Lupulin Ale and Some Self-Promotion

As I mentioned earlier, the fresh-hop ales are starting to make their annual return--not exactly like the swallows of San Capistrano, but tastier. Among these was my fave from last year, a beer so good I made it my annual Satori winner. To my surprise and amusement, this was not lost on Full Sail, who recently sent out a press release promoting the Satori award:

Lupulin was awarded the coveted 2007 "Satori Award" by beer aficionado/blogger Jeff Alworth. (http://Beervana.blogspot.com) Alworth writes, "In Zen Buddhism, satori is the moment of sudden enlightenment when the mind realizes its own true nature. The Satori award honors the beer that in a single instant allows the drinker to realize the true nature of beer." Full Sail invites you to experience the nature of this year's Lupulin when the brewery will tap the new batch at their Tasting Room and Pub in Hood River, and at their Riverplace Brewery in Portland, on Wednesday, September 10th at 5:00PM. For more information contact the Full Sail Tasting Room and Pub at 541-386-2247 or Full Sail at Riverplace at 503-222-5343.

Cool! There is one change, though. This year's Lupulin isn't hopped with Amarillo, which provkes a slight look of trepidation on the face of the blogger. Instead, John Harris is using a troika of Mt Rainier, Cascade, and Nugget hops. (The rest of the recipe is the same.) I remain somewhat anxious, though the inclusion of the new strain of Mount Rainiers does pique my interest. They are purported to be similar to Hallertau, a classic variety.

As always, we shall see.

You Say Flemish, I Flanders...

Folks, the arrival of Dissident creates a great opportunity to discuss the sour ales of Flanders, those not-really-brown oud bruins and the not-totally-red sour reds. In comments to the thread below, Anónimo raises some interesting questions and points out the growing number of American breweries tinkering with these old styles: Walking Man, Cascade, Russian River (not to mention Double Mountain and New Belgium). So, I will have reviews of the Dissident along with Liefmans, which is the classic of the style, as well as a general primer on what distinguishes these beers.

But briefly, per Jackson:

• Flanders Brown (Liefmans) - "The classic style, with an interplay of caramel-like malty sweetness and a sourness gained in several months of maturation (usually in metal tanks), is sometimes identified as Oud Bruin. The most complex examples have a secondary fermentation in the bottle. The most famous producing town is Oudenaarde (also known for Gothic architecture and Gobelin tapestries), not far from Ghent, in East Flanders. Oudenaarde's water, low in calcium and high in sodium carbonate, gives a particularly textured character to the beers."
• Flemish Red (Rodenbach) - "They are more sharply acidic, leaner, more reddish, half-brothers to the Brown Beers of East Flanders, with the additional difference that they are often filtered and pasteurised. Their sharpness makes them perhaps the most quenching beers in the world, and their acidity renders them very food-friendly. The sharp acidity, and some of the colour, derives from aging in large, fixed, wooden tuns."
  

In the mean time, don't miss the chance to try Dissident--on tap or bottled--for I fear the chance is fleeting.

Pssst, Dissident's On Tap at the Brewery

The title really says it all. Well, I guess I could add the address....

Deschutes Brewery
210 NW 11th Avenue

Update. As DA Beers noted in comments below, the Dissident is available at the brewery in the Pearl. They have a limited number of bottles left--only a few dozen cases made it to the brewery, and someone came in today and bought a bunch of it. As you can see in the third picture below [whoops, forgot to put in the pics--I'll do it with the review--ed.], everyone was drinking it, too.

But you're wondering: is it worth going to the pub for? Is it worth $10 a bottle? I'll have a full review later on, but the short answer is this: it's one of the most authentic Belgian-style, American-brewed ales I've tried, and the only credible sour brown. In other words, run, don't walk.

GPI and Growler Maps

A few months ago, Dave (who is precipitously close to being downgraded to "sporadic" in the blogroll) got the ball rolling on the Growler Index. At It's Pub Night, Bill has now converted these data into a handy map, so you can run a cross tab on the GPI/MPG ratio and calculate where your cheapest growler can be found. But the info doesn't stop there! Bill also converts the price you're paying for a growler into the equivalent for a six-pack so you can see what kind of deal you're getting.

