Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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New New Albion Tapped Today

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I like to give credit where credit’s due, and the original idea for this came from Rodger Davis, the head brewer at Triple Rock. But it was fortuitous that I ran into Don Barkley at the Falling Rock in Denver during GABF week last year. I hadn’t seen Don probably since CBC in Austin the year before when he accepted an award on behalf the famously reclusive Jack McAuliffe, his old boss at New Albion Brewery, the first modern craft brewery in America. But I knew he’d recently started brewing again at a new venture, Napa Smith Brewery in Napa. So I asked what he thought about recreating one of the original New Albion beers for SF Beer Week, as a way to tie the history of Bay Area beer together from its humble beginnings to its illustrious present. Don told me he had all the old brewing logs and would be more than pleased to brew it. “Which one do you want?” He asked with a wry smile. “Do you think anybody else would be interested in a keg of it if we made some, too?” Don wondered aloud. Well, needless to say the entire batch is sold and will be featured throughout SF Beer Week, a fitting tribute, I think. Once back in the Bay Area, Dave McLean took over working brewer to brewer to make it happen and today Don Barkley will tap the first kegs of the “Official Ale of SF Beer Week,” which will be called “Napa Smith’s Original Albion Ale.” It’s essentially the New Albion Pale Ale and only one batch was brewed, so when it’s gone, it’s gone.

But if you’re in the right place at the right time today, you can get a chance to try it and even meet legendary brewer Don Barkley in the process. Here’s from the press release we sent out:

To kick start SF Beer Week, Don Barkley has decided that he will be roaming San Francisco on Friday, tapping his beer for the first time at 5 different San Francisco locations, starting at the venerable Toronado in the Lower Haight, and ending up spending his happy hour in SOMA at the 21st Amendment. Don will be officially tapping his beer at every bar he visits, sharing some pints, a few stories, signing his awesome new Celebrator cover issue, and celebrating the start of SF Beer Week all day on his pub crawl around the city. Which starts with:

HIGH NOON first tapping at the Toronado!

The first drops of the Original Albion will be poured at the place where it all began for most of us, the Toronado. Don will be at the T from Noon to 1pm, catch him if you can. The Original Albion Ale will be available all weekend, if it even lasts that long!

Watch Your Speed! 1pm-1:45pm

Before leaving the Haight, Don and crew will be tapping the Original Albion at Magnolia Pub, where you can take a break from Strong Beer Month to grab a pint of a beer that hasn’t been brewed in well over 20 years!

We’re on a Mission! 2pm-2:45pm

Next stop on the Original Albion pub crawl: the Monk’s Kettle. Catch a mid afternoon beer with Don and the boys at the Kettle, one of the best new beer spots in the city, an instant classic if you will. They are kicking off SF Beer Week by running specials on local craft brews all week long!

Bottled Beer Heaven! 3pm-3:45pm

The City Beer Store, your best option for a take home version of the best beers in all the land, will be hosting Don’s beer on draft too, so stop by and wet your whistle while you decide which beers are going to fill up your fridge!

Lower De Boom! 4pm-5pm

The 21st Amendment, one of the sites of Strong Beer Month 2009, welcomes Don for the day’s final tapping, part of the pub’s legendary post-work day happy hour, where you can let the Original Albion wash away your sorrows, and prepare for what is sure to be an action-filled SF Beer Week for the next nine days in February.

Throughout the ten days of SF Beer Week, Napa Smith Original Albion Ale will be available at select locations around the Bay Area. Here’s a list of where you’ll be able to find it:

Alembic Bar
The Toronado
The Monk’s Kettle
City Beer Store
Chez Panisse
The Bistro
Barclay’s
Magnolia Pub
Hopmonk Tavern
Rogue Ale House
Ben & Nick’s Bar & Grill
Cato’s Ale House
21st Amendment Pub
Jupiter Brew Co
Billco’s in Napa
Bounty Hunter in Napa
Murphy’s Irish Pub in Sonoma
The Celebrator’s Best of the West Beer Fest (on Sunday February 15)
 

 
If you want to try to recreate this beer at home, Don has graciously shared the recipe for this sip of history:

Napa Smith Brewery’s ‘ORIGINAL ALBION ALE’

