Drink with the Devil: San Tan Devil's Ale

Arizona can be a pretty hot place to live. The summer has some real scorchers and it can be very, very hot even in the Fall and Winter months. As a craft beer lover, you want a beer with a lot of flavor, but you also want a beer you can drink a few of, and one that can slake your thirst in the hot Arizona sun. The San Tan Brewing Company of Chandler, AZ clearly gets it right. This craft brewery/brewpub brews up some pretty flavorful yet very drinkable beers. I was fortunate enough to pay this brewery a visit last weekend, and was happy to enjoy one of their signature brews: Devil's Ale.
This beer is a classic example of APA or American Pale Ale, brewed with both Cascade and Centennial hop varieties that define this style. This beer has tons of flavor yet remains very drinkable and enjoyable. I was really impressed with this brewery, and was really impressed with this beer.
Devil's Ale pours to a bright, deep golden, to light amber color with a nice, white head, and a moderate amount of carbonation. The nose on this beer is just excellent with zesty, vibrant aromas of citrus and grapefruit. The palate is firm, with good pale and biscuity malt flavors, touches of caramel, paired with a really nice lemon/citrus hop flavor. Devil's Ale finishes with more good pale and caramel malt up front, then ends with a dry, grapefruit and citrus hop bite that slightly lingers.
An outstanding beer that would match well with a number of dishes on San Tan's menu. This place is on point on so many levels, from the crafting of the beer, to the service, to the food, to the atmosphere.

San Tan even has it own custom made beer glasses that are hand blown by an artisan glass maker. These should not be confused with the mass produced, machine made beer glasses that the Boston Beer Company has made for them. The quality of the SanTan glass is phenomenal and a true work of art. This glass is designed to enhance the aromas and flavors of the beer, and anyone who is serious about beer will tell you, the proper glass, does make a difference. You can purchase the glass as well as their beers in six pack cans, and growlers to go.
For more information about this outstanding AZ brewery visit:
http://www.santanbrewing.com/

An American Fall Classic: Post Road Pumpkin Ale

Now here is a beer style that is uniquely American and one that I look forward to every Fall. Pumpkin ale has it roots in American Colonial history and was a style that for centuries had been all but forgotten until the craft beer revolution of the 1980's. The style has been brewed by colonists since the late 17th Century when malt supplies ran short during hard times in the colonies and brewers were forced to improvise. Pumpkins were native and plentiful, especially so in New England, and made for a good fermentable when malt was scarce. In the colony days the pumpkin gourd of choice for colonial brewers, but were used more so for their sugars than for flavor. It is out of this tradition that modern American brewers pay tribute, and these days, you will find many examples of pumpkin beers on the U.S. market.

Post Road Pumpkin Ale was one of the very first commerical examples of pumpkin beer and to this day it remains one of the best. It was first brewed by the Post Road Brewing Company of Framingham, MA which was a contract brewer who had this beer brewed for them by the now defunct Catamont Brewing Company of White River Junction, VT. The label was sold when Post Road went under in the early 1990's and since that time has been owned by the Brooklyn Brewery of Brooklyn, NY. Brooklyn contract brews this beer as well, it it is brewed for them by the F.X. Matt Brewing Company of Utica, NY. This beer has become a Fall classic and is a bench mark example of the style.

Most versions of pumpkin ale, including Post Road are going for the "liquid pumpkin pie" effect and are heavy with spices such as cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg. Some examples feature more of the meaty/squashy pumpkin flavor that would you would find in colonial times. Post Road Pumpkin Ale gives the beer lover a bit both. This is a delicious, hearty pumpkin ale, with great spicy flavors as well as great pumpkin flavors.

Post Road Pumpkin Ale pours to a beautiful, bright, orange color, with a nice white head, and a moderate amount of carbonation. The nose is the first thing that really grabs your attention. Fragrant sweet and spicy aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and pumpkin flood the nose. That palate is very flavoful with accents of malt, and meaty/squashy pumpkin flavor. Post Road finishes with more great pumpkin flavor up front, then ends with spicy flavors of nutmeg and cinnamon that lingers.

This is a classic example of pumpkin ale with a very clever use of pumpkin pie spice and real pumpkin. The brewers are not too heavy handed with the spices that really allows those squashy/gourdy pumpkin flavors to come though. Well worth seeking out, this beer is easy to find in U.S. markets during the Fall season and is probably the most popular of all the pumpkin beers on the market today. For more information visit: http://www.brooklynbrewery.com/

Splice the Mainbrace: Heavy Seas Prosit! Imperial Octoberfest

The Clipper City Brewing Company of Baltimore, MD over the years has brewed some truly outstanding beers. This brewery has done a bit of a metamorphosis over the years and its products are now know as the Heavy Seas Beer, though the brewery is still officially Clipper City Brewing. Heavy Seas was at one time the line of specialty beers that Clipper City brewed, but has now become the name of their "fleets" of beer. Now a very pirate themed brewery, Heavy Seas offers three lines of brews:The Clipper Fleet, The Pyrate Fleet, and The Mutiny Fleet.

