Deschutes Chasin' Freshies and 500th post

Well, this isn't nearly as epic as I expected my 500th post to be but whatever, I'll just have to reach 1000 and do something interesting for that. Right? Totally! So Chasin' Freshies is a fresh hop IPA from Deschutes given to me by my brother in law. I'm not sure when it was released, but we drank it the day before the best by date arrived. So I win this round, Deschutes, but just barely.

Bright, juicy nose. Very inviting. The body basically tasted like passion fruit to me with a light bitterness in the finish. Very pleasant even if it was at the tail end of its freshness. I don't know how well this would hold up past its best by date, but it was certainly still good before it. Very interesting flavors in this and quite enjoyable.

Night of Lambics!

My wife wanted to open something fun this past Sunday and I've had these two lambics in the refrigerator for a while so I figured it was time. The first we opened was the Drie Fonteinen Oude Kriek. I bought this a while ago though not so long that I expected to see a 2007 date on the bottle. Five year old kriek? Sure, why not!

Cantillon Vigneronne

Jo and I went to another BYOB the other day and brought a bottle of Cantillon Vigneronne (plus some wine since Jo is getting a little tired of me only bringing beer.) This was one of the bottles we brought back from our recent trip to Belgium. We bought it there because cantillon is way, way cheaper if you buy it in Belgium. Way cheaper.

I believe this is 2 year old lambic aged with muscat grapes. Smelled super funky. Lots of barnyard and notes of hay and various other funkiness. The body didn't actually follow, however. Lots of tartness instead with an almost orange juice flavor. A light bitterness appeared at times, felt like the base Cantillon lambic shining through actually. I didn't get much grape flavor in this compared to their St. Lamvinus, just sour and tart. Really reminded me of a more tarter geuze than anything else. Even without the strong grape flavors, I still felt this was pretty awesome and super complex. I've only ever been disappointed by the Cantillon Iris and I drank so much Cantillon that day that I may actually enjoy it if I tried it again. Hard to really say.

Speaking of Belgium, I'm going to try to put together a post for next week with some pictures and thoughts. Been slacking on that.

Back from Belgium!

Well our amazing trip to Belgium is finally over. We got back a couple days ago but before that we went back to Brussels for one last day of drinking awesome beer. Well, really it was so we didn't have to get up at 4am to catch our flight the next day, but getting one more day in Brussels was a nice plus.

To finish up, we revisited Moeder Lambic Fontainas since the other time we went we were totally exhausted. After having a Cantillon Faro and another one I forget, we were lucky enough to be able to order a bottle of Cantillon Fou' Foune, something I've had on draft but never in the bottle.

Sharing Beers

It's been a while but I finally met up with my friend Craig at his new house this past Wednesday and we availed ourselves of a few beers. When he lived up the street from me we were doing this a little more often but he lives in New Jersey now so I have to change states and who wants to do that? Okay fine, me, but still it's harder to get there but totally worth it.

We started with one we've talked about opening ever since we met the first time early last year, Big Sky Olde Bluehair, a bourbon barrel barleywine.

Monk's Mad Monday - Cantillon

Last week was the best Monk's Mad Monday ever, a beer event so amazing people in California were saying they should have flown in for it. Tom Peters, the owner of Monk's, put 12 different Cantillon beers (different vintages and such) on tap and said he thought it was the most ever put on at a bar in the US at one time. I can't substantiate that claim so lets just say he's right since it sounds good. Monk's opens at 11:30 and when I got there around 11:10 there was already a crowd at least 40 deep waiting to get into the bar. Lots of people I recognized too although none are in the picture below. The entrance is around that tree in the distance I think.

Twenty minutes later, we all calmly filed into Monk's and, unlike at the Lost Abbey event, people made a line heading into the back bar and were only about three deep instead of seven. Meant I managed to get to the bar in about at most fifteen minutes instead of waiting 45 like last time. Nice job there.

