Monday evening at my local, around 5:30pm. It’s not crowded, and I know almost everyone in here. I shake hands, exchange some chitchat, then grab a stool. Leaning across the bar, I pick my pint from today’s taps.

One of the greatest appeals of an American pub is that it’s the grown-up version of the ice cream shop. You have to choose from a lot of flavors, knowing you can’t really go wrong, but intent on selecting the taste that willprovide the absolute maximum of enjoyment. As in a Baskin-Robbins, a good pub will give you a taste; they know that, even after a full ten hours at work, this might be your most important decision of the day.

Today, I go English, picking a Fuller’s London Porter, and my eyes get a bit wider as the bartender serves me my pint of black beer. A bit of cream-colored head just makes it over the rim and down the side of the glass. I raise my glass to my barmates, the executive chef of a well-known area restaurant and his wife, as well as my “Co-Author” Bruce.

With each silky sip of my Fuller’s, I sinkmore deeply into my environment. It’s sweet, full-bodied, a bit nutty, with none of the astringency in the finish that turns me off to many porters. It’s a poignant reminder that England is the birthplace of some very impressive beer styles. Compared to many American interpretations of porter, the Fuller’s London Porter is… softer around the edges; less brash, with subtler flavor. The sweetness of the malt and the hops’ bitterness don’t crash against each other. Each sip is a treat. Maybe this is the perfect beer for the perfect moment.

If only there were more of those.

-Mark

Well, it’s time for one of the best beer festivals in the country, the BeerAdvocate Belgian Beer Festival in Boston, Massachusetts.

Bruce will be attending, pouring three of the beers he brewed for the Rohrbach Brewing Company. I will not be attending. Because my wife has planned a Finger Lakes wine tour for us. And she was incredibly attached to the date of Saturday, September 27. So instead of taking part in one of the great beer fests as an exhibitor, I’ll be doing something we can do any friggin’ weekend. Awesome.

My car, however, is making the trip. Bruce is using the Honda Element to carry his kegs. In the meantime, I’m driving his smelly-ass diesel VW Golf. Christ, all that thick black smoke and those fumes; It’s like driving the nation of Romania.

If you didn’t prepurchase tickets to this festival, you’re fucked, but be advised that some of the world’s great brewers will be out on the prowl in Boston’s finer beer bars (Bukowski’s over by the Boylston Street Hilton seems to be a favorite hangout), so maybe you can talk beer with the pros.

For my part, all I can do is point you to my take on last year’s festival and dream about everything I will not get to taste this time around.

I hope my wife doesn’t read this; at least not until after the wine tour.

-Mark

A brewer/scientist at CalPoly has successfully activated, and brewed beer with, 45 million year old yeast. He says it’s spicy.  I wonder if there’s a “born-on” date on his bottles?

Something sweet and strong
By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish

It is time once again for fair summer to furl her golden sails, giving way to the languid, melancholy embrace of fall. Ok, enough poetry, let’s talk about beer.

Given the change of the season, you’re probably expecting us to drone on about harvest ales and fall seasonals. Well too bad. This week, we’re going to discuss Scotch ale, a year-round style that just happens to be perfect for autumn.

“Wee Heavy,” as Scotch ale is also called, is a sweet, chewy, high-alcohol style that warms you and fills you up. Hop bitterness is usually low, probably because hops traditionally don’t do so well in the Scottish climate.

While characteristics can vary from brewery to brewery, the common traits that make up the Scotch Ale style include a dark brownish, color from roasted malt, little detectable hop bitterness or aroma, and carmelization caused by a long boiling time, which gives Wee Heavy its distinct sweet, earthy flavor. These flavor traits make scotch ale a good choice for people who haven’t cultivated a taste for more bitter beers.

The classic example of the style is McEwans, which comes over to us direct from Edinburgh.  It’s a deep brown, serious beer. You can taste the alcohol in every sip, but it mellows into a toffee finish.

Unsurprisingly, this is a favorite style for American Indie brewers to make. Rohrbach Scotch Ale has been a staple in the Rochester, NY craft beer scene since 1993, and it remains the brewery’s best-selling beer.

Rohrbach Scotch bucks the trend a bit. The taste and aroma are pretty complex, a little smoky, with a hint of espresso. It’s on the dry side, with a light but evident hop character, yet that doesn’t clash with a slight sweetness in the finish.

Middle Ages Brewing, in sunny Syracuse, NY, also makes a fine Scotch ale. Kilt Tilter clocks in at a whopping 9% ABV, and balances all that strength with a robust, nutty body. There’s a hint of butterscotch and plenty of caramel with a pleasant, creamy consistency.

Dozens more Scotch ales dot beer store shelves in the area. We’d encourage you to try them all, just not at the same time, lest you, dear drinker, end up caramelized as well.

In Other Beers
The High Falls Brewery is holding weekend adult hayrides throughout October to promote Dundee Oktoberfest beer. “We wanted a fun way to bring the country to the city,” explains High Falls’ Jennifer McCauley.

