MontreHaul and Vermont Sipcation. Part II

MontreHaul and Vermont Sipcation. Part Two

Waking up in Vermont we were only a couple hours away from Montreal and it was a cloudy rainy day so we took our time meandering up the outskirt of Lake Champlain and crossed the border into small town Canada as we let the kilometers roll by and took in the farm countryside of our friends up North.  As we arrived in Montreal we realized our GPS was a bit confused with the french roads... we adapted and navigated our way into the heart of downtown and pulled
into our home for the next four days. 

Delta Montreal

Another Hotwire exclusive that placed us right in teh heart of downtown in between Rue St Catherine and Rue Sherbrooke, and it was really a great modern hotel with a sweet view from the 15th floor. Modern sleek clean and comfortable with a in-room Bodum percolator and IHome clock radio to dock an ipod and the flat screen tv had a desk console with a usb, hdmi , firewire cable adaptorsfor tech savvy travelers !

As the rain came down we unpacked and organized our room to make it home for the next few days I pulled out my beer map that I made via google maps before heading out on vacation.

On this map I dropped pins on any brewpubs, bottleshops, record stores, restaurants and markets we may want to visit while out walking around... I don't have a smart phone...gasp, so we simply kept this map loaded on our ipad and when we were looking for a place to visit we could simply open it up to the map and navigate our surroundings and see any pins we may be close too !

After checking the weather it seemed the evening was going to be a rainy one so we decided we would go hoping around from brewpub to brewpub within a few blocks of our hotel.

First stop which ended up only being about a five minute walk from the hotel was:

Benelux
245 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest

We were there to help open the place around 4pm with only a couple other patrons there having a quick pint for lunch. The bartender was very nice and helpful, we started off with a few pints and after being pretty impressed with them I decided to get a sampler of everything offered.

Every beer offered was quite drinkable and well made and they offer a small menu of paninis and cheese plates that were very affordable and quite tasty considering they were also prepared by the bartender. They have a nice outside patio and the inside is jam packed with chairs and its quite obvious that this place gets bumping when the sun goes down... but for a quiet lunch spot with close to a dozen solid offerings it was just what we were looking for as a first stop in Montreal.

After a few beers and a nice lunch in our bellies, the rain outside turned into a deluge and we decided to scurry back over to our hotel to dry off and suit up for a night on the town. After a little more relaxing and unpacking the rain slowed to a sprinkle and we took the opportunity to make our way over to a few more brewpubs for brews and appetizers.

Next stop was...

Le Saint-Bock
1749 Rue Saint-Denis

This place was having a Dogfish Head night and it was kind of amusing watching them geek out on bottles of 60 minute and anxiously ripping labels off for their collections at the table next to us. Along with Dogfish Head bottles they also just had a BFM  tap take over a few nights prior and their draft list included some tasty Bon Chien vintages and a few Grand Cru leftovers as well. The service ended up being painfully slow and the place must have been a humid 80 degrees plus because I went through a handful of napkins wiping my brow and a couple of my beers ended up being finished warm as they weren't served very cold and then warmed up in the temperatures fairly quickly. Even my wife was complaining about the heat so we decided on just ordering a salad and what we thought was pretzels but ended up being a hot dog on a stick... strike one for our french > english menu translations... Im usually pretty good but this was an amusing fail!

After a few more painful attempts at getting our waiters attention we decided to order a couple more of their in house brews and call it good. All three brews were balanced and flavorful but served a bit warm and nearly flat, which took away from the experience quite a bit. Personally I think we will skip another stop at Le Saint-Bock on our next visit.

From there we were still hungry and happy to get some fresh cool air... with the rain picking up again we strolled just up the road to another spot that was more relaxed and less busy.

Brasserie Artisanale L'amere 'a boire
2049 Rue Saint-Denis

(apologies for the subpar pics, Im not one to use a flash inside a restaurant)

This place had a nice open wall front letting a nice gentle breeze roll into the bistro/cafe set up. They had a little focused menu and we ordered another salad, some duck wings that were amazing with a sweet honey and sesame sauce, as well as an order of gyoza dumpling stuffed with a rabbit confit.

The beers were also delicious with very german style offerings. We enjoyed a couple 22oz glasses of the house made czech lager, montreal helles and a pilsner as well. All were refreshing clean and perfectly balanced. That accompanied by a seemingly older more mature crowd and a super friendly staff made this a must stop for all our future Montreal visits.

