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