Crazy week, weekly digest
August 30, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
Ok, as I’ve stated I am in my busiest week here in Billsville, so… Weekly digest. This is not going to become a regular thing.
A dear friend, whom I had not seen in way too long, came up to the Bills for lunch. We went to Sushi Thai Garden, the Asian Fusion restaurant here in Billsvile and had pad thai, yumm and drinks, for lunch. I had a Kirin Ichiban, in a bottle. Honestly, I don’t find it that repulsive. It is a rice lager and exactly what one would expect. Bland and yellow and not much going on.
Wolaver’s Pat Leavy’s All-American Ale is from one of my favorite regional breweries, Otter Creek. The Wolaver’s line is their organic line and I like organic beer. Why do I like organic beer? Cause I don’t like to drink pesticides, duh. The All American Ale is a very limited release, stuck in our region, and NYC. Brewed with organic Fuggles and Goldings hops this is a rather balanced summer ale. Perfect for BBQ’s and mowing the lawn. I don’t really find any of the Wolaver beers “exciting” but they are always well brewed. I can’t really ask for anything more.
Headed down to the Pit to hear a friend Gabriel Squailia read from his new book, Dead Boys, at the WordXWord festival. Gabe was great and the Rare Vos from Brewery Ommegang that I had at Jae’s Spice was great too. Rare Vos is a beautiful Belgian Dark Ale, amazing! It is full, fruity, sweet, dry, and malty. Yeah Ommegang!
So, Thursday was a night where honestly, I was not feeling the drinking bug. So, for a night such as this, I bought the wee 7oz. Rogue: XS Imperial Red Ale Seriously the cutest damn bottle you have ever seen. Way more spice than I expected. It is toasty, nutty and toffee. Kinda reminds me of toffee crusted peppercorn beef. No, I’ve never had that. However, if there was such a creation, this would be its sister.
Friday found me making little open sandwhich tastey goodnesses. Cheese, pork, tomato, wow! I wanted a sassion, no luck, so I settled for the Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat. This is not a bad witbier, but not great either Fruit, cloves, and easy down the hatch.
Can’t really go wrong with a beer from Victory Brewing Company, great consistantly good beers. Their Old Horizontal is right up there. This is a barleywine style ale. As you might expect, strong on the alcohol. But, for over 10%ABV, it is rather mellow. I sipped this one for a few hours while watching a film. Sweet, grassy, low carbonation. Very nice.
Made a batch of my Mission Fig Ice Cream so… I popped open the Meantime Coffee Porter I had in the fridge. Beautiful! The label on the porter, if you can read it, talks about breakfast. Good idea. Next time, this one will be had with my oatmeal. Perfect really for any occasion. However, if you don’t like coffee… might want to avoid this one. The coffee takes center stage, it is beer though and the sweetness of maple syrup and some strong malts balances it out with a nice dry finish.
And that my friends, brings us to the present. As I sit here typing this I am drinking a Shipyard Summer Ale. The aroma was awful. Skunked and buttery. Big fail. The flavour is just off. Reminds me of a PBR but twice as expensive. The dude does not recommend.
So that is it, a week of drinks.
Just checking to see if you read all the way down to the cat!
Busy Busy Beer Geek, dude!
August 23, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
People's Pint Farmer Brown
Ok, so I have been so busy. I am just going to catch you up with what I have been drinking, with very little content. I apologize, I will be better. Really I just need to be more on top of things and blog and drink at the same time. I am proud to say though that 7 months in and I am going strong. I have even been better about blogging than I ever thought I would be.
Otter Creek Imperial Series, Russian Imperial Stout: true to style, well done
The People’s Pint Farmer Brown: a beer the dude digs. Drank this after harvesting squash! Farmer Dude.
Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA: a new one to add to the list of beers the dude is a huge fan of. My friends at Mezze brought this on tap last week and I fell in love. I’ve been back twice to have more!! I’d love to sample more from Dark Horse. If you like hoppy IPA’s? DRINK THIS!
