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?

Craft Brewers Get Spiritual

It seems like more & more craft breweries are getting into the art of distilling. While this isn't exactly a new trend (McMenamins out in the Portland area has been doing it for over a decade now), the craft brewer's attraction to creating a "micro distillery" is gaining momentum.

Among others, Rogue and Anchor have hopped on the distilling bandwagon and have excelled. Rogue continues to win award after award (if you didn't click on that link, you should), and has even crossed its arts by aging its flagship Rogue Dead Guy Ale in Dead Guy Whiskey barrels - creating John John Dead Guy Ale. Don't hold your breath trying to get some of that barrel-aged ale here, though - they only made 12 kegs which were distributed to Oregon pubs.



But let's get back to the subject at hand. I've had my eye on Anchor's Junipero for quite a while now. When I first saw it, it was over $60/bottle. Now that it's at the $30 mark, a bottle of this craft gin seems pretty darn affordable. Today, I finally picked up a bottle at Royal Liquors.

Anchor makes a couple of gins, Junipero and Genevieve. Genevieve is actually a Dutch style of gin called Genever, which is the predecessor to modern-day gin. Genever begins with malt wine (distilled grain mash), whereas modern gin is made from a neutral grain spirit. Both gin and genever then have various botanicals added to their base spirit, are distilled one or more times (the essential oils infused along the way) and have purified water added to get the final product ready for market. (If you're interested in a review of Anchor's Genevieve, this is a pretty good one - and it even has a cocktail recipe.) I didn't see Anchor's Genevieve at Royal, but they did have a bottle of Boomsma Jonge Genever (young genever) which appears to be pretty popular.

But I digress - again. Back to microdistilleries. The trend has hit Missouri! Well, St Louis anyway. The Stable is a fabulous beer bar that not only brews its own beers but also distills spirits. Square One Brewery & Distillery, sister-brewery of Augusta Brewing, cleverly brands its spirits under the name "Spirits of Saint Louis". (How was that not already taken?) We'll be going to St Louis later this month and I hope to check out products from both of these distilleries. I've been highly impressed by Rogue's spirits, and Anchor's Junipero is a fantastic gin. If these are any indication of what's to come from other craft breweries' distillery efforts, I hope the trend is here to stay.

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

It's been a long week. I left work early to get a head start on the weekend, and thought I'd stop at Royal on my way home to pick up a little treat. I was thinking maybe a little bottle of something Belgian.

That'll teach me.

Yeah, yeah, you're thinking, "WTF is that Bud Ice doing in there??" Well, as it turns out, ice beers are not just about higher alcohol content (and in fact, some "ice" beers have water added back after the ice is removed). When ice crystals form, they also trap impurities in the beer. The idea is that when the ice is removed, any impurities in the beer are removed along with it. My guess is that this makes for a "smoother" beer, although I'm not sure how much smoother Budweiser is supposed to be. For a couple bucks, I figured it was worth finding out.

I picked up a good mix of 12oz bottles as well; a little something for every mood: Southern Tier phin & matt's extraordinary ale, Schlafly Helles, Sam Adams LongShot Weizenbock, New Holland Full Circle Kölsch, Schlitz Gusto, and Tommyknocker Maple Nut Brown. I'll try to remember to come back and post about my thoughts on each. They're all new for me, except for the Tommyknocker which I already know is delicious.


The story about the Schlitz Gusto comeback is somewhat interesting. You can read a pretty long story about it here, or check out the website or Bull E Vard's blog post about it... I'm drinking it right now and it's not bad. It definitely has a nice bitter aftertaste without being too adjunct-sour. I only recently tried PBR (despite living in Portland during the PBR revival, where you can't go anywhere without seeing a bunch of hipsters clinging to their PBR tallboys) and thought it was pretty damn good - great summer or session beer. Schlitz has more flavor, more bitterness, and is a bit more complex. Aside from the hop bitterness, there's some light malt flavor and roasted corn. Pretty good - try it!

And finally - Boulevard Saison-Brett. Yes, this is the 2009 batch. $12.99 at Royal Liquor on State Line - they have quite a bit of this in stock at the moment.

Really, with a ton of beer already at home, the last thing we needed was more beer. Everything just looked so good....

Happiness is an Imperial Stout

John and I had dinner at the Foundry tonight, starting the evening off with a couple of glasses from Kansas City's only keg of Left Hand's Smokejumper. It's fantastic - I highly recommend getting a glass before it's gone. This is a smoked imperial porter done right - Smokey, smooth, creamy, bitter, and chocolatey, it's wonderful. 

We went to Gomer's in midtown after our visit, in search of Sierra Nevada's brand new Torpedo, with no success. They also did not have Boulevard's latest special release, the Imperial Stout. They do, however, have several bottles of the Saison-Brett. According to a coworker of mine, they recently found 5 cases of it in the back they did not realize they had. Nice find.

We hopped back into the car and trekked on down to Royal Liquors off State Line, looking for Torpedo and the Imperial Stout. 50% success isn't bad - we picked up Royal's last two 750ml bottles of Boulevard's Imperial Stout as well as a mixed 6-pack. We got home a few minutes later and popped open the stout.

Appearance - black, nice brown head, heavy on the lacing

Aroma - sweet, strong alcohol smell, oakey

Mouthfeel - soft, creamy, almost custard-like. 

Taste - initially bitter, up-front aggressive dark chocolate, followed by a raisin sweetness, and ending with lingering hops.

Boulevard used malted barley, wheat, oats, rye, and spelt in this brew. Supposedly, spelt lends a pillowy mouthfeel to beer. If that's truly the case, its presence is possibly noted. (Who's to say, though, if that's the oats or wheat instead.)

This is without a doubt my favorite Boulevard beer to date. I enjoyed the BBQ quite a bit, but it seemed like it needed a bit more time to age. Same with the Saison-Brett (and to a greater extent). The stout is perfect right now, right out of the bottle. And right in my glass.

DeProef is in the beer

In 2007, brewers from Port Brewing in Southern California took a field trip to Belgium and developed a beer with De Proef Brouerij. They took concepts from two fantastic beer styles - West Coast American IPA and Belgian Strong Ale - to come up with a Reserve Signature Ale.

We picked up a bottle of this magical beverage this evening at Royal. I have seen it before and passed it by, selecting other beers before it. Why, I can't tell you. This is a fantastic beer.

The aroma is immediately hoppy, bordering on pungent. The citrus really comes through, reminding me of the bitter pith of an orange. Initial taste is bitter hops, followed by a sweet caramel maltiness, followed by warmness. It's not too sweet, and is definitely predominantly hoppy. Now this is what I miss about west coast beer. The Brett is definitely present, but well-balanced and not too overwhelming.

Overall, this is a fantastic Belgian IPA. It has the hoppiness of a west coast IPA, the maltiness of a Belgian strong ale, and the funky tartness of the Brettanomyoces. Highly recommended for anyone who has a love of hops, a love of Belgian ale, and - best of all - a love of funk.

Merry Christmas!

Well here we are on yet another Christmas day. We don't really do Christmas, outside of presents and sometimes dinner. This year I couldn't be bothered to make a nice dinner, so beer & presents it is. I made cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast, though, so surely that counts for something.

We bottled John's smoked porter today - pictured there on the right. We made it on Thanksgiving with his mom and bottled it on Christmas day. Surely it deserves a holiday-related name. Fireside Smoked Porter? Yuletide Smoked Porter? Shopping Frenzy Smoked Porter, perhaps...

Tuesday night, I picked up an Ommegang Gift Box at Royal off State Line. It contains Chocolate Indulgence, Hennepin, and Three Philosophers, as well as a nice Ommegang glass (essentially a large flute). I can't remember the exact price, but I think it was $23.99. It was somewhere in that neighborhood anyway. We cracked open the Three Philosophers that night and it was enjoyable, as always. Someone was thinking when they blended Kriek with Belgian strong ale. It has a perfect balance of strong, Belgian fruitiness with a dry cherry flavor. It's not sweet like the Framboise lambic is by itself. I've always enjoyed it, but am moving it up on my "beers I enjoy" list as of late. 

I worked half a day on Christmas Eve, then spent the evening at Waldo Pizza (where they have Boulevard Single Wide on tap), enjoying some of a 12" Choice Cut pizza. Whoever decided bacon on pizza was a good idea should win some sort of prize. I enjoyed a delicious Avery Reverend, which they had on tap. John had a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, followed by a Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye (my favorite Bear Republic!), both also on draught.

We then came home and polished off the other two Ommegang bottles, which was an extremely good idea. We started with Hennepin... Now, I'm not a big Saison person. I do, however, appreciate a good one when I taste it and Hennepin is one of them. It has more hop profile than a typical Belgian Saison, which I think makes it a more remarkable beer. I found myself wanting to pair it with a cave-aged Gouda (but then, I pretty much want to eat cheese with anything).

Instead, we just moved on to Chocolate Indulgence. This beer is so fantastic, it is worth trying at least once even if you don't think you're going to like it. It's a pretty complex stout, bringing out not only flavors of chocolate, but ones of roasted coffee and caramel as well. The chocolate is definitely detectable, but not overwhelming. The hoppiness is rather forward, which I prefer, and balances the maltiness of the ale extremely well. I highly recommend this one, even if you're not a "chocolate beer" fan. 

Merry Christmas!