DINNER & BEER “SANS SOMMELIER” @ CAFÉ D’ALSACE

I had a quick buzz-in, buzz-out trip to New York City a couple of weeks ago and needed some dinner, and perhaps some quality beer to go with that dinner. Lacking much imagination, I decided that my co-worker and I needed to pay another visit to CAFÉ D’ALSACE at 88th and 2nd, which you may recall HBJ visited back in 2006. This place bills itself as a first-class gastropub, complete with its own “beer sommelier” on hand to guide you through the many bottled Belgian, German and US craft microbrews on hand. We discovered HACKER-PSCHORR DUNKEL WEISS there two years ago in the midst of a fantastic meal. This time the weather outside was so warm we got to sit at an outdoor table, with fire trucks screaming by and all manner of New York denizens strolling past. Perfect beer weather, and given that the work stuff wasn’t until late in the morning the next day, Café D’Alsace was a tempting place to throw down a few high-alc European beers, if you know what I’m sayin’.

First, I have to rave about the food at CAFÉ D’ALSACE. The chef is a total superstar. I had a French lentil soup, followed by a fish that was out of this world, followed by cheesecake. One of those bust-the-expense-account meals, where you just keep ordering and ordering, even through it has passed your “allowable spending threshold” & now is your responsibility to pay for. Who cares?? If you’re not in a beer-drinking mood, they’ve got a rich wine and cocktail selection – but honestly, when are YOU not in a beer-drinking mood? The “beer sommelier” was nowhere to be found, just like last time, and I have to think that maybe this is a bit of marketing gimmick – though I did not personally ask for this person to visit the table. He (or she) and I might have bored my companion to death with all of our beer talk, and besides, I felt like rolling the proverbial dice.

I started out with a French farmhouse ale called ST. SYLVESTRE GAVROCHE, a red ale in the bier de garde style. It was a shot in the dark, and this time it missed the mark by a wide margin. It tasted to me like a tart red lager, with a predominant taste of cherries and some caramel & general toastiness. The other taste I got out of it was aspirin – and I hate the taste of aspirin in my beer, don’t you? Not a boring ale by any means, but not a good one. For my first French beer ever, I’m pretty sure, it was kind of a bummer in the Indian summer. We gave it a 4.5/10.

You get off to a bad start like that one, you need to recover in a hurry, and that’s when I ordered up all-time favorite beer, TRAPPISTES ROCHEFORT 8, followed very quickly by a TRAPPISTES ROCHEFORT 6. The latter was so fantastic that I’ve resolved to re-rate it to a 10/10 from its previous perch at 9/10, and which brings it up the Hedonist Beer Jive charts into our Top 20. I absolutely love the Rochefort beers; I think they are without a doubt the finest of the true-blue trappist beermakers. Sitting out there in the balmy New York night, eating the food of the godz, and drinking the beer of the godz, shuckin’ and jivin’ and gossiping about people from work, it was hard to call it quits, but we did. I am glad this place has stayed in business for close to three years now, and highly recommend it if you should find yourself in Manhattan, as many folks so often do.

A PLUNGE INTO THE MEDIOCRE

It ain’t all Lost Abbey and Russian River and off-the-charts-amazing Belgian beers here at Hedonist Beer Jive, you know. Like you, we have to slog through a few hog troughs to get our hands on the elixirs we love. Because the beers we drink are self-selected, of course, and generally are purchased with HBJ’s own money, the quality level of what gets ingested is generally pretty high. That’s why most reviews I write are 7/10 or above; the new stuff I’m trying usually is being tried because someone told me about it, I read about it somewhere, or what have you. Yet believe it or not, there are still a few mediocre or barely-average beers that cross my lips. Here are a few of them, recently tried:

WITKAP-PATER SINGEL – See this one around all the time – it’s one of those Belgian beers with excellent distribution in the United States, and I grabbed it out of curiosity more than anything else. Didn’t really like it much. It is a very fizzy, almost champagne-like effervescent drink, with intense white grape flavors and too much bubbly on the tongue. Perfumed and fruity and just a little bit annoying. 5/10.

SUDWERK LAGER – Had this on tap at Delfina Restaurant in San Francisco. It’s a pale, basic, yellow lager, supposedly in the Munich Helles style. It’s really just not my thing – crisp and golden and good for washing food down, but seriously uninteresting and not something I want again. 5.5/10.

SAM ADAMS CHERRY WHEAT – Consumed at JFK Airport in NY, NY during a flight delay. A little astringent, with a hardcore cherry taste – even an over-the-top cherry smell. It’s a filtered wheat beer, I believe, and way too carbonated. Too much of a strange bite – not good for washing food down. I didn’t hate it, but regretted ordering it just the same. 5/10.

MAD RIVER STEELHEAD EXTRA PALE ALE – Consumed at “Kitty’s” in Emeryville, CA. Very pale yellow, dry while still being drinkable, but they weren’t kidding when they said “extra pale”. A little zesty with some sediment, believe it or not. Nothing earth-shattering by any means. I like this brewery’s barleywine, but this not so much. 5.5/10.

BEER DORKS, START YOUR ENGINES: BROUWER’S IMAGINATION 2008

This whole trend of elite brewers making single batches for specific bars seemed to start about a year ago when MONK’S CAFÉ in Philadelphia teamed up with Browerij Van Steenberge from Belgium to make MONK’S CAFÉ FLEMISH SOUR ALE. That seemed to be quickly followed by a couple of beers brewed from San Francisco’s TORONADO, and I’m pretty sure there’s another example or two that passed me by. Thanks to our Seattle beer connection, this BROUWER’S IMAGINATION 2008 did not escape my grasp. BROUWER’S is a Seattle beer institution that I still have not been to. When I lived there in the late 90s it was all about HALE’S & PIKE BREWING, the HILLTOP ALE HOUSE and of course LINDA’S TAVERN. That’s where I spent my quality time, but ten years on I’m pretty sure I’d change my game plan if I lived there now.

Anyway, BROUWER’S IMAGINATION 2008 is a saison brewed especially for the bar by – wait for it – wait for it – are you sitting down? – PORT BREWING company from down San Diego way, aka the maestros behind several knockout beers as well as the LOST ABBEY sub-brand. Oh my heavens yes. What do you think HBJ thought about this one? Hey, you’re right. This 6.25% ABV “farmhouse saison” may have a ton of brettanomyces bacteria action going down, but I’ll be honest with ya, it’s not all that funky. It is, however, fantastic. I actually thought this pale yellow ale might have been a witbier, albeit a flavorful banyard witbier. My notes say “Sour lemon meets musty tangerine meets older grapes”. Very floral, and very dry, and very very good. Of course it is. It is available on tap in Seattle, at Brouwer’s of course, and in limited-edition corked bottles, from a northwest beer trader should you choose to befriend one. 8.5/10.

A TRIP TO FAULTLINE BREWING

If you’ve ever spent any quality time in what’s known around my parts (San Francisco) as “the South Bay”, you’ll know – or at least be told – that it’s a total craft beer backwater. This is the area with San Jose as its southernmost point, up the peninsula to about Palo Alto. Also known in popular parlance as Silicon Valley. It also happens to be where I grew up. It also happens to be where I found myself this past Tuesday night with the much-celebrated “Peet” from Ontario, a guy we talked about here and here, and whom we can now reveal as “Pete”, given that he was not bearing any illegally smuggled wares from the wilds of deepest Canada.

So Pete and I decided, since we were sequestered in the South Bay at a conference, to take our post-event partying to a place I’d heard some good things about, FAULTLINE BREWING in Sunnyvale. I know there’s a BJ’S around there somewhere – and I know they make good beer – but I didn’t want to subject him to the marginal TIED HOUSE, and besides, I needed some new material for this here blog. We arrived to find your basic high-ceilinged, large-vats, planks-n-beams type of brewpub, patented around 1995 or so and pretty much the template for every big suburban microbrewery ever since. Not like I’m complaining. I walk into a place like this and it’s like I’m in my own living room, kicking off my slippers and waiting for the wife to bring me my pipe. We decided not to dip into any fried calamari or spicy wings – or whatever it was they were cooking up – and sat on the patio outside on a nice balmy Sunnyvale night. Attention quickly turned to beer, as it so often does, and we jointly resolved to try every beer in the joint, all ten of ‘em. The only way that could be done without going the drunken way of the post-work Japanese businessman was to each order the sampler platter, with 2-3oz. mini-glasses of each beer, and sip them gingerly.

FAULTLINE does a good job of brewing a lot of different styles, many in the fairly low-alcohol realm. They don’t seem to be doing any Belgian styles nor Imperial anything. Nope, we made our way light-to-dark through a lineup that started with a surprisingly crisp and biting PILSNER, up through a decent KOLSCH and on to a HEFEWEIZEN. There’s a BEST BITTER, a CASK-CONDITIONED ALE (very good – it’s the same PALE ALE we tried, but uncarbonated), an OKTOBERFEST, a DUNKEL WEIZEN etc etc. Several of the lighter beers had similar tastes; light hopping, medium body, yet a little more oomph than I’d expected. That PILSNER was one example; I also like the BEST BITTER quite a bit, a great creamy caramel taste with some great bittering hop action. My favorites – and I think Pete kinda agreed, more or less – were the last two we tried: the nitrogen-dispensed STOUT and the INDIA PALE ALE, or “IPA” as it is sometimes known. Both were excellent; the IPA is definitely in the English style, and it was sort of the oddball of the evening; a dose of hops and citrus tang after a load of smooth, not-too-threatening ales and lagers. I’d like to see what a pint of that tastes like going down. Perhaps one day I shall.

Long and short of it is that FAULTLINE’s a cool place. I’d come back here again, and I’d probably go straight for a pint – no, make that an “imperial pint” – of the STOUT, followed by the IPA. I’d maybe even get a French-fried onion and a big-ass quesadilla to go with it. No ratings on the beers on an individual basis, but let’s go with a 7/10 for the whole shebang.

"LES DEUX BRASSEURS" - ALLAGASH & DE PROEF GET FRIENDLY

Oh man, I'm actually writing about a beer called "LES DEUX BRASSEURS". I must be in my friggin' forties. This marvelous concoction comes to us from the brewing masterminds at DE PROEF BREWING in Belgium (the geniuses behind the incredible KERSTMUSTKE and ZOETZUUR FLEMISH ALE we've raved about recently) and ALLAGASH from Portland, Maine - generally considered one of the US's most forward-thinking brewers (we at HBJ are still thinking about it). Well these folks got together, spilled a few hops and a little wort together, and wow, it's an outstanding new Belgian-style ale. I totally loved it. They warned me at THE TRAPPIST: "LES DEUX BRASSEURS is a sour beer". I said, bring it the f*** on.

You know what? Not all that sour, really. I even found it a little sweet at first, but was won over by the absolute smoothness of the mouthfeel, and how even when those "musky" flavors rose to the surface and settled on the back of my tongue, it was like pure liquid gold, something that despite the sourness still felt worthy of big swallows. It is a golden orange, quite hazy, and the predominant taste is of pears. It's really something quite unique, and though I'm too impatient to properly age my beers, I bet (here comes the beer douche) "it might benefit from a little laying down". Excellent, excellent beer from these brewing studs. 9/10.

OFF THE LIST & DOWN THE THROAT: GOUDEN CAROLUS GRAND CRU OF THE EMPEROR

No doubt as you do, I carry around a supremely dorked-out list of the beers I need to try in the “notes” section of my cell phone; things people recommend, things I read about on blogs, in magazine, you know. I reckon everybody probably does this, don’t you think? High on the list of the must-try beers of late has been Belgium’s GOUDEN CAROLUS D'OR GRAND CRU OF THE EMPEROR, a Belgium strong dark ale from a exceptionally popular brewer, BROWERIJ HET ANKER. This particular formulation of theirs has shown up on tap at Oakland, CA’s THE TRAPPIST, and therefore showed up in my glass moments after I arrived there the other night. GRAND CRU OF THE EMPEROR is an 11% barrel-aged bomb that (thankfully) doesn’t taste particularly flamethrowing, as long as you take your time. It is a sweet but not cloying dark ale, with sugars rising to the palate pretty quickly along with the taste of dates and maybe even dark berries. I found it dosed just right when it came to the hops, and the beer it reminded me most of was probably the most recent of my high-alcohol, barrel-aged conquests, DOGFISH HEAD’s RAISON D’XTRA. I reckon that probably says more for Dogfish Head than it does this olde-world Belgian brewer, who’s been doing this sorta thing since god was a boy. I drank it nice and slow in the small-ish glass they gave me (of course at The Trappist you always get the perfect stemware for the type of beer you order), and after it was done I pronounced it an outstanding ale, just as they all said it would be. 8.5/10.

A KANSAS CITY TRIP TO THE 75TH STREET BREWERY

Kansas City, or to be more specific, Overland Park, Kansas, is a regular stop on my business-travel itinerary, along with Atlanta. I’m getting to be pretty familiar with the beer offerings here, having discovered the wide range of BOULEVARD BREWING beers, from the pedestrian to the obscure, as well as side trips to McCOY’S PUBLIC HOUSE and a variety of beer-vending markets like Lukas Liquors and even the venerable Whole Foods. I just made another one-night stop in KC just last week, and took it upon myself to expand my horizons and check out the 75TH STREET BREWERY, located just on the Missouri side of the Missouri/Kansas border in Kansas City proper. Had read some good things on Beer Advocate’s “Beerfly” section – an absolutely indispensable resource for the thirsty beer traveler – and made the place my personal grail for Thursday, October 9th.

I heard from a local that “Stateline Road”, which one must cross in order to travel from Overland Park to Kansas City (and to this brewery) and which straddles the two states, often gets only one side plowed during severe winter snowstorms – the more rich Kansas side, if you can believe it. The Missouri side apparently just doesn’t have the funds and the equipment to do the plowin’. How about that. Anyhoo, I found the 75TH STREET BREWERY to be a pretty nice, clean, “family brewpub” type of place. Bring the kids, bring the dog, bring the frathouse, bring ‘em all. I settled into the Dodgers/Phillies game and ordered up a seasonal, the PUMPKIN WHEAT. This is an exceptionally dry and very pale wheat beer, pouring a cloudy unfiltered yellow, with light spicing and the faint taste of pumpkin. There’s a little bit of tartness as well, along with clove and lemon tastes. Dry, dry, dry – and very easy to drink. Not at all a sweet pumpkin beer, and to that end, I really liked it. Nice one, 75th Street! 7/10!

Next up was another seasonal, just because. The OATMEAL STOUT was even better. Super silky and creamy, I mean SILKY. Coffee beans, heavy malts, some bittering agents of unknown origin….I had to slow down my intake to really enjoy this one. Very roasty as you’d expect, and not a heavy beer at all. They know what they’re doing with this one. 7.5/10. I guess I regret not going any deeper into the lineup, but then there are those drinking and driving laws. P’shaw! I think this place might merit another trip next time. Anyone know if Kansas City’s got a better brewpub or beer place than this one?

ON “ALL ABOUT BEER” MAGAZINE

I recall that when I took the time to write about some of the beer magazines I was perusing a couple of years ago, I had little to say in any direction positive/negative about ALL ABOUT BEER, the longest-running and most venerable of the monthly publications currently extant. I do remember laughing at a vicious comment a reader left comparing the magazine to “Cat Fancy”, which summed up a prevailing sentiment that the magazine was perhaps too whitebread and rah-rah and stale to the point of being boring, opinions that I was certainly sympathetic to. With new entrants like BEER ADVOCATE and, to a lesser extent, DRAFT championing craft beer in a far more exciting manner, focusing on the new heroes, styles & extreme beer ethos revolutionizing the American beer palatte, All About Beer was looking like it was about to go the way of the dodo. Then came a pretty stunning visual facelift of the magazine itself, along with some revitalized content this past year. Where does the thing stand now? As a subscriber, I’ve got my opinions, and I shall share them presently.

