Session #25 announced: Lager Love

The SessionThe Beer Nut has posted the topic for Session #25: Lager Love.

So for this Session, let’s get back to basics. I’m sure I’m not the only one whose early drinking career featured pale lager in abundance, so consider this a return to our roots as beer drinkers. Don’t even think about cheating the system: leave your doppelbocks and schwarzbiers out of this one: I want pilsners, light lagers, helleses and those ones that just say “beer” because, well, what else would it be?

A lively discussion has already broken out in comments about the announcement, causing me to seek a bit of clarification. I have no urge to return to my roots if we’re talking the insipid lagers available when I first met “quarter pitcher night.”

Or even, for instance, Warsteiner. (I used a wonderful quote from Josef Schneider of the Josef Schneider brewery in Essing, Germany, about Warsteiner in a story I wrote for All About Beer magazine. I will pass it along once the article is in print.)

So I asked about Czech pale lagers (you might call them pilsners, but the Czechs don’t unless they are from Pilsen) and received approval, for a simple reason, because they are “taken-for-granted, this-is-what-beer-means-here.”

I don’t even know if I’ll be able to post for the March 6 Session (I think we’ll be in Virginia; almost close enough to Philadelphia to consider checking out what looks like an insane Philly Beer Week ) and I certainly don’t know what I’ll be writing about. But when that roundup is posted I’m sure I will be clicking on every single link.

 

Session #24: A tripel to Twitter for

The SessionThis is my contribution to The Session, today celebrating two years of beer bloggers (and now Twitter users) writing about the same topic on the first Friday of the month. Visit Musings Over a Pint for the roundup. To follow it “live” on Twitter head to that site and search for #thesession.

Today the theme for Session #24 is “A Tripel for Two.” Host Dave Turley asks that we pick a Belgian-style tripel to review, and to tell “us why it’s your pick to share with that special someone.” After all, Valentine’s Day is only eight days out, although I don’t expect it to be a beery day. We have reservations at Cochon in New Orleans and I’ll be surprised if their beer menu equals their wine list.

But a good tripel, or what I’d call a good tripel, matches such a range of dishes it works well at almost any table. Of course I like my tripels sneaky bold, without the obvious alcohol or lingering sweetness that some prefer, with spicy yeast character usually accented by noble hops. Earthy and dry at the finish.

Captain Lawrence Xtra Gold, for example even though it blatantly breaks the noble hop rule. I don’t have a glass of it in front of me, so my drinking notes are from the fall of 2007, when I wrote about the beer for All About Beer magazine’s Beer Talk.

Here’s some of what I wrote for AABM:

Were there orange or mango groves in the flatlands east of Antwerp you sense this is the beer the monks of Westmalle might have come up with. Appropriately sub-titled an “American Tripel.” Citrus aromas and flavors from Northwest hops blend seamlessly with juicy orchard fruits and a bit of candy sweetness. Bready and yeasty on the palate, standing nicely against substantial alcohol. Hop flavor throughout, though in no sense bitter, tart and dry at the finish.

That’s more than 140 characters, so I guess I have to work on the Twitter version.

 

Do you know your beer dinosaur’s ‘born on’ date?

Let’s play connect the dots:

– Why those long trips can kill your wine. Beer is just as vulnerable.

– Anheuser-Busch InBev has decided its beer really has a longer shelf life than previously advertised and is dropping the “born on” date for its smaller brands (which just might be the ones that don’t sell as quickly).

Thanks to Charlie Papazian for pointing out this story. It has generated a firestorm of comments, so set aside a little time and go read them. Just for fun, one of my favorites:

Wait for the announcement that InBev has found a way to “without affecting quality” shorten the brewing process.

– Now stick with me for a paragraph or two. Maureen Ogle often comments on the future of print, meaning both books and newspapers, so maybe this won’t seem like such a leap. Thoughts from Bill Wyman’s Hitsville blog:

But let’s face it, most newspapers sucked in all sorts of ways, and one of the main ways was opting toward blandness and timidity wherever possible, as as not to offend the older folks subscribing to the papers.

The truth was, it didn’t matter what they published. People just subscribed to newspapers! For the ads, because they always had, some even for the news. . . . Now, things are different. Online, you have to publish stuff people want to read, or fashion it to seem that way.

What happens if you replace the word newspaper with big breweries, publish with brew, read with drink and consider craft breweries are as “disruptive” as online publications?

Do you see any dinosaurs in the room?

There’s a lot going on in St. Louis these days — I hope we’re going to be able to spend a few days there next month — that’s interesting to watch even if you don’t want to drink the beer. And I expect you, I and the guys who’ve been drinking Bud at the corner bar for 30 years don’t necessarily see things the same way. (You might be shaking your head at my newspaper analogy, but then that’s where I used to work.)

My view: Big breweries created opportunity for small-batch breweries by only offering incredibly bland beer. Now Inbev brings ruthless cost-cutting to the game. Perhaps the company’s consummate skills in the marketplace will crush the competition, but it looks to me like more opportunity for small-batch breweries. But remembering it takes more than “simply” brewing beer with flavor. It takes the skill to get that flavor clear to our glasses.

 

Time for craft beer nostalgia

Is this a sign of maturity? At least a bit of what’s new these days just might be old, meaning “retro beers” don’t have a monopoly on nostalgia.

First, Bill Brand reports that New Albion Ale will be back for SF Beer Week. He’s got the details in his pdf newsletter, but check his blog for updates. Basically, Don Barkley — who worked with Jack McAuliffe at New Albion — pulled out an old ledger McAuliffe started and found a recipe.

Barkley brewed the “new” New Albion Ale at Napa Smith, the winery-brewery he recently went to work for after retiring form Mendocino Brewing.

You can see photos of a much younger Barkley in “MICROBREWERS: 1981 – 1996: A Photo History” (this link goes to a promo at YouTube). The self-published book contains hundreds of photographs of microbrewery pioneers along with commentary. It costs $64.95 (details).

What I’m really looking forward to is Jay Sheveck’s “Beer Pioneers,” a documentary he hopes to have ready in 2010. He’s been working on this for more than 10 years, and is still collecting interviews. He posted a teaser at Facebook that’s certainly worth your time. (Please read the text here as well.)

He’s even got footage of the elusive Mr. McAuliffe.