Pfiff! is hosting this month’s Fermentation Friday a last-Friday-of-the-month blogging event specially made for homebrew bloggers. This month’s topic: Homebrewing Horror Stories!

It was a dark and stormy night. Thunder crashed and lightning flickered, casting blueish light on us as we stood around the old brew pot, with wort a’bubbling. One stir, two stirs, three times round the pot with the brew spoon, smells of midnight mischief filling the kitchen. Time to add the hops, to bitter the brew and darken our souls and holy crap a couple of hop pellets fell out of the mesh bag, rolled under the pot and straight into the flames of the gas burner! Hops on fire! Hops on fire! Gotta move the pot (oof that’s heavy), kill the gas to the burner and try to put out the hop flames without burning any fingers. Finally managing to stub out the pellets like stubbing out a cigarette’s stubborn cherry, the kitchen fills with a new aroma.

It smells like we just lit up.

That’s my best attempt at telling our smoking hops story campfire style. Luckily Ray and I have managed to avoid any true horrors when it has come to brewing. No one has lost a finger or singed off any eyelashes, and if I remember correctly, the burning hop pellet story actually comes from our first brew day, which was a quite normal day, and not a stormy night, à la the three witches in Macbeth.

I also boiled my hand in a wort geyser. Dunno if you remember. It was the one where I screamed a lot and chucked an Erlenmeyer flask at the stove.

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Two Fridays ago, Mel and I took a trip out to Mount Holly, NJ, to have dinner at High Street Grill, located at number 64 on High Street. The surrounding area was your traditional suburban downtown, with narrow streets crisscrossing between shoulder-to-shoulder local shops and restaurants. Jersey gets kind of a bad rap from the rest of the country, owing to smog holes like Newark, Trenton, and the Turnpike, but I daresay anyone’s opinion of the state would be affected positively by a short walk up and down Mount Holly’s main drag. If anything, the signature hills of my home state will give your heart a nice workout.

Like most of the storefronts on High Street, if you didn’t know the Grill was there, you’d miss it mid-blink. Its stark outer facade, however, belies a cozy, bustling downstairs tavern, with brick walls, live music, multiple beer taps, and, at the back, a stairway leading up to the dining room.

The two floors have different menus. For our first trip, we chose to eat in the upstairs dining room. As Nancy, one of the grill’s owners, led us to our table, we passed the kitchen, which lies off of a landing halfway up the stairs and from which all manner of tasty smells wafted. At the top of the stairs, we were greeted by a grand piano, and a fireplace upon which an unused but ornate guestbook and a copy of Ron Paul’s The Revolution sat. Our table was in the farthest corner, in a small alcove that was just big enough for two people to eat comfortably.

The most important thing to do when you arrive at a new restaurant is to ask for the beer list. In lieu of a list, though, High Street Grill has its wait staff recite the list from memory, which I figure gives them the freedom to change the list frequently without having to print new sheets. Nice idea. Not ideal in practice. Our waiter (who appeared to be having a rough night and so I point this out in a forgiving spirit as he was otherwise very good) had some difficulty with the list, and we had trouble retaining enough of it ourselves to make a decision. After a few runs through the lineup, though, we managed to settle on a River Horse Octoberfest for myself and a Stoudt’s Fat Dog for Mel.

We’d both had Fat Dog a few times before, but this was our first taste of River Horse’s idea of an Octoberfest, which turned out to be a winner. Typical of the American version of the style, it was reddish-brown, malty, and medium-bodied, but also featured pronounced fruity esters and lots of roasty, nutty flavors. Fat Dog, of course, was its usual rich and roasty self.

We started our meal with Beer Battered Artichoke Hearts, fried nuggets of artichoke stuffed with crab and spiced cream cheese. We weren’t exactly wowed, but they were delicious. I imagine a non-fried version would have been a step up. All-in-all, not outstanding, but very good. I mean, hey, we really like artichokes.

The main course, however, blew us away.

Mel chose the Grilled Pork Tenderloin, which was served with mashed sweet potatoes, roasted cauliflower, fennel, and a sun dried cherry demi glaze. The tender and juicy pork was carefully seasoned and spiced with pie spices, and, when combined with the potato, cauliflower, fennel, and cherries, treated the mouth to an explosion of sweet and savory flavors.

For my main course, I picked the Stout Braised Beef Brisket (the waiter told us the stout was Fat Dog), served with herb mashed potatoes, sauteed spinach, and caramelized onion demi glaze. The thin strips of brisket melted in my mouth, and the pairing of bitter spinach with the starchy potatoes and sweet onions helped to bring out the flavor of the stout. I can’t imagine how this dish could possibly be improved. Maybe if it came with fifty dollars. Maybe.

Halfway through the main course, we ordered a second round of drinks. Mel went the stout route again, this time picking Sly Fox’s O’Reilly’s Stout, a dry stout with lots of roasty coffee and chocolate flavors and a big, creamy nitro head. I had Brasserie d’Achouffe’s Mc Chouffe, a unfiltered Belgian Scotch Ale that turned out to be an interesting (and tasty) mix of tangy Belgian alcohol and sweet, nutty chocolate. Definitely a brewery we’ll have to explore more of.

As for dessert, though I know it was delicious, I can’t remember it as clearly as Mel does — her being a baker and all.

We shared a molten chocolate cake that was very rich and dense without entering the land of cavity-inducing sweetness. The cake was plated with raspberry puree and cream, with a fancy-sliced strawberry as a garnish. The perfect dish to share to end the night.

While the lack of a printed beer menu made for an early speedbump, and though we weren’t super impressed with our appetizer, High Street Grill ended up treating us to an excellent meal that we’d be only too glad to experience again.

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I really enjoy getting my Bon Appetit magazine, and the most recent issue had a seemingly easy recipe for apple turnovers that I had to try. Lucky for me, the recipe was simple. The only obstacle that came up was I ended up using puff pastry that had vegetable oil in it — the recipe called for puff pastry made with butter, which would have given it a more traditional French taste, but I didn’t have all day to run around looking for it.

The recipe seemed to yield more apple filling than necessary, but I used it all anyway. The effect was apple often bursting from the seams of the turnovers, but hey, who doesn’t like apples?

I used 2 Granny Smith and 2 Gala apples, though the original recipe called for Granny Smith and Golden Delicious (I can’t stand Golden Delicious). I followed the recipe otherwise, and Ray and I were rewarded with warm, flaky, apple-filled delights. I decided to pull out the 12 oz bottle of Dogfish Head’s Palo Santo Marron we had been saving since early June, a bottle I had selected when creating a very expensive “make your own 6-pack” at The Foodery in Philly. We split the bottle into two wine goblets, and at first, I pushed my glass away.

The alcohol bite was fierce, and there was a strong Scotch flavor, and I’m sorry, but I can’t stand Scotch. I thought it would be a nice pairing, since Dogfish is known for their malty beers. Ray sipped his glass along with the turnover, and assured me the beer would mellow once we let it come up in temperature.

Of course he was right (see why I’m marrying this guy?). Quoting from their Web site, Palo Santo Marron is “an unfiltered, unfettered, unprecedented brown ale aged in handmade wooden brewing vessels. The caramel and vanilla complexity unique to this beer comes from the exotic Paraguayan Palo Santo wood … ”

I may have finished my apple turnover already, but I’m still sipping away at the Palo. Perhaps a longer tenure in the fridge would have done this better, but I was reminded of how it tasted at Savor, so I took a chance. What’s life like if you don’t?

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Last Tuesday (Oct. 14) was the final night I was in Vegas for the biggest conference of the year (for my day job), and my boss suggested we should have our group dinner at Gordon Biersch. Apparently she had noticed one of the prior nights when I almost climbed out of the cab window as we passed the brewery and restaurant — hey, I thought I was going to be lost for 5 days amid Miller Lite and rum and Coke.

