IPAllapolooza -- VI

Sorry, no WiFi in Dover Plains: we traveled to Cathy's mom's yesterday, and stopped at Triumph New Hope on the way to pick up a growler. What to have... Hey, Simcoe IPA! I've been wanting more of this since the Manayunk Fest. We not only got a growler, we got two glasses right there to slake our pre-travel thirst.

Good idea! The Simcoe is killer good: light but not wimpy, authoritatively hoppy without being brassy or harsh, and fresh as balls. We never did get into the growler, but that bad boy's going down tonight.

(By the way...we're in Albany, and just found a beer garden joint (Wolff's) next to the Miss Albany diner...Hmmm...)

Hot Times at Manayunk

I helped judge the Best of Show beers at the Manayunk Brewfest on Saturday. Once again, it happens just as allergy season is hitting me, so I loaded up on Sudafed (the real, sign at the counter stuff) and Chlor-Trimeton, kept my nose clear for the fest, and paid for it with dopey drowsiness later.

I got to the fest about noon, grabbed one of the last free staff spots, and got down into the show. I met up with my fellow judges (four very experienced homebrew judges who I thoroughly enjoy tasting beers with; it's a very nice give-and-take, making this one of my favorite beer events of the year), grabbed a quick lunch, and settled in to start tasting.

Wide range of beers this year, and a much higher level of quality. The brewers represented at the fest each sent one beer, their choice, over to our table. There were a couple eye-rollers, but only a couple (we're tasting completely blind (or were after the first two pitchers, which a new steward labeled with the brewery name!) and only found out what the top three actually were, so don't bother asking: we don't know (and didn't wanna know!)), much fewer than in the past four years.

After two hours of serious, note-taking and discussion-style tasting, we narrowed it down to seven beers, and sent the stewards out for more samples to refresh our memories. Two of the beers had already run out (proving the crowd agreed with our palates!), and since none of us had those two beers as our number one picks, we decided to drop them. Once the five beers were in front of us, we came to a consensus rather rapidly: about 90 seconds! The winners, by unanimous consent:

3rd -- Erie Railbender, winning with a beautifully pure malt character, easily the very best batch of Railbender I've ever had (and I've had my share).

2nd -- Victory Baltic Thunder, nipping out General Lafayette's Chocolate Thunder Porter (a close #4) by virtue of smooth complexity and (scary) drinkability.

1st -- Triumph Simcoe IPA, rocked us all with its beautiful balance and integration. Billowing hop aroma, great hop flavor, trenchant but not overwhelming bitterness, and a smooth, solid malt basement made this the beer of the day, and we all went looking for more.

I wandered off with Chris Fiery at this point, and we did a little sampling of his Manayunk beers. He'd sent his Maibock to our table; I think he should've sent the California Dreamin', a powerfully-hopped beauty. And if you haven't had the Schuylkill Punch lately -- I hadn't -- it's all Oregon fruit puree (red and black raspberries), no extracts or essences, it's bumped up in ABV, and it's pretty good stuff.

A nice fest, not as crowded as previous years (last year I could hardly move), one of the best M/F ratio fests going -- always has been, don't know why -- and a GREAT band, Holt 45 (with an appropriate name for a beer festival, eh?). Usually I don't give -- pardon me -- a rat's ass about the band at beer festivals, because they're just getting in the way of my beer enjoyment and talking to people about beer. But these guys were NOT too loud, they were way into the music, and they were real musicians.

So then I left, and unlike other years, made no stops on the way home. We went out for a diner dinner (bluefish...I love broiled bluefish), came home, watched some tube...and I crashed out, done in by drugs and allergies. The first week is always like this: dopey, drowsy, and stupid. I'm fighting it off with coffee and air-conditioning this morning. I hate May.

Philly Beer Week 1 month away

I've cut back my involvement in Philly Beer Week this year -- for family reasons, not business -- but I'm still in a few things. Like two events at the Grey Lodge: the Wheat Beer Breakfast on March 7 (9-1, pay as you go, a great prelim to the big Craft Beer Festival) and our Upstate Beer Tasting on March 8 (5-8, also pay as you go). (Scoats and I will be headed upstate to gather the beers that week, and wouldn't you love to be a fly in the car for that one?)

