Thanks to those who've sent me updates in response to the request to keep us posted on where to find good beer in Kentuckiana.
Over the weekend, Jim Huie wrote with this list of his current beers at Maido Essential Japanese (1758 Frankfort Ave., 894-8775).
Draft
Bell's Two-Hearted
Stone Arrogant Bastard
BBC APA
BBC Dark Star Porter
Kronenbourg 1664
Woodchuck Pear Cider
Regular Bottles
Ephemere
Dogfish Head Aprihop
McEwan's Scotch Ale
Bell's Sparkling (almost gone)
Bell's Oberon
Bell's Amber
Rogue Oregon Golden (under a case left)
Rogue Honey Cream
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Left Hand Milk Stout
Samuel Adam's Cherry Wheat
Bitburger
22+ Beers
Rogue Morimoto Imperial Pilsner
Rogue Morimoto Soba
Rogue Morimoto Black Obi
Stone Ruination IPA
Talon Barley Wine
Kirin Ichiban
Asahi Super Dry
Jim adds: "I have a goal to someday have Ruination on tap."
Good luck on that one. My pub, Rich O's Public House, was allocated two kegs of Ruination IPA for June (they're gone as of last week) with the stipulation that they be sold only during June and not at any other time.
I obeyed Stone's "rules" and sold both kegs, one delicious pint at a time, and it wasn't until the nectar was depleted that I questioned following a rule set down by a brewing company that prides itself on breaking rules.
Jim has put together a truly great and diverse short beer list, including one of my summertime favorites, Rogue Honey Cream. That's right -- I'm a big fan of golden ales when they're built like that.
Monday, June 27, 2005
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Gannett's sham rag Velocity omits us, but that's fine with me.
The past Wednesday was the occasion for Velocity's special dinng issue, purported to be a comprehensive listing of Louisville area eateries.
Last night I was asked why neither Rich O's Public House nor Sportstime Pizza appeared in this dining issue.
The answer is simple: I didn't return the survey because I was annoyed at the phone call from Velocity soliciting advertising for the special issue. It took five minutes to sift through the bluster to the point where it was acknowledged that we could be listed without buying an ad so long as we filled out a form, which was promptly received and immediately relegated to the waste paper basket.
Oh, well.
Last night I was asked why neither Rich O's Public House nor Sportstime Pizza appeared in this dining issue.
The answer is simple: I didn't return the survey because I was annoyed at the phone call from Velocity soliciting advertising for the special issue. It took five minutes to sift through the bluster to the point where it was acknowledged that we could be listed without buying an ad so long as we filled out a form, which was promptly received and immediately relegated to the waste paper basket.
Oh, well.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Irish Rover Too in today's LEO.
In today’s LEO, restaurant and food writer Marty Rosen reviews Irish Rover Too, the La Grange, Kentucky, branch of the long-established original Irish Rover on Frankfort Avenue.
No fears the second time around for Irish Rover Too
A strong case can be made that Marty, who in civilian life is the chief librarian at Indiana University Southeast, is the best pure writer among those ink-stained Louisvillians who tackle food and drink on a regular basis. He brings erudition to the table along with the meal and libations, and his prose is a joy to read.
Live a bit and you’ll come to realize that Irish pubs are akin to comfort food, but just because everyone’s grandmother could prepare meatloaf, it doesn’t mean that some recipes weren’t better than others.
Chain Irish pubs have begun to sprout across the landscape, and these are both reprehensible and generally populated by people who mistake Killian’s for beer. My advice in this instance, as with most other analogous situations in the pursuit of the perfect pint, is to avoid them.
The chains, and the people.
Outside of Ireland itself, I’ve been to Irish pubs throughout Europe, most of them operated by Irish expatriates, and all of them having at least Guinness in common, or else having no right to lay claim to comprehensible “Irishness.”
Last summer, while in the boondocks north of Atlanta for a family reunion, we discovered M'vorneen's in the unlikely locale of Cartersville, Georgia – and as with a previous experience long ago in Bucharest’s Dubliner, I learned yet again that a pint of stout goes a long way toward relieving a melancholy sense of unfamiliarity.
It is this unparalleled ability to relate to the inner desires of Anglophones that is the singular marketable commodity of Ireland. The Reidys always have done it well in Louisville, and I’m happy to see their La Grange experiment working out.
No fears the second time around for Irish Rover Too
A strong case can be made that Marty, who in civilian life is the chief librarian at Indiana University Southeast, is the best pure writer among those ink-stained Louisvillians who tackle food and drink on a regular basis. He brings erudition to the table along with the meal and libations, and his prose is a joy to read.
Live a bit and you’ll come to realize that Irish pubs are akin to comfort food, but just because everyone’s grandmother could prepare meatloaf, it doesn’t mean that some recipes weren’t better than others.
Chain Irish pubs have begun to sprout across the landscape, and these are both reprehensible and generally populated by people who mistake Killian’s for beer. My advice in this instance, as with most other analogous situations in the pursuit of the perfect pint, is to avoid them.
The chains, and the people.
Outside of Ireland itself, I’ve been to Irish pubs throughout Europe, most of them operated by Irish expatriates, and all of them having at least Guinness in common, or else having no right to lay claim to comprehensible “Irishness.”
Last summer, while in the boondocks north of Atlanta for a family reunion, we discovered M'vorneen's in the unlikely locale of Cartersville, Georgia – and as with a previous experience long ago in Bucharest’s Dubliner, I learned yet again that a pint of stout goes a long way toward relieving a melancholy sense of unfamiliarity.
It is this unparalleled ability to relate to the inner desires of Anglophones that is the singular marketable commodity of Ireland. The Reidys always have done it well in Louisville, and I’m happy to see their La Grange experiment working out.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
One road trip, three Indiana breweries: Brugge Brasserie, Broad Ripple and Oaken Barrel.
Recently my friend Greg and I motored to Indianapolis to have lunch and beers at Brugge Brasserie, the city’s newest brewpub. Afternooncaps were taken just up the Monon Trail at the venerable Broad River Brewing Company, then on the Southside at Oaken Barrel Brewing Company in Greenwood.
Coincidentally, the city’s NUVO newspaper chose the same week as our road trip to publish a feature on breweries and craft beer in Central Indiana:
Down to Drinking, by Rita Kohn
Head to Head: The Individuality of Taste, also by Rita Kohn
We began at Indiana's newest brewery.
Brugge Brasserie
Brugge Brasserie opened just a few weeks ago. It is an ambitious effort to duplicate the food menu at a typical Belgian restaurant – mussels, crepes, stews and café snacks – and accompany these culinary highlights with house-brewed Belgian styles.
So far, the results are promising. Décor is clean and modernistic, befitting a sit-down Belgian restaurant more so than a traditional café, and the server was knowledgeable and attentive.
We began with a herring appetizer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was composed of pickled herring chunks, something more in keeping with the Baltic shoreline than Belgium’s North Sea frontage, although in fairness, it would be almost impossible to replicate the marvelous “new” herring filets with fresh chopped onion favored in Flanders and the Netherlands.
For the main course, Greg chose Carbonade Flamande (traditional Belgian beer and beef stew), while I opted for two pounds of mussels from Prince Edward Island, Canada, with a choice (typical in Belgium) of a half-dozen broths.
The meaty mussels were served heaping over the edges of the requisite black pot, and required a careful stacking of spent shells to avoid an avalanche. I’m compelled to quibble with the presentation of the side of fries – which, as most people know by now, is Belgian national obsession.
Brugge Brasserie serves what to my experience is an inauthentic variety of seasoned fries, something rarely if ever seen in Belgium, and brings them to the table in a paper cone (seen at Belgian street stands and never at restaurants) intended for sticking into holes cut in the tabletops.
Gimmicky. The fries should be parboiled, deep-fried and brought on a plate.
The Carbonade was suitably rich and tasty stew. The version served at Brugge Brasserie comes in an oversized bowl; like goulash in Central Europe and chili in America, there as many ways to prepare and serve the dish as there are cooks.
To be a spanking new brewpub is to frequently run through house beers until supply and demand are adjusted, so only three beers were available on draft on the day of our visit, along with Lindemans Framboise. We didn’t look to see if bottled Belgians are available.
Wit
Traditional Belgian-style cloudy wheat, yellowish-orange, heavier on the coriander than the orange spicing common to the style.
Pilsner
After all, pilsner derivatives (Stella, Maes, Jupiler) account for more than 70% of the beer consumed in Belgium. Really. Pale golden, noble hops; fresh-tasting Germanic derivative, as intended.
Abbey Dubbel
Dark and yeasty, with typical Belgian fruity esters coming out as the ale warmed. Excellent with the mussels and the beef stew.
For such a young establishment, all the elements are in place at Brugge Brasserie for it to be a showplace of a decidedly underserved genre, although certainly there’ll be ample tweaking along the way.
To top off a fine visit, we had an interesting conversation with owner/brewer Ted Miller, who recently was interviewed at Indiana Beer.
Ted attended high school with Kevin Matalucci, longtime brewer at Broad Ripple Brewing Company, then was followed by Kevin as Broad Ripple’s brewer, so it seemed perfectly reasonable to stroll the Monon Trail two scenic blocks, dodging roller blades, bikes and noontime strollers, and visit Kevin and his beers, always great favorites of the Curmudgeon’s.
Broad Ripple Brewing Company
Founded by Yorkshire native John Hill long before microbrewing and Broad Ripple were fashionable, Broad Ripple Brewing’s English-style ambience and flavorful ales remain a benchmark of the Indy beer scene.
