Barebones Brewing

"Great" Lessons Learned (Great Lakes Brewing)

2011-10-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

For me, no trip to Cleveland is complete without a stop at the largest and oldest craft brewer in Ohio. Great Lakes Brewing is essentially the very young grandfather of the resurgent craft brewing scene in Northeast Ohio. Of all of the microbreweries in Ohio, they have the largest brewing capacity and therefore have the largest distribution with a presence in at least 13 states. With that sort of expansion, it’s not surprising that many of their year round (flagship) beers tend to toe the line of mainstream styles and flavor profiles. That said, even their lightest beer “Dortmunder Gold Lager” comes in at almost 6% ABV which is not something you should take “Lite”ly.

Due to our extended time at Thirsty Dog and checking into our hotel, we arrived late for our scheduled brewery tour. Lesson 1: You don’t want to show up late for your brewery tour of Great Lakes on the same day as an Indian’s home game or a marathon occurring on the street where the brewery is located (let alone both); doing so will ensure you will only have a tour of your own disappointment. The brewery is located in a large building next door to the restaurant and gift shop, and seeing the tour had already departed we were informed that we missed the boat. We were no longer in need of a tour guide; we were in need of a drink.

Me with the monster (not feeling any pain)

A 45 minute wait for a table (see lesson 1) gave us an excuse to visit another of our favorite watering holes around the corner from Great Lakes, McNulty’s Bier Market. So 3 ridiculously strong Belgium style beers later, we made our triumphant return to Great Lakes and prepared to partake. Lesson 2: When planning to sample a wide variety of beers, you should never preface this task with consuming large amounts of high ABV Belgium beers. Realizing that my palate and ability to accurately judge the beer selection were pretty impaired at this point, I made the decision to forgo the sampler and just ordered what I wanted from the beginning, a Lake Erie Monster IPA. This 9% face meltingly hoppy Imperial IPA (it puts the “I” in Imperial) is one of my favorites, and a good example of how Great Lakes is still producing very good and cutting edge beers despite their size.

It’s no surprise that the gift shop located adjacent to the brewpub is by far the largest store for a microbrewery I’ve ever been in to date. The beers they make, appeal to both the avid beer enthusiast and the casual beer drinker alike, and the diversity of their beer line is the key to why Great Lakes is as popular and successful as it is. With a food selection that rivals their beer selection in both variety and quality, I highly recommend a visit to this iconic Cleveland land mark. And if you needed another excuse to stop in, they provide shuttle service to and from most pro sporting events, and we took full advantage of this service. Lesson 3: When leaving Great Lakes Brewery, you will already be looking forward to your return visit.

Indians 5 - Pirates 1

Best Water Bowl Ever (Thirsty Dog Brewing)

2011-08-02T06:46:00.000-07:00

Thirsty Dog Brewing has a pretty well distributed line of beers, and at least in the central Ohio market, you can find their Siberian Night (stout) and Old Leghumper (porter) at almost any beer store. Unfortunately, they only really distribute their flagship beers outside of their hometown of Akron, so my expectations were fairly reserved. On this day Thirsty Dog took those expectations, added a heaping dose of malt, barrel aged it, and served it at the perfect temperature.

Located in an older brick industrial building just outside of the University of Akron campus, you can tell right off that this brewery's focus was beer first and tourist trap 10th. After the somewhat disappointing drive passed Ohio Brewing, my wife and I were pretty much done with the looking part of the trip and ready to start the drinking part. And boy was I pumped when, upon approaching the inner sanctum of Thirsty Dog, a brewer opened the door and instructed us to head to the tasting room where the "bartender" would be out to serve us. . . I'm sorry, did you say bartender?! When I hear "tasting room" I think a tiny bar that a few people can stand next to and sample beers from a few taps. What we got was hop heaven.

Just adjacent to the huge brewing room that greets you at the door, we walked into a narrow but welcoming section of the brewery that probably functioned as storage at one time, but had now been converted into a full bar. Tables and decorated walls adorned this dimly lit bordello of brew, and you could barely see the bartender behind the draft tower of 12 taps that sit prominently in the center of the bar. For the second time in as many hours, my legs got a little weak as I tried to take everything in all at once.

They should have sent a poet.

On tap, we could choose from their entire fleet of beers, but my attention was drawn to 2 in particular. The first was the bourbon barrel aged Siberian Night which comes in around 11 or 12%, and just left me smiling from the time I ordered it to the time I took the last sip. It starts off pretty boozy in the front and slowly melts back into a chocolate and coffee like finish which make you just want to do it again. In the interest of remaining coherent for the rest of the day, I followed this up with a few of their lower ABV session beers, but made sure to finish on a high note. The final beer that I had to try before we left was the Cerberus Belgian Tripel. I am a big fan of tripels so I've had my fair share of them, but the lemony sweet front and the bubblegum finish was unlike anything I've experienced before. I enjoyed it so much I grabbed a 4 pack of it and rolled out like it was Christmas.