I’d say they are about halfway there. On the plus side, ALL ABOUT BEER looks much better, having moved a circa 1980s design forward by about 15 years to roughly the early days of the Internet. Their typography and layout looks about 1996 to me, and hey, I guess that’s readable and appealing enough. They don’t quite match the “beer porn” photos that DRAFT does such an amazing job at, or the cool font and illustrations (let alone the content) of BEER ADVOCATE, but beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, as you’ve no doubt heard. Content can be solid – except when it’s not. Let’s take the most recent issue from September 2008. There are two very well-researched first-person articles about craft beer in Australia and New Zealand, both good takes on how those countries are following the lead of American brewers to bring ales of all types to lands generally considered to be brewing backwaters. I learned something, let’s say. All About Beer also does these style tastings that have great descriptions of the styles themselves, and what to expect upon tasting them, and this month they focus on all manner of Belgian styles. An article on “wild ales” was also quite good and informative, despite the lack of photographs. I’ll keep subscribing thanks to articles like these, which are generally well written by folks who’ve tasted a few beers in their time.

Let’s talk about the downside. Is there anything less relevant to my life, your life, and the lives of good-beer drinkers than the acquisition of Anheuiser Busch by InBev? No? Then why does AAB spend an entire editorial trying to analyze it? Who the f*** cares? Readers of the mag don’t drink that swill, and I don’t understand why any bloggers write about this either. Completely and totally uninteresting. I still can’t stand how this magazine can’t seem to say a single truly negative thing about the beers they review and feels the need to be so magnanimous all the time; for example, they always let two esteemed panelists review a set of 4 beers each, and I swear every one reads exactly the same. The beer is always good or great, it would always pair well with chicken/fish/tacos/whatever, and is always broken down to its sub-tastes. Snore. Just once I’d like to see someone call a beer he/she was sent “a pile of puke” or something to that effect, just to prove these beers don’t arrive with $50 bills taped to each bottle. Finally, and this is probably intentional, but the demographic doing the writing and being written to strikes me as a bit, um, long in the tooth. Not saying I’m not there myself as a fortysomething, but if someone is thinking about creating a new beer magazine targeted at the 44-65 age bracket, please don’t bother. It’s already here, and it is called ALL ABOUT BEER. And am I the only one who can’t even get through a single paragraph of Fred Eckhardt’s? Bless him, I love the idea of an old guy drinking great beer into his 90s and serving as a rallying point for old guys worldwide, but – um- about that writing? What, exactly, are these articles about, and why does drool form on my shirt as I try to read them? Right, because I fell asleep. You get it.

So I guess it’s fair to say that this magazine is improving, and is still worth of subscription. I’d just like to see it come off a little less like the Methodist church newsletter, and more reflective of the modern, dynamic, exciting craft beer industry it covers.

SSSSSS…..LOST ABBEY’S DEADLY DELICIOUS “SERPENTS STOUT”

You’d think with all the LOST ABBEY hullabaloo and logrolling on this site that I was a paid representative of the brewery, or at least receiving bottles of free beer in the mail. As my teenage sister used to say, “As if! You so wish”. That same sister is the one that bought and shipped this 22-oz. bottle of SERPENTS STOUT to me, another in a seemingly unending line of LOST ABBEY masterpieces brewed out of their San Marcos, CA headquarters. She will be rewarded someday in the great beyond for her goodness. SERPENTS STOUT is a massive 10.5% alcohol imperial stout, except like any Lost Abbey beer, it’s not quite that simple. Unlike, say, OLD RASPUTIN, it’s not simply an inky-black, coffee/chocolate alcohol bomb. It’s very much in the Belgian style, and so even in the depths of this cola-colored beer you find whiffs and tastes of fruits, honest-to-gosh fruits, like plums & figs & dates & such. At least that’s what was going on for me. Incredible head retention, very foamy for something like 4-5 minutes. Yeasty, chocolaty, and yes, a little boozy, but if you split it with another beer dork you’ll be able to keep your head about ya. Of course, it’s fantastic, the kind of beer where one gulp in and everyone’s going, “Oh. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That’s really good”. That’s all you ever really want in an $11.99 bottle of beer, am I right? 9/10.

DE DOLLE’S “DULLE TEVE” TRIPEL

I’ve only had one other beer from BROWERIJ DE DOLLE our of Esen, Belgium before – it was the OERBIER that I absolutely fell on the floor over. The good news is I see their beers at just about every specialty beer retailer I walk into, and I figured it was time to give another one from the lineup a try. The brewery has been pumping these out since 1835, so there’s a lot of history inside each of these little bottles. The one I grabbed is called DE DOLLE DULLE TEVE, and it’s a 10% ABV tripel, a style in every right-thinking Belgian brewer’s lineup. DULLE TEVE is very, very yeasty, heavy with tastes of grapefruit and white grape. It carries a little bit of the spice I associate with tripels, that mouth-puckering, back-of-the-throat scratchiness that either makes or breaks these things. Smells fantastic, but tastes a little acidic. I did not reach the ephiphany I did with the OERBIER, I’m disappointed to say, but the kids seems to love this one. We give it a 6.5/10.

ELYSIAN BREWING’S “LOSER PALE ALE”

I feel like HBJ kinda raked ELYSIAN BREWING over the coals when we tried a couple of their beers a few weeks ago; our taste buds were not in the least excited by their mediocre tripel and their flat-out bad pumpkin ale. One worth giving a go, if only for old-times’ sake, is this LOSER PALE ALE, bottled in tribute to Sub Pop Records and their 20th anniversary this summer. I figured this was an exceptionally-limited thing, and it may well be, but I know this beer has shown up on tap in several places, so at least a few barrels of it were pumped out for consumption. Me and Sub Pop go back a long way – I was a charter member of their “singles club”, and got the first NIRVANA single in the mail when I was 20 years old, which I sold a few years later for $75 during the height of Nirvanamania, only to find it going for $600-$700 a few years later after Cobain killed himself (!!).

Presently, the LOSER PALE ALE tastes very simple and pure. It’s got fairly strong carbonation and a medium body, with light grapefruit taste and the unmistaken whiff of light hopping as well. Dark copper/red, a little more intense-looking than most pale ales – but looks can be deceptive, am I right? This is your basic pale ale, dime a dozen etc etc. I liked it, but not enough to stagedive and get in fights for. 6/10.

IRON HORSE BRINGS BACK THE IMPERIAL IPA

I don’t know about you, but I went through a pretty serious bored-with-IPAs period recently. Every new IPA or double-IPA I’d try pretty much tasted like the one before it, with subtle variations in hoppiness, pine vs. citrus character, and alcohol content. I didn’t even really think about it, but all of a sudden I realized that I hadn’t had a new one in like four months. And that’s not like me. So in my beer cellar I pull out this IRON HORSE BEER SHOPPE ANNIVERSARY ALE. It’s an Imperial IPA from an Ellensburg, WA brewer. Hey, I wonder if the Screaming Trees fellas every drink this one. It’s not part of the brewery’s regular lineup – in fact, there’s no record of it on their web site. If you take a look at the pictures on their site, though, this looks like the sort of place you’d LOVE to have a few pints in – dark, rustic and totally inviting. I’ll make a note of it next time I’m in Ellensburg for business.

Anyway, these guys make one whopper of a double IPA. They’ve brought the big-hopped, aggressive & large IPA back into my good graces with one fell swoop. This pours a dark orange/brown, and naturally upon first gulp you’re met with a fantastic dose of hops. The balance on this thing is just outstanding. It tastes “imperial” and yes, quite bitter, but it also is exceptionally floral and fruity and somewhat like a little orange zest was grinded into the mix. Wonderful, even at a big ten percent alcohol. This is as good as any IPA I’ve had anywhere, anytime. Anyone who tells you this style is “past it”, tell ‘em to hoof it on up to Ellensburg and get to a bottle shop stocking them some IRON HORSE. 9.5/10!

HE’BREW MESSIAH BOLD CAN’T GET ‘ER DONE

Can’t say that I’m all that excited about the HE’BREW (SCHMALTZ BREWING) beers I’ve had the past couple years. There are a few good ones, but I get the sense that they’re aiming a bit downmarket toward becoming a “macro micro” on the order of a Sierra Nevada and such. That’s certainly not true of all their beers, granted, but I think a better strategy would be to make a killer, low-ABV amber or pale ale or IPA, and then let the wisdom of the beer dork crowd filter downward to the “early majority” – as we say in the marketing world. But what do I know. I just think this MESSIAH BOLD I had the other day is below average, and I’m gonna tell you why. This brown ale has a strange, bitter chalky aftertaste that one doesn’t really expect from an easy-sippin’ brown beer. I think I sort of got used to it as the beer, uh, “warmed” – but I ask: why should I have to?? It’s a very full-bodied, malty beer, perhaps leavened by a generous dose of hops, but in something of an off-putting manner. Not great, not boring, just nothing to speak of. So we shan’t speak of it again. 5/10.

LET’S NOT TAKE LAGUNITAS FOR GRANTED, OK?

I’ve given variations of this same pitch before, but the sell basically comes down to this: when we in Northern California brag about our local brewers, we typically talk about the biggies – RUSSIAN RIVER, MOYLAN’S, BEAR REPUBLIC, etc. We don’t often go to the mat for LAGUNITAS BREWING, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that they might just be one of the very best beermakers going. I say this as one who has mocked and belittled their flagship LAGUNITAS IPA on many occasions, but outside of that very mediocre IPA, I can’t find a whole lotta fault. In my travels across the USofA I’ve encountered beer bars shouting to the rafters on their beer menus, “We just got Lagunitas beers on tap!!!” or “We’re having a beer dinner with Lagunitas beers!!! Don’t miss this!!!!!”. The rest of the country is excited, that’s for sure.

Here are a couple I’ve tried the past three weeks that, yet again, knocked my friggin’ socks off. Take number one was a new SAISON they’re trying out on tap handles around where I live. This is not the “Sonoma Farmhouse Saison-Style Ale” that they’ve been flogging for a while, and that I still (regretfully) haven’t tried. This might be the same thing as the “Saison – Aged In Pinot Noir Barrels” that I read about on Beer Advocate just now. Whatever it is, it’s damn good. It’s an excellent Belgian-style blonde ale, with an amazing earthy taste, some peppery tartness while being incredibly drinkable. I tip-tapped “Lagunitas exceeds expectations again” into my phone notepad while I was drinking it. No respect, I tell ya. 8/10.

The other one is something I called, uh “Boont Amber on ‘roids” in a previous review of a bottled version of LAGUNITAS IMPERIAL RED. Well, the other day, I had a cask version of this seasonal, souped-up amber beer, and wow, was it good. It’s quite hoppy with a great dose of malts, and an overall “fizzy” taste that’s unusual for something cask-conditioned. Really juicy and flavorful. It was the hit of the Toronado Bar the night I drank it there. “A cask ale that transcends the cask”. Hey, put it in the marketing materials! 8.5/10 again for this one!

LAUGHING BUDDHA GETS ITS ASIAN ON

Count me as being fully in favor of the trend to throw brewing curveballs at the beer dork public, with strange combinations of ingredients making their way into the hops & grains & malts of 22-oz bombers nationwide. Take the “Asian beer” trend right now. We told you about UNCOMMON BREWERS a few weeks ago, and even thought that one was something of a “miss” (at least I thought so), you can’t fault these fellas for trying to shake things up in this uber-fragmented market of one-upmanship. In that review we hinted about LAUGHING BUDDHA BREWING in Seattle, and expressed a desire to sample their wares. Now we have, and we are the better for it. HBJ received two bottles in the mail from The Beer Retard, and the first one down the hatch was their MANGO WEIZEN. This certainly is a stunning example of east meeting west, with the Indian “mango lassi” (you know, that ultra-sweet yogurt drink found in Indian restaurants?) meeting the hundreds-of-years-strong German hefeweizen.

The mango flavor is just as you’d like it – not too intense, but with a nice tang and medium body, with sediment left behind just to show you how unfiltered and pure the thing is. Unlike the SIAMESE TWIN ALE from UNCOMMON BREWERS, this Asian-inspired beer eases one into the hybrid of flavors, and is a great Indian summer beer while the clouds are at bay & your cookout weekends dwindle. I guess in Seattle that time is long gone, but when word gets out how good this one is I reckon they’ll be drinking it in Santa cups on Christmas morning with the eggnog. Good on ya, Laughing Buddha! 8/10.

10 COMMANDMENTS: THE LOST ABBEY NAILS IT AGAIN

Would you believe me if I told you I had a new favorite beer? My most favoritist beer since the last most favoritist? It’s called 10 COMMANDMENTS, and not surprisingly, it’s from the brewing magicians at LOST ABBEY down San Diego way. These guys are pretty much the best brewer in the USA if not the world; I even checked the HBJ ratings to see how they stacked up vs. RUSSIAN RIVER BREWING, and it looks like LOST ABBEY gets the big nod. This is the third time I’ve rated one of their beers as being pretty-much perfect – here is the overall scorecard:

10 Commandments 10/10
Gift of the Magi 10/10
Devotion 10/10
Carnivale 9/10
Avant Garde 9/10
Angel’s Share 9/10
Lost and Found Ale 8.5/10
Red Barn Ale 8/10
Cuvee De Tomme 6.5/10
Witch’s Wit 6/10

That’s only two beers that didn’t totally blow me away, and if I can ever get my hands on another glass or bottle of CUVEE DE TOMME, I’m confident I’d probably up the score a notch or two (I drank it at the end of a very long night drinking Lost Abbey beers). Let’s talk about 10 COMMANDMENTS, shall we? This is completely unique beer that – and I hate to say this, because it’s pretty douchy – is for “refined beer palates only”. In other words, an explosion of prunes, honey, raisins and dark chocolate is not what the typically beer guzzler is after, and at 9% ABV, this wonderful beer is something to be sipped and savored. It hits all the high notes: deep dark fruit taste, intense complexity yet incredible drinkability, and a great rich and earthy taste with a kick of spice at the end. It’s incredible, and one of the most special beers I’ve enjoyed. A full-on, raging 10/10.

SMUGGLED ONTARIO BEER NOTES, PART 2

Last week we talked with you about a big can of NEUSTADT 10W30 we ingested after a complex journey it took in the luggage of Canadian special beer agent “Peet”. We made mention of a shadowy “second can” that accompanied the Neustadt beer on its journey across the border and past Homeland Security, through customs, taxis and finally down my gullet. Now it can be revealed that said can was a 16-oz. pour of HOCKLEY DARK from HOCKLEY VALLEY BREWING in Orangeville, Ontario. This tall boy can is a real chugger, mild and smooth and a great representative of dark English ales. Tastes of toffee and chestnuts are present, with exceptionally smooth roasted malts and the faint hint of dark chocolate. The brewery itself says, “It is a cross between a Northern Brown ale with its caramel, nut and soft toffee notes and a Midlands Mild with its subtle chocolate, licorice and dark fruit undertones”. Hey, that’s exactly what I was gonna say! Hedonist Beer Jive likes it and sees another pint glass with this filled to the brim in our future. 7/10.

AECHT SCHLENKERLA RAUCHBIER: EVERYONE’S FAVORITE MEAT BEER

I’ve been pretty psyched for a while on the concept of rauchbiers, the German old-style "smoke beers" that have set themselves apart as an atavistic rarity, a throwback to a time of craft brewing from long, long ago. Most Rauchbiers are barley-based lagers. They are darkish-amber and somewhat opaque, with an ABV ranging from 4.8 to 6.5%. The primo example of this style is the AECHT SCHLENKERLA RAUCHBIER, and up until two weeks ago, I’d never actually tried one. Sure, I’ve had the ALASKAN SMOKED PORTER and the O’FALLON SMOKE, but a true, living, breathing classic rauchbier? Well, now I have, and I totally dig it. We busted one of these out at the City Beer Store two weeks ago, and it was great watching the reaction of everyone as we passed a glass around the table for everyone to sniff at: “it smells like bacon” was the typical comment. “Meat”, or “bacon bomb”, was a common reaction. Then those of us who actually drank the thing were even more effusive. I had a glass of this out of a tap a week later, and loved it. AECHT SCHLENKERLA RAUCHBIER is a medium-bodied, super-dark, deeply roasted beer, plumb full of smoked malts. It has a distinct tinge of hops as well, which I understand are brewed into the mix to help balance out the smoky taste. It’s exceptionally drinkable, and man, if you love the smell of smoked meats, and can imagine a malty beer that employs that smell and taste as a secret weapon, then this is the one for you. The Germans have been drinking it for decades upon decades – now it’s your turn. 8.5/10.

DOGFISH HEAD OF THE WOOD

DOGFISH HEAD BREWING made their big splash in Northern California a few months back, and I finally got around to trying all three beers they debuted with out here. As fate would have it, through a combination of travels and beer trading, I’ve actually been able to keep up with the Dogfish beers pretty well these past couple of years. The last feather in my cap was this bottle of PALO SANTO MARRON I tried last night. Calling it “a twist on the traditional brown ale” is putting it lightly. This dark brown, nearly black beer is an oaked, deeply roasted malt bomb. It’s aged in some unique sort of wood from Paraguay or something or other; at the end of the day, it’s a very earthy brown ale that tastes a little of the wood in which it was fermented; sort of like sucking on a hickory stick, but better. PALO SANTO MARRON is a drinkable mix of molasses and caramel tastes encased within malty, grainy, hickory liquid. 12% alcohol, too - whoa. I might not reach for it again for another few months or a even years, but good on Dogfish Head for continually pushing the proverbial envelope. 7/10.

ELYSIAN BREWING’S INAUSPICIOUS NO.CAL DEBUT

You hear a lot of talk on the interweb and in the press about different brewers, right? One of the ones I keep seeing stuff about is ELYSIAN BREWING out of Seattle. Northwesterners seems to really dig these folks, and I know they’ve been successful enough within Seattle to have not one but three brewpubs there, including one that’s essentially part of the new baseball ballpark there. THE BEER RETARD says good things about them. NORTHWEST BREWING NEWS always talks about ‘em. And lo and behold, we got an email at our headquarters the other day announcing that ELYSIAN are going to start distribution within Northern California in October, and would we like to come to THE TORONADO in San Francisco to try some of them out, a month in advance? Why yes we would. Or would we? Please read on.

Arrived at the Toronado this past Wednesday thirsty and ready for action. Given the slide we’re experience into “autumn”, as they call it on the east coast, I decided to get with the program, and ordered up a $3 (!!) pint of the ELYSIAN NIGHT OWL PUMPKIN ALE, I have no problem with pumpkin ales – I feel like the I’m the only one who’s willing to fly the flag for BUFFALO BILL’S PUMPKIN ALE every year. Anyway, this beer was a – I’m sorry to say – “pour-out”, or given the location, a “give back”. I couldn’t stand it. Exceptionally weak-bodied, thin, no sweetness at all, just some chalky malts and an overall blandness that I couldn’t handle. There I am, surrounded by all these great beers on tap, and you want me to drink this? No way. 3/10. OK, so that was an anomaly, right? A seasonal misfire? I wish. I ordered their ELYSIAN BETE BLANCHE TRIPEL, hoping they were better at Belgians than they were pumpkins, and while it was a “step up” to a 4.5/10, this was still a pretty rank beer. Some lingering, tingling spices and yeasts were in the mix somewhere, but they were so muted this may well have been homebrew or something out of a bag. I was bummed. It’s the first time I’ve had a tripel this boring. Usually they’re too overall aggressive when they’re not blowing me away with how great they are. I can’t help but think that Elysian is suffering this blandness problem up and down the lineup, for when I asked a friend who was trying their IMMORTAL IPA what he thought about it, he gave me that sound one makes when they’re trying to be magnanimous: “ehhhhhnh?”. Man, I was hoping for something rocking out of grunge city, but ELYSIAN ain’t it so far.

SMUGGLED ONTARIO BEER NOTES, PT. 1

I’ve got a contact up in Canada, let’s call him “Peet” – a guy whom I regularly work with in my 9-5 professional endeavors whom I’ve also learned is a total beer hound like myself. Well, this fella’s been expounding upon some of the beers available in his native Ontario environs for a couple of months now, so I dared him to quote-unquote “prove it”. Lo and behold, “Peet” shows up in San Francisco last week with two tall boy cans (cans!) of ale smuggled in his suitcase, nestled between the briefing books, the toiletries kit and the socks. Homeland Security evidently didn’t call out the dogs, and let the cans through with a shrug, no doubt thinking, “Canadians and their beer….”.

Let me tell you that America, and free trade in general, is the better for this attitude. “Peet” was presented with a bottle of RUSSIAN RIVER DAMNATION to take home for his efforts – me, I got to drink a 16-oz. can of NEUSTADT 10W30 from the NEUSTADT SPRINGS BREWERY in Neustadt, Ontario. Apparently this brown ale is a big fave of our correspondent, and you know what? It’s one of ours now as well. It’s an English-style brown, very malty without being thick and gloopy, with a very reasonable but not wimpy 5.5% ABV. As I was enjoying it I was contemplating its perfection as the quintessential “session” ale, and I started to understand why some folks get just as hopped up about this sort of drink as others do about barrel-aged imperial double Russian stouts. It’s all good if you enjoy it in the right circumstances, and sitting there at home, drinking my NEUSTADT 10W30, I had my brown ale semi-epiphany. 8/10. Look for it next time you’re in Neustadt.

A TRIP TO THE BRICK STORE PUB (FOR REAL THIS TIME)

Astute readers will note that HBJ takes a lot of trips to Atlanta for business, and after a couple exploratory searches around the city’s “beer scene” (here, here and here), we’ve finally been able to hit the pinnacle of Atlanta-area drinking. That would be Decatur’s BRICK STORE PUB, a place we tried to visit a couple months ago, only to find it closed for remodeling on the one & only night we happened to be in town. That was a “total bummer”, but thankfully, downtown Decatur is hopping with ale-centric activity, and we rectified the situation in short order. So this time, in early September, we called ahead. They were open, and the place, in fact, was totally packed. The BRICK STORE PUB now joins Chicago’s MAP ROOM, Toronto's BEERBISTRO, Brooklyn’s THE GATE and San Francisco’s TORONADO as one of my quote-unquote “places you must drink a beer before you die”. Fantastic ambiance, with an olde-world, stone-and-brick motif to the architecture and lots of cool, weird art on the walls. When I visited it was skateboards, used as colorful art canvasses. The bottled beer selection is amazing, with just about everything you’d ever want from Belgium, Germany and the US at a fairly reasonable price, notwithstanding the $200 bottles of aged beer that were also on display just for fun.

Having just stepped off a long flight from San Francisco, I guess I wasn’t ready to dive into hardcore barrel-aged big-ass ABV beers. That’s for the next trip. Tonight it was about enjoying a couple of lower-weight beers in lingering fashion, making sure that I’d be able to drive to the hotel afterward. I debuted my Brick Store experience with my very first glass of DUPONT FORET from Belgium, which was actually on draft (!). Nope, I’d never had the beer before, and yep, I’m sorry about that. This saison was a very cloudy deep yellow, and was full of yeasty flavor from the word go. Sparkling mouthfeel, a bit tangy actually, with tastes of cardamom (look it up!). Slightly bitter and zingy while going down. Totally unique and very enjoyable. 7.5/10. Next up was a WEIHENSTEPHANER HEFEWEIZEN, which has been called “the best hefeweizen in the world” by none other than the excellent SUMMER OF BEER blog and by the Brick Store’s menu itself. This, too, was on tap. Far less wheat-centric than I expected, this beer is very clean and smooth, tasting amazingly fresh on tap. A little bitter, like the Foret. Truly not as amazing as I’d heard, but something I’d definitely have again. 7.5/10 on this bad boy as well.

Without so much as a buzz-on, I ventured into the warm Decatur night to find my hotel, totally satisfied that I finally got to drink at a place that, you, the Hedonist Beer Jive readers, had hipped me to. Got any other good Atlanta-area suggestions? I’ll be back again before the year’s done, and Brick Store Pub’s definitely a repeater on the agenda.

CLOSING THE HOLIDAY BOOKS WITH DE PROEF

Hey there, been a little quiet around these parts the past two weeks, I acknowledge. Not out there in the real world, let me tell ya. Why, just the other day I had to finally up & admit that I still had a Christmas 2007 beer left on the shelves that I'd never gotten around to trying, and here it is darn near Christmas 2008 (!) and - well - you know the rest. It was from this great "Christmas in Belgium" pack I bought so long ago (and that turned out to be totally worth every penny). So I cracked the cap off of this DE PROEF KERSTMUTSKE ("Christmas Nightcap"), and it was if the spirit of Jiminy Xmas himself was present in the glass. Wow! This Belgian ale has a wonderfully sweet, wine-like taste, exceptionally oaked and dry-tasting, with those great holiday spices you kinda forget about in mid-September. This is a rich, dark ale that's fruity with a slight whiff of sourness. I absolutely dug it, and would probably have to come out and proclaim it the best holiday beer of 2007. Yeah, a little late, but yeah, that good! 9/10.

TWO FROM BELL’S HOUSE TO OUR HOUSE

This is the last post about the beers that were stowed away in my suitcase on my trip back from Washington, DC a month or so ago. We packed light on that trip because we knew we were gonna need some breathing room for beer, so hey, one pair of underwear for 3 days in the sweltering heat? Why not? Shaving, showering, toiletries bag? Who needs it, right? It was pretty exciting to find that the ales of Michigan-based BELL’S BREWERY distributed in DC. I tried their super-hopped HOPSLAM back in early 2007 and thought it was excellent, so this time around I grabbed a twofer of twelve-ounce bottles and went to town. First one I tried was called OBERON. I had seen other blogs give this the big thumbs-up and I wanted in on the action. OBERON is a hoppy summer ale, much like a slightly more aggressive pale ale than the standard English variety – American all the friggin’ way. Refreshing and clean, sure, but really souped-up and medium bodied with a slight citrus bite. Very good beer. 7.5/10.

The other one I grabbed off the shelf is called BELL’S TWO-HEARTED ALE. This is also a pale ale, but this time it’s the malts that are given major play. Very malty and caramel like, but still IPA-like as well despite a distinct lack of hops. Thick-tasting, and also quite good. What is this beer they call Two-Hearted Ale? I don’t really know, but I know that this brewery is 3 for 3 in my book. 7/10 on this one. Hopefully this appearance in DC is a sign of greater national distribution down the line sometime.

THE CASE FOR THE ALEMBIC

THE ALEMBIC is a roughly 18-month-old restaurant & bar in San Franisco’s Upper Haight neighborhood devoted to strong ales and high-end, locally-grown “small plate” food. Given its location at ground zero in the former hippie hotbed among the professional homeless, street punks and hipster shoppers, prices are way in line with what most area diners can afford, and now that I’ve finally supped and imbibed there. I think the value-for-money quotient is outstanding. I’d happened into this place before to try a couple beers; it’s an offshoot of the MAGNOLIA PUB & BREWERY only a few blocks away, and thus, serves a bunch of that brewery’s ales, along with others from California, Belgium and beyond. Wine-drinkers and cocktail-lovers are taken care of as well, so nobody goes wanting.

I had my first in-person meeting with Chris Devlin, a.k.a. THE BEER RETARD, who was down from Seattle for all manner of beer-related hijinks and shenanigans. While we nuanced & chewed on the finer points of beer arcana, I tore into an excellent heirloom tomato salad, featuring those sweet green tomatoes you always think are going to taste sour & never do. Along with a buttery piece of codfish and an incredible salted chocolate pudding, I gave into temptation, supplication and damnation all at once, and enjoyed bountiful glasses of RUSSIAN RIVER PERDITION and SALVATION. Naturally, and as reported previously on this site and on many others, these beers are superlative, and among the best anywhere, from one of the top two brewers in the country. ALEMBIC, to my glee, is not just a place for beer hounds nor for romantic couples on a mid-range budget. It’s a great restaurant and beer-drinking destination in its own right, and I’m gonna make sure I recommend it to any San Francisco beer travelers who should happen seek my counsel from this point forward.

BEER AMONG THE FOODIES AT “SLOW FOOD NATION”

You know about the Slow Food movement, right? Though its actual tenants are not exactly crystal-clear, even to its adherents, they tend to revolve around sustainable agriculture & food production, locally-grown ingredients, organic farming, and a strong commitment to food that tastes fantastic, without all those corporate additives and preservatives & such. Me, I love good food as well, though I’m hardly a “foodie”. A great salty-chicken burrito at Chipotle fills me with almost the same level of gastronomic satisfaction as does a five-course meal at Chez Panisse. Imagine my delight, however, when I learned that, among the many “Taste Pavilions” at San Francisco’s inaugural Slow Food Nation festival/convention this past weekend, there would be a “beer tent”. Not just any beer tent, mind you, but one with at least 40 different US brewers, many of whom don’t even sell their wares in Northern California. I was already ready to scrape together my quarters & dimes so my wife and I could sample all the high-end chocolate, cheese & charcutrie we could handle – not to mention a wine pavilion that was pouring as many full glasses of the country’s finest wines as any attendee could ingest – but the beer tent pushed me deep into my mattress, where I found enough coin for two $65 tickets. I cleared from my stomach any contaminants that might mar my drinking pleasure in the days prior to the festival, and promptly lost four pounds. I was ready for action, and upon entry, I pounced.

All right, it wasn’t that dramatic. No, even the beer tent itself wasn’t this massive beer-fest thing, just a simple canopy draped over three trailers that housed, respectively, “draft beer”, “cask beer” and “bottled beer”. At any given time, there were no more than 40-50 people milling around the area sampling the ales. In fact, the Slow Food Nation organizers did a fantastic job keeping this wildly popular event from feeling like a feeding frenzy. They sold out 4 four-hour “tasting pavilion” sessions to 2,000 people each, and there’s no doubt they could have sardined in 4,000 people if they wanted to without breaking any fire codes. But they didn’t – and thus, we had a great time and never waiting in a line longer than five minutes. As far as the seven different beers I sampled, there was only one true standout, though I had a blast trying them all. I’ll list them in order of the libational pleasure each provided me with:

1. GOOSE ISLAND MATILDA – Outstanding. Smooth and mildly sweet, this is a still, unclouded Belgian-style ale without all the intensity that implies. I have no idea what style category to throw it into, and I’m not connected to the internet as I type this on an airplane, so let’s just call it the show’s winner, and a fantastic beer that is available in bottles wherever these guys distribute (unfortunately not where I live). 8.5/10.

2. FIRESTONE WALKER LITTLE OPAL – I understand this beer is < 4% alcohol, and yet tastes like something at least twice that potent. Incredible work wringing out all the taste possible from such a “mild” beer. It was a very yeasty hybrid of a witbier and a tripel, with strong taste of lemon and cloves. My notes say, “like a lesser-ABV La Fin Du Monde”, so obviously I suspected something. Really good beer that I hope they bottle sometime soon. 7.5/10.

3. 21ST AMENDMENT TRANSCONTINENTAL IPA – Had this one on cask, and thought it was great. A delicious, well-balanced IPA that’s apparently only at the brewpub, which happens to be in San Francisco, which happens to be where I live. 7.5/10.

4. CORONADO BREWING “SAISON BY THE SEA” – Easy drinking, much more simple an smooth than I expected, with none of the earthiness I expect out of a saison. I’m getting the feeling that “saison” is more of a marketing term for this one, and others in that style I’ve encountered recently. No matter, this one was quite good. 7/10.

5. GREEN FLASH “LE FREAK” – For beer dorks only. Totally a beer that would scare off most people; I actually talked to a few people who tried it because of the name and immediately set it down for the garbage collector to dump out. Hops, hops and more hops. A very cloudy orange; bitter and yeasty. Sort of an “everything but the kitchen sink” taste to it. Strange, but strange enough to be kinda cool. It caught me in a good enough mood to give it a 6.5/10.

6. LOST ABBEY WITCH'S WIT – It hurts me to rate a Lost Abbey beer this low. This witbier, however, tasted like a pilsner, smooth and unexciting and lacking any sort of spicing to give it character. It was a bit unusual for its form, and I drank it very quickly and with some amount of relish. Would probably not buy it again, though. 6/10.

7. SAN DIEGO BREWING DUBBEL FANTASY – I’ll give ‘em an “E” for effort, but this very strong Belgian dubbel was way too sweet and candied for my liking. Thin-bodied and pretty much what a first-time foray into Belgian brewing might taste like (“hey guys, let’s try and make a dubbel!”). 5.5/10.

Truth be told, I have no idea how the brewers were selected, and whether or not their respective approaches have anything to do with the “Slow Food principles”. That said, as a beer festival and as a food festival, this was an unqualified success, and if the folks behind it promise to run the next one the way they did this one, count me in for 2009.

ALLAGASH TRIPEL – NOT FOR THE MEEK

Riding high on my must-try list for a while has been the ALLAGASH TRIPEL from Portland. Maine’s ALLAGASH BREWING, one of the more celebrated of American brewers these days. You want to know what I think? OK, good. I think that ALLGASH make some good beers, but they don’t quite hit the high marks of some of their revered comrades like Lost Abbey, Russian River, Avery or even Telegraph Brewing. Second tier all the way, which isn’t really a dis per se – I mean, it’s hard to hit the hallowed heights of the aforementioned.

This tripel is a good example of what I’m talking about. After popping the cork on the fancy, heavy-glass bottle, there’s an initial spice and fruit explosion that’s almost puckering and eye-watering to adapt to, but adapt you most likely will. Allagash don’t mess around with second-grade ingredients, that’s for sure, and their beers are always very fresh and taste exceptionally clean. Next I felt the faintest kiss of honey, ahh honey, before encountering some hardcore funkiness and complexity as I swallowed gulp after gulp. It was a real strong bite on the ‘ol palate, and I even went & typed “not for the meek” into my notetaking device as I drank my evening bomber. Good stuff, not awe-inspiring, but I reckon we don’t need to blown to kingdom come every time we open a bottle of ale, right? 7/10.

WE’VE GOT SOME DRINKING TO CATCH UP ON

Whenever my HBJ “posting rate” falls behind my “new-beer drinking rate”, what happens is that rated beers build up within the HBJ ecosystem, and all of a sudden I’ve got more topics for posts and more reviews to write than there are "posting days" in the week. As I’ve said before, it’s not like I’m some beer dawg/lush either – if HBJ posts reviews 3 times a week, and every week I try 4 new beers (which often might be, and likely are, the only beers consumed during a given week), then after a few weeks we’ve got a little backup & clogging to get rid of. It’s not like I want to drink something and not tell you about it, you know what I mean?

Here are 5 recent tastes that I’d like to let you in on, so that you may learn and consume appropriately within your own beer-drinking ecosystem:

WEYERBACHER DOUBLE SIMCOE IPA – This big Pennsylvania IPA is a somewhat sweet, VERY well-balanced hoppy ale, one that I’d read about multiple times online. It uses Simcoe hops instead of the usual blend, and apparently that’s what lends it a slightly different feel & taste than the normal big-ass IPA does. I bought it in Washington DC to bring back in my suitcase, and I’m glad I did. 7.5/10.

HITACHINO NEST WHITE ALE – Hunh. This Japanese beer is like a glass of young, fruity chardonnay crossed with a mediocre Belgian witbier. Exceptionally sweet, like candy-sweet, and not very craft-beer-like, but tasty enough to stand apart from the macrobrews somewhat. That said, I doubt I’d ever order it again if there was also a “macro micro” on tap. 5.5/10.

SIERRA NEVADA ESB – One of those Sierra Nevada beers that shows up on tap handles for a month and then retreats. I was in the mood for something low-ABV that would allow me to drive home safely afterward, so pulled for one of these "early spring beers" one night in Oakland. It’s a delicious, classic English ale, very smooth and only mildly bitter. Well done. 7.5/10.

SWEETWATER 420 PALE ALE – 420, dude! This pale ale from Atlanta is a solid, smooth, low-hopped medium-sweet ale, one I enjoyed drinking and could see being a great go-to beer in clubs & whatnot. In Atlanta I believe it is just that – the flagship for the city’s largest brewery. I drank mine at a hotel bar in Atlanta, as fate would have it. Good choice. 7/10.

O’FALLON SMOKE – From a small Missouri-based brewery, this smoked porter is very thick and malty, with a “seared” taste of bacon and chocolate. No, really. It’s a dark caramel-brown color and is very thick on the tongue. There is really not enough other flavor to blot out that intense, heavy smokiness, so I honestly didn’t really dig this one all that much – a bit of a chore to get through even twelve ounces. 5.5/10.

PORT BREWING’S “2ND ANNIVERSARY ALE” – DIDN’T LIKE IT

My big pet peeve when it comes to IPA’s and Double IPA’s was grossly violated with extreme prejudice in this beer, PORT BREWING’s 2ND ANNIVERSARY ALE. The flagrant foul, one committed all too often these days? It’s allowing that hot, sweet alcohol taste to overwhelm the rest of the beer, making one have to struggle & wince a bit to glug a swallow down, rather than drink it with pleasure. I’m getting tired of it – our friends at PORT should know better. Strange, too – I know the brewery has been around a lot longer than two years – is this to celebrate their sister brewery THE LOST ABBEY’s second anniversary, and if so, why not under that label? Anyway, this thing is a “giant raging hop monster” with the aforementioned problem of letting that 9.5% alcohol too front-forward in the mix. Strong citrus and pine scents and tastes, and it’s just big-n-huge all the way around. It sure gets one buzzed, I’ll tell you that. I actually felt this one the rest of the night, and it was the only beer I had. I’m wondering if these guys are stumbling on the IPAs all of a sudden – I didn’t like their HOP 15 either. 5/10. Don’t bother.

SOUTHERN TIER’S HOPPY “CHERRY SAISON”

When I was in Washington DC a few weeks ago I did some pre-flight homework on beer outlets from which I could purchase alcohol beverages to store in my suitcase, and as it so happened, there was a good retailer near my hotel (the name already escapes me). Just that week I’d been reading about some SOUTHERN TIER BREWING beers online, and I decided to make their 22-oz. beers my grail for the trip – if I could find those, I’d call the whole hunt a success. You may recall I tasted me first Southern Tier beer (the HEAVY WEIZEN) here and absolutely fell for it. Seems like the east coast is going nutzoid for their stuff right now, and I wanted to join in. Once I got to the store, I found not 1, not 2, but three different bombers from this brewer, and promptly chickened out and only brought home one for tasting purposes (one was a super-fortified barleywine; the other one I didn’t get was a coffee beer).