After our fill of appetizers and beers we took a meandering stroll along the rain soaked streets back to our hotel for a good nights rest before a epic few more days of foraging, drinking and eating !

MontreHaul and Vermont Sipcation. Part I

MontreHaul and Vermont Sipcation. Part One.

Looking for a roadtrip ?  

Here is a nice little vacation my wife and I recently spent visiting some wonderful spots, sipping some serious suds and foraging some cellar reinforcements !

Portland > Waterbury > Burlington > Montreal > Greensboro > Portland

One of the best parts of this trip is the lack of highway driving involved. From Portland you head west through the hills of Western Maine and across New Hampshire right through the White Mountain National Forest... one of my favorite ranges in the White Mountains has always been Crawford Notch.

From there its through the rolling green hills of Vermont where we come across a super spot for lunch, dinner or just an app and a few great draft selections.

Prohibition Pig

Waterbury, Vermont

ALways nice to grab a few half pours to try some new things and make a decision on what to have a pint of... that along with great service, down home goodness on the menu and a stellar draft and cocktail list make this place a must stop when out foraging in Vermont !

Always order the pickled veggies... draft selections were:

Hill Farmstead Mary

Hill Farmstead Edward

Siren/Evil Twin/Grassroots Siren

Lawsons Finest Sip of Sunshine

ProPig Pale Ale

ProPig Kombucha

The boards speak volumes to the menu offered and even the bill comes wrapped in a reconstituted hop bag billfold. Mmmm Citra.

From Waterbury we hit the road toward Burlington where we secured a hotel via hotwire. It landed us in Essex at the Essex Resort which was a nice place to stay but we didn't spend time exploring all the spa's and resort amenities we could have but rather jumped back in the car to hit up...

Fiddlehead Brewing 

Shelburne, VT

I've had the pleasure of drinking a few IPA's from this brewery and have been pretty impressed with the quality of the beer they have been putting out and heard recently they have been releasing 16oz cans of some of their batches so decided to make the 25 minute trek over from Essex to visit the place, digest our Prohibition Pig lunch and try a few more Vermont brews. The only tasters offered at the brewery were the solid Fiddlehead IPA that I have had before and a slightly lackluster hefeweizen that was definitely drinkable, it just lacked any complexity or focused yeast character for me to get very excited about purchasing some. I inquired about cans and they happened to have 4pks of their Hodad Porter which is a toasted coconut, vanilla and chocolate porter that is pretty tasty and worth picking up a 4pk for sure. The person working the tasting room was pretty friendly and also directed my attention to a barrel aged maple sap beer they had just released in collaboration with the Vermont Folklife Center who shared some old time sap beer recipes with Fiddleheads brewer Matt Cohen.

The description: 

"This year, brewer Matt Cohen has something extra special cooked up, "We're doing a little twist on our Sap Beer and aging it in bourbon barrels for a few months.”

What is sap beer? Stated simply, sap beer is beer brewed using fresh maple sap in place of water. Sap beer is traditionally made with sap collected late in the season—the “frog run” as sugar makers call it--when the sound of peepers fills the air and trees are getting ready to bud. The history of sap beer runs as deep in Vermont as the roots of a sugar maple, and Frog Run Sap Beer is a contemporary sap beer tied to Vermont’s traditional sugar making and brewing cultures.

Fiddlehead Brewing Company’s Frog Run Sap Beer is made from sap provided by Moonlit Mapleworks in Bristol, VT, and the result is a bright, refreshing ale with a crisp, subtle maple finish. "

I noticed the barrels he said the beer had aged in to be Stranahan's bourbon and inquired a little more about the process and the final product. Questions like how much sap was used in the boil as well as what type of yeast strain was used in fermentation of the beer... all these questions were answered with the classic, "well thats a trade secret, bub !" and after a few of those answers and the possibility of being called bub once more...I reluctantly purchased a 750ml bottle of it seemingly blindly for $20, stay tuned to see what this bottle is all about in a future review.

From there we proceeded down the road to downtown Burlington where we took a relaxing stroll amongst the ever increasing chain stores that line up along the main pedestrian walk way... these days aren't quite as special as the old days being that of the early and mid 90's when the magic of Phish was in the air and the local breweries like Magic Hat, Longtrail, Catamount and Otter Creek were producing beers that at the time I found to be most unique and interesting. Well times have changed and now it kind of feels like a large open air mall but there are still a few choice spots to catch some tasty food and the new breed of Vermont brewers that have taken the reigns and pushed the envelope of what a great beer should taste like.    

For dinner we chose:

The Farmhouse Tap & Grill

Burlington, VT

Looking back I cannot quite recall exactly what we had but I know there was pickled vegetables involved, a nice slab of local meat that was braised to perfection and salad that incorporated a strawberry vinaigrette very nicely. The atmosphere was laid back but bustling with people... we actually had to chill on the back patio and wait for a seat for a half hour but it was an easy wait sipping some Lost Nation Gose and talking about what the rest of our adventure through Montreal was shaping up to be ! Presentation was spot on and service was fantastic... we opted on a to go dessert which was a great desicion upon arriving back at the Essex Resort to share a piece of dark luscious black chocolate cake with a can of Fiddlehead Hodad Porter to wash it down with.

-----Day One Complete---- 

Portland > Waterbury > Burlington, DONE.

Homebrew: Hop Ranking Simcoe

Hop Ranking 

Batch Three

Simcoe

So I have been slowly tweaking my original recipe on the base and shifting primarily to all grain with the "grain in a bag" technique... and a good dose of advice from some extremely helpful brewers. This batch I believe was close to 8 pounds of grain with 2 pounds of extra light DME added to round out the fermentable sugars. I foresee the next batch being all grain and Im thinking Im ready to throw a yeast variable into the mix and do a 100% brettanomyces primary with a blend of citra, simcoe and galaxy for a hop addition.

But back to the current batch of the Hop Ranking series. This batch is drinking quite nicely and holds a gorgeous foamy head for the length of the beer. I've fallen in love with the flavor punch of the simcoe hop. Big dank tropical pineapple mingles with woodsy pine and a citrus kick to draw out the bitterness nicely. This batch is by far the cleanest malt profile, which I attribute mostly to the conversion from less DME and more grain. Im thinking of adjusting out some of the caramunich in the next batch to lighten up the color a bit and possibly add some flaked wheat on a recommendation from a trustworthy source. This should help create more complex starches and proteins for the yeast to munch on. Im hoping this will result in a bit more roundness on the edges of the mouthfeel.

 Overall Im happy with this batch, I have found a few bottles to have brief glimpses of acetone wafting through the beer as the drinking temperature fluctuates. I am however highly sensitive to this aroma and have not found other people who have come across it as well. Not sure quite where those aromas are coming from but I have a sneaky suspicion its occurring as a byproduct of the plastic liner on the oxygen "eating" caps that I bought by accident. Blasted caps !

Always room for improvement.

In closing here is a little glimpse into where I came up with the name Hop Ranking...

Figure a beer with some heavy tropical notes and a hint of toasted malt was pretty clever.

Trinity the original toaster... for those not reggae savvy "toasting" is the art of rhyming over a rhythm and Jamaica is as tropical as it gets! 

Hence HOP RANKING !  

Bottle Share: Blind Brett Saison Tasting !

Blind Brett Saison Tasting !

So in a classic blind tasting style all bottles were wrapped in paper bags prior to tasting and the cork and cap markings were hidden to best of our ability.  We cracked all of them so that the few caps that were somewhat obvious would get a bit jumbled when marking each bottle with a number and then randomly sliding them into a empty wine box. 

Scoring sheets were handed out, I grabbed these from Ratebeer's database:

One by one we sipped, scored, made confident proclamations, followed by some head scratching and uncertainty, some flavor profile and descriptors were discussed but overall everyone kept their numbers to themselves.

Im not going to call out everyone involved... there were 5 of us, using the Ratebeer model we rated them from 1-5.0 and below is the cumulative scores for all the beers:

Anchorage / Grassroots Arctic Saison

(4.2 + 3.2 + 3.8 + 4.0 + 3.7 = 18.9)

Block 15 La Ferme de la Ville Provision

(4.4 + 4.1 + 3.7 + 3.7 + 4.1 = 20.0)

Prairie Artisan Ales Prairie Ale

(3.7 + 3.8 + 3.6 + 3.7 + 3.9 = 18.7)

Blue Lobster/Prairie Little Lobster on the Prairie

(4.3 + 4.4 + 3.9 + 4.1 + 4.0 = 20.7)