Thirsty Dog is a must stop for any craft beer fan visiting Northeast Ohio. They have a wide variety of beers, so no matter what your preference or exposure to craft beer is, you will find something you like. My wife was a big fan of their Whippet Wheat and Tilted Kilt Scottish. It's perfect for a short visit like we did, or an extended session of sampling. Although it's not one of the most well known breweries in Ohio, I don't see that being the case for much longer. Either way, if you plan a visit to Thirsty Dog, let me know and I'll see you there.

Drive-by Brewing (Ohio Brewing Co.)

2011-06-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

The second brewery on the Northeast tour was a quick stop at the Ohio Brewing Co. I honestly don't know very much about this downtown Akron brewery. Just came across it as I was planning our overnight excursion and figured, "When's the next time I'll be in Akron?" So we parked the car and approached the building that our GPS identified as the place.

My wife and I try not to make a habit of walking into random buildings in search of beer. We're fans of easily identifiable entrances that indicate that this is a house of hops, and guide us into the aromas of boiling malt and fermentation that lets us know our day is about to get a little bit better.

So, which is it?

Unfortunately, the only sign we found was on the side of an office building that most definitely wasn't a brewery. So we walked around the building and found another building attached to it that looked like a place a brewery might be housed. But without any additional signage, we both decided that more planning and investigation was probably in order before we're going to be able to check this place out. Luckily I'm planning another Northeast Ohio trip, and maybe w/ friends this time!

Selle Generator Works

What I can tell you is that the Selle Generator Works building where the brewery is located just looks like it has quite a bit of history within its brick walls. The young brewery was actually relocated to the Selle Building from its original location in Niles, Ohio. The fact that it's only been open in this incarnation since the end of 2010, may explain why there wasn't very much information on the web about it or clear indication of how to find it.

The beer list on their website seems promising. I tend to steer away from beers that breweries identify as their "flagship" brands, so I probably won't be a fan of their "Verich Gold", but some of their seasonal offerings like their "Maple Porter" and the "Smokin Scotch Ale" intrigue me a bit.

(Sidebar: Why don't I like "flagship" beers? They tend to be their big seller as they are the most average consumer accessible style of beer, or in other words the closest style that tastes like something that has the word "Lite" in its title or that has a bottle with super sweet VORTEX ACTION. Unfortunately, even though those styles lack things like hop or malt characteristics, their flavor profiles (or lack there of) tend to be what people have come to identify as what a beer should taste like.)

Anyway, I'll have to revisit this place again later this year and give it a proper review. And if you come across their beer . . . anywhere . . . let me know what you think. Although, I don't think their reach extends much further than the Akron city limits.

I've Got a Golden Ticket (Hoppin Frog)

2011-06-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

In the world of brewing, there are those that are content to make good beers, and there are those that seek to achieve greatness by pushing the boundaries of traditional beer styles. It is the latter that I want to talk about today:

My wife and I noticed that we had an open weekend on our schedule so we decided to take a trip across Northeast Ohio. I know it doesn't sound like the greatest vacation idea, but the opportunity to visit 5 breweries in 12 hours is to me, what visiting Disneyland is to a 6 year old. So with my wife driving and me to anxious to do anything as complex as steering, we headed North to Akron.

Yes Please

As the top brewery in Ohio and rated the 17th best brewery in the world by RateBeer.com, Hoppin Frog is a prime example of a frontier brewery. Although the beer style on the label may sound innocent enough, one look at the ABV will tell you a completely different story. Fred Karm, the owner/brewer/salesman of Hoppin Frog, completely embraces the concept of "Go big or go home." The vast majority of the beers that he makes are North of 7% and are full of flavor. He takes each beer style to its limits, bottles it, and if I'm lucky it'll end up in one of my glasses.

Things you won't find on a visit to this Akron based brewery: a brewpub, taps for sampling, a huge "Hoppin Frog" sign, or lot's of merchandise. What you will find are beers in a small fridge, Fred, and an opportunity to see how he turns water into WOW. Although I've been to many breweries and met many brewers, this was the first fanboy reaction I've ever had related to beer. It was like the scene in Willy Wonka when the kids first see the giant room of candy and the chocolate waterfall. I kept my cool though . . . for the most part.

Where the Magic Happens

Although the outside of the brewery is very unassuming, the inside was surprisingly spacious. When you enter the brewery you actually don't see any brewing equipment at all (with the exception of some wood barrels I'll get to later.) Upon meeting Fred and purchasing a couple bottles from the fridge, we headed to the adjacent room which was lined with stainless steel fermentors and brewing equipment. At this point, I'm making my wife photograph anything and everything just in case the sensory overload was too much for my brain to handle.

During the tour, Fred let me know that he was expecting to increase the presence of Hoppin Frog in the central Ohio market, which was music to my ears. He also said he was planning on releasing a very special Barrel Aged Barleywine that sounds absolutely ridiculous and may justify another trip to Akron when it's released towards the end of the year.

Barleywine Barrels

I'm using the word tour loosely here, there's just 2 rooms in the whole place and the entire experience maybe lasted 10 minutes (and 5 minutes of that was me stumbling over my words.) None the less, that 10 minute tour already made the entire weekend trip worth it for me. We had the opportunity to meet the most decorated brewer in our state, buy a couple beers from Hoppin Frogs full arsenal, and see where some of the biggest beers in the world are made. It was the epitome of what makes the craft beer experience great. The concept of not only enjoying the product, but to appreciate the time and effort it took to create it and to meet the craftsmen behind it. And despite all of the accolades and my obvious fandom, Fred was a very gracious and humble host.

Fred (humoring me) and me (trying to be casual)

This Time with Smoke (Barley's 2)

2011-05-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

To closeout the Barley's section of the Ohio Brewery Tour, I visited Barley's Smokehouse in Grandview. Unlike it's older sibling downtown, The Smokehouse has its own building which affords it more room for seating and brewing. However, the bar area is surprisingly half the size of the other location (go figure). Not only is the physical size of the building larger, but the food selection includes all of the normal bar fare, with a huge addition of a smoked meat section. If you like barbecue style food I would check it out, but again that was not the task at hand.

While we waited for a table to open up (25 minute wait on a Friday), I walked over to the bar and dove into a St. Joan's Revenge (their Russian Imperial Stout aged in Jack Daniels barrels.) Now I should have known better then to come out of the blocks in a full sprint, but this 12% beer was too tempting to wait for a table . . .order a sampler . . . drink the weaker beers . . . then try. No, this was a "do not pass Go", order as soon as you walk in the door type of beer that didn't disappoint. Although the Jack Daniels flavor was subtle, you could definately taste that it was aged in wooden barrels and you could pretty much taste all 12% of the alcohol in this black but not overly thick beverage.

Now that my taste buds were nice and desimated, the sampler was probably a moot point, but the show must go on:

Barley's Centennial IPA (1994)
MacLenny's Scottish Ale (1993)
Left Coast Pale Ale (2007)
Barley's Hoptopus (2007)
St. Joan's Revenge (2005)

As you can see from the lineup this location featured a much more updated cast of characters and not necessarily the normal fare that a brewpub would shell out to the masses. Three of the 5 (with the exception of the Scottish and a fore mentioned stout) were pretty hop forward, and despite my bold selection to start the night, I thought the beers tasted really great and fresh. Not sure if I know the rhyme or reason, but I would say that the experience (at least beer-wise) at the Smokehouse was more enjoyable then the Downtown location.

In closing, if you're heading to a Jackets game and want to grab a bite and beers for the game, I would check out the Barley's Downtown location. But for my money, I would check out the Smokehouse for a really good beer experience at a pretty down to earth restaurant.

Can't Brew Without it (Barley's)

2011-04-05T07:37:00.000-07:00

Across the street from the Columbus Convention Center and around the corner from the Nationwide Arena, you'll find a small brewery nestled in the middle of an office building on High Street. Barley's Brewing Company, being the smallest of the big 3 local breweries in Columbus (Elevator and Columbus Brewing being the other 2) differentiates itself by bringing a focus to and promoting "real ales." Essentially real ales are beers served directly from the same container where it matured through second fermentation. This unfiltered beer, served from a container called a Firkin, tends to lack carbonation and many times is served at room temperature, which sometimes can be a little off putting if you're not ready for it. For me, it's an interesting departure from the normal drinking experience, so I'm a fan. Unfortunately, the weekly firkin beer is offered on Friday, and I headed there on a Monday, but it's definitely something you should try out at least once.

Due to it's location near the arena, this 18 year old brewery is a popular pregame spot for many Columbus Blue Jacket fans. And I, with my hockey jersey sleeves rolled up, have spent many an afternoon in the slender but inviting dining room that makes up the main eating hall at Barley's Downtown. The menu features a nice mix of American and German style food that compliments the beer served there nicely. But you'll have to go to a foodie blog for that review, this is all about the brew.

Barley's isn't well known for traveling too far outside of traditional styles and their beer selection has remained relatively unchanged since they opened the doors in 1992. They normally only introduce a few new one off batches of beer a year, and those are usually a twist on beers they already brew. Due to the fact that the brewery shares space with the restaurant and bar, the restrictive space probably doesn't afford them much opportunity to experiment with many test batches. I assume they're going with the montra that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" which is reflected in the sampler that I received (left to right, with first year brewed in parenthesis):

Sampler

Barley's Pilsner (1992)
MacLenny's Scottish Ale (1993)
Barley's Pale Ale (1992)
Blurry Bike IPA (2009)
GlenLenny's Scotch Ale (1998)
Ol' Ron's Surly Oatmeal Stout (1993)

I'm not going to waste too much time discussing the normal staples that I'll come across at almost every brewery. There's the token Pilsner for those that prefer to judge beer on how easily you can see through it rather then on taste. The Pale Ale and IPA were pretty forgettable, and the Stout was on par with a Guiness. Now this isn't indicative of every experience I've had at Barley's, I actually really like their Centennial IPA which comes in above 7% ABV, I just think I came at a bad time in their beer rotation. The exceptions being the Scottish Ale which I found to be surprisingly sweet and almost had a cotton candy taste to it, and the GlenLenny's Scotch Ale was the star of the bunch. The GlenLenny had a sweet and boosy taste that sort of reminded me more of a Belgium tripel then a scotch ale/wee heavy. I ordered a glass of it for my bonus round and was not disappointed.

