BetterBeerBlog

Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley is having their Annual Firkin Festival tomorrow. What’s a firkin you say? Well, in “olden times”, it was an English unit of measurement equal to “a fourth of a barrel”. So, depending on who was making your barrels, variations in actual volume existed. In a modern, craft beer sense, a firkin refers to the actual vessel that holds a cask ale. Still confused? I’m sure it’s nothing going to the Firkin Festival won’t fix. Here are the event details:

Who: Triple Rock Brewery
What: 2010 Firkin Festival website (The information on this link is sure to change after the event is over)
Where: Triple Rock Brewery, 1920 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA map
When: Saturday, April 24, 2010 @ 11am
Why: Because firkins are an endangered species who cannot speak for themselves. It’s up to us to spread the word. Most importantly, this is a benefit for the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation.
Cost: $20 admission (Keepsake glass with 6 drink tickets/tokens). Additional tastes are $2 each, $5 for 3.

Despite the unusual name, this is a festival celebrating cask beer. Cask-conditioned beers are basically very fresh beers, naturally carbonated in their casks (firkins) that were meant to be consumed fresh. While there is no central flavor profile for all these beers, as you can cask-condition any beer, the one note to tie them all together will be a lower than usual carbonation level that will give these beers a smoother body, some have described as creamy, while other beers may seem flat or have very low carbonation. Believe it or not, this was how all beer was made back in “the olden days” so this festival is a throwback to traditional brewing methods/beer delivery process as much as anything else.

In any event, the last time I was there, I remember enjoying myself and wanting to try more beers than I had tokens for. Not sure if they’re still limiting the number of people that are able to enter the brewpub at any given time so be prepared for delays.

I recently attended new beer tapping at one of my local brewpubs. As usual, I had a great time at the event and did my write up a day or so later. The brewmaster wrote back to me commenting on how I compared this beer to the BJCP guideline for the style. Long story short, he purposely doesn’t brew that specific beer to “style” but instead brews it to the palettes of his consumers. It’s one of his best selling beers so it’s a justifiable change. So that got me thinking about beer style guidelines; how useful they are, how limiting they can be and most of all, how divisive they are in the beer community.

From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog

The beer style guidelines I most refer to are those from the BJCP. As a BJCP judge, these form the backbone of the work we do. Part of the BJCP’s Mission Statement is to promote beer literacy and these guidelines help to do so.

The other set of guidelines I refer to less but are no less useful come from the Brewers Association. While the BA style guidelines are very similar those from the BJCP, there are major differences. The BA guidelines are more succinct; they are also organized with a greater focus on country of origin and historical consideration.

When initially developed, each set of guidelines had a specific objective they wanted to fulfill. Individually they are great resources but when used together, they paint a very comprehensive portrait of the world of craft beer.

As important as I think style guidelines are in providing a common language and context for craft beer, I have met more than a handful of brewers who aren’t too keen about them. Their resistance ranges from annoyance to declarations of evil! A major criticism is that style guidelines are restricting.

What are your thoughts regarding beer styles? Do you find them useful in defining a common ground by which we can all talk about beers in-depth? Do you think they’re restrictive and killers of the imagination?

From: Mario at Brewed For Thought

I like this topic as I was thinking about it myself recently. As some may already know, I am actively avoiding any BJCP certification. My reasoning is that I want to avoid honing my ability to detect flaws in the beer in front of me and simply enjoy it. Ignorance is bliss after all.

On the topic of styles, I am pro- and anti-guidelines. My problem with BJCP or BA guidelines is that it finds a way to criticize a beer that is otherwise perfectly fine. The subtle difference between a Bohemian Pilsner and a German Pilsner matters if you’re specifically trying to brew a style, or looking at beer from a historic perspective, but from a beer drinker’s point of view it simply needs to taste good.

The use of guidelines reminds me of my time working at a music store through high school and college. At first, you had a handful of sections: Rock, R&B, Classical, Jazz, Country. Then there was a section for Rap; then Electronica, then the Jazz section was split, and so on and so forth. Eventually, there were so many sections and sub-sections that order was lost. Some bands would belong in multiple sections, making finding anything more difficult.

Beer can be the same way. If a brewery brews a beer exactly as they intended and it’s an excellent beer, but it falls between categories, that beer is punished by the powers that be. They will not bring home GABF hardware, they will not win anything at the World Beer Cup. Does this mean a beer is a lesser beer than some that win those medals? Does it mean a gold medal is the best beer or the beer that fell in line the best?

This is where I think the guidelines can hurt the awards themselves. Every year, brewers submit for GABF and World Beer Cup with hopes of winning, but you also hear the dismissal of the awards and the judging after the fact. Brewers will be biased, but there are always surprises among the winners where you wonder how that beer beat out some of the others in the same category. Granted, no system will make everyone happy, but should the best beers win the gold medals?

So do I say get rid of styles all together? Not at all. The 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines has 23 Categories and over 70 individual styles. How about drop the sub-categories, make it simple. Sure, some categories need a split between Imperial and otherwise, but that’s simple, find a dividing line according to strength and give a little in each direction (e.g. Stouts with ABV less than 8%, Imperial Stouts with ABV of 7.5% or more)

Styles can be helpful for an everyday beer drinker as well. Hand me a beer, say it’s a pale ale, I know what to expect. Sure, it could be an English pale or an American pale, but that can be left to the brewer to describe to the customer.

