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!