Beer #8 Estrella Dam Inedit

Today we venture off to Spain to indulge in a beer that was created for drinking with food. Estrella Inedit from the Damm brewery in Barcelona www.estrelladamm.com/en was created by the master brewers in conjuction with Chef Ferran Adrià and his restaurant, El Bulli’s, sommelier team. Who is Ferran Adrià you ask? Ferran Adrià is considered the father of Molecular Gastronomy (although he will not say so himself) the crazy wave of food science that swept the globe at the end of the 2000's. Molecular gastronomy is about stripping down food and presenting it in its purest form. It began with the term "deconstruction" where chefs would take a very classic and recognizable dish and separate the components for you on the plate. That would allow the diner the opportunity to combine the dish in different ways and taste each flavour as an individual or the dish as a whole. This also led people to ask "why am I paying $35 for an appetiser I have to finish making myself?" After that chefs began to examine the boundries of food science like making something look blue and taste orange, freezing ice cream a la minute at the table with liquid nitrogen, making caviar our of fruit juices and squid ink and vegetable purees. Smell and taste became everything and combining items in new and interesting ways was the goal. Enter a beer designed by a Chef to go specifically with food.

Estrella Inedit comes in a 750 ml champagne bottle with a minimalist label (not unlike a high end water). It has an ABV of 4.8% which is good for food as high alcohols tend to dull the palate quickly. It pours pale to clear gold with a white head with large, quickly dispersing bubbles. The nose very light and faint citrus and coriander some sweetness and a touch of malt.

The first sip is light and refreshing very food friendly, the coriander and orange are present but muted. Aeration develops the grainy, malt and a little wet dog. Licorice is on the finish, grape and lychee follows. The finish is very long and not unlike a fine white wine.

Overall results: (Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional)

Taste: Exceptional
Cost: Pass ($6.95 for 750 ml)
Colour: Exceptional
Beer Style: Exceptional
Re-order: Pass
Experience: Exceptional


Final thought: the beer is quite good, however I didn't taste it with food so I imagine that there is a better way to experience this beer. And somehow... I don't think a trip to Barcelona to eat at El Bulli's is in the Pint Jockey budget right now...


Cheers
CJT

Beer #7 Harviestoun "Ola Dubh" Special Reserve 16 year

As promised we return to Scotland and to Harviestoun brewery www.harviestoun.com to talk about Ola Dubh again, if you haven't read my post about the 12 year, take a second and skip back to Beer # 2 and check it out first. Go ahead... I'll wait...

Got it?

OK. Here we go.

Just a refresher in case you didn't want to skip back... (cause I know you didn't... shame)

Enter Ola Dubh which the tag hanging from the bottle tells me means "Black Oil" It is a version of one of their standard dark beers "Old Engine Oil" that has been aged in casks. Not just any old casks though... Scotch whisky casks. Highland Park to be exact. The bottle I got today comes from the 12 year old series. Each bottle is brewed in small batches and then aged in 12 year old Highland park whisky barrels. The end result is numbered and dated. There is also a 16, 18, 30, and yes Virginia, a FORTY YEAR OLD series!

This bottle is numbered # 23258 and bears a production date of August 2010. So three months in the bottle.

Once again we have the dark brown almost black colour with a thin tan coloured head made up of small bubbles. The lacing is restricted to small "polka dots" all over the inside of the glass. On the nose we have a deep charred, high alcohol smell with undertones of molasses, toffee and black licorice. The nose is not dissimilar to dark rum.

The first taste gives us smoke but not as much as the 12 year. The lightness of the beer is counter intuitive to the darkness of the colour. Very refined whisky and molasses finish with the light scent of smoke hanging in the air like a distant woodstove on a cold winter's night. Aeration brings out  unrefined brown sugar licorice and a hint of cream (malo-lactic fermentation from the wood perhaps?)

Taste: Exceptional
Cost: Pass (despite the $6.95 entry fee for the 333ml bottle surprisingly worth it!)
Colour: Exceptional
Beer Style: Exceptional
Re-order: Pass (with above caveat! drink with caution! savour one a night and give your palate a rest!)
Experience: Exceptional

Same rating as the 12 year both fantastic beers a must try while they are here!

