Long Island Beer Adventure - DEKS Restaurant

Last weekend I went to Long Island to celebrate my brother's graduation from SUNY Stonybrook and to generally raise a toast to all the incredible work that he's done over the four years he's been there. There was a party in his honor, fireworks that almost caught the house on fire, tons of great beer to be had and even a newly discovered jellyfish sting cure that can be found in any household (don't worry, its not beer).

But what I wanted to write about was what turned out to be an almost mythically perfect experience at DEKS restaurant in Rocky Point. My brother went to his bar a few weeks before our coming, had a great evening talking to the bartender, and tried a terrific amount of great beer. He called me the next day. "I am taking you to this place. It's amazing."

So, when I showed up, we hopped in my brother's Jeep and made the ridiculously short drive to DEKS. The building itself is the oldest around, the inside is completely wood, warmly lit with candles and some warm light. Their bar is fabulsous looking with tap handles and old bottles of whiskey aging as they sit. This was the type of place to have a great beer adventure, no doubt.

It was one of those moments where you wonder, "Why haven't I ever been here before?" We decided to eat dinner and I got some seared tuna that was delectiable, and then we were handed the list. A 6 page, laminated, small print, beer list. It was impressive. I hadn't heard of a lot of the beer on there but our server and one of the co-owners, Dean, was quick with reccomendations, knowledge and suggestions. I am always impressed when servers know their stuff about beer.

Below are my favorite five beers of the evening, a brief review only because it was an epic experience.

Sly Fox 113 IPA - Sly Fox Brewing Company is a family owned brewery out of Pennsisylvania that's been getting a lot of attention recently. Their IPAs are fairly well known and they have been doing an annual IPA project to get people to taste IPAs made with different types of hops. I've been told the 113 is their flagship. The smell is that grassy kind of IPA with a kind of sweetness. The color was dark orange, and the atste had a bite and sting but a smooth finish. I love this IPA. It tasted like it had a really strong alcohol content, I would have guessed about 9%, but I looked it up later to find that it's only 7%. This is an IPA for true IPA fans.

Sly Fox Incubus - I was impressed with the IPA and I decided to try the Incubus, a tripple which was very wheaty with a terrific warmth. I wanted to drink this all night. Did monks move to Pennsylvania? Because this is a serious trippel, and I haven't had a non-imported tripple like this yet which had so much wheat and smooth sweetness. It was just great, hands down.

Legacy Hoptimus Prime IPA - Yes, another one that I ordered just because it has the coolest name EVER! This one was a double IPA which was great to try right after the Sly Fox. The smell is very bitter and hits you harder than the Sly Fox. The taste is strong bold and obviously uses some different hops than I'm used to . It isn't sweet, but it doesn't hurt you with the bitterness or dry you out like other IPAs can. Order it for the name. Keep it for the taste.

Brooklyn Brewery Grand Cru - This one was described as a Double Wit, and I'm not sure what that would be but this one had a massive foamy head, was opaque in its light cloudiness. The Wheat and citrus smells were sweet and beautiful to smell. This one, like the Incubus, I can't believe came from this country. It was an amazing wheat that had such blended smoothness it was like drinking cream. I have never seen this beer not on tap - and it isn't even mentioned on Brooklyn's website. I'm thinking I might have stumbled upon something special here. Wow.

After the Grand Cru, I got brave, and tried a Rodenbach Flemish Sour (this one is actually Belgian, something I didn't know at the time though I should have known by the name). I have a soft spot in my palate for lambics and sours, much to the dismay of my beer drinking friends that can't stand the mustiness or puckered cheeks. So I poured it out and was happy to see that it was dark brown, you couldn't see through it. It smelled like a tart, barely ripe McIntosh apple, and tastes almost like a cider. I tasted apples, Dean corrected me and told me that it should taste like sour cherries. I stand firm that I was tasting a really tart natural apple, but then again I haven't eaten many sour cherries in my lifetime, so I might not have a reference there. It is bright and surprisingly easy to drink considering all the punch of the sour flavors.

At the end of the evening I also picked up a copy of the Beer Hall Guide To Long Island which was written by a local writer and blogger. I had no idea that places like DEKS existed right around the corner from me, so I was eager to read about what else was going on on Long Island, and give a nudge to another beer blogger while I'm at it.

DEKS is also special because once a month they do a beer dinner where they specifically pick a meal to highlight a beer and a great time is had by all. They also have cask nights, too, which I would love to go to.

If you're on Long Island, this is worth the trip to get to from wherever you're staying. Tell them the Beer Babe sent you :)

Pennichuck - Shouboushi Ginger Pilsner

Pining for the Left Hand Juju Ginger lately, I was pleasantly surprised to see this Ginger Pilsner on the shelf from my new foray into Pennichuck brewing company's line. Named, as their other brews are, for the Japanese word for firefighter, this one has a nice bamboo label that stood out from the rest of the 650 ml bottles it sat innocently next to.

As I was pouring it, I think I realized that I'd never reviewed a pilsner on the Beer Babe, and I'm not sure why. I think that I am a flavor addict, and there is something so thin, so wispy about a pilsner that I didn't think I would be wowed by any pilsner, no matter how good. I did realize though that I hadn't actually seen a pilsner in a while, and I was surprised at this one as it came out light orange, not transparent yellow as I had imagined it would.

The smell is interesting, and very similar to the juju ginger - clean, spicy, light. The taste, too has a light bite to it. I like where the ginger sits in this one. It contributes to the crispness of the brew without being distracting or tasting literally like ginger. I enjoyed this beer with a seafood salad and it seemed to go well. I think something made with lemongrass or basil. The flavor in this one seems to move itself out of the category of Pilsner in my mind.

I'm quite happy with this especially if I can't get my hand on the juju ginger again. I have to say, the guys at Pennechuck are continuing to make me raise an eyebrow.

Pennichuck - Pompier (English Style Barleywine aged in whiskey barrels)

Another bottle from my recent foray into NH's other brewing company, Pennichuck. This one intrigued me because it was an aged barley wine, something you don't see very often. Barleywines are already so sweet, to add the whiskey flavor and the aging would surely bring it to a level of sweet that is almost unheard of - unless its balanced by something else.

This one poured dark brown, with a head with teeny little brown bubbles. The smell is of a sweet alcohol, and even maybe some wood? I love barleywines so I was really excited about this one. And I finally could surrender to the 12.1% alcohol, as I have no where to go this evening, nor do I have to wake up early in the morning tomorrow. Yay!

For something that should sting so much of alcohol and should, in theory be sickeningly sweet, this one is as smooth as anything, and is an absolute delight to drink. It tastes lightly like barley, slightly like malt, but wonderfully complicated. You can't get any smoother than this in something which should bite. This is a beautiful symphony of flavors. If anything its only fault is that it doesn't have that sweet sting of a barleywine, but that's really a feat of brewing to make this one feel like less alcohol than it actually contains.

I've got to say that I'm impressed here, this is one that I'd recommend to lots of people to enjoy as a fine beer for a fine dinner, or to simply serve to friends and then tell them that it's beer. As with their other beers, this one's title, Pompier means fireman in French (the owner of Pennichuck is a Firefighter/EMT) due to the French strisselspalt hops used in the brew. This has been a wonderful brew to sip this evening, and I can't wait to try more. I don't think I've ever had anything which used those hops, which is why this might taste so different to me. But so far, I'm impressed.

Beer Dogs

My mom used to only drink Bud Light. However, after a brief education from the family she's branched out into other beers with a lot more flavor. The side effect of this? She recently got a new puppy and decided to name her Guinness, because she's black and brown, much like that famous Irish brew. She had originally wanted to name the dog Stella, but the coloring was just all off.

Here's a picture of my boyfriend Mike holding Guinness - in this picture she's only 4 months old, and has a lot of growing left to do. She's going to be BIG.