So to sum up the experience, I would skip the sampler and go straight to what interests you. One of the nice things about Barley's is that you can sample a beer for 75 cents, which is a nice deal for 5oz and more ideal than trying to fight through $5 worth of beer you don't want. Although they don't stray very far from the beaten path as far as their beer selection, the location and overall experience of coming to this brewery makes it worth a stop if you're in the neighborhood. And if you can, stop by in mid April (after April 14th) when they'll have a bourbon barrel conditioned version of the Scotch Ale I enjoyed, which will probably be off the charts good. Hopefully, I'll see you there.

Ground Rule Dubbel

2011-03-31T06:49:00.000-07:00

One thing about attempting to visit all of these breweries over the summer has become clear, fitting it into my schedule is going to be a challenge. Not because I have a ton of better things to do, but because of previously scheduled weddings (not my own), the birth of children (not my own), and various trips to other states (not my own.) If I'm going to embark on this escapade, it'll take some sacrifice on my part so I want to do it right.

With that said, I want to lay some ground rules for the reviews. Not only am I going to rate the breweries and brewpubs, I'm also going to rate some of the beers themselves. The beer reviews will not just be limited exclusively to the beer offerings at the brewery, I also want to include beers that are readily available at beer stores. By reviewing locally available beers, it'll allow you to partake in the experience without the gas mileage (if you live in Ohio.) It's pointless for anyone to actually travel all the way to Hoppin Frog when you can drive down the street and purchase the beer there. I'll do the leg work, you drink the benefits, local breweries make some coin. Win Win Win.

A comprehensive review of the each experience will be found here, as well as reviews on both RateBeer.com and BeerAdvocate.com as UnionBrew (feel free to friend or follow me there.) Obviously beer tastes vary from person to person, so just because I don't like something doesn't mean you won't. Go out and try some of these beers on your own. 1 Rule though: Support your local breweries!

-If you would like to review some places on your own and post them here, let me know (the more the merrier.) Feel free to add your review of beers from specific places visited in the comments section. I can't drink them all, but I'll try.

Ohio Brewery Series 2011

2011-03-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

This summer, I've decided to do a little brewery tour around Ohio (or at least the I-71 corridor.) Ohio has quite a few noteworthy breweries, so why not take advantage of the summer weather to check them out. I'm going to stick to the established and proven local guys (no chains or start-ups). On tap for the next 4 months:

Columbus

Columbus Brewing Company (5/6 or 5/7)

Elevator Brewing (7/16)

Barley's Brewing - Smokehouse (visited 4/22) & Downtown (visited 4/4)
Rockmill Brewery - Lancaster (6/4)

Cincinnati

Rivertown Brewing (7/9)

Akron

Hoppin Frog (visited 6/18)

Thirsty Dog (visited 6/18)
Ohio Brewing Co. (drove-by 6/18)

Zanesville

Weasel Boy (7/23)

Cleveland

Fathead's (visited 6/19)

Great Lake's Brewing (visited 6/18)

I'll keep you posted. I'm also going to add some more Pittsburgh brewery reviews that I never got around to doing last year like East End Brewery and Church Brew Works. If you've had any brewery experiences you'd like to throw on here, let me know. I'm trying to make this more of a interactive forum then "my" life in beer. Let the reviews begin.

My brewing partner just picked out all of the ingredients for his most adventurous beer yet, an Imperial Raspberry Stout. The closest likeness would possibly be Hoppin' Frog's Smashing Berry which I'm not a fan of. Smashing Berry is VERY fruit forward with a really low ABV for a Frog beer. We're going for a 9% stout with a raspberry finish. We'll see what happens. . .

Age is like a Fine . . . Beer

2011-03-14T12:14:00.000-07:00

My Cellar

As with fine wines, sometimes the best beers are ones that have been aged for a little while. You may find yourself in the possession of a very high ABV beer and are thus faced with the Great Question, "Do I drink a good beer now, or do I enjoy a GREAT beer later?" Most of the time, I open the bottle, but there are a few exceptions where I feel like I'd be doing the beer a disservice if I didn't allow it to reach it's full flavor potential by cellaring or "laying down" the beer.

Lay Down

So what advantages do you get when you age beers? For me, the primary advantage of cellaring beer is that the alcohol characteristics of the beer (the booziness) mellow over time, which bring out the more appealing and stylized characteristics of the beer. I mean, I can do a shot of vodka if I wanted to taste alcohol.

This isn't ideal for every beer though. The characteristics I look for in a good cellar beer:

High ABV (alcohol by volume) - Ideally I look for beers that have an ABV north of 7%. The high alcohol level keeps the beer from going bad over time. Also, low ABV brew won't really benefit from mellowing the alcohol flavor cause there probably isn't very much to begin with.

