GETTIN’ ALL GIGGLY WITH MARIN BREWING’S “BLUEBEERY”

I’ve said it before, I’ve got no problem ordering up a fruit-flavored beer, though naturally I’m always ready for the letdown that follows at least 50% of the time. Best fruit beer going today? I’m glad you asked: Dogfish Head’s Aprihop. Worst fruit beer? Probably that SWEETWATER BLUE I had earlier in the year. Last weekend me & my son hopped a ferry for his first-ever boat ride, and took it from San Francisco to Larkspur, in Marin County. Needing some lunch – hey! Guess what happens to be at the Larkspur ferry terminus! MARIN BREWING! Wow, what a surprise? ;) (note: that was the first emoticon I’ve ever used in one of my blogs). So over a pizza at the brewery – which you may recall Hedonist Beer Jive just visited for the first time last month – I quaffed a BLUEBEERY ale, which I chose simply because I’d tried the other two choices that sounded interesting last time I was here, and to my disappointment, this place still only was serving the same five beers they had going last month.

BLUEBEERY was decent enough. It’s the sort of light-bodied pale ale that just about anyone can drink, and it’s a smart choice to have on tap for a social setting like this brewery, where many a gaggle of giggling girls was present. Nope, it’s not “girl beer”, but I could see how one might argue that it could be. It’s just a lighter, less-threatening beer, and it is probably only mildly interesting to the beer dork when on field studies as I was. The fruit was not “front-forward”, as they say, and was a satisfying backdrop to a lightly-hopped, zesty, easy-drinking ale. I barely felt any sort of effect from drinking it, which was just about right given my immense responsibilities shepherding a 4-year-old around his first brewery and first ferry. For its time and its place, it’s pretty all right. 6/10, available in 22-oz. bottles and at the pub itself.

BIG UPS FOR STONE'S "12TH ANNIVERSARY BITTER OATMEAL CHOCOLATE STOUT"

Though it seems far less than a year ago that we were talking about STONE BREWING's 11th Anniversary "black IPA", here they are with another anniversary and another fantastic, total curveball of a black beer. The 12TH ANNIVERSARY BITTER OATMEAL CHOCOLATE STOUT is a midnight black imperial stout, clocking in at 9.2% and served only in half pints at the bar I drank it at (I also bought a bottle a few weeks ago that's cooling its heels in my garage). It is quite a treat. Like many Stone beers, love 'em or hate 'em, it has a fairly alcohol-forward profile, but this is covered reasonable well by an avalanche of cocoa, Mexican chocolate and roasted malts, giving it a nice grainy taste that stands up well (i.e. it's thick but not soupy - more like rich and silky). "Perfect for summer"! Not a sweet beer by any means, which is fine with us. I think a full pint of it would've been too much to consume anyway, so grab a bomber, invite two friends over and let the mirth flow upon you. 8/10.

THE HBJ DISHONOR ROLE

Here are the ten lowest-rated beers in Hedonist Beer Jive’s 2.5-year history. All have earned their shame through a combination of tastelessness, poor balance, absurd flavors and/or complete & utter lack of distinction.

1. PEAK BREWING – Organic Amber
2. GEORGE GALE & CO – Gale’s Christmas Ale
3. McCOY’S PUBLIC HOUSE – Newcomb’s IPA
4. DIAMOND BEAR BREWING – Presidential IPA
5. KEOKI BREWING – Sunset Island Style Lager
6. AVENTINUS – Weizen Eisbock
7. SWEETWATER BREWING – Sweetwater Blue
8. HEARTLAND BREWING – Farmer John’s Oatmeal Stout
9. THREE FLOYDS – Dreadnaught Imperial IPA
10. ROGUE – 2007 Santa’s Private Reserve

LOST ABBEY’S “CARNEVALE” – A SAISON FOR ALL SEASONS

Second in a trio of LOST ABBEY beers I “imported” from Santee, CA last month, total liquid gold that could probably fetch me $60 per bottle on eBay, but that I instead drank in the comfort of my own home while images of dollar bills with wings flying away danced in my head. LOST ABBEY CARNEVALE is another knockout from one of America’s top 2 brewers. It’s a saison/farmhouse ale, but given the old 1-2 and souped up with American hops. It’s an unfiltered beauty with a real subtle complexity, very crispy and “snappy” and quite light-bodied and soft on the tongue. It pours a nice golden color, not that murky brown you’ll see in some saisons, and it retains this pillowy head of foam for a nice long while, so much so that it’s a little infuriating waiting for it to calm down so you can drink the damn thing.

It seems almost a shame to have so many single-batch beers being created by this brewer, barely distributed and never to see the light of day again. I obviously wouldn’t care, but these are seriously among the world’s great beers (GIFT OF THE MAGI, anyone?), and a couple of them even put LOST ABBEY’s own difficult-to-find regular lineup to shame. Not even a mediocre beer yet by these guys, and CARNIVALE’s a 9/10 in my book.

IN KANSAS THEY SAY “FOUR FINGERS”

Got a bottle of this FLYING MONKEY FOUR FINGER STOUT the other day from the same trade I made that brought me the whole BOULEVARD BREWING SMOKESTACK SERIES. This was a “throw-in”, and I thought it was a pretty generous extra to put into the box, considering that it costs an additional $47 in shipping for every bottle you put in. FLYING MONKEY are based in Olathe, Kansas, the land of Dorothy & Toto, and I’m guessing it’s no accident that they named the brewery after the famous winged monkeys summoned by the Wicked Witch of the West to vanquish the aforementioned (“Wizard of Oz” is huge in our house right now, given that a 5-year-old lives there). But what of their stout? Well, it’s kind of a mixed bag. It certainly is black – blacker than black – as black as OLDER VISCOSITY, and that’s pretty damn black. It’s also got quite a bite to it, with a taste of charred grain, coffee grounds and slight chocolate. I only really like one of those things. Heavy roasted feel across the tongue, which my notes capture as being “strange”. I’m not sure what to make of it; I got it down without a lot of complainin’, but that doesn’t say a whole lot, does it? 6/10.

