I'm pissed off.

The US played like balls today, badly enough to get beaten by that troupe of pantomime artists, Ghana. This sets US soccer back ten years.

Anyway, I should be writing about beer, but I'm taking a break for today. I just might go have a cold one at the California Brew Haus, a working-class bar up on Ridge Rd. next to Kodak Park with an amazing beer selection. Six kinds of Scotch Ale. Whitbread, John Courage, Augustiner Edelstoff... this place has it all.

Now that Kodak tanked, patronage has been waning for the 'Haus. They could use some support. If you like great beer, let 'em know.

-Mark

Off topic: Rochester soccer crucified

My friend, and long-time soccer hater Mike Cialini(KROC)finally gave in to my constant cajoling and attended a Rochester Rhinos soccer game with us. Needless to say, he came away less than impressed.

His review is funny as hell though, and he's spot on about the annoying music and overpriced beer.

-Mark

Beercraft newspaper column #16- Beers of the World Cup

Ole, Ole, Ole. Beers of the World Cup

By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish

The World Cup is underway, and we are so into it. Watching from a pub, amid a crowd of Europeans, Argentinians, and fellow Yanks, you really get into the electrifying atmosphere of the tournament. Each goal is orgasmic. Every near miss is like passing a kidney stone. A loss is a catastrophe.

Obviously, this environment is perfect for drinking beer. And since this is a global tournament, it behooves the serious spectator to sample global beer. Let’s take a look at some of the offerings from World Cup countries, shall we?

Brazil is the favorite, and everybody loves them. The American commentators on ESPN2 can barely pause for breath betwixt bouts of smooching Brazilian butt. Admittedly, their team is fantastic; they run, show creativity, and make devastating plays.

We don’t know what the Brazilian players drink, but chances are it’s Xingu Black Beer. As the name would imply, it’s dark, brewed in the German Schwarzbier style. Xingu is brewed with roasted malt, so there’s a robust, toasty flavor with a lot of sweetness. Since the body is light, Xingu manages to refresh despite its sweet and strong flavor characteristics.

Poland hasn’t done so well in the Tournament, but they’re aces when it comes to dark, sweet Baltic porter. Zywiec (zee-vich) and Okocim are two locally available examples. Stronger than English and American porter, with a medium body and strong chocolate and coffee flavors, these porters hearken back to the days of the Imperial Russia, when English breweries would export to the imperial court of the Czar. The beer was made extra strong to preserve it during the lengthy journey.

The style was picked up in the English merchant ships’ ports of call all along the Baltic Sea, and today features some of the most complex and satisfying beers made in Europe today.

The Czech Republic’s soccer team completely outmatched the US team, and Czechvar Pils, from the town of Budweis, does the same to American Budweiser. A furious legal grudge match finally forced the Czech Budweiser to change its brand name to Czechvar in the USA at the behest of Anheuser-Busch. And that’s fair, since the Czechs have only owned the name since the 1300s.

Yeah, we’re bitter on this point, but fortunately so is Czechvar. Hop bitterness is a primary characteristic of the Pilsner style, as is a fresh, grassy flavor, pale golden color and foamy, lingering head. Czechvar is a most refreshing beer, wonderful on a hot summer day when you’re watching your team get destroyed by a squad from a small Central European Republic one-sixteenth the size of the USA.

And of course there’s the host country, Germany. And one of the most interesting beers available from Der Vaterland is Aecht Sclenkerla Rauchbier, from Bamberg. The dark and robust beer is made with smoked malt, giving it a strongly smoky flavor that absolutely dominates from start to finish.

Some people think it’s awesome, some think it tastes like sausage. Whether you love the Rauchbier, or hate it, you’ll have at least had the pleasure of drinking one of the most unique beers in the world.

We’ll certainly be trying more as the Tournament goes on (We’re rooting for the US and Germany, by the way). The thing runs for a month, so the last few days will be a bit of an alcoholic endurance test. Still, if anyone can manage it, it’s your favorite intrepid beer columnists. GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAL!

In other beers:
Swan Market will be putting one of our favorites, Warsteiner Dunkel, back on draft soon. There was a big push for Warsteiner in the area a couple of years ago, and the Dunkel is a superior dark beer. It hasn’t been available for a while, so this is a hell of a treat. Add the Swan atmosphere, and you have a half-day of work waiting to happen.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and former commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://beercraft.blogspot.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com

Budweiser gets self-effacing

Five minutes of watching the World Cup on ESPN or ABC is all you need to realize the commentators suck to the point of national embarrassment. Budweiser, Ironically the "official beer of the 2006 World Cup," picked up on this in a series of ads running in the UK. They feature clueless American commentators butchering the game.

I haven't yet been able to find the series on the internet, but here's an example from the Bud website:



-Mark

Friday's overrated beer: Heineken

It's a sad situation. Many four-star restaurants will boast a wine list that resembles the US Tax Code, and yet carry only three beers. Since these are classy restaurants, one of them will be an "import." That import is almost always Heineken.



Now Heineken isn't bad per se, but it has some, shall we say, questionable flavor characteristics. Out of the tap, it tastes like nothing. You might as well be drinking Fosters. When served from those green bottles,the UV rays of the sun break down the hop compounds, and Heineken takes on a characteristic skunky taste that some people swear is part of the flavor profile.

Love it or kinda like it, Heineken will always be that one import you get at the wedding reception's open bar. It will be the beer you order on the plane. And trust me, over the course of your life you'll order it again and again, usually because there's nothing better on that anemic index card that all to often passes as a beer menu.

-Mark

Thursdays Beer from the Other Side of the World: Hitachino Nest Stout

Oh, how cute. There's a Pokemon on the label. Pull that shit in the USA, and 63 activist groups would foam at the mouth over the marketing of beer to children. Anyway, Hitachino Nest Stout, from Japan's Kuichi Brewery, is a real departure for people used to the Japanese Bud clones like Asahi and Sapporo.

Hitachino Nest Stout is a pretty complex beer. There's a lot of caramel in the flavor, along with vanilla and coffee. You can taste the hops in the finish, but they aren't bitter enough to clash with the sweet malt that dominates in each sip. Whoever formulated Hitachino was not after a Guinness copy.

I didn't have high expectations for this stout from the Land of the Rising Sun, so I was very pleasantly surprised. This is a quality beer with many unique characteristics. If you can find it, order a pint. Drink enough of them, and you'll want to turn into a giant robot. Banzai.

-Mark

More Hot World Cup Action!

Mark and I are posting this from Monty's Korner, our home away from home during the World Cup. As I type, I'm a-swillin a Sweaty Betty Blonde from the Boulder Beer Company.

I have avoided this beer for an awfully long time based on the name alone. The fact that we drank the bar out of Victory's Prima Pils left me with a reason to try something new. This beer is very good, it has some of the flavors that I love about German hefe-weizen but no hefe, although it does have an unfiltered haze.

-Bruce

Lambics, courtesy of the marketing department

I tried something I've never had before: Lindemann's Pomme (apple) Lambic. This is the Belgian brewery responsible for most of the fruit beers you find here. The Kriek and the Framboise are traditional, but someone in Marketing keeps diversifyng the friggin' product line. So now we also have peach, blackcurrant, and apparently apple beer.

It's tart and oversweet, and I concur with those on the beeradvocate.com forum who likened the flavor to a Jolly Rancher.

I know Belgian beer is the end all, be all or beer, blah blah blah. Still, Lindemann's product line is an example of market share killing tradition, even in a centuries-old European brewery.

The tournament goes on...

Bruce and I have caught every one of the World Cup games so far. We're both huge Germany supporters, so the tourney opener was the priority, and we went all-out. A traditional Munich breakfast of Weisswurst and Hefeweizen got us in the mood for a fantastic game, won, of course, by Germany.


Our heroes being uber-dorky at Monty's Korner

The Krown is a great place to watch the games, but the beer list could be better. It skews heavily toward ales, Victory Prima Pils being the only pilsener present. Still, the crowd is fantastic and really gets into it.

Bruce and I will be there again at 8:55 am for The Netherlands vs. Serbia & Montenegro, and we're staying for all three of Sunday's matches. Drop in. I've got the first round!

-Mark

Friday's overrated beer" All beer from...

Canada.

I live a litle more than an hour from the US/Canada border, and about three hours from Toronto. It's a world=class city, and my wife and I go there a lot. The Canucks are expert at spotting visiting Americans, and are usually very hospitable and friendly, but they always ask us the same retarded question: "Oh, yer from the States, eh? Bet you've never had good beer before."

No, Gord. We've never been exposed to craft beer in our desolate little research station of a city.

Thing is, Canadians think their mass-market beer is somehow better than American mass-market beer. It's not. It's exactly the same. In the case of Alexander Keith's IPA, it's much, much worse.

Sure, if you're a SUNY Buffalo frat boy, a trip to the duty-free shop in Niagara Falls will net you a case of Molson XXX, which has a very high alcohol content. But if you're over 21, the local micro probably has something equally strong, with actual flavor, on tap.

Don;t get me wrong, there are some awesome beers in Canada (La Fin du Monde and Steam Whistle being two of my favorites). But I don't find Molson and Labatt to be necessarily any better than Coors and Budweiser. I guess all corny, ricey lagers are created equal.

Special thanks to Nick from the Ithaca Beer Company for the tasting he ran at Monty's Korner last night. If you haven't tried Ithaca Cascazilla, do yourself a favor and pick some up. Absolutely fantastic.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to don my German National Team jersey and get to Monty's Korner, where they're showing the opening match of the World Cup. Ole. Ole. Ole, etc.

-Mark

Thursday's Beer from the Other Side of the World- Kingfisher

Kingfisher is the largest brewing concern in India. They're so big, they even own an airline.

