Miscellaneous Archives - Page 4 of 8

Operation Cheddar II: Sharp Cheddar

August 18, 2014 by Mark

Last week was my now annual trip to Adirondacks to join family and friends for lakeside merriment and generalized fun (incidentally, this is why there were no posts last week). As with last year’s Operation Cheddar, I took a little day trip over to Vermont to secure hallowed libations from the holy trinity of The Alchemist, Lawson’s Finest Liquids, and Hill Farmstead.

The plan was pretty much the same as last year, except that The Alchemist was no longer distributing direct from their cannery, instead distributing to a variety of local Vermont establishments. Alas, this little switchup would prove to be my doom. Or, well, just make it so that I didn’t manage to procure any precious Heady Topper. I suppose I could have, but I opted not to wait the extra two hours. I’ve had plenty of Heady in my day, including a recent fresh 4 pack, so I didn’t judge this to be a huge loss. I could probably have found the odd 4 pack around somewhere, but this whole distribution situation makes this sort of day trip a little inconvenient. I’ll need to do a more dedicated Vermont trip to make this work. No big whoop, onwards and upwards.

In any case, Operation Cheddar II: Sharp Cheddar commenced on Thursday morning. First stop was The Warren Store for some Lawson’s Finest Liquids (see last year’s operation for more on this great little store). Unlike last year where I basically walked in and picked a few bottles off the shelf, this year was a bit more of a production. There was a line of about 20 people ahead of me, and they sold out 34 cases in about an hour and half. Fortunately, I got there in time to secure my three bottles of Double Sunshine. On the one hand, it would have been nice to have gotten a hold of something I hadn’t had before. On the other hand, Double Fucking Sunshine. These three bottles will not last long. Whilst there, I snagged a few other locals:

So aside from Double Sunshine, I grabbed a Foley Brothers Native IPA (I enjoyed their brown ale from last year’s sortie), a Bent Hill India Pale Ale (dude at the shop said they’re brand new and at the time, no reviews on the internets), a Crop Bistro & Brewery Idletyme IPA as well as their Crop Weizen (another brand new brewery).

Also procured at The Warren Store was some Vermont Maple Syrup and a wonderful breakfast sandwich, which I ate in peace out on their deck that faces the little waterfall and creek on the side of the building. Good times.

Next stop, Hill Farmstead!

Construction and expansion efforts are moving along, and the line was actually indoors this year. They seemed to have streamlined some of their process, but there was a pretty steady line of folks looking to score their Hill Farmstead bottles and growlers. I have to admit, I spent wayyy too much money here, but it’s totally worth it:

Once again, I ended up buying some of the same beer as last year. But when that beer is Vera Mae, I’m not going to complain. Plus, I got my hands on an ample bounty of Florence (more than pictured), and growlers of Harlan, Friendship & Devotion, and Society & Solitude #5, so there is that. Also snagged some Siren / Mikkeller / Hill Farmstead Limoncello IPA and Crooked Stave Surette and Vieille. Oh, and they had glassware this year too!

The last stop was Winooski Beverage, where I had hoped to score some Heady Topper. Alas, I got there at 4, there was already a few people waiting in line, and they weren’t going to start selling until 6. I still had a three hour drive to get back home, so I opted to grab a few shelf turds (that happened to all be Massachusetts beers) and leave it at that.

Let’s see what we got here: Mystic Saison Renaud, Jack’s Abby Hopstitution IPL and Session Rye IPL, and something that looks like homebrew (seriously dude, it’s got those Brewer’s Best caps) called Billy’s Pale Ale.

And just for fun, some other stuff I procured on this trip, including some great tasting Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar, along with that Maple Syrup that I mentioned earlier.

So yes, despite the lack of Heady, I declare that this mission has been accomplished. Until next year (though fingers crossed for a more wintry excursion in a few months).

The Session #86: Beer Journalism

April 3, 2014 by Mark

On the first Friday of every month, there’s a beer blog roundup called The Session. Someone picks a topic, and everyone blogs about it. This time around, Heather Vandenengel wants to talk Beer Journalism:

What role do beer writers play in the culture and growth of craft beer? Are we advocates, critics, or storytellers? What stories are not getting told and what ones would you like to never hear about again? What’s your beer media diet? i.e. what publications/blogs/sites do you read to learn about industry? Are all beer journalists subhumans? Is beer journalism a tepid affair and/or a moribund endeavor? And if so, what can be done about it?

A few things occur to me. One is that I rarely seem to read stuff that would formally be called “Beer Journalism”. Sure, this is the internet, and so I’ve serendipitously stumbled upon many a beer article, I suppose, but I’ve never subscribed to a dead tree publication like BeerAdvocate (and for various reasons, I don’t have any plans to reverse that). The grand majority of my beer reading tends to be blogs, and they can be a varied bunch. Common themes seem to be irreverent humor, homebrewing, reviews, even more irreverent humor, and then there’s whatever the hell Subby Doo is doing at DDB.

The other thing that occurs to me is that it seems kinda foolish to put writing into a box. Perhaps there are too many “advocates” and cheerleaders in beer writing these days, but if Thomas Pynchon started up a beer advocacy blog, I’d bet all of us would be reading the hell out of that thing. Still, I do think there’s a point here. Beer boosterism is fine, but it also leads to certain issues. Like, for instance, the constant hand wringing about the best beers in the world. It can be frustrating to newbs and hype causes some rather obnoxious behavior amongst some folks (this is a general topic that deserves a post of its own). It wouldn’t be so bad if everyone didn’t choose the same few beers, but if you really love beer, you should seek out the bad with the good. While I’ve had my share of infamously bad beers, I could probably do better on this front myself.

One of the other things Heather asked us to share in this Session is “a piece of beer writing or media you love“. There are many options (and all the folks I linked above are indeed loved), but I’m going to go with the most obscure thing I can think of, which is this classic review of the legendarily bad Samuel Adams Triple Bock, buried in the depths of Beer Advocate (and somehow not deleted by the overzealous mods over there). Who says tasting notes are boring?

