We’ve had quite a crazy vacation so far. We arrived in London yesterday (my birthday!!) around 7AM. We spent a few hours in London, then caught the Eurostar high-speed train to Paris. We hung out in Paris for a bit, and then it was time for dinner and drinks on the Elipsos overnight train to Barcelona. We got here this morning around 8AM and have been stuffing ourselves with tapas ever since!

So how cool is Barcelona? Bottles of great wine for €7. Delicious tapas dinners for €20. And La Rambla! La Rambla is a main street in the center of Barcelona - during the day, it is full of buskers, street musicians, and those “painted statue” people. We’re staying on La Rambla, right off the old Gothic Quarter (Barri Gòtic). So, tonight, we were walking back from dinner through the twisting alleys of the Barri Gòtic, and I finally saw with my own eyes a facet of the Barcelona nightlife I had only read about: the beer salesmen!

All along La Rambla and the surrounding streets, there are these random guys standing around with sixers of beer, selling them for €1 each! I decided I would engage one of these entrepreneurs in a business transaction with my rudimentary Spanish.

¿Cuando? asked I.

Un euro was the answer.

A handful of change later, I walked away the proud owner of two Estrella Damm beers!

I won’t post a formal review here - hey, I’m on vacation, remember?!? However, this beer is not bad! Maybe I’ve been drinking too much all day, but I think this is a great value for what equates to $1.30! It’s a crisp pilsner, somewhat like Heineken, described on the label as “Cerveza Especial” (special beer) and “La Receta Original” (original recipe). Cold, refreshing, and cheap - just the way to end my first night in Barcelona.

Well, I have another bottle of wine, a glass of champagne, and a couple of beers to drink before bedtime - I love vacation! I’ll try and post more tomorrow - until then, I’ll be dreaming of beer vendors roaming the streets of American cities. Why can’t we be this civilized?

I will leave you with this picture - an exclusive shot by lootcorp.com’s infrared cameras of the beer hawking action on La Rambla.

I’m going to try to post some kind of update while I’m away, but I’m not sure when and where I’ll have Internet access. At the very least, I will try and send some “tweets” about my trip - my Twitter name is lootcorp. I haven’t used Twitter much since I signed up, but this is exactly what I planned to use it for - mobile mini-blogging if you will.

I’ll be returning on November 20th, hopefully with some interesting stories.

See you then!!

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.

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

Which do you choose?

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.

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!

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.

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.

Fermentation Friday was started by Adam over at Beer Bits 2, and it’s a chance for all homebrew bloggers to sound off on a singular theme at a set date - the last Friday of each month (check out Adam’s post explaining the origins).

Thanks to Marcus for hosting, and make sure to check out the roundup post to check out everyone’s responses!

Good topic this month. My tastes definitely lie towards beers featuring interesting ingredients. Fruit, spices, vegetables, whatever - I like adjuncts of all kinds in my beer, even if it’s only for the novelty factor.

The way I see it - I know what most beer styles out there taste like when they are brewed “by the book”. A perfectly crisp and clean Kölsch; a silky smooth stout that pours as dark as your childhood nightmares. I enjoy beers brewed to style, and I often brew to style as a way of refining my process. Aiming for a set target with defined OG, color, and bitterness values is a great way to keep your system and process properly calibrated. However, brewing to style is not a terribly creative process.

When cooks get creative, they take established recipes and turn them on their head using interesting and unusual ingredient pairings. When brewers get creative, they do exactly the same thing. Take a Mexican lager and throw some chile pepper heat in there. Take that velvety stout and add some vanilla, some hazelnut, maybe some chocolate and cherry notes. Add some fruit to a basic American wheat, and you make an entirely different beer. Mess around with the grainbill and change the mouthfeel or the “chewiness” of the body. This is the stuff that gets me excited to brew - pushing the boundaries and perhaps coming up with the Next Great Beer.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to really stretch my wings that much. I’ve messed around on a few recipes, but for the most part, I’m still being cautious, because I don’t know enough about how ingredients interact yet. Most of my brewing takes established recipes and changes one or two variables, so I can gain the knowledge and confidence to really take it up a notch.

