Oh, Christmas (Beer) Tree...

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel shame. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the breweries and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."

Merry Christmas everyone.

Beer Wars

Got home last night and sat down on the couch with a bomber of Deschutes Black Butte XXI and a copy of Beer Wars.  Both were pretty damn good, especially with my new Miller Lite Taste Activator Glass....what...?...it works...I think...

If you've been living under a macro-beer rock for the last six months, Beer Wars is a warts-n-all documentary made by the former president of Mike's Hard Lemonade about the beer business.  More specifically, craft beer versus the big beer companies.  Miller and Coors generally get off pretty easy here, as director Anat Baron sets her sights on industry bully Anheuser-Busch/InBev, their borderline monopoly and heavy-handed influence on the beer market.  She does a nice job of going deep into the macro breweries attempts at brain-washing through advertising and media saturation.  The one thing she doesn't say is it's our own fault.  America has a high percentage of sheep who believe everything they see on television, especially, but not restricted to, ridiculous beer marketing. They even believe reality television is real. There's a classic scene where devout Coors/Miller/Bud drinkers can't tell the difference between the 3 beers, showing that they obviously don't give much thought to what's in their hand.  She also gets into the daily battle for shelf space in stores, something we deal with all the time (and can't get free tickets for.....damn it).

While the movie is interesting and gets into some good stories, especially Sam Calagione's brewery expansion (and being sued by AB for using the word chicory in a beer name), the best highlights are probably just Greg Stone cutting up. For us beer geeks, the most interesting parts of this DVD are the deleted scenes and the post-movie panel discussion hosted by Ben Stein.  It looks like she agrees, as she's thinking of editing together some of the unused footage and has a page on the site where you can vote for who you'd like to see more of.  I wonder if she's got anymore Todd Alstrom beatdown footage? Awkward! Us beer geeks are mellow most of the time, except when non-craft brands try to pass themselves off as craft beer, it seems.

The thing that hits home most here is that we all wield power with our spending choices in the marketplace. Not just with what we drink, but with every company we choose to support by buying their products. When we blindly buy what they're selling, we're condoning the way they do business and enabling them. Unfortunately, most of us don't seem to care enough to be qualified to make those choices.

The only place you can buy the DVD is the Beer Wars site, for $19.99.  I'd say it's worth it, but the store bought a copy, so I'm not really qualified to......

Dave's BrewFarm Pre-Solstice Open House

Dave Anderson's big open house Sunday turned out to be quite the display of brewing prowess.  It gets a bit confusing to try to tell other people about his brews since he doesn't brew to style and his stuff really makes you think...a lot.  Each one has interesting components that always seem to work together to create yet another flavor profile you've never tasted before.

Among the rocket fuel we tried was:

Brew Farm Select:  The Labrewtory version of his all-malt Lager release had a nice, thick mouthfeel.  I doubt I've had a better Lager and I've definitely never had one that was 7.1%ABV.

Matacabras: The rye malts and brown sugar give this a nice balance of sweetness and bite, and the Belgian Trappist yeast really amps up the complexity.  We brought back a keg of this and will have it on tap in the restaurant as soon as something runs out. This version was 9.6% ABV, but the bottled version will be 8%. Either way it's gonna turn some heads in 2010.

Kotura: 6 different malts with a weizen yeast, this one has components of chocolate, caramel and toffee that pushes it close to dessert beer territory, but not too sweet.  And as usual, no sign of the 8.8% ABV.

Cow Pie Stout (8.3% ABV): An inital hint of chocolate and coffee comes through before being blown away by smoke.  This one also has a bunch of different hops, including their farm-grown Fuggles.

AuBEXXX: My personal favorite. The 9.9% ABV of this Belgian Golden Strong Ale is hidden nicely under a thick veil of black pepper. We hope to have this on tap in the restaurant soon.

Talisman (8.5% ABV): A hazy, yellow ale fermented with a German yeast strain, it has a nice blend of light hops and fruit. The German yeast in this made it very interesting.

