Top Shelf Thursday: February 2013, Valentine's Day

Another Top Shelf Thursday is in the books, & if there’s something that’s almost as fun as drinking the beers, it’s writing about them in the next-day wrap-up.  Now, we know that the right beer can be just as romantic as any other beverage, but for our Valentine’s-themed tasting we decided to exploit the popular perception of wine as befitting the holiday.  And everyone knows that chocolate goes with Valentine’s Day, so for our “Wine & Chocolate” tasting we selected a flight of ten beers that tied in with either wine or chocolate.

The first course was the Chocolate Porter from Hangar 24 Brewing in Redlands, California, made with two types of chocolate malt, cocoa nibs, & aged on vanilla beans following fermentation.  It hid its 8% ABV well & was surprisingly light-bodied, with a coffee edge & some West Coast hop character.  DuClaw’s Double Naked Fish smelled great, hitting with a rich aroma of chocolate & raspberries, like a truffle.  The imperial stout base went down smooth & was very drinkable at 7.6% ABV.  The third & final “chocolate” beer threw folks for a bit of a loop.  Maracaibo Especial, a brown ale from Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales made with cacao nibs, cinnamon, & orange peel, packed a funky & tart punch from the brewery’s practice of open fermenting & barrel-aging all of their beers.

Moving into wine territory, we poured the first of two wine/beer “hybrids” from renowned experimenters Dogfish Head: Noble Rot.  This beer combines a saison/farmhouse ale with two types of grape must – pinot gris & a viognier that came into contact with a botrytis, a benevolent fungus that lends complexity to the grape (“noble rot”).  This beer was pale gold, very transparent, & was reminiscent of a Riesling in its aroma & flavor.  Their Chateau Jiahu was based on a 9,000-year-old recipe discovered from archaeological exploration near Jiahu in China.  The updated recipe uses rice syrup, hawthorn berries, honey, & grapes, & is fermented with a sake yeast, once again blurring the boundaries between beer & wine.

While bourbon barrel-aging has become part of many brewers’ repertoires, aging in wine barrels is far less common, which is what gave the next two beers – both from gypsy brewer Evil Twin – their distinct characters.  Evil Twin used Chardonnay barrels to age both its 9^th Symphony, a strong Belgian blonde ale with “notes” (ha-ha) of banana & a slightly tart finish; & Disco Beer, a double IPA with a very fruity, sweet, almost cake-like flavor that was still backed by a bracing bitterness.  It was very interesting to see how similar barrels could create such different flavors in two distinct styles of beer.

Our third “wine” grouping was based around a style born of wine-envy: barleywines.  From Blue Point Brewing in Long Island, Old Howling Bastard had a very sweet & caramel malt profile, with notes of spice, peppermint, & a prominent hop bitterness that definitely planted this traditionally English beer firmly in American soil.  This was a no-frills American barleywine, packed with flavor & complexity.  Victory’s Oak Horizontal was no slouch either, their Old Horizontal aged in bourbon barrels.  The barrels added a resiny, tannic element to the already strong malt profile, again with a subtler but notable hop presence.

Capping things off was the “champagne” course: Brooklyn Black Ops, an imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels & bottled with champagne yeast.  Black Ops is in the pantheon of American imperial stouts, & while some had tried it before, everyone left satisfied by this masterful beer.

One point of interest that wove throughout the flight this evening was the variation & diversity that beer can achieve, even with a common thread like the theme presented this evening.  We tasted the sweet, the bitter, the sour, the subtle, the bold, the brights brights, & the darkest darks, all connected through this wonderfully complex beverage.  These tastings continue to be a really fun time, for folks to meet, make new friends, try new beers, & marvel at something so simple yet so complex.  Beer can truly romance you.

Give Us This Day Our Liquid Bread

Christians the world over observed the beginning of Lent this past week, with ashes on their foreheads as a sign of penitence in the weeks leading up to Easter.  Many practice a symbolic “fasting”, giving up a vice or luxury during this time of preparation.  The monks of Munich (Munchen in Germany, or “place of the monks”) were prohibited from eating solid food during Lent to mark this ritual of self-denial.  In order to sustain themselves, the brothers brewed an especially strong & nourishing lager beer to drink in place of solid food throughout those 40 days & nights, & the Doppelbock was born. 

Beer, made of barley, hops, yeast, & water, is essentially liquid bread, & few  styles exemplify this as clearly as Doppelbock.  A glass of good Doppelbock can smell like fresh baked bread: sweet, malty, with a toasty edge like dark bread crust & notes of caramel & a little alcohol.  The ABV is, as the name would imply, on the higher side - typically 7% or above & sometimes reaching into the double digits.  The classic example is Paulaner Salvator (“savior”), with a name reflecting the holy, life-giving nature attributed to the beer.  Many Doppelbocks have been named in honor of this archetype, with names ending in the “-ator” suffix.  A great example from the Deutschland is Ayinger’s Celebrator, & Thomas Hooker’s Liberator from Connecticut is one of the best American-made offerings of the style (in this writer’s opinion).

Many observers may give up beer for Lent, but some may remember the news story from several years ago of an Iowa man giving up all BUT beer for Lent.  J. Wilson, emulating the centuries-old tradition of the monks, consumed nothing except Doppelbock for the 46 days of Lent, breaking his fast on Easter Sunday with a bacon smoothie!*  We think Wilson was onto something.  Many who are serious about beer may speak of having a religious experience with that one breakthrough beer – it’s interesting to think of a time & a beer in which that expression was more than figurative.  Regardless of your spiritual orientation, or complete lack thereof, consider that next beer in your glass as more than fermented gold/amber/brown/black goodness – think of it as nourishment for the body & the soul.

