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

Troegs Nugget Nectar

This week I managed to get a bottle of Trӧegs nugget nectar. I’ve heard about this beer from friends and family for years, but I’ve never managed to get a bottle, as it’s a limited release in February of each year. This beer promises to be interesting, utilizing 5 types of hops during the boil, additional hops in a HopBack, plus dry hopping after fermentation, coupled with Vienna malt for color and Munich malt for a shot of sweetness on a base of enough Pilsner malt to give this beer a significant alcohol content.

Trӧegs Independent Craft Brewery was established by Chris and John Trogner in 1996 in Harrisburg, PA, and began selling beer in 1997. The brothers discovered the joy of good beer half a country apart, Chris while attending college in Colorado and John while working in the Real Estate market in Philadelphia. After realizing that they both wanted to open a brewery, they worked out a business plan and set to the task. John moved to Boulder, Colorado to work for Oasis Brewpub, during which he took classes at University of California at Davis and the Seibel Institute of Technology in Chicago, two of the best brewing technology programs in the US. John, on the other hand, worked to learn the marketing and management skills that they would need to successfully run a brewery, after which he took a brewing class at University of Sunderland in England. The timing of the brewery’s opening in 1997, one year behind Victory Brewing Company in 1996, placed Trӧegs as one of the first microbreweries in Pennsylvania. Since then, demand for Trӧegs’ beer has grown steadily, enabling them to construct a new, custom built brewery in Hershey, PA that is set to open later this year.

The beer poured a beautiful honey-orange golden hue without a hint of sediment. The head formed as only a thin layer of coarse white foam even after a vigorous pour, which dissipated quickly. After two minutes only a very thin skim remained in the center and around the edge, although that small amount of head left a surprising amount of lacing. The aroma was a surprising combination of sweet, fruity scents of apple and, surprisingly, honeysuckle contrasted with a very significant hop aroma. The hops initially had a very grapefruit citrus nature, but they quickly developed a more piney character. The body was moderate and the carbonation was low, giving a very smooth mouthfeel that did not linger. The taste was quite sweet up front, which had a very, light fruity sweetness to it, like a combination of apples and nectarines. This sweetness actually rose above a very significant hop character, which was only moderately bitter. The hop character mostly consisted of strong grapefruit and pine notes, with the pine dominating later on.

This beer was very enjoyable, but the taste profile is somewhat eclectic. Many people who enjoy sweet beers hate the taste of hops, and most of the hopheads out there prefer very dry beers. Regardless of how it compares to other beers on the market, if you want to try something interesting, this beer is definitely worth it.

Alcohol: 7.5%

Price: $2.99/12 oz

Appearance: 4

Aroma: 5

Mouthfeel: 4

Taste: 5

Duvel

This week I finally broke down and cracked open a bottle that I have been hording for some time now. This particular bottle is a Belgian Golden Strong Ale named Duvel, and its wonderfully complex taste, aroma and effervescent carbonation combine to provide a very enjoyable and refreshing drinking experience. I’ve been holding onto this bottle in my personal collection for a while, as its a bit outside my normal price range and I wanted to see what a little aging would do to it, but I decided that it was time to crack it open.

Duvel is brewed by the Duvel Moortgat Brewery, which is headquartered in Breendonk, Belgium. The brewery was opened in 1871 by Jan-Leonard Moortgat, a Flemish brewer from Steenhuffel, Belgium. Moortgat quickly made a name for himself by producing excellent ales, which he distributed by horse and wagon throughout the surrounding region with the help of his sons. The onset of the First World War brought an influx of Englishmen, who brought with them their taste for English Pale Ales. These beers gained popularity in Belgium, and Jan’s son Albert decided to create a special beer incorporating English characteristics. This required obtaining a sample of yeast from somewhere in England, which proved to be no easy task; Albert wanted to work with a Scottish yeast strain, but during his trip the local brewers were disinclined to give him a sample. Fortunately, he kept trying and eventually managed to obtain his yeast, which is still in use today. Albert and his brother Victor introduced their new beer as Victory Ale in commemoration of the end of WWI, but this name was to be short lived. During a tasting session in 1923 a local cobbler was surprised by the potent aroma, and commented “This is a real Devil.” From that year on, the beer was marketed as Duvel, which is Belgian for Devil. This beer is still immensely popular internationally and has now become the prototypical beer around which the Belgian Golden Strong Ale style guidelines are written. The company has managed to remain in family ownership over the years even as it expanded, and now also owns Ommegang Brewery here in America, which you may have had to pleasure to taste.