From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog

BJCP certification really isn’t for everyone, in reality it’s not for everyone. If you want to take an active role in the homebrew scene, then it might be something to look into. Being able to recognize flaws in beers is actually a good thing. How else would be able to know what good beers are or how to fix bad ones? Trust me when I say that it’s pretty easy to shut off the “beer analysis” part of the brain and just enjoy a beer. That being said, I think having a lexicon by which to describe beers goes a long way toward appreciation. I’d rather someone be specific when describing a beer as opposed to telling me, “It’s a’ight.” or “Meh.” or “Hella good!”. Why is the beer lackluster? Why is it good? I don’t need to know what the “original gravity” is or what the “apparent extract” or even what “SRM” the beer is at to enjoy it. A little too much information. That being said…

The whole reason we have beer styles today is because beer, like many other food products, are regional. They are a direct result of the ingredients available to local brewers and the techniques they’ve been taught and incorporate. A few insightful people in the craft beer community noticed this, drank a lot of beer, took detailed notes, drank more beer, refined those notes and did their best to categorize a vast body of information. If anything, blame the late Michael Jackson for this quagmire because it is through his notes that many of these beer style guidelines have been developed from.

I’m glad you brought up the issue of competition and awards. I have to respectfully disagree with you in this matter. It is in these specific instances that style guidelines were developed. While I like your analogy of the record store as it relates to the organization of beer styles, I think a dog show analogy would better represent what goes on during a competition. Beers are not necessarily judged against each other, at least not in the beginning. When judges receives beers, they are “blind” in that they have no idea who brewed this beer or where it came from. Judges then have to compare the beer in front of them against a “standard”. In this case, the “standard” is taken from a style guideline. In the Best of Show rounds, beers are then judged against one another. I think this is a fair system. I think the BJCP says it best:

Without beer styles, competitions would be nearly impossible to conduct. Judging would simply become a hedonistic event, where judges would simply pick beers according to their preference. The outcome would be totally arbitrary and would depend on the background and preferences of those who judge their beers. This is not a desirable situation.

With regards to beers that don’t fit a particular category, there are “catch-all” categories in both the BA and BJCP guidelines in which these beers can be entered. The BJCP has Category 23: Specialty Beers, which was designed just for this purpose. The BA has Specialty Beers, Experimental Beers and Out of Category - Traditionally Brewed Beer categories for tweener beers. Entering your beers in any of these categories gives you just as good a chance to medal as the traditional categories. Take the Sam Adams Longshot homebrew competition. In the short time I’ve been involved in the craft beer scene, I’ve noticed just as many non-traditional beer recipes win as traditional. Grape Pale Ale? Not my favorite but it won.

One thing to remember is that there is no super-secret Craft Beer Illuminati trying to push their agenda on the populace. Beer style guidelines are just that - guidelines. They should not be seen as hard and fast rules but as a point of reference. They are living documents; constantly evolving and being updated as brewers push the boundaries of current styles and in many cases, develop entirely new ones.

Going back to the original reason I chose this topic, a local brewmaster decided to brew one of his best selling beers slightly out of style. His customers demanded it and he’d have been a fool not to listen. That being said, what are some notable non-traditional beers you’ve had? I found the Orange Kush from Ale Industries, an American-style Witbier I suppose, to have been surprisingly good. The Hades Habañero from Devils Canyon remains one of the few chili beers I actually enjoy. Hell, most of what The Bruery or Lost Abbey brews can be considered non-traditional.

From: Mario at Brewed For Thought

I wasn’t suggesting a free for all-category free competition. I just thought less specialization would be nice. I like the analogy of the dog show. We need less best of breeds and more of the best of groups.

For me, I live in the heart of non-traditional brewing. Lagunitas makes an excellent pilsner that doesn’t fall into categories as it’s their own interpretation of the broader style. Or take their most recent release, A Little Sumpin’ Wild, a highly hopped, wheat ale that comes in at over 7% and is fermented using Belgian yeast. What style would that beer fall into?

This actually reminds me of a conversation I had at the bar a few weeks back. A man was sipping a Scrimshaw pilsner and complaining about the Lagunitas pint night going on. According to him, Lagunitas needs to use less hops. He wondered why Lagunitas couldn’t brew a pils like Scrimshaw, to which I replied “because North Coast already brews it, why do we need two of the same beers?”

The point of this is that I love style bending. I love when a brewer take a style, sees room for improvement (in his or her opinion) and executes it. That’s how we see changes in the brewing industry. Racer 5 calls itself an IPA, but how does this compare to an IPA of 15 years ago? In terms of IPA, one of my favorites right now is Belhaven’s Twisted Thistle. This was an IPA brewed by a Scottish brewery specifically for the American market.It’s incredibly fragrant, but not bitter and still in the 5% range. It’s not an English IPA and definitely not an American IPA, but it’s own style.

This conversation has me thirsty. I think I’ll go dig through my fridge and find a style bending beer and raise a toast to the BJCP. In the end, as long as good beer continues to make it’s way to my glass, I can’t complain. Styles do a great job of reminding us where we should be and also let’s all of us, home brewers and professionals, to feel like a rebel when we break out of the mold.

This weekend, the awesomeness that is The Trappist will be transformed from Belgian beer bar to Beer School. Up on the cirriculum: Dubbels and Tripels. BetterBeerBlog friend, and Trappist bartender extraordinaire, Nicole Erny will be hosting this class along with local homebrewing phenom Nathan Smith. Here are the details:

Location: The Trappist, map
When: Saturday, September 12, 2009 @ 2:00pm OR Sunday, September 13, 2009 @ 4:30pm
Cost: $35 per person. Reservations Required.
RSVP: nicole@thetrappist.com

What are Dubbels and Tripels? This is one of the most frequently asked questions at the Trappist, but the answer is not so simple. I hope you can join us on September 12th or 13th to explore the origins of these classic Belgian styles.

Belgian Beer School is a Series of tasting sessions led by Nicole Erny, bartender at the Trappist, and Nathan Smith, homebrewer extraordinaire. Each class features 6 generous samples, a full pour of any of the 25 beers on draft, snacks, and a wonderful afternoon of beer!

To reserve your spot, please send an email to Nicole@TheTrappist.com with your name, the date you prefer, and the number of people in your party.

We will be there on Sunday. Hope to see some of you there!

When did life get so complicated? Back when I wanted to save money, I’d spend less and put more in the bank. Now there’s Roth IRAs, 401Ks, mutual funds and CDs. I look at the financial industries and I find it all so artificial, so fake. Whatever happend to a hard day’s pay for a hard day’s work? Whatever happened to getting your hands dirty and living off the land? Everything is so “push button” these days. I wish I could say I was the exception but I’m not. I guess that’s the problem.

*Sigh*

Now that’s out of the way, I can get back to what makes me smile: beer. In this week’s Beer in Review segment, I will be reviewing Porters. Porters are dark colored ales supposedly named after the beer popular with 18th century London street and river porters. The history of the porter is credited to a John Feltham who had written that it was an attempt to recreate a beverage known as three threads which was a blend of an ale, a beer and a twopenny.

Much closer to reality was that porters were the first beers that were mass produced. These were the first beers that were aged by the brewers, instead of the pub owners or dealer, and could be drunk immediately from the brewer. Porters were relatively strong for their times. Single Stout Porters, Double Stout Porters, Triple Stout Porters and Imperial Stout Porters were brewed with increasing strength, respectively. Eventually the porter suffix was dropped altogether and stouts were born.

Porters versus Stouts

This is a question that I am often asked. From a very general and historic standpoint, stouts were stronger than porters. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two. In this case, the devil is in the details and the details are in the ingredient list. While both beers use a wide variety of dark and roasted malts interchangeably, stouts go a step further through the use of pale malts. Stouts also differ from porters through the use of adjuncts to increase the complexity of the beverage. Some of the adjuncts include but shouldn’t be limited to: flaked, unmalted barley, sour beers, lactose, oatmeal, sugar, maize or treacle; depending on the style of the beer. I invite other homebrewers or professional brewers to chime in and share their thoughts on the differences.

Point Reyes Porter, Marin Brewing Company, 6.0% ABV

Marin Brewing Company (MBC) is located in Larkspur, California. Head brewer and general partner Brendan Moylan runs both MBC and her sister brewery, Moylans Brewery & Grill. Even though MBC is located relatively close to where I live, I have never been there. Hopefully that will change sometime this week. Despite never having been to their physical location, MBC beers are relatively easy to find as my local BevMo carries a wide variety of their beers on bottle. This particular bottle was given to me by Pete Slosberg during his last Beer Depletion Party (thanks, Pete!).

Point Reyes Porter pours out a very, very dark brown and opaque beer with a short lasting brown head. The aroma is a combination of deep roasted malts, espresso and chocolate with a slight sour undertones. The flavor of the beer echos that of the aroma: there’s a deep roasted malt flavor with a hint of burnt malt underneath. There’s some chocolate undertones as well. The bitterness of the beer is a combination of the hops and from the grains. This is a medium-full/full bodied beer with medium-high carbonation. There’s a slight tannic astringency that manifests itself as a dryness on the sides of my tongue and on the roof of my mouth.

I am enjoying the Point Reyes Porter. I am finding that it’s flavorful and robust yet pretty easy drinking. The sourness I noticed before is all but gone in subsequent tastings. Once glance at all the medals on the label will tell you that other people have enjoyed this beer as well. Closer scrutiny will reveal that most of these wins occured in the late 90s through the early 2000s. Just nitpicking.

Coconut Porter, Maui Brewing Company, 5.7% ABV

Maui Brewing Company has earned themselves a solid reputation. I first heard of them on a podcast on the way home from Fresno. After listening to Maui Brewing Company founder Garrett Marrero talk so passionately about what he was doing, I promised myself to try some of their beers as soon as they hit State side. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to wait long as BevMo picked them up.

Coconut Porter pours out a very dark brown with a huge, tan head and, if you can catch ‘em, ruby highlights. Toasted coconut aromas waft up from my glass with chocolate undertones, hints of coffee and a deeply roasted malt aroma. The flavor of this beer is amazing and complex; there’s the rich, roasted malt flavors, a huge chocolate component and the roasted coconut all playing well together but are still noticeable as individuals. In a way, this beer reminds me of an Almond Joy, if they’d only roast the coconut before adding the chocolate. Coconut Porter is medium/medium-high in body with medium-high carbonation.