Kevin’s ESB and IPA are bona fide Indiana-brewed classics, maybe heavier in body than generally experienced in England, but fiendishly drinkable and tickling the palate with bountiful hops.
Kevin is a gregarious and funny man, and I always look forward to hearing his updates during my infrequent visits to Broad Ripple.
Greg had never been to the Broad Ripple brewpub, so I enjoyed telling him the story about how the quintessentially British pub interior – wood, tin ceilings, upholstered wall seating, stained glass -- actually has not been in place for a hundred years. When John Hill arrived on the scene in the late 1980’s, the building housed an auto parts store.
Oaken Barrel Brewing Company
For a pint shy of two years, Ken Price has manned the helm at Oaken Barrel’s brewhouse. He says that business is good at the restaurant and brewpub, which is strategically placed along I-65 in Greenwood, permitting southerners a final chance at good beer before traversing the painful distance back to Louisville.
Oaken Barrel is installing a larger mash tun and brew kettle, and Ken looks forward to using the increased capacity to fill more fermenters, more quickly. After a period just prior to Ken’s arrival at Oaken Barrel, when Oaken Barrel aspired to be a regional store shelf player in the Upland Brewing mold, the company has sidestepped and opted for being a brewpub that does some distribution.
A good American-style IPA and a seasonal Maibock both stood up quite nicely with a plate of well-spiced chicken wings.
Greg may or may not have eaten … count the beers, and you’ll understand why I’m glad he volunteered to drive.
Coincidentally, the city’s NUVO newspaper chose the same week as our road trip to publish a feature on breweries and craft beer in Central Indiana:
Down to Drinking, by Rita Kohn
Head to Head: The Individuality of Taste, also by Rita Kohn
We began at Indiana's newest brewery.
Brugge Brasserie
Brugge Brasserie opened just a few weeks ago. It is an ambitious effort to duplicate the food menu at a typical Belgian restaurant – mussels, crepes, stews and café snacks – and accompany these culinary highlights with house-brewed Belgian styles.
So far, the results are promising. Décor is clean and modernistic, befitting a sit-down Belgian restaurant more so than a traditional café, and the server was knowledgeable and attentive.
We began with a herring appetizer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was composed of pickled herring chunks, something more in keeping with the Baltic shoreline than Belgium’s North Sea frontage, although in fairness, it would be almost impossible to replicate the marvelous “new” herring filets with fresh chopped onion favored in Flanders and the Netherlands.
For the main course, Greg chose Carbonade Flamande (traditional Belgian beer and beef stew), while I opted for two pounds of mussels from Prince Edward Island, Canada, with a choice (typical in Belgium) of a half-dozen broths.
The meaty mussels were served heaping over the edges of the requisite black pot, and required a careful stacking of spent shells to avoid an avalanche. I’m compelled to quibble with the presentation of the side of fries – which, as most people know by now, is Belgian national obsession.
Brugge Brasserie serves what to my experience is an inauthentic variety of seasoned fries, something rarely if ever seen in Belgium, and brings them to the table in a paper cone (seen at Belgian street stands and never at restaurants) intended for sticking into holes cut in the tabletops.
Gimmicky. The fries should be parboiled, deep-fried and brought on a plate.
The Carbonade was suitably rich and tasty stew. The version served at Brugge Brasserie comes in an oversized bowl; like goulash in Central Europe and chili in America, there as many ways to prepare and serve the dish as there are cooks.
To be a spanking new brewpub is to frequently run through house beers until supply and demand are adjusted, so only three beers were available on draft on the day of our visit, along with Lindemans Framboise. We didn’t look to see if bottled Belgians are available.
Wit
Traditional Belgian-style cloudy wheat, yellowish-orange, heavier on the coriander than the orange spicing common to the style.
Pilsner
After all, pilsner derivatives (Stella, Maes, Jupiler) account for more than 70% of the beer consumed in Belgium. Really. Pale golden, noble hops; fresh-tasting Germanic derivative, as intended.
Abbey Dubbel
Dark and yeasty, with typical Belgian fruity esters coming out as the ale warmed. Excellent with the mussels and the beef stew.
For such a young establishment, all the elements are in place at Brugge Brasserie for it to be a showplace of a decidedly underserved genre, although certainly there’ll be ample tweaking along the way.
To top off a fine visit, we had an interesting conversation with owner/brewer Ted Miller, who recently was interviewed at Indiana Beer.
Ted attended high school with Kevin Matalucci, longtime brewer at Broad Ripple Brewing Company, then was followed by Kevin as Broad Ripple’s brewer, so it seemed perfectly reasonable to stroll the Monon Trail two scenic blocks, dodging roller blades, bikes and noontime strollers, and visit Kevin and his beers, always great favorites of the Curmudgeon’s.
Broad Ripple Brewing Company
Founded by Yorkshire native John Hill long before microbrewing and Broad Ripple were fashionable, Broad Ripple Brewing’s English-style ambience and flavorful ales remain a benchmark of the Indy beer scene.
Kevin’s ESB and IPA are bona fide Indiana-brewed classics, maybe heavier in body than generally experienced in England, but fiendishly drinkable and tickling the palate with bountiful hops.
Kevin is a gregarious and funny man, and I always look forward to hearing his updates during my infrequent visits to Broad Ripple.
Greg had never been to the Broad Ripple brewpub, so I enjoyed telling him the story about how the quintessentially British pub interior – wood, tin ceilings, upholstered wall seating, stained glass -- actually has not been in place for a hundred years. When John Hill arrived on the scene in the late 1980’s, the building housed an auto parts store.
Oaken Barrel Brewing Company
For a pint shy of two years, Ken Price has manned the helm at Oaken Barrel’s brewhouse. He says that business is good at the restaurant and brewpub, which is strategically placed along I-65 in Greenwood, permitting southerners a final chance at good beer before traversing the painful distance back to Louisville.
Oaken Barrel is installing a larger mash tun and brew kettle, and Ken looks forward to using the increased capacity to fill more fermenters, more quickly. After a period just prior to Ken’s arrival at Oaken Barrel, when Oaken Barrel aspired to be a regional store shelf player in the Upland Brewing mold, the company has sidestepped and opted for being a brewpub that does some distribution.
A good American-style IPA and a seasonal Maibock both stood up quite nicely with a plate of well-spiced chicken wings.
Greg may or may not have eaten … count the beers, and you’ll understand why I’m glad he volunteered to drive.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Excerpt from DUI Gulag.
Here's a pot stirrer.
DUI Gulag: MADD's Political Agenda
Here's an excerpt:
Instead of focusing on ways to remove the chronic/alcoholic drunk driver from our highways, MADD’s primary focus is upon "drivers who have had something to drink." MADD is undeterred by the fact that government accident and fatality data clearly show that low BAC "drivers who have had something to drink" do not pose a legitimate threat to public safety. The fact that a sleepy person or a person talking on a cell-phone while driving may be inherently more dangerous than someone who has had two or three beers to drink appears to be of no concern to MADD.
I think I wrote this once upon a time ...
DUI Gulag: MADD's Political Agenda
Here's an excerpt:
Instead of focusing on ways to remove the chronic/alcoholic drunk driver from our highways, MADD’s primary focus is upon "drivers who have had something to drink." MADD is undeterred by the fact that government accident and fatality data clearly show that low BAC "drivers who have had something to drink" do not pose a legitimate threat to public safety. The fact that a sleepy person or a person talking on a cell-phone while driving may be inherently more dangerous than someone who has had two or three beers to drink appears to be of no concern to MADD.
I think I wrote this once upon a time ...
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Tim Webb returns with a fully updated "Good Beer Guide to Belgium."
British beer writer Tim Webb’s essential “Good Beer Guide to Belgium” guidebook has been updated, and the new version is being published this summer.
Webb's Belgian beer guide is a classic, but not just because it is essential for any beer lover contemplating a trip to Belgium who seeks the most accurate information on where to find the best beers and what to drink once there.
In terms of style, Webb writes with acerbic wit, refusing to suffer fools, international brewing conglomerates and bad beers alike. To read his guidebook is to receive a primer on what it means to be a beer aficionado in a world that unthinkingly accepts the mediocre.
In conjunction with Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, I’ll try to put together a bulk order for Webb's book if enough people are interested in owning a copy. Please let me know.
Webb's Belgian beer guide is a classic, but not just because it is essential for any beer lover contemplating a trip to Belgium who seeks the most accurate information on where to find the best beers and what to drink once there.
In terms of style, Webb writes with acerbic wit, refusing to suffer fools, international brewing conglomerates and bad beers alike. To read his guidebook is to receive a primer on what it means to be a beer aficionado in a world that unthinkingly accepts the mediocre.
In conjunction with Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, I’ll try to put together a bulk order for Webb's book if enough people are interested in owning a copy. Please let me know.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Frankfort Avenue Corridor/Clifton: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.
Readers, this is the sixth of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?
---------------------
FRANKFORT AVENUE CORRIDOR/CLIFTON
Beginning in the early 1990’s, the stretch of Frankfort Avenue from Story Avenue to the intersection with Lexington Road became home to numerous restaurants, shops and pubs, with particular concentration in the Clifton neighborhood.
Bourbons Bistro
2255 Frankfort Ave.
894-8838
By most accounts, this newly opened establishment (spring, 2005) has the most extensive list of bourbons in the city. No word yet on beer.
Café Lou Lou
1800 Frankfort Ave.
893-7776
It may boast the bizarrely trendy Pabst Blue Ribbon on its web site, but owner/chef Clay Wallace tells us that there is good beer to be found within.