“Power Pack” Porter: Another tastey brew from Sam Adels and Claire Briguglio (remember the California Steam beer from a few weeks ago?) Well Claire’s mom brought e this one too and is was great! Look at the head on it. Nutty brown head, love it!
Rustwagen Hefeweizen: This beer is no longer brewed as Pennichuck Brewing Company, Inc.is no longer with us. I picked up a stray bottle in North Adams. Nice brew. Nothing special. It might have been better before being cellared?
Stone Emperial 14 IPA: Stone, the IPA people, bring this great big beer to commemorate their 14th anniversary. It helped me through a night of building an IKEA bedroom!
Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA Tasting Notes from stonebrew on Vimeo.
Wachusett Larry
August 17, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
Took a late night ride on the Cimatti moped. Tons of fun. 9pm and I have the town to myself. For a moped, I was flying. It is just a beautiful night and I finished watching a movie and had the urge to move, with the wind in my hair, I hopped on my moped and went zooming around the village. As I flew down Spring Street the people in from of Images and Lickety Split stared at that odd creature on a mini motorcyle, with pedals no less! Wow, I could have staid out all night.
Got home to a wonderful Imperial IPA waiting for me. Wachusett Larry, named after Publick House employee Larry Melia, who “charmed the Wachusett staff during a visit to their brewery.” The beer is a team effort between Brookline, MA Publick House and Wachusett Brewing Company of Westminster, MA. (thanks to Twin Beer for details)
Not much in the aroma category (if you are not such a hop head tan the hops will probably be keen on your senses. The flavour, bubble gum! And grassy hops. Not much on the floral end of the hop spectrum. Some citrus, not much. Fairly viscus in mouthfeel. Not too heavy, and virtually no aftertaste! What a drinkable Imperial IPA! Wow, very nice people.
Helios Ale (V Saison)
August 16, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
“Helios is the young Greek god of the sun. He is the son of Hyperion and Theia. By the Oceanid Perse he became the father of Aeëtes, Circe, and Pasiphae. His other children are Phaethusa (“radiant”) and Lampetia (“shining”) and Phaeton. Each morning at dawn he rises from the ocean in the east and rides in his chariot, pulled by four horses – Pyrois, Eos, Aethon and Phlegon — through the sky, to descend at night in the west. Helios once allowed Phaeton to guide his chariot across the sky. The unskilled youth could not control the horses and fell towards his death.” (pantheon.org) A beer to drink during the time that we, as humans, worship the sun. A sun beer.
What used to be called, V-Saison, is now Helios Ale. In my love of Saisons I thought it was a good choice to try the Victory offering, especially when I am in the midst of harvest season of my Victory Garden.
Look at the colour! This is really what it looked like, sunshine! The Helios Ale is an earthy take on the style. Not my favorite saison this year but not bad at all. Too spicy for my taste. There is a heavy pepper taste, cinnamon, and vanilla. Light on the hops. Nice and crisp beer.
Tetley’s English Ale
August 16, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
And you thought Tetley’s was just English Tea? As good as the tea is…beer is always better.
The Tetley’s Brewery is a large brewery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The main product made there is Tetley’s Bitter, however Skol and other smaller products are also made there. The original brewery was opened in 1822. (thank you wikipedia) In 2009 it was announced that the old brewery (now owned and operated as Carlsberg) would close by 2011. “The company said it needed to maximise efficiency to remain competitive in the face of increasingly challenging market conditions.” Of course, maximize.
Tetley’s English Ale is what I was looking for in the Anderson Valley Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema why I looked to California for a typical English Ale? Who knows.
Tetley’s came in a can with a widget, to mimic nitrogen, like Guinness. The result, is a creamy smooth beer with a beautiful head. The aroma is sweet, not much going on in the aroma category though. The flavour. Well, the flavour is where it is at on this one. Sweet, yes. Overly sweet, no way. This is a smooth creamy delicious beer. Hints of banana and milk. Mild hops, you can tell that this is beer. Yeast, yes yeast. The yeast is what seems to give it a majority of its character. This is a highly drinkable beer. I was watching a movie and very quickly realized that my beer was gone. I was like, “oh shit, that is it?”
Beautiful beer, I’d like to try it on tap.
Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema
I want to like Anderson Valley beers. I just don’t. The Summer Solstice Cerveza Cream is crap. Metallic? Honestly, it is just crap. I don’t like the aroma, it is kinda off. Not really anything going on. I guess it is sorta creamy, kinda smells like milk? The aroma is sweet and yeast is present, but not overpowering. In wouldn’t say it is yeasty, but there is yeast (duh, it is beer).
The flavour is just weird. sweet, like cake? Seriously, kinda like white birthday cake out of a box. I hate cake.
The finish is dry. I expected it to be a wet finish, but no. Dry as a bone.
Others may like it. This is a subjective blog. I hated it.
Raging Bitch Belgian IPA
August 15, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
I can not come up with this shit on my own. Flying Dog really called their 20th Anniversary beer, Raging Bitch Belgian IPA. According to their site, “An American IPA augmented with Belgian yeast, our 20th anniversary beer jumps out of the glass and nips at your taste buds with its delicate hop bitterness. At 8.3% ABV, this bitch is dangerously drinkable.”
Drinkable is right. Since I had to buy a six-pack I have been tapping this one all weekend long.
Ralph Steadman did the artwork, again. If you are a lover of Hunter S. Thompson’s work you will know Ralph, he did all of Hunter’s artwork. “George and Richard met up with >Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman in the Woody Creek Tavern and things got a whole lot weirder. As Dr. Gonzo once stated though, “when the going gets weird the weird turn pro,” so today we ship over 500,000 cases a year, across the world, from our state-of-the-art facility in Frederick, Maryland. The Maryland Brewery utilizes cutting-edge technologies to aid in water conservation, ensuring the same great Flying Dog drinking experience time after time.”
So what is a Belgian IPA? As far as I can tell it is an IPA brewed with Belgian yeast. Not really a style, just another f’d up gonzo beer from Flying Dog. If Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic or event being covered. It disregards the ‘polished’ edited product favored by newspaper media and strives for a more gritty approach. (stolen from wikipedia’s gonzo entry) Than, Gonzo beer favors style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the beer and strives for a more gritty approach.
This then, my friends is a gonzo beer.
To me, I taste rye, and lots of it. I also taste the ever present hop. I smell malts, and grass. I might be attributing the rye flavour because of the bitterness, not sure. I do know that this is a highly drinkable high alcohol brew. Drink this now!!!
Moosehead Lager
August 13, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
Tonight I’m drinking the Moosehead Lager. Accoring to the Moosehead website, “Moosehead has a long and storied history. Since 1867 we’ve survived two fires, expanded our line of beers, began distributing worldwide, and even discovered a little known part of the human psyche called the Outer-self. But, believe it or not, we had very humble beginnings.” Well humble or not, a skunk died in my beer.
Seriously, when I pried the cap off I thought I lifted a skunks tail. Pours a mellow yellow colour and the flavour is pleasantly better than the aroma, as is often with skunked beer. The flavour is not heavy and is ever-so-slightly sweet. Not sicky sweet, just perfect. More going on in the flavour area than American lagers. Crisp and refreshing. Not bad, not great. A lawn-mowing weed pulling beer.
The People’s Pint
August 11, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
3 days of beer from “The People’s Pint” and I am going to combine the tasteyness together.
Sunday:
Went to the People’s Pint, one of my favorite breweries in the area, and had a tasty burger and clam chowder. For beer? I chose the Extra Special Bitter. Chowder and bitters often go well together. This is true here as well. The bitter poured a light copper colour with little to no head. I was there early on sunday and I’m thinking there was a problem with their C02. It had carbonation just not much and when I read peoples discription on beeradvocate saying “very fluffy almost cloud like, and has great retention that lasted till the last sip with good lacing.” It just makes a dude go, “huh?”
