Mikkeller At The Gutter

WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 9/7/2011

The GUTTER, on the border of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, is a bowling alley. No -- it's a craft BEER BAR! Bowling Alley! Beer bar! Bowling! Beer! OK Jack -- it's both.

Beer. Cheers.

The Gutter could be considered a relative of BARCADE of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and their first ever beer event featured Danish brewing rockstar Mikkel of MIKKELLER BREWING.

We've never seen the Gutter so jam packed on a Thursday night. On tap: Beer Geek Breakfast, Drink'in the Sun and American Dream, as well as large bottles of Mikkeller Black Hole (coffee imperial stout aged in Cognac barrels) and Mikkeller Black Hole (aged in Tequila barrels), Mikkeller Black (17.5% imperial stout), and Mikkeller Draft Bear imperial pilsner. INsane. Just insane.

One of these people has jetlag... any guess which one?

Mikkel seemed a bit jet lagged and visibly fatigued from jumping in both feet first into a three-day visit to the USA to conduct some business, have some fun, and brew a batch of beer in Vermont at HILL FARMSTEAD BREWERY. Seriously? In three days?!? Great Dane, indeed.

And what do you think Mikkel sampled while rolling some strikes and spares? Hill Farmstead 
Simcoe, HF Double Galaxy, Green Flash West Coast IPA, and Cigar City Marshal Zhukov

Despite the fatigue of the breakneck speed of his trip, he was a generous, entertaining and informational interview subject, willing to share some great insight into a Danish gypsy brewery. To entice you to check it out, here are a few nuggets from the interview.

Beer Geek Breakfast and Drink'in the Sun - the sun and the dark side of the moon.

Mikkel: "In 1998 we had nine breweries in Denmark, and five years later we had 110."

Mikkel: "The Mikkeller brand is brewed in four different countries right now."

BH: "Do you think you'd ever want to have your own [physical] brewery?"

Mikkel: "No. Hell no... Never."

BH: "Why?"

Mikkel: "[because as a gypsy brewer] I don't have to do all the boring stuff...."

What's on tap at the bowling alley?

Mikkel: "Last year I think we released 76 new beers." [ !!! ]

Mikkel: "If I could, I would brew every beer once, and then do a new one."

Bob: "Am I famous in Denmark?"

Mikkel: "You're very famous, actually!"

Everyone: [incredulous laughter]

Mikkel: "I probably knew you many years before you knew me!"

[you think this is joke, but... well, more clues in the podcast.]

BH: "You actually have a twin brother who is also a brewer?" [with his own brewing company.]

Mikkel: "Yep. An identical twin brother."

Mikkel: "My recipes are mostly done in the shower, in the morning." [beer geek breakfast?]

Paul, beer bar baron, and Mikkel, bachelor brewer.

BH: "List your favorite three Mikkeller beers."

Mikkel: "We have one on tonight, the Drink'in The Sun. This year it's 2.4%. We make it less alcohol each year. I like it because it has a lot of flavor, but you can drink it like it's water."

BH: "How many breweries do you think you've brewed at in your career so far?"

Mikkel: "About 20."

[The man has brewed beer in 20 different breweries around the globe!!!]

BH: "Do you have a fantasy brew situation? Someplace where you'd love to brew that is unlikely, or a type of beer that you'd love to brew that wouldn't be easy to do?

Milkkel: [he does -- check the BONUS podcast to find out what it is!]

Thanks to Mikkel and to the Gutter for a wonderful experience!

Though Mikkel doesn't follow hockey, he knows who LARS ELLER is!!!

Sour Beers At Jimmy's No. 43

WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 8/18/2011

Every Tuesday at about 7:30pm JIMMY'S NO. 43 hosts a beer tasting with a different theme or angle each week. It's only $10 and usually includes roughly 5 to 7 different beers. The tastings are organized and lead by Mike of UNION BEER, a local distributor of craft beer.

This past Tuesday, the theme was SOUR BEERS. While B.R. was busy judging a homebrew contest at the Heartland Brewery, I dropped by to find some regular non-beer-industry folks to talk to and see what they thought of sour beer.

Now, in general "sour" is not how beer is supposed to taste, and when most beers become sour, it's considered one of the worst possible flaws. It typically means that the beer has been contaminated by bacteria. But there are a handful of styles that, in fact, are supposed to be sour, and they achieve sourness by intentionally allowing certain bacteria strains to interact with the beer.

The beers featured were:

Jolly Pumpkin Weizen Bam (on draft)

The Bruery Saison De Lente

Orval

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza

Cantillon Pure Kriek

 Instead of talking to some expert about the beers, we thought that it would be cool to talk to some non-industry, non-beer judge people. One such person whom I had arranged in advance to talk to was WFMU's Liz Berg. Unfortunately, the the event sold out before Liz arrived, so she didn't make it in. But I recognized two people at the tasting from the street hockey league that B.R. and I play in -- Mike and Heather. So, after a little persuading, they became our guests!

 They were great to talk to, because they definitely were outside of the local inner beer scene, BUT they were not total novices when it came to craft brew. They're just getting started in homebrewing, they hit the occasional craft beer event here and there, and, most importantly, they love trying new and different styles of beer.

Our conversation about the sour beers that we sampled is part two of this week's two-part podcast. Part one, and interview with Kelly of Heartland and Kelso, is HERE.