Ring in the new year with beer

When I think of New Year’s Eve, the obvious comes to mind: Tipsy friends wearing pointed paper hats, annoying party poppers sending streamers flying and cheap champagne. I’m OK with the hats, poppers and tipsy friends, but I usually find a champagne substitute to ring in my new year.
After all, the French only export the champagne they won’t drink and most sparkling wines are too dry for my tastes. Why let the French reap all of the economic benefits of your New Year’s blowout, or waste your money on a $5 bottle of headache-causing California bubbly?
Give one of these brewed libations a try for your Christmas or New Year’s Eve celebration. You and your guests will be glad you did.

Big Stella
I’m a big Stella Artois fan, but I didn’t know the Belgian-brewed beer started as a Christmas-only offering from InBev — the company that recently acquired Anheuser-Busch — in 1926. The clean, slightly bitter lager was so popular the brewery added it to their line year-round. Stella is available on tap and in bottles around town and is growing in acceptance across the country. For those out there who might miss the pop of a cork shooting out of a champagne bottle, or aren’t quite sure about lifting high a glass of beer to toast in the new year, don’t worry. The classic pilsner is available during the holidays in 750 ml cork and cage bottles suitable for any cork-popping celebration. At around 5.2 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), Stella’s holiday bottles retail for around $6.

Love of lambics
Are you looking for something extremely unique and colorful with which to celebrate the passing of this year and the arrival of the next? Pick up a couple of bottles of Lindemans’ lambics. Lambics — spontaneously fermented ales brewed with naturally occurring yeast strains and infused with real fruit — were one of my first international craft beer finds in Seattle. Brewed in Belgium since 1811 and imported by a Seattle company since 1979, Lindemans offers a variety of flavors including raspberry (framboise), cherry (kriek), peach (peche), cassiss (current) and pomme (apple). The sweet but tart ales retail around town at around $11 for a 750 ml corked bottle. Fruit beers are extremely popular recently and I seldom find anyone who doesn’t smile when they take their first taste of a Lindemans.

“Pop” goes the pilsner
I’ve spent a lot of time sampling Boulevard Brewery’s beer lately. The company’s Smokestack Series of craft ales offers a treat for beer lovers, but it’s the brewery’s pilsners I have recently been picking up. Imperial Pilsner — Boulevard’s international collaboration with Belgian brewer Orval — packs a punch at around 8 percent ABV. Available since last January, Imperial Pilsner is a great beer for any celebration and a great buy at around $12 for a 750 ml corked and caged bottle. The golden colored brew piles up a stiff white head and looks rich in a tall pilsner glass, great for a holiday toast. When I spoke to John McDonald — Boulevard’s founder and president — a few weeks ago, he told me that Imperial Pilsner may soon be added to the brewery’s year-round line of Smokestack Series beers.

Online find
My love of hard cider is no secret, and many area retailers of adult beverages keep a pretty good selection of them on hand. I suggest trying a tall glass of fruit cider this New Year’s Eve. Ciders are a versatile drink and can be served cold, over ice or warmed and spiced, depending on the occasion. Many solid spiced cider recipes can be found with a simple online search. I was poking around online and found a brand I hadn’t noticed before. Bellwether Hard Cider — a line of ciders brewed in Ithica, N.Y. — run around $12 a bottle (case prices are available) at www.cidery.com and can be shipped around the country. Bellwether offers a full line of flavors including black current, cherry and traditional varieties made with Northern Spy apples, other fruit and special wild yeast strains. There’s still time to order online and get your holiday cheer in time for a New year’s Eve toast.
Cheers!

