a visit from Stone

Some dude from Stone came down and gave a tasting. Started with the smoked porter, which I've had on tap. It was very tasty and not too bacon-y or bbq-y, but I don't know if I'd go out of my way to buy bottles. On tap though, it's pretty great.
Then there was Stone IPA, which is of course awesome. Definitely one of the most drinkable high-hop IPAs out there, and such a bright flavor.
Then we tried a bit of Ruination, which I think is my second favorite of their line.
After Ruination was plain Bastard, which I must admit is moderately dissapointing from the bottle. It's great on tap, but the malty sweetness is a bit much from the bottle.
Oak-aged Bastard 2006, however, tasted great from the bottle, and I think this is the first year they're doing it in sixers (albeit for $15). The aging really balances out the flavors and brings out ... something. I guess whatever it is that's hiding in the bottled Bastard as compared to the tap. I have had the oaked on tap, and I don't think it's really that much better than the bottled.
My favorite Stone beer is the Double Bastard, 2006. I think it is better this year than it has been, and I'm considering adding it to my top-shelf (literally, I put beers like this on the top shelf where no one else can reach them so I can leave them for a year or so). I'm not sure how long I'll be able to hold out considering there will be three of my favorite beers in the world sitting up there, ostensibly for a year, but we'll see. Either way they'll be great.

So, not surprisingly, Stone comes through again. I bought the sixer of oaked Bastard, so I'll take a couple pictures and maybe talk a little more about it later.

DogfishHead: Olde School barleywine ale

From BOS_webalbum

From BOS_webalbum

From BOS_webalbum

Nothing surprising here, except the alcohol percentage, which is very very high.
Nose is straight alcohol, but the flavor has a reasonable hoppiness without losing smooth malty flavors. Take your favorite barleywine and pour a swig of vodka in it.
My official rating is I like it. But, $3.75 a bottle is a bit much. Typical for Dogfish. It was worth a shot, and when I pull the fourth bottle out from hiding a year from now, I'm sure it will be even tastier.

BTW, how do you spell the name of that big ass glass?

belgians: ramee amber tripel

From BEER

ramee is another klosterbrauerei (monastic brewery), though they are not trappists. they seem to have taken a cue from their neighbors because their tripel tastes like some mutant dunkeles ("dark", referring to the south german style not merely the color) . the alcohol flavors are unusual as is the toastiness in the malt. the body is tall and the nose has a whiff of generic fruit, but it gets lost in the ass. the recommended temp of 7 C is pretty chilly for this region, but i can see why it's so.

la chouffe blond and mc chouffe bruin

fretless already covered these but i'll add my 2 cents:

From BEER

la chouffe is heavy for a blond, with a solid alcohol body and apple cider in the bottom

From BEER

mc chouffe has a toasty malt surrounded by cool alcohol vapors. the fruit is that welche's grape flavor that keeps showing up, but it's low key in this cold one.

boarder patrol returns to duty

From BEER

now fretless and his east coast flavors have been moving us along at a good pace now. what he doesnt know knows for sure is that i've been drinking beer and not posting about it. even with my internet connection out last week, i was still able to pour beer in a glass and take notes on it using chisels and stone tablets. yessir, good old hammer, chisel, and rock. nothing useful to post this time, only this money shot of a beer's certificate of trappist authenticity.

Heavyweight (NJ): Stickenjab Alt, and Bass Pale Ale

48 IBUs, 6.2% alcohol, and from what I've heard, not available anywhere anymore. Maybe it will come back after having sold so well... after having reportedly closed down. Anyway, I don't know how to explain it except that it tastes like beer, it's slightly sweet, and it tastes good. Easy to drink. Not the best, but still better than any mainstream domestic beer. Just thought I should mention it.

BTW, I'm not a huge fan of domestic pale ales in general, but Bass Pale Ale is tasty. Plus it came with a free glass when I bought it at my local beer store.
It's cheap and easy. Not as good as Redhook ESB, but still ok.

That's it.

Haverhill Leatherlips IPA vs. Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA

From BOS_webalbum
	From dogfishhead

Ok, if you don't account for price, the 90 min. is overall a better cold-one. The dogfish IPA, in all its incarnations, has been hailed as one of the best American IPAs around, and for good reason. The 60 min. is available everywhere in Boston, and it's very often the only trustworthy, ~microbrewed beer on tap. It has an amazing nose. Very flowery, and the 90 min. takes this even further. I almost don't want to drink it because it's so nice to sniff. As the brewery claims, the malt 'backbone' stands up to the extreme hopping very well, and the 90 minute comes out to a very drinkable heavy-hitting IPA. If I didn't know that imperial IPAs like this are usually high alcohol, I wouldn't guess that it contains 9% alcohol. The best thing about the 90 minute is that it is an easy way to distinguish the craft-brew-centric pub from those that carry the 60 minute simply because it sells well.
Now on to the Leatherlips. According to the dude at Wine Gallery Brookline, who introduced this to me, this is The Tap's firs t shot at bottled beer, and I'm very impressed. They get points for being obscure, for being a brewpub, and for smartly putting up a website named http://www.leatherlipsipa.com that simply references the beer's ratings on Beer Advocate and RateBeer, which both rate it very highly. It's not as intense as the 90 minute, but moreso than the 60. It has more of the traditional (?) American IPA bitter hoppiness.
The reason I put these two together is that Haverhill seems to be in much the same position as Dogfish a few years ago - a brewpub with a very popular IPA headlining their entry into the world of widely-distributed bottled beer. Dogfish has begun to annoy me a little, popping up in every TGI Friday's and faux-Irish pub in Boston, so I'm glad someone is on their tails. I don't blame them for selling good beer to bad-beer-bars, but their near-monopoly in the Northeast is not OK. Plus, they charge way too much for the 120 minute, and I really want to try it. Bastards.
Over and out.

Rapscallion Creation: Reserve Dark Ale

Honestly, I bought the four-pack for the glass, which is pretty sweet, but I'm not dissapointed with the cold-one either. It tastes best about ten minutes out of the fridge, and I don't mean that it should be "cold," but instead that it tastes best when it's on its way down to the typical 'warm' beer temp. This is another dark ale with strong caramel. It's smooth, but not too smooth (could I be any more vague?).
It gets a pretty good rating from Beer Advocate, where it's described as an "American Strong Ale," (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/59/6939). This puts it in the same category as Double Bastard and Old Stock, which is not a very appropriate comparison. However, they know much more about this stuff than I do, so I'll take their word for it. For me, it tastes more like the Lithuanian Baltic porter listed below. As one of the reviewers says, it's a little tart, but I like that. I think "tart" is a better word than "sour," though I'm not sure why. It's thin and yeasty. It's not a whole lot of anything in particular, but I think that the reviews I've seen of this cold-one are too harsh. Another Blogger review http://orbitalr0x.blogspot.com/2006/02/rapscallion-creation.html by Don Thompson does it some justice I think. It does hide the alcohol well. This beer isn't exceptionally exciting, but it's tasty and worth the little splurge I made for the cold-ones and the glass. Rapscallion's experimenting; I like that. RateBeer.com also was relatively harsh: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/concord-rapscallion-creation/18343/ 

Utenos Porter

This cold-one AND the Zywiec and Okocim are reviewed pretty satisfactorily in this article on Baltic Porters:
http://www.allaboutbeer.com/style/23.2-balticporter.html
This beer's also been reviewed here: http://www.ratebeer.com/Beer/utenos-porter/10317/
and this is BJCP's contribution: http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category12.html

**By the way, I've decided to refer to them as "cold-ones" in deference to Strongbad, without whom my life would significantly less amusingly random.**

If you look closely at this cold-one, you'll find a short blob saying that "connoisseurs" have been admiring it for years, that it's a "premium quality dark beer" (over and over around the edge of the label and the bottle-neck barrel), and that it's brewed in Utena, Lithuania. Honestly, the only thing I know about Lithuania is that their Olympic basketaball team has tye-dye Grateful Dead uniforms, which is pretty awesome. I didn't know they made cold-ones, but I'm very happy to say that this is perfectly decent. It reminds me a little of the Rapscallion creation that I will review later. In spite of it's being a 'cold one,' this cold-one is quite a lot better slightly warm. When it's cold, all you can really feel is the caramel nose, the alcohol, the bubbles and the temperature. However, once it's sat for a little while, it begins to taste more complex. It's very smooth - smoother than I'd like it to be, but it's still tasty. It was only $1.99 for a half-liter, and it is a nice break from the extremely heavy porters that I tend to buy. Sweet, smooth, caramelly. Definitely worth a try.

Andrew Bird: Fingerlings 3, Live @ Bonnaroo and "The Armchair Apocrypha"?

photos from andrewbird.net

I haven't had them long enough to do a serious commentary, but I just wanted to note that Fingerlings 3 is OUT and so is Live @ Bonnaroo.
The 3rd Fingerlings is longer and seems to be a better set of recordings. I'm a little wary about live recordings of &TheMysteriousProductionofEggs because I love the album so much. To his credit, Andrew seems always to be improvising to some extent. So, the live albums take me some time to embrace. Either way, both recordings are necessary. Live @ Bonnaroo has a track called "Simple X," which sounds straight Radiohead. The electric beat and even the lyrics seem to reference Radiohead. I may be completely wrong, but I'm going to think of it that way anyway.
BTW, damn those of you who were at that performance. So jealous.
Andrew's also coming out with a new studio album, named (for now), "The Armchair Apocrypha." There's an interview on Billboard: http://billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002345976, where he's quoted calling the album "The Armchair Apocalypse." For some reason, the former sounds more likely. Plus, that's what it says on his website. It's supposed to be out next Spring on Fat Possum records - not Righteous Babe. I don't know anything about either of these labels, but I'm sure the decision to go with one and not the other has some import. The article is a must-read because I said so. So read it. I will probably go out of my way and buy this album right when it comes out.
Anyway, that's the news from Lake Wobegan. bye.