Duvel poured a golden yellow color without any chill haze or sediment floating in it. The head formed as one finger of medium course white foam, although this dissipated quite quickly into a thin layer of very fine bubbles. This film was very long lived, and provided a good amount of the classic “Belgian lace”. One thing that stood out to me was the effervescent quality of this beer, as it gave off several constant streams of bubbles from a couple of locations on the beer, similar to Champagne. The aroma was quite complex and delicate, with some bitter and earthy hop notes mixed with lighter fruits, including apple and citrus, as well as a little bit of a yeast character. The taste of this beer was very complex, changing significantly over the course of a single sip. The initial taste was fairly sweet, but was very rapidly followed by a moderate bitterness coupled with the sharp bite of the carbonation, both of which subsided quickly. The element that came next was quite surprising in this beer; a nutty and slightly earthy finish, which subsided into a lingering sweetness. As the beer warmed up, the carbonation dropped off but the complexity grew as a some fruity esters came out; a soft mix of apple, pear and orange, although it lacked the peppery, slightly spicy character that I remember from tasting this beer previously.

As this beer is rather light and complex, it will pair well with light meats such as poultry, fruits and mild cheeses. Personally, though, I like this beer by itself, as this lets me explore the taste without the accompanying food masking anything. Duvel should be served in a tulip glass, as this was the company that designed that glass, and this is the beer it was intended to hold; Duvel actually lists a step-by-step process to pour this beer on their website, accompanied by a video, which I found to be quite amusing. One cautionary note, however, is that about a centimeter of beer should be left in the bottle, as this beer is bottle conditioned and thus has some yeast sediment on the bottom.

I highly recommend giving this beer a try, as it is a truly excellent example of the Belgian Golden Strong Ale style. The taste is light enough that anyone can enjoy it, and complex enough that any beer nut like myself (including those pretentious enough that insist you call them a beer sommelier or cicerone) will be shut up while enjoying the nuances of the taste.

Price: $5.79

Size: 330 mL

ABV: 8.5%

Appearance: 5/5

Aroma: 5/5

Flavor: 5/5

Mouthfeel: 5/5

HE'BREW Jewbelation Fourteen

I pride myself in having tried a fair cross section of beers from across America and Europe, and I’m constantly on the lookout for new beers to try. The dark side of my beer quest, however, is that its biased in that I tend to look for traditional beer styles; there are a couple of reasons for this, but the nasty side effect is that I don’t try nearly as many “odd” beers as I could. I decided to start remedying that this week by grabbing a bottle from HE’BREW Beer which looked to be quite odd indeed.

The beer is called Jewbelation Fourteen, and is the label’s fourteenth anniversary beer. The label is rather cluttered, with a golden base, yellow “14”, and the name, brewery logo and other information layered on top of each other. The thing that really stood out to me, though, is the motto on the HE’BREW label: “The Chosen Beer”. I knew that moniker, and hopefully the beer, was just too good not to share. Fortunately I convinced my friend Nyssa, a Messianic Jew, to join me: this way I got try The Chosen Beer with one of His Chosen People.

HE’BREW beer, along with Coney Island Craft Lagers is brewed by Smaltz Brewing Company of San Francisco, California. The company was founded in 1996 by Jeremy Cowan when he began distributing his hand made pomegranate beer out of the trunk of his grandmother’s car. The next year Jeremy contracted Anderson Valley Brewing Company to brew his beer, and began distributing to Chicago and New York as well. By 2003 Smaltz had moved production again to the Mendocino Brewing Company’s Saratoga Springs, NY brewery. HE’BREW was awarded a gold medal for Best American Craft Beer as well as the overall Best In Show by Beverage World Magazine in 2010, and has received much press over the years for its odd beers and quirky marketing. The label now produces 7,200 barrels annually of Genesis Ale, Messiah Bold, Origin Pomegranate Strong Ale, Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A., Rejewvenator and Jewbelation beers, all of which are certified Kosher.

