Happy Thanksgiving!

     This is just to say I'll be forgoing a proper blog this week, and I hope you all have something better to do than read this blog over the holiday, anyway.  So no blog Wednesday, no #beertography Friday until next week.  Until then, safe travels and good eats.  And, of course, good pairings.  I'll be bringing 21st Amendment Brewery Fireside Chat and Mayflower Brewing Company Thanksgiving Ale (an obvious tradition, I know) to dinner.  Hope you all have something tasty as well.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday #beertography 7

Every Friday I share a few pieces of my aspiring #beertography in hopes that some of you will play along and share your own!

Smuttynose Brewing Company - Baltic Porter

 

Sixpoint Craft Ales - 3Beans

Backlash Beer Company - Famine and War

Forget Seasonal Creep... Let's Talk Seasonal Switch

     We've spoke before about Seasonal Creep and how bent out of shape people get (especially in fall, as the beers of Summer and of Autumn are different to a greater degree than probably any other seasonal changeover), but usually that quiets down about this time of year (again, Fall and Winter beers aren't that different).  But then along came a displaced Spring beer.

     Late last week Narragansett Brewing Company announced via their YouTube Channel that their (absolutely wonderful, in my opinion) Narragansett Porter would not be released in their trademark tallboy cans this year.  It would, instead be released in 22oz bombers (ok, fine so far), but not until March (bwaaaaah??).  Porter, it seems, is joining their "Private Stock" series and coming out of the seasonal canned rotation, at least for this year.  This comes after two other pieces of news from 'Gansett.  The first was announcing a new beer, Autocrat Coffee Milk Stout, with a release date of December 16th.  Also, the label reveals it's destined for tallboy cans, and comes in with a lower ABV than Porter at 5.3%.  So, effectively a total replacement for Porter in the rotation, but I said there were two pieces of news.

     That's right, Narragansett Bock was released ahead of Autocrat, and are keeping it available until March.  Now, unless my memory is playing tricks on me, Bock has beer their Spring seasonal for some time... and even if it wasn't, I don't really think of it as a Winter release.  So technically, 'Gansett is running with two seasonal beers from different seasons but released in the same season, releasing the former Winter seasonal after the former Spring seasonal is out of production, and... well, who the heck knows when Narragansett Summer is going to end up.

     The whole dang thing just seems weird to me.  Even though, as a big fan of Porter, I'm a little sad to have to wait for March, when I'll most likely not want porters or stouts as much, and I will miss grabbing a 6x16 of the stuff, I'm pretty excited for Autocrat.  Coffee Milk just screams Rhode Island, and I certainly don't mind stout (especially a milk or sweet stout), so I think this could be a really special beer.  But the Bock move just has me scratching my head.

     Although researching "seasonal switch" proved a bit tricky, I can think of at least one other time this has happened.  So, if you thought to yourself Sam Adams White Ale, pick yourself out a Kewpie doll.  Once, long long ago, this was Sam's Spring seasonal.  It disappeared one year and (if I recall correctly) they went through two or three different options in as many years before settling on Alpine Spring as a permanent (for now) replacement.  But that's not to say White Ale disappeared completely.  It was seen just a year or two later... in the Sam Adams Winter Mix 16 pack.

     I know they say, in New England, that if you don't like the weather just wait five minutes... but I don't think the metaphor was meant to extend to seasonal beer.  But who knows?  Maybe 'Gansett and Sam are just readying for some much anticipated global warming by putting out Spring beers when the leaves are still falling.  Maybe they're adjusting for the Baby Jesus' real birthday.  I don't know, I'm not a sciencetician.  I'm just a beer drinker.  A beer drinker with a confused palette and not enough Porter.

Friday #beertography 6

Every Friday I share a few pieces of my aspiring #beertography in hopes that some of you will play along and share your own!

Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project - American Darling (Goodtime Lager)

21st Amedment Brewery - Hell or High Watermelon

Central City Brewing Co - Red Betty India Pale Ale

Seacoast Eats... Wait. Is that Taken?

     You can fake the funk on a nasty dunk*, but you can't fake a good craft beer selection in your restaurant.  Here are some quick hits and impressions about just a few of the different restaurants along the Seacoast that tout a craft beer menu.

