First Seattle Tasting

Had a great time with some cool Seattle people.  Here is a lineup of the beers.

And here is the glass usage. Mostly due to the small blind geuze tasting we did in the middle. 

Best Place To Buy Boulevard Beer is...

Seattle

Just a bunch of self turds

That beer people in Kansas City and surrounding areas would have snatched up MONTHS AGO!!

But I guess they are better served by gathering dust in Seattle.

Chicago Tasting

My first tasting in Chi-town, just a few pics. 

The final lineup (minus a DorkLord and a few others)

Lots of glasses used

I roll 5 glasses at a time

Lawrence Beer Tasting

The results of a recent beer tasting

Good times.

Beer People are the Greatest Kind of People

I started drinking good beer with complete naivete about a decade ago.  Just buying and drinking, pairing with food, getting some cool glasses, really just enjoying it.   Soon after I discovered a community of other people who enjoyed more than your standard supermarket discount case of beer.  What a world opened up that was full of information and wonderful people.  The one downside was a growing insight into beers that I may never get to drink.  The list of beer that I never thought I would get a sip of kept growing but something interesting happened.  At an apex, slowly but surely the list started shrinking and I was finding myself quaffing ales I thought were surely no longer in existence.   This was due in large part to the greatest people in the world, alcoho... I mean beer lovers.  People who wanted nothing more but to share their passions and hobbies with those of like mind.  Eventually, I learned that no beer, no matter how old or rare was out of reach.  Eventually, it would come across my smiling face.  I want to underscore that it is not the beer that I am most impressed with, on the other hand the beer was often disappointing, but it is the people behind the beer.  I consider these people some of the best individuals I have ever met (you know who you are).  The point is I think I finally drank the last beer that I thought I may never get to drink, so here is a pic of me making out with a bottle of Samuel Adams Millennium.

Another generous beer lover shared this at a recent hedonistic beer orgy (Ratebeer Winter Gathering).  Thanks Brad for sharing this awesomeness.  Only about 3,000 bottles of Samuel Adams Millennium were produced and each is signed and numbered by Jim Koch, the founder of Sam Adams. A bottle of Samuel Adams Millennium costs about two hundred dollars when it was first released.  This particular box now also bares the signature of son of Gravedigger.

Leaving Kansas

Moving to Chicago and need to create a Kansas beer bucket list, here is a start:

1. Visit Wichita (Wichita Brewing Co, River City Brewing, and Hank is Wiser) and of course go to Goebel Liquor

2. Mo's Place in the middle of nowhere

3. Kansas' newest brewer Broadway St Brewing and hit up the Tallgrass taproom

 Tallgrass Pub Ale

Here comes a new Tallgrass brew.

A rebrew of Tallgrass Ale that was one of the original beers released by the brewery.

Beer and Food Pairings

Garlic is so powerful it is often hard to match garlic-rich foods with beer. For such occasions I always recommend Duvel. Pictured is some pork fat on Russian black bread with some veggies and a little bit of young garlic accompanied by Duvel. I consumed this atop a roof in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, NY.

Duvel is considered the quintessential Belgian Golden Strong Ale by many and was a gateway beer for me. Duvel was one of the first Belgian ales I ever tasted and it was eye opening. The combination of pilsner malts and Saaz hops with a high alcohol ale was a revelation. Duvel is the flagship beer of the Moortgat Brewery, which was founded in 1871 and Duvel was first brewed to commemorate the end of WW!.

Moortgat also brews the Maredsous line of beers, which I adore. In the past few years, they have acquired Brasserie d'Achouffe and DeKoninck. Also, Moortgat invested in the Ommegang Brewery and has recently completely taken ownership of the brewery. Despite these numerous holdings Moortgat has been able to maintain the quality of their products (even if some beer geeks continue to protest that Duvel "used to be better").

Fun Game

Can anyone figure out what is wrong with this picture?

