Happy Election Day

I spied this on the bus shelter this morning.

As the late Glenn Frey once noted

...the heat is on. Our fancy new BRT bus platforms have heaters and they are now running with the cooler autumnal weather.

R.I.P. Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones passed away yesterday. Perhaps he is best known for producing Michael Jackson's Thriller. I went over to Wikipedia to look at his body of work and, while I knew he was a producer extraordinaire, I had no idea just how much music the man helped to make. In addition to producing duties, the guy played with the likes of Dizzie Gillespie, worked with Cannonball Adderley, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie, scored numerous movie soundtracks, and so on and so on. He played, composed, produced, conducted, orchestrated - just amazing.

He produced the soundtrack to The Wiz and I saw the musical last year so I am listening to this classic.

Even more autumnal scenes '24

It's been a gloomy, rainy day. The rain was coming down when I got out of bed and it continues as I type in the evening. Despite the precipitation, I took a walk around Acewood Conservation Park this morning with a cup of coffee in hand as I needed to be out in the trees.

The geese were there in droves and were all talky. I could hear them honking and squawking the whole time they were within earshot. Sadly, I did not have my camera camera with me so I got no action photos of the geese.

It was long after I got home that the neighborhood gang of turkeys wandered through our yard into that of the next door neighbor.

All Souls' Day

This All Souls' Day I am enjoying happy memories of my brother. It's still difficult for me to believe he's gone and that it has been nearly 10 years since he died.

Earlier this month he was memorialized in an epic 40+ hour round of Beyond the Mountains of Madness at Gamehole Con where he was Ike Clanton, crew chief of the S.S. Gabrielle. His memory is kept alive at gaming cons (and progressive rock concerts), which tells you something about him. Ha!

New tunes: Mdou Moctar

Thanks to MadCity Music for getting me a copy of the new Mdou Moctar album Funeral for Justice. Bummed that I missed him a couple weeks ago at the Majestic.

Waking the Dead

Drinking seasonally this morning. Good stuff, Just Coffee. Dark, roasty goodness.

Rauchbier is like the sin of the flesh; the more you have the more you want: Bamberger Rauchbier by Klosterbräu Bamberg

This may be my first taste of a German Rauchbier that isn't from Schlenkerla. A true red letter day!

Like BestMaid's pickle beer, this one was purchased in exurban Chicago. The clerk at the register was surely thinking I was a weirdo as I came before her with 2 packs of Rauchbier and one of pickle beer. Plus Malört and Underberg.

I don't recall having seen Klosterbräu's beer previously but I don't know if this means they started exporting to the States fairly recently or if they've been doing so for a while but the beer has finally made its way to the middle of the country after being available to coasties for some time. The bier came in cans and, according to Untappd, Klosterbräu Bamberg is a subsidiary of Privatbrauerei Kaiserdom, Bamberg's largest brewery. By large we're talking New Glarus size, not Miller. Perhaps the Damen und Herren at Kaiserdom are aiming for the American market. I only saw their Rauchbier which is, in my opinion, an odd choice if you are looking to gain market share in this country.

Can you imagine the management meetings about this?

Vee vant to penetrate zee American market.

Aber how do vee do so vizout an IPA?

Vee shall zend zem zee Rauchbier!

However a strange business plan they may have, to them I say willkommen!

Klosterbräu Bamberg dates back to 1533 although there is a mention of whatever it was called back in the Middle Ages from two centuries earlier. The can notes that the grand guaiacols, the fantastic phenols, and the scintillating syringols come from malt that is dried using the smoke from beech wood flames. Beech wood is traditional these days for Bamberger brewers but I'd bet their forebears used whatever hardwood they had at their disposal back in the day.

One thing the can didn't mention was what style of beer this is. Is it a Märzen? A bock? A Helles? Maybe it's just their own creation.

I was very eager to try this beer. How would it differ from Schenkerla's?

A big, firm tan head with staying power sat atop the liquid which was dark and opaque. Lifting my glass to a light and putting it at just the right angle revealed the beer to be a deep ruby-brown hue. It seemed to be clear. I mean, it's a German beer that's not a hefeweizen so surely it was clear. It looked like just the tonic for a chilly, overcast autumn evening. And so it smelled too. While the smokiness came first and was most prominent, it was a complex aroma with a bit of wood of the unburnt variety in addition to the usual fuliginous elements. There was also a hint of malty sweetness, mild stone fruit, and some spicy hoppiness struggling to be smelled.

The medium-light body was punctuated by a good, firm fizziness. Still, the luscious smoke flavor had a pleasing smoothness to it, at times. The smokiness was rather potent and tasted rather sprightly, as if it wasn't being dulled a bit by malty sweetness. Indeed, the beer had a clean smoke taste and was not the least bit sweet. The hops protested the grains vigorously and added a very nice spicy contrast. On the finish, the smoke lingered as the hops took on herbal notes that gained in strength to give firm doses of both bitterness and dryness. I also tasted bitter chocolate here once the smoke began to fade.

Sehr schön!

This is one fine bier. While it looks like the stuff in the pool that takes you to the Black Lodge, it has a fairly light body and is the very definition of easy drinking. It went down like water for me. I loved the smoke flavor and the way the other malts didn't get in the way of it so it had a sharper, "fresher" taste. Marvelous! It had a stronger hop flavor for me than any Schlenkerla beer I've had but I am unsure if this is because Klosterbräu uses more of the precious herb or if the Schlenkerla varieties I've tasted had their hoppy potency dulled by age. Also, I think Schlenkerla's brews tend to have more sweetness and bready flavors than this stuff.

I am unwilling to say that this is better than Schlenkerla or that Schlenkerla is better than this. However, Klosterbräu's Rauchbier is no shadow on a cave wall; this is definitely a Platonic ideal.

Junk food pairing: Klosterbräu's Bamberger Rauchbier pairs magnificently with Herr's Horseradish Cheddar Potato Chips. The folks at Herr's do not skimp on the horseradish which makes this perfect companion to the smokiness.

More autumnal scenes '24

We grew a pumpkin this year! It appears that the squirrels did some sampling.

I made an apple pie with fruit from Lapacek's, including a Wolf River apple. It spent a little too long in the oven - look at the Maillard reactions! - but it still tasted delicious.

Piper sleeping on my lap.

The first female monster cereal mascot. Perhaps the first lesbian one as well. Will the Sheridan Le Fanu estate sue?

A creepy night at the bus stop.

At Gamehole Con with Don of Novus Ordo Seclorum. All hail the Great Cthulhu!

A pre-gaming walk at Turville Point Conservation Park.

Rauchbier!

Things turn sauer for Wisconsin

News arrived today that Fermented Food Holdings, parent company of Great Lakes Kraut up in Bear Creek, is expanding the plant there to become the largest sauerkraut producer on the planet. In addition, the company is moving its headquarters from Florida to Madison. It sounds like some tax breaks from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation helped seal the deal.

In an interview with FFH's CEO Jorge Azevedo, he notes that they source 90% of their cabbage locally. I had no idea cabbage was such a big crop here in Wisconsin.

Happy Halloween!

For lunch on this All Hallows' Eve I fried up some corned beef hash. And since "hash" rhymes with "mash" you just know I put it into this song as I sang it to Piper.

Pickle beer Texas style: BestMaid Sour Pickle Beer by Martin House Brewing

Just when I thought the only pickle beer I had left to try (that I could find in Madison, that is) was Destihl's, I stumble upon this brew.

While, perhaps not surprisingly, I found this beer down in exurban Chicago, it is a little bit of the Lone Star State that made its way up north. The brewer, Martin House Brewing, and the, um, flavoring conspirator, BestMaid, are both denizens of Ft. Worth. To the best of my knowledge, neither company distributes their products here in Wisconsin but I may be wrong. It's true, I haven't gone around town to survey the pickle scene so you might find BestMaid at WalMart or some other national chain. When I need my fix, I head over to the Woodman's pickle/horseradish/sauerkraut cooler where I generally grab a jar of Claussen's spears.

(If any Madison area folks know of a local fermentorium that makes a good, crunchy pickle, please let me know.)

In an earlier pickle beer review, I prognosticated that some brewer somewhere would take the humble style and twist and contort it into something beyond a light beer with brine or pickle flavoring added. It seems that Martin House is exactly the brewer I feared. Their website features a photograph of a pickle beer variety pack with four variations of the beer that have been "fruited" with orange, blackberry, lemonade, and strawberry, respectively. Given that the plain stuff, which I bought, is alloyed with natural flavoring, I suspect none of these beers have been within a mile of any real fruit.

A previous variety pack included four different flavors: spicy pickle, bread-n-butters, Bloody Mary, and chamoy drip. I had to investigate this last one and found that chamoy sauce is a Mexican condiment made from dried fruits and chili powder giving a sweet-salty zip. While the sauce sounds very tasty, I would hesitate to put that beer to my lips and am still wondering why it's "drip" instead of "dip" or "sauce". Bonus points, however, for making a beer with regional character. Further research into Martin House's brewing activities turned up watermelon, grape punch, and tequila barrel aged spicy pickle beer varieties. Those folks down in Ft. Worth are keen to run this style into the ground. Surely a beef flavored version is forthcoming for the true Texas experience.

Luckily I am dealing with the plain Jane stuff. It seems to be a kettle-soured brew with natural flavoring added.

Sorry about the photo. I somehow did not keep the one that was actually in focus.

My pour produced a big, loose white head that was quite volatile - like soda. Bubbles carelessly rushed upwards and popped in a fizzy frenzy. The liquid was a brilliant yellow with a slight haze to it. There was a fair number of bubbles inside. My nose caught sour dill pickle brine and a nebulous sweetness that I couldn't identify.

The first sip revealed a light body with a large payload of sour pickle flavor. There was also a moderate saline taste and a rather prominent sweetness which was so, I believe, because there wasn't much fizz. The finish found the sour pickle taste lingering until the next sip. 

My notes say "not bad". The brewer used a rather heavy hand when applying those natural flavors because the pickle flavors are quite potent. Isn't everything bigger in Texas? When I inhaled while taking a sip, I got this weird rubber band taste. Odd. This quirk aside, the natural flavors here weren't horrible. It's like they didn't take as if they were administered with an eye dropper yet they also didn't have a sharp, brisk taste like real brine. Nor was there any hint of the floral along with the green taste of dill.

All in all, not bad.

Junk food pairing: Pair your BestMaid Sour Pickle Beer with either BBQ flavored potato chips or their rare cousin, a beef flavored chip.

Getting into the Halloween spirit

 

These later versions of "The Waiting Room" are just fantastic. The improvisation got weirder and lengthier. Hackett would throw in a bit of "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight". Simply great eldritch jamming.

This one gets manic at around 6:50. Great stuff!