Breweries’ winter beers pack plenty of cheer

There comes a time every year when my beer tastes change.
During warmer weather, I go for light beers, the ones suitable for easy summer sipping. When winter arrives, my taste buds know it’s time to man up and go big. I start looking around for my favorite breweries’ Christmas and winter seasonals.
A few years ago, there weren’t that many options. A couple of imports annually satisfied my hankering for spiced cold-weather warmers.
But some Christmas beers taste more like pine trees and reindeer tails than holiday cheer. The Christmas beer landscape has changed, and so have my holiday beer tastes.
Last weekend I scoured the shelves at area beer retailers that specialize in craft brands. I wanted to see what was out there for Christmas gatherings and New Year’s Eve parties. The retailers I shopped all offered a “Build a six pack” deal for around $8.
It’s fun to take a mixed six to holiday parties and sample around. Give these craft selections a chance and you won’t be disappointed.
• Shiner Holiday Cheer: I didn’t know what I was getting into recently when I picked up a six pack of Spoetzl Brewing’s Holiday Cheer, a dark, peach flavored Dunkelweizen. The garnet colored, mildly bitter brew (5.4 percent alcohol by volume) has a big peach flavor and a nutty aftertaste.
The guy at the counter where I picked it up said its hard to get and he sells his supply quickly. No wonder: It’s brewed with Texas peaches and roasted pecans.
• Redhook’s Winter Hook: I have been a Winter Hook fan for years. It’s always been a drinkable and flavor forward ale. I’ve enjoyed it on tap at Club 609 downtown and know it’s available in bottles around the area. The recipe for this winter — new for 2010 — is a new one and it’s a winner at 6 percent ABV.
• Sam Adams’ Winter Lager: Since 1989, the Boston Beer Company’s Winter Lager has been a staple of the winter beer experience for everyone but me. I hadn’t tried it until recently.
It’s a great balanced beer and not too malty. Winter Lager would have good party appeal and pair well with spicy dishes and bold finger foods.
• Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale: Drink Celebration Ale and you are drinking a part of American brewing history. The bitter seasonal from one of California’s craft beer pioneers is available through January, so get a six now.
The ale has won awards at beer contests around the country in the India Pale Ale category. At 6.8 percent ABV, Celebration packs a punch and will appeal to bitter beer drinkers.
• Anchor Steam’s Liberty Ale: Want to impress holiday party snobs with your knowledge of beer history? Take a six-pack of Anchor’s Liberty Ale.
Liberty, brewed first in 1975 as Anchor’s inaugural Christmas beer, is 6.8 percent ABV and a smooth, medium bitter ale. The reaction to Liberty was so positive then brewery owner Fritz Maytag added it to the year-round line up. I think it’s Anchor’s best beer, but many loyal Steam lager drinkers disagree.
• Boulevard Nutcracker Ale: Nutcracker Ale surprised me. Its dark color made me think it was going to be a super heavy beer, but it was light (5.8 percent ABV) and drinkable. It’s mildly bitter character paired great with a Cajun blackened burger and fries. I suspect it would go well with about any meal.
• Michelob Winter Bourbon Cask Ale: When I picked up Michelob’s holiday beer (6 percent ABV) I was expecting a bitter winter ale and was shocked to get a sweet vanilla flavored brew. I didn’t want to like it, but I did. It’s as close to drinking a cupcake as you will get. I’ll buy it again.
• O’Fallon Brewery’s Cherry Chocolate: If sweet beer — malt liquor in this case — is your thing, it’s hard to imagine one sweeter that this.
This dark cherry cordial flavored beer isn’t for everyone. I think it’s a great beer to share as dessert or the last one of the night. I don’t think I could make it through an entire bottle without going into a sugar coma. I hear the brewery’s Christmas Ale is a great winter beer, but didn’t find it around town.
• Say ‘Yes’ to Ciders: I’m always a big cider guy at the holidays. I love it cold on a summer day and warm on a winter night.
Take a few bottles of hard peach, apple or pear cider and warm it up with a cinnamon stick and some vanilla sugar. It’s a great liquid substitute in a fruit cobbler or pie and — trust me — it isn’t bad to sip while you bake. Wyder’s, Woodchuck and Ace ciders are great brands to try, but many others are available around town.
Merry Christmas and cheers!

K.C.’s Boulevard Brewery comes of age

John McDonald, founder and president of Boulevard brewing Co. in his Kansas City office.

John McDonald made no bones about his love of beer. The founder and president of the Boulevard Brewing Co. in Kansas City said his fascination with brewing goes back to his youth.
“I grew up in a Western Kansas small town,” he told me as we talked in his small, crowded office inside the brewery. “That’s kind of what we did when we were kids. My dad made a little home brew, which you know was more of a conversation piece than something good to drink.”
John said you had to add a little tomato juice to his dad’s home brew to get it down. Once you did, “It packed a wallop,” he said, laughing.
John grew up and moved away to college at Kansas University, earned a fine arts degree and became a cabinet maker and carpenter.
It was on his first trip to Europe that John’s eyes were opened to the vast number of beers available and the traditions small European brewers embraced.
“I just fell love with English ales,” he said. “When we were in Paris, I stumbled in to a Belgian beer bar. My wife would go to museums and I would go back to the bar every day. They had 400 different bottled beers from all of these different breweries. I was just like, ‘Wow, this is crazy interesting.’”

In 2009 Boulevard was ranked the ninth largest craft brewer in America.

Finding financing
It wasn’t long until John’s interest in brewing became more serious and he decided to put his career as a carpenter on hold.
“I started thinking about a brewery in the mid ’80s,” he said. “I was always enamored with the idea of small production beer and wine.”
Over a four-year period, John admits he went down “a few wrong roads,” but finally, in 1989, raised enough money to start the brewery. Raising the money needed to get going wasn’t easy. He met with about 30 bankers and a lot of disappointment, but kept searching for financing.
He eventually found the funds needed to get started, but, to this day, remembers one nay-saying banker.
“He was a young banker at a bank downtown and I was still working as a carpenter,” he said. “I meant to go home and take a shower and change my clothes and then go to the bank. I was kind of dusty with my work clothes on and he said, ‘Dude, first of all, I think your business plan is totally crazy and second of all, next time you come see a banker, you better put a suit on.’ So, I took his advice and bought a new suit.
“It didn’t help me, though,” he said, laughing. “I just wasted the money on a suit.”
John ran into the same banker years later, after the brewery was successful. The banker, he said, “was fairly apologetic.”
In 2009 Boulevard was ranked the ninth largest craft brewer in the America by the Brewer’s Association. John said the quick success of Boulevard surprised even him.
It’s really a great time to be a brewer, John said.
“It’s great to have access to technology that we didn’t have back when we started. We’re as automated and as high tech as any big brewery. It’s a constant battle to make sure that the craftsmanship part of it, the quality of the beer, is the most important thing.”

Julie Weeks, marketing communications manager, said the Boulevard team is excited about the new 12-ounce four packs of selected Smokestack Series beers.

Best beers in the world
One Boulevard beer, their unfiltered wheat, the company’s most prolific product, accounts for more than 60 percent of their business.
“I thinks it’s been so popular because of the unfiltered nature,” he said. “That’s what makes it good, the lack of processing, and it’s real easy to drink. It’s an American style wheat beer. It’s not something that’s going to put anybody off and it’s got a nice flavor to it.”
The company’s Smokestack Series of craft beers pays tribute to old world craftsmanship. It is available in small batches that are sold in 750 ml corked and caged bottles. Some Smokestack beers are now available on tap and several varieties are newly available in four-packs of 12-once bottles.
John said it’s really “amazing” what’s going on in American brewing.
“Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the best beers in the world are being made in the United States,” John said. “We need to create more beer culture. That’s what missing. We have these great beers, but the population doesn’t really know what to do with them or how to drink them, compared to (drinkers) in Belgium, England or Germany.”
Unlike American beer drinkers, Europeans tend to pour their bottled beer into glasses, rather than just tipping the bottle back.
“If you can get people to pour beer into a glass, that’s half the battle,” he said. American brewers, he explained, originally marketed their beers in bottles to maximize the label recognition and brand marketing.
“Shame on them,” he said. “They never should have done that. Look at the wine industry. You wouldn’t think about drinking a $10 bottle of wine out of a bottle.”

Some of Boulevard's Smokestack Series beers are aged in oak barrels in a climate controlled room at the brewery.

Kansas City’s brewery
Not all of Boulevard’s brews have met with acceptance and success.
“The one beer that was a total flop, that I still think was a good idea, came out in the mid ‘90s called Ten Penny,” he said. “The idea was to make a beer that tasted good that had low alcohol. We came out with this baby version of a pale ale that had a really good flavor that had like 2.6 percent (alcohol). You could just slam them. As soon as the consumer found out that it was low in alcohol people just wouldn’t drink it.”
Boulevard’s Bully Porter, a dark, chocolate-forward, American-style porter doesn’t set any sales records, but John said they will keep it in the line.
“I love that brand and the beer, but we don’t sell hardly any of it,” he said, looking a little disappointed. “I don’t understand why, but we don’t. We will keep making that brand. It’s part of who we were and who we are.”
Who they are, John stressed, is Kansas City’s brewery.
John pointed out that five years ago there were three breweries that made 85 percent of the beer sold in the U.S. and they were all owned by Americans. Five years later, all three are owned by foreign interests.
“Anheuser-Busch was one of the largest brewers in the world for a long time,” he said. “Well, that company, AB-InBev, is now four times as big as AB was and it’s all through acquisition. Does the world get better because of theses global conglomerates? I don’t think so.”
It’s all about efficiency, John said.
“So, if in this striving to be more and more efficient all of the time, eventually you don’t employ anybody,” he said. “That person who was going to buy your beer doesn’t have any money to buy it. It’s sort of a long term self-defeating prophecy to keep going that way. My thing is drink our beer and we’ll give somebody a job, which is what people need, jobs.”
Good philosophy.
Cheers!

Long Hammer IPA taps into love of bitter beers

I sat down Sunday morning at Buffalo Wild Wings for a reunion, of sorts.
A couple of weeks ago, I spied a new tap handle on the draft rail there and was stoked. Long Hammer India Pale Ale from Redhook Ales, a longtime Seattle craft brewer, had finally made it to Joplin on draft. I decided to get reacquainted with Redhook, a long-lost friend. I asked my bartender at Wild Wings how Long Hammer was going over and she said it was gaining in popularity.
One of the first craft beers for which I ever developed a taste was Long Hammer’s craft cousin, Redhook Extra Special Bitter — ESB for short. I’ve seen ESB around town in bottles for years and I’m finding it more and more on draft during my travels. I often grab a six pack or order a pint when it’s available.

Long Hammer is available on draft in Joplin at Buffalo Wild Wings, Just Us Bar and Grill, Caldone's and Tropicana Bar and Grill.

I called Redhook and set up an interview with Greg Deuhs, resident brew master, and Kim Brusco, a lead brewer at the company’s Woodinville, Wash., brewery. If anyone could help me share the good news about Redhook’s “Liquid Goodness,” as the company promotes it, it would be the guys who make it.
I asked Kim how he thought Redhook’s Long Hammer, a clean and balanced IPA brewed since 1984, is doing around the country where hoppy craft beers are not as well known — or accepted — as they are in the Northwest and Northeast.
“We’re doing well all over the country,” Kim said of their crisp, golden brew. “The thing about Long Hammer, compared to other IPAs, is it’s approachable. It’s clean. It’s 6.5 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) and 44 (bitterness units), but it’s a very drinkable IPA, compared to the real big overly-hopped IPAs.”
While I haven’t spotted ESB on tap around town, it is available in bottles at many package and grocery stores where craft ales and lagers are sold. Not as bitter as Long Hammer, ESB is a great amber-colored ale. It put Redhook on the map in 1987 and continues to win important beer awards today. When I developed a taste for ESB it wasn’t yet available in bottles. Like many Seattle and Portland brews of the day, it was a keg-only product.
“It’s our oldest brand,” Kim told me. “It’s a drinkable, approachable beer. It’s got a lot of flavor; nothing over the top. It’s typical for an English bitter. It’s not overly hoppy or overly malty. It’s just got some good flavors that meld together real well.”
Getting bitter
Bitterness units, BUs for short, are the way brewers measure the bitterness of beers. Mass-production lagers  such as Budweiser come in between 5 and 25 BUs. English-style bitters, such as Redhook’s ESB, come in at 28 BUs and higher. Hoppier and more bitter ales, such as Redhook’s Big Ballard Imperial IPA, comes in at 73 BUs. Some extreme beers — often called double or triple IPAs — reach more than 100 on the BU scale. Talk about bitter-beer face.
Kim, a self described “hop-head” and fan of the bitterest beers, told me he thinks people are starting to burn out on overly-hopped beers. Hops are the leafy, green botanical added to beers during or after brewing, which gives them a bitter character and sometimes skunky aroma.
“I drink the hoppiest beers,” Kim said. “I still like one from time to time, but really, Long Hammer is my favorite IPA. I can drink a few pints of it and get the hops I want.”
Long Hammer, he said, is dry hopped after the heated brewing process is complete. That, he said, is the secret to Long Hammer’s balanced flavor profile.
“I think because of the way we do it here, it comes though as a floral aroma, opposed to an overly bitter hop flavor,” he said. “Where some people might be turned off by a beer that has a very large addition of hops (during brewing) that gives the beer aroma, it also gives a real hop flavor. That doesn’t exist with Long Hammer because we dry hop it cold.”
Greg Deuhs, who directs brewing at Redhook in Seattle, said he thinks the key to craft beers’ acceptance around the country has been education. That education, in some cases, has been long in coming to the Midwest.
“The great American beer revolution started in the early 1980s and has been slowly progressing through the country,” the brew house veteran said. “What started in certain pockets of the country, like the West Coast and California and parts of the East and Midwest, is now becoming mainstreamed elsewhere in the country. It’s just taking time to get there.”
Affordable luxury
Beer tourism, Greg said, is helping craft beer grow in popularity around the United States.
“People who travel (to the American Northwest) and Europe come back home and the seeds get planted,” he said. “Ten or 15 years ago, Redhook was considered an assertive beer, especially to somebody from the Midwest. They hadn’t ever seen a micro, but now it’s just like other things; like good coffee, there’s more exposure and more people get turned on to it.”
Greg said that the ESB of today is considered by many a mainstream craft beer, where years ago, when it debuted, it was thought to be an extreme beer. Consumers’ tastes have changed, he said.
Craft beers, Greg contends, are an affordable luxury and more people are giving them a try.
David Pryor, a sales manager at Missouri Eagle in Joplin, the area’s Anheuser-Busch distributor, told me craft beers are growing in acceptance around the area.
“There are a lot more people trying the import and craft beer segment,” David said. “Especially this time of year. The fall season lends itself to more flavorful beers — the ales and porters and those types of beers. They are a little higher alcohol, which people enjoy. We’re seeing a lot of people buy a craft six pack and still buy the 12-pack of Bud Light, too. Everybody ought to go have one. You know, something to change it up a little for a special occasion.”
Anytime I buy a six pack of craft beer, it’s a special occasion.

Cheers!

Globe reader Takes ‘Booze’ column/blog to task

Recently a Globe reader sent me a letter detailing her dislike of this blog and the column of the same name, which runs in the Globe’s Friday Enjoy section. I responded to the anonymous writer in the column and suggested she not be so quick to judge.  Well, that column inspired another Globe reader, Patricia Thompson, to submit a letter to the editor chiding the Globe for allowing a boozy column in the paper, and me for …well, just about everything.

Patricia’s “Voices” submission ran today (Friday, August 20) in the Globe and online at joplinglobe.com. I don’t mind the input. In fact, when people stop writing in about my weekly entertainment column, that’s when I’ll get concerned. Patricia, thanks for reading and thanks for the letter.

I was happy to have a few folks on Facebook and in the Globe’s comments section come to my defense. I’m not getting excited yet. It’s still early and the tide of online support could quickly shift.

Cheers!

By Patricia Thompson
Special to The Globe

JOPLIN, Mo. — Recently,  I read a couple of articles wherein Dave Woods described his trip to Branson and details on what he had to eat and drink and the full prices of each meal.

At that time I was appalled to think that he would put such full details in the paper. It seems he had eaten at some very costly places, and at a time when families are scraping funds to simply buy a box of macaroni and cheese or a can of beans, it seemed inappropriate to brag on what he had to eat and drink.

Today, another article appears in the Globe that “Booze is big business.” It seems someone had written to Mr. Woods about all the drinking articles in the paper. From Mr. Woods’ reply, I could see that he was irritated about the person’s letter. People do get upset when someone steps on their toes with the truth. It seems the person had called him an “old sot,” at age 45. I’m sorry Mr. Woods, but looking at your picture I thought you were an “old sot,” at age 60, but do know it is a proven fact that drinking does age a person, and I know this picture is several years old.

It saddens my heart that someone would state that Joplin is simply for eating, drinking and casinos. If this is true, why are they putting so much money into downtown to make it a more cultural city? Also, why did Vegas put so much money into making their town family-oriented? Why does your paper continually have articles on workers stealing funds from their companies to cover their casino loses? Do you feel this is good? Why does your paper continually have articles on people killing other people while intoxicated? Do you feel this is good? It seems you may have your priorities on the wrong side of the track and should take a long hard look in a mirror and see what booze has done for you.

I would suggest that you and Globe columnist Mike Pound take a refresher course on what journalism is and how to write it. If neither of you have taken journalism courses, then I suggest you do. Journalism is all about the people and not about you and what you like. May Joplin be more than your expectations.

Patricia Thompson, Joplin

Boulevard adds brews to Smokestack Series

Image source: http://www.pitch.com

I discovered American micro and craft beers in my late 20s.
In Seattle, the only thing more fashionable than gourmet coffee is beer. Every guy you meet has a bubbling vat of fermenting grain and yeast gassing away in a dark closet.
There were a dozen or so craft and microbreweries within walking distance of my Capital Hill apartment, so becoming a beer hound in the Great Northwest was easy. The search for unique hand-crafted brews was a great way to while away a weekend afternoon.
No so in Joplin. Finding small-batch brews around Bud-is-king country can be a challenge.
Don’t get me wrong: When I want a value brand I go Natural Light. I’m not a beer snob. I love the fruit of the malt and chewy, craft beers.
Recently I was thrilled when I checked out the Boulevard Brewing Co.’s Smokestack Series of craft beers. I found a rack of Boulevard Brewery’s signature 750-ml bottles on my vacation in Oklahoma City.
The line offers small-batch craft beers made in the style of European farmhouse breweries. The Smokestack Web site features a few of their offerings, including the Double-Wide India Pale Ale (8.5 percent alcohol by volume, ABV).
The brewery’s Long Strange Triple (9.0 percent ABV) is named after an early Boulevard employee and contains triple the amount of malt than other beers. The Sixth Glass brand (10.5 percent ABV) is brewed in the style of great Trappist Ales from Belgium. Boulevard’s Saison (6.2 percent ABV) is an approachable golden-colored craft beer made for summer drinking.
In OKC I enjoyed the Saison and Long Strange Triple with a pesto-chicken pizza and prosciutto-wrapped pears. Wow! Both are good, hearty beers; not too heavy with great spicy notes, good color and a smooth finish. Great with a meal.
The others I sampled — not in the same setting, by the way — were the Double-Wide IPA and the brewery’s Saison-Brett. Both beers developed a sweet, foamy head when poured into an iced glass.
The India Pale Ale is a hoppy joy to drink — bitter, but balanced. The Double-Wide IPA is exceptional, but a lil’ bitter for my taste. I recommend both.
Boulevard plans to introduce small batches of each beer and rotate new selections in and out throughout the year. I spotted a couple of new offerings from the Smokestack series at a couple of Joplin-area beer retailers before I headed south to Oklahoma city last weekend.
Dark Truth Stout and the Rye on Rye bring the number of Smokestack offerings to 14, with more are on the way. The beers retail in 750-ml champagne-style bottles with cork-and-cage closures. Classy.
Boulevard’s beginning

The line debuted in Nov., 2007, a recent news release from the brewery noted: “The debut of the Smokestack Series marks an important milestone for our company,” said John McDonald, Boulevard’s founder and president. “While I love all the beers we brew, these specially-crafted styles are close to our brewers’ hearts, and I’m really excited to offer these new flavors to our loyal fans.
Boulevard beers are available in 12 states: Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wyoming.
“Boulevard Brewing Company has grown to be the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest,” McDonald said. “We are dedicated to the craft of producing fresh, flavorful beers using traditional ingredients and the best of both old and new brewing techniques.”
Locally I found the series at Mays in Joplin. I’ll look around and report back when I find other locations. I paid $15 for a bottle at The Wedge Pizzeria in OKC, and around $10 in a liquor store in OKC and around $8 retail in Joplin.

Cheers!

Pyramid sampler full of memories, great taste

I headed out of the newsroom Monday afternoon in search of a story. A noon Wednesday deadline for this column loomed and I had to hit my beat. I decided to run my traps, hitting a couple of Joplin watering holes known for their early, late-afternoon business. I talked to a bartender here, chatted up a veteran sitting at the bar there. No luck. Sometimes I can just walk into a bar, have a beer and run into an interesting story. There was no time for that kind of casual newsgathering on Monday afternoon. It was late and I needed a story to tell.

Pryamid prevails

I stopped in at Macadoodles on my way home in search of an idea … and a 12-pack. When you write a column called “The Booze Beat,” sometimes that’s all it takes to find a good tale to tell. I walked the shelves looking for alcoholic inspiration. Ed Hardy wine? No. Ed Hardy beer? I’d been nursing a six-pack of Ed Hardy — aka Christian Audigier’s designer lager — for more than a week. No inspiration there, either. Then, I spied a 12-bottle sample pack from Pyramid Breweries in Seattle, Wa. I grabbed a box and headed home to research my column and relive a few Seattle memories. I lived there for almost a decade and came to love the Pyramid brands. The Spring variety pack of ales was an easy choice: It included three bottles each of the Haywire Hefewiezen (an unfiltered wheat beer), Audacious Apricot Ale, Thunderhead India Pale Ale and a new addition to the seasonal sampler, Fling Pale Ale.

Good wheat

The Haywire Hefe’s product information contends it’s “the standard by which all other wheat beers are judged.” By wheat beer standards it’s a good brew, but no better than KC’s Boulevard Wheat. When it comes to judging wheat beers, I’m a big Widmer Brothers fan. Portland-brewed Widmer is a thick, chewy wheat ale with a slightly bitter taste.
I remember drinking Widmer in Seattle long before it was available in bottles — let alone owned by Budweiser, now InBev. Widmer’s Hefe was the first beer in which I ever squeezed a lemon. It’s funny to me how a sip of a memorable beer or a familiar smell in the air can take you back to a place in time. Ah, memories. It rates 5.1 percent alcohol by volume (ABV).

IPA

I poured a Thunderhead India Pale Ale into a frozen pilsner glass, took a sip and remembered a day when I would have grimaced at its bitterness. Now, I can really savor a great sweetness provided by the malts used and the bitter character imparted by hops. The IPA is well-balanced and not so bitter as to put off a new drinker. (6.7 percent ABV.)
Fling Pale Ale

Less bitter than the IPA is Pyramid’s new Fling Pale Ale. Light and cooper colored, it’s light and easy to drink. It’s good starter pale. I’m not a big pale ale fan, but this one I can drink. Fling would be a good beer for a summer patio party. It’s malty and slightly bitter with a mild aftertaste that holds up to that wood- or charcoal-grilled flavor. (5.2 percent ABV.)

Audacious Apricot

I have loved Pyramid’s apricot for a long time. Now called “Audacious Apricot,” it’s a good beer for any occasion.  It’s good with light meals; the apricot flavor isn’t overpowering and enhances the meal. The flavored wheat beer is great hot-weather drinking and is best served ice-cold. (5.1 percent ABV.)

The Pyramid Spring Variety Pack set me back around $17. It’s worth the price and a party pleaser. I suspect it’s available around town in most establishments. The Pyramid Web site, http://www.pyramidbrew.com, offers a lot of product information and company history. For beer buffs, Pyramid has a great story … and good beer. 

Cheers!

Missouri vodka discovered in Carthage ‘Delights’

When it comes to liquor, beer and wine, I’m an impulse shopper. I have my favorite daily drinkers, but I’m always looking for something unique for a special occasion … like Tuesdays.

I found myself impulse-shopping last weekend at Annie’s Epicurean Delights, 116 west Third Street in Carthage. Don’t let the fancy name fool you, Annie’s offers a great selection of affordable dip and sauce mixes, gourmet snacks and party foods, chocolates, cheeses and a fine liquor and wine selection. I don’t get over to the Maple Leaf City as often as I would like, so when do, I drop in to catch up on a little gossip, share a few stories, sample a little something and pick up a bottle or two.  I was planning for an Oscar party, so I was quick to start stacking bottles and boxes up on the counter.

