musing

Brown is beautiful

A New York Times Dining section tasting panel evaluates brown ales today (registration required). To reference the ongoing discussion we’re not having, they are not ex****e beers.

Eric Asimov writes:

As with great character actors who are so easy to take for granted, you have to pay close attention to brown ales to appreciate their virtue. They have roles to play “quenching thirst, facilitating conversation, sharpening the appetite” and they do it well. If by chance you notice the fine, almost sweet maltiness of the aroma, and the brisk, dry, mineral quality of the flavors, even better. More likely, it’s the absence of these qualities in a poor example that stands out, conveying the sense of something missing.

EllieTheir favorite beer was Ellie’s Brown Ale from Avery Brewing. The described it as, “Brisk, with rich malt aromas. Fruit, mineral and bitter hop flavors.”

Not a surprise to us in New Mexico, because we were drinking Ellie’s Brown and 14’er ESB before back in the mid-90s before Avery became better known for its stronger, hoppier beers. Brewery sales declined between 1998 and 2000, the year The Reverend (10% abv, dark and Belgian-inspired) came out.

The Rev and ex****e beers that followed fueled six years of onging growth and expansion. We like those beers. They weren’t the result of a less-than-fundamentally-sound brewer throwing in more malt and hops – and maybe a funky yeast – to get attention, but the product of a brewer using already well-honed skills.

And even if we didn’t drink The Reverend, Hog Heaven, Salvation and the rest we’d be happy people chasing the X beers are buying them somewhere. Othwerwise when visitors asked me about my favorite brown ale I might sadly answer, “It used to be Ellie’s Brown.”

Instead I can reach into the garage fridge and say, “Try this.”

The higher meaning of cheap beer

In this corner we have Stephen Beaumont, pointing out to us the affordable pleasures of beer. (Noted earlier in the day.)

brewhouseIn this corner we have Mike Seate of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review telling us that Beer snobs forget the true meaning of beer. He writes about how expensive beer he finds beer in some Pittsburgh bars and about how pretentious he views the drinkers who pay that price.

I was writing about Stephen’s post when Loren’s note about Seate’s column arrived. A few hours later when I returned to write about that topic it I saw that everybody has something to say.

– The comments at Beer Advocate had more than doubled.

– Jay Brooks weighed in, admitting “I should be ignoring what he’s saying but I can’t. The bait is there and I took it.”

– Alan McLeod focused on another different bit of the colmun, writing:

So, given the concerns, is there something to the column Mike Seate wrote? Is it perhaps the case that we do not like as beer nerds to look at ourselves as beer nerds but some sort of evangelists surrounded by fools or at least the unheeding doomed? If so, what does that mean for our understanding of the meaning of what we beer nerds are doing?

Whew! Alan, that’s a bit of self analysis I need an expensive beer or to in my belly to undertake.

So with all these conversations going on I’m picking just one to comment on – or not.

Back to the headline: “Beer snobs forget the true meaning of beer.” Then Mr. Seate’s conclusion that “beer is supposed to be a workingman’s drink” and that he’ll be drinking on the cheap.

So the true meaning of beer is that it is something “working class people” drink and thus it must be cheap?

That’s too silly to comment on.

Quick additions on 1/19: Quite well said by Stephen Beaumont, and a solid discussion at the Burgundian Babble Belt.

28 days of beer with change left over

Gee, I wish I’d thought of this idea.

The February issue of Food & Wine magazine has an article telling you how to “Become a Wine Expert in 28 Days.”

Stephen Beaumont saw this and did the math:

Just for fun, I added up the month’s wine costs and found that, not including the Sonoma wine-country weekend the author advises the reader to plan on Day 17, the total price of becoming a 28 Day Wine Expert is $1,792, or an average of $64 a day.

Then he imagines “if the story had instead been ‘Become a Beer Expert in 28 Days.'”

Day 2 in (Michael) Steinberger’s story highlights a $40 syrah, for which I might substitute a solid American IPA costing about $3. Day 3’s Tuscan red from Gaja ($38) could be replaced by a robust brown ale or two for $5 or so . . .

His point? “When it comes to purchasing power, the beer aficionado has it all over the oenophile.”

Hey, Stephen, you need to finish the month for us.

10 years of San Diego beer

When the first round of national enthusiasm for craft beer was reaching its zenith in 1996 things were just starting to get going in Southern California. In other words, San Diego was a little behind the curve. But the hits just kept on coming and you certainly wouldn’t say that today.

The San Diego Union-Tribune recounts the last 10 years, explaining the premise – then heading right into 10 events that rocked our beer mugs, 1996-2006.

The joy in this article is in the extra detail Peter Rowe provides – there’s surely a parallel here with the extra steps that Jeff Bagby and Noah Regnery go through at Pizza Port Carlsbad to squeeze that additional hop flavor into Hop Suey.

Looking forward to “Ten changes on San Diego’s brewing horizon” next month.

Vintage beers: Restaurants and auctions

Big feetHere’s another prediction for 2007 I should have made: Vintage beers will command more attention.

Item 1: Liquid Solutions, which sells beer through the mail and from its Oregon City store, plans to begin auctioning vintage beers next week (Jan. 19).

First up are a bottle of Chimay Grand Reserver from 1994, a six-year vertical of Sierra Nevada Big Foot from 1997-2002, and a 1996 bottle of Thomas Hardy’s Ale.

Item 2: Manhattan’s chic Gramercy Tavern now has a vintage menu that includes about 25 beers, created with the help of Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver.

“Generally they’re stronger beers, darker beers. They’re not kind of easy-drinking things; they’re more for an after-dinner drink, good with cheese and chocolate dessert, that kind of thing,” Kevin Garry, Gramercy’s assistant beverage director, tells the New York Post.

The star of the list is the 1992 Thomas Hardy, which sells for $23 (that’s a 6.33-ounce bottle). Oliver provided those bottles and says in the story, “It’s almost a little underground secret among beer aficionados, you know, where you might be able to find the good stuff.”

Or you can just be lucky. We always had a fond spot for Hardy’s when it was brewed at the Eldridge Pope brewery, which we toured in 1994 (there are multiple stories there – including days of walking in the English countryside), but weren’t really looking for it in Amarillo, Texas, in May of 1999.

While filling the gas tank before heading south to Palo Duro Canyon I noticed a liquor store next door, and since I was done pumping and Daria and Sierra were still inside the gas station I ducked into the store.

I spotted two four-packs of Thomas Hardy in one cooler, pulled them out and saw there were from 1992. There were $10.95 a four-pack. The clerk seemed a little surprised that somebody would be smiling so broadly while spending that much for eight small bottles.

Later a friend asked my why I hadn’t suggested a discount because the beer was old. (Really.)