Month: May 2005

Big Hop Bombs: Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, Delaware USA

…perhaps one of the best IPAs in America…
 

We were this close to staying at a hotel between the Dogfish Head Brewery and the beach at Lewes, Delaware…this close…then I bailed on the great southern credit card run and opted for the nearer north-east of New England. I would have learned so much about Dogfish Head – not to mention and Victory Brewing in PA on the way. Ah well, next year in Delaware.

Thanks, however, to the good folks of Galeville a little bit of the Delaware shore makes it upstate. I picked up this four pack of these 9% brews for about 8 bucks US which is a good deal. I don’t need six 9% brews and that savings allows me to pick up another quart of Rogue or maybe a little something from Middle Ages. I have had Dogfish’s Pumkin’ Ale and their Belgian dark strong ale, Raison D’Etre. Both are quality with a bit of querky and expect something of the same and get it. The brewery explains the “minute” the 90 minute IPA in this way:

Our family of Indian Pale Ales includes the 60 Minute I.P.A. and the 90 Minute Imperial I.P.A.. Both feature our unique continuous hopping program, where they receive a single hop addition that lasts over the course of the entire boil (60 and 90 minutes respectively). This breakthrough hopping method makes for a beer that is extremely hoppy without being overly bitter.

The hop effect is very nice, giving great green gobs of hops which bite the back of the throat coat the mouth and fill the nose while maintaining a mellowness which envelops the ale’s hot boozy heat. It would make a heck of a match for hot Cambodian soup or a curry. The effect of the continuous hopping also is a lack of layering or steps in the flavours. There is not so much a noticing of that nutty tone or that raisin in the corner as a continuum of shifting thoughts bouncing off the palate. Under and amongst all the hops and heat is sweet pale malt with maybe cherry/apricot notes as well as perhaps a twong of crystal sultana and definitely a grainy edge in the finish. The body is medium-large without quite the bigness of a Stone.

At the beer advocate an astounding 458 reviews of this can be found and we have learned that 2% of those who post there have absolutely no idea what they are talking about, like this chappie:

Clear rusty tan in color, slim foam. A small hint of hops in the smell but not to much at all. The taste is hoppy but is unfortunatley covered by the terrible alcohol taste , like wise it leaves an after taste of alcohol. IMHO not a great brew, not at all.

So…he gave an Imperial IPA at nine percent 2.2/5 for being hot and boozy. Please stay away from the Belgians, pal. Hands off the Belgians.

One of the greats: hot, hoppy and handsome.

Big Hop Bombs: Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, Delaware USA

We were this close to staying at a hotel between the Dogfish Head Brewery and the beach at Lewes, Delaware…this close…then I bailed on the great southern credit card run and opted for the nearer north-east of New England. I would have learned so much about Dogfish Head – not to mention and Victory Brewing in PA on the way. Ah well, next year in Delaware.

Thanks, however, to the good folks of Galeville a little bit of the Delaware shore makes it upstate. I picked up this four pack of these 9% brews for about 8 bucks US which is a good deal. I don’t need six 9% brews and that savings allows me to pick up another quart of Rogue or maybe a little something from Middle Ages. I have had Dogfish’s Pumkin’ Ale and their Belgian dark strong ale, Raison D’Etre. Both are quality with a bit of querky and expect something of the same and get it. The brewery explains the “minute” the 90 minute IPA in this way:

Our family of Indian Pale Ales includes the 60 Minute I.P.A. and the 90 Minute Imperial I.P.A.. Both feature our unique continuous hopping program, where they receive a single hop addition that lasts over the course of the entire boil (60 and 90 minutes respectively). This breakthrough hopping method makes for a beer that is extremely hoppy without being overly bitter.

The hop effect is very nice, giving great green gobs of hops which bite the back of the throat coat the mouth and fill the nose while maintaining a mellowness which envelops the ale’s hot boozy heat. It would make a heck of a match for hot Cambodian soup or a curry. The effect of the continuous hopping also is a lack of layering or steps in the flavours. There is not so much a noticing of that nutty tone or that raisin in the corner as a continuum of shifting thoughts bouncing off the palate. Under and amongst all the hops and heat is sweet pale malt with maybe cherry/apricot notes as well as perhaps a twong of crystal sultana and definitely a grainy edge in the finish. The body is medium-large without quite the bigness of a Stone.

