New Glarus
New Glarus: What a great brewery, at least from what I’ve tasted. I’ve had their Spotted Cow ale a handful of times over the past few years and always enjoyed its’ wholly unique flavor. I managed to pick up a few more of their brews during a beer run across the border to Hudson, Wisconsin earlier this year as well as from a co-worker who makes it back to Wisconsin to see family every so often. The brews I’ve gotten my grubs on include the following:
- Spotted Cow farmhouse ale / saison
- Moon Man pale ale
- Snowshoe red ale
- Fat Squirrel brown ale
- Coffee Stout
- Cabin Fever honey bock
- Raspberry Tart
- Wisconsin Belgian Red
- Smoked Rye Ale (unplugged series)
- Abt (unplugged series)
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/14830610 w=400&h=265]
Brewing TV – Episode 18: New Glarus Brewing Co. from Brewing TV on Vimeo.
Nice Honker's
Yes, that apostrophe in the post title is intentionally placed. Chicago’s Goose Island, probably best known for their Honker’s Ale, sent some of their local marketing/PR reps out to the Happy Gnome this past Wednesday for the latest installment of Beer School, a weekly event sponsored by the Happy Gnome and Ale Jail to let breweries “educate” potential customers on quality beer with free samples and even freer marketing messages.
Despite being the subject of an obvious PR ploy, I actually had a really good time and could see myself going to another Beer School event in the future (it could’t have been that bad if I’m bothering to write this post, right? Hey look: their clever plan to spread the word is working!!). Goose Island used the event to feature four of the five beers from their series of Belgian ales. This was right up my alley, as Belgians are sitting up there with Scotch ales as some of my favorite brew styles right now. (more…)
Beam me up Scotty
I’m on two distinct beer style kicks right now. Belgian and scottish. During a recent trip to Casanova Bottle Shop in Hudson, I picked up a handful of Scotch- and Scottish-style ales so I could compare them and find my favorite. I got interested in these styles a few months ago after ordering a pint of Founders’ Dirty Bastard. Here’s what I’ve sampled over the last few weeks:
- Old Chub, Oscar Blues (CO)
- Winter Warmer, Rush River (WI)
- Robert the Bruce, Three Floyds (IN)
- Dirty Bastard, Founders (MI)
- House Ale, Traquair (Scotland)
Ok, I’ll try to keep this brief. They’re listed from least to most favorite below: (more…)
What I've been drankin'
I’m not sure how much I want to get into brew reviews (“breviews?”) with this blog… they’re all so subjective. I don’t spend too much time reading the endless chatter on BeerAdvocate or RateBeer, so why should I subject you to my opinions? Also, I should mention that I like beer a lot, so not many micro or craft brews taste “bad” to me, making me out to be a poor judge of beer character. This, however, doesn’t stop me from wanting to get better at being able to identify ingredients in a brew through taste, smell and appearance. I want to get to the point where I can take a sip of anything and tell you what style or styles it most conforms to, the malt bill and even which variety of hops and yeast were used. Ambitious? Yes. A fun pursuit to attempt? You bet.
If you’re going to read any opinions I have on beer, you should probably know the following about my palate: (more…)
Surly's 5th at Pizza Nea
"Omar, what do you think of Barking Dog Beer as potential competition?"
This past Wednesday, I met up with Cristof and Dan (of Sammy’s Golden Porter and Darkness Day fame) at Pizza Nea in Northeast Minneapolis for one of many celebrations Surly Brewing is having for their 5th birthday. Each of these events features some interesting variations on the Brooklyn Center brewery’s standards and seasonal brews.
The party we attended featured a cask of their Abrasive Ale (more or less a double IPA) that had been aged in oak barrels. I don’t believe I’d tried an oak-aged beer before, no less one that I’d also tried many times over in its original form (from both cans and tap). The oak aging, and more likely the cask conditioning, gave Abrasive a much smoother body than it normally has, making it dangerously drinkable. The 8.8% ABV didn’t hit me hardly at all until the middle of my second pint. Then bam! Sneaky.
Furious (left) and Oak-Aged Abrasive (right)
I’m not sure if I really liked the oak-aged Abrasive more than the original. I’ll say that I liked the first pint of it more than I would a first pint of normal Abrasive, but the oak got to be a little much after pint number two. For me, this is a great dinner beer and would be smart to pair with a meal of hot Asian barbecue, a spicy Mexican dish or a smoked salmon appetizer. I ended up ordering a shrimp pesto pizza to go with it, which probably wasn’t the smartest selection I could have made had I not been too buzzed to care at that point (afternoon snacks are key in these situations!). We also enjoyed a complimentary Furious with our pizzas, as that was the deal of the night – and apparently is the case on every Wednesday at Pizza Nea. Pretty cool of them.
All that aside, I sure as hell didn’t expect to meet and speak with the founder of Surly and the 2010 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year, Omar Ansari as well as head brewer and the brains behind their brews, Todd Haug. But guess what? I did. (more…)
The Muddy Pig
After doing a tour of Flat Earth Brewing Co. last weekend, my buddies and I headed to one of the better St. Paul beer bars, The Muddy Pig, to enjoy some eats and drinks. I’d been here before and knew this place had a great tap and bottle selection (that apparently their website lists roughly half of), but wow, I must have forgotten the extent of the strange brews available to try. Very impressed.
Since we’d already had a few earlier at the brewery and since I was driving, I didn’t go too crazy. Here’s what I had: (more…)
Valentine's Day with a couple of Russians
Since my wife is finishing up her MBA this semester and has class Monday nights, we decided to celebrate V-Day a little early this year, which of course included seeking out some new beers to sample.
I follow local brewery Fulton on Facebook and they had posted an update Friday afternoon on how Grumpy’s downtown was tapping a cask of their Worthy Adversary, a 9.2% ABV Russian Imperial Stout. I’ve had good experiences with the two cask-conditioned beers I’ve had over the last few months, so I was pumped to try a big stout on cask. Since we had already had late-evening dinner reservations at The Inn, a new restaurant downtown Minneapolis, Grumpy’s sounded like a good option for a pre-dinner drink or two.
Buster's on 28th
God damn, I love this place.
I don’t know if there is a better bar in Minnesota for craft beer lovers than Buster’s on 28th. My wife suggested we go here after a long brew day this past Saturday and it was a good reminder of her awesomeness. As their website attests, they have so many great tap and bottle options it’s completely overwhelming to order anything, which effectively makes me giddy. On top of that, their food is all top-notch, especially considering the size of their tiny kitchen.
The wife and I ordered a few rounds between the two of us. Here’s what we tried: (more…)
Harriet Brewing's Batch One
Mmmm mmm. I had the chance earlier this week to crack the growler of “batch one” I got from Harriet Brewing on
their opening day last weekend (check out my prior post for more detail). I can see how this could have been a mean IPA if the hop bill had been kicked up to meet the malt profile, but it sure is nice to have a smooth, subtle, thick IPA in the middle of winter here in Minneapolis. Tasted much like I remember it tasting when I visited our city’s newest brewery last weekend. I highly recommend and am looking forward to trying more of Jason Soward’s brews in the years to come.
The inaugural release of his Belgian style West Side IPA (which will be a different batch than I’ve sampled, one hopped as planned) will be just up Hiawatha from the brewery at the Blue Nile Restaurant and Lounge this coming Wednesday, February 9th. I plan to arrive thirsty.
The New 'Pizzeria Lola' Has a Limited but Awesome Tap List
It seems like every local publication is raving about the new Pizzeria Lola lately and it happens to be just a few miles
from our house, so the wife and I decided to check it out last night. The reviews we had read were’t too far off (here’s Heavy Table’s), though they largely neglected to reflect how honed and toned Lola’s tap beer list was. I’m hard to impress in this regard but I’d give Lola an A.
Food
The top notch neapolitan-style pizzas we tried (Hawaii Pie-O and Sweet Italian) were made with flavorful ingredients and a crust that was crispy on the edges and hearty enough to not be watery in the middle, which is a HUGE plus for me as I really dislike neapolitan pizza that turns into soup in the middle. The app we got was some sort of Asian-influenced beef shortribs. Very tasty and spicy but I was a bit confused when they came with chopsticks. How am I supposed to eat slices of beef with a small bone embedded with chopsticks? Not every piece had a bone but for the ones that did… do I spit the bone back out after I’m done? Is that cool to do in public? I mean, I’m ok with it but can see how that looks weird.
Beers
Since we’d driven through the Fulton neighborhood to get to Lola, I had to try local brewery Fulton’s Lonely Blonde. I’d only had Fulton’s Sweet Child O Vine up until now, so it was cool to explore some new “beeritory.” I’ll have to say, I don’t regret my decision but – and I’ve said this before on this blog – I’m just not a huge fan of lager beers. Most I’ve tried remind me a bit too much of Bud/Miller/Coors and unfortunately Lonely Blonde was no exception. I’m convinced it’s not the brewer here, it’s just the style that I don’t prefer.
The second beer I tried was the Black Butte Porter by Deschutes. Loved this one! It was thick and notably smokier than most porters I’ve tried. Almost tasted more like a stout. The hops took a back seat to let the smoked malts come through. This is the second style from Deschutes I’ve had in the past month and I’ve been very impressed with each. (more…)
A Great End To The Year With Many Great Beers
- 12/23: O’Dell’s Best Brown ale on tap at Loring Pasta Bar (started me thinking I should do a sweet brown ale)
and Bell’s Two Hearted ale on tap at the Varsity Theater - 12/25: Shared a bottle of 2010 Surly Darkness (procured back on Darkness Day) with my Grandma and Dad on Christmas, which is also my birthday
- 12/26: Had some Odell’s Isolation Ale and Surly Abrasive on tap at Buster’s on 28th after a little reunion jam session with buddies from my high school rock band Delayed Reaxtion. We had some Barking Dog D3, Cujo Spice and Sammy’s Golden Porter during practice.
- 12/28: Summit Winter on tap at Alary’s, downtown St. Paul for a happy hour. CREAMY, delicious malty-ness.
- 12/29: The new Town Hall Tap opened near my hood. Checked it out with Michelle’s parents for a belated b-day celebration. Got to try their house Belgian Brown on tap and Odell’s Best Brown on cask. The Odell’s was the first cask beer I’ve ever tried. Very thick, loved it! I’m now definitely on a kick to brew a brown ale on the sweet side. (more…)