As you no doubt noticed, the beer came in a can. Maui Brewing does a poor job of stating on their website why they can their beer, good thing it’s written right on the can itself. Let me paraphrase:

• Can eliminate light damge and reduce the risk of oxidation
• Cans are lighter and chill faster. Aluminum is the most recycled material

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.

This past Wednesday marks the third week Sammy and I have been going the BJCP study group held at the More Beer! store in Los Altos headed up by BJCP Grand Master John Watson. I managed to convince Sammy to join me this time around although it didn’t take much convincing on her part. She has always expressed an interest in learning more about beer and this class presented the perfect opportunity for her to do so. I just need a reason to study so I can retake the test and hopefully move up a rank.

For those who don’t know, the BJCP is an amateur organization of people who undergo a strict testing and evaluation process in order to judge beer. Mainly on a homebrew level although the professional level is not uncommon. BJCP stands for Beer Judge Certification Program and it’s core beliefs can be summed up in these three points:

1. Promote Beer Literacy
2. Promote the appreciation of real beer
3. Recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills

It was about this time last year that I took the BJCP class the first time. Other than the similar timeframe and the material being covered, there is almost nothing similar between the two classes. The group we have now is much larger than last time around. I attribute this to the ever increasing world of craft beers and the people who are discovering them. This group also is a little more “chatty” in that they are more free and willing to offer their opinions on beer than the last class I was in. It helps that there are multiple BJCP judges in the class to begin with as well as the majority of people are homebrewers.

Another thing that is different is that inbetween beers, we spend time reading outloud the BJCP specifications for the next style of beer we will be judging. The first time through, there was a lot of dead time between beers and if you wanted to read up on the next style, it was all on you. It’s very helpful that everyone is into sharing and reading outloud and that the other homebrewers interject anecdotal stories here and there to support whatever style we’re on. Sammy seems to learn more from the anecdotal stuff than from the actual study guide.

Unlike last time, I will not be doing a complete write up of all the beers we tasted. Instead, I’ll just give a brief list of the styles we covered and what I took away from it. This post is more catch-up as 3 sessions have already gone by.

If you are interested in reading about what beers we tried specifically for each style, leave a comment or shoot me and email and I will go back and amend this post to show what we drank for each style, in case you wanted to play along at home. : )

Week 1:

This, by far, is the worst session of all the sessions. We covered the American Lite Lager, Standard Lager, Premium Lager, and Munich Helles before switching gears a little and then tasting examples of a German Pilsner and Bohemian Pilsner.

While the European Pilsners were very good, I spent a good chunk just trying to get through this first day. The American Lager family is not my favorite group of beer styles. I find them to be shadows of their European counterparts and “subtly” flavored.

On the plus side, I am now more familiar with how pils malt tastes like. I just don’t drink enoug Pilsners to really familiarize myself but it’s all starting to click together now.

Week 2:

Finally, more flavorful beers. This week we covered the following beer styles: Vienna Lagers, Oktoberfest, Dark American Lagers, Munich Dunkel, Schwartzbier, Maibock/Helles Bock, Traditional Bock, Doppelbock and Eisbock. That’s alot of beers to have to taste and scrutinize. In case I haven’t told you before, having to judge a beer takes a lot of the joy away from enjoying a beer. You tend to over analyze things and it take a mental toll on you as well.

Despite all that, I walked out of class today with a greater understanding of what Vienna and Munich malt tastes like as well as the nuances between the styles. In the case of the Schrwartzbier, I rediscovered this style and it would seem the way I though about this beer was incorrect. I used to think a Schwartzbier was a lager version of either the porter or stout when in fact, it’s much more delicate and subtly complex than either two.

Week 3:

Last night the group was able to delve into a set of beers many in the class was highly anticipating: the pale ales. We covered the following beer styles: Standard/Ordinary Bitter, Special/Best/Premium Bitter, Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale), American Pale Ale, American Amber Ale, English IPA, American IPA and finally, Imperial IPA. As you can imagine, we went through a lot of beers.

What was most interesting about this week’s class was that we had some homebrewed beers to try as well as commercial versions. As much as I enjoy drinking commercial versions, the true value of the class doesn’t appear until we begin to sample and judge homebrewed beers. Unless they’ve been stored in the most horrible of conditions, commercial examples tend to be in good shape and finding any flaws becomes difficult. You can nitpick them to death but sometimes, you’re just never sure as any flaws have been minimized greatly.

Having homebrew examples on the other hand, opens up into a completely different world of tasting. Because many homebrewers do not have professional equipment the flaws in their beers, if any, are more noticeable and soon the group is all on the same page. All of a sudden, we all know what “oxidized” tastes like. That’s a cool feeling when you look around the room and the proverbial “lightbulb” is lit above all of our heads.

Specifically talking about myself, I realize that I do not drink enough English beers to really call myself an expert on the subject matter, let alone knowledgeable. It’s one thing for me to read about the style characteristics and quite another to recognize them on my tongue or in my nose. American Pale ales and IPA I’m good with but I still have a lot of work to put in to understand English ales (German lagers, Scottish and Irish ales by extension).

I managed to make it to the Bistro on Saturday night to meet up with friends Mike and his wife Diane. I met Mike at Beer and Winemakers of America homebrew shop one afternoon. It was a fun time and we decided to go out for some beers on Saturday.

