After a hiatus during December, this past Thursday saw the
return of the popular Top Shelf Thursday tasting. Once again, a friendly crowd of adventurous
beer-drinkers settled into The House’s cozy front room, aiming to taste some of
our rarer beers & maybe discover something they’d never tried in a beer
before.
The evening’s motif was kind of a ‘Noah’s Ark’ approach, as
tasters tried pairs of beers from similar styles, but different countries,
back-to-back. The flight started with
Nighmare Yorkshire Porter, an English-style porter from Nick Stafford’s
Hambleton Ales, a newer British brewery crafting traditional ales. This was a good launch to the evening: a
light-bodied, malty porter with just a little kiss of tartness in the finish,
flavorful while not overwhelming the palate.
It was followed by Firestone Walker’s Walker’s Reserve Porter, from the
ever-reputable California brewery.
Though West Coast geographically, this porter had more of an Eastern
balance, with the hops & malt equally reigned in.
The next duo proved a little more challenging to some than
the warm, accessible porters, as the group was introduced to Rueuze, an
American-made gueuze from The Bruery.
This blended lambic-style sour ale puckered mouths left & right,
with a bone-dry, tannic finish from the oak.
While some found the style too intense & sharp, others thrilled to
the unique complexity, & also enjoyed the milder, smoother offering from
Gueuzerie Tilquin. From the only lambic
blender in Belgium’s Wallonia region, their Oude Gueuze Tilquin a L’Ancienne
was more palatable to those who find wild ales a little too outré for their
taste.
Moving back into more familiar territory, we ventured into
Belgian-style golden ales that featured a hop-forward profile, beginning with
Mischief, the evening’s second beer from The Bruery. The hopheads in the crowd appreciated the
assertive American hop notes up front, followed by the fruity, honey-like malt
& ending light & clean. In
contrast, the classic example of a hoppy Belgian – Piraat Ale, from Van
Steenberge – seemed tame on the hop front, but more than made up for it with a
rich, buoyant malt profile & spicy, fruity yeast. It’s hard to go wrong with a standard-bearer
like this, & judging by the crowd response, this was the overall favorite
of the tasting.
Similar to the gueuze, the next pair of beers fell into the
‘love-it-or-hate-it’ category, as we poured the first of two smoked bocks:
Smokin’ Bishop, from Invercargill Brewery in New Zealand. Made with malts the brewers smoked themselves
over applewood & Manuka, a native tea tree, the meaty, smoky character
paired well with the sweet base bock. We
followed with a smoked dopplebock from renowned rauchbier brewers Brauerei
Heller-Trum of Bamber, Germany. Their
Eiche (‘oak’ auf Deutsch) offered a complex, smooth character more reminiscent
of ‘actual’ smoke than the ‘food-like’ smokiness of the Bishop.
As is typical of our tastings, we rounded off the evenings
with the big boys: a pair of barrel-aged barleywines, the first from English
stalwarts Samuel Smith. Their Yorkshire
Stingo, matured for a year in casks formerly used for actual cask ale, tasted
of dark fruits, caramel, & was remarkably restrained for its strength. The final piece was Nebraska Brewing
Company’s Fathead, an American barleywine aged in Stranahan whiskey
barrels. Bold, malty, with a big wood
& whiskey flavor, the Fathead was a warming end to an enjoyable evening.
It’s always good to see a mix of newcomers & familiar
faces at these get-togethers, & so it is with the beers – it’s good to
return to tastes we know & love, while also pushing ourselves to experience
a style or flavor that’s outside of our usual comfort zone. We may retreat from that new taste &
decide it’s just not for us, or find something wonderful that we never knew
about before. It’s so rewarding to be
able to help people along that path of discovery, & also help them find
that center & come back home again.
