Top Shelf Thursday, June 2014: Staff Picks

Remember when video stores existed?  My loyalty was to Heads Together in Squirrel Hill before the near-death of the video rental store.  It was a cool place, run independently, stocking what they wanted.  The staff really knew their stuff & was super passionate about film.  The kind of business I can relate to.  They’d always have the most interesting movies on their “Staff Picks” shelves: this person was into horror movies, this one into documentaries, this one into foreign & indie stuff, etc.  Offering those up said “You may not have thought of checking this out, but I think you’ll like it”, gave it a cool personal touch, showing the trust the staff put in the customer, & vice versa.

So when our GM, John (himself a former video store manager), threw me the idea of doing a “Staff Picks” Top Shelf Thursday, it just seemed right.  Folks ask us for suggestions all the time, right?  The staff assembled a fairly diverse line-up, & we all have our different tastes & preferences, but can usually agree that good beer is good beer.

The first few submissions were pretty strong, intense brews, so I was a little relieved when Lisa added Timmermans Strawberry Lambicus, a delicate beer at 4% ABV.  The strawberry really shone here, with a very authentic note that balanced the sweet/tart interplay.  Nate’s course was also on the mild, subtle side, with Coniston Brewery’s Bluebird Bitter.  It’s rare to see an actual English bitter in these parts, & the simple grain & hop bill (just Maris Otter, crystal, & Challenger) packed a solid flavor into just 4.2%ABV.  Wheat beers may seem like a dime a dozen, but Dave’s choice of Ayinger Bräu Weisse showed us what a good, traditional Hefeweizen can be.  The smooth, creamy mouthfeel, assertive but balanced banana, lemon, & clove notes, & excellent drinkability make it apparent why this one of Dave’s faves.

Not inexplicably, things took a turn for the sour at this point.  TJ’s selection – Uinta’s 21^st Birthday Suit – delivered strong flavors of lemon curd balanced by a bracing lactic acidity.  Uinta did a great job with this sour farmhouse ale, the third in their now-annual sour anniversary beers.  And trust Jason to grab a sour, as well.  Goose Island’s Madame Rose, a Flanders-style brown aged in wine barrels with sour cherries, was as complex & acidic as they come.

The one aggressively hop-forward beer of the night came to us via Sadie’s pick: Green Flash Road Warrior.  Green Flash created a bitter & sweaty double IPA, through the inclusion of rye in the grain bill & dry-hopping with Amarillo & Mosaic.

We hit double digit alcohol with Amanda’s choice: Cocoa Psycho from Scotland’s BrewDog.  This imperial stout’s ingredients read like a laundry list of stout additives, with cocoa nibs, vanilla pods, coffee, & toasted oak chips.  Sounds like a super-team, right?  Chris’s pick of AleSmith’s Speedway Stout was a no-brainer.  This classic American big boy was a great follow-up to the Cocoa Psycho, raising the booze to 12% & showing off intense roast notes from the addition of coffee.

We took to the wood for the final two (though, surprisingly, there were no bourbon barrel beers among the picks).  In one case, the wood hailed from Paraguay, with John’s selection of Dogfish Head’s Palo Santo Marron.  The imperial brown ale assumed an interestingly fruity twist from its time spent in a huge vat made of Paraguayan Palo Santo wood harvested by the Dogfish Head team themselves.  The other wood came in the form of tequila barrels.  Agave Maria, from The Lost Abbey, struck its own unique chord from the addition of agave nectar in the beer, given depth by the ten months spent in anejo & reposado tequila barrels.

Following the tasting, guests voted on their favorite, before we revealed who chose what.  The crowd had a tongue for sours, apparently, as both TJ’s & Jason’s picks tied for second.  But the winner was our “ringer” beer, Agave Maria, submitted not by one person, but a consensus of multiple staff members.  Just another example of democracy in action!  As always, thanks to all who came out, enjoyed, & played along.  See you next month!

Keepin' It Fresh

Be sure to thank TJ next time you see him.