Once we were seated, only 4 of the 9 of us ordered a beer, which is fine by me because I wasn’t out on a beer crusade for anyone but myself. My boss even ordered a hefeweizen, though she had admitted to me that she’s not crazy about beer; I was thrilled that she was just willing to give it a try. Well, make that a 22 oz try. I had suggested the tasty hefe, but forgot to mention the size it would arrive as. I assured her that it was lower in alcohol than what she had assumed, and that we would not be wheeling her out the front door. Luck be a lady, she enjoyed it a lot, and now I need to make her a list of different hefeweizens she will need to try.

I’m not sure what my other 2 co-workers ordered, but I started my evening with Gordon Biersch’s seasonal, which was a festbier. This style is not normally my thing, but this brew was nice and malty, as well as crisp. I ordered the goat cheese ravioli in brown butter sauce with spinach, mushrooms and pine nuts, and the festbier was a nice complement.

My second beer for the evening was Gordon Biersch’s Schwarzbier, which I had tried before at the location in D.C., following Savor. Though I tend to prefer stouts, this was a pleasantly smooth dark beer to end my night with, and made a nice coda for the crazy days I had spent in Vegas, doing things that were not your typical Vegas-crazyness. Phew, it’s good to be home.

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A couple people came forward with Session #20 posts in the last week. Just so they’re not left out, here they are:

• Suzanne, the Beer Lass, whom Mel had the pleasure of meeting at The Royal Stumble this year, was late to the party with her first ever Session post, but she has quite a lot of memories to share — so many, in fact, that they have palpable mass when combined.
• JP has a handful of memories himself, one of which is about grad school, which made me cry due to sympathy pain.

Okay? All right, that’s enough.

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Tripels usually take forever to get to the point where they’re ready to drink. At first, we expected to have to wait as long as two or three months for our Belgian style Tripel to age out to perfection. Imagine how surprised we were when we discovered that, other than the obviously missing carbonation, our Tripel was ready to drink right out of the primary fermenter, a mere two weeks after pitching. Nevertheless, we kept it in secondary for two more weeks to clear it out a bit, and it took a while longer to carbonate than our other beers since Trappist yeast is a little lazy. But still, a month-and-a-half to come up with a finished Tripel is pretty freaking fast.

So, let us dissect. Warning: S-words.

1.086 OG; 1.020 FG; 8.9% ABV; 13 IBU

Appearance: Hazy, honey amber color, with subtle red tones. Big, creamy (for a Belgian style), off-white head takes its time settling down, giving you all the time in the world to enjoy it.

Nose: Sweet, banana esters explode out during the pour. They’re backed by a subtle, alcoholic dryness and a generous but controlled helping of floral hops. A barely detectable hint of spice shows up if someone has already told you to expect it.

Taste: Slightly dry, semi-sweet, with lots of banana esters, balanced by a slight hop bitterness. Lots of orange sweetness completely shrouds any alcohol taste. There is a slight suggestion of coriander.

Mouthfeel: Medium-to-light bodied, and surprisingly crisp and refreshing. Finishes dry, with a subtle hop bitterness that lingers on the middle and back of the tongue and begs you to take another sip.

Overall: When Mel and I do a tasting, we each pour a glass, take an index card, and silently take notes. We do this to keep from influencing each other’s impressions. Keeps things objective. In this case, we each independently wrote the words “holy shit” on our respective cards. Gotta love parity. We both agree that it needs more coriander, and I feel like it’s a bit dark, but apart from that, it’s impossibly refreshing, and the orange, banana, and floral hop flavors completely mask the substantial alcohol, making this an extremely dangerous beer. We might have to warn our friends about it. I’ve gotten buzzy just while writing this post.