The Bistro is a great little beer bar that mainly caters to a more local crowd. They are mainly known for their epic Double IPA Festival and IPA Festivals. In the time we were waiting for Mike and Diane to show up, I noted to Sammy that this could possibly be the first time we’ve been to the Bistro when it wasn’t a festival. While it was fairly slow when I first arrived, it was getting loud and packed by the time we left.

I had just finished tapping my Milk Stout the night before and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to put down some really hoppy ales but thankfully they had some other types of beers there as well.

Steelhead Bourbon Extra Stout, Mad River Brewing Company, 7.0% ABV

Black, nearly opaque beer with a tan/brown head. Sweet “caramel-ish” aroma that is a combination of roasty malts, black coffee, wood, bourbon notes and slight alcohol. The flavor is pleasant, smooth and similar to the aroma with deep roasted malt flavors, coffee, bourbon and a slight sourness in the finish. The bourbon character is noticeable but not very hot or harsh. This beer is medium-high in body with low/medium-low carbonation.

Unfortunately, the link above is only for the Steelhead Extra Stout. The bourbon version of this beer was specially made for the Bistro’s Wood Aged festival. I didn’t get to try it at the time of the festival but I’m glad I was able to have glass that night. If you enjoy bourbon flavors with your stout then I’d recommend this beer to you.

Old Scouter Barleywine, Bear Republic Brewing Company, 9.7% ABV

Still not wanting anything really bitter, I scan the beer board in hanging over the bar and settle on Old Scouter Barleywine from Bear Republic Brewing Company. This was another beer that participated in the Bistro’s Wood Aged Beer Festival. It was aged in for 6 months in an American Oak barrel that used to hold a Cabernet Sauvignon.

This beer pours out a very dark brown with reddish highlights and an off-white head. Sweet malt aromas, spicy notes, some floral notes, powdered, dark chocolate and slight alcohol notes are in the aroma of the beer. The beer is initially malty sweet with spicy, chocolate notes which give way to a medium-high/high hop bitterness that lingers into the finish. The beer is medium-high/high in body with medium carbonation. According to the beer sheet from the Wood Aged Beer Festival, there should’ve been a slight sour hint in the flavor but I didn’t pick it up.

Winter Ale, Black Diamond Brewing Company, 7.2% ABV

Black Diamond Brewing Company is a brewing company based out of Concord, California. They used to be in Walnut Creek as a brewpub but shut down the brewpub and continued on as a brewery.

Winter Ale pours out brilliantly clear, reddish brown in color with ruby highlights and an off-white head. Spicy, peppery, clovey aromas are primary with malt aromas secondary and a slight alcohol note. The flavor is a peppery and spicy in a Belgian yeast sort of way that gives out to a slight malt sweetness afterwards. This beer is medium/medium-high in body with medium carbonation and a slight dry finish.

Brewed with Belgian malts, candi sugar and using Belgian yeast, Black Diamond intended this beer to be brewed in the style of a Dubbel. While not a bad beer in it’s own right, I don’t think it’s much of a Dubbel. I am missing out on a lot of the complex maltiness that is a signature of the style and the spiciness is more reminiscent of a Trippel. But as the label says, it’s a Dubbel-style beer and not a Dubbel.

Good beer to have if you’re into malty beers, while the higher than average alcohol make it a pleasant choice for the colder winter evenings.

While I’m here reviewing…

I was able to finally tap my Milk Stout on Friday night. I had brewed this beer in early November and I am now reaping the benefits. I really like this beer. It’s pretty close to the BJCP standard, and save for a few flaws, it’s pretty darned good. Click here to view the original post where I’ve put down all the final details for this beer.

Now that the weather is finally cooling down, it’s beginning to feel a lot like winter. Christmas in the Park is in full effect in downtown San Jose and the winter warmers most breweries brew just for this time of the year are out and ready for our consumption. On Tuesday evening, Gordon Biersch added their own offering to the myriad of winter warmers already out there. Appropriately named Winterbock, this winter seasonal is a doppelbock and was designed to keep us all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Winterbock pours out a very dark brown, with brown highlights and a beige/tan head. The beer wasn’t clear by any means but the cups we had weren’t exactly clear themselves and condensation on the outside may have also impaired how the beer’s clarity would’ve been perceived. The aromas lean toward the malt side of the flavor spectrum. I pick up a sweet, toasty note, low dark fruit esters and slight alcohol. The flavor echos the aromas. This is a sweeter beer without being cloying. The malt character reminds me of toasted bread crusts with low dark fruit character (plum or prunes) and low levels of carmelized malt flavors. I also pick up a slight spicy note to the beer but it’s from the alcohol and not a by-product of the yeast. This beer is medium-high in body with high carbonation and clocks in at 8% ABV.

Overall this is a good tasting beer. Like many other winter warmers, it is higher in alcohol, leans more toward the malt/sweet side of the flavor spectrum. It’s a great way to introduce non-beer drinkers to rich, flavorful beer without having to resort to a stout. In fact, while talking to brewmaster Dan Satterthwaite, two women picked up the beers and basically told Dan that they are not beer drinkers but they really enjoyed this beer.

Another interesting thing to note about these tapping events. I go to the San Jose Gordon Biersch because it’s close to my home. I can’t really remember a time when I’ve gone to one of their tappings and found it sparce. Usually, these are crowded affairs. Using this as a base, I would expect that all the other GB brewpubs would have similar turnouts but according to Dan Satterthwaite, the San Jose GB has the largest turnout of all the brewpubs, nationwide. He said that there are some tapping events with an attendance as low as 15 people! Staring out into the crowded patio area, it’s hard for me to imagine just 15 people at a tapping.

This tapping event was slightly different. Normally, you go, you give up an email address, you get two drink tickets and good times happen. This time, there was a big push for people to sign up for the GB Passport Program. While I don’t know about all the specifics for this program, signing up at this event costed $20. At part of the offer, they give people a 1-liter beer stein, two drink tickets and the $20 back at a later time in the form of a discount coupon. If you weren’t a Passport member, you could still give up your email address but you only got one drink ticket. Normally I would’ve been a little bit upset with the change in policy but this is an 8% beer and having two will put most people in their “happy place”. Besides, we showed up in a small group and there are always people who get the two beers but can’t finish so there’s often more than enough to go around.

Another, more personal, reason why I love beer and beer culture is because I met the Officiant of my wedding at a GB tapping. We were introduced to Father Walter by our good friends Jason and Crystal Melendez, authors and owners of Wedshare.com. Father Walter is a great guy and beer lover so it was only fitting that we asked him to marry us. Just further proof that good things happen when you drink good beer.

It’s the day before Thanksgiving and I suppose I should write a post regarding the holiday. I got a comment on one of my posts the other day that linked to a great post regarding choosing the appropriate beer to accompany one’s Thanksgiving meal. Besides being a great read and having interesting pairing recommendations, it was much better than anything I could’ve ever done. Besides, my family doesn’t really celebrate Thanksgiving traditionally. Sure, we’ll have a pineapple-glazed ham and a smoked turkey but those will be surrounded by Korean BBQ ribs, garlic and ginger seasoned crab, shrimp skewers along, my wife’s Jahmmee chicken wing dish with, perhaps, a blood stew or bile soup. Unfortunately my family’s beer of choice, despite my repeated efforts, continues to be Heineken.

Besides, I have something way more interesting, and beer related, to write about.

Mondays suck. We all know this. The weekend is over and the work week begins. Thankfully this past Monday had two great things going for it. First, it’s the Monday in short, 3-day work week. Second, I was able to meet up with Pete Slosberg of Pete’s Wicked Ale fame. Third, I was able to go to Wine Affairs and sample their winter beer offerings. Ménage à trois don’t get much better than that. Okay, ménage à trois can get much better than that, Yvonne Strahovski and Olivia Munn better, but it’s not bad for what it is.

I was introduced to Pete Slosberg via email by Jessica, aka The Thirsty Hopster. I followed up with Jessica’s introductory email by asking Pete if he wanted to meet up at Firehouse Brewery and Grill in Sunnyvale for lunch. Thankfully, he accepted. For those of you who don’t know who Pete Slosberg is, let me do a quick recap.

Pete used to be an executive at companies like Xerox, IBM and Rolm. He was never a big drinker in college but took up homebrewing one day. Working with an associate who was also a venture capatilist, the two came up with a list of criteria they wanted their next business to have. While the exact details are lost upon me now, the business model that fit their needs happened to be a micro brewery. With limited cash flow, Pete decided to contract out the brewing of his beer to various production breweries. A common practice, many breweries start off this way before earning enough capital to open up their own facilities. At this point, it was 1986 and the craft beer movement was just gaining traction. Pete eventually sold Pete’s Wicked Ale and started Cocoa Pete’s-a chocolate company. As with the brewery, he sold this as well.

So back to the present. I am at Firehouse where I meet up with Steve, their brewmaster, and Pete. Pete is dressed very casually in a hooded sweatshirt and shorts with his “signature” beard as seen on the Cocoa Pete’s logo. In that sense, he reminds me of Billy Mays. Neither man, as long as they’ll be using their likeness in business, can never shave their beards off. But I digress. About halfway through my burger, Pete whips out a container full of homemade chocolates. Even after he’s sold off his chocolate business, Pete continues to make chocolate for fun. At this point, we do a mini-tasting between the chocolates he’s made and the beers currently on tap at Firehouse. As usual, my notes are crap. Here’s what I wrote down buffered with my equally shoddy memory:

Chocolates

• Milk chocolate
• Dark chocolate with almonds
• Dark chocolate with cherries
• Milk chocolate with ginger
• Brioche made with dark chocolate and a hazelnut spread

Beers

• Hefeweizen
• Pale Ale
• Belgian Tripel
• Porter
• OTIS (One Tun Imperial Stout)
• Scotch ale

Pete instructs us to take a small bite out of chocolate pieces and let it melt on our tongues before taking a sip of the beer. We would know right away if the pairing was awesome or if was just ehhhhh. It was a very informal pairing with the three of us nibbling on chocolates and sipping beers and talking about what we tasted. Here are my brief notes regarding the tasting:

• Milk chocolate with the pale ale. This proved to be a contrast of flavors that most people might not like but I found very interesting.
• Dark almond with the porter. This was an example of a harmonious pairing in which you couldn’t really tell where one ended and the other began.
• Dark chocolate with cherris paired well with the Scotch ale. The maltiness and slight alcohol qualities worked well to bring out and accentuate the fruit sweetness of the chocolate. An example of a complimentary pairing.
• Dark chocolate with ginger paired with the Belgian tripel. This was the most interesting pairing. By itself, the chocolate had hints of ginger. Likewise, the Belgian tripel may have had ginger-like phenolic qualities. The two of them together really brought out the ginger flavors. It’s different, yet tasty.
• The brioche (chocolate and hazelnut) worked well with OTIS, another complimentary pairing.

