BN Army Blog

Sour is the New Bitter

John Reed — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:38:01 EST

It's late afternoon in the middle of January, and it's raining. Business as usual for the residents of Vancouver, Washington. I'm headed south on I-5 to Portland, Oregon. I am on my way home, to the east about three and a half hours near the arid Yakima Valley - hop country. Strangely enough, hop country doesn't have much in the way of beer. One would picture a big, German-style lodge in the middle of hop fields where one could get wiener-schnitzel and a Saaz'd up pilsner or perhaps a drunken polka party, but that in no way shape or form exists in America's largest hop growing region.

The sun is beginning to set and I have to be at work tomorrow at 7:00am. I really need to get home. This has been a 'family duty' trip to Vancouver, up and back in one day. There is an exit just over the Columbia River bridge into Portland that takes me east along the Columbia River and into the Eastern Washington and Oregon desert - or should I stay on I-5 and follow my sense of irresponsibility into Portland? It really pulls on the heart strings of a beer geek to simply pass through Portland without stopping, with the knowledge that a plethora of beer innovation waits to be had.

Cut to me sitting at Cascade Brewing Barrel House with a lamb shepherds pie and a flight of sour beer. I would like to have a full pint of each, but I simply do not have the time or good enough luck to keep me from getting popped for DUI. Anyway, a flight plus one is certainly better than nothing.

Kriek (a cherry lambic) and other cherry creations fill the the better part of Cascade's sour ale bill, while cranberry, blackberry, blueberry, apricot, and grapes round out the rest of the fruit-infused brews. My appreciation for cherry flavor in beverages has come a long way, but I'm still not a huge fan - mostly due to a certain cherry-flavored Pfizer product that my friends and I drank too much of back in the 80s. 25 years later, cherry flavor tweaks my dormant Robo-nerve and gives me flashbacks. Despite this hang-up, the Sang Noir (a bourbon barrel Bing cherry sour) is very complex and flavorful. It is billed as a double Northwest red and aged for over a year in pinot noir and whiskey barrels, and it was simply amazing. Non-fruit sour ales are well represented and two of my absolute favorites are the gose and Gold Yeller, a bright ale that is a sour blend of triples, quads, and golden. Gold Yeller is very tart, without being over the top - expertly balanced.

Why is BJCP style 17 so under-represented? Only a handful of breweries will even make a sour beer, and even then it's typically only a one-off special something. I find well made sours to be mind-expanding, opening up the senses to new possibilities. Sours are a cure for writers block and, I'm sure, certain types of cancer. It has to cure something. If nothing else, it seems to cure my winter blues - at least for a while.

SF Beer Week 2012 Opening Weekend

Moscow — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:36:52 EST

SF Beer Week 2012 kicked off with another epic Opening Celebration, this time at the Concourse Exhibition Center in downtown San Francisco. Perhaps the most concentrated mass of Bay Area beer ever assembled, specialty and otherwise impossible-to-find brews were available in every corner of the room, from quadruple IPAs to sour stouts. The crowd was huge and energetic, but it somehow never overwhelmed the space.

Two days later, we crashed Sour Sunday at Triple Rock Alehouse and Jupiter in Berkeley. As usual, it featured one of the most impressive arrays of sour beers we've ever seen in one place. In only its third year, Sour Sunday has become the place to be during SF Beer Week.

Mohawks Make Beer

John Reed — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:01:50 EST

27 years ago, at the age of 15, I discovered something that dramatically changed my life: punk rock. The genre was 10 years old at the time. I had missed out on The Clash and The Sex Pistols, although their legacy lived on just as it does today. It was much more than just the music - it was a fraternity of sorts, and because of it, I still have life-long friends (and even my wife). What we did, what we looked like, and what we listened to back then was not popular and was absolutely not accepted as anything legitimate. It was pre-internet and pre-cell phone - an extremely isolated existence when compared to today's standards.

Being a punk kid in small town America in the 1980s was self-defeating at best. There was little to do outside of the self-made local punk bands and self-made punk shows at any place that would allow 50 - 100 kids all dressed like bums to run around in circles and hit each other (that's how I imagine the uninitiated would have interpreted it).

When there was no show to attend, the evening activity usually involved a desolate wooded area and cheap Lucky Lager, while during the day we found ourselves at the local mall. The mall offered all sorts of people of all ages and every walk of life, but we could pick out our friends from great distances through the mass of shoppers. The taller the mohawk, the further away they could be identified. Even if we had never met them before, we knew they were one of us and a friend. The funny haircut and clothes were like a secret handshake or a special ring. Upon meeting up with friends, we would proceed to have a peaceful sit-in in the middle of the mall floor. Shoppers would have to walk around us and scowled as they walked by; security would shoo us away time and again. The sit-ins always made me uncomfortable and, to this day, I have no idea why they were necessary.

As the decades have passed, I find myself no longer playing in a band and despising the very thought of walking into a mall. I have found solace in my family, friends, and homebrewing. Homebrewing has the camaraderie element via other members of the local homebrew club, and I have found that sharing my beer with friends or winning awards at competitions offers the same gratification and recognition that performing music in front of a live audience once did. The made-from-scratch and anything-goes nature of homebrewing is very much like what I remember of the punk rock scene. The people involved are obsessive, focused, love to share ideas, and are typically very warm and inviting to newcomers.

Today I was browsing my friends on Facebook and I realized something - there are 50 or more friends whom I have never met or talked to before. Their profile photos do not sport fan mohawks or Billy Idol-esque sneers. Instead, their photos feature a pint of homebrewed stout in their hand, or hops harvested from their backyards. They write interesting posts and money saving tips, all related to beer and brewing. I have realized that Facebook is the mall, and homebrewing is just like punk rock - but with fewer piercings, and much better beer.

Winter Brews Festival 2012

Moscow — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:25 EST

The beer was flowing and the crowd brought it strong at the 3rd Annual Winter Brews Festival on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Concord, California.

Everyone was treated to a rousing Jimi Hendrix tribute from Ralph Woodson and Purple Haze, as well as a great set from Bay Area fivesome Forrest Day.

Tasty's Tasting Room was back in action, pouring more than 20 different beers courtesy of some of the best homebrewers from the Bay Area and beyond.

Post Session 01-15-12: Destihl Brew Works

Moscow — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:24:45 EST

This week's episode of The Session features brewmaster Matt Potts and cellarman Mark Tilley of Destihl Restaurant & Brew Works. With two Illinois locations, Destihl has been attracting attention for their un-blended series of sours, as well as the more than 50 styles of house beers on tap at their brewpubs throughout the year. The show goes on to cover hops utilization in the whirlpool, an interview with Jeff O'Neil about his recent transition to New York's Peekskill Brewery, and some great calls for DOTW.