Dave also did 3 Extra Pale Ales for the Open House:

BEXPA (8.8% ABV): As a big fan of Belgian Pales, this was my favorite of the XPA's.

NWXPA(9.1%ABV): This one had a Pacific Northwest yeasts strain similar to Rogue's Pacman yeast.

AM2XPA(8%ABV): This hopped up American Pale with Dave's farm-grown Centennials was Jason's favorite. (Thanks for drivin' dude!)

As if the beer wasn't enough, we were entertained by a slide projection of brewery construction,  Brad the Beer Guy from DBF's Minnesota distributor, and Paul Molitor's sister Barbie pouring our samples (these kinds of things always seem to happen when you're drinkin' high ABV treats).

Looking at his recently acquired Heaven Hill bourbon barrels that he hopes to fill with Cow Pie Stout, the Labrewtory seems to be coming together. He is finally moving forward on his six-pack bottle line, the first release being Matacabras, which should be available in late January and hopefully accompanied by an in-store appearance and tasting here.  Groove on, Farmer Dave.

Beer-Carmelized Bacon

Bananas may be called the perfect food, but bacon is the most awesome, often called the food that makes all other food worth eating.  There's entire websites devoted to the devotion of it (iheartbacon.com and bacontoday.com. There's also a site called theoracleofbacon.org, but that one's about Kevin Bacon). Metallica and the Foo Fighters put a requirement for bacon in their concert riders and Dave Grohl refers to it as "God's currency". Jim Gaffigan professed his love for bacon is his stand-up routine. I even found a new product called Bacon Salt that they pimp by saying "everything should taste like bacon". 

How could bacon be any more awesome? Get beer in there with it.  This recipe can be made ahead of time and reheated or held at room temp.  If you use thick slices it may be more difficult to get it crispy without burning the brown sugar.  You can also twist it when it comes out of the oven if you want to add some flair.

10 slices bacon
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup dark Belgian beer such as Westmalle Dubbel, New Belgium Abbey or North Coast Brother Thelonious
1 Tbls pepper
1/2 Tsp Cayenne (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Line a sheet pan with a double layer of parchment paper.  In a saucepan, mix the brown sugar, beer, pepper and cayenne until the sugar dissolves.  Let cool 5 minutes. Dip the bacon slices in the sauce and lay out on sheet pan. Bake 8 minutes on each side, remove to a plate and allow to cool before annihilating. 

You're welcome.

Quick Hits

I've had a couple tasty brews lately that I have to recommend:

O'So Brewing Night Train Porter: After finding out about this brewery in Plover earlier this year, we were finally able to get them in store a couple weeks ago. This beer definitely deserves better than some of the ratings it's getting online.  I'd put this right up there with Founders Porter (yeah, that's right) since it has the same great coffee component, but also a nice roasted malt smokiness.  There's also a nice licorice and citrus hop bite in there and overall it's very balanced. This Porter is a steal at $8.99 a six-pack.

Two Brothers Heavier Handed: There seems to be a growing group of beers that fall somewhere in between the big hop bite of an IPA and the sweet malt bomb and high ABV of an Imperial IPA, combining characteristics of both.  The 8.5% ABV Heavier Handed ($8.99, 22oz) is a version of their Washington state fresh-hop Heavy Handed IPA aged in French oak tanks called "foundres". It has the thick mouthfeel of a DIPA that I love, without the overt sweetness of some doubles. There's a great balance between the citrus and bitter hops with a touch of oak thrown in that never overpowers. Along with Left Hand Warrior IPA, Heavier Handed is one of the better IPA's I've had.

Founders Backwoods Bastard: After being dissapointed at it not being available when I was at their brewpub, I've been trying to get my hands on this one for a while.  Fans of their Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale will love this one, as it's got an absolute s**t-ton of Scotch and Bourbon flavor, with almost no alcohol burn despite the 10.2% ABV.  Combine that with the dark fruit, roasted malt and oak and you have a perfect finish that is quite an experience. I would call this the ultimate winter warmer. 

