Hoegaarden Witbier

Most of us in the states are familiar with Celis White, Peter Celis’ witbier from his brewery in Austin, Texas. Inbev bought the Hoegaarden brewery from Celis, which resulted in the move to Texas. You may recall that InBev now owns Annheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser. And Celis is now owned by Miller (which is in turn owned by a South African company). So much for small breweries staying small. Wikipedia has the whole story, of course.

At any rate, it’s not that often that I see Hoegaarden’s witbier on a beer menu. Usually, it’s Celis White or a local hefeweizen. Not at the Press Club where I ended up for lunch today. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever had the Hoegaarden version.

It’s a very pale – think ginger ale – slightly cloudy beer as you’d expect from a wit. After pouring, it retains a nice thin foam on top, with champagne-like bubbles. Good champagne, not cheap brut. The aroma is of yeast, coriander, and spice with a little citrus tartness thrown in. The flavor is much like the aroma, crisp and pretty refreshing, though the yeastiness keeps the beer from being too light. It’s a great lunch time beer – not heavy, not too alcoholic, better than a sweet soda or some plain old water.

To be honest, I’m not sure I could tell this from Celis White, though I think it’s maybe a little lighter and more refined in the end. In the grand scheme of choosing beer based on speciality or location, both are owned by megacorporations, so it’s a no-win proposition. I’d just pick whichever is least expensive and available.

Elysian Brewing’s Night Owl Pumpkin Ale

I don’t usually like pumpkin ales. They can be over-spiced, or weirdly tangy and heavy on citrus flavors, or just downright gross and better used as a marinade for meat than a beer for drinking. Elysian’s Night Owl is the rare exception to the rule!

It’s a gorgeous, clear copper with citrus, anise, and clove aromas. The brewers at Elysian actually use pumpkin and roasted pumpkin seeds in the brewing! I think the secret to their success is that they add the spices in the conditioning rather than in the mash. There’s no bitter too-much-cinnamon flavor at all.

If you think this will be a sweet, heavy beer, guess again. It’s crisp, medium-bodied like an amber ale, with a malty touch to the finish and arom that’s balanced by the slight tang of hops and spices. It has a finely-carbonated mouthfeel – not too velvety, not too bubbly. And there’s no bitter or sweet aftertaste, just a hint of malt and hops with a slightly estery edge.

This is a great beer in the bottle, but an awesome beer on tap if you can find it. It’s crisp and refreshing like a fall evening, but warm and cozy like a night next to the fire. Next October, I’m going to try to head to Seattle for the Great Pumpkin Beer Festival at Elysian Brewing.

Bring on the fall and winter seasonals

While it may have been sunny and 70 in Portland last week (freakish!), some of my favorite seasonal beers are available again despite the unseasonably warm weather.

I found Bridgeport Brewing’s Ebenezer on sale for $6.99, so of course I had to buy some. Bad news: this isn’t a great Ebenezer year. The brew has an every-other-year success rate as far as I can tell, and this year the beer has a strangely bitter tangy finish that wasn’t there last year. I’ve tried it with sweet foods, savory foods, cheese, you name it – nothing clears out the strange finish. It seems to be at its best tonight… and I burned half the tastebuds on my tongue on some hot soup a few hours ago. Sorry, Bridgeport!

New Belgium’s 2º Below was on sale for $13.99/case, so I couldn’t resist! The good news is that 2 Below is every bit as delicious this year as last year. Not too heavy, not too sweet, a little caramely and malty in the finish, a hint of cream soda flavor but not so much that it’s weird. It’s really well balanced, like a crisp fall night with the scent of wood smoke in the air. I could drink this all night long! And I sure won’t waste any on my burned tastebuds tonight.

And of course, there’s Elysian’s Night Owl pumpkin ale. Yum! I don’t even like pumpkin beer, but this one is just so darn good that it surpasses the nature of the style and sets a new standard of deliciousness. That one warrants a review all its own.

I haven’t gotten around to buying any Deschute’s Jubelale yet, but it’s never my favorite seasonal. There’s something too hoppy and floral about it for my palate.

I’ll have more seasonal favorites soon, as fall has just begun and there’s plenty of great beer to try this season.

Nut-brown bottled

I’ve never “cellared” a beer after fermentation, but that’s what this nut-brown recipe called for, so I did it. Usually, fall is a great time to stick a carboy of beer in the garage for a 55-degree cellaring treatment. Of course, not this year! No, it’s been between 65-72 in Portland for the last two weeks, which is freakishly warm for October. The beer ended up cellaring at 58-62, which I hope is good enough. My biggest concern is that any remaining yeast won’t have the strength to consume the corn sugar and carbonate the beer in the bottles. But we’ll see!

It’s also interesting how different a beer smells on first siphoning it from the carboy to the bottling bucket – very yeasty and almost musky – from how it smells after you add the corn sugar and the beer gets a little air. After adding sugar, the nut-brown started to have nutty aromas that didn’t exist before. Wacky!

Now I wait a couple of weeks for the beer to condition and carbonate, then I’m ready to drink it! Here’s hoping it’s a toast to Change and not to Mavericks…

Nut Brown and Cider a-fermenting

‘Tis the season for making awesome hard cider! I bought 5 gallons of fresh cider from our local Apple Festival and 3lbs of honey from some nice folks at the Farmer’s Market. Just add yeast and soon I’ll have tasty cider. I’ve opted for a champagne yeast and wildflower honey (a nice savory amber) this time, hoping it’ll come out tart and dry. Even the garage is the perfect temperature for cellaring it during fermentation — it just hit 55 degrees and will likely hold that through November. I omit campden tablets from my cider because sulfites give Kathy a headache, and it’s nice to have a gluten-free and sulfite-free offering for guests.

I also determined last week that there aren’t enough brown ales on the market, which means it’s time to make more of my own. I’m trying a new recipe from Charlie Papazian’s Microbrewed Adventures for Puritanical Nut Brown Ale. It promises to be carmely and smooth, with a nutlike flavor, roasted chocolate maltiness, and soft mouthfeel. Sounds good to me! Next month I’ll know if it turns out as advertised.

And of course, that blackberry mead is still going strong…