Gin-Soaked Blog

Cellaring Ale: Weyerbacher Blasphemy 1 Year Later

So TK cracked the Blasphemy from last year.  1 year of cellar aging brought the original alcoholic heat back to the forefront.  This ABV in this beer, which started at 11.5% has to be around 18% at this point. A few sips made my face warm. The main note is still butterscotch but there is a slight oaken bitterness on the finish.  This is not unwelcome because it balances what could be a cloying sweetness. I am looking forward to enjoying more of this six pack.

Cellaring Ale

With the popularity of lager macro-brews in this country (and yes, the rest of the US of A is still drinking Miller Light) many think beer, like milk, goes bad if you don't drink it up right away.  While this is true of lagers, ales, like wine potentially benefit from being stored in a temperature-controlled environment for quite a while.

Case in point (pardon the pun)--for my birthday this year, my cousin, sharing my enthusiasm for beer, bought me a few treats.  By far the most exciting was a 1-year aged Troegs Mad Elf.  Now, I am a fan of of the Elf straight out of the barrel, but I was not sure what to expect of a slightly more matured version.  Time treated the Elf with dignity and respect.  He went into the cellar with a high cinnamon nose, a punch of nutmeg and red cherries; he came out a smooth caramel.  What the Elf lost in intensity, he gained in complexity and texture. 

Another pleasant surprise was the Weyerbacher Blasphemy (their Quad aged in whiskey barrels, sadly discontinued). While it was really boozy and hot when we first tasted it, six months did amazing things.  The heavy alcohol receded into the background, replaced by a smooth butterscotch not dissimilar to Scaldis Noel.  TK and I were fighting over the last bottle.  Let's see what happens to the other six pack in another six months!

Top Five Christmas Beers

Tis the season for beers jam packed with clove, cherry, allspice, caramel, cinnamon and other sweetness. That is, christmas beers. Thriving in popularity for the past ten years, Christmas beers are available from domestic craft brewers such as Troegs as well as the Belgians. Both Delerium and LaChouffe make spiffy spicy ales perfect for polyanna gifts or sipping in front of an open fire with roasted chestnuts and the Vince Giraldi trio on the IPod.

What takes some of the Christmas cheer out of Christmas beer is a is a sacharine linger or too much spice with nothing to balance it. I don't want my mincemeat pie in a glass, thank you very much.  That said, jamming hops in an ale dominated by clove and nutmeg is just plain weird.  It's like drinking a glass of orange juice after you brush your teeth.

Here are some merry little brews that really do it for me.

#1 Scaldis Noel.  Weighing in at a beastly 13% ABV, you don't want to drink more than one of these.  Like liquified caramel with a dry finish, the Scaldis goes a long way towards warming your tummy on a blistery night.

#2 Mad Elf, Troegs
#3 Nice Chouffe, Brasserie dAchouffe
#4 Corsendonk Christmas, Brouwerij Corsendonk
#5 Hibernation Ale, Great Divide

**Beer Camp** The Witbier

In my early days of beer-drinking, I had only tasted lagers (Yuengling, Red Stripe) with an occasional IPA (Sierra Nevada) thrown in. Drinking beer was a soulless and tasteless endeavor and left me feeling full, drunk and not that satisfied. Because I was not yet indoctrinated into the magic of hops, I found IPAs to be bitter and unpleasant and lagers to be bland and gassy. Then I met the witbier and thus began my love affair with the malt, the yeast and the holy hops.

Exemplified by the ubiquitous Hoegaarden, this style of ale is very pale and cloudy. It is straw in color and often has a thick head with gads of heavenly lace. Because it is light and usually very refreshing, witbier (White Ale) was once found only in the spring and summer months. But brewery marketing teams caught on to its popularity with novice beer drinkers and ladies. Now it is common to find this style of ale during all seasons. Some American craft brewers have taken to brewing what they call ‘winter whites,” which I find basically indiscernible from regular whites, except they usually have snowy scenes on the beer labels. In order to amp it up a little bit and make this style attractive to the veterans, brewing companies have also taken to creating juiced up “Double Whites,” which pack more alcoholic punch than your average witbier.

Often beer snobs eschew what they call ‘yellow beer.’ What they are usually referring to is American macrobrew swill like Coors Light or Miller Light. These beers tend to be fairly low in both alcohol and flavor. They are lager styles, which are bottom-fermented at much cooler temperatures, and are often brewed at quick speeds with sugar to speed up the process. Not so of Witbier, which while it is definitely yellow in color, is a type of top-fermenting ale which, brewed at higher temperatures, often has layers of complexity and flavor. The typical witbier has a distinct citrus nose with a ‘wheaty’ body and spices like nutmeg, coriander and orange peel (sometimes they can be pimped out with florals and exotic spices).

10 Wits worth Trying

St. Bernadus Witbier, Brouwerij St. Bernardus NV, Belgium
Allagash White, Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, ME
Midnight Wit, Legacy Brewing Company, PA
Hoegaarden Grand Cru, Brouwerij van Hoegaarden, Belgium
Whirlwind Witbier, Victory Brewing Company, PA
Ommegang Whitte, Brewery Ommegang, NY
Red & White, Dogfish Head Brewery, DE
Little White Lie, Russian River Brewing Company, CA
Blanche de Brooklyn, Brooklyn Brewery, NY
Blanche de Chambly, Unibroue, Canada

To Wit or not to Wit

Southhampton Double White, Publick House, Southhampton, NY

As Americans we feel compelled to build everything bigger—cars, skyscrapers, burgers and, yes, beers. Remember that this is land that shoves so many hops in its beer an avid IPA drinker may get stopped by the five-oh for transporting dope (the two plants are closely related and smell alike). Welcome the Double Wit style. American craft-brewers are no longer happy with wimpy ABVs, even in beer that is not notoriously strong.

Weighing in at a modestly hefty 7.2, the Southhampton Double White Ale hides its alcohol content like a teenager sneaking home after a kegger. Lemony fresh on the nose, the palate resonates sunshine—mainly light citrus fruit with just a smidge of almond. Unlike some other American Whites I have had recently, the Southhampton Double does not feel in the mouth like a bowl of frosted mini-wheats. It’s less globby than some, but still has a nice powdered-sugary sweetness.

The finish is the kind of smooth and refreshing that hits the spot on a warm spring day. It gives me an idea for the slogan—Double Wheat is Double Sweet.