Absinthe Beer!

Photo by Eddie Kim, on flickr

Right now, you can get a draft of absinthe beer at Churchkey. Felt I should share.

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Christmas Ales from a bad elf

One of my favorite things about the now-defunct gastropub Commonwealth was that, every December, they'd have the bad elf series of beers from Ridgeway brewing. There are five: Bad Elf, Very Bad Elf, Seriously Bad Elf, Criminally Bad Elf, and Insanely Bad Elf. I hadn't seen them anywhere else, until this year, when U St Beer & Wine had a four pack that included Bad Elf, and then I saw most of the rest at Cork & Fork. I had to do a vertical tasting.


It was interesting. I don't think any of these are beers you should take too seriously, but the price point reflects that. They vary in style -- Bad Elf is a golden ale, and Very Bad Elf is a more premium version of the same beer. Seriously Bad Elf is, despite the coloration, quite similar to a Belgian Dubbel, and Criminally Bad Elf is similar to a Barleywine. As an amateur beer connoisseur, I'm not going to comment on how authentic any of these beers were, but I'll just say that I don't like barleywines generally, but I like Criminally Bad Elf.

None of these are really exemplars of their style. But I think they're pretty great. They get a lot of points for the amusing packaging, and they're all decent beers. Even if it's not the best thing ever, there's nothing like drinking a criminally bad elf to get you in the holiday spirit.

Omnibus Alcohol Beverage Regulatory Act

Photo by Katy Watts, on flickr.

Over at Prince of Petworth is a discussion of the new Omnibus Alcohol Beverage Regulatory Act. It appears  that they're not looking to authorize retailers like D'Vines and D'Vinos to sell growlers.

Oh yeah, back to the original request, if anyone wants to comment on whether stores like D’Vines should be able to sell growlers again, you can do so here. The current language looks like only full-service grocery stores and brew pubs will be able to sell growlers.

I encourage to comment here, and write your councilmember!

Beard Beer

Photo by beezly, on flickr.

Andrew Sullivan caught Rogue doing something unusual: making beer from yeast found in their brewmaster's beard.

Attention Beer Lovers!

This is apparently going to be a very good weekend for beer people in DC, according to the Going Out Gurus. On Saturday, Churchkey is pouring five different beers from the Russian River Brewing company, starting at noon. Russian River is most their most famous, known for being one of the few IPAs to get a perfect score on Beer Advocate, but all of their beers are supposed to be quite good. They'll be pouring Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig IPA, Supplication, Consecration, and Sanctification.

Sunday, Meridian Pint is celebrating their 2nd anniversary by bringing to $2 pints of select local beers. Not only that, but Chef Logan Grear of Smoke and Barrel will be manning a barbecue outside from 3 until 6. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to Churchkey, but I'll probably swing by Meridian Pint some time on Sunday.

Beer-braised Scallops

I was going to eat dinner at Elephant & Castle, because that's where I was doing trivia, but it seemed like a bad idea. So I poked around Yes! Organic Market, and found a lovely looking package of scallops. Not only that, but I also found a nice large-format beer, Brooklyn Sorachi Ace, so I figured, let's do some beer-braised scallops.

My first step is browning the scallops, since this isn't going to happen once there is liquid in the pan. I put in about 1 tbsp of butter, and browned them for about a minute on each side, give or take. Then I added some beer, turned down the heat, and let the scallops simmer for 2 minutes. After the scallops were done, I took them out and added some more beer and some garlic, as well as some fresh oregano, since I got some from the CSA. I figured I might as well throw in some savory and some fennel, because it's basically like mussels, right? I reduced it a bit, and it was ready!

The scallops turned out great. The sauce actually tasted a bit like a beef broth, despite the absence of any sort of meat in it. It was not as reduced as I had hoped, but that describes just about all of my sauces. I should perhaps have added some butter after removing the scallops. The scallops themselves were nice and tender with just the right amount of give to them. This is what I like about scallops, their flexibility, and these certainly didn't disappoint.

Of the Ordering of Beer

Welcome to Beerjobber, a new site that aims to make finding hard-to-find brews a bit easier. Registration is free and easy; you give them your name and email address, and can fill out an easy to understand survey about what styles of beer you enjoy the most. Once you've registered, you can click on their market to see various lists of beer, such as featured beers and beers recommended for you. The selection looks really good; of the twenty or so beers shown, I hadn't heard of any of them! It also gives you the option to search by brewery, in case you want to find the latest from Bell's or Founder's. It doesn't really work for me to have alcohol delivered to my house, so I won't be trying it for a while, but it definitely looks like I could waste a lot of time and money here.

h/t: Tasting Table

Molé Brisket

Along with braised chicken thighs, brisket is one of my favorite things to experiment with. Most of the time, I toss it in the crockpot with some red wine and assorted herbs and spices, leaving the fat on the cut so it doesn't dry out. I happened to have an imperial stout laying around, so I wanted to do something that would go better with the beer. I decided to do a chocolate - coffee rub and cook the brisket in porter. (I would have done stout, but the only stout I had was the one I was planning on drinking!) I cut most of the fat off so that the rub would stick better. Then, I browned the brisket in a skillet, and set it in the crockpot for 7 hours, along with the porter, mirepoix, chipotle pepper with adobo, and some hazelnut liqueur, to make it nuttier.

In retrospect, the hazelnut liqueur was not necessary. I don't think it added much flavor to the final product. I may have also browned the brisket a bit too long; apparently spice rubs burn quicker than steak. But it was very good, and went fantastically with the stout. The rub was great, and the chipotle peppers added the right amount of heat to the dish. It was definitely drier than normal, since I cut off the fat, but not too dry. I meant to save some for lunch the next day, but by the time I could stop eating, it was almost gone. Since I was experimenting, I just have the ingredients after the jump, but as long as you taste the rub before putting it on the brisket, you should be fine.

Craft Beer and the Gray Market

Pirate Flag from Clipper City Brewing. Photo from Flickr by cizauskas

Prince of Petworth has an article up today by Sam Fitz arguing that what makes DC's beer scene as great as it is is the variety of distributors that have set up shop here, not the availability of "Gray Market beer." Gray Market beer is beer that is self-imported by the owner or beer director of an establishment. In most places, this is illegal, but it's legal in DC as long as you pay your taxes. Here's an excerpt, but please check out the whole thing, it's very interesting:

Flooding a market with a myriad of brews is one thing, but consumers actually drinking and supporting all of them is quite another. The best thing about beer in DC is the public’s willingness and desire to drink widely, try new products, and keep up on what is available. There is always an interest in what is new, whether it’s restaurants, bars, or beers, and DC residents follow social media all over the city for new experiences. Trying new things is cool these days, and it certainly is helping craft beer explode in this city. DC is also a geographically diverse community and sometimes it is as simple as people enjoying the beers of their home state. No matter the rationale, Washingtonians’ ability and willingness to support the myriad craft beer brands distributed here is the biggest asset to the DC beer community. Gray market beers surely make up much less than 1% of DC craft beer sales and are really more of a novelty than anything else. . . .

DC’s gray market for beer is a peculiar benefit of drinking in the District, and perhaps it is what distances us just a bit from other great beer cities like Philadelphia, but it certainly is not what makes DC such a great place to drink well. The national praise is awesome, but let’s appreciate what we really have: a blossoming community eagerly supporting an impressive array of craft beers.

Sam Fitz is the beer director at Meridian Pint and Smoke & Barrel. My comment on the legality of Gray Market beers is merely a summary of the law, and is not intended to describe everything needed to comply with the law.

Bottom Shelf Booze

I always appreciate Will Gordon's Drinking the Bottom Shelf column. Not only is it handy because, despite what I try to tell myself, I can't always afford the top shelf stuff, but he's also a wonderfully funny writer. It seriously brightens up my day to see his take on things like Blue Moon Winter Abbey Ale. "We can admit that regular Blue Moon doesn't suck. Neither does the Winter Abbey Ale, but it comes close." So it was with joy I saw he had commented on my favorite bottom shelf brew, Grain Belt.

I will be very pleasantly surprised if I come across a finer CARL [Cheap American Regional Lager] than this Minnesotan beauty. It doesn't smell like much of anything, which is a good quality in a cheap yellow beer, but it sits pretty thick on the tongue for its kind. What really sets Grain Belt apart is its kinky and unique caramel cream flavor. I can totally see Prince pouring this on his loved ones. I'm going to Minnesota.

I have fond memories of living with Steve back in my graduate school days. It was only a few months, but somehow it felt longer. At one point, he went on a road trip to Missoula, and he came back with a case of Grain Belt. It's not available in Indiana, or anywhere else I've lived, so I've not had it since. But it had a unique flavor like nothing else I'd ever had. Somehow, it tasted gritty. The texture wasn't actually gritty, it was fully liquid, but somehow it tasted like it should be gritty. (For some reason, my wife doesn't think this is a recommendation.) So next time I'm in Minnesota, I'm definitely making mine a Grain Belt.

Codmother

Codmother may sound like a Terry Pratchett novel, but it's actually a small, hole in the wall place located on U St. It's designed to be a facsimile of a British pub. It has punk posters and photos, and lots of exposed brick and chalked graffiti. Their main dish is fish and chips — the name comes from the fact that cod is a great fish for fish and chips, and the female of the species is meatier than the male. (I suspect there's a your momma joke in there somewhere.)

The fish and chips they get their name from are the best I've ever had. They are these balls of cod, with a relatively thin crust, deep fried and served with tartar sauce and mushy peas. It's not the traditional breaded fillet, but I think it works better as a nugget; it's easier to eat. I don't care for mushy peas, preferring them to have a bit of a snap, but theirs are quite good, if occasionally a little salty. The chips are thick cut and fairly bland, but they go well with the peas.

Recently, they added a lamb burger to the menu, called the "pimp hooker" burger. Not sure why. It's good, as far as it goes, but it's spiced like a gyro and makes you crave tzatziki sauce. It's not particularly menu, and seems like it was placed on the menu for people who don't eat fish, rather than out of any passion from the owners.

The beer selection is limited, but eclectic. With the exception of Guinness, their draughts are all American mass-produced swill. They have a large selection of British beers in the can and bottle, however, including Boddington's, Old Speckled Hen, and Sam Smith. It's one of our favorite places to go on U St for a low key dinner.

Hopslam!

According to Young & Hungry, Hopslam is available in DC. Actually, it's been available for most of the week, I'm just a bit behind. I've enjoyed Bell's Beers pretty much since I turned 21, which is longer ago than I care to think about. They're all good, but my favorite regularly available brew is Two Hearted Ale, which I knew of as just a great beer before IPA was a thing. So it's understandable that I love Hopslam, which is their souped-up IPA. Sadly, they only release it once a year, it's availability is sharply constrained, and it's very expensive. A six-pack on the cheap end will run on $20, and that's only if you're very lucky.

What makes Hopslam so special? It is an exquisitely balanced beer. For all the hops that go into it, it's not too hoppy -- even people who aren't hopheads, such as my wife, love this beer. Greg Engert, beer-master, says, "It's beautifully balanced, hoppy but not a fruit bomb. Not too piney, but with great tropical fruit and herb notes." The first time I tried it, at RFD, it was the best beer I had ever had.

Is it worth the price and the effort to find? It depends. At the end of the day, unless you're really into hoppy beers, it's probably not quite worth it. You can find plenty of imperial IPAs that are almost as good as Hopslam, but are half the price. But if you like hoppy beers, you should try and find this one. It's one of the best.

ChurchKey Crew Hires Veteran Brewer For New D.C. Brewery

ChurchKey Crew Hires Veteran Brewer For New D.C. Brewery

I'm not sure I could be more excited about this new brewery unless it was closer to my apartment. While I'm not familiar with the brewer, Megan Parisi, or her brewery, Cambridge Brewing Company, I have a lot of faith in Kyle Bailey (of ChurchKey/Birch & Barley) and his taste in beer. And not only is there going to be another brewery in DC, but it's going to focus on one of my favorite styles of beer, barrel-aged sour ales. It's scheduled to be open in late 2012. Maybe I can convince my wife to move down by the ballpark.

Bourbon Sauced Steak

For dinner, we had a peppercorn steak in a bourbon sauce, based off of a recipe I found on Epicurious. Some time I'll belabor you with the details of how I prepare steak, but I want to focus specifically on this recipe. I'm still working on an easy way to crack peppercorns without them becoming too fine. I suppose I should buy a burr grinder, but that really seems like too much. The steak was good -- a New York Strip. It was a bit thin, but it worked just fine with the recipe. The sauce, consisting predominantly of heavy cream, bourbon, shallots, and beef stock, was quite tasty, but it was thinner than is ideal. On the other hand, the quinoa did a good job of sopping it up! Next time, I'll either reduce it more before adding the cream or add some corn starch. I think I'd also add some Worcestershire Sauce to make it a bit more savory. We paired it with a Brewer's Art Green Peppercorn Trippel, which is a lovely beer, and paired really well with the dish.

St. Arnold's Underground

We went on opening night to St. Arnold's underground, around the corner from (and underneath) the mussel bar. Loved the atmosphere. It had a bit of a British pub feel to it, which I'm sure will be improved once the smell of varnish leaves. We were a bit disappointed that some of their entrees like the deep fried burger or the bangers and mash were unavailable. The mussels from upstairs are available, and my wife loved their paella mussels. It's really a huge selection, with fifteen or twenty different choices.


I tried two of their (bacon-wrapped and deep-fried) hot dogs, the chicago and the vietnamese. Both were good with lots of fresh toppings. The sausage itself wasn't the best I've had -- it could have used a bit more snap, and wasn't large enough to avoid being overwhelmed by the toppings. The bun was average, but like the hot dog, did not really hold up to the toppings, and would probably have been better toasted.


Overall, it was a great experience for an opening night. Hopefully next time we'll be able to get some darts in!