Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Urthel is Cooking in San Francisco

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Save the date! Beer Chef Bruce Paton’s next beer dinner will feature brewster Hildegard van Ostaden and the Urthel beers of Brouwerij de Leyerth from Belgium. Hildegard made the first Imperial IPA in Belgium and as far as I know the first double outside of the U.S. It will be another four-course dinner, though Bruce is still working out the menu. I’ll get it up as soon as it’s available. It will be held at the Cathedral Hill Hotel on Monday, January 8, beginning with a reception at 6:30 p.m. Call 415.674.3406 for reservations. Make your reservations soon, because this dinner should fill up fast and you won’t want to miss this one. I met Bas and Hildegard in Denver a couple of years ago and they’re wonderful people, who make some very excellent beers. They’re part of a new breed of Belgian brewers who have taken some of their inspiration from their American counterparts.
 

Hildegard and Bas van Ostaden, owners of the Belgian-based Brouwerij de Leyerth.
 

1.8

Dinner with the Brewmaster: Urthel

Cathedral Hill Hotel, 1101 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California
415.674.3406 [ website ]

Rodger’s Jolly Rodger Times Seven

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Wednesday night, Drake’s Brewing had a fun little event at the Toronado called Seven Different Jolly’s, where they had seven different versions of their holiday beer, Jolly Rodger, from four different years. The recipe changes from year to year, and in ’05 they did two different styles, plus two years some of the beer was aged in wood, which accounts for why there were seven different beers. Both of Drake’s brewers, Rodger Davis and Melissa Myers, were on hand. I had the kids in tow since my S.O. was in Florida for the week, which meant I couldn’t stay all night, and as a consequence my notes are rather brief. But it was a very fun tasting.

The 21A Gals were kind enough to mind my daughter Alice, who had just woken up from a nap.

The seven Jolly Rodgers, in order from left to right the way we tasted them.

Rodger tasted me, and fellow beer scribe William Brand of the Oakland Tribune, on all seven of the beers. [the descriptions in the gray boxes are the ones provided by Drake’s.]
 

2003
A Scotch Ale. Based on the early 1800’s way of taxing ales, where more Shillings were charged to higher gravity ales, this would be considered ”120 Shilling” Ale. Big and malty from the addition of roasted barley this beer is balanced with two hop additions of East Kent Golding. The beer was then fermented at 50°F to keep the ester formation low so the malt would shine through. 9%ABV 30 IBUs

First up was the oldest of the gang, the 2003 version, a strong ale which was reminiscent of an imperial something, and though I hesitate to say it, over time the flavor seems to have migrated toward stout-like characteristics, no doubt from the roasted barley. Time also seems to have given it oak-like qualities though Rodger assures me it’s never touched wood. Regardless, it has very complex flavors and tastes nothing like I remember it three years ago.

2003 Barrel Aged
In the early 1800’s Scottish brewers would transfer their ales to barrels where they would condition for up to two years. Often these beers would sour over time from bacteria in the barrels. The 2003 Scotch Ale was placed into a Brandy barrel for 18 months. This version has a slight sourness to it but is quite complex with the many different wine-like aromas that come at you. 11% ABV 30 IBU’s

The scotch ale has become much more sour during it’s stay at casa leño, almost on the order of a Flemish sour. It has also added additional complexity, if that’s possible, and has a grittier mouthfeel.

2004
An American-style Red Ale. Think of it as a dark IPA. After 2003’s version we found the need to get back into a hoppy style but wanted to create a beer that had a firm malt backbone as well. Roasted barley lends a nice mahogany color as well as a nice roasted malt flavor. Hops: Horizon, Chinook and Centennial. 9.5% ABV 70 IBUs

Time has, as is be expected, muted the hop character and brought out the malt complexity. The alcohol also comes through loud and clear.

2005-A
An Imperial IPA. This is a very big beer. Crystal malt lends a nice ruby red backdrop to an onslaught of hops. How many pounds of different kinds of hops can you throw at a beer and still make it somewhat drinkable? It turns out a lot! Hops: Horizon, Simcoe, Cascade and Columbus. 11.5% ABV 80 IBU’s

This is still quite the hop bomb, and the Simcoe character is immediately apparent and dominant. It’s tasting surprisingly fresh, though the spicy hop oils scorch the tongue going down.

2005-B
An Old Ale. For our 15th Anniversary we decided to brew two different versions of Jolly Rodger, one a hop bomb and the other would be Roger Lind’s original recipe from 1990. So we broke out his original brew sheet and used his ingredients and threw our own brewing techniques at it. What we ended up with is a well-balanced ale that is lightly hopped with Galena, East Kent Goldings and Willamette hops. 9.5%ABV 40 IBU’s

I don’t have much in the way of notes for this beer. It tasted good, but reminded me a bit more of a barleywine than a true old ale, probably because it was at the upper end of alcohol content for the style. Of course, the two are related styles.

2005-B Barrel Aged
This is the Old Ale that was placed into an Apple Brandy barrel for 12 months. The first few months of aging, the beer was dominated by a green apple aroma with much of it slipping in to the flavor. Over time that has taken a backseat to the French oak the barrel is made of with apple Brandy notes reminding you what the barrels past was. 11%ABV 40 IBU’s

The Brandy barrel gave this beer sharper, almost biting flavors, and big fruity esters. The wood does indeed shine through, as does the increased alcohol.
 

Rodger with this year’s Jolly Rodger.
 

2006
An Imperial IPA. We have discovered that if hops are not used in the Jolly Rodger these days, then people become enraged. So here we go with another hop bomb. This one stems from a conversation with Pat McIlhenney (owner/brewer of Alpine Brewing) when he mentioned that he used a whopping two pounds of dry hops per barrel in his outstanding Duet beer. Most of our Imperial IPAs were about one pound per barrel! So what the hell, let’s see what that will do to one of our beers. Thanks for the advice Pat! This one REALLY goes to eleven!! Hops: Warrior, Simcoe, Summit, and Amarillo. 11%ABV 70 IBU’s

Rodger told me he used only a little of the new Summit hop, but its signature oniony aromas was the first thing I noticed in this beer. It is another hop bomb, very aromatic and only slightly restrained by the malt. I expect time will soften the hops and bring out the 2-row malt. He’ll also be doing another batch (which will be designated 2006-B) of the Jolly Rodger shortly and will substitute the Summit with Ahtanum hops.

 

Porter and Alice kept happily occupied watching Star Wars on a friend’s iPod, while we tasted the beers.

Rodger looking more jolly than usual, a welcome sight. It must be the just married glow.

No Fish: The Dogfish Head Beer Dinner

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The latest beer dinner from beer chef Bruce Paton took place Friday evening at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco. The delicious four-course dinner was paired with the beers of Dogfish Head Brewing from Milton, Delaware. Owner Sam Calagione was at the dinner to talk about his beers. Another great night with beer and food.

Sam Calagione tells the assembled crowd or over 80 people about his philosophy of brewing and about each of the five beers poured Friday night. There was no fish on the menu, however, and instead we enjoyed poached foie gras with caviar, duck parsnip nodle pho with charred ginger broth, and angus short ribs with lobster medallions.

Table-mates Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing.

And Justin and Daniella from the Brewing Network.

The dessert was a delicious Ginger Scented Banana Custard with Citrus Caramel Sauce paired with Dogfish Head’s newest historical beer, Chateau Jiahu, a beer based on a 9,000 beverage discovered in pottery jars found in the Neolithic villiage of Jiahu in Northern China. It was determined to be a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey and fruit.

Brewers and beer people at the Dogfish Head dinner.

Sam Calagione and beer chef Bruce Paton, our hosts for the evening.

The next beer dinner should be sometime in January. Watch for more details here or on Bruce Paton’s website, the Beer Chef.

Anchor Christmas Ale Released

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The 32nd release of Anchor’s “Our Special Ale,” the official name of their annual Christmas Ale, takes place today and the seasonal beer will be available through January. The traditional date for the release of Anchor’s Christmas Ale was always the Monday before Thanksgiving, making it one of latest releases for the holidays. However, demand for the beer and requests from wholesalers and retailers led them to move back the release date to early November. While I’m generally not a fan of the expansion of the Christmas season to November 1, and some instances even before, this is one case where I can make an exception. Having this beer available even a few weeks longer is definitely a good thing!

From the press release:

The brewers of Anchor Steam® Beer are proud to announce the release of our thirty-second annual “Christmas Ale.”

Every year since 1975 the brewers at Anchor have brewed a distinctive and unique “Christmas Ale,” which is available from early November to mid-January. The Ale’s recipe is different every year—as is the tree on the label—but the intent with which we offer it remains the same: joy and celebration of the newness of life. Since ancient times, trees have symbolized the winter solstice when the earth, with its seasons, appears born anew.

This year’s featured tree is the Fagus sylvatica, more commonly known as the European Beech.

Reeling in the Dogfish Head Beer Dinner

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Beer Chef Bruce Paton’s next beer dinner will feature Sam Calagione and the beers of Dogfish Head Brewing from Delaware. Brewmaster Sam Calagione will be there in person to discuss his beers, along with his new book, Extreme Beers. It’s another four-course dinner and well worth the $80 price of admission, and maybe we can persuade Sam to do some rapping. It will be held at the Cathedral Hill Hotel on Friday, November 10, beginning with a reception at 6:30 p.m. Call 415.674.3406 for reservations. Make your reservations soon, because the dinner is filling up fast and you don’t want to miss this one.
 

The Menu:

 

Reception: 6:30 PM

Beer Chef’s Hors D’Oeuvre
60 Minute IPA

Dinner: 7:30 PM

First Course

Poached Foie Gras with Toasted Five Spice Syrup and California Osetra Caviar

Beer: Midas Touch Golden Elixir

Second Course:

Duck Pho with Charred Ginger Broth and Parsnip Noodles

Beer: 90 Minute IPA

Third Course:

Red Cooked Angus Short Ribs with Lobster Medallions

Beer: World Wide Stout

Fourth Course:

Ginger Scented Banana Custard with Citrus Caramel Sauce

Beer: Chateau Jiahu

One of the beers that will be served at the Dogfish Head Brewing Beer Dinner.

 

11.10

Dinner with the Brewmaster: Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewing Beer Dinner

Cathedral Hill Hotel, 1101 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California
415.674.3406 [ website ]

Anchor Profiled As Successful Small Company

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Last week, USA Today profiled Anchor Brewery in their Inside Money section as a stellar example of a successful small company with no desire to grow larger and larger like the trap so many other successful companies fall into. The story is in conjunction with the publication of a business book on small companies, Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham, an editor at Inc. magazine. On the same day as the Anchor profile, USA Today also has an article about Burlingham’s new book entitled To grow or not to grow? Some companies decide to stay put. Both are written, naturally, from a business perspective but are a good, positive pieces for craft beer. It’s certainly nice to see that for a change.

Beer Chips

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Also at the Anchor event for Maureen’s book, Ambitious Brew, I had my second encounter with Beer Chips, a new snack food on the market.

I first noticed them at their own booth next to the Sierra Nevada Brewing tent at GABF last month where, at $1 a bag, they were selling like hot cakes. Now I should make yet another confession here from the start. There are few foods I like more than potato chips. I am quite passionate about my potato chips. I can still get worked up about chips that have been off the market for decades; brands like Tommy Dale’s or Uncle Don’s. Where I grew up in southeastern Pennsylvania, the average grocery store carried at least a dozen local brands of potato chips, and some had many more. My favorite chips growing up were a brand called “Good’s Original Chips,” or “Good’s in the Blue” to distinguish them from a rival brand, “Good’s in the Red.” My “Good’s Potato Chips” could be bought only one day a week and, except for visiting the farm, at only one place on Earth, the Shillington Farmer’s Market, which was open every Friday less than a mile from my childhood home. They were made by Mennonite farmers who appeared to make just enough to sell each week (they never made more for the rush during various holidays) and when they sold out, packed up and went home. You could buy them in bags, but the best way was in a returnable can. Every Friday, I’d pick up a 5-lb. can, pay for the chips and a deposit on the can. The following week, I’d return the empty can and get a new one, this time paying just for the chips inside. It was a beautifully simple system, ecologically as well economically sound.

Sadly, they don’t do the cans anymore, not since the company was taken over by a nephew and moved from the farm to an actual plant. Happily, they still taste as good but I must say some of the magic in them is gone. But I bring this up only to illustrate that potato chips are one of the other things I know something about. So when someone makes chips with beer — combining two of my great loves — then attention must be paid.

The creator of Beer Chips, Brett Stern, who’s a native New Yorker, flew down from Portland, Oregon (where he makes his chips) with boxes of his chips in tow. That gave me a better chance to try the chips, and I must say my first reaction is that they’re very tasty and highly addictive. Of course, that may be the added sugar, itself an unusual ingredient in potato chips. Generally, there are only three ingredients in what I’ll refer to as “craft chips” — let’s call it the spudheitsgebot — which are potatoes cooked in oil (either a vegetable oil or lard, most commonly) with salt added. I’m told the beer used is a bock style that is reduced to a powder and sprinkled on the chips during the cooking phase. And for the most part it works. They do seem to have just a hint of beer flavor and happily it’s not overpowering the way it is in barbecue or some other strongly flavored chip. I brought some home for my wife to try and she loves them, as well, and has become quite addicted. Now if I can only get BevMo to get off their bureaucratic arses and carry them in my neighborhod …

Here’s another review of Beer Chips from Chipworld.

These potato chips had a kettle-cooked texture and were crisp with varying levels of crunch. They earned praise around the chip bowl for being quite tasty. Most of our tasters thought that the chips did taste like beer, though some thought the beer taste was most noticeable on first bite and faded away after that. The chips were generally smallish with wiggly, irregular shapes, some folded over.

The Beer Chips table at GABF.

Watermelon Funk is Funkadelic

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During last weekend’s bus trip to Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, Vinnie brought out a couple of pitchers from the barrel of his collaboration with 21st Amendment that’s been sitting in wood for a year now. Essentially as an experiment, Shaun O’Sullivan gave some of his Watermelon Wheat to Vinnie Cilurzo who put it in old pinot noir barrels and spiked it with Brettanomyces. According to Vinnie, who’s been tasting it every couple of months, it’s been a roller coaster of ups and downs, flavor-wise. But both he and Shaun believe, after a good year, that it will very shortly be ready to unleash on the world. There are only about 50 or so gallons and it will be available only at 21st Amendment and Russian River, and possibly at the Toronado. (As of Saturday Dave Keene had not yet tasted it to give his approval for carrying the beer.) Also, five gallons were sent to Boston, I think for Beer Advocate’s Belgian Beer Festival that starts on Friday. So there are only three, maybe four, places where you can try this beer, and not much at any single place. So needless to say, as a great fan of sour beers, I was thrilled to get a chance to sample it.

It was a little cloudy with a dull golden color and a thick white head. It had sharp, fruity estery aromas though not too pronounced with some of the signature “horse blanket” aromas coming through. Delightfully sour flavors and chewy, with a strong candied sweet-tart puckered essence. At the end, the mouthfeel became very juice-like — or à la Jolly Rancher — and this was the only place that the fruit was identifiable as watermelon as it washed down the back of the throat. Overall, a very complex, sour beer. There’s an awful lot going on in this beer. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I quite enjoyed it and hope they’ll do it again soon.

