The BeerCast

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%…

Of all the beer styles out there (and there are plenty), one of the most complex has to be the Saison. Deriving from the Francophone word for ‘season’ these beers were drunk by thirsty Walloon farmhands during the summer harvest, having been brewed during the previous winter and stored over spring. Consequently they had to be refreshing and relatively low in alcohol (farm implements and 9% ales not tending to complement each other). In some cases, they were distributed to the workers instead of water – so were very weak. As they had to last two seasons before being drunk they were quite highly hopped.

When Beer Hunter Michael Jackson visited the Dupont brewery in 1991, head brewer Marc Rosier told him that a saison “must be a good, honest beer. It should have character. It is essential that it has soul.” So were these beers treasured by the brewers as a classic Belgian style, or seen as the brewing equivalent of silage for the workers? Over the years, the style waned in popularity so much that it almost became endangered – only in the Walloon province of Hainaut were brewers still regularly making them. But, thankfully, the style recovered and more European – and then American – producers began adding a saison to their range.

Alongside the fact that today’s brewers are keen to re-establish links to the past, another reason for the resurgence in saisons could be the freedom they impart. These days Belgian farmworkers probably drink something very different (the non-mechanised ones, anyway) – so the modern-day saison need not be around 3%. The mix and balance of hops are completely up to the brewer, as are the addition of other flavours – spices, herbs, etc. They can be the traditional golden haze right up to darker, punchier examples. Basically, as long as there’s a whiff of the barnyard about it, anything goes for the saison.

In that spirit, three of the leading faces of America’s craft beer revolution have combined to produce a collaboration beer (surely the hot topic of last year) – and they decided to produce a saison. Dogfish Head, Stone and Victory brewing put out some fantastic beers. In fact between them they probably produce three of the best American IPA’s available (90 minute IPA, Ruination IPA and Hop Devil, respectively). Back in 2003 the CEO’s of these three breweries formed BUFF – Brewers United for Freedom of Flavor [sic] – so their new collaboration was named Saison du Buff.

Brewed once by each of the three, to the same recipe, the saison was released in 2010 in a different bottle depending on whose version it was. We managed to get hold of the Stone variant, which comes in their flagship smokey etched bottle. It pours like a true saison – massively foamy with a big pillowy head over the hazy yellow beer. The thing that separates Saison du Buff from other modern interpretations are the adjuncts – each of these three versions also contains sage, parsley, rosemary and thyme. This shows in the herbal sweetness on the nose, with a touch of grass and that distinctive barnyard straw tang.

If the nose – which is really something – yields only a ‘mixed herb’ aroma, on the palate some begin to define themselves. Rosemary is the one that came across the most – arguably the strongest-tasting of the four herbs. The parsley and thyme remain in the faintly vegetal background, and to be honest it’s so long since I’ve tasted sage I probably couldn’t pick it out anyway – but the mix of flavours is fascinating. As you’re thinking about this, the alcohol finish comes on (Saison du Buff is 6%) and really finishes off the beer well. It’s an incredibly interesting collaboration and fantastically drinkable.

BeerCast 58, and on this particular podcast we deal with some extremely lengthily-titled Americans. Shovels went on a pre-Christmas sun trip to Florida, and as we’re never off-duty brought back a selection of strong American craft beers for us to review – not to mention the receipts for a $130 round trip to get them. We open up the show with Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest 2010 (6.7%), before moving up the west coast to Oregon for Rogue Dry Hopped St. Rogue Red Ale (5.2%) – a malty red ale to balance the pale-heavy podcast. Next beer up is Hoppin’ Frog Hoppin’ to Heaven IPA (6.8%) from Akron in Ohio, before we finish on the strongest of the night – Southern Tier UnEarthly Imperial IPA (11.0%). Will his expensive beer run have been worth it? Joining Shovels are Grooben, Richard, and MrB.




1. Southern Hemisphere Harvest 2010 (6.7%abv)
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, Chico, California.
22oz US glass bottle

On the 5th of November 1980, the Sierra Nevada brewery produced the first batch of their now-famous Pale Ale. Founded just the year before in Chico by ex-homebrewer Ken Grossman, they have gone on to become one of the largest and highest rated breweries in America. We wouldn’t be any kind of beer website not to feature plenty of SN output – we sampled their Porter in BeerCast #21 and their Estate 2009 in BeerCast #50 – the autumnal version of the beer we sample tonight. Fresh hops from New Zealand are freighted to California for a spring Harvest ale from the Southern Hemisphere.

What They Say -
“Robust hop character presents an intriguing floral-citrus aroma leading to layers of fresh-hop spiciness. Enjoy!” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard – Has a vinous, winey character and I think it’s very very nice 9
Shovels – I shouldn’t compare to the Harvest, but I just prefer that 8½
MrB – SN grow hops, so why ship them from NZ? Is there that striking a difference? I’m loving the beer but I’m not getting the point 8½
Grooben – Tough to distinguish from the other, I’m not complaining 8

2. Dry Hopped St. Rogue Red Ale (5.2%abv)
Rogue Ales, Newport, Oregon.
22oz US glass bottle

Rogue began life in the Oregon city of Ashland in 1988. 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, and have since gone from strength to strength, having produced over sixty beers, and won countless awards. Fond of long names, we sampled their Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale in BeerCast #53, and this time we get to grips with their dry hopped red ale, St Rogue.

What They Say -
“Reddish copper in color, a roasty malt flavor with a hoppy sprucy finish.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Grooben – It’s not strong, but has a beautiful rounded maltiness 8½
MrB – I wish there was a bit more sparkle to it, but it’s amazing 8½
Shovels – Subtle and mild, I really love the aroma 8½
Richard – I like that sweet maltiness that doesn’t take over 8½

3. Hoppin’ to Heaven IPA (6.8%abv)
Hoppin’ Frog Brewery, Akron, Ohio.
22oz US glass bottle

Continuing our theme, Hoppin’ Frog were founded in 2006 by another ex-homebrewer, Fred Karm. After brewing his own back in the 90′s, he worked for Akron area microbrewpub Thirsty Dog, until they ceased production in 2005. Spotting an opportunity, Fred bought the brewing gear and set up on his own. Having been nicknamed ‘the frog’ because of his mastery of hops, he named the new venture Hoppin’ Frog. Within two years, Fred had to expand to premises three times the size to keep up with demand.

What They Say -
“A classic, robust American IPA with a spicy, assertive citrusy American hop character balanced with a full-bodied, rich malt taste.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
MrB – Hoppy, sweet and sparkly – almost Belgian-esque 8½
Richard – Love that hop flavour, really effervescent on the palate 8½
Shovels – There’s a narrow intensity that’s really nice 8
Grooben – Sweet with big floaty chunks, love the frog 8

4. UnEarthly Imperial IPA (11.0%abv)
Southern Tier Brewing Co, Lakewood, New York.
22oz US glass bottle

The far south-western pointy corner of New York State is known as the Southern Tier – and back in 2002 Phineas DeMink and Allen ‘Skip’ Yahn decided to bring brewing back to the tier. Their two early flagships were a pilsner and a mild, but things really took off for them with the release of an IPA. They produce a staggering array of Imperials – an imperial extra pale ale, imperial red ale, imperial black ale, imperial hefeweizen, oak-aged imperial IPA, imperial oatmeal stout, imperial pumpkin ale, imperial lager, and an imperial crème brulee milk stout. Tonight we sample their imperial IPA UnEarthly, the abv of which varies depending on the batch – ours charges in at 11%.

What They Say -
“An Uninhibited Infusion of Hops. We continue our commitment to innovation with our most aggressive offering yet. Unearthly is a manifestation of the brewers crafts, skilfully balancing art and the forces of nature to produce a divine liquid.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
MrB – It moves slower than water – I don’t like sweet things in the slightest but the hops are just enough 8
Richard – It’s like drinking pineapple hop treacle 7½
Shovels – It’s harder core than Hardcore IPA, that’s for sure 7
Grooben – Struggling with this one, it’s just too syrupy everywhere 5½

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

BeerCast panel verdict
Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest 2010 34/40
Rogue St Rogue Dry Hopped Red Ale 34/40
Hoppin’ Frog Hoppin’ to Heaven IPA 33½/40
Southern Tier UnEarthly Imperial IPA 28/40

Please keep those comments and emails coming in, and check back in a couple of weeks for our next podcast – a showcase special featuring Warwickshire’s Purity Brewery. Stay tuned…