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It rhymes with long

I've tweeted about it, but 140 characters doesn't quite allow one to do it justice. Ngon Bistro, on University and Avon in the heart of Frogtown, is a mere four blocks from my house, and I couldn't ask for a better restaurant/beer bar so close to home.

They offer standard--well actually above standard--Vietnamese fare. Their pho soup and bun salads are top notch, and they also offer higher end entrees ($16 - $20) that are fantastic. But my favorite menu items are the small plates, offered for $5 during happy hour: a walleye sandwich with amazing sweet potato fries, chicken skewers in lemongrass sauce, elk noodle salad, pork belly with wasabi pureed Brussel sprouts and potatoes, chicken pate on baguette and ginger beet salad. Plus, being the cheap-ass that I am, I appreciate that all their beers are $1 off and Minnesota wines are $2 off.

Oh, and the beers. Only Minnesota beers, with seasonal and cask offerings. Owner Hai Truong is a true beer advocate and has his own firkins, which local breweries fill with special offerings. They just finished a cask of Surly oak-aged Cynic, and up next is some lovely Summit Winter. Surly Smoke is still on tap from New Year's Eve, when they also finished a keg of Surly Darkness.

My only complaint is the hours. On weeknights they close at 9pm, and at 10pm on the weekend. Of course, there are only one maybe two tables with customers when I've been there at closing, so it's probably just me being selfish. But still, I'd like to think that they could sustain being open an hour longer.

So next time you're in the mood for a fantastic Vietnamese meal with a finely-crafted Minnesota beer, head over to Ngon Vietnamese Bistro in St. Paul.

Welcome back!

As I sit here drinking a John Barleycorn Barleywine from Mad River Brewing in California, you can rightly assume that I am back on beer (and tomatoes and peaches, although my drinking beer might not lead you to assume that).

See, despite cutting the aforementioned libations from my diet, my symptoms didn't really improve drastically. So, we continue to hunt. The symptoms seem to have gotten better, due to a combination of stopping the steroid inhaler as it was causing thrush, which can mimic the symptoms, and switching my reflux medicine to one that has anti-histamine properties, and you know, eosinophilic esophagitis is caused in part by allergies.

But really, I'm kinda tired talking about it. And besides, the doc told me its not a progressive disorder and they don't actually know a ton about it anyway.

So I'm drinking beer again. Highlights of the past few weeks back on the sauce? Ketchup. Seriously. I missed beer, but fries with mayo or an egg sandwich with hoisin sauce or hotdogs with only mustard just didn't cut it.

But yeah...08 and 09 Surly Darkness were fine moments for Xmas and New Years, love the new offerings from 21st Amendment Brewing (another craft beer in a can!), Nogne 0 Dark Horizon 1st Edition was a surprising treat at a beer tasting I had, Summit Scottish Ale and Schell's Snowstorm were local seasonal releases that I was looking forward to drinking more than about anything.

But really, the thing I missed most? Drinking good beer with good friends while watching a football game or bottling beer or listening to Phish or hanging out on the couch with my family. It's good to be back!

Eosinophilic Esophagitis

It's been four weeks, and I've only had beer three times.

Last June, I began noticing that sometimes I felt like I had a lump in my throat. A long time sufferer of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), as well as being plagued with seasonal allergies since I was young, I figured it was related these conditions. When it didn't dissipate after several months, my doctor suggested I have an endoscopy to examine it further.

Upon seeing ridges in my esophagus, a biopsy confirmed that I had a disease called eosinophilic esophagitis. While little is known about EE, preliminary research shows that it's generally caused by food allergies, in which your body, sensing that something is wrong with your esophagus, sends white blood cells to take care of the problem. The result is the hardening of your esophagus.

The GI doctor recommended that I use a steroid inhaler to reduce the inflammation, which is proven to correct the symptoms. Reading that food allergies is often to blame, I asked about further testing, and was told that no, they don't typically try to find the cause. I brought this to my primary physician, at which point she ordered the further testing.

You may be wondering at this point what this has to do with beer. Well, 30-odd pricks on my back with various food derivatives showed that I was potentially allergic to three foods: peaches, tomatoes and hops.

Yes, I catch the irony.