True story: While outside, my brother and I poured a little bit of Triple Bock into the bowls of the three dogs who live at my uncle’s house. All three dogs, very hungry due to not having eaten since breakfast, ran toward the bowls, then simultaneously retreated by slowly walking backward. They appeared to be concerned that whatever was in there might reward sudden movement by attacking them. Such concerns were probably well-founded.

Truth be told, I strongly recommend Triple Bock to everyone who calls himself a beer connoisseur, just as I recommend “Troll 2” to strangers I pass on the street. There truly is nothing else like it in this world. It deserves every bit of its insidious reputation, and it will take years off your life.

Highly recommended.

I don’t really know where to go after that, so I’m going to answer Heather’s original questions with some questions of my own, which will hopefully help illuminate something I’d like to see from more beer writing. In this task, I will be drawing upon a raging debate in the world of music and film writing. The whole snafu was set off by this CriticWire Survey that posed a question:

Q: Jazz critic Ted Gioia recently lodged a complaint that “music criticism has degenerated into lifestyle reporting” because most most critics lack a musical background and theoretical tools. Do movie critics need filmmaking experience or an understanding of film theory to do their jobs?

Gioia’s original post makes some pretty strong points:

Imagine, for a moment, football commentators who refuse to explain formations and plays. Or a TV cooking show that never mentions the ingredients. Or an expert on cars who refuses to look under the hood of an automobile.

These examples may sound implausible, perhaps ridiculous. But something comparable is happening in the field of music journalism. One can read through a stack of music magazines and never find any in-depth discussion of music. Technical knowledge of the art form has disappeared from its discourse. In short, music criticism has turned into lifestyle reporting.

There might be some hyperbole involved there, but I think you can see where I’m going with this, and the parallels to beer writing are obvious. Do beer writers need brewing experience or an understanding of brewing theory to do their jobs? I’m willing to bet that a lot of respondents to this Session will be talking a lot about how “beer is people” and other such platitudes, and there is certainly a lot of gold to be mined in that realm, but what of the technical aspects of brewing?

I actually think a lot of beer writers have at least tried their hand at brewing. Heck, I’m just some random blogger with a tiny stream of traffic, and even I homebrew and try to tackle some esoteric technical details of the brews I’m brewing and drinking. But I feel like, all too often, we beer bloggers just regurgitate the marketing blurb on the back of the bottle or in the press releases. I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to stuff like this, even if I do try to do some deeper diving on various subjects from time to time, information is limited. Beer Journalists probably have more access, but do they really get into the nitty gritty details of brewing during, say, an interview? Of course, it’s going to be very difficult to make some technical details interesting to a general audience, but it’s certainly possible.

Film critic Matt Zoller Seitz was one of the initial respondents to the CriticWire survey, but he later expanded upon his answer:

Movies and television are visual art forms, and aural art forms. They are not just about plot, characterization and theme. Analytical writing about movies and TV should incorporate some discussion of the means by which the plot is advanced, the characters developed, the themes explored. It should devote some space, some small bit of the word count, to the compositions, the cutting, the music, the decor, the lighting, the overall rhythm and mood of the piece.

Otherwise it’s all just book reports or political op-eds that happen to be about film and TV. It’s literary criticism about visual media. It’s only achieving half of its potential, if that. And it’s doing nothing to help a viewer understand how a work evokes particular feelings in them as they watch it.

Form is not just an academic side dish to the main course of content. We critics of film and TV have a duty to help viewers understand how form and and content interact, and how content is expressed through form. The film or TV critic who refuses to write about form in any serious way abdicates that duty, and abets visual illiteracy.

It is not necessary for a critic of film or television to have created a work of film or television. But it’s never a bad idea to know a little bitty eensy teensy bit about how film and television are made.

Much of this seems pretty obvious to me, but it caused quite a stir amongst the film nerd community. It turns out that if you tell a writer how they should write, they get a little uppity. And that’s probably as it should be. Again, it’s kinda foolish to put writing into a box.

But I think the general point of this whole debate is worth taking to heart. Beer isn’t just about people, it’s also about, well, the beer. It helps to know about ingredients and process, and Beer Writers should be internalizing this info and passing it on in easily digestible chunks to the unsuspecting masses. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write about people, but perhaps the balanced approach is best. To all things in moderation, and other cliches. This isn’t easy, but that’s why you’re a beer journalist, right? You don’t have to be negative or critical (though there’s nothing wrong with that), and you can still be an advocate by stressing the technical. Think about what Neil deGrasse Tyson is attempting with his reboot of Cosmos (or what Carl Sagan already accomplished). I think beer needs people like that. People who understand things and aren’t afraid to explain them in laymans terms. And I’m not entirely sure that shows like Brew Masters or BrewDogs really fit that bill (though the latter certainly does better than the former, even if they’re still obsessed with gimmickry in the brewing of their beer). You could argue that we’ve already had our Sagan – Michael Jackson is indeed a giant – but he’s sadly no longer with us, and so there’s a gaping hold in beer writing. Are you going to fill it?

Double Feature: Coca-Cola

March 31, 2014 by Mark

Before I was obsessed with beer, I was obsessed with Coke. This may seem odd given how much of a novelty whore I am when it comes to beer, but I spent decades of my life pining for but one drink: Coca-Cola. When I was but a wee nerd, during the early stages of the cola wars, my parents would limit my brother and I to one cola a week. They didn’t take sides in the cola wars, preferring to simply buy whatever was on sale. My brother and I, however, took up arms for Pepsi and Coke respectively. For reasons beyond my understanding, my parents decided to fan the flames of this conflict, pitting my brother and I against each other.

We finally got fed up with the constant attrition of war and decided to make an appeal to a higher authority. We left a note for none other than Santa Claus himself, explaining our dilemma. We providing a can of each soft drink along with some chocolate chip cookies, with the understanding that Santa would choose one over the other and thus decide the fate of the cola wars in one swift maneuver. I’m sure you remember the nervous energy of Christmas Eve and the challenges that presents to sleep, but this particular year was especially grueling. Nevertheless, we soldiered on and when the big morning finally arrived, we bound down the steps to find… an empty glass and a note that said “I prefer milk.” That magnificent, clever bastard! And my parents were apparently pretty good too.

