She Mad

Day #643 Dulle Teve / De Dolle Brouwers, Esen, Belgium
Previously from this brewery: Plenty! A Dulle Teve, Boskeun, Oerbier, Oerbier, some Arabier, and more Arabier

It's Friday, which means I'm not working and am enjoying a day off getting ready for football. Except.... I am working, even though it's my day off.  Hey, gotta pay the rent.

While I wait for someone to call, let's get into another De Dolle offering, this time a draft pour of Dulle Teve, which translates to "Mad Bitch" in English.  Maybe the best named beer ever, in my book. This tripel shows off a hazy gold color and (no surprise here) a huge fluffy white head. There's a welcoming aroma of fruit and malt sweetness, and the taste is slightly sweet with plenty of apple, honey, bread, and just a few random hints of spice. I fell in love with this beer from the first sip, although you should be careful - at 10% ABV this beer means business.  Last line on my notes for this beer? "Delicious." That about sums it up!

Just beautiful....

Few more quick snaps from the visit, including their super duper awesome koelschip, which is used for cooling the wort in the open air. I think they're awesome and a throw back to an older way of making beer, as very few breweries still use them - and yet I saw many of them in Belgium, because Belgian beer is an old school thing.

That's soon-to-be beer cooling in there!

And lastly, the phrase "Nat en Straf" means "Wet and Strong" in English. Two very, very accurate adjectives for their beers!

Cheers, De Dolle!

Thing to Think About Today:
What else can we use here but the Rolling Stones and Bitch?  Nothing that is anywhere near as appropriate as Mick, Keith, and the boys.  Have a good Friday, friends.  I miss you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N0A2b7nbdM

"Yeah when you lay me out / my heart starts beating like a big bass drum, alright!"

Oer the River and Through the Woods

Day #642 Oerbier / De Dolle Brouwers, Esen, Belgium
Previously from this brewery: Dulle Teve, Boskeun, Oerbier, Arabier, and more Arabier

One of my favorite brewery stops was De Dolle, which came at the end of what was one of my favorite days on the bike - we started in Brugges, rode to the coast to visit Oostende, then rode along their version of the boardwalk (tiles, not wood) for several glorious, sun drenched miles.  Nothing like riding with the North Sea as your side view!  Did have to pay attention, though, otherwise kids were going to get run over while I was staring off at the water.

I see you, North Sea.

Once we got to the brewery, we learned that Kris, the owner, wasn't really into socializing, but was however cool enough to let us wander around unsupervised.  Did I mention, De Dolle Brouwers means "the crazy brewers"?  Bad idea!

Free reign of the bottling line!

Let's talk about the beer here, as the beers were delicious.  It poured a dark ruby color with a very typical monstrous foamy head.  There's a wonderful, enjoyable tartness with flavors of green apple, bread, yeast, and some caramel malt sweetness.  There are locally grown hops from Poperinge in there, but you really don't notice them.  Oerbier was the first beer brewed by Kris at De Dolle, and is still fantastic 30+ years later. Just a sensational, world class beer, and perfect after a long, hot bike ride.

Wish I had that glass! Wait, I do :)

This is your incredibly odd fact for the day:  Motown star Marvin Gaye once decided he needed to drop out of society and get away from it all to put his life back together.  Where did he go?  The Belgian beach town of Oostende; home of my seaside bicycle ride.  True story.

Thing to Think About Today:
In the spirit of a crazy brewer and getting away from all the craziness in your life by going to Belgium, let's wrap up with some Marvin Gaye and Mercy, Mercy Me.  Good night, all....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQu892GGbts

Happy Easter (in August)!

Day #629 Boskeun / De Dolle Brouwers, Esen, Belgium
Previously from this brewery: an Arabier and another Arabier (plus great writing on social equality) from the original challenge, an Oerbier and a Dulle Teve "aka, Mad Bitch" from the Beercycling trip

Today marks a huge holiday: Football Eve, the day before the first Penn State football game.  Please celebrate accordingly.

