The BeerCast

The other week during the recording of one of our podcasts, we started to discuss the concept of Evening Beer, and what it meant. After a bit more thought, this could become a definite category for ales – more or less the exact opposite of Session Beer, that great British invention. I mean that sincerely by the way – the traditional 4%abv beer definitely still has its place, even if some more modern brewers look down their noses at the thought. A visit to the pub – surely one of the great things about being British – requires a few hours (unless it’s lunchtime). Drinking lower abv beers is really the only option, unless you possess a lead-lined stomach.

The new wave of American or US-inspired breweries may not like the idea, but session beer still has a concrete place in the British pub-going setup. That’s not to say we’re a nation of effeminate 3% drinkers, unable or unwilling to tolerate flavour – there’s just a time and a place. This is where Evening Beer comes in. When drinking at home many people I know would prefer one or two full-flavoured stronger beers, rather than attempting to replicate the pub experience and have half a dozen bottles of Cairngorm’s Trade Winds and a packet of dry roasted. So the criteria for an Evening beer are along the following lines:-

Pack a punch
This can be either pure alcohol strength, or simply a hefty taste from a specific ingredient. Session Beers are usually rounded and moreish, Evening Beers need to give you that bang for your buck if you’re only having the one. Anything from Stone for example, such as their Supremely Self-Righteous Ale (8.7%).

Go overseas
Certainly pubs are now very different to ten years ago – even average boozers will have a few imported bottles or (dare we suggest) foreign lagers. The good ones will have a range of US-imports or Belgian sippers. At home of an evening, the wallet’s the limit – time to break out the Westmalle Tripel (9.0%), assuming you’ve got the correct glassware.

Something exceptional
The pub is all about the experience, outgoing, sharing. As Evening Beers are usually drunk alone, and in a more refined setting than somewhere with sticky carpets and strange smells from the toilet – time to break out a collaboration beer, or a limited edition. BrewDog Abstrakt AB:02 for example, a mighty imperial red ale. And at 18%, not one for the weekly darts night at the Red Lion.

Go seasonal
Again, the modern British pub should give you a range of golden ales in the early summer and porters once the clocks go back, but for that one-off wonder at home, get it right. Saisons, Harvest ales, Pumpkin ales – match it to the season and find that bottle opener. Sierra Nevada Estate (6.7%) is king of the harvest ales.

It’s up to you
Having said all that, the prime criteria for an Evening Beer is that it’s whatever you say it is. If you’re at work and looking forward to that one bottle once the kids have gone to bed, it doesn’t really matter what it is. Drink a Dark Island Reserve in summer. Pair a Goose Island Matilda with lukewarm fish fingers and chips. Take a Westvleteren 12 into the shower. You’re the boss, after all…

On Wednesday the Government published a Review of Alcohol Taxation [pdf], the stated aim of which was to address the consumption of cheap, “super-strength” lagers. The outcome was that the Treasury are to raise duty on all beers over 7.5% abv, and reduce duty on all beers under 2.8% abv – ostensibly to encourage producers to explore weaker brews at the expense of stronger ones. The actual amount of duty will be decided in the Spring budget, and implemented from September 2011.

The beer blogosphere has been in uproar over the decision, as the blanket tax increase on all beers over 7.5% will include the strong IPA’s, imperial stouts and imported Belgian ales we all rave over. Everyone seems to agree there is a problem with strong beer – but clearly strong beers are not equal. Westvleteren 12 is not a “super-strength” lager. Neither is Kernel Export Stout. One of the major failings of this report is in not differentiating between the ‘problem’ drinks, and the ‘craft’ drinks.

Actually, paragraph 4.7 of the report does mention “highly-priced, premium beers that are produced at higher strengths” – but then dismisses them as a niche product, constituting only 20 per cent of strong beer sales. It continues with the vaguely insulting “their consumers are not very price sensitive because they choose these beers specifically for their taste and already pay a high price.” So that’s all right then – the old ‘those who can pay, will pay more’ argument.

But the ‘problem drinkers’ are those who cannot pay more – so increasing the duty on their super-strength beers will push them into other drinks. The young binge drinkers don’t touch Carlsberg Special Brew, they go for spirits. The majority of tramps I pass seem to favour strong ciders (and more on cider later). This is the second failing – strong beer constitutes less than 0.5% of total alcohol sales in the UK (according to Brigid Simmons, CEO of the British Beer & Pub Association).