Eylenbosch (part 2)

Two summers ago I also got a chance to sample another Eylenbosch product thanks to a friend (thanks Max!) . Usually, it is difficult to figure out what old bottle of lambic you have because it is missing a label. However, in this case the we had a label but it did not tell us much. This was supposedly a 1982 bottle, so we did a little snooping. We have a label, we have an atypical 750mL flip-top bottle, and we went searching.

I went on the great resource that is the Burgundian Babble Belt to ask for assistance. The brewer and lambic encyclopedia Frank Boon was sure this was also a Faro. Here is my rating:

750mL swing-top bottle with a green and white label that simply states "lambic." Prying the rusted swing-top leads to a slight pop. The pour produces almost no head, just some bubbles. Aroma presents with oxidization that has created a very "cheap" lambic aroma that has just some faintly sour aspects. After smelling the beer I expected the worst for the flavor. Fortunately, the flavor is much more tart and lively. Some stronger sourness is present and only a light oxidization is apparent. The the tartness sits at the bottom of my throat for a while. I found the beer too tart and sour in the flavor to be to be such an old Faro (~28 years old at the time of consumption), which was stronger than the 1988 Eylenbosch Faro Extra. Still had plenty of life for almost 30 years old. It was a very fun experience and the oldest lambic I have every consumed.

Eylenbosch Faro Extra

What is Faro? Take your traditional lambic and add of sugar, simply put. They are usually well-carbonated and sweeter than gueuze.

A few years ago I got a hold of a 1988 Faro from a closed brewery, Eylenbosch. It was a cool experience, here are some pictures and my review of it.



750mL bottle pours a clear copper with no head but visible carbonation.

Aroma is signature Faro, in a good way. Both the sweetness and the barnyard funk of a lambic are slightly muted. Just light sweetness, does not presently poorly (probably hiding the age). The lambic aspect is leafy with barrel wood apparent, and some olive-like flavors (which I attribute to age). A nice lightly sour, lightly dry aftertaste. The body is light and the beer goes down very easily. I doubt too many Faros can age this well and I am surprised with this bottle. Just a little bit of sediment, almost none, at the end of the bottle. I suspect the Faro must have been pasteurized, otherwise live lambic and sugar would lead to a bottle bomb. The sugar must be fighting slow oxidation from becoming apparent while the lambic is still detectable.

To place it in a tier, I enjoyed this old Faro a little more so than the Girardin, Cantillon, and Lindeman's and a good standard deviation above Boon's version. The only other fresh Faro I liked as much was surprisingly the Mort Subite version I had on tap at the cafe.

Photos courtesy of my buddy Andy D.

Craft Beer KC

check out craftbeerkc.com

Prediction: lagering will be the new sour (like sours became the new imperial stouts and imperial stouts were the new barleywines). I can't wait for pilsners to be overpriced and frantically sought after.

Lets see in a year or so if I was correct (maybe 2 years).

The Death of a Ratebeerian

Symptoms:

1. Have not traded in over 6 months

2. Average less than 10 ratings a month for the past 12 months

3. Have no idea what is or who makes Chocolate Rain

4. Often go days without checking an online beer site

5. No beers purchased "to age" over the past 12 months

I have not met these criteria but I almost did a few months ago. Once I think I'm out they pull me back in.

Are there too many good beers?

It seems I can no longer keep up with all the special released beers and even the non-special releases that seem to be interesting or awesome brews. The beer scene is advancing so much that few brewers are just making the regular old light ale or lager through stout lineup but instead are making so many older styles, imperial styles, and experimental brews. Part of me feels said that I cannot try them all but a bigger part of me just loves the fact that everyone is taking chances. Since I can no longer try them all I am still satisfied with believing when I go somewhere new there is a good chance my choices wont be limited to just a Blonde, Amber, IPA, or Stout.

More tasting glasses, here are some pics.

The nip obsession continues, I have been able to come across a few more nips recently.