But before football, we get back to the Belgian trip.  One of the best breweries visited during the journey was De Dolle Brouwers, although I'm actually going to drop in a review from a beer I had in a bar rather than as part of the behind the scenes tour of the brewery.  More on De Dolle soon enough, friends.  Today's beer is the Boskeun, which is a seasonal Easter beer.  It poured a dark gold color with a fluffy head, and has that distinctive Belgiun yeast aroma.  There are flavors of green apple, bread, berry, and a touch of honey sweetness. Like most every great Belgian I drank, this one has a wonderfully done balance of malt and hops, which lets those delicious flavors I mentioned shine through.  I bought this because (1) I didn't get to sample this one at the brewery, (2) you don't see many Easter beers, and (3) everything else I had from De Dolle was fantastic.  I chose well.

More rabbits?

The name translates from Flemish to "Rabbit of the Woods" in English.  This is the nickname of the brewer's brother, and stems back from when they were kids.  Fun and cute label, but this beer means serious business - behind the smooth taste is a potent 10% ABV.  Happy Easter, indeed.

Thing to Think About Today:
Is it just me or have we been talking about rabbits quite a bit lately?  Regardless, another rabbit related beer means I think we should think about Frightened Rabbit, the wonderful Scottish band I'm still pissed I haven't seen live (although maybe that will change!).  We close out a Friday with a live performance of Modern Leper.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTMG_TK9sug

"You should sit with me and we'll start again / And you can tell me all about what you did today"

Day 608: De Dolle Oerbier

The other beer I wrote notes on while visiting De Dolle Brouwers is the Oerbier. But before I get to the review, let's recap some of the highlights of our visit to De Dolle.

I got to see a coolship in action. What's that, you ask? It's a large shallow pan used to cool wort overnight using outside air temperature. During the cooling process, naturally occurring yeast in the air inoculates the wort. Once the wort is cooled, it moves onto the next stage of production--often barrel aging!

 

We also got to sample a year-old beer straight from the barrel. 

 Here I am enjoying it!

Several times on the Beercycling trip, Mr. Blog Named Brew mused about the terroir of beer. Terroir is a French wine concept incorporating everything that contributes to the distinctive character of a particular vineyard site. This includes its soil and subsoil, drainage, slope and elevation, microclimate, which in turn includes temperature and precipitation, exposure to the sun, wind and fog, and the like. It can also include strains of wild yeasts that come in on the grape skins and live in the wine cellars. 

But what does that mean for beer? Water, strains of yeast, varieties of hops and malts all give beer its characteristics. But what about equipment? Does equipment that is hundreds of years old change the beer? Maybe. Does a brewery's history have an impact? Absolutely. 

What about as a beer drinker? Is there terroir of beer drinking? Does time and place impact how good we think a beer is? We asked ourselves this question many times during the trip. Did the beers taste better because of where we were and who we were drinking with? I don't know. The halcyon glow of vacation likely had a positive impact on our perceptions but did it make an average beer seem that much better? Or was it possible that we didn't have a bad beer the entire time we were on vacation?

One beer that I'm pretty confident was just a darn good beer is De Dolle's Oerbier.

It poured a hazy brown with a thick cream-color head. It smelled slightly fruity and tart with an earthiness and some hop. The flavor is amazing. Lots of malt body with some dark fruit and tartness hiding out. Every few sips I could find some slightly sweet wine-like notes. I also wrote down silky with about sixteen exclamation points. I think I wanted to make a note of how silky it felt to drink.

What you can't really see in this photo is the phrase "Nat en Straf", which means wet and strong. I can attest that perfectly describes this beer. I could also claim it as my personal motto on the Beercycling trip as I ended most days soaking wet with sweat but feeling unstoppable. That's me...nat en straf.

Beer stats
Style: Strong dark ale
ABV: 9.5%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Great

Previously reviewed from De Dolle
My review of Dulle Teve, which includes me and a lot of spandex!
His and hers reviews of Arabier

Day 606: De Dolle, The Crazy Brewer

On Day 7 of the Beercycling trip, we hit a stretch of bike path that was pin straight for a few miles. After a quick water stop, our trusty guide Evan told us to have at it and take as little or as much time as we needed to get to the next route marker. Faced with a relatively empty bike path, beautiful weather and my bad ass cycling outfit, I hit the road. Let's face facts. My fastest ride didn't hold a candle to most of the riders on our tour, but it was fun to pedal away and not have to worry about a thing except stopping when I caught up to the leaders of our pack.

