SF Toronado Barleywine Fest

Luis thought we needed something to clear our palate after all these sweet barleywines

I think this is the anti-barleywine!

Barleywine Fest

An hour in and we tasted the first 23 on the list (we ordered one duplicate by mistake but it was one we liked)

The consensus favorite so far is the Noggin Floggin from Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland. The Speakeasy Old Godfather, St Stans Bill's Brown Bag and Pizza Port 547Haight Street were disappointing. The rest were all good.

Snails Eye view of our Barleywines

Birds Eye View of our Barleywines

Fred doing his live blog

-- Post From My iPhone

SF Sunday Morning

After a great dim sum breakfast we headed over to the Toronado to stand in line. Luckily there are only 25 people ahead of us.





Well, we got in a got our usual table in the back room. 41 barleywines left on the list.

Our first flight

Administrative Note

It may sound un-Patriotic of me, but Wireless Broadband service in the US sucks big time.

In every country in Europe where I've traveled it is possible to buy 3G wireless internet on a daily or monthly basis at a reasonable rate. But that is not possible in the US -- one must buy a monthly contract at $50-60 per month.

Why am I telling you this? The lack of wireless internet means that I can only "live blog" with my iPhone. While certainly better than nothing, it is not good for me. I have fat fingers so typing on the "soft keyboard" takes a long time -- I could be drinking beer instead. And the iPhone camera is not great in low light situations.

So I will make a short post with the iPhone and then later when I have internet access with my laptop I will update and expand on the short iPhone postings. So please scroll down and re-read what you may have already read -- it may have been updated. I will try and add "Updated" to the title, but I can't promise full compliance because I may be inebriated. And for those of you worried about it -- the car is parked for the duration and it is pubilc transport, taxis or Shank's Mare for us until Tuesday.

SF Saturday Afternoon -- Another try at the Toronado

About 4:15 we arrived at the Toronado it it was just as packed as this morning. We talked to the doorman and he said it never let up.

We forced our way to the bar in the back room and managed to order a round of tasters, all from Alaskan breweries. We like the Big Nugget from Alaskan Brewery the best. But it was just to crowded, even to stand, so we gave up and walked over to Suppenküche on Hayes for dinner and German beer.

Suppenküche

We ordered a round of beer: Schneider Weisse for me, Weltenburger Dunkel for Tom and Mike and Luis has a bottle of Mönchshof Kellerbräu from EKU in Kulmbach.

Weisse, Dunkel and Kellerbräu

We all ordered way too much food and ate way to much. It was all excellent. But we ate so much we had to go back to the room for a post dinner nap. We'll see if we make it out again tonight.

I'll leave you with a picture of the Rierson brothers perusing the menu...

SF Saturday Noon -- Monk's Kettle

After leaving the Toronado we walked over to the Monk's Kettle on 16th.

We got there at 11:40 but the didn't open until noon, so we stood around for a while. It started rain so the let us in to sit, but we couldn't order beer until straight up 12 noon.

Round one was Iron Springs Altman's Sticke Alt, Uncommon Brewery Siamese Twins Double, Schmalz Brewery Human Blockhead Barleywine and the Stone/Alesmith/Mikkeller Collaboration Triple.

Altman's Sticke Ale, Human Blockhead, Collaboration, Siamese Twins

All were good but the Sticke alt wasn't really an alt -- way too much roasty flavor and not dry enough in the finish. But a tasty beer.

Mike passed on Round Two, so only three: Drakes Imperial Stout (on Nitro), Green Flash Grand Cru and another beer that I can't remember for the life of me Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball.

I'm normally not a fan of Nitro beers but I think it works with Imperial Stouts -- I prefer North Coast Old Rasputin that way and the Drake's was also excellent. The Green Flash Grand Cru was enjoyable but wasn't a beer that really stood out. The Hairy Eyeball was malty and strong but I liked the Drake's more.

I took a break while the others headed over to Anchor Brewing for the Homebrew Club of the Year party. We'll try the Toronado again later this afternoon.

Huge Line at the Toronado

And it doesn't open for another 45 minutes

Update: We bailed on the fest -- by the time we got in it was too crowded. So we walked over to the Monk's Kettle for lunch and beers.

The Last Beer of the Day,,,

After leaving 21st Amendment, we decided to walk back to the hotel. We had to pass near City Beer so we stopped by for a night cap. Sadly, No -- they had just closed.

Arriving back at the hotel we noticed they had a bar. Being this is San Francisco, they had to have some decent beer for a nightcap. On draft they had Trumer Pils and Anderson Valley Boont Amber. At first I got excided about the Trumer, as I remember htis beer from trips to Salzburg. But then I remembered it is brewed under contract in Berkeley. Not that this detracts from the beer, but after drinking strong and hoppy beers all afternoon and evening it wouldn't to a Pils justice to drink it now. So I ordered the Boont Amber, a beer that is very familiar and is no danger of being judged harshly due to my condition (enebriated and suffering from pallet fatigue)t.

Because we are frugal beer geeks, we are staying at a Best Western. Our philosophy is we could stay at a fancy hotel and spend $100-200 more a night -- but do you know how much beer we could by for the difference? Anyway, because the Best Western is not know as a hangout for the trendy people, the hotel bar closes at 10:30pm. The nice bartender said she'd gladdly pour me a Boont Amber, but since we were staying in the hotel, would I mind a "go cup" -- not having heard that term since I was in NOLA in '85 I said sure.


A perfect end to a great day...

21st Amendment -- Desert

Our nice waitress asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu. I said we had one, pointing to the Strong Beer menu.

Round Two was Monk's Blood -- inspired by the dark strong Trappist beers, Double Trouble Belgian style IPA, Hop Crisis Triple IPA and Lower de Boom Barleywine. All were keepers.

Monk's Blood, Double Triple, Triple IPA, Lower de Boom Barleywine

In case you were tired of pictures of beer, one of our new best friends at the next table took our picture.

Beer Geeks Unlimited

After we finished our desert, our other new best friends at the table to the right of us bought us a duplicate of our last round of strong beers. Who said folks in SF weren't friendly.

Our other new best friends

It turns out that the best friends to the left of us and the best friends to the right of us lived within a block of each other and were frequent customers of 21st Amendment but didn't know each other. So they are now also best friends with one another and owe us a beer each time they socialize with one another.

And I have to update our beer tastings. We all liked the first taste of the Monk's Blood but the more we drank of it the less we liked it. As we finished the gift round from our best friend on the right (we're talking spatially here, not politically) - we realized there was a beer basically undrunk -- it was sad to leave this orphan on the table, but nobody liked enough to claim ownership (or parenthood). The consensus was the Lower de Boom was the best, followed by either the Triple IPA or Triple, depending on your mood for hops.

Could you provide a home for this orphan beer?

SF Friday Evening -- 21st Amendment

We lucked out and got a table right away at 21st Amendment.

21st Amendment -- Makes me want to study Constitutional Law

Round 1 is the Watermelon Wheat, Bitter American, Imperial Porter and Imperial Pilsner. All are very nice but I was most impressed with the Watermelon Wheat. I usually don't like fruity wheat beers but his one was quite nice.

Imperial Pilsner, Watermelon Wheat, Chocoate Porter, Bitter American

SF Friday Afternoon -- City Beer

After a uneventful drive north, we dropped our bags at the hotel and walked around the corner to City Beer. This is a beer store cum pub -- they have six beer on tap to taste while you shop and an impressive selection of bottles to go -- except the bottles don't have to go -- for a $1 corkage fee (to cover, I'm sure, the cost of washing glasses) you can drink and of the bottles as well.

City Beer

Luis is the proverbial kid in a candy store -- so many beers, so little time

On draft was Russian River Damnation Batch 23 and Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout.

Both were great!



We followed them up with some other beers: a Telegraph Reserve Wheat -- which while it billed itself as a "Berliner Weisse" actually tasted more like the delicious "Janer Weisse" I had from Jana a year or so back. A true, straight Berliner Weisse to me tastes like sour water -- there is really nothing there but sour -- not body, not hops. No wonder they add syrup. The Janer Weisse was nicely sour but had enough body to know you were drinking a beer and that's how I'd describe this beer. That may sound like faint praise, but its not -- that beer from Jena was one of the best I've had in a long time.

Luis had a Midnight Sessions Black Lager from Port Brewing (a/k/a Pizza Port) that seemed to be very good, but I really need to drink it before drinking a Strong Belgian and an Imperial Stoit (i.e. my taste buds where in "strong beer" mode).

As we were finishing up we realized there there another beer on tap -- Iron Springs "Casey Jones IPA" from Faifax, California. So we ordered one for "the table" and it turns out that was enough. It was very hoppy but it had a harsh finish -- the first sip was as good as it got.

While I was laboriously entering the original post with my iPhone, Luis grabbed my camera and took a picture of me "iPhone Blogging," I guess this is an example of second order blogging, (e.g. "Metablogging") but my head hurts to much thinking about this...

A blog of Fred blogging...

On The Road Again...

From left to right Tom, Mike, Luis and Fred and we leave Marina del Rey and head for San Francisco.

Picture taken by She Who Must Be Obeyed.

Upcoming...

Its been quiet here but there should be some activity soon: Next weekend its off to San Francisco for the Toronado Barleywine Festival. It is "Beer Week" in SF so we'll be doing some other stuff as well.

The next "pure beer" trip is not until late March, when my Dad and I head off for a short trip to Prague.

One of the great things about traveling is it is an excuse to buy travel gear and gadgets. I though I'd fill in the downtime between beer trips (gotta work sometime!) with some of the hits and misses. Hey, that's another excuse -- "I don't really need this, but I could review it for the blog..."

Birra Italiano -- Updated and updated again.

Tomm Carroll bought back a bunch of beers from his recent Italian trip (click on "Italy" in the sidebar) and he graciously shared them with a bunch of us last night. Added to the mix were some beers he and Scott Burnell had picked up here in the states.

So here's what we drank...

(Click on the picture, it is quite impressive)

and not a Peroni or Moretti in the bunch.

These are the beers, basically from right to left -- format is:
Brewery (region), beer, abv% (notes)

• Piazza dei Mestierei (Turin), Manet, 5% (a Kölsch style ale but unfiltered)
• Borgo (Lazio), Tè, 4.2% (a Saison with Shiu Hsien tea leaves)
• Ducato (Emilia Romagna), Nuova Mattina, 5.8% (a Saison with ginger, corriander, green pepper and chamomile)
• Piccolo (Liguria), Seson, 6% (a Saison with juniper chiotto peel, coriander, cane sugar and matured in Chardonnay barraels)
• Como (Lombardia), Birolla Malthus, 6.5% (ale with chestnut meal and honey)
• Baladin (Piozzo), Nora 2006, 6.8% (ale with kamut, myrrh, ginger, orange peel)
• Montegioco (Piedmont), Quarta Run, 7% (ale with fresh peaches)
• Italiano (Turin), Scires, 7.5%, (ale with cherries)
  
• Torino (Turin), Birra di Natale, 7.4% (Winter Warmer with honey)
• Maltus Faber (Genova), Brune, 8% (Belgian style brown ale)
• Montegioco (Piedmont), Demon Hunter, 8.5% (Dark ale)
• Grado Plato (Fasano), Chocarrubica, 7% (Stout with carob and cacao beans)
• Troll (Vernante), Shangrila, 8.5% (ale with 12 Himalayan spices: tandoori, curry, anise, etc.)
• Lambrate (Milano), Ghisa, 5% (Stout with Weyermann rauch malt)
• Almond'22 (Abruzzo), Torbata, 8.7% (Peat smoked barleywine with chestnut honey and orange zest)
• Baladin (Piozzo), Xyauyù Silver,13.5% (Oxidized 2005 barleywine using a sherry process)
  

As is usual with these sort of things, my notes got shorter, more cryptic and less legible as the day wore on. So I'll just hit the high points.

First, all of these beers were well made and tasty. None of them had any major flaws and if you get a chance to taste any of them, I would do it.

The first beer, Manet, called itself a Kölsch and while it was a close as any American version I've tasted, it didn't have the "snap" of an authentic Kölsch.

The most in artful comment was made when I tasted the Nouva Mattina Saison. "It reminds me of soap" I said, which usually is the kiss of death in a beer tasting.   What I meant was the combination of spices reminded me of those fancy soaps you find on a little dish in the guest bathroom of somebody whose house actually has a decor. I liked this beer, so I meant it as a compliment. Really.

The Torrino Birra di Natale called itself a "Winter Warmer" and it was clearly inspired by Samuel Smith's "Winter Warmer."  It wasn't a clone and I'm sure it wasn't intended to be, but you could taste in inspiration. 

The Troll Shangrila (made with Himalayan spices) was the most unusual beer. My only written comment was "Wow!!"  I would like to try it again with food, there was so much going on there you need so other flavors to compliment and contrast.

The Lambrate Ghisa (with smoked malt) didn't really work for me. You often get a bit of smokiness in stouts from the roasted grains and it I didn't think they went well together. 

The Maltis Faber Brune suffered in comparison with the other beers, I think, because there were no special ingredients. I would like to taste this one again, but by itself or at a start of a tasting.

The star of the tasting, by (I think) unanimous consent was the Baladin Xyanyù. It reminded me of a well aged 10+ year old Stille Nacht. More, please.

