Nov 30, 2009
Bad Times
Hey everyone. After a long weekend of drinking and merriment, I was interrupted at work Sunday with news of a family emergency. I will be back in blog-land Wednesday, but right now, there are more important things. Be well everyone.
Nov 25, 2009
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Oh my. I'm indulging in my old love (my girlfriend) and my new love (barleywine). If you have never had barleywine, find your closest stressed-out friend, share a bottle of barleywine, and slip into a relaxation heretofore unknown.
Before I drop off the map entirely for a day of relaxation, I recently made a trip to my local Whole Foods in search of seasonal and seasonally appropriate (big difference) beers for this week's festivities. The backstory on this is that Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada have fulfilled the will of the gods and collaborated on a beer. It is called Life and Limb, and aside from getting monster reviews all over the interwebs, it also has the most beautiful label ever.
I inquired about whether they were carrying this beer STRICTLY because I thought they wouldn't have it, and that the deprivation and delayed gratification created by this response would take me back to my joyless childhood. Pretty standard right? Woe is me, they actually had it. But in a sick and perverse fulfillment of my initial expectation, it hadn't been entered into the system and so was not for sale yet. Bribery? Nope. Sweet-talk? Nu-uh. The Whole Foods beer guy was wonderfully knowledgeable and tragically fixated on "not being fired". Such was my luck, but with some effort, I expect to get to my hands on a bottle. And the dope-ass t-shirt.
Because of job craziness and holiday preparations, the blog was AWOL this week. I know, I know. Who will force his friends to read about his esoteric passion without me on the scene? Um . . . I don't know. Forget about blogging and the internet and the 24-hour news cycle. Sit back, crack open one of the ten million delicious seasonal beers on the market now, and enjoy quality time with some friends. I will be back next week with organic beers, seasonal beers, imperials and barleywines galore . . . *salivates* . . . ahem. Anyway, thanks for reading, and it is officially the season to drink with your peoples. Peace to all.
Before I drop off the map entirely for a day of relaxation, I recently made a trip to my local Whole Foods in search of seasonal and seasonally appropriate (big difference) beers for this week's festivities. The backstory on this is that Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada have fulfilled the will of the gods and collaborated on a beer. It is called Life and Limb, and aside from getting monster reviews all over the interwebs, it also has the most beautiful label ever.
I inquired about whether they were carrying this beer STRICTLY because I thought they wouldn't have it, and that the deprivation and delayed gratification created by this response would take me back to my joyless childhood. Pretty standard right? Woe is me, they actually had it. But in a sick and perverse fulfillment of my initial expectation, it hadn't been entered into the system and so was not for sale yet. Bribery? Nope. Sweet-talk? Nu-uh. The Whole Foods beer guy was wonderfully knowledgeable and tragically fixated on "not being fired". Such was my luck, but with some effort, I expect to get to my hands on a bottle. And the dope-ass t-shirt.
Because of job craziness and holiday preparations, the blog was AWOL this week. I know, I know. Who will force his friends to read about his esoteric passion without me on the scene? Um . . . I don't know. Forget about blogging and the internet and the 24-hour news cycle. Sit back, crack open one of the ten million delicious seasonal beers on the market now, and enjoy quality time with some friends. I will be back next week with organic beers, seasonal beers, imperials and barleywines galore . . . *salivates* . . . ahem. Anyway, thanks for reading, and it is officially the season to drink with your peoples. Peace to all.
Nov 19, 2009
Beef: Food Pairings?
No no white people. I mean "beef" like "conflict". It isn't really beef, maybe just a spirited debate. If you haven't, go check out A Good Beer Blog. It's . . . um . . . a really good beer blog. Seriously. Creator and editor Alan McLeod is a fantastic writer and he has been wonderfully kind to me regarding my young efforts when I have contacted him. But a couple days ago, he posted this article he wrote about food and beer pairing. If you don't feel like going there (doitanyway), basically his point is that enjoying beer with food should be exactly that: enjoying, instead of memorializing and deifying some sort of taste experience. Now, as a food nerd, I shudder a little at this. One reason I love working in the restaurant industry, and one of the main reasons I love writing here, is that I find it exhilarating and joyous to describe (or attempt to describe) complex flavors and aromas. However, the bit of writing he cites as an example of a certain disconnect between current beer writing and beer consuming is postiviely cringe-worthy. Here it is, live from The Age via A Good Beer Blog:
It might be presumptuous, but I'm going to chime in to this conversation with these two fantastic writers. On one hand, I completely agree with Mr. McLeod. There is nothing that can touch a good beer in a comfortable chair with some friends. It is times like those where even the beer can be simple, let alone the food. Nothing derails a day of football like me telling everyone what notes to look for in their beer (trust me). But on the other hand, why not? Why not dive into the complexities and interactions of a good beer's relationship to a good meal? There is a time and a place (and I think that the article cited above proves there is a style . . . yikes), but there is most certainly room for that level of interaction.
Beer gets into the nooks and crannies of food that wine can only dream of. As a matter of fact, I've stumbled on to more good beer and food pairings by accident than I have had even suggested to me for wine. Inevitably, someone from some paper or other is going to stroll in and, seeing the next big thing, try to rub his/her burgeoning expertise in everyone's face. It turns into a "who is more knowledgable" contest faster than a Pitchfork readers' convention. But we can't let a couple bad apples ruin our fun. If this guy's writing helps me get a decent meal at my local brewpub, then ultimately I have to be for it. How many potato skins must a man eat?
But Mr. McLeod, being a good writer, doesn't stop there. He goes on to make a provocative point. He feels that this sort of writing and some of craft beer's haughty behavior in general is "marketing into a niche". I touched upon this a little with my second day post on the IGBE, but it is one of the prevailing questions that faces craft beer now. How should it be presented? Ultimately, there will be no one particular way. But what will be the overall feel? Mr. McLeod is almost certainly more knowledgeable than me on this, but I have begun to investigate (via some interviews and conversations) what the feeling is on how craft beer is presented now versus how it should be presented in the long run. Do we view it an upscale alternative to washed-out corporate nastiness and risk alienating people, or should it be marketed as an everyone drink while possibly sacrificing the opportunity to bring beer into finer restaurants and higher regard?
This blog doesn't yet have a particularly active comments section, but I would very interested in hearing what readers have to say. What is your perception of craft beer? Do blogs like this help your perception? What about the article in question? I am going to cover this a great deal more, so please, LEAVE RESPONSES. Let's get some violence going in the comments . . .
"...beer is also great as a cleanser in the middle of a meal." A meeting with the makers of his cleanser of choice — Red Hill's Golden Ale, which he served topped with a kaffir lime foam — at an earlier Taste event, led to a joint venture in which he created a degustation menu matched with their beers. Taking the flavours of the beers as his starting point, he came up with dishes a world away from the humble meat pie... Among the fare was the aforementioned smoked trout appetiser along with pairings of Red Hill's heavier Hop Harvest and Scotch ales with slow-cooked Sher wagyu, smoked ox tongue, skordalia and grains, a wheat beer with Locheilan brie, banana bread and plum jam, and a powerful Imperial Stout with a treacle tart served with an impossibly rich sticky toffee pudding ice-cream.Wow. Honestly, I know El Bulli wins Greatest Restaurant in the Galaxy every year, but is there anything less appetizing than fucking delicious food turned into FOAM? "Yeah the texture of this salmon is beautiful, but I just prefer FOOOOOAAAAMM." That has never been said, nor will it be said. So, yes this bit of writing is pretentious and awful, and I agree with Mr. McLeod's assertion in the comments section that "nerds need to be called out when they call themselves VIPs." (Ed. note: *dead*) But as the fantastic Stephen Beaumont points out when debating a seperate article, "I just don't want to be served slop when I'm out having a beer". I'm all over this. There is nothing more despairing than drinking a fantastic beer from a jubilant selection and being served useless, nothing food (*cough*Gingerman*cough*).
It might be presumptuous, but I'm going to chime in to this conversation with these two fantastic writers. On one hand, I completely agree with Mr. McLeod. There is nothing that can touch a good beer in a comfortable chair with some friends. It is times like those where even the beer can be simple, let alone the food. Nothing derails a day of football like me telling everyone what notes to look for in their beer (trust me). But on the other hand, why not? Why not dive into the complexities and interactions of a good beer's relationship to a good meal? There is a time and a place (and I think that the article cited above proves there is a style . . . yikes), but there is most certainly room for that level of interaction.
Beer gets into the nooks and crannies of food that wine can only dream of. As a matter of fact, I've stumbled on to more good beer and food pairings by accident than I have had even suggested to me for wine. Inevitably, someone from some paper or other is going to stroll in and, seeing the next big thing, try to rub his/her burgeoning expertise in everyone's face. It turns into a "who is more knowledgable" contest faster than a Pitchfork readers' convention. But we can't let a couple bad apples ruin our fun. If this guy's writing helps me get a decent meal at my local brewpub, then ultimately I have to be for it. How many potato skins must a man eat?
