Goodbye Winter, Hello...Summer?

Disclaimer: I wrote this exactly six weeks ago, on March 15, and forgot to click "Publish." D'oh!

Two weeks ago I was wearing double layers of external winter wear. And I was enjoying my seasonally appropriate stouts and porters, unable to whet my appetite for what has traditionally been my favorite style: the hoppy, pale variety. Today, and for the last two weeks or so, daytime temperatures have hovered in the 60s, 70s, and occasionally breaking 80.

Bacon, mushroom, and onion omelet, with a baby greens salad and
homemade balsamic vinaigrette. But that's not just any old bacon. That's
lamb bacon from Indianapolis' Smoking Goose, a "meatery" that specializes
in artisanal meat products that come from from heritage animals, properly
pasture-raised on local family farms.

A few days ago, intent on taking full advantage of our premature summer, I was enjoying a day off at home doing the usual "day off at home" things that I enjoy doing: cooking meals (like my omelets that, thanks to Jacques Pépin, are better than any I've ever had in a restaurant), drinking beer, listening to music, and doing chores with every door and window in the apartment wide open. The inherent warm-weather ability to do such things provides the possibility of chance encounters with neighbors - otherwise highly unlikely. (Two nights ago the smell of hotdogs and hamburgers sizzling over burning charcoal lured me out onto my deck to find my downstairs neighbor intent on taking full advantage of our impromptu June as well.) While cleaning dishes after cooking a delicious breakfast, I overheard voices outside spouting off names of very familiar-sounding beers. Turns out some upstairs neighbors of mine, while on their way out, spotted the ad-hoc collection of bottles that had accumulated on my back porch over the winter. Ommegang Adoration...My Antonia, that's Dogfish Head's Imperial Pilsener...hey these are some good beers! I quietly thought to myself, indeed they are. Hey wait a second...they - whoever they are - are looking at my beers! As I was poking my head out to see who these kindred spirits were, they were doing just the same; walking up to my back door to see just who, once upon a time, had enjoyed all these good beers. "Looks like you've had some good stuff here," they said. "Hey, if you're interested, City Provisions has a couple bottles of Founders KBS left. Are you familiar with that one?" "Yeah sure," I said, being unfamiliar with it. "Get over there soon if you want one. The owner is also pouring a collaboration brew he did with New Holland." "Oh you mean, Cleetus?," I replied. "Yeah! So you know..." Kindred spirits indeed.

Cleetus Friedman, a "politically-incorrect-white-jewish-ambisexual-hip-hop-artist"-comedian-chef-conceptual brewmaster, owns City Provisions, a deli-cafe-catering company that focuses on local, seasonal, sustainable, expertly prepared, awesome food. No surprise that Cleetus also has a thing for such beer. Each month, he collaborates with a different local brewery to produce a small batch of beer, often inspired by the season, something he's cooking, or his whim. By his own admission, he doesn't know much about brewing, but he knows the character he's going for, and what he wants his beers to taste like. He's recently worked with such breweries as Metropolitan, Finch's, Greenbush, Dark Horse, Two Brothers, and right now he's pouring a beer titled "Marsha Mallow's Malted Milk Stout" that he made with the powerhouse craft-brewery in Holland, Michigan: New Holland. Apparently - according to ZombiesAteMyDog, the lone reviewer of the beer on Beer Advocate - the beer was "Named after the infamous Marsha Mallow, of the NHB [New Holland Brewing] staff holiday party, 2012." I don't know if it's true or not, or whatever Ms. Mallow may have done to gain infamy, but who cares. Marshmallows, chocolate malts, milkshakes - this beer evokes them all.

