Recently, A friend and his wife attended a seminar about developing a “Bucket-List” as a way to assure that one sets some goals and strives to live a fulfilled life before he or she “Kicks the Bucket”.

That idea inspired me to explore the more light heart-ed side of that idea by pondering and coming up with my very own “Beer-Bucket” list. Of course I hope I am no where close to kicking the bucket, but heck at least I’ll attempt an early start to reaching beery fulfillment and self actualization (and all that mumbo-jumbo).

1. European Beer and Bicycle trips – This has been on my wish list for awhile. I am a pretty avid cyclist and I have been pulling together info in order to plan a few different cycling routes that combine beer with sightseeing and culture. This will happen within two years unless I am hit by a bus in the meantime.

2. Drink in Prague – I have put this one off so long now that Prague has gone from a quaint, affordable and virtually unknown beer destination to world-class tourist trap and sex-trade capital. They still have great beer though… (And beer baths)

3. Drink at a world-class beer bar in Charleston, WV – Hmmm. Maybe in the after-life

4. Hike the Cotswold Way in England- Or basically any one of the number of excellent walking paths that criss-cross the English countryside. These pathways route you through quaint little hamlets and villages and by many a pub door with great real-ale within.

5. Spend a Sunday in Eizeringen Belgium- A couple of years ago, I won a lifetime ticket to drink for free on any Sunday at a very famous little pub who’s name translated in English means “In insurance against great thirst”. The pub sits in the middle of Payottenland, which is famous for it’s spontaneously fermented lambic beers. Maybe a month of Sundays would be better!

6. To Either own, operate or ride on a “Fietspub” - This wonderful invention literally combines two of my favorite things, beer and cycling, but together! Behold!

7. To own a SABCO Brew-Magic system – (look it up)

8. To be selected to judge in the Great American Beer Festival – I am working on this…

9. Retire and open a real neighborhood pub – You know, the kind of place where people meander in with their pets to have a pint. My place will have a little library with a quiet room and definitely a more boisterous section for conversation and occasional music, and great beer!

10. Brew an award-winning Belgian Sour Ale – I love the complexity and clean acidic finish of a great Flemish ale. All of the right tools are available but I gotta stop procrastinating!

Wish me Luck!

I am still humbled to this day that breweries see fit that they would send their best beers to me to taste and review. Just in the last few weeks, I have received two high-profile beers for “review and comment”. I typically like to set up a tasting with a few other beer geeks so there is more than one palate to pass judgment on the brewer’s handiwork.

Five discerning beer geeks made up this latest panel, Charles Bockway, Rob Absten, Chris Workman, Tim Lepley and myself with Chris being the least “tolerant” and brutally critical. The BTY sensors typically have to censor even his praise, let alone his scorn. You can read some of his musings at www.wvgourmet.com. Charles is more diplomatic, yet can be severely critical when the situation calls for it. He is currently working diligently to enlighten the masses that make wine pilgrimages to Sonoma, informing them that they are driving past some of the best breweries in the country, with his site www.winecountrybeer.com. Though generally grumpy, Rob is a pretty straight shooter when it comes to beer, and well, Tim and I (the avid brewers of the bunch) will drink just about anything at least once…

This past week , the panel gathered to taste two beers, Ayinger Weizen-bock and Brewdog’s Atlantic IPA. I had the pleasure of tasting the weizenbock during my visit to Ayinger’s brewery last January, not knowing that the beer was slated to be exported to the U.S. for the first time this fall.

Typical of the German language, all one has to do is dissect the name “Weizenbock” and a one gets a pretty good idea of what to expect from this beer. “Weizen” means that it’s a wheat-based beer and “bock” means that it’s a bit stronger than normal. This beer tips the scales at 7.1%abv, putting it safely into “bock bier” range for strength. This beer is not a summer porch sipper like its popular kid brother hefeweizen, but is called to the stage in the fall and winter months when there is a bit of chill in the air.

Ayinger Weizen-bock pours a bit cloudy and with notable viscosity, forming a small creamy head. The color is deep yellow, maybe even light amber; a bit like pear or pineapple juice in color. The beer’s aroma is full of bready aromas along with notes of papaya and very subdued citrus notes, but not too busy. Chris Workman noted that although he generally dislikes wheat beers, this one smelled appetizing. Everyone broke into a smile upon our first sip. The beer is very smooth and the alcohol is well-hidden. The bready notes carry through in the flavor as does the thickness of the beer, but it’s not cloying. None of us felt that the beer was a “clove-bomb” as might be expected from such a big Bavarian wheat beer. Some banana and other fruity esters were contrasted with the clove-like phenolics. All in all, this a very well balanced brew. A beer like this would pair well with roasted dishes, like poultry or pork. It would also do well with creamy goat or sheep cheeses and would be great paired with cheesecake (especially one with a graham cracker crust).

