The Captain's Chair

My time this afternoon tippling a few at Stub & Herb’s, just a stone’s throw from the gleaming new Gopher football stadium on the U of M campus, greatly reinforced my perception that the place is one of the best craft beer bars in the Twin Cities.

The saloon was nearly empty when we arrived around noon, save for a few souls in a quiet booth in the back that, unlike most of the state’s populous, didn’t have the Fair on their minds.

Amazing that a college bar — stereotypically filled with macro swill, plastic cups and crates of Red Bull — has such a fantastic draught list, including nearly every Surly offering (Hell and 16 Grit just recently ran out before I got there!), a number of other locals like Lift Bridge, Flat Earth, Summit and Schells, and a dozen other notables from across the country. And it’s not just the stuff on tap…the staff are actually friendly and, get this, knowledgeable about what they’re pouring, a seemingly tall order in most bars around the city. Our bartender Benji offered some nice recommendations, including our lunch fare which included a Surly Bender French Dip, a great sandwich made with beef roasted in the oatmeal brown ale.

I tried a number of beers while we were there, most really hitting the mark.

Great Divide Hercules Double IPA
Probably not a great idea to start my afternoon off with a 9% ABV double IPA, but what the heck, it’s Sunday. A very aromatic IPA, but more on the dank side of the hop spectrum than protoypical, bright West Coast-style DIPA’s like, say, Pliny the Elder. Very bitter taste even for the style, almost a little too much for me. But fairly smooth throughout considering how boozey it is.   

Rating: B+

Lift Bridge Minnesota Tan
I’ve enjoyed nearly everything I’ve tried from Stillwater-based Lift Bridge, including their flagship Farm Girl Saison (I’m actually sipping a snifter as I write this), and their Minnesota Tan, a Belgian triple, was no different. Kind of nice to see a local brewery leading with a couple Belgian styles, but this one has certainly veered from the “traditional” path with an interesting pinkish coloring thanks to the lingonberries they brew with. A bit yeasty in the nose, a bit tart in the taste, leading to a nice sweet finish. Very enjoyable. And at 8.5% ABV, another one that’ll sneak up on you if you allow it.   

Rating A-

Flat Earth Sunburst Apricot Belgian Pale Ale
This is another pretty solid local offering. A light and refreshing aroma of apricot up front, fairly unique (although I think Town Hall has done an apricot wheat before). Taste is relatively similar to their regular Belgian Pale Ale, which is what I’m assuming is the base beer…more of the light tartness from the apricot coupled by some malty sweetness, leading to a dryness in the finish. 

Rating: B

Lagunitas Lil’ Sumpin Sumpin
Wow…this is everything I’ve heard about this beer and then some. It’s classified as an American pale wheat ale, but it screams IPA to me. Actually, very reminiscent in the aroma to Surly Furious, likely some combination of Warrior, Amarillo and Simcoe hops. Also got a little bit of citrus in there, grapefruit or lemon. Taste was not really what I’d expect for a wheat beer…far too much of a sweet and malty backbone, which did help balance the bitterness. You also get some of the honey they apparently use while brewing. Our bartender informed us that when this ran out, they were tapping Lagunitas’ Lil’ Sumpin Extra, a double IPA, which I can only assume builds on the success of this beer. 

Rating: A

Sierra Nevada Tripel
Never had this one before, and was frankly a bit surprised to learn Sierra Nevada has delved into the Belgian brewing tradition (to my knowledge, they’ve done a saison before, but that’s about it). Certainly reminiscent of a nice tripel like Chimay Cinq Cents, but kind of a Chimay “light” quality to it. Some American hops in the nose as well as yeast and clove, but overall a much lighter, more airy characteristic to the aroma (sort of how New Belgium is to Belgian beers). Taste is sweet and alcoholic, a bit dry in the finish. I guess I understand why they haven’t done more Belgians in the past.      

Rating: C+

Dark Horse Too Cream Stout
Ah, Dark Horse…one of my favorite breweries out of the Midwest. This is the last of their holiday stout series that I’ve tried, which also includes One Oatmeal Stout, Tres Blueberry Stout, Fore Smoked Stout and Plead the Fifth Imperial Stout. Loads of deep roasted malt notes in the aroma, along with milk chocolate. Tons of distinctive dark bitterness in the taste, presumably from the black patent malt I’m assuming they use in the grain bill, but expertly balanced by lactose to give it a silky smooth mouthfeel and wonderful overall impression. Probably the best beer I tried all day.

Rating: A

Dark Horse Too Cream Stout

Surly mural on the Stub's patio

Soon-to-be-filled TCF Bank Stadium

As Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery, has famously noted on several occasions, “that big loaf of white bread you find in the supermarket really isn’t bread…it’s a chemical sponge. Real bread doesn’t have 40 ingredients, and it doesn’t stay fresh in a bag for two weeks.”

After enjoying a loaf of spent grain bread made from the remnants of a recent batch of beer I made with Jim Norton, editor at Heavy Table, I now understand exactly what Garrett is talking about. 

Jim and I brewed a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, shooting for something in the neighborhood of Chimay Blue. There was a 14 pound heaping mound of grains left over from the mash, mainly pilsner, a little Munich, and specialty malts including Special B, Aromatic, and CaraMunich. Jim took the bulk of it home, and today dropped off a couple loaves for me to sample. Seriously some of the most delicious stuff I’ve ever had, true artisan bread. An expertly browned crust, with some of the grains lightly peppered throughout the perfectly dense, chewy bread within. Excellent. 

Paired very well with my recently brewed roggenbier, the rye complementing the bread’s natural earthiness. The beer itself poured with a gorgeous fluffy head, giving way to a light copper coloring. Very good clarity, and a light rye and banana ester aroma thanks to the Wyeast 3068 strain I fermented with. Not a lot of hops, but the two ounces of Strisselspalt I used are certainly in the background. The taste is interesting…not as much of the rye quality as I would have hoped for, as some versions of the style really give you a pumpernickel bread kind of flavoring (thinking of Great Water’s Rye Pale Ale I recently had on cask). What you do get is more of a smooth, malty sweetness (maybe some light toffee?) that leads to a great rye spiciness in the finish, so in the end I’m pretty happy with that aspect. Fairly light on the ABV front, only about 4.5%, so certainly a great refreshing choice on a nice summer evening.

Very pleased with how this one turned out. And if you’re interested in how to put your spent grains to good use (not sure why I haven’t been doing this before), check out Jim’s recipe below.

Rating: A-

Heavy Table Spent Grain Sandwich Bread
Makes three small (9×5″) loaves

The main thing that a would-be spent grain baker is confronted with is the moisture — it comes damp as heck from the brewing process. I’ve read that you can toast it, but I wanted to incorporate that malt/brewing-infused flavor into the bread. I started with a “rustic country bread” recipe and then started changing things around to make the bread more retiring and gentle (to let the sweet, malty spent grain shine) and also account for the extra liquid. I wanted a tender crumb that would be great for sandwiches or spreads, and this seemed to yield a good end product.

Note that you can freeze spent grain, and then thaw it out again before using in this recipe. It’s best to bring it up to room temperature before you start baking.

Sponge
1/2 tsp active dry yeast (not rapid rise)
3/4 c water (room temperature)
3/4 c spent grain from brewing, still damp and at room temperature
1 1/2 c bread flour (I like King Arthur’s)

Dough
4 cups bread flour
1 cup water (room temperature)
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp salt

1. For the Sponge:

Mix the yeast into the water in a medium bowl until it’s dissolved. Mix into the flour and spent grain with a spatula and create stiff, wet dough. Cover and let the sponge sit at room temperature for at least five hours, if not overnight.  (It can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours, but should be brought back to room temperature before continuing.)

2. For the Dough:

Mix your water, honey, flour, and the sponge in the bowl of a KitchenAid or other workhorse mixer, using a spatula. Mix the dough with your dough hook attachment on a slow speed for about 12 minutes, then add the salt. Continue mixing with the dough hook for another 3 minutes.

During the course of this process, the dough should be sticking to the bottom of the bowl, but easily clearing the sides. I tend to check halfway through by pushing the dough off the hook and seeing how it sticks to the bowl and my hands. If it’s really gluey and damp, add more flour in 1/8th cup increments, mixing between each addition. You want a dough that’s smooth and tacky but not actually glue-like.

Transfer your dough to a big lightly oiled bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap that’s been greased. Let it rise about two hours, until it has roughly tripled in size.

3. Grease three 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.

Put your dough on a lightly floured surface. Working with floured hands, press it out into a rectangle, and use a bench knife to divide it into three equally sized pieces.

Roll each piece of dough into a tight 9-inch cylinder and pinch the seam closed. Place the loaves, seam side down, in the prepared pans.

Set each loaf into a greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

Cover loosely with a cloth or greased piece of aluminum foil and let the dough rise until it almost doubles in size, about 45 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, put a deep metal pan or cast-iron skillet on the lowest shelf of the oven. Heat your oven up to 450 degrees F. Heat up two cups of water (not quite to boiling) and keep it on hand for your baking cycle.

5. Cut two or three slashes on top of each loaf using a sharp serrated knife. Cut almost parallel to the top of loaf, not real deep, and without sawing or tearing.

Put your loaves in the oven. Pour two cups of hot water into your pre-heated pan or skillet, to create steam.

Bake for 15 minutes, then, if the loaves are browning unevenly, rotate each loaf 180 degrees. Bake for another 5-10 minutes (or until tops of loaves turn dark brown) and test the temperature with an instant read thermometer — 205-210 degrees F is perfect.

Take your pans out, let them cool 10 minutes, then put loaves on a cooling rack for an hour or two. Voila! Serve with local honey and/or butter, or make delicious little sandwiches.

I just can’t keep away from this Aventinus stuff. And now, their Eisbock.

Paraphrased from the back of the bottle…up until the 1940′s, Aventinus was shipped all over Bavaria in containers lacking temperature control. Consequently, as one might expect traipsing through the cold and snow of southern Germany, the beer partially froze during transportation. People drank the beer, not realizing it was essentially a more concentrated version thanks to the separation of water from the liquid, and they enjoyed it immensely. A much stronger, more caramelized version of the regular doppelbock. And thus, a star was born.

In addition to the regular Aventinus, both of which can be picked up in bottles around town, I’m pretty sure Fitgers in Duluth has brewed an eisbock at some point. But other than that, I’m not familiar with any other local examples (anyone? Bueller?).

Poured with little head into a weizen glass. Big clove and banana aroma with a somewhat medicinal quality, likely due to the alcohol content. Like a warm piece of banana bread coated with gooey caramel, and then finished with a tinge of warm fusel alcohol. Taste is a sweet, syrupy, caramelized flavor, almost extract-like in its deep maltiness. More of the clove, with a nice mouthfeel concealing an incredibly deceiving 12% ABV. Almost like a nice Belgian quad in its rich caramelized quality. Regular Aventinus to the extreme. I could definitely see this pairing well with a stronger cheese, maybe a gouda or havarti.

Man, this is a great beer. As my buddy Aaron over at The Vice Blog said, you might consider making it your first and last beer of the evening.

Rating: A

One would think Surly was offering a free bottle of Darkness with each purchase of their new Hell as fast as this stuff was flying off the shelves today.

Within 30 minutes of receiving their shipment this morning, The Four Firkins was cleaned out of their 10 case allotment. Thankfully, I was able to run over to Zipps over lunch and grab some, but it was nearing depletion there too. The rabid Surly Nation strikes again!

I always love a new Surly offering…it’s like a whole new adventure, a new beer to love and appreciate. Hell is a kellerbier (aka zwickel bier), an unfiltered lager that has its origins in the Middle Ages. The beer was traditionally fermented in open troughs in dark, cool caves, and is usually marked by a pronounced cloudiness from the yeast.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but word is this is a one-time distribution of Hell in cans through retail outlets. So when it’s gone , it’s gone (and based on what I personally saw today running around town trying to find it, sounds like it may already be). You can still likely catch it on draught at a handful of select area bars, I’m assuming.

Hell (German for light) poured with a bright, orange hue and perfect clarity, especially interesting considering this is unfiltered. Right up front lots of breadiness and grain. Pure malt all the way, immediately reminiscent of several pilsners that I’ve enjoyed recently. None of the American hops noted on the side of the can in the aroma. Taste is relatively sweet, prickly mouthfeel with good carbonation and a perceptible bite in the finish. Not bad.  