But that wasn't even what I went over there for. I went for the Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout (which I had just figured out was what the "KBS" stood for). What my neighbors didn't tell me was the price of admission. About an hour after their admonition to make haste, I called up City Provisions to ask if they had any KBS left. "We do," the guy on the phone said, "but do you know the deal?" No, I did not know the deal. "The manager wants you to drop an old-school rap line in order to get one." Ok. No problem. I'm not a rap aficionado or anything, but I'm sure I can come up with a single line from a Dr. Dre, Snoop, Gangstarr, Ice Cube, someone's song. When I got there, I panicked. I asked "who I was supposed to tell that we've been spendin' all this time livin' in a gangster's paradise." Ugh. Coolio?! And it had to be the song in which he shamefully ripped off a great Stevie Wonder tune? Shame on me. I could see that Cleetus was not impressed either. He is a hip-hop artist himself, after all. But hell, it got me some KBS. And hey offered me a glass of the milk stout too. Not a taste, mind you, but a whole glass. For free. Of course I went back later that night with a friend to purchase two more, because that's what you do when you have a guy like Cleetus and a place like City Provisions in your neighborhood. You go there.

-Br. Thelonious

Session Beer Day - 7 April

There's always more to learn out there.  Thanks to the Northern Brewer blog for introducing me to the Session Beer Project and the welcome concept of Session Beer Day, which will be tomorrow, 7 April.  It will celebrate Little Repeal Day, when 4% ABV beer became legal ahead of the full repeal of Prohibition.  Beer of this low alcohol can easily come across as thin and insipid; it's much easier to pack a lot of body and flavour into a big IPA or imperial stout.  However, every rich beer culture of which I can think (Britain, Belgium, Germany, heck even America...sometimes) has a hallowed place for tasty beers of which you can consume pint after pint without needing to be taken home in a wheelbarrow.

Being in Utah presently, drinking session beer tomorrow will be pretty easy; thanks to the incredibly antiquated "3.2 Law", there's not a draft beer in the state above 4% ABV.  By no means has that slowed down resident brewers and beer enthusiasts; while I don't hold with all the local draft offerings, the microbrew scene here flourishes based on exactly this strength of beer.  What I really wish is that I had the opportunity to brew a session beer tomorrow.  Paper research takes precedence there, but I do have yet another ordinary bitter recipe in the works for the near future.  Hope you're able to get out there tomorrow and, one way or another, get sessionable.

-Br. Absalom

Uinta Brewing Co. Tour

This past Saturday, I took part in a Whole Foods "Microbrews for Microloans" fundraiser: a tour of the largest local brewery, Uinta Brewing Company.  DeAunn and I have visited the taproom once before, and had an all right time for it being pretty quiet.  Their output is decent and pretty consistent; in particular I've enjoyed their pale and kolsch, as well as the extra pale and Belgian blond from their organic line.  Right in line with their organic beers is their commitment to sustainable energy; most of their power is generated by wind turbines, which has been recently supplemented by solar.  Utah's 3.2% ABW limit on draft beer (I don't believe there are limits on what comes in bottles) puts some pretty solid constraints on what a production brewery can put out to get on tap in this state, but Uinta has managed to field a generally solid portfolio.

The brewery's kind of out on the edge of town; fortunately, that doesn't mean it's terribly hard to reach here in Salt Lake. Right inside the door, after checking in, Whole Foods had set up seven local food producers to sample their wares, covering everything from cheese to sausage to hummus.  Filling up a small plate, I headed into the taproom for the open bar.  They were pouring most of their regular line, along with a couple of their organics and a seasonal.  I stuck with half pours prior to the tour, opening with their winter lager; I usually go for ales over lagers, but this one was pretty tasty.

A full pint of Wyld in hand, I went with the first tour group of the day.  We checked out their 60-bbl brewhouse, 240-bbl fermenters, and the bottling & kegging line; our guide, a former brewer now turned area rep, did a pretty good job supplying the basic brewing information without dumbing it down too far.  I met a couple in my group who actually moved out here from Chicago at the same time DeAunn and I did, and to attend the U, to boot.  Another guy in my tour (a fellow homebrewer, it turned out later) hung back to chat with one of the brewers at the fermenters and was treated to a glass of their new IPA, Hop Notch, straight from the conical.  Even more fun, though, was getting a moment to check out their barrel room.  They have a modest barrel program going, most of the barrels coming from the local High West Distillery.  They're currently barrel aging several of their Crooked Line bottle series, including an excellent bourbon barrel barleywine.

