Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Bistro Double IPA Festival 2007

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The 7th annual Double IPA Festival was held yesterday at the Bistro in Hayward, California. There were 42 beers that we judged, narrowing it down to four. All four were terrific beers and any one of them could have ended up in first place, though ultimately Ballast Point Point Brewing‘s Dorado was the one we picked. Judging when pretty smoothly and we had a great group this time, including three Brits in town working on a CAMRA book on the west coast.

Judging in the cellar, trying to take the final ten beers and pick three winners.

Ben McFarland, this year’s British Beer Writer of the Year, and Tom Sandham. The pair are in town along with my friend Glenn Payne (who helped start Meantime Brewing) to work on a CAMRA guidebook for British and European tourists coming to the west coast.

The other end of the judging table, with me flanked by Pete Slosberg and Dave Keene.

While upstairs it was raining something firece.

Darn, I forget the woman on the left’s name, but the rest are Dave Keene (owner of the Toronado), Melissa Myers (with Drake’s Brewing) and Ed Chainey (with Anderson Valley Brewing).

Vinnie Cilurzo (from Russian River Brewing), Shaun O’Sullivan (from 21st Amendment) and Pete Slosberg share a Falstaff.

Photos from Abroad

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In case you missed it, I went to London and Brussels last week with a couple of Bay Area brewers, Shaun O’Sullivam from 21st Amendment and Christian Kazakoff from Triple Rock. Photos from the trip were posted back to the date when we were there so, unless you were looking for them, you probably missed them. Here are the photo gallery links from the trip.

1.24 London Pub Tour
1.25 Fuller’s Griffin Brewery Tour
1.26 Brussels in January
1.26 Cantillon Brewery Tour
1.27 The Old Ale Festival at the White Horse
 

The Old Ale Festival at the White Horse

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Our primary reason for the trip to London was to attend the 24th annual Old Ale Festival at the White Horse on Parson’s Green, which is located in southwest London. Landlord and cellerman Mark Dorber, who’s been at the pub for decades, is leaving this year and we wanted to visit him at the bar while we still could. He was, as always, a gracious host and we spent a fabulous full twelve hours there at the festival, from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. Of the 47 beers listed for the festival, we tried all but eight, and that’s because those beers were not yet on tap while we were there.

The White Horse on Parson’s Green.

Pulling a pint behind the bar.

Our little corner of the world for the day.

Mark Dorber conducted a tour/tasting of the cellars.

Motor and Shaun O’Sullivan with a couple of Burgundian Babble Belt members at the festival.

Roger Protz and me toward the end of the evening.

For more photos of the day’s events, visit the photo gallery.

Brussels in January

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On Friday, we left England and took the Chunnel train under the English Channel to Brussels for a quick day trip.

The Eurostar train in Brussels.

Where you can get a Duvel to enjoy on board.

Downtown Brussels near the Midi train station.

Where even their beer trash is better.

That’s a discarded bottle of Westmalle Tripel.

First stop was a tour of Brasserie Cantillon, the last remaining brewery in Brussels.

For the full brewery tour, visit the photo gallery.

Cantillon owner Jean-Pierre Van Roy and me after our tour.

After our tour, we did some quick sightseeing. This, of course, is the famous Manneken-Pis.

Across the street from which was the Poechenellekelder, a bit touristy but with a decent beer selection.

The nearby Grand Place.

Including the Brewers Union building.

And, of course, the Delirium Cafe, also packed with tourists.

With a spiral staircase lined with Delirium Tremens bottles.

The Floris Absinthe bar across the alley was closed until eight, by the Delirium Cafe had one type of absinthe so I could try some with my beer.

Afterwards, we had a quick dinner at Bier Circus. Here Shaun shows off his steak and the ubiquitous plate of frittes.

And our beer selection with dinner.

Back at the train station to return to London there was an interesting selection of canned beer in the vending machines. All in all, the trip was too quick to do anything but scratch the surface of the city, but at least we had a chance to do that. I’m certainly looking forward to returning and spending a little more time there.

London Trip: Day 2, Fuller’s Brewery Tour

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On Thursday, our second day in London, we had a nice private tour of Fuller’s Griffin Brewery in the Chiswick area of London.

The Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, London

The “Old Copper,” part of the old brewery.

After the tour we isited the Hock Cellar, where we sampled beer made at the brewery. Here brewers Shaun O’Sullivan from 21st Amendment Brewery and Christian Kazakoff from Triple Rock Brewery pose behind the bar with our tour guide Derek Prentice.

For the full brewery tour, visit the photo gallery.

London Trip: Day 1

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Tuesday I left for a short trip to London along with brewers Shaun O’Sullivan (21st Amendment) and Christian Kazakoff (Triple Rock) and beer fans Motor and Thomas. Because of the time change, our flight was effectively a red eye and we arrived in the U.K. the following morning around seven in the morning. We had no specific plans for the day, apart from some drinking and trying to stay awake as long as possible in order to fight our jet lag.

London had received a rare bit of snow and our tube ride in from the airport was a winter wonderland.

The snow was so unexpected, there were still flowers in the parks.

Christian, Shaun, me and Motor in the lobby of our hotel in Russell Square.

We went for a walk down to the Borough Market and tried a brewpib there, the Brew Wharf Yard. They only had one house beer on, the Wharf Rebel, which was, I’m sorry to say, very dissapointing. But they did have all of the Meantime beers and a good selection of imported Belgian and American beers.

The Anchor pub next to the Thames was a bit of a tourist bar but in a great location and with a decent selection.

By far the best pub in the area was the Market Porter, which had great atmosphere and an even better beer selection.

Though ridicuously the Market Porter also carried Guinness Extra Cold, whatever that means. Actually, according to the Guinness website:

Using the same classic recipe as Guinness Draught, Guinness Draught Extra Cold passes through our Coldflow supercooler en route to the bar. The result is a GUINNESS® Draught that’s served 3°C cooler. With an initial malt and caramel flavour, cooler Guinness Draught Extra Cold finishes with less bitterness than classic Guinness Draught beer. Chilly, isn’t it?

Guinness Draught Extra Cold is best served at around 3.5°C (38.3°F) — that’s 2.5°C (4.5°F) or so colder than Guinness Draught.

We did our own taste test of Guinness vs. Guinness Extra Cold — GEC is in the foreground. Not surprisingly, there was absolutely no difference. As suspected, it was merely a marketing gimmick.

Next, it was off to the Tate Modern, which was only a short walk away.

The highlight was probably the The Unilever Series by Carsten Höller. It was a series of amazing slides that you take from the second, third and even the fifth floor.

The slides wind around a central pole.

There’s solid on the bottom half but glass on the upper half so you can see where you’re going.

You sit on and put your feet into a canvas towel to ride down the tube. Here Shaun O’Sullivan enters the fifth floor slide.

Shaun crosses his arms and lets go.

Here Christian Kazakoff somes out at the bottom after his five-story ride.

A better look at the canvas towel as Christian dismounts the slide.

Afterwards, we went to the Blackfriar, an absolutely beautiful pub steeped in ornate details and history.

An old sign out front.

Unfortunately, inside — though also quite ornate and stunningly beautiful — it smelled of sulfur and sewage, as if the pipes had recently backed up. The people inside either didn’t seem to notice or had grown used to it. But none of us could stay inside for very long and so we kept moving.

We had a late lunch at the Lamb, near our hotel. The beer was decent, but the food could have been better. Overall, it was a little disappointing to see that most pubs looked great outside and in, but carried a somewhat narrow range of beers that differed only according to what pub company owned them. There were very few true free houses. And while I might argue that their beers, and especially the popular ones, were still real ales and much better overall then the beers that dominate our bars, there was still a lack of diversity found in many average Bay Area bars.

For the rest of the evening, we walked from pub to pub in an effort to stay up as long as possible. We had a pint at the Lamb & Flag and Ye Grapes before ending up at the White Horse for the rest of the evening.

Kiss & Urthel: The Beer Dinner

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Monday evening the beer chef, Bruce Paton, hosted a “Dinner with the Brewmaster” with Urthel’s Hildegard and Bas van Ostaden. It was a small, more intimate dinner than usual, and, as usual, I had a very good time.

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We began the evening with Hop-It, the first Imperial IPA brewed in Belgium. The tap handle featured one of Bas’ gnomes, which appear on all the Urthel labels.

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Hildegard van Ostaden, Urthel’s brewster, one of only two female brewers working in Belgium, and Brian Hunt of Moonlight Brewing.

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Hildegard spoke to the audience before each course and described the beer we were about to enjoy.

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Then her husband and business partner, Bas, entertained the crowd with stories of the Urthels, the bald little gnomes on the beer labels that he created.

