Another Road Trip!

We hope to get a good night's sleep this coming Sunday, because the next day we leave for Oakland, CA, site of this year's AHA National Homebrewers Conference. We're getting there a couple of days early, so that we can bumble around San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday, we are fortunate enough to get a tour of the Anchor Brewery, after which we will continue on a beery tour of Frisco. Gotta visit Toronado, and have dinner at Magnolia, home of the wonderful Blue Bell Bitter. Wednesday will be a day for exploring the gardens of Golden Gate park, and resting up our quivering livers a bit. Then it's Game On at the conference, 3 days of Total Beer Immersion. OK, it's not that different from our daily routine, except that we will be doing it with hundreds of our far-flung fellow beer nerds, many of whom we only see at this annual hootenanny. There will be vast amounts of homebrew, commercial beer, 3 tracks of presentations on various aspects of beermaking and related topics, exuberant displays of creativity, and vast amounts of homebrew. Oh, yeah, snappy dressers, too...






You get the idea....

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Road Trip!

Friday after work, we are heading to Benton Harbor. Normal people would ask why, while making a face like they are beholding an especially messy diaper. Beer nerds would say, "The Livery! All right!" Not only is the Livery a fine brewery with a very interesting array of beers, but Bonerama is performing there, in their only Michigan appearance. Never heard of Bonerama? Well, let's just say that if you haven't heard War Pigs performed by three guys on trombones, you haven't lived. Next morning, we break camp and head for Chicagoland, where our friends are having a birthday party for their son. But on the way, we might find ourselves at the Hop Leaf for a couple, at the 5th Annual Drinking & Writing Festival, where our buddy Raymo is receiving an award. After the birthday festivities, we expect to meet up with our friend Steve, and have dinner at the Bavarian Lodge in Lisle. Check out their amazing beer list. Nora on tap! Sunday morning will come early, but we have to head home to get ready for the next trip... on Monday!

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New at Merchant's

Oh.....many good things! And, a new weekend guy, Kevin, who seems to be working out really well.

From my good friends at Montreal's unsurpassed Dieu du Ciel! brewery.....
RIGOR MORTIS ABT A Belgian-style abbey ale 10.5% EQUINOXE DE PRINTEMPS Scotch ale brewed with maple syrup. Excellent beers!!

From my new friends at Norway's Nogne O Brewery...
DUGGES SAHTI- Nogne O's take on the classic Finish brew. A collaboration
between Nogne O, and Sweden's Dugges Brewery. Brewed with heather honey and juniper. Truly unique!
"TOSHI" DOUBLE IPA -A collaboration between Nogne O, and Yo Ho brewing, Japan. 100BU, 8%ABV, Lotsa American hops.
SUNTURNBREW- A beer brewed "for the turning of the sun" on December 21st. It's a strong ale brewed with rye. 50BU. 11%ABV

From Japan!
SHIZUOKA NATSUMIKAN (Say that quickly!) From Baird Brewery. A malty beer brewed with fresh Shizuoka natsumikans (okay, it's a citrus fruit). They are even peeled by hand. Aromatic and lovely with our recent dinner of rare tuna, rice and edamame.
TRIPLE HOP ALE - Ise Kadoya brewery, Japan. Interesting brewery.
Interesting history. They make miso and soy sauce as well as beer. This is
a hoppy pale ale, 5.1%, brewed with, you guessed it, 3 different hops.

From Denmark!
MIKKELLER "NELSON SAUVIN" An American style IPA hopped solely with Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand. Very unusual. 6.9%ABV

More from Quebec!
LES TROIS MOUSQUETAIRES BREWERY.....
UNFILTERED DOPPELBOCK 9.5% I haven't tried this one yet, but will soon,
maybe with a pork loin.
RAUCHBIER Inspired by the Bamberg style, but really more like a smoked
porter. Rich, a hint of chocolate and toffee. Very nice...

ALLAGASH "CONFLUENCE"- the second in the Allagash series of mixed
fermentation beers comprising a Belgian yeast, and Brettanomyces. A
golden, dry-hopped beer, 7.5%ABV, and a good match with charcuterie and eggs benedict. So says their web page, and I think I might have to try the eggs suggestion!

GREAT LAKES BREWING "GLOCKENSPIEL"
Gotta love a beer with that name. It's a Weizenbock. And a lovely one.
Lots of "bock-ey" rich malt. Baked bananas and clove. If I had a baked ham
at home this would be the ticket!

From my friends at STONE BREWING....
SUBLIMELY SELF-RIGHTEOUS ALE A re-release of their 11th anniversary beer, a black IPA. 8.7%
CALI-BELGIE IPA - A California-style IPA with a Belgian yeast. 6.9% (It's
a Belgie, not a Frenchie.)

"FRULI" SRAWBERRY - From Belgium. Very fruity, a little tart, beautiful
colour. If you love the Lindeman's lambics, and you're a strawberry fan,
you'll love this beer! I think this beer will make a nice sorbet with a
little balsamic vinegar thrown in, and maybe some fresh basil.

And....Anchor Summer beer, Arbor Brewing Strawberry Blonde, (the return of) Jolly Pumpkin's Luciernaga and a new batch of Leelanau's Whaleback White (Michigan beer-of-the-month, on sale!).

Okay, I think that's it. I'm definitely going to try some of these beers
over the weekend. It's a chore sometimes, but as Mr Cicerone often says,
"a gentleman always helps a lady Cicerone with her homework."
Hmmm, what can I cook to go with the Whaleback White...

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Leftovers! Yay!

Two people are not going to finish a 3 1/2 lb. chicken in one sitting, at least not these two people. So two days after a barbecued chicken dinner, He-Cicerone made chicken salad with mainly breast meat, red bell pepper, green onion, a clove of roasted garlic, and some mayo. She-Cicerone sauteed some bok choy, green onions, and a bit of celery in oil, soy, and rooster sauce for a little side dish. We figured the chicken salad with some spinach on a pita would make a fine repast. While preparing the salad, we sampled a nice homebrewed southern English style brown ale sent to us by our new friend Brandon. It was a nice light bodied ale with a range of treacly, toffee, and black malt flavors, and I was a bit surprised to find that it went really well with the tidbits I was nibbling on while I worked. That beer was quickly gone, but I knew we'd have to have some schwarzbier, which has many similar flavors, and which is currently on tap. The original plan was to have some dunkel, so we had that, too. Mmm, mm.

Still two drumsticks and a wing left for someone's lunch, too....

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Utility Players?

In baseball, we talk of utility players, those who perform pretty well in many positions. There are some beers like that, too, that work pretty well with a lot of different foods. Many times, these are pretty simple beers that just provide a non-distracting contrast and refresh the palate. Irish stout is a classic case- good at cooling spicy Mexican- and Thai- singed tongues, cutting the sweetness of heavy sauces, etc. Moving upward in complexity, Munich lagers, both light and dark, seem to taste good with most any main dish- a good Helles can seem lightly hoppy or lightly malty depending on the food you're eating. Garrett Oliver seems to reach for a Biere de Garde an awful lot in his book The Brewmaster's Table; this is another characterful, but balanced, beer.

Who's your favorite 'utility player?'

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Chook and Beer

For those that don't speak Australian, a chook is a chicken. On Sunday morning, we looked down at our rather prodigious crop of sage, and I noted that the sight of that fine herb made me want to cook a chicken. So, I bought a chicken, and a cauliflower, (why the hell not!) and made fire. Tucked some sage under the breast skin, a little more in the cavity, along with some crushed garlic cloves and an onion. Roasted it at medium heat for a couple of hours with a smoky fire in the firebox, and another hour with just coals. During that last hour, the cauliflower, drizzled with oil in an iron skillet, joined the chook. A fine start. What about beer?

Well, Mrs. Cicerone had a backlog of homework, so we picked a few we thought might work. First up, a rauchbier from Quebec brewers Trois Mosquetaires. Rauchbier sounded like just the ticket. Actually, says the Shelton Brothers website, it's "inspired by rauchbier." A nice, very dark brown beer, it has a bit more in common with the typical smoked porter than Bamberg rauchbier. It stood up to the rich smoke and sage flavors of the chicken well. Another homework assignment was to revisit Routes des Epices(scroll down linked page for description) from Dieu du Ciel in Montreal. This deep amber-brown beer uses a portion of rye in the grist, and is spiced with black peppercorns (the name translates to "Spice Route" in English.) A wonderful beer with a wide range hearty food, if not a true utility player. I also kept a nice homemade helles nearby, for safety's sake. So how did all this work out? Well, the chicken had all kinds of flavor hooks to play with: smoke, caramel/browned, sage, garlic, meaty, fatty. The cauliflower also had some good browned/caramel flavors, as well. The Mosquetaires showed the merest hint of smoke, with roasty, coffee, and toffee flavors most prominent. Nice, but not a killer match. The Spice Route has caramel malt type richness, a bit of rye, and a fruitiness in the nose and the flavor. Plus the pepper, which contributes to the fruity, spicy aroma, and long, lingering glow. Black pepper is definitely on the list of good things to flavor beers with besides hops, and it's a good thing to put on your chicken, too. A great matchup. And the helles? Aww, yeah. Sage and Saaz hops play together nicely; a good pair in intensity and herbal character. Hard to go wrong with helles on your table....

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#300 At Fort Street

Must be something in the water! This is actually the 300th different beer for Doug. Quoth the Brewmaster:

It seems like only yesterday we celebrated our 200th beer (actually it was March 27th, 2008), but this Thursday, June 4th, we'll tap our 300th beer! To celebrate, we'll also tap our 301st beer! The 300th beer is a braggot style called "Noche de los Rabano". About 40% of the fermentables came from radish honey. This 8% ABV ale has a unique, somewhat spicy, and very dry finish. I would label it a "can't miss". Our 301st beer is our 4th edition of "Build A Beer" (the beer made with ingredients drawn from a hat). This month's version is also very unique. It's malty, without the sweetness, very hoppy, and quite low in alcohol. Since we're tapping a "Build A Beer", that means that we'll be drawing more ingredients for the 5th "Build A Beer". Good times! Good times!

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