Seattle Stumbles, part II-

So where was I? Oh yeah. When last we left our intrepid hero, he was reluctantly vacating the beginnings of an epic microbrewery crawl to go watch a USL 1st Division soccer game that didn’t even feature the team he supported…

(Hold on a sec while Mark bitchslaps himself for using this third-person prose)

OK. Whew. I’m good. Anyway, there’s something to be said for watching soccer on a field demarcated for football in a nearly vacant 70,000-seat stadium. The open seating for the 3,000 or so Seattle Sounders fans in attendance was all on the east side of the field, and acres of folded blue jumpseats towered over us like a permanently cresting wave as we kicked back with our Rogue IPA (a very nice touch for the stadium vendors). The only way this place could’ve been emptier is if the Cleveland Browns were in town.

Five or six $8 Rogues later (Hey, our hero TOLD you he was intrepid), we tottered off the the nearby Pyramid Brewing Company, nestled in the shadow of Safeco Field.

With an MLB park across the street, and an NFL stadium the next block up, Pyramid is geared for mass service. A large, crescent-shaped bar serves as the focal point for the cavernous seating and merch area. The brewery sits in a glass-enclosed room off to the side.

“Hi, I’m John from Spokane,” slurs the guy next to me. He’d been holding that stool down for a while.

“Hi. How’s the beer?”

“It’s awesome. I like the Curve Ball [Koelsch] the best.”

Based on this recommendation, I promptly ordered a Hefeweizen, the beer for which Pyramid is famous, despite their weird marketing campaign insisting patrons receive a lemon in it.

Pyramid Brewing, sponsored by the citrus industry

John wasn’t done with me. He moved to Spokane from Fort Lauderdale, and really likes the Pacific Northwest, partly because of the beer and also partly because it looks less stupid to walk around in flannel than in a wifebeater. I bought him another Curve Ball and settled in for some serious Weizenation.

Hefeweizen is one of those styles that really benefitted from the tenacity of American brewers. Five years ago, American Hefes sucked. The characteristc banana/clove notes imparted by the yeast were usually absent. The space above the beer where your nose goes was often suffused with a swampy, sump-pump odor, and the liquid sometimes had a weird yellow-green tinge. The fact that breweries like Pyramid are now producing excellent Hefeweizen, with perfect apricot coloring and a big, soapy head, is one of those things that instills patriotic pride within me. I drank two. And a Curve Ball Koelsch for John’s sake.

There’s a fine line between ‘critic’ and ‘idiot’

It’s simple evolution; a mediocre brewery would not be allowed to survive in this capitol of beer. My only regret about the Seattle trip was a lack of time to visit the other breweries. This will be rectified sometime this winter. In the words of a Great Seattleite, KAMPAI! (Oh, and Ichiro, get your ass over to the Yankees. We could use you in right field).

Thank you, Michael Jackson

We have felt the passing of a legend. Through his writing Michael Jackson unlocked a new world and a new passion for me. I am grateful.

-Mark

Beer in Seattle: Elysian Brewing Company

To many, the Pacific Northwest is the Bordeaux region of American brewing. A good chunk of the microbrewery movement got its start in the top left corner of the country and most American hops are grown there. After a whirlwind weekend in Seattle, I’m pleased to report that the beer is as good as you’d expect, despite the city’s mawkish obsession with espresso-based coffee drinks.

The problem with spending such a short time in as interesting a place as the Emerald City is you’re quickly overwhelmed with things to do. the other issue is that, although home to a ton of breweries, the place is really spread out. Thus I was limited to the physical premises of Elysian Brewing Company and Pyramid Brewing, although I tried beer from many others over the course of the weekend.

Elysian Brewing’s tap room

Elysian takes up an avenue corner in the trendy/seedy Capital Hill district, a roomy glass-fronted box perched at the halfway point of a steep incline. The place might have been an old car dealership, or something. Judging from the beer names, the owners enjoy their Athenian history.

My buddy Brian neck-deep in Elysian’s “The Immortal” IPA

IPA is the beer to order at Elysian. “The Immortal” is excellent, with a tantalizing citrus bite that makes you wonder if, like salmon from Puget Sound, the hops weren’t harvested from that day. I mean, obviously they weren’t; there wouldn’t be time to brew and ferment the beer, but there’s a freshness to Elysian’s draft Immortal that I hadn’t encountered before.

The preciously-named Perseus Porter stands out as well. There’s a dry, bready quality to the finish that I vastly prefer to the more common cloying sweet aftertaste of porter. There’s caramel and mocha in the aroma, ahd a hint of that in the flavor, but they accentuate the dry, roasted character of the beer instead of dominating it. The Perseus is capped off by a back-of-tongue bitterness that brings the beer into balance; This is the product of a skillful brewer.

