Good Beer on a Budget 3: Stoudt's Fat Dog

As opposed to usually where the thought storms into my mind "Maybe I should write a blog post... ah, nevermind, I'll do... anything else," tonight I actually will publish a post! Tonight, I'd like to share with you the wonder of the Fat Dog.

Taste: Similar in many ways to Brooklyn's Black Chocolate Stout, another of my favorite good beers on a budget, this like liquid chocolate velvet cake (without being overly sweet.) The mouthfeel is fairly thick without being like Southern Tier's Choklat, which is like Syrup. This beer is excellent, there is a subtle hint of coffee, a decent amount of dark chocolate that becomes more intense and builds up to a sizable amount if you're like me and can't just have one. For those of you that are partial to beers that are utterly delicious, you simply MUST try this. It's a self described "Imperial Oatmeal Stout," which means it will have a tendency towards being a little more sweet. This beer is in my wheelhouse for sure.

ABV: This beer is no shrinking violet, checking in at around 9% ABV. You'll definitely get what you pay for in terms of taste and warmth. I actually like the fact that it's not above 10% because that means there'll be more showcasing of the flavors than the hot-ness of the ABV. After two, you'll be warm and pleasant... and possibly be ready for bed.

Price: This is the best part... ready for it? How about now? Ok... $11 per 6 beers! Oh hells yes! I actually am physically struggling not to bolt off the couch to hit Total Wine down the street and pick up another Sixer... I think I can exercise some self control (but who would want to if you could get some of this stuff?)

Bottom Line: Like stronger stouts? Are your favorite Nature Valley bars the Dark Chocolate ones? Do you fancy chocolate cake? Are you alive? Ok, then run, don't walk, to the store and acquire some of said beverage, it's beer geek ambrosia.

Possible Project - Draft Reports

So, I'm thinking of starting a project and wanted to see what everyone thought. I'd like to start keeping a log of where I go to have a beer relative to the cleanliness of their draft lines. This way, I could provide a service to beer geeks and restaurants alike (theoretically) I'll lay out the methodology of the project will all the possible problems I can think of.

First, I would need to choose a craft beer that's widely, if not almost universally available, that I'm very familiar with the taste - This is trickier than it sounds. I have to be careful not to eat anything extremely bold for lunch at work or on the weekends that could possibly alter the tasting experience in any way. Because I don't have access to any sort of technology to test for pediococcus or lactobacillus beyond my tongue, it's essential that I plan ahead. Also, I need to choose a beer that doesn't exhibit many of these flavors (a kind of funky almost cheesy taste or a butterscotch-y taste akin to diacetyl tainting.) The first couple beers that come to mind are Sam Adams Boston Lager and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I'm going to try to avoid sweet or belgian style beers, as I think their flavor profile makes it difficult to detect problems with draft lines.

Second, I need to devise a point based rating system. My initial thought was to have a three or four point system, as these flavors can be difficult to detect. I'm guessing a three point scale would be the best, where a bar/restaurant would be awarded three points if their beer had no detectable tainted flavors.

Finally, I think this would need to be based, unless egregiously bad, on at least two visits and post the average. I think this might assist in taking the error out of this project.

Why do this? I very intensely dislike bars and restaurants that take wine seriously when it comes to storage, serving, etc. but not beer despite the fact that more and more of these places are offering craft beer. If you're going to serve a product, at least have the courtesy to serve it as the producer intended (if that's not yourself.) I encourage people to drink better beer at better establishments.

As a Sidenote to Previous Post

Watch the Video - I love these guys over at BrewDog, they remind me that brewing should always be fun... Dan Paquette over at Pretty Things also did a fantastic job of this by his strange sense of humor in his videos.

Link

I suck at Blogging - also, Extreme Beers

See post title. Also, I want to throw a quick notice out here on an article I read over at Gizmag. This article really nicely sums up the escalating "arms race" of extreme beer.

Link

I'd also like to just update people on the "politics of beer" that is the "rhetoric of extreme beer" if you can call it anything.

There are two sides, one headed by Brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery Garrett Oliver who is opposed to use of the term "Extreme Beer" because it is an extremely unflattering title that makes one think of beer for the sake of ABV and not flavor. The other side is taken by Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head (unsurprisingly) who believes that the title is symbolic, if anything, of the development of beer beyond the boundaries of what's normally considered "beer." Essentially it's a clash of cultures - Sam arguing for the "radical" and pushing beer beyond its boundaries and Garrett the traditional, that beer should be respected categorically.

I personally am in the middle, but I'd say I side more with Mr. Oliver than I do Sam, but it's obviously not for lack of respect - I think that Dogfish Head will always be one of my favorite breweries and, now that I live in Alexandria, I will look forward to frequenting their Alehouses. Anyways, I think Mr. Oliver is right, a single beer beer, at the end of the day, should be acknowledged as part of something greater than itself categorically. This is not to say that creativity in brewing shouldn't be encouraged and hybrid styles or beers made with "funky" ingredients or fermented with bacteria shouldn't be considered beer or welcomed with open arms. America, as a country, I believe has done a good job of being extremely creative within the boundaries of beer with the advent of Imperial beers and spins on every genre imaginable, etc. . I don't think the title "extreme beer" is necessary. Ultimately, I don't believe these two arguments are mutually exclusive - Sam can brew a 20% Abv "American Strong Ale" with whatever he wants and it will be considered beer, and that use of anything further to set it apart is unnecessary.

Family Wedding = Hiatus

Sorry about the hiatus... I'm going to try to get back up and running, although it's tough to want to write after working during the week. I think what I'll normally be doing is writing a number of posts on Saturdays and Sundays about random stuff concerning the beer industry and whatnot, but doing updates during the week if there are events or tastings, etc.

Good Beer on a Budget 2: Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

This one is very late, I know, but its necessary for me to publish a post on this. This beer, after all, was the whole inspiration for me to write such a post. This beer is an absolute steal on three fronts: taste, ABV content, and price.

Taste: This beer excels at being a smooth stout. If you're looking for something roasty, you're going to have to look elsewhere - the only bite you'll find here is from the hints of dark chocolate. Having been a while since I've had one, I'll have to update this post the next time I get one just to be more accurate.

ABV: Clocking in at around 10% ABV, this beer really gives you the nice warming experience of a good beer because, well, it is a fantastic beer! Anyways, two of these will put you over the edge, but you'd never know it from how smooth the beer is.

Price: And here's the kicker. You can get a four pack of this beer, which should easily retail for $10 or over, for $7.95. I believe, although I've not seen it, that they have been known to carry this beer at Trader Joe's, in which case, we could be looking at prices even lower.

Yet again, Garrett Oliver gives me reasons to really like him.

DC On Tap - April 1st, 2010

Insert obligatory April Fools' joke here. Now, on to business. I've had another KBS (Kentucky Breakfast) spotting in the D.C. Metro Area courtesy of their online menu - Pizza Paradiso in Georgetown. Their homepage is here; needless to say, I recommend highly calling before heading over due to the rarity/low volume of this beer in the area. (At this point, I've run down the e-menus of all the D.C. beer bars listed under BeerAdvocate's Beer Fly search tool - I've yet to check Southern Maryland/Northern Virginia, but as for the District, I think that's it as far as KBS goes.)

Also, Church Key is hosting another beer special, this time for Flying Dog Brewery. Here are the details (as they were sent to my inbox.)

Starting at 6pm the first 50 people to order a Flying Dog Real Ale will receive a Limited Edition Raging Bitch stemless goblet.

The Beers

On Cask (Dry-Hopped with Simcoe):

Gonzo Imperial Porter

Snake Dog India Pale Ale

Doggie-Style Classic Pale Ale

On Draft:

20th Anniversary Release: Raging Bitch, Belgian-Style -American India Pale Ale

Horn Dog, English-Style Barley Wine

Dog Schwarz, Rauch and Schwarzbier hybrid Double Lager

Two Terrific Tasting Tomes

Where should you go if you want to learn about how to really take beer seriously? Well, aside from your local beer bar, that is, there are two books that I highly recommend: Garrett Oliver's Beer Travelogue The Brewmaster's Table and Randy Mosher's Tasting Beer.

Head Brewmaster at New York's Brooklyn Brewery, Garrett Oliver has compiled several years worth of travels around Europe to put together what has to be one of the definitive style guides for Beer. More than that, it's a guide to pairing good food with good beer. This man is definitely an authority on Beer - Food pairings, staging many beer dinners throughout the year around the country. Want to know what type of flavors to expect from a Belgian Geuze, and what foods could pair nicely with it? Look no further.

Mosher's work, on the other hand, reads like a training manual, which is exactly what it is. I tell you what, this is the kind of textbook I wish I had back in high school - in addition to providing descriptions, characteristics, and definitions of the commonly accepted tasting flavors, he also provides all the information that is necessary to judge beer. Also, it gives a rundown on glassware detailing everything down to exactly why certain glasses are used for certain beers. It's user-friendly, has lots of pictures, and can be picked up, put down, or used for reference at any time. It even has guidelines for arranging tastings! Neither of these books are to be missed.