Boulevard Saison Brett 2013

(4.0 + 4.1 + 3.9 + 3.4 + 3.8 = 19.2) 

Boulevard Saison Brett 2012

(3.5 + 3.1 + 3.1 + 3.8 + 3.9 = 17.4)

Sante Adairius Lucybelle

(4.3 + 4.4 + 4.2 + 4.1 + 4.2 = 21.2)

BFM √225

(3.8 + 3.5 + 3.8 + 3.9 + 4.1 = 19.1)

Mystery Brett Saison

(1.8 + 2.6 + 2.9 +  2.2 + 3.6 = 13.1)

Final Results in order of Best to Worst !

 Sante Adairius Lucybelle
Blue Lobster / Prairie Little Lobster on the Prairie
Block 15 La Ferme de la Ville Provision
Boulevard Saison Brett 2013
BFM √225
Anchorage/Grassroots Arctic Saison
Prairie Artisan Ales Prairie Ale
Boulevard Saison Brett 2012
Mystery Brett Saison

Along with the blind tasting we started with a few sours, some classics and finished with a tasty stout !

Voodoo Brewing Big Black Voodoo Daddy (Apple Brandy)
Dupont Saison Cuvee Dry Hopped 2014
Fantome Saison
De Garde Vin Lee
Oxbow Liquid Swords
Toppling Goliath
Homebrew Single Hop Simco

Another great night of beers and looking forward to more focused blind tastings to come as I think we all found this to be a fun and eye opening experience !

Bottle Share: Berliner Bash !

Berliner Bash !

----the Line Up----

Cigar City 5 Beer Year Florida Weisse (w/ Tangerine & Orange)

Cigar City 5 Beer Year Margarita Gose

Stillwater Gose Gone Wild

Westbrook Gose

Smuttynose Strawberry Short Weisse

Smuttynose Straw-Barb Weisse

Ful Sail Berliner Weisse

White Birch Berliner Weisse

New Belgium Yuzu Berliner

Dogfishhead Festina Peche

New Glarus Berliner Weisse

Firestone Walker Bretta Rose

Bahnhof Berliner Weisse

Blue Lobster Piscataquaweisse 

Blue Lobster Hamptonweisse

----Highlights----

Firestone Walker Bretta Rose

(Wow, this bordered on a great framboise with lots of funky unripe raspberry, old wet oak funk and some earthy stems and dusty basement musk.)

Cigar City Florida Weisse 

(This was probably the best true to style berliner of the night with gorgeous juicy tangerine fruit that balanced perfectly with tart lacto qualities and a nice shredded wheat backbone. Crushable !)

Blue Lobster Piscataquaweisse 

(Still drinking beautifully with a ligth refreshing carbonation and great harmony between the pluot skin, tight blueberry fog and light handed tart lacto quality)

Bahnhof Berliner Weisse 

(Got to give a nod to the classic, round cheerio malts, lemony tang and dialed in carbonation)

Stillwater Gose Gone Wild

(As you know I reviewed this a few days ago and this bottle was a very similar experience of being punched in the face from the first sip only to fall into the juicy complexities as your palate slowly adjusts and the nuances become more apparent)

----Honorable Mentions----

Blue Lobster Hamptonweisse

(Still a pretty crushable beer but some of the apricot complexity has fallen off a bit at least in this bottle... which is rare as this beer was never "officially" bottled but thats a perk to sipping berliners with Sleepy Dave :)

Cigar City Margarita Gose 

(Nothing spectacular about this offering but I found it very crushable and pretty dialed in for the style. Not as much flavor punch as I hoped after drinking the Florida Weisse version but would gladly crush another bottle on a warm summer day !)

New Glarus Berliner Weisse 

(Bright crisp champagne like body with subtle riesling grape and wet oak complexities. I remember liking this more in the past, still and easy drinker just a bit more watery than I expected.) 

Westbrook Gose 

(This was the first time I drank this beer and was not 100% impressed. I still stand by it being an amazing beer don't get me wrong this one just seemed a bit subdued and lacking the fruity pebbles character and focus that Im use to. Granted the can may have 6+ months on it ? )

----Drainpours----

Im not gonna get long winded here and just give a couple words of descriptions as to why these beers made more fodder for the drain than to our stomachs...

Smuttynose Straw-Barb Weisse

(Acetone, Acetone and more acetone)

New Belgium Yuzu Berliner

(Minty herbal mouthwash)

Smuttynose Strawberry Short Weisse

(Strawberry notes have become somewhat artificial, no carbonation and a bit off)

Dogfishead Festina Peche 2010

(Buttery diacetyl and stale peach juice)

White Birch Berliner Weisse 

(I actually enjoyed this beer many times in 2012 but the 2013 release was just weird and off the mark.. it hasn't changed)

Full Sail Berliner Weisse 

(This offering wasn't bad but tasted more of cheap brut or seltzer water than anything else, in fact I added a shot a Corsair Gin and found it to be a delicious mixer... even better with a dash of  cranberry liquor, Mmmm !)

Overall a great tasting with Sleepy Dave in his new spot in Newmarket !

Cheers.

Omnipollo Schiuma Party / Hypnopompa

Omnipollo Schiuma Party & Hypnopompa (Bourbon Barrel)

Brewer's Description: 

Schiuma Party ~ collaboration w/ Stillwater

 (Saison aged for 4 months on wine barrels with brett.)

Hypnopompa (Bourbon BA) 

(Bourbon BA Imperial Stout brewed with marshmallows and Tahitian vanilla beans. Gold cap. Henok)

I first tried Omnipollo when I attended the Festival in Worcester and stumbled onto their unassuming table to find a couple of solid offerings. I remember the brewers being super down to earth and very humble about their process of making beer and more importantly their passion. Since that time I have snagged a bottle of whatever I have been able to find from these "gypsy" brewers from Sweden.

My thoughts:

Schiuma Party ~ (collaboration w/ Stillwater) 

Pours a hazy medium golden color with a couple fingers of white fizzy foam. Lots of play between vinous acidity, tart fruit, doughy malts and a nice brett presence that adds complexity and a dry finish. Notes of charcuterie, dusty lemon, pine, grapefruit, old wood, barnyard funk, floral hay, dandelion greens, wine soaked cork.

Final Rating: 

AROMA 8/10   APPEARANCE 4/5   TASTE 8/10   PALATE 4/5   OVERALL 16/20 

Final Score:

4.0 out of 5

Hypnopompa (Bourbon Barrel Aged)

Pours a deep burnt umber color with a finger of khaki foam. Inviting aromas and a smooth creamy mouthfeel with a touch of carbonation to lift the flavors out nicely. Lots of rich chocolate, burnt brownie, vanilla beans soaked in bourbon, caramel, nutty fudge. Silky sweet midpalate that draws out nicely with some bittersweet bakers chocolate and some lingering dark fruits. Solid !

Final Rating: 

AROMA 9/10   APPEARANCE 4/5   TASTE 8/10   PALATE 4/5   OVERALL 16/20

Final Score:

4.1 out of 5

Buy, Forage and Hoard or Pass By:

I would highly recommend buying a bottle of each of these interesting and unique beers. If you find that you enjoy either of them as much as I did then neither of the beers would object to a year or two in the cellar to see what happens !

Bottle Share: Brooklyn Verticals and Rooftop Sippers...

Brooklyn Verticals and Rooftop Sippers...

Nice little bottle share that was the start of the rooftop sipping season !

Not pictured was this tasty lil crusher:

Cigar City Stiftung Berliner Weisse

Overall all the beers consumed on this perfect sunny day to close out May were worth the taste with the exception of Green Monster, that was an abomination !

Here is the rundown:

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout 06/07. 07/08. 08/09. 09.10
(all were tasty 07/08 was probably my favorite with some layered dried blueberry notes that worked nicely with the roasty cocoa and even touches of kola nut and anise)

Brooklyn Black Ops 2011, 2012, 2013
(Overall again all were worth the sip, the 11 was a touch thin with lots of champagne yeast character that added some dusty musty fruit notes that made this one my least favorite. The 12 and 13 were similar but the 13's bourbon character stood out as a reason to consume this beer on the fresher side)

From here Im just gonna lay out the rest of the beers consumed in order of my personal preference:

Northcoast BA Old Stock Brandy 2011
Cigar City Leon
Logsdon Far West Vlaming
Cascade Tangerine Dream
Wicked Weed Black Angel
Cisco Dark Woods
10 Barrel 16 barrels

and at the very bottom and highly recommended to let this one pass by...
Deschutes Green Monster