The Bruery Saison Rue: I thought I wasn't going to have a Saison that came close to the Boulevard Saison Brett I had a couple months ago.  Now I found The Bruery Saison Rue ($12.99, 750ml).  If you haven't tried anything from California's The Bruery, now is your chance.  Patrick Rue and his new brews are rocketing across the country with never before seen growth.  Barely a year old, they are already distributing to many western and midwestern states. The rye in this Saison imparts a bite that makes it for me, along with a light Brett funk and herbal notes that give it a lot of depth for a Saison.

Extra! Extra!

Huge-cog-in-the-New Glarus Brewing-machine Jeff Schaefer stopped by our humble little store today to give us the highly anticipated 2010 beer release schedule.  After giving us a wink on the already leaked Unplugged schedule rumor, he handed us next years list.  The only Unplugged clarification on there is that the last one will be Apple Ale. The first 3 will be announced a month or so ahead of their release. Brews not returning this year are Organic Revolution, Black Wheat, Coffee Stout, Snowshoe Red Ale, Yokel and Hop Hearty IPA.  Next years year-round brews are Belgian Red, Raspberry Tart, Spotted Cow, Fat Squirrel and Stone Soup.  A new beer called Moon Man, which they're calling a "no coast Pale Ale" will come out in March and be available the rest of the year.  It's a hoppy pale similar to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, with a bite up front but a smooth finish.  It will contain an as yet unrevealed hop from New Zealand that has never been used by an American brewery. The first seasonal in January will be Cabin Fever Bock, a Wisconsin honey Bock that will obviously be on the sweeter side. February will bring the return of 2008's popular Road Slush Oatmeal Stout, then Cracked Wheat, Dancing Man Wheat, and Staghorn Octoberfest.  The final seasonal of the year will be another new one, Back Forty Bock, which Jeff compared to Native Ale, a beer made by New Glarus quite a few years ago. Naked will also make it's 6 month summer run.

Discuss...

Update: Frank Beer Distributing in Middleton, WI has posted the schedule on their site.

Beer Geek Gift Buckets

We have come up with your ultimate Christmas gift (especially since most people think when they buy you a 6-pack of Stella Artois they're getting you a great Belgian beer).  We have some cool buckets already done up with a great assortment of brews, including one with all the current beers New Glarus has out and a NG pint glass, one with all 3 of their lambics and wine glasses, one with the best beer geek choices and more.  It's a great idea if you need a last minute gift, or you could just send your loved ones here with a list for you and we'll make it on the spot.

Beer...the gift they (you) really want.

Trappist Coffee

Although it may seem like a shame to do anything with good beer other than chill it and drink it out of a pint glass, sometimes special occasions call for a little something well...special.  For the morning of Thanksgiving or Christmas, or just this Sunday, give this Belgian slant on Irish coffee a try. This recipe was adapted from the book "A Taste of Heaven" by Madeline Scherb.

1 1/4 cups of a dark Belgian beer such as Westmalle Dubble, North Coast Brother Thelonious, New Belgium Abbey, Chimay Red or The Bruery Rugbrod

2 tablespoons brown sugar

pinch of cinnamon

1 cup coffee

heavy cream

In a small saucepan, heat the beer, brown sugar and cinnamon until hot but not boiling, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.   Pour into 2 mugs and fill with coffee.  Top with heavy cream.  Enjoy

