Fort George Brewery + Public House - 2015 "Bourbon Barrel Cavatica" stout

Here's one from the archives - the deep archives! I recently was cleaning out my computer and deleting old blog post photos, when I noticed these. I checked the blog and it looks like I never reviewed this! Mea culpa, amici, it's about time this gets its due. And mea maxima culpa to the fine folks at Fort George whose generosity made this review possible. 

This is a 2015-vintage bourbon barrel aged version of Fort George Brewery's "Cavatica Stout" clocking in a 8.80% ABV. I've had the regular Cavatica Stout a bunch of times (my brother Dan used to send me pint cans of the stuff) but hadn't ever seen the special variants. I picked this up in August of 2015 when I visited Fort George Brewing Co. in Astoria, Oregon. I'm always a sucker for barrel-aged ales (especially barrel-aged, special release versions of beers I like!), so this was very attractive simply on spec. Because I still have my handwritten notes from that trip, I present the long-overdue review!

This beer is the regular Cavatica Stout aged in Willet bourbon barrels - according to the bottle, this is batch number 288. It comes in a 22oz bomber (that's 1 pint, 6 fluid ounces) sealed with a red wax neck that took quite a bit of work to remove. There must have been four layers of wax in there.

It pours a deep red / brown into a snifter glass and throws a slightly sweet aroma. It's black in the glass with a khaki-colored foam. As with most of these kinds of beer, I let it sit for a few minutes to let it warm up.

Immediately upon tasting, there's a strong wave of woodsy, bourbon sweetness that's really quite enjoyable. The texture is like chocolate milk, thick and rich, and the complexity comes through as the beer sits in your mouth. The flavors really develop nicely (I call it "blossoming") and there's a slight sweetness that builds on that woodiness. The finish and aftertaste are warming and full, and that flavor note lingers for quite some time. 

I feel that the added depth given by the aging process has improved nicely on the regular Cavatica stout. Not to say it wasn't good to begin with, but this extra kick of aging adds a great wood note to the beer that avoids any undesirable heaviness or strong sugar flavors (that some other deep aged stouts do.) There's a marked absence of alcohol flavors, which in many ways reminds me of Founders' fantastic "Kentucky Breakfast Stout." If I recall, I served this beer with some Rogue River blue cheese and watched the sun set over Mount Rainier. I was definitely glad to try this, and can't find anything wrong with it besides its limited availability. Thanks, Fort George guys!

General Cigar Company - Cohiba "Edicion Diamante 2013" [Dominican Republic]

Today's cigar review is over a year in the making - it's a close look at a fine vintage cigar from the Cohiba imprint of General Cigar Co. - the "Edicion Diamante 2013." I first saw these cigars in a catalog two years ago, priced rather steeply - around $300 per box of ten. Balking at the price, I decided to hold off until they fluctuated in price (occasionally things go on sale / clearance / etc.) About a year later, in February 2016, the cigars dropped down in price, and with my brother Dan and a couple of friends, went in on a box.

A note about the vintage - cigars, like wine or beer, aren't always infinitely available. Blends and labels come and go, and some manufacturers even make special releases with varying rare ingredients. These may be offered seasonally, yearly, or only once. Today's blend is one such release - it's special tobacco, aged since 2013, and the capa - the delicate tobacco around the top which holds the wrapper and binder together - has been aged since 1980. In terms of origin, this cigar is made with Dominican longfillers and a Cameroonian wrapper.

Here they are in a maroon hardwood presentation box, dressed in shiny silver foil wrappers. Thanks to Jaclyn S. for the above (gracious) presentation.

Interestingly, nine of the foil wrappers have labels that say "Limited Release 2013" but one says "Limited Release 2012". Weird. And so under the silver wrapping paper is a wooden coffin-style box with the Cohiba logo printed on the lid.

The coffin opens edge-wise, and has a little wooden back piece that gently lifts the cigar out of the box. Such luxury! The Macanudo Jamaica Reserve that I smoked a couple of years ago also had a similar kind of box.