The aroma is incredible. Hops, and an array of herbs, and really fun malt notes. I taste some harshness, kinda rye like. Very nice brew.
While I was at the People’s Pint I picked up a growler of The People’s Pilsner and a 40oz of their Malt Liquor.
Monday:
Monday night I cracked open the growler. Again, very little carbonation, odd for a pilsner. So, I poured a really harsh pour to get some air in there. Described as, “As our first lager of the season, we’re super psyched about this beer. Pilsner and Caramel malts emit a smooth and supporting malt body while the German Magnum and Hersbrucker hops give an earthy and spicy flavor and aroma. All told, a super easy beer to drink and a lovely addition to our line-up. Prost! (OG: abv 5.5%)”
The description is spot on. Very easy to drink, smooth, earthy and slightly spicy. This is not a shitty mass produced pils. This is not a yellow pee like pils. This is what I want when I order a pilsner. Full beer, not overbearing, yet easy to drink. Crisp, slightly sweet, but earthy. VERY nice!!!
Tuesday:
Well I couldn’t resist. The People’s Pint is selling a forty? Malt Liquor gets a bad rap.
The first widely successful malt liquor in America was Country Club, which was first produced in the early 1950s by the M.K. Goetz Brewing Company, and marketed toward middle-class White Americans. Today, malt liquors are marketed to an entirely different demographic, resulting in a stereotyping of the typical consumer. According to a study by Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in California, malt liquor is the alcohol of choice of the homeless and unemployed. Beginning in the 1980s, many brands of malt liquor began to aggressively target this market and used popular actors (like Billy Dee Williams) or rappers in their advertisements; Ice Cube, for instance, appeared in radio advertisements for St. Ides. Some rappers vigorously opposed this trend, feeling that malt liquor manufacturers were exploiting the African American community. For example, Chuck D, of the group Public Enemy, took a very strong anti-malt liquor stance and once sued St. Ides over an advertisement that sampled his voice without permission. (from wikipedia)
Playing into the homeless stereotype The People’s Pint advertises Tap and Die Malt Liquor saying, “Paper bag optional” then, they give me my bottle in, a paper bag. Homelessness is a serious problem in our country. “According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, there were 664,414 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons nationwide on a single night in January 2008. Additionally, about 1.6 million persons used an emergency shelter or a transitional housing program during the 12-month period between October 1, 2007 and September 30, 2008. This number suggests that 1 in every 190 persons in the United States used the shelter system at some point in that period.” (thanks again to the wikipedia).
Opening my paper bag I noticed that the bottle label is cool, its all skull and crossbones looking but it is really a tap and die! Ha! Love it.
This is no adjunct riddled malt liquor. It is tasty as all get out. It is smooth (I’ve been drinking a lot of smooth beers lately). This is really just a fine beer? What is a malt liquor? It has a higher alcohol volume, well higher than 5%. Very viscus. Kinda appleish flavours and sweet. Not overly sweet, crisp too. Just gotta try this.
I don’t actually recommend watching the video below. The guys are serious homophobes and burb and swear through the whole thing. Kinda funny if you like that kinda shit.
Moment of geek
August 11, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
Am I really ok using this as my post title? Did the amazing Rachel Maddow copyright that? Oh well, I did it, deal.
A geeky friend of mine alerted me to an amazing story on Wired.com
Science + Geek + Beer = Awesomely Geeky Science Beer
Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/science-geek-beers/7/#ixzz0wIodABP5
The article highlights geeky beers. Looking at names purposes and ways that the beer are made. This is a swell selection. As you know, I have tried a few but as the article says, “Sadly, I couldn’t get my hands on some of the geekiest beers. A few were short runs for special occasions, like The Empire Strikes Back All-English IPA and Galileo’s Astronomical Ale (tagline: Theoretically the best beer in the universe), brewed by astronomy geek Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the telescope. And some are seasonal, like 21st Amendment’s Spring Tweet, a beer brewed for Twitter (which brings up the obvious question: Where’s Wired’s beer?
)”
Got a geeky beer? Let me know about it.