And there’s one ingredient I’ve been dying to use.

I’m not even sure if this is possible, or if it’s been done before (casual web searches say no).

It’s almost certainly not advisable.

Yes, I’m talking about avocado.

There’s just something about the creamy, unassuming taste of the humble avocado. It forms the backbone of guacamole. It finds a home in salads. Why not land a starring role in beer? Heh, my girlfriend thinks such a concoction would be horrible, and she might be right. The conspicuous absence of any avocado-beer recipes might be a sign that this is not a wise idea. However, I think if it was done correctly, if it could be done correctly, it would be tasty. Or disgusting. Hmmmm.

Aside from the fear of creating a nasty, undrinkable brew, I wonder about the oily avacado’s impact on head retention and other such issues. I need to go read my copy of Radical Brewing again and see if avocados are mentioned.

Please, if you have tried this, or know of a brewery that has, let me know. I know I can’t be the first to think of this, and I’m sure if I really searched I could find more info about it. In a way, though, I don’t want to look that hard - every time I thought I had a great, original idea for a brewing ingredient, a quick websearch told me I was brewer number 53,204,285,274,127 to give it a try. This is the only hope I have left to be a trailblazer - to go where no brewer has gone before. So, maybe you shouldn’t tell me about that great avocado beer your local brewpub has on tap every year - let me give it a shot and at least pretend I had an original idea. My girlfriend will let you know how it turns out.

Sadly, I’ve read that you won’t find pumpkin anywhere near most pumpkin beers - they are often brewed with pumpkin pie spices instead of the real deal. Using real pumpkin involves roasting and mashing the stuff, then trying to sparge through the resulting mess - too much work for most people, it would seem. Both sides are very polarized on the issue - the spice heads say there is nothing but heartache and pain to be gained by mashing large orange squashes, while the pumpkin heads say you can’t call it a pumpkin beer unless it actually contains authentic Jack-o’-lantern brains.

Who is right? Damned if I know, I haven’t made one either way. The way I see it, there is only one way to settle this - a pumpkin beer face-off. I shall brew two batches of wonderful and delicious pumpkin beer, one using nothing but spices and one with spices and real pumpkin added, and see which one prevails.

Why spices in both? ALL pumpkin beers contain spices (usually cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, etc…) - so I’m thinking a pumpkin beer made with real pumpkin but no spices would not be very good. Best way I can think of to compare the two is brew the exact same beer, except for the pumpkin addition, and see if the mouthfeel/body/taste differs at all.

Rumor has it some six-packs of these competing pumpkin beverages might get bottled and distributed as part of a contest near Thanksgiving. Any interest?

Beer and charity…perfect together!

Fellow Nutmeg State resident Bryon over at HomeBrewBeer.net brought my attention to a great beer-related charity event going on in November. The 4th Ever CT River Valley Not-So-Snooty Beer, Wine, and Cheese Tasting Adventure will take place on November 21, 2008 at The New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, CT. If you are local, I strongly urge you to attend. You might even get a chance to meet me!

The event will feature locally produced beer, wine, and cheese, as well as hors d’oeuvres, raffles, coffee, and dessert. Tickets are $45 ($35 for members of the military), and all proceeds will benefit The Hole in the Wall Gang. The Gang runs a camp in CT for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases, and is certainly a worthy cause.

So far, the participating brewery/brewpub list includes:

• Boston Beer Company
• Olde Burnside Brewery
• City Steam Brewery Cafe
• The Cambridge House
• Sherwood Forest Brewers
• John Harvard’s Brew House
• Thomas Hooker Brewery

If you are a affiliated with a CT brewpub/brewery and are not on that list, give Bryon a shout and get on the list.