Oh Happy Day #7 – Redhook Tripel Belgian-style Ale

Just as I was beginning to despair about our slow Oh Happy Day streak, I come home to an amazing little package from Redhook on my kitchen table… I had a chance to do the official unboxing tonight and I am very, very pleasantly surprised… not only with Redhook for going down the Belgian-style route, but for doing an amazing job with the packaging!  

Wrapped in a special red ribbon, this beauty comes with its own Limited Release glass, that will surely be used, and nice big 22 oz bottle of the brew.  I am letting it chill overnight but will get the official review up by this weekend, for sure!

See below for offical press release and keep an eye out for this one while supplies last!

 

Previous Oh Happy Day posts:

• Oh Happy Day #1 – Pipeline Porter
• Oh Happy Day #2 – Fish Tale Organic Ales
• Oh Happy Day #3 – Bell’s Brewery
• Oh Happy Day #4 – Widmer Brothers Brrr
• Oh Happy Day #5 – Redhook Double Black Stout
• Oh Happy Day #6 – Widmer Brothers Drifter Pale Ale

 Official Press Release:

Belgian-Style Tripel Next in Redhook Limited Release Series

Redhook Ale Brewery Introduces New Craft Beer Based on Traditional Trappist Brewing Methods

 

WOODINVILLE, Wash. – May 26, 2009 – Crafted with imported Belgian candy sugar, high quality European malts and a secret monastery yeast strain, the new Tripel Belgian-style ale from Redhook Ale Brewery will hit shelves for a limited time this summer.

 

“The limited release series is a lot of fun for us. On the heels of Double Black Stout, we experimented with this Tripel and brewed it in small batches, perfecting and balancing the strong flavors,” said Greg Deuhs, masterbrewer for Redhook Ale Brewery. “We stayed as close as possible to the Trappist methods pioneered by monks hundreds of years ago.”

 

Pouring a deep golden color, the Redhook Tripel offers a three-part flavor profile created during the brewing process: vanilla and clove in the first sip, followed by a slight pepper and cinnamon kick, and ending with a clean, smooth finish and more hints of vanilla.

 

The Tripel is a subtly sweet strong ale with a high carbonation level adding an effervescent quality akin to champagne. The fruity, spicy and warming characteristics balance with the soft malts to create an easy-to-drink yet complex brew, which earned a gold medal for the category at the 2008 North American Beer Awards. At 10.2% alcohol by volume, the Tripel is ready to drink now, but can also be cellared for up to two years to intensify the flavor.

 

Redhook brewers recommend pairing the Tripel with acidic foods such as sharp cheeses, olives, smoked pork, salmon and bittersweet dark chocolate.

 

The Redhook Tripel will be available in 22 oz. bottles (SRP $7.99) and on draught in western states in late May, with limited national availability following in late June. The Tripel will be on shelves at specialty food stores and beer markets through September, or until supplies run out. Redhook will introduce another limited release in the fall.

 

About Redhook Ale Brewery
Redhook Ale Brewery has been at the forefront of the domestic craft brewing segment since the company’s formation in 1981. Redhook brews eight styles of craft beer, including: Long Hammer IPA, Redhook ESB, Slim Chance Light Ale, Blackhook Porter, and seasonal offerings Copperhook Spring Ale, Sunrye Summer Ale, Late Harvest Autumn Ale and Winterhook Winter Ale. Redhook beer is brewed in its breweries – one in the Seattle suburb of Woodinville, Wash., and the other in Portsmouth, N.H. Redhook’s specialty beers are available in both draught and bottles and are distributed nationally through a network of wholesale distributors.  For more information, visit www.redhook.com.

Oh Happy Chip Day #1: Kettle Brand Sweet Onion Potato Chips

It is time to start a new category of Oh Happy Day posts.  We have the original, which is for beer… see latest here: Oh Happy Day #6 – Widmer Brothers Drifter Pale Ale.  But I can’t mess with the flow there, so now that we are getting other stuff, I have to go with a variation… the ultimate Oh Happy Day will forever and always be when we get free beer, however beer related free stuff is definitely right up there.  So, we will have designated Oh Happy Days for each of the categories of free stuff we get… i.e. our most recent hook up is Kettle Sweet Onion Potato Chips.  So, the Oh Happy Day post for these is Oh Happy Chip Day #1: Kettle Brand Sweet Onion Potato Chips… make sense?  If not, I don’t care too much since it makes perfect sense to me!

So… now that we have that out of the way, here is the first email I received from Erica:

Hi Doug, my colleagues Sam and Laura who send you Widmer and Redhook news thought you might want to crunch some chips with your beer.  I work with Kettle Brand® Potato Chips and their newest flavor, Sweet Onion, is such a great beer chip we thought we’d offer to pass along a bag.

 

The chips pair best with less bitter beers like Widmer’s new Drifter Pale Ale or Full Sail Pale Ale, but they also go very well with cozy, darker beers like Deschutes Brewery’s Black Butte Porter or Redhook’s Blackhook Porter.

 

Let me know if you’d like to try a bag and I’ll put one in the mail! – Erica 

 There really wasn’t any thought that had to go into this…   Of course I said yes and true to her word, Erica has delivered.  Of course, the Oh Happy Day posts are meant as a way to say thanks to those that send us free stuff… we have to seperate that from the actual tasting or else there may be some conflict of interest, so you will have to read the official tasting on another post, but here you go.  The free just keeps rolling in…

**UPDATE**  Official tasting here: St Bernardus Abt 12

Official Press Release: 

KETTLE BRAND® DRAFTS SWEET ONION FOR POTATO CHIP

LINE UP, FLAVOR HITS STORES FOR GAME DAY SNACKING

 

SALEM, Ore. – January 5, 2009 – New all natural Kettle Brand® Sweet Onion Potato

Chips score a flavor touchdown with a comforting taste of home cooking.

A perfect pairing of simmering onion and crunchy golden potato, Sweet Onion joins the

Kettle Brand® line of “Big Game” snacking favorites like smoky Backyard Barbeque™,

zesty Buffalo Bleu™ and fiery Death Valley Chipotle™.

 

“The flavor’s so cozy you’ll want to give the bag a hug,” said Carolyn Richards, Kettle

Foods chief flavor architect. “It’s the quintessential comfort food, with a toasty aroma and

balanced blend of sweet and savory flavors.”

 

As always, Kettle Brand® Potato Chips are made with only the finest potatoes and

delicious blends of all natural seasonings – no trans fats, no artificial colors or flavors

and no preservatives. Kettle Brand® also uses only non-GMO ingredients. Cooked in

small batches by hand in pure, healthy oils under the watchful eye of dedicated chip

cooks, every Kettle Brand® Potato Chip packs a hearty crunch and is a beautiful golden

color.

 

Kettle Brand® Sweet Onion Potato Chips are available now in supermarkets and natural

food stores nationwide and online at www.buykettlechips.com in 2 oz., 5 oz. and 9 oz.

bags for $1.19 – $3.99.

 

Kettle Foods backs its natural promise with a commitment to sustainable business

practices. The best tasting chips are a product of coexisting in harmony with the

environment, which includes support for renewable energy, green building, habitat

restoration, recycling and chipping in to help the local community.

 

About Kettle Foods

Founded in 1978, Oregon-based Kettle Foods is a privately owned company committed

to producing great tasting, all-natural snacks with a caring commitment to its employees,

craft and community. In doing so, it leads the industry as the No. 1 natural potato chip

brand according to ACNielsen, with distribution throughout North America, Japan, Guam

and Western Europe. Its manufacturing sites in Salem, Ore., Beloit, Wis. and Norwich,

United Kingdom produce more than 20 flavors and four varieties of potato chip offerings,

nut butters and trail mixes. The facility in Beloit, Wisconsin opened in 2007 becoming the

first LEED® Gold certified food processing facility in the U.S. Visit www.kettlefoods.com

for more information.

Interview – Rob Widmer of Widmer Brothers Brewing

We were recently approached by the fine folks (Sam) of Maxwel PR and asked if we wanted to talk with Rob about the latest release, Drifter Pale Ale. Not needing to be asked twice, we jumped on the chance. For those that follow, we have a new blogger that is supposed to be writing with us… he is just taking a bit to get ramped up… but he was able to join me for 21 minutes of some jolly good conversation.

We want to thank Rob for his time… it was an honor and a priveledge and we learned a ton! Here you go for the podcast and written transcript.

Podcast Link

Here’s to beer, Rob, here’s to beer.

• Dug: We wanted to make sure you understood how much we appreciate your time.  We understand it is valuable and this is a pretty big honor for us being the first of this type of thing since starting the blog.  Thank you very much, we appreciate it.
• Rob: Well I appreciate you thinking of me.
• Dug: So the first round we wanted to find out, really why did you choose Drifter in the pale ale style of beer.
• Rob: We do a lot of test brewing.  One of the nice things about our facility is we have what we call our pilots.  We actually call it the Rose Quarter brewery ‘cause where it is physically is down where the Trailblazers play.  But it is a 10 barrel system which is the same size that Kurt and I started with.  But much nicer than what we had.  That’s kind of where we do all of our R&D stuff.  That’s where the collaborator beers come from so we are always kind of fooling with whatever.  That summit hop, you know we first brewed it just to check a 10 barrel batch and just really like that.  Have you guys had a chance to try it?
• Dug: I, yes I have.  I think Nabil is waiting, unless you …
• Nabil: No, I have tried, it.  I caught it out and had to have a 6 pack to bring home.
• Rob: All right… I’ve always, just personally, been a real big fan of cascades, that just really like that citrusy pine character and a lot of us do around the brewery.  But that summit… there was something… you know there’s lots of other hops around that are kind of similar to that but that quality in the summit was really interesting and I we just found it really kind of delicious but different than anything that we’d had before or anything that I could recall out there. And you know it proved to be really popular at our pub and you know, we had it as the W’07 where it did really well and so you know, we kind of filed that away and just felt that there was a chance even though the pale ales, you know there’s an awful lot out there we just felt it was different enough that it had, you know enough to stand on its own.  We’ll find out shortly we’ve just been rolling it out… That’s what I was doing in Seattle and Tacoma on Monday and Tuesday, you know people really did seem to enjoy it, so… we’ll see how it goes.
• Dug: I think you have fans of both of us.  It is definitely different than most of the pale ales that I’ve tasted and I can appreciate that.  Plus you know, it sticks close the heart it’s not too out there that you can’t bring home a 6 pack and appeal to just about anybody..
• Rob: Exactly. That kind of, you know fits well with us, that sort of our philosophy around brewing that you know we want to make beers that are you know interesting but not so huge that you can’t drink them.  Sometimes I worry about myself a little bit but I am a beer drinker.  I like to drink  beer and I like to drink a fair amount of beer.  I like to do things, go camping, or be at a game, or something, you know I like to have a beer in mind hand all day and Kurt’s kind of the same way so we try to build beers that you know you can do that with, you know I like all different styles but a lot of beers I kind of put in that their interesting to taste but then give me a beer.
• Dug: You don’t want any questions on what you are drinking.
• Rob: So I mean, Drifter really does fit into that. It’s a little bit for kind of a session style, its 5.7% so it you know gets a little bit higher than maybe you would for most sessions but the nice thing it just seems that you know that really pungent people describe it as different things, you know I describe it as tangerine like or juicy fruit gum like, you know it is so smooth that at that level of hops you get a fair amount of bitterness and I think that is where it is going to appeal to a wider group.  You know my personal opinion is that you can’t have too much hop aroma or flavor but you can have too much bitterness. And that is where for sort of the common beer drinker that is what scares them off you know I never read anywhere where anyone’s done any research on it but I think most people find those flavors nice but they don’t like the bitterness. 
• Dug: Right, not too bitter for sure.
• Rob: even though it is 32 IBUs which is right there with a lot of pale ales, you know Sierra Nevada is right there but it drinks so much smoother than a 32. 
• Dug: Very true.  So I have a question about the release.  Last time I checked you guys didn’t have anything up on your website about it.  Is that intentional?
• Rob: I don’t know.  I’d have to ask.  I don’t think so. 
• Dug: It is interesting because we do a lot of stuff virtually with the blog and with beer, we rely a lot on the breweries to provide information, you know, have a product face to link to.  That is something we keep an eye on… who gets their websites up when the release or not.  Just wondering if you guys… well.. I guess a different question is how much do you rely on the website for part of your brand marketing and getting the information out there.
• Rob: It is important but… you are talking to a 52 year old guy so tech wise I am still kind of an old school… what I was doing on Monday/Tuesday was kind of the way we built the company we throw a keg in a guys rig and go around and pour glasses for people.  We have a Facebook page, we are using Twitter, but quite honestly, you know, I don’t I guess I’m a little bit of a dinosaur.  You know I know our younger guys are all over it but for me it’s not natural to go to those things to find out about stuff.
• Nabil: So Rob, you guys joined up with the craft brewers alliance an your heavily involved in that, there’s a bunch of really cool beer brands across the nation kind of Hawaii all the way over to Goose Island in Chicago.  With those guys is there a beer you’re a fan of from some of your sister breweries in the alliance? 
• Rob: You know I like I’m just a fan of all kinds of beer.  But one of the nice things about having a brewery you get to brew what you like so I guess… people always ask what my favorite beer is.. well you know their our beers.  Kurt and I… you know if you own a pub you get to put on what you like and if you own a brewery you get to brew what you like.  Instead of a specific style, people are always asking and I think they want me to name names, but I guess I prefer beers that have hops over everything else.
• Nabil: Ahhh true Northwest.
• Rob: Without going any further than that, you know I’m a big fan of pales, IPAs, I think a lot of times I don’t know why people don’t really pay attention to it I guess but Widmer Hefeweizen uses a ton of cascade hops its right in there with the pale ales.  That is where the citrus quality comes from.  So those styles I think.  It’s not to say I don’t enjoy lots of other styles, but you know when it comes to drinking then those are the styles I like.
• Nabil: You know one of the other things you mentioned brewing what you like and the test or pilot brewery.  How did collaborator come about with the Oregon Brew Crew?  I know you are OSU grad… I am a Duck myself but your brother’s a Duck so I guess I can forgive you.
• Rob: It’s alright.  Well before we started the brewery Kurt and I were home brewers and members of the Oregon Brew Crew and once we started to brew, we were awfully busy with it and then the mid-90s it kind of got to the point where I decided to re-up with those guys and back then, this was before you could get smack packs of yeast and everyone was using powdered yeast and having a good pitch-able viable yeast starter was a valuable thing which we always had here at the brewery and so you know guys at the brew crew started asking about stopping by and getting some yeast they could use off their brew days and… you know it’s a little bit hazy but kind of the way I recall it is that we would say sure enough, no problem buit bring us some of the beer that is the result of using our yeast and then we were just interested in seeing what our yeast was capable of and guys started bringing really good beers and then it was… I honestly can’t say who had the original idea but it was I think we were all just kind of sitting around and it was like you know some of these beers are too good not to do something with.  Out of that the collaborator project was born.  That’s where the recipes came from the home brewers and originally it was with our yeast and it quickly came to just the way it is currently which is guys submit beers they are judged by their peers in the club and the beers that are selected usually the guys get to work with our brewers at the pilot plant, work up from 5 gallon batch to a 10 barrel batch and then it gets sold under the collaborator label.  So that’s kind of how that whole thing came about.
• Dug: It’s pretty interesting.. .would you call… I guess you would call Widmer brothers a craft brewery, wouldn’t you?
• Rob: Well, we do… there’s obviously there’s a debate about that going and I am sure you guys are aware of. 
• Dug: I guess I see you as that, so… what do you think of, you know, I’ve read a couple of different things but what I call a good increasing number of craft breweries and craft beers that are making it out into the marketplace for us to try and enjoy.  What are your thoughts on that?
• Rob: I just think that it’s kind of a slow growth thing but once people are introduced to really good flavorful beer, there’s no going back.  Like I was doing on Monday and Tuesday in the Pacific Northwest its pretty rare anymore that you get somebody that hasn’t tried a craft beer. In lots of parts of the country you do it all day and you don’t get them all but I think you get some and I think it’s just we’re out there doing that and so is everyone else and it just builds over time and more and more people decide to give it a try and they find something they like and they become a craft beer drinker.
• Dug: There you go… and their instantly turned.
• Nabil: Rob I have to say a personal thank you for expanding the distribution of Widmer because I was down in Dallas for about a year when I first started with MS and it was sort of this wasteland of beer and I remember when I moved down I had about six cases of Northwest beer mostly Widmer an Portland Brewing company and I was rationing them like gold until I could get back.
• Rob: That’s been an interesting market down there and its come a long way.  When we first rolled out you would get a lot of people who would… actually one of the things I’ve noticed that I think is kind of unique to the Northwest is that here when you bring out a new beer, say we walk into a bar and as I mentioned before that is what I do… run around with a keg, fill up a growler and walk in and you know pour for the bartender and the bar owner and whoever is sitting at the bar.. and in the Pacific Northwest and we do that, everyone is like, bring it on… yeah we want to taste it but in some parts of the country the guys sitting at the bar are like… no… this is the beer, that is what I drink… not interested… you know, you’re kidding me… you don’t want to try some free beer?  No.. that’s what I drink and end of story.  You know it’s a lot harder in parts of the country to get people to try it and if you can’t get that far you aren’t getting very far…
• Dug: I guess we are kind of lucky in the fact we have a lot of local products and a good environment and culture for drinking beer and for trying stuff that is new.
• Rob: No question.
• Dug: It just kind of all adds up.
• Rob: you know there are pockets in the country but you know the more I travel the more I am convinced that if you like beer, no better place on the earth than the Pacific Northwest.
• Dug: Although there’s a lot of good stuff coming out of CA these days too.
• Rob: No question but I still think there’s… I don’t know.. .I’m a Portland native and I say we are the best…
• Dug: Maybe a little biased but we are ok with that.
• Rob: Not a question that there’s good beers coming out of CA.
• Dug: We were reading on the blog that you have a silver medal for running the 50 yard dash when you were in fifth grade and we had a question if you were willing to race all three of us and if all of us beat you if you would give over the silver medal?
• Rob: Yeah I don’t know… my knees… those were like twelve year old knees.   I don’t know if I have it in me anymore.
• Dug: How do you come about with the name of the beers?  Drifter is a good example.  Where did the name come from on that one?
• Rob: We always kind of open it up to everybody internally but we also have an agency.  It isn’t very sexy but we work with the agency that also works on names and its troubling as a brewer but I see it all the time and with any consumer product it’s the same.  You can have a pretty mediocre product but if you have a catchy name it can really go and just the reverse you know I think there’s lots of great beers out there that just for one reason or another just don’t catch on and I think a lot of its surrounding the name and the logo and the look and stuff.  So with Drifter, quite honestly, what we were trying to invoke is kind of the easy drinkability, the easy going nature of the beer.  We’ll find out if it works.  The flipside to that is our IPA, Broken Halo, that there is an involved storey there, but one of our brewers came up with a festival beer that was kind of an imperial IPA and his name is Angel and the brewing team called it Halo… and then when we brewed the IPA which was a little bit smaller and more drinkable instead of an Imperial IPA it was just IPA and they called it Broken Halo.
• Dug: It can’t hurt that there is an extremely popular video game called Halo that…
• Rob: It’s quite funny because right when that was coming out and Angel was also a big gamer and when I first heard it I wasn’t thinking I guess but I was thinking that that was why they called it Halo.
• Dug: it can’t be a bad thing, though…
• Rob: We had, some years ago, a pale ale called Hop Jack and I thought that was an awesome name because that is the type of equipment that you use and it is funny to tell people that story and the beer just didn’t go and whether it was the profile of the beer or whether a lot of people thought the word hop scared people away… you know what we talked about that hops people associate with bitterness, you know if you heard the story and didn’t know what a hop jack was… you know I thought it was a great bar call and fun story but it didn’t go.
• Dug: Maybe it was just a bit before its time ‘cause I know a lot of beers that have hop in the name now.
• Rob: Well actually when we were working on the Drifter team I was kind of in the camp of resurrecting hop jack but I got voted down.  Everyone was afraid that we would be scaring off.. .it’s kind of tricky because we have pretty big aspirations for Drifter and so you know we want to sell it not only here in Portland and Seattle and stuff but we want to sell it in Charlotte and South Carolina and all that….
• Dug: You’re mass market now…
• Rob: Not really… we have campaigns that we try to.. they’re certainly not like a national campaign or anything.  We have tools that we use and then in different markets we try and customize a little bit.  But really Kurt and I have never been really big fans of the traditional ads.  As hokey as it sounds, I keep coming back to it’s us and our crew out there getting people to try the beer.  You know that is what it’s all about..  its slow but it’s the most… I think its powerful.
• Dug: It’s hard to taste the beer over the internet to be honest with you.
• Rob: We call it wet sampling. You go out and you pour a glass of beer for people.
• Dug: That is awesome.  So hey, we are cognizant that our time is up.  But one last question.  Give us your favorite prost to end on.
• Rob: My favorite prost…
• Dug: Or at least a memorable one…
• Rob: Oh man… I would say… Here’s to beer.
• Dug: that’s about as good as it gets right there.
• Nabil: thanks again for your time rob.  We really appreciate it and we appreciate the effect you’ve had both on the micro and craft brewing industries around the US so far.  We really appreciate the time.

Winter Beer Tasting 2008/2009

The last few days have been pretty busy… from a beer perspective.  Much tasting has been going on related to some of the winter beers we have in the area.  Draft posts are started for each and I will be working on them over the next week or so. 

UPDATE UPDATE

Bringing together the two phases into one mother of a winte beer tasting list… drumroll, please:

Winter Beer Tasting 2008/2009 (in order of preference… +/- 1-2 up or down)

1. Harvey’s Christmas Ale
2. Port Brewing Santa’s Little Helper Imperial Stout
3. Port Townsend Winter Ale
4. Dick’s Double Diamond Winter Ale
5. Jolly Roger Christmas Ale
6. Scuttlebutt 10 Below Ale
7. Michelob Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale
8. Elysian BiFrost Winter Ale
9. Pyramid Sno Cap Ale
10. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
11. Alaskan Winter Ale
12. Bridgeport Ebenezer Ale
13. Full Moon Winter Ale
14. Bad Elf Winter’s Ale
15. Avery Old Jubilation Ale
16. New Belgium 2 Below Ale
17. Redhook Winter Hook
18. Samuel Adams Winter Lager

**UPDATE**  The tasting and posting is complete and here you are, in order of preference:

PHASE 1

1. Harvey’s Christmas Ale
2. Jolly Roger Christmas Ale
3. Pyramid Sno Cap Ale
4. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
5. Alaskan Winter Ale
6. Bridgeport Ebenezer Ale
7. Redhook Winter Hook
8. Samuel Adams Winter Lager

We definitely had a good time trying all of these, so I hit Malt & Vine for another round and will be tasting and posting more in the coming weeks, so check back for phase 2!

**UPDATE**

Here we are folks, phase 2 has officially began and the beer reviews will start rolling in.

PHASE 2

1. Port Brewing Santa’s Little Helper Imperial Stout
2. Port Townsend Winter Ale
3. Dick’s Double Diamond Winter Ale
4. Scuttlebutt 10 Below Ale
5. Michelob Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale
6. Elysian BiFrost Winter Ale
7. Full Moon Winter Ale
8. Bad Elf Winter’s Ale
9. Avery Old Jubilation Ale
10. New Belgium 2 Below Ale

2008 Oktoberfest

Festival #3 for the year now under my belt, #1 for Po.  I think I have recovered fully… not sure about him.  Hope you are ok there, Po, and thanks for letting me crash on the couch so I didn’t have to drive home… that was a life-saver.

2008 Oktoberfest presented by the Washington Beer Commission

Summary: This was a jolly good festival.  We had fun, drank beer, and listened to live music (Handful of Lovin’)… doesn’t get much better than that.

Ranking: If I put this up against the other two festivals of the year, here is where it stands:

1. 2008 Washington Brewers Festival
   1. Overall just a lot of fun with good food selection, inflatable toys for the kids, and great beer selection and quality.
2. 2008 Seattle International Beer Fest
   1. Huge beer selection.  High beer quality.  Ok food selection.
3. 2008 Oktoberfest presented by the Washington Beer Commission
   1. Ok beer selection.  Mediocre beer quality. Good seasonals.  One food selection (but tasty).  Live music was a plus.

Beer Reviews: Due to the sheer number tasted and our questionable judgement caused by varying degrees of soberness, we are only posting our list and our rating… all ratings are unconfirmed until we actually do a tasting… the awards, on the other hand, we feel very good about.

Awards:

• Best in Show = Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale

• Best Pumpkin = Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale

• Best Oktoberfest = Fish Brewing Co. Leavenworth Oktoberfest

Ratings (based on JBB6 Rating System):

• Hall of Fame
  • Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale (Potential – Unconfirmed)
• For the Win
  • Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale
  • Georgetown Brewing Co. – Super Chopp
• Will Buy Again
  • Anacortes Brewing – Anacortes Oktoberfest
  • Fish Brewing Co. Leavenworth Oktoberfest
  • Hale’s Ales Brewery – Kolsch
  • Northern Lights Brewing Co. – Chocolate Dunkel
  • Oskar Blues Brewery – Gordon
  • Pike Brewing Co. – XXXXX Stout
  • Pike Brewing Co. – Tandern
  • Ram Restaurant & Brewery – Saison
  • Rock Bottom Brewery – Mary Jane Ale
  • Two Beers Brewing Co. – Echo IPA
• Middle of the Road
  • Alpine Brewing Co – Alpine Oktoberfest
  • Baron Brewing Co. – Baron Oktoberfest
  • Big Al Brewing Co. – Abbey Wheat
  • Boundary Bay Brewery – Harvest Ale
  • Elliott Bay Brewing Co. – Hop Harvest
  • Elliott Bay Brewing Co. – Mashing Pumpkin
  • Lazy Boy Brewing Co. – Lazy Boy Porter
  • Roslyn Brewing Co. – Roslyn
  • Snipes Mountain Brewery – IPA
  • Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Co. – Harvest Moon
• Just Not Right
  • Snipes Mountain Brewery – Cask IPA
  • Two Beers Brewing Co. – Fest Beer
• Not Even for Free
  • Diamond Knot Brewing Co. – Possession Porter
  • Ram Restaurant & Brewery – Gruit

Pictured Below: A few of the festival from out by the fences.

Pictured Below: The beer can beenbag toss… toss a can of your favorite Oskar Blues canned beer at the open keg.  Winner = the best out of two tosses.  Great fun to watch as the cans would either hit the nails that are sticking out all around the keg or just expload as the hit the ground, spraying everyone in sight.

Pictured Below: Handful of Lovin’

Oh Happy Day #1 – Pipeline Porter

Yes… it is true.  We received our first sample last week.  The fine folks at Kona Brewing Company and their PR team at Maxwell PR sent us a pack of two Pipeline Porters and some 100% pure Kona Coffee.  Man I love this beer… read the review for one of our first true Hall of Fame beers.

Can I just tell you that this was truly a momentous occassion… and for some reason the first song that came to mind as I was grinning from ear to ear was Oh Happy Day.  I was struck with the need to sing this song all around the house and throughout the cul-de-sac as I took crusty looks from family and friends. 

Luckily, I have broad shoulders and their mocking didn’t phase me… for I, and Po, are truly blessed individuals for being granted the privelege of this wonderful gift.

Thank you Kona Brewing Company and Maxwell PR!!

2008 Seattle International Beerfest (SIB)

I think I have finally recovered enough to write this up… hopefully my bad day-after won’t taint what great fun we really did have at this year’s 2008 Seattle International Beerfest (SIB).  So here you go… the *second* official festival/festivus/fest of the blog.

We had been planning this one for quite some time.  Ever since I heard about it, I thought it would be a great idea, so I made hotel reservations, secured a group to go and waited in anticipation.  As the day came, we of course had a few cancelations but my very good neighbor Brent was allowed to go after some good wively conversation and we hopped in the car and headed to Seattle.

All in all, pretty uneventful heading in.  We found out the hotel, Seattle Pacific Hotel, was sort of a dive, but we figured we wouldn’t care and it ended up being just fine. 

So we walked north the 3 blocks to the fest, paid our $20 for our entrance, a 4 oz glass, and 10 tickets.  You will see how those come into play in a moment.  As we walked around to get a lay of the land, we quickly realized that there were a lot of folks at this event.  Big, small, old, young.  A very diverse group.  Anyhow, our first stop just happened to be our last, as well… New Belgium La Folie.  This, by far, was the best in show for both Brent and I.  All told, we probably spent about 10 of our 30 tickets on this beer (only 1 ticket each!)… for the money, this was also probably one of the best deals at the show.

 

Here is the fine brew in the glass… the glass, consequently, that I left at Sport across from the Space Needle later that night.  Anyone have a glass I can have, by chance?

The following pictures were the myriad different beers we tried.  I will comment on what I remember, which will likely be less and less as the pictures continue…

Dinkel Dark… ordered this but they gave me the Dinkel Pils, so I drank that and they gave me the dark for free… sweet deal I say… thanks Dinkel!  BTW… the Pils was better than the dark.