Cheers
CJT

Beer #6 La Chouffe

Back again with another offering, this time from Belgium specifically from the Ardenne. www.achouffe.be (check out the theme song... yes the beer has a theme song!) La Chouffe (better known as "the gnome" in English) is a strong, 8% ABV golden blonde that is re-fermented in the bottle, and crown cap sealed in a "Champagne style" bottle (including a punt!).  The beer pours pale gold with a crisp white head, which later gives way to a delicate lacing down the inside of the glass. The first sniff brings an herbaceousness, plenty of herbs and grasses. There is also a grapey and wine note that makes me wonder if the beer was made or finished with a champagne yeast. Sipping reveals coriander with a smooth transition into bread and grains. Aeration enhances the wine and brandy notes with a slight woody texture reminiscent of a whiskey. A touch of vanilla is evident in the background.

Taste: Pass
Cost: Pass ($6.95 per 750ml bottle)
Colour: Pass (a tad light for a golden blonde)
Beer Style: Pass
Re-order: Exceptional (easy drinking, light, and refreshing just watch out the 8% doesn't sneak up on you. The bottles are big for SHARING... we remember sharing don't we?)
Experience: Pass

Next up 16 year old Ola Dubh!

Cheers
CJT

Beer # 5 Post Road Pumpkin Ale

Been a little stuffy this week so I needed a strong beer to snap me out of it. When I indeed had realised I could taste again (Thanks to Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup: perennial elixir to runny noses everywhere) I went up to my local LCBO and stumbled across a lonely looking bottle of Post Road Pumpkin Ale in the section of outgoing seasonal beers. Making room for all the spicy, filling, and soul warming hearty winter ales, the staff had relegated this orphan to a corner for quick sale.

Pumpkin Ale is one of those funny beers that the Pint Jockey had avoided most of his life. After being weened on Labatt Blue, and 50, and wasting my mis-spent youth with Labatt Ice and the other frozen, dry, high alcohol, no taste, no character beers (anyone else remember Molson Naked?) I thought flavoured beers were just "wrong." Marketing ploys to ensnare women into drinking more beer. Real beer had hops in it and was "bitter," dry, and citrus. It wasn't until I started to delve into the history of beers that I realised hops were not always where it was at... in fact hops have only really been in beer for about 500 years, and were mainly employed as a preservative, not a flavouring agent. In fact cinnamon, corriander, cloves, anise and other such herbs and spices were flavouring beer for almost its entire 10,000 year run, so the relative newcommer hops has only been friends with beer for about 5% of it's life. So I thought... let's see what all the fuss was about.

Post Road is brought to us from the good people at Brooklyn Brewery, obviously in Brooklyn, New York. www.brooklynbrewery.com Now I have had the fortune to taste some of the Brooklyn beers and they are quite good. So I had high hopes for my little orphan when I brought him home. The bottle claims that the recipe is a modification of an 18th century recipe made with malted barley and roasted pumpkin just like the colonial Americans used to brew. The brew date was August so it had spent a at least three months in bottle. Poured coppery orange in the glass with a short tan to off white head with fine bubbles.

 The first sniff is ALL pumpkin pie, (you can almost smell leftover turkey) Spices dominate cloves, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, followed quickly by roasted pumpkin puree, and vanilla around the edges. Slight creaminess as well (whipped cream on top?).


The pumpkin disappears in the attack making room for the abundant spices. However, the finish is all roasted pumpkin balancing out the spiciness with a caramelised sweetness. Aeration brings out the ale aspect with the malted barley adding an undertone to the sweetness of the pumpkin. Cinnamon and clove carry on right to the end of the finish and linger in the mouth long after all of the other flavours have disappeared.

Taste: Pass
Cost: Pass ($2.50 per 355ml bottle)
Colour: Pass (reminiscent of pumpkins)
Beer Style: Pass
Re-order: Pass ( but Fail since it was the only bottle)
Experience: Pass


Now I'm still not a huge fan of spice ales but this one does do the trick. Probably best enjoyed once a year with that pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving (tip of the hat to our southern neighbours who are just about to celebrate their version of the holiday I'm thankful we get ours out of the way when BBQing is still a possibility).


Stay tuned later this week I have the 16 and 18 year old reserves of the Ola Dubh lurking in my fridge waiting to be blogged.


Cheers CJT

Beer # 4 Boxer Lager

For the fourth entry to my blog we have a strangle mingling of Canada and the US (Talk about free trade!). Today's offering is Boxer Lager by Mountain Crest Beers of Calgary Alberta however the beer itself is brewed by  Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe WI. www.boxerlager.com

Colour is unimpressive.

