Fermented Adventures

In the past couple of years it seems as if there have been a number of beers brewed for products or as promotional tools. Here on this site we featured the New York Comic-Con beer that Brooklyn Brewery made and the Game of Thrones beer from Ommegang. In that vein, Cigar City Brewing is making a beer for the band GWAR. Sounds like it will be a pale ale of some kind. I’m not a GWAR fan, but I generally like the Cigar City beers that I’ve tried.

If anyone gets hold of any, let us know.

I love when previously unavailable beer makes its way to the NYC area. Looks like Shiner Bock will be appearing there soon. I don’t know that I love Shiner Bock, but I did spend some time in Austin at a convention some years back and it formed the backbone of my beer drinking there and it will always be special because of that. In fact, we cleaned the hotel out of Shiner Bock by Sunday. No more left. Shiner Bock enthusiasts in the NYC area, rejoice.

This article on Adweek talks about how big beer companies are trying to dress up some of their beer lines like craft beer. I find it amusing that these huge businesses are trying to cash in on the fact that craft beer is increasing in popularity. It also strikes me as slimy. It feels like they’re trying to trick people 

Me hitting the floral aromas a little too hard at Bell’s Eccentric Cafe, Kalamazoo, MI, courtesy of @erin_meyers.

I’ve needed to get this off my chest for awhile. A bee in my bonnet, so to speak.

Mead is at long last becoming a popular thing in the US, growing in the same way cider has been growing, particularly at brewpubs and among craft brewers in regions otherwise known for prowess in the fermenting arts. The trouble–as with cider, only worse because mead hasn’t had Strongbow and Woodchuck holding it up commercially for the last ten years–is that nobody knows a damn thing about it. Including, it seems to me, a lot of the people brewing it.

Mead is, or should be, a wonderful thing, sublime I dare say, magical even. Mead can be complex with rich mouthfeel like a port, but lighter-bodied and prettier. It can smell delicate and amazing, like all the flowers in the honey it was made from. It can send both palate and pate into flights of hyperbolic fantasy unknown since the age of bards and heroes.

Or it can be sickly-sweet, cough-syrupy, overpowered and unbalanced with ridiculous, unnecessary additives by well-intentioned brewers who as best I can understand don’t actually know what mead is supposed to taste like.

What’s it supposed to taste like? Continue Reading →

A tasty beer with an odd name.  The Dogfish Head website explains the rot as “botrytis, a noble rot that reduces the water content in the grapes while magnifying their sweetness and complexity”, to which they add pinot gris must, another ingredient and process that one would expect to find in a wine’s production, but not a beer’s.  Noble Rot has aspects of a pilsner, but is more firmly in set in the wheat aspect of the beer world.  It’s light, bubbly, with grape on the finish.  It’s the only beer I’ve had that truly reminds me of a sparkling white wine, or even champagne, with it’s tart finish and heavier carbonation than one would expect.  Very light, refreshing, and full-flavored.

Fans of wheat beers, sparkling white wines, and ciders will really like this.  I’m a huge fan.  My wife, who likes beers, but LOVES wine, said this is one of the best beers she’s tasted in a long time.

I haven’t seen this anywhere in the Northeast on tap yet, it may only be so at the Dogfish brew pubs further south, but the 750ml bottles have been spotted in several of the local shops, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find.

Highly recommended!

As my initial post on the Fermented Adventures site, I thought I’d taste a few of the pumpkin selections that are out this season.  I honestly can’t remember there being so many pumpkin flavored beers in the past, but maybe it’s that old case of never noticing until you really go to look for it.

A brief introduction: I’m a writer living in the New York City area; Hoboken, New Jersey, specifically (and that’s the reason that I didn’t get this posted before Halloween as I’d hoped, we in Hoboken have had a hell of a few weeks thanks to hurricane Sandy).  I started drinking beer in my early twenties, when, as a young lad in the United States Navy, I realized that a Budweiser was a heck of a lot cheaper than a Rum and Coke, and I could therefore get drunker faster and cheaper on inexpensive beer.  Needless to say, those days did NOT start my appreciation of good beer.

