Looking at Foam

So, one of my regulars planted an interesting question in this week’s review’s comments. The gist of it was, “What is the big deal about a beer’s head?” I was two seconds away from shooting out a reply when it occurred to me that I didn’t actually know! I mean everyone has been talking about it, so it seemed like something I should observe as well. Why should I care about head retention and size?

The head of the beer, along with it’s traits, will be determined by the malt used in brewing, as well as any additives such as honey or fruit flavorings. The beers that are going to have the largest, longest lasting heads use wheat malts, so you’ll find that pilsners (such as this week’s Old School), Hefeweizens, and their relatives will be more known for their head than, say, a good porter.

Looking around I came up with a couple answers. First off is an obvious one: Appearance. Frankly the head of a beer adds to its appearance. It adds to the aesthetic value, giving a nice contrasting color and texture, plus it’s just nice to look at.

Secondly, and this is more important, is the smell. The head is formed by all the trapped gasses rising and releasing at the surface of the beer. Your taste buds are heavily influenced by what smell you’re taking in, so you could be missing out on half the experience. You should always smell the beer to get everything out of it.

Crown Valley Brewing's Old School Pilsener

First off, I want to apologize for how quiet it was. I'm still experimenting with equipment to find just the right setup for the blog.

Today's beer was Crown Valley Brewing's Old School Pilsener out of St. Genevieve, Missouri. You can probably tell by the look on my face that my first impressions might have been less than positive. I wasn't lying when I said it was pretty good, but it's hoppier than I'm used to, and I've never been much for hops (a sin, though that may be). Let's go down this in order.

First off, the look was beautiful. It had a sort of goldish look, on the darker end leaning more towards honey, very effervescent and the head was amazing. I've not poured a beer with that much head before, around six fingers and I was very glad that my glass was as tall as it was. Lacing was light, but it stuck around, as did the head itself. Hours on, there are still traces of lacing on the glass (which I'll be taking into the kitchen shortly).

The smell was yeasty, which is not a bad thing like it may sound. Another thing that came to the fore was the smell of the hops. There was a wheat undertone, and it was only vaguely floral, but otherwise nice.

The first taste was further confirmation of the yeast and hops smell from the nose of the drink. It was only a little wheaty, but there was a lot going on in this drink. It was, among many things, one of the more complex beers I've tasted. If you're looking for a drink that will make you think, this is one to take a look into. Taste was quite bitter, laden with hops, which I know will appeal to a large segment of beer drinkers. The mouth feel as I described it was wonderful. Very clean, a lighter body to it, with carbonation lending to the experience.

Really, I didn't know what to expect coming in to this. I've never had a pilsener before, so this was all very new to me. Again, I could recommend this drink on the complexities of the flavor alone, and it qas very enjoyable whatever my face said on the screen. At first I was surprised by the hops, but as I finished the drink I became more accustomed to it.

Unrecognized Genius.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm reconsidering not picking a batch of Flying Dog for next week's review.

Pyramid Brewing's Haywire Hefeweizen

Today's beer was a light and fruity drink. Actually, this was absolutely wonderful. When you pour the drink, first you should pour a little into the glass, swirl the bottle, then pour the rest as usual. Admittedly, I didn't do this. The result is that you're getting all the contents of the bottle which would have settled down at the bottom riled up and worked out. Despite my comments on the head, it was thin but it actually remained throughout the whole drink. That impressed me. It never actually faded by the time I finished the drink. The lacing wasn't anything amazing, but the head itself had some real staying power.

Appearance-wise, even without having swirled the bottle this was a beautiful color, pleasantly amber with a tinge of yellow around the edges. It was only a little cloudy, and absolutely glowed. You could tell right off that this was going to be a bubbly drink, as it was streaming with carbonation coming up from the bottom of the glass.

The smell was where much of the first hints of fruit came up. There was a definite orange tinge to it much like Widmer and any other drink you'd find on a billboard with a slice of orange in it. There was a hint of the wheat taste, but otherwise the nose of the drink was fruit.

First sip brought forward the orange more strongly. The taste was sweet, only a little bitter. The feel in the mouth was not exactly light, more medium bodied, with the carbonation adding heavily to the whole experience. Further sips didn't bring much more in the way of taste. This is a lightly sweet drink, a solid grain taste to it, and not at all complicated. If you're looking for a complex drink, you may need to look elsewhere.

Would I recommend this drink? Definitely. This is a casual drink, it doesn't really try to hide anything bold, but it's flavorful and lasts. As I said in the video, this is a craft beer to bring to a party if you're trying to sway your friends onto the side of drinking microbrews. For those who are new, like me, these are great beers to try out as you're adjusting your palate. Pyramid's Haywire Hefeweizen gets my whole-hearted recommendation

Show Me Beer's Zen Ponderings

Over at Show-Me Beer they've got a wonderful article up considering the topic of crafting beer and zen exercises. This is one of the more interesting and thought provoking beer reviews I've read.

Samuel Adams and the Boston Beer Company

Man, has this company spanned the scope. This company has gone from the bottom the very damn top spectrum in the course of it's history, becoming the largest American beer company in production. How did this happen? Let's take a look back...

1984 (A great year to be born, by the way) saw the inception of the Boston Beer Company by founder Jim Koch. Their first release was their famous Boston Lager (Which I guess I'll have to try, now won't I?) originating from a Koch family recipe created in St. Louis, Missouri by Jim's ancestor Louis Koch. Like many other breweries at that time, Louis' brewery was officially killed by prohibition. It came back briefly after the prohibition ended, but died shortly thereafter in the early 1950s.

Jim revived the recipe in '84 with the help of some friends and Joseph Owades. First it went under the family name, but a year later it was brought back with the name of the brewer patriot Samuel Adams' Boston Lager.

The Boston Brewing Company actually represents on of the earliest successes in the craft brewing industry which gained momentum after friendly President Carter signed a bill which among many other things made it legal to home-brew. Through the years, the BBC has sold their Sam Adams brand, constantly expanding in to new varieties and flavors. To this date that have released over thirty different brews covering all the major bases as well as Alcohol by Volume (Running up to a staggering 25.6% abv!)

We poured your Sam Adams in a Sam Adams:

In recent years the BBC has released a special glass they've designed for their lagers. Their partnership with TIAX laboratories produced a roughly tulip shaped glass that... well... I'll let you take a look. The reviews have somewhat come back positive but the glass still elicits a couple snickers from purists. If I ever get my hands on one, I'll let you know. In the mean time, I'll stick with my mug or a nonic.

You're the Best Around:

In 2008 as we all know, European beer giant InBev purchased St. Louis beer company Anheyser-Busch. A lot of the public booed at this, after all this is an American giant. Another side effect of the merger is that it took our brothers in Craft-Brew at the Boston Beer Company to the number one spot for an American owned brewery. Congratulations, boys. You've earned it.

Beer Log: January 17th - February 28th

These are the beer reviews through the next month and a half:

January 17th: Pyramid Brewing Hefeweizen

January 24th: Crown Valley Brewing Old School Pilsener

January 31st: Birthday Special! Schlafly Taproom

February 7th: Flying Dog Classic Pale Ale

February 14th: O'Fallon Brewery Cherry Chocolate Beer

February 21st: Odell Brewing 90 Shilling Ale

February 28th: Warsteiner Dunkel

Proposition 3-17

Well, Guinness just keeps coming up this week, don't they? Guinness is trying to make waves in the US by pushing proposition 3-17 to get St. Patrick's day turned into a national holiday. Who's with me? You can drop in at their website there, or you can stop in at Facebook and check out their FB group.

Keep drinking!

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Schtudying Schwarzbier

I'd like to go back and make one correction.

Yeah, yeah, get it out of your system. You're not gonna see me say that, much.

So. I've been comparing Sunday's treat to Guinness, which I still feel is a fair comparison, but I'd been referring to them being the same style of beer. Sam Adam's Black Lager is more appropriately classified as a German style called Schwarzbier. I don't think you need to be a German student to know that stands for “Black Beer.” Guinness is more popularly a derivative of the porter (which hails from London by the way) style of beers, but we can touch on that later.

I see your Schwarz is as big as mine – a definition:

What is this bier and why is it so schwarz anyway? Schwarzbier is a lager – which means that the yeast all ferments at the top of the barrel as opposed to an Ale where it ferments towards the bottom. Schwarzbier is actually similar to Porter in that at one point most porters were brewed using lager yeast, but that practice has mostly stopped. The dark colors you're drinking in are a result of the dark colored malts which get that way through the roasting process (I'm gonna keep bringing up Guinness - It's the same story here as well)

And be proud while you're drinking it, for you are drinking history my friend. Dark beers like this are some of the earliest types available. The roast is part of what dictates the color of the beer and roasting techniques didn't allow for lighter color beers until relatively recently – some hundred and fifty years ago (Source: Wikipedia). As far as history goes, this is one of the chosen styles of brew for the oldest operating brewery, Braunschweiger Mumme, out of Braunschweig, Germany. Documents mention this product as far back as the sixteenth century!

When matching this style with food look for burgers, Cajun food, any kind of aged ham, Lamb (preferably burnt on an open flame or grilled for you lesser creatures), or generally any manly food involving the wholesale slaughter, torching, and subsequent snarfing of fluffy woodland creatures big and small.

I'll have a history of Samuel Adams up later this week. In the mean time, pull up a Black Lager and snack on something that used to be a mammal. Enjoy!

Episode 1: Samuel Adam's Black Lager

The beer itself pours smooth, with a strong dark look to it. As I said in the video, the head didn't overly impress me, but I don't have much experience with these beers, and my pour might have been off (I'm still new at this!). The smells were earthy and pleasant, actually - indicative of the taste. The first sip tasted like coffee, truth told. Strong black coffee that'd been left to sit out for a little bit. It wasn't all together unpleasant. Actually, being a coffee guy, I kind of enjoyed the taste. Further sips revealed a subtle sweetness to it much like it's primary competitor Guinness.

Honestly, this was a strong yet appealing drink. The scent, the taste, the lacing, most everything about this beer was satisfactory. As I finished the drink more of the bitterness started to come out, giving a flavor to it that was just as earthy as my first sniff of it. It's these flavors that come out later that make black lagers low on my list of refreshing drinks, so it became a little harder to finish as I went on, but I downed the whole bastard like I promised I would.

Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone who likes macrobrews in league with Guinness. It's fun and flavorful, and definitely lives up to what a Black Lager should be.

Stay tuned later for a little history on Samuel Adams and maybe some info to come on this particular breed of brew. As always, if you have any suggestions email them to me at brewyear@gmail.com

A little about me, and the rules.

So this is the starting point, eh?

One of the first rules they teach you in writing is not to begin with a cliche. Were a better man, I wouldn't. The first thing that comes to mind is, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Instead I'd like to propose this: "A journey of 52 beers begins with a single sip." Starting tomorrow, January 7th in the year of our Lord 2010, I will begin a personal trip. This blog is here to record in writing - and on video - as I explore the world of Beer... Practically for the first time!

A lot of you know how it goes. Unless you went to "one of those colleges" a lot of your friends might turn down a beer saying something like "No thanks, that stuff tastes like piss!" You and I both know it takes some getting used to, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm new to this. I've been drinking for years, but I was always the friend making the pee jokes about the fizzy yellow stuff in my friends' cups. In fact, until probably fifteen months ago, I didn't care for it at all, and it didn't even really catch hold of my taste buds until last year.

A little background - I grew up in Saint Louis. Yeah Saint Louis, Missouri, home to Budweiser the King of Beers. You can't sneeze without accidentally banging your head on an eagle-shaped neon sign, or without spilling someone's 'Light. I never liked the stuff, actually. I was pretty happy to agree with friends turning the stuff down for the taste alone. Give me a bourbon, or something mixed and I was happy. Not to be a snob, but that's because I didn't know what beer was.

It started backwards for me. A Guinness at a friends' wedding because that's what was available, and I worked my way up the color chain. Amber Bock, Dos Equis, and finally one day I harangued some friends in to helping me move furniture in to my new house on the promise of pizza and beer. I was taking suggestions and a friend took me aside and said "No, look, I'll cover the drink. I know just the stuff." He came back with a twelve pack of Schafly's Hefeweizen. It was unfiltered, a beautiful yellow colored and delicious. It was my introduction to craft beers.

I'm pretty brand loyal, and I've had a lot of their stuff over the year as I've expanded my palate, but I have my groove I've fallen in to. My drinking experience these days is limited. Rolling Rock (don't pelt me with veggies yet!) on a hot summer day or a Pale Ale in the cold.
That's where this blog comes in - and your participation if you'll help!

Each week for the next twelve months (that's 52.177457 weeks) I'll drink one new beer - something I've never tasted before for the witness of God and whoever reads this thing anyway. I'll post a short review, and maybe give a back story to the brew if it's a good one. And I promise you right here and now that I will drink the whole damn thing whether I like it or not. This is where the men are going to be separated from the rice-brewing-aluminum-bottled mice.

If you have any suggestions for beer - any at all - feel free to email me at brewyear@gmail.com. I'll take all suggestions into consideration as long as they're alcoholic beverages containing the basics: Grain, hops, yeast, and water.

Thanks for listening and cheers!