Legendary Beer: Could Pliny The Younger actually be as perfect as it's purported to be?

Friday night after a tour of the Speakeasy Brewery, I joined Jay and company for dinner at La Trappe. I walked into the belgian bar and restaurant to discover that the beer fairy had been their recently and left a keg of a brew I never thunk would have the possibility to taste. Well I thunk wrong. Of all the beer bars in the world, I walked into the right one. Pliny The Younger was on tap for only $8.

Why is this such a big deal? While the highly rated Pliny The Elder is relatively available in well regarded beer bars across the West Coast, Russian River only makes the Younger once a year and in small amounts. It's available at a select few beer bars for a limited time (for only 2 weeks at the brewery), and it isn't bottled. If the Westvleteren 12 is the Cup of Christ for Belgian Beers, the Younger is the Holy Grail of IPA's. Why? Because it's rated...

Which explains my reaction:

The happiest of faces on the happiest of men.

Hallelujah! Hallllllelujuah! Ohhh Gloooria. I can't believe I had found it! There was a happy dance involved too, but sadly there's no footage available. Naturally like any good friend, the first thing I did was text David and Karl and unnecessarily gloat at my blind luck. Then I got down to brass tacks and tasted my second bucket list beer in as many months (Bruery's Black Tuesday in December being the other).

My first sip yielded goodness but not greatness, which surprised me. But then the wheels started to turn. Beer nerds speak of Pliny The Younger as if they are Ponce de Leon seeking the Fountain of Youth. The proportion of people speaking about it in hushed tones vs. those who have actually had it are very lopsided, which leads to exorbitantly high expectations. Regarding my first sip of the Younger, I had heard so much about its greatness that in my head, I was expecting to be either cured of cancer, live forever, or if I was really lucky, magically transform into Sam Malone. But what I've learned from tasting beers like the Westie and Black Tuesday is that you have to reign in your assumptions, break down the different elements of the beer (malt, hops, aroma, body, etc) and take the beer as a beer, not Unobtainium.

Cheers owner Sam Malone's Fountain of Youth

The Younger has a beautiful hop infused aroma that is both fruity and piney. The malt is smooth and almost creamy, and as the beer warms the hops flavors really shine. It does not cure cancer but it is basically a perfectly balanced beer and at 11%, this is an incredible feat. There is little or no trace of alcohol even as the beer nears room temperature. So do I agree this beer deserves a perfect 100 point rating? Yes. A hundred times yes. The Younger is a Triple IPA (which is unheard of, style wise) and so this beer must have an incredibly high IBU. In the hands of lesser brewers, the intense bitterness would most likely overwhelm the malt body and compete with the alcohol. Instead, all the ingredients are as perfectly balanced as I could perceive and result in a sublime symphony of flavor. BAD BOYS rating.

And yes, I had two glasses. When will I ever have a chance to drink the nectar of the gods again? It was glorious. Thank you La Trappe for being awesome.

The Surprising Happenstance in Discovering the Bear Republic Texas Brown Ale

My esteemed parental units came into town and we set off as we often do in search of the finer things in life: alcohol. We left this behind -

- to revel in a grape soaked weekend in Sonoma that looked a little like this:

Duck with mascarpone mashed potatoes (I believe)

Saturday we hit up 7 wineries and Sunday tasted 28 different wines, including 18 from DuMol. While Sonoma is well known for wine drinkers but not to me, it quickly gained my affection. The scenery differs from Napa but is as beautiful. Their Pinot Noir is quite different from the peppery Santa Barbara Pinot's and they have some fantastic Syrah and Zinfandel.

There's a famous winemaker's proverb that goes, "it takes a lot of beer to make good wine." I have yet to partake in the grueling grape harvest that occurs every fall, but after a weekend of grapes I was ready for a beer. In Healdsburg Sunday night, we headed to a wine bar for a pre-dinner glass but the bar was closed. Amidst the signs pointing tourists to local jewelry, bakeries, and nic nac stores, I saw the logo for Bear Republic Brewery. Tucked away from the main st thoroughfare was the actual Beer Republic brewery/brew pub!

For reasons I can't explain, I thought Bear Republic was located in Tahoe, but blind luck led me to their location. I think this makes 13+ breweries visited in the last 20 months.

Bear Republic brews some gems. Their IPA Racer 5 is a fantastic West Coast IPA, and I'm especially fond of their Hop Rod Rye and Red Rocket hoppy red ale. The brewpub has a number of specialty beers they only keg for that location, including several single IPA brews. I normally would order one of those, but being from Texas, a collaboration beer caught my eye.

The Texas Brown Ale was released two months ago by Stone. The recipe was collaboration between Stone, Bear Republic, and Fathead, a brewpub/brewery in Cleveland which has won several awards at GABT (Great American Beer Festival). The TBA is not only a relatively unknown beer style, but it's also a mistitled one. According to Stone's website:

This particular beer pays homage to a relatively little–known beer style called Texas Brown Ale, which, strangely enough, has its roots in California. It originated as a hopped up version of a brown ale recipe. While delicious, these beers failed to fare well in homebrew competitions, since there was no recognized category they could be entered in. They were far too hoppy and bitter to be considered a traditional brown ale. But when a competition in Houston, TX, accepted entries for what they named the “California Dark” category, the American Homebrewers Association followed suit soon after, though they perplexingly changed the name to Texas Brown Ale.

Kinda bizarre really. This article from a local liquor shop in Houston (where I grew up) goes into greater detail about the style's creation Specs article on Texas Brown Ale. Anywho, unless you're planning an extremely geeky trivia night around beer styles, it's basically a hoppy brown ale. It says so at the bottom of the label. However, the collaboration offers a unique twist, and it's why I'm a passionate fan of collabs - good brewers come together and create something out of the ordinary. Craft Breweries are technically in competition with each other, but they're more so committed to making unique and high quality beer. The result is usually delicious, if not extraordinary.

Stone in its 15 years existence never used Cascade hops, a mild but spicy and fruity hop grown in Oregon, and similar to the English Fuggles hop and a distant cousin once removed from the Czech Saaz hop used in pilseners. After the collaboration, Stone used Cascade again in their latest Barleywine. The TBA also is also brewed with molasses and brown sugar, which gives the body a very distinctive taste. 

Overall, the TBA is heavier and hoppier than your average brown ale. Molasses is an interesting ingredient to use because yeast has hard time breaking down the type of sugar used in molasses. Instead of fermenting out most of the flavors like yeast does with Candi Sugar, a greater amount of the molasses flavor is left in the brew. I also believe this results in the heaviness of the TBA, to the beer's benefit. Another fun factoid is the brown sugar tends to caramelize in the brewpot, especially when the boil is 90+ minutes. For the TBA, the result is an initially malty beer with biscuit and roast flavors (like your average brown ale) that ends with bits of sweetness, caramel and fruit. The four different hops used in combination with the unique sugars creates a complex brown ale and inspired me to savor each sip. If you like hoppy barleywines or intense stouts like Great Divide's Yeti, you will probably enjoy this collaborative delight. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Nogne O Batch #100 Barleywine but her faces me

MIFB beer year bros are back together for a tasting! I'm back in LA for the weekend and long last able to sample one of my favorite breweries, all the way from Norway, Nogne O. I bought this bottle in December and David has held onto it. After spending a year together drinking beer this is only the third time we've sampled barley, hops, yeast and water since September. We just got back from wine tasting in Santa Barbara where I was the sober driver and still managed to leave the town with food poisoning. That's what I get for not drinking - let this be a lesson to you all.

We're at Nick's apartment where he is working on creating a side business with a series of novelty t-shirts. His first creation is a beautiful pinup with a butter stick for a face, an old play on the "but her face!" Clever stuff Nicholas. Bruce Lee approves of the sketch, but what about the barleywine?

With 10% alcohol and 80 IBU, this promises to be a big, aggressive barleywine. The paramount Barleywines for me has to be the Stone Old Guardian series or the AleSmith Old Numbskull and based on my previous Nogne tastings, I'm hoping for the #100 to join the ranks. Apparently the #100 was a small batch made for the brewery, their friends and visiting brewers, but its popularity encouraged Nogne to begin large production on it.

There's a lot of sediment and the beer pours a thick head, which probably means this beer could be aged for quite a while. The booze rises up with the rest of the aroma including dark fruit and cocoa, smelling like a dank and unrefined belgian quadruple. As the aroma teased, this beer isn't ready for the world yet. The alcohol burns quite a bit and the mouthfeel is rather lackluster. I expect barleywines to really punch you in the face with flavor, but this is underwhelming despite the molasses, cocoa and roasted grain flavors emanating from the glass. This one looked oh so good....but her taste!
TRANSFORMERS rating

Survivors of the Santa Barbara Wine Tour

More Brown Than Black Collaboration IPA is the best of both worlds

There's a great story behind this collaboration from Stone, Ninkasi and Alchemist. The proceeds of the brew are going to help victims of Hurricane Irene, which is near the Alchemist brewery. Ninkasi and Stone are two of my favorite breweries so I'm excited to see how the brain trust pulls off what sounds like a unique style and brew.

