You can't go see a baseball game without indulging in the great American cuisine that is ballpark food. First of all, the game lasts 3+ hours, gotta eat.  Second of all, ballparks in the new millennium have some of the most diverse, and it most cases quality, food you'll find in any sport, or maybe venue in the city.  The ballpark food renaissance began in the 1990s, and now there is even a Major League Baseball Foodfest for who has the most imaginative cuisine representing their area.

For barbecue, you might think a close competition might be between Texas and Kansas City.  Memphis would be in the mix if they had a Major League Team.  But since the construction of Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1992, Big Boogs BBQ has been a staple near Eutaw Street, inspired by and named after 1970 American League Most Valuable Player Boog Powell, the Orioles slugging great of the 1960s and 70s.

For Texas, Houston BBQ, known for it's East Texas style (there are actual multiple styles of BBQ in Texas, yes, the state is that big) has been surging to match that of the more nationally renowned Central Texas style.  Jackson Street Barbecue, with a location just a block from Minute Maid Park, has moved inside the stadium to delight local and out of town guests with some of the best BBQ in Houston.

So which is better?  As former boxing referee Miles Lane might say "LET'S GET IT ON!!!!"

Tale of the Tape

Boog's BBQ

Founded: 1992

Order

Big Boog's $15.75 (with chips)

Boog's Beans: $2.75

Beer Pairing: Yuengling (can 18 oz.) $9.25

Jackson Street BBQ

Founded: 2015

Order:

Chopped BBQ Sandwich: $13.50 (with chips)

Beer Pairing: St. Arnold Amber (draft 20 oz.) $12.50

The Battle:

Big Boogs is Big Flavor

Boog's BBQ brings it strong with meat piled upon meat on the "Big Boog".  A smaller version exists
(Boog's Sandwich), however if you get chips with the sandwich, it's essentially free to upgrade to the Big Boog.  And if you know Boog Powell, he is big.  So it makes sense.  The Big Boog (or Boog's Sandwich) can feature beef, pork or turkey, but how can you not go with the beef?  My only complaint is that the meat to bread ratio is so high, the bread melts under the juiciness of the meat and becomes irrelevant.  By the end of the sandwich, I was unabashedly shoving huge chunks of tasty meat in my mouth by hand, no bread.  I needed a second stomach to finish it along with the chips (didn't get finished) and beans (shouldn't have ordered...not because they are bad but because, again, only one stomach).  For mid-Atlantic BBQ, the meat was tender and tasty.  It did not have the smoke flavor I have become accustomed to in Texas.  Plus points for the chips flavored with crab seasoning, a nice regional touch to complement a great, albeit huge, dinner.  The beer pairing didn't add as much to it, but Yuengling is a versatile lager that goes with most so it was a decent add.

Jackson Street Chopped Sandwich brings the smoky flavor

Jackson Street BBQ began selling sandwiches at Minute Maid Park in 2016, just a small stand only on weekends.  Two persons operated it, they literally walked the meat down the street from the restaurant, cut and serve.  As I became a regular, the server would recognize me and mention he had some off the menu items (like ribs).  Flash forward to 2019, it's a full stand behind home plate (first base side) with a broader menu and army of workers, open all home games.  While several meat/plate options exist, I go with the chopped beef (staple).  Sauce comes on the side, and you dress to your flavor (whole other blog about whether or not BBQ sauce belongs on meat at all).  The meat has a great smoke flavor, some of the best in the entire city.  It's a bit fatty, which gives it juice but could be just as good a little leaner.  I sometimes wish they would just slice the beef instead of chopping, I'll put that in the suggestion box.  The bread was also plus, very fresh and the meat to bread ratio was ideal.  The sauce is not my favorite in the city (so many to choose from) so was used sparingly.  The chips were right down the middle, but it does pair well with St. Arnold Amber that complements the flavor of the meat in a way only available in Houston.

The Verdict:

Meat
Tenderness: Jax
Flavor: Jax
Cut: Boog
Portion: Boog

Bread: Jax

Chips: Boog

Beer
Value: Boog
Flavor: Jax
Pairing: Jax

In a best of nine series, Jackson Street BBQ nudges Boog 5-4.  Neither is a bad choice and both are worthy of a stop at the ballpark!

For the most part, drafting is a simple concept. You like something, and no one else holds the rights to that liked something, you take it. People probably drafted in a Pavlovian manner back in simpler times. Things have become much more complicated in these Twenty-tens, with Brad Pitt inventing Moneyball and such. We plot on, however, picking great things beer, wine, spirits, food, or lagniappe. This is the 2012 Anything Mock Draught, y'all.

With the second pick in the 2012 Anything Mock Draught, K Dub selects:

Oak Barrels

When you picture the wine making process, what one thing comes to mind? Stomping grapes? Stainless fermentation vessels? Grapes growing on the vine? Well, you might. But being the homebrewer that I am, I think about barrel aging. Barrel aging (especially in the case of most red wines) is the longest part of the wine making process. I don't know how those winemaker guys do it, the constant reminder of ends on ends of stacks and rows of barrels every day. So much delicious liquid just waiting, aging, developing, improving and just waiting for that perfect moment to be bottled and shared with the masses. All thanks to magic that lies within the oak barrel.

So how does a barrel create all that flavor? Well, like most plants there are many variables, soil types, location, breed of plant, climate patterns, etc. On top of environmental factors that the tree goes through during its life, there are only man made factors that can affect a barrel's flavor such as toasting the barrel. So there are literally an unlimited number (well I'm sure J.R. could calculate an exact number) of variables that could affect the final flavor of barrel. And to add to it, no matter how hard the cooperage's try, there are always variations from barrel to barrel. It is common for brewers to have a barrel or two that don't taste right or just plain suck, so instead of blending those two barrels in small amounts with the rest of the bottles to get a higher yield (more bottles to sell), they have been known to dump the barrels.

The same goes with whiskey (I'm guessing here). They taste the barrels, and if a few barrels exhibit great flavors, they get the Grade A Gold Star label and the rest gets blended into the mass marketed items. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but I don't know what I'm talking about. Thank you oh massive oak tree for giving your life so that human adults (21 years and older) could enjoy liquids that have taken the flavors and aromas that have taken years to develop from your burned cellulose.

#29 Iowa

Admission to Statehood: December 28, 1846
Population: ~3.1M (30/50)
Capital: Des Moines
Largest City: Des Moines
State Dance:Iowa does not have a state dance! Squares.
Well Known For: Corn, John Wayne, The Bridges of Madison County, Field of Dreams, and being the only state name that starts with two vowels

Brewery Representative: Millstream Brewing Company (Amana, Iowa)
USBP Score: 174

Established: 1985
Flagship Beer: Schild Brau
Comments: One of the joys of assembling brewery representatives for each of the fifty states is running across award winning beers of which I have no familiarity. Millstream is one of these breweries. Founded in 1985 by locals, this brewery is now owned by three employees who purchased it in 2001. Cool. Millstream’s most decorated beer and one of the brewery’s original offerings, Schild Brau, consistently medals at the Great American Beer Festival and the North American Brewers Association competitions. That's pretty good. In 2010, Schild Brau Amber earned a gold medal at the World Beer Cup in the Vienna-Style Lager category. That is really good. But does anyone know if Schild Brau translates to “Shield Beer”? 

If learning a brewery’s story is one of the joys of this USBP, then it is filling the blank space underneath the USBP score that puts this series in the doldrums. To counteract, let’s talk about something brilliant -- like beer can chicken! The first rule of beer can chicken is to get a roaster with a stainless steel canister. This type of roaster will allow for unbounded options to shove up that bird’s hole. Next you'll need to choose a beer to go up there. A Vienna Lager -- like say -- a Schild Brau would be a solid selection. A word to the wise, as a general rule I would stay away from hoppy beers. When cooked, that hoppy bitterness becomes even more concentrated and intense. Save IPAs for drinking while you cook. Now that you've taken care of the basics of beer can chicken, you'll need some direction on how to prep and cook the bird. I recommend checking out Billy Broas’ blog (billybrew.com) for a great post on beer can chicken. There you'll find basic directions and an adaptation of a recipe from Guy Fieri.... And you can drive that bus to Flavor Town, baby!

Runner Up: Court Avenue Brewing Co (154)

CATCH UP WITH OUR OTHER SELECTIONS FOR STATE BREWERY REPRESENTATIVE ON THE USBP PAGE.

#30 Wisconsin

Admission to Statehood: May 29, 1848
Population: ~5.7M
Capital: Madison
Largest City: Milwaukee
State Dance: POLKA!
Well Known For: Dairy, cheese, those cheese wedge hats, cheese curds, Oscar Mayer, Happy Days, and beer drinking

Brewery Representative: Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co Miller Brewing Company (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
USBP Score: 221

Established: 1855
Flagship Beer: Miller Lite
Comments: NEWSFLASH: Miller Brewing Company is the The Ferm's USBP State Representative for Wisconsin! Shocked? Awed? Shockawed? Here is the deal, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company actually scored higher using my formula, but after creating the requisite graphics and preparing this write-up, I noticed that Leinenkugel's was purchased by Miller Brewing Company in 1988. While Leinies are a somewhat respectable macrobrew, common sense suggests to award Wisconsin to Miller -- who finished 3rd in USBP scoring on its own.

"Sorry, Leinenkugel, but [Miller is] arguably Wisconsin's biggest invention to date." - Shilcutt

What more should I offer on Miller? You probably know Miller Brewing Company is owned by the UK based SABMiller. However, did you know Miller had been owned by Philip Morris, had been seen an attempt of purchase from PepsiCo, and that the so-called Plank-Road Brewery was real and actually where Frederick Miller founded the brewery in 1855? If I told you that the original brewery included man made caves where Miller's beer was stored before the advent of commercially viable mechanical refrigeration, would that be something you would be interested in?

I know, these days it is all about the marketing. Miller and Wisconsin. Riding in to the USBP Capitol on the Common Sense ticket:


Runner Up: Stevens Point Brewery (220)

CATCH UP WITH OUR OTHER SELECTIONS FOR STATE BREWERY REPRESENTATIVE ON THE USBP PAGE.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Alas, our dead readers, you are reading the last of the USBP retreads. California. Wisconsin is in the queue. I literally may or may not have an ironic selection for The Badger State.

#31 California

Admission to Statehood: September 9, 1850
Population: ~37.3M
Capital: Sacramento
Largest City: Los Angeles
State Dance: "West Coast Swing" (AND Square Dance)
Well Known For: Gold, mountain ranges, wine, freeway traffic, poplocking, Ronald Reagan, and Dr. Dre.

Brewery Representative: Anchor Brewing Company (San Francisco, California)
USBP Score: 232

Established: 1896
Flagship Beer: Anchor Steam
Comments: Anchor Steam was part of the foundation of my craft beer education. Prior to discovering it on my grocery shelf, I had probably been no more adventurous than Guinness, Corona, and Shiner Bock.

Anchor Brewing has survived earthquakes, fires, Prohibition, and the post-Prohibition wasteland ruled by light lagers from megabreweries. In 1965, Frederick Louis Maytag III (“Fritz”) bought the struggling brewery for a few thousand dollars. During the process of cleaning up, making improvements, and learning the brewing process himself, Fritz created an original American beer style, the modern California Common Beer. Fritz’s beer was a version of the historic “steam beers,” which are beers brewed with lager yeasts at warm temperatures (normally lager yeast is fermented between 48-55F).

Fritz Maytag -- also a viticulturist (York Creek Vineyards), Director of the Brewers Association, and Chairman of the Board of the Maytag Dairy Farms (Maytag Blue Cheese) -- is considered by most to be the father of modern microbreweries. The state of California is rich with worthy candidates for state brewery representative. I believe the USBP formula got it right here. While Fritz recently sold Anchor, the brewery still stands as not only an inspiration for many California brewing entrepreneurs, but also a landmark to brewers and beer drinkers across America.

Runner Up: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (202)

CATCH UP WITH OUR OTHER SELECTIONS FOR STATE BREWERY REPRESENTATIVE ON THE USBP PAGE.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Another day, another recycled post. If you missed yesterday's update, I have been rebuilding the USBP rankings after I lost them after my computer drank a martini. Just as when a spouse dies and the other tends to die sooner than she would otherwise, my portable hard drive died less than a week later. I've moved and given the series its own page. You can easily access it now using the tabs at the top of the site.

I almost feel obligated to tell you what I'm eating or drinking in order to give this post a new car smell or something.

This beer pours a vivid golden blonde with a soft, pillowy head. Sexy lacing. Remarkable spicy aroma with maybe just a little old newsprint and pine detected. Excellent boozy palate, with a hint of baking soda and circus peanut. Creamy mouthfeel and bone dry finish. Score: 3.89/5.

No, not Minnesota's beer below... the one I'm drinking. At least that is something that I told you.

