WORTH EVERY PENNY
By Colin Burch
For Weekly Surge
Last week, to celebrate the completion of some academic work, I tried one of the most expensive beers on the Grand Strand.
I had just mailed an essay to a professor when I recalled a previous trip to a store near my post office, The Wine Shoppe, 3809 U.S. 17 South in North Myrtle Beach.
Several months ago, a young woman at The WineShoppepointedouttheAllagash Curieux, an ale aged in oak bourbon barrels at a Maine brewery, offered in corked, one-pint, 9.4-fluid-ounce bottles, for the not-so-everyday price of $19.99. But it's not everyday that one finishes the first draft of one's thesis.
On my way out, the cashier suggested that I chill the bottle, pour just four or six ounces into a glass, but then leave the bottle out, in room-temperature. That way, he said, the bourbon flavor would slowly emerge as I worked my way through the bottle.
So that's what I did, and that beer was sublime. With the alcohol content at 11 percent, the light-to-medium body, and the oak-bourbon flavor easily identifiable, the Allagash Curieux seemed almost too potent and flavorful to be a beer, but beer it was, and outstanding. The bourbon hints continued throughout the evening, despite the stronger alcohol content. The sweet buzz - or, at $20 a bottle, shall we say "the elevating effects" - of these high-gravity beers approaches more easily than liquor, while making one less sluggish than a few regular beers would.
Try Allagash Curieux at least once before you die.
PRIESTLY HOME BREW
The assistant priest at my Myrtle Beach church came over for lunch on a recent Sunday afternoon and brought his own homebrew ale along for me to try, a six-pack in those 12-ounce, brown plastic bottles you buy at homebrew shops. No one should really be surprised at clergy members making their own brew; the Trappist monks in Belgium have been making some of the best beers in the world for centuries.
The assistant priest had decided to add a little bit of molasses and brown sugar to his brew. He wanted the malt to have a solid presence in his ale. But then he was worried that the molasses flavor had come off too strong.
Not at all, I said after tasting it. The hint of molasses and the extra thickness worked well in a beer.
That's the glory of home-brewing. Take what you like about beer and be your own home-brew Emeril - kick it up a notch. Which has me thinking: it's about time to head back to Beach HomeBrew, the home-brew shop in The Galleria, corner of Lake Arrowhead Road and U.S. 17. I might just add some molasses and brown sugar to my next concoction. So far, my copy of "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing" (the fully revised and updated third edition) has hardly been cracked.
RATING GORDON BIERSCH
Following last week's conversation with Pete Velez, head brewer at the soon-to-open Gordon Biersch location at The Market Common on the old Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, I decided to take a peak at how the restaurant-brewery chain's beers rated among the beer snobs.
It's tricky to rate Gordon Biersch brews because each lager is made at its own location, which inevitably allows variables into the equation.
So I hit BeerAdvocate.com, a site that allows beer snobs to offer their own ratings in pre-established categories. After looking up several varieties at numerous locations, my unscientific conclusion is that Gordon Biersch beers usually scored between an A-minus and a B-minus, on a scale like your old report card, with an occasional C-plus.
The next edition of Surge will be out on opening day (April 3) for the local Gordon Biersch. I'll have my own report on the beers from a pre-opening sample session, and an interview with founder Dan Gordon. Stay tuned.
- Contact Colin Burch - the Beerman - at beerpour@yahoo.com.