Speedo Time (Thankfully, Not Mine)

Beer #244 Flemish Red Ale / Brouwerij Strubbe, Ichtegem, Belgium

Rejoice, for the weekend is upon us!  Kicked off Friday with dinner at Sidebar in West Chester; a great beer destination if you're in the West Chester, PA area.  Had a very nice bison burger, and two Baltimore beers - Stillwater and Brewer's Art.  It's definitely a bit unusual to find a really good beer bar, with twenty beers on draft and another fifty or so available by bottle.... and we've hit every brewery on the list.  As we get closer to 365, it will be interesting to see where the beers come from.  Our old regular haunts continue to add in new breweries, but we definitely need to apply a bit more strategy along the way to make sure we keep the pipeline going.  Truly, a first world problem we're dealing with here.

The beer du jour is Brouwerij Strubbe's Flemish Red Ale, and it shows off a dark mahogany color, with a wispy white head.  The aroma is a blend of cherry and grape, and the taste is tart, with strong notes of grapes, cherry, and raspberry, with some malt and a crisp finish.  It reminds me of the most delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever, even if there are no hints of peanut butter anywhere to be found.  This one is definitely a little sweeter than I expected, but it's definitely still a good beer and certainly worth your time.

That guy seems happy.

Another Belgian brewery with a long history, Strubbe was founded in 1830 by Carolous Strubbe, and currently the seventh generation of the family is running the daily operations.

Thing to Think About Today:
We're starting to wind down here in my own little mini-Olympic Village (minus all the crazy sex from the Olympic Village, that is).  Might as well give some credit where credit is due in the pool, but I'm going back to the days before NBC decided that they needed to make the Olympics strictly about the stars.  Apologies for this brief rant, but I'm fairly certain I've heard more than enough about Phelps, Lochte, the female gymnasts, and Lolo Jones (and others) to last a lifetime.  Everyone wearing a USA uniform has dedicated their entire lives to their craft, and yet we predominately only hear about a limited few.  Lolo Jones received far, far more air time and Twitter mentions than the people who, you know, ACTUALLY won medals in her races.  I like the unique stories from the games, I like hearing about niche sports that may not have the cachet of gymnastics, but require just as much dedication, sweat, and devotion.  Not just the stars.  End of rant.

So, back to the pool - before there was Phelps, there was Spitz.  Mark Spitz, of course, of the seven races and seven gold medals in the 1972 Olympics.  And just because seven gold medals in seven races isn't quite exciting enough, Spitz managed to set world records EVERY time he got in the water.  Shabby?  No, not too shabby.  As if that wasn't enough, he had previously earned two golds, a silver, and a bronze in the '68 games, giving him eleven medals in all, and he remains one of only five Olympians from any country to ever win nine or more gold medals.  For extra credit, he did it with a mustache and while wearing a Speedo, which is the most 1970's thing ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0sO1lMn0PY

Beer 244: Boundless Generosity and Grimbergen Pale Ale

I spent the morning in a meeting on a 250 acre estate planning an event to celebrate the close of our capital campaign, which is happening thanks in large part to the owners of said estate. Tomorrow I'm spending the evening at a fundraiser at the beach in Avalon. Sometimes my job is very, very taxing (said with the greatest amount of sarcasm). What's even more amazing than these homes is their owners' generosity. It is truly humbling to work at the museum that is the beneficiary.
Even more amazing is that I was sent home from today's meeting with this bounty...


This pile o' veggies is what's left after I gave some to a colleague! Sometimes generosity really knows no boundary.
Before I get back to surveying my vegetable kingdom, let's talk about a beer...the Grimbergen Belgian pale ale to be exact. Brewed by Brouwerij Alken-Maes, it poured a hazy golden caramel color with an off white head.


The head was thick and as it burst, it left big holes where bubbles once were. The smell is biscuit but overall very mild. The taste is candy sugar with strong toasty malts. It has a sharpness at first, which then rounds out to a nice fullness. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Cheers!

Mushrooms and Marathons

Beer #243 Lambrucha / Brouwerij de Troch, Wambeek, Belgium

Headed off to play basketball, so I'm keeping it short.  Hey, even Shakespeare wrote some short stuff; it wasn't all Hamlet.  Gearing up for the playoffs, need to hit our stride and get on a hot streak.

Today's beer is an unusual offering - the Lambrucha by Brouwerij de Troch.  It was brewed specifically for Vanberg & DeWulf, a specialty beer importer in New York.  This beer is unusual because it's a mix of two live yeast beverages - Kombucha tea and lambic beer.  Two things you usually don't find hanging out together, as Kombucha is a tea steeped with mushrooms.  I think they sell that in the organic section of my grocery store, but I haven't  yet worked up the courage to buy one.

However, when you mix it with a lambic, you get a pale gold color, with a lingering white head.  There's a funky aroma, almost something like deviled eggs.  The taste is good, with tart notes of lemon, grass, and yeast, and it's quite light and effervescent.  Marci was more fond of this beer than I was, her review can be found here.  I don't really like mushrooms, so maybe the idea of mushrooms fermenting in tea created a mental block for me on this one.  I can certainly appreciate it, but I doubt I'd go out of my way to buy another one.

You can't see the mushrooms, but they're in there.

Thing to Think About Today:
This space has been exclusively reserved for Olympic triumphs, and I'll admit it's been a bit heavily slanted towards track and field.  Deal with it, track and field is better than gymnastics or swimming.  However, it's been unfairly slanted towards male competitors, which we'll fix tonight.  However, it's not all my fault - due to some incredibly boneheaded and ignorant thinking, women's distance running was excluded because it was thought that women would injure themselves running longer races.

Joan Benoit (now Benoit Samuelson) arrived on the scene in 1984 just in time for the first women's marathon in the modern Olympic games.  You want some drama with your marathon?  Sure - Benoit ran despite undergoing knee surgery in April, just a few months before the games.  To make it more interesting, she was squaring off against Grete Waitz, one of the all-time greats in the sport (Waitz would win nine, count'em, NINE New York Marathons).  Despite that and the blistering heat and smog that comes with having your Olympic games in Los Angeles, Benoit surged to the front just 14 minutes into the race, then proceeded to stay there the rest of the way, leaving her competition in the dust.  Her mantra?  "Are you prepared to deal with victory?"  Sounds like a champion to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-HQozm_wpE

Beer 243: Five Finger Discounts and White Rascals

Is it strange that every time I walk through the make-up section at CVS, I have an overwhelming urge to steal lipstick or lip balm?  I'm 37 years old. I have disposable income. I don't want for anything.  And yet I have a very visceral urge to five-finger-discount the latest lip gloss. 

Confession time.  I stole a lipstick once.  It was YEARS ago. I was in high school and snagged a Revlon Colorstay lipstick. I'm pretty sure I wore it once and it screamed, "I'm stolen!" the entire night. 

Yeah, I'm a goody-two-shoes dork. 

Now onto the less dorky part of my writing.  Let's talk about Avery Brewing's  White Rascal. It is a Belgian Wheat ale or white ale -- unfiltered with flavors of coriander and Curaçao orange peel producing a refreshingly zesty classic ale per Avery's website.  I had this one on draught at TJ's in Paoli. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the White Rascal although I tend to really like white ales.  It hit all the right tasting notes -- coriander, wheat, citrus zest. There was even a little bit of banana in there.  It had a great mouthfeel.  It poured an nice, hazy blond with a good head and left just a bit of lacing.  I would rate it up there with other favorite white ales, which include Hitachino Nest White Ale, Blanche de Bruxelles, Allagash. 

I'm looking forward to day 367 of this adventure so I can start revisiting breweries because there is a long list from Avery that could be among the first.  At the head of the pack is Avery's Samaels -- an oak aged ale with an ABV of 15.5%!  It's a limited edition release and since that happened back in April...I may be SOL. 

     Dear Beer Gods,

    

     Please send me a bottle of Samaels. Just one. I won't be greedy.

    

     Love,

               Marci

Cheers!

High Altitude, High Jumps

Beer #242 Agave Wheat / Breckenridge Brewery, Breckenridge, CO

Hooray for today - officially past the 2/3 mark on this blog.  We're off to a concert and picnic at Valley Forge Park tonight, so let's get down to business and cross another one off the list.

The beer for today is the Agave Wheat from Breckenridge Brewery.  While we didn't get to visit their brewpub in person on our most recent trip to Colorado, we have been there previously - the upstairs deck is an awesome spot to soak in the ski town scene and drink fantastic beers.  This one was consumed at a hotel bar (shout out to Marriott!), but it was delicious just the same.  I drank it out of the bottle, so no comment on appearance or aroma, but the taste is a little earthy, a little sweet, and overall has a nice dry feel with notes of wheat and a hint of pepper.  It's a great beer for summer, and one that I highly recommend you try.  At 4.2% ABV, you can certainly enjoy more than one.