After the tour, it was back to the taproom for more chatting, food, and beer sampling.  I had a chance to pester my guide, now pouring at the bar, with a few technical questions on their process.  Far from being put out, he was happy to answer, and eventually took me out to hang with Jeremy Gross, one of the brewers.  Jeremy was super cool, very obliging, and welcoming of my questions as he simultaneously started one boil and another mash.  Originally from Park City, he's also spent time brewing for another local, Bohemian. He was nice enough to pull me a pint of his homebrewed DIPA from a keg he brought to share at work.  Heavy with Sorachi Ace, Citra, and Simcoe, the word that came to mind was "bright"; this was a really phenomenal hop monster that belied its 8.5-9% ABV.

On top of that, after having hung out with him for the best part of an hour and a half, he sent me home with a short-fill bottle of their new 19th anniversary sour cherry ale.  The bottling date was only two days prior to when I was there; it's so fresh that it still needs to sit for a couple weeks to finish naturally carbonating.  If I see Jeremy out at the bar, I owe that guy a round.

Between the beer, food, hang, and atmosphere, it was a great time, and the best brewery tour experience I've had to date.  A big thanks goes out to Whole Foods, the local food vendors, and Jeremy and everyone at Uinta.  It reminded me of some of the things I love about beer and the process of homebrewing: the lowering of guards, the conviviality, and the friendliness of fellow brewers.  I took home several bottles, but I'll definitely be back for more of Uinta.

- Br. Absalom

Squatter's Fifth Element 2012 tasting

This is from Squatter's Reserve Series; it took Gold at the 2011 GABF in the Lambic/Sour category.  It definitely falls under the "funky saison" heading.  I picked up the bottle from the downtown SLC brewpub earlier this week.

Date - 29 March 2012

Venue - My house

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Appearance - Yellow-gold with lots of small bubbles that cling to the sides of the goblet.  The big pillowy foam hangs around for several minutes, but doesn't leave as much lacing as I thought it might.

Aroma - Tart lemon, spicy, a little barnyard, a touch of soapiness.  Very intense in its lightness.

Taste - Immediate funk, oak, and mellow citrus.  The sour/tart sensation has a light touch, but lingers in the aftertaste.  No alcohol burn detected.

Mouthfeel - Just a bit heavier than truly light, with effervescent carbonation; very lifting and spritzy.

Overall - This is way too refreshing for an 8% beer!  It's light, characterful, and drinks much easier than its ABV suggests; while it goes down easily, though, its effect isn't slow in arriving.  The funk and sourness are main players, but aren't overdone.  Definitely worth repeated sampling!

- Br. Absalom

DMA Recital - Sunday 25 March 2012

It's been pretty quiet here for a while; time to break the silence with some music news, a first for this blog.

I'm giving the first recital of my doctoral degree this Sunday at the University of Utah.  You can find the details on the included posters; below is the program:

Burlesque (1995) - Robert Gulya
Autumn (2008) - John Stevens
Sonate b-moll, BWV 1030 (~1720) - J.S. Bach
      - intermission -
Dialogue for Horn, Tuba & Piano (1992) - Anthony Plog
Dance of the Ocean Breeze (1979) - Roger Kellaway
Adagio und Allegro, op. 70 (1849) - Robert Schumann

While DeAunn and I moved out here for school for a number of reasons (to get our terminal degrees that are expected when applying for college teaching jobs, to master the art of winning orchestral auditions, etc.) this is one part I eagerly anticipated when we signed on for the program.  I really enjoy performing solo repertoire, and I haven't had the opportunity to play a full solo recital in quite a while.  I did play a half-hour slot at the Midwest Regional Tuba-Euph Conference (MWRTEC) in Michigan just over a year ago, and DeAunn and I played a joint unaccompanied recital just before we moved in August, but the width, breadth, and depth of the repertoire, resources, and time commitment involved for this upcoming event are much different.

As much as I like solo playing, and as much as I've looked forward to doing this, it really wasn't until a couple months ago that I started going through my library to pick out a program.  All told, I didn't start working up this until just over a month ago.  Some of the works I've had kind of on the back burner for a long time, but most are brand new to me.  It's been a month of ass kicking, to be certain.  I've performed the Gulya twice before, but it's an undertaking every time, and the Bach turned out to be a much more involved and expansive piece than I'd planned.  The other pieces are not short on musical and technical challenges, either; I don't really care for playing too much filler or third-rate dreck.  Would I like to have planned in more prep time?  No doubt.  As it is, though, I should be just about at peak performance when I hit the stage Sunday.

