"Hoss" Rye Lager

5pm Saturday, nice beer

Hoss Rye Lager
Great Divide Brewing Company (Denver, CO)
(6.2% abv, my bottle was $1.87 at Ale Jail in St. Paul)

Picked this one up the other day just on a whim.  It's not what I expected and its kind of a neat idea.  Definitely worth trying!  Instead of going down the usual road of building up a rye pale ale, Great Divide instead put together what amounts to a rye Maerzen.  So it has a malty, rich body from the Munich malt that plays well with the spicy rye notes.  At the same time, the rye livens up the malt and keeps it from being overly heavy and full.  This is actually a really nice O'fest style!

By the way, the bottle says it pairs well with veal bratwurst, barbecue chicken, carnitas tacos, Camembert cheese and German chocolate cake.  I don't know about the cake.  But the rest, yes.  It's a good beer to serve with food.  I'll buy more!   Good idea, Great Divide.

Wine descriptors and BS and figuring out what I think

Should we really try to emulate the wine world in our descriptions of beer? It's an endless debate and I admit I go back and forth on this. The question was brought up for me again by an interesting article in Slate (here) which calls out the wine world for very clearly being influenced by price more than actual flavors in the descriptions.

I'm getting cassis and flint.

The sharpest critics call the high falutin wine descriptions out as bullshit and I can't say I completely disagree.* It's also elitist -- it's a pose as much as a position; it's meant to signal the author's own refinement and sensitivity as well as to demarcate those who "get" such descriptors from those clods who don't or can't or never had the chance to compare "truffle" and "graphite" or "black currant" and "fig". And it's also funny and slightly ridiculous and everyone knows it. (Soupçon of asparagus anyone?)

Still, I'm not quite so sure beer folks should throw out the idea of building better descriptors. I also prefer the more technical definitions of a beer, at least at first -- I want to know if it's dry or sweet, bitter or malty, thick or thin on the tongue. But "bitter" doesn't say much about the actual character of the flavoring hops -- are they like blackberry or pine tar, or are they like a squirt of grapefruit up your nose? And what about the character of the malt? Sometimes "fig" actually is what it tastes like!

I guess when it comes down to it, I think problem in the wine world is the pretension rather than the actual descriptors. Most beer descriptors are pretty direct and unpretentious -- even when we are talking about the non-mainstream beers.  Almost everyone know what grapefruit tastes and smells like, right?  And pine tar?  And more than once I've heard things at competitions along the lines of "this beer smells like apple Jolly Ranchers, doesn't it?"**

But sometimes the more exotic descriptions are actually apt and probably they are worth keeping.  There is a difference between black currant and fig, and beers can sometimes have either of those flavors. And if you've never had either -- well, maybe it's time to live a little.  Sometimes water character can lead a beer to taste "flinty" or even "gravelly". And no, I don't go around licking gravel, but your nose can and should pick up those "flavors" and sometimes you're sitting there trying to describe a beer and they seem right. And if someone describes an aroma in your beer as "sultana" instead of "raisin" or "white grape" or something, then maybe ridicule them for being obnoxious. But immediately after that, try your beer and see if just maybe they're on to something.

(I thought this was going to be a short post! By the way, Pete Brown has an interesting writeup of a wine/beer pairing comparison where he ends up favoring the wines, at least for some dishes. It's here if you haven't seen it.)

Notes:
* Personally, and this is just me, but I would prefer a different methodology for both of these. Instead of figuring by probability of a word for expensive or inexpensive, for example, why not use the data to build a vocabulary, and then cluster (or some similar relational method) by co-occurence?  Then test for differences across the price? That way, you can talk about types of descriptor. And you can test whether the differences actually compare with differences in the taste of the wines.

** I've also myself described some beers as smelling "like banana Now-And-Laters," especially the American beers that try for a Belgian thing without really handling the yeast well.  Actually the wikipedia list of Now-And-Later flavors is a good, non pretentious place to start with white wine descriptors too!

Brew Dog Hardcore IPA

Another snowstorm here in bee-uutiful St Paul today, so everything on the agenda is cancelled. Now the kids' playdates are over, it's time to drink a beer.

Brew Dog: They are hardcore

I recently wrote a bit about Brew Dog and said something stupid to a friend about not being able to get it here. This friend reminded me that you can...for a price. It ain't cheap, but I thought I should give it a shot, so I picked up the Hardcore IPA, and I'll try to get some of the others soon.

4 hop cones???

The beer is listed as an "explicit imperial IPA", with 9.2% abv. There is an odd bit of marketing on the back for an IPA -- the lads at Brew Dog (sorry, that's "two humans and one canine companion") set out to impress with a listing of all of the stuff that went into the beer, including (they say) 2,204 grains of Maris Otter malt, 9.9 trillion yeast cells, and....4 hop cones.  Umm... do they mean four varieties?  Or does "hop cone" have a different meaning in the UK that I'm unaware of?

As for the beer itself, it's very fruity/malty in aroma, with background hops. It actually comes across in aroma more like what Americans tend to think of as "barley wine" rather than "IPA", though admittedly there's a blurry line between them sometimes. The malt side of the aroma is plum/prune/toffee, with a sort of dried apricot ester. The hops are like orange, apricot and pineapple more than the punch of grapefruit/pine that typically mark US versions. It's definitely more "IPA" in flavor, with a big bitter kick in the teeth right up front.  It's a big beer but it's nicely attenuated. It's a bit full in the mouth but it's dry enough to actually drink a bit of it. Malt stays in the background in the flavor though again its a fuller, richer malt profile than many of the US versions. Nice, though I'm not sure it will bump Maharaja out of my fridge.  (Wife adds "This is good.  Mmmm-mmm-mmmmm.")

Beer for thought

What can you say when someone gets it so right?

Friend-of-the-little-beers Stan Hieronymus takes on the ranking mentality of Beer Advocate and Rate beer. The beauty of what he's writing comes in using a recent piece by Malcolm Gladwell (on the stupidly one-size-fits-all way of doing college rankings) to make a similar case for beer. It's a different take on the whole "style" debate.

(Stan's post is here.)

What's less clear is how one could do a better job. Pandora's music algorithm is one model Stan thinks about.  But that's a pretty formal way of going about it! I think a more "wiki" way that is more tied to description than rating might work too.  Think of the difference between book reviews and the star ratings of books on Amazon.  Star ratings (even with short opinions attached) are kind of dumb for products like books--or beers--which people can approach in different ways and for different reasons.*

As Stan says, how do you compare a pils to an Imperial stout? Well, one way is to have knowledgeable people approach both on their own terms. Read and decide for yourself. Some movies and beers are objectively bad and people will likely agree. Some are good in different ways and will appeal to different people. My own model for thinking about this is Roger Ebert, who likes some movies I hate, and hates some movies I like. But I always like reading his opinions and get something out of it.

This is something he has written on, though I can't find it now.  But a good example is his passionate takedown of 3D.  Whether you agree or not, you know exactly what he thinks and why.  By the way, I think his is also a good model for "best of" lists, which I think have their place.  Yes, they are idiosyncratic, and that's a good thing. Make a passionate case, let others make their own passionate case for their own choices. If only more beer reviews were like that!**

Whatever you think on this, be sure to check out Stan's blog and the discussion underway there.

Notes:

* I think about this a lot because in my real job I do a lot of book reviews for academic publications, and I am on the editorial board of a book review journal.  In that capacity I worry a lot about the very anodyne, paint-by-numbers approach that most academic book reviewers use.  There are reasons for this, but it absolutely kills actual, engaged intellectual debate.  Which is the whole point.

** If only more book reviews were like that!  

Bigger and friendlier?

This week I was thinking a lot about two stories that came up in the news. It got me wondering whether there might be an emerging "normal" trajectory for brash new startup breweries. Likely I'm full of it, but bear with me.

The first story was the news that local favorite Surly Brewing is planning and hoping to expand...a lot. Since starting up five years ago, they have grown quite a lot, and frankly part of their early marketing plan seemed to be to create huge word of mouth with big, brash, aggressive beers but rely on the scarcity of their supply to make them seem even rarer and more desirable.

The big, brask, aggressive part is easy to see -- call yourself "Surly Brewing" and label your beers things like "Furious" (their ridiculously hopped IPA)* or "Bender" (sort of a big porterish beer, my favorite of the lineup). While I don't know if scarcity was part of the plan or just a happy accident, it worked for them. They've had huge year-on-year growth, and a big expansion already, but the market is apparently nowhere near saturated with Surly beers.

So now comes the news that Surly is planning a new, $20m expansion which would include an entirely new brewery.  Along with this, Surly is lobbying the Minnesota legislature for a legal change that would allow them to open a pub and restaurant in the complex, which they envision as a sort of destination spot along the lines of New Belgium or Stone I think.

The other story comes from the UK, where punk-rock themed brewing bad boys Brew Dog released a super-insanely high alcohol beer, clearly to compete with Utopias in the just-coz-we-can category. (It's 32% and they call it "Tactical Nuclear Penguin".)** But British beer blogger Mark Dredge this week also had a nice writeup about going up to Scotland and hanging out at the Brew Dog-run pub.  ("Aberdeen is not as crap as I expected it to be") he begins.

But the story quickly runs to two points. Point one: despite the adolescent-with-attitude posturing that is clearly central to Brew Dog's brand image, the pub was nice. Not a punk rock hovel but "edgy" in the way that high-end hair salons are "edgy."  And clearly a departure from the dim, dingy and depressing spots that make up most of Aberdeen's pubs, apparently.

Point two: their signature IPA (named "Punk" no less) has been reformulated.  It was one of the beers Dredge championed before, but it now is slightly lower in alcohol, a touch sweeter, and definitely more approachable and quaffable.  Dredge is impressed.

So there you have it.  Two breweries that started up with great success and widespread acclaim, both trading on their edgy, brash attitude, outsider status, and focus on "extreme" beers.  Both, in a matter of a relatively short time, becoming quite successful -- so much so that they are no longer really outsider beers but breweries catering to a relatively large and increasingly mainstream audience even as they do the occasional stunt beer.

Where exactly is the tipping point?  And is it that the breweries have changed their attitude and approach or have the extreme brewers just dragged the mainstream over toward themselves?  I don't know.  But I will say that it's interesting to watch the bad boy brewers who start out screaming NO COMPROMISES start to mature into ... what? Semi-responsible semi-adults?

Notes:
* Surly refuses to call it simply a double IPA, as apparently that doesn't cover it.  Nor have they seemed open to calling it a "triple"  or something like that.  Perhaps in deference to them we could call it a trans-dimensional IPA?  Or is that too restrictive?
** Clearly, Surly is not alone when it comes to bombast.

Old Hooky

Image from Hook Norton.

Quick update.  I posted a few weeks back about the Hook Norton beers that I got my hands on at the time.  Since then I was able to find another, Old Hooky, a 4.6% beer that's kind of in between styles -- kind of dark and fruity for a bitter, surely light in gravity and mouthfeel for an old ale.  It's nice though!

Like many of the Hook Norton beers that I had, this had a slight haze -- they must use a powdery yeast, since I was careful not to rouse the lees in any of the beers.  The aroma is a really nice convergence of hop, malt, esters and sugars.  In all, it's a big fruit basket smell of oranges, dates and pears.  The flavor is likewise very fruity with a luscious, full, almost creamy mouthfeel.  It's really an incredible feat for a 4.6% beer.  Hop bitterness pokes through, but it's a very layered flavor experience -- malty, then bitter, then malty-bitter, then fading into an even finish, tailing off into bitter again.

It's a great beer and thankfully the bottle I got at Ale Jail seems very fresh.  I think Hooky Gold remains my favorite from the brewery, but this one is really well worth looking for.  For whatever reason, the British beers do not get to most of us midwesterners very often and they surely don't get her very cheap.  I think these large bottles of Hook Norton (1pt, 9 oz) are a bit over $5 each.  But if you haven't had many of the honest-to-God English ales, or if you haven't found many of them fresh, this is well worth it.

Any other Hook Norton beers you all have seen around that I should try?

By the way, two final thoughts just because they popped into my head:

1. The British beers don't travel well.  Some are really crap when they get on bottle shop shelves.  There aren't many even then.  Rejoice when you can find some fresh and then share and evangelize about them so people know what they are supposed to taste like.  You would not believe the number of BJCP beer judges who don't actually have much idea what a real bitter is supposed to taste like, simply because they've never actually had one! 
2. I've been lucky enough to have several, but even so, I remember getting interested in Hook Norton from reading the descriptions in this book, which fascinated me when I first got into brewing, but which frustrated me too.  Wheeler's so long on good description for so many beers, but the recipes always were all variations on the same thing.  Old Hooky he describes as a "rich and complex vinous strong ale" with a "complex balance of grain, fruit and hop bitterness...Deep bitter-sweet finish with raisin notes."  Actually, that about sums it up.  The recipe seems pretty close too -- he suggests a mix of UK pale and mild ale malts with crystal malt and flaked maze, and black malt and a good dose of sugar to round it out -- he suggests white, but I'd suggest at least caramelizing it first.  Oh, and Challenger hops.  For sure Challenger hops.  I'll have to brew this soon.  Wonder which yeast might get me closest to the Hook Norton strain?

Okay.  Not so quick.  Still.  Good beer.

Fresh beer, fresh year

Hola Amigos!  Long time since I rapped at ya.

Been meaning to update but a lot has been going on, especially the Upper Mississippi Mashout last week.  I'll post about that soon.  Till then, a few things in no particular order.

1. While the Mashout was fun and adventurous, I'm really kind of bummed that I did not get to the Muddy Pig for their hoppy beer festival.  The idea is great -- they devote a substantial amount of their really substantial tap space for a certain kind of beer (here hoppy beers, duh) and offer smaller servings of them so you can sample your way though a bunch.  I went to the stout fest last winter and it was really great.  Particularly since there are a lot of the more brutal American and Imperial styles of stout that I'd much rather have a small pour of than a large one.  I think everyone I was around this weekend was sick of me saying "boy, I wish I could get to the hoppy beer thing at the Pig."  So...anyone go?  Any standouts I should look for?
2. I mostly keep personal life off the blog.  It's not facebook, man.  A-non-a-mouse.  But I have been waylaid with the problem of helping my mother move yet again.  This is only relevant because for the last few months she has lived extremely close to the Happy Gnome in St Paul.  And I'm realizing while this has been a hell year from hell, I have really liked slipping away for a pint or two.  Because when the going gets low, the low go for a beer.
3. Speaking of the Gnome, they still have on tap the Dark Horse One Oatmeal Stout.  It's really really really good, and if you have not had it, go out and get it while you can.  Limited...looks like DH are planning to do a set of five stouts, though I have not had the others.  This one says "chocolate, coffee and caramel flavors" in the menu blurb, but it's really also plum, raisin and "sultana" as a pal of mine would say.  Yes, it's good enough for a trip.  Get it.
4. Speaking of a pal of mine, one of the goals of this blog was not just to get down my own ideas but to also give a forum for the community of folks I'm already connected to.  Lots of those folks have lots of ideas too.  I wanted to get this blog off the ground -- not that anyone's reading it, but you have to start somewhere.  But expect to see other voices beginning to chime in here over the next month or so.



Pint and lunch and empty bar at the Gnome

5. And speaking of getting down my own ideas, I've got a few beery thoughts that I've been stewing on recently.  I've resisted doing a "mission statement" like some bloggers do since I have to be disciplined enough in my professional life that I don't really want to do it here. But I do like the blog format and I am committed to actually saying what I think here even if others aren't likely to like it.  So here's as close to a mission statement I'll get: this blog will be beer related.  I promise that I'll try to think though things before I commit them to the blog.  But it's a blog after all.  If I say it I mean it, and I'm happy to talk with you about it further.  Too cryptic?  Anyhow as my buddy Jim Anchower would say, Adios.