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.

Another Sunday, Another trip to Capone's

Jo and I can't stop going to Capone's on Sundays.  Delicious, twenty five cent wings along with a great draft list keep dragging us back.  Their wings are great and at 25 cents they are an absolute steal.  We also got a Chicken Parm sandwich which was also delicious.  As usual their tap list was quite diverse although once again the list that I got in the email on Wednesday had things that had already kicked.  Kind of to be expected considering the quality of beer in the email but one of these days I'll get one.

I started with the Rodenbach Vintage 2007, a Flanders Red Ale.  I posted a while back about Rodenbach Vintage 2008.

Reading my old post, this seemed pretty similar to the 2008. Very sour smell, pretty close to a sweet vinegar.  As I've said before, it sounds bizarre but it's absolutely delicious.  This tastes of fruit (I get sour cherry but I'm sure it varies between people), some balsamic, and just general tartness.  Drinking more I got some apple flavor as well.  Really great beer and I was excited to get to try another vintage of it.  I love the Flemish Red style right now.

After that, I changed gears a little and got a glass of Allagash Odyssey, a Dark Wheat beer that's been aged half in stainless steel tanks and half in oak barrels and then blended together.

Let me first say that this beer just blew me away.  I thought it was fantastic.  The smell was interesting in that it was sort of floral and perfumy.  I got hints of wheat, some roasted notes from the dark malts, caramel, and bananas.  It had a nice body to it and was super smooth.  For what started as a Dunkel Weizen this ended up super complex and incredibly tasty.  As it warmed up, I also got some toffee and slight oak notes.  Just so good.

Finally, since I've heard a decent bit about it, I got a glass of Sierra Nevada's Celebration, an IPA.

I didn't actually realize it was an IPA when I ordered it, but it was pretty obvious when it came out.  Smelled very hoppy with some grapefruit.  It tasted a little sweet but was overall quite hoppy.  Surprisingly clean finish though.  It's quite popular on Beer Advocate and while it was good I'm not sure why.  IPAs aren't my thing though so maybe it's good for an IPA.  It was good and all but I just didn't find anything special about it.  Still, something to order if you want something relaxing and easy to drink.

Yet again a great visit to Capone's.  I love this place.  The bottle shop is so dangerous though and Jo encouraging me doesn't help.  I came out of it this time with three bottles.

I picked up Dark Horse Plead the 5th 2009, Stone's Russian Imperial Stout, and Avery Mephistopheles.  I can't wait to try them.

Lew Bryson and some other beers

On Sunday, on top of the absolutely awesome bourbon beers I drank, I got to meet beer writer Lew Bryson.  I'll probably miss a few things he writes, but here's a small list.  His normal blog, his noplcb (no pennsylvania liquor control board) blog, and some really interesting articles on some random website in Massachusetts.  Seriously, you should check out that site.  I easily spent 2 hours reading those articles one day.  On top of that he also spends time writing for a whisky magazine named Malt Advocate. However, the thing he's most well known for (or at least the reason I really know him) is his awesome book on Pennsylvania breweries.  It's thorough, well written, and super interesting.  Jo and I have the 3rd edition of the book and just picked up the 4th edition on Sunday.  I'm reading through it now and there is just so much useful information about breweries, brew pubs, bars, and attractions in Pennsylvania.  Probably the best part is how for every brewery and brewpub, he lists places to visit in the area plus other bars to visit.  The former is super useful for those of us that have wives that insist everything can't be about beer and the latter is useful when visiting a brewery that won't have any food.  Go ahead and pick up a copy at amazon.  Trust me, it's well written and there are some really interesting facts in it.  On a more personal note, Lew was really receptive to chatting with me on Sunday and it's always awesome if people are willing to listen to me.  Sure, it helped that he was there to sell his book so he couldn't go anywhere, but still.  Seriously, though, nice guy and you all should read his blog and buy his book.  That way he'll make another edition in a few years for me to buy.

On top of that I tried two other beers Sunday at Hulmeville.  The best of the two was Rodenbach Vintage '08.

Hulmeville served it in their sweet chalice and it poured with very little head.  Similar look to other Flemish Red Ales with some darker notes.  This variety is actually a 2008 vintage that the Rodenbach brewery aged themselves.  Since I haven't had it in a while (if ever) I can't do a comparison, but man, this was one smooth beer.  It had a sweet and sour nose on it with a mild apple juice backing.  Not as strong as some Flanders Red Ales but this is 2 years old already so I'm guessing the apple juicy smell and flavor mellows out over time.  The taste followed the smell with more sweet and sour notes, each taking a turn.  Super easy drinking and really good.  The cool thing is that aging beers is a big thing in Europe so you may find stuff like this around.  I know Capone's has the 2007 on draft right now although it's probably close to finished.

I finished up the night with something completely different in the form of Rock Art Pumpkin Imperial Spruce Stout.

To be honest, while I have some notes about this one, I can't believe it's a stout.  Jo claims Hulmeville's description mentioned this, but it didn't feel like one to me.  If anyone has ever had this, let me know.  Not much of a smell to it and surprisingly very little pumpkin taste.  The overwhelming flavor to it was spruce.  Yes, spruce, just like the tree.  It wasn't bad, mostly surprising.  Throughout the whole glass, spruce was the major flavor and it actually was more enjoyable than expected.  However, if you are looking for a pumpkin beer this is not where to start.  Neither Jo nor I got any pumpkin flavor from it at all

That's the end of the 10/10/10 Beer Geek BBQ at Hulmeville Inn.  Meeting and chatting with Lew Bryson was way more fun than I expected and the bourbon aged beers were just incredible.  Jeff does a great job with that place and I look forward to the next special event.