PappyVanWise

It's a shame that this only sells in single bottles, because it really is a delicious beer.  The American beers we've tasted here have all been very good examples of a type of beer, either examples of a new recipe that a brewery was trying or something that acknowledge someone else's original recipe and honored or attempted to improve on.  This beer really stands out as something unique and definitely worth seeking out.

It poured well into a tulip glass with about an inch of foam at the top.  The aroma was instantly crisp, but not in a fruity way. I let it sit for a minute, which was a good idea since I could hardly put the glass down after my first sip.  Each taste was both complex and refreshing.  The fruitiness that was missing from the aroma does come forward in the taste.  It's mostly the sour flavors from fruits like apples and grapes.  Other reviews have a sweet and sour vibe, but the sweetness was very subdued for me.  I'm guessing a bottle with a bit of age on it will lose even more sweetness and gain on the funk, so I'm looking forward to laying a couple in the cellar.

I sent out the bat signal for some sour recs, and I figured why not start towards the top of the mountain?  Here if we have my first international beer for the VBT, the

Oude Gueuze Tilquin í  L'Ancienne.  Admittedly I don't know much about he history of gueuze and the grand Belgian traditions, so this posting will be a lot of copy and pasting.

From the Tilquin website:

"Installed in Bierghes in the Senne valley, the Gueuzerie Tilquin is the only gueuze blendery in Wallonia. A gueuzerie, or Geuzestekerij in Dutch, is an enterprise where Gueuze í  l'ancienne (or Oude Geuze) is blended.  Freshly brewed worts  are purchased from different producers in the region (Payottenland and Brussels), and pumped in oak barrels  for fermentation and ripening, during 1, 2 or 3 years. The lambics obtained are blended and bottled to give, after 6 months of refermentation, the Gueuze Tilquin í  l'ancienne, which has 6.4% alc / vol and is available in 37,5cl and 75cl bottles."

From The Beer Advocate entry

"Oude Gueuze Tilquin í  l'Ancienne (6.0% alc/vol) is a spontaneous fermentation beer, produced from the blending of 1, 2 and 3 years old lambics. It is unfiltered and unpasteurized, and refermented in the bottle for at least 6 months. The lambics used were fermented and oak aged in our installations. These lambics are coming from worts brewed by Boon, Lindemans, Girardin and Cantillon breweries."

I found it pretty easily here, but the Total Wine in McLean has it as coming in Sept 2013, so keep any eye out.  My bottles are dates 2012, so perhaps the 2013s are on their way.  Obviously these are aged, but I'm not clear if the bottling dates and vintage dates being like wine.  Looks it it's priced around $10 for the small bottle and $20 for the big one.  If anyone has some they've been aging, feel free to crack them open as well.  I'm pretty sure I might head back to my local store and pick up a few more for the cellar.

op uw gezondheid,

Eric

The Jolly Pumpkin lineup at Meridian Pint on the 13th looks impressive if you're into sours.

I am drinking this right now at Churchkey, on draft. I don't get "big" malt at all, which is a good thing in my book.

Sometimes I think that breweries are their own worst enemies when it comes to describing their beers.

I can't believe that I actually feel honored that someone's first post was in the VBT.

Welcome aboard, JDINDC!

Calling on some help for the next beers up for tasting.  Inspired by this article: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/07/sour-beer-cantillon-a-brief-history.html how about some sours?  I know there's a thread on sours already, but with them being seasonal or limited runs for most breweries, does anyone have a favorite that is widely available?

And in the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the latest IPAs (both Double and Belgian) and American "Lambics" we've tasted recently.

Thanks,

Eric

For a microbrewery like the Boston Beer Company, they're lucky to recover from such a loss.

Does anyone else get little question mark icons in the title of the Founders Rí¼bí¦us VBT thread?  Looks like the Umlaut and Dipthong are rendering incorrectly.  Don, if this is an issue, please change it to just Rubaeus.

Thanks,

Eric

A finely crafted Manhattan and Sazarec at the bar at Belmont Food Shop. I imagine this place is like going to the early days of Komi (but with a bar).

Tonight I'll be drinking to the 10 good years I had with my employer, the 2 mediocre ones, and the 1 horrible one that has resulted in me having much more time to run the Virtual Beer Tasting club.

This one is a recommendation from outside of the board.  When my wife's boss asked my thoughts on this one, I had to admit to not only not trying it, but never having any Firestone Walker beer. So why not jump head first into a new brewery with their Double IPA?

Here's some info on it from their website.

"Double Jack IPA is our first ever Imperial IPA. It features a big malty middle to cloak the high alcohol and mouth puckering hop bitterness. Huge tangerine, grapefruit and juicy fruit aroma blossom over the herbal blue basil and malt earthiness of this aggressive beer. Best enjoyed in moderation."

Sounds like some conflicting tastes in one bottle, so I'm interested in how they all work together.  It gets a whopping 97 from the field on Beer Advocate, which could be our highest rating yet.  I know it seems like we're going back to the IPA well so soon, but the fruit beers didn't appear to be a conversation starter.

Firestone Walker has some pedigree and money behind it, according to their story, so let's see how they do brewing beer.

"Firestone Walker Brewing Company brewed its first beer in 1996  in a small  facility rented from the Firestone Vineyard estate in Santa Barbara County.  In 2001 owners Adam Firestone and David Walker purchased the SLO Brewing Company located in Paso Robles, CA.  Firestone Walker's ales are selectively fermented in the Firestone Union oak barrel brewing system. The Firestone Union incorporates 65-gallon, medium and heavy toast American oak barrels.  Firestone Walker Brewing Company continues to grow as the palates of Americans migrate to craft beer. Our brew staff have picked up "Mid Size Brewery of the Year" at the World Beer Cup an unmatched four time."

It is available in 22oz bombers at $9 or so and clocks in at 9.5% abv.

Enjoy,

Eric

Fritz Hahn wrote a pretty good guide to Richmond for Redskins fans. I'm actually jealous that he's been able to hit a bunch of places for this article that I haven't made it to since I've moved. I'll add one place that I went recently, The Magpie a gastropub on West Leigh Street.

I googled Donrockwell Restaurant and my 8th link is direct to Chowhound Manhattan, no mention of DonRockwell in the summary. Even funnier is my search suggestions from Google:

Bing didn't let me down, though. All DonRockwell related results. If you want to throw your hate in the corporate battle, you should contact Microsoft. I'm sure they would love to see how a small upstart is getting hurt by Google.

We're heading back to Grand Rapids, Michigan for Founders summer fruit beer.  Here we have a straight up Raspberry Ale, similar to their Blushing Monk limited release from 2011 but with almost half the alcohol content.  Now in the Festina Peche postings, I decried the not quite fruit not quite beer flavor of the offering, here we have all fruit.  In fact, I dare say this is what it would taste like if you dumped Crystal Light powder into a High Life...but...it's still good!

Now I think this might be the most debated beer we've featured, if everyone tries it.  Some people will say this is as much beer as sangria is wine, but I disagree.  Founders wanted to make a Raspberry Ale, and that's what they did.  The sweet, tart raspberry flavor is finished with the maltiness you'd expect from beer, and I think it works perfectly.

From the Founders website:

"Not another boring summer wheat beer or lemonade shandy"”Rí¼bí¦us is Founders' way to celebrate the season's warmest months. Optimizing the flavor of fresh raspberries added at multiple stages during fermentation,
this stunning berry red masterpiece is the perfect balance of sweet and tart. No question about it, with a hefty malt bill and 5.7% ABV, this beer is 100% Founders."

Personally, if I want a fruit beer, this is where I'm going.  Mostly fruit with a beer kick at the end, but I can definitely see where this offering will have detractors.

Keep in mind, it is a Founders limited offering which mean you can expect to pay $15+ for a 4 pack.  Think about splitting one with friends if you want to try it, but don't think a fruit beer is going to be your thing.

Enjoy,

Eric

Well, Nick, you definitely picked a winner here. The White Hatter is delicious. I'm drinking it out of an imperial pint glass, which it poured into perfectly. As my other posts have shown, I'm a fan of cream ales, and the creaminess in the Hatter is just perfect. It has the IPA bitterness with a smooth finish, and I'm actually surprised at the alcohol content is 5.5%, I'd have thought closer to 5%. I could see drinking this at a baseball game or someplace where the sun is just beating down on you. It's much more refreshing than the straight IPAs we've had, closer to Oberon for me in that regard.

Here's a blog about the visit from Richmond Magazine: Bizarre Foods' Andrew Zimmern in RVA and some photos of the happy participants.

So you'd buy the beer again, just not pour it into the glass? What stores do you think take good care of their beers? I've always wondered how long something can sit on a shelf before negative issues surface.

In an odd turn, the day I finally found some Peche on the shelf, I had dinner in a restaurant that had it on tap. The bottled version did not leave me wanting to order it that night though. I think when it comes to fruit beer, I don't want to find the happy medium. I want my fruit beer to be a lambic, not a shandy. I, admittedly, am not a Dogfish fan, mainly because they just take everything too far in their brews. Instead of going to 11, this beer just hung out around 2 or 3 for me. The beer flavor wasn't anything special, and the fruit was too subtle to affect the overall taste. This might have been what they were going for, and if so, I'm just not the market for it. I'll give them credit that they can tone down their recipes when they want, and this is a session beer with a hint of fruit that doesn't reach the usual Dogfish extremes.

The day I picked up the Peche, I also found the new Founders Raspberry beer, Rubaeus. I think it is around now, so it'll probably be our next topic of discussion.

Hopefully when the show airs, he directs people to the Fredericksburg location so I can still walk in and get a table.

Fish w special sauce at Peter Chang might be best plate of food in America. Discuss #food #travel https://vine.co/v/hZdKt6BABtZ

Supposedly this isn't for Bizarre Foods, but a new show he's going to have.

I had always thought any type of Arnold Palmer with alcohol in it was called a John Daly, and it looks like he embraced the idea http://www.johndalycocktail.com/. The Festina Peche has been harder to find than I thought it would be, but hopefully I'll be able to get it in time for the weekend.

I'm currently shopping at Krogers in Richmond and really miss Harris Teeter. Though this could mean HT starts carrying Graeter's ice cream.

Thanks to a discussion on the All Day IPA thread, I decided to throw out New Holland's White Hatter out for the group.  I always see New Holland on the shelf, but never really drink it.  I'm glad Nick Freshman chimed in about this one, since it's not something I would have thought of suggesting.  It is a Belgian Pale Ale, so hopefully a nice counter to the IPAs we've been tasting.

Here's a little info about the brewery from Wikipedia:

Jason Spaulding and Brett VanderKamp, the founders of New Holland Brewing Company, grew up together in Midland, Michigan, and later attended Hope College. In college Spaulding and VanderKamp cultivated a love of homebrewing, which would bring them together again shortly after graduation. Their business plan took two years to formulate, but once complete, the pair quickly lined up investors, and in 1996 New Holland was founded in Holland, Michigan.

Originally, the duo's goal was to produce beer that was characteristically unique to Western Michigan. Their beer was well received, and the company increased production to just over 5,000 US beer barrels (590,000 l) in 2006. In 2007 the company increased production to over 7,500 US bbl (880,000 l). 

Nick's initial thoughts:

"New Holland's White Hatter BPA. Generally, BPAs have done nothing for me. To much biscuity, yeasty flavor from the Belgian side that washes out whatever hop character is there. This one is not so. Bright yellow color with a thick, creamy head. Great floral aromas, crisp hop backbone, but with a delicate creaminess from the "B" part of the BPA."

And some information from the New Holland site

White Hatter flavorfully blends the soft malt, fruity esters and delicate spicing of a Belgian White with hoppy citrus notes of an IPA. Pleasant hints of tropical fruit are framed with orange peel, chamomile, coriander and grains of paradise.

Pairings: fish, grilled chicken, hard cheeses.
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: 39.6
Original Gravity: 12.6° Plato

I've confirmed that it is on the shelves at Total Wine.  New Holland does show up at supermarkets, so hopefully everyone will be able to find it.  If not, Nick mentioned that he still has it on tap at this house (but not Spider Kelly's?).

Enjoy,

Eric

Thanks for the idea, Nick. It looks like White Hatter is still in stock at Total Wine in McLean and Richmond so I think it will be the next VBT topic.

For what it's worth, I picked up some of those IPA glasses that Spiegelau and Dogfish are selling. It really did make a difference with this beer for me. It was a couple of days ago, so I can't remember exactly what I thought, but it did open it up and cut into the initial bitterness.

Thanks for posting Jeff. We're one step closer to realizing my goal of making DonRockwell.com a serious beer discussion board where people occasionally post about DC area restaurants.

I'm glad you picked Dogfish, since they're not usually high on my radar. I find their 750 bottles always go a little too far (Bitches Brew, Sah'tea, that Egyptian sounding one, etc...), but I have enjoyed some of their 4 pack seasonals like Tweason'ale. Looking forward to picking up some Festina Peche, and thanks again for posting.

-Eric