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9 Beer And Cheese Pairings

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Beer and Cheese Pairing

Cheese has traditionally been paired with wine, fruits, nuts or things like marinated olives, but recently with rise of Craft Beer in America we have been noticing more and more brew pubs and bars offering beer and cheese pairings. These beer and cheese pairings include high end cheeses and craft beers that can compliment each other in a new way. Anything from Goat to Gouda cheese and Wit to Wheat beers, it’s all fair game in the new playing field of beer and cheese pairing.

The following are 9 beer and cheese pairings that will excite your palate and bring forward flavors in the beer and cheese you probably have never tasted before.

Beer and Cheese Pairings

Vella Dry Jack
The Vella Cheese Company of California created this cheese by taking Monteray Jack and aging it another 7-10 months, until it hardened. The result is a firm, pale yellow cheese with a sweet nutty flavor.

Pairs well with: Stout, porter, dopplebock, strong ale, brown ale, Oktoberfest

Manchego, 3 mo.
This Spanish sheep’s milk cheese has a milder flavor and softer texture than older versions. A good blend of salty and nutty flavors, sweet hints, and buttery taste.

Pairs well with: Blonde ale, witbier, wheat beer

Danish Blue Cheese
A sharp and spicy, full-flavored blue with a dry texture and dark blue-green veining.

Pairs well with: Stout (especially imperial), porter, IPA, barleywine, strong or old ale

White Cheddar, 3 yr.
Made from raw milk and aged for 3 years, white cheddar has a sharp, robust, tangy flavor.

Pairs well with: IPA, stout, pale ale, amber ale

Smoked Gouda
Similiar to Edam except that it contains more milkfat, this cheese is sweet and smoky on the tongue. The edible brown rind is an indication that it is smoked.

Pairs well with: Amber ale, rye ale, brown ale, Oktoberfest, IPA, Vienna lager, porter

Traditional Hoop Cheddar
A mild yellow cheddar (best are from Wisconsin)made in the traditional way by hand-packing fresh cheddar curds into wheels and aging in red wax.

Pairs well with: Pale ale, any Belgian ale, strong ale, ESB, pilsner, dopplebock

French Brie
A soft cow’s milk cheese with a distinctive rich, creamy flavor.

Pairs well with: wheat beer, tripel, kolsh, witbier/white ale, blonde ale, pilsner

Cotswold
This is a full-flavored, creamy, whole milk cheese, similiar to cheddar, to which chopped onions and chives have been added. It is golden yellow to orange in color.

Pairs well with: Rye ale, kolsh, blonde ale, IPA, stout, amber ale, pale ale

Laura Chenel Chèvre
A classic American goat cheese with a clean fresh taste, more dry than tangy, and a bit crumbly.

Pairs well with: Kolsh, witbier, wheat beer, brown ale, ESB

Bohemian Black vs. Blackened Voodoo

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A Comparative Analysis of Black Lagers

Lagers are clearly one of, if not THE most popular beer style in the world. Lagers have become popular enough that many sub varieties have developed. Around the world, you will find beer fans that prefer their favorite style, be that the American-style lager, the Bock, the Dunkel, the Helles, Märzen, Pilsner, Schwarzbier, or Vienna lager. Of the lagers commercially available, I have always preferred the darker varieties including the Bock, Dunkel, and especially Schwarzbier, or black lager in United States parlance. Here I’ll take you through a tasty comparison of my two favorite commercially produced black lagers, or Schwartzbiers, Dixie Brewing Company’s Blackened Voodoo Lager and Shiner’s Bohemian Black Lager.

Black Lagers

Dixie Brewing Company’s Blackened Voodoo Lager was a rare treat I enjoyed with falafel dinners when I was living in Berkeley, CA. This lager was a long way from it’s home brewery in New Orleans, LA, and didn’t suffer from it. It was even more rare after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans hard, but now Dixie brewing company is back at it, although the company has subcontracted out some of its brews while recovering and rebuilding from Katrina.

The Blackened Voodoo lager is light and crisp, with a distinct flavor of the chocolaty elements of its dark-roasted barley malts. The hops add what I would call a medium bittering element to the beer, with subtly musky flavorful aftertastes that arise from the mix of the dark roasted malts and the hops mingling. The hops used in this beer’s production are Mt. Hood and Cascade hops. The yeast flavor is very sublte in this beer, just adding the slightest of fruity accents on the aftertaste, which I consider to be a mark of patience in brewing and proper lagering. The body qualifies as on the heavier side of the medium range, which to me seems a bit light for a black lager. 

For some reason, I always find myself remembering how well this beer went with the Mediterranean food that accompanied my first experience with it. The Blackened Voodoo lager was especially effective at clearing the palate with its somewhat dry yet solid flavors and crisp carbonation. The alcohol level is 4.7%, a level at which the taste of the alcohol is easily overcome by the flavorful nature of the brew. A fine brew to cool off with after a long days work in the hot sun (or even the hot shade, in Louisiana!).

Shiner’s Bohemian Black is a fairly recent addition onto the Texas beer scene, and a welcome one. Shiner’s Bohemian Black was originally a limited edition produced in honor of the Spoetzl Brewery’s 97th anniversary, but it’s popularity earned it a continued production run as a permanent part of the Shiner line of beers in 2007. This Black lager is very refreshing on a hot day, much like the Blackened Voodoo Lager. Shiner’s Schwarzbier has a sweeter taste, even with it’s slightly elevated alcohol level (4.9%). The darkly roasted grains seem to impart more body into the Bohemian Black without so much of the chocolaty taste that I found in the Blackened Voodoo Lager. The hop character, once again, seems meant to embolden the bitter aspects of the malts rather than hit you over the head with hoppy dankness. I would call the Bohemian Black a smoother lager, with more body than the Blackened Voodoo. Less carbonation is evident in this beer as well.

One aspect of the Bohemian Black which is clearly enhanced over the Blackened Voodoo Lager is consistency. I have never heard of a complaint about the Bohemian Black, but it seems that the Blackened Voodoo Lager can have some variety regarding carbonation and flavor. My guess would be that the lager may be subject to alteration depending on temperature changes. Also, with the advent of hurricane Katrina, the Dixie Brewing Company has contracted out some of their brewing, including Blackened Voodoo Lager, to Minhaus Craft Brewery of Wisconsin. This might cause some problems, as the new brewery must adjust its apparatus to attain the same results as the New Orleans brewery.

If you are a lager fan, I recommend trying both for yourself. Shiner’s Bohemian Black will most likely be much easier to find. If you should stumble upon the Blackened Voodoo Lager, you should definitely pick up a six pack, because you never know where or when you might see it next!

Kegerators.com's Top 5 Names in Domestic Beer

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The U.S. beer industry is in a constant state of flux. New ideas and innovations are changing the face of beer every year, especially in the micro brew market. As the primary field of growth in the brewing industry, kegerators.com will name the top ten names in domestic craft beer production. These are names to look out for. These are brewers associated with quality, ingenuity, tradition, social responsibility, and most of all, good tasting beer. For these qualities, we name New Belgium Brewing Company (Fort Collins, Colorado), Dogfish Head Brewing Company (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware), Spoetzl Brewery (Shiner, Texas), Rogue Ales (Newport, Oregon) and St. Arnolds Brewery (Houston, Texas).

New Belgium Brewery New Belgium Brewery of Fort Collin, Colorado, is here honored for the company’s integrity, ingenuity, and the amazing quality of its high production level brewery. A forward thinking, 100% green company which shares its profits with its workers, New Belgium has consistently contributed innovative brewery techniques, while at the same time maintaining ancient and venerated beer traditions, such as its 1554 Enlightened Black Ale. Kudos to the first beer company to recycle its waste grain and harvest methane from it! This full circle renewable energy source now contributes 30% of the energy required to produce over 450,000 barrels of beer annually.

Dogfish Head Brewing Company Dogfish Head Brewing Company, a smaller brewer located in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, is here honored for ingenuity and fearless experimentation in the realm of brewing. These brewers have gone where few dare to go, preparing beers of up to 18% A.P.V.! Using admixtures such as raspberries, raisins, blueberries, chicory, and coffee, Dogfish Head has prepared some mighty interesting and mighty tasty concoctions. Brewers of the Midas Touch, Dogfish Head has even created a facsimile of a brew scientists discovered only traces of on urns in King Midas’ tomb. A true blend of tradition and experimentation. But you’ll have to go to Delaware to sample some of their latest innovations: small scale craft spirits!

Spoetzl Brewery, of Shiner Spoetzl Brewery, of Shiner, Texas, is a middle-sized brewery (much bigger than a microbrewery at 300,000+ barrels per year) that has, just in recent years, ventured into the craft beer market. Spoetzl is here honored for returning to the craft beer traditions from the precipice of the homogenized U.S. beer fad. For many years, the Spoetzl Brewery kept mainly their Shiner beer going, but now has distribution for many craft beers, in addition to their rather main-stream tasting Shiner and Shiner light. All of this is, in part, to Shiner’s centennial beer program, which started in 2005. The centennial program began producing one special edition beer in small batches at the end of each quarter. With this foray into the realm of experimentation, the brewers at the Spoetzl Brewery found flavors that were received quite favorably. Spoetzl’s Shiner 96 Märzen Ale, Shiner 97 Bohemian Black Lager, Shiner 98 Bavarian Style Amber, and Shiner 99 Munich Style Helles Lager, are all high quality craft beers worthy of recognition along-side the best microbrews of the day.

Rogue Ales Rogue Ales, of Newport, Oregon is a brewery which has maintained an exacting level of perfection with its recipes while keeping an open mind toward new innovations in brewing. With brews as diverse as Soba, Hazelnut Brown Nectar, and the Juniper Pale Ale, Rogue has demonstrated it’s willingness to live up to its namesake. Yet still, for all this invention, Rogue beers are remarkably reliable – one bottle will always taste like the next, even with such extreme different flavors. Here’s another great thing about Rogue Ales: they are all without preservatives or pasteurization.

Saint Arnold Brewing Company Saint Arnold Brewing Company, of Houston, Texas, is here honored for their dedication to serving their community with traditional, well made craft beers. You may not have heard of St. Arnolds unless you have visited central or east Texas. This is because St. Arnolds is more devoted to serving their immediate community than they are in expanding their distribution. St. Arnolds certainly stands a part from the other breweries in this list, being a straight-forward craft brewery with an honorable dedication to traditional beer styles. St. Arnolds has had quite a time dealing with the destruction of Hurricane Ike, but they are moving into a new location and will surely be up and running again soon.

These have been Kegerators.com‘s five most distinguished domestic brewers of 2008.

Beer and Oysters: Sea foods and Their Malty Counterparts

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Beer and Oysters go great together.  Beer is commonly served with seafood of all sorts.  The key to enjoying your seafood dinner is finding just the right beer to enjoy with it.   From fish and chips to sushi to raw or fried oysters, complimentary flavors can be found.  The culinary joys of beer and seafood are celebrated in festivals, such as Richmond, Virginia’s "River City Beer & Seafood Festival"; recipes, such as Oysters boiled in beer, beer-battered fish; and cultural traditions from seaside villages all over the world.

Beer And OystersMany kinds of beer work well with oysters.  Porter, Stout, IPA.  Strong flavors work well to cleanse the palate in between bites so that the fishiness of the oysters is not overwhelming.  A good, clean break in between bites is highly desirable.  In regions where beer choice is limited, beer is still preferable to non-alcoholic drinks.  For raw sea foods, a hard liquor is helpful for keeping any rouge bacteria in check.  Tequila and Sake shots especially, although please don’t mix.

If you are talking about grilled fish, grilled salmon, mussels, prawns, your best bet for a complimentary beer is a dark beer.  Porter, Schwarzbier, Stout, all go well in this setting.  I recommend the black lager especially for enjoying beer and oysters a hot or warm day.

Lighter beers have their place, too.  Certainly for broiled or boiled fish, shrimp, mussels, a pale ale, a pilsner, or even wheat beer can be quite complimentary.  Bitters and IPAs can also help break down the oily taste of deep fried sea foods (very popular).  A good idea to wash down a plate of fish and chips.  This would be my choice for raw, shucked oysters, especially when I am enjoying them on the gulf coast of Vera Cruz in Mexico.  I always like to stop for raw oysters when traveling in that region.

One place where you can sample all of this and mix and match is Richmond, Virginia’s River City Beer & Seafood Festival in June.  Over 40 varieties of beer show up among vendors, brewers, and chefs at this festival annually to celebrate the union of microbrew and seafood.  Music is provided by the festival, and samples are provided for a festival fee.  For $25, you can buy a festival sample mug to enjoy unlimited samples from the brew selection.

Another festival honoring this tradition is the Confluence Wine, Beer, Seafood & Music festival in Oregon state’s Douglas County on the Oregon Coast.  Admission is only $7 at the door or $5 in advance. Confluence means "the flowing together of two rivers or more rivers."  The festival is held at just such an intersection, at Gardiner, Oregon, just two miles north of Reedsport.  A confluence is also "a coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point."  The perfect name for an event which gathers so many different aspects together under one banner.

Brewers in the land down under have found a way to express their love of beer and seafood. From Australia comes a unique beer designed specifically to enhance the flavors of seafood.  According to Blue Bottle Beer’s website:

"…[we’ve joined] American hops with German yeast, Australian barley and fused it with the cleanest water. We then added our unique ‘zesty finish’.  Bluebottle Beer ® is a seductive blend of lifted aromatics, bitterness, and a citrus sting to enhance the flavors of the sea."

This would seem to go well with broiled, boiled, or BBQ’ed fish and seafood.  The zesty citrus sting they allude to gives me the idea that some Belgian ales would also enhance a seafood meal. 

Recently, when I went to eat at San Antonio’s Water St. Oyster Bar, I encountered the particular mix of Chimay with some Arcadian style cooking, and I must say I was quite pleased!  The especially spicy styles of cooking coming from the Louisiana area need a powerful beer to balance them best.

Guide to Texas Beers

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Texas Beers

Texas has a long history in beer – both drinking and brewing. In addition to the long-standing Spoetzl Brewery (the makers of Shiner beers), and the ubiquitous (if watered down) Lone Star, new micro-brews are taking the state by storm. With solid traditional and inventive ales, newcomers like Saint Arnold and Real Ale Brewing Company are challenging the old hands to do better than what they’ve done. This battle seems to be playing out to the benefit of Texas beer fans.

The great history of Texas beer starts with the building of the massive Lone Star Brewery in San Antonio in 1884. Adolphus Busch, of Anheuser-Busch, started the enterprise along with some local San Antoners and created the first large mechanized brewery in Texas. But Lone Star beer came much later (1940), and the brewery first pumped out bottles of Sabinas and Champions.

While San Antonio was busy brewing for the local populace, a group of brewers in Shiner, Texas had big plans. This group started one of the most enduring breweries in the nation, Spoetzl Brewery. The brewery first started operations in 1909, and changed hands in 1914 with the coming of immigrant Kosmos Spoetzl. Spoetzl had studied for three years the art of brewing in Bavaria, and served out his journeyman-ship in Cairo, Egypt, making beer for the Pyramid brewery there. Making his traditional family recipe, Spoetzl garnered a following, and then prohibition hit. The brewery somehow managed to survive by selling ice and “near beer”, and weathered the storm from 1919 until 1935. Although prohibition was hardly enforced in Texas during this time, due to fierce controversy, it affected large breweries greatly, and Spoetzl was able to avoid much trouble by dealing strictly with locals in a 70 mile radius and selling his near beer. The Shiner website points out that Spoetzl was very forgetful, though, and sometimes would forget to remove the alcohol from his beers. Tsk, tsk.

Starting in 1994, Houston’s Saint Arnold Brewery opened their doors, and is widely acknowledged as Texas’ oldest craft brewery. Named after the patron saint of brewing, St. Arnold is a brewery that has always had a mind towards the utmost quality. With a hard working staff of only seventeen people, St. Arnold still pumps out ten varieties of beer every year – five varieties continuously, and five seasonally. Even though they’ve been in business for over 13 years, St. Arnold’s maintains it’s dedication to serving their local beer drinking community.

Other micro-breweries started popping up throughout Texas around this time. As early as 1993 in Austin, Texas, the Waterloo Brewpub began selling it’s beers in half-gallon growlers, fighting against laws that inhibited microbrewery operations. Sadly, this brewpub is now closed due to rent increases, depriving Austin of it’s first micro-brew-pub.

In 1996, the Real Ale brewing company opened up in Blanco, Texas, not too far from Austin in the hill country. Although Real Ale is not, by international standards, “Real Ale”, by U.S. beer standards, who can hold it against them? According to the U.K.’s CAMpaign for Real Ale, Real Ale can only be used when describing beer that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide". Although the Real Ale Brewing Company uses the finest ingredients, it certainly cannot be held to CAMRA’s standards.

Possibly as a response to these breweries and others, such as 512 Brewing, Live Oak, Independence, and Rahr & Sons, all micro or craft breweries, Shiner has recently produced a small batch craft brew to celebrate 96 years of brewing. A little known style of beer called Martzen, the Shiner 96 is much stronger than most offering from the company, weighing in at 5.8%.  Traditionally Martzen, which is German for March, is a beer brewed in march and enjoyed during the autumn months. According to the Shiner website, this ale was drunk at the royal Bavarian wedding ceremony that started the Oktoberfest celebrations.

It is good to see larger breweries getting back to their roots, and embracing the folk lore that is rightly their heritage. This seems to be a growing trend in brewing: brewers highlighting the social context and history of the beer they brew. Beers that get too big seem to lose their character – both taste-wise and lore-wise. Shiner is doing a good job of maintaining both. They just needed a little prodding from the (little guys) competition.

Gluten-Free Beer

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For many potential beer fans, gluten intolerance has stopped them from ever quaffing brews made with barley. Those times are now over. Gluten-free beers are popping up all over the country, giving those with Celiac Disease (intestinal damage due to gluten intolerance) a new opportunity to drink with impunity. Not to mention that traditionally, beers from around the world have been made with alternative ingredients, some glutinous and some not. Thee is even a gluten-free beer festival held in Chesterfield, England. Here we will discuss some alternatives to using barley malt in beer, and some substitutes that are possible.

Over two million people in the United States have been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. This represents a large market of potential beer drinkers who otherwise have few alternatives. Many health conscious people are also found in this category of non-gluten imbibers. Gluten is a protein found in such grains as barley, wheat, rye, spelt, and oats. As far as beer brewing is concerned, barley is a huge concern if one is interested in making a gluten free beer. Oats and rye can be a problem as well, depending on what flavor of beer you are planning to make.

Some common substitutes for barley are millet, sorghum, rice, corn, and soybean. The good news is that substitutions are possible. The bad news is that many of them do not taste very much like the stuff made with barley.

Many beers in Japan are now being made with soy or pea protein along with hops and sugar to produce a product known as “third beer”. This technology is fairly recent, but sales are booming in Japan. With a few more years of experimentation, these bold new brewing techniques may be perfected to provide a great new gluten free beer like product.

Traditionally speaking, in Tibet, Nepal, and the surrounding areas, beer made with millet or rice has been a staple drink for many years. This drink, called Chang or Chung can be made at home and features the use of ginger and rice flour yeast cakes to promote starch to sugar conversion as well as fermentation. For more information about making your own Chang, read Stephen Harrod Buhner’s book Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers.

One beer manufacturer that is ahead of the game as far as gluten free beers go is Green’s. Their gluten-free beers are made using Sorghum, Millet, Buckwheat and Brown Rice, and contain no allergens. Their beers boast a high nutritional value as well, with 2x-3x the Zinc and Selenium content of Barley, an increased Calcium content, and rich in B vitamins. Their beers include the Quest (trippel bock), Mission (amber), and Pathfinder (dark) ales, lending a huge variety to a specialty market.

Credit to the first craft beer made with sorghum is claimed by Bard’s Tale Beer with their flagship brew called “Dragon’s Gold”. This beer has made a fine impression and weighs in at 3.8%- 4.7%%, with a hoppy, floral aroma, and, of course, no glutens. The Bard’s Tale brewing company has made a commitment to producing gluten free beer for all, and is an example that other brewers will hopefully follow.

The market for gluten free beer has grown considerably in Japan, while regular beer sales are slumping. With new varieties of gluten and malt free beer emerging in the U.S., this could possibly turn into a burgeoning market.

Cask Ales

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As interest in ancient beers and brewing techniques is piqued, the world is seeing a proliferation of the technique of serving beer as a cask-conditioned ale. Cask-conditioned ale is also referred to as “Real Ale” in some circles, although there is a subtle difference between the drinks the two terms describe. Cask Ale is a very old and traditional technique for carbonation and serving of beer. Cask Ale is currently enjoying a revival due to the qualities it imbues on the beer that it produces.

A quick summary of Cask Ale conditioning: it is a process that affects the final stage of beer production. Cask ale is un-pasteurized, un-filtered, and carbonated with the natural action of the yeast that is used in the fermentation of the ale, and without the aid of artificial carbonation or nitrogenation. Some cask ales are served with the natural yeast included, and in others the yeast has been filtered out. If the yeast has been filtered, it cannot be called a “real ale”. The concept of “Real Ale” is promoted by an association called the CAMpaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), based in the United Kingdom. According to the CAMRA’s definition, Real Ale is: "beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide". One method that brewers and barkeeps have discovered to keep cask ale fresh-looking and clear is to add “finings” to the cask. Home brewers will be familiar with the term “Irish moss” – this is a “fining”, an addition to the beer which causes free-floating sediment to fall to the bottom of the beer. Sometimes, cask ale is served at room temperature, but it is mostly available at cellar temperature (50 or 55 degrees) in most pubs.

Barkeeps doctoring the beer you say? One historical note about Cask Ale is that it is easy for barkeeps to do just that. In older times, barkeeps would add additional hops, finings, or even illicit herbs to doctor the beer. Some unscrupulous bar owners would take ale that was going bad and water down good ale with it and put it on sale, and others would add wormwood to the concoction to make the ale seem stronger.

Many fans of Cask Ale site their beers more subtle fizz as a main selling point. The lesser degree of carbonation, they claim, allows the more subtle flavors of their beer to be enjoyed. Guinness, the famous stout, imitates this more subtle cask ale carbonation, although by the means of different technology.

The degree of carbonation in Cask Ale is actually controlled via a device called a “soft spile”. Once the cask reaches the brew pub, the barkeep hammers this soft spile into the corked hole in the keg known as the shive. By judging the flow of foam through the soft spile, the barkeep eventually takes out the soft spile and replaces it with a hard spile, which allows no more seepage. Once this process is complete, the Cask is ready to be served, via a gravity feed.

Cask ale is becoming more and more popular in the United States, where it is still uncommon to find. The New York Times reported that one beer distributor, Union Beer Distributors, has had their accounts more than triple for cask ale sales in 2007. UBD is the leading cask ale distributor for the New York metropolitan area, and a strong indicator that cask ale is a fast growing trend, at least in New York City. Let us keep in mind that New York City sets trends internationally. Keep your eye out for cask ales at your local brew pub, you may be pleasantly surprised by this taste of the past.

Beer Book Review

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With the rise in popularity of craft, micro, and home brewing, a slew of books have come out in recent years on these subjects. Some focus on cultural aspects of beer, some on nutritional aspects, and some focus on recipes. I will go over a few of the more popular titles on the shelf today, and relate them to my personal experience.

There is a book by brew scholar and professor of brewing technology at U.C. Davis Charles W. Bamforth called Beer: Tap Into the Art and Science of Brewing, in 2003. This book goes into scientific detail about all aspects of the brewing process, with a mind to a layperson’s understanding of the topics. This is an excellent book for those interested in the details of the process of making beer. This is a good place for a starting home brewer or beer fan to learn more about what they are drinking. Professor Bamforth also gives lectures from time to time, so keep an eye out for his name in your neck of the woods. This book may be a bit simplistic for the home brewer or beer fan that is already intimately familiar with most aspects of beer production. Still, if scientific terms speak to you, it is a worthwhile read.

Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher contains a cultural overview of beer, an amusing embellished timeline of the history of beer, and many recipes. Just to give you an idea of the breadth of beer covered in this book: Corinthian Steinbier, An English Bragot, c. 1500, Juniper Rye Bock, Black Pepper Porter, and Mister Boing Boing Cherry Barley Wine are all represented, for better or worse. The book also contains recipes for beverages other than beer, such as Finnish Sahti, Mead, hop-less Gruits, and wine. Randy’s writing is one of the most palatable ingredients in Radical Brewing – witty and full of humor. I recommend this book to any brewer. Even if you prefer traditional brews, this book is sure to open your eyes, and due to the amount of recipes, a keeper as a reference manual.

The book Wild Fermentation by Sally Ellix Katz is a wild foray into a subject which, for brewers, seems very dangerous. Most brewers do not want to mess with wild yeasts, due to the ease and commercial availability of good quality ale yeasts. But this book covers much more than just beer. It covers a wide variety of foods made with the assistance of fermentation, such as vegetable ferments, dairy ferments, and even ventures into the realm of vinegar making. The book does have chapters on beer and wine as well. This book is a little much for me to handle. The chapters are compelling and informative, but it is all just too much for me to handle at once – it is like learning 5 different trades in one workshop. I recommend this book to those who are capable at multi-tasking.

My favorite book about beer, by far, is Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers by Stephen Harrod Buhner. This book is a gem containing a well-referenced codex of ancient beers from around the world. The poetry and humanitarianism with which Buhner delivers into our hands the wisdom, folklore, and recipes of the ancient brewers is both astonishing and informative. Buhner makes one particularly thrilling correlation between a beer trend that is 700 years old and political maneuvering of the protestant movement in Europe – but I won’t reveal it here because I’m not that kind of person. Buhner also writes from a fairly neutral viewpoint, taking in with deep understanding the cultures about who’s brew he is writing about. This book has been dearly loved in my home brewery, where ever it has been, and my first handed-down copy had so much wort spilled on it that I had to buy a new copy recently. This book goes over the cultural aspects of beer primarily, and also contains some bizarre recipes from the ancients – some of which taste quite good! If you are a home brewer or a fan of beer history, you must get this book.

A Guide to Strange and Unique Beer

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One of the greatest benefits of home brewing, and of the golden age of micro brew that we are currently living in, is the ability to create new and unusual brews.  The freedom that comes with experimentation in this realm knows no bounds except those of one’s own imagination and ability.  With practice and planning, even these limits will increase, as the breadth of knowledge in these fields is naturally increasing.  As the golden age of the micro brew expands to even more unique and inventive realms, we are even seeing the list of strange and unique beer that is commercially available expand.

Micro brewers have been experimenting with unique herbal beers well into the origins of beer.  Numerous recipes are available for your edification in books such as Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers by Stephen Harrod Buhner, and Wild Fermentation by Sandy Katz.  Sacred and Healing Herbal beers is by far the most influential book on brewing that I have had the pleasure to read.  My whole career as a hobby home brewer has, in fact, been based on this book, as has that of many home brewers that I know.  It is considered in some circles to be the “bible” of strange and unique beer.

To the beer drinkers of the United States, though, even something as simple as a Belgian White Ale is often considered exotic.  While the yeasts of such ales certainly lend themselves to distinction, I wouldn’t call them unique beers.  To qualify for this category, we must take into consideration the following:

Does the beer have a unique buzz or side effect?

And;

Does the taste of the beer differ due to an admixture?

Yeast has an important effect on the taste of any beer, but this only one aspect of beer production.  The quality of the water, the types and mixtures of malts and hops, and especially herbal admixtures affect both of these factors greatly.  Inventive processes can also enhance the taste of the beer. 

Water is the highest presiding factor over the quality of a beer; it makes up roughly 90% of the beer.  I have found that the best beer I have ever been able to brew used as its base pure Alaskan glacier melt water.  The list of all-organic ingredients helped, I’m sure, although other organic ales I have drunk have almost lived up to the taste of that ale, most notably the Fishtale Organic Ale.  I would call these beers of the highest quality, and the Winter Wolf Stout that I made with the Alaskan Glacier melt water “unique” due to the process of collecting the water.

There is one commercially produced ale that I have discovered to venture into the realm of herbal admixtures, although I am sure more are to come.  I am speaking of New Belgium’s Springboard Ale.  It is an innocuous sounding name, but this ale is truly a unique herbal concoction brewed up in the guise of a Seasonal beer: a Belgian Ale with the bite of wormwood and the tonic properties of Goji berries.

The Springboard ale boldly forges ahead to reclaim space for herbal beer brewers.  Ever since the German beer purity laws, or Reinheitsgebot, adopted in 1516, and even before, the powers-that-be have sought to implement control over what manner of inebriation is allowed to the general public.  The only ingredients allowed by law in ale were water, malt, and yeast… hops were added to the list later, by popular demand.  The only other brew known to contain an active amount of wormwood ingredient is the infamous Absinthe, outlawed in the U.S. and many other countries, but still sought after and made by high class moonshiners in the United States, and, I am sure, in other countries in which its production has been outlawed.

Before the release of Springboard, the United States saw a proliferation of specialty ales – some of which contained herbs, others of which contained specialty yeasts.  A variety of Belgian Ales as well as Fraoch Heather Ale paved the way for the release of New Belgium’s Springboard by exposing the beer fans of the U.S. to more and more strange and unique beers.

In my personal experience, home brewers have been the first to experiment with wild and imaginative combinations in strange and unique beer.  I have drunk of the “Orge-Clops-Itar Ale”, containing the herb eyebright, which is regarded as a beneficial tonic for eyesight.  The brewer stated to me that the inclusion of eyebright was to help with night vision and goblin sightings.  Another unique home brew was the “Skull Crushing Hammer”, a beer made with the herb Yarrow.  The herb is said to have immense healing qualities when applied in a salve to open wounds, but when ingested, has inebriatory qualities that enhance the effect of alcohol.

Amongst home brewers is probably the best way to expose one’s self to an amazing variety of strange and unique beers.  It may not be the easiest to find home brewers bent on such strange brews, but it will certainly be a rewarding endeavor.  It might be worthwhile to enquire at your local home brew supply store about some of the “crazier” brewers that come into the shop.

When home brewing was outlawed with prohibition, it took another 50 years before the state repealed the ban on home brew, and now, finally, craft brewing is overtaking the ground it had lost over 200 years ago.  Thanks to the home brew revival, authors like Stephen Harrod Buhner and Sandy Katz, and bold brewers like New Belgium, we are sure to see a revival on the field of strange and unique beers.

Fortified Ales I Have Known

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One rare treat in the world of craft brewing is the fortified ale.  A fortified ale is an ale that has a hard liquor, an herbal admixture, or both added to it before kegging or bottling.  This kind of ale is mostly seen in the realm of craft brewing or home brewing.  In the days before refrigeration technology was much advanced, it was common for barkeeps to mix new ales with older ones, enhance brews with wormwood to increase their potency, and for brewers to create fortified ales as well.  Now, the fortified ale is a rare commodity indeed, but one that is rather simple for the home brewer who is equipped to keg his or her beer.

The most effective use of the fortified ale that I have experienced has been that of an herbal tincture.  This process can be used to provide both flavor and increased inebriation to any home brewed ale.  I have found Anise, Star Anise, Mugwort (both root and leaf), and wormwood to all be effective herbal admixtures for fortifying ales, but it is certainly advisable to use such sparingly, as it is easy to add too much to our brew.  You need not fear for loss of the batch in such cases, though.  Usually the bitter or acid tastes die out with some aging (6-11 months, depending on the girth of your step-step).

If you plan to create a fortified ale, it is important to realize that if alcohol is used (say, a cheap rum, herbally affected or not) to enhance the inebriatory qualities of your ale, it will be necessary to force carbonate your beverage by the use of a beer keg of some sort.  The reason for this is that when the alcohol level of the beer increases with the addition of a hard liquor to the mixture, the yeast that normally causes the carbonation effect is killed.  I have found the use of a Cornelius keg to be handy when making fortified ales at home.  Common among home brewers, the Cornelius keg offers, at a reasonable price, a great chance to try fortifying one’s own ale while maintaining a proper level of carbonation in the beverage in question.

If you have a home bar, and you are a home brewer, a fortified ale can be a great addition to your selection of seasonal ales.  A brandy enhanced amber ale for fall, perhaps?  How about a winter stout with the extra zing of mint schnapps?  I find that one liter of 80 proof alcohol enhances the five gallon home brew batch quite effectively.  I recommend adding to this liter an herbal admixture of some kind to make your fortified ale truly special.  If you are brewing for summer, an apricot, cherry, strawberry, or apple infused rum could add that special something you are looking for.  The method of fortifying ales with special liquor is one that is seldom practiced among home or craft brewers – a chance to try something unique and different.

Many microbrewers these days are trying all kinds of admixtures for their ales, from Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown (Highly recommended), to Laguinitas with their Brown Suggah (made with molasses, very strong), to New Belgium’s Springboard Ale (fortified with a pinch of wormwood).  There are new concoctions coming out every month, it seems, and the atmosphere is ripe in the craft brewing world to bring forth the next level of unique brews: the fortified ale.