FOOLCiRCLE

So I pulled out the beers I’ve put together for the Hip Hop BIF, and there will be a nice outgoing package.

I’m a little hesitant about posting this just in case someone reads my sight and it “ruins” their surprise, but I guess if I don’t say where it is going it should really only raise the anticipation level. Actually, no one reads this thing anyway, so what the hell. These are the beers I’m sending out, I’ll list them below:

Legacy – Hoptimus Prime – 22oz
Sly Fox – Odyssey (2006) – 22oz
Victory – HopDevil – 12oz
Victory – Hop Wallop – 12oz
Dogfish Head (DFH) – 90 Minute IPA – 12oz
DFH – Burton Baton – 12oz
DFH – Old School Barleywine – 12oz
Weyerbacher – Hops Infusion – 12oz
Weyerbacher – Double Simcoe IPA – 12oz
Weyerbacher – Eleven (2006) – 12oz
Clipper City – Heavy Seas, Loose Cannon, Hop3 Ale – 12oz
Southampton – IPA – 12oz
Troegs – Nugget Nectar – 12oz
Sierra Nevada – Big Foot Barleywine (2008) – 12oz
Sierra Nevada – Big Foot Barleywine (2006) – 12oz
Stoudt’s – Double IPA – 12oz
Lancaster Brewing Company – Hop Hog – 12oz
Harpoon – 100 Barrel Series Encore Barleywine 2006) – 12oz

That’s 18 yummy beers, not all of them difficult to get, but maybe not common for everyone. Basically I have two choices left to ship to but I still won’t say which, California or Michigan. Also, I of course included some hip-hop tunes. I actually sent 8 CDs, I sent both Pain Relievaz discs burnt onto one CD and I also sent the infamous 7 volume set of Puma Sweats. Puma Sweats is one of the greatest rap mixed CDs of all times spun by my buddy Erik. Hopefully whoever receives it likes old school. Click here for a track listing for Puma Sweats.

I received the incoming leg of a new BIF I am in yesterday, the Hip-Hop BIF.

This BIFs theme, for lack of a better term, was hoppy beers and hip-hop music. Each person was to ship at least 144oz of hoppy beer and a hip-hop mix CD. I’m all about hoppy beers and I like some hip-hop (1990 and earlier preferred), so I decided to take a gamble on the music in order to get some hoppy love, and it was totally worth it. This is the 214oz of hoppy goodness wrapped up in 13 beers I received:

Boulevard – Double-Wide IPA – 750ml
Southern Tier – Back Burner Barleywine – 22oz
Bear Republic – Hop Rod Rye – 22oz
Sierra Nevada – Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale – 24oz
Terrapin – Big Hoppy Monster 2007 – 12oz
Bell’s – HopSlam – 12oz
Samuel Adams – Hallertau Imperial Pilsner – 12oz
Troegs – Nugget Nectar – 12oz
Tyranena – Hop Whore IIPA – 12oz
Surly – Furious – 16oz
Surly – Cynicale – 16oz
Surly – Surly Fest – 16oz
Surly – Bitter Brewer – 16oz

And this is what was on the CD, named (by him) “Hip Hop BIF – PitMonkey’s Pretty Lame Hip Hop CD”:

The Gourds – Gin and Juice
The Go! Team – Grip Like a Vice
50 Cent feat Snoop Dogg, Don Magic Juan – P.I.M.P (RMX)
Sultana Erkez – Big City
Busta Rhymes – Turn It Up
Everlast – Get Down
The Go! Team and Chuck D – Flashlight Fight
Wookiefoot – Nothing
Kid Rock – Roving Ganster (rollin)
Beastie Boys – High Plains Drifter
RATM and Cypress Hill – How I Could Just Kill a Man (live)
Wookiefoot – John Henry
Big Tymers – Oh yeah
Sultana erkez – Pek Yaman
Beck – Hotwax
Wookiefoot – Can’t Get a Job

Really, for me, this isn’t all that bad of a hip-hop CD. Sure, I don’t know half the songs, but I do know half the artists and none of them really fall into the hip-hop style I don’t like. So it looks like I have some new music to listen to. I should be sending out my leg Monday or Tuesday and I’ll put up another post of what goes out.

