Extreme beer goes in a different direction

Greg Kitsock at The Washington Post wrote an article on extreme beer with quotes from Jim Koch, founder of the Boston Beer Co., which brews Samuel Adams beers. Koch says he coined the term "extreme beer" when his company brewed Triple Bock in 1994. It was the strongest commercial beer at the time at almost 18 percent alcohol.

Kitsock says that people often wrongly think that extreme beer also means strong beer. Not so. Extreme beers can also be beers made with unorthodox ingredients.* Kitsock writes about several such beers**, but the one that really caught by eye was by the Scottish brewery BrewDog, a brewery that happens to be a new arrival in the Sarasota area.

They brewed an extreme beer called Nanny State, which weighs in at the ultra-low alcohol level of 1.1 percent. I could say that's extreme on its own, but Nanny State is also supposedly so full of hops that it's the most bitter beer out there. You can measure how bitter a beer is by testing it for IBUs.

IBU stands for International Bitterness Unit. The higher the number, the bitterer the beer. Hops make beer bitter. Nanny State's IBU level is 225. For reference, Kitsock writes, "Budweiser measures about 12 IBUs; Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, 37; a typical imperial IPA, 75 to 100." I've read that the human palate can't detect anything beyond 90 IBUs, so Nanny State's professed level of 225 IBUs is just a gimmick.


But that doesn't mean I wouldn't want to try it. Too bad it's not sold in the United States.

*See my post about a Dogfish Head beer made with corn moistened in the brewer's mouth.


**He includes Stone's Sublimely Self Righteous Ale, a dark beer that's very hoppy and good: I've had it at the Cock & Bull; Brooklyn's Manhattan Project, "a draft-only offering using the same botanicals that go into vermouth and bitters, adding a dash of tart cherry juice and aging the beer in Rittenhouse rye whiskey barrels;" and Otter Creek's Quercus Vitis Humulus, which is "fermented with sauvignon blanc grape juice, fermented with a champagne yeast and aged in French oak."

Cigar City has problems with a batch

Tampa's Cigar City Brewing's founder, Joey Redner, posted on his brewery's blog that there is a problem with bottles of their excellent Bolita Brown. They are apparently infected with brettanomyces yeast, which gives them a slight sour, funky flavor. It's not a safety issue, rather it's an issue of quality. The Bolita won't taste like Cigar City intended.

Redner writes that he believes the yeast was on their bottling equipment from a previous batch of beer, Guava Grove, that used brettanomyces. He writes:

What this means is the Bolita that went out just fine in its bottles, is now very much not as was intended. If you like brett or bretty oud bruins I suspect you are going to be really tickled about this and want to lay some down for a year. But if, like me, you prefer Bolita the way it was intended I sincerely aplogize. This is my nightmare and the simple fact is we failed on this batch of beer.

Redner is very apologetic about the issue and offers to give everyone who brings a bottle of the beer (all bottles of Bolita are affected*) to the brewery a $10 credit, no questions asked. He continues:

Again, I sincerely do apologize. I know these things happen to the best of breweries, much less our ragtag operation, but it doesn't make me feel any better. I take the quality and integrity of our beer very seriously and this batch ended up with a noticeable infection. You have our promise we will work to remedy the situation as best we can.

This issue does happen to all breweries, and I think Cigar City is handling it really well. As a former homebrewer I know how tricky brewing and quality control is.

You can read their full blog post here.

Ever the creative brewery, Redner writes that they will make lemonade from lemons and take the returned Bolita, put it "in a barrel, add lots of additional bugs, some fruit and whatever else we think we need to add and make a small batch of some very tart and funky beer that started life as Bolita. Think of it as reform school for a beer gone bad. Only the idea is to make the beer go even worse to the point that it is good again!" That sounds like something I'd love to try, as I'm building up a taste for beers with wild yeasts.

*I didn't notice any funky or sour flavors in the bottle of Bolita I had in late August.

World of Beer celebrates grand opening Saturday

World of Beer has been open for a few weeks, but they are having their official grand opening celebration this Saturday, Nov. 14.

According to their e-mail, they are having an outdoor party from noon to 6 p.m. with a free cookout from 2 to 5. The party moves indoors at 6. They say they will be "family friendly" with games until 7 p.m.