 *Wilson performed this feat with extensive medical consultation – don’t try this at home!

New Albion

Imagine you had a friend who said he was going to start a car manufacturing company.  His plan is to build the factory by hand, build the cars by hand, & sell them face-to-face to retailers.  He doesn’t like the way that Ford, Chrysler, & GM build cars, & thinks he can offer drivers something better, more like they engineer them in Europe.  And he’s going to do this on his own, & maybe after a while hire an intern to help him.  He’s going to play ball in a field completely monopolized by the big boys.

You’d think your friend was delusional, or a bigger bullshitter than you’d taken him for.

Next, imagine that your friend actually accomplished what he dreamed of doing – built & sold his own line of automobiles by hand, completely DIY.  The people who drove them loved them, like no other piece of machinery they’d driven in this country.  The company goes under in a few years – unable to expand enough to sustain itself, the curse of an artisanal craftsman.  But then, slowly, this approach is emulated by others.  One here, one there.  Word of mouth travels about this revolutionary new approach to automobile manufacturing, & people catch on that this is what cars are supposed to be about.  Fast forward 35 years, & craft automobiles are the rage.  There’s at least one in each town, & about 100 in Portland.  Small, local “homebuilders” are taking their hobby & passion & opening up their own little factory, making cars full of flavor, & made with real malted barley instead of car adjuncts, & experimenting with bourbon barrel cars, & cars made with wild engines, &…

Okay, so there’s where the analogy goes off the rails.  But this is exactly what Jack McAuliffe, a Navy vet, did when he started New Albion Brewing Company in 1976.  A citizen of Northern California’s homebrewing community, McAuliffe took an underground artform & made a commercial example - “mass-produced” it on his barrel-&-a-half system that he assembled himself using his experience repairing nuclear submarines.  New Albion produced an ale, a stout, & a porter, practically unheard of from stateside brewers.  Also unheard of was forging a business that would “compete” with the big brewers, who by the mid-70s had already grown to gargantuan levels.  McAuliffe’s enterprise only lasted a few years, but showed beer drinkers that it could be done, paving a path for every craft brewing start-up that’s come along since & sowing the seeds of the tremendous craft beer culture in America today.

Boston Beer Company, very much a pioneer in their own right, have resurrected New Albion Ale from the brewing history books, collaborating with McAuliffe on a recipe laid to rest decades ago.  It’s a simple but elegant pale ale, made with the quintessentially American Cascade hops, with a subtle, crisp & biscuity malt profile.  The label is a replication of the original, depicting the sailing vessel of Sir Francis Drake, who claimed territory along the Pacific coast & named it “New Albion”, itself a symbol of exploration & discovery.  The beer itself does not wow the tastebuds by the standards of its progeny, but that’s not the point.  What we have before us is a piece of history, recreated, offering a glimpse of American beer’s past & an opportunity to appreciate how far we’ve come.  American craft beer is about innovation, & this is the first.  This is the taste of ground being broken.

Stress-Free Beer

The last few weeks have seen some very highly anticipated beers come & go.  Two weeks ago, Stone’s Enjoy By 2.15.13 dropped on Pittsburgh.  For weeks prior, people called, tweeted, & messaged asking when we’d get it, how much, how many, etc.  It came & sold out in half a day.  Two days ago, we got a small supply of Bell’s Black Note.  Leading up to that, the hype machine started buzzing about how much was going to make it to PA, whether we’d have any, would we save so-&-so some, what scandalous acts would folks have to commit to get a little.  That went in a few hours.  Same with Bolt Cutter & every other Founders Backstage release, & in a few months, people will be crawling over one another to get at KBS.  This morning, sources reported a huge line outside of Russian River’s taproom hours before they were scheduled to tap Pliny the Younger; history has shown that folks stand in line for hours after opening to try a glass of this liquid epiphany.  E-Bay has shut down alcohol sales, but a year ago, a quick search for “Dark Lord” would yield asking prices in the multiple hundreds of dollars.  If you look at the on-line trading forums, it seems that folks would trade their own mother for a bottle of (fill-in-the-whale).

Just thinking about the blood, sweat, & tears that people put into chasing down these white whales - & the agony they suffer when they feel they’ve missed out – is a little troubling.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve encountered someone in the store ask if we’re getting in that special release Unobtainium, & see the conviction in their eyes.  It makes me so happy to hook someone up with that one-of-a-kind beer they’re dying to try, but part of me is saddened to see folks pass up so many other great beers just by virtue of the fact that they’re accessible & available to them all the time.  The thrill of the hunt is excites us & makes the catch very rewarding, but it seems like after a while we have to ask ourselves if the added pressure & urgency is really worth it.  It seems to me that beer is something to be enjoyed, not a source of stress, & that too often we take for granted the faithful standbys.  Once in a while we need to take a look around at the hundreds of other quality products out there– the Two-Hearted Ales, the Edmund Fitzgeralds, the tons of other widely-distributed, quality brews - & pick out a beer to enjoy, without the hunt, without feeling like it’s slipping between our fingers.  Beer is to be enjoyed, so take some time to stop & smell the hops.  Stress-free beer is always worth it.