Porterhouse Brewing

This weekend, everyone will be Irish for a day as we celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick, more commonly known as St. Patrick’s Day (though I prefer the alternative, ‘All Hangovers’ Eve’).  Folks will don their green garb, raise a pint, & shed a tear for dear old Eire, or maybe just yell WOOOOO!!! a lot & then post it on YouTube.  Whether celebration are reverent or revelrous, chances are many will lift a glass & toast with the black stuff, a Pint of Plain, as Guinness has become almost as iconically Irish as Saint Patrick himself.

But did you know that Guinness is no longer fully Irish?  Though all the Guinness distributed in Ireland & the UK is brewed at St. James’s Gate in Dublin, Guinness belongs to Diageo, a multinational headquartered in London.  And chances are (if you’re a Yank) that the Guinness you’re drinking is brewed in Canada.  And of the three other “big” Irish stouts producers – O’Hara’s, Murphy’s, & Beamish – only O’Hara’s is Irish-owned (from County Carlow, to be precise).  Murphy’s & Beamish are both owned by Heineken.

Whether this is an issue to you is entirely at your discretion, of course.  Some cry ‘foul’ at beers owned by the big boys, & can taste the taint of big business in every sip; others say it’s what’s in the glass that really matters, & good beer is good beer, politics be damned.  But for those who’d like to try a wholly independent Irish brewery, we’d like to shed some light on Dublin’s Porterhouse Brewing Company.  Proprietors  Liam LaHart & Oliver Hughes (with the help of architect Frank Ennis) opened Ireland’s first brewpub in 1996, set on broadening the drinking culture of that fair city to a variety of beer styles.  Their enterprise grew to include two more Dublin locales, & one each in London & New York.  They pride themselves on brewing a variety of ales & lagers, & won awards for that most representative of Irish styles: stout.

Several years ago they began importing to the U.S., & The House proudly carries beers from this great Irish craft brewery.  On our shelves, you can find their Oyster Stout, a balanced 4.6% ABV stout conditioned with freshly shucked oysters; Wrasslers XXXX Stout, with that characteristic rich roast taste; their Red Ale, well-balanced with caramel notes; & their strong ale, An Brainblasta, “thrice-hopped” & weighing in at 7% ABV.  Look for the bottles with the cool peel-off caps.  If it’s tradition you’re looking for, Guinness will do.  But if you’re looking to try an authentic Irish product, made by an Irish-owned company passionate about what they do & with an eye on the future, give a Porterhouse a crack.  And we at The House bid good craic to you this St. Paddy’s Day – Slainte!

Swimming in Beer

Craft beer folks are generally good folks.  I realize the risks of making sweeping generalizations like that, but in my experience the brewers of craft beer are solid, interesting characters who appear to have a lot of integrity.  They make beer with the aim of delivering a wholesome product, using quality ingredients with the intent of providing the drinker with a good experience, not ripping them off by cheapening the beer or (allegedly) watering it down.   Most craft brewers are small business owners who take a tremendous amount of pride in their craft, & even the larger craft brewers generally run their operations with a lot of class & good citizenship.  Yes, these brewers are in the business of making & selling beer, but they also do not live & die by the bottom line.  Most also seem to abide by the belief that what’s  good for one of us is good for all, & are generally much more supportive of one another than most “competitors” in any market.  Look at the number of collaborations put out by teams of brewers every year as some evidence of this camaraderie, the attitude that “we’re all in it together”. 

One wonders, though, what the capacity of this pool is, how many more can jump into the very welcoming waters & find room to swim.  As much as American craft brew would like to remain one big, happy family, it may be finding that there’s only so much room to move.  Right now the big contention seems to be around trademark infringement, & every week or two there are headlines on the beer news sites about one brewery suing another or issuing a cease-&-desist when they think someone  is stepping on their toes.  This is not necessarily malicious - businesses are obligated to protect their territory & intellectual property, & must act accordingly – but it smells like bad blood, not in sync with the whole barley-&-hops-brotherhood vibe.  We’re beginning to hear some of the bigger kids in the pool creating ripples by talking smack on each others’ business practices, & maybe recent expansions by some of said kids could turn off those who would otherwise support them.  Not going to name names or anything, just pointing out that it’s not always high-fives & group hugs for those in this increasingly competitive business. 

Luckily, it seems that the feather-ruffled are in the minority for the time being, & the general sense of unity is still prevailing.  Hoping it continues that way, & we see more of the collaboration-not-litigation mindset.  At the end of the day, it’s still beer, & what goes on behind the scenes doesn’t/shouldn’t effect the consumer too much.  Let’s hope there’s room enough in the pool for everyone to play nice; I prefer my beer blood-free. 