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Our beautifully presented dessert, a tartare of figs and Buddha’s hand with chocolate sabayon, vanilla mascarpone and cocoa nib cookie.

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Jen Garris and Brian Hunt.

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Bas van Ostaden, Bruce Paton and Hildegard van Ostaden after the dinner.

From the Field: Lisa Morrison at the Portland Holiday Ale Fest

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A couple of weeks ago the Portland Holiday Ale festival was held in the Rose City and award-winning beer writer — and Portland resident — Lisa Morrison was on hand to sample the holiday beers. Lisa filed this report along with a few pictures from the festival. Thanks, Lisa, for sharing the festival with us!

I don’t have a lot of detail on how well the fest was attended or anything, but I do know the “buzz” beer was called Jim, named after Jim Kennedy, one of the patriarchs of Portland beer and, really, one of the founding fathers of the good beer movement nationally. It was created by Preston Weesner and Alan Sprints (Hair of the Dog). It was conceptualized one day when the two were sitting around talking and enjoying some beer and cheese. Preston said Maredsous 8 was always a “Jim beer” for him in that he thought of Jim whenever he enjoyed it. They worked on a blend of some Hair of the Dog beers with a keg of M8 and Alan painstakingly aged it in oak barrels until the fest. Truly a one-time, one-of-a-kind beer that was appreciated and celebrated by all. A fitting tribute to a really great guy.

Fest-goer Eric Bressman shows off a T-shirt from recent travels while enjoying a beer at the fest.

Having some fun at the Holiday Ale Festival.

Chris Crabb, who does PR and is an organizer for the event, keeping chaos under control. With a smile, even!

City Beer Store Holiday Beer Tasting

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Friday evening there was a fun little event at the new City Beer store, San Francisco’s first and only store selling nothing but great beer. Owner Craig Wathen (with a little help from Jen Garris) assembled several bay area holiday beers from Drake’s, Marin Brewing and Schmaltz Brewing. Also several local brewers brought growlers of their beers, such as Triple Rock’s Reindeer and Thirsty Bear’s barleywine from 2004. The store is a small space, but there was a great turnout and the place was packed almost the whole time I was there. And did I mention they have a fantastic selection of some of the yummiest beers around. Please support the store as often as you can. As a beer community, we need to help one another. And we need a store like this.

The City Beer Christmas tree.

Drake’s brewer Melissa Myers, with her father in town for a visit.

City Beer Store owner Craig Wathen at the taps.

Craig with some of the Bay Area beer cognoscenti around the tree.
 

City Beer Store
1168 Folsom Street — at 7th
San Francisco, California
415.503.1033

Got Wood?

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Saturday was the first-ever beer festival for wood-aged beers in the west. It was held at the Bistro in Hayward, California and they were pouring about 42 different beers who had in common only that they’d been aged on some type of wood barrel. At one time, of course, all beer was stored in wooden barrels and the cooper was just as important to the brewing of beer as anyone else. Eventually stainless steel overtook wood as the vessel of choice for beer, and indeed it has many advantages, one of which is that it doesn’t impart anything to change the flavor of the beer. But that is precisely the point of the new wood-aged beers, and how they change the beer is what is so exciting about this trend. Brewers are learning through experimentation what works best and in general barrel-aged beers gain enormous complexity from their time in the wood, and what type of wood and/or what was in the barrel before the beer transforms the beer into a whole new experience. The most common used barrels once contained bourbon, scotch, wine, port or brandy. And these residual flavors, in addition to the wood itself, are also apparent in the finished beer.

The scene outside under the tent at the Barrel Aged Beer festival, with Rodger Davis from Drake’s making faces at me.

Here’s something you don’t see everyday, Falstaff beer in cans.

The 21st Amendment Girls enjoy some yummy Tri-Tip sandwiches (oh, and Steve, too).

Bistro co-owner Vic Kralj announced the winners.

The first barrel aged fest was very well-attended, boding well for another one next year. The weather was decidedly cool for the Bay Area, which made it perfect for enjoying big, strong beers.

Our hosts, Bistro owners Cynthia and Vic Kralj.

Judging the four categories of beers kept us sequestered in the cellar for five grueling, delicious hours. Because all the beers have in common is being aged on wood, it was very difficult to choose among so many diverse, but deserving beers. There were very lively discussions every step of the way. Rumor has it one of the other judges wanted to “kick my ass” afterward, so I know I must be doing something right. What a blast!