Great Lakes Brewery Dinner

Great Lakes recently started distributing in the DC area and it was my first brewery I visited I think on Phish tour back in the 90's. During the brewery tour they did a comparison with the same beer at different temperatures. One was on ice and the other was at proper serving temperature. Of course you could taste a lot more flavors in the beer that wasn't ice cold. It is nice to see their beers locally. Pizzeria Paradiso hosted a Great Lakes Brewery dinner shortly after the beer became available in DC.

Monster Popcorn
Popcorn w/ Caraway, Fennel, Celery Seed, Salt, Black Pepper, Parmesan
Lake Erie Monster IIPA

Rustic Antipasto Plate
Spanish Mahon, Cured Speck, Tomato White Bean Basil Salad
Burning River Pale Ale

The Red Sea Pasta Salad
Shrimp, Cerignola Olive, Lemon Campanelle Salad
Holy Moses White Ale

Prohibition Pepperoni Pie
Pepperoni, Mozzarella, Fontina, Tomato Sauce cooked w/ Garlic, Onions, Oregano, Thyme & Eliot Ness
Eliot Ness Amber Lager

Perry Commo - dore Sings w/ Ewe Calzone
Vidalia Onion, Roasted Mushroom, Ricotta, Ewe's Blue
Commodore Perry IPA

The Voyage of the Oatmeal Fitzgerald
Lemon, Espresso Oatmeal Pudding, Served w/ a Candied Lemon Oatmeal Cookie
Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
The brewery rep said this version of the Lake Erie Monster was the junior version. It was about 8.5% ABV and 70 IBU now and should be about 9.2% ABV and 80 IBU when it is served to the public in May.

The Burning River Pale Ale was tasty. It is close to an IPA with a citrus NW hop flavor. It is not so bitter from the late hop addition.

Nothing spectacular with the Holy Moses but was an easy drinking white.

The Eliot Ness Amber was more malty than most which I think I like. This was 6.2% ABV and 30 IBU.

The Commodore Perry IPA was up at 7.5% and had a good classic nice hop taste. It was either the brewery rep or Greg that said they wanted to pair this with the special blue cheese used on the pizza.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was a drinkable Porter but that is a common problem at the end of a beer dinner/tasting. It wasn't my favorite beer dinner but it had some good tastes and it was nice to go sample the Great Lakes line again.

WBF Raleigh

Time keeps going by quicker and the next beerfest is always around the corner. It's spring and time for the World Beer Festival in Raleigh. Mark and Michelle didn't make it this time. Teri and I drove down together. We hit the evening session which I don't think is our normal pattern for the Raleigh event. We met Jeff Carr and Steve before the festival. They were in town for the Widespread Panic concerts.

It almost rained but it turned out to be just a sprinkle. I brought some hard pretzels but holy cow I must be absolutely wasted when we go to Flying Saucer and order those pretzels because I forgot all about them. They are the best pretzels on Earth.

my pics and videos

Beth's pics

Ovie puck

Teri and I went to watch game 4 of the first round of the playoffs at the official Caps viewing party. I've never been to the Union Jacks, didn't even know it was there, but the place is big. We figured it will fill up fast and got there as quickly as we could after work. And the place was empty. For a little bit at least. I was surprised how long it took but by game time every seat was taken and there was little room to stand near the bars. It was a sea of red. Teri and I were one of the few people not wearing red.

The audio absolutely sucked but we had seats, a view, and the crowd was pumped. They gave away raffle tickets and had prizes. The Washington Freedom were there but I didn't see them unfortunately. They gave away tickets to round two. Had we only known at the time how worthless they would be. I got lucky and won a puck signed by the Great 8 himself. Maybe some day I will display it next to the chipped game puck I got years ago.

rare Brooklyn Brewery casks

ChurchKey has been having a bunch of nice rare cask tappings. The had the head brewer of Brooklyn Brewery in for a beer dinner and he brought five rare Brooklyn casks down with him. I wasn't able to get tickets to the dinner but had to go sample one or two of those casks. Teri and I went after work. I spotted Garrett Oliver hanging with the beer manager Greg near the bar before they started their dinner. Once the dinner started Teri and I were able to get a seat at the end of the bar.

The first beer I tried was the Dark Matter. It was great. It is a strong brown ale aged in bourbon and whiskey barrels. You could really smell the liquor but it didn't have an overpowering taste. A great beer to sip in the evening.

Teri got the Sabroso Ale and it was also excellent. I was really loving that beer on cask. I could drink a lot of that. I ordered one after the Dark Matter. We had a sample of the Cookie Jar Porter but it wasn't anything either of us were in the mood for at the time. After a couple appetizers we took off to watch the Caps in round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Description of the five Brooklyn beers...

5 Ultra Rare Cask Ales From Brooklyn Brewery

Brooklyn Sabroso Ale: Garrett graciously casked this brew for our event and this is the first time it has made an appearance in the DC area (it is brewed primarily for Danny Meyer's NYC taco bar, El Verano). A refreshing Blonde Ale, with nice hoppy notes (as it is dry-hopped w/ Simcoe) and a touch of citrus (from the addition of orange peels).

Brooklyn Cookie Jar Porter: For those who you who have bemoaned the limited, one-off aspect of Brooklyn's Brewmaster's Reserve Series, here is a cask version of something we thought we wouldn't see anytime soon. Some call this an oatmeal cookie in a glass, and rightfully so. It is a rich Porter with a touch of roast, brewed with golden oats for a silky texture. Raisins, brown sugar, honey, vanilla-beans and a dash of spice all further the complexity of deliciousness!

Brooklyn Dark Matter: Not only is this the most recent Brewmaster's Reserve release, and one of the best yet, but it is unprecedented to see this on CASK!. This is a strong Brown Ale aged in both Bourbon and Rye Whiskey barrels then blended to taste. Sweet Bourbon notes mingle with spicy Rye, and all is balanced by the caramel richness of oak.

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale: A take on the classic IPAs of England, this brew is a golden hue from choice English malt, and has big hop aromas of lemongrass, pine and citrus. Robustly bitter, with a warming malt palate, and a clean hoppy finish.

Brooklyn Best Bitter: This is the cask version of Brooklyn's ever-popular Pennant Pale Ale. It is honey-colored, with a brisk, malty taste, and a nicely balanced hop character. Brewed from Scottish Maris Otter malt, this ale shows biscuity and toasted notes as well as a round smoothness.

Billy Goat trail

Since we failed to trek the trail on our last trip Teri and I made a second attempt. This time it was open. Being one of the first nice weekends of the year there were lots of people out. The most crowded I've seen the trail actually. It wasn't horrible though and we were able to maintain our own pace. Just like last time the water was quite high. I recorded the GIS data from the hike on my phone but for some reason the file won't upload to my Garmin Connect account. We saw lots of kayakers and rock climbers. We also saw 17 turtles all hanging out together; with 15 on the same two logs.

pics and videos

Liefmans Goudenband 2006

A favorite beer of mine lately is Flying Dog's 20th Anniversary Ale called Raging Bitch. ChurchKey was having it on tap with a glass giveaway. They have been doing so many special cask tappings I thought it was on cask and I got excited. I dragged Teri along to check it out and it turned out to be a regular keg. I had a Pratt St Ale from one of their casks instead which is an English IPA.

We decided to have dinner downstairs at Birch & Barley. They don't have a huge menu and the items are unique but it is very good. To start dinner I ordered a beer off their vintage menu. It is not a menu they give out unless you ask for it. It is a two sided list of fine craft beers from the last five or ten years. I noticed a unique brown ale on the list from a familiar brewery that was on the less expensive side at $25. Michael Jackson, the great beer writer, is quoted on the bottle paper as saying "Surely the world's finest Brown Ale". That sold me being a brown ale fan.

It turns out that Greg Engert, the locally known beer manager, served the beverage himself. It is a very interesting beer. He served it and we talked about the beer, brewery, and style for a bit. It is technically a flanders oud bruin style and is a mix of different brown ale vintages from Liefmans. I forget the exact process but an aged mature vintage is blended with a newer sweeter vintage. Greg thought this 2006 version was the last one before the brewery went bankrupt and sold. It was pretty good. It has a bit of that mature aged taste along with a bit of sourness that has almost aged out. It was a fun experience being such an interesting beer.

Here is what Michael Jackson had to say about this style...

At their best, ales in the Oudenaarde style have a teasingly smooth, almost feathery, fluffy, body (from water low in calcium, high in sodium bicarbonate); a dry, complex, caramelish maltiness; a winey, nutty sherry, Montilla note [Oloroso sherry] (from long periods of maturation at ambient cellar temperatures); a light but distinct interplay of sweetness and sourness; and a spritzy finish. <...> [A] beer of around four months old is blended with stock two or three times that age. The blend is centrifuged, primed with invert sugar, given a dosage of the original yeast, and bottle conditioned in the brewery's cellars. Its characteristic sour wineyness, iron, saltiness and toastiness ... will develop with a few months, or even years, of cellaring.

Dinner started with a couple duck eggs that were steamed, deep fried, and served with asparagus and prosciutto. For the main course I had their pork cheek with wine onion pearls and parsnips in cheese grits. It was darn yummy. To go with my entry I choose a BrewDog Zeitgeist (schwarzbier). A good night out for the senses.

Hopslam cask

Churchkey got their hands on a cask of Bell's Hopslam. Being a fan of the beer I was quite interested. It is a hard beer to get even in the bottle. It is very expensive because of all the hops and the brewing process. Stores usually sell out of their annual stock in a few days. To taste all those honey and hop flavors from an unpasteurized fresh cask would be quite the treat. This was supposed to be the only cask in the DC metro area.

Churchkey was tapping it at 4:00pm on a Monday. I assumed this would go quick and wanted to be there before the 5:00 rush. Luckily Teri and I were able to escape the office around 4:30 or so and get there right on time before 5:00. All the seats were already full but there wasn't anyone standing around yet. And everyone had a light draft in front of them which is unusual for this craft beer bar. I ordered two pulls of the honey nectar and we smiled as we got the first whiff of hop floral aroma. I thought it tasted very good. It's a hop explosion beer so it is going to be bitter but I think they did a good job getting more of the floral aspect of the hops. Teri enjoys the bottled version but she couldn't drink this from the cask. I forget her exact description but it was as if it took off her taste buds. I've had crazy bitter beers and I didn't think this was that bad. I could of had a few more.

That was not to be the case though. At 5:26 the cask was tapped. It ran out in 86 minutes. Glad we got there early. I didn't realize there were that many beer geeks that had an interest in Hopslam, knew about the event, and could get there before 5:00 on a weekday.