Firkin A! It's Craft Beer!

I'm Back from the Dry Desert!!!

I'm finally back from the Middle East and will start to work again to build the blog.

Boulevard Retrospective: I Forgot What Number We're On

 In the course of my exhaustive, intensive, other word ending in -ive review of the beers of local brewery Boulevard Brewing Company, I have tasted some terrific beer, broadened my beer horizons, and completely lost track of how many I've reviewed.  It's either 4 or maybe 13 or something.  At any rate, here comes another one.

Like virtually every brewer ever, Boulevard has a special Oktoberfest beer that comes out, in a move that I seems coincidental, around October.  Boulevard's is dedicated to a man named Bob Werkowitch, a graduate of the US Brewer's Academy, class of 1947, and the bottles bear this dedication with a prominent "Bob's '47" label.  

The beer itself pours nicely...it comes out a really pretty copper with decent foamy action and good lacing (sounds like a bath if you're having some rusty pipe issues).  It smells sweet, like citrus, but also plenty malty.  It tastes much the same, with a good deal of bitterness on the back end.  There isn't a whole lot of spice to this beer, and that suits it well.  

To this point I haven't had it with any food pairings.  I've just been drinking it while watching "The X-Files" with Sandy.  I intend to have one here in just a few minutes, actually.  You can follow my beer progress on the Twitter page I refuse to have.  Pretend!

I just want it to be noted that I'm listening to Led Zeppelin while I type this, and it's getting me totally amped up for some beer drinking.  I don't know why, but I'm stoked for some Oktoberfest now.  RAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!111   

St. Peter's Old Style Porter

               

While I will not be confused for a rich man anytime soon (seriously, I got 3 compliments on my shoes today, and they were the first 3 compliments I've ever received about my attire...thanks little guy playing polo on the side of my shoe!), I might seem like one to the proprietors of the Brookside Market here in Kansas City were it to be based solely on my beer purchases.  I breeze right past the Pabst, steer clear of the Bud Light, and have set MGD on my "Ignore" list.  

All of this is why it was probably little surprise that last week I elected to drop $5 on a pint (with bonus .9 ounces) of St. Peter's Old-Style Porter.  How sophisticated I almost assuredly looked with my fancy beer, frozen pizza, and toilet paper.  I had recently purchased a large beer glass suitable for drinking an entire bottle of this size (for the Samuel Smith fruit beers, for the record), and was excited to fill it again with fancy pants beer of a relatively high order.

I haven't had many English old-style porters, so the color, head, and aroma were a little different than what I was used to.  It had a lot of red in it, and it wasn't nearly as epically dark as most porters I'm familiar with.  The head was nice, and there was a good deal of lacing (I'm trying to pick up my knowledge of beer terminology, BTW...I think I know what lacing is, so I'm trying it out).  The flavor was very interesting: St. Peter's says on their website that "this fine beer is a blend of a mature old ale and a younger light beer – just as a true Porter should be. The marriage produces an extremely characterful brew which is dark in colour and complex in taste."  

I suppose it is that blend of old and young that produces the flavor I experienced.  It wasn't nearly as "meaty" as some porters, and it wasn't as carbonated, either.  The flavor was incredibly balanced, though, with plenty of chocolate, roast, some dark berries, and a good deal of nuttiness.  The real downer was how watery it seemed...it reminded me of when you get a crummy glass of Guinness: for looking like something that could wipe out the entire population of Western Europe if it were exposed to the public, it's surprisingly runny.

At this point, I am interested to try some other English old-style porters to see how they stack up.  It has the potential to be a very good beer as a style, because the flavor is incredibly complex, in my opinion.  If there is one out there with a little more meat on its bones, somebody let me know, because I'm as intrigued as Demi Moore in Disclosure.  And I will harass the beer to the point of a lawsuit, I swear. 

Near Beer Here

I was in the local "hypermarket" here in Doha.  It's a Carrefour store (Think French owned Super Walmart) and I spotted some bottles that looked like beer.  Knowing that you aren't going to walk into any grocery store here and by real beer, I checked the label.  Premium malt beverage they call it and it comes in several different flavors.

