Especially You, HedonismBot! 7: Oktoberfest (Stoudt’s)
October 26, 2007
Oktoberfest, the famous German holiday, does not, of course, take place in October. Originally, the holiday was a celebration of the wedding of Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese in mid-October, but since German reunification, the holiday has begun in September, and ended in October. Good enough.
The four tradition Munich breweries are the only beers sold at Oktoberfest–Paulaner, Augustiner, Hacker-Schorr, and Spaten-Franziskaner. In the tents, a blonde wheat-beer is served to patrons. In America, however, beer drinkers looking for a little taste of the fine Bavarian autumn grab a case of Marzen–the Oktoberfest style–and pour the beer into a glass only to discover their beer is a dark amber color. Why the difference?
Well, once upon a time, when German breweries started shipping their Oktoberfest to the US, they were forced to change the recipe a bit. Refrigerated compartments didn’t really exist, and this delicate brew couldn’t stand the long voyage and the dramatic temperature shifts that can occur in the galleys of a ship. This Special Export Marzen, however, became popular wherever it sailed, and as the American craft brew movement started growing in the 1980s and 1990s, breweries inspired by German craftsmen, and attempted to create their own.
Stoudt’s isn’t, necessarily, a German inspired brewery, which is odd, because the brewery resides in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, which possesses an overwhelmingly German population. The brewery, I think, is distinctly American, though it’s influences range from Germany, to Belgium, to England and Scotland, and all the way across the country to the West Coast hop bombers. They’ve made their impression on styles of beer all over the world, and with fantastic success.
That said, I’m not overwhelmed by their Oktoberfest. The beer pours an excellent dark amber color, with a pillowing white head of foam, and smells of sweetness and citrus hops. The latter flavor was unexpected, certainly. The beer feels a bit thin in the mouth, and the citrus tang that follows every sip isn’t for me.
It’s not a bad beer, by any means, but I’m not a fan of it, and I much preferred both of the Marzens I had from Victory (their Festbier and their Wiesen) this fall.
Especially You HedonismBot! 6: Brise-BonBons
October 24, 2007
There are, I’ve discovered, roughly two paths through the dizzying world of craft beer. The first is to find a style that you like, and seek out other beers in the same style. The second is to find a brewer you like, and to drink all his things, and then move on to other brewers. For the most part, I’ve been the second variety of drinker. As a result, I’m often looking for breweries that are new to me to try. One brewery that I’ve heard ever so much about is the Belgian brewery Fantome. Fantome, of course, is French for “ghost”, and the bottles, appropriately, have depictions of spirits on them.
The brewery is mostly known for making saisons–farmhouse ales–which are generally brewed during the winter, but consumed late in the summer. The beers are characterized by floral, citrus, and peppery flavors–or, at least, so I’ve read, as my exposure to the style has been minimal, at best.
Fantome’s Brise-BonBons has changed my perception of the style entirely.
Mrs Thursday and I met Mama Thursday and Thursday Family Friend, Mo (as in Maureen, not as in “Larry, Curly, and”), at Monk’s Cafe, which is an absolutely stellar Belgian-style gastropub in Center City Philadelphia. We sat down, took our time to consider what we wanted, and then ordered a round of brews with just enough food to fend off any sort of driving impediments later.
Mama Thursday got a Belgian Trappist tripel, Rochefort 8, which is Mrs Thursday’s favorite, desert island, number 1 a-okay beer. Mo enjoyed the tastes of Belgium, as well, with Duvel. Mrs Thursday stayed domestic, getting Breakfast Stout, from the Founder’s Brewery in Michigan. And I tried Fantome for the first time, ordering a 750ml bottle of their Brise-BonBons.
Monk’s, for all its wonderful qualities, is not a well-lit place, so I cannot speak much to the look of the beer, except to say that it was darker than I expected. Additionally, the beer came in a green bottle, which is odd for a Belgian beer–or, really, for a high quality beer from any country. The fact is that light ruins beer, and the thought is that brown protects beer from light much better than green does. As a result, almost all small breweries, which rely on having products of consistently high quality, use brown bottles to best protect their beer. Green is surprising.
