FlaSoxxJim

Tuesday means Freddy back in action

Three Floyd's Robert the Bruce is well-made. Now that Bert Grant's Scottish Ale is a practically nonexistent beer consigned to contract beer limbo, I wish we got that one down here. Alpha Kings was a good decade ahead of the Dogfish Head curve to mainstreaing high-alpha, moderate-strength Amarican pale ales. I don't count the West Coast godfather breweries in that timeline because they were already so far ahead of the rest of the country. Those were the two that were regularly available at Clark Street Ale House and the Map Room back when I got back to Chicago more frequently. I tend to agree with you that some breweries that shoot for something quite daring often fall short and they need to walk before they run. But I also know so much of that is subjective, as with some of the off-center Dogfish varieties that don't curl my toes but are well-regarded by many others.

Quentin 1 for 3 with a run scored.

Avery Brabant. It has been poured and savored. It is a very nice beer. Unlike G&T, I haven't yet opened my Avery 15, so I didn't have first-hand knowledge as to whether they could work any magic with the Brettanomyces in the post-primary fermentations. Happily, I can now report that they did a remarkable job here. For those not familiar, Brett is a wild yeast and is considered an enemy combatant by 99% of the brewing world. It is an acidogen which means that when it metabolizes fermentable sugars it produces acetic acid. It was first isolated in the early part of the 20th century by brewing chemists studying the sources of spoilage in beer. It's the wild yeast that lives on grape skins and makes wine wine, but it is a beer-destroying microbial infection as far as most brewers are concerned. Enter the enigmatic Belgian brewers who managed to tame the wild yeast, and now the craft brewers at Avery and elsewhere who are deftly managing to do the same. The trick in all cases is to make sure the Brett works quietly in the background and doesn't have too much sugar to chew on. That's why Avery introduces its Brettanomyces cultures only after primary fermentation has has turned most of the fermentable sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide and an array cemical byproducts that yield our typical beer flavors. Then in secondary (cask) and tertiary (bottle) fermentation, the Brett strains are given a short leash and allowed to add their unique acidic flavors to the finished beer. If the same wild yeasts were allowed to run amok in the primary fermentation they would compete with the docile, domesticated Saccharomyces brewers yeast and turn the brewer's wort into vinegar rather than beer. Avery certainly didn't let that happen in the Brabant. The beer is opaque — very dark, with an alcohol above 8% abv. Flavors are decidedly Belgian, including good earthy notes, currant and other fruits in the nose and flavor. Good beginning carbonation and small, tight head that actually didn't last quite long enough. Then again, I let this one warm up as I enjoyed it for well over an hour so it's bound to lose some fizz. Long finishing flavors that have enough going on to compete with the acidity which is pleasingly apparent. I really wish this beer came in bottles bigger than 12 oz, because that's not nearly enough to allow full exploration of the beer's depth. Then again, since production is limited to 675 cases as it is, bottling in bombers would have cut the unit production in half. I'm used to most tart Belgian ales being considerably lighter in color, but Flemish browns are an obvious exception to that rule, and the Brabant strikes a similarly balance. This is a vintage dated beer that would be expected to lay down well, but I really don't know if age could improve the balance of the young beer by much. I can't wait to go back and try the Avery 13 now for comparison.

Yellow Snow is Poop's first cousin.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 17, 2009 -> 04:57 PM) Just means I need to make a poop joke to redeem myself. Kind of like at a proctologists convention.

fecal product

QUOTE (Tex @ Aug 17, 2009 -> 04:39 PM) Between you and me, I didn't think this thread idea was that good. I thought maybe oine day and we'd move on to something erlse. Crap doody

Xiphoid process is a small, cartilaginous extension to the skeletal lower sternum that typically ossifies by the time adulthood is reached.

Bell's pushed into a lot of new markets over the last two years. In never made it into Florida before, and now most good beer bars have Oberon and or Two Hearted on draft. I used to dream about Third Coast Old Ale and now I actually stand a chance of getting here every once in a while. Can't wait for the next Hopslam release either – now that is an extreme beer! Never had anything from Founders or HopCat, but it seems like there are several Michigan brewers doing teh state proud now. The best beer I ever had from New Glarus is their Zwickel. Unbelievable fresh, unfiltered lager taste, makes you wonder why other lager brewers don't bottle an unfiltered variety like this. If you never had this one, be sure to try it. I looked for it every time I'm in the Midwest and get skunked every damn time, but now I understand the brewery has pulled back to a Wisconsin-only distribution.

:cheers

That's three out of the four I know I've had (and I think your descriptions are spot on, other than I didn't find a cloying finish after the tart cherry attack on the cherry stout). The other one is their Expedition Stout that is their 10%+ imperial. The Java Stout is one I know I haven't had yet, and I can't remember if I ever had the porter.

Riiiight

Since there seems to be a shared fondness for stout here, what do y'all think of the multitude of different stouts coming out of Bell's now? I think they are making at least 5 or six different ones now, and I know there's at least 1 or 2 I haven't gotten around to yet.

Add Mackeson's to your list of beers to seek out. It was the original milk stout. Watney's (the one they used to call "Stingo" is also well worth looking for). Then there is a nifty little number from Jamaica called Dragon Stout. Brewed with milk sugar in the recipe, it also has flavor elements that straddle the entire stout continuum from foreign extra to imperial. Not quite high enough in alcohol to be a true imperial (but still plenty high at 7.5% abv), it most definitely tickles those same taste buds. It had been about 15 years since I'd had this one since our local distributor stopped carrying it. But I can get it about an hour inland at the same store i have to go and get my 95.5 proof Pusser's navy Rum.

QUOTE (hogan873 @ Aug 17, 2009 -> 12:27 PM) Does anyone else reviews beers at ratebeer.com? I never did the Beer Advocate or Rate Beer submission thing, and I really don't know why. When I was a more active homebrewer I'd contribute a lot more to the BeerToools site, but nothing for the last few years. Maybe it's because I'm already wasting so much time on SoxTalk.

QUOTE (hogan873 @ Aug 17, 2009 -> 12:27 PM) In the past few months I was finally able to partake in the food and beverage at Flossmoor Station and Gordon Biersch. I tried the samplers at both (Flossmoor had a 12 beer sampler!) and found both places to have very good brews. The Milky Way Stout at Flossmoor and the Hefeweizen at Gordon Biersch were standouts. Haven't had the pleasure of sampling Flossmoor Station yet, but I've been to Gordon Biersch in Vegas and DC and both locations were serving up tasty beers when I visited. Back in the late 1990s Gordon Biersch was one of the few brewpubs I'd been to at that time that focused on lagers and did a quality job with them.

I was broken-hearted when I heard the Clybourne location was closing. Yeah, they always do a quality job and they have put out some exceptional seasonals in the past. I particularly remember a saison, Finish sahti, and an imperial stout of theirs being first rate. They hosted a couple of cask ale festivals that I tried and failed to get back for. Are they still doing those?

Good lord, what would your parents say?!?

Done.

The Lindemans ice cream sounds good, actually. Garret Oliver's (Brooklyn Brewing) food and beer book has a framboise sorbet recipe in it that I've done a couple times (Not much of a recipe really. . . freeze the lambic and make it a sorbet!). Never been to Bar Harbar, but the Great Lost Bear in Portland is one of the best beer bar/restaurants I've been to. I quite enjoyed Gritty's in Portland as well. Fresh Maine lobster is tough to beat, that's for sure. After starting down that path, I'm going to have to pass on trying to lock in an actual top 5 — knowing full well it's an impossible task. Well, Guinness is in there, that much I know. A favorite of a lot of folks, but that way for a reason. Heck, if I'm honest I'd probably have a hard time even locking in my five favorite styles. On any given day, that list would likely include British real cask ale, witbier, Belgian tripel, geueze, Guiness, and hop-heavy American pale. Cr@p, that's already six, isn't it. Yeah, a lost cause for sure. Cracked the Cantillon kriek, and just finishing the last of it. Much tarter than I anticipated, lots more than Lindemans or Timmerman's for sure. Very geuze-like, with a vry subdued flavor contribution from the cherries and a slight, not unpleasant bit of sulfur in the nose. Mrs. Flaxx had to go faro on it and add some sugar, and I just savored the earthy-sour-wild combination that only a spontaneous fermentation can produce. On the subject of wild fermentation — the next beer up for a critical tasting here is an Avery Brabant Ale 1, the first release in a newly launched line of barrel-aged beers that the label says is fermented with two strains of wild yeast (Brettanomyces). Looking forward to that one.

You talkin' Kubla Khan, Orson Wells, or that Australian chick on rollerskates?

QUOTE (G&T @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 10:22 PM) Yeah I enjoy it. I made the mistake of jumping in with a Cantillon Geuze early on in my beer hunting. That blew out my palette. I got back into it with some less abrasive offerings and now I try to seek out some funk. Cantillon Gueuze is probably in my top 5 favorite beers, which is saying something. Can't get it here, but I've been able to beg the beer store shopkeeper to stock Lindeman's Gueuze and I can get Boon on the other side of the state. If you ever get to the Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia, you will fall in love with their draft Cantillon Geuze. Cantillon actually sends the owner casks of unblended young and old lambic and he hand blends on site. A couple of those to compliment a pot of their musslels steamed in lambic and shallots and you'd think you were in a cafe in Brussels.

Break in beer talk. . . for rum talk. I have six or eight go-to Caribbean drink recipes that I've pretty much finished tinkering with and consider them locked in. Gombay Smash, Pussers Painkiller, and the like. One of these is a Jamaican rum punch that in my recipe notebook is called "Three of Strong Jamaican Punch". Easy to make as a single serving and also great to scale up for a punch bowl, the ingrediant proportions largely conform to the Caribbean folk recipe rhyme, "One of sour, Two of sweet, Three of strong, Four of week." A nice easy way for pretty much anybody to remember hoe to make a passable run punch when the need arises. This afternoon was a household chore day, so the need arose early. At the heart of my Jamaican punch is the one of a kind, accept no subtitutes, Wray and Nephew white overproof Jamaican rum. Not what you'd call a fine sipper, and rather harsh on first encounter, this is a staple of Caribbean rum punches and it has its own character even if it's somewhat on the unrefined side. I've read articles suggesting that Wray and Nephew Overproof accounts for 90$% of all domestic rum sales in Jamaica. I find that amazing if true, given the other fine Jamaican rums like Appleton, Coruba, Myers etc., that we consume so copiously stateside. But it's cheap, it makes a punch that packs a punch, and the flavor does grow on you. My Three of Strong recipe is as follows: • 1 oz lemon juice • 1 oz orange juice • ½ oz passionfruit puree (Finest Call) • ½ oz Grace Jamaican strawberry syrup • 1 oz Wray and Nephew Overproof rum • 1 oz Coruba dark rum • 1 oz Mount Gay Eclipse rum (or sub Appleton Special if you want to go 100% Jamaican) • ½ oz homemade pimento dram* • 4 oz club soda Add the first 8 ingredients to a shaker and shake on ice, pour into glass, top with club soda and stir. * Pimento dram is a Jamaican allspice liqueur that is nearly impossible to find so I've resorted to making my own. cinnamon syrup can be substituted or this can be left out, but it does add some depth to the drink. Note that all ingredients except the splash of pimento dram conform to our nursery rhyme. Lemon juice = 1 oz of sour. orange juice, passionfruit puree and strawberry syrup = 2 oz of sour. Our three rums at one ounce each = 3 of strong. And, the club soda topper = 4 oz of weak. Lots of recipes count ice as the weak ingredient, and others will count orange juice, so there is room for interpretation. In this recipe, the club soda gives some life and lightness to a drink that is otherwise both very boozy and cloyingly sweet. These punches are sometimes referred to by the name "Paradise Overload", and the club soda helps keeping it out of overload territory. Sadly, I used the last of my Wray and Nephew on this one, so for now I can only dream about returning to paradise.

wait, what?