Laimingų Naujų Metų

According to a new study by Four Points by Sheraton, 80% of people entertaining this year ranked beer as their number one beverage choice beating out champagne and wine from the traditional top spots.

Four Points by Sheraton has a Chief Beer Officer (!). His name is Scott Kerkmans, and he continues:

During these times and with the holiday season upon us, more and more people are realizing that beer is one of those simple pleasures that they can still enjoy without taking a huge bite out of their budget.

The press release includes tips on beer and food pairing, specifically foods served over the holidays, such as ham, turkey, roast beef, etc.

— Consumers Cut Back, Ditch the Bubbly and Pop a Beer This Holiday

Happy New Year!

Mid-Atlantic brewers feted

In addition to local brewpubs celebrating their own winter beers at their own establishments, Mid-Atlantic brewers and their winter beers were celebrated at least four events this December in the greater D.C.-Baltimore-Richmond area.

• The Brickskeller in Washington, D.C.
• Hard Times Cafe in Fairfax, Virginia
• Hard Times Cafe in Bethesda, Maryland
• The Brewers Art in Baltimore, Maryland.

At The Brewer's Art Holiday celebration, Saturday 6 December in Baltimore, Md., I had the opportunity to talk with owner Volker Stewart at his Belgian-bistro themed brewpub and restaurant (and in a follow-up email).

YFGF: I like the format of the event. Closed house, tables set up throughout the upper floor of the restaurant and bar, patrons can meet and greet with the brewers at their tables, and ask them questions as they sample their winter fare. When did you hold your first event?
VS: I want to say 2001, but I am not 100% sure. It used to be almost all owners/brewers, of course this has changed since then (although the owner/brewer turnout for this year was good, and Bill Covaleski said he would have come had he not had a prior commitment). I remember Sam Calagione being there at the first one with his new, then, World Wide Stout.

YFGF: Whom did you invite to this year's party?
VS: Wharf Rat, Clipper City Brewing, Brewer's Alley, Red Brick Station, DuClaw, Dog Brewery, Lancaster Brewing, Victory Brewing, Troegs, Southern Tier, Dogfish Head Brewing Company, Weyerbacher, The Brewer's Art.

YFGF: If a person's friends are a measure of a his worth, Volker Stewart is a wealthy man indeed. Since he opened the pub in 1996, five co-workers have gone on to open their own beer-friendly establishments. I asked him for the list.
VS:

• Annabel Lee, Kurt Bragunier, past GM (Baltimore Md.'s Canton neighborhood)
• Chameleon Cafe, Jeff Smith, past line cook (Harford Road, just north of Baltimore, Md.)
• Clementine, Cristin Dadant, past bartender (Harford Road, just north of Baltimore, Md.)
• Hamilton Tavern, Tom Creegan, current partner (Harford Road, just north of Baltimore, Md.)
• Parkside, Chris Cashell, past brewer (Harford Road, just north of Baltimore, Md.)

Thanking him (and he was busy), I went on to taste the beers, and the generous food spread.

Steve Jones, brewer for Wharf Rat was there, pouring his Little William's Winter Warmer, 7.5% alcohol by volume (abv), gently spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

I said hello to my former employer, Hugh Sisson of Clipper City Brewing. He had brought his World Beer Cup gold-medal winning Winter Storm Category 5 Ale (an un-spiced, strong amber ale, sometimes referred to as an Imperial ESB).

Mike McDonald of Red Brick Station had his Winter Solstice, which he had brewed with two pounds per barrel of cocoa nibs and some Tahitian bourbon vanilla.

Tom Flores is the executive brewer for Brewer's Alley in Frederick, Md. He and his pub's new brewer, Maggie Lenz brought their 6.2% abv Oatmeal Stout, unctuous and tasty. Holding a degree in Food Science, Maggie told me that she was pleased to be applying her expertise to brewing beer.

Jim Wagner --brewmaster for the DuClaw chain of Maryland brewery and restaurants-- was pouring his Devil's Milk Barleywine. Standing next to him was George Humbert of Dog Brewing, pouring a 5.2% abv Juggernaut Porter, a beer whose recipe had been an award-winning homebrew at the Maryland Microbrew Festival.

Tim Wadkins, Victory Brewing's Quality Assurance Director, was pouring the brewery's Old Horizontal. By this point, I took only a sip of this 11.5% abv barleywine.

I noticed snow flurries outside: it was time to end the afternoon. So I finished with a taste of 2008 Festivus, spiced with fresh ginger and orange peel, and a sip of 2003 Festivus, spiced identically. The aging had softened the spices to almost a orange-ade citrus.

And then it was out into the cold ... but I was feeling warmed.

• More photos here.
• Brewer's Art Resurrection Ale is now in bottles, available in limited amounts in Maryland and Washington, D.C.
• (Surprising to me, the other home-grown chain in the area, the Capital Ale House, now with four locations in Richmond and Fredericksburg, Va., held no formal celebration of local winter beers, even though the pubs did pour some local seasonal beers.)