I'm also hosting another event right after the Wheat Beer Breakfast (so if you couldn't get (or didn't want) tickets to the Craft Beer Festival, this is perfect for you), also in the Northeast, but it's not official yet so, I can't talk about it (except to say that it's a German and German-style beer event at the Blue Ox Bistro featuring some great German food and goodies from right across the street at Rieker's Prime Meats (if you've never been there, you're crazy nuts), 2-5, also pay as you go (and the smoked beer and smoked meat is gonna rock).

Which is a great Team Superfleisch lead-in to the other event I'm participating in, The Klash of the Kaisers at Triumph Old City, a no-holds-barred pilsner competition and tasting. This is the best Philly Beer Week memorial to Triumph brewer and craft lager pioneer Jay Misson that we could think of, and the line-up will include a pilsner from Jay's hand-written recipe, brewed at Triumph by Patrick Jones and Flying Fish brewer Casey Hughes. Any kind of pilsner -- Bohemian, German, Frisian, imperial -- is welcome, and we'll have a "pro" judging in the afternoon and a people's choice in the evening; both straight-up "do you like this" judging, not "strict to style" fascism. Pay as you go, 6-9, Thursday March 12.

And that's about it for me this year. I'll probably see some of you at some other events, and I would urge you to check things out thoroughly this year: there are some that are very different and sure to be entertaining.

Now brewing: Pils Jay's Way

I see on Facebook that Patrick Jones and Flying Fish brewer Casey Hughes are currently brewing a special batch of pilsner at the Triumph brewpub in Old City Philadelphia. It's "Pils Jay's Way." After I wrote a eulogy for Jay Misson here on the blog, I met and corresponded with a lot of his friends. As often happens, I learned a lot about a good friend after he died. I hate that, but I loved it, too.

One of those friends of Jay was Peter Kruse, who interned with Jay at Gordon Biersch back in 1996. He got in touch with me through the blog, and wound up mailing me a copy of a handwritten recipe Jay had given him: "Pils -- Jay's Way." I got it into Patrick and Casey's hands, and today they're brewing it. It's got just a touch of smoked malt in it, and I'm very curious to see how it comes out. It should be ready for a pilsner night Triumph is putting on Thursday March 12th of Philly Beer Week, the "Klash of the Kaisers"; more about that here. (And more about today's brew here; thanks for the note, Felicia!)

Tough to be at home while this is going on, but all I'd do is watch and take pictures. Drinking it is what I'm good at.

Thanks to Peter, and Patrick and Casey. Cheers, Jay!

Triumph's Jewish Rye gets attention

There's a nice little bit on Meal Ticket, Philly CityPaper's food blog, about Triumph Old City's latest batch of Jewish Rye ale. I've been enjoying this beer for years, and a tip of the hat to brewer Patrick Jones for giving credit for the beer's development to Tom Stevenson, the innovative brewer at Triumph's original Princeton location (and to Felicia D'Ambrosio for including that; hell, for a very nicely-written short piece on the beer).

If you've never had the beer, go down and try it. D'Ambrosio and Jones do a nice job of both explaining (it's caraway that makes the beer taste like the rye bread you're thinking of) and describing the beer (touching on the pleasant tart/sour tang you get from rye -- think about it, it's there in the bread, too, must be more of a citric break than wheat). Nice work. Competition among people writing about beer is fierce in this town...

Jay Misson

I just learned that Jay Misson, head brewer for the Triumph brewpubs, died this morning. I'm terribly saddened and diminished by this, as is the beer community in Philly and New Jersey.

The beer community may not realize just how diminished they are. Jay was a thread running back to the very beginning of craft brewing in this area, and typically, it was a lager thread. After learning homebrewing as a high school science project in 1978, Misson came home from college and answered an ad for a brewer at Vernon Valley, the pioneering brewery within Action Park waterpark in northern New Jersey. Here's what I wrote about that in an Ale Street News profile of Jay:

Misson started working for German brewmaster Stefan Muhs, who had managed to install a classically traditional German lager brewhouse in the Action Park waterpark in Vernon Valley, a strange marriage of teenage thrills and thoroughly sophisticated beer. "We were putting out half-liter swingtops of unfiltered, organic-ingredient lagers, brewed to strict Reinheitsgebot standards," Misson recalled. It was a 30 hectoliter brewhouse, with open wooden fermenters, wooden casks, and an open, tower-style wort chiller.

"Everything was done the hard way, the Reinheitsgebot way," Misson said with a wry grin. "It was a great place to learn, because you HAD to be clean, especially with that open chiller. We grew up all our yeast from slants, we even made our own culture medium, and we cultured lactic acid to acidify the malt."

I tasted those beers twice: once at an early Brickskeller tasting of American craft beers with Michael Jackson, who lavished praise on them, and once at Action Park in the late 1980s. Both times I was impressed, though the Action Park beers were served ice-cold, something Jay was never happy about.

Jay remained a lager chauvinist, and wound up at Gordon-Biersch, training brewers. That's where he met Patrick Jones, who he would bring along back to New Jersey to brew for Triumph, first in New Hope and now in Philly.

Jay was always quick to pour a beer, quick to rhapsodize about a German style, and quick to quash any talk of lager being in any way inferior to or less complex than ale. He also loved having a good time, a big man, outsized in humor, knowledge, and passion. As I said to his wife Kelly today (they married in October of 2005; Misson got a call at the wedding to let him know Triumph had won four GABF medals), Jay was just such a big guy, it was like he didn't fit into this life.

Kelly said he'd had a great day yesterday, caught an enormous bluefish. If he had some good lager beer with it, and been with her, I can't think of any way Jay would have enjoyed his last day on earth any better. Oh, damn, but I am going to miss the man. Lift many beers to him, because that's how he would have wanted it. But please...lagers:

I told Jay about something (Hyde Park Brewing's) John Eccles told me once. "Ales!" John said. "I could teach a chimp to make ales. You have to know what you’re doing to make lagers." I asked Misson if John had heard him say that (when Jay was training him at Mountain Valley brewpub).
"No, he didn’t get that quote from me," Misson laughed, a big laugh. Then he smiled. "But the attitude – yeah, that he got from me."

Attitude, and lagers. One more quote:

I was relaxing after the meal with head brewer Jay Misson and part-owner Brian Fitting; Fitting was telling me how they kept getting inquiries about bottling their beer. “They just don’t get it,” said Misson, waving a dismissive hand. “It’s a brewpub. We make beer here, people drink it here. That’s what we do. That’s all we do.”

Passionate to the last. Fare well, Jay, auf wiederseh'n.

Update to Lager Gala

Two final beers added to the Triumph Lager Gala: a Triumph Dunkel and Blonde Doppelbock. If any of you know Jay Misson, you know the lineage of that last one, which goes back all the way to the fabled lager microbrewery at Vernon Valley, New Jersey. Worth the event, right there.

Another change: Lancaster will be sending Franklinfest, not Gold Star Pilsner...which is actually Philly-er, as Franklinfest was born here, at the old Independence Brewery out on Comly Street.

$4 a half-liter, pay as you go. This event is looking to turn into the after-event party of Philly Beer Week: be there, 6-10.

Pilsner Gala is now a LAGER Gala

We had some folks who wanted to play with us in the Pilsner Gala we have planned at Triumph for Philly Beer Week who didn't have what were quite exactly pilsners...but Jay decided we should let them in anyway. So here is the final list (er...probably final) of Lagers for the Gala at Triumph on March 13, 6-10 PM.

Triumph - German Pils, Dunkel, Kellerbier, Blonde Doppelbock, and Rauchbock (all from the Philly location)
Iron Hill - Vienna Lager (which, if you ain't had it yet, you should)
Victory - Braumeister Pils (Tettnanger?) and Prima
Sly Fox - Pikeland Pils, and a special amber Rauchbier
Ramstein - Vienna Lager
Appalachian - Zoigl Star Lager (unfiltered kellerbier-type)
Lancaster - Franklinfest (a change from Gold Star Pilsner)
Troegs - unfiltered Sunshine Pils
Stoudt's - Pils (this may be unfiltered; waiting to hear on that)

And if you're hungry, Jay is lining up serious German beerhall eats: smoked sausage, meat patties, pfefferwurst, sliders (okay, German-American), and lots of meat. There will probably be some vegetable stuff too. No, really!