As you can tell from the program, most of the rep is modern.  What else you'd expect from an instrument that didn't have any serious repertoire written for it prior to the '50s, I don't know.  As a fun bit of trivia and happenstance, all but the two transcriptions on the program (i.e., the Bach and Schumann) come from the same Swiss publisher; I could nearly call this the "Editions BIM" recital.  However, all the pieces came onto my radar on their own from a myriad of sources over the past few years.

The Schumann was recorded by one of my teachers, former San Francisco Symphony Principal Tuba Floyd Cooley, in the early '90s; that CD was extremely influential to me in my early undergrad years.  As it happens, Floyd was also the one who brought the Bach to my attention.  It was a recording of my friend Mark Fabulich's graduate recital at NEC that turned me on to the Gulya; it's pretty athletic and more than a bit schizophrenic, but it makes for a hell of an opener.  The Stevens is a solo & piano version of the third movement of one of his brass quintets, Seasons; it was by far my favourite movement of that piece when I heard the original, and I was excited to find the transcription on the solo competition list for this summer's International Tuba-Euph Conference in Austria.  DeAunn and I learned of Tony Plog's duet with piano talking to the composer himself after a master class he gave here at the U this past fall; we've both enjoyed performing his other works, and this seemed like a perfect fit for us.  I rediscovered the Kellaway while searching for "just one more" piece to meet the time requirements for the recital.  Another piece for horn, tuba, and piano, it was commissioned and recorded by premiere tuba soloist Roger Bobo (along with the ridiculous Norwegian hornist Frøydis Ree Wekre and Kellaway on piano) on an album that I also picked up in my early undergrad years but haven't listened to in the best part of a decade.  Much better than I remember.

While I know my brothers-in-monastic-observance and most others who read this blog won't be able to attend in person, I'm making an attempt to live stream the recital here.  I know I'm looking forward to it.

- Br. Absalom

Uinta Organic Wyld tasting

We invited over a few friends last night to have a tasting of my blueberry stout that just carbed up.  Among the other beers had also had on hand was a mixed pack from local Uinta Brewing Company's Organic line.  Included in it was their extra pale ale, Wyld, which I really enjoyed when we visited Uinta's taproom in the fall.  While a lot of the local beers haven't done a lot for us, it's nice to come across something really nice like this.

Date - 18 February 2012

Venue - My house
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Appearance - Clear, golden, with just a little head developing.

Aroma - Lots of stone fruit (apricot, peach); bread is also prominent.

Taste - Fresh, clean malt with a moderate assertive bitterness.  Breadiness in the nose is very prominent in the aftertaste.  It leaves quickly and cleanly, though a light bitterness lingers.

Mouthfeel - Light and easygoing; moderate carbonation.

Overall - This is a really great session beer; it's almost too drinkable.  Light and refreshing, with a lot of flavour.  I really like the bready quality, though it might get old after a few pints.

- Br. Absalom

Squatter’s Barrel of Russians tasting

DeAunn and I had an early dinner at SLC brewpub Squatter’s the other night, and brought home this specimen for further research.  A Russian imperial stout brewed with licorice root, aged in rye whiskey barrels from the local High West Distillery, and clocking in at 10.5% ABV, it’s right up our collective alley, particularly this time of year.

Date - 13 February 2012

Venue - My house

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Appearance - Inky black with a deep brown head of small to medium bubbles that dropped back to a ring after several minutes.

Aroma - Perfumey, muted oak, hints of molasses and chocolate.

Taste - This one immediately goes to the back of the tongue with definite alcohol and licorice.  Notes of dark chocolate, subdued oak, and low roast; a little acrid.  More chocolate and a balanced sweetness as it warms.

Mouthfeel - Rich and creamy on the front of the tongue; full bodied.

Overall - A big, tasty beer for ski season (should the snow ever arrive in force); dark and acrid in the right ways.  Considering picking up another bottle or two to lay down for a year.

- Br. Absalom