I found my local Whole Foods to be a productive outlet for these two. See what you can do:
Hitachino Nest Sweet Stout (Lacto) [alternatives: Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, Sam Adam’s Cream Stout]
and
Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout [alternatives: Three Floyds’ Dark Lord Imperial Stout, Stone Imperial Russian Stout, Deschutes Brewery’s The Abyss]
If you like your beer black and/or big, this will be a show for you!
Prebeer Preamble: Today’s show changes things up, as we spend the entire episode in The Build-A-Beer Workshop. Back on August 19th, 2007, my brewing compadre Shawn and I decided we would brew up two batches of beer simultaneously. This would be Shawn’s third batch of homebrew, and the first on which he’d take point. Me, I thought I’d step up the complexity a bit and do a larger-volume boil. From these slightly ambitious decisions came two interesting brews and lots of hard-knocks lessons about homebrewing. This episode delves into that day deeply, and follows the fruits of our labor through till the end.
Part 1: The Day Itself. Highlights of our brew day, including a salty interjection or two when things don’t go our way. Plus, Shawn and I try to talk ourselves into a good mood, and give a little informaiton about how we came up with the recipes. What you won’t hear is the opressive sound of triple-digit temperatures.
Interbeer Interlude: Beer As Folk: “Peter Zein, part 2.” I continue my conversation with AleSmith Brewing Company’s owner and brewmaster. We talk a little about recipes, the hop “crisis”, and the future of AleSmith. Plus, Peter lets us in on how anyone can brew up their own version of one of AleSmith’s tasty brews.
Part 2: The Fates of the Beers. After their difficult births, each beer embarks on a different path. Shawn’s hoppy IPA gets a thorough going-over (and a name) from hop-headed friend-of-SoB Evo Terra, while my freaky Imperial Stout enters a contest on Wingin’ It 3D to see if it can out-Samuel-Jackson a similar beer brewed by Thomas from Flagstaff.
Liquid Literature: “Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer”. Speaking of Thomas, he delivers this excellent review of a brewing tome that should be strongly considered for any homebrewer’s library. Thomas has even taken at least one recipe for a spin. How’d it turn out?
Part 3: Lessons Learned. We once again flash back to brew day, and find Shawn and I in a reflective mood. Just what did we take from this less-than-perfect brewing experience that will make us better brewers? Tune in and find out!
The next show will be a patented “Change of Pace” episode, so the exact drink-along beers are not utterly crucial (if, indeed, they ever are). Still, to get into the swing of it, track down some Stone Ruination IPA, or other hop-o-liscious West Coast double IPA, and maybe an imperial stout like North Coast’s Old Rasputin. Next week’s all about the homebrewing, so if you haven’t yet checked out the Build-A-Beer Workshop and gotten brewing with the cool kids, you still have some time before the show drops.
Prebeer Preamble: The word “business” is unlikely to get the average beer enthusiast’s blood pumping, yet it is often the single most influential underlying factor in any given aspect of our lives, beer included. Today we shine the spotlight on the world of business as it applies to beer. You see, the craft beer market has been booming in recent years, while the Megabrewers’ sales have remained flat. Interesting strategies have emerged as a result, as we shall see…
Beer #1: I’m joined by the Draco Vista Review Krew (this time around it’s Mike, Brian, Tim, Thomas, and Kris) as we dive in to Green Valley Brewing Co.’s Wild Hop Organic Lager. Ooooh, organic. This must be from one of those hippy commune nanobreweries, right? Uh….no.
Interbeer Interlude: Beer As Folk “Peter Zein.” AleSmith Brewing Company from San Diego, California, is a prototypical craft brewery: owned and operated by homebrewers, prone to experiemtation, and prioritizes the quality of the beer above all other concerns. I was honored to talk with head brewer (and owner) Peter Zein about what it’s like to balance the joy and passion of brewing great beer with the cold equations of running a business (part 1 of 2).
Beer #2: Next the Krew pops open some Stone Mill Pale Ale, again from “Green Valley“. The beer itself takes back seat to a discussion of truth in advertising, as there is no mention of the true brewer’s name anywhere on the packaging.
Beer Geek Moment: The Hop Shortage of 2008. If I had a nickel for every time someone’s asked me about the current “hop crisis”, well…I’d have a lot of nickels! Today we try to get to the bottom of things. Are we truly at Threat Level “Red” in regards to hops and beer? [note: wholesale hop prices have risen beyond those quoted in this Moment. The point, however, still stands….]
Postbeer Postscript: The talk of business strategies has pushed aside some of the evaluation today, but with the numbers comes what folks really think. And what exactly do we think of these to micro-macros? Tune in and find out!
OK, so this has nothing to do with beer, but one of my other passions is cinema, especially of the obscure/cult variety. Apparently word got around, because Jack Mangan recently invited me onto his Deadpan podcast to share my thoughts on the 1984 punk/absurdist classic “Repo Man,” and the results can be found here. If you too lean towards the twisted when it comes to movies, pop a cold generic one and check it out!
Perhaps in anticipation of some more “exotic” beers to come, next time around we’re looking at some widely-available-in-a-North-American-sense brews. Heck, they’ve got ‘em at my local area Wal-Mart. Seek out the following:
Wild Hop Lager [alternatives: Yuengling Traditional Lager, JW Dundee’s Original Honey Brown]
and
Stone Mill Organic Pale Ale [alternatives: Bass Ale, Saranac Pale Ale, Samuel Smith’s Organically Produced Ale]
Both beers are USDA Certified Orgainc, and no, that’s not the theme. Let’s just say that scratching the surface of their brewer, the “Green Valley Brewing Company” reveals something almost sinister…
Prebeer Preamble: As the screaming ice-banshee howls of a winter wind shake your constitution to its very core, nothing brings you back to heartening feelings of summer warmth like a really, really strong beer. This has been the general operating principle for centuries, and here in the 21st, America’s west coast is stepping up to the winter warmer challenge. Today I’m joined by homebrewing compadre Shawn, as we sample a pair of southern California brews engineered to put a little fire in your furnace.
Beer #1: Shawn and I start our quest for relief from Arizona’s mild chill with AleSmith’s Old Numbskull Barleywine Style Ale. Having never tried a beer modeled after northern Europe’s quintessential winter brew filtered through the Cascade curtain of SoCal, beer novice Shawn is not sure what to expect. I try to orient him with the telling question, “Are you ready to get crocked?”
Interbeer Interlude: MicroBrewed. “Hessen Haus.” The massive Des Moines pubcrawl continues for Tee and the boys (”the boys” being Paul and Andrew), as our intrepid quaffers arrive at Hessen Haus, “central Iowa’s only authentic German bier hall.” Since when did Des Moines get so freeking multicultural?
Beer #2: Our internal fireplaces well stoked, Shawn and I now take the potentially ill-advised step of reaching for something stronger, in this case Stone’s Double Bastard Ale. Yeah, what the hell were we thinking?
.
Beer Geek Moment: Cellaring Beer. Big beers have potentially big life spans. What is the point of hanging on to a brew for a year or more? This Moment delves into the very heart of this question. Only extraordinarily patient beer geeks need apply.
Postbeer Postscript: Shawn and I experience some actual “winter” as we’re kicked outside to relate the scores on these beers. Between chattering teeth, we attempt to coherently articulate our opinions. Yeah, good luck on that! Which beer claims the top of the bone-warming crop? Tune in and find out!
Just in time for 2008, you too can show your fine taste in beercasts by sporting something from the Speaking of Beer Cafepress store!
Choose from a mind-boggling array of official SoB products in a variety of designs, some of which are actually related to beer drinking. Make up for that botched Xmas gift with something Beer Guy, or just let your beer geek flag fly in uber-cool SoB duds. Thomas, we’ve even got something for your hop-headed dog!
Find splendiferous beer-related consumption here, or click on the link over there to the right.
And a huge “thanks!” to Tom the Beer Guy’s Brother for setting this whole thing up!
If you plan on drinking along with the next show, it’s the perfect opportunity to bring a friend into the SoB fold. The beers are BIG, both in bottle-volume and in ABV, and if you tackle them both by yourself you’ll probably wake up the next morning behind a dumpster with a splitting headache and someone’s underwear draped over your inexplicably shaven and tattooed head. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. The beers are:
AleSmith’s Old Numbskull [alternatives: Dogfish Head’s Olde School Barleywine, Rogue’s Old Crustacean Barleywine, Hair of the Dog’s Fred]
and
Stone’s Double Bastard Ale [alternatives: Dogfish Head’s Immort Ale, The Lost Abbey’s Old Viscosity]
It’s not entirely clear what impact the festive holiday season will have on the release date for this show…I’m guessing it’ll come out sometime shortly after the first of the new year, but I might be able to eek it out a little before that. In any case, have a good one (holiday season, that is)!
Prebeer Preamble: One of the most potent symbols of the joyous generosity that marks the December holiday season is a certain St. Nicholas (a.ka. Santa Claus, a.k.a Father Christmas, a.k.a. Kris Kringle, etc.). Today we enjoy a couple of beers that pay homage to that jolly old elf, and see if the north pole’s #1 citizen can inspire a good brew.
Beer #1: With Thanksgiving turkey still settling in our tummies, I’m joined by dinner guests Evo Terra, Sheila Unwin, and Jack Mangan for some Santa’s Private Reserve Ale from Rogue Brewery. Evo likes it real bitter, Jack’s more of a hefeweizen guy, and Sheila can go either way. Whose trigger does this hopped-up amber ale trip? Surely someone’s, right?
Interbeer Interlude: Liquid Literature “Beer and Food: An American History by Bob Skilnik”. In a new recurring interbeer segment, Anna Creech, the Eclectic Librarian, gives us a look into the world of words about beer. Today she reviews a book that might just be on the wish list of your literary beer loving friends!
Beer #2: To cap our evening off, we next reach for Samichlaus Bier from Schloss Eggenberg Brewery*. This one’s a modern-day beer legend, one of the first widely available beers to crack the 10% ABV mark. Brewed annually on St. Nicholas’ Day (December 6th), and aged for almost a year, it’s designed to be a smooth-drinking warmer. So is it warmly received by my guests?
Beer Geek Moment: Juleglugg. Blasphemous as it may sound, beer is not the only beverage out there that people turn to for holiday cheer. Today’s Moment looks at a classic winter warmer from Scandinavia, and includes the traditional recipe enjoyed annually at the Speaking of Beer household. Skol!
Postbeer Postscript: ‘Tis the season for generosity, but do these two Santa-inspired brews feel the love? Who hands out gifts and who’s slinging stocking coal? Tune in and find out!
*Which is in Austria, not Germany as stated on the show. Thanks, Thomas for the correction.
