More Mikkeller

I mentioned the other day Mikkeller's line of yeast-series beers and how exciting and innovative this is. Lo & behold, McCoy's is featuring all five of them at their next beer dinner (see the last paragraph on the linked page). I've only been to one other McCoy's dinner but found it fun and entertaining; the food was pretty tasty (a notch or two fancier than what they typically serve) and the crowd was friendly and social.

They're also serving the Mikkeller Chipotle Porter, which was the Rare Beer this past Thursday at the Flying Saucer. I'd been looking forward to this one, so we trekked on down and had ourselves a glass or two. The aroma's wonderful – chocolatey and roasty, much like a rich dark chocolate bar (and it's all from malt – very cool). The flavor was quite similar but also had just a touch of red chili flavor. And then the capsaicin kicked in.

Living on the west coast, I used to have a pretty decent heat tolerance. After three years in Kansas City, however, I am now a self-avowed hot-food-wuss. This beer is spicy. Now, it's not melt-your-face hot, but I've had Thai food here in KC that was less spicy than this beer. It was wonderful, like eating one of those chocolates that has dried chilies in it. I wish this weren't as rare as it is.


You can get yourself a glass of this at the Saucer, or join me at the McCoy's dinner on Tuesday, September 7^th. Tickets are $50 (inclusive of tax & gratuity); you can buy them at McCoys or by calling (816) 960-0866. This is one I'm not going to miss, so I'll see you there!

Friday at the Foundry

I'll try to keep this short. We went to The Foundry tonight (new website, by the way) and noticed something significant:  they've moved the McCoy's taps from the wall to the center bar island, opening all of the wall taps to third-party brews (finally!!). One of the biggest wishes we've had about The Foundry is that they'd open up more of their taps to non-McCoy's brews, because the McCoy's brews are on tap about 30 feet away. They had a better idea:  add more taps.

I sampled their 10th anniversary and Rye of the Tiger beers tonight (but closed out the evening with the always-favorite Maudite). The 10th anniversary was really good, but I wasn't in the mood for such a strong beer (Yes, I know, I got a Maudite. It's different. Honest.) The 10th is actually 3 years old and is quite boozy, warming, and a bit hoppy with lots of bread and caramel in flavor. There are some fruity esters, but they're not overwhelming. If you're looking for a balanced American Barleywine, I would recommend this one. It was served on tap at a good carbonation level and just a wee bit on the chilly side. Let it warm up before fully enjoying.

I tend to find McCoy's beers to be middle-of-the-road, but the Rye of the Tiger ale was also very good. No detectable off-flavors and a nice pale ale with the spiciness and mouthfeel you'd expect from rye. I do think this would have been better for the early-spring days of late March or early April, but it's a nice change from the heavy, malty brews of winter.

Cheers!

On Tap Around Town

Sure are a lot of new beers going on tap lately.

Barley's out in Shawnee has had some rare Bear Republic kegs on tap the past few weeks. If you haven't had Racer X or Mach 10, they're a (west coast) hoppy treat - and they probably won't be around much longer.

McCoy's in Westport just put on a keg of their Imperial Steam Beer. I haven't had any yet but am looking forward to trying it. I'll be curious to see what an Imperial steam beer is like... I'm guessing lots of sweet & bready flavor with a bit more fruity esters. Most people are probably familiar with Anchor Steam but don't know that it's a lager brewed at ale temperatures. German brewers who immigrated to California in the 1800s didn't have the technology or cold Alpen caves to lager their beers, so they fermented their lagers at California's more temperate climate. Anchor trademarked the "Steam" name, so you might see this style called California Common elsewhere.

Speaking of California Common, Free State just put one on on tap ("Prairie Fog Ale") along with a new Vienna Lager. Vienna Lager is a cousin to the Oktoberfest and Märzen styles and isn't very easy to find (outside of Negra Modello). You can read more about these three closely-related styles in Ray Daniels' Designing Great Beers or George Fix's Vienna/Märzen/Oktoberfest edition of Brewing Classic Styles. I've become a fan of Fix - reading about chemistry seems about as appealing to me as getting jabbed in the eye, but his Principles of Brewing Science was actually really interesting. If you're curious about what happens when you do hop additions during the wort boil or what is actually going on during fermentation, I highly recommend Principles.

But I digress. McCoy's also recently put on a Bohemian Pilsener and should have their Coffee Stout available as well. They'll be coming out with a Winter Warmer here some time soon. I'm not sure when, but it'll be at their Christmas Ale dinner on 12/1. Not to be left out, 75th Street is tapping a keg of their Coffee Porter tonight (11/13) and will have it on nitro to give it more body & a creamy mouthfeel.

