Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Blimey That’s Bitter Cask

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It takes some guts to do an imperial IPA as a cask, not only because these beers are a monster to brew, but you run the risk of having something that is borderline undrinkable with all of the alcohol and hops involved. Reuben’s took a chance by putting Blimey on cask, of course adding more hops to the cask, because, you know, it wasn’t hoppy enough.

The beer pours hazy orange in color with a mind numbing amount of citrus and citrus peel – it smells like fresh orange rind with bare notes of orange blossom and grain. The beer starts out lighter than its carbonated cousin with a slightly sweet/floral component before moving into juice oranges, orange peel and orange blossom. The finish is incredibly smooth with significant hop bitterness with plays well with the citrus and a touch of resin at the very end. The alcohol isn’t perceptible in the cask version of the beer, but the resin is, giving the beer a touch of burn at the back of the throat at the very end. The fruit is definitely more pronounced in the cask version, so if you like citrus dominant IPA’s, this is the one for you.

Was the cask version better than the regular? That is a tough call since they drank like 2 very different beers. Either way they were both fantastic and worthy of the 5 hop cones out of 5 that the cask version receives.

Beer of the Week: Salish Sea Brewing Brown Porter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I will give new breweries a shot, just because you never know what gems you might uncover. I recently had the opportunity to try the Porter from the newish Salish Sea Brewing out of Edmonds when they were on as a guest tap at Stoup Brewing. It was a cool December day and the porter seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.

From the Salish Sea website:

Not your typical porter… Our house porter is light, crisp and clean. Featuring Simcoe Hops and a clean finish. Full with flavor, light in body, with a great light coffee finish. 5.5% ABV 35 IBU

The beer pours dark brown, almost black in color with mild notes of roasted malt and hints of grain and sugar on the nose. The beer starts out dry on the palate with very little grain and malt and just hints of roasted flavors. The beer then moves on to a fairly long sweet streak before finishing faintly malty with a slight astringent burn at the very end of the palate at the back of the throat with minor hints of roasted grains making an appearance. I kept hoping for the flavors to wake up the further into the beer I got, but it never happened – if anything, the beer got sweeter as I went on. I felt like this beer would have been better served by being called a brown rather than a porter.

Salish Sea Brown Porter limps into port and offloads with just 2 cargo crates out of 5.

Overwintered

by A.J. Coltrane

I had tried planting some winter-hardy vegetables in late November as an experiment. Here’s a pic from right before Christmas:

New growth in December. [L-R - Pac Choi, Parsley, Cilantro, Spinanch]. The new leaves look happier than the leaves that were on the plants at the time of transplanting. — New growth in December. [L-R – Pac Choi, Parsley, Cilantro, Spinanch]. The new leaves look happier than the leaves that were on the plants at the time of transplanting.

And March 17:

(L-R) Spinach, Parsley, Cilantro, Pak Choi

I think to some degree the Pak Choi smothered the Parsley in the crowded confines of the mini green house. (The three mostly empty cells.) Also, Thanksgiving was too late to start — September would have been better. Next year we’ll probably try hoop houses and cold frames for plant protection — the mini green house worked just “ok”. Overall it was too cramped and too wet inside. The Pak Choi was attacked by slugs all winter. The Spinach received some slug abuse too, though to a much lesser degree. Still, the overwintered veg are *way* ahead of the Mache and Radishes in the front yard:

On the far left is Mache, planted January 5. On the right are Cherry Belle Radishes, planted February 10. The tiny plants in the middle are French Breakfast Radishes (March 7.)

Next winter we’ll try to focus on stuff that the slugs don’t love to eat.

Wine Reviews On CSE

By Iron Chef Leftovers

After much negative feedback and just a general lack of qualities in the reviews, we have decided to fire Larry LeCroc and have taken appropriate action to sack the parties responsible for hiring him in the first place.

They haav bean replaced weeth a noo stav to doo win revoos.

The staff responsible for sacking the wine reviews have been sacked. As it turns out, they were the same people responsible for the great credit fiasco a number of years ago. I need to do a better job of vetting our employees and I can assure you that this should never happen again.

Yes – I went a long way for this joke.

