Author: AJ

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Cask Imperial Rye IPA

The Cask Imperial Rye on the left and its sibling, the regular Imperial Rye on the right.
The Cask Imperial Rye on the left and its sibling, the regular Imperial Rye on the right.

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I keep all of my reviews in a notebook, which is why you see reviews for winter beers posted in the middle of spring – even posting 2 reviews a week; I have a backlog of about 30 to post. I usually write them in the order that I drank them, unless I have a bunch of beers from the same brewery; then I will break them up. On a rare occasion, I will drink something that is just so good that the review jumps to the front of the queue. This is one of those reviews.

I have written about Reuben’s Brews several times in this space. The short version – I really like their beer. They have been doing a weekly cask series – taking one of their beers and putting one of them on cask, usually dry hopped. It has led to some interesting variations of the beers that they are doing. This event usually takes place at 3 PM on Saturdays (check their FB site for details). Recently, they did a Double Dry Hopped Imperial Rye IPA on cask. Being a fan of the Imperial Rye IPA, I had to try this. Like its regular sibling, the beer clocks in at a hefty 8.4% ABV and 90+ IBU. Unlike it sibling, the second dry hopping was exclusively with citra hops.

It pours hazy orange in color with a pure white head. Intense hops permeate the nose with a strong background of rye and hints of grapefruit and citrus in the background. When you take a sip of this beer, it takes a second for the flavors to hit you, but when they do, it is like getting smacked by an oncoming truck. The beer starts out with a light bitterness before quickly yielding to strong rye and grain flavors with notes of toasted rye bread and a slight dryness. After lingering for a few seconds, the beer almost magically transitions into a burst of citrus peel and grapefruit in a very long and pleasant finish. There is some slight bitterness in the beer, but it complements the intense flavors that are present and aids the long transition between the flavors, acting as a bridge and helping this beer be extremely balanced; you could easily forget that you are drinking an 8.4% ABV beer.

I tasted this side by side with the regular version of the Imperial Rye, a beer I dearly love, and honestly, the cask version blew the doors off the regular version. After tasting the cask version, the regular, a fantastic beer in its own right, didn’t have the same level of intensity as its sibling. I am going to go on the record here as saying the cask version of the Imperial Rye IPA is one of the 10 best beers I have ever had and quite possibly in the top 5. Yes, it was that good. Next time it makes an appearance, you should be waiting in line for this beer when it gets tapped.

Reuben’s Brew’s Cask Imperial Rye IPA steps up to the podium with a perfect 5 pedestals out of 5.

I would have scored this beer a 6 out of 5, but since I really don’t do that, I leave you with this from This is Spinal Tap.

Poutine in America

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I admit it, I love poutine ever since a fateful drunken late night in Montreal a number of years ago. If you want great poutine, Montreal is the place. For some reason, the Quebecois seem to all be able to make it well. In the U.S., not so much; heck, I can’t think of any great poutine I have had in non-Quebec Canada for that matter (there have been a few good ones, but none I would consider great).

Henry Goldman at Buzzfeed Food addresses the poutine issue in a rather fun read.

This may be the best description of poutine I have ever read:

When poutine is made properly, the gravy should be hot enough to melt the cheese curds and make the fries soggy. What you’re left with is an awesomely goopy, gravy-licous, hot potato mess. For people who enjoy a night of drinking, poutine works perfectly as a calorie-rich after-bar snack — or the most ideal hangover food in human history. You don’t have to be a drunk to enjoy it. You do, however, have to be unconcerned with eating more than 1500 calories in a single, carb-heavy cholesterol-soaked meal. And if you’re a real American, you shouldn’t be.

It is the ultimate drunk food, the ultimate hangover food and the ultimate potato dish. In Seattle, there is a pretty passible poutine at the Jolly Roger in Ballard and, despite Goldman’s comments, the one at Skillet is pretty good (but he is right, it is not poutine), but beyond that, I can’t think of any others that I would even remotely recommend – and I usually order it when it is on the menu.