The Schwebebahn in Wuppertal

For years I've heard of the railway suspended over the Wupper River in Wuppertal. Called the "Schwebebahn" or "floating railway" it is the oldest operating monorail in the world.

The Schwebebahn is part of the local transit system. The ride is quite smooth as you'd except, but you do notice the swaying around a turn and when you enter or exit a car.

This doesn't have anything to do with beer, (except that you can take the Schwebebahn from the Wuppertal main train station to the Alter Markt Schwebebahn stop if you want to visit Brauhaus Wuppertal) but I thought it was so cool I'd share some pictures.

First off, the river Wupper is not as wide as I had imagined -- I couldn't really figure out how they suspended it over a river, but -- with all apologies to Wuppertal -- its really the size of a large creek.

The track passes over some pedestrian bridges


Train entering a station


Train arriving in the station


Train departing a station


More station views


Train approaching the Alter Markt station


Closeup of the drive/hanging mechanism

So remember, as a wise man once said "Einmal im Leben durch Wuppertal schweben" (Once in your life you should float thru Wuppertal).

Wurstkuche

I'm having a duches with my mango jalapeno sausage.


-- Post From My iPhone

Brauerei Schwelm (Updated)

A few years ago a new Altbier appeared at my local beer shop: Schwelmer Alt from Brauerei Schwelm. It was a decent enough alt -- no Uerige, but that's no shame because most alts aren't.

When I decided to visit Wuppertal I looked at nearby towns to see if there were any other breweries around to visit. Two or three birds with one stone, as it were. Schwelm showed up as the next stop on one of the trains from Düsseldorf to Wuppertal, so I decided check it out.

The brewery used to be owned by the megabrewer Veltins and it was slated to be closed. A man by the name of Dr. Lohbeck bought the brewery and has continued the brewing tradtion dating back to 1830.

I knew it was a quite large brewery and that there is no tap room there, but there is a pub just down the street that is the "unoffical" tap room so I figured it was worth the time to check it out.

After arriving at the train station it was a pleasant 10 minute walk to brewery. Not really much to see, except they do like red paint.

Brauerei Schwelm

The brewery courtyard

Around the corner and down a block or so is the Braustübchen.

Braustübchen, Schwelm

The first bad sign was literally a sign on the door -- think of the international sign for "no smoking" and remove the diagonal line. I think it means "smoking required" because everybody inside, including the bar maid, was chain smoking. The German state of North Rhine-Westfalia as an exemption in their no-smoking law for small, single room pubs that don't serve food. And that is what we were in.

They had two Schwelmer beers on draft, an alt and a pils. The alt was how I remembered the bottled version only better because it was fresh. Not much bitterness, a little on the sweet side but not so much that you couldn't drink a bunch of them if you wanted. The pils was also hop-deprived and suffered for it. There wasn't really any malt there as well so the primary taste sensation was "wet"

The pub itself was nice -- it had a late 60's early 70's vibe and looked like a place were you could spend a pleasant afternoon drinking beer and chatting with the locals. But the smoke was overpowering. There were only about five or six other people, but they were smoking non-stop and there wasn't much ventatlation. The two beers were small (.2 liter) so they were quickly drained and it was off to the train station to return to Düsseldorf and a few final Uerige.

Along the way, I noticed another place -- Altdeutsche Bierstuben -- that served the Schwelber beers. It is a hotel resturant and has a biergarten in the back so it's likely it is a less smokey place to drink. If I ever return to Schwelm, I'll do my drinking there.

Schwelmer Pils and Alt

Wuppertaler Brauhaus

With my internet problems some pictures for now. More details later....

This is a brewpub in a former public swimming pool. Very interesting design inside.







They had two beers on draft -- Hell and Dunkel. They also do seasonal beers, but it was between seasons so two beers were all they had. Both beers were very clean and well made. The Dunkel has a very malty finish, but is not too sweet, as some have been on this trip. The Hell is unfiltered and smooth. I think it needs more hops -- and that is not just my West Coast pallet talking -- but it is a very nice beer. Later, when talking to the brewer he implied he might like more bitterness as well, but his customers didn't go for that, plus he was a little worried about adding more hops as the yeast provides some bite as well.

Wuppertaler Hell and Dunkel

Internet Problem

First of all, I think the Sticke yesterday was maybe the best I have had. I often find the Sticke to be a bit on the sweet side, but this version and enough bitterness to compensate.

Posting may be light -- I am having problems with my 3G modem -- it will not let me logon to blogger (and any other https site).

I am off to Wupertal to check out the brewery and the Schwebebahn.