Stouting Off with Founders: Breakfast, Imperial, KBS, + Co.

Image credit to downtownbarandgrill.com

Imperial Stouts are like Ivy Leaguers in at least one way - they're over-represented at the top. For their part, Imperial Stouts make up 6 out of the top 10 and 27 out of the top 50 on RateBeer's 2013 Best Beers list and 8 out of the top 20 on that of Beer Advocate. The corresponding figures for Ivy Leaguers, by the way, are 6 out the 10 schools with the highest number of super-wealthy alumni (>$200 million net worth) and 14 out of 43 US Presidents.

Of the many great breweries in the world, one from Grand Rapids, Michigan is particular well-represented in the Imperial Stout category - Founders Brewing Company. This post draws on both single and comparative tastings of several of their brews in this style, including Founders' Breakfast Stout (8.3% ABV), Founders' Imperial Stout (10.5% ABV), and Founders' Kentucky Breakfast Stout (11.2% ABV). Read on to hear the Founders story and the verdict on which brews of theirs takes the crown.

Pliny

One of the most sobering experiences for a critic is to re-evaluate those works of art that were his first loves. Memory airbrushes flaws and exaggerates excellence, but in the clear, cold light of the present, these illusions fall away. Impressions of all but the most exemplary of subjects weather with the passage of time.

_________________________


Not counting the cheap, watery lager that fueled many long nights of “studying” abroad in Madrid, Russian River's Pliny the Elder (8% ABV) was the first beer that I ever had on-tap. I know, I know – it’s a hell of a one to start on, what with being universally regarded as one of the top 3 best beers of all time. Incredibly, Pliny was fairly standard fare at The Rose and Crown, the local pub in Palo Alto where three of my college friends and I would go every Tuesday of Senior spring for their trivia night. We would roll in and have a 50/50 shot of scoring a few pints of Pliny to ready us for a grueling six rounds of competitive esoterica against teams stacked with Stanford students, teachers’ assistants, and researchers. To this day, I can hardly believe how casually we enjoyed our Pliny. Sure we loved it – it was delicious – but there was nary a thought on how special each glass would one day seem.

After graduation, I moved out to NYC. I found trivia nights, sure, and even got the whole trivia team reunited for a weekend of incredible beer-tasting (here’s the lineup in panorama), but there was no Pliny in sight. Only in this relative privation did I begin to appreciate my previous fortune.

My birthday swung around last summer. I was sick as a dog, and it had been a long day at work. When I arrived back at my apartment, my girlfriend greeted me with a package. I unwrapped it to find six bottles of fresh Pliny, shipped all the way across the country for the explicit purpose of making my birthday awesome. Mission accomplished. The picture above shows how we enjoyed those beauties - in tall pint glasses on a balcony together looking out at the Lower Manhattan skyline at sunset. Many ensuing beer adventures have been all about replicating the perfect "something" of that late afternoon in July - the holy trinity of hard-won, great beer, top-notch company, and beautiful scenery.

_________________________


It was to be nine more months before Pliny and I would once again cross paths. My lovely girlfriend introduced me to the "on-the-down-low" beer newsletter from the kindly storeowner in California that had sourced her the Pliny back in July. My conduit in place, I put in a order for two bottles of that sweet magic from Sonoma County.

They arrived in a chunky, well-packed box just after Easter. Pliny sported its usual, unassuming label, somewhat resembling Bangladesh's flag. Inscribed on the borders were a series of amusing admonitions that I had come to know and love:

Respect your elder: keep cold, drink fresh, do not age! Pliny the Elder is a historical figure, don't make the beer inside this bottle one! Not barley wine, do not age! Age your cheese, not your Pliny! Respect hops, consume fresh! Consume Pliny fresh, or not at all! Pliny is for savoring, not for saving! Do not save for a rainy day! If you must, sit on eggs, not on Pliny! Does not improve with age! Hoppy beers are not meant to be aged! Keep away from heat!

In case it wasn't immediately clear, the folks at Russian River hold sacred the dictum that hoppy beers should be consumed ASAP - while their deliciously interesting aromas and flavors are at their peak. My bottles had received their blessing on March 14, two and a half weeks before. This was still within my acceptable ballpark for freshness time: 1 day is optimal, 2-3 is still perfect, 4 days - 1 week is excellent, 1-3 weeks still has an appreciable amount of all the relevant highlights, 3-5 weeks is borderline fine, and anything past that tends to have passed from this hoppy coil. Practically stumbling over myself, I set about pouring a glass.

