All About Beer Magazine

Guest blogger

Posted October 30, 2009 by daniel 1 Comment | Post a Comment

A good friend, Owen Ogletree, is on the road with some beer dudes with four days of beer dinners across the southeast.  We asked Owen to take you along for the ride.  I’m posting it here because we haven’t completed the transformation of our website.

Enjoy, Daniel

Beer Roadie Blog: By Owen Ogletree

Four beer dinners in four states in four days? Are these guys nuts? This basically sums up my thoughts on the day that Dustin Watts of Terrapin Beer Company in Athens, GA, and Chris Lennert from Left Hand Brewery in Longmont, CO, asked me to tag along as official press “beer roadie” on their monumental east coast collaborative beer dinner tour in celebration of their newest collaborative ale.

Three years ago, around midnight in some forgotten beer bar, Dustin and Chris cooked up the idea of an annual, collaborative Terrapin/Left Hand brew. This year’s “Midnight Project” brewing series beer, produced last summer at Terrapin’s facility in Athens, is called Depth Charge Espresso Milk Stout. An impressive black ale loaded with creamy, roasted, coffee aromas, Depth Charge serves as the focus and impetus of each of our beer dinners. Our epicurean beer adventures take place October 26-29, 2009 and happen in Atlanta, Durham (NC), Richmond (VA) and Philadelphia.

Day 1—October 26, Atlanta

Dustin, Chris, my “Beer Wench” wife and I begin by making our way from Athens to Atlanta for dinner number one at Taco Mac Lindbergh near downtown. Oh, the life of a beer roadie is not all glamour. Upon arriving at Taco Mac, our time before the dinner was spent placing promotional materials at tables, setting up a DVD of photos from the collaborative brewing process on the dining room televisions and arranging the raffle items.

The fun begins at Taco Mac as the excited crowd of beer lovers begins to arrive. With the noise level rising to the official decibel level of “rowdy” before the end of the reception courses and beers, Dustin and Chris realize quickly that this could be a challenging evening to carry on beer discussion and promotion. But our pair of brewery heroes carries on with superb bravado—rotating through the room between courses speaking to each interested beer lover willing to listen. Because of the personal interaction with our brewery personalities, each dinner attendee truly feels special during this entertaining and educational evening.

Taco Mac’s Chef Matt provides scrumptious food items during a beer tasting reception, four courses and dessert. Each culinary creation is paired with a Left Hand or Terrapin beer, with the chocolate/peanut butter dessert accompanying the rich, sweet Depth Charge. Overall, the evening proves a remarkable success.

Day 2—October 27, Durham

After an early morning of being a dutiful roadie helping load t-shirts, pint glasses and boxes of Terrapin and Left Hand stickers into our SUV, we enjoy a cup of espresso and take off up I-85 northward toward our next collaborative beer dinner to be held this evening at Tyler’s Restaurant & Taproom in Durham, North Carolina.

After fighting relentless, heavy rain on the interstate highway, we stop for lunch at our favorite beer spot in southern South Carolina. Our dear friend Josh Beeby, owner of Barley’s Pizzeria in Greenville, SC, welcomes our beer tour group with open arms, delicious craft beer samples and amazing pizza.

After a little over an hour with Josh, we pull ourselves out of Barley’s and resume our northbound trek toward Durham. The rain has not eased. After hours of torrential precipitation and long, painful delays through two major accidents on I-85 (one involving several HazMat teams), a drive that should have taken us a little over five hours turns into an almost ten hour, torturous crawl into Durham.

Just outside Durham, our two beer celebrities, over one hour late to the Durham dinner, begin to brainstorm ways to “make it up” to the crowd. They decide to burn through their entire stash of pint glasses and give everyone at the Tyler’s dinner a Terrapin glass and Left Hand bottle opener. Gifts and bribes sometimes can be useful.

Luckily, Jason Ingram from Left Hand decides at the last minute to fly to Durham for the dinner. Jason beats us to Tyler’s and “wears two hats” as he discusses both the Terrapin and Left Hand beers for the first and second courses. Good job, Jason! The dinner crowd erupts into thunderous applause when our rain-soaked and exhausted group of beer trekkers enters the room.

Our two beer celebs rise to the occasion as they address the crowd, apologize for our tardiness and quickly transition into a focus on the beers. The Tyler’s event features a reception nibble and Left Hand ale followed in turn by five exquisite courses. The two cornerstone personalities of Tyler’s, Tyler and Daniel, could not be more pleased with the outcome.

After the dinner we enjoy a few pints of craft beer with Tyler and Daniel, discuss plans for future events and reminiscence on the evening. One of the main duties of any good beer trip roadie is to keep your beer superstars from going over the edge and ending up in trouble, so around midnight I coax our group out of Tyler’s and to our hotel for a well deserved night’s sleep. We keep our fingers crossed for a dry “day three” of our beer adventure tomorrow. May the beer gods smile upon us…

When Tricky Beers Work Well

Posted October 16, 2009 by daniel 3 Comments | Post a Comment

I got a great invite from Ryan, the local New Belgium guy, to preview Fall Wild Ale, a new release from Colorado’s New Belgium Brewery. He was debuting this beer at an unheralded beer bar, Broad St. Cafe, here in Durham.

I went expecting something interesting, exciting, edgy — like so many of the specialty beers from NBB. I came away with a deeper understanding of my new favorite subject, balance.

You see, the promotional material described a tricked-out beer, which I’m beginning to shy away from as a rule. Fall Wild Ale uses Trappist yeast, a touch of Brett and a rare berry called Schisandra. When I encounter this level of complexity, I’m reminded of a local restaurant that always adds just one too many ingredients to its dishes, becoming a recurring family joke.

However, I should have had more faith in Peter Bouckaert and the beer’s designer, Alex Dwoinen.

First, this is a truly mahogany beer, which is a wonderful beginning to meeting a new beer. Although it was served in a stock bar glass, and not one of NBB’s signature glasses, the beer looked gorgeous. It threw off a particularly herbal nose, with a lot of unnamed spices. However, the flavor drove the portrait of the beer. The Trappist yeast funk was dialed back, as was the sourness of the Brett. Instead, out came complex spiciness that didn’t hit one singular note: no cinnamon, no clove, nothing that dominates this holiday season.

I’m at a loss to come up with a list of nouns for you. With every sip I became more attracted to the balance of flavors, this co-mingling of different sour, herbal, spicy notes, not to mention the hint of alcohol burn and the toasted malt needed to get it up to 8.5%.

As for the schisandra berry, that’s supposed to deliver five flavors at once, which may be the key to the balance. I kept wondering about umami, this new flavor description that Randy Mosher writes about. From my flimsy grasp on the concept — and Ryan and I checked it out on Wikepedia with my Blackberry — Fall Wild Ale could express that sensation along with many others. I held on to my pint, taking my time, to see what changes in temperature would do to the balance, and it held up extremely well.

This beer really expresses the phrase “brewers’ art.” I’m just sorry my language doesn’t fill in the blanks for you. The beer fills your mouth: rich, complex, and without any bumps, edges, or I-wish-that-wasn’t-theres. I may go back with my NBB stemware and have another shot at the Fall Wild Ale in appropriate glassware. I’ll bet I think it tastes better that way — emphasis on “think.”

Hoisting the 14th World Beer Festival — Durham

Posted October 9, 2009 by daniel 0 Comments | Post a Comment

This one was impatiently awaited. The City had spent a few million renovating the Durham Athletic Park and all eyes were on the Beer Fest, as it’s known locally.

Although the Blues Fest had taken the renovated park for a trial spin, All About Beer Magazine’s World Beer Festival would really put it through its paces. Concerned individuals were tense about how the very expensive field would work with a really great beer festival. We’d already tried out the terraplas, the plastic field protectant, last year at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and knew it would work.  However, this is a new field with new grass.  Could be different.

While so many people were fretting about the ability of the field to withstand a beer festival, hundreds of people were moblized to prepare the facility for the waiting beer lovers.

Our team member, Ola Nilbrink, had to rework the schedule to keep the time of the terraplas being on the ground to a bare minimum. The head groundskeeper, Josh, and Ola stayed pretty closely in touch. Watching the city crew lay the patchwork of the tiles down from the vantage point of our office across the street was thrilling, like a game of tetras. They were followed by a couple of other crews who whipped up over 50,000 square feet of tent, then dozens of tables and hundreds of chairs. Next, the pipe and draping were spread out throughout the tents, marking the “beer alleys.”  All in all, over 100 people spent two and a half days, working through the night, to get the site ready for the beer.

That’s when the Brew Crew steped in.  Led for the past six years by Keith Klemp, regular contributor to All About Beer Magazine, the Brew Crew, under the direction of Angela Campbell, the staff person in charge of beer recruitment, received the beer from brewers and wholesalers, sorted and stored it, then distributed it around the hall. Numbering over 30, this team keeps the booths stocked, looking good, and well served with beer, ice and water.

Funny, but the structure of the World Beer Festival revolves around moving liquid.  We bring about 55,000 gallons of liquid onto the field and spend considerable sums of time and money making sure it’s removed from the field safely. Think about that next time you’re at a beer festival. I seem to remember one entertaining scientist suggesting human beings were created by water to transport it across dry land. Well, that’s one way of looking at a beer festival, as well.

Next came the volunteers, under the stewardship of Matt Pennachi and Abul Brown. Over 300 are recruited to handle beer serving. They start showing up around 9 am and begin putting all the pieces together into a good presentation for our customers. They’re setting up booths, hanging signs, distributing tables and chairs, getting out glasses and programs.

About the same time the remainder of the All About Beer Magazine staff arrives and begins working their own areas. Editor Julie Johnson runs the educational seminars, always packed. Amy Dalton, head of sales, takes charge of the Brewers’ Hospitality booth. Managing Editor Greg Barbera, normally runs the VIP tent, but had to head out of town for the weekend. His place was taken by Mo Mercado, our newest sales team member. Circulation Guy, Patrick Morrison, takes charge of the merchandise booth, along with my daughter Anne, who has never missed a WBF. VP Steve and I rove, working where we’re needed. He ran the sign set up this year and I helped Ola with the entrance gates.

I have to admit, it’s a beautiful thing to watch; beginning with a gorgeous ball field on Wednesday morning, culminating with an extraordinary festival Saturday afternoon.  Months if not a full year had gone into getting all of the pieces in place at the right time, and protecting a venerable ballfield’s repair work, new coat of paint and new field. For hours in advance, people were lined up completely circumnavigating the block, watching the final preparations through the fences.

Getting 4,000 people through the gates can be a challenge.  We had a few curve balls this year, which we hadn’t anticipated, making the afternoon session wait longer than the evening session.  Although the walkway had been reduced to half its former width, causing quite the bottleneck, we were able to reroute guests to other gates and eventually correct the problem.

And thus it went, maybe the twentieth World Beer Festival since 1996.  Durham, Raleigh, Columbia, SC, and, soon, Richmond, VA.  A simple model designed to introduce consumers to the full breadth of beer and encourage them to go out and build the local beer community.  Looking around this town, it seems to be working.

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