FOR THE NEWLY HATCHED BEER CHICK

During a very interesting 3 hour discussion with one of my best friends today, the topic of beer came up. Imagine that. Kind of like that conversation you have with your friends about the first time you did it, we started discussing the first time we ever had a craft brew, and why we started drinking it in the first place.

The first microbrew my friend remembers drinking was Fat Tire from New Belgium. (This was several years ago!) He said that he started drinking it, not so much for the taste, but more for the fact that it made him seem different, like he wasn't just going along with what the commercials aimed at his demographic told him that he should be drinking. The first artisanal beer that I loved was Lost Coast Great White. I drank that one, because, at the time I hated bitter beers (My, how things change.)

We came up with a list of five American craft beers that we thought would make great starter beers for those of you who are new to the world of craft beer. These are baby steps into the world of great beer that you can safely take when you feel like differentiating yourself but not getting too extreme.


Lost Coast Great White, Eureka, CA:
I mentioned before that this was my first starter beer! This is a Belgian style white ale. It's a wheat beer that is fermented with lemongrass. I've talked about this beer before, because it's delicious, refreshing and will introduce your palate to new flavors in beer. Light and bright mouthfeel, this beer is the bees knees.
4.8% ABV.

Victory Prima Pils, Downingtown, PA:
This is an effing great beer. Light in color and body, crisp and dry. This beer has good hops, but has a good balance. Just the right amount of bitterness with some herbaceous notes. Its a totally drinkable, clean beer. You'll be starting on a high note with this one.
5.3% ABV.

Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Newport, OR:
This beer sounds scarier than it is. If you are looking for something that may be a little bit on the sweeter side, this is your starter beer. This is a delicious dopplebock style beer with hints of caramel and toffee. Still light-bodied enough to avoid being cloying, I've turned several women on to beer with this recommendation!
6.5% ABV

Deschutes Mirror Pond, Bend, OR: This beer is a nice, decent American Pale Ale. Its got a bit of grapefruit rind citrus on the nose that's balanced out by some woody, toasty dryness. This actually reminds me more of an ESB and finished with a touch of honey. It's a simple, well-balanced, easy to drink beer.
5.5% ABV.

Allagash White Portland, ME:
This is a complex beer - but the neophyte can get it too. Like the Great White, this beer is a Belgian style white ale or witbier brewed with wheat. But this one sticks to tradition brewing with coriander and curacao bitter orange peel. This beer is delicious and has a beginning, a distinct middle and a fabulous finish.
5.0% ABV.

Written by The Beer Chick, September 7, 2008

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The Session #17Better Late Than Never

"The Session," which has been deemed as "a monthly virtual beer tasting" is hosted by a different blogger each month, and each month has a different theme chosen by the host. And each month, really rad beer bloggers and brewers and authors join in. I don't really belong, but since this month's subject is about going against the grain and drinking anti-seasonally, I thought I'd give it a try.


Okay, so I'm going to try writing this session thing again. And its funny that this time the subject should be drinking anti-seasonally. Or should we just go with the broader picture and say non-conformity as it relates to beer. The reason why its funny is because I've only posted on one other Session out of the 16 previous Sessions, even though I've really wanted to join in and even though I very responsibly have "Blog the Session" repeating on my google calendar on the first Friday of every month. I'm having a moment of clarity and its apparent to me now that I hate authority, even my own.

As a matter of fact, now that I'm thinking about it, I probably started drinking craft beer to be a non-conformist. It wasn't conscious at the time, but now, looking back, I definitely wanted to differentiate myself from the cosmo drinking, "I'll just have something lite," girls I constantly found myself competing with. Big beers made me tougher, stronger, cooler - Belgians made me smarter, more sophisticated, more complicated than those stupid lollipop heads.

Hell, only five years ago, just being a beer drinking female living in this vast city of salad eaters, I was sadly considered, "unique" or even worse, "interesting." Now things have changed dramatically, which is awesome. And I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to say with all of this other than anti-seasonal?..anti-conformity?..its been that way my whole beer drinking life. And to tell you the truth, the beer drinkers and brewers that I know are the biggest group of non-conformists I've ever met. Every one of them.

So, anti-seasonal beer drinking? I like drinking a Yulesmith in July at Lucky Baldwins as much as the next person; and I will down a Maibock anytime of year. But perhaps the more shocking fact is my guilty confession that my anti-conformity / anti-craft beer rules beer is one from my childhood (err..early adulthood,) from the town I was born in and raised near. When its cold out and the skies are gray...I keep one beer in the fridge for particularly depressive episodes: the beer that will wake me up from even my deepest winter doldrums - one single bottle of Budweiser. There, I said it...effing sue me.

One taste of it and I'm 16 (err... 21) again and I'm back sitting on my floating dock on our lake, with Richard Marx on the radio, and Coppertone, and my boyfriend Rob trying to get me to skinny dip. Ah, the days before I knew better about a lot of things - the days before I discovered complicated Belgians and Guns-n-Roses. It always reminds me not only of how innocent I was (aside from the underage drinking - and the skinny-dipping,) but how far I've come!

And.... Scene.

The Most Expensive Beer in the World

Well, the Alstrom brothers, who in their magazine - Beer Advocate - recently wrote a scathing article titled "Pay no more than $5" referring to the increasing cost of beer - well their heads are probably exploding over this one.

Behold, the most expensive beer in the world, Jacobsen Vintage No. 1. This beer is 2800 Danish Krone. Which today is the equivalent of ... wait for it.... wait for it....

Five hundred and Eighty Three Dollars - Almost Six HUNDRED dollars!

Only 600 (I'm assuming diamond) bottles of this 10.5% abv barleywine have been brewed and in a very short time the expensive brew has become a topic of heated discussion between beer connoisseurs and journalists alike. Could this beer be that good? Is this just a publicity stunt?

Truth be told, I don't understand what could be so special about this beer. Is the water source the tears of angels or something? The brewers say that its as the only contemporary beer that has ever been matured in J.C. Jacobsen's original crypt-like cellar from 1847. That the beer is matured for six months in new Swedish and new French oak barrels. "The project started as a wild idea and a wish to create a new type of beer that had never been seen before. During the aging process in new barrels, lots of chemical processes take place. Not all reactions are known but they taste wonderful," says Jens Eiken, Head Brewer at Jacobsen.

Again, according to the brewers, because I haven't tasted it, the beer has flavors of vanilla, smoke, caramel, dark fruits and port. "The bitterness is soft and intriguing. During the production and aging of the barleywine, Maillard reactions are continuously caused which adds caramel, nut and yeast aromas to the beer. In Jacobsen Vintage, you can taste different personalities in the beer in the form of Maillard, Schiff, Amador and Strecker." (Uh...what? Yeah, these names are all chemical reactions that can produce various aromatics and flavor compounds.)

Maybe its the artwork. Each bottle of Jacobsen Vintage No. 1 is labeled with an original hand stilled lithographic print made by the Danish artist Frans Kannik. The prints depict fables of Sif. Sif was married to the Nordic god Thor, who was often used by Carls Jacobsen as a symbol of strength.

Reading this back, I really don't mean to be snotty about this. To me, though...beer is supposed to be accessible. That's the draw. That's what I love about it. I'm not trying to be cheap. I don't prescribe to the Alstrom bros. $5 dollars a pint thing, hell, I'll even shell out $50 for a big bottle of some of the best beers in the world. But the point that I always make when I compare beer to wine is that even if you are drinking the best beers in the world, you are not paying the same kind of prices that you do for wine.

It has been reported that the reason that this beer is so expensive is that with such limited production, the beer wouldn't be exported from Denmark, where the beer is still a rare commodity. (It's primarily only sold in three high-end restaurants in Copenhagen.) Still, Gayot.com pointed out that Jacobsen Vintage No. 1 "costs 357 times more than Carlsberg’s main lager brand, Carlsberg Beer. Over the next two years, Carlsberg plans to follow up their upmarket foray by releasing two new, similarly priced creations."

I'm sure that this beer is a heavenly experience. I'd love to try it one day. But I hope that this is not the price trend that the beer world starts to follow. I'm afraid if that happened, there'd be another kind of micro-brew revolution to write about!

If you try it, tell me about it. I'll drink vicariously through you!