Free beer at the Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal, which charges to read most of its online content, is giving away a beer story tomorrow (Friday). After reading “When Beer Takes on Vintners’ Airs” you’ll likely wish they were giving away the beer instead.
Yep, another indication that barrel-aged beers are hot. Can a reality show be far behind? (“Hilda, you’re leaving me for Brettanomyces? What about the children?”)
You’ll find the “usual suspects” in the story, but remember the beers mentioned are just the tip of what’s going on. What’s happening in Kansas City, Omaha or some barrel room neither you nor I is aware of is still under the radar.
The article stands in place of the popular wine column from Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, who are on vacation, and it seems there was some sort of related tasting: “On a recent afternoon, we gathered a panel of reporters and editors made up of both beer and wine fans to sample winey beers from around the country.”
Perhaps tomorrow we’ll find out more (in print or online), in which case I’ll provide an update. But we already know that not everybody loved this idea. “Is it possible that there is beer and wine and the two should never meet?” said one participant.
I’m not surprised what they did like.
“Our favorite was Port Brewing’s Angel’s Share, which weighs in at a hefty 12.5% alcohol and is aged in brandy barrels for six to eight months. It tastes and smells like port, prompting one of our testers to say he could imagine sipping a glass of it on a winter evening by the fire.”
Why wait for winter?
Posted: August 16th, 2007 under Beer & Wine, Beer culture, Beers of conviction.
August 17th, 2007 at 6:33 am
“…add extra layers of complexity to a beverage that many people think of as plain and even watery.
Hmm. And it takes aging in wine casks to do that? Talk about one extreme to the other.
August 17th, 2007 at 6:41 am
There’s such a lot of fuss about barrel aged beers, and yet some of them are pasteurised and filtered before sale. Seems an arse about face business to me.
August 17th, 2007 at 7:22 am
I guess that beats pasteurization before being dropped into the barrels, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that didn’t happen too!
August 17th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Stonch, the fuss about barrel aged beers – and I’m guilty of being one of the major fussers – is way out of proportion to the amount consumed (or available for consumption).
So it’s surprising to see this article in the WSJ. Good luck to those guys on Wall Street heading into stores today and looking for Angel’s Share.
My point would be that I agree that it is totally stupid for somebody to invest the labor and time to create something that has small-batch/specialty written all over it and then remove some of that flavor before selling it.
August 17th, 2007 at 10:59 am
I think this is yet another decent spotlight on the artistic waves that are continuing to be made by Vinnie, Tomme, Rob and co. and not just “more barrel aged extremism”…
If you REALLY want to poo-poo on faux barrel aged specialties…what about those JW Lees Harvest Ale offerings? Authentic Lagavulin my arse!