Author: AJ

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Solstice Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

imagesCAAR87MMToday’s beer takes us in the way back machine 6 months to a warmer and sunnier time in Seattle – June, specifically the summer solstice*. I had forgotten about these notes as they are buried in the middle of my notebook, but Populuxe brewed a pale ale to celebrate the Fremont Solstice Parade, with the beer aptly being named Solstice Pale Ale.

The beer pours hazy yellow in color with light orange and citrus peel on the nose. The initial taste yields light notes of grapefruit followed by mild grassy/resin notes from the hops (they used Chinook and Simcoe) before finishing with a pleasantly light bitterness. The beer has great hop character on both the nose and palate, but that character is restrained wonderfully giving you just small amounts of bitterness and a nice complexity that allows you to appreciate the grain character of the beer and pick up on the subtle flavors the hops are providing. Very easy to drink and a beer you could easily have more than one of, it was clean and refreshing, perfect for a nice summer day.

Populuxe Solstice Pale Ale strips down and rides in with 4 naked bicyclists out of 5.

 

*if my memory serves, it was cold and foggy the morning of the Solstice, but did become nice in the afternoon.

Blaidd Drwg’s Annual HOF Rant

By Blaidd Drwg

Hall of Fame ballots were sent out the other day and this may be the most stacked ballot in the history of the HOF voting, with no less than 8 legitimate HOFers (steroid argument aside) on the ballot and I would argue of the 36 guys who are on the ballot, at 10 of them deserve to be in the Hall, no questions asked. My list:

Greg Maddux

Tom Glavine

Frank Thomas

Barry Bonds

Roger Clemens

Mark McGwire

Craig Biggio

Jeff Bagwell

Rafael Palmiero

Mike Piazza

Considering I doubt that the BBWAA can pull its head out of its ass, I think that we see Biggio, Maddux and Glavine this year get elected, but that is it. The guys who are hurt most by the stupidity of the BBWAA are the fringe guys like Alan Trammell, Tim Raines, Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina. These guys are not going to get as much support as they should, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them ends up dropping off the ballot.

Speaking of which, this is thankfully the last year we have to hear about the Jack Morris as HOFer argument. I have expressed my feelings about that in the past, so it is time again to play spot the HOFer.  Which one of these guys would you vote for/suggest is a HOF pitcher?

  Regular Season         Post Season  
  W-L ERA K/9 ERA+ WAR   W-L IP ERA
A 216-146 3.46 8.6 127 80.7   11-2 133.1 2.23
B 219-156 4.27 5.4 107 51.1   3-3 43.1 4.15
C 254-186 3.90 5.8 105 43.8   7-4 92.1 3.80
D 270-153 3.68 7.1 123 82.7   7-8 139.2 3.42

 

It is pretty obvious that players A and D were far and away better than the other 2 and A was very dominant in the post season (not that D was a slouch either). Player A is Curt Schilling, who received roughly half of the vote total as Jack Morris last year. Player D is Mike Mussina, who is on the ballot for the first time. Players B and C, forgetting the win total for the moment, look like they are roughly the same player. Player B? Kenny Rogers. Player C? Jack Morris. Still think Morris looks like a HOFer? Morris is arguably the 5th best pitcher on the ballot this year and there is no way in hell he should get elected before Maddux, Glavine, Schilling or Mussina.

Bye Bye Chuck Armstrong

by A.J. Coltrane

Chuck Armstrong has retired from his position as President of the Mariners. I think there are more than a few fans who feel that the M’s leadership has been … lacking … for many, many years. They feel that the M’s have been more interested in profits than in putting a strongly competitive team on the field. The M’s have only won more than half of their games twice in the last ten years. Their record over that period is 718-902 (72-90 on an average year.) As a result, more than a few fans are happy to see him go.