But the Government argue that by reducing duty on beers under 2.8%, it will encourage brewers to come up with low-strength alternatives. Fair enough, but the problems of storage make it hard enough already for them to produce low-abv beers for the pub trade. Not that many pubs serve a wide range of beer over 7.5% as it is. The next failing of this report is the supermarket issue – when you can buy 24 cans of Fosters for £10 in Tesco (as happened last year), why would you send your 2.8% abv beer there to be stocked?

‘Problem drinkers’ at home stock up on these cheap supermarket deals – how many of them are drinking beers over 7.5%? Likewise the images on the news from town centres on Friday nights – how many of those fighters and pukers were in the pub drinking beers over 7.5%? How is raising duty on >0.5% of alcohol going to stop the ten pints and a punch-up brigade? These ‘problem drinkers’ universally drink cheap lager, cider or spirits.

The popularity of cider has boomed over the past few years, with mass-marketing campaigns for Magners, Bulmers etc all over the media. Duty on cider was cut by 2% in 2002 and then frozen over the next four years, encouraging this growth. But then the final Labour budget in 2010 increased duty by 10% on all ciders. Small producers were outraged, quite understandably. The Con-Lib coalition Government then introduced a minimum juice content for a ‘cider’ to qualify as ‘cider’ for duty purposes, to reduce consumption of cheap, industrial versions. This week’s alcohol tax review states that any further changes would unfairly penalise small, traditional cider producers.

The small, traditional beer producers also have some measure of protection – the Small Breweries Relief awards up to a 50 per cent reduction in duty for producers of less than 60,000 hectolitres. However, the Treasury felt that “this relief was considered outside the scope of this review because of the limited links to public health and public order objectives”, and so all brewers, irrespective of size or output, will have to pay the new increased duty.

Paragraph 4.15 goes on to justify this by stating “beers over 7.5% abv represent less than 2 per cent of total production of small breweries” – I’d like to know how they came up with this figure – there are some that specialise in traditional ales, or experiment with stronger styles. How many ‘problem drinkers’ get admitted to the local A&E after abusing Madcap Brewery Liquorice Madness, or Samuel Smith’s Yorkshire Stingo?

The Campaign for Real Ale have taken a bit of flak over the blogosphere for comments made by the Chief Executive Mike Benner. While roundly praising the incentivising of brewers to produce low abv beers following the drop in duty on 2.8% or less beers, he described the raising of duty on 7.5% and above beers only as “disappointing”. I for one would rather drink a higher strength beer than a ‘low strength real ale packed with flavour’ as he put it (and I’m a CAMRA member).

Mind you, this might lead to the revitalising of the British Mild industry. At the end of the day, will this stop us drinking and reviewing high-strength beers from the UK and the rest of the world? No. Will it stop ‘problem drinkers’ ruining their lives and the lives of others? No. They will carry on as before drinking massive quantities of cheap lager below 7.5%, or switch to harder alcohol instead (duty on wines and spirits was unchanged in the report, as wine has ‘no public health risk’ and stronger spirits ‘already pay more duty’).

The problem here is that cheap, strong alcohol will always be available – and people will find it. Supermarkets will continue to stock frantic deals on large amounts of bargain booze. Targeting an alcohol sector that accounts for less than half of one percent of total sales will not have a noticeable effect. Making the raised duty payable by all brewers unfairly punishes small producers. Writing off consumers of premium beers as being ‘not price sensitive’ is insulting. If the Government wanted to have a direct effect on the nation’s health, maybe they should raise tax on food items with a fat content higher than…say…7.5%?

When this legislation comes in next year, we’re making a promise that the BeerCast will only feature beer over 7.5% abv for a month.

There are a growing number of small microbreweries in Scotland – many of them begun by enthusiastic homebrewers making the next logical step. The costs of scaling up the equipment can be prohibitive however, so some are currently working on a very small scale. One of the tiniest is the Madcap Brewery in Annan, a few miles southeast of Dumfries. All of their beers are released from 200 litre batches produced on equipment housed in a garden shed. They supply local pubs with cask ales, and also release a few bottles when time (and capacity) allows.

When these bottles appear, they certainly make you take notice. Currently the weakest is Killicks Madness (7.5%), an old ale aged in rum casks. They also bottle a 9% honey pale ale, an 8% Imperial IPA, and a 9% Tripel (or Trippple, as they call it). We managed to get hold of one of Madcap’s strongest offerings – Liquorice Madness (10.0%), the label of which has a kilted Scotsman tossing a caber of liquorice root into a roaring fire (I think). That’s not far off how it is made – pure liquorice is added to an imperial stout before bottling.

The first things you notice are the colour and texture – it’s totally black, dark and viscous – it looks like a glass of balsamic vinegar. On the nose are aromas of roast coffee and some aniseed – but not much liquorice. This becomes the next thing you pick up (or rather don’t) – the subtlety of the dark root. Roast coffee bitterness is the major flavour, followed by the sweet alcohol strength from the imperial components. The liquorice isn’t the star of the show, or even a supporting act, as it appears on the distant aftertaste. That’s not a bad thing however, it actually balances out quite well in the end, and the whole effect is a punchy winter warmer.

Following on from showcasing the excellent Kernel Brewery, our 53rd BeerCast takes a look at one of the traditional styles of Europe – Schwarzbiers. These dark lagers from Thuringia and Saxony have spread to breweries across the world, keen the experiment with the characteristic bitter malty style. We sampled the market leader (in terms of sales) – Köstritzer Schwarzbier – back in BeerCast #25. This time we try two German examples, and two American – Kulmbacher Mönschof (4.9%) from Eastern Bavaria is our first beer, before we sample Hummel-Brau Cowboy (5.0%) from Bamberg in Franconia. Our third beer is Saranac Black Forest (5.2%) from the Matt Brewing Co in Utica, New York, before we finish with compatriot Oregon’s Rogue Brewing Co – Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale (5.0%). We also have a fifth beer – an exclusive (at the time) tasting of the new 5.5% Hefeweizen from Edinburgh’s Stewart Brewing, sampled two weeks before the official release date. On the panel today are Grooben, Richard, MrB and Shovels.



1. Kulmbacher Mönschof Schwarzbier (4.9%abv)
Kulmbacher Brauerei, Kulmbach, Bavaria, Germany.
500ml glass bottle

Bavaria is the birthplace of many a beer style – and both of tonight’s German schwarzbiers hail from that southerly state. The first comes from the town of Kulmbach – twin town of Scotland’s own Kilmarnock – and home to the largest museum in the world devoted to tin soldiers. The Kulmbacher Brauerei produce a range of traditional German-style beers under a variety of labels. “Mönschof” beers were produced by Kulmbacher Mönchshof Bräu until they were absorbed by the larger Kulmbacher Brauerei in 1999.

What They Say -
“Mönchshof Schwarzbier- “the Black Pils”- is a brewing wonder and a brew-lover’s dream. Supremely drinkable, dry and beautifully hopped, yet loaded with dark malt flavour.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard – Smoky aroma, bitter chocolate aftertaste, it’s tremendous 9
MrB – Malty German lager, I’m absolutely loving this 8½
Grooben – As a schwarzbier, I prefer this to Köstritzer 8
Shovels – Got a little bit of smoke, big caramel hit at the end 8

2. Hummel-Brau Cowboy (5.0%abv)
Brauerei Hummel Merkendorf, Bamberg, Upper Franconia, Germany
500ml glass bottle

The Brauerei Julius Hummel were founded in 1846 in the brewery-packed region of Franconia. The most famous style to emerge from here is the infamous smoked Rauchbier (once summed up by MrB as like “drinking hotdogs in a blender”). In comparison with the rest of Bavaria, beers that emerge from Franconia tend to slightly hoppier – those that don’t taste like a packet of smoky bacon crisps, anyhow. As with Kulmbacher, Hummel-Brau put out the standard range of teutonic tipples, all with the same distinctive triple crowned labelling system – apart from their schwarzbier, which for some reason features a rodeo cowboy.

What We Say…
MrB – A non-offensive dark lager-based beer 5
Grooben – Not black, no roasty maltiness – why is it a schwarzbier? 5
Shovels – I would drink it again if someone bought it for me 5
Richard – Smells like stewed tea, watery and too thin 4

3. Saranac Black Forest (5.2%abv)
Saranac/Matt Brewing Co, Utica, New York, USA.
355ml glass bottle

The Matt Brewing Company may not be based in Germany, but they have the historical links to the schwarzbierland – founder Francis Xavier Matt was a German-born immigrant to the USA when he founded the company in 1888. His sons carried on – and today the Matt Brewing Company is in the hands of the fourth generation of his descendants, still brewing German-themed beers in the foothills of the Adirondacks. The Saranac brand is named after a nearby lake, which itself comes from the Iroquois word for ‘cluster of stars’.

What They Say -
“A Bavarian black beer with caramel malt sweetness and trademark rich, creamy head. A fitting homage to our Grandfather’s apprenticeship at the Duke of Baden’s brewery in Germany’s Black Forest region.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – Quite a nice balance of the added sweetness and the malt 7
MrB – Tastes like an Anchor special, some sugar on the tongue 7
Grooben – Nice red colour, decent fruity blackcurrant taste 7
Richard – Like drinking a black forest gateaux, gets a bit sweet 6½

4. Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale (5.0%abv)
Rogue Brewing Co, Newport, Oregon, USA.
750ml glass bottle

The Rogue brewery began life exactly 100 years after Matt Brewing, on the other side of the continent in Ashland, Oregon. A group of college friends decided to make the familiar jump from homebrewing into something more serious – it must have helped that one of them was also an accountant. After less than a year in Ashland they relocated to larger premises in coastal Newport in 1989, and have since gone from strength to strength, having produced over sixty beers, and won countless awards. Although not technically a schwarzbier, their Morimoto Obi Soba Ale is black, and is dedicated to their distributor in Japan.

What They Say -
“A richer version of our Soba Ale with the addition of specialty malts and a special blend of hops to give it a fuller, nutty flavor while retaining a clean, crisp finish.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
MrB – Looks like a bottle of soy sauce, smells like teryaki 8½
Grooben – Does have a soy kind of thing going on, an excellent beer 8
Shovels – The most complicated beer tonight, quite earthy 7½
Richard – Every taste is different – sherry, soy, roasty, salty, it’s fascinatingly interesting 7

5. Stewart Hefeweizen (5.5%abv)
Stewart Brewing, Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland.
330ml glass bottle

We also featured a bonus fifth (non-schwarz)beer on the podcast – Stewart Hefeweizen. The Stewart Brewery based just outside the BeerCast’s home city are obviously no stranger to us – yet although we’ve reviewed most of their beers, we’ve never actually featured any on our BeerCasts. A good chance to make amends for that was when Steve Stewart gave us some pre-release samples of their brand new hefeweizen. We put out a detailed review as part of the 45th Session on wheat beer, but at the time of recording, this was our first taste of the new beer. It has since become publicly available following a launch at Edinburgh’s Cloisters pub on the 16th of November.

What They Say -
“Fermented with a classic wheat beer yeast this is a cloudy, complex and beautiful beer with aromas of cloves, banana, blueberries and subtle spices.  A blend of Maris Otter, Wheat, Oats and Caramalt combine to create a creamy texture and a golden hue.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – Tastes more Belgian, the spice comes out in the aftertaste 8
Richard – Warm it tastes of custard creams, cloves and pear too 7½
MrB – Smells and tastes of bananas, very highly carbonated 7
Grooben – Got a hint of pear, there’s complexity when it warms 7

Panellists – (clockwise from top left) Grooben, MrB, Shovels, Richard

BeerCast panel verdict
Kulmbacher Mönschof Schwarzbier 33½/40
Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale 31/40
Stewart Brewing Hefeweizen 29½/40
Matt Brewing Co Saranac Black Forest 27½/40
Hummel-Brau Cowboy Schwarzbier 19/40

Please keep those comments and emails coming in, and check back in a couple of weeks for our 54th BeerCast…the final ‘regular’ BeerCast of the year, before our annual Christmas Special, and then the excitement of our 2010 Beer of the Year Show. Who will make it? Stay tuned…

Beer drinking is meant to be a social pastime, but often when it comes to websites and reviews it can become a solitary experience. Not that a moment of quiet contemplation over an imperial smoked porter or three is a bad thing – but some things are made for sharing. The online beer databases Ratebeer.com and Beer Advocate encourage the searching of bottle shop shelves for unusual wares, which are then often drunk at home. However, one way to convert the sampling of something new into a social occasion is to host a group tasting.