My current fascination with beer started several years back.  My wife and I love northern California wine country, and with several trips out there tasting great wines, and at the same time having developed a taste for good tequila, I began to think that perhaps beers had progressed as well.  I started paying more attention in bars around the city.  Most places you can get Sam Adams, Duvel, Smithwicks, Guiness, etc., which are all fine, but I dug a bit further, and with help from others, including Raj of this website, I found places that cater to really good beers: Dogfish Head, German lagers in bottles so old they’re covered in dust, and craft brews imported from all over, including the same wine country in Northern California that produces the wine I love.  I’ve built of a nice little collection of beer in the past year — and drank a good chunk of it in the dark here over the past two weeks — and I have to say that beer has come a long way from Coors and Bud and Miller. And I couldn’t be happier about it.

Pumpkin

I bought four different types, invited over my friends, and they and my wife gave them a whirl.  Our likes and dislikes were universal, the notes on the flavors and scents are mostly mine.

Roy Pitz. Icabod’s Midnight Ride. Belgian style ale. 6.5%

Roy Pitz is the best brewery you’ve never heard of. I wouldn’t know about them if I wasn’t a Civil War nut that regularly makes trips to Gettysburg.  Located 30 minutes west of Gettysburg, in Chambersburg, this place has only been around a few years and is doing amazing stuff.

Icabod’s is light in color and palate, slight pumpkin spice and hints of candy and actual pumpkin, very light sweetness on the finish.  No bitterness at all.  As the employees at Roy Pitz say, theirs are all “Beers first” and any flavors are subtle and mere enhancements to their beers, not the main focus.  Love this beer.

Sam Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale. 5.7%

This one is strong on the pumpkin, both in taste and on the nose.  The beer itself is dark and just a little smoky, which is nice, but it’s overpowered by the “canned pumpking pie mix” taste that overpowers  all else.  Bitter on finish.  I think that if this was the only thing out there, then I’d be easier on my judgement of this particular brew — I do find their October Fest and other styles agreeable — but I’m just not a fan of this one.

Dogfish Head, Punkin’ Ale. 7%

Dogfish is my favorite “hey, I can usually get that and not have to drive four hours to do it” brewery.  I generally like everything they produce, and the Punkin Ale is no exception.  Golden caramel color.  Taste of light pumpkin, candy, nutmeg and cinnamon; especially cinnamon on the nose.  Slightly bitter on hops, but in a good way, mellowed by the overall flavor of caramel, but it isn’t sweet at all.  The alcohol is apparent in the taste of this one.  Overall a really nice brew.

River Horse Hipp-O-Lantern Pumpkin Ale, 8.1%

Dark and somewhat cloudy, pumpkin and molasses on nose, along with slight chocolate.  The taste is heavier than the others in this list, the thickness of the molasses comes through, with chocolate and cinnamon holding their own with the pumpkin.  Light on alcohol taste.  Very nice.

Of the four above, the Roy Pitz is easily my favorite.  Roy Pitz just does phenomenal beers (if you can ever get their Ludwig’s Revenge or Watermelon beer, DO IT!), and this one is no exception.  Since most people can’t get their product, unfortunately, I’ll give the “you should go and buy this” nod to the River Horse.  It’s very close to the Dogfish Head in flavor and drinkability, but the slightly cloudy look and lower alcohol on the taste (even though it has higher alcohol content), gave it just a bit of an edge over the Dogfish.  The Sam Adams just isn’t my thing, and it comes in last.  The pumpkin is too forced, overpowering, and just didn’t fit with the beer.

An honorable mention not on this list goes to Weyerbacker’s pumpkin offering.  It’s unique, sweet, strong on pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and just tastes like a slice of pumpkin pie.  I don’t think I could drink a whole six pack of it due to the sweetness, but it’s great to have one for dessert after dinner.

Fermented Adventures was well represented at World Fantasy Convention in Toronto this past weekend. As you can imagine, we went at it in earnest, like the semipro drinkers…er, writers…we are.

I bought and saved up beers over a couple months until I had 24 bottles of really good Michigan beer. I muled it (legally) over international lines. Then Scott, Raj and I and a crowd of other writers sampled and shared them all weekend alongside Toronto microbrews liberally provided by con staff, hotel bar and friends.

It all went (gloriously) something like this:

• Mill Street Organic, Toronto – a yellow lager, meh
• Steam Whistle Pilsener, Canada – very nice, crisp and authentic-tasting
• Frankenmuth Pilsener, Michigan – Not quite as authentically German-style but I like it
• Arcadia Loch Down, Michigan – a very nice scotch ale, 7% alcohol, round, easy drinking
• Bells Double Cream Stout, Michigan – reviewed earlier by Scott, decent but not mind-blowing.
• Growler of IPA from some local Toronto brewpub – spicy, earthy, citrusy, medium bitter, a kitchen sink IPA

• Smithwicks – Not nearly as good as the Arcadia scotch ale.
• Rickard’s Red, Molson – Not bad. Middle o’ the road.
• Bells Cherry Stout – We love the sour/stout combo. This as far as I’m concerned is the exemplar.
• Founders Breakfast Stout, Michigan – the gold standard
• Pilgrim’s Dole Wheat Wine, New Holland, Michigan – a huge 12% alcohol wheat wine with currant, plum flavor notes. Amazing, but would have been 100x better if I’d aged it 3 years first.
• Dark Horse Blueberry Imperial Stout, Michigan – The blueberry is almost all in the nose, so not quite a sour stout but still delicious.
• Mill Street Coffee Porter, Toronto – A tiny bit too much coffee for me in a porter this light.
• Atwater Block Bourbon Barrel Porter, Michigan

• A different growler of IPA from some local Toronto brewpub – Super-citrusy, aggressively bitter, a bit much for me but nice to sample.
• Motor City Brewing Works Hard Cider, Detroit – Best Detroit area cider I’ve had, dry, strongly effervescent, acidic, strong in tannin, with funky earthy notes from the yeast. Must buy more….
• 2012 Hot Pepper Chocolate Stout, my homebrew – This one had a pepper in the bottle, very fiery indeed
• 2011 Sweet Fern Scotch Ale, my homebrew – A 70 shilling ale flavored with a pinch of wild-harvested sweet fern, a spicy, woody perennial
• 2011 Cyser, my homebrew
• 2011 Honey Porter, my homebrew

And that’s just the ones I can remember!

My purchasing agent was in a Whole Foods today (reasonably good beer selection; super-high prices) and found this Bell’s Seasonal.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic, we can get Bell’s's year-round flavors, like their Porter and their Brown Ale, but I haven’t yet seen any of their seasonals.  Such as their amazing Cherry Stout, a medium-rich stout with great cherry tartness, which I had in Detroit last winter and plan to have again at any and every opportunity.

This Special Double Cream Stout apparently is named for its creamy taste rather than any dairy ingredients.  Bell’s's website says it “blends ten different specialty malts” and “focuses on the softer, cocoa & espresso-like aspects of roasted malt.”

It definitely has a malty flavor, starting strong and bold, then a very nice burnt stouty middle.  But the flavor trails off pretty soon, and the finish is on the thin side, quite a bit thinner than I prefer. The head is rich, slightly tan, and does have a creamy feel.

Being a fall/winter stout from Michigan that’s available out East here, the immediate comparison is to Founders Breakfast Stout.  Their tastes feel similar in the middle range, with a nice burnt flavor that’s solid but not super-heavy.  But where the Special Double Cream Stout tails off a bit quickly and thinly, the Breakfast Stout keeps going, with an impressive darkly bitter coffee-esque punch and finish.

