Silence

Sorry for the silence and the hiatus... but I've got secrets a-brewing... I'm working hard and studying for something, and soon enough, I'll let you all know what...

Meal Pairing: Rock Crab and Old Brown Dog

Today, Mere and I decided to have a bit of a dinner adventure. We walked down to the local asian food market and bought up 6 Rock Crabs. We brought 'em home, boiled 'em up, and ate bastards. They were tasty little buggers that didn't need any sort of seasoning or butter; they were succulent and buttery right out of the shell. Anyways, I inadvertently stumbled upon a great Food/Beer pairing in the process. 

About half way through the meal, I opened up a bottle of Smuttynose's Old Brown Dog Ale and poured it for the two of us to share. Just looking for a little something to quench my thirst, I was met with so much more. The mild roasty nature of the Old Brown brought out the buttery and salty notes of the crab and vice versa. Much like cilantro cuts sweetness, the bitterness of the beer opposes the sweet of the crab. Anyways, highly recommended pairing, although I might next time look towards something like the Ommegang Witte to give a bit of a lemon-y flavor to accent the crabs, and might also include an adjunct lager such as a corona in the broth to add some more sweet and salty notes.

Two Glass Beer Kits 1: Sam Adams

One of my new favorite hobbies has been searching out ways to make a  two-glass complete beer set for those new craft beer enthusiasts on a tight budget, with limited space, or you just would like to make wise purchases on brewery tours. The first and most obvious warning about this is you'll end up drinking at least one variety of beer from inappropriate glassware. My first stop on this brewery tour is a brewery we're all too familiar with - Sam Adams (a.k.a the Boston Beer Company.) Their Porter Street brewery sells many varieties of different glassware ranging from the standard American Tumbler/Pint glasses to their limited edition Utopias glasses that are coupon redeemable if you purchase a bottle. However, there are two glasses that I think make the case for a complete set.

First, the Sam Adams "Perfect Pint" Glass. While there is a lot of advertising devoted to this glass, I'm pleased to say it's for a good reason. This glass is fantastic! We have two of these and they get used almost every time someone enjoys beer here. The mechanics of this beer glass are actually quite simple, what they've done is take the basic designs of a tulip glass (such as the bulbous body, curved outer lip, and stem-like base) and married it with a standard pint glass. They also added laser etching on the bottom to encourage the release of carbonation, making this a great choice for most lighter Lagers, regular Pale Ales and IPAs, and some porters and stouts. Generally, if your beer is regular strength and would benefit from some release of carbonation, this glass is the best you can do outside of the individually branded glass the brewery would use for this beer.

Second, the Sam Adams Balloon Glass. For this TGBK, the pivot point is obviously the tulip style glass, as the Balloon Glass is a hybrid of a tulip and a snifter. In this case, the glass is more snifter, sporting a spherical base wider than the lip. To properly use this glass, take anything that is higher than normal strength - Imperial Stouts/Porters/IPAs - and put them in this glass. This glass is also well suited to two types of beer due to the shape of their ideal glassware pairing - Belgian Pale Ales such as Duvel and Scotch Ales. Barleywines will also benefit nicely. All in all, while you could be pouring your Chimay or your Rochefort into a chalice, this glass will definitely concentrate the nose a little bit more.

What's Missing?: While it could be argued that the Perfect Pint glass would do a good job on Belgian Wits, it leaves a bit to be desired to lambics, rauchbiers, and bocks. Doppelbocks would be alright in the balloon, but regular bocks fall through the cracks quite easily. Again, this combination could be a little more strong for Trappist Ales/Quads, but it's quite reasonable for someone looking to get into craft beer with only two glasses.

Well, that sums up the first TGBK. It's likely I'll post another one relatively soon, as we'll likely be back to the Harpoon Brewery this coming weekend. As for now, I'm off to read my new copy of Brewmaster's Table by Garrett Oliver.

Cheers!

Beer Review: Smuttynose Star Island Single

I committed a bit of a beer faux pas while enjoying this beer, and I hope the beer world is able to forgive me for it. Our glasses are in a general state of dirtyness, so I poured this beer into a red plastic solo cup. Yeah, I know... it's just like being back in undergrad. Ok, on to the beer. Nose starts out very sweet, smelling of grain as if it's an Adjunct Lager. As it sits, the yeast begins to grow in the nose. After a couple of minutes, this begins smelling like an American Pale Ale. It does smell a tad like an american take on a lighter belgian wit, must be the coriander coming through. Doesn't excite me a whole lot, reminds me of the days when I thought that Blue Moon wasn't part of Bud's evil empire and was a very respectable product. Taste is a bit tart and tangy, perhaps a little bit of solvent taste coming through at the hop signature. I remember watching something where Peter Egelston made a comment about the "Single" style as a belgian session ale. I could see why. This beer is basically Smuttynose's take on wit-session ales. It's not terrible, but, on the other hand, not terribly exciting. I could see this being extremely popular with the blue moon crowd. At the same time, this beer self advertises as a "session ale," which I could see quite plainly - mission accomplished. I'm not a huge fan of wits or any beer than uses sour/tangy tastes quite yet, but I can't fault the beer for that. It accomplishes what it attempts to accomplish quite well and has that trademark Smuttynose yeasty taste that works so well in its Pale Ale and IPA.

My Rating: 8/10

Poured: I don't really want to talk about it...

BeerAdvocate: Link

DIPA/Imperial IPAs... a trend with staying power? A Primer and an Editorial

I'll ignore the fact that I've not posted anything in a long time and explore this topic a bit. A phone call from my father got me thinking. He said he was talking to the owner of one of his local liquor stores after seeing an influx of new brands on his shelves and they got to talking about IPAs. My dad, being a fan of strong hoppy brews, walked away from the store with some Bell's Hopslam, some Piraat belgian IPA trippel, and another relatively high caliber IPA. When asked about the expansion of his stock, the store owner replied something to the extent of "We decided to expand our stock to include more IPAs. If customers see 'IPA' on the label, they're going to purchase it." I've been mulling over writing articles about strong IPAs for a while, but this really put me over the edge. If you're already aware of the history/style notes of IPAs, you can feel free to skip a few paragraphs down to my editorial commentary.

IPAs are India Pale Ales. These beers are actually a piece of history (not in it's uber-hoppy American interpretation.) During British colonization of India, beer was transported by ships to the colonies. The brew itself was made a bit more fortified to survive the awful conditions on the ships that it would necessarily endure for months on end prior to its arrival. Fast forward to today: there are generally two types of India Pale Ales - American IPAs and British IPAs. In many cases, the British/European IPAs tend to follow the historical case. Scottish brewery BrewDog Brewing Co. recently made the decision to pursue a pure historical representation - a classic recipe put onboard a ship for three months prior to bottling. American IPAs, however, are usually nothing short of hop bombs. As of late, the Belgians, famous for their sweet and complex malt profile beers, have been attempting their own interpretation of the IPA, including La Chouffe's Houblon IPA Trippel (which actually uses all American hop varieties,) Piraat IPA Trippel, and Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor. As you can see by the names, these are hybrid styles that combine traditional belgian ales (dubbel, tripel, etc.) with the hoppiness of an American IPA. Usually these aren't palate destroyers, but they are usually higher than 8% ABV like their strong belgian counterparts. For clarification, if the modifying word is before the style, it's an American or British IPA (eg. Double IPA.) However, if the modifying word is located after the style, it refers to the belgian hybrid interpretations (eg. IPA Dubble/Double.)

In the American IPA category, there are two further subdivisions: standard IPA and Double/Triple/Imperial IPA. The standard IPAs range from a little over 5% ABV to around 7% and normally have between 30-70 IBUs (IBUs being the standard "International Bitterness Unit" on which IPAs, and other beers as well, are usually judged.) DIPA/Imperials kick up the ABVs from 7% all the way up to 21% (in the case of Dogfish Head's 120 minute IPA) boasting IBUs all the way up to 250 (in the case of Founders' Devil Dancer Triple IPA.) A normal DIPA/Imperial IPA will be around 9-10% ABV and have about 100-130 IBUs. All this technical jargon, but what does it mean? It means that you're going to be experiencing a beer that's generally going to be more bitter than your average beer. Bitter isn't the most appropriate word for the flavor profile. West Coast IPAs tend to be very citric and floral with a very "sharp" edge whereas other regional IPAs tend to be more full-bodied beer that has a detectable degree of malt (called the "backbone" in this case.) This "sharpness" generally is manifest in an astringency on the back of your tongue that tends to linger (called the "Hop Signature" among industry nerds.) A good point of comparison would be between California's Stone Brewing Co. and their IPA (not Ruination, their normal IPA) and Portsmouth New Hampshire's Smuttynose Brewing Co. and their "Finest Kind" IPA. Stone's offering tends to be very citric and floral, whereas Smuttynose's brew has a nice earthy floral taste due to the malt and the yeast they use. Smuttynose's tends more towards affirming the PA in IPA than its left coast counterpart. Anyways you get the picture (odds are if you're reading this, you already know the difference.) A quick note, regular IPAs are generally considered to be a late spring/summer seasonal brew due to the refreshing nature of the citric/floral flavors (much in the same way as Gin.) Imperial/DIPAs however have become adopted into the winter seasonal rotations (which traditionally included Barleywines, Winter Warmers, Stouts, Old Ales, Bocks and Doppelbocks) due to their high ABV and more full and intense flavor profiles.

So, here's where the issue arises. Over the past four or five years, the American craft beer market has become nothing less than obsessed with these hop wallops (with apologies to Victory Brewing Co.) to the point where almost every craft brewery out there produces some variety of IPA. IPAs are also thought to be one of the primary styles to benefit from oak barrel/bourbon aging (eg. Southern Tier's Oak Aged UnEarthly, Founders Hand of Doom/Bourbon Aged Red's Rye PA, and Great Divide's forthcoming Oak Aged IPA)  Is this just a fad, or is this a trend indicative of serious long-term attention? I'd like to present as many possible takes on the scenario as possible.

First, from a production standpoint, IPAs are among the most costly beers to provide. When evaluating pricing options on a per-barrel basis, no beer style demands more hops. Being the most costly ingredient in normal beers, hops can financially strain any brewery that's not careful. Almost everyone draws the comparison between hops and grapes in the case of wine. While it is the case that some styles use more hops than others (think of stouts... how many stouts can you think of with distinctly hop-forward flavor profiles? Aside from Smuttynose's Imperial Stout, I can't think of any,) it could be the case that this late market trend towards IPAs could actually affect what the consumer pays for all their beer styles. Look at it this way: a couple years ago, the world was hit with a somewhat serious hop shortage. Fletcher Street Brewing Co. in Alpena Michigan, our local craft operation, told us that they were forced to put their fantastic Paper Maker Pilsener on hiatus in favor of other beers such as their Maple Porter, Lumber Lager Red, Thunder Bay Bock, and Alpena Wheat Ale - all styles that don't traditionally have an abundance of hops. This 2007-2008 shortage was due to decreased production of hops due to non-ideal growing conditions, storms, etc. Imagine if the next global hop shortage was the result of the industry itself not able to have the carrying capacity to supply demand for uber-hoppy IPAs? Many small breweries might have to close their doors due to the inability to acquire a key ingredient for beer. An article in the Ithican, local newspaper to Ithica, New York, finds the prior hop shortage to have shot hop prices up as high as 400% in some cases. According to this same article, the Boston Beer Company (or, as a few of you may know it as "Sam Adams") was able to sell 20,000 lbs of unused hops to other small breweries to alleviate the pain caused by the shortage. It's unlikely that this case of brewery altruism would be able to continue if the supply of hops kept dropping every year and the price of hops, and consequently beer, keeps increasing.

On the other hand, maybe none of this would come true. Perhaps either the trend towards brutally hoppy IPAs might subside somewhat, leaving only a handful of breweries to produce these "lacerative mothers" (with apologies to Stone Brewing Co.) After all, Rogue's I2PA from Oregon is a solid DIPA, but in the world of outstanding complex behemoths such as Avery's Maharaja, Dark Horse's Double Crooked Tree, Stone's Ruination, and Russian River's Pliny series, should they continue to pursue such a brew? This is both a commercial and a stylistic comment. Such a decision could be perceived as a cost cutting measure and be taken the wrong way by craft beer consumers, many of which are up in arms about Bud/Miller/Coors cost cutting tactics. At the same time, if the brewmaster decides he just doesn't want to brew that style anymore and has a way of communicating that, it will probably disappear quietly. Another factor that could turn the tide is local farmers and breweries that have made the decision to grow their own hops. On a recent trip to Sam Adams' Boston Brewery, we were seated outside at their private Bier garden complete with hop vines and all. Their representative stated their interest in growing hops they can use, such as the German Noble Hop Hallertau, popular with several Sam Adams brews including their flagship brew, the Boston Lager. Perhaps breweries will begin buying local hops from hop farmers. After all, given ideal soil/climate conditions, you can grow hops with seeds and information found on the internet.

Could it be that this trend towards Imperial/DIPAs is a form of egoism? This couldn't possibly be the case if Stone CEO Greg Koch isn't an idealist about his views on the beer industry. At the 2009 Craft Brewers Conference held here in Boston, MA, Koch delivered a 45 minute speech about the value of "camaraderie" and "collaboration" amongst craft brewers. He views the craft brewing industry not as individuals in competition, but all working towards the same goal - delivering better beer to the consumer (or, more importantly, to everyone.) However, in a world where Koch's company can produce their Ruination IPA year-round, is what he's saying more than just rhetoric? One glance at Stone's website would reveal it's honesty - they serve many different breweries' offerings at their World Bistro and hold "Beer U" meetings where all are welcome to become educated about beer styles extending far beyond the reaches of their Escondido-based walls. On the other hand, Terrapin Brewing Co in Athens Georgia has other ideas. They produced a beer called "Hop Shortage" which was meant to "give the finger to the hop gods" as said by head brewmaster Spike Buckowski and use a ton of the hard-to-come-by plants. Not only did they address the concerns of the hop shortage, they also used it to draw attention to themselves and set themselves apart. While I'm sure they're fine individuals, this really rubbed me the wrong way.

The final consideration rests on the consumers end. With the new figures (from the documentary Beer Wars) emerging about the sales of beers, one out of every two beers sold is the product of the Anheuser-Busch/InBev megacompany. Brooklyn Brewmaster Garrett Oliver estimates that craft brew fans only comprise at most 5-10% of the American public. That being said, most websites like BeerAdvocate and other editorial beer blogs usually are guilty of preaching to the choir in terms of reader demographics. If you don't know anything about beer, the brewing process, or the politics of beer, you're unlikely to try different kinds of beer, let alone craft beer. If the average no-beer-knowledge American walked into a liquor store with the intent of buying beer, they will almost always go for something they're familiar with. What happens if that same consumer has a flash of brilliance and decides to pick something random off the store shelves or has recommended to them by a store employee, say a 6 pack of Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA or Stone's IPA, and drink it? Well, unless they have a very refined and sturdy palate, it's unlikely they'll do anything except pour the beer down the drain or attempt to pawn it off on some unsuspecting friend who will likely have a similar reaction. This same consumer has learned their lesson about experimenting with craft beer and will retreat to the comfort zone of American industrial lagers. What I'm hinting at is that the recent trend towards IPAs might be hazardous to the same craft beer industry that is seeking the stake to drive through the heart of beer megacorporations. At the same time, perhaps I'm wrong? Living in Boston, almost every bar I go to has a Harpoon IPA tap handle. While not the best example of the style, it appears to be a fairly popular beer that has been able to win over a bit of the Bud Light/PBR crowd in the battle of the living room versus the dining room (the dining room being traditionally the spot where craft beer has unequivocally won.) These same people are willing to also take a chance on Allagash's White, their take on a Belgian Wheat Ale much like the famed Weinstephaner Hefe. Again, I know Boston is a fairly progressive city, which makes me even more hesitant. Still, to see the average Joe Redsox sit down to watch Big Papi attempt to crush a few out of the park and order a Harpoon IPA is something that makes me happy.

In the end, it's a question of staying power. Staying power belongs to those beers that are more than trends. The best example I can think of is the Russian Imperial Stout. Having existed since the court of Czarina/Empress Catherine the Great, these roasty devils continue to top the BeerAdvocate and RateBeer charts year after year. Their depth and complexity makes them a wonderful experience for a wide assortment of beer drinkers. Do I think that the IPA trend will continue along a similar path? Only time will tell, although it will probably not be as intense as the past year or two, but I think that Imperial/DIPAs will hold a legitimate place in craft brewing. While it might be detrimental to the industry in more ways than one to flood the market with these hop monsters, it's likely to level out a little bit. American IPAs are to hops what Bocks and Stouts are to Malt and what Belgian Ales are to Yeast - the quintessential example of an ingredient and how emphasizing that particular ingredient, while sometimes seeming improperly balanced, can make a very tasty beer.

Go Green!

I'd just like to say congrats to MSU! It's been a dream run through the NCAA tourney. No matter what happens in the final game, you've played incredibly. It almost brought tears to my eyes seeing Jim Calhoun, one of the best coaches who has ever worked in NCAA basketball talking so respectfully and reverently about the Spartans. Tom Izzo just proved that he is one of the best coaches in history. Let's ride this out, we've got the final game of the season on my birthday, so GO GREEN!

Also, since this is probably Jim Calhoun's last season, I think we should all recognize him as one of the best coaches who has ever been involved with Basketball. Coach Calhoun, you did get outplayed in this round, but you've certainly been the inspiration for generations of coaches. So, coach Calhoun, wonderful career, congrats on all the success. If you'd been playing anyone else... maybe I would have rooted for you... if there weren't any other teams playing that I liked... or anything...

Resident Evil 5... what a disappointment...

If any of you have a TV, you've seen the promos for the new Resident Evil game. To be honest, I don't really know what their marketing team was thinking. They show some footage of the game that's visually stunning (as the entire game is) as the "plot" which causes someone to commit suicide. They're literally saying "This product will make you want to kill yourself" because it's a "fear you can't forget." Here's the thing, not only is that an awful way to sell a product - especially a product like this that everyone was excited to play after playing Resident Evil 4 that you could have sold just by showing footage - but it's also disingenuous as hell. I played through the entire game, never once was I frightened. Not a single time. In fact, it becomes evident early on that this was Capcom's power play towards the action genre. Someone threw the game engine of Resident Evil 4 in with Gears of War, and this is what emerged... nothing but a disappointment in my mind, let's run through some of the things this game does well. (It goes without saying that this is going to be full of SPOILERS)

1. Visuals - The game is graphically stunning. From the environment down to the character models, everything is done extremely well. While the environments themselves aren't normally something to write home about (save for the lush African landscapes that you encounter for about half the game and some of the National Treasure 2-esque cave exploration scenes that are far far cooler than watching that movie) the lighting is consistently solid and the ambience of the levels enjoy a good bit of continuity.

2. Throwback Value - If you're a Resident Evil fan, you're going to get this game. No matter how much kicking and screaming you do about them making an action game, just face it, you want to see what happens to Chris Redfield. Once you start playing this game, you realize they've they've created an elaborate homage to early Resident Evil games. That's right, they've brought the patented Grenade Launcher and 40 different (not really, but something like 6-10) different type of rounds back. Also, remember the hunters from the original Resident Evil? Yeah, they're back too... except they're less green this time and more red. They will one-shot you just like they did in the old days too... they'll incapacitate you with their tongue or get right to the point with a claw through the chest. Wesker and Jill are here, there are references made to Leon Kennedy and his romp through Resident Evil 4 (via the "Kennedy Report",) and there are still the classic "piece the emblem together" doors that have been a staple of RE games forever.

3. Digestibility - This game is very user friendly. Anyone can pick this game up, even if they've never played a Resident Evil game before, and play it. That has to be what Capcom had in mind when designing this game - the generation that played the original Resident Evil is now older, many of whom probably were turned off by the radical redesign of the game engine from RE 3 to RE 4. When that was originally released, I was one of those people who thought "They're straying from their 'Survival Horror' roots and their stationary camera, which added its own degree of difficulty to the game, yet provided players with a really cool and frightening game experience."" You have to admit, it's terrifying when you walk into a room with a really weird angle shot that just shows the character and the door they just walked through and all you can hear is a scratching noise that almost certainly spells doom - or you walk down a silent hallway that has windows to the outside that the camera is actually looking through as a number of infected dogs ambush you - that's just genius. Anyway, RE 4 really did an incredible job of making a new survival horror experience based upon an action game platform. RE 5 tries to take up the torch, but ultimately just collapses into a forgettable action game. What doesn't this game do well.

1. Real-Time Inventory - I know this is becoming all the rage now with games like Dead Space which do not incorporate a pause into the usage of your inventory, which you're forced to manage in real time, but this should be adjusted based upon the difficulty level of the game. If you're playing on easy or normal, the game should pause. Expert players should have to be proficient enough with the inventory to be able to do things on the fly. RE 4 incorporated this in with a very good and logical system of give-and-take: players could use healing items from the inventory, but they could not reload. This was brilliant and should have been kept. Instead, players are forced to manage 9 measly inventory spaces through the entirety of the game, forcing them to spend time either before levels or after dying to manage that inventory, the partner's inventory, and a meta-inventory that had a ton of spaces. I think this was their way of reconciling the small real-time inventory with the flow of the game. There was some allure of a random stranger that somehow could sneak past all the Ganados in RE 4 and set up shop, complete with a huge blue torch, without anyone noticing. That, and he had the power of teleportation, one room he would be peddling his wares and, one room later, he was handing out prizes at the shooting range (not to me though, I was too busy getting laughed at by the phantom crowd.)

2. A Fear you can't Find - This game wasn't even remotely scary. There are some points that are pretty interesting that they could have exploited more to make it absolutely bone chilling. For example, there are some enemies later in the game, the "Reapers," that are basically huge cockroaches. They emit this gas which causes everything around them to be really hazy and blurry. You stick a couple of these enemies in a really dark yet open room with pillars and a couple pinpoint light sources and what do you get? Instant terror. Instead, the only time anything even remotely approaches terrifying is a result of the player not doing their homework and scouting an area.

3. Less-than-memorable Boss Fights - The coolest boss fight in this game is the fight against the huge Oruboros thing on the ship. You needed to disable the arms and then hit them with a huge satellite laser beam to blow them up. It truly is a cinematic moment. What wasn't cool about this was that Sheva wasted all my ammo and so she just sorta sat in the corner and would occasionally attempt to knife the Oruboros wormies that the boss would throw at you - this, at least, was pretty funny to watch. Aside from that, the Gigante, the giant Crab, the giant Bat... uninspired bosses with less than memorable fights. You shoot something, something changes, you shoot whatever changed, end of fight.

4. Clumsy Controls - I hate, I hate, I hate games that have the generic action button for the most part. The reason? What happens in this game... You have to jump over something, attach yourself to cover, or jump down from somewhere so you run over to that spot and mash on the x button... and wait... and mash on the button, and wait.... and finally give up and sit there. Two seconds later, the game realizes what's going on and responds, "Oh, my bad, X for Jump Down." Gah, so frustrating. When playing the muliplayer game, this manifests itself by reaching a zone-door and yelling "Come On!" about 8 times before the door lets you go through. Seriously, work on your engine, make it instantly context specific - there's no excuse for a game of this caliber that's being advertised this widely to be so damn clumsy. Resident Evil 4 had an infinitely better game engine on a last generation console!

For all these reasons, I would say that RE5 bit off way more than it could chew. It might have been an ambitious endeavor, but the end result wasn't great. Sure, it was graphically impressive, but that seems to be the industry standard with high quality titles. You have to have something which stands out. This game is a tired action game that only appeals to fans of the series through familiar characters and an appeal to RE4 fans through a similar (yet inferior) engine. If I were considering buying this game, I'd play the demo on XBL first and keep in mind that what you're playing is the whole experience, then delete the demo and go on with your lives. By the end of this game, you'll be way more interested in not having to play it anymore than you will be to see how it ends.

My rating: 3.5/10

* = A little shout to those Eddie Izzard fans out there