This collaboration is so knew that it's not even in the Stone book which I received for Xmas. It's still somehow photo-bombed the collab. There's a lot of sediment with the pour and the aroma has more citrus zest from the hops than you might expect with such a dark roast malt. The flavor has the sweet brown sugar and biscuit-ness of a brown ale and only a tinge of roasted bitterness. There's a whole lot of hop going on but the malt body hangs in there to balance it out. The mouthful finishes dry and quick, which makes me want more. Nearly black in color, this brew has the heart of a brown ale and the bitterness of a Ronin Samurai. Sorry, I'm watching 13 Warriors on Netflix streaming now and its awesomeness is bleeding into the post. It's pretty gory and cool. Anywho, THE ROCK rating. Great beer by great breweries for a great cause, go getcha self some More Brown Than Black!

Nogne Winter Ale makes me yearn for the Northern Lights

I started doing Krav Maga again yesterday after a 7 month relapse and in a cruel bit of voodoo magic, my body feels like it was hit for an hour instead of the heavy bag I was punching. I decided to start drinking new beers again on my days off as an incentive (like I really needed one) and today is the first in the timetable. I'm trying to drink as many winter beers as possible before the season runs out and will be doing a 21st Amendment winter warmer on Thursday as well.

Nogne has been good to me in the past and I feel it's one of those breweries everyone should know about, like The Bruery. It's from Norway and if you see a label carrying it's signature O, I cannot advocate enough you purchasing one. Their Imperial Stout received a Bad Boys rating back in September (http://www.beereveryday.com/2011/09/nogne-o-imperial-stout). I had a feeling that this brewery was the real deal, but will their Winter Ale prove me wrong?

This is ravenously good and it tastes like something Santa's elves would make. Crisp and spicy, a fireplace beer originating from a part of the world where it's mostly night during several months of the year. It warms the soul at 8.5% alcohol and incorporates flavors such as clove, licorice, raisin and cocoa nibs in a fantastically smooth way, like a bobsled track. COOL RUNNINGS!

Winter Warmers are generally a mixed bag, a complex bank heist that either happens according to plan or goes horribly wrong. This is definitely the former. With the later, the spice usually wears on you worse than watching the latest Dr. Pepper commercial:

Really not a fan of that commercial. An interesting insight that becomes muddled in the execution. Anywho, this Nogne Winter Ale is not as perfect as The Bruery's Two Turtle Doves but it's sublimely delicious and becomes addictive at first sip. What are the elves putting in the Norwegian water? BAD BOYS rating. 

An education in classic styles at the legendary Anchor Brewery

After spending yesterday handcuffed to a chair for a job fair / speed dating event for professionals, I was in need of some exploration. Luckily a friend I know through school had planned a tour of local Anchor Brewing, maker of Anchor Steam. Their tours are booked weeks in advance so I felt very fortunate to join Kaitlyn and her group.

Put that in your beer bible

The brewery has an incredibly rich history. Anchor has the distinction of being the first craft brewery in the U.S. Their brewery began in the late 1800's and has survived despite a number of disastrous events; the untimely deaths of their founding brewers, German immigrants, one of whom was thrown off a trolley and then run over, I kid you not; their brewery burned down 3 times in the early 1900's; they're the only San Francisco brewery out of 30 who was able to continue operating after the Great Depression; and in the 1960's they nearly went under due to the abundance of commercial mass-produced beers and an anemic number of years where their beers became sour soon after distributing.

They were saved by Fritz Maytag, son of the industrial giant who produced Maytag dryers, etc, and he updated the antiquated the equipment and installed strict cleaning procedures to insure there was no contamination during the brewing process, something every homebrewer now knows is vital but back in the 60's, apparently wasn't. Anchor Steam beer was back in action and soon Fritz decided that he wanted more in the way of styles. This is where Anchor Brewing goes down in the history books as the first Craft Brewery. It's hard to imagine nowadays a craft brewery only making one style of beer selling the shit out of it. Every brewery now usually has several different styles, a pale ale, IPA, a stout and usually a seasonal, but back then this was out of the box thinking.

Taproom at the brewery. The Christmas Ales are above. They have a different tree label every year drawn by a local artist, who is now 93 year old. THAT is the spirit of Craft Brewing. Maytag = Pioneer

He was also one of the first people to begin bottling beers, which turned out to be a bit of marketing genius. For the first time, people could take Anchor Steam home with them and introduce their friends to their favorite local brewery. In the 70's Fritz traveled to England to study the classics and returned to make several different styles, including the Liberty Ale, an IPA that is classical in style and considerably different than the coma inducing hopiness pioneered by West Coast breweries. 

The Liberty Ale is easy to drink, like a lager, but it's only 50 IPA's, which makes it easier to drink than a hop heavy pale ale like Sierra Nevada. The first sip yields a sweet and biscuit infused malt. A citrusy bitterness follows and appears for a moment, like a whiff of a woman's perfume as you walk down the street, and then disappears. Michael Jackson, legendary beer guru not the pop singer, pronounced this brew as his Island Beer. When I'm asked what my favorite beer from the year is, I usually treat the question as 'what would I drink if I had only one beer to drink for the rest of my life?' The question is similar to 'what would you drink if stranded on a desert island?' The questions are similar, however, Michael dives into his requirements much more pragmatically. It makes me rethink my approach to the 'favorite beer' question. His requirements take into question not only quality and sustained drinkability, but the percentage of alcohol (you can't drink high alcohol all the time on an island, you'd be drunk consistently) and what beer would you be able to drink under a glaring tropical sun? It's a serious question for a serious beer drinker, and he chose out of the thousands of beers, including the acclaimed Belgians, Anchor Liberty Beer. It's an incredibly well rounded yet complex pale colored brew. The malt, smell, bitterness and finish are inspired. I'm intrigued by the beer, but I'm not sure I could withstand a hoppy beer day after day. However, one cannot deny it's inspirational qualities. It's a classic of the style, a pinup model or coup de ville. While being one of the bad boys for Michael Jackson, this is THE ROCK rating for me. It's definitely a brew that should be on every beer drinker's bucket list. My Island beer would probably be German, something a bit more malty and easy to drink that's low in alcohol; perhaps a Franziskaner Hefeweizen or a Schneider Weisse.

What I found very unique about the brewery was the building it occupied. It was a former coffee bean roasting factor that Fritz bought back in the late 70's. The imposing outer walls gives way to a brick and mortar interior. There's only three kettles, a lauter ton, sparge system, and boil kettle that makes every batch of Anchor beer. I was surprised to find that a craft brewery which distributes to all 50 states (1 of 3) only uses one set of kettles to brew. They also use open top fermentation, which really surprised me. The freshly boiled wort is pumped into large vats where yeast is added. There is no blow off tube, and they instead pump fresh air into the room to keep the beer sanitary. The picture below is of the barrel room, which again is surprisingly small. Fritz must run a tight ship, it looks like to me there's not a lot of room for mistakes with such a large production quota and seemingly smallish brewing process.

The beer I was most excited to try was the barleywine, Old Foghorn. My brother introduced me to the brew in New York last year and while I was several beers into the night, I thought it was one of the best beers I'd sampled. I had already counted my beer for the day then so this is the tasting that will go down in the MIFB log.

The Old Foghorn is around 8% and it's sweet, crisp and smooth. There's a bit of frutiness, maybe apple or grape. There's also a thin layer of caramel and chocolate. As far as barleywines, this is on the lighter side of a very aggressive style. Again, this is an example of classic English style barleywine vs. bold American style. Another throwback that I will bestow a TRANSFORMERS rating. It's quite delicious, but I remember it being more complex. 

The above two beers were originally conceived in the 70's. One of Anchor's latest beers, brewed to celebrate the sale of Anchor Brewing to a larger distribution company in 2010 (who also makes SKYY vodka, another San Francisco origination), is Brekle's Brown ale. This might just be my favorite brown ale of the year, a style I generally eschew because of the typically nutty flavors. This style isn't syrupy like an English style brown ale such as Newcastle, but sweet and crisp and most importantly, distinctly satisfying. I'm looking forward to trying this away from a tap and in a bottle to see if it's as smooth. THE ROCK rating. 

Afterward, we headed over to the City Beer Store to finish off the beer drinking day with....wait for it...more beer. I was feeling buzzed after the 10am tour yet, still found it within me to drink two glasses of Russian River beer. Today I can say that I have the heart of a Craft Brewer enthusiast but a liver who hates me. Right now he's throwing darts at my brain for deciding to do this right before I depart to New Orleans tomorrow for my brother's bachelor party. Detox begins next week, but soon after I'll be back posting with beers I purchased at the City Beer Store. Thank you Kaitlyn for inviting me to join in on the fun! This brewery was unlike any other I've visited, with a rich history and classic beers that haven't changed for decades. Every beer they make is a classic style with incredible quality. Drink one today!

Squatters Outer Darkness is devilishly delicious

Our skiing group is heading to the fancy shmancy St. Regis hotel at the base of Deer Valley ski mountain on our final night here. It's built at the top of the hill and you have to take a tram from the base of the mountain up to the resort. This company knows how to build brand luxury by creating an event out of a hotel stay. All that's missing is blowing of trumpets upon your arrival. Once you ride up the tram, which can hold around 20 people at capacity, you are looking down at everyone. You feel like the king of a castle. 

Speaking of kings, apparently the creator of Papa John's owns the entire top floor of the hotel. We're in the presence of delivery pizza royalty! Hot damn, I've really made it. Once we're on the outside patio, the view only supports my perception that this is less of a hotel and more of a castle.

The temperature is about to dip below the freezing mark and I'm dying to order a hot toddie, but Sam suggests that I order an ice cold beer that fits the occasion and surroundings. My fingers are numb but as the old saying goes, when in Rome...drink a beer (*citation needed). 

With the sun setting behind us, I order an Outer Darkness. It's from a local brewery, Squatters and it's one of their premium beers that arrives in a 750ml bottle. 

 The label is unquestionably cool. It has the eyes of Sauron from Lord of the Rings. Nerd alert

Look how beautiful it pours! There's a surprisingly light roast aroma with a bit of licorice that arrives out of a fantastic toffee colored head. The glass is cold but at 10.5%, this liquid is warming me up almost as well as a hot toddie. And it pours like pure unadulterated motor oil. I love it. The menu says it's "one of the most intensely flavored beers a brewer can create." Will the beer live up to these bold words?

Licorice and an intense roasted malt greets my tongue, as well as some oak and molasses. The brew lives up to the words on the label. This isn't a rich beer, but the unique flavors are incredibly intense. I'm not sure I've had a beer where the flavor characters of molasses and licorice assault my palate like this. A small sip will leave you tasting the licorice long afterwards. It stays with you, like the smell of a teenager who uses too much Axe body spray. It reminds me of drinking a liquor with a strong character, like Jaegermeister or Fernet. David would really like this beer and I hope he ends up in Utah sometime to sample this devil. I pour nearly two full glasses for other people in the group to taste and everyone loves it, but it certainly is not for the faint hearted. This actually quite accurately describes the people sitting around the table pretty well; our skiing group is nothing but adventurous. Sorry Obi Wan Kenobi, this SkyWalker is going over to the darkside. BAD BOYS rating.

At sunset, a hotel employee comes out with a sword and a bottle of champagne. Apparently at the end of each day they saber a bottle of champagne. Talk about classy! Here is a video of the event and it's about 2 minutes long because the gentleman tells a fascinating story about the origin of sabering a bottle. Could you guess that Napoleon had something to do with it? What a pint sized badass.

Red Rock Secale is a lager first for me

We're at the the High West Brewery in Park City, Utah and while the food and whiskey/rye is fantastic, what's grabbing my attention is the beer at the end of the meal.

The whiskey distillers teamed with a local Utah brewer to age their Doppelbock Lager in Rye Whiskey Barrels for 6 months. I've never heard of a lager being aged in liquor barrels because they're usually big ales like a barleywine or imperial stout that can handle the addition of oak. I'm dying to try this.

The unique combination creates a fantastic beer. The Doppelbock is smooth with a strong toffee and a subtle caramel flavor. The whiskey barrel smooths out this brew and adds an extremely subtle oaky flavor. I had my doubts but wow, I've never had a lager with this level of complexity. Color me impressed. THE ROCK rating.

While I can't buy a bottle of the Secale home with me, I 'settle' for an 8 year bourbon. Life is good surrounded by friends like these.