Old stomping grounds

We just returned from Colorado where we took our staff for our holiday party. Next week featured guest writer Jon (who is your daddy) Schmidt has promised to tell you all about the visits we had to Redstone, Avery, Great Divide, Flying Dog and Falling Rock, this week however I am going to write about the Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines festival that I attended in Vail this past weekend.

I arrived in Vail just in time to help out and judge the homebrew competition that they had in conjunction with the fest. The competition was limited just to the type of beers that were to be at the festival, Big beers, Belgians and Barleywines. Even with the limited amount of categories they still had over 100 beers entered. I had to judge the Saisons and Bier De Gardes categories and had to judge about 15 beers. Judging 15 beers in the high altitude can sure do you in, but even so I did still manage to make it to a beer dinner that night featuring Eric Wallace from Left Hand Brewing and Rob Tod from Allagash Brewing. I am pretty much just a plain old meat and potatoes kind of guy so a beer dinner with appetizers like Buffalo Tartar or Escargot was a little bit of a step up from chicken wings or beer buddies. The beer dinner and the pairings was actually very good and I did get to try out some new beers from Allagash and some vintage beers from Left Hand. I will probably write a little bit more about Rob Tod and Allagash in a future newsletter as Rob is going to be one of the brewers who will be in Belgium for the 24 hours of beer fest that our little Papago travel group will be going to in March. At the dinner I finally learned about how Left Hand Brewing got their name. It seems that there used to be a sausage making place in the same location that the brewery is housed at, and one day the owner of the sausage making place got his arm caught in a grinder and hence the name Left Hand.

The fest itself was held on Saturday and featured about 125 beers from around the world. It was a pretty small festival with I am guessing just about 500 people attending with many not showing up until the ski slopes were shutting down. One thing that was different than the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild Strong Beer fest here is that you could only pour one ounce samples so it was more like a tasting than a festival. There were some great beers at the festival and some of my all time favorites like Kasteel Brown, Sam Adams Utopias and Dogfish Head Worldwide Stout. Very surprisingly and coincidentally since I just wrote about it last week, Anheuser Busch was there with a couple of their specialty beers, the first was a pilsner, but it was an 8.5% pilsner made with all malt and none of the usually additives and adjuncts that they put in their macro brewed swill. It was pretty good but even better was the Michelob Celebrate beer that was an oak conditioned 10% brown ale with vanilla beans added. If these guys wanted to they could really give microbreweries a run for their money in the specialty beer market because they can produce excellent beer. On the other end of the production scale there were places like little Woodville Brewing from Colorado which is a brand new start up that is being contract brewed just like we do. I heard people comment that they thought the Papago Oh Brother and the Woodville #21 were some of the best beers at the fest so you don't have to be big or even own your own brewery to be able to make good beer.

This was the sixth annual festival but it was the first time I have attended. I already have it booked on my calendar for next year and maybe I'll spend a couple of extra days there to do a little skiing.

Prost, Ron

P.S. You can order tickets for The Arizona Craft Brewers Guild Strong Beer festival to be held on January 28th online at http://www.azbrewguild.com/

To swill or not to swill

As many of you know I like to pick on the big macrobreweries who overload our senses with mass advertising trying to brainwash us that beer should taste like fizzy, slightly yellow colored water. They do a fantastic job at this, just as they do a fantastic job at producing beers that taste like fizzy, slightly yellow colored water. They do such a fantastic job at this that most craft breweries are content with letting them have a near monopoly on making pale lagers and don't compete with them. Yes, the German, Dutch and Czech imports do a good job at giving people a pale lager that does have a good taste as an alternative but with the exception of Heineken they don't bombard us with a lot of mass advertising. Maybe it is because the nations craft breweries are slowly making a dent in their sales but the big boys have started making beers that do have flavor, color, contain hops and are not made with cheap inferior ingredients. This was demonstrated this year as they racked up a ton of medals at the Great American Beer in such categories as Marzen, Pale Ale, German style Hefeweiss, Smoked beer and Bock beer as just a few examples. The thing that burns me up is that these beers are not really available to the public, that they are sometimes released just as one time tests in one market and then they disappear or they are not available for sell at all. As far as winning medals go they are not competing on a level playing field as they have the money to spend to make these beers as scientifically clean and accurate as possible and leaving out the brewers art which makes craft brewing so unique.

So why am I starting out the year on this diatribe. Well. the so called 'king of beers' aka A-B has just developed a brew it has publicly stated that it has no intention of selling. Front Range Fresh Harvest Hop Ale, which uses a fresh hop brewing process, will only be available as part of the company’s complimentary sampling program at the end of its brewery tours at a couple of its breweries around the country. The beer was made at their Fort Collins brewery. One of the company’s brewers stated that they had such a great reaction when people tried this batch, that they decided to share it on a broader scale at their other breweries. I just don't get it, why in the world would you make a beer that you say is good and then not try and sell it? Is it because they are afraid that they will be forced to produce a product that costs them more than 8 cents a bottle to produce and that their profit margins would shrink or is it because they are afraid the people who drink their mass produced swill will discover that their is a world of beer out there that has taste?

Prost, Ron

A look back

Throughout the 80's and into the 90's, the brewing industry in America was engaged in a long surge in brewery expansion and modernization. Enormous amounts of capital were expended in anticipation of the future prosperity of brewing. But, by the end of the turn of the century, it was becoming apparent that industry-wide brewing capacity had grown at a much faster pace than had actual beer consumption. And the unforeseen economic stock market crash resulted in a nationwide drop in beer sales of about one million barrels in a single year -- which only worsened the situation. Countless brewers who had mortgaged their future to take part in the expansion frenzy of the 80's now found themselves in financial panic.
A number of such distraught brewers found relief from an unlikely source: British investors. Driven abroad by economic troubles in their own country, British financiers began injecting capital into a variety of U.S. industries. Interest in the brewing industry was particularly strong, spurred largely by the fact that a number of major European brewers had, for the first time, made public stock offerings during the late 80's. Demand for the stocks (among them Bass and Guinness) was said to have far outweighed the supply. Many eager investors unable to secure any of the scarce European brewery stock turned their attentions to brewing in America.
Already by the early 90's, British investors had spent some ninety million dollars acquiring about eighty U.S. breweries in cities throughout the country. But rather than buying on a single brewery basis, the British usually sought to gain control of a majority of the breweries in a given city or region. A stock company would then be formed, and the breweries operated as a single entity. The financiers typically offered hugely inflated prices to brewery owners in order to take in as many of the local breweries as possible.
While British-owned brewery conglomerates operated in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia and a host of other cities, the British never succeeded in "landing the really big fish." For example, despite securing the purchase of 18 breweries in St. Louis, the British were unable to lure the city's two biggest -- William Lemp and Anheuser-Busch. (The latter was offered $8 million.) Likewise, in 89, British speculators put together a plan to consolidate all of the Milwaukee breweries. But, after much speculation, both Pabst and Schlitz refused to take part, and the deal was never consummated.
The last few years of the century were not favorable ones for the American brewing industry. The war resulted in a doubling of the federal beer tax, and nationwide consumption dropped off sharply. Many of the foreign investors who had acquired breweries in America were severely crippled by the industry's slump. Most had grossly over-paid for their breweries and were now liquidating their brewery properties at a fraction of their initial investments. In the end, the British disappeared from the American brewing scene nearly as quickly as they arrived.
Oh, by the way, this all happened in the 1880's and 1890's. I just slightly modified a story I found on the net. I just thought it was surprising on how much of a parallel a person could draw to what has happened to brewing in the United States from the 1980's to this day and how brewing has expanded and contracted recently and how a big foreign investor South African Breweries took over Miller beer. It is a pretty wild comparison.
Hoppy Holidays,
Ron

Winter Warmers

Last week I began talking about beers that people seem to favor this time of year when the weather turns colder. This week I am going to talk about a "style" of beer that comes and goes before you know it. The "style is called "Winter Warmer". "Winter Warmer" beers are not officially a style by themselves. They are actually a compilation of beers from various styles like Herb and Spice, Fruit, Barleywines, Old Ales, Bocks, and many beer styles of Belgian origin. This loosely defined style of beer has exploded in popularity throughout the beer world. The Winter Warmer style is beer that originally had its roots of English origin, where makers in Britain have ruled the style for many years. However, nowadays quite a few other breweries from around the world have brewed equal or better versions in my opinion. What classifies a beer as a “Winter Warmer” is not only its strength of alcohol, but also a balance of a big malt character and a leveled hop presence. Brewers love to make beers that fit this 'style' as it allows them a chance to really experiment and let their artistic juices flow.
Not only are microbreweries and brewpubs releasing winter warmers faster than you can say Anderson Valley's Winter Solstice Ale, but even some of the big macro breweries entrenched in light lagers have hopped aboard the seasonal beerwagon. Coors, for example has brewed a spiced seasonal lager dubbed Winterfest for about 15 years now. Traditionally, winter warmers have been big, hearty, slow-sipping ales. The most frequent distinguishing characteristic of a Winter Warmer usually includes a combination of the following: brown to deep copper to black opaque in color; increased alcohol content resulting in a more warming effect; and a myriad of spices or other ingredients added during production.
The recipes and flavor of some seasonal beers change from year to year but retain the same name, such as Anchor Brewing Companies 'Our Special Ale'. Adored by beer lovers since its introduction in 1975, Our Special Ale is released exclusively during the week of Thanksgiving and remains available only through mid-January. That brings up another point, after the New Years holiday these beers disappear rather fast which is a shame. I think it is because a lot of people assume that once the holidays are over these beers become old and stale. Nothing could really be further from the truth though since many of these beers have a higher alcohol content that allows them to be aged for years if you want, not just weeks.
These beers are often good candidates for laying down for future tasting's because of their high alcohol content and I know many beer connoisseurs pick a particular brand and buy bottles every year to add to a vertical collection. Anchor, Sierra Nevada Celebration, and Samichlaus, are probably three of the more popular ones to collect. Not that it has anything to do with Winter Warmers but a bottle of Stone Vertical epic from 02/02/02 recently sold for over $300 on Ebay to someone who was probably trying to complete their collection so there could be money to be made to those collecting Winter Warmers also I think, not that I would ever part with some of the beers I am aging.
It's not unusual to find fruit flavors in Winter Warmers. Some popular fruits that brewers add are cranberries, oranges, raspberries and cherries. Adding to the warm glow of the Christmas spirit, some beers have one or two spices in them while others may include a wide array of holiday or spices such as vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove and even coriander. The Belgians carry this idea to new levels. Their already big, spicy brews are made even bigger and spicier and issued as holiday ales, Scaldis Noel, Delirium Noel and DeDolle Stille Nacht just to name a few.
Anticipating the annual offering of winter warmers is as much fun as awaiting the opening of presents early Christmas morning -- maybe even more now that we're adults. One of my personal favorites is Samichlaus, The potent beer now made in Austria is brewed on only one day of each year. On Dec. 6, Saint Nicholas' Day, a new batch is brewed and is aged until the following winter before it is released.
Because of their complexity, winter warmers do well with heartier meals that often accompany the holidays. The acidity in wines often "fights" the flavors in big dinners, but beer will often compliment them. Try a rich, malty winter warmer with your roasted turkey or pair the holiday ham with a beer flavored with cherries or cranberries. Ask your local Papago bartender for recommendations. I'll bet they will more than go out of their way to help you find the perfect beer for your holiday feast!
Prost, Ron

