If I’m not careful, I find myself apt to skip over drinks I’ve tried and been “meh” about even though I am very strongly of the opinion that judging a beer, wine or whisky based on a single sample borders on the ridiculous. I’ve written about this several times, and am not going to rehash it here. I know that there are lots of drinks in the marketplace, and constantly retasting them would lead to an endless circle of revisiting disappointing beverages, and that’s not what I’m advocating. There are some drinks that you just know are never, ever, even if you had to face a three day life insurance seminar sober otherwise, going to work for you. But, sometimes when we “forget” about a drink due to a relatively small prior sample, we make a mistake. I find that this is particularly true for bevvies that prompted a “so-so” reaction, and especially ones that should otherwise be in the wheelhouse of one’s taste. It is these drinks that merit another chance.
Today’s lesson takes the form of Founder’s Red’s Rye. I first had Red’s Rye four or five years ago (going with 4 for the rest of this post to make it less cumbersome), picking it up on a visit to my Mom who lives near Grand Rapids. After drinking that six pack, I thought the beer was simply too sweet for my tastes, though I could certainly understand the appeal it seemed to hold for many other beer geeks. Having had a whole 6 pack, over the course of several days and in several circumstances (by itself, with food, etc.) I held my belief relatively firmly, despite the relatively small sample.
I never bothered to return to Red’s Rye, even when it showed up on local shelves last year, based on my recollection of my one and only six pack four years ago. That changed on my first visit to The Good Pie about a month ago. The Good Pie had Red’s Rye on draft and I thought that touch of sweetness I remembered might make itself useful when it came to matching with pizzas Liz and I were ordering. What I tasted that night was not what I remembered. Instead, there was a much higher hop presence in the nose, and more than enough bitterness to balance the malt.
This pint led to a craving that built until last Friday when I picked up a six pack (bottled in November, 2009 – even fresher examples have come into the market since) from The Wine & Cheese Place. I found this even more compelling than the pint at The Good Pie, and 5 of the 6 bottles didn’t survive the weekend, though they certainly contributed to its quality.
Now, I’m not remotely egocentric enough (really!) to believe that I have an accurate recollection of those bottles of Red’s Rye I had four years ago. I have no idea whether, in order of decreasing likelihood: (1) my memory of Red’s Rye was inaccurate and/or morphed over time; (2) my palate has changed; (3) the Red’s I had four years was old and/or somehow abused; and/or (4) the Red’s recipe has been consciously tweaked, or came out a bit differently due to changing hop/malt crops. And, I honestly don’t care.
It’s fine to ruminate about the cause, but what matters is that I now really enjoy the beer. If I hadn’t bothered to revisit a beer I had not really liked after the first six pack, I’d be missing out on something it turns out I like quite a bit, and only runs $8.50 a six pack. Instead, I’ve found something that’s going to make it into my regular rotation. Well done, Founder’s, and my apologies for not giving it another shot sooner. I know better than that.
Continuing the tradition, the kids awoke early on New Year’s Day looking forward to counting the past year’s bottle caps. Seriously.
This was a transitional year as my kegerator died in early December. Prior to that, I was well on track to meet my goal of less than 150 bottles opened. Obviously, when draft was no longer available, bottles spiked, particularly since it was the holiday season and more drinking than usual was done by visitors and yours truly.
So, the overall total was 181 bottles opened in the house. This year’s breakdown for breweries with more than 10 caps was as follows:
22 – Schlafly – 12.2%
17 – Capital Brewing – 9.4%
14 – Bell’s Brewing – 7.7%
13 – Short’s Brewing – 7%
13 – Southern Tier – 7%
11 – Pilsner Urquell – 6%
I also had caps from 15 other breweries (as well as 32 unidentifiable gold or black caps), which showed pretty good variety given the relative small sample size. This next year will be interesting as bottled beer will be my exclusive source of malty goodness.
My goal is to not spend any more on beer than I did in 2009, which will be a bit of work given that draft beer represents a hefty savings over its bottled equivalent. I’d also like to cut out any beer, like Pilsner Urquell, that’s brewed by bigass corporations, and increase the percentage of local beer. We’ll see how that goes. With Andrew doing a good job of keeping fresh Capital Pilsner in stock at Bon Vivant, I should be able to avoid the temptation of the sub-$15 12 packs of PU at Schnuck’s, even if it means drinking a bit less pilsner as a result.