The Bruery

Yep, you read that right.  After hearing they were coming into the state we've been fortunate enough to score some cases from one of SoCal's top new kids on the block, The Bruery out of Placentia near Anaheim.  Their aged Belgian-style brews are not filtered or pasteurized and gain carbonation through 100% bottle conditioning. Brewer/owner Patrick Rue has only been operating his brewery for a year, but his experimental Belgians are already gaining national attention and high ratings on BeerAdvocate and RateBeer. They're also creating a Dark Lord/Darkness type buzz with their once-a-year, brewery-only release Black Tuesday Imperial Stout. Their Orchard White ($8.99, 750ml) witbier, with an addition of lavender to the boil and rolled oats for a silky texture, was voted one of the top 25 beers of 2008 by Draft Magazine. We also received Saison Rue ($12.99, 750ml), a Belgian/French-style farmhouse ale, 2 Turtle Doves ($11.99, 750ml), their new Christmas ale that's a Belgian-style dark ale brewed with cocoa nibs & toasted pecans and Rugbrod ($10.49, 750ml),  a Danish-style rye ale.

Darkness 2009

After hearing through the grapevine that a keg of Surly Darkness was going to be tapped at Paddy Ryans in Hudson Wednesday night, we shot over over after closing hoping there might be a little left, and that's exactly what there was.  When we walked in the door, none other than head brewer Todd Haug was manning the jockey box. I'd had the 2009 vintage out of the bottle, but not on tap.  Although it has a heavy alcohol aroma, there's none in the taste, which starts out with a ton of chocolate before it moves into a smoky bitterness that's creamy smooth.  The smoke seemed to come out much more on tap than the bottle. The dark fruit flavor in the body gives it a nice balance and a long run of different sensations coming at you in every sip, but the fruit sweetness in definitely tuned down this year. When we got to bend his ear, Todd told us that with the new bottling line they brought in for this years Darkness, they hope to do some of their other age-able brews in bombers.  Hopefully Smoke will be the first, but the next anniversary beer, Four, will definitely be bottled.  They would also like to get 16 Grit in cans sometime soon as well, which I'm sure would make alot of beer geeks around the country very happy. Darkness is still on tap at some other places around the cities, so get out there before it's gone. 

The Beer Book: A Review

"The Beer Book" sounds like the title of a book that's a little too generic to have any interest to a beer geek.  We want cool label shots and gushing, adjective filled descriptions of brews from far flung breweries we may someday be lucky enough to sample, hopefully at some ultra-hip beer bar, if not at the brewery itself.  But that's exactly what "The Beer Book" provides. 

There's some great photography, including tons of label shots and pictures of breweries like Orval and Brooklyn Brewing, as well as other impressive shots from all over the world. While I didn't always agree with their summaries, there's information on a wide variety of styles and overall it's pretty damn comprehensive.  I spent 15 minutes just staring at the United States map showing where all the breweries are located.  They even squeezed in some equal opportunity macro history, although most of the summaries are of microbreweries.  As if that wasn't enough, the foreword by Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione had me wanting to tip a pint on the spot.  His passion for beer is evident thoughout it, especially when he says, "being a hardcore beer lover means not being afraid to be promiscuous".  Every page turn seems to unearth a new tidbit.  Did you know Amsterdam has 1200 bars, or one for every 500 citizens?  Madison residents can only dream. There's sections on fruit beers, beer flavorings, beer and food and many more.

Editor Tim Hampson did a nice job putting this book together and the organization is superb, but don't listen to me. The best review comes from Calagione himself: "This is not a book for beer snobs: folks who want to impress their friends with fancy terminology.  It is a book for beer lovers and beer geeks: people who want to learn more about beer because they love to drink it and share it with friends."  Put it under your tree for a beer geek and you won't hear a peep out of him for the rest of Christmas Day.

DK Publishing - $25
(I found it cheaper online)

O'So Good

After a year of wrangling, we will finally have 4 O'So Brewing beers in next Thursday, the 19th. The Plover, Wisconsin brewery that started as a home brew store has a very nice Porter, Night Train, that I highly recommend.  We will also be stocking The Big O, Hopdinger and Rusty Red. 

But seriously, try the Porter.

Update: This is now in stock.

Get it in the can.....

"Dave's not here, man".

