Showing posts with label belgian beer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label belgian beer. Show all posts

Thursday, 3 July 2014

World Cup of Wine Last 16

Some pulsating, epic matches in the last 16 of the World Cup, with five of the eight games going to extra time. In the end, there were no upsets, setting up some heavyweight clashes in the quarter-finals. There was only one direct wine match-up, so I've expanded the competition to allow a comparison between two great beer-producing countries.

Argentina v Switzerland

Argentina: although Argentina has been making and drinking wine for centuries, its emergence as a wine-producing country of international importance is relatively recent. Throughout most of the twentieth century, its wine was cheap and for domestic consumption only, for which there was quite a demand - in the late 1970s, the average Argentinian drank 100 litres of wine a year (now down to around 30 litres). The late 1980s, as Argentina haltingly recovered from years of economic depression and military rule, saw a shift in the wine industry: production was lowered and quality raised to produce wine good - and expensive - enough to export. The success of this initative was led by the popularity of Malbec, at the time a relatively obscure French grape. In Argentina, it grows high up in the Andes, at altitudes of 1,000m or more, ideal for the grape as the cold nights and hot days allow a long ripening season which brings out the qualities not always evident in the more moderate French climate.

Catena Alta Historic Rows Chardonnay 2011 (£18)

Catena
Altitude is all-important for Argentina, enabling a sustainable, viable viticultural environment, and this is even more true for the white varieties than black. This Chardonnay is grown at heights of 1,450m, the cold nights and cooler days allowing a natural acidity to develop in an environment different from the grape's French heartlands. Its been aged in French oak for a long 12-16 months, but is surprisingly lean with a restrained oakiness. A possible glimpse into Argentina's white winemaking future.

Switzerland: it's rare to see Swiss wine; this rich, insular country had strict import laws to protect its industry until fairly recently, meaning that the wine industry existed to serve itself. It does produce quite a bit of wine, though most of the country is too high. Swiss wine is quite different from German or Austrian, as it has lower acidity and greater use of malolactic fermentation, resulting in much softer, creamier wines. Chasselas is a white grape which accounts for up to 60% of total wine production, while the main black grape is Pinot Noir (Blauburgunder).

Domaine Lupin Frangy Roussette de Savoie 2013 (c.£13)

As I didn't expect Switzerland to get this far into the tournament and to be featuring a Swiss wine, I didn't have time to get hold of one. This wine is made right on the Swiss border in the French area of Savoie; the grape is Roussette, also known as Altesse, the highest quality grape in the region. Although the grape is little grown in Switzerland, the nutty apple creaminess (from a little bit of MLF) of the wine gives an indication at least of what Swiss white wine tastes like at its best. 

wine result lean sophistication from the Argentinian Chardonnay against a fruity creaminess from the substitute wine. Argentina 2-1 Switzerland

actual result a defensive performance from Switzerland nearly paid off, but Argentina pulled off a very late victory thanks to the genius of Lionel Messi. Argentina 1-0 Switzerland (aet)


Belgium v USA

Belgium: Belgian beer is perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most inventive, beer in the world. Although Belgian beer, with its Trappist monastery breweries, may seem very traditional, it's only the last 150 years or so that styles with which we are now familiar have emerged. Having said which, whatever familiarity you feel with Belgian beer will always be upset by the first taste of a lambic or gueuze: these are complex, ageworthy beers to be appreciated in the same way, for instance, vintage Madeira should be.

Saison Dupont (c.£2)

A "saison" is one of the many different styles of Belgian beer, in this case brewed in spring deliberately hoppy and seasoned with herbs in order to be drinkable throughout the long summer months for the workers in the fields. Dupont are the great traditional brewer of saison (although only established in the 1920s) and the standard against which any other saison should be judged: citrus fruits, a balanced bitter hoppiness, an appealing funkiness on the nose, refreshingly dry, delicate yet complex. Particularly recommended with goat's cheese.

USA: the first time I visited the US as an adult, I was in dread of what I would drink while I was there: Coors Light, Miller Draft (sic), Budweiser (sic), and other local variants of some of the worst beer (sic) in the world. The first few hours at a bowling alley confirmed all my worst fears: the only beer available was Budweiser, admittedly in a really cool pin-shaped bottle. Never has it taken so long for me to finish a drink. That still remains the only truly bad beer I've had in the US in the many times I've visited. As I discovered on that same trip thirteen years ago, the US is home to a fantastic, diverse range of microbreweries, which expand year on out and which have been influencing fledging UK breweries for some time. There are now not just American breweries making very dry, hoppy IPAs, for which the country has become known, but ones confident, and good, enough to make beers in the style of whacky, highly imaginative, seemingly inimitable Belgian oak-aged, yeast-affected, funky ales.