Christmas in Baltimore

Outed! Santa Claus brought me a Miller Lite polo shirt for Christmas. Is that what I've always secretly wanted?

It's been a mini-tradition of sorts for me to hit Baltimore, Md. for a day of beer tasting soon after Christmas Day. It was easier when I lived there. Since 2002, it's required getting off the couch and driving north on I-95.

Last year, it was to the Wharf Rat for a book signing: Beer and Philosophy.

This year, it was with friends to Maxs TapHouse in the Fells Point district, a block from the Inner Harbor.

Among the beers we tried were a cask pull of Weyerbacher Winter; draft JW Lees 1997 (!) Harvest Ale (tasted like a prune juice cocktail... in a good way); bottle Hanssens Oude Kriek; draft Chouffe Houblon; draft Oaked Aged Arrogant Bastard; draft Uerige Doppel Sticke; draft Troegs Mad Elf; bottled Ølfabrikken Jule Ale (Danish strong golden ale hopped with US Centennial); and bottled Ølfabrikken Winter Porter (bottom-fermented porter of about 7.5% abv).

Mark your calendars now for Max's 5th annual 72 Hours of Belgium, a three day celebration of Belgian beer, 13-15 February 2009. In year's past: over 100 Belgian draught beers, and 200 bottled Belgian beers.

Bah, humbug: Winter Beer

Just as magazine issues are released weeks before their printed issue date, seasonal craft beers are often brewed well before their 'season'.

Calendar winter begins on 21 December. Winter beers can appear in early October. On the very day after Christmas, they are undesired by beer shop owners.


In a December beer column in the Washington Post, Greg Kitsock reviewed a new book about Christmas beers, written by Don Russell, who is the Joe Sixpack of the Philadephia Daily News.

The common denominator of Christmas beers is that they have no common denominator. <...> Generosity is a hallmark of the season, and many breweries add a little bit more of what they use during the rest of the beer.

Christmas Beer: The Cheeriest, Tastiest, and Most Unusual Holiday Brews
(Universe Publishing, 2008)

But in reading through the consumer reviews of winter beers (or Christmas beers or 'holiday' beers) on sites such as Beer Advocate, one can find comments such as this one:

Unlike most winter seasonals, this beer is very hoppy with no spiciness. While I'm a hop head by nature, the lack of spice and malt flavor and the overwhelming hoppiness leave me underwhelmed.

To these style Scrooges, I say: Bah, humbug!

Winter beers are celebrations of the season. They can be big, they can be malty, or they can be hoppy, or they can be spiced. Or maybe not. They are not an ordained style.


Early in December, Washington DC's Brickskeller hosted its annual Winter Holidaze Extravaganzee, a two-evening tasting of local winter beers.

Emcee Bob Tupper noted a change in style among local winter beers.

Five years ago, most would be spiced, à la Anchor's Our Special Ale. Now, he observed, even if spiced, they are much more likely to be Belgian in character: strong, dark, and yeasty-fruity.

Four of the attending brewers had brewed their beers all with the same yeast, reputedly the same strain as used by the Trappist monks at Westmalle in Belgium. It was fascinating to taste the differences and similarities. The four were:

• Dubbel from Capital City Brewing, Shirlington (Brewer Mike McCarthy)
  
• Tripel from Capital City Brewing, Capitol Hill (Brewer Ryan Curley)
  
• Dubbel from District Chop House (Brewer Barrett Lauer)
  
• Anniversary Ale (Trouble) from Rock Bottom Brewery, Bethesda (Brewer Grant Carson)
  

All four were brewed with remarkable restraint, the exuberance of strong Abbey-style ales balanced with repeat-drinkability.

A special treat was the 5 Apostles Saison brewed by Jason Oliver.



Mike McCarthy of Capitol City Brewing (l); Jason Oliver of Devil's Backbone (r)
Greg Kitsock of Washington Post (back to camera)

For several years, Jason Oliver has been the executive brewer for the DC area Gordon-Biersch brewpubs. But he has since moved 3 hours south to the Wintergreen resort area of Virginia and opened the Devil's Backbone Brewpub.

The name of his saison derives from nearby moutain peaks of the Blue Ridge. Jason pointed out that the Appalachian Trail is on the ridge just above the brewery.

Other local beers poured that evening were:

• Gordon-Biersch Winterbock (Brewers Ben Matz and Mike Grossman)
  
• Old Dominion Baltic Porter (Brewers Favio Garcia and Jesse Brenneman)
  
• Clipper City's Winter Storm Hop3 Ale, served from a cask (Owner Hugh Sisson)
  

Brickskeller owners Dave and Dianne Alexander then treated us to three additional beers.

• Wyerbacher Wit
• Southern Tier Old Man Winter
• Sam Adams Chocolate Bock

By this point, Jason Oliver, feeling the winter cheer, happily announced:

It wouldn't feel like Christmas without tasting beers here with Bob and Ellie Tupper at the Brickskeller [a 25 year tradition].

Winter continues until the vernal equinox on 20 March 2009. You'll have the time to enjoy these beers of winter.