The Mutiny Fleet line of beers are the biggest and boldest of the Heavy Seas offerings, and they have been very impressive to say the least. Coming in at 8% abv or better, and marketed in 22 oz bombers, these are beers that can be aged and are seasonal releases, only available for a short period of time. I have enjoyed all the beers of the Mutiny Fleet, and one of their most impressive is Prosit! Imperial Octoberfest Lager.

The whole "imperial" thing in American brewing has become a bit over done in my opinion, but in this case I must say it really works. Clipper City brews a beer that for years was called Baltomarzhon, which later became know as Marzhon. That beer is now known as Heavy Seas Marzen and is one of the most authentic, delicious, domestic examples of the style. Prosit! is a bigger, bolder, beefed up example of that truly exceptional beer.

Prosit! Imperial Octoberfest Lager pours to a beautiful, bright, deep chestnut color, with a thick, creamy, white head, and a lively carbonation. The nose on this beer is just fantastic with big aromas, of light toast, nuts, and sweet malt aroma and light grassy hop aromas. The palate is polished and full on the tongue, with big malt flavors. Lots of good toasty and nutty malt flavors glide over the tongue on a very smooth, drinkable body. Prosit finishes with more good toasty and nutty malt aromas, then ends with just the right amount of grassy hop bitterness to balance this beer out.

This is a fantastic example of marzen, just amplified. Very smooth, very round, and dangerously drinkable for a beer of 8% abv. It is hefty enough to stand up to a hearty German meal, but smooth and drinkable enough that you could easily knock back a liter or two of this one. So in that regard, beware because Prosit! packs quite a punch. Available for a limited time only in 22 oz bottles and on draught, this beer is one well worth seeking out. Fresh this beer is outstanding, and that is how I enjoy drinking it. It would be interesting to see how this one would age, so you might want to put a bottle or two in the cellar and re-visit it in a year or so. For more information visit: http://www.hsbeer.com/

The Ultimate Bar Food: Deep Fried Pickles

This might be heresy to suggest this, but I think I might have found a bar snack that rivals the Buffalo Wing. I am starting to see these things on more and more menus, and like the Buffalo Wing, this tasty little bar snack was at one time a very regional thing. What I really enjoy seeing is, more and more brewpubs and beer bars are adding these tasty little snacks to their menus. The bar snack/appetizer I speak of is fried pickles.

The history of the fried pickle like that of the Buffalo wing, is a relatively short one. The legend goes fried pickles were first made popular in 1963 by Avery "Fatman" Lindsey when he put them on the menu at the Duchess Drive In located in Atkins, Arkansas. Another account goes they were "invented" in Hollywood, Mississippi at the Hollywood Cafe, when a patron wanted something different and asked asked the fry cook if he could deep fry some dill pickles.

They have been on menus in Southern states for decades, but can now be found from coast to coast, and that is a very good thing. My first experience with the deep fried pickle? As you might of guessed, it was at a brewpub, The Salem Beer Works in Salem, MA back in the late 1990's. I enjoyed them in their spear form, and needless to say I was hooked. The sad part at the time was, few places carried fried pickles on their menus as an appetizer. You really had to seek them out, or make your own. That is not the case any more, and for a beer lover, that is a very good thing.

Fried pickles are just a natural with beer. The combination of the salty and sour flavors from a good quality dill pickle with the hot, salty, texture and flavors of the various batterings, make for one great beer snack. This is not a new concept, anything salty will make you thirsty and you will want to drink more beer. Bars have been offering salty snacks for this very reason for years.

I've enjoyed these both in spear and chip form, both are excellent, but my preference is the dill chips. Fried pickles work well with your standard lager, but I've matched them with a nice hoppy IPA, even dry stouts. Lets not get overly pretentious with this either folks. I know lots of beer geeks are into pairing high end beers with high end foods, and beer and food parings are all the rage with the beer geekery. They might look at fried pickles as being a bit mundane and pedestrian. They are missing the whole point of enjoying food and beer in my opinion. A simple bar snack like this with a nice cold beer is plenty good enough for any beer lover or beer geek for that matter.

So the next time you are out at a good beer bar or brewpub and you see fried pickles on the menu? Give them a try. I will warn you though, these things are addicting, and you will not want to stop eating them. If you can't find them? You can always make your own version. All you need is some good pickles, batter/breading, and oil for deep frying.

Beer Sommelier or Beer Douche? Round 3: The douches have it

Here we go yet again. I came across a recent blog entry on the Washington City Paper from the Beer Director at a Washington, DC beer centric restaurant and beer bar called Birch and Barley/Church Key. For a beer lover, this place is beer paradise offering over 50 beers on draught and cask, as well has 500 bottled beer selections. The Beer Director asks in the blog :

"What's in a Name? Of Beer Directors, Sommeliers, and Cicerones."

