Cask Ale At The Craft Brewers’ Conference

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Cask Ale At The Craft Brewers’ Conference

Published May 4th, 2009 in Beer Events, Beer Festivals, Beer Reviews, Breweries | 1 Comment »

In April, Boston experienced a delightful one-night echo of NERAX 2009.

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?

100 Belgians To Try…. 4 In Portland, Maine!

Published May 3rd, 2009 in Beer Reviews | No Comments »

The book ’100 Belgian Beers To Try Before You Die’ by Tim Webb and Joris Pattyn is one of the better new books on Belgian beer. It is published by CAMRA, available through their website. Both authors are acquaintances of mine, but the book is still pretty good. The concept makes me cringe a bit, the whole thing about lists and must-dos is a bit over worked, but I think you’ll find that the execution of this book is superb. The book is a great read, and not a bad shopping list.

Last Sunday, April 26, Novare Res offered an opportunity to try four of the “100″ beers on draught in Portland. In addition, Eric had both the brewers and the importer on hand all day Sunday to chat about the beers. It was a truly notable event…

Cantillon was represented by head brewer JeanVan Roy. Of the “100″ Eric offered the Iris, the Framboise, and the Vigneronne. He threw in the Kriek and the St Lamvinus for good measure. My favorite in this group was the Iris, an incredibly subtle and complex lambic beer. The Framboise was a stunner: bold, brash, massive nose, tart, and truly an impact beer.

The Brasserie de la Senne was represented by owners Yvan de Baets and Bernard LeBoucq. Their “100″ beer was of course the Taras Boulba. Eric also poured the Equinox, a delicious Winter beer. The Taras is an incredibly tasty and complex beer at about 4.5%.

Also present were Jean and Nassim from Moeder Lambic, one of the more interesting beer bars in Brussels.

On hand as Guide and Den Mother for this crew were Dan and Tessa Shelton, importers and zealous proponents of Belgian beer. One tends to remember conversations with both of these wonderful people.

Many thanks go to Eric Michaud for putting this day together.

Lips of Faith from New Belgium Brewing

Published April 12th, 2009 in Beer Reviews | 2 Comments »

Sal and I were skiing in Vail in March, and of course brought back some goodies from Denver.

Tonight we tried the Lips of Faith from New Belgium Brewing, purveyors of Fat Tire and other wonderful Belgian-inspired brews.

Lips of Faith is called a dark kriek, an 8% beer, advertised as 65% ale brewed with cherry juice, 35% ale aged in wood barrels.

This was a delighful experience; I wish we had brought back a case. The mouthfeel is warm, round and smooth, very pleasant, not a bit of hops, with just the softest taste of cherries.

Delightful!

Ola Dubh At Novare Res

Published April 2nd, 2009 in Beer Events, Beer Reviews | 4 Comments »

Sal and I stopped in at opening time to try the Ola Dubh tasting on Thursday. It certainly was an adventure.

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!

NERAX Night At Redbones

Published March 16th, 2009 in Beer Festivals, Beer Reviews | No Comments »

If you’re in the Boston area next Monday, you might consider dropping in on a special event at Redbones, in Somerville, Massachusetts.

We’re presenting a plaque to Redbones commemorating the first NERAX festival, held in Redbones on June 28, 1997. Redbones is offering free appetizers to all comers. We are offering two free pints to all volunteers at NERAX 2009. This should be a fun event.

Redbones will have two cask ales on offer: Spring Training IPA from CBC, and Golden Ale from Mayflower Brewing. Of course their legendary beer list will also be available.

NERAX opens on Wednesday night. Our real work begins Monday morning, when we set up the scaffolding to support the casks, and begin taking delivery of beer. Monday evening will be a fun break.

Unfortunately, I may not be there. It looks like I and a colleague may need to travel to NJ on Monday to collect some British firkins. Perhaps we’ll return in time.

Bridgetown, Barbados: Buffy’s Bar, and The Sticky Wicket

Published March 5th, 2009 in Beer Reviews, Watering Holes | 4 Comments »

Buffy’s Bar is in the Inch Marlow neighborhood, about 9 miles from town. It was a short walk from our hotel and convenient to the airport.

Buffy’s features Banks beer in glass bottles. Also several kinds of rum. It’s not the sort of place where one asks for a beer glass. Both management and the punters are friendly; everyone is knowledgeable about Cricket. We were the only tourists – it was fun trying to understand the accents of our new friends.

The Sticky Wicket is much more up market, and is a pretty good basic restaurant, located near the Silver Sands beach area. The place is popular with British tourists staying at the nearby Silver Sands resort, and features Banks, Heinekin and Guinness, all in glass bottles.

Beer in Barbados

Published March 5th, 2009 in Beer Reviews | No Comments »

Your intrepid reporters spare no effort in bringing you beer news of the world. Last week my friend John and I were in Barbados for an England – West Indies Cricket match, and took the opportunity to check out the beer scene.

The bottom line is, nobody goes to Barbados for the beer. Banks is the local brew. It’s a Caribbean lager with a bit of flavor.The first few taste pretty good, but the beverage soon gets tiring. Banks also brews a version of Guinness under license. We saw a bit of imported Heinekin, as well as some Caribe from Trinidad. That was about it. There’s not much point to a pub crawl, Banks is everywhere.

When we arrived at the Cricket ground I quickly noticed an advertisement for Fullers London Pride, and thought that things were looking good. A local quickly put me right. “No, Mon, there’s no London Pride in Barbados. That sign is for the television viewers in England”. Duh…

The beer at the Cricket ground is served in plastic bottles. With a plastic twist-off cap. The stuff must have a shelf life measured in weeks. No matter, they sell a lot of it, and it’s brewed just down the road. A day of Cricket covers about eight hours in the sun. When we left at 5:30 every evening there were a lot of empty plastic bottles rattling around the stadium,

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