Drink ASAP

No Hoppiness - Like the booziness of beer, hop characteristics of beer mellow very quickly on the shelf. Essentially taking the I out of an IPA doesn't really make sense. Although I would love to hold onto my Hopslam's for a bit since it isn't brewed year round, I have to fly through them before my Hopslam turns into a Hoptap.

Dark Bottle - Beer hates sunlight.

If all of those characteristics are there, into the closet you go. Ideally you want to store it in a dark (beer hates sunlight) and cool part of the house like a basement or a closet. Oh, and don't take the term "lay down" literally, it's a wine term that carried over to beer. You actually want to store beer upright so that the yeast can settle to the bottom as it ages. The added affect is that aged beer will be less viscous or thick than it's younger versions. So go out and fill up that empty space in your basement with some good beers and start your collection.

Oh, and the answer to the "Great Question" is the 3rd option . . .buy 2 bottles. Enjoy one now (to get your fix), then appreciate the complexities of the other bottle a few years down the road.

My "I Have a Dream" Speech

2011-02-25T10:37:00.000-08:00

With the craft or better beer segment of the beer market slowly growing its market share, it’s apparent that the retail structure has taken notice and begun to cater to the discerning beer customer. At this point, no bar is complete without at least a couple taps going to “off” brand beers for every big 3 beer they have on tap. And it isn’t just a move to have more taps on display. Bars have to turn over the product in order to get a return on it, so it doesn’t benefit them to just have a keg on the line that doesn’t move. Even grocery stores are offering high quality bombers and 6 packs. Granted, the selection is still limited to major microbreweries or local ones, but the fact that they are offered is a step in the right direction.

Binny's Beverage Depot

Well, what if we take this trend and project what the future may hold. Is it unreasonable to think that beer stores in the not so distant future may rival wine stores in terms of the diversity and quality of the products offered? I mean, I don’t know about you, but I go out of my way to seek out beer stores that excel in acknowledging the craft beer segment. None the less, even the most evolved beer or liquor store must hedge their investment by contributing most of their space to the big 3 brands and/or hard liquor. I’ve been to only one store that contributed more than an aisle or 2 to craft beer and a) I had to drive out of state to find it and b) it was a booze department store the likes of which I’ve never seen before.

With that said, may we one day see a beer store that carries multiple vintages of Dark Lord? Could we hear a salesperson say, “Might I interest you in a 2008 Hoptimum?” Not that you would want to cellar an IPA, but you get what I’m saying. For example: What if a beer store sells 75% of their order when they get it and slowly trickle in the remaining 25% over the next couple years at a premium. It seems like a pretty intriguing business model from both the business and consumer perspective alike. I’d pay an extra $10 for each year of aging.

Obviously, the primary hurdle of creating this craft beer utopia is the beer industry’s 3 tier distribution model. If you don’t know anything about it, go out and watch Beer Wars. (It’s sort of required viewing for anyone interested in craft beer or anyone interested in anti-trust issues.) The fact of the matter is that InBev (and MillerCoors to a smaller extent) essentially control the wholesale distribution of the beer market and therefore can dictate and limit the points of sale for the little beer guys. If you want to try most of the beers on the top 100 best beer list on BeerAdvocate or RateBeer.com, more than likely the only way to do that is through a beer trade (which is illegal across state lines.) So until people take a good look at this distribution model and level the playing field, my dream of being able to order a “2007 Abyss from Deschutes Brewery” will remain a dream.

However, with the average beer consumer developing a better than average beer palate, might the market demand at the retail tier eventually offset the stranglehold of the big 3 at the first 2 (brewing and distribution)? To be continued. . .

Western PA Roadie

2010-08-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

In honor of my exodus from Pittsburgh, my wife and I are doing a few road trips to knock out a few breweries around Western PA that we want to check off our Brewery Bucket List. So, the first of these trips was to the North Country Brewery in Slippery Rock, PA about 45 minutes North of Pittsburgh. Let me preface this by saying that this is a super super small brewery whose distribution appears to currently be limited to its brewpub (which happens to be the brewery) so the likelihood that you will ever come across this brewery outside of this post is small. None the less, this visit brought up several key issues that I have with some of these smaller craft breweries. With that said:

If you are looking to spend an afternoon in a brewpub in Middle-Earth, have some suds with a gnome, or just like the feeling that you've been whisked away to a woodlands cottage with beer taps, look no further then the North Country Brewery. Situated in Slippery Rock, this brewpub boasts an atmosphere that is fully committed to its "woodsy" theme. however, NCB offers a diverse number of styles that all sort of hang out in the average to bad tasting range. They don't brew anything above 5%, so that's sort of a bummer too.

The boss and I ordered the 12 beer sampler (huge sampler for a super small brewery) that was served in an awesome wooden carved disk with divots along the outer rim that the beer glasses could sit in and an awesome carved picture of a gnome/elf face in the middle. That's about where the good tidings end cause we followed that up by drinking the beers. I won't go into the details of each sample, however the overall review is fairly discapointing. While, they had a variety of different styles, I found the flavor profile of almost all of them to be fairly similar. Nothing too bold either on the hoppy, malty, or sweet fronts. I'm assuming the fast turnaround on the brewing process, due to the limited production capabilities, means they don't have the time to effectively ferment and develop complex or large beers.

