Translation:  Their beer is  good in the Wyoming Valley, isn’t it?

The Wyoming Valley, PA

Confused?  We were speaking “Heyna,” the local dialect here in the anthracite coal country of Northeast Pennsylvania (NEPA). The valley we are referring to is the Wyoming Valley of the great Susquehanna River, as it winds it way between the Poconos and Appalachian Mountains. The dialect is an amalgam of second generation European immigrant accent (where “TH” is never uttered), and blue collar slang, softened by Pennsylvania Dutch  (“ain’t it” = “heyna?”) with some Pittsburgh phrases thrown in, and a few unexpected surprises, such as “haitch” for “h” and “chimley” for “chimney.” It’s one of the few regional dialects that are still alive and thriving–and so is their regional beer scene.

As you readers may have surmised, I gave up on Goshen, IN and moved my medical practice to Wilkes-Barre, NEPA. Why and how is a story for another time. I did not move here for the beer, but I could have. This is a great place for the beer lover!  In addition to great beer bars (covered in a future article) there are a surprising number of good breweries in the area. It was a stroke of luck that the First Annual Electric City Craft Brew Fest was held within a month of my arrival here, giving me the opportunity to taste microbrews and meet the brewers.

Electric City Craft Brew Fest

As Brewfests go, this one was pretty nice. There were about 40 featured breweries, most from PA or nearby. It was a good size crowd, but it was not oversold, so I was able to taste everything on my list and (almost) nothing ran out.  The pours were generous. The food vendors were good value with beer-friendly food:  barbecue pork sandwiches, brats, pierogi, crab cakes, french fries, jerky. Rock music played by a DJ added to the festive atmosphere, though at times it was difficult to have a conversation.

To get the most out of this brewfest, I concentrated on regional breweries within 50-70 miles of home, giving me the opportunity to taste small batch beer, something I can’t buy in stores but may be on draft locally. Some are not even handled by distributors and do their own distribution. The 50-miles limit excludes the bigger regional breweries, many of which are excellent.

My general conclusion is that the craft breweries in this area are quite good because they have a discerning and divided audience. The Valley has both lager-lovers and hop-heads who are adamant about their preferences. So you don’t see the kind of over-specialization that you see in, for example, the Chicago lagers, or the West Coast hop houses. Myself, I appreciate the hoppy ales, and I have been impressed with the well-balanced use of hops that I believe characterizes high IBU beers in PA. I’m not a judge of lagers, though I enjoy them.

I tasted everything on my list. When I found a beer I really liked, I made it a point to ask the brewers at the festival what hops they used, since I’m a home brewer myself and am always interested. In general, I found that, compared to Midwestern and West Coast beers, the use of strong American “C” hops (Cascade, Centennial, etc.) is throttled back; I saw more European and English hops in these beers. An overly-hopped IPA can be very unpleasant, and very few brewers know how to balance it with a good malt selection or other ingredients. Here in NEPA, they seem to mostly get it right.

Of the beers sampled, here are my picks:

Best of show:  Ladder Dive Rye IPA, Three Guys and a Beer’d Brewery

Second place:  Bourbon Barrel Porter, Shawneecraft

Last place: Hops’olutely, Fegley’s Allentown Brew Works

With that introduction, here is a summary of my tasting of strictly local beers, at the 2012 First Annual Electric City Brewfest, almost alphabetically by brewery:

Breaker Brewing, Wilkes-Barre PA

If you don’t know what a breaker is, then you’re not from around here. A Breaker is a multi-story building where newly-mined coal is crushed and sorted by size. Though anthracite coal has not been mined since 1959– when the Susquehanna flooded the entire system of deep mines–abandoned breakers and a few bootleg mines still dot the landscape. And we Valley residents are proud of this heritage, as almost everyone had a grandpa, father or uncle who worked the mines, and brought their lunch pail home at the end of the day, to fill it with beer at one of the many local saloons along the way. So we naturally take to a brewery in which coal mining inspires and names the beers.

