Quick update and the Sage

Ah geez, has it been a month since my last post? Well it's been a kinda slow month. I finished off a batch of hefeweizen--it was good, but not quite what I wanted. I welcomed the return of Surly CynicAle, a great take on a saison. And I'm planning my next batch of beer, an IPA I think.

Oh, and I got in a round of disc golf at the Surly Open. Darren and I joined Mag and Kris and Scott and Kat for a grueling 18 holes at Hyland Ski and Snowboard Area. Yes, ski area, so lots of hills. But the beer was flowing, and it was a good chance to get to know our partners better.

______________________________

You may remember a few years ago, I invited a friend of mine to post regularly at Capitol Brewhaha. That didn't last long. But I'm going to try again, especially given my lack of posts, and especially given my lack of political posts.

Without further ado, St. Paul Sage:

Hi everybody, I'll be guest blogging because I'm a political junkie and Eric has ...well...perhaps lost sight of the capitol as he looks through his amber waves of brew. I met Eric at post-session party and was impressed by his knowledge of beer and politics. I also got him so drunk that he agreed to allow me to guest-blog. I'm also writing because I'm a very good writer and I know a ton of shit that you don't. And mostly because Eric is letting me and I'm too lazy to write my own blog. I will never reveal my name (and neither will Eric) because I may occasionally say things that could be construed as mean about people who I like or admire.

Sincerely,

St. Paul Sage

Meritage

What's the pleasant version of the the word "anxious?" Positively anticipating? Excitedly looking-forward-to? Whatever it is, that's how I felt about celebrating my 10 year wedding anniversary at Meritage, the new French restaurant occupying the site of A Rebours on St. Peter and 6th in downtown St. Paul.

It took a few minutes longer for a our server to say hello and take our drink order (a free glass of wine by mentioning the ad in Metro magazine) than I would have expected from a restaurant of this caliber, but they easily made up for it by bringing some amazing sushi-style tuna tacos, gratuit. Seriously. They asked if we had been waiting long, I said "Yes, a few minutes," and BAM! Free tacos. I wasn't rude or assuming, and I was taken care of.

On to the meal.

My lovely-as-ever wife had the rabbit confit with tarragon pea sauce, and I ordered the pork chops with mashed-potato-like polenta. Both were simply amazing; if I'm paying upwards of $25 for pork chops, this is how I want them to taste. Yum-my.

The entire experience was enjoyable. The only thing that would take Meritage a step further is the beer list. Summit, New Castle, Stella Artois, and Amstel Light. Really? No Duvel? No Chimay?

Aside from that I would totally recommend Meritage. The quality as well as the quantity was spot on.

Homebrew Update

As you may remember, in our brewing escapades, we brewed a mai bock with chinook hops, a hop usually found in American IPAs. A lovely hop for an IPA, but really, we learned that's where they should stay. Not made for mai bocks. At first we thought the beer might be infected, as it had a sort of a cooked brussel smell and tasted a little metallic. Not really what you want in a beer. We had kegged the beer, so it made sense that maybe one of the many parts was dirty.

[Yes, you have to sanitize EVERYTHING. The first couple batches I ever made I wore gloves and sprayed anything that might have some into contact with anything potentially dirty. I've let it slip a little. You pay me money for my beer? I'll put the gloves back on.]

Needless to say, we cleaned the the tap line, just to make sure. And the beer tastes better. Still a little metallic, but much better. Not your typical mai bock, and I'll probably never brew another one like this. But it taught me that a lot of beers are brewed the way they are for a reason.

Although a little ginger may have been good in it....

The 3rd bock from the same yeast is wonderful. It's almost a porter, a dark lager, kinda what I expected the schwartz to be like. Another 6 months will do it well.

We brewed a hefeweizen this past week. I'm not too much a fan of the style; it's nice a couple times every summer, but I'd rather have a good Saison. It's a perfect party beer though. I guess I have to think of a reason to have a party in a month or so.

Yummy gruit

With rising hop prices, brewers have been looking to find other non-traditional bittering and aroma agents, such as heather, lavender, rosemary and pine sprigs, or gruit. These and other similar herbs have been used in lieu of hops in Scandinavian countries and Scotland for centuries, and their beers have seen a resurgent in recent years, irregardless (that's a word, right?) of hop prices.

So I picked up a bottle of Alba Scots Pine Ale, from Heather Ale Ltd. out of Scotland. From their website:

Introduced by the Vikings, spruce and pine ales were very popular in the Scottish Highlands until the end of the 19th century. Many early explorers, including Captain Cook, used spruce ale during long sea voyages since it prevented scurvy and ill health. Shetland spruce ale was said to "stimulate animal instincts" and give you twins. Alba is a triple style ale brewed to a traditional Highland recipe from Scots pine and spruce shoots pickled during early spring. Pure malted barley is boiled with the young sprigs of pine for several hours then the fresh shoots of the spruce are added for a short infusion before fermentation.

It was pretty darn good--not piney at all, but sweet and malty, almost Scottish ale. I'm excited to try other beers with herb mixtures. Gruit, here I come!

Cheese and Beer

Think wine and cheese were made for each other? Syeah, right. Try BEER. My friend and neighbor Don hosted a beer and cheese pairing this past weekend, with each guest bringing a beer and cheese. There was a great array of cheeses and beers available. We brought Fourme D'ambert, a creamy blue, paired with Rogue's Shakespeare Stout, and Avec Les Bons Voeux from Dupont (that's the beer....) with Bucheron, a French chevre (goat cheese). Both were great pairings. Other winning combos were Bell's HopSlam with an aged English cheddar, New Holland's Dragon's Milk (a strong dark ale) with a strong blue, and Don's home-made Helles with a Spanish goat cheese. What was clear is that while there are some general guidelines to beer and cheese pairings, they are easily broken, and quite forgiveable.



Don has some more great photos over at his Flickr page.

All grain IS all that

For the past couple months, my brew partner Tony and I have been talking about making the move to all-grain brewing, that is, no more pre-made malt extract. With extract brewing, you buy concentrated liquid malted barley, thick, gooey, sweet and expensive. 6 lbs is about $16, and it comes in a bunch of flavors, depending on the kind of beer you want to make: light, dark, pilsen, wheat, etc. I had often referred to extract brewing as being like buying pancake syrup instead of making your own.


Oh, was I wrong.


There are about 7-8 kinds of extract malts, and dozens kinds of grains, each of which can be roasted differently. All-grain allows the brewer to better control and determine what the end product will taste like. Of course it takes about twice as long, as you have to soak the crushed grains in hot water for an hour, and then drain off all the liquid and rinse as much sugar from them as possible.

We nailed the starting gravity at 1.052--really, anything that would have be within a few points of that would have been great. Time will be the test of course, but I have a good feeling about it. We're trying to recreate a brown IPA we made a while ago that was fantastic.

Speaking of IPAs, there's new one on the TC market that I highly recommend. The Crooked Tree IPA from Dark Horse Brewing out of Michigan is phenomenal. And if you can find it's souped up cousin the Double Crooked Tree, grab a bottle. They're about $13 for a four pack, and run close to 14%, so they should be shared and sipped, but wow. Barleywine-esque, in the same way that some barleywines are double IPA-esque. I'm saving one for a year.

Ruinator

I suppose every Minnesota blog is complaining about the 6 inches of snow we got today, after it was in the 40s and sunny yesterday.

Yup, it sucks.

Yesterday, I built a plastic cover for a hot box in my garden so that I can get those seeds in early. Helped Tony build his hop trellis (well watched really), and busted out the kids' bikes.

6 inches.

Thank god for Beer.

Our Maibock is phenominal. Better than the Point Einbock I have in my fridge, maybe even more enjoyable than Summit's version. I've also been working through the Dopplebocks. Schell's has a great one commemorating 150 years in existence , the first of eight Anniversary Series brews. And of course generally anything ending in -ator. Salvator, Consicrator, Primator, etcator......We of course brewed one. Got a name? Leave a comment. It will be ready in 5 - 7 months.

CRAZY

Yah. The 2008 legislative session is crazy. CRAZY. Hence the lack of posts. I'm here to tell you that it's crazy. The governor and the legislature are facing off, continually one-upping the other. The legislature got a couple good jabs in with the veto override and the boot to transpo commish Molnau. "Oh yeah?" responded the governor. "Here's a serving of some program cuts AND a tax cut!"

And while that is forefront on the media's radar, lots of other stuff is going on.

Like making beer.

Homebrew update

The first mai bock is quite tasty, but still could use a few more weeks. The chinook mai bock is in the keg, and the third bock is still bubblin' away. All from the same yeast.

We added some molasses to the schwarz bier, and I cracked my first one tonight. Whoa. Want a cookie? This one gets a few more months in the bottle. The porter--from the same yeast--was thick as hell when we transferred it, and in need of some serious age, 6 months at least. Maybe we'll find a bourbon barrel or something. We took the yeast from this one and made a dopplebock, which will sit until next fall as well.

The liberty lager was waaaaay fruity, like an apple, when we bottled it (with our new capper!). Good summer beer I hope.

Speaking of summer, time to start some ales and get the hop rhizomes in the ground.

Fermentin' Away

I think the photo says it all.

We've been re-using the yeast cakes from our beers, meaning that after we transfer one beer out of the primary fermentor to the secondary fermentor, we put a new beer--or wort really--right into the "dirty" fermentor, on top of yeast that's collected at the bottom of the fermentor. Some brewers will clean and rince the yeast and put it into a clean carboy, but so far we haven't had any problems. And we're not selling our beers to the masses. Yet.

It's still lager season. The Mai Bocks share a yeast, as do the the Schwarz and the porter. We should be able to get 6-8 beers out of each yeast packet we buy.

Thanks for the photo, Tony.

Winterfest 08

Winterfest, the annual winter celebration of Minnesota beer, took place last night at the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul. Sponsored by the MN Craft Brewers Guild, Winterfest is known for showcasing many of the more unique--and often higher alcohol--beers of local breweries and brew pubs. Don, Peter, Ryan and Dawn were great drinking partners, always willing to share their grabs, meaning more samples and overall lesser quantity. The full program is here, and here's a list of my tries:

Schell's
-Eisbock
-Dry-hopped Maifest Kellerbier

Barley John's
-Munich Dark Lager
-Belgian Triple
-06 Dark Knight

Brau Brothers
-04 Dubbel

Fitger's
-Park P0int Pilsner
-Imperial Pilsner
-Gale Force Cranberry Ale
-Edmund Imperial Stout, Bourbon barrel aged
-Blue Label Grande Reserve, Pinot Noir barrel Aged
-Bellnickle Wheat Wine
-Hair O' the Monk
-Mr Spock Eisbok

Flat Earth
-Winter Warlock golden barley wine

Great Water's
-Trippel Braun

Mantorville
-Stagecoach Amber

McCann's
-Prairie Porter
-Tripple Trouble

Minneapolis Town Hall
-Eye of the Storm
-Granny Triple
-Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
-Chocolate Rasberry Bourbon Stout
-Simcoe Pale Ale

Rock Bottom
-Fallen Angel Abby Ale
-Smoked Porter
-Silver Mullet Oatmeal IPA

Summit
-Cask IPA
-Cask Great Northern Porter
-Cask Winter

Surly
-Darkness
-Two
-Tea bagged Furious

Yup, 33 beers in three hours. Mind you, most pours were about 3 ounces. Your palate gets pretty burnt early on, so I generally tried to drink stouts and darker beers for awhile before switching to Belgian styles. My favorite stout/porter/ dark beer was of course Surly Darkness, but the ones from Town Hall were pretty good, as was the one from Fitgers. And the one from Barley John's was outstanding as well. Oh wait, that's all of them.

The standout Belgian-style beers were the Town Hall Granny Triple (aged on granny smith apples) or the Fitger's Blue Label Grande Reserve triple, aged in Pinot Noir barrels. I've long had a disdain for lambic-esque sour beers, so maybe this marks a turning point in my palate, as they both had qualities that I seem to have disliked in the past.

Another great event by the Guild. Good food (although bad setup), a mellow jazz band and I love the Landmark Center. Pics coming soon.

$$$

You'll notice that the format for "Current Musical Endeavors" to your right has changed. If you're thinking of buying any of these albums, please link to them via my site and I'll get a few pennies. I was linking to Amazon.com previously, so I thought I might as well use their program and make a few bucks.....

Ah, capitalism.

Ah, the Internet.

5 year olds for Obama

Dylan and I made the trek to the Target Center today, along with 20,000 other Minnesotans, to listen to Barack Obama tell Minnesotans why he should be president.

While Dylan enjoyed the train ride to the event, Golden Smog "opening" for Obama, the dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe after, I'm not convinced he was sold by the turnout, the speech or the enthusiastic crowd.

I was.

I was.

Caucus for Obama on Tuesday.

This Shit is Serious

Stouts have been on my mind a lot these past few weeks. Not just any stouts, but Russian Imperial Stouts. Imperial meaning big. Way big. Chocolate, toffee, roasted coffee, 10 percent big. They seem to have come to popularity in mid- to late-19th century, as the Empress of Russia was a huge fan of the style, importing stouts and porters for her and her crew. They can take extensive cellaring--25 years in some cases, but more often 3 or 4, or, if you're like me, a couple weeks.

I was working my way through some of the more readily available ones--Victory Storm King, Bell's Expedition Stout, North Coast Rasputin--to do a review, when I got an email inviting me to a private tasting of stouts at Thomas Liquors.

Now, I expected a few people, maybe 4 or 5 bottles. No, 8 people, 18 beers. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad that I left my bottle of 06 Dark Lord from Three Floyds at home for another time. This is what the end of the night looked like:
If you can't read the labels, those are imperial stouts from (L-R):
Stone
Rogue
Southern Tier
Sprecher
Great Divide 07
Great Divide Oak Aged
Great Divide 04
North Coast
Bells Expedition
Bells Batch 7000
Nils Oscar
Milkeller
Surly
Fish Eye
Dog Fish Head
Ølfabrikken
Missing from the the photo:
Oskar Blues Grill & Brewery
Leinenkugels

Lots of crazy shit there. By the 5th or 6th one, the ability of my palate to pass accurate messages to my brain was seriously diminished, but I think my favorites were the Bell's 7000, Stone, Great Divide 04 and Surly. All dark, syrupy but smooth, complex. Least favorite was the Sprecher.

[Ok I gotta get this out. Sprecher has a problem with their water, maybe their yeast, or something. Most of their beers have an after-taste heavy in iron. Not pleasant. At all. It's unfortunate, because they produce several great styles which have a lot of potential, if it weren't for the rural water taste. You know what I'm talking about.]

But I digress. If you want to take in one or two, I would suggest heading to someplace like The Cellars which sells single bottles. Or throw down the $12 - $14 for a sixer of Bell's or Victory, and store several away for a few years. If ya don't like 'em, give 'em to me in a year or two.

Surly Mild: Why?

If it's one Surly Brewing is known for, it's for pushing the envelope, trying new things with traditional recipes and challenging it's drinkers. So I was a little surprised when I read that Surly was introducing a new beer, Surly Mild.

I brewed a mild ale a while ago. It wasn't horrible, but it lacked any real depth. It tasted like it was supposed to taste, I suppose, but in the end I guess I'm just not a fan. That's how I felt about Surly Mild.

Maybe that's the way Surly anticipated it would be. They're known for extreme beers, and so they wanted to challenge the concept of what Surly is. And I would say they succeeded. Maybe a whole new crowd of beer drinkers--the folks who think that Bass is a heavy beer--will give the Mild a try and then move on to Furious. Maybe, just maybe, they've duped us all and will get the hopheads and fans of high ABV brews to recognize there's success in subtlety.

Which is fantastic.

But for me, I'd rather drink my Darkness imperial stout or some crazy bourbon barrel aged cranberry ale.

Cheers

On pins and needles

It's been awhile since I posted something non-beer or non-political, so I figured my first acupuncture experience warranted a post. I learned today that the excruciating pain I've had in my neck, radiating down my arm, and keeping me up at night is a pinched nerve. After picking up my muscle relaxant and Tylenol 3, I took a friends recommendation and made an appointment for acupuncture.

It was incredible. Within seconds of the 15 or so needles being gently inserted in my legs, hands and scalp, I could turn my head left and right, up and down, with almost no pain. As I rested in the provided-recliner arm chair, with relaxation music playing in the background, I was already looking forward to my next session.

Obama for President?

I'm getting pretty close to supporting Barack Obama for president. See, I've been luke warm on the whole situation for a while now. I supported John Edwards 4 year ago, but it seems clear he's not really going anywhere. I think Hillary Clinton would make a damn good president, but her whole "I-voted-for-the-war-before-I- realized-that-wasn't-popular" thing feels like de ja vu. And Obama just seems young.

But that seems like it's to his advantage now.

I took a look at Facebook, a rapidly expanding social networking site highly popular with college kids, and how many supporters the candidates have:

Edwards: 33,463

Clinton: 61,892

Obama: 208,551

Criminy! Granted it's clearly not a scientific method, but it seems like Obama is damn popular and will be the eventual nominee. I mean, a Black candidate winning in mostly white Iowa? And my dad like him.

Where do I sign up?

Homebrew Update

Lagers and more lagers. We have two lagers in bottles now--a Pilsner Urquell clone and an Austrailian one using Ringworm--er wood--hops. We also brewed our 20th batch--that's 100 gallons--of beer since we started brewing together this summer. Batch 20 is a maibock, and will be ready around--you guessed it--April.

Brew52.com

Wanna drink a Minnesota beer once a week and share your review about it? I do--hell, I'm drinking them and occassionaly posting my thoughts about it here anyway. So join up over at Brew52.com. Don't worry about not being a beer geek like me; you'll notice the reviews come from Miller Lite fans and less experimental drinkers, as well as self-professed brew snobs. Even if you're not up for it, it's a great resource.

Holiday Re-cap

The holidays always brings out the top brews. My cellar has been expanding with barley wines and imperial stouts and specialty Belgian beers, bottles waiting to be opened. I had hoped this would be the year to delve into the depths of my basement corner, but it was not to be. At least, not as deep as I had hoped. A lack of turnout on New Year's Eve meant that the barrel-aged barley wine from Sprecher and the 2006 Three Floyds Dark Lord imperial stout would have to wait until another time. But it's just as well; these are beers meant to be drunk in a couple years.

Amidst the two Town Hall growlers I had to finish a day after New Year's and the multitude of 22 ounce speciality releases from Three Floyds and Full Sail, a couple of beers stood out amongst the group.

On Christmas Eve, my brother-in-law posed to me the question of which beer would I drink if I could drink one beer for the night. Naturally, I wasn't going to not have any beer at my parent's Christmas Eve party, but still, the question--or rather the answer--was an easy one: Surly Darkness. So, upon arriving back at my house after said party, I poured two goblets from one of the bottles of Darkness I had stood in line for the previous weekend.

It was amazing. So much better than on tap. Deserved of all the hype an hysteria. Better than that. Chocolate and molasses and plenty of hops filled out glasses, and subsequently overwhelmed our palates. I can't wait to try the second bottle in a year.

The second stand-out beer was poured at midnight on December 31st, 2007.

Flo and I aren't big fans of champagne. Maybe mixed with orange juice it's tolerable. So New Year's Eve was an opportunity to try something new. For my birthday she had gotten me a bottle of 2002 DeuS from Bosteels Brewery. Deus means God, and rightfully so. This beer runs upwards of $30 for a 750 ml bottle, and is bottle-conditioned similarly to bottles of champagne, rotated every so often to force the yeast "bung" from the bottle. It's strikingly a Belgian beer, full of Belgian-yeasty goodness, but bubbles and tingles like the best champagnes. Apple and citrus fill your nostrils, and it tickles your tongue as it warms your palate. What a way to welcome the New Year.

Not only were these two beers the best of the 2007 holiday season, but possibly the best two that have ever graced my tongue.

Happy Firkin Holidays

The Groveland Tap was the place to be tonight for beer geeks. As part of their "12 Nights of Christmas," which features a different drink special every night leading up the birthday of Christ, tonight they offered five firkins of different beers from Schell's (Pils), Summit (Winter dry hopped with Fuggles), Surly (Bender bourbon barrel aged), Bell's (Cream Stout) and Big Sky (Powder Hound). (A firkin is a keg for serving cask-conditioned beer. Cask beer is beer which is carbonated in and served directly--"pulled" from--the container.)

Reps from most of the breweries and other notables made an appearance, along with other beer fan-boys and girls . I joined the MnBeer.com folks, and between us, we were able to sample most of the offerings. The Summit Winter was hands-down my favorite, followed by the Pils. The Bender, despite a nice bourbon undertone, seemed a little premature, as it was still a bit uncarbonated. The Bell's was good, but nothing to write home about. We unfortunately didn't get around to the Big Sky.

Many beer-related events are on the calendar this time of year, giving my palate a nice warm-up for the coming week with Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Get yer hot beer here!

