Tasting Notes: 2012 Gabbiano "Il Caviliere" Chianti

Appearance:  Pours a dark, opaque purplish red.  No legs.

Aromas:  Tannin, alcohol.

Mouthfeel:  Medium bodied, but rolls through the mouth, no residue or syrupy remains.

Flavors:    Balanced.  Red fruit flavors (but not really any residual sweetness) are balanced but not overpowered by the tannins.  Flavorful without being abrasive or harsh.  Just a touch of black pepper spice.

Overall: Meh on its own, but, like many Italian wines, could probably benefit from and benefit a pairing with the right food.  I want to try this wine with pasta in a nice arabiata sauce, or with a dish with spicy Italian sausage.  The food would really bring the flavors in this to life.  The tannins and slight spiciness of the wine would highlight the spice, but the fruit would also keep the spice of the sauce or sausage in check.  Probably not a bottle I would buy again to drink on its own, but next time I cook some nice spicy Italian food, I'll be trying it wit this wine for sure.  That might be partly my own bias, as I tend to think of Italian wines as being particularly well suited for pairing with food, and a little bland on their own.

Tasting Notes: 2011 "It's a Headsnapper" Sauvignon Blanc

This is a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc that I'm not 100% sure how I came across.  It may have been a gift from a rep or distributor honestly, so without doing more research, I have no idea how much it costs or where it might be available.

Appearance: Pours a very light, very clear golden color, as expected from a sauv blanc.  No legs.

Aromas:  I get a little bit of tropical fruit, kiwi, melon, etc. but mostly acidity, in the form of grapefruit with a slight touch of lime.

Mouthfeel:  Incredibly light, rolls right off the tongue.

Flavors:  Bold.  Starts out very fruity, with kiwi, and melon, and finishes with a lot of acidity, both lime and tart green apple.  Don't get any of the grapefruit I got on the nose on the palate with this one.  Pretty crisp finish, although there's a slight lingering green apple flavor.

Overall:  My kind of sauvignon blanc.  Still light, crisp, and drinkable, but not shy with the flavors.  The contrast between the very soft but bold tropical fruit flavors at the front and the lime and green apple at the finish is great, and makes you want to take another sip to really appreciate both sets of flavor.  Definitely a wine I'll be trying to find in the near future.

Tasting Notes: Fetzer 2011 Goosefoot Road Riesling

Appearance: Pours a fairly dark, but clear honey/golden color.  Legs are slow to form and slow to come down the glass.

Aroma: Sweet, honey aromas.

Mouthfeel:  Medium bodied, slightly thicker/heavier on the finish, but not quite syrupy.

Flavor: Mild peach and apricot flavors, a little more honey.  Sweet in the start, but has a fairly clean, almost dry finish with a decent amount of acidity.

Overall:  A good, middle of the road riesling.  A lot of "sweet" flavors, with peach, apricot, and honey, but not as sugary or syrupy as some "sweet" rieslings.  Finishes with no residual, syrupy aftertaste, making it an easy wine to pair with either sweet or spicy foods, and not overload the palate with sugar.  This is a wine I could drink outside on a hot day, or definitely with food.

Tasting Notes: Barefoot Refresh "Perfectly Pink" Rose

Appearance: Pours a light, almost peachy/orangish pink.  Almost has a slight effervescence in the glass.  No legs.

Aroma:  Slightly sweet, peachy, but a little citrus as well.

Mouthfeel:  Light at first, but leaves a bit of a syrupy film behind.  Also get a little of the effervescence on the palate that I saw in the glass.

Flavors:  Sweet.  Lots of peach, a hint of strawberry and raspberry.  Tastes kind of like a peach flavored hard candy.

Overall:  For being a "new" wine from barefoot, this is pretty much the stereotypical California pink wine.  Which I guess could be good or bad.  It is sweet and slightly syrupy, low alcohol (just under 10%), and light bodied.  Very drinkable.  The kind of wine that gave "white zin" and "blush" wines a bad name in the U.S. wine market, but also got a lot of working and middle class people drinking wine.  For $8 a bottle, it's not terrible if you're looking for dessert or something incredibly drinkable on a warm summer day, but don't expect anything too complex or elegant from this one.

Tasting Notes: Ron Abuelo 12 Year

This is a 12 year aged Panamanian dark rum, which is surprisingly not terribly expensive for how great or old it is.  Keep in mind that aging in the Caribbean, the angel's share can be up to 10-20% annually.  So in addition to the time, rum tends to be expensive to age because you lose a lot of the original product!

Appearance:  Dark but translucent caramel brown.

Aroma:  Melting brown sugar, very mild alcohol aroma.

Mouthfeel:  Feels light, but does linger a little bit.

Flavors:  Brown sugar, caramel, but not overly sweet or syruppy, a little vanilla and a slight oakiness, warm finish.

Overall:  I am not a rum drinker.  And when I do, it's usually with cola, or poolside in a Miami Vice in Vegas or Mexico.  This rum is the exception.  It is sweet enough, but not overly sweet.  It manages to pull some of the heavier flavors that give burning caramel or melting brown sugar their flavors and smells and set them apart from white sugar, without becoming too sugary.  The oak and vanilla are there enough to give a little more complexity to what I usually think of as a fairly simple sugar and booze bomb of a spirit, but not so much as to muddle the sugar-based flavors.  Overall, this rum has a great balance, and a lot more going on than most other non-spiced rums.  It also warms you up quite a bit for a spirit which comes in at 40 proof.  This is a nice drink for a cool or cold day, by itself, neat or on the rocks, something I would rarely say about a rum.

Brewery & Tasting Room Review: New Glarus Brewing Company

Unfortunately I lost my phone between my visit and now, so there's no photos here...

That being said, I recently visited New Glarus briefly, and below are what I think every New Glarus fan should know about their brewery and tasting room:

The brewery is beautiful, both inside and out.  It is in a Swiss-looking farmstyle building, situated in the hills above the actual town of New Glarus.  The outside is stunning, and definitely worth a photo op.  The brewery itself consists of two parts for visitors.  The first is the brewery, gift shop, and tasting room (upstairs).  When you enter, you're in the gift shop and tasting room.  They sell lots of neat New Glarus, Wisconsin, and beer related stuff here, as well as have a small bar at the registers where you can buy their beers by the pint, or in tasting flights.  Either way, you get to keep the glass.  At $3.50 for three three ounce pours, the flights are a steal.  They usually have five or six of their brews on tap, so I always get two tastings so that I can taste them all.  When you purchase the tasting, they give you a wristband with little tabs they pull off for each beer.  You can refill them at your own pace (more on this later).  On both of my visits, they had their two most popular beers (Spotted Cow and Fat Squirrel), a few other year round brews, and at least one specialty beer on tap.

The brewery tour is self-guided.  It begins in the back of the gift shop, and then leads you through a small room with their many awards and medals on display (if Dan or Deborah Carey happen to read this, if you keep doing what you're doing, this room will need to move or expand in the not-too-distant future!).  You then go into the brewery itself.  While most of the equipment is either roped off or behind glass, it is all visible.  The staff in the brewery are very friendly, and will explain anything you have questions about.  You are free to walk around at your leisure and explore the brewery, beer in hand, and, since it's self guided, you don't have to pace your drinking to your exploring.  When your glass is empty, you simply go back, refill it, and start where you left off.

The other part of the facility is their beer depot, located downstairs off the parking lot.  Here you can buy their beer for consumption at home or elsewhere.  It is minimalist and very functional, but the prices are great!

Pros:
- Friendly, knowledgeable staff throughout the building.  They will answer your questions, and can answer both in depth questions or simple ones, without making you feel stupid.
-You're right in the middle of the action.
-It's beautiful. The equipment is well maintained, and the views from both inside and outside of the brewery are wonderful.
-Obviously, the beer.
-Prices: Great beer at amazing prices.
-Walking around on the tour with a beer in your hand
-Since it's self guided, you can time your flight as you'd like.

Cons;
 -The self guided tour is best suited for people with intermediate knowledge of the brewing process.  For those with little knowledge, there isn't any signage or information about what you're actually looking at.  If you don't know what a mash tun, lauder tun, fermenter, bright tank, and packaging line look like, you might not get a lot out of the tour.  On the other hand, since it is self guided and they can't have people in the way of making their amazing beer, if you have a more advanced knowledge of brewing, you are kind of far away from the action, and might not get to see or learn the intricate details you're interested in.  Both of these are somewhat offset by the friendliness of their staff, who will all (even the brewers) stop what they're doing to answer any questions you may have (if you happen to catch one).  I would suggest that they continue to offer the self guided option, but a) put up some signs explaining the brewing process and equipment) and b) offer guided tours with brewery staff for those more interested.
-There's not really a good place to sit and enjoy a beer.  If you're shopping for souveniers or wandering around the brewery, this is fine, but if you're not done with your beer or flight when you're through with these activities, a couple of barstools would be nice.  In all fairness, I've only ever been in the winter, and they have a great patio off the gift shop which appears to have plenty of seating, and even an outdoor bar, not to mention an amazing view.  So maybe this is only a seasonal problem.
-With only 6 taps, and most of them with their more popular and/or year round beers, if you're already familiar with New Glarus, you might not get to try some of their more interesting beers before you buy them.
-The beer depot seems to be out of certain beers every time I've been.  I guess this is a good problem to have.  Also, the staff are very helpful with this.  If you're looking for a particular beer, they can tell you if and when they will have it in stock again.  Or, if it's a seasonal beer, they will make recommendations of places nearby that may still have some, since the brewery depot often sells out before other retail locations.

