In beer blogging news, a few conscientious friends pitched in this weekend to help me put away something like a mixed case of my pale ale and Belgian trippel. The beer nicely complemented three days of cooking eating that featured, among many other wonderful things, beef bourgignon (made with trippel rather than red wine, natch) and an Indian-themed goat stew. Urp.
Paging through the last two weeks, Yuengling Porter is still fantastic for the price whereas the Big Hop from East End brewery in Pittsburgh struck me as a touch one-note with the Cascade hops.
The Church Brew Works, meanwhile, front-loaded their tap with an unfair number of interesting brews that included a cask-conditioned pale ale, a trippel and an anachronistically anti-seasonal barleywine. The pale ale was a smooth number that worked quite well with cask aging; given the English pub style that they were going for I would call it a total success. The trippel was fine enough as a medium-bodied beer with light hopping and light malts, but like most American trippels not made by Allagash it had a noticeable gap where non-fermentable sugars and suspended protein solids ought to be. Sadly my wife acquired and paid the check before I could move on to the Barleywine.
Chat about beer or whatever.
Colette
A news photo that appears to show Obama checking out a young woman’s derrière is getting a lot of attention. Of course, the video that makes it clear what was really going on is not getting quite so much play.
cleek
Maredsous Tripel, draft, if you can find it.
BDeevDad
New favorite beer: Stone Brewery Imperial Russian Stout.
Luckily, I live a half hour from the brewery as they make limited amounts. Unfortunately, I live a half hour from the brewery and it is greater than 10% alcohol by volume.
Are many Imperial Stouts this good or did I luck out on my first one.
Ty Lookwell
OK… my Dad’s birthday is coming up soon. For the last 2 years, I’ve been buying him a large selection of well-reviewed (and widely sourced) beers, wrapping them individually and letting him discover each in turn. His favorite brews, by far, have been (no surprise) Dogfish Head beers.
Any beer suggestions for this year’s birthday present?
Tim F.
@cleek: Check. Have you tried Rochefort #12? God I wish I could afford that beer.
Nostradamus is also fantastic, but it has become like Jack Sparrow’s island that can only be found if you already know where it is. No, it’s worse, because I knew where to find it and now it’s not there anymore.
Dave C
I recently had Mission Street IPA, a beer brewed by Firestone Walker exclusively for Trader Joe’s. For $5.99 a six-pack, this a damn good beer.
jrg
Levi is like Kato Kaelin but cooler. He’s like Busch light in a can, bitches.
Aaron
<3 the Church Brew Works. There needs to be many more of those . . .
Dreggas
with all this fancy beer talk am I wrong to still like Sam Adams?
steve davis
Flying Dog Barleywine. A close second to the Imperial Porter.
protected static
Instead of a bourgignon recipe, next time try carbonade (or carbonnade). Beef, onions, bacon & beer. Good stuff, esp. on a cold, damp day.
protected static
@Dreggas: Eh. Life’s too short to worry about it. :-)
(though I confess to having a nostalgic soft spot for Sam Adams – I was buying it back when it tasted different from six-pack to six-pack, and the bottles were all filled to different levels…)
A Mom Anon
Would anyone like some home grown hops? I have a fence that’s overrun with hops and I don’t make beer(I used to make soap with them,I don’t have the time this year). They haven’t flowered yet,but when they do,I can have them in the mail within a day or two of harvest. I don’t use sprays or any chemicals so they’re organic,even if not officially so.
Minionero
Just for the record, Tim:
This is not “beer blogging news.” This is “beer blogging.”
J
Boulevard Brewing, from KC-MO, introduced a great IPA this year: Boulevard’s Single-wide IPA
http://www.blvdbeer.com/singlewide.htm
Keith
@Colette:
What’s amazing (but not surprising, sad to say) is that Drudge has been pushing this as his top headline for 2 DAYS. And pertinent to my comment 2 days ago about over-under, he still doesn’t have a peep about the CIA/Pelosi story (hell, he doesn’t even link to *today’s* IG report, although he does link to a story about Pelosi and mice.)
linda
got home early, and just tuned in to see obama’s landing in ghana. the welcoming lineup on the tarmac has to be a mile long… lol
it’s an amazing visual – no audio – of him, michelle and the girls gladhanding down the line and how excited people are to meet them. gawd, it’s so nice to see an american president once again welcomed abroad.
Tim F.
@Ty Lookwell: Jeebus. This could take a while. Here are some personal faves that pop might enjoy:
Unearthly by Southern Tier. My single favorite beer in America.
You cannot go wrong with any beer from Unibroue in Quebec, especially if Dogfish Head . Note that their Fin du Monde is great but STRONG.
Victory Golden Monkey is a great Americanized Belgian-ish beer. Their Hop Devil is a good but user-friendly entry in the American hop wars.
If you want to try user-unfriendly uber-hop beers, it is hard to do better than Green Flash IPA or anything from Lagunitas in California, especially their Maximus IPA.
Stoudt’s in PA has consistently impressed me. If you have to pick one, choose their American Pale Ale, but their Triple and IPA are also memorable.
Great Lakes brewing company makes a number of great dark beers – Edmund Fitzgerald Porter for regular tastes; their Blackout Stout will do if strong is your thing. The wife also loves their Eliot Ness ale, and they have an excellent seasonal rotation.
Do you live west of the Mississippi? Include a few from New Belgium in Fort Collins, especially their Fat Tire Ale.
The Steam Ale from Anchor in San Francisco is both good beer and living history – that and Sierra Nevada are some of the oldest drinkable brews in America.
The Belgians from Allagash are all excellent.
If you want Belgians from Belgium, start with Leffe Blonde. No other Belgian beer will compete with the price, and you have to know the style before appreciating the great but quite expensive stuff.
However, if you want truly great stuff then the list goes on for a while. At the very least consider Chimay, Delirium Tremens and Maredsous. At the far end of the spectrum, for me anyway, is the Rochefort #12. Like whiskey everyone has a favorite.
Hope that helps. No doubt a dozen more will come to mind while I’m biking home.
Tim F.
@A Mom Anon: Yes! portusjacksonii at yahoo dot com
ellaesther
@Colette: I’ve noticed that!
And yet, at the same time, may I say, as a woman, the mother of a daughter, and a feminist: I can only imagine that Barack Obama occasionally looks at pretty behinds.
I myself occasionally allow my eye to stray in the general direction of good looking men, in spite of my married status. I know! Can you imagine!
The biggest reason I don’t think he was actually checking her out is because when you see her from the front, you can tell that she’s 16, and the POTUS is a decent guy. But other than that, I suspect he has ogled the occasional ass. And I really wish that the rightwing scream chamber that had such a large a hand in producing Vitter, Craig, Sanford, and Ensign would stop acting like there was something all together shocking about it.
BDeevDad
@ellaesther: That would involve them growing up beyond their frat boy days. Speaking as a former frat boy.
Shinobi
OMG Church brew works how I miss you.
That might be one of the very few things I miss about Pittsburgh. (Also Yuengling which one can’t get in Chicago and everyone seems to think is some kindof Asian beer.)
icedfire
Yuengling is one of the things I miss the most, having moved from New Jersey to Minnesota. Though if there’s such a thing as an underground dominant regional beer, Leinenkugel’s is pretty tasty.
Shinobi
Schlafly is also not bad, I hear.
Just Some Fuckhead
I won’t let you callous bastards turn another Punchy Relationship thread into a steaming smorgasbord of raunchy sexual speculation.
Beer. Urp.
Who ogles anymore now that there’s google? Protip: Click Preferences, turn off Google SafeSearch.
ellaesther
@BDeevDad: I suspect it might also force them to stop making underhanded suggestions about Black men and their appetites…. But I could just be a paranoid liberal about that one. It’s so hard NOT to be a paranoid liberal these days!
cleek
@Tim F.:
i haven’t had the Rochefort. i know i’ve seen it, but was always a bit turned-off by the name (since i’m pretty much anti-strong-cheese, and it’s close enough to “Roquefort”).
i have had the Nostradamus though.
Unearthly by Southern Tier.
i had some of their porter last week (at the same place i had the Maredsous on tap: the Tap And Mallet in Rochester NY (site of the old downtown MacGregor’s)). it was excellent. so was the bar.
