The Session #51.5: Beer and Cheese, revisited

Did I tell you that we have a new puppy in the house? Either way, I can confirm that her love for cheese runs as deep as mine.

All I was trying to do was get the second half of the Great Beer and Cheese-off accomplished, and she kept interrupting. Fortunately, I never left her alone long enough in the room to get anything more than a large tongue-swipe of clothbound cheddar.

Her name is Callie. She's a rescue dog, of course, and pointer mix of some kind. She seems to be a beer and cheese buddy and hopefully she can become somewhat of a running buddy too. You'll, no doubt, be seeing more of her around here.

So, yes, moving along.

For those of you joining late, you may ask what this is all about .

I'll point you back to an article I posted two weeks ago on the first Friday of the month, where on a monthly basis beer bloggers/writer/enthusiasts "gather" on-line to discuss a common theme. One person plays host.

This month it was Jay Brooks and he created a two-parter for May 2011.

Two weeks ago, all participants individually selected beers to pair with specific cheese (or close approximations) that he recommended. Then we wrote about the experience. My experience that I created involved friends to get multiple perspectives and hopefully make the writing more interesting.

Now, for part two, he's asked us to try pairings based on other recommendations made two weeks ago.

In the past two weeks, I've gone from "tapering" into the marathon that I ran just this past weekend, to coming out of marathon-training mode and playing a lot of catch-up this week.

While I would have loved to get a group together again for the tasting, logistically I just couldn't pull it off. So, it was me by my lonesome plowing through beer and cheese tastings. I suffer for this "job".  ;-)

I chose North Coast's Old Stock ['06] to pair with the Cheddar, 21st Amendment's Monk's Blood ['11] to pair with the Humboldt Fog, and Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot Barleywine ['07] to pair with the Maytag Blue.

I also poured a Yards Saison ['11] from the tap and pulled out a bottle of Dogfish Head Squall IPA ['11] to serve as alternatives on the table in case any of the pairings were resounding strikeouts.

Here's what I found.

Carr Valley Snow White Goat Cheddar, $16.60 per pound, La Valle, WI
A creamy white Goat Cheddar Cheese made in 38# wheels and cave aged for 6 months. Took 2nd Place at the 2007 American Cheese Society Competition and 2008 Best in Show at American Cheese Society.

~ My Original Beer Pairing: Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale
~ New Beer Pairing: suggestion courtesy of 99 Pours, where they remarked on the nuttiness of the cheddar and the caramelliness (spell-check won't like this, I'm sure!) of the beer. The suggestion was a North Coast Old Stock and I had an '06 in the cooler and this seemed like the right time to find out how it has been doing in there.
~ Compare and Contrast: With my original, personal selection, I was counting on caramel maltiness and significant hop bitterness to work well with the strong cheddar. The Indian Brown Ale wasn't really up to the challenge and was too distinctive in its own right. The Old Stock, though, was near-perfect. The only thing missing (simply due to 5-year-old aging, I'm sure) was enough carbonation to clear the palate of the cheese. Flavor-wise, though, 99 Pours was right-on.
~ Other potential pairings: My runner-up in this pairing was a Yards Saison, which was just spicy enough, just ever-so-slightly snappy enough, and just carbonated enough to play really well as a complement to the mildly barnlike qualities in the cheddar. From the list of other beers tried two weeks ago with this cheese, I might imagine that the Speakeasy Payback Porter that Jay Brooks recommended would also go well with this cheese.

Cypress Grove Chevre Humboldt Fog, $22.99 per pound, Arcata, CA
Our signature offering, Humboldt Fog® is an elegant, soft, surface ripened cheese. The texture is creamy and luscious with a subtle tangy flavor. Each handcrafted wheel features a ribbon of edible vegetable ash along its center and a coating of ash under its exterior to give it a distinctive, cake-like appearance. An American Original!

~ My Original Beer Pairing: Saison Dupont
~ New Beer Pairing: suggestion courtesy of Derrick Peterman at Ramblings of a Beer Runner, where he (and his wife) praised the classic fruit and cheese combination of 21st Amendment's Monk's Blood. I had a few cans of Monk's Blood still sitting around and it's a beer that I've got to know well over the past three years, first at the brewery with Mr. Sean Paxton, and particularly more so since it was packaged and distributed in cans last year.
~ Compare and Contrast: I knew going into this cheese that Saison Dupont would be difficult to beat. My hunch held up. Unlike my beer running brother from California, I was not at all pleased with the figgy fruitiness in the beer that was not spritely enough to help lift off the creamy butteriness of this amazing cheese. It became too much of a mush of flavors and textures on the palate.
~ Other potential pairings: With this cheese, Yards Saison stepped up even more greatly and played spoiler. It went real nicely with the mild tanginess of the cheese and was up to the challenge of scraping away the creamy cheese. The Old Stock from North Coast also did a nice job with its strong flavors and alcohol presence (it is 11.7% ABV, afterall).

Maytag Dairy Farms Blue, $18.99 per pound, Newton, IA
Made from cow's milk. It has been produced since 1920's when the Maytag's founded their family farm and began producing cheeses. Maytag Blue has a crumbly texture and it reveals a very spicy flavor. The period of curing and maturing takes six months.

~ My Original Beer Pairing: Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Barleywine
~ New Beer Pairing: suggestion courtesy of Stan Hieronymous at Appellation Blog, where he thought the Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine's deep, rich maltiness would stand up to the Maytag. I have several from 2007 remaining and it's been quite a while since I picked one of these out of the cooler to try. Another great opportunity.
~ Compare and Contrast: The first time around, none of my cohorts nor I seemed "up" for the challenge of the Maytag Blue cheese that particular evening. This time around, my palate was a bit more accepting and I was happy for that. I noted some of the sherry-like notes from oxidation, but maybe not as prevalent as by Stan. Nonetheless, Bigfoot fights big and extreme with big and extreme. I can imagine that this is one of the more difficult cheeses to pair any beverage with, but the Bigfoot does an admirable job.
~ Other potential pairings: From the list of suggested beer pairings from two weeks ago, I might think that Jay's suggestion of Russian River Temptation would work well with its Brettanomyces funk, mild fruitiness, and alcohol strength (7.25% ABV). Tom, at What We're Drinking, suggested Bam Biere from Jolly Pumpkin for the Humboldt Fog and I might imagine it also working well with the Maytag Blue.