To make sure the results weren't a false positive, I was directed to eliminate the foods from my diet for up to 6 weeks, and then introduce them to see how my body reacted. And unfortunately, each time I've had beer, the following day I felt like I had something caught in my throat.

So I've been drinking a lot more wine, cider and spirits, but they don't do to my palate what beer does. Gruits--beer bittered with herbs and spices instead of hops--are pleasant, but there are only a couple in our market and they're pretty spendy to have as a session beer. Soon, I'll be getting in touch with Minnesota's local brewers to urge them to try this style of old once in awhile :)

I'll be discussing the future with my allergist in more detail, and hopefully, be able to come to some resolve that allows me to drink low-hopped beers and the occasional IPA, barley wine or imperial stout. But I know one thing is clear: beer will have to become a less-frequent part of my diet.

Wait for it

I was going to wait 6 months for a new post, but just couldn't contain myself.

So here is a place-holder for the next post....

Coming soon.....

Pliny the just-really-great DIPA

My good friend and co-worker Kat brought me back some great beers from her recent trip to Washington state, a requested barleywine from Alaskan Brewing Company, and a surprise bottle of Pliny the Elder from Russian River.

I'd had Pliny once before, and found it simply incredible, one of the best double IPAs I had ever had. But this bottle, while nonetheless great, didn't seem to be the glass o' heaven I had remembered it to be. Could it be the batch was a bit different? Or the fact that Minnesota is awash in wonderful DIPAs these days? Or maybe something I ate earlier (just pizza) threw my palate off? In any case, I imagine this beer would still be in heavy rotation in my fridge if it was available here, but it seems (like many highly sought-after beers) the mysticism of it has disappeared, and I'm left with *just* a really great double IPA.

End of the Hiatus a.k.a. Spring is Here!

I haven't brewed since September, probably the longest stretch in 5 years. To think a year ago, Tony and I were at it about 2 nights a week. I'm thinking of supplementing all grain brewing with a little extract here and there, just to keep the supply up. But until then, I'll be taking advantage of the legislative spring break and cooking up a Saison this week, which will be ready just in time for summer.

Seems like as good as a time as any to resume more regular blogging. Other social networking sites have diverted me from Capitol Brew-haha, but I'm back now. At least until some other distraction takes hold.

Winterfest 09

Winterfest this year moved from the Landmark Center to the History Center. I volunteered for a couple hours in exchange for entry into the fest, which also meant giving up an hour of the event. It was good though, as I was up early that day and had to be up early the next day. I still tried 24 beers, and only a couple were disappointing.

Schell's Hopfenmalz
Schell's U Bier
Barley Johns Winter
Cold Spring Imperial Stout
Fitgers El Diablo
Fitgers Bourbon Imperial Stout
Fitgers 07 barley wine
Flat Earth 07 barley wine
Great Waters Betelgeuse
Lift Bridge barley wine
Lift Bridge Imperial Stout
McCanns Flame
Rock Bottom tripel framboise
Rock Bottom single hop IPAs with centennial, amarillo and simcoe
Rock Bottom Hop Bomb
Surly bourbon One
Surly Two
Surly Three
Surly Darkness
Town Hall barley wine
Town Hall Chipotle wee heavy

My faves were the bourbon One and Rock Bottom triple framboise. Rock Bottom totally blew away my expectations. While the two levels of narrow hallways made it hard to not feel crowded, the quality beer and people made it well worth it.

Hoppy Brew Year!

What a end of the year it was...my sister and her family joined us for the holidays, filling our house with more kids, wonderful food, and lots of good beer. My bro-in-law Sean is nearly as big as a beer geek as me, and we spent some quality time bonding over those good beers. From Christmas night at the Muddy Pig sharing a Southern Tier Cuvee One oak aged strong ale to waiting in line at Surly to purchase some growlers of their double IPA 16 Grit--the last Surly growlers to be sold until the law is changed--to using a gift certificate to buy some sweet beers from the Four Firkins, it was a ton of fun.

The Firkins Haul:

Imperial stouts and porters

Pale Ales, IPAs and Double IPAs

More Double IPAs and Boulevard Saison with Brett

I traded a growler of Surly 16 Grit with a guy in Chicago for some top-notch beers.