J Bean
protected static is correct. Boeuf “bourgignon” made with beer is really carbonnade. And a fine thing it is, too.
JC
Does Firestone Walker really make the Trader Joe’s IPA? That means I have to buy some TJ’s IPA. FIrestone Walker is an awesome brewery. Anyone looking for a delicious example of West Coast IPA cannot go wrong with Union Jack. Better yet is the 9.5 ABV Double Jack.
I second the Un*Earthly recommendation. Southern Tier makes a number of beers that would make good gifts – alongside Un*Earthly, Hoppe and Gemini would make an awesome package. Gemini is a blend of the other two beers.
Mom Anon – I’d love some home grown hops! crackedmachine at gmail dot com.
ellaesther
@Just Some Fuckhead: “steaming smorgasbord of raunchy sexual speculation” — that is quite a turn of phrase, right there!
JK
Carl Cannon joins Roger Simon, Ross Douthat, Bill Kristol, and Matt Continetti to defend the honor of Sarah Palin
Excerpt from Cannon’s venom filled, foaming at the mouth diatribe against the media for its treatment of Palin
h/t http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/07/08/sarah-barracuda-palin-and-the-piranhas-of-the-press/
DarrenG
I’m not a huge fan of Imperial Stouts, but anyone who likes Stone’s should try the AleSmith Speedway Stout. (And if you like Stone in general, seek out their Vertical releases).
AleSmith has some other fantastic brews, too. I’ll drive a fair bit to find their Anvil or Wee Heavy.
The Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is an annual release that’s worth seeking out.
Firestone-Walker has a couple special brews for us Left Coasters, the XII and their Reserve Double Barrel are both worth grabbing any time you can find them.
A Mom Anon
@Tim F.:
Check your email.
JK
Not So Rogue
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/07/10/not_so_rogue.html
cleek
Sarah Palin is a troll on our national discourse. i recommend ignoring her.
JK
@Keith:
Sludge because sludge is Drudge’s comfort zone.
Fulcanelli
Palin this, Palin that.
90% of the average republican male’s interest and championing of Sarah Palin revolves around the unanswered, nagging question of whether or not Todd Palin is mowing a brazilian lawn.
Give me a fucking break.
RodeoBob
#3: try the Tripel Karmelit, a fantasticly light trippel that uses a hefeweitzen yeast for primary, and chamagne yeast for finishing. It is a sublime beer, light & delicate with a wonderful aroma.
Also, please note the difference between a “Russian Imperial Stout” versus an “Imperial Stout”; if you buy one expecting the other, it’s an unpleasant surprize.
Credit to folks who mentioned Anchors Steam Porter, probably my single favorite porter on the market.
Cat Lady
@Fulcanelli:
Imagine she looked like Kay Bailey Hutchison and then ask yourself if there ever would have been a Sarah Palin.
She’s got 5 years left on her use by date, max.
andrea
Big Daddy IPA from Speakeasy in San Francisco is my go-to IPA these days. They make a double/maximus type IPA from time to time. Concurring about Lagunitas. I wish I could get Harpoon out here, unless there are Boston area folks who’d be willing to send a sixer.
JK
Surprise Surprise – John McCain is a guest on Mett the Press this wkend. Does a wkend ever go by when media whore John McCain is not a guest on 1 of the Sunday shows?
Fox News sock puppet Stuart Varney nearly wet his pants while interviewing Rupert Murdoch
http://www.mediaite.com/print/murdoch-frightens-fox-business-no-worries-mr-chairman
Dropped! Murdoch Off the Hook – For Now
http://www.mediaite.com/print/rupert-murdoch-off-the-hook-for-now/
BDeevDad
@DarrenG: Thanks. Saw it in the store and will have to try it out.
meh
Personally I’ve been hooked on Fire Rock Pale Ale and Longboard Lager from Kona Brewing Co. for the last 6 months. Good stuff.
geg6
OMG, love, love, love Church Brew Works. And the food is good there, too. I wish I could remember the name of the place in Crafton (something Creek Brew House or something to that effect) that has an entire wall of mostly Belgian beers on tap. Went there twice and got the tastings. The food wasn’t nearly as good as at the Church, but the beers were amazing to a non-connoisseur. As for the so-called presidential ogling, what a load of typical Drudgian manure. If you see the actual video clip and not the misleading still, it’s obvious he’s looking at a woman behind him whose hand he is about to take to help her down the stairs. Asshats.
