Happy New Beer!

This is a time for celebrations, and some celebrations are tailor-made for a nice drink. Said Napoleon, "Champagne! In victory, one deserves it; in defeat, one needs it." While I'm not as down on champagne as Christopher Hitchens, I don't often reach for champagne when I'm thinking of celebrating. Instead, I'm much more eager for a beer, a cocktail, even a glass of wine. The thin astringency of champagne just isn't my thing, I suppose.

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

So I'm ringing in 2011 with a few choice beers. Chief among them, the Bourbon County, from Goose Island. Make no doubt, this is a very big beer, with a ton of alcohol flavor. Most of Goose Island's offerings are nicely balanced, but the alcohol brightness (13% ABV) was in the forefront of this one. Backup notes include caramel and creaminess, but the there's a lot of vanilla in each sip (from the oak of the bourbon barrels). Some bitterness at the end (again, alcohol and dark chocolate). Great with dark chocolate. I also tried this with a very salty dark pretzel, and this beer actually intensified the saltiness. After only several sips, this beer warmed from within. Sipping only - this is heavy stuff. Very nice, but pretty tough to drink a lot of.

I'm reminded of a few other days of celebration I've experienced this year. Moving backward through the year, there were a few delightful beers over the Christmas table this year, and while I'm going to review the full Sam Adams Winter Collection later, one stands out particularly celebration-worthy. Old Fezziwig is the beer for which the Winter Sampler is really known – it’s the best of the selection by far, and represents well the jollity and festivity of its Dickensian namesake. Old Fezziwig is redolent of ginger, orange, and caramel malt, maybe some cinnamon and nutmeg as well, which also mirrors the spendthrift attitudes that got Old Mr. Fezziwig into trouble, since those spices would have been rather dear in Dickens’ time. It’s pretty great stuff, since the maltiness provides the backbone that this beer needs. Overall, there’s a good reason folks love this beer – it’s warming and fun without being cloying or muddy.

Brewery Ommegang: Three Philosophers

Further backward still, Thanksgiving was a delicious feast of turkey, stuffing, gravy, and Ommegang's Three Philosophers Quadrupel Ale. This is a wonderful blend of ale and lambic that pours slightly auburn and tastes wonderfully of cherry and raisin. Lots of yeast and some slight alcohol burn. It went beautifully with the roasted turkey and with the cranberry sauce.

And at the start of the fall, on Rosh Hashanah, I tried He'Brew's Jewbelation. Since this is He'Brew's 13th iteration of this annual beer special, the brewery celebrated their own bar mitzvah with this beer. It's pretty heavy on the tongue and in the belly, being very dark and deep. There's a mellow and sweet flavor with lovely roasted malt smoothness, but then halfway through swallowing, the alcohol kicks in and punches hard. Low carbonation in the glass and on the palate, with dull lacing left on the glass, the label says it says it has 13 types of hops and 13 types of malt. In the battle between those hops and malt, the hops definitely lose, sadly overwhelmed by malt sweetness and alcohol bite. It's pretty delicious, but it's candy-sweet and tough to drink a lot of.

So from the Jewish New Year to the Gregorian one, have a great 2011. 2010 was pretty wacky, with Lagunitas releasing its yearly reflection in the form of Wilco Tango Foxtrot. Subtitle: A Malty, Robust, Jobless Recovery Ale. It's punchy, with a lot of alcohol to sweep 2010 out the door. Nevermind that WTF (no kidding) was released in March. It's delicious, with lots of coffee and dark chocolate, with amazingly well-balanced roasted malt notes. So a swift and hearty goodbye to 2010. Raise a glass to 2011. Or several.

Departures

Last Wednesday was my last day at work. I've been working at a really fun firm in Boston for a couple months, and have truly enjoyed learning from them. I was hired over beers, and I departed over beers. And had more than a few drinks with the attorneys after hours, so really, not bad. I'm moving to New Jersey, to take a job in Newark, so this blog will certainly stay bicoastal. That is, if Mr. West Coast gets off his ass. Punk.

The founding partner of the firm is from Vermont, so I picked a Vermont beer on our first outing: Magic Hat #9. It's pretty widely available, and I recommend it. Their own marketing doesn't really help, as they describe it in really stupid terms. Nonetheless, the beer is tasty, with a pretty refreshing bitterness that's balanced nicely with a sweetness that's neither sugary nor malty. It takes a couple of sips to identify, but that's the flavor of apricot, and while I've had bad experiences lately with fruit beers (hello, Sam Adams Blackberry Wibier), #9 has been a perennial choice. Perhaps not a favorite, but not a bad one either.

I should mention that one day, when our computers were down for 30 minutes, my boss invited us to grab a beer and put our feet up. There was a Brooklyn Lager, a Bud Light, and an Anchor Steam. Boss took the Bud Light. So while yes, the bosses like beer, I think that one still drinks like a fratboy. I had the Brooklyn Lager. Delicious as always.

On the last day of work, we had our traditional Monday Morning Meeting (at 5 pm on Wednesday, natch), and we got two sixers. Brooklyn Winter Ale and Dogfish Head 60-minute IPA. The Brooklyn Winter Ale was nice and warm, with a smooth drinkability that was most welcome after a long day's work. It wasn't harsh or spicy at all, just really smooth malts and a deep caramel. As for hops, I know a lot of people tasted some hops, but I didn't. This one was just really nice and smooth.

This Brooklyn Winter was consumed at my girlfriend's house, but it's the same beer.

The 60-minute IPA was delicious too. I've tried Dogfish's 90-minute (amazing) and their 120-minute (far too sweet and weird), so I was excited to get to try the 60. It's hoppy, alright, and for my taste, this is pretty much like eating a pine cone. Basically, this is to Bud Light what the modern gins are to vodka: bright, aggressive, and unabashedly unbalanced. It's not a bad beer, and it was drinkable when ice-cold. As it warmed up, the bitterness really took over, and it got kind of undrinkable.

And then, out at the bar (and after a well-made martini with three olives), I had a nice Shipyard Prelude. I really liked this one. I was a little surprised to find it a little stronger than expected (6.8% ABV), since it didn't feel so on the tongue. It oddly tasted a bit like butterscotch (basic winter-beer caramel flavors plus maybe some unctuous fattier notes layered on top), but I also tasted some banana and raisin as well. It wasn't heavy or cloying, was refreshing without being dry, and was a great last beer to have with friends before heading out into the cold.

Magic Hat Winter Howl - nevermind the fact it's in a Harpoon glass.

Oh wait, we're having dinner? At another bar? Um, OK. Actually, we returned to the same bar (and indeed, the same table) I was at when I was hired. I'm a pretty sentimental person, so I ordered another Magic Hat, this time, the Winter Howl. It was really nice, and not nearly as heavy as might be expected from a beer that color. That said, I got lots of coffee, some dark chocolate, and maybe raisin from each sip. Too bad my steak and ale pie was so watery - the beer was delicious.

Holidays

So I feel like we've let the blog go to seed a bit, and that's a shame, because if there's one thing the Holiday season lets me do with abandon, it's drink a great variety of fun things.

We started this blog immediately after the California, New York, and Massachusetts bar examinations in July, and between the two of us, we've passed all three and obtained licensure in one. I was sworn into the Massachusetts bar two weeks ago. A classmate of mine was sworn in as well, and we went out for drinks afterward in celebration. Her father generously treated us to a delicious Schramsberg Blanc de Noir to toast our successes, and it was fantastic. There was an underlying sweetness that was brightened by a good hit of tart acid. Really enjoyed it - yay California!

We were joined by my girlfriend at the Publick House, in Brookline, MA, which serves some amazing beers, in addition to some relatively good food (mainly peasant staples, like mussels, long braises, and choucroute). My girlfriend had the Ommegang Adoration Ale. We've been having pretty good luck with Ommegang so far. If you'll recall, we tried the Abbey Ale a while back and we also drank their Three Philosophers over Thanksgiving (post to come), and we have found them all to be quite delicious. The Adoration definitely followed in that same vein - it was punchy and rich, with a lot of malt and citrus, with a molasses base that made the whole thing taste a bit like fruitcake. Unfortunately, it was about as heavy as fruitcake too, and while flavor-wise it was far too easy to drink for 10%, I am glad I only sampled it. A whole glass might have deadened my stomach.

My classmate had the Allagash White, which is a really lovely witbier from Maine. We've had it before, and it's really very milky gold in the glass. However, it has a wonderful citrus quality that lifts the palate and refreshes nicely. I think, however, it wasn't quite the season for it - when the weather gets cold, I prefer something dark and rich. The golden color of this beer made me think of, and long for summer.

Finally, I tried the Berkshire Brewing Company's Holidale. I should mention that this was supposed to be amber in color, but because of the dim lighting in the Publick House, I couldn't properly tell. At 8.5% ABV, this should have been easier on the tongue than the Adoration, but that wasn't the case. Instead, what caramel, citrus, or hops flavors were supposed to be in there were buried by a thick blanket of spicy alcohol, and it left me feeling like I was breathing fire instead of being gently warmed from within. Too bad.

I also want to mention, per the absurdity of the law, that I had the Sam Adams Winter Lager last week. It was a dark orange color, with a lot of spice. First, when cold, the spice was all from the 5.6% alcohol content, but as the beer warmed up, I got more hops, maybe some nutmeg, and definitely caramel. No cinnamon, though, which was odd, because that's the only spice the label promised. The end of the sip tastes like mulling spices, but they were very muddled and would be hard to identify separately.

What got my attention was that the label calls it a Winter Lager. This is fine, as it's a bock, which is a type of lager. However, it then says, in small print, that it is a "malt beverage brewed with spices." I'm always curious about why beer is sometimes also labeled as a malt beverage. Honestly, no idea. Finally, on the side of the label, "Ale in TX." Apparently, Texas throws out the mechanical distinctions of Ale (warm fermentation with a top-fermenting yeast) and Lager (cold fermentation with a bottom-fermenting yeast) to say that anything above 4% ABV is ale. Ridiculous.