Where in the beer world? 05.23.11

Where in the beer world?

I don’t really expect anybody to tell me where in the beer world this photo was taken, but it’s one of those things you see and you want other people to see as well.

First, “It’s not a Belgium.” Well, right. And it’s not Belgian either. Is that a good thing, a bad thing, or just a thing?

Second, “air fermented.” I thought I knew a little about brewing practices in Belgium, but this is a new one to me. Perhaps whoever scribbled the addition meant “open fermented.” Except, when I was at Sierra Nevada in early February I tasted several versions from a variety of different size conditioning tanks. Unfortunately, my notes are packed in a box that is one of a dozen marked “office.” But I sort of remember that not everything underwent primary fermentation in Sierra Nevada’s four open fermentation squares. I could be wrong. I’m used to that.

Anyway, as intriguing as it was to try one version with more banana notes, another richer with dark fruits, my favorite is the blend. The one in the bottles pictured above. A one-word tasting note, elegant.

A gose by any another name

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

– Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet

Love. Hate. Writers. People who write headlines. A match sometimes made in heaven. Sometimes in hell.

In the May/June issue of Imbibe magazine writer Josh Bernstein explains that the beer known as gose is pronounced “gose-uh.” The headline on the story reads, “So the Story Gose.”

The story is worth your time, and it’s online. For me it raises a question that I can’t answer. The dreaded You say tomato, I say tomahto question. In this case, You say goes, I say gose-uh. Is it still a gose if it is imperial-ized, if it is dunkel-ized, if it is brewed without wheat?

Bernstein writes about those sort of Americanized versions (imperial and dunkel from the Portsmouth Brewery in New Hampshire; the non-wheat version one of four seasonal goses from Cascade Brewing in Oregon), and he’s more comfortable with calling them gose then I am. (For the record, Portsmouth and Cascade both make excellent beers across the board, and I’m not suggesting they shouldn’t brew these particular ones.)

Quite honestly, this isn’t worth losing sleep over. Gose is a niche product. If you search the beer sites you’ll find plenty of examples, but mostly one-offs brewed in small batches. Still there’s a difference between reviving an interesting beer and treating it as an oddity. Eric Rose’s Tiny Bubbles is a fine example of the former.

We certainly don’t need to create more styles — Portlander Gose? Portsmouther Gose? no thank you — to make the difference clear. However it’s also not appropriate to toss in some combination of salt, coriander and lactic acid and imply the result would taste like the beer students drank in Leipzig pubs in 1900.

Once again, I’ve got a question, not an answer.

But here’s one I can answer right now. Pumpkin Gose? No.

Where in the beer world? 05.16.11

Where in the beer world?

Think you know where in the beer world this photo was taken?

Please leave your answer as a comment.

On the surface this might appear to be tough, so a hint. Hope it doesn’t make it too easy. The photo was taken in 1998 and several Great American Beer Festival gold medal winning beers were boiled in this kettle.

The beer that launched 1,600 breweries?

No. 1

Jeff Alworth (at Beervana) asks readers to comment on this hypothesis: “Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a foundational beer in American brewing and was instrumental in setting the course for craft brewing.”

No. 2

George de Piro, brewmaster at C.H. Evans Brewing Co. in New York and parttime blogger, asks this question: “What beer did you once love but now no longer (or seldom) drink?

He even volunteers to go first, naming Catamount Stout, Spaten Franziskaner, and (drumroll, please) Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

He writes: ” I haven’t really divorced this beer (SNPA), but I haven’t had a steady relationship with it in many years. It’s a great style made to very high standards, but I am so familiar with it that I usually go for something different when I’m out for a beer.”

No. 3

In the Washington Post Greg Kitsock suggested “plain old pale ale has become almost the Wonder bread of craft beer: a ubiquitous product often dismissed as a ‘gateway’ beer for neophytes.” He doesn’t dismiss them, examining how many breweries “are taking a new look at an old style.” Just to be clear, that style is (American) pale ale.

I suspect the comments you find following Alworth’s and de Piro’s posts are not much different than the conversations that would result were these questions raised (and they probably have been several times) at Rate Beer and Beer Advocate.

From a broad, historic (and business) viewpoint there can be little debate that SNPA is a foundation beer. But if there had never been Sierra Nevada Pale Ale would Pierre Celis not have been inspired to start the Celis Brewery in Austin, Texas, and would Rob Tod not been have further inspired to brew Allagash White. No way to know. It’s complicated. Particularly when you consider writing or talking about the diversity of beer really means writing/talking about the diversity of people who drink beer.*

Or as Cajun music legend D.L. Menard puts it, “No matter where you at, there you are.”

* I could have typed “craft beer” rather than ‘beer” twice in that sentence but I think it works fine with two fewer words.

Session #52 announced: Beer collectibles

Flowers pub light

The SessionBrian Stechschulte has announced the theme for The Session #52 will be Beer Collectibles & Breweriana.

He explains, “So what old or new beer related items do you collect and why? It’s that simple. This is your opportunity to share the treasured objects your wife or husband won’t let you display on the fireplace mantle. You don’t need to be a major collector like this guy to participate. In my mind, just a few items constitute a collection. Maybe you have mementos from a beer epiphany or road trips? You can focus on a whole collection or tell the story behind a single item.”

In an email announcing he’d posted the topic he wrote, “Diehard Session fans will probably be disappointed that it’s not about the actual substance of beer.” Contributors needn’t be. There looks to me to be an opportunity to write about beer itself.

For instance, nearly 17 years after I bought the Flowers light pictured at the top (smaller than you might think at six inches wide) at an open-air market in Dorchester it inspires multiple memories. One of them is the bright aroma of a well-conditioned pint of Eldridge Pope Royal Oak.

I might just write about that June 3.