Throwin’ back a Curveball

Posted June 19, 2007 by jmstremcha
Categories: Hoppy Beers

Readers in the Twin Cities will remember Sunday as the tail-end of a string of 90+ degree days. That’s not something we see often or particularly care for in the state that’s home to the “nation’s ice box.” It’s particularly unappealing in June! This Sunday, I found myself on a front lawn in the northern suburbs following my nephew’s baptism with a beer in hand. What beer you ask? Pyramid brewery’s Curveball Kolsch.

Kolsch is a style that originated in Germany and is kind of a hybrid - stuck between an ale and a lager. It ferments with ale yeast at cool temperatures and then is “cold conditioned” (lagered). The result is a crisp, clean, simple beer that’s highly drinkable and refreshing. The Kolsch style is native to Cologne (Koln), Germany which is now an appellation beer protected and defined by the Koln Konvention.

It was the perfect beer for a warm day on the front lawn!  I found the Curveball to be surprisingly pleasant. It was certainly light-bodied and crisp, the later from lagering and accentuated by hop bitterness. There was just a hint of fruitiness in the aroma from the yeast and a slight floral whiff from the hops. The flavor was what I found most unique: it had just a hint of honeyed sweetness from some light crystal or other specialty malt. The sweetness was a nice counter point to the crisp finish, a distinguishing feature of the beer in my opinion.

With a lot of summer still ahead of us (in MN and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere), I suggest you throw back a Curveball of your own and refresh yourself on any fine summer day.

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Linked, Disinfected and on to Savoring

Posted June 6, 2007 by jmstremcha
Categories: Sour beers

This past Sunday, two partners-in-crime and I had agreed to make and dry-cure some salami. Ms. BeerGeek (a vegatarian) wasn’t too excited about sausage making happening in our kitchen. Circumstances necessitated it, however, so she agreed, with the caveat that we disinfect the kitchen when we were done. So, when we had our sausages linked, hung in the garage fridge and the kitchen clean and disinfected, we moved onto the enjoyment of some beer.

Knowing my friends would appreciate something special, I chilled a bottle of New Glarus’ Cherry Stout. We sampled it, struck by the sourness in the initial taste which was highlighted by cherry flavors. As the tartness subsided, a smooth vanilla oakiness followed. Finally, the chocolatie stoutness came in at the end for the finish. This is truly an elegant beer. We all agreed that this was a “sipping beer” to be enjoyed slowly and in small quantities.

If you’re not familiar with New Glarus, it may be because their beers are exclusively available in their home state of Wisconsin. Their beers are universally excellent, especially the famous Raspberry Tart and Belgian Red. These two are known nation-wide for their quality as fruit-flavor, sour beers (sort of like Lindeman’s Framboise). As a side note, I suspect the Cheery Stout endures a similar aging/fermentation process to these two fruit beers, giving it the subtle tartness.

I notice the Cherry Stout (part of the “Unplugged” series) isn’t listed on their website anymore, though mine was purchased recently. If you’re headed east, be sure to pick-up something from New Glarus, “unplugged” or not. I’ve found their beers to be worth the drive.

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Fuller’s London Pride on a Patio (almost)

Posted June 4, 2007 by jmstremcha
Categories: Hoppy Beers, Malty Beers, Restaurants

Memorial Day weekend found Ms. BeerGeek and I working with friends and relatives (thankfully) to install a patio in our backyard. Saturday, at the conclusion of 10 hours of work, we met for my mother-in-law’s birthday. Since our own patio was as yet unfinished, we searched the city of St. Paul for patio on which to eat… Alas, the search was fruitless (it was a beautiful evening and they were all full), so we ended up inside at W.A. Frost.

My need for refreshment (read: beer) after a long day’s work was only enhanced by the patio quest, so I was delighted by an interesting selection of tap beers. I quickly selected Fuller’s London Pride, as it’s not as readily available as Summit, Surly and others on the list at Frost’s.

London Pride is Fuller’s “best bitter,” so I expected something not quite as hoppy as a pale ale with some English malt and yeast character. My pint was spot on. The maltiness was subtle and well round with lots of caramelly notes. The beer overall balanced toward the hop bitterness, but in a discreet way when compared to US hoppy beers.

Sip by sip and sniff by sniff, the soft English maltiness and fruity English Ale yeast worked to easy my tired muscles. If only I could have been on a patio…

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CAP a Summer Session

Posted May 14, 2007 by jmstremcha
Categories: Hoppy Beers

So, it’s been a while since my last post. It seems the burgeoning spring…or wait is it summer already…in Minnesota has me distracted: motorcycles to ride and, in particular, a deck that’s quickly (or not so quickly) becoming a patio.

Despite all that, I’ve got a couple ideas percolating.

One revolves around Full Sail’s very enjoyable Session Lager. My uncle had one saved for me - hidden in the back of his fridge last week when I was over. He was pretty excited about it. It turns out, so was I.

He presented it from the fridge in its short, stubby little bottle. It’s a lot like a cute, brown 11 oz. version of the famous Mickey’s grenade, sans bee.

The beer poured thin and yellow/gold a lot like other American lagers (Bud, Miller, etc.). The aroma of sweet grain hinted at an all malt beer – as opposed to the typical US lager, which is heavily augmented with corn syrup as a fermentable.

The flavor also re-enforced the maltiness and relative complexity of the beer. Session has a slightly fuller body than US lagers. It also had a nice assertive hop bitterness and clean lager finish.

Session is in the Classic American Pilsner style, supposedly what our German forbearers brewed before prohibition. I’ve got a homebrewed example of my own on tap. Between the summer-like weather and these two beers, I’ve decided Classic American Pilsner is a great style for the summer, highly quaffable but with substantial flavor. I encourage you to brew your own CAP, or if you’re not set up for that, pick up Full Sail’s Session Lager and step back in time to enjoy!

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Getting Surly at the Green Mill

Posted April 20, 2007 by jmstremcha
Categories: Hoppy Beers, Restaurants

One of the occasional guilty pleasures Ms. BeerGeek and I enjoy is a trip to the St. Paul Green Mill’s happy hour (from 3-6 p.m. and 9-midnight daily), which includes our favorite $4.99 Dixie wings (their above average version of Buffalo wings). During this time, they also offer tall (22 oz) beers for the price of mugs.

We found ourselves hungry, lazy and with just enough time to get in the door before 6 p.m. earlier this week. When looking for a beer with which to pair Buffalo wings, I always look for something substantial and hoppy. I choose this way because I find the hop bitterness of the beer refreshing to my “three-alarm” tongue. As an added bonus, the hoppiness is still above the taste threshold as the numbness sets in.

At the Green Mill this week, I was presented with two excellent choices: Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale and Surly’s Furious. I chose the later. It’s not a beer I favor normally, because it’s bitterness is so intense I find it out of balance (although it is a favorite of the hop-headed Ms. Beergeek). With the the wings, though, I thought it might be just the thing.

True to form, the beer was all hops in the nose, flavor and aggressive bitterness. When the wings arrived, all of those characteristics worked to its advantage. When my mouth started to heat up, I reached for my tall glass and doused my palate with a good dose of the cool hoppy ale; the Furious would refresh me and get me ready for another round.

In general I’d say try pairing hoppy beers with spicy foods. When working with really hot stuff, get Furious.

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The Bulldog Northeast Redeemed?

Posted April 18, 2007 by jmstremcha
Categories: Belgian, Restaurants

On Friday night, we returned to the Bulldog for another great burger and to celebrate my birthday, beer geek style. I went straight back to the La Chouffe, which they now list on the menu as the Houblin IPA.

As our dinner arrived and I was nearing the end of my first beer, our server (coincidentally the same guy from the first visit) offered to buy me a birthday beer, and to just let him know when I was ready. I looked over to Ms. Beergeek, and we had a good laugh, while sharing the story of our last visit to the Bulldog with our dining companions. Would the Houblin IPA arrive or would it be a Stella (again: see this post for the full story)?

Our server chose redemption as a second complimentary Houblin IPA showed up - Delicious!

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Surly shows its sweeter side at Cafe Twenty Eight

Posted April 8, 2007 by jmstremcha
Categories: Malty Beers, Restaurants

I chose to celebrate my matriculation into the my 30s with my family at Cafe Twenty Eight this weekend. It’s a place Ms. Beergeek and I hadn’t been in a while but remembered fondly. We weren’t disappointed, as the food was excellent. Further, we agreed on our way home that the place was a great value. None of the entrees was over $20. While $20 for an entree isn’t cheap; for the quality of the food (local, homemade, fresh, high-quality), it’s a bargain.

But, I blog about beer.

So, mom and dad Beergeek were a little late. I decide to take a chance on Surly’s “One,” their first anniversary beer. This was over the caveat of the our server, who said “it’s sweet.” I said, “like a bock?” He said “Sweeter. Like a dessert beer.” He wasn’t kidding. The beer was definitely what I would classify as a doppelbock: high in alcohol, rich in malt character, full-bodied, and possessing some complex alcoholic fruitiness.

It was delicious and a real departure from Surly’s general modus operandi as a producer of uber-hopped ales (which is not to suggest the latter aren’t delicious).

The menu suggested plenty of chocolate flavors; those were definitely present. I thought, however, the beer’s best attributes were the dried-fruit flavors that evidenced its age and alcoholic strength. They danced and intermingled with the brown sugar and dark chocolate of the malt in an impressive way. As I think about it, Surly may be defining the American Doppelbock.

It took me better than half the glass to identify what I thought the beer tasted like. When I finally did, I burst out mid-conversation: chocolate-covered dried cherries.

I’m not sure where else they’re pouring Surly “One” (in special custom glassware I might add), but I’d run out and get some. I bet there not putting it in cans, either. But, if they are, buy all you can find, lay ‘em down and invite me over in a year. I’d love to taste those cherries when they turn “two.”

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Dubbels: Old World vs. New World

Posted April 5, 2007 by jmstremcha
Categories: Belgian, Malty Beers, The Session, Yeasty Beers

I decided to participate in this month’s beer blogger “session.” The idea came from Stan over at Appellation Beer that each month the beer blog community would gather and post around a single style. This month’s session is hosted by A Good Beer Blog, with Dubbels chosen as the shared style.

I decided it would be nice to sample two examples of the style to help compare and contrast. I ended up with a classic wine tasting trick: old world vs. new world.

From the old world, I chose a true Belgian Trappist ale from Westmalle;, perhaps the defining beer of the style. From the new world, I chose Allagash’s Dubbel. (Allagash comes from Portland, ME and isn’t distributed in MN, so mine was smuggled up from Iowa by a friend on a business trip.)

The Westmalle and Alagash are the same style, the same auburn-tinted brown color and share the same fine effervescence, but the similarities end there.

When first hoisting the two glasses to my nose, the distinction was obvious. While the nose on the Westmalle was beautifully complex with hints of raisin, over-ripe dark fruit, dark caramel and maple, the Allagash was all spice and more straight-forward: coriander and cloves in a big way with some woodsy hop notes and just a hint of burnt sugar.

The flavors were similarly distinguishable: the Allagash was dry and almost astringent with moderate hop bitterness; there were notes of chocolate and walnuts. The Westmalle shared the dry finish, characteristic of good examples of this style, but in a more refined way than Allagash’s. The Westmalle also was more warming with rum-raisin and fermented fruit notes mixed in with sweetness

In the end, the comparison is almost cliche: the Old World Westmalle is slightly more refined and artistic, while the New World Allagash is slightly more forward and brash. Both are refreshing, heart warming and delicious.

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Goats Collide

Posted April 1, 2007 by jmstremcha
Categories: Malty Beers, With cheese

On Friday night I was waiting for my fish at Mac’s in Roseville and headed over to the near-by Cellars. One of the beers I picked up was Victory St. Victorious Doppelbock. Doppelbocks are particularly strong bocks with extra malty flavors and plenty of alcoholic strength. I found Victory’s beer to be quite drinkable with the expected notes of caramel and nuttiness but on the strong end of hoppy for the style. Not IPA hoppy mind you, but with plenty of hops to accentuate the crisp lager finish. The beer also had a noticeable bit of alcohol, perhaps revealed by the relatively light body.

It turns out tonight that I was having a dinner of cheese, so I had the chance to try the beer with some cheeses: a Chimay washed-rind, an Ossau-Oraty and a Palhais. The Chimay cheese was on the softish side of semi-soft. Like most washed-rind cheese it smelled awful. The taste was much better: tasting slightly salty, with hints mushroom and a restrained bitterness, perhaps from being washed with Chimay wort.

I expected the Ossau Oraty, sort of like a young Parmesan, with a slightly granular texture and a subtly nuttiness, to go well with the rich maltiness of the of the doppelbock. The two did taste good together, but I was surprised to find that, in fact, the Palhais, a salty and slightly aged goat cheese contrasted the beer nicely and was the best pairing of the three. The Palhais was firmer than most goat cheese and in contrast to the sour tang of many, this cheese tended toward a strong saltiness not unlike a Feta.

The contrast of the salty goat cheese with the caramelly, rich dopplebock was sharp and pleasing. Bock means Billy Goat in German, so in this meeting of the goats(beer and cheese), both won by competing and contrasting with each other.

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Saison + Chevre d’Or = Yummy

Posted March 26, 2007 by jmstremcha
Categories: Belgian, With cheese

Saturday night, I was hanging-out at a beer geek party to taste Saisons. The Saison is a French farmhouse style. Historically, it was brewed in the spring with enough alcohol to last through the summer but not so much that you couldn’t drink it for lunch and still work the fields (this was back when it was safer to drink the beer than the water). The style is characterized by a citrusy yeast aroma from the Belgain yeast strains, typically fermented at high temperatures (70-80F). The yeast aroma is complimented by spicy and floral “noble” hop varieties. The taste is of wheat, light malt and some hop bitterness. The finish is dry and tart, accentuated by a champagne-like effervescence. I preferred the Saison Dupont and Fantome, particularly the Hivers (winter), among those we tried.

To the tasting, I brought a round of the Chevre d’Or, a soft-ripened goat cheese from the Loire Valley. It was everything I love, and can’t quite describe adequately, about these cheeses. It was soft and a little chalky in the center. The color was white beneath the rind. It had a slightly earthy aroma, with notes of hay and barnyard. The flavor matched the aroma very well, and included the tart acidity characteristic of goat cheeses.

The two together were magic! The tart, dryness and slight farmhouse funk they share made for an absolutely delicious paring. I would, in fact, gladly put it to the comparison test against a Sancerre or Sauvignon Blanc, with which the cheese is suggested. For my money, it’ll be Dupont and Fantome every time.

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