Overall: All of the cons seem to have a mitigating factor, so I would say this is a pretty great experience.  Definitely something worth checking out once.  Make room in your luggage or trunk, though, because their swag is pretty cool, and the beer is amazing, so it's hard to leave this place empty handed.

Tasting Notes: New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb

This is (I think) a relatively new brew from New Glarus.  I was interested to see how this take on a fruit beer went, as it actually features the same balance in its adjuncts that brewers seek through traditional experience.  Sweetness from malt, balanced with bitterness from hops.

Appearance:  Pours cloudy, somewhere between light brown, ruby, and dark brown depending on how the light is hitting the glass.

Aroma:  Pure strawberry jam.

Mouthfeel:  Fairly light, rolls right through the mouth, not overly carbonated.

Flavors:  Not as full flavored or as complex as I was expecting.  Pleasant, but mild strawberry notes, with an earthy, vegetal, bitterness of rhubarb at the end.  Finishes with a pleasant, jammy flavor, but not overly sweet.

Overall:  Not my favorite New Glarus beer.  Glad I also smuggled some Serendipity back to Cali with me.  While I don't think this would be anyone's favorite beer, would be great for varied company.  Wild fermentation and unfiltered, but not overly tart.  Fruity, but not overly sweet.  Unique ingredients and definitely a creative recipe, but still drinkable.  Definitely a well rounded, fruit forward beer.

Specialty Beers and Why They Shouldn't Be So Special

Alright, so I'm going to take a little bit of a dig at the craft beer community here.

I think the craft beer community is trying to build its reputation by, in some ways, mimicking the wine industry, and the wine community, and there are some ways in which that's great, and some which just aren't a good idea.

One of those, in my personal opinion, is special or limited release beers, with a few exceptions.

The basic attraction to me, and many others, of the craft beer scene, is that anyone can get into it.  You can taste something truly special, and as pleasant as any nice bottle of wine, right in your own neighborhood, at a much lower price point.  Beer people, although a little quirky, are generally more down to earth than wine people, meaning anyone can jump into the craft beer scene, and have an enlightened and enlightening conversation about a particular beer or style without being intimidated by suits, somelier certifications, and fancy words, as well as high price tags.

Well, I think specialty and limited release beers are a clever way to build a brand, focusing on the "exclusivity" of it, but that exclusivity is exactly what many new beer drinkers are looking to get away from!

Simple differences make the rarity and price tags on some wines more acceptable than similar rarity and price tags on beer.

1)  Wine is a seasonal product.  While it is consumed year round, there is about a 3-5 week window to harvest, juice, and start fermenting grapes.  After harvest is over, what you have is what you have.

2)  Wine is much more a product of terroir.  While winemaking takes skill, and yeast, barreling, and other factors affect the finished product, a pinot noir made with the same yeast and same procedures from two different vineyards will taste different.  Again, what you have is what you have.

3)  Wine grapes vary from year to year, making some vintages just mediocre, and some outstanding.  Again, what you have is what you have.

4)  Beer, on the other hand, while ingredients matter, allows brewers much more choice.  All of the key ingredients in beer (with the exception of fresh hopped or fruit beers), are commodities.  They are available year round, and produced in excess of what just the beer industry uses.  While the barley or hop crop yield may affect the price of these commodities, more will be available.  And because of the way in which both barley and hops are processed, by the time barley becomes malt and hops become pellets, a certain consistency is achieved regardless of slight variations in the original product.  This means almost any batch of almost any beer is re-creatable (assuming the exact recipe was written down somewhere).

This is a huge difference.  Let's look at some legitimate (in my own opinion) reasons that beers can be rare (what I call the exception):
-Certain beers use ingredients which don't fit the general mold above.  Namely, fresh hopped beers, spontaneously fermented brews, and beers with fruit or other non-commodity adjuncts.  These beers could vary from batch to batch, even if they are made using the same recipes.  This means some batches will be better than others, and have an inherent value, and the beers will all have some value, as tasting them next to each other is a worthwhile exercise.
-Certain beers undergo treatment after fermentation which is less controllable.  The two major categories here would be barrel aging and keg/bottle conditioning.  Because the exact same barrel can't necessarily be re-used (and even if it could, the wood will have been changed by the first batch), barrel aging provides an inherently unique product.  Cask, keg, and bottle conditioned beers are subject to all types of factors after they leave the brewery's control.  Travel distance, time allowed for conditioning (does the yeast finish its work?), and temperature, altitude, and lighting conditions where the beer is stored will all create a variable experience for the drinker.  These beers are inherently unique.
-Beers which are not available due to distribution issues.  For many reasons (some legal or business related, some branding or personal preference related), most craft breweries don't distribute nationally or internationally.  Beers from great brewers which are not usually available in your area will, of course, have more value to you, and this is as it should be.
-Beers which have been aged.  If a great beer was made once, or even multiple times, and you managed to save a bottle or keg, this beer has some inherent value to it (assuming it's a beer that holds up well to aging, many of which fit into one or more of the above categories).
-A brewery is at capacity, and has decided, for financial or branding reasons, not to expand.  This is the area that has the most gray space in my opinion.  If a brewery is brewing at its full capacity, it simply can't make more beer.  This is a problem which most craft brewers hope to have one day.  They then have to ask themselves, 1) can we afford to expand (probably if you're selling that much beer!) and 2) do we believe that we can expand and still be the same great brand?  This is a tricky one, as as local, small batch focus is what draws many to craft beer.  Moreover, larger equipment yields different product.  And more small equipment, running concurrently, means owners and brewmasters have to give up some control of each batch, potentially losing consistency or quality.  When a brewery has decided that they don't want to expand, and their beers are good enough to sell out in their current market, it makes sense that their beers would sell out.

In my mind, however, many craft breweries release "specialty" or "limited" release beers in small quantities (or brand them as if they have) for the wrong reasons.  Here's a list of those:
-To add value to the product (this is pretty rare on the brewer side, fortunately)
-To create buy in with accounts, who feel special being given this "rare" beer.  Usually, these allocations are highly sought after, and involve buying a lot of year round/open availability beers to "win over" your reps.  This flips the basic business relationship between a bar (customer) and a distributor (vendor), and also creates tension or competition between retail outlets, which, in the craft beer scene, should all be supportive of each other.
-To create a cult following behind a particular beer and build the brand of both that beer and the brewery as a whole.  Fortunately, these beers are pretty damn good.  On the other hand, if they're so good, and people love them so much, why aren't they made year round?  Beer should be an enjoyable hobby, not a task or a chore.  So why make people continue to call around about the availability of a certain beer, only to usually be told "We're not sure" up until a week or two before the release?  Why make people take time off of work, stand in line, buy tickets, and even fight for a pour of this beer?  If these beers are so good, and people love them, why not raise the price a bit (the one I have in mind is actually pretty reasonably priced wholesale), and make it year round, or at least multiple times a year?  Yes, your brewery may be at capacity.  But there's a few options here.  1)  Expand.  2)  Pull out of out of state markets to make sure you can supply your home state year round with the beers they want (again, the beer I have in mind has already done this once).  3)  Switch up your brewing schedule.  Many of your beers (to that same example) are hard to find year round because of your brewing capacity.  They're all great, but there are a handful people actually hunt down and wait in line for, including your special, February release beer.

The reality of it is, craft beer is supposed to be about making a great alcoholic beverage available to as many people as possible.  Releasing these beers once a year doesn't do that.  What it does do, is build a particular brand.  Again, not naming names, but the brewery I have in mind makes several hard to find brews.  They are all great beers.  I would argue that some of them (which, coincidentally fit into the categories I view as acceptably rare) are well worth the wait.  Others, including the rarest of the rare (the annual release is one of, if not the, most anticipated in the country), are great, but not all that special.  And eventually consumers will catch on to that.  Maybe a few years ago, a really great Double or Triple (oops, did I give it away?)  IPA was a rarity.  There are now several out there, including some year round, non-allocated brews, which easily meet or exceed the quality of some of these rare beers.

The smart move for these breweries, both from a business perspective, and from the perspective of giving craft beer lovers great beer, is to switch it up a bit.  Pull back on producing some of your other great beers, and make the "cult favorites" available year round.

Styles of Whiskey

Whiskey (or whisky) can be confusing, because it encompasses so many different flavors, and so many different styles.  Historically, there are four general categories of whiskey, based on the regions where they originated.  It is important to note that of late, more and more countries have started producing whiskey, and more craft distilleries are popping up who create whiskeys not necessarily true to they style of their home country.  What is listed below is based on style, not on actual country of origin.  While three of the four styles are actually internationally protected designations, and the U.S. has a couple within it, it is possible for a "Scotch" style whisky to come from the U.S., although it won't be called Scotch.

