Month: July 2007

10 beers that changed the Chicago area

By guest blogger Steve Herberger

Stan hit on a thought provoking and fun look into modern brewing history with his “10 Beers that Changed America.” Some of us have different perspectives of the micro revolution, depending on where we experienced the new wonder of good beer. So Stan asked if I wanted to add my 10 Beers and opinions based on a midwest viewpoint, here are my thoughts, though I reserve the right to hedge based on failing memory over 23 years!

Please chime in, especially if you’re from the Midwest.

Spreacher cap1. Sprecher Amber (I believe was their start up brew) – the first Micro I remember hearing about in this area right around the time it opened in ’85. I can remember seeking out the brewery for a tour and purchases, parking in the lot of a closed factory close to where I*knew* the brewery was according to the map (pre-Internet and MapQuest), seeing a train blocking my route, crawling tentatively between 2 coupled cars and announcing, “There it is!” What a great tour and great beer – supplied by Randy Sprecher himself.

2. Goose Island Honkers Ale – from its first intro at 1800 Clybourn to distribution around the world. I was there too, when they opened in ’88 – what a grubby looking neighborhood the Clybourn corridor once used to be. Thanks to GI, it’s now one of the most busy retail areas in Chicago.

3. Bell’s Amber – because it’s their flagship brew and started a mini-revolution of local brewers who brewed for themselves and their customers, not what the market dictated.

4. Capital Garten Brau – the original Helles from Kirby, and what tha’ – lager from a micro?!

5. Alpha King – 3 Floyds. No matter other opinions, I personally think this started the “extreme” trend — at least in hop-bombing.

6. Gray’s Oatmeal Stout – A world class stout from a small micro that’s still going strong after 20 years or so.

7. Mad Hatter – New Holland Brewing, the start up brew from a brewery that continues to produce outstanding products. (A tie with Michigan Brewing who landed the Celis White rights and recipe).

8. Riverwest Stein Beer – Lakefront Brewing, a cross between the upstart Bell’s and Capital’s recognition of the local heritage. Not to mention the Klisch brothers small pilot brewery on Milwaukee’s Northeast side that grew into a larger micro that hasn’t lost its roots in home-brewing. I remember my first taste of the Steinbeer from a tap at the brewery – man, what nectar.

9. The Bitter End Pale Ale – Cask Conditioned/Real Ale from an American micro? In a small Chicago suburb, no less? You betch’a!

10. Goose Island Bourbon County Stout – I have to give the nod to this because it highlights the progression, evolution, and advancement of what’s becoming a world class brewery right in my own back yard.

Runners up – The previously mentioned August Schell Pilsner because its discovery got me interested in good beers that could come from small, regional breweries – in 1984 those were becoming near to extinct. And I’ll even nod to the New Glarus Belgian Red, if for no other reason than it beat its peers at their own game – can’t argue that, not to mention the success and other great beers from the Careys since 1993.

10 beers that changed America

Blind Pig Double IPAThinking about Anchor Liberty yesterday got me thinking more.

So here, off the top of my head and before I get to the real work of the day, are 10 Beers That Changed What’s In Our Glass.

Pretty bold, I know. And something I could easily regret, so be gentle with your flames. It’s a list of 10. Not the only 10 or the most important 10, but 10. For fun.

And something that maybe will get you thinking about the ones that changed how you think about beer.

The guidelines were pretty simple. We start with American beers in the modern era (no, not the introduction of the Cascade hop but with Fritz Maytag buying a stake in Anchor Brewing in 1965).

One beer per brewery (a rule I sorta broke) and no “dead beers.” So New Albion isn’t on the list, nor is the gueuze from Joe’s Brewery in Illinois (besides, a lot more people talk about that beer than ever drank it).

The tough call was Celis White, because Michigan Brewery bought the brand and Pierre Celis consulted on brewing the beer at its new home. But it’s not the one first brewed in Texas, and that original was important on so many counts. Would Blue Moon White – maybe poised to become the No. 1 selling American-brewed specialty beer – have followed? A good chance not.

Here we go (the order being when they were introduced):

1. Anchor Steam – Not only did Maytag save this indigenous American style, but Anchor introduced or re-introduced Americans to holiday beers, barley wines, American wheat beer and more.

2. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – It’s an ale revolution …

3. Samuel Adams Boston Lager – … but the leading ambassador has been a lager.

4. Fat Tire – The beer from New Belgium Brewing that’s so famous on its own that many people think it is the name of the brewery. Co-founder Jeff Lebesch expected Abbey, brewed in the manner of a Belgian dubbel, to be the flagship. Wrong.

5. New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red – It seems unlikely there will be a pivotal moment for American beer like the 1976 “Judgment of Paris” was for wine. But Belgian Red besting beers brewed in Belgium in the 1996 Brewing Industry International Awards was a pretty big deal.

6. Pliny the Elder – First brewed in 1994 at a different brewery and with a different name (Blind Pig Double IPA), but by the same brewer. The first Double IPA, and now Double/Imperial IPA is an official style. Served at the 1995 Great American Beer Festival, where the next beer also hit the radar. (The photo at the top is the glass, complete with the original recipe, used to serve the beer on its first anniversary.)

7. Goose Island Bourbon County Stout – A rarity in 1995, but if BusinessWeek is right then barrel-aged beers have reached the tipping point.

8. Dogfish Head World Wide Stout and Samuel Adams Utopias – Yes, a second beer from Sam Adams. In fact, Boston Beer started us down the Extreme Beer path by introducing Triple Bock at the 1993 GABF and to the public in 1994. It continued to brew stronger versions, but in 1999 Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head made a stronger beer. He held the record a few weeks before Sam Adams introduced Millennium (for the upcoming millennium). That morphed into Utopias, now stronger than 25% abv. The back-and-forth focused mainstream attention on the concept of Extreme Beers.

9. Cuvee de Tomme – Michael Jackson’s review in 2000 understates the influence this beer continues to exert.

10. Dale’s Pale Ale – The beer wasn’t new in 2002, but that it was packaged at the small brewery in Colorado and in a can was. How else does a beer from Lyons (a lovely town, but have you been there?) end up in a blind tasting conducted by the New York Times? And win?

A toast with, and to, Liberty

Good morning and Happy Fourth of July.

I’m almost ready to begin lautering (you start brewing early in the morning on these hot summer days in New Mexico), so two quick suggestions for the holiday:

– Head on over to the Champagne of Blogs and read Our Second Sudsy Salute to America. Topical and regional.

– Drink a glass, or two, of Anchor Liberty Ale. Has there ever better a more appropriate name for a beer to drink today? Remember its place in history. This Cascade-accented beer was essential in setting us free of the U.S. beer monoculture.

To Liberty.

East Coast versus West Coast

Beer chessMissed this story about the difference between East Coast and West Coast beers, most notably IPAs, by Greg Kitsock when it first appeared in the Washington Post a couple of weeks ago.

When it comes to hoppy beers the differences aren’t just East-West. Try an IPA, or Imperial IPA, from the Northwest, then one from Southern California and you’ll find similarly diverse beers. (Last year the San Diego Tribune riffed on Garrett Oliver’s suggestion we make San Digeo Pale Ale an official beer style.)

These are differences we should embrace, rather than arguing if one version is better or that the brewers who make beer to a particular taste are more talented. (This article didn’t do that, just to be clear.)