Archives for February 2017

February 18, 2017 by Tupper Leave a Comment

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TRÖEGS SCRATCH #268 BARLEYWINE: The One Beer to Have When You’re Having….One.

TRÖEGS Scratch #268 Barleywine Abv 8.2 IBU 26

TRÖEGS’s small batch brew house allows them to experiment, but it also allows them to do produce beers that are very hard to brew at a profit. If customers drank this super rich strong dark beer by the bucket, they’d die off faster than they could be replaced. Maybe Sierra Nevada or Anchor have the market share to make a big batch barley wine, but a mid-size brewery usually can’t spare the tank space to crank this out.

Troegs Dark Barleywine from their Scratch series

Tasting notes: Rich and richly flavored, Dark malts with molasses, burned but clean sugars, baked apples and some dark grapes. Hides the booze well, though a bit of salt late gives it away. A bit of figgy pudding emerges as it drinks. Shows just a hint of candy corn sweetness as ti drinks that’s quite different from the rest of the malts and sugars. The skill of the brewers shows clearest in the remarkably clean ending. [tasted at the brewery]

Food Pairings: Desserts. Rich flavorful cheeses. And… if you can keep from guzzling this very tasty beer, it would accent a red sauce pasta surprisingly well.

* Skip It
** Good Craft Beer
*** Well Above Average
**** Exceptional
***** Top 1%

(superior top 10% 20170218

February 17, 2017 by Tupper Leave a Comment

A GOOD BEER AND A VERY GOOD KITCHEN IN VENICE

Birra Venezia Rosso Doppio Malto Abv 6.4%

We’re enjoying the beer revolution as much as the next geeks, but there are times when we become a bit nostalgic for the old days of European travel that involved far fewer beers, but generally more consistent quality. “Those Days” are probably as much myth as memory; Stigl is a perfectly good mass market beer, but hardly worthy of the “Outstanding” five star rating I gave it in 1979.

The Revolution has meant that when we’re in Spain we don’t drink much San Miguel and when we’re in Germany we just plain don’t drink Becks. The Revolution also has meant that we’ve had more than our share of beers we’d be happier sharing than finishing. Still, with a bit of patience, even the less consistent “newpub” breweries usually turn out at least one style of beer that makes us glad the Kronenburgs of the world are in our rear view mirror.

Venice’s San Travaso Restaurant serves very good seafood at fair prices.

The San Travaso restaurant is a short walk from the Guggenheim museum in Venice. The address is Dorsoduro 1016. That information plus a very experienced guide will get you there quickly. If you haven’t hired a guide, ask for directions and keep on asking; maps are almost as useless in Venice as addresses. It’s really not that hard to find, and it is worth the effort.

It’s not quite as consistent as it was a few years back, but it’s still the place we start every time we visit Venice. We know about its consistency because we eat there so often. Seafood is first rate and if you wish to be adventurous you have good options.

The beer selection is limited, but it features several of the local Birra Venizia beers. The best of them is an Italian strong red lager reminiscent of Moretti La Rossa. Birra Venezia Rosso Doppio Malto is a beer well suited to a wine drinking culture. AT 6.4% abv, it’s substantial enough to hold its own with whatever you’ve chosen to eat, but sill modest enough to drink it like….beer.

Tasting notes: Like most Italian red lagers, it’s sweet with a firm body. Also like most Italian red lagers, it’s clean. This one has a fruitiness vaguely reminiscent of a light rosé. Its cleanliness makes it a bright and easy to drink beer, but it never loses its sweetness.

The shellfish appetizer is one of San Travaso’s best dishes.

Food Pairings: San Travaso does a pasta with squid served with a sauce of its own ink. It’s far from unique to this restaurant, but they do it well here. The deep red beer is a good match for the eye and the palate. We paired it with the magnificent shellfish appetizer. We might have chosen something lighter, but the Rosso was the best beer on the menu and sometimes like an NFL draft choice you’re best choosing the best talent rather than looking for position.

* Skip It
** Good Craft Beer
*** Well Above Average
**** Exceptional
***** Top 1%

20170217 Tomorrow (Feb. 18) we return to Tröegs for more reviews of their exceptionally skillful range of beers.

February 15, 2017 by Tupper Leave a Comment

Toccalmatto Rye Volution Double Rye Combat Saison: The Beer Revolution Has Conquered Italy

Toccalmatto Rye Volution Double Rye Combat Saison Abv 8.8

The Devil’s Forest Pub isn’t the easiest place to find in Venice – you won’t bump into it by accident, we promise—but it’s worth seeking out for a dozen or more good craft beers and some very respectable burgers even by American standards. It’s a place that employees of other beer bars in Venice go to drink. It’s kinda slick—imported English atmosphere and not at all Italian, but there are some very good Italian beers among the Belgian taps and you’ll hear as much Italian as you want.

