Cellar Maintenance, Random Thoughts

I’ve got a few too many things bouncing around my head to write a singular topic blog post, so I thought I’d break one up into multiple, bite-sized bits.

-Got around to updating my cellar, it definitely changes a LOT, and keeping up with it is tough. I basically kept them divided into “not ageing” and “ageing”, with my website review links on the bottom, and a link to my Ratebeer ratings. Maybe if the “not ageing” category gets too large, might just get rid of it, and concentrate on having more website reviews of those beers.

-I’ve been really intrigued by Google+ as of late, and I hope more people continue to use it, as it seems to be getting more interesting as time passes. I realize at this point Facebook has such a huge leg up on it, but the main potential I see within it are the “Hangouts”. Starting a Hangout beer tasting event might be an interesting idea…there’s a max capacity of 10 people, though, so there are limitations. That being said, a 10-person beer tasting is a pretty good turnout! After it’s all said and done, it’s even possible to automatically upload the hangout to YouTube for others to watch later on if they so choose. The potential is there, I’m going to have to see what kind of interest there is in it. Here’s my personal page, and the website’s page, if you’re interested in checking them out. The service is great if you’re looking for something similar to Facebook, but more straightforward (and less Farmville spam).

-”Craft Beer” has now been officially defined by Merriam-Webster as “a speciality beer produced in limited quantities”. This has been talked about for the last little while amongst beer lovers, and the general consensus seems to be that the definition is way off. For a craft beer to be deemed as “special” is alright, I guess (though I would have chosen a better word…artisan perhaps? Made with love?), but it’s the “limited quantities” that confuses me. To what degree is a craft beer limited? If there is less of a certain beer produced than what a macrobrewery would produce of one of their beers, is that considered limited? Microbreweries can pump out quite a lot of beer, just look at the Boston Beer Company, Stone or Dogfish Head as examples. It seems as though the definition was a little rushed, if you ask me.

-I recently hit up Elizabeth Station again, the place is quickly becoming my absolute favorite place to pick up beer. The only limiting factor is that I’d usually have to pay duty (I didn’t have to this last time…nice bonus!). Or I could just, you know, go down to Bottleworks in Seattle and spend the night. If you’re in Bellingham, please check them out, I think they’re killing it…they always have some interesting beers on tap, themed nights (sour night, anyone?), a cereal bar, and a staggering variety of bottles for the space that they’ve got.

I’ll be back soon enough with a more focused post in the next couple days!

Stone’s “Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale” Review

It’s been a helluva week for me, what with only 1 day off last week and Erin and my own birthday celebrations to get through, I simply haven’t had that much time to write. Here I am now, at the end of my weekend, finally getting something out the door! Now, as I had planned earlier, I wanted to crack open a few good bottles from my cellar in order to share and review them on the site. That didn’t happen, unfortunately, as there was more than enough liquor to go around during our birthday potluck that I just couldn’t get into more, especially if my senses were going to be fairly “off”. That being said, I did get a chance to try a beer I picked up recently in Washington (Elizabeth Station, to be precise…killer beer store!): Stone’s “Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale”. I’ve had a couple of Stone’s beers just recently (such as the “10th Anniversary Ruination IPA”), but I haven’t had the flagship Arrogant Bastard before. I got a little too impatient to try and wait to pick up a bottle so I could compare the two, and cracked the oaked version this evening. Here’s my take on it…

Appearance:

Apparently, I’m not worthy…

I poured straight into my glass, and almost overflowed it with foam. A little too overzealous, I guess, but I let it settle down a bit before putting the rest in. When it was all over, I was left with a wonderfully thick head, measuring about 2 fingers width, the general “standard”. It stuck around for a while, too, which was nice to have while sipping to give a creamier effect. The colour is a sort of dark cherry red, with some sediment floating around here and there. Other than the sediment, a very attractive-looking beer.

Aroma:

Behind the initial woodiness you get right away, you smell the malt a split second later. It smells like the barrel, which is pretty comforting (to me, at least!). If you wait long enough and keep at it, you can pick up some currant behind it all…

Taste:

When you get around to tasting a bunch of barrel-aged beers (my first ever was the Phillips Double Barrel Scotch Ale, but there are tons of examples out there…), you will be able to pick up on the wood flavour right away. This was pretty prominent, though I can’t say I specifically tasted oak, as I don’t know what oak tastes like from memory (something to work on?). The other dominating flavour was caramel, in addition to tons of malt, but really not much more going on beyond that.