What is a mashbill?  Much of whiskey's flavor comes from the barrel it ages in, as you probably know.  But the base ingredients do tend to show some characteristics throughout.  Mashbill is a term for the recipe for original ingredients used.  In general, whiskey is made from some combination of four grains: barley, wheat, rye, and corn.  Two of these grains, barley and corn, undergo treatment before being used.  Barley is malted, or partially germinated, before being fermented, to release enzymes which break down starches into fermentable sugars.  Corn is cooked in order to start releasing fermentable sugars.  The main differentiation for each of the regions where a style originated is the mashbill.  It is important to note that almost all whiskeys are a blend of more than one grain.  When we say a "rye" whiskey, that does not mean the mashbill  is 100% rye.  Depending on the country, it means a large portion, probably a majority, of the mashbill is rye.  In fact, all whiskeys have at least some malt (malted barley) in the mashbill, as the enzymes produced by the malting process are vital to saccharification, or converting starch to sugar, in not just barley, but all of the grains used in whiskey production.

Irish Whiskey
Ireland is actually thought to be the birth place of whiskey.  Whiskey was then thought to be brought to Scotland by monks.  Irish whiskey (spelled with an 'e') is generally made with a mashbill of both malted and unmalted barley.  The unmalted barley contributes a spice and bite which is not present in most malt whiskeys.

Scotch Whisky
The Scotch spell whisky without an "e."  Scotch whiskey can vary tremendously in style, but it is usually malt-heavy, using only malted, and no un-malted barley.  It is traditonally aged in used sherry barrels, giving an extra sweet note to the whisky.  Malt for Scotch is traditionally kilned (malt must be heated in a kiln in order to halt germination once all necessary enzymes have been released), using peat-fired kilns.  This imparts "peat reak," a unique combination of smells and flavors.  Peat imparts smokey, earthy, pungent, and even slightly salty flavors and aromas into a whisky.  The peat is more prominent in some whiskys than others.
Different styles of Scotch-malt vs. grain, "single malt" vs. vatted, etc.
Even within the Scotch family there are distinctions.  People often get confused by these and think "single malt" is in contrast to "double malt" or something similar.  The easiest way to understand a Scotch label is to split the two descriptors apart.
Malt or grain refers to the mashbill.  Malt whisky indicates a whisky made entirely from malted barley.  Grain whisky referes to a whisky made from a mixture of malt and other grains.
"Single" Malt or Single Grain refers to the whisky being made at a single distillery.  Most Scotch distillers own multiple distilleries, and they transfer whisky between them all of the time, or even buy from other producers to create their blends.  Blended, vatted, or simply "malt" or "grain" whisky is a whisky made by blending barrels from different distilleries.
There is a common misconception that "single malt" is always better than other Scotch whiskys.  This is simply not true.  In fact, they are often interesting and bold, highlighting the distinct flavors imparted by different climates and different production methods.  But blending allows a distiller or bottler to create a consistent, quality product which has exactly the flavor profile they are looking for.  The whiskys are different, but there are some very good, and very pricey, blended whiskys out there.

American Whiskey
American Whiskey (with an 'e'), generally refers to Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey (speaking in terms of style).  These whiskeys are at least 51% corn, giving them some sweeter flavors than many other whiskeys.  They are also aged in new, American oak barrels.  This leads to them having very distinct wood-derived flavors, rather than simply mellowing or absorbing other sweet spirit flavors from their barrels.  Bourbon does not have to come from Bourbon County, or even from Kentucky.  Tennessee Whiskey, on the other hand, must come from that state, and must undergo charcoal mellowing after aging.   It is important here to note that the U.S. is undergoing a bit of a craft spirit surge right now, and many American Whiskeys are actually crafted to mimic other styles.  They will be labeled as American Whiskey, but be modeled after Scotch, Irish, or Canadian styles, or present a whole new idea of what whiskey can be.

Canadian Whisky
Canadians follow the Scotch spelling, but the style is quite different.  Canadian whisky is also heavy on corn in the mash, but also generally has rye as well.  Canadian whiskys can legally be labeled "rye whisky" even if there is no rye in them, as the term is legally synonymous in Canada with "Canadian Whisky."  The corn provides the same sweetness that it does to American whiskeys, but the rye adds a slightly lemony, spicy, flavor to they whisky, as well as a dry, slightly harsh finish.  Also, Canadian whisky producers often ferment and distill each grain separately, then blend the spirit either right before, or even after, aging.  This allows each grain to develop its own unique characteristics, and allows the distiller to create a blend of those characteristics.

Tasting Notes: 2011 Trefethen Family Vineyards Chardonnay

Appearance: Bright, straw yellow.  Very little in the way of legs.

Aroma: Bright, citrus, lemon, just a touch of butter/creaminess.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied.

Flavors: Refreshing, crisp, slightly acidic, and with more prominent wood notes than on the nose, although only a little bit of butter.  More the fresh, woody, oaky, flavor, than the malolactic flavor a lot of heavily oaked chardonnays have.  Lingering citrus and oak finish.

Overall:  A balanced chardonnay.  Not super tart or acidic like some 100% stainless California Chardonnays can be.  But also not completely overcome by malolactic fermentation.  Very little butter flavors, and definitely still light and crisp, rather than creamy like some oaked Chardonnays.  Probably not a favorite for fans of either super citrusy, fresh, or super buttery, creamy Chardonnays, but a good balance of the two.

Gluten and Spirits

So, this post is inspired by overhearing a pretty high-up-the-chain employee of a local liquor distribution company misspeaking to a bar manager while I was eating out.  Gluten is a complicated thing, only fairly recently becoming a common concern.  So, here's my take (with the disclaimer that I am not a nutritionist, or a scientist, and that this is mostly a synthesis of information I've gained from other sources?).

Are undistilled alcoholic beverages "gluten free?"
Prior to distillation, any barley or wheat based alcoholic beverage is not gluten free.  Gluten is not a living thing, but a chemical compound found in certain starchy grains.  Yeast does not break down these compounds, which means that they will remain in a fermented beverage.  Ciders and wines should be fine, although, as I'll get into more in the section on distilled spirits, it's more complicated than that if you are truly a celiac, and cannot tolerate any gluten.  If the cider or wine is produced, fermented, and packaged in a facility in which no beer is made, it should be good, though.

What about distilled spirits?
This is where the liquor distributor employee made the opposite point than he was trying to.  His argument was that, as somebody who was trying to avoid gluten, he did not drink wheat or barley based spirits because, if people can have a reaction from cross-contamination in a fryer, "if 400 degree fryer oil won't kill gluten, I doubt distillation will either."

So, a couple of points, and then on to how he actually proved the opposite point.

Gluten is not a living thing.  It is a chemical compound.  So it is not something that is dangerous living, but not dangerous dead.  The question is not if you can "kill it" by cooking it.  It is whether you can either break down (very difficult, which is why many people choose to avoid or minimize it in their diets) or remove it.

Heat does not break down or destroy gluten.  So, it would seem this person's argument is right, correct?  Wrong.  A basic understanding of distillation and how it works will make it clear why.

Distillation works by heating a liquid consisting of water (which boils at 212F) and ethyl alcohol (which boils at 173F) to a temperature somewhere in between the two.  This means more alcohol than water evaporates, making the vapors more concentrated in the vapors than in the original liquid.  The vapors are then condensed (cooled down) and brought back into a liquid form in a separate container.  Now, in reality, since Ethyl alcohol is produced by yeast from materials which are not PURELY fermentable sugars, there's a lot of other junk in the solution (the wash) which goes into the still.  The art of distillation is to use time, temperature, shape of the still, etc. to control which of the other junk (flavors, aromas, and nasty stuff) make it into the vapors.  Each of these things will break down into the solution and vaporize at a different temperature.

Now, back to the distributor's point.  Gluten is not broken down completely in a fryer with 400F oil in it.  Meaning that the 180-200F solution is also not going to break down and vaporize gluten.  The important thing to note here is that you are not drinking what is left in the still.  You are drinking the vapors that come off the still and are recondensed.  So gluten is left in the still, not withdrawn into the final spirit.

Essentially, in a basic sense, gluten is removed from the finished product.

If distillation makes a spirit gluten free, why aren't spirits marketed that way?
There is a difference, as in many things, in our overly regulated and overly litigious society, between gluten free and "capital g" Gluten Free.  Most distilleries mash, ferement, distill, mature, blend, and package their products in the same facilities.  What this means is that there is an ever-so-slight chance that the finished, gluten free, product fresh off the still, may come into contact with malted or unmalted grains, undistilled "beer" or "wash," or another source of gluten before it is sealed in the bottle.  More importantly, the barrel it is aged in, the bottles it is packed in, the tubes and lines through which it travels, the hands which are used in various steps of the process, may have come into contact with malt, grain, or beer some time prior to the finished product as well.  Meaning there is a possibility of cross-contamination.  This is probably not enough to affect the average "gluten free" drinker, but could cause a problem for someone with a very serious case of Celiac disease.  This is similar to why many corporate, chain, or hotel restaurants have disclaimers on their walls, or on their menus, about "products may come into contact with nuts, shellfish, soy, or other allergens in the kitchen."  While the chances are slim (and even more slim given that most gluten-free diners are making a choice, or have a relatively mild intolerance to gluten, versus many severe allergies to more common allergens), distilleries do not want the liability of having claimed their product was gluten free, and having a serious issue occur.

