BetterBeerBlog

Ahhh… Spring! The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming and the days are getting longer. It’s a time when the earth wakes up from its wintertime slumber and life begins anew. As with many of the other seasons, brewers are now heralding the arrival of Spring with Spring seasonals. While Sierra Nevada rings in the spring with its aptly titled Early Spring Beer, or ESB, many brewers also make witbiers. Inspired by a hallway conversation with a co-worker last week, I will be reviewing a number of witbiers for this week’s Beer in Review.

The witbier style has seen a sudden resurgence in popularity. A 400 year old beer style, witbiers were extinct for a number of years before Pierre Celis revived the style in the 1950s. According to the BJCP, the witbier style is

A refreshing, elegant, tasty, moderate-strength wheat-based ale.

While accurately summing up the style in general, we can further expand on what to expect. A witbier is a spiced, Belgian wheat ale. Here’s what the BJCP has to say about the style’s flavor:

Pleasant sweetness (often with a honey and/or vanilla character) and a zesty, orange-citrusy fruitiness. Refreshingly crisp with a dry, often tart, finish. Can have a low wheat flavor. Optionally has a very light lactic-tasting sourness. Herbal-spicy flavors, which may include coriander and other spices, are common should be subtle and balanced, not overpowering. A spicy-earthy hop flavor is low to none, and if noticeable, never gets in the way of the spices. Hop bitterness is low to medium-low (as with a Hefeweizen), and doesn’t interfere with refreshing flavors of fruit and spice, nor does it persist into the finish. Bitterness from orange pith should not be present. Vegetal, celery-like, ham-like, or soapy flavors are inappropriate. No diacetyl.

With that in mind, let’s go ahead and start the reviews.

Hoegaarden, Brasserie Hoegaarden, 4.9% ABV

Hoegaarden pours out a clear, pale straw color with a white head. The aroma is comprised of a slightly sweet wheat malt component, fresh citrus notes, a low yeasty pepperiness with corriander undertones and a very, very slight tartness. No discernable hop aroma. Hoegaarden has a medium-low spicy/peppery aspect in the flavor that is supported by a low, wheat malt sweetness. There is a low level of spice/herb quality that is from the corriander that persists into the finish. Very, very low hop flavor. Hoegaarden is medium-low bodied and effervescent in it’s carbonation.

Pronounced “who-garden”, this beer is considered the original Witbier. An extinct style, milkman turned brewer Pierre Celis revived the style in his hay loft. As the popularity of the beer increased, Pierre increased his production to match. Eventually Pierre sold his brewery in 1997 to InBev. He opened up Celis Brewery in Austin, Texas that was managed by his daughter Christine.

Hoegaarden, for a time, was considered the quintessential witbier and set the standard for others to follow. As it stands against the BJCP standard, the Hoegaarden lacks some of the subtlties of honey/vanilla in the malt while the spices are toned down some. The beer is surprisingly clear as the style is noted for its cloudy appearance. If you believe what is being said, the recipe has been changed slightly from it’s original. I’d love to have tasted what the original was like. I am still a fan of this beer but not as much as before.

Wittekerke, Brouwerij Bavik, 5.0% ABV

Wittekerke is named after a fictitious, Flemish town. “Witte” is synonomous with “white” while “kerke” means “church”. Brouwerij Bavik used to brew its own witbier, named Bavik Wit, but has since decided to change that beer’s name to Wittekerke, to correspond with a Belgian sit-com of the same name. The 6-pack I picked up from BevMo was the last one on the shelves and had a light coating of dust. I am not holding my breath regarding the quality of this beer but I hope I will be pleasantly surprised.

Wittekerke has an interesting and complex aroma. The wheat malt exhibits a sweetness that is reminiscent of honey and biscuits while the yeasty spice character is minimized, as is the spiced/herbal notes and citrus character. Wittekerke pours out a cloudy, dull gold in color with a white head and chunks of yeast in suspension. This beer was definitely sitting around for a while as there’s still a fair amount of yeast still on the bottom of the bottle, even after agitation. As the beer warms up a bit, the citrus comes through more along with a subtle corriander note. Wittekerke’s flavor is mostly sweet, wheat malt with touches of honey. The citrus aspect of the flavor is low while the corriander is subdued. Hop flavor and bitterness is very low. This beer is low/medium-low in body with high carbonation and has a slight acidity in the finish that leaves my teeth squeaky clean.

While I am generally disappointed by the beer named after a sit-com, it does improve slightly as it warms up. Some of the flavors and characteristics I lamented was missing, citrus and corriander, begin to arrive at the dance just at the right time. Even then, they are not in enough proportions to balance. I will give this beer a second chance though as the 6-pack I did get was pretty old. Hopefully a fresher beer will exhibit better characteristics.

Blanche de Chambly, Unibroue, 5.0% ABV

Blanche de Chambly literally translates to “Chambly White” and is brewed by Unibroue out of Quebec Canada. This particular beer was first brewed in 1992 and is brewed with “spices and natural aromatics are added, along with a light hopping”. This beer is pretty decorated as well winning several golds and one silver.

Blanche de Chambly (Blanche) pours out a slightly hazy gold color with a lasting, moussey white. Blanche has a fairly clean aroma. A medium-low spicy yeasty aroma is dominant and supported by low levels of sweet malt aroma, citrus character and corriander spice notes. Luckily for me, Blanche’s flavor is more than what the aroma leads me to believe. For the style, Blanche is fairly balanced with nearly equal proportions of yeast-derived spicy goodness, sweet wheat malt character and citrus character supported by a herbal/corriander quality. After agitating the dregs of the bottle further and adding it to the beer, Blanche suddenly has the cloudy look indicative of the style. This beer is medium-low in body with high carbonation.

Blanche is a decent example of the witbier style. I was intially disappointed with the aroma but as the beer warms up, it gets a little more complex in character exhibiting those yeast-derived characters I found initially missing. I think swirling the dregs around and adding it to my sample helped out a bit.

Allagash White, Allagash, 5.2% ABV

Allagash Brewery got their start in 1995 in Portland, Maine. Owner/brewer Rob Tod is quietly making some exceptional Belgian-style beers over on the East Coast. Rob is one of the “brett pack” along with Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River), Tomme Arthur (Port Brewing/Lost Abbey), Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head) and Adam Avery (Avery). They acquired that nickname through their use of and experiementation with brettanomyces and other micrio biota. Allagash White is Allagash Brewery’s interpretation of the witbier style. Let’s see how their offering stands up.

White initially pours out a slightly hazy dark straw/gold color with a big, meringue-like, white head. I swirled the bottle of White to agitate the yeast that had settled at the bottom and poured that into the glass. The color then turned into a cloudy dull gold in color. White has a great aroma that is comprised of yeast-derived spiciness, citrus esters, a slight spiced/herbal quality. Underneath it all is a sweet, wheat malt aroma that has hints of biscuit and honey. The flavor of White is a mixture of sweet, wheat malt balanced with a slight peppery Belgian phenolic quality and held together by slight citrus and spice flavors. White is also the first beer where I’ve noticed some hop bitterness of a low/medium-low level. Allagash White is low/medium-low in body with high, effervescent carbonation.

I’m enjoying Allagash White. It’s a great blend of all the witbier hallmarks of flavor and aroma but has a good level of Belgian yeasty phenolic character. The proprietary spice mix is noticeable but not overbearing while the hop bitterness is enough to balance the sweetness from the wheat malt.

Blue Moon, Blue Moon Brewery (aka Coors), 5.4% ABV

Contrary to the label, Blue Moon is not brewed by Blue Moon Brewing Company but by Molson Coors Brewing Company. Originally developed by brewmaster Keith Villa at the Sandlot Brewery located on-site at Coors Field. I appreciate that Coors is allowing the Sandlot Brewery to experiment and develop the beers they want to brew. It shows that event though they’re big, they still have some apprecation for craft ales.
Blue Moon pours out a hazy, dull gold color with a short lasting white head. Blue Moon has an interesting aroma. There’s a more noticeable orange/citrus aroma, a slight sulfury yeast note, some other fruit esters that reminds me of melons, and a low level what character. The flavor of Blue Moon is primarily wheat (like Wheaties) in nature, with slight orange-citrus flavors. Blue Moon is medium-low/medium in body with high carbonation.

Out of all the beers I’ve tried so far, Blue Moon is the most commercially available. It’s not a bad tasting witbier but I think that it is the most different from the rest I’ve tried so far. It really emphasizes the wheat aspects of the style as well as the orange peel. Now that I think about it, it tastes kinda like wort only not as sweet. Maybe that’s why I don’t like it, it seems unfinished.

20 Anniversary Wit, Deschutes, 5.5% ABV

This beer wasn’t supposed to be on the list for tonight. I happened to be cataloging the beers I have and I ran across this one. Truth be told, I don’t even remember where I picked it up but it’s a welcome addition to tonight’s flight of witbiers.

According to the labels, this beer is celebrates 20 years of brewing for Deschutes. To honor the event, they brewed this witbier with Curacao orange peel, coriander and grains of paradise. Released under their Bond Street label, this beer was developed and tested in the original Deschutes Brewery and Public House in Bend, Oregon.

Anniversary pours out a remarkably clear light gold/dark straw color with a short lasting white head. Agitating the yeast at the bottom of the bottle and adding that beer into my already poured glass clouds up the beer very slightly. It’s kinda weird for me to write this but the initial aroma I get off of Anniversary is ash tray. There’s a slight citrus character to the aroma and I’m also picking up some of the sweet, wheat malt character of the beer. The initial flavor of the beer is that of a medium-low, peppery phenolic character followed by a slight citrus note with the various spices showing up towards the end and lasting into the finish. Hop bitterness is low as is with the flavor. This beer is medium-low in body with high carbonation and a slight tartness in the finish.

As I let the beer warm up some, the wheat malt makes a more robust appearance while the citrus notes and Belgian peppery phenolics sort of tone down some. Anniversary is the most spicy/herbal of all the witbiers I’ve had tonight. It’s not necessarily a good or bad thing, it just is. As I pour in the last of the dregs, Anniversary suddenly has the cloudy look typical for the witbier style while the yeast-derived flavors become more prominent again.

Overall

This was an interesting round of Beers in Review. At the most I planned to review only about 3 beers tonight but I ended up finding the Deschutes 20th Anniversay Ale in the garage along with the the Hoegaarden. It was interesting to see how each brewery treated the same style. Overall, most of the witbiers I tried tonight exhibited the same characteristics common for the style, the difference lie in the balance between each of the key components for the style. Here’s how I rate the beers:

1. Allagash White
2. Blanche de Chambly
3. Deschutes 20th Anniversay Wit
4. Hoegaarden
5. Wittekerke
6. Blue Moon

I felt Allagash White had the best balance between all the key characteristics of the style while Blue Moon had the worst balance, even excluding some aspects. I wish I had a fresh bottle of Wittekerke but I got what I got.

All-in-all, this was an interesting exercise in exploring the witbier style. This is the first time I’ve reviewed beers from a single style versus beers from a particular company. Shoot me an email or leave a comment and let me know what you think is more interesting.

With my wife out of town on a “girl’s road trip”, I wondered what I would do for the 4 days she’d be away. I don’t mind being by myself but when you have nothing planned, it’s the boredom that gets you. I typed out a few emails, clicked away a few texts and made a few phone calls to see if I could get a “guy’s night out” sort of deal to go through but alas, it was almost not to be. Thankfully I got one taker and so we went, rolling 2 deep.

Sonoma Chicken Coop, 200 East Campbell Avenue, Campbell, CA

When Sonoma Chicken Coop first opened it doors in downtown San Jose, it was an immediate hit. Their menu boldly advertised no dish to be over $10 and, from what I remember, the most expensive dish weighed in at $9.99. The food was good and inexpensive. For those who have never been to Chicken Coop, they basically specialize in simple Italian dishes, rotisserie and a few BBQ items. You order your food from the counter and pick it up when it’s ready. There are no waitstaff, just busboys. Despite the self-service, Chicken Coop took off. So much so they now have 4 locations. San Jose was the original but I was at the Campbell location because that’s where the brewery is.

The Campbell location of Sonoma Chicken Coop is quite storied and related to Firehouse Brewery & Grille in Sunnyvale. Before Firehouse, there was Stoddard’s Brewery & Eatery. Firehouse brewmaster Steve Donohue, then working for Stoddards, recalls how the placed was packed. Business was very good and the owners decided to expand and build another brewery in Campbell. Steve designs the brewhouse and up opens Stoddards in Campbell. For a variety of reasons the Campbell location doesn’t do well. Ownership ends up selling it and it then becomes Campbell Brewing Company. Campbell Brewing Company folds after some time and it becomes Sonoma Chicken Coop.

The Campbell location is located right in the heart of downtown Campbell on it’s main strip, Campbell Avenue. The neighborhood has undergone a mild gentrification with the addition of other restaurants, bars and shops. It used to be a quiet and quaint downtown but it is slowly turning into something a bit livelier. When I arrived, the sidewalks were alive with people getting their dinners and enoying a warm and sunny California evening.

I walk into Sonoma Chicken Coop and it is packed. Upon entering into the main doorway you will find yourself in receiving space. If you go right, you will see the main dining area with the counter to order your food at the very back. To your left is the bar area. A band is setting up to play and the place is packed. There are a number of flatscreen TVs hanging from the walls and they all have one college basketball game or another. I find my buddy at the end of the bar, he’s already started on his first beer.

Sonoma Chicken Coop has about 6 beers on tap: a kölsch, hefeweizen, pale ale, brown ale, an ESB and their seasonal. This time of year, their seasonal is a called “Liam’s Irish Red Ale”. My buddy’s already drinking a brown ale and I go ahead an order the Irish Red Ale to start off.

Liam’s Irish Red Ale, Sonoma Chicken Coop

Liam’s pours out a clear, dark brown with reddish hues and a thin, white head. The aroma is malty with a slight nutty quality and low roast notes. Liams is malty sweet with an initial nutty character that is supported by a light roast component and balanced by a medium hop bitterness that lasts slightly into the finish but is not harsh. The beer is medium bodied with a matching carbonation level. I’m finding it is slightly dry and has a slight tannic astrigency. I am enjoying this beer immensely. The color is fantastic and what I love most about this beer is that it is carbonated and not on nitrogen, like so many other Irish beers.

I still remember the first time I tried a Sonoma Chicken Coop beer. I was there with a couple of other friends and I ordered the pale ale. I thought the bartender made a mistake as the beer didn’t taste like a pale ale. It was thin bodied and the flavor balance was decidedly malty. Where were the hops? I ordered the pale ale again to make sure the bartender poured from the correct tap and she did. I tried the beer again and it was exactly the same as my first beer. That’s when I stopped driking their beers.

Fast forward a few years later and I’m enjoying their beers. Their current brewmaster is Mike Barker and he’s been brewing for about 10 years or so. He started off brewing at Big Trees Brewing Company in 1997 (closed in 2001). After that he worked for Rock Bottom Brewery at their Chicago, Arlington and Campbell locations, followed by a stint at El Toro Brewing Company before settling down at Sonoma Chicken Coop. His signature style is his kölsch which he’s won multiple awards for.

ESB, Sonoma Chicken Coop

The next beer I try is their ESB. The ESB pour out a clear, brown color with ruby hues and amber highlights with an off-white head. When compared to the Liam’s Irish Red, the ESB seems a little lighter brown in color, not as red but with amber highlights. The ESB is also nutty, malty sweet and with a hop bitterness that is medium/medium-high. This is a medium bodied beer with medium-high carbonation. As I let the beer warm up some, I notice a powdery chocolate quality in the aroma.

The ESB seemed to be a little high on the hop bitterness. As a style it should be fairly balanced but a slight nod should be given towards hop flavor and bitterness. In any event, I thought it was a decent beer and I was enjoying it. When I compare it to the Liam’s, I enjoyed the Liam’s more.

While Sonoma Chicken Coop is primarily a self-service sort of place, you can order food at the bar and they’ll bring it out to you. Having had only a cup of soup that day, I order the calamari and the shrimp spaghettini. I have always enjoyed Chicken’s Coops calamari. They’re light, quick-fried I believe and served with a horseradish/marinara dipping sauce. My shrimp spaghettini is good but nothing too exciting. It had a slight bit of spicy heat while the shrimp seemed a tad bit overdone and the pasta slightly soft, not at all “al dente”. Still, I couldn’t complain because I killed everything on my plate. I contemplated ordering another beer but my buddy wanted to head out so we called it day at Sonoma Chicken Coop.

All together, the Campbell location of Sonoma Chicken Coop is a good place to grab a beer. While the food is no longer sub-$10, it is still reasonable and good. Their beers are a vast improvement over the first time I tried them and the crowd seemed to mainly be comprised of friendly locals. I will definitely be visiting this brewpub again.

JJ’s Blues, 3439 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Santa Clara, CA

The live band that played at Sonoma Chicken Coop specialized in classic rock. After we left by buddy was in the mood to catch a live band but had no idea where to go. I suggested we hit up JJs Blues in Santa Clara and off we went.

JJs Blues is a tiny bar that specializes in live blues performances. It is discreetly tucked away in a stripmall next to an Army surplus store and an equally small pizzeria. Despite having eaten at the pizzeria (which is right next door to JJs) he has never been to or seen JJs before.

The two of us walk in and are greeted by the door girl who informs us there will be a $10 cover to see the band play. JJs is a dive bar. It is much longer than it is wide. The stage is up front where they have tall tables with barstools oriented toward the stage and even a little room for a dance floor. The bar is in the phycial center of the place and we grab a seat close to it. In the back is a pool table and a side room with couple of couches and music equipement strewn about. In the very back is the restrooms. The one thing you’ll notice about JJ’s is that there’s a lot of history up on them walls. A lot of people have come through to play at JJ’s and a lot of their photos are up on the walls. I’m amazed at how, despite appearances, significant JJ’s is with regards to the blues scene.

Pabst Blue Ribbon, Pabst Brewing Company

As you can imagine with any dive bar, the beer selection isn’t going to be very good. I decide to “slum” it that night and order a PBR. I didn’t take a photo of this beer for a number of reasons, the biggest being that everyone already knows what this beer looks like. PBR is a brilliantly clear, pale yellow beer with a white head. There is very little aroma, neither hops nor malt dominate. The flavor is very, very subtle. I get faint whispers of malty sweetness and no hop bitterness to speak of. This is a light bodied beer with high carbonation. It takes me a while to put this one away because it’s tastes a lot like tonic water only less good.

John Garcia is the blues artist performing that night and as soon as he plugs in he is tearing it up. The blues he is playing is more inline with traditional blues but there are a few songs that rock, some are funky while others are straight, depressing blues. I am in awe at his skill on the guitar and the range of styles he’s able to play. For many reasons, my buddy is really feeling the music. It’s touching him at his core and he comments that he’s not sure why. I tell him it’s because he just broke up with his lady and he’s feeling the blues.

MGD, Miller Brewing Company

Once again, no picture because you all know what this beer looks like. It’s a brilliantly clear, pale yellow beer with a white head. The aroma shows slight malt sweetness with an equal corn component and no noticeable hops. The flavor is much of the same, slightly malty sweet with a noticeable corn flavor and almost no discernable hops on the palette. This beer is also light in body and highly carbonated.

Unlike the PBR from before, I am enjoing the MGD more. I can actually taste something in this beer unlike the PBR. When I got back, I received a tweet from one of my followers who disagreed with me and said he perfers the PBR instead. Personally speaking, these are both beer styles I don’t normally like drinking but I prefer the MGD simply because there’s some emotional attachment to the beer. I used to drink MGDs a lot and there are a lot of good times associated with that beer, so I’ll always have a soft spot for that beer.

If you’re looking for a great place to catch the blues, JJ’s Blues in Santa Clara is a tough place to beat. It’s real divey so don’t expect a great selection of beers. Still, if you’re going to JJ’s, chances are you couldn’t give two-shits about the beer as it’s all about the blues.

In this edition of Hopinions, Mario and I take on St. Patrick’s Day, green beer and the thought that I’m growing old, grumpy and a grinch.

From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog

For St. Patrick’s Day this year, I decided to do a write up of Irish beers. While I mainly focused on the Dry, Irish Stout style of beers, you asked me why I didn’t include some Irish Reds, a Black and Tan or even *shudder* green beer. I’ll give you the Irish Reds and Black and Tan but green beer? Green. Beer. C’mon! Really? I can’t do it. From a mental standpoint, I get it. It’s just a couple of drops of food coloring at the most into some light colored beer. You’re trying to be festive, I get that. I get that the change in the beer’s flavor, if any, will be nearly undetectable. I understand all of this but I just can’t do it. I can’t drink green beer. I won’t drink green beer. Here’s why.

I think green beer is an affront to good beer culture. Green beer is just some marketing hack to try and get more people to buy bad beer tinted green and sold under the auspices of “being festive”. St. Patrick’s Day has been “Americanized” to the point where it’s a bare shadow of it’s true meaning and traditions. St. Patrick’s day used to be a religious holiday native to Ireland and the Roman Catholic church. I can’t even fault America for ruining this holiday as Ireland has turned it into one giant “Ireland informercial” themselves. Green wasn’t even the original color associated with the holiday either. St. Patrick, the guy for whom the entire holiday was named after, has a shade of blue named specifically for him. If you were going to color a beer for St. Patrick’s Day, turn it blue. Go for historical accuracy for crying out loud.

To a much larger extent, I think green beer promotes alcohol abuse and binge drinking. Miami University has had a Green Beer Day since 1952 to kick off their Spring Break, which may help to explain the popularity of the green-tinting custom. Taking a cursory glance at the official Green Beer Day website, you’ll see it’s nothing more than an online store to sell trinkets, tchotske’s and other garbage. It would seem that St. Patrick’s Day has evolved from being a relgious holiday to a free-for-all excuse to drink unresponsibly. I cannot condone or support that.

Craft beer faces a steep uphill battle for respectibility. Beer in general, has an uphill climb for respectibility. Of all the popular alcoholic beverages, beer still has image issues. Wine is upscale and sophisticated. Distilled spirits are an indulgence that grows finer (and more expensive) with age while cocktails are hip, trendy and exudes youthful exhuberance. Beer? Keg stands, binge drinking and beer bellies. Granted, things are changing. Beer is starting to gain mainstream traction as a beverage unto itself able to hold it’s own in the culinary world. It’s not the macro beers that are leading the charge but craft beers. The truth of the matter is that while you and I are able to differenciate the between good craft beer from less than desireable macro lagers, the general public doesn’t know or care. Beer is beer. Green beer is beer, regardless if it’s green-tinted Budweiser or green-tinted Beatification.

If you really wanted to be festive for St. Patrick’s Day with your beer, brew somthing creative. The Holiday Season sees an influx of higher alcohol beers that trend toward malt-forward flavors but you’ll also see more than your fair share of spiced beers. Fall will usually bring an onslaught of Märzen/Oktoberfest beers as well as pumpkin beers. Spring on the other hand will bring with it Maibocks and Witbiers. If you’re going to be festive with beer, do it by brewing up something creative and experimental, not with food coloring.

From: Mario at Brewed For Thought

I think you’re looking at beer in terms of green and white, but ignoring the shades of green where most of us live.

But before I get into that, I wanted to set the record straight.  I never asked why you didn’t include green beer.  Here’s what I said:

As far as green beer, I see nothing wrong with it. It’s not the green to avoid, it’s the crappy beer. All the green comes from a drop of food coloring in a pint (or pitcher) of beer. Use good beer, get good green beer. Have some fun!

You left out a huge part of Irish beer being everything non-stout. Sure, we think of Guinness when we think of Irish beer, but they drink lager and ale as much as anyone. What about Harp? Smithwicks? How about an attempt at a black and tan, or better yet, a black and green?

As far as nitrogen, the only thing I’ve seen it add is a big pillowy head with a creamy texture.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I stand by my opinion of drinking green beer.  Have fun.  Let’s not take ourselves so seriously that we can’t put a drop of food coloring into a a pint of beer once a year and just have fun.

Yeah, St. Patrick’s day is a bastardization of the original intent of the holiday, but we live in America.  Name one holiday that lives up to the original intent?  St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo and Mardis Gras are nothing more than excuses to drink for the masses.  Memorial Day and Labor Day mean time to break out the BBQ for the unofficial beginning and end of summer.  Christmas is about presents, Thanksgiving is about turkey, and all the others are extra days off where we can go buy furniture, cars or whatever else our capitalist hearts desire.  But this has nothing to do with beer.

What does have to do with beer is the idea that we have to for some reason seperate fun and beer in the name of better drinking. You said wine is upscale and sophisticated; I’ll call it stuffy.  As fine an indulgence as spirits can be, that doesn’t make pounding Irish Car Bombs on St. Patrick’s Day any more refined than drinking a pint of green beer.

I say spike that pint of beer with a drop of food coloring, or if that drives you crazy, toss a fresh cone or two of hops into the pint, that will take care of your green.  Preferably, add those things to a quality beer, brewed locally and not a mass marketed macro swill.  If St. Patrick’s Day were such an afront to quality beer I would suspect brewpubs would close or discourage any kind of St. Patrick’s Day celebration, but they don’t.  They embrace the day.

Rather than agrue about the merits of the holiday, how about some choices for St. Patricks Days to come?  If we had to do it all over again tomorrow, what are you drinking for the greenest of green days?

From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog

I’ll cede the fact that nothing here lives up to its original intent any more. Traditions change as the times change and I’m sure 50 years from now Christmas will be celebrated much differently. Maybe PETA will get their way and we’ll all be having Tofurkey for Thanksgiving (man, I hope not. I love me some dead animal). Don’t even get me started Cinco de Mayo. Of all the holidays, this is one I hate the most. In fact, when Cinco de Mayo comes around, we can get to talking about that thing I brought up two weeks ago. I think it definitely warrants some mention if not a discussion.

That being said, the only reasons bars and brewpubs embrace St. Patrick’s Day celebration is for another kind of green: money. This is a huge cash cow for bars, breweries and brewpubs. From a business owner’s perspective, I’d be an idiot to shut down my bar during St. Patrick’s Day (or Cinco de Mayo). My staff would lead a coup d’état for taking away one of their most lucrative nights of work. Let’s just call St. Patrick’s Day for what it is: an excuse to party for the general public and an early Christmas for bar, brewery and brewpub owners.

If St. Patrick’s Day were tomorrow, you can bet your bottom dollar I’m still not drinking green beer. I won’t begrudge the person next to me if they did because it’s a personal choice. Whatever. I don’t agree but hey, that’s your greenback leaving your wallet, not mine. Knowing what I know now, if St. Patrick’s day were tomorrow, I’d celebrate by wearing blue (definitely looking to get pinched, whoo-haa!). I’d still eat corned beef and cabbage (had some last night, actually) and I’d still end up drinking a dry Irish Stout or two, maybe an Irish Red Ale for variety. If I really wanted to celebrate, I’d have a brewday where I make my own Dry, Irish Stout with a box of Lucky Charms thrown into the boil for good luck.

The great thing about tradition is that they don’t have to stay the same, they evolve and change. We can evolve and change with respects to how we go about celebrating things. Instead of waiting for change to happen, we can be the catalyst, we can lead by example, we can be the agents of change. I will no doubt try and develop new traditions for St. Patricks Day that involve moderate drinking, wearing green and a focus on other Irish dishes other than corned beef and cabbage. Hell, I might even give Tofukey a try a week before Thanksgiving this year. Green beer? No thanks, that’s all you.

On a different tangent altogether, one I felt is worth mentioning, today is the late Bill Brand’s birthday. His loss is still being felt in the Bay Area beer scene and I know the Bistro is having a toast tonight to celebrate. Here’s to you, Bill!

From: Mario at Brewed For Thought

Has anyone called St.Patrick’s Day anything more than an excuse to get party for the general public?  The same can be said for Cinco De Mayo, but I’ll still cook up some tasty food for any of my friends who are hungry.

Back to the issue of beer (that is what we’re supposed to be talking about, right?), I think you’re focusing too much on the green and not the beer.  There are tons of beers out there that celebrate Ireland that make for wonderful green or naturally colored beverage for St. Patrick’s Day.  Rogue’s Kell’s Irish Style Lager is a tasty brew.  There are also the brews from Moylan’s in Novato, their Dragoon’s Irish Stout is an obvious choice, but many of their beers are in the Irish style.  The point is, there’s plenty of beer to drink for St Patrick’s Day, and it doesn’t have to be a boring Dry Irish Stout that we avoid 364 days of the year.

And thanks for mentioning Bill.  I won’t be able to make Hayward but I will be toasting to him, tat’s for sure.

I was supposed to go to Beer School tonight. Didn’t happen for a number of reasons. Sammy needed to get some stuff taken care of before her Pacific Northwest roadtrip and my back was acting up again. The plan for Beer School tonight was to go through smoked, wood-aged, fruit, spiced/herb/vegetal, and specialty beers as well as some doctored beers and closing with a shortened practice exam. Exciting, I know. I’ll just have to go over these beers at another time.

Last night, I was able to judge a preliminary round of beers for the 2009 World Cup homebrew competition. We were originally were supposed to judge this round at BJCP Grand Master 2 judge John Watson’s place but I was able to convince Steve from Firehouse Brewery in Sunnyvale to let us judge there. Some of the judges who showed up had never been to Firehouse in the past and they got a treat when Steve game them a quick tour of his brewery.

Since this was a last minute thing, not too many judges showed up. It happens. Altogether there were 6 of us divided up into two groups of 3. Each group was given a flight of 8 beers to judge. In many competitions, there will be a number of judges available as well as stewards to assist with the flow of the competition. With such a low turnout, we ended up having to get the entries ourselves. It’s tragic, I know.

Actually, the number of judges who showed up was pretty low. Usually John (who’d be the event organizer) would be responsible for handling all the paperwork as well as stewarding for the handful of judges who do show up. He ended up judging. Firehouse brewmaster Steve ended up joining the second panel as well. Travis from www.sudsorduds.com, who showed up to help out in some capacity, ended up judging as well. To make sure everything was balanced John, Travis and I were on one panel while Steve (brewmaster), Steve (another judge) and Matthew were on the second panel.

For those new to beer judging, here’s how beer judging goes: we get a small sample of beer (about 3 oz or so) and we note how it looks, how it smells, how it tastes and how the mouthfeel is. The last category, named Overall Impression, is kind of a “catch all” for things that didn’t fit in the other categories. Personally, I use this category to list the ways the brewer can improve their beers. At least I try to anyway.

The category we judged last night was the Belgian Strong category. Normally this is a beer style that many judges are into, for good reason: Belgian Strong ales are wonderfully complex and tasty beers. Personally, I was looking forward to judging this round because of that reason. Also, I’ve always wanted to brew this style and getting to see how other homebrewers tackle these beer styles is interesting to me.

Unfortunately, the flight of beers I got didn’t have any standout examples. There were a few mistakes common to many of the samples I judged. In many cases. these beers lacked the malt complexity we were looking for in both the aroma and flavor. In many others, the color was incorrect as some weren’t dark enough while others were too dark for their respective styles. Lastly, carbonation and head retention were issues as well. Most samples were under carbonated and lacked a thick, moussey head that would leave a the trademarked “Belgian lace” on the glass edges. The other judging group had a few good examples that we were able to sample.

Whenever I tell people I’m a beer judge, an actual beer judge, people are always, “Awww man, that’s such a cool gig!”. While I think it is cool to be a beer judge, I have to tell people that it’s not all roses. For every good beer I get to taste there’s four, five, eight bad beers I have to get through. Sometimes we get perks, like being fed, while other times you get situations like last night which was a bare bones sort of affair. In any event, it doesn’t matter to me whether we have dozens of judges or half a dozen. It’s all about the beer and helping out fellow homebrewers.

In what is becoming a regular weekly occurance on this blog, Beer in Review is taking on New Belgium Brewing Company. Based out of Fort Collins, New Belgium is the result of one homebrewer’s bicycle tour through Belgium. Inspired by what he saw on his trip, Jeff Lebesch brought back with him a few ingredients (how’d he get that past customs?!) and an imagination brimming with recipes.

BetterBeerBlog had the opportunity to visit New Belgium in Fort Collins during our trip to GABF. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously. I found their brewery to be state of the art and environmentally progressive while their employees to be nothing short of warm and welcoming. To visit New Belgium Brewing is to be hugged by your hippy, always happy uncle and aunt who homebrew.

Some people I know aren’t fans of New Belgium, in particular, they hate Fat Tire. I remember having Fat Tire at a pool hall I used to visit and, as I recall, I found the beer to be vastly different than anything I had at the time. For a while, it was the only thing I drank. But things don’t stay the same. I grew to like other beers and Fat Tire became, jokingly, Flat Tire. The truth of the matter is that whatever you opinion is of New Belgium, Fat Tire has allowed New Belgium to go out an brew creative. It’s what has paid the bills and allowed some really interesting beers to leave Fort Collins (La Folie, anyone?). Tonight, I’ll be review 4 of New Belgium’s beers.

Mothership Wit, New Belgium, 4.8% ABV

Mothership Wit pours out a slightly hazy pale straw color with a small but lasting white head. The beer has a medium-low wheat malt aroma that has a citrusy component and a slight sweet malt character with trace spice notes. The initial flavor that hugs my tongue is that of a mild spice character, possibly a result of the yeast-derived phenolics and the spices. There’s a noticeable sweet, wheat malt component to the flavor with honey undertones. There is little to no hop flavor and almost no hop bitterness. In the finish, you have a slight and pleasant tartness. Mothership Wit is medium-lo/medium in body and effervescent with its carbonation.

Truth be told, I’ve had this beer before. In fact, the first time I had this beer was at last year’s Fairfax Brewfest. I liked it then and I ended up using it in one of our beer and food pairing events. Mothership Wit is an example of the Belgian Witbier style. When I compare Mothership Wit to the BJCP style guidelines for a witbier, I find that the beer compares well. The only thing I would knock this beer off for would be it’s appearance. In my interpretation of the style, I believe that witbiers should be cloudy while Mothership Wit is remarkably clear for the style. Mothership Wit is a bit more accessible than the more notable witbier, Hoegaarden, and hopefully you’ll give it a shot.

1554 (Enlightened Black Ale), New Belgium, 5.6% ABV

1554 pours out a very dark brown with ruby hues, amber highlights and an off-white head. It’s as clear as can be for a beer this dark. This beer has a deep roasty quality in the aroma reminiscent of black coffee, with dark chocolate undertones and hint of grainy tartness. No noticeable fruitiness or hop aroma. The deep roasty aroma prevalent in the aroma is the primary flavor of the beer and is supported by semi-sweet, dark chocolate undertones. The roasty character is not everbearing as in porters or stouts though. There is a medium-low bitterness that is reminiscent more of black coffee rather than hops. 1554 is surprisingly medium-low/medium in body with medium-high carbonation. Maybe it’s a combination of the roasty grain character and the carbonation but this beer slightly dry.

1554 is an interesting beer and has a storied history. First of all, this is technically a lager, not an ale as the beer is fermented using a light lager yeast. With the original recipe lost to a flood, New Belgium brewer Peter Bouckaert and researcher Phil Benstein flew over to Belgium to research and develop this beer’s recipe through trial, error and a lot of hard work. As I understand it, the name comes from the year of the recipe they found and worked with. From a BJCP standpoint, 1554 is an example of a Belgian Specialty ale. To explain this style would be fruitless. It’s basically a catch all for Belgian-style beers that don’t fit into the other Belgian categories. The first time I had this beer was at Rosy McCann’s in Santana Row. I liked this beer so much I ended up featuring it in one of our beer and food pairing events.

Mighty Arrow, New Belgium, 6.0% ABV

Might Arrow is New Belgium’s foray into the Pale Ale style of beer. I didn’t know what style to compare this beer to as there is a Belgian Pale Ale style but from reading on their website, this seems to be more of an American Pale Ale. The first time I tried this beer was at New Belgium. From what I wrote, this beer seemed to fit into the style but let’s see if my review today adds up to what I wrote before.

Mighty Arrow pours out an clear, amber/light copper color with an off-white head. The aroma has a refreshingly fresh pungent, piney and citrus hop character to it. The malt aroma definitely takes a back seat to the hop aroma and is more of an undertone than anything really obvious. Despite the big hop aroma, the beer isn’t overly bitter, about medium-level bitterness that is not harsh and lingers on the palette for a bit but isn’t clingy. The hop flavor is medium-high/high and has similar qualities to the aroma along with a slight fruity character. The beer is has a medium-low/medium malt sweetness that balances out the hop aspects of the beer. Might Arrow is medium bodied with medium-high carbonation and is smooth and easy drinking. Although I must say that there’s a slight astringency in this beer that reminds me of grapefruit juice. While I believe that there are other pale ales that I enjoy more, I am pleasantly surprised by this beer. I don’t remember this beer having this much character in Fort Collins. Then again we only had a small taster.

Frambozen, New Belgium, 6.5% ABV

Frambozen is one of New Belgium’s seasonal beers. In this case, Frambozen is a late fall/early winter beer. In fact, I picked up this beer with the rest of the winter warmers I tried a few weeks ago (that I still have plenty of. Anyone want to come by and help me finish these bad boys off?) Frambozen is a raspberry brown ale, and from a BJCP standpoint, would be entered in the specialty ale category. According to their website, New Belgium sends representatives to the Pacific Northwest where they pick raspberries and have them turned into pure juice to be used in fermentation.

Frambozen pours out a clear and deep burgundy in color with deep red hues and an off-white head. The aroma is decidedly raspberry in nature with a slight, sweet caramel malt character coming through underneath. The flavor of the beer is much like the aroma; big raspberry fruit component that dominates the flavor of the beer. There’s a low/medium-low hop bitterness that is mixed with the tart raspberry fruit flavor that makes up the finish. This beer is medium-low/medium bodied an has a medium/medium-high carbonation. This is a “wet” beer as a result of the raspberry tartness.

Out of the beers I’ve had so far, this is proving to be my least favorite, simply because the base beer (brown ale) is lost in all the raspberry. It’s a beautiful looking beer and has great drinkability but I would’ve prefered a beer with a little more balance. When evaluating a specialty beer, one of the things I look for is balance: I want to be able to taste the base beer as well as the special ingredient. Unfortunately for this beer, the raspberry is overpowering to the point of being almost like fruit juice. I’d be interested in knowing what other people thought of this beer.

Update: After allowing this beer to warm up some, the brown ale character starts to rear its head in the form of a “brown sugar” character in the aroma and a nuttiness in the flavor.

Dark Kriek (Lips of Faith), New Belgium, 8.0% ABV (65% ale brewed with cherry juice, 35% ale aged in wood barrels)

The Lips of Faith program at New Belgium is an interesting one. Basically, the Lips of Faith program allows the brewers to play and develop the beers that they’re interested in. It’s almost akin to being a homebrewer, except that you have a multi-million dollar brewery to work with and a nigh-unlimited range of ingredients at your disposal. Oh, what a hard-knock life for the brewers of New Belgium. How dare their management and owners allow them creative freedom. Don’t they know beer brewing should be determined by their accountants?!

Dark Kriek has an inviting dark cherry and a lactic sour/tart aroma with an underlying sweetness and no hop aroma to speak of. It is reminiscent of a Flanders/Flemish Red. The beer has an off-white head that goes away quickly. Dark Kriek is a beautiful beer that is a monochromatic gradient of garnet and red hues. The flavor is unexpected. Dark Kriek has an initial dark cherry fruit flavor and lactic sourness that quickly gives way to a complex plethora of brettanomyces derived character that is a combination of barnyard, horseblanket and vomit (cidery). This beer is medium bodied and medium-high/high in carbonation with a noticeable dryness but surprisingly, I don’t pick up any alcohol notes despite being 8% ABV.

When looking at this through BJCP-tinted glasses, this falls into the fruit lambic style. I can taste the base lambic style but it is balanced with the fruit character of the dark cherry. Dark Kriek is an enjoyable beer but it is not for the uninitiated. This is a beer for the adventurous palette and not for the weak-paletted, light lager drinker.

At the end of the day…

I’m drunk. It’s an ocupassional occupational hazard that comes with the job. I really should reread everything to make sure it’s okay but I won’t. Out of the five New Belgium beers I reviewed today, I will probably repurchase 4 of them for regular consumption. Even the one I “disliked” was a decent beer, just not balanced. I wish my pockets were deeper though as I saw New Belgium’s Pilsner, Tripel and Abbey Dubbel on the shelves as well.

If you must know, the tasting order was arranged by percent ABV; lighter beers first followed by higher percentage ABV. Hopefully you will read this review and it will help you when you decide to purchase (or not to purchase) a beer. If you’ve had these, I encourage you to leave a comment with your take on ‘em. Lastly, if you’re a brewer/brewery/brewpub who would like me to review their beers, please leave a comment with your contact infor or email me at betterbeerblogATgmailDOTcom.

Ah, Spring! The earth begins to awaken from its cold, wintery slumber. If you take the time to look around you, the signs are evident: the ichiness in your eyes and runny nose, the landscaping that has run amok with weeds and knee-high grass, and the growing wave of “OHHHHHHH!” as someone drops their commemorative tasting glass. Yes folks, spring is here and as the warmer weather begets the packing away of down comforters and bulky winter wear, so does it to herald the arrival of Beer Festival Season.

With SF Beer Week and the Fairfax Brewfest already under our belts, we don’t wait for spring to show up to go and grab a beer. It will be nearly impossible to keep track of all the beer festivals that happen. There’s just too many and I’m not really in the business of listing them all, just the ones I plan (or have a good chance of) attending. That being said, here are the upcoming festivals for March & April (that I know of):

Battle of the Brews

March 27, 2009 (Friday) @ 5:30pm - 10pm
Grace Pavilion (Sonoma County Fairgrounds), 220 Temelec CircleTemelec Hall, Sonoma Santa Rosa, CA 95476 (approximate location) map
$45 for entire event/$25 music only (8pm)

www.battleofthebrews.com

This is a beer festival with a distinct local flavor: lots of local breweries and local food. This festival has around 30 participating breweries so there should be plenty of beer to go around.

6th Annual Firkin Gravity Festival

April 4, 2009 (Saturday) @ 11am
Triple Rock Brewing Company, 1920 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704 map
$20 admission: you get 6 oz taster glass, 6 one oz pours, 1 full pour/$1 per additional ticket or 6 for $5.

www.triplerock.com/buzz.html

All cask-conditioned beers. If you don’t know that that is, read more here and here. I recommend you get there early as they tend to limit the amount of people in the brewpub at any given time. Last year, we ended up waiting in line for about 30 minutes.

Hop Rhizome Festival

April 11, 2009 (Saturday) @ open to close, I think.
The Bistro, 1001 B Street, Hayward, CA 94541 map
FREE (you gotta pay for your own beers and rhizomes though)

www.the-bistro.com/events.htm

Well known as a hop lovers bar, the Bistro continues is love affair with hops by encouraging people to grow their own. In addition to having a fantastic line up of hop forward ales, they’ll also have hop rhizomes (basically hop roots) for sale for those aspiring hop afficionados. These are vine-like plants and once the hops cones come in, they’re actually very beautiful. I’ll already have one hop plant in the ground but will be looking to add to my private “hop yard”. Check this link out for what rhizomes look like and for what fresh hops look like.

San Francisco International Beer Festival

April 25, 2009 (Saturday) @ 7-10pm.
San Francisco International Beer Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA map
$60 admission (SOLD OUT)

www.sfbeerfest.com/

Over 300 beers from all around the world and some of San Francisco’s finest cuisine will be on display at this festival. Proceeds from this event will benefit teaching and learning programs at the Telegraph Hill Cooperative Nursery School. I’ve heard mixed things about this festival. The 3 hour festival time seems awfully short and another blogger I respect who attended last year basically said the festival was one, giant, drunk fest. Still, this thing sells out every year so there must be something to it.

If there’s a festival that I forgot about please let me know and I’ll be happy to update this post. Similarly, if you’re a festival organizer and would like to send me your festival info to post, either leave me a comment or email me at betterbeerblogATgmailDOTcom.

I’ve always wanted to brew a beer with my wife. I just wanted to share something important to me with someone important to me. She never bit on the offer until today. If you’ve followed this blog for the past few weeks, you know that Sammy and I have been attending a BJCP study class that I’ve been writing up as “Beer School”. Sammy has expressed interest in taking the BJCP exam and I told her that homebrewing played a huge part in my passing the first time around. So she finally took me up on the offer and decided to brew a beer with me.

I had been throwing the idea of brewing something weird lately but Sammy wanted to brew something more simple. After all, this was her first time brewing so if I made things too complicated for her, I doubt she’d want to brew again. We settled on an English Pale Ale, also known as an Extra Strong/Special Bitter or ESB.

This time around, I wanted to try something different. Inspired by the 21st Amendment’s Spring Tweet, I decided to go full bore with the social media and technology angle and twitter my brew day. With Sammy doing most of the work, I had a little bit of free time to tweet away while kegging the Amber Ale from last Homebrew Session. Speaking of the Amber Ale, I’ve updated that post with new beer information. I’ll be doing a “final review” once the carbonation is where I want it to be. Anyway, here are the ingredients we used:

Ingredients

• 6 lbs - Coopers Light DME

Specialty Grains:

• 1 lbs - Belgian Caramunich (50L)

Hops

• 1 oz - Fuggles (3.9) bittering
• 1 oz - Fuggles (3.9) finish
• 2 oz - Kent Golding (4.0) finish

Yeast

• English Ale Yeast (WLP002)

Extras

• 1 tablet servomyces

Original Gravity: 1.052 (within style parameters)

Final Gravity: 1.017 (a hairline above style range)

ABV: 4.56% ABV (a hairline below style range but appropriate for all intents and purposes)

Process

1. Steep grains @ 160° F for 30 minutes, then remove.
2. Boil 1 oz Fuggles for 60 minutes.
3. Add 6 lbs of DME at the 30 minute mark.
4. Add wort chiller at 40 minute mark.
5. Add servomyces at 50 minute mark.
6. Add 1 oz of Fuggles and 2 oz Kent Goldings at flame out.
7. Cool beer to 65° F and pitch the vial of yeast (no starter this time).
8. Aerate for 10 minutes.

Tasting Notes (wort) — 3/21/2009

Cloudy with particle matter floating. Copper in color, some green tinting at the top where the color is not as dense. Aroma is malty sweet with some nuttiness. Earthy with undertones of citrus. Sweet malt taste at the beginning then you can taste at the beginning then you can taste the medium-low to medium hop bitterness that stays with you but does not linger. (Tasting note written by Sammy).

Tasting Notes — 4/12/2009

Hazy amber/copper color with slight particulate matter in suspension. Aroma is malty sweet, slightly “wort-ish”. Hop aroma is low. Flavor is balanced for the style but leans slightly towards hops. Hop bitterness is not lasting. Beer is medium-lo/medium in body, no carbonation.

Final gravity, and as a result my ABV, is lower than expected. I aerate (shake the carboy) for a good 10 minutes nowadays but I don’t seem to get the attenuation I am looking for. Doesn’t matter if I pitch from a vial or use a yeast starter. Maybe I should finally break down and invest in a more efficient oxygenation method. Any suggestions?

Tasting Notes (final)

TBD.

I missed out on a opportunity to drink some really good beer last night, a fine selection from the photos I’ve seen. Still, I don’t regret because when your friends come calling, your true-blue friends, you pick up the phone and see what’s up. As a result, a planned post wasn’t to be but that’s okay, I can take the time to get some things off of my chest.

Will someone think of the children!!!

The first time I heard this phrase was off of the Simpsons. It seemed to be a running gag throughout the episode exclaimed by one supporting character or another. While the point and plot of the episode have long been forgotten, the refrain still stays, Will someone think of the children!

That seems to be the refrain or battle cry of anyone looking to further their personal agendas. Desguised under the pretense of “protecting our children”, neo-prohibitionists have taken it upon themselves to be guardian of our childrens’ futures. They believe that “alcopops” are the scourge of childkind and that they, much like marijuana, are the gateway to a life of boozing and morally questionable actions.

The San Francisco Chronicle has written an article regarding the on-going fight against alcopops entitled Liquor by any other name. In a nutshell, the state Board of Equalization (BOE) had rewritten the tax code to reclassify alcopops as distilled spirits in order to tax them at a higher rate. The manufacturers correctly argue that their products are not, nor have they ever contained, distilled spirits so therefore, they don’t need to pay any taxes. In a cash-strapped California, the article argues, the BOE should continue to prosecute alcopop manufacturers to get what is due them.

Well respected beer writer Jay Brooks has written a well articulated and thought out response to the SF Chroncile article and the whole issue in general. I strongly suggest you go over to either of those articles and read them to get caught up on the issue. I won’t pretend to know the ins and outs of the issue, that’s why I follow Jay. I agree with Jay wholeheartedly when he says this whole issue is driven for “moral” reasons versus public welfare.

I personally dislike alcopops (crap like Smirnoff Ice and Mike’s Hard Lemonade) because I find them to too sweet and because I don’t like the taste. I drink beer because I like the taste of beer. I won’t begrudge anyone for throwing back a Smirnoff Ice but it’s not for me. As responsible consumers of beer, we need to take a stand against the neo-prohibitionists and their fearmongering. If you really wanted to care for the welfare of your children, be a parent and watch what they do. Talk to your kids about the dangers of alcohol, teach them about peer pressure and encourage them to “do the right thing”. While I wouldn’t have any problems with alcopops going away, if they do, what’s next? Beer? Wine? Prison hooch?

BetterBeerBlog is a Social Media butterfly

I’m sure many of you already know but in case you haven’t, BetterBeerBlog has gone “social media”. This blog has served as a great outlet to share my love for beer, the brewing industry and for beer culture. The one issue with having a beer-centric blog is the need to write about beer-related things. There’s no room for anything else.

If you’re on Facebook, you can look me up by searching for “Peter Estaniel”. Sure, I still post a lot of beer-related stuff on there but there’s a lot of stuff not related to beer as well. You get a more complete picture of who I am.

I had no idea when I first started this blog how far it would take me (no that far, really) but I’m pleasantly surprised by it’s modest growth. So, like any other attention-whore, I’m trying to get more attention.

You may have noticed the little Flash-based widget in the right column beneath the search bar. That’s the BetterBeerBlog Twitter feed. Yes, I am now on Twitter as well and you can follow me at Twitter.com/BetterBeerBlog. I’m still getting used to sending “tweets” and all the other crap that comes along with Twitter but I’m finding it to be fun and interesting. Twitter is forcing me to become more succinct with what I have to say and that’s not a bad thing, considering I can get “wordy”.

In the great scheme of things, I will still be blogging regularly. My tweets will fill the void between blog posts and will usually cover things I want to blog about but can’t because I’m nowhere near a computer. This blog will continue to be your main source of information while Twitter will be supportive. Facebook will also be supportive but if you really want to know more about me personally, that’s where to go.

Hopefully I’ll get to see you readers on either Facebook or Twitter.

Beer Wars

The craft brewing community is abuzz about this movie with various tweets, FB status updates and blog posts. As usual, I am fashionably late to the party. If you haven’t yet heard of Beer Wars, you should check out the trailer here.

Basically, it’s a documentary that highlights the craft beer industry and their efforts to eek out a living while competing against “Big Beer”. There will be only one showing of this film followed by a live Q&A from some of the film’s “stars”. Check here to see where local screenings will take place in your area.

BetterBeerBlog will be catching Beer Wars at the AMC Eastridge Mall 15 theater. Chances are good that we’ll have a pre-movie get together first, catch the movie, then grab more beers afterwards. Hopefully we’ll be able to catch the movie with some of our friends, blog readers, friends who are blog readers and blog readers who are friends.

This week’s Beer School post will actually end up being a combination of last week’s and this week’s classes. I wish I could say that I was too busy to write up the post. In a way I was but the truth of the matter was that I was stumped for words. I couldn’t just start writing about Belgian ales and not expect a short novella to be the result. I needed sometime to gather my thoughts, to be concise. Now that I have twice the material, let’s see how I do?

Week 8 saw the class tackling Belgian and French Ales, no small task, let me assure you. Belgian Ales are some of the most complex beers in the world and part of that is because they take advantage of one ingredient that most breweries try and minimize: yeast. Next to water, yeast is probably the most misunderstood of all the ingredients of beer. Many people know hops, they add bitterness, blah, blah, blah. Just as many know malt, they add sweetness, color, blah, blah, blah. Water holds everything together (gross oversimplification, I know) and yeasts eat the sugar to turn into carbon dioxide and alcohol (the big payoff, cha-ching!)

If you’ve ever had a hefeweizen (and by now, who hasn’t?), yeast play a vital role in the flavor of that beer. Depending on many factors (fermentation temperature, yeasts strain, etc.), the yeasts can impart their own flavor to the beer. This results in hefeweizens that exhibit banana fruit esters, clove phenolics or both. Most of the time, it’s both, just the balance varies. Well, how does this affect Belgian ales?

A lot.

For the beers in the Belgian and French Ale category, yeast-derived characteristics play a huge part in the overall flavor profiles of these beers. Yeast will add both fruity and spicy phenolic character to these beers in addition to the already present malt and hop flavors and characteristics. While all very similar overall, their differences have to deal with the proportions of those characteristics.

• Category 16a: Witbier - Witbiers are wheat beers that should be light, refreshing, moderately sweet with yeast-derived citrus flavors while the spiciness is from the actual use of spices, i.e. corriander. Low bitterness. Low hop character and flavor.
• Category 16b: Belgian Pale Ale - A fruity, copper colored beer with medium malt sweetness and easy drinking. Unlike their American and European cousins, these are low hopped.
• Category 16c: Saison - Out of all the beers, probably the most flavorful. These will exhibit the most yeast character. Fruit notes are citrus in nature while the phenols are peppery (peppercorn peppery). Easily the most hoppy of the group as well.
  
• Category 16d: Biere de Garde - These Belgian ales will be the most malty of the category. Fruity yeast character will be the most prevalent, followed by the spicy character. Even then, everything takes a backseat to the malt character.
  
• Category 16e: Belgian Specialty Ale - This style is the catch-all for the other Belgian style ales that don’t particularly belong in the above. Think along the lines of black ales such as New Belgium’s 1554.
  

While the yeast-derived flavors were the running thread for most of Category 16, the subsequent beer category will have an entirely different thread running through it. Catgory 17: Sour Ales, is aptly named because all those beers are sour to one level or another. Here’s how the category breakes down:

• Category 17a: Berliner Weisse - Out of the sour ales, the only one that isn’t Belgian, it’s German. Berliner Weisse beers are known for their mouth-watering and refreshing tartness. Lactic tartness is the star of the show for this beer with a grainy, wheat flavor playing second fiddle while hop characteristics work very quietly behind-the-scenes.
• Category 17b: Flanders Red Ale - Complex fruit characteristics (oranges, black cherries, currants) are complimented by an equal level of malt sweetness. These beers should have a medium level of lactic acid sourness/tartness.
• Category 17c: Flanders Brown/Oud Bruin - These beers will have a complex malt character that is dominant to all other flavor characterisics. Dark fruit chatacters will abound but are secondary to the malt. This will also be the least sour/tart of the beers in this style.
  
• Category 17d: Straight (Unblended) Lambic - Straight lambics are some of the most outrageous beers ever made. These beers were extreme before there was even such a term. Lambics will be predominantly sour (lactic acid) balanced by and equal number of microbiota-derived character that can only be described as horseblanket, hay, goatey and barnyardy. Any fruit is in support of these two, hops are non-existent.
  
• Category 17e: Gueuze - Pronounded “gooze”, this beer style is actual a blend of 1, 2 and 3 year old lambics. The result is a beer that is more balanced than a straight lambic as the sour and barnyard characters are in balance.
• Category 17f: Fruit Lambics - For a long time, lambics were the only style of beer available. Much of that was attributed to a lack of microbiological knowledge. In essense, this style is defined by the Straight Lambic that is either balanced or slightly subordinate to whatever fruit is going to be in it.

So there you go, Weeks 8 and 9 wrapped up fairly easily and concisely. Unlike past weeks, I actually sent out a few tweets during class letting you know what beers we were drinking. I won’t be doing that all the time but enough to keep things interesting.

St. Patrick’s Day is here again. Guinness will pour from the taps in a near never ending stream of instant Irishness while the often neglected corned beef and cabbage will be consumed with as much fervor, pomp and circumstance as turkey on Thanksgiving. For many bars, breweries and brewpubs, St. Patrick’s Day is like Christmas in March, with the sales of stouts and Irish red ales ringing up cash registers like so many Santas ringing their bells for the Salvation Army.

Still, beware of green beer. It’s basically a marketing ploy large breweries and unscruptulous bars will use to repackage their pale, yellow lagers in emerald hues in an attempt to exchange your well earned green backs for a green drink you should give back. If a beer cannot stand well enough on its own without having to add extra crap to it, then I’m not drinking it. And neither should you.

I took a trip to my local BevMo after work and picked up a few Irish ales to review in honor of St. Patrick’s day. With the exception of one beer, the rest are stouts. I chose stouts because they’re the most beer style most associated with Ireland. Without further ado, here are my reviews:

Original Wexford Irish Style Creme Ale, Green King Brewing Company, 5.0% ABV

This beer pours out a clear, amber color with a white/off-white, thick, lasting, meringue-like head. The aroma is of sweet, pale malt with a slight toasty note, minor fruit esters, and corn aromas. The flavor is sweet and leans toward the malt side exhibiting both corn and caramel flavors with a slight tartness in the finish. There’s not much hop flavor but there is a medium-low hop bitterness that lasts into the finish. This beer is medium-low in body with a smoothness and creaminess from the nitrogen.

Overall, I am not enjoying this beer. I don’t find the aroma particularly enjoyable while the flavor is a little ho-hum. I’m looking at the name of the beer and I expect a cream ale style beer but it really is more of an Irish Red. I let the beer warm up some to bring out the flavors more, and the malt depth does come through a little more, but it isn’t enough for me. I don’t think the addition of nitrogen to the beer adds any value to this beer, I think they might be capitalizing on the success of Guinness.

For those who didn’t already know, Guinness, Wexford and other “draught style” beers typically will have this thing called a widget located inside of the can or bottle. Inside of the little widget is pressurized nitrogen. As I understand it, when you pop the top of the can (or bottle), you equalize the pressure inside of the can with the outside air. This also causes the pressure inside of the widget to equalize with that of the beer, thus nitrogen-izing the beer. But why add nitrogen to your beer in the first place?

Brewer’s who add nitrogen to their beers do so because they’re trying to recreate cask-conditioned ales. Simply put, cask-conditioned ales are beers that have been carbonated naturally in the vessels there were served in. The resulting beers were lower in carbon dioxide (flatter) and were typically thinner bodied.

To recap, I didn’t particularly like that beer and Sammy didn’t like this beer either, although for different reasons. Based solely on the name, she expected something creamier and sweeter and got neither. Possibly a marketing mistake on Green King’s part?

Guinness Extra Stout, Guinness Brewing Company, 6.0% ABV

While not as famous as its dry, draught brother, Guinness Extra Stout is the one that started it all. I’m kinda excited about tasting this one as I’ve only had the draught version. The aroma of this beer has a medium-level of roastiness along with a noticeable hop aroma and slight tartness. The beer pours out a very dark brown, nearly black with a tan, finely-bubbled head with ruby highlights. Extra Stout has a burnt malt flavor, like black coffee, with medium/medium-high bitterness. There’s also a low/medium-low savory tartness in the beer. The body is medium/medium-high with a high level of carbonation and, despite the tartness, a dryness and astringency from the deep roasted malts.

I’m enjoying this beer much more than the creme ale. It’s much more fuller bodied and flavorful than it’s dry, draught sibling. When I first started drinking, I always thought of Guinness as a full-bodied beer because of the head produced from the nitrogen but when compared to the Extra Stout, it’s quite wimpy. I’d much rather drink this over Guinness Draught.

Murphy’s Draught Style Stout, Inbev UK (Murphy Brewery, Ireland), 4.0% ABV

First and foremost, the official website for this beer is the worst. It tells you everything there is to know about the company but nothing about the beer. I had to go to a 3rd party vendor to get the specifics. This reminds me of how movies get released to the public without getting screened by critics first. That’s usually a bad sign that the movie sucks and the studios are trying to capitalize on whatever marketing goodwill they’ve built up before people find out it sucks. Let’s hope this is not the same for the beer.

This beer pours out very nearly black, is clear as can be for a beer this dark with red hues and has a beige head that’s long lasting with extremely fine, bubbles, and a meringue-like foaminess. This beer has a deep roasted, burnt malt aroma with cigar-like smokiness and dark chocolate undertones. Despite the impressive aroma, the flavor is much lighter than one would expect. I can taste the roasty/burnt malt flavors, very slight malt sweetness with low hop flavor and medium-low hop bitterness. Interestingly enough, I get a milk chocolatey flavor well into the finish. Murphy’s is lo/medium-low in body, somewhat watery with low carbonation sting because it’s nitrogenated. This is a very easy drinking beer though.

When compared to the Guinness Extra Stout, this beer tastes more like Guinness Draught but with slightly more character (at least from what I remember). In fact, this beer is the same style as Guinness Draught, a dry Irish Stout. I’m on the fence on with this beer. On one hand, I’m not “wowed” by this beer by any means but at the same time, it’s not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. There’s some complexity I can smell and kinda taste but I’d want those flavors a little bigger and not as subdued as they are now.

Beamish Genuine Draught Irish Stout, Beamish & Crawford, 4.1% ABV

At this point, my belly is getting pretty full of beer and I’m eyeing my Extra Stout (that I hadn’t finished yet) enviously. It’s my goal, my reward for finishing up my reviews for the evening. That being said, here’s Beamish.

As I opened this can up, the rush of the nitrogen out of the widget let out a little scream that surprised both Sammy and I. Beamish pours out very dark brown, almost black but seemed to be a slight shade lighter than the Murphy’s. The head is beige in color with tight, tiny bubbles and has a meringue-like, creamy foam quality. The aroma of this beer is more subdued but I can make out a sweet roasty note and a very low chocolate character and a low smokey note. The flavor has a deep, roasty component with a smokey quality reminiscent of salmon. Hop flavor is low and hop bitterness is medium-low/medium. There’s also a very low tartness in the finish. This beer is medium-low in body and low in carbonation but high in nitrogen with a slight dryness in the finish.

Even though this beer is in the same style as the Murphy’s this beer is different nonetheless. I’m finding the Beamish to be even more subdued in all characteristics and wishing it had some of the character and layers I’ve picked up in the Murphy’s.

In conclusion…

Well there you go, my St. Patrick’s Day contribution. I initially wanted to try a bunch of Irish brewed beers to see what the common elements are that bind all the beers across different styles and so far, all I could come up with is: nitrogen. I know the nitrogenization of these beers is throwback to when beers were served fresh and cask-conditioned and hand-pulled from their kegs from beer machines. I just wish they served beers like that in bars instead of nitrogenizing them.

I’ve actually always wanted to do a horizontal tasting of the same style of beers. I know this didn’t really come close (as 2 of the 4 beers were different styles) but I think I understand the Irish brewing tradition a little better. Not a whole lot more, just a little. Hopefully you can read these reviews and they help you make an informed decision regarding which beers you’ll be drinking this St. Patrick’s Day.

As always, I appreciate any feedback so leave comments if you agree or disagree. Have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day, DON’T DRINK & DRIVE, and don’t drink green beer!