I joined up with Ratebeer a few months ago – ostensibly to add the various reviews from the BeerCast into some kind of order (hence my username BeerCast_Rich). Now that I’m up to 224 ratings, I can see where the attraction comes in finding and rating as many beers as possible. The current Ratebeer king in Scotland is Craig Garvie, who (at the time of writing) has notched 5,974 entries – putting my three-figure tally into perspective. Craig – who chose the slightly more European-leaning Ratebeer over Beer Advocate – was hosting a tasting session last Sunday, and notebook in hand, I went along.

Craig is – as you’ve probably guessed – incredibly keen on beer, but is also careful not to go too far. Some of the top-raters (or ‘tickers’ as they are referred to) have astonishing numbers – again at time of going to press the person with the most ratings has reviewed 16,986 beers. The mind boggles. What must their liver be like? Or their recycling? Are there even 17,000 beers out there?

Anyway, keen to get my score up a bit – well, I was actually more keen to drink some interesting beers I’d never tried before (and this is the key point that separates tickers from the non-tickers), I turned up at Craig’s house. The first beer we sampled was suitably spectacular – Haandbryggeriet/De Molen Menno & Jens (7.5%), a hop-free collaboration between two of Europe’s most exciting brewers. The Norwegians behind Haanbryggeriet revel in experimenting with old recipes, and together with Menno Olivier of De Molen came up with a gruit herb ale. It’s complex stuff, the total lack of hops compensated by piney herbs, smoky flavours, and a sweet syrupy roundness before the bitter finish.

After that we pounded through the beers, moving on to the only UK beer in Ratebeer’s current top 50 – Good King Henry Special Reserve (11.0%) from the Old Chimneys Brewery in Norfolk. Flat, black and viscous with rich woody notes from the oak chips – it was really nice. More like a thick red wine than a beer, although with a dose of vanilla and dates. The marzipan chocolate flavours of Stone’s Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout (9.2%) came next, before another from Norway’s Haandbryggeriet – the slightly sour cranberryness of Wild Thing (9.0%).

Portland’s Cascade Brewery have recently opened a new bar that specialises in sour beers, so I was interested to sample Cascade Apricot Ale (9.0%). Highly effervescent, the vinegary aromas gave way to a bitter apricot flavour that made it pretty interesting. We powered through the US craft producers, as Three Floyds Alpha Klaus (7.0%) fell down only as the archetypal non-Christmassy Christmas beer. Otherwise, it was outstanding. Cigar City’s strangely-named 110k+OT Imperial IPA (10.0%) was like syrupy pineapple cordial with a fantastic pine hop aroma.

Back to the UK next, as we tried Manchester’s Marble Chocolate Dubbel (8.5%), which was extremely good – followed by a couple of Italians from Birrificio Lambrate. Then it was back to the sours with Odell Saboteur (10.0%), a brettanomyces beer which had some barrel flavours, but wasn’t as tart as Jolly Pumpkin Baudelaire EYO (iO) Saison (6.8%) – you’ve got to love some of these names. Rosehips and hibiscus gave it a flowery yet punchy tang, which was thankfully not as perfumey as Buckbean Orange Blossom Ale (5.8%), which was like chewing a urinal cake with it’s soapy, chemical finish.

Anyway, we had more beers than that – including a rare taste of Bolvig Calling (4.3%), a beer brewed by Craig in conjunction with Loanhead’s Stewart Brewing – a very good mix of their Stewart 3 and added coffee. However, the highlight was when Craig asked if there was any beer I hadn’t yet sampled with the BeerCast that I wished I could. Being a trappist fan, the obvious answer was Westvleteren 12, as the Abbey only sell it on site – you can’t buy any in shops. It also happens to be the top-ranked beer in RateBeer history. Of course, Craig had half a case upstairs.

It poured a very hazy dark brown, with a few floating clumplets of yeast coming from the famous label-free bottle. There was a fantastic aroma, dark caramel malts, cloves, all kinds of sweet dark aromas coming off the beer. Tastewise the thing that surprised me was the balance – there was hardly any trace of the 10% alcohol because the mouthfeel was so smooth. A sweet, fruity finish really made the beer stand up all the way – just fantastic.

Thanks to Craig for the tasting – this post could have easily been twice as long…