This was an awesome exercise and it really opened my eyes to a lot of things chocolate related. To say there was a revelation at this table would be correct and I promise to reveal it all after Thanksgiving. At the very least, I want to learn how to make chocolates. Pete’s homemade stuff tasted awesome and learning how to make your own things is always badass.

Brought around by wanting to provide a 10-minute training to servers at bars and pubs carrying Pete’s Wicked Ale, Pete created a generic “leave behind” that he used to teach servers and bartenders about beer. After he explained how to read the thing, I was very impressed with the level of thought and design that went into this piece of collateral. As a beer judge, this training material may seem a little too simplified a little too general. But from the viewpoint of a server or bartender, this is exactly what they would need to sell craft beer. The graphic designer in me marvels at the simplicity of the piece. There’s always room for improvement or addition of details but for the audience this was designed for, this is right up their alley.

Basically, here’s how the chart breaks down. Beer is the major category that is broken down into ales and lagers. Ales are fermented at a warmer temperature and have more fruit character while lagers are fermented cooler and are cleaner in flavor. This forms a horizontal axis. Supplementing the horizontal axis is color. Color has no effect on flavor whatsoever but to give a visual indicator of what to expect. Since ales and lagers share the same beer color spectrum, a major flavor characteristic has been assigned to each color to help simplify their descriptions. Gold=cracker-like, amber=nutty, brown=roasty while black=burnt. Beer, both lagers and ales, tend to lean on either the sweet or bitter side. This forms a vertical axis with sweet on one end and bitter on the other. Based upon this system, you could plot where a particular beer is on the beer spectrum and easily describe its flavor to a customer. What even more badass is that you would be able to describe a beer in relation to other beers. This is paramount when attempting to sell a craft beer to someone unfamiliar with craft beers. Just pick a beer they do like, plot it on the system and see where it stands against other plotted craft beers. Pick craft beers closest to the beer your customer normally drinks to ease them into craft beers. Brilliant!

Pete did a similar chart for chocolate but I’m not going into that one. I am blown away by how much this man knows and I can see why he is still revered in the craft beer industry.

Later on after work, I headed over to Wine Affairs for some beer. Diane, the owner, invited me to join their staff training Monday night as they tasted the new winter beers they would be serving on bottle. It seems counterintuitive to be going to a wine bar for beers but what can I say? I like their beer selection. Here is a list of their winter beers with my usual crap notes:

• Erdinger Hefeweizen, 5.3% ABV - This is an odd choice for a winter beer. In fact, it’s not very “wintery” at all. It’s characteristically effervescent with banana, clove and wheat malt flavors in nearly equal parts. Despite the range of flavors, it is a clean and easy to drink wheat beer.
• St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout, 5% ABV - Brewed in Quebec, Canada. Despite it’s average ABV content, this beer has a perfumey, alcohol-like initial aroma. Per the style, I pick up deep roast aroma supported by chocolate and coffee notes. While these characteristics are echoed in the flavor, I also pick up some molasses-like flavors. This beer is medium bodied with medium carbonation. Despite the addition of oatmeal, I felt that this beer was lighter in body than I expected.
• Meantime Porter, 6.5% ABV - Lots of coffee notes in both the aroma and flavor, very French roast. In addition, there’s a slight astringency that gives this beer a woodsy note. I can also pick up smoke in the aroma and flavor as well. There are slight nutty and chocolate notes as well. The beer is medium bodied with medium carbonation. It is clear, dark brown in color. Very English in nature, this is a restrainedly flavorful beer.
• Allagash Black, 7.5% ABV - What an interesting beer. All the typical stout characteristics are in this beer: dark brown, nearing black in color, deep roast flavors and aromas with hints of coffee and chocolate, full body with medium/medium-high carbonation. Yet, there’s a notable Belgian yeast character to this beer as well with a distinct phenolic quality that is spicy and peppery. They used a Belgian yeast strain to ferment the beers and each beer is bottle fermented. I would recommend this beer for adventurous drinkers.
• Jewbelation 12, 12% ABV - Even as a special anniversary beer, this beer is huge in many ways. Made with 12 malts, 12 hops and clocking in at 12% ABV, this beer is big. BIG. Jewbelation 12 has a complex and sophisticated malt profile. The aroma is sticky and sweet smelling like treacle, with a roasted and slightly toasted malt character supported by dark fruit esters like raisins and dates. The flavor is just as complex and echoes the aroma. This beer is full bodied, viscous with low/medium-low carbonation with notable alcohol character in the aroma and flavor. It is warm but not harsch. Despite its sweetness, this beer has an equal amount of hop flavor and bitterness that is lasting, yet secondary to the malt character. This is a very hard beer to get and Wine Affairs has it in stock currently. The wine people couldn’t stomach this beer, too big for them so I got to kill what was left in the bottle. Definitely a beer I would recommend, hell, buy a bottle to age as well. A sipping beer and definitely one to share with friends.
• Scaldis Noël, 12% ABV - I already reviewed this beer here but I suppose I could at least contrast it with the Jewbelation 12. Despite having a similar ABV, these two beers couldn’t be any more different. Whereas the Jewbelation 12 is big in almost every way, the Noel is softer, more well rounded and surprisingly easy to drink. The alcohol character smooth and less noticeable than in the Jewbelation 12. The Noel has complexity in flavors that I find excitedly appealing, every sip reveals something different and I find myself smelling and tasting this beer in an attempt to determine what those aromas and flavors are. By contrast the Jewbelation hits you on the head with it’s aromas and flavors and leaves little to discovery. In the end, both are great beers but I would choose the Noel over the Jewbelation 12. Blasphemy to some, you can pimp Jewbelation 12 on your own blogs.

After the tasting, I had another opportunity to talk with Diane. She is a wealth of information with regards to wine and while she isn’t as well versed as myself in the details of beer her palette is much better and her way of describing things more eloquent. The winter beer season is upon Wine Affairs and they do have some notable beers on bottle, particularly the hard-to-find Jewbelation 12 and Scaldis Noel. I would pay them a visit while they still have them in stock.

Tapped my Raspberry Wheat Ale yesterday at my sister-in-law’s baby shower. It ended up being a decent beer but different from the last time I made it. Sammy enjoys this version as much as the last version but for different reasons. She says the last time I made this beer, it was easier to drink whereas this time, it’s still good, just more complex in flavor. You can read about it here.

Made it over to Gordon Biersch last last night. I was trying to catch their brewmaster Dan Satterthwaite because I wanted to talk to him regarding some beer stuff. It’s all top-secret, hush-hush stuff that I can’t really divulge just yet. Just know that I have a few things in the works that I am very excited about.

Anyway, he wasn’t there. I’ll just have to catch him another time. While there, I asked our server what their latest seasonal beer is and she told me it was a rawck beer. I sat befuddled for a moment before I realized she meant rauchbier (sounds like rao-sch), or a German smoked beer.

According to the BJCP, a rauchbier is as follows:

Märzen/Oktoberfest-style (see 3B) beer with a sweet, smoky aroma and flavor and a somewhat darker color.

Now that you have an idea of what a rauchbier is supposed to be, here’s what I thought.

Gordon Biersch, Rauchbier

This beer is an opaque, caramel color with amber hues and an off-white head/beige head. Medium-level of smoke aroma that is reminiscent of smoked salmon and smoked bacon. Beneath it all, I am able to pick up slight Munich malt character. I can taste a medium-level of sweet, Munich malt flavor with an equal amount of chewy, smoke flavor that tastes like smoked bacon with hints of smoked salmon. The hop bitterness is medium-lo/medium. The rauchbier has a high level of carbonation and is medium bodied, yet the body seems a bit fuller because this beer is unfiltered. When compared to their regular marzen, the rauchbier has a fuller mouthfeel and, for lack of a better term, muddled flavors. The marzen is clear, the flavors brighter and clean.

In all honesty, this beer is not a good example of a classic rauchbier, it’s an “okay” example but not a good one. The biggest flaw in this beer is the lack of clarity. A classic rauchbier should be clear. Another flaw with the GB rauchbier is the flavor. While not bad by any means, the unfiltered nature of this beer give the rauchbier a “muddled” flavor, not really clean or distinct.

I’m wondering if this is a lagering problem or if it’s a filtration thing. During the National Organic Homebrew Challenge, one of the other judges ordered a pilsner and it was cloudy. Pilsners are supposed to be “brilliantly clear” but his looked more like a hefeweizen.

Brouwerij Van Steenberge, Witches’ Brew, Belgian Strong Golden Ale, 9.3% ABV

Witches’ Brew is a beer that I haven’t had before. Some friends of mine came over for dinner and they were kind enough to bring back a bottle of this beer. I have not heard of this before the Brouwerij van Steenberge sounded familiar and a quick Google search reveals that this company does make some beer that I have heard of, and tasted before, notably Gulden Draak, Piraat, and Celis White.

Witches’ Brew pours out a wonderful gold color that is cloudy with straw highlights and a white head. The aroma is sweet, slightly malty with moderate fruit esters reminiscent of pears and a spicy, peppery finish. The flavor of Witches’ Brew is very similar to the aroma. It is sweet, lightly malty, some fruit undertones and a spicy, peppery finish. When this beer warms up, a noticeable alcohol character is evident that reminds me of isopropyl alcohol in the aroma but thankfully, its effect on the flavor isn’t very harsh at all. Hop bitterness is medium-low. Witches’ Brew is medium-high/high in carbonation with medium/medium-high body.

When compared to the BJCP style guidelines for a Belgian Golden Strong Ale, I find that Witches’ Brew comes up a little short in some areas. The aroma of this beer when first poured hits all the high points for the style but as the beer warms up, the alcohol character starts to get a little solventy making it seem harsher than what it really is. Witches’ Brew also doesn’t have the long lasting, “Belgian lace” making head I would expect from the style. This could be due in fact to my glass not being “beer ready”. There may have been some soapy residue left on the glass that would’ve inhibited head retention

Overall, I find this beer to be a decent example of the style. All the aromas and flavors one would expect from the style are evident, just don’t let this beer warm up too much. My final critique would be that the overall flavor profile, while to style, seems a bit tame.