Sunday, September 25, 2011

Stone Brewery Night in New York City

Hello again everybody.  Aplogies for the radio silence here the last couple weeks. Truthfully, I started out this blogging adventure on a torrid beer run, and ended up getting a little bit burnt out. In the month of August I reviewed nearly 40 beers and posted nearly 30 blog entries. I decided to take a little time off to recharge my beer writin’ batteries, and I’ll be back with regular (albeit not as frequent) blogging. I’ll still cover any special beer events/trips, as well as homebrewing adventures, but my coverage of regular drinking will be a bit less... regular. Enough with that though, on to the brew tal

My most recent beerventure, and the last event I attended from this year’s NYC Craft Beer Week was Stone Brewery night at the Rattle n Hum on Thursday, featuring brewery founder Greg Koch. There was a similar event last year (with admittedly a much more epic tap list) that ended up with the RnH as packed as any bar I’ve ever been to, so to make sure I had a seat for the night I made it there  by mid afternoon. The only flaw in my plan was that I got to the bar so early that they weren’t pouring any of the Stone beers yet. I decided to start with Allagash White, a true classic, and nice and refreshing after the 15-20 minute walk to the bar from Port Authority. Next I decided to go with Captain Lawrence St. Vincent’s Dubbel. Captain Lawrence is a brewery that seems to be fairly well respected within the beer community, but aside from a couple sours they’ve brought to beer festivals in the past, I’ve always been fairly underwhelmed by them. This beer did nothing to change that, as it’s probably my least favorite version of the style that I’ve ever had. The requisite plum fruity and light pepper notes were there, but were largely dominated by a buttery, caramel sweetness. It tasted like someone blended a bunch of malty English brown ale in with a dubbel.

Two beers into the night it was finally Stone time, and I started with their Green Tea IPA collaboration. It’s a beer that was brewed as a fundraiser for Japan in the wake of the earthquake/tsunami, and it’s an IPA that was “dryhopped” with a type of Japanese green tea. I was glad to try this one, as bottle distribution was a bit scarce here in New Jersey. It was good, though the tea didn’t lend the beer as much of a unique flavor as I might have thought it would. It basically reminded me of a (more intense) version of Sam Adams Latitude 48 in that there was a balance between citrusy American hops, and a more herbal flavor (from noble hops in Lat 48, and presumably the green tea here). Next up was Stone’s 2010 Vertical Epic. It’s a strong Belgian pale ale that was brewed with white wine grape juice. I enjoyed it fresh, but the intense white wine flavor gave it a bit of acidity that had nicely mellowed out nearly a year later. Around this time Greg Koch. After he got some food and some beer for himself he ended up climbing on top of the bar right in front of me and delivering a gospel church style sermon about craft beer, replete with cries of “Amen!” from the many drinkers below. The video here is from a very similar speech Greg gave last time he was at the Rattle n Hum. Don't mind the spotty sound quality and occasional profanity.




Third up for me was the Stone 15th Anniversary Imperial Black IPA. I’ve had it a couple times before, and it’s one of my favorite beers from this year. The hop lineup reads like the start of the “Bill’s Favorite Hops” list, utilizing both Citra and Nelson Sauvin hops. The great juicy fruit/citrus/white wine flavors from those hops end up playing very well against the chocolate and coffee roasty notes from the dark malts. I closed the night with their Old Guardian BelgoBarleywine. They fermented their regular Old Guardian with their house Belgian yeast strain, and while it’s seemed to be fairly polarizing on Beer Advocate, count me firmly in the “I like it” camp. I dig the way the fruity esters from the yeast play against the aggressive hopping, and I might even prefer it to regular Old Guardian (at least fresh). Part way through the beer I managed to track Greg down in the by now mobbed bar, and he was happy to take a picture with me in exchange for me shilling for his new book in said photo. It was a fair trade to me, and a great way to close the night. I would have liked to have made it into the city one more time for Craft Beer Week, but Stone Night at the Rattle n Hum was a great way to close it out!

Myself and the man himself, Greg Koch

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Bill's Boston Bound

Tomorrow morning I begin my trek up to Boston to volunteer for this year's Beer Advocate Belgian Beer Fest. The blog will remain dark until the beginning of next week when I get home and post recaps. I'll definitely be taking plenty of pictures, and posting plenty of updates to my twitter. Until next week, happy drinking!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

What's In My Glass: 9/4/11 and 9/5/11

After a night off on Saturday, I started my warm up for this weekend’s Beer Advocate Belgian Beer Fest on Sunday. First up was Sierra Nevada Ovila Saison. This is the second beer in their three beer run of Belgian abbey ales this year (with the possibility of other releases further on down the line). A few months ago they released a dubbel (which was a bit of a disappointment for me), and there will be a quad coming out before the end of the year. The saison, which served as my drink of choice during a fantasy football draft, was good, if not a bit rote. It was very dry, with herbal, lemon-citrus, and pepper notes. It was a well executed version of the style, but showed no imagination when the world of saison is fairly wide open. The word soulless is a bit harsh, but it was very paint by numbers.

Next up was a beer I was very much looking forward to, Deschutes Black Butte XXIII. Deschutes has a year round Black Butte Porter, and every year, starting with Black Butte XX, they’ve released a special imperial version as an anniversary ale. This year’s batch was brewed with cocoa nibs, orange peel, and chili peppers, and partially aged in bourbon barrels. I had the XXI version a few months ago, which was brewed with cocoa, and coffee, and underwent a similar partial barrel aged treatment, and loved it. This one was a bit of a miss for me though, at least right now. Fresh, everything went well together except for the orange peel, The citrusy, candied orange flavor both clashed with and covered over just about everything else. It was a case of a beer trying to do too much. With some age, the orange peel (along with the peppers) should fade, and I really liked the rest of this beer, so I may try to get some more to lay down for a while.

