The fog has lifted. Celebrate with a stout

Old Rasputin for breakfast, Fort Bragg, Calif. May, 2009.

It’s winter in Mobile, when cool, crisp evenings break up seemingly endless days of gray skies and cold drizzle. Nights like these seem to be made for sipping an imperial stout around the fire.

Russian imperial stouts are big, bold beers that originated in the 18th century not from Russia, but from England. It’s said that Catherine The Great fell in love with the milder English stouts on a visit to Great Britain and requested that some be shipped to her in Russia. When the beer arrived, however, she was disappointed to find it had spoiled on the long journey. Brewers at the Thrales Brewery in London used more hops in the ensuing batches to preserve the beer, and the result was the stronger “imperial” stout.

One particularly tasty example is North Coast’s Old Rasputin. The Northern California brewery’s Russian imperial stout, the nation’s best-selling, wasn’t available in Alabama before this year’s passage of the Gourmet Beer Bill. Now, it can be found nearly everywhere quality beer is sold.

Like all good examples of the style, heavily roasted malts contribute deep chocolate and espresso aromas to the Old Rasputin, which pours midnight-black with a creamy, dark-tan head floating on top. The alcohol isn’t overwhelming, but it does provide a nice warming feeling as it flows over your tongue and down your throat. Notes of chocolate linger throughout the aftertaste.

Save the pint glass for your Guinness — this one calls for a glass with a wide body, like a brandy snifter or red wine glass, to help focus the intense aromas right where they belong: in your nose. Take it out of the fridge just before you sit down to dinner; when you’re finished eating and are ready to enjoy the rest of your evening with a delicious beer, this one should be at the perfect temperature, about 50 degrees, to bring out all the flavors.

Keep in mind that at 9 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), this beer is intended to be sipped slowly. You’ll not only stay more sober, you’ll get a more rewarding experience from this fine example of a Russian imperial stout.

$3 Pints return for Free The Hops night at the Royal Scam!

The Royal Scam is bringing back a very special offer for Free The Hops members this Thursday night. All draft beer pints are just $3. That includes Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan, Sweetwater 420 and Abita Andygator!

The Scam is also currently serving some kickass burgers, house fries and honey chipotle wings that are out of this world, so make sure you bring your appetite as well as your thirst. Oh, and $25 if you haven’t already signed up for a Free The Hops membership. It’ll make the beer taste better, we promise!

New in Mobile: Magic Hat #9

I was happy to hear recently that Magic Hat #9 has been added to the tap lines of a few local establishments in south Alabama. The Burlington, VT, brewery has been a favorite of mine since I picked up my first themed 12-pack a few years back, and it’s a good sign that they’re bringing their flagship beer to the market.

The brewery calls #9 a “not-quite pale ale,” but I’d refer to it more as a nicely hopped apricot ale. It smells slightly of apricots, and finishes with a distinct dry aftertaste that leaves a pleasant impression on the palate. Unlike fellow fruit beers like Sweetwater Blue and Abita Purple Haze, though, #9 is more beer than fruit flavor. The alcohol content is just 4.7 percent, meaning you can order a few of them after work and not be stumbling over the other patrons at the bar before happy hour is over, and I’d guess that this beer will please a wide variety of beer drinkers, from the seasoned snob to the newly minted hop-head.

It’s a beer whose arrival is tied to the Free The Hops movement in an indirect way — while their beer doesn’t tip the scales on the alcohol content, it’s a new, fun brewery whose beers are coming to town, and it’s the enthusiasm of our fellow beer drinkers that has helped that happen.

It appears that Magic Hat is teasing us for now, dipping a toe in the market by delivering the #9 only on draft and only at Hopjacks and the Mellow Mushroom. Hopefully, they’ll decide we like their beer and want more of it, especially on the shelves of local stores.

Road Trip for a Cause: Free The Hops presents Brews For Clues

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend and plan to be in Birmingham, this event looks like a good time for a good cause:

Free the Hops and the Autism Society of Alabama are teaming up this Saturday, Nov. 14, at 6 p.m. for Brews for Clues, an event at the Sloss Furnaces featuring entrees from Birmingham-area restaurants with beers meticulously selected to create a perfect food pairing. 100 percent of the proceeds will benefit the Autism Society of Alabama.

Don’t miss out on this unique event featuring music from Honeybaked, get your tickets now. We’ll even have both the Alabama and Auburn football games showing on big screens.

Reminder: Next gathering is this Thursday

Just a quick reminder that the Mobile Chapter of Free The Hops will be meeting at the Royal Scam in downtown Mobile on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. There’s a lot to talk about with the legislative agenda announced, so we hope to see you there!

Celebrate 11 years with Heroes tomorrow night

Heroes Sports Bar and Grille is celebrating its 11th anniversary Friday night from 7-til. Stop by and congratulate David Rasp on the momentous occasion, and be sure to thank him for supporting Free The Hops as we head into what is sure to be another exciting year of changing our state’s archaic beer laws.

Special thanks to our newest sponsor, Gourmet Galley

I’d like to extend special thanks to the newest Free The Hops Grand Cru sponsor from Mobile, Gourmet Galley. This boutique store across from Providence Hospital on Airport Boulevard has become the go-to spot for the newest beers in Mobile, and owner Shari Webster has done a hell of a job listening to our requests and getting the good stuff in.

In addition to the great beer section, they also carry a great selection of fine wines, gourmet items and gifts, so go check out this great little spot in west Mobile and thank Shari for supporting our efforts to further free the hops in Alabama.

Gourmet Galley was also featured in a recent Press-Register article about how the new law has helped a small business.

Southeast Beer News

A few of our favorite breweries are doing some exciting things these days, with plans for new beers being announced left and right. Here are just a few:

Lazy Magnolia

Our closest “local” brewery has a new line of Brewers Choice beers in the works, starting with Gulf Porter. Gulf Porter is brewed with carefully selected malts, oats and hops. Lazy Mag’s special strain of yeast adds a unique spicy note to compliment the rich complexity and smooth character of this creation from Mississippi’s Brewery. With warm notes of toffee and caramel, this porter is sure to spark a lively discussion on the finer points of Southern living. 1/2 gallon growlers will be available throughout Mississippi, and there will be a limited number of kegs available from the Mississippi Coast to Jackson. It will be released by mid-November 2009. Hopefully we can convince them to send a few kegs our way.

Terrapin

The Athens, Ga., brewery, whose “Side Projects” have been appearing on tap at Hopjacks recently, recently announced that they’re changing the name of my personal favorite of their beers, the Terrapin Indian Brown. Soon, you’ll be seeing the delicious blend of IPA and Brown ale under the name Hop Karma Brown IPA, which may make the style a little more clear to the uninitiated. In other Terrapin news, they also recently announced the addition of Hopsecutioner IPA to their lineup. The new IPA will be a year-round 6-pack release w/ an ABV of 7.3%.

NOLA Brewing

I found this on beernews.org yesterday. If you haven’t had NOLA yet, I highly recommend trying their offerings.

(New Orleans, LA) – NOLA Brewing is planning to introduce bottles for the first time come next March. The brewery will bottle Blonde Ale, Brown Ale, and its most recent offering, Hopitoulas IPA. Each beer will be offered year-round throughout Louisiana; the brewery is looking into distribution expansion possibilities including the Florida panhandle.

Descriptions:

Brown Ale: “We live in New Orleans. We like dark beer. That’s why we have crafted the perfect, light bodied, full flavored brown ale that you can drink all year round. Our English style mild brown ale has a rich dark color with an aroma of chocolate, coffee, and caramel. This malty treat will change your perception of brown ales and have you thirsty for more.”

Hopitoulas IPA: “This beer is the culmination of over 30 years of brewing by our Brewmaster, Peter ‘Hopzilla’ Caddoo. Created at our Tchoupitoulas Street brewery, our India Pale Ale was hand crafted with six malts and six hops. This big, beautiful beer is dry hopped with Amarillo and Simcoe hops to accentuate aromas of citrus and pine. Grab a Hopitoulas and taste the passion and dedication that has gone into this brew.”

Blonde Ale: “Everybody love a blonde, right? We think you’ll agree, our blonde is a Bombshell. With five different malts, and two mouth-watering hops, we’ve created the perfect blend of bitter, yet sweet…just the way we like it. This flagship beer always pours with the perfect head to excite all of the senses.”

As for future beers, NOLA mentions on its website: “We will release Irish Channel Stout later in 2009, a French Saison in Spring 2010 and look for our Lemon Basil Wheat in Summer 2010.”

You can follow the brewery on Facebook and Twitter.

Fresh Hop beers make it to Mobile

Hopjacks in downtown Mobile has announced two new taps this week that feature some intriguing wet-hopped beers — Sweewater Wet Dream and Great Divide Fresh Hop Ale.

Unlike most beers we drink, in which the brewers use a pellet form of hops, wet hop ales use hops that are picked fresh from the vine and used in the beer as soon as humanly possible. These beers are abundant in the hops-growing regions of the Pacific Northwest, but they’re just starting to catch on elsewhere. These beers are made to be enjoyed as fresh as possible, so I wouldn’t hesitate to get on down to Hopjacks if you want to try them.

From Sweetwater: “The hops in Wet Dream are picked fresh off the vine from Van Horn’s Farm in Washington State and overnighted to Sweetwater. It features 420 lbs of fresh Chinook Hops added to the 80 barrel batch, resulting in 5 lbs of hops per barrel. It’s not as simple as just ordering the hops, the brewing process needs to coincide with the peak time to harvest the hops.”

From Great Divide: “Fresh Hop is brewed with fresh, whole cone hops from the Pacific Northwest.  We ship these “wet” hops to Denver overnight and brew shortly after harvest, imparting an intensely grassy hop aroma and citrus hop flavor in a medium-bodied ale.

The New York Times recently published a great article about fresh hop beers for those interested in learning more.

Free The Hops 2010 Agenda announced

Free The Hops today announced its legislative agenda for 2010. From Free The Hops founder Danner Kline:

Supporters of Free The Hops:

We told you we weren’t going to stop with ABV.  While that was the original cause that inspired the formation of our organization, there are too many ridiculous beer laws on the books in this state that must be changed to bring us up to date with many other states where beer culture flourishes.

After collecting a tremendous amount of input on both the priorities of our supporters and on the political realities of 2010, and after extensive consideration and discussion, the FTH Board of Directors has decided our organization should pursue a combined agenda of Brewery and Brewpub reform next year.