Local 44 PBW No Repeats

So, I finally got home from The Forum of the Gods and The Franklin Fountain, and get working on my paper....slowly. Then an hour later my friend calls, and he wants to go to Local 44. I hadn't eaten much yet at that point (note, its 6pm at this point....which is probably part of my issue at The Forum of the Gods). Anyway, we headed over there, and I got their fish and chips, Lost Abbey Carneval and a Great Lakes Elliot Ness Lager.

The fish & chips were great, although there was a bit less fish than I expected. Still, it came with two hush puppies and a pile of fries, so I didn't exactly go hungry. The hush puppies were fried pretty hard, but were still nice and moist on the inside. The fries at Local 44 are always really good; boardwalk style, with the skins still on. They even have malt vinegar.

The Carneval was quite good, and was less hoppy than a lot of American saisons I've had recently, which was a pleasant change. It was pretty mild overall, with a good carbonation to back it up. The Elliot Ness Lager wasn't very good, though, giving off a kind of plastic-y finish as it warmed up. I actually chugged that beer, since I didn't want to drink the rest, but I was still thirsty.

Franklin Fountain PBW Flavors

Philadelphia Bar & Restaurant is across the street from Franklin Fountain, so I stopped by after the Forum of the Gods event. They have at least 2 PBW flavors; strawberry with Victory's Summer Love, and Chocolate with Stoudt's stout (I think), so I got a scoop of each. The chocolate was not bad, with the stout adding a roasty character to it. Still, the was a little bit of burnt malt in it, which I'm not a fan of, but overall it was pretty good. The strawberry with Summer Love, though, I am not a fan of. This beer has a fair amount of hops in it, which came through with a distinct bitterness in the ice cream. Definitely not a fan of bitter ice cream, personally. Also, I got a dry sensation, which I've tasted in beers before, especially hoppy ones. I also don't think my ice cream should be dry; its freaking frozen milk and sugar, so it had better fulfill my sweet craving!

So, the chocolate is probably worth a try if you like RISs, but I'd stay away from the Summer Love strawberry; stick with the maple walnut, that stuff is fantastic!

Forum of the Gods

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending The Forum of the Gods at the Philadelphia Bar & Restaurant. This was a Q&A chaired by Joe Sixpack and Tony Fordor who grilled Carol Stoudt of Stoudt's Brewing, Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing, Brian Grossman of Sierra Nevada (son of the founder), and Larry Sidor of Deschutes Brewery (brewmaster). The moderators had about an hour worth of questions, then the panel took a half dozen questions from the crowd.

Overall it was interesting, but not particularly technical. Lots of "what beer do you like" and "where do you think the industry is headed". I enjoyed it, but for some reason its not what I expected. All the breweries had stuff on tap, and 4x 8oz pours were included in the $20 cover. I got a chance to Deschutes Obsidian Stout and Russian River Blind Pig IPA. Both were good, but I was paying far more attention to the Q&A and really don't remember the beers to much. Unfortunately, the beers also effected me a bit and I don't remember a everything from the Q&A, which is also why I only used 2 of my 4 beer tickets. That, and its finals week.

Highlights from the session included the panelists mocking the PLCB on multiple occasions, discussions on expanding their breweries (no joy on Russian River. Although we are their biggest bottle-and-corked sour beer market, which Vinnie is very appreciative of), recollections of Sam crawling on the floor last night after shots of Jameson, oh, and the time Sam rowed the first six pack of his beer across the Delaware into New Jersey as a publicity stunt...and forgot to put out a press release....

So, yea, I enjoyed myself. Not sure if others would have, though, as this was pretty much entertainment.

North Coast Brewing 'Monsters of Vinyl Jazz' at Sidecar (Philly Beer Week)

This evening I had the pleasure of visiting The Sidecar for the first time. This small bar turned out to be absolutely awesome, and given the North Coast tap takeover under way I was surprised I was able to immediately get a table. The waiter was very personable and competent, and had tried all the beers at the beginning of the evening so that he could make recommendations. I had the good fortune to be able to taste all of the offerings on tap, with the exception of the ACME IPA, which kicked just minutes before I was ready to order it. I'll recount the beers I tried in the order I tried them, as I'm sure that this effected my taste buds.

The first beer I tried was Old Rasputin on Nitrogen. This was interesting, as its a full bodied beer with good head retention to begin with, and the Nitrogen only enhanced this. I personally thought that the bear actually lost some of its roasty depth, but that may have more to do with how cold it was served than anything else. This beer actually became significantly more bitter than I remembered as it warmed up, but was quite good none the less.

The friends I spent the evening with let me try their Blue Star wheat and Brother Thelonious Belgian Strong Dark. The Blue Star was good, but fairly unmemorable; I'm writing this 3 beers and 4 hours later, and I honestly don't remember it.... The Brother Thelonious was very good, with a dark malt backbone. The sweetness was fairly high, the malt a bit less complex and the carbonation much lower than I expected, but very tasty overall.

The second beer I bought was Old Stock Ale. This is their, well, old stock ale. I've never actually tried this style before, and I must say I've been missing out; I really, really liked it. This beer reminded me of an English IPA but without all the hops. It still had a bit of bitterness and some hop aroma,but overall it was a big, moderately sweet maltiness that made this beer extremely enjoyable.

My friends tried the Le Merle saison and the Pranqster golden ale at the same time. The golden ale was pretty good, but the Le Merle surprised me a bit; this beer had a lot bigger wheat/yeast character than I've ever experienced in a saison before.

I then tried both the Red Seal Ale and the ACME Pale Ale. The Pale Ale was kind of weak in my opinion, but no bad tastes were evident. I think this is a pretty good session beer, but it was like water after the Old Rasputin. The Red Seal Ale is an American Amber, but to me it tasted like a Rye IPA. There was a spiciness to this beer and some citrus in the nose, but it was overwhelmingly bitter. I wasn't a huge fan of this beer, but I prefer more aromatic IPAs anyway.

In addition to all this good beer, I had very good burger. The burger was nice and juicy, and the bacon, cheddar and sauteed mushrooms really blended well. The french fries were nice and crispy, with lots of pepper and just enough salt to set them off.

The best part of all of this was the service though; our waiter was quick, efficient and knowledgeable, and managed to snag me the second to last bottle of Old Rasputin XII, which he kept in the cooler for me until I was ready to leave. He also kept up well stocked on beer and food without being annoying, which I greatly appreciated. I've only heard good things about Sidecar from other people as well, so I'd give it a shot if you are in the area.

Morimoto Hazelnut Brown

Celebrity chefs are nothing new to the American food scene, but over the past several years they have begun to pay more attention to beer. While I think this is good overall, especially as they begin to bring high quality craft beers into higher class establishments traditionally reserved for wine and liquor, it has also resulted in the permeation of their brands into the beer market. The poster child for this is Morimoto’s collaboration with Rogue Brewing Company, which has brought at least four different beers under the Morimoto name to Philadelphia. According to Rogue’s website, three of these beers were brewed specifically for Morimoto (Soba Ale, Black Obi and Imperial Pilsner), while the fourth is simply a rebottling of Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown Nectar under the name Morimoto Hazelnut Brown. This fourth beer was the only one of the series in stock at the Foodery, so I decided to give it a chance.

Rogue Brewery opened in October 1988 as a brewpub in Ashland, Oregon by Jack Joyce, Bob Woodell and Rob Strasser. The company struggled at first, and decided that if they were going to succeed they needed to expand beyond Ashland. Mohave Niemi, director of the Port of Newport, convinced Joyce to open up their second brewpub in a vacant storefront, which she rented to them on two conditions. The first was that the brewery give back to the community once they were established, and the second that they always display a picture of her naked in a bathtub in the bar (and they still do even after her death). Masaharu Morimoto came to the US in 1985 after operating a restaurant in Japan, and quickly established himself in New York City. While working at a Japanese restaurant named Nobu, he gained celebrity from the TV show Iron Chef. In 2001, he opened his eponymous restaurant here in Philadelphia, and he began working with Rogue to develop beers in 2005. This was a perfect fit for both parties, as Morimoto’s expertise is with fusion food styles and Rogue has always designed their beers to be consumed with food.

The Hazelnut Brown poured a clear, dark brown which appeared a golden red when held up to a light. The head formed as only half a finger of coarse, light coffee colored foam, which dissipated in under two minutes. There was a ring of foam left around the glass, and the beer did leave a little bit of lacing as it was drunk, but overall the head disappeared surprisingly quickly. The aroma was dominated by a roasted coffee scent, but some sweet malt and hazelnut notes served to add a much needed complexity. The body was moderately thin, but the carbonation was quite odd; it was very fine and sharp, but not sparkly at all. This was very interesting sensation that I don’t often experience in beer, and, and served as a nice counterpoint to many of the highly carbonated, almost champagne-like beers I’ve had recently. Overall the body was quite creamy, but did not linger; I found this quite impressive, as most beers I’ve had with any significant body at all seem to coat my mouth and linger for several minutes afterwards. The initial taste for this beer is of sweet malt, but that is quickly displaced by a roasted malt, almost like a good stout, in the middle of the taste. The big finish for this beer is a massive hazelnut taste, which also leaves a very dry impression behind.

Overall, I thought the beer was fairly well balanced, although the amount of hazelnut in the finish was a bit of overkill. The beer went down quite easily, but the strong hazelnut character means that I’ll reserve this beer for interesting food pairings, rather than an every day beer.

Alcohol: 6.2%

Price: $5.99/22 oz

Appearance: 4

Aroma: 4

Mouthfeel: 4

Taste: 3.5

Recurring Fridge Fillers

Most of the posts up until this point have been my articles for The Triangle, Drexel's student-run newspaper. I try to find either interesting and fairly accessible beers to review for these articles (with the occasional Russian River beer tossed in because I like them), but I haven't really talked about my drinking habits. Now, while I love sour beers and lots of different imports, but as a poor college student I can't drink these all the time. So, here are my standbys:
Yeungling Traditional Lager: I love this beer. Its one of the few (if not only) remaining examples of a pre-prohibition American lager. Its clean, got a hint of corn (think high fructose corn syrup, but not horrendously sweet), full bodied and an all around good taste. Two other points: its local (Pottsville, PA), and dirt cheap: $19 for a case of cans.
Troegs Variety Pack: Troegs actually has at least 3 different variety packs on the market at different times of year. All contain Dreamweaver (Belgian Wit/American Wheat style), Pale Ale (well, its a Pale Ale) and Hopback Amber (American Amber, nice hop bite to this one without going over the top). All three of these beers are very good, clean and consistent; I've never had a bad bottle of any of them (except some Dreamweaver that I froze and killed the yeast, which doesn't count). The fourth bottle rotates with the season between Rugged Trail Brown Ale (an American Brown, not really my thing but a good beer none the less), Java Head Stout (a coffee stout, quite good) and Sunshine Pils (a nice, crisp Pilsner). I usually keep a case of this stuff in the fridge, as it provides enough of a variety of choices that people can find something they like, as well as letting me recommend beers that I know are good to people who are looking to try something different. I pay about $36 per case at my local distributor.
Victory On-Tap: I view Victory as my home town brewery, and I have been incredibly spoiled by them. They consistently turn out clean, to-style beers in a huge variety of styles. They have 20 taps and 4 hand engines, and generally all are full. The most impressive thing to me is the fact that I've seen 4 different pilsners on tap at the same time, and all tasted both very good and distinctly different. The growler prices at the Downingtown brewpub are insanely low, starting at $7.50 for a 2-Liter of their normal-test beers (pilsners, etc). Here is the catch, though: I only buy growlers from them. I have had inconsistent luck with Victorys bottles (Stormking tasting astringent, Festbier tasting funny, Victory Lager being just foul, Golden Monkey lacking the smoothness that it should), so I currently have 5 growlers and periodically drive to Downingtown to get them filled. Another nice thing about victory is that they have a growler filling station, which purges the growler with CO2 and fills from the bottom. This prevents oxidation and contamination, which makes the beer last longer (current record is a month, compared to the normal week for growlers filled off the tap).

So, that's what you will most frequently find in my fridge. I vary these from time to time, but I keep coming back to these beers, as they are cheap and fantastic.

Philly Beer Week 2011

This year, Philly Beer Week starts on Friday, June 3^rd and lasts through Sunday, June 12^th; 7 days just isn’t enough time, so the week has been expanded to include both weekends. Philly Beer Week (PBW) was established in 2008 as a celebration of “America’s Best Beer Drinking City,” and is now the largest event of its type in the United States. The world-class breweries of the region are showcased in a wide variety of beer dinners, festivals and other events around the greater Philadelphia region.

The week kicks off with the “Opening Tap” at 7 pm on Independence Mall, where Mayor Michael Nutter will officially tap the first keg using the Hammer of Glory, the official keg mallet of PBW. The event then continues in the Independence Visitor Center, where Victory, Weyerbacher, Troegs, Sly Fox and 17 other regional and local breweries will be included in a beer tasting. The lucky attendees of this event will also get a taste of Brotherly Suds 2, a collaboration beer brewed at Stoudt’s Brewing by Brett Kintzer with help from Tom Kehoe, Bill Covaleski, John Trogner and Gordon Grubb of Yards, Victory, Troegs and Nodding Head respectively. This beer is the official beer of PBW, a lager crafted using a yeast culture from the old Schmidt’s brewery in the Northern Liberties.

> The most surprising event of the week, at least to me, is the With Love Beer Garden. This beer garden is being set up in the courtyard of the Four Seasons Hotel, which will be covered in a pavilion, and will feature a “meet the brewer” event each night from 4-8pm from Monday, June 6^th to Friday, June 10^th with food by Rafael Gonzalez. Monday night features Bill Covaleski of Victory Brewing Company and the re-release of his “Summer Love Ale”, originally brewed for PBW last year and back by popular demand. Tuesday Chris Wilson of Weyerbacher will be celebrating their 750 mL bottle lineup, including “Merry Monks”, “Double Simcoe” and others. Wednesday to Friday features the brewers of Dock Street, Sly Fox and Yards, respectively.

University City itself contains a large number of PBW events, many of which are close to Drexel. Bridgewater’s Pub, located in 30^th street station, features Samuel Smith specials on the 3^rd, tap takeovers by Tommyknocker and Summit breweries on the 7^th and 9^th respectively, and Franziskaner Fest on the 10^th. City Tap House is hosting events every night of PBW, including Attach of the Clones on the 5^th, which is a taste off between commercial beers and homebrew clones of each. MidAtlantic Restaurant & Tap Room is hosting a pair of beer dinners, including one featuring Stone Brewing Co, a beer brunch featuring Stoudt’s (starts at 11:00am) and an interesting happy hour on June 6^th featuring canned craft beers. The Blockley Pour House is setting up a beer garden on the 9^th, and the World Café Live is hosting the Philly Food Experiment on the 5^th. The event that I’m most looking forward to, however, is Local 44’s Russian River Sunday. While the bar is holding lots of other events during PBW, RRS is legendary, with people lining up well before the 11:00 am opening time to get a taste of these fantastic beers (full disclosure: my all-time favorite beer is a Russian River brew, so I’m a bit biased).

Now, not everyone likes beer, or so they claim; lest these people feel left out of the festivities, or continue in their misguided thinking that they hate beer, PBW includes a large number of beer dinners this year. These take place all week, ranging from “Brew & Chew; Victory vs. Troegs” at Cavanaugh’s Rittenhouse on Monday, June 6^th ($20), where the guests will try two beers from each brewery, vote on their favorite, and enjoy $3 pints of the winner along with the included tapas dishes for the rest of the night, to a $100 per plate collaboration between Chef Marc Vetri, Carol and Jodi Stoudt of Stoudt’s Brewing Company and Ian Brendle of Green Meadow Farm at Osteria on Sun, June 5^th.

This year’s Philly Beer Week promises to be bigger than ever, so make sure you get out and try some good beer and great food, and if possible head over to one of the various Meet the Brewer events to learn more about the men and women who make this wonderful beverage. More information about tickets and other events are available at www.phillybeerweek.org.