2/11: Flying Dog's In Heat Wheat

Hi all.  The team I coach is in a tournament now, so it is a hectic week. I am glad that my bocce team had a bye tonight, otherwise there might not be a post this week.  Seriously, tomorrow I have a meeting at 6, and basketball practice at 8; Wednesday is our multi-course pre-Valentine's Day dinner; Thursday is a basketball game; Friday is Card Party!; Saturday we have both a league game and a tournament game.  So enough about the rest of my life, you've probably come here for the beer...

In last week's post I mentioned beers that I had had, without saying anything about them.  Let me now talk about some of the beers that I've had in February...

 Trader Joe's 2012 Vintage Ale: 
They say...
Drawing upon centuries-old Trappist Monk brewing traditions, the Belgian-style dark ale is bottle conditioned on lees (aged in the bottle on fresh yeast). This year, it results in finely structured brew that presents rich, malty (mildly sweet) flavor, with notes of cocoa and mulling spices.

My reaction...
Being a "dark ale" I was surprised that it wasn't black or brown, but rather reddish/golden.  At 9% abv, it was a winter warmer, that was bubbly and spicy and a bit sweet.  It had red wine notes.  So their was a mulled wine aspect to this beer.  An interesting beer.

Killian's Irish Red:
It is a lager, and it tasted largely like a mainstream lager.  The difference was that the malt was slightly roasted, which showed up in some slight "toast" and "caramel" notes on the tongue and accounted for the reddish color of the beer.  But it looks more different than it tastes.

Tecate:
Is a Mexican lager.  The brand is not a craft beer.  It is a beer designed for quenching a thirst on a hot day, or cooling your mouth down after eating some spicy food.  It is not very popular with Anglos in America, but the brand is popular with Mexicans and Mexican Americans.  Tecate sponsors several Mexican soccer teams and advertises primarily on Spanish-language television.  But they are starting to advertise to Anglos with the tag line... "It's not beer, it's cerveza."  Can the guy who wrote "Foster's, it's Australian for beer" sue?

Flying Dog's In-Heat Wheat Hefeweizen:
They say...
Flavor notes: Huge banana and clove notes.

I didn't taste either.  Instead I tasted a subtle cotton candy note on the finish.  It wasn't cloudy like the
hefeweizens I have enjoyed before.  It was a good wheat beer, but it didn't strike me as a hefeweizen.

Happy Valentine's Day.  Have a good week.  Go Raiders!

-Jim from Milwaukee

2/6: Five beers in six days

After month #1 of My Year of Beer, I was was tired.  Not tired of drinking beer, but tired of writing about drinking beer.  A post takes about an hour to write, and this is not my whole life or my career.  On Friday, February 1st, I worked until quitting time, walked to my car and found that my car wouldn't start.  I called my wife for a ride because I needed to get to one of my volunteer gigs - the monthly fish fry at my church.  She was able to get me to the fish fry 10 minutes before the doors opened.  (Just 20 minutes late.)  Other volunteers had organized my station, so I was ready to go when the doors opened.  My station?  I sell beverages; bottled water, soda and yes - beer - cans on Miller Genuine Draft and Miller Lite and bottles of the "mystery" Beer of the Month, (BOM).  This month the BOM was Killian's Irish Red. 

As the fish fry was wrapping up, one of the guys from the kitchen offered me a cup of the beer they use to batter the fish. (Pabst?) And when the event ended I was able to have one of the BOM's with my fish fry.  Then it was time to go home.  At home we had invited over my home-brewing friends; Jim S. and Jon P. (and their wives) - with whom we are hosting the "Beer Dinner" in June.  Jon and Jim brought beer - as did my father-in-law.  We opened a bottle of Trader Joe's 2012 Vintage Ale and shared its contents.

The next day, after getting my car battery replaced and coaching my basketball team, I attended a sheepshead party that was a fundraiser for my church.  While playing cards I had two bottles of New Glarus' Spotted Cow.

Over the next four days, I had three days of work, two basketball practices, my bocce night and a can of Tecate with dinner tonight.

