Three Seasonal Brews

Once upon a time, European and some of the more traditional American breweries would produce a batch of special beer (i.e., something other than their standard offering) at certain times of the year. The early spring often saw bock beers appearing on the shelves, and in December there might be a number of "winter" brews.

With the advent of the craft brewing movement, many breweries are producing seasonal beers year round, usually a rotation of four types, corresponding with the season. Some are producing as many as seven or eight.

One of these is Sam Adams, which currently produces seven seasonal offerings. It's become fashionable among beer snobs (yes, there is such a thing) to sneer at Sam Adams, but the company deserves a lot of credit for showing that there was a market for craft beers, and demonstrating that they could be distributed at a national level. Plus, they make a number of pretty good products (Sam Adams Light is the only light beer I'm willing to drink).

Available from January through March is their Noble Pils. A light-colored lager made in a classic Czech/German Pilsner style, it features a citrusy nose, flavors of malt and freshly baked bread, a medium hoppiness, a clean finish, and is a good example of what a lager beer should be. Retailing for a little over $9 for a six pack, I picked some up at Fred Meyer on sale for $6.99.

Here in Oregon, Deschutes also has a number of seasonal offerings. From their "Bond Street" series of high-end beers (available only in 22 ounce bottles), is "Hop Henge" IPA. This is a "double" (also called "imperial") IPA, which has more of everything - malt, hops (especially hops) and alcohol (8.75%). Dark amber, with a big, citrusy, piney nose, it treats the palate with biscuits, various citrus fruits, pine, pepper and, of course, hops. It's bitter enough for the hop heads, but there's enough other stuff going on to not scare off those with less extreme tastes. Available from January through April, it's not cheap (about $5 for the 22 ounce bottle), but serious IPA fans consider it worth every penny.

A more reasonably priced offering, again from Deschutes, is the "Red Chair NWPA". Of the three, this is definitely my favorite. Medium amber, with aromas of citrus (grapefruit and a little orange), flowers, and spicy hops, and rich, bold flavors of caramel and toasted malt, along with a bit of orange rind. Perfectly balanced between sweet and bitter, it's a truly great beer. I wish they made it year-round, but it's only available from January through April. Kathy liked it too, so I went back to Fred Meyer and picked up two more six-packs while it was still on sale ($6.99).

Home Roast Coffee

Back in 1979 Tallahassee's first specialty coffee store opened. I dropped by one afternoon and asked for a recommendation.

"Well, we just got in some Jamaican Blue Mountain," the proprietor replied. "Some say it's the best there is. Plus, we just roasted it this morning."

It was more expensive than their other offerings, but I decided to give it a try. They ground up a pound for me (I didn't have a grinder of my own) and I took it home. Out of curiosity I decided to brew some right away.

It was...ethereal. I'd never had coffee that good.

The next morning I brewed some more. It wasn't as good. The following week (I'm pretty sure it was a Friday) I asked about this at the coffee store. The proprietor told me that coffee loses a lot of its freshness after grinding, and suggested I buy a grinder and wait until just before brewing to grind the beans. I bought one of his grinders and some "Java Mountain Supreme" beans (they were already out of the Blue Mountain). I ground and brewed some the next morning. It was very good, but still not the equal of the Blue Mountain.

I got in the habit of stopping in there at noon on Fridays to buy a half pound of some good beans, treating myself to fresh-ground coffee on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

The store occasionally got more of the Blue Mountain, but it never seemed quite as good as my first purchase. I finally decided it was a case of "first timer epiphany", that sense of revelation when you try something that's an order of magnitude better than anything else you'd had before (I'd experienced something similar with wine that same year when I sampled a good Bordeaux).

Anyway, a few years ago I was recounting this to my friend Betty, who had owned and operated a coffee store in Tallahassee for a number of years. "I suspect the fact that the beans had just been roasted had a lot to do with it," she informed me. "Beans are always at their peak between 12 and 24 hours after roasting, and lose most of their quality within 72 hours no matter how well they're packed."

This sounded like useful information, and I mentally filed it away for future reference.

After Kathy and I arrived in Corvallis, it didn't take us long to find Oregon Coffee and Tea, at the corner of 2nd and Monroe. We'd buy our "weekend" beans there, with our weekday coffee being the $4.59/pound Columbian beans from Costco (by this time I was grinding all our coffee just prior to brewing). I noticed that they had a good assortment of green beans. They also had home roasters, cylindrical devices which cost over $400.

Last fall, when Kathy sent me her Christmas list and requested that I send her mine, I started investigating whether there were less expensive roasters available. I soon discovered the Sweet Maria's web site. This site is a great resource for anyone with a serious interest in coffee. Not only do they have a range of roasters, but also grinders, coffee makers, a wide varitey of green coffee beans, and a whole lot of miscellaneous coffee paraphernaila. It also looked like a real "stand up" outfit, because they'd dropped certain products after receiving customer feedback about the lack of support buyers had gotten from manufacturers when trying to resolve problems. The site also has lots of information on coffee roasting and preparation, including their own "tip sheets" to supplement the manufacturer's instructions. They even have an online forum where participants can share their experiences.

After spending some time reviewing the information about roasters, I decided to go with one from Fresh Roast. Their basic model, the +8, cost about $100. People liked it for its ease of operation, consistent roasts and quietness. It's flaws were that it had a very limited capacity and the glass roasting chamber did not actually attach to the base, nor did the chaff collector attach to the roasting chamber. Instead, these pieces simply perch atop each other, meaning if you bump the thing hard enough, it will come apart. If the roasting chamber lands too hard, it will, of course, break.

The description page for this unit featured an announcement that it would soon be replaced by a new version, the Fresh Roast SR-300. This would have a larger capacity roasting chamber (though sticking with the "just don't bump it" School of Design). Additionally there was to be a second model, the SR-500, which features an adjustable fan and three heat settings (the +8 and SR-300 having only a timer to control roasting). The new models were to be available in early December, so I suggested to Kathy that we wait until then to order one.

December rolled around and there was another announcement: the new models were delayed and wouldn't be available until sometime in January. So what I found under the tree was an artfully designed "IOU One Coffee Roaster", along with a copy of Kenneth David's Home Coffee Roasting. This is a great book, a definite "must read" not just for those planning to do their own roasting but for anyone with a passion for coffee.

In mid January the new Fresh Roast models arrived at Sweet Maria's. They'd already tested them and had some recommendations on their operation. We looked these over and decided to go with the SR-500 ($159) rather than the SR-300 ($109). Kathy placed the order and three days later (Friday, January 22) it arrived.

On Saturday I headed over to Oregon Legacy Coffee and bought a pound each of green "Monsooned Malabar" and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. These are varieties that we've been buying already roasted. The Ethiopian beans are aromatic and flavorful and the Malabar is very smooth (plus it's just fun to say; Monsooned Malabar. Go ahead, try it: Monsooned Malabar. See what I mean?)(by the way, if you want to know what "monsooned" means, read David's book).

Both David's book and the Sweet Maria's site advise you to expect your roasting efforts to be a trial and error process. Variations in roasters, beans and even line voltage all mean that it usually takes several tries to arrive at the right "formula" (fan speed, temperature, duration) for a specific variety of bean. Over the course of the week I would roast beans every other day or so, and by Friday evening I'd reached the point where I could get exactly the results I wanted with both types of bean. After letting them cool, I put them in a jar with a loose top (they will "outgas" for 12 hours or so after roasting). Saturday morning I ground and brewed a blend of the two varieties. The coffee was wonderfully aromatic and beautifully smooth.

As I sat sipping and enjoying it I realized - this was the best cup of coffee I'd had since 1979.

McGrath's Fish House

If, prior to last Christmas, someone had told me that the blog's first restaurant review would be for McGrath's, I wouldn't have believed them. At Christmas, however, we received a $50 gift card for the place, so here it is.

We ate there a couple of times our first year here. I recollect the last time we were there I ordered the crab cakes. These turned out to be about one half crab and one half small pink wormlike thingies I was told were "bay" shrimp. We can't recollect what Kathy had, but we do recall that she was not pleased either.

But with the gift card not being redeemable anywhere else, we decided to give it another try, and picked last Monday (January 18th) to do it.

The restaurant was at only about 40% capacity, and that, coupled with the fact that some effort has been made to control sound volume (a ceiling of absorbant tiles, an array of potted plants dividing the main dining room) made for a thankfully quiet experience.

We first ordered drinks, a glass of Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay for me, and a peach margarita for Kathy. Although the variant of K-J was not given, I'm pretty sure it was the "Grand Reserve" bottling, which is a decent one. Kathy's margarita was good too, not too sweet, but the salt on the rim was a bit sparse.

After listening to our server describe the evening's specials, we decided to order a couple of those. In my case it was the six ounce lobster and for Kathy it was the Steelhead Oscar, which our server described as having a topping of shrimp and crabmeat. We had no reason not to believe that, because an "Oscar" dish usually uses crabmeat (go plug oscar and recipe into Google if you don't believe me). Both of these entrées were priced at $16.99.

We'd opted for the house salads, and these were okay, fairly fresh and with enough ingredients to be interesting. The bread was a rustic sourdough, crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, and served with butter soft enough to be spreadable.

So far, so good.

Things went south when we received our entrées. My lobster was bland and a bit dry, and served at only slightly above room temperature. Likewise the baked potato was only warm. As for Kathy's fish, the topping contained no crab, only small pink thingies that I recognized as the "bay" shrimp of unhappy memory. These were dry and had the telltale metallic flavor that announces, "we've been frozen!" The fish, topping and sides were, like my lobster and potato, served lukewarm.

We called our server over, who admitted that she'd erred when describing the topping as including crab. We asked her to take it back, which she did. Shortly thereafter the manager appeared, with menu in hand. He pointed to the description, which indeed listed only shrimp. Our server reappeared, repeating her admission that she'd described it as including crab. The manager offered to replace the topping with one of dungeness crab, and we agreed to that.

Several minutes later Kathy's plate reappeared with a new toppping. It did appear to be crab, and seemed to be fresh, but it was cold (and by that I mean refrigerator cold, not merely room temperature). Kathy ate about three bites, then gave up.

Hoping that dessert might partially rescue the evening, we ordered a single serving of the "Mile High Mud Pie". This turned out to be a serving for at least three or four, consisting of a large wedge of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, with a chocolate cookie crust and chocolate syrup and nut topping. We ate about half of it and took the other half home, to be finished a couple of nights later.

The experience was mostly positive, but the temperature at which the entrées were served was simply not acceptable. Cold crab on top of cold fish is unpalatable, and this alone is sufficient reason for us to never return to this restaurant.

I suppose this is a "win-win" outcome, as McGrath's certainly packs 'em in on weekend evenings. They don't need my business, and thus have no motivation to improve their standards. Sadly, this does not reflect well on their clientele either, who apparently see nothing wrong with the place.

But you know, that's one of the goals of this blog: to raise the consciousness of those dining out in Corvallis. We've had an ongoing discussion about this with several friends, all of whom agree that many (if not most) of Corvallis' residents have never experienced truly fine dining, and - not knowing what they're missing - think they're being served good food when, in fact, they are not.

So we'll call 'em like we see 'em. If it's bad, we'll say so, and if it's good, we'll emphatically say so, and urge you to try the place yoursellf. Stay tuned!

Evan Williams Single Barrel 2000 Vintage

Back in 1995 Heaven Hill Distillery released its first bottling of Evan Williams Single Barrel bourbon. Although not the first-ever vintage dated bourbon, it's the longest running of those currently on the market. Made from whiskey in barrels selected by master distiller Parker Beam, this nine year old bourbon quickly established a reputation as a top quality whiskey. The 1992, 1994 and 1995 vintages are held in particularly high esteem by the bourbon cognoscenti.

In 1996 disaster struck. The company's distillery, located in Bardstown, Kentucky, was destroyed by fire. Although the fire also destroyed some of the warehouses, most of the these (and their thousands of barrels of whiskey) survived, so HH had plenty of whiskey available for their numerous other brands and expressions. With EWSB being a vintage dated product, however, some way had to be found to produce some each year until the company again had an operating distillery.

Most of 1996 vintage was produced under contract at Jim Beam and the 1997, 1998 and 1999 by Brown-Forman at their Louisville distillery (where Old Forester and Early Times are produced). These were okay, but did not equal those that had been produced entirely within HH's own facilities.

In 1999 the company purchased the United Distillers plant in Louisville. This was a realtively new distillery (completed in 1992), equipped with two giant stainless steel stills and a high level of automation. In early 2000 Heaven Hill commenced producing and barreling whiskey destined to become EWSB. In late October of 2009, amid much fanfare, the first barrel was opened. One of those in attendence was John Hansell, publisher/editor of The Malt Advocate magazine, who gave it a highly favorable review.

I'd been keeping an eye out for it and when some appeared at the Washington Street liquor store in mid December I bought a bottle and took it home. I poured out a sample, along with a similar quantity of the 1994 for comparison.

Both whiskies showed a wonderfuly harmonious combination of caramel corn, spice, vanilla and oak. The aromas and flavors seemed a bit more assertive in the 2000 than the 1994, though that could be partly because the '94 has been open for a while.

For me, this is definitely the best one since the 1995, and I'll be buying more. It's also a relative bargain, at $27.45, especially compared to other vintage dated bourbons (Old Forester "Birthday Bourbon" goes for $38, and the five whiskies in the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection go for a budget-busting $77 each). In fact, you have to spend at least $36.95 on a bottle of Wild Turkey "Rare Breed" to get a bourbon of comparable quality.

I did notice an odd thing on the back label, however:

Barreled 10-7-09
Barrel 16
Bottled on 3-30-00

Which is likely an error, but it's fun to believe that a young lady named Bright was involved.