I'm not one to go out my way for a limited release beer or anything (hahahahahaha), but I was especially intrigued by Town Hall Brewery's Festivus 2007, a Belgian Dark Ale aged on Belgian Dark Chocolate. It was rich and creamy and, yes, chocolately. I picked up a growler of it for an upcoming holiday gathering.

I also had a cup of hot mulled ale, Town Hall's annual Christmas present to their loyal customers. Yes, hot beer, but not any hot beer. It was a scotch ale with spices and a shot of rum. It was more incredible than I thought it would be, much better than mulled wine. It went especially well standing around a camp fire adjacent to Washington Avenue and Cedar Avenue during rush hour.

It's getting very dark

If you've been keeping up with MnBeer.com lately, then you know that Surly Brewing put up for sale a limited number of 750 ml bottles of their imperial stout Darkness this past weekend. Simple enough, right? Wrong. The first people to show up at the brewery on Saturday morning were some crazies from Iowa, setting up camp around a fire pit at around 2am.

Ok, truth-in-advertising here: I was crazy enough to arrive at 8am and stand around in the cold for an hour before Omar and crew opened the doors. But 2am?

I'm not that surprised, really. Darkness has swept the beer community, which will go to extreme lengths for hard-to-find beers. Surly had only 480 bottles to sell, allowing two per person. With no one really knowing what would happen--all we knew is that sales were to start at 2pm --our originally-planned arrival time was 10am, but it kept getting earlier and earlier as the hype kept increasing. I was lucky I suppose to get my two bottles, but tickets didn't sell out until 12:30pm on Saturday. Still, it was a good time and Surly took care of it's loyal fans with free samples all day, live music, and an inviting atmosphere.

My friend, neighbor and fellow homebrewer Don shot some video of the day. Check out his results below.

Lagers are....

While December is the perfect time to pour a dark, big beer--porters, stouts, barley wines, heavy browns--it's hardly the time to be brewing them, at least when the basement hovers around 50 degrees. I typically stray away from most lagers, which uses yeast that needs to ferment at lower temperatures. Dopplebocks can cause me to turn my head and tip my glass, but I would rather have an ale than most maibocks, Octoberfests and of course American lagers.

I had to swallow hard to face the fact that Tony's basement is under a constant chill and perfect for lagers. So we brewed our first ones last week: a Pilsner Urquell clone, which uses nothing but Saaz hops; and a lager using dry yeast, and Pride of Ringwood and centennial hops. It should be duly noted that centennial are typically used in West Coast IPAs, so we'll see what happens. Similarly, we just bottled an ale using mainly Saaz. Ya gotta experiment to learn, even if it results in a beer that's better as a marinade.

About 6 months ago, on a hot and sweaty July day, we brewed a double IPA and a barleywine. The double IPA is sadly about gone, but we're just now cracking into the barleywine. It's full of caramel and pipe tobacco, balanced with a slight bite of green apple.

Hahahaha, at about 10%, please ignore that last sentence. It's just fuckin' good.

Final note: I've been spending a lot of time blogging over at MnBeer.com, so please check 'em out if you haven't already.

Beer + Turkey = Good?

I was charged with (or took charge of) preparing our family's turkey this year, my first attempt at the task. You may find this shocking, but in searching for a recipe, I turned to one of my most reliable sources for everything beer, BeerAdvocate.com. Their turkey recipe was simple and still intriguing. While it called for injecting a Märzen or Octoberfest into the turkey, none could be found and so I used some of my homebrewed alt. I'd like to think it made a huge difference, but even though the bird was quite delicious, I'm not convinced it did. The alt was good with the bird, but maybe not so much in the bird.

My wife has a more complete account of the meal on her blog.

Barley John's visited

I and some of the mnbeer.com crew met for drinks last week at Barley John's in New Brighton to discuss upcoming changes to the site, get to know one another better and, well, drink beer. I've been to John's a couple times in the past, so I knew they had good beer, but I never remembered how good. Their double IPA is something to be cherished, especially with the rising prices and shortage of hops and barley looming over the industry. Get it while you can.

Colin Mullen, John's brewer, joined us for some of the evening, and further explained the situation. I was impressed with his positive attitude about it, as he explained that it would challenge brewers to try to new things and out of it would come some creative beer styles. He also felt that the shortage is bringing the Minnesota craft brew scene closer together as they begin to explore joint efforts to help each other. His outlook is emblematic of Barley John's--and certainly his--overall attitude about brewing.

I finished the night with a Dark Knight. If you aren't familiar with it, then head over to John's now. They call it a "bourbon barrel aged double fermented porter," but, whatever. At more than 13%, it's magical and completely heavenly.

As we were paying the tab, Colin offered to take us downstairs to the, um, brewhouse. It was a pretty cramped couple of rooms, with fermenters, heating and cooling systems, bags of hops, empty kegs and bourbon barrels filled with aging Dark Knight taking up every last inch of space. But I hope they don't change a thing, because it works; Colin makes some great creations down there.

Grrrr, Darkness!

With the onset of late fall-early winter comes the many stouts and winter ales of the season. Perhaps the best is Surly Darkness. I had my first one of the season at the Autumn Beer Review, but needless to say it was well into the afternoon, so I must say I don't really remember anything about it except that it was good. So last Friday my wife agreed to dinner at Busters on 28th in South Mpls, which allowed me to have one in style. While I understand that the proper way to enjoy Darkness is in a Surly goblet, I also understand that most places are selling a 12 ounce pour for about $7. Being the cheap-ass that I am, the $5/pint during happy hour at Busters made it an all that much more enjoyable of a stout.

Speaking of amazing stouts, I shared an Avery Mephistopheles with Tony while camping a few weeks ago. Darkness is amazing, but Mephistopheles is beyond amazing. Ok, maybe it was only really really really really good, but at 15% for an $8-12 ounce bottle, it seemed that much better. Especially on a chilly October night around a camp fire next to the Kettle River.

Speaking of the Kettle River, I'm looking forward to the 3rd annual Sandstone Icefest the weekend of December 7th. Ok, I'm skipping the majority of the events and am only attending the final night, for the Frozen Kettle River Homebrew Challenge and Chili Cook-off. I'm not a huge ice climber, or for that matter even a small ice climber, but I do like winter camping. And besides, Surly is a sponsor.

Town Hall Anniversary

It's a solid indicator that the Twin Cities craft brew scene is alive and well when a brew pub survive--and thrive--for 10 years. Me and a couple buddies helped Town Hall Brewery celebrate their 10-year anniversary last weekend. Each day of the week they released a different beer, and on the Friday we attended it was Eye of the Storm, a 10 year aged beer made with 10 different kinds of honey, clocking in at 10% abv. It was a bit sweet for my taste, but Town Hall always put in an amazing effort and hits on the mark the style they were striving for. I preferred their Anniversary Ale, a very drinkable IPA, but it still didn't compare to Masala Mama, their hallmark IPA which I finished the night with.

Music, fun and a good cause

Wanna have a good time and support a good cause? Then follow the link to see – and hear – about this amazing music, mingle and munch event being held at the Fine Line Café on November 3. The goal of the event, besides the great music and fun, is to raise AIDS Awareness. Clare Housing and the Minnesota AIDS Project are the beneficiaries – please show your support by joining us on November 3. Costumes are encouraged, though not mandatory. But when was the last time you put on your platforms, raised your hair and donned all your glittery goods for a raucous night of hilarity, all for a great cause?

http://www.irockthecause.org/home.html

At least Iowa is good for something

Despite my consistent whining about some of the good beer that is unavailable in Minnesota, all it takes is a trip to a state that doesn't have it as good as we do to bring me back to reality. Last weekend, I was in Iowa for my college homecoming and took the opportunity to visit a local liquor store to check out their wares. I had called ahead, and so I knew that they would have some Gumbalhead from Three Floyds--an excellent hopped-up wheat beer. I picked up three bottles of that (anyone wanna trade?), and a variety of other beer that isn't found in Minnesota.

In case you can't read the labels, from left to right, that's Gumbalhead, Hoppy Brewing Hoppy Face Amber Ale, Blue Frog Red Frog Ale, Lost Coast Pale Ale, ReaperAle Deathly Pale Ale, Millstream Iowa Pale Ale, and MacTarnahan Mac's Ale. The ones I've tried thus far are solid.

Sure, none of these beers come to the North Star State, but Iowa--at least Benz Liquor Depot in CR--doesn't have nearly the quantity of quality craft brews as Minnesota. And no Surly either.

Homebrew Update
Oh, where to start. It's been a busy summer and fall, filling the basement for winter. The Barleywine, Double IPA, Alt, Sweet Stout, Belgian Dubbel, and Winter Warmer are in bottles and the Steam, India Brown Ale and IPA are fermenting. With Tony's coaxing, we've begun to get off-recipe and tweak some of the kits, even making up our own. The Winter was a real treat to brew, as we added a little of this and a little of that. We doubled the grains, added some molasses, fresh ginger, honey, coriander, cocoa powder, juniper and dry hopped it in the primary. When we bottled it it reminded me a bit of Anchor Winter. The Double IPA is excellent, the hops balance the alcohol, which is probably around 7% abv. We have a couple empty carboys to fill, so I'm sure we'll be back at it next week.

Autumn Beer Review Review

Alright. The 2007 Autumn Beer Review. It started out rainy and cold. But the prospects of drinking good beer--and lots of it--kept me and Ben warm as we waited in line. It was one 1pm when we got in, and our first stop was at the Pizza Luce booth for some nurishment before imbibing.

The first couple beers I had were great--Summit ESB on cask and Town Hall's Mango Mama, their Masala Mama IPA with Mango. Here's a list of everything I tried--at least everything I checked off. Note these were 4 oz samples, sometime less, and I tried to stick to beers I had never had before. For more info about each one, check out the program.

• Schell Snowstorm 2007


• Barley John's Dark Knight


• Brau Brothers Ring Neck Braun Ale


• Fitger's Procrastinator Dopplebock


• Fitger's Starfire Pale Ale


• Fitger's Contentment


• Fitger's Cherry Batch 2200


• Great Water's Flying Circus IPA


• Great Water's "It Will Make You a Man" IPA


• Great Water's Knights who say "Nee" ESB


• Herkimer Oktoberfest


• Lake Superior Winter Warmer Barleywine


• Town Hall Mango Mama


• Rock Bottom Saison


• Summit ESB


• Summit Oatmeal Stout with Brettanomyces


• Surly Dahmer


• Surly Bourbon One


• Surly Darkness 07


• Avery Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest


• Big Sky Montana Trout Slayer Ale


• Leinie's Oktoberfest


• Left Hand Juju Ginger


• New Holland Barrel-Aged Strong Ale


• North Coast Brother Thelonius Dubbel


• Rush River Lost Arrow Porter


• Schmaltz Lenny Bruce Rye IPA


• Sprecher Bourbon Barrel Scotch Ale


• Tyranena Three Beaches Honey Blonde Ale


• Tyranena Bitter Woman IPA


• Tyranena Rocky's Revenge Bourbon Barrel-Aged Brown Ale


• Tyranena Hop Whore


• Tyranena Devil Made Me Do It!


• Tyranena High Class Broad


• Victory Hop Devil

My faves were the Dark Knight and Mango Mama. Thanks to WankerWeasel for some of the photos (more here).

What is Radiohead worth?

Yes, I was at the Autumn Beer Review, yes it was awesome. But what is even more awesome is the marketing of Radiohead's new album. What do you think it's worth? I'd pay $10, maybe $15, ok $20 dollars for it. No? One dollar? Ok, you can have it.

You decide what it's worth, and that's the price you pay.

Or, you can buy the box set for about $80, which will include two vinyl albums, a CD version of the new album and a second CD with additional new songs, artwork and photographs of the band. I wish I had a record player.

Do I event need to say how brillant this is? Radiohead is pushing the industry to accept the change that is confronting them. Of course, they have the fan base willing to support them, and a HUGE tour and merch revenue stream, but for big bands who want to make it, this may be a way to go. Do ya think [insert Top 40 R&B band here] could mak it?

Contemplate, and I'll be back with my tasting list from of ABR.

Autumn Beer Review

Next weekend is the 2007 Autumn Beer Review. This is the first "official" review-fest-tasting I've been to, and there'll be over 40 breweries and 100 beers. That being said, I'd pay the $25 ticket fee just to visit the historic Grain Belt Brewery where it's being held. Surly's line-up alone is another thing I'd spend the $25 on. If previewing the 2007 program doesn't do it for you, I don't know what will.....check it out here (thanks to mnbeer.com for the scoop).

Rushin' ahead

Rush River, one of my favorite local--if you consider western Wisconsin local--beers, began selling their Unforgiven Amber and Bubblejack IPA in bottles this week. I had one of each tonight, and they totally stand up, and may even be better, in the bottles. Both have an, um, noticeable hop presence that may offend the timid drinker, but RR uses the hops wisely. Of course I always forget how much I love Rush River each time I order it, and I'm glad it's available at the liquor store now.

I do wish the bottles listed the IBUs or ABV, at least with the IPA, but it isn't like I'd stop buying the stuff if it didn't.

Welcome to the off-sale market, Rush River!

Ramstad's out, who's in?

You've all probably heard that US Rep. Jim Ramstad today announced his plans to not seek re-election , setting the stage for a massive endorsement and/or primary fight in Minnesota's 3rd congressional district. Polinaut has a good story and nice map of the district, if you're so inclined, but I like the rumor and speculation myself, Minnesota Democrats Exposed on the right and MNPublius on the left.

Of all the DFLers listed as potential candidates, I like State Sen. Terri Bonoff. She's done a great job portraying herself as a uniter from the middle, which she is, and if she were to happen to lose, the DFL would still hold onto that seat as she's not up until 2010. State Reps. Melissa Hortman and Maria Ruud are also attractive, but those are tough districts for any other DFLers to hold on to. Plus, Sen. Bonoff is a leader on early childhood issues, which personally makes her appealing since I work in that field. None of them have announced yet, so my opinion at this point (or any other point) hardly matters.

I'm glad I don't live in the 3rd.