So, for example, if you find yourself at Van Havig's Rock Bottom, you can secure a full growler for just seven bucks. That translates to a sixer of just less than eight bucks, or about what you'd pay in the grocery store. Go north to Deschutes, however, and you'll find yourself spending $15 for a growler--or the equivalent of over $16 a sixer. Ouch! (However, if you can get your growler filled with Dissident--ten bucks for 22 ounces--you're back on the side of thrift.)

It's a mesmerizing tool, so beware its seductive power.

For my part, I'd like to popularize the Growler Price Index GPI, or the average price per growler in Portland. Based on Dave's numbers from earlier this year, the current GPI is $9.95. Your over/under can be calculated here, too. Single-digit growlers put you on the cheap side; when you start getting into the double digits, you're paying a premium, even on growler prices.

Good job, Bill!

______________
PHOTO: Benrue

Magic Hat Registers Voters

When I was in the Big Tent in Denver, a guy pointed to the empty glass next to me (which had had water in it) and said, "are you a beer drinker?" He might have chosen people at random--the positive response rate would have approached 100%--and in fact he did get a nod from me. Turns out he was there representing Magic Hat, the Vermont company that recently picked up Pyramid, who some years ago picked up MacTarnahan's.

Turns out they have an initiative to register voters. This isn't going to be particularly beneficial to Oregonians (the nearest half-rack of Magic Hat containing a registration form can be purchased in Chicago), but it's cool nevertheless. I told the guy he'd hit the jackpot, finding surely the only beer blogger in the joint. To make good on my word, I'm passing it along.

So: if you haven't already done it, go register to vote.

What's Hitting the Market?

Fresh hop ales emerged as the central trend in brewing last year, and we're coming around to them again in 2008. Deschutes and BridgePort have announced the release of their versions, and via John Foyston, I see that my '07 Satori winner--Full Sail Lupulin Ale--is poised to make a return. Have you seen any hitting the market yet?

Speaking of hitting the market, isn't it September 2? And isn't September 2 the day Deschutes was supposed to release The Dissident? Nothing yet at Belmont Station, but maybe if someone's at the brewpub downtown, they can report back.

After the long summer of slow releases, things are about to get exciting.

Final Denver Thoughts

I missed this--last week, Charlie Papazian took exception to a NY Times piece: "In the story it speculates reasons why people aren’t partying up to expectations. Beer is never once mentioned."

Gee, I wonder why? Papazian inadvertently supplies the reason no one was talking about beer:

If Democratic National Convention attendees really wanted to socialize and celebrate responsibly, they should come back to see what celebrating good things can be like - the 27th Annual Great American Beer Festival, October 9-11.

Denver turns into Beer City for one magnificent week of celebrating the good things about beer with fun, social gatherings, food, more beer, celebrity beer tastings and much more beer. Besides all the offsite celebrating there’s the actual 3-day event taking place at the Colorado Convention Center.

The point I was trying to make during my visit there--and yes, I did a crappy job of exploration, and yes, I failed to visit even one brewpub--is just this: if you're the so-called "Napa of Beer," shouldn't it be Beer City for more than just one week? Hmmm....

Brief Program Notes - Cream Ale and Croquet

If the weather cooperates, I plan to drink some homebrewed cream ale and play some croquet with friends. I know the past week has been spotty content-wise, but things should pick up pretty normally from tomorrow forward. Thanks for your patience--

Low-Alcohol Beers

Has Betsy Andrews replaced Eric Asimov as the beer writer for the Times? Let's hope so, because her story about low-alcohol session beers is a winner:

“A bunch of guys talk in the market,” said Don Feinberg, a founder of Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, N.Y., and an importer for Vanberg & DeWulf there. “We’ve all been saying the same thing for about 18 months now, which is, enough of the high octane.”

Mr. Feinberg imports boozy Trappist and farmhouse ales, but in April he introduced a brew from another Belgian tradition: bières de table.

“When I lived there in the late ’70s and early ’80s,” he said of his time in Belgium, “everybody drank it for lunch, from grandmothers to kids.”

