Beer for cyclocross

Cyclocross season is coming and I need some homebrew for it. Why? Well if you don't know much about cyclocross, it's basically a marriage of bike racing and beer. Normally, that could be dangerous, but 'cross takes place on grassy fields and in parks, so nobody's going to get hurt. And if they do, it's not the beer's fault.

Name: TBD
Belgian Blonde Ale
Original Gravity: 1.062
Final Gravity: 1.000
ABV: 7.9%
IBU: 33

Malt Bill:
9.5# Belgian Pilsner
1# Wheat
.5# Caravienne
1# Belgian Candi Sugar

Hops:
1 oz. Northern Brewer @ 60 min
1 oz. Hallertau @ 30 min

Wyeast French Saison Yeast
Mashed @ 152 for 60 min

Light beers don't have to suck, but Keystone Light does.

I can deal with hot summer days, but the hot summer nights lead me to do crazy things like drink awful, awful beer (provided it's real cold). A couple Fridays ago, the always-generous Kuklickx was hosting a party with free beer. I can't knock him for serving Keystone, because hey, I'm not paying for it. In fact, I'm greatful to Kuklickx for providing me with some drink-for-thought. Only by trying to worst beers, can we understand the best. Also, once my six-pack of Kellerweis was empty, I was at the mercy of his kegerator. So Kuklickx, this post is dedicated to you. Assuming you ever read it.

Now the interesting thing about light beer is that while most suck, they don't have to. Over the last week, I tried a great beer at Emmaus's Tap and Table that was far lighter than Keystone (only 2.8%), but still tasted like good beer. Anyways, here the reviews to compare and contrast two vastly different light, low-alcohol brews.

Keystone Light
Coors Brewing Company
Light Lager | 4.20% ABV

D / 2.1 (this is an above-average score)
look: 3 | smell: 2 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2.5 | drink: 2.5

A friend had this on-tap in his kegerator and I couldn't resist giving this a try. I was also out of Kellerweise. Last time I drank this it was in an unfinished basement in college. This experience, frankly (and thanks to Kuklickx), wasn't terribly different. I found the key to this beer was to taste it as little as possible. Letting sit on my tongue for a split second before gulping left just a cream soda and white bread taste. When I let it linger, it tasted like a chemical spill. It was sharp and acrid with a dirty water background. Stick to chugging, you don't want to taste this.



Mirage
General Lafayette Inn & Brewery
Belgian Pale Ale | 2.70% ABV

B / 3.6
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | drink: 4

On-tap at Tap and Table in Emmaus, PA for $3/pint. An impressive beer for the strength. Good job General Lafayette. It drinks like a typical session beer of greater strength and reminds me of a milder Squatters Full Suspension. The malt is mellow with a little toasted barley followed by kicks of apricot and lemon peel hops, very tasty. Give this beer a try if you're into session beers.

Summer is delicious: Hot weather beer

For me, the summer is (a little) less about trying new beers as it is simply about enjoying great beer. It's a balance, really, because some new beer just sucks. Still, I've picked up a couple new favorites when it comes to flavorful, yet light and drinkable, session beers.


B.B. Bürgerbräu (Budweiser Bier)
Budějovický Měšťanský Pivovar
Czech Pilsener | 5.00% ABV

B+ / 3.9
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | drink: 4

On-tap at Tap and Table for $5/pint. Thanks to Tudor for the recommendation. This is a tasty and fresh Czech pilsener - something that's hard to some by. A lot of alleged Czech pils are really just bland macro lagers. There's a smooth, dry bready malt taste and the pils finishes with a mildly bitter spicy hop taste. Very nice and very refreshing. Pils-lovers should seek this out.

Sculpin India Pale Ale
Ballast Point Brewing Company
American IPA | 7.00% ABV

A / 4.35
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | drink: 4.5

Shared a bomber at Tap and Table in Emmaus, PA for $14. Totally worth it. This is easily one of the best IPA's I've had in sometime. Reminds me in terms of quality of the pint of Town Hall Masala Mama I had last week. The hops jump out of the glass once the beer is poured - I love when that happens. The hops are a mix of spicy citrus that are juicy, but dry and drinkable. There are also tasty notes of apricot, white grape, and orange peel.The aftertaste just doesn't go away. I had to go out of my way to find an even bigger beer to follow this up, otherwise this beer would have still been hanging on my palate.


Those beers kicked ass. Now, for posterity, here's one of the new beers that landed closer to the other end of the awesome-suck beer continuum.


Dirty Blonde
Atwater Block Brewery
American Pale Wheat Ale | 4.50% ABV

C+ / 3.05
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | drink: 2.5

On-tap at Liberty St. Tavern in Allentown, PA. Appears hazy dark blonde. There's nothing very remarkable about this beer. It was a slightly sweet wheat malt flavor so it kind of just tastes like sugary liquid bread. No hops to speak of and while it's easy-drinking and balanced, it's not really a pleasure to drink. It just does nothing for me.

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

Minnesota is delicious

Minnesota is delicious. And not just because we're next to Wisconsin (which we all know is made of cheese). I've been here a week visiting the fam and it's almost time to head back to PA. As always, there's never enough time with family and friends, and there's never enough time to drink all the new-to-me beers. Alas. I do my best.

Here's a quick write-up of a kick-ass, one-off beer I had this week at Town Hall Brewery. This brewpub is easily one of the best in the world and does amazing things with hops.


Golden Leaf Pale Ale
Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery
American Pale Ale

A / 4.3
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 4.5

On-tap at Town Hall. $3.75 for a late night happy hour pint. Damn these guys know their hops. This Columbus dry-hopped pale ale kicks ass. It's got big biting hops, nice and rough, while the body is still very drinkable. The flavor is a mix of earthy and grapefruit hops and they pair perfectly. It's part garden, part citrus punch. There's also a slightly fruity, trademark Town Hall note that I only taste in their beers. House flavor I suppose. I could ask for a little more flavor from this beer, but it's still one of the best pale ales I've had in a long time.

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)

Riding like a Belgian

I took a vacation day recently to spend 8 hours on my bike, or at least near it and enjoying a beer.



I went out with local mechanic extraordinaire, Taylor, and stopped for lunch at the Phoenixville Iron Hill Brewery. Before my Belgian meatballs came out, we had an order of frites with spicy mayo and a round of the house witbier. Later on, I enjoyed an even tastier tripel.

Witbier
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant
Witbier

B+ / 3.85
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | drink: 4

I biked into town on a hot day and ordered the wit first thing. Came out in a tall pilsner sort of glass with an orange slice which I quickly removed. While the beer was very drinkable, like a good wit, the flavor felt a little fuller and lacked the small subtle spice flavors of a great wit. Instead it was a simpler sweet vanilla wheat with pepper and orange spice. Certainly not bad, but not my favorite wit.

Belgian Tripel
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant
Tripel
A- / 4.1
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 4.5

I ordered a goblet with my meal of Belgian meatballs and though the meatballs were lackluster, this beer kicked ass. It appeared a clear gold with a short head. I suppose I really liked it because it so closely mimicked Maredsous 10 (a fav of mine). It's not the driest tripel, but there's a delicious orange and spice yeast profile with hint of pepper, vanilla, and apricot. Very tasty. Try this beer.