Amy told us to look like serious Beer Geeks. This is what we managed.

7:00 AM on Saturday found me curled up in my guest room bed, watching a streaming movie on Netflix. Then my phone began to buzz. Less than 6 hours later, I found myself at Iron Hill West Chester with Ryan, LeeAnne and her dad for lunch and Belgium Comes to West Chester.

There were 22 Belgian beers available to sample or order full glasses; for samples, you could pay $2 per 4 oz pour, or you could order a flight. We made the decision to order flights 1 & 2 (listed below).

1. Iron Hill Maple Shade, NJ: Flemish Red Ale
2. Iron Hill North Wales, PA: Sour Dubbel
3. Iron Hill Media, PA: Wee Funky
4. Iron Hill West Chester, PA: Saison
5. Iron Hill Wilmington, DE: Quadrupel
6. Sly Fox Brewing, Royersford, PA: Ichor
7. New Holland Brewing, New Holland, MI: Black Tulip Tripel
8. Stewart’s Brewing Co., Bear, DE: Stumblin’ Monk
9. Troeg’s Brewing Co., Harrisburg, PA: Scratch 34
10. Devil’s Backbone Brewing Co., Roseland, VA: Dark Abby
11. Yards Brewing Co., Philadelphia, PA: Trubbel de Yards
12. Stoudt’s Brewing Co., Adamstown, PA: Tripel
13. Nodding Head, Philadelphia, PA: Rudy’s Kung Fu Grip
14. Flying Fish Brewing Co., Cherry Hill, NJ: Exit 4 Hoppy Tripel

I’ve had the beers from Flying Fish, Nodding Head and Stoudts and was pleased to see them again. I was absolutely blown away by Iron Hill Wilmington’s Quad. Typically, I find quads to be too strong for me, but this beer somehow hid its 11.8% ABV. I enjoyed the chocolate meets caramel maltiness as well as the dark stone fruit notes. I could have ordered a full glass, it was so delicious.

The table favorite was New Holland’s Black Tulip Tripel. BTT was smooth with hints of clove and esters. The program listed Michigan beet sugar as an ingredient, which I found interesting.

Prior to BC•WC, I hadn’t heard of Devil’s Backbone Brewing; I found their Dark Abby to be a party of plums and bananas, and quite good. They list Appalachian sorghum syrup as an ingredient for “extra sexiness.” The beer is also fermented with 2 Belgian yeast strains and finished with red wine yeast for dryness. Very interesting.

As for the beers we missed, they were:

Victory Brewing Co., Downington, PA: Golden Monkey
Cambridge Brewing Co., Cambridge MA: Tripel Threat
Dogfish Head, Rehoboth, DE: Red & White
Ithaca Beer Co., Ithaca, NY: Brute
Harpoon Brewing Co., Boston, MA: Frites & Geeks
Brooklyn Brewing Co., Brooklyn, NY: Sorachi Ace Saison
Brooklyn Brewing Co., Brooklyn, NY: Local One
Manayunk Brewing Co., Philadelphia, PA: Yunker’s Nocturnum

I’ve had the offerings from Victory, DFH and Ithaca (Gold Medal Baby!), but would have liked to have sampled Tripel Threat from Cambridge (they blew me away at GABF) and Frites & Geeks from Harpoon.

Iron Hill West Chester's Gerardus Maximus

To draw the afternoon to a close, I ordered one of West Chester’s specials, Gerardus Maximus, a bold hoppy red ale that danced along the lines of imperial in regard to ABV. I found it refreshing and a nice way to cut through the sweetness of the Belgian samplers.

The lovely Amy Strauss also ran around and snagged so many excellent photos for West Chester Dish. Check them out!

P.S. Do you know how many times I typed “Wester Chester” while writing this post? A lot.

Breweries, Brewfests, Craft Beer 7 Comments »

Creepy, crawly, creepy, crawly, creepy creepy, crawly crawly … oh Boris the Spider.

Brewed about a month and a half before our wedding, Boris the Spider Chai Oatmeal Stout was to be a thick chai spice monster. However, in my opinion, I’m not thrilled with it. The body is too thin and there could be more chai spicy goodness going on (also, the ABV is a bit lower than expected, hitting 5.4%. I think this could be a much bigger beer). Nonetheless, Ray, Ryan and a number of other folks really enjoy Boris, which is a good thing.

Ray
Appearance: Opaque, reddish brown. Fluffy beige head.

Nose: Chocolate, banana, spices.

Taste: Chocolate. Fruity sweetness. A lingering hint of spicy bitterness. Cardamom really pops.

Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied. Finishes very clean.

Overall: A really cool idea that played out nicely. The chai flavors really pop, especially the cardamom. I think I’d like to see the anise make a bolder statement, but other than that, I really like this.

Mel
Appearance: Thin beige head; deep brown with hints of ruby.

Nose: Chai spices, roast, a little woodiness.

Taste: Roasty sweetness—very, very, very dry, yet oddly refreshing; maybe a little estery from being in the guest bathroom, which suffers from fluctuating temperatures. Chai spice is balanced and not overwhelming; cardamom pops.

Mouthfeel: Light, dry and smooth.

Overall: A worthy experiment. If done again, I want a thicker, chewier mouthfeel and a bump up in chocolate notes. Currently, it’s too much like a dry stout. Maybe make it a milk stout so the creaminess plays up the spices, reflecting the traditional Indian beverage it’s based on.

Homebrewing, Tasting Comments Off

We’ve been back from the JoCo Cruise Crazy (which was AWESOME by the way! Check out our photos!) and are recovering from what many have termed the phrase to be “cruise crud.” Like con crud, but, you know, cruisey.

I loved how Jonathan Coulton and his gang of talented comedians and musicians came up with this idea of a geek cruise (which, are actually REAL) and I was wondering why more breweries don’t get together to pull something like this off. I searched for Brew Cruise and Brewery Cruise on Google and saw a few hits, but nothing akin to what JoCo pulled off.

I think a handful of breweries could totally pull together an event (maybe a river cruise instead of ocean to keep out of international law issues) that lasts several days, on a boat, with their beers. It wouldn’t have to be beer all the time, but there could be various talks throughout the day, Q&As, guided tastings, etc. And I think it would sell like crazy.

So Dogfish Head, Stone, Brooklyn Brewery … let’s get on this!

Miscellany Comments Off

Welcome to The Session, a monthly event for beer and brewing bloggers! This is Session #30, for which Beer 47 writer David  have chosen the topic Cooking With Beer.

Looking back at our archives, the last Session we participated in also was hosted by Beer 47, discussing beer desserts. Small world right? While poking around in our archives, I did find an excellent cooking-with-beer recipe from Ray, dating back to May 2009. So I decided to dust it off and share it again.

Pulled Pork in Kolsch Sauce with Sauerkraut
3 lbs pork shoulder
12 fl oz kolsch
3 or 4 star anise pods
2 tbsp dried rosemary
4 or 5 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 Tbsp coriander
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cayenne
freshly ground nutmeg to taste
1 15 oz can sauerkraut
1/2 c minced onion
1 Tbsp olive oil
A few pinches salt
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

Pulled pork in kolsch sauce, sauerkraut and wilted dandelion greens

Cut pork shoulder into 2″ steaks. Make sure to cut perpendicular to the grain so the pork will be easy to shred when it’s cooked. Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Combine shoulder steaks, kolsch, star anise, rosemary, and bay leaves in a large saucepan over low heat. Cook for at least three hours, flipping the pork halfway through.

Remove pork and set aside. Strain herbs out of the kolsch and scrape the bits of cooked meat stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add brown sugar and garlic and simmer over high heat until thickened and caramelized. It will smell like burnt sugar when it’s ready.

While the sauce reduces, shred the pork. The easiest way to to this is to hold the meat in place with tongs, and use a large-toothed steak knife or bread knife to gently pull the meat apart. The slow cooking will have weakened the connective tissue, allowing you to shred the meat without much force.

When the sauce is dark and thick, add the spices and stir. Return the pork to the pan and turn it with tongs to coat it evenly with sauce.

While the meat rests, prepare the sauerkraut. In a separate pan, combine oil, onion, and salt and cook over medium heat until the onions are tender. Add sauerkraut and mustard, mix until ingredients are evenly distributed, and cook over medium heat for five minutes.

Serve pork on toasted kaiser rolls with a little bit of sauerkraut.

The recipe here calls for kolsch, but any malty beer will do. Your best bets are probably kolsch, anything Belgian (especially dubbel), brown ale, malty English beers and sweeter stouts (perhaps even a coffee stout).

Check out Ray’s original stroke of genius here. Cheers!

Recipes, The Session 2 Comments »

To properly kick off the New Year, Ray and I are currently in the waters of Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas, on our Joco Cruise Crazy cruise. “What the hell is that?” you ask. Well, it’s a 6-day Western Caribbean cruise, making ports of call in the Bahamas, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands … and it’s full of wonderfully geeky music and comedy performances from Jonathan Coulton, John Hodgman, Wil Wheaton, Paul and Storm, Bill Corbett & Kevin Murphy from Rifftrax, Molly Lewis, Mike Phirman, Stephen “Stepto” Toulouse, John Roderick and Peter Sagal.

Wow right?

So, we’re taking a week off, but don’t worry, I have a Session post for Friday all queued up, and you won’t want to miss it. The only bummer of this cruise is that we’re not going to spend our mortgage on alcohol (it’s always so expensive on cruises), so I don’t think we’ll have any interesting craft beer stories for when we return. But who knows?

And while we’re gone, check out the genius who is Jonathan Coulton. I expect you all to be able to recite the lyrics to “Code Monkey” and “RE: Your Brains” by the time I get back.

Miscellany Comments Off