• More photos here.
• Read a review of the Wednesday tasting, featuring beers from other local breweries, written at blog DC Beer.
• A different tasting of many other Christmas/winter beers described here.
  

No misfortune #2

As has been reported here before, a contest of photos of beer was recently held, conducted concurrently by blogger Stonch of the UK and blogger Alan of Canada.

Click here on Stonch or Alan for the lists of grand and lesser winners.

A photograph I submitted was one of the latter, but yet still a winner.

Consequently, I'm to be a recipient of schwag: an Obaminator tee-shirt, graciously donated by the Wynkoop Brewery of Denver, Colorado, which had brewed a bock beer of that name at the time of the Democratic Party Convention held in that city.

Here is my winning entry.

It's a photo of a firkin of Clipper City Brewing's Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale, taken on 24 September 2007.

The firkin's shive bung tut has been broached, and the soft bamboo spile is fobbing as the firkin comes into condition. The firkin sits covered by an insulated blanket, keeping it cool, in the upper dining room of the Taco Mac Restaurant in the Lindbergh Center of downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The glow of a television monitor, displaying a poster advertising the beer, illuminates the blanket. Later that evening, the cask was tapped, and served to accompany a beer dinner, organized by General Manager Fred Crudder and prepared by Executive Chef Matthew Deckard.

And now, my acceptance speech.

Thank you to Jeff (Stonch) and Alan for organizing the contest. Thank you to Wynkoop Brewery for donating the prize. Thank you to Taco Mac for the beer dinner.

And thank you to Cellarman Stephen Marsh of Clipper City Brewing for preparing a wonderful cask of ale.

Better beer graphics

Mike Licht is an observer of Washington, D.C. and world politics. His wry (and sometimes sardonic) wit can be observed at his blog Notions Capital.

Mike creates clever graphics to accompany his posts. And, now, he has graciously created a graphic for a post at my blog. See: Pirates Beered into Submission, from Saturday 20 December.

Better beer through the interwebs. Or more precisely, better beer graphics. Thank you, Mike!

No misfortune #1

The YFGF Christmas meal was served with Malheur 12° from Brewery DeLandtsheer of Belgium and a 2007 Thorn-Clarke Shotfire Barossa Shiraz.

The first had a marvelous brown-sugary aroma and flavor. Toss in flavors of prunes, toffee, maybe Bailey's Irish Cream. In this case, the 12° is 12% alcohol by volume.

The Shiraz was plummy and oaked, with notes of vanilla and spice.

The menu was

• Miso-Cabbage Soup
• Potato Kugelis
• Mac 'n' Cheese
• Sesame Snow Peas and Oyster Mushrooms
• ... and for the animalists: Honey-Baked Ham.

For dessert, it was Maple-Baked Spiced Nuts (and a final glass of the Malheur 12).

And for all, it was a good night.

["Misfortune" is the translation of "malheur".]

Linksmų Kaledų

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

— James 1

Merry Christmas to all.

Last minute Xmas gifts:2 ebooks

For procrastinators (and non), Yours For Good Fermentables.com recommends two ebooks as gifts this year. You can get both in just minutes via download.

The first, I've mentioned before.

Amber, Gold & Black, by Martyn Cornell of Zythophile blog fame, is an ebook on British beer styles.

Rather than relying on commonly accepted conjecture, Mr. Cornell has researched actual historical records and reports. And in the process, he may have disabused us of some of our preciously held beer myths (hint: porter, IPA). (See my recent rant on Baltic Porter.) Good stuff, entertainingly written, and stuffed with great pics and old beer labels.



The other is The Vegan Dad Cookbook, just released by Nathan Kozuskanich, who writes a blog as The Vegan Dad.

Culling from recipes he's published at his blog, Mr. Kozuskanich addresses how to cook vegan meals for children —when time is of the essence. (Helpful even for non-children.)

For those occasions when there might be ample time in the kitchen, some of the recipes are more complex —maybe even gourmet-ish.

And, yes, some of the recipes have been prepared in the YFGF kitchen.

Dominion's Baltic Porter: a review

Here they go again. The beer stylistas.

This time their target is the Baltic Porter from Old Dominion Brewing of Ashburn, Va. It seems that this —the brewery's 2008 winter seasonal— is not big enough and not fruity enough to be a Baltic Porter.

First of all, what is a Baltic Porter, and, secondly, who has the right to say what one is?

American beer judges?

Or should the model be actual modern Easter European interpretations?

Such as Utenos Porter from Lithuania?

Dominion's Baltic Porter contains 7% alcohol; its grist is that of a porter ale (with some rye thrown in), but the beer is fermented with lager yeast (as is the Utenos).

Brown-black darker than the Utenos, Dominion's Baltic Porter has more alcohol, more dark fruit character, more luscious malt character, and more roast than its Lithuanian counterpart (which is itself a fine beer).

But it is a lager, so it's smooth around the edges, with less fruitiness than an ale —a porter— would have.

I remember a winter beer tasting in 2004 held at the Clipper City Brewing Company of Baltimore, Md.

Scott Dietrich, then Clipper City's head brewer (now production manager for Victory Brewing), walked through, and stopped to look at a few of the bottles. He picked up the Dominion winter beer —a Baltic porter, Dominion's first attempt at it— and declared, "What is this, a joke?"

Then he tasted it, and said, "That's good."

Yes ... and this year's is even better.

This grandson of of the Baltic (whose grandparents emigrated from Lithuania in the early 20th century) finds Dominion's 2008 winter Baltic Porter to be mighty tasty ... regardless of what those American beer stylistas —Scrooges all— may deem it to be.

Head brewer Favio Garcia and the brewers of Dominion keep on keeping on, despite the announced closure of their brewery. None of them are moving to Dover, Delaware when the Ashburn facility is shut in early 2009. But all are going out in glorious fashion.

l-r at the Brickskeller Winter Beer Tasting:
Emcee Bob Tupper; brewer Jesse Breneman; head brewer Favio Garcia.

Dahl, beer, & chocolate

In the mid 1990s, I was the original brewer for the Manayunk Brewery, a brewpub in Philadelphia.

Rich Pawlak —a freelance writer and, at the time, a newly converted good beer fan— stopped in to talk one afternoon.

Rich had been intrigued that the brewpub was listing beer pairings for the food items on the menu. That might be common now, but it was not then.

Over pints, afternoon became evening. We went on to discuss other beer with food pairings. One was Indian cuisine.

We both agreed that the international style lagers normally served at Indian restaurants might be a good wash with the food's aromatics and spice, but that a hefe-weizen (a German-style wheat beer), with its sweet food-spices notes (cloves, allspice, banana, etc.), would be a complimentary flavor mate.

German and Indian: call it international food diplomacy.

Our discussion was wide-ranging: The brewpub neither served Indian cuisine, nor was I brewing a wheat beer.

I lost touch with Rich in the intervening years, so I was happy to hear of him thriving, and that he had begun a blog he calls The Omnivore.

In a recent post, Rich lists some beer and food pairings, but omits the dahl-with-weizen we had discussed. I'll remind him.

Brewer Garrett Oliver, in his book The Brewmaster's Table, has written similarly of this flavor 'hook':

Many of the spices of Indian cooking are mirrored in the spiciness of weissbier.

Yet to this day, it remains out of the ordinary to find a hefe-weizen at an Indian restaurant.

A few evenings ago, I led a beer-tasting discussion at Red, White, & Bleu, a Falls Church, Va. wine and gourmet shop (and beer).

The 5th and final beer of the presentation was Hang Ten, a "Weizen Dopplebock," brewed once a year by the Clipper City Brewing Company of Baltimore, Md.

Most German-style wheat beers have an alcohol level of about 5% by volume, give or take. A weizen doppelbock, such as Aventinus from Schneider of Germany amplifies that to about 8%; the Hang Ten to 10%.

With this increase in alcohol comes a bigger shake of clove and allspice characters, an infusion of dark plums, some vanilla and white chocolate, and healthy dollops of banana and cherry fruit essence. None of these items are tossed into the beer; it's the fermenting yeast that provides the flavors.

For the evening presentation, I had paired the weizen dopplebock with chocolate.

But remembering that long-ago conversation, I paired the beer not just with any chocolate, but with one from local chocolatier, Kingsbury: a Garam Marsala-infused dark chocolate.

The combination was flavor affinity cubed, and it was delicious.

• More on the presentation here.
  
• More on beer-with-chocolate here.
• Caveat lector: I am employed by a northern Virginia wholesaler that sells Clipper City beers.

Pirates beered into submission

Somali pirates boarded a Chinese tanker in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday wielding machine guns and rocket launchers.

These days, such news is unfortunate, but not unexpected. On this occasion, however, what happened next was unexpected.

The tanker's crew successfully repelled the boarding pirates. Their weapons? Beer bottles.

In its on-line edition today, The London Times quotes the captain of the tanker:

“Our crew, who had been well trained and prepared, used water cannon, self-made incendiary bombs, beer bottles, and anything else that could be used to battle with them. Thirty minutes later, the pirates gestured to us for a ceasefire,” he added. “Then the helicopter from the joint fleet came to help us.” [emphasis mine]

No wonder InBev purchased Anheuser-Busch. It wanted a piece of the 'explosively' growing Chinese beer market.

• Artwork provided by Mike Licht, author of Notions Capital blog.
• I was alerted to this story by a post at Lithuanian beer blog Tikras Alus.

New Year's Eve Firkin Fest

For New Year's Eve, Rustico Restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia is offering a double dose of good-beer festivities.

On the restaurant side, there's a fixed-price four-course menu: each course paired with beer. Reservations required.

• Baked Camembert with Housemade Orval Sourdough
  Paired with Kloster Wintertraum: Klostbrauerei Weltenburg, Germany.
  
