Picture Post #2

Went to State Line for the illustrious, the elusive, the illicit Iqhilika Herbal Blossom (only three weeks after i was supposed to make the trip) and came home with some other goodies. And took some pics of other bottles around mi casa.

















*No isomerized hops were harmed in the lighting of these photos. Read more!

The Moment Ends the moment ends the moment ends

In the last week or two i have somehow been in the midst of serving temperature conversations everywhere I turn. Personal conversations, overheard conversations, the usual suspects. A lot of chatter, a lot of opinion, a bit of science; all this over a few tallies of Fahrenheit. So let’s follow that trend then and take a look at drinking beer at different temperatures.

Chatter:

A beer that’s too cold is going to numb your taste buds and prevent you from tasting a lot of what makes some beers special. Other beers- dumb, ugly, bastardizations of beer- depend on this so that you drink more and do so more quickly, they want you to drink more and taste less. I can’t think of many other food products that fly by this logic.

A beer that’s too warm just isn’t going to work either. Sure certain styles benefit from warmth or even warming (which I’ll get into momentarily), but there’s got to be a line here too. Cellar temperature has its limits and if your cellar is your back porch in July, well, you got problems buddy.

The effects of warming on a glass of beer can be great for the beer drinker who is paying attention. You pour or are served your beer and you unconsciously submit to the routine of eyeballing it, getting a nice bit of it’s aromas up your nose (maybe repeating this a few times), before taking that first sip. And with that you have your idea of what this beer is all about. You’ve got a feel for the hops, you’ve got a feel for the flavors that the fermentation kicked out, but hey, not so fast there. With warming some of these flavors are going to change, more are going to poke out and make themselves known. This is especially true of many Belgian styles of beer, where the yeast creates phenols and esters that give off both the aroma and taste of fruit and spices. Many styles of dark beer also bring late greatness to the table. Roasty characters as well as tones of chocolate, smoke, wood, and even licorice will start to show themselves as a nice stout or robust porter warm in your glass.

Opinion:

A good cold beer on a hot day can be extremely refreshing. Of course, and there are styles that just beg for this, most of which are easy drinking with moderate ABV. A nice wheat beer in the summer, for me, is just a beautiful thing. The crisp, clean finish of a Weissbier is great on the palate in any season, but with their great hints of fruit, spice, and doughy yeast these bright yellowish orange treats are garnish to an outdoor bar or patio. Many styles of session beer seem to work great cold. I am not talking about frost brewing blah-blah here (nor should anyone else be), but if a fine glass of beer has enough character and flavor upfront, a little chill isn’t going to do it too much harm.

Flip the coin. Give me a dubbel and i’ll show your glass both of my palms. I love a nice dark Belgian ale with a bit of warming; so much flavor comes out of it sip by sip. When you are experiencing something like this for the first time it almost seems magical. Very specific tastes begin to pop out at you with great distinction. Cherries, figs, candy, the list could go on and on. Similarly, a stout can get poured and just sit for 10 minutes as far as I’m concerned. You get so much more out of a dark beer that’s warmed up, this is probably the most obvious example of why all beer shouldn’t be served at the same temperature. A creamy imperial stout at 30 some degrees would probably taste like some perversion of soda more so than beer.

Science:

Heat can’t be destroyed, only moved, so since many fine beers are scant on preservatives (aside from those qualities being contributed by hops) and most of the good stuff doesn’t go through pasteurization, placing them in a cool (and dark, if in bottles) area for storage is about the nicest thing you can do for your beer. You’ll get a longer shelf life as the chemical compounds (over 1,000 of them) will be in their ideal storage conditions. Brewers choose the finest and freshest ingredients they can to give you the finest and freshest beer they can, so with a little care on your end every bottle can and will taste great. Like a fresh loaf of bread, you’ve got your window until it goes stale and mishandling can make that window close more quickly. Luckily with beer that window is typically several months for even the tamest of beers. The big boys: high alcohol brews or those that are very dark, age quite well and in these same cool conditions can go for years becoming more complex and yeast still living in the beer can continue to consume leftover sugars creating more alcohol and more texture of flavors.

