the session

Rick Lyke has the recap on the 7th round of The Session.

He begins by reminding us it was dedicated to “Michael Jackson, who passed away in London on Aug. 30th. Michael was an inspiration to drinks journalists and helped remind the world of the significant part that beer plays in our daily lives, culture and history. Michael became known as The Beer Hunter, after the name of his television series. With this in mind, I think The Beer Hunter would have been proud of the animal beers bagged by the blogging community on Friday.”

The most popular animal in a name and/or on the label was a dog (11), and all told we ended up with 42 critters.

The theme for this month’s session is The Brew Zoo. Rick Lyke is your host and will compile the recap.

I live in a town where (as you can see) visitors are greeted with a sign that touts our coyotes, and this time of year you hear them howling away throughout the night although we don’t see much of them.

But I’ve never been able to buy a Wilie E. Coyote Ale, and I’m still waiting for Cask Corrales Coyote (“Oh, that firkin road runner!”) at the brewery I can walk to.

By the time I’m done typing this entry one or two road runners will have strolled by my office window. Yet I’ve also not met a Road Runner Stout (or IPA).

If you lived in New Mexico wouldn’t you want to be able to buy a coyote or road runner beer? Or even something with Lobos in the name. Lobo Lupilin has a nice ring to it. Were there such a beer, making a choice for this month’s Session would have been so much easier.

Last week I did have a Jack Rabbit IPA at Chama River Brewing. And a jack rabbit will occasionally hop across our yard of sand, rocks and desert sage, but only occasionally. Besides I’ve already written about a couple of Chama beers in past Sessions.

We don’t get many dogs in our yard (dogs wander from their homes at their own coyote risk). Too bad, because what might be New Mexico’s most famous – and this one even comes in a bottle with a label – beer features a bandito dachshund, a cartoon likeness of a dog whose name was Petey. Petey went on a chicken killing spree when Santa Fe Brewing was still operating in the village of Galisteo. When he was done 22 chickens were dead and the brewery had the name for its barley wine.

I judged barley wines (for breakfast) in the recent New Mexico State Fair Pro-Am and it turns out the beer we gave the silver medal to was a 2004 vintage of Chicken Killer – creamy, luscious and full of orchard fruits. But 22 ounces of Chicken Killer (why do so many breweries put their strongest beers in the biggest bottles and everything else is in six-packs?) followed by typing has more appeal sometimes than others.

Yes, I could celebrate The Session with any of several Flying Dog beers in the garage fridge, or head to a nearby store and find a variety of beers with critters on the labels. (Even a few with critters inside – and The Session seems like a good enough excuse to buy a sixer of Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere with that Jack Russell on the front. Which it turns out Alan tried for the first time in The Session.)

But I’m still thinking local, real local. In fact, I just wanted to see a particular live animal before talking about my animal choice. Anyway, honest, a squirrel finally arrived to steal from one of our bird feeders (aren’t you glad there might finally be a point?). Now we can talk about Fat Squirrel IPA, a beer from Turtle Mountain Brewing. Turtle Mountain is just a couple of miles up the hill from our house, farther if you go by road.

In New Mexico brewing IPAs is a competitive sport, both among amateurs and pros, and Turtle Mountain comes to play. Wednesday there were three IPAs on tap, and Fat Squirrel was available both on draft and cask-conditioned in a firkin. The brewhouse itself smelled of grapefruit and pine, since Centennial hops fresh from the bines and delivered overnight from the Yakima Valley were being added to New Mexico’s first fresh hop beer. (Check back in a few weeks.)

Turtle Mountain describes Fat Squirrel as “in the British style” – but it is more of a hybrid, the Northwest hops muted (at least compared to TMBC IPA) but present. British malts and yeast soften the beer on the palate, but I don’t think Roger Protz would call this a British IPA.

The beer takes its name from when it was first brewed at the original Turtle Mountain pub a few blocks away. One day a then-skinny squirrel was hanging around the back door to the brewery and the brewers offered him some spent grain. At first he’d come running for the treats. Eventually he slowed to a waddle, and there were times he’d loll in the shade of a car out back, looking indifferently at another meal.

The brewery has moved to bigger quarters. The squirrel has disappeared. The legend lives on in the glass.

About the session.

Rick Lyke has chosen the theme for the seventh round of The Session in September. In short, Welcome to the Brew Zoo.

Have you ever noticed how many animals show up on beer labels? We have lions and tigers and bears, plus various birds, reptiles, fish, assorted domesticated and wild animals, plus a few mythical creatures. For whatever reason brewers have a tradition of branding their beers using everything from pets to predators. The Brew Zoo will celebrate these lagers and ales.

What’s the over/under on Moose Drool Brown?

Greg Clow has posted his roundup for The Session #6 (fruit beers for those who have forgotten).

Looks like we’re closing in on three dozen contributors, which could soon make the bloggers involved a buying force that the bigger brewers will have to sit up and pay attention to. (OK, scratch that, silly idea.)

Look for Rick Lyke’s upcoming announcement of the theme for Session #7. If he sticks with the idea he was thinking about then it’s one we all can (and should) have fun with.

Berkshire Brewing founders Chris Lalli and Gary Bogoff first brewed Raspberry Strong Ale for Christmas in 1990 using three-quarters pound of whole raspberries per gallon and it became in instant Christmas tradition.

When they started making it commercially in 1996 they stuck with real fruit, which is why it seems like an excellent choice for today’s Session. [The Session is a virtual gathering of beer bloggers on the first Friday of the month, all writing to the same theme. Greg Clow hosts today.]

They cut back the raspberries a bit, using one-half pound per gallon, adding them after primary fermentation. “After seven-to-ten days you can see the berries start to turn a fleshy color,” Bogoff said. That’s because the color, and flavor, has moved on to the beer. It pours a reddish-brown that takes almost all its color from the berries because the base beer is a strong pale ale.

“We made it as a Christmas treat,” Bogoff said. “We like fruit, but we thought beers made with extract or syrup ended up more on the soda-sweet side rather than tasting like beer.”

They brewed seven barrels back in 1996, while they made 60 barrels for release on Valentine’s Day this year and plan to brew 80 barrels in December for Valentine’s Day 2008.

“We did it to spoil ourselves,” Bogoff said. “We knew that if we did a beer like this in 1994 (the year Berkshire opened) we’d have been out of business in two months – it was just too weird.”

They quickly discovered that tracking down raspberries for a 210-gallon batch was a bit more of a challenge than for 10 gallons. They ended up ordering raspberries grown in Chile through Sysco. Four years ago they found a local farmer who can provide enough fruit. He harvests the berries in July and August and they are frozen and stored at a nearby ice cream plant.

The result is a deceptively strong 9% abv beer (its nickname in the brewery is “Truth Serum”) that leaves a final impression of fresh raspberry. Underlying malt complexity, the sweet-tart raspberry balance and a relatively dry finish all help it avoid that soda sweetness Bogoff was talking about.

Granted, he’s biased and has been drinking the beer for more than 16 years, but earlier this week he was just another guy drinking Raspberry Strong and he finished his glass before I downed mine (although I was liking each sip).

Had Chris Lalli been around as well I probably would have been third. After all, these guys made this for themselves.