Sixpoint 3 Beans Part Deux

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WFMU's Beer Hear! 3 Beans Part Deux Podcast

Last week B.R. and I did a side by side comparison of the Sixpoint 3 Beans Baltic Porter, made with Romano beans, coffee and cocao, and Montréal's Dieu Du Ciel Péché Mortel, a Coffee Imperial Stout. We found that both beers, while quite different in many ways, share a lot of characteristics.

As I continued to ponder the two beers it occurred to be that many of the characteristics that separated the them could be bridged by another DDC beer, the Aphrodisiaque, or as it's known in the U.S., the Aphrodite. As it turns out, the often irrational Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) thinks that you're so dumb that you'll think that a beer named "Aphrodisiaque" is an actual aphrodisiac (which it probably is, anyway!), so a name change was required. People in Canada are apparently much more sophisticated, and can differentiate a clever name from a literal description. But that's the subject for another post.

We invited our pal Paul from our MBAS homebrew club over to help us with an experiment to blend Péché Mortel with Aphrodite, a 6.5% Cocoa Vanilla Stout, to try to create a beverage that, as closely as possible, approximated the 3 Beans, for no good reason other than it would be fun and a good excuse to share some excellent beers.

The three of us would each try our hand at making the blend. We set out four glasses each, three for the three different beers and one for the blend -- a highball glass for the Péché, a small goblet for the Aphrodite, a wine glass for the 3 Beans and a large goblet for the blend.

Without discussing our techniques prior, we each had a different approach. I started with mixing a 50/50 blend, and found that the aroma was quite muddled, and the flavor favored the coffee bitterness of the Péché. B.R. went heavy on the Péché, while Paul went for a higher ratio of Aphrodite.

You can hear how the experiment unfolded, and how the different blends turned out in this week's podcast. In the end, though, we were left with three incredible beers and one very interesting blend -- and you can't lose with that situation!

East Coast Vs West Coast Punk Rock Brew Tour

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WFMU's Beer Hear! East Coast Vs West Coast Podcast

Three years ago, Smuttynose's NY sales rep Pat Fondiller started the East Coast Vs West Coast Brew Tour with two East Coast craft brewers and two from the West Coast. The idea was to take over the taps of a bar while a particular music genre battled over the sound system (think East Coast Hip Hop artists vs. West Coast Hip Hop artists) and the beers battled on the tap towers.

(C) Jan from Sierra Nevada, (R) B.R.

Pat said that the inspiration of the annual event was the fact that all of his music-centric pals drank terrible beer, and this was an excuse to try to get them turned on to the good stuff.

Jeff from Sixpoint, unidentified person, Pat from Smutty and Yvon from Oscar Blues.

We went to Barcade Jersey City, one stop on the 8-city stops on the tour, to talk to Pat about the history of the EC/WC Brew Tour, the schedule for this year's installment, as well as some of his ideas for future tours. One thing he told us was that, continuing with the beer/music collaborative themes, Smuttynose Director of Brewing Operations Dave Yarrington wants to brew a beer called  "B.W.A. -- Straight Out Of Hampton" once that their new facility opens in Hampton, N.H.! Suckers to tha side I know you hate my I.P.A. -- you're gunna get hops!

Barcade JC

Here are all the remaining dates left on the tour:


April 9 Bronx Alehouse -- Bronx, NY
April 10 Birdsall House -- Peekskill, NY
April 11 The Black Sheep Ale House -- Mineola, NY
April 12 Beer Authority -- NYC, NY
April 16 Julians -- Providence, RI
April 17 The Independent -- Providence, RI
April 18 Bar Matchless -- Brooklyn, NY


See ALL the dates for this year on the tour's FaceBook page.

Don't believe in Beer Santa? Now you do.

Sierra's Jan with his pal Liz of WFMU

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!

Bronx Belgian Pale Ale

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WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 3/26/2013

In between sampling Franconian gravity kegs at Jimmy's No. 43

Weissenohe Bock at Jimmy's No. 43.

and joining some street hockey pals at Cadaques tapas bar in Williamsburg,

Cadaques, with the world's smallest water glass, by request.

we dropped by Coopers for the Bronx Brewery's release party for their Bronx Belgian Pale Ale.

Bronx Belgian Pale Ale.

Our pal Sean McCain, Sales Director, was on hand, as expected, along with the brewer, Damian Brown and GM Chris Gallant. We managed to talk to Damian about this new addition to the Bronx Brewery line up, though we had to fight the din of a full bar on a Thursday night.

L-R: Sean, B.R., Damian, Bob and Chris.

Damian told us that he uses two strains of Trappist ale yeast and another Belgian ale yeast in the Bronx Belgian Pale Ale, in order to achieve a beer that's very "yeast-centric". The addition of Belgian candi sugar in the boil ups the fermentables, and helps augment the rich malt flavors created by the use of Beloeil Belgian Pilsner and Biscuit malts, as well as German Vienna malt from Weyermann. One thing that sets the beer apart from most others of this style is the apparent liberal use of spicey American Sterling hops, putting a sharp hop bitterness into the finish of this 6.7% unfiltered beauty of an ale.

Bronxizindahowwwwz!

George DePiro On Simcoe Hops

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WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 3/25/2013

In January 2013, on our way to Montreal, we stopped by Druthers in Saratoga Springs to see our old pal George DePiro, who recenty made the move from Evans Brewing/The Pump Station in Albany to his new brewpub up the river a bit. We conducted an imprompteau interview with George while sampling some of his beers. And there were plenty of amusing "asides" to the conversation about the new brewpub, including this outtake regarding Simcoe hops.

Bridge And Tunnel Brewery

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WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 3/22/2013

Rich Castagna says that his Bridge and Tunnel nano-brewery in Maspeth, Queens is the smallest functioning brewery in New York. Operating a 1.5 barrel (45 gallon) brewing system in a space that's 150 sq. ft., there's possibly a few homebrewers out there with greater capacity! Though Rich is not so interested in making quantities of beer, but rather uses his operation's limited overhead costs to allow him to brew whatever inspires him, without being held hostage by the pressures to produce and sell.

 

As the guest speaker at a Malted Barley Appreciation Society club meeting recently, he explained his start in brewing, described his brewhouse, talked about the beers he's made so far, and shared his plans for the future. Hear all about it in the podcast.

Rich and his wife Lisa. Photo: Warren Becker.

Rich sampled out growlers of his Angry Amel Dunkelweizen, which has a very funny backstory to its name, explained in the podcast, and his Hazelnut Brown Ale called Tiger Eyes.

Bridge and Tunnel Brewery has a production target of 18 sixtels a month (a sixtel is 1/6 of a barrel, or about 5 gallons), and has released some beers on cask. His beers were featured on cask at D.B.A. Brooklyn recently. Having gotten licensed to brew in September 2012, he's made a lot of headway and gotten some good press in a short time, being featured in Time Out NY and written up on the Brewyork beer blog.

Club members in the back room of Mugs. Photo: W. Becker.

The famous Bill Coleman MBAS shirt! Photo: W. Becker.

People's Brewery Of Israel

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WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 3/19/2013

Beer in the Middle East? Not too likely in the Muslim-majority nations. In fact, Brooklyn Brewery's co-founder Steve Hindy (and, no, they don't pay us to mention them in every single blogpost/podcast -- they're just the biggest, most visible brewery in New York City -- and they kick ass!) started homebrewing as a journalist stationed abroad in the alcohol-free Middle East in the 80s, so as not to be deprived of a beverage that, ironically, originated there (probably in Iraq or Iran) thousands of years earlier.

But in the alcohol-tolerant nation of Israel... cut the schmalz and mash the malts!

B.R., Ariel and Bob, at Proletariat. Thanks to Cory for turning down the punk muzak!

We met up with Ariel Druck, a brewer at The People's Brewery located in Even Yehuda, Israel, not far from Tel Aviv, while he was on an extend tour of the Northeast U.S., starting in New York for NYC Craft Beer Week. We saw him at pretty much every event and bar that we were at, so, clearly, he was well informed!

Side-note: the somewhat tongue-in-cheek socialist-themed logo and name of the brewery was inspired by the fact that the owners of the brewery spent some time on a kibbutz., not because they're Marxists. So don't go there expecting free beer, regardless of your needs and abilities.

Ariel gave us some very general background info on the craft beer scene in Israel. You can always get more from good ol' Wiki. But his basic message was that craft beer was on the rise in Israel, and his brewery is one of the scene's leaders. We first met Ariel two weeks prior to conducting the interview at Proletariat where we sampled a bit of one of his beers -- I can't recall what it was -- and it was very good. It was something along the lines of a Belgian triple or golden ale.

 

Ariel seems to be one of those fearless brewers who threw himself into the craft beer life, devoted to making interesting, flavorful and challenging creations of the zymurgistic persuasion to test himself and to delight other devotees of good beer. You can hear his take on the current Israeli craft beer scene and find out what caught his attention during his beer trip to America in this week's podcast.