What else did I learn? Well, I didn't necessarily learn anything so shockingly revelatory.

One thing, though, was that by reading through dozens of other suggested pairings from other respected beer folks, it reinforced the notion that beer and cheese is one of the most complimentary and enjoyable pairings in the world of food and beverage.

But, more so, that beer is so versatile and with the beauty and subjectivity of taste, there is nearly no wrong answer when it comes to perception of good and bad pairings.

And the other thing was that doing beer and cheese pairings solo is just plain boring. (But, thanks to Callie for trying to help in that regard.)

The Session #51: Beer and Cheese

Background
The monthly roundtable of beer writers/bloggers that is The Session is convened the first Friday of every month. A different host announces a theme of their choosing each month and plays the role of host and gatherer of submissions on the topic. (For a history of all Sessions, check out Jay's compilation of monthly wrap-ups.)

This month, May 2011, Jay Brooks took the helm. He announced the topic of 'Beer & Cheese: The Great Online Beer & Cheese-Off', which of itself is a worthy subject for sure. But, he went the one extra step (perhaps in an effort to lure the likes of me back in to the fold after many, many months of absence from The Session) and set out a few specific rules for playing along. See, I haven't participated in this monthly project since somewhere in the early months of year one or two. This topic, though, is one that I couldn't refuse given the two tasty subjects and the added degree of difficulty.

I chose to not only share with you the tasting results from the group of eager and willing participants I gathered, but to also use this as a sort of guide to running your own beer and cheese tasting. Hopefully, there are some points in here (both in my successes and oversights) that you can take away as learning points as did I.

(the tasting table prep)The Session "rules"
Jay asked all who would participate to go out and buy three cheeses. He named three cheeses that should readily be found in most major markets across the States, thus ensuring a somewhat level playing field for all involved. The first two were no problem for me, Cypress Grove Chevre's Humboldt Fog and Maytag Dairy Farm's Blue. The third, Widmer one year-aged Cheddar, I've seen plenty of on store shelves, but when I went to the cheese display this particular time, I came up empty. In fact, finding a one-year old aged cheddar to my liking from Wisconsin proved to be way more difficult than I would have imagined. So, I opted for Carr Valley's Snow White Goat Cheddar (cloth-bound and cave-aged six months) as a close approximation. Next to this cheese on the shelf was another that caught my eye, the Apple-smoked Cheddar also from Carr Valley.

Here are short manufacturer descriptions for each:
Carr Valley Apple Smoked Cheddar, $10.50 per pound
La Valle, WI
Made in a 12# wheel. This white cheddar is apple smoked and then hand rubbed with paprika. It has a light smoky flavor that balances very well with the paprika. This cheese won 1st Place at the 2005 American Cheese Society in its category, 3rd Place at the 2006 World Cheese Competition, and 3rd Place at the 2006 American Cheese Society Competition.

Carr Valley Snow White Goat Cheddar, $16.60 per pound
La Valle, WI
A creamy white Goat Cheddar Cheese made in 38# wheels and cave aged for 6 months. Took 2nd Place at the 2007 American Cheese Society Competition and 2008 Best in Show at American Cheese Society.

Cypress Grove Chevre Humboldt Fog, $22.99 per pound
Arcata, CA
Our signature offering, Humboldt Fog® is an elegant, soft, surface ripened cheese. The texture is creamy and luscious with a subtle tangy flavor. Each handcrafted wheel features a ribbon of edible vegetable ash along its center and a coating of ash under its exterior to give it a distinctive, cake-like appearance. An American Original!

Maytag Dairy Farms Blue, $14.90 per pound
Newton, IA
Made from cow's milk. It has been produced since 1920's when the Maytag's founded their family farm and began producing cheeses. Maytag Blue has a crumbly texture and it reveals a very spicy flavor. The period of curing and maturing takes six months.

After procuring these cheeses from our local Wegmans store, the next step in the game was to taste the cheeses paired with beers of my choosing — ones that I thought might pair well with each cheese. I could do this tasting solo or get others to participate. I wanted to keep this somewhat under control so Patty and I invited over just a couple of neighbors.

Beer and Cheese tasting preparation
I put together a tasting notes page for each of our participants. On one hand, I wanted to get enough feedback that I would somehow incorporate into this writeup of the cheeses and beers. But, on the other hand, I didn't want the form to be so "geeky" and so overwhelming when what I really wanted was for people to sample and enjoy without feeling too stressed by what I was asking.

To prepare for the gathering and tasting, while it was all about the beer and cheese, obviously there were other things I needed to worry about as well. If you prepare your own beer and cheese tasting, here are some things that you may also find handy to keep in mind.

Things like:

sufficient tasting area around the table for beer, food, glassware, writing, etc.

small sampling glassware

water glasses, and extra water for rinsing, if desired (dump bucket also, if so)

napkins

tasting notes forms and pens

tools like knives, spoons, cheese spreaders, etc.

crackers with very little flavor as a palate neutralizer between beers/cheeses

small snacks of food that might include nuts and fruits

The Session at The Brew Lounge
It's also important to choose a good day and time to conduct the tasting. Many will say that the palate, like much of the rest of the body, is more receptive and perceptive earlier in the day. Weekends, for some, can be less stressful as opposed to weeknight scheduling. This, however, does not typically accommodate well when trying to schedule a group of people. We took the opposite approach and chose a Wednesday night around 9 p.m. to undertake this little project.

