New Beer Friday, Steve's Desk Edition (January 12)

"Office Space"

Preamble by Steve Siciliano

Back when we were in the process of expanding Siciliano’s homebrew section, my wife Barb and our GM Sarah Derylo floated the idea of moving my desk into the store’s dingy basement. They maintained that the roughly twelve square feet of space that essentially serves as my office could be better utilized to display products, but I knew that was just a ruse. The two neat freaks thought it would be better if that perpetually disorderly corner of the store was hidden from public view.

Now, I’m the first to admit that I’m a bit of a slob. If Barb leaves town for a few days it takes me about ten minutes to mess up the house. My storage shed at home is a catastrophe, the work bench in the garage at the cottage is a disaster and that corner of the store is in a constant state of disarray. I don’t usually win when Barb and Sarah gang up on me but there was no way I was going to let them banish me and my old wooden desk to the bowels of the basement.

I like my desk where it is because it allows me to keep a finger on the pulse of the store while I’m doing paperwork, answering emails, writing blog posts and working on homebrew competitions, homebrew parties and Big Brew days. If help is needed up at the sales counter I’m able to be there in seconds. When someone needs assistance in the humidor, the homebrew area and the wine room, I’m just a few steps away. I’m able to see when the staff needs help hauling carboys, cases of bottles and bags of grain out of the warehouse. I keep a folding metal chair around for when sales reps and customers want to hang out and chat.

A few days ago I did my annual January cleanup of my corner. I trashed a year’s worth of old price sheets and catalogs, windexed my computer monitor and wiped the grime off the desk and keyboard. I tidied up my bookcase and threw an old jar of peanut butter away. When I was done I sat back and resolved that this would be the year that I would keep my office space clean and orderly. If I’m lucky it might stay that way until the second week of February.

New and Returning Beer

• B. Nektar Wildberry Pyment, $18.49/750ml - "In honor of B. Nektar's 10 year anniversary, we've decided to throwback to our first years in business and revive an original fan favorite. Thank you to all of our amazing patrons, and believers in all the weird things we love to share. We couldn't have done it without you. Cheers! Fermented with orange blossom honey and grape juice with natural wild berry flavors added. Every bit as delightful as it was the first time. Still pairs well with any dish and also makes a great sangria" (source).
• Bell's Hopslam, $3.09/12oz - "Starting with six different hop varietals added to the brew kettle & culminating with a massive dry-hop addition of Simcoe hops, Bell's Hopslam Ale possesses the most complex hopping schedule in the Bell's repertoire" (source).
• Big Lake Barrel Aged Chinook, $16.19/22oz - "Belgian-style Strong Dark Ale" (source).
• Breckenridge Twenty Five Imperial Vanilla Porter, $16.79/750ml - "Twenty Five is a special-release beer celebrating 25 years of craftsmanship from Breckenridge Brewery. The recipe starts with an imperial version of our popular Vanilla Porter, resulting in more prominent flavors and stronger alcohol. We then let the beer relax in Barbados rum barrels. In each barrel, we added incredibly rare, fresh, wet, vanilla beans from the Veracruz region of Mexico.  These beans come from small family farms - are hand pollinated and hand picked" (source).
• Jolly Pumpkin Bam di Castagna, $5.89/375ml - "A fall inspired version of Bam Bière - a richer, fuller recipe to start and of course we added a lot of chestnuts to the mash as well! Rich auburn, gently tart, notes of earthy chestnuts, flavors of cashew, taro, traces of autumn smoke and a slightly orange juiciness in the finish" (source).
• Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shutdown Ale, $2.09/12oz - "Our malty and rich beer with a snappy hop finish truly defies style…Imperial Mild?...Uber ESB?... We do know for sure that it is Unforgiven and Unrepentant" (source).
• Maui Imperial Coconut Porter, $22.69/750ml - "A deeper, more intense version of MBC’s flagship Coconut Hiwa Porter, Imperial Coconut Porter is brewed with hand toasted coconut, and subtle hints of cacao and coffee. The rich, slightly sweet and malty ale utilizes seven different malts, including black and chocolate, as well as raw and toasted coconut. It pours with a dark tan head and drinks with a silky smooth, yet warming finish" (source).
• Revolution A Little Crazy, $1.99/12oz - "A Pilsner malt base provides a nice toasty flavor with hints of caramel and enough fermentable sugar to make this a rather substantial beer. The Belgian-Style Pale Ale is brewed with Magnum, Cascade and Citra hops in the brewhouse and then dryhopped with a blend of Citra and Cascade. This drives home the aromas of fresh citrus rind to make this a very drinkable and extremely aromatic beer" (source).

Video of the Week | Hopslam

Available at Siciliano's while supplies last!

Cheers!