Beer of the Week: Stoup Brewing Winter Warmer

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I both love and hate seasonal beers – I love them because it means that I have something new to look forward to when I go to a brewery and I hate them because when I decide I really like a beer, I know that it will only be there for a limited time. This winter, I went on a winter warmer kick and basically went out of my way to try a bunch of them from various breweries around town. I was happy to see that Stoup made one and was excited to try their version of what is becoming one of my favorite styles. The Stoup version clocks in at 7% ABV and 30 IBU.

The beer pours deep brown in color with hints of amber. Roasted malt dominates with notes of spice and chocolate interspersed. The beer starts out slightly sweet on the initial sip with significant amounts of malt character, followed by a slightly fruity middle of dried cherries and apricots coupled with hints of figs before finishing with a touch of warming alcohol joined with a mild spice (cardamom and cloves) enhanced with more dried fruit in a significantly long finish. The alcohol disappears the further you get into the beer and the sweetness less pronounced. The beer has fine balance and rich character and would be nice next to a fire on a cold winter day.

Stoup Winter Warmer grabs a blanket and a chair and cozies in with 4 roaring fires out of 5.

On a sad note, this is the last review of a beer from my 2013 note book. The book is getting retired to the CSE Archives for posterity. Although you have been reading many reviews from beers that I have had in 2014, this marks the last one that I consumed in 2013. Not bad – this review is making onto the site just shy of 4 months after I actually had the beer.

Neeext Wine Revoo

Bie Larry LeCroc

Me drunk too much.

From Pearls Before Swine on 2/8/14.

Beer of the Week: Stoup Brewing Porter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I feel terrible. With my backlog of beer reviews and that I have generally been putting them on the site in chronological order; this is the first time that I am reviewing a beer by Stoup Brewing. That normally wouldn’t be an issue, but they have been opened for 5 months, I am a member of their founders club and they are the closest brewery to my house – a scant 5 blocks away. While this is long delayed in getting posted, I can assure you this won’t be the last time you see these guys getting a write up in this space. The first beer on tap from Stoup is their Porter.

From the Stoup website:

ABV: 6.5%, IBU: 45, Lovibond: 34

Rich in color and character, our robust porter conjures up memories of decadent chocolate treats dipped in coffee. Hints of dark chocolate, roasted coffee and light malty sweetness are the result of a complex malt profile including chocolate malt, roasted barley, roasted wheat and roasted rye.

The beer pours jet black with a coffee colored head and pleasant notes of chocolate and malt with hints of coffee and vanilla faintly in the background of the nose. The beer starts out on the palate with light notes of coffee before moving into a very pleasant grain middle and finishing long with strong notes of chocolate and malt with hints of vanilla, coffee and toffee. Balanced and flavorful with enough alcohol to warm you up on a cold day, but not so much as it interferes with the pleasant drinking experience that is the porter. As an added bonus, touches of hop character start to show up on the finish as the beer warms, adding another layer of complexity to the beer.

Stoup Brewing Porter cozy’s up to the fire with a strong 3 warm fires out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Cask Citra Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

One of the best things about Thursday nights is cask night at Populuxe Brewing. They have had a nice variety of cask options from the strange (Smoked tea bitter) to the nice and approachable (Pale Ales and IPA). Pale ales make for really fun casks – they allow you to really give a base for what individual hop varieties taste like and you get a real appreciation for what it is about certain hop varieties that you might like. A recent cask of the Populuxe Pale with Citra really illustrated what I like about citra hops. This beer clocked in at just 4.8% ABV.

The beer pours hazy yellow-orange in color with light notes of citrus and grain on the nose with very mild notes of sugar. The beer starts off slowly with a nice grain beginning accompanied by a mild sweetness, followed by a touch of very pleasant bitterness before moving to a slightly dry finish that smacks you with a burst of citrus. Very easy drinking and well balanced – there are no dominant flavors but the beer is layered and distinct and you can really appreciate the subtle flavors of both the beer and the hops. With well integrated flavors and low alcohol, this is easily a 3-4 pint beer and a good beer to introduce someone to the wonderful experience that is craft beer.

