nicoleandgreg.net » Beer Reviews

Delicious Times at the Blue Ribbon Bacon Tour

greg — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:45:20 +0000

The Blue Ribbon Bacon Tour, sponsered by Vande Rose Farms made another stop in the ‘burgh this past weekend. It’s very much like a traveling version of the annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival held in Des Moines, Iowa each year. I seem to recall the Tour stopping in Pittsburgh once before and I had missed it. This time I made sure I would enjoy all the bacon-y goodness. Hosting the event from Harris Grill was the one and only Mr. BaconPants. He was joined by Heather Lauer from BaconUnwrapped.com, author of the book Bacon: A Love Story: A Salty Survey of Everybody’s Favorite Meat.

Joining me on my quest to prematurely clog the arteries and double my cholesterol were good friends Bobby Burdette (@bobbyburdette) and Derek Kalinosky (@dkalinosky). My main goal was to see what the masses would make of the Pittsburgh Penetrator. Bobby and Derek cared less about that and more about all out BaconComa^©. Having put myself on a diet after the Grill Around the Globe… I managed some measure of self-control and didn’t over eat.

What did you eat, Greg?

Excellent question. The Harris Grill, which serves bacon every Tuesday night FOR FREE, set up a nice little buffet area for all the wonderful dishes available to sample. Lets go to the lineup:

Country Fried Bacon
Bacon Perogies
Bacon wrapped Shrimp
Bacon Sushi
and for desert… a Bacon Cupcake.

First up, the Country Fried Bacon. Now its probably not fair for me to judge this dish since I have such an unfavoring love for the Six Penn Tempura Bacon. Still, I found the breading a little heavy which prevents the bacon from really getting the kind of crisp you’d expect. It tasted good – but also very, very unhealthy. I could almost feel it coat the inside of my heart with a thin layer of slick grease. Definitely couldn’t manage more than one slice.

The Bacon Perogies were very nice. The bacon shared the spotlight with perfectly cooked onions. I believe there was bacon both in the onions and inside the perogie. Very understated presence but definitely there. The Bacon Wrapped Shrimp were outstanding. Seafood that sits in a chaffing dish can run the risk of ending up overcooked and tough but no chance here. Probably due to the shrimp not spending much time resting. They were gone in a flash. The Bacon Sushi, as I understand it, came in two varieties. I only had a chance to sample the Philadelphia – which had a nice cream cheese element that played really well with the bacon. It was by far the most… interesting dish I tried. And I’ll leave it at that.

The Bacon Cupcake was, in a word… redonkulous. Plain and simple. Candied bacon chip on top of what I think was a maple cream cheese frosting. I didn’t eat the actual cake so i can’t say much there. I can only assume it was good based on how quickly the cupcakes were flying off the serving trays.

There was beer too, right?

Local home-brewers club, Three Rivers Underground Brewers, were on hand with several styles. Three on tap included a nice Pale Ale, a curious Applewood Cider brew and the star of the day – an incredible Maple E.S.B. which is so good I have to believe someone somewhere is going to get rich off it. It was that good. Poured a somewhat cloudy tan with a slight head. Perhaps due to a combination of the portable tap system and the tiny little plastic cup they provided.

The aroma bore a strong scent of maple yet didn’t invade the taste of a tastefully hopped beer. At first I was a little confused by the mouthfeel. The typical crispness of a bitter was gone and in its place was a well-balanced, pitch-perfect beer. Bobby’s best guess is that the sweetness of the maple tipped the scales to even. The tiny little plastic cup wasn’t the only reason I went back for thirds, fourths, AND fifths. It was that damn good.

So what’s this about a Pittsburgh Penetrator?

One of my big goals for the day was to introduce my variation of the world famous Bacon Explosion – The Pittsburgh Penetrator. The premise is simple one. Add a little Pittsburgh flavor to what is already a fantastic dish. Construction is easy. Its a Bacon Explosion wrapped around a fresh kielbasa, the casing removed to allow smoke to penetrate fully. No pun intended. Ok. I lie… it was intentional.

I need to make sure I give credit where credit is due… the idea came from my boss. Several months ago he attended a party in Upstate New York and wanted to bring something special. Being an avid sport shooter, he described to me a type of ammunition known as a penetration round. The general idea is that the core contains a solid rod designed to punch through… things. Here we punch through your taste buds.

I was very happy with the overall reception. However, there seemed to be a bit of confusion around what it was exactly. I read one account in a blog that thought it was a pork tenderloin, which I totally don’t understand. I think some folks didn’t realize that it wasn’t a standard BE.

I didn’t get around to taking many photos when I made the Pittsburgh Penetrator but here are just a few. Also only snapped a few pictures from the event. My hands were too full of beer and bacon.

Let’s go back in time

greg — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:11:11 +0000

Let me tell you a story:

I can’t remember exactly when this happened so for the sake of argument….

Years ago, there was a lovely radio station here in Pittsburgh called ” The Zone”… which I believe was short for The Man Zone (or at least I think it was). I can’t recall clearly and since that time the station has been replaced by several formats in the last few years. It was supposed to be a man-oriented all-talk radio format. I liked it. Opie and Anthony in the morning drive. The studio where the radio station broadcast from happened to be in the same industrial park I worked at during this time. Not that it matters…

The point of this back story is this: I listened to this station on my drive home every night from work. It was hosted by Scott Paulsen who I grew up listening to on the perennial Pittsburgh favorite WDVE.

One of my favorite features of the show occurred every day at 5 o’clock. Scott would give away a case of beer “minus One”… which he would drink on air and talk about it. Well, eventually CBS caught wind of this and quickly put a stop to this practice. Well, the day Scott announced this – I was immediately struck with an idea… so i called up the station and offered to come across the street at 5 each day to drink the beer for him until the issue was resolved. Well…

Asahi Super Dry

greg — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:21:13 +0000

Is Super Dry going to be super fly?

Hell no.

This beer is bad. Just not good enough to even make effort to write about… but here ya go.

Appearance

Bright and clear. The cold beer frosts over the glass to cloud what I knew to be a rather clear, and even colored beer. The head was generous at the onset – rising to two inches from a brisk pour. The bubbles are nonstop.

Smell

ugh. This is bad. slightly medicine quality. Sour grass.

Taste

Oh… oh wow. this is bad. The artificial sweetness is overwhelming. Corn flavor with a hint of grass.

Mouthfeel

Thin. Tightly bubbled. Pleasant effervescence

Drinkability

Light enough that it could be enjoyed with some complex Japanese food. By someone else. Not me.

Bottomline

Bad. Not enough to even write about.

D-

Sam Adams Boston Lager

greg — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:32:59 +0000

Samuel Adams Boston Lager

Lagers are fast becoming my default beer as of late. Still like the stouts and hops… but on a daily, i’m trying to see beer. Nothing complicated. Lager. Old School. So i get talked into cheating on Yuengling, and trying a 6-pack of Boston Lager. Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Sam Adams, from Boston, comes out of the Boston Beer company. Nice website (www.samadams.com). Fresh enough to look current without going out on a limb. Still looking for a twitter stream to follow. Hard to believe they would be late to the 2.0 communication stream. Facebook though.

Poured into a Yuengling pint glass. Nice and cold out the fridge.

beeropedia has a really nice description:

Samuel Adams Boston Lager is brewed using two row Pale and Caramel Malt as well as the German Noble hop varieties of Hallertau Mittelfruh and Tettnang Tettnanger. It is brewed using a decoction mash and undergoes a secondary fermentation called Krausening, both of which impart a lingering, complexly sweet finish. Samuel Adams Boston Lager is also dry hopped using the Hallertau Mittelfruh hops for an enhanced hop signature in the aroma and finish. It takes about five weeks to brew. This long conditioning period gives Boston Lager a complexity and smoothness that have become its hallmark.

Appearance

Nice enough. A bright copper that glows nicely under light. A light carbonation streams bubbles up nice. A doughy, slightly dirty, way off white head is fluffy. Mismatched bubble sizes dot the landscape of the head. The head falls eventually. Although to its credit, the head manages to nag on longer than expected. The fall is not graceful. The lacing that remains just from the drop is staggering. Looks untidy.

its just not as dark as i expected. sort of shiny.

Smell

Hard to get at first. Might have been due to the couch loaf i floated. whew! stinky. In any event, I did end up getting quite a nose full. whoops. hand slipped. But the aroma that came through was clear. Slightly bready and a hint of… ghetto car wash citrus Tree. That all too perfect, sleazy orange scent. But a malt undertone peaks through to cut the artificial sweetness.

Taste

Steak. Red meat beef. That’s a meal. Everything else is fluffy, secondary and limited. So too, when it comes to beer – taste is the thing. If I’m grabbing a six pack for the night. Poof. I want it to taste good. For me, lagers give me that flavor without the weight to make it terribly heavy. This beer comes a little underneath my expectations. I’ve been riding a Yuengling kick since visiting them last year. I admit it. So I’m judging this beer against that specific beer. Fair or not. It is what it is… I’ll freely own up to it.

This beer is balanced. No question. It is the first thing that I even realize first. But it seems somehow fake. Too perfect. Beer after beer tasted exactly the same. Four beers in and it tastes the exact same… that is weird to me. I always seem to want a beer to change as I get through it, its follow up beer. So when the Boston Lager comes across the plate the same way each beer is off putting. Or is it?

Way fuller than the rest of the widely available competitors. Its certainly on the same level as Yuengling here … in that regard.

Mouthfeel

Its light. Crisp enough to be playful. Its fuller than a light beer for sure. It never over stays its welcome long enough to become unrepeatable. The distance is reached with ease. And Kody kitty likes it too.

Drinkability

Not overly filling. Certainly holds true to itself. Beer after beer. The entire measure was six and the distance is equal. Easily done. The drinkability is there without question. Which really brings us back to the beginning of things. Doesn’t it?

Bottomline

This beer keeps to its even keel the entire ride. I guess I expected some imperfections. Consistent taste delivery, beer after beer. All in all it tastes good. In that background kind of way. Nothing loud, but certainly not the type of taste that is lost on you. I can dig that.

B-

The not quite 12 Beers of Christmas

greg — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:47:07 +0000

Here we go. Decided to spend some hard earned money on myself in light of the holiday gift giving process draining me of most of my money. For someone who doesn’t really love the season – I still manage to spend more money then I intend. I ended up putting a fun gift basket fun of wine together for Nicole that included recipes to go along with each bottle.

I’ll be getting those recipes up pretty soon. Might be interesting to post the recipes prior to actually trying them. I’ve got a lot of work to do around how those posts will look.

For now – I’m concentrating on trying to refine the review process a little bit. May start looking deeper into not just the beer but the design of the label as well. There are some incredible artists out there putting together really engaging visuals for labels.

There were some surprising disappointments in this group and some OUTSTANDING finds.

But for now, here’s the “Not Quite 12 Beers of Christmas”:

Read. Disagree? Respond.

19 new (but old) beer reviews posted.

greg — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:37:13 +0000

I just finished copying over all my old beer reviews from the old site.

19 in total, these reviews span several months. You might notice that the language at times is specific to a particular evening where I might have been drinking a ceratin style of beer. Forgive the spelling and grammer as I’m still getting used to writing again for public consumption.

Speaking of consumption – I’m celebrating this content migration by enjoying a fine, chilled Magic Hat Jinx.

Enjoy the beer reviews.