I’ll eat my words from the comments section in my recent Summit Kolsch review, as Surly has clearly shown with Hell they can brew a beer “to style” (if you look beyond the use of American hops in this one, which aren’t even a remote factor).

But I’m frankly a little surprised by Hell. The problem I have with this one is not about execution…it’s about expectation.

A consistent story is key to the relationship people have with an organization, often a deeply personal and emotional thing. And altering that consistent and accurate perception in some way can have implications for an organization’s constituents. I’m talking brand management…New Coke…Ford Edsel…or even more recently Whole Foods’ CEO railing against the federal healthcare proposal.

I’m not at all saying Hell is Surly’s undoing here. That would clearly be absurd. But with Hell, I think Surly has shifted their storyline a bit, and I don’t think it’s working for them. While a solid beer, Hell is a pretty wide departure from the rest of the Surly portfolio, the most “un-Surly” Surly beer I’ve had to date. And I’d expect those used to aggressive, hoppy and infinitely complex offerings that extend a middle finger to the dispassionate beer establishment may be caught a little off guard pouring what is arguably (here’s where the irony comes in) one of the best examples of the style…probably the only real example of the style many of us will be fortunate to drink.

So has Surly painted themselves into a corner, never given the flexibility to brew well-done, more traditional beers? I don’t know the answer to that, only the market knows. But what I do know is that enjoyment of a beer often extends beyond the taste buds, and Surly Hell is a very simple, German light lager. What you see is what you get.

What I got, however, wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. 

Rating: B-

My kolsch and Horizon hops

Perfect Sunday for home brewing. Low 80′s, sunny, and a refreshing little breeze. I felt a little ambitious and ended up brewing two beers, a dunkelweizen and a double IPA.

As I mentioned recently, I’ve been slowly getting more and more into traditional German wheat styles, and after enjoying Weihenstephaner and Aventinus, I’ve been itching to brew my own version. Dunkels are essentially dark hefeweizens, a little more roasted, caramel maltiness with similar banana, clove, and even nutmeg aromas. I really dig the style, partly because there seems to be a bit more complexity than your average hefe.

For the Double IPA, I decided to kick it off with a big alpha acid shot from an ounce of Simcoe, then slowly add to the flavor and aroma with a progression of Mt. Hood and Willamette. Willamette is known for its spicy, woody qualities that I think lend a rather earthy and subtle characteristic to some beers, so I thought it’d be an interesting experiment to see how it played in a DIPA. The expected OG on the recipe was just shy of 1.10, so pretty hefty. But the hops only get me up to about 65 IBUs thanks to the low alpha acid ratings of Mt. Hood and Willamette, so not necessarily a hop monster in the truest sense of the style. But I wasn’t going for eye-watering bitterness. Hope it balances out with all that malt (and in fact, it could even turn out to be more in line with a barleywine vs. a DIPA, depending on how the malt comes through).

To save on time, I went with malt extracts, something I haven’t done in quite a while, but it worked just fine (and cut about 2.5 hours from the whole process). While I brewed, I enjoyed a couple glasses of my kolsch, which I think turned out pretty solid compared to commercial examples I’ve had.

Also, a few pictures below of my hops, which are exploding (I’ve had to rig up a modified trellis system so the Cascade bine can continue to climb), and a massive spider web which I saw on the pine tree in my back yard. Kind of random, but I thought it was cool.

Here are the recipes I went with:

Dunkelweizen (slight variation on a kit from Midwest Supplies)
6 lbs. wheat LME
3 lbs. dark LME
4 oz. Carapils
12 oz. Caramel 40L
1 oz. Tettnanger (in boil at 60 min.)
1 oz. Hallertau (in boil at 2 min.)
Wyeast 3056 Bavarian Wheat 

Double IPA
6 lbs. Gold LME
6 lbs. Light Pilsner LME
8 oz. Aromatic
8 oz. Biscuit
8 oz. Caramel 80L
1 lb. Victory
1 oz. Simcoe (in boil at 60 min.)
0.3 oz. Willamette (in boil at 20 min)
0.3 oz. Mt. Hood (in boil at 20 min)
0.3 oz. Willamette (in boil at 15 min)
0.3 oz. Mt. Hood (in boil at 15 min)
0.3 oz. Willamette (in boil at 10 min)
0.3 oz. Mt. Hood (in boil at 10 min)
0.3 oz. Willamette (in boil at 5 min)
0.3 oz. Mt. Hood (in boil at 5 min)
0.3 oz. Willamette (in boil at flame out)
0.3 oz. Mt. Hood (in boil at flame out)
2 oz. Willamette (dry hop)
Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale

Alright, better late than never. Summit’s new Unchained Series has been on the shelves for about two weeks now, and I was just today able to pick some up after striking out at a few of my usual beer haunts…I’m guessing a testament to the palpable buzz that preceded it in the local Twin Cities beer community.

As many already know, this is Summit’s first beer out of the gates for their new series, an attempt to give their brewers complete freedom in selecting a style they’d like to bring out to the market. For more background, Heavy Table recently provided a nice overview, as well as a solid review from fellow beer blogger Stu at Friday Night Beer.

Overall, I think a pretty cool move for the brewery, even despite some of the negative banter coming from some folks that a kolsch was a fairly underwhelming choice, of course assuming the goal was to “show the hop heads what we’re made of” and distance the staid brewery from its relatively stable portfolio of rather traditional English- and German-style beers like the EPA or Maibock. But I don’t think that’s what they’re really up to.

While I admit I had a couple nagging doubts of my own, I know from my own home brewing experience, at least, that it’s certainly alot easier to pull off a massively overhopped double IPA than it is to brew a delicate and balanced German-style ale like this. There’s much to be appreciated in masterful subtlety, and for the naysayers that wanted to see something a little more extreme, I’d say Summit (at least with the kolsch) has successfully innovated within the sandbox they’ve built for themselves over the last 25 years. They’re never going to be a Surly, it’s not in their nature. On the flipside of that coin, it’s not in Surly’s DNA to do a traditional kolsch. So in the end, I’d say I’m pretty impressed with what Summit has gone with for the first offering in the series.

Kolsch is an interesting style, because you get a little of both the ale and lager worlds in one. A little fruity, yet very crisp with a well-attenuated mouthfeel. I brewed my own version recently, which I think turned out well aside from the lack of clarity (a common issue with some homebrews). Compared to Summit’s version, however, it’s pedestrian at best.  

The beer poured very clean with a great billowing head and pils-like clarity. A nice hybrid quality in the nose…you get a very subtle hint of fruity esters from the top fermenting yeast, maybe tart apple, but it’s quickly overtaken by a sulfuric quality more commonly experienced in crisp lagers along with some very light Hallertau hops. The taste was also pleasing. Soft, rounded graininess presumably from the pilsner and Kolsch malts used in the grain bill, leading to a whisper of bitterness in the finish. It’s only 4.7% ABV, so clearly a session beer if the mood struck.   

Paired extraordinarily well with a fantastic green chile and sweet corn macaroni and cheese dish I whipped up, inspired by a recipe which I grabbed from Twin Cities food blog A Good Appetite. The green chile played surprisingly well with the kolsch, accentuated by the beer’s prickly crispness. Thanks for the great recipe, guys.

Having never been to Cologne, my knowledge of Kolsch-style ales is relatively limited. But this certainly appears to be a faithful representation of what you might get sitting down at a German kaffe or biergarten. Very pleasant.

Rating: A-

For whatever reason, Dieu du Ciel (God of the Sky) is one of those breweries that has slowly elevated itself into mythical status in my mind.

Based in Quebec with two small brewpubs in Montreal and St. Jerome, I think their somewhat exotic locale (in a Canadian sense) is what drives most of it for me, since the odds of me ever physically visiting these guys are about as good as Brett Favre finishing out this coming season injury-free. Expectedly, they brew in small quantities, and I don’t believe they bottle everything they make. In short, their stuff can be very difficult to come by. So when I heard the fabled Peche Mortel* (Mortal Sin), currently ranked in the top 20 on Beer Advocate’s “Best Of” list, had found its way to the shelves of The Four Firkins, I made a bee-line to pick up a bottle.

Poured with a nice craggy, cratered head that fell apart slowly. This really does make most other coffee beers smell and taste like Sanka. Probably the most pronounced coffee richness I’ve ever experienced except for, well, a double shot of espresso coffee (hold the sugar). Also a bit of oak, smoke and leather in the aroma. Taste is equally impressive, a combination of the darkest chocolate, roasted malt and a very dry, bittering coffee flavor that quickly coats your mouth. A bit hot in the finish, with a fairly hefty 9.5% ABV. While there is some nice complexity going on, probably a bit too aggressive on the coffee front overall for me to give it an absolutely world-class ranking in the imperial stout category. But man, is this a beer. 

Rating: A

* On a side note, what is it with brewers in Quebec going with these quasi-spiritual, Gothic themed beers? Unibroue’s La Fin du Monde and Don de Dieu? Dieu du Ciel’s Rigor Mortis and Resurrection?

Craft brewers are continuing to slowly win the hearts and minds of beer drinkers in the U.S., one triple-hopped pint at a time.  

The latest mid-year numbers from the Brewers Association in Colorado — the craft beer industry’s trade and education association — were fairly encouraging, with both sales and barrel volume seeing single digit growth so far this year. Compared against the same period in 2008, those metrics dipped ever so slightly. However, in this economy, I’d read the relative stability of those numbers as somewhat of a victory.

They don’t break out mid-year numbers by state, so no specific info on Minnesota, but a few other highlights:

• The number of U.S. breweries is the highest in 100 years because of small and independent  craft brewers.
• America’s small and independent craft brewers are still growing despite many challenges and are continuing to provide jobs to the U.S. economy.
• Dollar growth from craft brewers during the first half of 2009 increased 9%, down from 11% growth during the same period in 2008.
• Volume of craft brewed beer sold grew 5% for the first six months in 2009, compared to 6.5% growth in the first half of 2008.
• Barrels sold by craft brewers for the first half of the year is an estimated 4.2 million, compared to 4 million barrels sold in the first half of 2008.

 Read the full release here.

While they’re still being courted by distributors to determine who will carry them locally, the highly regarded 21st Amendment Brewery out of San Francisco will be hitting the Twin Cities market in the coming months with two offerings from their stable of beers – Brew Free or Die IPA and Hell or High Watermelon Wheat. No…your ears aren’t plugged. I did say a watermelon wheat.

According to the brewery’s representative I met with, their 12 barrel system back home at the brewpub clearly wasn’t going to be enough to handle the volume for this market expansion. So they made a quasi-contract brewing arrangement with Cold Springs here in northern Minnesota. But interestingly enough, 21st Amendment’s own head brewer, Shaun O’Sullivan, has flown out to personally oversee brewing and production of the beers. I’d imagine the boys at Cold Spring likely aren’t used to working with watermelon in bright tanks.

21st Amendment plans to offer their beers in cans, a nice move and a growing trend evidenced by fellow craft brewers like Surly, Oskar Blues and even New Belgium in select markets out west.

Hell or High Watermelon Wheat
Like alot of beers at smaller craft breweries, this apparently started as a homebrewed creation from co-founder Nico Freccia. They enjoyed it so much, it quickly became part of their regular rotation. Poured like a very light hefeweizen, a bit cloudy but a nice fruity aroma of various berries and watermelon. Taste was refreshing, trending a bit more to the watermelon side of the equation as opposed to wheat, but not bad. Somewhat thin mouthfeel, but for the style I’ll give it a pass. I gotta say, quite an interesting beer, and one I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did.

Rating: B+

Live Free or Die IPA
This is west coast all the way, with a load of Columbus, Tomahawk and Zeus (CTZ) hops smacking you in the nose right up front. But unlike most super ballsy IPAs that make your eyes water with IBU punishment, this one comes in at a mere 70 bittering points, putting it more in line on the hoppy spectrum with local stuff like Summit Horizon Red. Taste was fairly clean, not as much malt backbone as I’d like, but good overall. It’s a well-balanced beer, dare I say even to the point where one could mistake it for a pale ale in its relatively reserved nature. As I sipped the beer, it immediately invoked past memories of something else I’ve enjoyed…mildly reminiscent of a tamer version of Russian River’s Pliny the Elder in its bright hoppiness, if you’re fortunate enough to have tried that. I’m sure this one will be well received here in the Twin Cities.  

Rating: B+