Caffè Classico Espresso Café
2144 Frankfort Ave.
894-0199
If you’re a fan of European coffee and espresso and prefer the gentler, more refined continental approach to caffeine absorption, you’ll love Tommie Mudd’s Caffe Classico.
A Europhile by way of Buenos Aires (his wife’s birthplace), Tommie’s Italian espresso roast is sleeker, smoother and less oily than the Seattle-style that most of us grew up enjoying, and which in fairness, continue to drink at other Frankfort Avenue coffee houses (Heine Brothers, Java Brewing) – of course, depending on the mood.
Caffe Classico goes beyond excellent coffee, and also has sandwiches, light meals and a short beer list, mostly lagers, but also featuring Duvel, still one of the must-stock Belgians.
Irish Rover
2319 Frankfort Avenue
899-3544
The original Irish Rover on Frankfort Ave. (recently joined by the Irish Rover, Too in Lagrange) has been the yardstick for Irish pubs in Louisville since 1994.
Michael and Siobhan Reidy offer the standard Hibernian lineup of well-kept draft ales and lagers, along with a kitchen that integrates classic Irish recipes with new trends in the island’s cookery. Highly atmospheric, and much recommended.
Maido Essential Japanese
1758 Frankfort Ave.
894-8775
A critically praised Osaka-style “pub, sake bar and eatery,” with a very good beer list assembled by co-owner Jim Huie, formerly a bartender at BBC St. Matthews, described in this Potable Curmudgeon blog entry.
North End Cafe
1722 Frankfort Ave.
896-8770
We’re awaiting word on the beer list at this recently expanded restaurant.
---------------------
FRANKFORT AVENUE CORRIDOR/CLIFTON
Beginning in the early 1990’s, the stretch of Frankfort Avenue from Story Avenue to the intersection with Lexington Road became home to numerous restaurants, shops and pubs, with particular concentration in the Clifton neighborhood.
Bourbons Bistro
2255 Frankfort Ave.
894-8838
By most accounts, this newly opened establishment (spring, 2005) has the most extensive list of bourbons in the city. No word yet on beer.
Café Lou Lou
1800 Frankfort Ave.
893-7776
It may boast the bizarrely trendy Pabst Blue Ribbon on its web site, but owner/chef Clay Wallace tells us that there is good beer to be found within.
Caffè Classico Espresso Café
2144 Frankfort Ave.
894-0199
If you’re a fan of European coffee and espresso and prefer the gentler, more refined continental approach to caffeine absorption, you’ll love Tommie Mudd’s Caffe Classico.
A Europhile by way of Buenos Aires (his wife’s birthplace), Tommie’s Italian espresso roast is sleeker, smoother and less oily than the Seattle-style that most of us grew up enjoying, and which in fairness, continue to drink at other Frankfort Avenue coffee houses (Heine Brothers, Java Brewing) – of course, depending on the mood.
Caffe Classico goes beyond excellent coffee, and also has sandwiches, light meals and a short beer list, mostly lagers, but also featuring Duvel, still one of the must-stock Belgians.
Irish Rover
2319 Frankfort Avenue
899-3544
The original Irish Rover on Frankfort Ave. (recently joined by the Irish Rover, Too in Lagrange) has been the yardstick for Irish pubs in Louisville since 1994.
Michael and Siobhan Reidy offer the standard Hibernian lineup of well-kept draft ales and lagers, along with a kitchen that integrates classic Irish recipes with new trends in the island’s cookery. Highly atmospheric, and much recommended.
Maido Essential Japanese
1758 Frankfort Ave.
894-8775
A critically praised Osaka-style “pub, sake bar and eatery,” with a very good beer list assembled by co-owner Jim Huie, formerly a bartender at BBC St. Matthews, described in this Potable Curmudgeon blog entry.
North End Cafe
1722 Frankfort Ave.
896-8770
We’re awaiting word on the beer list at this recently expanded restaurant.
Baxter Avenue Strip: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.
Readers, this is the fifth of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?
---------------------
BAXTER AVENUE STRIP
Probably Louisville’s heaviest concentration of bars, restaurants and clubs, and in recent years the object of much scrutiny on the part of neighborhood activists, this area is in flux with the advent of 4th Street Live.
Flanagan’s Ale House
934 Baxter Ave
585-3700
Owned by the same family as O’Shea’s, and with an import-accented bottled beer list tending to be more stylistically challenging than the area norm.
Molly Malone’s Irish Pub and Restaurant
933 Baxter Avenue
473-1222
In the beginning, Molly Malone’s was long on expensive imported décor and short on charm, but this has changed, and the pub seems to have settled into its niche with good grace. A younger, perhaps rowdier crowd testifies to its location along the Baxter Avenue strip. Fine outdoor seating in front.
O’Shea’s Traditional
956 Baxter Avenue
589-7373
Steadily evolving during the first decade of its operation, O’Shea’s has become a dependable venue with solid pub grub, frequent musical entertainment and yet another above average outdoor seating area.
Irish standbys Guinness, Harp and Smithwick’s are joined by Rogue and Goose Island seasonals on a mid-range draft list, while the bottled list leans heavier toward the British Isles, but includes a few more esoteric styles, represented notably by Celebrator Doppelbock and Duvel.
Outlook Inn
916 Baxter Ave.
583-4661
This fabled late-night meeting place has less to do with good beers, although they’re served right alongside the more popular swill, than with thirty years of experience catering to Highlands drinkers.
Wick’s Pizza Parlor
975 Baxter Avenue
458-1828
Wick’s now operates at multiple locations, though it is known primarily for the original Baxter Avenue shop. Perhaps a good beer or two (Bass?) is available on tap, but the pie’s decent, and the other nearby choices place it squarely on the Baxter pub crawl circuit.
Willy’s
942 Baxter Ave.
583-2969
Originally “Wet Willy’s,” an idea that strangely coincided with a Florida bar chain of the same name, and famously ran afoul of local animal rights activists concerned with a proposal to have live alligators (or something equally absurd) roaming beneath a glass dance floor … conceived and operated by local “club concept” masters … catering to a very young crowd … none of which bodes well for quality of the 68 beers said to be on tap (including swill and cider) … but to each his or her own.
---------------------
BAXTER AVENUE STRIP
Probably Louisville’s heaviest concentration of bars, restaurants and clubs, and in recent years the object of much scrutiny on the part of neighborhood activists, this area is in flux with the advent of 4th Street Live.
Flanagan’s Ale House
934 Baxter Ave
585-3700
Owned by the same family as O’Shea’s, and with an import-accented bottled beer list tending to be more stylistically challenging than the area norm.
Molly Malone’s Irish Pub and Restaurant
933 Baxter Avenue
473-1222
In the beginning, Molly Malone’s was long on expensive imported décor and short on charm, but this has changed, and the pub seems to have settled into its niche with good grace. A younger, perhaps rowdier crowd testifies to its location along the Baxter Avenue strip. Fine outdoor seating in front.
O’Shea’s Traditional
956 Baxter Avenue
589-7373
Steadily evolving during the first decade of its operation, O’Shea’s has become a dependable venue with solid pub grub, frequent musical entertainment and yet another above average outdoor seating area.
Irish standbys Guinness, Harp and Smithwick’s are joined by Rogue and Goose Island seasonals on a mid-range draft list, while the bottled list leans heavier toward the British Isles, but includes a few more esoteric styles, represented notably by Celebrator Doppelbock and Duvel.
Outlook Inn
916 Baxter Ave.
583-4661
This fabled late-night meeting place has less to do with good beers, although they’re served right alongside the more popular swill, than with thirty years of experience catering to Highlands drinkers.
Wick’s Pizza Parlor
975 Baxter Avenue
458-1828
Wick’s now operates at multiple locations, though it is known primarily for the original Baxter Avenue shop. Perhaps a good beer or two (Bass?) is available on tap, but the pie’s decent, and the other nearby choices place it squarely on the Baxter pub crawl circuit.
Willy’s
942 Baxter Ave.
583-2969
Originally “Wet Willy’s,” an idea that strangely coincided with a Florida bar chain of the same name, and famously ran afoul of local animal rights activists concerned with a proposal to have live alligators (or something equally absurd) roaming beneath a glass dance floor … conceived and operated by local “club concept” masters … catering to a very young crowd … none of which bodes well for quality of the 68 beers said to be on tap (including swill and cider) … but to each his or her own.
4th Street Live/Near 4th Street Live: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.
Readers, this is the fourth of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?
---------------------
4th STREET LIVE
4TH Street Live, which opened in 2004, is Louisville’s latest effort to remake its moribund downtown, this time in the image of the many Cordish real estate company’s developments throughout the United States.
As such, considering the company’s long track record, bountiful incentives provided by local and state governments, and an influx of people actually living downtown for the first time in recent memory, the effort stands a very good chance of succeeding.
The less said about Hard Rock Cafe and TGI Friday’s, the better.
Early results suggest that a demographic shift in entertainment habits is under way, with food and drink businesses in the Highlands and Frankfort Avenue and Bardstown Road corridors reinventing themselves by moving away from the younger party crowd that flocks to 4th Street Live’s posh, neon-encased clubs.
When 4th Street is closed off for special concerts, a special “area” alcohol license enables people to walk the street freely between establishments.
The Pub Louisville
569-7782
Nicholson’s Scottish pub in Cincinnati is part of the same tavern chain as The Pub, and the two share many traits.
