Holy Shnikes!

I'm almost done with my thesis! A few days, and I'll be pretty much finished!  Hooray!

Just started a cellar

Just started cellaring some beer! We've got 2 2009 Founders Imperial Stouts, 2 2009 Kentucky Breakfast Stouts, 1 2006 Samichlaus, 2 2009 Kuhnhenn Fourth Dimensia Old Ales, 1 Founders Curmudgeon Old Ale, 1 2007 Samichlaus Helles, and a 2009 Bell's Hopslam (just for the hell of it... had one on draft the other night that had obviously faded, but it tasted like a fruity strong ale instead...)

Another Review: Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Today, I'll be reviewing Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron. This is truly an exceptional brew from Sam and the folks over at DFH. Picked up a bottle for a little over $2 at Publick House Provisions last night. Poured about medium aggression into a DFH Snifter. My first impression... really? Brown ale? Looks like Founders Breakfast when poured.

It pours a dark ruby fading soon to black with about a half an inch to an inch of chocolate head.

Smell is very earthy, maybe a little banana bread, some dark fruits (might be my nose misinterpreting the fruit,) and smells quite boozy. Actually, it smells a bit like the last Raison D'Extra I had. So now I'm thinking less Stout and more barleywine... what's this beer up to?

Taste is amazing! This really is a unique beer. Brown Ale? Well, I don't know what the beer judges would certify this as, but I definitely think it tastes like a Palo Santo aged Barleywine or Old Ale... The boozy character drops almost completely off and there's the dark fruit, some coffee, some chocolate, some deeply masked resin-y and spicy wood. From the first taste I was ranting about how interesting the wood was that was used. Upon further drinking, it warms into some vanilla, more coffee, more fruit. The Palo Santo bite sits on your tongue after drinking, which is a very interesting. The taste conceals the 12% extremely well. Near the end of the glass, it's very chocolate-y with perhaps a hint of tobacco. It's truly a joy to serve this one at around 45˚ and witness the taste unfold.

Mouthfeel is nice, thick, and creamy. The pinnacle of the mouthfeel experience is perhaps around 55˚-65˚, where it's smooth and velvety, like chocolate milk! Very full-bodied. I've heard some call this medium-bodied... man, what beer are they drinking?

How did I only buy one bottle of this stuff? Well done DFH! This is definitely going to be added to my beer rotation! They just starting releasing this stuff all the time? Might have to buy a bunch of 4 packs and cellar them! I bet this opens brilliantly after a year. All in all, you shouldn't miss this beer for it's originality, and, if you're a barleywine/old ale fan, you especially shouldn't miss it. However, just as a warning, I think this beer might be a tad murderous on the palate. The Palo Santo resin definitely coats your tongue early on and continues through the whole experience. Mere and I shared a snifter over the course of about 2 and a half hours (we wanted to enjoy it as much as possible,) and we definitely saw the taste slowly evolve directly resulting from the Palo Santo influence.

My rating: 9/10

Poured: Snifter - Medium

BeerAdvocate: Link

LIVE REVIEW 2!: Seadog Apricot Wheat

So, tonight, after dinner and a few brews at the Roadhouse, I'm reviewing a Seadog Apricot Wheat. I have to say, I'm not expressly a fan of wheat beers, but I did enjoy the Sierra Nevada Unfiltered Wheat. I will say that I am a fan of apricot beers... or, ok so I enjoy Magic Hat #9 whenever I feel like it. That being said, here comes a Seadog! It pours a medium amber into the glass with about one quarter to half inch of off-white fizzy head that dissipates quickly, leaving no lacing whatsoever. Nose is straight apricot and nothing else, but it's not overwhelming. It's a flat apricot scent. The taste is much like a magic hat 9, except for there's no bite at all. Instead of having a huge amount of character, this beer is just flat. Granted, many of the wheat beers I've had have been flat, this beer is absolutely unforgiving. It's got the bare minimum of mouthfeel for a medium bodied beer. While I've not tried Dogfish Head's season offering Aprihop, I have to say that my go-to apricot beer (yeah, because we all have those) is Magic Hat 9.

My Rating: 5/10

Poured: Sam Adams "Perfect Pint" - Medium

BeerAdvocate: Link

A Future For Industrial Beers? Of Garrett Oliver, Søren Kierkegaard, and Beer

This morning's post is inspired by a comment made by Brooklyn Brewmaster Garrett Oliver at last year's American Craft Brewing Festival. I haven't heard the entire speech, but one snippet made its way to my ears via a YouTube video posted on BeerAdvocate, "There is no future in industrial brewing." I'm going to meditate on this subject just a bit, as I think it's an interesting comment that may have some validity. What this means is that I'll meander for a long time about philosophy, sociology, and psychology and then, if you're lucky, return to beer. If you're willing to hear me rant about Kierkegaard for a few minutes, I promise, I'll talk about this.