This bottle just screams "party!"

Breckenridge Brewing has been open for business since 1990, and they were the third microbrewery to open in the state.  They've started putting more of their brews in cans, which is awesome, as I find cans far more convenient than glass bottles.  I have a six-pack of Summerbright Ale cans from Breckenridge waiting for me in the fridge.

Thing to Think About Today:
Sure, you can be the best person in your area of expertise.  But what about being the person who completely reinvents the field altogether?

Today, we stop to think about Dick Fosbury, who didn't just earn a gold medal in the high jump at the 1968 Olympics, he invented and popularized a brand new way to execute the jump.  Previously, jumpers scissor kicked over the bar, or dove over the bar face first.  Fosbury realized the advantages of running parallel to the bar, then leaping over it backwards, swinging the legs up and over to clear.

While some doubted his approach, it paid dividends when he cleared 7 feet, 4 and 1/4 inches to wrap up the gold medal and beat the Olympic record in the process.  After that?  No one questioned his new method, and in fact the style was christened 'the Fosbury Flop.'  Okay, so not the most glamorous name, but when you've got that shiny gold medal around your neck, you probably don't worry too much about those things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKpBKvc0H7w 

Beer 242: Peak Organic Spring Ale

Today's beer hails from the other Portland...Portland, Maine. It's the Simcoe Spring Ale from Peak Organic Brewing Company.


I poured it like a crazy person and had to slurp the overflowing beer leaving behind this lovely photo. The head was quite thick and as it's disappearing, it's leaving behind craggy foam and plenty of lacing. The color is a slight hazy apricot shade. Nowhere on the bottle did it read pale ale other than the hint in the name -- Simcoe Spring Ale.

Plus Gary said it was the closest thing that Whole Foods had to the light summer beer or kolsch that I requested for dinner. Evidently we were both duped. That being said, this isn't a bad beer. The Simcoe hops were intended to lend a piney, floral flavor and they do just that. This beer is crisp and flavorful and bracing. It does remind me of spring interestingly enough. There's a little grass in the flavor to go with the other green tastes. Overall I give it a thumbs up. Cheers!

NOT Paddy's Pub

Beer #241 Paddy Pale Ale / Wild Onion Brewing Company, Barrington, IL

Interesting phenomenon happened today - the arrival of the autumn beers to Wegman's.  I get that fall (and thankfully, football season) is right around the corner.  However, as of today, it was 90 degrees with ample humidity, and with global warming autumn isn't likely to arrive until mid-October.  I'm still in the market for summer ales, kolsch beers, shandies, and so forth.  Anything involving pumpkin or nutmeg or whatever makes a beer an autumn brew can sit quietly and wait in the corner.  I guess this is craft beer's version of the mall putting out Christmas decorations in early October?

Today's non-autumnal beer is the Paddy Pale Ale, an American pale ale from Wild Onion Brewing.  Paddy's, you say?

Flip, flip, Flipdelphia!

Yeah, definitely not related to Paddy's Pub from Always Sunny.  This one has a orange amber color, with a thin white lingering head.  The aroma is light, with some pine and citrus, and the taste brings a light flavor as well, with citrus and a fair balance of malt and hops.  Probably needs more of one or the other, though, as the taste was a little too mild for me.  Definitely a session beer, and one that won't weigh you down or beat up your taste buds.

Paddy, no relation.

This brewery can be found about 45 minutes outside of Chicago, and they started brewing in 1996 and opened a brewpub in 2003.

Thing to Think About Today:
We don't strictly celebrate American heroes here - there's plenty of room in this space for the only person to pull off a unique distance running Olympic triple double: gold medals in the 5,000m, 10,000m, and the marathon.  That's roughly three miles, six miles, and well, you know.  Yes, we're thinking about Czech distance running wunderkind Emil Zátopek, who didn't just sweep the gold medals in the 1952 Helsinki games, he set an Olympic record in each event.

It's impressive enough that he managed to win both of the shorter races, but what really puts Zátopek in another galaxy was the fact he had never even RAN a marathon before in his life, let alone won a race at that distance.  In fact, his only strategy was to stick close to Jim Peters, a record holder and medal favorite.  During the race, Zátopek asked Peters if the pace was too slow.  Figuring he could con Zátopek into pushing too hard and dropping out, Peters agreed, and so Zátopek sped up.  Bad move, as Peters couldn't keep up and the "Czech Locomotive" cruised home in record pace.  Not a bad first outing, without a doubt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6--kiYKx9kA

Beer 241: Roy Pitz is the Pits

Yes, I laughed like a fool after writing my very punny title.  In fact, I read it aloud to Gary and cackled like Henny Youngman was in my kitchen cracking one liners.  (Wow. I am an old woman.)  Anyway this beer sucks.

