Past Deadline

When I returned to work after the long Rosh HaShana weekend, The Beer Greek remarked that I flunked the deadline I gave myself. 300 ticks by Rosh Hashana, then by the end of the holiday. I know. I had life to attend to. What can I do?
It’s the morning of Yom Kippur now, time for me, non-observant, to catch up on all sorts of things, from laundry to travel plans to work (cos Paris and London and New York and Dublin don’t care much about Yom Kippur and neither does the tight schedule I’m on in real-life) – and to blog. So here it is – the 300 count-up!

Love this ad.

Yesterday evening The Secret Agent’s metalhead cousin dropped by. Other than rum educational we opened our bottle of beer #289 – Estrella Damm Inedit. It’s a magnum bottle and we were looking for an opportunity to share it with someone. I fondly remembered this Belgian-style wheat beer, but last night’s bottle was a little oxidized. Hazy golden with a frothy white head – looks as elegant as the bottle – sweet, fruity aroma and sweet taste. Estrella Damm Inedit was created for El Bulli restaurant that was since closed but the beer is still in production. Sexy bottle, if there ever was one, but that’s it.

Then we opened another big-ish bottle, Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale, beer #290. I love Stone beer and so do the 1001 Beers book editors, as there are 4 beers from this brewery in the book. This American Strong Ale is both very hoppy, fruity AND chocolatey and no, it isn’t cacophonic at all.

this must be tattooed on more than one shoulder

Blixa and the first beer for the Jewish year

Last week, in Rosh Hashana morning, right after I blogged, I opened a bottle of Fuller’s Honey Dew. Timing for beer #291 was perfect, as honey is a traditional new year food – for a sweet start. I try to avoid honey but beer is somewhat of an exception for everything in life.  The UK’s first organic beer pours honey-gold and smells like honey that was left standing and became sweeter and thicker. Honey also dominates the mouth but this is definitely a beer, and a good one, too, with nice maltiness, full body, and a lingering, honey-bitter finish.

Later that day we drank beer #292: Svyturys Ekstra – good-for-a-hot-day-on-the-beach kind of helles that smelled a little corny, even though it contains rice. The Secret Agent and I are not the target audience for beach beer .

Let’s move on – just before Rosh HaShana 4 of us gathered at the Dancing Camel Pub for a small tasting/ rating/ untapping/ ticking session. The Secret Agent didn’t join me, so I brought bottles that he could care less about, i.e. ‘exotic’ (i.e. nasty) lagers from Tahiti and Laos. Yup – after months of searching I finally found a bottle of Beerlao Lager – the light one, which is beer #293, another ricey beer. Hazy golden it poured – and I was expecting clear beer – corn and petrol aroma and unpleasing bitter sensation in the mouth. Ugh. Things got better when Dead Swedish Girl schlapped beer #294 – Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter. We’ll be in Yorkshire next week, but our beer sampling agenda is full already so I’m glad I got to taste this lovely roasty-smoky goodness. It tastes a little alcoholic and has these really cool hints of sausage that I’m a real sucker for – guilty pleasure for a 21 years vegetarian…  Beer #295 was a real tread – Ninkasi Tricerahops Double IPA from Eugene, OR. It’s a good one. Orange, clear-going-hazy with a big white head, faint hoppy aroma of onion peel and floral, oniony bitterness and a little dry – tasty and refreshing. Thank you Baseball Tom for getting your friend to bring it!

5 more til the 300th beer in this project and I’ll stick to American beers, that dominate the book. Widmer Brothers Hefe Weizen is beer #296 and it is a disappointment: tasteless, aroma-less. This is probably yet another case of getting old bottles to the beer desert we live in, because seriously, our bottle was like a homebrew gone wrong and it can’t be the case. Earlier this year we sampled their Reserve Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout that was wonderful, so I’m sure it’s not the beer or the batch, but rather shipping, storing and handling of this specific bottle. Next.

Great Lakes Brewing Company from Cleveland’s been caught our attention lately, with curious beers such as Elliot Ness and Rye of the Tiger. They have 2 beers in the book: Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold is beer #297 and the second helles/ Dortmunder in this entry. As opposed to the Lithuanian beer above, this stuff is good: A little pickle juice, sweet and a little plastic aroma, sweet  and then bitter taste, pickly too. Medium body, fizzy and yet smooth, bitter finish. Nothing too complex, but something I’d be happy to drink again. Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald got its own entry in the best beer blog I’ve ever seen: Beer Labels in Motion on tumblr- whata wonderful homage to a wonderful porter, that is beer #298: very dark ruby-red with tan head. Slightly roasty aroma with a little wine and condensed coffee, tastes roasty and bitter with a little cucumber(!) Medium bodied, slightly roasty finish, robust.

