Category: Beer

 This weekend marked yet another Beaver River Beer Tasting. As I serve all kinds of exotic brews I also offered a circular providing some fun information, as well as telling visitors about the nature of what I was serving.
 I am willing to admit the list of just 10 of the brews doesn’t provide much education. As usual some of that is done while serving. Even then it’s kept on the light side. The object is to keep it fun and not get too beer geeky. It’s also to raise the knowledge level just enough to make them more curious. That requires me being entertaining rather than too technical.

 Over 30 years as a children’s entertainer? Yeah, I can do that.
 The marvelous Mark Franey brought his wine and brews that reflected the seasons, including a great strawberry light (color/srm) ale. He also brought lots of folks with him from Lowville area. Mark has been an incredible friend and is a great brewer who has helped make this tasting successful every year. He also has helped with my fall competition in Old Forge, the Old Frge BIG Beer and Odd Ale Competition, as well as won one year. My cousin Joyce and her daughters: May and Dorothy, and they brought many friends. And, of course we had plenty of fellow Beaver River-ites. This is a tradition I have been proud to start.
 I thought providing you, dear reader, with my list of only ten of the beers made sense… Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: 10th Annual Beaver River Beer Tasting”

Written by Tom Becham

On Saturday, August 20, 2016, a friend and I attended Stone Brewing’s 20^th Anniversary Celebration & Invitational Beer Festival. While Stone doesn’t exactly make the kind of beer I generally like, their skill, as well as impact in the craft beer community, cannot go unacknowledged. Also, Stone completely takes over the campus of California State University, San Marcos for its festivals, and invites many big names in the beer game, as well as upcoming talent. Their festivals are fun, informative, filled with fantastic beer to match anyone’s tastes, and the crowds are managed almost as well as Disney’s. When you add the fact that Stone promised some additional attractions for their 20^th Anniversary, well, I had to attend.
Continue reading “Tom Becham and the Stone 20th Anniversary Celebration”

Written by Tom Becham

I have two very “big” beers to review today.

The first is from one of my all-time favorite brewers, The Bruery. Quadrupel Tonnellerie is a Belgian-style quadruple, with blackberries added. It weighs in at a surprising 10.2% ABV. This beer pours a dark maroon-russet, with a small, fizzy, short-lived head. The nose is strong berries, with a back note of dark, caramel malt. The taste is rather surprising, as the maltiness of the beer – which is considerable – is entirely overwhelmed after a very brief appearance. After that appearance, this beer is predominantly berries on the palate, with a touch of sourness. The finish is entirely blackberries. If you like dark fruit beers, you’ll love this one. It conceals its strength masterfully.

The next beer is from Midnight Sun Brewing in Anchorage, Alaska. Arctic Devil Barley Wine. This beer was part of a care package brought to me by family in Alaska, over a year ago. All the other beers have been consumed, of course, but I had saved this one, as it sports a truly massive 13.4% ABV. I figured a bit of bottle age on this powerhouse would smooth out the flavors a bit. Especially since this one is aged in bourbon barrels.

I may not have needed to take that precaution.

Midnight Sun describes Arctic Devil as an English-style Barley Wine, which means it is much more malt-oriented and less hoppy than Barley Wines most Americans might expect. This one pours with a small tan, cloudy head, which dissipates rather quickly.

The aroma of Arctic Devil obviously is strong on bourbon, but also very full of caramel, bready malts. The malt sugars actually

manage to overpower the bourbon after a few seconds, then become very bold.

Upon tasting, the star of Arctic Devil is the extremely skillful use of strong malt presence. Indeed, the only English-style Barley wine I have tasted which is better than this one is the genuine article, Thomas Hardy’s Ale. It’s malt, malt, malt, in forms of caramel, molasses, black bread, and hints of dark stone fruits and even raw graininess. Hints of vanilla and a bourbon burn just lick lightly at the edges of the tongue. The alcohol is a very slight burn, and this beer drinks like one of perhaps half the ABV. Truly, Arctic Devil shows that Midnight Sun are masters in the use of malt. While hop get all the glory in today’s world of craft beer, I find that use of malt is more a measure of a brewer’s expertise.

