dinsdag 10 november 2009
zondag 8 november 2009
Hold your horses - move to San Francisco! Anchor 'Our Barrel Ale'
It is one of those days that you look back at the week gone by and wonder why it is that you have been blessed with so many great, unique and tremendously learning experiences. I won't worry too much about it and simply count my blessings: being in the beer trade does sometimes open doors that normally remain closed to most people.
It does mean I will have to postpone my plan to write more about De Molen, the most interesting craft brewery in The Netherlandse and its brewer and beers. Just wait (but I have enjoyed my Kopi Loewak on draft enormously, and be sure to learn more about this great brewery very soon on my blog)!
This week I received this list of wonderous and unique beers that have gone into the Private Stash: Anchor Brewing 'Our Barrel Ale'; Westmalle 'Extra Refter Beer'; De Molen 'Hel & Verdoemenis Oak Cask Aged'; Orval 'Vert' (refter beer); De Scheldebrouwerij 'De Bourgondier'. I particularly pride myself in the two trappist refter beers (Orval and Westmalle) since these beers are commercially unavailable execpt if you live near the abbeys (but you'll still have a hard time taking a bottle of Orval vert with you). De Scheldebrouwerij beer is made for a restaurant in Bergen op Zoom (Zeeland, south-west The Netherlands) only and served on site but a friend pleaded so long that the proprietor gave him one bottle to take away.
I'll be talking about those later. Today it's Anchor
Brewing Company time, since in Bier&Co offices we received one carton this week with six magnum bottles (1500 ml) of a one-time ale: Our Barrel Ale. I read about it a lot on the internet some months ago as it was officially released during 2009 San Francisco Beer Week and this release created so much buzz you'd think there was no other news at all.
Now Anchor Brewing for me is the most important American Craft brewery of all for the simple fact it, and its saviour and current proprietor Fritz Maytag, have helped inspire each and every brewer and special beer fan of today. Without either of them today's American Brewing scene would most definately be totally different and likely less lively and interesting.
Now they have, since Mr. Maytag decided to buy and salvage the brewery, excelled at brewing really traditional ales and have been very much about 'brewing in the old-fashioned way'. If I understood well that's not because that results in better beer, but really only for the sake of doing it that way. Preserving tradition can be a noble cause and certainly has value, but Anchor hardly ever ventured onto the extreme brewing path. Sure, they were the first to brew an American barleywine (Old Foghorn, which they were forced to call barleywine-style ale because it was obviously not made of grapes, and the authorities didn't understand the whole concept to begin with) and they were the first to brew a wheat beer (Anchor Summer Ale, the first wheat beer after the style had disappeared during prohibition) but brewing to extreme gravities of with superhuman amounts of hops - no, not their cup of tea.
Anchor Our Barrel Ale is for sale at the brewery only, and only in these 1500 ml magnum bottles. Since we are the brewery's continental European Master Distributor we were given one carton of trial bottles. No way will it ever be commercially available, I am afraid - unless the brewery decides to brew it again... But, what is it?
It is a blend of Anchor beers, and they will not disclose the exact mixture they used. What they do disclose is that their own oak vats have been used that used to house Old Portrero whisky - yes, besides the brewery Fritz Maytag operates a dairy farm (great cheese), a winery (great wines and even port) and a distillery (great whisky's, genever, gin and eau de vie). What more does a man want...
The bottle doesn't disclose much about how long the blend lagered but it has to be quite a while, since all carbonation is just about gone. Actually I like that since it reflects exactly the development the beers have gone through. It also reminds me of Thomas Hardy's Ale (that, alas, is not being brewed this year) which is said to be good for 25 years (!) and is a true strong ale - no fizz, just beer!
It comes in at 8% ABV which suggests Old Foghorn must make up most of the blend. The clear hop character points to Liberty Ale and the colour, darker that Old Foghorn can ever be, hints to a part of Anchor Porter. Well: a mix of three great beers has produced another great beer. The aroma actually hints to Flemish red ale, but upon sipping an overwhelming flavour of prunes, raisin and dades hits you like a tidal wave. A port? An aged mantanillo sherry? No - a brilliant beer, virtually free of CO2 but totally enriched by evolved flavour elements that have all maintained their own character whilst still creating a completely new end result.
I suppose it would have been utterly delicious with some blue cheese or aged stilton - but I had none at hand. As an apetizer it would have served as well as a glass of red port - but I wasn't going to eat for a while. Equally as an after-dinner beer it would beat just about any beer that is generally being suggested to do the trick - but I hadn't eaten yet. It would have worked miraculously with venison, deer, boar or any game (or stew). But it did what a great beer should do: it performed simply perfectly all on its own. Even the wife enjoyed two glasses (which rates the beer in the top-10 of all times because two glasses for my wife is a rare occurance) and moaned when the bottle emptied. But it did, and for me this beer has instantaneously reached this year's top three. Thanks Anchor wizards!
By the way, the top-3 now reads (without proper order, that's for 31-12 to be announced):
Raging Bitch (Flying Dog Ales), Our Barrel Ale (Anchor Brewing Company), Kopi Loewak (De Molen). And there are still two months to go...
It does mean I will have to postpone my plan to write more about De Molen, the most interesting craft brewery in The Netherlandse and its brewer and beers. Just wait (but I have enjoyed my Kopi Loewak on draft enormously, and be sure to learn more about this great brewery very soon on my blog)!
This week I received this list of wonderous and unique beers that have gone into the Private Stash: Anchor Brewing 'Our Barrel Ale'; Westmalle 'Extra Refter Beer'; De Molen 'Hel & Verdoemenis Oak Cask Aged'; Orval 'Vert' (refter beer); De Scheldebrouwerij 'De Bourgondier'. I particularly pride myself in the two trappist refter beers (Orval and Westmalle) since these beers are commercially unavailable execpt if you live near the abbeys (but you'll still have a hard time taking a bottle of Orval vert with you). De Scheldebrouwerij beer is made for a restaurant in Bergen op Zoom (Zeeland, south-west The Netherlands) only and served on site but a friend pleaded so long that the proprietor gave him one bottle to take away.
I'll be talking about those later. Today it's Anchor
Brewing Company time, since in Bier&Co offices we received one carton this week with six magnum bottles (1500 ml) of a one-time ale: Our Barrel Ale. I read about it a lot on the internet some months ago as it was officially released during 2009 San Francisco Beer Week and this release created so much buzz you'd think there was no other news at all.Now Anchor Brewing for me is the most important American Craft brewery of all for the simple fact it, and its saviour and current proprietor Fritz Maytag, have helped inspire each and every brewer and special beer fan of today. Without either of them today's American Brewing scene would most definately be totally different and likely less lively and interesting.
Now they have, since Mr. Maytag decided to buy and salvage the brewery, excelled at brewing really traditional ales and have been very much about 'brewing in the old-fashioned way'. If I understood well that's not because that results in better beer, but really only for the sake of doing it that way. Preserving tradition can be a noble cause and certainly has value, but Anchor hardly ever ventured onto the extreme brewing path. Sure, they were the first to brew an American barleywine (Old Foghorn, which they were forced to call barleywine-style ale because it was obviously not made of grapes, and the authorities didn't understand the whole concept to begin with) and they were the first to brew a wheat beer (Anchor Summer Ale, the first wheat beer after the style had disappeared during prohibition) but brewing to extreme gravities of with superhuman amounts of hops - no, not their cup of tea.
Anchor Our Barrel Ale is for sale at the brewery only, and only in these 1500 ml magnum bottles. Since we are the brewery's continental European Master Distributor we were given one carton of trial bottles. No way will it ever be commercially available, I am afraid - unless the brewery decides to brew it again... But, what is it?
It is a blend of Anchor beers, and they will not disclose the exact mixture they used. What they do disclose is that their own oak vats have been used that used to house Old Portrero whisky - yes, besides the brewery Fritz Maytag operates a dairy farm (great cheese), a winery (great wines and even port) and a distillery (great whisky's, genever, gin and eau de vie). What more does a man want...
The bottle doesn't disclose much about how long the blend lagered but it has to be quite a while, since all carbonation is just about gone. Actually I like that since it reflects exactly the development the beers have gone through. It also reminds me of Thomas Hardy's Ale (that, alas, is not being brewed this year) which is said to be good for 25 years (!) and is a true strong ale - no fizz, just beer!
It comes in at 8% ABV which suggests Old Foghorn must make up most of the blend. The clear hop character points to Liberty Ale and the colour, darker that Old Foghorn can ever be, hints to a part of Anchor Porter. Well: a mix of three great beers has produced another great beer. The aroma actually hints to Flemish red ale, but upon sipping an overwhelming flavour of prunes, raisin and dades hits you like a tidal wave. A port? An aged mantanillo sherry? No - a brilliant beer, virtually free of CO2 but totally enriched by evolved flavour elements that have all maintained their own character whilst still creating a completely new end result.
I suppose it would have been utterly delicious with some blue cheese or aged stilton - but I had none at hand. As an apetizer it would have served as well as a glass of red port - but I wasn't going to eat for a while. Equally as an after-dinner beer it would beat just about any beer that is generally being suggested to do the trick - but I hadn't eaten yet. It would have worked miraculously with venison, deer, boar or any game (or stew). But it did what a great beer should do: it performed simply perfectly all on its own. Even the wife enjoyed two glasses (which rates the beer in the top-10 of all times because two glasses for my wife is a rare occurance) and moaned when the bottle emptied. But it did, and for me this beer has instantaneously reached this year's top three. Thanks Anchor wizards!
By the way, the top-3 now reads (without proper order, that's for 31-12 to be announced):
Raging Bitch (Flying Dog Ales), Our Barrel Ale (Anchor Brewing Company), Kopi Loewak (De Molen). And there are still two months to go...
zaterdag 7 november 2009
A Truly unique moment: drinking De Molen 'Kopi Loewak' from draft!
Amazing! This imperial stout by Hollands most gifted brewer Menno Olivier is utterly weird. Some specs: 9,5% ABV. 84 Bittering units.
The story on Kopi Loewak: on the isle of Sulawesi grows coffee but some of the beans are being eaten by small cats (Cevat cats) who digest them but not completely. Actually the beans ferment inside the bowls and natives will search for Cevat cat excrements because the beans are worth their weight in gold.
Apparently this batch of beer is just under 300 liters but coffee to the value of Euro 240 has been used - do the rest of the math yourself!
The beer sells here (Arendnest bar in Amsterdam) for euro 5.50 which isn't bad at all.
* Coffee explosion in the nose
* vast toasted aroma
* massive bitter sweet body
* next to Raging Bitch one of the best beers this year!
donderdag 29 oktober 2009
Now we're talking! Ommegang Three Philosophers is truly a great brew: deceptive strength, dito aroma!
dinsdag 27 oktober 2009
Brouwerij De Molen: stories on some great encounters!
If you didn't know the mill in Bodegraven housed a brewery, you would never go into this town: it's part of the Dutch bible-belt and has absolutely nothing to offer to people who don't live there - except for one of the most outstanding breweries in The Netherlands, or possibly in Europe - or the world, for that matter. Recently I have had a number of encounters with De Molen beers and their brewer, Menno Olivier. I have decided to tell you all about these encounters over the next issues!First: you have to know The Netherlands has not been richly endowed with gifted brewers. Although a large number of enthusiasts brew beer they seldomly manage to produce something really interesting and if they do, they have great difficulty in repeating the recipe to the same level. It is my considered opinion Menno Olivier is not just a gifted brewer - he is the most gifted brewer we have in our country today. This may be a personal opinion, but I suppose the man puts his money where his mouth is: he wanted to be 'Holland's best brewer' and just look at his rankings on ratebeer.com. He dominates the top-50 of best beers in The Netherlands with a stunning 30 brews in it, amongst which is the entire top 5 of Best Dutch Beers!
Secondly, the majority of Dutch brewers will seek to copycat their favorite brew. Impressive as it may be to 'recreate' Orval or make your version of Westmalle Dubbel, you're basically playing Lego and following the instructions on the leaflet. 'Dare to be different' is not the kind of slogan many Dutch brewers cherish - but Menno seems to have it tattooed on the inside of his eyes. He is in many ways like an American micro brewer who seem to be all about pushing boundaries - just for the fun of it!
Enough feather sticking: let's just say the man knows how to brew good beer. Moreover, the brewery isn't exactly what you would call a 'state-of-the-art' facility: most of the equipment is actually in its third life, having spend lifetimes in the dairy and/ or soft drinks industry. Batches are so small that all bottles are numbered (by hand, of course) and this is further enhanced by the fact that all high gravity beers are being brewed 'straight': no dilution or any other nifty tricks are being applied.
Last week the man himself visited our offices (for a chat and a tasting) and he brought with him two beers unavailable to mortals at that stage. Amongst these the one the right here: Kopi Loewak! For those of you who are native Indonesians (or understand their language) there's no mystery, but for the rest of you: coffee beer! A thick, espresso-like monster where not just ordinary coffee has been used but those famous beans from Sulawesi that have been swallowed by a cevat cat, then digested and 'dropped' (yes, as in poo) so the local population can collect these beans and they will then be converted into the most special and expensive coffee on earth. Apparently the trip down the cat's bowls enhances the coffee by means of semi-fermentation and 'those in the know' won't have anything else. The beer, by the way, is bottled in small (18 cl or 6 oz) bottles - not because of the strength of the beer, but to keep the price at a somewhat acceptable level...I state this beer is worth its weight in gold!
Enough about the background. Next week we'll talk about the beers!
woensdag 30 september 2009
aren't the Brits great!
For the part couple of days I have been travelling with Matt Brophy, brewmaster of Flying Dog brewery in Frederick, Maryland. One of the things we did was a tasting in Leeds where we, among others, served Raging Bitch - the 20th anniversary beer. It is a Belgian Style IPA and this was a real ale version.It was brought over from another bar in converted milk cartons which can also be used to take some beer home with you.Don' t you just love it!
- Posted using Mobypicture.com
- Posted using Mobypicture.com
vrijdag 25 september 2009
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