I led off tonight with a recent trade extra, Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Barleywine. I love a good barleywine, and aging it in barrels just kicks things up a notch. This one had the base beer shining through strong with notes of caramelized sugar and toffee, but the barrel influence was also apparent through vanilla and mild bourbon flavors. Beers like this are some of my favorite, full of flavor with a rich and luxuriant mouthfeel. This is the kind of beer I could settle into a chair with after dinner and just lose myself.

My nightcap tonight was my second bottle of Kern River Citra. I enjoyed my first bottle last week, but I think this one has a bigger impact since I haven’t had any other hoppy beers in the last couple days (whereas last week’s bottle came on the back end of a crazy hops run). Plenty of tropical fruit and citrus flavors, along with a nice hop bitterness bite in this one. This is just another IPA/Double IPA that makes me wish I lived in California.

There’ll probably be another post or two here during the week, but the blog will go dark for the weekend once I leave for Boston and the beer fest Friday morning. Expect the first bit of recap sometime on Monday, depending on exactly when I get home. 

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Brewventure: Order of Osiris Inaugural Meeting


Friday saw me dash out of work a couple hours early to hop on the Decamp 33 headed into NYC for another beer expedition, my second of the week. On the itinerary last night was the first ever meeting of the Brooklyn Brewery’s Order of Osiris. The mug club, so named for the Egyptian god of beer, was to be gathering for beers and all around good times for an hour before the brewery opened to the public for the usual Friday night happy hour. The brewery staff member, I believe he said he was the operations manager, who ran the meeting was decked out in a ranger’s hat and sunglasses, and I couldn’t help but think of Super Troopers (one of my favorite movies) every time he rapped his mallet on one of the barrels laying about to get our attention and make an announcement. The sole bit of bad news was that the mugs arrived to Brooklyn in bad shape and so we’d have to wait until the next meeting to get them. The good news though was that there were plenty of great beers on tap, with hardly a line at all to get them (which is not the normal state of affairs there). I started with pours of Brooklyn Radius, a light Belgian pale beer that was poured at the ghost bottle night a few weeks ago, and their very nice rendition of a weiss beer. Next up was a real treat, their Cookie Jar Porter, a Brewmaster’s Reserve release from them about a year and a half ago, was being served from a cask. It’s a moderate strength porter brewed to taste like an oatmeal raisin cookie. Now, cask conditioned beers are hit and miss for me, but I tend to like the maltier styles when served this way, and this was no exception. The vanilla and raisin added to the brew was really able to shine through, and I found it overall a bit better than when I had it on draft when it was released. Last up, as the regular Friday night happy hour was getting underway, was their Blast imperial pale ale. Now this is a beer I love, but I had intended to order it on draft, and the bartender ended up pouring me the cask version instead. I was a bit apprehensive, as I tend to not go for hop forward beers as much on cask, but the hoppy flavors were so vibrant here that I really enjoyed it nonetheless. The meeting as a whole was a blast, I ran into my friend Seth and had conversations with a couple other cool people, and we sang the official Order of Osiris theme song. I dare not disclose the lyrics, but it was set to the theme of a song from the Simpson’s, so you know it’s good. By about 6:15 the place was filling up and, having already drank what we all wanted, Seth, myself, and a third person headed out into the city to continue our night.

Next up was a relatively new German beer hall style place a few blocks away called Spritzenhaus. The place is *huge*, a quick google search tells me about 6000 square feet. There’s a lot of seating, from stools at the bar to small tables to the big communal style tables one normally associates with a beer hall. The vibe is pretty cool, the décor inside is a bit industrial, and that combined with it being completely open to the outside just worked. The beer list is unsurprisingly dominated by German brews, but American crafts get a good representation as well. I decided to fall back on an old classic, Weihenstephan Hefeweissbier. This beer, to me, is the standard against which all hefes are measured. Killer yeast profile that’s right up front and doesn’t let bready malts take center stage. This spot was a one and done for us, though I’d definitely go back there in the future, and then it was time to head back into Manhattan.

We ended the night at what’s almost definitely my favorite beer bar in the city, the Rattle n Hum. First up for me was a keg of Stone’s 15th Anniversary Imperial BlackIPA. It’s a behemoth of a beer, over 10% and hopped to the gills. This beer uses some of my favorite hops, Citra and Nelson Sauvin, and they play very well over a roasted malt background. I very much look forward to getting my hands on a bottle when it hits shelves in New Jersey. We also got some stuff to munch on at this point, as we were now a few hours into our escapades, and in addition to a great beer list, the Rattle n Hum has some fantastic food. We split an order of IPA brined French fries and rosemary and garlic sliders (I think I could have eaten about ten of these). My nightcap as I finished watching the Yankees close out a victory over the Blue Jays was an old standard for me, Pretty Things Jack D’or. This is the beer that turned me on to both saisons and Pretty Things as a brewery. It’s a bit hoppier than is traditional for the style, but the extra bitterness and herbal flavors meld in well. It’s still one of my favorite versions of the style. I decided to call it a night after that, and it had been a good one. If nothing else, I look forward to the Order of Osiris giving me cause for more beer nights out and about in NYC in the future.