But Mr. McLeod, being a good writer, doesn't stop there. He goes on to make a provocative point. He feels that this sort of writing and some of craft beer's haughty behavior in general is "marketing into a niche". I touched upon this a little with my second day post on the IGBE, but it is one of the prevailing questions that faces craft beer now. How should it be presented? Ultimately, there will be no one particular way. But what will be the overall feel? Mr. McLeod is almost certainly more knowledgeable than me on this, but I have begun to investigate (via some interviews and conversations) what the feeling is on how craft beer is presented now versus how it should be presented in the long run. Do we view it an upscale alternative to washed-out corporate nastiness and risk alienating people, or should it be marketed as an everyone drink while possibly sacrificing the opportunity to bring beer into finer restaurants and higher regard?
This blog doesn't yet have a particularly active comments section, but I would very interested in hearing what readers have to say. What is your perception of craft beer? Do blogs like this help your perception? What about the article in question? I am going to cover this a great deal more, so please, LEAVE RESPONSES. Let's get some violence going in the comments . . .
Nov 18, 2009
Sam Adams: A Barrel of Fun
Here is my take on Sam Adams. Honestly, I generally don't enjoy the taste of their beers. But their heart is always in the right place. They clearly value their craft, and just because I don't agree with their tastes doesn't mean I don't respect their process. Also, they were pioneers of some pretty radical stuff, bringing a lot of European styles into the mainstream American beer vocabulary. Plus, they are independent, so the fact that they have taken a small Boston-area brewery and turned it into a publicly traded company in around twenty years is impressive. They never compromised and never sold out. Their president Jim Koch is a jovial and enthusiastic face in the craft beer industry, and his beers have been responsible for a lot of people allowing themselves to become more adventurous with their palates. I myself owe a great deal of my endless search for new tastes to them. Let's face it: when you don't know much about beer, a honey porter or cherry wheat is pretty mind-blowing. These beers, and several others of theirs, redefined my beer vocabulary and expanded what I thought I knew about beer. So thanks Sam Adams. I'll be sending you the bill for my jaundice medication.
In addition to all of this, many people have mentioned how they are a pretty good barometer on trends. Well, as if to cement this reputation, they are getting in pretty early on one of the hottest (and best and tastiest) trends on the market now: barrel-aging.
The first barrel-aged beer I ever had was Brooklyn Black Ops, a dark, 10%-plus alcohol stout aged in a bourbon barrel, and I would definitely recommend giving it a whirl if you can find it/afford the exorbitant $20 per bottle your local Whole Foods says it is worth. The flavors a barrel can impart are just not replicable any other natural way, and barrel-aging is an art that I am excited to see re-grow. After being mostly lost for decades, the art of barrel-aging inevitably has not been perfected by our generation of brewers, and so I imagine these brews getting better and better as time goes on.
As reported on Wicked Local (come on Boston, you're better than thaaaa . . . nevermind), the Boston Beer company is creating a line of barrel-aged beers cleverly titled the Barrel Room Collection. I would imagine the Barrel Room is filled with old-timey telescopes and that it looks a lot like something out of Myst. Is that just me? Anyway, they have just released the first three beers in the line: American Kriek (a kriek is a beer fermented with cherries that skews sour), the New World Tripel, and the Stoney Brook Red. Additionally they are busting out the fun bacteria and obscure yeast combos to give these beers unique flavors in addition to the barrels. I have to say, I'm dying to try these. Sad thing is, they are only going to be sold in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Colorado . . . . Okay Massachusetts I get, but New Hampshire? Colorado?
I live in NYC assholes. I demand satisfaction.
Conversely, I have no interest in their Utopias collection which was apparently aged in a bank vault. No. I'm just hating. I desperately want to try them. But $150? Let's be real. That's eighty Colt 45's.
In addition to all of this, many people have mentioned how they are a pretty good barometer on trends. Well, as if to cement this reputation, they are getting in pretty early on one of the hottest (and best and tastiest) trends on the market now: barrel-aging.
The first barrel-aged beer I ever had was Brooklyn Black Ops, a dark, 10%-plus alcohol stout aged in a bourbon barrel, and I would definitely recommend giving it a whirl if you can find it/afford the exorbitant $20 per bottle your local Whole Foods says it is worth. The flavors a barrel can impart are just not replicable any other natural way, and barrel-aging is an art that I am excited to see re-grow. After being mostly lost for decades, the art of barrel-aging inevitably has not been perfected by our generation of brewers, and so I imagine these brews getting better and better as time goes on.