Prometheus Shrugged
Agree with DarrenG that Alesmith consistently puts out one of the best overall line-ups. I especially like their IPA, which is VERY under-publicized. (It’s more complex than Green Flash, which I also like.)
Also, I haven’t seen mention yet of Bear Republic’s Racer 5 IPA. It’s really tasty, and it’s getting easier to find in the stores. Big problem is that it’s way too easy to overindulge.
ajf
But, if you’re going to go 1-hop, then cascade isn’t the worst choice in the world, eh? I might prefer centennial as American hops go.
I just bottled a barleywine this evening, as it turns out. But, just as for most big beers, I am a bit afraid of what you describe as a “gap where non-fermentable sugars and suspended protein solids ought to be.” That’s a really fucking good description of exactly what is going on… though at 10%, who cares (especially once carbonated)?
Other than that, there is too much to comment on in this thread.
Tim F.
For residual sugar, in order of preference (least to most) add: table sugar, brown sugar, Belgian candy sugar. Yeast can only partially ferment any of those. To get suspended solids, keep some barley husks in the boil. Proteins will come off the grain coat and stay in solution more or less indefinitely.
Jager
Just pop a Bud and think about Sarah Palin doing a reverse cowgirl on John Ensign or Mark Sanford, because I’m sure they do! How does Tom Coburn talk them out of that tree or does he just join in the conversation? I’m having a 2nd Keitel One Martini (very dry, 4 olives) must be why that picture popped into my head!
Jason
@Cleek:
Beers of the World in Rochester..simply amazing store. Went there for the first time about a month ago on a visit to the in-laws…blew me away the selection.
As to Southern Tier: my favorite brewery. First brew of theirs I ever had was several years ago when their Imperial Pumking Pumpkin Ale was at a tasting. That stuff is *amazing*. Look for it starting next month…..
Ripley
Another mash note to The Church in Pittsburgh; all the praise is deserved. I like the rest of the city too, and Go Stillers blah blah blah.
A good pale: Drifter Pale Ale from Widmer Bros. in Portland. American-style pale, not too hopped but definitely the real thing.
And, from someone who loves the state of PA, Yuengling sucks. Sorry. The Palin of beers: steely, cheap, ubiquitous, and guaranteed to cause a headache.
wmd
I have a very nice kriek that went into the fermenter this week. 11 pounds belgian pale ale malt, 4 pounds gamrinus organic wheat malt, 6 pounds pitted bing cherries for the final 20 minutes of the boil. cooked cherries in fermenter – 1214 abbey yeast.
at 10 days I’ll add another 6 pounds of pitted cherries along with 1/2 pound of cane sugar, wit yeast.
This is going to be a very fine kriek.
bubba
In the summer of 69 I live in the Virginia suburbs of DC. I am 17, just graduated high school, and we are pooling our funds for a big summer party. We drive to Maryland (drinking age of 18 at the time) to pick up as much beer as possible with the collected revenue. At the liquor store right across the line there is an enormous stack of cases of Yeungling beer at an incredible price. At the time the beer of choice was Bud, period. But remember this is the time of Boone’s Farm wines and MD 20 20. So we buy as much beer as we could, since volume was the need of the day. We drove back to my house and sat in the dining room, a cold Yeungling in front of the four of us and, one at a time, proceeded to do a taste test of the experimental purchase. Within that group of four was the overwhelming understanding that we had made a terrible mistake. We still had the party, but we were left with a significant amount of leftover beer as party goers brought or chose anything other than Yeungling. I believe that later in the night we just started to use the beer as weapons in a beer fight, and still I had Yeungling left for weeks afterward that I dragged to various occasions in the hopes that others would make it go away. I would often tell the story of the infamous Yeungling party to old friends over the years.
