Oct 302008
 

Gulden Draak

Gulden Draak

Ah yes, on to part three of that mysterious Belgian Box!

I asked my girlfriend to choose one of the remaining four bottles. Of course, she picked the white bottle that stood out like a sore thumb. This bottle contained none other than Gulden Draak – Golden Dragon in Dutch, er, Flemish – which weighs in at an impressive 10.5% ABV.

10.5%?? On a Wednesday night? Such is the cross I bear to bring you this review.

Aroma
The beer has a nice aroma – caramel and some fruit notes – perhaps a touch of plum or raisin? Unfortunately, my allergies are awful right now and I can’t trust my nose. Hell, this beer might smell like old gym socks for all I know. Don’t trust a word I’m saying here.

Appearance
Nice appearance – thick, super-rocky head which took forever and a half to recede. Left less lacing on the glass than I thought it would. Dark, deep reddish-brown color which I found appropriate for a Dark Tripel.

Flavor
This is a strong beer, and it makes a statement. My initial impression was a nice and sweet caramel malt backbone cut by sour cherry notes. There is a touch of hop bitterness in the aftertaste, but the hops are not overly prominent – like most of these Belgians I’ve tasted, the hops serve to keep the maltiness in check while blending into the background. You can taste that 10.5% alcohol – it brings a sharpness and a bit of heat to the mix.

Mouthfeel
The beer is heavy and thick, but the alcohol and crisp carbonation help to cut it down to a manageable level. Definitely not a session beer, but the mouthfeel doesn’t bog you down too much.

Overall
This beer is like a thief that sneaks up and steals your sobriety. It starts off great, but as you finish the bottle, you can’t help but fall victim to the 10.5% ABV. I would not recommend drinking this before driving, operating heavy machinery, rebalancing your 401(k), proposing, deciding to deep-fry a turkey, buying a puppy. or writing you law school admission essay.

Gulden Draak poured

Gulden Draak poured

Check out the other Belgian Box reviews – Piraat and Augustijn Ale.

Oct 292008
 

Your girlfriend says you can have either a coffee bean roasting setup or a Blichmann beer gun for your birthday (Nov. 8th). You love beer, but you also love coffee. You have wanted to roast your own beans for a while now, but you also want to be able to bottle up kegged homebrew to send to competitions.

Which do you choose?

Oct 162008
 

Augustijn Ale

Augustijn Ale

Wow, I’m waaaay behind on blog posts. I have a ton of stuff to write about, and no damn time to get er’ done! I’m sorry, es tut mehr leit, etc… I’m trying to chip away at some of the overdue posts, so here is the second edition of the Belgian Box reviews! Oh, and hang in there – I have plans to brew this weekend, so hopefully we’ll have some actual homebrew-related posts here soon!

Tonight’s Belgian beer is Augustijn Ale. The bottle label depicts a monk hard at work in what must be an abbey brewery, and also informs us that this beer is 8% ABV. You know, something to warm me up while I enjoy watching the Rays stomp those ridiculous, cocky Red Sox.

Ahem. Anyway, on to the beer:

Aroma
The beer smells inviting, with the clove and banana notes which are prevalent in most Belgian brews. There is no real hop aroma I could pick out, which in my experience is also typical of Belgians. There was a slight citrus note, which I found intriguing. Something else there, caramel or raisin, perhaps? Made me want to take that first sip.

Appearance
Appearance was gorgeous – the beer poured with a ridiculous meringue head which lasted forever. The beer itself is a light gold/amber color and was a touch hazy. The lacing lasted quite awhile. Very inviting and true to style.

Augustijn poured

Augustijn poured

Flavor

The flavor was impressive. The typical Belgian sweetness was muted and nicely balanced with some hop bitterness in the finish. The banana and clove I picked up in the aroma didn’t really come through strongly in the taste – rather, there was some raisin, a touch of vanilla, and something I interpreted as a touch of citrus tang. You can detect a bit of the alcohol in there, but it is very well disguised. Excellent beer – clean and crisp taste, and very enjoyable.

Mouthfeel
The beer was highly carbonated, leading to a very crisp mouthfeel. Unlike some Belgians, which coat your tongue like cough medicine, this beer was not too thick and cleaned itself up nicely with the carbonation and hop finish.

Overall
Wow. After the first Belgian Box review (Piraat), I was expecting the worst here. I figured the entire box had been mistreated and would yield less than enjoyable experiences. This bottle of Augustijn really exceeded my expectations. This was the perfect Belgian, in my opinion – high-powered ABV, but not at the expense of taste. Rich and deep flavor profile, without being overpowering or sickly sweet. I’ll be looking for this in my travels, and recommend you do the same.

Well, there you have it. I’ll be back soon with the next entry in the Belgian Box series. If you want to check out the previous entry, you can read my review of Piraat. Bis später!

Oct 072008
 

Chelsea Brewing Company

Chelsea Brewing Company

OK, so we were on a river, not a sea, and it wasn’t made of beer. But, we did spend a great night combining sailing, beer, and cheese with the Chelsea Brewing Company last week.

My girlfriend and I were guests aboard the 80-foot classic pilot schooner Adirondack for Chelsea’s Art of Beer and Cheese Pairing Event on Monday, September 29th. The event started at the brewery, located at the Chelsea Piers sports complex in NYC. We got there a bit early, and were able to enjoy a pint before the event started. I admired the pretty copper serving tanks behind the bar while drinking an Obergäriges Festbier, which was a hoppy take on an Märzen/Oktoberfest. We also had the pretzel appetizer, which was great – I love a good pretzel with my beer.

We were taken from the bar area to the brewery, where the “tour” began. This was the least impressive part of the night, consisting of gathering around the brewing vessels and listening to one of Chelsea’s brewers talk for a few minutes about the process of making beer. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed seeing the tanks and listening to the speech, but I’ve seen quite a few breweries and already know how beer is made. On the whole, the tour portion seemed unorganized and I don’t think the non-brewers there came away with a real appreciation or understanding of the process.

Luckily, the sail portion of the night more than made up for any shortcomings. We left the brewery and boarded the Adirondack for a two hour cruise around New York harbor. It was a beautiful night, warm for the end of September, with clear skies and enough wind to power the schooner without making it uncomfortable. We had the good fortune of sitting by our captain, Cat, who took the time to answer our questions about sailing and navigating the harbor.

Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty

During the sail, we were treated to several beer and cheese pairings, all of which were delicious. The highlight was definitely the Catskill Hop Harvest Ale, a wet hop beer which exceeded all of my expectations. It had a huge hop nose and big hop flavor, but it was much smoother than a big-hop beer like an IPA. The hop flavor came across without being intrusive, and and the result was a symphony of citrusy and spicy hops with a strong malt backbone. A close second was Chelsea’s Black Hole XXX stout. This beer achieved all the positives of a stout’s flavor profile (chocolate, coffee, earthy, roasty) without being overly bitter or heavy. Delicious…even my girlfriend, not a huge stout drinker, loved it! Both the stout and the wet hop ale came home with us in growlers that night.

I have misplaced my list of the cheeses offered during the sail, but they were all well-paired, tasty, and served with bread. I will post the names once I find the list.

The sail would’ve been worth the money on its own – the nighttime tour of downtown Manhattan is something everyone should see once. We got some nice closeups of the Statue of Liberty, along with some non-traditional sights such as the Coast Guard cutter we had to navigate around. Captain Cat was extremely friendly and professional, even in the face of some moron who had too much to drink and was being borderline disrespectful (guess there’s one on every trip like this).

It was a sad moment when we docked back at the pier. We wandered inside to get our growlers, and talked for a few moments with Ian, Chelsea’s marketing guru. Ian showed us pictures of their recent hop harvest in upstate New York (which led to the Catskill Hop Harvest Ale), and you could tell he was genuinely excited about the brewery and their beers. That’s nice to see, and will make all the difference as Chelsea expands.

It was a very enjoyable night and a unique experience on many levels, and we plan on attending again next year (you’re out of luck for 2008, since we were on the last scheduled sail for the year). I definitely recommend trying to get your hands on some of the wet hop ale (it goes fast), but if you miss it, try some of Chelsea’s other offerings – I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Tell Ian that Lootcorp sent ya.

Sailing on the Adirondack

Sailing on the Adirondack