Jewbelation Fourteen poured an opaque black, with only the barest of golden red highlights when held up to the light. One finger of dark brown head with medium sized bubbles formed, but this dissipated quickly leaving a small amount of lacing. The aroma was a big malt character, mixing dark, roasted and sweet malts highlighted with hints of spice interspersed with some plum and dark fruit notes. I didn’t really notice any hop aroma, which is surprising, but I’m also coming off an IPA kick, so my frame of reference is all screwed up in the hop regard. The carbonation was low and the body was fairly thick, although it thinned out appreciably as it warmed up. The taste was very malt focused, with a surprising combination of roasty character and significant sweetness. This sweet taste was only partially balanced by the moderate level of bitterness. I paired this beer with a Country Miche from Metropolitan Bakery and some aged Cabot Cheddar, which actually worked better than I expected even with the sweetness of this beer. The proper glassware is pint glass for this beer, as it is an American Strong Ale.

Overall, the beer was smooth, but not particularly balanced due to the substantial sweetness present. There was also a lack of complexity, with the beer seeming rather one dimensional when compared to many other stouts. I found this blandness quite surprising because the label advertises that it uses fourteen different types of both hops and malts. This beer actually reminded me a lot of Dog Fish Head’s World Wide Stout, although I thought that beer was a bit more complex and enjoyable overall. This beer is certainly worth a try, especially if you are a new beer drinker, but the highlight was definitely the label.

Price: $9.50

Size: 22 oz

ABV: 14%

Appearance: 3/5

Aroma: 3.5/5

Flavor: 3/5

Mouthfeel: 3.5/5

Delirium Tremens

The side effects of alcohol are fairly well known, if not completely understood, at this point. One of the side effects of alcohol withdraw can be an acute case of delirium, which was first described in modern medical literature in 1813 and named Delirium Tremens. One of the symptoms of Delirium Tremens can be hallucination, described by Jack London in his book John Barleycorn as seeing “blue mice and pink elephants”, among other things. This theme has been played upon by many over the years, including Disney in the movie Dumbo and this week’s beer, Delirium Tremens, the bottle for which is decorated with pink elephants.

Delirium Tremens is brewed by the Huyghe Brewery in the town of Melle in East Flanders, Belgium. The modern brewery was founded in 1906 by Leon Huyghe, but brewing on this site dates back to at least 1654, and since 1906 the brewery has expanded several times. In the 1990s the brewery acquired several other small breweries in the area, and now produces over 40 different beers under almost a dozen different brand names. Delirium, however, is the only brand from this brewery that I have seen for sale in the United States, and consists of Tremens, Nocturnum, Noel (now named Christmas) and Red.

Delirium Tremens poured with two fingers of coarse white head, which quickly dispersed down to half a finger of head with a much finer texture, but left little lacing as it was drunk. The color was a straw yellow, but very hazy. The aroma was surpringly yeasty, but quite complex with banana and apple mixed with lemon and other citrus scents. The body was medium heavy, even with the high carbonation, but lacked the really viscous texture I’ve encountered in some beers. The taste was fairly sweet, but surprisingly not cloying at all. There was a surprising level of spices in this beer such as cloves, coriander and cinnamon, enough to make me think of this, in conjunction with the yeast character, as a lightly spiced wheat beer instead of a Golden Strong Ale or Tripel like it is normally marketed.

This beer would pair well with just about everything, given its low bitterness and balance of yeast, spices and sweetness. Fruits and good breads will also pair well, as will most meats. Personally, though, I’d recommend a good sharp cheese like an aged Cheddar or Gloucester, as this is not a particularly cheap bottle of beer. This beer should be served in a tulip glass, or a large wine glass will do just fine as well.

Overall I enjoyed this beer, and one of the best things about it is its approachability. Really, though, I picked up this beer for its name so that I can add another interesting bottle to my collection. If you are looking for a more interesting beer, however, I would suggest grabbing a Duvel instead.

Price: $6.95

Size: 11.2 oz

ABV:8.5%

Appearance: 3.5/5

Aroma: 4/5

Flavor: 3.5/5

Mouthfeel: 4/5