Oh yeah, I agree with him also – the poutine at Au Pied de Cochon is probably the best I have ever had. I guess the foie gras doesn’t really hurt the dish too much.

Beer of the Week: Stone Collaboration La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Another week, another Stone collaboration beer review. I should qualify this by saying that we did a horizontal tasting of all of the Stone collaboration beers I had at that point, so you should be seeing the rest of these in the coming weeks. The La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado (say that 3 times fast) is the collaboration pumpkin beer done between The Bruery, Stone and Elysian (should I have been surprised). This beer made its debut at the 2011 Elysian Pumpkin Beer Festival and made an encore appearance at the 2012 fest. I am reviewing this beer from the 12 oz. bottle that I purchased at around $3.

From the Stone Website:

The eclectic mix of ingredients was selected to introduce a decidedly different spin on traditional pumpkin beers. “The taste starts with citrus and herbal notes, but then a very smooth roasted malt character comes into play,” Steele explains. “The yam and pumpkin make their appearance on the finish, with some Eastern-influenced spiciness and trace maple notes from the toasted fenugreek, combining with hints of birch. This is no pumpkin pie beer. No cloves. No nutmeg. No cinnamon.”

Malt bill: Pale, Rye, Crystal, Chocolate Rye, English Brown, Aromatic, and Honey malt
Hops bill: Warrior, Motueka
Adjuncts: Pumpkins (grown at Stone Farms), yams, toasted fenugreek, lemon verbena
5% abv, 47 IBUs

This beer pours orange-amber in color. Lots of roasted pumpkin and birch dominate the nose of this beer with hints of lemon lccdc_bruery-labelverbena in the background. The beer drinks like a soda – syrupy birch and toasted pumpkin are the dominant flavors, fading very quickly. There are slight notes of toffee and hers on the finish, but they come and go so quickly that you almost don’t realize they are there. The beer was more complex when I had it on tap – in the bottle it lacks the dominant pumpkin and roast that I was expecting. I am wondering, despite proper storage, if this beer was past its prime when I opened it.

It they ever decided to brew this beer again, I recommend that you try La Citrueille, especially if you like Pumpkin beers that showcase the pumpkin rather than the spice.

I was originally going to give this beer a rating, but considering that the bottle may have been bad and how much I did like the previous times I drank the beer, I am going to not score this beer at all. I would recommend drinking this beer fresh if you have the chance.

The First EarthBox Planting Of 2013

by A.J. Coltrane

The first planting of the year. According to the Sky Nursery gardening calendar all of these should work out.

The left side of the photo is the “front” of the “garden”.

earthbox 042013

From left to right:

Left Box:  Bibb Lettuce (left), Romaine Lettuce (right)

Center Box:  (left row, back to front) Parsley, Scallions, two Spinach. (right row) two Romaine, two Spinach

Right Box:  (left) Brussels Sprouts, (right) Bok Choi

Shortly after these were planted it rained. Everything perked up.

The old memory card on the camera finally filled up. So I needed to check the new memory card:

boy 042013

and

girl 042013

30 Great IPAs to Drink Before You Die?

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Firstwefeast.com recently came out with a list of the 30 IPA’s to drink before you die. This list is supposedly complied by the following “beer experts”:
•Mike Lovullo, specialty brands manager for Union Beer Distributors
•Jimmy Carbone, owner of Jimmy’s No. 43; host of Beer Sessions Radio; founder of the Good Beer Seal
•Julian Kurland, Beer Director, The Cannibal Beer & Butcher
•Samuel Merritt, founder of Civilization of Beer
•Greg Doroski, brewer at Greenport Harbor Brewing Co.
•Mary Izett, beer journalist and host of Fuhmentaboudit!
•Anthony Finley, beer server at Proletariat
•John Holl, beer journalist and author of The American Craft Beer Cookbook
•Chris Schonberger, editor-in-chief of First We Feast

Do you want to guess how many Washington IPA’s made the list? Well, the answer to that would be 0. Think Oregon would fare better? You’d be wrong; exactly 0 Oregon IPA’s made the list. California dominated the list (no surprise) and I think that the beer list, because the experts all live on the east coast, really limited themselves to beers that are readily available there. Oh, and Pliny didn’t make the list, which is a huge surprise, considering Dogfish Head 120 Minute did, so they did not limit themselves to just single IPA’s. This is hardly a must drink before you die list.

The couple I agreed with –
Ballast Point Sculpin IPA – this is one of the better ones on the market.
Green Flash West Coast IPA – another great IPA from CA.

The one’s that I didn’t:
Cigar City Humidor Cedar Aged Jai Alai IPA – had it once, it was horrible.
Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA – meh, it is a fine IPA, but not one I would say that you have to run out and try.
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale – another one that is fine, but Lagunitas Sucks is much better.
Firestone Walker Brewing Co. Wookey Jack – reviewed it a while back and it was fine, but not really going to blow you away.
Smuttynose IPA – I love Smuttynose beers, EXCEPT for their IPA. It is really non-descript.
Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra – Really, 2 Sierra Nevada beers on the list? They aren’t that good.

I doubt that you can honestly say that the “didn’t agree” with beers are any better than say Boundary Bay, Port Townsend, Ninkasi, Deschutes, Full Sail, Diamond Knot or Elysian’s IPAs. I think this might mean it is time to set up another blind IPA tasting…

The Earthboxes Are Here

by A.J. Coltrane

Continued from here.

Twelve days later and the Earthboxes have arrived. That seems to be about par for the course as far as these guys go and delivery time. (5-7 days to ship, 5 days for shipping.)

Dog toys in the foreground for size reference. I'm reminded of my dad always sticking a ruler next to stuff he'd photograph.
Dog toys in the foreground for size reference. I’m reminded of my dad always sticking a ruler next to stuff he’d photograph.

Of course, that means 24 cubic feet of potting soil to fill them up. 10 of the big bags of the stuff.

It's taller than it looks. I had to make two trips and fill up the back of the car each time.
It’s taller than it looks. I had to make two trips and fill up the back of the car each time.

Right now I’m leaning towards:

3 boxes of tomatoes (6 plants)

2 boxes of assorted peppers (12 plants)

1 box of zucchini (2 plants)

1 box of cucumbers (4 plants)

1 box of lettuces (8 plants. Hopefully something that can be continually harvested all summer.)

4 boxes of herbs (24 total plants. At least 6 basil, 4 parsley, 4 chives.. maybe some beans along the back of the boxes.)

I’ve got the Mother Earth News Almanac off of the bookshelf. (12th printing, March 1977. I paid $1.15 for it used, many years ago.) Maybe I can mix in some companion planting somehow..

 

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Black Eldorado

By Iron Chef Leftovers

NW Peaks is a nano-brewery located in Ballard, literally inside of a converted trailer. They are a brewery with a small production system and are only available on tap at their brewery and a few select locations (check their website for details). What they lack in size, they make up for in flavor, brewing a number of the styles that you would expect (Pale, Stout, Saison, etc.) as well as a few interesting beers for their Mountain Beer Club (check it out here), in an ever rotating tap list. One of their recent beers was their take on a CDA which they called Black Eldorado (their beers are named after mountains).

From their website:

The name. The mountain. Eldorado is a majestic mountain and stands at8,869′, the 25th tallest peak in the state. Many hikers will be intimately familiar with cascade pass trail at the end of the Cascade River road. The commonly used climbers path leaves the road about 4 miles short of the cascade pass trail head. The relative burly trail climbs several thousand feet through forest, talus, and rock leading to the Eldorado glacier with great views of the summit and the rest of the cascade river basin. While these views are excellent the real treats come at the top of the eldorado glacier where you get views of the Klawatti-Inspiration-Mcallister icecap and is knife-edge summit ridge.

The Beer. We took our pale ale recipe, a nice light pale with citrus notes, and threw in some Blackprinz and chocolate malts to it to add some color a a slight roast note to play off of the citrus hops. Black Eldorado presents itself as a light, nicely balanced version of a cascadia dark ale. Light on the palate with a nice combination of light hops and roasty malts.