Drafts are heavily English/Scots/Irish, with a representative list of bottled beers, wines and spirits. There is a stated intent to offer cask ales, but as yet, no information on their frequency. If Nicholson’s can be taken as a guide, then we may expect cask offerings from B. United International and Shelton Brothers, served with a cask breather, and very high priced.
Sully’s Saloon & Restaurant
585-4100
Boasting just enough Celtic imagery to be classified as “faux” Irish, and meriting further research.
Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge
568-9009
Obviously mentioned here not for the beer, and also not just for the Maker’s Mark, as the management expresses a commitment to showcasing bourbons from all Kentucky distillers.
NEAR 4TH STREET LIVE
Crowds drawn to the Cordish entertainment enclave are starting to see more locally owned options just outside the boundaries, including coffee shops, delis, and at least one beer-friendly establishment.
BBC 4th Street
2 Theatre Square (north of Broadway)
568-2224
As if the BBC saga weren’t already confusing, another outpost has popped up just south of 4th Street Live, on Theatre Square (itself the remnant of a 1980’s revitalization effort), roughly opposite downtown’s most atmospheric musical venue, the Louisville Palace.
BBC 4th Street serves beers brewed in St. Matthews by Jerry Gnagy, and food prepared by the owners of Third Avenue Café, who are the primary operators of this newest BBC.
Since brewster Eileen Martin, late of Browning’s, is managing BBC 4th Street, there is some talk of brewing on site at some point in the future.
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4th STREET LIVE
4TH Street Live, which opened in 2004, is Louisville’s latest effort to remake its moribund downtown, this time in the image of the many Cordish real estate company’s developments throughout the United States.
As such, considering the company’s long track record, bountiful incentives provided by local and state governments, and an influx of people actually living downtown for the first time in recent memory, the effort stands a very good chance of succeeding.
The less said about Hard Rock Cafe and TGI Friday’s, the better.
Early results suggest that a demographic shift in entertainment habits is under way, with food and drink businesses in the Highlands and Frankfort Avenue and Bardstown Road corridors reinventing themselves by moving away from the younger party crowd that flocks to 4th Street Live’s posh, neon-encased clubs.
When 4th Street is closed off for special concerts, a special “area” alcohol license enables people to walk the street freely between establishments.
The Pub Louisville
569-7782
Nicholson’s Scottish pub in Cincinnati is part of the same tavern chain as The Pub, and the two share many traits.
Drafts are heavily English/Scots/Irish, with a representative list of bottled beers, wines and spirits. There is a stated intent to offer cask ales, but as yet, no information on their frequency. If Nicholson’s can be taken as a guide, then we may expect cask offerings from B. United International and Shelton Brothers, served with a cask breather, and very high priced.
Sully’s Saloon & Restaurant
585-4100
Boasting just enough Celtic imagery to be classified as “faux” Irish, and meriting further research.
Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge
568-9009
Obviously mentioned here not for the beer, and also not just for the Maker’s Mark, as the management expresses a commitment to showcasing bourbons from all Kentucky distillers.
NEAR 4TH STREET LIVE
Crowds drawn to the Cordish entertainment enclave are starting to see more locally owned options just outside the boundaries, including coffee shops, delis, and at least one beer-friendly establishment.
BBC 4th Street
2 Theatre Square (north of Broadway)
568-2224
As if the BBC saga weren’t already confusing, another outpost has popped up just south of 4th Street Live, on Theatre Square (itself the remnant of a 1980’s revitalization effort), roughly opposite downtown’s most atmospheric musical venue, the Louisville Palace.
BBC 4th Street serves beers brewed in St. Matthews by Jerry Gnagy, and food prepared by the owners of Third Avenue Café, who are the primary operators of this newest BBC.
Since brewster Eileen Martin, late of Browning’s, is managing BBC 4th Street, there is some talk of brewing on site at some point in the future.
Irish Pubs: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.
Readers, this is the third of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?
---------------------
IRISH PUBS
The Irish Rover paved the Anglo-Irish pub path more than ten years ago, and numerous competitors have followed in the Reidys’ footsteps. Kitty O’Kirwan’s (Irish) and Sir Churchill’s (English) are two that didn’t make the cut.
Irish Rover
2319 Frankfort Avenue
899-3544
The original Irish Rover on Frankfort Ave. (recently joined by the Irish Rover, Too in Lagrange) has been the yardstick for Irish pubs in Louisville since 1994.
Michael and Siobhan Reidy offer the standard Hibernian lineup of well-kept draft ales and lagers, along with a kitchen that integrates classic Irish recipes with new trends in the island’s cookery. Highly atmospheric, and much recommended.
Molly Malone’s Irish Pub and Restaurant
933 Baxter Avenue
473-1222
In the beginning, Molly Malone’s was long on expensive imported décor and short on charm, but this has changed, and the pub seems to have settled into its niche with good grace. A younger, perhaps rowdier crowd testifies to its location along the Baxter Avenue strip. Fine outdoor seating in front.
O’Shea’s Traditional
956 Baxter Avenue
589-7373
Steadily evolving during the first decade of its operation, O’Shea’s has become a dependable venue with solid pub grub, frequent musical entertainment and yet another above average outdoor seating area.
Irish standbys Guinness, Harp and Smithwick’s are joined by Rogue and Goose Island seasonals on a mid-range draft list, while the bottled list leans heavier toward the British Isles, but includes a few more esoteric styles, represented notably by Celebrator Doppelbock and Duvel.
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IRISH PUBS
The Irish Rover paved the Anglo-Irish pub path more than ten years ago, and numerous competitors have followed in the Reidys’ footsteps. Kitty O’Kirwan’s (Irish) and Sir Churchill’s (English) are two that didn’t make the cut.
Irish Rover
2319 Frankfort Avenue
899-3544
The original Irish Rover on Frankfort Ave. (recently joined by the Irish Rover, Too in Lagrange) has been the yardstick for Irish pubs in Louisville since 1994.
Michael and Siobhan Reidy offer the standard Hibernian lineup of well-kept draft ales and lagers, along with a kitchen that integrates classic Irish recipes with new trends in the island’s cookery. Highly atmospheric, and much recommended.
Molly Malone’s Irish Pub and Restaurant
933 Baxter Avenue
473-1222
In the beginning, Molly Malone’s was long on expensive imported décor and short on charm, but this has changed, and the pub seems to have settled into its niche with good grace. A younger, perhaps rowdier crowd testifies to its location along the Baxter Avenue strip. Fine outdoor seating in front.
O’Shea’s Traditional
956 Baxter Avenue
589-7373
Steadily evolving during the first decade of its operation, O’Shea’s has become a dependable venue with solid pub grub, frequent musical entertainment and yet another above average outdoor seating area.
Irish standbys Guinness, Harp and Smithwick’s are joined by Rogue and Goose Island seasonals on a mid-range draft list, while the bottled list leans heavier toward the British Isles, but includes a few more esoteric styles, represented notably by Celebrator Doppelbock and Duvel.
Breweries in Metro Louisville: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.
Readers, this is the second of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?
----------------------------------
BREWERIES IN METRO LOUISVILLE
Swill may yet reign as Louisville’s beer of choice, but the city still manages to sustain five separate brewing entities.
BBC Brewing Company
636 East Main Street
584-2739
Located on the downtown Louisville site of the now defunct Pipkin Brewing Company, BBC Brewing is a production brewery wholly separate from the original brewpub from which it was spawned. This split came about as a result of what can only be called an “uncivil war” between brewpub and brewery investors, circa 2002.
Eventually a settlement was reached, and now BBC Brewing Company produces kegs and bottles for off-premise sales, with original BBC brewmaster David Pierce crafting versions of his classic styles (Alt, Dark Star Porter) similar to, and in the case of the APA, markedly superior, to those still brewed in St. Matthews.
No food service is offered at the Taproom, but visitors are invited to bring their own snacks and meals or consult a handy guide to local eateries that will deliver.
Bluegrass Brewing Company
3939 Shelbyville Road
899-7070
The original BBC brewpub (1993) is located on Shelbyville Road in the St. Matthews neighborhood on Louisville’s east side. The brewer is Jerry Gnagy, and the beer lineup includes classic BBC styles (American Pale Ale, Dark Star Porter, et al) as formulated by original brewmaster David Pierce, as well as Jerry’s own rotating seasonals (an excellent California Common, for one, and also the headsplitting Ultra) and even a few holdovers (Mephistopheles Metamorphosis) from Tim Rastetter, who served as a consultant for a brief period circa 2002-2003.
Food is served seven days a week, televised sports and live music are constants, and there is an attractive outdoor seating area.
Browning’s Restaurant & Brewery
401 East Main Street (at Louisville Slugger Field)
515-0174
Fine dining (Park Place on Main) and a brewpub (Browning’s Restaurant & Brewery), both under the same management, lie side by side within Louisville Slugger Field, home of the city’s Triple-A Bats. The showpiece tower brewing system that serves as the central design feature of Browning’s has often been mistaken for a spittoon by a series of “no speak beer” owners and decision makers, but the brewpub remains the only hope for a decent pint of beer within the confines of the notoriously beer-unfriendly Slugger Field.
Cumberland Brews
1576 Bardstown Road
458-8727
Matt Gould, the hardest-working brewer in Louisville, squeezes every last drop of quality out of an impossibly tiny 2-barrel system in the very heart of the Highlands, with personal favorites including Nitro Porter and Pale Ale.
Opened by the Allgeier family in 2000, Cumberland Brews has garnered consistently good reviews for the quality of its kitchen and the intimate conviviality of the atmosphere.
New Albanian Brewing Company
3312 Plaza Drive, New Albany
812-949-2804
Established in 2002, NABC is the microbrewing arm of New Albany’s Rich O’s Public House (the area’s finest specialty beer bar since 1992) and Sportstime Pizza, which began operations in 1987.
In April, 2005, the brewing baton was passed from Michael Borchers to Jesse Williams, and it is hoped that an increase in brewing capacity will be achieved later in the year.
----------------------------------
BREWERIES IN METRO LOUISVILLE
Swill may yet reign as Louisville’s beer of choice, but the city still manages to sustain five separate brewing entities.
BBC Brewing Company
636 East Main Street
584-2739
Located on the downtown Louisville site of the now defunct Pipkin Brewing Company, BBC Brewing is a production brewery wholly separate from the original brewpub from which it was spawned. This split came about as a result of what can only be called an “uncivil war” between brewpub and brewery investors, circa 2002.
Eventually a settlement was reached, and now BBC Brewing Company produces kegs and bottles for off-premise sales, with original BBC brewmaster David Pierce crafting versions of his classic styles (Alt, Dark Star Porter) similar to, and in the case of the APA, markedly superior, to those still brewed in St. Matthews.
No food service is offered at the Taproom, but visitors are invited to bring their own snacks and meals or consult a handy guide to local eateries that will deliver.
Bluegrass Brewing Company
3939 Shelbyville Road
899-7070
The original BBC brewpub (1993) is located on Shelbyville Road in the St. Matthews neighborhood on Louisville’s east side. The brewer is Jerry Gnagy, and the beer lineup includes classic BBC styles (American Pale Ale, Dark Star Porter, et al) as formulated by original brewmaster David Pierce, as well as Jerry’s own rotating seasonals (an excellent California Common, for one, and also the headsplitting Ultra) and even a few holdovers (Mephistopheles Metamorphosis) from Tim Rastetter, who served as a consultant for a brief period circa 2002-2003.
Food is served seven days a week, televised sports and live music are constants, and there is an attractive outdoor seating area.
Browning’s Restaurant & Brewery
401 East Main Street (at Louisville Slugger Field)
515-0174
Fine dining (Park Place on Main) and a brewpub (Browning’s Restaurant & Brewery), both under the same management, lie side by side within Louisville Slugger Field, home of the city’s Triple-A Bats. The showpiece tower brewing system that serves as the central design feature of Browning’s has often been mistaken for a spittoon by a series of “no speak beer” owners and decision makers, but the brewpub remains the only hope for a decent pint of beer within the confines of the notoriously beer-unfriendly Slugger Field.
Cumberland Brews
1576 Bardstown Road
458-8727
Matt Gould, the hardest-working brewer in Louisville, squeezes every last drop of quality out of an impossibly tiny 2-barrel system in the very heart of the Highlands, with personal favorites including Nitro Porter and Pale Ale.
Opened by the Allgeier family in 2000, Cumberland Brews has garnered consistently good reviews for the quality of its kitchen and the intimate conviviality of the atmosphere.
New Albanian Brewing Company
3312 Plaza Drive, New Albany
812-949-2804
Established in 2002, NABC is the microbrewing arm of New Albany’s Rich O’s Public House (the area’s finest specialty beer bar since 1992) and Sportstime Pizza, which began operations in 1987.
In April, 2005, the brewing baton was passed from Michael Borchers to Jesse Williams, and it is hoped that an increase in brewing capacity will be achieved later in the year.
Indiana Package Stores: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.
Readers, this is the first of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.
Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?
------------
INDIANA PACKAGE STORES
Bridge Liquors
110 Knable Lane
812-945-6396
Located near Floyd Memorial Hospital, this decades-old, family-owned business has enjoyed sustainable evolutionary growth over the years, and only recently expanded again, doubling the stores’ floor space. Bridge Liquors is aggressively pursuing the local craft beer consumer with a broadened selection of microbrews and imports.
Old Mill Wine & Spirits
2876 Charlestown Road, New Albany
812-941-1350
Since the mid-1990’s, Old Mill has stocked the widest overall variety of beer, wine and spirits, with its wine selection especially drawing plaudits from Louisville critics – no mean feat. The beer selection remains far above average, but Bridge is nipping at Old Mill’s heels, and in the view of many, may already have surpassed it.
Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?
------------
INDIANA PACKAGE STORES
Bridge Liquors
110 Knable Lane
812-945-6396
Located near Floyd Memorial Hospital, this decades-old, family-owned business has enjoyed sustainable evolutionary growth over the years, and only recently expanded again, doubling the stores’ floor space. Bridge Liquors is aggressively pursuing the local craft beer consumer with a broadened selection of microbrews and imports.
Old Mill Wine & Spirits
2876 Charlestown Road, New Albany
812-941-1350
Since the mid-1990’s, Old Mill has stocked the widest overall variety of beer, wine and spirits, with its wine selection especially drawing plaudits from Louisville critics – no mean feat. The beer selection remains far above average, but Bridge is nipping at Old Mill’s heels, and in the view of many, may already have surpassed it.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Package store swill pricing and baby steps of old.
Earlier this evening, we were enjoying frozen sugar concoctions at Zesto's on Charlestown Road when I looked across the street at the Copper Still sign and saw that a 30-pack of Natural Light is going for $11.99, plus sales tax.
Given that Natural Light is in a wholesale price tier below Budweiser and Bud Light, which we used to sell for $8.49 per 24-pack at the now defunct Scoreboard Liquors in New Albany, this price seems quite high to me.
What it really means is that I've lost all touch with the price of swill, and haven't the foggiest which price is good and which isn't - although, of course, no cerebral exercise is necessary to determine that $5 or $6 for ballpark swill is an outrage.
The average price of a 20-ounce pint of draft beer at Rich O's is now around $4.25, and we don't sell swill.
Well, we do sell Corona, which is currently priced at $4.50 for a 12-oz bottle ... and that's just to see how much someone will pay for bad beer.
I need some amusement, you know.
In 13 years out of the package store biz, I've lost all sense of proportion, and I'm not complaining at all.
Here are links for two previous NA Confidential stories pertaining to the liquor store daze (1983-1992):
Remembering Jim Creech (April 29, 2005)
Package store veterans day (November 11, 2004)
Finally, here are the best liquor stores in New Albany when it comes to finding a good beer:
Bridge Liquors
Old Mill Wine & Spirit Shoppe
Things have changed since the late Jim Creech let me "have" a door in the walk-in cooler to put some of the "fancy" beers.
Given that Natural Light is in a wholesale price tier below Budweiser and Bud Light, which we used to sell for $8.49 per 24-pack at the now defunct Scoreboard Liquors in New Albany, this price seems quite high to me.
What it really means is that I've lost all touch with the price of swill, and haven't the foggiest which price is good and which isn't - although, of course, no cerebral exercise is necessary to determine that $5 or $6 for ballpark swill is an outrage.
The average price of a 20-ounce pint of draft beer at Rich O's is now around $4.25, and we don't sell swill.
Well, we do sell Corona, which is currently priced at $4.50 for a 12-oz bottle ... and that's just to see how much someone will pay for bad beer.
I need some amusement, you know.
In 13 years out of the package store biz, I've lost all sense of proportion, and I'm not complaining at all.
Here are links for two previous NA Confidential stories pertaining to the liquor store daze (1983-1992):
Remembering Jim Creech (April 29, 2005)
Package store veterans day (November 11, 2004)
Finally, here are the best liquor stores in New Albany when it comes to finding a good beer:
Bridge Liquors
Old Mill Wine & Spirit Shoppe
Things have changed since the late Jim Creech let me "have" a door in the walk-in cooler to put some of the "fancy" beers.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
It was twenty years ago today ... and 48 hours to Istanbul.
My European travel adventures began in 1985, and now, for the first time, I'm writing about them. On May 23, 1985, I was on the road to Turkey.
Read the article at NA Confidential:
It was twenty years ago today ... and 48 hours to Istanbul
Previously, part one: It was twenty years ago today ...
Read the article at NA Confidential:
It was twenty years ago today ... and 48 hours to Istanbul
Previously, part one: It was twenty years ago today ...
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Purported Jeffersonville microbrewery likely figment of Tubby's imagination.
The Curmudgeon told you so.
On April 12, the Jeffersonville Evening News reported that Glenn “Tubby” Muncy was at it again, spinning tall tales and duping gullible newspapermen about a microbrewery supposedly set to open at the downtown Jeffersonville building that housed his previous business, Tubby’s Pizza, which burned under mysterious circumstances several years back.
“Microbrewery planned for former restaurant site,” by City Editor Larry Thomas.
Thomas guilelessly swallowed Tubby’s absurd claim to be a certified “master brewer,” but as the Curmudgeon quickly pointed out, Tubby’s name is nowhere to be found at the web site of trained master brewers.
“Tubby, the sequel: As much a "master brewer" as the Curmudgeon is a neuro-surgeon.”
Six weeks later, Thomas reveals that liens against Tubby’s building are approximately quintuple its value, that these liens are not the result of a mistake (as Tubby insisted in April), and that there has been so little evidence of progress in rehabilitating the building that the city of Jeffersonville is considering eminent domain to seize it.
“Properties' progress faulted,” by Larry Thomas.
There are no surprises in any of this, are there?
On April 12, the Jeffersonville Evening News reported that Glenn “Tubby” Muncy was at it again, spinning tall tales and duping gullible newspapermen about a microbrewery supposedly set to open at the downtown Jeffersonville building that housed his previous business, Tubby’s Pizza, which burned under mysterious circumstances several years back.
“Microbrewery planned for former restaurant site,” by City Editor Larry Thomas.