The hayrides, which will take place every Saturday in October, begin at Abilene, on Liberty Pole Way, with a 6:30pm beer and brat party. At 8pm, the horse-drawn haycarts will move out, stopping at Salinger’s, Monty’s Korner, The Old Toad, Acme Pizza, Oxford’s and Jeremiahs. The carts will run all night, so you can get hop on and hop off as you like.

The pre-sale price is $35, which includes four drink vouchers good for any Dundee beer at any stop along the route. You can also join up with the hayride in progress.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http:://www.beercraftsite.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.

I’ve been heralding the Rochester Beer Renaissance for quite some time now. 2007-2008 marked an explosion in craft and import beer availability, variety, and customer enlightenment. To mangle the words of Winston Churchill: Never before has so much been available to so many who actually knew how good it was. But business is business, and because of that we Rochester beer lovers are a bit worse off.

but the sheer impersonal machinations of business have put a bit of the dark ages into our Rennaissance. Beer commonly gets to you, dear consumer, via the three-tier system; a brewermakes the beer, a distributor brings it to the retail points, and they in turn sell it to you. These distributors handle dozens, sometimes hundreds of brands, and often lack the sheer manpower to give each individual brand the attention its creators and consumers would like. Instead, they focus on their best-sellers at the expense of lighter volume movers.

Beer Lover’s Paradise was the distributor that brought many of the rarest and most interesting beers to Rochester. Now that they’ve been sold to the much larger, Syracuse-based T.J. Sheehan (primarily an Anheuser-Busch distributor), many of those beers are disappearing as publicans’ stocks run dry.

Last night, I had my last Jever Pils at the Tap and Mallet. Chris, the bartender, expressed doubt about ever getting Jever again.

Now Sheehan does distribute craft beers, and some damn good ones. I know the sales guy and he’s a good egg who loves good beer, but there’s no denying that  the distributor level is the choke point that can make or murder the craft beer movement. Without them, bar and store owners and breweries must develop dozens of individual arrangements in a process that’s simply to cumbersome for establishments that carry more than a few brands.

I guess my point is, go out and find great beer. Enjoy it, but don’t take it for granted. You never know when you’ve tasted the last drops of a brew you love.

-Mark

It’s taken forever, but beer from Cleveland’s Great Lakes Brewing Company is now available on the shores of Lake Ontario as well. It’s for sale at Hegedorn’s, Beers of the World, and finer pubs throughout the Rochester area. My pick: The Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold. It’s got plenty of body, yet enough of a “quaffability factor” to refresh as well.

GLDG is currently on draft at the Tap & Mallet, but probably not for too long. I’ll do my part to assist in its disappearance.

-Mark

Homebrewers can be a competitive bunch. Some challenge themselves to recreate classic styles or replicate well-known commercial beers. Others constantly strive to invent something new. And many enter competitions that resemble dog shows, but with beer.

At these events, entries are judged by a panel and prizes are awarded acordingly. But not just anyone can be a beer judge. Nope. You have to take a course, and it’s freakin’ hard!

Beer judges are certified through the BJCP, which stands for Beer Judge Certification Program, which offers a comprehensive exam on beer styles. To pass the test, candidates must know their stlye guidelines inside and out, and be able to identify beers and the individual flavor components theirein by taste alone.

Let’s take a look at exactly how pedantic the BJCP can be. Here’s the complete style guidline for American wheat ale:

Aroma: Low to moderate grainy wheat or rye character. Some malty sweetness is acceptable. Esters can be moderate to none, although should reflect American yeast strains. The clove and banana aromas common to German hefeweizens are inappropriate. Hop aroma may be low to moderate, and can have either a citrusy American or a spicy or floral noble hop character. Slight crisp sharpness is optional. No diacetyl.

Appearance: Usually pale yellow to gold. Clarity may range from brilliant to hazy with yeast approximating the German hefeweizen style of beer. Big, long-lasting white head.

Flavor: Light to moderately strong grainy wheat or rye flavor, which can linger into the finish. Rye versions are richer and spicier than wheat. May have a moderate malty sweetness or finish quite dry. Low to moderate hop bitterness, which sometimes lasts into the finish. Low to moderate hop flavor (citrusy American or spicy/floral noble). Esters can be moderate to none, but should not take on a German Weizen character (banana). No clove phenols, although a light spiciness from wheat or rye is acceptable. May have a slightly crisp or sharp finish. No diacetyl.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light to medium body. Medium-high to high carbonation. May have a light alcohol warmth in stronger examples.

Overall Impression: Refreshing wheat or rye beers that can display more hop character and less yeast character than their German cousins.

Comments: Different variations exist, from an easy-drinking fairly sweet beer to a dry, aggressively hopped beer with a strong wheat or rye flavor. Dark versions approximating dunkelweizens (with darker, richer malt flavors in addition to the color) should be entered in the Specialty Beer category. THE BREWER SHOULD SPECIFY IF RYE IS USED; IF NO DOMINANT GRAIN IS SPECIFIED, WHEAT WILL BE ASSUMED.

Ingredients: Clean American ale yeast, but also can be made as a lager. Large proportion of wheat malt (often 50% or more, but this isn’t a legal requirement as in Germany). American or noble hops. American Rye Beers can follow the same general guidelines, substituting rye for some or all of the wheat. Other base styles (e.g., IPA, stout) with a noticeable rye character should be entered in the Specialty Beer category (23).

That’s one. For the record, there are something like 80 styles to memorize by sight, smell, taste and mouthfeel.

Most people don’t undertake the arduous journey to beer judgedom alone. They study in groups. Membership in the Upstate New York Homebrewers’ Association (UNYHA) gets you into their BJCP certification study group, which meets once a month to focus on a particular category, covering several individual styles. You get to drink beer, talk about beer, and share thoughts and impressions.

Sure, it’s a tough road, but, much as is the case with the Bar Exam or a Ph.D. dissertation defense, great rewards await in the end. It might be the academic’s choice for drinking one’s way to a more fulfilling life.

And no, beer judges don’t make any money.

-Mark

Bruce Lish texted me today that I’d better get my ass over to the Rohrbach Brewing Company and photograph his self-planted hops before he picks them. I’m glad I did. The cones are huge, fragrant, oozing with lupulin and practically falling off the vines. They’e going into the seasonal Harvest Ale, and this time Bruce is going to give Rochester hopheads what they’ve been clamoring for: a big ass, in-your-face double IPA. The homegrown New York State hops are the icing on a very bitter cake.

This is a departure for Bruce since he returned to the Rohrbach kettles; he’d been expressing his love of rare German styles as of late. The Koelsch brewed for new cafe Lovin’ Cup can’t be delivered fast enough to keep up with demand, and now there’s an Altbier on deck, brewed with longtime German deli Swan Market in mind.

He let me try the Alt, although it’s still in secondary fermentation and not yet filtered. It’s pretty much bang on to style, perhaps a little more bitter due to its lack of maturation time. There’s a slight sweetness and a nutty body that holds up even as the beer quenches. This is going to be a popular one.

Still, the seasons change, and people have certein expectations. At the time of my visit, Lish was hard at work calculating out the figures for a pumpkin ale. I’m good for… about one of those per season. But knowing Bruce, the pumpkin won’t overwhelm, as if some jerk shoved a slice of pie in your glass.

Personally, I can’t wait to taste that DIPA.

-Mark

The folks at Magic Hat were kind enough to send us a sample of their Fall Odd Notion 2008. This time around, it’s Participation Lager, and it’s a nice addition to MH’s iconoclastic beer portfolio.

Resplendent in red, white, and blue packaging, Partcipation’s label claims to “provoke political discussion.” In my experience, most beers have the ability to do this, sometimes also provoking political screaming, political shoving, and a gloriously partisan punch in the teeth. At any rate, I was alone when I tried it, and people tend to look askance at political discussions with oneself, unless one is wearing a ‘bluetooth’ headset.

At any rate, this is a good beer. The ‘Hatters nailed the pre-prohibition lager style, leaving just enough ‘beeriness’ to make Participation’s flavor familiar to fans of  American macro beer. The inclusion of corn in the grain bill connects this pre-pro style craft beer to the  mainstream beers of today, but the hop bite should open some eyes as to how refreshing craft beer can be. It’s a bit lighter in color than other pre-prohibition style lagers like Sam Adams and Brooklyn, butI’m sure that, prior to prohibition, the thousands of beers in this country came in a dizzying variety of colors anyway.

Participation Lager is aptly named. I plan to do my part. This is one beer in which I will vigorously participate.

-Mark

Well, actually, there’s only 1 girl who owns this brand, spankin’ new coffee bar/bistro in RIT’s college town development (a Wilmorite property). Leslie, who used to work behind the bar at the Tap and Mallet, just realized her dream along with her dude, Eric.

Lovin’ Cup is nice. Lovin’ Cup is artsy. Lovin’ Cup is huge. And the sammiches are tasty, provided you can stomach all the bad pun menu item titles. But, most important, Lovin’ Cup will be the exclusive distribution point for one of the best beers in the City.

Bruce Lish (my theoretical writing partner, and brewer at the Buffalo Road Rohrbach) is making their house beer. The style is Koelsch, the traditional, light-bodied German ale made only in the city of Cologne.

If you’ve had Gaffel Koelsch, it’s kinda like that, but a bit more fruity, with more bitter in the finish.  “I wanted to make a Koelsch that tastes like it’s just been released from the brewery,”Lish said. “Not like a Koelsch that was brewed and shipped over from Germany, then stored in a warehouse.”

Lovin’ Cup just got their liquor license yesterday, and the kegs are being delivered today. If all goes right, ten tap lines, including the house Koelsch, will be up and pouring tomorrow. Trust me, this beer is fantastic. Kudos to Eric and Leslie for making a wise business decision.

-Mark