Way Back When - Jackson and Gomes

The following two photos are courtesy of Steve Goebel, the former paper executive who came to Oregon to start a brewery. He had the idea that the brewery should hearken back to the days of old, when German immigrants made traditional lagers. He hired the best brewer he could find, a young German-trained guy named Tony Gomes. As a final touch, he christened the brewery "Saxer" in honor of Henry Saxer, who founded the first brewery in the Oregon territories back in the 1850s. Goebel was equal measures dreamer, promoter, and wheeler-dealer, and he brought in Michael Jackson one year as part of a big homebrew competition and general celebration of beery goodness.

These photos document the day Jackson toured the brewery (I got to tag along). It was quite an experience. I was surprised how interested Jackson was in every aspect of the brewery--I figured, having toured a few thousand, he must have been able to scan it briefly and see what he needed. But Jackson was thorough--a true newspaperman.

When we finally got to the beer, Gomes lined up full pints of each brew, and Jackson worked his way down the line (drinking maybe an ounce of each). He stopped after the first, the flagship bock, commented on the grains and hops he identified and then asked, "You used a decoction mash?" Gomes beamed and shot a look at Goebel. Decoction mashing contributes a subtle quality of malt richness--but is time-consuming and expensive. Gomes and Goebel had an ongoing debate about whether anyone could actually tell the beer was decocted. To his credit, Goebel never got in the way of the brewing process, but he wasn't convinced. With Jackson's question, the matter was settled.

Jackson left the world too soon, Gomes has left craft brewing, and Saxer didn't survive the 90s. (No idea what happened to Steve Goebel.) So this is indeed a moment passed. Enjoy.





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Ten-Year-Old Saxer Bock

Over the weekend, I had occasion to crack open one of the few remaining bottles I have brewed the long-defunct Saxer Brewery. Back in 1998, when it was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, I had the foresight to buy a sixer each of their flagship Bock, Dark Bock, and the legendary Three-Finger Jack Doppelbock. I have a friend who turned forty on the 20th, and so I dug into the larder to pull out the dusty gem. It takes a milestone like that.

Before I rave about the beer, let me again make a pitch for the beer cellar. If you've got a basement, it's easy to pull off. Beer's cheap. The Saxer I bought cost less than 20 bucks back in '98--and now I'm sure I could easily find a buyer who'd pay twice that for a single bottle. This is partly because the brewery is now defunct: Tony Gomes, the German-trained brewer, was hand-crafting among the most celebrated lagers in America (the bock won gold at GABF three years running), and we'll never taste these beers again. But also, any high-gravity beer is worth more a few years down the road than it is when you pull it off the grocery shelf. They don't always taste better--aging is an imprecise science--but when they do ... wow.

The nice thing is that it costs very little to get started. Go to the store, buy a case of assorted beer, put 'em in the basement and forget about them. Repeat each year. Before you know it, you're hauling out a bottle that's ten years old. Okay, off my soapbox.

So, to the bock. Gomes brewed this beer like it was 1873--which is to say, expensively. He used a decoction mash and aged it for--well, memory doesn't serve too well. But he left it in the tank long enough to knit owner Steve Goebel's brow. As a slight sop to the local market, Gomes over-hopped it to maybe 35 IBUs (marginally, but for a German brewer, it was enough to cause his brow to knit). The resulting beer, as I recall, was extremely smooth and rich, with just enough spice to make it inviting for my IPA-lovin' palate.

The ten-year-old version was nothing like that. It had been transmuted, alchemically, into a dense, smoky, aged thing. I find antique beers hard to describe because the palate cues are totally different. Oxidation produces a distinct flavor that either washes a beer out and turns it papery, or it melds with the malt and hops to create flavors that a younger beer never has. Saxer Bock was almost impossibly rich and smooth. Gomes' excessive hopping was wholly absent, as you would expect in a burly beer (7.2%) that never really had many to start with. As with every successful aged beer I try, my one regret is that I didn't buy more...