When I showed up I was pleasantly surprised to learn that minds behind 12 Percent Imports (who I raved about here) were behind bringing Hopfenstark into the city, and more than just a “tasting,” this was the celebration of the beer being available in NYC now — very cool.  We don’t get much great Canadian beer down here, and as I made my way through the list, I was pleasantly surprised by everything I tried.  Hopfenstark has a real knack with differentiating his beers from each other, and for not going too deeply into one “category” of beers to the point where other categories suffer.  Each beer had distinctions that led themselves to their styles — varying carbonation levels, varying means of fermentation and yeasts, lots of varying flavors.  I’ll give a brief rundown here of some of those selections, and will add, as usual — DRINK THIS BEER! It’s fantastic.

Blanche De L’Ermitage (5.0% ABV Witbier) – After completely overdoing the Witbier thing last year, and drinking an insane amount of Schneider-Weisse, it’s been kinda hard for me to drink Wheat Beers lately.  Hopfenstark’s Blanche De L’Ermitage, however, defied all of my expectations by providing a very unique and interesting drinking experience.  This is the beer that really had me praising the brewer’s tenacity and talent — this is a very rustic, not very integrated beer, but that doesn’t bother me at all.  It had all of the right peppery, spicey notes without overwhelming the banana (in fact it was barely present) and the spiciness and fullness of flavor kept it very drinkable, while finishing very dry and keeping you coming back for more.  Maybe the most “Saisonish” Witbier I’ve tried, with nice brisk carbonation, a tendency toward the browner side of the spectrum, and overwhelmingly exploding with flavor and aroma from spices.  Awesome.

Post Coloniale (6.0% ABV American IPA) – After seeing a big list of Saisons, I was excited to see styles like Porter and IPA represented as well.  The Post Coloniale is one of the “roughest,” most rustic IPAs I’ve ever had, and while I hate to keep harping on that term, there is a certain aggressive quality with these beers which tend toward representing all of the ideas the beer has to offer without much concern for balance or other typical designations of “quality” which I never really care about anyway.  An American IPA with a French Canadian via Belgium twist, the Post Coloniale is  a cloudy, intensely flavored beer with a very nice melange of hop aromas.  There’s not an overwhelming amount of bitterness present, whcih supports a nice malt backbone and is dried out by a low finishing gravity and a very nice piney, citrusy note at the end of the sip.  A little bit difficult to explain, but a very interesting brew, Post Coloniale is a glimpse into what other Saison Producing breweries might do if faced with the task of making an IPA, where the hops become as much of a spice as anything else.  Very nice.

Loulou Porter (5.0% ABV Porter) - A very delicious selection on cask, the Loulou had the perfect amount of carbonation, roastiness, and sweetness to make it one of the best new porters I’ve sampled in a very long time.  A nice Mapley nose is complemented with a similar initial flavor on the tongue, which dries out and makes this a very drinkable beer.  Not an overwhelming amount of chocolatey or bitter notes keeps the affair very smooth, and this dark, almost still beer could be a huge winner to replace any number of flavorless, bubbless beers anywhere in the United Kingdom, but I’d be happy to keep it all for my own.  By this point in the night, I’m very “warm.”  Let’s keep going.

Brewer Fred brought in a small quantity of a few bottles which he brought down for the events, and this included 3 Saisons, named with different numbers, for different reasons.  I’ll break down the two I tried:

Saison Station 7 (5.0% ABV Saison) – Thusly named because it is “made with 7 spices,” Saison Station 7 actually kind of refutes the points I made above about rustic, unbalanced beers and produces a mixture of spices, wild yeast, and malt that is one of the most complex and interesting Saisons I’ve had from outside of Belgium, or anywhere.  After pouring a ruddy orange color with a lot of bubbles, the nose has a good amount of spice and interesting yeast notes, and as you sip the beer, more spices poke out at you — is there Ginger? Coriander? Peppercorns? Some other traditional Witbier spicing? Or none of these? I’m not sure what the 7 spices are, but the soup is improved, as opposed to being too muddied up with all of that flavor.  A true Saison that is produced seasonally and just with whatever the brewer has around, Station  7 is an awesome selection.

Saison Station 55 (6.5% ABV Saison) – Station 55 gets its appelation from containing 55 IBUs, and this awesome, bitter Saison is one of my favorite selections of the whole night.  Similar in color and carbonation level to the 7. Station 55 marries the spicy yeast notes from the Saison yeast with the herbal, spicy, and citrusy flavors from the hops, creating an awesome marraige of classic Belgian and West Coast USA flavors, in a package with a hint of wild yeast, a hint of spice, and a hell of a lot of complex drinkability.  Another score.

I’m interested to see when this beer will be around NYC more regularly, and whether we’ll get bottles, kegs, or both.  I’m going to make it a point to try all of them — and I recommend you do the same.

Drafts:

BFM La Meule
BFM Abbaye de St. Bon Chien ‘07
BFM Alex le Rouge

Cask: Hanssens Kriek

Beer By the Glass:

Birrificio Italiano Cassissona
Baladin Al-Iksir
BFM Abbaye de St. Bon Chien Pinot Noir Barrel
BFM Abbaye de St. Bon Chien Bourbon Barrel

Beer Table is a tiny place in a part of Brooklyn that is surprisingly not packed with similar spots, just yet.  A unique establishment in a nice little neighborhood is always an attraction to me, especially in Brooklyn, and Beer Table nails the vibe — quaint, quiet, attractive, and relatively comfortable, given the size.  A big list of bottles greets you, arranged by owner Justin daily according to the flavor profiles he wants to highlight, arranged from light (Leelanau’s Petoskey Ale) to medium (De Dolle’s Oerbier) to heavy (shit, I can’t remember) and everything in between.  There’s also three draughts, one cask, and three or more beers “by the glass,” something I’ve never seen before, at least in terms of a bar offering them on a consistent basis, and a lot of snacks, which I didn’t delve in to, but I plan on correcting that soon.  They also just began offering a three-course price fixed meal with optional beer pairings, and they offer many home prepared items.  Check it out.

But on to the beer itself, the reason we were really there.  While I waited for Chris to show up, I ordered a Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale, to unintentionally continue the theme from my last post.  Smutty’s Saison is decent in the bottle but really great on tap, hitting all of the notes that a Saison should, and adding a decent amount of chewey texture and depth to boot.  Fragrant, satisfying, and delicious all around.  Chris sat down and ordered the same thing right away, and we chatted for a while as we finished them and tried to decide what to get next.

Ultimately the tap and by the glass lists called our names, and we took advantage of the bar’s generous offer — samples of any of the draught or by-the-glass beers.  We tried the Alvinne Podge and the Troll Shangrila, and chose to get a glass of each to share.  Going from the Farmhouse Ale, we drank the lighter of the two glasses we had first, that being the Shangrila.  Birrificio or Birra Troll is one of the Itallian breweries making a name for themselves with awesome articles like this from the New York Times (which they’re conspicuously absent from) and this beer was no dissappointment.  A strong, almost Belgian styled ale which was light in color and medium in body, Shangrila is spiced with a long list of herbs and spices which create a delicate but complex bouquet that kept me and Ceeg going: *sniffff*….”Whoah!”…*sniffff*…”Whoah!” for a while.  It was entertaining to us but probably not to the couple next to us.

The Podge is the Alvinne take on a heavy Stout, and in the bottle in the United States, it has been disappointing, mostly infected, overly carbonated, hard to pour, hard to drink.  I honestly can’t comment on the flavor with accurately in the bottle since I feel I’ve barely tasted it.  On tap, however, this is an entirely different beer, and Podge is a creamy, luscious, malty stout with chocolate, light roast, and dark dried fruit flavors, and a hint of bitterness.  Light carbonation, perfect body, damn.  Podge is a fucking hit on tap, don’t miss it.

For our next round we ordered two bottles — Gale’s Conquest, and one of my all-time favorites, De Dolle Oerbier.  The Gale’s came at the recommendation of Justin, and he couldn’t have been more right when he told us he thought we’d like it, given the descriptions of beers we’re into.  Gale’s is an English Brewery, well, it was, until it was closed down by Fuller’s, and Justin has access to some of their meant to be aged old ales and whatever else he can get his hands on.  Described as a “Pale Ale,” but rated at 9% ABV, the Conquest Ale is anything but a typical English Pale Ale and the vintage 2000 bottle that we had, served in a small wine bottle style bottle with a cork, was completely outrageous.  A tart, lactic nose was followed by a spicy, citrusy flavor with a nice amount of body.  It reminded me a lot of the weird German beer served in the pitch lined barrel at Sppuyten Duyvil — almost completey still, aged, and extremely funky.  Difficult to describe, but worth tracking down immediately.  Oerbier is one of De Dolle’s flagship beers, and is an idiosyncratic take on the origins of Belgian Beer.  A dark, light-bodied but beautiful beer with similar tart notes but with a subtle presence of fruit and a whole lot of depth. Very wine like and overall extremely impressive as always.

To finish off, we went for two more recommendations from Justin, and he came back with the Brasserie Vapeur Cochonnette, and the already-quite-touted-on-this-blog Gaveropke Extra.  We were pretty partied out at this point, but the Cochonnette struck me as being particularly intense, and the Extra was tarter, and perhaps younger, than the other bottles I have sampled.

A complete success at a spot that I will definitely return to soon.  Check it out ASAP.