I have also been enjoying nips in small glasses.


This is a Little Kings Ale, I was hesitant to add this to my collection since I have a no macro policy, but this does not fall into that category. Little Kings was made by Schoenling Brewing Company who took over Hudepohl Brewing cmopany. Hudepohl -Schoenling operated in Cincinnati as an independent brewer until 1997 when the brewery itself was sold to Boston Brewing Company (makers of Sam Adams). Little Kings Ale continues to be contract brewed at other regional breweries. At the moment it is brewed at the Lion Brewery in Wilkes Barre, PA.

And yes "Little" Kings Ale has been available in much larger sizes.

Some more pics

Outside of my affinity for nips I seem to now have an affinity for smaller (or tasting) versions of glassware. As with numerous hobbies the tool that provides the hobby is almost as important as the substance and beer is no different. There are beer geeks with a large collection of glassware. This obviously takes up a lot of room. So for me, it seems, smaller versions of glassware is a new "little" hobby. As pictured above there are 4 glasses that are smaller versions of the regular glasses.

There are more out there that I will hunt down as well. Smaller version of La Trappe, Moinette and Val Dieu goblets, as well as La Chouffe and Duvel tulips are out there and I will be looking for them as well. These versions hold between 3-6oz whereas the regular sized glasses hold over 12oz. For comparison the picture above show a regular sized glass from New Belgium as well as a 750mL bottle with the smaller/tasting glasses up front.

Long time no write. Since the summer I have moved to Kansas, yup ruby red shoes, tornadoes, and everything KANSAS!

Well it's not that bad, I live in Lawrence, KS a college town with two brewpubs, both very good. The more famous one is Free State Brewing which has been known by beer geeks throughout the country for their Old Backus Barleywine and Owd Mac's Imperial Stout. A fine brewpub that is on the verge of expanding to bottling their brews. The second is 23rd Street Brewery, a younger brewpub but with a lot of potential. 23rd Street will be releasing a Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout this winter, which should get them a lot more cred in the beer geek community. This will be a brewery on the rise.

I also live just about 30 minutes outside of Kansas City, which has a few brewpubs and many beer stores. The best part is the prices, much lower than what I was paying in NYC without losing much selection. Still plenty or imports and a lot of the Midwest beers I could never get on the East coast. This includes Schlafly, Bells, and Boulevard. I even get East coast brews like Southern Tier cheaper in Kansas than I do in NY and the damn beer is brewed in NY.

Speaking of Boulevard brewing, I moved into the area at the right time. Boulevard seems to be in a bit of an expansion, the fun kind. About a year ago they started to release their Smokestack series, a line of higher gravity, 750mL cork and wire bottled, specialty ales. This year they have expanded the line with a Saison-Brett, a beer that was bottled with one of beer geeks' favorite wild yeast, Brettanomyces. They will be expanding the line with a Russian Imperial Stout.

Outside of that I make lots of trips throughout the Midwest, particularly to Minneapolis, which it self is full of brew fun plus everything in between, which is all of Iowa. Plenty of stuff to discover in this part of the country so I will look forward to it.

I guess this is where I reminisce about beery Belgium. First of all, it was amazing, amazingly amazing. I made a list of beers to find and I found almost all of them, particularly the sour ones. Everyone was extremely nice, almost every beer place we visited and started a conversation we were blown away by generosity. But here is the million dollar question, what was best. Was it the metropolitan Brussels, or the touristy Brugge, or maybe Antwerpen with its famous Kulminator. Well, if I could only visit one region on a follow up trip it would be the countryside between Brussels and Brugge, or better known as the Lambic region/Pattojenland. The flat meadows, small two way roads, and the out of the way places are amazing. We drove by the now defunct Eylenbosch brewery which was so cool. And the one place that blew my mind above all was De Heeren van Liedekercke and here is a nice write up by John White.

Here are some pictures that say a 1000 words.