Maine Beer Co. At Blind Tiger

Maine Beer Company at Blind Tiger podcast on WFMU

Brothers David and Daniel Kleban made the jump from homebrewers to commercial brewers in 2009 in Portland, Maine. The first beer of their Maine Beer Company, Spring Peeper, was inspired by hoppy West Coast craft beers, and it was their only product at the start. This past April they moved into a new 15-barrel brewery in Freeport, Maine, which is quite a leap from their original 1-barrel system. On the smaller system they would brew three batches on Saturday and on Sunday to fill their 7-barrel fermenter. Now they'll be able to fill two 7-barrel fermenters in one brew!

Katherine of Blind Tiger, Dave, B.R. and Bob.

Dave was in town recently for an event at the Blind Tiger, which had a number of this beers on tap and in the bottle. We were able to sample a few "pilot" beers, both 5.2% ABV, that were on draught: Pilot 1, a hoppy American Pale Ale with some citrus notes, and Pilot 2, an American Saison with a hint of bitter orange peel mixing with hop bitterness. We also got a taste of the Mean Old Tom stout and Zoe, a 7% ABV amber ale, all on tap. We shared a medium sized bottle of the King Titus with our pal Josh (who gets the photo credit above), a delicious 7.5% ABV robust porter, which was very smooth, malty and well rounded, with some mildy chocolate notes.

Pilot 2

Check out the podcast to find out why they changed the name of Spring Peeper to simply Peeper, and also to find out what the heck a peeper is!


  [link to podcast page]

Pilot 1 and Zoe

King Titus robust porter.

The new brewery, with tasting room.

Slightly more than one barrel.

Allagash Rarities At Good Beer

  Allagash Rarities At Good Beer podcast on WFMU

Good Beer in the East Village hosted an "Allagash Rarities" event on Tuesday June 11, 2013, which was a busy night -- also that evening there was an Allagash/Ommegang event at Mile House, a Canadian beer tasting at Top Hops, and the one-night-only screening of The Beer Hunter, followed by an after-party at Jimmy's No. 43. I only managed the Good Beer and Jimmy's events, though B.R. made it to those and the Anthology Film Archives for the screening.

The four "rarities" of the six on tap that we tried were all sour, high in alcohol, barrel aged and a few were heavy on the Brett. We tried the Interlude first, which was the lightest in color and in flavor profile. It's saying something that a very sour, 9.5% ABV, Brettanomyces fermented beer is the lightest one in your flight! It gets a primary fermentation, before the Brett is added, from a Belgian farmhouse ale yeast. A portion of the batch is aged in French Merlot and Sirah oak barrels and, I'm assuming, blended back into rest.

Bob, B.R., and Dave of Allagash.

We found the 10.3% ABV James Bean interesting, it being a pale colored coffee flavored beer. The coffee aroma was very apparent, as was the coffee flavor. It was nicely sour, and also had some bitter bite. But we found those three main components kind of stood on their own and didn't quite meld. Still, a very interesting and tasty sour ale.

Our favorites were the Avancé (B.R.'s fave) and Midnight Brett (Bob's). Avancé is a sour pale colored ale aged with strawberries for three years in bourbon barrels! This 10.8% ABV ale was probably the most complex we tried, with a really nice sweet fruit finish. The Midnight Brett at, I'm guessing, the 10-11% ABV range employs the same Allagash Tripel ale as used in the Curieux, except that the beer is aged in dark wine barrels, which impart a smooth, enticing cherry/plum aged dark fruit characteristic. The beer is stout-black in color, from the wine barrels, and has a refreshing sourness.

 

Though we were disappointed that they didn't have the Allagash BAT tequila barrel aged beer, we really can't complain about the fantastic, extremely rare beers that were offered!
 

BAM!

UPDATE:  A few days after the event, I dropped by Good Beer and saw that the BAM, the Allagash/Beer Advocate collaboration, was still on tap -- it was one of the six that we didn't have -- so I gave it a try. And, boy, was I glad that I did! I think that it was my favorite! The BAM is a 9% ABV amber ale brewed with honey and rye malt and aged for three months in two different mead barrels, one from Artesano of VT and one from Maine Mead Works, and then blended. It was very well rounded, with its delicate, subtle complexities of honey notes, fruitiness and oak playing in concert with its mild sourness (mild compared to the others on tap, at least). This is one that you don't want to miss!

  [link to podcast page]

Anderson Valley Summer Solstice

 

While biking through Williamsburg on an exercise oriented ride I came across a fairly new bottle/growler shop on Union at N. 8th Street call Beer Boutique. Naturally, I had to stop and check it out. The tiny shop has a great variety of craft beers in bottles and cans, mainly of American origin. They also have 10 taps for growler fills. They're not licensed for on premises consumption, so it's all to go.
I didn't see too many unfamiliar items, though I did spot one beer that I'd never tried before, the  Summer Solstice by Anderson Valley from Boonville, CA, north of S.F., by the coast. There wasn't much info on the can which would give an indication about what style it was. The can has a kind of cream-orange color, with their logo -- an illustration a bear with antlers. And there was the mysterious notation "ale with natural flavor added." Typically, any flavor added to the beer outside of the normal brewing ingredients is a red flag, but when the particular added flavor isn't specified... that can be dicey!

Beer Boutique in Williamsburg

The Summer Solstice has a orange/mahogany tinted deep copper color, like a dark Märzen (it looks to be about 15-17 SRM). The can must have still been agitated from the bumpy bike ride, because it gushed a little when opened, pouring out a huge, thick off-white head. The aroma was somewhat unusual -- sweet, malty, but also nougat-like! My guess is that they use honey in the beer, but who knows -- using nougat wouldn't be completely unheard of!
This 5% ABV ale is all about the sweetness and smoothness (only 6 IBUs) with an almost cream soda-like flavor. It has a fairly full body, as well. I'm not sure that it's the first thing I'd reach for on a hot day, but it is unique and tasty.

American Dubbel Duel

Ligher, easier drinking Allageash on the left.

American Dubbel Duel podcast on WFMU

I love malty beers, and some of my favorite ales that put malt character way before hops are Belgian Dubbels. Two East Coast American breweries known for their focus on brewing Belgian styles, luckily, are readily available in the neighborhood -- Ommegang from Cooperstown, N.Y. and Allagash from Portland, Maine.

Ommegang, on the right, was the headier of the two.

I thought that it would be fun to do a side-by-side taste comparison of these two American made Dubbels, and make it a little more interesting by having B.R. do it blindly.

While we weren't surprised by the Ommegang's enormous yeast character, we were surprised at how the Allagash seemed so subtle when tasted next to very complex Ommegang, which, on comparison, came off as a bit heavy. We both agreed that if we were having more than one, the Allagash might be the choice. But if the mission was only one beer, Ommegang would probably be the way to go.

B.R. thought that the Allagash was a bit like a Belgian Pale Ale, which is understandable when put next to the Ommegang, with it's long list of spice ingredients: coriander, sweet orange peel, star anise, licorice root and cumin. Allagash's Dubbel reminded me a bit of Westvleteren 8, with its simple, easy drinking malt center. By mixing the two in equal proportion, the heaviness of the Ommegang was spread out while maintaining its rich estery qualities, as it also upped the complexity of the simple, solid maltiness of the Allagash.

  [link to podcast page]

Farm To Pint

Farm To Pint podcast on WFMU
Question and answer segment after main presentation

Andrew Tralka and Jaclyn Van Bourgondien, hop farmers, were the guest speakers at the monthly meeting of Brooklyn Brewery's Legion of Osiris beer appreciation club. They've been growing a few different varieties of hops on a two-acre plot on their family farm in Peconic, Long Island under the business name Farm to Pint.

 Jac & Andrew's adventure into cultivating Humulus lupulus on L.I. began in the Pacific Northwest, where they lived in 2006, when they got into homebrewing.  In 2012, they found themselves back home on the family farm on the North Fork, where they committed themselves to putting locally produced hops into the locally produced beer of this region so well known for its wine production.

Hop bines on their way up, growing clockwise.

Farm to Pint is a play on the "Farm to Table" concept of using locally produced food to provide the freshest, healthiest ingredients possible, all the while supporting local agriculture in a sustainable fashion. Their vision is to be able to provide the burgeoning brewing scene on Long Island with fresh local hops, and make it easier for the breweries to utilize wet hops -- something that breweries in Oregon and Washington likely take for granted -- which is not so easy or inexpensive for brewers located far from hop growing regions.
New York state, specifically upstate near the Finger Lakes, was once the top hop growing region in North America, in the late 1800s. But a series of blights followed by the crippling effect of Prohibition decimated the once dominant commercial crop. North American hop production shifted to the west coast, where it continues to thrive, driven by the growth of craft beer and a surge of new small breweries.

Andrew and Jac.

In the accompanying podcast, Jac and Andrew talk about their hops and dreams, from the moment of inspiration to the picking of their first bitter little cones! It's about an hour long story, filled with fascinating history, interesting technical information, and some fun, funny anecdotes. We thank them for the permission to record their talk, and our thanks also go out to Chris McNally, Osiris member, for providing some of the photos for this article.

The version of the podcast below is the full, unedited presentation, in one file. The WFMU version, linked at the top of the page, is in two parts and was slightly edited. 

  [link to podcast page]

Bob, Maia, Andrew and Jac.

Raise your hand if you grow hops.

Maia of Brooklyn Brewery makes the introduction.

Hop plants were sold at the meeting.

Member were able to order plants in advance.

"Ben Hudson" isn't a new hop variety... yet!

It's not a proper Osiris meeting without some pints!