So let us recap.  I worked a fish fry and attended a sheepshead party in successive nights.   That is why they call me...

-Jim from Milwaukee

1/31: Milwaukee Brewing's Booyah Farmhouse Ale

 

So my "Year of Beer" ends month number one with Booyah, a farmhouse ale from the Milwaukee Brewing Company.  (My first beer from the city of Milwaukee.)  Farmhouse ales are also known as "saisons."  These beers, which originated in the southern Belgian countryside, were typically brewed in the spring.  According to MJ, they "had to be sturdy enough to last for some months, but not too strong to be a summer and harvest thirst quencher." (Companion, p. 125)  But Booyah is year-round beer for Milwaukee Brewing

MJ describes the style as... "refreshingly crisp, tart beers" and "the flavor was heightened by a generous dose of hops, and perhaps spices." (p. 125)  To me, it tastes somewhere in between a summer wheat/white beer and a hoppy ale.  According to the brewery's website, one of the owners explains that Booyah was named after a soup/gathering-centered-around-eating-the-soup.  He said that the soup is made with a long list of ingredients, and their farmhouse ale is too. 

It is a fine beer.  The spices (if there are any) are subtle.  It starts out slightly fruity and ends on a hoppy note.  As I have said before "hoppy" is not my favorite taste in beer, but it might be yours.  It rates a 3.

-Jim from Milwaukee

1/30: Potosi Fiddler Oatmeal Stout

I am drinking differently now, and differently than I thought I would.  Tonight, among the thoughts about the taste of the beer (is that toasted cherry?), I am thinking "how is this stout any different than a porter?"  Luckily, I have MJ to help me on my journey.  In Companion, he says that in the heyday of porters, brewers would make several different strengths of porters, and the fuller-bodied ones became known as stouts.(p. 170)  Fiddler has 8% abv, so I suppose it qualifies as a stout, even if it is the only porter/stout that the brewery makes.  But this one isn't just a stout, it is an oatmeal stout.  And oatmeal stouts are considered to be a more nutritious than "regular" stouts.

MJ claims that a comment he wrote in a  1977 book resurrected the oatmeal stout style.  According to MJ, "Brewers with vague recollections of having made the style in the 1950s maintain that they used up to 15% oats." (p. 187)  But because oats gelatinize and make mashing difficult - and because "oats in the lower single figures" influence the taste, MJ doesn't think an oatmeal stout needs that high a percentage of oats. (p. 187)  Potosi Brewery in Potosi, Wisconsin agrees with him, they use 10% oats in this seasonal beer. 

It was good.  A 3 on my scale.  There is nothing wrong with this beer.  It had the dark roasted caramel, coffee, chocolate, toasted fruit flavors that are typically found in a porter or stout, but if the oats imparted a "firm, smooth, silky body" to the beer (p. 187), I missed that.  (It is much subtler than the rye beers.)  But if they snuck healthy oatmeal into my beer without me noticing, then these brewers from the southwest corner of my state are to be commended.

As I approach the end of my first month of my year of beers, I am contemplating changes.  I can find time to drink a beer every day, but finding the time to write about them has been more difficult.  It often takes an hour to write a post.  I am losing sleep on some nights.  Maybe I will cut back on my posts.  Of course, things like illness, coaching or international travel may interfere with my ability to drink a beer everyday.  We will see how it goes, but I guarantee that I will post tomorrow with my 31st beer of January, 2013.  Or my name isn't...

-Jim from Milwaukee

1/29: Redd's Apple Ale

Well I knew it would be different, and since the weather was unseasonably warm, I figured that I would drink a beer out of season too.  Today's beer is Redd's Apple Ale.  (If you have seen the movie "Rock of Ages," let me say "Double the "d," Double the "p" - Double the flava.")   The bottle says it is made by Redd's Brewing Company, Albany, Georgia.  Their website says nothing.  The only content is a "store locator" that doesn't currently work. 

I did some digging and discovered that SAB Miller acquired this Polish label and decided to bring it to America.  It was first rolled out primarily in the south, and is now becoming available in the midwest.  In fact these markets are going to see this 15 second commercial during the Super Bowl.  I guess this is my week to be timely with MillerCoors products.

So in paragraph three, I suppose I should start discussing the actual beverage.  In a press release they said, "The beer is 'Crisp like an Apple. Brewed like an ale.' This is no cider, it’s a golden ale with red apple hints."  I poured it in my glass, it fizzed like soda, there was no head.  I tasted it and I detected no ale taste.  I beg to differ with you marketing copywriter person; this is a cider.  Don't get me wrong - I like cider and I'll give it a 3 - but it really doesn't belong in my year of beers.

-Jim from Milwaukee

Limited Bibliography
http://beerstreetjournal.com/miller-coors-launches-redds-apple-ale/
http://www.beerpulse.com/2012/12/millercoors-redds-apple-ale-to-launch-nationally-with-super-bowl-ad-video/
http://www.beerpulse.com/2012/08/redds-apple-ale-now-available-in-select-states/
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/redds-red/40230/

1/28: Goose Island Mild Winter

After yesterday's tasty beer made with rye, I thought I'd try another today in Goose Island's Mild Winter.  The label describes it as "American mild ale brewed with rye," and that is what it is.  This is an ale with some rye bread-y notes.  It isn't bad, but it doesn't create the same magic with the rye that Canoe Paddler did.  But still, a solid 3. 

But the label that so clearly described the beer also confused me.  Was this the same Goose Island Brewing Company that made 312 Urban Wheat Ale?  "312" is Chicago's area code, and Goose Island is a Chicago beer... but this Goose Island says "Brewed and Bottled... in Baldwinsville, New York."  The Chicago Tribune set me straight; Goose Island was purchased by Anheuser-Busch a few years back and starting in the second half of 2012, Chicago's Goose Island is going nationwide - being brewed at A-B plants from Colorado to New Hampshire, including their facility in Baldwinsville, NY. 

I prefer this truth in labeling to just printing the address of the home office.  The consumer has the information, and can decide if they care that Chicago's beer is now being brewed elsewhere.  And they can also judge if quality control is up to their personal standards.  Does NY's Goose Island taste the same as CO's, and taste the same as the original.  Granted a bunch of long-time fans are likely to come to the knee-jerk conclusion that only Chicago's Goose Island (or Chippewa Falls' Leinie's, etc.) is the real deal and the others are impostors, so I understand why a brewery might not be as revealing.  But at the end of day, beer is a food product and I want to know both where and when it was brewed.  Kudos to Goose Island for clearly labeling the bottled date of this beer as 11/10/12, as well as saying it is "brewery fresh" for 180 days after that date.  I much prefer that than giving an expiration date, or worse yet a coded bottled date.

1/27: Leinenkugel's Canoe Paddler

This beer is so new that - as of this writing - it does not appear on Leinie's website, and this beer doesn't have enough ratings at ratebeer to qualify for a score.  This is a new seasonal (spring - summer) beer for Leinie's.  

That aside, it is a Kolsch-style beer, brewed with rye.  That description led me back to my periodic chart of beers and to MJ's Companion.  Kolsch is a golden ale popularized in Cologne, Germany.  The beer's name comes from the name of its city (Koln, in German).  The beer is "as pale as a pilsner, but with the fruitiness of an ale, Cologne's beer has its own teasing delicacy." (Companion, p. 153)  It is listed as an mixed style, in column XIV, in the chart - a type of Alt beer, but Wikipedia says that Altbier is from Dusseldorf, and while it tastes very similar the rivalry between the two cities probably means that in Cologne they view Altbier and a type of Kolsch.  Regardless, MJ calls it "clean tasting, remarkably light-bodied, soft and drinkable, only faintly fruity..." (p. 154)  This is not a sipping winter beer. I could see drinking a couple at a a ball game.

MJ says that in Cologne, brewers might use up to 15% wheat to get a little more fruitiness, but that this is a "delicate style" without many "dramatic differences" across breweries. (p. 154)  The rye in Canoe Paddler might be dramatic by Cologne standards, but it works.  The rye comes through in the finish, and it lends the beer an added depth of flavor.  I suppose if you don't like rye, you won't like this beer.  To my taste buds, it tastes like a light rye bread.  It would also pair well with a fish fry or a corned-beef sandwich. 

I give it a high "3."  No.  I take that back.  I am craving one right now.  This is a "4."

Jim from Milwaukee

1/26: Alaskan Brewery's Winter

Here is another beer with a gimmick; Alaskan Brewery's Winter - an ale brewed with spruce tips.  They claim that this is a old ale, like Rocky's Revenge - "Style: English Olde Ale. Traditionally malty with the warming sensation of alcohol."

I am not tasting the alcohol, or any warming sensation.  But I am tasting the spruce.  Ironically, it has more alcohol by volume that Rocky's Revenge has (6.4% vs. 6.0%), but it doesn't taste like liquor, instead it tastes like a pine-y ale.  Obnoxious, but not too obnoxious that I want to pour it down the drain.  I will be able to finish this one, but it is not a favorite.  I'll give it a low three.

They say that brewing with spruce tips is an Alaskan tradition that goes back to the late 1700s.  There is something to be said for using traditional local ingredients, but this strikes me as a gimmick.

-Jim from Milwaukee

1/25: Shiner Bock

We moseyed out to a Texas smokehouse barbecue this evening, so I thought I'd have a Texas beer.  They had Shiner Bock on tap, so that is what I ordered.  It came out even flatter than the picture. 

They say that everything is bigger in Texas, but apparently they overlooked "flavor."  Their website describes the beer as having, "a mellow taste free of the bitter aftertaste found in many micro, specialty and imported beers."  I think they wanted a comma between "taste" and "free," but those two words are appropriate.  It was an attractive dark amber color, that somehow came across as cold, beer-flavored water.  There would have to be no other beer alternatives for me to drink this way again, but it didn't taste bad - it just didn't taste like much.

-Jim from Milwaukee

1/24: Tyranena Brewery's Rocky's Revenge

Rocky's Revenge is a dark brown ale that I could feel warming my throat as I drank it.  Since the name Rocky's Revenge doesn't give a clue as to its variety, my senses - honed by research and 24 days of experience drinking new beers - told me this was a porter.  It was dark, caramel-y, and warming like a porter.  It actually tasted like a hard alcohol, which was not like any porter I had tasted to this point.  A quick trip to the internet led me to a site that called it Bourbon Brown Ale.  The fine print on the label said it's "an American brown ale with a portion aged in bourbon barrels."  So that explains the liquor notes I tasted. 

In Ultimate, MJ, (you remember "the King of Hop(s)"), classifies some porters, stouts and ales as "Sociable Beers" while others are classified  as "Winter Warmers."  He says of these ales "...often dark brown ales, usually malt-accented, sweet, and relatively full-bodied but only medium-to-strong in alcohol are typically regarded as winter warmers." (p.110)  This beer has a 6.0% abv which is in the range of his highlighted "Old Ales" in his "Winter Warmers" chapter.  But this beer is not seasonal. Tyranena makes only six beers year round and this and Chief BlackHawk Porter are among these year-round beers, with a scotch ale and an oatmeal stout among their six seasonal brews.

I like this beer.  It is different in a subtle and good direction.  I'm still giving it a 3, but I am looking forward to trying more from Tyranena.

Jim from Milwaukee

1/23: Samuel Adams' Winter Lager

So here is one of those beers that Bell's Winter White Ale is countering; Sam Adams' Winter Lager.  It is a reddish, roasted malt beer brewed with spices.  They say "The cinnamon, ginger, and hint of citrus from the orange peel blend with the roasty sweetness of the malts to deliver a warming, spicy flavor."  I am glad they told me what spices because I couldn't have named them.

It tastes like a medium-bodied brown ale.  It drinks like a medium-bodied brown ale.  It is good.  A three in my rating system. 

Readers, I am starting to run out of beer in the house, so I am looking for suggestions.  What should I drink next?

1/22: Bell's Winter White Ale

As I mentioned yesterday, most winter beers that I have come across tend to be dark in color.  With roasted malts that give the beer coffee and toasted caramel notes to warm a drinker on a cold winter's night.  Yesterday's winter beer was orange, today's - Bell's Winter White Ale - is a more typical amber color.  The difference is intentional.  According to their site; it was designed to be "a lighter yet abundantly flavorful alternative to the traditional heavy winter warmers." 

In other words... "if you are tired of the porters and stouts, we brew a summer wheat ale - but only in the winter time."  And because it is a Belgian-styled wheat/white beer, we call it Winter White and put a picture of a white snow-covered forest on the label.  Aren't we clever!

In general, I like wheat beers, but this one - not so much.  The overwhelming sweetness that I couldn't stand in Shakparo is hinted at here.  RateBeer.com's readers gave it an 86, DrinkHacker.com gave it a B, but noted a "grape bubblegum" flavor and I suppose others might like that.  It is ok enough to earn a 3, but just barely.

Jim from Milwaukee

1/21: Capitol Brewing's Winter Skal

While there was celebrating at the capitol in DC today, I drank my second beer from Capitol Brewing in my state capitol of Madison: Winter Skal.  (I apologize for not being able to replicate the little circle over the "a" in Skal.) 

I expected a "winter beer" to be darker, but as their website says, the beer has "a warm amber hue."  Personally, I thought it was orange.  Skal, from what I can find on the internet, is not a style of beer, only a Scandinavian toast to good fortune and good health. 

So how did they discribe this beer?  "A full bodied beer with a warm amber hue showing off its rich malt heritage. Mildly bittered featuring a hop presence that compliments and rounds out the malt overtones."  They say the used 4 types of malts in this brew, Brewers, Munich, Caramel and Honey.  I didn't taste full-bodiness or complex flavors.  I am not sure if it is an ale or a lager.  (Though my money is on "ale.")  For me the brew was kind of boring.  It had one taste, and it was a hoppy taste. 

It didn't do much for me.  It was just another beer.  (That is a "3" for those of you scoring at home.)  It wasn't bad, but it didn't make much of an impression at all... except for the fact that it was orange.

Jim from Milwaukee

1/20: Capitol Brewing's Weizen

Yesterday's sheepshead party, spilled into this morning.  So I am counting my last beer of the party as today's beer.  It was Weizen by Madison, WI's Capitol Brewing Company.

It is a seasonal beer, with the season being summer, so this beer was likely 6 months old. I found it refreshingly light and fruity after the dark lagers, but it was a bit sweeter than I like. Their website says "a unique yeast provides spicy bubblegum, banana, clove flavor notes." Maybe it was the bubblegum notes that pushed it into the "not a preferred beer" range.  Still a 3, just a less preferred version of a favorite style of mine. 

I will be having a fresher example of a Capitol beer soon when I drink a Winter Skal that I acquired in a Christmas 9 pack of winter beers.

-Jim from Milwaukee

1/19: Guinness Black Lager

Smithwick's (I hear it pronounced like "Smith-icks") is a red ale and Ireland's oldest ale.   If past sheepshead parties at the McCauley's are any indication, I will be enjoying one or two of these fine beers tonight.

When I spend the night socializing late in to the evening, what else can I do but write my post earlier in the day? I suppose I could be having a beer now, at 3 in the afternoon. But I actually don't drink a lot of beer, and don't want to start now. One (or occasionally two) per day is enough. I'd rather have one quality beer than many inferior beers. I propose a toast - To moderation!

I'll come back tomorrow with my tasting notes and my rating (odds are it will be a "3".)

1/20: Update: When I entered the party, the first person I saw drinking a beer was drinking out of a Smithwick's glass, but alas there was no Smithwick's on hand.  But the McCauley's represented Irish beers well with two Guinness selections: cans of their famous stout, and bottles of their black lager.  I chose the lager because I couldn't recall having had it before.

It was good.  Roasted malted barley imparting the usual caramel/coffee flavors in a smooth tasting lager.  A definite 3.

I was at the party for 6 hours and had three beers in that time; two of the Black Lagers and a Weizen by Madison, WI's Capitol Brewing Company.  As for the sheepshead, after 4 rounds I was in 7th place out of 16, so I just missed the money table (top 6).  A fun night.

-Jim from Milwaukee

1/18: Howe Sound Rail Ale Nut Brown

Today's beer is my first Canadian beer of the year. Howe Sound Brewery is located in Squamish, BC, a 45 minute drive north of Vancouver on Howe Sound, the southern-most fjord in North America. Besides the brewery, they have a brew pub and a 20 room inn. I don't know how comfortable their beds are, but they make a good brown ale. The brown in the ale comes from roasting the malted barley, and they want people to know that this beer's malt is 100% barley. The roasting imparts a coffee and caramel flavors to the beer. The label mentions hints of chocolate and licorice as well, but I guess I didn't take the hint. I did find it smooth, creamy and flavorful. A 3 in my book.

British Columbia and the American Pacific Northwest is a prime hops growing region and with good mountain water, local hops and barley the brewery strives to have "zero effect on the environment."  As part of their Eco Push initiative they get their spent grain to local farms for animal feed and composting, but what the beer buyer will notice is their 1 liter sized resealable and reusable bottles.  It is big enough to share, but resealable so you don't have to share.  All of their beers seem to come in this type of brown bottle.  Speaking of their other beers - they make 17 - 7 year round, and 10 seasonals.  The Nut Brown ale is a year-round variety.  I need to look for their King Heffy Imperial Hefeweizen this summer, because their description of it mentions banana. 

Another thing to like about this brewery is that the tout their relationship with John Mitchell, a man they call "the grandfather of micro-brewing in Canada."  They say that Mitchell was one of the initiators of the craft brewing renaissance in 1980.  A chart I was sent yesterday by a reader, shows that 1980 was indeed the start of this trend.  In the late 1970s their were only 89 breweries in the entire United States, and now there are over 2,100.

Jim from Milwaukee

1/17: Blue Moon Winter Abbey Ale

See my post from the 9th to learn about "Abbey Style Ales." This particular variety is a "single" and is really good. Its alcohol content is only 5.6% abv, compared to last week's triple's 8.4% abv., as you would expect since single, double and triple refer to alcohol content.

This beer is a golden brown and red color, and poured with a better head than is pictured, but the foam quickly dissipated. The flavor was smooth and carmel-y without being overly sweet. The bottle says it is brewed "with roasted malts, Belgian sugar and a touch of wheat." That would explain the carmel and the smoothness. The label says there is "a smooth toffee finish." I didn't pick up on that, but you might. It is definately one would have again, so a 3.

Now I want to talk about the brewery, Blue Moon. It is part of the Tenth and Blake Beer Company - a craft brewing division of what is now MillerCoors.

What do I think about multi-national conglomerates making craft beers? If you make a good beer, I don't care how big you are. They use their distribution networks to get in to bars and grocery stores across the country, and good for them... as long as the local breweries also get to represent at these establishments. And in my town the true little guys get to compete in the marketplace. In some ways, the Blue Moons of the world can serve as a gateway to true Belgians or other small craft beers. It is a good time to drink beer. Craft beers are gaining marketshare (at the expense of the mega-lagers) and consumers like me are learning to appreciate different styles of beer. Blue Moon and Leinenkugel are brands that can help MillerCoors hold overall marketshare when High-Life and Coors Light take a dip. It is good business. And as long as it is good beer and alongside true micro-brews, I believe it is good for beer drinkers.

Jim from Milwaukee

1/16: Sprecher's Shakparo

Shakparo is a gluten-free beer. Instead of wheat or barley, the grains used are sorghum and millet. It looks like the ales and lagers that I am used to, with a bright golden color. It smells like beer too. But the taste... I'll let Sprecher tell it...

"An unfiltered, light, crisp ale with a cider or fruit profile and a dry vinous aftertaste..."

"Vinous" means "related to wine" or "wine-like," but if it meant vine-like or grass-y, then they would have described what I tasted. In every mouthful I had three distinct flavors; at first ale, then apple juice-y sweetness, and lastly the lingering taste of dry grass. The grass-y aftertaste was not pleasant, but much preferred over the overly sweet apple juice flavor. The only part of the flavor that I liked - the ale stage, was the one that lasted the briefest. 

It is a West African style of beer - a region of the world where wheat and barley don't readily grow.  It was first brewed for Milwaukee's African World Fest, but being glutten-free meant people on certain restictive diets could drink beer again.  That audience buys enough of this beer to keep Sprecher brewing it year round.

I am glad that they make beers for people with celiac disease, or other gluten issues, but since I do not have these afflictions, I do not think I will ever have another of these.  I give it a 2.  But God help me, Sprecher makes another gluten-free beer made with bananas, sorghum and millet.  It is called Mbege, and I am thinking that I should try it sometime.  Maybe I am a gluten for punishment.  (Sorry about that.)

-Jim from Milwaukee

1/15: Sprecher's Russian Imperial Stout

In Ultimate, (p. 118), MJ calls porters and stouts "winter warmers" and "the most wintry beers of all."  Describing them as "extra-strong, almost tarlike."  In Companion, (p. 189), he defines stouts as "strong porters,"  "brewed strong to travel."  Much of this style when to North Sea ports, where it was popular among Scandinavians and Czarist Russian court, and this is why the variety became known "as Russian Stout and Imperial Stout,"  Ultimate, (p. 118).

"Tar" was the first word that came to my mind when it hit the back of my throat.  Its blackness coated my mouth with a warmness that lingered in my mouth.  As for flavor, I agree with MJ, "tar-like notes with 'burnt' fruitiness and alcoholic warmth," (Companion, p.189).  I like his description, "the fruitiness is reminiscent of the burnt currants on the edge of a cake that has just been removed from the oven."  In my head it was somewhere between cherry and raisin, and I think currant fits the bill.  There is a hint of sweetness, but I wouldn't call it sweet.

When it comes to the alcoholic part of the equation, MJ describes  one variety as "whiskey-ish," another as "rummy" and yet another as "sherry-ish."  I fear I don't have enough experience with these beverages to classify Sprecher's variety.  Its alcohol content is high; 7.9% abv, but it is lower that that of the two imperials that MJ spotlights in Ultimate; one being 8.9, and the other 10.0 abv.

Yes, I'd gladly have another (3) on a cold winter's day (or night.)

Jim from Milwaukee

1/14: Sapporo Premium Beer

Tonight we ate at a Japanese restaurant, so I took the opportunity to have a Japanese beer.  I had options but I chose the brand that I was most familiar with; Sapporo - and I was served a Sapporo Premium.  Sometimes known as Sapporo Black Label.

The Japanese drink a lot of beer and happoshu - a lower malt beverage (grain less than 67% malt).  My guess is that this beer (which may have been brewed at their brewery in Guelph, Ontario, Canada) contained some rice.  According to Wikipedia, Europeans in the 17th Century started making beer in Japan to supply European sailors and the locals found that they liked it.  This isn't to surprising since sake - coming from a grain - is a variant of beer. (Ultimate, p. 11)  Sapporo was started in 1876 by a Japanese brewer who was trained in Germany.

It is an imported lager, but it doesn't have that skunky taste I found in last week's Peroni.  It starts with a hoppy bouquet that quickly gives way to a crisp, dry finish.  It's solid if unspectacular.  And if you have been following this blog, (Hi Mary), my next sentence should not surprise you.  I rate it a 3 - I'd have another.  While I expected "3" to be my most common rating, I didn't expect 80% or more of the beers to earn a three.  I guess when I choose a beer, style is a much more important factor than brand.  Different styles are appropriate in different settings, and keeping that in mind - almost every beer I have tried I feel has a context where I might like another.

Speaking of context, Sapporo is a taste of Japan, but it is firmly in the European tradition.  So I can see why you might order one in a Japanese restaurant, but in a liquor store or grocery store or even a cooler at a tailgate... whenever you are looking for a "beer" - instead of a "Japanese beer" - I am not sure why you'd want to choose a Sapporo Premium.  Unless you really like Budweiser, but you are trying to appear more worldly.

-Jim from Milwaukee