As is usually the case with gigantic breweries, Kingfisher lager teeters on the border of suckitude. As you've surmised from the pic, it's a pale, American-style lager wth a bit more of a malt character than Budweiser, Miller or Coors. The finish is kinda nice; crisp, clean and quenching.

The adjunct cereals used as a barley substitute in brewing, however, give Kingfisher a corny taste that precludes it from ever appearing next to my vindaloo. It also skunks easily. Still, it's a quencher that takes the fire out of hot foods, and that makes Kingfisher a good choice after some of the more firey Indian dishes.

Beer for the World Cup

I admit it. I am a soccer (football) fan. It's a result of having spent a decent chunk of my childhood and/or adolescense in Germany and Belgium. That being said, A couple of friends and myself are going apeshit over the World Cup.

I got DirecTV. I got the DVR. The large-screen tv will be arriving tomorrow (and my dad's going to freak out when he notices it missing). All that's left is the beer.

The idea is to stock up on the beer of each nation playing in the matches we'll be watching. First up: Germany vs. Costa Rica. Down to Beers of the World I go.

As it turns out, even they don't have any Costa Rican beer. Fortunately, there are 300 German brews from which to choose. I settle for a case of Dortmund's D.A.B Original since it's on sale.

I hope Brazil gets knocked out early. I'm not particularly fond of Xingu.

Now for the stupid song: "Ole, ole, ole ole."

-Mark

Beercraft newspaper column #14: Saranac Beer

A brewery’s resurgence: Saranac beer

By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish

From the end of prohibition until the ‘90s, the primary beer produced by the Matt Brewery was Utica Club, a fizzy, limp lager common in the blue collar taverns of Upstate New York. Like many regional staple brands, Utica Club lost market share to brewing juggernauts like Anheuser-Bush and Miller, winding up in the same financially perilous situation faced by many regional beer companies no longer in existence.

Rather than succumb, tavern by corner tavern, to the inevitable decline of their flagship brand, the Matts put Utica Club on the back burner, launching a new line of superpremium beers that totally leapfrogged the bland, watery offerings of the national brewing conglomerates. Their timing was excellent. The craft beer movement was just taking off, and drinkers across the northeast were eager for the new flavor combinations and styles that microbreweries brought to the table.

The Saranac line was a success, and the Matt Brewery stayed viable. Over time, the product range expanded. In total, there have been 16 distinctive Saranac beers, some of which have been retired, exploring styles from hefeweizen to oatmeal stout. Here our some of our favorites from the current Saranac beer range.

Every New York craft brewery needs good pale ale, and Saranac Pale Ale brings the Matt Brewery a generous portion of street cred. It’s simple and basic in both name and presentation, with a pleasant hearty malt character and dry hop finish; a perfect choice for a cool summer evening.

For those who like their beer dark and robust, Saranac Black Forest Porter is a pretty good choice. Appropriately for the porter style, Black Forest is relatively sweet and substantial in body, with a more subtle hop character that provides an agreeably dry finish.

Saranac Belgian White is excellent outdoors on a hot summer day. It does a pretty good job of reproducing the Belgian wit beer style: pale whitish amber with heavy orange and coriander flavors and the quenching bite characteristic of wheat beers. American breweries have not had the best track record in replicating Belgian niche beers, but Saranac’s example comes pretty close.

One of the best things about Saranac is its availability. You can get it in all area supermarkets as well as the beer boutiques, usually at a lower cost than many of the imports surrounding it in the display cooler. So you can entertain at a reasonable cost without looking like a complete el cheapo. Of special note are the sampler 12-packs: Winter Sampler, 12 Beers of Summer, and Adirondack Trail Mix. Many of the more ambitious beers can only be purchased in these samplers.

Utica Club still soldiers on, mostly in Utica, but the Saranac range of beers has come to epitomize the model for regional brewery success. Across the country, these former lager mills are repositioning themselves as purveyors of quality and beer craftsmanship.

As beer lovers, we have the Matt family to thank.

In other beers:
Dale’s Pale Ale, from the Oskar Blues Restaurant & Brewery in Lyons, Colorado, is now available at The Old Toad. It’s one of the few microbrews to be sold in cans, but the quality of the beer obviates the stigma of the packaging material. It’s hearty, full-boded ale with citrus aromas and a pleasant hop finish. Overall it’s a very well-balanced brew.

Now that it’s springtime, Spaten Bock is taking over the more discerning taps in town. It’s pretty much the best Bock available, and there’s no better place to enjoy one than over a German Lunch at Swan Market on Parsells Ave. Careful, Spaten Bock kills us again and again.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and former commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://beercraft.blogspot.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com

The Brookston Beer Bulletin- Learn something today.

I'm going to use this post to pimp the Brookston Beer Bulletin, which I stumbled across while checking my blog referrals. What a cool resource. This is about as close to the perfect American craft beer portal as I could imagine.

J. is an incisive and skilled beer writer, who relentlessly advocates for my beverage of choice, pointing out skewed studies, biased editorials, and vindictive voices with an axe to grind, then setting the record straight. There's so much quality content here, it's gonna take me weeks to read it all.

-Mark

No good beer in Soccertown

The Rochester Rhinos of the USL 1st Division (one level below MLS) opened their brand spankin' new soccer-dedicated stadium yesterday amid sheets of rain and electrical problems.



It was a fantastic game, and an impressive stadium, with one disturbing oversight on management's part: No craft beer. Zip. Nada. Not even good imports, unless you count Heineken and Sol.

I would've liked to see something, Saranac, Flying Bison, Rohrbach. Anything.

So I ordered Heineken, and they gave me the whole keg can. At a soccer match. I biefly entertained the notion of going all soccer fan on them, filling the keg can up with water, and whipping it at a player, but that's not really me. '

So, please, Rhinos management, work something out. A Bud might be fine at a baseball game, but the world's game requires world-class beer.

Friday's Overrated Beer: Guinness Draught

Now don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like about Guinness. It's really pretty, silky from the nitro carbonation, and sometimes I feel like a good roasty stout.

But ask an Irish American, no matter how many generations removerd from the old sod, about Guinness, and you'll be hit with the most annoying stream of blather since Ross Perot's campaign speeches. "I don't drink anything I can see through," They quip smugly, usually employing a lilting accent painstakingly learned from Lucky Charms commercials. "It's like water from the Liffey." I've seen the Liffey. I've smelled the Liffey. That is not a selling point for Guinness.

And when the Guinness marketing juggernaut ramps up for Saint Patricks Day, friggin' forget it. Every assclown in Rochester puts on their one green T-shirt, comes out to that fake Irish pub which festers in every city, and proceeds to fill his or herself with a waterbed mattress-worth of Guiness, so they can get their once-a-year intake of Irishness before picking fights with each other and passing out in the path of the parade floats.

I guess it comes down to this. Guinness to me is like the Dave Matthews Band, They'd both be ok if it weren't for their fans. No wait, I take that back. That braying donkey with an accoustic guitar would suck anyway. I heard, before he hit it big, he was even a shitty bartender.

But to stay on topic, I will order Guinness, but I'd also suggest trying the other Irish stouts which are relatively widespread: Murphy's and Beamish. You'll find both are just as beautiful to behold as Guinness, but more robust and complex in character. And if you order them on Saint Patricks Day, the bartender likely won't know what you're talking about.

Especially if it's Dave Fucking Matthews.

-Mark

Heckling, powered by beer

This hilarious post over at Don Cialini's blog reminded me how beer can make any occasion great, especially the ball game. You wouldn't talk to anyone this way unless you contained a copious quantity of shitty beer.

By the way, he did not check his swing. He did call the mascot a motherfucker.

Thursday's Beer from the Other Side of the World- Baltika 6

St. Petersburg's Baltika brewery has a refreshingly non-western approach to branding their beers, they number them. #1 is the light lager, #4 is the dark lager, et cetera. I like this system because the beers have to stand up for themselves, without any flashy image. It's almost like a blind taste test.



My favorite is Baltika 6, the porter. Dark, aromatic, and very complex, few beers are more satisfying for a nightcap. It has a chocolate-toffee character, and it finishes smooth and sweet.

Baltic porter in general is like this, and most examples from Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Russia rival Baltika 6 in quality. These are countries not really known as great brewing nations, but man does not live on vodka alone.

Even in Vladivostok.

Here comes a regular- Stammtisch

This article on Stammtisch in Spielgel Online's Germany Survival Bible describes one of my favorite beer-related traditions.

When you walk into a German Kneipe (pub), you'll often see one table curiously unoccupied, even though the others may be full. Good table, too. Best view in the house.

Don't sit there. See that sign on or above the table? it says Stammtisch. In a bizzare custom that wouldn't ever go over in the USA, this table is reserved for a select group of regulars. It's theirs even when they're at home.

Now this sounds annoying, and if anyplace tried it here the cops would wind up getting involved, but being invited to sit at the Stammtisch is a privilege, and can lead to that rare kind of boozy fun that reminds us why we love beer in the first place.

As far as I know, the only Stammtisch in Rochester is at Swan Market. It's odd, but I'm proud when Oskar Meyer and Guenther Schwann motion me over to join their table. Prosit!

Happy Memorial Day

Ahh, Memorial Day, that sacred holiday where all across the great United States, folks honor those who fought for this Nation's freedom by getting trashed.

Personally, I'll be featuring Dale's Pale Ale from Lyon's Colorado, as a companion to my Zweigle's White Hots (a Rochester tradition). And I'll give a shout out to the men and women in the Sandbox. Wish I could buy you all a beer.

-Mark

Friday's overrated beer: Sam Adams Lager

The American beer scene of a couple decades ago was pretty bleak. Imports were sparse and expensive, no micros to speak of, and the closest anyone got to actually appreciating it was "Bud Bowl." Then Jim Koch changed everything.



Never mind the fruity-looking patriot on the bottle. When Sam Adams Boston Lager first appeared, it was like the gates of heaven had opened. Balanced, dark, delicious, it quickly became a favorite among the trendy set and the beer afficianados. For years, Sam Adams remained a viable choice on any tap set.

