Beermonger

Yeah, so that whole ‘I’m going to catch up on writing’ thing? Not so much, I know.

Anyhoo, I wanted to lay down some thoughts on the Savor event now that any and all relevance they might have had is gone and give a brief report on this past weekend’s Summer Brewfest.

Overall, I was very impressed by Savor. The setting was great and the collection of brewers and breweries was outstanding. I’m not sure how I feel about the layout though. The semi-circles of tables that lined the outside of the room caused a lot of traffic jams and made the food impossible to get to at times. Not good for an event that is supposedly about the pairing of craft beer and food. I was at the Friday night session, and I’ve heard some things said about the crowd that night. Yes, there did seem to be an inordinate amount of Hill staffers there as well as beer industry folks (myself included). But I can’t tell you how many customers of mine I ran into, and I think there were a fair amount of true Beer Geeks. The only problems I had with the crowd was:

1. The Hill people seemed to sweep in a poach all the food, and

2. The whole “Dress to Impress” idea kinda got blown up when I saw my first fanny pack of the evening. I sweated it out in my sport coat and Jo said she felt a little silly and overdressed (even though she looked fantastic). Fucking tourists. Sorry, that’s the native DC/Metro in me, but still…

Really, in the end I thought Savor was a success in showing off the creativity of craft brewers. The tickets were pricey, but I think the collection of that many great brewers in one room made it all worth it.  Highlights:

-Russan River, especially Supplication. Easily the beer of the show for me.

-Avery15 and Maharaja. Great beers, and meeting Adam Avery during the week leading up to Savor was very cool. He couldn’t have been cooler to me.

-Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron. Every time I have this beer it stuns me, and not just because of the ABV. I read an interview in Draft this month with Jim Koch from Boston Brewing where he said that Palo is an example of “fearless brewing” and I couldn’t put it any better.

-Clipper City Loose Cannon. The only beer they brought and they paired it with three different foods. Ballsy. Worked. This is a beer that I just can’t seem to order enough of for stock and every time I try it I see why.

-Flying Dog Kerberos. The new Tripel. These guys seem to get better and better all the time.

-Meeting Garrett Oliver, Charlie Papazian, the guys from Draft, All About Beer, etc. Really, that was friggin’ cool. I’m still relatively new to the beer business, so there’s a lot of folks I haven’t met yet. It was nice to meet some of these guys that I’ve heard and read about.

This past Sunday I went to the NoVA Summer Brewfest. I’ve heard a lot about the Old Dominion Fests, and how this may be the event to replace it. I never made it to the Dominion Fest but I really had a good time at Brewfest. There were some excellent beers out for tasting, the one cover band I heard was awesome (they had a female singer that Jo and I were both really impressed with, and that’s saying something) and plenty of volunteers. I didn’t see one unmanned booth. Admittedly, there weren’t a ton of new beers out, and many brewery reps that folks might have been expecting weren’t there, but to be fair there were about 3 or 4 other fests happening up and down the coast this weekend, so guys were kinda spread out. Devon from Dogfish had a great selection of beers, though, as did Tomfrom Clipper City with the new Oxford Organic Raspberry Wheat as well as the Oxford Organic Amber out of a firkin (which was all kinds of kickass). Worth the drive, worth the ticket price; can’t really ask for more.

And with that, I’m out. I’ll try to catch up some more later. ‘Til then.

Beermonger 

It’s been a while. I’ve been a little busy and since it’s Monday (my day off) I’m not gonna do much about that. Sorry. Coming soon:

-Thought on the Savor experience

-New beer reviews

-Getting arrested for flicking a cigarette butt

-Memorial Day madness

In the meantime, much love and get well soon to Dick Dale. Dick is one of my all-time favorite guitar players and from every report I’ve heard an all-around amazing guy. The one-and-only King of the Surf Guitar, Dick Dale is also a licensed exotic animal handler and pyrotechnic whiz. Beat that. Recently he announced that he was battling a remission of rectal cancer, the cancer that doctors told him 40 years ago he wouldn’t be able to beat. Dale inspired Hendrix to write Third Stone From the Sun. He’s done more than 100 men’s job as far as keeping rock n’ roll alive. He sounds like no one else. Here’s to the man.

Also, we lost one of the giants, Bo Diddley. Bo passed on this morning at the age of 79. One of the first, the pioneers. A true icon, not like some who get that word thrown at them today. Bo earned his legend with is signature rhythm. I mean, do you know how badass you are when a friggin beat is named for you? The thing about Bo that always got to me was his tone. This clip says it all really: what appears to be 4 Bassman half-stacks cranked with Bo using two and “The Duchess” Norma-Jean Wofford on the other. Raw, clean but hairy. Bo’s sound had it all. Not to mention being the king of the third-person. The two songs in the vid here are “Hey, Bo Diddley” and “Bo Diddley”. He was Doug Williams before Doug Williams was Doug Williams.

Ok, that’s enough for today. Promise I’ll keep a better schedule this week.

Beermonger

So, in the interests of housekeeping…

-The Local Kicks Column is up here. This week it’s all about Summer Beers. I mentioned some very popular ones, but as this is my blog it’s all about me here. Sunday or Monday I’ll be putting up my personal list of favorites. Think about yours; I want to start a conversation here.

-Shout Out to fellow blogger and Beer Minion Kendle over at My Husband Cooks. Great resource for ideas, fantastic food porn and he even links to your humble Beermonger. Thanks again, dude.

-This Saturdays’ tasting at Rick’s will feature: Brooklyn Summer Ale, Flying Dog Kerberos Tripel, Brooklyn/Schneider Hopfenweisse and Green Flash Hop Head Red.

See you Saturday at Rick’s, or if you’re at Savor Friday night I’ll be out and about.

Cheers!

the Beermonger

“This place rocks.” -Adam Avery, of Avery Brewing, in the shop 30 minutes ago.

So I was trying to get this stuff posted last night, but I had some issues with our internet…

I’ll be doing a rare Friday Night Tasting May 9th from 5-8 PM. I’ll be pouring the Gouden Carolus Grand Cru Van De Kaiser from 2000, 2004 and 2007.

This is going to be something of a ‘make-up’ tasting since I was trying to do this one a couple of weeks ago, but that got nixed when the ‘00 and ‘04 didn’t show from my distributor. This led to me getting far more worked up than the situation deserved and got me in a little hot water with the distributor that I get the beer from. You see, in the Commonwealth of Virginia, we have what’s known in the business as a “three-tier system”. That means in order for you, the consumer, to purchase a sixer of beer there has to be an entity that imports the beer into the state, buying it directly from the producer. After that they distribute the beer, meaning they sell it to retailers and restaurants. After these middle-men and the government get their cut of money and taxes they deign to allow the average citizen to purchase the product they wish to buy.

As I understand it, this system came to be after the repeal of Prohibition. Essentially, it is an alcohol tax without actually having an alcohol tax. On its own I don’t necessarily have much of an issue with the system except for it seeming awful Puritanical and greedy. But then again, this is America and the Commonwealth of Virginia to boot, so…

My real issue is that distributors purchase “rights” to sell certain beers within certain areas of the state, or for the entire state itself. As a business practice, this is done to ensure that, say, two distributors who handle Sam Adams don’t undercut each other in the same marketplace. Although where the damn problem with that is is beyond me. You see, in practice these Rights create little monopolies, wherein the restaurant or retailer (such as yours truly) is forced to buy a product from a certain company regardless of their pricing or regard for their customers. If you guessed this is a snapshot of the situation I ran into a couple weeks ago, you are correct.

I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to spend the vast majority of my (not nearly as big as it could be) budget on product from one company, only to have the beer I need, that I’ve promised my customers that I would have, sent to some other shop hours away because (are you ready?) they took their delivery sooner. No one gave me the heads up that “Hey, other guys want this stuff, maybe you should take the delivery early”. No. Just sent it out and scolded me like I’m supposed to know.

But that’s what comes along with “Rights” in the three-tier system. You get the right to sell a certain breweries products and with that you get the right to do pretty much whatever you feel like with it. It’s great for them: they can go ahead and not worry about people skills or customer service when hiring, because it doesn’t matter! The customer has no choice but to give their money to the distributor! I could call in an order and they could go ahead and say “Go fuck yourself” and I’d still have to pay them if I wanted to have the stuff in stock that I need to compete with every goddamn chain and big-box store trying to put guys like me out of work!

I’m using this situation as an example: The distributor and I have both said what we wanted to say to each other, and I’m ordering as usual. Really, what choice do I have? It’s not like they have competition. My rep from them and I are cool; I’ve known the guy for a while and it wasn’t all his fault. Bygones and all that stuff you need to say so that people don’t think you’re an uppity retail guy who thinks he’s more important than he is. Trust me, dealing with distributors on a daily basis lets you know exactly how important you are. All I want to say is that there is a word that my mom uses way too often: asinine. It’s not that she uses it too often because it doesn’t apply; she uses it too often because there’s so much in this world that is against all common sense that it seems a shame to throw around such a great descriptor.

The three-tier system and the distributor “Rights” monopolies are asinine. I wish I had a widget that you could click and hear my mom say the word just so you get an idea of how it feels. Asinine.

Anyway, Saturday I’ll be pouring from 12-5 PM as usual. I’ve got Weyerbacher Muse (a cool Belgian-style Saison), Rogue Mom Hefeweizen, the new Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale and Dogfish Head Immort Ale.

Come by if you’re in the hood. Until next time.

Cheers,

Beermonger

This week’s column up here. More later tonight on this week’s beer tastings, including a rare Friday night tasting!

Beermonger

I only got a case out of 30 that made it into Virginia, and it didn’t even get bottled last year, so I figured I should check out and review Smuttynose Big A IPA. Big A is a Double IPA that comes out of the Smuttynose brewery in New Hampshire. This is a first for me; I missed out on last year and haven’t tried it before.

The first thing I notice is that it pours a color-fade, going from a golden yellow near the bottom of my glass to a bright orange with a hint of red near the solid head. It definitely smells hoppy–not a given with big IPA’s or DIPA’s. Smells like green herbal hops, with a lot of grapefruit in the nose.

Big A comes on strong with a ton of citrusy hop flavor, with a hard alpha-acid hit. The finish comes with a hint of malt and a more subtle citrus note. The first impression is of a beer that is all front palate and finish; you get the hit at the top and you get a long finish, but the middle is a very crisp, concise beer. But in truth there is so much more. The finish blooms like a flower (watched in fast-forward) in stages that go from the initial malt hit to a lighter citrus note with a ‘feel’ of bitterness. Not that it’s bitter all the way through, because it’s not, but that you feel it all the way. It is simply ‘there’, what ever ‘it’ is. It’s a long fade into a very green, earthy hop aftertaste.

Some may try out the Big A and say it’s just another example of a over-the-top, unnecessary DIPA. The thing is, that’s the style–double IPA’s are crazy big and hoppy and you have to have a certain personality and taste to really get into them. For what it’s worth, I think the Big A is a very smooth DIPA. Not smooth in flavor, but smooth like Lando when he met Princess Leia in The Empire Strikes Back. This beer is what it is without pretense or self-consciousness. If you love or think you love big, hoppy beers, try one out if you can find it.

Cheers,

The Beermonger

Hey there,

This week’s column is up on Local Kicks. I’m writing about the new Allagash releases that I’ll be trying out this Saturday. If you’re in the neighborhood around 12-5, come by Rick’s and check them out.

Hey everyone,

Not all of the order showed up in the store today, so I have to alter the tasting lineup a bit. Out are the Gouden Carolus Grand Cru 2000 and 2004. In are Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA and Victory Hop Devil. Not sure if the Grand Cru will be around next week. If they are I’ll certainly try to get them.

The Beermonger