Last two beers in this loooong entry/list are brewed by Avery Brewing Co. from Colorado: beer #299 is Ellie’s Brown Ale is nice and complex: chocolate and warm carrot juice aroma, chocolate and malt taste. Medium body, soft chocolate finish. Avery The Maharaja is the second Double IPA in this post and it is also the very random beer #300 I Must Try Before I Die. It’s a hoppy beer with pine, many flowers and lychee notes that tastes a little old, yet bitter and hoppy with some almond bitterness too. Full body, long and bitter finish.

And now what? 701 more beers to try before I die. Got a couple more that I drank and haven’t written about – hopefully I’ll get to it in the next holiday, around Tuesday-Wednesday, a bunch of bottle in the fridge, an upcoming trip to Northern England and a long journey ahead. At least The Beer Greek won’t scold me tomorrow at work.

Beer in the Suitcase

I’ve been trying not to feel guilty about the infrequent updates, about falling behind and about pretty much neglecting one of the main reasons I started this blog: writing about Israeli craft beer. It’s not like I report to anyone but myself or get paid to run this project and some important stuff’s been going on lately, like failing statistics, a new semester, busy busy schedule at work and some social life. I’m not the only one. It’s summertime and people are busy. Unlike yours truly, who’s been developing arthritis, overusing the calculator, The Beer Gatherer’s buddies have been breathing recycled airplane air, hunting for beer in more attractive locations than the filthy streets of Jaffa in the middle of the heat wave.

A couple of weeks ago we met at Midi-Bear’s place. Him, The Peaceful CEO and The Long Distance Runner returned from the American Homebrewers Association conference in Seattle; Troubles is a regular on TLV-Rome route; The Beer Greek, poor him, was sent to a beer marketing conference in Copenhagen not too long ago and The Guy With The Oh-So-Fluid Nickname has just returned to Israel. There were plenty of good bottles on the table, as well as some horrendous ones, and not-quite-by-accident, a bunch of them are listed in the book.

The Secret Agent and I shared with the bunch a bottle of Black Hawk Stout brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company from Hopland California. Now a beergeek can’t just mention that a brewery is from a place called Hopland and move on, so I wikied the place, population 800, and learned that Mendocino’s brewpub in Hopland was the first of its kind in California.  And yes, “The town gets its name from the fact that from the 1870s to the mid-1950s, much of the region’s economy was based on the growing and drying of bitter hops” – cool! Black Hawk is categorized as dry stout and dryness is apparent in its long, coffee-like finish. It pours reddish brown with an off white head and smells like sweet-chocolate and soy. Some soy is also apparent in the mouth, which is dominated by bitterness and roast that I’m always happy to meet. It was a decent beer.

The Beer Greek keeps bringing to the tastings stuff from the list I had emailed him while he was in Denmark. He shared a bottle of Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast that he bought in Barleywine, a craft beer shop in Carlsberg Land (here‘s The Beer Greek’s  Hebrew blog about the place. Also, google for pics – looks so bright and inviting with those white, IKEA(-like?) shelves). Mikkeller beers are almost a staple in our tastings, but it seems that most of the crowd hunts for the rare and special edition stuff, so it was extra nice of The Beer Greek to bring a “generic” Mikkeller. This one was drier, darker and more condenced than the Black Hawk Stout, roasty all over and fun. A great beer.

Bear Republic is a brewery I’ve been getting to know and like in the past couple of months. We drank  Racer 5 and Pete Brown Tribute Ale not too long ago.  In the latest tasting Midi Bear opened a bottle of Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, that was hoppy with grapefruit and evergreen aroma, dry and bitter taste and a little alcoholic finish that did ruin the beer. I loved this one.

When The Guy With The Oh-So-Fluid Nickname (oh my, by the time I finish the 1001 mission, he’ll have 2000 different nicks probably! Matching him with a permanent nick is one of this quarter’s missions) returned, he asked me if Innis and Gunn Rum Cask Oak Aged Beer is in my book. Well, the book lists the standard  Innis and Gunn Oak Aged Beer, but special editions count too and they are even better, especially special edition that have rum in their title and had rum in the barrels. I love rum. This is my other alco-love. The Secret Agent and I actually drifted to beer because rum is even less available in Israel than beer, let alone decent rum-based cocktails. Now this beer’s a gem: clear dark brown with beige head and fun, fun, fun aroma: butter, vanilla, cask, wood, sugar and cherry are what my receptors caught. The beer’s sweet and alcoholic and matches the aroma and light for its 7.4% abv.

