suck as names. Let's be clear. They aren't related to India and they aren't pale, as Andy notes, but also no one outside of the Pacific NW actually knows what "Cascadian" really means. Plus, while the picture of me from 1992 shows I have a great long love of the Vermont Pub and Brewery and the work of the late Greg Noonan, the idea of calling it "Noonan Black Ale" suffers from the same problem, needing to know some sort of back story. Also, there is a minor sort of beer - perhaps not a style at all - that you see from time to time called Dark Ale. What's it taste like? Dark? That's like something tasting ice cold.

    We can do better. We can make sense. If the point of the name of the style is to inform let's get to the point. The beer is black and it is bitter. Keep it simple. So call it Black Bitter. I might even try the stuff if it was called a name as swell as that.¹

    ¹Plus it already comes with its own 70s rock tune for the ad campaign. Just have to change the words a bit: "Whoa-oh Black Bitter! Bam-a-lam!!!" And, yes, I want credit.

Hop Talk

  • Permalink for 'Hop_Talk/2010/09/02/Goose_Island_Summertime_Ale'

    Goose Island Summertime Ale

    Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 1:00am CEST by Ron

    ©Hop Talk - Use of this feed on other sites without express permission is prohibited

    It’s hot. I like this.

    Dan points out I have the wrong style identified and he is right! (see comments) But, it doesn’t change the fact that I still like it! Alt’s are a bit darker, a bit maltier, and a bit hoppy’er. I added the true definitions below. They both are traditional German-Style beers. Goose Island suggests serving in a Kolsch style glass. 

    Alt’s  German-Style Kölsch’s are becoming a favorite of mine as just a nice, simple, beer that hits the spot anytime. I remember visiting Brewer’s Alley with Al and the gang at Octoberfest and they had the “Wedding Alt” on tap and that was the day that I remember saying to myself that I had better give these more attention when I see them. Since then, I’ve had the CTRL-ALT-DEL at Davidson Brother’s Brewery in Glens Falls, NY and now Goose Island has made a wonderful Summertine ale that is distributed to many. Try one! (Please comment on your favorite German-Style Kölsch’s OR Alt’s!)

    German-Style Kölsch/Köln-Style Kölsch
    Kölsch is warm fermented and aged at cold temperatures (German ale or alt-style beer). Kölsch is characterized by a golden to straw color and a slightly dry, subtly sweet softness on the palate, yet crisp. Good, dense head retention is desirable. A light fruitiness may be apparent, but is not necessary for this style. Caramel character should not be evident. The body is light to medium-light. This beer has low hop flavor and aroma with medium bitterness. Wheat can be used in brewing this beer. Ale yeast is used for fermentation, though lager yeast is sometimes used in the bottle or final cold conditioning process. Fruity esters should be minimally perceived, if at all. Chill haze should be absent.

    German-Style Brown Ale/Düsseldorf-Style Altbier
    Copper to brown in color, this German ale may be highly hopped and intensely bitter (although the 25 to 35 IBU range is more normal for the majority of Altbiers from Düsseldorf) and has a medium body and malty flavor. A variety of malts, including wheat, may be used. Hop character may be medium to high in the flavor and aroma. The overall impression is clean, crisp, and flavorful often with a dry finish. Fruity esters can be low to medium-low. No diacetyl or chill haze should be perceived.


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The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/09/01/The_Little_Woody__The_beers'

    The Little Woody: The beers

    Posted: September 1st, 2010, 4:00am CEST by Jon

    The beer list for The Little Woody, Bend’s barrel-aged beer festival (more here), came out today, and it’s looking really good. There are actually two versions of the beer list: one on the official site, and another one released over on Bend Oregon Restaurants (it’s from the marketing copy that the organizing company sent out).

    You can view those pages for more details on the style and making of the beers, but in the meantime I’ve compiled them all into an easy-to-read list just for you (all breweries are from Central Oregon except the two I noted from elsewhere):

    • 10 Barrel Brewing
      • Dubbel Woody: 7.7%, Belgian Dubbel aged in cabernet barrels 8 months
      • Dry Hopped English Style IPA: 7.2%, aged in bourbon barrels 3 months
    • Bend Brewing
      • Metolius Golden: 5.2%, aged in a pinot barrel 8 months
      • Sour Outback X: 9.5%, BBC’s Outback X aged and soured in a bourbon barrel
    • Block 15 (from Corvallis)
      • Super Nebula: 11%, Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels
      • Wonka’s Wit: 5.5%, Belgian Wit (wheat) aged and soured in oak barrels for 7 to 14 months
    • Boneyard Beer
      • Bourbon Barrel Black 13: aged in a bourbon barrel
      • Sour Girl: A soured version of their cherry wheat aged in a bourbon barrel
    • Cascade Lakes Brewing
      • Imperial Stout: aged several months in Jim Beam oak bourbon barrels
      • Blonde Bombshell: 4% (not barrel aged?)
    • Deschutes Brewery
      • Berliner Weisse: 5%, German-style sour wheat beer, aged in oak casks
      • Mirror Mirror: 11.5%, Barleywine aged in a variety of barrels and blended
    • McMenamins Old St. Francis School
      • Barrel Head: 5.93%, their Hammerhead ale aged in a Hogshead whiskey barrel for 4+ months
      • Dark Ages Stout: aged in a Hogshead whiskey barrel 5 months
    • Ninkasi Brewing (from Eugene)
      • Wood Aged Total Domination IPA: 6.7%, aged in pinot noir casks
      • Believer Double Red Ale: 6.9% (not barrel aged?)
    • Silver Moon Brewing
      • Merlot Cask Amber: 4.4%, their Hounds Tooth Amber aged in a French merlot barrel for 6 months
      • Winter Moon Bourbon: 7.4%, their Winter Warmer aged in a bourbon barrel
      • “Also prepare for a surprise (or two) we may dig up from the depths of our cellar!”
    • Three Creeks Brewing
      • Beechwood Blonde: 4%, their Knotty Blonde aged in beechwood
      • Woodcutter Barleywine: blended with their Firestorm Red and aged in a pinot noir barrel for 9 months
      • Patio’s Private Reserve: one barrel of this special beer will be served “sometime Saturday afternoon”

    While the “big” beers are always popular, I can’t help but notice and be very curious about the lighter beers on this list: the Metolius Golden, Wonka’s Wit, Berliner Weisse, Merlot Cask Amber, and Beechwood Blonde. I’d classify these as must-trys, and in particular make for an easy-drinking start to your day.

    Also note the prevalence of sour beers, four by my read of the descriptions (18% of the offerings). This is definitely a festival that’s going to appeal to the beer geeks.

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/09/01/Albany_Ale__When_Did_They_Stop_Using_Wheat_Malt_'

    Albany Ale: When Did They Stop Using Wheat Malt?

    Posted: September 1st, 2010, 3:48am CEST by Alan McLeod

    I came across this reference to the malting of wheat in a 1869 series of essays and reports called The Annals of Albany. Apparently one Peter Kalm, a professor from a Swedish university, visited North America from 1748 to 1750 making some sort of economic and natural resources survey. He made these notes on 15 June 1749:

    They sow wheat in the neighborhood of Albany, with great advantage. From one bushel they get twelve sometimes : if the soil be good, they get twenty bushels. If their crop amounts only to ten bushels from one, they think it very trifling. The inhabitants of the country round Albany are Dutch and Germans. The Germans live in several great villages, and sow great quantities of wheat, which is brought to Albany : and from thence they send many yachts laden with flour to New York. The wheat flour from Albany is reckoned the best in all North America, except that from Sopus or Kingston, a place between Albany and New York. All the bread in Albany is made of wheat. At New York they pay the Albany flour with several shillings more per hundred weight, than that from other places. Rye is likewise sown here, but not so generally as wheat. They do not sow much barley here, because they do not reckon the profits very great. Wheat is so plentiful that they make malt of it. In the neighborhood of New York, I saw great fields sown with barley. They do not sow more oats than are necessary for their horses.

    This passage was referenced in an earlier quotation I included in an Albany ale post back in April and cropped in June but it has me thinking. If they aren't even growing barley and are malting wheat in 1749, then it is likely the strong ale that Sir William Johnson of the Mohawk Valley, west of Albany, was drinking from 1750 maybe to his death in 1774 was a wheat beer. But by 1835, the brewers of the area responding to a set of questions posed by the New York State Senate all respond by saying that they use pure ingredients including barley malt. I don't catch any reference to wheat malt. The use of barley by this point is corroborated by this quotation from 1827.

    So - am I slowly, clumsily chasing two Albany Ales? A strong wheat ale made by the Dutch up to the latter 1700s and then a strong barley ale in the early 1800s?

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/31/Question__What_Is_Your_Best_Beer_Giveaway_'

    Question: What Is Your Best Beer Giveaway?

    Posted: August 31st, 2010, 1:52pm CEST by Alan McLeod

    I am curious about something. I don't know that I am personally all that evangelical about beer. When I have the beer I like and the people I like together it is as much about exploring or, rather, explaining my good beer obsession as it is about recruiting new members. Nope, the day I actually believe in that beer community thing is the day I find myself preparing pamphlets for a meeting: "maybe you might like to come to our rally? Here. Have some literature."

    But I do give things away. I don't seem to be able to keep a copy of Hops and Glory, for example. I think that Pete's book justifies a lot for me and neatly converts what otherwise can be considered my wee problem into something interesting, even brainy. Other than books, I seem to push Beau's Lug Tread and Pretty Things Jack D'or on people new to good beer and dubbels on the next steppers. Notice the spicy yeast, I say. The bread crustiness in the malt.

    Do you do this? Why and how? What is your favorite small gift or sharing beer? What makes it work for you?

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/31/The_next_Session_is_this_week'

    The next Session is this week

    Posted: August 31st, 2010, 6:22am CEST by Jon

    It’s a bit of a late announcement this time around, but remember The Session is coming up this Friday (September 3rd). Session #43 is being hosted by The Beer Babe, Carla Companion, and the topic is “Welcoming the New Kids.”

    With the astounding growth of the number of craft breweries this year, chances are there’s a new one in development, or has just started out in your area. My challenge to you is to seek out a new brewery and think about ways in which they could be welcomed into the existing beer community. How does their beer compare to the craft beer scene in your area? Are they doing anything in a new/exciting way? What advice, as a beer consumer, would you give to these new breweries?

    Take this opportunity to say hello to the new neighbors in your area. Maybe its a nanobrewery that came to a festival for the first time that you vowed to “check out” later. Maybe it’s a new local beer on a shelf on the corner store that you hadn’t seen before. Dig deeper and tell us a story about the “new kids on the block.” I look forward to welcoming them to the neighborhood!

    Hopefully we’ll get a few more participants than in the last couple of months. I want to read about these new breweries!

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/31/Why_Is_The_Beer_News_So_Dull_Tonight_'

    Why Is The Beer News So Dull Tonight?

    Posted: August 31st, 2010, 3:45am CEST by Alan McLeod

    Some days the only beer news is stuff that you really don't care a bit about. Today is that sort of day. Consider these gems:

    Maybe there'll be a day soon when I will have something more than bullet points to post. Then again - maybe bullet points are the future of beer blogging.

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/30/Back_From_The_Road_And_Did_I_Really_Learn_Anything_'

    Back From The Road And Did I Really Learn Anything?