• Maine Sea Scallops with Spooky Pumpkin Grits & Ginger-Andouille Gremolata
  Paired with Avec Les Bons Voeux: Brasserie Dupont, Belgium.
  
• Pineland Farms New York Striploin with Whole Grain Mustard “Knish”& Old Stock Macerated Medjool Dates
  Paired with N’ Ice Chouffe: Brasserie D’ Achouffe, Belgium.
  
• Tiffin Tin of Holiday Cookies
  Paired with Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout: Brooklyn Brewery, New York, NY.

But on the bar side, Beer Manager Greg Engert and his crew will be tapping 6 cask firkins (with others in reserve), beginning at 6pm and continuing until the Big Beer Toast at midnight ... and beyond. And, no reservations are required.

• WinterHook Winter Ale: Red Hook Ale Brewery, New Hampshire.
  A Winter Warmer from a brewery whose offerings are rarely seen on cask.
• Pomegranate Wheat Ale: Peak Organic Brewing Company, Maine.
  This beer has never been in the Mid-Atlantic before, let alone on cask.
• Fraoch Heather Ale: Williams Brothers Brewing Company, Scotland.
  Our choice for actual British ale served stateside.
• Snake Dog IPA: Flying Dog Brewery, Maryland.
  Very local and very fresh.
• Really Old Brown Dog: Smuttynose Brewing Company, New Hampshire.
  An amped-up version of their traditional Brown Ale, aged in the cask.
• Allagash Black: Allagash Brewing Company, Maine.
  Somewhere between a Stout and Belgian Strong Ale.

The other bubbled fermented beverage will be available ... if you must.

• What's cask ale? Go here.
• Caveat lector: I am employed by a northern Virginia wholesaler that sells Allagash, Brooklyn, and Flying Dog beers.
• Want to polka in the New Year? Maryland's fabled Blob's Park will re-open New Year's Eve. Go to www.blobspark.net for more information.
  

Clean your pipes

The old brewmaster said:

• Know your water.
• Keep good notes.
• Clean your pipes.

Brewing is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration. Clean, clean, clean! And then clean again.

Then, when the beer has departed the brewery, and is gone from the brewer's control ...

A good draught beer is only as good as a clean draught line. A chef changes the fryer oil; a car owner changes the engine oil; a bartender must clean the draught pipes (lines), and often.

Two months is too long to wait: a dirty line can easily develop an anaerobic infection. It's harmless, medically, but foul, organoleptically. Translation: it tastes terrible.

Gunk, like yeast and beer stone (calcium deposits), accumulates. Clean the pipes at least once every two weeks, if not every time you change a keg.



********************
A series of photos demonstrating line-cleaning technique: here.

Didn't make the cut

The final 40 entries in Alan and Jeff's excellent Christmas Beer Photo adventure have been announced.

And Yours For Good Fermentables.com must accept that it has utterly failed succeeded in making the cut.

Here are the 4 images YFGF submitted all rejected:

Maybe it's time to bring out the Tom Jones Reloaded ... and a Dominion Baltic Porter 2008.

More about the contest here.

[UPDATE 2008.12.22: YFGF humbly accepts its prize for the third photo from the left, the fobbing cask.]

Beer, as WE age

There's yet another report that alcohol may be good in small or moderate amounts, but bad in greater amounts.

Jane Brody in the New York Times summarized this new report at her Personal Health column. What differentiates it from other similar reports is that it is specifically directed at Baby Boomers, as they pass 65. Much of her article draws on a study published in the October issue of The Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

The bad:

Doctors may also fail to recognize the symptoms of alcohol abuse, a problem that is expected to become increasingly common as baby boomers, who have been found to drink more than previous generations [emphasis mine], reach age 65 and beyond.

Personal Health
Query for Aging Patients: How Much Do You Drink?
By JANE BRODY
December 15, 2008

The good:

At the same time, older people who are in good health should know that moderate drinking under the right conditions may improve their health in several important ways.

The study's authors note that "moderate" alcohol consumption may ward off:

• Heart disease and mortality
• Diabetes
• Dementia
• Osteoporosis

and that it may have salubrious psychosocial and nutritional effects.

The risks of excessive alcohol consumption that Ms. Brody mentions are common sense:

Immoderate consumption of alcohol — more than three drinks a day — can be hazardous for people of all ages, but it is especially so for the elderly, who reach higher levels of blood alcohol faster and maintain them longer than younger people.

Potential hazards include an increased risk of falls and vehicular accidents, a decline in short-term memory, a worsening of existing health problems, and interactions with medications that may diminish the effectiveness of some drugs and increase the toxic effects of others.

I have a (very) short list of links to articles on beer and health at my website: Good Beer & Good Health?

Eventide Restaurant: Arlington, Va.

In the gloaming ... no.

Crepuscule ... no.

Eventide ... yes.

It's a new wine bar and restaurant that's slated to open in early January, 2009, in Clarendon, Va.

I stopped in today, and bar manager Steve Warner took a few minutes time off from painting the walls to talk. "Eventide will be a fabulous wine bar," he told me.

Then he admitted, sotto voce, "I am a bit of a beer aficionado."

Steve says he will stock an interesting bottled beer selection to complement the American (that's all the Americas, North and South) wine list being assembled by wine manager Glenn Fisher.

********************

UPDATE: 2009.02.12. Now open.



More photos here.

Cheers for Beers: a tasting

My friends at Red, White, & Bleu in Falls Church, Virginia have invited me to give a presentation on winter beers this Thursday, 18 December at their wine, beer, & artisanal cheese shop ('Bleu'... get it?). And to talk about beer and food pairing.

There is a set agenda, but the 2 hours is more of an informal thing. Come any time between 6 and 8pm, and the $10 cost will get you samples of 5 beers and cheeses.

Click on the poster for more information, or call (703) 533-WINE (9463).


UPDATES

• Photos here.
• There was beer with chocolate.

Beer photo contest

Celebrator correspondent Chuck Cook returned from his most recent trip to Belgium (18th and counting) with over 1,500 digital photos.

Learning that, I checked my statistics at the photo sharing/web 2.0 site Flickr. I have 7,185 photos stored there, but that's an accumulation from over several years. Of those, 3,280 have been publicly viewed. There are 1,936 that I have yet to tag with at least the word "beer". My most-viewed photo is of a model dressed totally in pastry and candy as Ariel the Mermaid. My most-viewed beer photo is of the now-demolished facade of Dr. Dremo's beer bar in Arlington, Va.

When bloggers Stonch in the UK and A Good Beer Blog in Canada announced the 3rd annual Christmas Beer Photo Contest, I knew it might be difficult to winnow down my collection to a select few. (The contest occurs during the Christmas season, and some nice goodies are awarded for the winner. But the photos need not be of Christmas beers, just great shots in which beer is involved.)

Many of the images are simple photo-documents of beer events and persons. But I did manage to select four interesting (at least I believed so!) images which I emailed in ... at the very last minute.

Without any doubt, I may have missed some interesting photos. Here, for example are four I did not submit:

The submission deadline was yesterday. 524 images were entered. And the winner was ....? Well, as Stonch wrote:

It's going to take us a while to sort through all those photos and choose the winners. Feel free to pitch in with your suggestions, but don't expect us to be influenced by the voice of the mob. We're both lawyers, you see, and as such we're all about due process (that, and thinking we know best).

I didn't make the cut. Update here.

C.R.A.B.B. gets crabbier: 12/08 update

C.R.A.B.B. —the Chesapeake Region Alliance of Beer Bloggers— now stands at eleven members, with two new scribblers:

• Eric Delia, based out of Richmond, Virginia, with a beer blog called Relentless Thirst.
• Mike Dolan, who runs the DC Homebrewers club, and writes a blog about DC beer events at DC Beer.com.

Welcome!

More about C.R.A.B.B. here.

Green eggs and beer? Emeril in DMV.

It was lights, cameras, action, at Clipper City Brewing Company.

Crew from Discovery Channel's Emeril Green visited the Baltimore, Md. brewery to take video for an upcoming feature on organic and local beer, and cooking with it.

The series ...

is set in Whole Foods Market, where Chef [Emeril] Lagasse and the store’s team help average people shop for the freshest ingredients while explaining the benefits of organic, locally grown and seasonal produce. After shopping for ingredients, Chef Lagasse prepares a meal with each individual that demonstrates the ease of using organic and locally grown foods in everyday meals.

[UPDATE] The actual cooking segment with Chef Lagasse was shot in Fairfax, Virginia at the Whole Foods Market in Fair Lakes, on Wednesday, 7 January 2009.



Among the segments was DC homebrewer and homecook Jason Nuzzo cooking with Chef Lagasse using organic beer, including Oxford Raspberry Wheat Ale from local brewery Clipper City of Baltimore, Maryland. Other organic beers were Wolavers, Peak, and Lakefront. Also listed as a show favorite was Orlio from Magic Hat Brewing of Vermont, a beer that has since been discontinued, even though the brewery continues to thrive. (Two amusing typos at the site: Otter Creek as "Otto Creek" and Clipper City as "Cider City".)

Clipper City's website announced the air date as April 2009.

Fresh vs. vatted

The fellow on the next bar stool asked about the beer business, and the conversation moved to fresh beer and about a recent cask ale event.

I don't think beer is about freshness, the fellow said. I have some Dogfish Pangea that I have been aging for three years. It's awesome.

Do you drink it everyday, I asked.

Well, no.

Why not?

It's too strong.

What do you drink otherwise?

Well, I don't like lagers. So, when I want more than one beer, I drink Amstel Light.

Hmmm.  Do you know that Amstel is a lager?

Despite recent sales growth, cask ale remains a niche product in the US. Possibly this is due to the set-up of bars and pubs in the US. Cask ale competes with the convenience of draft systems and with the sheer numbers of drafts offered.

