I took a little ribbing at Monty’s Korner the other day for ordering a couple cans of Genesee Beer. “Why,’ my artsy scratch-golfer chick friend asked, “would Rochester’s tallest beer writer order a plain old Genny instead of any of these craft beers?”
I pointed out that I love a fine dry aged steak, but sometimes I’m in the mood for a good burger. Maybe it’s because Genesee is the beer my mother drank tons of when she was pregnant with me in 1971 (it was OK back then(, or maybe just an accident of geography, but plain, regular ol’ Genny will always be ‘comfort beer’ to me.
Tried the Rohrbach Harvest Ale on cask at the Tap and Mallet last night. A bit different this year, but quite nice, with a broad hop character and aroma. Mitch and Kyle know what they’re doing; let’s hope they keep it up!
Some beers just go well with cold weather. As the temperature drops, we find ourselves craving the warming bite and substantial body of higher gravity beers. Call them “comfort beers.”
Few beer styles comfort a cold body as well as imperial stout. The sublime pleasure of losing oneself in one of these midnight black, sweet, velvety brews almost makes up for the months of scraping and going to work with wet, freezing feet coming our way.
Imperial stout has a cool backstory, and it starts, as most great tales do, with those wacky, nutty Russian Czars. Back around the turn of the 19th century, the rulers of Russia took a liking to the dark porters, which, at the time, were all the rage in London.
As absolute monarchs tend to do, the Czar commissioned the export a regular supply of London’s porters to his court in Moscow. Or St. Petersburg, or wherever.
As it turned out, the Russian court was located a considerable distance from the brewing vats of London.In order to survive the journey, brewers beefed up their porter, increasing the alcohol level to preserve the beer on its voyage. The result was a sweeter, more substantial beer with its own distinct characteristics.
Those characteristics–high gravity, sweet roastiness, and onyx hue–made Imperial stout popular among U.S indie brewers, who incorporated the style as an expression of American brewing excellence. You a brewer? Want a good reputation? Strut your stuff with Imperial Stout.
Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout is a knockout take on the style. The aroma of oak and whiskey lures you in, and the flavor delivers. Sweet malt, with a heavily roasted character and prominent alcoholic burn, gives way to a smooth finish that manages to taste like both chocolate and vanilla at the same time.This beer begs to be consumed in front of a fireplace, preferably while wearing a smoking jacket.
As you’d expect, the beermeisters at Stone Brewing make an imperial stout that upholds the brewery’s reputation as one of the finest beer producers in the United States. More subtle in aroma than the Old Rasputin, the Stone Russian Imperial stout flows directly to the back of the tongue with flavors of bitter chocolate and caramel, ending in a sharp, roasty bite.
Downingtown, PA’s Victory Brewing brings us Storm King, which substitutes the characteristic heavy sweetness for a crisper, slightly hoppy character. Plum and raisin notes counterbalance the roasted malt and expected chocolate, creating a dangerously drinkable brew.
Imperial stout is not a beer to be taken lightly. Its 7-9% alcohol by volume, combined with its smooth and sweet nature, can seduce the drinker into that special area of overindulgence characterized by headache, dehydration, and waking up without your pants. So love the Imperial, but respect it as well. Or you just might end up like the Czar.
Bruce is a certified beer judge and commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://www.beercraftsite.com. Find us on Twitter @beercraft. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.
It’s still early autumn, but it’s winter inside the nation’s breweries. Oktoberfest has come and gone, which makes all that small-batch and imported Oktoberfest beer harder to move. Distributors clamor already for winter and Holiday ales, eager to begin their sales and marketing campaigns before the untimely arrival of Christmas throws a monkey wrench into the works.
I’d just take a moment to remind the consumer that, despite the deluge of spiced, heavy, high-gravity brews about to flow their way, there’s nothing wrong with ordering a light wheat beer in the middle of a raging snowstorm.Take seasonality with a grain of salt; there’s no wrong time of year to enjoy the beer you love the most. If you can still get it.
Once again, Beer School invades Monty’s Korner in sunny, tropical Rochester, New York. Join Tom, Patrick and myself as we walk you through the various beers of the fall harvest season. It’s a perfect opportunity to decide what beer you want to feature on your Thanksgiving table.
It starts at 7:30 pm. $5 gets you considerable samplitude, so be thirsty.