Thomas guilelessly swallowed Tubby’s absurd claim to be a certified “master brewer,” but as the Curmudgeon quickly pointed out, Tubby’s name is nowhere to be found at the web site of trained master brewers.
“Tubby, the sequel: As much a "master brewer" as the Curmudgeon is a neuro-surgeon.”
Six weeks later, Thomas reveals that liens against Tubby’s building are approximately quintuple its value, that these liens are not the result of a mistake (as Tubby insisted in April), and that there has been so little evidence of progress in rehabilitating the building that the city of Jeffersonville is considering eminent domain to seize it.
“Properties' progress faulted,” by Larry Thomas.
There are no surprises in any of this, are there?
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Schlenkerla & the Brauerei Heller Trum: Upholding traditions in Bamberg.
From spring, 2004.
On April 1, 2003, Matthias Trum assumed control of his family’s business, becoming the sixth male in his family to take the reins since the mid-1800’s.
Stories involving dynastic succession are of potential interest regardless of the time or place, but when the setting is Bamberg, Germany, a city that is home to nine breweries, and when the Trum family business is one of them – Brauerei Heller Trum, more commonly known as Schlenkerla, a classic brewery and pub enterprise - then special attention is warranted.
Especially if the observer - me - is a beer aficionado hopelessly smitten with the lovely city in general and its fine beer in particular.
Bamberg Redux.
In personal terms, my experience with Bamberg dates to 1991, when I visited the Franconian city for the first time. Even before that, there was unmistakable infatuation. I’d read accounts of the city’s beer culture written by British beer writer Michael Jackson and salivated over his written descriptions of Schlenkerla’s trademark smoked lager.
Long before I tasted it, I knew that Schlenkerla would be an unquestioned, enduring favorite, and my first sip amply confirmed it.
Subsequent encounters with Schlenkerla have not failed to entice and impress, and these half-dozen trips since the first one have confirmed not only that Bamberg is the place to go for smoked lager, an elegant retro-rarity in the world of beer, but furthermore, that the city simply has no serious competition as the finest setting for beer drinking in all of Germany.
The beer is sublime, and available in as many styles and variations as there are taste buds, but the truly priceless aspect of any visit to Bamberg emanates from the opportunity, one unfortunately threatened by the pace of modern life, to comprehensively experience a culture seemingly crafted from only the very best of beer’s numerous virtues.
From the savory and always reasonably priced German cuisine accompanying and complementing my beverage of choice to the city’s many traditional indoor and outdoor drinking and dining venues, Bamberg affords the enhancement of gustatory and olfactory pleasures in a way that larger cities cannot match.
Bamberg’s 70,000 residents enjoy the products of the city’s nine remaining breweries (down from as many as two dozen a century ago), and also have the opportunity to sample the selected wares of more than a few of the 100-plus breweries in a fifty-mile radius. Many of these breweries are located in charming small towns tucked away in wooded hills and pastoral valleys radiating outward from Bamberg.
Bamberg and its outlying Franconian environs are to German beer what the Amazon Basin is to species of flora and fauna: A diverse and unfathomable “zymurgo-system,” and a treasure trove of species, many of which are doomed to extinction owing to the relentless march of consumerism and mass-marketing.
In truth, few of these beers equal the mighty Schlenkerla Marzen, the Trum family’s everyday (that’s right, everyday) beer. It is a full-bodied amber lager, and it would be delicious even if it did not burst upon the palate with an assertively smoky flavor deriving from beechwood kilning in the brewery’s micro-malting – a traditional method itself now largely extinct.
Traditions to uphold.
The very survival and continued prosperity of Bamberg’s beer and brewing culture are best viewed as questions of tradition versus modernity, and all those who are exploring the equation, from brewer to tavern keeper to drinking customer, are answering the question in their own way by the choices they make.
Not least among them is Matthias Trum, who comes down squarely on the side of tradition … most of the time.
Matthias tells the story of his grandmother’s tenure stewarding the family’s lively, well-trodden pub and restaurant, and of her ironclad view of propriety. There was to be no kissing between unmarried men and women customers (her reaction to openly gay couples can be inferred), and men wearing short pants (other than lederhosen) were to be neither acknowledged nor served.
“That part of tradition can be relaxed,” laughed Matthias last July as we savored Marzens and a platter of sausages in the section of the tavern known as God’s Corner, where a statue of Jesus looks out on the usually crowded room.
Other time-tested rules have not changed: The three “C’s” of Coca-Cola, coffee, and chips (French fries) are not available. “You can buy them anywhere in Bamberg,” noted Matthias, “but not when you come to Schlenkerla. Here, we offer a traditional menu.”
In similar fashion, the brewery (located several beautiful hillside blocks away from the tavern), observes old methods whenever possible. Almost no breweries have retained their maltings, but Schlenkerla continues to employ a maltster, who smokes the barley and prepares it for brewing.
Beer destined for the tavern is kegged in wooden barrels, themselves crafted by one of the last remaining coopers in Bavaria. The barrels must be kept in a damp environment to preserve the wood. When they are hoisted onto the counter and tapped, the beer flows straight out by gravity feed, almost like cask ale except that the yeast isn’t still alive.
Two sizes of barrel are filled, because when closing time draws near, the smaller barrel can be tapped so that no beer goes flat and is wasted overnight.
During our tour of the brewery, Matthias led my friends Kim Andersen, Craig Somers, Pavel Borovich and I into lagering cellars beneath the brewery. The cellars are part of a network of underground passageways extending throughout hill-studded Bamberg.
We were offered samples of cool, delicious Urbock, the rich, higher-gravity seasonal variant of smoked lager, and instructed in the uses of the mysterious Spundetapparat.
How Matthias managed to convince us to return to the earth’s surface remains a mystery to me.
Preparing for success.
It can be seen that a proper respect for tradition is the norm in the Schlenkerla pub and brewery, but Matthias prepared for his career with thoroughly modern diligence after assuring his parents at an early age that he fully intended to go into the family business.
The same grandmother who rejected lip contact out of wedlock and shunned the tourist’s Bermudas heartily encouraged the notion that Matthias should first attend university for a degree in business and economics before immersion in beer and brewing.
Afterwards, Matthias studied at the prestigious Weihenstephan brewing institute near Munich and served an apprenticeship at Zum Uerige, the most traditional of Dusseldorf’s Altbier brewpubs. He then worked the family brewery from top to bottom alongside the maltster, brewer and forklift operator.
When German Trum passed the baton to his son Matthias and retired from the business that he had directed for three decades, he did so without qualification, and has not visited the brewery since. It would appear that capable hands run in the family.
Bamberg’s breweries cope.
Contemporary Germany is no different from any other Western consumer society. Its citizens are forever being offered “new and improved” beverages, foods, entertainment options and lifestyle choices.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, beer consumption has been on the decline in Germany for many years, and in Franconia, home to 500 or more breweries as recently as the 1980’s, the number has dropped to just above 300 now.
British beer writer John Conen, a close observer of the Bamberg brewing scene, says that the hemorrhaging has slowed of late, but to return to the analogy of disappearing species in the Amazon, the continued attrition of these small, distinctive breweries bodes ill for the future of German brewing.
I’m not speaking of German brewing in the sense of it functioning on its largest level as a multi-national business enterprise, for there are no shortage of large brewing companies actively pursuing acquisition, consolidation and the transformation of beer into a standardized supermarket commodity in Germany just as in the rest of the world.
Rather, I’m lamenting the inevitable decline of brewing in the artistic and cultural senses, for it is in these milieus that individualistic, highly localized attitudes and methods, once lost, can never be regained.
Bamberg’s nine breweries deal with problems of survival in varying, generally complementary ways.
Kaiserdom, the largest and least interesting to me, seeks to maintain a niche export market and positions itself as up-market “premium” at home. By contrast, Maisel brews the working man’s Pils and Weizen.
In the neighborhood known as Wunderberg, arguably Bamberg’s Brooklyn, Mahr’s and Keesman occupy opposite sides of the street and both make great beer. It is alleged by certain observers that the workers patronize Mahr’s and the bosses visit Keesman, but despite long hours spent at both establishments, I cannot verify it. However, I can attest to the lip-smacking beers that both produce.
Close to the Rhine-Main-Danube canal on Obere-Konigstrasse, Fassla is a brewpub and guesthouse that unashamedly caters to the working man. It I more “real” than Anheuser-Busch ever will be. Directly across the street, Spezial brews the city’s gentler, second-rated smoked lager and operates the finest beer garden (Spezial Keller, located a few kilometers away on Stephansberg hill) in Bamberg, and maybe in all of Germany.
Klosterbrau parlays its old town location, monastic religious connotations and rich textbook dark lagers into a steady trade with tourist and local alike. Greifenklau possesses yet another lovely hilltop garden with a view, and runs a big hotel that is favored by tour groups.
And then, there’s Schlenkerla. The Trum family resides above their pub, so there are no overnight rooms, but even without an outdoor garden for warm weather seating, the pub itself is jewel enough. It oozes history. Half of its current floor plan originally was part of an adjacent monastery, and the location deep in the epicenter of Bamberg’s old town is exemplary. Insofar as tourists can stomach real, unalloyed beer, Schlenkerla draws them, but at the Stammtisch (i.e., reserved table) are clustered regulars who have been drinking in the same spot since long before Matthias’s birth.
Small amounts of Schlenkerla’s beer reach aficionados throughout the world, and there are off-premise accounts in Bamberg and its environs, but by far most of it is consumed at the bustling tavern, lovingly drawn one pint at a time from the real wooden barrel perched atop a venerable metal-topped counter, and consumed alongside smoked ham, horseradish and pungent beer cheese.