#32 Minnesota

Admission to Statehood: May 11, 1858
Population: ~5.3M
Capital: Saint Paul
Largest City: Minneapolis
State Dance: "Square Dance" (yessssssss)
Well Known For: Little House on the Prairie, Land O’ Lakes butter, The artist formerly and currently known as Prince, The Golden Girls, gophers, groundhogs, ducks, geese, caribou, bison

Brewery Representative: August Schell Brewing Company (New Ulm, Minnesota)
USBP Score: 224

Established: 1860
Flagship Beer: Original
Comments: Like our Colorado USBP Brewery representative Coors, August Schell Brewing Company was founded in the 1800s (before Prohibition). Like Coors, its flagship beer is named "Original." Unlike Coors, the brewery is still family-owned. In fact among family-owned breweries, Schell's (1860) is second in age only to Yuengling & Son (1829)

August Schell Brewing Company is the largest and oldest brewery in the state of Minnesota. Despite their respectable line of craft beers and seasonals, the Schells does not fit the Brewer’s Association’s definition of craft brewer (have an "all malt flagship beer" or have "at least 50% of its volume in either all malt beers or in beers which use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavor").

With Minnesota's representative, we now have a pre-Prohibition, family owned brewery that makes both craft and traditional American lagers. Schell's holds the highest USBP score, making the brewery a very worthy candidate for President pro tempore.

Runner Up: Summit Brewing Company (182)

CATCH UP WITH OUR OTHER SELECTIONS FOR STATE BREWERY REPRESENTATIVE ON THE USBP PAGE.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You may be aware that I lost my brewery ratings after losing my backup and primary hard drives within a week of each other. I went through all kinds of grief.

First I was in denial that they were gone. I took both drives apart, switched wires around, and hooked them up to other computers. Let me tell you, I learned a lot about hard drives and how fragile they are during this step. Ridiculously fragile.

But seriously, how can a man lose two hard drives in one week? It doesn't even make sense. What kind of moron breaks two hard drives! WHAT KIND OF MORON DOESN'T HAVE THREE HARD DRIVES!!

Desperate, I called a few super nerds I found on the Interwebs that were willing to charge me nearly $1000 to get my stuff back. One had a great Boston accent, but he sounded a little too "street" to trust with $1000 and my precious hard drives.

All of my documents, the documentation  of both my children's lives, and the USBP were not worth $1000. Were they? No. No they couldn't be. Everything is gone. I feel like a blinking cursor on a blank screen.

But I won't let that get me down. I must rebuild, and I've begun by recalibrating the old USBP model! I've also given the USBP its own page on the site and a link on the top tabs for the site. Since Oregon was a calibration state for my original model, I'm getting back into the swing by rehashing some material. Hopefully you aren't disappointed. But seriously, how could you be all that disappointed in me? We hardly know each other. AND, maybe you don't even remember reading it the first time. Maybe you haven't read it before, and therefore it's new to you. Either way, I've never claimed to be a credible writer, sooo...

 

#33 Oregon

Admission to Statehood: February 14, 1859
Population: ~3.8M
Capital: Salem
Largest City: Portland
State Beverage: Milk
State Dance: Square Dance
Well Known For: Being that place you always died trying to get to during your Elementary computer lab, Nike, James Beard, Smart Growth, dungeness crabs, hippies.

Brewery Representative: Rogue Ales (Newport, Oregon)
USBP Score: 187

Established: 1988
Flagship Beer: Dead Guy Ale
Comments: We've been offline for a while due to a catastrophic hard drive failure. Most of the USBP scoring and selections had to be rebuilt. However, I found the transcript below in the hard drive wreckage.


[sitting in the Widmer Brothers tasting room]

Abigail: Hey guys! Isn't this Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen delicious?
Issac: No diggity!
Gideon: But aren’t the Widmer Brothers are corporate sellouts? Seriously, do you really believe that there were *really* two Widmer Brothers? I’m just saying.
Abigail: Uuuhhh. Hefe. Yyyummm!
Gideon: Listen up friends. Try taking a journey by covered wagon PT Cruiser across 150 miles from this land of penultimate urban planning, through rivers and forests, to a new brewery at the forefront of the craft beer revolution.
Samuel: *burp*
Gideon: TRY!!!
Abigail: Do we have enough money for such a journey?
Gideon: You bet. Sam is a banker. He's loaded. [checks Sam's wallet]. He's got like sixteen hundred dollars in there.
Abigail: And speaking of loaded, I’ve got a gun in my purse.
Issac: What?
Samuel: Whoows drvving?
Gideon: Bobbi-Xtina! Close out, we are hitting the road!

Miles traveled: 0.5 miles

[Not one minute into the journey]
Samuel needs to stop and make water.

Gideon: Doggoneit Sam. We'll stop up here at Matt's General Store. Anybody need anything?

Gideon filled the car up with gas.
Bobbi-Xtina got a few packs of Blue Ox Jerky, Airheads, Pizza flavored Combos, and several Code Red Mountain Dews.
Samuel picked up a "Keep Portland Beered" shirt.
Abigail came from the woods carrying a rabbit and a squirrel carcass.

Some Hippie: What is the gas mileage of that Cruiser, man?
Samuel: Whthh that trribal titoo mean, man?
Some Hippie: That grass is inadequate, man.

The group gets in the wagon.

Miles traveled: .07 miles

[Before crossing Willamette River]
Bobbi-Xtina gets a stomach ache.

Miles traveled: 10 miles

The PT Cruiser hits something.

Gideon: Everyone OK?
Samuel: Thereth two of evvything.

Miles traveled: 20 miles

Abigail: What are the symptoms of cholera?

[from Bobbi-Xtina’s Droid phone]
The primary symptoms of cholera are profuse painless diarrhea and vomiting of clear fluid. These symptoms usually start suddenly, one to five days after ingestion of the bacteria. The diarrhea is frequently described as "rice water" in nature and may have a fishy odor. An untreated person with cholera may produce 10-20 liters of diarrhea a day with fatal results. For every symptomatic person there are 3 to 100 people who get the infection but remain asymptomatic.

Abigail may have cholera.

The group stops at the nearest rest station in Idiotville.

[Seriously, there is an Idiotville, OR.]

The group takes a 30 minute break.

Sensing that the Issac was opening up a big can of quit, Gideon insists everyone get back in the Cruiser and continue the journey. Abigail comes out of the woods after a bathroom break with a deer carcass.

The weather is warm, the group has plenty of food, and no one is dead yet.

Miles traveled: 60 miles

Gideon gets a speeding ticket.

Officer Louie: Be careful not to hit that Cruiser's pedal too hard! You can keep moving on your way, but set your cruise control at a fair pace. Do I smell alcohol? If you keep driving too fast you'll all end up spending a night in the drink tank.

Samuel: Lame.
Bobbi-Xtina: Oooh, look. A roadside gravestone!
Gideon: Don’t get out of the... ugh. Alright.
Gravestone: "Here lies andy. peperony and chease"
Gideon: What the? Seriously, get back in the Cruiser."

Miles traveled: 86 miles

Samuel: Oooo, llllook! Werrrr closse to Tillamahoo, Tillmooo, Tilllllaamahooo...
Gideon: Tillamook. They make the best cheddar. I want to make a bed out of that stuff and sleep on it.

Bobbi-Xtina buys 186 lbs of cheese, but can only carry 100lbs back to the car.

Creepy Scout in the Tillamook parking lot: The game is still plentiful along here, but gettin' harder to find. With so many overlanders, I don't expect it to last more'n a few years. Folks shoot the game for sport, take a small piece, and let the rest rot in the sun."
Gideon: Ooooh-kay.
[The group rushes back to the Cruiser.]

Abigail: Where are my rabbits?
Gideon: Drat! Someone stole half our stuff! And our spare tire. What is wrong with people?!
Abigail: I thought we left the crazies back in Portland?
Gideon: It's kind of hot.

Gideon may have cholera.

Miles traveled: 114 miles

The PT Cruiser gets a flat tire.

Gideon: What are the chances someone would steal our spare tire and then we’d get a flat tire?
Bobbi-Xtina: ...and that there would be an abandoned PT Cruiser right over there?

Abigail gets a spare tire, a gas can, and some buffalo chips from the abandoned Cruiser.
Abigail: What are buffalo chips?
 
Bobbi-Xtina finds some wild fruit.
 
Abigail: Want to see a dead bear?
Gideon: I seriously hope that is a metaphor.
Samuel: I'm thirsty.

Miles traveled: 115 miles

The group stops at The Pelican Pub and Brewery and gets a round of India Pelican Ale.

Bar Person: Be warned, stranger. Don't drink the water! Drink only beer. As *burp* strong as the beer is -- it's better than the cholera! We buried my mate last week. Could use some help with this harness, if you can space the time.

Gideon: Guys! Cruiser! Now!
Samuel: Thrrthty

Bobbi-Xtina finds some wild fruit.

Bobbi-Xtina gets typhoid.

[from Bobbi-Xtina’s Droid phone]
Typhoid fever is characterized by a slowly progressive fever as high as 104°F, profuse sweating and gastroenteritis. Less commonly, a rash of flat, rose-colored spots may appear.

Bobbi-Xtina: Check that, I just need to roll down a window and lay off this wild fruit.

Bobbi-Xtina may have dysentery.

Gideon: When is the last time anyone saw Issac?

[Issac drowned in the Willamette River, but the team never noticed]

Miles traveled: 140 miles

Gideon: We have to be getting close. Right guys?
Gideon: Guys?

Runner Up: Deschutes Brewery (183)

CATCH UP WITH OUR OTHER SELECTIONS FOR STATE BREWERY REPRESENTATIVE ON THE USBP PAGE.

I'm literally writing this with tears in my eye. I came down here to Portland, OR, USA for a short beercation and now I'm in a lot of trouble. I am so freaked out at the moment and need to get things sorted out ASAP so I can get out of here. If someone could help me out with a quick loan of approximately $2371.54 to sort out some bills I promise I'll refund it once I get home.

UPdate:
OMG, do you doubt me? What have I done to not deserve your assistance? I'm telling you I'm freaking out. Look, I've been to the cops and the embassy, but neither would help with my issues. I just need a quick loan, because this bar manager won't let me leave until I settle this bill. Western Union is probably the best way for us to do this transaction. Just give them the money and hit me back with that ID and when I can pick it up.

UpDATE2:
I checked my local Dub-U and there weren't any transactions for me. Don't forget that MTCN confirmation number. And I'm in Portland, OR.

And it's around $2371.54 that I need. 

And I'm freaked.

New update:
I don't know why you haven't wired me this money. We both know it would save me from a lot of embarrassment and possibly save my life. I've also got a flight to catch. I promise to refund the money to you the next time we meet. 

Maybe you need some back story before you help me out. Here we go.

I started at Henry's 12^th Street Tavern. This place has like 100 beers on tap!! They were also open at noon. Score-and-a-half! Check out the frozen lane that goes around the bar.

I had four or so pints here. I believe in laying down a good foundation before a big day. Next I headed out to find a Whole Foods Market. Portland is so hip, and I needed a visit to this earth-and-body-friendly, organic foods paradise to give my hipsterism a bump before night fell. 

En route I found Rogue Ale Public House, so I did that instead. The bartender there was so cool. Rogue's bar has a lot of windows, so this guy wore sunglasses inside. If memory serves, I think his name was Seabiscuit. My man hooked me up with enough samples to call it a day. I ordered a pint anyway just to return the favor, since I don't know what the proper tipping percentage is on free samples. This barkeep was really rad and definitely deserved a tip. 

From across the room I heard, "Anybody want a distillery tour?" I scanned the room to see if there was any takers, but it was two in the afternoon, and I happened to be the only person in the bar area. "Uhhh, this guy," I replied pointing both thumbs at my shoulders. Seabiscuit spit back, "W-W-W dot fingerpoint dot snap dash wink dot com." Hashtag awesome! I was so glad I didn't go to Whole Foods.

Affected picture of Seabiscuit

I don't know if my experience was unique, but the solo Rogue distillery tour consisted of talking about liquor and taking shots with the tour lady in the upstairs bar. If there was more to the tour, then I don't recall. I did learn that you cannot touch the still. Hashtag now I have a burn mark on arm.

Don't Touch That

Looking to soak in some additional Portland flavor, I hit up Seabiscuit for a recco. He informed me that Portland was home to the number one Irish establishment in America. Hashtag Seabiscuit 4 Prez. 

Have you guys noticed that Portland has a lot of street folk – uh, homeless-ish looking people (I don't judge). No, not as many as New Haven, Connecticut though. Am I right, friend?

A block from the pub, with my brain composing a mad fiddle tune, I ran into a guy passing out flyers. I have a personal policy about not taking flyers on the sidewalk. "No, you throw it away." I always say that joke. I can't even remember who I stole it from, but it's kind of sneaky mean, and I like it. The street flyer guy didn't understand my sarcasm and somehow tricked me into grabbing the flyer. But I was glad he did.

You see friend, Portland has these Underground Tours that literally take you on a "journey into the bowels of the city." Apparently many of the buildings are connected underground, and were once used for illicit "medicine" trade, Prohibition-era saloons, white slavery, and some other cool stuff. Portland's version of the emerald isle could wait. 

The Underground Tour started at the daftly named Shanghai Tunnel pub. Our guide began the experience by asking the group what kind of tour they wanted: 1.) The white slavery tour or 2.) The ghost tour. White slavery sounds pretty awesome. In spite of this fact, everyone in the entire room raised their hands for the ghost tour, presumably because ghosts are cooler than slavery. Ugh.

We headed underground, and I kid you not, the flyer-passer-out guy was down there. Creep city. Seriously, I think I've seen this guy in an old Scooby Doo cartoon. By the end of the tour, we all agreed that there were definitely ghosts living in Portland. "You believe in ghosts," you are probably asking. I agreed ghosts were real as a precaution, because if ghosts do exist, then there is less of a chance of them getting mad and then haunting me if I am a believer. If there aren't really ghosts, then I'm also in the clear, because – you see – they don't exist. The logic is sound. Plus, the creepy flyer-passer-out tour-assistant guy stopped staring at me when I declared my belief. That guy is like part Craigslist – part bottom of the tongue – part stray cat. 

We weren't allowed bar drinks on the tour, so it was definitely time to test the taps at the best Irish establishment in America, the place blessed by my new super cool bartender friend from Rogue. At least I thought Seabiscuit was my friend. Wow, how can I express it best? Let me just say that it looked like it was Ed Hardy's birthday (observed) up in there. 

Slainte!

Coming down hard off my midday craft beverage bender, I decided to suck it up, intermingle with the pretentious sugar-coated meat heads, and make my way to the bar.

And here, friend, is where the story goes off course. 

When I reached for my wallet to pay for my Honest Pint® of Guinness……… NOW DOES MY EARLIER PLEA MAKE SENSE TO YOU!?

My heart started racing. I had everything in that wallet: All my credit cards, my ID, my American Homebrewers Association member card, a lotto ticket, my Social Security Card, a bunch of walking around cash, and a receipt of a time when I epically out-Whataburgered my wife. I started sweating. I couldn't breathe. Everything was spinning. I really wanted that beer. 

I ran out of Kells (In order to avoid libel and stuff, let's say the place rhymes with…) "Hellz" to get back to the Shanghai tours. The last time I pulled my wallet out was when I bought that ghost tour ticket. I was disoriented, and must have run around the same block two or three times before finding a hostess at the bar. Gasping for air and a clear thought, I explained to the hostess that I had lost my wallet on an earlier tour. My spastic demeanor must have frightened her a bit, because she just turned around, called someone on the phone, and directed me to the bar next door. However, no one but a bartender was at that bar next door. I sure could have used a beer to calm the nerves, but instead I frantically explained to him my predicament. The bartender assured me they could help, and he led me to the back of the bar.

I awoke in some dreadful chamber underground. I checked my pocket and damn – no wallet. I had no idea where I had been taken or how I got there, but when I saw him, I figured it out. 

Curse all those fools for voting for the ghost tour!! I knew zero point zero about Shanghaiing. But, I was about to find out.

Did you ever pith a frog in science class? I'm just saying that it was the creepy flyer tour guy down there with me. He explained my two options: 1.) Work the Portland bar scene for no pay, cleaning up in the early mornings to get the establishments ready for the next day, or 2.) Pay $2,250 for my freedom. 

He further explained that Portland had been using this shocking practice of kidnapping able-bodied men and women since the 1800s. A little Shanghaiing is apparently how Portland continues to be so great, and it really makes sense the way he explained it. I had sensed something a little strange about the city. Plus, it is kind of cool to be called "able-bodied."

But friend, I'm no good at cleaning. I haven't even made my bed since middle school. Please, please help me out. I'll be honest, I was just kidding about the embassy thing in the earlier update. I thought that would get your attention, but now I know I was wrong. The Western Union details at the top of the post are totally real though. I need that $2,250 for my freedom, $86.54 for the ecoShuttle to PDX, and I seriously need a beer or two and a pizza. 

I will never drink a bunch of beer before liquor and then take flyers and go on tours ever again. I promise. I'll just wait here for your response. 

With this guy.

Thanks.

Well here I am, sitting in my chair, watching Jersey Shore (I need my trash reality TV, we'll get to that) and blogging about brewing beer, instead of being outside actually homebrewing a beer. The reason I'm not outside is because I feel like sick-ish, I've been coughing up some crud for the past 24+ hours and I need to get some rest. So this entry is a prelude to my homebrewing session that I'll be doing tomorrow.

I'm a pretty regular listener to the podcasts from The Brewing Network (BN) and one of their shows called The Jamil Show: Can You Brew It attempts to brew clone recipes of popular commercial beers, with great success. One of the beers that I have heard the BN brewcasters rant and rave about for years is the Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA. This beer has won numerous awards including gold at the Great American Beer Festival in 2008 and 2009 (They also won Mid-Size Brewing Company and Mid-Size Brewing Company Brewer in 2011). Winning a medal at GABF is tough, getting one in the IPA catagory is difficult due to the high number of entries (176 entries in 2011), securing a gold medal is amazing and winning gold back to back years is almost impossible. In fact, here's what the crew at Firestone Walker has to say about their award winning IPA:

"An instant classic, Union Jack is the recipient of numerous awards including back to back wins at the Great American Beer Festival. Union Jack is abound with hop aroma and character. In fact this well balanced, west coast IPA is dry hopped 3 separate times, each lot giving it more and more of the grapefruit citrus hop aroma and flavor it is known for. Overall it utilizes over 4 pounds of pacific northwest hops per barrel."

Below is a summary of the recipe, I had to substitute Carastan for Caramalt just like the brewcasters had to do in their version of the recipe.

Recipe Specifics

Batch Size (Gal): 6.00

Wort Size (Gal): 6.00

Total Grain (Lbs): 16.78

Anticipated OG: 1.071 Plato: 17.19

Anticipated SRM: 6.9

Anticipated IBU: 82.2

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %

Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar

13.75 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)

1.98 lbs. Munich Malt

0.83 lbs. CaraPilsner

0.22 lbs. Carastan Malt

Hops

0.88 oz. Warrior Pellet 17.00 AA% 61.2 IBUs 90 min.

0.63 oz. Cascade Pellet 7.00 AA% 8.4 IBUs 30 min.

0.63 oz. Centennial Pellet 10.50 AA% 12.6 IBUs 30 min.

1.83 oz. Cascade Pellet 7.00 AA% 0.0 IBUs 0 min.

1.83 oz. Centennial Pellet 10.50 AA% 0.0 IBUs 0 min.

1.55 oz. Cascade Pellet 7.00 AA% 0.0 IBUs 1st Dry Hop

1.55 oz. Centennial Pellet 10.50 AA% 0.0 IBUs 1st Dry Hop

1.06 oz. Cascade Pellet 7.00 AA% 0.0 IBUs 2nd Dry Hop

1.06 oz. Centennial Pellet 10.50 AA% 0.0 IBUs 2nd Dry Hop

0.49 oz. Amarillo Gold Pellet 10.00 AA% 0.0 IBUs 2nd Dry Hop

0.49 oz. Simcoe Pellet 12.40 AA% 0.0 IBUs 2nd Dry Hop

Yeast

White Labs WLP002 English Ale

Mash Schedule

Intermediate Rest Temp : 145 Time: 60 min.

Saccharification Rest Temp : 155 Time: 15 min.

Mash-out Rest Temp : 168 Time: 15 min.

Sparge Temp : 170 Time: 45 min.

Notes

Pitch at 63F and let free rise to 66F

It's been far too long since I've written anything on the greatness that is theferm and now is the time to correct my actions.

As one would expect coming from me, this is an article on beer, specifically making beer at home, or homebrewing if you will. My most recent jaunt in homebrewing came this past weekend as I was wanting to relive our last trip to wine country, a Russian River Sanctification clone. The recipe was taken from Brew Your Own's (BYO) 250 Clone Recipe magazine, with a little of my own modifications which some might call "accidents." But what would homebrewing be without a mishap or two along the way?

After looking through the BYO clone magazine I looked up The Mad Fermentationist's website, and to my dismay he has not blogged about (or none that I could find) a Sanctification clone. He has brewed a Pizza Port Company's Mo' Betta Bretta, which may find it's way into my homebrewery soon enough, and a Russian River Temptation clone though. I myself have 10 gallons of Temptation clone slowly souring at the moment, half of which is on six pounds of cherries. Now Michael Tonsmeire, who is The Mad Fermentationist, is one who has done many sour fermentations as well as other experiments, for a good read get lost in his website.

After a quick Google search I found that there are very few blogs or forum posts similar to the quality of the Mr. Tonsmeire's blog so I thought I would try to attempt my version of a Sanctification clone blog post.

Unlike most beers that are fermented with "traditional" brewers yeast, Sanctification is brewed with wild yeast called brettanomyces. Brettanomyces creates a sourness and tartness that is not present (at least not in perceptable levels) in beer when brewed with brewer's yeast.

An excerpt from Russian River's website states the following on this beer:

"Technically, this is neither an ale nor a lager. The base recipe is for a Golden Ale, but we do the primary fermentation with 100% brettanomyces. The brett gives it some sour notes but not as much as if it had been aged with lacto and pedio. It’s rather refreshing on a warm day!" Lacto and Pedio are references to other kinds of wild yeasts.

I brewed the beer on Sunday (2/19) and it looks like it's fermenting along well right now. I'll let it sit for at least 4 weeks and then I'll either keg it or bottle it with cork and cage like a Belgian beer you'd find in a store. We'll see how it turns out, below is a rundown on ingredients and process to make this beer.

Recipe Specifics

Batch Size (Gal): 6.00

Total Grain (Lbs): 13.25

Anticipated OG: 1.056 Plato: 13.71

Anticipated SRM: 3.9

Anticipated IBU: 33.5

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %

Wort Boil Time: 120 Minutes

Grains

11.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)

1.32 lbs. Sauer(acid) Malt

0.93 lbs. Vienna Malt

Hops

1.20 oz. Sterling Pellet 7.00% AA 33.5 60 min.

0.60 oz. Sterling Pellet 7.00% AA 0.0 0 min.

Yeast

Brett Brux (White Labs WLP650) - 3L Starter

Brett Lambicus (White Labs WLP653) - 1L Starter

Lacto Delbrueckiii (White Labs WLP677) - 100mL Starter

Ferment at 72F but let the temperature rise as high as 80F for 3-4 weeks.

3/3/2012 - Tasting today was good, not as tart as I thought it would be, very "brett"-y though. Should turn out interesting at the very least, might be the most approachable all brett beer I've ever tasted.

By Gomer McHomer

In putting together the consummate ice chest beer collection for the big game, Sebastian Farce needed a remarkable beer. Commonly known as a craft beer gadabout and a clever spinster, Sebastian is credited with coining the phrase “America’s Beer.”

Independence Brewing Company’s co-owners Rob and Amy Cartwright resisted the title early on because they felt like demand for the beer would quickly exceed the brewery’s capacity (and humbleness, of course). But every waking thought finds its way to a publishing media nowadays, so delighted or not, the moniker was retweeted, favorited, and liked many thousands of times over.

It is Independence Brewing’s passion that they instill in every drop of beer that helped justify them as “America’s Beer,” while the entire brewery team made sure the beer drinkers would find it at notable local restaurants, bars, and grocery stores.

Love it or hate it, a person’s beer of choice is one of the most polarizing topics in the United States. Even when the number of breweries in the U.S. fell below one hundred in the 1980s, Americans still possessed an unquenchable desire for the hops and high quality two-row malts. That’s why I laugh when people refer to Budweiser as the “King of Beers” or how interesting a person is for drinking Dos Equis. Is Bud Light really “America’s Beer”? Yes. On opposite day.

I don’t think Jack Buddrinker even knows the swill in his Hypercolor dispenser box in the fridge is made from 30% corn. But it’s cheap and it gets the job done. Your Bud and Miller light beer fans will go so far as plan their night around what bar carries their favorite shaped bottles. And when you talk to them in the lavatory, you’ll find that most of them just drink what their Daddy drank.

It’s different with Independence Brewing. Ask a beer nerd studying the shelves at Whip In or the D&Q and they’ll talk your ear off about Convict Hill Stout or the fabulous Brewluminati series. It’s immeasurable the amount of Independence Brewing fanatics roaming the within the borders of the United States and beyond. And that’s exactly why Independence remains incontrovertibly the true “America’s Beer.”

Fear not, disenfranchised beer drinkers. This Saturday, October 22nd, Independence Brewing Company celebrates their seventh anniversary at their brewery in Austin, TX. Admission is free, but it would be careless of me not to recommend that you bring $12 for the commemorative anniversary glass. Join beautiful people just like yourself, possibly Sebastian mentioned above, and this scribe at the brewery from 4-8pm. Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World, so you can bet there will be some of that there too.

As we outlined in our United States of Beer Project kickoff post, we are assembling the definitive list of breweries to represent each of the 50 states. Anyone can toss a name out and argue its relationship with a state, but we at The Ferm are only interested in cold, hard facts. Each representative has been selected after exhaustive research and extensive number crunching. As a refresher, below are the guidelines:

• The goal is to identify a single representative brewery from each state. Brewpubs are not specifically excluded, but to be a state representative, the brewpub must have significant distribution in the state.
• To be eligible as a state's representative, a brewery must brew beer in that state.
• If a brewery makes beer in more than one state, the brewery can only be named representative of one state.
• Only active breweries are eligible.

Just to be clear, I'm merely an emotionless arbiter in these selections. I first aggregate brewery data from several sources. An Excel formula then computes the score automatically. My own input came only from the scoring formula creation, which I calibrated using several states where I was particularly familiar with the breweries located within.

If you take exception to any of the selections or think I unfairly excluded a brewery (or brewpub), please hit me up in the comment section or on Twitter (@theferm) and I'll get you the score of the brewery in question. 

NOTE: I've given this post it's own page. Follow the link below for USBP's new home.

MORE>> (Follow Link for Individual State's Results)

A few weeks ago Houston Press food blogger extraordinaire Katharine Shilcutt wittingly dropped a proverbial deuce on the American beer drinker. In her post titled The United States of Beer, Katharine rather subjectively assigned each state an official beer. Her intentions were relatively innocuous, but her uneven attempt to rush the post's publication by peppering the U.S. map with whimsical selections energized the nation's beer drinking pantywadders (200+ comments!).

This was not the first time the food blog published a half-hearted post and then hid behind guise of just "having a laugh." I wonder if their editor would be as supportive of a post that jacked around with where to find good Mongolian hot pot? If the Houston Texans decided to play without cleats for a quarter, how do you think that would go over with their fans? If Nicholas Cage stopped caring about the movies he agreed to make, then what? I'm just saying, our big stick, Mr. Smokeypants, doesn't let us get away with weak journalism our site, and I've never seen a dime from the blog.

We at The Ferm are not asserting that blogs, and more specifically The Houston Press' food blog Eating Our Words, must be serious all the time. We are only suggesting that if you are getting paid to publish your work, that it be well thought out, researched, and written as if you even care that your name is on the piece. (I hope EOW blogger Kevin Shalin doesn't mind me stealing his words in that previous sentence, but there is a pretty good chance all Houston Press people stopped reading in the second paragraph anyway.)

Speaking of serious, if you are aware of someone who takes drinking more seriously than we do, I would sincerely like to know. We also tend to look at the world through practical glasses, so we understand an accurate beer map of the United States probably looks more like an election map.

"That looks about right. Print it!" - Mr. Smokeypants

Apologies to my beer nerds, but let's get really real. The craft beer segment represents only about 5% of the total U.S. beer market. What does that mean? It means Budweiser is truly the King, or President if you will, of beers. Budweiser, Miller Lite, or Coors may pick up a few electoral votes, but Bud Light is probably every state's official beer. But where is the fun in that map?

"Yes, that one looks right. Print it!" - Mr. Smokeypants

After some hard core brainstorming, we have come up with a concept that falls somewhere in between the schizophrenic Houston Press beer map and the monotony of the factual map. Katharine's idea was actually kind of ingenious, however it was executed by a foodie/journalist/musician-type instead of a lawyer/engineer/rocket scientist-type.

That is where we can contribute. What Katharine's map project needed was some rules. Some formulae. Some science. That kind of concept is right in our wheelhouse.

• Pronouncement: Katharine's list muddled beers and breweries. We will assign breweries to a state. It is reasonable to assume that a brewery's flagship beer would be the de facto beer representative for the state.
  
• Rule #1: For any state, the brewery representative must be brewed in said state. Rule #1b: If a brewery makes beer in more than one state, the brewery can only be named representative of one state.
  
• Example Formula: y = 29.936ln(x) How do you like them apples? (I don't trust the Internets enough to give out all our brewery ranking secrets.)
  
• Science: Wikipedia says science is an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world. Yeah, we got that.
  

Budweiser is overwhelmingly the people's popular choice for a national brewery. Don't be angry at us. You elected them without checking their proof of residence first. This post hereby kicks off The Ferm's own United States of Beer project. We will be rolling out each of the states' representatives over the next several weeks months. Stay thirsty tuned my friends.

Click map to jump to post with the states' selections

I homebrew because I can tell people I make my own beer. I homebrew to recreate beers that I enjoy. I homebrew to make beers that I can't access, to make beer styles seldom made by commercial breweries, to digress from traditions, styles, and recipes. I homebrew to make alcohol. This is a concept that seemed cooler when I was twenty, but I make alcoholic beverages in the same place I sleep. I homebrew because that is still a little cool.

I homebrew because it is easy to make good beer. With a little over a $100 investment, anyone can make about fifty standard bottles of delicious beer. For another $30, another fifty bottles can be brewed. But I don't homebrew to save money. I have hundreds of dollars worth of brewing accessories in my garage. I homebrew as a hobby. I have a several thousand dollar, digitally controlled, brew sculpture in my garage. I control temperatures during brewing to a single degree. A Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time -- has nothing on my brew stand. My homebrewing equipment has a plaque with my name on it.

I homebrew for the feel, the flavor, and the aroma. Malted barley soaked in hot water can be intoxicating to the senses. I homebrew to make malty English-style beers. I homebrew to make strong, no-rules Belgian-style beers. I love Belgian-style beers. I homebrew to play with hops. I like to create strong, hoppy beers. I homebrew to add hops midway through the boil, after the boil, and while the beer in is the fermenter. I love hops. I grow hops in my yard.

I homebrew because I respect maltose, enzymes, yeast metabolism, and ethyl alcohol. I homebrew because I can make great beer and know something between a Master's Degree and absolutely nothing about any of those items. I homebrew to play with IBUs, Lovibond, and original gravity. I love my refractometer. I homebrew because I can experiment with malts, hops, yeasts, and adjuncts. I find yeast attenuation interesting. I homebrew because I like science. Except brewing is also art. Beers are designed. Equipment and recipes can play only a small part of the finished beer. Techniques play a nontrivial role. I homebrew to satisfy my inner mad-scientist. I like dialing my fermentation box's thermostat to create clove or banana flavors in my beer. I homebrew to stick it to The Man. I homebrew to flip my nose at The Reinheitsgebot.

I homebrew for the personal experience. But brewing with a friend is even better. I homebrew with my wife. I love the communal nature of brewing. Stirring the mash. Sampling past batches. I love sharing my knowledge, and I love learning from someone else. I homebrew for the fellowship. What is your favorite beer? I homebrew to brew your favorite beer with you.

This piece was meant as a finale for American Craft Beer Week. Perhaps I procrastinated just a bit in getting this published. Homebrewing isn't about haste. It takes weeks, sometimes months, to craft, ferment, and serve a beer finished beer. I homebrew because it is hard work. Patient work. Rewarding work. It's not about just a means to an end, but the end is pretty good. I homebrew for that.

Grand plans are noble, although also a grind. I intended to use today’s theme to challenge myself to create some food pairings for the beer I selected (intended = it didn't happen). But excuses are for losers. To preserve my masterplan, I'll do my best to churn out a few relevant paragraphs on beer and food pairings. And I'll still be drinking. So except for the possibility that I didn’t get raptured today, I’d say I’m still winning.

The rise of craft beers, miles apart from America’s industrially produced light lagers, has recently spawned a trend of beer and food pairing. Breaking into the mainstream has been slow. Wine is the sovereign food partner of fine dining. Every respectable restaurant has a wine list. Selections and quality of sommeliers can make or break a great restaurants’ reputation. Wine's place with food is based on its acidic, strong, and complex flavors. However, I question if the myth that wine is a superior food companion is not largely based on legacy.

Wine, crafted with arguably a superior ingredient -- the grape, is a one-dimensional beverage. All wines taste like fermented, aged grapes. Beers while crafted with more pedestrian ingredients -- grains and hops, are multidimensional beverages. Brewers craft their beers by tweaking the balance of malty sweetness and hop bitterness. Furthermore, flavor complexity is tailored using different types of malted grains and limitless amounts of adjuncts. Both wine and beer can utilize either naturally occurring or cultured yeasts to covert sugars to alcohol, but the yeast in beer making plays such a large part in the finished product’s flavor profile it can act as an important of an ingredient as  the malts and hops.

As a quick example, Saint Arnold Brewing Company recently replaced its lowest selling beer (Texas Wheat, an American-style Wheat) with an altered version of one of its more popular beers (Fancy Lawnmower, a German-style Kölsch). The brewery now has two beers with the exact same recipe, but fermented with two different yeasts that yield very different tasting beers. In a recent newsletter, Saint Arnold reported selling as many kegs in a week and a half of the new replacement (Weedwacker) as it did of Texas Wheat in a whole year.

With an unrestricted amount of flavor profiles, beer is unmatched in potential flavor pairing combinations with food. Beer can also leverage its carbonation to lift aromas and clean your palate between samples. Wine is challenged by spicy foods, pickles, asparagus, etc. Your local wine merchant may have thousands of wines to choose from, but only a small handful of them would even be acceptable for that coconut-curry Thai dish.

My first beer pairing education came from a session by the Texas Culinary Academy in 2005. The chef giving the seminar demonstrated the three C’s of beverage pairing: Cut, Compliment, and Contrast.

Cut: Spicy foods can be cut by malty sweet beers, like an English Pale Ale or a German Marzen. The richer the food, hoppy beers can clean the creaminess or fattiness from your palate. Dry stouts can even cut through the richness of a sweet chocolate dessert.

Compliment: Beer really shines as a food pair in this category. While wine basically enhances foods with acidity, beer can provide a subtle compliment to a food’s flavor. Belgian beers spiced with orange zest and coriander provides a great compliment to salads. Japanese beers brewed with rice are perfect companions to pieces of sushi.

Contrast: Like wine, any food that is enhanced with acidity can be adjusted to provide a good contrasting food pair (imagine something that tastes good with a lemon squeezed on it). Fish and white wine is a good pair, as is a light-bodied pilsner. However, no contrasting pair may be as sublime as a raw oyster and a dry stout. I first had this pair at SAVOR in 2009, where the Choptank Oyster Company was shucking fresh oysters. I made several trips through the line with samples of some of the best stouts and roasty porters in at the event.

Whether beer or wine, food pairing promotes the kind of creativity that I love when cooking. It also encourages a more thoughtful and enjoyable eating experience. In the end, my originally planned post probably would have been more enjoyable for me than it would have been for you (kind of like beer reviews, eh?)

Day 6
May 21, 2011
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Namaste (Milton, DE)

Website/Bottle Information:
"A Belgian-style White made with dried organic orange slices, fresh cut lemongrass and a bit of coriander. This beer is a great summer quencher.
Namaste was originally brewed at our brewpub in with our friend Leo from Birra del Borgo in Italy as a tribute to our friends at 3 Fonteinen brewery in Belgium, who had devastating production loss (1/3 of their annual production!) at their brewery in 2009. You can read more about the original brewing of this beer here on Sam's blog."


Serving: 750mL bottle
Style: Witbier
IBU: 20
ABV: 5.0%

He Said:
I haven't poured a beer from a 750mL bottle with as light and fluffy of a head as this one in a long time. The beer is very effervescent. All the carbonation really carries up aromas of the lemongrass and coriander that the beer is brewed with and some musty funk that it probably wasn't brewed with. I'll admit that if I hadn't used it in several homebrewing recipes, I wouldn't know coriander's aroma though. Some citrus is detectable, but it seems to be more from the yeast and not the oranges used in the brewing of Namaste.

I am always impressed with the incredible balance of each Dogfish Head beer. Even their hoppiest IPAs have a malty sweetness to perfectly balance the bitterness. Namaste is no different. Hops are present in the perfect amount to balance the beer and keep the flavor profile dynamic from start to finish.

Namaste is lemony, light, and refreshing. If I had attempted to craft some food pairings, I think this would have gone great with a salad incorporating some citrus. It would have also gone equally well with a chicken quesadilla.

I generally attribute the term "Namaste" with yoga or new age-type activities. Tonight this beer was enjoyed while bathing two little children, which is probably the furthest from that lifestyle. Translated, "Namaste" means greetings or good day. I think I'd say this is a pretty good day.

She Said:
Color - Golden

Carbonation - Very bubbly

Smell - Citrusy, Belgian

Taste - To be fair, I have tasted this beer before and enjoyed it even more the first time. The lemongrass and citrus flavors totally shined through in my previous tasting. This time those flavors are present but aren't as powerful (aging? storage issues?). I still enjoy Namaste's light bubbly taste that doesn't stick to your palate. The beer is a cool and refreshing treat for a hot summer day. I recommended this beer to friends after the first time I enjoyed it and would do the same now.