Show-Me beer

First up a Schlafly Sampler. The 12-bottle box of St. Louis-brewed beer included four bottles each of American Pale Ale, English Pale and their Kolsch Style Ale. The Kolsch, according the Schlafly Web site, is “a golden-colored, medium-bodied, crisp and refreshing ale. This style, which originated in Cologne (Germany), is well balanced, mild mannered, and a perfect companion for any occasion.” I agree. It was great with pasta and red sauce. It’s low in alcohol by volume (ABV), only 4.8%, and 160 calories per 12–ounce bottle. Schlafly’s Pale Ale is one of the brewer’s flagship products. Its amber color and mild bitterness made it a party favorite. (ABV: 4.4%, 155 calories per serving.)

Rounding out the party pack of Missouri craft beers is the American Pale Ale. Lighter than its English cousin, the APA wowed me. It paired well with the meal, didn’t fill me up as fast as some heavy pales do and has a great, bitter character.  Dry hopping the beer – I’m not really sure what that means — gives the ale its delicious, bitter character. The APA comes in at 5.9 percent ABV and has a bitterness rating of 50. (We’ll talk beer bitterness another time, when I can find someone who knows more about it than me.) The Schlafly Sampler is available round town at the usual suspects for under $17.

Show-Me vodka?

Another eye catcher at Annie’s was a bottle of 360 Double Chocolate Vodka. As I examined the unique wire-swing top bottle, I noticed it’s made from all American grains, distilled four times, filtered five and promoted environmental friendly ideas. The bottle 85 percent recycled glass. The label is 100 percent recycled paper and listed the liquor’s other eco-friendly features. Who knows, maybe they really care. Here’s what really sold me on the $20.29 bottle: The company offers a $10 rebate and it’s distilled in Weston, Mo., by Earth Friendly Distilling. That’s right, Missouri vodka. You have to jump through a few hoops to get the cash back according to the label instructions, but I’m giving it a try. I lost the original receipt in the Oscar-night excitement, but Annie’s set me up with a duplicate. Thanks, Anne. I’m mailing the rebate in today. I’ll let you know when the check arrives.

 Try this: Rim a medium-sized martini glass with chocolate syrup. In a drink shaker full of ice pour four ounces 360 Double Chocolate Vodka and two ounces Frangelica hazelnut liqueur and two ounces of half-and-half. Chill and strain into the glasses. Makes two servings. Change it up? Use white chocolate syrup to rim the martini glass and ad one tablespoon to the 360 Vodka and Frangelico for a different look.

Cheers!

Magic Hat “No. 9” gets a second chance

I stopped in last week at Buffalo Wild Wings in Joplin for a quick brew before Avatar. Usually I would have settled for my regular Bud, but spotted a new tap handle on the rail. The tapper looked like a shepard’s crook with a metal number “9” in the center. Not one to shy away from trying a beer without any knowledge of it, I asked the bartender for a little info and ordered a pint. The new brew, Magic Hat No. 9, disappointed me that day. The beer seemed a bit flat and sour. Not a good first impression. The Magic Hat hails from the maple syrup state, Vermont.

 A couple of days later I was back in the BWW and decided to give No. 9 another chance. I’m glad I did. This time around the beer had a great head, the sour taste was gone and the pint was an enjoyable ride. I ordered another and mentioned to the barkeep my previous experience. He told me that sometimes the glasses don’t get rinsed enough and the residual agent left on the glass can cause the beer to loose its head and seem flat in the glass. According the bartender BWW is the only place the Magic Hat can be found in Joplin and it could be there for a limited time.

 The Magic Hat Brewing Co. is in Burlington, Vermont, a state known for good beer. The No. 9 product information on the Web site brands the brew as a “not quite pale ale.” The site info goes on: “An ale whose mysterious and unusual palate will swirl across your tongue and ask more questions than it answers. A sort of dry, crisp, refreshing, not-quite pale ale. #9 is really impossible to describe because there’s never been anything else quite like it.”

Magic Hat’s No. 9 gets its “not quite Pale character from Cascade and Apollo hops and Pale and Crystal malts. At 5.1 alcohol by volume (ABV) , its not a stiff drink.

I’m glad I gave No. 9 a second chance. The bartender couldn’t tell me how long the English style ale will stick around. He said the distributor was sampling it to see if it had any legs in this market. I say keep it around. I’ll tackle it again. $4 a pint. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Cheers!