(* Disclaimer - This blog in no way endorses faking the funk on a nasty dunk)

The Heritage Smokehouse (Route 1, North Hampton) - At the time of writing, this place has only been open just over a month, and I'm not so sure the word is out yet.  I was there for lunch on a Friday, and I was literally the only person there.  Then again... it was a late lunch and it was a weekday.  Anyway, this is a place that comes equipped with it's own narrative.  Everything is made from scratch with fresh, local ingredients.  For my meal, I had an amazing smoked meatloaf (everything is smoked, too) and mashed potatoes that were the TRUTH.  The beer list is very small, but I think that matches the whole fresh, local narrative, as they only carry a few beers each from local breweries.  In this case, Throwback Brewery and Smuttynose Brewery with three beers from each available on tap.  Even with the small selection, the styles offered within each were enough to make some good pairings.  Throwback's Love Me Long Time Pilsner went great with the main course... of which I was so impressed I just had to have the dessert suggested by my waitress: a "Southern" S'more.  Basically, a southern biscuit smothered with chocolate and melted marshmallow, ice cream on the side.  It went amazing with Throwback's Campfire Smoked Porter.  Oh, and the staff here is amazing and super friendly.  Plus, even though it was a slow afternoon, there was no dip in quality (or, if there was and this was them on a bad day, good days must be transcendent).  Can't say enough good things about this place.  Go go go go go.

Thirsty Moose Taphouse (Congress St, Portsmouth) -  There's good and bad points to this one.  For one, this is the kind of place that's probably more exciting to the lay beer drinker, because with 116 taps, if I recall correctly, it's a big, shiny, bouncy ball that's just fascinating to novice and intermediate craft fans.  Really gets the attention, you know?  And, I have to say, I like the food.  Last time I ate there, I had some kind of steak pizza special thing, and it was pretty happening,  The menu, though, like the beer list, might offer a few too many choices.  On one hand, the amount of choice is almost overwhelming.  On the other, on the two or three occasions I've been here, I honestly wasn't blown away by the tap list.  Out of 116 (or whatever) choices, I could find maybe 4 beers I really fancied (this was also confirmed as being "not just me", as I've been here with friends who felt the same), and inevitably 2 of them were kicked.  Strangely, I consider them being out of something a GOOD sign.  My greatest fear with a place with this many taps is getting old beer, so at least they're moving product.  Still, the staff is knowledgeable and more than happy to let you try samples.  A place like this definitely fills a niche by exposing more people to craft beer, even if it's not my first personal choice in town.

WHYM Craft Beer Cafe (Route 1, Portsmouth) - Full disclosure, Jay, the biggest, reddest beard of them all, works part time at this fine establishment.  I assure you, this does not affect my impression of this restaurant.  Although located in a quite strange spot behind an Inn just barely over the Portsmouth border, this place is (I have to say) fundamentally the opposite of a place like The Thirst Moose.  WHYM offers a small menu and a small tap list, but both are obviously well curated.  It's also the kind of place that will probably have vastly different beer on from visit to visit.  I know I've been there three times and there was always something new and fresh to try.  This, perhaps, is one of the better restaurants around for beer geeks.  They even offered a few beers I wasn't too familiar with (the beer menu is simply divided into "near" and "far" if you're interested in local fare), but the staff was more than happy to answer any questions.  Oh, and the food... equally as impressive.  Especially dug the Bleu Cheese Burger.  This is the kind of restaurant that doesn't have a ton of choices, but you can rest assured that all of them are good.

Joe's NY Pizza (Route 1, Hampton) - This surprised and intrigued me.  The local Pizza chain I knew from High School and college, where I would often pop in for a late-night slice was now jumping into craft?  I was skeptical when I saw the "32 craft beer taps" posted outside, but sure enough, these guys built a nice little bar in their side of the road pizza joint.  I don't feel like I need to say much about the food... if you're from the area, you've probably had their pizza, and if not... well, it's pizza.  Very good pizza, with lots of interesting specialty pizzas.  One this occasion, I dined on the Chicken Cordon Bleu pizza, and it was everything I could have hoped for.  Anyway... about that 32 craft beer taps?  Yeah, not exactly.  Some of these "craft" taps were "crafty", but even accounting for that there were still well over 20 true craft beer selections at a pizza place.  What's more, the selection is fairly diverse, and they actually had about 5 or 6 things I hadn't had before, and I consider that a pretty good percentage.  My major beef is that a lot of the beers, when not served in tulips, were served in frozen pint glasses.  SERIOUSLY, every restaurant?  STOP DOING THIS.  NOW.  Still, I had fun on my visit.  There were some townies at the bar with me, and they were open to my craft beer suggestions after hearing me talk with the bartender, who was even willing to mix up my suggested beer cocktail of Southern Tier Brewing Company Pumpking and Creme Brulee for us for dessert.  This place has a thing or two to overcome (seriously... frozen pints are antithetical to properly serving beer), but it's making an honest effort.

     That's it for today kids.  There's more ground to be covered here for sure, but let's pace ourselves and save some room for later.

Friday #beertography 5

Every Friday I share a few pieces of my aspiring #beertography in hopes that some of you will play along and share your own!

Troegs Brewing Company - Nugget Nectar

Founders Brewing Co - Backwoods Bastard

Backlash Beer Company - Salute

On My Beerbox #4: Everybody Panic!

     Every once in a while, you think you totally know what you're going to blog about, and then some major story hits and the internet cracks in half with crazy (or at least the craft beer section of the internet, which, indicated by its behavior today, is very much like the rest of the internet).

     If you have no idea what I'm alluding to, today The Alchemist, maker of the world-renowned (and in many places, highest rated) Heady Topper, announced that their cannery would no longer be open to the public as of November 15th.  Importantly, they note that this decision will not affect their production levels or their current distribution accounts.  Predictably, some of the loudest responses to this news were entitled flouncers, promising to take the Heady Topper stickers off their cars and cancel their planned trip to Vermont.  These are probably the same people who have been complaining about how it's so unfair that people show up at the cannery and buy the place out before they can get any Heady.

     I get it.  People are passionate about things they love, and Heady Topper is one of the best-loved beers in all of craft... but let's take some perspective from history.  Nowadays, The Alchemist just makes Heady Topper.  This is because of a little Hurricane named Irene.  The Alchemist was once a well-loved brewpub with several offerings.  It wasn't long after they had opened their cannery to scale up production of their signature brew that the storm destroyed their pub and their brewing equipment.  Because they were so loved, the new cannery saw quite a bit of business, to the point that there was trouble keeping up with demand as Heady's popularity grew and grew.

     I visited the cannery not too terribly longer after Irene, and I saw just a small piece of the fervor that would only grow over the months.  In just the short time I was there, I saw several people backing their cars up to the back door because they had just bought 4 cases.  With demand increasing and production being, well, understandably finite, this model wasn't sustainable.  The cannery started selling out faster and faster (their Twitter account was pretty much devoted to alerting people that they had run out until the next canning), and even the commercial accounts saw fans pouncing on deliveries as soon as the beer was wheeled through the door.

     At several points, The Alchemist expanded production and was up to brewing 180 barrels of Heady Topper each week.  That's something on the order of 44,640 cans, not accounting for spillage and such.  They tried their hardest to meet demand locally, and hoped to be able to make enough beer to send it to other markets, such as Boston.  Actually, this happened but once (at least officially), and I was lucky enough to get my allotted 2 cans (the maximum allowed at most places that got an allocation) at my local store... then performed a quick search online of who else got an allocation and found a store nearby that had NO IDEA that they had the Miles Davis of beer in stock (they had it out back in some corner of the cooler, at the bottom) and had no qualms about letting me buy as much as I wanted, even if they didn't quite understand why.  That, friends, was a good day.

     Digression aside, you might have guessed what happened.  The demand for Heady Topper kept increasing, and the ramped up production was quickly absorbed.  Even the touted 600% increase in their output over two years was no match for fans, people buying the beer as trade bait (since Heady is so hard to come by, people in the area will get some and use it to get other rare beers from trading partners all over the country) and the few bad apples (or at least questionable pears) that would buy cases just to resell them, sometimes on a retail level... which I guess isn't supposed to happen, but it totally happened.  The next step was for The Alchemist to put a cap on how much could be purchased at the cannery, but today's news would suggest this wasn't particularly effective.

     This is starting to get long, so let's wrap this up with some wild speculation.  Wouldn't be a "beerbox" column if I didn't!

     I know haters are going to hate, because the tautology wouldn't make much sense if they didn't.  Still, everyone loved Heady so dang much five minutes ago that anger over a necessary business decision seems, to me, like threatening to hold your breath until you turn blue, then passing out and hitting your head on the coffee table.  And to be sure, it was a necessary decision, even if we don't know the reason for it.  

     Perhaps they saw this as the only fair way to assure that a greater swath of people would be able to get their hands on their beer by shifting it all to their existing commercial accounts.  You might also note in their blog, they mention that they are not taking on new accounts at this time, but you really have to say that along with an announcement like this unless you want retailers kicking down your door.  It could also be that the level of business they were doing at the cannery was upsetting neighbors, and they didn't want something like what happened to Tree House Brewing to happen to them.  Maybe this is all part of a super secret plan to free themselves to brew different beers again, or even widen their distribution.  

     Whatever it is, they didn't do this just because they felt like it, and the panic and hate and flouncing are unjustified and, frankly, stupid.  Are you mad because you can't buy five cases of Heady Topper at a time, or because you'll have to go plan to go to stores instead on your Vermont trip?  I really do think that by essentially subletting the decision about how much a single person can by to the retailers, this will make Heady Topper accessible to more people than when it was being bought by the case at the cannery.  And you know what?  There are lots of other great beer destinations in the part of Vermont.  Check some of the other ones out on your way to the many fine stores that will still, now and in the future, carry Heady Topper.

     Oh, and if you actually want to be upset about something, Mexican Coke is soon to be no more.  You have my full permission to pull a nutty on that one.