Everybody Talks

Columbus is still waiting on a couple of brewing operations to open.

Oval Brewing Company changed its name to Land Grant in a desperate attempt to retain a connection to Ohio State, while avoiding potential lawsuits from Oval Vodka. I thought Oval was a stupid name anyway.

Land Grant's Facebook page touts beers, and says they were founded in 2009. People are confused as to the status of their beers.

They're still in the development phase.

The same is true of Actual Brewing Company, which was featured in a number of publications around town.

Of course, the process is a pain in the ass. Licensing, inspections, permits...it's not easy to open up a brewery, and you can't expect people who brew beer to have good PR skills. Of course they want people to know what they're up to. Maybe that will help cut through red tape.

It's a dangerous game. You might find that people have very high expectations. You might find that they're unforgiving if you fail to meet your goals.

To me, it says that you have no idea what you're doing. Oh, you might be a fine home brewer and all of your friends love your beer, but I'm not your friend and if you waste my time with a mediocre beer, I'm not going to cheer you along while you figure out the big boy pants. You made this choice. You accepted this challenge.

What I see right now is a lot of people thinking that the beer business is easy, and there's this warm and fuzzy wave of  "buy local" washing over the country. Well, in this business you'd better deliver because if you happen to be the local tap handle some visitor selects, your beer is going to be representing the entire city.

That's why I like what Dan Cochran did at Four String Brewing Company. Dan was a home brewer who was exulted by his friends to start a brewery. He saved his pennies, did his homework and while a lot of people were talking about brewing beer, he opened a brewery.

Dan brews two beers. Brass Knuckle APA (American Pale Ale), and Backstage Blonde. Both are what he describes as"sessionable" beers. Relatively low in alcohol and light in body, with the intention being mass quantities. He also rolled out Big Star White IPA, which provided to be a successful merger between the Belgian and American styles of brewing.

Brass Knuckle is a thirst quencher that brings a respectable amount of hops to the party. Backstage Blonde is a crisp Belgian-influenced ale that brings the funk without being overwhelming.  Beer critics don't really "get" these beers because they aren't true to a particular style guideline. To be completely honest, Dan's beer drinking demographic will likely be the hipsters who've been singing PBR's praises over the last few years.

That's not to say these beers are weak, like PBR, but I prefer something a little hoppier than the APA for general purposes. This APA is great on a hot day when you just want to pound cold beers.  The Blonde isn't hoppy at all, but I think it's a feasible replacement for Blue Moon. The body is lighter and it's not full of spice and fruit extracts. The fruitiness in this beer comes from the sweetness of the malt mingling with the funky flavors of the yeast.

Dan's not out there talking about his beers. He's moving kegs. Literally. Dan distributes his own beer. He doesn't have time to talk about opening a brew pub, installing a canning line, or refining a list of 12 beers he might brew in the future. He's got to keep those taps flowing.

The newer brewers should take a page out of Dan's yet to be written book on opening a brewing company. Don't tell people how good your beer is going to be, hand them a pint and let the beer do the talking.

http://fourstringbrewing.com/

Zauber Brewing

Zauber Brewing Company was one of the most anticipated operations in the central Ohio craft brewing scene. Geoff Towne has credentials. UC Davis, followed by jobs at Great Lakes Brewing, Boston Beer Company, and work in the field as a rep and a brewing consultant. On his website he tells you that he is an Internationally Certified Brewmaster.

It sounds kind of dickish.

However, Geoff's a nice guy who loves beer. If you have the pleasure of meeting him you'll find him to be genuinely warm and engaging. He doesn't talk down to anybody, despite his impressive background. Watching him interact with people as he fills growlers makes you think that his stuffy approach to his bio was in jest.

Surely he knows that some of the best brewers in the business don't have degrees, or certifications. Yeah, he knows. He's got to.

What I like about Geoff is that he's taking a different tack when it comes to beers. He spent a lot of time in Europe and he's trying to bring that approach to Columbus. His plans include a German-inspired beer hall full of German-inspired beers.

I sincerely hope he does well. Columbus has a rich German Heritage and there's a huge, untapped market of beer drinkers who would respond favorably to the less assertive hop profiles one finds in Euro-centric styles.
I'm rooting for Geoff, and I'm pleased that he has a strong following here in Columbus.

BUT...

... I'm not impressed with his beer.

His very first entry into the market was a German Hefeweizen, Vertigo, that missed the mark for me. I got the distinct impression that Geoff tried to filter this a bit to clean it up for his American audience. The result was a wheat beer that seemed a little watery. No harm, no foul. Wheat beers rarely rock my world, but this one had that "almost" quality to it that I normally associate with Annheuser Busch when they try to sneak a craftish product into the market. Every time the brewers at AB come up with a bright idea, some douche in a suit tells them to tone it down. Then some accountant guts the budget. When the beer finally reaches the consumer: suckage. Big time suckage.

When AB announced that it was offering an "American Ale" craft brewers were nervous. They won't readily admit that they were, but when the beer finally hit the shelves they breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then they took another breath and laughed. "American Ale" is fucking awful, craft brewers and craft beer reps will tell you to try it. A rep from Great Lakes actually bought me one. He eagerly watched my face as a I had a pull from the glass as if I was taking the cinnamon challenge.

To be fair, I think Geoff boxed himself into a corner and forced this beer out to satisfy demand. Zauber's brewing efforts were delayed by red tape and I think that Four String Brewing Company, also in Grandview, scared the shit out of Geoff because Four String was out there building up a fan base while Greg was waiting for his permit. So as soon as he possibly could, he cranked out a hefe because it's quick and easy.

I was actually looking forward to Geoff's Stodgy Brown. That doesn't sound right, does it? I'm talking about an alt beer that Geoff bills as being aggressively hopped, like a Pale Ale.

I expected a sweet nuttiness up front, with a dry finish. What I got put me in mind of a Light Grand Cru. There was an unwelcome sourness to it that didn't seem intentional. I checked the profile on the Zauber's website and there was no mention of wild yeast strains. Alt beers are old school German beers that can be aled, lagered, or both, but they aren't generally sour. Maybe something funky got into the fermenter on that batch. Maybe the keg was jacked up. Either way, well, ick.

This was so unusual, I checked a couple of beer review sites and found that I wasn't the only person to pick up on it. One review described the finish as astringent.

The other alt, Myopic Red, is mediocre. It reminded me of the days before craft beer had proliferated the market and I drank Irish Red.

Full Discosure: I'm obviously not a huge fan of Euro-centric beers. That said, I've had many that I like. I was actually looking forward to the Stodgy Brown and desperately wanted to like it. Every brewer needs a flagship beer that he can anchor his brand around and that was the one that had the potential to appeal to a large audience.

Maybe Geoff needs to back off the true-to form approach. He claims to like "style-bending" beers, but nothing he's currently offering seems to bend anything. What I've tried so far could have come from a prepackaged home brew kit.

Them's fightin words in the craft brew business, especially for a guy a well-traveled as Geoff, but I think they are words Geoff needs to hear. People have been singing his praises but I think that's because they like the idea of Zauber. We're all caught up in the "buy local" movement and there's nothing wrong with that, but you have to deliver the goods. Columbus has been really fortunate to have some great local business open over the last several years and those businesses have enjoyed support. You can't betray that trust with bad product. It's not fair to the comsumers, but it's a real disservice to other entrepreneurs who will follow you.  Don't salt the earth.

Geoff's doing a great job of working the crowd by connecting with the Food Truck scene to host events at his brewery, but the beers leave a lot to be desired and you can't hide behind food trucks and big talk forever. Especially with other brewers trying to carve out a slice of the same pie.

The good news is that Geoff has an opportunity to make it work. He's got a following that should afford him enough breathing room to get his beers on track.

Look, if I'm just a snob, and he manages to carve out a niche, more power to him. There's a huge segment of the market that all of the current craft brewers is not reaching. If Greg can lure them away from conglomerates with lightly hopped, Euro-brews, everybody in the business will give him a huge round of applause.

That's a big if.


http://zbeers.com/

The Mission

It's back. After sitting on the sidelines collecting internet dust, this blog has been revisited with new and noble purpose in mind. I decided not to remove my previous entries even though I'm reinventing this blog to focus on beers germane to Central Ohio. It's still beer, right? It's a peak into the sordid history of a man who drinks too much beer. And writes too many words. And maybe is a bit of an asshole.

A local friend and brewer told me that I needed to get a blog together because there is a paucity of brutal honesty in Columbus. Every damned time some industrious bugger opens up a local enterprise, the community sings his, or her praises.

As such, I'll also review bars and restaurants time to time, because the same dynamic applies.

It's not necessarily fair. I love local businesses and I support them, but there are too many great local business people out there busting their asses to do right by the community for some half-assed opportunist to cash in on that loving feeling.

That's especially true with beer. Craft beer is a passion. I've talked to the people who brew it and they aren't in it for the money. It's all about the beer and the people who enjoy it. You can see it on their faces. When Angelo Signorino is drawing pints at a beer festival he is absolutely giddy. Eric Bean will stand there and talk about brewing with inebriated dorks for an hour. While is wife rolls here eyes and wonders if he'll ever get his ass back to the house and clean the gutters. The schedules are grueling, but they do it because it's not a job, it's a lifestyle.

Angelo oversees two microbreweries. He's got to keep 12 taps, and four beer engines flowing. Oh, and every Friday Barley's cracks open a 10 gallon firkin at each location. Any brewer will tell you, cask conditioned beers are a huge pain in the ass. They also aren't the most profitable beers, but craft brewing really isn't about the profit. In fact, owning a craft brewing operation is probably one of the worst business decisions a person can make. You're probably not going to get rich and you won't retire at a young age. The upside is that you'll enjoy going to work every day.

And it's not pretty work, either. From the outside looking in, it seems nice enough but there's dark side. Imagine being Kim Kardashian's gynecologist: It's hot. It's wet. It's sticky. People get hurt.

When Eric took the helm at Columbus Brewing Company he inherited a mess. Columbus Brewing Company was mediocre, at best. Oh, there were fans but they were drinking shit. Columbus Pale Ale was like one of those watery Utah beers because people who were more interested in counting beans than brewing beer tried to cut costs. Eric brought the focus back to the beer, and under his direction Columbus Brewing Company has emerged as a serious player in the craft brew business.

Then you have Elevator Brewing Company where Vic Schlitz has been working at both ends of the brewing spectrum with an impressive selection of light beers, contrasted by a series of beefier, barrel-aged offerings. Elevator would probably do well to trim the selection back and revisit the standard bearers of the craft industry, because I find their Pale Ale and IPA just a little unfulfilling. That's because they're both brewed in the traditional British sense and I like the less subtle American approach. Perhaps rolling out American variations would be in order, but that's just me being picky. Regardless, Elevator holds its own.

These three (four if you count Barley's twice and you probably should because they each have their own identity) operations are the heart and soul of Columbus' craft beer market and they have set the bar rather high. New brewers are welcome to join the fray. I know that Eric, Angelo and Vic welcome it because craft brewers tend to feed off each other. The friendly competition between the brewers builds the market for everybody.

Likewise, a lackluster brewing operation can be detrimental to everybody. If a traveler visiting from out of town is unimpressed with one brewery's offering, they might write off all the breweries. Then they'll tell their friends that Columbus has a weak beer scene and that rumor will spread. It's not really fair, but it happens.

The reason for that is because cities that are known for great craft beers make it really hard to find a bad beer. Portland, San Diego, Denver...Cleveland, believe it or not, has become a Midwestern Mecca of craft beer. Surprisingly enough, the vaunted Great Lakes Brewing Company might be the least inspiring brewery, if only because they seem to be suffocating under the weight of their own success.

For its size and demographics, Columbus has a paucity of brewers. We need more and they've been starting to spring up. Neil House, Four String, Zauber and Hoof-Hearted have opened for business and there are more on the way. Unfortunately, a lot of people entering the market don't have the chops. When Jay Wince opened up Weasel Boy in Zanesville he did so with hundreds of batches of home brew under his belt. His beers weren't just vetted by friends happy to catch a free buzz, he entered competitions and had his beers objectively evaluated.

Some of the new brewers have barely graduated from extracts in plastic buckets. The operations they've invested in don't appear to have the capacity to sustain a profit and if they happen to have a natural affinity for brewing beer, it's unlikely they'll be able to satisfy demand. Brewing equipment is not cheap and expanding is difficult when you can't afford to halt production to install a new brew kettle or roll in a bigger fermenter.

Moreover, after sampling some of these new beers, I'm not impressed. I'll go into detail in future entries but I've had a couple of beers that are not worthy of the honor of representing Columbus. I have a friend, we'll call him Bob, who is an avid home brewer and, while he relentlessly sells himself short, his beers don't seem as amateurish as some of those being celebrated locally.

That will not stand.

As a consumer, I don't owe you my business. I'm not going to drive by Barley's to support you while you try to figure out how to get that weird molasses flavor out of your IPA. I'm not going to spend $12 on 64 ounces of mediocre bucket brew, when I can spent $9 on 72 ounces of Columbus IPA, which might be the best IPA in the country, by the way.

As I delve into these beers, my goal isn't to belittle anybody. I genuinely want to see more brewers in Columbus. I just don't want them to suck. Blowing kisses and throwing roses at you because you opened a local business isn't going to address the deficiencies in your beer.

It's not a game, kids. This is serious business.

Christmas Beers

It's been a while since I've posted here and for that I apologize. As 2010 comes to a close, I will make a commitment to post once a week, save for vacation.

I want to take a minute to talk about Christmas beers. There are two ways to look at this: 1. Beers brewed to be enjoyed at Christmas, and 2. Beers to give as Christmas gifts.

If you're reading this there's a pretty good chance you like good beer. Maybe you prefer a hop heavy beer that's kind of like a double-barreled shotgun blast of pine cones in your mouth. Maybe you prefer a more deftly balanced brown ale. Perhaps it's the crisp and clean lagers that strike your beer fancy. Regardless of what you like, you'll never look a gift beer in the spout. Even if somebody buys you something horrible, like Bud Dry, you know full well you can simply re-gift that swill to some idiot who will love it.

Of course the best way to go is to buy local. If you're buying for somebody who lives out of town, the typical stuff from your local brew pub is going to be exotic. Another nifty trick is to collect beer as you travel. Putting a sampler sixer of beers from various places together over the course of a few months is also really cool. Even if every beer in the package is garbage, there's something to be said for trying a bunch of different beers.

Now, the best way to handle the multiple location pack is to focus on one style. In the US, virtually every brewer views their pale ale as the flagship beer. With a few exceptions, pale ales are where craft breweries start.

Now if you know your beer buddy isn't into hops you can go with porters and stouts. I consider myself a hop head but I love a nice smoky porter.


Christmas drinking is best kept local. As my friend we'll call Bob will tell you, cold and blustery nights are perfect for a good winter warmer. Winter warmers are bull-bodied ales that ease back on the hops and balance the malt with spices. Some are more subtle than others. 21st Ammendment Brewery out of San Francisco makes a Winter Ale called Fireside Chat. This beer first struck me as very good, but after a while I found the spices a little overwhelming.

Locally I have access to threw very good Warmers. Great Lakes Brewing Company has a legendary seasonal with the clever name, Christmas Ale. This is a subtle beer that is easy to drink. It's not too heavy, hoppy or spicy but it is a fast moving beer. GLBC has a hard time keeping up with demand and reportedly doesn't fulfill keg orders to bars that don't keep a GLBC tap running all year.

Columbus Brewing Company has a simply named Winter Warmer that has a little more body. There's almost a hint of bitter chocolate in the beer which might be the Maris Otter Malts. Rumor has it they have a very distinctive flavor.

I also like Thirsty Dog's 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale which is similar to Christmas Ale but with a bit of nutmeg. It's not overpowering and the body seems just a bit fuller than the other two Ohio offerings mentioned here. All three beers are excellent, for the style.

Another one worth mentioning is Shiner's Holiday Cheer. Now this is a little weird, but somehow it gets pulled off in the end. Shiner takes a dunkelweizen adds pecans and peaches to the brewing process. Since the peaches aren't added to the mix after the fact, their influence is subtle. It's almost an aromatic note, but there's some peach aftertaste as well.

I shouldn't like it, but I do, granted I have never had more than one in any given sitting so it's possible that this particular holiday offering gets tiresome midway through the second round.

Word Association

Easter

Bunny

Hops

mmmm...beer


Again I need to apologize for not being a very good beer blogger. In my defense, I’ve been really busy with my regular 9-5 (which is really more like 8-6) and I’ve picked up a freelance writing gig that actually requires my skills as a beer consuming expert. So there.

Anyway, I’ve not shirked my responsibilities as a beer drinker and I’m happy to report that I have three excellent beers to tell you about. Two of them are probably going to be hard to come by unless you have a keen beer buyer who is aware of Southern Tier Brewing Company. I know I tend to give STBC a lot of credit but trust me, it is well deserved.

Southern Tier seems to have drawn some inspiration from Dogfish Head and spends a lot of time crafting assertive recipes for its Imperial Series. One of them is called Iniquity. This is an Imperial Pale Ale that happens to be black in color. Thus the name Iniquity. This beer doesn’t play by the rules. Pale Ales by definition aren’t supposed to be exceptionally dark but craft brewers do not play by rules.

Of course Southern Tier didn’t just tinker with naming conventions and slap an IPA badge on a stout. This beer has a lot of the characteristics you’d expect from a double IPA. It’s not as viscous as a stout and certainly not as sweet. The beer has the citrus notes you’d expect from what has become the classic representation of an Imperial IPA hopped with the normal areas of Pacific Northwest hops. By nature, an imperial beer is double the strength of its standard counterparts but in spite of its bombastic appearance, Iniquity is surprisingly drinkable, which is a word I hate to use because all beers are drinkable, but you really expect this beer to be one that you enjoy in small quantities. It’s not hard to go through a couple of pints of this one.

Southern Tier’s other offering of note, one that has been making its rounds for a while now, is called Unearthly. It’s another Imperial Pale Ale but this one is traditionally hued with rich amber tones. It’s aggressively hopped, more so than Iniquity, and even brings more ABV to the party weighing in at 11% to Iniquity’s 9%. This beer smells like a pined forest after a rain storm and tastes like it too. In a good way, provided you enjoy hops. If you have to compare it to other beers, think Stone Ruination or possibly Dogfishead 120 Minute IPA, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that it’s just a facsimile. Unearthly might draw inspiration from other beers but it’s definitely impressive enough to stand on its own.

The third beer I enjoyed this past weekend might be distributed just a bit more readily than Southern Tier’s offerings. Lagunitas Brewing Company dabbled in a little chemistry and perfected a couple of hop extracts that they packed into an crystal clear amber ale that might prove to be one of the most unique offerings on the market this year.

Hop extracts are commonly used by bigger brewing companies to cut costs and minimize the possibility of their watery fizz bombs being cloudy. Normally craft brewers don’t lose a lot of sleep over such things because craft beer lovers know that trading flavor for clarity is a cardinal sin.

Well, Lagunitas managed to do both. What took me by surprise was how this light this beer is compared to the vivaciousness of the hops. Popping open the bottle was like setting off a hops bomb and pouring the beer brought back memories of First Blood where Rambo dives into the pine trees. Looking at the beer I was worried that it was going to taste like somebody brewed up hop tea, which is something I’ve tried and can honestly say I did not like. Hops aren’t so good when they’re unescorted. You need that malt to balance it.

Apparently Hop Stoopid was engineered to deliver more in the aroma department than you actually get when you drink the beer. Oh, it’s still hoppy, but not so much so that you feel overwhelmed. The beer was balanced really nicely and I enjoyed every sip. I was actually sad that I only bought one 22 ounce bottle, but I had a sampler of Flying Dog on hand to ease my misery.

Hop Stoopid wasn’t my favorite beer of all time. I still prefer a nice, filthy ale complete with suspended yeast and grain solids that settle to the bottom of the bottle leaving behind a gooey film. It sounds gross, but great beer is not for the squeamish. Still, I see more Hop Stoopid coming to a campsite near you. I have a feeling that it could be my favorite beer after a long hike on a hot day.

Ho, Ho, Ho

Everybody seems to offer some sort of Christmas ale. I mean everybody. Coors markets a seasonal under the Blue Moon umbrella, our wonderful friends at AB spew out something with a catchy name under one of their divisions and even European brewers get in on the act by marketing a number of dark ales with a Christmas theme. Some are actually really good while others are just rebadged stock beer sent to the US to trick consumers. That doesn’t mean they’re bad, just not as special as you might think.

When you’re buying beer as a gift there’s really no wrong way to go. Buy me a case of Bud Light and I’ll graciously accept it. Gifts are always appreciated. At the very least I can keep it handy for gatherings where not everybody shares my taste in beer or, if I receive the gift early enough, I can re-gift it to somebody who will really enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with re-gifting, by the way, which is why I love to make a gift of booze. I often buy alcohol knowing that the person who receives it might very well give it to somebody else. That’s fine. It’s as good as giving away money. Of course we don't give away money because it looks like we didn't put any thought into the gift even though we don't put much thought into gift cards but alcohol isn't like that. Everybody likes to get alcohol as a gift.

So you don’t have to be intimidated by the selection of Christmas beers. It’s really hard to go wrong. That being said, there are some fantastic beers to keep an eye out for.

Great Lakes Brewing Company offers a great Christmas Ale. It’s one of the best on the market. Like most Christmas ales it has higher alcohol content, and it’s a little less bitter than the other beers they offer. Great Lakes does a good job of not over spicing this beer which is sometimes a problem with Christmas ales. The hops lend a nice scent of pine and impart a touch of citrus that pull the rest of this big-bodied beer together.

Sadly, Great Lakes is offered in a limited area so a lot of people never get to try this one.

Leave it to Rogue to satisfy national demand with a great beer. Santa’s Private Reserve is a bold red ale that has a nice malty body that has a profile like roasted chestnuts and a nice piney finish from the hops. When Christmas ales go wrong, and some do, they either go too heavy or too light on the hops. Rogue strikes a perfect balance here.

Southern Tier Brewing Company is also hard to find but if you can track their beers down you should try their imperial Christmas offering; Krampus. Lately Southern Tier has been drawing inspiration from obscure mythological resources and Krampus represents the dark half of Christmas lore. This beer, is a strong imperial Helles lager that packs a lot of flavor. It’s big and aggressively hopped.

If I’m being honest I think Southern Tier is reaching for marketing angles with the history/mythology gimmick but that doesn’t detract from the fact that they make outstanding beer and Krampus is no exception. If you can get a hold of a bottle you should open it and have a sip or two. Or the whole damned bottle. But be warned: this is an imperial beer which means it’s got a high alcohol content. That could be a good thing if you have to weather the holiday season with extended family.


I’ll be enjoying these beers in the days leading up to Christmas, when I buy beer as a gift I try to find things that are really unique. Unfortunately I can’t write about one that I was really excited to find until after Christmas because one of the four or five people who read this blog is getting it and that would spoil the surprise.

One that nobody is getting is a beer I was dying to try all summer long. Then it was released and bought up before I could try it. It’s a special beer from Dogfish Head called Theobroma. This is a beer based on a recipe that the crazy brewmasters at Dogfish Head believe was served to kings and sacrificed to the gods by ancient Mayans. The beer features ancho chilies and Central American cacao along with honey, annatto and traditional brewing ingredients.

I expected a dark and nutty beer that lacked subtlety. I thought it would be good because Dogfish Head doesn’t make beer that isn’t but I was looking for something really primal. What I got was a beer that is as nuanced and refined as it gets. Theobroma delivers a wine-like experience complete with the 10% alcohol content. Unlike other high ABV beers this is light and clean in flavor. It’s tart and smooth with delicately sweetness and just a tiny bite from the chilies. You can’t compare Theobroma to other beers because Theobroma really doesn’t fit into any modern beer category. It’s a beer in the broad sense of the term, but you can’t find anything like it. It’s not even fair to compare it to the other experimental brews that Dogfish Head has had the sheer audacity to put on the market. You’d be better off comparing Theobroma to a sparkling wine like a tart Cava or a citrusy Proseco.

I loved this beer from the first sip but it took me a couple of days to take it all in. I’ve been waiting for this beer for half 10 months and had an image in my head of what it would be like. That image was shattered from the first pour.

Theobroma is still tough to find. It was a limited release in 750 ml bottles. Several beer/wine people I talked to were perturbed that they couldn’t acquire more than a case at the time of the initial release and it might be a year or two before Dogfish Head beefs up the output to accommodate the surprising demand. It’s worth looking around, however. There are some stores, such as Whole Foods, that often move merchandise like wine and beer from one store where it might not be selling to one where it is. I think that’s how I got my hands on two bottles.

Yes, I still have a bottle on hand but it’s mine. I love giving beer as a gift but I have my limits. I might not open that one remaining bottle until I know I can get another. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it as a gift. Especially if you know somebody who likes it.

American Idiot

I hate to admit that I actually tried Budweiser’s American Ale. I did it at the behest of a gentleman who works for one of my favorite brewing companies here in Ohio. He insisted that I need to understand just how bad that beer is. Apparently the consensus among craft brewers is that this beer won’t steal business away from them at all. If anything it might embolden a handful of Budweiser fans to try a real craft beer.

Having sampled American Ale, I find that hard to believe. I’ve often said that there’s no such thing as bad beer. I’ve been wrong. Somehow the brilliant minds at the AB corporate office managed to make a beer that’s truly awful. This beer won't coax regular Bud-drinkers into the craft beer arena. It's just not true enough to the form.

The good news is that it’s cheap. I bought a 24 ounce bottle for just $1.49. The bad news is that I poured half of it out and tossed the bottle into the recycling bin. Hopefully the marketing guys at Sierra Nevada don’t read this: a 24 ounce bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale retails for twice what American Ale goes for and it’s worth five times as much.

Mind you, SNPA is not the best pale ale on the market. It’s very good, but there are a number of beers I like better. I’d take both of Great Lakes Brewing Company’s offerings (Burning River and Commodore Perry IPA, or Columbus IPA over them) over SNPA any day of the week and twice on Sundays, but SNPA is a really good beer and it’s widely available. I really like all of Sierra Nevada’s beers but I’m not biased toward them at all. I make the comparison because I know that’s the beer the buffoons and Budweiser had in mind when they formulated American Ale. So when I tell you I’d take one 12 ounce bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale over a case of Budweiser American Ales, I’m not saying it because I’m beholden to the label. I have great respect for the company and what they've done, but I don't owe them anything...they just make a consistently good selection of craft beers that I can get my hands on easily.

American Ale is malty, but it’s not hopped very well. It tastes a bit like molasses and has a very flat finish. I’ve seen people publish tasting notes on this beer but I don’t know why. It’s not very inspired. It’s a little sweet and feels sticky. It was so un-enjoyable that I still wonder if I picked up a bad bottle. It just seemed like it wasn’t finished fermenting.

I knew this beer was going to be bad. I knew that AB would chicken out on the hops. When you compare what craft brewers put into their beers with the amount of hops commercial brewers use the difference is staggering. I’m sure bean counters and executive brewers thought that the recipe was off when they first looked at the hops bill and eventually the suits prevailed. The guys who were first contracted to come up with an American Ale probably walked off of the project.

Of course hops is only part of the problem. The beer lacks body as well. I don’t know if they used an abundance of corn and rice in this recipe and darkened the color with food dyes but it doesn’t seem like roasted barley was part of the process. I’ve got to believe that Budweiser’s take on American Ale came in with half the gravity of your typical craft-brewed pale ale.

The thing is I really made an effort to put my bias aside. I’ve made it clear that I have a beef with Budweiser but I left my grudges at the door when I tried this. It didn’t have to be lousy because I wasn’t going to drink it anyway. Even if, by some miracle, this beer tasted better than similar ales I still wouldn’t buy it. I support craft brewers because they are creative. I love trying new beers and craft brewers love to come up with more aggressive recipes. You’ve got to support that industry. It’s just a coincidence that the big commercial brewers can’t seem to concoct a good craft-like beer. I don’t have to hate them…they just make it so damned easy.

Coincidentally I sampled another mundane seasonal offering from AB. It was some sort of pumpkin spice beer that was on tap at a local bar. I tried a blind sample. I saw they had some sort of a pumpkin ale I’d not yet heard of so I tried it. It was watery and bland so I asked the bartender who made it and he confirmed my suspicions. AB tried to pull the same thing with a winter cask ale last year as well. If that beer actually saw the inside of a cask I’ll eat my shoes. I think they took Amber Bock and threw a pinch of nutmeg in it to make it seem Christmas-y. Maybe, just maybe, they threw some wood chips in the tanks that may or may not have been part of a cask at one time. I doubt they went that far.

So venture into this brave new world at your own risk. I’m quite certain that most of the people I know who read this blog won’t find American Ale the least bit drinkable but I’m sure you’ll try it just to see if it’s really that bad. Trust me, it is. I was surprised by how awful it was. Don’t spend money on it. See if your local bar will pour you a sample from the keg and minimize the misery. Then you can wash it down with something worthwhile. Of course, I fear that any bar that has this crap on tap probably won’t stock something redeeming. You might want to sneak a bottle of your own in. Don’t do it without protection. You won’t want this beer lingering on your palette any longer than it has to.

Hit the Road, Bud

Budweiser has been promoting its latest entry into the American Beer Market: Budweiser American Ale. From what I can tell through my research this is going to be a knock off of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, the granddaddy of the craft brewing craze.

It makes me sick.

Brewers like Sierra Nevada and the Boston Beer Company took big risks when they invested heavily in their craft beers and expanded their markets. Today there are certainly better beers to be had than Sam Adams and SNPA but you have to honor the courage and influence those beers have had. Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi started off as home brewers who launched a micro brewery in 1979 and Jim Koch worked hard to establish his Samuel Adams brand derived from his grandfather’s recipe. Both beers are explosions of malt and hops that are so assertive most beer drinkers are taken aback. It’s just too much beer for some people, which is why craft brewers, in spite of their tremendous creativity, hold such a tiny share of the market. Their following is loyal, but the market segment is small.

Anheuser Busch is not hurting for money. They’ve dominated the global beer market for decades. There are simply more people who enjoy their bastardized pilsner than there are people who enjoy a complex ale. That’s fine. I’m not going to rage against popular opinion. But over the years AB has taken cheap shots at craft brewers, the art of making a good ale and now, since they can’t convince craft beer fans to come back to Bud, they’ve opted to invade the craft beer market with their own entry.

I haven’t tried this beer. I thought about it because I try to review beers on this site but I can’t. Anheuser Busch has done nothing to advance the art of brewing. They don’t encourage home brewing like the craft brewers do. Jim Koch so admires home brewing he invites people to submit their best recipes to the Boston Beer Company to have it bottled and distributed nationally. Other craft brewers, like Rogue, offer home brew kits online so you can replicate your favorites in your own home. That’s what craft brewing is all about. It’s about loving beer, and the people who brew it. It’s about respecting other craft brewers.

Anheuser Busch would gleefully destroy the craft brew market. And that’s what American Ale is all about. Maybe a few Budweiser fans will try it and like it but the real target are all those beer snobs who spend $10-15 a six pack on craft beers.

American Ale. As if they invented the concept. It’s long been understood the quintessential American ale is the more complex version of pale ale crafted by our best and brightest microbrewers. Nobody in that market has the audacity to claim it as an original style but along comes Anheuser Busch and its marketing team. Now they claim they’ve created a new style. Yeah, after taking 8 years to reverse engineer Sierra Nevada’s flagship beer.

I’m positive I would find this beer lacking. AB always has some corporate hack doing something to render a style impotent and this won’t be an exception. I won’t review this beer, however, because I don’t want to spend one thin dime on this product. It’s shameless. It’s just rude. Budweiser stands for everything that is wrong with beer and I refuse to take part in their attempt to undo everything good about it. I love craft brews and I won’t stand by and watch the likes of AB invade their niche.

Where was Budweiser back in 1980 when all of this started? Now that there a lot of great independent brewers make a decent living selling great beer you want to come sniffing around? No thanks, Bud. Take your bottles full of corporate swill somewhere else. You’re not welcome here. Not now, not ever.

Cans can

I believe that bottles are superior to cans and I'm not alone. However there are great arguments to be made in favor of cans. Cans allow ZERO exposure to light, they are lighter, consume less space and recycle more easily. Some even claim that cans offer a better seal. All these arguments make sense and being a green weenie I can back cans on the environmental argument alone.

It's hard to find good beer in cans. There are some decent European imports that are available in four packs featuring pint sized cans. Most of these cans contain a nitrogen widget that replicates a pub pour. If I'm being honest I'm not a big fan of nitrogen. I don't mind hand pulled beers but for some reason the nitrogen seems to mute some of the flavor profiles. Unless I'm drinking a cask conditioned stout, I like some carbonation. Maybe that's just me.

Domestically speaking, crap comes in cans. Bud, Coors, Miller, Iron City, Schlitz, Pabst. Bleh. No thanks. I don't know if it's the crappy beer or the can but often when I drink out of cans, which is a rare occasion, I get the sense of something metallic in the beer. It's almost as if the acid in the hops picks up a tinny flavor from the can. Now this might be because there isn't enough body in the beer to protect the hops or maybe the beer is in the can too long. Perhaps all the rice and corn used by the mega "brewers" is to blame. I'm not an expert on the subject I just know that this is what I taste. I'm happy to blame the beer, but I don't find mega brews nearly as objectionable when they come from a bottle or a keg. As objectionable. Budweiser still makes me want to punch somebody.

Not too long ago, I tried some beer from a can that was pretty damned good. In fact it was excellent beer. It was from a little brewing company in the Twin Cities knows as Surly.

Surly Brewing Company offers a number of really nice beers. I was particularly pleased with Furious which is an aggressively hopped ale featuring Golden Promise malt, a popular malt found in a number of premium Scotch Whiskeys. The beer is what you would get if a Scottish Ale hooked up with an IPA and had a bastard love child. It's sweet, it's bitter and doesn't always play well with the other kids. Go ahead and laugh but don't try to follow a Furious with something lighter like a wheat beer. You won't taste it.

Surly also makes a refreshing session beer called Bender. This is truly a blend of several styles with influences coming from brown ales, porters and traditional pale ales. It's got a lot going on and you'll want more. Fortunately it's not too high in alcohol at 5% ABV so you can indulge.

When I was up in the area I managed to sample a limited release of Bitter Brewer. This is an English Bitter that is dry hopped for 14 days. The dry hopping gives it more edge than you'd expect out of a traditional English Bitter which really drives home the point of Surly. These people don't follow rules. They brew beer they like and let you have some. If you don't like it, they don't really care.

All of the Surly beers are offered in cans and the can doesn't seem to diminish the quality of the beer. Part of that is because these beers don't stay on the shelf for long and part of it is because Surly doesn't hold back on the flavor. A four pack of 16 ounce cans is going to set you back about what you'd pay for a 12 pack of domestic swill but you get what you pay for. I'm sure the guys at surly would be happy to piss in a few cans and cut you a deal. It might taste better than Bud too.

Does this mean everybody should use cans? I don't know. Surly's beers aren't being shipped across the country the way Sierra Nevada's beers are. Surly doesn't even have a regional market like Great Lakes, so maybe cans aren't out of the woods yet...but if you happen to get up to the twins, go ahead and snap one of these guys open. You won't be disappointed.

So long, Bud...sort of

Once again I’m way behind on reviews. I have to write about my recent trip to the Twin Cities, the beer I sampled along the way and a couple of pretty wild beers I tried recently. I’ll get to that soon.

The beer and financial world was taken aback recently by Belgian conglomerate, Inbev’s aggressive acquisition of Anheuser Busch. While a dedicated beer snob such as myself couldn’t care less if the world never sees another drop of Bud Light, it’s important to note that Inbev has assumed control of a number of major beer brands and so far nothing has changed. Canadians still enjoy their Blue even though Inbev purchased the Labatt Brewing Company a few years ago. So far, the biggest change we might see in the AB family is the liquidation of non-beer business interests. Later we might see Inbev sell off or drop less popular brands but the flagship will remain untouched. That’s good news for Bud fans.

Before we all start throwing a pity party for dear old Bud, let’s remember that Anheuser Busch is a bit of an evil corporation in itself. This is not a little brewery that got swallowed by an unscrupulous powerhouse. This was a corporate consolidation of capital.

The same sense of greed that brought forth ill-conceived products like Tequiza and Bud Dry is what prompted the corporate executives at AB to broker the liens on their souls to Inbev. If anything this purchase is good for the consumer because Inbev actually respects the consumer and aspires to sell products they want, rather than hypnotize the masses into believing that Bud Light will make them sexy.

For years AB has been struggling with what to do about the craft beer revolution. Initially it was dismissed as a trend and ignored but as craft brewers grew and more people ventured into the business , the marketing people at Budweiser got nervous. Their most recent advertising campaign promoting the mythical “American Lager” that is Budweiser was intended to be a staggering uppercut thrown at the craft brew industry. The uppercut missed.

You can spin your pasty yellow lager anyway you like but the growing number of people who love craft beers aren’t buying it. Everybody who knows anything about beer understands that AB’s top brand is based on a stolen recipe that was watered down to maximize profits. The legacy of the American Lager is one of cowardice and greed. Granted, most people prefer it but AB’s problem is they weren’t happy with most people. AB never liked dealing with competition from so-called microbreweries.

When craft-brewers united to fight against liquor laws that limited the sales of stronger beers AB was right there with checkbook in hand supporting the opposition. Why would a company that made billions hawking near beer want to compete with more robust beers? Better to keep the status quo and limit consumer choice.

Small brewers and consumers prevailed throughout the 1990s as many of the states allowed for the distribution and sale of stronger beers. Arbitrary limitation still exist but for the most part consumers can buy Imperial Stouts, Belgian Tripels and Double IPAs right next to those cans of fizzy nonsense George Clooney got paid a mint to promote. Having failed miserably at keeping market restrictions in place, AB recently switched to using Rob Riggle of The Daily Show, to promote the intricate perfection of Budweiser. Lagers, Riggle says in one spot, are clear and don’t hide imperfections.

Except for that one glaring imperfection some of us like to call lack of flavor, Rob. Clearly that was an overt shot at US craft brewers who specialize in the art of ales. Especially big, dark, unfiltered ales sometimes poured straight from the cask at room temperatures. They aren’t for everybody, but why was Anheuser Busch so determined to convince people that they’re inferior? To Budweiser? Please.

So maybe I’m enjoying this recent acquisition by Inbev with a sense of glee. Inbev’s been managing to make a killing around the world without insulting the intelligence of beer aficionados or assaulting the artisan brewers who continue to cultivate the rich culture of brewing. Maybe now AB will stop picking on the little guy and stick with doing what it does best. Which is market products.

Making Up Time

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you. I haven’t had a lot of time to publish any reviews or thoughts on beer but I’ve managed to squeeze in my fair share of pints. Hey, if you have to choose between writing about beer and drinking beer I think it’s obvious what the best option is.

Fortunately most of my drinking has come by way of sampler packs. I reacquainted myself with Goose Island by partaking of their seasonal sampler which featured four excellent beers from this Chicago craft brewer.

Headlining this pack was the Summertime, a very crisp Kolsch style ale that would fit into a discussion about session beers rather nicely. It’s a golden colored beer with a nice balance of hops and malt. It’s lighter in body than most of your ales and comes in the bottle with a 5.0% ABV so it’s not going to have you wobbling on the back nine if you choose to drink on the links.

Speaking as a notorious hop head and big beer drinker I can honestly say that I like this beer. Sometimes Kolsch falls a little flat for me. They’re either too sweet or they end up with a weird metallic taste because the acid from the hops doesn’t get checked by the malt. Goose Island Summertime is a very well balanced beer I can enjoy.

Goose Island’s signature beer is the Honker’s Ale which is a very nicely balanced trandtional session bitter. It’s amber in color and has a nice hop balance. Like a true English bitter it’s relatively low in alcohol at 4.3% ABV but unlike a lot of ambitious beers with a low ABV, Honker’s has an excellent flavor profile. In fact, of the various true bitters available, Honker’s is at the very top.

Of course, I’m not happy without hops. As well-crafted as those beers are I still enjoy a good IPA and this mix pack was kind enough to provide three of them for my drinking pleasure as well. For my tastes this was the best beer in the bundle but only by a narrow margin. Goose Island’s take on IPA isn’t nearly as outlandishly hopped as a lot of the offerings out there which makes it unique. As much as I love hops I have to admit that there are times when they can be too strong. It’s like hot sauce. I can eat wings covered in meltdown sauce but I’d be lying if I said I could taste anything except the heat.

Hops are different in the sense that they don’t numb your senses but they can overpower a beer. Sometimes I like the sensation getting whacked in the mouth with a pine tree but there are times when I want to enjoy the total beer experience. Goose Island IPA delivers enough hops to eliminate any confusion as to the style, but leaves enough of the malt behind to allow you to appreciate the effort that went into this beer. Trust me, this beer isn’t weak even by IPA standards. It delivers hops, but it doesn’t rely solely on hops to make a name for itself. It’s a really nice beer.

Rounding out the pack was another dandy offering: 312 Urban Wheat. This is another one of those wheat beers that can help skeptics overcome their reservations about hazy hefewiezens. 312 packs enough hop character to balance the sweetness of the wheat and Goose Island’s brew crew doesn’t fiddle around with a lot of other nonsense that would bring bogus flavors to the party. It’s a wheat beer with old school beer sensibility.


But wait, there’s more…..

I also enjoyed a sampler pack from Flying Dog. In fact, Flying Dog’s popularity might be the fact that it promotes its Mixed Pack sampler nationally. Flying Dog started in Colorado but brewing operations moved to Frederick, Maryland to accommodate demand. Flying Dog is best known for the funky packaging featuring artwork by Ralph Steadman. Fortunately the creativity is not squandered on lousy beer as the Mixed Pack quickly proves.

Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale is really the centerpiece of the collection and it is a very nice representation of what American pale Ale is all about. It’s got a hearty dose of Cascade hop aroma imparted in the dry hopping process and enough malt to hold up to it without being heavy. At one time this beer defined hops but over the past few years other brewers have gotten more aggressive. Doggie Style is still a great beer, it’s just not the trendsetter it once was. That’s not a bad thing. It’s got a light amber color, 5.5% ABV and a clean finish that makes the next sip as good as the first. Doggie Style is a very drinkable beer.

In-Heat Wheat is more of a traditional wheat beer. Flying Dog claims to use a proprietary yeast that imparts hints of banana and cloves. That’s probably not going to attract a lot of first timers but you really have to be thinking banana to pick up on that flavor. The clove flavor is there but it’s not as cloying as you might think. Since tradition German Perle hops are used this beer is on the malty side. I like it but not as much as I like wheat beers that are more assertively hopped.

Old Scratch Amber Lager is another nice beer that seems similar to a Dortmunder. It’s a little darker and sweeter than a Pilsner. This isn’t a beer that’s going to change your life but it’s a good beer that won’t let you down.

The same can be said the Tire Bite Golden Ale. It’s like a traditional Kolsch, not too bitter, not too sweet and a low enough ABV to let you drink it as a thirst quencher. Again, it’s a very good beer…just not a world beater.

Snake Dog is the IPA of the pack and as IPA’s go it’s really pretty good. They dry hop with Columbus hops and flavor it with Warrior hops. The result is a citrusy aroma and a really dry finish. When I first tried this I was expected something with very little in the way of nuance but as IPA’s go this beer’s well balanced enough to appeal to beginners while still providing certifiable hop heads with enough to chew on.

My favorite beer of the pack is also one of the best porters you’ll find on the market. Road Dog Porter is robust and malty with subtle hop bitterness that keeps it clean. There are hints of chocolate and coffee as is the case with any good porter but because this beer is hopped nicely there’s a warm smokiness playing in the mix as well. It’s not listed as a smoked porter but it certainly has the character of one. It’s very nice.

If you’re one of those people who insists that there’s a meaningful difference between stouts and porters this is the beer that will prove you wrong. The term “stout” was derived from breweries that used it as a way to describe the volume of malt in their porters. Back in the day Road Dog would have been designated “extra stout” because it’s such a big beer. At 6% ABV, Road Dog’s not going to be confused for the massive imperial stouts on the market but it’s still a pretty strong brew and it’s highly enjoyable.


So there you go. I think I made up for missing a few entries. Now go out, buy a mix pack and see if you agree.

Happy Anniversary!

Avery Brewing Company of Boulder, Colorado recently marked its 15 year anniversary. Established in 1993 this ambitious microbrewer has cranked out its share of big beers perhaps most notably The Reverend, which is a dark Belgian-influenced quadrupel and The Beast, a Grand Cru that ships out at more than 16%ABV. In addition to a number of hefty brews Avery also offers a couple of very nicely balanced beers such as 14’er ESB and Ellie’s Brown; both of which are very flavorful, remarkably drinkable and worthy of their own reviews.

A number of brewing companies enjoy celebrating their anniversaries with limited releases that feature subtle and/or overt nods to the year being commemorated. Sometimes that will be reflected in the original gravity while other companies try to finish with an alcohol content that reflects the year. Avery simply dubbed this year’s anniversary ale 15. 15 is a strong Belgian ale that makes use of the brettanomyces yeast I previously mentioned in reference to Ommegang’s Ommegeddon.

The wild yeast derivative imparts a funky, fruity flavor and a considerable amount of acidity in the flavor profile but the finish isn’t as dry as one might expect. Avery makes use of hibiscus flower and figs as well as white pepper. There’s a lot going on in this beer and the finish isn’t quite dry enough for my taste. I very much enjoyed this beer as it combines the attributes I enjoyed in Ommegeddon and Rejewvinator but the combination of brettanomyces and white pepper leaves a pungent taste behind rather than a clean finish. It’s not to say that the aftertaste is unpleasant, just the aftertaste is prolonged. This beer’s ABV is listed just under 8% but it certainly tastes and feels stronger.

A lot of people won’t like this beer. It’s a fairly typical American take on Belgian ale and the flavors are pretty aggressive. To those who aren't very astute in this genre it might even seem that the flavors are competing with each other.If you like Belgian Ales you should give this one a try but if you’re still nervous about throwing $6.00 down on a 750ml bottle of Hennepin you might want to leave this beer for the big boys. It's a very good beer and the fact that it makes productive use of brettanomyces should be intriguing. A lot of brewers are playing different strains of this wild yeast and before long it's likely every brewing company worth its salt will have its own signature strain that imparts a unique flavor profile to the beer.




And because I don’t want to leave any readers thinking that there’s a Belgian bias afoot I’d like to mention another beer I had recently: Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale. It’s been a while since I’ve sampled this nifty IPA from the Clipper City Brewing Company out of Baltimore and it’s too bad I hadn’t reacquainted myself with it prior to the IPA diatribe I posted earlier. This “hop-cubed” beer looks gorgeous with a rich amber color. The hop aroma is pronounced and the beer’s finish is dry with a lot of acidity. 3 pounds of hops are used three ways: In the kettle, in the hop back and, of course, via dry hopping.

The beer has an ABV of 7.25% and because it is so aggressively hopped it is not a beer you want to drink too much of. The acidity from the hops will come back to haunt you if you over imbibe. Like most big beers this is one to sip and savor while your buddies polish off a bucket of Coors Light longnecks. After that you can switch over to one of those session beers we talked about last week. Then you can work on finding some new friends.

Session Beers

As craft brewers dabble with stronger recipes craft beer lovers often find themselves using the alcohol content of a beer as an indication of its quality and if we’re being honest it’s not without merit. Utah is a state that imposes unusually arbitrary liquor laws that go to great lengths to weaken the strength of alcoholic beverages. These laws affect the drinks you order in a bar as well as the beverages you can buy from a store. Sadly, these laws affect craft brewers as well which is unfortunate because Utah is a rugged state that attracts adventurous people…a perfect environment for brewers to dabble in exciting recipes.

I picked up a couple of six packs on a recent visit to Utah and found myself very unhappy with both a wheat beer and a pale ale offering. There was no body and the hop flavor was flat. I started reading the label and found that both beers came in at just 4% ABV. A high alcohol content doesn’t always mean a beer is better but a lower ABV will affect how much and what kind of malts make their way into the recipe. If a beer doesn’t pack enough malt then the brewer has to back off on the hops lest the beer become too acidic. I won't name these companies because I fear that the reason their beer falls short of my standards is because Utah is run by religiots who don't know when to tend to the plank in their own eyes.

Brewing is pretty complicated. A beer can be very heavy and still be low in alcohol but it’s going to be on the sweet side. Beer is made from grain and grain is composed of carbohydrates which are just complex sugars. In the fermentation process a special bacteria consumes the sugars and produces alcohol. That takes some of the sweetness out of the beer and the alcohol leaves behind a bit of a bite. It’s not really a flavor so much as it is a sensation of warmth, however the manner in which alcohol reacts with your senses as well as the remaining compounds in beer is a major factor in the beer drinking experience. Too much alcohol, however, can overwhelm the subtle flavors of beer making it more astringent.

The better pale ales tend to clock in at 6% ABV with IPAs cresting 7%. This isn’t necessarily a hard and fast rule as exceptions always abound but if you see an IPA with an ABV below 6% you’re probably going to be disappointed and if you encounter a beer with a double digit ABV it's probably going to seem more like a barley wine regardless of what the brewer calls it. Rogue's Imperial Pilsner is a great beer but it's a cruel joke to play on somebody who is still impressed with Urquell.

This is why “lite” beers have such little flavor and some of them actually have a metallic aftertaste. That’s not the can, my man, that’s what happens when hops don’t have enough malt to play with. The hops and the alcohol combine to form flavors reminiscent of iron, copper or, in some rare cases, blood. That’s why “lite” beers are always served so cold while the craft brewers beg you to enjoy your beer at a more flavor friendly temperature.

But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for beers that have a lower ABV. The British were particularly fond of “session” beers which were brewed to be consumed in larger quantities. Because of suspect water quality, Europeans were forced to use alcoholic beverages as a means to quench thirst. Wine drinkers are familiar with the notion of “patio” wines. These are lighter, fruitier wines served cold on hot days. They aren’t intended to be served with dinner or as an aperitif but rather as a thirst quencher.

The same is true of beers. The very first Pilsner was created as an alternative to water just as session beers, such as Extra Special Bitters were just an ale answer to the thirst problem.
And before we get too nostalgic let’s be honest: early beers weren’t very good. Aside from a handful of monks in Belgium aspiring to make champagne from grain, most beers were strictly functional. They were either designed to get you drunk or quench your thirst without the inconvenience of dysentery. Taste was of little concern.

Session beers were popular because they were a healthier alternative to well water. As water treatment plants made water safe to drink brewers had to improve the flavor and quality of those session beers to maintain a market for them. That’s really where Extra Special Bitters (ESBs) came about. These are lighter ales that have enough bitterness to impart a dry finish.

Now it’s important to note that while Britain was cranking out barrel after barrel of these so-called ESBs, Germans, Czechs and Slavs were brewing filtered lagers like the ubiquitous Pilsner and the similar Dortmunder. The dry bitterness of the hops cleansed the palette and had a refreshing quality. Today these beers are enjoyed for that crispness but originally they were very basic beers with utilitarian aspirations.

Because lager yeast is bottom fermenting and does its job in cooler temperatures it can produce a lighter beer with more clarity. That’s why Pilsner-inspired lagers became so popular in the US after larger concentrations of German immigrants began to populate the Midwest. With access to plenty of grain and fresh water, German brewers were able to introduce a whiskey-drinking country to beer. Prior to the German invasion people were subjected to rudimentary brews like steam beer. Ales were produced in limited quantities but major brewing operations weren’t undertaken until Germans brought their lagering techniques in from afar.

Craft brewers tend to specialize in ales. The reason is because ale yeast is can tolerate warmer temperatures and ale yeast is a little more forgiving when it comes to fermenting more aggressive recipes. Craft brewers love to delve into the history of beer and seek out old recipes that were forgotten once the world began its infatuation with the year-long consumption of the bastardized Pilsners relentlessly brewed by the major brewing companies.

Craft Brewers embrace the old concept of seasonal brewing. Winter is the time for big barley wines and winter warmers served at cellar temperatures. Imperial stouts and robust porters can be enjoyed from early fall to early spring and you can’t go wrong with a hoppy pale ale but when it’s really hot and you aren’t ready to call it a day it’s hard to beat a cold Pilsner. Or a session bitter. Rather than surrender the summer to light lagers, craft brewers have revised some of the old ESB recipes and now offer a traditional session beer as a counterpart to the ever popular golden lager.

What’s important to remember with ESBs is that, like Pilsners, they aren’t designed to be exceptionally bitter but rather just clean enough to have a dry, thirst-quenching finish. They aren’t supposed to be aggressive or filling. Often, when beer drinkers sample an ESB they expect to be hit with a burlap sack full of hops. That’s a mistake. This beer isn’t heavy enough to handle the acidity of an abundance of hops.

Great Lakes Brewing Company does a fantastic job answering the call with its Moondog ESB. This is a traditional light ale with British sensibilities that takes its name from Alan Freed who coined the term Rock and Roll and organized the first Rock concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball in 1952. Moon Dog ESB is a 5% ABV beer with a light rusty golden color and a crisp hoppy flavor. It might be a little darker than your traditional British bitter but that color doesn’t come at the expense of imparting too much sweetness or an unbalanced nuttiness you’d expect from toasted barley malt.

You can’t compare this to an IPA which is what a lot of reviewers do. ESBs aren’t brewed to go toe to toe with big ales so hopheads are going to find this beer a little on the wimpy side. However, when compared to a Pilsner or any of the mega-brewed American lagers being peddled in the latest add campaigns Moondog reigns supreme. It brings a little ale nuance to a segment of the market previously dominated by sterile lagers.

Sadly, most people can’t get past the name ESB. Great Lakes tries to educate the consumer with a description on the packaging but the average beer drinker who would find this beer very appealing won’t dare to try it. They’ll stick with the mass-marketed swill. Even if they’re convinced to sample Moondog by a hophead friend they’ll still allow perception to get in the way of enjoying a true-to-form session beer.

Moondog ESB is proof that you can tone down the ABV and still have a great beer. It’s the kind of beer you want to drink while you play softball or horseshoes this summer. You don’t sacrifice flavor and you can still plow through the better part of a twelve pack (over the course of a day, I hope) without the pounding head and lost chunks of time.

I’d like to mention two things in closing. First, there could be some different points of view on the history of beer. I’m not a historian and can only convey facts as they have been presented to me over time. So feel free to offer some thoughts but remember: you’re not my professor and this wasn’t a thesis. Second, I don’t have a problem with lagers per se, it’s just that most lagers tend to be exceptionally clean. For some people that’s a good thing. Beer God, Michael Jackson once opined that lagers are like white wines while ales are like reds. I don’t know how accurate that is because I’ve had both white wines and lagers that have a lot of character but it’s probably the best way to quantify the difference to a newbie.

There are lagers I like and I’ve had some really tasty Pilsners. Some of the craft brewers are really starting to push the envelope with lagers and the conventions that compelled Michael Jackson to compare lagers to white wines are starting to fade. Still, like Mike, I skew toward the ales. I like my bread crusty, my cheese smelly and my mustard spicy so it stands to reason that I like my beer with some hair on it. It’s just an opinion, take it for what it’s worth.

The Blend Trend

I don’t like to say negative things about beer. I know I’ve already taken more than my fair share of shots at the bigger corporate breweries but I really do try to focus on the positive aspects of beer. There are too many great beers out there to waste time lamenting the travesties of Chelada style beers or Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy.

But it must be done. Leinenkugel’s makes some really good beer, not necessarily great but definitely better than average. There are exceptions that you might want to avoid. Leinie’s Berry Weiss and Honey Weiss beers are just a bit too sweet for my taste. I’m not opposed to fruit being mixed in the brewing process but when flavors are added after the fact it gets risky. The problem with these two beers is the fact that they aren’t bitter enough from the start to offset the sweetness. Columbus Brewing Company offers an Ohio Honey Wheat that pulls it off but that’s the exception rather than the rule. Wheat beers generally get so much sweetness from the malt that adding a sugar after the fact can push them over the edge. At least for me.

The thing is, even though I’m not crazy about the sweet wheats, I can drink them and once I convince myself that I’m not drinking beer I can enjoy them in the same manner a person enjoys White Castles. You’ll never confuse a slider with haute cuisine but that doesn’t mean you can’t gulp down a sack of ten from time to time. Berry Weis is like that.

The major offense in the Leinie family is Summer Shandy. This is a blend of lemonade and beer. Apparently this is popular in Europe but then again so is Coldplay. ZING. This beverage starts of with a whole lot of lemon, develops on odd beer-like flavor in the middle and finishes with the strange flavor of meat. That’s right, I said meat. Every time I’ve tried this shandy I swear I ended up with a taste in my mouth very similar to the taste I get after eating a sausage. This is not a good thing when you’re drinking beer.

I don’t think you’ll get the same sensation. I’m pretty sure I just lack the frame of reference to classify the aftertaste but whatever I’m left with is unpleasant. I don’t really care for the mingling of lemonade and beer in the first place but when I’m squinting into the bottle wondering if there is a half-chewed hunk of kielbasa floating around in there it’s just awful. Awful. And I feel comfortable saying so because the minute you pour lemonade into beer you no longer have either.

Cheladas are Mexican-inspired beverages that blend tomato juice and beer. What you have to understand about these drinks is that Mexico is home to a lot of really crappy beer. Corona is popular in the US but only because that beer is marketed so aggressively. In reality it’s not a whole lot better than Budweiser. If you have a lime shoved in your bottle that lime goes a long way to mask how uninspired Corona really is. There are a few good Mexican Beers, such as Negra Modelo and Dos Equis but the majority of Mexican beer is pretty lousy.

So Mexicans play with their lousy beer by mixing things into it. One of those concoctions is Chelada. Basically that’s a beer with Bloody Mary mix in it and because of the growing Hispanic market, AB has started bottling Budweiser with tomato juice cocktail right at the brewery thus watering both of them down. Yummo. These beers have a niche in the Southwest and the reach is expanding in other markets because of the monkey see principal but that doesn’t mean these products are good.

I’ve tried a Chelada and all I can say is that it didn’t taste like meat. I also didn’t taste like beer or tomato juice. I’d say it was a little bit like drinking that pink water that pools on the top of the ketchup after the contents of the bottle start to separate.

Now I’m not going to get on a high horse and say that beer shouldn’t be mixed with anything but when you think about the artistry and craftsmanship that goes into a really good beer…a craft beer…why would you do anything to diminish the final product? You can if you want but you should be very judicious in what you go throwing into your beer. I spend too much money on my beers to be fiddling around with them.

There are exceptions. A number of stouts, particularly chocolate and coffee stouts, go great with ice cream. If you haven’t tried a stout float, buy a bottle of Young’s Double Chocolate Stout and spill a few ounces over a scoop of high quality vanilla bean. It’s outstanding. Lambics also pair well with ice cream and sorbet. Bell’s Java Stout is another good float medium.

Another great idea is to blend beers. Collaboration not Litigation Ale is an example of a beer that was born by mixing two together and Ommegang’s Three Philosophers is a Belgian style ale that is blended with a bit of lambic. Of course we've all had a black and tan. Imagine if you replaced the overrated Guinness and Bass with a smokey imperial stout and a dry-hopped American pale ale.

I even had a Bloody Mary that featured a splash of Guinness but I’m pretty sure that the Guinness had little influence on the final result. There was so much horseradish, Tobasco and lime in that mix a pint of Guiness would have struggled to make its presence known.

Again there are no rules. Beer is about making people happy. If you want to spend $10 on a four pack of Nosferatu and mix it with Diet Sprite, go for it.

Belgian Battle Royale

It seems I consume beer faster than I can write about it. Karen splurged on a massive bottle of Gulden Draak by Van Steenberge out of Flanders. For somebody who abhors beer she does seem to pick great selections on a regular basis. Van Steenberge cranks out a number of fine beers, notably Piraat, Augustijn and Celis White. Gulden Draak has been around and regularly captures high honors in a number of tasting competitions.

Gulden Draak is a dark tripel ale which is distinctive as most Belgian ales tend to be golden in color. Draak smells, looks and feels more like a Barley Wine…and with an ABV of nearly 11%, it’s got that kind of punch. It carries a boozy aroma but the flavor is remarkably complex. It’s brings to mind tart fruits and coffee. While there’s a substantial mouth feel to this beer, it has a surprisingly dry finish and a slightly sour aftertaste. Pleasantly sour.

I hadn’t intended to drink the entire 1.5 liter bottle and I am happy to say that I did reserve about 16 ounces in a smaller container for the next day but I was surprised at how drinkable it was. That’s probably not a good thing considering this beer’s got to pack a staggering number of calories which is why it’s best to consume this beer with lighter fare such as fruit and strong cheeses that will enhance the subtle flavors.

Gulden Draak might not be the kind of beer to drink on the beach with friends this summer but it will keep for a long time in a cellar as all strong Belgian ales do. Buy it now and substitute it for a bottle of Cabernet on some cool evening. It’s a beer brewed to be served at cellar temperatures and sipped with friends.


Speaking of great Belgian Beers I recently read a review on a Trappist tripel ale from Westmalle Abbey. Westmalle Tripel received a perfect score from Draft magazine logging a 100 in the recent ratings guide. I’d heard of Westmalle before but a lot of places don’t carry it because it’s pricey. I’ve balked at getting it for this very reason but last night I went ahead and invested $5.00 in a pint at Whole Foods.

Sometimes I see beers that are interesting but they come at a steeper price than I want to pay. I start to think about the other beers I can buy for the same money. Do I spend $15 on six Oaked Arrogant Bastards or get a 12 pack of Great Lakes? Of course if you keep applying that logic to the argument you’ll end up with a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon. You’ve got to draw the line.

So I look at the price per beer and consider what I would pay for a pint in a bar. $5.00 for a pint of Trappist ale seems steep but when you consider that some bars will charge that much for a pint of Bud Lite, it’s worthwhile. By the way, if you know of a bar like that, stop going to it.

Wetmalle turns out to be a damn good beer. It’s a very nicely balanced tripel with all those delightful bubbles a bottle conditioned beer is supposed to have. I don’t do ratings but as great as this beer is I don’t know that it’s worthy of a perfect score. I found the beer to be a little on the acidic side. It’s a dry beer that doesn’t trick you with overpowering flavors but I think I’d take Ommegang’s Hennepin over Westmalle Tripel.

That’s not to say that Westmalle isn’t a fantastic beer. I believe my review is more than a little tainted by Draft’s take on this product. If you have a chance to try Westmalle you should take it because you might think I’m completely insane.

And that’s the thing about taste. Everybody is different. I harbor a serious hop bias which is why I don’t care much for current British Ales. That bias drifts into my appreciation for wheat beers and Belgian ales as well. I appreciate the history of British beer, but the current offerings on the market have a malty sweetness that tastes like molasses that I feel needs to be offset with stronger hops, but some people like that syrupy sweetness and that’s fine.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that Westmalle Tripel is an outstanding beer that everybody should try. Had I not read the flattering review I doubt that I’d be inclined to offer a counterpoint but a lot of people will read that score and think that the Belgian ale story begins and ends with Westmalle. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would be thrilled to receive Westmalle Tripel as a gift and I will happily advise friends and family to order it if they never had it before but that doesn’t mean this is the best beer on the market. Among the best? Sure. It’s just that there are too many great Belgian Ales to make any superlative claims about Westmalle. Gulden Draak is a tripel as well and it provides a completely different experience. For some people that will mean better but they have to try it.

There you have it: a battle of the Belgians...Two true Belgian tripels waiting to be contrasted and compared. I didn’t mean for it to turn out this way but these two beers really illustrate the range and complexity of the art of brewing. If you can get your hands on both you’re in for a real treat. You can tell your friends that you’re doing research and maybe even write off the bar tab as a business expense.

By the way...I'm not an accountant.