Brooklyn: Beer and Gladiators

I was in Brooklyn the weekend NBC held try-outs to be a contestant on the new American Gladiators. I can't say I tried out, but I was there to enjoy the show.



No idea who he was. He said his middle name was "Bison." The girl is a professional fitness model. Yeah.



You're not American unless unless you wear it on your shorts. Check out the lion roaring in the background.

Krogdog (sp) comes to Allentown

Matt Krogstad (seen at right as Gene Frenkel) swung through Allentown on his East Coast adventure and good times were had by all. I mention his visit here because if we and Krog are hanging out, there's going to be good beer close by. And damn, was there ever.

Here's the greatest hits of his visit:

Great Divide's Hades Ale - An awesome, yet American-made Belgian pale ale. American brewers usually seem to go too heavy on the added sugar and lose the subtlties, but this beer rocks.

Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale - Find this limited release IPA while you can. It's got a great hop complexity (grapefruit, apricot, orange) but without a killer bitterness. Easy to drink and tasty.

Allentown Brew Works' Pigtail Ale - A slightly bolder take on the English ESB (extra special bitter) style. The malt profile hits some great caramel and toffee flavors and is topped off by a bit of citrus hops.

Summer Brewing

I've been busy, but not too busy to brew. Here's what's in the works:

S07-1: Apricot Wheat Redux
Brewed 7/14/07

4# Weyermann German Wheat
3.5# Briess Pale 6-Row
.5# Caravienne
.8 oz Crystal Hops (5.1 AA) @ 60 Min
4 oz. Apricot flavor at bottling

Mash @ 150 F
Wyeast Activator 1010 American Wheat
OG: 1.045
FG: 1.007
ABV: 4.7%
IBU: 16

Currently: Bottled and should be ready in a week. Flavor is an interesting mix of sour german wheat, banana, light caramel malt, and apricot


S07-2: Simple Saison
Brewed 8/6/07
9# German Pilsner Malt
1# Caravienne
1# Wheat
1 oz. EKG (5% AA) @ 60 Min
.5 oz. Hallertau (3.2% AA) @ 15 Min
.5 oz. Hallertau (3.2% AA) @ 5 Min
1 Tablespoon of cracked corriander @ 15 Min

Mash @ 150 F
Wyeast Activator 3724 Belgian Saison
SG: 1.056
IBU: 25

Currently: Just transfered to secondary fermentor at 1.016 (high). Tastes like a Belgian pale ale with a light black pepper and spicy hop kick.


Best beer I've had recently: Ayinger Celebator - An awesome dessert beer and only 6.7% abv for a doppelbock. Enjoy this with cake or ice cream, really, it's all good.

Drinking every beer at the brewery

Yeah, so last week I headed down to Lancaster with Christine for a Built to Spill concert (they rocked). Naturally, we had dinner at the Lancaster Brewing Company. I made my normal drink order at a new-to-me brewpub, the sampler platter. Typically, this consists five, six, maybe seven samples. But Lancaster apparently takes their sampling seriously, giving me ten 5-oz. samples, one of each beer on tap. A little math puts that at four beers with dinner and a heck of a concert to follow.

As for the brewpub itself, it was a cool atmosphere. Well, as cool as, a historic tobacco warehouse (I think that's what I heard) can be. The food was good but not great and the food had too few affordable options. My burger was tasty, but Christine's Chicken caesar salad was over $10 and the lettuce came in one huge chunk. If you're in Lancaster it's worth a visit, but definitely not road-trip worthy considering the bevy of breweries in eastern PA.

Here my favorites:

Amish Four Grain Pale Ale - A malt-focused pale ale that tastes like a biscuit cookie with fruity hops.

Hefeweizen - I'm a sucker for a classic, tasty and smooth German wheat beer.

Milk Stout - Not really milky or anything, but a nice, rich stout with dominating black malts.

Photo by American Tom

NYC Beer Hunting

It wasn't really a safari or anything, but I had an eye out for new and rare beers. I hit gold at the Blind Tiger in West Village. I had previously tried maybe six out of their 30 tap offerings. For reference, this is a nice change form when I'd go to Kelly Cole's in Syracuse and have trouble finding something new (and good) on their 70 taps.

I had the Captain Lawrence Liquid Gold, and damn, the name didn't lie. It was a near perfect American adaptation (more hops) of a Belgian pale ale. Yummy. Other noteable beer of late were '06 vintages of the 18% abv World Wide Stout and 11% Immort Ale from Dogfish Head. The WWS was just big and boozy for the most part, but the Immort Ale, a barleywine, knocked my socks of with it's big oak, vanilla, and licorice flavors than blended over the sweet caramel malts.

Beer in Syracuse

Up in Syr for the girlfriend's brother's HS graduation. In addition to hanging out with Christine's fam, this meant free dinners (thanks Carol!), and the ability to buy beer in units smaller than a case. Yeah, because in PA, unless you're buying beer to-go from a bar at ridiculous prices, you can only buy beer from a beer store in 24 or 30 packs. Further proof to my theory that beer laws are never written by people that actually drink beer.

On our first night in town we hit the newly re-opened Empire Brewing Co. We were informed at the door they couldn't sell us beer since they didn't have a liquor license, but we were welcome to free samples. Have I ever mentioned I like free beer? We also hit up the Party Source on Erie for some single bottles. The grumpy old man that runs the place was there as usually. I like to call him "Grumpy McGee" in my head. Seriously, the guy is surrounded by great beer but acts like the bluebird of unhappiness crapped on his face.

Now up to 575 reviews:
Fuller's London Pride: A lovely, complex English pale ale. Might be a little weird for some, there's almost a meaty aroma, but I liked it.

Empire Amber Ale - Not actually very amber. It fairly light and the grains taste biscuit-like, but that's not a bad thing.

Empire Black Magic Stout - A nice big stout, though not as big as Middle Ages' Black Heart Stout.

Yes, that's right, Matt Allyn is in Allentown. You're so funny.

The hiatus is over now that I'm basically settled in Allentown, PA. Last Wednesday I started my internship at Men's Health after three days of driving and moving from MN to Syr to PA. Yeah, it was that fun. Here's a crappy sunset shot from somewhere in western NY.



There really isn't much to say about PA so far other than I'm loving Rodale (Men's Health's parent company). I get great editorial work for an intern and the perks are great. For instance, yesterday I had an extended lunch break to play full-court basketball with editors. Can't beat that.

I'll also mention I had a great time at my grad party. The beer list had about 10 options with something for everyone. We had yard game fun and then built a fire. And who doesn't like fire? Below is Ben and Jacob. As far as I can tell, Jacob's doing a Bob Dylan impression.



As for beer, I'll just say there's been a lot of good stuff. I had several beers from BeerAdvocate's Top 100 and while they were good I didn't think any deserved such high stature. The main culprit of overrating was the the Trappist-monk brew Rochefort 10. It was smooth and tasty, but I couldn't get much flavor out of it. Meh.

The best beer of late is the local hefeweizen from Bethlehem Brew Works. If you're curious, here's the link for everything else I've reviewed lately.