Coastal rumor

The April 2007 creation of Coastal Brewing from the smelting together of Dominion Brewing with Fordham Brewing and Anheuser-Busch has been missing a crucial element in its own back yard.

Background information ....

The Dominion plant is in Ashburn, near Dulles Airport. Dominion's beers have long been distributed by the Anheuser-Busch distributor network. And recently, the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company, itself, purchased the rights to distribute InBev's portfolio of Belgian and other imported beers throughout the US.

Virginia is a franchise state: once a wholesaler has been awarded the rights to distribute a brewery's beers, it retains them in perpetuity, unless both it and the brewery agree to part ways, and usually for 3 year's worth of gross sales!

In northern Virginia, it is Premium Distributing/Reyes which owns the rights to InBev's beers, and it has not been willing to surrender them. Thus, I believe that northern Virginia is one of the only areas in the US where the A-B network does not have the rights to InBev's distribution.

But ....

I have been told that an agreement has been reached between Anheuser-Busch and Premium Distributors/Reyes Holdings. It has something to do the resolution of an issue between the two in California.

As a negotiated trade-off, Premium will sell its rights to InBev products to the two Anheuser-Busch distributors in northern Virginia as early as September. There'll be some hefty compensation to be paid to Premium, but the invisible banker will be Anheuser-Busch itself.

I'll respect my source's request for anonymity.

[UPDATE 2007: It's a done-deal.]

Small is Biggest at GBBF

30 years running this year, the Great British Beer Festival is held annually in London, UK at the start of August - a festival and competition celebrating British cask ale. The winner is crowned Supreme Champion Beer of Great Britain. It's the largest cask ale festival in the world.

The requirement that beers entered must be cask-conditioned (for the most part) puts large and small breweries on a level playing field.

The US festival - the Great American Beer Festival, held annually for the past 25 years in Denver in early October - doesn't require that. (Imagine asking Coors or Anheuser-Busch to cask their beer!)

Instead, the US organizers have added categories for mainstream NAILs and ILLs, and a multitude of other craft and import directed categories, many identified by hair-splitting differences. In fact, the current list approaches formalism, with 69 different categories, some merely based on brewing procedures.

It might be a tautology, but it is the answer to the question "How does the beer taste?" which really matters when we taste beer. The brewing procedures followed to reach that point are interesting and vital, but it's the end result that we drink.

Now, compare the American Festival with the British Festival: 69 categories for the former, merely 8 categories for the latter, with the eighth being best of show. With so many fewer categories, might success be grander of an achievement at the British fest?

Now, check out Rate Beer.com and Beer Advocate.com. These are two of several on-line communities of US beer drinkers-as-reviewers, whose memberships' overriding bias is toward more alcohol, more hops, more bigger-ness. It's almost as if US beer aficionados are afflicted with mass sinusitis that eschews perception of subtlety or beauty.

So what beer was awarded overall Gold at this year's Great British Beer Festival?

It was Hobson's Mild.

Mild is not a condition, but a style of ale that is full-flavored and dark, and is brewed to less than 4.5% abv, and in this case of the 2007 champion , to only 3.2%!

Such a mild ale could never win the collective accolades of many US beer fans. It might find the going likewise arduous at the Great American Beer Festival.

But at the Great British Beer Festival, there was no Hobson's choice (a choice that really is not a choice), but a clear and resounding acclamation. It was this little beer, this session beer, this Hobson's Mild, that vanquished big braggadocio.

Hobsons Mild from Hobsons Brewery in Shropshire was today judged [11 August] to be the best beer in Britain by a panel of brewers, beer writers and journalists at the Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court.

The Shropshire brewed beer was chosen as the overall winner from over fifty finalists in eight categories including beers from tiny micros to major regional brewers.

Nick Davis, Director of Hobsons said: “What a great surprise! It's a nutty mild and despite being only 3.2% abv, it's packed full of flavour."

• Campaign for Real Ale Press Release
  

A few other relevant postings:

• Smallest can be biggest!
  How I once was fortunate to taste a (likewise small) Champion cask ale.
  
• The Session Beer Project
  Lew Bryson preaches on small beer.
  
• He was there
  a beer blogger in England
  

Iron Sommelier: beer & wine

Here's a YouTube video of an event pairing cheeses with beer and wine, hosted by Brooklyn Brewing's Garrett Oliver and an unnamed wine representative. Interspersed are snippets with beer advocates such as Julie Johnson Bradford (of All About Beer) and beer bard Michael Jackson.

The video itself is a bit superficial - the cheeses are not mentioned, nor the wines or beers. But as always, Garrett Oliver is eloquent. And, the video is yet another datum for the burgeoning "beer is the new wine" argument. Watch for the show of hands at the end.

My friend Ron Fischer alerted me to this. He is the cask cellarmaster and representative for beer importer B. United, International. Three of the pours were beers which his company imports, including J.W. Lees Harvest Ale and Aecht Schlenkerla Rauch Weizen.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=6Zwi__PCal0

Here's a similar event which was held in Washington, D.C. And here's more on beer and cheese.

500 before 756

Swinging against the Kansas City Royals, New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th home run this afternoon. It ended a long (for him) slump. By a few months, he's the youngest player to reach that number.

Barry Bonds remains stuck at 754 home runs, one behind tying Hank Aaron's all-time home run record.

[UPDATE 2007.08.05]
Later Saturday evening, Barry Bonds did hit #754. In an irony, he did it against a pitcher who himself, a few years earlier, had been caught using steroids: Clay Hensley of the San Diego Padres.

Beginning Monday, the Washington Nationals play 4 straight against Bonds and the Giants in San Francisco.

The photo, above, is of beer, travel, and baseball writer Charlie Vascellaro at the Belgium Comes To Cooperstown Festival at Brewery Ommegang in late July. He was vamping for the photo. Was he looking for Bonds' 756th, I quipped.

After I snapped the picture, Charlie and I had a strong-beer-fueled discussion. Or more precisely, I should say, he delivered an amazing lecture on whom he considered the greatest ball player ever.

He narrowed it between Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth. And then whom of those two?

You'll have to ask Mr. Vascellaro!

Accidental H Street tipple

Here's the story of how I accidentally became Granville Moore's first ever customer.

Clipper City Brewing's Friday sales meeting in Baltimore had concluded and I had just turned my car onto the interstate exit ramp heading back south, when my Legends, Ltd. representative phoned. (Legends, Ltd. distributes Clipper's beers in D.C.)

Well, she told me, Chris Surrusco at Granville Moore's needs a keg coupler for one of his Belgian kegs. His pub's soft opening was set for later that day. Would I turn around, head a few miles north to the distributor's warehouse, pick up the coupler, and deliver it to the pub in NE DC, she asked?

Most Fridays, I'm scheduled for in-store demonstrations or beer events of some sort. By fortune, not so this Friday. And Clipper City's brewery is not far from the Maryland warehouse for Legends, Ltd.

So I acquiesced ... and that's how I soon found myself in Granville Moore's at 3:30pm, shortly before the opening.

Chris thanked me with a bolleke of De Koninck. For an August afternoon in Washington D.C. - 96°F, humid, and an unhealthy air alert - this low-alcohol Belgian draft was anodyne refreshment.

In addition to the De Koninck on the draft tower, Chris had Stella Artois (pays the bills!), Urthel's Hop It (a hoppy Belgian ale), and St. Feuillen Tripel.

I didn't stay for the actual opening - I had a few more work-related stops scheduled for that afternoon.

But I did take the time to stroll around and observe how the pub had come together since May when I had last visited.

Form follows function: Granville Moore's Frittes, Ales, & Moules is in an old and narrow rowhouse. It's cozy, yes, but commodious, it's not. So Chris will only have those 4 taps; but two will be rotating taps, that is, on which he'll move through small batch Belgians. He'll stock a bottled list of in excess of 65 Belgians.

Belgian beers come many miles often from small output breweries. We here on the east coast of the US are very fortunate that we can often sample those beers. But sometimes that familiarity leads beer fans to always expect to have them on hand.

Chris does not. He is willing to creatively deal with different availabilities and recurring un-availabilities. I appreciate that sensibility.

By the way, Chris is a hophead. So he'll always have an American IPA available in bottle. But you'll have to ask for it; he's keeping it unlisted, sub rosa.

It looks as if some things remain to be completed, but the overall effect is that of Chris' conception of a rustic Belgian brasserie. The kitchen seemed a hive of activity so I didn't peek in there.

Chris began with the idea of a very limited menu: moules done 5 ways, double-fried frites, a grilled sandwhich or two. As you can witness from the menu, his chef, David Nugent, has aggressively expanded upon that concept. Even so, Chris assures that the prices will be reasonable, or should I say, brasserie-esque.

And then another surprise: Chris' bartender walked in, and it was Chris Frazier, now a former brewer for the Old Dominion Brewing Company. He told me that he would also be bartending at the soon-to-open Dogfish Head Alehouse in Falls Church, Virginia. What's up with Coastal Brewing/Dominion/Fordham? Well, that's another story.

More photos here. Also, here's a story on co-owner Joe Englert, who is the wizard behind several DC pubs and several along H Street NE.

Granville Moore's
1238 H Street NE
Washington, D.C. 20002
(202) 399-2546

[UPDATE: 2007.08.09]
I returned today during regular hours (6pm on) with friends. I had a delicious draft Urthel Hop-It (earthy and spicy aromas, that is, not US-style grapefruity hoppiness) served in a branded goblet.

Appetizers & salads
-Seared Georges Bank Scallops w/ Bacon & Corn Ragout.
-Arugula Salad w/ Kriek Swelled Dried Bing Cherries, Point Reyes Bleu, Toasted Walnuts, Red Onion.
-Belgian Endive Salad w/ Asian Pear, Fresh Coconut, House Tweaked Ginger, Mint.

Frites
-choice of 8 different sauces: Roasted Garlic Aoli, Heinz Classic, Cucumber Raita, House Smoked Red Pepper Catsup, Wholegrain Studded Dijonaise, and 2 tbd.

Sandwiches
-House Ground Angus Burger w/ Homemade Pickles & Frites.
-Croque Monsieur w/ Organic Farm Egg, House Smoked Taso, Gruyere, & Frites.
-Grilled Organic Vegetable Sandwich w/ Belgian Ale Washed Chevre & Local Greens.

Moules
-Belgian Tripel, Toasted Elephant Garlic.
-Preserved Lemon, Black Olive, & Harissa Broth.
-Applewood Smoked Bacon, Braised Leeks, Parsley, & Cream.
-Tamarind, Lime, Cilantro, Palm Sugar, & Thai Chili.
*** all moules served w/ frites, 1 sauce.

Entrées
-Exotic Mushroom Risotto w/ Parmigiano-Reggiano and Fresh Thyme.
-Grilled Pacific Snapper Filet w/ Heirloom Tomatoes, Poached Fennel, & Saffron Broth.
-Natural Chicken Breast w/ Toasted Israeli Couscous, Cerignola Olives, & House Preserved Lemons.