So then, the last thing you’d want to do is have this information and give great care to your beer only to turn around and numb your taste buds to the point that you cannot fully taste it. Rate Beer.com has a great little chart here that will give you the classes of serving temps and recommended temps for each style of beer. Of course, what tastes best to you will ultimately be the best temperature, this chart is a darn good guide to getting the most out of each glass you pour.

So why am i saying all of this?

Because i had a beautiful experience with a beer the other day, that’s why. Poperings Hommelbier is classified by some in this newer category of Belgian IPAs and others are simply ranking it as a Belgian Golden Ale. Regardless, i think it’s a great beer. It is crisp and very refreshing on the palate. It’s not too high in ABV at 7.5, but its no lightweight either.

Now i’d bought a case of this at the Beer Yard and enjoyed bottle after bottle (the labels are very easy to get off for use in homebrewing as well) this previous fall. When it was time to pack up and move to a new place last month i discovered four bottles still sitting in my stash. Out of curiosity, i popped one open the other day without even bothering to fridge it. My beer space has been quite cool since i moved in and i wanted to give it a little test.

This was the most magnificent bottle of Hommelbier i have ever had. I decanted off of the yeast into a tulip glass and there was a fervent head that bubbled a good two inches throwing out nothing but the smell of green apples and hops. Incredible. For a beer i’d sat on longer than intended it had such punch in the nose and such beauty in the glass. I took a sip and immediately forgot all i knew about this beer. I’d always enjoyed this beer much colder than this, at least 5 degrees if not more towards the low end. I am thinking i was definitely upper 40’s, if not right on the bicentennial this time around.

Gone was the yeastyness that prevailed in many of the others, gone was the sharp bite and the end of each sip. I fell into this glass like a needle on a record, right into the groove. I mean, how can you drink something so many times and have an experience like this by just changing a few degrees? Keep your chatter, keep your opinion, keep your science. That beer was magical.

Sure you can study all there is to know about yeast, about proteins in sugars, and about units of CO2 (lord knows I’m trying), but once that bottle leaves the brewery it is on its own individual ride. So many strides are taken to keep the taste of beer consistent, which is quite important, but what is so great, so beyond any brewer’s planning, so left completely up to chance, consumer knowledge, planning, and luck, is that every time we sit down to drink a beer we will never be able to replicate that experience ever again. Every beer you drink from a case will be younger than the one that comes after it, every sip a touch younger than the next, every day in the vessel another chance for that beer to live and grow. Barleywines become deep, strong sippers. Stouts develop into smooth roasty, smokey velvet. Dubbels become fruity silk. Now tell me this, who still wants to drink boring beer?
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The Season Is The Session

Now that winter is in the backfiles with all the other crimes of the moon, i'll let you in on a little personal exercise that i developed way back in November. Each season i plan to pick a style and sample at least 20 different examples in an effort to learn and understand the differences and similarites in a class of beers style by style. To see what winter was all about, click to

So i started with Barleywines. For me it was an obvious choice, i'd had many and liked most, but i was definitely ready for a bit of a deeper understanding. It would have been easy to start with stouts or porters and i'm sure it won't be too many winters until i get there.

But Barleywines just have this hold over me. They stand alone. The aroma draws your mind to a fargone time, one of wood and iron, one of hard work but delicate craftsmanship. A good barleywine is like and weekend i've always wanted to have: some cabin somewhere, heat from a fire, snowed in and slowly working through the rations, luckily there's a record player and a box of albums to take my mind off things.

That's a time to sip a barleywine.

Now if i was in a different situation, had a bit more access and funds maybe i’d dig even deeper and have stuck to English Barleywines. Or maybe i'd have isolated one Stateside region. Someday, i will set about that task for sure. I could only imagine 20 aged English style barleywines all in a winter's work. Maybe i should start a wish list.

In all, I went with what i could get my paws on and didn’t do too shabby of a job.I wasn't going to let a dinky bit of cold air stand in my way, so i started off in Chicago with the Illinois Craft Brewer's Guild at their 5th Annual Wood & Barrel Aged Beer Festival and later caught a great list of vintage bottles at Teresa's Next Door.

So, the list…no order, no ranking. JW Lee owns you clowns. Started at the fest in November of ’07 and finished at Craft Beer Fest in Philly on March 1st ’08.

1. Three Floyds Behemoth (aged on wood w/ cherries)
2. JW Lee’s ‘99
3. JW Lee’s ‘00
4. JW Lee’s ‘05
5. JW Lee’s ’06 (Port)
6. JW Lee’s ’06 (Calavados)
7. JW Lee’s ’06 (Lagavulin)
8. Rogue Old Crusty 2004
9. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot ‘06
10. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot ‘07
11. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot ‘08
12. Green Flash Barleywine
13. Arcadia Cereal Killer
14. Great Divide Old Ruffian
15. Stoudt’s Old Abominable
16. Anchor Old Foghorn
17. Victory Old Horizontal
18. Stone Old Guardian
19. Rock Art Ridge Runner
20. Rock Art Vermonster

I've got a big project going for spring that i just started in celebration of old world brewing seasons, more on that when i check in sometime in spring / summer. So stay tuned. Read more!

Catching the Bug

Very interesting conversation going on here. It's Stan Heironymous' blog, if you are not familiar with Mr. H, there's plenty to get familiar with. Read the quote then click into the comments to read it all.

A bunch of guys who write about beer writing about writing about beer. Jack Curtin linked to it after commenting, now i am doing the same. I think there's a lot of good opinion being thrown around here and if you're the kind of person that reads a lot of beer press this is a cool chance to see some pretty big names in conversation mode rather than article mode. Read more!

Pulling up to Dock Street and Nodding his Head in Triumph - Joe Sixpack's Philly Beer Week Interview

Don Russell, the man known as Joe Sixpack deserves a break. He was a key organizer for that swaddled newborn: Philly Beer Week, he played the role of golden boy as he and his book were everywhere for the 10 day toast, and he's been one of Philly's favorite voices for decades. What started as a big precursor during the hype and anticipation of Beer Week got lost somewhere between CNN, WIP, and MSNBC, so now that all the big boys have had their way with him The Grain Bill is back to get Joe Sixpack's take on Philly Beer Week. The Draught Lines cover model emerged, liver and equilibrium restored, to talk Beer Week via email.


Joe Sixpack 03/20/08

How exciting was it for you, as long as you have been in town and as involved as you have been with its bars, drinkers, and citizens in general, to have the kick off event at the first ever Philly Beer Week?

The kickoff reminded me of my wedding day. You work for months planning the whole thing, then on the big day everything is such a rush, you don’t even get to taste the cake. In my case, that meant I missed about half of the 20-plus beers that were pouring. But the event was a blast. I was proud as hell to have so many beer fans enjoying all of these great beers. Plus, Mayor Nutter was an absolute star, tapping that first keg. To me, it was recognition that Philly is, indeed, America’s best beer-drinking city.


How did you choose your venue, The Marketplace at East Falls?

We had bounced around with several venues. But I’d visited the marketplace last year before it had opened and it was obvious the place would make a great site for a beer fest. Jeff & Lisa Baskins, who operate the place, were a little nervous going into the event because they’d never done a festival before. But Chris DePeppe, Andy Calimano, Ken Correll of Shackamaxon Catering and all of the marketplace’s great vendors came through. It turned out to be the perfect place, and they’ve invited us to do it again next year.


The tap list was a far cry from flagships and standards. What were you trying to say about the craft beers of the area with your list of beers?

I chose each of the beers because they’re among my personal favorites. But more importantly, I was trying to speak to Philly’s diversity. We had everything from pilsner to lambic, although looking back on it, there were probably to many bocks. That just happens to be one of my favorite styles.


What can you say about your other events? A lot, I’m sure. What were some highlights for you from the point of view of event host?

My single favorite event outside of my own was the brewers pub crawl in Center City on Wednesday night. I only caught up to the end of it at McGillin’s, but it was a blast. Seeing Casey Hughes in his Steve Mashington t-shirt was a riot, and McGillin’s owner Chris Mullins couldn’t wipe the smile off his face, he was having such a great time. Otherwise, the highlight for me was getting word on how crowded all of the events were. We had over 230 events, and some cynics were saying that was too many, that everyone would be fighting for patrons. Nonsense. The lines were out the door at many locations. Next year, we’ll have even more.

What else were you up to when you weren’t at your own events?

Unfortunately, I was suffering from this lousy cold that seemed to be sweeping the city. Most of my work was done BEFORE the week. Between promoting the week plus my new book, I think I did about 1 dozen TV and radio interviews, and several reporters got the bright idea that it would make a good story to go drinking with Joe Sixpack. So Philly Beer Week lasted about two straight months for me.


Do you think many Philadelphians are walking away from Beer Week with a new buying agenda? Was new interest in craft beer a focus during your planning or was it more about serving those in the know?

I sure as hell hope so. Primarily, I wanted Philadelphia to take pride in its beer scene. In addition to discovering the beer, people were exposed to the city’s unparalleled tavern scene. Most people discover different varieties of beer for themselves, but they need a little nudge to check out a new joint. Hopefully, PBW introduced them to a few new places.

How much did you have to work with the city on Beer Week and how much of a help were they? You had Michael Nutter in pocket, so it couldn’t have been that tough…right?

Most of our work was with the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corp. which is a quasi-governmental agency. I’ve been talking to them for more than two years about promoting beer, and they absolutely get it. We’re hoping to attract more involvement from tourism agencies at the state and local level. As for the mayor, I’ve known him for about 10 or 12 years, and I was very hopeful he’d agree to tap the first keg. But I didn’t get final word on that till 10 days before the event.


The timing of many things, Philadelphia Brewing Company’s first round of beers, Sly Fox / William Reed’s Standard Ale, Joe Sixpack’s Philly Beer Guide, just seemed to work out perfectly in conjunction with Philly Beer Week. Do you think Beer Week will give breweries a bit of a deadline in rolling new beers out in the future? I mean Standard Ale was brewed specifically for Beer Week, the possibilities could be endless.

Amazing, huh? Don’t forget, we also managed to pull four major festivals together over two weekends. Personally I was astonished that you could put 10 beer drinkers in the same room and they’d agree on anything. Some of that was happy coincidence, and some was hard work. But I’m hopeful that now that we have a track record, we’ll also be able to be a bit more organized. But not too organized – the chaos is kind of fun.

Anyone who drinks in Philadelphia knows that it is the best beer city in America. What sort of impact are you hoping to make by putting this fact on the cover of your book?

Look, I’ve been a newsman for 30 years, the past 20 at a tabloid. I know one thing: controversy sells newspapers. Make a ballsy claim and you’ll have a bunch of people trying to shoot you down, sure, but you’ll sell some books, too. The thing is: Philly has the nuts. It’s not just opinion, we proved we are the best beer-drinking city in America.


A man cannot possibly write such a comprehensive guide with Google alone. Will there be a book that’s even more fun to research and compose than Philly Beer Guide in the Joe Sixpack cannon?

Coming this fall: Merry Christmas Beers: The World's Cheeriest, Tastiest and Most Unusual Beers of Christmas (Rizzoli USA). It’s the first ever book on Xmas beer.

During the Michael Jackson Tasting at Penn last weekend, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “What would Beer Week be like if Michael were here?” Maybe you could help answer that question.

I actually spoke to that during one of the sessions at the tasting. We might’ve been able to pull off a big beer fest, but it would be absent the diversity of beer styles. That’s the number one thing I think Michael gave us: a recognition of so many different types of beer. And I think it’s the one thing Philly has that no other city in the world can match: pure diversity.

Is it too early to tell how much of a success Philly Beer Week was? It seems like many of the events sold out. I know Tria had an outstanding week and many of the pub reports I’ve heard have all been very positive.

We’re surveying all the participants, asking them for feedback on attendance, etc. I’ve heard of only one event that was canceled, stupidly, and that was 2 weeks before PBW even started. The venue, out in the suburbs, was afraid it wasn’t selling enough tickets. Big mistake.
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Everywhere I wanted to be, they were...

Heard of the Brew Lounge? Probably. The expansive beer blog is one of a few great sources for Philly Beer stuff. I think we only had one event of crossover during all of Philly Beer Week, so their coverage is way different than mine. Check them out, i just sat and read all of the PBW coverage in one shot (49 minutes, thankyouverymuch). Today is the day i try to figure out how to put links to other blogs on my blog. Read more!

Michael at the Museum, Fermentation at the Fountains

Saturday was my last big bang for Philly Beer Week this year, Sunday was all about family and putting my new kitchen to the test. Real Ale Festival sounds like it was great, i can only imagine based on the list of beers that were available.

Things started off at the Penn Museum of Archeology for the 19th Annual Tutored Tasting, this year dedicated to the legacy of the Beer Hunter, Mr. Michael Jackson. I got there a bit later than i would usually ever get to anything (i beleive i have previously mentioned my super powers in this regard), but still managed to get a seat betwixt some nice folks pretty close to the front. The panel was announced, the beers were announced, and the chatter began.

From left:
Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head)
Don Russell (Joe Sixpack)
Tom Dalldorf (Editor/Publisher: Celebrator Magazine)



From left:
Andover Arms Ale (Nodding Head)
Saison Dupont (Brasserie Dupont)
Old Companion (Pike Brewing)
Smooth Hoperator (Stoudt's)
Oatmeal Stout (Samuel Smith)
Three Philosophers (Ommegang)
Palo Santo Marron (Dogfish Head)



It got noisy in the room in a hurry the moment people had to start pouring beers for each other. There was a lot of discussion around me about the beers themselves, which is great to hear people doing, but there happened to be a really great discussion going on in the front of the room by the panel at the same time.

For the most part i was able to hear the tutoring and they had some really great things to say about Michael and how each beer in the list related to his life and his work.


The trio was very quick to mention that Michael believed in drinking a beer in it's proper setting, that being pulled from a cask while sitting in a pub. Sam, Don, and Tom had many things to say about who Michael was as a person and how that can be seen and learned from in his writings.

It was remarkable to learn about his impact on brewing culture and brewing industry and hearing the stories behind his impact on the survival of styles like Saison and Oatmeal Stout made the event feel like a true dedication to his life's work.

Afterwards there was a great pouring of about 150 more beers in the museum's rotunda. Sam was pouring, Rob Tod was pouring, Scott Baver was pouring, Tom Peters was pouring, the list goes on and on. Some serious pours going on as well...Nodding Head Berliner to name just one. A great 2 hour session sent me on my way to my next destination: Tria.

Well...not without a few stops along the way. First stop Grace Tavern, then to Monk's for a pre-class sip and basket of frites. Met up with Philly's premier frite connoisseur and we built a base for the amazing tasting that would follow.



This is Armand Debelder:



Armand represents the 2nd generation of Drie Fontein (Three Fountains) Brouwerij in Beersel, Belgium. He hosted a very lucky classroom full of people with Dan Shelton at his side for Tria's final beer week event. He brought along with him 10 lambics for tasting, some pulled from barrels and bottled up specifically for his Beer Week events.

Armand spoke softly, but passionately about how he produces lambic and how much of a truly gentle process it is. Drinking lambic can be as much of a delicate activity as producing it Armand explains, "There is always mystery in making lambic, you have to admit that. You have to live with that. I am very proud that my father taught me to taste first, that is the most important part: Tasting."

Armand has forgone further education on the subject of lambic so as not to lose any of the teachings of his father. His approach to lambic makes the beer very personal, for him as the producer, for his region as producers, and for lambic as a product that decides as much for itself what it will taste like moreso than maybe a brewer ever could.

"It is very complex fermentation, if we try to do something we cannot do it. It is necessary that you learn the quality, you have to discover taste."

Seeing Armand, a man who had never been to America before Philly Beer Week, come in and captivate a room was just simply incredible. It was my assumption that he and Dan Shelton would bounce ideas back and forth and that Shelton would act as a moderator in some way, but Armand took center stage and didn't come up for air until more than 2 hours later. Speaking with him afterwards was not unlike speaking with any of the countless other brewers i spoke to since two Fridays ago, same passion for beer, same excitement about everyone coming together for Philly Beer Week, same inpsiration through simple conversation.



At Joe Sixpack's Philly Favorites 11 days ago, something very special began. A community of people that transcends every mortal difference between man came together to celebrate something so different than it's common perception. We came to drink beer, we didn't bring clydesdales, we didn't bring some mutt, we didn't bring the twins: we brought history, we brought passion, and we brought togetherness to the greatest beer drinking city in America. We invited our neighbors and we told our friends: Philly Beer Week has arrived!

I realized this during my last beer in the city for Philly Beer Week (Maharaja....in a pint glass) sitting with Ryan of the Shawn, King of all things Frite & Agave, and Katie, Queen of the Frites that sometimes something can be so good that you have to surrender all inhibition and manners to it and just lick the plate clean.








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