Professor Good Ales

Profiled by Maria Devan for PGA

It’s friday and it’s in full swing. I admit I have had my eyes peeled for the better part of 12 months for Anchors Humming Ale but the other day I found this! Good enough!

This pours a brilliant orange. Clear and calm like a pane of glass with brick color red hues and a fat head of khaki foam tinged with a bit of orange. The head is loathe to fall. It’s creamy and falls off rocky leaving a thick layer on top and some gorgeous lacing. Nose is subtle but it’s a grapefruit and some very forward malt. Caramel. A bit of herbal in there to give it depth and an earthy pine. I cannot be sure how old the beer is but I think the hops have faded somewhat. The grapefruit is in the backseat but the malt is a spectacular and luscious caramel that is not heavy. The tartness and the pith of the fruit comes through and the pine stays light and in the background. The herbal adds dimension to the drink. This finishes dry and with a lovely and pretty strong bitter that carries itself off extremely well. Leaves with a sweet aftertaste from the malt and the fruit on the side.

I like it. It’s like an English style IPA.

3.8

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.”

______________________ __Beer HERE

Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.

“If you’re a big fan of Abita Purple Haze, you’ve probably exposed yourself at Mardi Gras, but you own it. Good for you. You’re a raspberry and cheese lover… you know a lot about beer and cheeses. You believe that fruits and beer should be a thing that everyone loves.”

“Nobody picks Amstel Light by choice. It’s always the last thing sitting depressingly alone at the bottom of the ice bucket. You’re the ultimate guy/girl next door.”

“Blue Moon is craft beer for people who have never had a craft beer.”
“You’re a proud member of the citrus-in-beer club and your friends are forced to make an extra trip on your behalf, regularly. You are a free spirit and probably think Burning Man is the coolest festival out there. These people believe, mistakenly, that they have refined tastes.”

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HERE

Standing in the Place d’Armes, NOLA Beer Tours (www.nolabeertours.com) guide Eric Stockwell recited New Orleans’ Regal Brewery’s catchphrase from its heyday in the mid-1900s: “Red beans and rice, and Regal on ice.”

  He paused, then said, “That stuff sold like crack, you guys.”

  NOLA Beer Tours was founded in 2013 and aims to combine the history of beer in New Orleans with a tour of the French Quarter and highlighting local beers at a variety of bars. Stockwell says that for the most part, the tours are made up of people with a genuine interest in craft beer. My tour group had a diverse mix of folks from Slidell, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Texas and Oklahoma.

  The tour I went on earlier this month met at Tujague’s for the first stop. Although I was initially skeptical of the location, the restaurant’s historic significance combined with two iconic Louisiana beers on tap — NOLA Blonde and Abita Amber — and a snack of its house specialty brisket changed my mind.

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HERE

  I can’t say much about Green Flash, but Tom Becham has mentioned them here at PGA. I do have a Terrapin story…
  In the 90s I was gone a lot. From Louisiana to Florida to Maine I was doing dhows for the young and using multitrack tech to create projects with slightly older children. I was in Georgia, west side of Atlanta staying on this huge lake and heard nearby Athens had turned into a new beer capital.
  Of course I stayed in my little trailer and worked on my programs and… Continue reading “A Beer-y Good Story: Tangerine Dreamsickle”

SAN DIEGO — Troels Prahl, a brewer and microbiologist at the Southern California yeast distributor White Labs, sits at his company’s tasting room bar with four half-pints of beer. He describes each between thoughtful sips.

The first has a malty backbone and a crisp body of raspberry, rosemary and banana, he says; the second, a waft of white raisin and final bite of olive brine; the third flows thick and smooth like a classic English ale; and the fourth is perfumed with a dry and subtle blend of nutmeg and fresh straw.

The beers’ colors are as varied as their flavors, ranging from cloudy gold to clear amber. Yet with the single exception of the yeasts used to ferment them, Mr. Prahl explains, they are all the exact same brew.

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HERE

From allaboutbeer.com

(In 1991) Rogue Ales moved into its third brewery, and its original name—Rogue River Brewing Co.—no longer seemed appropriate. The brewpub in Ashland, OR, at the headwaters of the Rogue River, made 200 barrels in 1988, and co-founder Jack Joyce and his partners wanted to sell more. They opened a brewpub in Newport in 1989, then moved the brewery into a former marine repair shop across Yaquina Bay. Rogue closed its Ashland pub after a flood in 1997 (now Caldera Brewing operates a taphouse in the location), but still operates 12 in all.