In addition to the weekly cask night, representatives of Ithaca Beer will be at Pixel from 8-11PM this Friday with free t-shirts and whatnot. Come get them before some Summer Session pre-frosh steals them all.
Archive for the 'Beer' Category
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While their 60 and 90 Minute IPAs have been hugely popular at Pixel and apparently everywhere else, Dogfish Head manages to keep putting out some interesting and unconventional brews. Hopefully you’ve tried the Festina Peche we highlighted last week, but in case you haven’t, we’ve stocked up to keep it flowing though the Summer. The Peche is great, but why have only one geeky beer when you can have four? In limited quantity on draft and in big bottles, we also have their Black & Blue. Described as a Belgian-style strong ale brewed with blackberries and blueberries, it is smooth and extremely sneaky at 10%abv. In the other corner is one of my favorites: the Red & White. Pinot Noir juice is added to the fermentation of this creamy Belgian-style wit and then a portion is aged in Oregon Pinot Noir barrels. So good. The fourth offering is the academic Chateau Jiahu. This is a complex recreation of a 9000 year old beer style made in Henan province in Northern China. Rice flakes, wildflower honey, Muscat grapes, barley malt, hawthorn fruit and Chrysanthemum flowers are brewed up to make an unmistakably unique beer.
So US craft beer is all about the hops eh? Well, while I’m sure it will be for some time to come, many of us have become a bit bored with one hop bomb after another. So what’s next? We’ve seen some great US made Belgian triples and Saisons. Some with an intentional bit of Brettanomyces induced funk. But why stop there? We’re surrounded by all kinds of microflora just waiting to turn sugars into alcohol and aromatic esters. Enter sour beer. On one extreme, a Geuze (Cantillon for example) can be so acidic and so funky that it’s almost unpalatable. On the other extreme, you have Fruit Lambics such as Lindemans Framboise that’ll put you in a diabetic coma. So, somewhere in the middle is the Berliner Weisse, which draws its sourness from fermentation with lactic acid bacteria. While tart, it is not a palate stripping Geuze and is typically served with a bit of fruit syrup to balance it out. On draft at the moment we have Dogfish Head’s Festina Peche. The peach is not overwhelming and adds just enough flavor and sweetness to make this beer very refreshing. We’re also popping a bottle of a 2003 Festina Lente tonight. It promises to be very very sour.