A Pilgrimage to Monk's Cafe

On the East Coast, bibliophiles have Strand; art-lovers The Met; baseball aficionados Fenway. Beer nerds? Beer nerds have Monk's Cafe. For decades, owners Tom Peters and Fergus Carey have operated what is widely considered one of the single finest beer-drinking destinations in the country.

Monk's impeccably curated and extraordinarily deep Belgian-centric bottle list complements two bars' worth of rotating taps that feature a fantastic cross section of American, Dutch, British, and even more Belgian brews. Of particular note is that Monk's routinely features Russian River's beer on tap, something that no other bar outside of parts of California and Denver can boast of. When I queried the staff on how this was possible, one of them informed me that Tom had first met Russian River's founder and master brewer, Vinnie Cilurzo, "back when he owned the Blind Pig in Temecula [ie early 90s]." They had bonded over a shared affection for the storied brewing culture of Belgium, something both drew upon as inspiration for their work. Apparently, the friendship has not only survived, but thrived - ergo, the regularly occurring Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig, and Damnation on tap. 

Posts to Come: Monk's Cafe, Founders' Stouts, Toronado, and More

It's been quite the last few weeks of beer exploration all around the US! As a result, I've racked up several very interesting beer bar visits with friends, worked through some delicious tastings, and learned a whole lot more about the magic of beer.

Over the next couple weeks, you can expect posts on:

• My visits to two of beer-doms most famous temples: Monk's Cafe in Philly and Toronado in SF
• A series of comparative tastings, both within styles and breweries
• An exploration of the various beneficial bacteria behind some of the tastiest beers on earth - sours!

Be sure to check back soon!

Summer 2013 Beer Preview: Looking Ahead to the Perfect Brews for the Season

New Glarus Raspberry Tart on Labor Day Weekend 2012 on Lake Waramaug, CT

With just one day left in April and the weather finally on a positive mend, we're already well on our way to summer. In anticipation of many hot sunny days spent BBQing in the back yard, rocking on the front porch, and reading on the beach, this beer preview looks ahead to some of the most seasonally appropriate brews for summer - namely, those that are highly refreshing and sessionable (low alcohol content), as well as those that feature sour, fruit, or wheat tastes.

My first summer beer-love (see above) was New Glarus Raspberry Tart (4% ABV). Way back before I was even interested in beer, I came across a highly descriptive suite of reviews on The Beverage Tasting Institute's website. One of the foremost there was Raspberry Tart, which their staff described accordingly: "Deep scarlet mahogany color. Aromas of toasted raspberry pastry and oily roasted nuts with a tangy, fruity-yet-dry medium-full body and a suede, Meyer lemon, and grassy earth accented finish. Fantastically flavorful." As a less-savvy beer consumer at the time, I was amazed that anything that qualified as beer could also be so clearly fruit-flavor-driven. I enthusiastically began a search to obtain a bottle, but quickly found that Raspberry Tart, like all of the brews from the world-class New Glarus Brewery, were only available for purchase in their home state of Wisconsin. This might have proved a challenge, were it not for the fact that I luckily lived in Chicago at the time. On the way up to a friend's house on Lake Geneva that summer, I dropped into Bruno's Liquors (524 Broad Street, Lake Geneva, WI - 262 248 6407) and picked up two bottles of Raspberry Tart and two of New Glarus' Belgian Red (4% ABV), their famed cherry beer (both $10/25 oz bottle). Over the course of that summer, and for every summer since, I've cut the colored wax seal on a couple of these lovely bottles - mauve for Raspberry Tart and fire-engine red for Belgian Red.

Gone Home to Chicago (Part 2): A Visit to Hopleaf, Chicago's Legendary Beer Bar

Part 1 can be found here.

While home in Chicago earlier this month, I had the chance to drop into Michael and Louise's Hopleaf Bar, the legendary Chicago beer spot located in the Uptown neighborhood of the city. Why legendary? Well:

1. Informal conversations with friends knowledgeable about the Chicago beer scene have repeatedly resulted in the proffering of voluminous praise for Hopleaf's always excellent tap list.
2. Google search after Google search turned up Hopleaf in list after list of the best beer places in the city (and even the country). Chicago Magazine went so far as to call it "The Archetype" for all of Chicago beer-dom.
3. Everyone loves it - Hopleaf has managed to maintain a 4+ star Yelp average with a staggering 1,300 reviews on the books - more than double the number of the next closest beer bar with a similar score.

