What's Bob Drinking Now?

Pretty Things has been a favorite brewery for a while, now. St-Botolph's Town is in regular rotation in the fridge, and Jack D'or also makes regular rounds at our table.

When we saw the latest new pretty thing in the cooler at Good Beer, LOVELY SAINT WINEFRIDE, it was a given that we'd be trying it before long.

L-St-W is billed as a "brown lager brewed using a decoction method to mark the end of winter." Good timing, then, as the temperature is to climb to near 60-degrees this week!

The beer is a very dark brown color, as viewed from a wide goblet. The color reminds me of Turkey Pond in Concord, N.H., which has a slightly iodine color just on the top, super dark brown just inches below the surface, and then quickly brown to black. St-W has a modest, tan lace along the edge of the glass.

There is an assertive, bold, long lasting and consistent mild roast aroma -- it's strong without being acrid or burnt. There seems to be some real fruitiness, but from hops and not yeast? You don't expect that from a lager, unless it's fermented a bit warmer than usual -- and as their website notes, it was fermented a bit warm, "as low as 53-degrees" which might account for the dry frutiness, á la a Steam Beer or Kölsch.

The flavor is also roasty, and extremely chewy!  It's very malty, mildy roasty and bitter. And, again, not acrid bitter, but rather hoppy bitter. Perhaps the decoction mashing added a hint of darkened caramel flavor, mixing about the hop bite.

Of course, decoction mashing means that a portion of the mash is brought to a boil and then re-added back to the main mash, in order to step up the temperature to help activate different enzymes to convert starches to various sugars.

At 7% abv, it's not quite a session beer and not quite a 10-ounce pour, but it's a richly flavored solid dark-brown beer best savored with relaxed patience and prolonged enjoyment. Let St-Winnie bless your tankard!

What's Bob Drinking Now? And B.R., Too?!

No, I don't have a shaved head.

While shopping at New Beer for some nice Thanksgiving Day beers to sip while B.R. chefs it up in the kitchen, I noticed one that I had never seen before -- Anchor Steam's Brekle's Brown.

It's described as a 6% avb all malt, single hop (Citra) brown ale. I believe that it's a limited edition release, in honor of Anchor's and San Francisco's long brewing history. Well, long for North America, at least. Apparently in 1871 brewmaster Gottlieb Brekle was the first brewer of what would later become Anchor.

Anyway, I figured that it might make a pre-Thanksgiving Day drink! (We saved the Abbot 12 and the St. Botolph's Town that I picked up for the actual holiday!)

It's an ear ring.

There's a rich roasty brown maltiness throughout, but without any acrid bitterness. You can pick up a slight tang amid a touch of malt sweetness. There's ample hop bitterness, too, particularly evident in the finish, which also leaves you with a little lingering malt reminder in the aftertaste.


If it were lower in alcohol, it would make for a really nice session brown. But who's gunna complain about that -- you just drink more slowly!

Pretty Things In Brooklyn

WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 7/26/2011

On July 21, 2011 Dann, Martha and Jim of PRETTY THINGS were at BARCADE in Williamsburg to showcase six of their lovely beers. They told us about what it's like to be a brewing company without a brewery, and talked about the "brewing philosophy" of Pretty Things.

Martha, Dann and Sophie at the bar.

The latest PT beer on tap was AMERICAN DARLING (7%abv), a "summer lager" which is made with 100% Weyermann malt from Bamberg, Hallertau-region hops, and three yeast strains, and is lagered for 7 weeks. It was a fresh, clean, malty lager with significant hop bitterness. It definitely had a special something setting it apart from a typical pilsner beer. I'm guessing that the yeasts used contributed a LOT to its uniqueness.

Always an impressive list at Barcade.

We also tried the JACK D'OR saison style beer, which was quite refreshing on what was a blisteringly hot day. It had some assertive hop character and bitterness as well as spiciness, especially when compared side-by-side to the soft and malty FIELD MOUSE'S FAREWELL, which uses Strisselspalt hops from Alsace and Bramling Cross hops from England. (If I ever get pet mice, I'm naming them Strisselspalt and Bramling.)

The American Darling and Baby Tree.

The BABY TREE "quadruple" was also on tap. Made with 40lbs of dried California plums added to the boil, it's a 9%abv dark belgian ale, with delicious candy sugar/brown sugar/toasted caramel flavors -- not too sweet, but sweet enough to mask the high octane nature of this very-glad-it's-served-in-a-10-ounce-glass beer.


They also featured the ST-BOTOLPHS TOWN, which we featured in an earlier post.

Sophie passes on a 9% ale...

...but she won't turn down a 7% lager!

It's not always easy to find many PT's beers on tap in NYC, but you can search for them at BEER MENUS. Also, they'll be at the Cooperstown, NY fest, BELGIUM COMES TO COOPERSTOWN on July 30-31, 2011 and at the STAG'S HEAD in Manhattan on July 27.

Pretty Things St-Botolph's Town

Jimmy's No. 43 is only 2 blocks from home, so, there's rarely a good excuse to not go there. But when our pal Jim of PRETTY THINGS has a beer featured, AND there are oysters on offer -- we're there!

The ST-BOTOLPH'S TOWN "rustic dark ale" was pouring from the tap and it was good. The beer has a nice mild chocolate flavor mixed with a mild dried dark fruit flavor, a little bitterness and a deep dark cola-brown color. It's a full bodied beer, smooth, mellow and offering a gentle sweet finish and aftertaste.

The brewery's website has this to say about it: "This Yorkshire-inspired beer is a big malty brown ale fermented in open squares with Yorkshire malts and eclectic yeast strains. This is another of our year-round offerings."

Did We mention that it was oyster night at Jimmy's No. 43

By "eclectic" I think that they might mean "Belgian" because there are plenty of Belgian esters and yeast flavors mixing about in this ale.  It clocks in at under 6%, but given the distinct alcohol note as it warms, I'd have guessed higher. Then again, the smoothness of the beer angles more towards a direction under 7%.

B.R., Jimmy, Bob and Jim of Pretty Things

I love what their website has to say about the beer and the brewery's philosophy: "... we don't do beer 'styles' straight up, as it doesn't leave any room for  creativity. Instead we take our inspiration from great beers as a starting point."

Also available that evening was a BELGIAN PALE ALE from BARRIER called BELGIAN 1.

It had a nice gold color, light lacy head, and was extremely easy to drink. I seemed like a "small" triple, that made up for it's size with a kick of hops. Though 7.5% isn't what I'd call a small beer of any style. This seemed like one of those style-defying beers, for which the only things that count are, is it good, and would you have another. This one passes, easily.