Toccalmatto Rye Volution Double Rye Combat Saison at Devils Forest in Venice

Toccalmatto Rye Volution Double Rye Combat Saison was a guest beer when we visited. If you don’t find this one, you’ll find something else by Toccalmatto, one of the new wave 21^st Century international breweries that would be at home in Copenhagen, Brussels or Chicago.

Tasting notes: Rye, Saison and “double” are all evident but they play pretty well together. The fruit includes kiwi and dark passion and dark grape. Toffee leads to some chocolate. The 8.8% alcohol is ridiculous for a “session”, but the double combat label warns you this will not be a gentle bedfellow. [tasted at Devil’s Forest Pub, Venice]

Food Pairings: The richness and fruit went well with the juicy American style hamburgers. If you’re having a couple of these it won’t matter much what you’re eating with them.

* Skip It
** Good Craft Beer
*** Well Above Average
**** Exceptional
***** Top 1%

20170217 Look for our next Beer of the Day early Friday February 17.

February 15, 2017 by Tupper Leave a Comment

We’re in the process of putting together our next book – tentatively titled “Now We’re Here, Dear, Where’s the Beer” – a guide to good beer in bad beer cities. The concept was brilliant when we conceived it five years ago and it’s still worth pursuing now. The problem is that so many of the “bad” beer cities have turned into incredible centers of phenomenal brewing energy. America’s first “brewspaper” recently featured Rome as one of Europe’s prime beer cities—and they are right.

Still, as the lead song in The Music Man says.. “You’ve got to know the territory.” Celebrator got it right for beer geeks – get across the river and drink yourself into next week. But for the average tourist a trip to Trastevere is out of the way. But just a couple of blocks away from the Coliseum is a wonderful intimate cask-only pub just a few hundred meters from the watering holes where hundreds of Americans are thinking they’re experiencing Italian beer in the fancy glasses of Peroni.

We’ve found, however, there are some 20^th century hold-outs from the beer revolution. First on our list is Geneva. We’ve found you some OK beer places – Irish (sytle) bars range to the top of the list, which says a great deal. We send you to better, but only a few. Venice is another city that almost makes it to the “dang” list, but with effort you can spend a few days drinking very well.

Venetian traffic jam – rush hour can be almost anytime on Venice’s canals.

We’ve been torn as we write this book to balance accessible bars with really good beer and local bars with the marginally acceptable beer, but with great local atmosphere. The decision isn’t hard, really—we’re including both. In Venice it’s not hard to find the latter. Research and a good map – and daylight to follow that map—can take you to a handful of good beer bars that would hold their ground in most cities, but the ones that are close to tourist destinations are few.

Devil’s Forest is one of the few that is very accessible to a main tourist thoroughfare while providing a wide range of really interesting beers. The best way to find it, honestly, is to receive the advice we got—“just past the Disney store”. The words are better than the map that left us lost for the better part of an hour. If you’re wedded to a map, cross the Ponte di Rialto toward S Bartolomeo, angle right across the square and look (good luck) for Calle Stagneri.

Venice is a must see for European tourists – it probably won’t be there for your great grandchildren and might not be there by the time you sail off into the sea of eternity. Seize your chance to see it. There’s great beer there with a bit or work. I hope we’ll make it easier for you to find it before you go.

February 13, 2017 by Tupper Leave a Comment

TRÖEGS SCRATCH SERIES –WHEAT FOR WINTER

NOTE– Maybe we should title this blog “almost beer of the day” — Until I can get ahead, 5 or 6 days a week is about the best I seem to be able to do. Look here on February 15, I hope, to find a new Beer of the Day. Also look for a major post in “Hopping Around” soon. Cheers and thanks for visiting.

Tröegs Scratch Series #272 Abv 7.2 IBU 24 Most German Hefe Weizen beers are summer beers, with spicy and fruity flavors and a relatively light and refreshing body. The Germans keep their love affair with wheat going during the winter with a range of darker, heavier and stronger versions of the style. Very few of them, however, have that wonderfully estery spiciness that characterizes the light version, and many of them seem to wander around in a brewing forest without a clear sense of purpose. Tröegs Scratch series #272, however, captures the essential esters of the Weizen style quite well. This Weizenbock is another fine example of the remarkable range that their smaller brew house can produce well.

Tröegs Weizenbock captures the essential “Hefe” esters unusually well.

Tasting notes: A bright pepper and clove spiciness shows throughout this heavy-enough-for-snowstorms wheat bock beer. Caramel and lemon from the malt form a firm foundation, but the brightness of the yeast (“Hefe”) never fades. Ellie found it a bit boozy and at 7.2%, she’s right, but I thought the overall breadth of the beer held the taste of the alcohol well in check. Not everyone will like these flavors, but there surely are plenty of them.

Food Pairings: Chicken is the safe match either roasted or stewed. The strength and spiciness of the beer, though, invites a cheese pairing. We’d go with a spicy cheese to complement the beer’s full flavor—a sharp cheddar or Manchego, perhaps. Even better would be to pick up a good local specialty and see how it goes; it’s hard to make a mistake with cheese and full flavored beers.