It's a particular hobby-horse of mine, session ales, and it's quite a cutting-edge topic--all's the more impressive with Andrew's deft reportage. More:

Christopher Leonard, owner of the General Lafayette Inn, outside Philadelphia, said it was a test of his skill to create Lafayette’s Escape, a beer in the style of bière de table, at his inn’s brewery. It is only 1.9 percent alcohol.

“I was looking for a new challenge,” Mr. Leonard said. “I thought, Let’s go extreme the other way.”

He came up with an amber ale that has the peppery, herbal notes of Belgian yeast. “The beer had a residual sweetness, heft and density that made it taste like something that had more alcohol,” he said.

I encourage you to read the whole thing.

Confessions

1. I did not make it to a Denver pub. I am old and slow and I need my sleep. Hadda get out to Far Auroria each night, which cut down even further on bar-hopping.

2. I did, however, manage to wander into the exclusive Executive Club at Mile High (Invesco) Stadium. I slipped in because I had a floor pass--the highest security clearance for the event, but certainly not Executive Club exclusivity. I wandered in with my Boston hat on and shorts, and because they are used to being obsequious, no one stopped me. Nowhere else in the building was booze available, but that was pretty much all that was available in the Mile High Lounge, or whatever they were calling it. The first bank of taps were all A-B, the second all Coors, and the two nice ones in the middle had the following taps, which I photographed, for your amusement. Let the commentary begin!

Free Skinny Dip

Here in the Big Tent, the nerve center of blogger activity, they serve New Belgium for free. Much as you can inhale.

Pro: Free.
Con: New Belgium
Pro: Free
Con: Days have been extremely hot.
Pro: Today it's in the 70s; free.

So I just got a half-glass of Skinny Dip, just to see if it was as "eh" as I remember. It is. But still!: free. Bloggers, you know, can't be choosers. I may skip the conventionn tonight and let a co-blogger take my credential. In that case, I'll definitely go pub-hopping.

Denver: Not Beervana

I am having precious little time to make it to pubs, but I have been shuttled nightly to various bars where parties are being held. The last two nights, I was at a jazz club one night and a kind of chic upscale place the other night. These are roughly equivalent to places you'd find in the pearl. I wouldn't expect them to have a good or large beer selection, but I'd be shocked if I didn't see a couple-four micros on tap. I don't haunt the Pearl, but that's my sense. And a jazz bar--definitely.

But both these places had NO draft beer. Zippo. They offered some bottled beer: macros of an assortment I failed to note, Stella, Flat Tire. In the first, they had Blue Moon, which I ordered, in the second Sam Adams. I like Sam Adams, so that was fine, but I was really shocked--how could it be so sparse?

If you can't get a draft micro downtown in Denver, I think that speaks for itself.

New Belgium

On the run in the middle of the day, but there's this big techie nerve center called the Big Tent for bloggers. It's sponsor is New Belgium, and they just tapped kegs fror the afternoon (probably 2pm Denver time). To their credit, the brewery sent four beers, including that nice black beer they do.

Also, bloggers + free beer = lotsa midday drinking. Not that this is a surprise. (It's 90 degrees, and we will be up late, so I'm just watching from a distance.)

Obama Beer

I was at a reception last night featuring a special beer (served, oddly, in 22-oz bottles): Obama Ale. Brewed by Half Moon Bay Brewing in ... California. Very odd. The label description reads "a golden colored ale brewed with European malt and hops. Lager-like flavor and a light, clean aftertaste."

Wrong. It is a Belgian pale hopped with Saaz. I confirmed this later when the brewery owner or brewer came by handing out campaign-like buttons promoting the beer. (Also, it appears there's a McCain Ale, too). It was a nice beer-soft on the palate, spicy with Saaz. Only 4.8%, which is a nice beer for an event with an open bar. People were squirreling away bottles as collectors items--me included.

(On the issue of beer culture, I think this is illustrative. The label in this case used nomenclature designed to appeal to a somewhat less-educated public. In Oregon, you'd call a Belgian-style beer a Belgian.)

Off to Denver

So this blogging thing finally pays off. I'm off to the wilds of Denver tomorrow to begin blogging from the Democratic convention. I expect no news to happen, but I should be able to schmooze with the likes of Brian Schweitzer. So I got that going for me. I will continue to post throughout the week, but it will definitely be offbeat blogging. Hold down the fort, willya?

Brewing With Flowers - Rosee d'Hibiscus

Who says you should only brew with malt, water, hops, and yeast? Okay, who except the Germans? The truth is, we all love adjuncts ... when they work. Early craft brewers dumped about anything they could think of in the kettle. There were some notable successes, but lots of failures. Brewers got back to basics, and only slowly--and subtly--began working them back in. It looks a little like 1993 again, except now breweries know what they're doing.

In Montreal, the very well-regarded Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel experiments broadly, and recently I picked up Rosee d'Hibiscus. It's a fairly straightforward wheat and the only wild card is the infusion of hibiscus flowers. They add color, aroma, and some flavor. The scent of this beer is quite a bit like a wit, though more floral, sort of a tart, citrus note. Wheat also evident. The flowers turn the beer pink, like herbal tea. The palate is also akin to a wit, but a little more tart. It's a sweet beer, but it does have a quality of tea. It's a bit like the gruit beers that have become more common; the first few tastes are slightly disorienting. But by the end, you're downing it without qualms.

If I were to use hibiscus, I might use a more interesting yeast. It's a fine beer, but not necessarily the kind of beer you'd find yourself craving. Admirable without being wholly lovable. An interesting experiment, and worth noting in the annals of adjuncts.

Bud's American-style Ale

John has the review I know you've all been waiting for, the latest concoction from Bootveizer's marketing department: American Ale.

And the verdict is: Not bad, not bad at all...the beer skews toward the malty side, but actual hops HAVE been used and it reminds me of a very drinkable ESB. My machinist/home-brewer pal Les Barker, was reminded more of a brown ale and noted that the beer has a nice dry finish.

My first thought: compared to what? Looks like John compares it favorably to Bud, the lowest bar in the beer world. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

The irony and pathos of calling it "American Ale" should be lost on no one, however. No doubt it will be derided by the craft beer community as "Brussels-made American Ale," or "American-style Ale," or somesuch. I hope that I have broken the ice. Feel free to contribute your own variation in comments.

Days of the Down and Out

Nobody loves you when you're down and out
Nobody sees you when you're on cloud nine
Everybody's hustlin' for a buck and a dime
I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine

--John Lennon

Over at Pacific Brew News, Rick sings a familiar lament about how to afford drinkin' when the economy's stinkin'.

Is it cool to cheap on a tip? Hell no. But is it so bad that we stay at home to drink bottled beer bought at places with shitty service and marginal quality? I guess I'm thinking about the owners of the bars more than I am about the servers, and maybe that's where my argument goes south, but I just can't help but think it's better to drink and be "cheap" (or economical) than it is to stop patronizing your local watering hole - be it a bar, brewery or pub. Is it cool to just order drinks, cut the food (eat at home), and call it a night?

It's an existential complaint, really. I hear you man, I hear you. But whatever you do, don't start drinking the Pabst. Hamm's ... well, maybe. But never Pabst.

Central Oregon Beer Community

Since we've been on a Central Oregon beer jag these last few days, it makes sense that Cascade Business News would do a story on it. Not a whole lot new here to people who follow beer closely, but this passage paints a very nice picture of what the community is like there:

Observers might think seven local brewpubs naturally would compete against each other, especially during economic downtimes, to persuade consumers to pull up a stool at their bar over another’s, but that’s not the case at all here in Bend, according to industry insiders. Locally, everyone does what they can to help each other out to the point of sharing ingredients in a pinch when a fellow brew master may be running a little short.

“Out there in Central Oregon getting supplies can be difficult,” Kennelly said. “We’ve had to use grain or hops from the Deschutes Brewery, the Bend Brewing Co. and Silver Moon Brewing when we get caught without something we need faster than we can get it from Portland. A lot of breweries down there exchange yeast, especially during Octoberfest, use it and pass it around. It really helps down there since Bend is not close to any (distributors).”

Fish agrees with Kennelly, saying his company regularly invites other breweries to bring beers to industry events where Deschutes is a highlighted craft brewer.