Then something went wrong. Horribly wrong. Perhaps it's because they started letting Genesee (now High Falls Brewery) contract brew the stuff. Perhaps it got lost in Marketing's frenzied push to increase the Boston Beer Company's product range. It just slid right of the hill. It's nice that tey use Hallertau hops and all, but what was once a flavorful, complex lager nows seems cloying, a tad syrupy, with a weird finish.

Sam Adams is still held in very high esteem, and granted, I haven't ordered one in about four years, so maybe it's good again. But for now, it goes on the Beercraft list of Overrated Beers.

Special Thanks to the guys from Spaten and the Brooklyn Brewery for this hangover. We enjoyed the event at the Krown last night. That the Spaten was excellent goes without saying. The Brooklyn Blond Bock was a very pleasant surprise. Nice job, Mr. Oliver and crew!

Thursday's beer from the other side of the world: Efes Turkish Pilsner

The country of Turkey is not renowned as an epicenter of great beer, so it was with some trepidation that we sampled Efes Pilsener. Our wory qulckly dissolved after the first sip.



First off, it is decidedly not a pilsner. With it's sweetish flavor and prominent malt character, Efes more closely resembles a Munich lager. It's also darker than a pils. All in all, it's not a bad beer. I would order this if I saw it in a pub.

So hats off to Efes, the best "beer from the other side of the world" we've talked about so far.

Sisters of Murphy tonight at Monty's Krown

Tonight's the night. Our Irish band is playing at 10pm, with the whole thing being sponsored, inexplicably, by Spaten

Along with punky-edged pub music, there will be great Spaten beers on special. If you're in Rochester, come down and drink a few from one of the finest breweries in the world.

-Mark

Band practice & Canadian Shite Lager

Had our final practice for Thursday's show at Monty's Krown. My band, the Sisters of Murphy, are rarin' to go.

Problem is, I'm the only one who ever brings beer to pratice.

I'm sick of supplying the good stuff. Tonight it was straight Labatt Blue. My mouth tastes like Saskatchewan.

My ears are ringing. I'm going to bed.

Beercraft newspaper column #13: Hefeweizen

Hefeweizen: The best of summer beers

By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish

If you’re a beer person, you’ve probably noticed that some beers seem more seasonally appropriate than others. When you walk into the pub on a January night, fingers stiff and ears prickly from the icy wind, nothing is as comforting as a strong, dark imperial stout.

On a hot June day, however, it’s probably preferably to enjoy something lighter and more quenching. And we have Bavarian beer garden culture to thank for the most appropriate of all summer beer styles: Hefeweizen.

“Hefe” is German for “yeast,” and “Weizen” means wheat. That’s exactly what this is: a beer made with wheat instead of barley, and served unfiltered and cloudy with the standing yeast. The wheat base imparts a completely different, lighter character to the beer, and the methods used in brewing Hefeweizen result in a unique, delicious summer drink with a lot of visual appeal.

This style gets a special glass, and most bars who know their beer will have Hefeweizen glasses on hand. They’re really tall, curvy, and flared toward the top, amplifying the aroma of the beer. Very often, the filled glass is served with a lemon on the rim (Our advice: ditch the citrus. The Germans certainly would).

There should be a pleasant cloudiness from the yeast. As we said before, Hefeweizen is unfiltered, and that lack of clarity may put some people off at first. Rest assured it’s supposed to be like that.

A good Hefeweizen is slightly sweet, with good head retention and a characteristic banana and clove flavor combination. A bad one tastes like envelope glue. We decided to save ourselves the misery and review some good ones.

Paulaner Hefe-Weissebier is our favorite; the archetype of the style. On a summer afternoon, it’s absolutely sublime. It has a lush, apricot color and an intriguing, well-rounded flavor that really captures the spicy banana and clove essence. Sometimes you’ll see it on draft, but usually your best bet is to head down to Beers of the World for the bottled stuff.

Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse is the most available. If your bar has the style on draft, chances are it’s this one. That isn’t a bad thing; Franziskaner is very good. It sports the characteristic peach-to-orange color, with a nice thick head. The flavor is spicy-sweet, with a lot of citrus, and it’s very smooth.

Erdinger Hefe-Weizen is Paulaner’s regional rival for best Weizen. It’s a lot more dry, and will appeal to people who like the light wheat body and bite, but aren’t into sweeter beer. It’s also much paler than Paulaner or Franziskaner. Once again, you’ll be looking for the bottled version; we’ve never seen Erdinger distributed on draft in this region.


Hefeweizen is tricky to brew and few American examples are able to accurately hit the style guidelines, but we found a good one to compare with the old German standbys. Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat, from the Flying Dog Brewery of Denver, is a great domestic Hefe, with appealing cloudiness. It can’t stand with the Uber-hefes in terms of color or head retention. The flavor, though, is pretty much bang-on European. The guys who formulated In-Heat know their craft, and it pays off for the consumer. Enjoy this beer as fine American alternative to lager on a hot summer day.

If you’re buying Hefeweizen in bottles, remember to gently roll the bottle on the table before opening it. This circulates the yeast from the bottle’s bottom. If you skip this step, you’ll probably lose the signature cloudiness, as well as some of the flavor.

So pour yourself a nice big glass, sit outside in the sun and be thankful to the Bavarians for creating something as wonderful as Hefeweizen. Hell, they had to do something to atone for the invention of Lederhosen.

In other beers:
It is with great personal sadness that we lament the closing of MacGregor’s downtown location. For well over a decade, it has been a bastion of beer. With 85 taps, excellent, high-quality specials, and a friendly staff, MacGregor’s was as close to the perfect pub any we’ve visited.

The other MacGregor’s locations remain open and pouring; although none of the suburban spots can match the original Gregory Street bar for ambiance and conviviality. Still, they all have a huge variety of beer on draft, and they know their product.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and former commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://beercraft.blogspot.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com

The first podcast is recorded.

Well, fellow beercraft participant Rob Walsh and myself put together the first episode. It's a bit more amateurish than I was hoping for; we were using Audacity, a laptop, and a cheap computer mic. Once Bruce comes on board with the podcast, we'll use a full Pro Tools suite in a studio.

So we reviewed a couple of American beers, including Great Divide Titan IPA, which was a real delight.

Hear more in the Podcast, hopefully going up this week. I look forward to feedback on the project.

-Mark

Breath patrol?!?

I received a press release for this poduct. It's described as " 'emergency equipment' for all beer/wine drinkers. It's recommended by Professional Taster Stephen Beaumont (worldofbeer.com), Ratebeer.com and South West Brewing News (USA). BreathPatrol does not mask but eliminates breath odor from alcohol, tobacco, garlic, onions and coffee. The Germans have had breweries for 25 centuries: Who better to create a great tasting and effective breath freshener?"

So, what we have here is an anti-DWI pill. I can't see how you'l fool a breathalyzer, since alcohol is metabolized through the lungs, but you might take away any reason on the part of the coop to administer the test in the first place. I guess it's also nice to be able to slam back a few at lunchtime then return to work without smelling like a brewery.

Thank you, Germans, for helping us bring alcohol back into the workplace and the driver's seat! Who better than you guys? Oh, and can you do anything about my B.O.?

-Mark

Friday's overrated beer: Bass Ale

Bass Ale is ubiquitous. It's the oldest trademark in Britain. The bottle was depicted in a Monet painting. It's often considered the pinnacle of beer by people who rarely venture out of Busch-land.

And it sucks.

OK. Mayby it doesn't exactly suck, but it lacks body and character. Other English pale ales, such as Old Speckled Hen blow bass out of the water (sic) in terms of body, balance, and general character of the beer.

I guess Bass' strongest positive is that it's available everywere. Mostr restaurants carry it, and you can get it in the British Airways Club Lounge (provided Snoop hasn't totally trashed the place). It's blandness also helps make it less of an acquired taste than many of the craft beers.

At any rate, you won't ever find it in my fridge.

Thursday's Beer from the Other Side of the World: O.B. Lager

The Oriental Brewery of South Korea makes this light, American style lager for both export and domestic consumption. After trying it, I kind of wish they'd kept it at home.

When we poured it, the cheap, cereal smell that wafted out of the glass simultaneously raised our eyebrows and lowered our desire to taste. But a hobby is a hobby, dammit, so taste we did. And we were not disappointed. Which is to say we were highly disappointed.

There is more rice in O.B. than in your average sushi bar. The cheap adjunct grain provides fermentable starches at a lower price and worse flavor than real barley. It's a technique used by American and Canadian macrobrewers for more than a century, but the Oriental Brewery makes even less of an effort to cover the thin, character-free taste than our domestic giants.

The result: a limp, pissy brew that's mercifully close to flavorlessness until the aftertaste maims your tonsils. If you're a poor Korean student, or a poor American serviceman, this beer will probably hit the price point for you. If you're looking for an exotic brew in your local beer store, rest assured this is not it, and I can think of another product named O.B. which is probably tastier than this, although it might leave you with cottonmouth.

-Mark

An Irish band & German beer

Our Irish band, the Sisters of Murphy, is playing at Monty's Krown on Monroe Ave. in Rochester Thursday, May 24. I sing, Bruce plays bass.

usually, we play one show a year (an Irish band...guess which day?), but this will be a rare appearance by the Sisters of Murphy in all our drunken, er, splendor.

The show is sponsored by Spaten, and we can expect at least a couple kinds to be on draft at a special price. Irish pub music, German beer, American swearing, sounds like a hell of an evening to me!

-Mark

On the proliferation of "big" beer

American craft breweries are formulating high-alcohol, high-gravity brews at an increasing rate. seems the average microbrew afficianado has taken a liking to brawny, hangover-inducing out-of-balance ales.

Personally, I'm not a fan. Sure, in the winter I might grab a Middle Ages Druid Fluid or Victory Storm King, but bang! there's your night right there. A couple glasses of an over-the-top beer will put you under the table before you even close the 20s on the dart board.

Some big beers are very tasty, but many go down like malt syrup. Some, in a halfhearted attempt at balance, taste like strangulation with a hop vine. I don't want to have to pull my uvula back into place with pliers every time I sip my beer.

Consumer perception is a large part of the big beer craze. People new to craft beer, or who stay locked in that "I won't drink anything I can see through" box equate higher strength beer as more "crafty." Like it's somehow a more exclusive product because the brewer left more fermentable sugar in the wort.

Thanks. For my money I'll take something I can session with, and enjoy a pleasant, leisurely evening with friends. For me, beer is a social thing, not a delivery system for drunkenness. If I want to get hammered on the first sip, I'll just order a shot of vodka.

-Mark

R.I.P MacGregor's Downtown

I just learned that one of my favorite pubs, MacGregor's, has closed its Gregory Street location suddenly and without warning. I had a lot of great times, and great beers in there, and made some friends.

The other MacGregor's locations are still open, but they're far from downtown, requiring lengthy drives that one does not wish to take while consuming beverage. It looks like we'll have to find an alternative. Sigh.

-Mark

The beercraft podcast

We're going to start a podcast, which will be every bit as exciting as hearing three guys making slurping sounds and waffling about beer can be. I hope to record the first episode this coming Sunday and pump them out on at least a biweekly basis. Let me know if there's anything you'd like to hear discussed.

-Mark

A bock oversight

Of course, we didn't find this out until after our article on Bock beer published.

Swan Market, on Parsell's Ave in Rochester, is now pouring Spaten Bock on draft. This isn't the Optimator Doppelbock (which they have bottled), but the honest-to-gosh golden Bock Lager.

If you live in Rochester, but don't know Swan Market, you're missing a treat. It's a little German deli in the middle of the 'hood. They make their own sausages and smoke their own meat in a 100 year old smokehouse. Wednesday through Saturday, they serve German lunches from 11:30-2. Vegetarians need not apply; even the vegetables have bacon in them.

There is NO better place in Rochester for beer drinking.

A shout-out to the Brewers

Not the Milwaukee baseball team.

Is there a more thankless job than Brewer at a microbrewery? You have to lug tons of heavy shit around all day, spend half your time up to the elbows in caustic as you sanitize, work around huge boiling vats even in the middle of summer, and deal with high waitstaff turnover that could give fuck-all about what you labor to create.

At the same time, the place where you work is always on the edge of closure, the owner only cares about maximizing profit so you're working all hours of the night. The owner thinks he's a brewmaster, so he's fucking with your recipes and criticizing your procedures. You're lucky to have the tiniest bit of health insurance, if any, and your place of employment could close down with no notice at any time.

Groupies? Yeah, you get them. 50 year old men with scraggly Jerry Garcia beards and graphing calculators peeking out of a shirt pocket, who always want a tour of the cramped dungeon you call a brewery, and go on for hours about every other beer they've ever swilled before pedalling away on their recumbent bicycles.

Yet you keep making beer.

Hey, brewers, thanks for loving beer and loving your craft. The job might be a pain sometimes, but some of us out there appreciate the way you guys do it.

Overrated beer of the week

Since yesterday's post lionized Sheaf Stout, it's only fiting that today's should slam another Australian beer.



Yes, I'm talking about Foster's Lager, a beer so bland, so bad-to-ordinary, that you couldn't pick it out of the friggin' Pepsi Challenge. According to the Foster's website, "Its signature full malt character on the mid-palate blends well with a delicate creaminess and crisp, clean hop finish, creating a perfect balance to the beer." But according to me, it's Labatt Blue with a touch less corn flavor, served in a fat can.

The galling thing is, were it not for Paul Hogan and a vast marketing budget, Foster's would be as rare as Sheaf on American shelves. It bums me out that people buy the "G'day, shrimp on the barbie" hype, try Fosters, find it mildly less exotic than Utica Club, and from that moment on take a slightly skewed view of all beer.

Of course, if you like Foster's, by all means drink away. I don't mean to imply that Foster's fans are wrong or posess inferior taste. If this is your bag, enjoy.

That way, there'll be less for the rest of us.

-Mark

Thursday's Beer from the Other Side of the World: Sheaf Stout

Australian beers, at least the exported ones, tend to be thin lagers with little to no personality. Picture Labatt Blue as pitched by Paul Hogan. Sheaf Stout, however, is a welcome exception. Although difficult to find, tracking down the Sheaf is well worth it. Bruce and myself happened upon it at the Map Room in Cleveland's Warehouse District.

It's a sweeter stout, with a tantalizing dry finish and a medium body. The flavors are quite complex and blend with each other well. Sheaf clocks in at 5.7% alcohol by volume; usually one would expect a stout with this much character to rate much higher on the drunkard scale. If you can find it, fill your fridge and enjoy.

Beercraft newspaper column #12: Bock beer

Bock beer offers a taste of spring in the Alps

By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish


Bavaria is the Mecca of beer. The Czechs and the English might disagree, but the fact is, there are more breweries in this southern German state than in any other country in the world.

Most of these Breweries earn their keep putting out Helles, or Bavarian lager. Many also brew a stronger seasonal beer for the spring months. Various myths and legends have linked the spring beer with the image of a goat. Indeed the very word Bock means “goat” in German.

It turns out that Bock is pretty popular, not only in Germany but around the world. We’re fortunate here in the northeastern US; not only can we readily get our hands on the German stuff, but many regional and microbreweries produce original interpretations of the style right at home.

So without further ado, let’s crack our first bottle, direct from the town of Einbeck, spiritual source of Bock beer. Einbecker Ur-Bock demonstrates all the traditional elements of the Bock profile.

The beer pours a caramel-amber color with a pleasant head that disintegrates to a fine lace on the sides of the glass. You won’t detect much aroma, but expect a whiff of malt.

The sweet flavor of malt dominates, but the hop presence is noticeable enough to round out the finish, so the beer isn’t cloying. Also, as can be expected from Bock, Einbecker has a full, substantial, satisfying body. It’s a fantastic beer for an evening out, but not so good after mowing the lawn on a hot day.

The most annoying thing about Einbecker is the size of the bottle. It clocks in at a measly 11.2 ounces. For a region as Beer-crazy as Catholic Bavaria, that laughable serving is downright Lutheran.

Bock is also brewed in Austria, notably by the Stiegl brewery of Salzburg. Their “Columbus” Bock straddles the line betwixt Maibock and Marzen (Bavarian festival beer…more on this in August). It also hearty mouth feel and a sweeter malt flavor, with even less bitter aftertaste than the Einbecker.

Not to get all wine columnist on you, but the flavor of Stiegl is pleasantly complex, with notes of toffee, hazelnut, and caramel. This is a wonderful dessert beer for people who have a slight sweet tooth, yet still like to drink strong things. It’s also the only Salzburg export that doesn’t have the name “Mozart” tackily slapped all over it.

Our next Bock beer had to travel all the way down the street from the High Falls Brewing Company. JW Dundee’s Pale Bock, coming off a gold medal win at the World Beer Cup (where it competed against the German stuff).

Dundee’s pours a light golden color, indistinguishable in hue from many lagers. There’s the slightest malt aroma, too. The taste is where it differs from the traditional German Bocks. It’s not as malt-heavy, with a dry finish.

This makes Dundee’s Pale Bock a real standout for its versatility. It’s a tasty, malty Bock that will refresh throughout the hottest summer months as well as during the spring. High Falls should keep this one in production for a while.

Next up: Stoudts Double Maibock, from the Stoudt Brewing Company in scenic Adamstown, PA. The name of this beer can be a bit deceiving; it’s as strong as a Doppelbock, but the flavor and visual characteristics of a Mai (May) Bock.

Like Dundee’s, the color is pale golden. It’s only when you taste the beer that you notice a more intense, sweet malt flavor very reminiscent of the German stuff, it’s actually a bit more syrupy; the malt has to camouflage an enormous amount of alcohol for the Maibock style.

As you can see, apart from a few basic style characteristics (sweet Munich/Vienna malt taste, substantial mouth feel, higher alcohol content), the profile for Bock is actually pretty broad, with room for many individual variations. This probably came about thanks to the hundreds of individual Bavarian breweries, each one with their own take on the town’s spring beer.

It’s almost the exact opposite of the trend in brewing today. Many of those small breweries no longer exist, snapped up by large German and international brewing conglomerates. And this is the main reason to appreciate Bock beer; in every malty sip, you get a taste of uncompromising brewing history. Prosit!

Bruce is a certified beer judge and former commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://beercraft.blogspot.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com

The Upper Monroe Homebrewer's Guild

What a perfect Sunday. I spent it nice and lazy, sitting on the porch with the members of the newly-minted Upper Monroe Homebrewer's Guild: Bruce, Bob, Chris & Patrick.

It was a treat to sample beers from four of the finest homebrewers in Rochester. And believe me, I sampled my ass off. The company was great as well.

Microbrewery movement growing in Denmark

Whe I visited Copenhagin in 1999, the bars had two taps: Carlsberg and Tuborg.

While the Danes have a great brewing tradition, the fact is they don't have a fantastic beer tradition. However Danish tastes are widening...

Thursday's Beer from the Other Side of the World: Asahi

After Dubya Dubya two, Japanese industry wasn't doing so good. Among the smashed and bombed steel refineries and materiel factories were the devastated guts of just about every other industry, including the bering biz.

As the breweries of Japan began their reconstruction process, many American consultant companies, such as Anheuser-Busch, offered assistance. In some cases, the American breweries bought stakes in the fledgling Japanese concerns.

That's why Asahi tastes so much like Budweiser. Rice, rice, and more rice lend it a clean, crisp, disturbingly neutral character, allowing it to go very well with delicate foods like sushi, but preventing the beer from ever being considered particularly good.

More on Lambics from the New York Times

I posted our column on lambics a couple of weeks ago. If you want to read more, there's a good article in the online New York Times.

More postings soon

I've been dealing with some pretty heavy personal shit over the past few days. More beer stuff is pending. In the meantime, here is a picture of some Norwegian beer...

Beercraft newspaper column #11: The beers of Mexico

Cerveza por favor, and hold the Mayo

By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish

Were it not for all the marketing dollars, Cinco de Mayo would be a non-event in American bars. The producers and importers of Corona, however, have succeeded in transforming this holiday commemorating the May 5, 1862 victory of the Mexicans over the invading French into a boozy mess.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. All we’re suggesting is, if you’re going to party Mexican-style, you might as well pick up one of several excellent, but less commercially visible, beers from south of the border.

The most recognizable Mexican beer is Corona, loved by spring breakers, loathed by beer geeks everywhere. Indeed, there’s something undeniably uric about Corona’s color which raises questions as to the beer’s production process.

During the eighties, it became something of a “status” beer. The microbrew movement hadn’t yet made its full impact, and image-conscious consumers latched on to everything perceived as boutique. Corona sales skyrocketed in the USA, and it seemed that every yuppie with a sleek suit and Miami Vice pastel tie was hoisting a clear bottle with a lime wedge jammed in the neck.

In fact, Corona is nothing special. It’s brewed with a high percentage of cheap cereal adjuncts, and its flavor is pretty much nonexistent. When you add a lime, the beer tastes like lime. The light taste and lack of almost all possible character makes it easy to drink fast. Fundamentally, it’s a sub-premium product at a super premium price, and even today, Americans buy it by the gigaliter.

Unfortunately, Corona has come to embody our perception of Mexican beer, when in fact, it is an anomaly. Thanks to the aforementioned French invasion, which, in true 19th-century empire-building style, installed an Austrian Hapsburg prince on the throne in Mexico, The country experienced a wave of settlement by Austrians and Germans.

These expatriates longed for the beers of their homeland, so pragmatically, they began brewing them in Mexico, and thus the lineage of many Mexican beers can be traced directly to the Vienna lagers and Helles beers of Austria and Bavaria.

Those styles still exist in Mexico today. Probably the best example of which is Negra Modelo. Dark copper in color, with a malty aroma and a sweet taste that bears as much resemblance to Corona as oranges do to the Crab Nebula, Modelo is a fine brew that maintains the style hallmarks of Vienna lager, while imparting unique flavor elements as well.

Negra Modello is pretty widely available in our region, certainly it can be found at Mex, on Alexander Street, and Selena’s, in Village Gate. We recommend pouring this beer into a glass, because you won’t get the full aroma and color when swilling it out of the bottle. Oh, and just say no to the lime in this one.

Hey, as long as you’re bellying up to the bar in that Mexican-themed entertainment establishment, try a Dos Equis dark. It’s similar to Negra Modelo in formulation, appearance, and overall flavor, but a little less sweet. Still the toasted malt flavor dominates, with very little bitterness in the finish. If you like beer with character, but aren’t crazy about hops, Dos Equis might be a good patio beer for you.

We’d definitely choose a Modelo over this beer, but Dos Equis has the benefit of greater distribution. You shouldn’t have problems finding it in any Mexican place without the word “Bell” in the name.

Slightly more difficult to find is Bohemia, from Monterrey, Mexico. Reminiscent of a southern German lager, it garners rave reviews from American consumers. It has a light flavor, but maintains plenty of character. Bohemia is balanced toward malt rather than hops, although you can pick out a bit of the floral hop aroma.

Finding Bohemia in bars may be a problem, so your best bet might be to call your favorite beer store and see what they can do. Oh, and don’t wreck the taste of this beer with citrus fruit. It’ll just obscure the character of a very good lager.

Probably the best thing that can come of the nightlife industry’s promotion of Cinco de Mayo is an awareness of the pleasant cultural aspects presented by our neighbors from the south. It’s a shame that something as consistently good as Mexican beer doesn’t really get a fair shake in many parts of the US. So let’s all give the lime growers fits and enjoy some REAL Mexican beer. Chances are you’ll find something enjoyable year-round and not just on this co-opted holiday.

Return of the message board

I've decided to resurrect the old message board from my old project. The link is on the sidebar. Join up and let's talk about beer!

I'm planning a reskin for both the board and the blog. It's, like, number #86 on my dance card.

-Mark

Which came first, the bottle or the beer?

I used to be a huge fan of American microbreweries. Had you talked to me in 1998, I would have told you that, contrary to popular belief, America is a great brewing nation. Hell, New York State alone had dozens of fine micros.

I still pretty much feel that way, but my enthusiasm is lessened by what I see as a pervasive emphasis on marketing over quality on the microbrew scene. I'm kinda sick of cutesy beer names. I'm tired of overdone bottle art. And I'm annoyed that breweries' often scant operating dollars are going to this aspect of the business rather than into creating the best possible beers.

Have you ever bought a science fiction novel because of the cool cover art, only to find a hackneyed, overdone formulaic story? That's my take on disassociative marketing- the kind of marketing that emphasizes image over the quality of the product.

Plus, at the beer store, everybody's beautiful, pramary-colored bottle art and everybody's "Old Defribulator" and "Angus McFuckstick's Ale" all blends together into a sea of gobbledygook that tells the potential consumer nothing about the beer.

I know packaging is important, but i wish it wasn't always so over the top. No if you'll excuse me, I'm off to have a beer that gets it right, Southern Tier IPA.

Review: Rohrbach Brewing Company Bluebeary Ale

We're at the bar. It's been a while since we tried a Rohrbach Brewing Company beer, so we trucked out the good ol' Bluebeary ale.

Positives: The blueberry flavor is in the background, where it belongs. As is appropriate for a fruit ale, you get the nose and essence of the beer instead of the syrupy sweetness.

Negatives: Hops, Hops, HOPS. Excessive bitterness in the finish clashes with and overwhelms the fruit.

Overall it's not too bad, probably on par with the fruit beers offered by most micros.
An easing up of the hop bitterness would make a huge difference in our overall impression of this beer.

Things looking up at McGregor's

As I mentioned in a previous post, the house beers at MacGregor's Grill and Tap Room in Rochester are now being brewed by the Southern Tier Brewing Company. I harshed their Cherry Wheat beer and their pale ale. THey were both very diasappointing.

However, the MacGregor's Milk Stout is lovely. Also brewed by the Southern Tier guys, it's complex, with a nice vanilla undertone. A very drinkable example of a style we don't see here very often. It's also a deal at the house special price. If you live in town, it's worth a stop.

Also, congratulations are in order to the High Falls Brewery and Brewmaster Dave Schlosser. Their J.W. Dundee's Pale Bock won the gold medal in the Bock category in this year's World Beer Cup. Quite a feat, considering that the intrepid team from Rochester was up against some heavyweight German competition. Cheers, guys!

-Mark

Thursday's cool beer from the other side of the world

Today it's Singha from Thailand.

I disagree with the consensus of the Beeradvocate.com reviews. It's not the best beer, but it's cold,refreshing,and has distinctive character. Plus, it goes great with Thai food.

Beercraft newspaper column #10: Lambics

From Belgium with love: Lambics

Can beer be romantic?

Think about it. If you’re trying to impress a girl on a date, you go right for the wine. But (yawn) so does everybody else. If you really want to slay her, try ordering a goblet of Framboise, a Belgian Lambic beer aged with raspberries. Chances are she’s never tasted anything quite like it.

Fruit Lambics come flavored with Cherry (Kriek), Raspberry (Framboise), and more recently peach (Peche) and blackcurrant (Cassis). You can also get unflavored Gueuze, tongue-mangling in both name and flavor. They’re hard to find in bars, but readily available at specialty beer stores.

Straight Lambic is an extremely dry, sour, cidery brew which originates from the region around the town of Lembeek (which is near Brussels, but so’s everything else in Belgium). It’s only served in a few cafes in the capital and around the region.

Despite the efforts of breweries on this side of the pond, the flavor of Lambic is irreproducible, due to the key role that geography plays in the beer’s fermentation process.

After the Lambic wort is boiled, the unique yeast native to that small Belgian region is introduced through a method that would make strait-laced German brewers cringe. The liquid is left out in the open air, so the airborne yeast, along with other assorted microorganisms, can settle in naturally.

Afterward, the wort is transferred into old wooden barrels, creating the only possible environment for Lambic. When done, and after a couple of years’ maturation, the beer tastes light, tart and acidic. Its mouth feel is comparable to champagne. If the batch is to be a fruit Lambic, the appropriate produce (or fruit syrup for the more bottom-line oriented producers) is added into the barrel.

The resulting beer is an intricate blend of Lambic’s tart vibrancy and the color, aroma, and sweetness of fruit. A good Kriek, such as Lindemann’s, pours a deep ruby red, with a persistent light pink head. Predictably, it smells like cherries, the sweet flavor of which is mellowed by the acidity of the beer. It’s not cloying, yet just intense enough to make a great dessert beer. It’s fantastic with dark chocolate.

Framboise and Kriek are the two traditional, old-school fruit Lambic types. The other flavors are the creation of marketing personnel and, while not bad, just lack that aura of authenticity. They’re made with cheaper fruit syrups instead of the raspberries and sour cherries straight from the Belgian fields.

Although Lindemann's is the most widely imported brand, and the only one you’ll probably ever find on draft in the USA, several other producers export to this area. They’re all small operations, and the flavors can vary greatly in tartness, sweetness and intensity.

Now granted, this isn’t manly bachelor party brew. You’re not going to see rappers swigging it on MTV, and rarely will some dude roll up on his Harley for a couple of Peches. Most beer geeks view Lambic as an occasional indulgence at best and it finds favor with a primarily female audience. However, it can be an excellent choice for celebration and an expression of creativity as a party gift. Mark even serves Kriek instead of champagne on New Year’s Eve.

And, for drinkers of sweeter cocktails, the beautiful, richly-colored Framboise is a great introduction to the world of beer. There’s no hop taste to get used to (hops are present, but only as a preservative, aged beyond the point where their flavor is evident), and the fruity essence is welcoming and refreshing. That, and their visual appeal, makes elegantly-served Lambic absolutely unique among beers.

So next time you’re out on that big date, swing by a bar that serves Lambic (Monty’s Korner and The Old Toad frequently carry it), or pick up a bottle at Beers of the World. If you’re back at your place, serve it in champagne flutes. Then watch her eyes go wide.

And remember to send us a thank-you card.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and former commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://beercraft.blogspot.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com

Steam Whistle Brewing = excellent pilsner

It was a cloudy day, but that worked in my favor. The line for the CN Tower was mercifully short. It was my friend Brendan's first time in the tower, so the world's tallest tourist trap was a must-see.

At the bottom of the tower observatory, there's a section of vertigo-inducing glass floor. You can walk out onto the clear surface and gaze a thousand feet or so straight down. When you do this, you see an old railroad roundhouse. Even from this height, I could make out the trainyard building's silver sign: Steam Whistle Brewing Company.

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I'd heard of this roundhouse converted into a brewery, but filed the information away in the back of my brain somewhere. However, due to the proximity, a trip over was in order, and boy am I glad we went.

Steam Whistle's business model shatters the microbrewery mold. They don't serve food. They're not even a bar, just a sampling counter (where the samples are free) and a retail shop, with a titanic brewing and grain storage system visible through the back windows. And get this: they only make one beer.

Steam Whistle Pilsner carries the motto "Do one thing very, very well." It is the best Pilsener I've tasted from a North American brewer.



The color nails it: golden hued, a little darker than Pilsner Urquell. Present is the soapy, strong head and pleasant aroma. And the taste? A slight malt sweetness that leads into a textbook saaz hop bitterness.

Seriously, I could A/B Steam Whistle next to a dozen European Pilsners and it would fit right in the middle. Not as good as Urquell or Dinkel-Acker CD Pils, but better than Staropramen, Budvar, and a bunch of the German stuff.

Unfortunately for me, I don't think I can get it here, but the brewery distributes in big trucks throughout Ontario and Alberta. Hopefully I'll find some on this side of the border. If that happens, Steam Whistle has a customer for life.

-Mark

Oh, the Germanity!

Here's a quick CNN article tht helps illustrate why Germany is the best place in the world for beer.

Beer tasting cancelled.

Well, looks like the Victory guy had to cancel the tasting at the Krown. My apologies to the folks that showed up...hope you enjoyed the beer anyway. Hopefully the event will be rescheduled.

I just got back from Toronto, where I had the best North American Pilsener I've ever tasted... more to come tomorrow.

-Mark

Interesting Guinness article

The guys from Beer Advocate recently had a chance to sit down with the Brewmaster of Guinness' Dublin brewery. The resulting article is pretty interesting.

I actually had a couple Guinness Extra Stouts last night. The Extra, brewed in New Brunswick, Canada, is not nitrogen-carbonated, and has a bit more "bite" than the traditional draught. Sometimes, it's a nice change.

I need ideas.

We've spanned the beer gamut and back again, yet I know there's so much to beer and its place in culture that, theoretically, I could never write on the same subject twice. I mean, look at Michael Jackson.



He's made a whole international career out of beer writing (and probably has gotten some erroneous offers to headline pop shows). I'm no Michael Jackson, but I want to continue finding new joy in the world's best beverage.

So I'm asking readers (not you, Mike Cialini) for a leg up. What would you like to see Bruce and myself writing about, both in the column and in the blog? Let's all share the joy of beer together, thanks to the magic of the internet.

-Mark

Tax day special at Monty's Krown

A representative of the Victory Brewing Company will hold a beer tasting at Monty's Krown (Rochester, NY) on Saturday, April 15. We all know and love their Hop Devil IPA, but here's your chance to sample their entire range of beery goodness. Hope to see you there.

-Mark

Beercraft on the road again

Bruce and his brewing partner, Bob, are driving to Boston for a marathon beer tour as we speak. They'll be visiting brewpubs in Troy, NY and Vermont, as well as whatever interesting spots they can find in the Hub. Details to follow.

The true taste of spring, representing Deutschland. Jaaaa...

Spring is in the air, so it'll soon be the season for drinking Hefe-Weizen. Not that being out of season has ever prevented me from throwing back a few wheat beers. Anyway, time to reiterate the Weizen pecking order.

Paulaner Hefe-Weizen remains the archetype of the style, the best in the world. The deep orange color and complex, unequalled flavor set it head (sic) and shoulders above all others.

Ayinger is also excellent, brewed at a smaller brewery and available in bottles here. Deep and complex, it's a little more bland than Paulaner, but still sublime.

Franziskaner is the most widely available. You'll find this on draft a lot in blue states. It's very good, but lacks Paulaner's depth of color and presence.

Tucher is from Nuremburg, well outside of traditional Hefe-Weizen country. It's probably the least enjoyable of all the German Hefes, but the brewery gets some slack because they brew Bajuvator, my favorite doppelbock.

American hefes are usually terrible. Either the water is wrong, or the brewer doesn't do the complex decoction mash correctly. They usually have kind of a swampy flavor that would make a German engineer cry. One exception, according to Bruce, is Pyramid Hefe-Weizen from California.

Steam beers

Someone sent us a good topic idea.

Steam beer is weird, kind of half lager, half ale. It uses bottom-fermenting yeast, like a lager, but it is fermented at higher temperatures, like an ale. Consequently, the beer has characteristics of both.

According to legend the style originated in California during the 19th century. Brewers attempted to make lager, but, lacking refrigeration, they had to...settle for this. Personally, I think the whole thing was made up by the Anchor Brewery, holders of the trademark for the term "steam beer" (The non-trademarked style name is "California common beer") But what do I know?

I never found steam beer particularly distinctive, so my reccommendation would be to go for a good lager or ale instead. But definitely give it a try, if only to get a taste of a peculiar niche in brewing history.

-Mark

A hidden Gem from belgium

Old Toad bar manager Joe McBane has done it again, He's serving bottled Grimbergen, a blonde abbey ale from Belgium. It's a pretty good example, and at 6.2% abv it has some heft to it.

Here's the best part. It's on special at $2.75 a bottle. That is an absolute steal. I'm heading back up there tonight; I doubt they'll last long.

Southern Tier brewing house beers

Yesterday, we went down to MacGregor's Grill and Tap Room here in Rochester, where we were informed that the Southern Tier Brewing Company was taking over the bar's house-branded beers (previously supplied by the Ithaca Brewing Company). We sampled a Cherry Wheat and I think a pale ale.

Maybe there's another brewery that goes by the Southern Tier moniker, because to say that these beers didn't meet the standard of excellence to which we're accustomed from ST woud be an understatement.

The Cherry Wheat was ok in essence, and the beer didn't overcherrify, but there was far too much hop presence for a fruit beer, leaving a nasty, strangly aftertaste. The ale was thin, devoid of aroma, and just plain bad.

In fairness, we had been drinking a pitcher of hoppy Ithaca Cascazilla, so our taste buds could have been confused, but Southern Tier has a long way to go in order to get these beers anywhere close to the fine stuff they produce under their own name.

Beercraft newspaper column #8- Super hoppy beers

Lets all be bitter with superhopped beers

By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish

Along with malt, yeast and water, hops are an essential ingredient in all beers. When added to fermenting wort, they suppress the growth of microorganisms that would compete with the yeast. Of course they also contribute much to a beer’s flavor and aroma, their bitterness counterbalancing the sweetness of the malt.

It’s the “hoppier” beers that have really taken off in the American craft beer scene. Breweries across the nation have built loyal clientele on the strength of floral, pleasantly bitter pale ales and IPAs, which are substantially more acerbic than, say, brown ales and most lagers.

Just for the record, bitter in this sense is a good thing. It’s not like taking a spoonful of castor oil. Think of it as a fresh, almost citrus sensation that may take some getting used to but figures prominently in the flavor profiles of most good beers.

Put it this way, if it’s not there, you’ll miss it.

For dedicated hopheads, however, that’s still not enough. A large proportion of beer people (sometimes even us) love having their tonsils blasted out the backs of their heads with vine-grown bitterness, and breweries are responding accordingly. Each of the following beers kick you in the throat with more bitterness than a Dubai port manager.

With all beers, the challenge is to maintain a balance of flavor. When you’re blending five different hops and dry-hopping the beer, that challenge becomes pretty daunting. The River Horse Brewing Company’s Hop Hazard, however, retains its balance while still maintaining all the bitterness of a grounded teenager.

The beer pours amber, several shades lighter than copper, without a lot of foam. It has that fresh-meadow smell, but there’s still some malt in the aroma.

The first thing you taste is the malt, but as the beer washes over the back of your tongue the hops are unmistakable; a pleasant, not astringent, bitterness several magnitudes greater than the average IPA. When done right, the bitter flavors should invite the drinker to take another sip. Judging by the empty six-packs lying around Mark’s computer, Hop Hazard gets it correct.

A big beer in alcohol content as well as hops, Victory Hop Wallop is a darling of the craft beer community. It’s brewed by the consistently excellent Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and it’s bitter like Pete Best at a Beatles convention.

For an IPA, Hop Wallop is a very pretty beer. It’s much lighter-colored than expected, more like a golden lager, with an appealing snow-white head. The aroma and flavor, however, are all hops, and yeah, the name is right on. It’s certainly balanced away from malt, but that just makes Hop Wallop a hophead’s ambrosia.

The Dogfish Head brewery of New Hampshire has always made maverick beers, and 90 Minute IPA is no exception. Weighing in at 9% alcohol by volume, it’s as potent as a doppelbock, and it needs that strength to carry the extreme hoppiness imparted by boiling the flowers in the brew kettle for a full 90 minutes.

Technically, 90 Minute is a Double IPA, and the greater malt presence necessary to generate that kind of strength makes this beer surprisingly balanced. Still, the label says it all. You’re getting a hop explosion in this beer that’s bitterer than a Freetime reader coming across yet another crummy metaphor.

Dogfish Head also makes a 75- and 60- minute IPA which tones down on the hop-heaviness. All three of these are fantastic beers in their own right.

In Other Beers:

Tax day is one of the better occasions on which to drink a bunch of beer. Happily, Monty’s Krown in Rochester will be hosting the Victory Beer Festival on April 15th. A representative from the Victory Brewing Company will host a tasting of their excellent range of beers, hopefully including the aforementioned Hop Wallop, as well as some that are only available at their brewery.

The Rohrbach Brewing Company will be hosting a beer and food pairing featuring the beers of Germany on April 18th at their Buffalo Road restaurant. Expect Rohrbach lagers, as well as a range of authentic German beers. Call the brewery for reservations.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and former commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://beercraft.blogspot.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com

Decisions, Decisions...

Going to the pub tonight, what to choose?

My favorite bar actually had German Rauchbier on draft last weekend. It's hickory-smoked beer from the town of Bamberg. I love it. Most of my fiends think it tastes like sausage.

Anyway, it's pricey and expensive, and they on;ly had 30 liters (of which I went through two). I'l probably stick with the beer special, usually Jever Pils.

The bitterest Pils...

I am in the mood for a Pilsener. A nice clear, golden, bitter lager just bursting with Saaz hops. Mmmmmm.

Pilsener Urquell, from the Czech Republic, is still one of the best. Germany's Jever, Spaten Pils, and Dinckel Acker CD-Pils are also excellent. Fortunately, I can get all of these within walking (stumbling?) distance from my house.

Damn, it's gonna be a long workday.

-Mark

Layered beer- it's all about the contrast

I hadn't had a black and tan for a while, so the other day I ordered a couple. If you are unfamiliar, it's a pint of two beers, Guinness and Bass, with the darker Guiness layer floating on top of the lighter-colored Bass. Here's a picture.



Bass has never been one of my favorites, but it was worth it just for the visual pleasure. There are other mixes, too. A snakebite is stout layered on top of cider, and a half-and-half replaces the lower layer with lager. They're a nice change of pace and they draw attention from beer neophytes if you feel the need to look pseudo-sophisticated.

For the most part, however, I'm gonna keep my beers in separate glasses.

The only St. Patrick’s day-related column without a clichéd Irish saying for a header

Everyone loves to put on a little Irish for Saint Patrick’s Day, but in truth most people aren’t that picky about what they drink with their corned beef and cabbage. Any old swill seems to work fine, especially if it’s dyed green.

More discerning or traditional folks gravitate to the one beer that, through insanely expensive marketing, has taken over St. Pat’s as its own: Guinness. A huge percentage of annual Guinness sales take place in the one week leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. One local bartender expects to go through ten kegs of the roasty black stout on the 17th alone.

That’s all well and good, but American revelers tend to miss other wonderful beers arguably superior to Guinness, yet just as Irish.

Irish beer in New York State pretty much means stouts and red ales. The two styles are vastly different, and each has its fans.

Dry and tea-colored, with slight caramel flavor notes, Red ales are an easy adjustment for the beer novice. They aren’t particularly strong. They don’t overpower the senses. You can drink them all freakin’ day. The best compliment to pay a Red is to say it’s well-balanced between sweet and dry.

Red ales have unfortunately been typified in the American market by the bland, pseudo-Irish Killian’s Red (brewed by Coors, ostensibly using an old Irish recipe). In the local pubs, a far superior alternative is Smithwick’s. It’s light and earthy, with a toasted flavor. A trip to Ireland will show that this is the new beer of choice in the old pubs. When you order, ask for a “Smith-icks.” The “w” is silent.

A bunch of American microbrewers make Irish red s. Find plenty of them bottled at area beer stores. On draft, Rohrbach McDermott’s Irish Ale and Custom Brewcrafters’ Johnny’s Irish Ale are the local contenders.

Red ale, however, is not the beer that for Americans is the essence of Eire. That will always be Irish Stout, typified by Guinness. Brews in this style are very dark, almost black, from the use of heavily roasted barley malt. Contrary to popular opinion, the darkness of the beer has no bearing on its strength (Irish stouts weigh in as slightly weaker than American mass-market lagers).

Because of their color, and the fact that they are carbonated with nitrogen instead of carbon dioxide, Stouts are the most beautiful beers in the world. The sight of a freshly poured pint, with its thick, cream-hued head and settling bubbles cascading in waves down the sides of the glass, is one of the singular pleasures of the beer world.

When you order one, don’t be surprised when the bartender pours your glass halfway, then sets it aside for a couple of minutes before finishing the pour. She’s not being a jerk, the beer is settling to provide the characteristic two-finger head. Guinness sends quality-control people to bars all over the world to train staff how to correctly pour their beer, and you benefit from that expertise.

The nitrogen also lends stout its smooth, silky mouthfeel and easy drinkability. Still, the flavor of an Irish stout is very different from that of any lager. The roasted malt provides a much more earthy taste, often with strong notes of coffee or chocolate. It may take a bit of getting used to, but the pleasure of a pint is worth it.

Guinness may be the most common stout, and has all but claimed itself the official beer of St. Patrick’s Day, but it isn’t too dificult to find other excellent stouts which, unlike the Canadian-produced Guinness, are actually brewed in Ireland.

MacGregor’s features Beamish Stout, brewed in Cork, Ireland, at its Gregory Street location. You can also find Beamish in “Draft Cans” which release nitrogen into the beer when cracked open (give them a minute before sipping in order to avoid a sinus cavity full of foam).

Beamish is sweeter than Guinness, with a more mild, less sour finish. It’s a popular pick among beer geeks who want to seem more knowledgeable and hip than the everyday beer-guzzling rabble.

Also available in area beer stores, but regrettably not so much on draft anymore, is Murphy’s Irish Stout. Like Beamish, Murphy’s is brewed in the port city of Cork, and features a sweeter, richer taste than Guinness, with perhaps more of a metallic tang from the patent malt. Murphy’s also comes in nitrogen-powered draft cans.

On Saint Patrick’s Day, it’s important to keep in mind the spirit of the holiday; the fact that the Irish don’t make a big fuss over it, and that, in the USA, it’s not what you drink, but how much you overindulge. So, at risk of inflaming the tempers of temperance-minded individuals who are inexplicably reading a beer column, We’ll say “Slainte” and raise a glass to this classic verse by The Pogues:

Now the words that he spoke/ Seemed the wisest of philosophies
There’s nothing ever gained/ By a wet thing called a tear
When the world is too dark/ And I need the light inside of me
I’ll walk into a bar/ And drink fifteen pints of beer

Happy Saint Patrick’s day from Bruce and Mark!

Bruce is a certified beer judge and former commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://beercraft.blogspot.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com

Our St. Patrick's Day Parade show- the aftermath

Jesus, that was a long night.

Our Irish-punk band, The Sisters of Murphy (represented here with a placeholder website until I get some actual content), played three sets last night at a local bar along the parade route. This time, the club owners actually delivered on their annual promice of "all the beer you can drink."

Something like eighty-one plastic cups of Guinness later, the jubilant owner started pouring shots of Jameson's.

I guess one can't be a connoisseur every night. Sometimes, you just have to deal in volume.

-Mark

Boardman Street Brewery "Dead Pool Porter"

Bruce and Bob's porter came out perfect. An absolute masterpiece of balance and flavor. They hit all their targets and creatad a beer that I'm going to rave about untill I get boring as hell.

It's called "Dead Pool Porter," after some quack brewing advice once offered by a homebrewer regarding "dead pool infection, and "bruising the beer" by using a circulating wort chiller, which has become a running joke around the Boardman Street Brewery (a.k.a. Bob's basement).

In other news, I picked up some Murphy's to celebrate St. Pats, as well as some Schlenkerla Marzen rauchbeer. It's gonna be a good weekend.

Brewing today

Bruce and Bob will be making a pale ale. I'm going over to assist (by assist, I mean drink beer and try to stay out of the way).

Their porter, the first product of the "Boardman Street Brewery" this year, should be ready today. I can't freakin' wait.

Gearing up for St. Pat's

It's almost time for a day of designer drinking, Irish-style. Here in Rochester, Guinness' heavy marketing of St. Patrick's day pays off in spades. Joe McBane of The Old Toad expects to go through 10 kegs of the stuff.

Our once-a-year Irish band, the Sisters of Murphy, will be doing our usual crappy show at Barfly on East avenue March 11, the day of the parade. I sing, Bruce plays bass.

Even though we should know better, we'll be drinking Guinness. Hell, at least you can't really color it green.

-Mark

Mardi Gras, Vermonty-style

The other night, I sampled some of the Magic Hat Brewery's Mardi Gras Ale. It was dark, with a mouthfeel and flavor almost like that of a porter, yet spicier. Another fine beer from a brewery that continues to stand out on the cluttered American micro scene.

...Mostly, I've spent the weekend rediscovering the pleasures of Grolsch. It's better than Heineken, and comes in a flip-top bottle that's oh-so satisfying to dick around with while quaffing.

In other news, Brue and fellow Beercrafter Bob Thomas have begun homebrewing again. We spent last Saturday in their basement brewery drinking Baltika 6 Porter and brewing a Munich Lager. More to come...

-Mark

Cask-contentment

I'm sitting in The Old Toad, one of my favorite pubs, and I've just been served a pint of cask-conditioned Blue Point Oatmeal Stout. It is fucking fantastic.

The coffee aromas and roasted caramel malt flavor are perfectly enhanced by the cask-conditioning. The beer is beautiful, too. Jet-black with a thin caramel ring, leaving toffee-colored lace on the sides of the glass as I sip. I'm suffused with a slight warm glow, and as the volume of my pint shrinks, the stresses of the day dinimish accordingly.

Sometimes it's absolutely fantastic to be a beer lover.

C-Town, Part three.

I wanted this to be more elaborate, but really we just walked around and drank more beer, ending, stupidly, with the house Tripel at the Rock Bottom Brewery in The Flats. I don't even know if it was any good.

One thing that impressed me about Cleveland's bars is the comprehensive beer lists. A lot of these places, like the Winking Lizard, Map Room, and The Boneyard, had a lavish, themey corporate feel, yet the beer selections were uniformly awesome. Thank you, Cleveland. We'll be back.

-Mark

Beercraft newspaper column #5- Pairing beer with food

Man does not live by beer alone- pairing beer with food

By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish

Remember the first time you had a beer together with a slice of pizza? At the time, wasn’t that the best beer, and best slice, you had ever tasted? As is the case in the world of wine, some beers go incredibly well with certain foods. When served together, the best is brought out in both cuisine and beer.

This is not accidental. Beer evolved up with western civilization, all the way from ancient Egypt, and was a staple drink in the days when water was often unsafe. Brewing was an important and vital profession, and beer was frequently consumed with every meal.

In that sense, it would be more realistic to say that cuisine evolved in parallel with beer, and the foods we eat are heavily influenced by the flavors of the beverages that accompanied them through the ages.

Some pairings are no brainers. Belgian abbey ales and Belgian cheeses practically come out of the same farmhouse, so the sweet, musty flavor of the beers lock with the strong, creamy cheese in the most exquisite way; refined, elegant, and delicious (of course, a good Belgian also goes great with Cheez-whiz, but it’s not as impressive to your date).

Oysters and stouts are another time-honored couple, stemming from the pubs of 19th century England, in which oysters were a common snack food. The salty ocean flavor of the oysters mates well with a good stout’s roasted finish.

One style that takes this to an extreme is oyster stout: Originating on the Isle of Man, this beer in its archetypical form actually contained oysters. Today, Dogfish Head Brewing of Delaware makes an oyster stout that they filter through 300 pounds of oysters before packaging.

This may be a bit extreme for people who prefer to keep their food on the outside of their pint glass. Most folks find a dozen on the half shell and a glass of their favorite porter just as enjoyable. Much has been written about the supposed aphrodisiac qualites of the oyster, but not about the beer. So remember that when you combine the two, you’re either twice as attractive or half so.

Chefs will tell you that there’s no hard and fast rule for pairing individual beers with dishes. They try to envision the spices used in cooking, as well as the flavor of the ingredients when trying to pair food with brew. Heartier flavors may require a darker, more obtrusively flavored beer, whereas curries or spicy dishes may be best with a quenching light lager.

The point is that the process of discovering which food goes with which beer is quite an enjoyable one. You can do this in your own kitchen, or let others set it up for you at a local pairing. The Rohrbach Brewing Company regularly holds pairings, seats at which can be reserve in advance. A schedule of upcoming events can be found at www.rohrbachs.com. The Old Toad also runs pairings from time to time. For those into personal discovery, The Brewmaster’s Table, by Garrett Oliver, Head Brewer for the Brooklyn Brewing Company, is a tremendous resource for classic food and beer matchups.

Of course, many dishes, especially on restaurant/brewery menus, use beer as an ingredient. Rohrbach has a beef stew flavored with their Sam Patch Porter, while Buffalo’s Pearl Street Grill and Brewery makes a beer-braised pot roast. Many area restaurants also use beer in chili, and we’re all familiar with that Western New York classic: the beer-battered fish fry.

Likewise whole cookbooks have been devoted to cooking with beer. Many microbreweries publish their own, predictably self-serving tomes (place the ham in the Crock-pot. Add 3 cups STREUBEL brand PORTER…etc.), but a number of noted gourmets have also devoted pages to the subject.

Even if you’re not a beer nut, at least give it a chance. Next time you’re out at the restaurant, why not put the wine list aside and ask what’s on tap? You may discover that a certain nut brown ale ads much to the pleasure of that Kobe beef with Roquefort or lobster thermidor.

Or hell, you may just decide that it’s perfect with pizza, and that’s a match made in Heaven too.

In other beers:

• Monty’s Krown is stocking Carlsberg Elephant in bottles. The strongest beer produced by the Danish/Canadian brewery, Elephant is sweet, malty, and quite unique in flavor. It’ll also knock you on your butt if you’re not careful.
• Vermont’s Magic Hat Brewery has been making quite a name for itself in Rochester, and, unusually for a microbrewery, it’s going over well with the younger set. These guys like to release test batches to the public, gauging reaction before putting beers into general release. We just enjoyed their batch 373, a very good robust porter, at Macgregor’s Gregory Street Location.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and former commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://beercraft.blogspot.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.

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The brewers return!

Bruce and our friend Bob Thomas have brewed a new batch of beer for the first time in over a year. Bob, an excellent homebrewer in his own right, has a sweet little brewery in his basement, and the two put it to good use.

The porter should be ready in a couple of weeks.

-Mark

C-town, part 2

We left our intrepid heroes tying one on in the best brewery in Cleveland, their sampler platters culminating in the mighty Lake Erie Monster, a "triple IPA" weighing in at 9% alcohol by volume.Ambling down 25th street, we headed into a fetching Irish-style pub called The Old Angle. The early hour ensured an empty bar, save for a couple of stocky, potato-headed guys engrossed in a televised Irish Football match. We ordered our pints.

The evening degraded from there. A hazy trip to a bar that specialized in Belgian beer followed. It might have been a nioe place, except for the hoity-toity lawyer types and their giggly overbaubled wives, all eschewing a gold mine of rare belgian ales in favor of pinkish "martinis." Never had I felt so smug drinking a Duvel.

the Belgian portion of the evening wrapped up, Bruce and I headed back somewhat unsteadily to the hotel, what for to begin part three of Saturday night in Cleveland...

Back from Cleveland.

I had no idea.

Growing up in the eighties, the only real impressions of Cleveland you get are the worst ones: The burning Cuyahoga River, high crime rates, the Cleveland Indians, et cetera. I admit that, as we trundled along a salt-whitened Interstate 90, I was subconsciously expecting a blasted-out relic of the Rust Belt, more suited to a Michael Moore documentary than a beer culture.

Cleveland, you proved me wrong. Thank you.

Our first stop: The Great Lakes Brewing Company on Market Street, where a helpful server named Amber promptly produced two beer sampler trays. Plowing my way through lager and ale alike, my favorite remained the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. Dark, substantial, and exquisitely balanced, the opague brew went perfectly with my comically hearty bratwurst and pierogies.




Of course, the day continued. Holy Jesus, did it continue. I'll post the rest of it tomorrow. -Mark

C-town or bust

Bruce and Myself will be heading to Cleveland tomorrow to see Sunday's Sigur Ros concert. First stop: the Great Lakes Brewery. Look for progresively blurry photos, as well as blog entries from the midst of the foamy carnage, as the two of us experience all the tropical wonders of metro Cleveland.

-Mark

Beer goes well with food...

...and I'm not just talking about pizza. Many microbreweries hold beer and food pairing events in which each course is served with a complimentary beer. More on this in next weeks column.

In related news, if you're in Rochester this coming Saturday, you can enjoy a beer and wine tasting at Winterfest, in the Scottsville Ice Arena. The family-oriented event goes all day, and the tasting is from 7-9pm. Lots of Upstate NY breweries, including Southern Tier Brewing Company, the Rohrbach Brewing Company, and Casa Larga Vineyards, will be on hand for the event. Taste, discover, and enjoy!

Of course, I'll be in Cleveland so I gotta miss it.
-Mark

PS: I feel like pumping my visitor numbers, so: ANNA KOURNIKOVA.

From Russia with Suds...

I picked up a case of Baltika 6, a Baltic porter brewed by St. Petersburg, Russia's Baltika Brewery.

Dark, sweet and malty, without a ton of hop character, and with a slight banana finish, Baltika 6 really hits the spot on cold winter days. There are better Baltic porters (Saku, Okocim and Ziewic, for example), but Baltika is a good beer in its own right and easier on the wallet.

-Mark

Introducing someone to good beer

Sad as it may be, sometimes beer lovers are paired with signifacnt others who have no appreciation for the drink whatsoever. Your wife or girlfriend may be a fuzzy navel-quaffing sweet freak who never took the time to tune her taste buds to the malt and hops channel. Your husband may have been a Coors Light man since his frat party days. Either way, an inability to understand a partner's passion for good beer places unecessary stress on any relationship.

Fortunately,given that there are so many styles, flavors, and characteristics of beer, there's probably one out there that your partner will enjoy; he or she simply doesn't know it yet. As long as they taste with an open mind, they are likely to discover tastes and aromas they've never before associated with beer.

So what do you serve them? A great place to find out is the Beer Advocate forum, where knowledgeable homebrewers and beer lovers have been hashing this question around for a while. To paraphrase their advice:

If your partner likes sweet drinks, start them off with a Lambic, like Lindemann's Framboise. It's a dry, light fizzy belgian flavored with raspberry, and chicks go apeshit for it. It's even pink!

If he or she only drinks American macrobrews, ease them in with Newcastle Brown. Newkie is a mellow, balanced ale, the archetype of the brown ale style. There's no super hop-bitterness or pronounced malt sweetness, so taste acclimation is quick and easy. After a few weeks of drinking Newcastle, they'll be wondering what else the beer world has to offer, and the two of you can enjoy long, fruitful tastings together.

-Mark