    Posted: August 30th, 2010, 4:31am CEST by Alan McLeod

    I don't know if you can draw conclusions from a trip just a couple of hours and laundry loads after hitting the driveway. Especially when you haven't even pulled out the digital camera to pretty up the post or to see if there are are any ideas in the images. So far these come to what I might still call a mind even after nine days and 2500 km:

    • Kids continue to be a great reason why I don't have to pay duties on the excess beers being hauled back into Canada. Who would figure that many bottles worth that much could be described as "oh, and I have some beer, too" when asked at the border?
    • Spending some more time in Albany to research the pre-lager ale thing would be quite fine.
    • Wegmans grocery chain continues to make astounding moves into being as good as any good beer store in central New York. Huge selection. They even had Pinkus hefe. Nutty.
    • I bought a 24 dollar beer. I can't believe that I did but it is true. Won't tell you what or where but we can all blame my loading of a counter when you have 8 minutes to buy a mixed case or two.
    • Beer is a good ice breaking gift but no one really wants to talk that much about it. I don't think I go on but in most situations good beer to guys with kids hanging off them is pretty much like good jam to a kid who likes toast. Tasty or not tasty is all that matters.
    • 24 hours later, Aventinus is still striking me as great with a good steak.
    • I wonder whether the Sam Adams glass is the Segway of good beer? Works perfectly well but, upon reflection, no one seems to be following the example.

    Nothing too profound. I was, after all, not really a beer trip - though I found myself taking photos of brew pubs I didn't even enter. I will have to think a little more about what that might mean.

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/29/New_York__A_Restaurant_In_Albany_With_A_Beer_List'

    New York: A Restaurant In Albany With A Beer List

    Posted: August 29th, 2010, 4:33am CEST by Alan McLeod

    OK, sure there are 700 wines at the subtitled restaurant dp, An American Brasserie - but they have Blue Point Lager, Dogfish 60 and Ommegang's Hennepin and others on tap as well as ten or twelve well selected bottles. The stash in the back of van might be better today at the end of our trip but I had an Aventinus with my NY strip loin. How many places can I do that?

    Why were we there? Well, I got tired of hitting the highway hotels on my family trips and picked the moderately priced Hampton Inn in downtown Albany. How downtown? It sits behind the 1640s First Church of Albany. Is there an older continuous congregation in North America? A Catholic institution in Quebec perhaps? Is this now a Good Ecclesiastical Blog? No.

    Anyway, the food was great and, after a surprisingly active drive through highway 2 across northern Massachusetts, taking on hairpins and deep gorges, it hit the spot. The kids were well mannered and the staff were good enough to jack up the background jazz a tad and give us a buffer of three tables or so. We do have a loud little one after all. Owner Yono Purnomo took time to say hello and was interested in the beery feedback.

    This is the sort of thing we need to encourage. Not an island but a tide. A little good beer everywhere rather than a lot of good beer in a few places. After driving down the cliff east of North Adams, good beer and fine food was just the thing. Does it matter that they didn't have twice the taps or four times the bottles?

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/28/Fruit_Beer_Week__Lost_Coast_Raspberry_Brown'

    Fruit Beer Week: Lost Coast Raspberry Brown

    Posted: August 28th, 2010, 8:10am CEST by Jon

    Fruit Beer WeekThe other fruit beer that Lost Coast Brewery makes (along with their Tangerine Wheat) is Raspberry Brown. This beer is a version of their flagship Downtown Brown infused with real raspberries; however, where Downtown Brown is 5% ABV, Raspberry Brown is 6.5%. I’m not sure the raspberries alone would account for an extra 1.5% of alcohol, but I suppose it’s possible.

    Lost Coast Raspberry BrownAppearance: Brown with red highlights, a nice color; tan head that’s thick and generous.

    Smell: Nice mellow raspberry aromas, like raspberry tea. Floral, sweet, and lightly malty. Raspberry scone.

    Taste: Earthy berry bramble; like fresh-picked raspberries that are just shy of being fully ripe so there’s a touch of tart, and a dry note from the brown (chocolate) malts backing it up. Not really dessert-y, but the raspberries are a nice complement to the brown ale.

    Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a fulfilling presence that finishes simultaneously sweet, dry, and the lightest touch of tart.

    Overall: Nicely done with a very nice presence; no one component is out of control (balanced well).

    On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.2 out of 5, and is in their 72nd overall percentile (92nd for the style).

Knut Albert's beer blog

Hop Talk

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/27/Fruit_Beer_Week__Chapeau_Banana_Lambic__Re_review_'

    Fruit Beer Week: Chapeau Banana Lambic (Re-review)

    Posted: August 27th, 2010, 6:14am CEST by Jon

    Fruit Beer WeekThe other day, in reviewing Wells Banana Bread Beer, I wrote: “I can’t say as I’ve had many banana beers (the only other one that comes immediately to mind is a homebrewed banana wheat years ago)”—and then I found my original review of Chapeau Banana Lambic from 2008.

    It’s brewed by Belgian’s Brouwerij De Troch to 3.5% alcohol by volume.

    Chapeau Banana LambicAppearance: Pale yellow-orange—golden, almost—bubbly. White head was fizzy but didn’t last long.

    Smell: Delicate notes of sweet banana, slightly clovey. There’s a musty, horsey tang of Brett yeast… very delicate.

    Taste: Tart green apple thing going on with sweet, very ripe bananas playing the background. Crisp. Pretty tasty. I want to say “Jolly Rancher” but not in the annoying way that Lindemans Pomme is. Nice interplay of sweet and tart.

    Mouthfeel: Light, but a tad puckery, leaves a bit of a cloying aftertaste behind, but very drinkable.

    Overall: Yum! Unusual but I like it.

    On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of C+. On RateBeer, it scores 2.38 out of 5, and is in their 15th overall percentile.

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/27/Why_Can_t_The_Young_Just_Drink_Beer_Like_They_Oughta_'

    Why Can't The Young Just Drink Beer Like They Oughta?

    Posted: August 27th, 2010, 12:04am CEST by Alan McLeod

    An odd beer story out of Canada's province with the best track record for coming up with odd beer stories. Apparently, the young are just not drinking enough macro-bleck:

    Joel Levesque, Moosehead's vice-president, said the demographic that drinks the most beer, New Brunswickers aged 19 to 25, is shrinking and despite sunny weather, summer sales are down. He said that had sparked a fierce competition among the big brewers. "You entice people to take your brand by offering something that they can't get from their brand regularly, for example a T-shirt in the box or in this case, it's $5 coupons," he said. Levesque said there would be more discounts as major labels try to clear shelves by Labour Day.

    Interesting to note that the province's craft brewers have no such worries - not competition at all as they are selling every drop they brew. And the government booze monopoly notes that there has been no overall drop in beer sales this summer. So, does this mean that people there are content to use their market power to force decision making in the brew economy? In that respect, demanding discount coupons for industrial beer or supporting craft brewers in this sense is a similar consumer response. And remember, too, that this is a border province where people are happy to slip over to Maine or Quebec for a better beer selection.

    Isn't it the new generation of drinkers just following its own sense of good taste and good value? Wouldn't it be nice it was actually an example of the consumer getting its way even in a monopolist overly regulated marketplace?

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/26/Fruit_Beer_Week__Lost_Coast_Tangerine_Wheat'

    Fruit Beer Week: Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat

    Posted: August 26th, 2010, 8:27am CEST by Jon

    Fruit Beer WeekLost Coast Brewery down in Eureka, California, brews a couple of fruit beers, and Tangerine Wheat is (I think) the newer of the two. This a light, summery American wheat ale brewed “with natural flavor added.” I’m not exactly sure what “natural flavor” refers to, but if I didn’t know better I would guess that they added plenty of actual (possibly whole) fruit to this beer.

    Tangerine Wheat makes for a nice light summer beer (especially on a hot day), and it’s perfectly sessionable at 5% ABV.

    Lost Coast Tangerine WheatAppearance: Hazy golden color with white head that started smooth and got choppy.

    Smell: Bright tangerine—citrusy and zesty like freshly-zested peel. Juicy with sweet fruit and a touch of bitter peel.

    Taste: On the tongue there’s more of that bitter, pithy peel flavor than fruit itself. Light, sweet fruit comes out though at the back of the mouth and as it warms; nice orange/tangerine notes (though still has bitter peel overlaying those).

    Mouthfeel: Light-bodied, effervescent and I want to say a touch oily as citrus peel can be. A bit dry in the finish, too.

    Overall: Light and refreshing, a bit different as far as fruit goes—it’s like they use lots of peel (whole fruit maybe?) in the brewing.

    On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 2.94 out of 5 and is in their 44th overall percentile (74th for the style).

A Good Beer Blog

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    New Hampshire: The Portsmouth Brewery, Portsmouth

    Posted: August 26th, 2010, 2:55am CEST by Alan McLeod

    Happy to have gotten the chance to have supper at The Portsmouth Brewery this evening here where Maine meets New Hampshire on the Atlantic shore. It's still cloudy and damp but at least the sheets of rain from earlier in the week are gone. Piling into a pub was just the thing.

    I got the hefeweizen and a milk stout was ordered across the table. The hefe was rich and pineappled and the milk stout creamy chocolate. I had wanted to extend my relationship with the stout but the growler wasn't available. First, I was told oddly that milk stout can't handle being in a growler due to its low carbonation level. I gave my assurance that I was familiar with the style and a growler would be fine taking their caution into account. Then, coming back from checking, I was told there just weren't any growlers anyway. That made more sense.

    We had their pulled pork, a veggie burger as well as chowders and a hummus dip. All were tasty and the service was friendly and fast. Best of all, the place was full of families like us with young kids and no one batted an eye. Prices were good with meals coming in at under ten bucks and the pints costing $4.50. I am consoling myself with the Red Sox and a Port Brewing Wipe Out IPA that I picked up the other day but a growler of the milk stout would have been pretty swell back here at the hotel.

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/25/Fruit_Beer_Week__Great_Divide_Wild_Raspberry_Ale__Re_review_'

    Fruit Beer Week: Great Divide Wild Raspberry Ale (Re-review)

    Posted: August 25th, 2010, 10:00pm CEST by Jon

    Fruit Beer WeekGreat Divide Brewing, out of Denver, offers a Wild Raspberry Ale made with wild raspberries:

    [A] unique, thirst-quenching ale fermented with real red and black raspberries. Its balance of malt and fruit flavors make it a beer lover’s fruit beer.

    It’s offered year-round, which makes me curious how they handle seasonal variations in the berries. Or perhaps I’m over-thinking it—I have the image of hand-picking mountain berries in my head, but a brewery as big as Great Divide probably has the berries commercially provided.

    I reviewed Wild Raspberry Ale back in 2006:

    Great Divide Wild Raspberry AleAppearance: Red… the color of dark red berry juice. No real head. Clear. The red is a bit brownish—a brick red. Adobe?

    Smell: Raspberries—dark and sweet. Almost like a raspberry syrup. Nice.

    Taste: Pale maltiness… very light. Berry character is likewise light. Fruity, not extraordinarily sweet. No bitterness though. Not as infused with berry as I would’ve thought from the aroma.

    Mouthfeel: Very light and thin… very effervescent but not bubbly (does that make sense?). This makes it seem lighter than it is.

    Wild Raspberry Ale is 5.6% alcohol by volume.

    On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 2.94 out of 5, and is in their 43rd overall percentile (though 73rd for the style).

Knut Albert's beer blog

  • Permalink for 'Knut_Albert_s_beer_blog/2010/08/25/Busy_days_at_%c3%86gir'

    Busy days at Ægir

    Posted: August 25th, 2010, 4:25pm CEST by knutalbert
    Lots of new stuff from the Norwegian micros now, particularly from Ægir. Seems like the contract brewing of some of their bottled beers has freed the capacity for a broader range of beers on keg and cask, which was just the intention of brewer Evan Lewis.  Currently doing the rounds is the Ægir Saison, which used [...]

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/25/What_Beer_Goes_With_Non_Stop_Rain_'

    What Beer Goes With Non-Stop Rain?

    Posted: August 25th, 2010, 3:21pm CEST by Alan McLeod

    There are summer beers for cooling you off in the sunshine. There are Octoberfest beers. There are imperial stouts for sipping as the winter weather howls beyond the doors. But what beer to have when the holiday is awash with rain?

    I had a Mayflower porter last night which made a reasonable claim to filling that gap. No sour tang that I noticed but plenty of those dusty roasty things going on in the glass. Bought a six for $8.99 at Murphy's in Falmouth - an extraordinarily good value - and purchased within 35 miles of where it was made giving me that wholesome new age feeling of goodness that complying with 100 mile consumption edicts provide.

    The BAers give it the love it deserves... but aren't porters a bit September? I know that' next week but you want to be certain about these things, right?

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/25/Fruit_Beer_Week__Melbourn_Brothers_Strawberry__Re_review_'

    Fruit Beer Week: Melbourn Brothers Strawberry (Re-review)

    Posted: August 25th, 2010, 7:30am CEST by Jon

    Fruit Beer WeekMelbourn Brothers beers hail from England and they offer three varieties of fruit beers, all spontaneously fermented—which technically qualifies them as Lambics. (Though I believe the fruit is added post-fermentation in the form of concentrate or syrup.) Back in 2006 I reviewed their Strawberry beer, and this is what I had to say about it:

    Melbourn Brothers StrawberryAppearance: Poured into a Pilsner glass, it resembles a slightly dark rose champagne, pink and orange. Faint pink head, very thick and creamy.

    Smell: Strawberries! Very sweet. Champagne again, hardly any beer character.

    Taste: Strawberry sweet and a bit tart, a nice combination. Similar to Lindemans Framboise. A hint of malt in the background, but no hops.

    Mouthfeel: Sparkly, on the thin side, thinner than a lambic, more like (you guessed it) champagne. Seems appropriate.

    This is actually quite a fruity “non-beer” beer, one that people who ordinarily don’t like beer (like my wife) will enjoy. The beers (the other two are Apricot and Cherry) are imported by Merchant du Vin, so you should be able to find it easily enough at a good beer outlet (at least, on the West Coast, I think). Plus, it’s a very easy-drinking session beer with only 3.4% alcohol by volume.

    On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.32 out of 5, and is in their 84th overall percentile.

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/24/Fruit_Beer_Week__Wells_Banana_Bread_Beer'

    Fruit Beer Week: Wells Banana Bread Beer

    Posted: August 24th, 2010, 8:52am CEST by Jon

    Fruit Beer WeekI can’t say as I’ve had many banana beers (the only other one that comes immediately to mind is a homebrewed banana wheat years ago), so Wells Banana Bread Beer stands out in that regard. As it happens, I’d been hearing for a while how this beer actually smells exactly like banana bread, but I’ve never been able to find it in Central Oregon; however, I did find a bottle on our spring break Lake Tahoe trip and couldn’t resist picking it up.

    (Yes, I’ve been sitting on this review since March.)

    Wells Banana Bread Beer is a 5.2% ABV ale brewed (according to the label) “with bananas and banana flavor added.” According to the web the bananas themselves are Fair Trade bananas, so that’s a good thing.

    Well's Banana Bread BeerAppearance: Clear brown-copper with a bit of an off-white head. Bright and effervescent.

    Smell: Definite aroma of ripe bananas, bready and sweet. I don’t know if it’s exactly like banana bread, but I am enjoying the banana. A little brown sugar and that’s about all.

    Taste: Nice banana notes in the flavor too; the malt behind is a touch sharp and roasty with some earthy bitter hops. A touch zingy—label mentions “peppery spice” of hops. Bready, sweet, interesting.

    Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a bit of a bit (from the effervescent body).

    Overall: Lots of banana character here, interesting and tasty though I’m not sure I’d make it a regular.

    On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 2.91 out of 5, and is in their 42nd overall percentile.

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/24/Fruit_Beer_Week'

    Fruit Beer Week

    Posted: August 24th, 2010, 8:29am CEST by Jon

    Fruit Beer WeekI’m a bit behind on Theme Week this month (August has been busy!) but I’ve been wanting to do a Fruit Beer Week for a while now (it makes for a good summertime topic), so I’ve decided to mix it up a bit this week: I have some new reviews to offer, and I’ll be re-running some older reviews of fruit beers—perhaps even ones you might not have seen.

    Fruit beers are an interesting topic among beer geeks; in a way they’re kind of the bastard stepchildren of “real” beers (considering something like the BeerAdvocate Top 100 only has three fruit beers represented) but when one is done right, it can be really right.

    Hopefully we’ll stumble across a few of those this week.

Hop Talk

Knut Albert's beer blog

  • Permalink for 'Knut_Albert_s_beer_blog/2010/08/23/Domus_Birrae__Rome'

    Domus Birrae, Rome

    Posted: August 23rd, 2010, 4:55pm CEST by knutalbert
    My last post about Italy was perhaps a bit pessimistic, but I think the comments show that it is an issue worth considering. Anyway, I have positive things to report as well. On my visit to Rome last year, I had the pleasure of visiting both branches of Johnny’s Off Licence and brought home all I [...]

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/23/Massachusetts__Kappy_s_Liquors__East_Falmouth'

    Massachusetts: Kappy's Liquors, East Falmouth

    Posted: August 23rd, 2010, 3:07pm CEST by Alan McLeod

    Not a full report yet but stopped at Kappy's in East Falmouth, Cape Cod yesterday to have a look. It gets good word of mouth on the review websites like RateBeer and certain deserves the attention. I had to ask at a grocery store about the rules for beer buying in Massachusetts. Unlike New York, you can buy beer in the same place you can buy wine and spirits. Unlike Maine, there is no alcohol in corner stores, grocery stores or gas stations.

    I picked up a bottle of Pretty Things Beer + Ale Project's American Darling Batch Two, June 2010 for $7.99. The beer comes with a sub-title "Good Time Lager". I like how Pretty Things gives you lots to read and consider on their labels. A beer with a name that long deserves italics. At 7%, one of the better strong pale lagers I have had from a US craft brewer, it finishes with a big malty yeast rich statement... a statement that says "I am big and malty and yeasty rich." BAer's love it. I may have to have another while here given that this is local if by local we mean made in state.

    I also picked up a Port Brewing Wipe Out IPA, again at 7%, for $5.99 which makes me wonder where there is a margin for profit after cross continent transport from California. A finely balanced hoppy... statement that again earns BAer love.

    Directions here.

Knut Albert's beer blog

Nyt fra Ølakademiet

  • Permalink for 'Nyt_fra___lakademiet/2010/08/23/%c3%98llets_Dag_____________ale.dk________'

    Øllets Dag (ale.dk)

    Posted: August 23rd, 2010, 12:00am CEST

    Den 4. september er det Øllets Dag. Formålet med dagen er at få fokus på øl og ølkultur og få hele landet til at syde med øl-aktiviteter. Den blev indstiftet af Danske Ølentusiaster i 2003. De første år foregik aktiviteterne på foreningens fødselsdag den 5. september. Af praktiske hensyn er dagen nu flyttet til den første lørdag i september. Her gennemfører Danske Ølentusiasters lokalafdelinger en række aktiviteter, som Du kan læse mere om på [ale.dk]

     

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/22/New_York__Sometimes_You_Want_To_Bring_Wine'

    New York: Sometimes You Want To Bring Wine

    Posted: August 22nd, 2010, 12:56am CEST by Alan McLeod

    Fifteen or more years ago, Ontario's wine, spirits and imported beer monopoly carried a few bottles of Millbrook for one brief shining season and it has been something of a holy grail - or maybe a lost Atlantis - for us ever since looking back on those pre-kid, pre-mortgage days. Reasonably priced regional quality red wines that needed no excuse or explanation. So it was with glee that I realized that I could manufacture a route to Cape Cod that passed near the winery. We were in and out quickly having neither tour nor tasting. Kids will not put up with that sort of thing when there is a hotel pool on offer. They join the sack of goodies for sharing along with a growler of Ontario craft beer as well as one of our Rieslings and an ice wine. In the future, cars will come with wee wine and beer cellars for such moments.

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/21/Received__Jubelale'

    Received: Jubelale

    Posted: August 21st, 2010, 8:33am CEST by Jon

    Last year I received three bottles of Jubelale on August 31st and noted that it seemed awfully early for the Deschutes Christmas beer to be out.

    This year I’ve received the Jubelale even earlier:

    Jubelale 2010

    I’ll wait to open a bottle.

    This year’s label features something new:

    This year, Oregon artist Natasha Bacca’s unique “creation of light” adorns the label. Bacca works in complete darkness, using beams of light with a tool she invented. By manipulating the color and the intensity of the light onto light sensitive paper, she literally paints with light. This is the first non-traditional, photo-based art medium used for the Jubelale label.

    I do find the label rather striking.

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/21/Finally___Beer_s__Man_Bites_Dog__Story_'

    Finally - Beer's "Man Bites Dog" Story!

    Posted: August 21st, 2010, 3:07am CEST by Alan McLeod

    It can get a bit dreary going through the Google news items every few days looking for a story that catches the eye. There are two classes of "beer news" that depress. First, the over regulation by a small committee of a simple consumable in a small town. Second, the petty crime that involves beer. Whether they are thefts, underage parties or beatings they make for grim reading - but today beer got one back on the hooligan and the thug:

    A shopkeeper from Greater Manchester fought off armed raiders - by hurling cans of beer at them. Three masked men, armed with a gun, entered an off-licence in Lord Street, Radcliffe, at 1230 BST on Thursday. They threatened the 53-year-old shopkeeper with the gun but he threw the cans at them, a Greater Manchester Police spokesman said... Det Con Peter Graham, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "What this man did was courageous - in sharp contrast to the cowardly actions of the robbers themselves. "With no thought to his own safety he fought them off and they fled with their tails between their legs.

    Fabulous! A small victory for the righteous place of beer in a civilized world. We need fewer stories like this but, of course, a few stories like this as well.

Hop Talk

Knut Albert's beer blog

  • Permalink for 'Knut_Albert_s_beer_blog/2010/08/20/Italian_beers_%e2%80%93_basic_commodity_or_luxury_item_'

    Italian beers – basic commodity or luxury item?

    Posted: August 20th, 2010, 4:39pm CEST by knutalbert
    I promised you some reflections from Italy, didn’t I? So, there I was, in Terracina, midway between Rome and Naples, a place not picked for any beery connection. I had searched the web beforehand for Birra Artiginale and so on, without much success. I found a cafe/restaurant on Facebook which boasted of the ‘na birretta beers from [...]

Hop Talk

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/20/Received__33_Beers'

    Received: 33 Beers

    Posted: August 20th, 2010, 8:04am CEST by Jon

    33 BeersNo, I didn’t receive 33 literal beers (I wish!), but rather the beer sketchbooks 33 Bottles of Beer. Portland beer blogger and journal entrepreneur Dave Seldon of The Champagne of Blogs is the man behind the booklets, and it’s a clever and well-executed idea (one I wish I’d had). The premise is, these are pocket-sized beer journals ideally suited to note-taking during events like beer festivals where it’s not very convenient to lug around a larger notebook:

    This beer journal is designed for ease of use. It’s tough to hold a notepad in one hand, a pencil in the other, and have another hand left for beer. Taking notes with 33 Beers is as simple as checking a few boxes and entering a few basic facts.

    Each page contains the necessary note-taking space for a single beer: name, brewers, price, rating, 5 lines of notes, and the facts about the beer (IBUs, ABV, OG and FG). The most unique aspect, though, is the flavor wheel on each page which gives you a visual “image” of the flavor and body characteristics of the beer, with values like dark fruit, hoppy, malty, toffee, sour, and more. You rate each characteristic on a scale of 1 to 5 on the wheel, then connect the dots. I’m really curious as to how well these “images” of beer flavor work across like styles—for example, would you be able to tell the style or type of beer by the flavor wheel image you see?

    Each booklet is 32 pages long—32 pages plus the inside back cover give you 33 reviews per sketchbook, a nice maximizing of space. And here’s something else to like, too:

    33 Beers is made with 100% recycled papers sourced in the Pacific Northwest. Interior pages are 100% post-consumer recycled content and covers are 85% post-consumer recycled content and 15% recycled content. The booklets are printed using US-grown soy-based inks in sunny Portland, Oregon.

    The booklets sell for $4 each or $10 for a pack of three. I received my three as review copies, but I think that’s a good deal from what I’ve seen so far.

    I’ll be trying it out this weekend at the Bend Brewfest, and let you know how it worked out for me.

Knut Albert's beer blog

  • Permalink for 'Knut_Albert_s_beer_blog/2010/08/19/50_new_pale_lagers_and_a_Pepsi'

    50 new pale lagers and a Pepsi

    Posted: August 19th, 2010, 4:07pm CEST by knutalbert
    Ole Petter Wie, the manager of Carlsberg-owned Ringnes brewery, by far the biggest actor on the Norwegian beer market, has ambitions. Big ambitions. He wants the profits margins to increase from 10 per cent today to 15 per cent in a few years.  He boldly proclaims in an interview with Dagens Næringsliv (not online) that he aims to [...]

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/19/Is_Giving_Up_Imported_Beer_A_Good_Thing_'

    Is Giving Up Imported Beer A Good Thing?

    Posted: August 19th, 2010, 2:15pm CEST by Alan McLeod

    My old desk top Dell gave up yesterday. I am a couple of days away from a vacation and I feel like doing much the same. But what about giving up imported beer not for the cause of slackerdom but for a higher cause?

    A majority of Canadians would give up imported beer or wine to reduce shipping and lessen the environmental impact of imported products, according to an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for Postmedia News. About 67 per cent of Canadians polled said they'd relinquish imported beer -- what, no Heineken? -- and 56 per cent said they'd forgo foreign wine. "That's just a testament to the good beer that we produce in Canada, and increasingly, the good wine as well," said Sean Simpson, a senior research manager at Ipsos Reid.

    While I am not the first in line for right-wing libertarian economic opinions, it seems to me to be reasonable to want to avoid the extra costs of travel, and not just the extra cash. But wouldn't it be nice if the reasons for forgoing the foreign were also based on the taste of what was in the glass? I can't imagine I am the only one who has been disappointed with the too well traveled ale. And I am not talking only of the extreme case of the beaten up beer. I recently have had a couple of beer from The Bruery from California which, though reasonably priced, I suspect had just gotten beyond their natural sphere of... influence? Maybe sphere of persuasion. I am left with a poor impression of the brewery but have to remember that the would not likely taste as they did closer to their home. And how much more the case for the green bottled, mass produced stuff.

    So while it is swell to be green in an abstract sense, isn't it just as valid or even more so to pass on bottles that have been trucked a thousand miles or more because a more local one should always be fresher?

Hop Talk

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/18/Bend%e2%80%99s_two_beer_festivals'

    Bend’s two beer festivals

    Posted: August 18th, 2010, 6:30am CEST by Jon

    The two big beer festivals for Bend are just around the corner, and are nearly back-to-back: the Bend Brewfest is coming up this weekend, and The Little Woody is two weeks after that, on Labor Day weekend. Interesting how that worked out on timing; a little closer together and we almost could have had a Bend Beer Week.

    Bend BrewfestThe Bend Brewfest takes place Friday the 20th and Saturday the 21st, from 4 until 11pm and noon to 11pm respectively. It takes place at the Les Schwab Amphitheater in Bend’s Old Mill District. Admission is free but—as usual—the purchase of a souvenir tasting mug is required to drink beer, and tasting tickets (or tokens, I’m not sure which they’re using) are $1 each. (No mention of the mug price on the site that I can find.)

    In addition to a pretty impressive brewery lineup (including all eight Central Oregon breweries) with some 67 beers, there will also be wine from Volcano Vineyards (one of Bend’s local wineries) and hard cider from Crispin Cider Company. There will be food vendors on hand, and children will be allowed up until 7pm (though parents will be required to sign a pledge “acknowledging the responsibility of preventing children from consuming alcohol and the penalties for the parent and child”—an OLCC holdover from last year’s cancellation).

    There will supposedly be “activities and music” but that page on the site still says “info coming soon.”

    The Little WoodyThe site for The Little Woody, on the other hand, lists just about everything except exactly what beers and food are going to be served up. This year’s Little Woody still takes place on the lawn of the Deschutes Historical Society, and it has expanded: in addition to Central Oregon’s local brewers (plus newest Boneyard Beer), Eugene’s Ninkasi and Corvallis’ Block 15 will also be represented. Plus, there will be a bourbon tasting: six tastings of five bourbons (not sure how that works) for $30.

    It takes place Friday, September 3rd and Saturday, September 4th, from 5 until 10pm and noon until 10pm, respectively. Admission is $6 and includes the commemorative glass; tasters should be $1 (like last year), but I’m not finding that specific fact on the site.

    The event details page lists the live music schedule for the two days, as well as the bourbon offerings. I have an email out to the organizers to see if I can get a beer list (and food list), which I’ll post if I get.

    Update: I forgot to mention that The Little Woody is not kid friendly, it’s a 21 and over event only. And besides the beer and bourbon, there will also be cocktails from Bendistillery, wine, and soft drinks.

Hop Talk

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/18/Albany_Ale__What_Hops_Would_They_Have_Used_'

    Albany Ale: What Hops Would They Have Used?

    Posted: August 18th, 2010, 1:49am CEST by Alan McLeod

    Remember Albany ale? Last spring, I found a number of references to beer being shipped around the eastern seaboard from Newfoundland to New Orleans as well as references to it being sold in Texas and even California. Not sure what it was but there was plenty of evidence that it was something.

    The other day I found something particularly helpful. In 1835, the Senate of the State of New York received the Report of the Select Committee... on the Memorial of Sundry Inhabitants of the City of Albany, in Regard to the Manufacture of Beer. Forty pages long, the Report consists of answers by brewers given in response to six questions posed by Senators intended to discover whether the brewers of Albany were brewing impure beer. Question 3 gets to the point:

    3. Have coculus indicus, nux vomica, opium, laurel leaves, copperas, alum, sulphuric acid, salt of steel, aloes, capsicum, sulphate of iron, or copperas, or any other deleterious or poisonous drug or compound, or any or either of them, or any extract or essential property thereof, been, at any time, or in any quantity, directly or indirectly infused, mixed, put or used in beer, ale or porter, either when being manufactured or when preparing for market? If aye, at what time, in what quantities, and by whom?

    Yikes. Yiks, too. Happy to report, however, the answers were a complete and fairly convincing denial of all charges, charges no doubt trumped up by some downstate faction. But in giving that answer, the brewers, brewery owners and staff give a lot of information about what was going on with brewing in and around the Hudson Valley at that time. I will return to this text on other topics but today, I want to look at what they say about hops and where that can lead us. Here are some of the comments:

    • James D. Gardner of Vassar and Co., Poughkeepsie stated: "I do not know the cause of that flavor, which gives to some beer the taste of aloes, unless it is owing to the use of strong hops which may have become damaged by packing, before sufficiently cured, or to unskilfulness in the operator, or to both combined."
    • James Wallace of the firm of J+U Wallace, Troy, NY reported: "There is a great variety in the flavor of hops: some have a strong, others a more delicate flavor, which readily accounts for the different flavors perceptible in the ales of the same establishment."
    • Thomas Read of Thom. Read and Co., Troy NY confirms he used 2.5 to 5 pounds of hops to a barrel and that they looked for the palest bales of hops to use in their pale ale.
    What does that tell us? Well, no one describes varieties of hops even if they come in different colours, different degrees of curing and damage as well as different degrees of delicacy. We can fall into a trap thinking people in the past were not as perceptive as we are. Well, it is clear the brewers are looking for differences in hop characteristics with a professional eye but do not see varieties or breeds of hops as something available to them.

    What were these hops? It is reasonable to suggest they were New York state hops. In Volume 50 of the American Journal of Pharmacy from 1877, there is an useful article setting out the importance of hop industry in central NY in the mid-1800s. In 1860, it states, each of four countries of central NY including Otsego produced more hops than all hops produced in the USA outside of New York state. Two varieties are mentioned by the pharmacists: "large and small cluster." In another report, this time the 1860 Report of New York State Cheese Manufacturers' Association, a trip to Otsego County is describe in which the hop plantings in every village are estimated. We are told at page 150 that at Richfield, about 75 miles west of Albany two varieties were grown:

    Messrs. Allen & Hinds, the leading hop merchants of' the town, informed us that the past winter had been unfavorable to hop plantations in this section, and many yards had been badly winter-killed, more especially the older yards. There had been greater losses from this cause than in any previous year, but a considerable number of new plantations had been set, and it was believed the new yards would more than supply the place of those winter-killed. Two varieties of the hop are generally cultivated in town, the Pompey and Cluster. The Golding hop of England had been tried but did not succeed well, being liable to rust . The Pompey is a large coarse variety, a vigorous grower, but inferior to the Cluster in strength and flavor, and does not keep its color so well as the latter variety.

    While there is still a village of Pompey and even a modern day effort in the re-establishment of the central NY of the hop industry there, we are unfamiliar with that strain. We do know about Cluster, however. Cluster is still with us, often described as an old American cultivar which is, notably, a hybrid of Dutch strains and wild indigenous ones. Hmm... where did the Dutch meet the wild in the US? The Albany area, of course.

    There is more to know about Cluster and the need to more closely locate it in the early 1800s in an Albany brewer's log book but for now suffice it to say that when the brewers of Albany ale were talking about hops they were likely talking about the finest hops available locally, Cluster.

Knut Albert's beer blog

  • Permalink for 'Knut_Albert_s_beer_blog/2010/08/18/Spinning_replacing_drinking_'

    Spinning replacing drinking?

    Posted: August 18th, 2010, 1:29am CEST by knutalbert
    There is no lack of articles about the decline and fall of the English pub, but there are changes in other countries, too. I have written about the positive developments in Oslo concerning the ability of craft beer, but at the same time, obviously, the volume of standard pale lager is declining. The Norwegian journalist trade [...]
  • Permalink for 'Knut_Albert_s_beer_blog/2010/08/17/Oslo_Beer_and_Food_Festival'

    Oslo Beer and Food Festival

    Posted: August 17th, 2010, 4:29pm CEST by knutalbert
    I assume most of my Norwegian readers know about this, but for the record: As last year, there is an open air beer festival in Oslo this week, Wednesday-Sunday. It takes place in Kubaparken, within walking distance from the city centre. A good seminar programme, put together by Gustav Jørgensen, though I find the pricing [...]

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/17/How_To_Improve_The_View_Of_Craft_Beer__3741'

    How To Improve The View Of Craft Beer #3741

    Posted: August 17th, 2010, 2:55am CEST by Alan McLeod

    Apparently, if there is a "we" acting on some sort of grand plan, the plan needs to address the workplace and workplace ethics:

    It doesn’t even matter is the boss or manager has chosen a glass of Merlot or beer, then offered it to the job-seeker or that the job-seeker shows no effect of alcohol. The negative association is so strong that, despite evidence to the contrary, there is a perception of impaired reasoning. “Prospective job candidates largely fail to anticipate the imbibing-idiot bias,” writes Rick from the University of Michigan and Schweitzer from the University of Pennsylvania. “Candidates in informal interview settings follow the boss’s lead, even when the boss chooses to consume alcohol. Our demonstration of a robust imbibing-idiot bias suggests that this form of mimicry is a mistake.” Why a mistake? “Consuming, or merely holding, an alcoholic beverage reduced perceived intelligence [even] in the absence of any actual reduction in cognitive performance,” they say.

    "Imbibing-idiot bias"? How odd. Personally, I find T-totalers a bit weak in the rafters if you get my drift. But it is not really about who is wise and who is not. It is about who has control and what delusions they are acting under.

    So, if I was a clever beer advocacy conspirator, I would get beer into the hands of the bosses (or, rather, if we are honest... middle management) to make sure that even if they were imbibing then they need to be viewing craft beer appreciation as an exception to the imbibing-idiot bias. How? A complex and overwhelming volume of knowledge making the middle manager uncomfortable, giving a clear impression that the job prospect has one up. We need scripts, people. Web pages filled with scripts for the job seeking beer fan. And then, sooner or later, we become the hiring classes. It could happen.

Knut Albert's beer blog

  • Permalink for 'Knut_Albert_s_beer_blog/2010/08/16/Oslo__Two_new_brewpubs_on_the_same_street'

    Oslo: Two new brewpubs on the same street

    Posted: August 16th, 2010, 5:23pm CEST by knutalbert
    I’ve been claiming for a long time that there is a market for at least two more brewpubs in Oslo. The current Oslo Mikrobryggeri is west of the city centre, I’d say it is more of a community pub for people who work or live in the area. It seems to be quite full every evening, the [...]

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/16/Book_Review__Great_American_Craft_Beer__Andy_Crouch'

    Book Review: Great American Craft Beer, Andy Crouch

    Posted: August 16th, 2010, 3:09am CEST by Alan McLeod

    One of the most important things I ever learned in life was the importance of an index. Why? Well, if you are overwhelmed by information as I was in law school I learned that reading the index for each course's material (because that is what we called it: "material") was what was in the course and what was not. Andy (who I call "Andy" even though we have never met due to our rich, rewarding but inherently thin relationship in the nature of all internet relationships) flagged this about this his second book with his thoughtful post "Great American Craft Beer: What’s Included, What’s Not…" This is not a book about every US craft beer. It does not describe every beer bar. It is an effort to exemplify where US craft beer is now.

    Which beings me to a quibble. I wish it was called "Great American Craft Beer 2010" as I would like this to be an annual book. "WHAT!!!" says Andy. Exactly. A superhuman effort would be required to make such a book an annual - but it is odd that no such thing exists for a country as rich and diverse as the USA. It also contains no profiles of brewers, no real history of beer in the land and no maps. The first 45 pages include a number of brief essays on the background of beer and at the end there is a bit about enjoying beer but it is the 200 pages in the middle that are the meat of the book - reviews of specific beers.

    One might say that this is the section that will go stale the fastest but it takes a picture of where we are all now. And by "we" I mean anyone who has an interest in US craft beer at this time when there are so many false pretenders, established giants, tiny interesting voices and weird experimenters out there on the beer store shelves. This is a golden era and this book captures it. From beers as pervasive as Magic Hat #9 to rarities like Three Floyds Dark Lord of which Andy writes:

    At the far horizon of the Imperial Stout Spectrum lurks a beer whose flavor and motor oil consistency have made it perhaps the most geeked out craft beer on the planet. Three Floyds sells much coveted bottles of its near-mythical Imperial Stout on one day per year, appropriately called Dark Lord Day.

    Note: that is about half the whole entry. Andy's writing is economical, vivid and accurate. You will see that throughout the book. We can only hope that it is at least a first edition if not an annual affair.

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/14/More_Travel_Advice_Needed___Any_Perry_Or_Cider_'

    More Travel Advice Needed - Any Perry Or Cider?

    Posted: August 14th, 2010, 7:57pm CEST by Alan McLeod

    The advice so far has been great. Now we are working on the route - it looks like we are heading from Binghamton NY to Cape Cod through Connecticut and Rhode Island. Looking for real makers of apple cider or pear perry. Pete got me thinking. Any ideas?

The Brew Site

Hop Talk

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/13/Beau_s_Thursday_Night_Tasting_In_the_Backyard'

    Beau's Thursday Night Tasting In the Backyard

    Posted: August 13th, 2010, 4:23am CEST by Alan McLeod

    A fun way to spend the evening. Beau's had their quarterly business meetings in town and they all came over for a few hours of opening bottles - including the father, son and a sizable host. We nine started well with two saisons and biere de garde: Hennepin, Jack D'or and 3 Monts. Batch 10 from Pretty Things was much better than the more recent bacth 13. Lesson: let it sit.

    Things got a little wobbly with three Quebec takes on Belgian white beer. We thought RJ's Coup de Grisou was fine and a good value beer. And Barbier from L'Ilse D'Orleans was not well understood given its level of rich maltiness. But Blanche from Charlevoix was a revelation in nasal interaction with beer. Freesia. Fabulous.

    Three more bottles were opened. Trade Winds Tripel from the Bruery was a bit muddled with a nice aroma. Too much of the malt ball for the style or maybe just our level of interest given the other choices. Next, the Poperings Hommel Ale, as always, was amazing. The greatest pale ale in the history of the planet? Could be.

    Then the taxi was called for the eight to be off. It was time. The mosquitoes had begun to bite. Just time to open a quart of Drie Fontienen's Oude Gueze, one of the few beer that could follow a Poperings. Like any divider of people, some were not with it. They got the first taxi. The rest of use stood on the driveway, waiting on the warm quiet summer night sipping. Then the taxi and then they were off and away.

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/12/Bashah'

    Bashah

    Posted: August 12th, 2010, 11:30pm CEST by Jon

    Last year, Stone Brewing teamed up with Scotland’s BrewDog to brew up a collaboration beer, and Bashah was the result: a “Black Belgian Double IPA” (how’s that for a style designation?) that weighs in at 8.6% alcohol by volume.

    (Yes, this was last year’s beer—this is a review from February I hadn’t posted yet, though I’ve still seen Bashah on the shelves, so if you have a decent bottleshop nearby there’s a chance you can still find it.)

    You might be thinking “Black IPA,” and that’s more-or-less what I thought when I picked it up. What I found instead was a much more Belgian-influenced character without being overpowering.

    Appearance: Black pour without much carbonation at first except a light brown head that built up gradually. Deep ruby when held to the light.

    Smell: Roasted malts with a bit of earthy hops but with a chocolate “funk” that strikes me as Belgian and reminds me of earthy mushroom at the same time.

    Taste: Definitely hoppy but also spicy up front—peppercorns and radish greens in the mix. Roasted malts and bitter cocoa powder with a bit of sweetness like… honeycomb? Raw honey maybe. Hops again follow up with a minty “green” bitter-spice.

    Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a lightness on the tongue, finishing the sweetish body with a roasty dryness.

    Overall: Unusual and tasty, not the assault on the tastebuds I’d feared. Nor (for me) nearly as bitter as expected. Nice, interesting mix of flavors happening.

    On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.66 out of 5 and is in their 97th overall percentile.

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/11/Dear_Craft_Brewers__Get_A_Canning_Line'

    Dear Craft Brewers: Get A Canning Line

    Posted: August 11th, 2010, 2:10pm CEST by Alan McLeod

    Dear Rob Tod. I have realized that I don't think I really care about that corked 750 ml bottle after all:

    We have been doing cork-finished beers for a number of years and early on we wanted to come out with a lower-alcohol, pretty full-flavored but around 4.5%- to 5%-alcohol beer. It was called the Allagash Special. That was in a cork-finished 750 mL bottle and it didn’t sell in that package. It cost us a lot to make it and cost us a lot to package in that bottle, so we had to charge a lot for it. We got beat up for it and people didn’t buy it. I think people want higher alcohol with the bigger, cork-finished special releases. I’ll welcome it when the consumer will buy those lower alcohol, fuller-flavored beers in that package. I think it will be great.

    Why in "that package"? Look, I don't want to suggest Rob is the moving force behind corked bottles but he does give a very good quote. And he takes a question well. I was fortunate enough to catch a moment him when I popped into the Allagash retail shop last summer when I mentioned my unhappy reaction to one of the annual editions of Victor. He was patient and listened, not indicating at all that he was staring at a sunburnt Canadian beer blogger somewhat smelling of fried clams and ice cream with a child tugging at his arm who really didn't make that much sense. It was, rather, Ron Jefferies who, when he was kind enough to give me the best part of an hour at the end of a Friday, I asked about the price implications of the corked bottle. I was shocked.

    So, in telling you about the only two times I have ever talked to actual US craft brewers my point is this: the bottle may well add two bucks to the price of a beer. If the point of a session is to comfortably have more than one (or even more) why do I want to see so many dollars dedicated to filling the recycling bin? If Knut of Norway can have a cheap and cheery Rodenbach from a can, what beer shouldn't be packaged in that consumer friendly format? Even if not in a can, if you want to to sell your session beers please make them reasonably affordable to buy. Like a bottle of Allagash White or Jolly Pumpkin Bam. h/t Lew.

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/11/Urban_Chestnut_Brewing__from_former_A_B_employees_'

    Urban Chestnut Brewing (from former A-B employees)

    Posted: August 11th, 2010, 8:52am CEST by Jon

    The news (and press release) making the rounds right now is the imminent opening of Urban Chestnut Brewing, a St. Louis brewery start-up made most notable by the fact that it’s being started by two former Anheuser-Busch employees. One is a former brewer for A-B, the other was in sales and marketing.

    The PR is hitting all the right points for craft beer marketing—here’s a pull:

    UCBC likes to call its unique brewing philosophy Beer Divergency —a ‘new world meets old world’ brewing approach wherein UCBC contributes to the ‘revolution’ of craft beer through artisanal creations of modern American beers, and pays ‘reverence’ to the heritage of beer with classically-crafted offerings of timeless, European beer styles.

    UCBC will create, brew and offer their beers under its Revolution (American craft) and Reverence (European traditional) series.

    Revolution: Our contribution to the renaissance of craft beer—brewing artisanal, modern American beers.

    Reverence: Our celebration of beer’s heritage—brewing classically-crafted, timeless European beer styles.

    They’re located in a 1920′s garage in the Midtown Alley district of St. Louis, and plan to begin distributing their beers late this year. No word on whether they’ll be available outside of the St. Louis area.

Hop Talk

  • Permalink for 'Hop_Talk/2010/08/11/Blaven'

    Blaven

    Posted: August 11th, 2010, 2:27am CEST by Al

    ©Hop Talk - Use of this feed on other sites without express permission is prohibited

    A dear friend brought this back from her trip to the U.K. I certainly haven’t seen it in any of my local retailers. Heck, I don’t know that I’ve seen anything from Isle of Skye.

    They say:

    The strongest of the regular Skye ales, Bla Bheinn, the blue mountain, is a deep golden ale, malty and full-bodied, with a fruity, hoppy character and a delightful Fuggles hop aroma. Originally a winter ale, now available all year round due to demand.

    It pours a nice clear golden color with an off-white head a couple fingers’ thick.
    Slightly fruity aroma which reminds me of a not-quite-ripe peach. It has a big body but only about 5% ABV which is a little surprising. As it warms I’m getting a hint of vanilla.

    This is pretty good; I’m glad it made it over the Atlantic.


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A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/11/Is_A_Beer_Price_Crisis_Coming__Will_You_Notice_'

    Is A Beer Price Crisis Coming? Will You Notice?

    Posted: August 11th, 2010, 1:10am CEST by Alan McLeod

    Bad news with the impending Russian crop failure:

    It is the latest high cost of living to hit families that are reeling from the recession. Prices have already more than doubled in the past two decades, with the average cost of a pint of lager climbing from £1.08 in 1989 to £2.81 in 2009, the British Beer & Pub Association said...The price of a loaf of bread is set to increase by 10p to 129p, which would be a record, after Russia suffers from its hottest summer in a century, wiping out much of the world’s wheat harvest. There are also fears that rising prices on the wholesale energy market will push up gas prices for households, after a small supplier put up its prices by 23 per cent last week.

    Holy sign of the endtimes, Batman! While the tax issue is UK specific given their years of wanton public sector spending, something smug Canada gave up in the early 90s, that all seems pretty bad. And it may be - but have a look at the Canadian Wheat Board 2-row barley prices for the last couple of years. Prices are basically down 37% from their highs in the late winter of 2008. The market was "bleak" last year. A glut was caused. Canny Scots didn't even plant the stuff this year. And now there may be not enough to go around. Prices this week so far seem to have dropped - but who the heck can read a chart like that? Australians call even Russia's move to ban exports "The Great Grain Robbery"!

Hop Talk

Knut Albert's beer blog

  • Permalink for 'Knut_Albert_s_beer_blog/2010/08/09/Vintage_Americana'

    Vintage Americana

    Posted: August 9th, 2010, 5:54pm CEST by knutalbert
    Some splendid color photos from 1939-1943 showing the depression and preparation for war.   They were taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information and belong to the Library of Congress. There are lots more, though few of the beer related, at the Denver Post’s photo blog.

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/09/Summer_RI__MA__CT_Travel_Advice_Needed'

    Summer RI, MA, CT Travel Advice Needed

    Posted: August 9th, 2010, 3:21am CEST by Alan McLeod

    We have a ten day stretch coming up hanging out with family at Cape Cod. This means snack shacks, maybe a brewpub or two and definitely beer shopping. But this is largely unknown territory for us. We are northern New England travelers. A few years ago we tried to find Connecticut for a few days and had a horrible time of it, finding little accessible to the visitor. Surely, it was us and not the entire state. So, I need your help - where to go in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut that is:

    • family friendly,
    • includes great fried clams or hot dogs or ice cream,
    • offers me a decent chance at a great craft beer, and / or
    • will fill my trunk full of good beer to fill the stash for a long Canadian winter's sipping?

    This is vital information so please do feel free to go on and on and on. I am not sure Google maps understands my needs but I am hoping you do.

Knut Albert's beer blog

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/08/Hey__I_Can_Moderate_All_Comments_'

    Hey, I Can Moderate All Comments!

    Posted: August 8th, 2010, 12:10am CEST by Alan McLeod

    You all should be jealous.

    If I haven't told you all recently, I am eternally grateful to my former employers and clients at silverorange for letting me use and play with their technology and, I hope, act as a testing platform. Who zat? Well, I am proud to have been their lawyer over a decade ago now when they were in high school. Among many other things, they are part of that group that supports Mozilla and played a big role in the creation of the iconic Firefox logo... which I suppose is another way of saying icon.

    One of those other things they have done is create the greatest blogging system ever, the same system that this blog runs on. And I just discovered the moderate all comments button. As well as the top banner ad function. Anyone want to pay for a top banner ad? [I think if I click on this function over here my computer servers ice tea.]

    Anyway, comments are now being set as moderated for the default because I have attracted the attention of 3 smelly loser 23 year olds in Romania who are spamming the site with manually placed Viagra links. The system automatically stopped 69 comments today but two did get through. As soon as they pack it in, comments will go back to the free for all that you have come to expect.

Hop Talk

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/08/07/The_Session__42__A_Special_Place__A_Special_Beer'

    The Session #42: A Special Place, A Special Beer

    Posted: August 7th, 2010, 8:52am CEST by Jon

    The SessionIt’s the first Friday of the month, which means for beer bloggers that it’s time for The Session: a monthly group blogging effort on whatever topic our host chooses. Hosting duties change from month to month, and in addition to selecting the topic, each month’s host also compiles a list of links to all the participating bloggers—which means lots of good reading.

    This month is the 42nd edition of The Session, and hosting honors belong to Derrick at Ramblings of a Beer Runner: the theme is all about location in A Special Place, A Special Beer.

    Two of the best ways I’ve found to explore a new place are to run around in it, and to sample the beer from it. And like many in the craft beer community, I constantly exhort anyone who will listen to support their local brewery, while simultaneously seeking out beers from distant lands that are new, novel, and exotically foreign. The Session provides a unique opportunity to explore this connection between the beer in our glasses and the place it comes from with perspectives from all over the world

    So I ask for this 42nd Session that you write about a special place in your life, and a beer or brewery that connects you to that place. It can be the beer from your childhood home, a place you once lived, your current hometown, a memorable vacation you once took, or a place you’ve always wanted to go to but never had the chance. Please take a few moments to think about the how the beer connects you to this place, and share this with us. Of course, the definition of “place” is rather open ended, and in some cases, highly debatable, so it will be interesting to see the responses on what constitutes a place.

    This month’s topic is perfect because it gives me an opportunity to write about a brewery that I’ve been wanting to cover for a while: the defunct Birkebeiner Brewing Company from Spokane, Washington. (There are a couple of reasons for this. One is nostalgia. The other is in the spirit of trying to document a bit of the history of these breweries that are no longer around, combined with a bit of web archaeology.)

    Back through the mid-90s I spent four years in Spokane, Washington, generally going to school and discovering my affinity for craft beer and homebrewing (which I’ve written about before). These were formative beer years for me, and while Spokane wasn’t the beer town that Portland was (or is), there were still several microbreweries, the best of which (in my opinion) was the Birkebeiner Brewery.

    It was in fact one of my semi-regular beer haunts, in large part because Tuesday nights they had their $1 pint specials (I would get off work in the evening—I worked late hours while going to school—and enjoy two or three pints for cheap along with something to eat). They also had a tremendous number of beers on tap for a brewpub, a dozen or so, and were always rotating and experimenting with new beers: I remember when they first brewed a chili beer, and one night we were there and a woman at the table next to us had ordered a pint of it. She had barely a sip and didn’t like it, and offered it to me instead (she felt bad about sending it back). Always game to try a new beer (not to mention a free one!), I accepted.

    It was awful. I couldn’t drink it either, but I had to give the brewery credit for attempting it.

    I drank a lot of their beer, and two that stand out in memory are the Apricot Ale and the Oatmeal Stout. In fact, I even have an old T-shirt for that stout:

    Birkebeiner Brewing Oatmeal Stout t-shirt

    The Stout was a great beer, and the Apricot was well-brewed and tasted like an Apricot Ale should (not something I will say about a lot of versions).

    The Birkebeiner was located in a (then) sketchy part of town, on 35 West Main, and they lasted from 1994 until 2000 (a few years after I moved away). Despite the fact that the brewpub has been closed for 10 years, there are still a surprising number of regional guide websites that have it listed—it even shows up on Google Maps! But real information online about the brewery is scarce; so far all I’ve found of substance is this article from 1999 that talks about the overall Spokane beer scene:

    Just a few blocks away from Fort Spokane at 35 West Main Street is the Birkebeiner Brewing Co. Founded by owner/brewer James Gimurtu in 1994, it is located in an old dry goods warehouse and textile factory. The building has been extensively remodeled inside, with large storefront windows, a handsome bar and marble-topped tables. The surrounding area is sadly in need of refurbishing, however, consisting mostly of a row of crumbling warehouses. Just down the block is the House of Charity, a local mission for the homeless. It is reminiscent of Pioneer Square or the Market Area is Seattle twenty years ago, before its massive renovation.

    But Birkebeiner is a bright spot in this somewhat seedy location. Gimurtu, an avid cross-country skier, named it for a legendary group of hardy Norwegian skiers who rescued the infant King Haakon V (birkebeiner means “birch binding”) Originally from Minnesota, James has lived in Seattle and Portland, where he went to hotel/restaurant school in 1992. Afterward, he moved to Spokane to open a coffee bar. James decided to open a brewery after taking brewing classes at UC Davis in California, and getting hands-on experience at a couple of western Washington brewpubs. Gimutrtu opened Birkebeiner in May of 1994.

    He has worked hard to make a go of it in an admittedly difficult spot for business. The brewery has a comfortable restaurant, managed by Joe Kaler. It is handsomely decorated with vintage beer posters from old Spokane breweries, advertising Bohemian Club from Bohemia Breweries and Goetz Beer from the Spokane Brewing Co. (with its certificate of excellence from Siebel Institute in Chicago, no less.)

    The menu is more adventurous than most pub fare, with choices like Buffalo Burgers and several Cajun items, including andouille sausage and jambalaya. Prices are very reasonable as well. The restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m. to midnight weekdays, until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

    James brews with a 12 barrel brewhouse (the kettle size) from Century Manufacturing in Ohio, with two 22-barrel fermentation tanks. There are up to 12 beers on tap at any given time, including an American-style Hefeweizen; a somewhat fruity blonde ale; Alien Amber ale ( poured from a twisted rebar-hand tap handle), a nut brown ale, a roasty Scottish ale, a strongly bitter IPA, a seasonal winter dark, a hoppy, dark amber ale, and a roasty but smooth Oatmeal Stout. There are several fruit-flavored brews, including the blueberryish Tough Guy, a golden, aromatic but somewhat thin Belgian Raspberry, and an apricot ale, a cloudy pale ale which seemed to have the best fruit taste. Also available when I visited was a malty chili beer, with a good peppery aroma and not too much heat in the finish.

    Good times. The Birkebeiner’s Apricot Ale inspired me to try brewing my own version (with fresh apricots a friend brought back from Moses Lake, Washington)—which turned out just okay as I recall, not great—which I hope gives you an idea of the impact the brewery had on me. It was a great place, and in some ways I wish I could revisit it. But then again, this month’s Session has helped me do just that.

Knut Albert's beer blog

  • Permalink for 'Knut_Albert_s_beer_blog/2010/08/07/The_Swedish_beer_scene'

    The Swedish beer scene

    Posted: August 7th, 2010, 4:58am CEST by knutalbert
    I tried, in the earlier days of blogging, to do some updates on the brewery and bar scene(s) in Sweden, but I found out it is beyond my capacity. The fact that there are several dozen beer bloggers in Sweden tells a lot. A most useful site for anyone with an interest is BeerSweden, which [...]

A Good Beer Blog

Knut Albert's beer blog

  • Permalink for 'Knut_Albert_s_beer_blog/2010/08/06/Olympen__A_beer_list_to_be_proud_of'

    Olympen: A beer list to be proud of

    Posted: August 6th, 2010, 4:14pm CEST by knutalbert
    There is some healthy competition here in Oslo now. I’ve stated recently that Italy is the new California when it comes to beer. We’re not quite there, but we can soon say that Oslo is the new, well, Gothenburg. I’m off to meet a friend at Olympen this evening. Their beer list has exploded over [...]

Hop Talk

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/06/Quebec__Joseph_Bellarmin__M_Brasserie_De_L_Ile_D_Orleans'

    Quebec: Joseph Bellarmin, M'Brasserie De L'Ile D'Orleans

    Posted: August 6th, 2010, 2:59am CEST by Alan McLeod

    I like the style of this brewery's labels and brew branding. They all have a folk arty drawing off of a local character from the past. My French is so poor that I can't tell the tale of Joe - but I do note "Houblonée a Froid" in that green circle, cold hopped. You can't really see it in the picture provided care of my dying camera. It's starting to look like art, isn't it? It's not another dead digital camera to join the pile. It's the art camera.

    This DIPA pours a deep orange amber with slow moving carbonation hinting at thickness. The head is rich creamy foam and froth. Heat, sweet herb and bready malt on the nose. In the mouth a bit of a surprise. Big but not huge. Sweet creamy with heat, grapefruit pith sweet malt and some very singular herbal notes. A bit burn at the end. Quite nutty with star anise as well. More of a semi-sub-DIPA than an IIPA. You know know what I mean?

    It gets some curious looks from RateBeerians perhaps from its sub-imperial reality but great respect from the BAers. Its a seasonal special for autumn but I am not sure that it's the autumn of 2009 or 2010. If it is a year old, it has held up very well even if that hint of star anise is not going to be everyone's favorite thing.

Hop Talk

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/08/06/Oh__To_Be_In_Moscow...'

    Oh, To Be In Moscow...

    Posted: August 6th, 2010, 1:53am CEST by Alan McLeod

    ...now that the heat wave's in full bloom:

    I walked outside this morning to find a gang of bare-chested fellows, with shaved heads, sweaty snouts, and stretchmarked potbellies, sitting on the guardrail near our doorway, guzzling beer and smoking, and for good measure, belching and swearing about the heat. Any walk around town reveals similar scenes: men have at times dispensed with much of their clothing, and carrying a beer (plus lit cigarette) is now de rigueur. This is legal: there's no law banning open containers of alcohol in Russia. Except that in Russia, beer hardly qualifies as alcohol. (Unless possibly it's that 12-proof brew marked krepkoye.) Beer is more like a training beverage. But vodka is considered alcohol, and thus possesses, many would point out, curative properties for whatever ails you. So fighting noxious heat with medicinal doses of vodka makes perfect sense. And I don't mean some dainty cocktail, like, say, a vodka collins. The idea of mixing vodka with anything except more vodka is an abomination. Why dilute the healing fun?

    I don't have any real point to saving the quotation from Jeffrey Tayler's article in The Atlantic other than to note what an excellent piece of drinks writing the article represents, including its harsh observation of the stupid waste that can accompany empty boozing. In Moscow - now.

Larsblog

  • Permalink for 'Larsblog/2010/08/05/%c3%86gir__Fl%c3%a5m'

    Ægir, Flåm

    Posted: August 5th, 2010, 9:33pm CEST
    It's far and away the most spectacular brewpub I've ever seen. Part of it is the location, at the end of a Norwegian fjord surrounded by tall mountains that seem to tower over the little village. But it's just as much the brewpub itself, a dark, bulky wooden structure looking vaguely like a stave church that's lost its tower, decorated with wooden dragons on the roof, in true dragestil. Inside it's no less unusual, as we'll get to in a moment.

Knut Albert's beer blog

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    Beer souvenirs you didn’t know you needed

    Posted: August 5th, 2010, 6:59pm CEST by knutalbert
    It’s kitschy souvenir time again, folks. The web shop of the Octoberfest is open. I am old-fashioned enough to prefer young ladies in dirndl, but they offer eye candy for ladies clothes for men, too. Like this lederhosen-like swimming trunks. I somehow doubt that the model in the photo consumes many Steins and sausages per day. My waistline is [...]

The Brew Site

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    Craft Brewers Alliance (Widmer, Redhook) purchasing Kona Brewing

    Posted: August 5th, 2010, 7:59am CEST by Jon

    John Foyston broke the news yesterday which seemed to surprise people:

    Portland-based Craft Brewers Alliance Inc. said Tuesday it will pay $13.9 million for Hawaii’s Kona Brewing Co., cementing what had been a nine-year partnership.

    Under the agreement, Kona will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Craft Brewers, which also distributes the beers of Chicago’s Goose Island Brewery. Craft Brewers was formed with the merger of Portland’s Widmer Brothers Brewing and Woodinville, Wash.,-based Redhook Ale Brewery in 2008.

    As part of Craft Brewers, Kona will be able to expand its brand and distribution while maintaining its craft brewery operations in Hawaii, said Kurt Widmer, co-founder of Widmer Brothers Brewing. Kona beer for mainland distribution will continue to be brewed by Widmer and Redhook.

    I’m not sure why it was surprising, as it makes perfect sense: Widmer has been brewing Kona’s beers here on the mainland for years (it’s costly to export from Hawaii), and this deal will not only be an extension of that but will also get Kona’s beers into wider distribution (always a good thing).

    There will be (and already are) those who think this is a bad thing because these bigger craft brewers have “sold out” somehow, but Jeff over at Beervana zeroes in on this and talks about why this is in fact a good thing (and nails it).

A Good Beer Blog

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    California: Black Orchard, The Bruery, Placentia

    Posted: August 5th, 2010, 1:56am CEST by Alan McLeod

    A discontinued beer. Great. It's not even listed by the brewery. Never made their blog...oh, yes it did. Still, its departed. Yet there it is, cooling is the cistern. I picked this up in Ithaca because I had never seen on of their brews this far east and was please to see the price below ten bucks. No soak.

    Well, that might explain it. Fountain! Lips clamped over the 750 ml bottle mouth, we do a dance until more toweling and the glass is found. Yet spurting into my gob, there is a very pleasant dry cocoa note. Once the glass is found, it pours a very deep dark black with only a thin off white rim. Not a lot of aroma - burnt cream spice. In the mouth, a little sour, cocoa, burnt toast and, as the BAers note, orange juice. Light and watery fresh orange juice. Not thin. A bit of an odd combination as it is like the end of breakfast - juice and toast scrapings. What schwarzbier is to a certain type of lager maybe this is to a Belgian wit. That might be it.

    So, something of an experiment but not one without its charms and uses.

Knut Albert's beer blog

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    Italy again

    Posted: August 4th, 2010, 3:34pm CEST by knutalbert
    Our vacation abroad this summer was once again in Italy – one week on the beach and three days in Rome. As I’ve told you, I don’t have much time for detailed analysis of  anything at the moment, this includes the developments on the Italian beer scene. Still – some thoughts: We stayed in Terracina, [...]

Hop Talk

A Good Beer Blog

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    Beer Most Slimming When Not Consumed!

    Posted: August 4th, 2010, 3:33am CEST by Alan McLeod

    This has to be up there with the "open source beer" clap trap... or maybe the "women better tasters" silliness. It seems the more people need to make a buck the greater the need to foist a 90% rubbishy idea on people. And this one is pure fool's gold:

    CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, and the Beer Academy, have today come together to highlight to UK consumers that beer, when drunk in moderation, can help you lose weight, cut alcohol consumption, and more generally, help supplement a healthy lifestyle. New research released during CAMRA's Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court, London (August 3-7) where over 500 British real ales are currently being showcased, shows that 34% of men and 29% of women incorrectly believe that beer contains more calories than other alcoholic drinks.

    There is a huge concern with the effect of beer on health. The most read post on this blog is about the calories in big bomb beers. Drinking a bomber of high alcohol beer is like chugging a mug of cake icing. Yet CAMRA knows better. It takes the lowest level of alcohol content it could suggest with a straight face (3.8%) and places it in the half pint serving so loved by Enid Sharples. Who else in their right mind stops at one half pint of a 3.8% beer? No one.

    Let's be clear. This is up there with a Bud Lite Lime Draft commercial as far as truth in advertising goes. One just has to consider the heft of those lined up at the opening of the Great British Beer Festival this morning. Curved yet not swerved. If I were to give up beer and, you know, do something with my life I would likely drop 10% of my body weight without a thought. And that would stay off diabetes, relieve stress on the joints and do any number of other good things. Same for many a beer writer and many a beer nerd. As a great mind once sang, my hips don't lie. Those thin people you see drinking a lot of beer? They do insane things like smoke or jog extra to make up for it.

    Beer is many good things but it is not all good things. Making up hooey-kablooey dingbattery like this serves no one that matters. Not the drinkers, some of whom may take the wooden nickel and put off the visit to the weight scale for another month. Or the brewers who have to fight off the stigma of being associated with transparency. Or the health professionals trying to prove that a moderate amount of drink is not a sign of the Devil. Like all such foolishness, it will make for a few passing columns in trade papers (and a few thin pay packets for the columnists) but that's about it.

Knut Albert's beer blog

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    New Oslo brew pub

    Posted: August 3rd, 2010, 4:37pm CEST by knutalbert
    The new Oslo brewpub – Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri – is a good example on how to use the social media to build interest months before the opening. It is not rocket science – just establish a facebook group and upload photos as the work progresses. I have mentioned this place before. It is an offshoot of [...]

The Brew Site

The Champagne of Blogs

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    Hair of the dog brewing opening soon!

    Posted: August 3rd, 2010, 12:02am CEST by Andrew

    hotd The nice lady at Hair of the Dog Brewing tells us they’ll be opening inside of two weeks! The tables look ready, the bar has a good sheen and they’ll have free wi-fi.

    In case you missed the last FredFest event, the new location is 61 Southeast Yamhill Street. It’s just a stones throw from the river bank on Portland’s Southeast side. Lot’s of growth going on over here; Bunk is opening up a new bar/bakery thing next to Water Avenue Coffee too. Busy busy!

    The story is that Hair of the Dog Brewing will be open 2pm to 8pm, Wednesday through Sunday for starters, and expand hours as time goes on.

    My best guess is they’ll be open Wednesday, August 11th, but that’s just a guess. I’ll update this post when I get better info.

    UPDATE on 8/16/2010:

    Hair of the Dog Brewing opened last Friday, August 13th! They say they’ll have free wifi next week and a full kitchen the week after that! Here’s some photos from our stroll today:

    Doors are Open!

    Doors are open!

    Plenty of Room for Everyone

    inside

    Don’t spill your beer in the moat!

    Mind the moat!

    You Have Fine Taste

    menu

    - Enjoy!

    Share/Bookmark

A Good Beer Blog

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    The Best Way To Teach Folk About Good Beer?

    Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 6:34pm CEST by Alan McLeod

    The backyard BBQ. It has to be. Likely because of Pete's daydreaming about his English garden, I got the urge to have a smoky BBQ yesterday. Well, it was the day before really as I had to put the ribs into an overnight soak of Sierra Nevada pale ale, a bunch of ends of BBQ sauce bottles from Dinosaur and Beale Street, onions, lemons and grapefruit juice.

    The blue box tells the tale. I picked up the Sierra Nevada when we were over in upstate NY Saturday - after sticking my nose in Maggies on the River, a newish Watertown NY beer bar with 32 taps.¹ The Sierra Nevada went for 18 bucks a 12 pack at the grocery.² Also picked up some Hennepin as well as a six of Goose Island 312. All well made, good value but approachable craft beers. Throw in some other odds and ends from the stash like travel beer from Ithaca and Quebec, samples of Granville Island's excellent Robson Street Hefeweizen and before you know it, people are sucking on ribs, chowing down on pulled pork coleslaw sandwiches, dipping everything in mop sauce and washing everything down with tasty ales. At the end when everyone is in a good frame of mind, break out some big bombs as sippers. Last night we had Southern Tier Oat, an 11% wall of dark malty goodness. All was very well.

    Lesson? You want the people you know to like craft beer? Give it away with a plate of BBQ. They'll get the point every time.

    ¹ [Ed.: Pretty respectable beer list.]
    ²[Ed.: The same beer I once saw in a Canadian beer bar for $7.99 a bottle!]

Knut Albert's beer blog

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    Own a piece of beer blogging history

    Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 4:45pm CEST by knutalbert
    We have bought a new flat up the road, meaning we are selling the old one. This means no time for blogging, as I am busy putting things into boxes, throwing away stuff I once thought would come in useful, adding some paint here and there - you know the drill. I’ll get back to more [...]

The Brew Site

A Good Beer Blog

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    New York: Zuur, Ommegang, Cooperstown

    Posted: July 31st, 2010, 2:29am CEST by Alan McLeod

    I know I should have gone to the brewery. I know. I know I know. But I was on holiday and sick and I needed to save it up for the Baseball Hall of Fame because it's the year another sweet Expo enters and, well, I liked the Expos. I got the hat, OK? Let it go. Jeesh.

    Zurr doesn't even seem listed on the site for Ommegang anymore. 6% Flemish Oud Brown Ale with cherries added. The cherries do seem a wee bit of a cheat as this all seems a little tiny (tiny) bit easy yet to have a competent Goudenband clone on the loose in North America is, you know, really good. It pours active lightly reddened light chestnut with a well held beige head. Cherry vinegar on the nose. With the cherry there is balsamic, drying oak and nod to vanilla in all there in a bright acidic sip.

    Solid BAer respect.

For The Love Of Beer

  • Permalink for 'For_The_Love_Of_Beer/2010/07/31/Fant%c3%b4me_BBB_Dark_White'

    Fantôme BBB Dark White

    Posted: July 31st, 2010, 12:30am CEST by Don Thompson
    Brasserie Fantôme is located in Soy, Belgium and has been around since 1988. Dany Prignon has been creating an array of saisons since that time using a variety of ingredients...herbs, spices, whatever he can get his hands on. They even brew a saison made with dandelions picked from the grounds around the brewery. Each bottle seems to tell a different story and I was excited to crack this one....

    I always enjoy trying Dany's creations and was happy to find this one up in Milwaukee. Cork pops and pours into my Fantome glass a deep hazy brown with red accents and a creamy inch of off white head that has great staying power. Aromas of crisp earthy, bready malts along with a mellow barnyard accent. Yeast tones meet a melange of spiciness where the pepper takes the lead. Slight fruit undertones as well.



    First sip brings a cornucopia of flavors. Crisp, slightly bready malts meet a good mix of fruity flavors intermixing with the classic Fantome yeast. As it flows down the pepper kicks in and there's a slight burn on the back of the palate. Mild tartness along with a barnyard / hay accent. Lots going on here...tasty, spicy saison.



    Mouthfeel is light and arid making this incredibly drinkable. Creamy with perfect carbonation. Overall, I never quite know what to expect when I crack a Fantome beer and this was a winner for me. At 4% it's incredibly drinkable and the black pepper is well integrated and not overdone. Now it's time for me to find another bottle.

    This beer gets a rating of Great bordering on Amazing from me. Simply an awesome traditional saison.

    Follow the mysterious ghost of Fantôme by surfing over to http://www.fantome.be


The Brew Site

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    Christmas in July: Climax Noel

    Posted: July 30th, 2010, 6:00pm CEST by Jon

    Christmas in July WeekMy local Whole Foods still has bottles of Eel River Brewing‘s Belgian Christmas beer, Climax Noel, in the cooler (albeit on sale) so I picked one up to review this week. According to the label it’s a Belgian Imperial Red Ale, 9% alcohol by volume, and is certified organic.

    Eel River Brewing Climax NoelAppearance: Nice clear amber-red color (“auburn” from my wife), bright with a lively thick head.

    Smell: Sugary-sweet nose with a cherry-like fruit note. Juicy. Some sherry-like notes from the alcohol.

    Taste: Sweet strong Belgian-style character, warming from the alcohol and candi sugar washes over the tongue. Long and dry, with a sweet fruity note of figs.

    Mouthfeel: Lively and effervescent, a bit of a drawn-out dry finish. The effervescence lightens up the body considerably.

    Overall: Nice nose, nice flavors, it’s Belgian-styled through and through, something like a Tripel but “red” and figgy.

    On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.42 out of 5 and is in their 90th overall percentile.

Hop Talk

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    Marriage

    Posted: July 30th, 2010, 3:23pm CEST by Matt

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    Beer snobbery saves a life

    Posted: July 30th, 2010, 4:41am CEST by Al

    ©Hop Talk - Use of this feed on other sites without express permission is prohibited

    James Yeager is an American geologist who was advising the government of Afghanistan in 2007. Because of his distaste for a certain ubiquitous Mexican export—which an intruder left behind—he avoided assassination.

    he returned to his residence in Kabul to find it had been burgled. The intruder took money from a drawer and left behind a bottle of Corona beer. The Corona bottle sat on his counter for the next two weeks Yeager says, because Corona is one of his least favorite beers. He finally opened it during a going away party as the other drinks began to run low.

    “I pulled it out and when I popped it there was no fizz and the cap was loose,” says Yeager. “Because this one didn’t have fizz you wonder if it went rancid or not, and I just kind of sniffed it and I went ‘Oh, that doesn’t smell like beer.’ ”

    Yeager, a geochemist familiar with acids, realized it smelled like sulfuric acid – otherwise known as battery acid.

    So next time you reach for one of those industrial light lagers, consider if you really want it. The life you save may be your own.

    (via Boing Boing (via The Christian Science Monitor))


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A Good Beer Blog

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    Where Are The Beer Nerds Heading Online?

    Posted: July 30th, 2010, 4:14am CEST by Alan McLeod

    I like to check in on the stats once in a while to see if I can see any trends. I've been at this blogging thing for almost seven and a half years now and you would thing some of the numbers would make sense. They seldom do.

    • Contests are good for traffic, holidays are not. You are all reading this at work, aren't you? Cheater pants! Everyone of you.
    • A lot of people really want to know who many calories there are in beer.
    • Months later, I think the demise of RSBS did have a real effect on people coming here - at least directly. Other aggregators has more than taken up more than the slack but no universal beer related aggregator has really replaced it. I still feel less in the know.
    • I get the 6th most visits from India compared to any other country over the last year. Yet where are the comments? Work conditions must be tough there.

    That is all I can come up with. I still think there are twelve of you out there. Other than that, it is a mug's game. Except if you are monetizing. Monetize and the pieces all fall into place.

The Brew Site

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    Christmas in July: 2 Turtle Doves

    Posted: July 29th, 2010, 6:00pm CEST by Jon

    Christmas in July WeekEven though they’re only a couple of years old, The Bruery in Southern California is the current darling of the Brewinati (did I just make up that word?), and everyone online was raving about their 2 Turtle Doves over the holidays—the second in their ambitious “12 Days (Beers) of Christmas” series, where they’ll release a new beer based on a verse from the eponymous song each holiday season for, er, 12 years.

    2 Turtle Doves sounds great in concept:

    2 Turtle Doves is the second in the 12 Days/Years of Christmas Services. We decided to take our inspiration from the name and base the beer on the “turtle” candy, brewing it with cocoa nibs, toasted pecans, caramelized sugar and a lot of caramel malts. Somewhere between a Belgian-style Dark Strong Ale and an Imperial Porter, this beer is designed to take the journey through time until 12 Drummers Drumming.

    In execution, though… this is where I get to be a lone voice of dissent, because I don’t feel that it lived up to the hype. It’s a big, 12% ABV beer with lots of things going on—too much, perhaps.

    The Bruery 2 Turtle DovesAppearance: Cloudy brown coffee-colored with a creamy light brown head. Reminded me of chocolate milk in a way.

    Smell: Cocoa with a sharply nutty note; minerally and a touch roasty. Kind of a “chocolate Belgian funk” going on, with some hard-water notes.

    Taste: Semi-sweet chocolate combined with a somewhat fruity Belgian character. Yields to a dry finish at the back of the mouth—roasted malts and bittersweet cocoa and a bit of residual alcohol heat. Fruit but indistinct—a dark berry or black currant, kind of muddled. Wine-y.

    Mouthfeel: A touch tart with a dry finish and well-attenuated, medium-full body.

    Overall: Interesting, big and ambitious; I think it needs some aging. Notable chocolate notes and maybe a hint of nuttiness; a little sharp.

    On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of A-. On RateBeer, it scores 3.75 out of 5, and is in their 98th overall percentile.

A Good Beer Blog

  • Permalink for 'A_Good_Beer_Blog/2010/07/29/Assassination_By_Beer_In_Afghanistan'

    Assassination By Beer In Afghanistan

    Posted: July 29th, 2010, 2:58am CEST by Alan McLeod

    The Christian Science Monitor has dug up an interesting beery angle from the whole Wikileaks controversy. Apparently, the documents which have been released include references to a pattern of the Taliban poisoning booze as a mean to assassinate key personnel. Like this:

    James Yeager, an American geologist who advised Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines, tells the Monitor he returned to his residence in Kabul to find it had been burgled. The intruder took money from a drawer and left behind a bottle of Corona beer. The Corona bottle sat on his counter for the next two weeks Yeager says, because Corona is one of his least favorite beers. He finally opened it during a going away party as the other drinks began to run low. “I pulled it out and when I popped it there was no fizz and the cap was loose,” says Yeager. “Because this one didn’t have fizz you wonder if it went rancid or not, and I just kind of sniffed it and I went ‘Oh, that doesn’t smell like beer.’ ” Yeager, a geochemist familiar with acids, realized it smelled like sulfuric acid – otherwise known as battery acid.

    What a rotten trick. What a rotten way to go. You know, it's a damn good thing the Taliban are not aware which government advisors have a taste for Cantillon Bruocsella 1900 Grand Cru. They'd be done for.

The Brew Site

  • Permalink for 'The_Brew_Site/2010/07/28/Christmas_in_July__25_Dodici'

    Christmas in July: 25 Dodici

    Posted: July 28th, 2010, 8:00pm CEST by Jon

    Christmas in July Week25 Dodici is another beer I’d featured on last year’s Advent Calendar: a strong Winter Warmer from Birra del Borgo in Italy, which I speculated had not been actually brewed since 2008. I must have been wrong about that, because imagine my surprise when this beer popped up at Whole Foods this past winter! Yes, I snapped one up, because with a description like this, how could you not:

    Dark amber with a beige-colored foam. The nose is dominated by fruity notes such as berries, plums and orange as well as spicy notes such as pepper and coriander. Chestnut honey and definite hints of chocolate enrich the aroma. On the palate, 25 Dodici is rich and full bodied. The fruity notes are well balanced with the maltiness.

    The beer is 9.5% alcohol by volume, but comes in reasonably-sized 12.7-ounce bottles.

    Birra del Borgo 25 DodiciAppearance: Amber-brown with chunks of what looks to be orange peel floating around in it. Slow-building off-white head doesn’t stay long.

    Smell: Musty, bitter, a bit of funk and a touch ascetic. A bit of caramel and for all that it’s enticing.

    Taste: Bitter and spicy in a bitter orange peel way; for a malt profile I’d call it a brown (if I had a gun to my head) but it’s got a nice sweet backing and a bit of funk. Nutty, maybe. No sense of its alcohol strength. Woody. Interesting.

    Mouthfeel: Bitter, semi-full-bodied and finishes dry with just a hint of tart.

    Overall: I like it, it’s got what I’m coming to think of as the “Italian funk”—similar to a good Belgian in that sense. Nice sipping beer.

    On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.36 out of 5 and is in their 80th overall percentile.