I lean that way somewhat. It seems to me that over the last decade the M’s could have cared more about results and less about appearances. It felt a bit like that – so long as the attendance didn’t crater everything was cool with them. I think to some degree the glow of the new stadium, the residual goodwill from the 116 win season, and the “Ichiro Suzuki thing” made leadership complacent about improving the product on the field. (Cubs fans will accuse their team of much the same thing — that Wrigley Field is a money printing machine, and that historically their ownership has been content to cash the checks.) I’m fine with Armstrong leaving, though hopefully that replacement won’t be even worse. Turmoil can be a very bad thing…

—

I’ve been asked recently about both Sigi Schmid (Sounders) and Steve Sarkisian (UW football) and their futures in Seattle. “Is it time for so-and-so to go?” It looks like a lot of the two fan bases feel like the teams should be accomplishing more than they are.

One at a time:

Sigi Schmid — The Sounders have made the playoffs every year of their existence. Sigi has more wins than any other coach is MLS history. Who do people think the Sounders will replace him with that will be an improvement?

Steve Sarkisian — UW fans seem to believe that the Huskies are still relevant nationally and that they’re somehow entitled to winning teams. UW’s last championship was in 1991, which is well before any current recruits were born. From 2003-2008 the team failed to make a bowl game, compiling a record of 18-53. *That’s* what potential recruits are seeing when they consider destinations — and it takes a loooong time for that stink to wear off. Even in a best case scenario it’s 3-4 years before college football teams can go from bad to good, it takes that  long for the new recruits to develop. Hey UW fans: You are aware that the Huskies have now lost ten straight games to Oregon, right? It’s a new era – the top three teams in the Pac 12 are Oregon, Stanford, and USC, and it’ll likely stay that way for a while.

So:

Playoffs every year for the Sounders? Great! I’ll take it!

Seven or eight wins and a bowl game every year for the Huskies, with the potential for even better results ahead? Awesome!

Sounders fans and Husky fans — Shut up and say thank you.

Beer of the Week: Elysian Superfuzz Blood Orange Pale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

fuzzI am a sucker for blood orange anything – I just really love the flavor. Back during the Beers of the Apocalypse series, Elysian brewed a blood orange IPA that was outstanding, so I couldn’t wait to try their blood orange pale ale – Superfuzz. The beer was available on tap and in 22 oz. bottles; the review is for the bottled beer.

The beer pours hazy orange in color, reminiscent of a hefe it is so cloudy, with lots of grain and malt on the nose coupled with hints of orange and orange zest. The beer tastes much milder than I was expecting with light grain quickly transitioning in to like orange and very little hint of hops. The orange does linger for a long period of time, finally finishing slightly sweet before fading quickly with an ever so slight bitterness. The beer lacked dimension – it had a dominant orange flavor but lack any supporting cast to go with it and probably could have used a bit more aggressive hopping or more citrus peel as some bitterness would have cut the sweetness and grain notes. I feel like this beer was drinking a hefe rather than a pale ale, so I was expecting more depth of flavor from the beer.

Elysian Superfuzz flashes back with a disappointing 2 bell bottoms out of 5.

Ed. Note: I did try this beer on tap and thought it was much better (don’t have tasting notes though). I so I picked up a second bottle and retasted it. Here is what I came up with:

The second bottle had a huge amount of sediment in the bottle. Light notes of citrus and hops on the nose with mild hints of citrus oil and grain supporting it. The beer starts off with a mild bitter component of orange peel before moving quickly into the pale ale, grain and hops and finishing quickly with notes of burnt orange and orange juice. The blood orange component is there, just more on the back of the palate as the beer fades out. It was better than the first bottle but not as good as the beer on tap, so the redux does a little better with 3 huggy bears out of 5.

The moral of the story? If you want to drink Superfuzz, do it on tap. You will be happier for it.

Beers of the Week: Epic Ales/Odin Sage and Chervil

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Sage and chervil, two wonderful culinary herbs, but not something that you would associate with beer. Sage really tends to pare itself well with fats, and is most tasty when sautéed with butter and pumpkin ravioli. Chervil is a relative to parsley and is wonderful on salads, lending notes of anise to the dish. Because of the Iron Brewer competition at Beverage Place Pub, Odin and Epic got to use these two herbs in a head to head competition.

Epic Ales – the beer poured hazy yellow in color with strong notes of Belgian yeast, sage and pineapple in a surprisingly complex nose. The initial taste was much drier than I was expecting with light notes of black licorice balanced with a slight sweetness. The beer then builds on the sage component, starting out hidden before a long but subtle incline before being joined at the end by some light citrus. The Belgian notes are a background player throughout the beer and this beer is surprisingly well balanced without the herbs dominating the beer or the Belgian flavors dominating the herbs. Given the Belgian treatment, I guessed it was Odin and I was wrong.

Epic’s version of the beer sunned itself with 3 window boxes out of 5.

 

Odin – The beer poured golden yellow in color with heavy sage and grain on the nose and very strong yeast suggesting a pilsner. The beer starts slightly sweet before giving way to a distinctive and pronounced herb flavor – you can definitely taste both the sage and the chervil in this beer, but is still maintained the pilsner like character of the beer, providing a nice crisp balance. The beer finishes long with hints of salt and sugar while still managing to be balanced and slightly dry. This beer had a much more pronounced use of the herbs while still balancing that with the beer character, and I thought that this beer would have been perfect with a grilled chicken breast because of its herb component.

Odin’s version of the beer cultivated a solid 3 Anthriscus cerefolium out of 5.

Both of these beers were well done, but I picked Odin’s as my favorite and so did the crowd.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Blood Red Orange Rye

By Iron Chef Leftovers

untitled2There are very few flavors that I love more than blood orange, but the track record in having beers that included it are spotty. Some have been good (Elysian) and some not so good (also Elysian).  I was excited when Reuben’s decided to do one as part of a Seattle Beer Week event – their track record on beers has been outstanding and if anyone was going to do it right, it was going to be them. So I rushed down to the brewery to try the beer.

The beer poured more pink than red, almost the color of pink grapefruit juice. Lots of mild citrus and grapefruit juice dominated the nose, reminding me of something that I could not quite place. The initial taste was slightly tart and sweet with mild fruit character. There were definite notes of blood orange in this beer but it completely overwhelmed the rye, no easy task, to the point of having to really look for it on the finish. The beer lacked balance and integration of flavors making it more like drinking fruit juice than beer as the hops and rye character of the beer were almost completely lost. It was still an interesting enough beer to be worth trying and probably could have used a bit more bittering from hops to balance out the sweetness of the blood orange and to add more depth, but it definitely falls into the miss category for Reuben’s, which was bound to happen at some point.

Maybe my expectations clouded my judgment on this beer, but it could have used more beer character and less fruit character to make it more interesting.

Reuben’s Blood Red Orange Rye peels out of the picture with a disappointing 2 sour oranges out of 5.

Baby It’s Cold Outside

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

It’s been getting down into the 20’s at night. The brussels sprouts are decidedly unhappy about it:

112213 brussels

I decided to hedge my bets and harvest them before they started to look even worse:

112213 brussels cut

The cool-weather herbs and vegetables in the plant house seem no worse for the wear:

That's beer in the saucer. No luck yet.
That’s beer in the saucer. No luck yet. (L-R:  Pak Choi, Parsely, Cilantro, Spinach)

On the bright side, slugs hate the cold too.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Silver Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

untitle8dA few months back, the NW Peaks Mountainbeers were both pale ales, brewed with different hop varieties. I was excited for both of them, but especially for the Silver Pale Ale, which included spruce tips in the beer.

From the NW Peaks Website:

The name. The mountain. Like one of the April beers (Tinkham), Silver is off Snoqualmie pass. In fact, it’s juxtaposed to Tinkham just off the PCT and a great place for a good, light summer excursion. The climb is ~ 1,000 feet of a boot path from the PCT. The summit offers great views of the ever popular summits peppering the Snoqualmie area and serves as part of the boundary that surrounds one of Seattle’s 2 major watersheds (the Cedar River watershed).

The Beer. Silver pale is a standard NW style pale, featuring a couple of interesting ingredients, namely the sorachi ace hop variety and spruce tips. It has a medium body with nice hop notes and slightly forward bitterness. However, the sorachi ace imparts a “lemony” and to a lesser extent “dill” aroma which we paired with the (very subtle) spruce tips (and a few other hop varieties to round out the taste). The result was a nice, slightly bitter, NW pale ale.

Malts: Pale, ESB, Rye, crystal. Hops: Sorachi Ace, halertau, chinook. ABV: ~5.0%

 

The beer pours hazy yellow in color with light hops on the nose coupled with grain and faint raspberry/spruce hints. The beer starts off as a combination of slightly bitter and sweet before transitioning into light grain middle with strong notes of hops and lemon. The beer then pushes to the finish with a slightly sweet notes of grain and significant notes of raspberry and lemon in a very long finish. The beer is interesting, producing pronounced flavors from both the hops and the spruce tips and is one that is definitely not your average Northwest pale ale.

NW Peaks Silver Pale Ale pans the river and comes up with a solid 3 prospectors out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Alaskan Brewing Pilot Series Raspberry Wheat

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Alaskan Brewing makes some pretty solid beers, but where they really excel is with their Pilot Series beers. These beers are small production, big beers which usually rate as outstanding brews and in a bunch of cases, age really well. One of their spring Pilot Series beers over the last few years has been their Raspberry Wheat. This beer clocks in at 6.5% ABV and 20 IBU. The beer is not cheap, with a 22 oz. bottle setting you back $9 at your local bottle shop.

From the Alaskan website:

                       

Alaskan Raspberry Wheat is an American-style Wheat Ale with the lively addition of red raspberries during fermentation.

With nearly one pound of real fruit per gallon, Alaskan Raspberry Wheat has the inviting aroma of fresh-picked raspberries and an enticing red hue. The flavor of the raspberries lends a tartness that balances the full-bodied wheat profile and malt sweetness. Bigger than most traditional fruit beers, Alaskan Raspberry Wheat adds an extra kick to its dry and effervescent finish.

The fruit beer style became popular more than 500 years ago with the lambics of Belgium where they brewed with wild yeast and fruit was added to the beer during secondary fermentation. Alaskan Raspberry Wheat follows an American take on this Old World style, highlighting the bright flavors of raspberries.

Years of local demand as a Rough Draft brew and a Silver medal from the 2008 Great American Beer Festival made Alaskan Raspberry Wheat the perfect beer to launch Alaskan’s Pilot Series of limited edition specialty beers.

This limited edition batch of Alaskan Raspberry Wheat is made from glacier fed water, the finest two-row barley, wheat and specialty malts, premium quality European and Pacific Northwest hop varieties, and more than 3,000 pounds of real raspberries.

The tart, sweet flavors and effervescent finish of Alaskan Raspberry Wheat pair best with light foods and desserts including fruit salads, grilled vegetable dishes, light fruit baked goods, crepes, crumbles and warm summer weather.

Berry picking in Alaska can be a busy pastime. With nearly 50 types of wild berry species across the state fruiting throughout the spring, summer and fall, berries have long been a staple in the Alaskan diet. This is also true of the diet of Alaskan black bears. These omnivores load up on rich raspberries and other berries in the late summer before hibernating for the long winters of Alaska. This beer celebrates the natural bounty and fresh flavors of summer in Alaska.

72The beer pours reddish amber in color with an off white head. There are strong notes of raspberry with hints of wheat on the nose. The initial sip yields notes of slightly sweet raspberry before becoming drier with a more subtle raspberry profile complimented with notes of yeast and wheat. The finish is long and raspberry dominant, reminiscent of eating fresh fruit (without the seeds!) with a light tartness that lingers pleasantly. The balance is superb – slightly sweet and slightly tart at various times, with plenty of raspberry character, but not so much that it overpowers the subtle wheat and yeast character that exists in this beer. I wish more fruit based beers showed this balance.

Alaskan Raspberry Wheat picks its way through the bushes with a happy 4 Rubus strigosusout of 5.