Considering the Belgian Tradition

Palm Brewery, Steenhuffel

Post updated; see below.

We are quickly approaching the tenth edition of Cheers to Belgian Beers, which comes on May 13-14. The original idea behind this fest was educational, to "help introduce Oregonians to the breadth of style and flavors of beers brewed in Belgium." (That comes from the press release.) Initially, brewers just agreed to use the same yeast strain and brew whatever they liked. As it evolved, the Oregon Brewers Guild, which organizes it, tweaked the structure so breweries didn't all brew the same type of beer; they're now sorted by color and strength.

All good so far, right? Well, I wonder. Does it still serve its mission? Are people learning anything about Belgian beer? As a way of getting ready for the fest, I wondered if it might not be useful to consider some of the hallmarks of Belgian brewing and then see how well the fest reveals these to people.

We think of "Belgian" as a pretty good description for a school of beers ... until we think about them very much. In fact, it's not even so great as describing the two populations, Flemish- (Dutch, really) speaking northerners, and French-speaking southerners. They have never formed a cohesive whole, and for a couple of years recently their troubles were serious enough they couldn't form a government. If you consider the range of native beer styles, you see a similar range of incoherence: Belgian breweries make everything from simple little pale and brown ales to titanic abbey ales, from sweet, heavy, spiced ales to bone dry saisons, stouts, hoppy ales, and of course the several exotic funky styles. Calling all of them "Belgian" is asking that word to do a lot of heavy lifting.

Dubuisson Brewery, Pipaix

If you want to try to tie these up with a single bow, you could say that, in Belgium, the distance between some of the old styles and the new ones is shorter than anywhere else. Reading about bizarre old German ales doesn't make you think of modern ones. But Peeterman, the brown beers of Mechelen, Liege saison? These extinct beers are familiar to fans of certain contemporary products. There's a wonderful old text that describes beers from the mid-19th century, and if you read that and then tour around modern Belgium, you can discern a line between the two.

Another way to group these beers is in the way they're made. From a sensory perspective, the range is too diverse to identify a through-line. But if you visit a few breweries, you see that the beers are made in a similar way, and issue from a national philosophy about what beer should taste like. There are three major hallmarks.

• Yeast character. This is the main thing people mean when they say "Belgian." Ale yeasts are teased to produce as much character as possible, whether wild strains are in play or not. Belgians practice “high fermentation” (warm fermentation), and it is often very warm when compared to other countries—mid-70s for pitching is not unusual, and terminal temps in the eighties or nineties is not unheard of. The result is beer with tons of fruity esters and spicy phenols. Brewers may also stress yeast by under-pitching it, which also causes it to create esters and phenols. (Many times they do both.)
• Secondary fermentation. Nearly every ale brewery in Belgium (from Duvel to Dupont to Rodenbach) has a “warm room.” It’s a temperature-controlled space where bottles ripen while bottle-conditioning. For Belgians, the carbonation is only a secondary effect--the real goal is refermentation in the bottle. That’s when the yeast flavors mature and evolve. It’s why you mostly don’t find Belgium’s famous ales on tap; to properly develop, beer must go through this secondary fermentation.
• Sugar. It’s common for Belgian beers to be strong--7% and higher is completely typical. To keep the beers light on the palate and attenuative, breweries regularly use sugar, often in high proportion. (Occasionally they use adjunct grains, deploying a cereal cooker, to achieve the same thing.) It's also worth noting that nearly all breweries just use dextrose, not whatever it is Americans think “candi” sugar is. Plain old corn sugar is the ticket.

These three things work together, too. Secondary fermentation builds on the yeast character formed during primary fermentation, and the use of sugar creates a thinner body so malts don't mask the flavors produced by yeast. As in all national traditions, once certain proclivities get a toehold, they tend to build on each other. These three elements are not mandatory, of course, but you find them in simple, large-scale breweries, in breweries using wild yeasts, in saison breweries, in monastery breweries. 

Orval

So back to Cheers to Belgian Beers. Does it function as a great way to highlight these qualities? Yes and no. Yeast is the key flavor-driver in Belgian beer, but Belgians consider secondary fermentation a key part of the flavor development. When you skip that step, you lose some of the complexity. Many Americans skip the sugar when they're making Belgian-style ales, too, and this leads the beers further away from their Flemish inspirations. In educational fests like this, subtleties do matter. The goal should be trying to point out all the elements of this tradition so people can begin to recognize them. I've missed the past couple CTBB, so I'll go with this in mind.

If you're interested in prepping your palate, go buy a few bottles of Belgian beer and attune yourself to those fermentation characteristics.

Update. On Facebook, a number of people mentioned mashing regimes as an important part of Belgian brewing. They're correct! I skipped it because it's fairly technical and I figured the average beer drinker wouldn't care. The mention of sugar and highly attenuative beers was meant to point to that. But for the geeks, a bit more. One way Belgians goose their yeast is by adding a ferulic acid rest somewhere in the 113-122˚ F range. Certain yeasts ("phenolic off-flavor positive" or POF+) metabolize ferulic acid to create a phenolic or spicy flavor in beer. This is very common. Belgians also tend to use two saccharification rests, a low one of around 144-145˚ F and a high one somewhere between 154˚ F and 163˚ F, to get maximum fermentability out of their malt. This, along with the use of sugar, is another way they thin the body of their beers.

At St. Feuillien

Cheers to Belgian Beers Fest, Plus Some Rambling About Rodenbach

Tomorrow is one of my favorite fests of the year--Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers.  The conceit of the fest is simple: everyone gets the same yeast(s*) and brews a beer in one of four general quadrants of type (pale or dark, strong or weak).  People go, taste, and vote.  The winning brewery gets to select the yeast for next year.

As to that asterisk.  Last year, two breweries tied--Logsdon and Hopworks.  Consequently, there are two official yeast strains--Unibroue and Rodenbach.  Really, though, there's just one strain.  Rodenbach's is so hard to work with and takes so long to mature that the only breweries who have beers using it were already making beers with it (Logsdon and Hair of the Dog).

All the details, including a beer list, are available at the Oregon Brewers Guild.  See you there!



Slightly Related Commentary About Rodenbach
We have gotten a bit blase about the use of historic strains of yeast, but it's worth noting that the breweries aren't always cool with it.  When I visited Rodenbach last year, master brewer Rudi Ghequire expressed vehement disapproval about how Rodenbach's yeast had been reappropriated by American yeast companies.  His complaint is not entirely misplaced.

Rudi Ghequire zwickeling aged Rodenbach.

The first thing to note is that there is no Rodenbach "yeast."  The brewery makes a pretty standard, mid-strength beer with a regular (albeit ancient) ale strain.  This is not Rodenbach.  That beer goes into one of the 294 oak vats the brewery owns and there it sits for two years.  Each one of those vats is a separate ecosystem and the base beer changes inside.  Mostly what happens is lactic production--though there are brettanomyces in some of the vats, too.  (Indeed, when we sampled the beer straight from the vats, Rudi detected traces of brett in one of the pours--though I could not.)  This is where Rodenbach becomes Rodenbach.  At the end of the process, Rudi and a team of tasters blend together lots from the vats and then blend those together with fresh beer (25% for regular Rodenbach, 67% for Grand Cru).