 

The Watermelon Funk, a collaborative concoction.

Lost Abbey Dinner Found

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Last night at the Cathedral Hill Hotel, beer chef Bruce Paton put on yet another delicious “Dinner with the Brewmaster,” this one with Tomme Arthur and the beers of Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey.

Tomme addresses the packed house, a record-breaking sell-out crowd.

Our first course, a Duck Pozole Terrine with Citrus Herb Salad paired with Lost Abbey Red Barn Ale, which is something of a cross between a Saison and a Bière de Garde. I’ve heard Tomme describe it as either and both, and, of course, the styles are quite close. Both are farmhouse styles, brewed slightly stronger, traditionally in March to last through the warm summer. But while Saisons tend to emphasize the hops and spices, Bière de Gardes are more focused on malt character. The Red Barn, on the hand, is a very malty beer that’s spiced with ginger, orange peel, black pepper and grains of paradise. And as Tomme will be the first to tell you, he’s not trying to imitate either style but rather was inspired by both to create this beer, which is an amazing marriage of both.

Dave Keene, from the Toronado, and Jeff Bagby, from Pizza Port’s Carlsbad brewery.

Our dessert was an unbelievably rich Flourless Chocolate Cake with Chile Ancho served with Angel’s Share Barrel Aged Barleywine, an indescribably good pairing. Bruce’s desserts are usually quite tasty, but this one may have been his best ever.

All the brewers in attendance at the dinner, with many of the usual suspects. One surprise, Alan Sprints (on the left), owner of Hair of the Dog in Portland, Oregon was in town for a wedding and joined us at the dinner.

Tomme and me after dinner, relaxing in the bar with Blind Pig IPA.

The other beers of the evening included Cuvee de Tomme served with the soup course, which was a roasted corn soup with gulf prawns and heirloom tomato salsa and a shaved cornucopia of avocado. And the main course was a Duet of Lamb paired with Lost Abbey’s Lost and Found Ale, a Trappist-style abbey ale brewed with a raisin puree.

The next beer dinner with the brewmaster will be November 10 and will feature Sam Calagione and the beers of Dogfish Head. Check out the Beer Chef for more details.

First Stop at The Alembic

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Last night after the Anchor event, a dozen or so of us went over to Dave McLean’s new bar, The Alembic, on upper Haight. The address is 1725 Haight Street and their phone number is 415.666.0822. Dave also owns the Magnolia brewpub a few blocks away. It’s a very small place but also cozy and even a little homey. The have a full bar, all of the Magnolia beers and several guest taps from local breweries. The Alembic’s chef, Eddie Blyden, started bringing us out dishes to sample. What terrific food! Good beer, good food, good spirits, good friends and great atmosphere! I look forward to spending more time at the Alembic.

Cathedral Hill Hotel beer chef Bruce Paton and Alembic chef Eddie Blyden, arguably two the best beer chef’s anywhere.

Me with the delicious lemongrass fries, which are done in a Belgian frittes style. My other favorite of the evening were the lamb sliders. Yum!

From the Chronicle:

Small plates from chef Eddie Blyden (of 21st Amendment and now-closed Sneaky Tiki) include charred Monterey Bay squid, and mushroom and autumn squash cassoulet, which vie for a customer’s attention with bar snacks like sage roasted nuts, jerk chicken wings with yogurt sauce, and lemongrass french fries.

The cocktail menu features stripped-down classics like a bourbon old-fashioned and an “old style” Manhattan, and the bar spotlights many Northern California small-craft artisan liquors, a handful of sakes and a rotating selection of local microbrews.

Even the sturdy bar is locally inspired — it’s made from old Kezar stadium bleachers.