Winter Beers

This time of year many people turn away from the lighter flavorful beers and turn to strong, dark and rich malty beers. These include Stouts and Porters which for the most part are not as strong as people think. Both Stout and Porter are two traditional British-styled ales that have evolved through the years. Porters actually predate what we know today as Stout. Porter is said to have been popular with transportation workers of London and the name may have come from them. Most traditional British brewing documentation from the 1700’s state that Porter was a blend of three different styles: a new ale (brown or pale ale), a weak one (mild ale), and an old ale (stale or soured), with various combinations of blending and staleness. It may have been the worlds first beer cocktail, catering to the public's taste and over time the original sour taste has all but disappeared in most of the beers.
Porters and Stouts were all considered to be the same 'style' until 1880 when the heavy taxation of malt inspired another brewer to alter his recipe using a portion of unmalted barley that the two styles became distinctly different that we know today. Now, while not 100% accurate I like to say that porters are made bitter with hops and stouts are made bitter using bitter roasted barley. Both styles are flourishing throughout the world with interesting variations brewed in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the United States.
There are many variations of the Stout beer style. Some are dry and some are sweet, some hoppy and some alcoholic. All have that common characteristic of a roasted flavor that sets them apart from any other style. The roasted grain imparts a uniqueness to the grain and creates flavors ranging from bitter unsweetened chocolate to coffee, to a dry grain astringency. There are Oatmeal Stouts, Export/Foreign Style Stouts, Irish Dry Stouts, Milk Stouts aka Cream Stouts, Russian Imperial Stouts, Oyster Stouts, Barrel Aged Stouts, American Stouts and even stouts that have fruit or spices (such as coffee) added to them. Most with the exception of Russian Imperial Stout are low in alcohol. Guinness is only 3.2% alcohol so the next time a beer rookie gets cross eyed drunk drinking a pint of Guinness you can now give them some major grief for being a lightweight.
The Porter category is not as quite as diverse as the Stout category. There are Brown Porters, Robust Porters and Papago's favorite, Baltic Porter which category our El Robusto Porter generally falls into. When thinking of Porters most people probably think of black Robust Porters although Brown Porters probably predate them. Baltic Porters came along much later and were relatively unknown of here until a few years ago. Few beers fit the season like a Baltic porter does winter and early spring. They are the siblings of the Russian Imperial Stouts. As the name suggests Baltic Porters emanated from the Baltic countries and are very popular in Sweden and Poland and the other Baltic countries. They range in color from mahogany red to pitch black, and pack a substantial dose of flavor and alcohol. These strong beers can approach barley wines in strength and Imperial stouts in complexity. They have many layers of flavors. From sweet soothing maltiness to flavors that are winey, coffee like, chocolate like and may have licorice notes. All the flavors should co-mingle into a smooth flavor that is robust. Hence El Robusto. I think one day the category may get subdivided as some Baltic Porters are top fermented ales while others are bottom fermented lagers which is something that I don't think any other beer style has. Generally speaking, Slavic and Baltic breweries produce strong porters as bottom-fermented lagers that resemble bocks in strength and flavor. Scandinavian brewers use top fermentation and their porters retain the dark roasted malt character. El Robusto is top fermented.
Other than El Robusto if you would like to try some of the actual European ones we carry a couple of the European standard bearers. Okocim Porter which comes from Poland is bottom fermented and has 8.1% alcohol. Another excellent Polish beer is Zywiec Porter which is really one of the big boys coming in at 9.3% alcohol.
Prost, Ron

Viva Las Vegas

Last week I was able to do a little R & R in Sin City, better known as Las Vegas. While there I was able to hit a few good beer spots while I was saving my money staying out of the casinos. As I mentioned last week I had my Thanksgiving dinner at the Hofbrauhaus which is located across the street from the Hard Rock. I actually ate there twice for dinner and once for lunch during the week because I love good German food (and beer of course). They have 3 beers, a dunkles, a helles lager and a hefeweizen. The Hofbrauhaus is a little bit pricey but the beer and desserts are fantastic. Other than the ommpahpah band playing it is generally pretty mellow although there was a little bit of excitement one night as this one guy in his 20's or early 30's had a drug overdose and his heart stopped beating. Let that be a warning to everyone, don't mix drugs and heavy German food.

While in Vegas I did also eat one day at another German restaurant there called the Heidelberg Inn. This was my first time there and I think I will be sure to visit it again on future trips. They had a good selection of German beers, they included the usual suspects, Weihenstephan, Paulaner and Spaten, and they also had a couple of obscure ones from a little place in Germany named Sonthofen, the brewery was named Hirschbrau. This place was a lot like the German Corner and German Deli on Indian School. Not only was it a restaurant and bar but it was a store and deli also.

Another good new discovery was a place called Rosemary's Restaurant. I didn't eat there but the menu looked great (and expensive). The chef used to work at Emeril's so that should give you an idea of what it is like, definitely high end. A six course fixed price meal was $110 with beer or $130 with wine. The beer selection was very good for Belgian beers, although like the restaurant they were very pricey. A draft Chimay was $9.50 and a bottle of Rochefort was $11. O.K. so why am I telling you about a place that has overpriced beers? Because at happy hour they were half price. Such a deal.

Enough of the imports in Vegas. The locals there have a number of good places to go to. In Henderson there is a brewpub called Barleys that I enjoy. On the strip there is a brewpub at the Monte Carlo although I am not a big fan of it. Not so much because of the beer but because they have a dress code where you can't where baseball caps in there at night and how often have you ever seen me without a baseball cap on? Downtown there is a good brewpub at the Main Street Casino. They had a very good barley wine and a good Monday night football deal. A pitcher of beer and 18 wings for $12.

In Vegas there are a couple of chains, Gordon Biersch and BJ's both have places and there is a local chain called Big Dogs, their places have different names. Some of you might remember the Holy Cow, which was a member of the chain. I think the best beer I had there was at one of their places called the Draft House in North Vegas. It was the only place in town that I was able to find a Double IPA at. All in all I have to say I am glad I am back at Papago where I can get my daily dose of hops without having to go to far.

Prost, Ron

Gobble Gobble

First, a sad note, then I'll get into my weekly diatribe. This time the rumors appear to have been true. At the end of the month Rio Salado Brewing will be closing down. It will be sad to see Tim go and I'd like to wish him the best in his future brewing endeavors. As of this writing the deal hasn't been closed but Four Peaks is attempting to buy Rio Salado. The plan as I understand it is to keep the Rio Salado taproom open and to add to their brewing capacity by brewing at two locations.
Now then for my weekly words of wit. The holidays are here already. I have to say that I love Thanksgiving, good weather, good football, good food and of course good beer. Everyone knows what to eat on Thanksgiving, but what to drink? Wine is considered more than acceptable at this feast, but for myself I prefer beer or as an alternative to wine a good mead will also do. Redstone's apricot mead is a good substitute for white wine and their black raspberry is a good alternative to red wine. If wine is your beverage of choice come on in to Papago and load up as we have most of them at 25% off.
Any idea what the Pilgrims had at the first Thanksgiving? Well, guess what, it was beer, not wine. In case you didn't know it the main reason the Pilgrims are said to have landed at Plymouth Rock is that they need to stop the ship to get off and make a batch of beer. On the choice between wine and beer, there is a snobbism which is particularly American. In Europe, whether you drink wine or beer with your meal may depend simply upon where you live. Wine is the natural drink in the warm, grape-growing countries of the south, like France, Spain and Italy. The people who lived in Northern Europe from where the Pilgrims came from in England grew grain and made beer.
Now during your Thanksgiving feast you will need to decide what to drink with your meal. For both wine and beer, one of the most difficult drink pairings is with salad. I can't help you on the wine side but with beer I think a good way to decide on what to drink with a salad depends on the type of salad dressing you are choosing and if it is creamy or made with vinegar. With a vinegar base a good sweet fruit lambic, such as Lindemans Framboise or Boon Oud Beersel are good choices but with a creamy salad dressing I think I would opt for an American Pale Ale.
With the centerpiece of the meal, which is usually turkey, I would opt for a German hefeweizen that is refreshing and can help counter balance the dryness of a turkey. Last year I had my Thanksgiving meal at the Hofbrauhaus in Las Vegas and really enjoyed the meal and the beer. I liked it so much that I am going to repeat it again this year. Paulaner, Ayinger and Weihenstephen would be my top choices locally for a good hefeweizen. If a wheat beer isn't to your liking then maybe go with a creamy porter or a milk stout like from Ska or for a little bit of smoke flavor a Kiltlifter from Four Peaks.
For dessert you can go crazy. A more pronounced sweetness is clearly required to go with pies, beers like Kasteel Brown or Rochefort 10 are a dessert in themselves and will pair up with almost any dessert. You could also go with a German Dopplebock like Korbinian or Salvator. And after dinner I can't think of a better after dinner beer than Avery Samael. It is big (14%), sweet and delicious.
Gobble Gobble,
Ron

Hoppy Beerthday Sierra Nevada

Tuesday marks the 25th anniversary of the beer that has probably been the most successful beer at converting macrobrew drinkers to becoming craft brew drinkers. Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale was first brewed on November 15, 1980. To celebrate we will have $1.25 pints.
Sierra Nevada was founded by Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi who built a brewery from dairy tanks, a soft-drink bottler, and equipment salvaged from defunct breweries. Though the equipment was secondhand, they created a first-rate microbrewery in 1979 in Chico, California. Unlike macrobreweries, the ingredients they used were premium, including the copious quantities of hops that would become the brewery’s trademark. Before starting the brewery, Ken was actually one of the countries first homebrew store owners. In a way Papago has followed a similar path with having grown from Gunn Brew and if you have had our Hopfather or El Rojo Diablo you know that we also like to use copious amounts of hops (actually about 3 times the amount of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale).
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was a unique interpretation of a British Pale Ale and it became so popular that it eventually became known as it's own style, American Pale Ale. The major differences between an American Pale Ale and a British Pale Ale is that most American Pale Ales use Cascade hops that provide it with it's fragrant bouquet and spicy flavor, they have maybe just a tad more alcohol and the yeast used produces a 'cleaner' tasting beer that is less fruity than British Pale Ales. An interesting fact about Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is that they use two other hops for bittering, Magnum and Perle, and just use Cascade as a finishing Hop. I think many brewers believe that they must use Cascade hops only when trying to make a clone of Sierra Nevada. The yeast used by Sierra Nevada is one of the more popular strains of yeast used by brewers around the country and it is even referred to as Chico yeast.
Sierra Nevada Brewing is one of the larger microbreweries in the country now with totally modern equipment and who are one of the larger breweries who try to be environmentally friendly with recycling and energy conservation. They produce over 600 times more beer than Arizona's largest brewery Four Peaks (Four Peaks and all Arizona breweries are limited to just 10,000 barrels a year at one location by crazy Arizona liquor laws). Remember this paragraph because I might be reporting a change in the Arizona brewing scene in a couple of weeks if a deal closes between a couple of different Arizona breweries.
Happy beerthday Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
Ron

Sweet stuff

Last week in my article I mentioned that the Real Ale festival was February 12th, well, I was off by a few months, it is this Saturday, NOVEMBER 12th. That is what happens sometimes when you write an article at 3:00 in the morning.

This week I am going to take a detour from beer. No, I am not sick and it is not 3 A.M. But this Wednesday, NOVEMBER 9th from 6:00 to 8:00 we are going to have a couple of good friends of Papago from Boulder, Colorado stop in for a tasting of mead. David and Madoka Myers from Redstone Meadery will be pouring some of their delicious meads including some that are not available here in Arizona. David was a homebrewer who took the unusual step of instead of pursuing brewing beer as a profession started making mead commercially.

Mead has a long history. It may well be the oldest fermented beverage. King Midas drank mead as was discovered in an archeological dig. That was the basis for the Dogfish Head Midas Touch that we recently had on tap. There are indications that the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Celts, Scandinavians (Vikings), Incas and Aztecs used mead, both in festivals and as a religious drink. The term 'Honeymoon' comes from the common practice of drinking honey wine for a full cycle of the moon during medieval times. Mead was considered an aphrodisiac and the newly married couple were to drink mead for the first month of their marriage to ensure that the union would be fruitful one.

The reason that many people made mead is clear, to make alcohol you need sugar, and honey was natures own most readily available sugar source. Honey by itself will not ferment but if you dilute honey with water and add yeast you will produce alcohol. Many people assume that because mead is made with honey that it is sweet, well like wine, mead can be sweet or dry depending on what yeast is used.
Until the 1800's both meads and sparkling meads were highly popular beverages, especially in northern regions of Europe, where wine grapes could not easily be grown. As the importance of honey was displaced by less expensive sugars, mead was gradually displaced by less costly beers and ales and to a lesser degree by wines. Today, you can buy mead that is traditional (just honey, water and yeast) or what is most popular these days are meads made with fruits or spices added.
Mead making now is kind of a crossover between wine making and brewing. Many brewers (both professional and homebrewers) including myself regularly make mead at home. This past weekend there was a mead competition for homemade mead here in Phoenix and Uwe Boer of Sonora Brewing Tap House won best of show for his Rose Petal mead. I did win a gold medal for my own Pina Colada Mead.
This Wednesday, especially if you have friends who say they don't like beer I encourage you to bring them in and to introduce them to mead.
Prost, Ron

Real Ale

O.K. I think by now everyone knows everything they want to know and don't want to know about our trip to Denver to the Great American Beer Festival and by now you are probably ready for a beer festival yourself and guess what, on Saturday, February 12th the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild is having one at the Icehouse in downtown Phoenix. This will be the Guild's second annual Real Ale Festival. At Papago you have probably seen that funny looking tap we have at the bar. It is a beer engine and from it we serve Real Ale also known as cask conditioned beer.
Real Ale is simply a draught or bottled beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed and served without the use of extra carbon dioxide. Traditionally Real Ale is thought of as being British but that is not really accurate as it can be any beer. Many Belgian beers are in fact Real Ales since they are bottled conditioned. If you get a bottle of Belgian Beer and you see some yeast floaties in it or a coating of yeast on the bottom of the bottle that means it is Real Ale. But it is in Great Britain where the term Real Ale has developed its most loyal following. For the sake of discussion I'll just be referring to cask beer and not bottled beer for the rest of this story.
Many pubs in England have beer engines on their bars and some of the bigger places may have 20 or 30 beer engines. A beer engine is used to 'pull' the beer out of the cask since it is not under any pressure. The beer served off of a beer engine in England is generally not any different than what was originally brewed as they don't normally have anything extra added to the beer but here in the United States brewers like to make their cask beers extra special and usually add extra hops or oak chips to the beer in the cask to give it an extra special flavor.
Some people will think that Real Ale is served warm and that is why many people mistakenly believe that all beer in Britain is served warm. Real Ale is served warmer than regular kegged beer but not by a significant amount. The general guidelines are to serve it between 50 and 55 degrees. I have stated before that people think that beer served between 50 and 55 degrees is warm but it is because it is generally so damp and cold in England that people consider 50 degrees warm.
When properly served, a good Real Ale will be transparently clear, with no cloudiness or haze. In order to do this a cask must be in place and not moved around so that the yeast in the cask has time to settle to the bottom of the cask. Since Real Ale is shipped while actively fermenting, clarifying the beer is the greatest challenge. When a casked beer is ready to be tapped it must first be vented to allow extra CO2 to escape. Because it is not served under any pressure casked beer generally has about half the CO2 of regular draught beer.
The Real Ale festival will allow you the chance to taste 30 to 40 different Real Ales and for a beer purist it is the chance to try beer that is fresh, alive and unique. This year tickets can be bought in advance at http://www.azbrewguild.com/
See you there,
Ron

Rocky Mountain High

This past weekend Leah, Johnny and myself attended the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Over the next couple of weeks we will all give you our views on the event. Since I used to live in Denver I have attended the fest many times. Over the years it has really grown. This year there was 377 breweries at the fest and 1672 beers to sample. Now, even for me that is a lot of beer. The fest had a record 29,500 people attend this year so it is safe to say that beer hasn't lost it's popularity. With that many people attending it is amazing at how many people I ran into from other places that I have met before. For instance, I ran into one guy from Canada who was on the train with us last year in Belgium and this time I ran into him on one of the shuttle buses. Too weird. The fest not only showcases some great craft breweries but also some of the large macro breweries, and yes, unbelievably, people even stand in line to sample some of their beers (although some of the people in line for Coors/Bud Light may have been there just because of the Coors/Bud Light Girls and giveaways that the big breweries hand out). Miller lite had a Golden Tee Challenge that I took part in. Not winning was fine with me because the prize of free Miller Lite for a year would have been wasted if I had won.
For me, the fun part about the fest is not so much the beers at the fest but the chance to interact and get to know others in the industry. There are a number of events and get together's outside the fest (that usually involve beer drinking) where we all get to hang out and get to know each other, some of it is organized and some is not. As an example a number of people like us cruised up to Boulder to visit Redstone Meadery and Avery Brewing. Adam Avery met us with his standard line of "go in the other room and you'll know what to do". Of course the other room is full of beer taps and other people visiting like Vinnie from Russian River. These side trips were pretty good in that we were able to try some new beers/meads that we can't get here that were very good. Avery, which is known for making very big high alcohol beers actually had a 4.7% beer called Piglet (half of Hog Heaven) that I thought was excellent and quite different from his other beers.
During the day, before the fest starts and almost every night after the fest many people head to Denver's version of Papago called the Falling Rock Tap House. This year I'll have to give Falling Rock a grade of B though instead of the normal A+. While they had some great beers and events there, trying to get a beer often turned into quite a challenge as they were not properly staffed. One day at lunchtime (when it wasn't that busy) we were only able to get one beer in an hour and a half, luckily it was a good one, a fresh hopped version of Sierra Nevada Harvest. That evening they were having a event called 'Me so hoppy' and had eight great hoppy beers that were being served out of jockey boxes out on the patio by some of the brewers like Adam Avery, Tomme Arthur of Pizza Port and Brian Dunn of Great Divide. I was only oh so hoppy myself to go back and help them pour beers as it guaranteed that I would get to drink them and I got to man the jockey box that had Alpine Brewing's 'Pure Hoppiness' and Russian Rivers 'Pliney the Elder' (Which won a gold medal in the Double IPA category).
The fest itself has so many beers to choose from that it is tough to decide what to drink. I usually opt for beers from breweries that we can't get here like New Glarus, Elysian, Pizza Port and Russian River as examples although I was spotted at Dogfish Heads table more than a few times also. The people attending the fest can be divided up into two groups, those that are looking for good beers and those that are just looking at getting drunk. This was especially true on Saturday. Saturday night is generally referred to as amateur hour as it is filled with younger kids just looking to get drunk. A couple of kids as an example parked themselves at the Papago booth and were pounding glass after glass of wheatwine. This is a big contrast to those that attend the Saturday afternoon session who have to pay more to get in and those that go on Thursday night that can be considered beer connoisseurs.
O. K. I'll guess I'll talk a little about the competition now. This year there were 2335 beers entered in the competition in 69 categories. Arizona did pretty good this year winning 5 medals. Last year Arizona just won 2 medals. Arizona had two repeat winners. BJ's repeated with a Bronze medal with their Belgian Wit and Prescott Brewing repeated with a bronze medal for their Pilsner. Barley Brothers in Lake Havasu won a silver medal for a coffee stout. Oak Creek won a silver medal for their American Pale Ale and some place called Papago won a bronze medal with El Robusto Porter in the Other Strong Ale or Lager category. Winning a medal is nice but I know that it is a lot of luck involved because there are many good beers that didn't win medals that could easily have. I actually get more satisfaction out of reading good reviews on our beers on sites like ratebeer.com or beeradvocate.com than in winning a medal there but still, it was a nice feeling standing on the stage getting a medal.
Now, it is time for a liver break.
Prost, Ron

Oktoberfest

This weekend I am going to go to the largest beer party in the United States in Denver at the Great American Beer Festival. The largest beer festival in the world though is already going on in Munich at their Oktoberfest. It is my firm belief that every beer lover should go to each of these festivals at least once in their life. I'll write more about the Great American Beer Festival next week but this year I already think I made the right choice in deciding to go to Denver instead of Munich. This year there are a number of changes going on in Munich and two of them I am not thrilled with.

First, this year the city of Munich has ordered the world's biggest party to turn the volume down before it even starts. It has decreed that oompahpah bands in 14 giant beer tents play more sedate, folksy music and stick to a maximum volume of 85 decibels before 6 p.m. The city council believed young people were getting too fired up by the thumping rhythms and sing-along refrains of songs like Hey Baby and Mambo No. 5. One comment I read was that "You can influence the general mood with music. We've been getting increasing drunkenness and aggression," O.K. I'm sorry but I have to disagree with the city council, can you honestly imagine the famous Oktoberfest sing along classic of John Denver's Take me home, Country Roads inspiring drunkenness and aggression? Please...

The second change is that a company is promoting Oktoberfest leather kilts as a trendy new fashion statement. Again, I'm sorry, there is nothing wrong with kilts in Scotland, but not in Munich at the Oktoberfest. I think I'll stick with my traditional lederhosen.

And finally, the one bright spot is that outside of the Oktoberfest at a bar called the Twisted Bavarian they will be having wet drindl contests nightly. Now, that I could get into seeing but somehow I don't think Leah will be letting me introduce that at our Oktoberfest on October 8th. One of the best parts of Oktoberfest is that after the official Oktoberfest ends every night the crowds pour out to the local bars to carry on the festivities. I think I might have to check out the Twisted Bavarian on my next visit and to try some of their European style Tex-Mex cuisine. No wonder it is called the Twisted Bavarian.
The Oktoberfest dates back to the wedding in October 1810 of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony. The first festivities went on for five days and proved so popular they were repeated each year since, except in wartime and during two cholera epidemics. Speaking of weddings, it is now official, a June wedding is planned for local brewers Derek "Doc" Osborne of BJ's and Melissa Phillips of Four Peaks. I don't think any wars or cholera epidemics will break out to stop their festivities. The only question is whose beer will they toast with, his or hers?

A lot of people wonder why Oktoberfest is celebrated in September. Well, originally it was in October but because the weather can be rather cold in October with winter approaching they moved it to September to take advantage of the warmer weather. First-time visitors are likely to be taken aback by the sight of a Oktoberfest tent packed with 10,000 beer guzzling people, the men stamping their Lederhosen-clad legs to the sounds of a oompahpah band as they hold up liter mugs in never-ending toasts and the women in low-cut Dirndl dresses. (DRINDL Alert, I have heard that Julie from Alliance Distributing, Leah, Mel et al will be making an appearance at our Oktoberfest wearing Drindl).About 6 million people a year go to the Oktoberfest and drink about a million gallons of beer. They also consume enormous quantities of pork sausages, pigs knuckles and chickens. It is really quite a feast. The Oktoberfest is not just a drinking and eating event. They have a huge carnival area with all kinds of wild rides. It is best to go on the rides early, not after partying as one of our regulars Kim Gass found out a couple of years ago. Every other year they also have a agriculture fair which is similar to a good old fashioned American country fair.

Be sure to mark October 8th down on your calendar if you like good German beer, brats, lederhosen and drindl.

Prost, Ron

Gose

We recently received in a 'new' German beer from the Bayrisher Bahnhof Brewery in Leipzig. It was a rare treat for me seeing this quirky beer arrive as it is one of the few beer styles that I have never had. The beer is called Gose. I say it is a 'new' beer but it is a new beer only to me. The Leipziger Gose actually originated in the small town of Goslar and has documentation going back 1000 years. Like many other breweries in small towns in order to be able to make a profit they had to ship their beer to other towns and the town of Leipzig not only bought all the beer that the brewers in Goslar could make, they adopted the style and made it their own, just as Dusseldorf has their Alt and Cologne has their Kolsch. At one point in time Leipzig had over 80 Gose houses.
Leipziger Gose is a top-fermenting wheat beer with coriander, salt, and lactic acid bacteria added in the boil. It is a 4.5% alcohol eclectic beer whose name evokes a close relationship to the renowned Lambic/Geuze breweries in Belgium. There is a theory that the Belgium word Geuze (which is a blended lambic) actually may have been derived from the German word Gose. With the spices and lactic acid bacteria in the beer the similarities in the two beer styles and names sure does seem more than a coincidence. Yes, you did read correctly. This beer has coriander and salt in it. Now these two ingredients sure don't conform to the German Reinheitsgebot Beer Purity law but they were able to get away with it by getting an exception to the law because they were making the beer before the law was passed.
Because of the coriander and the salt the beer does have a unusual taste for a German beer. Even though the beer is supposed to be sour like a German Berliner Weiss I did not get much sourness at all in the bottle I tried. Just like Berliner Weiss the beer is often mixed with raspberry or woodruff syrup (Both of which we have at Papago if you want to add a it to the beer).
After 1900 the beer style all but vanished as Pilsners dominated the landscape. Coincidentally the building that the brewery is housed in was originally a train station that was built in 1842, a landmark year in brewing. In that year a new style of beer was being born farther south, in Pilsen, Czech and oddly enough both Pilsner Urquell and the Bayrisher Bahnhof Brewery both have eerily similar arch gated entrances. The spread of the bottom-fermenting Pilsner style as well as economic decline of East Germany under the communists contributed to the demise of the Leipziger Gose which was last brewed in the mid 1960s. It wasn't until 2000 that the Bayrisher Bahnhof Brewery brought back the style.
Gose also had the attraction that it is reputed to greatly improve sexual potency so you should buy it soon before Johnny finds out about it's magical powers and buys it all up for himself.Prost, Ron

Roadtrip

This past weekend a few of us Papagonians ventured out to visit our friends at Stone Brewing to help them celebrate at their 9th anniversary party. On the way there we hit every brewery between here and San Diego. So in other words our first stop was at Alpine Brewing just outside of San Diego. Alpine Brewing is a small brewery where you can buy 4 ounce samples of their beers and buy beer to go. Alpine is my kind of brewery. By being small they can put a little more time and effort into producing some great beers. Their best selling beer is called Pure Hoppiness and it is just as its name sounds. They occasionally make a really big Double IPA called Exponential Hoppiness that I would rank up there with Papago Hopfather.

After our stop in Alpine we headed to Stone to drop off our beer for the fest and of course to hit the tasting room. While we were there Greg Koch (one of the co-founders) came out to talk with us. Since a few of the people on the trip hadn't seen the brewery I asked him if he could do a little tour for us. He agreed and started to lead us on a tour. You should have seen the look on his eyes when he turned around to see that the other 20 or so people who had been in the tasting room all tagged along with us unexpectedly. This was at the old brewery in San Marcos. Stone is building a new brewery in Escondido that they hope to be brewing in by next month. The new brewery will also have a restaurant attached so it will be something to look forward to on future visits.