I believe that’s one reason why Breaker is growing in popularity and distribution. The other reason is they make good beer. I spoke with Mark, one of the owners, who explained that they are making traditional beers but each with a unique twist. I had tasted some of their beers in local taverns, and some were a bit rough, but their IPA is exceptional.  I Love PA (IPA) is extremely well-hopped with American C hops (Centennial, Chinook, Cascade, etc. ) and it’s now my pick at local pubs.

Barley Creek, in Tannersville PA

This is a very small outfit which makes excellent beer but, sadly for me, they are a brewpub, and they only sell their beer on site or in growlers. They cater to the outdoorsy trade — fishers, hunters, and skiers and their beers are aptly named. I tasted their Angler Black Lager, a German style Dunkel, which was very drinkable and nicely done.

Fegley’s Allentown Brewworks

I tried their Hop’solutely, a triple IPA. A high alcohol beer (11.5% ABV), it’s bottled with a cork and cage, like a fancy Belgian.  This one has a potpourri of strong, citrusy American hops: Summit, Amarillo, Chinook, Cascade. Though you need an assertive hop blend to soften the alcohol, “more” is not necessarily “better.” Though I am a hop head, this beer missed the mark. Can you have too many hops? Hopsolutely.

Stegmaeier (Lion Brewery), Wilkes-Barre, PA

Lion is a huge brewery, located at ground zero in the valley. Stegmaier is their craft line. They tend toward lagers, but they make a creditable IPA, pretty much available anywhere in NEPA, and it goes well with food. It’s my drink of choice when I’m at a restaurant where the only other options are mass-market lagers. Solid and predictable.

Shawnee Craft,

Shawnee Craft Brewery, Shawnee on Delaware, PA

This is a brewery to keep your eye on. Their beers are wonderfully unique, and they have a commitment to (mostly) organic production and low environmental impact. As a result, they will probably not grow in volume or distribution, which apparently is okay with the owner who is brewing because he loves it (He still has a day job). And you can’t beat the location in the Delaware Valley. But it’s hard to find outside of Scranton.

Their Apiarius pale ale is brewed with honey from their own hives. They are growing raspberries for their upcoming framboise. And the most sophisticated beer I tasted at the Brewfest was their Bourbon Barrel Porter, boasting a 10.5% ABV, with a modest IBU of 33 and 95% organic content. Barrel aging is the latest fad in craft beers, but this one actually tastes great; it was hard to stop.

Three Guys and a Beer’d  Carbondale PA

This is one of the newest breweries on the scene, open for only 5 months now, up da line in Carbondale. I have rarely seen a rye beer, and the ones I tasted tended to be more “interesting” than “tasty.” But their Ladder Dive Rye IPA was outstanding. I could drink it all afternoon, and I almost did.

I was also fortunate to get a taste of their new Chocolate Porter , a special release for this fest. It is a very dark porter which has a distinctive chocolate taste; probably from the added cocoa. I’m not usually a fan of flavored beers but this one was quite drinkable, very reminiscent of Guinness.

Keep your eyes on this brewery. I think their master brewer has a wonderful palate, as well as a red beard. Too bad about the name. (Ed. I personally like the name)

Yeungling, Pottsville PA

Claims to be the oldest continuously operating brewery in the US; like most large breweries, their roots are German lagers, and Y lager is a staple throughout the state. Although not strictly speaking a craft brewery, their beer is good and always available. I tasted the Chesterfield Ale, a good copy of an English bitter. It’s available everywhere.

Just for the record, I did taste quite a few other beers beyond my imposed limit. Some of the highlights:

Troegs Brewing, Harrisburg  PA, featured their flagship Hopback Amber Ale  which uses a unique hopping process. Before fermentation, the wort is passed through the hopback vessel, which re-circulates through fresh hops, extracting more flavor. Think of a tea bag. The taste is sublime, and highly recommended.