Not memorable…

Decent pilsner…

Nothing remarkable…

Ah this one… so… I remember that I liked this more during the first 2oz than the last.  The first 2 were smooth and you could taste the oak.  The last 2, though, the oak overtook the great beer that is Arrogant Bastard… I don’t think I could drink a whole bottle of this by any means… could be wrong, though.

Always good… we had the most, “what beer is that” questions for this than for any other beer… the ladies especially liked it dark.

Very good… Rogue 10k. 

This is the western side of the fest… oposite the mural and the space needle.  There were more of the 2 and 3 ticket beers over here… more of the belgians, etc.  We didn’t spend nearly as much time here because we are cheap bastards.

This was the one that took worst of show… we actually think there was something wrong with it and Doug from Malt & Vine concurred as we ran into him at the show.

Still packed… it only rained a little… just enough to be annoying and not enough for massive wetness.

There were so many folks smoking cigars that we had to get our own.  $14 for this here La Gloria Cubana.  The cigar tent guys are geniuses for having that place…

Longest line we stood in… this was a filtered wit… very, very tasty.  Happy we got to taste it.

Don’t recall…

Don’t remember…

It stayed busy, but this corner was by the food with little beer… and less people!

The food tents.  A cheaseburger… I think… really don’t remember, actually… that tells me I was getting pretty happy right about this point, I think.

Don’t remember…

A beautiful line of coolers serving beer… brought a tear to my eye then and still does now.

Ok… this one is probably runner up for best in show.  Very tasty… pretty exclusive, from what I hear… 1 ticket was a steal!

Last standard beer of the fest… not remarkable.

So… we have a pretty lively debate with some women folk at the show regarding which beer on Brent’s shirt was the best… the first stain (top right) came from La Folie… the big long one from Ten Fidy… overall, he wore some of the best beers there very proudly… and consequently bought himself a t-shirt before we left.

We camped right where this picture was taken for the rest of the night… about 7 in a row for La Folie… so, so good.  Don’t ask about what these two are doing…

Ah… a beautiful site as we left the event.  Really was a great time.  Super happy we went and glad we had a hotel.  Next for the bad part…

We ended up down town with some folks from work… that was our mistake… not hanging out, but continuing the alcohol… especially the bad tequilla from the bar dancer… oh man.  I think that is what did me in… note to self… go straight to hotel after beerfest next year and go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep little baby…   G’night.

All in all, ~17 different beers and 120 ozs over 4 wonderful hours.  Very nice.

Washington Brewers Festival

Washington Brewers Festival

Due to the sheer amounts of beer that were consumed and the relatively small size of the glasses, I have decided that none of the tasting yesterday will be official… but due to the enormous amount of fun and cool-factor, this has to go on the blog.  So here you go… the first official festival/festivus/fest of the blog. 

Drumroll please….

If you are not new to this event, forgive me.  I was yesterday and my giddiness is still quite fresh.  You see, yesterday started a new annual event… one that celebrates beer in a way that not many other events can (I know, I know there are others… just go with me).  The Washington Brewers Festival happened to fall on a great day and it was shared with great people, all around.

What sealed the deal was the kids area so that the whole family could go (DD wife, included).  We parked the kids by the blow-up-play-things, bought some food (mmmm sausage), and bought some play-thing bracelets ($15 each) and then I was off with the guys to hit our first group of tents.

As you can see below, the crowds weren’t small… this was about noon-ish when things were still relatively calm. 

One of the first memorable brews was from a Seattle based joint called Maritime Pacific Brewing Co.  I am not sure if it was their Bosun’s Black Porter or not that they had at the festival, but man was it tasty.  Just like a porter should be… dark, slightly smoky, and very malty.  This was a favorite of the group, actually.

You know things are “flowing”… literally… when they have to bring in a full semi truck and trailer full of porta-potties at noon on the last day.  They barely missed a downhill river of piss from the overflowing johns… schwew.

After a bit of wandering, we landed on probably one of the best beers at the festival.  Ok… maybe not best for the traditional styles, but as far as outstanding and unique… this was the one.  Anderson Valley Brewing Company Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema was out of this world good.  I have to figure out how to get my hands on some.

Dogfish Head was in the house!  I picked myself a glass of their Aprihop beer, poured through a bong-looking thing.  It was mighty tasty.

One of my favorite breweries, New Belgium, also showed up although they didn’t have anything really special for us on Sunday.  I was hoping for some Old Cherry… I will just have to drink what is in my Folly Pack.

One of the longer lines at the festival belonged to Northern Lights Brewing Company out of Spokane.  I have to say their Blueberry was good… way better than the Wild Blue.  Their Dunkel was a fine drink, as well.  They had a good showing.

Another favorite out of Colorado… Oskar Blues and their wonderful craft brew cans were there to share their stuff.  I had the Old Chub and liked it… I think… it was kind of getting late…

And finally… it was so very unfortunate that this was my last beer of the festival.  A couple of guys that looked trustworthy told us we *had* to try the Chipotle Ale from Diamond Knot Brewing out of Mukilteo… we all agreed, after tasting this stuff, that if we saw them again we would take them down and beat them silly.  By far and away the worst beer there, not a person in our group could finish it.   

And the aftermath.  Thankfully, Rachael was kind enough to drive home so I could sleep.  I had dreams of flowing beer gardens and all you could drink beer… no little people on toy horses, though, Happy.

Monk’s Cafe, Philadelphia, PA

Monk’s Café

It isn’t every day that I find something truly unique and special… something that transcends the normal ups and downs of life.  I found this on my trip to Philadelphia, though, this week.  Our good friend Joy at the training venue had mentioned it and told us how good it was… I knew the moment she did that it was someplace I had to go.  So, on Monday night, I grabbed a cab after dinner and headed out… solo…

The cab ride was only 10 minutes or so.  We pulled up to an old building with neon in the window.  The building itself is not wide, skinny in fact, with a hallway on the left side that takes you to a door on the right.  As I walked in, I noticed immediately that there was some serious beer drinking going on.  The various ages and genders showed this was a popular place and the bar was completely filled up.  I grabbed a place just across the walkway from the bar, picked up a menu and started perusing. 

The menu system is good… they have a full menu with the bottled beer available in several different sorting orders.  There is also good information in the menu about beer: how it is brewed, what goes in, styles, etc.  They supplement the full menu with a dated, one-sided color printed paper that has all of their beer on tap.  There is a yellow one for the front and a blue one for the back right now.  The front has ~7 beers and the back ~14.  From this list comes the sweet, sweet nectar.  More on that in a minute.

Shown here: Menu (yes I paid $3), Front Tap Menu, Back Tap Menu (and yes, I received permision to take the front and back menus), and Tasting Notes

 

I quickly realized I would be standing all night if I stayed in the front, so I headed to the very darkly lit back bar where I was able to grab a seat after some folks left.  Front and center, thank you very much.  As I took my Monk’s Café Flemish Sour Ale to my seat, I started talking to the bar tender, Stasia, and it was all over after that.  Stasia’s 7 years at the bar have her rivaling anyone I have ever talked to about beer… her knowledge and just plain good beer sense were amazing.  Stasia has met Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace) on many occasions, has attended Avery Brewing Company tasting events, and has generally spent more time with beer related “stuff” than most people will in their lifetimes.

So, the taps started flowing and the bottles started being opened and I was off and running.  I am going to attempt to cover them all below, but link style so as to keep the blog clean.

Needless to say, I had a great night… I didn’t drink to excess, but really had a great time.  I have one small complaint and that is it… their bottled beer is far too cold.  Much of it had to be opened and sat on until it warmed up.  The taps were perfect, but the bottles had to be sub-40° F.

Last thing worth noting… it was really cool to see folks of all walks of life coming to the bar to try out good beer.  Young, old, man, woman… it was really good to be surrounded by either other beer lovers or adventurous ones. 

I think it is safe to say that this bar is the best bar I have ever been too, bar none.  Thanks to Monk’s Café for showing me how it should be done!

Links:

1. Monk’s Café Flemish Sour Ale
2. Cantillon Lout Peper Kreik 2005
3. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
4. Avery The Maharaja
5. Bell’s Brewery Two Hearted Ale
6. Bear Republic Racer X IPA
7. La Binchoise Reserve

 

Introducing the next generation beer rating system…

Sick of seeing the star rating system?  Tired of rating on a 9-point scale?  Wondering what the real difference between 2.14 and 3.16 on the rating scale is?  Look no further, the next generation of beer rating systems is here.  Brought to you exclusively by the folks at justbeer.wordpress.com, we give you the JustBeer Blog 6-rating normalpeoplewillunderstandthisratingsystem rating system… or JBB6 Rating System.  Here it is in all its splendor:

• JustBeer Blog Hall of Fame - the ultimate honor.  Reserved for only those truly outstanding beers out there.
• For the Win - the rating that a beer would get if you were at the store shopping for beer that you wanted to impress your guests, friends, family, or neighbors with.  You would vouch for this beer and consider it a special treat if it were in your fridge.
• Will Buy Again – while you wouldn’t necessarily buy this to impress anyone, you would buy it again because it just tastes good.
• Middle of the Road - Not necessarily good or bad.  Nothing differentiating.  Nothing special.  Tastes like other beer within the same type/class/flavor/etc.  Probably won’t buy it again.
• Just Not Right – Whatever normally provides us with beer goodness was missed here.  Just doesn’t cut it.  It is highly likely that you won’t buy this again or recommend it to anyone that isn’t your enemy.  If the last beer on earth, though, you would still probably drink it.
• Not Even for Free – Reserved for those really, really terrible beers out there.  Now, I haven’t met too many beers I would ever put in this category because, after all, beer is beer, but you know there are some out there.  The main one that comes to mind is Victoria Bitter… nasty stuff that is…

And there you have it.  Ultra exclusive, ultra hip, ultra perfect.  This is the rating system to end all rating systems, so don’t look any further. 

Now… back to the beer.