Anyway, my love for Coke continued unabated for many moons, but it wasn’t meant to last. As my love for beer waxed, my love for coke waned. It was not an easy transition, but I managed to break the habit by giving it up for Lent for a couple years. So the irony isn’t lost as I spend some time during this Lenten season, when I vowed to drink less beer and explore other beverages, returning to Coke.

This past weekend, I drank two different Cokes. Believe it or not, I’ve already covered the debacle of New Coke on the blog (in relation to how sip tests like the “Pepsi Challenge” lead everyone astray, and how small samples of beer can do the same), but the short story is this: Coke replaced their main brand with New Coke, saw the disastrous sales that resulted, and reintroduced the original recipe as “Classic Coke” with one tiny little change: instead of using pure cane sugar, they used the newer, cheaper high fructose corn syrup. However, that little change only really happened in the US. Other areas of their world still use straight cane sugar, including our neighbors over in Mexico. What’s more, you can sometimes find bottles of Mexican Coke*, which are labeled as “Coca-Cola Refresco” and come in the classic glass bottle as well. So I snagged a bottle of that stuff and compared it to the standard corn syrup offering.

Coca-Cola Refresco

Coca-Cola Refresco – Pours a clear, dark brown amber color with a finger of quickly disappearing head. Smells sweet, with that undefinable spice character. You know how they say when you’re brewing beer that if you can pick out the specific spice you used, you used too much? Well Coke certainly doesn’t use too much, as you really can’t pick out stuff that is supposed to be in the recipe, like cinnamon, nutmeg, and coriander. Still, you do get a bit of a kick, and some of the other ingredients kinda show themselves. Taste is very sugary sweet, maybe the faintest hints of vanilla and caramel, with a slight spice component that lingers a bit in the finish. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, smooth, and a little syrupy towards the finish. Overall, yes, this is Coke alright. According to Wikipedia, sometimes Mexican Coke still uses HFCS, but this was definitely different from the regular offering.

Coke Nerd Details: 12 oz capped glass bottle. Drank out of a willybecher glass on 3/28/14. Best by: 05NOV14.

Coca-Cola Classic – The color is a little more brown and the highlights less amber, but otherwise pretty similar appearance. The nose is obviously similar, but having these back to back, they do kinda smell a little different. Nothing dramatic though. The taste is also very similar, with less of an aftertaste. Mouthfeel is where I’m getting the biggest difference, as this feels more effervescent, highly carbonated, and less syrupy. That’s not necessarily better, just different.

Coke Nerd Details: 20 oz screw cap plastic bottle. Drank out of a willybecher glass on 3/28/14. Best by: MAY0514.

Overall, I have to admit, I don’t really have a big preference for either… they are clearly different though, and would both hit the spot if I was ever in need of a Coke. I will say that I was expecting the Refresco to be definitively better than the regular, but I don’t see it. Certainly different though. I did not rate either of these because realistically, there are only, like, 5 options here, so, what? Coke gets an A, Pepsi gets an F? Right.

Beer Nerd Musings: I’ve always wanted to make a batch of homebrew that utilized Coke as a sugar addition. It’s mostly just sugar, so it should get eaten up completely by the yeast, just leaving whatever flavoring elements are in Coke, which could be interesting. I’ve actually been accumulating a bunch of odd ingredients in my regular homebrewing duties (a pound of unneeded DME here, an ounce of extra hops there) and so I thought it might be interesting to just throw it all together and hit it up with some Saison yeast, with the result being called “Clusterfuck Saison” or something like that. And I guess I could use Coke as a sugar addition, because why not? It’s not like it’s going against the Saison style definition (of which there really isn’t any). This summer, perhaps.

So there you have it. At this point, I’d just like to observe that I went for the entire post without making any lame cocaine jokes. Until now, I guess, but I’m going to pat myself on the back for showing some sort of restraint. Anywho, tomorrow, we talk Rye Whiskey. Stay tuned.

* You can also find pure cane-sugar sweetened Coca-Cola in select 2 Liter bottles during Passover (as HFCS is apparently not Kosher enough for Passover). It can be hard to find and unpredictably stocked (it doesn’t fly off shelves like BCBS, but it’s not an easy get either), but Passover Coke is not a legend, I’ve definitely had some back in my Coke-obsessed days and basically done the above comparison. Passover starts on 4/14, so keep an eye out for 2 liter bottles with yellow caps!

Anatomy of a Blog Post

March 27, 2014 by Mark

If you’ll permit some of that navel gazing that bloggers are famous for, I’d like to spend some time bloviating about how this blog gets written. Before you start screaming and throwing little pickles at me, I’d also like to note that I’m not the only one who has done this before. A couple years ago*, Ed from The Dogs of Beer wrote a similar post, and it set off a series of other posts from other bloggers. Yes, it’s all naval gazing to an extent, but I have to admit that I enjoyed reading about how other folks in the fraternity of beer bloggers construct their posts. I’ve been doing this for a little over three years now**, and have settled into a comfortable groove… that doesn’t appear to resemble anyone else at all. Not least of which because at least two of these people appear to be awake at 7 am, which is totally crazy town. I’m a night owl, and do most of my blogging after 10 pm (if not later).

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The process begins with… beer! As you might imagine, we have a large procurement department, so we’re always scouring the area (and social media) for new beers, bottle releases, and the like. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say, my eyes are bigger than my liver, and thus I almost always have a large quantity of interesting, blog-worthy beer on hand at all times. What is blog-worthy, you ask? Initially, my plan was to write about every beer that I drank. Right now, this is a more difficult question, but lately, they tend to be beers that require some effort to acquire and/or understand. Maybe they have a good story behind them. Maybe I’m new to the brewery. Maybe I went out of my way to snag it and want to justify the extra effort. Maybe it’s a style I’m not that familiar with. Or, who am I kidding, maybe it’s spent some time in a barrel of some kind.