I walked in excited; I saw my all-time-favorite beer Zombie Dust on tap and nearly fainted:

After my gamely-accompanying friends shook me out of dazed reverie, I ordered a pint of Zombie Dust (my first time having it on tap), a B. Nektar Meadery Zombie Killer (to continue the theme), and a Stillwater Cellar Door (sorry, there just wasn't a third sonambulist-themed beverage). 

Gone Home to Chicago (Part 1): Three Floyds, Pipeworks, Half Acre, and Revolution

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I recently had the good fortune to return home for a long weekend to Chicago. Past the normal (and excellent) aspects about visiting - spending quality with family and friends, walking down old familiar streets, eating myself silly - there came another, more hop-and-malt centric benefit: Chicago beer distribution.

Though I love New York City and its beer scene, there are certain breweries whose product you just can't get here. This is one of the eternal challenges of being a beer nerd: your home base limits the brews that you can readily access. Vermont is blessed with Hill Farmstead, Minnesota with Surly, Wisconsin with New Glarus. Barring clever trading, inside connections, or rare events, it can be difficult to get ahold of a desired beer.

Ergo, traveling to another part of the country always carries with it the added bonus excitement of exposure to a whole new suite of available breweries. In the case of coming home to Chicago, this meant having access to beer from world-class operations such as Three Floyds, Pipeworks, Half Acre, and Revolution. Even that subset merely limits the available bounty to a handful of Chicago area breweries that only have local distribution - other non-Chicago breweries such as Lost Abbey, New Belgium, and Boulevard distribute outside of their home states, including to Illinois, but don't ship to New York.

Put simply, I stepped into Binny's Beverage Depot in Lakeview (3000 N. Clark, Chicago, IL - 773 935 9400) and my jaw hit the floor at the staggering array of new choices on the shelves. I took a languorous half-hour rolling up and down the aisles appraising the incredible variety. The first thing I asked one of the staffers about was Three Floyds, my favorite brewery. As fate would have it, the shipment had come in three hours earlier, and the eager public had already beating me in scooping it up.  Given the fortune that I've had in the past with tasting Three Floyds beer, I had no reason to be upset, but I nevertheless vowed to keep my eyes open and ears perked on the odd chance that somewhere else in town got some in.

Beer Review: Surly Bender and Surly Coffee Bender

I've made no secret of my love for Surly Brewing's excellent beers. It's less than surprising, then, that I plunked down another week of my lunch money to have two more of theirs shipped to NYC - Surly Bender (5.1% ABV) and Surly Coffee Bender (5.1% ABV).

The interesting part of this tasting, then, was that it was to be an uphill battle against one of my stylistic prejudice. Most of the Brown Ales that I'd tried so far had been disappointingly bland, wielding mild flavors in inoffensive but unsatisfying ways. I figured if there was any brewery that could change my mind on this style, it would be Omar Ansari and Todd Haugh's.

As a bit of context, Surly's story started with Omar's home-brewing hobby. With each successive tasty victory, he built his confidence and skills. After a decade of hop and malt fueled DIY, he got a fancy-pants beer education, and decided in 2004 that he would throw his hat into the ring officially with a full-scale commercial brewery. Following this decision, Omar met Todd at the 2004 Craft Brewer's Conference in San Diego (which is the industry's CES / Detroit Auto Show / Davos equivalent). There, he pitched the then-head-brewer from Rock Bottom in Minneapolis on the idea of joining up to form their own brewery. A year and many logistical hurdles later (shipping, engineering, and even legislative), Omar and Todd had converted Omar's family's old industrial abrasives manufacturing facility into what would become one of the most well-regarded breweries on earth.

Surly! Credit to beermaniacs.com

A great backstory is one thing; great beer can be quite another. I cracked open a can each of Bender and Coffee Bender, and poured them out for the tasting:

Beer Adventures Coming Soon: Chicago, Three Floyds, Hopleaf, Pipeworks, Russian River, and More Surly

To all you readers, my apologies for the recent dearth of new posts. I spent a long Easter weekend back home in Chicago with my family. In addition to all the great time with them, I also had the opportunity to run around town like a mad raider, hunting down all of the beers with Chicago-only distribution. The results were amazing - four kinds of Three Floyds, two from Pipeworks, two from Revolution, some Half Acre, Boulevard, Metropolitan, and more. Here's most of that weekend's haul:

In addition to this coup, I also doubled down on my Surly shipper from Minnesota to score some Bender and Coffee Bender. I'll be reviewing those head to head shortly.

Finally, I was able to track down a shipper in California that had Russian River and Lost Abbey brews in stock. This fact is why I'll soon have the chance to break out some Pliny the Elder, one of the top 3 brews on Earth, to compare to other recent Imperial IPAs that I've tasted, and why I'll be able to put one of Russian River's sours, Supplication, up against one of Lost Abbey's, Saint's Devotion.

All in all, it's been one hell of a couple of weeks in beer on this end. As I taste, compare, and enjoy these many brews, I'll be sure to post reviews and impressions. Check back for updates!

The Quest for Zombie Dust (or, To Three Floyds and Back Again)

Three Floyds' Brewing's Logo - credit to brewingsomefun.com

Right around December of last year was when I really started paying attention to online "Best Beer" ranking lists on RateBeer and BeerAdvocate. Previously, I had drank beer that I'd found on the shelves at stores, that friends offered me, or that were on tap at wherever I found myself drinking that evening.

A brewery called Three Floyds topped the 2012 "Best Breweries of the Year" list on RateBeer - and what's more, this mysterious brewery was located less than an hour from my hometown of Chicago! Now, bear with me for a bit, all you super-seasoned craft-beer drinking veterans. I know that none of this is new information for you, but to me it was cause for great excitement - that sort of mania that can only afflict the recent convert. The one brew of theirs that drew my eye the most was Zombie Dust, a Pale Ale. The label was graced with some truly awesome comic-book art from Tim Seeley (of the fantastic Revival out of Image Comics), and as if that Mjolnir-mongering-spider-demon-zombie-king wasn't enough to seal the deal, the description sure as hell did: "This intensely hopped and gushing undead pale ale will be ones only respite after the zombie apocalypse. Created with our marvelous friends in the comic industry." I had to try it.

When I got home for Christmas, I immediately set to the web to track down any possible information on the infamous ZD. I navigated to Three Floyds' facebook page, only to be blindsided by the heartrending declaration that the brewery had run out of ZD not five hours ago. Hope fading, I called every beer store in the area that had ever received a shipment of the stuff. The answer was the same, each time: "Sorry, we're out." The last call on the list was the worst: "Oh, man, wish you'd been here 15 minutes ago - we sold our last sixer." I sat back, defeated - my white whale was evading me.

Beer Review: Surly Abrasive + Surly Furious

Last Tuesday, I got home to find a package waiting for me. I had been expecting it.

It had come from Minnesota, and it was precious cargo. Surly Brewing, of Brooklyn Center, MN, for all intents and purposes does not distribute outside their state. Given their incredibly stellar lineup of extremely excellent beers, which have earned them the 11th and 14th spot in 2012 and 2013 on RateBeer's listing of the best breweries on earth, this small distribution footprint makes anything from Surly a huge score for beer nerds elsewhere in the country.

On the basis of a tip from a fellow beer nerd that I met at the Hell's Kitchen Pony Bar the preceding week, I managed to track down a small beer shop in Minnesota that ships Surly to NY. I couldn't even believe my luck. The second I got home that night, I ordered two four-packs of tall-boy cans (16 oz each) of their Imperial IPA (Surly Abrasive) and one four-pack of their IPA (Surly Furious).

Beer Spot Review: Tørst

Tørst's bar - photo credit to NY Grub Street

How well-respected do you think you'd need to be to have one of the oldest, most famous, and well-regarded breweries in the world specially make a beer exclusively for you to purvey? To get an answer, you'd have to check in with Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø of Evil Twin and Ølbutikken fame. Since 2005, Brasserie Cantillon of Brussels has specially made Blåbær Lambik for Jeppe: he sends them blueberries, they incorporate them into a blended series of wild-fermented lambics that they ship back to him in Copenhagen, and he then sells them out of his world-renowned bottle-shop, Ølbutikken.

Up until a week ago, you couldn't buy Blåbær Lambik anywhere but Ølbutikken, which, given the plane tickets required to reach Denmark, made it a challenging value proposition for all but the most intrepid beer nerds.

Last Friday, the necessary journey got a lot shorter for New Yorkers with the opening of Jeppe and Daniel Burns' (of Momofuku and Noma fame) new beer bar, Tørst. Located in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, this sleekly decorated spot instantly attracted hordes of beer connoisseurs interested in trying not only the bottles of Blåbær Lambik that Jeppe brought along for sale, but also the dozens of other rare, obscure, and otherwise impossible to find brews that Jeppe had stocked from Evil Twin, Mikkeller, Beechwood BBQ, Cantillon, and more. 

Bell's Hopslam: Random Acts of Beer Nerd Kindness

It was March11th, and I already knew that this wasn't going to be the year that I got to try Bell's Hopslam, their seasonal Double IPA (10% ABV). It was released in January, and none had surfaced at any venerable beer institutions around NYC co-incident with a time that I visited. 

For the non-beer-geek readers, Hopslam routinely checks in as not only one of the best Double IPAs on the market, but also as one of the best beers of any styles, period. It's average ranking on the web beer rating aggregators RateBeer and BeerAdvocate is #10, putting it in truly elite company.

That in mind, I had spoken with a number of beer nerd friends who insisted that Hopslam didn't merit the hype - that it was insufficiently hoppy, or balanced, or flavorful. These folks had routinely pegged it as still "very good", but not fit for the same rarified air as the Heady Toppers and Pliny the Elders of the world. Additionally, Bell's very well-regarded Two Hearted Ale (an IPA) had been something of a let-down when I tried it, which only served to further augment my critical guardedness.

Given the tension between "official" praise and anecdotal skepticism, I had flagged Hopslam as a must try, if only to help resolve the question of its level of excellence one way or the other.

Beer Reviews Ranking Guide

A substantial part of this beer blog will be reviews of new, interesting, and highly-regarded beers from all around the US and the world. As I critically appraise (and enjoy!) more and more beers, I will continue to review them against a standard set of criteria, including:

• Visual appearance - What color is it? What's the level of clarity/cloudiness? What can I say about the head (the amount, consistency, and duration of the white foam that appears atop the beer upon pouring), ringing (the character of the ring that appears around the edges of the glass at the beer's surface), or lacing (how the beer sticks and falls down the side of the glass when moved)?
• Aroma - What do I smell when I bring the glass to my nose? What is initially apparent and what surfaces only after further sniffs? What awakes when the beer gets slightly warmer?
• Mouthfeel/palate - How does the beer feel in my mouth, both on first sipping, holding it there, and swallowing? How does my mouth feel after I've finished swallowing the beer?
• Taste - What flavors immediately come to mind? How strong or faint are they? Are there other, less obvious flavors that come out when I drink the beer for a bit longer? How do the flavors at first sip compare to those of the close?

Past these more formal criteria, no occasion of drinking beer or enjoying anything can be complete without a note of the context surrounding that experience. The long quest to hunt down an elusive White Whale of a beer, coupled with gorgeously appropriate weather, and good friends along to taste it with you will obviously influence both my and your opinion when we appraise a given beer.

With these criteria in mind, I evaluate all beers on a scale of 1-5, with 1/4 point increments. I will very rarely write reviews in the 1s or 2s, simply because most beers of that quality don't really merit a review except for the purpose of enjoying the composition of a particularly acerbic write-up. Similarly, very few beers earn a rating of 4.5 and above, only doing so if they are truly spectacular. Given these constraints, the average rating will fall higher than the average caliber of all beer on the market, which reflects a selection bias on my end. If only to help in calibrating expectations for my review scale, I'll go through what goes into each notch, and include a few examples of the beers that I've had that have merited those marks (warning to beer nerds, some sacred cows ahead may be getting the thumbs down; feel free to debate in the comments!):

• 5.0 - not only the paragon of its given style, but a world-class beer that is perfect in every single way I can appraise it; examples are 3 Floyds Zombie Dust, Russian River Pliny the Elder
• 4.75 - a truly fantastic beer that is all but unprecedented both within its style and among most all beers; top marks across the board; examples are The Alchemist Heady Topper, Founders Imperial Stout, New Glarus Raspberry Tart
• 4.5 - an extremely tasty and well-brewed beer that ranks very highly in its style as well among most all beers; superlative in almost all respects, but may have some minor imperfection that barely keeps it out of the pantheon; examples are Ballast Point Victory at Sea, Surly Abrasive, Ballast Point Sculpin, Anchorage Love Buzz, Bells Hopslam
• 4.25 - a very tasty beer that I'd drink any time one was being offered; has a slew of virtuous characteristics worth celebrating, but may not display the same sort of comprehensive depth of excellence and / or balance as higher ranking beers do; examples are Goose Island Sofie, Lagunitas Sucks, Cantillon Kriek, Founder Breakfast Stout
• 4.0 - delicious beer that has much to regard, with strong execution on a number of points; those beers that are good, but not necessarily fantastic, examples of styles that I'm more partial to often notch in here; examples include Stone Enjoy By, Hill Farmstead Florence, Bells Oberon, AleSmith My Bloody Valentine
• 3.75 - solid beers that do very well in specific facets, but may have a certain area where they lack the extra punch needed to elevate them to great beer status; those beers that well-exemplify the few styles that I don't enjoy as much sometimes notch in here; examples include Allagash Witte, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Unibroue La Fin du Monde, Stone Arrogant Bastard, Oskar Blue's TEN FIDY
• 3.5 - good beers that are pleasant in most respects, with perhaps some faults that hinder enjoyment; nevertheless, they're still worth having if available; examples include Lagunitas IPA, Oskar Blue's Dale Pale Ale, Yeti Imperial Stout
• 3.25 - beers that while still having tasty points, suffer from noticeable flaws or boringness; examples are Goose Island Matilda, Founders Porter, Saison Dupont Vielle Provision
• 3 - beers that feature distractingly evident flaws in craft; would not recommend, hyped or not; examples are Bell's Two Hearted, Full Sail Berliner Weisse
• 2.0-2.5 - this far down the line, it's harder to differentiate by quarter-point increments, hence the switch to half-points; beers with these rankings have flaws that assert themselves early and often; not worth purchasing or even trying; examples include Cisco Grey Lady, Cisco Whale Tale Pale Ale, Dogfish Head / Sierra Nevada Rhizing Bines
• 1.0-1.5 - dear god, these are horrible concoctions of fermented swill; run for the hills, do not pass go, do not collect $200; under no circumstances would I recommend that you purchase this beer, even to give to a; examples include Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, Abita Light, the various weak, urine-tinted liquids that you used to play slap-cup in college

The ratings as they stand are subject to re-appraisal. I take every chance I have to try the top-rated ones again, because (1) it's delicious, and (2) it lets me make sure that I've both absolutely and comparatively rated that given beer fairly. As for those beers further down the rungs but not in the basement, I plan on reviewing them again to ensure that I didn't just get a skunked/ruined bottle the first time or two. 

I have a lot of respect for the hundreds of brewers worldwide who work day-in, day-out to deliver their wonderful fare that we beer-lovers enjoy. My aim in providing critiques is not to disparage or libel unfairly or ungratefully. Rather, I hope that by trying a larger cross-section of beers from many breweries and styles, I can develop a better palate and higher level of enjoyment of good and great beer, and then in turn be able to help friends and acquaintances explore this tasty world of barley, water, malt, hops, and more.

Hill Farmstead Hunting: Everett and Florence, but Forget About Edward

Photo Credit: makelunchnotwar.blogspot.com

Every year, RateBeer comes out with their list of the best breweries on earth. For four consecutive years (2009-2012), the crew at 3 Floyds in Munster, IN, held the crown - somewhat apt, given that one of their most prominent logos is a winged skull wearing a crown. When the 2013 list went live on Friday, February 1st, beer nerds around the world were greeted with the site of a new top-dog: Hill Farmstead, of Greensboro, VT.

This development wasn't entirely unexpected, as HF had checked in at #6 on the 2012 list, and the preceding five days from January 27 to January 31st had revealed HF victories in category after category: Best Brewery in VT, four of the top 50 beers on earth, an astonishing 10 out of the top 15 Saisons on earth, 7 out of the top 15 Pale Ales on earth, and 8 of the top 10 new beers for the 2012 calendar year. The HF juggernaut rolled onward.

Now, the overwhelmingly positive reception that HF brews enjoy results in all sorts of hagiographical descriptions and exhortations from fellow beers nerds. After a few months of hearing all of this unbridled praise, I had only been able to track down one glass of their beer: Foster, their Black IPA, which I enjoyed with a lovely anniversary dinner with my girlfriend at Gramercy Tavern in late December.

I wanted to try more! But it hadn't proved to be easy - I missed the opportunity to buy a pass to their Memorial Day Anniversary Celebration (the tickets sold out within 50 seconds of release online), my shot at their Collected Works offering was equally unsuccessful, and early attempts to plan the 7.5 hour drive up to far northern Vermont had stalled. Stymied, I contented myself with the many amazing beers available here in NYC, but I was always on the lookout for a shot at some HF.

Saturday Saison Side-by-Side Session

"Let there be...Saisons!"

New York this time of year has somewhat dismal weather. The grey lurks through most days, clouds shunt the suns paltry attempts at relaying any semblance of warmth, and night settles early, often accompanied by biting winds and rain. Times like these call for beers that harken to summer - its long, sunlit days, warm, breeze-filled nights, and the many wonderful social gathering outdoors that give it a pleasantly active sense of relaxation.

Belgian farm-workers in the French speaking part of the country inaugurated the overarching style of the Saison. They brewed during the cooler months of the winter, then stored the ale in barrels in farmhouses or barns to ferment until the warmer summer months. At that point, they enjoyed the fruits of their labor.

The grand-daddy of the style is Saison Dupont Vielle Provision, still brewed out of Brasserie Dupont in Belgium. After crafting the initial brew, the beer is placed in thick-walled green glass bottles for secondary fermentation, where the brewer's yeast digests the remaining brewing matter left in the corked bottle. This results in an unfiltered beer with strong natural carbonation.

It's important to note at this point that Saison still lacks a particular specificity. Any number of beers brewed in some level of concordance with the tradition of brewing Saisons in Belgium can claim to be Saisons, but their character, flavor, and ABV can vary appreciably. Thus, it's perhaps more helpful to think of a Saison as a larger umbrella for a series of smaller subsets of beers (much like how you'd hear the term Sour used in beer naming). The shared characteristics tend to be bottle-conditioning / secondary fermentation, smells/tastes of yeast, straw, barnyard, spices, and faint citrus, a light mouthfeel, and a dry finish.

A few Saturdays ago, two beer-loving friends visited me in New York, trekking in from rural Massachusetts and Washington DC, respectively, to enjoy a weekend of ale-appreciation. My girlfriend joined as well. The four of us (who had been on a trivia team in college at the local pub) gathered round and tasted our way through four Saisons (pictured above, left to right):

• Anchorage Brewing Company Love Buzz Saison ($15.25 for 25 oz at New Beer, NY, NY) - Anchorage, AK
• Goose Island Sofie ($12 for a 4-pack of 12 oz bottles at New Beer, NY, NY) - Chicago, IL
• Saison Dupont Vielle Provision ($11 for 25 oz at Whole Foods, NY, NY) - Tourpes, Belgium
• Brooklyn Brewery Sorachi Ace ($11 for 25 oz at Whole Foods, NY, NY) - Brooklyn, NY
  
  

The Elements of Style(s): A Handy Guide for the Newbie and Connoisseur Alike

I love beer - its continuous capacity to surprise and delight, to provoke thought and appetite, to bring people together and render simple happiness.

I also love learning about beer. This is an iterative process in thinking you know a good deal, then finding that there is always still more to know and try. That said, over the past few months of beer drinking and tasting and comparing and note-taking, I've at least established a working knowledge of many of the major styles of beer. For those just discovering the delicious and deep world of beer, I've put together a basic primer with information on these styles, including:

• Basic profile / tasting notes: Quick hits on the usual signposts for the style
• History: Learn a bit about the history behind the style; entirely non-exhaustive, as each style's genesis and development could spawn a book chapter
• Brewing notes: Find out the nuts and bolts on ingredients, process, and differentiators behind the style
• Tasted and strongly recommended: Notable varieties that I've tried and loved and would buy for loved ones, beer-lovers, and those who fall in both categories
• Yet to try, but have heard great things: Beers that I've seen praised all over the internet, described in rhapsodic tones at gathering of beer geeks, and generally dreamt about having the chance to drink
• Solid picks on a budget: Relatively wide distribution, lower cost (<$12/6 pack for some more common / less process intensive styles, <$9/16-22oz for rarer / more process intensive ones), and high quality; in the case that I have not properly sampled a given style, I will state that, "more tasting is needed" to form a good opinion

As you can see, there are dozens and dozens of style divisions past the ones that I'll include here, and any number of these styles can overlap, combine, or split into smaller, more unified sub-styles. I hope, though, that it nevertheless proves informative, and helps you navigate your exploration of beer!

Author's note - I owe much of this article, and the entire way of thinking that spawned it, to the genius and work of Michael Jackson, the highly-esteemed British beer connoisseur and writer who introduced the world to the idea of stylistic grouping of beer based on shared taste profile, brewing process, and history. The various editions of his "The World Guide to Beer" are an invaluable resource to the neophyte as is his website, The Beer Hunter, linked to above. He almost single-handedly saved several styles of beer from the ignominy of extinction, helped spear-head the craft beer movement here in the United States, and remained always a humble, guiding voice in the letters of beer. He will be missed.