Malts: Pale, ESB, Wheat, blackprinz, chocolate. Hops: Apollo, cascade, chinook, centennial ABV: ~5.25%

This beer pours brownish-black in color with a short, white head. Lots of roast and chocolate with a floral citrus hop background that hides itself nicely behind the stronger aromas of the beer. The initial taste yields a good amount of roast malt and overtones of chocolate lingering nicely on the palate before yielding to the hops. There are light notes of grapefruit and citrus peel appearing magically after the initial roast fade and they continue to linger for a long while before finally yielding to a pleasant bitter ending. More roast and malt flavors with less hops than most CDA’s but a delicious treat to enjoy when it is on tap. Incredibly well balance and easy to drink, it has all of the hop character of a big IPA, the roasted qualities of a dark and the drinkability of a pilsner coming together in a beer that you could easily knock back a few.

Black Eldorao self-arrests at a final rating of a perfect 5 Ice Axes out of 5.

Tourney Wrapup II — The 3 Point Shooting Teams

By A.J. Coltrane

For purposes of Vegas/March Madness this year I thought it might be helpful to consider how 3-point dependent individual teams were during the regular season. Some of that screwing around was discussed in this post.

Below are the top 10 teams in what I called “Vol” (for volatility) in that post. Below it’s called 3DEP (3 point dependency), which is what I’ll stick with going forward. 3DEP is simply 3 point percentage (x) % of 3 pointers attempted. At least in theory these ten teams rely upon the 3-pointer for a large percentage of their offense, so I’d kind of expect their performances to be very “up and down”. (To have a wider than usual deviation in their level of performance.) If the 3-pointer abandoned them, they were screwed. The flipside is that maybe they can get hot and beat a better team.

Look what happened in the game that knocked them out of the tournament:

Team (Seed) 3DEP 3P% 2P% 3PA% 3P% in Loss 2P% in Loss
Creighton 7 1667 42.1 56.4 39.6 10.5 41.2
Iowa St. 10 1624 37 52.1 43.9 48.0 40.7
Florida 3 1539 38.1 54.9 40.4 20.0 45.7
Valparaiso 14 1493 37.5 56.1 39.8 28.0 41.4
Belmont 11 1485 37.6 57.1 39.5 29.6 50.0
SD St 13 1434 39.4 50.3 36.4 34.8 50.0
St. Mary’s 11 1421 37.3 53.2 38.1 20.0 37.2
Davidson 14 1409 36.6 52.2 38.5 35.3 44.8
Arizona 6 1376 36.3 50.3 37.9 33.3 50.0
Boise St. 13 1362 38.7 48.2 35.2 38.9 54.3
Total 38.1 53.1 38.9 31.0 45.4

Well, duh. They didn’t shoot well and they lost the game. They didn’t shoot well from 2 either. I’m sure that happened to a lot of the losers, regardless of how many 3’s they attempted. If something hadn’t gone wrong they’d still be playing. We don’t really learn anything from that.

Continuing to mess with data though — as a group those are some low seeds — 7 of the 10 teams are double digit seeds. They’d all be underdogs starting with their first game. Look at when they got knocked out of the tournament:

Team (Seed) Lost To Round?
Creighton 7 Duke Round of 32
Iowa St. 10 Ohio St Round of 32
Florida 3 Michigan Elite 8
Valparaiso 14 Michigan St Round of 64
Belmont 11 Arizona Round of 64
SD St 13 FGCU Round of 32
St. Mary’s 11 Memphis Round of 64
Davidson 14 Marquette Round of 64
Arizona 6 Ohio St Sweet 16
Boise St. 13 La Salle Play In

In aggregate the underdogs went 2-4 in their first “real” game (St Mary’s won their play-in game.) Given a fat enough money line of between +150 and +200,  maybe they’d be worth betting on. Hmm…

Here’s 2012:

