Crosstown Scratching

Existing in Pennsylvania as a beer drinker, whether you drink the greatest American craft beers, the far flung imports, or the mega-industrial yellow lagers, you are, for the most part, resigned to buying cases. Cases are a great way to get really, really familiar with a beer because you’re not just chancing a six-pack, you’re invested in the mother of all cartons- the 24-pack. It can get to be a bit laborious, space consuming, and expensive if you’re the type of folk that enjoys quite a bit of variety.

Adapting and evolving as we have, many buyers of great beer and their beer drinking friends have taken to splitting cases or trading beers from one case to another to get more variety for their buck. This allows folks with some semblance of a budget to get their hands on beers that they’d otherwise have to shell out for 24 bottles of. In some instances and when the law permits, you have to go directly to the source to get your beer as is the case with the Troegs Scratch Beer Series.

Go ahead and

The brothers Trogner got their start with a plan and a whole lot of studying. They figured out what they wanted to brew, how they wanted to brew, and under what working conditions they wanted to both brew and distribute it. Along the way they made plenty of batches of homebrew and test beers as they began to build their craft beer empire.

As a 10th Anniversary project and treat for their fans, Troegs began to run single batch releases of their early recipes a little over a year ago. These beers have been fun and interesting with some ripe for the picking right away and others that warrant a bit of time in the cellar to catch up with themselves. Runs of each beer have been in the neighborhood of 200 cases and limited kegs. Get the full rundown here.

While I’ve tasted quite a few, I haven’t had a chance to taste them all. They’ve all been very exciting beers, but keeping up hasn’t been easy due to Harrisburg being where it is and me being where I am. Most recently, the Grand Cru finished me off at the Goat Races, while The Flying Mouflan, a Nugget Nectar inspired barleywine, has taken top honors for me. The Tripels have been really, really good too.

Now that brings us to my fridge. I have a lot of good stuff in there…more now because I’ve been shuffling beers out of their cases and boxes and into the ice box since I live on the top floor of a very old house. It gets hot in there and I like my beer in tip top shape, so there’s quite the traffic jam piling up on my top shelf. Way back at October’s end I scored a six-pack of Scratch 5, the oatmeal stout.

Gone are the days when the ox fall down, he’d take up the yoke and plow the fields around.

Troegs Oatmeal Stout was one of those beers that spent some time on their seasonal list and unfortunately fell by the wayside. I’m glad to have gotten my share back in the day and now I have 3 bottles of this Imperialized version left to enjoy. I stuck mine all in the fridge, but will gladly trade a cold one for a warm one to anyone interested in stopping by. I would love to put one of these in my satellite cellar in Pottstown.

Here’s the skinny:

“Scratch Beer #5-2007
Sold Out
Release Date: Saturday, October 27th
Inspiration: Imperial Oatmeal Stout

O.G.: 23 Plato
A.B.V.: 9.6%
I.B.U.’s: 55
Malts: Dark Crystal, Chocolate, Roast, Oats
Hops: Magnum, German Northern Brewers, Palisade

Enjoy this as a token of our appreciation. With the demise of Tröegs Oatmeal Stout, this long-forgotten recipe serves as an inspiration and a heartfelt thanks to our faithful stout fans.

What’s special here? We start with a seductive malty sweetness, combine it with hints of chocolate and roasted flavors and round out the texture and taste with a healthy helping of oats. A three-hop blend brings perfect balance to the sweet malt adding a dry finish to this big beer.”

So I decided last night was certainly as good as any to crack one of these guys open. It was a little green for me back in October, so I let the rest lie for a while. I knew that my case mates, Bryan and Dave also had theirs around so I put in the phone calls and decided we’d have a solo tasting with a discussion to follow this morning. Bryan was on board, but Dave found out too late and couldn’t play ball.

We both got chocolate and roast in the beer way in the back, but the big time flavor going on here was fruity esters. The beer started out pretty big around 1.096 and the taste wasn’t of straight heat and alcohol burn, which put the esters in a good role. There’s was definitely a bit of heat, but at 9.6% I’d say that’s gonna be a tough one to avoid.

We both found the reddish hue interesting. It is something common in dark beers that’s not always perceivable to the skinny dipping eye, but this picture kind of surprised me…and yes, I realize I need to dust. I didn’t touch this picture up at all and the lamp behind the glass has a somewhat thick shade, so you’re not seeing the result of an exposed bulb.



In all, this was a lot of fun to drink. I wish I’d have gotten bottles to the cellar before the heat came, because I would love to crack one of these open sometime this fall to get the one year treatment. I’m wondering if a certain bottle shop owner is thinking the same thing, I’ll have to check in. Heck, I could eat crab legs or scrounge for Southampton leftovers and Ithaca newbies.

PLEASE NOTE:

“Scratch Beer #12-2008 Update
Scratch Beer 12-2008—IPA—will be released on Saturday, June 21. Here are the vital statistics:

O.G.: 15.5 Plato
A.B.V.: 6.5%
I.B.U.’s: 75
Malt: Pils, Vienna
Yeast: Thames Valley Ale
Hops: Amarillo, Warrior, Mt. Hood

If you want a sneak preview of Scratch 12-2008, head to either Drafting Room location on Thursday, June 19, for the release of Drafting Room 14th Anniversary Ale—it’s the same beer.”

Looks like a stop at The Drafting Room will be in order on the way to the normal Thursday stop at the sock hop. Hop sock?
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Let's Just Talk About Food For A Minute

I posted a quote from Brewmaster's Table in my scribblings about a Victory beer dinner a little while back and i am finding that it really, really rings true.

The jist, if you didn't click over, is that sometimes we get too wrapped up in the day to day operations of life to concentrate on a good meal. Sometimes we have to eat just to fuel up and don't get to sit down and really enjoy something.

This has been happening to me lately, i honestly don't know why, but i've been running around quite a bit during my prime kitchen hours and haven't been cooking nearly as much as i want to.

So here's where my head is at. I've been discovering all types of foods that i'd just never had before over the past few years. The more i read, the more i poke my head into different restaurants, etc the more i end up getting exposed to, as anyone would. I've been watching No Reservations too, so that has certainly opened my eyes (and in many cases my stomach...but not all).

So maybe it is ironic between gourmet Indian cuisine, traditional Indian fare, Thai, and getting over my fear of scallops (thank you Andy Dickerson) that what i've found myself getting into from a food shopping and meal prepping aspect has been food that is so much more simple and in many cases so much more plain. It's not laziness, i know at least that much. I love to let the hours slip away over the stove with a couple records playing.

I've made some connections with, of all things, traditional English cuisine. A long and winding story i'd tell you over a pint would reveal a novel i started writing sometime during college. At times the words poured out of me, but in other spells i would force sentences out one by one. I was overthinking something i didn't know how to properly execute and its ended up as chapters and notes and ideas on a computer disk.

But the place is very much like the portrayals of Olde England and port towns and villages i'd seen in books and cartoons growing up. They stuck, don't know why. Bustling cobblestone streets, voices all muddled together as people sell their wares in an open air market set up in an alley, fat red-faced men laughing as they sip from tin goblets, buskers that resemble The Band trying to make a pound on some corner.


This food falls right in line with that. Although not connected by geography, the writings of Dylan Thomas have always connected me to that same unconcious place. Whether it be men doing the devil's work or a simple rousing night on the town, Thomas would frequently takes us to a room full of characters deep into the night's allowance, with a watchful landlord presiding over the action.

The image in my mind was always one with a necessity for simplicity and these foods certainly represent that. Many derived more from an approach of 'What do we have left?' than anything else, this food has stayed very much the same for hundreds of years. It is easy to picture it served in a pub on a dull, rainy day just the same as i see it laid out in the hearth warmed kitchen of an English farmhouse. The dishes alone can blur the lines of time. I think that is a huge part of why i am drawn to it.


What am i eating you ask? Right now stuff that's easy to prepare. I've got a lot to learn in the kitchen, but these meals are as much a therapeutic touch as anything else really. They taste great, of course, but they're a transporter and that is really important.

The Ploughman's Lunch:

A lot of people believe this is a meal with a manufactured history, that's fine, i'll bite. The idea behind the meal is that it's a simple offering of goods a ploughman could take from home in a sack and unwrap and enjoy at midday right in the fields. You've got a nice chunk of English cheese, bread, pickle, tomato, and maybe some pickled onions and bit of mustard. There are variations, i've certainly added and subtracted for my own, but for such a raw, bits and pieces meal you really get to enjoy a lot of different tastes and flavors without eating a whole lot.

Toad In The Hole:

Basically it's sausage baked in Yorkshire pudding with gravy on top. I'm still working out an English ale gravy recipe, but this is easy to prep and easy to make and will fill you up in a hurry. Talk around the lunch table has involved tossing some veggies into the batter, so i may go in that direction next time around.

Bangers and Mash:

Of course. Sausages over mashed potatoes, gravy over everything. So simple, so delicious. There's a pub down the street from me with bangers on the menu and i ducked in during a snow storm over the winter and it was absolute perfection. Too messy to drive to work, not messy enough to keep the town out of the bars. Seems to be a theme every winter.

The English Breakfast:

Eat your heart out. Most everything is fried up in the full English Breakfast and that's just fine with me. Eggs, meat (sausage please), tomatoes, baked beans, fried bread, black pudding. Pile it on and pile it high boys.

Now i have never had black pudding, but i think i'm ready to try. It's not nearly as frightening as it might seem at the onset. What's the saying? Use everything but the squeal? I buy into that at the time being.

What to drink? There's no way to turn your back on the classic and obvious choices here. There are certainly a great number of American craft beers that would serve up well here...Brooklyn Brown was my beer for my first stab at Toad In The Hole, but let's remain in traditional form here.

I am very partial to the Brewery at Tadcaster, the Samuel Smith line of outstanding British Ales. This is due in part because i learned about many styles of British beer by way of their products. In the necks of the woods i was drinking beer in when i was learning about Porter, Oatmeal Stout, English IPA, and Nut Brown Ale, Sammy Smith was what as available. Thank you for your hard work Mr. Finkel.

Samuel Smith

Not to be a single-dimensional or brand loyal consumer, i've got to celebrate other good beers and breweries here who are owed their due. Fuller's is widely available and worth your while, the ESB and London Porter are all over the place. I've yet to try Adnam's and with rosy cheeks i'll admit to still not having experienced Old Speckled Hen or at least not since its meant anything anyway. Bitters and milds, bitters and milds, bitters and milds.

Fuller's
Adnams
Morland's
Conniston's
CAMRA Just because.

So there you have it, a lot of words about something really simple. That's exactly how i feel about this food though so it serves me right for opening my big mouth.

Cheers.


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Blind Pilots: We Love To Taste and It Shows

So i'd say the first tasting at my new place went well. If you forgot the deal, this is the deal. Time, responsibility and what clear headedness remained in the room grounded Flight Great Divide before it even hit the tarmac. We got to do all of the blind stuff though. The tasting panel was a perfect combination of tasting experience, beer geekery, a fiancé full of adjectives, and a man who is actually allergic to Barleywine. In all we tasted twelve beers in four flights, took notes, discussed and had a fun time.



To see the list and recap,

Round 1 – Malt’s Got Your Tongue

1. Penant Ale ’55 (English Pale Ale) – Brooklyn Brewery (retired beer)
2. Palo Santo Marron (unfiltered Brown Ale) – Dogfish Head
3. Firth of Forth (Scottish Ale) – Harpoon 100 Barrel Series

Round 2 – Cool Ship, Rocket Man

1. Collaboration Not Litigation (blend of Golden and Dark Ales) – Avery / Russian River
2. Oude Geuze – 3 Fontein
3. Oerbier Special Reserva ’06 (Oud Bruin) – De Dolle

-- pallate cleanser --

Round 3 – Out of the Basement

1. Racer 5 IPA – Bear Republic Brewing Co.
2. Green Flash Barleywine – Green Flash Brewing Co.
3. Old Curmudgeon (Old Ale) – Founders Brewing Co.

Round 4 – Knock Your Lights Out

1. Lion Stout (Export Stout) – Ceylon / Lion Brewery
2. Morimoto Hazelnut Ale (Brown Ale) – Rogue Brewing
3. Nor’Easter (Barrel Aged Strong Ale) – Captain Lawrence Brewing



Most interesting for me was watching people taste real lambic for the first time. For the second week in a row i have shared (last week Cantillon Broucsella and this week Fontein Oude Gueze) a beer with some serious pucker action to see a friend give the lemon face, but then comment minutes later that they could see themselves getting into a beer like this. I think it speaks a lot about the style. Despite a sour or a lambic’s bold taste up front, there is an earthiness that people are able to connect with surprisingly quickly. Wild beers can be a bit of a shock, so it was very cool to have someone (the feelings were certainly not unanimous) understand the beauty there, it made the inclusion of Drie Fontein definitely worth it.



I had the added thrill of knowing what people were tasting as they were trying to figure it out and waiting to see the bottles, but for me just sitting and discussing with everyone was the biggest highlight. Making people taste and formulate opinions on beer with no preconceived ideas about the style or brewery was extremely interesting. It was great to see people look at three beers and make strong decisions about them, casting aside beers made by highly rated breweries because they just didn’t stack up to other beers in the flight.

I'll definitely be doing another one of these again soon. Maybe each pilot brings a flight so we all get to go blind next time. I'm up for suggestions.

Thanks to Mike Romando at Cheese! for a great 3 year cheddar which we enjoyed after the beer.

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Flying Blind, A Tasting At My Place

To commemorate my first full week in my new, solo, apartment, i am hosting a beer tasting. Nothing major, nothing fancy, more of a scientific experiment on my part than anything else. 5 Guests, plus myself, all with varying degrees of knowledge and appreciation for beer. Tasting blind, taking notes, discussing, and unknowingly pulling me out of my newfound depression. It's gonna be awesome.

To see the specs,

-=Blind Pilot's Flight Night=-

Friday, February 29th @ 8 PM
157 Main St. Apt #3
Phoenixville, PA 19460
($5 Donation Appreciated)

A night of blind tastings with notes and discussion. Four flights of three beers each, linked by theme not necessarily by style.

Flight #1 - Malt's Got Your Tongue
Flight #2 - Cool Ship, Rocketman

-- palette cleanser --

Flight #3 - Get Out of My Basement
Flight #4 - Knock Your Lights Out

Snack Break:

Crackers
Reserve Cheddar
Pub Pretzels with Jalapeno Raspberry Jam

Flight #5 - Red Eye Nightcap, Flying Over The Great Divide

If you weren't on the invite list for this one, don't fret it's a pilot round (ahh the plane jokes). These things can only get better and if you do want to come to a future event, just shoot me an email and i'll let you know the what, whens, and wheres.

Pics and the actual list of beers this weekend. Most likely Sunday, as i will be at Craft Beer Fest on Saturday trying to drum up a donation for the brewers. Read more!

Quick Tasting Note - Nutfield Old Man Ale

I am waiting on some really good stuff to be returned to me (content wise), so until then all i have for you is my tasting notes for. Nutfield's Old Man Ale.

Nutfield's Old Man Ale - Portland, Maine 12 oz.

I'd love to taste a fresh one of these. My bottle may have floated a bit before it got to me as I can get just a whiff of lost love in the hops department. Still a good beer that I could certainly stand more than one of. On the upside what was left in the aroma was spicy hops (hello Tett) and a bit of yeast. They used Ringwood and this thing was butter free and ready for drinking. Due to age it was a bit off in the mouth, but i can tell a fresh one of these has to have a nice fruity finish.

On the downs, it was actually a bit chewy for a beer with just a faint amber hue to it. Maybe more chewy because the hops jumped ship a while ago. Definitely some cloying going on and a serious honey thing happening in the aftertaste. That could really be used to its advantage at the dinner table. If i am ever up in Portland not trying to shove a wine thief into Rob Tod's Lambic (i'll admit that does sound wierd), then i will give these guys a shot. I could get a true to form Road Soda.

For the brewer in you:

O.G. 1.055 - F.G. 1.015 - Alcohol 5.0%

Grains
Pale Malt
Crystal Wheat
Caramalt
Malted Wheat

Hops
Willamette
Tettnang
Mt Hood

Yeast
Ringwood

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Tasting Notes - '96 Kriek and Goat Cheese

Ok people, tasting time.

Last night i enjoyed a Cantillon Kriek bottled in 1996 along with Drunken Goat and Humboldt Fog cheeses.

Cantillon Kriek '96
Brasserie Cantillon- Brussels, Belgium
750 mL in a Lindeman's flute

Drunken Goat / Murcia Al Vino
Wine Soaked Goat Cheese aged 30-45 days after wine - Murcia, Spain

Humboldt Fog
Surface ripened soft Goat Cheese. Cypress Grove Chevre - Arcata, CA

Everything after the pour was a complete surprise to me. I expected a much deeper color to the Lambic, maybe something murky and crimson, but no, this was a clear beer that almost had more of an amber hue than the red i was waiting for. Slight head in the flute that was gobbling itself up as the bubbles met the oxygen after rushing to the surface.

The head settled and fell away pretty quickly despite the ton of bubbles rushing up from the bottom of my glass. The aroma had that trickyness spontaneous beers seem to have for me. Unless there is a ton of funk in the nose it's really hard to tell if you're going to get something sweet or something acidic and tart.

Now with this guy bottled in '96 that means the cherries went into it in 1995 at the earliest, right? I wasn't expecting these cherries to hang for 13 years. At first it appeared as though they didn't. More gueze like than anything else, i was relishing this beer despite no real cherry presence.

As it warmed though and i sipped a bit as i had my first bite of Drunken Goat for the night everything changed. The creaminess from the cheese and the acidity and complex flavor of the beer made the cherries pop. WOW.

What a match, i am definitely going to try the Spanish goat on some more lambics and see how it does. A really solid cheese, for me this one is great by itself but it really stands well in a pairing, it has a great flavor...i mean the goats snack on wild herbs as they graze, so there's gotta be a little magic in there somewhere.

Where the wine soaked cheese really worked was in its subtlety, a lambic in general is going to take the driver's seat, so when it came time to pair up with Humboldt Fog there wasn't quite enough room for everyone.

Humboldt Fog is an amazing cheese. It's gooey, runny outer edge is barely contained by a cavey looking rind while a stark white softness is split by vegetal ash straight through the center. It's a beautiful cheese, it takes command when it's in your mouth and does a bang up job.

Paired with the acidity and faint cherry taste coming through the now warmed Kriek i was just having trouble putting the two together. Beer works harmoniously with food in a great way, but i think i was smashing together too many decibels for my own good.

Maybe it's just that i absolutely love Humboldt Fog and didn't want anything getting in it's way. I dunno.

Drunken Goat will definitely be a standard in my pairing arsenal while Humboldt Fog will be a cheese i use to impress (or hoard for myself). Read more!