OMG, #20 - Strong Ales

I totally forgot to check this one off.  Monday night at 7:00PM, Nicholas and I attended "Strong Ales" at the Stone Brewing Company in beautiful Escondido.  Strong Ales is one of many classes in Stone's Beer University, the tickets to which were Nicholas' Christmas present to his father.

Naturally, since I needed to be in Escondido at 7:00, my meeting at work ran late and I didn't get out of Riverside until 5:15.  Google Maps would have us believe that Toro, Riverside to Stone Brewing, by way of our house, is a 1 hour 40 minutes drive time.  Worse during the evening commute, of course.

I phoned Nick and told him to be standing by with a sammich of some kind, since I wouldn't have time to eat before the class.  With much cursing at the opposing drivers I was home by something like twenty past six.  Peed, grabbed my sandwich (OK, I washed my hands first) and then back in the car and on the road.

Amazingly enough, we were in the door at Stone with almost 10 minutes to spare.

We really did not know at all what we were getting into.  We were like, "Do you think we should run to the bar and grab a beer on the way in?"  But we bypassed the bar and got in line for the class.

Turned out that when we got into the "classroom" which is just the upstairs part of their restaurant, there were long tables set up in a big "U" around the perimeter of the room.  There were chairs and settings for probably 50 people.  There were platters of assorted cheese and baskets of flatbread/crackery sort of things.  A couple of snifters and a water glass at each seat.

As it turned out this was a tasting of and PowerPoint presentation on the several styles of beers chosen to represent the broad range of strong ales.  Our instructor for the evening was "Dr." Bill Sysak, Beverage Supervisor and Certified Cicerone, Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens.  Here we have one interesting dude!  (A cicerone, in case you don't want to drill into the hyperlink, is a beer sommelier - thats sommelier like the wine steward, not Somali, like the east African pirates.)

Anway, who knew.

The lecture/tasting included all of the following.  BTW, I'm not going to recount a lot of detail from the lecture because, a) I didn't particularly good notes, b) I was really pretty much out of my element and c) if your interested you can check out the presentation yourself right here.

Sample #1
Fullers Vintage Ale 2010, 8.5% ABV in the style "Old Ale"

I vaguely recall liking this ale, but then it was the first and about the lowest ABV in the bunch; eight samples later, my recollections were becoming a little fuzzy.  The lecture notes re. Old Ales said "fruity notes are often present" and sometimes an "'old school' funk."  Of course, you could tell me a beverage had notes of black swan, yeti and mongoose sweat and I wouldn't know it from squat.  I can say it has a nice bottle.

Sample #2
Stone Lukcy Basartd, 8.5% ABV, American Strong Ale

This was my favorite, not merely because it was from Stone, but because it was the only one that was really hoppy.  Hoppier is bettier in my book.  It was also probably the only ale that I would actually drink for drinking's sake.

By that I mean that most of these have more of a strong port or brandy-like character.  You might quaff a snifter of one with some stinky cheese or some Belgian chocolates or maybe a Canary Islands cigar, since you can't get a Cuban, but you wouldn't sit down and knock back a six-pack.  You wouldn't do that with Lukcy Basartd either, but you could certainly knock back a couple.  And in case you're wondering why I keep misspelling Lucky Bastard, click here.

Sample #3
Dupont Avec Les Bons Voeux 2009, 9.5%ABV, style "Saison"

Saison/farmhouse/season ale.  The main thing I remember about this one is that Dr. Bill mentioned that back in the good old days when they started brewing this stuff the general feeling was the "Water Kills!"  So drink strong ales; sterile, reasonably well preserved by the alcohol content and pretty tasty.  What's more, fish make love in water.  Learn more at the website.


Sample #4
Dieu Du Ciel Rigor Mortis, 10.5%ABV, style  "Abt/Quad"

I can only assume that the name, Rigor Mortis, has something to do with your condition after several of these.

Sample #5
Alesmith Speedway Stout, 12%ABV, style "Imperial Stout"

This was a pretty stout stout.  Normally you get coffee flavors from all the roasted grains and what not, but in this case, the brewers actually added coffee into the mix.  It was good, but I felt like I should be having it with breakfast to kick off the day with a good caffeine rush.

Apparently there's some controversy about what "Imperial" actually means, with everyone using it for marketing whatever strong ale they happen to make.

Sample #6
J.W. Lees Harvest Ale (Aged in Port Barrels), 11.5% ABV, style "English Barley Wine"

This one, from the UK, reminded me of some of that really good scotch that's aged in port or sherry barrels.

Sample #7
Lost Abbey Angels Share 2010 Brandy Barrel, 12.5% ABV, style "American Barley Wine"

This stuff is pretty intersting and really cries out for a cigar or something.  Virtually no carbonation whatsoever, it's very much like sipping a glass of good port.  This Lost Abbey place looks to be interesting.


Sample #8
Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme 2011, 11.0% ABV

Bonus, there were only supposed to be seven samples, but we got an eighth, I guess because we were such good students.  I must check out more of the Lost Abbey.   Haven't tried many of their beers in the past, because they were a) expensive and b) I can't recap the bottles for my home brew.  The all have these big tops sealed with champagne corks, and they won't take a standard bottle cap.

Some of these will be good choices for aging to see how well they mature.  Problem for me is that beer seldom are aged more than a week or two.  I don't exactly have a wine cellar.

That about summed up the evening...
...at least as far as my beer drinking went.  The class ended a bit early; scheduled until 9:00 we skipped out about 8:40.  It being Stone and "Meatless Monday" we decided to have a light late dinner.  So, we got a table outside in on their terrace, Nick ordered there Ruination IPA and Cheddar Soup (along with another beer) and I the Black Bean and Tempe Chili, with a water. (Designated driver.)

The chili was the best vegetarian chili I have ever had, smothered in cheese and thrown under a broiler so it was sort of French Onion Soup-style chili.  The waitress gave us a list of the ingredients, but not the amounts and without in some cases specifics.  For instance, the menu mentions five kinds of chilis, but her ingredient list only mentioned chili powder and dried chilis.  So, some forensic analysis or reverse engineering is in order.  I tried a knock off of the recipe on Tuesday night and absolutely aced the texture.  Sadly, the flavor left a lot to be desired.  I think some of my chili powder may have been inching toward rancid or something.  Had to spike the chili with a liberal amount of agave nectar to get it back to edible.  In the end, I think it was a good experiment, so I'll just wish myself better luck next time.

All in all, it was a very nice Christmas gift.  In actual fact, in was not really a beer brewing class and as such should not count toward my list item #20, but I'm checking it off anyway on the grounds that at least now I will know what to expect when I attempt a strong ale recipe.  Wish me luck.

Sometime soon, I will have to invite you all over for some Strong Ales.