Yeasty plain nose with a little citrus. American style lager that is too sweet. A little tinny with hints of lemon pledge. Really disapointing. Did I mention I wasn't a fan of beer in cans?

Truly sad considering a joint project between Americans and Canadians could bring hamony and perhaps an end to that whole "our beer is better than you beer argument." However, there really is no redeeming feature to this beer. An eighteen year old kid could whip something up in the garage from a kit that would be more interesting.

Taste: Fail
Cost: Pass ($1.65 per 500ml Can)
Colour: Fail(the golden hue almost has a brown tinge)
Beer Style: Fail (too sweet)
Re-order: Fail
Experience: Fail


So much for U.S. Canada relations.

Beer # 3 Ciuc Premium Romania

Let me first go on record as saying I am not a big fan of beers that come in cans. Mainly because I can always taste a metallic flavour in the beer. Many people say they don't find this but I do, and it bothers me.

Ciuc is the first Romanian beer I have ever tried and it is a Euro lager through and through. www.ciucpremium.ro  The website is completely in Romanian but worth a look-see anyway. 500 ml can and 5% ABV are the stats and here we go...

The colour is a clear golden -- off yellow with a thick white head with very good staying power.


The nose of the beer is all wet dog and wet grain, very yeasty. The attack is light and citrus at first, but  gives over VERY quickly to heavier malt and a little rain-watery must. Tinniness on the finish. Not a lot going on with this beer. grain and malt very simple taste profile. Not really going to re-order this one... Maybe if I was in a Romanian bar down the road from Dracule's Castle, and it was on draft we could talk about another pint... but seeing how I am not in Romania... I'll pass.


Overall results: (Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional)

Taste: Pass
Cost: Pass ($1.85 per 500ml Can)
Colour: Pass ( a little on the light side for the flavour)
Beer Style: Pass
Re-order: So-so
Experience: So-so

Final rating is a So-so not a great offering, but I think it would be far better on draft, until I go to Romania we will never know.

Beer # 2 Harviestoun "Ola Dubh" Special Reserve 12 year

Welcome back sports fans, I had a rare treat today. I went into the LCBO to pick something up to review for tonight's blog and I had two pleasant surprises. The first was the Holiday edition of the LCBO Magazine "Food and Drink," which is quite literally the best foodie magazine going and even better... it's free. The second was a shelf of interesting beers from Harviestoun. www.harviestoun.com Now many of you have probably not heard of this brewery from Scotland let alone tasted one of their beers, however, you should take steps to correct that. Harviestoun is that brewery everyone wants to go to because they bend the rules. They "Play" with their beer, never satisfied they try all sorts of things with their beer and keep trying until they get things right.

Enter Ola Dubh which the tag hanging from the bottle tells me means "Black Oil" It is a version of one of their standard dark beers "Old Engine Oil" that has been aged in casks. Not just any old casks though... Scotch whisky casks. Highland Park to be exact. The bottle I got today comes from the 12 year old series. Each bottle is brewed in small batches and then aged in 12 year old Highland park whisky barrels. The end result is numbered and dated. There is also a 16, 18, 30, and yes Virginia, a FORTY YEAR OLD series! All of which My LCBO is carrying right now! (OH JOY!) I will temporarily zip off to bloggers's heaven for a few minutes! Be right back!


The bottle I received today bears a bottling date of February 2010 and a number of 12922.


At the first pour we are looking at a dark brown almost black beer with a dark tan head. Weighing in at 8% ABV this is a serious beer. Going in for the nose you find all things warm and toasty charred wood, deep roasted malts, burnt caramel, black licorice hint of vanilla, and a hint of peat offered up by the whisky barrels. First sip reminiscent of a "rauchbier" (a German brew made with malt dried over an open fire to impart a smoky flavour to the beer) smoky and peaty. The dark colour misconstrues the flavour. Light in body, as is often is the case in modern dark beers. Ola Dubh is easy drinking with a palate reminiscent of a fine whisky; salt and oil and peat finishing with a mild bitterness that lingers like the smoke of fine cigar. Exhaling, brings the warmth and fire of the whisky through the beer.