The beer bar is at 8217 Tourist Center Drive off University Parkway near the Interstate 75 exit. For more information, call them at (941) 306-5868.

Cigar City's apocalyptic Mayan-inspired stout

Cigar City Brewing, which has some very creatively named beers,* occasionally brews a beer called Hunahpu's Imperial Stout, which is named -- according to that dubious source Wikipedia -- after a character out of Mayan mythology. Cigar City calls it a Mayan chocolate imperial stout "brewed with Peruvian cacao, Ancho and Pasilla chiles, cinamon and vanilla beans with a nod toward the frothy cacao drink consumed by the ancient Mayans."

The 12 people who have reviewed this beer on BeerAdvocate give it an average A+ grade. I only hope it's better than Dogfish Head's disastrous Theobroma, which is also inspired by pre-Columbian beers and brewed with chilies. I hope it is more like Rogue's wonderful Chocolate Stout.**

Anyway, Cigar City blogs that they are asked weekly about this beer and have set a release date for 750 mL bottles. It's Friday, March 12, 2010 at 7 p.m. at the brewery. The bottles will cost $20 each, which is certainly expensive but not outrageous. I paid that much for a bottle of Brooklyn Brewery's Black Ops.

Mark your calendars.***

*For example, Marshal Zhukov Imperial Stout and Warmer Winter Winter Warmer

**Ego note: Rogue pulled a blurb -- "Each time I have it I chuckle because it's so good" -- from my BeerAdvocate review for their newsletter way back in 2003.

***Cigar City -- as a joke -- has previously said that Hunahpu's Imperial Stout will be released in 2013 because some people believe that the Mayan calendar predicts the world will end in 2012.

Herald-Tribune writes about World of Beer

My colleague at the Herald-Tribune, Steve Echeverria, writes about World of Beer, the new beer bar on the border of Sarasota and Manatee counties, in his No Cover column in this week's Ticket.

You can read Steve's column online here.

Read my past coverage of World of Beer here.

Cigar City weekly draft lineup

I'm a day late posting this, but Sebastien Jadot with Cigar City Brewing e-mailed* me the beers they will be selling this week at the Tampa brewery:

Regular draft lineup
Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale
Jai Alai IPA

One-off drafts
Maduro Oatmeal Raisin, which is Maduro with a hint of raisin and cookie spice. I've tried this beer at the brewery and I can tell you that Cigar City wields a subtle hand with the spices. This is not a sweet beer like other spiced beers.

Humidor series

Cigar City has a rotating offering of beers which have been aged on cedar. As I've written before, they won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival for their cedar-aged Jai Alai IPA.

This week Cigar City is offering Humidor Maduro for $7 and Humidor Marshal Zhukov (their Russian Imperial Stout) for $10. Sebastien writes that the beers will be put in 750 mL bottles and capped as each customer places his or her order.

Too bad I can't get up to Tampa this week, because I know the Humidor series beer will sell out fast.

*Read my earlier post on how to get on Cigar City's mailing list.

Cigar City now takes credit cards

I was in the Tampa area today and stopped by Cigar City Brewing to refill my two growlers with the world-class Jai Alai IPA, which I'm drinking right now.

They now take major credit cards, which is convenient and allows you to spend a lot more there than you planned.

Sebastien Jadot, Cigar City's Tampa area sales and events coordinator, was working there again and was very friendly and helpful. He answered all of my dumb questions and said if anyone is interested in brewery updates, including what they have on tap, e-mail him at sebastien@cigarcitybrewing.com and he will put you on a mailing list.

Sebastien says they are hoping to eventually produce more 750 mL bottles and are even trying to open up a bar next door, but that depends on approval from the city of Tampa, so don't hold your breath.

World of Beer first impressions

I stopped by the newly opened World of Beer on the border of Sarasota and Manatee counties after work on Friday night. I got there about 11:00. I only lasted five seconds.

The place was packed and they had a band playing in their loft with the sound set to concert levels. I turned on my heels and left. It's tough for a place to be more repellent than having smoking, but brain-breaking loud music is worse.

But I didn't want to give up on the place; after all, I went on a Friday night.

I went back on Tuesday evening and got there just before 7:00 to take advantage of their happy hour $1-off draft specials.

A good number of people were there, but there was still plenty of space. No bands, and the piped-in music was much softer than Friday night. It was a bit too loud for my tastes, but the sound wasn't in the danger level.*

I was welcomed by a server right after arriving and sat at the bar, where Josh tended to me. Nice guy. They were out of Cigar City's Jai Alai IPA, which was only a mild disappointment because I'm hoping to get up to the brewery on Wednesday. Josh suggested Hercules Double IPA, a great double IPA from Great Divide Brewing in Colorado, but the keg ran out. He then gave me a sample of Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA, another good, bitter beer. I had a glass of that, which was $5 with the happy hour special.

Some friends have called World of Beer a corporate place. I must be a corporate shill, because I liked it. Brick and dark wood with a wall of beer in coolers divided by about 30 taps. They have a covered lanai where patrons can smoke. It's connected to the bar by a big open doorway, so if you're really sensitive to smoke you'll need to keep clear.

This is a good bar. I will be returning to the World of Beer and suggest you check it out for yourself, just get their earlier when the music isn't so loud.

*I'm the guy who wears earplugs to concerts. My father had profound hearing loss and if the same thing happens to me, at least I'll know I didn't do it to myself.

Saint Somewhere in Food Network Magazine

Saint Somewhere Brewing is a little brewery in Tarpon Springs. They have been making two Belgian-style beers, Saison Athene and Lectio Divina, for a couple of years. The 750 mL bottles are about $10 each.

They are kind of a stealth brewery, making two good beers and keeping under the radar.

Their Saison Athene gets a mention in the November 2009 issue of Food Network Magazine. It's part of a neat little package, "Grape Escape" on page 43, on how great beers are a fraction of the cost of great wines.* They list 12 craft beers and how they can be substituted for wine.

Saison Athene is listed under "Instead of red wine." They write:

Made in Tarpon Springs, FL, this gently spiced beer is brewed with rosemary, black peppercorns and chamomile. Like zinfandel or syrah, it's a terrific match for lamb.

I've had this beer. It pours a very bright golden color with substantial bubbles and a very white head that reduces to a fairly thin ring in my tulip glass. It smells of spices, particularly coriander and orange peel. The taste is equally spicy, with big coriander flavors and notes of musty and earthy flavors. The body is quite light and crisp. This beer is well-attenuated.

I prefer Saint Somewhere's Lectio Divina, which has an earthy aroma with notes of grape and other fruit and has a pure Belgian fruity, earthy and yeasty taste. Grape flavors mix with hay and grass-like notes. It totally nails the Belgian style, better than almost any other American brewery.

*Dogfish Head's chief, Sam Calagione, has said that you can buy a six-pack of the best beers in the world for less than $20, while buying a bottle of the best wine will cost well over $100. And Brooklyn's brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, has even written a book, "The Brewmaster's Table," about pairing food and beer and has said that beer is more versatile than wine. I agree with both of them.

Expanded "Kings of beer" story now online

My newspaper's sister site, yoursarasota.com, has posted an expanded online version of the "Kings of beer" story that ran last week in the Herald-Tribune and featured the Cock & Bull Pub and the Sarasota Brewing Co.* This version includes more of Chip Litherland's great photos.

You can read it here.

*Read my blog post on the article here.

SRQ beer scene featured in Herald-Tribune

My colleague at the Herald-Tribune, Steve Echeverria Jr., wrote an article, "Kings of beer" in Thursday's Ticket section that features the Cock & Bull Pub, Sarasota Brewing Co. and the Shamrock Pub. I confess I've never been to the Shamrock. I'll have to check it out. The soon-to-open World of Beer also gets a mention.

Here are two great excerpts from the article:

"The guys who say they love beer but only drink Budweiser, or they like a particular brand, are not true beer lovers," said Vince Pelosi, brewmaster at Sarasota Brewing Co. "The true beer lover tries them all."

This is exactly the way I think about beer. I can't wait to try new ones. Who knows? The best beer I've ever had may be the next one I find.

The second excerpt:

"My husband created the beer culture in Sarasota," said Hochberg's wife, Dawn.

Dawn, you're not exaggerating. Sarasota owes its beer scene to Howie Hochberg. And I owe my love of beer to your pub. It's where I learned about the wonders of the hop and how great a Belgian strong dark ale is.

The Herald-Tribune's online version of the story does not have all the cool photos -- taken by our incredible ace photographer Chip Litherland -- that are featured in the print edition. Here's Chip's picture of Howie from Ticket's cover:

So I'm not just shamelessly pimping our product when I say you should try and find -- dare I say buy -- a copy for yourself.

A visit to Cigar City Brewing

On Friday I drove to Tampa to visit Cigar City Brewing. The brewery is open for tours, tastings and sales Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. I got there a little after 4.

Like most breweries, it's a utilitarian place (no air conditioning) designed for brewing, not hanging out. The tasting room is a cordoned-off area of the warehouse.

They are a friendly bunch and were very willing to talk about the brewing process and their beers. They were very happy about winning a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival -- especially so because they have been in business for just seven months.

They had two beers available that day: Jai Alai IPA and Maduro brown ale. I had a (free!) sample of both of them and bought a growler of each. A growler is a to-go container that's filled with draft beer. Typical growlers in other states are 64 ounces. But, Florida law being what it is, Cigar City can only sell growlers that are 32 ounces (a quart) or less or 128 ounces (a gallon) or more. I bought two 32-ounce growlers.

You can bring empty growlers back to the brewery for refills. New 32-ounce growlers cost $4. Filling them with either Jai Alai or Maduro costs an extra $6. Refills are $5. New gallon growlers are $7 and filling them with Jai Alai or Maduro costs $18. Speciality beers cost a bit more. They also sell kegs.

Beer in growlers does not keep very long once you have opened it. I would suggest drinking it all within a day, otherwise it will be flat and the oxygen in the air will dull the flavor.

Cigar City photo gallery

Hover your cursor over each picture to read the cutline. I'd prefer to have cutlines appear beneath the photos but I haven't figured out a way to do that that doesn't look bad. Any ideas?

At a ball game, craft beer wins

My wife and I took her mother to see the Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees 5-3 on Saturday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. It had been about 10 years since I last went to a Rays game.*

I planned to get a draft beer at the game and remembered the choices being rather stark: Bud or Bud Light.** So I was surprised to see a Gordon Biersch counter on the way to our seats. Gordon Biersch is a craft brewery based out of Palo Alto, Calif. They brew good German-style beers and are a recent arrival in Florida. I bought a glass (I'm guessing it was about 16 ounces) of their Marzen, which is an amber lager traditionally brewed in March (hence the name) and conditioned (lagered) over the summer when higher temperatures made brewing difficult in the days before refrigeration. This style is also known as Octoberfest.

The beer was $9, ouch, but they filled my glass right to the rim. And all other beers sold there were either $8 or $9; a $9 craft beer beats a $9 Coors Light every time.

And the craft beer options didn't end with Gordon Biersch. I also saw Anchor Steam ($9) on tap at another drinks counter closer to our seats. 

*And I'm pretty sure the last game I saw was TB vs. NYY.

**That beer choice reminds me of the line from "The Blues Brothers," "We have both types of music: country and western!"

A judicial opinion on Cigar City's IPA

Melissa Cole, a judge at the Great American Beer Festival, blogged about the beer that made the biggest impression on her at the festival, and it was Cigar City's gold-medal-winning Humidor Series Jai Alai IPA:

The stand-out beer for me that I judged, in terms of innovation, was the winner of the gold category in wood-aged beers, the Humidor Series IPA, Cigar City Brewing, Tampa, FL. It is aged on the wood of cigar boxes, which is called cigar cedar but is actually from the mahogony family, and the spice and aroma it imparts to the beer is absolutely incredible. The base beer IPA itself was technically flawless and the pepper, sandalwood, vanilla, cinnamon, cedar, leather and tobacco notes that poured off it were more akin to a rum descriptor than a beer but still incredible nonetheless.

As Johnny Carson might say, wild stuff.

My super-helpful newspaper colleague and fellow BeerAdvocate member Kat tells me that the Cock & Bull Pub has had the regular, non-Humidor Jai Alai IPA on tap recently. But since Cigar City's beers sell quick, you might want to call the pub before making a special trip.

World of Beer starts training

World of Beer posted on Twitter today that they have started training their staff at their in-progress beer bar off University Parkway in southern Manatee County. So they are another step closer to opening.

Cigar City and The Bruery to collaborate

Tampa's Cigar City Brewing will work with Orange County, California's The Bruery to create a beer made with two unannounced fruits that will be aged in barrels. They haven't announced what the style of beer with be, but Cigar City's Joey Redner posted the following on BeerAdvocate:

So without confirming anything, maybe the idea is to use fruits cultivated in Florida/California rather than specifically native to California. Or maybe not. Personally I think they are going to try to beat Sam Calgione to the punch and recreate one of the few traditional beverages left he has yet to attempt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_drink

They plan to brew it in October or November in California and don't expect it to be released until July or August of 2010.

I've read good things about The Bruery and their unique ales. Their beers aren't sold in Florida yet.

Cigar City IPA wins a gold medal

Cigar City Brewing in Tampa won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

Their Humidor Series Jai Alai IPA took first place in the wood- and barrel-aged beer category, beating 32 other entries. The GABF is one of the largest beer festivals in the world and this medal is a big deal, especially for such a new brewery.

Here's what Cigar City says about their Humidor Series:

The Humidor Series is a rotating offering of Cigar City Brewing beer aged on cedar. We change the offering for every release so that more of our beers get to luxuriate in cigar box cedar.

Cedar has a more subtle effect on beer than more traditional woods like oak. But, we think that once you taste it you'll agree that cedar deserves a place along side oak in the brewer's wood-aging toolbox. Humidor series beers will vary due to style, but are always a good option for pairing with a fine cigar.

I haven't had their IPA, let alone its Humidor Series cousin. Now I'm even more excited about trying this beer.

World of Beer pushes opening to October

I visited the Web site for World of Beer's coming Sarasota-Manatee beer bar and they have pushed their grand opening back to October. Originally they were hoping to open in August or September.

I'm not surprised, considering the state the bar was in when I stopped by recently. Starting up a place like that always takes more time than planned.

When they open, I'll be there.

A beer that's been chewed up and spit out

An alert Sarasota Craft Beer reader* tipped me that The New York Times wrote Tuesday about how Dogfish Head, who are known for brewing high-concept beers** has done it again.

According to the Times, Dogfish's founder, Sam Calagione -- a craft beer celebrity and master pitchman who comes up with all these high concepts -- decided to brew chicha, a traditional Latin American corn beer. OK, that's not that weird; many beers (Budweiser) use corn.

But Calagione wanted to make it the traditional way, which involves milling the corn and moistening it in the brewer's mouth.

That's right, Calagione and some helpers (two professors of anthropology and archaeology) chewed up corn, formed it into patties, let the corn sit for some hours and then brewed with it. They say the enzymes in your mouth help convert the starches in corn into sugar, much the same way that steeping malted grains in warm water (mashing) does in the brewing of malt beer. During fermentation, yeast converts the sugars into alcohol.

As Calagione points out, there's nothing unsanitary about the process because the wort is throughly boiled before fermentation.

Well, the chewing of the corn didn't go quite like they planned. You should really read the Times' story; it's quite funny.

*Thanks, Mom.

**See my reviews of Sah'tea -- made with tea and juniper berries -- and Theobroma -- made with chilies and cocoa.

Waiting for World of Beer

I drove by the soon-to-open World of Beer off University Parkway in southern Manatee County today after visiting Total Wine & More.*

Looks like they still have a ways to go; I didn't notice much progress since my last visit a couple of weeks ago.

And a source within Sarasota's craft beer community tells me that World of Beer may allow smoking inside if they can't get approval for their patio. Let's hope the place can be nonsmoking: A nonsmoking beer bar will be a big hit with all the beer fans who would never go to a smoky bar. Perhaps one day Florida will follow other states and ban smoking in all businesses.

*I went there to buy my wife some Saranac Root Beer, a great root beer that she loves. I told myself I wasn't going to buy any beer, since two weeks ago I spent almost $80 on a few 22-ounce bottles (see my post on Hoppin' Frog).

I decided to walk past the beer shelves to see what was new so I could blog about it. Well, they had a new Cigar City beer, Improvicasion ($9.99), and Dogfish Head's Sah'tea ($13.99), which was the beer they brewed while being visited for an article by the New Yorker.

So my willpower snapped and I bought a bottle of each and hope the Dogfish Head Sah'tea is better than their Theobroma.

And I see that my footnote is now longer than the main post. Great.