It would have been perfect last night. It is light, but wonderful rich with flavor and aroma. The nose is floral almost to the point of being perfumy; I even detect a note of honey, which enhances the overall summery vibe. The malt is perfectly clean (it's a German beer, after all), but there is just the smallest touch of biscuity, honeyish sweetness. The hops are not strong but varied, with herbal notes, peppery spice, and that floral quality evident in the noes. It is crisp and dry at the finish, which is where the beer earns its hot-weather stripes. Heavier beers end with a fuller note--sometimes resinous, if they're hoppy--and this does not cool and refresh.The King of Beers is moving closer to wearing a foreign crown. After a week of contentious wrangling that included lawsuits and Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Anheuser-Busch, according to published reports and people who have been briefed, has engaged Belgian brewing giant InBev on a $70-per-share, nearly $50 billion deal to buy the company.The Busch family, who own only 4% of the stock, are helpless to stop it.
The St. Louis-based parent of Budweiser beer has been working for six weeks in a campaign to discourage InBev (BusinessWeek.com, 7/10/08), line up politicians to oppose the deal, and convince shareholders that a takeover by InBev, which markets brands like Stella Artois, Bass, and Beck's, is not in the best interest of the company or their investments. But a sweetened offer and mounting pressure on A-B management have brought the two companies to actual negotiations.
Analysts expect the deal to be done this weekend. As I've mentioned before, this seems uniformly like a bad thing. Strangely, as I read the news, my mind went to Nelson Muntz, perhaps meanly. "Ha Ha, you failed to protect your quintessentially American brand and now a bunch of Flemish-speaking Belgians have purchased your corporation!"
In addition to just looking very cool (I would very much like to own a hop scepter like the Czar wields), it also recalls the source of all this imperializing. Back in the late 18th Century, British brewers began sending extra-strong versions of their stout to Russia. The traditional explanation for the style's strength was for survival in a ship's hold, but thanks to current debunking, I'm wary of it. Might it not be that Russians just like their alcohol strong, dark, and intense? Or that only something robust would serve for export to a royal foreign court? In any case, it did actually go to the Czars--this much is documented. (Note: historically, there wasn't a distinction between porter and stout.) The best-known brewer of export stout was Thrale’s Anchor Brewery in the parish [district] of Southwark, a mile or two up river from the Courage site. In 1796 Thrale’s supplied porter "that would keep seven years" to the Empress of Russia. The author of The History and Antiquities of the Parish of St. Saviour, Southwark, said of Thrale’s beer at that time, "The reputation and enjoyment of Porter is by no means confined to England. As proof of the truth of this assertion, this house exports annually very large quantities; so far extended are its commercial connections that Thrale’s Entire [a contemporary name for porter] is well known, as a delicious beverage, from the frozen regions of Russia to the burning sands of Bengal and Sumatra. The Empress of All Russia is indeed so partial to Porter that she has ordered repeatedly very large quantities for her own drinking and that of her court."So with Hop Czar, BridgePort brings a little history and perspective to the nouveau style of imperial IPAs. If the beer's anywhere near as good as the label is cool, we're in for a treat.
But in 1923, Hitler tried to use a gathering at the Bürgerbräukeller, a Munich beer hall, to overthrow the government. Not cool. You see, it's not so much that beer favors one political view or another, but that as the people's drink, it is regularly present when the disaffected are plotting rebellion. It's an accelerant, you could say.To avoid dangerous water, people had to drink large quantities of, say, beer. But to digest that beer, individuals needed a genetic advantage that not everyone had -- what Johnson describes as the body's ability to respond to the intake of alcohol by increasing the production of particular enzymes called alcohol dehydrogenases. This ability is controlled by certain genes on chromosome four in human DNA, genes not evenly distributed to everyone. Those who lacked this trait could not, as the saying goes, "hold their liquor." So, many died early and childless, either of alcohol's toxicity or from waterborne diseases.Beer, he concludes, is health food. To drive home the point, he launches this unprovoked broadside: "And you do not need to buy it from those wan, unhealthy-looking people who, peering disapprovingly at you through rimless Trotsky-style spectacles, seem to run all the health food stores."
The gene pools of human settlements became progressively dominated by the survivors -- by those genetically disposed to, well, drink beer. "Most of the world's population today," Johnson writes, "is made up of descendants of those early beer drinkers, and we have largely inherited their genetic tolerance for alcohol."
Johnson suggests, not unreasonably, that this explains why certain of the world's population groups, such as Native Americans and Australian Aborigines, have had disproportionately high levels of alcoholism: These groups never endured the cruel culling of the genetically unfortunate that town dwellers endured.
Perhaps it was best to take my first taste of absinthe on a hearty Oregon afternoon in July.
Sunlight seems suitable inoculation against the potion's legendary sorcery.
My guides were Kieran Sienkiewicz and Rich Phillips, owners of Integrity Spirits, a Southeast Portland micro-distillery making artisanal vodka, gin and now the once-banned absinthe. Come this weekend, they will become the first in Oregon and the second in the nation to bottle and sell the mystique-laden drink, known for centuries as the green fairy....
At the start of the 20th century, the French wine industry pushed its government to ban absinthe. Other countries in Europe followed, and the U.S. ban was applied in 1912. On the fundamental rule of human behavior that something forbidden must be sampled, thousands of tourists visited Spain and other countries that still made and served absinthe....
Last year, the United States recognized that fact by lifting the ban. An Alameda, Calif., distiller was first to market. Sienkiewicz and Phillips said Integrity Spirits is the second with a product ready for sale.
Trillium Absinthe Superieure is expected to be in Oregon liquor stores by the weekend. Cost: $59.95 a bottle.
If you'd like to read a truly fascinating account of absinthe, I can direct you to an article from a couple years ago by Jack Turner in the New Yorker.
Unlike many of the other mergers I've mentioned recently, this is probably good news. Liefmans makes Flemish (or Flanders) brown ale, and is pretty much the only extant commercial example still brewing in Belgium (there are others, but in few cases is one brewery so closely linked to a style). Despite what the article says, Jackson writes that the brewery in Oudenaarde goes back to 1679--a hundred years before Jacob Liefmans bought it--based on tax records he has personally examined. Like some of the other historic breweries of Belgium, this is an international treasure, a brewing museum, and would have been a catastrophic loss had it not been plucked up. That Moortgat, a small fish dedicated to brewing high-end beer, snapped it up instead of InBev, could one day be regarded as a stroke of miraculous fortune.Liefmans has been in existence since Jacob Liefmans established his brewery in Oudenaarde in 1770, but the brewery declared bankruptcy and stopped production in late 2007.
Duvel acquired a large portion of the assets of Liefmans, including all the machinery, all brands and recipes. According to a company press release,
Duvel will concentrate on Liefmans brown ales and fruit beers brewed in Oudenaarde. Several of the beers have gone back in production and will return to distribution in the near future.
Duvel remains in negotiation for the real estate in Oudenaarde and will invest to revitalize the production site and the well-known visitors’ center when the acquisition is complete. The price of the transaction, including real estate, is 4.5 million euros, or $7.1 million.
Last year they made a strong golden for their anniversary, and they have a Leifmans-style kriek in the works for later this year. This isn't a small deal; Deschutes is the consummate English-ales brewery, offering world class versions of porter, pale ale, brown, stout, and IPA. But the foray into Belgians has been mixed bag. The inaugural effort wasn't a winner, so I came to the Wit with hope and worry."Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."This quote is well-known to beery types, and can be seen on about 10% of the t-shirts at beer festivals in July. It seems to verify satisfyingly the things we know about Franklin and beer: Ben was a bit of a libertine, clearly irreverent, but a founding father whose love of beer seems to vouch for its wholesomeness and patriotic purity. Unfortunately, it's also a crock: Franklin never said it. Worse, it's a missappropriation of a quote from a Franklin letter in which he extols ... brace yourself ... wine.
Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.How French is that? (Franklin, of course, was a Francophile, one of the many reasons some red-blooded Americans hold him at some distance.) Turns out the fake quote was brewed up by the US brewing industry post-prohibition, when they were battling with liquor producers for sales.
As part of their marketing plan to groom a bigger beer-drinking audience, the United States Brewers Association began a decades-long advertising campaign that was quick to associate beer and beer drinking with our Founding Fathers, early American history and patriotism.Tinkering with the legacy of a founding father to make a buck? How American is that? It's not the gilded version of an Independence Day story ("I cannot tel a lie..."), but it's pretty American nevertheless.
Widmer Brothers Brewing Co. and Redhook Ale Brewery Inc. on Tuesday announced the completion of their merger, renaming the combined company Craft Brewers Alliance Inc....Congrats to the brewery. Let the criticism begin!