PLINY THE ELDER: A VERY GOOD OVERRATED BEER

Beer hounds the world over are gossiping about the arrival this month in bottles of RUSSIAN RIVER BREWING’s double IPA, PLINY THE ELDER. This beer’s been an on-tap favorite of many for a few years now, with some folks describing it in rapturous terms and traveling through hell’s half acre to drink a mere pint of it. I guess, having had a few pints of this in my time, I’ve never quite really understood the whoop-de-do. Well now those very same pints are in bottles, at least in a few select markets, and I picked myself up a bottle last Friday to see if this very good, if exceptionally overrated beer, had any different mojo working when bottled. I report: it does not. PLINY THE ELDER is another rock-solid west coast IPA, with a distinctly piney, almost oily character that sets itself a wee tad apart from some of the others, and naturally it’s hopped-up as hell. It tastes quite bready, with grapefruit being the predominant fruit flavor, though again, it’s got that pine forest thing going on that must be what’s driving the kids crazy out there in the beer forums. Hard for me to understand why this IPA, of all IPAs, is so exceptional. It’s a good one, but in a blind tasting if you told me it was from Sacramento Brewing or Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing or Osprey Springs Ales & Lagers, I’d totally believe ya. 7.5/10. My previous score stands.

PS – I bought a bottle of BLIND PIG IPA as well, and that one – well, that one deserves every bit of hype it gets thrown at it. We’ll see how it fares out of a bottle later this week.

A TRIP TO LA TRAPPE

Last year there were three major arrivals in the San Francisco Bay Area for lovers of fine beer: THE TRAPPIST in Oakland, easily one of my favorite bars going; THE MONK'S KETTLE in San Francisco's Mission District, a place I'm sorta on the fence about due to their high prices & limited seating; and LA TRAPPE, in the famous olde-world San Francisco Italian neighborhood of North Beach. I've made it to the former two a couple times or more, but I'd never set foot in LA TRAPPE. La Trappe's a Belgian restaurant, see, but it's also a bar featuring over 180 bottles beers and a Belgian tap list that's nothing short of amazing. Me & DP checked this place out a couple of weeks ago, and over much shuckin' and jivin', hijinks & shennanigans and even a little bit of chicanery, we got a fantastic meal and maybe the best triple-punch of beers I've had in many a moon.

To start with, I fear for LA TRAPPE's future. Sure, we were there on a Wednesday night, but to have only 2 tables full at 7:30pm during the height of tourist season was a total bummer in the summer. This pain and fear of impending loss was made all the more acute by how wonderful this place is. Terrifically friendly (if a little "green") staff, nice layout, happening location, cool secret downstairs beer bar, and best of all, an outstanding plate of grub. We both ordered this very fresh, "very artisanal" plate of Belgian chicken and vegetable strew - it has some sort of Belgian name that I neglected to jot down, and is native to the city of Ghent. Hey! We know a guy from Ghent! I asked the Belgian waitress if she knew Ton Arnaert, and she slapped my face. Serves me right, I guess. Anyway, the menu is split between Belgian specialties (sadly, no fondue) and - uh - burgers & pub food. I'm telling you, go Belgian all the way here, because they've got a superstar chef workin' the sauces back there. Great meal.

The three beers I had were, like I said, maybe the finest triple threat I've put together since my last visit to the Russian River brewpub. Would you believe me if I said WESTMALLE TRIPEL was the worst beer I had of the night? And that it still ruled? Here's what went down:

WESTMALLE TRIPEL - I know this is supposed to be the tripel to end all tripels, and pretty much the standard-bearer for the Trappist style. I admit my shortcomings when I say that the one I had this evening was only my second. This one gives you an immediate zing, a very big, strong and complex herbal zing at that. Very spicy and peppery, and it wears its very high 9.5% alcohol content well. I may have called this a 7.5/10 in the past, but now I think it's grown in stature to a big 8/10. (I recognize that there are those who believe this to be the finest beer in the world - I'll keep trying it out to see when I agree).

DE PROEF ZOETZUUR FLEMISH ALE - Whoa. I was in the mood to try something a little more sour, and this Flanders Red Ale was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Only have tried one other beer from De Proef, and that was their team-up with PORT BREWING to make "Signature Ale". This one's quite a bit better than that fine ale. It's a burgundy/red ale, a fantastic mix of tart and sweet, with the predominant taste being not-quite-ripened cherries. Smooth as all get-out, and retains all the "musty" character you'd want in a sour while still being very drinkable. Grab this with extreme prejudice should you ever come across it. 9/10.

GOUDEN CAROLUS AMBRIO - After that "Zoetzuur" I was definitely in the mood for drinkin' if you know what I mean. What else could this place throw at me? Can you believe they upped their game even more? GOUDEN CAROLUS AMBRIO was even better! It's a thin-bodied, Belgian-style amber/pale ale, and it's nothing short of one of the most flavorful beers I've ever had. Everything was going right with this one - fruit and caramel, some woody/barrel tastes, and this off-the-charts drinkability that would make this veeeery dangerous at Tom Arnaert's next kegger/beer bongathon in Ghent. I saw someone who wrote that it reminded him/her of UNIBROUE's MAUDITE, and given how much I love that beer, that's high praise indeed. This one might be even better. I totally showed this beer my O face. 9.5/10.

I'm going to patronize this place as much as my wallet and schedule will allow; it far exceeded my expectations, and any San Francisco pilgrims would be well-advised to check it out. Don't worry, it looks like you'll get a table.

AVERY FIFTEEN – A BELGIAN TREAT FROM THE ROCKIES

Ahh, I remember last year’s unveiling of the AVERY FOURTEEN, the 14th anniversary beer from AVERY BREWING, like it was yesterday – what a miraculous discovery that one was. I’m a huge Avery Brewing fan thanks to their way of amassing and combining a wide array of brewing styles and techniques, and always coming up smelling of roses (and hops, and yeast, etc.). These guys have been punching above their weight for years now. So of course it was a no-brainer to buy a 22-oz. bottle of this year’s anniversary ale, AVERY FIFTEEN. This one’s great as well, though it does not ascend the lofty heights of its predecessor. I’m actually glad I liked it as much as I did, as a well-schooled friend told me that he’d had it earlier in the week and it had been a “pour-out”. Ouch!

AVERY FIFTEEN tastes like it just arrived on the early boat from Belgium along with the fondue pots. A distinct floral smell, and immediate taste of hibiscus (yeah, seriously!). A little mild, tart funk, much like you’d find in a classic Trappist tripel like the WESTMALLE (more on that one next week). Complex and big, and an almost light orange in color. They say it’s supposed to taste of figs. I don’t taste any, but I don’t care. This is a unique beer that’s highly drinkable for the amount of experimentation going on inside of it., and I'd recommend it to any dabbler in the craft beer arts. 7.5/10!

BLESSED ARE THE BEER DORKS

There's a fantastic new resource that's now officially launched after a short "quiet period" - it's the CALIFORNIA BEERZINE, and they've even seen put to publish one of my articles called "Blessed Are The Beer Dorks". I wrote it for their launch and in celebration of you and me. You can read that here.

California Beerzine is partially the brainchild of HAIR OF THE DOG DAVE, aka David Stickel, creator of one of the finest beer-released blogs "of all time". It looks like he's recruiting some heavy hitters to get this thing off the ground, like Jessica Jones, aka THE THIRSTY HOPSTER, and the HOT KNIVES fellas. Quality all the way down the line - it promises to be an outstanding place to go and look at pictures of beer whilst salivating over descriptions of beer.

RUSSIAN RIVER’S “HAPPY HOPS” – KIDDING ME?

Cruised into San Francisco’s TORONADO the other night for a nightcap – it ended up being the penultimate beer before the nitecap – and saw that RUSSIAN RIVER BREWING had a special new beer on the big board, “HAPPY HOPS”. Are you kidding me? That’s the worst beer name since Marin Brewing’s “Hoppy Holidaze”. It sounds pretty tossed-off, and at some level, this beer sort of tastes that way as well. Not to say it’s bad – it’s never bad with these guys – just unremarkable by Russian River Brewing standards. HAPPY HOPS tastes like a straight-up single IPA or hoppy blonde ale. It has a very slight hop bite, and is wrapped in this light-to-medium bodied pale ale, with a little pine taste sneaking in to remind you of greater glories like BLIND PIG IPA and PLINY THE ELDER. If what I read online is true – that this is their brewpub-only AUD BLONDE with a dose of hops thrown into the kettle – well, that’s pretty much what it tastes like – an experiment with middling-to-good results. 7/10.

I'VE RECEIVED THE GIFT OF THE MAGI

I sent my poor pregnant sister into the wilds of Santee, California to procure me a set of LOST ABBEY BREWING rarities. Figured, she lives down there, I don't; she can't drink beer, I can; I have money for baby toys; she needs baby toys. It all worked out, and then some. She got me three 22-oz. bottles of splendor, all three of which will be reviewed on this blog either presently or in the near future. Let's start with what I now believe to be the finest beer ever created by incredible, world-beating brewer Tomme Arthur and his Lost Abbey team: GIFT OF THE MAGI. I'm going to get my 10/10 rating out of the way, and then tell you why.

I drank this with another teetotaller, my wife, who demanded none of the beer and yet persisted with my lip-flapping and political ranting as the 9.5% ABV warmed my noggin. GIFT OF THE MAGI is, as they say, "a burnished gold elixer", and a dry-hopped biere de garde. It is a muted orange in color - a burnished gold, you might say - and it contains both a deep roasted taste and a very (very) mild bit of funkiness. The primary flavor is honey, I'd have to say, but not honey like you find in some Trader Joe's contract-brewed knockoff, but the finest and most rare of honeys, brought to Jesus Christ himself along with a pot of frankencense or whatever. I swear to g*d, I'd drink this just about every time when put up against any other beer. It immeidately goes into my favorite beers of all time list, and I'll do anything to get another bottle of it. Again, 10/10 if you're skimming. Wow.

KICKING IT FARMHOUSE STYLE

“Farmhouse” is in, folks. It’s Summer 2008’s choice beer term. Belgian saisons are hot hot hot. With that in mind, I picked up a bottle of LA BIERE DES COLLINES SAISON 2000 farmhouse ale, created by Brasserie Ellezelloise in Ellezelles, Belgium. You know how some bottles of beer just look like they’re going to taste great, even when you’ve never heard of nor read anything about them? The marketing on this thing just screamed “Drink me”, and that I did. The SAISON 2000 Farmhouse ale was, as we’ve come to expect from this olde-world style, very “earthy” – a tan-colored, exceptionally delicate and smooth thirst-quencher. That’s what I hear the peasants used to say after a long day of manual labor, as they were throwing this stuff down their throats by the bucketful. This particular version was not so remarkable in that I’ve very little to say beyond what I’ve just said – but hopefully you’ll believe me when I say you might want to pick up a bottle to toss down after a long hard day in front of your laptop. 7.5/10.

A TRIP TO MARIN BREWING

MARIN BREWING, I’ve long thought, is a semi-forgotten brewer in the San Francisco Bay Area, nestled as it is within an hour of Russian River, Lagunitas, Moylan’s, Bear Republic and some other heavy hitters. Their beers have always satisfied me, though I’ve chided myself on recent occasions for not really exploring the lineup. They’re always available in bombers in & around this area, and they’re always on my “I’ll try it someday” list. So me an CM decided we needed to make “someday” “today”. Last night we headed up there to see what the dealio was with this place. Here’s what we found.

First, if you know anything about Marin County in 2008, it’s not at all about hot tubs, hippies and yoga. No, it’s about wealth, wealth, wealth – as it’s always been. With wealth and youth comes a certain brand of attractive, well-dressed, well-coiffed female, and their only slightly more slovenly male counterpart, out for a drink and a laff at 6:30pm on a Tuesday night. The brewery, located as it is within a shopping center (!) in Larkspur, was crawling with these types. Not your usual brew doggie scene at all. The place is jovial, loud, high-ceilinged, and a little by-the-numbers for my tastes. Food was quite good, if you like burgers and onion rings (and I do), though there was much more to the menu than your pub basics. Let’s talk about the beer. Here’s where the evening fell down for me a bit. I was expecting a good portion of the entire MARIN BREWING lineup to be on tap here, as well as 2-3 brewery-only surprises. I most wanted to try the ALBION AMBER, which I’ve heard good things about, as well as the TRIPEL DIPSEA , which I had last year and loved. Nope, only a mere 6 beers on tap – two of them were fruit ales, one light blonde ale, their stout, and then the two I tried. I reckon they may only have the ability to serve what they’ve just produced that week or month, but it sort of negates the need for me to make repeated road trips across the Golden Gate Bridge. Spoken like a true beer dork, right?

Anyway, first up was LEFT END PALE ALE, an unfiltered, tangy pale ale. More hoppy than I expected, with a sharp citrus taste. Somehow for an unfiltered ale, it was much more “clear” than I expected. Liked it, didn’t love it, but it’s certainly worth a go if you’re up here. 6.5/10. I then moved on to the only “special/limited” choice on the menu board today, and that was Marin’s DOPPLE WEIZEN. That’s “big-ass wheat beer” in English. It was served in a small 10-oz. glass, and has an ABV of 7.8%. It’s a fluffy, very strong hefeweizen with no head at all. Also very clear and thin-bodied. Doesn’t have that je ne sais quoi that Southern Tier’s Heavy Weizen has, not by a long shot. Very good beer, but I have to admit I was expecting to walk out of here with a couple of new ringers under my belt. 7/10.

SQUARING THE CIRCLE WITH “THE SIXTH GLASS”

I made a big beer trade two months ago in order to land the entire BOULEVARD BREWING “Smokestack Series” of special-run, one-time-only beers. There were 4 in all: a saison, an IPA, a tripel and a quadrupel. Astute readers may remember that me and a couple of pals knocked out 3 of the 4 in one fell swoop – the results are posted here. Would the final beer, a quadrupel called THE SIXTH GLASS, be able to best the “LONG STRANGE TRIPEL”? Could it actually score a hallowed 9, 9.5 or 10 on the 10 scale? I decided to find out one evening at home. Armed with Season 3 of “The Wire” and my Chimay glass, I went to work. I knew it wouldn’t be an easy assignment. At 10.5% alcohol, THE SIXTH GLASS is a live one. A hot one, too – a beer that immediately smacks the taste buds with that eye-watering fusel alcohol taste. That’s a taste I’ll never get used to, and part of the reason I’m not much of a spirit drinker. I don’t like it in beer and never have, and I love it when a double-digit ABV beer finds creative ways of balancing that taste out of the equation. This one did not. It’s a beautiful amber brown color, with a medium-syrupy texture that unfortunately is not smooth of “fluffy” enough. I like my Belgian-style beers to be pillowy and/or well-balanced overall, and despite some pretty intense yeasty tastes, this one just did not do it for me. It’s a shame – out of the 4 beers, two were excellent, and two weren’t very good at all. This falls into the latter camp. 5.5/10.

NEW BELGIUM’S EXCELLENT “LE FLEUR MISSEUR”

I’m one of those dwindling NEW BELGIUM BREWING partisans, dwindling at least in the sphere of craft-beer dorks, who see the wide availability and continued high drinkability of FAT TIRE as some kind of sacrilege. Having recently completed a round of trying out all of the key “macro micros” again, I believe that Fat Tire is the best of the bunch, beating my old favorite Anderson Valley Boont Amber and other 1990s studs like Pyramid Hefeweizen for sheer, good-time beer enjoyment. But no, we’re not here to talk about that today – we’re hear to rain praise upon the finest beer I’ve ever tried from this Fort Collins, Colorado brewer. It’s called “LE FLEUR MISSEUR”, and it’s only available on tap around the USA. It’s a beer that the brewery put together for its employees back in 2003 to celebrate their 15th anniversary, and I guess it was so well-received that they’re resurrecting it as part of a special-run, limited-edition, tap-only series of specials in 2008.

LE FLEUR MISSEUR is just a marvelous creation. A spicy, light pale ale that resembles a wit in both color and in some style elements, yet has a distinct fresh, floral taste to it, with a special emphasis on pineapple. Yeah, pineapple. And it totally works. I tried this thing in a pizza pub in Little Rock, Arkansas a couple weeks ago (VINO’S), and I was seriously tempted to just drink this one the whole night and ignore the bountiful house brews. It’s incredibly good, and I hope it lasts on tap through the entire summer. 9.5/10.

INTERSTATE EPIPHANIES?

I'm interested in hearing about any surprise discoveries you've encountered in travels to other states. For instance, a beer you brought back in your suitcase, a beer you traded for from someone far away, or something you found on tap somewhere that you could never get at home. These "interstate ephiphanies" are a blast, and they're what makes beer travel so much fun. My personal list of nine beers I could never find in San Francisco, but was blown away to discover in one of those 3 fashions above, are:

1. THREE FLOYDS - Alpha King (Indiana; received in a trade, and got on tap in Chicago)

2. BROOKLYN BREWING - Extra Brune (New York; tried on tap in Brooklyn)

3. DARK HORSE - Tres Blueberry Stout (Michigan; received in a trade)

4. DENNISON'S - Weizen (Ontario; tried on tap in Toronto)

5. SOUTHERN TIER - Heavy Weizen (New York; smuggled home in a suitcase)

6. BROOKLYN BREWING - Local 1 (New York; a friend smuggled it home in a suitcase, and shared)

7. BOULDER BEER - Hazed & Infused (Colorado; tried on tap in New York, then smuggled a bottle from Denver in a suitcase)

8. GOOSE ISLAND - 312 Urban Wheat (Illinois; received in a trade)

9. CAPTAIN LAWRENCE - Saint Vincent's Dubbel (New York; a friend smuggled & shared)

What about you? C'mon, share your discoveries in our comments section!

LET'S GO DRINKING IN LITTLE ROCK (PART 3: VINO'S)

Of the 60 hours or so that I spent in Little Rock, Arkansas last week, I'd have to rate the 3 spent at VINO'S near downtown as the best. VINO'S is a pretty unassuming little "pizza pub and brewery", as they call themselves, and we're talking maybe 1500 square feet or so all told, kitchen and tanks and tables included. Not only do they make an excellent meat-lover's pizza and a superlative vegetarian pizza; not only do they serve excellent non-house beers like NEW BELGIUM's Le Fleur Misseur on tap (more on that another time); but their own beers are fresh, high-quality, I-wish-they-bottled-'em ales.

Let's start with the IPA, as we so often do. Their PINNACLE IPA is a creamy, dark orange dreamsicle of a beer, fairly light-hopped for the style. They did their best to keep the bitterness in check, and therefore this is the sort of IPA you used to see 5-10 years ago, before uber-hopping really took off. It's really, really good - the best local beer I tried out here. 7.5/10. I then moved on to the FIREHOUSE PALE ALE. This one was knocked down a notch and a half simply out of boredom. It is a malty pale ale, slight hops, lightly redolent of fruit - fairly uneventful but solid enough. You'd drink it if you were thirsty, that's for darn sure. 6/10. This is a cool place, definitely first on my radar over Bosco's and the Flying Saucer bar next time I get into town. For more Little Rock beer spelunking, check out this post here.

LET’S GO…DRINKING IN LITTLE ROCK (PART 2 – DIAMOND BEAR)

I’ll keep this as brief as it deserves to be. Last week in Little Rock, Arkansas, me & a co-worker decided to try out the FLYING SAUCER DRAFT EMPORIUM, which is a chain of beerhalls in the American South. You may recall we went to the one in Nashville earlier in the year; this one is situated in downtown Little Rock, right in the city’s small-ish entertainment district. On a Tuesday night, it was packed for pub quiz/trivia night, and at 10pm it appears that the intoxication level was quite high. Good times. Having already downed several pints at VINO’S a couple of miles away (more on that another time), I gave myself one roll of the craft beer dice at this place, one lone pint to close out my stay in Little Rock. As it turned out, I rolled quite poorly. I chose the PRESIDENTIAL IPA from local brewer DIAMOND BEAR BREWERY, and regretted the decision from the word go. This IPA was just awful. Hopped in a strange manner, redolent of soap, and possessing a weird sour tang that made me wonder if it was “off”, the Presidential IPA reminded me of eye-watering homebrew that you drink with a wince & furiously nod your head to as your homebrewer friend looks closely for your reaction. Locals only for sure. Wow. Maybe the worst beer of the year. 2.5/10.

HBJ IN BREAKING TRAINING

Inspired by an article in yesterday’s New York Times, my wife bet me that I can’t stick to a 4-times-a-week exercise schedule for the next eight weeks, with weightlifting and running as part of the drill. I believe that I can, given the reward. The carrot is a total craft beer blowout evening, with my better half as designated driver. I’ll be chauffered to CITY BEER, 21st AMENDMENT, the MONK’S KETTLE, MAGNOLIA and TORONADO in the same evening – and if I want to keep the party going after that, I get to say so. With my new ultra-ripped and well-muscled bod, I may even have the stamina for it. I don’t even have to give up beer or overeating. Let the games begin!

LET’S GO…..DRINKING IN LITTLE ROCK (PART 1: BOSCO’S)

I figured a business trip to Little Rock, Arkansas this past week might net me a couple of new beer discoveries, as I ticked this state from my list of seven states I’ve never set foot in (now down to a mere six: both Dakotas, Montana, Alaska, Wisconsin and Maine). Sure, my pre-trip research on BEER ADVOCATE netted me my agenda for the trip, as it so often does – and as it turned out, I pretty much conquered the top picks of the people. I’ll take you through my learnings over the next couple of posts, because you never know when life might drop you in the middle of Little Rock, Arkansas, a town I knew for a mere two things: our former President Clinton, and Central High School & the “Little Rock 9”. Now I can safely add two breweries and a local beer to the list.

We begin our adventures at “the restaurant for beer lovers”, BOSCO’S, in downtown Little Rock. Bosco’s, like BJ’s, Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch, is a chain restaurant centered around beer, though Bosco’s appears to be confined to only a select few cities in the American South. I learned about them through their ubiquitous advertising in ALL ABOUT BEER magazine, whose most recent issue I read on the plane out here. They brew their own beer on premises, and tend to put a slightly more upscale spin on “beer food” then your typical sports bar/pub. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy a heaping pile of fried artichoke hearts with some high-calorie ranch dip – I mean, I was in the South. One must do as the people do. That was, I’m sad to report, the best part of the menu. Stay away from the duck spring rolls and especially from the gulf shrimp pasta in cream sauce – kinda gross. Edible, but just that.

Beer-wise, these guys are a much happier story. I immediately went for the ISLE OF SKYE SCOTTISH ALE, a very pleasing, malty, amber-colored beer that I daydreamed drinking by the bucketful while yelling “Soooo-ey!” at Arkansas Razorbacks football games. It has a nice slight bite to set it apart from other pedestrian ales of the Scottish/Scotch variety, though said bite was of unknown origin, and I am too pedestrian myself to figure it out. Great beer style, fast becoming a favorite of mine. HBJ says 7/10 for this one. Not too far of a step down for the BOMBAY IPA, either, though it was slightly more run of the mill. This IPA was mild in its hopping, and it’s the sort of IPA that you don’t really see all that often on the west coast, where everyone’s engaged in an effort to one-up the next guy with the most tongue-destroying use of hops (a trend, by the way, that I’m very happy with). No, this orange IPA was all right by me, but if I find my way back to Bosco’s ever again I’m going to go for other beers on the menu instead. 6/10.

I learned after the fact that this brewery had a bunch of other taps & bottles from Southern breweries besides their own “house” beers, but that’s not anything our server told us about it. Perhaps it is for the best, as I might have ordered the abysmal IPA from DIAMOND BEAR BREWING, but…..shhh…..that’s a drinking tale for another day. Stay tuned!

THE CURIOUS TALE OF ALLAGASH CURIEUX

At THE TRAPPIST the other night I decided to up my ALLAGASH BREWING game and try out the ALLAGASH CURIEUX, an 11% ABV “big beer” that I’ve resisted buying it bottles due to its $10+ price tag. CURIEUX is indeed big. I could taste the fact that it was barrel-aged in oak from the very first sip of foam – even before I got to the liquid itself. The beer is obviously exceptionally well-made: it left an intricate pattern of lace on the glass (some people actually get off on that sort of thing), and it grew ever-tastier as it warmed, with sweet, thick tastes of maple and oak came through. It’s a “pretty” beer as well – a light orange, which belies its very thick mouthfeel. I don’t know, it was pretty good but maybe not something I wish to invest in again. What sayeth others? 6.5/10.