Upon inspection, these cigars are a little drier than I expected. This may have to do with storage - they're wrapped in cellulose, inside a wooden coffin, wrapped in foil, inside a cedar box, wrapped in shrink wrap. Many of the cigars I get wholesale are just wrapped in plastic (with individual cellulose wrappers) so they lose a lot of moisture sitting in the warehouse. Unfortunately, these cigars are rock-solid. They're rolled extremely tightly, it seems, and aren't very springy - not super dry, necessarily, just tight. This can pose a serious problem, since draw is a big part of the smoking experience. You can't enjoy a cigar if you can't even take the smoke into your mouth! So this was a concern of mine going into the smoke.

Fast forward seven months to August 2016. The cigars have been in their own Ziploc baggie with a hydrophilic gel pouch, yet they are still not as "mushy" as I would like. Dan and I were set to visit our folks on a summer trip to Connecticut, and despite the cigars' suspected condition, we aimed to try them together during the trip.

It's a pleasant color, for sure - no stems or anything but some remarkably even coloring throughout the cigar. The spiral wrapper pattern looks cool as well. There's some interesting marbling, if you look really closely, and the foot of the cigar is clean and sharply-cut.

It didn't light up easily, unfortunately - took a bit to get it going. The draw was pretty tight, so looks like our concerns were valid. As expected, it did warm up eventually and opened up a bit. I wasn't drawing mouthfuls of smoke, just sips, but still enough. As it burns, it has a concrete-grey ash.

Taste wise, it reminded me a bit of some of the Davidoff cigars I have smoked - heavy, but not in an oily maduro way. The flavor itself had a strong, yet smooth, leather and ash flavor - kinda what you think of when you think of stereotypical "old stogie" smells and flavors. Not too bad, and as it warmed up, my wrapper cracked so the draw was tougher. Dan feels it's similar to the standard Cohiba "Red Dot", albeit smoother, and I agree that it's a bit mellower but along similar flavor profiles. We struggled through the rest of it, and while the draw opened up, it didn't produce the clouds of aromatic smoke we'd hoped. We came away disappointed.

However, this was not the end. We had two each, so in April of 2017, we tried them again. At this point, the cigars now had a much longer in humidification, and we also both bought Drawpokers - a device that essentially reams out a plugged or tightly-wrapped cigar. It's basically a plastic frame into which one puts a cigar, then runs a metal skewer through the length. This cuts any plugs and increases draw, and this cigar is actually one of the reasons I bought the Drawpoker - and now I can't imagine NOT drawpoking my smokes.

The second attempt proved better. Instead of punching (cutting a circular hole on the capa through which to draw) I used my fancy new Colibri V-Cutter and also ran a Drawpoker down the length of the smoke. Results were better - I still got some of those same flavors, but this time the draw was easier and I was able to get the fullness of the smoke. There's an herbaceous quality to it that we didn't get before; as it burned, that herbal flavor turned to a dry, papery, nutty quality. Think of the hard shell of a chestnut. This second one burned more evenly and I was able to smoke it almost all the way down without it going out.

In conclusion, this cigar is great if you're into the heavier, ashier cigars. If you like Cohiba Red Dot or some of the Davidoff entries, you'll like this. The flavors are deep and refined, and while this cigar isn't bright or oily or flavorful in that way, it's still worth trying. The cost of course is steep, and the cigar is pretty rare to boot, but it's an interesting entry into the Cohiba line and I'm glad to have tried it.

Field Trip: 2017 Craft Brewers Conference [Part 2]

So after a really stellar Welcome Reception, I got some rest and wrapped up a few meetings on the Hill before heading to Day 2 of the 2017 Craft Brewers Conference. Because I was able to take some PTO and attend the conference proper, I got to sit in on a lecture and a few demonstrations (and had some tasty beer!)

The first event of the day was an educational lecture entitled "Sensory 101: Science and Common Sense Strategies for Starting Now". Led by Dr. Nicole Garneau, taste scientist and author of the Beer Flavor Map and Lindsay Barr, head sensory scientist at New Belgium Brewing Co.

