Round up all the collaborators…oh wait! Sometimes collaboration is a good thing.
I mentioned taking the R5 down to center city yesterday afternoon in an earlier post. That was because Alan Shapiro of SBS-Imports had an invitation-only preview of the beers he will be introducing in the Philadelphia market any day now. The event, with only a couple of us press-type hangers-on present but with lots and lots of the Usual Suspect bar and restaurant owners, beer retailers and other power broker types, was held in the Back Bar at Monk’s.
Alan actually sent our samples of six of his beer late last summer and I wrote about some of them here. Go read (Alan says my comments on Signature Ale are his favorite ever). Others in that original package which I thought I also had commented on but which comments I cannot find at this time were Le Grande Blanche (Imperial White Ale), Zoetzuur Flemish Ale and Reinaert Wild Flemish Ale. He considers the latter to be the centerpiece of his DeProef Brewmaster’s Collection, which currently consists of all six and one I’m about to mention in the very next sentence.
Signature Ale was a collaboration between Tomme Arthur of Port Brewing and DeProef’s Dirk Naudt (we had the second release of that last night) and the new Les Deux Brasseurs is one between Naudt and Allegash head brewer Jason Perkins. This one is a golden ale made with two different Brett strains, very fruity and herbal and easy drinking. The way these collaborations work, the U.S. brewer goes over to Belgium to do the initial batch with Dirk and then, if the U.S. guy agrees, second and future batches are done by Dirk alone. Scheduled for 2009 one: Vinnie Cilurzo. Why am I not surprised?
All the beers, plus three different Aspall Suffolk Cyders which SBS-Importers is also bringing to the US (the Dry was my favorite and, neatly enough, had the highest score in the World Beer Championships thus affirming my good taste), were lined up on the bar for us to sample as we wished. Over to the side were two open bottles of Isabelle Proximus, the collaborative brew created by the U.S. Craft Brewing Dream Team, which I had never tasted. It wasn’t clear why they were there but the fact that at least part of the reason, their being opened and all, was to be drunk, so I quickly rectified my lack of experience. I mean, it isn’t like it’s gonna be easy to lay hands on this stuff. Gold in color, minimal head, funky to the max, some apple-y notes in there–this stuff is most good and apparently it will be available from the Tom Peters cellar for a good while (except of course for the BeerAdvocate guy who routinely posts that he can find any beer available at Monk’s at dozens of other places since he apparently won’t be in the neighborhood).
America’s Most Beloved Beer Writer (© Liquid Diet - the Blog, 2008 ) was among those who chose not to come and collaborate in all the fun, by the way, but he had arranged a clandestine sitdown with Alan the day before, I was told. With PLCB hit teams out there looking to earn serious change for bringing him down, he is surely entitled to be cautious about where and when he appears in public, I acknowledge, but I also can’t help but think that the hordes of angry former Seen Through My…um…Glass fans who are also looking for a piece of him for not yet wiping said PLCB from the face of the earth as promised might have something to do with his newfound shyness as well. Then there are all the fund-raising questions and the rumored indictments of former closer associates…
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