Time spent with Matthias Trum convinces me that Schlenkerla will remain a safe house amidst the destructive tsunamis of the warring multinational brewing conglomerates, and for this alone I would go back to Bamberg.
How I manage to convince myself to return to Indiana remains a mystery to me … but somehow, each time, I do.
On April 1, 2003, Matthias Trum assumed control of his family’s business, becoming the sixth male in his family to take the reins since the mid-1800’s.
Stories involving dynastic succession are of potential interest regardless of the time or place, but when the setting is Bamberg, Germany, a city that is home to nine breweries, and when the Trum family business is one of them – Brauerei Heller Trum, more commonly known as Schlenkerla, a classic brewery and pub enterprise - then special attention is warranted.
Especially if the observer - me - is a beer aficionado hopelessly smitten with the lovely city in general and its fine beer in particular.
Bamberg Redux.
In personal terms, my experience with Bamberg dates to 1991, when I visited the Franconian city for the first time. Even before that, there was unmistakable infatuation. I’d read accounts of the city’s beer culture written by British beer writer Michael Jackson and salivated over his written descriptions of Schlenkerla’s trademark smoked lager.
Long before I tasted it, I knew that Schlenkerla would be an unquestioned, enduring favorite, and my first sip amply confirmed it.
Subsequent encounters with Schlenkerla have not failed to entice and impress, and these half-dozen trips since the first one have confirmed not only that Bamberg is the place to go for smoked lager, an elegant retro-rarity in the world of beer, but furthermore, that the city simply has no serious competition as the finest setting for beer drinking in all of Germany.
The beer is sublime, and available in as many styles and variations as there are taste buds, but the truly priceless aspect of any visit to Bamberg emanates from the opportunity, one unfortunately threatened by the pace of modern life, to comprehensively experience a culture seemingly crafted from only the very best of beer’s numerous virtues.
From the savory and always reasonably priced German cuisine accompanying and complementing my beverage of choice to the city’s many traditional indoor and outdoor drinking and dining venues, Bamberg affords the enhancement of gustatory and olfactory pleasures in a way that larger cities cannot match.
Bamberg’s 70,000 residents enjoy the products of the city’s nine remaining breweries (down from as many as two dozen a century ago), and also have the opportunity to sample the selected wares of more than a few of the 100-plus breweries in a fifty-mile radius. Many of these breweries are located in charming small towns tucked away in wooded hills and pastoral valleys radiating outward from Bamberg.
Bamberg and its outlying Franconian environs are to German beer what the Amazon Basin is to species of flora and fauna: A diverse and unfathomable “zymurgo-system,” and a treasure trove of species, many of which are doomed to extinction owing to the relentless march of consumerism and mass-marketing.
In truth, few of these beers equal the mighty Schlenkerla Marzen, the Trum family’s everyday (that’s right, everyday) beer. It is a full-bodied amber lager, and it would be delicious even if it did not burst upon the palate with an assertively smoky flavor deriving from beechwood kilning in the brewery’s micro-malting – a traditional method itself now largely extinct.
Traditions to uphold.
The very survival and continued prosperity of Bamberg’s beer and brewing culture are best viewed as questions of tradition versus modernity, and all those who are exploring the equation, from brewer to tavern keeper to drinking customer, are answering the question in their own way by the choices they make.
Not least among them is Matthias Trum, who comes down squarely on the side of tradition … most of the time.
Matthias tells the story of his grandmother’s tenure stewarding the family’s lively, well-trodden pub and restaurant, and of her ironclad view of propriety. There was to be no kissing between unmarried men and women customers (her reaction to openly gay couples can be inferred), and men wearing short pants (other than lederhosen) were to be neither acknowledged nor served.
“That part of tradition can be relaxed,” laughed Matthias last July as we savored Marzens and a platter of sausages in the section of the tavern known as God’s Corner, where a statue of Jesus looks out on the usually crowded room.
Other time-tested rules have not changed: The three “C’s” of Coca-Cola, coffee, and chips (French fries) are not available. “You can buy them anywhere in Bamberg,” noted Matthias, “but not when you come to Schlenkerla. Here, we offer a traditional menu.”
In similar fashion, the brewery (located several beautiful hillside blocks away from the tavern), observes old methods whenever possible. Almost no breweries have retained their maltings, but Schlenkerla continues to employ a maltster, who smokes the barley and prepares it for brewing.
Beer destined for the tavern is kegged in wooden barrels, themselves crafted by one of the last remaining coopers in Bavaria. The barrels must be kept in a damp environment to preserve the wood. When they are hoisted onto the counter and tapped, the beer flows straight out by gravity feed, almost like cask ale except that the yeast isn’t still alive.
Two sizes of barrel are filled, because when closing time draws near, the smaller barrel can be tapped so that no beer goes flat and is wasted overnight.
During our tour of the brewery, Matthias led my friends Kim Andersen, Craig Somers, Pavel Borovich and I into lagering cellars beneath the brewery. The cellars are part of a network of underground passageways extending throughout hill-studded Bamberg.
We were offered samples of cool, delicious Urbock, the rich, higher-gravity seasonal variant of smoked lager, and instructed in the uses of the mysterious Spundetapparat.
How Matthias managed to convince us to return to the earth’s surface remains a mystery to me.
Preparing for success.
It can be seen that a proper respect for tradition is the norm in the Schlenkerla pub and brewery, but Matthias prepared for his career with thoroughly modern diligence after assuring his parents at an early age that he fully intended to go into the family business.
The same grandmother who rejected lip contact out of wedlock and shunned the tourist’s Bermudas heartily encouraged the notion that Matthias should first attend university for a degree in business and economics before immersion in beer and brewing.
Afterwards, Matthias studied at the prestigious Weihenstephan brewing institute near Munich and served an apprenticeship at Zum Uerige, the most traditional of Dusseldorf’s Altbier brewpubs. He then worked the family brewery from top to bottom alongside the maltster, brewer and forklift operator.
When German Trum passed the baton to his son Matthias and retired from the business that he had directed for three decades, he did so without qualification, and has not visited the brewery since. It would appear that capable hands run in the family.
Bamberg’s breweries cope.
Contemporary Germany is no different from any other Western consumer society. Its citizens are forever being offered “new and improved” beverages, foods, entertainment options and lifestyle choices.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, beer consumption has been on the decline in Germany for many years, and in Franconia, home to 500 or more breweries as recently as the 1980’s, the number has dropped to just above 300 now.
British beer writer John Conen, a close observer of the Bamberg brewing scene, says that the hemorrhaging has slowed of late, but to return to the analogy of disappearing species in the Amazon, the continued attrition of these small, distinctive breweries bodes ill for the future of German brewing.
I’m not speaking of German brewing in the sense of it functioning on its largest level as a multi-national business enterprise, for there are no shortage of large brewing companies actively pursuing acquisition, consolidation and the transformation of beer into a standardized supermarket commodity in Germany just as in the rest of the world.
Rather, I’m lamenting the inevitable decline of brewing in the artistic and cultural senses, for it is in these milieus that individualistic, highly localized attitudes and methods, once lost, can never be regained.
Bamberg’s nine breweries deal with problems of survival in varying, generally complementary ways.
Kaiserdom, the largest and least interesting to me, seeks to maintain a niche export market and positions itself as up-market “premium” at home. By contrast, Maisel brews the working man’s Pils and Weizen.
In the neighborhood known as Wunderberg, arguably Bamberg’s Brooklyn, Mahr’s and Keesman occupy opposite sides of the street and both make great beer. It is alleged by certain observers that the workers patronize Mahr’s and the bosses visit Keesman, but despite long hours spent at both establishments, I cannot verify it. However, I can attest to the lip-smacking beers that both produce.
Close to the Rhine-Main-Danube canal on Obere-Konigstrasse, Fassla is a brewpub and guesthouse that unashamedly caters to the working man. It I more “real” than Anheuser-Busch ever will be. Directly across the street, Spezial brews the city’s gentler, second-rated smoked lager and operates the finest beer garden (Spezial Keller, located a few kilometers away on Stephansberg hill) in Bamberg, and maybe in all of Germany.
Klosterbrau parlays its old town location, monastic religious connotations and rich textbook dark lagers into a steady trade with tourist and local alike. Greifenklau possesses yet another lovely hilltop garden with a view, and runs a big hotel that is favored by tour groups.
And then, there’s Schlenkerla. The Trum family resides above their pub, so there are no overnight rooms, but even without an outdoor garden for warm weather seating, the pub itself is jewel enough. It oozes history. Half of its current floor plan originally was part of an adjacent monastery, and the location deep in the epicenter of Bamberg’s old town is exemplary. Insofar as tourists can stomach real, unalloyed beer, Schlenkerla draws them, but at the Stammtisch (i.e., reserved table) are clustered regulars who have been drinking in the same spot since long before Matthias’s birth.
Small amounts of Schlenkerla’s beer reach aficionados throughout the world, and there are off-premise accounts in Bamberg and its environs, but by far most of it is consumed at the bustling tavern, lovingly drawn one pint at a time from the real wooden barrel perched atop a venerable metal-topped counter, and consumed alongside smoked ham, horseradish and pungent beer cheese.
Time spent with Matthias Trum convinces me that Schlenkerla will remain a safe house amidst the destructive tsunamis of the warring multinational brewing conglomerates, and for this alone I would go back to Bamberg.