During my recent visit to Wisconsin, a friend and I were able to take the new-ish Hard Hat Tour at New Glarus. To say this was an incredible experience would be selling it very short. I didn’t go into it with particularly high expectations as I’ve been on a lot of brewery tours in my day, but never have I been on one that allowed such access to both staff and space.
Our tour was led by Mike, a brewer at the original brewery (which New Glarus calls the Riverside brewery), who got his brewing industry start at the Star Brewery in Dubuque, Iowa. When he announced prior to starting that we should expect the tour to last at least three hours, I really thought he was kidding. Ninety minutes? Sure. Two hours? I could see that. But three hours? No way.
I was glad that everyone else wanted to wear their hard hats too!
One nice point about the Hard Hat Tour is that it is limited to 15 people at a time. Our group was relatively on time, and we grabbed hard hats and entered what used to be the gift shop of the Riverside brewery.
Now, I had taken the tour of the Riverside brewery a couple of times over the years, so I was expecting the same old thing, except with a live person instead of the handheld tour recordings. It took about two minutes to dispel that expectation as we entered the brew hall, and went immediately up the steps to the landing surrounding the kettles. Here we got a completely geeky explanation of the real life operation of these beautiful heritage copper kettles from the man who has worked them on a daily basis for years on end (including overseeing the production of Dan Carey’s gorgeous Unplugged Bohemian Lager).
While I’ve always been taken by the beauty and history of these brewing vessels, seeing them up close was a real treat.
I was very relieved to hear that this beautiful brewhouse continues to be operated extensively as the base for the New Glarus brands that do not sell at a particularly high volume, and for the Unplugged and the new line of R&D experimental beers.
Riveted by the rivets.
After soaking up the atmosphere of the well-polished historic brewing system, it was time to move further behind the scenes onto the Riverside fermentation and packaging floor. Here we again quickly moved beyond the gate that had stopped the previous iteration of the New Glarus tour, and got to look at all of the fermentation tanks and Riverside bottling line.
Our guide Mike (r) was very happy to not be dipping bottles.
Loyal employees were very hard at work on the day of our tour hand-dipping bottles of Belgian Red in sealing wax. The 750ml bottling machine is another gorgeous antique that New Glarus lovingly maintains because it works. The same goes for the amazing pre-WWII malt mill that our guide Mike personally looks after – fashioning new parts when needed – despite the fact that it takes hours to grind the grain for a batch, as opposed to the 20 minutes of the Hilltop Brewery’s state of the art wet mill.
We were also treated to an upclose look at New Glarus’ pilot brew system – complete with glycol cooling. Mike said that Dan Carey rarely makes use of it as Dan simply has the gift of creating recipes in his head and knowing exactly how they will turn out on New Glarus’ full-size brew systems.
I don't think Liz will let me get glycol even if I start calling my homebrew kit a "pilot system."
Finally, it was time to pile into our cars and drive the mile or so to the appropriately named Hillside brewery. Sitting atop a hill at the eastern end of New Glarus, the new brewery offers a panoramic view of the town and the surrounding (surprisingly hilly for those who have not been) countryside.
The brewery itself is built for ready expansion, with one of the exterior walls no more than a temporary feature of the structure. The brewery is a striking building that carries on the Swiss-influenced styling of the Riverside facility, but with lovely landscaping and beautiful public spaces. The gift shop and tasting room is a warm, welcoming woody space.
However, we were not limited to the public spaces. We passed right through and into the production facility. The Hilltop brewery was constructed by the Wisconsin-based Krones company, who recently merged with the Steineker company, a leading German producer of brewing systems. The result is quite simply, stunning. Everything seems very logically laid out and well-planned, with easily accessed stainless steel piping running throughout.
The brew house at the Hilltop brewery.
Now, I’ve toured quite a few breweries in my day from the incredibly large, to some very humble artisanal operations, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Despite all the obvious high end equipment, there was a very nice aesthetic too. This was a building where the team is allowed to produce art, but with the finest tools at their disposal. An example is the brew kettles – they’re big stainless Steinekers, but New Glarus went to the time and expense of having copper covers made that echo the brewhouse at the Riverside facility.
