5/20: Big Changes Around the Corner

We've had some new things creeping into the store the last few weeks on both the wine and the beer side. La Linda Rose has been the biggest hit among wine drinkers. It sells nearly as well as some of our best-selling reds, including Coto and Alandra! Southern Tier has, on the beer side, become an Arlington favorite. The single bottles like Uber-Sun, Iniquity, and Unearthly have sold very quickly, some of them coming into and leaving the store in just a matter of days. Their six-packs have also proven popular along with our line of Tröegs products. We should have something new in from both breweries over the course of the next month, including a special case or two from Southern Tier. But, the weather is slowly heating up and we live by the proverb "variety is the spice of life," so we're bringing back some old favorites and introducing some new things this summer at Menotomy. Over the next week we'll have Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy return the store in addition to the St. Bernardus Abt 12. We'll also be receiving the Rochefort 8, arguably one of the finest trappist ales around. We would've loved to have the 6 and the 10, but both are on short order here in Massachusetts.

The big news for west coast beer lovers is that Sierra Nevada has two new year-round beers. The first one we've had before. The Torpedo should be available in the store once again sometime next month. The other, called the Kellerweis Hefeweizen might take a little longer to get here, but you can bet we'll have it in the store as soon as is possible. Utilizing a special strain of yeast right from Bavaria and an unusual fermentation technique, Sierra Nevada has crafted its very own take on this universally loved style of German beer. Chances are that one will end up on a tasting, so keep your eye on the email.

A few new ciders may hit our shelves soon, too. Neil has both our reps and myself working nonstop to find new and unique things. We're considering placing special 6-packs in our fridge at some point in the future. Instead of making your own six-pack, we'd have pre-made varieties waiting for you. Due to space constraints, this is the best compromise we can come up with between not having mix packs and letting customers make their own. Let us know what kind of mix packs you'd like to see and we'll do our best to make it happen.

Hope to see you all at the next tasting!

Spring time = New Beers + Stone works with CBC

Greetings! Spring has finally arrived. Though we've been settling for rainy weather the last couple of days, there's a tangible warmth in the air and it feels like spring. All kinds of new beer has been showing up at our store in the last couple of weeks, many of them arriving just for the season. New beers from Tröegs, Brooklyn Brewery, Southern Tier, Otter Creek, Smuttynose, and Victory will be hitting our shelves in the coming days, and our tasting this week focuses on the new brews from Brooklyn and Smuttynose. Belgian or Belgian-style dubbels are perfect for this time of year, but we have plenty of new product coming in that will satisfy those of you looking for something a bit lighter or more familiar. Sadly, some things are leaving the store for now, too. Sierra Nevada's excellent and popular Torpedo Extra IPA was a limited-time-only beer and probably won't be back until much later in the year or next year sometime. If anything changes in the Sierra Nevada world, you'll be able to read about it, here.

Some interesting things are happening in the world of brewing and we're trying to keep up with it all. Most notably, Stone Brewing (San Diego, CA) is teaming up with Scotland based BrewDog AND the Cambridge Brewing Company to craft a very special black pilsner. It's the first time Stone's ever brewed a lager-based beer and it's the first time I've heard of three breweries coming together to lend their talents to the crafting of a brew. You can read a lot more about this over at Stone's blog; that link includes video from the guys responsible for it. It's going to be called Juxtaposition and if I have anything to say about it (and I do), it'll be here in the store once it's made available. All the news I've read says it'll be on the market by summer.

In other local beer news, Harpoon's next Leviathan concoction is going to be a monster pilsner. The Leviathan series has been incredibly successful for Harpoon, earning them high rankings from websites and critics typically down on the brewery's style. The double IPA we had of theirs is definitely my favorite Harpoon product. We're looking forward to having it in the store.

As always, the beer rotation is in a constant state of flux! If there's anything missing from our shelves that you'd like to see, be sure to tell us. We'll do our best to get it on the shelves.

Thanks for stopping by!

Talk to you all of you on Friday!

3/11: Spring Rolls In

And with the coming spring comes St. Patrick's Day! We have brought some new beers into the store this month to coincide with the celebrations, but red ales and dark lagers are not the only new items we have to offer. Neil and I have been hard at work with distributors and we are slowly being rewarded with new and rare Belgian ales, Southern Tier specialties, and a long list of new beers from microbreweries from every corner of New England.

Wheat beers, Kölsch, sweet lagers, bocks, and other exotic brews will be hitting our shelves over the next several months and we hope to continue a fun rotation throughout the summer. Among the concoctions we hope to add are beers from De Struise and Mikkeller. They are two independent and highly regarded breweries that craft some of the most exotic and delicious beer on the market. Mikkeller is a particularly interesting brewery, technically existing as a "gypsy" business, which rents facilities in order to make speciality beers all over the world. They're based in Denmark, but over the last several years they have brewed in Germany, Belgium, and various parts of the U.S.A., including Maine. Want proof that this brewery is truly unique? Check out this video, which features a Mikkeller dark ale consumed as a shot mixed with sea urchin.

Of course, we'd love to hear from you. Tell us what you'd like to see in our store; if it's available, Neil and I will find it. Unfortunately, every region of the U.S. has some beers completely unique to it, so we can't get everything... but we can try.

Hope to see you in the store, soon! Enjoy your St. Patrick's Day celebrations and be safe.

Luke

Valentine's Day Pairings: Chocolate and Wine... or Beer!

Hello!

What follows is a special list of wines and beers that pair well with chocolates. We made it for you especially for Valentines Day! Do you like us? Will you go out with us? Please circle Y/N.

Thanks for coming by and we'll see you this Friday and Saturday!


Venta Mazzaron '05 Tempranillo
With coffee and chocolate notes this earthy 100% Spanish Tempranillo is the perfect choice to pair with dark chocolates. It offers a deep ruby/purple color as well as a sweet perfume of blackberries, cherries, smoke, licorice, and earth. Medium-bodied and elegant, with wonderful sweetness, plush tannin, and a long, pure finish.


Catena Alta Malbec
"Very concentrated, with dark fig and currant paste notes, but it's also pure and driven, with intense mocha, bittersweet cocoa and melted licorice notes that stretch out the long, polished finish. Really gorgeous for its density and mouthfeel. Drink now through 2013." 93 Points,Wine Spectator



Chatom Syrah
A full bodied Syrah has an introduction of intense black fruit, vanilla and a hint of oak. Flavors of baker's chocolate, deep black currants and sweet basil all lead to a wonderful lingering fruit finish.


Josh Cabernet Sauvignon
This complex, Bordeaux-style blend, bursts with ripe fruit flavors. Black currant, spicy bramble berry fruit, with a hint of cocoa and smoke are the back drop of soft, approachable tannins.







Montaribaldi Barbaresco '05
The 2005 Barbaresco Palazzina is very expansive in its expression of ripe raspberry and black cherry fruit, with hallmark violet and truffle characteristics as well. The volume and depth of the flavors, given an additional appeal by the impressive tannins.





Bitch (A little joke!)
The back label says "bitch" 77 times, followed by "some more". It is left up to you to decide what that means, because the sentiment would be appropriate for many contemporary situations. Whatever inspired it, thank goodness it arrived, because it is better than a box of chocolates.



And there are some good beers out there for chocolate lovers, but we'll just mention a few:

Berkshire's Coffeehouse Porter
Founder's Breakfast Stout
Atwater's Vanilla Java Porter
Peak Organic Espresso Ale
Otter Creek's Winter Raspberry Brown Ale

We also sell Perlino Chocolates and Truffles! Handmade by Jean Keller of Arlington, MA.

Hope this helps!!

What Are The Greatest Beers Ever? Interesting stuff from Beer Advocate

Ladies and gentlemen, the people have spoken. Every year Beer Advocate publishes a "Best Of" issue based on statistics taken from their website. Essentially, the people rate beer, the ratings are calculated in one massive math crunch, and the top beers, breweries, and pubs in the world are declared. You can check the entire list out here: http://www.stonebrew.com/news/081211/

Just two years ago the Honey Porter from Sam Adams was only available in certain mixed 12-packs. It was selected as a fan favorite and enjoyed a good deal of popularity among even the most difficult to please beer snobs. Alas, in order to enjoy it you had to either hit up a pub that carried this beer (on tap if you were lucky) or buy a 12-pack that may or may not have featured other beers you wanted to drink. Well, the six-pack of this beer is now more widely available thanks to the fact that plenty of people complained about its non-availability. While the Cream Ale, Dark Wheat, Stout, and the infamous Utopias are considered among Sam's best beers, this beauty of a porter deserves some special attention. The brewery claims it is an English style porter, but this is a sweet-tooth's dream and has "American brew" written all over it. Lots of our customers enjoy the taste of Berkshire's Drayman Porter, but I really think Sam's product is the superior one. The touch of hops in the Honey Porter adds an extra and important dimension to the beer.

Three Philosophers is finally back in our store, but it may not stay here very long. The price on this 4-pack has sky-rocketed and neither Neil nor I are happy about it. While this is as close to a Belgian Quad as any American brewer has ever been, the price jump is quite a shock. It's as expensive as Duvel , but unless we see this one flying out the door like Duvel does, you might not see it again. If you've never had it before, make sure to stop by on Friday and give this a shot. If you're familiar with the beer, come by anyways and tell us what you think of it. We love having your feedback about our beers and plenty of you have asked for this one to return. Do you think it's worth the price?

Hope to see you all soon and thanks for stopping by!

Updates, Bourbon Ale, Tastings, and Melting Ice

The picture you see here was taken in Versoix Switzerland back in 2005. For those annoyed by the ice in and around Boston, just think of what life would be like if you had to deal with that. Perhaps such considerations are cold comfort, but I do have something likely to warm you right up: the Berkshire Brewing Company has finally decided to release its Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout to the general public. About a year ago, I was lucky enough to sample this miraculous ale with a few customers who happened to be around when Berkshire delivered it as a Christmas present to the store. It was early in the beer tasting event and only a couple of us were around, but we were all impressed. Finally, over a year later, Berkshire has made good on its promise to make it more widely available. To my understanding, the Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout will be available for only two months or until it sells out; I think it's likely that this beer will disappear in just a couple of weeks. In any case, this beer is exactly what it claims to be: made like a Russian Imperial Stout full of coffee, dark fruit, and chocolate flavors, the beer is then aged for eight months on oak bourbon barrels. The combination of savory flavors with the rich, warm taste of bourbon is nearly perfect. The back of the bottle has a message for Berkshire customers:

To our very special, valued customers. we at Berkshire Brewing Company would like to thank you for thirteen wonderful years of craft brewing. Because of you we have reached a milestone: America's number one micro brewery (15,000 barrels). "It's all about the beer and beer is nothing without people."

This bottle is an expression of our thanks! Imperial Stout aged eight months in oak bourbon barrels. This milestone would not have been possible without you. Thank you for your support. Things are looking up!

-Chris, Gary, and the Berkshire Brew Crew

There you have it! The Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout is the 3rd beer we've carried that features oak aging on bourbon barrels. The others have become instant best sellers and we suspect the same will happen to Berkshire's formula, only this one won't be available after too long.

Our tastings over the last couple of weeks have been enormously popular, with the 23rd's tasting being the largest and most successful, yet! Thank you for coming in and saying hello; we love our beer and we love good company. If you haven't been around lately, IPAs have been the name of the game and not because we desperately wish it were summer already (though that is true to some degree). But, if India Pale Ales don't suit you, we also have Smuttynose's Gravitation, which was very popular. Crafted in the style of a Belgian Quadruple (thing a Belgian Dubble or Tripel, only darker, more complex, and with loads more alcohol), the Gravitation doesn't exactly taste like your typical Belgian. It lacks that dreaded "bannana" taste and favors richer malts and darker, sweeter flavors.

In other news, I have some Peroni glasses sitting around the store thanks to one of our distribution representatives. If you come into the store and buy a six pack of Peroni or any other lager/pilsner in the store, we'll give you a glass for free. Different glasses really can enhance the flavors of different beers and this is especially true with pilsners. We only have a few available, though. No guarantees, though - when we get glasses in the store, we give them away for free, so they tend to disappear quickly.

Thanks for coming by!

See you at the store,
Luke

Some History and Something About Dark Ales

This time of year is the best time of year for beer. Though some may bemoan the end of hefeweizen and IPA season, plenty of beer drinkers (including myself) are always anxious for cold weather and dark, rich ales, porters, stouts, and so on. Winter may not be here, yet, but the temperature outside demanded that we begin brining in our winter selections. As the Oktoberfest beers and pumpkin ales begin to disappear, richer, bigger, altogether more complex brews will begin to show themselves on our shelves. The Spaten Optimator has already proven to be a very popular six-pack this year. Compared to last season's Optimator, this one is outstanding; our customers seem to think so, too. We've already gone through two big orders of this very popular and well-known beer. If you're unfamiliar with it, make sure to give it a shot. Fans of sweet, malty beers will appreciate Optimator for its heavy caramel flavor, thick body, and sweet chocolate notes. Plenty of drinkers complain about big stouts being just too much, probably because a good stout comes with a good bit of bitterness. The Optimator dopplebock cuts that right out and aims straight for those who like their beer just a bit less aggressive.

Beer historians and lovers of general trivia and interesting stuff might be interested in an article I found about fulacht fiadh. Often referred to as "burnt mounds," these archaeological sites, found primarily in Northern Ireland, have been the subject of a good deal of debate for the last 50 or so years. Originally thought to function as communal cooking sites, studies have proposed that these strange, horseshoe shaped mounds could've functioned as communal baths or as textile production sites. New research, which you can read about right here, suggests that these mounds were used to produce a kind of hop-less ale. The most amazing part of this story is that these mounds date back to the bronze age (around 1500 B.C.E.). While research suggests that the production of alcoholic beverages is a celebrated event going back to 9000 B.C.E. (no, that's not a typo), the history of ale production in Europe and the surrounding areas is not exceedingly well known. Here's an excerpt from that article:

Recent chemical analyses of residues in pottery jars from the Neolithic village of Jiahu in Northern China by Patrick McGovern revealed that a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey and fruit was being produced as early as 9,000 years ago. Evidence for the production of beer in the Middle East has long been known - Calcium Oxalate, the principal component of an insoluble deposit known as beerstone was found on the inner surfaces of fermentation vessels at Godin Tepe (late fourth Millennium BC) in the Zagros Mountains in modern day Iran. A stamp seal from Tepe Gawra, a site near Mosul, Iraq dated to 4000 BC, shows two figures drinking beer using traditional straws and container. At Hierakonpolis near Luxor, Jeremy Geller interpreted a site known as HK24A (3100-2890 BC), as a brewery. The world’s earliest written recipe, a Sumerian cuneiform tablet dating to 1800 BC, describes the brewing of beer. The tablet, the Hymn to Ninkasi, known as ‘the Lady of the inebriating fruit’, describes preparing the beer mash in a pit in the ground using ‘sweet aromatics and honey’.

The evidence from Northern Europe is less clear. Large-scale grain processing in the Neolithic in Britain is hinted at by thousands of charred cereal grains found at Balbridie in Scotland, sherds of Grimston-Lyles pottery from pits at Machrie Moor, Arran, were found to contain cereal pollens - interpreted as the remains of a mead-type drink. Based on the high-status drinking vessels characteristic of the Beaker culture it has been suggested that these people traded in some sort of alcoholic beverage. At Ashgrove, in Scotland, archaeologists found evidence of a mixed meadowsweet/lime, a possible mead drink. Compelling evidence for alcohol consumption in early Scotland comes from Perthshire, where Gordon Barclay discovered a ‘black greasy material’ in a food vessel. This residue was radiocarbon dated to 1540 BC and pollen analysis indicated that it represented a cereal-based meadowsweet-flavoured drink. Bohncke, who carried out the palaeobotanical analysis, noted that the high proportion of cereal pollen grains suggested an ale - ‘it is distinctly possible therefore that the North Mains food vessel contained a fermented drink’.

Anyone interested in learning about how beer is made should give the article a look. It's full of good information and might help everyone get a better idea of how beer is brewed (and how easy it is to brew beer yourself).

Hope to see you all on Friday. Plenty of new beer has hit our shelves in the last couple of weeks and our line of Brooklyn beers is back on the shelf (including their Brown Ale, which rivals Smuttynose's Old Brown Dog as one of the best browns ales I know).

Talk to you all soon,
Luke