Stillwater Stateside Saison (c.£4)

Stillwater are a North Carolina brewery producing really interesting, distinctive Belgian-style beers - I say "Belgian style", but the beers, in their use of yeasts, carbonation, and hops, seem very particular to the brewer. Having said which, this saison (or farmhouse ale, as it's sometimes called in the US) lacked something, a bit of funkiness perhaps. Extremely drinkable, quite hoppy with bready citrus fruits, but missing the complexity I was hoping from it - though I had no goat's cheese at hand.

beer result very interesting to compare two beers of the same style from a traditional and a new brewer - in this case, tradition won. Belgium 2-1 USA

actual result Belgium, a re-emerging football nation full of young players, struggled to exploit the open play of the US but just about came through due to strength in depth. Belgium 2-1 USA (aet)

The World Cup of Wine quarter-finals feature just one game, but what a contest: France v Germany

Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Russian River Brewery

California isn't just about wine, and the first place I visited on my trip was Russian River Brewery, on the recommendation of @drinkaddition who rates it as one of the best American craft breweries there is. The impression he gave me, though, was of a small-scale microbrewery surrounded by upscale wineries, fighting for beer in the middle of wine country. Instead, what I found was a thriving brewpub in the Sonoma town of Santa Rosa; @winebizkid and I had to wait forty minutes to get a table and it was clear everyone was in the mood for beer and not wine. 

This reflects the status of craft beer in the US at the moment. When I visited Portland, Oregon, last September, the crowds at craft breweries and brewpubs were similar: packed with young and old, men and women, all happily exploring flights of beers of intense flavours and extreme styles. American craft brewing isn't just about IPAs, but porters and stouts, wheat beers and blondes, and full-on Belgian-style sours.

In fact, so successful has Russian River Brewery been, it has had to cut back on its availability: demand was too great for it to meet and now it doesn't supply outside of the area, probably explaining why so many are flocking to the brewpub itself. They make too many beers to mention here - we tasted 18 - so I'll just focus on the most representative styles. 

an afternoon's work

IPA

A style which developed in the nineteenth century to preserve beer for long periods of travel, IPA is a dry, hoppy, and sometimes maltier beer than a classic English bitter. An American IPA is even drier and hoppier, with lots of pine nut and grapefruit aromas, with spices coming from the American hops. The two IPAs we sampled were good examples of the American style. Blind Pig IPA (6.75%) was hoppy and very aromatic, with a tangy finish. Pliny the Elder (8%) is the brewery's most popular beer and takes the IPA style to an extreme. They call it a Double IPA, meaning more malt and hops, which gives the beer a very dry finish, with strong pine aromas, and not as fruity. This is a fantastic beer, but that bitter hoppiness is intense. 

My favourite beer, perhaps because it was so English, was the Row 2/Hill 56 (5.8%), made from Simcoe hops from Yakima, Washington (where most American hops are now grown). A pale ale, rather than an IPA, it had many of the characteristics of the above IPAs - grapefruit, pine nuts, a dry, dusty finish - but the hoppiness was more subdued and balanced, making it a great drinking beer. 

Porter/Stout

The difference between porter and stout is a difficult one to distinguish. Part of the confusion comes from the difficulty in defining porter: it's an historic term which has meant different things at different times. It can be brown to dark, hoppy, malty, or neither, medium or high alcohol. If it's black, roasty, and intense, then it may as well be a stout. Stout is more carefully defined - it's a strong black beer - but it's the Irish version that we all think of - made from roasted barley to avoid taxes on malt, making it creamier and more coffee like. 

The OVL Stout (4.5%) was more in this Irish style, with its toast, smoke, roast, and coffee aromas, but its low alcohol meant it was balanced and not too overpowering. Shadow of a Doubt (9.86%), an "Imperial Porter" ("imperial" referring to a higher alcohol beer exported for the Russian monarchy), had that roast coffee flavour, but because of the high alcohol was much sweeter, with caramel and toffee. 

Belgian Style

After my last trip to the US, I wrote about the increasing popularity of "sours" - stinky, funky beers made in a similar manner to lambics in Belgium - so it's no surprise that Russian River make excellent examples in a whole range of styles. The Little White Lie (5%) was a classic Witbier, an historical style dating from the eleventh century when it was the first kind of beer to be hopped. Now, however, the flavours in a Witbier come from spices, as well as the unmalted soft wheat used in the recipe. This Little White Lie had been spiced with bitter orange peel, coriander, and cumin, making it like a creamy, wheaty gin and as ideal for a warm, summer's afternoon.

The rest of the complex range of Belgian-style beers all have similar hard-hitting religious names - Perdition, Damnation, Defenestration, Rejection, Salvation, Sanctification, Supplication, and Consecration. We tasted all of these, but here are my favourites: Salvation (8.75%) is a strong dark ale, with malt, roast, smoke, spice, and lots of complexity, a long, drying finish lingering on to plum flavours. Sanctification (6.75%) is brewed with a long, cool fermentation, using only the funky Brettanomyces yeast. Those stinky aromas were well in balance, with sour citrus flavours. The final two beers were full-on, complex, and mature. Supplication (7%) is aged for 12-15 months in old Pinot Noir barrels alongside sour cherries; the long ageing allows different yeasts - Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus (the latter two yeasts really contribute to any stinky, old-sock aromas in a beer) - to develop. The last and most complex beer of the extensive line-up was Consecration (10%), aged for 4-8 months in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels, with the same putrid yeasts. Whereas the Pinot Noir flavours in the Supplication were masked by the sour cherries, the Cabernet aromas were apparent - tobacco, cedar, spice, and dried fruits (the beer had been aged with currants in the barrels).

While waiting for our table, I popped into the nearby Barnes & Noble and purchased a copy of Tasting Beer: An Insider's Guide to the World's Greatest Drink by Randy Mosher (real name, I can only assume). Perusing this book while tasting 18 beers in a range of styles traditionally made all over Europe and the USA was education brought to life. Going to beer school on a Saturday afternoon is a lot less like detention and more like a whole lot of fun.