Grizzly Growler

According to the MSNBC article below, beer is full of dietary silicon, which is really good for bone health. So, if you’re like me and don’t consume a lot of dairy, you might find beer to be just what the doctor ordered for strong, healthy bones.

Read the full article “Beer may be good for your bones.”

Prost,

GG

This year’s Community Brew is all about the IBA. That’s India Brown Ale. Here’s a note posted on the Zoo City Zymurgists web site talking about the best beers and winner Mike Hoffer.

Here are the results from head brewer, Matt Long:

A record 38 entries were submitted, but we were able to come up with a judging format that did not fatigue our palates.

We had 9 beers make it to the final table:

Rick Dahlen Beer #1
Rick Dahlen Beer #3
Colin Christiansen Golden Nugget
Mike Hoffer Barnacle Bill’s
Mike Hoffer Whole Lot of Mischief
Bill Ruediger #1
Ruediger #4
Mike Nielsen IBA (1)
Nick McClure

The best 4 of those were:

Dahlen #1
Ruediger #1
Nielsen
Hoffer Whole Lot of Mischief

And the winner goes to:

Mike Hoffer Whole Lot of Mischief!

Mike’s beer best represented what we though an IBA should be.  A very nice malty presence with a unique hop explosion on the finish.

We have the beginning of a dynasty here as Mike was the winner of the 2^nd annual Community brew.  Congratulations to Mike.

Yeah, congratulations Mike!

Prost,

GG

My buddy Beau is a really good home brewer. His passion for good beer and dedication to beer experimentation is really outstanding in a town with a great bunch of  home brewers. I’ve enjoyed every batch of Beau’s beer that I’ve tried so far, and this isn’t usually the case for homemade beer, which can suffer greatly due to sanitation issues.

Last night Beau brought a couple bottles of his homemade barley wine over for the Super Bowl. This is one of the few of his beers I hadn’t tried yet, and I was really looking forward to it. This one blew me away. Like I said, I haven’t had a bad Beau beer yet, but this bad boy was not only one of the best homemade beers I’ve ever had, it was one of the best barley wines I’ve ever had.

When I say it was like Nilla Wafers in a glass, I do not exaggerate. Sweet caramel and toffee with vanilla and tropical fruit are simplistic ways of describing a very complex and exciting beer. The yeast characteristic  in this beer seriously has a cookie-wafer taste to is, which really brings out the vanilla and some sweet dried pineapple and coconut.

So why am I writing about a beer that you will probably never have?

Because I think Beau, and the other homebrewers around here deserve a little notice once-in-a-while. It’s easy to focus on the craft beer industry and forget that if it weren’t for homebrewers, well, we wouldn’t have much of an industry.

So the next time your neighbor or homebrewing friend offers you a bottle of something they made in their garage, take it and pour it in a good beer glass. You never know, you just might be drinking the best thing you’ll ever drink.

And if you have an inclination to brew something amazing yourself, join the Zoo City Zymurgists. There are plenty of people like Beau out there who will be glad to help you get started.

Prost,

GG

If you’re watching the Super Bowl in good Ol’ snowy Missoula Montana, then this post is for you. Since the downfall of my 49ers a decade ago now, I haven’t been as interested in the Big Game for more than the commercials. There have been a few good Super Bowls in the meantime, but it never has the same meaning when your favorite team is not playing for or in the Super Bowl.

This year is no exception, with the exception of the Saints, an underdog story only America could love.

For my Super Bowl party, I’ll be serving Big Sky Brewing Co.’s Powder Hound. There is no implicit meaning behind this decision other than the fact that growlers of Powder Hound are on sale for $4 at the tap room right now.

But here are my top local picks for Super Bowl beer.

1. Missoula Brewing Co.’s Highlander – Any time of year is a great time of year for Highlander, but I think it’s a fine beer to drink with hot wings. That malty sweetness inherent of Scotch-style beers is perfect for that spicy treat.

2. Bayern Brewing’s Pilsner – If you’re used to drinking Bud Light or Coors for the Big Game, you should really upgrade this year. Bayern Pilser has that same light characteristic of the American pilsners, but with the added benefit of taste and style. You’ll be in familiar territory, but it will be a whole new ball game.

3. Kettlehouse Brewing Co.’s Brick & Mortar Imperial Porter – I should’ve swung by the brewery and picked up a growler of this beauty. I can see enjoying a good close Saints victory with a glass of this big, big beer in hand.

4. Big Sky Brewing Co.’s Trout Slayer (Correction: Too many damn beers with Trout in the name) or Moose Drool in cans – Cans are downright cool on Super Bowl Sunday. So is a fine glass of barley wine, but if you’re going to drink beer and eat hot wins, you might consider grabbing a six-pack of cans of either beer. Depends on your mood of course, but you’re either going dark or light. Both beers have some great, unique characteristics that will add a little fun to your Super Bowl party.

5. Blacksmith Brewing Co.’s Black Iron IPA – This is a seasonal, and I’m not sure it’s in season right now, but this might be one of my favorite local IPAs. The black malts added give this huge beer a totally different feel than our most familiar West-Coast style IPAs. At any rate, they are open on Sundays, so stop in and ask about the Black Iron. If they don’t have it, try the Cutthroat IPA.

Have a great Super Bowl Sunday, and please remember to drive safely.

Go Saints!

Prost,

GG

I’ve live-blogged beer dinners before, but I’ve learned that a beer dinner must be experienced in all its glory to really appreciate it. Last night’s Big Sky Blue Canyon Beer Dinner was the best one yet. It was standing-room-only, except everyone had a chair. Seriously good-size crowd.

The best part of the evening, besides the food and beer, of course, was enjoying the whole experience with the gang from Bitterroot Brewing. Their food, beer and promotion guys came up to see what all the hype was about, and perhaps make some plans for their very own brewer’s dinner in the future.

It was great to sit around with a bunch of beer lovers and confirm, at least to ourselves, that beer is really the best beverage to pair with food. Wine has its good matches, but it’s a simpler beverage and it’s picky. Not so much with beer. The hops, barley, yeast and alcohol provide such a better platform for the myriad flavor possibilities than do juice, yeast and oak. Sorry, not to pick on wine too much, but last night’s beer dinner was a showcase of different beer styles, from Belgian to traditional English and American Pale Ales, and foods as diverse as scallops, brisket and black garlic.

Many thanks to Larry Coffman and his very talented crew at Blue Canyon Kitchen and Tavern, as well as to the brewers at Big Sky Brewing Co. You guys exemplify the spirit of your crafts.

Look for more of these types of beer dinners coming up soon. I’ll be announcing several beer dinners through the rest of winter and into spring.

Prost,

GG

Here’s a great little story to head into your weekend with. Hope to see you all at the Big Sky Blue Canyon beer dinner tonight!

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — This Scotch has been on the rocks for a century.

Five crates of Scotch whisky and two of brandy have been recovered by a team restoring an Antarctic hut used more than 100 years ago by famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.

Ice cracked some of the bottles that had been left there in 1909, but the restorers said Friday they are confident the five crates contain intact bottles “given liquid can be heard when the crates are moved.”

New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust team leader Al Fastier said the team thought there were two crates and were amazed to find five.

Current distillery owner, drinks group Whyte & Mackay, launched the bid to recover the Scotch whisky for samples to test and decide whether to relaunch the defunct spirit made by distiller McKinlay and Co.

Fastier said restoration workers found the crates under the hut’s floorboards in 2006, but they were too deeply embedded in ice to be dislodged.

The New Zealanders agreed to drill the ice to try to retrieve some bottles, although the rest must stay under conservation guidelines agreed to by 12 Antarctic Treaty nations.

“The unexpected find of the brandy crates, one labeled Chas. Mackinlay & Co and the other labeled The Hunter Valley Distillery Limited Allandale (Australia) are a real bonus,” said Fastier.

Ice has cracked some of the crates and formed inside them. Fastier said in a statement that would make extracting the contents delicate, but the trust would decide how to do so in coming weeks.

Richard Paterson, master blender at Whyte and Mackay, whose company supplied the Mackinlay’s whisky for Shackleton, described the find as “a gift from the heavens for whisky lovers.”

“If the contents can be confirmed, safely extracted and analyzed, the original blend may be able to be replicated. Given the original recipe no longer exists, this may open a door into history,” he said in a statement.

Shackleton’s expedition ran short of supplies on its long ski trek to the South Pole from the northern Antarctic coast in 1907-1909 and turned back about 100 miles (160 kilometers) short of its goal.

The expedition sailed away in 1909 as winter ice formed, leaving behind supplies, including the whisky and brandy.

Prost,

GG

I ran across this on the Kettlehouse Brewing Co. official Facebook page, and I gotta say, I like this line of reasoning. I prefer dark glass, but I think they’ve got something here.

The subject of using dark brown glass for growlers vs clear glass comes up frequently for us. Here’s our line of reasoning for why we use clear (we will fill all glass growlers though regardless of color race or sexual orientation):

Kettlehouse Brewing Company
I’ve always been lukewarm on Dark growlers. Yes it’ll help block the UV that skunkefies the beer. I actually had a pitcher of Montana Blonde on a deck at the Ironhorse years ago that skunked within minutes. After it skunked, I pretended that it was Heineken!

But growlers by nature are meant to be consumed like a pitcher: relatively quickly. As long as you keep your clear growlers out of direct sunlight they won’t skunk. There is an inherent problem with growlers that reduces their shelf life drastically. That is when we fill them, oxygen comes in contact with the beer which causes a cardboardy off flavor that is apparent within a day. So even if you have a dark growler you’re beer will be compromised within a day.

When you consider that growler manufacturers charge more for dark glass, they’re harder to see when filled so overfilling and waste become more of an issue, and we once had a bad shipment of dark growlers that were especially fragile, it doesn’t make much sense to use dark just to keep beer from going skunky. A growler tote will block the light AND keep the beer cold. And, oh by the way, we sell growler totes with our logo on them!! How’s that for a response?… See More

Thanks Kettlehouse,

GG

For your Friday reading pleasure. Take a moment to read this wonderful Web site at Modern Drunkard Magazine. If for nothing more than the pure comedic vitriol it pours forth.

Prost,

GG

Sazerac Rye

In the great world of whiskey, this news might be considered to have come from The Onion or some other funny source, but it came from the 2010 Whisky Bible, a U.K. Guide to premier whiskeys, which proclaimed the 18-year-old Kentucky-made  Sazerac Rye as the BEST Whiskey/Whisky.

Also surprising, according to this blog post from Dowd’s Spirits, is the fact that an Indian whiskey, Amrut Fusin, from Bangalore, was number 3 behind Scotland’s Ardbeg Supernova.

What shouldn’t come as a surprise is that whiskey king Buffalo Trace is finding a way into nearly every level of the whiskey market. From high end to low end, there’s a chance your whiskey was made by Buffalo Trace.

As craft distilleries continue to open across the country and around the world, they will change the strategy for high-end, mass-produced whiskey makers in much the same way that craft breweries did to the Big Three.

But the cycle for beer is much faster than that of whiskey, so it will be interesting to see how the big whiskey industry deals with the small whiskey industry over the next 5-10 years.

Slainthe,

GG

Just wanted to let all of you know that executive chef Larry Coffman has opened the doors wide to allow as many as want to attend tomorrow night’s Big Sky Blue Canyon Beer Dinner do so. However, he will need a final count by early Friday, so if you’ve been putting off signing up, do so today.

Here are the details:

Menu:

1st Course

Baby Greens Salad, Apple Cider Viniagrete, Dehydrated Apple Chips,
Spiced Pecan Crusted Amalethia Goat Cheese
Beer: Big Sky Powder Hound

2nd Course
Herb Grilled Sea Scallop, Caramelized Shallot Orange Glaze,
Tarragon Foam
Beer: Big Sky Belgian Triple

Intermezzo
Basil, Watermelon Sorbet

3rd Course
Crispy Seared Hutterite Duck Breast, Black Garlic Spaetzle,
Blackberry-Fig Balsamic Glaze
Beer: Big Sky Kriek

4th Course
Braised Smoked Brisket, Crispy Widmer Cheddar Perogi, Port Demi
Beer: Big Sky Robust Porter

5th Course
Milk Chocolate, Bavarian Mousse, Peanut Butter Bombe,
Khalua Creme Anglaise
Beer: Big Sky Ivan The Terrible

Cost ~$65 per person / $120 per couple + gratuity ~6:30 pm – In The Blue Canyon Bison Room ~Call 541-BLUE (2583) To Make Your Reservations Today!

Prost,

GG