Of course there's more to beer (or wine, or cigars for that matter) than just simple ingredients. And part of what we love about beer is its taste - its consistent taste -and to achieve that, brewers need to work hard. Ingredients can vary from lot to lot, fluctuations in temperature and growing conditions of the hops or malts, and human error / equipment error can impact the final product substantially. This is not to mention the challenges with managing breweries with multiple locations and production spaces. And when you run a brewery that produces a great quantity (like New Belgium, which in 2015 produced 914,000 barrels of beer - almost 30 million gallons) you need to have a set of rules and expectations for what a given beer tastes like, and how it should taste. This is called a "sensory program", and it includes the establishment of a baseline upon which testing and tasting can be performed. Today's lecture provided the how (and why) breweries have sensory quality controls and stringent management programs, and provided advice to brewers to make sure each batch of beer looks and tastes as good, as consistent, and as tasty as possible.

According to Dr. Garneau, 70% of breweries make between 1 and 1000 barrels of beer (between 31 and 31,000 gallons) and are thus classified as "developing." This is important as they are likely not big enough yet to afford their own paid tasting / testing staff, and so the point of this lecture was to introduce brewers to ways they can cheaply and easily develop a sensory program.

Building a program starts with two major tests: "Target Descriptor Generation" and "True To Target." Target Descriptor Generation, or TDG, involves the establishment of clearly-defined descriptive words used to describe a certain beer. This is usually done by having a panel of beer samplers (brewery employees, bar regulars, etc.) try a certain beer and write their tasting notes. These notes are then combined and the common words and phrases are used as the target baseline. For example, a tasting panel might conclude that a certain beer is "malty" or "sweet" or "sour" or "dry." Sure, there's going to be some variance in palates and experiences, but there will be common themes. These form that important baseline.

Then comes the next test - "True to Target." Now that a target has been established, the question must be asked - is beer X true to target? Any by these analyses, both informal (ex. "ew this tastes weird" or "wow, this is flat") to chemical and microbiological tests to determine original gravity, alcohol by volume, pH levels, etc. While baselines can shift, having an ability to say that a certain beer does not meet targets is important for mapping out a brewery's success.

So coupled together, these two tests don't really require a ton of money but can serve as a useful quality control regimen for a brewery of any size. So as you have your next sip of beer, think of the work that went in to making a consistent, even brew each time. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes!

After the lecture I followed the crowd to the upstairs part of the Convention Center, which has been dubbed the "Coolship" area.

I Googled "coolship" because it's an odd name; turns out that a coolship is a beer term, Anglicized from the Flemish "koelschip". According to CraftBeer.com, a coolship is a wide, flat, open area for the wort to cool, much like a brownie pan sitting out on the counter. This is very apropos to this conference, as the Coolship area here is a wide, flat, open area for participants to cool off and have food and beer. Nota bene: to the right of the below picture is the other half of this cavernous space where one part of the trade show is located. Photos are not permitted due to concerns of corporate espionage, so I couldn't grab many photos. 

Here's where all the beer is. There were about 8 stations sprinkled throughout this part of the hall, each giving about 3oz pours. Not super generous, but it was unlimited, so one's belly fills up quickly here. I don't have enough space to list all the ones I had, but a few that caught my eye:

This beauty is Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project's "Colorado Wild Sage", a 7.2% ABV Brettanomyces saison made with white sage and lemongrass. This was probably one of my favorites of the whole conference - armed with a peculiar, herbal aroma, it's light and earthy with the majority of the flavors hitting you on the finish and aftertaste. The herbs are big - owing to the lemongrass and sage - and there's a bit of a hops, but mostly soft and earthy. Really great, I immediately went back for a second one after trying this.

Next up is Dayton, OH-based Warped Wing's "Gamma Bomb", a 7.2% IPA that's perfect for the hopheads out there: there's a wave of resiny, piney hops and a burst of bitter, tangy flavors on the finish. It's a bit too acidic for me, but definitely good for the IPA lovers.

There was quite the line for this beer, so it must be good: Lawson's Finest Liquids "Sip of Sunshine", a 8.00% India pale ale that is very true to its name - it's bright, fresh, and bursting with orange juice flavors. There's a little hop bite in there to keep it interesting, but mostly lush fruit flavors and a nice fizzy texture. I could drink this all day long. Also, can we appreciate the cool name of the brewery?

Sometimes the best stuff is in unassuming packaging. This beer, served out of a repurposed Coleman cooler, was certainly intriguing - it's a 5.5% ABV dark berry sour from Wooden Robot Brewing Co. Made with boysenberries, this farmhouse-style ale is super sour, in a puckery kind of way. There's a pleasant astringency to it that adds a cool texture, although I don't know if I'd spring for a full pint. Sometimes off-the-beaten-path beers like this are best enjoyed in small doses.

And, for the last one of the series, here's Olde Hickory's "Ruby" lager, a dry and clean 4.0% ABV lager that's a refreshing and slightly sour, but not particularly unusual. But tasty nonetheless, and super light in alcohol, so makes this a nice session beer. The slight sourness is a nice touch.

Wandering around the venue I saw this, which was pretty cool. I of course added a shameless plug for the blog in the "What Brought You Here" section and, drawing off my professional career, added a few points to one of the other panels, "Tips for Engaging Your Legislators." Even beer needs lobbyists!

Later that night, I headed to Bar Deco in Gallery Place for Port City and Bear Republic's launch party of the "Amaro-Aged Metro Red", which Port City's usual West-Coast red ale "Metro Red" but aged in Don Cicco & Figli lemon-washed Amaro delle Sirene barrels. My fondness for red ales (and fondness for barrel-aged ales) made this particularly attractive.

When poured, it generates a thin white head with not a lot of aroma.

While it's only 6.5% ABV, it's heavier than I expected, super malty, with the sweetness of the barrel aging replacing the usual pine-needle notes. I can see the barrel aging contributing to the gravity, too, since it was pretty heavy and cloudy with not a lot of carbonation. It's hard to pick up any aroma in a bar, but certainly the flavor came through. Overall a solid beer that's a nice representation of a barrel-aged red. It was $9 a pint here at the bar, so expensive, but it's what you gotta pay for special beer!

Also, for the life of me, I CANNOT get the above formatting work right. 

Field Trip: 2017 Craft Brewers Conference Welcome Reception

On the first night of the conference, the organizers - the Brewer's Association - threw a Welcome Reception at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the American History Museum. I discovered when I picked up my credentials at check-in that as media, I was automatically registered for the reception. Who can say no? Dozens of breweries were in attendance, with tap stations sprinkled throughout both museums, and I did my best to try as many interesting and unique beers as I possibly could. I didn't even make it to the Natural History Museum, where a whole 'nother set of taps awaited.

I think almost all the beers I tried were from Virginia breweries, and each pour was generous - about four to six ounces per pour. 

First up is a light Vienna lager from Winchester, VA-based Escutcheon Brewing Co. Fizzy and soft, this is really true-to-style and has a host of flat cereal notes that makes it really refreshing and enjoyable. A good session ale!

Next up is Virginia Beer Company's "Elbow Patches", a 6.2% ABV oatmeal stout billed as a "year-round oatmeal stout." It's lighter than expected, with some grittiness and grain flavors that was pretty nice. There's a savory element on the finish and aftertaste that sets it apart from other oatmeal stouts I have had, which lends a bit of "sessionability" to it, so keep an eye out for this one. Good year-round, and all-day too!

This one is called "Siren's Lure" and it's a dry hop saison from Fairwinds Brewing Co. out of Lorton, VA. It's probably one of the driest saisons I've ever had; good mix of Belgian yeasty flavors and sour (and oaky) notes. Not perhaps my first choice when reaching for a can in the fridge, but just hit the spot and damn this would go great with some Thai food. I had three of these, they were so good. 

I'd never heard of Old Bust Head Brewing Co. before, but they had a special sour saison which was pretty interesting. I forgot the actual name of it, and recall it something like "Sour Mash," but a call to the brewery confirms its their "Sumerduck Saison".

Forget what you know about sour, this beer is as sour as those old Atomic Warhead candies. I'm getting super tart and lime-esque flavor notes here and a dryness like the Sahara. So far I have been digging the dry saisons and am looking forward to trying more of Old Bust Head's stuff in the future.

Here's Beltway Brewing Co.'s "Black Snake", a  ABV bourbon barrel aged imperial vanilla stout. Yes, it's as strong and powerful as one might expect. The vanilla bean hits you like a Chuck Norris punch to the face, followed by a strong wave of heavy alcohol sweetness and woodsy flavors. Not for the faint of heart, and while it's not super oily or thick, it's pretty heavy and like the "Colossal 6" not something you slug back hour after hour.

Ah yes, here we have one of my most favorite beer styles: the venerable barleywine. This is Adroit Theory Brewing Co.'s "Tenebris", a 10.70% ABV barleywine aged in Heaven Hills bourbon barrels. I immediately knew I was in for a ride when I saw that placard!

But - I stand surprised, actually. I was imagining a really strong, heavy beer, like a lot of the barleywines I have had, but the "Tenebris" is remarkably light. It seems more milky, maybe approaching nitro milkiness, with some of the earthy, sweet flavors coming through towards the middle of the "sip." The aging is hard to pick out, and while there are some oak notes, nothing super overpowering. I'll have to read more in Dick Cantwell's barleywine book I bought at the gift shop, as this barleywine defies much of what I have come to know about the style. 

OK, this is where I started to feel the effects of the last half an hour or so. Next up is Port City's "Colossal Six", a  10.20% ABV Russian Imperial Stout made for the brewery's sixth anniversary. The beer was heavy and thick, as you'd expect, and texture-wise is more like molasses than beer. There's a strong current of sweet malts and dark, oily alcohol flavors that mix with roasted malt. While I thought this was really tasty, it's just too dark and heavy to have more than a couple ounces at a time. 

And now, for something completely different - Starr Hill's "Hop Buzz", a 7.0% ABV IPA made with coffee. It's hard not to draw immediate connections to Fort George's "Java the Hop", being the only other coffee IPA I've seen. Today's entry, while similar in some ways, isn't as flavorful in my opinion...but it also is more of an IPA than a coffee beer, which is good in its own right. I find the "Hop Buzz" to be clean and hoppy with a tangy burst of hops, which the "Java the Hop" did not have. 

According to the website, it's available on nitro at the brewery, so THAT must be interesting. But what I got was good, too, and would be happy to try it again. I actually had two pours of this, just to make sure I was tasting it properly. 

And speaking of Fort George, I ran into the Fort George guys at this event! They're cool dudes and super friendly, which echoes the way I was treated at the brewery. Seriously, if you're ever in Astoria, Oregon - look these guys up. Also, turns out one of these guys knows Robbie Bessey, the brains behind Edison City Alehouse in South Tacoma, WA, so the world of craft brewing is small indeed. 

Field Trip: 2017 Craft Brewers Conference [Part 1]

As you may recall from my interview with Dean Myers a few weeks back, during the discussion it was mentioned that the annual Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) will be held in DC from April 10 - April 13th at the Washington Convention Center. I'm not surprised that CBC exists; each industry has a conference - for example, the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Tobacco Retailers has a yearly trade show in Las Vegas (a show which this author so desperately would like to attend) and the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America does something similar - and these conferences serve to provide a space for industry professionals to get together, discuss pressing issues, and exchange ideas. But they are also usually NOT open to the public - in this case, it gives brewers the chance at some much-needed time away from customers to "talk shop" and to enjoy the products of their industry.

But that doesn't mean it's a secret beer version of the Illuminati. I was perusing the CBC website a few weeks ago, and noticed there was a spot to apply for media credentials. I decided - what the heck - I'll go for it. I provided all sorts of information about the blog, its history, the audience, and the proposed coverage, and submitted my application. A few days later, and I must admit slightly to my surprise, I was confirmed! All access pass, here I come.

The conference schedule posted online has simply too many events for me to attend. There's seminars, meetings, roundtables, technical demonstrations, a trade show, various hospitality suites, and of course afterparties every day (some held at venerable DC institutions like Port City Brewing, Brasserie Beck, and Churchkey.)