DOUBLE SHOT OF RUSSIAN RIVER LOVE

Unless I’m up at the brewery or at a bar that pours more than one RUSSIAN RIVER BREWING beer, I don’t often get the chance to drink two of their outstanding, world-class beers in a single week. Perhaps if I were more of a drinker I would. That’s the thing with me – for all my frequent posts on this blog about all the beer I’m drinking, at the end of the day, those are the only beers I’m drinking, to the tune of about 3-5 glasses in total per week. Sometime I truly wish I were more of a lush. That said, it makes me appreciate near-perfection that much more. The other night, before venturing out to watch some archival punk rock films in Berkeley, I went to one of my Top-5 bars ever, THE TRAPPIST in Oakland, CA (I say this despite being somewhat ashamed to admit that this was only my third time there…..it’s that good!). Seeing that they had RUSSIAN RIVER’s REDEMPTION on tap, I immediately sprang into action. I’ve had this dark blonde ale before, but I don’t think I liked it quite as much as I did this time. Tastes of bittering and slight candy sweetness immediately dart about the tongue, and by “dart” I mean dart – this thing’s got some serious zing to it. It’s tangy, with medium hopping, which keeps it from being too puckering. I’m starting to develop this sense of beers that are “above the line” (the special few that totally blow me away) and “below the line” (the grand majority of beers). This one’s definitely above. 9/10.

Last Saturday we broke into our home stash and busted out a bottle of RUSSIAN RIVER BEATIFICATION. I had this once before, at this Russian River night at San Francisco’s Toronado, but rather than a 6-oz glass I got to savor the whole bottle all by myself in the comfort of mine own home. You know what? If I said this was my “least favorite” Russian River beer, and yet still rated it a big 7/10, would you get a pretty good sense of what I think of this brewer. It may not have been “above the line”, but it was still damn good. It had an initial smell of grapes and wine, so much so that I swore I was drinking some strange sour wine at first rather than beer – must be the serious oak-barrel aging they put this one through. Very citrus-y, full of grapefruit flavor and tang, and a real “dry” taste. Sour like crazy. No head at all. Seriously, the most wine-like beer I’ve had in some time. It’s not quite up to the level of that MONK’S CAFÉ FLEMISH SOUR ALE we were telling you about last month, but it’s still a ringer.

GORDON BIERSCH'S SOOPRIZE PACKAGE

Doesn't really matter where I drink 'em - the brewpub, a barbeque, on tap, in a bottle or at the ballgame - I really enjoy GORDON BIERSCH beers. Even the pilsner. You might have noticed I'm not really a lager kind a guy - no matter. Gordon Biersch, no matter how much their corporate tentacles spread across the country and soon the globe, just plain make good beer. Take the MARZEN, for instance. Why I just did the other day, as I watched my San Francisco Giants and Barry Zito get pounded during an afternoon scorcher. This beer is a malt-lover's deight. Beautiful red amber with zero head at all, the Marzen is refreshing and delicious. It's smooth, clear and caramel-tasting, with a medium body and just an overall feeling of being untainted by anything but good ingredients. That's pretty amazing for a brewer churning out as many barrels as these guys are, and yet I like 'em as much as I did when I first encountered their beers in the very early 90s. I keep thinking they're gonna suck, and they never do. 8/10.

I’M FINISHED WITH OMMEGANG

After one letdown after another, I’m finished sampling the beers of “Belgian-style” American brewer OMMEGANG. I’ve yet to drink a single beer of theirs I’d want to have again, and at this point I’ve had Ommegang, Hennepin, Three Philosophers and the newest bummer, OMMEGANG CHOCOLATE INDULGENCE. This came out around the holidays late last year to a good deal of hype, but honestly I can’t remember if I read any reviews from people raving about it, but somehow I must’ve, because I normally won’t pop $10+ for a bomber of beer unless it’s something pretty special. Hey, a beer with “real” Belgian chocolate – that might be kind of good, hunh? Yeah, except when it’s not. CHOCOLATE INDULGENCE is a heavy-malt beverage, and the Belgian chocolate that I’d hoped would be pretty intense ended up tasting like a sprinkling of cocoa powder, not even enough to satisfy the most chocolate-starved chocofile. The beer has a bitter, almost lager-like quality to it, and rather than the rich, creamy stout experience I was jonesing for, it was pretty much a “big whoop” all around. I saved my calories for another time and poured the final third of this bottle down the drain. Ouch. 4.5/10.

A NICE REFRESHING WINTERKONINKSKE

Back in December I picked up this “Christmas in Belgium” box of 5 Belgian winter ales, and it was a good move, despite how slowly I’m making my way through them. All are from fairly medium-sized, second-tier breweries - perception-wise, not quality wise. I’ve also seen a couple of them for sale as individual bottles elsewhere, so thankfully they weren’t just created for this box, they were simply pulled together by the importer, and packaged up with a nice bow so people like me would buy ‘em. My most recent conquest from the box is WINTERKONINKSKE from BROWEIRJ KERKOM in Kerkom-Sint Truidon, Belgium. It’s another winner. This dark, dark winter ale is exceptionally malty while remaining medium-bodied with a good aftertaste. Not too thick, which is good. Definitely unfiltered, with some serious sediment as the bottom of the bottle. Fairly hoppy, but really driven by the malts (seven types!) – as well as by flavors like figs, dates, and toffee. Man, seems like I’ve been saying that about a bunch of beers lately – I probably should start reviewing some ambers and some pale ales again. 7.5/10.

DE REGENBOOG T’SMISJE BBBOURGONDIER

Ahhh…..been a long time since we brought a Belgian Quadrupel into the house. Those things can get dangerous, but being that we at HBJ are big fans of the DE REGENBOOG family of beers, seeing this one on the shelf at San Francisco’s Healthy Spirits immediately triggered the “buy” reflex. T’SMISJE BBBOURGONDIER comes in this brewer’s trademark 11.2-oz stubby bottle, and it clocks in at (whoa!) a big 12” alcohol. Needless to say, the first thing one notices is how “warming” it is. This dark quadrupel is medium-bodied, and had not the “4-finger head” one often gets from a big beer like this – maybe something closer to two fingers. You know what? Who cares?? I really enjoyed the caramel, plum & fig tastes that sprang from this one, along with other dark, sugared flavors. You will likely not find it to be particularly overpowering. I sure didn’t, and sometimes I can get a little blown away with the ABV jumps into double digits. Another winner from this brewer. 8/10.

