h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh, Lan's yesterday was interesting. They've just been open for a few months it would seem. The only signs of 'modernity' were the flat-screen TV mounted on the wall & the contemporary no-nonsense efficiency vibe emanating from the open kitchen. Very good homestyle-type(I imagine)Asian cooking.(Bottles of sriracha hot sauce & soy sauce at each table.) I had a large bowl of chicken with rice vermicelli swimming in an aromatic red curry sauce with potato, sweet potato, bean sprouts & a couple cilantro leaves And a Tiger lager. You place your order at the counter separating the kitchen from the seating area. And deli-style you're given a number, pay & wait for your number to be called. No wine, there were just four or five juice & soda cans on the counter along with Singha & three or four other lagers(including my Tiger).

I caught the end of the lunch rush, so it was reasonably busy. A good number of what I assume were NAIT students, a few area residents & city construction-crew workers(although I didn't personally notice a worksite in the immediate area).

The construction workers were likely from the NAIT LRT extension, which seems to be a sort of diffuse construction site.

That Would make sense! Major construction there.

From what I've seen of it, most of the 'construction' is destruction, but not very noticeable stuff. The biggest bit I've noticed was the removal of the Scottish Restaurant on the corner south-east of Kingsway Mall. Most of the rest has just looked like the usual Edmonton summer road closures.

The underground part seems to be subsumed by the major stuff around the Epcor Tower.

A-anyway, I was about to start typing when the phone rang last night...followed shortly thereafter by another longer phone call.

Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, 500ml bottle 10.9%abv

The pour

Semi-aggressive pour yields a finger and a half of relatively short-lived darker mocha coloured head. A distinctly oatmeal stout appearance-which I'm sure the addition of coffee contributes to-quite opaque. Some carbonation evident just below the head...nice dense lacing.

Aroma

Malt, coffee and dark chocolate in that order...bit of roastiness. And some faint oaty doughiness at the end...a bit like a faint whiff of whole grain toast.

Taste

Malty chocolate-with earthy coffee notes-which transforms nicely into a creamier chocolate. More of a milk chocolate than the aroma would indicate. The well-rounded coffee remains in the background, though relatively up-front. Some hops well integrated with the coffee. Quite a decent oattmeal stout, and the smoothness of the coffee is a fine addition. Full bodied with a lighter carbonation. The earthy coffee(and bit of hops) along with creamy chocolate fade into a bit of molasses sweetness and a drier finish. Bit of hop aftertaste and some alcohol warming. Really wouldn't guess that it was 10.9%.

Maredsous Tripel(Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat NV), 330ml bottle 10%abv

The pour

Moderate pour results in lovely-slightly cloudy-amber ale with generous carbonation and finger of foamy white head - nice lacing.

Aroma

Initially juicy(white grapes, apple peelings/skins and pear...hint of citrus). Vague banana bread yeasty undertones.

Taste

*raises eyebrows*Initial taste is of Welch's white grape juice-with carbonation though. That morphs rather seamlessly to pear,...some white grape notes eventually do return with a bit of underlying hop bitterness/spiciness...and fade to a dry finish. A nice summer sipper. Would that I had a patio...ah, I can see/visualize sipping one of these on my brother's south-east facing deck...oh, about 8:20pm or so. (Life Is Good!

I was surprised to learn the other night that Maredsous is made (under licence from the Abbey) by the same brewery as Duvel. I haven't tried it since before we started these notes.

http://thedisgruntled.blogspot.com/2008/04/beer-blogging-maredsous-triple.html

Sherbrooke/Alley Kat/Glenora Distillery Glenda Sherbrooke...a new breed, 341ml bottle 18.5%abv(reputedly the highest abv beer bottled in Canada)

The pour

Moderate pour results in tight white ring on deep burgundy-ish mahogany ale. Nice though transitory lacing...some alcohol 'legs'.

Aroma

Initially vinous dark fruit-alcohol-soaked raisins...perhaps figs and prunes. Some roasty malt..vague woody notes.

Taste

Quite vinous, displaying rather sherry-like characteristics. Then qualities of(the base)Olde Deuteronomy flash by - bit of citrus and/or tropical fruit, etc(psychological?) before some undeniable Scotch Whisky notes make their presence known...with a vaguely caramely note at the end and a bit of a herbal/medicinal character. Quite a malty and rather raisiny smooth dry finish. Alcohol warmth unusually moderate for 18.5%! Medium bodied and lower carbonation, Very impressive! I'm tempted to open that second bottle, but after the 10% Maredsous I fear that might very well end in goodnight Irene.

How do they get it to 18%? Are they using a high-alcohol yeast or are they doing some freeze distillation?

I wonder.

Well the Olde Deuteronomy was close to 12...11.4 I believe, an extra 7% or so is quite conceivable i think. Then agan,you brew & I dont.

Al-righty, the latest 'Cooking With...' exbeerimentation ...Groggy Chicken - a couple chicken thighs marinated in, you guessed it Amber's Grog.




I've just started them marinating. Likely cook them for lunch Mon..

Beer-related news item - http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/German+beer+forward+world+heritage/4850868/story.html

(Tasting notes)Unibroue Ephemere Pomme/Apple, white ale brewed with Granny Smith apples - 341ml bottle 5.5%abv
http://www.unibroue.com/en/beers/ephemere_apple/product

The pour(at my table in The Elephant & Castle)

Moderate pour yields a lovely slightly cloudy, soft golden ale. Good generous carbonation, that 'dies down' eventually. Finger of larger bubbles form the whitish pillowy head. Nice dense though tempoorary lacing.

Aroma

I could easily be smelling apple juice! Really, distinctly apple(y). Hint of spicinesss...nutmeg I think.Quite inviiting!

Taste

Very appley, but neither too sweet nor too tart. Again a hint of spice...a bit of cinnamon along with nutmeg. Very nicely balanced, a lighter-medium body and a somewhat lingering drier finish. I could easily polish of at least two of these after yardwork on a hot summer afternnoon.

Unrelated to your post:




I ate tooooo much cuisine Chinoise!

I think I'd better lie down.

I was a bit shockedto have that brother of mine(and temporarily postal carrier), tell me Sunday that Lan's had been open Six Years! He said that he had often delivered mail to them, when he was assigned that area of the city.

Oh, about the Groggy Chicken I mentioned in post #512. I cooked that in an ethnic fusion manner - essentially Indian with a bit of an Italian twist. I had cooked it yesterday as planned-well, at least subconsciously planned-in a Vindaloo sauce, with garlic, parsnips, lentils and bell pepper. I kind of erred on the side of caution, as far as the spicing(not wanting to overwhelm the bit of lime infused into the chicken). I reheated-and re-spiced-the leftovers today and the mild lime stood up very nicely to the more robust spicing! I neglected to mention the Italian twist...instead of rice or I suppose naan bread, I had that with penne pasta.

I'm not quite sure how to take this. Read Jason Foster's latest blog posting at http://www.onbeer.org (about the hoppiest beer...'theoretical' IBU's 1,066!)

Okay . . .


Alley Kat/Sherbrooke Liquor

Glenda Sherbrooke

341ml/18.5%

The P~our:

Cloudy and a little thick looking. Not actually terribly a`p`pealing as it `pours. Muddy. No head. Some bubbles.


The Nose:

~Pickled oak. A bit of alcohol. And more oak.


The taste:



Wow. Much, much better than I ex`pected from the look and the smell! Oak, of course, but there's a bit of single malt and some s`pice, `particularly cloves. The oak is certainly not overwhelming and is balanced nicely by the maltiness of the barley-wine base.

A very interesting ti`p`ple, but . . .


it's really just a boiler maker in a bottle, isn't it?




BTW, I s`poke to an industry insider about my question of how Alley Kat got the thing to 18.5% and the suggestion was made that it was sim`ply by adding alcohol to Olde Deuteronomy to bring it to the right ABV. Then that mix was bunged into a Glen Breton cask for a few weeks to get the oak notes. I don't know if that is the actual method used, but, if so, so much for the Bavarian Purity Law.


S`peaking of the BPL. . .


I `picked u`p a sam`ple `pack from Big Rock yesterday. I remember very well when Big Rock was starting out in the business. They had four beers: Traditional Ale, ~Pale Ale, P~orter, and Bitter. My family's business was one of the first in the Edmonton area to `put their lines into our bar. At that time "Peppy" Pieper was the brewmaster and much was made of his and Big Rock's devotion to the ~Purity laws. I remember being told in no uncertain terms that Big Rock would never be in cans, that it would always be a craft brewery, etc. It wasn't long before the ~Porter and Bitter were discontinued. Rumour has it that the ~Pale Ale is still `produced, but I can't remember seeing it in years. All that's left of McNally and Pie`per's original Big Rock that I remember so well seems to be Traditional Ale.

By the time Flannagan and Sons started u`p in Edmonton, Big Rock was well established, so we switched over to the new, local little guy. Of course, they only lasted a few years and we were back to Big Rock with things like Warthog and Grasshopper at the bar. Shortly after the switch back, I moved to a different `part of the family business and didn't have daily dealings with the bar side, and time seemed to just melt away . . .




Where have all the s gone?



Actually, some of them have gone to Amber's, of course: much of their equi`pment, `particularly the old bottling line, is Flannagan's old equi`pment.


Did you notice that Amber's has a 'new' beer? http://www.ambersbrewing.com/#!collection/vstc1=

Yes, they've named a beer 'Zombie Apocalypse'

I don't know if I mentioned the other day that they were working on a Vienna Red Lager, but, it turns out that 'Vienna Red Lager' didn't work very well on test audiences (apart from me) and 'Zombie Apocalypse' scored off the charts.

But, for what it's worth (not very much $wise, as it turns out), I took the photo of Andrea, Amber's Assistant Brewmaster, which served as the basis for the beer-clutching zombie on the label.

Here's a rarity, a Mikkeller beer in a 330ml bottle!

Mikkeller Koppi(named for the Swedish coffee roaster) - Coffee IPA, 6.9%-ingredients; malt, yeast, Tomahawk hops, water, barley flakes & coffee-

The pour

Moderate pour results in tight three finger effervescent eggshell coloureed head on an orangey-copper beer. Good abundant carbonation...dense though transitory lacing.

Aroma

Quite subtle(I find)...yeasty, bit of citrus hops. No hint of coffee...but then the colour kind of gave that away.

Taste

A good bit of caramely malt initially, then the citrus hops start to build, but never quite overwhelm.very very subtle earthy coffee in the background as the well-balanced flavours fade to a drier finish. Quite a decent American-style IPA, medium-bodied, good carbonation...personally I would've liked the coffee to be a bit more evident, but that might've upset the IPA applecart. Should clarify that I liked the subtle use of the coffee, not alot of coffee drinkers would've either noticed or recognized it.