So I won’t have any trouble drinking the other five of these Special Double Cream Stouts, but I won’t be rushing out to get any more.  Whereas I’m already looking for the next East-Coast shipment of Founders Breakfast Stout!

Cheers, all.

Hi all,

I’m Sara, and I’ll also be joining the cast of characters here at Fermented Adventures. I suspect I will become the “occasionally spirits” part of this blog. I’ve been a spirits drinker for about the past (quick arithmetic for legal purposes) 8ish years, and have only recently started trying to expand into drinking wines and beers.

I took a comprehensive (but useless for job-hunting, as it turned out) bartender’s course after leaving college, and have been dipping into that old well of knowledge recently in an effort to not only appreciate but also create excellent mixed drinks. At the moment I am on a personal quest to master the perfect Manhattan. In the meantime, my household is going through a gin and tonic phase:

The primary thing I should mention about my taste is that I have a sweet tooth that could give a hummingbird tooth decay. Through a series of completely unscientific experiments, it’s been determined that I appear to taste sugar differently than many of my friends; things that others find intolerably saccharine I tend to find pleasantly sweetened. This dramatically affects my alcohol choices. I appreciate a well-balanced cocktail, but also spend time sipping pear liqueur, enjoying Sambuca on ice, and adding Kaluha to my coffee.

As I mentioned in my first post, I’m not much of a beer drinker. I used to say I didn’t drink beer at all, but as it turns out, that’s not the case. I do like dark, sweet beers, and I will drink them when they’re all that’s available, or when I want to sit and sip on a drink slowly over a long evening. I have a complete soft spot for Young’s Black Chocolate Stout, but even a significantly sweet beer like Young’s is still bitter enough to make me dislike the idea of pouring it down quickly. On a scale of Disgusting to Delicious, I’ve never had a beer that fell above “Drinkable.” I am excited to read the other bloggers here and see if that can be expanded upward.

With wines I tend to fare better. I know enough to order Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec, to avoid dry whites in favor of fruity overtones, and to not overload my dinner guests by serving Riesling with every meal. I also tend to be the person who brings the hard cider to the party, and then ends up drinking most of it myself.

On the other hand, my love of spirits is consistent; I will equally consume dark rum, añejo tequila, heavy gin, high-end vodka and a broad swath of bourbons. But one of the things I love about exploring spirits in a more measured fashion is how it opens up entire swaths of liquor types I’ve yet to explore, including light rums, silver tequilas, ryes, and whiskeys. I’m looking forward to documenting some of that exploration here.

Lastly, in my work as a consultant I sit on the advisory board of a new distillery in Brooklyn, Industry City Distillery. Industry City is currently in the business of prototyping an incredibly drinkable, sipping-style vodka. I will undoubtedly write about them in the future.

Cheers, all.

I picked up this Dogfish Head Urkontinent at my local beer warehouse over the summer. It’s one of their limited series that comes in tall, champagne-sized bottles.

It’s also typically Dogfish Head in its oddity, or off-centeredness as Dogfish’s motto. It’s a Belgian dubbel, at least in its base style, with flavors from brewing with wattleseed from Australia, toasted amaranth from South America, rooibos tea from Africa, myrica gale from Europe, and honey from the US, as Dogfish’s website recounts.

The beer has a nice malty taste, strongly showing that unique Belgian-style yeast flavor that people often call ‘fruity,’ and a medium-level body or main flavor profile. I don’t know what wattleseed and rooibos tea taste like, but I taste sweetish undertones not unlike mild coffee a hint of cherry.  Very little hop profile at all, which is fine by me because I prefer the flavors to come through.

If you like off-centered adaptations of Belgian styles, or if you like malty or medium-robustness interestingly flavored beers, give this one a taste.