Session #27: Beer Cocktails

Joe & Jasmine of Beer at Joe' s ask us for this month's Session to pontificate on beer cocktails. Considering I am about to head to the great American cocktail city, New Orleans, this may be an apt topic. Having said that, aside from the one Joe pointed out, Black'n'Tan (Guinness floating on Harp or some such combo), I'm not a beer cocktail person. I don't even care for Snakebites (Guinness floating on hard cider). Hell, when drinking spirits, I usually opt for single-malt scotch or bourbon with a splash of water over something with fruity vodka mixed with fruit juice and/or soda and/or bitters. 

But there IS one beer concoction I can get into. Beer floats.

The funny thing is, I don't really go for root beer or vanilla ice cream, but gimme a root beer float and I'm in heaven. So since I like stout more than root beer, it only makes sense that a stout float is a thing of beauty. Someone once made me a float with Young's Double Chocolate Stout, a dash of raspberry liqueur, and vanilla bean ice cream, and it was tasty and refreshing. But I'm not in the habit of buying Young's. And while I do have a Beeradise full of various stouts--regular, coffee, imperial...all the way to Founder's Breakfast Stout (double chocolate coffee oatmeal stout) and Mikkeller's Beer Geek Brunch-Weasel (made with the world's most expensive coffee, kopi luwak).

I chose none of those. Instead, I opted to use my homebrewed Latte Stout (made with lactose and coffee). Tasty stuff, but believe me, it's not that carbonated, so it's not like I'm ruining the brew. I didn't have any straight up vanilla ice cream in the freezer, but Half Pint did kindly bring me a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Macadamia Nut, which is half choc/half vanilla, and I just ate all the chocolate-covered Macadamias before floating it.

The result? Not too shabby! I mean, it's no Bobby Flay, but as Half Pint said of it, "What's better than coffee, ice cream, and beer all rolled into one?"

So is it a beer cocktail or really just beer dessert? It's both! Drink up.

IBUs in San Diego...

...are like STDs in a college dorm.

As an antidote, when I finally completed my 1,800-mile tour del SoCal last week, I treated myself to a chilled bottle of Anchor Small Beer (it's 95 degrees in my pad) and for dessert, the first bottle of my and Half Pint's Latte Stout! (Though undercarbonated, I think it's ferly successful.)

What was supposed to be a 6-day trip turned into 11. I drove from SF down to the OC, up to LA, then back up to San Luis Obispo, then Santa Barbara (for book-signing events at Creekside Brewing and Hollister Brewing, respectively. Both must-sees/must-drinks if you're cruising through the Central Coast of Cali). In the worst example of poor scheduling ever, instead of attend the LA premier of Beer Wars, I dutifully attended my own book signing Thursday night. Drinking at Verdugo Bar in Glassell Park, what with their stellar bottle selection and some prized taps, helped assuage the hurt. Big thanks to Kyle, and Wes, glad you enjoyed the Old Rasputin XI.

After celebrating my grandma's 90th b-day on Saturday night (respect the gramma!), I woke up early (for me) and headed to the San Diego area. First stop on tap, Stone Brewery, where they kindly let me discuss my beer odyssey in just about the best setting I've done an event. Originally called for the biergarten, we moved our intimate crowd to a shaded area still in the warm outdoor patio. Just like a previous Stone Book & a Beer Club event had actor/blogger Wil Wheaton speaking in front of fellow sci-fi geeks, this one allowed me to congregate with my fellow beer geeks (I doubt I'd play well at a Trekkie convention). Here are some pictures. (Thanks, Matt.)

Purchased: Cali-Belgique, 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, and 2008 Imperial Russian Stout.

The next day, after waking up on Jessica Jellybean's air mattress, she took the day off so we could hit a bunch of local breweries. It was one of those great days that, like the Stone IRS, will only get better with age. Brief run-down:

Port/Lost Abbey: To Jessica's surprise, she lives within stumbling distance of this beauty. Most of all the brewers in town were gone in Boston for the Craft Brewers Conference, so we didn't get to meet Tomme Arthur, but we did sample several Lost Abbey beers while one of the brewers, Mike, and the house cat who I believe was named Centennial or some hop variety.

Purchased: Devotion (and later in the day I found Carnivale)

Ballast Point: They definitely made big fans out of us. We started with a full flight of their regular and limited release beers. While my favorite was the bourbon-barrel aged Sea Monster Stout, we were only to happy to purchase other favorites available in bottles (see below). We then were offered a tour of the small brewery, including some top-secret stuff. If you're interested in finding out what, email me, but realize I'll have to kill you. Cheers to Yusseff.

