Unibroue is one of the leading Canadian craft brewers, big but still in my mind a craft, quality outfit.

The event will involve a brewery representative, and in the Novare tradition the beer selection will be over the top. Here’s the list:

Fin du Monde

Don de Dieu

Edition 2005

16th Anniversary

17th Anniversary

Quatre-Centieme

Seigneuriale

Trios Pistoles

Quelque Chose 2002

Quelque Chose 2010   (two, chilled and unchilled)

This is not cheap, tickets are $33, but that includes snacks paired with the beers. Each beer is a three ounce pour, just about right, and the event promises to be a memorable event.

I’ll be at the 6:30 session….    See you there!

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Unibroue At Novare Res

Kai Adams has developed a pretty reliable and effective formula for this series, and it seems to be working. The house has been packed every time I attended. Sebago simply chocks up five Pins (about 5 gallons) behind the bar and serves with a gravity tap in each. They put one of their own beers on the hand pump. With about 30 gallons of beer in play the beer generally sells out in the one night, so spoilage is not a problem.

The concept is to run a Cask Night every month, on the night of the full moon. That’s easy enough to remember!

January’s event featured New Hampshire brewers. The lineup included an IPA from Smuttynose (6.9%) and another from Portsmouth Brewing (6.5%), a stout from Red Hook 5.6%), a German Rauchfest from Moat Mountain (6.2%), and from Sebago the Full Throttle Double IPA (8.2%)and the Runabout Red Ale (5.0%).

All the beers were in great shape and showed well, with just a bit of cloudiness here and there. My favorite was the Bottle Rocket IPA from Portsmouth, a real treat in the cask version.

Watch for Cask at Sebago!

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Cask Ale At Sebago Brewing

• Andrew’s Brewing Company
• Liberal Cup – Run of the Mill
• Marshal Wharf Brewing
• Bray’s Brewpub
• Sebago Brewing Company
• Shipyard

Having sampled ales from all of these breweries (and cask ales from several of them), I am sure there will be some great brews to sample this evening. I plan an finding out, and I’ll let you all know!

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Sebago Gets In on Cask Action

Yesterday, Saturday night, October 17 was the time to be in Belfast, Maine. On offer was the second annual Marshall Wharf Beer and Pemaquid Mussel Festival. They served Mussels prepared four different ways, Morse’s of Maine’s sausage and sauerkraut, and 22 Marshall Wharf beers on tap. It might get different, but it can’t get better.

Of special interest were the three bourbon barrel aged beers…  MacFindlay Scotch, Old #55, and Cant Dog IPA. In my opinion these beers saw too much whisky barrel, and the beer characteristics faded from the picture. This was a first try, and I have no doubt the next will be well worth considering.

The regular range of Marshall Wharf beers was superb as always. It’s very special, but also very dangerous, to be able to enjoy all of them in the same night. It was fun to taste 40 Cream Ale again, but the old favorites were spectacular as always.

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Marshall Wharf Mussel Fest

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Christmas Comes Early at GLB

The Master Brewers Association of the Americas (MBAA) held their national Craft Brewers Conference in Boston during the last week in April. On Thursday evening, April 23, Harpoon Brewery hosted a cask ale night open only to conference attendees and guests. This was organized by the District New England chapter of MBAA and was staffed by folks from NERAX.

The Craft Brewers Conference is a meeting of brewers from across America. The objectives of Cask Night were to promote cask ale, and to give New England brewers a chance to strut their stuff. Using the NERAX festival equipment, the District New England offered 62 cask ales from brewers in every state of New England.

The beers were superb, in great shape, and the event was an enormous success. Many attending brewers had never seen so many cask ales in one place, and there was a lot of photographing of the bar and stillage. We ended up serving about 1200 brewers and guests from across the country. It was a triumph for New England brewers!

The NERAX guys were pleased with how easily this event went together, and then how easily it broke down. The event was in the (big) tent Harpoon uses for events, in their parking lot.  Set-up of the beers took about four hours. We’re getting better at set-up, but our equipment is also getting better after years of investment and volunteer work to construct lines and related gear. The cooling system now goes together quickly and requires a lot less de-bugging. Breakdown the morning after took about two hours, a new record. Put that down to having a lot of volunteer labor on hand.

Tending bar at this event was easy.  Everything was free, so there was no money to handle.  At that price no-one was too fussed about exact measures,  so pouring was easy.  We moved a lot of beer very fast!

Maine was very well represented by Sebago Brewing, Gritty’s Portland and Freeport, Allagash, Shipyard and Kennebunk Brewing.  Maine beers remain something we can be proud of in any gathering or context.