CATCHING UP WITH THE 21ST AMENDMENT

When I worked in San Francisco’s South of Market area last year, the 21ST AMENDEMENT BREWERY CAFÉ was my go-to watering hole of choice. Perhaps you dimly recall – there are posts here, here, here and here. There may have even been a handful of lunchtime beers ingested – I will neither confirm nor deny. But I’ve been out of the area for ten months now, and I sort of miss the place. They arguably make the highest-quality beer in the city of San Francisco, though you’ll definitely find some MAGNOLIA partisans and even a few SPEAKEASY (yuk!) fans as well. I got over there the other night before a Giants game, and made my poor light-lager-drinking father sit with me while I tried a new ale I’ve never had there before. It’s called “FRICO NECCIA”, and it’s a dark pale ale. No, seriously – a dark ale that drinks like a pale ale. Hey, that’s what they called it too. There’s an oaked, tannin-heavy quality to the beer, which definitely gives it a bit of a bite. Very interesting use of hops and malts – that is to say, VERY little hops and a TON of malt character, so pretty chewy and robust for the style. I really liked it – super-unique while still being something even my dad might be able to drink. 8/10. 21A’s still got it!

I HAD TO LAUGH

THE BEER RETARD's been one of the stalwart and most insightful of the beer blogging clan the last couple years, and certainly the one most dedicated to the craft, if you believe his self-reported intake levels. Who knew he was also a cartoonist, and a funny one at that?

TRUST THE MIDAS TOUCH

A few weeks back, DOGFISH HEAD BREWING’s beers made their long-desired debut in Northern California. They didn’t give us their entire lineup straight off the bat; no, a few beers were carefully hand-picked for the market here, including the 90-MINUTE IPA (lord knows we can use another firebreathing hoppy IPA on the west coast). One wild card beer out of the four they chose to give us is Dogfish Heads’ MIDAS TOUCH, an “ancient ale” made pretty much for beer dorks like us only. I really enjoyed this one, and I can say with some assurance that I’ve never had a beer similar to it. It poured with absolutely no head at all – just completely still with a few lingering bubbles. I’m not sure when the last time I saw that was. It’s an opaque honey-colored yellow/orange, and was almost lager-ish in how thin-bodied it “drank”. Good thing is, it tasted nothing like a lager. The prominent taste was, in fact, honey – along with green grapes (and grape skin) – a very interesting combination for sure, and combined with how easy drinking the beer was, actually came up as a beer that went down very easy while making you want to savor it. My wife, who drinks beer not at all, loved it. I did too. A great one to bring to beer country**, guys! 8/10.

** = Northern California

THE GREAT BOULEVARD SMOKESTACK SERIES TASTE-OFF

I was in Kansas City a few times this past year, and the local brewer of choice out there seems to be BOULEVARD BREWING. They appear to be the biggest of the hometowners, and if you recall our post about the Kansas City Royals game we attended last year, you’ll of course remember that Boulevard’s LUNAR ALE was a big hit with us (I’ve subsequently had it two more times as well). Well just this past month, BEER ADVOCATE magazine ran some reviews of Boulevard’s limited-run “Smokestack Series”, a collection of four 750ml corked bombers, generally focusing on bigger, more complex and higher-ABV beers. They are a Double IPA, a saison, a tripel, and (gasp) a quadrupel. I got all hopped-up & excited about this Smokestack Series and started looking for ways to “import” a bottle of each into California. Enter BW, a beer trader who just happened to be offering some up, and who was more than happy to get some LOST ABBEY and RUSSIAN RIVER treats in return. My pleasure! I just got these on Monday, and didn’t waste any time going to town on ‘em. Wednesday night there was a beer-off/tasting party that went down between four responsible adults. We only made it through 3 of them, and are saving the SIXTH GLASS QUADRUPEL for another day. Here’s what we thought of ‘em:

BOULEVARD SAISON: We decided to start with the lowest-ABV beer, the SAISON, which still clocked in at 6.2%. I believe it was the popular favorite. Very thin-bodied and yeast-redolent, while dispalying a rich, deep golden color in the glass. Like any Saison worth its weight, this one had a funky, earthy aftertaste, but was packed with flavor – and overall was pretty “normal”, and not bursting with complexity. One might even dare to call it refreshing. We loved it. 8/10.

BOULEVARD LONG STRANGE TRIPEL – Besting the Saison by a nose was this excellent tripel (it was my favorite of the three, but I was in the minority here). There’s even a hippie on the label (we were wondering if it was the fabled “Pigpen”). Just a sweet, creamy/malty, rich Belgian-style ale, punctuated with banana & even lemon flavors, and hiding its high ABV quite well. Very drinkable and just what I was hoping for from these guys. 8.5/10.

BOULEVARD DOUBLE-WIDE IPA – Oh well, nobody’s perfect, right? This big-ass double IPA reminded me of the alcohol bomb DOUBLE DADDY put out by SPEAKEASY that I don’t like. Too much alcohol, that hot “fusel” taste that negates any hoppy goodness going on – in fact this also had a strange and not entirely enjoyable aftertaste that I couldn’t get into. Maybe they were going for some sorta experiment in boundary-pushing with this one, but not on my dime, guys! 5/10.

Like I said, we’ll complete the quartile and report on THE SIXTH GLASS when we get around to drinking it. Tonight, and perhaps for several nights, we rest.

I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, “JOLLY PUMPKIN”….

If you were starting a world-class, upper-end microbrewery from scratch, you reckon that JOLLY PUMPKIN would be on your list of potential names? Ah, be that as it may, I’m a whimsical guy – I dig whimsy – but I do have fairly exacting standards for the beer I drink, and so far the beers of Dexter, Michigan’s JOLLY PUMPKIN are a little uneven. People are constantly on the prowl for these beers; they’re namechecked in all of your better blogs, and the price point for them suggests that the beers themselves are something special (if you subscribe to the “price as a cue for quality” theory of marketing). One time I tried their BAM BIERE, and it didn’t do much for me. Another time I went for LA ROJA (an aged, “artisan amber” ale), and I totally loved it. Now along comes this E.S. BAM, and it’s described right there on the bottle as a “hoppy farmhouse ale”. Hops, farms, ales – I am so there. Yet I (and the three people sharing this jumbo bottle with me) didn’t find a whole lotta love here. E.S. BAM is a souped-up saison, they say. We found it to be a light-bodied, light-on-the-stomach, semi-funky brown ale, with a little bit of “saltiness” to throw some edge on the fact that it was pretty hopped-out. This is the only beer I’ve ever had that I could say even remotely resembles tea, like tea as in Earl Grey or English Breakfast. Did I finish my glass? Of course I did – I even helped someone else out with theirs. Would I ever buy it again? No, that I would not. 5.5/10.

BOW DOWN BEFORE SAINT BERNARDUS

Of the 8 beers brewed by BROWERIJ SINT BERNARD in Watou, Belgium (known as ST. BERNARDUS to you and me), I’ve still got two to conquer. I keep forgetting to pick up the PATER 6 and the WATOU TRIPEL – but in time these too will be conquered. As many told me when I embarked on my beer mania and started this blog a few years ago, ST. BERNARDUS are among the kingpins of Belgian brewing. I got a few flabbergasted comments when I rated the ABT 12 a mere 6.5/10, and hey, given how much I’ve loved all of the subsequent beers from them that I’ve ingested, I guess I’m a little taken aback myself. Here’s how the six I’ve tried stack up:

GROTTEN BROWN 10/10
ST. BERNARDUS PRIOR 8 9/10
ST. BERNARDUS TRIPEL 9/10

ST. BERNARDUS 2007 CHRISTMAS ALE 8/10
ST. BERNARDUS WIT 7.5/10
ST. BERNARDUS ABT 12 6.5/10

That’s’ a pretty stellar set of scores, wouldn’t you say? As my palate adjusts more to intense, flavorful Belgian ale, I expect that revisiting some of these might even bump ‘em higher – the point being that all of the beers from this “browerij” are unique, complex and delicious. Let’s isolate one of them: ST. BERNARDUS PRIOR 8. I had my second bottle of this not too long ago, and it was fantastic. Dark, malty and bursting with fruit, this beer had this overwhelming “tang” that I couldn’t shake even fifteen minutes after completion – nor did I want to. The fruits were lighter, like those you might find in a tripel: tastes of grapes and apricots, mixed with a little fig & date action. The 8% ABV was a nice blancer between the sweet and the sour flavors, and overall this thing just soars. I went with a 9/10. On to the “PATER 6”!

LET’S GO....DRINKING IN DECATUR, GEORGIA

Last week I had a short one-day trip to Atlanta planned for work, and this time, rather than going to THE VORTEX, I did my homework. I went back to my two posts I did about drinking in Atlanta from earlier this year, and read the comments. They were unanimous – everyone said, “if you’re coming to Atlanta, you gotta go to the BRICK STORE PUB in Decatur”. As it turns out, Decatur is only a mere 10 minutes outside of Atlanta, and despite being in another county entirely, it was closer to my hotel than the places I’d gone in Midtown in previous trips. So needless to say, once I looked at the Brick Store Pub’s website and menu, I was pretty stoked. A full-on Belgian beer bar, with tons on tap and bottles like you wouldn’t believe! So I pulled into Decatur after mapquesting the place, and it’s a totally beautiful little upscale Southern town – rolling green grass, a cool old courthouse, giant homes, and loads of modern restaurants. But when I drove into the parking lot of the Brick Store Pub & peeked in the window – hey, now why are chairs stacked up on tables? Hey, it sure is dark in there……ugh, turns out I picked the day for my big beer-off in Decatur to be the day the place had decided to renovate. If I’d come on a Thursday, say, rather than a Tuesday, I’d be regaling you with tales of new Belgian conquests as we speak.

So there I was, a thirsty stranger in a strange town. Ah, but as I pulled into town I noticed a restaurant called CAKES & ALE – could the “ale”, in fact, be the sort of ale that I was craving? Indeed it was. CAKES & ALE is a Southern-style upscale restaurant that, rather than focusing on fritters & hush puppies, serves up high-end deviled eggs w/ pickles, and wild trout from North Carolina with greens. That’s what I had, in fact. Expense account, baby! They were having a bit of a problem with their taps, and as it turned out the only one of the 5 advertised beers on tap was ALLAGASH WHITE, a beer I’ve declared on this site to be “the North American wit bier standard”. No loss at all – in fact it was excellent, as this beer always is. I needed more, though. Down the street was the bar/restaurant “TACO MAC”. Having done my homework, I knew this TGI FRIDAYS-like chain restaurant had an amazing beer selection, something like 75 taps and another 150 bottles or so. As advertised, it had all that. It wasn’t just American macros and bigger-name micros – there were at least a couple dozen beers I’d never heard of. I ended up going with the HOP WALLOP from VICTORY BREWING, a beer some of you have told me is a good ‘un. Thanks! It was. It has a very intense hoppy bitterness that primarily manifested itself on the back of my tongue. Not as intense as some of the boundary-pushing west coast double IPAs, but absolutely strong enough to drive a big-hop newbie away for a while. I really liked it (7.5/10) – great for a humid evening at “Taco Mac”, and a good consolation prize for the night’s missed opportunity.

FIRST PRINCIPLES

This is probably miles from what you’ve come to this site for, so I’ll mention it this time and this time only. I enjoy yammering & running my proverbial mouth about a number of topics, and thought it might be fun to tackle that most subjective and opinion-laden of fields: politics & society. I’ve got a few bugaboos I’d like to tackle, and so given how cathartic writing for a blog can be (one can only rant at one’s wife, or at the newspaper, for so long), I’m announcing yet another blog in my media empire: FIRST PRINCIPLES. At the very least it will let me sleep at night.

FROM THE MUSKETEERS: TROUBADOUR OBSCURA STOUT

And I’m not kidding, the brewery in Belgium that makes this very interesting concoction is called BROUWERIJ DE MUSKETIERS. They only put forth three beers that I’m aware of, and this is one I’ve seen in better bottle shops and took a flyer on the other night at San Francisco’s CITY BEER (a great store that charges a mere $1 “corkage fee” for any beer bought and consumed in the store, and they’re overflowing with some pretty amazing beers). TROUBADOUR OBSCURA STOUT was served up in a 330ml bottle, and the label gives fair warning that it’s an 8.5% ABV big one. Is it truly a stout, though? I don’t think so – it was squarely in the Belgian dark ale camp, though quite sweet the way some English stouts can be. I recall a distinct eau de bier that smelled additionally of mocha, licorice and other sweet things. It was pretty strong & bold without that whole hardcore coat-the-tongue in alcohol thing going on. Definitely worth grabbing on a bottle run – I pecked the words “very enjoyable” into my cell phone when I rated this one a 7.5/10.