The Session #12: Lost Abbey Angel’s Share

The SessionNote: This is my contribution to The Session #12: Barleywine, hosted by Jon at The Brew Site. Head on over to see what everybody else is drinking.

“When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered . . . the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls . . . bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory.”
– Marcel Proust

Scientists tell us aroma stimulations are hardwired into our memory processing center. That sounds a bit cold. I’d rather talk about Lost Abbey Angel’s Share.

When the glass is about six or eight inches from my nose it smells just like it did when I first had it at the 2006 Great American Beer Festival. A rich, complex blast of beer energy that made me pause as I started to lift the one-ounce serving to my lips. I can see brewer Tomme Arthur holding the bottle in his right hand, the recently removed cork in his left. He’s wearing a black Lost Abbey shirt, a “gotcha” smile on his face, his head particularly shiny.

Tomme ArthurA tableau that returned to my mind last spring when I read Michael Jackson’s working introduction to Beer-Eyewitness Companions and he wrote:

“Tomorrow’s classics will evolve from the currently embryonic American brews categorised by their admirers as Extreme Beers. These are the most intense-tasting beers ever produced anywhere in the world.”

I once again saw Arthur (at the right) holding that bottle. Now when I nose the beer I hear an echo of Jackson. These are the most intense-tasting beers ever produced anywhere in the world. I expect I always will.

I’d love to see his tasting notes on Angel’s Share, likely something I’d never think of. Dark dried fruit, vanilla, coconut, wood tannins, bourbon, maple syrup, brandy, caramel, toffee, molasses. We got all those flavors Wednesday evening, as well as impressions I don’t have ready adjectives for but that are firmly stamped in my memory.

We is Daria (my wife for those not regulars around here) and I. We spent going on two hours with the beer, chatting about travel plans much more than flavors. But each time we revisited Angel’s Share there was something new. It’s a contemplative beer, but you don’t have to spend all your time contemplating it.

Still, questions came to mind. And, via e-mail, Arthur had answers.

Just the facts

This batch released in November spent eight months in oak barrels that once held brandy. It’s 11.5% abv. The next batch will be one aged in bourbon barrels. Unlike the first two batches, sold in 750ml bottles, that one will be in 375s.

The base was brewed just for this project, but on its own is closer “to style” than many Lost Abbey beers. That style would be English barley wine (though a strong one even before the barrels boost the abv). It’s a reminder that it takes a great beer at the center for a barrel-aged beer to be great.

Now the soul

Which came first, the beer or the barrels?

“The Beer came first. The same base beer was used to create our Late Harvest 15th Anniversary Ale for Pizza Port Solana Beach in 2002. We have never served the base beer on its own although it is quite the little number even without the barrel aging. When we secured the brandy barrels, I had a feeling these flavors were more in line with what I was expecting back in 2002. In this way, the beer soars in a way the other could not. Although, I am very partial to the Late Harvest for its inclusion of grapes and barrel aging properties.”

Do you feel growing pressure with each release?

“I think in many ways, this is one beer that I am completely at peace with. It doesn’t require microbial dispositions and as long as we’re able to secure new oak for the aging on a regular basis, I feel confident in our ability to get this one in the bottle at the highest level with the flavors we’ve come to expect from this beer. There is a heightened sense of drama (per se) with each new consumer and their expectations of flavor towards this beer. It is the highest rated barley wine on Rate Beer right now and that brings with it a whole flooded fields worth of concern. This concern manifests itself in a ‘I sure hope I haven’t let the consumer down’ sort of way.”

Can a beer like this be too intense? Where’s the balance?

“I think that every beer has its breaking points. One of the reasons we went to the smaller format was to give consumers the opportunity to not have to consume large amounts of a sipping beer. For me, I don’t see this beer as being too intense. I think the balance is derived in flavor acquisition and maturation . . . ie when we start the uptake of brandy flavors from the wood and marry them to the sweetness of the beer, we see the maturation from oxidation and subtle integration of the nuances involved. In this way, we take a great beer and make it better as long as we don’t burden the beer and force it to walk in the shadow of the oak basis we’ve applied.”

These are the most intense-tasting beers ever produced anywhere in the world.

Stone six-pack prices going up today

Stone BrewingNow this is getting personal.

Stone XII will not be a hop bomb.

Kind of takes your breath away, doesn’t it? It gets worse. Ballast Point has quit bottling Dorado, one of the style-defining Double (some say Imperial) IPAs. A beer that a beer brewing chemist once described this way: “‘Savage’ flavor but not taste. Hoppy. Hoppy. Hop. Hop.”

Pete Rowe of the San Diego Union-Tribune (who consistently offers some of the best daily newspaper reporting on beer) gets down and dirty with what the hop shortage means in San Diego.

We knew higher beer prices were coming (and in some cases had already arrived). Rowe reports six-packs from Stone Brewing, most of which cost $7.99, will be marked up an additional $1 to $1.50 as of today.

The choice would be to change recipes, and to abandon Stone’s bold hop signature. Co-founder Greg Koch said that won’t be happening.

Koch insisted that the brewery’s regular lineup of beers, including Arrogant Bastard Ale, will remain as aggressively hopped as ever. But the Escondido brewery has been forced to make some changes.

Every summer, Stone issues an anniversary ale (the year marked by Roman numerals), a brew that typically reflects the company’s belief that hops are bitter and more hops are better.

Not this year. “That decision has been made for us,” Koch said. “It won’t be über-hoppy, as anniversary ales have been in the past.”

Rowe’s got more news from San Diego — hmmm . . . Pure Hoppiness — but also asks the elephant-in-the-room-question.

Will drinkers abandon Sierra Nevada, Green Flash, et al. for cheaper, mass-marketed beer?

Koch answers that question with a question.

“Or will they buy less? There are a lot of question marks out there.”

‘Fried beer’ and hedge fund beer picks

Super Bowl Sunday could be called “National Beer Day,” according to one press release, because an estimated $12 million will be spent on beer for consumption before and during the game day.

Much of the discussion centers around Budweiser and Bud Light, since Anheuser-Busch is the Super Bowl’s biggest advertiser. And Miller has co-opted some of the attention with a second Dalmatian commercial. More of the same? Mostly, but look around and you never know what you’ll find.

– Saint Arnold Brewing in Texas posted recipes “just in time for the big game.” Last week the brewery held its first “One Pot Showdown,” cooking contest that requires each recipe to include Saint Arnold beer as an ingredient and to be cooked in a single pot in the Saint Arnold parking lot. The event raised $1,800 for Meals on Wheels. Fried Beer (click on the link for the lengthy recipe), made with Winter Stout, finished first. Amberized Green Chili was second.

– TheStreet.com has “Microbrewed Beer Picks for the Big Game” – a good list if you’re having hedge fund managers over to watch the game.

– Among the “proposition” bets you can place is which will be the first beer commerical at halftime.

And then there’s YouTube.

– Miller has already started showing its second Dalmatian commercial, featured in the Wall Street Journal with A-B’s reaction.

– The Associated Press put together a sneak preview of the A-B ads:

– Of course, you knew we could count on the Marin Institute to demand an end to advertising and marketing beer during the Super Bowl. They might have found it more effective to come up with a spoof like this one:

Sadly, this sort fun doesn’t do any of us beer drinkers much good. Don’t think it’s just an attack on Bud.

Why beer blogs are good even when things suck

Jens Dalsgaard puts it this way at Nanobryg: This is the end of Ølfabrikken.

Dalsgaard’s take on Gourmetbryggeriet acquiring the remaining 50% of Ølfabrikken is pretty despressing.

Look, I don’t care if I never drink another bottle of Ølfabrikken Porter (though I know just where to find several). I’m not thinking first about my beer drinking convenience. In fact, my least favorite thing about Ølfabrikken could be that the brewery ships its beer to the U.S.

That might sound strange, but (trust me, this is proof you don’t want to be living inside my head) the logic goes likes this: If they didn’t ship us beer then I wouldn’t know they made really good beer and wouldn’t care when Dalsgaard writes: “We shall see if the brand stays unchanged, but I seriously doubt it.”

You hate it that it appears what looked to be a cool little brewery is changing. One where you knew just who was making the beer and what ingredients they were using.

Without the Internet we might have ever heard of Ølfabrikken (ranked 12th in the world by Rate Beer). Maybe this has already by discussed to death at the beer sites, but I lean on beer blogs, via rss feeds, to get news like this. News I could have missed without Nanobryg.

And, yes, there is the possibility that Dalsgaard is totally off base — which is why brewers scream about “those damn bloggers” — but he’s earned my respect and will have to be proved wrong. (I hope he is, but as already noted, it can get strange inside this head; maybe I need a beer).

It will suck for drinkers in Denmark if what were beers of conviction won’t be brewed with the same character. It doesn’t make me happy knowing what I now know, but I am happy to know Nanobryg and the 193 other blogs really simple BEER syndication currently tracks are out there digging up stuff like this.

(Full disclosure: This is not intended as a shot across Alan’s bows, but his post a few days ago caused me to stop and find a silver lining in what looks like pretty sucky news.)

Gordon Biersch X 4: Compare and contrast

Gordon Biersch Hefeweizen“Brew” Blog reports that Costco has received label application approval to sell three beers under the Kirkland brand name.

This has all kind of implications. In brief:

– Costco is a poster child for “trading up.” You go there to buy products you are brand agnostic about in bulk (often the dependable Kirkland brand), leaving you money to spend more on those you care about. At Costco or some place else.

– In case you were napping, Costco has been fighting the three-tier system, this week suffering a setback when an appeals court overturned most of a previous favorable ruling.

– It’s the largest wine retailer in the United States. I’ve always wondered what would happen if they got equally serious about beer. Yes, Costco sells beer by the case, and I can often find a New Belgium specialty beer there as well as Fat Tire. But as well as stacks of wine at $6.99-$9.99 they’ve also two islands with wine in bins. You can spend hundreds of dollars on a bottle, but the real sport is shopping in the $11-14 range. Might they make room in those bins for a few bottles of hard-to-find beer?

All good topics for a bar stool, but right now I’m considering the possibility of a side-by-side-by-side-by-side tasting.

Gordon Biersch in San Jose, Calif., will brew the Kirkland beers (labels indicate an amber, a pale ale and a hefeweizen). BG already brews a hefeweizen which it sells under its own name. It also brews a hefe for Trader Joe’s, and each of its brewpubs across the country has a hefe among its core beers.

So if you live someplace with all the right stores and a Gordon Biersch brewery/restaurant you could line up four beers and see what differences you taste.

Three beers from the same good home and one from one of the kids.