So is it safer to stick to fruit-derrived spirits altogether?
This is the interesting part.  In and of itself, no.  If the distillery also produces grain-based spirits, it doesn't really matter what the base of the spirit you're consuming is.  For instance, if a distillery distills a 100% grape vodka, and a 50/50 grape/wheat blended vodka, the chance of the grape-only distillate coming into contact with wheat used for the blend is just as high as the chance of the blend coming into contact with wheat.  The distillates themselves are both, theoretically 100% pure.

So if I am hypersensitive to gluten what should I drink?
Drink fermented or distilled beverages from a fruit origin, produced in a facility which does not produce other spirits or fermented beverages.  This is actually pretty easy for fermented drinks, as I can't, off the top of my head, think of anywhere which produces beer and wine in the same facility.  Actually, scratch that, I do know of some wineries who, in production of their sparkling wines, will borrow equipment from breweries in order to force carbonate their products.  But overall, I think this is a pretty rare practice.
If you are drinking distilled spirits, and you're that worried about a tiny, tiny chance of a tiny, tiny bit of cross-contaminaton, make sure you're drinking a product from a fruit-only distillery.  Brandies are probably safe.  As are some vodka and gin producers in wine-producing regions, who use ONLY wine or winemaking byproducts in their base spirits.

Again, though for the average gluten-free drinker, anything distilled is probably fine.

CSS Exam

So I took my CSS exam yesterday.  For those who don't know, that's the Certified Specialist of Spirits exam from the Society of Wine Educators.  I'm fairly certain that I passed, although it will likely be 2-4 weeks until it's official.

My advice to anyone else thinking of taking it is don't stress out.  The exam was actually much easier than I had expected.  Get a copy of the study guide, and get some good online flash cards.  Even a couple reads through the study guide and a couple of passes through your flash cards should be good enough.

The test itself is 100% multiple choice questions.  Meaning that if you're studying flashcards, that say, for instance: what are the production requirements for bourbon?  You will be overpreparing, because the question will be: which of the following is not a requirement for producing bourbon?

Interestingly, the phrasing on some of the questions is a little tricky, meaning you need to be sure to read each question correctly.  But the content questions were actually not all that hard.  While I'm sure the questions very from test to test, here are some general tips based on the questions I got:

-The questions on spirit production tend to cover aspects which apply to all or multiple spirit categories.  Very few (if any) questions on maturations.  No questions on individual still types.
-Historical data based primarily on the names, not the dates.  If a specific brand or distillery is mentioned in association with a historical development in the study guide, the two instances I recall on the test both asked for the name of the brand or distillery, NOT the date.
-In fact, any time a particular distillery or brand is mentioned (aside from proprietary liquors, or in a list of some sort), pay extra special attention.  I think there were three specific distilleries singled out in the study guide, and all three appeared on my exam.
-Know the geographic requirements for spirit families (or lack thereof), as well as any specific, protected AOCs.  There were AT LEAST 5 or 6 questions on this, which, when you think about it, is actually quite a bit.
-I had heard, before taking the test, that the liqueurs are hard, just because there are SO MANY liqueurs out there.  Maybe the test has changed sine that information came floating my way, but, based on my exam, I would say all you need to MEMORIZE is the broad definitions of liqueurs.   Individual proprietary and generic liqueurs didn't come up in the sense of knowing the details of flavor source, history, origin, etc. of the specific liqueur.  Instead, it tested your knowledge of whether something was proprietary or generic.  If you understand the difference between the two, and have a little bit of reasoning ability, you should do fine on this, even if you are not familiar with each of the individual liqueurs.

Overall, definitely a test worth taking (or at least studying for-I learned a lot), and not as difficult as I thought.  That being said, I'm sure different questions appear each time the exam is given.  Plus, I could be totally wrong about this since I don't actually know if I passed yet.

Tasting Notes: Retsina Olympias

Before I begin this, let me give the disclaimer that this is my first taste of Retsina, so other than a vague, book-gained idea, I really have no clue what Retsina is "supposed" to taste like, and no point of comparison.  So while all tasting notes and reviews are objective, and really just my opinion, this one really is pulled straight from my posterior.  That said, here goes:

Appearance: Pours a bright yellow, completely translucent, and a little more yellow, less green or white, than any other wine I'm used to.

Aroma:  Pine, lemon, a little bit of honey.  The pine is not so much like a gin or Christmas tree pine, but more the smell of fresh cut pine wood, or of pine sap, a little more earthy than Christmasy.

Mouthfeel: Very light bodied, rolls right off the tongue and through the mouth.

Flavors: Very much like the smells, but with less lemon.  Definitely get the woody version of pine, and a little bit of sappy flavors.  I still get honey, but it's hard to describe, since it is not sweet at all.  The same flavors, and kind of tingling sensation, but light bodied and not sweet.  Flavors have a pretty clean finish, although there's some slight lingering pine and woodsy notes to it.

Overall:  Unique, new, and different would be the three words I could come up with.  Not really sure a) whether I like it, b) if I could learn to like it, or c) if it would go better with food than on its own.  I'm guessing the answers to b) and c) are yes.  Probably, like most wines, and most new food and drink experiences, it's an acquired taste.  And the dry but honey-like flavor, along with the woodiness, make me think that with a good Greek dish, this wine's flavors would really pop.  As of yet, I'm still undecided.

Tasting Notes: New Glarus Fat Squirrel

Appearance: Pours an opaque, hazelnut brown, with a thin head, which leaves nice lacing, but dissipates from the beer fairly quickly.

Aroma:  Malty, bready.

Mouthfeel: Pretty light for a brown ale, and very effervescent carbonation feeling.

Flavors: Coffee, bread, almonds, hazelnut.  Pretty balance between the coffee, the malty/bready notes, and the nutty flavors.  Finishes with a crisp hoppiness, and a lingering hint of coffee.

Overall:  Pretty balanced beer, and not as heavy or full bodied as one might expect from a brown ale.  The bottle-conditioned effervescence give it a lightness on the palate which make this a great beer for even a hot summer day.  All the flavors one would expect from a nut brown, without the heaviness that usually keeps me drinking these only in the winter.

Tasting Notes: Monk's Cafe Flanders Red Ale

Appearance:  Pours a dark, opaque red-brown.  Very large, very airy light brown head, which lingers and gets more frothy/foamy.

Aroma: Tart cherry, a little bit of butter.

Mouthfeel: Pretty light bodied, although lingers a bit on the roof of the mouth.

Flavors: Cherry, only mildly sour, a little bit of butter/creaminess.  Finishes with a very strong metallic, iron note.

Overall:  Decent Flanders red.  Not as mouth-puckeringly sour as some, but also not overly sweet.   A little creaminess/butter from lactic acid, and pretty drinkable for a sour.  Overall, not my favorite example of the style, but a good, balanced, drinkable sour.

What does gravity have to do with booze?

So, what does gravity have to do with booze anyway?  More specifically, what are original gravity and final gravity, and what do they mean?

Basically, these are measurements which relate to the sweetness, the dryness, and the alcohol content of a beer or wine.

Measuring actual sugar and alcohol content precisely and scientifically is a very complicated and expensive process.  By using gravity (more specifically, the original (OG) and final (FG) gravities) brewers and winemakers can estimate these measures.

Sugar is heavier than water, so by using a hydrometer, brewers and winemakers can estimate the sugar content of their juice or wort through the original gravity.  Water has a specific gravity of 1.000.  So, a hydrometer which rests slightly higher than it would in pure water (say, in juice or wort) would measure something like 1.050 or 1.060.  The higher the original gravity, the higher the sugar content of the juice or wort.

Alcohol, on the other hand, has a lower specific gravity than water.  As fermentation progresses, the specific gravity of the wort or juice drops as well.  Through their own and other brewers' and winemakers' past experiences, brewers and winemakers know what the expected final gravity for a given style of beer and wine is, based on the wort or juice, as well as the particular yeast strain.  During fermentation, they can use a hydrometer to check the "attenuation" or the degree of fermentation, of their product.  Each yeast strain, as well as grain or grape recipe, has a different expected or target attenuation.  That is, what percentage of the sugars will be turned into alcohol?

What does this mean for us as beer or wine drinkers?  Well, sweetness (as opposed to fruity flavors, which can come from esthers even in dry wine) is a measurement of the sugar remaining in a finished beer or wine.  Essentially, this is the result of two decisions the brewer or winemaker makes: how much sugar to start with (original gravity), and the degree to which the sugars will be converted into alcohol (attenuation), which affect the final gravity of a beer.

Final gravity is a direct correlation to sweetness, and is also a good measure of what the mouth feel of a beer will be like, more or less, since the heavier a beer, the heavier the body will be.