The Last Day of Philly Beer Week

The most glaring omission from my Philly Beer Week posts has definitely been Jose Pistola's. It's easily my favorite lunch spot during the year so it seems like I should have planned to go there during the biggest beer week of the year. Well, I did have a lunch planned, smart guy, and if you had looked at my schedule you would have known that! So there. It just happened to be on the last day of beer week so it took me a while to get to it. For this lunch, Adam had been saving up Jolly Pumpkin beers so he had a decent variety by then.

I started with the Jolly Pumpkin Luciernaga which turns out to be a Belgian Pale Ale.

Boon Kriek Mariage Parfait

I picked up a bottle of Kriek Mariage Parfait from Brouweij Boon on my recent trip to DeCicco's on the suggestion of my friend Craig.  I've had the Framboise from them and enjoyed it and this was supposed to be more similar to the traditional style of lambics so I figured why not.

Big pungent nose with some farmhouse hints and big sour cherry nose.  Reminded me of a more traditional version of lambic based on the aroma than their normal kriek.  First sip had a mildly sour cherry flavor but it wasn't anywhere near as sour or funky as the nose presents.  A little sweet cherry candy in the finish.  As it warmed, a little caramel and some sour apple appeared.  I'll admit, I enjoyed it and it was still slightly sour, I just wish the flavor followed from the aroma a bit more than it did.  If so it would have been pretty great.  Still, for $8, totally worth picking up if you see it on the shelves.

Beerschooled - Sours Class

After the great intro to homebrewing class by Beerschooled, I knew I'd go to another as long as the topic was interesting to me.  I finally got my chance when they announced a sours tasting class.  The Hulmeville Inn was hosting a Cicerone exam proctored by certified Cicerone Nicole Erny and so Jeff (beerschooled Jeff, not Hulmeville Inn owner Jeff.  So many Jeffs) took advantage of that and asked her to teach a class on sours with a little bit on Belgium.  I arrived at the Hulmeville Inn a bit early so I got a glass of Rogue Shakespeare Stout, an oatmeal stout, to pass the time.

Cantillon St. Lamvinus

It's not everyday (okay it's basically never) that you see any Cantillon on draft, let alone one that is pretty damn rare even in bottle form.  However, this past Tuesday, the Belgian Cafe put on Cantillon St. Lamvinus and I knew I had to stop in for a glass.  As the link will tell you, St. Lamvinus is two to three year old lambic placed in Bordeaux barrels with grapes and aged, I guess.  Okay, the link isn't terribly helpful.  It's an old lambic with grapes.  There, that's better.  Maybe someone smarter than me can explain what that link really meant.

Smelled sour with a little vinegar and notes of red wine.  A little funk but not too much.  Very little carbonation, almost still.  First sip is just crazy.  So many flavors.  Grapes, some funk, sour, tannin bitterness, wood and vanilla.  Hugely complex with one flavor flowing into the next.  It calmed down a little as I got used to it and the grapes, wood and vanilla came to the fore

A friend told me that as it ages, the grapes fade and the funk and tart come to the front and I imagine it then tastes like a completely different beer.  Lambics are awesome like that.  So glad I stopped to try this as I've never had anything quite like it.  I'm not really doing it justice, but hopefully you've gotten the idea and realize it was fantastically unique.  Too bad the bottles are scarce and expensive.  Ah well.  Now to hope I can get to Monks when they tap their keg of Fou'Foune they are rumored to have stashed away.

Framboise Boon

I had a bottle of Framboise Boon the other night and it was surprisingly delicious.  I say surprisingly because their Kriek was entirely too sweet for me and I expected the same from the Framboise.  I was incorrect.

Smelled of raspberries with lots of tart notes.  No sweetness in the nose at all.  First sip had fruit as expected but the sweetness was balanced by the tartness.  Don't worry though as the tartness isn't overwhelming, just incredibly pleasant.  Really clean finish.  The best part of the finish is, unlike the geuzes, the tartness leaves quite quickly which made drinking it quite easy.  No build up, no palate fatigue, no dry mouth, just a nice tartness with some raspberry.  If you are looking for a Lindemans style framboise, however, keep looking.  But if you want something different, run out and pick up a bottle and tell me if it was as delicious as mine.