Populuxe Cask Citra Pale Ale rolls out 4 barrels out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Heavy Seas The Great’er Pumpkin

By Iron Chef Leftovers

My love of pumpkin beers is unabashed and I have a particular soft spot for ones that are of a darker style. I feel that pumpkin marries well with the roasted notes in dark beers and there is less of a need to overly spice the beer, so you get more pumpkin flavor out of them. I also like imperial pumpkin beers since they tend to fall into the same category and you can really appreciate the subtleties of flavor in the beer. During a recent bottle swap, a bottle of the Heavy Seas The Great’er Pumpkin was thrown in because my trading partner knew of my love of pumpkin beers. I thought this was a nice gesture (and has since been reciprocated with a couple of stellar IPA’s back to him) so I was excited to try this beer in an impromptu beer tasting with the rest of the CSE gang (i.e. Blaidd Drwg, Coltrane, Annie S. and Seattle Author). The beer came in 22oz. bottles and runs about $10, but alas, is not available in Seattle, but is available from plenty of places on the East Coast that will ship.

From the Heavy Seas website:

In the most worthy of pumpkin patches and during the silence of the midnight hour, the Greater Pumpkin raises up and pours a rich deep and burnished orange color. Heady aromas of bourbon, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and clove linger seductively over the thick white head of this tremendous brew. Its love at first sip as the full malt body, dominated by British crystal malt, brown sugar and pumpkin, slowly washes over your tongue. Bourbon barrel aging rounds out the flavors with notes of oak, vanilla, and bourbon. Pairs well with crisp autumn weather, crunchy fallen leaves, and the knowledge that your kids will be asleep soon so you can raid their Halloween candy bags.

The beer pours deep orange in color with a creamy head and shows strong notes of bourbon with backing notes of roasted pumpkin and spice – it smells like a pumpkin pie with bourbon added. The beer starts out on the palate with strong notes of roasted pumpkin with mild backing notes of pumpkin pie spices and roasted pumpkin seeds. These flavors linger and are joined at the end by a slightly sweet caramel note and a touch of vanilla from the bourbon barrel without imparting any really heavy bourbon notes. The finish is extremely long and pleasant, making you want to take your time and savor between sips, but without any really harsh notes from the barrel or alcohol, making this a smooth, balanced and easy to drink beverage for such a high alcohol beer, with incredible depth of pumpkin and just a pleasant backing note of spice.

I may have found my new favorite pumpkin beer; I will definitely be shipping some to Seattle in the fall.

Heavy Seas The Great’er Pumpkin raises a massive 5 storm warnings out of 5.

Taking a Chance on Wild Game

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have to give some props to the Quebecois government. The French speaking part of Canada has the right mindset when it comes to food – they allow the production of unpasteurized milk cheese and allow the import of it (making it the only place that I know that you can legally get it in North America, although you still can’t transport it back across the border), it is about the only place in North America where you can find horse and seal on the menu and now they are allowing a trial period to let chefs serve wild game (critters actually hunted in the forest, not their farm raised cousins) in their restaurants.

From the Montreal Gazette:

…the plan will evolve gradually and under strict supervision by the wildlife and agriculture departments to ensure that no animal species is endangered and that food safety is assured. For now, only white-tailed deer from Anticosti Island in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, home to more than 160,000 of the animals, will be allowed for sale. The squirrel, hare, muskrat and beaver, will come from all over the province, but will be available only for a short period during the fall hunting season. Blanchet said only species whose numbers were not endangered and which are known to be free of bacteria or illnesses harmful to humans were chosen for the pilot project.

There are a small number of restaurants that are participating in the trial period, most notably Toque, Au Pied de Cochon and Joe Beef. For those of you who are not familiar with the Montreal restaurant scene, those are arguably the 3 best restaurants in the city and the chef/owners of all 3 of those places are avid hunters/raging alcoholics/complete nut jobs. They have also long been on the leading edge of localvorism, nose to tail eating and sustainable food raising practices, so why not be on the bleeding edge when it comes to wild game?

You want a good reason for this:

Laprise (ed. Note: chef/owner of Toque) said allowing restaurants, and eventually specialty grocers and butchers, to sell wild game will also reduce waste. He cited figures indicating that only as little as 40 per cent of all meat from the 26,000 to 28,000 wild deer killed during the annual hunt is butchered and cooked. The rest is left in the woods or by the roadside and goes to waste.

Of course, Martin Picard of the absolutely amazing Au Pied de Cochon and head psychopath of the Montreal food scene was already ahead of the game game when he published a recipe for squirrel sushi in his Sugar Shack cookbook:

The sushi dish, he wrote in the introduction to the squirrel recipe, was his way of getting even with the little rodents for all the damage they inflicted at his sugar shack.

It looks something like this: