Friday, March 30, 2012

Fruit of the Vine by Nick Anderson



Men are scared to be seen drinking ‘fruity’ beers. Let’s be blunt and state the simple fact here; there’s a stigma attached to beers that utilize fruit and fruit flavors and it is completely undeserved. Big ad campaigns and decades of social stereotypes have made the presence of fruit in beer something most men are downright afraid of. Let me state one thing right now: there is nothing manly about the fear of being perceived as less manly. Fear is the antithesis of bravery; it is the anchor of ignorance, and the only true barrier separating uncertainty from understanding. If you’ve taken anything away from this ‘Beer 101’ series I’ve been writing, I hope it’s the confidence to never let anyone tell you what it is you should or shouldn’t like and I include myself in that statement. The truth is that fruit has been used in beer as long as there has been beer on this planet and enjoying it says nothing about a person beyond what their taste buds respond to.

Belgian Lambic beers use different fruits such as cherries, raspberries, and black currants with varying degrees of sweetness to produce easily enjoyable Ales with intense fruit character that balance the very sour base beer they’re created from. As we’ve covered before in this space Belgian Wit (or White) beers classically use orange peel among spices like coriander and cardamom to add an additional flavor component. Dogfish Head Aprihop is a springtime treat that melds one of their hoppy IPAs with apricot, playing off of the naturally tropical notes that hops often bring to beer. Dogfish quite regularly uses fruit in their beers to great effect—from the black raspberry and blueberry in Black & Blue to the Pinot Noir juice in Red & White to their ancient Ales Midas Touch (Muscat grapes) and Chateau Jiahu (Muscat grapes and hawthorn berries). Raison d’Etre is a mainstay of the Dogfish lineup and uses golden raisins as a launching point for a malty, food-friendly Ale. Festina Peche uses fresh peach juice to add a subtle fruity note to the sour Berlinerweisse style.

Fans of Louisiana’s Abita brewery are quite familiar with two of their beers that are unabashedly fruit-forward. Purple Haze is a raspberry Wheat Ale that is as smooth as it is refreshing (and popular, I should add) and the other is one of my favorite beers ever—their Strawberry Harvest Lager. Strawberry Lager is everything a fruit beer should be; the fruit is as bittersweet as a bite into a fresh strawberry, and the Lager itself is subtle in allowing the fruit to come through while being substantive enough to reassure anyone scared to be seen not drinking a ‘real’ beer. Strawberry Lager is a once-per-year treat and it’ll be arriving soon, so try not to miss out on it.


All things considered, fruit flavors are as natural to beer as anything. Hoppy beers are often lauded for their ‘citrus’, ‘tropical fruit’, or ‘grapefruit’ notes. Ale yeasts are partially identified by the fruitier character they have as opposed to Lager yeasts. Wheat Ales of all types are naturally lemony and if you tell me you’ve never been served a Hefeweizen with a slice of lemon I will call you a liar to your face. For a twist on that idea check out 21st Amendment’s Hell Or High Watermelon or Mana Wheat from Maui Brewing, made with fresh pineapple juice.  Just as wine should taste fruity (it is grape juice, after all), the function of beer as a refreshing and bright beverage almost necessitates some form of fruit character. What you should pay attention to when exploring fruit beers is your response to the level of sugar in the beer. Again, as with wine, there is a plain difference between what we as professionals would consider ‘fruit sweet’ rather than ‘sugar sweet’. That’s not to say sugary stuff doesn’t have its place; it’s simply to say that the vast majority of the time one is more desirable than the other. There is no reason to ever shy away from trying a fruit beer aside from not being a fan of the fruit featured. If anyone gives you grief… well, ask them if they like Pumpkin Ales. If they say no, well they at least know what they like and don’t like. If they say yes, call them a hypocrite and grab another round on me. ‘Tis the season, beer fans. Until next time.

Cheers!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Local Breweries and Beerpubs by Nick Anderson

We’ll be taking a quick detour from wrapping up our series focusing on Belgium this week to take a look at one of the best and most important topics pertaining to beer right now: local breweries.

While our area has always been a haven for beer fans supporting craft domestic and imports, until recently there was a noticeable lack of local DC, Maryland and Virginia breweries. This has often been the first piece of evidence when arguing the DC area’s lack of status or respect as a ‘beer town’. The past ten years however has seen a rise of local brewers planting their flags and brewing up world-class beer all over the region. Today, amid the continuing economic uncertainty and the spread of corporate box stores and restaurants into seemingly every available space, your local breweries are places of hope, providing employment and investing in our communities.

That’s not to say all chains are necessarily bad. If you live close enough to a Cap City Brewpub, Rock Bottom Brewpub, Gordon Biersch, or Sweetwater Tavern go check out what they’re doing. These chain restaurants/brewpubs are a seemingly endless stream of up-and-coming talent; many of the brewmasters helming new breweries came up through this ‘farm system’, and it’s always nice to be able to say “I knew them when…”

Making a big impact in their first year of operation was Alexandria’s Port City Brewing Company. Located off Duke Street near the intersection with Quaker Lane, Port City’s beers are balanced and smart, showing complexity and bold flavor without succumbing to ‘big beer syndrome’. I’m a little partial to their Pale Ale and Porter myself. Look for their Oyster Stout to be released later this spring. Lost Rhino rose from the ashes of Dominion’s operation being moved up into Delaware; after spending the last couple of years occupying draft lines around the area, bottled versions of their beers are hitting shelves and each is better than the last. Try New River Pale Ale and Ice Breaker Imperial IPA.

DC Brau made quite a bit of noise last year, and has created a lot of the craft beer excitement within the District. While we’ve only managed to see their The Public Pale Ale a couple of times at retail in Virginia, their beers can be found on tap at bars and restaurants around the area. Ranging from the hoppy and classic to the experimental, we’re looking forward to seeing more of DC Brau’s offerings as we get further into 2012. While in the city, keep an eye out for beers from Three Stars Brewery and Chocolate City Brewing Company, who have also recently come online. Baseball fans, look for Bluejacket, slated to open sometime in 2013 at the Boilermaker Shops down at the Yards.


If I had to choose a favorite local brewpub, it would have to be the Mad Fox Brewpub in Falls Church. Brewer Bill Madden leads a team in concocting some of the most well-thought and carefully made beers on the East Coast. His Kolsch is arguably the best made in America, and I try not to suffer much argument about the Kellerbier version. With a broad selection ranging from a delightful sessionable English Common to the super-hoppy Orange Whip IPA and Tupper’s India Ink Black IPA, there’s a beer for everyone at Mad Fox. Usually there’s at least one beer available on cask too, for that true pub experience. Not that you’ll spend the entirety of your visit waxing poetic over the beer; the food at Mad Fox is fantastic as well. From great pizza to joyful special offerings, there’s not much to dislike at the Fox.

If you’re in Maryland, Baltimore’s Heavy Seas Brewery has been turning out outstanding craft beer since the 90’s and they’re only getting better; try to make it by Brewer’s Art or one of the DuClaw locations if you can as well. If you’re driving about the area, don’t miss out on Fredericksburg’s Battlefield Brewing Company and Blue and Gray Brewing Company. Further south you’ll find the excellent brews of Legend’s Brewery (Richmond), Williamsburg AleWerks (who are starting to get on a serious roll), Devil’s Backbone and Blue Mountain (whose stuff I’m hopeful we’ll be seeing more of our shelves very soon).

All things considered, drinking local is a simple way to support independent neighborhood businesses that in turn add color to our communities and give us a place to all get together. Also you get to drink beer while doing this. So why wouldn’t you?

Cheers.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Live For The Funk, Die For The Funk

Today’s column touches on a sensitive subject related to last week’s look at Lambic beers. That would be the subject of brettanomyces, the wild yeast that makes the spontaneous fermentation of Lambic happen. Brett is a touchy topic as many tend to either love or hate its presence in beer. In fact, brett is the dividing line that keeps many wine drinkers from appreciating beer, as its presence in wine is a basic, inherit fault. In beer however, brett has a long history of use and is a major factor in the profile of many beer styles.

In beer or wine, brettanomyces imparts notes as varied as ‘band-aid’, ‘barnyard’, ‘horse stable’, but are widely recognized by beer fans as ‘funk’. In wine these notes are a fatal flaw (though some wineries and regions hold on to brett as a link to a style’s past; or ‘the way things used to be’) that can kill the drinker’s perception of the fruit and hinder a wine’s ability to age. In most beers as well, brett can ruin what should otherwise be a clean, refreshing drink. Only in beers where brett is intended to be there and is a crucial part of the beer’s style does it even have a chance of making sense.

Beyond Lambic, Belgian beers prominently featuring brettanomyces include Flanders Red Ale (Duchess de Bourgogne, DeProef Zoetzur, Vichtenaar, Monk’s Café, Rodenbach Grand Cru) which uses lactobacillus for a more sour feel and are often aged in oak to create a very ‘wine-like’ style of beer; Oud Bruin (Liefman’s Goudenband, Petrus Oud Bruin), with their smooth malty tones balancing the funk; and the singular Trappist Ale from Orval, unique among the Trappist breweries for not only being the lone beer among them to use brett but to specifically add it to the beer as it’s bottled. This is the main factor in the ‘snowflake’ perception that no two bottles of Orval are alike; it’s hoppy character and funky notes are an adventure every time you crack one open.

With the emergence of Belgian-style beers in the U.S., American craft brewers started experimenting with brett as well. Ommegang used brett to good effect in their Ommegeddon and Biere de Mars special releases. West Coast IPA producers Russian River and Port/Lost Abbey have legendary lines of Belgian-style Ales that use brett one way or another. Tomme Arthur of Port Brewing/Lost Abbey actually went to Belgium a few years back to create a Wild Ale/IPA hybrid with Dirk Naudts of DeProef Brewery.


Dirk Naudts has become a sort of patron saint of brettanomyces to Belgian beer fans here and abroad. His Reinaert Flemish Wild Ale is about as intense a brett experience as anyone could ever imagine. Redolent with band-aid and rich funky notes and nearly opaque with yeast floating in the bottle, Reinaert is completely over-the-top and unnecessary. If you live for the funk, though, it’s well worth tracking down. A more recent release from Dirk is Broderlijke Liefde, a collaboration with Brian O’Reilly of Pennsylvania’s Sly Fox Brewery. Made for last years’ Philly Beer Week, Broderlijke sees a much more subtle use of the wild yeast alongside traditional Saison yeast. The brett gives a funky twist to this otherwise very bright and traditional Saison.

It must be said, in the end, that brett beers are not for everyone. Actually, they’re not for most people. If you do enjoy them, however, they can be a source for endless fascination and interesting beer hunting (related: if anyone out there has seen any Boulevard Saison-Brett please try it out and then immediately contact me). Make sure you know what you’re getting into when trying a bretty beer and you may just find yourself with a new beer obsession.

Cheers!

Nick Anderson keeps a blog at www.beermonger.net, and can be found on Twitter at @The_Beermonger. 

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

When it comes to Wine Tasting, let's leave the battle of Expert vs. Consumer behind by Amy Evans


Amy Evans, wine professional and author of The Native Grape blog, responds to a recent post in the NPR food blog, The Salt: Most of Us Just Can't Taste The Nuances In High-Priced Wine.
 

"Most of us can't taste the nuances in high priced wines."    So heralded NPR's food blog "The Salt" this week in a piece by Allison Aubrey.  May I just say...UGH!!!   This is one of my least favorite of all the arguments against wine out there.  That it's all bunk.  An entire industry all over the world since the Greeks invented it in antiquity, are just plain full of it.  And more importantly...full of themselves.

And this time, they are coming to the table armed with research.  Proof!!  Aha!!!   Just the title of this article summoned an image burned into my mind of a TV spot several years ago, claiming experts could not tell the difference between Two Buck Chuck and a more expensive wine.  People really love to trot out their Two Buck, don't they?  The "experts" it turned out, were some first year culinary students in starched white Chef coats and tall Chef's hats, who made a quality declaration the equivalent of "Not Bad..Not bad at all."

The research offered here is legitimate, but unfortunately it is presented somewhat misleadingly in terms of the so-called Super Tasters.  These are a group of people who actually have more taste buds...like we all do when we are kids.  They taste sweet, salty, bitter and sour more acutely.  Consequently, they are more likely to be picky eaters (think toddlers) that don't like strong flavors, spicy dishes or dry, tannic wines.  Women frequently have more taste buds than men and are more likely to fall into this group (think girlie drinks.)   The wine experts, however, are rarely going to fall into this group.

There is definitely some biology behind why some people don't like or can't drink certain styles of wine...the same way not everyone likes strong, "bitter" coffee or dark chocolate.  But making the argument that wine experts are biologically predisposed supertasters is inaccurate, and totally flips the actual evidence on it's head. Worse, it adds fuel to arguments like these posted on NPR's discussion board on the article.


I usually buy at the $15 level... for a 5L box. Sour, but just fine for me. Not to be an inverted snob, but it feels good to be scientifically validated. Cheers!
 
"I purchase Trader Joe's two buck chuck....for $2.95! Their Sauvignon blanc,Chablis Blanc or their Christmas Boujole winea are outstanding. You show me a Sommeliers (which really is a flimflam person with a French accent) a waiter, or waitress selling a glass of wine for $10.00 or more or a bottle of wine for more than $10.00 to $1,000.00 and I'll show you a deal between a genius and a sucker! Besides, after three or four glasses of any wine no ones know whether he or she is drinking wine or beer...... as the crawl on their hands and knees on the floor toward the exit; by this time, these floor crawling wine experts don't know if the wine has a hint of leather or perhaps tastes like chicken."

Now after I pick myself up off the floor, mumbling and mulling over the leather/chicken question, I would point out that the festering animosity of Raoul's response speaks directly to the main problem with these arguments...the us vs. them.  Wine professionals (as opposed to wine enthusiasts/collectors who are in it solely for their own enjoyment) are there to help people to choose wines they will enjoy from amongst the many options.    I know many talented Sommeliers who have studied for years to perfect the art of wine Service, and I am pretty sure they are not "flimflam" people and most of them do not have French accents.  But if as a consumer you are coming to the table with these prejudices and insecurities, it will take a very talented individual indeed to surmount these obstacles and help you to have the best experience possible...be it choosing a wine at a restaurant or selecting an inexpensive bottle for everyday drinking at a wine retailer. 

And to supa flous I would say that yes you can distinguish tastes in wine.  You just called your own choice sour.  If you don't really like it, than why are you drinking it by the 5L?   Most people are already tasting so much more than they realize, and a great deal can be gleaned by just paying a little bit of attention.  After all, we have all been tasting our whole lives.  We know the difference in tastes between the ripe tropical fruit flavors of pineapples and the tart flavors of green apples without being told by anyone.   Now I'm going to blow your mind supa flous...you might be a super taster.  Most bulk produced and bulk packaged wines are slightly sweet and low in tannins and bitter flavors.  As mild a wine as they can muster and still give it some alcoholic kick.  You probably like it mostly because it doesn't taste like very much at all.

The other evidence, a study "by researchers at Penn State and Brock University in Canada finds that when it comes to appreciating the subtleties of wine, experts can taste things many of us can't."  "What we found is that the fundamental taste ability of an expert is different," says John Hayes of Penn State. "'We evaluated hundreds of wine drinkers," says Hayes, having them sample/taste a chemical that measures their reaction to bitter tastes.' He found that wine experts — people such as wine writers, winemakers and wine retailers — were about 40 percent more sensitive to the bitterness than casual consumers of wine."

An ability to detect, as opposed to a sensitivity to or dislike of, bitterness does not point to biology.  Bitter is one of only four things, along with sweet, sour and salty, that we all actually taste.  It is the business of the wine professional to hone their palate and develop the ability to distinguish flavors (the sensory combo of taste and smell.)  They have been trained to detect bitterness.  I am not sure a study that determines a professional has 40% more ability in his field than someone not in that profession proves very much.   In a side note, I really, really hope that the folks at NASA are more than 40% more proficient in their field than I am.

Lastly, I do think that an inexperienced taster should not go around willy nilly dropping money on expensive or highly rated bottles of wine.  You are almost guaranteed to be disappointed.  On the highly rated front it should be noted that a high rating does not automatically coincide with a higher price point as the article states.  There are many inexpensive wines with good press.  Our own Dave Mcintyre in The Washington Post has a monthly "Recession Busters" column of affordable favorites and every major wine magazine regularly posts their own version of the Best Buy and Best Value.  The "average" person who is not getting these nuances is also ignoring the larger service wine writers who rate wines also provide which is a tasting note. If anyone ever bothered to read the note that accompanies the score they might find valuable information about what the wine tastes like and when it is ready to drink and so make a more informed decision about whether or not a particular wine will be to their taste.

Again, it's not us vs. them.  I have seen the "wine speak eye roll" many people make when they read these notes and I will say that these publications were originally intended to serve the wine trade and not the general wine consuming public, so there is a jargon.  But I guarantee you that there is a wine professional nearby happy to translate this for you over a quick discussion about what you like or maybe what you are having for dinner.

In closing, I implore people to stop viewing knowledge/interest as snobbery. For those that choose to invest the time-there is a lot to love (and not to love) about wine at all price points. If it's not your thing, that's cool...but why keep trying to pretend there's nothing to it just because you don't get it?  I know I only hear 1/100th of what a record producer hears...but sometimes, I still like to listen.  Let's leave the battle of Expert vs. Consumer behind.


About Amy Evans:
Centreville, Virginia, United States
I have been in the wine business since 2000-when I fell in love with Italian wines as a buyer in Austin, Tx. I currently rep the wines of Dionysos Imports in Northern Virginia, DC and MD-a wholesaler and importer specializing in the wines of Greece, Portugal and France. I hold the Advanced Certification from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET)