Bending Tradition part 1: Baltimore MA

There is something inherently authentic about Pratt St Ale house in downtown Baltimore. Partially it the location; the bar is in an old brick building just far enough away from the harbor to avoid a lot of tourist traffic, but close enough for convenience.
Its partly because of its unassuming nature. Their beer clearly follows a traditional English theme, but it doesn't beat you over the head with that fact.
Most of all it is a traditional bar for the same reason a dirty dive bar named McLeary's is more Irish than the big Irish-themed bars with Guinness cocktails and waitresses wearing plaid skirts. It's traditional, not because it tried to be. It just is.
I had the rare opportunity to make this bar my home for the better part of three days. Normally time constraints only allow me enough time to stop by for a single evening, have cross section of interesting beers and wrote up some pithy comments that make it sound like I know what I am talking about.
This time I a actually got to spend quite a but of time and, it should be noted, I still didn't have time to wade through all of their creations. Pratt Street Ale house is not a brewery per se, rather they serve beer from Oliver Brewing Ltd. The also pour a great deal of beers from other local breweries. What I am saying is that there is quite an extensive menu to get through. So grab a beer and let's get started.

Merry SOB

I started with a seasonal beer known lovingly as the Merry SOB. It's actually a cooperative brew with two other local breweries, the Brewers Art and Stillwater. This is a dark Belgian style holiday beer. It starts rich and malty with a lot of tropical fruit, citrus and raisin flavors. It tries to blend that with slightly spicy bitter hops. It finishes a little dry and the combination leaves a strange aftertaste. Not bad but I don't see myself drinking a lot of it.

Pagan Porter:
Not a lot to say about this one. Light roasted malt aroma. Malty and roasted off the top and finishes dry with bitter English hops. Very simple beer, but it's everything a porter needs to be.

3 Lions

3 Lions: In the porter they went for simplicity, in their English Brown Ale they... er... didn't. It had a very sweet,, nutty aroma. Flavor starts with caramel and light fruit, like apple or pear. The hops add a touch of balance with some pine, herbal and some liquorice flavors. Medium bodied drinkable beer. I liked this one.


Daft Punk: This ale is "American as it gets.". The idea is that they took an American IPA and, as Americans are want to do, made it bigger stronger and faster... or at least hoppier.  It has hops during the boil, hops added after and hops during fermentation.  Let it be known that while I enjoy IPA's, when brewers start adding hops as if it were an Olympic event, I usually have to bow out.  From the description provided by the bartender, I was pretty sure this was going to be one of those.  The aroma suggested something different.  There were, of course, Northwest hops in the aroma, but they were very slight.  The flavor was pretty well balanced.  Though I am not sure if this is the quintessential American IPA that they advertised that it was, it was pretty good.  It started off with Northwest citrus hops and slowly blended to spicier English hops towards the end.

I am going to leave this as it is for now.  More to come later.  Cheers.

Blessed Art the Drunkards: St. Paul MN

Back in Minnesota. Since my last post was in Minneapolis, it might be argued that I never left. Well I did, I had to go to Sandusky Ohio, but there was nothing worth talking about. Seriously, there was an Applebees and a Chilies, that's about it.
So I am back in the twin cities and I realized that I have kinda ignored one of the twins, and anyone that's had to deal with twins, it's best not to ignore one. So it was off to St Paul and Great Waters Brewing.

Located in the heart of St. Paul, Great Waters has a bit of legend attached. It occupies an old building that was supposedly built on the old St Paul's Cathedral, and the secret ingredient to all of the beers is holy water from the well. I have to challenge this claim as most of my friends would say that it would be impossible for me to ingest holy water without bursting into flames. It could also be that the amount of rotgut I have ingested acts as a buffer.

It's still the season for holiday beer so I started with the Yuletide. This had a wonderful spicy aroma. I counted cinnamon clove coriander and orange peel. The spices came through in the flavor first, followed by some medium roasted malt and finished just slightly bitter. Nice complex and well balanced beer.
I was glad I got a pint when I did because the keg sputtered out a few minutes later. Sorry, kids, you'll have to wait until next year.

Next was Fire King Cole, billed as a smoked scotch ale. It had a very light malty aroma. The flavor was not quite as subtle. It started off with lots of sweet malt and smoke. It kind of reminded me of hickory BBQ sauce in a strange way. The smoke flavor lingered with a bit of pepper in the back.

It was time to move on to one of the cask aged beers the had available. I went for the Blackwatch Oatmeal Stout. There's nothing like a heavy black stout to complement a cold winter night. I guess it would make sense that a city famous for God-awful winters would create a stout big enough to deal with it. Nice full bodied beer with chocolate and coffee flavors and aromas. Finishes with just a hint of English hops.

Now time for my nomination for most randomly awesome beer name ever, the Timma! And, much like its South Park namesake, a little bit goes a long way. This is a bit of a hop bomb. There is some very light barely detectable caramel sweetness before its torn to shreds be citrus and herbal hops.

Finally I ended with another cask ale, the new Centurian. This is billed as a vintage session beer, though I'm not entirely sure what part is vintage, although it reminds me of a cream ale I brew out of Belgian malt. It a has a warm malt aroma with hints of raisin or date. This beer is brewed with oats and it gives it a lot of body. Flavor is very light consisting of light fruit sweetness and finishes just slightly bitter.

Well that's all from the frigid northlands for now. The next stop is Baltimore MA. In fact I am so behind that I am finishing this post at a bar in that city. Find out which bar next.... Uh... whenever I get around to it. Now don't bother me, I am drinking.
Cheers.

Town Hall Meeting: Minneapolis MN

Happy New Year.  This is, of course, the first post of 2012 and I am starting this year by revisiting Minneapolis.
Last time I was here, stumbled into one of the smaller local breweries that specialized in German style beers.  On this visit I found Town Hall Brewing in Minneapolis.  Definitely less specialized, but seems to be a favorite hang-out among the locals.

Town Hall's original location is in downtown Minneapolis near the University of Minnesota.  On their website the mention that they are doing some expanding at the moment to keep up with demand.  Part of that expansion was the addition of a taproom farther to the South.  That is the location that I stumbled into on a Friday evening.  It was completely filled.  Completely.  I ended up ordering a beer while awkwardly standing at the very edge of the bar waiting for a seat to open up somewhere.
It took a little time and some rather impressive reflexes to finally snag a seat and enjoy the beer I had ordered, the Marsala Mama IPA.  It's Pretty average IPA in my book.  It had a very strong aroma of lemon and grapefruit. The taste was slightly different, it seemed to be much stronger on the pine and herbal flavored hops than the citrus.  There was still a hint of lemongrass, but this one was much more like an English IPA being drier and being loaded down with the bitter herbal hops that stick in the back of the throat.
The food there was pretty typical pub fare, although I ended up with a beer-basted brat that was pretty excellent.  It was the special for the day, so I think it is a 'get it while you can' kind of deal.
I moved on to the Java Porter Those who don't like the taste of coffee in their beer should probably pass this one up all together.  I liked this one for the simple fact that the brewer obviously had a goal in mind and he accomplished it.  The aroma is just like a mocha.  The flavor: pretty much the same.  It was a little sweet for my tastes, but overall it was very smooth and very drinkable.

Finally, I had one of the seasonal beers they had on tap.  Town Hall has four or five regular beers on tap at any given time, and about as many seasonal offerings that they rotate in and out.  Right out of New Years, they still had their holiday seasonals on tap.  I had a bit of their Elves Elixir, a Belgian-style IPA.  This may seem like an inherent contradiction in terms, and it very much is.  Belgian beers an known for their rich, malty character as opposed to the highly bitter, floral flavors of an American IPA.  But I have seen the two styles make sweet love before and produce a love child that, strangely, lives right next door to me.  The Hop God, produced by Nebraska Brewing Company is also a fusion of Belgian and IPA styles and is still one of my favorite beers.  Elves Elixir had a banana-nut and citrus nose.  I picked up a surprising amount of coriander and clove spice in the flavor, along with tropical fruit.  It slowly moved to a bitter, dry finish.  When I first started sipping this beer, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not.  By the end the Elves Elixir proved surprisingly drinkable.  I came to like it quite a bit.

With that, I want to wish everyone a happy 2012.  I'm looking forward to my travel schedule coming up.  If plans hold true, I will find myself in Tennessee next.
Cheers!

I Have Sinned on Christmas: Las Vegas NV

Contrary to the title of this post, I am not actually spending my holidays in Las Vegas.  As much fun as it would be to get a pint of holiday cheer from a showgirl dressed in half a Santa outfit while listening to Sinatra sing 'White Christmas' over the cacophony of people pouring their children's college money down an insatiable maw while desperately hoping that it will vomit up a small portion of it into their face, it's just better to be home.  I was actually in Vegas about a week ago, and have only just gotten the time to sit down and assemble my notes into some legible form.  So for friends and family that may read this and worry that I spent Christmas alone, far from home and neck-deep in depravity, do not worry.  I spent Christmas at home neck-deep in depravity.  I just thought the title was kind of funny.

On a side note, typing the title of this post into Google did not produces half as much hilarity as I would have liked.  Oh well. 

 

One would rightly assume that The Strip is probably not the best place to seek craft beer.  There is a place, however, that is hidden in and behind and around the florescent nooks and crannies of this city.  The Sin City Brewing Company has managed to carve out a few holes in the endless hotel/ casinos that line the street.  These places are a bit hard to find if you are looking for them, but they are there.  I managed to unearth two out of the three locations, and I can safely assume that I wasn't missing anything new at the third.

I stopped at the Sin City location within the Planet Hollywood Miracle Mile first.  It took quite a bit of walking around, but I finally found it right next to the indoor rain storm that goes off every hour on the hour.  Once I had located it, I figured out why it was such a pain in the ass to find, it is really small.  It is little more than a dent in the wall that contains a bar with about 8 seats, a rack of merchandise and a window for picking up a glass of beer to go.  It kind of reminded me of an airport bar complete with displaced denizens drunk on overpriced booze.  While I am on the subject, although a glass of beer will set you back $6 at Sin City, it's actually not that bad when you keep in mind that you are in a city that has the audacity to sell bottles of Bud Light for the same price.  However, I do object to their serving beer in a plastic cup.  I am aware that most of their customers are not as interested in aroma and flavor as they are simply getting as much alcohol into their bloodstream as quickly as possible, but still...

Sin City Brewing boasts four regular beers and a seasonal offering.  I managed to try them all except their light beer which I assumed was something they brewed for people who demand a Budweiser regardless of where they are in the known Universe.

I started off with their Refreshing German Wheat.  It was pretty good, but nothing surprising.  It had an aroma of light tropical fruit and clove. It has medium body, starts with light banana, tropical fruit and subtle clove and coriander spices in the middle. It finishes with a light lingering banana flavor that isn't unpleasant.

Next was a glass of the Full Bodied Oktoberfest.  It had a very light, almost non-existent roasted aroma.  The first sip was a different matter, this beer is a malt bomb. It is very sweet with nutty, roasted flavors and no detectable hops whatsoever.   Much like the German Wheat beer, it follows the style of an Oktoberfest, but that's about it, there's not a lot of complexity here.

Curiosity drove me further North along Las Vegas Blvd.   The little booze nook at Planet Hollywood was fine, but I wanted to see Sin City's largest bar was housed in a Vegas original, The Flamingo.  I didn't have the presence of mind to actually clock the amount of time I spent wandering the casino, but I am pretty sure I stumbled aimlessly for at least an hour.  Right as I was about to give up, I finally found the bar tucked away among the clothing shops near the parking garage.  I took my seat and continued my tour.

Next was the Classic Irish Dry Stout.  This was basically a Guinness clone with a barely noticeable increase in hops that produces a dry, bitter aftertaste. It was pretty enjoyable, but nothing all that complex or interesting.

 Their seasonal offering while I stopped by was an IPA. This seemed to be an odd choice for a winter seasonal.  I asked the bartender about this at Planet Hollywood, and was informed that their seasonal beers just kind of rotate arbitrarily.  This kind of defeats the purpose of a seasonal beer in my book, but that's just one traveler's opinion.  True to form, there was nothing all that earth shattering here either.  It was pale with a light head, slightly sweet off the top and contained just enough Northwest citrus hops to be considered an IPA, but not much more than that.    This beer, like all of their beers, seem built to be approachable for the typical Vegas tourist and not much more than that.  Their beers are pretty good.  Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but good.  The staff wasn't at all knowlagable about their beers, but they were friendly and kept the plastic cups filled.

One more side story before I wrap this one up.  While sipping the stout at the Flamingo, I managed to see a bottle labled 'Sin City Whiskey' tucked among the rest of the bottles.  I asked the bartender if this was a whiskey distilled by the same brewery.  He said that it was and so I ordered a shot.  It was quite good, extremely smooth with a sweet quality that made me think of rum complete with hints of nut, pine and leather.  When I got home and did some reasearch, I found that this was not produced by the brewery, but a seperate company all together.  I'll keep that as a cliffhanger for now.

And that's my last post for 2011.  I hit the road again early next year.  Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.  Raise a glass.

