More Rambling Thoughts on IPA

It might seem like I’ve had IPAs on my mind a good bit lately.  There was that provocative Slate article a few months ago & the obligatory backlash.  What did people expect from a mainstream news source that prides itself on being deliberately contrarian?  Then there was IPA Day earlier this month, & the series of parodic “facts” on our Facebook & twitter feeds.  Thanks to those who got it & played along, as well as those who didn’t get it at first but then played along anyway. 

The point of that endeavor – aside from having a bit of fun – was that there are a lot of soundbytes & factoids about beer floating around out there like yeast sediment.  Many of them are spotty or half-truths, but get repeated by the guy on the radio, the gal writing the blog, or someone sitting at the end of the bar.  Many of them have assumed the place of legend among those in the know, & somehow get cemented into the ether of beer knowledge.  Beer geeks trip over each other to whip out the most esoteric piece of apocrypha out there, like some race to be the biggest know-it-all.  That’s all well & good, & like I’ve said in previous blog posts, a bit of context can do wonders to enhance the experience & appreciation of beer.  If you haven’t caught on by now, most of these “opinion” blogs veer toward chilling out & just enjoying the beer.  We don’t all need to get into a contest of one-upsmanship on who’s the most fanatical beer geek here, who landed the biggest whale, who can most accurately cite BJCP style guidelines, etc.  And maybe I’m mostly talking to myself here.

Back to IPAs, the upsurge in IPAs has really made me think about how far the collective palates of beer fans have come.  IPAs are pretty much the most popular & ubiquitous style of craft beer on the market today.  I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that 99% of craft brewers make IPAs today.  At the time of this writing, we have 12 IPAs on tap, & another four hoppy “IPA-adjacents”.  Some bemoan the glut of hopped-up beers in American bars & bottleshops, but I think it’s a check in the “win” column for craft beer & adventurous tastebuds.  Bitter is a taste that more & more people are getting into, & many will readily admit that it’s an acquired taste.  It’s a sign that craft beer is winning hearts & minds, & that more & more people are willing to try something different, even if it takes some getting used to.  Though I don’t think it’s the only one, I consider acclimation to IPAs one sign of a maturing palate.  Trends point to there being more & more beer drinkers bold enough to get to know what can be a pretty challenging style.  IPAs are basically the antithesis of light, adjunct-based lagers, & beer fans hard- & softcore have embraced them.  They’re still not for everyone, of course, but they’re definitely breaking through, & I think it’s a great thing.

Now for the Slate-esque contrarian point: how about we change the name?  I know it sounds a little crazy now, at the height of its recognition, but I don’t think the name India Pale Ale fits any more.  Or maybe it never should have been used in the first place.  Hear me out.  India Pale Ale is originally a British style with a specific historical context, & stylistic guidelines that fit within that context for that time.  What people know & love today as IPA is essentially an American invention.  The American IPA is devoid of the historical context that earned India Pale Ale its name many, many years.  And the American IPA is popular because of US brewers’ innovations in use of hops, both quality & quantity.  Sure, ye olde English IPAs are more highly hopped than their pale ale “juniors”, but have you had an English or English-style IPA lately?  I’m guessing probably not.  How many examples can you name?  Two?  Three?  What people have come to know & love in American IPA is the bright flavors & aromas that are distinct in Pacific Northwest hops.  By all accounts, English IPA was nearly extinct when, almost 30 years ago, Portland’s BridgePort Brewing made the first American beer to be dubbed “India Pale Ale”.  In a way, I liken that to Sir Walter Raleigh bringing tobacco (& not cannabis) back to the old world with him – it set the foundation upon which a paradigm was built.  Maybe this sounds chauvinistic or jingoistic, but I say that American brewers have claimed their rightful place on beer’s global stage with the bold use of bold hops, so why pay homage to an old style from the old world?  Why not brand an American art-form as distinctly American, right up there with jazz & abstract expressionism?  American ale, West Coast ale, Cascadian ale, what have you.  Yes, I might be tilting at windmills, but I’m proud of America’s brewers.  Damn proud!  The rest of the world is viewing America as the shining brewery on the hill right now, & I say we stand up, shed off the moniker of an arcane style, & give modern IPA its daddy’s name!  Now who’s with me?!

Okay, okay, I’ve calmed down.  Whew.  Enjoy your pint, everyone.

Top Shelf Thursday, August 2013: Fruit Beers

When trying to make a point, analogies are a frequent go-to for me.  I was trying to think of a good one for fruit beers, their niche & perception in the bigger world of beer.  This may not be the perfect parallel, but the thing that came to me first is The Monkees.  For many fans of serious music, The Monkees are a punchline.  They’re seen as gimmicky, commercial, insipid, superficial by many.  On the surface, this is what most people know The Monkees for – but not all.  Sure, there’s the TV show, the fabricated origins, the bubblegum hits.  But there’s also the part of their career that achieved some depth & quality, some really solid songwriting & even pushing the envelope a bit (check out Head & Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones Ltd.).  I’ll still argue that, at their hardest, The Monkees rocked harder than The Beatles (not better, but harder).  They never stopped being a pop band, but grew into something so much more interesting than the expendable hit machine they were engineered to be.  And even “serious” rock fans can erroneously overlook the value & pleasure of a well-crafted pop song.

Fruit beers might be The Monkees of the beer world, especially by craft’s standards.  Most craft drinkers approach fruit beers with some skepticism.  The big brewers’ attempts to break into craft markets have typically been with fruit beers.  People get turned off by gimmicky, commercial, insipid, superficial examples & may write fruit beers off entirely.  But there’s so much possibility beyond the “pop” beers, & even a well-done, easy-drinking fruit beer can be just right.  At this month’s Top Shelf Thursday tasting, we asked people to put aside their prejudices & look at some of fruit beer’s deeper cuts. 

Speaking of pushing the envelope, things kicked off with Dogfish Head’s Ta Henket, which some may remember from an episode of Discovery Channel’s Brewmasters in which Sam & crew traveled to Egypt.  The beer is based on a recipe from hieroglyphs, uses a wild saccharomyces yeast strain native to the region, as well as chamomile, za’atar (a blend of herbs, sesame, & salt), & the date-like fruit from the doum palm, or gingerbread tree.  The beer was wheat-based & had a nice round sweetness & bready complexity, even with its light ABV (4.5%).

Fruit beers are seldom hoppy, but we saw how orange zest can complement a hop-forward beer with Contact High, from 4 Hands Brewing.  The hoppy character of this pale wheat was accentuated by the citrus, & hopheads in attendance were not disappointed.

ShawneeCraft’s Raspberry Blanche, a Belgian-style witbier with raspberries, hit lighter notes.  The dry, spicy character of the witbier worked well in conjunction with the use of the slightly tart fruit.  Raspberries worked very differently in Oud Beersel’s Framboise, a traditional Belgian lambic.  It was interesting to see the versatility of the fruit, as here it emphasized the sour, funky, earthy notes of the wild ale.  On another sour note, Cuvee-Brut, from traditional Belgian brewery Liefmans, is a blend of two Flanders sour brown ales: Liefmans Oud Bruin & Goudenband.  Whereas the fruit in the Framboise seemed to add tart to sour, the addition of black cherries in the Cuvee-Brut rounded & sweetened the otherwise sharp, acidic/acetic base beers.

Locally-sourced fruit is the concept behind Hangar 24’s Local Fields series, from which we sampled their Palmero.  The use of Coachella Valley dates fit squarely within the darkly sweet & fruity profile of the Belgian-style dubbel.

Fans of sour ales were excited to try Savant Beersel from Perennial Artisan Ales, but maybe not more excited than the beer itself – both bottles gushed enthusiastically when the caps were popped!  The use of 100% brettanomyces to ferment this beer was responsible for the volatile foam-up, & the funky, dry, & sour notes of the wild ale worked great with the use of Missouri grapes & the seven months spent aging in wine barrels.  Perennial also stimulated some very different tastebuds with Fantastic Voyage.  This imperial milk stout was given a slick, almost oily feel & toasty flavor from the addition of coconut.

We ended on a high note with a pair of golden Belgian-style ales – high alcohol, if nothing else.  5 Golden Rings is the fifth in The Bruery’s 12 Beers of Christmas, a diagonal series of holiday beers.  The use of ginger, allspice, & cinnamon came through in the nose, while the taste was heavy with the addition of pineapple, which concealed the 11.5% ABV surprisingly well.  And we stretched the definition of “fruit” with Kasteel Trignac XII.  The classic Kasteel Tripel from Belgium’s Van Honsebrouck was kicked up both in flavor & alcohol content – a whole percent ABV - from time spent in cognac barrels (hey, cognac’s made from grapes, so this is a fruit beer, right?). 

So there you have it: ten pieces of evidence that fruit beers stretch beyond weak & soda-like, & can embrace adventurous & odd profiles.  What’s next – craft light beer?  I doubt we’d see a tasting based around it, but who knows?  Maybe a shandy tasting?  Hmmm…

E.S.P.