The Best Blonde Ale from Roy Pitz is supposed to be a kolsch.  I stress supposed.  It tastes like cheap beer.  When I read kolsch, I think of Stoudts' Karnival Kolsch.  Light and refreshing, mostly malt with a nice amount of hop. Golden in color, medium mouthfeel.  This one is wheaty and sweet with an odd bitterness that pinches my throat.  There is none of that vinous flavor.  It's bitter, metalic and cracker-y.  Gah.  I really don't think I can finish this one.  Barf.

Addendum: As I read through a bunch of reviews, I'm becoming concerned that I didn't get Best Blonde despite the label. Everyone's writing about a pale yellow beer.  I got a slightly hazy amber color beer.

Apple a Day

Beer #240 Perronelle's Blush / Aspall Cyder, Aspall, England

Today is a grand and glorious day: the landscapers were here to clean up the jungle that is our backyard.  The weeds have all been returned to a level, uniform short height, and all of the vines that threaten to swallow up our house one of these days are gone.  It wasn't free, but when you hate doing work in the yard, it's wonderful.

Also wonderful is tonight's beer, which just so happens to be a cider.  Specifically, the Perronelle's Blush from Aspall Cyder.  It pours a cherry red color in the glass with no head, and gives off aromas of apples.  When you take a sip, you can definitely pick up the blackberry juice that is added to the mix, along with a dry, mildly sweet taste of apples.  On Aspall's website, it's billed as an alternative to sparkling wines or rosé. They're right.

Very wine-ish.

This cider (or if you're in England, "cyder") operation started in 1728 by prominent members of the Chevallier family, wealthy noblemen from the English countryside.  Their earliest descendants came from the Channel Islands, but after moving to Suffolk County, they noticed they couldn't find their favorite libation.  What else would you do if you were a wealthy sort of guy and you want to get your drink on?  You'd import some apple trees, and start started brewing your own cider, and then keep it going strong for the next almost 300 years.  Perronelle is named for someone from the sixth generation to run the family business.

Thing to Think About Today:
I'm quite sure that as a child, you at some point tried to jump as far as you could.  Maybe over something, maybe just to see what you could do.  Chances are, you didn't set a world record that would stand for almost 23 years.

That's because you're not Bob Beamon at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.  Unlike the story of Billy Mills coming from nowhere to steal gold, Beamon was the heavy favorite to win the long jump. And he certainly did not disappoint, hitting a stupefying 29 feet 2 1/2 inches.  How far was that?  It not only broke the existing record by over two feet, it was beyond what the optic measuring devices could handle.  They had to trot out an official with a tape measure to confirm the outstanding effort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi3HrCh_T7k

Beer 240: Aspall Perronelle's Blush

Having a name like mine leads to many, many mispronunciations. The most common is over-Italianizing it. Lately opentable.com has renamed me Marc. Odd but I go with it. Usually people don't willingly offer up a mispronunciation of their own name, but that's exactly what I did a few years ago. I was ordering a gift certificate and the gentleman asked for my name as it appeared on my credit card. I gave him my full name...he pauses. I suppose he was trying to figure out the spelling. His next question was, "Like the wine?". I don't know where my brain was at the time, but I figured sure like the wine. There had to be an Italian vineyard somewhere named Marcella, right?

Fast forward to this morning when I picked up a call at work. It was my dentist's office auto reminder calling about tomorrow's appointment for Marsala. Yup, just like the wine. You should always start the day with hysterical laughter. It makes the rest of the day so much better.

It's been a good day and I'm in the mood for something fun and fruity. I think the Perronelle's Blush from Aspall fits the bill nicely. Plus it's from England so I get the Olympic tie in as well.

Aspall has been brewing ciders for eight generations. Trust me. They definitely know what they're doing. Perronelle's Blush is an English draft cider blended with a dash of blackberry juice.


It's the perfect blend of sweet and tart. It's crisp apple with some wine-like characteristics. It pours a beautiful clear claret and is rather still in the glass. The aroma is very reminiscent of a good rosé. This is probably one of the best ciders I've had on this adventure. Cheers!