Overcoming the Challenges in Planning Tastings

In my few years as an avid fan of the craft beer community, I've been responsible for arranging my share of tastings. As I've pondered how to arrange these events, I've been hit with a series of concerns that tend to come up when thinking about the setting of a tasting or a festival. These tend to be echoed back by beer festival attendees prior to the day their ticket gets punched for an event. As a result, I've decided to throw together a small collection of tips when planning tastings or attending events.

The Biggest fear is the fear of "Palate Fatigue": This is really it, this is what it all comes down to for fans of good beer. To be honest, this might be the one true responsibility held by the person planning the event as it is a matter of communication. There are two primary questions the host must ask:

Is this a tasting or a dinner party that involves beer?

It's easy to confuse the two. The first of these is an event where food may be consumed - perhaps even a full dinner - but the centerpiece and the showcase of the event is the beer. Beer dinners are even fundamentally different from tastings in that there are pre-arranged pairings of food and beer that are presented to the audience. Returning to the issue, tastings should should provide the audience with a series of tools with which to better understand the beverage that's passing between their lips. For example, a beer on its own has a certain set of characteristics, but when coupled with certain mild foods (this is the key, they must be relatively mild foods that have little or no affect on the palate) perhaps other tastes come out in the beer.

Determine the level of "seriousness" involved with the tasting

Does the host insist on serving the beer in its appropriate glassware at the proper temperature or are we throwing a bunch of good beers into the bottom of American pint glasses. Now, in a perfect world, we'd all do everything right and proper, but we're not robots and we're not all millionaires - not everyone has access to all these things. That being said, respect the beer by at least not chugging it - giving it time to settle in and tell you what it's about. I'll talk about tasting rhetoric later on, but that also factors into this. It's possibly to have a good tasting that's serious without ever talking about the beer or alienating people; it's up to you to figure out how to do that.

How can I avoid "palate fatigue?"

Quite simply, there is no good answer for this beyond careful planning. A good way to think about this is by envisioning the dominant taste causing ingredients in beer (malt and hops) to occupy positions on an inverse bell curve. This is not a perfect example and definitely has its flaws, but can be useful when planning a tasting. On the left side at the top of a peak are beers with a very heavy focus on malt - American Imperial Stouts, Barleywines, Doppelbocks, for example. On the other side are beers that share a heavy emphasis on hops - Double IPAs being the obvious answer. In either case, the flavor is very bold and, especially in the case of hops, can be scathing (why do you think Stone named their famed IPA "Ruination?") In the middle are beers that blend the taste characteristics of hops and malt which, one would think, must contain considerably less alcohol and lack the bold and aggressive nature of these more one-dimensional beers merely so they can display a variety of more subtle flavors. It's time to ask yourself as host a further question:

Is this tasting organized by ABV/IBUs or by genre/style?

There are two good ways to organize a tasting: either put together a number of beers of the same genre and compare them against one another or link a number of unrelated beers together by strength (which, in this case will be measured by either/or/possibly both alcohol content or international bitterness units, or IBUs.) There is no "wrong" or "right" when it comes to these two styles, only wrong or right with regards to how they're carried out. For example, it's a poor decision to begin a tasting session with a hefty double or imperial IPA when it will clearly affect the rest of the beers you will drink. The trick is to start with the most subtle (and ideally stick to proximate genres/styles) and work your way into the bold beers. An example of this would be to begin with a traditional german style pilsener, then transition into a mild pale ale, then perhaps an IPA or Scotch Ale (which are the two "pivotal" beers in my opinion) and then in the respective direction towards more malt or hops. Scotch Ales and IPAs are pivotal in that they're definitely the point where the tasting becomes less neutral and more towards either ingredient. A genre/style based tasting must also take into account strength, but has freedom to explore. For example, start with a a milk stout, then go to an oatmeal stout, then a porter, then perhaps something more roasty like a coffee stout before putting the pedal to the metal with a Russian Imperial Stout or a Barrel Aged Stout.

Enough about the beer, what else should we have at the tasting?

Make sure water is readily available. In contrast to wine tastings where individuals waste perfectly good wine by spitting it into the nearest gilded trash can, beer must be consumed in order to get the last part of the taste, which is the hop signature. As such, water should be spliced into the tasting agenda to prevent both palate fatigue and, oh no, intoxication. In a perfect world, we'd be able to sit around and sip the world's strongest beers to analyze interesting and complex flavor profiles without getting drunk, but it's a scenario that is likely to happen, especially if stronger beers are a part of the tasting. It's important to know when you're not qualified to really taste beer anymore, and then leave those bottles for another time. If you want to keep drinking, by all means, go right ahead, but nobody likes opening every bottle in their wine cellar when their 60 year old wine is going to lose all nuances and taste just like the Carlo Rossi you keep in the back of the fridge. Also, like noted above, there should be food, but not anything with a very strong flavor (unless there's something you have in mind - my favorite example being my love for cilantro lime flavors as a means to really bring about the banana in a German Hefeweizen.) Crackers, some mild fruit, breads, cheeses are all good options. Eventually, I'll have my girlfriend write an article talking about cheeses and how they match with flavors of beer since she's far more knowledgeable about cheeses than I am, but until then, I have to leave you with that.