Mouthfeel:

I’m not sure if it was the wood, but this beer stung the back of my tongue like no other beer. Super bitter! It starts out right at the tip of your tongue, but doesn’t hit nearly as hard as it does in the back. I wouldn’t say that ruined this beer, because I got used to it, but it was a bit of a shock at first.

I really enjoy getting into barrel-aged beers, they make me yearn for the fall months, and sitting around a campfire. They add a depth and complexity, though I would love to know what the standalone Arrogant Bastard tastes like, so I could understand just how much. Wouldn’t mind finding out if the original also has that incredibly bitter finish, or if it was the wood that made it so.

Unfortunately Stone’s offerings aren’t available up here in Canada, but they have a fairly wide distribution in the US, so no matter where you go across the border, it shouldn’t be too hard to locate. This particular beer is now offered in 4 packs, along with a few other specific beers from their lineup. I’d recommend picking up the oaked version of the Arrogant Bastard only if you’ve had the original, as that’s my only real regret. Nice beer overall, and if I came across it again I would consider ageing it for 6 months or so to see what happens.

The Bourbon Ginger Thing

Hot, sticky August evenings, where everything is lazy and you move through air like syrup. These aren’t evenings built for toil, no matter how noble the effort. These evenings call for something wet, cold and particularly easy.

So sing it with me…

Let’s do the smash! The bourbon giiiiinger smash!

No?

I read an article about how grapefruit is the under-appreciated citrus (it has no special citrus press!). But considering how often I reach for it for summertime cocktails, on the advice of any number of recipes, I figure I can’t be the only one with a growing appreciation for its own bittersweet charms. In the Salted Tarragon Greyhound, for example. Or this guy here – the (not) Knob Creek Sour Ginger.

I nicked that recipe up above, with a couple of tweaks. Now, it calls for Domaine de Canton liqueur, which (while absurdly delicious) is a pretty major investment. I had a couple of mini bottles that I picked up at Legacy, but I used them already and I haven’t seen them since. As I was just the maid of honour in a wedding and my discretionary spending is thus…limited, I was forced to improvise. I used Giffard Ginger of the Indies, which has a really nice intense ginger flavour, but lacks the sweetness of the Canton. I made up for some of that by adding about a half-ounce of honey syrup – I felt ginger syrup would gild the lily a bit, and honey syrup tastes miraculous with grapefruit. I also tried it with both the Maker’s Mark and the Basil Hayden’s, and found I preferred the former – the latter was just a bit too smooth.

What I wound up with was just the trick to deal with Vancouver’s uniquely deceptive heat. A little sweet, a little tart, a little bitter and very much like a drinkable version of those little spray bottle fan things.

  • 1.25 oz of your preferred bourbon
  • .75 oz of ginger liqueur (Canton, ideally, but Giffard will work)
  • 2 oz good quality grapefruit juice
  • .5 oz lemon juice
  • .25 oz honey syrup (omit if using Canton)

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass, add ice, shake to chill. Pour over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with a lime wedge, but give it a squeeze over the drink before you drop it in. Now take that drink, put a record on and sit on the balcony with your eyes half closed and your feet up. There ya go…

#IPADay

It’s here…today marks the 2nd anniversary of IPA Day, originally started by social media/craft beer personalities Ashley Routson (The Beer Wench) and Ryan A. Ross to celebrate the much-loved India Pale Ale style (and its many variants)! The IPA ranks 2nd, after Imperial Stouts, in my list of favourite styles overall, but it’s pretty damn close. Living in the Pacific Northwest gives me the opportunity to sample some of the most amazing IPAs, as many brewers here seem to be obsessed with it (and rightfully so).

Tonight I’m celebrating with a Central City Imperial IPA, a 9.5% alcohol monster from one of my favourite local breweries. Its beautiful golden orange appearance, sweet grapefruit and reasonably malty aroma, and hoppy-as-hell, caramelly, slightly woody taste make this a seriously kick-ass brew. It’s deceptively smooth. It really shouldn’t be that smooth. This bottled version was a limited release just recently (Legacy still has some, last I checked), but it’s usually available at their brewpub in Surrey fresh on tap, which is brilliant. Admittedly, my bottle is aged to the point where the hops have been muted and smoothed out a bit (the result of cellaring any IPA), but it really doesn’t matter, it’s still bloody good.

It’s events like these that really help to push craft beer into the mainstream, utilizing something as simple as a hashtag to at least pique interest, but it’s really about camaraderie between beer lovers, and an excuse to try something you may not have had before (or simply go on a journey to acquire some fabled Pliny the Elder). Happy IPA Day, all!

The Great Ginger Fail

I had this idea.

You really have no idea how many times that sentence has ended in relative disaster for me.

My idea was born of an anniversary gift from Alex, a bottle of Snap that I had been too guilty to splurge on yet. I have a little big ginormous thing for ginger in general, so you can imagine my glee. There may have been some petting of the bottle. Anyways, I started off by doing a quick mix-up of one of the ‘suggested cocktails’ in the little attached booklet…and it was absolutely disgusting. It tasted like sipping paint thinner.

Alright, no worries – how about I use this opportunity to take some baby steps away from my recipe dependance? Surely that’s a better idea than picking any of the dozen recipes I collected specifically for that spirit! I’m sure, going with the title, you can imagine how this ends.

It was a fairly conservative idea – start with a basic bourbon sour, make it gingery. Split the mix from straight bourbon into half and half with the Snap. Add lemon, then some honey syrup? Yeaaaah, not so much. It’s what I like to call ‘lopsided’ – a drink with a pronounced limp on the palate.

Maybe if I made it more gingery (Erin’s solution to any number of problems)? Skewed the spirit ratio, used some Morris Ginger Syrup instead. Nope. Nope nope nope, totally flat. Somehow tasted LESS gingery. Maybe if I add a couple drops of Shanghai Rhubarb Bitters (I like ginger and rhubarb elsewhere)? Yeaaahh, no, this thing is just not going to happen this evening.

It was a sad moment, made sadder by the empty space in the bottles. Waste of Snap, waste of a very, very tasty bourbon. I’m determined to try again after a bit, to not let it haunt me as long as my failed egg white experiments. I know you can’t learn what works until you’ve had an intimate acquaintance with what certainly doesn’t, so we’ll see when I can muster my courage once more.

Beer Judging

Something I’ve realized in the last while: it is possible to have many different passions, and they can be expressed in a multitude of ways. For me, cooking has always been a passion. Video games and board games are passions of mine, though they take a back seat nowadays due to how busy I seem to be. Beer is a relatively new passion of mine, and I always try to learn what I can (usually on the internet, and I’m sure the time I log on is slightly annoying to Erin…). I work in one industry, and have had thoughts about getting into the beer industry. But if I like food and cooking, why should I take the plunge into something different so hastily? The beer industry pays around the same as the cooking industry, so it wouldn’t be about money. Really, as I see it, these 2 passions are interchangeable.

I’ve recently set a guideline for myself regarding my passions: incorporate something into my life that pertains to that passion, without necessarily trying to pursue it as a career. Too many people get into one career because they are passionate about it, only to be chewed up and spat out, or leave in disgust because they don’t like certain aspects of it. I didn’t want to just jump into a job involving beer, rather I wanted to do something alongside my career that could keep the passion going. I settled on becoming a homebrewer and a beer judge. Now, I haven’t had the opportunity to document one of my homebrewing experiences yet, and I have only brewed 3 batches (one of which was a failure), but after the initial equipment cost, it is a relatively cheap endeavour, so I plan on brewing many more and chronicling it here on the website. As far as becoming a beer judge, well, where do I start?

The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) is designed to set guidelines for beer judges, it keeps things official, professional and in check. It all starts with an exam, and luckily their website contains most of what you need to study for it. With their study guide a reasonable amount of reading on its own, it’s the recommended reading that gets a little out of hand…out of print books, back orders of magazines…the list goes on. Luckily, there are a two amazing books that outline a lot of what the BJCP wants you to know:

Tasting Beer, by Randy Mosher

I can’t tell you how invaluable this book is, to just about anybody interested in beer at any level. It’s got some history on beer, a section on various glassware, how to pair beer with food, an outline of how to judge beer, and details on all beer styles (complete with prime examples of the style). Though this book tells you about the brewing process, there is another book that goes about it in more detail…

How to Brew, by John J. Palmer

This book is a bible for any homebrewer, let alone professional one. Divided into sections based on experience, it helps to guide you through the process, troubleshoot problems, and move on to creating your own recipes. Needless to say, it has a ton of the information you’d need to know for the technical brewing questions on the exam.