Selecting the beers was fun. My goal, as you'll see on the tasting notes form, was to ask that each participant definitely drink the one beer that I suggested with each cheese. I also put a variety of other beers on the table so that any of them could be tried with any of the beers. I attempted, for the most part, to choose beers that I already had on hand in my cooler and that any of you readers — no matter your location — would have a good chance of finding either across the Philadelphia region or the country.

Each person would then make notes on the following for each beer and cheese:

What does it smell like?

What does it taste like?

Comments about the pairing.

A ranking within the beer/cheese pairing category.

An overall pairing ranking.

Like I said, I didn't want to get into an overly scientific analysis and therefore constructed the form to hopefully be as least intimidating as possible. Check it out the form below (click for larger view).

(the Tasting Notes form)The Session, Lessons Learned
As I might have expected, while I did get good feedback on all forms, we all reached a breaking point eventually. It could have been due to any of the following reasons that you might want to consider if you're throwing your own beer and cheese tasting party.

I was distracted by the Philadelphia Flyers playoff game that I had on the TV in the background. Music would have been the better choice, particularly given the final score!

There was too much clutter on the table. It was all necessary, but the table that we used on the sun porch was too small.

At the same time, I had too much beer and cheese on the table. In hindsight, I might instead have chosen to put a small hunk of each cheese on individual plates and maybe even pre-poured the recommended beers. That way, extra bottles and cheese could have been moved off to a side table for later additional servings.

This was my first such structured tasting, with notes/forms and whatnot, so this was a learning experience for sure.

(the chosen 4)The Session, Results
To the results, beer-man! What you'll see in the following notes are a compilation from all of the tasting comments without identifying individual names (to protect the innocent?).

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Humboldt Fog: Paired with Brasserie Dupont Saison

Pairing judgement: The beer had notes of citrus rind like lemon and grapefruit; other fruit notes like apple and pear. Some honeysuckle and pepperiness as well. The cheese was smooth and tangy, but not overwhelmingly so. Notes of grass, butter, mineral, and fresh milk house buttercream. The cheese was nearly the unanimous favorite and the pairing was fairly well-received with comments about the prickly carbonation that lifts the cheese's creaminess off the tongue...to the nice balance between the beer's fruitiness and the cheese's creaminess.

Other pairing notes: The Orval did not have enough punch to stand up to the cheese. The Alaskan Smoked Porter was a pleasant surprise with its smokey creaminess blending nicely with the cheese's creaminess. The Sierra 30th Anniversary was a bit overpowering for the cheese as it muted some of the cheese's more dominant flavors. And, lastly, the Maui Bikini Blonde Lager also surprised with its Meyer Lemon-like and clean flavors that brought out even more of a French butter-like quality in the cheese.

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Maytag Blue: Paired with Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Barleywine

Pairing judgement: It seemed that almost no one was up for the sharp tartness of the Maytag Blue. I was surprised by this as I am one that can really pack away mouthfuls of this cheese. But, not on this particular evening; I found the tartness too much for my liking. Others found the same tartness, the same acidity as I along with some flavors of peat moss and "spicy mud". The barleywine and its molasses, port, caramel, and cork characteristics made for a beer that all enjoyed, but the intended pairing was an afterthought. Though, one did comment that the mellowness of the beer provided a nice offset to the tangy sharpness of the cheese.

Other pairing notes: No one attempted another pairing with the Blue, but I can imagine that a soured beer may provide a nice complement to the cheese.

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Apple-smoked Cheddar: Paired with Alaskan Smoked Porter

Pairing judgement: I only picked up this cheese because I saw the word "apple-smoked" and thought, "hey, I have one last bottle of '05 Alaskan Smoked Porter...let's give this a try". Most enjoyed the cheese with its fire pit, cedar plank, paprika, sweet bologna, apple, smoked salmon, and burning leaves characteristics. And, most enjoyed the beer and how its mellowed a bit over the years while still retaining its pleasant leathery, wood, and also burning leaves flavors and aromas. All agreed that smoked next to smoked, though, did not do so well together.

Other pairing notes: A recurring secondary pairing that pleased a few of us was the Dogfish Indian Brown which really did not go well with the other cheese from Carr Valley at all. Here it provided molasses, caramel, and bitter hoppiness that provided additional depth to the pairing that the Smoked Porter could not. Very pleasing.

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Snow White Goat Cheddar: Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale

Pairing judgement: I realize that this cheddar did not really measure up to Jay's request for a one-year-old (or more) cheddar from Wisconsin. I got the Wisconsin right...but this one was aged six months. I thought it might add a couple of points for being cloth-wrapped and cave-aged, but nonetheless, the pairing did not work. The cheese was nice, and the beer is mighty fine and worked well with the apple-smoked. But, the grassy, earthy, burlap, somewhat gamy/goat-y properties of the cheese were overpowered by the hoppiness of the beer.

Other pairing notes: The cheese only worked for a couple of us, therefore the only one alternative pairing that was attempted was with the Maui Bikini Blonde Lager. This one worked better than the DFH beer, but still not stellar. Even though it's a hoppy beer, the 21st Amendment Bitter American might be a combination I should have tried instead.

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Also on the table, but not tried, were: 21st Amendment Back in Black IPA; General Lafayette 275th Anniversary Barleywine; Ommegang Gnomegang; and Scaldis Noel.

This was a lot of fun. I think I put the right amount of preparation into the tasting night and am anxious to work out a couple of the finer points where I came up short as I mentioned earlier.

Thanks to Jay Brooks for facilitating this and I'll do my best to reconvene in two weeks for another go-round.

(Humboldt Fog, far and away the most popular)

Slicing and Dicing beer by ABV, by Local, by Session, and by Style

Here's a little something to stimulate your brain cells at the beginning of the work week.

There's been quite a bit of chatter these last few years around the word "session" — the length of drinking time that constitutes a session — the appropriate maximum amount of alcohol in a session beer — and simply whether we like the term session.

Some of this conversation has certainly been instigated by the worthwhile work that Lew Bryson has undertaken to help bring attention to what he perceived/perceives to be an under-served, under-respected, and under-appreciated segment of the craft beer market. He calls it the The Session Beer Project

Jack Curtin stoked the conversation again recently when he brought light to some comments made by Weyerbacher owner Dan Weirback.

I'll be focusing a longer article on this topic in the near term.

Until then, I decided to run some numbers — no, not those kind of numbers. Some beer numbers. As you likely know, I'm a numbers guy. So when faced with this question of whether session beers are adequately available, I took to the better beer bars and brewpubs in my local area for some evidence.

While gathering the data, other topics du jour came to mind. Like...
~ Does my local area supply a breadth of styles?
~ What is the spread of ABV percentages?
~ Are session beers monolithic?
~ Are locals being served fairly?
~ Are ABV percentages readily listed for customers at the bar?

The effort of data gathering was limited solely to electronic beer menus. (Hey, what a novel idea! I recall proposing that concept 6 years ago when there were virtually none and being told by several folks that there really wasn't a market for up-to-date, or even live, tap lists. Just ahead of my time, I suppose, right?)

Bars included in this "study" are Capone's, P.J. Whelihan's, Station Taproom, TJ's, Teresa's Next Door, The Drafting Room, and Ron's Original. Brewpubs included are Sly Fox and Victory. Okay, oops, I slipped. P.J.'s was provided to me on a printed menu. The others were either provided via email updates (e.g. Capone's), Facebook (e.g. Station Taproom), or website (the remainder).

Would love to have included The Flying Pig, Iron Hill, and McKenzie's, but I'm not aware that they have an online resource for current draft lists, ahem!

The lists are not all from the same day, but that was not important. The lists were all from within less than two weeks of each other in March 2011.

Let's see what we found.

9 establishments were polled. 183 beers were on tap. I did not distinguish between traditional CO2, cask/handpump, and nitro.

Some more interesting pre-game analysis. Only 6 taps were what might be considered macro-ish: one draft line each of Amstel Light; Coors Light; Guinness Stout; Miller Lite; Peroni, Yuengling Lager. There's a dry cider in the mix here too; I probably should have removed it. But, I didn't, so moving along...

I)  53 "styles" were counted across these 183 beers. The most popular with 24 taps, not too surprising, was American IPA, where three American IPA taps belonged to Bear Republic's Racer 5 and two taps each for Victory HopDevil and Ithaca's Flower Power. In a distant second was the American Pale Ale style with 10 taps. See style table for the wide range of styles. (click to enlarge)

II)  I broke the ABVs down into 6 buckets. This could be the most debatable, but here follows my logic. Almost no one will argue that Under 4.5% is considered a session beer. Folks seem to be generally split on the next range, so I isolated 4.5% to 5.5% as its own category. Personally, I have no problem with a session beer in the 5-ish range. I could even push my session beer threshold to 6% given my body composition, my drinking pace, and my drinking "experience". Therefore, 5.5%-6.5% gets its own designation, particularly also because it's the subject of Dan Weirback's criticized comments. From 6.5%-8.5%, we begin to get into almost everyone's definition of a stronger beer, but not at knock-out levels. No one should deny 8.5%-10% definitely is comprised of some strong beers. And, lastly, everything Over 10%, just because 10% as a double digit number somehow holds some magical significance.

53 beers out of 178 under 5.5% ABV, eh? Nearly 30% of available draft beer. Not too shabby for anyone looking for a relatively lower alcohol beer at one of these 9 spots. Although, there's an interesting drop in the 5.5%-6.5% range which could explain the spot that Weirback is looking to land a session beer in.

See the accompanying bar chart for a frequency illustration of the 178 beers in this study — 5 did not have a readily-published ABV% that I could track down. (click to enlarge)

III)  Opponents of session beer might perceive it as limited in diverse flavors and aromas. So next, I checked on what types/styles of session beers are being served at these 9 places. Does diversity exist within session beers under 5.5%? Or are they not very "exciting"? The answer seems quite apparent from the following table.

IV)  Are the locals being served? I don't know what the optimal percentage should be, but here in the western 'burbs of Philadelphia, a full 36% of the 183 draft lines in mid-March at these 9 establishments were dedicated to locals. That doesn't sound so bad.

I know, I know, I hear you. The next question is obviously: "Are not the brewpubs (100% local) tainting these ratios?" A bit, I'm sure. So, let's remove them and see what we get.

Without brewpubs included, the percentage of the 183 draft lines that locals occupied drops to 21% of the total. If you want to make a case for local beers, this might be a number that you focus on. Especially considering that Flying Fish, Sly Fox, and Stoudt's each only had 1 tap out of 183; and Philadelphia Brewing had none. Though, truthfully, the 1 in 5 stat is no where near as bad as things could be.

The local brewery with the most tap lines tied up with their product (outside, of course, of the 2 brewpubs in this analysis)? Victory with 7, Dogfish Head and Manayunk with 3 each.

From outside of the region (discounting that TJ's had some Allagash remnants and Teresa's Next Door had a recent Stone event), Founders was well-represented with 5 draft lines; Great Lakes and Sierra Nevada each had 4.

Click the pie chart below on the left to see where brewpubs are included. And, click the pie chart on the right where brewpubs are not included.











V)  On the topic of published ABV% levels, 8 of the 9 establishments prominently display the ABV% of each available beer either on the chalkboard or on the printed menus available at the bar or tables.

If you wonder what the big deal is here, take this as an example. The night prior to a long run a few weeks back, I found myself eating at TJ's. I only wanted one beer. A low-alcohol beer at that. A quick scan of the digital chalkboard (A+ for information) and I quickly found the 4.0% beer that I wanted to get through dinner.

With the ever-expanding diversity of beers available in the market and growing base of new customers, listing alcohol levels for customers to make the right choice is more important than ever.

So where does all of this lead us? I'd love to hear from as many of you as possible. Let's not contain all of the conversation to Jack's site, right? (just kidding, of course, my friend)

After seeing these numbers around the topic of ABV distribution and whatever it is that we wish to call a session beer (sneak peek at my article: "I (and you and you and you) can define my own 'session', thank you very much"), I'm fairly satisfied that I can find varying strengths of beer in almost any category I like here in the western suburbs of Philadelphia.

Now, I realize that I may be a bit privileged in that regard. So chime in and let me know how you feel in your town/region/state about having access to a breadth of beer styles and beer strengths.

Session Beer gets Bitter

No crankiness around here, just great beer big on hop flavor and low on ABVs!

This one should qualify for Lew's List, I would think. After a fun group sushi dinner at Pod in University City last night, we slowly wandered the few blocks out to City Tap House for a nightcap. Imagine my surprise and delight to find Bitter American from San Francisco's 21st Amendment Brewery on tap.

After a filling dinner of all forms of sushi, a tasty light beer like the Bitter American was just what I needed. You may recall that during the first San Francisco Beer Week last year ('09), at a cask-conditioned beer event at Thirsty Bear, I called this beer--let me see, where is it...ah, here are the words I used--

In short, our overall favorite of the evening was 21st Amendment's Bitter American (hey, I know a few of them!) paired with the Garrotxa (a Spanish goat cheese). Even at 3.6% ABV, this beer and its hop flavors shone extremely well as a cask conditioned beer.

Last night, the revisiting of this beer matched up with my original impressions of it almost a year and a half ago at the source. Bitter American joins other beers from 21st Amendment like Hell or High Watermelon Wheat, Brew Free or Die IPA, Monk's Blood, and Back in Black IPA as brands distributed to Pennsylvania.

While I heartily endorse all of these treats from San Francisco, the Bitter American's introductory timing could not have been better as we continue to suffer from oppressive heat and humidity here on the East Coast. My only complaint is that its currently only coming here in kegs.

The Session #9 - Beer and Music

Tomme Arthur, masterful wizard of some of this country's most delectable and sought after beers, keeps a brewer's blog over at his company's website. He set the topic of this month's version of The Session. Music and beer is something that I wrote about in the past. I figured, why dream up new material? In fact, when I checked and read it again, I wouldn't change a word. So, for your pleasure, here it is again...my take on Music & Beer.

The Session #5 - Links

This is one part of a series of posts.

• Part 1: Introduction of The Session #5: Atmosphere
• Part 2: Check it out. We recorded the video.
• Part 3: Links to the establishments and events we mentioned. (you are here)

Here's a quick listing of links to establishments and events that we mentioned in our webcast on 7/6/07. Breweries - Anchor (tours and tastings top notch) - Yards (special events/discussions; beer to go) - Ommegang (bucolic setting) - Anderson Valley (more bucolic than Ommegang? is that possible?!) - East End Brewery/Brewpub - Magnolia (great neighborhood; awesome, friendly staff; cask beers galore) - Russian River ("holy grail"; beer geek heaven) - General Lafayette (old historic building) - Church Brew Works (former church, need I say more) - Johnstown Brewing Company (memorabilia from the Bethlehem Steel, patterns, hard hats, location near hometown) - Selin's Grove (Hops growing on the patio, great beer, Civil War era feel, converted garage for part of the brewing operations) Beer Bars/Other - Brick Store Pub (2 floors; very Decatur cool Belgian room) - Monk's Cafe (hard-to-find beers from around the world; beer dinners) - Our highlights from Monk's dinners - Bridgid's (original Philly Belgian; cozy; great family residential city neighborhood) Festivals - Ommegang BCTC - Our highlights from Ommegang - GABF - Oregon's Brewer's Fest

The Session #5: The Brew Lounge Video Recorded Live

This is one part of a series of posts.

• Part 1: Introduction of The Session #5: Atmosphere
• Part 2: Check it out. We recorded the video. (you are here)
• Part 3: Links to the establishments and events we mentioned.

Here it is in all its glory. We haven't viewed it yet so...as they say your milage may vary ;-)

The Session #5: TBL Atmosphere Live Video Feed 6:30 PM EST

The Session #5 Atmosphere broadcast has past. If you would like to watch it, we recorded it here :-)

The Session #5: Friday around 6PM EST

Tune your browser to The Brew Lounge tomorrow around 6:00PM to hear and see (shuddder) Bryan and I talking about this month's topic for The Session, Atmosphere. Check out yesterday's post for more information. If you can view videos at YouTube or other similar sites then you should be able to see our live video stream. (Now where did I put my directors chair?)

The Session #5: Experience the Atmosphere at TBL

This is one part of a series of posts.

• Part 1: Introduction of The Session #5: Atmosphere (you are here)
  
• Part 2: Check it out. We recorded the video.
• Part 3: Links to the establishments and events we mentioned.

If you're not familiar with the concept, every month in the beer writing, blogging, etc. world, the first Friday is reserved for conversation around a specific topic. The past four months have covered the following topics; Stout (March), Dubbel (April), and Mild (May) and Local Brews. This month's host of The Session, Hop Talk, has chosen 'Atmosphere' as our topic for discussion. The guidelines have been set.

The Brew Lounge design/marketing/technology/media/bottle washing team came up with a brand spankin' new idea. We've posted stories, written reviews, produced some video, shared some audio, documented hops growing, broke beer news, polled our audience....well you get the picture. No challenge is too big for us. One thing we haven't done is broadcast live video.

I know what you're thinking. "These are two handsome beer dudes who really should be on the big screen. What are they waiting for?!" You're right. The time has come. Around 6:00 on Friday July 6th we will be broadcasting live right here on our website. That is if everything works out.

So check out the atmosphere here at TBL as we celebrate this months edition of The Session. You never know what to expect.

(I would set my expectation low if I were you ;-)

The Session #4 - Local Beers; General Lafayette

Read all the posts for this installment of The Session

1. The Session #4 - Local Beers, Philly Style : Why we did this.
2. The Session #4 - Local Beers, Background Information on General Lafayette in Lafayette Hill, PA
3. The Session #4 - Local Beers; General Lafayette : Our Visit (You are here.)

I've been to General Lafayette a couple times. I hadn't heard of it until Bryan pointed it out to me a couple years back. It really isn't that far away, but, it is toward Philly and well that's probably the biggest reason I didn't really know about it. I tend to shy away from the city.

Some brew pubs have good beer and some have good food. A few have both. That is the case with General Lafayette. I'm not just talking lagers, red ales, and stouts. I'm talking Chocolate Thunder porter, The Phantom Barleywine, and Emperor's New Clothes Belgian Tripel. There are plenty of selections for the adventurous. Oh, you want a session beer? They have that too. Try the Churchill Mild at 4.2%. It packs some flavor baby. I'm not a foodie, so I won't get too much into the food except to say that it is not standard fare. Definitely a step above the average pub fare.

My favorite beer of the night was the Churchill Mild on cask. It had a light roasty sweetness to it. What can I say? I'm intrigued by a good session beer these days. Ok...Ok...the bottle of Emperor's New Clothes was second on the list. We also tried this tripel on tap. The bottled version was more delicate and a slightly tart. Last but not least was the Grim Reaper on cask. Reminded me of the Chocolate Thunder porter and really stood up well served slightly warmer with less carbonation.

So there you have it. Good beer, good food, ambiance, history, a place to stay, good beer and, er, good beer ;-) This isn't the kinda place everybody has access too. I'm thankful that we do.

Hopefully, you readers out there don't mind me, Bryan, jumping in here. I don't have much more to add to what Adam's already said so well about The General. It certainly was a great place to a pay a visit to on our Drink Local day of The Session. Thanks to GFC for hosting it this month.

Funny how I mentioned 15 miles as the crow flies the other day. Because after we hopped in our car smack in the middle of rush hour on a summer Friday, it only took us about, oh, 50 minutes or so to get there!

After arriving, we bumped into both Chris Leonard and Russ Czajka who were more than happy to share with us the latest tappings and happenings at the pub. The dark pub and our little table in the corner provided just the perfect ambiance that you should expect when you go there. Exposed beams, nooks and crannies, and small rooms all contribute to the atmosphere. And, oh yes like Adam said, the variety of beers to cover the spectrum from session to high gravity, from fruit to hops, cask conditioned to CO2, and mead thrown in for good measure.

The food didn't disappoint. We started with Risotto Fritters and an olive tempanade. Then, we each had a sandwich and fries as a main course. To finish our meal we dug into bread pudding and creme brulee as a nice accompaniment to the '05 Tripel from their basement.

Often times we agree, but this time it looks like my order of favorite beers of the night is almost the opposite of Adam's. The Emperor's Tripel has to be at the top for me. Whether on CO2 or bottled and aged, the smooth and warming (but not so alcoholic) brew with the fruit that just jumps out as it warms was a knockout winner.

This was followed by the Ambassador IPA which delivered a nice hop blast in the flavor without much forewarning in the aroma. Yes, it might have been a touch "hot", but I must have been in the mood for that. Then, keeping with the hops theme I enjoyed the Pacific Pale and its nice fresh hop flavors. The Grim Reaper, depending how I think about it was anyone from 2nd to 4th. The nice roasty and bitter flavors layered nicely within this smooth cask conditioned beer. A bigger beer, but certainly not imperial, whatever that means! But, perhaps, I just wasn't in the mood for a bigger stout on this evening.

Lastly, if I was drinking one beer as a session beer for the evening, it would certainly be the Churchill's. It's only last here on my list because of the other more complex beers of the evening. But this mild was a nice beer that I enjoyed last weekend at Ortino's sessionfest and actually reminds me a bit of the Yards ESA or Pale Ale, with some nice fruit (apricot?) flavors in the finish.

Here's a rundown of what was on tap on June 1st along with The General's descriptions. Check the picture below for a listing of their vintage cellar-aged beers...also not to be missed.

Germantown Blonde, 4.8% ABV, 16 IBU
A light, easy drinking German Blonde Ale, straw yellow in color. Similar in style to a Kolsh, this popular favorite has more malt flavor and less hop bite. Imported German malt as well as a special Alt yeast strain from Dusseldorf contribute to its incredible smoothness!

Raspberry Mead-Ale, 9.6% ABV, 9 IBU
Brewed to emulate the Honey Meads of the ancient Celts. 80 pounds of whole raspberries are used in each batch of this newly reformulated brew. Triple fermentation adds to the complexity and subtleties of this tasty, but unusual beverage.

Sunset Red Ale, 5.9% ABV, 22 IBU
As our brewmaster dreams of the sun going down over the Pacific, this medium bodied, malty
Red Ale was his first brew at the General. Caramel and toffee flavors blend with imported English hops in this extra smooth ale. Consistently one of our top sellers, the brewer spends a lot
less time dreaming of sunsets and more time trying to keep this beer flowing!

Pacific Pale Ale, 5.7% ABV, 37 IBU
A Western, American-style pale ale. Drier, hoppier, turbocharged version of this house favorite.
Hops from the Pacific Northwest provide the distinctive citrus flavor. A malty finish balances this incredible, quaffable ale. Trying to catch the Sunset Red, this has become one of our fastest selling beers (slow down people, I can't keep up!).

Churchill’s Mild, 4.2% ABV, 15 IBU
The magical disappearing beer! A sip of this enchanting ale leaves you with, well, nothing. While similar to the mild ales of England, this brew does have more malt flavor and alcohol content than its British cousins. The nutty sweetness, light body, and delicate texture evaporate before your tongue and your pint is gone before you know it.

The Ambassador IPA, 7.8% ABV, 99 IBU
Spreading hoppy good-will throughout beer-geek-dom, we’ve used a blend of American and English hops to bitter and flavor this classy brew. Nutty, robust imported Maris Otter malt contributes to a well mannered yet assertive beer of impeccable taste. Try our diplomatic offering to those in need of a serious hop fix. Cheers!

The Grim Reaper, 8.9% ABV, 65 IBU
This strong, full-bodied Imperial Stout has come for you. Chocolate and roasty flavors blend with high alcohol and floral hop notes in this monster. Complex and elusive, each taste brings forth new flavor experiences. Served in a 14-oz glass only, we must limit you to three!

The Emperor’s New Clothes, 9.1% ABV, 35 IBU
Spicy flavors produced by the Belgian yeast such as clove, white pepper, and coriander characterize this Belgian–style Trippel. Golden in color, high alcohol and a dry finish round out this sophisticated ale. Served in a tulip shaped glass, we must limit you to three!

RED VELVET
Try this sublime blend of our Sunset Red Ale and Chocolate Thunder Porter.

Cask Conditioned Ale
Try beer the way the Brits drink it! Served at cellar temperature (approximately 55 degrees), the beer is unfiltered and undergoes natural carbonation and conditioning in the cask. Due to the brewer's diligent struggle for beer nirvana, we now have a brand new, DOUBLE beer engine. This should allow us to serve two distinct cask conditioned ales at all times - brewer's body willing. Ask your server which styles of beer we are currently serving.

The Session #4 - Local Beers, Background Information on General Lafayette in Lafayette Hill, PA

Read all the posts for this installment of The Session

1. The Session #4 - Local Beers, Philly Style : Why we did this.
2. The Session #4 - Local Beers, Background Info on The General Lafayette (You are here.)
3. The Session #4 - Local Beers; General Lafayette : Our Visit

To further prepare for our visit to General Lafayette in Lafayette Hill, PA tonight, we have some background information for you on the establishment from brewer Russ Czajka. If you dive further into the history on its website, you'll see that the history of the Inn is quite fascinating. =========================================================== The General has been a brewpub for 10 years and the inn is 275 years old. We will be having a 10th anniversary celebration 9/1/07 and releasing our 275 Barleywine. The 275 will be our first bottled beer for sale and we will only bottle 275 bottles. At over 13% ABV it will be a keeper. We probably make 35 to 40 different styles of beer and usually have 10 to 12 on tap, which includes 2 on hand pump and one black beer. We have 4 standards on tap all the time, Germantown Blonde, Raspberry Mead, Sunset Red, & Pacific Pale. The Chocolate Thunder Porter has also become a standard, but it is currently not on tap because we have an Imperial Stout on tap. We brew our specialty beers by the season and are currently ending our Belgian brews and starting to brew summer beers. There is still one Belgian to be released which is the Lafayette's Biere De Framboises. The Framboises is currently still conditioning in the fermenter with 380 pounds of raspberries in a 7 barrel batch. As you know, the food is as good as our beer. We have recently renovated our patio area and it is a great place to sit under the stars and the hop vines with a beer in hand. We also have a 5 room guest house behind the inn, and don't forget about the ghosts. ===========================================================

The Session #4 - Local Beers, Philly Style

Read all the posts for this installment of The Session

1. The Session #4 - Local Beers, Philly Style : Why we did this. (You are here.)
2. The Session #4 - Local Beers, Background Information on General Lafayette in Lafayette Hill, PA
3. The Session #4 - Local Beers; General Lafayette : Our Visit

The Brew Lounge exists in cyberspace (aka everywhere?), but we (Adam and Bryan) live in southeastern Pennsylvania approximately 30 miles west of Philadelphia. Many of you have heard of and perhaps have access to Victory, Iron Hill, and Sly Fox, the three closest and largest breweries/brewpubs to us in the western suburbs. A bit further out from Philadelphia, you'll find Dogfish Head, Troegs, Appalachian, Triumph, Flying Fish, Legacy, Stoudt's, and Lancaster Brewing. In Philadelphia proper, Yards and Nodding Head dominate the city's brewing scene, amongst a very rich pub (esp. Belgian) scene.

If you're not familiar with the concept, every month in the beer writing, blogging, etc. world, the first Friday is reserved for conversation around a specific topic. The past three months have covered different styles of beer...Stout (March); Dubbel (April); and Mild (May). This month the host of The Session, Gastronomic Fight Club, has chosen 'Local Brews' as our topic for discussion. The guidelines have been set.

We here at The Brew Lounge have chosen a brewpub that we feel does not get as much attention as some of the other ones listed above, but is just as rich in brewing talent: General Lafayette (Inn &) Brewery. Chris Leonard, owner, pairs up with Russ Czajka in the brewhouse to create a wide spectrum of flavorful concoctions, including a very good raspberry mead.

On Friday, we will pay a visit to General Lafayette (15 miles, as the crow flies) to sample a few beers and discuss why visiting them should be on a well-made beer travellers list to the Philadelphia region. Why have we chosen to single out the General Lafayette? We already mentioned above that they tend to get overlooked amongst some of the names in the region that cast longer shadows.

Further, chances are that you will find at least a few of the many that were listed above in your hometown area. General Lafayette rarely bottles their beer and kegs are only available by special arrangement. Suffice to say, if you're not from the Philadelphia region, you probably haven't seen and may not have heard of them. You may not see them at GABF or WBC. And, when you go home, you won't find them there either. That's why we're heading there on Friday.

We've written some about General Lafayette in the past. Look below for several of our links. Check back tomorrow for a rundown of our time spent there and the beers that we sampled.

In the meantime, you may wish to check out the following links to various sources with more information about the General Lafayette brewery.

Other General Lafayette Links
Mug Club
Music
Special Events

TBL Reviews
TBL review of 2007's Winterfest
TBL review of the brewpub and 2006 Vertical Barleywine tasting
TBL tasting of Double Fest
TBL tasting of Holiday Cheer
TBL tasting of Chocolate Thunder
TBL visit during a recent 'Sixtel Saturday'

Industry Websites
Beer Advocate reviews
Rate Beer reviews

Tourism Websites
GoPhila
Visit PA

The Session #2: Dubbel Bubbel

(Apologies for the title, Dubbel Bubbel...heheh. No disrespect ;-) Yes, it's that time again, the first Friday of the month. Don't forget to check out Alan's page at A Good Beer Blog. He is collecting all the dubbel posts for The Session this time. To read more about The Session check out Stan's page Appellation Beer where the idea was conceived. Thanks to my in-laws, my wife and I were able to go "out on the town" a bit tonight. This made this "The Session" a bit more interesting than the last. Since there were no other ideas, I took the opportunity to search out some good beer at four, yes four, local bars. I have more to say about that in another post, but, this is about one beer from that night, Westmalle's Trappist Dubbel. This is only the second time I've had this beer so I was looking forward to getting to know it a bit better. I found it at The Drafting Room in Exton, PA. We ordered a piece of apple pie, a glass of water and the dubbel. It came in a 11.5 oz. bottle with a glass that closed toward the top. The Drafting Room seems to pay very close attention to the glassware. A bit too dark to judge the color. Lotsa bubbles and a big head to start. After that the head diminishes to little islands of bubbles. The nose had a yeasty hint of fruitiness about it. Next came the soft mouth feel which carried this bubbly liquid bread around my mouth. Everytime I have a belgian like this I think about how well it would go with food. Not overstated; not understated. After the first taste, I decided that it would probably compliment the pie with its Grannysmith apples sliced thin and piled up high covered with sweet crumbly cinnamon and brown sugar topping. I was right. The Westmalle didn't steal the show. It didn't get lost in the brown sugar and apples. It complimented them. A beer a tad sweeter would probably make a better pairing, but, I'm splitting hairs here. So what did it taste like? It was subtle in a way that a water color painting can be subtle. Light malt, super light dried figs, very light pepper from the alcohol and well a subtle bready yeastiness that really enticed me to have more, but, alas our "night out" was coming to a close. Are all dubbels like this? I don't know, I don't drink them that often or maybe I just don't remember. I'm interested to hear what others have to say about the dubbel they tasted. I want to know how a beer can be so soft, subtle, complex and all out delicious in a liquid bread sorta way at the same time. I guess the question is, "Should all dubbels taste like this?" By the way, my wife didn't like it. She did like the Southern Tier Java Stout we tasted earlier in the evening. Ah well, more for me ;-)

The Session #1 - Drink-A-Stout Friday

In keeping with The Session project that Stan kicked off this month, we're tasting stout-style beer today. If you've missed all the banter this week, here's a recap. Stan's Page Our initial posting A listing of some of our stouts on hand here at The Brew Lounge - So, what did we and all of our loyal readers indulge in? Here's a recap: Adam: Started with my very own Stoutenporter (kitchen sink homebrew) with some espresso, black strap molases and lotsa malt. This is one I can only have a wee bit of at a time. Next up Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout with my wife. Then we shared a Left Hand Milk Stout with Brian H. I finished the night off with a Victory Storm King. Soon I was sleeping on the couch. What a wonderful 6 hours. Good first session :-) Hmmm...stouts can vary soooo much from one style to another. Its like that deep dark color is an excuse to go into forbidden territory and gives the brewer permission to brew something creative. From a slightly sweet smooth milk stout to a big roasty chocolate malt bomb of an Russian imperial stout (RIPS) to a hoppy nosed and hoppy tasting high octane RIPS and then there's my kitchen sink brew that throws all the rules out the window. What is a stout anyway? I don't know, but, I like it ;-) Bryan: After whetting my whistle with a SNPA and a Stoudt's Tripel, I dove headfirst into Brooklyn Chocolate Stout, Hopback Entire Stout, and capped off the night with a North Coast Old Rasputin R.I.S. Gotta save some energy for the inaugural Philly Craft Beer Festival on Saturday! Nate: Well - a day late, but I did enjoy a stout last night, though as an impy stout not sure it counts as a 'session'. Anyway, it was Oskar Blues Ten FIDY on tap and my notes are here

Ready, Set, Drink-A-Stout - The Session

You didn't forget did you? Here's a reminder to break open a stout (or stouts) of your choice tonight and drop us a note. You can reply with a 'comment' to this one or any of the entries listed below, or drop us an e-mail at beerguys@brewlounge.com

Listen, we're not giving out literary awards here, so there's no excuse :) You can keep it as simple as you'd like ("hey, I had XXXXXXX beer tonight"), make it more wordy ("hey, I had XXXXXXX beer tonight; it was great!"), or a write a full review (appearance, aroma, taste, mouthfeel, drinkability, etc.)

Then, you can check up on what happened across the beer drinking world when Stan pulls it all together over at his site.

2/27-Intro Posting

2/28-Choice of Stouts

Which Stout shall I drink? Which Stout will you drink?

From my current inventory, here's what I have to choose from for Drink A Stout Friday. I'll take your input and drink up to 3 of them. So, tell me what to drink, then go pick your stout....from your own stash! Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout Bell's Expedition Stout Bell's Java Stout Bell's Cherry Stout Brooklyn Brewing Co. Black Chocolate Stout Dogfish Head Brewing Co. World Wide Stout Goose Island Oatmeal Stout Hopback Entire Stout Iron Hill Russian Imperial Stout Mackeson's XXX Stout Marin San Quentin's Breakout Stout North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout Ridgeway Lump of Coal Stout Stoudt's Fat Dog Stout Stoudt's Fat Dog Stout Whisky Barrel Aged Thirsty Dog Siberian Night Yards Brewing Co. Love Stout

This Friday...Pour Yourself A Stout, Drink It, Tell Us About It

Drink A Stout Day Sounds simple doesn't it? Well, it is. This coming Friday, March 2nd, we are inviting you to drink a stout. Not your father's Irish Stout (actually, that's the theme), mind you...but, an interesting "New World" stout, something worth writing about. Go read the "rules" above, you'll see what I mean. You don't need to be a wordsmith. Just drink it, make some comments as a reply to this posting here, and all of the comments from across the great world wide web of better beer drinkers will be compiled over at Stan Hieronymous' site (the link is here and at the top). Now, won't that just make us all feel like one big cozy family on Friday? And, no excuses about drinking alone.....