In all, I recommend both Quadrupel Tonnellerie and Arctic Devil. Both are excellent in their particular niches.

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Tom Becham has been writing for PGA for many years. In fact he’s been writing so long he wears the hat to cover baldness, or the antenna that grow out of elderly Martian’s heads: we’re not sure which, but we’re glad he writes for us.

  This edition is about two of the odder competitions I’ve ever judged at. One was “odd” due to what we were judging, one where. Let’s start with “what.”
  Like Plattsburgh, Can Can is in its first year. Millie and I drove to a rather spacious house, in a community slightly outside downtown Franklin, Tennessee, that reminded me of the sumptious preplanned communities like Seaside between Destin and Panama City, Florida, or Chautauqua in southwestern New York.
  Nice place, Nathan. Almost as nice as chateau Carman. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: Plattsburgh and Can Can”

Profiled by Maria Devan

This is a saison that uses spelt malt and a late hop addition.

Beer uses two kinds of hops. Bittering and flavor and aroma hops. Bittering hops are added at the begining of the boil and that usually lasts between 60 and 90 minutes. 60 minutes less bitterness than at 90. For late hop addition the idea is that the oils from hops are delicate and they boil off leaving mostly bitterness. So to add flavor and aroma without bitterness you need to add the hops later in the cycle. Flavor and aroma hops are called late hop additions because you do not add them to the brew kettle until just before the end. Some brewers do more than one hop drop let’s say at 15, 10 and 5 minutes before flameout. “With an earlier addition, the flavor/aroma contribution will tilt toward flavor. With a later addition, the flavor/aroma contribution will tilt toward aroma.” You can add hops at flameout too and you can stand them after flameout for a period of time before you start chilling your wort. All these different hop schedules will tweak the aroma and flavors just a bit and the oils that blend from the hops you add can create new flavors or exciting combinations.

Spelt malt is usually used in full bodied top fermenting beer. It is a distant cousin to wheat and imparts dry tart, earthy character and improves head retention.

The pour is sultry yellow with a big head of white foam that dwindles. The color has a little golden edge to it. A stream of bubbles, soft haze. Fruity with melon husks sweet grasses and light lemon. It’s fragrant with a soft flower petal and the nutty perfume from the spelt malt. It’s like the musk on this citrusy fruity beer. Sharp little bit of pepper. Drinks softly and very elegant. The malt sinks into a bit of crackery softness with a touch more flavor than you were expecting. the citrus becomes prominent in the drink but it’s heady with dry lemon. Sweet grasses and alight touch of sugar finish this one dry and with a subtle cheek from bitterness. It’s put together very well and has the perfect bubble. You don’t notice any bite and the malt is very lush to the palate. I think there is a little dry funk on this beer too but I can’t prove it.

This is a lovely, malty saison with a bit of nutty flavor from the spelt malt and a vivacious late hop addition gives it presence on the nose. What I like about this style of beer is that it has a hearty character. The fruit is not easy to name and has a quality that sometimes I think you can only define by a color. Cool green like melon, mixed with a peppery herbal , lemon, a touch of tartness – its’ all compliments and that’s balanced. The bittering hop is strong and could take you to the aspirin like bitterness in a DIPA like heady topper, but in this one it’s softer than that. It does have a sharpness. This is not a big IPA with lots of slick feeling to the body so a crisp sharp bitterness accents dryness. It lingers but not longer than the faintly nutty malt and with the light lemon in the aftertaste. Your palate is not all the way reset because of the spelt and the sugar. You want to pair this beer with aged or soft cheeses and a variety of artisan breads and sandwich boards, smoked turkey with melted cheddar and apples.

4

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

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Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is a great beer writer. That’s Maria in the middle. The other two are not, but they are lucky to have her as a friend.