All other things being equal (original ingredients, or at least the original gravity of them), a higher alcohol beer or wine will be drier than a low alcohol beer or wine, as more sugar was converted to alcohol.  Meaning that if you want to make a sweeter beer or wine, there are three ways to do it.
1) You can add more sugar (malt/grain or grape juice) at the beginning of fermentation, or pull water out of your juice to concentrate sugars.  This will result in a higher OG, meaning more fermentable sugars.  Even after attaining the same degree of attenuation, this beer will have a higher final gravity, meaning both more sugar and more alcohol, than a beer with a more watered down, less sweet base.
2) You can stop fermentation, by either using a yeast strain with a lower alcohol threshold or lower expected attenuation, or by actually forcing fermentation to stop by removing yeast or changing the temperature or environment to stop fermentation.  This will create a lower alcohol, sweeter product.
3) You can add sugars during or after fermentation.  Depending on whether the goal is more alcohol and more sugar, or just a sweeter product, this can be done at various times during fermentation.  In winemaking, this is known as chapetalization, and is prohibited in certain regions and styles in old world winemaking.  If you add the same type of sugar (grape juice for wine, or malt/grain for beer), before fermentation is completed, you will wind up with a higher alcohol, sweeter product.  If you add the sugar after fermentation is completed, the ABV will remain steady, and the final gravity, or sweetness of the product, will increase.  Alternatively, you can add other types of sugar.  This is common in Belgian styles, where candy sugar, which is not fermentable by ale yeasts, is added to the wort to create a sweeter finished product, without limiting the fermentation of the sugars in the wort.

Tasting Notes: 2012 Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

Appearance: Pours a light, straw yellow color.  No legs.
Aroma: Grapefruit, a touch of lemon, and a slightly herbaceous aroma.
Mouthfeel: Light, smooth, rolls right across the palate.
Flavors: Bright, fresh, tropical fruit on the front.  A touch of grapefruit toward the end, but nothing overwhelming.  Smoother, more lingering finish than most sauvignon blancs, leaving a fresh, bright, tropical fruit (melon, pineapple, a little grapefruit) lingering.  A little bit of an herbaceous taste, but definitely more fruit forward.

Overall: I was really pleasantly surprised by this one.  It is pretty balanced.  Dry but still fruity.  A touch of herbaceous aroma and flavor which gives it some structure, but very strong fruit notes as well.  There are definitely some grapefruit notes, but they don't overpower the ripe melon, pineapple, or herbaceous flavors, which I appreciated.  Will definitely drink this one again.

Tasting Notes: Uinta Birthday Suit 20th Anniversary

Photo uploader is not working for me right now, so I will put it in later, sorry about that.

Appearance: Pours a deep, hazy, brown, which, when you hold it up to the light, has a ruby tint to it.  Decent sized, off white head, but dissipates fairly quickly.

Aroma:  All over the place.  A little bit of chocolate, a little malty sweetness, and a lot of berry tartness.

Mouthfeel:  Light, bubbly, effervescent.

Flavors:  A little bit of tartness up front, more green apple style than anything else, and actually a little astringent/bitter, like the skin of an apple (not hop bitterness).  To me, after the initial tartness, there was a stale, earthy, and slightly metalic flavor.  Crisp finish, although the metallic flavor lingered for a little while.

Overall: Not for me.  The sourness is not quite prominent, and instead of balancing or complementing it, their choice of malts played down the tartness, and to me left a lot of flavors that come across almost as off flavors.  Stale beer, vegetal, metallic, and earthy.  I love sours, and I love some Uinta brews, but this is one I would almost certainly not buy again.

Tasting Notes: 2010 Kunin Wines Alisos Vineyard Guwertzraminer

Appearance: Deep, bright golden yellow.  Legs which slowly slide down the glass back to the wine.

Aroma: A lot going on.  A little acidity, maybe lemon, a sweetness of ripe  fruit and honey, and an herbaceous/earthy aroma as well.

Mouthfeel: Medium-heavy body, leaves kind of a film behind.

Flavor: I get a pretty strong alcohol/boozy note off of this one, along with a kind of earthy/herbaceous/floral/savory note, maybe a bit of bell pepper or other green veggies.  Finish is very herbal/floral, and leaves a lavendar or rose flavor in the mouth well after drinking.

Overall:  Interesting wine.  Fruity and floral without being sweet.  Have to be in the right mood, but could enjoy this wine on its own.  Pairing with food would take some thought, as it is pretty bold in both body and flavor, so traditional fish/chicken/light salad white wine pairings might not work out so well.  The only thing that I find slightly off-putting is the distinct alcohol flavor mid-palate.  As opposed to some other high alcohol wines, where there is a hot feeling throughout, but not a lot of ethyl flavor at any one point, this one has a distinct moment where ethanol is all you're getting, then goes back to its more pleasant flavors.

Tasting Notes: 2011 Villa Maria Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc

Appearance: Light, bright, almost white.  No legs when swirled.

Aroma: Bright, fresh, grapefruit, lemon, a hint of grass.

Mouthfeel: Very light, rolls right over the palate, very drinkable and refreshing.

Flavor:  Complex and varied.  I get everything from a canteloupe or honeydew melon flavor, to grapefruit, to fresh lemon and lime.  A slight herbal, grassy note.  Crisp, but leaves a refreshing citrus note which lingers for a bit.

Overall: Pretty good New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.  Refreshing, light, drinkable, without being one-note or boring.  Great for a hot day, and could probably pair well with a variety of food, but is also drinkable on its own.  Not stellar but for the price, a pretty good buy.

Craft Wine

I saw a post about this on Linkedin a while ago, and wanted to take a crack at answering the question.  Why is it that craft beer and craft spirits have been taking off growth wise, and craft wine does not seem to do the same?  Are there lessons to be learned from craft beer which could help wine do the same?

My basic answer is that, at least in my mind, craft wine does not exist as an actual product distinction from other wines, meaning any attempt at "craft wine" is more of a branding or business model than anything else.  I'll explain below some of the factors that make craft beer the amazing product it is, an then explain why I don't think wine has the same factor.

Craft breweries produce small batches of product. This is arguably the weakest of my points.  There are lots and lots of small batch wineries.  In fact, I would argue that there are so many small batch wineries that it is no longer a valid factor in determining what "craft" wine is.  There are a few large wineries, but by and large, almost all wineries are in the business of small batch production, and the idea of small batch wine production is nothing new.

Craft breweries are focused on quality.  Again, arguably, the problem is not that wineries aren't, but that wineries are.  Almost all wines on the market are produced with quality in mind.  And, in fact, unlike beer, in which quality has just become a factor for most consumers, cheap wine on grocery store shelves is a result of people becoming interested in fine wines, not the other way around.

Craft breweries focus on specialized and skilled techniques.  Wines have always done this.  Working with less ingredients, and less control over the condition of their ingredients, wineries have always sought to highlight, minimize, or eliminate flavors, or to achieve consistency through diverse vintages and growing conditions.  Even the mass produced wines require a lot of testing, tasting, blending, and skilled decisions to produce a consistent product year after year.  Unlike beer, where, given the same condition, one can buy ingredients which are identical and expect the same results, wine by nature is a fluid and inconsistent product.  So whether it is a particular nuance, or a consistent product, a winery seeks to make, there are always skilled techniques involved.

Craft breweries honor, respect, replicate, and expand on traditional brewing techniques, and create new styles.  Again, this is the story of most wines.  The wine making traditions have not changed dramatically due to industrialization.  There are more tools available, but the essential ingredients and processes have remained the same.  Also, the "traditional" wines never went out of style or became unknown to mainstream producers because cheap swill (read: Bud Light) flooded the market.  Traditional, high end wines, have always remained in the eye of the consumer, and been the standard other wines try to live up to.  In terms of innovation, every time a wine is made in a new location, or with a new type of grape for the area, it is innovative.  Much of the innovation comes long before the actual wine making process begins, and much of the skilled work involved in wine making comes from trying to achieve a desired result with a given product.

Craft breweries provide a variety of styles, not just a repetition on the same theme.  Again, wine has always done this, being made from several varieties, with each having dramatically different flavor profiles.  The terroir of the grapes, the maturation process (if any), etc. also provide a further level of differentiation.  Wine has never been a single-note product, and so making wine with a variety of flavor profiles is nothing new.

Craft breweries support local economies. There is a tendency for craft breweries to buy as local as possible, to have brewpubs which connect them to their community, and to truly incorporate their brands into their local environments, making it impossible to, say, pick up and move across the country (although it does happen).  More than a tendency, wineries have to be tied to their local environments.  Barley is malted, dried, and sold and shipped as a commodity.  Hops are turned into pellets and shipped around and across the globe.  Yeast can be put in a vial (or a bucket) and sent anywhere.  Grapes are heavy, messy, and perishable.  Meaning you can't really put them in a bag and mail them to Milwaukee or St. Louis.  Yes, grape juice can be shipped.  But it is expensive and messy, and changes the qualities of the product during transportation.  For this reason, wineries are inherently a local operation.  They have always bought local, because it is the only way to do business.  Their operations and tasting rooms have always boosted local economies, and most wine growing regions have huge industries built around wine tourism as such.  In traditional, old world, wine growing regions, the label on the wine actually labels the region, not the product.  That is how intertwined wine is with place.

The biggest reason craft wine will not take off is that wine has always been a craft industry.  Yes, beer started out that way, but for many years, the best known, most sought after beers by the general public, have been mass produced, cheap, light, crisp, drinkable, and very refreshing lagers.  Different brands have flooded the market with products that are all very similar.  The craft brewing industry thus came in and provided a contrast to what was on the mainstream market.

Wine, on the other hand, has always been a little snobbier.  The most sought after wines in the world have always been rare, bold, and highly individualized products.  Mass produced wine only exists because expensive, "classy" wine exists, and wine has always been associated with a certain, high end lifestyle.  The small batch industry is not fighting against the big guys for attention, reputation, or market share, as in craft beer.  Instead, the big guys are entering the world of what in beer would be called the "craft" producers.

That being said, I think that there are a few trends which fit the spirit of craft beer and spirit, and appeal to a similar market, but that I don't think differentiate a wine as a "craft" wine.  The first is experimental varietals, or experimental varietals for a particular region.  New York State wines fall into this group, and are becoming more popular, as do many wines from Santa Barbara County and other non-Napa and non-Sonoma AVAs in California.  While not necessarily more craft in a lot of ways, the wineries trying these out are bold and breaking from the mold of what wine, or American wine, is supposed to look like. 

The other area is sustainable wine making.  As wineries begin to be certified organic, sustainable, etc. there is a craft-like market developing specifically around sustainably-produced wines.

Tasting Notes: 2011 Star Lane Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc

This wine is a Sauvignon Blanc out of the U.S.'s newest (unless I missed something) AVA, the Happy Canyon AVA in Santa Barbara County.

Appearance: Bright, bold, yellow, color.  No legs when swirled in glass.

Aroma: Very strong lemon and grapefruit.  Even when the bottle was opened, before pouring, it gives off a very fresh citrus smell. 

Mouthfeel: Light and smooth, a little bit of tart astringency leaves the mouth dried out at the end.

Flavor: Very, very, grapefruit forward.  Get a hint of tropical fruit in the middle of the palate, and the finish is back to graprefruit, and lingers for quite some time.  I can't really pick up much past the almost astringent grapefruit flavor.

Overall: I'm not a grapefruit fan, so Sauvignon Blancs are kind of hit or miss with me.  This wine has a pleasent aroma, beautiful color, and a very drinkable, refreshing body.  If I didn't have such a strong dislike of grapefruit, this seems like it would be a great, refreshing, drinkable white on a  hot summer day.  Probably not one that I will personally go out of my way to drink again, though.

Flavor Sources in Beer

So, when tasting anything, it's important to know what you're looking for, and what different flavors came from, and what they mean.  So here is a basic break down of the main flavor sources for beer.  I'll start with the four main ingredients of beer, and then cover some extras.

Water is one of the four ingredients allowed under the German purity laws, and is an ingredient in every beer, and one which is often overlooked.  Having pure, relatively soft water is important to the brewing process, because it allows the yeast to act as expected, as well as the hops, malt, and any other ingredients to express fully.  Certain breweries like their beer to have certain minerals because it provides or highlights certain flavors.  In most beers, water is not a significant source of flavor.  If it does provide a flavor, it will be an earthy, mineral, or metalic flavor usually.  It's important to understand, though, that the type of water used can make it impossible to brew a good beer, or certainly to brew certain styles of beer.  The good news is that modern technology allows impurities to be filtered out, and minerals to be added back in.

Malt is another of the four "pure" beer ingredients.  Malt is barley which has been partially germinated in order to release emylase, which in turn converts starch into fermentable sugar.  Malt provides the bulk of beer flavor, and is necessary for the production of alcohol.  Malt can be dried either just enough to stop germination, or it can be kiln dried and roasted, toasted, charred, or even burnt, to varying degrees.  It can also be smoked.  The degree of toasting on the finished malt determines the color, as well as flavor, of the finished beer. Malty flavors include cereal, bread, corn, and sweetness.  Darker malts can also provide coffee, chocolate, caramel, toasted, nutty, and smokey flavors.

Yeast is the third "pure" beer ingredient.  Yeast turns sugar into CO2 and alcohol, in its most basic function.  The fermentable sugars which yeast consumes, however, have many components which are not directly turned into CO2 or alcohol.  These are protein chains, acids, and other congeners which provide specific flavors, known as esthers.  Certain yeast strains digest certain esthers and reprocess those.  Others are unable to consume those same esthers.  When we talk about yeast flavors, we are not talking about flavors that come from actually consuming yeast.  We are talking about the esthers that particular yeast strains were unable to fully break down, and which remain in the finished beer.  Common yeast-derrived flavor groups are fruit and certain spices.  Almost any fruit flavor is yeast derrived.  Black pepper, clove, and corriander are also fermentation and yeast derived flavorings.  More extreme examples of yeast flavors, coming from wild or deliberately souring fermentation, are barnyard, funk, leather, and even sour or vinegar flavors.  It is important to note that many off flavors are also yeast or bacteria derrived, and these flavors come from processing which has allowed un-intended yeasts access to beer.

Hops are the final "pure" beer ingredient.  They were used primarily as a preservative originally, although with modern techniques, they are no longer necessary for that purpose.  They provide important flavor and aroma characteristics, depending on the variety, as well as at what stage of the brewing process they are added.  Hops can basically provide five things, or, for most strains, and certainly most beers (which use a blend of hops), a combination of them.  Aroma, bitterness, citrus, pine/resin and grassy/floral flavors.  Hop aroma can span the range of the other four, but it is important to note that certain hop varieties, and ways of hopping a beer, can contribute more to aroma then flavor.  It is possible to have a beer with a very in your face hop bouquet which is much more subtle with actual hop flavors.  Bitterness is an overall contribution to hops, and all hops provide a certain level of bitterness, but some varieties, and some beers, highlight the hop bitterness rather than the nuances of hop flavor and aroma.  Citrus hops tend to lean toward grapefruit, and provide a refreshing counterbalance to the initial bitterness.  Pine and resiny hops can vary from straight up spruce/Christmas tree to a skunky, marijuana-like aroma.  Grassy and floral hops can provide a nice aroma and flavor as well.

Adjuncts are basically any ingredient not included above that is added to a beer at any stage.  Some adjuncts, like wheat, rye, oats, sorghum, or other grains, or fruits (basically anything with natural starch or sugar) can be used along with malt to make the mash before fermentation.  Some are added after fermentation.  Those ingredients can have very different effects depending on when they are added.  Adjuncts can cover a very wide range, from spices to fruits, to chilli pepper, to chocolate, to vanilla, and coffee.  Some (fruits, spices, chocolate, coffee, nuts) are meant to enhance or highlight flavors already found in certain styles of beer, while others (chipotle peppers, etc.) can create a whole new flavor experience.

Aging/packaging/processing can also affect flavors.  Most obviously, barrel aging a beer can affect the flavor tremendously.  The age and the oak itself will contribute a lot of flavor, texture, and aroma contributions.  Frequently, because of the expense of barrels, the relatively low retail price of beer, and just because of the special contributions, beers are aged in barrels which previously played host to wine, brandy, bourbon, or other spirits.  These barrels can contribute both a higher alcohol content and interesting flavors.  Processing beer can affect the flavor as well.  Is a beer filtered, fined, centrifuged, or served en lees?  Lees are dead yeast cells, which are often left in some beers, particularly wheat beers.  If they are removed, the exact method can affect flavor as well.  If a beer is bottle/keg/can conditioned, served on cask, or force carbonated, or some combination of them will affect mouth feel and flavor, as will the exact gas blend used. 

Hopefully this is a good start to developing a beer palate, and knowing the important contributions that each decision a brewer makes can have on the final product.

Tasting Notes: North Coast Barrel Aged Old Rasputin

Appearance: Pours a deep, dark, almost black brown.  Nice, coffee colored, creamy, foamy head, with decent retention and a little bit of lacing.

Aroma: Booze, chocolate, caramel, in that order.  Smells much sweeter and more chocolatey than the non-barrel aged version of the same beer.

Mouthfeel: Full bodied, but not sticky or syrupy.  Creamy texture.

Flavors: Boozy, coffee, just a hint of chocolate and caramel sweetness.  Lingering, bitter/burnt coffee finish.

Overall: Definitely a special beer.  Complex, with a lot going on both on the nose and the palate.  Similar enough to the unaged version that it is recognizable, but definitely smoother, richer, and a little more complex.  Definitely not a sweet beer by any means, but also not quite as dry or harsh as an unaged Old Rasputin.  Would be a great beer to drink with a special meal or a very special, equally rich dessert.

Tasting Notes: 2011 DaVinci Pinot Grigio

Appearance: Light, clear, straw-yellow.  No legs.

Aroma: Bright floral, lemon, mineral notes on the bouquet.

Mouthfeel: Light, rolls right through the mouth.

Flavors:  Crisp, dry, smooth.  Slight green apple or pear notes, without being overly tart.  A tiny bit of a grapefruit acidity.  Bright floral finish, which doesn't cut off right away, but doesn't linger either.