Victory Hop Devil (Downington PA) is always a favorite and Yards (Philadelphia) makes a great IPA. I consider Dogfish Head to be the king of East Coast hops (90 minute and 60 minute IPAs). True to form they presented a Demo IPA, a surprisingly tasty, hoppy BLACK IPA. Keep your eyes open for this one. I hope they expand production. It’s a keeper.

I left the festival full of pierogis, crab cakes, hops, and good cheer. The festival whetted my appetite to spend more time at the local brew houses in my new home town, Wilkes-Barre, PA. Lotsa good beer on tap, more in bottles.

Lotsa good taverns up and down the line, heynit?

After a few hours of moving furniture up and down steps and in and out of a truck, a long hot shower and a couple Sudafeds (allergy alert EVERYWHERE!) later, Chef Joe brought us a bottle of Mendocino Brewing’s Imperial IPA. After 30 years living in London, Joe is more a malt than hop guy so we were curious.

courtesy of beerohbeer.com

It poured a slightly orange amber, presenting a nice slighly off white head, with good lacing. Allergies prevent me from speaking to any subtle notes in the nose, but it was strong enough to identify itself, with no confusion, as an IPA. Very sweet and hoppy in that respect.

We’ve had mixed experiences with Mendocino’s offerings. I had an unfortunate bottle of their Blackhawk Select Stout recently, while Dave enjoyed his sampling of their Imperial Barley Wine.

As for this Imperial IPA, from the first step on, a complete, well-balanced and layered IPA was on display.

A sweetness hits from the outset in lockstep with a solid piney, bracing bitter. The malty sweetness, more present here than in a lot of IPAs, gently but noticeably rises to fill in as the first bitter recedes. As we start down the gentle curve of this tasty sweetness, yet another smooth crossfade leaves the mouth with, again, a bitter, slightly citrusy, yet still sweet end game.  All this came with no real sense of the higher 8% ABV.

As a flavorful quencher, this worked great and continued perfectly into the beginning of a meal of Balsamic Pulled Pork (with a great and spicy Carolina Vinegar BBQ sauce ladled on), and a spicy Jambalaya.

In this case, just as every restaurant has menu items we learn to avoid, others we find to be strengths of their kitchen, we found one here in Mendocino’s Imperial IPA we’ll, without question, feel comfortable in ordering again.

Saturday afternoon on the West Side. Staying in Chelsea last weekend, we took a walk west on 23rd to the High Line, the fabulous and fun walkway following the old High Line elevated freight line in Manhattan. Turned into a creative walkway and public space, as it wends along, sometimes through and under buildings, the High Line displays lovely created spaces for plantings, a few installations, such as the very cool bird house/feeder constructs (all seemingly small enough that the “flying rats,” AKA the NYC pigeon cartel can’t take over), and wooden lounging chair/benches, some of them capable of rolling together to create different furniture configurations placed along the route. Better yet, many apartments and lofts, windows looking out on the walkway, offer up aesthetic statements, little art shows out on fire escapes, paintings, clever “graffiti,” and even a High Line Zoo.

The Highline Zoo

A really lovely creation (when the temp is reasonable and the wind coming off the Hudson isn’t at hurricane speeds), we walked it all.

Not yet hungry, but a little leg weary and thirsty, we went down the steps and hit The Drunken Horse at 225 10th Avenue, between 23rd and 24th. Offering a good-looking light food menu: hot and cold appetizers, a nice list of more than 10 cheeses, charcuterie, a half dozen sandwiches and a single dessert—a chocolate merengue cake—we viewed it, this afternoon, as a watering hole.   I went with a Delirium Tremens, that Belgian Strong with the cool bottle from Brouwerij Huyghe. At 8.5% ABV it is, indeed, strong, and tasty. The Belgian yeasts and malts gave off some banana and spice that I read as cloves and allspice, in a nice bready stew of flavors. A consistently tasty beverage, one distinguishing note here was the visual beauty and intensity of the carbonation. It was as if it was a living creature. (Creature? Well maybe not. Living? Absolutely!)

