The BeerCast

Just over a year ago a certain Scottish brewer released the final iteration of what had become an inevitable, and somewhat tiresome, brewing arms race. The desire to produce stronger and stronger beer served to garner a lot of publicity for BrewDog (and erstwhile rivals Schorschbräu), and was all pretty predictable. Like a beery equivalent of those needle-shaped dragsters, once something becomes a numbers game (whether it’s miles per hour or alcohol by volume), a certain type of man inevitably ratchets up the game until we’re left with cars that can only stop because they have parachutes, and beer served in roadkill.*

In case you hadn’t heard, that ‘strongest beer in the world’ ended up being BrewDog’s 55% abv The End of History. Retailing at £500/£700 a bottle (depending on choice of taxidermied critter), it was swiftly – and with far less fanfare – usurped by Dutch brewery t’Koelschip with their 60% Start the Future, and the joke within a joke took on a new level, and one that was even less relevant. Thankfully it all seems to have died down now – the PR arms-race has quietened, and the respective breweries have gone back to their other projects.

I was reminded of all this recently when I finally got the chance to try the strongest beer in the world. Not the strongest ‘beer’ – I’ve had The End of History, which was like neat alcohol, glue, vanilla and paint thinners (I’ve not managed to try Start the Future as yet). I’m talking about the commas-free world’s strongest beer. No less an impressive feat than their freeze-distilled cousins, the biggest traditionally brewed beer is Sam Adams Utopias, from the Boston Beer Company. The 2011 vintage (the sixth so far) clocks in at 27% – a mere whelp compared to those others – it combines three varieties of noble hop, plus caramel and Vienna malts, and a number of different strains of yeast.

I realise this is all subjective – but where I find serving a beer inside a stuffed squirrel a bit tacky, I love the copper brew kettle-effect of the Utopias bottle (others may disagree). Limited to 3000 bottles and retailing for $150, one of these brewing trophies had managed to make its convoluted way to Edinburgh – and it was the ultra-rare 2005 vintage. Poured into a small shot glass (the first ‘this isn’t beer’ moment), it was totally flat and deep blackcurrant in colour, leaving legs on the glass like a syrupy spirit. The nose featured dried fruit, figs, alcohol – presumably the result of the barrel-aging (different vintages were aged in brandy, sherry, whisky Madeira and/or port casks before being blended).

Very sweet on the palate, slightly spicy in places as well – these kinds of drinks are really hard to quantify (or easy, as pretty much anything goes). Oaky and syrupy, with plenty of sticky fruit, sweet bourbon and vanilla – some at the tasting said it reminded them of Crème Brule. Clearly this isn’t a beer – but then it is, as it’s been brewed and has water, malt, yeast and hops in there (before the barrel alchemy begins). Having half the abv of the End of History, there’s much, much less of the alcohol burn – but to me it still tastes like, and should be considered as, a spirit. It doesn’t taste like a beer should, but I really like it.

*An idea there to combine the two? How ‘punk’ would that be?!?!

Beer is one of the oldest creations of mankind, stretching back thousands of years to when the properties (if not the exact science) of fermentation were discovered. Whether a happy accident or not, crude recipes were devised to create drinks that made people feel bolder, more relaxed, or just forget about themselves for a few hours (or days). Fast forward to current times and some of these ancient styles are enjoying a renaissance at the hands of creative modern brewers. In our latest BeerCast, we sample four of these Beers of Yesteryear (title inspired by this article written by Mark Dredge on the subject).

We begin this podcast with Daleside Morocco Ale (5.5%), which dates back to Elizabethan times. We then move back 2,700 years to a tomb in Turkey, where the recipe for Dogfish Head Midas Touch (9.0%) was discovered. The Vikings are up next, as we sample the pine and spruce ale Alba (7.5%), resurrected by Heather Ales – the traditional arm of Alloa’s Williams Brothers. We finish on the mighty Thornbridge Bracia, a 10% old ale loosely based on an indigenous British beer from Celtic times. Buckling up on this Bill and Ted style adventure are Richard, Shovels and BeerCast debutant Blair…

1. Daleside Morocco Ale (5.5%abv)
Daleside Brewery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
500ml glass bottle

Back in the mid-19th Century feasts were all the rage amongst British landowners and the wealthy elite. Levens Hall in Cumbria hosted a shindig in May of every year – at which they served a beer that had been brewed and left to mature for 21 years. At the time, Charles II had married Catherine of Breganza – who brought with her as part of her dowry the city state of Tangiers. Things Moorish became popular, so this dark, spicy ale was named Morocco Ale. When originally served at Leven’s Hall guests were required to stand on one leg, drain a large glass and then recite “Luck to Levens whilst t’Kent flows”. With this version, recreated by Harrogate’s Daleside Brewery, our panellists merely have to score it out of ten…

What They Say -
“This is a very dark, rich and mysterious ale brewed to an ancient recipe dating back to Elizabethan times. Full bodied, malty with spicy overtones this complex beer is only brewed occasionally.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – Slightly spicy, like a milder Old Peculier 7
Richard – Fruity but missing alcohol oomph 6½
Blair – Watery and sessionable, I’m looking for more 6

2. Midas Touch Golden Elixir (9.0%abv)
Dogfish Head, Milton, Delaware.
355ml glass bottle

One of the kings of the American Craft Beer movement, Dogfish Head pride themselves on their pioneering spirit. With that (and ignoring the oxymoron) they have turned to the past for inspiration. With the collaboration of molecular archaeologist Dr Patrick McGovern (a world expert on ancient beverages) they established a line of historical beers. One of these is Midas Touch, based on an ancient Turkish recipe developed from the residue found on drinking vessels recovered from the tomb of King Midas. Will it turn to gold in the hands of our panel?

What They Say -
“Our recipe highlights the known ingredients of barley, white Muscat grapes, honey and saffron. Somewhere between a beer, wine and mead, this smooth, dry ale will please Chardonnay or I.P.A. drinker alike.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Blair – To hit as many home runs as them you take a couple misses 6½
Richard – Tastes like Battenberg cake, sweet and flat 5
Shovels – Well-balanced but I’d not want a lot of it 4

3. Heather Ales Alba (7.5%abv)
Williams Brothers, Alloa, Scotland.
330ml glass bottle

Our third ancient ale predates the arrival of the mighty hop on British shores. Back in the day, people who wanted to make beer flavoured it with the natural ingredients they could find around them – herbs, spices, plant extracts. The Vikings (who liked to work up a thirst) added spruce and pine to their alcohol, and as these ingredients are endemic to Scotland that type of beer was soon copied here. Shetland spruce ale was said to “stimulate animal instincts”, and if women drank it they would give birth to twins. With the podcasters on board today, anything could happen…

What They Say -
“Alba is a triple style ale brewed to a traditional Highland recipe from Scots pine and spruce shoots pickled during early spring. A tawny brown strong ale with spruce aroma, it has a rich malt texture, complex wood flavour and lingering finish.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard – Resinous sappy flavour, I quite like it 7
Blair – I get a lot of raspberry jam from this 7
Shovels – Sweet, caramelly, quite interesting, bit too sweet 5

4. Bracia (10.0%abv)
Thornbridge Brewery, Bakewell, Derbyshire.
750ml glass bottle

The first Thornbridge beer to make it onto one of our BeerCasts (although we have featured them on the website before), Bracia is a powerhouse of flavour containing six malts, four hops, roasted barley and Italian Chestnut honey. The original recipe vanished into the mists of time with the ancient Iron Age Celts (reference to Bracia was found in name only, inscribed by Romans at a Derbyshire fort). A honey beer high in alcohol, Thornbridge have recreated it pretty much from scratch, head brewer Stefano Cossi sourcing the honey from the Alps himself (possibly using elephants, we aren’t sure)

What They Say -
“Aromas are of chestnut, honey, cappuccino, white chocolate, dark fruits, vibrant fresh peel. The mouthfeel is velvety and rich, with notes of coffee, chocolate, liquorice and hazelnuts with warming alcohol, cocoa and a little peat in the finish Bracia can be cellared for up to one year, maybe longer.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Blair – Big bodied, the alcohol comes out well, really good 8
Richard – Every sip gives something different, just lovely 8
Shovels – Quite medicinal, really complex aftertaste 7½

Panellists – (clockwise from top left) Shovels, Blair, Richard

BeerCast panel verdict
Thornbridge Bracia 23½/30
Daleside Morocco Ale 19½/30
Heather Ales Alba 19/30
Dogfish Head Midas Touch Golden Elixir 15½/30

Please keep those comments and emails coming in, and check back in a couple of weeks for our next podcast. We have two brewery showcases lined up – our Northern panel sample four beers produced by the Hardknott microbrewery in Cumbria, and our London crew tackle the beers of Robert Knops…

Last night Edinburgh’s local gypsy brewer Robert Knops unveiled the first bottles of his newest beer – Knops IPA – in a WWE style head to head contest against three flash opponents from the USA. The Smackdown pitted each of his bottled offerings with a similar (as much as possible) beer from across the pond – which is always an interesting process, even if the intention was not to directly copy another product. Ash from Appellation Wines was the ringmaster, and as Robert strode into the ring, all eyes turned to the beers in his corner…

Round 1
First on the card, Knops California Common squared up against the Big Daddy of the style – Anchor Steam. Looking confident having owned the term Steam Beer for decades – and seen off many challengers – the American opened up with a sweet caramel malt introduction, before following with a crisp hop finish. Rob’s version came out of the blocks a tad sweeter, more fudgelike, bamboozling the Anchor with a touch more carbonation. Both tried to get the upper hand as the round drew to a close, but it went to a points decision.

The Result – a good showing from the local entrant. However, the crisp edge to the incumbent sees a narrow points victory. Winner – Anchor Steam.

Round 2
As Ash’s glamorous assistant Blair departed with the board for Round 2, it was time for the heavyweight battle of the evening – Knops Musselburgh Broke against Odell 90/-. The American rolled into the ring bringing 5.3% of rich, treacley malt – looking as if it would ride all over the Scottish challenger. But Musselburgh went for broke with a brown sugar and toffee caramel move, before a decisive one-two of carbonation and a chocolate edge had the lumbering 90/- on the ropes.

The Result – finding the Odell’s weakness, the challenger nimbly sidestepped the sweet richness to win by a wide margin. Winner – Musselburgh Broke

Round 3
Once the wolf-whistles for Blair had died away, the top billing had arrived. Goose Island IPA against Knops IPA. A winner takes all hopslam. In the red corner – the American. Experienced, swaggering, and with a new trainer recently arrived on the team. In the blue – a brand new beer, only recently bottled, from a man brewing on rented time in Stirling. Goose Island opened with a fizzy, lemon sherbet aroma, with a creamy palate and a bitter, hop finish. There was a slight weakness – the slightly soapy edge to the hops – that Knops IPA looked to exploit.

As the challenger came out, it was with a total blindside – a sweet caramel aroma. Little hop on the nose was a major surprise for the behemoth-backed US IPA. The surprises continued – sweet, toasty, slightly woody notes – before the hops arrived as a subtle choke hold at the end of the combo. Playing the long game, the 40 IBU’s sought to give the Knops entrant a sessionability the Goose Island could never hope for. Utterly incomparable, the two beers grappled to a stalemate, before retiring, swathed in condensation, to their respective chiller cabinets.

The Result – Very tough to call, as both are so different. Goose Island is the trash talking top hat-wearing preening type. Knops IPA the traditional Saturday afternoon Queensbury Rules nothing-below-the-belt offering. Winner – a convenient Draw

…rumours spread around the Appellation Arena of a winner takes all rumble between an as-yet untrained Knops Porter and Three Floyds Darklord. We stress these are, at this stage, unconfirmed.

Knops Official Website

BrewDog pride themselves on their rock n’roll attitude, but last night their Edinburgh bar really got a blast of energy in the shape of the Californian whirlwind Greg Koch. The co-founder and CEO of Stone Brewing Co was in town as the BrewDog Bar turned over their entire tap lines, for one night only. The bar has been open for almost two months now and as the first big event to take place, it was utterly packed. The queue was four deep at the bar when I got there, partly due to the popularity of the San Diego producer, and partly due to the beer not going on sale until everything was ready.