Overall:  I really liked this one.  Manages to be light, crisp, dry, and refreshing, without being boring.  Lots of different flavors here, but still pretty clean flavor-wise.  Usually I need food to really make a pinot grigio grab my attention, but this one stood out on its own.  Would be great with food, but also great to drink outside on a hot summer day.

Should I age xx, or drink it right away?

People often wonder they can or even should age a particular bottle, whether it is beer, wine, or spirits.  The answer is, it all depends on the particular item.

Spirits.  In general, spirits are high enough in alcohol content that the effects of aging them in a bottle will be minimal.  They are  not as volatile, or subject to as much chemical change as lower proof beer and wine.  Most have been aged in wood, or filtered, to the point that most cogeners have fully developed.  It's still not a great idea to keep them around too long, especially once they're opened, but they are less subject to change over time than beer and wine.

Beer.  As a general rule, beer is best drank fresh.  Beer is low proof, and has not been distilled, or (generally) aged.  The higher residual sugar and water, along with other chemicals which are still left in beer, make it fairly volatile.  Light and oxygen are both bad for beer.  Saying heat is bad for beer is a bit of an oversimplification.  Temperature changes are bad for beer.  So if you do plan on hanging on to beer (whether just for a couple of weeks or during long term cellaring/aging) keep this in mind.  A beer cellar or closet is probably the best place for it, as it will be protected from light and stay relatively temperature stable.  The most common way I've seen people mistreat beer is to buy it cold, let it sit out for a few days, put it in the fridge, then move or take it somewhere else, or just run out of space in the fridge, leave it out at room temperature for a few days, and then put it back in the fridge.  This is asking for trouble.

Now, notice that I said that as a general rule beer is best when fresh.  Some beers are meant to stand up to aging.  How do you know if yours is one of them?  Five things: hops, alcohol, body, aging, and a couple of yeast situations.

Hops will be the most counterintuitive of these.  Hoppy, bitter beers do not age well and are best consumed as quickly as possible, especially fresh hopped or dry hopped beers.  Weren't hops originally put in beer as a preservative, though, you ask?  Yes, they were.  In fact, hoppy beers are certainly safe to drink after some time.  But 1) modern brewing and packaging ensures that even beers with low hop profiles are pretty shelf stable, and 2) what we now call "hoppy" beers use hops for flavor and aroma.  As an agricultural product, and, basically an aromatic flower, hops change as they get old.  They no longer have the fresh, bright, crisp flavor and aroma they started with, meaning that while they're perfectly safe to consume, they lose the characteristics that they gave the beer and begin to taste and smell stale.

Alcohol Higher alcohol beers tend (although hops trump this, so don't try to age an Imperial IPA!) to age better than lower alcohol beers, for a couple of reasons.  Aging will tend to mellow and round out the boozy flavors that some barley wines/quads/etc. will have.  Also, as mentioned in the notes on spirits, higher alcohol means less volatile (at least in terms of flavor and aroma changes).  These beers will develop and change with  time, especially since most high alcohol beers also have a fair amount of residual sugar and fruity esters left in them, unlike spirits, but will not entirely change their nature.  They area also high enough in alcohol that most yeast and bacteria will not attempt to continue fermenting the beer.

Body Bigger bodied beers tend to age better.  Whether from alcohol, sugar, or dark roasted malts, big beers mean big flavors.  You don't want to lose that (and won't), but sometimes a mellowing, rounding out that comes with aging does a big beer good.

Aging If a beer has been aged by the brewery in wood, it usually means two things: 1) the recipe was designed with aging in mind, so there won't be any harmful effects to letting it sit a little longer in the bottle, 2) The aging process has already started, and so the effects of aging will not take a turn for the worst.  Any negative chemical or bacterial reactions would have taken place in the barrel, and you wouldn't have the beer at all.  So, it's a safe bet that most barrel aged beers will be good after a little extra time in the bottle or keg as well.

Yeast In general, spontaneously fermented and bottle/barrel conditioned beers are good to age.  Spontaneous fermentation allows a) oxidation, and b) wild and unpredictable yeast activity.  These are two things you worry about with aging a beer, and if it has already held up to deliberate exposure to these two things, chances are, they can't do a lot more harm.  The stuff that wild yeast and bacteria eat is probably already gone.  As for bottle/barrel conditioned beers, they are deliberately bottled or kegged with active yeast so that the beer continues developing.  Allowing the yeast to remain active will allow the beer to continue to develop over time (until the yeast has completely died off) and provide for a more interesting brew.

Lucky for us, several of these conditions tend to overlap.  IPAs and pales tend to be light, crisp, young, hoppy, and very deliberately fermented using cultured yeasts.  Barley wines, imperial stouts, quads, sours, etc. tend to meet more than one of the conditions I've listed for "good for aging" beers, and are usually good candidates

Wine
Rules for wine are actually not that far off from beer, but a little more simplified.  First of all, remember to keep them temperature stable and out of the way of light.  Second, I don't think there's anything in wine that has quite the same negative reaction to time that hops do, so you won't necesarily totally ruin a wine by aging it.

In general, you'll want to drink light bodied wines, especially crisp, bright, citrusy ones, pretty young.  They will tend to mellow, smooth, and become more one note over time.

On the other hand, big wines with richer, dark fruit flavors, especially ones high in tannin, will usually benefit from aging.  As with beer, anything (white or red) which saw the inside of an oak barrel is probably a good candidate for further aging as well.

Collecting/future value
Now, the one thing to note with all three of these things, especially with whiskey and wine, and it's starting to be true of some beers as well, is that aside from quality, there is a certain value to a bottle held onto for a while.  Simple supply and demand.  A 25 year old scotch or bourbon is going to be hard to find, and, to the right person, worth a lot of money.  An interesting note about wine production is that low yields often produce the best wine.  A bottle of a particularly scarce, but high quality vintage can be worth a lot of money.  Some craft and monastic beers are so hard to find that they are worth a lot of money, especially months or years after their production.  The above tips were written based on drinkability and quality, not on monetary value.  So if you are a collector primarily looking to make money, or  simply have the pride in having a valuable cellar, you can probably pay less attention to them.  That said, 1) collecting booze for the sake of future value is risky.  You are banking on the fact that a particular brand or vintage will hold value in the future.  Tastes change.  While a rare spirit, wine, or beer is probably a safe bet, keep in mind that producers change production levels, or sometimes tastes just change.  2) If it tastes like shit, it's really not worth anything to anyone.  Pliny the Younger is a very rare, triple IPA from Russian River, released once a year.  This gives it an inherent value, and might tempt some profiteers (if it was available in bottle) to tuck away a bottle and try to sell it in the off season.  They'd be out of luck, as this beer is meant to be drank young and would only deteriorate with time.  In fact, the brewery allocates kegs only to those bars who commit to tapping it in the month of February, to avoid people jeopardizing the quality of the product to take advantage of its scarcity.

Hopefully this has been a helpful guide to when products might benefit (or not) from cellaring or aging them in bottle.

Tasting Notes: Barefoot Pinot Grigio

Appearance: Very light, white-ish, a touch of green.  Poured almost effervescent, with bubbles rising as it poured.  No legs when swirled.

Aroma: Mild, but a touch of lemon and grapefruit.

Mouthfeel: Light, rolls right off the tongue, but not as light as some pinot grigios.

Flavor: A little more fruit than I was expecting from a pinot grigio.  A bit of lemon, also a little bit of peach, not as much minearlity as I was expecting, and actually slightly sweet.  Finishes with a slight alcohol flavor, and a little bit creamy.  Not a sharp, crisp finish, but also doesn't linger.

Overall: Interesting wine.  Not as awful as I was expecting for something under $6.  In fact, I actually kind of liked it.  Definitely not true to the pinot grigio varietal though.  Although lighter than a chardonnay, it was not as light or drinkable as most pinot grigios.  Instead of the rich, mineral notes, it had a lot of fruit, and was actually slightly sweet.  Personally, I love pinot grigio with food, but usually find it a little too light and kind of boring on its own.  This wine would probably not pair well with typical pinot grigio pairings, but is actually kind of enjoyable on its own.  Definitely not the greatest wine, but for a $6 bottle from Barefoot, not the worst either.

Tasting Notes: New Glarus Enigma

Appearance: Pours a dark but translucent pinkish red.  Thin light pink head, which dissipated quickly, with no lacing.

Aroma: Funky and tart.  A barnyard funk, but still a sour cherry tartness to it.

Mouthfeel: Light.  Rolls right off the tongue.  More carbonation/effervescence than I was expecting based on the small head.

Flavors:  Tart at the front, then cherry and vanilla come out.  Almost tastes like canned cherry pie filling.  Finishes with a little barnyard funk, a touch of vanilla, and a very strong sour apple sourness.

Overall: Not my favorite sour or fruit beer, or even my favorite New Glarus sour or fruit beer.  Definitely nothing bad about this brew, but nothing really excited me either.  This might actually be my least favorite New Glarus beer so far, and it's hard to put a finger on exactly why.  Where their other sours and fruit beers not being overtly or offensively sour, and their hoppier beers being a bit malty comes across as balance and finesse, and even approachability across styles or even to non-beer drinkers, this one just seems too sweet, light bodied, and bland for a barrel-aged sour, but not quite malty or mild enough to make it an approachable session beer.  Again, definitely nothing bad about this beer, but if I had a fridge full of the full New Glarus lineup, this would probably be my last choice.

Tasting Notes: New Glarus Raspberry Tart

Appearance: Pours a deep but translucent amber, with a slight red tint.  Effervescent, with lots of little bubbles rising while being poured, and while sitting.  Interesting for such an effervescent beer, also had a decent sized, off white, almost light caramel colored head, with great retention, but minimal lacing.

Aroma: Sweet and tart raspberry.  Just a tiny bit of funk.

Mouthfeel: Fairly light, but does leave a little bit of a syrupy sensation behind.

Flavors: Well balanced.  Starts out just the right amount of tart, noticeable but not offputting.  Gets sweet, without ever being syrupy or sickeningly sweet, with a subtle vanilla note, and rounds out just tart enough to pucker your lips a little bit and leave you wanting more.

Overall: Good beer.  Tart enough to please us sour-lovers, but balanced and gentle enough that even people who might not usually drink sours could drink it.  Sweet enough to please some unlikely beer drinkers, without being syrupy or tasting artificial like some popular framboise.  A great beer to introduce a wine or cocktail drinker to craft beer.  And a great fruit/sour beer to introduce a beer drinker who might not usually drink them.  Not a lot of malt or hop flavors, but also not quite the same as a lot of better known fruit beers or sours.  Definitely will be picking up some more of this when I am back in the dairy land.

How To Taste Beer, Wine, and Spirits

So we all know how to drink, right?  But how do you taste a beer, a wine, or a spirit to get the most unique and thorough tasting experience?  Here's a few helpful hints:

Prepare
You shouldn't smoke, brush your teeth, or eat or drink anything with a strong flavor for about 15 minutes before you taste.  Also, use appropriate glassware.  If you are tasting specifically to hone your palate, or blind tasting, or doing any other type of formal tasting, you will want a clear glass that allows a good view from all angles of your beverage of choice.  You will also want something with plenty of room to breath, and a tapered opening.  This will allow the aromas to fully develop in the glass, but also concentrate them on your nose and palate.  Snifters and red wine glasses make great tasting glasses.

Look
You want to look at the beer, wine, or spirit first, especially if you are blind tasting, or tasting against a certain style or varietal.  You are looking for several things: color, shade, opaqueness, haze, sediment, etc.  With sparkling wine and beer, you're also looking at the carbonation.  Are the bubbles large or small?  Do they rise quickly or slowly, or do they just kind of linger at the sides of the glass or the top?  With beer in particular, is there a head?  What is the color and consistency of the head?  Does it hold or dissipate quickly?  Once it dissipates, does it leave lacing on the sides of the glass?  Give the glass a slow swirl.  Especially with beer and sparkling wine, be gentle.  When you swirl the glass, does the beverage leave "legs" or streaks on the glass?  This is a good indication of texture, and can give you some clues about residual sugar as well as alcohol content of what you are tasting.  All of these factors can provide important clues as to what you're about to drink, or give you some indication of the  quality and the adherence to style guidelines and prototypes.

Smell
Our taste buds only taste sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami.  The rest of what we perceive as flavor is actually tied to our sense of smell.  In order to fully appreciate a drink, we should smell it before we taste it.  Give the glass another gentle swirl.  This will release more smells  inside the glass.  Several short sniffs are better than one long one.  Especially if you are in a place with other smells, try to isolate the smells of the drink.  Don't be afraid to stick your nose right in the glass.  Or, make a cup using your hand, or even waft the aromas of the beverage toward your nose.  If you are blind tasting, look for smells that stick out as telltale aromas of certain styles, then narrow it down from there.  If you are not blind tasting, run through some smells you might expect from this particular spirit, beer style, or varietal.  Use the opportunity of smelling the beverage to pull out fruit, caramel, chocolate, or other notes which can easily be confused with sweetness, and make note of them so you can use them later.  Let your mind run wild.  Our sense of smell is closely linked to a lot of emotional memories, which can mean that smelling a drink can be the most enjoyable part about tasting it!

Taste
Yes, you finally get to taste the spirit.  There are a lot of things you're looking for here, and I find that the best way to get them all is to actually taste in three separate sips.
The first sip, wash the beverage through your mouth.  Wash it over, under, and around your tongue.  Make sure it hits the tip of the tongue, the back of your throat, the roof of your mouth, and swallow it.  Although it is a myth that we only taste certain tastes on certain parts of the tongues, the receptors for each taste are distributed differently in each part of the mouth.  Swishing the drink over everything allows you to perceive the tastes at different parts of the mouth and tongue.  Pay particular attention to sweetness and bitterness here.  Sweetness can be tricky, and this is where the smells you picked up on earlier come in.  Sweetness in alcoholic beverages comes from residual (unfermented) sugars.    Do you get sweetness when you are more focused on the basic flavors of the drink?  Or is a chocolate, caramel, fruit, or other flavor giving an illusion of sweetness?  Finally, use this as an opportunity to assess the mouthfeel and body of the beer, wine, or spirit.  Does it glide right off your tongue?  Does it leave a sticky, syrupy residue?  Is it somewhere in between?  Does it make you pucker up?  Does it leave parts of your mouth dry and thirsty for more?  This can tell you a lot about the characteristics of a beer, wine, or spirit.

 The second sip, swallow the beverage, and immediately exhale through your nose.  This will give you a rush of "flavors" as your sense of smell kicks in to process all of the vapors left behind from your drink.  This should be the most intense part of the tasting, allowing your senses of smell and taste to interact completely.  Look for the same smells you got when you smelled, as well as any new surprises.  Do the flavors all come at once?  Is there a taste you got when you first took the sip that fades into another mid-palate, and yet another as you exhale?

Finally, just take a sip.  Drink it like you would if you were at the dinner table, or at a party with friends.  Hopefully your perception is enhanced by the whole exercise of tasting.  At the end of the day, though, your overall impression should be based on what you enjoy or don't enjoy on a daily basis.  Is the flavor pleasant?  Do all of the things you've tasted before blend together nicely, fight for attention, or each stand out individually?  Is one dominant over the others?  Does one particular flavor linger on the palate?  Most importantly, now that you have (hopefully) gained a better understanding of the wine, beer, or spirit, how do you like it?  Is it your new favorite, one you can't wait to have more of, a good choice, or not for you?

Tasting can be both fun and educational.  Blind tasting is a great way to develop your palate.  Tasting a product (even one you've had a million times) in a more thoughtful and structured way is a great way to become more familiar with it, and hopefully gain a deeper appreciation.

Tasting Notes: Avery Samael's Oak-Aged Ale

This bottle is from Batch 5, bottled in April 2009.

Appearance: Pours a very dark, toffee brown, with a caramel colored head, which though thin, had pretty good retention.

Aroma: Boozy, sweet, chocolate, dark fruit.

Mouthfeel: Heavy, full bodied, but not as syrupy as I would have expected from a beer with over 16% ABV and as much sweetness on the nose.

Taste: Caramel, chocolate, booze, sweet.  Picked up a lot more caramel and less chocolate on the palate than on the nose with this one.  Definitely a booziness (as would be expected from a beer with this ABV).  Almost a sherry or port flavor.  Plum and oak on the finish, which lingers for quite a while.

Overall: Interesting beer, and definitely have to be ready for it and expecting it to enjoy.  It mellows a little as it warms up and breathes (as any 4 year old barleywine probably would).  Unlike some other barleywines, this beer is not aggressively hopped, leaving the malty, boozy, and sweet flavors in the spotlight.  Great beer, and unlike a lot of quads, barleywines, and other sweet and boozy beers, it actually comes in a 12 ounce bottle, which is great!

Tasting Notes: Shipyard Export

First of all, sorry for the awful photo.  I just noticed you can't read the label, and the head is not there.  Next time I drink one of these I may just re-upload.  Now, on to the beer.

Appearance: Pours a light amber with a hint of caramel or orange color to it and a slight haze.  Nice medium-bodied white head to it, which went away fairly quickly, but left some nice lacing.

Aroma: Malty.  Corn, cereal, no fruit or hops on the nose of this beer.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied.  Definitely not syrupy or heavy, but also not going to roll through like a lager or some other blondes or golden ales.

Flavor: Definitely get the same malt as on the nose, albeit more cereal and less corn.  A little more caramel, fuller malt flavors.  Also a hint of spice, maybe allspice or clove.  Finishes with a crisp hop bite, and no real lingering flavors.

Overall:  Meh.  Nothing bad about this beer.  It's just probably not something I would go out of my way to buy again.  It's got the same flavors and aromas as a macro-brewed adjunct lager, but a little more body, some caramel sweetness, and some spice.  After years of associating that corn smell and the malty start with a slightly hoppy finish with the big guys, it's had for me to really think of them differently, even with a little extra sweetness and some spice.