Asking a local where in Singapore to get a drink led us to Level 33, a brewpub on the 33rd floor of an office building, and by far my favorite place to have a drink all trip, even if it was expensive ($13-$17 Singapore dollars for a pint, or about $8-$12 US). Highly recommended. Just check out this view… (click through for a larger panorama) The brewing vessels, also on the 33rd floor: ...
My first time back to The Trappist (which just got an SFgate writeup) in a year. Two highlights I hadn’t had before: Petrus Oud Bruin – tart, slightly sour, but mellow after the first few seconds (oak-aged) Mikkeller Sur Monk -- a blend of a belgian quad and a sour beer… and it works. A big difference between the smell (strongly tart) and taste (rich, strong, slightly sweet, slightly tart). And labeled as 9.99% ABV – how cute.
For New Year’s Eve, I wanted to eat a series of delicious little dishes and drink some excellent beer with friends, without going out to a crowded restaurant. So four of us hung out at an apartment in the Mission and shared the Osechi (New Year’s Bento) made by Peko Peko Catering*, a mix of traditional Japanese foods and California interpretations with local ingredients. We also each brought some special beer, and spent plenty of time geeking out over what beer went well with each course (it wasn’t always what we expected, so at times we’d have three half-glasses of different beer, trying them with each new dish). It was a great evening. ...
I took a bike trip up to the Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa for the first time. While you can get most of their beers at City Beer Store, they had a few there I’d never heard of: We started with the 18-beer sampler: My favorites were mostly ones I knew I liked: Damnation 23 (golden color, strong, a bit sweet (like a belgian tripel?), aged with oak chips). I’ve bought it a few times, but didn’t realize until this trip that it’s 10.5% ABV. Whew. Consecration (sour dark beer aged in red wine barrels) Supplication (sour brown ale aged in pinot noir barrels with sour cherries) Perdition (malty blonde?) A few others I liked: ...
A good Christmas Eve for food and beer. 4505 Meats duck confit plate with egg and pickles: San Tung “dry-fried” chicken wings for a crowd of 14. The shrimp-leek steamed dumplings were also worth it: Amsterdam Cafe, had an interesting beer selection. Highlights included Oskar Blues Ten Fidy and Stone Vertical Epic 11 on tap, a lot of unusual Mikkellers, and a long list of holiday beers. Their holiday beers (click through for a high-res image): ...
I dropped by Triple Rock in Berkeley for the first time tonight with a homebrewing friend. They and Beechwood (from Long Beach) were holding a beer event where they brewed the same Laurel IPA recipe and had both versions on top at each brewery .They also published the recipe and invited homebrewers to make their own takes on the beer and bring some to informally share. Of the two “official” brews and three homebrew versions I tried, I think Julian’s version from Beechwood was my favorite– the distinctive Simcoe hop smell (which a friend describes as “reminiscent of cat piss”, but I refuse to agree), and a complex citrus-pine taste with a little sweetness that stayed with me. I’m even no IPA fiend, but I’d happily drink that again. My friend’s homebrew was also quite good. And hanging out at the brewers’ table is always fun. How the discussion migrated to physics, ultrasonic measurement of solar panels, and space-hardened robotics I can’t quite remember. ...
I had a 2008 Goose Island Bourbon County Stout at City Beer recently. Wow. I loved it. I won’t come up with suitable adjectives (volatile?)– it’s more like drinking whiskey than any other beer I’ve had. And at 13% alcohol and a powerful smoky-sweet taste, I could have easily split the single 12oz bottle with one or two other people.
If I’m going to rave about great beer in Portland Oregon, I should check out the beer in the original US Portland (which, for your local history tidbit of the day, was the site of the first law banning sale of alcohol except for medicinal or mechanical purposes, in 1851, far before Prohibition). I stopped by The Great Lost Bear, which sells tasting sizes of the 40+ mostly-local beers they have on tap, and tried 8 Maine beers I’d never had or even heard of. And at $1-$2/taste I didn’t feel bad taking a few sips and abandoning two I didn’t like at all. ...
The release party for the Almanac Beer Farmhouse Pale w/ Plums was a very nice dinner and beer pairing at Bar Tartine with food by Hapa Ramen: amuse: lardo, cauliflower with almonds and lemon, and a cup of ramen broth. I tried two beers, an Oud Beersel Oude Geuze, and a German Gose. swordfish crudo with a bit of spice, well-paired with Telegraph Reserve Wheat, a sour, slightly citrusy beer. ...
CSA Week Two, a recent trip to City Beer, and a friend visiting from Boston inspired another little dinner party: Deviled eggs (perhaps the best variant I’ve made: hard boiled eggs, the yolks mashed with quite a bit of olive oil (and no mayo!) and a little mustard, salt, and pepper, sprinkled with smoked paprika, and topped with crispy-fried capers, a crowning touch inspired by this printer & piemaker post). ...
Mikkeller, the one-man ‘roving brewery’, makes a series of many (19, over the years?) beers from the exact same IPA recipe*, except each uses a single, different variety of hop. Beer + Science? How could I say no? And two different friends thought the same way– so twice in the past month+, I’ve had a chance to do a side-by-side tasting of 16 of them with a group of friends. Fascinating. ...
This is the final writeup from a weekend trip to Portland, focusing on our favorite beer places (Part 1: Portland Food, Part 2: Oregeon Brewers Festival). I half-wrote this right after the trip but hadn’t got around to posting it. Bailey’s Taproom(SW Broadway and Pine, downtown) A great place to taste beer– an informal space with plenty of seating and a rotating selection of about twenty beers on tap, including a lot of Oregon beer. For just $7.50 you can get a sampler of any five of your choice. I liked the Avatar Jasmine IPA (very faint hints of jasmine), but can’t remember what else we had (a scotch ale and one of the Upright beers, but I don’t seem to have notes). ...
Following on the Portland Food Recap, here are some notes about the 60+ beers we tasted at the Oregon Brewers Festival back in August. A side note before I talk about all the beers I didn’t like– yeah, yeah, it’s far easier to be a critic than to actually make something, these are just my opinions (well, combined with some comments and notes from James). The OBF as they call it was the initial impetus for visiting Portland that particular weekend, though plenty of other beer, food, book-buying, and friend-visiting activities fit themselves into the available time. ...
Two of us assembled a “not your usual canned beer” tasting at work, from right to left (click to embiggen): My favorites: Oskar Blues " Mama’s Little Yella Pils" (pilsner: clean, flavorful, very slightly sweet– nice. Probably the group favorite, to my surprise.) Young’s Double Chocolate Stout (strong cocoa smell, the most polarizing in our group– most people liked it, some people couldn’t stand it.) Big Sky Brewing Moose Drool Brown (I wouldn’t say it’s unusual in any particular way, but it’s a good solid take on a brown ale, and a beer I’m never unhappy to see at a bar. I first had it when visiting Montana, but I now often see it in the Bay Area, though I’d never seen it in a can.) Oskar Blues G’Knight “Imperial Red Double IPA” (a fascinating beer: strong, hoppy smell, but the tastes of malt (several kinds?) and alcohol (9%) help keep the hops in their place… then the hops jump back out at you at the end. My personal favorite of the tasting.) Others: ...
I had this 18%-alcohol, 120-minute IPA at City Beer Store earlier this week. To my surprise, I really liked it. I tend to not enjoy really hoppy beers when I feel it drowns out all other flavor, and I’m not even especially into the Dogfish Head 90-minute IPA. But this beer was excellent– the hops don’t come on as strong because there’s such a powerful malt/caramel and alcohol taste as well, without being as sweet as a barleywine. ...