Speaking of Beer

Today’s show is another Beer As Folk interview, this time with Mike Mellow (yes, that is his real name) from Ballast Point Brewing Company in cerves-o-centric San Deigo. Mike was in town recently (unfortuantely, technical problems intervened to make it longer ago than I would like) to host a beer event at a local Whole Foods Market, and I managed to squeeze in a few minutes to talk about Ballast Point, and what it offers in a market already crowded by such crowd-pleasers as AleSmith and Stone. Hint: everybody wins, especially the beer lovers.

 

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Hey there you two faithful site-checkers, how’s it going? Isn’t life just simply…odd sometimes? Case in point: this podcast. Bad news: there’s been a drought of any activity around here for the last two months or so. Good news: the techno-finger’s been pulled from the dike, and a near diharretic torrent of content is heading your way. Buckle up and mark your calendars for the following bits of beery fun:

Hot on the heels of Show 54: International Hop Overthrow will come Show 55: SoB Gets the (Ballast) Point. To prep for that one, scare up something from the Ballast Point Brewing Company, perhaps their Big Eye IPA, or (considering the time of year), their Black Marlin Porter.

Next is Show 56: Liquid Christmas 2008: Vrolijk Kerstfeest!, in which we enjoy a little Dilerium Noel, as well as some Gouden Carolus Noel, two top-shelf Belgian holiday beers.

And somewhere in there will be the Beer Safari Holiday Beer Exchange Video Special (or whatever it’s called) to which I’ve contributed a short and theoretically humorous segment like I did last year.

And by a strange confluence of unrelated events, much of the above content features significant contributions by Friend of SoB Evo Terra. No, he’s not taking over the show, that’s just how the hop-smeared chips fell. I mean, the bastard’s got his own damn podcast, he doesn’t need mine. Anyway, strap in and enjoy my gift to y’all: actual honest-to-Ninkasi content! w00t!

Our favorite libation has been evolving for thousands of years, and part of the fun of riding along with the current craft brew revolution is watching that evolution unfold before your eyes. America’s west coast turns out to be a pretty good place to grow hops, so the brews that emanate from there carry that wonderfully distinctive hop signature. This has captured the attention of the Beerniverse, and brewers the world over are now taking inspiration from the luscious herbal “American” hoppy goodness. Today I’m joined by lupulo-centric Friend of SoB Evo Terra as we tackle two “American” beers brewed far, far from American soil.

First Up: Nøgne Ø India Pale Ale. Neither Evo nor I can pronounce the name, but it’s story is a great one. Imagine West Coast American attitude filtered through the people who brought you lutefisk…Isn’t that an oxymoron of some sort? We’ll see what happens when American attiude meets Viking vigor.

Sudsy Song Segment: For a little pop with our hops, here’s a ditty from one of my personal favorite bands (shared in common with my pals at The Beer Report), Too Much Joy. It’s their song King of Beers, which has already been played on this podcast, but this time it’s the “rare accoustic version.” Oooooh…

Last Up: The beer journey now takes a turn, as Evo and I leave the style of IPA altogether and dive into Schneider and Son’s Hopfen Weisse. A collaboration between brewers on separate continents, this amped-up, hopped-up hefe could easily sail off the proverbial rails. So..does it? Tune in and find out!

 

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The beers (yes, plural!) for the next show might be a little tough to scrape up, and one of them has no real viable alternative (don’t you just love beers like that?). Still, with some luck and perseverance, hopefully you’ll be drinking along. We’re talking:

Nøgne Ø India Pale Ale [alternatives: Stone IPA, Sierra Nevada Celebrationa Ale, Victory Hop Devil Ale]

and

Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse (Schneider version)[alternatives: sorry, dude...OK, maybe Aventinus Weizenbock, if you sprinke some fresh hops on top...]

The show will mark the return of a certain Friend of SoB, but I won’t say who it is, to maintain some semblance of suspense. Even though you probably guessed it already.

Today’s show is a Beer As Folk interview with Zak Davis from the Shmaltz Brewing Company. If that name has you scratching your head, you might recognize their flagship beer, He’Brew Genesis Ale. Even if you haven’t tried it, you’d no doubt recognize that cool Hebrew-inspired font on their labels. In any case, Zak and I chatted at a local Whole Foods prior to a tasting, and I found out there’s a lot more to Shmaltz than wildly imaginative beers combined with hilarious and unappologetic Semitism. For instance, they have surprising ties to sideshow freaks. Oh, and zombies, too.

 

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Next up is a Beer As Folk show in which we find out all about the Shmaltz Brewing Company, most familiar as the crafters of the He’Brew line of beers. They brew tons of great beers and any one of them would accompany the show in tremendous fashion. However, in honor of the coming autumn season, as well as for reasons that will be apparent upon hearing the interview, I’m going to recommend you try and scare up (so to speak) Freaktoberfest, from the Coney Island Lager line of Schmaltz beers.

L’Chaim!

Prebeer Preamble: To quote Samwise Gamgee: “Well, I’m back.” Specifically, I’m ba-ha-ha-hack back in black, because on the show today I address the musical question: What happens when you put a bunch of party-goers into a studio, ply them liberally with very very strong black beer, and continually pester them to choose which one they like best? I don’t know what you’d call it, but I call it a Smackdown!

Round 1: East Coast vs. West Coast. We start with a couple of brews from either side of the Mississippi: Old Viscosity from California’s Port Brewing Company and Storm King Imperial Stout from Pennsylvania’s Victory Brewing Company. In a blind tasting, the crowd sips and talks and chews it over. Ultimately, only one can rule. Which one will it be?

Interbeer Interlude: Beer As Folk.Tomme Arthur, brewmaster for the Port Brewing and Lost Abbey beers, gave me a few minutes during a recent beer dinner at my local Whole Foods to talk about his beers and the joy of having a job that “doesn’t suck.” That’s “doesn’t suck” in the same sense as “screwing a porn star doesn’t suck.”

Round 2: Stout vs. Porter. Next I trot out two huge brews for the amusement of all. Titans The Abyss (from Oregon’s Deschutes Brewing Co.) and Decadence Anniversary Ale Imperial Porter (from San Diego’s AleSmith Brewing Co.) duke it out, and leave the crowd humbled and in the throes of massive indecision when it comes to choosing a favorite. But in the end, only one legend can prevail.

Sudsy Song Segment: Possible Oscar “All Out of Beer“. The taps have run dry and the crowd is restless. The party host serenades them to the tune of…well..let’s just say ’70’s AM radio sure had some catchy tunes…

Final Round: Now everyone’s liberally lubricated, let’s do some math! Each taster rated each beer, and the scores are tallied to determine the Best in Show. Who’s the king of this pitch-black hill? Tune in and find out!

[HUGE shout-outs to tasters Doug Kress, Thomas a.k.a geistbear, Emily and Enormous from Australia, Tim Ademec, C.A. Sizemore, Michael R. Mennenga, Kris Mayo, Brian Brown, and Brewing Compadre Shawn]

 

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Helloooo…Is this thing on? Just how do you work one of these “post” gizmos again? Yeah, sorry, things have gone a little fallow around here lately. I am, however, still recording and have lots of good sudsy content in the “tap line” (am I pushing this too far?). It’s just (sadly and by necessity) paced a little more on the “glacial” side. SoB’s still alive, promise. To prove my point, go out–I challenge you–and scrape together the following four beers:

AleSmith’s Decadence Anniversary Imperial Porter [alternative: Flying Dog's Gonzo Imperial Porter]
Deschutes’ The Abyss [completely viable and more realistic alternative: Deschutes' Black Butte XX]
Port’s Old Viscosity [alternative: Oskar Blues' Ten Fidy]

and

Victory Brewing Company’s Storm King Imperial Stout [alternative: Stone Imperial Russian Stout]

Show 52 will be big, black, and bloated (I’ll pass on making a joke…), just like they were in the good ol’ days.

Today we enter the Build-A-Beer Workshop, for a little beer-geek talk about improving your homebrewing efforts. I’m joined by my Brewing Compadre Shawn as we pit two of our home-brewed babies in a head-to-head comparison. Both are modeled after Stone’s Arrogant Bastard Ale, the first being our original “Monkey Bastard,” and the second it’s “evolved” descendant, the “Neanderthal Bastard.” [Yes, I'm aware that Neanderthals were not in fact descended from monkeys but rather share a common ancestor with them, so off my case, dang it!] To make things a little more entertaining, Shawn and I had already been geeking out on beer rather enthusiastically before we fired up the microphone. So you get what you get: two guys drinking and talking and analyzing beer, all in the name of the perpetual quest for brewing the perfect pint.

 

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Lets make this easy: find yourself some of Stone Brewing Co.’s Arrogant Bastard Ale. Or, if you brewed along with the Build-a-Beer Workshop and have some Monkey Bastard lying around, that will do as well. This will be a homebrew tasting show, but AB was definitely the target, so should accompany the proceedings nicely.