A top rated 17% abv. Imperial Stout from Nøgne Ø out of Norway.

The pour

Whew! Session is in the air. In case ya hadn't heard, Minnesota is facing a monumental deficit, meaning the next five (or six or seven or eight) months are going to SUCK. I try to remain hopeful that all the talk of making early care and education a priority will actually be realized, but actions speak louder than words. Facts and research have little value in the face of economic crisis.

Thankfully, there's beer.

Don has been a trading fool, racking up a serious supply of unavailable brews. Among them, three bottles of Westy 12, allegedly one of the best beers in the world. The fact that it can only be obtained at the brewery in Belgium and that they ask that you not re-sell it, makes it all the more desirable. It's a Belgian quadruple, coming in at 10% abv.

You may remember I myself got one of these in a trade, so Don and I decided to swap tastings, if you will. We would drink one of his bottles now, and then my bottle in a few years. In preparation, I familiarized myself with the style, trying a Rochefort 10 and a St. Bernardus 12, the latter apparently sharing a yeast strain with the Westy.

The style is very unique, pouring an auburn/maroon/caramel color with generally subtle dried dark fruit flavors, plum or raisin or prune, the port of beers if you will. But the Westy, when warmed to room temperature, is like all that ON CRACK. My heart actually raced as the beer was poured.



Man, you could drink it all night. I can't wait to drink one after some age.

Trading

I made one of the tougher beer-related decisions this week, and traded my second bottle of Darkness from some choice picks, leaving me five bottles to drink over the next decade or so. The first bottle went to a former college classmate of mine, with whom I reconnected via Facebook and realized we both loved great beer. After about 3 months of talking about doing a trade for a hard-to-get bottle of Westvleteren 12 for some Surly, I finally got off my arse and sent the bottle off.

The second was for a Stone Imperial Russian Stout, a Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout and an Abyss from Deschutes:

It's going to be a good winter.

Change happened

This has been a much different election cycle for me. It was the first presidential election I didn't give at least the last month to a campaign, and I've never doorknocked less leading up to the final days of an election. Dylan started kindergarten this year, Adrian started out-of-home care for the first time and Flo is student teaching this fall, all making it hard to get out and phone or knock on doors.

But I poured my heart into it the last 5 days, and probably knocked on more doors on election day than I ever have before. And not only that, but it was the first time I've not spent most of the day in St. Paul: my time was spent in Hugo, White Bear Lake and Maplewood. It certainly didn't have the meaningfulness (is that a word?) of getting out the vote in St. Paul; most folks I talked to had already voted.

Still, I like to think it clearly paid off. Obama won handily, and what a feeling it is.

Oh, I drank a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale while watching the results come in. Perfect in so many ways.

Beer Week

What a week! Let's see, just a quick run down:

• Wednesday, I brewed with DT for the first time, whipping out a clone of Summit Winter, which is just hitting shelves here in MN. It was super-thick, and should be fermenting fine. On the way home from his place, I swung by the Muddy Pig for the Lagunitas kick off party. Still crowded and got a glass of the Gnarley Wine. Yummy.


• Friday I brewed a batch of my standard India Brown Ale. Then that evening, at the last minute, I was invited by a friend to Stub and Herbs for the Darkness Eve party, a gathering of beer geeks from around the country who were in town for the release of Surly Darkness the following day. Don brought along some beers to trade, and we ended up drinking with some blokes from Ohio. They cracked open bottles of 07 and 08 Dark Lord from Three Floyds. 07 was incredible, 08 will be in a few years.


• Saturday culminated in the afore-mentioned Darkness Day. I volunteered to work the event, so didn't have to worry about getting there early to get any bottles (the first 700 people had a chance to buy up to 6 bottles at $16.66 a piece). I dropped $100 and got my bottles, plus a few extra at the end of the event for friends who couldn't attend. Merry Christmas!

Here are some photos from Don's lot, which looks very similar to mine. Love that label!

Change on all fronts

Ah, autumn in Minnesota. Change is in the air, with particularly notable occasions this season. [Disclaimer--fall is easily my favorite season]. Yeah, I love the change in color, change in temperature, change of wardrobe, and this year, change in leadership, change in direction of the country, and change in my family. My sister had a little girl--Nora Lorraine--on Tuesday, adding another birthday to the week (Dylan turned 6, his good friend Lily turned 5, and I know increasingly more people born in October).