This isn't uncommon, as there are a lot of brews that feature dogs as mascots, labels or names. Like Smuttynose's Old Brown Dog, BluePaw Blueberry, Flying Dog, etc. So why shouldn't the reverse be true?

So on my way home from Long Island I decided to think up other good beer-based names to name a dog. Suggestions are welcome!

-Guinness
-Stella
-Chimnay
-Rogue
-Hops
-Beamish
-Lambic
-Sam (for Sam Adams)
-Pennichuck
-Harpoon
-Weiss
-Bock
-Hoptimus Prime

Naming your dog after your favorite beer is in my opinion cute and creative, especially if the name is of your favorite craft beer or brewer. I've met a few people in my lifetime who've named their dog after their favorite brew and I think it's neat. Dogs come in various colors of brown, so its fitting that they'd go well with beer names.

(I also ran into a cat once at a brewery named "Bud Light")

For now, we're welcoming Guiness into the family and trying to keep her out of trouble, a huge task indeed!

Bar Harbor Brewing Company - True Blue

*Note, this brew is not to be confused with the Atlantic Brewing Company's Bar Harbor Blueberry. It's ok, I did a double take too.

Wild Maine blueberries are at their peak this month, and I've picked some wild ones growing on the stray trails where I worked - a special summer treat. New Englanders are very protective of their wild blueberries, and I only wish I had a few to drop into this beer while trying it (similar to how it has been served to me at The Portsmouth Brewery and Salem Beer Works.)

While uncapping this bottle with a big blue label, I didn't even have to focus on the blueberry smell that met my nose, even before I started to pour it. It poured darker than I'd ever seen a blueberry ale pour before, and it looked, if not for the smell, just like a brown ale. There was little head when I poured it, just a lot of blueberry smell.

This one is certainly different than what I've reviewed so far. This tastes bitter and brown, with a little bit of blueberry tartness. This is a very malty brew with only a touch of sweetness added by the blueberries. It actually struck me as a little too bitter for such a sweet/sour ingredient. It is different, and on the spectrum of blues that I made for an earlier post, I'd almost have to add an other axis for maltiness, because it isn't that its sour, it just tastes toasty and with very little blueberry to speak of. The blueberry comes out right in the end, and after a decent sized gulp it stays on the tongue for a long while.

On blues as a whole, I think I am more of a fan of the sweeter ones. There's something about sitting on the deck, sipping a sweet blueberry wheat (like a Sunset Wheat) that just reminds me of summer.

Boston Beer Adventure & Shock Top Belgian White

So Brendan, the friend I've known the longest (we sat next to each other on the bus in elementary school) happened to be in Boston for the week instead of in Upstate NY per usual. I of course leaped at the opportunity to spend my day off in Boston with him, doing all sorts of fun Boston-ish things with him. While brainstorming for activities we thought about taking a tour of the Samuel Adams brewery - it's accessible by the T (mass transit) and we both thought it would be a wicked fun time. And as a bonus we'd get to drink beer, which is never a bad thing!

Our day started off a little drizzly and we immediately made a mistake of trying to take an outbound instead of an inbound train to get into the city, and laughed about it as we got off, crossed the track and waited for another train. We boarded that one and so did a T maintenence guy, pushing buttons and testing the car which was making all kinds of upsettingly loud noises. After we got off in the center of Boston, the train was pulled out of service for having mechanical issues. So, we broke a train and we laughed about it.

We stopped at a Mexican food place near the theater district and got a little food into ourselves before heading off in the brewery direction - we figured that would be a sensible thing to do considering it was about noon. Then we boarded the orange line and went out almost as far as you can go, got off at the Stony Brook stop and walked about three blocks. The Sam Adams signs were out and it had stopped raining - joy!

Until... we saw this --->

On a random, sunny Tuesday afternoon, the tour had filled up. For the whole rest of the day. Brendan and I were really quite sad about this, and decided we didn't want to just go in and get a beer but we really wanted to do the tour. Sadly, the Beer Babe was gypped out of a tour. Silly capacity! Silly missed trains that might have gotten us there earlier. Grr!