Visit http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/ to link to the Young and Hungry Section dated 08/10/2010. I have addressed this very issue on two separate occasions on this blog, and in light of this recent article, I believe it needs to be addressed a third time.

As it stands now, his official title at B&B/Churchkey is Beer Director, and he states he is often being referred to or asked if he is a "beer" sommelier. He goes on to state that he sees the title of sommelier which is synonymous with wine, evolving to include beer and spirits. He sites recognition from Food and Wine Magazine that lists him as one of the "best new sommeliers" as giving credence to this. We will have to part ways here. I don't believe that because a trade publication recognized him as a sommelier, it makes him one, or that it is not a misnomer. I don't believe because a trade publication, that no doubt gets advertising dollars from the restaurant/food/beverage business makes those who are not certified necessarily credible. We all know how easy wine and beer writers can be bought and paid for, especially the latter.

He gives credit to the Beer Cicerone Program on one hand, then on the other, does not see that the title is necessary. There are other ways it can be done. Hands on training and experience in the field is where you really lean, and cut your teeth. I can agree with this logic to a point, but ultimately, I would have to disagree, as a sound foundation needs to be in place, and then built upon. His reasoning seems a bit disingenuous as well, seeing that after completion of his undergraduate degree, he went on to pursue a master's degree but beer came a calling. It indicates to me, that he must believe on some level that formal education has some merit. What really undermines his argument and that of the other "beer" sommeliers is the fact that none of them have the certification. If they had the certification, the training, the education, a real sommelier or real cicerone had, and then said "its not worth it."? It might lend a little more credibility to the argument against formal education and experience vs on the job experience alone.

The Beer Director makes some points as to why this title of "beer sommelier" may or may not fit what he does for a living. The Beer Director is responsible for training the staff, making the selections, and working with the chef for beer and food pairings. Sounds like what a wine steward or sommelier does right? He is doing this, but with beer. That is what a cicerone does, and there is a program out there, that educates, trains, and certifies a cicerone, the beer world's equivalent to a sommelier.

The fact that the Cicerone Certification Program has only been in existence since 2007 is a non sequitur in my opinion. I can not understand how anyone who is in the food/beverage business, and wants to be taken seriously when it comes to "beer expertise" including the promotion of craft beer, how to serve it, and match it with food, would not want education, training, and certification from this program. Especially so, when you see the people behind this certification program. It is an earnest effort to put beer on the same level as wine, and specialization matters here. The Beer Director seems to want it both ways. The respect of a sommelier or cicerone who has the formal training and certification vs "doing time in the trenches" IE on the job experiences is good enough.

In the last two cases this blog has addressed, the title of beer sommelier has been self proclaimed. In this case it has not, and I have a lot more respect for this guy because of that. That being said, I will have to say this guy is not a real sommelier. A sommelier is an accredited, trained, wine steward. If you do not have the accreditation, you are not a sommelier in my opinion. You are just a well informed "cork dork" or "beer geek".

I fully understand that sommeliers in fine dining establishments are doing more than training staff, procuring wine, and working with chefs to do food and wine pairings. Beer and spirits are coming more and more into the mix. I get it. That being said, I think it says a lot to be specialized, and I truly believe that if you want to claim the title of a sommelier, or a cicerone for that matter, you should have some sort of formal education and certification.


Working for a beer centric restaurant/beer bar one would think the owners would embrace the title of cicerone here. Is it not craft beer choices and pairing said choices with food their selling point? Is this not what is setting this place apart? Why would you not want your Beer Director to have attended a program that has given him some formal education and certification, like a real sommelier? It would give him a bit more authority and credibility in my opinion. I have read his resume and his beer "credentials". While not lacking, they are a bit dubious at best. He liked to drink craft beer in college? He tried good beer in Germany and Ireland? He worked as a waiter, and then manager at a beer bar, then as the beer director for a restaurant group that is beer centric pizza place and the place he now works? I'm sorry, but being a beer lover for over 20 years, I'm just not in awe of this.

I'm in no way attempting to diminishing what he has done, or the selections he makes for his restaurant/beer bar. Nor am I with his food and beer parings. I've see what he has done, and he is doing great work. What I am suggesting is, if he wants to claim a title, would not the title of cicerone be appropriate for what he does, and give him a little more "teeth" if you will? I just find it too easy for any informed beer geek who gets a job a beer bar and or restaurant to now start calling themselves "beer" sommeliers. The verdict for me? Not as egregious as the other two "beer" sommeliers, but still beer douche. The douches have it.

Island Life in a bottle: Applachian Ginger Beer

With the summer in full force, the heat is on here in the Mid-Atlantic. A recent heat wave with four days of 100 degrees or more. Temperatures are up in the high 80's and 90's with lots of sun and humidity. Beer is always a great choice as a summer refresher, but I always enjoy another type of beer as well, and that is ginger beer. Ginger beer at one time was fermented and brewed but much like ginger ale is now a soft drink. Gourmet examples of ginger beer and ginger ale exist, and many brewpubs and breweries actually produce gourmet sodas, with either a ginger ale or ginger beer in their line up. Ginger beer has much stronger and bolder ginger aromas and flavors than most ginger ales.

The Appalachian Brewing Company of Harrisburg, PA brews up an outstanding Ginger Beer. This gourmet soda is made with crystal clear Appalachian water, pure cane sugar, and fresh ginger. I can not stress enough how use of fresh ginger makes all the difference in the world. You really get the pungent and spicy ginger aromas and flavors, and it makes for a spicy, delicious, refreshing drink. People who have not had fresh ginger are often shocked how spicy and hot fresh ginger can taste.

ABC Ginger Beer pours to an opaque pale color with lots of big spicy ginger aromas and flavors. This is a wonderful, refreshing drink to slake the thirst in hot summer months, and is the perfect soft drink to mix with rum. One of my all time favorite drinks is a Dark N' Stormy which became popular in the sailing communities up and down the East Coast of the U.S. from Portland, ME to Annapolis, MD. I have been drinking them for years, and the key to a good Dark 'N Stormy is not only a good quality rum, but a quality ginger beer.

When I lived in RI, I could always get a good Dark N' Stormy. I'm happy to say I can make my own. ABC Ginger Beer is a fantastic ginger beer to mix with a good quality dark rum to make a great Dark 'N Stormy. So simple, yet so good:

1.5 oz of a good quality dark rum

8 oz ginger beer

1 lime wedge

ice

In a high ball glass with ice pour 1.5 oz of dark rum. Top with ginger beer. Squeeze in lime and drop in glass.

Enjoy one of the most delicious, refreshing, summer drinks you will ever taste! I would always go with Gosling's Black Seal a phenomenal rum from Bermuda. A great quality domestic micro distilled rum like Thomas Tews or Rogue Dark Rum would be a great choice as well.

For more information about getting some ABC Ginger Beer visit the brewery's site at:

http://www.abcbrew.com/

You never seen the sun on the old black rum: Thomas Tew Rum

A very interesting, and wonderful thing has happened as the result of the craft beer movement. With the rise of the brewpub and micro brewery, some craft brewers have got into the business of micro distilling and have actually set up small distilleries more often than not in the brewery itself. One such micro brewer/micro distiller is the Newport Distilling Company of Middletown, RI. This tiny micro distillery is also the home of the Coastal Extreme Brewing Company, brewers of the Newport Storm line of beers.

In 2007, Newport Distilling became the first distiller in the state of Rhode Island since the 1842. They are distilling one product at the moment, a rum called Thomas Tew Rum. Thomas Tew also known as the Rhode Island Pirate, was a privateer and pirate who made Newport, RI his home. In colonial times the port city of Newport, RI was home to twenty two rum distilleries. Newport Distilling has brought back that tradition with the production of a rum from Newport's past.

This rum uses black strap molasses and water which is fermented at the brewery which is next to the distillery. The "wash" is fermented with brewer's yeast, and distilled in a pot still 150 gallons at a time. The rum is then aged in American oak barrels, and is "chipped" with American and French oak chips in the barrel. Thomas Tew is then proofed, filtered, and hand bottled. The end result is a very special American made rum.

Thomas Tew Rum pours to a brilliant, deep amber color. The nose on this rum is wonderful, with very fragrant aromas of vanilla, molasses, and light oaky aromas. Those classic "rum" aromas are unmistakable here. The palate opens up with wonderful rummy flavors of molasses, toffee, vanilla, and light oak. It ends with more of those flavors and a warming, alcohol heat that lingers with those wonderful flavors.

This is an outstanding, hand crafted rum with fantastic aromas and flavors. Retailing for $32 a bottle, this is a very fair price for such a quality product. I love the fact that this rum is produced in my home state of Rhode Island, and is a tribute to Newport's rum producing past. This rum of course will work with any number of rum based drinks. That being said, with a rum of this quality, you really want to taste the rum. I enjoy Thomas Tew Rum neat, or on the rocks. It works very well in a Dark 'N Stormy (giner beer and rum) and the ubiquitous Rum and coke. The rum is the real star here, so if you are going to mix Thomas Tew, make it a drink where you can let the rum flavor really come though. If you find yourself in RI, you really should make the effort to find a bottle or two of Thomas Tew Rum, a welcome addition to any liquor cabinet. For more information visit the distillery's site at:

www.newportstorm.com/thomastewrums.asp