Sorry I've been away; I've got Goat Race stuff and a visit with Martha's Exchange brewer Greg Ouellette to write about. But I'm working this morning, and I double-dosed the coffee-maker. And the coffee tasted bigger, richer, more complex, and the buzz is definitely more intense, and I'm being innovative!
Yes! It's IMPERIAL COFFEE!!!
Wow. Now I get this whole thing like I never did before.
You just reminded me where I can take my mom for mothers day since I will be up that way. ;)
ReplyDeleteYa should, and get yourself a good dose of Greg's porter; he gifted me with a growler of it, and it was damned good.
ReplyDeleteI much prefer a session coffee. Something that I can enjoy several times over. Conversation coffee, if you will.
ReplyDeleteSISSY! Go ahead, drink your weak-kneed pale-brown 'coffee,' you can't handle IMPERIAL COFFEE!
ReplyDeleteCan't I have an imperial session beer? I mean, we can slap the adjective on anything and clothe it with the wisdom of the emperor. So can't a 2.8% ordinary bitter be labeled "imperial" compared to those knee weakening 3.5% ones? It would allow for X-treme-ly long sessions and heightened cogitation not to mention a radical amount of urinal time.
ReplyDeleteContra-intuitive, I like it. An 'imperial' session beer would be one that takes the 'session-ness' of the beer to extremes. We have a 1.9% beer here in Philly, we're ready to go!
ReplyDeleteCareful, that coffee might decrease your motility and increase your GERD
ReplyDeleteNever had a problem with reflux; I'll wait till it starts!
ReplyDeleteSomebody will brew an Imperial Coffee Stout in 3...2...1...
ReplyDeleteOh, if only I had that kind of influence!
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the first time I met Michael Jackson (well, to be honest, it was the second time). I said to him, "Michael, I've been disappointed in the results of using beer in cooking, no matter what kind I use, you can't taste the beer, the sauce is always bland". The master responds in lugubrious voice, "Just add more beeah". (Later I learned to make it taste good: add mustard, sugar, vinegar, herbs).
ReplyDeleteRegarding coffee and beer (not what you were talking about as such but some commenters brought it up), in the Paris Review the late Kurt Vonnegut disclosed that the brewery owned by his 19th century ancestors in aforesaid Cinci as it happens used coffee as a secret ingredient in its flagship brew. Probably it was a dark beer and coffee used both for flavor and to adjust color.
And you may recall, Lew, that Horlacher made an Imperial Pilsener. But, to quote the great man again, I digress.
Gary
I forget to say that I had flown to Cincinnati to see Michael Jackson speak at a beer dinner. It was held over the river at Oldenburg brewpub. That same visit, when returning to the hotel in the jitney they had to take you around (this around 1:00 a.m.), I met Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, he was sitting in a corner of the bus.
ReplyDeleteHe told me he was a craft brew fan, and it is interesting because later he became an investor in Piece, the excellent brewpub in Chicago, so maybe he was doing some kind of early research on brewpubs.
Anyway it was around the time that some rock musicians were starting to talk about loud music doing damage to hearing. And I asked him, "Rick [I have very clear recollection of this] you guys always played really loud, has your hearing been affected?". And he replied, "What?".
[He was joshing me but it took a minute for the earnest Canadian to twig].
Gary
I had Brooklyn's imperial-strength coffee stout at Max's the other night. Tasted like expresso barely cut with fizzy high-gravity beer--but what beer, we couldn't identify. Intense stuff, much more so than any other "coffee stout" I've had. Definitely what The Drew Carey Show had in mind with "Buzz Beer.".
ReplyDeleteOf course, If you had served it in a samovar, it would be RUSSIAN Imperial coffee!
ReplyDelete"'Just add more beeah'"Jackson was from Boston? Huh, you learn something new every day. ;)
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I were discussing our coffee habit yesterday morning and she realized we were "justifying" by saying things like, "We don't drink a lot," & "It's not like we drink it all day..."
Where is the line between excuse and truth anyway?
Oh well, one man's vice... I'm off to register my new web site -- JavaAdvocate.
I know it sounds like Boston but Jackson once told me he had an unclassifiable accent, compounded that is of numerous influences (Yorkshire, Scotland, London, New York and the countless places his travels took him to). Then too, Boston accents (Philly and NYC too) have an echo of old English to them (IMO), which makes sense due to their history.
ReplyDeleteIt is still hard to realize that Michael is gone.
Gary
Gary -- I grew up in New England and remember my high school English teacher saying that the London accent of Shakespeare's time closely resembled the down-east Maine accent. Ayuh. I never tried to verify this assertion, because I love trying to picture, say "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" done in that accent.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap, the menu on Matha's Exchange's website? Dated 2007. Lew, just how long ago did you interview this guy???
ReplyDeleteHere's my new favorite recipe for an Irish Coffee. Use your small drip coffee maker to make a cup or so of Sumatra Mandheling coffee. While it is brewing, pour yourself a dram of Jameson Limited Reserve 18 years old. (Thank you, Brudder dear :) )
ReplyDeleteSlowly sip the Jameson. When you are finished, pour yourself a cuppa and slowly sip that. Works for me. :)
With regards,
Ted
Lew,
ReplyDeleteCasey at Flying Fish made an Imperial Belgian Mild a few months ago.
Can we call our Barleywine an Imperial Brawler?