Use "user friendly" terminology

Sure, I like to talk about astringency as much as the next guy, but what happens if that next gentlemen doesn't know what the hell that means? As I learned from John Cleese's Wine for the Confused, it's important to establish a somewhat sterile yet universally descriptive set of words that even the most inexperienced beer drinker can agree on. Please, let's not talk about the dreaded "drinkability." Alienation is the enemy. For that reason, it's also encouraged to talk about things other than beer for a while. It might even serve to focus your thoughts when returning to beer later.

With that, I'll retire this article for the moment. I'm sure there'll be updates.

DC On Tap - March 29, 2010

I've got two big reasons for you to run, not walk, to the Church Key in D.C. Bell's HopSlam on Cask and Founders' Kentucky Breakfast. They're on tap now (and, according to the waitstaff, had just been tapped this afternoon, and probably not for much longer. I encourage you to call before heading over, to see whether it's still in stock.

I started going to Church Key as soon as I relocated to the D.C. Metro area. I have to say, I was impressed the moment I walked in the bar when I saw their draft list. They also tempt their local beer geeks by placing a couple of extremely rare brews on the shelves right behind the bar. From what I can see, there's a bottle of Dark Lord Imperial Stout, some New Glarus Unplugged, and a bottle of the famous Black Albert brewed by De Struise for Ebenezer's Pub in Maine. I anticipate spending many a night (and a decent chunk of my paycheck) at this wonderful spot. Kudos, gentlemen, for putting together such a great place.

Good Beer on a Budget 1: Sam Adams Noble Pils

This is the first in what I hope to be a long series of entries that helps beer geeks out there get their fill of good beer even if money is an issue. The first beer that I'll mention is the latest addition to the Samuel Adams family - the Noble Pils.

What's so Noble? - Samuel Adams, usually known for its 24 (now 25) different styles of beer, most often succeeds in crafting a decent beer and a somewhat reasonable price. The Sam Adams Boston Lager (or, as it's known most everywhere in America, Sam Adams) is a decent vienna-style lager that focuses on two things - Crystal 60 malt and Hallertau Noble Hops. "Noble" is to the Hop as "hierloom" is to Tomato. That being said, the five varieties of Noble Hops are native to Germany and tend to be low in bitterness-infusing alpha acids. So, by using noble hops as opposed to say, Cascade or its beefed-up cousin, the Centennial Hop, you get a nice crisp hop bite that focuses less on back-of-the-tongue sting and astringency and more on flavor. The Noble Pils actually contains all five Noble Hops.

The Taste - The first word that comes to mind with regards to Noble Pils is refreshing. It's a lot like what Americans can expect from their pils' with such similar brews as Victory's Prima Pils that focus on hops, much like Dale's Pale Ale brings to the Pale Ale genre. However, the earthiness of the hops comes through nicely while remaining drinkable making the Noble Pils the perfect beer for a warm spring afternoon.

Cost - This beer usually goes for about $12-13 per 12 pack from what I've seen, and it's worth every penny. The best thing about this beer? Sam Adams, being as widely known as they are, has distribution is just about every state in the nation. Not only that, stores that don't necessarily specialize in beer, such as 7-11's and grocery stores, are more likely to carry this than Prima Pils or any other decent beer.

Bottom Line - If you're out and about, looking to pick up a good beer without it being too bitter and without it being sweet (like many of the faux-witbiers that are out there today) this should definitely be at the top of the to-try list. I will say that this beer even appeals to me, who is a very avid fan of Barrel Aged Barleywines and Imperial Stouts - obviously not in terms of similarities in taste, but that it offers a lot of good flavor for a good price. Normally I would be less than pleased with a new Sam Adams addition, but they can keep this one around as long as they want; I know they'll have a devoted follower in me. The one warning? It's getting pretty late in the season for Spring Seasonals. Yeah, I know it's the end of March, but breweries always push the envelope with Summer Beers, trying to get them out as soon as they can for some reason or another. I think perhaps those faux-witbiers that I was talking about earlier have a decent amount of popularity (but aren't nearly as good as this.) Anyways, check it out.

New City, New Beer, New Blog

Old friends, new acquaintances... all are welcome. I've relocated from perhaps the best beer city in the United States, Boston, to Washington D.C. in order to seek a career path, which I recently had the good fortune to begin. Regardless, I intend to blog about beer - plain and simple. So, without further ado...