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!

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.

Holiday Re-cap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Beer

I've been meaning to hit up the Cellars in Roseville for some new beers, and finally made a trip over there. Ya see, they sell single bottles at 10% off a mixed six-pack, and so even though it's $10, its six beers I've never had.

I first dipped into the Rud Tulip from New Holland Brewing. It's an amber, with a forward bitterness that blends together well with the heavy malts. It was nowhere near complex as, say, Brian Boru from Three Floyds because nothing's like FFF, but it brought up some memories of Brian.

The $3.99 price for a 11.2 oz. bottle of Petrus Pale Ale, aged in oak casks for almost 2 years, intrigued me. I was expecting a sweet pale ale, but just got a mouth full of sourness. I hear this is how it is supposed to taste, but it reminded me of that sour batch of Hazed and Infused that passed through town recently. I'll pass on this again.

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise came from a brewery not known for making quality beers. City Brewing out of LaCrosse, WI is known for light, mass-produced lagers, but their seasonals are worth picking up. Their pale ale is brewed with a mouthful of citrus-ey cascade hops, and can stand up to most pales.

It's been a good week for new beers. My mother-in-law knows me well. She brought with her from France a number of tasty treats, including Korlene, a French organic amber. It was well-balanced, with a pleasant nutty flavor. This would be a standard in my fridge if I could find it here.

Other new beers included a wonderful Triple from Sprecher Brewing, served at the Happy Gnome, and Ben's Irish red, sampled at a quality bottling session with Ben. Although they were both a little watery, his Fat Tire and my ESB will make for good summer pours.

Oh, and I almost forgot, session ended on Monday. Whew. I'm still recovering. That's all I have to say about that.

Oh goody! Munster here I come!

When you think of Indiana, what usually comes to mind? Corn? Hoosiers? Maybe Dan Quayle? But not beer. Not at least until you visit Munster. Which brings me to the second phase of my research.

Case Study Two: Munster
A recent much-anticipated trip to Munster, Indiana (really an ex-urb of Chicago), which the main purpose of was to visit my sister and her family, the quantity of quality beer to be had was literally mind-numbing. Granted, this was in large part because my brother-in-law shares in and rivals my love of water, hops, yeast and grains. I tried no less than a dozen new beers, many of them rarities and exclusive to Munster. I had my first introduction to New Holland Brewing, which coincidentally just arrived in Minnesota. I puckered up trying some wild beer for the first time (didn't know the stuff existed). And of course I made the pilgrimage to Three Floyds Brewing Company.

New Holland Brewing, as best I tell, doesn't make a bad beer. Of course it makes sense being from Michigan. Their stout, amber and IPA are all beers that make you stop and notice what's in the bottle. I tried a couple and brought home a 22 oz. bomber of Dragon's Milk Ale, barrel-aged and weighing in at 9% ABV, only to realize the liquor stores at home had just began carrying New Holland. Guess I'll have to drink it now.

Speaking of "big beers," (nee high ABV) they were a large part my time in northwest Indiana. If you're feeling adventurous and whimsical, find a bottle of Sanctification from Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, CA (good luck). Imagine taking controlled bacteria and putting it in your beer, but it turns out fantastically unusual. There's a whole line of "wild beers," made by adding wild yeast like Brettanomyces, Pediococcus or Lactobacillus. This particular one tasted kinda like fermented lemon mixed with a pinot grigio or similar sweet wine. Not horrible, but not something I would drink three or four bottles of, or even an entire one, by myself. A nice summer apperitif. I guess a lot of beers from Belgian strive for this effect, but add fruit like raspberries or peaches. Yummier.

One of the best breweries in the country--that's right, best--is Three Floyd's. They don't distribute to Minnesota anymore, but a short trip to Chicone's in Hudson, WI will hook you up. But screw Hudson, I went to the source. Dinner and drinks at the brew pub enabled me to have three different pints and sample five more. From the Belgian Drunk Monk to the lovely Kolsch Calumet Queen to the solid pale ale Alpha King, Three Floyds makes every style unique and better than its competition. I took home the Rabbid Rabbit, a 9% saison brewed with chamomile and rock candy, easily one of the best beers I've ever had.

But one of the highlights of the trip to Munster (besides spending time with my nephew) was BIL and R hooking me up with another bottle of Dark Lord, the Most Sought After Bottle of Beer in the Country. A crazy maybe 13% or 15% dark creamy burnt caramel chocolate coffee stout brewed in very small batches--like it's only available in bottles at the brewery and sells out in one day. Mad mad props to BIL and R. New Years baby.

Three Floyds is undergoing some staff changes, but hopefully they can maintain the level of excellence that is looked forward to--and expected--from them.

All the outlining Chicago cities have a similar feel, but Munster--besides being in a red state--is a pretty nice town. Of course it's made better by its proximity to the city and a family named Floyd. Study results: 9.5/10. Woulda been a 10, but c'mon, what's a 10 anymore?