This is all pay-as-you-go, most (but not all) breweries are sending people, and you will have an almost unprecedented opportunity to compare these local lagers side-by-side. I'm really looking forward to this, hope you can make it!

Addition: Lord, I was just looking at this line-up again...you'd be hard-pressed to find this many different non-mainstream lagers on in one bar/brewpub anywhere. It's gonna be better than Germany. Heresy.

"...the loudest group of obnoxious crumbs I have ever encountered..."

Don "Joe Sixpack" Russell just sent me a clipping from the July 19 Chestnut Hill Local, Len Lear's "Table Hopping," in which the inimitable Len reviews Triumph's Center City brewpub. Alas, his evening was spoiled! Here's why:

"The night we were there, several area press people were invited to sample the beer and food. One table full of beer writers had to be the loudest group of obnoxious crumbs I have ever encountered in a restaurant. Their non-stop racket could probably have been heard in New Jersey. Obviously a restaurant is in a tough spot when faced with such a rude, rowdy gang, especially when they are invited guests -- in fact, I'm sure some people would even say you should expect such behavior in a place that makes beer by the tank -- but it can still spoil an otherwise pleasant evening.

Ah, notoriety. Yes, folks, it must be told that I am an obnoxious crumb, and Philly's best-known beer writers are a rude rowdy gang. Man, I just hate it when people have a good time at a brewpub. They make beer by the tank there, you know (as opposed to making it by the...what, barrel? Vat? Bottle?).

If you take a look, I admitted that things got loud that night: "...a tasting session with Jay Misson (which got rapidly raucous; the working press ain't used to gunning down five quick beers)..." Oh, wait a minute... I noted that it was the non-beer press that got loud. Must have been a case of mistaken identity. Never mind. Although it's nice to note that Len and I had the same opinion of the Mint Julep Gelato. (Thanks, Don! That was a hoot!)

Triumph piece in Bucks County Magazine

I've got a piece in Bucks County Magazine on the three Triumph brewpubs, just came out. Take a look; (click here, and then jump to page 110) the layout's pretty nice, and there's a good shot of the brewers. Might be a couple things you don't know about the brewing experience on that team, too.

Walking and Drinking in Old City

A long time ago, in a life that seems far, far away, I worked in Ft. Washington, PA, as a corporate librarian and IS Director. Really. The company fell apart just about three weeks after I sold my first beer piece (for $25), and I left libraries behind and started writing as a career.

I still stay in touch with some of the folks from the old company; they're the core of The Hunt, I see them at the Grey Lodge, we get together for beers sometimes during the year. So when I got my new gig (I'll be talking more about that soon), one of them, Les Gibbs, suggested we go out and celebrate. Always a good idea!

Accordingly, I met Les at Triumph Old City last Tuesday. It was an ugly drive down: 110 minutes to make what should be a 35 minute drive, thanks to some wicked thunderstorms that had knocked down trees and totally snarled traffic on I-95. But on-street meter parking salved that irritation somewhat, and Triumph's solid pilsner did the rest of it.

I filled Les in on the details, we clinked glasses (Saison, now, that first Pilsner just kind of evaporated in a really welcome way, and the Saison was tasting great: just a bit over 5%, not overdone in the spice department, and more complex than a wit -- get down to Triumph and have some), and relaxed.

Nice bar at Triumph: the bar itself has two levels, the main bar and a little elevated section right in front of the whiskey. You can also look up to the 2nd floor bar -- some kind of event going on up there with a lot of very attractive women -- and the brewery, and across the open barrier into the downstairs dining room -- which is where I spotted brewer Patrick Jones.

Hey! I waved, and he came over. That's him on the right, Les on the left. Not much pilsner left, he said (it's probably gone now), but the Saison had just come on a week ago and he was justly proud of it. The barrel program is progressing; Triumph is going to have some seriously interesting specialty releases by this time next year, and it's only going to get better from then on.

Patrick got back to work, and we went back to...not work. I had a Maibock (which was not in the same league as the pils and the Saison, unfortunately; still good, but not stellar), and we ordered food. There was some great salmon on Brussel sprouts and mushrooms (I think they were mushrooms, the light was kind of bad); small triangles of thin-crust broccoli rabe pizza (real good, and understated in a beautifully Italian way), and fish and chips: all that small plate stuff Triumph Old City's doing.

We finished up and decided to head across the street to Eulogy for one more; Les had never been. We sat at the downstairs bar and split a bottle of Dupont Avec les Bons Voeux, the Christmas-season super-saison from Belgium's Dupont brewery. I love this beer, it's sparky and spicy, but smooth and sophisticated. Les really liked Eulogy, and was impressed with the beer list. Hell, it is impressive! So's the service: I've always had informed and personal service at the downstairs bar.

I offered to give Les a lift rather than train out to his place, so we walked up 2nd Street...and there was Cuba Libre, just looking fine and inviting in the light rain. "Nightcap?" I asked. Sure, and I was soon enthralled with the choices of rums at the bar. (That's the bartender at Cuba Libre in the top picture, by the way.) I finally settled on a 10 Cane, a new luxury light rum from LVMH that I'd been hearing about but hadn't had a chance to try. I like these white sugar cane rums, rhum agricole (although I understand 10 Cane is not technically rhum agricole because it is double distilled to a higher proof, according to Ed Hamilton, who surely should know), and 10 Cane didn't disappoint: silky smooth, sure-handed cane flavor, and vaporously aromatic. A delicious way to end a celebratory evening.

Triumph Eats Good, Too

Triumph Old City threw a press dinner last night, and I didn't want to pass up the chance to hang around with the working press, so once again I made the trek to Chestnut Street (although this time I did have to pay for parking...). There was a brewery tour (which included a look at the grist gun, a thoroughly cool piece of brewing technology I hadn't seen before) with Patrick Jones, a tasting session with Jay Misson (which got rapidly raucous; the working press ain't used to gunning down five quick beers), and then...dinner.

Triumph Old City is all about small plates and sharing, so the food came in sharing-friendly configurations. Three little burgers on a plate, for instance: a burger-burger, a mushroom burger (made of mushrooms, that is: vegetarian) with bacon (brilliant!), and a pork roll burger ("Just to get pork roll on the menu," said Jay). Crisp little traingles of thin crust pizza with mushrooms and truffle oil. Grilled shrimps and scallops.

And then there was dessert, which is the real reason I'm even posting this, because I got the chocolate mint julep gelato, and it was phenomenal. Imagine a really good chocolate gelato, with a clean dose of fresh mint flavor, stuffed with as much Knob Creek as they could fit into it without dropping the freezing point to an unworkable level. It was frickin' awesome.

And yeah, the beers were pretty good too. And Jay took me aside and explained the dunkel I bitched about before, and we talked about Sinamar and dark malts and, well, I hate it when the brewer's right. Just ask O'Reilly.

A Triumph

Tuesday April 17th saw a beautiful moment at Triumph Center City Philly, and I'm not talking about the screaming metal monkey to the left. The brewers of the three Triumph brewpubs -- Princeton, New Hope, the new Center City spot, and 'executive brewer' Jay Misson -- held a brewers reception, inviting brewers from the region to come to the newly opened brewpub. It was a nice idea, and it was great to see everyone come out.






Brewers came from as far away as Troegs and Appalachian in Harrisburg, Stewart's in Delaware, and Anheuser-Busch in Newark, NJ. (Really: these guys are all in the Master Brewers Association of America, and Jay's just become the president of the local chapter -- see how happy he is in the picture to the left? -- and everyone came out for their colleague's new operation.)

As you can see, Jay, like me, spent most of the evening drinking Patrick Jones's excellent kellerbier. It rocked as only an unfiltered pils can rock: aromatic, a touch sulfury, and utterly refreshing, the lager equivalent of cask ale. I also tried the dunkel (which, honestly, I thought needed a bit of work; it was a little sharp, not as glass-smooth as I like a dunkel to be), the porter (very nice beer, hoppy but not obtrusive with it), and the Chico pale ale (yup: Cascades, clean, good drinker, no issues here).

Had good chats with Scott and Lee from Legacy, Casey and Robin from Flying Fish (hadn't seen her in a couple years, nice to get caught up), Brugger from Troegs, Whitney from Appalachian (good to meet the new brewer; very pleasant young woman with a microbiology background, love to see that from a brewer), Suzanne from Sly Fox, Ric from Stewart's, the King of the Philadelphia Craft Beer Scene (don't worry, folks, we shook hands, and smiled, and I went across the street to Eulogy afterwards and had a nice glass of draft Allagash Curieux), and with Triumph partner/founder Adam Rechnitz (who pointed out the screaming metal monkey to me).

I know I'm missing people, and I apologize. It's so infrequent that all of the beer folks in the area get together in a non-work setting that isn't after an exhausting day at a fest. You see how much everyone enjoyed it in this picture out on the street afterwards. Get yourself down to Triumph; the parking's not as bad as you might think (well...on Friday and Saturday nights, but take SEPTA!), I parked on-street for a buck, only three blocks away, and the walk did me good. Thanks to Triumph and Jay Misson for this very gracious "hello" to the craft beer scene.

Triumph Philly: a pre-opening visit

I stopped in the Triumph site on Chestnut Street last night on my way to the Michael Jackson dinner at Monk's Cafe; Jay Misson told me to drop by and see the place. I found free on-street parking on 2nd St. -- Hooray for Sunday! -- and walked on up to the unlocked door. Plenty of construction clutter, and a stairwell full of scaffolding...

"Jay!" I bellowed, "It's Lew Bryson!"

"Come on up," said a voice from overhead, "we're drunk!"

Jay was exaggerating, but they -- himself, two particularly motivated staffers (top pic, flanked by the two staffers), and brewer Patrick Jones (that's him in the picture below, in front of the brewery) -- were drinking, the lucky boogers: Bengal IPA, Oatmeal Stout, and Kellerbier (the beer must have come in from New Hope: brewing at the Center City site is still waiting on gov't approval). Jay fixed me up with a delish IPA right away, and we took a look around.

If you've seen the other two Triumphs in Princeton and New Hope, there's a definite similarity...but there's a definite difference, too. Triumph Center City is more industrial/tech look, but with the familiar vertical spaces and curves. I think the upstairs lounge is going to be my pick, assuming it's not stuffed with hipsters.

He took me down and showed me the draught system: wow. Extremely flexible and advanced, allowing for quick keg-off when the tanks get low. There's a couple spaces in the back bar for casks to go on dispense (lager and ale, I strongly suspect), and a finely designed malt handling system. Lots of thought went into this place.

Jay's still saying end of the month for a soft opening. I asked him how he was handling the pressure of opening across Chestnut St. from the self-proclaimed "King" of Philadelphia craft beer (see above). He didn't seem to be overly concerned.

Now...I did hear a rumor at the Monk's dinner that Triumph is already looking at another site closer to Center City Philly, three or four blocks east of Monk's. Interesting...

Triumph Philly -- update

Talking to a lot of brewers today... Just got off the phone with Jay Misson, head brewing fella at Triumph. The story on their soon-to-open Philadelphia location on Chestnut St. in Old City: they're waiting on a certificate of occupancy from the city, inspections and that, and they're open. Look for that in late March, early April; better date when I get it. Grand opening is --right now -- scheduled for April 30.

Beers that will be on: Honey Wheat Amber, Bengal Gold IPA. Kellerbier (pils-style, deep gold) Dunkel, Oatmeal Stout, Chico Ale, Porter, Love Potion Belgian Tripel.

"There's parking all around us," Jay said, to quell my suburban driver fears.

How's it look? Well, I hope to get a peek this weekend, but meantime Jay said it's hip, industrial in spots (I thought the other two Triumphs were, too...), and sectioned into smaller areas.

Some cool news for glassware freaks like me: Jay's got a new glass coming from Rastal that actually looks like the glass in the Triumph logo. Hrrmph! About time!