My impressions... well what can one say? This beer speaks volumes there is a lot going on when you sip, and as the flavours wash over my tongue I discover more and more, smoky, spicy, floral. Unfortunately, the complexity of the beer and the 8% are too much to reach for more than one bottle a night. So the re-order quotient is low, but definitely worth picking up one for that night in in front of the fire cuddled up to someone you love.

Overall results: (Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional)

Taste: Exceptional
Cost: Pass (despite the $5.95 entry fee for the 333ml bottle surprisingly worth it!)
Colour: Exceptional
Beer Style: Exceptional
Re-order: Pass (with above caveat! drink with caution! savour one a night and give your palate a rest!)
Experience: Exceptional

One note on experience... Unlike most rauchbiers which can be as overwhelming as chewing on a campfire this mild and peaty smoke is very appealing. If sipped one can imagine the whisky cask interacting with the aged beer imparting the warm aromas, this beer has character and is not afraid to show it. Drinking it is truly an experience so it gets top marks.

Overall: another great beer from the "lads' at Harviestoun. I would advise running out and getting a bottle or two while they are still here as the bottlings are very limited.

CJT

Beer # 1 Dead Elephant Ale, Railway City Brewing Co. Ontario

Well to start the whole thing off I go to St. Thomas Ontario, with a brewery I have only just heard of recently. Railway City Brewing Company. www.railwaycitybrewing.com

The first thing I notice of course is the label. It looks like something off of a Grateful Dead album cover (which to me seems like a great start!). It's a 500ml bottle of "Golden Pale Ale" according to the website. A slightly buzzy 6.5% ABV. I pour a half of a glass worth below...

Good colour, faint copper tinge very white head but it doesn't last nor does it give me the "spider-web lacing" promised by the website. A swirl and a sniff reveal a very sweet fruity and malt nose. Screams sugar, almost candy-like. First sip, notice the 6.5% alcohol right away, with a little bit of heat on the throat. Fruitiness continues through the attack, dissolving into bready notes on the finish. Aeration in the mouth gives a burst of alcohol with a grapey almost winey feel. Hopping is very mild. Website claims an IBU of 46.6, while hops are noticeable, they get lost in the sweetness.

Overall results: (Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional)

Taste: So-so
Cost: Pass ($3.50 at selected LCBO)
Drnkability: So-so
Colour: Pass
Beer Style: Fail
Re-order: Fail
Experience: Fail



Sorry Railway City This offering is a Fail... sad to start the blog off on a bad note. They have several more products that I am looking forward to reviewing hopefully they will be better.

CJT

Welcome to Perry's Corners

Welcome to Perry's Corners, Ontario, Canada!

It's a small town in central Ontario (that yes, does exist !) A quiet neighbourhood home to a crazy restaurant manager who likes to talk about and drink BEER! I'm figuring now that you have divined the nature of this blog and if I still have your attention pull up a chair pour a glass and lets talk about the bubbly amber.

First a bit about me. Several years ago I followed a girl into the hotel restaurant industry, fell in love and here I am. No, not with the girl! I lost her somewhere along the way, but I fell in love with the industry and have been working in it ever since. It has taken me back and forth across this great nation. From rocky mountain passes, to the pacific coast, to the wilds of Ontario and the very wilds of Toronto, to the rolling hills and fertile farmlands of Quebec and the throbbing nightlife of La Belle Montreal.

Everywhere I lay my head, I called home, even if just for a night. And I discovered along the way not only a love for my nation and the many faces of my industry; I discovered BEER. This blog is not for the people who are stuck in the "... I drink Blue 'cuz it were tha only thang that Daddy dun ever had around..." phase of drinking... or is it? I don't know. This blog is definitely for anyone who wants to know a bit more about the joys of liquid bread.... and its myriad forms: just like I have discovered. My informal goal is to make it to 1000 beers. My hand written notes covered about 500 but it is time to expand... I'm starting again, and this time keeping a good record, that record is what you are reading now. Be warned: this is by no means scientific, or in any form expert.... I'm just a guy who knows a lot about beer because I have worked with it for 20 years. Some of my reviews may be very subjective and you will probably disagree... good! If we all agreed on everything the world would be a sadder place. I also warrant that I do NOT work for any brewery or retailer, I have no interest in advertising for anyone, nor am I paid to do this, and I PAY for all of my samples. (However, if you would like to send me free beer... email me for my mailing address!! I will not complain!)

So sit back and join me in a glass or several, feel free to comment, or disagree or tell me of a beer I should discuss.

CJT