We at The House are not perfect.  This business was started from the ground up & has grown very organically.  We weren’t always the House of 1000 Beers – years ago, it was a thrill to tout that we carried 200 different beers.  Over time, good beer has grown & expanded incrementally, steadily.  We have somehow been able to keep pace with it for the most part, & now carry a pretty massive stock.  Actually very massive, & we’ve gone through innumerable transformations, trying to flex our space to accommodate the ever-larger number of brands & bottles in our shelves & coolers.  It ain’t easy, especially while also trying to maintain space for the bodies.  Few establishments in the area struggle with the combined challenges of being both a bottleshop & a functioning bar within the same space, both with their own needs & swell.  It amazes me sometimes, how seldom the sound of busting glass echoes through our humble House. 

We’re big on beer, but are still a small business.  While other noteworthy local beer joints – themselves small businesses – have opened second, third, or fifth locations, we’re still here in New Ken.  We’ve got a small staff, barely in the double-digits, & rarely are more than four people max on shift at one time.  We work our asses off, & pride ourselves on things running as smoothly as they do.  The coolers get stocked, the trash gets taken out, the customers get served, the floor gets mopped at the end of the night.  But occasionally…

We feel fortunate to make a living selling & celebrating one of mankind’s most beloved creations.  That creation needs care, however, & is sometimes high maintenance.  Beer can be downright fussy.  The wrong lighting, or too much lighting, & it skunks.  The wrong temperature & it oxidizes, aging too quickly & tasting like cardboard.  Too long on the shelf & the flavors fade & muddle.  As craft beer grows, so does the concern over proper handling & serving.  The issue of freshness dating has gotten a lot of traction lately, with more & more companies putting either “Bottled on” or “Enjoy by” on the label.  Stone took a huge step in releasing a series of beers with “Enjoy By” right in the name, leaving no room for doubt or oversight as to its freshness.  The Brewer’s Association is calling for freshness dating to be industry standard, for the benefit of both the producers & consumers.

Again…we’re not perfect.  With a huge inventory & small staff, it’s no mystery how bottles can fall through the cracks & remain on the shelves weeks, sometimes months after their recommended consumption date.  It’s egg on our face when someone buys a bottle only to return it (or, more embarrassingly, complain about it on-line) because it’s old.  It happens.  Beer does not “spoil” in the same way that milk does – nothing harmful that can grow in the low pH, ethanol-rich environment of beer.  It won’t make you sick.  But it can taste off, even gross, sometimes when it’s gone over the cliff.  IPAs are notoriously short-lived, along with most lagers, wheats, or any style that’s light or hop-forward.  Pliny the Elder’s label explicitly says “Does not improve with time!  Do not save for a rainy day!”  Many other IPAs’ branding has followed suit.

We care about beer, & we realize that we need to constantly be improving our own quality control to keep up with the expectations of our customers & give that liquid the respect it deserves.  Again, we’re not perfect, & there have been enough fouls in the past that we’re taking some action.  Our “House Viking”, TJ, is undertaking a massive overhaul of our stock room, combing through the rows upon stacks upon aisles to ensure that any old stuff is weeded out.  Beers found out of date are being discounted & sold either in our Mix 6 section or $1 shelves.  Take note that any beers with crossed-off pricetags have been “relocated” to this area because of their age, & make an informed buying decision.  Sometimes age turns a beer crappy, sometimes it just turns it into a different beer.  One customer was happy to find some discounted Brooklyn Monster on the Mix 6 shelves; this beer’s been discontinued by the brewery &, being a barleywine, should not suffer at all from sitting out for a while. 

We’re doing what we can for the good of the brew, & ask the same from others in the chain.  We’d like to see more breweries putting “Best by” dates on the labels, clearly, sans inscrutable coding or laser etching that smears or wasn’t legible to begin with.  We’d like our distributors to be mindful of product that’s been collecting dust & please not bring it to us in the first place.  And we ask you, the customer, for your patience & cooperation.  It wouldn’t hurt for the shopper to check for dates themselves – try as we might, it’s much harder for us to scan thousands of bottles than it is for a customer to check the dozen or so they’re grabbing.  And if you do notice something past its prime, please tell an employee so we can do something about it.  We’ll be forever grateful.

It’s a good sign that concerns like this are rising to the surface, a sign that more people are becoming aware of beer & how to do it right.  Together, we can make it happen.  And yeah, if you see TJ, tell him “Thanks”.  Maybe buy him a pint.

No Walez in Pittsburgh, Bro

If you’ve followed this blog for long, you might have noticed that I don’t offer much commentary on the Pittsburgh beer scene.  I’ve mentioned different local bars, beers, or breweries, usually as illustrations or part of a story - the overwhelming majority of my craft beer experience has been here.  I seldom share opinion or critique on the state of Pittsburgh’s beer scene.  In part, I’ve been busy.  I don’t get out as much as I used to, & these days have fewer “real life” experiences pounding the pub pavement than in the past.  I get most of my interaction on-line – forums, social media - & there are enough local & vocal personalities buzzing to feel like I’m keeping abreast of goings-on. 

Like the rest of America’s craft beer culture, Pittsburgh’s seen a steep incline in activity, & the slope gets higher & higher.  More bars & bottleshops popping up or getting in on the game.  More breweries.  Penn & Church Brew Works were long the stalwarts, the latter opening in 1998, the former in 1987; Rock Bottom came along in 2002.  When East End started up in 2005, I can’t say it opened the flood gates, but it gave others the idea that, hey, we can do this too, paving the way for Rivertowne in 2007, Voodoo in 2008, & Full Pint in 2010 (I’m obviously including greater southwestern PA in the “Pittsburgh scene”).  Then in 2011 we welcomed Helltown, All Saints, & Draai Laag.  Roundabout, CoStar, Hop Farm, Four Seasons, & ShuBrew started up last year, & now in just over the past month we’ve seen four new additions in Hitchhiker, Brew Gentlemen, Grist House, & Milkman.  Many of those already in operation have expanded in different ways – East End’s new brewery & soon-to-be-brewpub; Rivertowne & North Country adding both production breweries & canning lines; Voodoo’s brewpub & exploding barrel program, & talk of a second location in the city.  This is just a microcosm of the greater American scene, & expansion’s afoot all over the friggin’ place!  I’ve gotta be forgetting a few, or sleeping on the details (not sure when North Country or Timber Creek opened, exactly).  And there’s always that red-headed stepchild…

One refrain that’s repeated a lot among the geekhood is “When?”  “When is that beer gonna come along to really put Pittsburgh on the map?  Where’s our Heady?  Our Hunahpu?  Our Kate the Great?  WE NEED TRADE BAIT!!!”  East End’s Gratitude releases have been a big event, attracting scores if not hundreds of attendees (though this is a fairly recent thing, & has met with its share of complications), & Voodoo’s Barrel Room releases bring the hordes.  Hop Farm’s Margot release was a draw, too, yet the beer geeks still seem unsatisfied.  Where’s that WORLD CLASS BREWERY we’ve been waiting for?  When’s Fayette County going to get a Hill Farmstead?

I’m not sure what it is the natives are so restless about.  Is it a pride thing, like having a brewery featured in GQ is like another Super Bowl ring?  Do we want other on-line geeks storming our borders?  Are we so ready to have our spot blown up?  Is it about trade bait?  I used to bemoan the scarcity of local whalez, too, until I stopped caring about that stuff & started appreciating what’s around for me to drink.  Not a ton of imperial stouts, wild ales, west coast IPAs, etc.  But you know what?  Brown used to be one of my least favorite styles, but I came to realize that three of my favorite brown ales are brewed locally (East End Fat Gary, Helltown Mischievous, & Full Pint Little Brown).  Munich Dunkels typically don’t make the hardcore salivate, but I really dig Penn Dark & Church’s Pious Monk.  Dunkelweizen is not something I usually go wild for, but I tried the All Saints/Helltown Dark Angel collab during PCBW & was really impressed – such depth of flavor & character coming from such a humble beer. 

There’s been chatter for years now about The Bubble.  Is this rapid expansion sustainable?  When will it pop?  What will the fallout look like?  The US is able to keep more than twice the number of wineries in business as it currently does breweries.  Why?  Because most wineries are small & local, serving a slice of the public that looks the same.  There will definitely be big craft breweries to carry us into the future, no doubt, but I think the local boys are part of that movement, that evolution.  I think things will be more sustainable once we all calm down & appreciate what’s around us. 

Doughnuts & Beer

It’s National Doughnut Day!  The past 24 hours have given me cause to question some of my own convictions & backpedal a little.  I’ve written in the past on my skepticism of the success of pairing beer with food (with the exception of cheese).  An especially big hole in the argument for food & beer pairing, for me, was dessert.  Rich, sweet desserts have been a really formidable challenge – any sweetness the beer packs is usually way overwhelmed by chocolate, sugar, concentrated fruit, etc., leaving the beer a bitter, hollow shell of itself.

But y’know…I was listening to a salon from Savor led by Dr. Bill Sysak, Stone’s beverage supervisor & the “grandfather of beer geeks”.  He was pairing beers with artisanal doughnuts from a doughnut/fried chicken place in DC (sounds awesome, right?), & it really whet my appetite to give this another try.  I live close to one of the area’s most beloved bakeries, & am really tempted right now to grab a half-dozen fatty, sweet pastries & hunker down with a few glasses of beer.  Keep in mind, I haven’t done this yet – it may be a disaster.  But damn does it sound good!

Okay, the thing to remember is that, yeah, doughnuts are pretty heavy, flavorful foods, so the beers should pack a punch of taste of their own if they hope to not get plowed over.  Here’s an instance where bigger will probably be better – higher ABV, higher volume of ingredients, higher likelihood of matching the doughnuts’ intensity.  I think I’ve also run into trouble in the past with redundant flavors – no matter how big, a chocolate beer will just get squashed by a chocolate doughnut, so aim for complementing.  A couple possibilities come to mind:

--Coffee imperial stouts/porters:  The bitter roast of coffee is the doughnut’s better half, & while there are “regular” stouts & porters with coffee, I think the intensity here will be a must, once again.  Pretty much any doughnut will fit the bill here, but I’ll go for my favorites, a classic, simple cake or sour cream.

--Barleywines:  Especially English-style, which carry a lot more toffee & caramel notes, along with some dried fruit, than their American brethren.  However, I can also see the potential in a hot, hoppy west coast barleywine, with some candied orange & pineapple notes. 

--Thick fruit beers:  You know what I’m thinking – Lindemans.  Sweet, rich fruit with a hint of balancing tartness.  Get a simple glazed yeast doughnut, & a sweet fruit beer, & make a jelly doughnut in your mouth.  Other fruit beers will work, but again, you’ve got to keep in mind to match intensity, & few fruit beers are as intense as these babies – it’s like a flute of sorbet.

--Rauchbier:  Liquid bacon, right?  Grab a maple doughnut & go to town.  I’ve found that a lot of other smoked beers don’t quite have that cured, salty taste that German Rauchbiers do, particularly the Ur-Bock & Eiche from Aecht Schlenkerla.

--Double IPA:  Sounds insane, right?  Super-sweet with super-bitter.  Patron saint Randy Mosher is a big proponent of the “matter/anti-matter” pairing of IPA & carrot cake, taking contrast to new heights.  Personally, I’d go for a doughnut with cream cheese icing to put next to a double IPA.  DIPAs on the citric side can cut the heaviness, & those on the sweet side tend to carry cakey notes that might go well with a doughnut.  Try it out!

Keep in mind these are just a few suggestions – the real thesis of the Dr. Bill presentation was that there really no rules to beer & food pairing, so go nuts.  You might stumble on something transcendent.  With beer, anything is possible.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some research to do.

Rambling Thoughts on Session Beer

I’m in the midst of a “session”, I guess.  By that, I mean I’m drinking several beers in a row.  That’s a “session”, see?  And when I’m in the midst of serial drinking, the opinions start to flow.  For instance: have you noticed that more & more “session” beers are appearing on the shelves?  A few months ago, I playfully hypothesized that the “session” IPAs would replace the adjunct lager as the monolithic American beer style, given a hundred years or so.  We’re far from there yet, but the “session” IPA seems to be one of the fastest expanding sub-categories right now.  In some ways, it seems very transparent & cynical that more breweries are churning out this concoction – literally every week there’s another one or two floating around.  The skeptical, eye-rolling oldhead in me wants to criticize brewers for jumping onto a growing bandwagon.  But I was listening to a podcast episode on the way home from work today (Craft Beer Academy interviewing ShuBrew’s Zach Shumaker) & was reminded of the craft beer truism: “We brew what we want to drink”.  Sure, brewers are running a business & need to sell beer, but if this is the wave that they’re catching, why wouldn’t they just want to take their own stab at it?  If Ken Grossman drinks a DayTime Fractional IPA & says “Damn!”, why wouldn’t he want to make one, too?  It’s nice having an epiphany that helps overcome cynicism.

I use quotation marks around “session” up to this point (I’ll stop…now!) because there seems to be some controversy about what the term means.  Within the context of the recent craft surge, the focus is on the effect: Can you drink multiple session beers & still be fairly functional?  How functional do you have to be, exactly?  The idea is there, but it’s pretty subjective – I’ve seen beers as strong as 6% ABV called session beers, & if you ask me, that’s really pushing it.  Others (Lew Bryson, Martyn Cornell, & the infamously tenacious Adrien “Ding” Dingle) put a specific figure on the upper limit, anywhere from 4% (the latter) to 4.5% (the former).  It’s a debate of the letter of the law vs. the spirit, though personally, I’d rather see a definite number attached.  Maybe that’s just my need for categorization, the same that makes me wring my hands over stylistic parameters.  Ding makes the good point, though, that session beer has a tradition in England that has existed aside from just the ABV cap, whereas it’s a relatively new phenomenon in the US, & thus the US craft beer is struggling to establish (some artificially) its own parameter, one that diverges from the English boundaries.

It’s not all about ABV, though.  As much as the word “session” causes some controversy, the word “drinkable” has made a few beer geeks bristle as well.  Does it mean “easy to drink” or “enjoyable”?  Though accepted in craft circles traditionally (BeerAdvocate used to use it as a criteria in rating a beer, along with smell, taste, mouthfeel, & appearance), one of the big boys hijacked it in an ad campaign a few years ago.  I read this as a passive-aggressive insinuation that craft, with its generally ratcheted up flavor & alcohol level, was the opposite of drinkable.  If macro lager is drinkable, craft must be UN-drinkable, right?  Not a favorable adjective.  “Un-sessionable” is more diplomatic than “undrinkable”, implying that an imperial stout is something you can have more than, say, two of.  Fair enough.  And low ABV doesn’t equate to being sessionable, either.  Take a lambic from Lindemans: most are in the 3.5% to 5% range, but they’re sipping beers - rich, sweet, & full-bodied.  I’d have trouble sitting over a session putting back a few Lindemans.  It’s about lightness, ease of consumption.  God forbid, though, you use the phrase “light IPA”.  Again, gonna put out there that, like light lager has ruled for decades, session IPAs could come to be the reigning paradigm.  I can see it now - “Founders All Day IPA, the official beer sponsor of the Super Bowl”.  

Oh yeah – if something’s gonna be “sessionable”, it should cost less, too.  Fewer ingredients, right?  Pass the savings along.  This would be help encourage session drinking, too; if something’s meant to be drunk serially, why should it cost the same as something that’s meant for single consumption?  Lower the ABV, lower the volume of materials, lower the price.  Wishful thinking?  Enjoy your beer, everybody.