2012 Team 3P% 3PA% 3DEP Round?
Florida 7 38.0 44.6 1695 Elite 8
Vanderbilt 5 38.8 41.2 1599 Round 32
Iowa St. 8 37.3 41.6 1552 Round 32
Belmont 14 38.1 40.1 1528 Round 64
Wisconsin 4 36.8 41.3 1520 Sweet 16
Missouri 2 39.8 37.9 1508 Round 64
Creighton 8 42.4 35.0 1484 Round 32
South Dakota St. 14 39.0 37.8 1474 Round 64
Duke 2 37.1 38.6 1432 Round 64
Nevada Las Vegas 6 36.7 38.9 1428 Round 64

Note the two upsets — both the #2 seeds lost. Is that useful? Maybe. But I am taking a note on it for later.

As far as the underdogs:  This year there were only two. And they both lost their first game. Our underdogs are now 2-6.

One more year. Here’s 2011:

2011 Team 3P% 3PA% 3DEP Round?
Belmont 13 37.8 42.3 1599 Round 64
Wisconsin 4 37.4 41.2 1541 Sweet 16
Virginia Commonwealth 11 37.0 41.2 1524 Final Four
Michigan 8 35.3 43.0 1518 Round 32
Northern Colorado 15 38.3 39.4 1509 Round 64
Notre Dame 2 38.6 38.6 1490 Round 32
Louisville 4 36.2 40.8 1477 Round 64
Arizona 5 39.7 36.1 1433 Elite 8
Richmond 12 39.0 36.6 1427 Sweet 16
Boston University 16 35.5 40.1 1424 Round 64

I wouldn’t bet a 16 seed to beat a one seed regardless, so we’re tossing that one out. That leaves four teams who combined to go 2-2 in their first game.  All three years combined for 4-6 (not counting St. Mary’s play-in game).

If we restrict it to only the #10, #11, and #12 seeds the record is 3-2. Maybe there’s something there. I may have to do more digging. Coincidentally, my only money-line bet this year was on #12 seed Oregon at +160, and that one worked out. But Oregon didn’t rely on 3’s — they were 138th out of 150 during the regular season…

The never-ending quest for an angle continues.

The 2013 Houston Astros

By Iron Chef Leftovers

The Astros are horrible. If you think I am exaggerating, Vegas had a closing line of 58 wins for them for the 2013 season. That translates into a 104 loss season. How bad is that? Well it would actually be an improvement over their last 2 seasons in which they lost 106 and 107 games. After seeing them play, I would be surprised if they don’t lose 110 games this season.

So much was made of the dismantling of the Florida Miami Marlins that the Astros managed to take their team apart with no one noticing. They traded just about everyone making more than a few bucks an hour and left themselves with a payroll of somewhere around $25 million for the season. Or, to put it in perspective, less than what the Yankees are paying Arod not be on the DL. Their “highest” paid player isn’t even on their roster – they are paying 5 million to Wandy Rodriguez, who is currently pitching in Pittsburgh. The only 2 guys that are making more than 2 million are Bud Norris (who is actually their “best” pitcher) and Carlos Pena (who will be gone by May the way he is swinging the bat), and they are both making about 3 million for the season.

This is a team that can’t hit and can’t pitch – they went into the season with Jose Veras as their closer, a guy described by Dave Schoenfield as:

Might not get a save opportunity until May

30. Jose Veras, Astros.
Now 32, he’s pitched for the Yankees, Indians, Marlins, Pirates and Brewers and has five career saves.

Before becoming a closer: The Brewers had the worst bullpen in the majors last year and even they didn’t want him back.

In their recent game against the Mariners (in the M’s home opener), their #4 hitter came out of the game. We had to look up who it was since none of us could actually name him. Here is the lineup they used:

Jose Altuve 2B
Justin Maxwell CF
Chris Carter DH
J.D. Martinez LF
Rick Ankiel RF
Carlos Pena 1B
Matt Dominguez 3B
Jason Castro C
Brandon Barnes RF-LF
Ronny Cedeno SS

If that lineup doesn’t scream “110 losses, here we come!” I am not sure what would.