After hydrating and getting a nice tired little buzz, we decided eating was in order. As we had , the day before, driven through the Indian enclave of Jersey City on our way in, I had a hankering, and my fellow revelers were happy to oblige, so we headed over to Bombay Talkie at 189 9th Avenue, between 21st and 22nd. We’ve been there before and find a nice combination of Indian street food and style in the prep and presentation. We started with their Beggar’s Purses. I’m embarassed to say I can’t find it on their online menu, but served cold, it’s a little flour purse (or crunchy crepe), sometimes stuffed with potatoes, a little caviar in some cases, a crème fraîche, or here, what seemed like a yogurt based sauce. Chilly and yummy little poppers they are. I followed with a Garlic Naan and the Pork Vindaloo. Our waiter kindly warned us this was a very spicy dish, one he could make hotter, but not milder. We went with it, along with an order of the cooling Raita, a cucumber and yogurt sauce we customarily order with Biriani, but seemed like a prudent idea if the Vindaloo needed a bit of extinguishing.

courtesy of http://www.hoppsy.com

To drink I ordered a 22 of Flying Horse “Royal Lager,” from India, described as an American Adjunct Lager, with a standard issue 4.7% ABV. I have to say, the nose of the Delirium Tremens must have really altered my senses, because my first thought as I sniffed was that I was smelling something lighter but similar. My poor feeble brain’s mistake. As I sipped, I found it to be sweeter than I would have expected, with a slight presence of bitter at the end. Still, the bready, yeasty component of this was NOT Belgian, by any means, and the bitter didn’t really ring out with enough vengeance to be useful in the taming of the spicy, tasty Vindaloo. I wouldn’t call it a bad beer, by any means, but it’s not the style I tend to like in the first place, and it simply didn’t have enough going on to keep me interested, either as a stand alone or in such a pairing. But the Indian comfort food was great and ended our day in fine fashion.

Sunday, the menu started with a Peak Organic IPA pulled from the tap at Pianos, a nice and friendly watering hole on Ludlow St. named as such based on the still-hanging sign dating back to when it was, in fact, a piano store. Nice in the afternoon, probably much fun at night when there’s lots of live music in the back room, they also have a reasonably priced extended bar food menu. The beer came after working up a thirst out walking, relentlessly in search of proper Lady Fingers, finally found at La Bella Ferrara on Mulberry (God bless them for simply being), and while it seemed the bitter (76 IBUs) was pretty much the whole story of this particular draw on this particular day, the Peak(7.2% ABV), handily quenched my thirst. I’d try it again in a minute to further investigate the nose and flavor notes.

R.I.P with a Joyous Noise!

An hour later we found ourselves on Avenue B at the Lakeside Lounge, saying adieu to this longstanding Alphabet City watering hole. Here we enjoyed an always tasty Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap, followed by a couple Laphroaig 10s, neat. Sadly, this grand old fun factory closed after April 30th, 2012. There was much camaraderie—this place the embodiment of what makes a proper tavern a real asset to a neighborhood, but the legendary photo booth wasn’t working, so we resorted to the iPhone to prove we “were there.”

Finished up the night with a lovely (it’s been too long) Lagavulin 16 as a nightcap sitting at the bar at Café Loup. We missed the set by the wonderful Junior Mance, but hope to hit him up next time. If you follow the link to the cafe, you can hear a little of this talented  musician.

A great weekend back in the City.

Yes, from the same Rogue that brought you Dead Guy Ale and others we have written about here, Dead Guy Whiskey is distilled from the sweet wort of Dead Guy Ale and uses C-15, Rogue Micro Farm Dare and Risk malts.  Rounding it off are Free Range Coastal Water and Distiller’s Yeast.  The process to create the whiskey is simple enough.  All of the ingredients are combined and once the Distiller’s yeast is added to the sweet wort, it ferments for 7 days then it is double distilled in a 150 gallon copper whiskey still. Then (according to the bottle) is “ocean aged” in oak barrels for a month.

