Abita Beer Tasting

We went to another great beer tasting at San Francisco's world-famous Jug Shop and they were showcasing Abita Beer from New Orleans.  Since Mardi Gras (literally "Fat Tuesday") is next week, they were handing out beads, shouting "Laissez les bon temps rouler!" (Let the good times roll), and having a grand time. 

They started us off with their Purple Haze, a raspberry-wheat that has a ruddy tint from the raspberry puree they add to it.  The fruit was not overpowering and added a nice tartness to the earthy wheaty-ness.  They say it pairs well with Brie, I could see that.

Their Pecan Harvest was also a stand out.  They say it's made with real pecans and most nut-beers are not.  I didn't know that, but then I haven't had many nut flavored beers.  No matter how you pronounce pecan, it has a bold nuttiness that's superb.

We tasted about 8 beers and what made the night extra special was...

the blackout... 

The power went out making everything pitch black.  Immediately people began to break out their cell phones to illuminate the counter and the Jug Shop crew didn't skip a beat.  They kept pouring drafts.  Someone even had an umbrella with a LED shaft that they hung from the existing light fixtures (see the photo above).

They finished the tasting with two amazing brews; their Andygator and their Abby Ale.  Both ring in at 8% but both are surprisingly NOT heavy or cloying.  Andygator is done in the style of a Dopplebock (like Paulaner), Abbey Ale done like a Belgian Trappist (like Leffe).  The power didn't come back on by the time we left.  I'm a new fan of Abita's beers.

Update - Drinking Vinegars

Following my original article Drinking Vinegars, I went and made my own "shrub" using frozen organic cherries and a bottle of Bragg organic unfiltered apple cider.  As instructed by Toby Cecchini in his NY Times article, I added the cherries to the Bragg vinegar, covered with paper towel, secured it with a rubber band, and waited... 8 days in this case.

With the cherries, I smashed them up really good INSIDE the bag before I opened it.  The freezing process should have burst all or most of the cell walls already by the formation of ice crystals, but smashing is fun, and likely expedited the fermentation process even more.

I found other brands besides Bragg at my local health food store, but this is made in Santa Barbara so it must be good, right?

The bacteria responsible for making vinegar, called acetobacters, require oxygen to function.  A paper towel held in place with a rubber band should suffice for keeping other, stray bacteria and yeast from entering - while still allowing the acetobacters to boogie.  This vessel stayed at room temperature for 8 days in the kitchen.  My wife complained of the pungent vinegar smell but I liked it!

When the 8 days were up, I strained it through a sieve and boiled it briefly to halt the fermentation where it remained.   I placed it in a glass container, covered it, and put it in the fridge.  According to Toby's article, it can remain there for up to 3 months.

The end result is a pungent, piquant, puckering, punch that REALLY quenches your thirst.  Besides the tartness of the vinegar, there remained a good amount of cherry flavor which I thought would be gone after fermenting but it wasn't.  Full strength was way too pungent, I found myself diluting it with water 2:1 or 3:1 and sometimes adding some simple syrup out of my handy squirt bottle that sits on the counter.  The more simple syrup I added, the more of the fruit returned to the palate.  

By putting it in a highball or similar glass, it really is like making a non-alcoholic cocktail.  What is most interesting to me is how I began to crave a glass of this after work.  I would come home and immediately go to the fridge and make myself one.   I even began to feel a little flu coming on and I still craved the Drinking Vinegar, unlike booze.

After all is said and done, these are really fun to make, super easy, and I'm going to start experimenting with different fruits and flavors.  I suggest you do too.

He'Brew Beer Tasting

"Perfect for bar mitzvahs, weddings, and circumcisions."

Dan thinks he's a Jew, but he loves He'Brew!

Last night we took part in a beer tasting at San Francisco's Jug Shop of choice brews from Schmaltz Brewing Company's West Coast beer guru Zak Davis.  From their invitation email:

"Known for their highly irreverent slogans, the Shmaltz Brewing Company in Saratoga Springs, New York, has established itself as one of the nation's premier craft brewers.  Founded in 1996 by Bay Area proprietor Jeremy Cowan as an "experiment" for Chanukah, the award-winning He'Brew line of beers was launched with just 100 cases...