Whatever could be harvested after fermentation will be like a slice in time.  It will necessarily have a unique colony of micro-fauna within.  More importantly--and I think this is what really chafes Rudi--the process is a huge part of the beer.  Those yeasts and bacteria that make Rodenbach evolve from the specific circumstances within each vat.  A big part of that has to do with the amount of oxygen that gets into beer, respiration that is determined by surface area (that is, tank size) and wood thickness.  If you wanted to make something like Rodenbach, you'd need more than the yeast--you'd need wooden vats and a couple years.  And even then, you'd have something distinctive that evolved separately, according to the conditions you had at your own brewery.

None of which is to say the Wyeast Roselare strain (pronounced Roos ah lare) can't make great beer.  Just a word to the wise: the yeast is only a part of the picture.  I'm excited to try Hair of the Dog and Logsdon's beer, but I don't expect them to be Rodenbach-esque.

Cheers to Belgian Beers: The Westmalle Edition

Cheers to Belgian Beers
Saturday April 30th, Noon-9pm
Metalcraft Fabrication, 723 N Tillamook St.
$15 for five drink tickets and a stemmed tasting glass, which is required to taste. Additional tastes are $1 and can be purchased at the festival entrance. No kids at this one.

One of the signature events on the beer calender happens on or around May Day: Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers. Now in its fifth year, the event has grown from ten breweries to 32--and from ten beers to 37 beers. The conceit is simple: everyone uses the same Belgian yeast, people come and taste the results, vote, and crown a best beer. The brewer of that beer selects the yeast for the next year and round we go again. Because Block 15 won last year--shattering forever the "Portland" in the name, a final part of the rules has been rewritten: in past years, the winner got to host the event the next year. The Brewers Guild, which now oversees Cheers, decided to keep it in Portland, robbing Corvallis of their festival. (For shame!)

The Yeast
Block 15 did, however, get to select the yeast, and Nick Arzner chose the strain from Westmalle--a classic. (Stan Hieronymus, who wrote the book on abbey ales, says Westvleteren and Achel use it, too.) Many Belgian strains lack versatility--or at least are finicky enough that breweries need to have lots of practice to produce a wide range. Westmalle's (Wyeast 3787) is versatile, though, producing the signature tripel as well as a much smaller, 5.3% beer the monks also brew called Extra. It is highly attenuative, and its tolerance for different temps means brewers can tweak the esters or produce a phenolic (clovey) character. It will produce both isoamyl acetate and the phenol 4-vinyl guaiacol, so maybe you could even try to coax a weizen out of it. In short, brewers should be able to do what they want.

The Beers
If you wanted to chart the changes in brewing over the years, you could use Cheers to Belgian Beers as one metric. In the first three years, most of the beer was single-strain, tank-aged beer. Last year we saw a bit of barrel-aging and some funk. This year the trend continues. I have my eye on the sour from Big Horse (because last year Jason Kahler really rocked it) and also the one from Coalition (because I think it's their first sour). Dave Logsdon debuts his Seizoen Bretta, soured with brettanomyces (though perhaps not made with the Westmalle yeast). Beyond sours, I like the cut of Lucky Lab's jib--a wee 3.2% table beer (because it's the Lucky Lab, it's a "Belgian-style Norse-American" table beer). Burnside is also doing a table beer, but in the Northwest "small" style--4.7%

Lots of breweries are using spices (Caldera and Oakshire look promising), Double Mountain has a barrel-aged version of their tripel, Widmer's coming strong with figs and plums, and the defending champ seems intent on keeping the crown (an unprecedented feat) with what will certainly be a crowd-pleasing dark chocolate beer. The beers of other breweries, whose names reveal little, will surely have some surprises, too.

The beers haven't always been uniformly good (years two and three were rough), but I have high hopes that this yeast will treat people right. The breweries seem to have really embraced the event and the beer list looks fantastic. Unfortunately, I'm going to be out of town and I'll miss the show. This is rather crushing, and I intend to read the chatter and try to follow up with some of these breweries on my own. If it weren't for Cascade's Saison Festival the following weekend, I might die of envy for all of you who can go. As it is, I may pull through. Don't let me down, though. Go bird dog this thing so I can track down the winners.

More on the Demon's Farm

Dunno how many of you read Block 15's blog (I need to link it up myself), but there's a nice post reflecting on their Cheers to Belgian Beers-winning Demon's Farm--as well as thoughts on the fest, too:

La Ferme’ de Demons has been re-barreled, less the Oregon Oak and dosed with Brett. I anticipate that in about 3-4 months the character of the Brett will meld with the barrel notes and accentuate some cherry pie love. Will this bridge the gap between opinions? Only time will tell. Look for La Ferme de Demon’s on tap here and one or two select Portland taprooms in October…and in limited 750ml corked bottles!

As the winner of Peoples Choice award I get to select the yeast strain for next year’s competition. Yes, my vote would be for some Brett or the Roeselare blend, but I don’t believe all breweries are set up to tame the wild. As I travel to Belgium next week I will look into the possibility of Wyeast being able to supply special yeast that I will be able to sample on location. I will work with the organizers quickly and encourage a timely dart throw to give our great Oregon breweries ample design and conditioning time.

For what it's worth, my polling on your choice for next year's yeast strain is pretty evenly split between four main contenders: 1388, Strong (Duvel), 3463, "Forbidden Fruit," 3763, "Roselare" (Rodenbach), and 3724, "Belgian Saison" (Dupont). Have a look:

(Click to enlarge)

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Cheers to Belgian Beers 2010: The Final Roundup

[Note: An update about the winner is at the end of the post.]

It's all in the yeast.

This was the fourth year of Portland's Cheers to Belgian beers, a fest in which participating breweries all work with a single yeast strain and brew recipes of their own choosing. I missed the first year, when breweries used the versatile Rochefort strain (which Double Mountain also uses). The last two years, though, with the Ardennes (La Chouffe) and Ingelmunster (Kasteel), were largely misfires. Those yeasts were finicky and tended to produce heavy, cloying beers. I've no doubt that given time, breweries could have made some great beers, but the beers at those fests weren't especially distinctive. This year's strain was a saison from Blaugies, both easy to work with and versatile. The beers? Far better than the past two years.

General comments. Although all the breweries used the saison yeast in primary, at least five went a step further and soured their beers with wild yeasts or bacteria. Two used sour mashes. On the one hand, you could argue this undermines the fest's purpose--everyone's supposed to use the same yeast. On the other, it shows that breweries are taking the yeast as a jumping-off point. They're developing beers that express the styles they want to brew. I heartily endorse this experimentation. As for the yeast, while it was versatile, it didn't seem to take to dark beers as well as light--at least when no souring was involved. Maybe someone smarter than me can explain that--or maybe it was just coincidence.

Sally and I tag-teamed, managing to sample at least half-pours of 17 beers. (We both liked two beers well enough to get second pours, and I gave my last ticket to Bill.) Of those 17, I tried only one beer I'd call a dud. Four were absolutely fantastic. The rest fell in the mid-range. Looking around at some of the early reviews, and based on talking with folks at the fest, I'd say this was similar to others' experience--though the beers we admired differed. Liking different beers--there's a lesson in that. Belgian breweries tend to take beers further down roads than breweries in other countries; Belgian beers are often sharp-elbowed and challenging. Even among those known as great beers, a minority of people will just flat-out dislike them. That we all appreciated different beers at this fest attests to the breweries' success in really exploring style and ingredients.

Take Oakshire, for example. It was a strong beer with four spices and a bold palate. When I spoke to people at the fest, they either liked it or disliked it. But interestingly, we all pretty much described it the same way. The spices were well-integrated, drawing out flavors that might have been fermentation characteristics (probably excepting the the grains of paradise). I think there were some fusel alcohols, to which my palate is especially sensitive, and so I found it harsh. But both Doc Wort and Derek gave it high marks. That's the nature of this fest--different strokes. The beers I admired got panned by others.