So any given post is generally initiated on the weekend. I tend to only really review beer that I drank alone, mostly because if I’m drinking with friends, I don’t want to be rude and bury my nose into my phone whilst I tap in some detailed notes. There are occasional exceptions, and sure, I might take a picture and check in on Untappd, but for the most part, I’m drinking at home on Friday or Saturday night. My goal these days is to drink no more than 3 blog-worthy blogs a week (and less is fine, though that usually doesn’t happen).

I crack open a bottle, pour it into my glassware of choice, and snap several quick pictures with my phone (believe it or not, the pics that show up on the blog are usually the best, most clear pics). I go through the beer nerd tasting routine. Appearance, smell, taste, mouthfeel, rinse and repeat. As I’m doing this, I’m taking notes on some sort of computing device (desktop, laptop, tablet, they all work). Most of the tasting notes are written in the first 5 minutes or so, though I will usually revisit as I’m finishing up the first glass, just to make sure that, for instance, a sweet beer didn’t get cloying, or to note how the beer changed as it warmed up. If I’m particularly inspired, the research phase of blogging will start while I’m drinking as well (but always after the tasting notes are practically done). This mostly consists of lazy googling, and generally ends quickly, as some shiny new object catches my attention on the internets. On rare occasions, an idea for a post will crop up around now.

At the end of a given weekend, I’ll have a few sets of tasting notes. My ideal schedule is to post something on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday (aligning with the three blog-worthy beers I had that weekend). As I mentioned earlier, other bloggers seem to start their process in the early morning, which is crazy talk here at Kaedrin HQ. Most of the time, I’ll start my research phase (that fancy phrase for googling) after I’ve had my dinner and am lazing around for a bit. At this point, I should also point out that Kaedrin employs a crack squad of chain-smoking monkey researchers for much of the tedious detail work, and they’re very thorough.

Kaedrin’s Chain Smoking Monkey Research Squad

What I’m really looking for is an angle for my post. I’ll occasionally come up empty and just bang something out in a few minutes, but most of the time I’m able to find something I can hang a post on. A brewery profile, a pedantic style discussion, an even more pedantic exploration of the brewing process, historical notes, personal digressions, and so on. In rare instances, I’ll be inspired to write something in Screenplay form, or maybe do something off the wall, like a Choose Your Own Adventure Beer Reviews type post. After three years, some of these topics are starting to get a bit thin. You can only wax philosophic on a given beer style so many times before you start repeating yourself.

In any case, I haven’t started writing yet. I’m just researching and formulating. Instead, I head down to my basement and exercise (gotta work off those beer calories somehow, amirite?) and this is where the idea for a given post really starts to form (or, uh, fall apart). Exercise is all about tedious repetition, so it’s good to have something rubilating in your head during that time. Once I finish exercise, during my “cool down period” I try to bang out a first draft. I may or may not be successful at completing this, but that’s when the writing starts. I’ll once again, take a break and shower off (so I suppose I do get ideas in the shower sometimes), after which I fire up Spotify and go into full blown panic mode, and crank out the rest of the entry.

Once a draft has been completed, I need to take a few minutes to get the picture ready (cropping, resizing, etc…) and categorize the post (look at all those categories over there on the right!), which again gives my brain a chance to think about something else for a minute. Then I edit the post. This consists of four primary activities. First, fixing grammar and typos and whatnot. Maybe adding a link here or there that I forgot whilst I was writing. Boring stuff. Second, I tend to be longwinded, so I am almost always removing something I wrote in order to make the post flow better. I’m almost never successful in this, and often produce bloated posts (like this one!), but I do try. Third, I clean up the tasting notes a bit, and try to add some levity. I write technical documentation in my day job, so I find my tasting notes tend to feel kinda… samey. That might make them boring to read, but they do tend to at least be consistent. But if I can get a zinger in there, all the better. Finally, I make a conscious effort to bring the funny somewhere in the post. The results of this process are dubious at best and I will often rely on lame pop culture references or the infrequent meme, but again, I’m at least trying. On the other hand, I’m genuinely proud of the stupidity of the meme I made on this post, and I do love making obscure pop culture references that few people will ever understand.

And that’s just about it. Publish the post, and obsessively check my stats, which are pitiful. The actual writing of the typical post usually takes 30-60 minutes, though longer, more creative posts obviously take more time. Go figure! One interesting thing I’ve noticed lately is that writing about new beverages has really opened up options for the angle of approach. There’s usually something interesting about the beverage itself, but even if there isn’t, I feel like writing about a given beverage with a beer nerd’s perspective makes for some interesting observations. Perhaps I should continue writing about these other beverages, if and when the opportunity presents itself.

Well, I hope this was enlightening and yep, I’m pretty sure no one is reading by now, but hey, it’s all good. This was fun. We should do it again sometime. In any case, this weekend is seeing the first non-alcoholic beverages that will be blogged about here, though I think I’ll also hit up some rye whiskey too. The following weekend will be tea, followed by Scotch… and then my 40 days are up, and I’ll be back to beer with a vengeance. So far so good.

* We like to be timely here at Kaedrin, which is why we usually post about current events and topical stuff about a year or two later.

** Though I will also note that I’ve been blogging over at my generalist blog for almost 14 years, so take that.

We Interrupt this Program…

March 10, 2014 by Mark

In the 1930s, folks became very worried when their favorite radio programs were interrupted by special news bulletins. News back then tended to include things like Depressions and Nazis, so that was a pretty reasonable reaction. These days, the phrase “We interrupt this program…” is a pretty harmless declaration used half ironically to state things like how I’m not going to drink that much beer for the next six weeks or so.

See how I slipped that in there?

Fear not, this is but a temporary situation, undertaken on a whim. Blogging will continue, very possibly at the same 3-4 post per week rate (but let’s not count on that, mmmk?), though it will not all be about beer (more on this later). Blasphemy, I know, but I’ve actually been looking forward to this for a while. And lord knows this isn’t a particularly strict regimen I’m going to engage in here. Fat Weekend is coming up in a few days, and all bets are off there (but then, Fat Weekend was never particularly good material for blogging anyway, seeing as though I’m too busy yucking it up with the famed quorum of portly gentleman I don’t get to see as often as I used to). And the following Wednesday is beer club, which is still on. But the bulk of my beer drinking, which tends to occur on weekends, will be on temporary hiatus.