The Styles

I'll start with sections on the styles that I've encountered most often in the course of my beer education. Some general disclaimers: (1) my beer tasting experience has skewed heavily towards American breweries' fare, without much strong background in Belgian, German, British, Danish, or other countries' beer, (2) I have combined closely related categories where I either lack appropriate experience to offer nuanced differentiation or where sufficient taste, process and historical similarities exist among the sub-styles to justify the grouping, (3) the beers on my lists skew towards those available in the NYC, Chicago, and SF Bay area, where I spend most of my time, and (4) this is a living document, so edits will be incorporated as time goes on. That said, on to the beer!

The Origin Story

When I was four years old, some distant relative on my Dad's side jokingly held a can of Miller Lite in front my nose. "Want to try some?" The smell was so revolting that I promised to categorically reject even the notion of beer indefinitely. "No" would be the only answer that I would have for that evil beverage.

A decade and a half later I found myself in college, and nothing about this relationship had changed - beer and I were still mortal enemies. It smelled bad, made the floors sticky, and led to people vomiting in my hallway's bathroom. Our estrangement seemed destined for the ages.

But as fate would have it, on the occasion of my 21st birthday BBQ, I received a four-pack of beer as a present. It came in a lime-green cardboard four-pack carrying case, and it advertised itself as a lady, classy and demure: Sofie. It had come from a brewery named after the island in the middle of my hometown's eponymous river; I was still wary of it. With a hesitating tone, I poured it out into a champagne glass. Pardon the pun, but this seemed high-flutin'. I indulged her, though, and there she lay, effervescent, the color of golden straw, the mid-day summer sun kissing her softly. I took a taste.

"Whole Lotta Love" "I Can Hear Music." "Here Comes the Sun." - and that's just constraining myself to music from 1969. A light went on that day - an epiphany that made me realize the error of my previous ways at a Flannery O'Connor pitch. How could I have cast aside such an incredible thing? It was if I had visited New York City as a boy, met one mean person, and decided the whole city should be destroyed, Abraham's arguments to the contrary be damned. Now, I realized that if I gave it a chance, there was a lifetime of amazing adventures to be had in Gotham and elsewhere, one great beer at a time, often with a friend.

As the famed Czech proverb goes, so too did that first encounter: "A fine beer may be judged with one sip, but it is better to be thoroughly sure." Not only did I want more of this beer, I wanted to try all the rest of them too - what's appreciation without a larger context? So I set out to the roads of this country with pint glass in hand, ready for all the hoppiness and happiness that awaited me.

Now it's been a year and a half of this treasure hunting, and I have nothing but fond memories and experiences to recall. Pliny the Elder on tap at trivia night in Palo Alto. Tracking down Zombie Dust in Munster. Raspberry Tart to celebrate an anniversary. Accordingly, I've decided to start this blog, The Amazing Adventures of Great Beer and Clay (greatbeerandclay.blogspot.com). In it, I'll feature:

• Reviews of and tasting notes on delicious, interesting, and new beers, including:
• Longer individual and head-to-head reviews of exceptional varieties and the journeys behind obtaining them
• Quick-hit lists of other beers
• Features and write-ups on notable beer events and pilgrimages in and around NYC (and occasionally Chicago!)
• Recurring pairing series that suggest matches for a given beer or beers
• Quarterly (all styles) and annual (both by style and overall) best-of lists and awards
• A "Beer Basics" section containing useful information for those just beginning to learn about beer, including sections on history, the brewing process, and styles, as well as links to other helpful resources, discussion boards, and communities

It's my hope to create and curate interesting, insightful, and educational content on notable beer, and to help situate that information in relation to other beer, culture, and history.

As a final note, I must thank Michael Chabon and his heroes for the inspiration for the blog's title. Comicbooks have always been one of my biggest sources of inspiration, learning, and enjoyment, so when I came across a certain Pulitzer winning novel, I was thunderstruck. Never before had someone so deftly and completely put the contours of my world of comic books to paper in such a "respectable" medium. If anything that I can muster here on the topic of beer is even 1/10th as good as his work on comicbooks, then I'll consider myself happy indeed - and you'll have something special on your hands.

'Nuff said - on to the beer!

-Clay