Kurt Widmer, co-founder of Portland-based Widmer Brothers, will serve as chairman of the board.Paul Shipman, most recently Redhook chairman and chief executive officer, will serve as chairman emeritus. Craft Brewers Alliance will continue to be publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol HOOK, with headquarters in Portland and management offices in Woodinville.
Shareholders of each company hold approximately 50 percent of the outstanding shares in the combined company. Anheuser-Busch remains a strategic distribution partner for both sets of brands, and holds a minority equity stake in the company.
In addition to breweries in Portland and Woodinville, Craft Brewers has a brewery in Portsmouth, N.H.
In the late 1700's Hogdson was the most popular ale brewer in London. With easy access to shipping from the capital, Hogdson was in position to supply beer to homesick English colonists around the world. Of these, none felt so removed, nor thirsted more for the pleasures of English breweries, than the troops garrisoned on the sub-continent of India. Hogdson rightly believed it a huge market waiting to be tapped, but how could beer survive the trip around Africa?This is the story everyone in Beervana knows. We can repeat it with more or less all the moving parts intact, even if some of the details get lost or embellished. Ah, but the devil's in the details, and Martyn Cornell, having looked into them, says the legend can't be true. Strong ales were already in production before the India trade began, and were already used on long voyages--some far longer than the four months it took to get to India. On his Zythophile blog, he explains:
Hogdson used three brewing methods to ensure his ale weathered the journey. First, he knew hops were a natural preservative. Indeed, it was this property that first motivated brewers to use hops. Hogdson reckoned an increased hopping rate would help in transit. Next, he took advantage of another natural preservative in beer, and he brewed one with an exaggerated level of alcohol. Finally, he used abundant dry hopping as an additional preservative, and he rightly thought it wouldn't harm the taste because it would mellow during the long voyage.
Despite some modern commentators’ declaration that India Pale Ale needed to be invented because the big-selling beer in the late 18th century in Britain, porter, would not survive the four-month journey to the East, porter was perfectly capable of lasting on board a ship much longer than that, as this passage from the journal of Joseph Banks on August 25 1769, when he was on board the Endeavour with Captain Cook in the South Pacific, shows.The quote describes year-old porter that remained "excellently good." He continues to make a pretty strong case:
IPA developed out of the strong, well-hopped stock ales, designed to last a year or two in cask before being drunk, that British brewers were already making before entrepreneurial ship’s captains decided to make a few bob taking beer out to sell in India. The stock ale went through a speeded-up maturation on the journey, and arrived out East in prime condition.Hat tip to Tom, who no doubt spends his free time disabusing 2nd graders of their Santa Claus beliefs. Thanks a lot, man.
I'll do my best to keep you up to speed on the major events that tickle my fancy, but keep in mind that almost every brewery in the state is participating with release parties, special events, mini-fests, brewing dinners, meet-the-brewer events, and so on. Click the logo at right for a full listing.Come and meet the Brewers of the Oregon Brewers Guild at the Kick Off Party for Oregon Craft Beer Month.I'll try to track down which brewers and pass that along. There's also another meet-the-brewers event at the Green Dragon, where Eric Wathen and Max Skewes will be showcasing their Alameda Brewhouse beers. I've included the details of these events in my right-hand column, and I'll update that with selected events as the month progresses. Enjoy!
If you're American, you'd probably laugh it out of town. I doubt they send much - if any - across the Atlantic. Instead, the beer cowers in brown, half litre bottles on the shelves of Tesco stores in Britain. It coyly suggests on its label that it be used for cooking. There's even a recipe for beef stew on the back. It's as if the little chap doesn't want you to drink him.It appears that the beer in question, Mann's, is a throwback. In the comments to the post, a guy named Paul notes "When we had our beer shop we used to sell a reasonable amount of Mann's brown. I don't ever remember a customer for it being under 60." That, and the suggestion that it's more fit for stew than mug, hint at its status there.
North American Organic Beer Festival, June 27-29Tomorrow at three o'clock, the North American Organic Brewers Festival opens its doors. Believe it or not, this is the fourth iteration of the fest, which seems like it just got started a couple years back. I have the distinct displeasure to have to miss this year's fest do to an unavoidable trip out of town, but you shouldn't be cavalier: this is the premier event for quality West Coast beers.
Overlook Park, North Portland, Oregon
Fri, 3:00 to 9:00 p.m., Sat, noon to 9:00, Sun, noon to 5:00.
Compostable tasting mugs: $5, samples $1
Children welcome with parents.