But after a lengthy wait, what followed was certainly worth it. Greg sprang onto the bar and gave what can only be described as a beery sermon – preaching to the converted maybe, but it was fantastically entertaining. After a fair bit of hallelujah-ing he spun around and proceeded to crowd surf out of the bar to a rapturous reception. Other brewers take note. With that, the drinking started in earnest. But where to go first, with thirteen beers to choose from? How about the highest scoring beer in our history? Stone Ruination IPA is simply fantastic – it dominates the palate, but never oversteps the mark.

Next up, Cali-Belgique IPA – which is essentially Stone IPA with a Belgian strain of yeast. “An identical twin, raised in a Belgian culture” is how they describe it – always interesting to see the effects of tweaking a single component. Surprisingly for a Stone beer, the hops initially take a back seat – flowery Belgian notes come first, before the hops arrive as a bitter finish. After that, something new in the shape of 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA. Made with British hops and Burtonised water, it was quite soft and fruity, before once again the hops arrive on the finish. It got very bitter (and non-British) at this point, once the IBU’s arrived.

By this time, the bar was still buzzing but things had calmed down a notch as people filtered outside with their drinks. After a classic Stone Pale Ale it was on to the spellcheck challenging Lukcy Basartd – a ‘cvueé de Basartd’ – blend of Arrogant Bastard, Double Bastard and Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ales. A limited release, these kind of beers never usually make it to Scotland – great news for the assembled masses. This one was really interesting – a hodgepodge of caramel and toffee, brown sugar and fruit, as the tastes developed grapefruit came out alongside more bitter oaky flavours. Clearly Stone pile the hops into everything, but aside from the bombs like Ruination they can really balance the bitter ones when they want to.

With that in mind, it was on to their mighty Imperial Russian Stout – looking like a glass of crude oil, it had a tremendous dark coffee aroma. Thick and viscous, the strong chocolate and coffee notes really come out on the taste – which is enormously deep and feels like crunching through a mouthful of coffee beans. The final beer of the night was Old Guardian Belgo – another outing for the Belgian yeast strain, this time stirring up their flagship barley wine. As with the Cali, the fruity estery components come first – it smells something like bath soap – with big sweetness on the palate, alongside the expected hop profile to finish.

At that point, it was time to stagger out into the Edinburgh night. Cheers to Greg, and here’s to more tap takeovers in the future…

Stone website

San Francisco has been one of the major beneficiaries of the modern American brewing revival, with a new reputation for being a beer-drinker’s destination. The resurgence of the Anchor Brewery has played a key role in this. Having been established to slake the collective thirsts of miners during the Gold Rush, Anchor dwindled in popularity until the mid-1960’s, when closure became a very real possibility.

That was until the wonderfully named Frederick Louis Maytag III (Fritz to his friends) bought the brewery. Fritz knew very little about brewing when he took over, so really threw himself (and his cash) in at the deep end. After purchasing the necessary equipment to upgrade he worked on a California Common recipe – which became the now iconic Anchor Steam – and the rest was history. Last year, Fritz sold up to two former vodka executives, who pledged to continue the traditions on which Anchor had been based.

One of these traditions has been the consistency of their regular beers. Preferring to build the base for their flagships – Steam, Liberty Ale, Porter and Old Foghorn, their seasonal releases had taken a backseat (aside from the annual festive Our Special Ale). Anchor Bock was released as a Spring special in 2005, but there was nothing after that until 2009 when Anchor Humming Ale was created (since the sale another release has been put out – Brekle’s Brown, named after the first brewer).

Humming Ale was first brewed exactly thirty years after Anchor moved to their present location at 1705 Mariposa Street, as a celebration of the success they have achieved in their brewhouse. Released in late summer (August to November), it pours a very hazy off-gold amber colour. The aromas are citrus hops with a touch of sharpness, on the palate the prime taste is grapefruit, with that distinctive white wine quality from the Nelson Sauvin hops used. Like all Anchor beers Humming Ale is extremely drinkable – I looked twice at the bottle when I realised it was 5.9%…