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Now, I am a self-proclaimed stout girl, but I think I can be greedy and pick another style to carry the torch for, and that is Sour Ale. Nothing beats Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosophers (Yes, yes Ray, I know, Three Philosophers is a quadrupel, but it is ALSO a sour.).

But nevertheless, the style of sour ales also encompasses two of my favorites: Berlinner Weisses and Lambics. I already talked about Nodding Head’s Ich Bin Ein Berlinner Weisse, so let’s look at another brewpub’s offering of this delectable, tarty beverage.

Less than two days after going to Triumph and Nodding Head with Ray, I joined his sister Steph for dinner at Iron Hill in Media. I was excited to see that they were offering a 2.8% ABV Berlinner Weisse, and the double awesome was that you could pick from either a splash of the traditional woodruff syrup or raspberry syrup. Joy!

(For those of y’all that don’t know, woodruff, raspberry, or lemon syrup is used in this beer to take the edge off the sourness.)

I went with the raspberry to try something new, and was happy with my choice. Served in a goblet (check out my mad photo skills below), the beer had the fruityness of the raspberry, without being overbearing, and an ending of a light wheat taste. I found it wholly refreshing, and noted that despite its lightness, the tartness keeps the drinker sipping and not chugging.

People have a nasty habit of discounting brews like this, especially given America’s reputation when it comes to beer. Many people participating in America’s beer rennaisance have developed a snobbish favoring for big, hoppy beers, I guess because they feel manly when they get to say that they enjoy something as bitter as what American craft brewers are leaning towards right now. And so, sour and fruity beers like what Mel just talked about get ignored, even though they are often just as interesting as the rest of what’s out there. Remember: hops aren’t the only beer ingredient with complexity!

Brewpubs, Craft Beer 1 Comment »

On Saturday, June 21, Ray, his sister Steph, her husband Tim, and I went to the 12th Annual Craft Brewers Festival, hosted on the Battleship New Jersey. We were pumped. A brewfest on a battleship. How could this not be fun?

Ray, Mel, Steph and Tim in front of the Battleship New Jersey.
Photo credit, Stephanie Weber.

Sigh.

Steph had ordered the tickets months ago and we had them in hand. However, the green tickets we had needed to be traded in for another set, so we waited in Line #1 to do that. We were also given stickers that we had to display somewhere on our bodies… stickers that were roughly 3″-4″ in diameter. After chucking them into Ray’s bag, we moved to Line #2, where we had to show the new tickets in order to pick up a coupon for our tasting glasses, and get our wristbands. As we approached the ship, an older woman on the staff with freakishly long aqua blue nails insisted we put on our stickers.

Why couldn’t we have just given them our green tickets?

After a lot of “Are you kidding me?” looks between the 4 of us, we dug the stickers out of Ray’s bag and stuck them on. We then boarded in the hopes of grabbing our tasting glasses and having our first taste of some NJ brews we weren’t familiar with.

Fat chance.

First, we had to tour the battleship… up and down narrow stairs, leading in and out of various rooms, always remembering to lift our feet high enough to clear the top of the doorway. At first we laughed and took the time to check out different aspects of the ship. But that got old quick as we climbed to the top of the ship, and then began to descend. It soon became a race to just get through to the end without falling down any of the steps or tripping. The one plus was that it was a light cardio workout, but that was about it.

FINALLY we made it to the fest, traded in our tasting glass coupons for plastic cups with the words “NJ Beer Goes Here” (it kind of makes me think of a a t-shirt that a middle-aged guy with beer gut would wear). Originally there should have been 16 NJ breweries, live music, and some food. Not all the breweries showed up, and we weren’t too interested in either the music or food.

I don’t feel like rambling about the beers we weren’t too impressed with, but it was nice to see old favorites (Flying Fish, Triumph and River Horse) as well as a few other we hadn’t heard of before, but now after tasting some of their brews, have definitely made a splash on our radar.

So, in no particular order, here are some of our favorites:

• Gaslight Brewery: They had a really tasty Belgian White that had a great flavor that Tim and I recognized as honeysuckle. It totally brought back memories of being a kid in the summer and ransacking the honeysuckle bushes in my yard for the tiny drops of sweet honey.
• Harvest Moon: They had an excellent brew called the Moonlight Kölsch. It had a beautiful pale, cloudy yellow color to it, and was extremely crisp and refreshing. A perfect brew to sip all summer long, especially in the muggy heat. They also served their Moonshine Barleywine, which according to their Web site, “is brewed with dark Munich malt and assorted rich crystal malts, resulting in a big and complex Mahogany beer that is smooth and warming. Bold but balanced hop flavor comes from Chinook and Liberty hops.” We found the hop character to be interesting.
• Basil T’s: Maxwell’s Dry Stout. There weren’t a lot of stouts to be had at this fest, but luckily there was this offering and it was pleasantly roasty. I even managed to hold it long enough to get it up to the right temperature!
• River Horse: They had their Summer Blonde and one of their Brewer’s Reserves, a Belgian Double White known as “W2″. Ray and I had been fortunate to pick up a 6-pack of the Summer Blonde previously, so we already knew how good that was, and the Double White was excellent. Beer for beer, River Horse has never disappointed us.
• Flying Fish: The 3 beers they had available we already had before: Hopfish, ESB, and Farmhouse Summer Ale. I’m not a huge fan of the Farmhouse (a little underwhelming for my tastes) but I know Ray likes it. Their ESB is solid, as is the majority of their other beer that was not featured (we’re HUGE fans of their Grand Cru Winter Reserve and the Imperial Espresso Porter).

Regarding Harvest Moon’s barleywine: I’m a big fan of barleywines, and this might now be one of my favorites. It had this nice, smooth hop flavor to it, and it finished roasty, which I thought was pleasantly unusual for this style. I hope I can find it in our local liquor store!

Tun Tavern was also there, and they had a fantastic hefeweizen at their table. Next to that, they had also brought a case of a super-alcoholic special reserve that I cannot seem to recall the name or style of right now. It tasted like a plain ol’ malt beer (i.e. un-hopped). I enjoyed it, but felt that it was overaged and could use a little dry hopping. Tim loved it, though. To each his own!

However, despite these good brews, I must make a mention of Pizzeria Uno: They need to just stick to pizzas. I had an underwhelming Porter, but I can’t remember what Steph and Tim had. However, I will always have burned into the memory of my tastebuds the unfortunate Maibock Ray had. I took a sip and made an awful face, even worse than the face I made after trying scotch for the first time.

This beer was simply BAD, as in something very wrong with it. Did they use tomato sauce? I mean, god, it was awful, and I even LIKE sour beer.

It was almost as if the malts that they used had been smoked with dried oregano. I can’t imagine how anybody could have thought that monstrosity tasted good.

Enough about that.

Though the fest ran from 12PM-4PM, we were done by 2 PM, and that has NEVER happened before. We took some time to talk to Joe Sixpack, and I purchased an autographed copy of his book. More on that later. After that, we hightailed it home.

Simply put: We learned that cramming 750+ people onto a battleship on a hot day in NJ is not a wise idea. Neither is having too few brewers to keep things interested. Oh well. Lesson learned.

All four of us agreed on this: The fest was just poorly done from head to toe. Yeah, we found some new beers that we enjoyed, but the massive (and often rude) crowds coupled with the tepid beer selection removed any chance that we could have gotten our money’s worth out of it.

So cramped! Photo credit, Stephanie Weber.

Breweries, Brewfests, Craft Beer 2 Comments »

Several weekends ago, Ray and I decided to treat ourselves to a Sunday night out. After driving many times around many blocks (most of them being cobblestone and very jarring in the car), Ray spied a $5 parking lot a couple blocks away from Triumph Brewing Company, which has one of their locations conveniently in Philly (the other two are in Princeton, NJ and New Hope, PA).

We were early for our reservation, but were seated promptly at a hightop-styled table near the bar (perfect for checking out the beer-pouring action). Our dreadlocked server was slightly soft-spoken and knowledgeable. We started off with a sampler, which included brews such as their Honey Wheat — light and refreshing…you could totally taste the honey in a non-syrupy way — Maibock, Hefeweizen, Irish Dry Stout, Bengal Gold IPA and La Folle Nuit, which I think was some sort of barleywine (There were at least 3-4 other beers, but unfortunately my memory fails me).

I think there was also an underwhelming pale ale… and something else that didn’t impress us very much. Probably why neither of us remembers!

We started with the grilled goat cheese with oven-dried tomatoes and basil with thin, crusty bread slices. The cheese had just the right amount of pungency and kick, and when paired with a piece of tomato, a basil leaf, and bread, your mouth did a little dance. The appetizer’s size was just right…enough to get your taste buds active, but nowhere near the copious amounts of food that many “standard” American-fare restaurants will put before you.

Though we tend to be more interested in trying innovative dishes, we could not pass up Triumph’s burger selection. And hey, why not? If a place can’t make a burger properly, there’s a good chance they’re going to screw up a higher-end entree. We decided to each order a different burger, and when they arrived, we split them down the middle and swapped halves. We selected the bleu cheese burger with tomato marmalade and the cheddar bacon burger with Amish cheddar onion ale fondue and tomato. Both burgers were ordered medium-rare, and came with just the right amount of nicely-seasoned fries, roughly a large handful.

Now, let’s talk about taste explosions! These burgers were DIVINE, and there was NO need to go within 2 feet of either of them with a ketchup bottle — even Ray, a great lover of the red, sugary stuff was able to forgo it. Ray ordered an Irish Dry Stout, while I went with the Bengal Gold IPA. We agreed that both beers went well with the cheddar bacon burger, whereas the Irish Dry Stout was having a tough time standing up to the robust flavor of the bleu cheese burger.

We saved just enough room to share dessert, which was a brownie with vanilla gellato, paired the strong La Folle Nuit with it, and were quite happy with the pairing. We paid the quite affordable bill, and as we walked out, I made the suggestion of going to Nodding Head (warning: link resizes your window), another one of our favorite Philly brewpubs.

Roughly 13 blocks later, we found ourselves upstairs, snagging a table by the wall, and had 2 rounds for the evening. I had one of my favorites, Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weisse, served with just a splash of woodruff syrup. It’s one of my all-time favorites simply because of the great tart flavor. It also has a low ABV at 3.5% and a light body. Typically I prefer the heavy hitters of the beer world, but the tartness of this beer just seals the deal for me. Ray started with Monkey Knife Fight (Nodding Head likes to keep its names offbeat, which is another great thing), an Asian-influenced blonde lager infused with ginger and lemongrass. You could definitely taste the lemongrass, which I can honestly say I’m not a huge fan of, but I think it’s innovative, so thumbs up.

The next round consisted of The Phunk for me and the Boho Pils for Ray. Once again, I tend to like funky beers, and especially sour ones. The Phunk lives up to its name, and is fermented using multiple yeast strains, lactobacillus and several types of brettanomyces, served unfiltered at 5.5% ABV. This is now one of my new favorites. The Boho is a Czech-Style pilsner, pale gold in color, medium-light body, and aggressively hopped. I do believe Ray enjoyed this greatly.

Most definitely. The weather was getting warm, so I needed refreshment. Boho delivered that nicely… while still providing some good hop complexity!

The night ended with yet another 13-block trek across the city and remorse that it was Sunday night, with a full work-week fast approaching. Nevertheless, the man couldn’t get us down because we had bellies full of great beer and good food.

Breweries, Brewpubs, Restaurants 2 Comments »

Time to kick things off! For our inaugural brew day, we purchased an ESB kit from Morebeer.com. Even from the get-go, we already felt like we could easily follow a recipe on our own without a kit, having done so much reading and having watched Steph and Tim brew, but just to be really sure that we know what we’re doing, we decided to use kits for our first two brews, allowing us to concentrate on the process without being burdened picking ingredients.

ESB, or Extra Special Bitter, is a sub-style of Bitter, a British session beer that is slightly sweet, slightly bitter, and generally just very unassuming and subtle while still being capable of some interesting complexities. It is traditionally served at room temperature from a cask, but naturally, ours will be bottled. Extra Special Bitter tends to be a little bit more alcoholic (above 4.8% ABV), with a bit more malt and hop complexity than the standard bitter. Done right, this should be the sort of thing you can spend all day sipping. Great for a summer afternoon!

Here is the recipe:

7 June, 2008
Extra Special Bitter
5 gallons

7 lbs Ultralight Malt Extract

8 oz Crystal Malt 40L
8 oz Honey Malt
4 oz Special Roast

1 oz Magnum Hops (60 min)
2 oz Kent Goldings Hops (5 min)
2 oz Kent Goldings Hops (1 min)

1 tablet Whirlfloc (20 min — clarifier)

4 oz corn sugar (bottling)

———

Steep grains at 155°F for 30 minutes.

Remove grains, turn off heat, and add malt extract while stirring.

Bring to a boil. Add remaining ingredients as indicated above.

Chill wort to ~70°F. Pitch yeast. Allow to ferment to completion at ~72°F.

With this blog, we’re trying to target inexperienced homebrewers, and so to those of you who have never brewed before and might not understand all of that, apologies. We’ll address you in depth soon. Suffice it to say, those few lines are basically all that you need to know once you know the process.

In future posts, we probably won’t have much more to say after the recipe, but because this was our first brew, we felt the need to chronicle the day in photos! Here are some highlights from the gallery:

Keeping the water at 155°F while we were steeping would have been a ton of trouble were it not for our gas stove. Electric is a pain to deal with.

We had a bad hop bag. It was either already ripped, or it ripped while we were handling it (probably the former). Either way, we ended up with a lot of Kent Goldings hop pellet goo left in the wort at the end. At least it settled out during fermentation.

Hello! We thought it would take longer, but not even 18 hours later, the yeast had gotten to work in full force!

There are a dozen-odd more shots in our Picasa Gallery.

We had accomplished homebrewers Steph and Tim supervise us. By the time we were finished, all four of us (myself, Mel, Steph, and Tim) agreed that Mel and I could have managed the process on our own, but it was good to have had my sister and her husband nearby, especially since they did so well keeping a couple of neighbors who dropped by distracted during the more intricate tasks. We’ll definitely be able to handle our next brew day solo.

We actually did this several weeks ago. We just didn’t get around to getting the blog running until today. The yeast was pitched on June 7th with an Original Gravity of 1.054, and primary fermentation was done by the 12th. We racked the beer to a secondary fermenter on the 15th, finding the Final Gravity to be 1.017, giving us an ABV of about 4.9%. Perfect (enough)!

We’ve tried the uncarbonated beer a few times now, and it is delicious. It fits the ESB style quite nicely, but with a slight American touch to it (a little more hoppy than one would find in England). There is also a slight fruitiness to it, from the slightly warm fermentation (about 75°F, when it should have been 70-72°F) that we really dig. We’re not ready to pass judgment just yet, but if we were to make any changes, we’d add just a little more late-boil hops to tick the nose up a notch or two. We’ll wait until it’s carbonated before we decide, though.

We’re bottling this beer today. We’ll try one bottle every weekend until we’re satisfied with the carbonation, but at this point, I think we can easily declare Brew Day #1 a rousing success!

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