Hop Cast

In episode 84 of the Hop Cast, Brad Chmielewski & Ken Hunnemeder open up a couple rare bottles from Hair Of The Dog. The first bottle they open is the Rose, a Tripel with an ABV of 7.60%. If you are used to the Fred and Adam watch out because the Rose is a crazy and odd beast. Brad and Ken then follow the Rose up with a huge bottle of Matt that Maura Price and Ted Collins sent from Portland, OR. The Matt was brewed to celebrate Bottleworks 10th Anniversary. The Matt honors the two Matts of Brouwers and Bottleworks fame in Seattle, Washington and their contributions to the local craft beer community. Aged in 33 year old Bourbon barrels and Apple Eau de Vie barrels for about one year. At 11.50%, this American Strong Ale shouldn’t be drunk alone. Once again a couple of amazing beers from Alan Sprints over at Hair Of The Dog. If you happen to stumble across either one of these beers be sure to pick them up and grab one for us too.

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Recently my finacee and I were in Portland, Or visiting with family. Portland has so many different breweries and its almost overwhelming. The two of us have visited Portland a number of times and we’ve been able to make it to most of the breweries around town. Including Lucky Lab, Roots, Hopworks, Rogue, Deschutes… the list could go on and on. On our most recent trip we decided to check out a few breweries we hadn’t made it to especially since new ones are opening all the time. This time the spot that was highest on my list to visit was the Hair Of The Dog brewery. We had just missed the 2009 FredFest the weekend before. But that didn’t stop us from setting up a time to visit the brewery. Recently Hair Of The Dog has become my favorite brewery. My love affair with them started about a year ago on my last trip to Portland, Or. Being from Chicago you almost never see a beer from Hair Of The Dog unless you are at an event and some generous person brings a bottle to share. Hair Of The Dog makes powerful, delicious beer. The 2008 Doggie Claws is amazing and one of my favorite beers; I’m having a hard time not drinking the ones I have in my fridge. I also think if Alan the brewmaster ever did any sort of Russian Imperial it would probably blow away the Darklord. So in other words I was extremely excited to be visiting Hair Of The Dog and seeing where the magic happens.

You have to call before you visit Hair Of The Dog and see if Alan, the brewmaster is going to be around to give a tour. He isn’t at the brewery brewing every day like many of the other larger operations, so you have to work around his schedule. We set a time in the late afternoon to stop by the brewery. Finding the brewery is sort of tricky, you either have to know the Portland road system very well or use the directions on the Hair Of The Dog website. Once we finally found the place we pulled up to see the door of the brewery open and ready for us to enter. As you walk in it is sort of like walking into someone’s very large garage. Barrels are piled all around and off in the back you can see all the brewing equipment. The size of the place is less than half of the newly opened Metropolitan Brewery in Chicago. When we walked in further we found Alan stirring the brew kettle, he was on his first batch for the day with three more to go. Alan finished what he was doing and then welcomed us to his brewery. The tour started and ended almost at once, you basically walk around in a small circle and Alan explains what everything is. My favorite part of the “tour” was being able to see all the barrels he had and what was being aged in each one. After Alan showed us around the brewery we stepped up to his bar to try what he had on tap. He gave a little history about the brewery and talked about each of his beers. Alan had five beers for us to sample; Greg, Fred, Blue Dot, Ruth, & the 2008 Doggie Claws. The Greg was the only one I had not had and one of the more unique beers I have had recently. He doesn’t use any hops in the Greg, only squash.

Overall it was great to visit the brewery and I greatly appreciate Alan for taking time out of his day to show me and the finacee around. If you’re in Portland or just visiting and you love beer, be sure to make the time for Hair Of The Dog.

Brad Chmielewski and Ken Hunnemeder welcome you to the wood episode. They might have had a few too many at Rock Bottom’s Rockfest before shooting episode 41 of the Hop Cast. The two beers they sample and review are beers that use wood to age or for additional flavor. The first beer is the Palo Santo Marron from the great brewery Dogfish Head. They follow that 12% ABV beast up with a beer from Brad’s favorite brewery Hair Of The Dog. It is the Fred From The Wood, coming in at 10% ABV. Both of these are high alcohol beers.

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#gents or The Fellowship of Gentlemanly Gentlemen is a weekly, exclusive gathering of some of the world’s finest. Sampling exceptional craft beers, cigars and spirits; discussing politics, design and entrepreneurial affairs; the Fellowship aims to capture the true essence of living as a gentlemanly gentlemen. In a nutshell its a small group that gets together and share beers. It started in late February 2009 at Bridges Media Group, as a small after work get together but has quickly become much more. Each week there is a theme and everyone brings beers that fit into that theme. The beers are either ones that were picked up at the store that day or maybe that have been aging at home for years. Most weeks the group consists of Brian McCauley, Mike Kislovsky, Nick Campbell, Stephen Freshnock and myself. More recently the group is growing and more people have attended, including: Ken Hunnemeder, Timothy O’Connell and Brad Stark.

Most of the #gents are on twitter, so in order to sort of catalog and take notes on the beers that are being sample and enjoyed they put #gents into their twitter updates. This #gents code also allows for all the messages to be seen on The Fellowship of Gentlemanly Gentlemen’s website. These weekly gatherings make it a wonderful opportunity to experience a great selection of craft beers in a smaller non event setting.

Tuesday, May 6th marked the latest meeting of the gents with the theme, “Best Of Your Cellar“. Really it was more of a bring the best you have, it could include rare, aged, or even just a favorite. I brought with me a Three Floyds 2009 Dark Lord, a Pliny The Elder from Russian River and a Crack’d Wheat from New Glarus. Tyler a friend of Brian’s brought a Three Floyds 2008 Dark Lord, which was fabulous. I feel honored to have gotten to sample the 2008 Dark Lord twice in one week… the first being episode 39 of the Hop Cast. Brian shared a 60th Anniversary Special Edition Abt 12 that he had been aging for over a year. Stephen usually brings one of his home brews and he didn’t disappoint this weekend. He brought one of the few remaining bottles of his Rye. Stephen also brought a Fred which is from one of my favorite breweries Hair Of The Dog. Ken and I sampled the Fred and an Adam in a previous special. Finally from Stephen was the Ballast Point Victory At Sea. Looking back, I can’t believe we had all of that and it was only about half of what we drank that night, the list seems to just go on and on. Tim brought the Rocky’s Revenge Bourbon Brown from Tyranena Brewing, which I was rather impressed by. Brad Stark being new to the craft beer world picked up a Lost Abbey Inferno, which was reviewed on episode 22 of the Hop Cast.

We started off with the two Three Floyds Dark Lords so we could enjoy them before the alcohol took hold. From there we tried to work backwards but ended up jumping around. Beside the Dark Lord, stand outs included the aged Abt 12 and Hair Of The Dog Fred. The Victory At Sea was good, but had a bit too much chocolate for my liking.

Overall it was a fantastic night with some hard to find beers. If anyone in Chicago is looking to join us, you are more then welcome. Either contact me here, leave a message on The Fellowship Of Gentlemanly Gentlemen website or get a hold of any of us on twitter.

Ken Hunnemeder and Brad Chmielewski serve up episode 34 of the Hop Cast with two guests and two IPAs. Ken and Brad are joined by Brian Gallagher and Katie Sirles for this adventure in IPAs. The four of them sample and review the Blue Dot from Hair Of The Dog, which was specially brewed for earth day. They then move on to the Imperial India Pale Ale from Green Flash Brewing. Special thanks to Maura and Ted for the special beer from Hair Of The Dog.

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Join Ken Hunnemeder and Brad Chmielewski in episode 23 of the Hop Cast as they show you two amazing barley wines. The first barley wine is from Portland, OR and is Doggie Claws. Next up is another beer from Three Floyds, this time being the Behemoth Barley Wine. Along for this adventure in tasting is special guest Don & Mitchell Radlund. This episode wouldn’t of been possible without Maura & Ted, so a big thanks to them for the Doggie Claws.

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Ken Hunnemeder and Brad Chmielewski serve up another Hop Cast special. They sample and review two beers from Hair Of The Dog, their Adam and the Fred.

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