How I manage to convince myself to return to Indiana remains a mystery to me … but somehow, each time, I do.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Last call (this time) for Founders Red's Rye on draft?
Currently at Rich O's, perhaps the final keg (for a while) of Founders Red's Rye is on tap.
Someone remarked that it'd be fine with them if Red's Rye were on tap all of the time, and I concur from the standpoint of "red" being part of the ale's name, which means that rank amateurs seeking Killian's might select the Founders red ale strictly because of the colorful promise, but find it not at all tasteless like the dyed alcopop offered by MolsonCoors.
Of course, Red's Rye is a fine beer that stands on its own right. It's just fun to dupe the Liteweights every now and then.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Brasserie Thiriez: Bieres de Garde as you've never experienced them.
French Flanders, the lowland region of Northern France that borders on Belgium, is the home of Bieres de Garde (beers to keep, implying ones to be laid down until needed).
These “country ales” are at once traditional and modern, having all but died out in the early-to-mid 20th century before being revived, usually with only sketchy references upon which to base contemporary reformulations.
Bieres de Garde surely are among the least understood and appreciated of formal beer styles. I fell in love with them one otherwise uneventful day in the mid-1990’s -- but not while visiting northern France, a momentous event that occurred later during our first bicycles & beer journey in 2000.
Rather, I was cooking at home, and chose St. Amand (Brasserie Castelain – currently in 2005, unavailable to us) to accompany a plate of pasta with garlic-laden marinara sauce, accompanied by crusty bread.
The rich, earthy, amber French ale met my spicy Italian seasonings and formed a perfect match, one I’ve never forgotten.
As Bieres de Garde have evolved, French brewers have blended barley malts in creative ways that yield complex malt character. Many of these ales are cold-conditioned (lagered), a process that rounds the sharper edges of the traditional ale flavor profile.
For the most part, the use of hops has been restrained, indicating a commitment to a balanced malt profile without appreciable bitterness, hop flavor or hop aroma, but as we are about to see, this isn’t always the case.
Recently we received cases of three pleasingly atypical Bieres de Garde, all brewed by Brasserie Thiriez in Esquelbecq, France, a town located not too far away from Cassel, home of the world-classic beer café l'Estaminet 'T Kasteelhof.
These three ales from Thiriez add a whole new dimension to the reliable aim of Bieres de Garde, as they are enticingly hopped to go along with the complex malt, adding a mouthwatering “session” component to the mix.
Owner and brewer Daniel Thiriez, an escapee from the corporate world, studied brewing in Belgium before starting his own brewing operation. It would seem that his chosen mission is to elevate the hop from its role as insurer of balance to one of co-starring status with the signature maltiness of Bieres de Garde.
More power to him.
Thiriez Blonde
French farmhouse ale for the pilsner drinker? It’s a hazy, pale shade of gold, with far more spicy hop in the nose than malt, and medium-bodied at best. Hop flavor is up front, along with a lemony hint, and a lingering bitterness remains behind to demand the next sip. As with its sister ales, a dense and gorgeous head yields to clinging lacework from start to finish.
Thiriez Amber
French farmhouse ale for the Altbier drinker? Lightly hazy, amber/brown, pours brilliantly, with malt aromatics turned up a notch, and hop nose slightly more muted. My choice to accompany the mixed platter of local meats, pates and cheeses served at the Kasteelhof, as it bears more of a resemblance to the traditional style, albeit with more hop bitterness and flavor.
Thiriez Xxtra
French farmhouse ale for the unrepentant hophead? The hops in question hail from Kent, in England, as part of a European brewing cooperation program. As with the preceding examples, the crisp freshness of the hop character verges on the revelatory – there’s just more of it here, and it’s hard to imagine the aggressiveness being more immediate were the ale to be sampled at the brewery. Xxtra obviously is comparable to the elusive hoppy Belgian ales like XX Bitter and Poperings Hommel Bier, but it is lower in alcohol content, and with a musky, funky hop presence in all respects.
All three are currently available at Rich O’s, in 750 ml crown cap bottles (have a knife ready to assist in peeling away the neck covering), at $12.50 in house, $9.00 for carry-out.
These excellent ales would be recommended irrespective of national origin, but I like them even more precisely because they’re French, and indicative of a creative willingness to expand already delicious boundaries of a beer and brewing culture unfairly ignored by many American beer aficionados.
For further reading:
Shelton Brothers web page for Thiriez
La Brasserie Artisanale d'Esquelbecq (in French)
These “country ales” are at once traditional and modern, having all but died out in the early-to-mid 20th century before being revived, usually with only sketchy references upon which to base contemporary reformulations.
Bieres de Garde surely are among the least understood and appreciated of formal beer styles. I fell in love with them one otherwise uneventful day in the mid-1990’s -- but not while visiting northern France, a momentous event that occurred later during our first bicycles & beer journey in 2000.
Rather, I was cooking at home, and chose St. Amand (Brasserie Castelain – currently in 2005, unavailable to us) to accompany a plate of pasta with garlic-laden marinara sauce, accompanied by crusty bread.
The rich, earthy, amber French ale met my spicy Italian seasonings and formed a perfect match, one I’ve never forgotten.
As Bieres de Garde have evolved, French brewers have blended barley malts in creative ways that yield complex malt character. Many of these ales are cold-conditioned (lagered), a process that rounds the sharper edges of the traditional ale flavor profile.
For the most part, the use of hops has been restrained, indicating a commitment to a balanced malt profile without appreciable bitterness, hop flavor or hop aroma, but as we are about to see, this isn’t always the case.
Recently we received cases of three pleasingly atypical Bieres de Garde, all brewed by Brasserie Thiriez in Esquelbecq, France, a town located not too far away from Cassel, home of the world-classic beer café l'Estaminet 'T Kasteelhof.
These three ales from Thiriez add a whole new dimension to the reliable aim of Bieres de Garde, as they are enticingly hopped to go along with the complex malt, adding a mouthwatering “session” component to the mix.
Owner and brewer Daniel Thiriez, an escapee from the corporate world, studied brewing in Belgium before starting his own brewing operation. It would seem that his chosen mission is to elevate the hop from its role as insurer of balance to one of co-starring status with the signature maltiness of Bieres de Garde.
More power to him.
Thiriez Blonde
French farmhouse ale for the pilsner drinker? It’s a hazy, pale shade of gold, with far more spicy hop in the nose than malt, and medium-bodied at best. Hop flavor is up front, along with a lemony hint, and a lingering bitterness remains behind to demand the next sip. As with its sister ales, a dense and gorgeous head yields to clinging lacework from start to finish.
Thiriez Amber
French farmhouse ale for the Altbier drinker? Lightly hazy, amber/brown, pours brilliantly, with malt aromatics turned up a notch, and hop nose slightly more muted. My choice to accompany the mixed platter of local meats, pates and cheeses served at the Kasteelhof, as it bears more of a resemblance to the traditional style, albeit with more hop bitterness and flavor.
Thiriez Xxtra
French farmhouse ale for the unrepentant hophead? The hops in question hail from Kent, in England, as part of a European brewing cooperation program. As with the preceding examples, the crisp freshness of the hop character verges on the revelatory – there’s just more of it here, and it’s hard to imagine the aggressiveness being more immediate were the ale to be sampled at the brewery. Xxtra obviously is comparable to the elusive hoppy Belgian ales like XX Bitter and Poperings Hommel Bier, but it is lower in alcohol content, and with a musky, funky hop presence in all respects.
All three are currently available at Rich O’s, in 750 ml crown cap bottles (have a knife ready to assist in peeling away the neck covering), at $12.50 in house, $9.00 for carry-out.
These excellent ales would be recommended irrespective of national origin, but I like them even more precisely because they’re French, and indicative of a creative willingness to expand already delicious boundaries of a beer and brewing culture unfairly ignored by many American beer aficionados.
For further reading:
Shelton Brothers web page for Thiriez
La Brasserie Artisanale d'Esquelbecq (in French)
Monday, May 16, 2005
A fine old "old ale" on a Sunday evening.
During the course of a day spent digging through the Rich O's beer stocks in search of vintages for culling at the sale Saturday (if you missed it, a few bottles are left and can be purchased by appointment with me), I found a treasure trove of five-year-old Adam and Fred from the Hair of the Dog Brewery in Portland, Oregon.
The bottles had been pulled, unlabeled, straight from the bottling line by our good friend Phil "Biscuit" Timperman, who at the time was helping at the brewery. Now he's gainfully employed at the Horse Brass Pub, and should become mayor of Portland with a decade.
At last night's FOSSILS meeting, I poured nips of the 10% abv Adam, and it was exquisite, with a nutty aroma and palate, not at all heavy in the mouth, and overall possessing qualities you'd expect from a liqueur, not a beer.
Rest assured, the Fred will be next, but needless to say - these aren't for sale.
The bottles had been pulled, unlabeled, straight from the bottling line by our good friend Phil "Biscuit" Timperman, who at the time was helping at the brewery. Now he's gainfully employed at the Horse Brass Pub, and should become mayor of Portland with a decade.
At last night's FOSSILS meeting, I poured nips of the 10% abv Adam, and it was exquisite, with a nutty aroma and palate, not at all heavy in the mouth, and overall possessing qualities you'd expect from a liqueur, not a beer.
Rest assured, the Fred will be next, but needless to say - these aren't for sale.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
It was twenty years ago today ...
My European travel adventures began on this date in 1985, when I boarded a plane in Chicago and jetted off into the unknown.
Read the article at NA Confidential:
It was twenty years ago today ...
Read the article at NA Confidential:
It was twenty years ago today ...
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