Fall, Part 5 - Weather is Weird

So this past month, we've had 30 degrees and snow and we've had sunny high 60s, so I thought I'd channel that unpredictability with this post.

First, the ridiculous snow we had. Dear winter - go the hell away. Seriously - roads got sloppy, tree branches snapped under the weight of heavy snow, and I lost internet access for a whole two days. Horrible, I tell you, horrible!

Goose Island Mild Winter - another winner.

So we pray for a Mild Winter (see what I did there?). Goose Island's Mild Winter is a delicious malty treat of a beer. It's a nice deep brown with a great sweet aroma wafting up from a nice fluffy head. The first sip was beautifully smooth, with just a touch of bitterness on the back end to balance everything out. I couldn't really smell anything, but that might just have been a stuffed nose on my part. I had a hard time tasting any of the "spicy rye flavors" that Goose Island was touting, but I really enjoyed the beer's overall richness and dark fruit flavors. And Goose Island's got some slight balance issues (their IPA is aggressively hopped and their Bourbon County Stout could kill) but this one settled down nicely.

Sledding is very wintery.

Hockey Skates - also wintery.

I enjoyed the label as well - nice view of the Chicago Hancock tower on one side, and the Willis (née Sears) Tower on the other. I've become a pretty big fan of the city of Chicago over the last decade, and both it and the beer are worth a return visit.

Serving suggestion.

Ps. What's a Willi Glass?

And then there was that two week period of gorgeous late summer days and mild evenings, not even a week after the snow. In celebration, I grabbed a really nice Sierra Nevada Summerfest.

Sierra Nevada has the most scenic labels.

I'm usually pretty enamored of Sierra Nevada. Their Pale Ale is distinctive and delicious with just the right amount of bite for a good all-around beer. I wish I liked the Summerfest as much, I'll be honest.

Not a bad looking pour.

Color was off on the camera though.

I think a lot of the problem was just that I'm not as in love with lager these days. There was some great grassiness hay on the nose, and the pour was the pure bright gold of summer. It had, as it promised, "a crisp, refreshing finish," but I guess I didn't taste any of the "delicate spicy and floral hop flavor" that I was promised.

Overpromise + Underdeliver.

I think Summerfest's greatest strength is in how mild it is - I could put a lot of these back without overwhelming my taste buds, because there wasn't a lot of flavor there.

It did not take me long to finish this beer.

Maybe in the depths of August that's really necessary, but on an Indian Summer day in November, it was nothing more than my pathetic attempt to hold on to the fleeting sunshine.

More is... more?

A typical complaint I've had over the years is a reaction to the idea, especially in American brewing, that more equals more. Hops add flavor, so if we consider that American macrobrews (Budweiser, Miller, Coors, etc.) lack that flavor, then more hops equals more flavor. Sam Adams runs an ad that says they put a full pound of hops in every batch of their (I think) Boston Lager. But of course, there are other things that add flavor besides hops, because more hops will probably only mean more hops flavor. On the far end of this spectrum are beers that end up drinking like pine cones.

Hold still: I want to beat you about the face with this branch while you chew on a pine cone.

Among these is the Goose Island IPA. Out of Chicago, Goose Island picks up on a great Midwestern brewing tradition, though they've been in the news of late for moving productionof their signature 312 Wheat (named for Chicago's area code) out of Chicago entirely.

Now, I'm not here to pile on Goose Island for their business practices. I'm here to drink their beer. And drink it I have. The IPA pours a hazy dark gold with a nice fluffy head that traps a lot of wonderful grapefruit/lemon hops oils. That haze isn't a function of leaving the beer unfiltered: rather, this is probably due to the sheer amount of hops that are added. I also smell some pine as well.

Not a bad pour. And a classic looking label too.

The flavor is instantly bitter and sharp, like sticking my face into a pine forest and licking the branches. It's refreshing, in as much as being smacked in the head with a Christmas wreath could be refreshing. I honestly couldn't taste anything else after finishing half a bottle. With that in mind, I ended up drinking the rest of the bottle. And then another, and then another. Genius marketing strategy, Goose Island. I'M ONTO YOU.

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.

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.