My first impression was that this statement was outright false. I hate to do this, but I'm going to reference the work I'm doing on my Masters Thesis. Having read much Kierkegaard, he makes some points that, more or less, boil down to the fact that when "the masses" are given freedom and equality, they squander it. They learn that society or anything in it is a glorified "race to the bottom" with the winner being the one that can set the bar the lowest. The bar, in this case, is the lowest common denominator by which all humans can meet with the lowest amount of effort. Because men are equal, there is no difference between the President, for example, and a janitor. These comments, while not expressly applicable today, were very penetrating at a time when this resident of Copenhagen watched the legitimacy of an absolute monarchy become twisted and tainted under the overbearing freedom of the post-French Revolution public. And while, in a perfect world, the President and a janitor are equal under the law, Kierkegaard saw a society where classes had become obsolete as the public had access to the same things those former nobles and aristocrats had. Kierkegaard's comments do still speak some truth today in the "lowest common denominator" department. 

The arrangement of American capitalism is such that Americans work extremely hard (in most cases) relative to the hours they work. I don't have any actual data to back this up, but I can't help but taking this from watching and reading news reports about domestic issues stemming from individuals being overworked and underpaid, especially in this economy. Therefore, there is a vast quantity of blue-collar America that is willing to settle for whatever comes their way after work is out. Work demands the use of their intellect, their quantitative analysis skills, their problem solving capacity, ability to communicate with others regardless of differences, and, most importantly, the ability to lead others and manage multiple tasks. Coming home, they check any effort at the door and become another faceless and nameless individual among that abstraction "the public." Not to say there isn't anything wrong with that because of the American socioeconomic arrangement, but the public doesn't strive to keep a high standard of education (just look at American schools,)  of health (look at our health care system, our life expectancy, our food choices - while healthier foods are emerging all the time, we still have a society flooded with outrageously unhealthy food,) and of intellectual activity. This American doesn't want to read better books, watch better TV, eat better food, chase intellectual pursuits, and, most of all, be told what to think by someone who is equally as good. After all, one man's money is just as good as another's in the market. In essence, these individuals are worn down and used by their employers day after day. When they return home, they find their family, who they love, to be nothing short of a burden. Secretly, everyone who has a stressful job wishes for that peace and quiet at the end of each day which cannot be reconciled, even by the arms of the person that loves them the most. This same person sits down after work, turns on Larry the Cable Guy, cracks open a can of Bud, eats a greasy burger and fries that they picked up on the way home from some fast food behemoth and zones out with processed media and processed food, tired, stressed, depressed, but worst of all, apathetic.

Craft brewing is really reflective of hope. It's not "progress" per se, but hope - the hope of an American future that is able to embrace a public and a private, an America that is able to embrace economics not as a means to keep themselves afloat, but to make this wonderful country even better, an America this is as concerned with the state of their children's welfare, the state of the healthcare of those they've never even met, and the state of their government. A man or woman that can walk into a beer store and choose the beer they'd most like to drink, not the beer that's easiest to identify or the easiest to follow the person in front of them, is also a person that is more likely to make an educated choice in the next Presidential election, that rejects the processed media of our age in favor of research and truth, that understands economics enough to understand the selfish nature of our mega corporations that cry out for help, not for the American public like the Auto industry - one of the backbones of American industrialism and the American identity, but like those financial executives who just long for more lining to their pockets while so many worn down Americans buckle under their weight. 

So, with all due respect to Mr. Oliver, I disagree. I think there is just as strong a future for industrial brewing as there's ever been because, to choose industrial beer is precisely not "to choose" anything, but to let tradition, comfort, or popular culture choose for us. It's easier to see the impact of the craft brewing revolution of the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties with many local stores that used to carry just Coors, Miller, and Bud carrying local favorites such as Bell's Oberon, Founders' Centennial IPA, and seven varieties of Sam Adams, but that could just be the "lowest common denominator" ideology telling us to shut up and be happy so they can go back to their recliner-and-Bud lifestyle. In order for craft brewing to have some hope, my generation and the future generations need to start making it clear that we should ask more of our country, our people, and ourselves. 

We're a creative people that has always embraced our individuality and freedom, just look at our craft brewing offerings: almost every craft brewery offers a range of beers that covers a spectrum from light pilseners and amber ales to porters and stouts. Some of these are outrageous - Founders Devil Dancer Triple IPA with over 200 IBUs, Various breweries that have toyed around with Peanut Butter Porters, and those breweries like Russian River, Ommegang, and Allagash that have used wine and/or wild yeasts and bourbon barrel secondary fermentation delving into the world of sour ales. America is at the cutting edge of craft beer as a result of our unwillingness to settle for those antiquated categories of "ales" and "lagers" as defining our beers, we want crossovers, we love our Southern Tier Raspberry Porters and our Peak Organic Espresso Bean Aged Amber Ales, and our Dogfish Head ales that're brewed with equal parts historical anthropology, scientific knowledge of the brewing process, and insanity.

So, Mr. Oliver, after so ardently attempting to disagree with you, I guess we end up going in the same direction - while there is just as reasonable a future for industrial brewing as ever, our future generations are going to be the ones to make this change. My generation, in this past Presidential election, has stood up and told everyone that we're not going to take it anymore. We don't want to bear the burden of the baby boomers who took over the world and are now too old, bored and apathetic to worry about cleaning up their mess. We're making their mess our rallying cry. In our future, you're right, there is no future in industrial brewing but, there is always the chance that this mess will weigh too heavy on our hearts and minds, and we'll become worn down, and our resistance to the lowest common denominator will dissolve, and we'll slump down into the pit of cultural stagnation and wait for our next generation's desire for change will burn white hot, and see whether they'll succeed where we've faltered. The future is in our hands.

Another Quick Review: BBC Coffeehouse Porter

Today, I'm doing another very quick reviewski of a bottle which one of our friends procured for us: Berkshire Brewing's Coffeehouse Porter. First of all, thanks to Erica for buying us this wonderful bottle! This beer pours nice and dark into the glass. The first pour yielded a good 2 inches of light creamy head, the second one poured was a little less aggressive for that very reason. It appears black upon first inspection, but a close look shows that it's a deep muddy ruby colored around the edges. As the head fades, there's a little bit of retention, but not too much. The nose is very pleasant: coffee liqueur (in this instance, I think it smells like Bailey's,) milk, sweet cream, perhaps a very buried hint of vanilla. The taste is very nice and sweet. This time around, the coffee brings forward Kahlua, especially when swirled around in the mouth as it even gives off a false hint of booziness. This beer is like the lovechild of Left Hand's Milk Stout and Peche Mortel, meeting somewhere closer to the Left Hand brew, yet retaining a nice "I was here" note left by the coffee. The best thing about this beer is that it's very sessionable if you're into coffee beers at being a tad over 6% abv, it's not going to knock you down super quickly.

My Rating: 8.5/10

Poured: American Pint - Medium

BeerAdvocate: Link

A quick review... Peche Mortel

Today, I'm going to do a lightning fast beer review of Dieu Du Ciel's Peche Mortel. We picked up a bottle after hearing that it was the best coffee beer that's brewed, to go along with Mere's Coffee beer phase. This beer checks in at 9.5% ABV and pours pure black into a glass. There would be little natural head, but I poured a bit aggressively to bring out a nice creamy brown head of about half an inch. First smell is very deceptive: it was sweet and a tad bitter but very "bright." I didn't know what to expect at all from the smell. I've had a decent amount of coffee beers lately because she's been going through her phase, and this one smelled was completely different than all of them. After pouring and agitating the ingredients, it evens out a lot more with a nice roasty smell. The taste is a perfect balance of stout and coffee - not too bitter, not too strong. The coffee taste is a nice substitution for hops for providing a bite. As it warms, it only gets more rich, roasty and creamy. It's nice and heavy on the tongue, as you'd expect from a limited release high octane imperial stout. All in all, very very good beer. I'd even go so far as to say I enjoyed this more than an Oaked Espresso Imperial Yeti I had a few nights before.

My rating: 9/10

Poured: Snifter - Aggressive

BeerAdvocate: Link

A Depressing Sidenote

While working on my thesis this morning, I watched something occur that I could only call depressing. There is an older man who lives in the building across the alley from me that must have problems with his legs. He walks a little hunched over, taking small scrapes across the ground at a snail's pace. After wondering for a while whether he has the health insurance to see a doctor about trying to find a working solution to his problem, I witnessed something unbelievable. It's snowing here, of course, after having two 60 degree days. Cars have a thin layer of snow on them as a result. This morning, this man shuffled along to his car and grabbed his snow and ice scraper, and began to go to work. A minute later, a figure emerged from the building and opened the rear door of his Volvo, only to drop a few bags and what not in before himself getting in. I sat there thinking: "Wow, they'll let this guy clean his car? He can barely walk! What is it with Americans these days?" Only then did I realize there was another person loading things into his car before jumping in to the backseat. This car had the possibility of having three people other than this older gentlemen in the car; all of them, it stands to reason, could probably walk much better than him. Why the hell didn't anyone help him? If it weren't for the fact that he would have been done before I could get out there, I had half a mind to go out and help him myself and yell at his kids or whoever they were for allowing this frail old man to work for their benefit without helping or even offering! Seriously, what is America coming to?

New Tasting Notes Up

Just so you know, there are a couple new tasting notes up on the Boston Beer Club site. The link can be found on the right hand side of this page. I'm not going to be posting much here for the next two weeks, as they're really integral to my thesis. Oh, and Congrats to Oskar Blues for kicking ass and taking cans, their sales increased 64% last year!