Purchased: Sculpin IPA, Tongue Buckler Imperial Red. (Oh, and a Black Marlin Porter, which is great, but I quite enjoyed the bourbon aged variety I had at Verdugo in LA and Churchill's in San Marcos)

AleSmith: There's a reason Peter Zien won Small Brewery/Brewer of the Year at last year's GABF. Not only did he show us around and pull samples to our hearts' content, but he allowed for a decadent privilege. 

Purchased: privileged information.

At this point, we opted for a late lunch (Japanese. Replete with a bottle of Kirin). The last brewery we hit was Green Flash. We basically hit up the lone brewer on hand for a sampler flight, I got a bottle of Le Freak (which, when Jessica asked how it compared to her cherished Stone Cali-Belgique, said lone brewer responded "It's like Cali-Belgique. But Awesome.").

From there, we popped into a great liquor store, Holiday Wine, staffed with the kind of knowledgeable beer geeks I've learned run rampant in San Diego metro. They really do put their SoCal brethren to the north to shame.

Purchased: Mission, Coronado, Lightning, Boulevard (all the way from Missouri) and possibly more.

Seriously, great beer sipping, touring, elbow-rubbing, and hunting. I get it.

D'oh

The morning after putting my second-ever batch in primary. Considering the first one didn't even gurgle, not sure if this is a step in the right or wrong direction.

Session #25: Love Lager

For this month's Beer Blogging Session, the Beer Nut asks us for a labor of lager. I am one of many who avoid watered-down mainstream lagers at all costs, but that's the thing, unless you wanna be a real pain in the ass, there are times when they are unavoidable.

The Beer Nut poses, "I'm sure I'm not the only one whose early drinking career featured pale lager in abundance, so consider this a return to our roots as beer drinkers...leave your doppelbocks and schwarzbiers out of this one...(W)hat's so great about them, and what's awful?"

To begin, it's true. No beer aficionado started on Dogfish Head 90 Minute or Russian River Pliny the Elder. Hell, the most recent beer I bought was Mikkeler's Beer Geek Brunch - Weasel, not just an Imperial Stout, but one brewed with Kopi Luwak, a.k.a. Monkey Poo Coffee or Crappuccino, a coffee bean so rare, farmers have to pluck it from the droppings of tree-dwelling, overly-caffeinated civet cats. At $18, it better be damn rare and delicious.

If my friend Colin knew I dropped as much on a single bomber of beer as he could get OVER a case of any cheap-ass "beer," well, he'd shit himself. And since he's currently crashing on my pull-out, I'm gonna keep quiet about this because I really don't want that to happen. More on Colin in a second.

As I started to say above, it's true. I used to drink "fizzy, yellow beer" by the buttload. In my college, Natty Light was the brand of choice. $9.99/case. One story I always come back to is when I dressed as Papa Smurf for Halloween and in order to keep drinking through my fluffy, white beard, I had to suck it down through a straw. Classy.

Obviously, the cheapo choice of lager beer today is PBR. From the swamps of Florida to Beervana (Portland, OR), it's a staple among, if I may, a less discerning set, especially hipsters. Truth be told, I personally think it's one of the worst mainstream beers out there even next to Budweiser and Coors Banquet, but when you're uber thirsty and strapped for cash, at a typical two-bucks a pop, it does the trick. During a recent dining experience at Patxi's Pizza in San Francisco's Hayes Valley, they had it for $1! While I opted for a $5 Sierra Nevada Celebration, it occurs to me now that next time I'm there, it may behoove me to go for, essentially, the FIVE-FOR-ONE special.

Now back to Colin. He just turned 24 this week and his favorite food is Cheez-Its. No foodie nor ale enthusiast is he. During SF Beer Week, on another night he was calling my sofa home, I dragged him to the Toronado for Ommegang night, to which he responded by escorting me across the street (OK, a 45-degree angle) to his home-away-from-my-pullout, Molotov's. In true dive-bar fashion, they offer $2 PBR. But get this. Unlisted on the beer menu, known to regulars like him, you can score a buck-fitty can of Hamm's. This is the one shite beer offering at City Beer just so they can offer something at the $0.89 range and it's Craig's attempt to replace PBR as the hipster beer of choice. (Keep in mind, if you drink it there, with their corkage fee, it becomes $1.89!) Colin generously bought me one and we enjoyed it as any two people should enjoy beer no matter what's in the glass. Or bottle. Or in this case, can. Like any mass-produced beer--this one hailing from Miller Valley in Milwaukee--it's decent when ice cold. It's dry, crisp, refreshes without the sweetness of soda pop, and it has alcohol in it.

Tell ya what, if I didn't have some bottles of my first batch of homebrew now at the ready, I'd rather stock my friend Mike's cooler with Hamm's than the PBR I know he'll have in it when we go play some disc golf this weekend.

Overnight in Mendocino County.

Half Pint thinks I took her and our pooch Patsy to Fort Bragg just to get out of town, do some hiking, and finally take her to a place aptly named Glass Beach.


After stuffing our pockets with beach glass (shh, that's a no-no), we quenched our thirsts at a local watering hole since 1988, North Coast Brewery. We started with dueling stouts: Old 38 and Old Rasputin (imperial). Yes, mine was the smaller one, but it also packs almost 50% more ABV. Our meal was fantastic (we shared the pork loin and the strip steak), which I washed down w/ some Pranqster. Another pint of Old 38 Stout accompanied--get this--a chocolate Old 38 Stout cake/brownie concoction a la mode with Old 38 Stout ice cream! And since the last time I visited I left with a bottle of Old Rasputin X, aged in bourbon barrels, I followed suit with a stash of Old Rasputin XIs. At over 11% alcohol by volume, these beers will weigh you down more than all that glass.


PS: The next time, nearing the end of our drive home, we stopped in at our favorite, Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol (after Half Pint sweet-talked me into doing some wine tasting). I'll skip to dessert. Old 38 creme brulee.

Stoutstanding.

Inaugural beer dinner: Stoutstanding!

Ages ago, when I was still in the early stages of "researching" my book, I dreamt of hosting some sort of beer tasting event. A few nights ago, I began what will hopefully become a tradition. Pairing beer with food--all the rage. From restaurants such as Monk's Kettle to books such as He Said Beer, She Said Wine to my very own b-day dinner with the notorious Beer Chef (oh, just scroll down a post), everyone's doin' it. I asked chef Bruce Patton if, instead of doing a beer dinner focused on just one brewery, if he'd ever thought of doing it with just one style of beer, it took him practically no time to reject that idea. Wouldn't work. I'm no Thomas Keller, no Garret Oliver, but I did have an overabundance of stouts in my fridge and figured an all-stout dinner was just the trick to lighten, if you catch my drift, my fridge. And in doing so, five friends and I agree that the Beer Chef doesn't get the final word on the matter.

The evite called for Sunday, 7 p.m. So K'ro and I hit a schmancy Berkeley grocery store on Saturday, which is when I started making my award-winning* 24-hour chili. (*For reals. At the Kenpo Not- so- annual Chili Cook- off.) Thick bacon, 5 lbs. of chuck beef (cubed), and a bottle of Indian Wells Brewing's Piute Stout (unless you live in the Mojave Desert, you are unlikely to find their beers. It was an old bottle, so I was afraid to serve it, but not too afraid to take a few swallows).

Seven p.m. rolled around and Jen, Gavin, Mara, Matt, and K'ro were all poured a beer of their choice as the only non-stout of the evening. I'll add that Matt had to sacrifice some of his Rogue Smoked Ale to the root veggie surprise, which made both an excellent side dish and chili topping.

To truly kick things off, Jen prepared three dips/spreads (a creamy smoked trout with horseradish, a savory tomato- onion

chutney, and a sweet cranberry- orange- fennel chutney) with a hearty German brown bread, and a plate of 3x cream brie, a smoked German cheese, and sliced stonefruit. Paired with Terminator Stout procured from a recent stay at the McMenamin’s Kennedy School in Portland, followed by Organic Devout Stout from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing., which I picked up after a half marathon down there.

For the main course, I first paired the chili with El Toro’s Imperial Stout. Though my chili didn’t have the heat I wanted it to (Gavin’s British and I didn’t know if his taste buds could handle it), I also cracked open Dick’s Oatmeal Stout. I happened upon this at the Bier Stein, a great deli and bottle shop in Eugene, Ore.

Finally, for dessert, I had a rare opportunity (or motivation) to bust out my crème brulee torch, which my sister regifted to me years ago. I figured, if I could think of it, someone’s already done it AND put it on the Interweb. Hence, I wound up making a chocolate “crème brew-lee” using Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, which was complemented by Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout.

Number of stouts used/drank: 7
Number of diners who thought the all-stout dinner went a'ight: 6

So, whether I pick a single style, brewery, or perhaps country to feature next time, at least I know I finally have my beer tasting tradition I’ve always wanted.