beer

Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)

I finally got a chance to get back to New York City last weekend after an eight year absence. I make no secret of the fact that I love New York, but not being able to get out of town that often I haven’t had the opportunity to visit some of the beer bars and restaurants that feature craft beer. Having only a couple days in the city, I didn’t get to visit nearly as many places as I’m interested in (those will have to wait for future trips), but here’s a quick rundown of some of the noteworthy stops I got to make and some of the noteworthy beers I got to try while there:

Ginger Man (11 East 36th St): When I’d mentioned that I was heading to New York a few weeks ago on Twitter, the recommendations for Ginger Man started coming in. We weren’t staying very far away, so when it came time to start our Saturday evening festivities, Ginger Man was the natural choice. The ambiance of the room and the obvious selectivity of the beer and whiskey lists can lead one to assume a level of preciousness or pretension from Ginger Man (which in fact was the only knock I’d heard against it before visiting), but the vibe is very laid-back and the staff is extremely down-to-earth. My wife noted how good a job our waitress had been doing without seeming to hover or over-assist; that’s a difficult thing to do.

“Tell me how it is — it just got here and I haven’t gotten to try it yet.” This was the request from our waitress after I ordered my first beer of the evening: a bottle of Evil Twin Aun Mas A Jesus. This latest run of the gypsy brewer’s Even More Jesus Imperial Stout was brewed in Catalunya and at 12% is a rich, port-like Stout that isn’t afraid to clobber the palate with sensation.

My wife started with an Abita Roggen Weizen. From Abita’s Select Series, Roggen Weizen is based on a relatively obscure German style of beer that worked rye malts into a Hefeweizen-style Wheat Ale. The Roggen was spicy and refreshing.

Round two saw us ordering a bottle of The Perfect Crime Hollow Point, a Belgian-style Quad that brought the complexity of a Rochefort 10 without bringing the hurt the Rochefort often brings, while I ordered one of Ginger Man’s two cask offerings; Chelsea Brewing New York State of Mind. This IPA, pulled from a proper cask and crafted right on the island of Manhattan, expressed its New York State hops and smooth malts with a clarity that made me want to stay right where I was and drink it all night. For food, we split a charcuterie plate that we both felt gave us a good amount to work through, and everything was very high quality. Highly recommended.

Rattle ‘N’ Hum (14 East 33rd St): If every craft beer bar were like Rattle ‘N’ Hum, the big brewers would collapse within one week. The open front is inviting, and the public seating is a touch I wish more places would roll their dice on. I started my session with Sixpoint Otis, one of their draft-only selections. A 6% Oatmeal Stout, Otis was my ‘taking a quick break’ beer; my wife wisely opted for the always-enjoyable Charles Wells Bombardier for hers. We quickly struck up a conversation with our table-mates and talked beer and life for the next few hours.

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Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)

My wife and I are taking a weekend to visit New York City this weekend. I don’t get out of town often, and haven’t visited NYC in about eight years so it seemed like a good time. Seeing as I won’t be around, I asked Mike Berry from Ommegang Brewery/Duvel USA to fill in for me at the Arrowine tasting table. We’ve hashed out a tasting lineup that I believe reflects Ommegang’s commitment to innovation and pushing craft beer forward.

Founded by Belgian beer importer and aficionado Don Feinberg in 1997, Brewery Ommegang has always been dedicated to producing classic Belgian-style beers with respect for the traditions and ingredients of Belgian brewing. Situated in Cooperstown, NY on what was once a hop farm, Ommegang set about establishing top-notch recipes and introducing Belgian-style beer to parts of America where styles such as Dubbel, Tripel, and Quadrupiel were unheard of.

In 2003, Feinberg sold Brewery Ommegang to Duvel-Moortgat, brewers of… well, Duvel among other beers (Liefman’s, Maredsous, La Chouffe to name a few). This is where Ommegang’s story starts to become really interesting to me: more often than not when a small brewery is bought by a bigger one, they crank the production of the small brewery’s best-known products through the roof in an effort to maximize the profit from their new purchase. This often comes at the expense of the small brewery’s experimenting with new ideas and smaller run beers.

