Upcoming Dogfish/Nørrebro Bryghus dinner at Monk's Cafe

U.S. beer from Dogfish Head. Danish beer from Nørrebro Bryghus. Extra $15 to benefit National Parkinsons Foundation (in memory of Michael Jackson). Something new to try in a familiar place....Monk's....with an old friend, Mark (frequent reader and contributor here at TBL). I'm there; come join us!

Michael Jackson Toast at The Drafting Room in Exton, PA

I was honored to fill in tonight for the traveling Patrick Mullin at The Drafting Room to supply a toast to the work of Michael Jackson. The added twist was that I needed to fit the toast into the length of a commercial break during the Eagles/Giants game. Not that anyone told me to do that or that anyone in attendance would have really cared, but I figured that a 60 second toast was about right. So, we did it at the first quarter break. (In hindsight, the camera was in my pocket and never came out. So, unfortunately, there are no still pictures or video.)

The Drafting Room raised money for the Parkinson Foundation by putting out the pot for cash contributions and donated a portion of the day's sales. They also did a raffle for a mixed beer bottle basket, a Lindemans gift basket, and a Tröegs Mad Elf jeroboam bottle.

At the peak around 9pm, there were close to 40 people in attendance. My worst fear was that there would be a room full of people interested only in the Eagles game and a few beer folk at the bar. But, then again, this is The Drafting Room and, as such, during the toast I saw many head nods and hearty "cheers", "prosits", and "here-heres".

All in all, a successful night as far as I could tell at The Drafting Room. I'll be interested to hear from others and their experiences in toasting the Man who has played a large role in getting this industry to the point where it is today. It's up to all of us now to carry it on.

Godspeed Michael!

Raise A Glass to Toast Michael Jackson

It's been a while since I've mentioned it, but the National Toast to Michael Jackson has quickly come upon us. Remember to gather together this coming Sunday, 9/30/07, at 9pm eastern time with fellow beer lovers in appreciation of Michael Jackson and a life well lived. It will also be an opportunity to raise funds for the National Parkinson's Foundation.

As no doubt you're aware, Michael Jackson passed away roughly a month ago and left a hole in the beer world, the size of which will never be completely refilled. His influence on the industry was noticeable around the world and the outpouring of gratitude for his work was immediate and substantial.

The concept of the National Toast was born almost immediately and was set to 9/30 to allow establishments to prepare for the evening. Use the resources below to read more about the past month since Michael passed away and to discover what establishments near you are doing to mark the evening. If you don't see your favorite watering hole, it's not too late to encourage them to lead a toast and collectible funds on Sunday night. Raise a glass and be generous. It's the very least we can do.


Michael Jackson Memorial Website
Last Michael Jackson Interview (Preview)
Recently Updated List of Participating Establishments

A National Toast to Michael Jackson

It looks as if plans are underway to hold a Toast/Fundraiser on September 30th in honor of Michael Jackson. It will be interesting to see how this shapes up with participating establishments and the approach taken for the Toast.

Update: A nice collection of Tribute material is being gathered by Stan (& others?)

I dug out this picture from this year's Brooklyn/Garrett Oliver dinner at Monk's in Philly. Thought it would be decent for sharing.

Michael Jackson and A Day of Reflection

After seeing the news at Jay's and Lew's respective sites this morning, I feel even more fortunate to have met Michael for the first time this past spring. Our 10-minute conversation was memorable and will be cherished.

Here's to a larger-than-life man who, in his pursuit of better beer, helped pave the way for what we all can fortunately enjoy today!

[new links]
All About Beer
Brewers Association
Morning Advertiser
MSN (UK)

Monk's Beer Dinner 3/13/07: Brooklyn Brewery

Click Here For All Beer Event Reviews

"You are being lied to." That was one of the first things we heard from Garrett Oliver at last night's dinner pairing of Brooklyn Brewery's beers and Adam Glickman's food at Monk's Cafe. How's that? Well, you know the package of bread on the shelf at the grocery store is not really a loaf of bread, right? What is it? Well, you really don't want to know, though Garrett was kind enough to share with us. With these types of comments to kick things off, Garrett set the stage for a night of discussing better beer and better food...working with real ingredients, creating real food and real beer with passion. (He's good at that, isn't he?)