Tomorrow we’re hosting another tasting, launching our new air-conditioner. Meanwhile, these were beers #87, #88, #89, #90 I Must Try Before I Die. I predict #100 will be drank in the next 2 weeks.

Oldest, Rarest, Fanciest Sams.

Saturday, St. Patrick’s Day. The Secret Agent, The Dead Swedish Girl, currently-nickless Shachar and I have been planning to check out a pub in a kibbutz 50 kilometers north of Tel Aviv. A couple of days before Saturday Shachar texts and asks if we’re available to a tasting before driving to the north. Sure, if there’s time for the driver to chill out before hitting the road. A second text message soon follows: can it take place in our place? Only 5-6 people including The Secret Agent and I.

Fair enough.

A couple of hours before the tasting comes a third text: Is it possible to add another guest or two?

Uh, ok, I replied, thinking WTF. In the next message I was asked whom I think should be invited. Puzzled, I called and found out that the tasting that’s about to take place in my place in a couple of hours will contain lots of Samuel Adams bottles: seasonal, limited releases and other goodies that are both unavailable here and come in big bottles, so if it’s possible to share the love with others, it’d be cool. We succeeded recruiting one more participant and only when Shachar arrived I understood why more would be merrier: 11 bottles. Including 1997 Triple Bock and 2003 Utopias. Then Oren arrived with bottle #12 – Samuel Adams Utopias 2007. Yup, two bottles of Utopias on my IKEA glass table in one evening. WOW!

There were so many Sams on the table, we couldn't get a good group picture.

Bottles were organized, bread was sliced and off we started with coincidentally appropriate Samuel Adams Irish Red, one of the three Sam brews that are listed in the 1001 book. Clear red beer with sweet caramel and strawberry aroma and a sweet and sharp taste. It felt a little oily and had a long finish. A nice start. From Saint Patrick’s we regressed to Christmas, with Sam Adams Holiday Porter (2010 edition): dark, brown and muddy looking, with sweet chocolate aroma and smooth sweet chocolate taste. Medium body, long finish.

Samuel Adams Black and Brew coffee stout has the strangest label. I mean, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but does it look like a Samuel Adams label to you? If this label is supposed to symbolize the content, I’m afraid that it’s not really working, either. I mean yes, the bottle contains coffee stout, the content is black, and coffee is apparent, at least in the aroma, but you don’t get fancy cappuccino here: that’s American drip coffee I smelled, and that’s exactly what I want to smell. I prefer my coffee Italian-style, but I’d rather drink drip from a cracked, heavy mug in a diner in Missouri. Other than American coffee I smelled chocolate and smoked pepper and tasted bitter, sweetish and rich brew with a long finish and smooth texture.

Following these “unrelated” were 6 bottles from 2011 limited releases. Each adorned with a beautiful illustration and a title that brought fantastic worlds, far away from the usual All-American Sam Adams look and feel, to mind. We started this part of the evening with Tasman Red, a very dark red-brown red ale, that has a big tan head and pine and moss aroma. It tasted bitter with hints of seaweed and bore a full body with an oily texture – very rich like most beers sampled that night. Dark Depths is cataloged as Baltic IPA by the brewery’s marketing department and as Black IPA by Ratebeer. It has an illustration of a steampunk-like diver, and an opaque, dark colour with a big, thick tan head. Smells of hops – evergreen and grapefruit and tastes softly bitter. The body is surprisingly light and the texture stiff. Finish was long and bitter. The Vixen is chocolate chili bock, black in colour, tan head. It has sweet, milk chocolate aroma with hints of chili, and tastes mildly bitter and a little sweet. Finish had some chili but not enough as far as I’m concerned, soft carbonation and medium body.

Third Voyage, a double IPA, has clear brown colour and a foamy white head, beneath which good, dry aroma of grapefruit and pine was hiding. Taste was appropriately bitter with a hint of sweetness,finish was dry, carbonation – soft, body – light. It was a good bear. Cinder Bock is the name of the smoked beer in this series. I absolutely adore smokiness in my brew, and I attribute it to two decades of meat-free diet; this must be some sort of compensation. Anyway, that Rauch Bock has clear dark ruby-brown colour and a yellowish head. It had faint smoke aroma, that also contained some metallic and alcoholic notes and sweet, smoky taste. There was smoke in the finish, oily texture and medium body. Again, I could do with more aggressive smoke, but that’s me.

Griffin’s Bow closed this part of the tasting. Barley Wine. Clear, orange-amber in colour and wooden sweet aroma opened for a bitter-sweet tasting brew that also bore hints of vanilla. It had a heavy body and buttery texture and was good. Dark Depths was my favourite in this part.

The rest of the bottles. Yes, that's a second Utopia!

The third part of the tasting would be considered by many as the crown jewels. Triple Bock was the brewery’s first attempt in extreme brewing, they say, and the beer sure stretches the limit of the definition. Last brewed in 1997, we opened a 15 years old bottle, which texture resembled soy sauce more than actual beer. Thick, black with no head, soy and chocolate liquor aroma and a rich but not very good taste of chocolate, salt and cherry. Body was thick and full and the beer itself was extreme indeed – too extreme for me.

Finally, Samuel Adams Utopias. Well, UtopiaseS. First is 2007 vintage, which fellow bottle from the same batch is currently available on ebay for $260 and 2003 that at time of writing is offered on ebay for $649. Those two on my table. Guinness Book of Records Strongest Beer in the World(since 2002, %25 abv.), star of any World’s Most Expensive Beers/ World’s Strangest Beer Bottles lists, on MY table. 2007 had a dark soy sauce colour, and soy sauce-alcoholic aroma. It tasted very sweet, liquor-like, and also had some wood. It had a sleek oily texture, obviously lacked carbonation, long, chocolate, burning aftertaste and a general “this is liquor, not beer” feeling. 2003 was brown and cloudy, smelled sweet and moldy, tasted sweet, chocolatey and alcoholic and had a thick, oily, really long finish.

The evening’s best beers were from the 2011 limited edition series, but how can a beer lover not be excited about the opportunity to sample these rare, old editions? I broke three records that night: Oldest, strongest and most expensive beer tasted up to date.

happy camper me (and Oren, too)

#30 (Irish Red) and #31 (Utopia) I must try before I die.

Then we went to the pub. I drank Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier that’s also in the book, but I’ll write about it some other time.

Heebs Drink Brews

It was love on first sight. The moment I saw a picture of Shmaltz’ Coney Island lagers on Beer Ticker and Traveler Dror’s blog (The most appropriate Hebrew alert so far), I knew I had to get me a bottle.  I mean – Coney Island’s sideshow AND beer for the same price – the best bargain ever since Route 66 Root Beer.

When my Excellent Little Brother flew with his wife, ala Li’l SIL to NY last summer, in order to find an apartment and help her settle down before school starts, I sent him to Wholefoods with a small wish-list and he came back to Israel with a bottle of the Sword Swallower (and Southern Tier Oak Aged Unearthly and Oomegang’s Three Philosophers). Don’t remember whether I asked him to bring this one specifically or let him choose whatever he fancies. In any case, The Sword Swallower that arrived at our place last September graced our fridge with her beauty while we were patiently waiting for a good opportunity to open that bottle. A short correspondence with don’t remember who revealed that Dror has a He’Brew bottle at home. He was willing to share his stash and after a few weeks of messaging back and forth we found one evening that the three of us were free to meet. Much to our delight Dror brought along 3 different bottles, one of which appears in the 1001 book – cool!

All four bottles were past their prime. Ours was bought in August, Dror’s even before that.

We started with Genesis Ale, Shmaltz’s first creation (that recently underwent face lift). This amber ale pours hazy red with some while foam and sports oily citrus-honey aroma. It has rich, bitter taste with faint hoppiness. After a few sips the taste become sweeter. With a medium body, oily feeling and bitter finish this is a fun beer to drink – it’s mellow and sweet. Not too extreme, but that’s just fine.

Second was the brown ale now sold as Messiah Nut Brown Ale but sold to Dror in days of yore as Messiah Bold. This one pours cloudy coke-coloured with a minimal tan head. I smelled roast, soft chocolate aromas and wine. Taste was roasty as well, sweet with apparent chocolate. Its body was thin and watery, finish was long and  carbonation pretty muchlong  gone.

This was the weakest link in the tasting.

Look at these beauties!

Our bottle of Coney Island Sword Swallower, IPA brewed with lager yeast, came next. This beer with hazy golden colour with minimal white head bore the aroma of date honey and vanilla – the Body Shop kind of heavy vanilla. It starts sweet and innocent but then the taste explodes into bitterness. It’s a little oily and sleek medium-bodied beer, carbonated with a long and bitter finish. Weird beer but I liked it.

We finished with Bittersweet Lenny from page 64 in the book. Ruby copper colour, cloudy with tan foam. Its aroma is rich, full of raisins and alcohol. Its taste is bitter, soapy with some fruit. Long aftertaste, full body, smooth with minimal carbonation.

Dror was kind enough to leave us the labels, so we him donated the Coney Island bottle cap.

To sum up this post, that also covers the 11th beer out of the 1001 I’m gonna try before I die, that’s how I learned about Lenny Bruce: