Something Different: Cidre de Bretagne Brut

While most of my gastronomic attention was focused on raw-milk cheeses as I was following the Tour de France (highlights included fresh chevre and a small-town brebis), I happened to grab of a bottle of Cidre de Breatagne during a layover in Rennes.

I wrote a chapter on traditional ciders in the Brewer's Apprentice that included Normand ciders, but this was a different beast. While a Cidre Dupont from Normandy would be rich and wild like a lambic, my Briton cider is much more subtle and drinkable.

It opened with the nose of a Belgian pale ale, with touches of vanilla, coriander, and then of course, apple. The flavor is moderately tart, but not overpowering, with a little lemon rind to complete the soft juicy apple flavor and little champagne-esqe bite. I wish I'd snuck more home.

Alberto Contador may be suspiciously good, but this has been a clean Tour de France this year. So instead of making fun of stupid dopers (Bert is clearly stupid, but only possibly a doper), I thought I'd make a pubic-service post. Here's a list of all the TdF team and what types of companies actually sponsor them. Who knew Quick-Step was in the flooring business?

The teams are also listed in order of their team classification (combined time of their top 3 riders). That means that Borat & Co (Kazakhstan governement and a conglomeration of Kazakh companies) is beating the crap out of the likes of an Italian sheet metal company and a Dutch bank. Yeah, it's just weird like that. And next year we'll get to see Radio Shack in the mix.

ASTANA: Borat & Co.
GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM: GPS devices and a guy with huge sideburns
AG2R LA MONDIALE: French interprofessional insurance and supplementary retirement fund group, and a French-based group for supplementary pension and estate planning insurance.
TEAM SAXO BANK: Online trading and investment company
LIQUIGAS: Italian liquid gas provider
COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE: Money lender
EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI: Basque telecom company with Basque government funding (like Borat & Co.)
FRANCAISE DES JEUX: French national lottery
TEAM KATUSHA: Russian natural gas and holding companies (Russian mob)
TEAM MILRAM: German milk (hence why they look like cows)
AGRITUBEL: Metal tubes for farming
CAISSE D’EPARGNE: French banking group (for a Spanish team)
BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM: French mobile phone company
SILENCE - LOTTO: Belgian national lottery and a Belgian pharma company.
CERVELO TEST TEAM: Canadian bike company with a fake Italian name.
TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC: Winter jackets and mobile phones
RABOBANK: Dutch financial services provider
QUICK STEP: Laminate & Parquet flooring
LAMPRE - N.G.C: Italian sheet metal
SKIL-SHIMANO: small power tools, cycling components and fishing tackle

Blogging another blog, and the Brewer's Art Green Peppercorn Tripel

The last two days I've done the liveblog Tour de France coverage for Bicycling.com. Both times I wrote about 2500 words over 3 hours, which is pretty good for me, but pales in comparison to the usual contributor, Joe Lindsey.

Today's Tour coverage garnered 55 comments. I don't think I've ever had a post here get 5, but that's fine. This is the place for me to write about beer and cycling stuff nobody is paying me to write about. If 200 people see the page, 20 read it and 2 think about commenting but don't, that's enough of an audience for me.

To celebrate my blogging with a larger audience, I split of bottle of the Brewer's Art Green Peppercorn Tripel with a friend. This richly-flavored take on a classic Belgian style was perfect for the humid summer evening we were having. If you're ever in Maryland, look this beer up.

Brewer's Art Green Peppercorn Tripel
Brewer's Art
Tripel | 9.20% ABV



A- / 4.1
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 4.5

Picked up a bottle at State Line in Maryland and split it with a friend. Poured a hazy gold with a tall white head that left lacing. Throughout the aroma and flavor, the peppercorn is obvious, but it never dominates the beer. Instead it does a great job of adding something a little different. This beer is otherwise a very smooth and subtle triple that reminds me of La fin du Monde for the gentle spices and occasional burst of sweet bread a light fruit flavors. Definitely try this beer if you can find it.

(The picture is good enough that I feel compelled to remind any readers that it's not mine, I'm just borrowing it from shyzaboy)