Don Barkley Master Brewer of Napa Smith Brewery and the original brewer for the New Albion Brewing Co., has brewed for SF Beer Week the original New Albion Pale Ale. “Using recipes from New Albion we have reproduced a great ‘straight forward’ pale ale that helped shape America’s brewing history”. Although this ale dims in the stark glare of today’s extreme beers, it holds high the unique character of true craft brewing. New Albion Brewery yeast was used for fermentation thanks to the generosity of the Mendocino Brewing Company, who still uses this yeast in their ales. Pale malt used at New Albion was sourced from San Francisco’s last producing Malt House (Bauer & Schweitzer) in this beer we used a blend of 50 % Great Western 2-row and 50% Gambrinus Pale Ale Malt. The Napa water was hardened with the addition of Gypsum to a level of 350PPM hardness. Hops used as in the New Albion recipe are Cluster for bittering and Cascade for aroma (This was the Cascades first introduction into the craft brewing industry).

Process:

Infusion mash 144 degrees F, 90 min.
Sparge at 170 degree F
Boil 90 min., Hops (1/3 cluster, 2/3 cascade)
1. at boil Cluster
2. 30 min Cascade
3. 60 min Cascade

O.G. 13.5 balling, Pitching Temp 60 F, using 0.75lb yeast slurry/bbl
Ferment at 68 F 6days
Secondary 60 F 8days
Final Gravity 1.6 balling
Bottle condition using cane sugar and yeast slurry for 1Million cells /mil

Style: American Craft Pale Ale, using New Albion Ale Yeast
First Available:. August 1977
Description: Medium body, Bright golden color, White dense foam head, Lightly hopped, Aroma is malty with some hop spiciness, full malt flavor accented with hop character, moderate bitterness, Clean, dry after taste with lasting richness. Fermentation and yeast character is clearly evident with this unfiltered Ale.

Alcohol: By volume 6.5%
Bitterness: 31 BU
Color: 18
CO2: 2.5 Vol.
OG: 13.5 Balling
FG: 1.6 Balling

 

SF Beer Week Starts Tomorrow

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I can scarcely believe it, but tomorrow SF Beer Week begins, unofficially at Noon (more about that later) and officially Friday night about 7:00 p.m. I haven’t even had time to post this week, I’ve been so busy trying to get last minute details taken care of, along with some Herculean efforts by Dave McLean and Dean James from Magnolia. The total tonight stands at 146 events, which exceeded my expectations. And more than that, I’m pleased with the types of events and some of the great places that you don’t normally think of as beer friendly stepping up and embracing beer week, high end restaurants like Oliveto and Chez Panisse. I’ve kissed and wife and kids and told them not to wait up for the next ten days, and am planning on trying to attend as many events as humanly possible. I’m prepared to be amazed. Are you?

 

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Anchor Beers

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For my fifth Top 10 list I’m up to my eyeballs getting ready for SF Beer Week. Since Anchor Brewery is the oldest brewery in San Francisco still around, having been founded originally around 1864 (though it wasn’t called Anchor beer until 1896), I though I’d list my favorite Anchor beers. On Friday they’re debuting a new beer and I’ve very excited about it. I know what it is, but am sworn to secrecy. I could tell, but then I’d have to kill you. By Friday night the cat will be out of the bag, so to speak, and I’ll be able to reveal what it is. Suffice it to say, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Anyway, here’s List #5:
 

Top 10 Favorite Anchor Beers
 

Bock Another of their newest beers, but I’ve never quite warmed up to it.
Summer Beer/Wheat Beer The wheat build on the two is slightly different, but they don’t taste substantially different. Anyway, the Summer beer replaced the Wheat Beer in their portfolio.
Small Beer Perhaps the finest example of recycling, and a great way to make a tasty session beer.
Steam I know the Steam beer is one of the few original American beer styles, and I certainly appreciate it on that level, but it’s never been my favorite of their beers. It is a great thirst quencher, and works with a variety of foods — but you knew that, right?
Spruce Beer Most people I’ve talked to about this beer have a love/hate relationship with this beer; they hated it and I loved it. I wish I still had some of this, though by now it would be toast. It had a very strong air freshener nose, which was oddly absent on the palette. But that spruce character was overpowering, and I think that’s what turned people off.
Our Special Ale (2000-present) Since the Millennium, the spices in Anchor’s Christmas beer have been too restrained, but then I think if you’re going to do a spice beer you should go whole hog. It’s still better than almost every other spice beer out there, but I have a very warm (spicy) spot in my heart for their earlier efforts.
Porter By the time this was first bottled in 1974, the style had almost died in England, sad to say. Maytag apparently spent a lot of time studying English styles in England and it’s quite evident in the beers that Anchor released in the early 1970s.
Old Foghorn Barleywine Style Ale Another old English style that Anchor helped introduce to American drinkers is their barley wine, which debuted in 1976. I confess I’ve developed a taste for more generously hopped barley wine, but can still appreciate a maltier one like Anchor brews. And when you’re in the mood for one like that, you’d be hard pressed to find a better example on our side of the pond.
Our Special Ale (@1994-99) These were the years (roughly) when the spices in Anchor’s Christmas beer really shined. I still have a couple of magnums from these years and a few 12 oz. bottles. Having done a few verticals stretching back pretty far, I’ve found about ten years in the max for aging Anchor’s Christmas beers, though the spicier ones, of course, have a slight advantage. Most people I know think their beers were too spicy at this time, but not me. These were my favorites.
Liberty Ale You’d be hard-pressed to find a better all-purpose beer than Liberty. Its aromatic Cascade hops are almost pedestrian today but in 1975 it must have seemed revolutionary, which is fitting, I suppose, since it was released on April 18, the 200th anniversary of Paul Revere’s Ride at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. Remember the time you drank your first decidedly hoppy beer? It was so different from anything else that it was almost confusing. In 1975, as a high school sophomore, I was drinking local lagers and cream ales in Eastern Pennsylvania. I can’t imagine what I would have thought of Liberty at that time. But now it feels positively sessionable, even at 6%. I know I treat it that way. It’s a beer I often start and finish a night out with. Their best, hands down.

 

I wish I had an opportunity to try the Ninkasi Ale they did in 1989 and also the Potrero Commons in 1990. Oh, well.

 

Also, if you have any ideas for future Top 10 lists you’d like to see, drop me a line.
 

Balloon Beer

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A friend sent me these photos (thanks Jeff) and wondered whether they constituted “beer art” or “balloon craft?” I don’t know the answer either, if indeed there is an answer, but it’s a pretty awesome feat of balloon-making.

Unfortunately, you can’t drink it and I seriously doubt the balloons are filled with anything but air.

 

Beer in Art #13: Edouard Manet’s Waitresses

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Today’s featured paintings are by an artist whose work we first looked at in week one, three months ago. Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, is probably one of the most famous works of art to prominently display beer bottles, but because he so often set his paintings in Parisian nightlife, a number of his paintings have beer in them. There are two paintings today, because they are so similar that there names are even often confused. Both appear to be painted at the same concert, with the same characters, but at different moments in time. The two paintings are known as The Waitress and Corner of a Café-Concert. Both are believed to be painted between 1878-1880, with most sources giving 1879 for The Waitress. The painting below is, I believe, Corner of a Café-Concert, because it’s at London’s National Gallery and that’s the name they’ve given it, so I’m going with them since they own the painting. Various sources throughout the internet have the names of the two paintings interchanged.

In the first painting the dancer on stage looks more like she’d been painted by Edgar Degas than Manet. The National Gallery also has the following to say about the Corner of a Café-Concert:

This work was originally the right half of a painting of the Brasserie de Reichshoffen, begun in about 1878 and cut in two by Manet before he completed it. This half was then enlarged on the right and a new background was added. The left half of the composition is in the Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur.

The Brasserie de Reichshoffen was in the Boulevard Rochechouart, Paris. At the time, brasseries with waitresses were fairly new in the city.

The second painting, The Waitress, is closer in, tighter, with the same waitress stopping from her work and looking at the viewer. The same man is smoking his clay pipe at the bar in the foreground. The man next to the pipe smoker is either a different man or has changed hats and we can catch a glimpse of a dancer, possibly the same one, on stage behind them both.

Though most sources give the common name, at least one says the title is actually La Serveuse de Bocks. And while my French is awful, that sure sounds like “Serving Bocks,” “The Serving of Bocks,” or something like that.

If you want to learn more about the artist, the Art Archive or the ArtCyclopedia are both good places to start and Wikipedia also has a nice summary. Also the Edouard Manet Gallery purports to have a complete gallery of his works.

 

Go To Beer Heaven: Strong Beer Month Taps Tomorrow

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Tomorrow the 7th annual Strong Beer Month begins, a joint promotion between 21st Amendment Brewery & Restaurant and Magnolia Gastropub & Brewery. If you’re looking for something to do before the Super Bowl or if you want to miss it entirely, you couldn’t find a better reason than twelve new strong beers debuting between the two brewpubs.

 

 

Many of these dozen beers have been created especially for this month, and will be available only until they run out. Each year many do in fact run out, a few as early as mid-month, so get there early. Sample them all, and you’ll receive a commemorative glass.
 


 
Another great parody again this year. Last year, you may recall, they spoofed AC/DC’s Highway To Hell album cover. This year The Grateful Dead’s Go To Heaven is given a pitch perfect parody. And while McLean’s hair extensions are awesome, I think my favorite detail is Nico Freccia’s pornstar mustache.
 

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Beer Songs

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top-10

For my fourth Top 10 list I’m tackling — as promised — my first non-beer topic, though it’s beer-related. As far as I’m concerned, music and beer are as interconnected as two things can be. They certainly enhance one another. I’m a failed musician —saxophone and clarinet — and in fact was originally a music theory/composition when I started college. I wanted to write classical music, but quickly discovered it was highly unlikely one could make much of a living at it, and I was not interested in teaching. So I switched majors to communications, although my love for music, of course, never left me. I listen to a fairly wide range of music, from classical to jazz to that newfangled rock and roll, but songs about beer tend more often to be country, traditional rock or, oddly, punk. Without really intending to, I’ve managed to collect over 500 songs that have to do specifically with beer and maybe 100 more that are about alcohol or drinking more generally. Anyway, here’s List #4:
 

Top 10 Favorite Beer Songs

10-50

Give Me a Red Hot Mama and An Ice Cold Beer by Smiley Maxedon [YouTube]

09-50

John Barleycorn Must Die by Traffic (there are many, many versions of this old English folk song, but I like Traffic’s best, though Jethro Tull has a great live version.) [Traffic] [Jetro Tull Live]

08-50

Beer by the Asylum Street Spankers [YouTube]

07-50

Beer Is Good by PsychoStick [YouTube]

06-50

Lager Delirium by Bad Manners (they also have another kick-ass beer song, Special Brew.) [Lager Delirium] [Special Brew]

05-50

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer by John Lee Hooker (though George Thorogood’s version ain’t half bad either.) [John Lee Hooker] [George Thorogood]

04-50

Beer by Reel Big Fish [YouTube]

03-50

Beer by The Reverend Horton Heat (his “Beer 30” is great, too.) [Beer] [Beer 30]

02-50

Beer Bottle Boogie by Koko Taylor [YouTube]

01-50

Drinking Beer by Jimmy Witherspoon [YouTube]

Some of the other songs that almost made the list were the Ballad of Pilsner Beer by Agriculture Club, Beer by Cory Morrow, another song titled simply Beer by Secret Agent 8, Beer Drinkers by Drive By Truckers, Beer Drinkin’ Woman by Memphis Slim, Brew’s Blues by Cal Tjader, Hair of the Dog by the Morrells (might have been higher, but it’s unclear that it’s beer), the Philosopher’s Song by Monty Python (a true gem, but it’s not strictly beer, but includes all alcohol), There Stands the Glass by Webb Pierce (and Van Morrison just recorded a cool version of this song), Titties & Beer by Frank Zappa, and Warm Beer and Cold Women by Tom Waits.

And while I can’t say I often give it a listen, The Beer Barrel Polka (a.k.a. Roll Out the Barrel) can’t be completely ignored. But I do love a good polka, I must confess, especially something like the Drink Beer Polka, by the Leningrad Cowboys.

Also, if you have any ideas for future Top 10 lists you’d like to see, drop me a line.
 

Beer in Art #12: Mieko Anekawa’s Beer! Beer! Beer!

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Today’s painting is by a Japanese artist, Mieko Anekawa, who grew up in Kyoto but now lives in New York City. This painting is called Beer! Beer! Beer!. It’s an acrylic on canvas and measures 11″x14.” Apart from the fact that she won’t sell the painting, that’s about all I know about it.
 

The choices she made for the panels are interesting to me. The first is, naturally, a can of Kirin from her native Japan. The only other Japanese beer is Hitachino Nest Beer. Two others are imported, but the majority are American craft beers. Only the can of Genesee isn’t. Of the dozen panels, seven are beer bottles, two are cans, one is a full pint glass, one is a growler and the only non-beer panel is of a bag of Utz potato chips. Sadly, the chips appear to be the “Red Hot” flavor, whereas I’m a purist when it comes to potato chips — only potatoes fried in lard (or oil) with salt added for me. As a hardcore chips geek, I can’t abide flavored chips at all.

 

A Self-Portrait

 From the biography at her website:

She began her studies in Graphic and Product communication design in Kyoto, Japan, at Seika University, and later photography in Osaka. She moved to New York in the winter of 2004 to seek more creative opportunities and to experience a different, unique approach to art. She started working for the Japanese artist HIROKI OTSUKA, as well as the artist MALCOS, in various painting and sculpting projects. She was hired in 2005 by the New York-based graphic design company Berrymatch, LLC and Nooka, Inc., a high fashion designer watch company owned by Berrymatch, doing graphic and product design, corporate identity design, and advertisement. She began to work for Adoah, LLC in 2008 designing modern fashion rugs and carpets. In her latest work she is doing illustration of movie frames and image boards, website design, graphic and logo design for the upcoming independent movie “Uwaki” by Devin Haqq. However, her passion remains for painting.

Also at the website is her statement as an artist:

Being an artist doesn’t always mean making a pretty piece. Art should be able to give people a powerful impression, a full frontal impact. And in my opinion, what gives people that great impression is color contrast and dynamic composition.

My hometown is Osaka, Japan. Osaka has lots of excitement and people there love bright, powerful colors. There is a strong feeling of energy when you go through the streets. Our city is insanely using crazy colors for anything. People wear bright colors, stores are decorated in high tones, and there is color everywhere in advertisements and magazines. It is a beautiful place. While I grew up there, I observed and absorbed that energy, and I think it comes through in my art. It was my inspiration for the animal series with the bright checkered background and color contrast. It’s a representation of me and my life. I think I can give people some of that excitement, that energy, with my art.

After I moved to NY, I was doing a lot of graphic design and layouts of typography for part of corporate identity designs. I found beauty in the straightforward, uncomplicated images of logos and typography. I wanted to include that beauty of simple objects in my paintings. My goal was to combine 2-dimensional, flat objects without depth or shadow gradation with more realistic 3-dimensional images to create contrast.

There isn’t much more information about Mieko Anekawa, except for an exhibition at New York’s ICO Art & Music Gallery, a nice article in a student newspaper — The Pendulum — from Elon University, and her Facebook page. You can see a lot of her work, though, at her own website.

 

Bradford Blogs

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Daniel Bradford, publisher of All About Beer magazine, launched his own blog yesterday. In Bradford On Beer, Daniel is planning on turning his attention from the business side of the beer world to the sensory pleasures of the beer itself, hoping “to make [him]self worthy of something like judging at the Great American Beer Festival.” Over the next year he’s going to “study, travel, taste, research, talk – whatever it takes to get me to the next level!” And his new blog he hopes “will be the public record of the trip, with all its embarrassing gaffs, exciting discoveries, foolish malapropisms, fascinating people, and beer, pints and pints of great beer.” It should be a fun and entertaining read. I certainly love a good malapropism. You just don’t see enough of those anymore, probably because most people only use simple words thus avoiding any accidental misuse by overreaching their vocabulary. But I’m sure Daniel’s word choices will be the very pineapple of perfection. Welcome to the Blogosphere, Daniel.