At the beer advocate an astounding 458 reviews of this can be found and we have learned that 2% of those who post there have absolutely no idea what they are talking about, like this chappie:

Clear rusty tan in color, slim foam. A small hint of hops in the smell but not to much at all. The taste is hoppy but is unfortunatley covered by the terrible alcohol taste , like wise it leaves an after taste of alcohol. IMHO not a great brew, not at all.

So…he gave an Imperial IPA at nine percent 2.2/5 for being hot and boozy. Please stay away from the Belgians, pal. Hands off the Belgians.

One of the greats: hot, hoppy and handsome.

Angst At Lunch

To be quite fair the decision was reversed in about 24 hours but was everyone in the PEI Tory government asleep when this passed by their desks?

The Reuters story includes this:

“How many times, when you get upset or worried or concerned about things, is it in the middle of the day? It’s usually at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning when you wake up,” said Joan Wright, executive director of the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention based in Edmonton, Alberta. The hotline received about 1,400 calls a year and about 50 were from people contemplating suicide, health groups said. “One of the things I was hearing is the government felt there weren’t enough suicide-related calls,” Wright said. Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province with a population of about 137,000 people, is trying to tame its budget deficit. The hotline cost about C$30,000 ($24,000) a year to run. “It’s a very small amount of money in our view,” said Reid Burke, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

When there is a call for one in every hundred people a year, you would think that would be enough to keep such a cheap service going let alone raise flags. According to Stats Canada, in 1996 PEI’s suicide rate was at or slightly above (depending on the end of the range) the national average: 15/3,862 or 20/3,933. Given the cash-strapped government’s decision to become a casino site and the highly-arguable rise in suicides that follow, the original thought to cut the line could be taken as cynical as, say, cutting auditor-general funding when faced with a scandal related to government pointlessly propping up dying private enterprise.

New York: King Arthur’s Steakhouse & Brewery, Oswego

While across the way on the weekend we had dinner at King Arthur’s Steakhouse and Brewery in Oswego, New York and we were very glad we did. I had a little problem with the camera but I expect that you get a sense of the place from these photos. The building is quite impressive and is on one of the main corners downtown in this small city of 18,000 or so on Lake Ontario. The dining area is split into two, a bar and a restaurant. The site also has conference rooms on the second floor as well as suites for overnight on the third.

 

 

 

 

We sat in the restaurant side and found the place very kid friendly – important when you have a five and a six. Mac and cheese and other friendly food kept them happy for a while allowing we parents to enjoy ourselves. I tried a six sip sampler before dinner and had their IPA with a steak. Across the table, a shepherd’s pie was partnered with an Oatmeal Stout. Also, I am happy to report that the medieval theme was fairly tastefully done. It is not like the wait staff have to dress like court jesters or anything, it avoids Monty Python references and the mural of the Knights of the Round Table sits up in a recessed part of the ceiling. The bright gleaming brew equipment – made in Canada by the way – gets much more prominent place of pride.

 

 

 

 

Lew Bryson, in his book New York Breweries, does not cover the spot as it came into being after his first edition came out – but he does provide notes from his visits over the last couple of years at his websites’ updates page for New York:

Opened in the Buckout-Jones building (1st & Bridge Sts., Oswego, right by the river), site of a former brewery (Buckout). Strongly medieval in theming. Visited 8/12/03: not good news, I’m afraid. Very cool place, great location, but two were horrible, others mostly flawed, one good one. A new brewer had just been hired, I’m hoping for the best.

12/19/04 Update: Just saw on Pubcrawler that former Empire Syracuse brewer Andy Gersten is brewing at King Arthur’s. This is great news for both the pub and Andy; glad to see him working and them getting his excellent beers!

4/22/05: Andy Gersten has moved on to Sackets Harbor (excellent news for them), will be replaced by former Flour City (and Empire Rochester) brewer Greg Smith.

The beer was excellent. Earlier in the afternoon, I had taken a long drink of Oswego water and thought how good it was, soft and likely drawn from the lake. The beer had that quality as well. I scribbled some notes from the sampler. The brown as lighter on hops than most US browns, had a nice medium body with some chocolate notes. The APA was malty with some crystal sweetness and good green hops. The IPA was higher test with lots of fresh green hops and loads of fruity malt. It went really well with a blue cheese toped Delmonico with garlic mash totties – which is something of a testamony to its size. The oatmeal stout was thick espresso mocha with a rich creamy yeast. It could take on a scoop of Hagan Daz vanilla as a float. I thought the Old English did not have any noticeable stale or soured quality that should be part of the style and, yet, the Bitter was a light green English hopped clean sip. Drinky drama trying to think it all through.

 

 

 

 

All in all, despite the shifting brewmasters over the last two years that Lew notes, I think they have achieved quality. The ingredients are clearly first rate and the choice of yeast is particularly well suited to the local water – something not often achieved by many good brewers wanting to copy a style rather than express what is local. Two litre growlers were available for take-away. We refrained but if I was passing though, I would definitely pop in for one of the IPA and another of the Oatmeal Stout.

 

Two Zoos

We went to two zoos over the weekend. Both are legacies from the best part of 100 years ago of communities creating exotic educational assets. Both are well into a shift away from mere collections of animals for your gawking pleasure to having a something of a greater purpose. At Watertown, NY, in the middle of town in the center of the park on the hill, you will find the New York State Living Museum. At Syracuse NY, in the middle of town in the center of the park on the hill, you will find the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. At Watertown, you find the animals of New York state and you have a sense from all the building hat there is lots of expansion to provide more space for bears, deer, lynx as well as reptiles and amphibians, rattlers rattling at you through plexiglass. Thank God for plexiglass. It is focused and educational and I will never camp in upstate New York again. At Syracuse, you get to see the animals of the world: mountain side clinging goats from Afghanistan, Indian elephants, middle range apes from South America. There is a difference in scale as well. Syracuse is about 5 times the size of Watertown and maybe less than a fifth the size of the Toronto Zoo.

The elephants bothered me but they exemplifiy the transition that a zoo like the one in Syracuse faces. Oddly, an elephant pacing in a laregly concrete space bugs me more than a lynx pacing in a cage with trees and grass. But its because you think about it, isn’t it – many of the elephants have been there for over 20 years and there is likely no other place for elderly pachyderms, there is no money to expand the facilities, there may be no reason to extend the life of the herd into a next generation from a zoological point of view. I may be wrong on each of these points but that is what it looked like. Syracuse is clearly working on the well being of the elephants. It also has a very frank timeline about its history and one thing that span of decades tells you that turning a zoo around takes a lot of time in addition to money. Some apparently do not make it as the gift shop indicated that memberships from the Utica zoo were no longer being honoured as that facility had been removed from a certification list of some sort.

Syracuse is looking like it has a fighting chance. It has moved into an expanded area with well laid out walkways and green space and is using that area to provide larger and rarer animals with access to that space. The tigers are a good example. The Toronto zoo’s collection included Sumatran tigars from Indonesia. In Syracuse, the tigers are Russian, from the coast facing the northern Sea of Japan.

Zoos also portray the change that has occurred in wealth and giving. The Maine children’s writer Robert McClosky, who wrote in the middle of the 1900s, in one of his early books writes about a poor kid nicknamed Lentil who kicks around the streets of a mid-western US town and finds himself in a celebration of the return of a prominent citizen retiring after a life of service. Half the town is named after this citizen as, frankly, he paid for half the town. The story itself is a little drummer boy tale as in the end Lentil plays his harmonica for the round, happy benefactor and all is well. That story almost makes no sense anymore as that same town today would either be gone or would be populated with a community of much more dispersed wealth through the combination of some socialism and and a much more diversified economy. Many more people would have disposible income surplus to their needs. But it would not be seemingly free money like the money of the man in Lentil.

The zoos of the early 1900s were paid for by the prominent as well as through public campaigns but perhaps not well enough at the outset as other demands were made on the trust funds, stock crashes intervened and likely generations just passed. Like the elephant, the function of that sort of wealth may have changed. Another key factor is, of course, secularization and individual reward worship. Many old time capitalists told themselves something of a story about charitable giving – it was their duty. It was also civic republicanism. The gifting was mandatory because the words read from the pulpit said so and it was adding to the greater good. And it was believed and it was done and then, over time, it was not so well believed and it was no so well done and all of a sudden there are more interesting things to do on the weekend with all our cash. All of a sudden, the folk who could be benefactors pretty much have become us.

So we have, on one hand, elephants and a few apes who are maybe not well served and, on the other, focused active preservation of species which may not exist elsewhere soon, like the Russian tiger. Zoos are on the move and many may pull out of the demanding curve like Watertown and Syracuse seem to be. Both worth going to, both worth reading up on before you go so you know what to expect.