The one I pulled the trigger on is SOUTHERN TIER CHERRY SAISON, an imperial oak-aged cherry ale, and as the saying goes, “I’m glad I did”. It’s not quite what I expected, but who cares, right? This is a very hoppy, very Belgian beer, more akin to a tripel than the musty, earthy saison taste I’m used to. Right from the crack of the bat you can smell the cherries, but like any great brewer, Southern Tier don’t overdo it. You get Belgian candied sugar tastes, and a delicious roundness of flavors that I absolutely loved. Man, on the evidence this is one fantastic brewer. 8.5/10. I probably could even drink that weird-ass coffee beer right about now.

RATING THE MACRO MICROS

(Note: I totally messed up, and have since corrected, this post when it was first published. I plum forgot my #1 favorite of the macro micros – BLUE MOON BELGIAN WHITE, made by none other than the Adolph Coors Corporation. I’ve tried to belittle and knock down this beer, and every time I’ve had it, especially the two most recent times, I’ve found it to be fantastic. Correction noted on 8/27/08).

More often than not, beer dorks like me find themselves in situations that call for a beer to be purchased or chosen, yet, for whatever reason, there are no Trappist ales nor double IPAs nor wood-aged quadruples anywhere in sight. In these times, desperate measures must be put into play: either abstaining from beer entirely (come on!!!), or scanning the list of options to find the least objectionable “macro micro” available. What is a macro micro, you ask? Well, it’s usually a beer that once began from humble origins, usually a craft brewer who, with a little success, made it his/her company’s flagship ale, and through cunning, taste and marketing, or some combination thereof, has brought said beer onto the grocery shelves and tap handles of hundreds or thousands of establishments. The beer is ubiquitous in its region, state - or, like SIERRA NEVADA PALE ALE or FAT TIRE, the entire United States of America.

What of these macro micros? What does the discriminating beer dork do upon encountering one standing proudly in a sea of mediocrity, as he so often does? Let me guide you through my opinion of those that are most freuqwntly encountered in my neck of the woods (Northern California), and the ranking I’ve employed in my head to help me decide when to pull the trigger, or to simply stay abstinent from alcoholic enjoyment for the evening:

1. BLUE MOON BELGIAN WHITE – You think I don’t know how “controversial” this mass-produced ale is in the beer dork world? I don’t care – I love it, once I take the orange out. The best mass-produced Belgian-style ale ever made outside of Belgium. Great bursts of flavor and even spices, redolent of the best refreshing white ales & wheat beers from Germany and Belgium. 8/10.

2. NEW BELGIUM FAT TIRE AMBER ALE – Admit it, you know this is a very good beer, one that you’d support with all your heart if it wasn’t sweeping the United States like the Macarena or the Achy Breaky Heart dance. A classic malty amber that I’ll reach for just about anytime it’s the only decent thing on tap, which it so often is. 7.5/10.

3. ANDERSON VALLEY BOONT AMBER – Once my favorite beer in the world, this has become so average that it’s dropped below FAT TIRE on my depth chart. That doesn’t mean it’s not still good – another malty, somewhere fruity amber that’s a clean and smooth as Walden Pond. It’s a macro-micro where I live, but I understand it may not be where you reside. 7.5/10.

4. PYRAMID HEFEWEIZEN – I still like this one better than just about anyone I know. I’m not sure the 8/10 I gave it in this review has quite stood in the subsequent times I’ve had it, but it’s a delicious American wheat beer that I’ll throw down for anytime. 7.5/10.

5. ANCHOR STEAM – "Old reliable" never really seems to get better or worse, does it? It always just tastes good, and has saved numerous ballgames, weddings and dive bars from the sad sight of me drinking ice water. 7/10.

6. DESCHUTES MIRROR POND PALE ALE – Another one deservedly hitting the ballparks and tap handles all around California. I wrote a review of it here. 7/10.

7. SAMUEL ADAMS BOSTON LAGER – There always seems to be something better than Old Sam on tap just about everywhere these days, so I haven’t had it in a while, but I always felt he did his job well. 6.5/10.

8. LAGUNITAS IPA – Never got into this quote-unquote IPA; it’ll do in a sweaty club or in a real pinch, but I might just get a gin & tonic or a free cup of water instead. 6/10.

9. SIERRA NEVADA PALE ALE – I’ve kind of soured on this one. Sooo boring. So mass-produced, and starting to taste like it. 6/10.

10. WIDMER HEFEWEIZEN – Really just not a go-to beer anymore, if it ever was back in the 90s. I can't remember that far back. 5/10.

See? That probably matches your own rankings perfectly, doesn’t it? Whaddya say?

HAND ME A HAANDBRYGGERIET, BABY!

Here’s the best Norwegian beer I’ve not only ever tried, but ever imagined. I’ve been reading about the Scandanavian brewing revolution that’s well underway, turning a region packed with light lagers and light ales into a taste-expanding, experimental hotbed of beer production. I often don’t believe the hype on this sorta thing. On the evidence of one lone beer, HAANDBRYGGERIET’s NORWEGIAN WOOD, I’m a firm believer! This beer is outstanding. Think of a dark orange/brown smoked ale with a smokiness that never overwhelms and yet is ever-present. Rich, roasted malts coat the tongue, and just when you’re adjusting to it, wham – the taste of berries comes through and sweetens the mix a bit. These berries are juniper, not your traditional raspberries or blueberries you might find in a craft ale, so there’s no overwhelming candiness to it – just enough sweet/tartness, mixing it up with that intense smoked ale flavor. Excellent. NORWEGIAN WOOD is totally unique and wonderful beer that HBJ highly, highly recommends. It’s imported into the US, so I suggest you get you some. 9/10.

WE’VE BEEN MOBIFIED

All three blogs that I pen are now available on your mobile phone. I’m serious. Open up that WAP browser and triple-tap these bad boys in there:

http://firstprinciples.mofuse.mobi
http://hedonistbeerjive.mofuse.mobi
http://detailedtwang.mofuse.mobi

UNCOMMON BREWERS’ MOST UNCOMMON “SIAMESE TWIN ALE”

Ever since I read about this SIAMESE TWIN ALE from Santa Cruz, CA’s UNCOMMON BREWERS on William Brand’s beer blog, I’d been itching to try it. I guess I was – and continue to be – excited by this new push toward introducing exotic ingredients, fruits and spices in beer, and the notion of an Asian-themed ale sounded at least worth trying. There’s this other brewer up in Seattle called LAUGHING BUDDHA, who appear to be doing similar things – in fact that’s their entire shtick: high-quality, craft-brewed Asian-inspired ales (as opposed to lagers like SINGHA and whatnot). I’m totally ready to throw down with their stuff, and in fact just negotiated a highly contentious, excruciatingly-negotiated deal to “import” some of it to my house.

Anyway, let’s talk about this SIAMESE TWIN ALE, how about? I stumbled upon a can (!) – a tall boy can! – at a café (River Street Café & Cheese Shop) in Santa Cruz whilst traveling last week, and though I’m not much of a “daytime drinker”, this discovery was just way too exciting to pass up. I’m a bit chagrined to say, though – and this is with the utmost in respect & admiration for what UNCOMMON BREWERS are going for here – that it falls far more into the “curiosity” camp than it does the must-drink camp. At first you’re hit with a big whiff-n-taste of lemongrass, right like it came from your plate of Thai food rather than from the drink next to it. Definitely an “Asian” taste, so score one for the brewer.

It also has the look and the mouthfeel of a Belgian dubbel, and weighs in at a hefty 8.5% ABV. You get really bittering tastes of lime and thai spices, along with coriander as you’d find in a much more muted fashion in a witbier. It was not an easy-drinking beer, and it did not strike me as something that would be great to wash down a particular plate of food with. It struck me instead as a bold experiment that looks better on paper than it does in your mouth. Worth one try only. I’ll still drink whatever their next concoction is, just because I’m still pretty intrigued with their mission & vision & all that. 5.5/10.