And finally, next Thursday Flying Saucer will be tapping a keg of Sierra Nevada's Harvest Estate ale, an American IPA that was made using only hops & barley grown on the brewery's property. With almost all of the brewery's energy coming from their own private solar array and their efforts to use recycled water, perhaps one of these days we'll see a Sierra Nevada "Off The Grid IPA" on the shelves.

So there you go - plans for next week!

Local Breweries to Host Notable Beer Dinners

There is no shortage of beer and food pairings these days, but what caught my eye recently were two dinners at McCoy’s and 75th Street Brewing. Here we have two small, local brewpubs hosting their own beer dinners – and only one local brew between them. Interesting.

McCoy's is hosting a Trappist ale dinner on November 3rd at 6:30pm. They're serving six courses featuring beers from 6 of the 7 Trappist breweries for $50 per person. That’s quite a deal given the items they’re serving (as posted on BeerAdvocate):

• Chimay Tripel & Hazelnut encrusted Chevre goat cheese truffles with rosemary honey.
• Orval & Pumpkin Ale soup with sage croutons and nutmeg whipped cream.
• Rochefort 10 & roast duck salad with sun dried cherries, candied walnuts and Roquefort cheese.
• Achel Bruin 8 & seared diver scallops over butternut squash with brown butter sauce and prosciutto.
• Westmalle Dubbel & braised beef short ribs with shiitake mushrooms and parsnip-turnip puree.
• La Trappe Quadrupel (Koningshoeven) & double layer butternut squash pecan pie with apricot glaze and maple whipped cream.

Why beer from only 6 of 7 breweries? You can't legitimately get that 7th one here in the states - or anywhere outside of the brewery or its adjoining cafe. Westvleteren is the only trappist brewery remaining that still has monk brewers, and they only brew enough beer to sustain the operations and charitable causes of the monastery. They also specifically request that their beer not be re-sold by those who purchase it. Additionally, if you do make the trek out to the monastery, you can only get one case of their beer per month and it must be reserved in advance. 

Now on to 75th Street Brewing. On October 20th, they’re hosting a subdued version of Oktoberfest with a much different tap list than the Munich-based affair. Whoever did their beer selection did a mighty fine job! On the beer list will be Ayinger Jarhrhundert, Tucher Dunkeles Hefeweizen, Brugge Bad Kitty, 75th Street Alt, and Aventinus Eisbock. I wasn’t familiar with the Brugge beer so I looked it up – it’s a Gose! If I could high-five 75th Street, I would.

What’s a Gose? I’ll tell you tomorrow.

Stuff to Keep on the Radar

I started building a list of things to do during the week, specifically happy hours or notable beer deals (think sidebar list gadget). In looking around for beer-related happy hours, it seemed most of what I could find was "domestic bottles" paired with shots. While I did get to learn what a "starburst shot" is, I'm not sure I found everything I was looking for. Here's what I got - what else can I add?

• Mondays: OK so this one isn't beer, but it's such a good deal and I enjoy wine as well, so I can't help it. Every Monday from 11:30am - 6pm, Extra Virgin does one hell of a happy hour day. Half-price bottles of wine (under $100) and tapas. Where else are you going to get halibut cheeks and grilled beef tongue for under $10?
• Mondays, pt II: What, not up for adventurous food? McCoys does a great happy hour on Monday: $7 each for a pitcher, a burger or a pizza. Some of their special brews have been noteworthy (and I was too late for their coffee stout, damn it, but their Cerveza is quite good), and if you're not following their blog, you should be.
• Mondays, pt III: Not convinced that Monday happy hour is a great way to drown your sorrows over the end of the weekend? Head out to Free State in Lawrence for $1.75 beers. A dollar seventy five!

• Tuesdays: 75th Street recently started up "Big Ass Beer Night" on Tuesdays, where they feature some special beers. Tonight is Founders Breakfast Stout. They don't currently publish this on the web, but if you sign up for their email list you'll get notified.
• Wednesdays: Glass night at Flying Saucer. These are pretty widely known now, so you could always work on maximizing your caloric intake at Old Chicago and get $1 off their featured beer.
• Thursdays: Flying Saucer wins again. They started their Rare Beer Nights this summer, tapping a special keg each week. Everyone's looking forward to October 1st when they tap that keg of Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout. Imperial Stout aged in maple barrels. Seriously.
• Fridays: Exercise your brain at The Brick for Trivia Riot while ordering beer off a menu that is never up-to-date and eating good but cheap food. And for the diet-conscious, they offer raw veggies as a side instead of fries. Sometimes I want a gut bomb, but not always; it's nice they offer the choice. They also have lots of vegetarian options, too. And a bacon fluffernutter.
  
• Fridays, pt II: Need more glassware? Old Chicago does glass night too, on Fridays. More caloric maximization. Now with a glass.

Other various things:

• Royal Liquor now has Seeyoulator available. I also picked up an O'Fallon Chocolate By the Barrel Cream Stout and, when paying for it, got to talking to Cody there about the Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout (scroll down to the bottom of the page). This is a summer seasonal and may no longer be around, but if you haven't had it, you should try it. You'll probably want to share it, but man is it good.
• The O'Fallon stout, by the way, was good but not worth it. It was $12 (including tax) and a little thin on mouthfeel. Bitter from the cocoa and not sweet enough, in my opinion, for the style. Disappointing. Oh well; it happens.
• Speaking of Royal Liquor, they're doing a huge beer tasting and bottle discount on October 1st from 6-8pm. If you're not that keen on the Canadian Breakfast Stout at Flying Saucer, definitely check this out (or stop by Royal on your way to/from P&L). They're sampling a ton of craft brews that are worth trying.
• Free State's pouring a small beer, not something you see very often. Anchor does one (from its Old Foghorn), but I don't believe we get it out here. The second runnings from Old Backus, Little Backus, is full of Cascade & Simcoe hops but appropriately at 33IBUs for the style. Sounds good, doesn't it?
• Lagunitas is now in KS and MO. Hurrah! Do yourself a favor and pick up a bottle of Hop Stoopid. At around $4 for a 22oz bottle, you're almost losing money not buying it.

What else?

Smoke 'em if you got 'em

McCoy's is having a smoked beer & food dinner on Tuesday, Sept 1st and both food & beer look great. If you've never had a smoked beer before, you're in for a treat. I don't know if I've met anyone who was very ambivalent about smoked beer; either you like it or you don't.

Smoked beers originated in Germany, out of the town of Bamberg, where the malt was dried over an open flame instead of in a kiln (where smoke escapes via another route). The smoke is imparted to the grain and - voila - smoke beer.

Alaska Brewing Company basically popularized the style in the US. Stone, Rogue, Spoetzl (Shiner), Goose Island, and several others have followed in suit. I'd recommend trying out the Bamberg originals from both Schlenkerla and Spezial, as well as Rogue's smoke ale and Shiner's Smokehaus. Schlenkerla offers several smoke beers: maerzen, weizen, and urbock (which will be at the McCoy's dinner).

McCoy's will also feature O'Fallon's Smoked Porter which I believe is a fabulous representation of the style. It is everything I love about smoke beers - smokey, smooth, complex, and flavorful - but not so much that you can't finish your beer. If you can't make it to the dinner, the smoked porter is easily available at Gomer's, Lukas, Royal, and various other liquor establishments.

Prost!

(Foamy) Heads Up!

A few things are here and/or coming our way...

• Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis is available at Royal on 435 & State Line. We picked up a sixer the other day and it's fabulous. If you like German-style Hefeweizen (banana & clove esters, citrusy and light), you'll enjoy this one. A lot.
  
• Sierra Nevada's also adding another beer to their Estate lineup. This time it's a true "Estate" beer - the barley & hops they put into their beer are grown on brewery property; it's one of the only beers of its kind. Look for it in September (or, since we seem to see a delay with Sierra Nevada's distribution, perhaps October).
• Samuel Smith's is distributing yet another beer to the states, and it sounds like an excellent one. They're joining in on the barrel-aging craze with their Yorkshire Stingo. We get many of their beers, and I hope to see it here in the next couple of months. I'll post here if I see it in stores.
• McCoy's having another beer dinner - this time with Latin flair. Sounds like they'll have a good variety of stuff, including what I'm guessing will be Rogue's Chipotle ale.
• Breckenridge has started canning Avalanche for the Denver market. Perhaps it's just a matter of time before they make their way out here. "We are extremely pleased with the end result of the can from Rexam and see a real future for our craft beers in cans." I sure hope so.
• Speaking of cans, a coworker of mine mentioned that he found Ska Brewing's ESB in Kansas (warning: prepare to hear ska when you click on that link). His first IIPA was Ska's... and lo & behold, they're getting into canning too. They bought their canning line from Oskar Blues and have 2 beers available in cans here, their ESB and Blonde Ale. Looks like their IPA's in cans too, but has yet to be spotted...

That's all I've got for now. Well, sort of. John and I went to St Louis last weekend and tried a bunch of different beers and have some recommendations for you... will be working on that post next. Cheers!