                     -Tommy Chong

I'm sure this reference is probably going over the heads of half of you, although I was only 2 when this album came out. We'll leave any other comments about why I would be so familiar with the works of Cheech & Chong to your imagination, other than to say I'm old.  But we're happy to say, Tommy's wrong again.  Dave made a special trip (so what if he was already in town...ok we'll call it a ...) stop to drop off his first born brew, making us the first store in the world to sell DBF (strut...strut...). Since returning from judging GABF, Dave's still fighting the good fight of getting his main line of six-pack bottles out to world, but he's finally in the building with 12-pack cans of Brewfarm Select Lager.  While the extreme beers still seem to get all the attention, sometimes you just want a good lager, and DFB has supplied us with just that. BFS is a very smooth, flavorful lager with just enough hop to keep it interesting.  Dave says,"It's got broad appeal without being generic". In addition to keeping us up to date on his blog, Mr.Anderson is also feverishly working on a batch of Aubexxx we hope to have on tap in the restaurant soon. Support your neighborhood brewer, drink local.

 

Cran-bic is in the building....

Please no running, form an orderly line and no trampling of small children or throwing elbows, as much fun as we may have watching that (the elbow throwing, not the child trampling).  The next New Glarus Unplugged Wisconsin Cran-bic has finally made it to our shelves. Have @ it. We will have the next seasonal, Snoeshoe Red Ale, on Thursday.

We should also have a lone case of Oskar Blues Ten Fidy on Thursday afternoon.  Since it's being heavily allocated this year (in addition to a heavy price increase), we will probably have to limit purchases to 2 cans.  I'll post again when we have it.
Update: Due do a distributor mistake, it looks like it will be the week after Thanksgiving before we have Ten Fidy in.

Darkness Day 2009

I felt like I was at a beer geek summit outside the Surly brewery Friday night for a Darkness Day Eve tailgate.  Ed cooked up some awesome ribs on his smoker and as a great host brought along everything we could need. Omar even came out for some ribs once they finally finished waxing Darkness bottles about 10PM. In addition to our kegs of Dogfish Head 60 Minute and Surly Smoke, Todd brought out an infected keg of Smoke that had been sitting in the brewery.  It kinda tasted like a slightly Belgian version of NG Unplugged Olde English Porter, but with less sour and more smoke flavor. Everyone else had also brought many bottles to sample we got to try Bell's Barrel-Aged Cherry Stout, Troegs Nugget Nectar, Midnight Sun Descent, Stone RIS, 3F Alpha King, some New Glarus Wisconsin Cran-bic brought straight from Madison, and of course, 2009 Darkness (I like this year's much better than last years, it's not near as sweet.  Plus they went to a painted bottle this year with very cool artwork).  There were many, many more than that, but the end of the night is kinda blurry.

We woke up to a line around the block behind us, with what I'm sure was way more than the 800 people who could buy Darkness on Saturday. Hopefully no one was dissappointed. The above pic is the beginning of the line and below is the last half...crazy long.

I got to meet alot of great people, including some guys that drove up from Kansas. Everyone was very generous with their expensive brews and one girl even gave us some breakfast pizza. The whole event was well organized and everyone seemed to have a great time.  The birch-aged Cynic on cask and the uber-hoppy Wet were my personal faves, but unfortunately I had to duck out early.

I also wanted to thank another guy from Kansas City who went to DD and came in to the store Sunday morning.  He gave me a couple bottles of Odell IPA and a Boulevard Saison Brett just out of the beergeekness of his heart.  The angels are everywhere.

Finally...

All hail...the King has returned...or will.  We will have Three Floyds Alpha King and Gumballhead six-packs in store next Tuesday. Alpha King may say Pale Ale on the bottle, but inside it's an IPA with a creamy smooth citrus body.  Gumballhead is no slouch either and is one of the most well respected American wheat beers.  We'll get as much as we can and hopefully be able to carry it on a regular basis. With 3F you never know and as one of the top craft breweries in the world their brews are highly sought after and availability sketchy, mainly cause they're awesomely tasty.