As reported on Wicked Local (come on Boston, you're better than thaaaa . . . nevermind), the Boston Beer company is creating a line of barrel-aged beers cleverly titled the Barrel Room Collection. I would imagine the Barrel Room is filled with old-timey telescopes and that it looks a lot like something out of Myst. Is that just me? Anyway, they have just released the first three beers in the line: American Kriek (a kriek is a beer fermented with cherries that skews sour), the New World Tripel, and the Stoney Brook Red. Additionally they are busting out the fun bacteria and obscure yeast combos to give these beers unique flavors in addition to the barrels. I have to say, I'm dying to try these. Sad thing is, they are only going to be sold in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Colorado . . . . Okay Massachusetts I get, but New Hampshire? Colorado?
I live in NYC assholes. I demand satisfaction.
Conversely, I have no interest in their Utopias collection which was apparently aged in a bank vault. No. I'm just hating. I desperately want to try them. But $150? Let's be real. That's eighty Colt 45's.
Nov 17, 2009
Live at the International Great Beer Expo (Part 2 of 2)
I think it was telling that, as I walked around sampling over the course of the afternoon, the fact that I had a notebook and was writing down my observations seemed to draw disproportionate attention. This was not so much a "tasting" filled with adventurous minds as a huge room full of 750 people willing to pay $48 to drink an unlimited amount of beer for four hours. However, this only served to make my interactions with the brewers and their reps even more rewarding. They seemed relieved to talk to someone who actually had beer knowledge, and I was more than happy to converse with people who personally embody the qualities that help make craft beer so appealing to me: rebellious and eccentric, yet kind and personable. They have the genius of more "traditional" artists without the pretension and self-seriousness. The backdrop of frosted fauxhawk-sporting goons? It only made me feel luckier to have gotten to the secrets held within every glass. They are there for you too. If this blog has one purpose, it is to encourage everyone to throw off the stereotypical image of beer as frat-guy swill and seek out the beauty and artistry of carefully- and lovingly-made beer.
On the less dignified side of things, I got drunk. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't a fall-down, tear-filled, miserable drunk; it was a very happy drunk. But by the end of the day, I was drunk. As I mentioned at the end of the last post, the accepted maximum for beers in a tasting is twelve. My total for the day (as best I can recall) was something like twenty (ed. note: TWENTY). Admittedly, in the middle, my taste buds were reduced to mush and I briefly shifted to enjoying beers that I had already had at some point. The beers are so important to their brewers, and it would be disrespectful to taste them for the first time with anything less than a crisp palate. So at this point (right after the Amarillo Anonymous that closed the last post), I chilled out, had a hot dog, and recuperated in the food court. I drank lots of water and tried to get my focus back for the second half of the day.
On the less dignified side of things, I got drunk. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't a fall-down, tear-filled, miserable drunk; it was a very happy drunk. But by the end of the day, I was drunk. As I mentioned at the end of the last post, the accepted maximum for beers in a tasting is twelve. My total for the day (as best I can recall) was something like twenty (ed. note: TWENTY). Admittedly, in the middle, my taste buds were reduced to mush and I briefly shifted to enjoying beers that I had already had at some point. The beers are so important to their brewers, and it would be disrespectful to taste them for the first time with anything less than a crisp palate. So at this point (right after the Amarillo Anonymous that closed the last post), I chilled out, had a hot dog, and recuperated in the food court. I drank lots of water and tried to get my focus back for the second half of the day.
Nov 16, 2009
Live at the International Great Beer Expo (Part 1 of 2)
This past Saturday, the International Great Beer Expo took over the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, NY. I didn't know exactly what to expect from the trip or the event. In truth, this was my first large-scale beer event. Would I be out of my depth? Would this be an all-star gathering of the beer cognoscenti, talking hop-backs and obscure European beers I could only dream of ever getting my hands on? Um . . . no.
It would be hard to talk about the event without at least briefly discussing Long Island. I've always been fascinated by LI, so on my journey I decided to make a bit of a photo-journal of their particular culture.
Transportation
Style & Culture
Crime
Okay so maybe it isn't that bad, but Long Island is a strange and terrifying place. Haven for the rich? Ground zero for mooks? Depends on where you are. Now in NYC I can tell a 72nd St. Gray's Papaya from a 34th St. one, but on Strawng Island, I don't know whether I'm going to Syosset or Nipseydocket. Such was my strife on Saturday, en route to the Expo. Eventually I found my way, and was shown very quickly the tone of the event. When the first guy walked in with a Miller High Life shirt, I got nervous. When he was trailed by a guy wearing a shirt that said, "Swallow . . . or it's going in your eye," I was terrified. I am not making that shirt up.