Brendan and I decided to do a few other things to fill the afternoon, and jokingly promised each other we wouldn't have any Sam Adams beer tonight. We ended up going to the museum of science, seeing really neat stuff there. We saw a gigantic 42 lb lobster which could easily have fed 10 people, the brightest light bulb ever created, lightning created by a giant Van de graff generator, played with an infrared camera, and as an unexpected sight, two turtles getting it on.

We then ended up having dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, which had tons of Jethro Tull memorabilia - awesome!

With dinner, the choices were extremely limited for beer. I really thought that the Hard Rock Cafe would have some good beers on tap, but apparently, I was wrong. So if I didn't want a Sam Adams Seasonal, I had to go for a Shock Top Belgian White. Yes, I know what you're thinking. They're made by AB! They're one of the big guys trying to look like a craft brew. Both of those things are true.

But to be honest, after a long day of riding, walking, sitting, riding, walking, sitting and walking some more, it was a nice summer beer. It was cloudy, citrusy and light, it kind of reminded me of a hefeweizen with a orange dunked in it, but lighter tasting. By the end of dinner I had consumed two, and Brendan did too. I think that it was a nice end to a rather misadventurous summer's day!

I swear at some point I will make it inside of the Sam Adams brewery for a review (and for fun, too!) but I guess it'll have to wait.

Stone Coast Brewing Company - 1260 Triple India Pale Ale

Tonight, while watching a show about pirates, I decided to pull out one of the bottles that I picked out last week. At the new awesome beer store I found in Wells, there was an array of big bottles - Brooklyn, Rogue, Unibroue and everything under the sun. In the middle of the colorful labels, interesting designs and funny names, stood this. The plain white label with simple red text, signed simply in the corner by the head brewer struck me as being just one notch up from being home brewed. Interesting. And a triple IPA? What the heck is a triple IPA?

It of course, came home with me.

That's only half the story though. What I didn't read in the store was the fine print. Stone Coast Brewing is not actually new. They're a spin-off of the Sunday River Brewing Company, famous for their 420 IPA - named because they were officially allowed to brew beer on April 20th of 1995 (not, as usually believed, as a reference to marijuana.) Apparently ten years after that, in 2005, they came out with their double IPA - and named it their 840. (I want to get my hands on this, actually, and I'm going to look for it next time I go back to that store.)

The awesome thing that I didn't realize is that this 1260 IPA is one of only 600 bottles that were put up for one year, to celebrate 12 years of brewing. So, it's their 1,000th batch of beer, a one of aged brew, and I get to try it just because I made the mistake of thinking it was a new brewing company!

I poured it out and was really happy to see how dark brown it was. A nice off white head also followed, and a sweet hoppy aroma floated up. So far, so good. It smells delicious.

The taste is amazing. It's in your face, alcoholic, sweet, and pleasantly smooth. It almost has a dark brown ale feel to it, like you took a darker brew and mixed it with a great IPA. It is quite strong and I would have loved to age this yet another year, and I might run back to the store to see if I can get another one to put away. I wish it was something that would be released again.

I don't generally like to review brews that people probably wouldn't get a chance to taste, but this one was accidental and well worth a taste. It's beautifully balanced, warm and hoppy. It does have a bit of hop sting to it, which can dry out your taste buds, but you're well towards the end of the glass before you notice it.

An awesome find - like buried treasure - that if you come across its innocent label you should definitely scoop up.

Weyerbacher - Double Simcoe IPA

I'm by no means a hop expert - I can tell when there are hops, and that hops are different from each other, but I'm a far cry from a cicerone. However, I love to see new varieties and new uses for them. Weyerbacher this time took advantage of the high alpha acids in Simcoe hops to make a really punchy IPA that highlights the different Simcoe hop flavors.

Upon pouring it is copper like a typical IPA, and laces well too after a few sips. Both good signs. The smell is very sharply hopped, an indication of what's to come I would suspect.

You probably would have laughed if you saw my face after taking a sip of this. Wow is this one strong (and bitter) IPA! The Simcoe hops are different than, say, a 90 minute IPA. There's very little sweetness here, very little alcohol taste, too, though its punch is felt a little later. I have to take tiny sips because a mouthful is almost too much flavor to handle.

My first thought as this hit my lips was that I could never get someone who "doesn't like IPAs" to even come near this brew. This one has all of the characteristics of IPAs that people tend not to like - a sharpness, an acidic bitterness, a grassy taste, and some sourness. But to an IPA lover, these aren't faults. This brew is showing the strongest and most assertive flavors of its category. This isn't one I'd recommend to everyone, especially those sensitive to bitterness.

I'd love to try something else made with Simcoe to see if they're all as forceful as this brew, but I do have to say that it was quite impressively strong compared to a lot of the IPAs that I've sampled lately. The guys at Weyerbacher do some really interesting stuff, and I have a few more that I'll be getting to soon. I found a place in Wells, ME that sells the Pennsylvania based Weyerbacher stuff and I'm really excited, since I've only been able to find it on my infrequent trips to Upstate NY.

For more info on this brew in particular, check out this page from Weyerbacher.

Dogfish Head - Palo Santo Marron

A dark and dreary day drew me to this bottle of brown ale from Dogfish Head. A new beer store in Wells Maine yielded many awesome treasures, this one included. The bottle is pretty, it looks like a giant tree cookie on the front. Described as a "brown ale aged in handmade wooden brewing vessels" this one piqued my interest because I love aged and woody brews lately, something I've seen a lot more of in the past 6 months.

In typical Dogfish Head fashion, this one is made from a rare wood from Paraguay. The 10,000 gallon tanks are the largest wooden brewing vessels built in America. The tag line on their bottle is "It's all very exciting. We have wood, now you do too."

This one poured dark, dark brown. The head was a milk chocolate color, the liquid was like the color of special extra dark chocolate. The smell though, was that of a typical brown ale, nothing really special there. This one is aged, though, so I knew there should be more complexity to it than that.

I was flabbergasted when I first tasted this. So many different waves of flavor came through. The first wave was typically malty like a brown ale, then there was a tartness, a sweetness, and it ended with a smoky taste that reminded me of smoked Gouda cheese. I'm not kidding - I would have loved to have had some smoked Gouda with this. Or maybe a fabulous turkey pannini with smoked cheddar melting on it. Mmmn.

The alcohol is apparent on subsequent sips, but not in a bad way. It is certainly strong, but it is also very satisfying. You know you're drinking a strong brew, here, but wrapped in such a delightful taste, it's a pleasant and not burning experience. This one is officially 12% ABV, enough to get you decently sloshed after one regular sized bottle.

It's like a super brown ale, with lots of complexities in it. It's a joy just to swish this around in my mouth, eyes closed and pay attention to all to the different tastes. Another really interesting one from Dogfish Head.

I really have to get down there on a road trip one of these days...

Pennichuck Brewing Company - Saint Florian Doppelbock Lager

For those of you unfamiliar with Pennichuck Brewing Company, they're a NH brewery that is making a mark lately, and you might be hearing about them soon. They're about 2 years old and doing well, though their website is in need of a little TLC.

Most of the time their beers are named relating to firefighting, which is due to the fact that the company is owned by an EMT/Firefighter. Furthermore, a portion of corporate profits end up helping to fund local fire departments train and get better equipment, which I find quite cool. My little brother is a firefighter and EMT, too, so I was kind of intrigued when I saw a whole line of new bottles at my local beverage store. I was surprised to see that they were from NH, for whatever reason I thought I knew of all the brewing companies in NH, but apparently not!

