Péché Mortel And 3 Beans

[link to podcast page]
WFMU's Beer Hear! Péché Mortel And 3 Beans Podcast

Not long ago we discovered the Sixpoint 3 Beans beer -- a 10% oak-aged Baltic Porter, with some very special ingredients -- on the shelves of the local shops selling good beer. We were instantly intrigued and quickly addicted to the rich maltiness, alluring coco qualities and dense full body of this big beer in a slender can -- a can not too unlike a can of premium iced coffee.

After enjoying this rich, malty treat, I got to thinking, "I've had something like this before!" I was sure that 3 Beans was echoing another obsession. But what? Then it hit me -- Péché Mortel.

I was certain that Brooklyn's magnificent 3 Beans Baltic Porter had more than a little in common with Montréal's Dieu Du Ciel Péché Mortel. It turns out that there are significant similarities and significant differences. They're close in alcohol percentage (Péché is 9.5%, 3 Beans 10%), they both use coffee (DDC uses Fair Trade beans in copious amounts making it a noticeably stimulating intoxicant, and SP uses Stumptown roasters java). One thing that sets them apart is that 3 Beans use of cacao husks, provided by Brooklyn's Mast Brothers Chocolate, in the mash to impart a dry, dark chocolate flavor and aroma. Also unique to 3 Beans: the third bean in the mix, romano beans, adds more to the fermentables and helps provide fuller body. But it would take a side-by-side tasting to properly evaluate these two coffee brews.
 
Listen to the podcast to see what we discovered about the taste similarities and differences of these two champions of darkness and malt. And, by the way, if you see either of these beers on the shelf -- buy them! Drink them! Or hold on to them. If none of the above... sell them to me!

Victory Beer Garden Open Again

It's become a much anticipated sign of summer -- the re-opening of the Victory Beer Garden in Battery Park, at the southern most part of the park, next to the Battery Gardens restaurant and beside the Coast Guard station!

This year they've done a very smart thing and created a gate into the garden from the most heavily trafficked pathway near the garden. In the past, the beer garden was quite hard to find unless you already knew that it was there. Hidden behind thick, high hedges, and with the entrance located behind the garden away from the pathways, it was no wonder that this gem of a watering hole was always so undeservingly empty.

On our Memorial Day visit, the garden was more busy than we've ever seen it. In fact, we wondered if we would find a seat, as we searched the tables for an opening, beers in hand. We spotted a large table with empty seats near a senior gentleman sitting alone in the shade of a tree by the hedges. We didn't even have to ask if the seats were free before he invited us to sit. After starting a friendly conversation, our table mate informed us that he'd just finished a walk from 110th St. down to Battery Park, walking the roughly 8 miles via Broadway -- no doubt he was thirsty!

B.R. and I both had the Summer Love ale, which was satisfying and refreshing -- malty, without being too heavy, and with plenty of hop flavor. Our new companion, who was on holiday from Australia, looked to be having a Victory Lager, which is what B.R. had next. The Lager was a bit more bitter and had a deeper amber color than the style which inspired it, the German Helles.

When asked what our Aussie friend thought of the American beers that he'd tried, he said that he'd quite liked them, finding them more flavorful than the average Oz-brew. When pressed for a favorite he mentioned Blue Moon. When he offered to get us a round, I insisted that we get him a round, he being a guest in our city. I asked what he'd like, and he allowed me to choose for him. So, considering his liking Blue Moon, I got him a Witte from Ommegang. And, as expected, he liked it very much!

I went for the Headwaters Pale Ale, which hit the spot on a very warm, muggy afternoon. Its soft, malty body -- unbothered by any aggressive, biting hop bitterness -- went down slowly and gently, like a lazy summer sunset.

And nature was gladly represented in the beer garden. A tiny orange spider, seen at the end of the superimposed arrow above, set up shop on our bikes with an impressive web, created in the short time that it took for us to enjoy our two beers! We carefully collected the spider onto a nice big leaf before riding off, sparing him a bike ride.

Also on tap at the beer garden was Hop Devil, and, as in recent years, other breweries' beers in bottles and cans, such as Sierra Nevada Stout and some Sixpoint varieties, to accompany the standard outdoor grilled fare -- hot dogs, hamburgers, and the like.

Barrier And Bluepoint At Brewer's Choice

WFMU's Beer Hear! Blue Point and Barrier podcast

The Brewer's Choice event of Craft Beer Week was a boon for Beer Hear -- with all the breweries and their brewers on hand, we could have done a year's worth of shows! One of the breweries we spoke to was BLUE POINT of Patchouge, Long Island, NY.

Steve of Blueweiser... I mean BLUE POINT!

Blue Point was founded in 1998. At the time it was the only microbrewery on Long Island. Their original 25-barrel brewhouse produced the well known Toasted Lager (their #1 seller) and Hoptical Illusion (#2 seller) with a collection of equipment bought from a variety of other breweries, including a gorgeous direct-fire brick-encased kettle.

She's a brick (brau) haus.

They've since upgraded to a modern, more efficient custom-made system, on which they brewed the beers featured at the Brewers' Choice: a Sour Cherry Imperial Stout (10%abv) and a White IPA (6%abv) made with wheat malt, considered by some to be a Wit/American IPA hybrid.


Steve, a sales manager overseeing sales in five states, said that their beer is available from Florida to New England, in Pennsylvania and, just recently, as far west as Michigan. I think that it's somewhat available "from Montauk to Manhattan" as well!

 
Another Long Island craft brewery on hand was Barrier Brewing, of Oceanside, NY. Barrier is a fairly young enterprise, having been founded in 2009. Craig said that while there are about 9 breweries on Long Island, Barrier is the only one in Nassau County. (In consideration of that, I wonder if they'll brew a Dutch beer...)

BR, Craig of Barrier, Bob, and Bob's new haircut.

Both Craig and founder Evan worked at Sixpoint Brewing before Barrier, where they gained valuable brewing knowledge and experience. Prior to that, it was homebrewing, as is so often the case with craft brewers.

One of the beers that they featured at the Brewers' Choice was a delicious German style Rauchbier/Smoke Beer (5.4%abv) that they call Frau Blücher. 65% of the malt bill for the brew is imported German Rauchmalt (from Bamberg, we presume).

What better to go with LI oysters than LI beer?

He said that the brewery currently brews 27 different beers! We'd imagine that at least one of them would go well with some L.I. oysters -- though perhaps Naked Cowboy, Peconic Bay or Tomahawk oysters, more so than Blue Points!