New Belgium Brewing Co. & Fat Tire Comes to DC August 22

Fat Tire Beer

On this blog, I’m really trying to have to make it more than the rehashing of news that’s already been posted elsewhere but… I’m so pumped about this news that I just had to share.

New Belgium Brewing Company and their fan favorite beer Fat Tire will start being available in Washington DC bars on top as soon as August 22nd.

According to Washington City Paper

Following up on its announcement in January, New Belgium said Wednesday that the company has signed contractual agreements with 17 distributors in Maryland, Virginia and Washington. The Ft. Collins brewery will be working with D.C.’s Premium Distributors, which carries American macros Miller and Coors, as well as large craft brands including Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada. After picking up New Belgium, Premium now distributes six of the top seven U.S. breweries based on sales by volume.

You can expect to see Fat Tire Amber Ale, the 20-year-old brewing company’s flagship beer, Ranger IPA and the fall seasonal, Hoptober Ale available in 22-ounce bottles as soon as August 22.

I fell in love with New Belgium’s Fat Tire on one of my many trips to the West Coast and was pretty devastated when I found out that I couldn’t get it back home.

So who’s up for a Fat Tire Welcome to DC party on August 22nd?

(Photo by BetsyWeber)

 

Easter is a Feast Day in Germany

Note: Germany is a prominent feature of your contributor’s posts (for example), but now he lives in the country, not far from Stuttgart. He believes German food is not a contradiction in terms, and he looks forward to sharing the tastes of his newfound home.

The church refers to Easter as a feast day, and my German family truly lived it out here in Baden-Wuerttemberg. One of the nice things about Germany is that Easter is an official holiday. On Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, everything is closed, with Saturday set aside for holiday hustle and bustle. In fact, having a little time off gives the most important day of the Christian year almost the same respect as Christmas – you could go through the holiday rituals without thinking of pressing work deadlines. My German family feasted like they believe in Resurrection, like they believe Easter means death truly is overcome. The food was heavenly. Here are the highlights.

I grew up eating sweet ham on Easter, but in the Germany, lamb (appropriately) is the traditional Easter meat. Uncle Gerhard grilled some choice cut from a lamb raised in near-by Goeppingen. My mother-in-law used lamb to make a delicious Hungarian Goulash. In addition, we had a surprisingly-juicy turkey breast served in an exquisite wine sauce.

Grilled lamb

Lamb Gulasch

 

 

 

 

 

 

That same wine sauce was served over one of my favorite German foods, spaetzle (pronounced shpet-zleh, not spate-zull), home-made egg noodles. For Easter, my wife’s aunt prepared two varieties, one plane, and one mixed with Chives.

Spaetzle: German comfort food

Spring in Germany is asparagus season – they even have asparagus festivals. Our Easter asparagus was served baked with Gouda cheese, though it is normally served in a hollandaise sauce. Of course, my preferred vegetable is anything that goes in a good salad, and our salad was a spring garden mix of arucola, lettuce, tomatoes and herbs grown in the garden. Any German grocery store provides great salad seasoning, which, mixed with the right amount of olive oil and white balsamic vinegar makes a delightfully tangy dressing.

Swabian Potato Salad

Speaking of vinegar, spring is also that time of year when the Germans start to make potato salad, and our Easter feast was no exception. Potato salad in southern Germany has less mayo and more vinegar than in the north, which makes it a light, cool side on a warm day. Yes, it may look like a big bowl of scrambled eggs, but let me assure you, the flavor makes it one of the tastiest things on the menu.

Of course, a Resurrection feast needs the appropriate drink:

An afternoon thirst quencher

Perfect. You probably know that Paulaner Hefeweizen is available in major grocery and liquor stores in the U.S., and it’s one of the best German beers on the market. It’ll be on the pricey side, but if you want some authenticity at your next biergarten party, grab some Paulaner instead of some American Oktoberfest seasonal (which, I do admit, have their place). Hefeweizen is served in beautiful vase-like half-liter glasses. I could go into more detail (that’s for another blogpost), but mistrust anyone who serves Hefeweizen in your average pint glass.

Let’s not forget dessert. I struggled to include it after maybe overeating just the teensiest little bit, but I coudn’t resist the four varieties of cakes. Generally speaking, German cakes are a little less “cakey” than the American variety. In terms of consistency, if there is a scale with “cake” on one side, and “pie” on the other, most German cakes fall somewhere in the middle. They are not cake or filling heavy; they have  a lot of both. German cakes usually have less sugar, but make up for it in the fruit or chocolate area and some are made with enough liquor to knock out a water buffalo.

For example, egg nog is an Easter drink here in Central Europe, and my wife’s aunt bak ed a delectable egg nog cake. Yellow. Creamy. Egg Noggy. Goodness. The only thing that could match it would be some sort of chocolate bottomed caked soaked in cherry liquor, topped with fresh cherries, cream and cocoa: A Black Forest Cherry Torte. I apologize in advance for any hunger caused by the following pictures.

It's not Christmas, it's egg nog!

Black Forest Cherry Torte

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wait, did someone order a fresh strawberry cake?

Or what about Rhubarb? Yes, we had both. I had space on my plate for a piece of each.

Strawberry goodness

So, on Easter, we feasted. It was all delicious. It was a team effort; everyone contributed. Everyone, except… well… hey, at least I wrote about it afterwards!

 

Gary Vaynerchuk with Brooklyn Brewery’s Brewmaster Garrett Oliver

Gary Vaynerchuk pumps out another AWESOME episode of Wine Library TV where he goes to Brooklyn, NY to talk to Brooklyn Brewery’s brewmaster Garrett Oliver.  The interview runs almost 40 minutes long.