Adding to the buzz of the evening was the presence of Sir Michael Jackson (they may not have bestowed that title upon him yet over on that side of the pond, but I figure it sounds good). Other local beer fans and "celebrities" were in the house to welcome Garrett and the Brooklyn crew.

Now that you know the theme of the night, it's off to the beer and food. Things could not have started off any better than with a glass of the 2005 Brooklyn Saison. As some of you know if you pay me any attention (not sure why you would, though you may just be humoring me), the Saison style is one of my favorites. I believe that it's one the most food pairing-worthy styles out there. Paired with virtually any type of food enhances the flavors of both the food and the beer in ways that must be experienced to be described. This 2005 version was just perfect, so perfect I had another :) In fact, I saved some of this second glass to go with the second course listed below to create an excellent pairing that apparently was never meant to be.

As the "pre-game pleasantries" were quieting down, guests found their tables and George Hummel got things started in typical fashion. The dinner was in full swing with Garrett moderating each course as only he can do. There are hints of MJ-style to his thoughts and observations that he shares with those that will listen. I find Garrett's approach to beer storytelling more engaging than typical tasting notes. Frankly, I don't need to hear someone telling me about how they taste apricots, wheat, citrus, or coffee as much as I really want to hear some of the side stories that complete the beer experience. Taste is such a personal thing that some guiding may be nice, but it's the stories of Garrett travelling the world, tinkering in Brooklyn, and providing insights to the beer and food world that captivates me. What he has done in his career are things that I will likely never experience and helps provide a deeper, richer context in which to enjoy my own beer corner of the universe.

And, for those that won't listen (shame on you!), he is not bashful about making an example of them in front of the entire restaurant...as he did on more than one occasion. Sidebar: seriously folks, are his stories really not that interesting to you that you need to conduct amplified conversations and disrupt the enjoyment of others around you? Eh, I'm probably preaching to the choir here, as I bet those that I speak of most likely are not reading this.

Okay, back down off my soapbox...

The buche sure amused my palate with scrumptious little dollops of smoked salmon mousse in a pastry crust. I wasn't too keen on the pairing with the Cuvee d'Achouffe as I thought the salmon overpowered the beer. But, alone, each was excellent.

The next course presented, in my opinion, the best pairing of the night. You may recall my rave reviews on the newly-released Local 1 from Brooklyn. It's starting to become available in some immediate markets around NYC and beyond, but not yet in the Philly metro area. I've had it two times (now, make that three) and I'm still convinced that this will be in my top 10 beers of 2007. Reading the product notes, it's interesting to see (and hear Garrett describe during the course) how they refuse to be nailed down on a defined style for this beer. Though, many seemed to agree that it's something of a "super saison" or "strong saison" (dare I say imperial saison?....nah, I won't say it). Then, take this smooth, spicy, fruit-full beer and add some simply done rainbow trout and there's a wonderful wonderful [sic] gastronomical pairing.

The next two courses included stuffed quail and pork loin with chipotle. Judging from plates around the room, the quail received a tepid response. Though, the pork loin (all 3 pieces of it!) lightly doused with chipotle, was another clear winner especially being paired with the brown ale. Was it the way the pork was done that helped bring out some deeper elements of the brown ale? I don't know, but I was picking up enticingly burnt, roasted, even slightly smoked flavors in this solid brown ale. This combination worked very well.

The next course of duck and Weissbock was also quite good. How tender was the duck? I can't begin to describe, but this was also nicely done (getting tired of hearing this yet?). Though, I was struck by how the weissbock did not remind me of my last two run-ins with it. Even though Garrett admitted that they felt it came up shorter on the smokiness scale than they expected, I seemed to recall hints of it previously that I did not notice during this dinner. Perhaps the chipotle smoke overpowered it? In any case, still a very good pairing.

And, would a Monk's dinner be complete without a grand finale of oohs and aahs surrounding the dessert course? There have been many before, but how can this one possibly compare, even by just simply reading the description? The Black Chocolate Stout from Brooklyn paired with a Chocolate Coffee Cheesecake....you've got to be kidding me. Truly, it stands alone in a class of its own. I had my eye on this course from the second we sat down, and I sure was not disappointed. The deep, rich, and bitter flavors of the stout against the, uh, rich and bitter flavors of the cheesecake had us all polishing off this course in record time!

With the late start and the drawn-out good times of the evening, there was no way we were catching the 10:15 train. So, I settled in with a De Ranke XX Bitter from Wevelgem, Belgium. I needed to try one and once again, not disappointed! A perfect "nightcap" as we hung around for another 45 minutes chatting with whomever was left after the dinner and took the opportunity for some additional group pictures.

The last chapter to this long evening story included a train ride home with the esteemed, respected, and almost venerable Mr. Curtin. We're anxious to hear Jack describe his version of the story... (though, some aren't so anxious!)

Until next time....New Belgium, I believe that is....considered yourself warned :)

Reception
Brooklyn Saison [2005] (draft)

1st Course
Brooklyn Cuvee D'Achouffe (draft)
- Amuse (smoked salmon mousse with a hint of framboise)

2nd Course
Brooklyn Local 1 (bottle)
- Pan Seared Rainbow Trout with local baby cilantro

3rd Course
Brooklyn East India Pale Ale (draft)
- Thai Glazed Quail with spring roll stuffing

4th Course
Brooklyn Brown Ale (draft)
- Smoked Pork Loin with chipotle sauce

5th Course
Brooklyn Smoked Weissbock (draft)
- Roast Duck with cherry sauce

6th Course
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
- Chocolate Coffee Cheesecake

Click Here For All Beer Event Reviews

General Tasting Session at UPenn: Extreme Beers 3/10/07

Click Here for notes from the Michael Jackson Tutored Tasting portion of the event.



Part II - The General Tasting Session
at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology
3/10/07; 1pm session

Extreme Beers was the theme. And, in terms of extreme, hops appeared to rule the day as most brewers brought at least one highly hopped beer. Over 130 different beers represented over 50 breweries.

Extreme ambiance was the order of the day as well. Well, maybe not extreme, but certainly pleasing and comfortable under the large rotunda. The museum at Penn sure is a fitting venue for this age-old beverage that we all enjoy. And, perhaps even more fitting for the Midas Touch that Dogfish Head rolled out! There must have been something, too, about the circular setup of the brewers around the rotunda, because although the attendees filled the area, there was rarely a wait of more than one or two people to get even the most sought-after beers and the traffic continued to flow nicely around the rotunda throughout the session.


I circled 30 different ones on the list that I was interested in trying. My intention typically is to only try beers that I've never tried before. My discipline ran out when I got to the Stewart's table. When faced with a great beer like the bourbon barleywine from these unfairly underecognized folks in Bear, Delaware, well let's just say I did what I had to do.


In the end, I knocked off 15 of the original 30 that I circled, and then fell into 7 others. How can I complain? All in all, the positive beer karma flowed thick and fast on this festival day. (I hope that for the later sessions, they enjoyed the same reaction.) The people were great...from Bruce Nichols the event planner and director, to the brewers, to the MCs (Michael and Sam), to the volunteers, staff, attendees, and beer cognoscenti. I had so many great interactions with folks from each of these groups and left feeling very upbeat that with these kind of events, Philly Beer Week 2008 will be a great showcase to tell the world what a great beer region this is (if they didn't already know).

So, for the beers...There was not a single dog in the bunch. But, for the sake of declaring some winners from the day, here are the top 5 beers that I'd never had before these tastings. As you might be able to tell, Rogue ruled the day for me as the best lineup of represented beers. They had 4 interesting harder-to-find of their beers, the JLS YSB was the fourth (I've had it on draft and skipped it on this day).


Dogfish Head Red & White
Ommegang Ommegeddon
Rogue Brewer
Southampton Publick House Abbot 12
Weyerbacher Blasphemy

Honorable Mention
Monk's Cafe Cantillon Gueuze
Rogue Brew 10000
Rogue Imperial Pilsner

The Rest of my Log
Allagash White
Allagash Tripel
Brugse Zot
Bethlehem Brew Works Cassis
Bethlehem Brew Works Blast Furnace Imperial Stout
Blue Point No Apologies
Dock Street Illuminator Bock
Flying Fish Imperial Espresso Porter
Great Divide Titan IPA
Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout
Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale
Orval Trappist Ale
Stewart's Bourbon Barleywine
Unibroue 16


And, then who was on hand to bring the festivities to an end? Well, it was none other then the esteemed (I was going to say venerable, and mean it with all due respect, but I thought given the archaeology museum that the term may be taken out of context ;-) Jack Curtin.

Click Here for notes from the Michael Jackson Tutored Tasting portion of the event.

Michael Jackson Tutored Tasting at UPenn: Extreme Beer 3/10/07

Click Here for the General Tasting Session of the event


Part I - The Michael Jackson Tutored Tasting
at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology
3/10/07; 1pm session

Saturday was a beautiful day to be outdoors in Philadelphia, but the University of Pennsylvania had something even better happening inside. We were pleased to attend their Michael Jackson tasting event, finally, for the first time. The event is organized so that the first 45-60 minutes is a "tutored" tasting with Mr. Jackson himself (co-anchored this year by Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head) and the last 2 hours is an open tasting session with approximately 50 breweries pouring their creations.


Adam will write about his own reactions, so I'll speak only for myself here. Overall, I could not have had a more pleasant afternoon, beginning with a flawless train ride into the city. I was attending a wedding in Center City Philadelphia later in the evening, so the logistics all worked out quite nicely. The event at UPenn, in my mind, only got better as the afternoon went along.

The tasting session was great in concept, but I was a bit disappointed in my inability to hear at some points, as the crowd apparently grew weary of the MJ stories and raised the noise level. Call me crazy, but regardless of the point of the story, I was there to hear the tutoring, not for the joys of hearing other's table conversations. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bent out of shape, but it was more than a bit annoying.


As for the beers, it was a nice selection with a few sure-fire winners in there, but I was a bit surprised at the serving size. To split some of these eight ways would have been difficult. We were fortunate based on the number of people sitting around us to only have to split them 5 ways. With the general session ahead of us, we obviously didn't need to get tanked on the MJ tasting session, but a few more sips would have been nice, especially since they were not all available in the general session.


I'm not even sure why I'm going to take a run here at ranking the beers that we all tasted together with MJ, since they are very unique and hard to compare side-by-side. But, just from my personal preference perspective, here's an ordering of how I enjoyed the eight beers. And, you know what? Allagash and Old Ho are at the bottom of the list more a result of being impressed with some of the new brews (to me) above them in the list that wowed me. But, as you know Allagash and Victory make the head of the class on any given day. Certainly, not an insult to them.


Dogfish Head Red & White - Wit beer aged in Pinot Noir barrels; very, very nicely done and little short-term aging shouldn't hurt the beer
Brasserie Artisanale Dieu du Ciel Peche Mortal - one of the most wonderfully bitter, sweet, rich delicious stouts I've ever had, period.
Iron Hill Cassis - if you can get by the barnyard funkety-funk, I think you'll agree that this is one heck of a phenomenal beer; not for everyone, but that just means more for me!
Avery/Russian River Collaboration, Not Litigation - mixing of sweetness and spiciness that I want to explore more with a few bottles that I must pick up for home consumption
Port Brewing Hop 15 Double IPA - just what you'd expect from a west coast IPA big boy....and then some
Nodding Head George's Fault - in my opinion, a better version of this honey-infused beer than what I had on tap at the pub last year; did aging treat it well or is it a different recipe?
Allagash White - a great wheat that sets the bar very high for American versions of the Belgian Wits
Victory Old Horizontal - seemed to be missing some of the "big richness" and bitterness that I'm used to with this perennial favorite; maybe it had been poured too long prior to the event?

Click Here for the General Tasting Session of the event