Twin Cities Imbiber Issue #2

Law changes this year allowing co-called strong beer to be available at the state fair received wide coverage in the mainstream media, but there are some things they didn't tell you. Other changes to Minnesota's liquor laws will benefit everyone from small brewers to the University of Minneosta. However some key reforms are still needed.

Perhaps the most significant provision for beer enthusiasts is a change allowing brewpubs and small breweries to sell 750ml bottles of their brews....

To read more about law changes in an article I wrote, check out issue two of Twin Cities Imbiber magazine, available on-line now and on newsstands soon!

Oktober is...

Autumn has certainly arrived in Minnesota. Evening temps are in the 40s and 50s, sunlight is disappearing, and Oktoberfest beers are filling the shelves. I'm biased towards ales year-round, but I like to sample the local Oktoberfest lagers every year, among them Summit, Schells and Surly. Both Summit and Schells offer up good examples of what an Oktoberfest should taste like, and this year is no exception. Summit did an especially solid job, and I may just pick up a 6er of it. On to Surly.

By far one of my favorite breweries these day, Surly never disappoints. SurlyFest is deeeee-licious. Imagine a typical Oktoberfest, but loaded up with hops. Not to mention their cans are beautiful. I wish all their beers were available year round.

Well the poll results are in for what people want to see at Capitol Brewhaha: 8 voted for more beer, 8 for more about my life, 2 for more politics and 1 for more of the same. I remember from my college stats class that N has to equal at least 30 for any poll to be valid, and since N=19 here, I will ignore the findings and write about what ever I want.

Cheers!

This one's for you Mom

Dylan my 4-almost-5 year old son started school last week. The first day was tough--he almost fell asleep in my arms walking the 2 blocks back to our house from the busstop. But now he looks forward to it everyday.

Not my life

My mom's been giving me some flack in the comments over at Jane's blog, apparently because I don't post enough about my family and my life. True 'dat. I succumbed very early on to the inherant self-centered, egotistical nature of blogs, going so far as to only write about the things I want to write about, and if my family, friends and really anyone at all wants to read about it (or not) than so be it. I like writing about beer right now, have had my beer musings published a couple times (there goes that ego thing again) and so that's what I'm going to write about. Love ya mom, but you'll have to head over Jane's way to read about someone's personal life (which is a good one to read about!).

But being that I am a caring person, take my new poll to your right and maybe I'll alter my posts. Or maybe not.

Homebrew Update
I came home from France to a wealth of beer at my doorstep. Ready for the drinking is an extra pale ale, a hopped up amber and a Fat Tire clone. All are drinkable, but the EPA is luscious. Well balanced but still giving a nice hop punch. Tony and I bottled our barley wine and Belgian Dubble this week, and dry hopped the double IPA, all of which can be opened around Christmas. A winter and German Alt are on the deck for brewing soon.

La Fin

We wrapped up our trip with three days in Avignon, best known for the Palais de Papes, occupied by the pope when Avignon was in Roman hands during the 12th century. Avignon is also the capitol of the Cotes du Rhone region de vin, home of some of my favorite wines, consisting of syrah and grenache grapes, and sometimes other varieties like mouvedre or carignon.

We had a nice one at a wonderful restaurant one night with a four course meal. I had hazelnut rabbit pate with carmelized onions followed by pork cutlets in a mango sauce, followed by fresh cow cheese and completed with a flourless chocolate cake drizzled with a coffee cocoa reduction. All for only 25 euros. Remind me why I live in the US?

Right now we're on our way to Paris, where we have a 15 hour journey--9 of which wll be in the air--ahead of us. The kids have been great, aside from their to-be-expected unpleasantness at being woken up at 6am this morning.

See you soon!

Last stop

Leaving Genolhac, arriving in Avignon.....

Les dernier jours

Ah, the end of summer in the mountains.....

Temperatures have hovered around 85 degrees the past couple of days, so we've retreated to a nearby river for both of them, having a picnic and a swim. Its been perfectly lazy.

Meals are a magnificent part of every visit to France. Last night Michele--Flo's step mother, just to keep you in the loop--made gambas avec encornet, two fruits de la mer, shrimp with calamari. Wine was brought by a visiting husband of Michele's cousin's mom. Yup, that's right. Lots of family stop by for a meal, including many kids to meet each other and begin forming relationships.

Back to the wine. It was an ever transforming 2000 cabernet-syrah-carignon blend from Coteaux de Languedoc. Served from 750ml bottles filled from a 3 liter bottle, it was by far the best wine of the trip, taking on an almost orange hue, and tasting similar to a great pinot. Surprisingly, it went well with the seafood platter, which was cooked flambee au pastis.

Another lazy day today. Les enfants had a ride on Jean-Louis' tractor down to the river to pick apples and look at the sheep. Exciting for all.

Tomorrow we head to Avignon to spend our final days in France with Flo's mom and brother, before returning to Les Etats-Unis.

Journey

It would be easy to stay put, and just enjoy the scenery outside the kitchen door. A pleasant river meanders through the mountains not far from the house, plenty of trails offer themselves to us throughout the forest, and of course there is family to spend time with, playing cards, preparing meals and chatting together.

And not to mention that the boys tend to get car sick everytime we go out.

But yesterday we took our motion sickness medicine and ventured out into the surrounding countryside. (Needless to say it didn't kick in in time, and both Adrian and Dylan spilled their breakfast all over the car. Yummy.)

Our destination was the village where Jean-Louis, Flo's dad, was selling his honey, as well as the wares of other farmers in the area. We first stopped by and had a look at his bee hives, then had a wonderful lunch of coq-au-vin at a restaurant next to the market. Meals in France typically take a couple hours and this was no exception.

After taking in desert and cafe, we went in search of Jean-Louis' horse, who was spending her summer roaming the mountains above the village of Vialas. We didn't find the horse, but the views and smells were incredible.

We returned home around 6pm, and slothed about for a few hours, recovering from the days' journey. Today we're heading to the river for a picnic, and hopefully a swim if the weather holds. Never a dull moment in Cevennes.

Bush beer

I haven't posted any exclusive beer reviews, so I figured it was time.

Bush was a great beer, unlike the one that is in charge of our country. Listed as the strongest Belgian beer ever, coming in at 12 percent, it indeed packs a punch. However, you have to be careful as it is so smooth and full of caramel, you can easily get lost in a bottle. I guess its good the bottles are only 25 cl, because that's all you need.

I'll be back soon with more accounts of my travels....

Chateau de Portes

One of the requirements when visiting France is to visit at least one castle. The north has few remaining castles from the medievil ages, most of them having been reduced to rubble in the various wars that have plagued Europe. So, the south is the place to go to see castles, and fortunately for us, we're spending a fair amount of time there.

The closest castle to Genolhac is Chateau de Portes, started in the 11th century, and finished in the 17th, with the marquis having the image of a ship in mind when he constructed the final building--the only one like it in France.

