BetterBeerBlog

The Rose & Crown English Pub in Palo Alto has seen a slow and steady transition from traditional English pub to traditional English pub that serves good beer. In their continuing quest to bring good beer to the populace, Rose & Crown have “Brewery Nights” featuring beers from, obviously, breweries they want to put a spotlight on. The last time I went to their Brewery Night, it was for New Belgium.

Tonight, Rose & Crown be showcasing “Stone Brewing Company Brewery Night” featuring several of their beers. This is a timely event as I will be heading to the Beer vs. Wine Dinner on Friday night, pitting the beers from Stone Brewing against the wines from Joel Gott Winery.

Here are the details for tonight’s event:

Who: The Rose & Crown
What: Brewery Night featuring Stone Brewing Company
Where: 547 Emerson Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301 map
When: Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 5pm - close.
Cost: No cost to get into the Rose & Crown but you gotta pay for the beers you order.

Notes: Here’s a picture of the beers that will be on tap tonight courtesy of @roseandcrownpa

Mrs. BetterBeerBlog and I are double booked this evening and will attempt to make it tonight. I haven’t had the 090909 Vertical Epic or 14th Anniversary Ale, while the Cali-Belgique IPA and Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale both look interesting. It’s been quite some time since I’ve tasted the latter two so it’d be nice to get reacquainted with them both.

All I can say about this is, about damned time. I’ve been hounding Firehouse Brewmaster Steve Donohue to create a cask version of his beers. I guess enough of us have bugged the hell out of him that he finally did it. This is also remarkable in that Steve hasn’t done a cask in years (at least for Firehouse) so it’s good to see him putting together a cask ale program. Nothing wrong with force carbonated beers but there’s no substitute for the real deal. Here are the details:

Who: Firehouse Brewery & Grill
What: Cask Ale Night, featuring Firehouse Pale Ale dry-hopped with Citra
Where: 111 South Murphy Avenue. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 map
When: Thursday, August 19, 2010 @ 4pm - cask is done.
Cost: Free to get in, just pay for your beers

Even though I’ve dedicated a post to promote Cask Ale Night at Firehouse, cask ale is not a new phenomenon here in the South Bay. Tied House in Mountain View holds their Firkin Fridays every 1st Friday of the month featuring their cask ale du jour, while Faultline Brewing Company has a cask ale on tap as part of their regular rotation of beers.

If you plan on going to Cask Ale Night, as I plan on going, you should be aware that this is the same night as their Wine & Beer Tasting Event. Strange as this may sound, these are two, separate events. Should make for an interesting night all around.

See you there!

If this near oppressive heat wasn’t obvious enough, then the launch of Gordon Biersch Sommerbrau should be a strong clue that summer has arrived. When translated, Sommerbrau essentially means “summer brew”. The beer is a kölsch; an ale equivalent of a pilsner, and is named from its city of origin, Cologne (Köln), Germany.

The Gordon Biersch brew pubs have their tapping events about once a quarter with each one highlighting the seasonal beer du jour. The also debuted a new carribean themed menu featuring many island-inspired dishes. As usual, the San Jose Gordon Biersch held their tapping events in the wonderful patio area to take full advantage of the awesome weather.

Working the taps that night was San Jose Gordon Biersch brewmaster Dan Satterthwaite. Missing in action was his assistant brewer, Matt. As usual, Jazz Unlimited were up on stage playing a variety of jazz tunes and jazz-inspired covers. Appetizers were being brought around by the staff and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Sommerbrau, 4.5% ABV

Sommerbrau poured out a brilliantly clear gold color with a white head. The aroma was subtle: a little bit of pilsner sweetness, light fruit notes and noble hop aromas. The flavor mimics the aroma: light sweetness followed up by a lo/medium-low hop bitterness with equal noble hop flavor and shadows of fruit character. This is a medium-low bodied beer with high carbonation and a moderately dry finish.

I’m not normally one for light beers but when drinking seasonally, the lighter lagers and ales, such as Sommerbrau, really hit the spot. To top things off, this beer is only 4.5% ABV so that you can really session this beer. I had 2 glasses and felt great. Unfortunately for Mrs. BetterBeerBlog and I, we arrived late and all of the commemorative glasses were out. Dan said they ordered over 200 of them but when you have nearly 4 times that many people at the restaurant at one time drinking this beer, you’re going to run out of glasses. Traditionally served in a tall, narrow, 200 mL glass called a Stange, I can’t help but feel a little jealous of all the folks that did have the proper glassware. I suppose this will teach me to put work before beer.

The Gordon Biersch Sommerbrau Tapping Party ended up being a blast. As usual, we had a lot of fun hanging out with our friends, enjoying the music and drinking good beer. I look forward to the next event.

It’s great to see some of San Diego’s finest is starting to make its way up to the San Jose area. Last month Wine Affairs, via distributor Wine Warehouse, hosted a small tasting event featuring the beers from The Lost Abbey. This month, they decided to host a tasting of a few beers from Port Brewing. This is not surprising in some ways. Firstly, Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey are pretty much the same brewing company. Think of it as two sides of the same coin. Secondly, Wine Warehouse is the sole distributor for Port Brewing/Lost Abbey and it only make sense one tasting should follow another.

Port Brewing got its start as a spin-off of the highly acclaimed Pizza Port brewpubs. They were the production facility that churned out the bottled versions of the popular beers found in the various Pizza Port locations. A little bit of trivia: Port Brewing’s current location is the old Stone Brewing location.

Midnight Session, 5.0% ABV

Midnight Session pours out a very dark brown beer with a brown head. Beer has a slightly sweet malt aroma with a robust, deeply roasted malt character and low hop aroma. Flavor is roasty with bittersweet, dark chocolate flavors and a touch of black coffee. Hop bitterness is low, hop flavor is low. This is a medium-low bodied beer with an almost creamy carbonation and a slightly dry finish.

Midnight Session is a dark lager; traditional versions are known as schwarzbier. I thought this was a good example of the style, very tasty without the heaviness that can be associated with stouts. After all, this is a lager.

Hot Rocks, 6.5% ABV

A little hazy, dark brown color with amber highlights and a thin, tan head. Aroma has a muted malt character and a slight spice note from the alcohol. Flavor is malty; slightly sweet with a bit of caramelization. Hop flavor and bitterness is low. Surprisingly low/medium-low in body, Hot Rocks has a matching level of carbonation and has a slight astringency in the mouthfeel.

This is an interesting beer, arguably because of the way it was brewed. You can check out the photos on The Lost Abbey website.

Wipeout IPA, 7.0% ABV

Clear, orange-gold color with an off-white head. Grapefruit/citrus hop aromas hit my nose first, followed by a slight garlicy character; the beer’s aroma is also very floral. The flavor is primarily hoppy, lots of fruit, grapefruit/citrus character and enough malt for balance, at least for the style. Hop bitterness is high. Body is medium/medium-high, carbonation is medium. There is an astringency in the finish that is probably from the hops.

Pretty much what a West Coast IPA should taste like. While I liked it, I thought it could’ve used a little more balance by allowing the malt flavors to come through a little bit.

Hop 15, 10% ABV

Slightly hazy orange/amber color with a thin, white head. Aroma is hop forward, lots of tropical fruit aroma. Mrs. BetterBeerBlog called it “perfumy”. I also noticed alcohol in the aroma as well. The flavor is sweet, which is surprising because of how much hops are in this beer. It is candy-like in its sweetness. The hop flavor matches the aroma; fruity and tropical. Hop bitterness is high but not clingy. Full bodied beer with a medium carbonation and an astringent mouthfeel.

According to Kurt from Wine Warehouse, Hop 15 was made with 15 different types of hops added in every 15 minutes during the boil. Sounds like one, expensive beer to make.

4-year Anniversary Ale, 10% ABV

Hazy amber color with a white head. Lots of hop aroma, slightly citrus and tropical fruit in nature. Flavor has a “catty”/garlicy hop flavor with a toasty/caramel malt backbone for support. Body is full, carbonation is medium with a slight alcohol spice while the mouthfeel has a slight bit of alcohol warmth.

Out of the last 3 hoppy beers, this is probably the one I like the most. While it has a boatload of hop character, Port Brewing has allowed the malt to shine though a little by brewing this beer with a little more balance.

Overall

Wine Affairs continues to impress. The plan is to try and do a monthly, horizontal tasting of beers from a specific brewery. More power to them. It’s good to see how a brewery’s beer stand up next to each other; you get a better idea of the “house” character of a brewery.

There were a few things that caught my interest: first, I noted low the carbonation level was in all the beers we tried that evening. That being said, as the tasting kept on, these beers were sitting in open bottles. It’s conceivable the lack of carbonation might have been due to that. Also, about all the Port Brewing beers were cloudy leading me to believe they were all bottle conditioned.

To finish the day off, Sammy ordered a bottle of Saison D’Erpe-Mere from KleinBrouwerij De Glazen Toren. While I’ve had this beer before, I’m not sure if I reviewed it formally for the site. I didn’t do a formal review for this post simply because sometimes, you just want to have a good beer without thinking about it.

I’m already looking forward to the next set of tastings and I believe they’ll be holding another “End of June” beerfest next week. Come back to the blog for exact details.

Instead of writing a bunch of smaller posts, I’m just going to go and combine them all into a single post. There are a few craft beer-related events happening this week that I’ll be heading to. I hope to see some of you around. Check out event details below.

Port Brewing Tasting at Wine Affairs

Who: Wine Affairs map
What: Special Beer Tasting featuring beers from Port Brewing
Where: Wine Affairs, 1435 The Alameda, San Jose, CA‎ map
When: Tuesday, June 6, 2010 @ 6pm - 8pm
Why: Because these beers taste good.
Cost: $8/person, FREE if you’re a Wine Club member.

List of Beers:

• Port Brewing Hot Rocks Lager
• Port Brewing Midnight Sessions Lager
• Port Brewing Anniversary Ale
• Port Brewing, Hop-15
• Port Brewing, Wipe Out IPA

Gordon Biersch Sommerbrau Tapping Party

Who: Gordon Biersch (San Jose)
What: Sommerbrau Tapping Party
Where: Gordon Biersch San Jose Brew pub (should be at all the GB locations though), 33 East San Fernando St. San Jose, CA map
When: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 @ 6pm - 8pm
Why: ‘Cause it’s summer, the weather is great and you’re thirsty.
Notes: Sommerbrau is kölsch-style beer. With the weather finally warm, I expect this event to be one of their most successful this year. After trying the kölsch from Faultline Brewing, I’m interested to see how they compare with each other.

Beer Maker’s Dinner featuring Firestone Walker

Who: The Duck Club Restaurant
What: Beer Maker’s Dinner featuring Firestone Walker Brewing Company
Where: The Duck Club Restaurant in the Lafayette Park Hotel, 3287 Mount Diablo Boulevard
Lafayette, CA 94549 map
When: Friday, June 25, 2010 @ 6:30pm
Cost: $75/person (exclusive of tax & gratuity). Call 925-283-7108 to make your reservations.

This is pretty much a repost of information I wrote about before. Check out the full menu.

Wine Affairs, a little neighborhood wine bar located on the Alameda, is fast becoming a little jewel of craft beer in San Jose. I wish I could take credit for their ever expanding line of craft beers, or for the recent installation of their taps, but the truth is that their customers are the ones driving the change and I couldn’t be happier.

Last night was the first in an upcoming series of tastings at Wine Affairs. Hosted by the Wine Warehouse’s Kurt Belluomini, we were able to sample several Lost Abbey beers for a very reasonable $8/person with bottles available to purchase for “take home” use.

Here are the beers we tried and my brief notes on them all:

Lost Abbey, Avant Garde, 7.0% ABV

Avant Garde is an example of the Biere de Garde style of Belgian beer. What separates Biere de Garde from other Belgian beers is that it is lagered. This isn’t to say that all Biere de Gardes are made with lager yeasts, only some of them but they are cool stored as opposed to just aged. In the case of Avant Garde, a “house” lager was used with this beer and then fermented at ale temperatures.

This beer has a primarily malt-forward flavor profile that is biscuity in nature; the hop bitterness is medium-low/medium with a yeast-driven fruity character. Our least favorite of the tasting, which isn’t to say it’s a bad beer, there were just much better beers that night.

Lost Abbey, Carnevale, 6.5% ABV

A example of a Belgian-style Saison, Carnivale differes from its European counterparts in the use of dry-hopping with Amarillo hops. Upon first smelling this beer, I found it to have a funky, sulfury yeast note that reminded me of, this is going to sound really bad, a restroom. Once those aromas volatize away, I smell an earthy, floral hop character that is echoed in the flavor as well.

Despite the initial funkiness of the aroma, we ended up purchasing a bottle because it tasted good.

Lost Abbey, Gift of the Magi, 9.5% ABV

Gift of the Magi is another Belgian-style ale from Lost Abbey, in this case, a Strong Golden Ale. Given it’s name because of the use of Frankincense bark as a bittering agent (and a little bit of Myrrh), Gift of the Magi appears to be a gruit (hopless beer) as opposed to a traditional beer. The use of botanical herbs in brewing has a long history, more of which can be found here.

Gift of the Magi has a slightly sweet malt aroma with some spice character and noticeable alcohol. These qualities extend themselves into the flavor of the beer as well, with the finish exhibiting more of those herbal qualities as opposed to a lingering hop bitterness. The high alcohol also helps to balance out the sweetness of the beer.

Lost Abbey, Red Barn Ale, 6.5% ABV

This beer was supposed to be the second beer we tasted but Kurt though he forgot to bring this beer with him. He eventually found it and we were able to try it. I’ve already reviewed this beer (not coincidentally also at Wine Affairs) that you can read about here.

Lost Abbey, Judgment Day, 10.5% ABV

Judgment Day from Lost Abbey is their take on a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. When we were poured this beer, the first aromatic that jumped out at us was “raisins”. While this is a common descriptor used in many Belgian-style dark strong ales, this is especially apt for Judgment Day as raisins, and dextrose, are used to make this beer. Lost Abbey’s use of raisins is particularly interesting as instead of just dumping in a few pounds of raisins into the brew kettle, Lost Abbey head brewer Tomme Arthur noted how they caramelize the raisins before hand by taking a huge flamethrower to them. Dextrose, on the other hand, is a yeast-friendly sugar that ferments cleanly and is sometimes used to increase the alcohol content of the beer without adding any flavor.

In addition to the prominent raisin flavor of the beer, Judgment Day also has caramelized malt flavors and dark chocolate undertones.

Lost Abbey, Angel’s Share, 12% ABV

This beer is one of the prime examples of why I really love barrel-aged beer. This beer has a rich, malt flavor that is sweet with a deep caramelized character. The bourbon really comes through in the aromatics in the beer and as a secondary flavor characteristic while the wood manifests itself in the vanilla and slight coconut flavors. The wood also lends a slight astrigency that is partially masked by the noticeable, but not hot, alcohol character. We ended up purchasing a bottle of this.

Every year, there are time tested signs that let us know Spring is here. Plants begin to grow and flower, while allergies begin to rage. The sun starts to set a little bit later each and every day and the NBA playoffs are in full swing. Most importantly breweries begin to brew Maibocks, a lighter colored bock strength lager usually debuting in May, that signify the arrival of Spring. A few weeks ago, Gordon Biersch released their Maibock at their tapping party. Firehouse Brewery in Sunnyvale has since followed suit.

Meaghan’s Maibock, Firehouse Brewery, 7.5% ABV

The Firehouse Maibock pours out a brilliantly clear deep gold/pale amber in color with an off-white head. The flavor is primarily malty with light toasted malt character and a hint of caramel. The hop flavor is low; hop bitterness is low/medium-low. The aroma echos the flavor. This is a medium-high bodied beer with medium/medium-high level of carbonation. Despite the 7.5% ABV, I don’t particularly notice the alcohol in either the aroma, flavor or mouthfeel.

I found the Meaghan’s Maibock to be a very good drinking beer. It is malty without being cloyingly sweet but has enough alcohol to keep you warm during our unseasonable cool early Spring nights. I complimented Firehouse brewmaster Steve Donohue on the clarity of his beer and he admitted that he filtered his beer. While filtering is unnecessary in the brewing process, it is probably the quickest way to get your beer bright if you didn’t want to lager it for an extended amount of time to allow the yeast and other sediment to settle naturally. Donohue also said that this may be his strongest Maibock to date. “The great thing about seaonal beers,” Donohue says, “is that they don’t have to be consistent because you only brew them once a year.”

The Maibock was recently tapped last Thursday so get some at its freshest. While there, also look for the other Firehouse seasonals: Cluster Fuggle (English Mild) and Brendan’s Irish Stout.

My favorite wine bar, Wine Affairs, has just announced vie email blast that they are now carrying Russian River’s Pliny the Elder (PtE) on tap. I’ve gotten some advanced warning of this from the local homebrew clubs but Wine Affairs owner Diane Chang-Laurent just made it official today. Here is the information taken straight from the email:

To All Russian River Fans:

After the long wait, Wine Affairs finally made it to Russian River’s allocation list for Pliny the Elder on tap. Wine Affairs is the only one that has Pliny on tap in San Jose area starting Wed, 4/13.

Due to limited amount for the allocation (Wine Affairs get 2 kegs per month), we will serve Pliny as first come first serve bases. Once we run out, we will go back on serving bottles until our next shipment come in. Thank you for understanding.

Hope you enjoy the Pliny on tap!

Best Regards,

Diane Chang-Laurent

Kinda strange how a wine bar, of all places, is the first location in San Jose to get PtE on tap but you gotta give it to them for having tenacity to get this beer in and the sophistication to want it in the first place.

I just placed a call in with Diane as there is an error in the email blast. PtE will be tapped on Wednesday, 4/14, and not on 4/13 as it says above. She has the day correct but not the date. Despite having about half a dozen PtE bottles at home, I will be there tomorrow as there’s nothing quite like PtE on tap. I hope to see some of you there!

After going to the Gordon Biersch Maibock Tapping Party earlier this week, it was time to hit up Rock Bottom for the tapping of their Naughty Scot Wee Heavy. I don’t normally make it to Rock Bottom (RB) for their tapping parties for a number of reasons. First, you have to pay for the beers on tap. While they offer deep discounts for newly tapped beers, it takes some getting used to when GB doesn’t charge anything for their tappings. Second, RB their tapping parties only last for about an hour. After that, prices for the new beers go right to normal. Lastly, I’m not a RB Mug Club member so I don’t get any of their email announcements. That being said, I got wind of this tapping party through an email from one of the local homebrew club members.

Despite this being my first tapping party, I’ve been to Rock Bottom before during the dinner rush and this place gets crowded. The bar area was filled to capacity. We opted instead to reserve a table for 6 that had a 45 minute wait. Normally I’d walk to another restaurant if I had to wait 45 minutes for a table but that would defeat the purpose of going to RB to begin with. Right before the bell was rung signaling the start of the tapping party, RB assistant brewer Larry, stood atop the bar and gave a brief description of what to expect from this beer. Moments later, Larry stepped down, the bell rung and we got our beers.

Larry found our small group outside in the patio area where he was kind enough to chat with us for a little bit. RB brewmaster Scott was in Chicago for the Craft Brewers Conference. In fact, most brewers were in Chicago for that. I can only imagine how crazy the scene is there. In keeping up with all the tweets, I have to admit I’m a little jealous that I didn’t plan ahead of time to go. Next year for sure.

Naughty Scot Wee Heavy, Rock Bottom, 7.8% ABV

Naughty Scot pours out a slightly clear, dark brown with amber highlights and a beige head. Toasty, caramel-like malt notes make up most of the aroma with a noticeable alcohol presence filling out the rest. The flavor is echos the aroma: toasted, caramel malt flavors dominate, hop flavor is low, hop bitterness is low while a slight spice character from the alcohol is apparent. Naughty Scot is medium-high in body with medium carbonation and slightly dry.

HIstorically speaking Wee Heavys, also known as Strong Scotch Ales, are a good example of malt forward beers. Hops were not native to Scotland and were costly to import. Because of this, Scottish beers primarily exhibit malt aroma and flavors.

I think RB has put out a Wee Heavy that is a good example of the style. It pretty much hits all the main plot points for the style and in the instances it misses, it does so by a slim margin. If anything, I think this beer tastes a little too fresh and that in another week or two it should be fantastic.

I had a great time at this tapping party. In addition to having had a good beer, I found the staff at RB was nothing short of professional and courteous. The only negative to the entire evening had nothing to do with either the beer or the staff: the Bourbonzola burger had been removed from the menu. This greatly upset two of the people in my group simply because they had been looking forward to that burger all week. In fact, that’s the only thing they order whenever they got to RB. In any event, I’m looking forward to the next tapping party where I just might join their Mug Club.

This past Tuesday Gordon Biersch had one of their tapping parties to celebrate their new seasonal beer: Maibock. Maibocks are a relatively new addition to the bock family of beers and is brewed specifically to commemorate the spring season. As the name implies, it’s a May bock.

The timing of the Maibock tapping party couldn’t have come at a better time. With the weather feeling the most spring-like that it’s been in ages, GB had taken down the tenting that had been up all winter letting the outdoor patio feel, well, outdoors.

GB brewmaster Dan Satterthwaite, and his assistant Matt, were out pouring beers for the entirety of the event. Dan even took center stage a few times to lead the group in a toast. With the exception of the slightly long-winded German who lead one of the night’s several toasts, the tapping party went off without a hitch.

That’s one of the hallmarks of these tapping parties though, once you’ve been to one, you’ve pretty much been to all of them. The experience varies little from tapping party to tapping party, the only wildcards being the size of the crowd and who you come to party with. That being said, I keep coming back because this is one of the few times I am able to see Dan and Matt as well as hang out with friends I may not have seen in a while. It doesn’t hurt that I get a couple of free beers and appetizers as well.

Maibock, Gordon Biersch, ~7.5% ABV

The Maibock poured out a hazy, amber/caramel color with an off-white head. This was primarily a malt forward beer with caramelized malt aromas with a lightly toasted malt note. The hop aroma was very low. I could also smell a little bit of the ~7.5% ABV alcohol on the nose. The flavor echoes the characteristics of the aroma; toasty, caramelized malt flavor with low hop flavor and low/medium-low hop bitterness. There was a slightly spicy flavor in the finish that I felt was alcohol derived but may have been from the hops as well. The Maibock is medium/medium-high in body with medium carbonation.

When compared to the standard set forth by the BJCP guidelines for the style, the GB Maibock falls a little short in some areas. To be specific, I think the beer could’ve been a little more bitter, the beer more clear and the carbonation a little higher. I am admittedly nitpicking, as I am known to do at times, but that’s what beer judges do at times. I’m working at shutting it off; I have more fun that way.

As you may have noticed, the beer is approximately 7.5% alcohol by volume. In case you’ve never seen the brewing equipment of the San Jose GB, it’s really undersized for the restaurant; they’re brewing on a 7 BBL system. To put that into perspective, Dan and Matt need to brew 3 times to fill up one of those nice, bright and gleaming fermentation tanks visible from the bar. Assistant brewer Matt told me that the first couple of batches were right on target while the third was a little on the high side. The result is a beer that is approximately 7.5% ABV; not really a complaint more than it is an explanation.

In speaking with Dan at a previous tapping party, it seems like he wants to up these tapping parties from 3-4 times a year to six making these tapping parties about every two months apart. I love the idea. It’ll be good to get new seasonals from them on a quicker timetable.

In any event, it was good to see Dan, Matt and my friends. I’m glad GB has these events as they make for a great excuse to spend the evening in the great California weather drinking good, local craft beer. If you haven’t made it to one of these, I suggest you give them a shot.