To The Antipode!

I'd like to wish my Australian friends a very happy Australia Day last week (Jan. 26). I can't say I did anything particularly Australian on the actual day, but I went out to celebrate yesterday and ended up at a fine bar in New York called, simply enough, The Australian. I was quite pleased with their selection of beers, and I guess this Michigan guy is going to have to get used to a pint being $10.

First up, the Cooper's Sparkling Ale. This is a sort of middling golden beer with a good head. I've had this in a bottle, and rather enjoyed it, but the draft was oddly less satisfying - the unfiltered nature of the beer wasn't exactly on display, while the extra flavor that the yeast generally provides was again lost. As for the "sparkling" nature of a sparkling ale, that is, the unsubtle carbonation, as I mentioned already, this beer had a really thick head, much to the detriment of its carbonation. So while this was in the bottle and on tap, next time I think I'll go with the bottle.

Cooper's Extra Strong Vintage

Next, the Cooper's Extra Strong Vintage Ale. This is more like it - this was a thick and creamy ale with a strong alcohol kick but none of the alcohol bitterness: just dangerously smooth drinking. I particularly enjoyed the darker roast in the grain and the additional malty sweetness that well and truly kicked the Sparkling Ale's ass. This was delightful, rich, and complex, and yes, also quite strong.

Of course, when I went up to the bar to order another Cooper's, I was informed that because there was a Bud Light representative at the bar, the Goose Island IPA could be charged to the promotion. I couldn't quite make heads or tails out of that, but when I ordered the Goose Island and wasn't charged, I was pretty happy. If faced with paying for a beer or getting a Bud Light, I'd probably have paid for the beer. But Goose Island for free? Yes please. The IPA has a great floral hops bitterness on the tongue, with enough dry astringency to refresh but not to pucker. I couldn't have been more pleased with this free acquisition.

Keen's Steakhouse Pub.

The naked lady matchbox cover is a replica of the naked lady painting over the bar.

Finally, I ended up at the bar at Keen's Chophouse for a burger and a beer. The beer was a proprietary ale that was on the golden and thin side. My burger was incredibly sticky and juicy (finally - a medium rare burger that was well and truly medium rare!) so the beer did exactly what I needed it to do: cut through the fattiness and provide a spicy counterbalance to the unctuous juices coming out of my burger. Other than that, quite unremarkable.

East. Far East.

Well, I've been a little preoccupied with the day-to-day routine of my job, though that has a lot less to do with the demands of the position and a little more with the snow that keeps getting dumped on Newark. For real - it's snowing again tonight.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've started into a new job and moved into a new apartment, and the one thing that saddens me the most is that I don't have a local bar near my place. Actually, the thing that saddens me the most is that the heat in my apartment is controlled by the elderly owner of the building, and I think she's trying to get us all to grow tropical fruits in our bedrooms. It's 77 degrees in my apartment right now. So beer helps with that.

Like drinking banana-flavored pancake syrup.

Today, I'm drinking the Ginga Kogen "Silver Bottle" Weizen. I'm a little concerned that the bottle isn't silver - it's dark blue. But the label is silver, and I suppose that's what they mean. There are antelope on this label, and I was heretofore unaware that there were antelope in Japan. This beer is very pale, with an aroma of sour hoppiness that I wasn't a huge fan of at first. The head disappeared quickly, and what's left has a sort of unctuous quality on the tongue. Initial flavors of citrus melted into a very sweet core of banana esters, with a hoppy bite that clears the palate at the end. It sits rather heavily in the stomach as well: something about being so thick and yet so stingy with the carbonation, I think. Ultimately, the sweet banana flavor and syrupy texture will take a lot of getting used to, and I just don't think I'm willing to make that effort. Delightfully, the Ginga Kogen website also doubles as a tourism shill for the region.

Hello? Hello taste? Where are you?

Bonus Beer: Yebisu Premium. This was a very thin lager with very little in the way of hops, depth, or backbone. Instead, what I got was honey and sweetness. Yebisu is marketed as an "all-malt beer," and while that's just fine, there was none of the caramel sweetness that I have come to associate with malt. Instead, it was a very one-dimensional sweetness that I didn't quite care for. Yes, I tend to be a dark-beer snob, but I have absolutely enjoyed a good many lagers. This just wasn't one of them.

Give me Irish coffee or give me death!

First they came for the Four Loko, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a binge-drinking 17 year-old...



As many of you probably know, the FDA effectively forced the makers of Four Loko to reformulate their beverage and remove the malt alcohol from the allegedly fruit-flavored energy drink. Some state legislators don't feel like we're doing enough to protect our children (and ourselves) from the menace of caffeinated cocktails. Iowa state Sen. Brian Schoenjahn (D-Arlington) has proposed a bill that would make it a misdemeanor for any business with a liquor license to "manufacture for sale, sell, offer or keep for sale, import, distribute, transport, or possess any caffeinated alcoholic beverage." A "caffeinated alcoholic beverage" is defined as "any beverage containing more than one-half of one percent of alcohol by volume, including alcoholic liquor, wine, and beer, to which caffeine is added." Thus, this bill, if passed, would effectively outlaw not only the old-version of Four Loko but also cocktails containing both caffeine and booze such as the red-bull and vodka or my beloved--the Irish coffee.

Now, West Coast, though currently residing in San Francisco, hippie-capital of the People's Gaypublic of Drugifornia, is actually a corn-fed Iowa boy. And let me tell you, it doesn't get much more anti-Iowan than telling people what to put in their cocktails. Our liberties we prize and our rights we shall maintain, Senator Schoenjahn! We Iowans cherish freedom. We love our booze! Iowa ranks fifth in the nation with 3.73 bars per 10,000 people. Senator Schoenjahn, I suggest you step away from the Irish coffees or I'm going to have to move back home and raise an army of concerned pre-alcoholics to keep you from re-election.

Hat tip - Reason magazine

Not for everyone

While waiting for a late-night reservation a few friends and I decided to grab a quick drink at B3, a burger and wine bar in our neck of the woods. Not in the mood for wine, I saw that they had an a stout on tap that I hadn't seen before, the "Breakout Stout" by Marin Brewing Company. The Bartender excitedly mentioned that his distributor told him that he was the only place in San Francisco that had it on tap. Curious, I ordered a pint.

The beer looked nice, it poured quite dark with caramel head and very mild carbonation. Given the nose, mild chocolate and coffee notes, I was really looking forward to a sip. The first sip was really quite good, I tasted chocolate cake, a mild smokiness and there was a mild alcohol finish. Pleased, I took a second sip. The sweetness vanished and what I was left tasting was alcohol, hops, and iron. My mouth felt parched from a strong, drying (almost tannic) aftertaste that was not at all pleasant. Although advertised as having "a long finish," I can assure you that this beer should not have been called "finished" at all. I should point out that I love bitter beer. Bitterness wasn't the problem with the Breakout Stout, but rather the acrid and tannic mouth feel. Nonetheless, having paid San Francisco prices for the damned pint, I was determined to finish it. After a while, the 7% ABV started to kick in on my empty stomach, and my dulled senses found the Breakout Stout more palatable. Not by any means something I'd order again, but palatable.

As I finished the glass, the bartender asked me what I thought. I explained that I enjoyed the first sip, but that the finish was a bit unpleasant. The bartender looked at me, seemingly dumbfounded, and stated dryly, "well this beer isn't for everyone." Personally, I think that unless you're in the mood for a bracing aftertaste, this isn't for you.

Gauguin

One of my favorite art history class moments is linking up the Gauguin painting "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" with the Calvin and Hobbes strip quoting that very strip. I learned two things that day: that Calvin and Hobbes were much deeper than I had ever imagined, and that I needed to learn more about art history if I was going to appreciate the world around me.

Used entirely without permission.

The turning of the calendar always brings out my more contemplative and reflective side, and this is no exception. I've moved to New Jersey, and I've had to grapple with the real questions of what I want out of life, and whether I'm willing to pay out the nose in rent to get it. Answer to part (b): not really.

So it's in that spirit that I review three beers that represent where I'm coming from, what I am, and where I'm going.

Where do I come from?

Just north of the City of Oxford is a town called Bicester, which is home to Oxfordshire Ales. A little over 4 years ago, I left New Jersey to attend Oxford University, where I converted dollars into pounds, and further converted pounds into pints. It was glorious. Oxfordshire Ales' Pride of Oxford takes me back to those summer days sipping session beers in lieu of library reading. It's really nice and beery, with a certain sweetness that doesn't feel like it came from malt (maybe even some banana esters at the back of the sip). It pours a straw-gold, with a very thin head, so the hop aroma isn't as pronounced as it could be. It's light on the tongue, crisp without being sour, and bitter without being astringent. Rather, it's very refreshing, with an aftertaste that leaves you wanting more instead of coating the throat and punching you in the head. At 4.2% ABV, this is a nice beer for a lazy day.

What am I?

Boston's own Harpoon brewery is truly a hometown favorite. Their Chocolate Stout is a jet-black pour with a head that dissipates almost instantly. The nose is redolent of dark chocolate, and the beer is creamy and rich in the mouth, with wonderful dark chocolate flavor and hints of bitter black coffee. However, its weird metallic aftertaste is a little off. This beer feels much stronger than its 5.9% ABV would suggest, and the bitterness is borne of the alcohol and not of the hops. As such, there's a burn in the aftertaste that makes this beer pretty good with actual dark chocolate, but not with food.

Where am I going?

Finally, I started my new job today, and Flying Fish's Exit Series of beers seems like a great way to start my new employment in Newark, New Jersey. Specifically, I'm celebrating my new employment with their Exit 13 Chocolate Stout, which attempts to channel the Port of Newark. Fair enough, since they're actually one exit off for the downtown. But whatever.

Exit 13 is dark and forbidding, with an inky pour and a thick brown head. Immediately, one smells sweet toasted malts and caramel, which is very promising. Flavors of creamy milk chocolate win the day on this one, with only a hint of maybe lemon citrus on the very tail end. The finish is dry, but not aggressive, and both the carbonation and flavor are smooth and full. This, I have to say, is a good sign: I think I'm going to enjoy New Jersey.

Jubelale is a really great name for a winter beer

West Coast here, with a review of two seasonal releases: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s “Celebration” Fresh Hop Ale, and Deschutes Brewery’s “Jubilale.”


Sierra Nevada on the left, Deschutes on the right.

First, the “Celebration.” The Celebration poured with medium carbonation and as you can see above a nice dark amber color. I found the nose reminded me of a rainy garden with some meaty undertones. The Celebration is subtitled as a “Fresh Hop Ale,” and I found that while the flavor of the hops in the beer wasn’t pronounced upon first sip, it kicked in quite strongly at the finish. In the middle I tasted lemon and orange citrus. While I enjoyed the Celebration, I personally found that the mouth-feel was a little unbalanced, and didn’t enjoy the harshness at the end. I’m a big fan of IPAs, of bitter beers, but there was something about the harshness at the end that I didn’t enjoy.

Next up is Deschutes’ “Jubilale.” If you hurry, you might still find some of this at your local grocer or beer store, but Deschutes stops production in December (it’s apparently available starting in October but I didn’t see it in my local store til December). The Jubilale is 6.7% ABV, and pours a deep mahogany color with a nice foamy head. It has a pleasant mineral nose. This beer starts out sweet, with flavors of malt and caramel, then the alcohol takes over and you’ll enjoy stone and oak flavor, finally there’s a pleasant and mild hoppiness at the end. I quite enjoyed the Jubilale and think it would stand up strongly and pair well with the heartier cuisine of wintertime.

Last Season's Beers

As East Coast points out, I have fallen a bit behind. Just remember these beers the next time that Autumn comes to the bay area.

A beer that I should have talked about several months ago is the Bruery’s Autumn Maple. The Bruery is located in Orange County, CA, and I tried this beer at one of my favorite beer-bars, Pi. I found the Autumn Maple to have a strong roasted yam flavor with notes of alcohol and maple. Despite these sweet flavors the Autumn Maple is well balanced and not at all cloying. I’ll be checking out another Bruery offering soon.

I finally had the pleasure of tasting another one of the Russian River Brewing Company’s beers, this time the Consecration. The Consecration is barrel aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels and unsurprisingly pours with a reddish color. I found it both sweet and tart, and tasted lemon cake, minerals and rhubarb with a finish reminiscent of coconuts. I’m not sure why I fixated on those very specific flavors, but I did.

My favorite beer this fall was from Moonlight Brewing Company. Moonlight makes Death and Taxes, what I believe is one of the finest Lagers in California. I absolutely love it, and when the bartender alerted me that she was carrying another one of Moonlight’s beers, the “Homegrown” Fresh Hop Ale I immediately ordered a pint. I was not disappointed. The Homegrown is an exemplary beer, with a nose of apricot and citrus, crisp minerality, and a strong hop profile. The Homegrown is brewed with hops immediately after picking and you can taste it. Definitely worth checking out if you can find some.

Now that I'm back on the horse, look forward to a review of several winter brews later this week, while they're still in stores.