In the episode, they try Brooklyn’s Local 1, Local 2, and Black Ops, none of which I’ve tried.   (I do know a DC store that carries Local 1 and Local 2.  I’ll go pick them up. Ha.)

They also talk a lot about Garrett’s background and his passion for beer and pushing the boundaries of beer making.  Sounds like Garrett has done some really fascinating collaborations with outside groups to make beers that you wouldn’t normally be able to get.  From the interview, you get the impression that Garrett is a really dynamic guy and that he’d be fun to talk to.

One thing that stood out for me was how, on Friday nights, they transform the brewery into a town gathering place where everyone (young and old) gathers to celebrate the week.   He said it was very much alike to the notion of a beer garden in Germany.

Here’s the episode.  It’s so good.  As I was watching it on the subway today, I missed my stop because I was so engrossed in it…

The Old Toad, My Favorite Bar From College, Gets Featured in Slashfood

I went to college at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY.   When I became of legal drinking age, one of my first discoveries was the Rochester bar/English pub The Old Toad.   It’s the perfect place for long conversations with friends over great beers.    I have so many great memories there.

It was fun to see The Old Toad featured in the popular food blog Slashfood.  Check it out…

For the past 20 years, the Old Toad has been a mainstay in the Rochester area and even has a regional claim to fame as the first bar in the eastern U.S. to serve cask ale. “We’re a British-inspired pub,” says bar manager Kevin Roman, explaining the reason for selling beer the way they do across the pond. “The Rochester community has taken to it. We see a lot of demand for cask.”

Leinenkugel’s 1888 Bock is a Great Winter Beer

The Washington area is sitting under what remains of two record-breaking snowstorms. School, not to mention the Federal Government, is closed. Children are making snowmen. D.C.’s young professionals are engaging in snowball fights. Family’s are huddled inside around the fire. Justin is making a daily trek to Peregrine to keep his winter sanity.

You know what that means? Yes, exactly. The spring beers are here!

Some marketing study must have convinced U.S. brewers that Americans prefer to anticipate seasons rather than live in the present. That’s why we can drink winter beers while passing out Halloween candy, drink Oktoberfest bier before the NFL preseason even starts and, of course, buy a six-pack of spring seasonals while stocking up on frozen pizza and toilet paper to wait out the winter storms.

Indeed, while I was elbowing my way through the crowds at Harris Teeter the other day, I noticed the spring beers had arrived and were on sale. Justin already mentioned Sam Adam’s Noble Pilsner is here, but I needed a beer that says, in effect, “come in from the cold, sit down by the fire, drink a pint in the warm glow of the embers.” Leinenkugel’s 1888 Bock fits the bill.

Yes, I am well aware that the Wisconsin brewery’s winter beer, Fireside Nut Brown, is supposed to fill that niche. Maybe it does. Maybe they also stopped selling it before Thanksgiving. But forget the 1888 Bock packaging, which features green grass, a pleasant river and a rowboat – this beer tastes like winter to me.

Spring beer should be well-lit and refreshing, something to enjoy on the front porch the moment it’s warm enough to wear flip flops outside. But, and beer brewers please take note, we ain’t there yet. Fortunately, 1888 Bock is dark, flavorful and goes great with rich, heavy comfort food. It left me with the sort of warm, happy feeling in my chest that good bocks leave behind, kind of like the feeling you get when a good friend gives you a bear hug.

Spring seasonal? Ok, if they say so. But if you ask me, this is a great beer for a snowy day.

Samuel Adams Noble Pils is Now Available in Stores

This afternoon, on the way home from work,  I ducked into the local liquor store in my neighborhood and we pleasantly surprised to find a new Samuel Adams beer that I had never seen before.  It’s the Samuel Adams Noble Pils.  It’s obviously a pilsner.

Samuel Adams Noble Pils is the Boston Brewing Company’s brand new spring seasonal.  It replaced the Samuel Adams White Ale.  The Noble Pils is made with the 5 noble hop varieties.

It’s a light, easy drinking, and really delicious beer.  If you can find it, I’d recommend giving it a try.

(Photo by H Dickins)

Boston’s Beer Culture

When I was in Boston a couple of weeks ago, I definitely stopped by my share of neighborhood pubs, bars, and restaurants.   It seemed like each one had a pretty decent baseline choice of beer on tap or in bottles.

At the very least, every bar has Sam Adams or Harpoon (the locals) on tap.

When I talked to Boston folks, I was really impressed with the level that beer is a part of the culinary culture of Boston.  It’s just everywhere.

It’s very different than DC.  You could go into DC  bars that just have Coors Light and only in bottle.  It was funny telling this to Bostonians.  They responded like I was coming from a third world country.

So… yeah.  Boston is great for beer.

(Photo by xJasonRogersx)

Beer Wars Movie Now Available For Purchase Or Download

I’m kind of excited.  The previously mentioned movie Beer Wars, which chronicles the interplay between the big and micro-breweries, is now available for purchase, download, or streaming. The indie film got a distribution deal through Warner Bros., which is AWESOME.  I can’t wait to get my copy.  Will write a review as soon as I see it.

Have you seen it yet?  If not, here’s the trailer.

Magic Hat Brewery’s Spring Seasonal – Vinyl Lager

Was at the beer store this weekend and little bit surprised to see that Magic Hat Brewery had already introduced their 2010 Spring Seasonal, Vinyl Lager, considering I had to trapse through snow to get to the store.

Now that I have it back at home and have drank a couple, I have to say that I really like this easy drinking amber lager.  It’s quite delicious.

Go to your local liquor store, pick up a 6 pack, and let me know what you think.

Here’s a little promotional video that Magic Hat did for the Vinyl release: