As mentioned previously, the Maine Beer Writers’ Guild held its first “official” meeting this past Wednesday night at Gritty McDuff’s in Portland. In addition to the opportunity to meet some other Maine beer writers, take a tour of the brewing facilities downstairs, and get a sneak peak at brewer and Guild member Ben Low’s Rye P.A. (believed to be the first ever Ringwood-fermented rye beer), we were given a gift certificate to sample some of Gritty’s fine beers gratis. I started with Gritty’s pleasant, if not too unique, Black Fly Stout. However, after seeing what most of the other Guild members were drinking, I switched to the Irish Red Ale, powered by beer gas (nitrogen), for my second and subsequent rounds.
An Irish Red Ale in and of itself is nothing too special. The last one I sampled, by Harpoon, rated a moderate 2.5 mugs for me. The use of a nitrogen mix to pour the Gritty’s IRA, though, transformed this beer into a whole different style for me, especially following so quickly after a stout. The dark copper pour had the tell-tale beer gas swirling and churning going on, and a thin, very tight white head that slowly settled to a collar. There are some toasted malts and raisin present in the nose for me, but the most striking pre-sip feature is the streaming of the nitrogen.
Taking a healthy sip of this brew, I am greeted with something resembling a sweeter, fruit-influenced light stout. I’m not sure that description sounds all that appealing upon reading it, but if you can get down to Gritty’s before it’s gone, you should try one yourself. It really is a very unique and pleasing experience. The nitrogen is supposed to remove some of the natural acidity of the CO2 on the tongue, and I think it works well with this beer. The change in gas lets some smokey character shine through. This is apparently the result of caramalt, according to Ben, as there is no smoke in this brew. It also imparts a biscuity flavor which I found to add to the “is this a stout or an ale” illusion. The finish is smooth and creamy, as one would expect from a nitro-poured beer. Highly drinkable, though I’m not sure it would have been as good carbonated from a bottle. Very different and very good are the two conclusions I draw for this beer, as sampled.
My Rating:
Not knowing all that much about nitrogen (a.k.a. beer gas), I decided to do a little Google-aided research on the subject. According to the sources I found, the purpose of infusing a beer with nitrogen is to simulate the effect of a beer poured from a beer engine. As I’ve become a big fan of hand-pumped cask beers lately, this probably explains my enjoyment of this effect. As previously mentioned, nitrogen also removes a bit of acidity from the taste, yielding a smoother, creamier tasting beer. It’s also, apparently, not nearly as easy to do as CO2 and the brewer runs the risk of the last 5-10% of the beer tasting flat. Either there was still more than 10% left of the IRA, or Gritty’s knows what they’re doing, because I didn’t find this one to be flat at all.