Oskar Blues' Old Chub Scottish Style Ale

I'm still not sure why this brewery insists on distributing in cans, especially considering how damned good their Gordon IPA is. I'm also not sure where the 8% alcohol is in this smooth, mildly sweet Scottish ale is. They mention "huge quantities of caramel and chocolate malts," but this is quite dissimilar to your typical 'smokehouse' porter or most American stouts. It does not match particularly well with peach shisha, so I'm not sure what to say about the food matching aspect, but I'm sure it would go well with pretty much anything considering how surprisingly smooth it is. The underlying flavor is something like caramel, but maybe a very buttery caramel with a lot of pure beer flavor. It tastes basically the same all over the tongue and at the beginning and end of the taste and of the pour. This is one of the best aftertastes of any 'ale' style I've had. It's a strange beer, and certainly not 'extreme,' but I highly recommend it as an any time beer. It comes in sixers for around $8, so it's not too hard on the wallet, and it leaves little to be desired for alcohol content. I'm satisfied. 

Smuttynose 2006 Big Beer series: Wheat Wine Ale

"Malt beverage brewed from 53% wheat, 47# barley."
Went surprisingly well with a moderately spicy, under-fish-sauced scrambled tofu, green pepper and spinach panang curry. Very hoppy, but still smooth and malty. I give it two thumbs up, but i'm not sure how to say why. Not the best, but certainly worth trying. Very interesting combinatino of styles. Yum. 

maredsous triple

alcohol notes are airy and warm, pushing the bitterness to the background. there is a detectable sweetness somewhere in the middle. the bouquet is boozy, fruit flavors are suppressed.

grimbergen optimo bruno

this is grimbergen's heavy hitter, and it is *so* brown. candy alcohol notes and pithy bitterness accompany the main fruit flavor, which is decidedly welche's grape juice. but as far as i can tell, it's not adulterated, just some wonky kind of belgian yeast. it's my favorite amongst the belgians at del haize.

edit: after reviewing the ingredients, they *do* use sugar. i don't think it's enough to make me stop drinking it, and it's not as great a sin as using flavoring, but it is impure.

The Decemberists.

So, if you haven’t picked up the new album, The Crane Wife, as well as all of their other albums, you need to get on it now (http://www.decemberists.com). The new album is their first with a major label (Capital), and you can hear the difference. In some ways, it’s a parallel to Modest Mouse’s The Moon and Antarctica, which I believe was their first record with Epic. When Mouse made the move, they produced their first pseudo-concept album, abandoning the traditional idea of an album as a collection of songs. Still nowhere near the grandiosity and coherence of old progressive albums like Wish You Were Here or Dark Side, and less the continuous progression of relatively coherent ideas than Abbey Road, these two albums are instead interwoven but distinct threads of songs. The main cohering factor is the novelty of production and a new-ish sound. These albums admit many of the cliché (but effective) forms and effects that one finds on any major record label. As such, both albums have taken the bands’ loyal fans (including myself) some time to accept, though more so for Mouse. Both definitely require multiple (≥3) listenings, and I think both will find a place in your mind as one of the bands’ greatest achievements.

That said, either Moon & Antarctica’s success or pressure from the label seemed to have pushed Mouse to put out new music that feels more and more like an abandonment of their old style and persona (and an alienation of their long-time fans). That’s not to say Good News… is a sell-out. It’s a good album, but the raw intensity and chances taken by the old Mouse seem to be diminishing, and it’s very difficult for a band that’s found an extremely successful sound to try to hearken the grungy, un-polished and more importantly less profitable style of their ‘old days.’ We’ll have to wait for the next album to really know what’s going on with Mouse.

That said, The Decemberists’ newest album is well in accord with their previous work. The lyrics are still amazing and disturbing. “The Landlord’s Daughter” is a classic tale of 19^th century rape, and “Shankill Butchers” is a darkly humorous lullaby about whisky drinking, cleaver-wielding butchers that want to catch you awake. The album is intensely moving, and the added organ fills, vocal filters and effects, obscure Chinese traditional storyline and conglomerate songs make this quite an achievement by a band that had already claimed a permanent spot in my list. It’s hard to say what they’ll do next, but given that they’ve kept with the things that have made them so astounding from the beginning, I think we can only expect more surprises and continuous pleasure from this band.

And on another note, they fucking rock live. So much fun. Best show I’ve seen in a lonnng time. I would not have guessed that his voice (and the other singers’ voices) is as good, neigh better, live, and they do quite a show. Absolutely go see them if you get a chance.

Disclaimer: The Decemberists and Modest Mouse are not all that similar. I just mean album structure, style change, and band 'maturation,' as they say.