So for this one I tried the Saint Florian - who, according to the bottle is the patron saint of firefighters. It's also a doppelbock, which was originally brewed by monks to be heavy and bread-like to sustain them through their fasting at Lent. A dopplebock is a very malty beer and this one pours out dark with a yellowy head.

The smell is very light and there isn't much there except for the malts, and that's probably a good thing. On tasting it's a very pleasant malt, not sweet or heavy. It is filling, and I found myself drinking it slowly, but my sipping speed decreases with an increase in darkness. Its smooth and malty, but not very punchy with flavor. I do think it would be a nice pair for a roast chicken or some other autumn dinner, its a bit too filling for me today in August.

Worth a taste, certainly, and I'm curious about the rest of their line for sure.

Flying Dog - Double Dog Double Pale Ale

My friend recommended this beer to me with a warning. You better review this in a small glass, he said, or you'll be too sloshed by the end of it to type. At 11.5% ABV, he wasn't kidding. I've tried a few Flying Dog brews before, and eagerly took this one on after a long day of work and thinking, I honestly wouldn't mind being a little out of it after the bottle is finished.

This double pale ale is brimming with hops that you can smell even as you're removing the cap from the bottle. It pours a decently dark, semi-opaque orange/copper. When they refer to this as a double pale ale, I'm assuming - perhaps incorrectly - that its an IPA, but whatever it is it is absolutely hop centric. The text on the bottle label talks about how bitter the ale would be, if not for the "courtesy to finish you off with a well balanced rich and full body complete with a hint of sweetness."

So, before i started typing I admit to downing a quarter of the glass. It tastes hoppy and bitter for the beginning of the brew, but fades gently instead of burning a hole in your tongue with the hops. I'm not sure HOW they do this but it makes it a pale ale that kicks your butt, then apologizes. I really like the feeling it leaves in your mouth after a sip; leaves you're begging for a bit more.

This is definitely a quality tasting experience that only comes with experience and brewing knowledge that Flying Dog can have. Their small batch stuff has impressed me so far, and I'd go as far to say that they're moving up in my list of favorite breweries.

The Session - Unibroue 16

So tonight's Session topic was on anniversaries, so I decided to look up if there was anything interesting in history that happened today which would be worth cracking open a special beer for. I decided that for some reason I need to justify drinking an anniversary beer... so here's my reason.

In regards to the the question in a relationship as to whether “size” matters to a woman, my typical response is as follows:

“It's not the size of the ship, it's the motion of the ocean ...but you can't get to England in a rowboat.”

However, I was proven wrong tonight. I was looking up historical things that happened on August 1^st and I came across the story of George Samuelson and Frank Harbo, who, in 1894, went from New York City to England – a 3,000 mile journey – in a rowboat. No one has ever repeated the feat of using only an oared vessel to cross the Atlantic. Tonight is the anniversary of their landing in England.

So I've been forever proven wrong. You can get to England in a rowboat.

To toast to George and Frank's incredible journey (can you imagine having to talk to the same person within your boat for 55 days straight?) I open for my readers tonight, a Unibroue 16, their 16^th anniversary bottle.

I poured out the beer and found that my first glass had a thick head, I had to wait for it to settle before I could break it in. The smell coming off it was delightfully citrusy, almost orange in nature. The color was a dark copper and the head lingered for quite a while, the carbonation featured big, soda like bubbles.

Officially this is a 'Belgian Pale Strong Ale" (sounds like an oxymoron, eh?). The taste seemed to me similar to Terrible, but a little bit more complex. It reminds me of a good dubbel, and it has a high alcohol content, but you can't taste the sting from the alcohol at all - a definite plus. The taste is lovely and spicy, and some of that orange citrus warms in your mouth as you drink it. Its smooth and very pleasant. Worth seeking out, in my opinion, as this is a once-only brewing, and they've already come out with the 17th anniversary version.

The beauty of this beer is in its character, and Unibroue is one of my favorite breweries because of the quality of what comes out of their bottles. And, for me, drinking something you may never have again is something to cherish, or perhaps share, which is a great reason to drink one for an anniversary.