Rogue Distillery and Public House

Oregon is a brewing wonderland, and Portland may well be at the heart of it all. The city, called Beervana by brew-loving visitors, is home to a number of high-profile breweries. The brewery that put the Beaver State on the map, though, is Rogue. The Newport brewer has a brew pub in Portland, and it is a great spot to sample the off-the-radar offerings that fit the slogan, "Dedicated to the rogue in each of us."

Sure, you can get Rogue ales in almost a reputable liquor store in any state in America. However, there are plenty of barrel-aged and otherwise unavailable brews at the Public House that make it worth seeking out. Rogue was one of the United States' first breweries to make spirits, which can also be sampled here.

The food, for the most part, was run-of-the-mill brew pub fare. Dishes had a nice focus on Pacific Northwest ingredients. An apt description would be forgettable pub grub. 

But why go for the food? Delicious food can be found all over Portland. Go here for the brews.

Four sample size brews cost $6.50. It is a good way to sample the catalog. Interesting choices on my visit included the marionberry braggot, six different pale ales (Juniper pale, 200 Meter IPA, XSIPA, and the cask aged Imperial IPA being most interesting), cask aged Imperial stout and Beard Beer, a wild ale. 

Designated drivers and the little ones in the back seat can enjoy Rogue root beer and sodas, which come in flavors like cucumber citrus.

Wolf's Ridge Brewing

Wolf's Ridge Brewing is one of many brew pubs to open up in Columbus over the last year. Guided by Chef Seth Lassak, the operation is on the radar of most if not all the foodies in central Ohio.

The restaurant offers a printed vegetarian menu upon request. It indicates gluten-free options with an asterisk.

There are meatless salads, appetizers, soups and entrees. The kitchen's course is determined by seasonal ingredients, meaning specials and some items change regularly.

The kitchen makes haute cuisine that pairs well with the house brews. The staff handles dietary restrictions well, although the menu overall seemed to lack multiple options for vegan diners.

The kale salad is a perfect synergy of ingredients playing off each other in a delightful harmony. The dressing and goat cheese have acidity, the fruit and candied pine nuts have a great sweetness and the kale gives the dish an understated bitterness. Flavors can be combined by the diner to highlight a variety of characteristics from each individual ingredient.

The selections on the cheese plate came from different classes of cheese. The fruit, house made crackers and bread accompany the cheeses.

The saffron risotto was creamy, piled high with assorted mushrooms, candied red onions and smoked paprika oil. Its appearance was surpassed only by the layered, unctuous taste.

The brewery produces a number of beers in a variety of styles from the traditional (pale ales and cream ales) to a few less common options like Zane's Trace, a roggenbier (German-style rye ale) named after a famed frontier road that ran through central and southern Ohio. The sampler is a great way to try six different brews. Cocktails look delicious, but might be tough to justify ordering since the beer is so good.

Yazoo Brewing Company

Yazoo Brewing Company brews Nashville's most well known beers. I first heard of their smoked imperial stout Yazoo Sue as an ingredient in Jeni's Yazoo Sue with rosemary bar nuts ice cream. Tours of the brewery on Saturdays include liberal samples from their brewing lineup. 

 Located in The Gulch, the Yazoo taproom is adjacent to the brewing facilities. The most common draft around Nashville seems to be Dos Perros, a Mexican style altbier. It has a clean flavor and pronounced European hops that come off like Dos Equis' designer cousin.

 Yazoo makes a pale ale, and they also produce a brew called Hop Project that showcases different varietal and regional hop types. The tour offered a single farm wild hop brew that had interesting wax and pine notes that emerged from the toasty malt base. 

The Gerst is an amber session brew named after an old German restaurant. It is bright and drinks easy. The kitschy logo evokes America's early German brewing heritage.

The hefeweizen is much in the classic style. It emphasizes bright citrus notes that cry out for warm weather.

Yazoo Sue cannot be purchased on site because of Tennessee's curious alcohol laws. It can be bought at stores that sell high gravity beer.

Broad Ripple Brewpub

The Broad Ripple Brewpub is located in Indianapolis' artsy Broad Ripple neighborhood. In addition to brew pub-original beers crafted by Yorkshire transplant John Hill, Broad Ripple Brewpub has a variety of vegetarian and vegan dining options.

On the way to Chicago, I ate in Indianapolis a couple of times. The Broad Ripple neighborhood was instantly attractive to me. It is most comparable to Columbus' Short North and Clintonville. Like these two neighborhoods, Broad Ripple is very vegetarian friendly. The artistic bent of the Short North is seen in Broad Ripple's galleries, upscale retailers and craft shops. Its design is similar to Clintonville, a city neighborhood with a vaguely suburban feel.

Broad Ripple Brewpub fits right into its neighborhood. The dining rooms are wood-accented with dark lighting. There is a large patio in front of the restaurant.

The menu at BRB is heavily adorned with V's, which denote vegetarian dining options. Orders can be prepared vegan upon request.

There is a pub grub penchant from a kitchen that has a heavily British flair. The menu offers sandwiches, pizzas and deep fried everything.

The fried veggie basket is a collection of potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets and carrots. While the veggies are flavorful, the batter is fried to a dark color that masks the identity of the vegetables until their identity is revealed by biting them. The ranch dip gives the beets a bright, fresh taste.

The onion and potato pasty is a flaky delight. A cheese sauce is incorporated with sauteed onions and soft potato cubes. It was served with a side of steamed veggies and circle cut roasted potatoes.

The mushroom veggie burger was soft and loaded with 'shroom flavor. It is served with a choice of side dishes. Interestingly, this is one of two veggie burgers on the menu.

Seasonal desserts included popsicles in flavors like mixed fruit, ginger and black cherry. Specials at the Broad Ripple Brewpub that change regularly.

Barley's Smokehouse

For years, I have avoided Barley's Smokehouse, instead frequenting the Brewing Company location based upon the scenario created in my head in which a barbecue joint would be biased against vegetarians. In certain instances, though, it's safest to expect the unexpected (or at least expect that my prejudiced decision making would again be proven flawed).

Barley's flagship operation in the Short North has always been successful because the menu features comfort food classics accompanied by craft brews with a ton of character. The Smokehouse keeps the same formula, but offers more pit-cooked carnivore fare. Despite the ribs and brisket focus, Barley's Smokehouse does have a vegetarian burger, a veggie wrap, a quesadilla and a couple of side dishes including French fries and onion straws for vegetarian diners.

The veggie burger at both Barley's locations is excellent. It's a house-made black bean, mushroom, and rice patty with a smoky, savory character that lingers. The patty crumbles easily, and it's somewhat delicate structure is the biggest fault in an otherwise excellent veggie burger. Toppings include cheddar, pepper jack and blue cheeses, and mushrooms.

The side of pickles is very good. Two big, crispy pickle chips come with the sandwiches. The fries are bland and somewhat one-dimensional.

The mixed veggie quesadilla is also nice. Grilled zucchini, squash, peppers and onions are stuffed into a flour tortilla and served with a mild salsa and sour cream. The portion is large enough to make the dish a virtual entree even though it is billed as an appetizer.

The Smokehouse restaurant has a sports bar setup. When combined with the brewed brewpub offerings, it's an accommodating spot for meatless diners.

Barley's Smokehouse

Great Lakes Brewing Company

I can't believe that I have been writing about restaurants for about three years on this blog, and during this stretch, I've managed to avoid writing about one of my absolute favorite lakeside attractions: The Great Lakes Brew Pub. Luckily, I can draw on a wealth of back experience to craft a nuanced piece in which I explain the little details that make Great Lakes one of the Buckeye state's, if not the nation's finest brewing operations.

In many instances, brew pubs are an apparition or an illusion. Something that appears to be an on-site operation is actually nothing more than a contract brewing ruse. Lesser outfits than Great Lakes show off shimmering brew kettles that sparkle because they harbor a darker secret: they've never actually been used.

Great Lakes takes this problematic issue and blows it to pieces. The brew pub is located adjacent to the actual brewery, and patrons can follow the pipes overhead that carry the beer directly from the brewery to the brew pub into the frosty glassware on the table. There are few illusions at play in the Great Lakes Brewing Company.

What they deliver at Great Lakes is real beer with a real flavor. Cleveland is a city with a long brewing history, and Great Lakes and its staff have been a part of that history for some time. Brothers Patrick and Daniel Conway established Great Lakes in Cleveland in 1988, and they put Cleveland Master Brewer Thaine Johnson at the helm to create beer in the European tradition with just a hint of Cleveland's rock n' roll roots.

Although Johnson has moved on to the great fermentation tank in the sky, the brewery continues to feature some of the finest brews in the nation, many crafted with Johnson's careful guidance. And there is nothing that pairs better with one of the finest beers in the U.S.A. than the brew pub fare of Great Lakes.

There are not a many vegetarian choices on Great Lakes' menu. However, in my experience, there is always a vegan burger, a pasta dish and a couple of appetizers on each menu for those who believe that meat is not a component of the food pyramid. Some of the vegetarian appetizers include the Brewer's Pretzels with Liptauer cheese dip, the artichoke crock, the sweet potato fries, and a number of salads,

The mushroom bruschetta was made with spent brewer's barley bread topped with garlic butter, Killbuck valley mushrooms, roasted red peppers and melted mozzarella. Although the dish was flavorful, the large slices of bread made the dish somewhat difficult to eat. If the slices of bread were cut in half, the whole process would have been far less messy.

My main entree was a vegetable alfredo pasta. The alfredo sauce was actually made with a splash of Dortmunder Gold beer, a mild white cheese and cream. The vegetables were zucchini, carrots and chives. The dish actually occupies some sort of middle ground between macaroni and cheese and Pasta Primavera.

Of course, the food at Great Lakes is like a great opening act. It's an added bonus, but you're at the concert to see the headliner. In this case, the headliner is beer.

Great Lakes has beers that are offered all year long, and others that are seasonally available. The regular brews are available throughout the region. However, the most interesting brews are always the seasonal offerings.

The one seasonal that is currently available in bottles is the Grassroots Ale, a saison brewed in the Belgian tradition as a summer brew for farm workers. It showcases the herbal elements that compose the refreshing, high-alcohol brew. Grassroots used to be called the Hale Ale. It is the only seasonal selection currently available at retail, unlike the other seasonals that can only be purchased at the brew pub.

The Lake Erie Monster looks like it may no longer be on tap since I tasted it, which is too bad, because that is an absolute pleasure to behold. The extreme hop presence of the beer makes itself known in the aroma, and even more so on the palate with its 92 i.b.u.s. However, the beautiful richness of the malt offsets the orgasmic bitterness of the beer.

Since the brew also possesses 9% alcohol by volume, it is served in a smaller Belgian-style tulip glass, making it a delight to savor slowly. I originally tasted this in a bottle years ago, but as of now, there is no plan to bottle the Lake Erie Monster again, so mark your calendar for next year if you want to taste the next batch.

The York Street Bitter is also an excellent example of brewing style. The ESB is a classic British-style golden bitter ale. The alcohol and hop content of York Street ESB is lower than any of the Great Lakes Pale Ales. However, the less is more approach has created a beer with a beautifully refined sense of elegance that is sometimes lacking in American ales.

The final seasonal I sampled was the Bailout Brew. This offering was made in the style of a Maibock, a blonde German-style lager typically consumed at spring festivals in the Fatherland. A grassy hops character peaks out between a bread and citrus aroma in the Bailout Brew. The 7.5% alcohol content is sneaky, because the beer has a weight like a lower alcohol brew and seems like it would be an easy quaff.

If tasting the beer from the source isn't a fun enough proposition, Great Lakes has other bells and whistles to keep your rapt attention. There are brewery tours on Friday and Saturdays. It's a fun way to spend about an hour, and you can see the guts of the Great Lakes operation. The attraction of free beer is tough to pass up, too.

Another form of entertainment with the Cavs in the playoffs and Indians season starting their season is to take advantage of Great Lakes' Fatty Wagon. Great Lakes makes biodiesel out of spent oil from the deep frying stations. The recycled lipids power patrons to Cavs, Indians and weekday Browns games for the low cost of $1 (tickets not included). It also includes a return trip.

Great Lakes Brewery

Crescent City Brewhouse

Let me fire the first warning shot across the bow: Crescent City Brewhouse hates vegetarians. Posts on this blog always address places that are vegetarian-friendly. And Crescent City Brewing is just about the opposite of that. The meatless menu is limited to baked brie and a salad.

Also, the ground floor is virtually a seafood raw bar that smells as such. If you can get past these issues, however, Crescent City makes some tasty brews.

The easiest places to escape the veggie prejudice at the brewpub are the open air balcony on the second floor, and of course with the convenient New Orleans vehicle called the Go-Cup. Plan accordingly.

The best of the regular brews is the Red Stallion. This Viennese-style, red lager possesses a medium carbonation, a surprisingly rich malt character offset by a clean alpha hop note. The finish is grassy and malt-driven.

Other regular brews include a weiss, a Schwarzbier-like black beer and a classic pilsner. The seasonal offering was a dunkelweiss. If you're following the theme, all of the beers are rooted in a Teutonic tradition.

Crescent City Brew Pub

Hurricane Brewing

Hurricane Brewing is a brew pup in Downtown Mobile with six or seven brews on tap. Five of them are produced by the on-site brewing facilities.

Hurricane features typical pub grub with a requisite number of vegetarian options including pizza, macaroni and cheese, cheese sticks, chips and salsa, and quesadillas.

The Storm Surge Stout is coal black. The carbonation is full. The aroma is a complex blend of maple, coffee and chocolate with a hint of smokiness. The finish is medium long, and the hop character evidences itself on the back end.

Some of the other regular brews include the Insurance Adjuster Pale Ale, Projected Path Amber Ale, and the Floating Car Amber Ale. The seasonal offerings are the Flying Debris Mardi Gras Ale, Category Four Leaf Irish Ale, an ever-changing wheat beer and an Octoberfest. The guest taps were Brooklyn Brown and Woodchuck Cider.

Hurricane Brewing

Barley's Redux

I have written about Barley's in previous posts. But the white truffle mac and cheese with smoked gouda, white cheddar, tomato, basil and bread crumbs was great. The Christmas Ale was mahogany colored with a rich, caramel malt character, delicate spice flavors and a delicate mouthfeel. It was delicious even two days after the holiday.

The Web site lists a number of food and drink specials during the week. I can also attest that the pierogi and beer washed onion strings are also very good (and vegetarian-approved). There are a few other vegetarian options on the menu that I haven't tried. If you wash it down with enough beer, I'm sure it should be great.

Barleys

Columbus Brewing Company

Despite the terribly grainy appearance of my pictures which makes it look like I had dinner near the edge of a black hole, I actually ate at Columbus Brewing Company last night. I hadn't gotten a chance to sample the menu since the place was sold by Cameron Mitchell. It can now be crossed off my list of things to do.

Columbus Brewing Company's brew pub is the flagship of the regional brewer, and the Columbus Pale Ale and 90 Shilling Ale can be found throughout the area. Although newer operations like Barley's and Elevator have stolen some of the thunder from CBC, they still offer solidly made brews. I am particularly fond of the 90 Shilling Ale, a copper colored Scotch Ale, and the 1859 Porter, an opaque, choclatey brew filled with as much smoke as character. Beer is also sold in flights that allow you to sample all of the brews without falling into a coma. Beer can also be taken home in a growler (or three) if you'd like to sample CBC's wares off-premises.

There are a couple of vegetarian appetizers. The spinach and artichoke dip is served with an herbed flatbread. It is tasty and filling. I wanted to love the barbequed plantains because I have a natural affinity to the tropical fruit, but the mushy consistency and the overly sweet sauce left me slightly underwhelmed.

The seasonal vegetable plate is an entree bathed in a balsamic reduction with a side of risotto alongside a wide variety of grilled veggies. It appears to be almost the same as it was on Mitchell's menu.

The margherita pizza was very well made. Fresh tomatoes, basil and olive oil marry perfectly atop the soft crust and bubbling cheese. The poorly lit image is above.

The new menu seems slightly scaled back from the Cameron Mitchell era. Luckily for the new owners, CBC still has the same convenient location with tons of parking.

Columbus Brewing Company doesn't offer a ton of vegetarian items. However, since the menu is more focused, they made certain to feature a few different choices for the vegetarian diner.

Elevator Brewery and Draught Haus

Elevator isn't exactly the most vegetarian-friendly brew pub in Columbus. But when you make beer this good, I could almost care less (Editors note: I will do just about anything for beer for those looking to bribe me--that's right, I absolutely can be bought).

The menu is biased towards flesh food. There are a limited number of salads on the menu in addition to the hummus and the vegetable strudel (my veggie selections). These aren't vegan-friendly eats. Wash it down with an Oktoberfest and don't say I didn't warn you.

The Oktoberfest is the latest seasonal. It has a malty aroma with a rich, caramel flavor accented by a mild hop bitterness. The lager is light and clean with a hints of anise and tree fruit. The Coal Porter is opaque, showcasing layers of coffee, chocolate, soy sauce and brown sugar flavors that round into a delightful quaff. There are a number of other drafts brewed by Elevator that are featured on a regular basis, as well as a constantly changing array of seasonal offerings. Brewmaster Vic Schiltz's beers are always tasty, and the brews are matched to the items on the menu.

Elevator is a different concept than most brew pubs. The food is definitely more upscale and pricy than the typical neighborhood beer bar. Happy Hour is always a good shot to save a few bucks off the regular prices.

Squatter's Pub

Airports are typically a gallery of fast food outlets and crappy sit-down establishments that feature more fat than flavor. Salt Lake City escapes this trap by offering fare from places like Squatter's, a Utah brew pub with tons of vegetarian and vegan options that are more than a cut above the slop that dots most airport landscapes.

Utah, the Mecca of Mormonism, loosened up it's stringent alcohol laws when the Olympics came to town, allowing places like Squatter's to thrive (or at least to convince outsiders that Utah isn't a complete killjoy). Add the extra bonus of voluminous veggie vittles and I'm in like Flynn.

The menu features vegetarian and vegan labeling, a practice that I always endorse. They make a number of items with a seasoned tofu scramble, a vegan version of scrambled eggs. I ordered the veggie wrap, which was made with the tofu scramble and an assortment of vegetables including lettuce, tomato, cucumber, black olive, red and yellow pepper and red onion inside a whole wheat tortilla. It was served with crispy potato chips fried in peanut oil. Squatter's also has a fairly tasty looking veggie burger in addition to a number of other items for vegetarians of all makes and models.

The beer is also cleverly marketed and named. The showstopper is the chocolatey Polygamy Porter, a rich, complex brew with a deep brown hue and infinite layers of flavor. Some other beer options include an oatmeal stout, a pilsner, a golden ale, a hefeweizen and pale ales of all shapes and sizes. There are also seasonal options, which included the Harvest Amber, a nitrogenated ale with a beautifully creamy mouthfeel.

The other bonus for Squatter's is their eco-friendly business plan which includes use of renewable energy in addition to efforts to conserve water and reduce waste. You can eat dinner, drink beer and not feel guilty enjoying yourself. Squatter's is recognized as a Salt Lake City Green Business.

I flew into Utah expecting prohibition and mundanity, but instead I found solidly constructed brews and a variety of vegetarian eats. I think I just might convert to Mormonism just so I can drink more Polygamy Porter. I hope Joseph Smith and Brigham Young won't keep me out of heaven for that.

Squatter's

Mulholland Brewing Company

You would have to drive a car into me while overcharging me and force feeding me dead animals in order for a brew pub not to pass my (less than) stringent judgment criteria. That being noted, however, Mulholland in outside-the-mainstream Reynoldsburg easily meets my heavily relaxed quality standards.

I read about the place in today's Columbus Dispatch review. I checked the interweb, and wouldn't you know it--Mulholland sells Belgian-style beer and vegetarian food. That means a late lunch for me.

The fringe benefits of a late lunch include the $2 draft beers at happy hour price. Mulholland offers six of their own drafts plus a dozen or so more brews from various local, national and international microbrew operations. The Saison was citrusy with a clean, yeasty finish, and the Imperial Red showed aggressive hop character that is often absent in beers of this style.

I started with the red pepper hummus, which had a great presentation that featured pita triangles and red and yellow peppers surrounding a ruby-hued mashed chickpea and olive oil base. It was quite good.

My main course was a fettucine in a white wine, garlic and butter sauce with sauteed tomatoes, peppers, squash and spinach topped with chunks of goat cheese. It was like a creamy, pan-Mediterranean interpretation of pasta primavera, and it's pictured above.

The other interesting feature of this spot is that it is a more upscale restaurant upstairs and a sports bar downstairs. There are, however, big screen televisions throughout the bar areas on both floors. Think of the upstairs as business and the downstairs as business casual.

The menu does a good job explaining the brewing process, and the brewing equipment is closer than it typically is in most brew pubs, putting patrons within spitting distance of the brewing and fermenting action. I'll definitely be back to check the new seasonal beers. Check out the pictures below.

Mulholland

Newest Brewest

There are no shortage of new beers in the holiday season. Winter is one of the best times of year to experience the widest range of malt beverages that most appropriately compliment the holiday fare.

My first experience with holiday beer comes from Cleveland's Great Lakes Brewery. This brewery is an institution not only in Ohio but also in the United States, operated by the Conway family. They are a pioneer in the craft brew movement, and the Christmas Ale showcases their talets. The strong brew highlights flavors of ginger, honey and pine with a surprisingly clean finish. Enjoy it with a stocking full of goodies.

If anybody would need winter warmer beers to make the nights fly by a little faster, Norway would probably be Ground Zero. Nogne O ("Naked Island") produces craft beer in the Scandinavian countryside, and God Jul ("Winter Ale") is their holiday offering. The beer is medium bodied, with sweet caramel/chocolate notes and a heavily roasted finish.

Tommyknocker Brewery achieved cocoa notes in their winter beer through another methodology...namely they added roasted cocoa beans to the brew kettle along with honey to give the brew a definite chocolate character. I've never been a huge fan of Tommyknocker beers, but the Cocoa Porter definitely separates itself from the rest of the portfolio.

Holiday beers allow brewers to show off their craft alongside artists whose naughty side shows through in clever Christmas packaging. British artisan Ridgeway produces a plethora of cleverly packaged holiday beers, including Santa's Butt, Lump of Coal and the Bad Elf series. Criminally Bad Elf is one of four different elven brews, and it is a thick, viscous beer with a vinous character and enough alcohol to remove nail polish. These are interesting beers in a free speech forum because the state of Connecticut banned the beers because they have Santa Claus on the label. Buy these beers to give the finger to the censor police.

Outside of holiday beers, winter is also a great time of year for Abbey style ales. The high alcohol content and aggressive flavors temper the winter chill nicely. Abbey ales are derivative of the Trappist ales, a series of beers developed by monks in Belgium. Konings Tripel is produced at the only Trappist brewery outside of Belgium, across the border in neighboring Holland. The beer displays a rich golden hue, and it has a more delicate yeast influence than its Belgian counterparts. When you finish this beer off, there should be about six more Trappist breweries left in order for you to sample your way across the Catholic beer palette.

Not all Abbey ale producers are Trappists. Some, like St. Bernardus, have Trappist roots that go back as far as any of the other breweries' Trappist affiliations. The Prior 8 is the double ale, and it has all of the bready notes, fruity flavors and herbal bitterness that mark this classic style.

St. Bernardus also crosses genre lines with their Christmas ale. The beer has a dark, rich, opaque appearance, and it displays a thick head, notes of clove, ginger, apples, figs, cinnamon and oatmeal. I don't know how to say "Merry Christmas" in Dutch, but I bet it sounds something like St. Bernardus Christmas ale.

Belgium produces other styles of beer apart from the Abbey ale style. Other brews from dynamic producers like Rodenbach make the nation the birthplace of some of the world's most exciting beers. The newest offering from this legend is the Redbach, a blend of nearly three parts sour ale mixed with one part cherry juice. The native yeasts and barrel aging give the beer an unmistakable character. The combination is a spicy, refreshing tart cherry cooler with hints of tree fruit that is absolutely divine.

Domestic producers don't shy away from Belgian character, either. Stoudt's Beer, from Pennsylvania, always tastes better to me because the brew master is a woman. I can't confirm or deny the influence the woman's touch has on the brewing process...I can only tell you that the ladies don't make bad beer. The Triple Ale (made in the classic Belgian style) has strong citrus flavors that punch through the complex malt and flowery hop aromas. I would like to check out the brew pub that is part of Stoudt's, although it has a limited vegetarian menu. I'm sure the beer more than makes up for it.

Avery Brewing also tries their hand at the Belgian style with the Beast. This is a Belgian grand cru style ale with a whopping 16.4% abv. The beer displays fantastic tastes of brown sugar, orange rind, maple syrup and spices. It will age as well as any others.

There are, of course, many other beers available that fall outside of the previously discussed categories. I'm a little behind the curve, but Weyerbacher released an Octoberfest styled beer in their Autumn Fest that was a great beer made in the classic style. This beer has the classic malt character that marks the brews from this time of the calendar year. Weyerbacher is another brewery that always makes great beer (including a number of Belgian-styled offerings), and they are well worth checking out.

You end up naming many locations as great epicenters of brewing before you come up with Quebec. But French Canada is home to great brewers like Unibroue and McAuslan, and these beers are so good you'd think everybody in Germany and Belgium was being inspired by the artisans in Quebec rather than the other way around. The St. Ambroise oatmeal stout is a former World Beer Championship gold medalist, and this beer is definitely a winner, with notes of molasses and charcoal that develop into a knockout beer.

Speaking of world classics, few names in British beer supersede Harviestoun. Old Engine Oil is the name of this producer's opaque brew, a mass of chocolate and coffee bitterness tempered by the English knack for creating some of the world's greatest beers. The latest offering is actually aged in old Scotch barrels, giving the beer a ripe peat character that makes this beer truly an experience. Enjoy it with a stinky piece of cheese as recommended by the brewers.

Much like beer with chocolate notes, beer can get coffee notes from a variety of sources. Bell's Java Stout accomplishes this task by combining their outstanding stout with the finest Sumatran coffee. The roasted coffee and malt notes create a marriage that is made in heaven (or Kalamazoo, Michigan).

Lagunita's takes a similar approach with their Capuccino Stout. Lagunita's relies on a local roaster to provide them with the best coffee, and this beer is slightly more delicate than the ebullient Bell's Java Stout. This taste is driven more by malt and less by coffee than the Bells counterpart. Both are excellent.

New Holland goes about adding character to their brews in a different manner...barrel aging. The dragon's milk is a strong ale with a support consisting of roasted oak underneath a midpalate of plums, licorice and caramel with a bright hop finish. This beer is considered their flagship, and as a result, it is very tasty.

And we'll finish the trip off with the progenitors of some of the world's biggest beers: Stone. The main offering from these loquacious craftsmen is the Arrogant Bastard. They do many different versions of the bastard, including October's Double Bastard, made from twice the malt and hops of its little brother. The marketing campaign behind Stone will tell you that you will not like this beer. If you think Budweiser is only acceptable for beer battering, I'd track down as many of these bottles as I could get my hands on and don't buy their clever ploy to keep the Bastard all to themselves.

Newest Brewest

Brew Reviews and the Infusion Report

I was thinking to myself the other day that since flavored vodkas were exploding in popularity, I ought to try my hand at making a few batches at home for myself and save a few bucks.

Vodka flavoring is an ancient tradition. It once was used to cover up unpleasant flavors in poorly distilled liquor, but today the craft production of super-premium flavored vodkas has elevated the process to an artform.

It is actually relatively easy to infuse vodka at home. My first experiment was made with pineapple, and it was quite delicious.

There is no reason to use top shelf vodka for infusion. For one, there are reports varying in degrees of success that involve people passing cheap vodka through a charcoal filter like a Britta pitcher and removing impurities from the hooch. Beyond this, if you flavor vodka with fruit, the fruit will temper the aggressive character of the low end spirit. A 1.75 liter bottle of filtered Smirnoff works just fine for this exercise.

Also, the more fruit you use, the merrier. This recipe was quadruple berry vodka, with three cartons of strawberries and two cartons each of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. The blueberries have to be broken with a wooden spoon in order to impart their flavor. The infusion process takes five days to a week. The pineapple vodka was made with three containers of fresh, core-in pineapples as well as a half pound of pineapple chunks. The core is essential to the tropical flavor. The fruit remains in the infusion jar, and it will continue to develop in flavor over time.

As an added bonus, the fruit can later be used to garnish your drinks. It will taste VERY alcoholic. I've heard a rumor from some college kids that you can get drunk eating the alcohol soaked fruit. Of course, I didn't know that was possible because I spent my college years studying in the library on the straight and narrow path, and that's the story I'm sticking with.

Aside from that, the pineapple vodka mixes well with orange and mango juice. The berry vodka is fantastic straight, and along with the pineapple vodka, mixes well with tonic and lemon/lime soda.

And now in beer................

In no particular order, here are reviews of a bunch of killer beers. Stone 11th Anniversary Ale celebrates the new brewery, and it is made in the same ostentatious style that has made the San Diego brewery famous. The new anniversary brew is a black India Pale Ale (IPA), a deeply colored beer with notes of espresso, tropical fruit and a generous helping of aggressive alpha hops that mark almost every Stone offering. Each beer is also accompanied by a lengthy philosophical treatise on the thinking behind each beer that is heavy on the adjectives and the sarcasm.

Stone also released their newest installment of their vintage cellar dweller XX-XX-XX ale. The brews are released one year and one day from each other and are meant to be aged until a vertical tasting can be held after December 12, 2012. The newest edition is 07-07-07, made with huge quantities of malt and hops flavored with spices and lime, orange and grapefruit peel. I can't wait to drink my 03-03-03 through 07-07-07 vertical in 2013.

Speaking of anniversaries, Sierra Nevada, one of the pioneers of the craft beer movement in the U.S., has issued the first commercial release of their Anniversary Ale. The brewery is 27 years old, and each year they produce a special IPA to celebrate another year of business crafting world class beers. The ale is off dry, made from pale, caramel and Munich malts and treated with a cascade of Cascade and Chinook hops. The beer has both more hop character and greater balance than the flagship pale ale. It is widely available at most retailers that carry the other Sierra Nevada products.

Since the weather has gone all Florida on the residents of Middle America over the last few weeks, beer has been required to tone down the sweltering heat. Few beer styles achieve the thirst quenching character of kolsch beer from Cologne, Germany. Gaffel Kolsch is made at the oldest brewery in Cologne in the classic style. The brew is golden, with a light, crisp malt character and a hint of European hops and citrus. When global warming finally gets turned up to 11, be sure to have plenty of Gaffel on hand so you can rest in contentment while the world burns around you.

As I am an avowed hophead, I couldn't refuse the wiles of the Weyerbacher Simcoe Double IPA. This brew, as well as the brewery, has received critical acclaim for their big beers, which include many highly hopped and barrel aged offerings with enough alcohol to make you see things. Simcoe is a hybrid hop species bred for maximum bitterness without the tongue-scorching character that can accompany some beers made in the heavy handed hops zeitgeist in which we currently live. They brew this selection with a dump truck full of hops, and it is available most of the year. This beer is a monster, and it's meant to be sipped and savored.

Now that everybody is making hop behemoth brews, it couldn't be long until macro micro Samuel Adams tried their hand at a hop heavy brewski. Their addition to the canon of liquidated lupuline is the Hallertau Imperial Pilsner, made from massive quantities of 100 percent Bavarian Hallertau Mittelfrueh hops. This is a deep golden lager with a floral bouquet and a resinous pine finish that is drying and extremely long on the finish. It is good to see Sam Adams making beer that could introduce the masses to the beautiful flavors and aromas in carefully selected hop varieties. Unfortunately, this beer doesn't do much to separate itself from what is becoming a crowded field of big brews. The H.I.P. is good, not great, and too expensive to justify buying over Dogfish 90 or 120 Minute IPA for a similar price.

On the subject of my favorite brewery in Delaware if not the world, the newest Dogfish Head beer treads in both familiar and unfamiliar territory. This is another brewery with a great sense of humor. Previous offerings have included Liquor de Malt, a bottle-conditioned 40-ounce bottle complete with a Dogfish logo paper bag. They also used to make an Imperial Pilsner that was called Golden Shower and changed the name because the government frowns on suggestive alcoholic beverage labels. This beer has morphed into the Golden Era, a continental pilsner made in the idiosyncratic style of the Fish. This beer is a distinctive version of a beer style that seldom distinguishes itself, another success for the folks at Dogfish Head.

Fans of smoke, toast, cocoa and coffee flavors might stock up on the Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout, a 10.6 percent alcohol stout brewed with liberal quantities of black, chocolate and roasted malt. It is brewed in the imperial style. The store I bought it in said this was a new beer, although it is a winter seasonal. It didn't matter, because it is an opaque, complex beverage with more than enough character to transcend the season. I recommend it as a tonic for Yankees fans celebrating their wasted season.

Also on the full-bodied end of the spectrum (and a year away from release date) is the Dominion Millenium Barley Wine. This beer is aged for six months in bourbon casks, and displays a ruddy color along with pronounced notes of grapefruit, vanilla and black pepper. Barley wines are usually an acquired taste, but this may be the easiest drinking beer I've ever tasted with nearly 12 percent alcohol. The brewing facility produces beer for many of the breweries in the vicinity, and the restaurant provides great accompaniment to the seasonal beer offerings that accompany the food. I highly recommend the beers and the Washington D.C. area's first brew pub for any and all occasions.

Great Lakes is one of my favorite brew pubs, and their bottled beer has as much character as a Jackson family reunion. Indians fans looking to celebrate their post-season voyage should head to Great Lakes before, during and after the games for as long as the journey lasts. Their food is great and the beer is even better. One of their most interesting brews is Nosferatu, a stock ale released between August and October. The ruby red beer has a faint sweetness that emerges out of the toffee and cereal notes of the beer that is elevated by an elegant, spicy hop finish. At 8 percent alcohol, this brew might put you in a deep sleep much like the vampire it is named after.

Don't drink and drive, and if you must, make sure to drink better beer while you drive around enjoying the photographs below.

Brew Review

Barley's Ale House

Brew pubs offer you a choice. Instead of drinking one mass produced Continental pilsner, in a brew pub you have options ranging from pale ales to porters to weizens, and even additional seasonal options that pop up from time to time. Barley's is a brew pub that offers you that kind of choice in addition to choosing which Barley's outpost to drink and dine in.

Barley's has two locations. I went to the Ale House, which is a far more veggie-centric dining experience than the Smoke House, which offers barbecued animals of all shapes and sizes. Both establishments have vegetarian options--the Ale House just has many more options for the choosiest of veggie diners.

Both locations brew some of Columbus' finest beers. The Spark of the Divine Barley Wine was the newest seasonal beer. At 10 percent alcohol, the house limit was two barley wines per customer. Three of them might put a huge smile on your face if it were so allowed, as the beer offers a rich, sweet toffee midpalate and a lingering hint of clove on the finish that doesn't even begin to hint at the alcohol content contained within.

The pale ale is American in style, with a clean malt character followed by a fragrant hoppy bitterness. There are three year-round beers and approximately five other seasonal offerings at one time on the drink menu, which also includes domestic beer, a limited wine selection and a cadre of flavored martinis. Their beers were featured at Skipper's in Athens during Ohio Brew Week, and were covered by this blog in a previous post (hint: check the pictures).

I started off with the onion strings. The appetizer came in a basket and was a pile of breaded onions washed in the pale ale. This is great pub grub, but be warned--you will be carrying the aroma of onions around with you for days.

The main course was a veggie burger made from black beans, portabella mushrooms, rice, garlic and fresh vegetables. It was served with a choice of sides, and being a Polish lad, how could I say no to a couple of cheddar cheese and potato pierogis served with onions in brown butter? The pierogis are available as a happy hour appetizer for $5, and Polish carnivores can get their fill of kielbasa as well in the form of a dinner entree. It's like a little slice of Krakow near the hockey arena. (Well, it's nothing like Krakow or Warsaw. But the pierogi is delicious wherever it's served.)

There was one minor hiccup during the night. The appetizers were served a little too close to the main courses for my liking. Of course they were brought a little too early by the lovely Rebecca, a server who was very friendly, great to speak with and pretty enough to have dumped a pot of hot coffee on my lap without making me too upset. So I'll let her slide on this one. The rest of her service was attentive and prompt, making for a wonderful evening.

Brew pubs give you choices, from beer to food. Vegetarian diners can make the better choice in Columbus by picking Barley's Ale House. It should only take a sip of barley wine and a bite of pierogi to make it worth the trip. Enjoy the pictures in the Picasa link below.

Barley's

Flatlander's

Flatlanders is a derogatory term used by people in hilly Wisconsin to deride people from glaciated Illinois. Flatlander's is an establishment with great brews and very good food located down on the plain in Lincolnshire, Ill. Sample across the menu, because their wares are top notch.

This is another of the Chicago area's finest brew pubs. The nitrogenated stout (called the Locomotive Stout) is made in the style of Guinness without the enormous production quantities, and it tastes very, very good. It's cappuccino notes are cleansed nicely by the creamy texture of the frothy nitrogen. The Abe's Honest Ale is a clean beer with a delicate sweetness and a hint of flowery hops that balance the flavor profile.

The brew pub also offers great seasonal beers that change regularly. The 90 Shilling Ale and the Grand Cru were both excellent. The building is enormous, with a bar area with multiple tables, patio seating and a cavernous dining area equipped with fireplaces and nicely appointed areas that are completely separate from the bar area.

The pub is located just north of Half Day Road (so named because of it's distance in a horse-drawn carriage ride back in the day to Chicago) on Milwaukee Avenue. I could walk there from my hotel facility while drinking tasty beer and eating good food, so the horse-drawn carriage was not necessary.

They do serve their full menu very late, so you can enjoy the food with it's clearly marked vegetarian selections (I love it!) and order on your first beer or your 14th. The bar also features a great whisky and whiskey selection, alongside a nice range of mixed drinks that includes an entire menu of Big Ten school martinis.

This is a fantastic restaurant with great beer, so it's a great place to eat and drink at any hour before 2 a.m. It is located slightly north of the mainstream of Chicago, but offers options that are well worth sampling if you get the chance.The bands can run the gamut from terrible to not so terrible, so reading the local media might help determine if the entertainment will ruin your evening. Aside from these warnings, if you like beer and well-crafted American dining options, Flatlander's should work for you.