Our Brew Days, Tasting 1 Comment »

Roughly a week and a half ago I decided to take a venture down to The Kite & Key on the corner of 19th and Callowhill in Philly for lunch. I was promptly met by one of the staff when I entered the main dining/tavern area and told I could sit anywhere, so I chose the hightop by the large doors that had been opened up allowing the server to pass from the bar to the outside tables easily. Unfortunately, she had to close those doors after the group sitting outside deemed it too cold (wusses), came in, and asked her to close the doors behind them.

Nevertheless, I had a fairly extensive draught list to choose from, as well as a bottle list. I went with Sly Fox’s O’Reilly’s Stout and paired it with a mixed greens salad with grape tomatoes, goat cheese and raspberry mint vinagrette. Delish.

The Kite & Key’s interior is dark wood, and it has another dining area that extends past the bar area. The bar itself seats about 12, and has several tables located in the front room with it. On one side of the bar was an authentic brass hand pump on display (sadly, not in use), and the chalkboard by the door had a lengthy lunch special list that looked inviting as well.

All in all, it was a nice 15 minute walk down to the pub and an excellent lunch. Makes me wish I had more than 45 minutes for my lunch break!

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One of the best parts of being a social species is that we get to have tons upon tons of stifling social rules imposed on us that we absolutely must adhere to on pain of ostracization. But don’t feel left out, homebrewing community! Even you can enjoy this ambrosial luxury!

My fellow prisoners, let us look at the rules of Homebrew Etiquette for both homebrewers and their friends.

For Homebrewers

You will give homebrews to your friends.

They are your friends because you like them. People whom you like deserve to drink good beer. And since you make the best beer ever, you are obligated to share your creations.

Relatedly, you will provide pouring instructions with your homebrews.

Non-homebrewers don’t understand: there is yeast and other gunk on the bottom of that bottle. Ah, how often I have seen a relative drink a homebrew straight from the bottle, only to complain about it tasting more and more weird as they went along. You know how to pour a homebrew — they do not. Enlighten them.

You will try to get your best friends into homebrewing.

Tell your friends how easy it is (lie). Let them try a few of your best homebrews so they can see what’s possible. Maybe even offer to sit in on their first brew day to supervise from afar. Lay off if they just don’t seem interested, but if you see even a hint of desire in their eyes, draw it out so it can blossom. Love exists to be shared, and there is no greater love than that between a man and his homebrew. Share the love with those around you. They’ll stop drinking so many of your homebrews if they have their own.

You will talk about things other than homebrewing once in a while.

You think homebrewing is awesome. This is because homebrewing is awesome. Some people, however, are wrong about everything, and will get tired of hearing about homebrewing very quickly.  Find a new conversation topic before you lose all of your friends. Politics! You know, there’s a lot of politics right now! My god, just talk about something else.

You will not fight with your spouse or significant other while homebrewing.

Look, homebrewing can get complicated and messy. You will drop things, struggle with siphons, slop on the floor, encrust your stovetop with Bob-knows-what— let it go. Laugh at your stupidity. It’s either that or you end up tearing each other’s heads off, which is America’s leading cause of divorce. Plus, if you divorce, you have to split up the equipment.

Alternatively, it might just be a better idea to pick a homebrewing partner whom you’re not romantically involved with. OW! Or do. Forget I said that. Brewing with someone you love is the best. Ow, that really hurt…

For Homebrewers’ Friends

You will not ask your homebrewing friend for homebrews.

I know, we keep talking about the money we’re saving by homebrewing, but we really aren’t saving worth a sack of maggots. We’re constantly buying new equipment, software, ingredients, etc., because we want to make the best homebrews possible. Thanks to that, our homebrews end up being pretty expensive on a per-bottle basis. If we want you to have them, you’ll get them, but don’t ask for them. Would you go into someone’s home and ask to eat their food? Oh. Well, don’t.

You will learn how to pour homebrews.

On the bottom of each bottle of homebrew is a layer of yeast and crud. You don’t want to drink that. As Victory would spin it, it’s “not the most flavorful part of the beer.” Pour just vigorously enough to raise a good head without disturbing the sediment too much, leaving the bottom 1/4″. You’ll find that most of the sediment collects in the little corner where the bottle juts out from the neck, leaving you with clear, homebrewed joy in your glass.

Another note: Do not stop pouring once you’ve started. If you tilt the bottle back upright while pouring, you’ll mix the sediment in with what’s left in the bottle. Do your friends’ homebrews justice: Don’t make them taste ooky.

You will return your homebrewing friend’s bottles.

Agh! What are you doing?! We can use that bottle again! Here here, no, look, you just rinse it out, there. Now set it upside down to dry. See? And then we’ll use it next time. Hey, are you done with that Yeung? Can I have the bottle? Oh wait, those are twist-offs. Never mind.

You will not ask to watch your homebrewing friend brew.

We have enough sanitary concerns to worry about without a whole ‘nother organism in the room. If your homebrewing friend invites you over, then yeah, go ahead and watch, but don’t invite yourself. Besides, brewing is a mind-numblingly boring thing to watch. It’s very much like a Star Wars movie: Two hours of nothing happening, followed by fifteen minutes of complete chaos.

Homebrewing 1 Comment »

While on vacation in mid-September, Ray and I discovered that Brian Yaeger had a book coming out, titled Red, White and Brew: A Beer Odyssey Across the U.S. (272 pages, St. Martin’s Griffin). I had Ray drop Brian a note asking for a review copy, since in my former life I was a book reviewer. Brian gladly obliged, and shortly thereafter we had our own autographed advance uncorrected proof.

Since I have approximately 2 hours of commuting to do Monday-Friday, Yaeger’s book has been accompanying me on the train. There have been a few times that I nearly missed my stop because of Red, White and Brew — and that is a compliment. Yaeger’s writing style is warm and inviting, like a conversation with a friend over a couple pints of Anchor Steam at the corner pub. The book’s pace is right on, never rushing, never dawdling, as Yaeger weaves his interviews with brewers across the country into tasting reviews and his tales of being on the road for this odyssesy.

Yaeger is no Odysseus, because both he and his writing are never lost and wandering, and I’m pretty sure he’s never blinded a giant or tangoed with a siren (sorry, I was an English major). But his trip is an odyssey of great proportions, especially in today’s current economy; he drove across the country, from Pottsville, PA, to Maine, then Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, and then right back to the east coast to visit our friends at Dogfish Head in Delaware. That, my friends, is epic.

But I won’t labor the point of how good the book is; it’s only been out for a short while, and Amazon already has it ranking well. It’s fun, it’s informative, and possibly one of the best things — personally — is that it put some more beers on my radar. Just the other night Ray and I went to pick up a couple six packs, and I had the book in my bag so I could look for a few of the brews I had read about. Unfortunately, the place by us does not have as huge a selection as we would like, but I was able to pick up a 6 pack of Anchor Steam beer, and plan on picking up their Liberty Ale sometime. I was in the beer aisle referring to Yaeger’s book. My friends, that shows the kind of shelf life this title will have.

Books 2 Comments »

The 21st topic for the monthly beer blogging event The Session has been announced by Matt over there at A World of Brews. He writes:

When looking at the past topics I felt that they were all a little to easy. They weren’t loaded enough for me. No one has asked the the one question that I am guessing all of you have heard. This question has probably come from friends, family, stangers from the bar, etc everytime you bring up you are really into beer.

That question is: What is your favorite Beer and Why?

Before you say I don’t have a favorite beer or how do I pick just one. I say BS everyone has a favorite. There will always be a beer that you would grab above all others, your go to beer per say. The one beer you will almost always choose over the others. When I get asked that question I almost always say I don’t have one but then when I came up with this topic I realized I did and I know you do too.

I would like to take this topic one step farther for purely selfish reasons. I am trying to do better reviews on beers that I drink and I would like to see how other rate and review their beers. So put on your BJCP hat and Review and Rate your Favorite Beer.

November 7th is the date of the next Session. Best of luck, Matt! You’re gonna love doing the roundup!

LOVE.

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