(savor) an american craft beer & food experience, may 16-17, 2008, andrew w. mellon auditorium, washington d.c.

So this past weekend (May 16 & 17, 2008) was the first ever Savor beer and food event presented by the Brewers Association. Robert and I attended the Saturday evening event (6:30-10:00PM) held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington D.C. To say this event was unique is not enough. To say this event was unlike anything I have ever attended is at least the truth. To say that this event was a great time, well, that’s what I’m going to say.

I had heard about this event like six months ago or so and really started to try and find a partner in crime about two months ago. It took until about two weeks before the event for me to convince someone to go, and I bet Robert doesn’t regret it one bit. This event was to my knowledge the largest craft beer and food pairing event of its kind. They paired approximately 48 different foods with 96 different beers. The idea was to show that not only is beer as good as wine for food pairings, but it may be actually better with all of the diversity that has arisen in the past 20 years or so in the craft beer movement. Actually, it was more than that, there was more of a ‘shock and awe’ factor involved: dress was business casual, the location was an old auditorium with many steps and columns, much like the Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy album, the decor was dazzling, the representatives were top-notch, owners, head-brewers, Brewer Association top members, the food was way more gourmet than pretzels and waffles, and the beers were only the best in all of America. It was one of those ‘Wow’ moments when you first walked in and it never really got dull.

Throughout the weekend during the event the Brewers Association put together small (100 people) demonstrations and seminars on the different attributes that the craft beer community is making. We were able to attend the He Said Beer, She Said Wine: A Debate on Food Pairings with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head and Marnie Olds a well established sommelier. It was actually a very fun and well thought out discussion, they offered us three small food selections each paired with a beer and a wine. First was chips and spicy salsa which was paired with Stone Smoked Porter and Riesling Loosen “Dr. L”, the beer won this round by crowd vote. Second was aged farmhouse cheddar cheese which was paired with Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale and Cabernet Sauvignon Concha Y Toro “Marques de Casa Concha”, the wine won this round. And third and finally was Askinosie dark chocolate which was paired with Dogfish Head World Wide Stout and Banfi “Rosa Regale” Brachetto d’Acqui, the beer won this round giving the night to beer. Sam and Marnie have done similar beer and wine pairing/competitions 22 times, and now beer has won 11 and wine 11, interesting. They both really had a lot to say on the subject, and have a great book available too.

Some of my favorite beers, and/or foods from the night that I can remember were: New Holland Brewing Company’s Dragon Milk Oak Aged Ale paired with Maytag Blue Cheese, New Albanian Brewing Company’s Thunderfoot Oak Aged Cherry Imperial Stout, Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey’s Judgment Day Abbey Ale and Veritas 003, Avery Brewing Company’s Fifteen (a farmhouse ale brewed with Brett) paired with Christopher Elbow Venezuelan Spiced Artisan Chocolates, Deschutes Brewer’s Obsidian Stout paired with Blue Cheese and Walnut Shortbread Rounds, Foothills Brewing’s Hoppyum IPA and Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout paired with Crostini of Figs and Prosciutto, Russian River Brewing Company’s Pliny the Elder and Supplication, Stone Brewing Co.’s Ruination IPA paired with Peking Duck Purses, and of course Dogfish Head Craft Brewery’s Palo Santo Marron and two versions of World Wide Stout (’06 &’07). The biggest disappointment was 21st Amendment’s Watermelon Wheat paired with Strawberry Chicken Salad, the beer was underwhelming and the salad almost made me sick, but really the only disappointment I can remember. To say that it was generally overwhelming in the best way possible isn’t saying enough.

My brother Dave also helped me start a really useful Google Map which helped me pin-point all of the local beer spots we may want to check out while we were in the area and their relationship from our hotel and the event. In addition to Savor we also stopped at RFD (a beer bar) and Capitol City Brewing Company (a brewpub), both were pretty cool and very close to the hotel.

Is Prohibition still alive and well? What’s going on here!?

 

Well, there is definitely a movement with some to bring back Prohibition, but that’s not what I’m going to be talking about here. What I’d like to talk about is the unofficial 75th Anniversary of the end of Prohibition! That’s right, back on April 7, 1933 there was a change in the Volstead Act which changed the legal intoxicating amount of alcohol in beer from 0.5% to 3.2% alcohol. After the country had been dry for 13 years, this was some MAJOR news. The Eighteenth Amendment was completely repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5, 1933. So happy 75 years of brewing to our current brewing community!

So, what’s going on in the picture? Well, that is me at my wits-end I suppose. I dumped a case of homebrew. Only the third time in over 100 batches that I’ve ever done something like this, and the most I’ve ever dumped. This time I dumped about 20 bottles of Saturday IPA. Garrett and I had brewed a 20 gallon batch of this back in July. This was an awesome monster of a beer. My bottled beer took a very long time to carbonate. We used two different yeast, with one yeast the bottles did eventually carbonate, with the other they never did. So, I have been slowly opening beers from this batch since July to see how they have developed. It never developed. It was flat and the flavors became both overly sweet and slightly sour. I decided I couldn’t take it anymore, and … drain pour. It hurt, but I new it was the right thing to do, it was better for the beer. (Sorry Garrett)

So my friend Robert just went out to WA state for a week and I asked him to bring me back some beers, and some beers I do have!

 

Originally I was just gonna give him like $40 bucks and say do the best you can, but then I was contacted by a fellow BA in WA who was willing to set-up a trade for some MId-Atlantic beers for some North-West beers. So essentially Robert became my beer mule, who was of course paid in beer up front and the promise to sample beers from WA in the future. This is what I sent out:  (2) 22oz. Legacy – Hoptimus Prime, (1) 22oz. Weyerbacher – Insanity, (4) 12oz. Troegs – Nugget Nectar, (1) 12oz. Weyerbacher – Double Simcoe IPA. This was partially based on what the other BA was interested in, what I had time to accumulate, and what Robert was able to actually carry volume-wise in his suitcase. In return I receive: (2) 12oz. Mad River Brewing Co. – John Barley Corn Barleywine 2007, (1) 22oz. Big Time Brewing Co. – Old Wooly Barleywine Ale, (1) 22oz. Full Sail – Top Sail Imperial Porter Bourbon Barrel Aged, (1) 22oz. Fish Brewing Co. – Old Woody English Old Ale, and (1) 22oz. Deschutes Brewery – The Abyss 2006 Reserve – Aged in Oak Barrels. – WOW!

I feel like we both received beers we may have never had, but I KNOW I received some gems from this guy. According to Robert, the guy basically walked him down into his cellar and was like “what do you want?” Of course he wasn’t ready for that, and didn’t know what half of these North-West beers were, so the other BA basically over compensated and threw a bunch of great beers at him. The only beer we really had set up as part of the deal was The Abyss, but it was suppose to be a 2007 and he accidentally gave me a 2006 – pretty cool as long as it has been cellared properly. I’ve already been back in contact with the guy thanking him, and got his address. I hope to be able to consistently set-up trades with him, say every other month, that would be sweet.

Also, Robert brought back (2) jellies for Karen and me to try, a Cabernet wine jelly and a Beer jelly from a company called Mick’s. I went to there website and it looks like they make a bunch of crazy jellies. Both the wine and beer jelly are dope. They used a stout (surprise to me) for the beer jelly, and it adds much more diversity to it. I would say check these guys out if you want to try something different and good.

So my brother and his wife went on a surprise trip to a B&B last weekend and they brought mw back some new beers to try.

 

I’ve only tried one of the four beers and only one of the four beers isn’t from Maryland, any guesses which beer I had already tried? Yup, the one from California, the Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale. So these aren’t real reviews (which I need to be inspired to enjoy writing) just glimpses of my opinion.

• Clipper City – McHenry – Old Baltimore Style Ale – If I was a betting man I’d bet that this beer is reproduction of National Bohemian (Natty Boh) the unofficial beer of Baltimore in the past. This is an easy drinking BMC-style lager. I think my dad might like this.
• Wild Goose – Nut Brown Ale – This was a really non-descript brown ale, very clean, very plain, easily drinkable. It reminded me of something I would order at a mediocre brewpub.
• Bear Republic – Red Rocket Ale – This is an American Red Ale for lack of a better term, which to me is basically a darker (redder) more hoppy amber ale. This was a nice treat but the beer was way chuncky which through me off, and it wasn’t just normal bottle-conditioned sediment either.
• Thirsty Dog – Old Leghumper Robust Porter – This was a nice porter with plenty of flavor that wasn’t trying to be a dumbed-down stout, would go well with a plain creamy white cheddar or may be a nice treat after shoveling the driveway.
• Baltimore-Washington Beer Works – The Raven Special Lager – This is a real simple easy drinking lager-type beer that would be fine for after yard work or paired with BBQ or pizza, but nothing really stand-out-ish.

Thanks for thinking of me and bringing back these beers, always a treat to try new beers.

Sometimes things don’t make sense, or at least don’t add up, but they still have to happen.

What do the following have in common: Sixth Glass Quadrupel, Catherine Zeta Jones, Ninety-Nine card game, the Wa-Wa’s, Helen’s Sausage House, Tilcon, methane gas, “Cover It with Gas and Set It on Fire”, Theobroma, Surrender Monkey, 420, meatloaf, and “Deathtrap”? I don’t know either, but there is a common thread.

Yesterday I got to try two new Dogfish Head beers, Theobroma and Surrender Monkey. Theobroma is another “ancient” brew along the lines of Midas Touch and Chateau Jiahu. And Surrender Monkey is a Scottish-style session ale brewed with traditional gruit spices.

Here’s some information on the Theobroma from Dogfish Head; “This beer is based on chemical analysis of pottery fragments found in Honduras which revealed the earliest known alcoholic chocolate drink used by early civilizations to toast special occasions. The discovery of this beverage pushed back the earliest use of cocoa for human consumption more than 500 years to 1200 BC. As per the analysis, Dogfish Head’s Theobroma (translated into ‘food of the gods’) is brewed with Aztec cocoa powder and cocoa nibs, honey, chilies, and annatto (fragrant tree seeds). Theobroma is 10% abv and will be available in Champagne bottles for an August 2008 release.” Personally, I thought this beer was interesting. I did not pick up on any chocolate notes which was a little disappointing, but otherwise it was pretty effervescent, smelt slightly sweet and Belgian-esque, tasted different yet developed into a harmonious blend. Sorry, I didn’t take any notes while tasting it and that is all I have as a memory. Not something I would want to drink regularly, but I will definitely pick up a couple bottles when it comes out in August.

And here’s some information on Surrender Monkey from Dogfish Head; “Surrender Monkey is a Scottish-style Ale brewed by our brewer Brian Connery. The beer is brewed with four traditional Gruit spices; yarrow, mugwort, meadowsweet and camomile. The spices are steeped separately and the tea is then added to the beer pre-fermentation. Surrender Monkey is malty with a flowery nose displaying hints of honey and green apple. Brian fermented the beer with our proprietary Dogfish yeast. He chose this style to give a shout-out to his own Scottish heritage and named the beer in honor of Groundskeeper Willie of “The Simpsons” It is scheduled to go on tap Friday, February 15, 2008 – 4.1% abv.” So of course I didn’t get an obscure Simpson’s reference like that, so this is what Wiki has to say on the reference; “The phrase was first popularized in the Simpsons episode “‘Round Springfield” (first aired on April 30, 1995). Groundskeeper Willie, the school janitor, an unkempt immigrant from Scotland, is teaching French due to budget cuts, dressed in a striped jumper and a beret. He greets the class with ‘Bonjourrrrr, yah cheese-eatin’ surrender monkeys!'” There is more on the actual phrase on Wiki if you care to read. This beer was real mellow and real aromatic. It reminded me of beer iced-herbal-tea, not in a weird way. At the sessionable strength that it is it could easily be drand glass after glass, but with the unique flavor profile I think I would be done after two. This seems like an interesting beer to brew, but  I bet it was pseudo-brewed in response to the hop shortage. Either way another interesting one from DFH.

So yesterday, 02.29.08 (may favorite date, the 29th of February), was the Iron Hill Wilmington location Mug Club renewal party.

The deal with the Iron Hill Mug Club is basically you pay a yearly $35 fee to be a part of the club. For being a part of the club you get in return for the year: a mug of beer (24oz.) for the price of a pint of beer (16oz.), you get a $25 gift certificate for every 300 points you accumulate, you get 1 point for every dollar you spend at any Iron Hill, when you sign up or renew you get a “free” 200 points, you get special invites to other Mug Club only events which typically include free appetizers,  special beer releases, and raffles, at the end of the year you get to keep your mug (I think I have 3 now), and your Mug Club card gives you these benefits at all of the Iron Hill locations (7 total now). I think that covers it.

So last night I went up with Karen and we didn’t get there until about half way through the event. I renewed and then went for a beer. I grabbed an Imperial Stout and Karen grabbed a Raspberry Wheat. The place was mobbed, and after talking to one of our friends that works there it was supposedly even worse earlier. Part of the problem was that normally for these Mug Club events we are given the whole upstairs to use, but last night they had already rented out the back room (half the upstairs) for a private event. So we had less space and probably more people than usual, ugh. So after renewing and buying our first round of beers it was enough to put me over the 300 point mark again so I was rewarded with a $25 gift certificate. Also during the door prize raffle I won a 2007 bottle of Iron Hill Old Ale. Plus I walked with my new mug. So to me, scoring a gift certificate ($25), a bottle of beer ($20), and my mug (priceless) all in one shot like that I feel like I was already reimbursed on the price of signing up for the Mug Club and the rest is all gravy, sweet.

To me, if you go to any Iron Hill enough to spend $100 in a year (plus the 200 “free” points) in order to get even one $25 gift certificate and pick up your mug at the end of the year you have more than covered the expense, not even counting the other benefits throughout the year.

So today I got to experience something new in my world of beer, the pleaseures of being the recipient of a Lottery-It-Forward.

What’s that you say, what is a Lottery-It-Forward (LIF)? Well, you do remember me explaining a Beer-It-Forward (BIF), don’t you? NO? OK, here we go one more time: a “BIF”, besides being a sound that Batman makes when he hits you, also stands for “Beer It Forward “. Remember that movie from 2000 Pay It Forward with the kid from the Sixth Sense and also starring Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey? Well, the general idea for “Beer It Forward” was taken from the premise of that movie. In the movie, Haley Joel Osment comes up with an idea to do three good deeds for three different people, without their knowledge. Paying a person “forward”, instead of re-paying someone back for something they did for you. Then, in turn, those people must do a good deed to three more people and so on and so forth – eventually creating a world full of generosity, sharing, caring and peace. Got it? OK, so the idea of a BIF is similar in the sense that a group of people send beer to one another one at a time without knowing what they are going to get, who they are going to get it from, and when, thus a rendition of pay it forward but with beer, thus beer it forward.

So, what then is a Lotter-It-Forward – well, it is a similar idea of doing something nice for someone without them having done anything nice to you, but with them doing something nice to someone else instead, yet with the twist that it is a lottery so your chances are even more obscure. On BeerAdvocate a member started a LIF I believe on Valentine’s Day for his love of beer. He put a rare bottle of beer called Sexual Chocolate up for grabs for free to the first person that could pick the number 1 to 100 that he was thinking of. It actually took almost 24 hours for someone to get it, crazy. Anyway, the recipient of that bottle then continued the LIF (as it is suppose to work) and put up a bottle of AleSmith Horny Devil with a similar guessing scenario. I fortunately guessed correctly and received my bottle today. Horny Devil is a Belgian Strong Ale brewed with coriander from AleSmith in San Diego, CA. I was super stoked to be the recipient. So, now it is my turn to lottery a beer in this LIF. I already have my beer picked out, it is a Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus with the uncensored label. It is a blended Lambic beer brewed with Raspberries.

I just wanted to say that I think this is a really cool idea, very kind and creative, and even simple too.