There are several reasons for this, all of which are self-imposed and not the result of any particular problem. First, I probably drink too much. I know for a fact that I drink a lot less than other folks, but that doesn’t mean I don’t drink too much either. The other day, I was heartened to answer “0” for the first three questions in this essay, but there are plenty of times when my answers would be much worse and the phrase “I don’t have a problem” still seems problematic to me considering how much beer I’ve drank (at a pretty steady pace) for the past 5 or so years. And if you read this blog, you can see that I don’t exactly shy away from the high alcohol brews. So I’d like to prove to myself that I’m not a slave to my favorite beverage by not drinking it for a few weeks, if I can manage that.

Second, the health component. While I absolutely savored every damn dromp of that Bruery Mash last week, it occurs to me that a bottle of 12.5% ABV barleywine represents at least 700-800 calories, which would be a non-trivial portion of my diet on a normal day. A few years ago, I came close to hitting 200 lbs and realized that I wasn’t 23 anymore, so I started eating better and exercising more. I’m actually much healthier now than I was back then (and am down into a more svelt 170-180 lb range), but I again find myself thinking “I don’t have a problem” and that attitude worries me sometimes. So let’s try this little experiment and verify that, shall we?

While I’m on the subject of health, I’d like to air out a pet peeve I have about beer boosterism. I follow a lot of beer blogs and keep pretty close tabs on twitter, so I see my fair share of “Beer is healthy for you” articles, and it kinda drives me up a wall. Yes, some studies have shown that, for instance, alcohol can help boost HDL Cholesterol (aka “Good” cholesterol) but the thing that most of us conveniently downplay is that those studies are about “moderate” consumption. Guess what? I don’t think Bourbon County Brand Stout counts as “moderate”, nor does taking down a couple Hopslams. What’s more is that while alcohol can have a good effect, it’s rarely the best way to get that effect. If you want to raise your HDL, exercise, eat better, and lose some weight. I bet your doctor won’t actually recommend to increase your booze intake. There are other benefits of moderate consumption and plenty of things specific to beer, but it’s probably best to be wary of something that your body treats like poison. Obviously I love me some alcohol (as evidenced by the fact that I’m not actually giving up on alcohol!), but I think it’s important to be clear headed about this stuff. No use in fooling ourselves.

I’ve been particularly bad about my health of late. The Holidays are always rough, but then we kept getting snowed in, I got sick, and my elliptical machine broke. Most of these were basically excuses to stop exercising and drink more beer, which in retrospect was probably a bad idea. I don’t feel any real ill effects or anything, but I have put on a few pounds and those jeans are getting a little more snug than I’d like, so I’d like to do a little course correction now before it becomes an actual problem.

Third, sacrifice is a good thing. I grew up Catholic. Nothing particularly strict, but my family went to Church on Sundays and most of my schooling was through Catholic institutions. In case you didn’t know, Lent started last Wednesday. I always hated Lent growing up, but as an adult, I’ve found it an invaluable way to break bad habits and/or try new things. 40 days is an excellent length of time to give something up. It’s short enough that it’s achievable, but long enough that your routine can be changed for the better. I suspect that even if I became a firebreathing atheist, I’d still find value in Lent (or do it some other way, like how some people had a dry January). Of course, as I mentioned earlier, I’m not giving up beer, strictly speaking. I know it’s a cheat to give things up a week at a time, but to me, this is actually more about the health aspect. As I mentioned above, a little course correction is needed. And like I said, sacrifice is a good thing, and a little delayed gratification can be very rewarding. This is probably an unpopular sentiment in our age of on-demand everything, but screaming “Don’t care how I want it now!” won’t get you anywhere in life.

Fourth and lastly, I want to explore other worlds. As a culture, we’re leaning away from mass media. Oh sure, we’ve still got superstars and blockbusters, but the really interesting stuff is happening in the fringes and in the niches. Not a day goes by that I don’t run across some absurdly specific, single-purpose website like Brides Throwing Cats or Stephen King’s Boners. In its own way, this is a good thing, but then, there’s no reason to isolate our beverages into siloed worlds that don’t touch each other. For instance, I spend a lot of time obsessing over bourbon barrel aged beers, so why wouldn’t I dip my feet into that bourbon world for a bit and see what its like? I think it would do a world of good, and give me some valuable perspective on the booze world. And, of course, nothing needs to limit this to alcoholic beverages. I plan to spend at least one week checking out some decent tea (despite Padraic’s relative hiatus from blogging, I’m sure he’ll be a helpful guide).

Starting tomorrow, blogging will shift from solely beer-focused posts to include other beverages. This week, we’ll be talking about bourbon. Next week, I’m thinking Port wine, though Fat Weekend may inspire me into a different direction. I plan to spend a week on wine, and another week on Scotch. There will definitely be at least one post on rye whiskey. And the aforementioned tea will get some love too. I figure I should be able to get a comprehensive understanding of these expansive worlds of booze in a single weekend, right? Well, no. All of these are beverages I already know and like (not starting from scratch here), but I would like to know more about them. To a certain extent, I’ve already progressed far down that path and will certainly continue far beyond these six weeks, but I’ve never really laid down the gauntlet. The primary reason I blog is to learn, and so here we are.

I am an unabashed lover of beer and that hasn’t changed, so I will naturally still be writing from a beery perspective, even if I’m writing about bourbon or wine or whatever. Hopefully these posts will still be interesting and maybe even enlightening. There’s a reason this is a beer blog, but that doesn’t mean we can’t mix things up a little. I doubt many whiskey/wine geeks are reading this particular post, but if so, I should say that my tasting notes for your preferred beverage will be dramatically, frustratingly bad. I already know that my vocabulary for this stuff is horrendous, which is one of the reasons I’m doing this (again, I blog to learn). Plus, it’s not like I’m ruling out any pure beer writing either. I’ve had a few ideas for posts bouncing around in my head for a while, and it’s about time I sat down and knocked them out.

