Captain's Orders

A few months back I was hanging at a brewery, drinking some beers. I was talking to this dude about beer swapping. He told me to check out this brewery right over the border in New York that puts out some sought after craft brews, good for the trading. I had had a few drinks at this point and when I went to write down the name of the brewery in my phone I typed Cap and Lawrence. I searched for the brewery online but couldn't find it. What I did find was Captain Lawrence Brewery located in Pleasantville, New York. The pictures on their site and videos I found on youtube made this place look pretty dope. They look to have a really nice set up with pretty tanks and a swanky tasting room. I have been meaning to get up to their open house for a couple months, but being a retail shmoe it is hard to get off on a Saturday. Last week, however, as I was perusing the wares of the beer store by my work, something caught my eye. Captain Lawrence Captain's Reserve, Imperial IPA. I immediately snatched one up with wide eyed anticipation.

This beer comes in a 16.9 oz bottle. Kind of a weird size. I put it into a unit conversion program and it comes out to about half a liter. It clocks in at 8%. It pours a darker full gold color with a big creamy white head. The first thing that hit me, aroma wise, was a smell very similar to liquid malt extract. I'm not sure why that is, I think the beer was still breathing when I took my first whiff. This aroma gave way almost immediately to pure hop goodness. Strong citrus and pine scents dominated. Flavor was similar. There was a lot of lemon, pine, and grapefruit with a toasty malt backbone. It leaves a lot of hops in your mouth to finish. Very tasty, a true triumph. This beer reminded me of Russian River's Pliny the Elder in that it holds back on the malt. A lot of double IPAs will bulk up a bit on malt in order to provide more fermetables as well as counter strong hop flavors and bitterness. Captain's Reserve, like Pliny, manages to accomplish this while staying lighter in body and malt flavor. It is also very lemony, like Pliny. I recommend both and would say that Captain Lawrence, Captain's Reserve might be the east coast answer to Pliny the Elder. I'd have to have a few more of each to really be confident in that statement.

So a couple days later I was in Whole Foods Middleton. I had been promised a meal of red Thai curry that night, so I looked for a beer that I thought would compliment the meal. They had Captain's Reserve on the shelf, so I picked one up. It seemed like a good match. Beeradvocate lists American IPA's as a good pairing for Thai. Unfortunately the spiciness of the Thai food washed out the strong character of the beer. I think it would pair well with a Pad Thai or a lighter curry. You win some, you lose some. Cheers and check out this beer.

Beer with curry and mango accompaniment

You don't win friends with salad

Nor will I win many with the above concoction. This is vegetarian charbonnade. Unlike many of my friends, I haven't abandoned all my moral convictions as of yet. This was my first attempt at cooking with beer. Charbonnade is a Belgian dish. It is basically a beef stew with beer involved. I first read about it on Mark Dredge's blog. Instead of using beef I used white wave seitan (wheat gluten). I dredged the seitan in flour with salt and pepper in it. I browned it and set it aside. I then chopped up a bunch of yellow onion and cooked the hell out of it. I put the seitan back in and added beer, vegetable stock, thyme, bay leaf, apple cider vinegar, and black currant jelly. I then put it in the oven for about an hour and a half. While it was cooking and congealing I whipped up some chips. The end result had the right consistency, but the flavoring was off. It was a bit on the bitter side. I think I made two mistakes. Number one, I used an Imperial Stout homebrew. I would have been better off using a dark Belgian or a brown ale. That is what the recipe called for, however I did not have one lying around. I thought it foolish to buy a nice beer just for cooking. Honestly I think that if I had used a Chimay Blue this would have been a success. I can imagine the dark sweet spicy flavor of the beer giving the dish a lot of character and depth. Perhaps next time. I think then the dish would have benefited from smaller chunks of seitan. This would have allowed for more liquid to be absorbed. That was my second mistake. Although bitter, the chunks were flavorful on the outside but a bit bland on the inside. It may seem like I did not like my meal. It was actually not bad. Definitely a good first attempt at cooking with beer. I ate the veggie charbonnade with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, a fine pairing.

Ramstein

No, not the shitty German band. That is Rammstein. I'm talking about the beer made by Greg Zaccardi and his team at the High Point Brewery in Butler, NJ. I stopped by today for their monthly open house. They have a real nice set up. Really beautiful tanks and kettles. They have a sweet tasting room with four taps. The event was free, and you got four drink tickets upon entering. If you bought a growler (which of course I did) you could fill up your cup a few more times.

High Point specializes in traditional German style wheat beers and lagers. Greg imports everything except for the water from Bavaria. They had five beers on tap. I had four of them. I can't recall which one I missed though. They had a classic wheat which was malty, and wheaty, slightly sweet and yeasty. There was a golden lager which was smooth slightly malty with hops coming through in the finish. Next I had the double platinum blonde which was truly delicious. This was spicy, yeasty, fruity, and bitter sweet. Last I indulged in their seasonal Maibock. This was the star of the show. It was toasty and smooth, malty and delicious. Hops cut through in the beginning and the end. Very traditional and very delicious. I took a growler home with me. The Maibock received a great rating on both ratebeer.com and beer advocate.com. If you are in the area, stop by and pick something up. The tour is on the second Saturday of the month from 2-4pm.

Greg doing his thing

A beautiful sight

Tasting room complete with child bartender

I treated myself to a growler

Drinking: Magic Hat Odd Notion (number 2)
Listening to: E Smith-Figure 8

I wanna do this

Special Beer Night

Who is down? Get at me. I have a couple nice bottles that I have been saving. Also, Mark Dredge has a sweet blog.