So, with that in mind, here are my reviews. I'll follow both Doc and Derek's lead--I'll go alphabetically (like Doc) and offer letter grades (like Derek). The four I liked all got As or A-minuses.

• Big Horse Cuvee de Ferme. I loved this beer. Brewer Jason Kahler used a sour mash on one part of his blended beer; it gave the beer a gentle tang. He also included a small amount of beer soured with lactobacillus and pediococcus, which added a small amount of very sharp sour--though the overall effect was mild. It had neither the sharpness of lactic sour or the funkiness of a brett sour. The rye and wheat softened everything out, gave it a bit of bread and spice, and further softened the souring. Rating: A
• Block 15 La Fermé de Demons. Everyone seemed to love this beer--except me. A triple-barrel aged beer with a bit of young brett. I found it overwhelmingly oaky--the sharp, dry tannic quality and sweet vanilla notes both suffused the beer. The brett hadn't had a chance to get going, either. I would love to see it aged longer, off that new American oak, and see what evolves. As it was, I felt like I tasted a zwickel from a work in progress. Promising, but incomplete. Rating: incomplete
• Cascade Frite Galois. Let me draw your attention to one statistic: 4.6%. That's the ABV, and for those who think small beers can't rock the palate, I offer you Frite Galois. I'm sure Gansberg loves all his children equally, but I sort them into categories of sublime and merely damn good. Call this one damn good; a relatively gentle sour, a bit of apricot (which must have been esters, right?), and quite creamy mouthfeel. Rating: B+
• Deschutes Tropisch Bruin. Tamarind is not a generic fruit. It has a particular flavor, and this beer was therefore itself particular. The brown ales at the fest seemed to bend toward a sour staleness. This had that, but also the funny tamarind (next time you're at a burrito joint, get a Jarritos Tamarindo and you'll know what the flavor is). Not at all sweet or sharp, just odd. One of those beers you're glad to try. Once. Rating: B-
• Double Mountain Bonne Idée, Bonne Idée avec Kriek. Sally and I got a pour of each of these for the side-by-side. One of the beers that really suffered from the cold serving temperature, both were startlingly severe at first sip. They were sharply hopped, and then dried out to dust. Sally called them "stern." The kriek softened the palate a bit, but mainly added a cherry note. Clearly very well made and very intentional, but they require the kind of person who loves exceptionally dry, asutere beers. Rating: B-, B-
• Fort George Magnifera Indica Belgae. Another beer where the additive--in this case mango--was impressively understated. I had to let it warm up before the fruit became evident--and then mostly just in the nose. It's a sweetish beer, and alcoholic, with a heavy, rich body. I would have liked to see more dimensions to it--there were few fruity esters or spicy notes. Good, but didn't knock my socks off. Rating: B
• Green Dragon King Ghidorah. I hadn't planned to try this beer, but everyone was raving about it. (Ezra, however, predicted I wouldn't like it.) I had it pretty late in the fest, and my palate was failing me, but what I mainly got was booze and whiskey (it was aged in Rogue Whiskey barrels). I didn't really find much distinctive in it, and I'm getting tired of whiskey beers. Ezra was right--not for me. Rating C
  
• Hopworks DiaBlato. This was the last beer of the day for me, and so you should regard my opinion with the most suspicion. Nevertheless, I could taste the sugar and immense alcohol in the beer. Too much for me, though others were giving it admiring marks. Too much power, too little finesse. (Of course, I was at the time blind to finesse, so.) Rating B-
• Lucky Lab Doggie Kong. This was Sally's pour, and I didn't get a whole lot of it--partly out of choice. It was an interesting beer, but ultimately a misfire. Sour mashed, with a bit of lychee added, but no hops. The result was not a sour beer, but a very caramelly one. It was quite sweet (as you would expect), but I think the caramel was what put it over the top for me. I appreciated the experiment, but not so much the beer. Rating C-
• Kennedy School The Life of Riley Honey Wheat. This was another beer we kept hearing good things about, so tried. Effectively a wit, with coriander and orange peel. Some fermentation characteristics--spice, notably--made it more interesting than an off-the-shelf wit, but the spices were overdone. Even splitting our pour, it was plenty. Rating: C
• Oakshire La Ferme. (Discussed in the body of the post) Rating: C+
• Rock Bottom Floreal IV. As we worked our way through the beers, Sally and I started dividing beers into those that had been designed to let the yeast express itself, and those that ignored the yeast. Floreal was the best we tried in expressing the character of the yeast. It was a very clean, crisp beer but also spicy and floral. It captured the essence of farmhouse ales to me--refreshing but rustic, elegant but approachable. Another of my big faves. Rating A
• Roots Brune O. The second-to-last beer, and one which I couldn't really taste properly. It seemed in possession of that stale sourness, but not overwhelmingly. There was some spiciness, and maybe some dark fruit, but my tongue couldn't do it justice. Rating: C+, with a big caveat for rater unreliability.
  
• Silver Moon Saison de Moon. Like Floreal, another beer that tried to work with the yeast. Silver Moon's was a darker beer, but quite nice. The yeast can really offer a wonderful spice along with a dry, tasty finish. Rating: B+
• Upright Mingus and Monk. If Floreal was a great beer in expressing the yeast's character, this was a great beer in ignoring it. A tremendous amount going on in Mingus and Monk, which was at turns rich and sweet, like a dessert, and at times sharp and tart. I had a sense brewers Alex Ganum and Corey Blodgett were trying to blow the lid off this beer in terms of richness (barrel aged with currents soaked in fortified wine?--so decadent). Doc Wort thinks it could age, and I agree--but it will get a bit sharper and drier and the brett will knock some of those tongue-pleasing notes into minor key. It's perfect now, and it will be perfect--and perfectly different--in a few months. I hope to get to try it then. Rating: A
• Widmer Biere de Table. This beer didn't get the love I thought it deserved. It was as if people weren't giving it a chance--just swilling it and moving on to more florid offerings. Well, they missed a lushly understated beer. It had a crisp nose with what I thought were light phenolics. I brewed a grisette with the Dupont strain last year, and got this same quality, so when I saw brewer Ben Dobler, I asked if he'd used wheat in the recipe--he had. I think that helped pull out some of the yeast's spice. It was highly carbonated and lively on the tongue and would, I suspect, be a great friend to food. Sally's fave, and one of my finest four. Rating: A

I gave four beers As, something I try not to do too often. But I don't think it's grade inflation either (a charge leveled at me in the past)--the average of all the other beers is a B-. These four are the kinds of beers I would be happy to drink every day; the kinds of beers that leap into your mind when you're in the mood for a particular style. I didn't just admire them, I liked them. I don't expect Big Horse or Upright to replicate these beers, but consider this my official appeal to Widmer and Rock Bottom to consider doing an encore.

Overall, a great fest.


Update. Bill and Angelo have added their reviews.

Update 2. We have a winner: Block 15 La Fermé de Demons. They will have the right to select the yeast for next year's fest. Generally the winner gets to host, but apparently PDX retains the right, so I'm not sure who will host in Block 15's stead. The top six vote-getters speak well for the crowd, too: Cascade Brewing's Frite Galois, Green Dragon's King Ghidorah, Hopworks' DiaBlato, Oakshire's La Ferme, and Upright's Mingus and Monk. Congrats all around.