I walked in and was immediately struck still: Sam Adams, Blue Moon, and Dos XX. The first three booths I saw. "Oh my god," I thought. "I just paid $48 for Corporate Beer Fest '09." I paused, took a deep breath, and literally broke into a jog, desperately hunting down a craft brewery. Fortunately, the proximity to the door of these larger breweries was BECAUSE they were the larger breweries, and tucked behind them was a rich and wonderful array of well-known craft brewers, homebrewing clubs, and everything in between. From the garage to multi-national, multi-label umbrella companies, everything was there. Scantily clad women faux-cheerily handed out corporate swill for rent money while daydreaming about their other goals. Genuinely happy (and thus far more beautiful) everymen and everywomen from craft breweries extrapolated on their labors of love, already living their dreams. It was the best and worst of beer. And since I had no intention of wasting my tolerance on a Radeberger that I could get anywhere, I was free to dive in to the exotic flavors and artistry American craft beer. Both were on full display, so with blinders turned up and destinations circled, I went about my joyous work . . .
It would be hard to talk about the event without at least briefly discussing Long Island. I've always been fascinated by LI, so on my journey I decided to make a bit of a photo-journal of their particular culture.
Style & Culture
Crime
Okay so maybe it isn't that bad, but Long Island is a strange and terrifying place. Haven for the rich? Ground zero for mooks? Depends on where you are. Now in NYC I can tell a 72nd St. Gray's Papaya from a 34th St. one, but on Strawng Island, I don't know whether I'm going to Syosset or Nipseydocket. Such was my strife on Saturday, en route to the Expo. Eventually I found my way, and was shown very quickly the tone of the event. When the first guy walked in with a Miller High Life shirt, I got nervous. When he was trailed by a guy wearing a shirt that said, "Swallow . . . or it's going in your eye," I was terrified. I am not making that shirt up.
I walked in and was immediately struck still: Sam Adams, Blue Moon, and Dos XX. The first three booths I saw. "Oh my god," I thought. "I just paid $48 for Corporate Beer Fest '09." I paused, took a deep breath, and literally broke into a jog, desperately hunting down a craft brewery. Fortunately, the proximity to the door of these larger breweries was BECAUSE they were the larger breweries, and tucked behind them was a rich and wonderful array of well-known craft brewers, homebrewing clubs, and everything in between. From the garage to multi-national, multi-label umbrella companies, everything was there. Scantily clad women faux-cheerily handed out corporate swill for rent money while daydreaming about their other goals. Genuinely happy (and thus far more beautiful) everymen and everywomen from craft breweries extrapolated on their labors of love, already living their dreams. It was the best and worst of beer. And since I had no intention of wasting my tolerance on a Radeberger that I could get anywhere, I was free to dive in to the exotic flavors and artistry American craft beer. Both were on full display, so with blinders turned up and destinations circled, I went about my joyous work . . .
Nov 12, 2009
Alehouse Heroes: Shane Welch, President and Brewmaster of Sixpoint
You know, this gig just gets better and better. For this week's Alehouse Heroes, we have Shane Welch, the President, Brewmaster, and local genius behind Sixpoint. Sixpoint brews out of Brooklyn, so of course they have my home-team support, but additionally they happen to be absolutely phenomenal. Their Brownstone is roasty with chocolate tones, the Righteous Rye conjures up a delicious pastrami sandwich, their Deisel Stout is a toffee-lover's dream, and on and on. My first experience with Sixpoint was at my last restaurant. We were thinking of adding a Sixpoint to our tapline, and they sent a rep over to give us a tasting. We were blown away and had a seriously rough time choosing only one. (Editor's note: we picked Righteous Rye. Seriously. It's incredible.) What was most impressive was how knowledgeable their rep was, and that he brought samples of the ingredients so that we could smell the hops, taste the rye, and see the quality that underlies each beer. If you go to the Sixpoint website, this is how they roll. They have in-depth coverage of their brewing process and ingredients there too. It is this transparency, pride in craft, and superior bold flavors that make them a local favorite. Hopefully, the rest of the country will enjoy their brews soon. As for this article, Mr. Welch is incredibly thoughtful and kind with the newbie blogger. Over the course of this fantastic interview, we talk about his company's penchant for transparency, brewing success, and why a 110 year old Bass can teach us about the future of craft.
Nov 11, 2009
Incoming!!!!
Whaddup y'all? The real post for today is below this, but I just wanted to keep everyone tuned in because tomorrow will have an interview with the president and brewmaster (!) of beloved BK brewery Sixpoint and it is fantastic. Also, I have procured tix to the Great International Beer Expo this Saturday (drinking starts at something like 12:30 PM), and I will have pictures, reviews, and whatever else I encounter posted next week. Thanks!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)