I bought a malt and a peach flavored Barbican Malt Beverage made in Dubai by Aujan Industries.  The malt tasted like it had a hint of pear in it.  Not overly sweet, but a definite fruit aftertaste.  Both drinks fizzed up a bit like soda pop and quickly went flat (within 10 minutes).  The malt had a minerally taste when it lost its bubble.  The peach turns a little bitter.  Both poured a golden yellow color

The ingredient list for the malt flavor is:

• Malt
• Hops
• Sugar
• Water

The ingredient list for the Peach was a little longer.  Aside from the above, there was:

• Citric Acid
• "Nature Identical" peach flavor
• Color
• Quilaia
• Ascorbic acid

Beer is legally available in most hotels that cater to foreigners.  My hotel even stocks a mini bar in the room.  Prices start at over eleven dollars for a bottle of beer (Heineken or Amstel Light) and go up from there.  A mini bottle of wine will set you back about 15 dollars.  A mini bottle of liquor will cost you about $12.30.

I'm looking forward to a real beer when I get back home!

Cheers!

VW

Fruity Beers Strike Again!

In the first ever "Firkin A Beer Reviews crash into one another" department, we come to Samuel Smith's Organic Fruit Beers.  I previously reviewed Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout, and I've spoken on my fondness for fruit beers on multiple occasions, especially here.  Whatever the opposite of trepidation is, that was my state of being when I saw these available at Cost Plus (a good place to get beer, BTW).

Sam Smith gives you bigger bottles for more of your money, which isn't a discount, but an excuse to drink more beer in one sitting.  I bought a large glass specifically for drinking Sam Smith beers, starting with these.

I bought all 3 varieties, and have tried 2 so far (I'm saving my precious cherry flavor for some special occasion or other, I guess...are Wednesdays special occasions?).  They both delivered exactly what I would have hoped: excellent color, great flavor, and fruit (it's healthier, like taco salad!).  

I would be lying if I tried to tell you that these beers were on a par with the Lindeman's Lambics, but they aren't supposed to be, as they aren't priced that way.  They are really good, though.  Do yourself a favor and get:

1) a big glass

2) all 3 flavors

3) a couch

4) nothing to do tomorrow

and go at it.  Enjoy being fruity like me! 

Traveling

Sorry for the lack of posts.  I've been busy getting ready for a business trip.  By the time you read this, I'll be winging my way to Doha, Qatar for three weeks.  It's not exactly a dry country, but it's expensive and from what I'm told, not a lot of selection.  We'll see and I'll let ya know.  In the mean time, I hope Crack can entertain you with his witty beer repartee!

Cheers!

VW

Boulevard Brewing Company Restrospective, Part 3: Boulevard Pilsner

Continuing on with the Boulevard Brewing Company comprehensive-in-name-only beer travelogue, we come to the brand-spanking-new Boulevard Pilsner.  Do you like Miller, or Bud, or Schlitz, or Pabst, but actually want your beer to taste good?  Look no further.

I had heard rumors of Boulevard Pilsner from some people in town and had been searching for it relatively actively for a few weeks.  I finally tracked it down at one of the local spirit shops...as it turns out, it was available at the grocery store we always go to, but you live and learn, people.  You live and learn. 

We grabbed a 6-pack (they only come in 6 packs) for us, and one for the pseudo-orphan we've adopted by giving him beer and various meats.  I had it last night with a dinner of BBQ pork chops, roasted red potatoes, and sauteed green beans (seriously, my special lady can saute vegetables like no one I know...they always turn out incredible). 

The beer was...terrific.  I was surprised, to be quite honest.  I don't generally enjoy beers in the "premium American lager" tree of beer that I envision in my dreams (the beer equivalent of Joseph's dreamcoat?), but Boulevard delivered the goods.  As opposed to the rest of the beers in its class (the Brahmins of beer, if you will), it actually tastes like beer, as opposed to water that somebody let some grains rot in for a minute.  There's a lot of hops flavor, and it actually stays with you (instead of turning into mineralicious tap water in a bottle). 

This beer is only available in Kansas City right now, but they just may go some places with it (they should).  Those people across the state at Anheuser-Busch may have name recognition, but Boulevard has taste recognition, as in, "gee, this tastes like real, actual, good beer...I recognize this."

Elysian Fields Dragonstooth Stout.

The other day, my partner in beer blogging waxed  all slobbery over Baltika Porter (no. 6).  It's a beer I didn't particularly care for.  So in return, I offer a similar style of beer that, in my humble opinion, is so much better than the Baltika Porter.

 Elysian Fields Brewing Company is out of Seattle and their Dragonstooth Stout is one of my favorite beers.  This is my benchmark when I try other stouts. 

First is the pour.  It's almost opaque with a thick creamy cocoa brown head.  I love it!  It just looks delicious.  Next come the aroma. Chocolate malt with a hint of coffee sneaking through.

The taste is similar to the nose, except that there is just enough hops to keep it from being too cloying.  The mouth feel is full-bodied and thick.  If it wasn't, I'd be so disappointed.  I'm thinking it would make a great beer float and indeed, The Red Hot here in Tacoma will be serving it up tomorrow.

My partner is in Kansas City so I don't think he can get Dragonstooth, but when he comes up here for a visit, He'll get his chance to tell me how wonderful it is and apologize for even thinking Baltika belongs in the same class.

Cheers!

VW

Third Time's The Charm

It's amazing the things we find in life after striking out at something else first.  Whether it's a job, a relationship, a tough victim who JUST escapes your elaborate ruse, or a beer, sometimes it pays to misfire a time or two.

Such was the case last night. 

Sandy and I went to a new place (to us) called The Foundry, the third in a bar triumvirate that dominates the corners of Pennsylvania and Westport Road.  The menu looked intriguing (read: extensive), and they have a pretty good selection of beers on tap.  Wednesday night out!

Sandy ordered McCoy's Hogpound Brown Ale (more on this in a later post), and I went with McCoy's Peach Wheat Beer.  My love of fruity beers is well documented.  As fate would have it, they had moved out the Peach Wheat in favor of a seasonal beer (what's more summer appropriate than a Peach Wheat beer?).  I decided to mix it up for my second attempt and try Boulevard's Bully Porter.  Fate struck again (think of it as the repeat of the Beethoven 5 exposition if you're a total nerd like me), as they were out of this, too.  Our server asked if I was interested in trying another porter, this one from a bottle.  I was in, because at the very least I assumed it was an available option if he recommended it.

He brought me a bottle of Baltika Porter no. 6.  I type Baltika because I don't know how to type Cyrillic, which is what the label used.  Baltika is a Russian brewery based in St. Petersburg, and they number their beers all together (which is to say they don't have six different porters). 

Baltika Porter is tremendously dark, somewhere between dark brown and black (kind of like the soul of the Mother Land), with a nice, thick foam that lasts a pretty good while.  It smells incredible; some chocolate here, some coffee there, and the tiniest bit of fruit flavor buried in there somewhere (a smarter man than I says it's plum, which seems plausible enough).  According to their website, Baltika makes this porter with both light and dark malts.  If I knew what that did to the beer, I assure you I would tell you, but suffice it to say it worked.  For a beer that is a full 7% alcohol by volume, it is incredibly complex, sweet, satisfying, and balanced.

What a treat.  I ended up having it with nachos, but only because I had made up my mind on nachos before the first two strikes on beer (for the record, I tend to judge a bar's food on my first impressions of their nachos, for reasons I cannot fully explain).  It didn't really work as a pairing, but who cares?  The nachos were good, the beer was amazing, and the company was terrific.  I'm speculating that it would have been a better pairing had I ordered one of the delicious looking burgers or a steak, or attempted to reconstruct the Soviet Empire.

It is no exaggeration to say that Baltika Porter has vaulted to the top of my list of favorite porters.  It is no exaggeration to say that Baltika Porter has vaulted to very near the top of my list of favorite beers.  I've never seen it anywhere, so I'm guessing it's pretty hard to find, but I will be on the hunt from this point forward.

Baltika Porter no. 6.  Go get some. 

Jurassic Beer

Remember the Jurassic Park Movies?  They extracted some DNA from some dinosaur blood ingested by a mosquito that was encased in some ancient amber. They cloned a few really nasty critters from the past and well, you know the story.  It's all fiction, but it made for a really good movie plot.  The concept, however, is not as far fetched as you might imagine.  Amber (which is fossilized tree sap) is real and and bugs and other objects are often found entombed within it.

If they encase visible bugs, than it stands to reason it also trapped invisible (to the naked eye) bugs.  In this case - yeast.  And to be more specific, ita 45 million year old strain of Saccharomyces, The same family of yeasts that are usually used in beer making.

The yeast was actually trapped in the gooey tree resin during the Eocene epoch, 20 million years after the last dinosaur perished. High temperatures and warm oceans created a balmy environment throughout the Earth, with palm trees growing in what’s now Alaska. And, fortuitously, the yeast is an ancient relative of today’s Saccharomyces, or brewer’s yeast. With 1,500 known species of yeast, a far less useful variety might easily have been captured in the resin.

Ancient brewer's yeast?  You know someone had to try it and they did.  The first batch was a home brew made for the cast party for one of the Jurassic Park movies.  There is now a commercial brewer using the yeast to brew beer appropriately called Fossile Fuels Brewery in Manteca, CA.

I don't find it rated on Beer Advocate or Ratebeer.com.  It probably isn't that well known, but I'd sure like to give it a go!

Cheers!

VW