Dogfish Head's (new) 9,000 year-old brew

Photo from NPR

Thanks to a biomolecular archaeologist who studies "fermented beverages," Dogfish Head has revived a beer from the Neolithic period: Meet Chateau Jiahu.

Essentially, the archeologist used all sorts of advanced-sounding scientific methods to figure out what used to be inside the ancient pottery he came across at a burial site in China.  Dogfish Head then recreated the ancient brew (named after the burial site) using the same ingredients: Wildflower honey, Muscat grapes, barley malt, hawthorn fruit, and Chrysanthemum flowers.  Sounds lovely, doesn't it?

Interestingly, the archeologist (Dr. Patrick McGovern), points out that booze at this time was not just beer, wine, or mead but a mixture of all three.

This wouldn't be Dogfish Head's first foray into ancient brews.  NPR notes their Midas Touch brew was "teased from pottery found in King Midas' 2,700-year-old tomb."

 If you're intrigued, the next batch of Chateau Jiahu should be hitting the shelves end of August/early September, according to the Dogfish Head site.  It's packaged in wine-sized bottles for $13 a pop, and only 3,000 cases will be brewed this year.

Full story from NPR here.

Dr. Claw Update and Potential Rival

After joining the Brooklyn Urban Anglers Society on Facebook (which, by the way, is an open group) I immediately started getting messages from Dr. Claw with his phone number, ordering instructions, and updates on fresh batches; so you don't even have to go through the Facebook friendship approval process after all.  It's that easy...perhaps, too easy?  I was sort of looking forward to a formal acceptance (even if on Facebook). I wanted that feeling of being part of a (somewhat) exclusive group of lobster roll fans. I wanted to earn that roll, damnit.

Anyway, I guess I got what I was looking for and that's all that matters.

But much more interesting than my pointless complaining is the message I just received from a miffed Claw about a "covert grilled cheese dealership" that recently started up in the East Village.  Urban Daddy reports that the operation, called Bread.Butter.Cheese, uses a similar drug-dealer inspired system--and Claw quickly noted he was not credited where credit was apparently due. Also absent was the credit to drug dealers.

(Click to enlarge)

Dr. Claw quickly retracted this message (sort of), with another message, in which he said:

"Out of respect to my new cheese ball friend...I will be serving cheese on the lobster rolls tonight. That is until he and Urban Daddy pay respect to the Bug-Doctor! I'm just messin' but really where do people get off not giving each other a little credit?"

I can't help it, I find it amusing.

I'm just curious to see whether this trend continues.  Lobster rolls makes sense to me, but grilled cheese? Sure, I love it--and the pictures do look tempting--but it's literally one of the easiest/cheapest sandwiches you can make. 

To be fair, Bread.Butter.Cheese does offer more than the standard Kraft on Wonder Bread (gross).  Recent daily specials include "Muenster on pullman wheat with heirloom tomato slices," "Raclette and honey drizzle on sourdough grilled in chile butter" and "Macaroni and cheese topped with bacon and american cheese" (which pretty much sums up everything that's wrong with America), but I'm not nearly as intrigued by this operation.  When it comes down to it, I can make any of these sandwiches in my own kitchen.  Will I ever attempt to kill and clean a lobster? Not after reading these seriously disturbing instructions.