Most of the other beers rocked as well. Nancy was on the Hefeweizen like Persephone on a pomegranate. “The Wise” ESB held its own, as well. The Zephyrus Pilsner disappointed, though, with a noticeable diacetyl flavor and a surprising lack of bitterness in the finish, considering they got the bitter flavor so right in the IPA.

Anyway, an hour at Elysian, and we were off to 70,000-seat Qwest Field to slurp Red Hook ESB and join 3,999 fellow soccer junkies as the Seattle Sounders defeated the Charleston Battery. Then, off to the nearby Pyramid Brewing company- a place which will be discussed at length in tomorrow’s post.

-Mark

Beercraft Newspaper Column #46- You, too, can homebrew

<I’m still in Seattle, flying back on the redeye tonight. Get ready for a big post on microbreweries of the Emerald City. For now, here’s this week’s newspaper column.

Homebrewing is the best thing you can do in your kitchen

Home brewers are the reason we have craft beer today.

As recently as 25 years ago, the beer aisle was a depressing place; a frigid wasteland stocked with half a dozen brands of watery lagers, and it didn’t matter which one you picked, because they were all clones of each other anyway. When you hear jokes about American beer, this is the beer they’re talking about. Needless to say, it was hard for people to be passionate about beer, and those who wanted styles outside the mainstream had little choice but to get a vat, some barley, yeast and hops, and try to make their own.

Out of this first wave of home brewers came the original microbrewers, opening tiny brewpubs all over the country and sewing the seeds for today’s regional craft breweries. Even though the beer selection for most Americans has vastly improved, home brewing as a hobby is stronger than ever, and it’s easier to get started than you might think.

Home brewer Thomas Barnes received a hands-on initiation to the hobby. “I was invited over to watch a friend do a batch,” he explained, “then I bought a home brewing kit and he talked me through it.”

Barnes, 42, has spent the last 8 years expanding his brewing skills, growing ever more confident and creative. He remains mostly an extract brewer, using malt syrup instead of actually milling and mashing the grain, although he does use a partial-grain mash when a recipe calls for it.

It’s innovations like malt extract syrup that make home brewing more accessible to the novice nowadays. Neophytes can progress in stages, beginning with a simple “dump and stir” all-inclusive home brewing kit and progressing to more advanced methods as they grow their knowledge and skills “A home brewing kit is 60 to 80 bucks, and it’s handy because you get a fun little book on how to brew.” Barnes says. He also points out that if attention is paid to the temperature of fermentation, those innocuous little kits can produce some decent beer.

According to Barnes, the minimum equipment you’ll need to get started as a home brewer is a 5 gallon stock pot, a stove, a food-grade 5 gallon plastic bucket, an airlock for the bucket, food-grade plastic tubing for siphoning, and a bottle of bleach for sanitation. Setups for advanced home brewers are usually a great deal more complex than this, but you can grow your brewery in parallel with your abilities as a brewer.

“Brewing with all-grain instead of malt extract is more difficult, but ultimately allows more control over the beer’s character,” says Patrick Hughes, a computer science student and 6-year home brewing veteran. Like Barnes, Hughes started out assisting a friend of his who was an experienced home brewer.

“I was looking for a hobby that didn’t involve drinking beer in front of the computer,” Hughes, uh, explains. “My buddy and I started brewing beer. We didn’t go all-grain until the 4th or 5th time.”

Hughes, 33, offers a practical example of how little space is required to actually operate a home brewery. The diminutive kitchen of his second-floor duplex apartment comfortably serves as a brewing space, Kegging station, and fermenting area, with plenty of room left over for less important things like cooking and cleaning up.

From time to time, cleanup can be a serious issue in home brewing. “I decided to brew a Russian imperial stout,” Barnes relates. “The fermentation was so lively that I blew the airlock off and got black-colored goop all over the inside of my friend’s teacher’s shirt closet. He thought it was really funny except for the cleaning bill and the mop-up.”

When asked about how a newbie could screw up their first batch of beer, both Barnes and Hughes agree that sanitation is key. Disinfecting everything that comes in contact with the nascent beer prevents unwanted microorganisms from infecting the brew and making it really freaking horrible. Other key points are watching the stove closely for boil-over and making sure that the fermenting temperature is constant, even, and not too high. Home brewing books will detail proper temperatures for different styles of beer.

A wealth of information has been published on home brewing. One of the earliest books on the subject, still considered the home brewer’s bible today, is The Complete Joy of Home brewing by Charlie Papazian. Barnes also recommends John J. Palmer’s How to Brew as a more technical resource.

New brewers who’d like to benefit from the knowledge and experience of a group can attend meetings of the Upstate New York Home brewers’ Association (UNYHA). Association members are happy to offer advice, discuss technique, and share both knowledge and beer. Meetings and events are detailed on their website (www.unyha.com). With a little study and experience, novice home brewers can quickly turn into capable crafters of beer, adept at brewing various styles to exacting specifications.

When you get there, give us a call. We’ll bring the growlers.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://beercraft.wordpress.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.

IEDs in your beer fridge!

As if promoting beer as a sophisticated beverage isn’t hard enough, now we have exploding Harpoon bottles. The Brewery has issued an urgent warning about its 22oz. bottles of Peche, which apparently exhibit a disturbing tendency to detonate due to the pressure of the secondary fermentation.

If you have any 22 ounce Pêche bottles, please carefully un-cap the bottles – if possible without moving them. We would recommend wearing protective eyewear and/or shrouding the bottle with a hand towel while un-capping.

Fewer explosions. Another way the Belgian lambics will always be superior to their American imitators

Beer School today: Belgian style ales

The best quality of American microbrewers is adaptability. Well, that and a fearlessness to try unorthodox things. They’re not afraid to make shitty copies of foreign beer styles over and over again until they get it right.

When it comes to Abbey ales, many have gotten it right. I won’t say that the beers of Ommegang, Unibroue and other North American brewers are on par with their Flemish exemplars, but they’ve still gotten pretty darn good.

If you live in Rochester, come on down to Monty’s Korner, on the corner of East Avenue and Alexander Street, tonight at 7:30 for a free tasting and (mercifully brief) discussion of these fine heritage beers.

In praise of vintage beers, and the beckoning of the West Coast

Beer never ceases to amaze me.

Just when you thought you’ve become wise in its ways, the beverage shows appeal from a whole new angle. Sure, I’d had some cellared beer before- a couple of Belgian ales my friend Bob pulled from storage in his basement- but at no point did I take the time to really pay attention to the possibilities offered by keeping your bottled stuff around for a few years. Thanks to Jules Suplicki and The Old Toad’s vintage beer dinner, I’ve learned that my education has only just begun.

it was the Aventinus that opened my eyes; a 2002 Schneider Weizenbock the flavor of which sprang beyond the expected earthy banana/clove notes, mellowing into toffee, raisin, and currant tones. It was unlike anything I’d tried with “Weizen” in the name, dancing perilously close to Trappist Ale territory, yet maintaining its own character and mouthfeel. Needless to say, it went perfectly with the apple galette (I guess that’s French for “sorbet”) with which it was served.

I’m going to explore vintage beer further, maybe even do the next column on it. If anyone has suggestions for what to cellar, I’d love to hear them.

-Mark
By the way, we’ll be heading to Seattle this weekend to check up on the epicenter of American microbrewing. I’m currently collecting reommendations on what to try and where to go. The more stops I make, the better the travelogue, so if you know a beer or a brewery, let me know.

(editor’s note) I googled “galette.” It turns out the name refers to the crumbly cookie thing upon which my orb of mint-garnished apple sorbet rested. Delicious.

Work in progress… definitely progressing

The transformation of the old Gregory Street MacGregor’s into the best beer bar in the United States continues.

Most people, having purchased a defunct drinking establishment, would be content to clean up a bit, maybe slap on a coat of paint, hang some new clutter on the walls and call it a grand opening. Not Joe and Casey. They’re all about the manual labor.

They ripped out the old bar and hand-built a new one on the opposite side of the main room. They made the old corner doors the main entrance again, building a vestibule around it and laying stonework on the floor within. They found an old “Gorf” machine in the basement (which I tried to buy, but was told it doesn’t work).

A view down the new bar toward the new main entrance

Wipe your feet! The vestibule in all its glory

Another view of the bar. It’s even level!

Gorf

I understand the effort the guys are putting into the place. After all, if you’re going to drink well crafted beer, shouldn’t you do so in a well-crafted pub? It’s still hard to tell under the sawdust and scrapwood, but this place is obviously going to have the crap crafted out of it.

Hopefully, they’ll still make a September opening. McBane has yet to come up with the name, but he says he’s close on a few. Here are some suggestions of mine that definitely won’t make the final cut:

• The Drink & Drive
• The County Executive’s Head
• The Broken Water
• Shawcross Inn
• The Lucky Liver
• Waterdown’s
• SouthWedgie’s
• The Porter Potty
• The Crown & Other Crown
• The Spirit of Ontario

Whatever they call the place, it’s gonna be great. I can’t wait to hoist my first pint on premise.

-Mark

Guest post: Want a cigar with your beer?

we’re really not cigar guys, but Freetime Reader Tim Knab wrote up an overview of some good spots to relax with a smoke and a brew. As an aside, i’m tolerating Knab’s gratuitous mention of the Red Sox in each freakin’ paragraph, only because he put so much work into the post. -Mark

Tim Knab’s places to have a cigar and a beer in Rochester, NY

1) Don Cisso’s Cigar Factory and Café on State Street just north of Kodak Tower. Cisso’s is a great place that is frequented by every genre of Rochesterian. A favorite among fire and policemen, politicians, white and blue collar workers and even celebrities making a visit to town. Inside you’ll find every flavor of cigar you could imagine, all hand rolled either in the Dominican Republic or in person by resident roller Bonilla. Narcisso Martinez, better known as “Cisso” even after your first visit, always makes people feel like they are long lost friends. Fine wines from around South America, beers such as Dominican “El Presidente” are favorites of the regulars and visitors alike. Cisso is a diehard Boston Red Sox fan, but still respects the views of the “Wrong Yankees fans”. His family includes the Alomars of Major League Baseball and they are well represented in pictures on the wall along with others such as Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton that he has met over the years or who have visited his Cigar Factory in Rochester. During your first visit, you’ll learn the etiquette is to introduce yourself to each person seated or standing inside and the faces become familiar with frequent visits.

2) Mr. Nice Guys Smoke Shop Located in the Bathtub Billy’s plaza on Ridge Road West in Rochester. Mr. Nice Guys is a great gathering place for members and those looking to become members of a cigar club. Humidors are able to be rented by members and there is a stocked bar of bottled beers, non-alcoholic beverages and coffees and liquors. Mr. Nice Guys offers pool tables, Golden Tee, Darts as well as one of the largest saltwater tanks I’ve ever seen. The lounge includes leather couches and chairs as well as flat screens up to 70” for watching anything your heart desires practically or playing XBOX in full scale. The Smoke Shop features all of the top names of cigars and the attached accessory shop offers the finest in smoking accessories.

3) Havana Moe’s Cigar Lounge 125 East Avenue, Moe’s is well known to East End clientele and Boston Red Sox fans in town. Moe’s is actually the most “bar like” of the choices above. There is a long wooden bar that flows from the front of the establishment to the back and offers draft beer, bottled beers, full bar and of course a wide selection of cigars. Several games line the side wall and the tables outside on the sidewalk are always full of people enjoying a smoke and drink. Practically every Boston Red Sox game is on one of the TV’s inside and a conversation about Big Papi or Manny can be overheard somewhere. This is a great place to visit or bring visitors that may not like the “Cigar Club” scene as Moe’s feels like a bar that allows you to smoke inside as opposed to a cigar club that allows you to drink.

Lessons learned from the Flour City Brewfest

I won’t say that the Flour City Brewers Fest is a clear-cut example of how not to run a brewfest. John Urlaub, proprietor of the Rohrbach Brewing Company, has organized this event year after year, and it always goes off without a hitch (apart from the inevitable annual torrential downpour).

Two things, however, were different this year. The venue changed from the High Falls festival site to the left-field concourse under the stands of Rochester’s AAA baseball stadium, and the Fest was compressed to one evening instead of two. The limited space in the concourse tunnel and the concentration of two days’ worth of attendees into one caused a crush of humanity that, from 7:00 on, sucked the fun out of the Brewer’s Fest.

If you were a dilligent beer drinker, and got there around the 5:00 opening time, you were treated to a comprehensive array of New York beers from Brewery Ommegang, Southern Tier, Lake Placid, and others, as well as Magic Hat and Otter Creek from further afield. Once the annual rainstorm abated, the patio are gave way to pleasant beer conversation and an amiable sampling environment.

Beercrafter Pat Hughes getting blurry, courtesy of Roosterfish Brewing

Relaxing on the open-air patio

Bruce dispensing beer knowledge at the Rohrbach stand

As the crowd grew more, uh, crowded, things got a bit different. Lines grew much longer than the one or two volunteers per booth could handle. People who just got a pour had difficulty getting out through the throng. Food lines snaked 70 people deep.

It looked, more than anything else, like the Delta terminal at JFK.

Most disappointing of all, with no way to replenish their stock and facing such a concentrated, larger-than-expected crowd, brewers were running out of beer while some people were still outside ponying up their $25 entrance fee.

Jeez, you’d think the Yankees were in town

The outside patio area: less comfortable

Although festival attendees were primarily young, drunk, and constantly jostled, the mood stayed very upbeat and positive. I saw no evidence of security being anything more than bored, so please don’t take this post as alarmist or reactionary. I really think festival organizers did a good job of adapting themselves to the changing realities of the evening, and I know they’re aware that the whole setup needs to be tweaked for next year. Still, we have to remember, it could have been worse.
The Frontier Field site actually offers clear advantages for both participants and attendees. The stadium’s permanent food stands are geared toward serving large crowds, and the built in bathrooms are far superior to the dreaded smelly-ass Port-a-Johns you usually get at these events.

My suggestion: Open the entire concourse instead of only the left-field half. That would better distribute the crowd.

Oh, and tell the brewers to bring more beer.

-Mark