Deciples of Papazian: Denver CO

Well my travels have taken me back to the city at the edge of the Rocky Mountains.  And once again I find myself wandering the streets around the LoDo district of Denver.  Last time I was here, I stopped by the Falling Rocks Tap room for a taste of what they available at the time.  It was tempting to go back, last time I was there around the holidays they had an amazing selection of dark winter beers, I decided it was time to venture onward.  On this day I stopped by Wynkoop brewing company.

I am pretty sure I have spoken before about this city's deep connection with the art of craft brewing.  I think I saw something along the lines of 4 or 5 different breweries in the LoDo district alone, and if you happen to find yourself on the outskirts of town, history has shown that new and creative brew can still be located and enjoyed.  Denver is a beer town, to put it mildly, and from what I heard from the bar staff, this bar is ground zero.  The head brewer, Russell Schehrer, brought the art of craft brewing to Colorado back in 1988.  His ideas and brews were so innovative that after his untimely death in 1996 the American Brewers Association awards those who make great strides in the art of brewing with an award that bears his name. 

Given the history of this bar, I suppose that it is no surprise in retrospect that one of the first things I noticed in the bar was a hand-painted wall decoration honoring the greats in the craft brew revolution and the resulting Great American Beer Festival that contributed to its rise.  It stands as an altar to the legends that revolutionized the art of brewing in America.  From the top and center, Charlie Papazian looks down over the bar reminding us to "Relax and have a home brew."

I started with Pattys Chile Beer, a light beer brewed with Anaheim peppers.  This is not the first beer that I have had that uses hot peppers and I quite like the spicy aroma that it produces.  The peppers add a good amount of flavor with heat that doesn't linger the way spicy food does.  This beer was all that and more. Along with the strong smells and flavor from the peppers there is a goodly amount of hops at the back that really complement the sweet and spice that first hits the palate.

Next was the St. Charles Extra Special Bitter.
I found that I made the mistake in ordering the gumbo. That isn't to say it wasn't good, it was absolutely delicious.  It was also very spicy; it's the sort of spice that makes me physically sweat when I eat it.  Suffice to say that when it came time to taste this beer, my sinuses were in a state of moderate distress. The brewery notes on the beer says it has, "an elegant hop aroma," and I am inclined to take their word for it.  Flavor wise, it has a wonderful smooth taste. A little on the sweet side with orange spices back with a healthy dose of hops that manages to come through without being overpowering.  The pint came out with a very thick snow-white head that looked as good as it tasted.  Overall I think this was my favorite of the beers that I sampled.

Sadly, my obligations to my employer forced me to cut it short on this night so that I could be in some sort of state to wake up very early the next morning.  I finished Wynkoop's flagship beer, the Railyard Ale.  The first thing that really made me arch my eyebrows in interest is the body of this beer.  It's brewed as a session beer, it has a very light aroma and the flavor has some light roasted malts with just a touch of hops in the back for balance.  The body on this beer is a different matter.  I reminded me of one of those guys on ESPN 5 who are about 4' 5" and can bench press a tractor trailer.   I'm still not sure what I think about this one.  As a session beer, it's really not my ideal, but I got to respect how different it is.  I don't think I would buy a lot to keep at my house, but I would buy a lot to bring to parties and force it upon my friends.

I got one more destination before we bid 2011 goodbye and move on to the bright and shiny new year.  I will be finishing my 2011 tour in Las Vegas, Nevada before heading home. 
Cheers!

The Coldest Winter: San Diego, CA

I'm down in San Diego this week. As a man who is used to spending the winter freezing my freaking balls right off, San Diego in December is kinda surreal. It is as if I just skipped winter all together and emerged in springtime. As I am sure my readers in the frigid northlands have absolutely no sympathy for me, I will move on.

Of course the pirmier brewery in San Diego is Stone Brewing. I thought hard about visiting, but I came down with a sudden case of not wanting to try and fight crowds on a Friday night in San Diego...itis. Its been going around. Besides, the West Coast is basically the micro brewery breeding grounds. I was talking to my client this afternoon. After the meeting I stated that I was going to find a place to relax. As if she knew exactly what I meant by that statement, she pointed me to a nearby microbrewery called Callahan's pub and grill.

Callahan's is a vaugly Irish themed sports bar that happens to brew its own beer.
I started off with the Monster Mash. As near as I could tell this was basically a porter. There was lots of caramel toffee and coffee aroma. Mildly sweet roasted flavor. Slightly bitter coffee flavors on the back. This was a pretty good one, and came just behind the nut brown, which I will talk about later.

Extra Pale Ale: Not expecially pale. Aroma is all northeast citrus hops.
I have to admit when the barman, Ted, said the name "Extra Pale Ale". and described it as "kinda like an IPA," I was scared. Was there a brewer out there who wussified the IPA? A man who sipped a hop bomb and said, "That won't do, there is far too much flavor!"
The answer is, no. This is just an IPA with vowel replacement identity disorder. It has a medium body that helps balance out the generous load of citrus hops. Kind of a middle-of-the-road IPA.

Nameless Nut Brown
This quickly became my favorite. True to form it has a very light roasted aroma. It feels like there is light fruit off the top, slightly toasted flavor, and just a hint of spice. Has a warming quality that would be great on a winter night... Not that anyone here would know.

Great Lakes Wine: Michigan Wine Country

Well... back to Detroit.  Last time I visited this city I found myself exploring a bit of the brewery culture in the outlying suburbs.   This time, due to time constraints I couldn't explore more of the Detroit area, but on my way out of town I found a great opportunity.  Driving east on I 94, I soon found myself in Michigan wine country.

Obviously this blog is about beer.  Beer is in the title, the vast majority of the posts have to do with beer and the word 'hops' probably ranks in the top 10 word count.  This is about all sorts of local drinking culture through this country.  So we will take a break from the industrial world of brewing and the vast urban decay of Detroit and head out to the serene countryside for the agricultural world of wine making.

Lawson Ridge Winery:

This was the first of two smaller wineries that I visited.  First, a word about the wine tasting experience in Michigan.  The wineries I visited allowed a free sample of up to six wines from their selection with some small costs for some of their special releases.  The staff at the tasting rooms were all friendly and made for a great afternoon out in the wilds of Eastern Michigan.

Out of the highlights I will start with the Cherry Red.  This is a fruit wine made from the local cherries.  It was perhaps a little sweeter than I normally like, but it was served with some dark chocolate.  When combined with chocolate, this wine provided just a hint of tart that cut through the chocolate and added layers to the flavor.

My personal favorite was the AZO semi-sweet red.  It was one of those wines that has an aroma that is as wonderful as the flavor itself.  It is just the right amount of sweet with dark cherry and strawberry flavors.  Their Two Handed Red was pretty good, but lacks the body and the dryness that draws me to red wines.  Their chardonnay is un-oaked, so it had a lot more light citrus and pear flavors, but lacked a lot of the smoothness.

Cody Kresta Winery: 

I drove deeper into the forests and farmlands of Michigan.  My next stop was a red farmhouse off a small country road.   As compared to Lawson Ridge, this winery featured a lot of drier, tart wines.  They have a selection of rose's that range from very sweet to almost bone dry.  I tried something in the middle of the road and really enjoyed it.  It had lots of light fruit flavors and a light honey dryness at the back of the palate that makes this a perfect drinking wine.   Also of note was a blueberry fruit wine.  It had just the right amount of berry sweetness that makes this really enjoyable.  Those that prefer a sweeter fruit wine probably wont enjoy this as much, it's surprisingly dry and complex.  Lastly, was introduced to the Traminette grape.  This is a varietal that grows only in this particular area of the country.  (There seems to be some debate on this.  The staff at my next stop claimed Traminette was a blend and not a grape in and of itself.)  The wine was something that I like to call a 'breakfast wine,'  slightly sweet with light citrus, grapefruit and light fruit that just seems like it would go really well with some toast and eggs.

Warner Vineyards:

As I drove back towards the Interstate on my way back onto the Road, I stopped in Paw paw, the unofficial capital of Southeast Michigan wine country.  This is the second-oldest winery in the state and probably one of the biggest.  Their selection of wines is so expansive that being forced to pick six out of the list is almost cruel.  I had their Traminette as well, it was similar to Cody Kresta's although I think it might have been just a little more tart.  

Throughout my tour I had a hard time trying to find a really nice, heavy red wine.  Michigan wines seems to stay on the lighter, sweeter side when it comes to their reds.  Warner came through, however, with a decent merlot and a blend they call Veritas.  Veritas has just the slightest hint of sweet, dark fruit that adds to the big body and spice of this wine.

One more wine I want to mention from Warner, the Grapes of Love.  This is one of those overly fruity sweet wines that, lets face it, is more or less tailor made for a girls night out.  I tried it for two reasons: First, it was their best selling wine, so I was curious.  Second, I think the winery's description says it all, "A silky smooth white wine with great legs and excellent body."

Things I admire in a.... er.... wine?

Cheers