As I look back at that list, I notice soemthing interesting. Every one of the breweries in the top six except Cascade was established in the last three or four years. In other words, the kids are all right.
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Cheers to Belgian Beers in Pictures

A few shots from yesterday's fest. I'll give you my review in a day or two. (One sentence preview? The best fest yet, with a number of solid beers and four exceptional ones--and of course, a few duds.)

Sally and I arrived at 11:55, thinking we
were absurdly early. Not so.

An homage to Hopworks' bike ethos?
Lots came to the fest on two wheels.

Abram Goldman-Armstrong and Ben Love
announce winners of the homebrew contest.

Enjoying the fest.

The glassware was great--but lent itself
to overpours.

The obligatory shot of the crowd with
out-of-focus glass in foreground.

Cheers to Belgian Beers, Picks and More

Well, no more from breweries, so I'm calling it final. You can find a .pdf of my ultimate guide, formatted nicely, for your printing enjoyment (probably it should be called the half-ultimate, since it features just half the breweries).

Cheers to Belgian Beers

Bill asked in comments if these represent my picks of the fest. They do not. Here's my list, and I'll probably be prevailing upon Sally to help me get through it all. I would love to try every single beer using the yeast, actually, but that's going to be impossible. So here's how I'll divide the baby:

• Big Horse Cuvee de Ferme
• Block 15 La Ferme' de Demons
• Cascade Frite Galois
• Deschutes Tropisch Bruin
• Double Mountain Bonne Idee Kriek
• Fort George Magnifera Indica Belgae
• Hopworks DiaBlato
• Laurelwood Infared [maybe]
• Oakshire La Ferme
• Old Market Red Headed Stepchild [maybe]
  
• Roots Brune O
• Silver Moon Saison de Moon
• Upright Mingus and Monk
• Widmer Biere de Table

But I'll also listen to what the buzz is and change gears as appropriate.
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Cheers to Belgian Beers: The Ultimate Primer

Post has been updated: Lucky Lab Doggie Kong added to the list.

Over the past couple days, I've been trying to track down as many breweries as I could to find out more about the beers they made for the Cheers to Belgian Beers fest. I was interested in the methods as much as ingredients of the beers. Many got back to me, and below are excerpts of their responses.

I considered trying to recreate their responses in neutral Jeff-speak, but I like the way each told his own story. As you'll see, some breweries went to elaborate lengths to create interesting beers. As a consequence, it's a looooooong post (though I've put in a page break). I hope to hear from more, so I'll update the page as needed throughout the day. I'll also post a pdf with this whole document in case you want to print it off for the fest.

Enjoy!

Ambacht

Name: Ambacht Black Gold
Concept: Brewer Tom Kramer described his beer: "Ambacht Black Gold that we brewed for the PCTBB is a variation on our regular Ambacht Black Gold that brewed with the Farmhouse strain of yeast and bumped the OG up a bit to make it a bit more festive.
Method: "We brewed it early February, just after the yeast became available and it spent two weeks in the primary getting up to 80°F, we then let it age for a month at about 50°F before kegging/bottling. We carbonate all our beers withhoney which we find leaves just a bit of residual sweetness to the taste."
Comments: "The farmhouse yeast added some new flavors and we are very happy with how it turned out."
Stats: 15.2P, 6.8% ABV, 25 IBU

Big Horse Brewpub

Name: Cuvee Du Ferme
Concept: If you haven't been to Big Horse in the past year or two, you need to go try new(ish) brewer Jason Kahler's beers. "Describing "Cuvee Du Ferme" gets a little complicated, because two of the three beers going into it were experimental in process. All three use the selected strain; I suspect people will assume that it involves other "yeast." It does not."
Method: " I brewed the 2 younger beers in early Feb. and allowed them to condition warm until about 2 weeks ago. Sour Mash Wheat: 72% of the blend, FV temp. 78F, sour mashed 1/2 the grain for 48hrs. Rye Saison: 24% of the blend, FV temp. 80F. The Old Gold: 4% was a beer I did years ago with the [same strain of yeast], I put up a 1/2 barrel of it with pediococcus/lactobacillis and let it ride at ambient temps, hot in summer, cold in winter. This beer on its own is very acid, it's one that I use strictly for blending."
Comments: "[The soured beer] adds a layer to the cuvee that I really enjoy. As far as the [festival] strain is concerned, it is probably my favorite of the commercial Belgians.
Stats: Final, blended beer 6.3% ABV

Click to expand and continue reading...

Block 15

Name: La Fermé de Demons (The Demon's Farm)
Concept: Founder and brewer Nick Arzner described his complex beer: "Playing off the saison theme I developed a recipe similar to a saison, using Belgian Pilsner and French wheat. Since we were required to brew a dark/ high beer, the addition of Carafa III blackens the beer and dark candi sugar boosted our fermentables without adding more body. I was hoping for a good blend of light bourbon vanillas and caramel, tannic Oregon oak, and pinot barrel character. The pinot barrel we used came from a winery that had tested the wine for low counts of brettanomyces. I was hoping to pick up a bit of this character, though the timing was not in favor of this."
Method: "Primary Fermenation started at 75 degrees, rose to 80, finished at 68 over two weeks. Into barrels; roughly 1/3rd each fresh emptied Pinot Noir, Oregon oak, and bourbon. The beer spent 2 weeks in the Oregon oak and two months in the pinot & bourbon. Blended with a touch of organic 100% black cherry juice. I was surprised at the even fermentation and solid attenuation. In the past we have had to really baby saison strains, sometimes over a month to finish the beer. This yeast really evolved its character from primary, secondary, and barreling. At peak primary a good amount of banana and clove where present with some nice fruit. Towards the back end, more spice, wood and light pepper."
Comments: "The keg sent up to the fest will be the only keg of its kind. The Demon's Farms pours a ruby black glass with an off white/ruddy brown head. Oak barrel aromas dominate with background spice and fruit. Medium-bodied with barrel character, a bit of roast, vanilla, and a hint of sweet cherry. The finish is warming with a coating mouthfeel and vinous qualities."
Stats: 19P, 8.8% ABV, 31 IBU

Cascade

Name: Frite Galois ("Frite Galois harkens back to old French and was a fried Welsh Pastie. The filling was a mystery and needed to be approached with caution.")
Concept: Ron Gansberg, whose ways are never simple, describes how he avoided letting the yeast take the upper hand: "I just have never been a big fan of the flavors this yeast produces. I feel that three months in the barrel has done wonders in mellowing the flavor."
Method: "Frite Galois was fermented in the low 70s F. and then put into the White Port barrels that had just contained the Noyeau [the strong sour made with apricot meat]. The beer was aged at the Cascade Brewing Barrel House on Belmont for three months in the barrel room at 60 F during normal lactic fermentation.
Comments: "It is a pleasant refreshing sour ale that is a much needed diversion from the heavy/hopped ales of winter."
Stats: 14P, 4.6% ABV, 13 IBU

Double Mountain

Name: Bonne Idée, bonne Idée Avec Kriek. The name, "good idea," comes from a story in brewer Matt Swihart's history when, while in Berundi, he tried to communicate to a bartender that another beer was a bonne idee. Neither man's French was very good, and lingustic hijinks ensued. The incident stuck in his memory.
Concept: "This beer was a three way collaboration between myself and our two other brewers Kyle Larson and Greg Balch. It was Kyle's idea to try to blend the finished beer with a little of our aging Kriek. The Kriek coming out this year has double the cherries and is on a brown beer base. It is very dark and inky, and just now starting to show off the brettanomyces character. It was brewed in June 2009 and features July’s Bing harvest. What we were shooting for the beer was to show off the characteristics of the yeast strain but subdue the overly sweet/fruity character that you can get with the farmhouse strain."
Method: "The beer was fermented in the upper 60s.... We boosted the bitterness and hop back character to balance the higher alcohol, and then blended in 20% of our Kolsch yeast to dry out the beer for more attenuation. The higher yeast count fermented nice and strong and I believe the kolsch finished off the ferment quite nicely."
Comments: "We really dug the fruit profile and slight smokiness of the yeast blend so brewed another batch of the Bonne Idée so we could have it one tap in Hood River for awhile. We also brewed a whole other beer that is a light red/wheat/farmhouse beer that is coming out around next week in the taproom, yet to be kegged and named."
Stats: Idée: 17.2P, 8.4% ABV, 50 IBU, Kriek: 8% ABV, 48 IBU,

Fort George

Name: Mangifera Indica Belgae (Mangifera Indica is the latin name for mango)
Concept: Owner and brewer Jack Harris has long experimented with adjuncts, and this year's beer utilizes "the world's most popular tropical fruit."
Method: "After the long slow experience of last year we started this batch much earlier and it has had nearly two months to condition. It fermented out nice and dry in a reasonable amount of time. We used whole, frozen chunks in a secondary ferment."
Comments: "The profile is subtle, but distinctly Belgian with some spicy overtones. The fruit came through very pleasantly, flavorful, but not sweet. At around 8% abv the Mango Beer ought to hold its own among fruit beer snobs. We tried it a couple weeks ago at a brewers dinner and it was fantastic."
Stats: 19P, 7.9% ABV, 15 IBU

Hopworks Urban Brewery

Name: Diablato
Concept: Brewer Ben Love described the host brewery's thinking behind their selection of the festival's yeast strain, the described Hopworks' beer. "We initially picked the Wyeast 3726 strain out of the five different strains we test brewed with because of the aroma and flavor profile, but also the fermentation and flocculation characteristics. Diablato is essentially the same recipe as El Diablo (8.9%) and Diablito (5.8%) completing our Belgian Golden Trilogy. (El Diablo and Diablito were fermented with Ardennes)."
Method: "Recipe 87% Gambrinus Organic Pils malt, 1% Acidulated, 12% Organic Evaporated Cane Juice. Diablito was brewed on the 15th and started at 23 Plato. We held fermentation at 68F til it hit 15 Plato (to limit harsh higher alcohols), then let it free rise. It hit 78F. It attenuated 90%, down to 2.3 Plato (same attenuation as El Diablo and Diablito), resulting in ~11% ABV."
Comments: "The aroma is complex floral with slight banana and spice, medium bodied with a fruity and floral flavor, warming finish and subtle bitterness."
Stats: 23P, 11% ABV, 20 IBU

Laurelwood

Name: Infared
Concept: From brewer Chad Kennedy: "It's loosely based on our Free Range Red. Basically, we brewed an ESB and fermented it with Belgian yeast--kind of like a Belgian IPA."
Method: "Temp wise we let this go--the warmest it got as 82F. As far as hops, we did go fairly heavy on it. As far as hops, we did go fairly heavy on it. We used Ahtanum and Sirachi Ace--two fairly fruity varieties that blend well with the yeast flavor."
Comments: "I find the ester and phenol profile to blend well with the hops. It's a good beer that is best tried fresh- with the true yeast and hop character there."
Stats: 17P, 7.5% ABV, 65 IBU

Lucky Lab

Name: Malt Bomb V
Concept: This is the fifth year brewer Abby Sherrill has made Malt Bomb, all with a different yeast.
Method: " I started at about 17 plato and at about 7 I really had to be patient and it eventually hit 5.5. I believe I fermented it at 75 F. I conditioned it for over a month, I believe it was nearly 6 weeks pre-rack."
Comments: " This yeast is pretty yummy, but the tartness does coat the palette in an unusual way."
Stats: 16P, 5.4% ABV, 25 IBU

Lucky Lab Beer Hall

Name: Doggie Kong
Concept: Ben Flerchinger sent a late message detailing his sour lychee saison.
Method: "I did a sour mash (let the mash rest for about 30 hours) with about 20% of the grain bill.It was a little hard to get it down to the final gravity I wanted. I let it ferment at what ever temperature it wanted, It got up to about 80 degrees. We were lucky to get an early start on fermentation and were able to get about 2 months to condition the beer."
Comments: "There are no hops in the Doggie Kong, i did add a little bit of lychee fruit during fermentation that gives it just a hint of fruitiness to balance the sour flavor. I liked the flavors from this yeast."
Stats: 17.3P, 6.4% ABV, 0 IBU

Oakshire

Name: La Ferme
Concept: Brewer Matt Van Wyk explained how he landed on the idea of a spiced ale: "Farmhouse ales, as with many Belgian-style beers, offer the brewer a playground of opportunities to try new ingredients. [With the method I used] I can do very small experiments without over-spicing a full batch. On how I choose the different spices: sometimes when deciding to do stuff like this, I think about the foods that I think would go well with them and how each spice would play with the aromas and flavors in certain foods."
Method: " I was tempted to "let er rip" and not use the jackets, but my head brewer talked me down from that and we knocked out at about 70-71F and set the jackets at 75. It climbed a bit, but never got above 72.5. We thought it was nearly finished--started cooling down, very little activity--but upon bunging, it just kept building pressure, so it trickled a bit, down to 1.6 deg Plato. Brewed 3/19. Racked 4/6-so only about 18 days in tank."
Spicing Method: "We decided to use lemon peel and rose hips in the original recipe. If you see it around town outside of HUB (only four kegs went to Portland) it will just have those. We went very light-handed, and because of that and the yeast phenolics, they are not real apparent. I wanted to experiment with other spices as well, so I cleaned up three bung sided kegs, and aged the finished beer in three different kegs. One had Grapefruit peel and Grains of Paradise. One had Orange Peel and Pink Peppercorns and the third has Pink Peppercorn and Jasmine."
Comments: "The beer was on the spices for about two weeks and there were very subtle differences. I sent the Grapefruit peel and Grains of Paradise keg to PCTBB because I could pick up the Grains of Paradise and I like the slightly spicy character. The difficult part of all this is that the yeast is both fruity/citrus and spicy, or at least that's what we got from it."
Stats: 15.8P, 7.8% ABV, 15 IBU

Pelican

Name: Le Pélican d'Or
Concept: I didn't talk to brewer Darron Welch, but received a spec sheet on this beer. "Le Pélican d'Or is our experimental variation on a Belgian-style Golden Strong Ale. It uses malted rye to emphasize the balanced spicy character inherent in the 'Farmhouse' yeast."
Method: Made with pale and rye malt, Mt. Rainier, Santiam, and Tettnang hops, and a bit of white sugar.
Comments: "Le Pélican d'Or finishes with a clean, snappy balance of malt flavor, hop bitterness, and slightly tart, spicy yeast character."
Stats: 18.1P, 8.4% ABV, 45 IBU

Rock Bottom

Name: Floreal IV
Concept: Brewer Van Havig started out talking (colorfully) about how this is a style where people shouldn't be focused on IBUs. He continued: "As far as the rest of the beer, not to sound boring, but I feel these beers are an exercise in letting the yeast express itself."
Method: "So the grain bill is very simple, just two row and acidulated malt for pH. We added some dextrose so that we would increase the amount of ester formation. The hops aren’t too important. Fermentation temperature was at a very mild 70 F (too hot and the esters tend to get blown off). No exotic ingredients. Total time in the tank was 18 days – contrary to the beliefs of many, I feel these beers (like most) are best served fresh, not after the esters have had a chance to volatize out of the beer
Comments: "What do I get out of it? A nice white pepper spiciness and banana and apricot."
Stats:13P, 5.9% ABV, 35 IBU

