Lagers to Love, There are More Than a Few Out There

I don't submit for all of these monthly blogging Sessions built around a theme, but #25 is dear to my heart, entitled Love Lagers. As the host The Beer Nut describes it,

"It's the world's most popular style of beer and can be found in abundance in almost every corner of the globe. For millions of people the word "beer" denotes a cold, fizzy, yellow drink -- one which is rarely spoken of among those for whom beer is a hobby or, indeed, a way of life."

I was until quite recently a lager basher. After joining the ale revolution several years ago thanks to mrquartetman, I fell in love with these top fermenting beauties for their aromas, complexities, higher alcohol (gotten over that), and overall wonderful tastes. Ale, after all, was the original beer; weak ones were used in place of food, and were safer than water, by Middle Age folks, both adult and kids, of old Europe.

It was the German's in the 19th century who figured out how to brew with bottom feeding yeast, at colder temperatures, and lagered these brews, or stored them for aging and smoothness. Good beer, well made, then bastardized by the Americans who adopted the German style, if not the purity laws. Lagers were responsible for pushing ales out of America. With the bastardization of adjuncts (corn, rice, etc.) added, our beers became proverbial piss water. So what if people wanted clear beer, this is not champagne folks, although some are starting to push that way.

Well thankfully, home brewing came back in 1978 (thanks Mr. Carter) and ales returned. Many of the thriving micro-brewers who now produce tens of thousands of barrels annually started as homebrewers. American craft brewers, now to mention many homebrewers, have picked up the Lager mantle and are now producing some of the best in the world. In particular, one of my favorite brewers, New Glarus, seems to have the best handle on lager styles. Witness their recent unplugged release of Bohemian Lager. A Lager I can love. The smell and taste are best described by a fellow Chicagoan blogger I know:

The smell is crisp and clean but with a of a balance of aromatic hops and malts. Clean crackery/biscuity and light toffee/caramel malt sweetness intermingles with grassy/floral and semi-spicy noble hoppiness that add a good little bite. I even get some light lemony accents in the smell when I take deep whiffs. If this were a bit more pungent it would smell really amazing.

The taste is even better than the smell. Very bright, crisp, clean, and most importantly - balanced. Crackery/doughy, light toffee, and pale/pils malt sweetness does an intricate and delicate dance with great spicy/floral/grassy hop flavor and bitterness with a seemingly light-oak character. More lightly lemony notes come out as it open up. It has such a great clean profile but still lots of intricate flavors, which I find most pilsners/lagers lack for my tastes.

Yes, this is a lager anyone could love, take that AB and Miller!

A Bug Up My Ass

The recent Coors marketing ploy has been bugging me for months now. Since when did Coors become the "Banquet Beer". Marketing goofiness aside, this is no banquet beer with current plethora of wonderful micros out there, over 1,500 US makers at last count. Coors is a regular C- rated American Adjunct Lager, according to Beer Advocate. I remember it as a near-mythical beast, nearly impossible to acquire in the Midwest, it was supposed to be well worth it for the lucky few who were able to lay their hands on some. And I did, at least the 3.2% abv version allowed for under 18 folks on a near mythical trip to the mountains.

It was the summer of 1975, prior to senior year in high school, my close friends and I made a June trip out to Colorado to climb the mountains. We had a drive-away (one way) car, which you could get as a 17yr old in those days (not anymore I believe). The four of us shared driving, made it from suburban Chicagoland to Denver in just over 20 hours. We had heard of the legendary Coors, but had never seen it.

We went straight for the town of Estes Park, not stopping for anything as we had precise reservations for camp sites. We hiked the dusty, barren Rocky Mountain National Park for 7 days, drinking only water from the streams. Over the week we came to appreciate the value of water, and possible beer filled our dreams at 10,000 feet. Once we came down dusty and worn out, we found a store that had the 3.2 Coors. I still question why we didn't seek it out before the hike, maybe we thought we'd never actually go up. Anyway, after surviving on tasty but plain water for 7 days, this 3.25 stuff tasted like the proverbial mothers milk, absolutely fabulous!! And it didn't seem to have the graininess or mouth puckering bitterness, and maybe it was a bit sweeter and smoother than the Schlitz or Old Milwaukee or Blatz we were used to. Sucking down 2-3 in the first half hour off the mountains seemed very normal.

Now at normal elevation, I can't bring myself to purchase Coors, certainly not a six pack, maybe a tall boy if I sought it out. I know it would be a disappointment, after close to 35 years how could it be otherwise.

I recently had the Schlitz 60's recipe on draft, it wasn't bad. Maybe the Coors back then was better, I suppose we'll never know. In any event I can't go back, and I don't want to, nor do I feel I have time enough to test every old favorite out there, there are too many full flavored ales and lagers to write home about now, but maybe the Banquet Beer deserves another shot. I will always think of it as the mountain beer, and a refreshing one at that.

Amazing Democratization for Beer Lovers

As a follow up to my last post about BA events, I did attend the Second Chicagoland beer trading event last Thursday at Goose Island Clybourn. Starting around 6pm, with the introduction of two new beers from Goose, namely the new Juliet, and a Saison (to be sold in 650ml bombers soon), we then had some 50 - 60 attendees who each brought a beer or two to try. More amazingly, as the night went on the Chicago Beer Society (a homebrewer group, not sure if the name is right) folks came in with samples of their recent tries. Overall a great selection. No reviews here, but some highlights:

- Several home brewed Pilsners, each decidedly better than anything I've had in commercial beers.
- a 1994 vintage Cuvee Renee, the straight lambic from Lindeman's ( the guy said he bought it off the shelf last year!)
- Viking Hot Chocolate, a mellow chocolate beer that had a spicy kick
- 2003 Bare Trees, an aged wheatwine from Two Bros. (Warrenville)

Ignoring the highlights, if you had a discerning taste for certain styles (say Belgian blond ales), you could probably have had some 5-10 different beers. I had a few more. And some decent pizza was provided.

Point being, this is a savvy play by Greg Hall and Goose Island to continue to be the center of the Chicago Beer scene. As they move to update their menu and offerings, they want to connect with more influential customers - good thought!

The monthly beer school tastings are nice for the "amateurs", this one is for the "pros". With a combination of food, samplers from Goose, homebrews from the CBS folks (an a few BAers too), and not to mention FREE, it's a low cost way to keep "early adopters" interested in Goose's beers and operations. CBS is old school, BA's are new school, and together it's all good for the Goose, and the customers.