Top Shelf Thursday: February 2013, Valentine's Day

Another Top Shelf Thursday is in the books, & if there’s something that’s almost as fun as drinking the beers, it’s writing about them in the next-day wrap-up.  Now, we know that the right beer can be just as romantic as any other beverage, but for our Valentine’s-themed tasting we decided to exploit the popular perception of wine as befitting the holiday.  And everyone knows that chocolate goes with Valentine’s Day, so for our “Wine & Chocolate” tasting we selected a flight of ten beers that tied in with either wine or chocolate.

The first course was the Chocolate Porter from Hangar 24 Brewing in Redlands, California, made with two types of chocolate malt, cocoa nibs, & aged on vanilla beans following fermentation.  It hid its 8% ABV well & was surprisingly light-bodied, with a coffee edge & some West Coast hop character.  DuClaw’s Double Naked Fish smelled great, hitting with a rich aroma of chocolate & raspberries, like a truffle.  The imperial stout base went down smooth & was very drinkable at 7.6% ABV.  The third & final “chocolate” beer threw folks for a bit of a loop.  Maracaibo Especial, a brown ale from Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales made with cacao nibs, cinnamon, & orange peel, packed a funky & tart punch from the brewery’s practice of open fermenting & barrel-aging all of their beers.

Moving into wine territory, we poured the first of two wine/beer “hybrids” from renowned experimenters Dogfish Head: Noble Rot.  This beer combines a saison/farmhouse ale with two types of grape must – pinot gris & a viognier that came into contact with a botrytis, a benevolent fungus that lends complexity to the grape (“noble rot”).  This beer was pale gold, very transparent, & was reminiscent of a Riesling in its aroma & flavor.  Their Chateau Jiahu was based on a 9,000-year-old recipe discovered from archaeological exploration near Jiahu in China.  The updated recipe uses rice syrup, hawthorn berries, honey, & grapes, & is fermented with a sake yeast, once again blurring the boundaries between beer & wine.

While bourbon barrel-aging has become part of many brewers’ repertoires, aging in wine barrels is far less common, which is what gave the next two beers – both from gypsy brewer Evil Twin – their distinct characters.  Evil Twin used Chardonnay barrels to age both its 9^th Symphony, a strong Belgian blonde ale with “notes” (ha-ha) of banana & a slightly tart finish; & Disco Beer, a double IPA with a very fruity, sweet, almost cake-like flavor that was still backed by a bracing bitterness.  It was very interesting to see how similar barrels could create such different flavors in two distinct styles of beer.

Our third “wine” grouping was based around a style born of wine-envy: barleywines.  From Blue Point Brewing in Long Island, Old Howling Bastard had a very sweet & caramel malt profile, with notes of spice, peppermint, & a prominent hop bitterness that definitely planted this traditionally English beer firmly in American soil.  This was a no-frills American barleywine, packed with flavor & complexity.  Victory’s Oak Horizontal was no slouch either, their Old Horizontal aged in bourbon barrels.  The barrels added a resiny, tannic element to the already strong malt profile, again with a subtler but notable hop presence.

Capping things off was the “champagne” course: Brooklyn Black Ops, an imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels & bottled with champagne yeast.  Black Ops is in the pantheon of American imperial stouts, & while some had tried it before, everyone left satisfied by this masterful beer.

One point of interest that wove throughout the flight this evening was the variation & diversity that beer can achieve, even with a common thread like the theme presented this evening.  We tasted the sweet, the bitter, the sour, the subtle, the bold, the brights brights, & the darkest darks, all connected through this wonderfully complex beverage.  These tastings continue to be a really fun time, for folks to meet, make new friends, try new beers, & marvel at something so simple yet so complex.  Beer can truly romance you.

Give Us This Day Our Liquid Bread

Christians the world over observed the beginning of Lent this past week, with ashes on their foreheads as a sign of penitence in the weeks leading up to Easter.  Many practice a symbolic “fasting”, giving up a vice or luxury during this time of preparation.  The monks of Munich (Munchen in Germany, or “place of the monks”) were prohibited from eating solid food during Lent to mark this ritual of self-denial.  In order to sustain themselves, the brothers brewed an especially strong & nourishing lager beer to drink in place of solid food throughout those 40 days & nights, & the Doppelbock was born. 

Beer, made of barley, hops, yeast, & water, is essentially liquid bread, & few  styles exemplify this as clearly as Doppelbock.  A glass of good Doppelbock can smell like fresh baked bread: sweet, malty, with a toasty edge like dark bread crust & notes of caramel & a little alcohol.  The ABV is, as the name would imply, on the higher side - typically 7% or above & sometimes reaching into the double digits.  The classic example is Paulaner Salvator (“savior”), with a name reflecting the holy, life-giving nature attributed to the beer.  Many Doppelbocks have been named in honor of this archetype, with names ending in the “-ator” suffix.  A great example from the Deutschland is Ayinger’s Celebrator, & Thomas Hooker’s Liberator from Connecticut is one of the best American-made offerings of the style (in this writer’s opinion).

Many observers may give up beer for Lent, but some may remember the news story from several years ago of an Iowa man giving up all BUT beer for Lent.  J. Wilson, emulating the centuries-old tradition of the monks, consumed nothing except Doppelbock for the 46 days of Lent, breaking his fast on Easter Sunday with a bacon smoothie!*  We think Wilson was onto something.  Many who are serious about beer may speak of having a religious experience with that one breakthrough beer – it’s interesting to think of a time & a beer in which that expression was more than figurative.  Regardless of your spiritual orientation, or complete lack thereof, consider that next beer in your glass as more than fermented gold/amber/brown/black goodness – think of it as nourishment for the body & the soul.

 *Wilson performed this feat with extensive medical consultation – don’t try this at home!

New Albion

Imagine you had a friend who said he was going to start a car manufacturing company.  His plan is to build the factory by hand, build the cars by hand, & sell them face-to-face to retailers.  He doesn’t like the way that Ford, Chrysler, & GM build cars, & thinks he can offer drivers something better, more like they engineer them in Europe.  And he’s going to do this on his own, & maybe after a while hire an intern to help him.  He’s going to play ball in a field completely monopolized by the big boys.

You’d think your friend was delusional, or a bigger bullshitter than you’d taken him for.

Next, imagine that your friend actually accomplished what he dreamed of doing – built & sold his own line of automobiles by hand, completely DIY.  The people who drove them loved them, like no other piece of machinery they’d driven in this country.  The company goes under in a few years – unable to expand enough to sustain itself, the curse of an artisanal craftsman.  But then, slowly, this approach is emulated by others.  One here, one there.  Word of mouth travels about this revolutionary new approach to automobile manufacturing, & people catch on that this is what cars are supposed to be about.  Fast forward 35 years, & craft automobiles are the rage.  There’s at least one in each town, & about 100 in Portland.  Small, local “homebuilders” are taking their hobby & passion & opening up their own little factory, making cars full of flavor, & made with real malted barley instead of car adjuncts, & experimenting with bourbon barrel cars, & cars made with wild engines, &…

Okay, so there’s where the analogy goes off the rails.  But this is exactly what Jack McAuliffe, a Navy vet, did when he started New Albion Brewing Company in 1976.  A citizen of Northern California’s homebrewing community, McAuliffe took an underground artform & made a commercial example - “mass-produced” it on his barrel-&-a-half system that he assembled himself using his experience repairing nuclear submarines.  New Albion produced an ale, a stout, & a porter, practically unheard of from stateside brewers.  Also unheard of was forging a business that would “compete” with the big brewers, who by the mid-70s had already grown to gargantuan levels.  McAuliffe’s enterprise only lasted a few years, but showed beer drinkers that it could be done, paving a path for every craft brewing start-up that’s come along since & sowing the seeds of the tremendous craft beer culture in America today.

Boston Beer Company, very much a pioneer in their own right, have resurrected New Albion Ale from the brewing history books, collaborating with McAuliffe on a recipe laid to rest decades ago.  It’s a simple but elegant pale ale, made with the quintessentially American Cascade hops, with a subtle, crisp & biscuity malt profile.  The label is a replication of the original, depicting the sailing vessel of Sir Francis Drake, who claimed territory along the Pacific coast & named it “New Albion”, itself a symbol of exploration & discovery.  The beer itself does not wow the tastebuds by the standards of its progeny, but that’s not the point.  What we have before us is a piece of history, recreated, offering a glimpse of American beer’s past & an opportunity to appreciate how far we’ve come.  American craft beer is about innovation, & this is the first.  This is the taste of ground being broken.

Stress-Free Beer

The last few weeks have seen some very highly anticipated beers come & go.  Two weeks ago, Stone’s Enjoy By 2.15.13 dropped on Pittsburgh.  For weeks prior, people called, tweeted, & messaged asking when we’d get it, how much, how many, etc.  It came & sold out in half a day.  Two days ago, we got a small supply of Bell’s Black Note.  Leading up to that, the hype machine started buzzing about how much was going to make it to PA, whether we’d have any, would we save so-&-so some, what scandalous acts would folks have to commit to get a little.  That went in a few hours.  Same with Bolt Cutter & every other Founders Backstage release, & in a few months, people will be crawling over one another to get at KBS.  This morning, sources reported a huge line outside of Russian River’s taproom hours before they were scheduled to tap Pliny the Younger; history has shown that folks stand in line for hours after opening to try a glass of this liquid epiphany.  E-Bay has shut down alcohol sales, but a year ago, a quick search for “Dark Lord” would yield asking prices in the multiple hundreds of dollars.  If you look at the on-line trading forums, it seems that folks would trade their own mother for a bottle of (fill-in-the-whale).

Just thinking about the blood, sweat, & tears that people put into chasing down these white whales - & the agony they suffer when they feel they’ve missed out – is a little troubling.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve encountered someone in the store ask if we’re getting in that special release Unobtainium, & see the conviction in their eyes.  It makes me so happy to hook someone up with that one-of-a-kind beer they’re dying to try, but part of me is saddened to see folks pass up so many other great beers just by virtue of the fact that they’re accessible & available to them all the time.  The thrill of the hunt is excites us & makes the catch very rewarding, but it seems like after a while we have to ask ourselves if the added pressure & urgency is really worth it.  It seems to me that beer is something to be enjoyed, not a source of stress, & that too often we take for granted the faithful standbys.  Once in a while we need to take a look around at the hundreds of other quality products out there– the Two-Hearted Ales, the Edmund Fitzgeralds, the tons of other widely-distributed, quality brews - & pick out a beer to enjoy, without the hunt, without feeling like it’s slipping between our fingers.  Beer is to be enjoyed, so take some time to stop & smell the hops.  Stress-free beer is always worth it.

Top Shelf Thursday: January 2013

After a hiatus during December, this past Thursday saw the return of the popular Top Shelf Thursday tasting.  Once again, a friendly crowd of adventurous beer-drinkers settled into The House’s cozy front room, aiming to taste some of our rarer beers & maybe discover something they’d never tried in a beer before.

The evening’s motif was kind of a ‘Noah’s Ark’ approach, as tasters tried pairs of beers from similar styles, but different countries, back-to-back.  The flight started with Nighmare Yorkshire Porter, an English-style porter from Nick Stafford’s Hambleton Ales, a newer British brewery crafting traditional ales.  This was a good launch to the evening: a light-bodied, malty porter with just a little kiss of tartness in the finish, flavorful while not overwhelming the palate.  It was followed by Firestone Walker’s Walker’s Reserve Porter, from the ever-reputable California brewery.  Though West Coast geographically, this porter had more of an Eastern balance, with the hops & malt equally reigned in.

The next duo proved a little more challenging to some than the warm, accessible porters, as the group was introduced to Rueuze, an American-made gueuze from The Bruery.  This blended lambic-style sour ale puckered mouths left & right, with a bone-dry, tannic finish from the oak.  While some found the style too intense & sharp, others thrilled to the unique complexity, & also enjoyed the milder, smoother offering from Gueuzerie Tilquin.  From the only lambic blender in Belgium’s Wallonia region, their Oude Gueuze Tilquin a L’Ancienne was more palatable to those who find wild ales a little too outré for their taste.

Moving back into more familiar territory, we ventured into Belgian-style golden ales that featured a hop-forward profile, beginning with Mischief, the evening’s second beer from The Bruery.  The hopheads in the crowd appreciated the assertive American hop notes up front, followed by the fruity, honey-like malt & ending light & clean.  In contrast, the classic example of a hoppy Belgian – Piraat Ale, from Van Steenberge – seemed tame on the hop front, but more than made up for it with a rich, buoyant malt profile & spicy, fruity yeast.  It’s hard to go wrong with a standard-bearer like this, & judging by the crowd response, this was the overall favorite of the tasting.

Similar to the gueuze, the next pair of beers fell into the ‘love-it-or-hate-it’ category, as we poured the first of two smoked bocks: Smokin’ Bishop, from Invercargill Brewery in New Zealand.  Made with malts the brewers smoked themselves over applewood & Manuka, a native tea tree, the meaty, smoky character paired well with the sweet base bock.  We followed with a smoked dopplebock from renowned rauchbier brewers Brauerei Heller-Trum of Bamber, Germany.  Their Eiche (‘oak’ auf Deutsch) offered a complex, smooth character more reminiscent of ‘actual’ smoke than the ‘food-like’ smokiness of the Bishop.

As is typical of our tastings, we rounded off the evenings with the big boys: a pair of barrel-aged barleywines, the first from English stalwarts Samuel Smith.  Their Yorkshire Stingo, matured for a year in casks formerly used for actual cask ale, tasted of dark fruits, caramel, & was remarkably restrained for its strength.  The final piece was Nebraska Brewing Company’s Fathead, an American barleywine aged in Stranahan whiskey barrels.  Bold, malty, with a big wood & whiskey flavor, the Fathead was a warming end to an enjoyable evening.

It’s always good to see a mix of newcomers & familiar faces at these get-togethers, & so it is with the beers – it’s good to return to tastes we know & love, while also pushing ourselves to experience a style or flavor that’s outside of our usual comfort zone.  We may retreat from that new taste & decide it’s just not for us, or find something wonderful that we never knew about before.  It’s so rewarding to be able to help people along that path of discovery, & also help them find that center & come back home again.