After Stone we decided to pop in at Green Flash in Vista. Unfortunately by the time we arrived there Mel was turning a little green herself so we were not able to stay long but as a result of our visit you can look forward to us receiving some cask conditioned ale in the future. Green Flash also makes the Reaper beers. The latest batch of Sleighor is really good.

The final stop for most of the group was at Pizza Port in Carlsbad. I had the Dopplebock that was made by the last brewer there that was excellent. They are between brewers right now until Jeff Bagby from Left Coast (Oggis) takes over in a month or so. Jeff is an excellent brewer so I am sure the beers will continue to be really good.

The fest was on Saturday. It was probably the most organized fest I have seen so far. They did an excellent job and had plenty of volunteers to pour beer. The alcohol and beverage control people went a little overboard and put the fear of god into the volunteers and they were told to card anyone under 30, even though they were carded and wrist banded at the door. They broke it up into two sessions so the crowds were manageable and it was pretty easy to get beers with very small lines.

There was plenty of good beer at the fest besides ours (although many people commented that they thought we had the best beer there). Too many to name them all but I thought the stout from La Jolla Brewing Company, The Hop Devil from Victory in Pennsylvania, the Triple White Sage from Craftsman in Pasadena and the cask conditioned Stone 9th anniversary were all excellent. A number of people said they liked a triple IPA from Coronado Brewing but I thought it was a little bit too sweet for me. The longest lines were for Russian River, the cask conditioned Stone and for the free onion rings that a food vendor had. Californians are crazy people IMHO to stand in line for 20 minutes just to get some free rings when there was so much good beer around.

After the fest we headed to O'Brien's in San Diego for dinner. O'Brien's is one of the better beer pubs in San Diego and is owned by Tom Nickel who used to brew at Oggi's. They have 20 taps and they were well stocked with no crap on tap. I was surprised because with 20 taps they didn't have any stouts, porters, hefeweizens, or pilsners on tap. I had the Alpine Exponential that helped wash down a tasty burger and their yummy garlic fries. After O'Brien's we dropped off some of the lighter weights at the hotel and we headed back to Pizza Port in Carlsbad to party with some of the other brewery guys from Stone and Ska. This is where some major damage was done by Frank (Pizza Ports Double IPA) that caused a couple of people to request a late check out the next day.

Sunday we returned to Phoenix but not before stopping at the Pizza Port in Solana Beach for a breakfast beer. I had their Hop 15 that was a good wake up beer with lots of hops to get the taste buds woken up. This was good because our last stop was at the Liars Club in Mission Beach where we had some excellent sandwiches and beers. I had Russian Rivers Pliney the Elder and a dry hopped Stone Ruination. Just enough hops to help me sleep most of the way home.

Prost, Ron

Abita

One of the beer brands at Papago that we carry that has some loyal fans is Abita. Abita is located close to New Orleans and as of the time I am writing this I don't know what their status is. Hopefully they were undamaged and are all safe. Being a good corporate citizen we are putting two of their beers on tap and donating the entire sales from those beers to the American Red Cross. The beers we are putting on tap are two of their more popular ones, Turbodog and Purple Haze. Turbodog is classified as an English Brown Ale and Purple Haze is a Raspberry Wheat beer.
The Abita Brewing Company is located in Abita Springs, Louisiana. They first began brewing beer in 1986 so that makes them one of the early microbreweries. One of the things that makes Abita unique is that the brewery was located in Abita Springs to take advantage of the nearby spring water, the pure artesian water is not altered in any way before the brewing process. Most breweries use regular city water, treat it with reverse osmosis and then add back in different minerals to get the beer they way they want it.
Turbo Dog is not a light beer, it’s a little bit heavier than Newcastle, for example. It has a deep rich brown color with some red hues. The aroma is malty with notes of toasted biscuits, chocolate, lightly roasted coffee and sweet toffee. The taste is lightly sweet with a rich maltiness to it. There are notes of caramel and toffee in it as well as a bit of chocolate and a light roasted astringency in the finish. This is by far the most flavorful beer that I have had from Abita. This beer is definitely focused on the malt, but there is a nice light bitterness in the finish plus some light hoppy flavor notes that remind me of fresh cut herbs and flowers.
Evaluating fruit flavored beers can be a tricky balancing act. On the one hand, you need to evaluate the underlying base beer to see how well made it is and how well it lets stylistic signature characteristics shine, but at the same time, you need to balance that with the how well the beer succeeds in letting the fruit flavors and aromas come through. The final verdict needs to carefully consider this balance and to reflect not just how fruity the product is, but how good it is as a fruit beer. The base style for Purple Haze is an American Wheat beer. American wheat beers are a different than German Wheat beers in that they are clean and do not have any banana or clove flavor from the yeast. Most but not all American Wheat beers are also usually clear as opposed to the cloudy German Hefeweizen.
Don't let the name Purple Haze fool you. This beer isn't purple, but it is hazy. The color is more of an amber-orange with a very slight pinkish cast if one uses some imagination. Don't expect a big Lindemans Framboise type of raspberry taste either. The beer has a very light raspberry flavor and it makes for a good how summer day thirst quencher. I admire the craftsmanship it takes to achieve such an amazingly delicate balance as this beer achieves. It is a high-wire act that balances the wheat beer elements to perfection, but that introduces just the barest hint of raspberry flavor.
So on your visit to Papago this week stop in and try an Abita brew. You will probably like the beer and it is for a good cause.
Prost, Ron