Category: Drink

Four beers to savor this fall

A few weeks back I sat dangerously close to a heat lamp in the beer garden at Loaded Question Brewing Co. in Portsmouth, sipping and truly savoring the brewery’s Coffee Tartan, a rich, aromatic coffee porter.

I sat with a couple friends and insisted they needed to try it too, offering my glass before remembering, you know, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic and maybe sharing glasses isn’t the best idea.

The point is, I was excited about the beer, which featured huge notes of coffee and a silky smooth finish. Sometimes a stout or a porter features the subtle flavor of coffee, but this was closer to a cup of decadent coffee than it was to a beer — a true coffee lover’s brew. Loaded Question blends its standard Tartan porter with “specially made cold brew from Mule Kick beans.”

In addition to the Coffee Tartan, I’ve been fortunate to enjoy a number of extraordinary beers lately, and I would be awfully selfish if I just kept them to myself. For the greater good, here are four more beers I’ve enjoyed recently that I think you will too.

Farmhouse Noir with Raspberries by Stoneface Brewing Co. (Newington)

I must admit I stepped way out of my comfort zone on this brew, which is a lively dark saison featuring very tart raspberry flavor and a little dark chocolate too. This was just a really interesting, complex beer: pronounced tartness from the raspberries and a little funkiness coupled with more richness and decadence than I’m used to with a saison. You can sip this one slowly to appreciate its vibrance and its range of flavors.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Milk Stout by Bent Water Brewing (Lynn, Mass.)

This is one of those beers where you take a sip and you have to ask, “Are you serious?” This is just a bomb of rich, luscious flavor. And this isn’t a case where you can just pick up the notes of chocolate and peanut butter; the peanut butter, especially, hits you right in the face both on the palate and on the nose. I could argue the coupling of chocolate and peanut butter is one of the best combinations ever created and I could point to this beer as exhibit A. This is your next dessert beer. Bent Water beers are sold in beer stores throughout New Hampshire.

Fresh Patch Pumpkin Ale by Wormtown Brewery (Worcester, Mass.)

I know, I complain about pumpkin beers every year, and now I have one on a list of beers I think you should try. On top of that, usually the pumpkin beers that I actually like tend to be stouts and porters and this one is anything but. And yet, I love this beer. It’s not super sweet but the pumpkin flavor does stand out in a good way, probably because they brew this with hundreds of pounds of local pumpkins. While they do add a spice mix to the brew, it is not overpowering like many other pumpkin beers, This is light, pumpkin-y and very, very easy to drink. This would be a great choice after an afternoon of yard work.

What’s in My Fridge
TEN FIDY Imperial Stout by Oskar Blues Brewing (Longmont, Colorado)
I really cannot say enough good things about this beer. This incredibly rich brew just overflows with flavors of chocolate, coffee and dark caramel. This is a big beer, coming in at 10.5 percent ABV, and it’s one you can slowly sip and savor hopefully next to a crackling fire on a chilly fall night. Come next month, Oskar Blues will release its coveted bourbon barrel-aged version of this brew, which just amps up the flavor another notch with warming bourbon and sweet vanilla. Cheers!

Featured photo: Boris is a decadent chocolate peanut butter milk stout by Bent Water Brewing Company. Courtesy photo.

Argument – There comes a time when a rational adult needs to set aside emotion and accept Reality.

Counter-Argument – What has Reality ever done for me?

OK, it’s October.

October, in a year that has been circling the flush-line since March and promises to circle even faster around the bowl before we give up on 2020 entirely and hope for something better next year. Summer is gone and we have to brace ourselves for a grim fall and a winter of — I don’t know — discontent?

That’s one way to look at it.

Another is to adopt, as P.G. Wodehouse put it, a campaign of stout denial. You know what I’m talking about — grown men wearing shorts, sandals and Santa hats in December. Women who wear white after Labor Day and meet your gaze with steely determination.

Whichever camp you fall into, you could probably use a drink.

Case No. 1 – “I Grudgingly Accept That Summer Is Over and Will Adopt a Serious, Adult Demeanor”

The cocktail for you:

Black Tie Cocktail
2 oz. dark rum, such as Myers
½ oz. triple sec
¼ oz. orgeat
½ teaspoon blackstrap molasses
½ oz. fresh squeezed lime juice
1 teaspoon simple syrup

Put all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with five or six ice cubes. Shake until you can feel the ice splintering (see below). Pour without straining into a rocks glass.