For years, Westvleteren 12 sat at the top of the beer heap.  The Trappist breweries have long held their place as the elite among beermakers, & the strong, dark ale brewed at the Abbey of St. Sixtus is celebrated as the crème de la crème.  The Top [x] Beers on the internet’s two most popular beer reviewing sites, BeerAdvocate & RateBeer, were crowned for the longest time by this holiest of holy brews.  It still is at RateBeer, but recently Westy 12 has dropped all the way down to seventh place on BeerAdvocate’s list, trumped by some highly regarded IPAs & stouts (& some damn good ones, too). 

So what changed?  The tastebuds of beer geeks?  Maybe.  It’s no secret that IPAs are gaining in popularity as more & more people get acclimated to that challenging bitterness & are breaking through to the rewards beneath.  And the beer savvy always love a good stout.  But I think there’s a general change in the perception of Westy 12 since the brewers’ foray into stateside distribution last winter.  Until last December, Westvleteren’s brews were available exclusively at the abbey & the café across the street from the abbey.  They were sold by the crate during limited hours, & cars driven by thirsty beer hunters would line up at the side door, waiting to fill up with a load of this treasured quad.  They’ve since returned to this means of distribution, but for a short time were sold in retail stores across the nation in an effort to raise funds to repair a portion of the abbey.  The pedestal was shortened.  Beer lovers, who may have before only heard & dreamed of partaking, now had this forbidden fruit at their fingertips. 

And was it all they’d hoped for?  Judging by the dip in ranking, I’m assuming some were left wondering what all the fuss was about.  Which begs the question: How much is a drinker’s perception of a beer swayed by factors beyond actual sensory input?  The appearance, aroma, flavor, & texture of a brew may only tell part of the story.  It’s hard to deny that part of the allure of Westy 12 was the journey taken in uniting beer & beer lover (& it feels so good).  The cynical refer to it as “hype” & “tasting the rare”, & jibe the gullible beer geeks whose opinions are elevated by the thrill of the hunt, by grabbing that gold ring & gulping it down.  It’s hard to blame them – beer should be evaluated by its own merits, context be damned.  Right?

Again, maybe.  Actually yeah, really.  But to be the contrarian, there’s something to be said for savoring & appreciating the context & process that went into the beer, both before AND after it’s made.  Knowing the trip that you or the bottle had to take to make this experience possible probably augments it in the eyes of the drinker.  I think that’s perfectly valid.  Okay, you can’t polish a turd; if a beer is noticeably lacking or flawed it will probably fall flat, despite what sort of adventure it took or idyllic setting in which you may be drinking it.  But let’s not discount that story, that context, that perception of the beer that is “extra-sensory”.  If perception is reality & we’re in a heightened state of awareness, finely attuned to the qualities of a beer based on its background, shouldn’t our experience rightfully be elevated?  Sure, maybe it’s hype, maybe it’s self-fulfilling expectations, depending on your perspective.  But beauty’s in the eye of the beholder, & there’s some validity to that story being able to elevate a beer.  If something’s special, if there’s some magic to holding that holy grail in your hand, why fight it?  Westvleteren 12 is, in my opinion, a wonderful beer.  It’s not my favorite beer of all time, but I can see what earned it its esteem, & part of my admiration & excitement in drinking it is that it’s not at hand whenever I want some.  That it’s got that some air of mystery & esoteric elusiveness.  Part of me hopes there are always those gold rings to reach for.

                                                                                                                                                                                          

99 Bottles of Beer on the Shelf

It was late last summer & we were trying to put together an event or two for Big Pour Week, the week leading up to the Steel City Big Pour.  2012 was our first year of sponsoring the Big Pour, & we wanted to offer something unique to our customers & the greater Pittsburgh beer community, especially something that really showed off our selection.  We thought of all the great, hard-to-find beers on our shelves that we’d like to turn people onto.  We also realized that a lot of curious beer drinkers might be really intrigued by a bottle of something, but hesitant to pull the trigger because of the price tag that often comes with the rare stuff. 

Eureka!  Why not have a tasting of some select beers that we want to expose people to, at a low-risk price?  If folks like what’s offered, they’ll feel more comfortable shelling out a little more for what they know is a great beer.  If something’s not to their liking, they won’t feel burned or ripped off.  Top Shelf Thursday was born.  The first one got enough demand that we decided to make it a monthly event.  They’re a lot of fun, with faces old & new at each tasting & diverse styles of beer – some like all, all like some (& folks have found stuff they’ve absolutely loved, too!).  Folks meet, drink, & make friends - naturally a lot of the conversation tends to veer toward beer.  July saw the tenth tasting in eleven months (we skipped December), so we thought it a good time to do a recap of all the beers we’ve poured so far.

AleSmith Decadence 2012

AleSmith Grand Cru

AleSmith IPA

Anchorage Whiteout

Ballast Point Dorado

Beer Here Morke Pumpernickel Porter

Blue Point Old Howling Bastard

Bockor Bellegems Bruin

Bockor Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge

Boom Island Thoprock IPA

Brash The Bollocks

Brooklyn Black Ops

Bruery Mischief

Bruery Rueuze

Bruery Smoking Wood – Rye Barrel-Aged

Bruery Sour in the Rye

Bruery White Orchard

Caldera Vas Deferens

Caracole Saxo

Central Waters/Local Option Le Petite Mort

Charlevoix Dominus Vobiscum Double

Chimay Tripel

Cisco Pedaller Bike Path Blueberry Bleer

Clown Shoes Clementine 1.5

Clown Shoes/Brash Pimp

Clown Shoes/Three Heads Third Party Candidate

Dansk Mjod Old Danish Braggot

De la Senne/Allagash Very Special Belge

De La Senne/Weyerbacher/Tom Peters Manneken-Penn

De Struise/Stillwater Outblack

Deschutes/Hair of the Dog Conflux No. 1 (Collage)

Dieu du Ciel Routes des Epices

Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu

Dogfish Head Noble Rot

Dogfish Head/Dan the Automator Positive Contact

Draai Laag Goedenacht

DuClaw Double Naked Fish

Evil Twin Disco Beer

Evil Twin Even More Jesus

Evil Twin Symphony No. 9

Evil Twin/Omnipollo Russian Roulette

FiftyFifty Eclipse – Mellow Corn

FiftyFifty Eclipse – Old Fitzgerald

FiftyFifty Eclipse – Rittenhouse Rye

Firestone Walker Walker’s Reserve Porter

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout

Hambleton Nightmare

Hangar 24 Chocolate Porter

Hangar 24 Double IPA

Hanssens Oudbeitje Lambic

Hanssens Oude Kriek

Hanssens Scarenbecca Kriek

Harviestoun Ola Dubh Special Reserve 16

Harviestoun Ola Dubh Special Reserve 30

Heller-Trum Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche

Helltown Spiteful Saison

Heretic Evil Twin

Hoppin’ Frog Barrel-Aged B.O.R.I.S.

Hoppin’ Frog Barrel-Aged Naked Evil

Hoppin’ Frog B.O.R.I.S. the Crusher

Hoppin’ Frog D.O.R.I.S. the Destroyer

Hoppin’ Frog Hop Dam Triple IPA

Invercargill Smokin’ Bishop

Jandrain-Jandrenouille V Cense

Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo Especiale

Liefmans Goudenband

Lost Abbey Angel’s Share

Lost Abbey Red Poppy

Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast

Mikkeller Chipotle Porter

Nebraska Apricot au Poivre Saison

Nebraska Fathead

North Coast/Deschutes/Rogue Class of /88 Barleywine

Omnipollo Leon

Oud Beersel Bersalis

Perfect Crime Smoking Gun

Port Anniversary Ale

Port Older Viscosity

Pretty Things Lovely Saint Winefride

Russian River Redemption

Saint-Germain Page 24 Reserve Hildegarde

Samuel Smith Yorkshire Stingo

Sierra Nevada/Abbey of New Clairvaux Ovila Belgian-style Golden Ale

Sierra Nevada/Dogfish Head Rhizing Bines

Sierra Nevada/Russian River Brux Domesticated Wild Ale

Silenrieux Joseph Spelt Ale

Southern Tier Pumking

Stillwater Folklore

Stillwater/Hof ten Dormaal Bronze Age

Telegraph Reserve Wheat

Tilquin Oude Gueuze Tilquin a L’Ancienne

Uinta Oak Jacked

Van Honsebrouck St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition

Van Steenberge Piraat

Van Steenberge St. Stefanus Grand Cru

Verhaege Duchesse de Bourgogne

Victory Golden Monkey

Victory Oak Horizontal

Victory White Monkey

The next Top Shelf Thursday is August 15^th from 7-9pm, featuring fruit beers that are a bit outside the box.  Call or stop The House to reserve your spot, & we hope to see you there!