Flying Dog Garde Dog: Thumbs up or down?


Let’s start with what the brewer has to say: Matt Brophy of Flying Dog Ales talks about the intent behind the seasonal Garde Dog, as well as the way it tastes to him.

Please notice that near the end he says, “We put our own spin on it.”

Not to duck Christopher’s call for less description/background and more guidance/criticism, but how you rate this beer depends in part on what you expect from it. Had I sampled it looking for one designed to replicate Lost Abbey’s Avant Garde I would have been disappointed and likely suggested “thumbs down.”

But I like the Garde Dog. If I could buy it fresh (many Flying Dog seasonals don’t reach New Mexico, and you always have to worry about how they’ve been treated) I would. So if we are treating this like a light switch, good or bad, this beer is good. Unlike the previous biere de garde I drank, Castelain Blond, a generally dependable beer that was old, lifeless and a bit sour.

Like many other beer bloggers (just do a Technorati search) I received a bottle directly from Flying Dog, assuring freshness. I prefer it that way.

It’s no wimp at 5.8% abv, but not as strong (and hence as complex) as more traditional versions. Perhaps the flavor is a bit fruity for the style, but it blends well with lager malt sweetness and spicy hops, leaving an impression of fresh bread. Maybe it’s going to taste earthier after some time in the bottle . . . although since it’s capped rather than corked there’s less chance it will take on a musty character (or is that TCA?) that would make it more “authentic.”

By then it will be up to somebody else to tell you it is good. And I may well not agree.

Monday morning musing: What time is the toast?

75 Years of BeerYou’ve probably heard about this: Today is the 75th anniversary of when breweries could resume selling beer, although it was months later until Prohibition officially ended and full strength beer returned.

I mentioned Maureen Ogle’s excellent daily countdown a while back, and suggest you stop by if you haven’t been. Also read her opinion piece, “The day beer flowed again,” in The Los Angeles Times.

The anniversary even got a mention on National Public Radio this past weekend. I wrote last week at Real Beer about the press kit Anheuser-Busch sent out and that Noah Adams mentions in his short commentary.

For the record, I didn’t receive a six-pack of beer (as Adams found in his desk), which doesn’t bother me at all. However, this does seem relative to part of the lengthy discussion about beer criticism, etc. Adams makes something of a point of not accepting the free beer.

But back to celebrating this anniversary. We should all wish Pike Brewery in Seattle were close enough for us to visit.

Schlitz advertisement– Rumors last October about Schlitz going retro turn out to be true. The press release does not make the meaning of “Classic 1960s Formula” based on the original recipe exactly clear.

The 1960s Schlitz and the original 19th century Schlitz clearly were not brewed to the same recipe. More than likely it will be made as it was in the 1960s, with adjuncts, before the brewing cycle was shortened in the 1970s and disaster followed. Philip Van Munching details this all very nicely in “Beer Blast,” calling the chapter “Number Two Schlitz Its Wrists.”

“We are going after the baby boomers who remember Schlitz when they first started drinking,” Jerry Glunz, the general manager of Chicago-area distributor Louis Glunz Beer Inc., told a business newspaper. “This is a different beer than the (current Schlitz line in the can), and this beer will stand up to its former glory.”

Pabst, which owns the Schlitz brand, has had the greatest success with retro marketing, but because Gen X (and perhaps Gen Y) drinkers embraced the brand — not by reaching out to baby boomers.

Hmmmm.

– Do you want somebody to write like this about beer?

“I’m looking for the Leon Trotskys, the Philip Roths, the Chaucers and the Edith Whartons of the wine world. I want my wines to tell a good story. I want them natural and most of all, like my dear friends, I want them to speak the truth even if we argue.”

I’m a fan of Alice Feiring and looking forward to her new book,
The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization.

I even like the notion that there’s a great story behind some of my favorite beers and that they may sometimes speak to me. But not every one. That’s why beer is not the new wine. Thank goodness.

Session #14 roundup posted, and my favorite

The SessionJeff Bell/Stonch has posted the roundup for The Session #14: Beer People. Many outstanding posts, and one terrific suggestion from Jay Brooks.

But I wish I’d written this (and not only because it would mean I could still share a “snob beer” with my Dad):

Bob is my Dad. He drinks Labatt’s Blue religiously. Before Labatt’s it was Michelob. Before Michelob it was Pabst or Natural Light. My Dad has never taught me about original gravity or dry-hopping. He’s never taught me about the difference between a Kolsch and a Pilsner or cascade hops and chinook hops. In fact, my Dad has really taught me only one thing about beer in my whole life. He taught me that beer is something that can bring two people together on the same level and be genuine with one another.

Read the rest at Beer, Maine & Me.

Session #14: Generations of Beer People

The SessionIn setting the theme for The Session #14: Beer People Jeff Bell asked for “pen portraits.”

At the risk of appearing lazy I’m letting the subject speak for himself. Ed Reisch was the fourth generation of his Springfield, Ill., family to oversee operations for Reisch Brewing Co. The brewery operated from 1849 until 1966, although Reisch left in 1964 to work for Pabst in Milwaukee

I visited him in December to collect his oral history, in this case using video. Here are a couple of minutes in which he talks about brewing Pabst and Andecker (Pabst’s high-end beer) in the 1970s.

The Reisch Brewery is gone . . . It was not insignificant — by the early twentieth century it occupied three acres and 11 building, shortly before Prohibition producing nearly 80,000 barrels annually. Ed Reisch was born in 1919, and played in the brewery as a youth during Prohibition, when malt syrup was produced there.

But the Reisch story continues . . . One of Ed’s sons, George, is a corporate brewmaster at Anheuser-Busch and George’s son, Patrick, is training to become a professional brewer. That will make six generations.

So more later.

Young’s Bitter: Red Tractor guarantees it’s all UK

Red Tractor Assured food standardsRed Tractor beer is not a brand in the UK (as opposed to the Palisade Red Truck IPA from Colorado), but a stamp that assures it is made only with British ingredients that have been checked for quality assurance.

Wells and Young’s has become the first major brewer to promote the Red Tractor logo.

Red Tractor “is a food assurance scheme which covers production standards developed by experts on safety, hygiene, animal welfare and the environment amongst other things.”

Reacting to Wells and Young’s announcement all bottles of Young’s Bitter will carry the Red Tractor logo, Jonathan Tipples, vice chairman of Assured Food Standards said: “The Red Tractor logo signifies that the ale has been brewed in the UK using hops, malt and barley produced to high standards on the farm and checked by independent inspections.”

The current barley and hops crisis (both prices and availability) has reminded many drinkers of the historically strong links between brewers and farmers.

Head brewer at Wells and Young’s Brewery, Jim Robertson, said: “It is incredibly important to us that we work with our farmers and suppliers and knowing that every drop of Young’s Bitter will be made with Red Tractor approved ingredients is a strong provenance message for our consumers.”