There were two big surprises for me on the remainder of the tour. The first occurred in the QC lab, where an enthusiastic Randy Thiel greeted the tour and proceeded to give an extremely engaging explanation of his team’s efforts, ably fielding the few geeky follow-ups that were asked following his thorough talk. Dan Carey was hanging out in the next office, greeted us and amiably took both questions and compliments from the assembled geekery.
Looking down into one of the open top wheat fermenters.
The second surprise was the wheat beer fermentation room. Yes, a dedicated wheat fermentation room, complete with stainless open tops with their own clean-in-place hookups and a special air management system to keep the wheat beer yeasties isolated. Very, very cool.
After we’d finished with the production part of the tour, we moved up to the hospitality area where six New Glarus beers awaited us (Raspberry Tart; Unplugged Cran-bic; Unplugged Old English Porter; R&D Golden Ale; Snowshoe; and Yokel), along with a nice selection of Wisconsin cheeses and crackers. We were left to determine what we’d like to taste, and invited to use the employee break room to rinse out glasses. Instead of being just tourists, we were really made to feel at home.
Deb Carey made an appearance to greet us, and answer any questions we might have. After three and half hours of Mike’s excellent tutelage, there were precious few that remained. Mike remained in the hospitality area until everyone had left. I saw him spend a good half hour fielding very detailed questions from a group of homebrewers, before joining us to reminisce about great New Glarus beers of the past, as well as to talk about some of the exciting things that the brewing team is working on for the future.
As I waddled to the on-site beer depot to load up the trunk, I realized we’d spent almost four hours on our “tour.” As amazing as that seems, the time really flew by quickly, and I left with an even greater appreciation for the efforts of Dan and Deb Carey, and their very talented team. A hearty thanks to all at New Glarus for a wonderful day.
The main entrance to the Hilltop Brewery.
Really, really big fermenters.
Part of the stock of Spotted Cow 1/2 bbls. conditioning in the cold room.
The Hilltop brewery is pretty on the inside too.
I was going to title this post “In defense of blended Scotch” but when you look at the sales figures at least, blended Scotch needs no defense from me as blends make up 90% or so of the Scotch sold in the world. But, when it comes to folks who style themselves “serious” about Scotch whisky, blends are ignored, if not downright reviled.
Personally, I love a good blend. In fact, my consumption is probably at least 2:1 blends to single malts. So in the interest of getting other malt fans to give them a shot, here are a few of the things I love about a good blend, as well as some recommended blends to try.
One of my favorite things about a good blend is the “bite” it has. This is particularly true of young blends, which is what I tend to favor because they have this punchy element. A good young blend is the whisky equivalent of an extremely hoppy beer, or tannic red wine - there is just so much vitality there that it’s hard for me not to get excited. I think this character is generally the result of the relative youth of the whiskies used to make most blends, and as someone whose palate skews away from oak influence, young whisky is something I tend to prefer.
The other main selling point about blends for me is the complexity that’s possible. Sure, a fine Springbank or Glenmorangie is a complex whisky, but the sheer variety of whiskies available to blenders opens up a staggering potential, and allows the use of malt whiskies that might not be compelling on their own to add a much-needed voice to a choir.
So, what do I drink when it comes to blends? Here are a few favorites.
For the Islay lover, I highly recommend getting your hands on Islay Mist. This blend features a hearty dose of young Laphroaig, in all of its peaty loveliness, but with very little oak influence at all due to its youth. Backing this up is a rich, plush bed of grain whisky that wraps the Laphroaig in a velvety, long, lingering finish. It’s a great ride, and I drink more of this than any other whisky. It costs all of $18 a bottle.
Another favorite is Teacher’s. This is a more Highland-style, though it does have an underlying smokiness from a healthy dose of Ardmore. It is much more of a malt bomb than Islay Mist, but a firm backbone of grain whisky keeps it from getting diffuse in the mouth. Amazing length, and criminally under-priced at about $15 a bottle.
Less ubiquitous than Teacher’s, but almost as compelling is White Horse. This is another Islay-led blend that used to employ Lagavulin as its signature malt, but since the popularity of Lagavulin went through the roof (and maybe before . . .), the oily richness of Caol Ila has been the star here, though some Lagavulin still makes it into the blend. Firm grain again gives steel to this blend, and makes for a long, busy finish. A lot of fun for $15 a bottle.
Finally, the least surprising rec on this list and the one most malt drinkers are likely to admit to having on their shelf is Johnny Walker Black label. This is a truly seamless but busy blend where starring malts are not apparent, yet the whole is much more than the sum of its components. It is an incredibly complex drink, and I haven’t had too many single malts that I enjoy as much as a good bottle of JWB. About $28 a bottle.
As you probably noted, though I think of it more as a bonus than anything, blends are bargains compared to single malts. I find the best stand on their own as great whiskies, but when you compare them to single malts on the basis of value it’s no contest at all.
This coming weekend my friend David and I are getting a guy’s weekend away as a very generous present from our wives. We’ll be heading to my in-laws’ lake house in Wisconsin where we may or may not fish. I do know that we’ll be doing the superduper new hard hat tour at New Glarus Brewing on Friday afternoon, eating some fine Wisconsin cheese, hoping to fill our bellies with tasty perch and walleye (whether caught by us or not), and probably grilling out some big hunks of meat to be consumed with copious amounts of red wine. A big thanks to Kathy, a frequent commenter on this site, for the inside info on the cheese and fish fry scenes.
We’re each bring four bottles of wine, and I’m toting a bottle of whisky. We’ll be buying our beer in Wisconsin because there’s just so much delicious stuff we can’t get easily down here, or miss out on entirely.
There is no TV at the house, no internet access, and no cell service unless you drive to the nearest town. I will be surrounded by the beautiful lake, the Wisconsin countryside, a couple of books I’ve been wanting to read and a good friend. I can’t wait.
Just a quick update on the mix of beers I have going in the kegerator right now. It is working out so very well. The Blue Paddle is a perfect refresher after my nice 2.6 mile walk home from work. The fact that’s it’s been +/- 80F each and every day for a month makes a beer a real possibility after such a walk. Cool evenings have been just right for both the Three Floyds Pride & Joy and the Left Hand Milk Stout. In fact, I’m liking all three beers so much, I’ll often stand for a moment or two before the kegerator frozen in temporary indecision over which one to pour.
I think going to three beers on tap may finally be the solution to getting my beer budget under control. In the past, the temptation has always been to pick up bottles here and there to fill a particular situation or (perceived) need. Now, I’m having to almost force myself to bother with the remaining everyday (as opposed to cellarable) bottles I have in the house as I’d just as soon have a pour from one of the kegs. Anyway, it’s going well. The beer portion of the What Am I Drinking page may get a bit boring once I’ve “worked” through bottles I have on hand. At least until my mid-November trip to Wisconsin, after which you’ll see plenty of treats otherwise unavailable down here showing up.
So, this week’s Noble Writ post was a late Monday night creation (really, early Tuesday morning). Why? Well, it wasn’t (for once) that I hadn’t gotten around to doing my reasearch or buying my wine. I was way ahead of where I usually am – in fact the post was mostly written except for the tasting note of the featured wine.
When I got home from work, I chilled the bottle down for a few minutes (my passive cellar is above optimum at the moment) and got ready to write. Once I opened the bottle, I thought there might be a problem. It wasn’t corked, but it was very muted. I decided to give it some air and some time and see if it came around. It seemed to be opening up a bit (the power of hope is strong . . .), so I gave it a taste. Wowza. Entirely unpleasant – no fruit, lots of painful structure and very sour.
Now, if this was the first time I’d had wine from this producer, I would have totally turned off. However, I’ve probably had three cases of wine from them over the years, and all the rest have been fine. A bad bottle can happen to anyone, so, I returned the bottle to the store, which was still open for a few minutes, for another, and (thankfully) picked up some bottles for future columns.
However, the second bottle was flawed too. Not as badly as the first, but badly enough that there was no way I was going to write about the wine, and then have folks plunk down $24 on my recommendation and have a negative experience. So, I had to come up with an entirely new topic. And write a column about it. A frustrating experience, but it gave me a chance to dip into a topic near and dear to my heart – Riesling – and to be able to recommend a wine that was both terrific, and a wonderful value.
I just picked up two new kegs from Dylan at 33 last night, which means that I have three commercial beers in the kegerator for the first time ever. The initial plan was to split the kegerator space between commercial and home brew, but I have just not had the motivation/time/dedication/energy to brew for 9 months now – and I’m not sure when I’ll get around to it again.
I actually brewed yesterday, and had a great time with my friend Kevin (and his friend Darryl) teaching them how to brew using the all-grain method. But, teaching is different than doing, and I was very happy to leave Kevin’s house when we were done and pick up my two sixth barrels (a bit more than 5 gallons in a 1/6 bbl) of already finished delicious brew. I had been trying to guilt myself into brewing something, but finally decided it just wasn’t going to work.
In light of my last post, I decided that adding a third commercial keg would help me cut down on bottled beer purchases, as I would have a nice variety available on draft. I still have some Pride & Joy from Three Floyds, which is a hoppy American Pale Ale, so I chose to add a nice lager – New Belgium’s Blue Paddle Pilsener – and something dark – New Holland’s excellent oatmeal stout, The Poet. While a dark beer might seem an odd choice for Summer (98F today!), this one is modest in alcohol, and has flavors that compliment a lot that we eat during the Summer. I find many darker beers work very well with grilled food and a lot of Mexican, and TexMex things. In fact, I’ve often thought that a Mexican restaurant looking to dip a toe into craft beer would do very well to add a tap for New Belgium’s 1554, which is just a terrific food beer.
I’m excited to tap these later today and get to work on improving my discipline – practice, practice, practice!
Like most humans, I struggle with discipline, particularly when it relates to something I am passionate about. Over the past two years I have struggled to bring my beer, wine and whisky stashes down to reasonable sizes that: (1) match my rate of consumption; and (2) generally contain things I like (while this seems intuitive, it’s actually one of the harder parts).
Whisky was the easiest to get into line. I love whisky, but really don’t drink that much due to its strength and my tendency to drink even less during the hot weather for which St. Louis is infamous. Add in the price that whisky commands, and there was not a lot of back stock to get rid of, and resisting the impulse to purchase more is pretty easily checked. I’ve now got a comfortable number of bottles open, and only one or two in reserve.
Beer was tougher. I’ve done a lot of experimentation with aging various things over the years. While my initial experiments were out-sized due to youthful exuberance (yes, I really did think I would get through a case of Expedition Stout a year . . . ), at least I stuck with them. However, these experiences showed me that I’m not particularly a fan of aged beers, except in relatively limited circumstances, and those circumstances are still not beers that I will consume in any great quantity. The tough part here was bucking up and drinking experiments that were not to my taste, taking the time, effort and expense to trade those beers to people who might enjoy them more, or just biting the bullet and sending them down the drain. As a result, I doubt I have even three dozen bottles of beer in the cellar. What is also missing is the tremendous pressure I felt to drink through my stash, and the guilt over purchases not wisely made.
The aspect of my beer consumption that requires great discipline now is not purchasing bottled beer. With three beers on draft, I have no real reason to buy much of anything in bottle, apart from the select few things I’d like to age, and other specialties that I drink in small quantities and for which my draft selections are not a decent substitute. However, there are the twin siren songs of the new and the on-sale with which I must contend.
The “new” used to be my biggest problem, but I long ago overcame the desire to try everything. I get around to things eventually, but I am no longer chasing after new releases, or rushing out to get them before they’re gone. Now, I struggle most with the “sale”. My twin enablers here are the local grocery store, Schnuck’s, and a local beer store. Schnuck’s, at least the ones I frequent, has a good selection and almost always have tasty craft beer on sale for about $6 a six pack- Schlafly, New Belgium, Boulevard, Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada – just the solid everyday offerings I drink with great frequency. When I see my favorites, it’s hard not to throw a six pack or two into the cart, despite the fact that these are exactly the sorts of beer I love to buy in kegs, and can purchase that way for a fraction of their sale price. Not smart behavior, and something I’m still working on.
The Wine & Cheese Place has different beers on sale each week, and it’s not boring, or almost out-of-code offerings, it’s top-notch stuff – quality favorites like Bell’s Two-Hearted, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Southern Tier bombers, cool Scandanavian craft beers from Mikkeller, Nøgne-Ø and others – exactly the sort of stuff I can easily pass by at full retail. These are a bit easier to resist as I don’t have to go to the Wine & Cheese Place to buy groceries each week, but it’s so conveniently located to both my home and office that it’s hard not to stop in. But I try.
Wine has been the toughest of all. First, my cellar was way too large – at one point it had crossed 700 bottles. Given how little my lovely wife drinks, this was way too much. My intial attack was to cut purchases and drink what I had. This worked well until I had gotten through everything that was remotely ready to drink, which unfortunately didn’t take all that long. Then I made an incredibly difficult decision to sell off a good chuck of my marketable wines to help cut down the size. I’ve sold wine in the past, but it was always for purposes of realignment – getting rid of things I wasn’t crazy about, and plowing the proceeds into things I now loved. This time was different – there was no spending spree on the other end, and I was selling things I remained passionate about. By cutting the incoming flow, drinking steadily and the sale, I’m now comfortably below 200 – right where I should be based on our consumption level and the sorts of wines we like to drink.
Before patting myself on the back too much, my new wine struggle is purchasing wines to write about in the RFT. My goal has been to not turn that gig into a money-loser, which I’m more or less managing, but all of a sudden I have a reason to be back in the wine shops, and a real justification to purchase things. So far I’m fighting the good fight, but it’s not easy – particularly when a purchased bottle turns out to be a dud as it results in a chunk of my wine budget disappearing, but no RFT blog post appearing at the other end. When that happens, I’m learning to change topics and write about something that doesn’t require me to purchase a bottle, rather than running out and buying another example (or two, or three – just in case) as I did early on. Fortunately, I so far have a seemingly bottomless well of things to say about wine, so this is working.
So, what’s the point? Be aware of your purchases. Take stock of your, um, stock. Look at what you drink, when, and how much and plan accordingly. You’ll be a happier geek. I am.
Call it heatstroke (after 4 hrs in the sun coaching my kids’ baseball teams) or sheer heat-induced idiocy, I decided it was time for a crap beer shootout!
Tender readers, never underestimate my commitment to this blog, having just forked over $3.57 (plus tax!) of my hard-earned for three 24 ounce cans of the coldest my local grocery store had to offer. I revisit a college stand-by, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of my beginning college, sample one local favorite that I’ve never sampled, and try out a popular cheap beer that was never really cheap enough for me to bother with back in the days when I was looking for cheap beer.
Stag ($1.29 for a 24 oz. can - Schnuck’s). More color than a lot of American adjunct lagers. Sour malt nose, with some underlying corn, and some graininess. Not as over-poweringly corny as Busch or Miller’s regular strength offerings. Short and somewhat sweet in the mouth. This reminds me very much of Stroh’s after it moved from Detroit to join the House of Heileman – there is a touch of richness, and the corn is not over-played. Having an irrational soft spot for Stroh’s I can understand the local attachment to this.
Pabst Blue Ribbon ($1.29 for a 24 oz. can - Schnuck’s). Husky, grainy, sour malt. Corn is absent from the nose. Maybe even a hint of earthy hop.Very clean, though not much to it. Medium length sour malty finish.
Mickey’s Fine Malt Liquor ($1.29 for a 24 oz. can - Schnuck’s). Sweet corn nose, with a hint of hops. Unfortunately, it smells much better than it tastes. Big, fluffy sweet malt dominates the palate, with a hearty whack of corn. There seems to be some bitterness trying to balance, but it’s a lost cause. The finish is sweet and punishingly long. I’m a bit embarassed to say I drank quite a lot of this at college, and was actually expecting it to be my favorite of this tasting (it is “fine” malt liquor after all). It was always less sweet than the other malt liquor options, and at $2 for 2 – 40 oz. bottles, it was a difficult deal for the budget-challenged to pass.
Well, this was actually (and cheap). I’d actually drink the Stag and the PBR if there was nothing craft, and no good whisky, cocktail or wine options, and I absolutely needed a drink (not exactly a ringing endorsement, I know, but there it is). My deepest, most heartfelt apologies to the New Belgium Brewing Company for their fine glass appearing in this post.