Which brings me to my point about these theme breweries (a point I've harped on before.) What is the point of having a brewery if you're going to make middle of the road beers? We have those already! How do you make a dent as a participant in a niche market if you provide a sampler that has the taste profile of a A-B Bev or MillerCoors roster beer? Luckily, their food offering is pretty solid, so they aren't going out of business anytime soon, but why not use the brewing time used to create 12 different brews and focus on a smaller crop of high quality beers. Long story short, it was a nice atmosphere, but I'll never get the 45 minutes back from the drive there and home.

In closing, North Country Brewery is fully committed to its woodsy theme, which creates a fun and interesting atmosphere to spend some time in. However, don't come for the beers. As with many brewpubs they are focused more on diversity then quality. They are a step above the big 3 beers in taste, but until they focus their brew roster, the brewery part of this establishment is essentially a gimmick. So enjoy the gnomes and the food!

Beerfestivus for the Rest of Us!

2010-06-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

I’m standing at the end of a line that’s over 100 people long, and I wonder why we’re here and if what’s at the front of the line is worth this wait. Luckily hindsight is 20/20, so I can tell you that it was! Cause once I found my way through the ticket line, there were close to 20 booths of beer awaiting my perusal. And you know I likes to peruse!

I walked straight into the main hall of the Columbus Convention Center, turned to my left and what booth is there to greet me but Chicago’s own, Goose Island. Now Goose Island isn’t exactly one of the better known craft breweries, but they do class up the joint by giving their beers names like “Juliet” (Belgium Sour Ale) or “Pere Jacques” (Belgium Abbey Ale) and they label their bottles with wine style labels. This is all good, but more importantly they also make a few limited brewed beers that are definitely of note. It just so happened, that Goose Island had sent 4 bottles of the very limited “Night Stalker” (Imperial Stout) to the event (of which I have a bottle cellaring from my Dark Lord trip.) So I asked the kind purveyor of suds at the booth to pour me a glass, and my First Annual Columbus Beerfest experience began with an awesome beer (can’t wait to open mine next year.)

Now I won’t bore you with my trips to each booth, of which there were many, but instead I will tell you a bit about the overall experience of the event.

Right off the bat, I could sort of sense that this wasn't the same crowd as Dark Lord. Sure, there were craft brew snobs in attendance, but they were dispersed into a melting pot of hipsters and Columbus' young and well to do just "being seen" at the event of the night. And with Ohio State down the road, you better believe there were plenty of the nation's youth congregating with the promise of nicely dressed "babes" and beer aplenty. Lucky for them, PBR was in attendance (seriously).

This isn’t the first time around the block for Columbus on the “beer festival” front, but this is the first time we’ve hosted a craft beer event of this scale. As I mentioned before, there were several booths to check out, and luckily some of the “good” breweries were in attendance such as “Stone”, “Southern Tier”, and “Founder’s” to name a few.

On the down side, there were few heavy hitting beers represented, which was a bit of a bummer. And almost none of the booths were being run by a representative from the brewery, so we didn’t get to take part in the other awesome part of craft brew connoisseurship, meeting the brewers. I suppose both of these issues were a by-product of the fact that it was a “First Annual” event which had yet to establish itself in the beer world, so perhaps the breweries may have been less inclined to put their best foot forward.

On the huge upside, the concept of limited samples was quickly replaced by beer anarchy. Everyone in attendance was granted 25 tickets for samples, with the option of buying more for a $1 each. However, the people supplying the beer wanted nothing in return for their dark amber offering, except for a smile and the occasional wink, of which I paid them in spades. Nothing exposed this breakdown in the currency better then when one of the few “ticket collectors” brought his pitcher of used tickets over to our table and walked away . I took that as permission to black out, so the rest of my experience will only be remembered by me via mental snapshots and actual pictures. So all in all, it was a great time, with great friends, drinking some great stuff.

And if I judged the best beers in attendance:

- New Holland’s “Dragon’s Milk” - My favorite of the day. Enjoyed the smooth texture and the vanilla aftertaste, and the best part is that you can probably find it at your local beer store.

- Bluegrass Brewing’s “Jefferson’s Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout” - Very rare and Bourbon Barrel aged, enough said. By the end of the night I was ordering "Jefferson Airplane's", and luckily they knew what I meant

- Stone’s "Black IPA" It's a triple IPA in the form of a stout. Uh, what? And can I have 3 more please?

See you all next year!

What's better than 2 Floyd's?

2010-04-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

Sensory overload is probably the best way to describe my experience at 3 Floyd's Brewery - Dark Lord Day. The lines, the people, the conversations, the outfits, the tents, and of course The Beer! As many of you know, Dark Lord Day is a holiday for beer enthusiasts, where Beer Folk of all types and walks of life gather to purchase one of the top beers on the planet, Dark Lord Russian Imperial. For one day and one day only, the brewery opens it's doors and sells this beer until their cupboards are bare. And although this is the primary function of the event, the actual event itself is a celebration of all things brewed. Leave the corn and rice based beers at home, these beers are not for the faint of heart.

You arrive first thing in the morning, and hopefully find a spot in the many open lots that are available to attendees. The funny thing about the parking setup is the fact that you actually can't park at the brewery itself. The brewery's parking lot is essentially reserved for the many lines you have to wait in to get anything from food, to port-o-potties, and even to get in the store to buy merchandise. 60% of one's day can pretty much be waiting in lines. So, they rely on the kindness of the businesses around them to provide the parking space necessary for 8-10,000 people to park. Now that we're parked, we wait in line for the doors to open so we can start waiting in other lines. In the meantime . . . you drink.

I mean, that is the point of this whole event right? We all share in one common desire to seek out the beer elite. And here we are, from all around the midwest and beyond, so bring a beer and let's start sharing. To facilitate the many beer bottles that will be shared during the course of the day, several tables are setup and hoards gather. As I learned, there's some etiquette involved with these tasting events.

Rule #1: Bring something to share. The beers on the table aren't free to any takers, the idea is that everyone contributes to the communal table. Oh, and the rarer the better. My East End Snow Melt wasn't exactly the creme de la creme, but luckily the host of this table was familiar with East End's Gratitude Barleywine so it got me a spot at the table.

Rule #2: Bring a tasting glass. It's really hard to sample beers without one. You can cup your hands together, but I doubt anyone will pour anything in them. And when rubbing elbows within this Better Beer Society, it's always ideal to have a glass that makes a statement. I went with a plain snifter, it says "Hey, I'm one of you guys, and yes we are better then most people." And with nose in the air and pinky raised I partook.

Rule #3: Just pour yourself enough. It's tasting beer, not pounding them. And besides, these are 9% ABV or better beers. If you want to make it to see the other side of noon, take your time.

Trophies or Littering?

Rule #4: Rinse your glass in between tastes. The array of different beers that are sampled can be staggering. Trying a Double IPA right after a Sour without rinsing the glass is pretty pointless. Luckily, gallons of water are readily available.

And the end result is a collection of empty bottles that's put on display like a drunken trophy case of awesome.

I'm right there in the back

Anyway, eventually 3 Floyd's opened their doors and the mass migration onto the property began. Like some sort of social experiment, we crammed as many people into a small space as possible. I know it's hard to tell from the picture, but these people are all in a line that goes somewhere. Some were in line for the bathroom, some were in line to taste beers from some of the visiting breweries, but most were in line to walk into the tiny garage door under the sign in distance. Like I said, sensory overload.

Unfortunately, the Dark Lord availability was limited to 4 bottles per ticket (I had 2 tix), but I was just happy to finally get in the door. And my prize . . . 8 bottles of one of the best beers ever made. This is about as giddy as I get.

The Brewing Process: In 2D!

2010-04-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

On occasion I have been known to brew a beer or two myself. I don't feel right passing out judgement on other people's beer without actually familiarizing myself with the process. So, I set out to brew the a Russian Imperial and due to the distinct flavor of the beer . . . (Griswold drum roll) "The Bitter Truth" was born. So here is how The Truth came to be known (see what I did there):
We'll fast forward through the sanitizing, the setup of the burner, and we'll dive right into steeping the grains. The first step in actually creating the wort is boiling the grains in 2 gallons o' water for about 30 minutes. It's not a pretty sight but it smells good, so we got that going for us. We then remove the grains, let them drain then dump them into a bucket for disposal (or composting if you like hugging trees.)

Lesson #1: During the course of this boil, we sort of had some temperature control issues, and this is about the point we realized we actually need the thermometer to be submerged in the wort for it to work (who knew?). Anyway, our low tech solution of "If it smells like it's burning, turn down the heat" probably contributed to the bitterness that was the resulting beer flavor. But us geniuses pressed on.

Next, I get my malt on. Now that the grains have imparted their 2 cents of fermentable sugars and flavors, I add about 11 pounds of liquid malt. This adds even more fermentables and give the beer it's malty tones. You let this boil for about 60 minutes.

Lesson #2: We poured straight from the cans, and this method gave us first hand familiarity with the term "slow as molasses." So we learned from now on, we'll add all of the malt to one bowl and warm it on a double boil to make it more amicable to our schedule. I mean, this decanning (my word) took like 20 to 30 minutes to empty, which messed up our projected "cook" time of our wort.

We gots mad hops! As soon as we got done fighting the malt we added the good stuff, the hops. As you can see, this small bag of dog food (it's hop pellets) is pretty easy to add and took a whole 10 seconds to dump. Now by adding all of the hops at the beginning of the boil we're going to add flavor without adding the bitterness of hops. If we were making a Pale Ale, we probably would add an additional amount of bittering hops with 15 minutes left in the boil to make it "hoppy." However, we did our bitter contribution in the first step, so we're good on that front.