The Black Tie is a deceptive cocktail. On its surface it is dignified, sober (in an emotional sense) and entirely appropriate for the season.

On tasting it, though, you will be surprised. It has complex, playful flavors that come in stages — the molasses and lime play off each other unexpectedly well. It is a bit subversive.

Case No. 2 – “Fall Foliage Is Just Another Way of Describing Tiki Trees”

The cocktail for you :

Rum Runner
1½ oz. navy rum like Lamb’s or Pussers, or dark rum like Myers
½ oz. crème de mûre, or blackberry liqueur, or blackberry brandy (the kind you find sometimes in little single-portion bottles in the sale bin at the liquor store)
1 oz. crème de banana
1 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice
2 oz. pineapple juice
½ oz. grenadine (pomegranate syrup)

Again, put everything in a cocktail shaker with five or six ice cubes, then shake brutally, until you feel the ice shatter. Pour into a tall glass. Garnish – Several weeks ago I described the Jungle Bird as too serious a drink to garnish with frou-frou paper umbrellas or fruit. This drink is a defiant rebellion against the changing of the seasons. It calls for a minimum of two cocktail umbrellas, and as much fruit as you want to cram into it.

Just as the Black Tie is deceptively playful, this drink is deceptively sophisticated. The key ingredient here is the blackberry brandy, which insists on shining through all the other goofy ingredients.

A word on cocktail shakers
When you first start making serious, grown-up cocktails you will probably buy a cocktail shaker with a strainer built into its spout. “This looks easier,” you will say to yourself. You might even congratulate yourself on keeping your common touch and not buying into cocktail snobbery.
Eventually, you’ll start getting impatient with how long it takes to pour your entire drink into your glass through the built-in strainer. You will probably have to re-shake and re-strain your drink several times to get all of it out of the shaker.
The solution is what is called a Boston Shaker. It consists of one large steel canister, and a smaller one. It is what most professional bartenders use. You put your ingredients into the larger canister, turn the little one upside-down, wedge it firmly over the ingredients in the larger one, then shake.
It seems like it should leak. It doesn’t. It seems like it would be hard to strain drinks with. It isn’t. The drinks end up colder, somehow. As you shake, you can feel the ice cracking and splintering — which is profoundly satisfying — and you can pour your drink quickly and efficiently into your waiting glass, and shortly thereafter, into you.

Celebrating the grapes of the Iberian peninsula

Spain is Western Europe’s second-oldest wine producing country, but 3,000 years on, it is producing wines that are among the most modern in Europe.

Wine was made in Andalucia between 1,100 and 500 B.C., initially brought in trade by the Phoenicians and later cultivated by expatriate Greeks. Along came the Romans, who set about planting vineyards to export wine to quaff the thirst of their armies. The Moors invaded Spain in the year 700 and with the invasion came a notable reduction in winemaking, but by the 14th century sherry had become a major export across Europe. However, with this deep history, it wasn’t until the late 20th century and the return of democracy and investment that dramatic progress was made in the development of quality wine from well-controlled vinification.

There are many grape varieties and wine styles across the Iberian peninsula of Spain and Portugal, in part because of a variety of soil types, temperatures and rainfall. When we think of Spain we think of the classic red wine, Rioja, made from the tempranillo grape, with its strawberry-raspberry fruit flavor and toasty oak nuances, but there is more resulting from this late winemaking expansion with cabernet sauvignons and merlots, as well as wines produced from grenache and carignan grapes.

Our first wine is a white wine from Galicia, that part of Spain that is along the Atlantic and north of Portugal. Martin Códax 2019 Albarino Rias Baixas (originally priced at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets at $15.99 and on sale at $13.99) is a delicate and medium-bodied wine with a crisp, dry finish. On the palate, flavors of pear, apple, peach and lemon zest are framed by bright minerality and hints of spice. Attractive floral aromatics and brisk acidity make this a versatile, food-friendly wine. We enjoyed it with an appetizer of scallops wrapped in bacon. It was perfect for this dish.

Val do Salnés, a region of Galicia, is known as the birthplace of the Albariño grape in a region where 99 percent of all wine produced is white. The soil is granitic and rocky with alluvial topsoil. It is also the coolest and wettest sub-region with an average temperature of just 55 degrees F. Rías Baixas more closely resembles coastal Ireland than it does other parts of Spain. Known as “Green Spain,” the region is characterized by moderate year-round temperatures, ocean mists and an average annual rainfall that in some spots is nearly three times the national average. Some say you can taste the salt air in the wine. I beg to differ, but taste is a personal thing.

Our second wine can be considered a classic. Marqués de Cáceres 2012 Gran Reserva Rioja (originally priced at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets at $29.99 and on sale at $24.99) has a dark red color and leaves a hint of brick-red on the edge of the glass. This wine hails from the renowned region of La Rioja, of northern Spain. To the nose there are blackberries and some floral notes. The mouth is full and thick with mature plums, sweet spice, and slight tannins like roasted coffee beans or leather from its time in oak. There is a long dry finish, which was a perfect accompaniment to our wine-braised beef with vegetables and an array of mushrooms. This wine at eight years old is still fresh and promises great potential for aging for perhaps a decade. We opened the bottle a couple of hours before pouring and it continued to open in our glasses.

We enjoyed these wines with close friends on our patio, surrounded by gas heaters that not only warmed us but offered beautiful light to the occasion. The evening grew to be cool, but we were warmed by the company of good friends, hearty fare and the superb wines that paired so well with our courses. As the temperatures continue to dip and we want to spend time with friends and family, light up the heaters, fire up the backyard pits, and enjoy some wonderful Spanish wines that are affordable and need more attention from us.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Stouts, porters and brown ales are on the menu now

That first cool night in September triggers something in beer drinkers, something almost primal, instinctual, thirsting for deep, rich flavors.

OK, I’m just being dramatic.

What I’m trying to say is, when it gets cold out, beer drinkers shift from the lighter brews of summer to richer, more robust beers, like, for example, stouts, porters and brown ales. A big imperial stout that has been aged in bourbon barrels just doesn’t pair all that well with a 90-degree summer day. But it does pair remarkably well with a cool, even chilly, fall evening.

I do think now is the perfect time of year to explore darker beers, beers that might take you slightly out of your comfort zone if you’re used to lighter fare or if you’re usually more focused on IPAs.

Stouts and porters offer layers of complexity, robust flavors but oftentimes a very smooth, easy-drinking experience you might not expect from a jet black pour.

And there is so much brewers can do with the stout style. You can age it on bourbon barrels or rum barrels or maybe even wine barrels. You can add vanilla or spice or pumpkin or actual coffee to the brewing or aging process to impart even more complexity, flavor and character.

603 Brewery’s Session Stout would be a tremendous choice for someone looking to explore the stout style. This has low alcohol, features an extremely smooth and creamy texture thanks to the addition of oats, and boasts overtones of chocolate and rich malt. Really, what’s not to like?

On the other end of the spectrum is Kelsen Brewing Co.’s Vendel Imperial Stout, which is a luscious stout brewed with locally roasted coffee featuring big notes of coffee and bittersweet chocolate. At 9.4 percent ABV, this is a slow-sipper you can savor over the course of an evening by the fire. If you’re not sure, split this one with people you really, really like.

For a beer with closer to a medium body, try Henniker Brewing Co.’s Flap Jack Double Brown Ale, which is a hearty brown ale brewed with locally sourced maple syrup for just a touch of sweetness. This beer is the epitome of fall. Brown ales, in general, I tend to find just more approachable, maybe simply because visually they appear a little lighter. Nutty and roasty, brown ales are perfect for this time of year.

A little different but still quite appropriate for the time of year, Throwback Brewery in North Hampton recently released its own barleywine, which features big malt character and plenty of sweetness. Barleywines have lots of alcohol and this one comes in 10.5 percent ABV so be ready, but you’ll be rewarded with a brew featuring big notes of caramel, toffee, toasted bread and warming alcohol, says the brewery.

Honestly, I could go on and on — the list of quality darker beers in New Hampshire is a long one. With huge coffee flavor, look for The Roast from Henniker Brewing Co. later this winter. The Robust Vanilla Porter by Great North Aleworks is a perfect choice for someone trying to explore the style. Stoneface Brewing Co. in Newington features a Barleywine Roasted Almond with caramel, toffee and light chocolate notes — wow.