I'll try to make it to as many as I reasonably can and report back over the next couple of blog posts, with particular focus on the relevance of each event. Just an idea of the various events and meetings going on:

The first day of the conference was pretty much out for me; my day job had me out on Capitol Hill all day doing student meetings. But the beer industry wasn't far behind - many of the brewers were spending Monday afternoon in a "Hill climb", meeting with House and Senate legislative staff to advocate for the interests of the craft brewing industry. It's an important aspect of the advocacy world and having meaningful discussions with constituents is super helpful for legislative staff, too. Interesting note - as I was passing by Rep. Dave Reichert's office in the Longworth building, I bumped into a gaggle of people with CBC credentials. We got talking, and one of them turned out to be the genius behind Fremont Brewing, Dr. Sarah Nelson! Glad to see Seattle's finest brewer is out and about on the Hill.

After a few more meetings, I finally made it to the conference and picked up my credentials:

Of particular interest on Day 1 was a demonstration sponsored by German hop growing collective HVG Hopfenwertungsgenossenschaft e.G. I can see why they just go by "HVG."

The demonstration was actually a sensory display - they had over 40 hop variants out for participations to touch and smell. On each placard was various chemical information of the strains - important when brewers are considering using a certain hop in their beer. Although the taste profile and various chemical attributes of hops (and their behavior in beer) are known, there's no substitute for tasting and smelling the hops in person. That's why this kind of exhibit is important for brewers.

But as I learned very quickly, pretty much no demonstration at CBC is without endless, free beer. The beer stations at this demonstration were serving various beers made from the hops on the tables. Naturally, a lot of German styles, but some more basic session ales as well. 

I ended up going with both the "Mandarina" and the "Callista." Below is pictured the Callista - it was light and crisp with a definite resin quality to it. I found the Callista hops in one of the display tables and rubbed it between my fingers - felt like sap. So it's easy to see in a side-by-side comparison of beer and hops how the hop flowers impart flavor and texture to the beer.

That's enough for now - up next is my coverage of the Welcome Reception, held at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Lots of beer reviews to come!

Marz Community Brewing - "Jungle Boogie" pale ale

Now here's something interesting. It's Marz Community Brewing's "Jungle Boogie", a 5.50% ABV wheat ale made with rooibos. Rooibos (pronounced "roy-boss", literally "red bush" in Afrikaans) is a member of the legume family, commonly used in South Africa to make tea. Around the world, it's also known as "redbush tea" or just "red tea" popular not just as a beverage, but as a homeopathic "cure" for a variety of ailments. Once confined just to South Africa, it's picked up steam in popular markets across the globe. I remember hoarding my tins of Republic of Tea rooibos when it first came out back in the late 90s.

I've only had a handful of beers made with tea, most recently the "Sweet Summer South" from one of the Sierra Nevada "Beer Camp Across America" boxes, so I'm looking forward to trying this. Additionally, this is my first beer by Marz, and I don't think I even have heard of them before seeing this beer. So lots of anticipation here.

It pours swiftly out of the pint can and is light honey-colored on the pour. It generates a snow-white head which sticks to the side of the glass.

The color is hazy amber when candled. Not any aroma at all, oddly.

Well, it's definitely a pale ale - lots of mellow, malty notes and a good balance of hop variants coming through on a mellow texture. It's not bitter, just a short zing of tangy hops. The red tea is just noticeable, mostly in the herbal side of the flavor wheel, and from what I can gather, I think the herbal nature of the tea works well with the rest of the beer, and imparts a bit of sweetness. Overall, nice and mellow with an interesting herbal flavor to it. 

My remembrance of the Republic of Tea rooibos from twenty years ago is what initially drove me to purchase this, and while I like strong beer (and strong tea) it's okay to have a more mellow offering as well. Lighter beers work well with more flavorful and delicate teas, so I can see this being a good beer for a hot summer day. The rooibos isn't terribly pronounced, but I guess I'd rather have it underrepresented than overrepresented. As you can see, this was $6.99, and I've seen it available now in 4-packs of pint cans for $18. So rather expensive in my opinion for what is a tasty yet not-particularly-earth-shattering beer. I got this at D'Vines in Columbia Heights, but I have also seen it at Whole Foods.