Craft Beer Mini-Rant

Goose Island and Red Hook, are they craft beer?

Most people will say no, because they are partly/wholly owned by InBev, but I say to those people, just stop. Being a craft beer fan isn't about fighting some holy war, it's about drinking well made, hand CRAFTED beer.

People have picked a nemisis in this fight, and it's Belgian conglomerete that dominates beer in the US and the World. Do I like Bud Light, Coors, or Miller, not really. Will I drink it if it's offered by someone, sure why not. Do I think that the people at these companies can make good or even great beer, of course! It is naive to believe that they can't, and as much as people may hate to hear it's also snobbish.

So why support subsidiaries of these huge companies but not their flagship products? One word, quality. Everyone (at least I hope), got into Craft beer not to fight a war, but to drink good beer. It seems as though some have lost their way, as people do when things get popular. Sam Adams has seen it from Beer snobs, they are to big to make good beer. Well folks be prepared because most of the brewers making great beer want to get bigger (this is not always the case, and it's not a bad thing if they don't want to get bigger). What's next, Dogfish is to big, Stone is to big, my favorite "local" beer is to big.

Why can't people just sit down and enjoy beer? Sure we should be teaching our friends and family that this beer, although more expesnive, is a much better product. Explain to them why we would travel 3-4 hours (sometimes longer) for beer, let them try why, actually. I wish we would see people getting back to why we all started drinking craft beer, the beer. Drop the attitude and just enjoy beer.

Beer Works

In Massachusetts we have a brewpub chain called Beer Works. The first was in Boston, where there's now two, and a few more scattered about the state. Beer snobs in this area seem to look their noses down at what Beer Works does, and this bothers me. They consistently have good craft beers on tap, most of which are made at the Brewery they are sold at (there are some rare exceptions). IPA's don't get much fresher than the taste of their Dye House IPA Cask I had tonight, and with IPA's we know freshness is important. Yet still, beer snobs have a problem with Beer Works. Why, my guess is because they don't take a ton of chances, not many of their beers are risky, which to me is fine. Sometimes I don't need 100 IBU's or Barrel Aged on Whiskey barrels salvaged from a fire in Kentucky. Sometime a good IPA or Porter is better than those, and just what I want. There are exceptions to them not taking risks though.

Tonight I got a chance to taste what happens when Beer Works brewers take a chance, and it was with their Grand Cru Rouge, an American Wild/Sour. This is a great sour beer, probably one of the best American made ones I have had (Sorry Beer Works, Belgium still wins here). Perfectly tart, with just the right amount of funk, also as most of their beers are, very drinkable. They made enough for 500 bottles (still not on sale) and 5 kegs, sent to each Beer Works. If you have time this weekend and enjoy Sours head to Beer Works, and see what happens when a "safe" brew pub takes chances.

Ryan Braun

First, when I hear this guys name all I think of is Lloyd Brain, so that's normal right. SERENITY NOW!

Anyway on to my point, guy takes PEDs, and obviously denies it. No big deal anyone that has been arrested knows no matter what, plead not guilty at first. Even though the evidence is clearly against you, as it is against Braun, just plead not guilty. It buys you time to weigh your options.

My issue is some people are taking his side! I am sure none of these people took the side of Manny, Clemens, Bonds or the list of other accused players. What the hell makes Braun so believable?

Beer Haul, Vermont Style

 As seen here I made a successful beer trip to Vermont.  Below is a list of beer I did get, also got to try a few different ones around Burlington.  Did miss out on Double Sunshine which was on tap at the place we had dinner, but they ran out shortly before we got there. I was in tears.

• Alchemist's Heady Topper
• Nor, a collaboration with Hill Farmstead and Cigar City
• Daybreak, a collaboration with Hill Farmstead and Mikkller
• Hill Farmstead's Abner
• Hill Farmstead's Birth of Tragedy
• Hill Farmstead's Twilight of the Idols
• Hill Farmstead's Civil Disobedience 3
• Rock Art's Vermont Hop Harvest
• and two that I just happened to see and get, Rogue's Chipotle Ale and Dogfish Head's Bitches Brew

All in all a successful trip, and my wife didn't want to kill me more than three times.

Sam Adams Tasman Red - Beer Review

This isn't going to be a full beer review, because I stopped by Lowell Beer Works and had a glass of their new beer Godzilla, and well it kicked my ass.

Trying a few different beers tonight because, well I am a huge drunk and I am chasing that legendary badge in Untappd.  Anyway this has all lead me to Sam Adam's Tasman Red. Well actually a trip to Redstone Liquors did this, but I digress.

So at some point Sam Adams released a new line of beers, I say new line, because well the bottle looks different.

I have no idea where they came from, but they include a Blonde Barleywine, a Double IPA (I Will drink this later), a Chocolate Chili Bock and this, a Red IPA.

Whenever I think Red IPA I dream of Troegs Nugget Nectar, which is basically the best beer I have ever tasted, this is not that, but fear not this is still really good.  The bottle lists out some ingredients and I am sure they are all in there, but the one that catches my eye is Galaxy Hops. This is the hop that I am in love with currently and yes I fall in love with hops, want to fight about it?

Anyway, the beer, first we smell. The nose has the galaxy hops for sure, then some smoke to it. I look again at the bottle and see there are topaz hops too, no that's not the smell. WAIT! There is Roasted Dehusked Malt, that has to be it. Either way I like this nose, lets hope that the flavor holds out.

Taste...ok this is a winner, good mouth field, and the taste is solid. Some bitterness, but a good balance. There is grapefruit, some roasted malt, and some well normal maltiness. The finish is grapefruit, which I have been told is from the hops, and its something I enjoy...greatly.

I have always been a fan of Sam Adams, they make really solid beers, but nothing that really pushed outside of a certain comfort zone. This zone should be called the SAMS Zone. This is different from everything Sam Adams does, and this is a really good Red IPA. It's no Nugget Nectar, but its no slouch, and the price at about 5.99 a bomber is phenomal. Not sure how long they will prodcue this, but grab it while you can.

Wait...this wasn't suppose to be a full review...shit

Beer Review- Boulevard's Saison Brett

I snagged a bottle of this a few weeks ago, and had it sitting in my cellar for a while. First a word about my cellar, its actually my pantry, and just a part of a shelf in my pantry. Also this cellar can only be used during the cooler months, as in the summer it gets way to hot. Needless to say I am in the market for a second fridge.

Anyway moving on, a review of this beer...yea I got nothing. I just took my first sip of this beer, and it was amazing, saisony (yes its a fucking word), with funk involved (think earth, dirt, farmish tastes). I was hesitant to think this would be as good as people were saying it was, but it is.  The nose is funk, and yeast and man does it smell amazing, almost as good as it tastes.

I am going to stop right here, no review of this beer, its to good to analyze. I just want to sit back and enjoy this one. If you can get it, get it now, and give it to me...

TV Review - The New Girl

With the new TV season upon us I am going to comment on a few shows, some I watch, some I don't. This is the the latter...

Fact Number 1, Hipsters love Zooey Deschanel, no getting around this.
Fact Number 2, Hipsters are slowly taking over the world.

So if you take those two facts the New Girl has to be a hit right, WRONG.

Here's what will happen. My friend Yoshi puts the number of Hipsters around 9.8 million, and in theory most will watch the New Girl.  That's where the numbers start falling apart though, of that 9.8 million, about a million refuse to watch TV, don't own one and will make sure you know that. So that number is down to 8.8 million, but of that number, 8 million would never watch a TV show live, way to unhip, they aren't their parents you know! So 2 million will DVR it, and watch it at a fairly ironic time (say 2:17am).

So where does that leave the other 6 million or so? They will fire up their MacBooks to go to Hulu.com, and assume the show will be on there, if not...well shit will hit the fan. They will accuse the networks for not wanting something good to succeed, thus validating the fact that they hate anything popular. Some will try to torrent it, but that is just something most pretend to know about to be hip and most will fail.

So after that there will be about 700k hipsters and maybe a million non-hipsters watching The New Girl. Also once the hipsters find out their parent or a friends parent watched it and liked it, that viewership will take yet another hit.  I expect the show to last about 3 episodes.