As most of you know, I am a Kentucky Straight Bourbon drinker so this was somewhat of a departure for me, one, given the respect Rogue has engendered as a brewer, I took seriously.  I used a proper whiskey tasting glass, the Glencairn Glass, which I highly recommend for tasting fine whiskeys and scotches.  It was designed specifically for the purpose of determining the color, aroma and taste of whiskey.  It has a wide bowl on the bottom and tapering upward to the mouth, more of a “nosing” glass.

Okay, with all that being said, did Rogue hit or miss with their whiskey?  I think on a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being highest…I give it an 8.  For me, it was a hit.  The aroma is unique, not the greatest but sweet, woody and somewhat leathery to the nose.  I paired it with a Dead Guy Ale, not as a chaser but as a follow up after letting the whiskey do it’s job of coating all of my taste buds and palate.  It was sweet and you can definitely get the oak from the barrel taste and as for the bite, very mild.  I didn’t get that harsh burn all the way down like you do with many other whiskies.  A very mellow drink at 80 proof, clean, and somewhat refreshing.  What I found a real pleasure, though not surprised by it, is that it did a remarkable job enhancing the flavors of the Dead Guy Ale, a great pairing!  I would suggest to any whiskey drinker to give this one a go at least once.  As Rogue’s moto on the bottle suggests:

“Honoring Unique Rogues Whose Spirit Lingers Long Past Their Mortal Existence.”

I recently wrote, refering to offerings from Thirsty Dog and Hoppin’ Frog, that it’s not so often we run into a really different IPA… something they have both, notably, accomplished!

Victory’s Hop Wallop isn’t one of them, but is a terrific brew in that it joins the not-as-long-as-we’d-all-like list of big Imperial IPAs that really do the trick, IPAs that are FAR more than just a lot of hops, despite what those crazy yet humble Victory brewmasters say below!

A nice pour, rich amber with a substantial cream head, the nose, huge and floral, leading to that first sip. This is smooth, flavorful, with a lovely mid tongue sweetness, the bitter balanced throughout, as opposed to spiking the sip at the end. But it’s a solid and present bitter that worked it’s magic with the spicy meal we had:

Beef dogs on the grill slathered with the DolliMama’s simple, faithful, and totally tasty Coney Sauce, a heap of onions and just under a gallon Zydeco Gator Garlic Fire Sauce.

Victory Hop Wallop is a finely crafted brew offering more than just a bucketload of hops and an 8.5% ABV, joining such YBN faves as Bell’s Hopslam, Avery’s Maharaja , Buckeye’s Aquarius (RIP), Founders’ Double Trouble, Hoppin’ Frog’s Mean Manalishi, and Widmer Brothers Nelson Imperial as big bad and delicious Double/Imperial IPAs. Well done.

Since moving back out west, I don’t get very much mail out here so imagine my surprise when I found a box sitting at my front door.  Total surprise, I hadn’t ordered anything and it’s not my birthday yet.  So I was pretty excited when I opened the box to find… BEER!  Yes, BEER!  FROM HAWAII! I grabbed the cans and put them in the fridge! Then I…

Before I go on: We’ve had a number of requests from breweries to taste their beers, with the promise from said breweries to send the beer to us. We don’t ask for more than a sample and it’s always an appreciated idea, particularly because it’s always when we can’t get it where we are, but Kona Brewing in Kailua Kona, Hawaii is the first to actually send us their beer!  They sent cans of their very popular Longboard Island Lager or what they refer to as Liquid Aloha!

As many of you know, I am a staunch ale drinker.  Lagers are something I order when I can’t get an ale.  But this lager is terrific!  It doesn’t bring to mind the “lagers” mass produced by breweries (you know who you are) who try to pawn their fizzy yellow liquid on us as a lager, let alone beer.  No, there is a much bigger thing going on here.  I like it on many levels but to put it simply, what you have here is a lager which comes in at a low 4.6% ABV and tastes great! 