Our next beer comes with its own great story (and a large price tag!). Scotland’s Brewdog Brewing Atlantic IPA is big 8.5% India pale ale, and supposedly in the “”real” traditional sense, a true IPA. What makes this beer different than other IPA’s? Well, how many IPA’s travel for two months in a barrel on the high seas of the North Atlantic on the deck of a fishing trawler? This was done by the brewer in an attempt to re-create the historical voyages of uber-hoppy English pale ales that journeyed to India during its colonial era. This beer is described as “Sea Aged”, is very rare (I think they only made eight barrels) and costs $26.00 for a 33cl bottle! The BTY tasting crew were very anxious to taste our modest samples. The beer poured with a much lighter color than any of us expected, having just a tinge of amber and a very modest head that faded quickly. The aroma was sort of unremarkable, but did have just a tinge of wood and faint hops. The body of the beer was a bit disappointing for such a big beer, but looking at the recipe, it makes sense since the beer is 98% Pale malt and just a little Amber malt. One thing held true to expectations though, the 80 bittering units of hops were smoothed out considerably by the relentless sloshing around in the barrel while on the open seas, ringing true to the legend of the original IPA’s of yesteryear. The beer tasted of wood, notably oak, which was a bit over the top based on the otherwise one dimensional beer. I am sad to say the none of us really enjoyed this beer, regardless of the price, but it was a very interesting and educational process. Maybe that’s what Brewdog intended here; to make a bit of history come alive? The history books never remarked if the original India-bound pale ales actually tasted good!

Thanks again to the rest of BTY tasting panel. It’s a tough job, but…

Many of us knew it was coming, but earlier today when I received a Facebook status update from longtime MBC brewer Kelly Sauber, the reality sunk in. Kelly’s update simply said “Last batch lautering  @ MBC”…

The business outlook for a brewpub in the rather small town of Marietta was always a challenging one, but somehow MBC made it through for many years, albeit with a few ownership and brewer changes along the way. From the moment Kelly Sauber slipped on those brewery boots, the place had a chance. Kelly slowly improved and revamped may of the standard recipes like “True Meridian” amber lager and the MBC transition beer called “Georges First” all with the magic of Kelly’s propogated 2112 yeast strain (or as many called it 21,112 jokingly alluding to how many times the yeast was re-pitched). One of the keys to the longevity of MBC run was the fact that Kelly became a salesman of sorts, selling much more beer to the pubs in his hometown of Athens, OH, than was sold at the brewpub itself!

One of the best of MBC and Kelly’s beers was the Scotch Ale. Kelly used his gas-fired kettle to caramelize the first runnings to give the ale it’s extra caramel/malty kick. The only time he regretted this technique was when he became distracted one time, leaving the flame on and discoloring the bottom of his brew kettle!

Marietta will also find its place in regional brewing history along with Kelly for having produced what we all believe to be the first beer in the world made with paw-paws. “Paw-Paw Wheat” was always a big hit and sold out quickly. I don’t think the Paw-Paw recipe will die with the brewery however.

Of course, we have not heard the last gasp from Kelly Sauber and I will try to keep you all up to date with Kelly’s next act.

West Virginia Craft Beer Society is Building membership

Travis Carrow, a frequent BTY commentator and beer geek is now “catalyst” for what we all hope will be a craft beer revolution here in West Virginia. Travis called me a few weeks ago to discuss the need for a more formalized way for WV beer enthusiasts to communicate and build a consumer presence that could help build a healthy beer market. The result was The West Virginia Craft Beer Appreciation Society or WVCBAS. The website (www.wvcbas.com) is and forum is up and running. Please check it out and sign-up!

Another Beer Website that’s Worth a Sip.

The website www.greatbrewers.com is really good website that is operated by L. Knife and Son, a large east coast beer importer and distributor. Some might view this being in conflict with running an totally non-biased beer information site, but that does not seem to be a problem here.

One of the most useful features on the site is the “Beer Sommelier” web app, which assists you with beer and food pairings based on a few simple questions about your menu. There is also extensive resources to help you educate yourself on beer and beer styles.

“Oktoberwest” flew right under the BTY radar screen

I won’t take the sole blame for this, but I had no idea that Charleston’s West Side association was going to have an Oktoberfest celebration until 48 hours before the event. Where do my responsibilities to “bird-dog” this stuff end and their responsibility to advertise their event begin? If anyone can fill us in on what we missed, please do so!  Apparently there was beer. (Sam Adams Oktoberfest?)

(A sad violin plays in the background) What’s the matter Bubby? You say your beer-life has been a bit boring lately? Can’t seem to find that beer that sets the salivary glands in motion? You obviously haven’t been down the beer aisle at your local grocers lately…

Okay, I know many of you “hard-core” beer geeks are still left wanting; Stone and Avery haven’t made it here along with countless other great American brews. But, we are at a point where one can at least find one decent example of many of the most traditional, popular or trendy beer styles.

Earlier this year, The Boston Beer Company rolled out what they call their “Imperial Series”; a release of three relatively traditional beers that could be classified as “big”, but certainly not extreme. What’s the difference you ask? Well, I would generally say that the “extreme” moniker is used when the beer goes way-off the “traditional” reservation, like maybe an 11% Pilsner that’s brewed with cinnamon or something. On the other hand “big” is just big, which could mean big on the hops or maybe big in the alcohol department or both; you get the picture. The Sam Adams Imperial Series beers are big beers, with a little “extreme-ness” by way of a 10.3% witbier.

The first beer in the series is the Sam Adams Double Bock. This beer has been brewed as a seasonal beer by Boston Beer Company since 1988. The recipe is based upon and closely follows a very traditional German Doppelbock beer, with a very rich malty flavor and texture. The beer is stronger than its most traditional German counterparts.

Next we have the Imperial White Beer. A rich, spicy ale based on the Belgian Witbier style, though twice as strong as tradition would suggest. BBC’s brewers do a fine job of making this work at the higher abv levels. Traditional witbiers use citrusy spices to enhance the refreshing nature of the wheat based beer, but the spices in this bigger version work to add enough complexity to keep things interesting on the way up to 10% abv. I am going to leave one of these out for Santa this year along with his cookies…

Finally there is the Imperial Stout. This is the Sam Adams take on the beer style that was responsible for bringing the term “Imperial” to brewing as it was a style that was specifically brewed for Russia’s Catherine the Great; so you could technically say that this a 9.2%abv “chick beer”. Dark chocolate (cocoa) flavors dominate this rich and creamy beer. This is the beer you want for dessert, either by itself or paired with something like vanilla ice cream or something with cherries and cream.

The Boston Beer Company’s website covers each beer and also suggests food pairings. Three beers does not a food pairing toolkit make, but it’s a heck of a lot better than our options this time last year…

With the recent availability of many new and stronger beers here in WV, I thought it would be a good idea to revist a blog I posted about a year ago. The recipe in blog calls for dopplebock style beer which was not available in the state last year. I can now happily tell you that there are at least two excellent dopplebock beers available at most better beer retailers; Sam Adams Dopplebock (part of their Imperial Series) and the world-class Celebrator Dopplebock from Ayinger. Both of these beers play within the parameters of this classic beer style, with intense malty flavor and smooth finish, it’s almost difficult to peg these beers to be as strong as they are. Sam Adams is really more like a triple bock, at 9.5% abv where the standard range is more like 7% to 8% for German-brewed versions. Again, both meet the essential criteria and would do well with this recipe.

I would go as far as saying that the Celebrator would be a great beer to drink with it. I feel confident that the SA beer would work as well, especially if you serve the dish with a traditional German potato dumpling or some roasted hash browns with onions; the heartier, the better.

Or.. You could turn the recipe on its head by forgoing the dopplebock braising liquid altogether and substituting Trappist Westmalle Dubbel ale instead! (I dubbel-dog dare you…)

  Click Below for the recipe:
http://thegazz.com/gblogs/beerstoyou/2008/10/15/got-bock/

Scraps of fire fall
Though the air feels cooler and
The beer is darker

- Captain Hops (stolen from www.Beerhaikudaily.com)

It wasn’t so long ago when getting support for the idea of a local beer event was like pushing a rope up the street. In 2009, this is apparently no longer a problem. In the last week alone, I have received announcements for three new “beery” events along with two repeat events scheduled within the next month or so! Here is a rundown…

Sunday 9/13 – “Yuengs and Wings” at Appalachian Power Park. This event is sponsored by the West Virginia Power and The West Virginia Blues Society. The event features top blues artists and plenty of Yuengling beer.  (Eh…) For more info contact the WV Power at (304) 344-2287.

Saturday 9/19 – “Eers and Beers” at Appalachian Power Park. This free event is centered around the WVU vs. Auburn game which will be shown on the big screen. The event promises to have several WV craft beers available for tasting. Again, please contact the WV Power at (304) 344-2287.

Wednesday 9/23 – “Great Lakes Beer Tasting Dinner” at Bridge Road Bistro. Chef Robert Wong and Chef James Cookson have teamed up with Great Lakes Brewing Company to cook-up and fantastic and creative menu of goodies to pair with the awesome beers from Great Lakes. Reservations are required. For more info or to make reservation contact  the Bridge Road Bistro at 304-720-3500. I hope this is the first one of many beer dinners at the Bistro. Click here for Menu: brb-beer-dinner.pdf

Saturday 9/26 – “Friends of Clay Center Oktoberfest” at Appalachian Power Park. This annual event features several craft beers (included in the price), live music (contemporary and traditional) and a Cornhole tournament. The event runs from 1 to 5pm and admission is $25.00 at the gate. For more info, go to www.theclaycenter.com

Saturday 10/10 – The 2009 Bramwell Oktoberfest” at Bramwell, WV.  This venerable event takes place in the former robber baron town of Bramwell, WV once the home to more millionaires than other city in America. Drink craft beers from several regional breweries among the old Victorian-era mansions. Food and music are on tap as well. Go to www.bramwelloktoberfest.com for more info.

Saturday 10/17 -The 2nd Annual Upper Kanawha Valley Oktoberfest in downtown Montgomery, WV - I attended this event last year and was quite pleased with the experience (see my blog posting by clicking here). The event will feature authentic German beer and food, five bands (Yes, some German Ooompah music!) and a sanctioned chili cook-off. For more information contact Diane Wilson at 304-981-6400 or e-mail ukvedc@wvdsl.net. Information for Oktoberfest will be posted on the City of Montgomery’s Web site at  www.montgomerywv.org

Sitting in Spitalgarten drinking their dunkle beer. The biergarten overlooks the oldest bridge in Germany. The Bridge crosses The Danube and onto one of neatest “Altstadts” (old towns) in existence anywhere in Europe.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Folks, we have made it. We are running on adrenalin and a couple of Rauchbiers  to climb the modest hill to Spezial Keller overlooking Bamberg. The breeze is wafting through the trees and the smell of cooked swine is in the air. What else can I say but “I wish you were here”!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

You may think it’s a myth that monks actually brew beer. Well they actually  do! The typical “Monk Beer” is usually brewed by Trappist monks, though are a few others out there.  Of the seven remaining Trappist breweries, six are located within Belgium. The Trappists are an off-shoot of the Benedictine order of priests who follow the rules for monastic life as laid down by St. Benedict. Among these rules is for the monks to live by the work of their own hands, so the typical Trappist monastery may operate a bakery or brewery and will often make artisan cheese. When buying a Trappist-made product, social-consciousness is built-in. The typical monastery uses over half of all profits to benefit the surrounding townspeople as well as being sensitive to the environment.

Most of these monasteries are challenged by the increasing demand for their high quality products while struggling to maintain their numbers within their priestly population. This has resulted in the use of lay-people to run the majority of the production operations, though they are closely supervised by the Brothers. I have talked to some employees at a Trappist brewery and they are well taken care of and wouldn’t consider leaving.

Now let’s talk about the beer! Rochefort beers are identified by number; Rochefort 6, 8 and 10, being in order of strength (and complexity). I consider Rochefort 10 to be one of the finest ales in the world. Weighing in at 11.3%abv, R-10 is strong and very complex, layered with rich flavors of chocolate and bananas, making this a fantastic beer to pair with dessert (though it’s a dessert in itself!).  Rochefort 8 comes in less strong at 9.2%, but it packs similar complexity along with more of a wine-like fruity flavor layered in. Rochefort 6 will not disappoint at 7.5%abv, it is a simpler beer with bready notes of toasted raisin bread and is great with pungent cheese or grilled meats.

Abbey Westmalle offers only two beers simply called Dubbel and Tripel. Westmalle serves as the standard of the style for both its Dubbel and Tripel. Westmalle Dubble contains 7%abv and it magically balances rich malty and even sweet flavors with a clean tart finish. This is an ideal beer to go up against bold red wines like Zins or even softer Pinot-Noirs. Westmalle Tripel is a big blonde beer delivering a spicy, phenolic (clove) kick and weighs in at 9.5%. This is an awesome beer to pair with creamy or cheesy dishes. The beer finishes with a palate cleansing dryness.  

Authentic Trappist beers bear the mark of “The Trappist Shield” and are not to be confused with the many beers that denote themselves as Abbey beers or lead you to believe they are monastically brewed by being named after a Saint, for instance. An abbey beer is a beer that has some sort of affiliation (sometimes just a license arrangement) with a non-brewing abbey to produce beers bearing the abbey’s name. The other beers that merely use a holy name to brand their beers are just that; brands. The quality of such beers is wide ranging, many being world-class themselves like the St. Bernardus beers brewed in Watou Belgium.

These beers should be served at cellar temperature (between 55 and 65 degrees) and ideally served in a chalice shaped glass big enough to contain the large foamy head. Be gentle with the bottles before serving as these beers are all “bottle-conditioned” meaning there is a slug of yeast on the bottom. You may not want to stir-it-up by rough handling. The last “shot” of yeasty beer should not be wasted though. It contains a large healthy dose of B-complex vitamins to help your liver metabolize the alcohol. Divine Providence? - I am sure of it…