Be honest, your taste buds are ready to shake things up. Now is the time to grab something darker. You’ll be rewarded with a cascade of complexity and deliciousness. You’re welcome.

What’s in My Fridge
Cosmic Distortion Double IPA by Mighty Squirrel Brewing Co. (Waltham, Mass.) This beer comes at you in a good way. This has aggressive hop character and it’s loaded with tropical fruit flavor and aroma. The pour is a beautiful, hazy, deep yellow (if that’s a thing) and I find that in spite of all the hops and the alcohol — 8-percent ABV — this finishes quite smooth with a pronounced sweetness on the finish. Like everything else I’ve ever had from Mighty Squirrel, this is tremendous. Cheers!

Featured photo: It’s the season for stouts. Courtesy photo.

Not all of these wines are buttery and oaky

“ABC: anything but chardonnay!” We have all heard it — a wine that is either loved or hated. But offer someone a glass of Champagne, and you get an entirely different response!

Grown in many different countries, the chardonnay grape may be considered the world’s most popular variety and perhaps the best and most versatile in terms of the array of wine produced. This grape produces a full-bodied, dry white wine, but its flavor varies dramatically from crisp and steely to intense and tropical, depending on where it is planted, and the wine-making techniques employed. The most intensely flavored examples come from California, Chile and Australia. In France, it is the main ingredient in the production of Champagne, and just south of the Champagne region, it becomes white Burgundy. France is known for Chablis, Meursault and Pouilly-Fuissé; in Austria, we find Morillon. It can be fermented briefly in stainless steel, oak and even in amphorae (clay, or concrete containers). In its various forms from still to bubbly, alone or paired to food it is consumed cooled, but not so cold as to lose its flavor. And, never ever with an ice cube unless it is poured into a punch!

Our first wine is a 2017 Silverado Chardonnay (originally priced at $34.99 and on sale at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet at $19.99), an estate grown chardonnay from Los Carneros, a region just north of the San Pablo Bay that straddles Napa and Sonoma counties. The Carneros region benefits from hot days and cool nighttime breezes from the bay, producing this wine, a blend from two vineyards, that has complex citrus and tropical notes, along with apple and melon. The wine has a straw-yellow shade and is noted by the winery as 88 percent barrel-fermented in French oak and stainless steel before blending. This is a wine to be sipped or paired with chicken or fish.

Our second wine is from vineyards that are planted at 4,000+ feet high elevations in New Mexico. Gruet Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature (originally priced at $29.99 and on sale at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet at $14.99) is a sparkling wine produced in the Méthode Champenoise manner, that is the same as how Champagne is made in France, a labor-intensive operation of double fermentation. Beyond the wonderful effervescence, the result is a wine that is completely opposite from the chardonnay discussed above. The color is the slightest of pale-yellow straw. To the nose it has notes of yeast, lemon and sweet toast. Across the tongue it is full with green apples and lemon zest. It pairs well with the fattiness of lobster and can double as a dessert wine.

Our next two wines are from France. The Maison Louis Latour 2018 Pouilly-Fuissé (originally priced at $24.99 and on sale at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet at $20.99) is a Grand Vin de Bourgogne hailing from the south of Burgundy. Pouilly-Fuissé is the name of a village in the Mâconnais region producing this highly distinctive chardonnay borne from its limestone and clay fields. It has a green-gold color with aromas of melons and pears with the slightest hint of almonds. To the mouth it is full with dried apples along with a crisp acidity to the finish. This wine will pair well with shellfish and would do well alongside a charcuterie board.

The 2018 Domaine Séguinot-Bordet Chablis (originally priced at $29.99 and on sale at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet at $26.99) is also a chardonnay, but from the Loire Valley in Burgundy, a region where the soils are chalky limestone and full of seashell fossils. These soils impart a minerality not found in the other chardonnays. The climate and the unique soils of this region produces a wine that cannot be produced anywhere else. Its color is yellow gold with a hint of green. The nose is bright and with citric and floral notes which carries through to the mouth. It has a refreshingly unique presence!

Thus, the chardonnay grape above many other grapes proves to be incredibly versatile and nothing short of a chameleon depending on where it is grown or how the winemaker uses it to produce a wide palette of flavors to tease our senses.

Featured photo: Courtesy photos