Upright

Name: Mingus and Monk (brewed with Confucian Brewer Corey Blodgett and named for jazz greats Charles Mingus and Thelonius Monk)
Concept: Corey has some thoughts at his blog. Here's Alex's take: "We made a brown ale with lots of pale caramel malt and just a bit of Briess special roast which has a lightly toasty/bready flavor that came through more than expected in the non-barrel aged portion before blending."
Method: "We didn't hit high attenuation in the open fermenter (even reaching a peak of 91F) but that had more to do with the fact that it was only 10 barrels in there (20 barrel tank) and extremely shallow so the yeast dropped out early (our yeast is so non-flocculent that it never becomes an issue in that situation). The beer did end up drying out more in the barrels and the acidity balances out the residual sugar nicely. Our finished beer was about 45% barrel aged and picked up a bit of brettanomyces and other souring organisms in the oak so it's not very representative of the farmhouse strain on its own."
Comments: "The non-barrel portion also had a finish that was more tart yet much more soft than our house strain. The Dupont strain has similar soft finish but not nearly the same degree of acidity. I'll be curious to taste the other darker beers to gauge the "maltiness" of the yeast and also the pale ones to assess the ester profile more."
Stats: 16.8P, 7.2% ABV, 22 IBU

Widmer

Name: Biere de Table
Concept: Brewer Ben Dobler reports: "The goal was simple very light and very low abv. I also figured most brewers wouldn’t go this route. Looking at the Belgian Table Beer style and history I was surprised to see that it was served at many schools for the children up until the 80’s and 90’s, and was then replaced by soda. Belgians are considering bringing it back due to childhood obesity. Beer is much more healthy than soda. Duh! I personally have been on session beer/lighter beer kick lately.
Method: Note: the stats seen elsewhere were from a test batch. Widmer reformulated the recipe and accurate stats are below. "Overall this yeast was fun to work with. We cooled the batch to 56F and then let it free rise to 72F. The second batch fermented much slower than the first. It was around a 2 week fermentation. When you are starting at 8P it is tough to have a fermentation run much longer. We used US Goldings. Finishing at 2P was nice and helps give it some mouth without it being overly dry."
Comments: "It has a very pleasant aroma and flavor for being so light."
Stats: 8.2P, 3% ABV, 14 IBU

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Cheers To Belgian Beers

Beer is local. Even if it's not brewed locally, the way people consume it, and the types of beer they consume reflect local attitudes. In places where breweries and beer culture flower, local happenings can be pretty cool. On Saturday, one of my favorite local events takes place as Hopworks hosts the fourth annual Cheers to Belgian Beers fest. It started as an informal agreement among a few Portland breweries to produce a beer with the same Belgian yeast strain and has grown to be a statewide, Brewers-Guild-sponsored event with 29 breweries and 33 beers.

Cheers to Belgian Beers
Saturday, May 1, noon - 9pm
Hopworks, upper parking lot
2944 SE Powell Blvd
Free; $5 for required tasting goblet, $1 pours

This year's yeast strain is Wyeast 3726, a farmhouse strain from Brasserie de Blaugies. Blaugies brews Saison D'epeautre, an highly-carbonated, tart spelt version (epeautre means spelt). Although I haven't had the pleasure, theirs sounds like a throwback example, recalling the sour saisons that were common until 100 years ago. The yeast itself appears to be quite flexible, with high temperature tolerance, but none of the Dupont strain's finickiness. The attenuation is listed as 74%-79%--not especially high--but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that breweries managed to exceed that. It can produce complex esters and spice character (presumably at higher temperatures.)

In any case, this should be the best event yet: saison strains have the flexibility to produce a broad spectrum of styles, and depending on how the breweries use it, should also express substantially different character. Previous fests fell to difficult strains that bent beer to their will, rather than vice versa.

In early editions of the fest, breweries weren't limited in the style they could make; perversely, this resulted in a lot of very similar beers. To rectify that, the Brewers Guild now hosts a selection event where breweries toss darts to determine whether their beer will fit into one of four quadrants: high alcohol/light color, high alcohol/dark color, low alcohol/light color, low alcohol/dark color. Looks like we'll have some real diversity this year, too (list is in pdf):

• Five beers exceed 9% (with host Hopworks busting out a monster 11-percenter).
• Widmer is bringing a 3.7% table beer. Sorry, biere.
• Lots of breweries went sour, including Deschutes, who used tamarind (an idea I was flirting with for a homebrew recently--damn you, Deschutes!).
  
• At least five are barrel-aged.
• Fruit additions include cherry, currant, and mango--in addition to the tamarind.
• Spice additions include pepper, ginger, orange, lemon, and grapefruit peel, coriander, rosehips, and grains of paradise.

Consider this just a taste--I'll do a subsequent post with a bit more depth and include my picks (which will be, as usual, a crapshoot). In any case, I am getting pretty psyched. It looks like our fair brewers went all-out this year.
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Cheers to Belgian Beers 2010

All right ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. The pole positions have been decided and the yeast selected, and now it's time to start brewing! Cheers to Belgian Beers is just a few months away.

(Backgrounder: Cheers to Belgian Beers is a fun, friendly little competition that Portland breweries started three years ago wherein they each brew a beer from the same strain of yeast. They convene for a one-day fest and people vote on their favorite beer, proceeds going to charity. The winner gets to host the event the following year and select that year's yeast strain as well as the benefiting charity. To add a little diversity to the event, last year the breweries held a dart-toss to decide which one of four general quadrants they'd be brewing to: low-alcohol light beer, high-alcohol light beer, low-alcohol dark beer, high-alcohol dark beer. And also in 2009, it was expanded beyond Portland to include all Oregon Brewers Guild members.)

Hopworks won last year and earned the right to host on May first when the fest happens this year. Earning my eternal gratitude, they have selected a saison yeast. The last couple years have featured finicky yeasts that don't attenuate well (or quickly, or something). This year's strain should be quite versatile, though, and will also attenuate enough so that we'll see some drier beers. The description:

Wyeast 3726 (Farmhouse Ale)
This strain produces complex esters balanced with earthy/spicy notes. Slightly tart and dry with a peppery finish. A perfect strain for farmhouse ales and saisons.

Attenuation: 74-79%
Alc. Tolerance: 12%
Flocculation: variable
Temperature Range: 70-95°F (21-35°C)

Although the strain is tolerant of high temperatures, it's not Dupont's strain, and brewers won't have to go for the extreme heat. Well, not exactly Dupont's. Rather, this is apparently Brasserie Blaugies' strain, but they originally used Dupont's. So make of that what you will. The good news is that saison strains are versatile and should be able to make everything from very small beers (grisette, anyone?) to huge bruisers with relative ease.

Last night, breweries tossed darts to find out which "quadrant" they'd be brewing, and that list is at the OBG website. Go have a look to see what your favorite brewery is whipping up. Oh, and homebrewers, take note: you can also compete in a homebrew competition with the same yeast. The details are also available at the OBG website (scroll down).

Hopworks is Your Winner

Via Twitter, Brian alerts us that the winner of the Cheers to Belgian Beers Fest (and his blog post on the matter): Hopworks, with their impressive Dubbel Suplex. I'm quite pleased with this selection--it was one of four beers I thought was distinguished and worthy of winning. I don't wish to ruffle feathers, but suffice it to say that last year's winner, the Lucky Lab, was not in my top echelon. Hopworks deserved it.

