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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.