My favorite of the night was an IPA from Cambridge House Brewpub in Torrington, Ct.  Who are these guys, anyway?

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Cask Ale At The Craft Brewers’ Conference

For those of you who haven’t wandered down the little alley off Exchange Street in Portland yet, Eric Michaud offers yet another reason to take the plunge. For the next three weeks, starting on Friday, May 1, Novare Res is hosting a Belgian Bier Fest. Never one to put on a small event, Novare Res’s Belgian Fest will feature some 100 different biers. That’s a whole lot of beer to work through, so please mark your calenders to head down to Portland and help out.

On the tap list are such favorites as Cantillon, De Stuise, and Petrus, as well as a whole host of others, including De la Senne, La Rulles, Des Rocs, St. Bernardus, Caracole, Bosteels, Van Steenberg, De Struise, De Ranke, Geants, Chimay, Koningshoeven, Witkap, and more. Plenty more. I know where I’ll be tomorrow after work. Hope to see you there…

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Belgian Bier Fest on Tap at Novare Res

Session 1, April 7, will cover Maine’s beer and mead production. Margo Mallar of the Maine Institute of Food and Drink, brewer Tom Bull, and mead maker Eli Cayer will present. Breweries covered include Gritty McDuff’s, Stone Coast, and Casco Bay Brewing.

Session 2, April 14, will cover wine and distilled spirits. In addition to another appearance by Margo Mallar, Keith Bodine, the maker of Back River Gin and Three Crow Rum, and the vintners from Cellar Door Winery and Oyster River Winegrowers will present.

Aside from the flyer I got my hands on, details are a bit scarce, and MAFD’s website is apparently still waiting for some HTML love. The cost for each night is $30, or $50 if you go to both. Reservations are required. To make your reservation, or inquire about additional details, you can contact them at info@maineambassadors.com or (207) 712-5864.

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Explore Maine’s Alcoholic Beverages

Ola Dubh is brewed by Harviestoun Brewery in Scotland. It is their Old Engine Oil dark beer matured in casks formerly used to age Highland Park whiskies. Novare Res is offering four different versions of Ola Dubh: the 12, 18, 30 and 40. The numbers refer to the age of the whiskies formerly in the casks.

We had the Ola Dubh 12 at NERAX. I can attest that these are very expensive beers. At NERAX the 12 was wonderful, with a delightful molasses note.

Tasting the four beers tonight was a formidable exercise. Our beers arrived at varied temperatures, which made a difference. The cooler temperatures held back complexity and emphasized the whiskey notes. Things got better as the beers approached a common, room temperature.

When we arrived the 12 had not dropped yet and was a bit murky. At NERAX we also found that the 12 needed an extra day to drop.

The differences among these beers are subtle but noticeable. The 12 tasted the most like a traditional stout. The 18 showed a bit of tar and was lovely. The 30 was my favorite, very smooth. It was less complex than the 40, but seemed to present more of a beer experience than the 40. The 40 was round and mellow, and offered more of a beer-whiskey synthesis on the palate.

At $35 this is not an inexpensive experience, but it is truly unique. I doubt you’ll ever see this opportunity again. A good strategy is to take a friend and share the flight – 8 oz is a generous pour of these beers.

Enjoy!

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Ola Dubh At Novare Res

I’ve already reported on the brouhaha regarding Greene King, the growing regional brewer in the UK. They seem to have a business plan calling for acquiring cherished breweries and closing them, absorbing the production in their larger facilities.

We’ve been offered the opportunity to acquire Greene King beers for NERAX 2009

The NERAX working party was of a mixed mind in this regard. The CAMRA traditionalists opposed the inclusion of Greene King. The majority concluded that NERAX is a beer venture, not a political entity. CAMRA in the UK is a political advocacy organization; here in the US NERAX is strictly about the beer.

So we expect to have Greene King IPA and Old Speckeled Hen at the festival. I personally favored including the beers. NERAX is too small to play politics; we’re about the beer. Still, not an easy call.

On a more practical note, I had a pint of the cask version of Old Speckled Hen in Boston at Bukowski Boston last Friday. Bukowski Boston continues to be a fabulous source of cask ale in the Boston area, more power to them. They are a reliable source of cask ale in Boston, and more power to them!

Alas, the pint of Speckeled Hen I had was a bit tired. Nothing dramatically wrong with it, pleasant really, but tired nonetheless. It still was better than the alternatives.

Well, come on down to NERAX and test politics vs beer. I’ve enjoyed some pretty acceptable pints of Greene King Cask IPA. Some of my colleagues would disagree. Come see what you think.

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Beer, Politics, Or Both?