It and the town of Portes were built on a sea of coal, which was heavily mined during Les Guerres Mondiales, resulting in the subtle yet devastating sinkage of both town and castle. The town was eventually razed and rebuilt, with the benefit of coal outweighing the cost of rebuilding. The castle, on the other hand, was left to deteriorate with vandals assistance. Only in the last 30 years or so have countless volunteers aided in its reconstruction. Its a small but magnificent chateau, located high in the mountains of Cevennes, and one is easily reminded of the battles that likely took place here many years ago.

(BTW, that's my brother-in-law Simon giving his approval to my photo.)

Parfums and gouts

Ahh, the sweet smells of pine and herbs has replaced salt and sand. The rain and chilly weather of our first couple days in Cevennes has left, and now sun and warmth has arrived.

There are lots of wonderful cooks in the Dubaille famille, including Flo's half brother Sylvain, who's studying to be a chef, and practices on his family. I can't say I am complaining. Our first night here, he prepared an amazing meal of tartare salmon, and for lunch yesterday we had rabbit (raised and subsequently killed right here) simmered in a cream and mustard sauce. Um yeah. Incredible. I've told Sylvain he can stay at our house when he's done with his studies and I'll help him find a job in Minnesota. Ya got any leads?

Of course all of all meals have been accompanied by great wines, and some good beers. Sylvain and Simon, Flo's step brother, is a fan of Belgian beers as well, so unique brews fill our glasses regularly. Leffe and 3 Monts and Kwak. I'm getting thirsty already.

La prochaine etape

We wrapped up phase deux of the trip on the island, where the stay at Les Joyeux, a complex of petite maisons where many of Flo's relatives live, completed with a grande fete for my birthday. Nothing could have made me happier. I prepared a wonderful meatloaf to share, and contributed two bottles of homebrew, which were enjoyed by all, along side some great wine.

After dinner we sat around and drank some simple Spanish beer brought by--surprise, some friends visiting from Spain--and played the guitar and sang songs. I did neither, until Ricky shocked us when he busted out "Smile" by the Jayhawks. Apparently, they get quite a bit of airplay in Spain, and tour there regularly.

We're on the train now, outside of Marseille, on the way to Flo's father's house in the mountains of Cevennes. He has some sheep, a couple horses, rabbits and chickens, an impressive garden, and what he makes a living from, bee hives. Its hard to leave the paradise of Porquerolles, but the hospitality and amazing vistas near Genolhac are always looked forward to.

Jealous?

Another day in France, another day at the beach....

Plants of Porquerolles

Lavender and a cactus....

A la plage

Not much time--well plenty of time, but not much interest--in sending emails to Blogger! I'll try to be better about bringing my phone to the beach with me, but as you can see I'm a little preoccupied.....

Les premier jours

Stage one of our trip is complete and we're headed south now for the beautiful island of Porquerolles.

Our stays at my wife's aunt and uncle's are always filled with amazing meals (as is most of the trip) and unique wine. We had a great 2001 Aix en Provence Chateau Beauferan, and an equally impressive Nuits Saint Georges premier cru from 1993. If I was as well versed in the nuances of wine as I am in beer, I could tell you about the undertones of coffee and plum, but I'm not. I can only tell you that I enjoyed them immensely.

I also picked up some beer from the region, which is located outside of Paris near the town of Fontainebleau. It was a dark ale, that actually did have undertones of coffee. It was a perfect fall beer, perfect considering the weather was a bit chilly for August. I can't say I was as impressed with the beer I got from Brittany, but then France is known for its wine, and it must be difficult competing with Belgium.

Blogging France

I'll be in France for a little bit. I hope to figure out this mobile blogging thing, and keep you updated about all the sights, sounds, and most importantly, the tastes of the french country side!

Stone is ruining my life

On a recent trip through Colorado, my friend Valerie calls me. "Hey, we're on our way out of Colorado. Should I pick you up some beer?"

Um, hell yeah!

So I just finished my second Stone Ruination IPA, one of the great--if not the best--West Coast IPAs. Despite over 100 IBUs and approaching 8% abv with the alcohol and hops slamming into you at first, it totally balances out into...orange-ish caramel? Centennial hops maybe? Whatever. It was good. Even though it supposedly ruins your palate (get it? Ruination IPA?), I thought it was an extremely smooth and drinkable double IPA, at the same time pushing the edge of smooth and drinkable. Very nice.

Discin' Surly

A good time and lots of good beer was had by all at the first "Leave Your Balls at Home--Surly Disc Golf Open." The course at Hyland Ski Area kicked my ass, especially considering I hadn't played in about 3 years. Thankfully the free beer along the holes made the trek manageable.
Cheers to Omar and the Surly crew for a helluva event!

Steve Kelley for....

While I've been brewing, apparently Steve Kelley has been busy plotting his next move. A news letter from the former state senator and statewide candidate arrived in my e-mail in-box today, informing me of Kelley's new endeavors, and his need to retire his debt.

Not surprisingly, Kelley continues to be involved in public policy at the Humphrey Institute, as the new director of the Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy, as well as working on K-12 reform. He remains one of my favorite candidates for whatever he runs for.

Tooting my own horn

It seems my reaches into the beer community grows every day. I responded to a request from MnBeer.com to be a contributor and help with the upkeep of the site, and they agreed! It's a wonderful opportunity to help out one of the best local blogs around--so good that they won Best Specialty Blog from the City Pages last year.

Also, Twin Cities Imbiber magazine has accepted an article I submitted about recent changes to the state's liquor laws. The issue should be on news stands at your local pub, cafe or liquor store in the next month or so.

And here I thought I was just brewing and drinking for the enjoyment of it.

Speaking of brewing, Tony and I have been busy stocking up for the winter. We have five gallons of barley wine, double IPA, extra pale ale, Belgian dubbel and Belgian amber in different stages of fermentation. Yes, you did your math correct and that's 25 gallons of beer. That should get us through Christmas.

Club housing

When I was growing up, I had a club house in my backyard. It was a one-room one-story 10' x 10' building, with some tables and chairs, a few shelves and an intercom to my home's kitchen. Neighborhood kids gathered at the house, played games, read Mad magazine, and made it our own. My neighbor had a similar structure, but his was two stories with a balcony, and much easier to get away and hide things. Things like cigarettes and girlie magazines, maybe be a couple cans of crappy beer, a bottle of vodka with a swallow or two left in the bottle. I didn't care about the alcohol, and it was easy enough to sneak away anytime for a cigarette. The 'zines were a little exciting, but what made both places so enticing was the fact that they were an escape, forbidden to our parents and my sister, and place for the boys to hang out.

Last night I was introduced to another such club house, nestled in the alley of a posh urban neighborhood, complete with a three-tap bar, high-end liquor selection, card table, cable TV and all the decor and feel of a British pub. In fact, one might believe they had stepped into the room, across the Atlantic and into Tippler's End.

The neighborhood takes care of the Recumbent Wombat, as it's affectionately known, and weekly gatherings bring movies, cards, soup, and of course, drinking. No money trades hands, so it's completely legal. It's hours are random, yet Friday nights and Gophers football games generally promise a crowd. It is indeed what every neighborhood needs.

Someone else for U.S. Senate

Are you underwhelmed by the current candidates for U.S. Senate? Hoping that Tim Walz or Mee Moua or someone other than Franken, Ciresi, Cohen or Franson would jump in on the DFL side? I guess it wouldn't be hard for me to support Franken, but if I had to decide right now, I don't think I could.

Any suggestions?

Homebrew club

You may remember some time ago I had thrown out the idea of starting a homebrew "club," with "members" coming from the halls of government. Of course, what I really wanted to do was gather some fellow homebrewers--many who work in government--together to drink and be merry. Well, last night was the inaugural meeting of the Capitol Brewers. And we drank and were merry.

Let's see, we had an ESB, Mild Ale, Saison, Pale Ale, Chinook IPA, Dubble, a couple Hefeweizens, and Stouts, a hopless Lager, some mystery ales and some Vine Park left overs.

Thanks to Peter, Ben, Sara, Tony, John and Nate for their contributions. We finished almost every bottle before heading to Sweeney's for a birthday party. Thanks also to the non-brewers for (hopefully) enjoying the beers.

My personal fave (not counting my Saison) was Peter's Lazy Summer Pale, forgotten in the secondary for a few weeks too long which turned out to be just right. Yummy. The worst in show were the Vine Park brews, which should have been consumed months ago. Sorry Nate.

Before we go, I realized this post is my 100th. Exciting. Cheers.

Brew News

So you've noticed the change. I've come to realize that Mozilla users recently began to encounter problems viewing CBH, so I've upgraded to the new Blogger version. My apologies for the pain it causes your eyes. Hopefully I can muster up the energy to spend some time with the template in the next couple weeks.

The big brew news is that there's a new distributor in town. 99 Bottles specializes in small breweries, some of which are veterans of the Minnesota beer scene, and some which are new arrivals. I picked up a couple different beers from 1st Grand Avenue Liquors. The Big Eye IPA from Ballast Point Brewing out of San Diego was incredibly well-balanced and smooth. The IPA from Fish Brewing was a bit of a let down compared to the Big Eye, but the fact that it was organic helped me get past some of the inadequacies. Their pale and amber--also organic--were solid, but nothing to write home about.

I look forward to the other beers 99 Bottles will be bringing into the state, including the return of Anderson Valley, one of my personal faves from the days of All Saints distributing.

I'm brewing a double IPA and a barley wine with a friend this week, which should both be ready around Christmas (although a fellow brewer aged his barley wine made from the kit we're using for seven years, and said it only got better.)

Roguishly Busy

Well I've been busy working on an article to submit to the Twin Cities Imbiber about recent legislative changes to the State's liquor laws. Whether they publish it or not, it's been a great experience working on my first journalistic piece. First, that is, if you don't consider all the words printed here. Anyway, I learned a ton about said liquor laws, and that our franchise laws, tax and fee system, and commerce laws play as much as of role in preventing more good beer from reaching the masses as do the laws which directly govern beer. Thanks a ton to the folks at Town Hall Brewery for filling me in, and if TCI decides to run my piece it will be in the August/September issue.

I believe I had the most overrated beer ever--besides Fat Tire that is, which just made its return to Minnesota last week. Ok, it wasn't really overrated, just over-priced. (Besides, I couldn't resist getting a shot in at the FT.) Rogue's 10,000 Brew Ale is just that--their 10,000th batch of beer. It's a double IPA, clocking in at about 10% abv and 83 IBUs (bittering units). Sure, the 750ml re-sealable ceramic bottle is a keeper, and the contents were pretty amazing, but at $22 a bottle, I want to be completely blown away. I guess it's a good thing I don't drink high end wine.

At the Happy Gnome a couple weeks ago, I paid a similar price for a beer, but this experience was far different. As some background, every Thursday, the Gnome taps a couple casks of beer. Surly Furious is a regular, but usually they supplement that with something else. Bells makes consistent appearances, recently offering an Expedition Stout. When I went by for a drink it was the Tuesday after tapping it, and they surprisingly had some left. See, the oxygen in the cask begins altering the beer's characteristics, so I was intrigued. The $7 for 10 ounces was meager compared to the Rogue. Bitter chocolate and smooth espresso, brought out by the roughly 10% abv, was numbing. It lasted me a nice long 60 minutes, and was worth every one of 'em.

Homebrew Update

So after two-and-a-half weeks without a post I better have some good homebrew news, right? Actually Jane has the scoop over at her blog. I will add though that I tried the mild today, and it's a lot better than I anticipated. The tastings during each transfer were a bit bland and a little funky, but I think the carbonation really livens it up. Another week and it will be perfect.

New Resources

The Twin Cities has a new beer rag on newsstands--mmmm, rag of beer--but who ever buys a magazine from a news stand in Minnesota? Maybe Chicago or New York, but Minnesota?! So its great that Twin Cities Imbiber is free!

Dedicated to the beer and coffee industry in the Twin Cities, TC Imbiber will be available soon around town. The first issue features a nice write-up of Flat Earth Brewing, and a comprehenize summary of Maibocks on the TC market. Future issues may include pieces by me. Pick it up at your local pub, liquor or cafe.

For my loving wife, I brewed a mild ale last week. It will be a nutty, mellow brew at about 3.5% abv. I also helped TonyVav bottle his first homebrew, a hefewiezen with nice undertones of banana and cloves. TV is investigating all-grain brewing, and generally reducing the cost of homebrewing by growing his own ingrediants and buying bulk. This has long been my goal in homebrewing, and I'm looking forward to learning more about the science and specificity behind this ancient art.

Some Updates

Couple updates here for ya on a Saturday night as I'm waiting to get tired enough to go to bed.

***I received a nice email from the "Director of Quality" at Boulder Brewing about the culprit behind the recent bad batch of Hazed and Infused:

The number one problem with the Hazed and Infused you ran into was the actual age of the product. For whatever reason, we had beer on the shelves in MN well past the pull date, and old beer isn't usually a good thing. The pull date on the beer you came across was October 2, 2006, almost 6 months past it's pull-date at the time of purchase. Also, due to the fact that Hazed and Infused is an unfiltered beer, even the slightest contamination can cause serious flavor issues over a 9 month period. The age of this beer made finding the culprit very difficult, as we don't even store archive bottle samples for that long. The samples of the beer I got back from MN showed very little signs, other than the sour taste of course, of a wide spread contamination.

He also had this to share with me:

On another front, keep your eyes open for our latest release Cold Hop. Maris Otter malt gives this beer a unique maltiness and the Saaz and Nelson Sauvin hops finish it off perfectly.

Thanks, man.

***I learned at a visit to Big Top tonight that Bridgeport Brewing will no longer be distributing to Minnesota. Fortunately this meant that I got four six-packs at $4 a piece. Unfortunately you won't be able to drink beer from this solid brewery in Minnesota anymore, unless you come to my house in the next couple weeks.

***My home brew is aging well. The Sasion, still clocking in at about 5% abv., is sweet with a nice bitter undertone. A couple weeks will round it out and give it some more body. The ESB is near perfect, but lacks consistent carbonation, nothing a week or two more in the bottle won't solve.

***Finally, I tried this years' CynicAle from Surly, this time in a can. An amazing Saison, worth every penny. God, I love those cans.