We at Beercraft don’t spend much dining time in high-end restaurants, because they’re expensive, and we frighten the other diners. But the forays we have made into fine dining revealed a basic truth over the years. Many of the best bistros lay out a wine list the size of the U.S. Tax Code, but offer the same beer selection you could get at the airport.
At least, that used to be the case. While wine is still king among the Osso Bucco set, a growing number of chefs are expressing their own passion for beer on the menu.
“I definitely think there’s a sift toward using beer as opposed to wine when pairing foods,” says Carlo Peretti, Executive Chef of the New York Wine and Culinary Center, in between hearty pulls on his Stone Levitation Ale.“Beer’s a lot more versatile.”
Peretti’s inclination is understandable; beer is one of the reasons he now runs an exclusive kitchen located an ocean away from his hometown of Harrogate, England. Arriving 14 years ago as a student hospitality studies intern, he cut his teeth on the hand-pulls and taps of The Old Toad.
Today, Peretti and his staff fold a love of beer and a passion for wine into exciting pairing diners and food creations at the Culinary Center in Canandaigua, New York.
Pairing beer with food, as it is traditionally done with wine, is one of Peretti’s particular delights. “With wine it’s more of a compliment, “ he explains. “But with beer it’s both complement and contrast.”
Peretti is not alone in his appreciations. Restaurants across the country now serve up an appreciation of Belgian Saisons, West Coast IPAs, and regionally brewed indie beers that dovetail nicely with the “eat local” ethos. Even sommeliers now get into the act, selecting and describing fine beers in the same flowery language with which they would explain the sensory subtleties of fine Bordeaux.
There now exist actual certification programs to become a cicerone, or ‘beer sommelier.’ These surprisingly rigorous certifications are taken seriously within the hospitality industry, and graduates can add a new dimension to a restaurant’s character.
And it doesn’t just stop with pairing; beer is appreciated as an ingredient by master chefs. And they take it much further than dumping it into chili, or shoving a can into the body cavity of a chicken.
“We did a Genny Light Gastrique,” Peretti says with a smile, explaining how the beer added a light delicate quality to the thick sauce, and how the use of a beer with very little hop flavor prevented the concoction from growing bitter as it cooked down. He goes on to describe a Boddington’s Cream Ale ice cream he used to make back in England.
As with everything fine dining, knowledge and passion does not begin and end with the chef. Peretti’s tasting room staff is knowledgeable about both beer and wine, and can serve both with aplomb. The Wine and Culinary Center also offers specialized beer dinners, described on their website, nywcc.com.
Ultimately, beer has its place as a new complement to high cuisine, and a good beer list fits in nicely alongside the wine list without the presumption of superiority. And that’s all the best for the lucky diner, who now has a new and exciting experience in the marriage of great food and great drink.
Now pass us a scoop of that ice cream. In a pint glass please.
Bruce is a certified beer judge and commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://www.beercraftsite.com. Find us on Twitter @beercraft. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.
I have an iPod with 10,000 songs on it, but I can never find anything I want to listen to. I have cable TV with 250 channels, but there’s not much on I want to watch. I have a beer store with 2,000 different beers in it, but instead of appreciating the bounty before me, I crave the beers that aren’t there.
Is this the curse of the beer lover? Are we doomed to lust after the novel and the unattainable? Why, instead of simply enjoying the Ommegang Rare Vos I can get in any Rochester gas station, do I crave the beers of New Belgium, which remain rare imports to this distribution area?
And what if I suddenly could get New Belgium? Would its quality somehow diminish due to its proximity? Would I discard it on the tapline while lamenting the unavailability of Three Floyds? In the eyes of a beer lover, is beer so much like adolescent infatuation that all we want is what’s difficult to get, and we’ll cast aside the virtues of the wonderful thing that awaits before our very eyes?
There’s one thing about the British character that is to be envied: their loyalty. When a British dude, my buddy Nigel, for example, finds a beer (in Nigel’s case, Leffe Blonde), he sticks with it through thick and thin. Unlessit’s not on the menu, good ol’ Nige will order Leffe Blonde every single freakin’ time.
Man, how boring that’s gotta be. Now if only I could get Russian River…
I took a little ribbing at Monty’s Korner the other day for ordering a couple cans of Genesee Beer. “Why,’ my artsy scratch-golfer chick friend asked, “would Rochester’s tallest beer writer order a plain old Genny instead of any of these craft beers?”