I poured the Longboard from the can into a pint glass, bright gold in color with a thin head and slow lacing.  The aroma is there right from the opening of the can and gets stronger as you pour. The nose really whetting my thirst, I found the taste presenting a strong presence of malt right from the start, caramel, bready, toffee, and somewhat on the sweet side, which was fine.  But I also noticed, after the initial taste, a citrus, lemon maybe.  The IBU’s come in at 18 but while there was no real bitter, the hop presence is there.  This reminded me mildly of a pilsner.  I was very pleased with this offering, and  I can see it as a really good summer session beer.  It’s crisp and dry and the can I drank didn’t last long, it was that smooth!  I say 4 gulps and it was gone!

I want to thank Sally Murdoch at Aloha for sending me the beer, and I would be more than happy to try anything new you may have coming.  You may recall this is not my first experience with Kona Brewing.  I thoroughly enjoy their Pipeline Porter made with 100% Kona coffee.  At the Ring of Fire beer festival I tried their Wailua Wheat made with Passion Fruit, another good summer beer.

Now, I would like to address the craft beer in cans that we’re starting to see more and more of.  I’ve heard a lot of people complain about it, some saying that it tastes better in the bottle.  From my experience, I haven’t noticed much of a difference, if any.  The first canned craft beer I tried side by side with the bottle of the same was New Belgium’s Sunshine Wheat, and I really couldn’t tell which was bottle or can.  Aluminum cans are easier on the environment, cheaper, lighter and an even bigger advantage in being able to bring your favorite craft beer into the pool area, where bottles aren’t allowed, as well as some state parks, beaches, and basically anywhere glass is prohibited.  I think it’s a good move forward in terms of penetration for craft brewing and it fits in with most of the breweries’ thoughts on the environment and going green.  I applaud Kona on moving in that direction and hope to see even more cans out there.

I really hate to end this here, but there is more Liquid Aloha in the fridge calling my name!  Cheers!

This isn’t to say Stouts are only for cold weather, but they DO represent something big and warming to be drunk in front of a fire, and as we head towards our YBN’s Top 19 x 2 Spring roll out in the next week, we see this as a fond adieu, not to stout, but to the fire in the hearth for a few months…. hopefully.

The same friend who recently brought over a bottle of Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter for me to talk to him about (I drank it!! Nya ha ha), came over with a four pack containing 4 different stouts. Three of us shared, talked  and, much as I love the sound of my fingers hitting keys, here are our notes in the form of bullet points, in order of tasting:

Black Rat Imperial Stout from Cellar Rats Brewery – nice start, not so nice finish
-Malty, sweet nose
-Good Bitter Component
-Sweet mid tongue
-Gritty, leaving a not so good feel on the back of the tongue
-Last sip was almost vinegary

Blackhawk Select from Mendocino Brewing – not good
-Sour malty nose
-A little bitter but sitting on top of a flat taste, with almost no flavor notes, the ones detectable, also sour
-From Chef Joe “ Excellent spillability.”

Black Chocolate Stout from Brooklyn Brewery – pretty good
-Nose a little soy saucy
-Big Chocolate, to be sure
-High ABV well integrated. Nice balance

Milk Stout from Left Hand – best of the bunch
-High drinkability
-Great lacing
-Milk and mild sweetness THEN delicious chocolate milk.

OK, this has NOTHING to do with beer and food. The closest we come is having an Aberlour 10 on the table. But this is kind of sticky, funny stuff that not too many people have seen thus far and we thought we might share. We at YBN had nothing to do with the production, but again, find it to be kind of creepy funny. Let us know if you like it, hate it, hate us for posting it, and/or now consider us, as a result, your new cultural “go-to” site. There are more of these.

As a relative grade schooler on an advanced track when we started this YBN effort—by now maybe qualifying as a middle schooler—every now and then I have a revelatory moment. The most recent had to do with finding something of an understanding of the factors leading to so many folks drinking low alcohol, mass produced, often pretty tasteless beers — a moment of illumination, written about below, that happened while visiting the Deep South.

This latest one came upon a visit from a pal who has been largely looking to me to advance the knowledge and sophistication of his beer palate. I help make this happen by providing him with brews he’s not yet tasted, and then speaking nonsense with an air of confidence. However, on this occasion he brought ME a beer, a bottle of Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.

When I first started tasting Porters I looked into the history of them. Regardless of what I KNEW, I believe I held an underlying notion that the only real difference between a Porter and a Stout was viscosity. While historically true in some respects, that prejudice of imaging these big dark Porters, Stouts, and Ales as exclusively malt driven British Empire brethren has, I think, affected my tasting of such beverages, what I’ve been looking for as I sip, thus how I process what I taste and smell. It’s made even more complicated by the flavor notes common to many of them these days, described as coffee and chocolate, often as a result of…coffee and chocolate, by way of malts and otherwise. I suspect in many, these notes BECOME the brew as opposed to being elements in a broader sensory picture

As an aside, I’ve known brewers to throw tea bags into a brew process to get a particular flavor. Without question (no naming names here) the occasional horse blanket has been an ingredient in producing a more vivid batch of Belgian Sour. So it goes that if a boatload of chocolate and coffee is thrown into the vat, well…

OK so the horse blanket thing is a joke…kind of. This Brewmaster friend did, in fact, brew up a sour that my wife claimed tasted like the used hay smells in the horse barns at the Wayne County Fair. As it turned out, this sour, much to our delight, had been named Horse Blanket!

I’ve had Edmund Fitzgerald in the past, liking it just fine, but coming so late to the game, my ability to taste beers from one month to the next can change dramatically. So, it having been at least a couple months since my last, I poured and waited.

While letting yours warm: This Porter, a sailor’s brew, was named after the Great Lakes freighter, The Edmund Fitzgerald, lost in a storm on Lake Superior in November 1975. Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song commemorating this tragedy, and this video melds his tune with footage of the ship, from beginning to end. Great clip.

Also (shamefully) finding that we sometimes take a popular local brew for granted, as I let it warm just a bit more, I  found myself experiencing a real sense of expectation as to what I might or might not find here. After all, starting in 1991, this offering has won many serious awards, most recently a Gold Medal at the 2012 World Beer Championships.

The first thing I noticed upon sipping was not consistent with my prejudices. It was the bitter of the hops, plenty of them. This drew me to spend a minute with the nose, which I found to offer a sweet, floral scent mixed well with the alternate sweetness of malt. To the tongue, as the beer warmed, I never lost touch with the hops, mixing with the malt to bring that same citrusy sweetness to the mouth. The coffee, chocolate and caramel (toffee?) were also there, of course, as was that notable taste I describe as not completely toasted…actually, a hint of raw grain, something I’ve found in some of the stouts I’ve tried. In some ways the Edmund Fitzgerald was consistent with some of the better Heavies and Bitters, in the sense that my favored ones bring the big malt and caramel presence, but add the edge of the hops to a notable degree, making for a truly interesting brew with some layers. One of my favorite examples of this comes from Real Ale in Blanco, Texas. Written about last March, their Phoenixx Double Extra Special Bitter is outstanding.

This is how Edmund Fitzgerald Porter re-introduced the other night as an exceptional, complex and lively porter. My friend calls the sip “long,” meaning a lot keeps playing out and lingering in the mouth. I agree. This experience, in fact, has me looking to revisit a whole gaggle of Porters from my past to see what I see, through the eyes, now (despite getting an ‘F’ in comportment…again), of a Sophomore.

About 2 years ago, hard working John Lovegrove, a sturdy New Zealander living up in Portland, Oregon, took on all the brew pubs listed in town… in one day. In a couple weeks he’ll go for the new number, 50. Here’s a mostly viewable document of his experience.