“We’ve tried to be as open as we can with everybody across the state,” Fish said. “That kind of community exists in Central Oregon and beyond. Nationally, craft brewers have four percent of the market divided between 1,400-or-so companies. We’ve developed some good friendships and alliances that exist outside of that competitive environment.”

Underwood says that having seven craft brewers with headquarters in Central Oregon means better beer choices for locals and for people visiting the area and that helps the word get out about the quality and standards applied to the beer-making process in Bend.

“Of course I would prefer that people drink a Three Creeks brew, but I’m just as happy to see people come to Central Oregon and try out a Deschutes brew, or have a beer produced at the Cascade Lakes Brewing Company, or better yet spend a week here doing a brewery tour,” he said. “This is a real supportive market and it’s better for everyone when any single one of us gets any type of exposure outside of the region.”

Cool.

What's in a Name?

I picked up a couple bottles of Silver Moon's beers this week (reviews to come), one of which is brewed in the dreaded "amber" style. I will confess to a certain weariness as I poured it out, because I'm almost never pleased with ambers. They seem like a marketing niche rather than a style, which is sort of how I remember them emerging in the 80s and early 90s. Breweries needed something to slot in between pale ales and browns, so they brewed these worty-sweet copper ales and dubbed them "ambers."

Without tipping my hand too much about Silver Moon, I'll say that the first inhalation of its gentle aroma suggested "best bitter," which my palate confirmed. There's not a whole lot of difference between best bitters and ambers, really. The former is a bit smaller than the latter (around 4.2%, compared to, say 5.2%), a little less dark, and a little thinner of body. But these are differences of degree, not type. The major distinction is hopping--with an amber you expect citrusy Northwest hops, and in a best bitter the spicier hops of England.

When I was studying Hindi, one of my teachers had a subtle way of describing native fluency. He spoke nearly flawless English (way better than my Hindi), but there were things he just couldn't get straight. He used the example of "mug" and "jug." They were both liquid containers, and they sounded the same. It took him forever to finally nail down the difference. Beer styles are a bit like that. On the one hand, they have such similarity that on a philosophical level, you almost can't argue a difference. Ambers and best bitters are, existentially speaking, roughly the same. On the other, there's something quit distinct, something worth noting.

In the US, when I encounter a best bitter (or even an ordinary bitter), I regard it as a statement of intention. The brewer knows s/he's selling something that will confuse the average consumer--bitters, especially now, are not bitter. Adding the "best" doesn't help clarify things for patrons who are unaware of the range of English bitters. American best bitters designed for people who can appreciate craft and subtlety. It is almost an axiom that they won't sell.

Ambers, on the other hand, are beers everyone can get their brains around. Look, it's amber-colored. No problem. Ambers seem to have been aimed at people for whom color is about as much information as they need. They are approachable, and their sweetness is enhanced by Cascade hopping, which make them a bit like lemonade. Add some body and you've got a crowd-pleaser, if not a great beer.

For me, "best bitter" implies a carefully articulated beer, with wonderfully distinct (if understated) notes of malt sweetness and hop flavor. "Amber," on the other hand, suggests an indistinct beer of little character--something inoffensive, but without interest.

Clearly, all of this is semantics. I was reminded of how much solidity I had put into the terms, though, when I tippled Silver Moon's Amber last night. Moral: don't judge a beer by its name. Consider me edumacated.

[Update. I forgot to mention one other wrinkle to this rumination: Anheuser-Busch's latest release, American Ale. (It's going to be a frosty cold day in hell before InBud releases a Belgian ale in the US market.) It is ... you guessed it, an amber ale. Now, I don't mean to instantly contradict the moral to my own blog post, but this doesn't bode well, does it? I mean, a Bud ale with 5.2% alcohol and 25-28 IBU. That sounds suspiciously like an "indistinct beer of little character--something inoffensive, but without interest." But let's not get ahead of ourselves. You never know, have to keep your mind open, pick your cliche. All I know is that the Belgians run the show now, so maybe (twist of the knife) it will finally have a little character.

Jon's sitting on a promo package (how does he get those damn things while I pay good money for my beer?), so we'll await his verdict with interest.]