And, with every passing day, I'm more convinced that Obama will be our next president. Clearly helping things along the way, in addition to Obama's consistent message of change and stellar campaign organization, is McCain's rapid approach towards running one of the worst campaigns ever. I mean, no way in hell should I get a single phone call or piece of mail, because of who I am AND where I live, yet I've gotten four and three respectively. But I say, "keep 'em coming!"

The Minnesota beer scene is also changing, with the market continuing to expand. My most anticipated return to the market is Lagunitas, one of the first California breweries that grabbed and shook me ten years ago. Hopefully their crazier brews will also trickle in.

As the Oktoberfests are cleared out of the aisles, the winter beers are flowing in. I'm a big fan of most 'em, but Summit and Schells are at the top of my list. Again, "keep 'em coming!"

Homebrew Update
I've been digging into some of the darker beers that were made last December and January, as we fooled around with lagering and reusing yeast. Unfortunately, the resulting beers have been less than impressive, especially since all-grain brewed beers seem to be so much more satisfying. Which is also unfortunate, since the length of time that it takes to brew all-grain beers has significantly put a damper on the brewing efforts.

2008 ABR recap

Here's my 2008 Autumn Beer Review recap. I'm still recovering from it, more from the bad decision to head to the Oktoberfest at the Gasthof after ABR. Ah well. As I'm looking over the program, I'm realizing how many beers I missed that I had intended to try, mostly from the state's brew pubs.

Faves? Surly Two just keeps getting better with age. The Great Waters Rye was tasty, and the triple from St Somewhere blew me away. But by far the most exciting beers were the aged bottles Bell's whipped out at the end. Batch 6000, Batch 7000, one of the Eccentrics, Cherry Stout, Sparkling Ale, Expedition Stout, all aged. I neglected to write em down, so if anyone knows the vintages for these, let me know.

Minnesota Breweries

• Schells Snowstorm 2008--Vom Famm
• Barley Johns Belgian Enkle
• Fitgers Cherry Oatmeal Stout
• Great Waters Rye Pale Ale
• Lake Superior Oktoberfest
• Lift Bridge Farm Girl Saison
• McCann's Keg Hopped Deep Seven
• Town Hall Fresh Hop 2008
• Town Hall Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
• Rock Bottom Catcher in The Rye
• Summit Wet Hopped EPA (cask)
• Summit Black Treacle Porter (cask)
• Surly Oak Aged Cranberry Saison
• Surly Two

Out of State Breweries

• Bell's Porter (cask)
• Bell's Third Coast (cask)
• Bell's Batch 6000 (old ale)
• Bell's Batch 7000 (Imperial Stout)
• Bell's Cherry Stout (2004?)
• Bell's Expedition Stout (2007?)
• Bell's Sparkling Ale (2006?)
• Bell's Eccentric Ale (2005)
• Boulder Cold Hop (cask)
• Capital Autumnal Fire
• Furthermore Oscura
• Leinenkugel Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout
• Moylan's Moylander DIPA
• New Holland Ichabod
• North Coast Le Merle Saison
• Ommegang Hennepin
• Peak Organic Maple Oat
• Shmaltz Genesis Pale Ale
• South Shore Applefest
• St. Somewhere Lectio Divina
• Southern Tier Heavyweizen
• Two Brothers Oh Brother Triple

Great time and great folks as usual. I went alone, but couldn't walk 10 feet without seeing someone I knew. Love it!

Brewed in....Norway?!

This evening, I delved into my brewing roots, thanks to my dad picking up a beer from HanndBryggeriet in Norway that Alvey at Four Firkins recommended. Turns out, Norway has a rich brewing history, with each village, or farm, historically brewing their own beer using local ingrediants. The folks at HB have taken this one step further, like aging a porter in aquavit barrels, or tripples fermented with wild yeast. The one I tried was an IPA brewed with wild hops that grow near the brewery, so it has a unique almost wild flower taste. Wild!

I can't wait to explore this line more.