In the past 5 years, what started an inside joke is now an all-American success story. Shmaltz Brewing has grown over 550% and includes 11 beers between two brands: He'Brew and the recently launched line of Coney Island Lagers. The He'Brew beers include Origin: Pomegranate Strong Ale, Bittersweet Lenny's RIPA (a rye-based double IPA), and Jewbelation 12, American's only (12% abv) Extreme Chanukah Beer."

We were impressed across the board with everything they poured and some particular standouts included the Coney Island Albino Python; a white beer made with ginger in addition to traditional Wit Bier aromatics.  I love ginger and thought the lever of ginger was perfect, they said it goes very well with sushi and I could imagine they would pair well.

Another was the Coney Island Lager - strong, well malted, and with a considerable level of dry hops.  There was a great floral nose, so much that I swear I could pick out Cascade hops and name it.  Another big winner was Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.  A Rye-based double I.P.A. wieghing in at 10%, this had a body like karate and a smooth finish.

To finish off the tasting they poured their Jewbelation Twelve; they combine 12 malts with 12 different vatieties of hops and make sure it kicks 12% alcohol by volume.  A heafty brew that is well balanced, I found it to lack many of the clove and iso-amyl acetate [banana] flavors you find in Belgian beers with a similar heat... which was a wonderful change of pace.

Thanks to the crew at the Jug Shop and Zac Davis with Schmaltz Brewing company for hosting a great event!

Winter beer tasting at The Jug Shop

I did a beer tasting at The Jug Shop in San Francisco. 13 beers for $15. All of them were Belgian except the Sammi Claus'; of which they had the original and the Helles. The helles being even stronger on my palate and tasting a bit like cherries. Maybe that was because it comes in a red label. Funny how the mind works like that.

Now I swear that Sammi Claus used to say on the bottle, "the strongest beer in the world. " That was most likely the reason why I bought it in the first place. Even when I was broke, beer was still something I would splurge on.

The Sammi Causes were the only two that came in 12oz. bottles. Everything else was in a 750ml, some of which resembled the Champagne silhouette more than anything else.  The first beer they poured was aged in oak barrels for, I believe he said, two years - and it sells for $50.  People simply refered to it as, "The Expensive One."

I started geeking-out with a guy named Brian Yeager, modest as he may have been, it was his girlfriend who told me he has just published a book... on beer.  They gave me a sticker and I found his website the following morning.   www.beerodyssey.com - "Red White and Brew," it looks like a fun travel book about driving across the country in a Prius and drinking beer.

The 21st Amendment

Constiution banner - photo by fixermark

Today marks the 75 anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment which officially ended prohibition.  I'm going to celebrate by going to a beer tasting at one of my favorite establishments in San Francisco, The Jug Shop.  

The process began with Michigan on April 10th, 1933 and was completed on December 5th later that same year when Ohio, Pennsylvania, and [I'll bet the slightly reluctant] Utah joined in. 

This was in the email I received from The Jug Shop and thought it was so interesting, I would relay it here:

"Christmas beers, also known as Winter Warmers, are a tradition dating back at least 2,000 years, with the ancients making highly intoxicating brews to celebrate winter's Saturnalia. This brewmaking evolved into a holiday celebration when medieval monks, the world's first professional brewers, pulled out their finest ingredients to produce soul-warming styles for the occasion.

Today brewers continue the custom, either with centuries-old recipes or newfangled concoctions with spices and herbs, enabling thirsty beer fans to put aside their everyday favorites each winter and deck the halls with the world's most flavorful ales and lagers, brewed especially for the holidays." from Don Russell's Christmas Beer: The Cheeriest, Tastiest, and Most Unusual Holiday Brews"

I find it especially poignant that some historians have pointed out that it took a year of sobriety to grant women suffrage.  Prohibition began with the 18th Amendment in 1919.  The 20th Amendment granted women the right to vote in 1920; and 13 years later the 21st ended the nation's teetotalling.  

So let's all thank the temperance movement for spurring Congress into action, finally allowing our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, and daughters the right to be heard.

While we're at it, here's an interesting read.  Alcoholica Esoterica: A Collection of Useful and Useless Information As It Relates to the History andConsumption of All Manner of Booze.  Although I have not read it [yet], I heard an interview with the author and it looks sounds perfect for a toilet book.  Here are some of the excerpts (from Amazon).

Did you know...

• that the word bar is short for barrier? Yes, that’s right—to keep the customers from getting at all the booze.
• that Winston Churchill’s mother supposedly invented the Manhattan?
• that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock because the sailors on the Mayflower were running low on beer and were tired of sharing?
• that you have a higher chance of being killed by a flying Champagne cork than by a poisonous spider?
• that the Code of Hammurabi mandated that brewers of low-quality beer be drowned in it?
• that beer was so popular with medieval priests and monks that in the thirteenth century they stopped baptizing babies with holy water and started using beer? 

Nielsen survey, "consumers continue to see alcoholic beverages as an affordable indulgence."

From nielsen.com, comes some interesting insight into holiday dining and drinking trends.  Citing a fragile economy, it indicates that business is down for restaurants and bars.

"two-thirds (66 percent) of fine dining patrons admitted they are going out less often compared to a year ago...and 52 percent of casual dining visitors." 

They delve into how grocery and convenient stores may be picking up the slack as people consume their beverages of choice at home.

Some other interesting factoids in the survey are:

•      Expect an increase in online alcoholic beverage shopping, especially wine.
•      On-premise retailers may begin to push customer loyalty programs.
•      Some states may increase the legal hours for alcohol purchases, Sundays for example.
•      Due to the "localization" trend in consumerism, domestic wines and spirits are making gains against imports.  
•      Alcoholic beverages are traditionally more recession-resistant than other products.
•      There will likely be an increase in giving alcoholic beverages as gifts this year. (like Wine.com's Best Selling Gifts)

     The Nielsen Company's Senior Vice President for Beverage and Alcohol, Richard Hurst gives some advice to retailers: 

“[They] should consider multiple store display locations to capitalize on impulse purchasing, as well as providing gift accessories nearby, such as bottle openers, gift bags, mixed drink party pack ingredients and glassware.”

 - Dave Koch

Homebrewing for beginners

Homebrew beer fermenting in carboy - photo by geoffeg

I've been brewing my own beer at home for 14 years now and although it is easy... it does require some specialized equipment and quite a bit of homework.  I could have never done it without Charlie Papazian's The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing - AKA "The Bible" for novice and experienced homebrewers alike.  Basically, anyone who enjoys making their own suds.  You can brew as basic or as complex of beer as you like to.  

I have gone as far as making "Mocha Stout"  by adding cacao powder and espresso to a stout.  "Chile Lime Pulque" which was brewed using Agave malt extract (instead of barley malt extract), adding lime, and then dropping a chile into every bottle.  Spicy spicy stuff.  "Kava Kava Cranberry Mint" started as an American Ale with Kava Kava, cranberry, and you guessed it... mint.  Go nuts.

After you are all set up and prepped, it takes about 4 hours to make 5 gallons.  I'm already including extra time in there for clean up too, which can get a little messy.  That's enough beer to fill (53) 12-ounce bottles, or if you're lazy like me, (21) 22-ounce bottles and some change.  

There is really only a 2 hour commitment (at minimum) to cook the wort [which is pronounced WERT], 10 days or so in the fermenter, and about 2 hours to bottle.  Two more weeks to ferment in the bottle and you're ready to drink it!

Recently I discovered MR.BEER , and at first I doubted the efficacy of brewing without 5 gallon buckets, a carboy, an air lock, and all those tubes that my wife adores when I hang them all over the kitchen to dry!  But then I saw this video of Garrett Oliver demonstrating it on YouTube.  He's the Brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery, and the author of The Brewmaster's Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food.  So in my game, he's legit!

This is not going to replace the bucket method and grain pushers the world over don't have to worr.  But what I like about ths system  is that someone can TRY homebrewing without much investment; in their time or money.  They offer a pretty large selection try experiment with different styles and the starter kits are only $40 here.