Now, experience is everything, so the general recommendation seems to be that you should go and volunteer at beer judging events beforehand, and get the opportunity to taste and judge beers on your own or with a study group before you attempt the exam. I’m taking things slowly, I’ll admit, but after I’ve had the opportunity to analyse some beers on my own, I’ll get over my initial hesitation and keep an eye out for some events to volunteer, with the hopes I’ll be able to ask some judges various questions pertaining to the program.

After the “apprenticing”, and taking the exam, you’re put into a tier. “Recognized” is the level in which you basically have no event experience under your belt. You need 5 “experience points” to attain “Certified”, where you’ve judged in a few competitions. Then it moves onto “National”, where you’d need a minimum score on the exam of 80 (you are allowed to re-take the exam) plus 20 experience points, and “Master” which requires an exam score of 90, with 40 experience points. Basically, the higher you score and the more events your able to do, the more you can climb the ladder. I’m in no hurry, but it would be kind of cool to get to the “National” level at some point, and be able to go to events outside of the general area I live in. Only time will tell.

Should I mention the need to just go out and drink beer? No amount of reading will prepare the palate for the real thing, so naturally, I’ll have to continue drinking (responsibly, and for science!) and chronicling…at the very least for the sake of this website!

The Hotel Georgia & The Filibuster

Ah, egg whites. I like you quite a bit. In omelettes, where I can pretend you’re more healthy and thus add five times the amount of cheese (doric feta ftw!). In meringues, where you get all crunchy and chewy and oh-my-god-delicious. And, of course, in cocktails, where you make drinks downright velvety. Now that you and I understand your particularly special needs in said cocktails, can we be friends?

After my comparable success with the Clover Club, I was left with almost half a carton of eggs. Though we circumvented the quick corruption our fridge normally exacts (Alex sealed the carton in a ziploc), fresh is only fresh for so long. So I decided I’d start out with another drink that I have repeatedly failed at. Because that’s always a solid idea, no?

Shortly after our first dinner at Hawksworth, back when they opened, I made Alex promise to beg the recipe for the Hotel Georgia cocktail from the bar manager next time he saw him. He, being a good man, brought it home to me in no time at all. So I tried it, and…it was awful. Things I didn’t know at the time: the importance of dry shaking, the importance of fresh lemon juice, the importance of fresh eggs, the importance of double straining. Did I mention that I spent my very brief time as a bartender pulling pints and mixing highballs and appletinis? I didn’t exactly have the best knowledge base.

Since I had had similar challenges with the Clover Club, I figured I could give it another shot while my luck was good. I put it all together with crossed toes (crossed fingers don’t give the best grip on the shaker), and poured. And tasted. And had Alex taste to make sure it wasn’t just my own wishful thinking. But turns out, it was damn good!

Rawr indicates bad lighting.

I’m sharing this here as it’s already been published by Melody Fury on Serious Eats, so I’m not spilling any secret beans.

The Hotel Georgia

  • 1.75 oz. gin (they use Plymouth)
  • .5 oz. orgeat
  • .75 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • 6 drops of orange water (I like that measurement, straight from the aforementioned article – so delicate-sounding!)
  • 1 fresh egg white
  • nutmeg for garnish

Combine everything but the nutmeg in a shaker, and give it a dry shake (no ice) for about 20 seconds, until you feel the mixture change consistency (should feel less sloshy, a little smoother). Add ice, shake again just to chill. Pour everything into a chilled cocktail glass. Grate/sprinkle nutmeg to garnish.

So then, since I figured that that went pretty well, I might as well ride my luck a little longer. I pulled up another recipe that’s been languishing on my list while I’ve been moping about egg whites. May I present, the Filibuster!

If the name alone doesn’t make you want to give it a shot, consider this: you probably have everything you need already sitting in your fridge. And I’ll say this: this pretty thing exceeded my expectations. Alex tried it, and we agreed the balance of it made me seem far more skilled than I really am.

The Filibuster

  • 1.5 oz. bourbon
  • .75 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • .25 oz. maple syrup
  • dash black walnut bitters (my substitution – recipe calls for Angostura)
  • 1 large fresh egg white

Same method as the Hotel Georgia. Everything goes in for a dry shake until the consistency changes (~20-30 seconds). Add ice, shake again to chill. Pour into your cocktail glass, and garnish with a slip of lemon (which looks oh-so-pretty against the foam). I’ll note, I had to dump my first attempt as I made the dumb mistake of separating my egg over the shaker. So don’t do that.