Convention Beer

Lucky me, I got to go to an RNC party last week. AgNite, the blowout held at the Minneapolis Depotsponsored by the likes of Land O Lakes, Kemps, the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Hormel, Cargill, General Mills (and of course my favorite enviromental steward Monsanto), was one of the more memorable political events I've attended. Food was not surprisingly awesome, but seeing Styx completely own the event was the highlight by a mile. Admittedly, I've never even been a sideline fan, but man, they could still rock, long stringy hair and all.

Beer was sorta mixed. On one hand, I was very impressed that Summit and Grainbelt were offered next to MillerCoorsInbevAB products. But after my 2 drink tickets were gone, the $7/beer seemed a little, oh, INSANE?

Screwed by a Dog Fish

I recently pontificated about Dogfish Head brewing and their 90 Minute IPA as being one of the best double IPAs. This is saying a lot, as the market is flooded with great IPAs. Last night I had two of those great IPAs--Pliny the Elder from Russian River, care of Don, and Moylan's Hopsicle, one of the last remaining bottles in the Twin Cities I'm sure.

First, the Pliny. Whoa. Russian River is known for pushing the brewing envelope, and has made their mark by producing some wonderful sour/wild beers (I'm not a fan of the style--yet), but this Pliny is incredible. Bitter and hoppy yet superbly balanced. Great mouthfeel, full and rich, and an absolute all-around amazing experience.

The Hopsicle was the opposite--completley and utterly unbalanced, intentionally so to be sure, but an amazing curiousity and a nice treat. I could feel the enamle being stripped from my teeth. Glad to have tried it, but I probably won't buy another bottle.

Then, heading the advice to resist sharing some treasures, on the heals of drinking IPAs last night, tonight I popped open a 120 Minute IPA from Dogfish Head. I bought two 12 ounce bottles of this, setting me back $20. ($10 for a 12 ounce bottle of beer? What?) As you can expect, this is no ordinary beer. It approaches 20% abv., and pours a nice amber color with almost no head. The aroma is sweet and sugary, orange and raspberry maybe. Smells like a port. And...tastes like heaven. Sorta port, sorta beer. Really hard to classify. It'd be amazing to try this without knowing what it I was tasting.

Yes, one of the best beers I've ever had.

I put the other bottle away for another year or two at least. For sharing.

(Photo by Benito.)

Saison Athene

One might not think of Florida as being a beer mecca--I surely didn't--until last night. A friend of mine, having missed my birthday outing, took me to the Muddy Pig for a beer, and was kind enough to agree to share a 750 ml bottle of Saison Athene from Saint Somewhere Brewing Company out of Trapon Springs, Fl.

It was easily one of the best Saison's I've ever had. Fruity and spicy and crisp, yet full of enough barnyard hay and grass to remind you that it's a Saison. I've never seen it on the shelf at a liquor store, but if I do, I'm buying a bottle or 12.

A little of this....

Whoa. One month. It is summer time, eh? I'm sitting here drinking one of the best double IPAs, Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, hopped continually for 90 minutes during the boil. 9% abv. Yum. Of course, you have to drive to Wisconsin to get it, but it's worth it.

(Every time I sit down at the computer to write a post about what I'm brewing or what I'm drinking or who I'm voting for, I get stuck over at my newest on-line obsession, Facebook. I can simply write a one or two sentence "status update," letting all my friends know what I'm doing, and it takes five seconds, as opposed to a half an hour at blogspot.com.)

While I've blasted Wisconsin time and time again, they do have access to a much broader range of beers than here in Minnesota. This month, Stone Brewing arrived in the state east of us, and it would be well worth your time to pick up some Ruination or Arrogant Bastard while passing through Hudson.

Tomorrow's my birthday, and I'll be whooping it up at the Happy Gnome, ignoring their inflated prices in exchange for thier amazing selection of beers. C'mon down and buy me one!

Homebrew Update
The saison is in the bottle. It came in at about 7.4% abv, and was amazingly smooth when I bottled it. Labor Day can't come quick enough.

Our first batch in the big brew kettle turned out pretty good. A nice drinkable pale ale, 5 gallons dry hopped and the other without. I'll let you know how they turn out.

The second batch was our India Brown Ale, this one made more like the extract version we did a year ago, with 5 ounces of hops, honey and brown sugar. It should be about 8% abv, with a nice hop bite after dry hopping.

Saison for change

My home brew supply is dwindling--or at least I'm not drinking a bunch of my dark brews that will be better in October or November. The hefeweizen is gone, soaked up at a party. I have one bottle left of a couple different lagers, and one of the brown pale ale. So what do you do? Brew!

Tony, my brew compadre, had time on his hands to whip out a couple batches, while I was saving the children at the Minnesota capitol. So as soon as he skipped town to climb a mountain, I brewed a Saison. It was certainly a challenge doing it myself, from planning the recipe to measuring the water to filling the carboy, but I enjoyed getting more into the science of it. My friend and award winning homebrewer Don provides good advice, and he sat in for the mash. In some ways I leaned on him too much, but it's nice to get another perspective.

The beer is still in the primary fermentor, but it's ready to age a bit in a secondary. I'm excited to try it, as I added some orange peel and went light on the hops, and hopefully the yeast character will be interesting and tasty. I've been drinking a lot of Saisons this summer, so it will be good to compare.

While this summer certainly hasn't been the brew summer I expected, due mostly to our switch to all grain, which take a lot more time, things are about to change. Tony bought a 15 gallon brew kettle, so we can whip out 10 gallons at a time. Tomorrow will bring our first batch in the kettle, a pale ale. Yay!

Whisky Cask Ale

What do you get when you cross an imperial stout with old whisky casks? Heaven, that's what.

When my scotch-drinking friend Sandro rolled into town from Joyzee (say it out loud), we both thought it would be a good opportunity to marry the two, and we swung by my formerly estranged old employer-new favorite liquor store Thomas Liquors in St. Paul to pick up a few different bottles of imperial stout aged in whisky casks.

As you can see, all three were dark and oily. As soon as I poured them into tumblers, I immediately regretted the decision and I transfered them to tulip glasses, but only after sticking my nose well into the glass, inhaling, and then taking a sip of each. All were tasty, but I could tell I wasn't getting the full effect. My drinking companion agreed. After letting them warm to about 55 degrees, the flavors and aromas really came out.

First up: Ola Dubh Special 12 Reserve from Harviestoun Brewery in Scotland. Harviestoun partnered with Highland Park distillery to bring drinkers three beers, aged in casks that stored the distillery's 12 year, 16 year and 30 year single malts. The 12 year, at 8% abv had a little more alcohol taste than I prefer--especially compared to the 30--but was still super-smooth, with just a touch of smokiness. It smelled like melting caramel, with a touch of maybe raspberry. You could definately taste the whisky, but it was a lot more subtle than I expected.

We skipped the 16 in deference to both the 30 year and a chance to sample a different brewery's wares. The 30 had similar characteristics as the 12, only better. I had this on cask a month or so ago, and while it was was a lot creamier, it also had a lot more whisky taste. In the bottle all the flavors mellowed and blended, creating a rich, chocolately brew. Magical. And it should be at $17/bottle.

The final beer in our flight was an imperial stout from BrewDog Brewing, also in Scotland, also aged in whisky casks. Paradox Islay, using casks from the Ardberg distillery on the island of Islay, had incredible smoke from the peat that runs rampant on the island. I'm not a fan of smoked beers, but this one was a lot more tolerable, maybe because of the whisky overtones, or maybe because of the 10% abv. Still, the smoke was hard to get over, and while Sandro was a great drinking companion, teaching me a lot about scotch, I would have preferred to share this one with one or two more people.

While the Ola Dubh ("Black Oil") aged in 30 year old casks was clearly the finest tasting beer of the lot, the mouthfeel and aroma were more striking in the Paradox. I'd drink any of them again.

The Bros are back--both of em

Back when I first really got into beer, some 10 years ago, Two Brothers Brewing Co. was one of my favorite. Their Bitter End Pale Ale was top notch (so much so that I stole the name for a bitter I brewed for a friend), as was their Weiss. Unfortunately, their Minnesota distributor went out of business, and took with them the Bros, along with many other breweries: Lagunitas, Anderson Valley, Three Floyds, to name a few.

But slowly, some of them are making their comeback. Two Brothers are here, and some of their formerly unavailable beers are also here. I would suggest the Cane and Ebel Rye IPA, which is a hop bomb coming in at 7% abv. It kinda has some of the same characteristics as Bell's Two Hearted, but something different, something a little, rye-ey. The $12/4 pack is a little steep, but isn't totally outta line in this hop-starved market.

Southern Tier is also a great new brewery in town, producing mainly imperial, or strong, beers. An imperial pale ale, an imperial red, an imperial wheat, an imperial saison, an imper--you get the idea. They're all great, and a great beer for sharing.

Lots of good beers are arriving in Minnesota. Check 'em out.

Yes, Virginia, VPs can win a state...and speaking of Virginia...

“to the extent they (presidential campaigns) have set about deliberately trying to add a state with a VP pick it has almost never worked.”

That's what savvy political observers are telling us everywhere we turn as names like MN's Pawlenty, VA's Webb or IN's Bayh get thrown against the wall. AND IT'S WRONG. These pundits provide as proof, MA's Cabot-Lodge in 60, MN's Humphrey and NY's Miller in 64, MD's Agnew in 68 and 72, MD's Shriver in 72, TX's Bush in 80 & 84, NY's Ferraro in 84, IN's Quayle in 88 & 92, NY's Kemp in 96, WY's Cheney in 00 & 04, and NC's Edwards in 04. But these examples have nothing to do with the answer to the questions: all had no chance to affect winning or losing in their home states and that was not why they were chosen.

Until 1980, Presidential candidates chose VPs primarily to unite ideologically and regionally diverse parties and swiping a state was low on the priority list. Uniting the party was urgent because that regional and ideological diversity was well represented on the convention floor where the decision would be announced. Moderate Eisenhower picked conservative western Nixon. Northern liberal Kennedy picked Southern conservative Johnson. Southern conservative Johnson picked Northern liberal Humphrey. Western Conservative Nixon picked Northern moderate Agnew (yes - Agnew had a progressive record in Md). Southern moderate Carter picked northern liberal Mondale. Northern moderate Ford picked conservative Dole. Western conservative Reagan picked moderate Bush. The attitude was “let me win this party nomination now and I’ll worry about winning a general later.”

Also nearly every election before 1960 was a rout so the concept of stealing a “swing state” would have been silly.

Things are different now. The parties are very homogeneous, regionally and ideologically, so uniting them is not as important. And since 1960, there have been only 4 complete routs out of 12 elections so the concept of significant swing states is very applicable.

Another argument that I now hear is that "No one who disagrees with a candidate on every issue would then vote for him because the VP was from his/her state. True enough, but again irrelevant. We're trying to win swing voters not hardcore supporters. And for those voters who haven't made up their minds in states like VA (Poll avg Obama 44.3 - McCain 43.8), OH (Obama 47 - McCain 42) or NM (Obama 48 - McCain 42), having a VP who they know and like seems likely to swing them.

In the instances where candidates tried to win states with a VP, they were QUITE SUCCESSFUL. Successful examples are Johnson’s TX in 60, Muskie’s ME in 68, Mondale’s MN in 76 and 80 (if there was ever an argument for VPs winning states, it's the map from 1980 where nearly the only islands of blue in the Electoral sea of red are Georgia and MN), Gore’s TN in 92 & 96 and Lieberman’s FL in 00. Bentsen’s TX in 1988 was a failure. Gore didn't carry his own state in 2000 because Monica played very poorly in the bible belt and Gore was seen by this time as a Northern liberal, even by his own state. But in 2000, Gore chose a jew - making a very direct play - not for CT but for Florida - which he actually won were it not for a few butterfly ballots for Buchanan. That’s a record of 7-1 in swing states.

New Mexico is the swingiest of states and it seems certain that Obama could put it away with the choice of its Governor - Bill Richardson - provided no scandals were uncovered. And if there is a “presidential” VP candidate who reinforces Obama’s strengths and bolsters his weaknesses from Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, Michigan or Florida, then the Obama campaign would be foolish to not heavily consider him or her.

I don’t know if Stabenow (MI), Brown (OH), or Salazar (CO) look presidential or have strengths that complement Obama, but choosing one of them in a close election could be the difference between winning and losing.

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.