Despite knowing that there weren't any turns on the path, I did get a little nervous when I couldn't see the group either ahead or behind me. I pressed on and was very happy to catch sight of one of our bikes pulled off to the side of the path. Was that it? Did I get to the meeting point that quickly?

Nope. Someone with an eagle eye at the front of the pack noticed a beer vending machine in the side yard of a farm. A what now? Yes, you read that correctly. We found a beer vending machine in the middle of nowhere. For a few Euros, the Duvel in the photo below was all mine! Wait, it gets better! Remember how I mentioned in a previous post that Belgians take their beer glasses very seriously? Sitting next to the vending machine was a bin of glasses and much to my delight there was a Duvel glass waiting for me.

Aerodynamic!

Now that's a vending machine!

This wasn't the first vending machine we hit on the trip. Earlier in the day, we came across a fresh strawberry vending machine. Those were some of the best strawberries I've ever had. Belgium, man. It is a good time.


Later this day, we visited De Dolle Brouwers. I've been told that it translates to "the crazy brewers". While I  can't attest to the mental capacity of the brewer at De Dolle--he seemed like a nice enough guy, I can tell you that De Dolle makes some amazing beer.

One of those beers is Dulle Teve or Mad Bitch. It's a tripel weighing in at 10% ABV.

It poured a very bright apricot color with an equally bright white head. Maybe it was all the beer from throughout the day, but this beer was absolutely magical in the glass--it almost glowed. It smelled of caramel and hops. It drank very cleanly. There was lots of honey, malt and fruit. It finished with a solid hop bite.

So remember when I said the brewer from De Dolle seemed pretty nice? In full disclosure, after poking around his beer cellar, we found his aging/storage room and this is what greeted us when we walked in...

If you're wondering, I screamed like a girl. So much for the sneaking part! 

There was so much beer aging in there. And cobwebs. So many cobwebs!

Beer stats
Style: Tripel
ABV: 10%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Excellent

Previously reviewed from De Dolle
His and hers reviews of Arabier

Don't Get Mad

Beer #338 Arabier / Brouwerij De Dolle Brouwers, Esen, Belgium
Beers to go: 28

I handle the grocery shopping in our household, and ever since the purchase of a juicer, I've been completely loading up on a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.  Makes sense, right?  Can't make juice without fruits and vegetables.  So what on earth was this person making with a cart filled with stuffed animals?

Strive for five (unicorns) a day!

Okay, so I eventually figured out that this was a display of toys on clearance sale.  But you can see why this threw me off at first.

Anyway, you're here for the beer, not for what random things I find in Wegman's.  Today's selection is Arabier, a Belgian strong pale ale from Brouwerij De Dolle in Belgium.  This beer sports a hazy light amber color, and you're greeted with an aroma of hops and lemon.  The taste is dry, with a peppery spice and plenty of hops, with lemon and grapefruit, and some honey flavors hiding out in there as well.  This is a really fantastic beer which was on draft recently at TJ's Everyday, and will hopefully be back on draft again in the future.

Looking for a picture of this beer?  Tough break, as the picture I took on my phone somehow became corrupted, and I can't email it.  Just imagine a good beer in a glass, and there you go.  De Dolle is brewed in a building that originally housed a brewery back in 1835, although production was halted in 1980.  Not quite sure when they resumed brewing at the site, although I intend to find out next summer when I'm in Belgium.  And, for the record, you might think "Dolle" is Dutch for "Doll," but unfortunately that's because you don't speak Dutch as fluently as I do.  De Dolle Brouwers actually translates to "The Mad Brewers."  Now you know.

Thing to Think About Today:
This song popped into my head the other day, and I guess there's a connection here.  De Dolle originally opened back in the day, and the cart full of stuffed animals would probably be enjoyed by someone who was a kid.  So, here we are: Ahmad singing his 1994 hit Back in the Day, a song where he reminisces about the easy life of being a kid.  Stuffed animals are on sale at the registers, if you need one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-33P6EFgEc

"Back in the day when I was young / I'm not a kid anymore / But some days I sit and wish I was a kid again."

Beer 331: De Dolle Arabier, Manhattan Nest, and Your Right to Vote



Manhattan Nest

I follow Daniel's blog Manhattan Nest and his witty postings on Twitter with great fervor. He's funny and creative and I enjoy what he puts out in the world. Plus he loves dogs. And I love anyone who loves dogs. Daniel is also gay. It's not something I really put much thought into. He's gay. I'm white. My friend is Jewish. Who cares? None of that makes any of us better or worse than another. Or at least that's how I live my life.

   

His November 2 post on Manhattan Nest was an all-too-startling reminder that, in fact, no -- we are not all equal. I hope I'm not breaking any blogger ettiquette rules by reposting his post, but it was so moving, I didn't see any way that I could avoid doing so.  Especially today, November 5 -- the eve of Election Day -- when so many people are still forming opinions on whom they will be voting for come tomorrow.

Without further rambling from me, here is the post:

No Freedom ’til We’re Equal.

 

Daniel's parents.



A slightly terrifying fact has recently come to my attention: I am now the same age that my father was when he proposed to my mother. They met and fell in love while attending college in Louisiana. Afterward, my mother moved back to her home state of Florida to attend law school while my father commuted to a job on Capitol Hill from his new home in Virginia. They were married in Tampa Bay, Florida on May 31st, 1981. After my mother graduated, they settled down in Virginia, where they raised three (gorgeous, talented, intelligent, awesome) kids and have remained in all the years since. They’ve been married for almost 32 years, and, if all goes according to plan, will remain that way until they die. They’ll be able to visit each other in the hospital, inherit what is legally due to them, and will have benefited for decades from hundreds of rights, privileges, and benefits afforded to them by virtue of being a married couple in the eyes of both their state and their country. They’ll have had rights that they never took advantage of and maybe some that they never even knew or thought about, like most married couples. Because that’s how this country’s government works.

When my dad proposed to my mom all those years ago, I doubt either of them thought much about the possibility of having a kid who would someday be their age, over three decades later in the year 2012, and that he would be a second class citizen of the country in which he was born and raised. I don’t think it occurred to them that they would have a son who, through no fault of his own, would be denied the same rights that they had taken for granted. But that’s exactly what’s happened.

I remember vividly the night that New York passed The Marriage Equality Act in June 2011. Max and I took the subway into the West Village and joined the celebration outside of the Stonewall Inn. We shook hands, hugged strangers, took pictures, bought a polyester rainbow flag (or was it given to us?), and let ourselves feel the weight of what New York had accomplished. Neither of us had ever been close to getting married ourselves—had never personally felt the sting of being told we couldn’t—but still I remember the feeling on the subway ride back home. There was a certain lightness, an indescribable feeling of knowing that our city—our state—regarded us as equals. We were finally granted the same respect that had always been reserved only for our straight peers. It meant that we weren’t outliers, that we weren’t hated, or disparaged, or better off hiding who we were. We were—we are—people, just like everybody else.

I want everybody in this country to have the same feeling I felt that night, and continue to feel as a person lucky enough to live in New York. Unfortunately, it only takes a trip to my home in Virginia, or down to visit my grandmother in Florida, or to any of the 43 states that have legislated away my access to basic civil rights to be reminded of how far we have to go as a nation.
I have yet to hear an argument against gay marriage that is not steeped in bigotry, hate, or often masked by religion. As much as Republicans would like to rewrite history, as often as their vice presidential nominee wants to say “I don’t see how a person can separate their public life from their private life or their faith,” this is not a Christian nation. Our laws and institutions are pointedly and purposefully separate from religion. Nobody is suggesting that your place of worship or religious leader has to perform a gay marriage. The request is simple: to have the same rights under the law. Separate is not equal, and anything less will not do.

I know people who are voting for Republicans. Some of these people I even count as friends. When I talk to them about it, the general response seems to be that they don’t “personally” support discrimination, even if discrimination is central to Republican social policy. Let me be clear: there is nothing more personal than a vote. By voting for Mitt Romney, you are casting a vote for discrimination. You are casting a vote against me, against my family, against equality, against fairness, against love, against freedom, against the promise of liberty and justice for all. A vote for this Republican party, as it stands in 2012, is a vote for discrimination. You are complicit in it, you are supporting it, you are perpetuating it. There is no other way to look at it, and it’s truly heartbreaking to see people I otherwise respect blind to this fact.

The choice in this election couldn’t be clearer, and not just on this issue. It’s the difference between a president who cares about the future of our education system, our public sector workers, and the social programs that attempt to keep those in need afloat, versus a party who doesn’t. It’s the difference between a president who has regained much of our respect in the world and has a proven record of successful foreign policy experience, versus a candidate with no experience, Bush’s foreign policy advisors, and reckless and wildly inconsistent ideas about the rest of the world. It’s the difference between a president who supports rights for women to receive equal pay for equal work, to have access to contraception, and to seek a safe and legal abortion if necessary, versus a party who would deny all of these rights. It’s a choice between a President who has dug this economy out of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression versus a party who wants to return to the policies that caused the collapse in the first place. It’s the choice between a president who regards global warming as a real and tangible threat versus a party who thinks the climate change is a hoax, a joke, or both. It’s the difference between a president who doesn’t think you should go broke or die because of medical costs, versus a party that sees only the bottom line for the insurance industry. It’s the choice between a president who believes in equality versus a party who believes so profoundly in discrimination that they would amend our Constitution to reflect their extreme ideology. And that’s just off the top of my head.

To be clear, President Obama still supports states in legislating their own marriage laws, as ridiculous as that proposition is. His personal support for marriage equality does not actually represent a tangible shift in policy positions. Still, I’m not sure I can describe to a straight person how invaluable it is to have somebody in the White House who acknowledges me, who respects me, who stands in support of my rights where so many others have sat down or gone on the attack. Obama is an advocate and an ally for the gay community, and I am proud to call him my president as a gay American. An Obama presidency is not the answer, but it’s a pretty damn good place to start.

So please, go vote on Tuesday. Even if you think your vote doesn’t matter, if you don’t live in a swing state or you’ve never voted before, please vote. If you live in Washington or Maine or Maryland or Minnesota, please vote. Vote for me. Vote for my family—present and future. Vote for me to someday have the same rights as my parents. To have the same rights as you. Stand up against inequality, and stand with a president who has done the same.

Please.

I'm typically a one-issue voter - don't mess with women's rights. But throughout the past few years, I'm finding myself up on my soapbox for gay rights. Sometimes I shout. Sometimes I correct. Sometimes I cut people out of my life for hateful things they say or write. Sometimes I get up there because I'm feeling selfish and I want everyone to get screwed equally by taxes and bureaucracy in the same way I do as a childless couple. But mostly I get up there because I want everyone to have the chance to have their love and commitment recognized and afforded with all the rights that comes along with marriage.

I will be joining Daniel in voting for President Obama tomorrow. Not only because he personally believes in marriage equality, but because I fall in line with our President on so much of his other thinking and beliefs. Climate change, healthcare, women's rights.

It's with great trepidation that I'm hitting publish on this post. It breaks all of my rules about never discussing politics. But I suppose I've been quiet for long enough. I'm liberal. I support equal rights for all. I believe humankind is destroying the environment and creating conditions that are ripe for freak weather events. I believe everyone should have access to affordable healthcare. I believe that everyone should abide by the Don't be an Asshole rule. Be kind. Be generous. Go vote.

And after you vote, go get yourself a good beer as a reward. If you're into the hoppy stuff, I recommend the De Dolle Arabier from Brouwerij De Dolle Brouwers.  It is a Belgian strong pale ale with a 5% ABV.  It's brewed in Belgium at a property dating back to 1835. 

The Arabier pours a hazy deep golden brown with a thick white head and good lacing.  The smell is lemon hops.  The taste is fruit esters with some metallic hop. It's tart with noticeable sourness. Overall it is incredibly hoppy. If you're into that kind of beer, you are going to love this one. If you're a bit more hop-wary like me, you may struggle to get to the bottom of the glass. 

Since I'm teaching myself to love hops more, I'll rate this one a good. Cheers!