Archive for the 'beer' category
POC #13: Brouwers Bigwood Festival
December 1, 2007 2:00 pm
Brouwers Cafe in Fremont is in full swing with their Bigwood Festival. Over 40 excellent beers that have been conditioned in wood make this festival a must attend event. The beers were rolled out Thursday night and will continue until supplies run out - so get there sooner than later.
In this Piece of Crap, we are hanging out at Brouwers and enjoying some fine beers conditioned in bourbon barrels. We also chat with manager and bartender, Chris Cavanaugh, to find out a little more about the Bigwood Festival, bourbon, and the Brouwers Cafe in general.
Also, don’t forget, tonight is the last night of the Washington Winter Beer Festival. Given that it is being held at Hales Brewery, only a stones throw from Brouwers, this could be the night to check them both out.
Show Beer a Little Gratitude this Thanksgiving
November 18, 2007 4:12 pm
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and many of us will be joining friends and family for festive dining and cheerful imbibing. Although I suspect that wine is the most traditionally served drink on this festive occasion; this year I’d like to encourage you to include Craft Beer in your holiday menu. While beer may not be a common part of your family tradition, even the Pilgrims were Ale drinkers and it is widely believed that beer had a place on the table at the first Thanksgiving.
The notion would make sense since beers accentuate the typical Thanksgiving feast even better than most wines. Caramelized and toasted grain flavors in many beers complement the flavors of roast turkey. Furthermore, the carbonation, fruitiness and balanced bitterness of many craft beers allow them to stand up to creamy, butter-rich preparations like mashed potatoes and creamed corn. According to Brewers Association Spokesperson Julia Herz, “Many styles of beer both complement and contrast the food they are paired with, whereas wine mostly contrasts. The holiday dinner table is a very appropriate place for beer made from America’s small, independent and traditional brewers.”
A lot of terrific seasonal ales hit the shelves this time of year so be sure to spend some time in the Craft Beer isle of your favorite grocer before making your way to meet your host. If you’re hosting this season, click here to get some ideas on how to pair and serve like a pro. Still not conviced? Below is a brief interview with Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery and Author of the Brewmasters’ Table, that I recorded in 2006 at the Craft Brewers Conference in Seattle.
The CrapMonkey Podcast Episode #124
November 4, 2007 10:56 pm
Fun times with beer are just around the corner. This weekend you’ll want to check out the Pyramid Snowed In Party at the Seattle Brewery. The Presidents are the Friday night headliner and the Dandy Warhols are Saturday’s attraction (besides the SnowCap of course). Click here for more details. On November 30th and December 1st, don’t miss the Winter Beer Festival at Hales Brewery.
In this podcast I have a couple of audio clips from the Podcast and New Media Expo. At the Wizzard Media party, I ran into Omaha Sternberg of MacRadio getting tied up by GrayDancer, producer of the Ropecast (who was there on behalf of TwistedMonk.com). Photos are on Flickr.
The song of the day is There She Goes by Brother Love and the website of the day is the Association of Downloadable Media. The show closes on Two Years Down by Stonehoney.
Fremont Oktoberfest 2007: Worst Brewfest Ever
September 25, 2007 8:55 pm
Oktoberfest in Fremont definitely felt like it was put on by people with little or no experience in the brewfest business. For starters, the price was too high and the taster glasses too small. Taster glasses for all brewfests in Washington have been shrinking year over year, however, the price isn’t usually as gouging as Fremont demonstrated this weekend. Entrance to the garden was $20, which included only four tastes, $25 would get you eight tastes, and any additional tastes were $1.75 each. The beer selection was decent, but could have definitely been better (approximately 70 brews representing 35 breweries). The worst part of the event came down to organization. I believe there were three tents in all, each tent containing about 10 or 12 breweries. The tents were labeled as to which beers were housed within, but just where in the tent the beers resided was a mystery that could only be solved once you were close enough to the tap to read the accompanying table tents. This proved to be very challenging because the lines were quite long after about 3pm on Saturday. To get a beer, one had to weave between the lines in order to get close enough to determine just where the beer was being poured, then return to the back to actually stand in the line. It was definitely not an ideal layout. In the early evening on Saturday, one of the tents discovered this dilemma and used duct tape to hang signs on the outside of the tent (where they could actually be read from a distance). The others may have followed suit eventually, but I didn’t stay the entire evening to find out. Those that did stay for the evening reported that many of the beers ran dry and festival goers began to get understandably cranky as a result.
To put an ironic head on this skunky, contaminated beer: just outside the festival gates sits Brouwers Café. Boasting over 50 taps and over 100 bottles, it was a welcome escape from the chaos of the brewfest. Once I sat down and ordered a full glass of Diamond Knot XIPA, I wondered why I ever bothered with the festival in the first place.
I do want to be careful not to paint the entire festival in a bad light because my real frustration was with the Stranger Microbrew Garden (even the name, since I would contend that most of the beers present were Craft beers… but I digress). The Street Fair and the Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contest are a regular draw for the festival and are surely an excellent source of entertainment. Additionally, the funds raised go to the Fremont Chamber of Commerce to support Fremont schools, art groups and other community events. Those footnotes should certainly not go unrecognized. Still, the real star of the show should be the beer, and that part went heinously wrong this year. Hopefully the fine folks in Fremont learned a few lessons this time around so that the only thing worth saying about next year’s event is one, simple, little word… “prost.”
CMP-8-26-2007: CrapMonkey Podcast Episode 122
August 26, 2007 7:45 pm
It’s Sunday afternoon and a very busy summer is coming to an end. In this episode, I am proud to say I’ve put my iRiver back into the CrapMonkey Mix. I upgraded to the M-Audio microtrack a long time back, and my ability to capture spontaneous moments has suffered ever since. Having the iRiver back on board is already starting to pay off. On Saturday night, outside of a bar in lower Queen Anne, I caught a great rendition of the Big Mac drive through rap (performed by some of the Seattle Pyramid Alehouse crew). Not sure where this rap came from? Check it out on YouTube.
This episode also boasts a guest restroom review of the Heritage Hall in Vancouver B.C., brought to us by Cosmo G. Spacely of the Clubside Breakfast Time Podcast (aka - Jacob Stewart). The urinal in this review is truly unique, so check out the images here.
Beer lovers, we are on our way to brewfest bliss. Here are a few to think about over the next couple of months:
- Washington Beer Commission Oktoberfest
- Fremont Oktoberfest
- Leavenworth Oktoberfest
- Great American Beer Festival
- Great Canadian Beer Festival
The song of the day is Here with You, by Tracy Hoyt and Jeff Fielder, the website of the day is NoonHat. Today’s program closes with “Seahawk’s, Give It All You’ve Got” by Keith Sexton.
Want to chime in? Send an email to Travis@crapmonkey.com. Audio comments are welcome.
The Oregon Brewfest is Worth the Trip
August 11, 2007 10:28 am
This post is long overdue. Two weeks back, a group of us hopped a train and headed down to Portland for the weekend. Portland was a great town, but the highlight of the weekend was definitely the Oregon Brewfest. The amount of beer pouring was incredible and the people there were great. Overall, the event could use a little more organization in order to deal with the huge amount of foot traffic that was lining up for pogs and beer. The lines were so long that it became impracticle to get “tastes” of beer. After the long wait to get to the pouring station, filling the glass to the top became an imperitive. Hopefully they will be able to correct this problem for future events because everything else about the festival runs smoothly and the event will definitely hold a reoccuring place on my summer schedule. Images of the event (and the trip to Portand) are available on Flickr and media is available for downlaod below in Windows Media format.
Johnny Pinchaloaf Rocks Ballard Brewfest
August 10, 2007 11:42 am
The Ballard Brewfest took place on March 4th, 2007 and featured some great live entertainment. We were first treated to Gelsey’s Polka Sing-Along and were then honored with the presence of the rock n roll legend himself, Johnny Pinchaloaf. The weather was great for gathering and plenty of quality beer was pouring. The parts that I remember were filled with fun and good cheer. Photos are available on Flickr and recordings of the music are available below in Windows Streaming Media format.
Gelsey’s Polka Sing-along
Johnny Pinchaloaf
Review: Moylan’s India Pale Ale
May 12, 2007 6:52 pm
Moylan’s India Pale Ale
Brewer: Moylan’s Brewery
Rating: 3 CMUs (CrapMonkey Units)
With its gold, cloudy color; this beer looks nice in the glass. Unfortunately, the aroma didn’t capture me the way I’d hoped and the taste left something more to be desired. I’m a fan of the hoppy flavor that IPA’s are known for, and Moylan’s IPA definitely brings the hops (in fact, it is dry hopped with two hop varieties). Unfortunately, the fruity hops flavor seems to overpower the rest of the beer like a choir without its bass and baritones. Moylan’s also makes a Double IPA which I have heard good things about but have not yet tried. That beer is described as having an”…enormous malt backbone like naughty monkeys on a vine. Double malt, double hops.” Perhaps the malt backbone in the double provides the balance that the single IPA is lacking.
Review: Rogue Brutal Bitter
May 6, 2007 8:41 pm
Rogue Brutal Bitter - 59 IBU
Brewer: Rogue Brewery
Rating: 4.5 CMUs (CrapMonkey Units)
Don’t let the name fool you, this is certainly not a brutal beer. In fact, it is quite smooth and respectful of the senses. The beer starts with a very good pour - foamy, but not to the point of annoyance. Additionally, the aroma suits this bitter well. You are struck with the sense of walking into a brewery as this beer reaches your nose - a sensation that lasts the duration of the beer. The taste is delicious, but I was expecting something a bit more hoppy and bitter given the name. Be careful pairing food with it as it’s much more susceptible to being overpowered than its name would have you believe. I also have to say that it is a surprisingly even tasting beer. The first taste that hits your tongue is nearly identical to the mild and pleasing taste it leaves behind. I would recommend this as an after-dinner beer, perhaps on a Sunday evening on the patio as the sun sets. To that end, a very mild cigar would also share the stage with a Brutal Bitter quite nicely.