Last weekend, I had naught but two drams of bourbon, and a couple small glasses of port as a nightcap. So perhaps not super healthy, but I haven’t had a beer for a little less than a week (and it’s not like I didn’t follow up that Bruery Mash with a dram of bourbon, so I’m doing pretty well here so far). I’ve been getting back on track with my exercise regimen too. I feel good. This will be an interesting 6 weeks and hopefully you can join me on this beverage journey. Stay tuned, for tomorrow, we take a trip to Black Maple Hill.

2013 Year End Musings

January 2, 2014 by Mark

Another orbital period has passed, which I guess means I need to reflect on the year that was or some such thing. Since I’m terrible at choosing favorites and because it’s a totally arbitrary exercise, I’ll be posting my top 40 beers of the year. That might seem like a lot, but then, I could probably do a top 40 Tired Hands beer list and still have 60 of their brews that didn’t make the cut (I’m pretty sure this is not an exaggeration; they put up at least 1-2 new beers a week on average and I’ve kept up pretty well). I drink too much is what I’m saying.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Various musings on my year in beer:

Trading – It continues, and a fair amount of beers on the list below came from trades, LIFs, and BIFs, but not nearly as much as you might think. It turns out that Philly is a pretty great beer town, asinine PLCB rules notwithstanding, and even the suburbs are getting in on the action these days. I doubt I’ll ever reach the crazy 5 trades per month tempo that some beer dorks engage in, but I’m pretty happy with the 5-6 trades I engage in per year, and I got to try some great stuff this year because of that.
Wales, bro – White Whale beers are a sorta moving target. When you start to dip your toes into beer nerdery, anything popular that is rare and/or isn’t distributed near you is a whale. Stuff like KBS. Then you start ticking those top 100 beers that are hard to find, but the goalposts move to obscure vintages of absurdly limited beers (I’ve had approximately 1 beer on that list) and people start creatively misspelling whales as walez or wales and at that point, who cares? The hunt can be fun, but some of that stuff seems like a fool’s errand. I’ll probably stick with local wales and trade for some khaki wales if the mood strikes me. With stuff like Operation Cheddar an finally procuring some Cantillon, I’ve gotten pretty good at scoring some great stuff, and that’s all I can really ask for.
The year the ratings died, sorta – I’ve been doing this for three years now, and I’m experiencing some serious ratings shifting here. Stuff I’d have rated an A a few years ago might be a B level beer nowadays. Is this changing tastes? Or was I just plain wrong? Or maybe I’m just drinking such a higher caliber of beer now that it puts that older stuff in a different perspective? Probably all of the above. So take my ratings with a grain of salt. I’m a moron.
Snobby Palate – I’ll never claim to have a great palate, but I’m starting to get super snobby about fresh IPAs in particular. And bars that don’t clean their tap lines are starting to annoy me. And I’m pretty sensitive to carbonation issues. I don’t know how great this development really is, but I try not to annoy other people with my snobby palate and pedantry.
Sessionable Beer and Redrinking Beer – I used to basically never drink the same beer twice. And I used to review nearly every beer I drank. But that’s lame. I’ve definitely drank a bunch of beers I’ve already sampled this year. Some are massive face melters that have a limited annual release (oh, hello there Parabola!), but I’ve also found a desire for “regular” beer or even a session beer. Sure, I still drink an unhealthy amount of high ABV stuff and the list below certainly contains ample Imperial Stouts and Barleywines, but sometimes I want to sit down with something normal, like a 4% pale ale. Not everything has to melt my face, all the time.
Home Brewing – A slow start to the year, but I’ve been on a tear of late. I’ve also been tackling “slow” beers, stuff that takes a while to actually finish off (like, for example, the Brett dosed saison or bourbon oak aged imperial stout), but in about a month, I should have about 3 batches hitting their prime. Poor timing, perhaps, but still. I’ve also finally procured a kegerator and have kegged my first beer (Red Heady), so we’ll see what that does (I’m actually planning to keep a relatively sessionable beer on at all times, but we’ll see). As per usual, I’ve got lots of plans and ideas, so it should be a fun year.
Aging/Cellaring Beer – I spent a pretty big portion of the year trying to drink down my cellar rather than going out and procuring the next big thing. Of course, I still buy way too much beer, but most of it is not really for aging, even if, uh, it takes me a while to get to it. There are definitely some beers that have really worked for me after a couple years in the cellar, but most are better fresh. This tends to be the general accepted wisdom in the beer nerd world, but it’s interesting to discover it for yourself.

So it’s been a great year in beer. As previously mentioned, I’m posting my top 40 beers, mostly because I feel like it. The list is limited to beers I had and reviewed this year. Stuff I’ve had before but loved is also not eligible (so no Parabola or Supplication, etc…) so don’t get too cuckoo nutso if your favorite beer isn’t on the list. Or whatever, yell at me in the comments, what do I care? Everything on the list has been rated at least an A- on my grading scale and the ordering is generally from best to worst. This is, of course, an entirely arbitrary exercise, but I always have fun with lists, so whatevers. One other rule: I tried to limit some breweries to a handful of entries, because otherwise this would be a list of my favorite Tired Hands, Cantillon, and Hill Farmstead beers, and while that’s probably accurate, it’s also probably very boring. Alright, enough whining about disclaimers, let’s demonstrate how crappy my taste is:

Tired Hands Romulon (Saison)
The Bruery Black Tuesday (Imperial Stout)
Hill Farmstead Susan (IPA)
The Alchemist Heady Topper (Double IPA)
Cantillon Kriek (Lambic)
Goose Island Bourbon County Barleywine (Barleywine)
Russian River Framboise For A Cure (American Wild Ale)
Voodoo Pappy Van Winkle Black Magick (Imperial Stout)
The Bruery Bois (Old Ale)
Cigar City Nielsbohrium (Imperial Stout)
Fantôme Magic Ghost (Saison)
Cantillon Fou’ Foune (Lambic)
Hill Farmstead and The Alchemist Walden (American Pale Ale)
Lawson’s Finest Liquids Double Sunshine IPA (Double IPA)
FiftyFifty Imperial Eclipse Stout – Rittenhouse Rye (Imperial Stout)
Oude Quetsche Tilquin (Lambic)
Sante Adairius Love’s Armor (American Wild Ale)
Firestone Walker PNC (Imperial Stout)
Half Acre Beer Hates Astronauts (IPA)
Tired Hands Phantom With Three Different Colored Eyes (Double IPA)
Tröegs Scratch Beer 83 – 2012 (¿Impending Descent?) (Imperial Stout)
Arcadia Bourbon Barrel Aged Cereal Killer (Barleywine)
Cantillon Saint Lamvinus (Lambic)
Tired Hands Only Void (Imperial Stout)
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout (Imperial Stout)
Cisco Brewers Lady Of The Woods (American Wild Ale)
La Cabra Brettophile (American Wild Ale)
Crooked Stave St. Bretta Summer (Wit/Wheat Beer)
Three Floyds & Mikkeller Risgoop (Barleywine)
Cascade Kriek Ale (American Wild Ale)
FiftyFifty Imperial Eclipse Stout – Elijah Craig (12 Year) (Imperial Stout)
Divine Teufelweizen (2011) (Weizenbock)
Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude (Smoked Beer)
Clown Shoes & Three Heads Brewing Third Party Candidate (Imperial Red Ale)
Forest & Main Oubliant (Tripel)
Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Bigfoot (Barleywine)
Voodoo Laird’s Apple Brandy Gran Met (Tripel)
Firestone Walker XVI – Anniversary Ale (American Strong Ale)
Caldera Mogli (Imperial Stout)
Logsdon Seizoen (Saison)

Damn, that was more difficult than I thought. There are at least, like, 5 other Tired Hands IPAs that could easily replace the one I put in there, not to mention stuff like Guillemot Nebula or even the Rye Barrel Only void. I had a great year in beer. Here’s to a great 2014!

The Session #81: Scary Beer Feminists!

November 1, 2013 by Mark

On the first Friday of every month, there’s a beer blog roundup called The Session. Someone picks a topic, and everyone blogs about it. This time around, Tasting Nitch is all about the womenz: Scary Beer Feminists or a Healthy Growing Demographic?

While I’m sure you all think of me as the world’s most insightful hermaphrodite, I am, in fact, a man. A single, 35 year old man. Yeah, I’m not really qualified to speak to the female experience in the beer world. That being said, I think I’ll come down pretty solidly on the “Healthy Growing Demographic” side of the argument. Nitch forwards a few ideas for topics, including historical profiles, current profiles, and a few others (I’m curious to see if anyone takes the bait for “Are there any men out there who think that women in beer is a bad thing?” Yikes, who would think that?). What’s more, I’m not really one to get into identity politics. So I’ll limit myself to a few observations, starting with one of Nitch’s suggestions:

Woman’s palate’s are changing the direction of beer! Are women to blame for the recent increase in fruit beers?

If so, only because beer marketers are morons. It seems like not a week goes by without some ridiculous article about how beer confuses womenz (for real, the article suggests three options that women might like, one of which is a cider) or how some corporation is seeking to implement some hairbrained scheme to trick women into liking beer. So indirectly, maybe women are to blame for an increase in fruity beers (or for the notion that an orange is a good garnish for beer), but only because some sexist executive somewhere got it into their head that women only like beer that is sweet and fruity. Pshah.

Well fear not, female readers, I’ve gone to the trouble to curate a custom category on this blog that’s perfect for you! Read it, seek out some of the shelf wales (or trade for the more obscure ones), and rejoice. Oh sure, it’s just an archive page of beers I’ve rated an A, so you menz don’t need to feel left out – they’re for you too. Funnily enough, the first beer listed is a Framboise, but hey, guys like that too. At least, this guy does. In addition, you could check out these pages too, I’m sure you’d enjoy those beers.

***

Riddle me this, dear reader: is the beer bottle a phallic symbol? I guess it depends on your perspective. For drinkers, it might be. It’s certainly got the shape for it, and fluid can shoot out of that bottle like no one’s business. But for a brewer? Well, they’re sticking fluid into a hole in the bottle. And for certain bottle-conditioned beers, well, that fluid changes over time into something beautiful. Or something. I’m not good at this. Let’s move on.

***

Just about every month, folks from my work get together at a local BYOB for a beer tasting (amongst other libations) and fun. Of the folks in attendance, there are only really two major beer nerds. I am, of course, one of those. The other is a woman. The mixture of men and women amongst the group is about even, and I’ve pretty much given up trying to predict what people will like or not like. I just bring the best beer I can in the hopes that someone will see the light (and so does my female partner in crime). Every month, it seems like the most popular beer is a different style. Double IPA? Sure! Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon Barrels? You bet! Sour ale aged on fruit? Why not! Funky saison? Hell yes. Leinenkugel’s Berry Weiss? Um, not for me, but some folks like it a lot, male and female.

Nitch sez that she doesn’t want this to turn into a “bah humbug, let people drink what they want,” type of session, but like I said, I’ve kinda given up trying to predict how people will react to stuff I bring to beer club. And quite frankly, I don’t see a difference between men and women when it comes to beer. Ultimately, it’s just beer. You drink it. It’s not that complicated, and your reproductive parts don’t really play a role. Amiright?

Halloween and Other Nonsense

September 30, 2013 by Mark

The most awesomest time of the year has arrived, bringing with it stuff like decorative corpses, mutilated pumpkins, bite sized candy, pumpkin beers, and a whole host of other nominally ghastly objects that suddenly become socially acceptable. Here at Kaedrin, we tend to drink a lot of beer (yeah, par for the course, I know) and watch a lot of bad horror movies (these tend to be chronicled on my generalist blog, so stop by and say hello if you’re so inclined). So look for some season’s greetings in the near future. And Sweetzels. Lots of Sweetzels.

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Speaking of Halloween themes, Tired Hands is getting into the swing of things with their series of beers named after various monsters. Last year were the classics: Vampire, Zombie, etc… Take a look at the fermenation board for a preview of this year’s fun:

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Yep, 80s horror monsters all the way. Not on the board, but mentioned by the bartender last time I was there, is Marty Rantzen (!), a suitably obscure choice that warms this jaded horror movie lover’s heart. Of course, these are just names, and it’s what’s in the glass that counts, but Tired Hands has more than proven themselves on that front and their nonsensical naming conventions only add to their charm.

Speaking of nonsense, check out this video I made on Vine after I got drunk on Saturday.

It’s no DDB video revue, but I think it turned out well given the approximately 30 seconds I put into it.

Incidentally, this is the sort of thing I’ve been posting on Twitter lately, so go there and follow me now (if you don’t already). Cheers.

Operation Cheddar

August 19, 2013 by Mark

As mentioned recently, I was on vacation last week. I joined family and friends in the Adirondacks (upstate New York, for the uninitiated) for general fun and merriment. Upon noticing that Vermont was, like, closer to upstate New York than it is to Philly, I made preparations for a detour on my way home. Thus began what would become known (to, uh, just me and my 5 twitter followers, really) as Operation Cheddar, an incursion into Vermont to secure beer from three hallowed breweries: Hill Farmstead, The Alchemist, and Lawson’s Finest Liquids. I’m going to spend some time wanking about the planning process, but if you’re not interested in that, there’s plenty of pretty pictures below (just click for bigger pictures).

The original plan was to get up early on Saturday (the end of our stay in the Adirondacks) and make a detour into Vermont before returning to Philly. Truth be told, Vermont isn’t that much closer, and with the stops I was planning on making, it would still be an all day affair, but totally worth it. However, as I started looking into each brewery’s availability, I realized that Saturday might not be the best day for the trip.

I monitored Hill Farmstead’s Retail page (which seems to be frequently updated and the best source on availability) and it looked like Saturday would probably be crowded, but fine. However, in looking at The Alchemist’s Facebook page, I observed that Heady Topper was selling out most Fridays, especially during the summer months. Lawson’s distributes out of a Farmer’s Market that is held on Saturdays… but usually only one Saturday a month (and not the Saturday I was going). I emailed Sean Lawson, and he said that my best bet to buy bottles was to go to one of three places listed on their site. He also mentioned to go on the day of delivery, as they tend to sell out quickly.

Basically, if I went on Saturday, there was a pretty good chance of being shut out of Heady and Lawson’s. That would suck, so I pushed Operation Cheddar up to Thursday, where unseasonably cool weather lead to a lull in our activity schedule anyway. I’m happy to say, this was most certainly the right decision.

First stop: The Warren Store for some of Lawson’s Finest Liquids.

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This was a cool little store, with all sorts of artisanal foodstuffs, a bakery, a deli, wine, and, of course, a small selection of beer. It was actually a gorgeous day in Vermont, and they had an outdoor eating area right by a small stream. It was around 10:30 am, so after securing my allocation of Lawson’s Double Sunshine (!!) and some other random Vermont beer that looked good, I picked up what was quite possibly the best breakfast sandwich I’ve ever had in my life. A great way to start the trip, and I was quite happy with the haul:

That’s Lawson’s Double Sunshine IPA, Switchback Ale, and Foley Brothers Native Brown Ale. The guy at the store said he had received 19 cases of Double Sunshine that morning, and that all but 3 cases had sold already. So basically, really glad I made this my first stop.

Next up, just a hop and a skip away, was The Alchemist.

The whole place smelled like fresh hops and malt (clearly a brew day) and they were naturally doing a brisk business. In fact, I later intercepted communications from The Alchemist that they sold out their supply of cans on Thursday afternoon (and no more would be available to the following Monday), so Thursday was definitely the right day for this trip. I bought as much Heady as I could, and picked up some glasswales while I was at it:

Finally, Hill Farmstead, which was a bit of a hike from The Alchemist… but it was a pleasant enough drive, and the resulting haul was quite worth the stretch!

There was actually quite a line for growler fills, even with the (apparently recent) limitation of only 3 growlers per person. Bottles were limited as well, but I was pretty ecstatic with my haul:

The growlers were filled with Amarillo Single Hop Pale Ale, Susan, and Society & Solitude #7. Bottles of Vera Mae and Grassroots Arctic Saison (Grassroots is basically the collaborative arm of Hill Farmstead, where they go out and brew at other breweries), and while I was at it, I grabbed a bottle of The Bruery Sans Pagaie (HF always has a selection or two from their brewer friends, so this was a pleasant surprise, as I’ve never seen this one in the Philly area).

Overall, I was pretty damn happy with the trip. It took up most of the day, but I got everything I was after and more (and if I stuck to the original plan, it would have been quite discouraging). The drive was actually pretty easy and scenic (Vermont is truly beautiful, and in case you doubt that small-town America exists, you should head over to Vermont), I didn’t even lose GPS coverage on my phone (but I was still glad to have backup printouts). I even got back right in time for dinner, and was enjoying the spoils of Operation Cheddar before the sun set:

I suspect a day-trip from Philly would be a bit much (looking at at least 14 hours in the car for a round trip, and when you add in time spent at each venue and other stops, you’re up to 18+ hours), but an overnight would work nicely. I actually had a lot of fun on this trip, so I will almost certainly be doing that overnight trip sometime. So that’s Operation Cheddar. Stay tuned for a closer look at those HF growlers… and more Vermont beer reviews!

Kaedrin’s Beer Twitter Stream

August 11, 2013 by Mark

So I finally decided to stop trying to cram my beer obsession down my personal twitter account’s feed (which will still probably feature some beer anyway, and feel free to follow that as well) and created a new feed @KaedrinBeer for that purpose. What will be on this stream? I’m not really sure! It will certainly contain pictures of stuff that wouldn’t necessarily make it to the blog, as well as links out to other articles, blogs, and the like. You should totally follow me and tweet things at me and do other things that could be interpreted with various innuendos.