Top Ten finishers (alpha order):

• Astoria Brewing Co.’s-Avante Guarde Akloo(say it with a French accent)
• Deschutes Brewery & Public House Bend La Fleur
• Deschutes Brewery Portland Pub Streaking the Quad
• Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom Ingelmonster-Barrel Fermented
• Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom Ingelmonster
• Fort George Brewing Co. XVIth Chapel
• Lucky Labrador Brewing Co. Beljamin
• Pyramid Breweries Smooth Operator
• Roots Organic Brewing Co. Feudal Surfer
• Widmer Brothers Brewing Co. Forever and a Day Trippel

Two passing thoughts upon seeing the winners:

• Could it be that Corey Blodgett's excellent Zen Lunatic didn't win because drinkers, disrespecting the McMenamin's brand, didn't try it? My only disappointment is not seeing it among the winners.
  
• Half the top five were dark beers, half were light.

As winner, Hopworks may host next year, select the yeast strain, and also select the benefiting charity. I would say now is the time to begin lobbying them on the yeast strain. Say it with me now: Saison, saison, saison!

Final Thoughts on Cheers to Belgian Beers

In no particular order, a few random observations, opinions, and questions about this year's edition of the fest...

• The glasses rocked. I have boxes of old glasses from other fests. None has been upgraded to my regular beer-glass rotation, but this one will. Classy shape, good size, cool logo, an an absence of sponsors or other unwanted signage.

• What happens if a non-Portland pub wins the event? Are we off to Astoria or Corvallis next year?

• All beers must be made with the same yeast. Last year, I voted for a brewery (Full Sail) that didn't use the selected yeast. (They eliminated that problem this year with an official ballot.) This year, a pretty decent number of the beers weren't made with Inglemunster. Breweries like Upright, which didn't exist when the event was set, get an exemption.

• More volunteers. For the first couple hours on Saturday, there were two guys manning every tap in the fest. Two! I know this thing is only a semi-official fest and that the proceeds go to charity. Still, seems like they could muster a couple more folks.

• On the other hand, the fest was an amazing value. The glasses were only five bucks--you'd pay at least that in a store--and the pours were just a buck. Given that most of the beers were north of 7%, your buck went pretty far.

• The idea of compelling breweries to select a general quadrant (strong/mild and light/dark) was a good start. It effectively resulted in a number of different beers. Two things would improve it more: use a more versatile yeast (my vote: saison), and give breweries at least six months to brew their beers. Even better, start right away. Breweries might even have a chance to try a few different batches if you gave them a year.
  

• What happens when they run out of yeast strains to try? Is this event doomed to sunset? (Or do we just go back to some of the ones we've already used?)

• Other reactions: Beer Around Town; Doc Wort, Brewpublic. (Holler if I missed one or if some of the usual suspects update their blogs with reviews.)
  

Big fun. Can't wait for next year.

Cheers to Belgian Beers Wrap-Up

Among the many markers that this is indeed Beervana, we enjoyed the fruits of the third Cheers to Belgian Beers fest. (Asheville, your move.) Two-dozen beers from 19 breweries in probably 20 styles, and they all used the same yeast. In this case, Ingelmunster, the yeast Kasteel uses for their range of beers (longer description, if you missed it, here).

Yeast Character
First a general comment on the yeast. I had the very good fortune of sitting next to Dave Logsdon, founder of Wyeast Labs, the guys behind the Ingelmunster yeast all the breweries used. (He's an Ohioan, and had family in town who were all sporting Buckeye paraphenalia. Eventually Sally and I--alums of Big Ten rival Wisconsin--finally had to call them out, and that's when we learned who it was.) We chatted for a bit about yeasts, and he mentioned--gingerly--that Ingelmunster is a yeast that takes its own sweet time. Not unusual for Belgian strains. However, the breweries didn't have a lot of time to get these beers going--style guidelines weren't assigned until February. Ingelmunster, according to Wyeast's description, is "very tart and dry on the palate," and a "high acid producer.'

You wouldn't know it from the beers at the fest. With one expection, they were sweet and wet. In the more successful experiments, brewers used this character to their advantage (there's nothing innately wrong with sweeter beers). Unsuccessful beers tended to cloy or were inappropriately sweet. And Sally and I kept picking up a funky note that was just short of foul (call it compost or cabbagy--in some cases it drew out almost to a burning chemical quality). It seemed to be worse in the dark beers. I harbor a suspicion that it was a volatile note that would have, given more time in the tanks, worked its way out. Maybe half the beers had it.

The Beers
I tried 14 of the Ingelmunster beers, as well as Alex Ganum's semi-debut Upright Four. (We'll treat that to it's own post.) Four of the Ingelmunster beers stood out for me: Astoria Brewing's biere de garde (Avante Garde Akloo), Corey Blodgett's McMenamins Zen Lunatic, Pelican's Le Fleur Amere, and Hopworks' Dubbel Suplex. I had to make a call on my ballot between Astoria and McMenamins, and it was close enough that I'll keep my vote to myself--both Corey and Bolt produced very nice beers.

Astoria's was a silky, rich biere de garde. Brewer Bolt Minister took full advantage of the yeast's sweetness, and the result was the most quaffable of the Ingelmunsters. Zen Lunatic, by contrast, managed to produce some of the quality I think the yeast is supposed to have--it was a little drier and had some of the tartness. Bright, crisp, and floral, it was accomplished and tasty. Pelican's gets a nod for boldness. The idea was an English-hopped IPA with the Ingelmunster. I would say it wasn't exactly the right yeast, but the execution was nice. Perhaps if it has a chance to age, it will dry out and allow some of the dry-hopping to come out. Finally, Hopworks brought what I would call a "fortified dubbel"--it was a traditional dubbel recipe amped up with cane sugar. The result was the prettiest beer of the day--a clear and bright hazelnut brown. It was the one beer that finished out dryly. Using the sugar was an inspired call.

If you want a fuller review of these beers, I'll point you to Doc Wort, who tasted almost all the same beers I did, and had almost identical impressions. (Yes, the world must surely be about to end.) The beers of which he disapproved I found tolerable near-misses at worst. However, look at his Lompoc Le Chat Noir description--I think he's identifying at the same qualities I kept tasting.

A great event, and I had a great time. I think the Twitter experiment was even worthwhile. Or worth further testing. I'll have one more post with some final, scattershot thoughts and observations about the fest more generally. I'll leave you with a few more photos.

Cheers to Belgian Beers

Fri, May 1 and Saturday, May 2, Noon – 10 p.m.
Lucky Labrador Beer Hall
1945 NW Quimby, Portland, OR 97209
Admission is free. There is a $5 charge for a tasting goblet, which is required to sample beers, and $1 for tastes. Tickets can be purchased at the festival entrance.

How did this happen? Although I've been anticipating it for weeks, somehow the Cheers to Belgian Beers event has managed to sneak up on me. It begins tomorrow (!). Brian Butenschoen has posted a lot of nice information about the event at the Brewers Guild website, and I will now steal profligately from the best parts.

The Event
In years one and two, it was two-sentence simple: participating breweries all used the same yeast strain to brew a beer of their own design, and fest-goers picked a winner. The winning brewery got to select the yeast strain and host the event the next year.

This year, things got more complicated. Breweries are all still using the same yeast, but the Brewers Guild decided to try to create a little variety by compelling breweries to brew within one of four quadrants of very general strength/color divisions. (They held a dart toss to determine who got what.) Beers will be either lighter or darker than amber and stronger or lighter than 6%.

As a drinker, I think this is a good call. Breweries at last year's event gravitated toward a similar type of beer, and I suffered style fatigue before long. (Some of the breweries, sotto voce, grumbled.)

The Yeast
From the Brewers Guild: "This year’s yeast will be Wyeast 3822 Ingelmunster Ale (formerly known as Wyeast 3822 Dutch Castle), which is a unique Belgian ale yeast that produces spicy/phenolic aromas, tart and dry on the palate with phenol and ester production balanced, for a complex beer." You would expect Doc Wort to provide a dissertation on the background of this yeast, and so he has. Briefly, it's the yeast used by the brewer of Kasteelbier. I would love to tell you more, but of the dozens of Belgians I have tried, Kasteel is not among them.

The Beers
We have the official list, and as your eye is drawn down the page, you will notice a few familiar names. Breweries are taking advantage of the event to release regular beers to their line-up, a wonderfully unexpected side-benefit of Cheers to Belgian Beers.


Finally, I'll leave you with a little video I shot at last year's event. It gets a little draggy there in the middle, but I was enchanged by how the couple enjoyed and discussed their beer, so I left the whole thing in there. See you at the fest!

Cheers to Belgian Beers Winner Announced

This just in from Brian Butenschoen, Director of the Oregon Brewers Guild (bold mine):

We had 289 votes.

In first place was the Lucky Labrador Brewing's Malt Bomb Belgian. In second place was the Laurelwood Brewing's Saison du Arduinna and in third place was the Alameda Brewhouse Lucky Devil.

The first place winner gets to host and name the charity for next year.

I have to say I'm a little shocked by the winner and the absence of any of my faves in the list. Perhaps the collective palate of Beervana has yet to attune itself to Belgian styles. Rarely do I feel so out of step...

Anyway, Congrats to the Lucky Lab!

Video: Cheers to Belgian Beers

And here's the vid--super short for easy viewing. (Yes, I realize Edith Piaf is French, not Belgian, but I'm in the ballpark.)

Review: Cheers to Belgian Beers

What an odd scene: at noon, beeristas starting showing up at Roots for the much advertised (including here) noon start for the Cheers to Belgian Beers tasting. Early folks, like me, were sent packing: sorry, it doesn't start til noon. But within a short time, the brewery had shifted gears to accommodate the hordes. By three--the later start time--all the commemorative glassware was gone. No worries, the brewery scrounged up an assortment of wee snifters, asked for a $2 donation, and everyone was happy. This improvisational quality had a retro, 1988 feel, and so did the widespread good cheer with which everyone greeted it.

And then it was on to the beers.

How the Yeast Behaved
By the time I finally arrived (at six, after watching Memphis club UCLA), some of the beers were running out. In the end, I managed to try13 of the 16 pouring. The great value of an experiment like this is that you have a large enough sample size to begin to see the elements and range of the yeast. The Ardennes (La Chouffe) strain used this year didn't produce a particularly strong character to most beers, unlike many Belgian varieties. It's fairly clean and neutral. However, it leaves a lot of unfermentable sugars in the beer.

At least half the beers I tried were overly sweet--and the use of candi sugar by some breweries didn't help matters. My guess is that, given another opportunity, breweries would make adjustments to recipes or allow a longer period of fermentation. But so goes the process of experimentation, right? Another characteristic that cropped up in three or four of the beers was a vegetable quality--like squash or boiled vegetables. Normally one might suspect DMS, but I don't here--I think it's some kinda funky that the yeast kicks off under certain conditions.

Oh, and as a final note, I was surprised that none of the breweries tried a hop monster. Most everyone stuck to fairly traditional interpretations of strong ales and abbeys, and nothing was more than about 30 IBUs (which is to say not at all bitter in these sweet, 6-9% beers). Next time I hope to see breweries take the yeast and get crazy--with adjuncts, unpredictable style selection, and use of hopping rates. So many of the beers on offer were sweet, golden-hued ales that it was a little hard to distinguish them past a certain point.

The Beers
The cream of this particular crop were four beers: Laurelwood Saison de Arfuinna and Roots Farmouse Bruin were fine beers, and the Full Sail Dubbel and Widmer Golden were fantastic. I have heard rumors that the FS didn't actually use the Ardennes yeast, which is both confusing and weird (and, if it wins, will be all the weirder still). I voted for the FS Dubbel, so I'll start with it--but for the moment, let's put an asterisk beside it.

Full Sail Dubbel (7.3%) - a wonderful, rich aroma, the best in the bunch--redolent of freshly-cut wood. I generally think of dubbels as a throwaway style; a beer to drink in the daylight when the tripel is too big. But this was sumptuous--floral yet earthy, malty without being the least sweet (perhaps evidence a different yeast was used), chocolatey and even a bit smoky. It finishes cleanly and very dryly. It has neither the heaviness nor bite of a beer of this size--I would have guessed 5%. If this were available in the bottle, I'd buy it by the case. (It's available at the Pilsner Room)

Widmer Belgian Golden (6.1%) - A beautiful beer, clear and perfectly golden--like Duvel, if that calls anything to mind. A spicy Belgian nose. The palate was the most accutely "Belgian" of all the beers we tried--I doubt Jackson himself could have detected the Yankee inside. The Brothers managed to wring all the residual sugars out of the beer, revealing the capacity of the yeast, which produced a marvelously spicy palate. It was slightly phenolic, adding to the overal complexity. Not at all cloying or sweet in the aftertaste.

The next two were good beers; I tried them early and for a long time thought one would get my vote. Both are availiable at their respective breweries.

Roots Farmhouse Bruin (6.0%) - The lightest of the beers here. The title may suggest a Flanders Brown, but this is more like a rustic, uncategorized ale. The dark malts mellow the sweetness, and brewer Jason McAdam managed to pull a little funk from the strain--sherrylike more than sour.

Laurelwood Saison de Arduinna (6.4%) - I'll admit to some skeptisim of this beer, with its 15 IBUs. However, Chad Kennedy managed to balance the malts with orange and lemon additions (Peel? Which orange? Dunno.)--the result was a very creamy, almost breakfasty beer. Again, he managed keep the beer from cloying, despite adding candi sugar.

Other notes: BJ's Redrum (red ale) tasted more like a dubbel, and like the dubbels I recognize--adequate but without a lot of character. Van Havig experimented with spice for his amber Rock Bottom Floreal Deux, a beer that might eventually balance out but which is a bit strongly spiced at this point. Raccoon Lodge's C'est Dangue had a lot going on, including a funkiness, but also needed more time in the cask. Max's Fanno Creek's Reverend's Daughter was cloying, phenolic, and heavy. Alameda's Lucky Devil was also cloying, and like the R's daughter, had that squash note. Hopwork's El Diablo was a kick in the teeth--very, very strong and sharp. I think Christian Ettinger must have used a fair amount of candi sugar, for it was overly sweet. Could become a masterpiece with age. I had but a sip of Philedelphia's Flemish Brown, which was (intentionally, I'm pretty sure) sour and chocolatey. I'd like to have had more. The McMenamins' Gulden Tijger was more like a tripel than a strong golden, and was heavy and sweet. Finally, the Lucky Lab Malt Bomb seemed to hail from Glasgow rather than Ghent--it was a lovely malty beer that also had the squash character.

I didn't try the Lompoc beers (Mon Cheri and La Diablesse) because they had blown, nor the McMenamin's Blind Abbot, which was one beer more than I was willing to try.

I don't know who won the competition or what next year's yeast will be. As always, details when I receive them.