Darkness Day 2009

For those of you heading to Brooklyn Center for Saturday's Darkness Day at Surly, here's what they will be pouring:

No Darkness to drink at the brewery on Sat.


Smoke 09 and Furious (transferred today!) outta the brite beer tank-

-Casks-
Oak Aged Bender
Tea Bagged Furious (Simcoe)
Birch Aged Cynic

-Draft-
Hell
SurlyFest
Coffee Bender
Furious
Bender
Wet

Bring your ones, it's cash only.  For other rules see their site.  My favorite one is "Don't be stupid, we reserve the right to kick you out if you're being a dick (or any other reason we find)." I'll be in line Friday night with Ed from Heritage and a HB of Dogfish Head 60 Minute, trying my best not to be 'that guy'. Stop by and see how I'm doing.

Wisconsin Cran-bic

Dan Carey has decided to throw a changeup.  The folks at New Glarus Brewing are now nice enough to begin each year by deciding what the lineup for year-long, seasonal and Unplugged releases will be, so that beer geeks can hound their local beer store until they get it in. They have had a vote page up on their site for a while that allowed us to throw in our opinions on what we want to see in 2010.  There's a summary of how the voting went on beernews.com, and next year's lineup should be on the New Glarus site in December.  The original list for 2009 had an Eisbock as the final Unplugged, but they have now decided to do a Cranberry Lambic for release in November instead.  Fans of Raspberry Tart should be happy to hear that, as this will be a sour ale-style fruit beer with Wisconsin cranberries that spent 5 months in oak. We should have it in-store by mid-November.

Update: An early leak has next year's Unplugged being mostly a return to past year's favorites.  The 4 for 2010 will be Enigma (sour brown ale), Apple Ale, Cherry Stout, and Abt (similar to Westy).  While not treading much new ground, it should make all the people who still come in store looking for the Apple Ale happy.

Fresh Hop

Up until this year, Fall for me meant Octoberfests.  Now I have a new indulgence...Fresh Hop IPA's.  Any beer brewed to celebrate the hop harvest has to be good, and most breweries are now doing it, including Left Hand Warrior, Surly Wet and Founder's Harvest, which I thought was spectacular last year and we hope to have in store soon.  If you haven't had a fresh hop IPA, you're missing out.  The crisp flavor from the newly harvested hop cones is something special. My favorite so far is Two Brother's Heavy Handed ($10.99 6-pack), a September-December release of 5 varieties from the Warrenville, Illinois brewery.  You can pull the lot number off the bottle and go to their site to find out which corresponding hops are in it.  The lot we have in store has Willamette, and they are also releasing some with Cascade, with some others available on tap.   This IPA pours a dark amber color, with an initial piney hop blast that is backed up by just enough caramel malt sweetness to round it out perfectly.  There's also a little citrus in there to make me happy, and I'd count this among my favorites from Two Brothers. My recommendation: suck up some fresh hop IPA's while you can.

It's a Beer Geek Thing

If you try to squeeze beer related activities into any visit to another city, you're not alone.  My beautiful, smart, generous and loving wife found a nice Travel Wisconsin beer tour page that goes into detail about cool places to check out in a bunch of different Wisconsin towns.  Next time I'm in Milwaukee, I'm definitely going to the Blatz Liquor store to buy some singles, and there's a bunch of other beer geek suggestions in there.  I'm not sure why she's encouraging my behavior, but go check it out. 

In other BG news, our distribution rep for Three Floyds informed me yesterday that 6-packs of Alpha King and Robert the Bruce are on the horizon.  There's no definite date, but the return of my favorite Pale Ale and Scotch Ale would make my tongue very happy.  Robert the Bruce is without a doubt the best Scotch Ale I've had, which I proved to myself by trying it side-by-side with what I thought was the best, Dark Horse Scotty Karate and Founders Dirty Bastard. Yeah...it's that good. If you've never had Alpha King, it's a Pale Ale that's hoppier than 90% of the IPA's I've had, but with a nice citrus smoothness.  Can't wait.