Just Chill'n! Once the boil is over, we've had a few Pilgrim's, and the sun is starting to go down, we attempt to lower the temperature of the beer. This in my opinion is one of the most important steps. By quickly lowering the temperature of the beer, you make the suspension (or "floaties" if you're as mature as I am) drop to the bottom which will leave you with less crap on the bottom of our fermentors. When your beer sits on this stuff, it tries to impart off flavors (off is bad). So getting this stuff out of the beer sooner then later, is a good thing.

Lesson #3: As you can see from the picture our low tech cooling solution was to surround the pot with ice. Not only do we have to wait for the pot to cool, we then need the pot to cool the beer. Fast forward an hour (I won't get back) into the future and we're as close to getting this down to the right temperature as our patience can stand. So onward!

Once we transfer the wort to our first fermentor, we add the remaining water to get to the 5 gallon line, pitch the yeast (there's a yeast preparation process, but that can wait for a later post) and then aerate (shake the shit out of) the beer. Lesson #4: Oh, and put a lid on the fermentor before the shaking starts. Beer-1 Pants-0. And here we are with beer in the first fermentor 3.5 hours from when we started:

Oldest Craft Brewery in Pittsburgh - REBORN!

2010-04-19T06:43:00.000-07:00

So over the weekend, the boss and I headed over to Penn Brewery to celebrate the release of a brand new year round beer (Allegheny Pale Ale.) The event itself was ridiculous enough with the free food, the 2 free beers and the hoards of craft brew people that were rubbing elbows, but that was just the icing on the cake. The cake, was the announcement that the restaurant was reopening on May 5th and as a huge fan of German food (I love sausage, ha ha ha), this is music to my ears. I also was able to meet the 2 time owner of the brewery (Tom Pastorius) who is one of the pioneers in Pittsburgh craft brewing.

Now, slight digression: Penn Brewery does not make beers for the avid hard core craft beer drinker. As mentioned in previous entries, their flavor profile is very conservative and their beers hug the 4.5% ABV line. Tom started this Brewery in 1986 and as you can imagine, this predated the current insurgence of hoppy and high ABV preferences of this beer renaissance. Unfortunately, Penn has not changed it's main product line seemingly since it's beginning, they have always tried to stay true to the original brewing process and ingredients of German beers. They do have a few seasonals that are note worthy (Penndemonium Bock & St. Nikolaus Dunkel), and the new Allegheny Pale Ale is their first beer using non-German Hops, so they do show some future promise.

Back to the topic at hand. I would go into why this is the 2nd time Tom has owned Penn Brewery, but wikipedia does a better job.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_Brewery

Long story short, Tom got bought out by a bigger fish, bigger fish moved the company away from tradition and towards optimal efficiency, new approach failed, little fish reacquired his company after the brewery was closed, see picture above, go little guy! Anyway, thanks Tom for bringing back an awesome landmark, and if you folks have an afternoon in Pittsburgh, stop by.

Back in the Game

2010-04-15T08:37:00.001-07:00

Long time no post, my bad. Had an epiphany of sorts the other day by accident. I was in the middle of writing an email about the reason why Penn Brewery's beers were so bland and ended up with this (not funny, but sort of sets the table for me on the state of craft beer, and thankfully I don't normally write or speak this way):

When you look at the beer profile of small independent breweries in Pittsburgh like a Penn or an East End, you see a lot of middle of the road beers where they may have sacrificed differentiating themselves from the mainstream flavor profile in favor of faster production. There also may be a need to have a product with broad appeal that allow them to get tap space in a wider variety of bars. This approach maximizes their points of sale, but the product suffers.

This flavor profile differentiation deficit from the mainstream is even greater for the brewery/pub combination businesses, where the “brewpub” concept is used as a gimmick like Church Brew (2 gimmicks), Hofbrauhaus (2 gimmicks), or Rock Bottom. Based on the fact that these businesses rely heavily on food sales and the “brewpub” novelty more so then actual beer sales. The emphasis is less on beer then on the theme. And once you get the people in the doors, and serve up your gimmick with your beers, people tend to reflect on the overall experience and less about the quality of their beer. Based off the fact that these businesses ARE the primary POS (Church dabbles in case distribution), the necessity for quality (longer brewtimes, higher ABV) is even less as you control the competition within your beer selection.

However, with the advent of Craft brew houses like Sharp Edge, Bocktown, and Point Brugge, there is finally incentive to putting out a quality product. A high end market is slowly growing (but growing nonetheless), allowing the little brewer to increase the sale price of higher end beers to defray the increased production costs of creating those types of beers. Unfortunately, this leads me to the belief that as a business, you have to either focus on one or the other (brewery or craft brew house.) One allows you to maximize the number of POS (with the newly developed craft brewhouse and drinker market), while the other can focus on the quality of their brewpub while not absorbing the production cost (monetarily and spatially) of beer production. Hopefully the market continues to grow so we start seeing more Sharp Edge’s and high ABV breweries like 3 Floyd’s.

With all of the beer events I have on tap in the very near future: Penn Brewery re-opening, Columbus Beer-fest, and Dark Lord Day I will be posting some drunken hi-jinks to offset this stream of consciousness. Oh yes, Hi-Jinks, that's one step above tom foolery and just short of shenanigan’s.