When I first started seeing the classic Ommegang lineup (Hennepin, Three Philosophers, Rare Vos, Abbey Dubbel) on local grocery store shelves, I wasn’t the only beer geek fretting that they’d gone ‘mainstream,’ that we’d never see anything beyond the year-round beers anymore. But that’s not exactly what happened: while the best-known Ommegang beers were now staples at groceries and big chains, a succession of short-run, experimental brews started rolling out. As a fan of Ommegang, it makes me happy to feel like I still have a place in helping their success, and as a beer geek I always look forward to new Ommegang releases.

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Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)

Well, it’s finally happened — I’ve hit a writer’s block. I have no idea what I’m going to be writing about this week. We’ve covered most of the seasonal stuff, and gone through style after style of beer. I’ve read over and over how when confronted with a writer’s block, one should simply put their head down and write through it. So that’s what I’m going to do. Here are some thoughts I’ve had while on the job lately:

* Foreign visitors and transplants to the area are always shocked at how few imports I carry. American buyers are more excited about American craft brew than other countries. The exceptions seem to be individual brewers/breweries that carry a following, or certain styles (like Sour Ales) which are very popular right now. I think on some level the spectrum of great beers and divergent styles available to us here in the States has given the American craft beer geek a broader and more open palate that our friends around the world.

* That said, the great microbreweries scattered all over Europe are putting out some of the most exciting stuff out there. It’s too bad most European drinkers seem to be either tied to their macrobrewery of choice, or are too busy arguing pedantically to see that craft beer is passing them by.

* Yes, I can help you with wine. I love my customers and appreciate the recognition I’m known as a beer guy, but I’ve also worked as a wine buyer and for multiple wine importers/distributors in my day. I don’t drink as much wine at home as beer, but I love wine and am passionate about it and do, in fact, possess some knowledge on the subject. Asking only either:

1. Implies that there’s something wrong with “only” knowing about beer, and…
2. Completely negates the nearly 10 years I’ve spent working with wine as well as beer.

Are we not, as human beings, allowed multiple interests?

* I’m really excited for holiday season beer releases. More than the fall stuff, even. There are always cool little oddball releases around the holidays and I love seeing what comes in around that time.

* After all these years and all the different styles of beer I’ve gotten into, there’s still a part of me that is a hardcore hophead. When something like Firestone Walker’s Wookey Jack Black Rye IPA comes out, it reminds me all over again what got me into craft beer in the first place: outstanding, earthy, piney, citrusy hoppy goodness.

Okay, well I had some stuff to talk about after all. Until next time.

Cheers!

Nick Anderson maintains a blog at www.beermonger.net, and can be found on Twitter at @The_Beermonger. Sign up for Arrowine’s money saving email offers and free wine and beer tastings at www.arrowine.com/mailing-list-signup.aspx. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

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Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)

This week we’re going to delve into one of my favorite topics: how knowledge of wine can affect your approach to beer, and vice versa. More specifically, what we as beer drinkers (or beer geeks, if you will — that’s how I self-identify, anyway) can take away from wine while at the same time not becoming overwrought with the pretense and snobbery too easily observed in wine (some stereotypes exist for a reason, after all).

About a week ago I read an interesting post on the blog Fuggled. The author had just returned from visiting Virginia’s wine country and overheard some chatter about how beer was becoming the “new wine,” but wouldn’t really be there until breweries and tasting rooms became less industrial and “more like wine.” The author is rightly concerned that the increasing prices of many craft beers and dearth of super high-end “cult” bottles out there will drive beer into a direction far from the communal, everyman beverage it has always been. I’ve myself have been mildly worrying for years about the growth of a cottage beer “tastemaker” industry similar to the one that all too often hobbles those looking to learn more about wine.

In defense of wine, though: more than the “wineification” of beer culture, I fear that those looking to make their name as “palates” when it comes to beer don’t have enough of a wine background to properly analyze what they’re trying. As an avid wine drinker and professional but first and foremost a beer geek, I can’t stress enough the importance of wine knowledge (by which I mean tasting as many as possible and understand why they do/don’t work for you) in literally refining the palate. My boss has a super-sharp focus on brettanomyces and as a wine guy, he understands it as a fundamental flaw in wine. While this means he is in no way a fan of the traditional beer styles that use brett to great effect, it also makes him sensitive to it in beers where it shouldn’t be present. Trying hundreds of wines every month, more than anything else in my opinion, trains you to spot flaws and appreciate the difference between something being “off” and something that is simply “bad.”

I say all of that so I can say this: the day after I read that blog post, I had this conversation on Twitter with The Barley Blog, a fine writer and reviewer of craft beers. He’d just had to dump a beer because of a spoilage or infection issue in the bottle. I offered my sympathies and he responded that he “(c)ouldn’t hang with the off flavors,” that he’d “…tried but just couldn’t do it.” Here, I think, is where beer needs to learn from wine: over on the wine side when we spot a flaw, be it TCA (aka cork taint, aka “corked”), volatile acidity, brettanomyces, or anything else we call it and move on. We don’t stick to the beverage — we acknowledge the flaw and go to the next one. No one wants beer to become as gentrified and provincial as wine is, least of all me. But overlooking fatal flaws in beers for the sake of ‘the old college try’ does no one any favors.

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Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)

Much to the chagrin of my wife and most of my friends, I’m a pretty big sports nut, and despite being a long suffering local sports fan there’s no anticipation quite like the feeling right as another pro football season starts. Maybe it’s the intensity of the game or the short schedule compared to other sports, but there’s an edge to the beginning of football season that gets me just a little extra charged up, and I know I’m not alone in that.

Just watching a few minutes of a game lets you know, through the sponsorships and overwhelming number of ads, that macrobreweries are the beverage of choice for the football fan, but that’s not always the case. There are a lot of us who love more than a couple beers during a game (and more often than not before or after one as well), so here’s some recommendations for this season. Enjoy these at your next tailgate or with some great snacks in front of the TV at home.

Devil’s Backbone Striped Bass Pale Ale: Recently released, this special-run Ale from Lexington, VA is a perfect late summer/early autumn beer. Striped Bass Pale is super-clean with a focused, earthy hop character. I hesitated to recommend this as I don’t know how long it’ll be around, but it’s too good not to. Not to mention proceeds go to help out the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Oskar Blues Mama’s Lil’ Yella’ Pils: It’s very easy to get branded as “that guy” when you bring craft beer to a tailgate or a friend’s house for the game. This crisp Pilsner-style from Oskar Blues is a perfect beer to avoid this: essentially one of those beers you see TV ads for, made by someone who gives a damn, Lil’ Yella’ is familiar enough that anybody who snags a can from the cooler can enjoy it, but made to a standard that makes it obviously a craft beer.

Port City Monumental IPA: Alexandria’s Port City Brewery is on a serious roll right now. Their Monumental IPA is well-balanced, with assertive but not overly aggressive hops and a nice malty character. Bring this one out for those who want to try something different but can be overwhelmed by intense hops.

Abita Pecan Harvest Ale: This year’s Pecan Harvest Ale hasn’t arrived yet, but when it does its mix of fine malts and nutty tones makes it a perfect match for pretzels, nuts, chips — you know, all the stuff you put out on the table when you sit down for a Sunday’s worth of action. Abita recently shut down temporarily with Hurricane Isaac bearing down on the Gulf Coast, but hopefully this unique and tasty seasonal Ale will be on one of their first truck out once they’re back up and running.

Founder’s Breakfast Stout: This is a beer that’s back on the market as of this week, but will be around throughout the season and into the playoffs, meaning during the winter where we have many a Sunday matchup played under ‘football weather.’ The combination of chocolates, coffees, and flaked oats in the Founder’s Breakfast Stout give it a bold flavor and while at 8.3% ABV it may seem a bit too strong for some, the feel isn’t nearly as heavy as you might think. This is a great brew for getting your winter grillout going or for taking the edge of a winter chill.

Until next time

Cheers! Also, hail!

Nick Anderson maintains a blog at www.beermonger.net, and can be found on Twitter at @The_Beermonger. Sign up for Arrowine’s money saving email offers and free wine and beer tastings at www.arrowine.com/mailing-list-signup.aspx. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

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Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)

Very soon we’re going to have to devote an entire column to the relatively recent phenomenon of the ‘Gypsy Brewer’; beers produced under labels without their own brewery or brewpub. By opting out of the costs associated with owning and running their own facility, Gypsy Brewers are freed to explore their own interests more, and to very quickly turn a passing thought into a product hitting store shelves and bar taps. Some of the most exciting beers being produced today are made by these Gypsy Brewers, and as their ranks and influence grow, so does the importance of the palate and outlook of one Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, the spear’s head of the Gypsy movement and mad genius behind the Mikkeller line of brews.

While working as a math and physics teacher some eight years ago in his native Denmark Bjergsø started to experiment with homebrewing, with the thought that it would be cheaper to drink his own beer than the craft beer he’d been trying and rating for four years beforehand. In 2006, along with fellow homebrewer Kristian Klarup Keller (who later left the business to take an editorial position at the Danish music magazine Soundvenue), Mikkeller beer launched with the aim of bringing the fearless, bold, and imaginative beers found in the American beer scene to the “if it’s cheap, it’s good”-minded Danes. Soon, Mikkel’s inventive beers started finding an audience here in the U.S., and the label took off, along with the idea of the Gypsy Brewer.

With so many beers made under the Mikkeller label and their sometimes scarce production, it’s hard to pick out some to recommend. Some favorites of mine include Beer Geek Breakfast, an Imperial Stout that many of us beer geeks were introduced to Mikkel’s beers through. I’m partial to the yearly release of Jackie Brown Ale as well—its American Brown Ale influence is apparent with a great balance of roasty malts and sharp, yet subtle hops. I Hardcore You, made with Scotland’s BrewDog, is a big IPA that stands up to the baddest hop bombs American breweries have to offer. So far in 2012, we’ve been fortunate to see some great Mikkeller beers for the first time: Czech Pils and Dream Pils, BooGoop (a wheat-malt based Barleywine made in collaboration with the gang at Indiana’s Three Floyds Brewing), Black Hole Stout, and my personal favorite Big Worse Barleywine. Big Worse has the richness and cohesion of flavor you’d expect from a cellared Barleywine, but it’s young and all of those flavors come through with a vibrancy that is simply not possible with an aged beer.

Other Gypsy Brewers have emerged in the wake of Mikkeller’s success — not the least of which being Mikkel’s twin brother Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø whose Evil Twin beers have emerged as bold beer geek favorites; and Baltimore-based Brian Strumke’s Stillwater Artisanal Ales, whom I consider one of the best brewers working in the U.S. today. But it’s the unexpected reach of Mikkeller that has made it all possible for those who are looking for a different path as craft brewers. Those are different stories for another time, however. If you’re in the neighborhood this Saturday, come by to check out a special tasting of new Mikkeller arrivals featuring the beers of his Lambic-style program along with the massive Black Stout. If those aren’t to your liking, we’ve got a great selection of other Mikkeller beers to choose from.

Until next time.

Cheers!

Nick Anderson maintains a blog at www.beermonger.net, and can be found on Twitter at @The_Beermonger. Sign up for Arrowine’s money saving email offers and free wine and beer tastings at www.arrowine.com/mailing-list-signup.aspx. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

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