Two years ago I spend a week in Virginia visiting friends and family. Staying with my mother in Fredericksburg, I drove over to the grocery store with my now adult daughter to stock up on some provisions for the family Christmas celebration and there in the beer cooler I see not one, but numerous choices of Yeungling beer. WTF. My daughter lives in Louisiana and was not familiar with them, so I related the story of the Yeungling party. I did give it a minutes thought that it would be a great ending to a favorite story as the family enjoyed a Christmas celebration with the celebrated Yeungling beer of my misspent youth. I then came to my senses and bought a couple of cases of the Sam Adams winter mix.
Sorry, just can’t go there.
Bubba
Shell Goddamnit
@Colette: Good god, that is a helluvan ass. I’m a 50yr old female person and I’m pretty sure it woulda caught my eye also. Shiny…purple…verra round… yep, I am definitely taking a second look.
protected static
@Shinobi: Despite the fact that purchasing Schlafly beer underwrites the purchase of Christmas presents for Phyllis Schlafly* of Eagle Forum fame? infamy?, yes, it is very tasty (or at least was, when I was living in STL 7 years ago).
Edited to add: if you’re gonna be drinking Midwestern craft brew, Boulevard out of Kansas City makes (made? again, this is 7 years ago) some good ones, too…
*It’s owned by one of her sons – the gay one, I think.
Jim in Chicago
Some beer recommendations from the midwest: Arcadia Ales (Battle Creek, MI) and Lakefront Brewery (Milwaukee, WI) both make very fine IPAs. Bell’s Brewery (Kalamazoo, MI) makes an excellent Porter (which I’m drinking right now).
And yes, Southern Tier’s Pumpkin Ale really is amazing!
Terri
Sweetwater brewery in Atlanta is not bad. I recommend their 420 ale. My fav micro is the Avery brewery in Boulder. For hop lovers the IPA is very good, however my personal choice is the Redpoint Amber Ale. Very easy to drink. They make everything in the Belgian big beer style.
Jason
Also love the Church. North Country is closer, though, so I go there more often.
Jason
Also, other 79-corridor beers:
Voodoo Brewery, brewed in Meadville
Sprague Farm, Venango
There’s a new one in Titusville, also, I think – Matt Allyn from Voodoo used to brew at a place out there that is no longer in business.
marcel
Glad someone else thinks well of Yuengling Porter. I first had some at the Moosewood, in Ithaca, NY in the early 80s, and it’s been my favorite beer ever since. I lived next to Chicago and then the Twin Cities from 1987-2000, and missed it most of that time. It was briefly available in the early 90s at my local liquor store, but then the distributor stopped carrying it.
To 50, who says that Yuengling sucks – you probably have the lager in mind. It’s always disappointing, and the Black and Tan isn’t much better. But the Porter is great.
Brian
More praise for the Church Brew Works here.
Places also worth checking out in Pittsburgh include but are not limited to: Sharp Edge (great Belgian selection), Dee’s SixPax & Dogz.
Bill
50 is talking about Yuengling premium, a vile cheap beer that even penniless drunks in PA won’t settle for. Yuengling lager wasn’t even invented until the 90s, nor was Black & Tan, which is a mix of Porter and their Lord Chesterfield Ale. The better Yuenglings, really anything other than Premium and Light, are perfectly drinkable, if somewhat odd. The Porter is frigging sublime, just lip-smackingly delicious, at 22 bucks a case. I used to get it in returnables for $16 a case, and drink it all winter long. I moved back to PA from Cape Cod, in part to enjoy Yuengling Porter once again. OK, not really, but I do enjoy it to this day, all winter long.
Roger
the yeast can FULLY ferment those sugars (with the exception of maybe 1% of the brown sugar. The sugars used in Belgian beers are there to dry out the beer, not sweeten it. Tripel in particular is a delightfully dry style. Any sweetness should be just a hint from good pilsner malt. The sugar used in dubbels, etc can have some unfermentables, but generaally breweries are using cheap dextrose in their tripels. There is a lot of bad info out there on belgian “Candi” sugars.
The chunks you are seeing in a good tripel is really from the yeast. Tripel should be bright, And decanted off of the lees. Boiling grain husks will lend an astringent character, and is not recommended.