Possibly this is due to the current surge of interest in aged and vatted beers. Vatted and aged beers, often of elevated alcohol levels, were common in the 18th and 19th century. [See Amber, Gold, & Black by Martyn Cornell.] As long as the impression is given that cask-conditioning is reserved for strong beers, the beauty of fresh beer may remain a niche secret. If beer can be aged, some might think, why bother with fresh cask beer?

That would be a shame.

I'm using the term 'vatted' to refer to beers aged in barrels (often bourbon barrels), sometimes inoculated with wild yeasts or other micro-flora. 'Aged' refers to the universe of beers of keeping: both vatted and bottled.

This is not a knock against aged and vatted beers, but more of a plea to breweries and pubs to continue to produce and serve cask ale, especially 3.5-5.5% alcohol beers, that is session-strength (that is, not knock-you-under-the-table alcoholic strength). Okay, maybe up to 6%.

I do appreciate the efforts, and the financial risks of cellaring beer. These methods can produce stunning results. I waxed rhapsodic a few years back upon encountering a wooden cask of J.W. Lees, an English barleywine. As with the Pangea/Amstel drinker above, I'll choose them not as a steady diet, but as a spice, a change, an accent.

Below is a photo of former bourbon barrels now holding aging porter and oatmeal stout at Rock Bottom Brewery in Arlington, Va.




I stopped in at the brewpub recently and had a good talk with Brewer Chris Rafferty. In addition to his darker beers which can be complimented by the barrel's infusion of bourbon flavors, Chris will be aging his golden Tripel in a three-times used cask, releasing the beer in late spring 2009. He hopes to get less 'dark bourbon' character and more spice into this beer.

Chris manages to do both casks and barrels. He offers cask-conditioned ale everyday except Wednesdays, and the barrel-aged beers when ready.

Rock Bottom is presenting a beer and cheese (and chocolate) fondue dinner this coming Monday, 15 December. None of Chris' barrel-aging beers will be served that evening, but the final beer of the evening —Cask Conditioned Tripel Kriek— will be served naturally conditioned, from a cask.

Holiday Brew Dinner Rock Bottom Arlington, Va. Monday, December 15th at 6:30pm $45 per person or $80 per couple (including tax and gratuity) Featuring a four-course, gourmet fondue dinner. Three courses are paired with house brews. and one with a guest beer. For more information/reservations, go to www.rockbottomarlington.com or call (703) 516-7688. First Course: Cheddar Fondue • Swiss Fondue Pretzel Bites • French Bread • Granny Smith Apples • Bartlett Pears Paired with Fallen Angel Tripel - Belgian Style Golden Ale Salad Course: Fresh field greens and arugula mixed with Gorgonzola cheese, sun dried cranberries, candied walnuts, red grapes, and celery. Tossed with champagne vinaigrette. Paired with Lemongrass White Ale Entree: Spicy Monterrey Jack Fondue • Gorgonzola Fondue Herb Crusted Pork Medallions • Tenderloin Tips • Chicken Bites • Broccoli and Cauliflower crudites Paired with Guest Beer: Flying Fish Abby Dubbel - Belgian Style Brown Ale Dessert Course: Semi-Sweet Chocolate Fondue with Grand Marnier Strawberries • Bananas with Peanut Butter • Pound Cake Paired with Cask Conditioned Tripel Kriek

Nix on faux Fuller's casks

As if a US Governor selling a senatorship weren't bad enough, now a famous brewery is peddling its kegged beer as cask ale.

Alex Hall at Ale Street News on-line edition reports that the London, England brewery Fuller's may be promoting ersatz real ale as the real thing here in the US.

Real ale —or cask-conditioned ale— is brewery fresh ale: the beer is racked into a cask while fermentation is ongoing, and then shipped out. Most casks have a volume of 10.8 gallons and are called 'firkins'. So, in a manner, the brewery has shipped a pub a small fermenting vat. And that is, indeed, brewery fresh.

At the pub, the cask is traditionally served via a handpump —also known as a beer engine. As a server pulls back on the pump's handle, a piston mechanism 'pulls' the beer from the cask in a cellar or refrigerator up to the tap. No extraneous carbon dioxide pressure is needed or used.

A real beer engine at Rustico Restaurant and Bar in Alexandria, Va.
Hall reports that, here in the US, the historic English brewery Fuller's has been apparently installing what he calls 'simulators': bar towers that resemble beer engines, but are actually well-disguised standard taps, merely activated by a pumping action. These are used to dispense filtered, pasteurized, and artificially carbonated kegged beer ... as are most undisguised taps in the US.

What Fuller's allegedly has done —and fellow English brewery Marstons' before it— is a travesty. If Fullers' kegged beer is of good quality —which it is— the brewery should be proud to present it as it is. But Fuller's —or any other brewery— should not pass off its kegged beer as 'living' cask beer.

I don't have metrics to prove so, but relying upon anecdotal evidence, I can attest that more and more breweries in the US are producing cask ale. [While I was employed at Baltimore, Md.'s Clipper City Brewing Company from 2004 through 2008, its annual production of cask ale increased 20 fold.]

Even so, cask ale sales remain at only a tiny fraction of beer sales nationwide. This is a nascent thing; it should be encouraged and developed, not mocked with insincerity. So, shame on you, Fuller's.

• Alex Hall promotes cask ale in the greater New York City area. At his informative site on cask ale, he has posted a photo of a simulator in a scatological pose: gotham-imbiber.com/simulator.html.
• At beer festivals and special occasions, casks are sometimes served without a beer engine but directly from the cask through a simple 'gravity' tap.
  
• Working for a wine and beer distributor in northern Virginia, I sell cask ale from breweries other than Fuller's, and thus might have a conflict-of-interest.

Too busy for words: photos of 3 events

Real life occasionally intervenes in the routine of a blogger. As it has now.

So, without the time to describe three recent events with words, I'll do so pictorially.

Final First Wednesday at Old Dominion?
Wednesday, 3 December 2008



A Brewer's Art Christmas
Saturday, 6 December 2008

Brickskeller's Winter Holidaze
Monday, 8 December 2008

A cool cask for a cold night

I have a friend who claims culinary greatness for a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup served on a chilly day.

She might be right. Except that I would add to that a pint of cask bitter.

And those were on my menu last evening at Arlington, Va. restaurant Tap & Vine. Except that I had substituted truffle-oil fries for the sandwich.

Outside, it was a cold December night. But inside, the rustic house-made tomato soup was warming, the aromatic fries belied carbohydrate guilt, and the firkin cask of Winter Storm Imperial ESB (Clipper City Brewing) was spot-on delicious.

What's the difference between beer on draft and beer from a cask, I was asked.

The first is beer on TV, I replied. The latter is HDTV.

Multi-tasking Joy Reinhardt, co-owner of Tap & Vine,
holds the first pint from the firkin ...
... and conducts phone business.

• Tap & Vine tapped the firkin to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition.
• More photos here.

75 years of "Iki Dugno" ... legally

An important anniversary slipped by relatively silently this year on the 14th of October.

On that day, 30 years ago in 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed into law House Resolution 1337 and Senate Amendment 3534. The brewing of beer had become legal at home.

But there is an even more historic anniversary this year.

In 1933, seventy-five years ago today on the 5th of December, the state of Utah voted to approve the 21st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

That vote terminated the nearly 14 year ignoble reign of the 18th Amendment, Prohibition. It had now become legal to manufacture, distribute, and sell alcoholic beverages, and by extension, to drink them. For the 14 years prior, the invitation, "Let's go have a beer!" had been an invitation to felony had not been possible.
Utah was the 36th out of 48 states to vote in favor, achieving the constitutionally required majority of 3/4 of the states. Some might find it ironic that Utah, of all states, would vote to allow alcohol. On closer examination, it may have been sagacious of that state, in light of its founders' tribulations, to repudiate Prohibition.

The 18th amendment is the ONLY amendment to have eradicated constitutional rights rather than granting them. By the adoption of the 21st Amendment, the 18th amendment is also the only amendment to have been wholly overturned by another.

It also might be possible that Utah's vote for the 21st Amendment may have been an attempt to right a wrong. Utah's yea vote, 14 years earlier on 16 January 1919, achieved the 3/4 majority to effectively ratify the 18th amendment, Prohibition.

By the way, on 4 December 1933, South Carolina voted against the 21st Amendment. It was the only state do have done so.

Chicagoland beer historian Bob Skilnik notes that

American voters, through state referendums, added the 21st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It was the first time in our history that a constitutional amendment was passed, not simply by the will of legislators, but instead through popular mandate, i.e., the power of the U.S. citizenry [and the only time].
More of Skilnik's history of the repeal, with an Illinois emphasis, here.

Although the 21st Amendment lifted Prohibition nationally, it left open the possibility of local prohibition. It gave to the states the right to control the importation of alcohol within each state's own borders.

This is sometimes read as a partial trumping of the Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) of the 'un-amended' Constitution, which had given to Congress the ultimate right to regulate commerce. Recent rulings of the Supreme Court have challenged this interpretation, especially in regard to three-tier distribution issues.

Take a moment today to remember American folly and to thank American sagacity by hoisting a beer, sipping a whisky, or drinking a glass of wine. Say "Iki Dugno" [ICK ih DOOG (like took) nuh] ... legally toasting "down the hatch," in Lithuanian.

My last name is Cizauskas, after all.

• Didn't the enactment of the Cullen-Harrison bill on 7 April 1933 legalize beer? Well, yes and no. Go here.
• At the blog for the aptly named 21st Amendment Brewery, there's a concise analysis of how Prohibition could even have occured in the first place. Go here.
• Advocating vigilance, David Turley at Musings Over A Pint has a summary of the efforts of latter day Prohibitionists. Go here.
  
• The poster above (edited by me) is courtesy of the Brewers Association, an advocacy group for the small breweries of America. It has a posted a page on the Repeal of Prohibition. Go to www.75Yearsofbeer.org.
• Posted as part of The Session: beer bloggers posting on identical topics on the first Friday of the month.