The beer smells sweet and bitter at once. Like apples. Not the red Mackintoshes that Mama Thursday used to stick in our lunchbags. Like the green ones. Granny Smith? I think so. Lovely smell. Definitely a bit of apples, with plenty of pepper sprinkled over them.
The beer is sweet on the tongue–that apple taste comes back, ever so slightly, with the malt. As the beer floats back in the mouth, a bitter hoppy taste takes over, with strength. As the beer goes down the hatch, there’s a distinct, strong, pleasant, and lingering pepper flavor–a flavor that gets stronger as the beer warms up in the glass.
The beer was, truly, fantastic, and I feel compelled to try both more beers by Fantome, and more saisons in general. Not to mention to try BriseBon-Bons again, and again, and again.
Especially You, HedonismBot! 5: Winter Beer Supply
October 24, 2007
We haven’t talked about beer for a while, but fear not! Mr Thursday has been drinking with wide-eyed (and open-mouthed) enthusiasm, and will begin reporting on delicious brews with more regularity very soon. For the past several months, (since roughly the beginning of June), Mrs Thursday and I have been stocking up on beer. For winter. Like squirrels. Like squirrels with drinking problems.
The thought of storing beer is something we learned about with a beer called Aldaris Porteris. It’s a Latvian beer that has an odd sort of tang when it’s fresh. However, if you let the beer sit for just a couple of months, the beer smooths out considerably, and you’re left with a thick and delicious beer. I became intrigued by beer storage, by cellaring. So we did some research about it–about what stores well, about what to expect in storage, about how best to store beer, and then we started packing beer away. Sometimes we’d buy beers we had drank before, just to stick them in storage. Some cases we’d buy, and drink most of, only leaving a couple of bottles in storage. Sometimes, half the case would go for immediate consumption, and the other half into the WBS.
The collection sits in boxes under a desk. About once a week, I come home with another case, and spend several minutes talking Mrs Thursday into why this was a good idea. Gradually, this conversation has become more difficult for me. But we agreed not to touch the WBS until Thanksgiving, and if I can’t subtract from the beer, I might as well add to it.
The supply, at present, sits at 221 234 bottles (and will continue to grow until Thanksgiving). Originally, the goal was to buy enough beer to last two people for three months, if each person is drinking one bottle per night. There’s an understanding, of course, that we won’t drink that much that quickly. Some of these bottles are your standard 12oz, while some are liter-sized, and some are 750ml–wine bottle sized. These beers will last us well beyond three months, even if we don’t purchase any more of them, and some of these will last several years, as we’ll just wait with them for the “perfect” time to pop their tops. Needless to say, I’m giddy. Not to mention, we’re going to try very hard to document most of the beers here. We have sixty-four different beers at present. Some of them are unavailable in Philadelphia. Others are unavailable in the US. We have beers from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Michigan, Delaware, Indiana, Oregon, and New York in the US. Internationally, we have beers from Canada, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Kenya, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Scotland and Sweden.
It takes more than a village to build my beer collection.
So, for those of you who are curious about new and different and weird beers, we’re still useful for that. And just wait until Thanksgiving–we’re going to become REALLY useful for that.
After the break, the Winter Beer Supply.
Mr.Thursday’s Book Shelf 8: The Sound and The Fury
October 21, 2007
The title of William Faulkner’s masterpiece is taken from a soliloquy from the fifth act of MacBeth:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing…”
Now I’m a good enough person to admit that Wikipedia gave me that little piece of information. Nevertheless, the title is as nearly a perfect title as I have ever seen. The Sound and the Fury is split into four sections.
The first section “April 7, 1928” is recounted from the perspective of Benjy, the youngest of the Compson boys. Benjy is either mentally retarded or autistic and this is expressed in the nonlinear, stream of consciousness of the first section. It is especially difficult to read and led me to put down the story multiple times; however, Benjy’s recollection of events in the Compson family (between 1898 and 1928) illustrate a pure sketch of the other characters in the family. It allows the reader to better understand each of the Compson children: Quentin, Caddy, and Jason.
The second section, and my personal favorite, follows Quentin around Harvard and through his recollections of Caddie at home before she becomes pregnant and is exiled from her family. Quentin’s despair for himself, and for his sister’s exile, lead to a nonlinear, cluttered end to the section until his suicide in the Charles River. It’s a complex and layered section.
My favorite part of this section is when Quentin meets an Italian immigrant girl. He spends the day trying to communicate with her to lead her home. He calls her “sister” and fruitlessly leads her around town trying to bring her to a house she recognizes. She follows him until her brother runs up, punches Quentin in the face, and claims that he kidnapped her. It’s beautifully written, and it displays Quentin’s tireless and futile effort to save Caddy from her fate.
The Sound and the Fury expresses the deterioration of southern values through the Compson family (it also expresses about a million other themes, but I’m going to focus on this one. I’m not an English major after all). The alcoholism and death of the Compson father, the mother’s insistence that the family maintains the aires of aristocracy, Caddy’s moral degradation, and when her daughter, Miss Quentin, ran away with a carnival man are all indications of the deterioration of the family. It is through Dilsey, the Compson’s matriarchal servant, that the family is mourned.
The Sound and the Fury is a beautiful work, and a major reason for Faulkner’s Nobel Prize in literature in 1949. This book is widely regarded as one of the best in American literature. It’s beautiful, lyrical, and challenging prose. It must be read more than once.
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner
Paperback: 336 pages
Vintage International
Do They All Die? 13: THE DARJEELING LIMITED
October 17, 2007
It seems to me that, in general, people either really like Wes Anderson’s films, or they really don’t. I don’t think this is a matter of sophistication, or people “getting it”, or not. I think that, given his very distinct style, and the themes and nature of his storytelling and wit, either people really appreciate the films, or they can’t sit through them. I fall into the former category. Frankly, I think The Darjeeling Limited is brilliant.
New Theme
October 17, 2007
Frankly, we don’t even like this new theme as much. The old one was more unique, more stylish (we thought), and better suited to us. But it had some problems with formatting and customizability, and we are not savvy enough to overcome them. And so, yet another new look for the website. Don’t worry, same kind of nonsensical content, however.
A Little Help Here
October 12, 2007
The recent blogger comments joke-meme that seems to be supremely popular seems to be this:
“Oh my God! That’s… that’s… Mr Thursday’s music!”
With the “Mr Thursday” being replaced for whatever is appropriate for the joke. Can somebody tell me where this comes from? It feels familiar, but I can’t place it, and it’s driving me frickin’ nuts.
October!
October 11, 2007
Dane Cook, who is a hack, is on my television frequently lately, telling me that there is only one October. I have no idea what the hell this is supposed to mean, but I ignore it as I ignore all the ramblings of celebrities and other lunatics.
October is, easily, my favorite part of the sports year (for the record, March is a strong second place). Here’s why:
Baseball is in its playoffs. Now the baseball playoffs have a lot of problems, and it is somewhat crazy to reduce the marathon grind of the MLB regular season to a bunch of Best of 7 series to determine a “champion”. Honestly, I truly believe that either the Cleveland Indians or the Boston Red Sox are the best team in the league, and that we won’t necessarily know any more about who’s “best” when their series is over than we do now. And no, I would not be saying this if the Phillies were still in the playoffs. At least, I wouldn’t be saying it yet. Regardless, despite the plethora of problems with the way the MLB runs its postseason, I still compulsively enjoy watching it.
Football season doesn’t start until October. Now, personally, my interest in football is on a rapid decline over the past couple of years–especially this year. However, for those of you who do care, you all know, September isn’t going to tell you too much about a given team. By the end of October, we’ll know who is who.
HOCKEY. Hockey is back. Oh, God, hockey is back.
I love hockey. I love the Flyers. I love the rough and rowdy players who are mostly out there to give and receive concussions. I love the little speedy guys who try to avoid contact. I like watching it on TV, and I love watching it live.
In the picture up there, from left to right, is Joffrey Lupul (1 goal last night), Mike Richards (2 goals last night) and Daniel Briere (1 goal last night). The Flyers humiliated the Vancouver Canucks in an 8-2 rout, with goals from Briere, Richards, Lupul, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne, RJ Umberger, and Mike Knuble.
Last year the Flyers were the dregs of the league. I don’t know if they’re good enough to head back to the top this year, but, so far, they look like a lot of fun to watch.
