Prior to the invention of welded metal brewing and storage tanks during the Industrial Revolution, beer was commonly fermented and stored in wooden barrels, vats or casks. Unlike the oak favoring of a chardonnay or the charred woodiness of a bourbon or scotch whiskey, the flavor of wood in beer was considered undesirable by many (most all) until quite recently. Brewers over the years have gone to great lengths to keep the wood of these vessels from changing the flavor of or “contaminating” their beer. The use of “brewers pitch” to line barrels and casks was common as was harsh scrubbing of the vats to keep the flavor of the wood from the beer. The oak used to make these vessels was even imported from Eastern Europe where the oak wood from this region was known to impart little flavor to beer. There are some exceptions to this, of course, as untreated wood vessels are an important part of making some of the “sour” beers, like Flemish sours and Lambics.

It’s hard to determine which brewer might have been the first to recognize that wood flavors and the flavors of other liquids that had previously been stored in these vessels could provide to beer. I did, however, find one interesting story that reinforces the notion that sometimes these things happen quite by accident. As the story goes, Scotch whiskey distiller William Grant wanted a beer to fill casks with to enable them to make an “ale cask reserve” whiskey once the beer had been emptied out. The Caledonian brewery in Edinburgh designed and brewed a malty, estery, sweet, not very hoppy beer to give the casks a good foundation for maturing the whiskey in. Once imparting flavor to the casks, the beer was aways meant to be thrown away so that the whiskey could be added and the beer flavor absorbed by the whiskey. But workers at Grant’s distillery sampled the beer, and liked the oaky, vanilla flavors it had picked up from the new wood; so much so that instead of disposing of it, they began keeping it for their own consumption. The “tweaked” version of this original oak-aged brew was eventually launched as Innis & Gunn Oak-Aged Beer.

Today’s brewers are using wood in the brewing/aging process in several different ways. It is fairly common for beer to be aged in barrels that have previously held another alcoholic beverage. Bourbon seems to make up the lion’s share of this practice and quite a few of the beers on Ratebeer’s “Best Beers of 2010” have “bourbon” in their names or commercial descriptions. As I looked through my own Ratebeer ratings, I was somewhat surprised at the small number of bourbon-aged beers I have actually sampled, given their popularity in the marketplace. Although I have not personally sampled them, highly rated beers of this type would include Three Floyds Oak Aged Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout and Cigar City Bourbon Barrel Aged Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout.

Bourbon barrels are not the only ones being used to flavor beer, of course. Some examples of beer being aged in other types of previously used barrels:

• Left Hand Brewing Oak Aged Imperial Stout is aged in oak barrels that previously held Heaven Hill brandy.
• Harviestoun Ola Dubh (12 Year Old) is aged in Highland Park Scotch malt whiskey casks.
• Nørrebro Little Korkny Ale (Niepoort Barrel) is aged in Spanish Port wine barrels.
• Nørrebro Little Korkny Ale (Cognac Barrel) is aged in Cognac barrels.
• De Dolle Oerbier Special Reserva is aged in Bordeaux wine casks.

In addition to the aging of beer in previously used barrels, some brewers are taking advantage of the actual flavor of the wood itself. While the use of oak barrels, chips and essence in the aging of beer is the most common, there are other brewers that are using other, sometimes unusual, types of wood to produce new and interesting flavor pairings. Examples of these wood-aged beers would include:

• Allagash Odyssey which is aged in lightly toasted American oak casks.
• Dogfish Head Immort Ale which is also aged in oak casks.
• For non-oak aging, look to Cigar City Humidor Series Jai Alai Cedar Aged India Pale Ale which is aged with cedar wood.
• On the unusual side, also from Dogfish Head, is Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron which is aged with wood chucks from the Palo Santo “holy tree” from Paraguay.

You don’t have to look very hard at a well-stocked beer store or a decent tap room to find beers of many types which have had their original flavor altered and enhanced through wood aging. Personally, in most cases, I think that this is a change for the better and, given the popularity and high rating that these beers are receiving, a vast majority of serious craft beer drinkers would agree with me.

As spring arrives, so do the beers more appropriate to the season; a return of beers more suited to the warmer weather and a transition between the heavy/alcoholic beers of winter and the much lighter beers of summer. Traditionally these spring beers have included some of the broad category German bockbiers, but also include a number of other beers (depending upon which “expert” you choose to believe); Belgian wits and other wheat beers of various types, fruit beers, Saisons and stouts seem to round out everyone’s list.

Bavarian brewers are famous for their “beer for every season” approach to beer making and there is, in truth, a bockbier for every season except summer. Most bocks are lagers (top-fermented weizenbocks are ales), tend to be darker in color, quite malty and can run anywhere from around 6% ABV to more than 24% ABV; as evidenced by the Utopias Dopplebock by the Boston Beer Company. Typically produced in the fall, when barley and hops are plentiful, these beers are then stored or “lagered” for longer periods of time to produce the mellow drinkability that they are famous for. The types of bock most commonly associated with the spring season are the dopplebocks and the maibocks.

• As the story goes, the hearty dopplebock beers were originally produced by the Paulaner monks around Munich to sustain them during their Lenten fast leading up to Easter. These monk-produced brews first became available commercially about 1780 and were readily embraced by the German beer-loving public. As with this original dopplebock, which these monks called “Salvator”, many names of dopplebocks end in “-ator”. Dopplebocks, literally “double bocks”, tend to be higher in alcohol than their regular cousins, but retain their intense, malt-focused flavors; without much hop bitterness or hop flavor. Examples of dopplebocks would be Ayinger Celebrator, Thomas Hooker Liberator and Brooklyn Brooklynator.
• Maibocks, literally “May bock” and also known as Frühlingsbock (Springtime bock) or Helles/Heller bock, tend to be much lighter in color (almost blonde) and more highly hopped than the traditional bocks. Maibocks are truly a transitional beer which fit nicely in between the winter Starkbier (“strong beer”) season and the summer season when the Helles and Weissbier style beers return to the liter steins of the beer gardens. Examples of maibocks would be Smuttynose Maibock, Rogue Dead Guy Ale and the new Sierra Nevada Glissade Golden Bock.

There are other beers that are considered to be “spring beers”, either because they follow the German tradition of changing seasons or simply because that is when the brewer releases them annually.

• Stouts, Irish stouts in particular, are included in springtime beers mostly due to their association with the March St. Patrick’s Day celebration. These Irish or “dry” stouts typically are very dark in color and lower in both hopping level and gravity than most of their American cousins. Traditional examples would be Guinness Draught and Murphy’s Irish Stout.
• Spiced beers, such as Belgian Wits and ginger beers, are associated with spring due to their lighter character and the wake-up call for the senses that they provide. This is not dissimilar to the higher hopping level of the German maibocks, which is intended to break one out of the winter doldrums. Examples of these might include Avery White Rascal or Long Trail Brewmaster Series Winter White.
• From my experience, most of the fruit beers that appear to be associated with springtime seem to be simply a matter of release timing from the breweries. I sure that the same reasoning as for the spiced beers could be applied, but I found no such references. A good (and delicious) example of this would be Dogfish Head Aprihop which comes available in March and April every year.

Whatever your excuse, use the harbinger of spring to break away from the traditional winter brews you have been drinking and find something new, fresh and different to brighten up your world. After all, spring only comes once a year and if you are like me, you see that as the perfect opportunity to find great beer rather than simply a return to warmer weather.

History of Belgian Beer

Beer, being an ancient beverage, was first brewed in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago. Beer made its way into Europe about 5000 BC along two broad routes; Eastern Europe and along the Mediterranean. The Gauls, one of the early ancestors of the modern Belgium natives, were responsible for both the widespread brewing of beer in this area as well as the invention of wooden barrels and their first use for beer storage. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the churches gained rule of the land and the first monastic breweries appeared around the 7^th century. In the 14^th century, under heavy influence from the Germans, hops began to be added to beer brewed in this region. It was also around this time when the it was widely believed that beer was safer to drink than water; the brewing process eliminating some of the more common water-borne diseases of the time. Brewing continued its growth in popularity up until the religious wars of the 16^th century and French Revolution. These two events were nearly responsible for wiping out the brewing industry in the region, when many of the abbeys and monasteries were destroyed. The rebuilding and reconstruction period which took place after the French Revolution was responsible for expanding the brewing industry away from the monasteries. The growth of the industry and the number of Belgian breweries continued to increase until its peak of over 3,200 in 1900. The devastation and lack of brewing ingredients during the First World War caused a steep drop in the number of these breweries; reaching about 2,000 by 1920. The economic crisis of the 1930s and then the Second World War caused the continued rapid decline in brewery numbers to only about 755 by 1946. Since then, mostly industry consolidation has been responsible for reducing the number of Belgian breweries to about 100-125 today; these being made up of a relatively small number of very large (some internationally owned) breweries and many smaller regional breweries which collectively produce approximately 600 different Belgian beers. Nearly half of the the beer produced in Belgium today, roughly 9 million hectoliters (about 238 million US gallons or 7.56 million US barrels, if you prefer), is exported across Europe, to the UK and to the US.

The Styles of Belgian Beers

Apparently the beer “experts” cannot agree how many “official” styles of Belgian beers that there are. The AHA, BJCP and nearly every Web site I could find (even those from Belgium) about the subject listed something different; sometimes varying widely from site to site. For the purposes of this article I will describe 10 broad styles of Belgian beers. These 10 will cover the vast majority of the beers produced in the region.

• Trappist & Abbey – While they are similar in style, there is a very important difference between “Trappist” and Abbey” beers.
  • A beer is a “Trappist” only if it is a manufactured by Cistercian monks. The Cistercian monasteries are divided into two great orders, of which one is historically attached to the Abbey of La Grande Trappe, in Normandy, hence the name “Trappists”. There are only 7 breweries allowed to use the “Trappist” label; 6 of those are in Belgium and 1 is in the Netherlands. Some examples of Trappist beers would be Chimay Bleue and La Trappe Isid’or.
  • Abbey beers are generally brewed under license by a commercial brewery, using the name and recipes of an abbey that has ceased brewing itself. Very few of them are actually made within the walls of a monastery, and the brewery is often far from the abbey that gives its name to the beer they produce. Some “abbey” beers are even simply named after an abbey ruin or local saint without any connection with an existing monastic order. The term “Abbey Beer” has been widely used and the Union of Belgian Breweries recently introduced the “Certified Belgian Abbey Beer” label to distinguish those that are actually affiliated with a Belgian Abbey. Examples of Abbey beers would be Grimbergen Dubbel and Leffe Blond.
• Strong Golden Ale – Strong golden ales are fruity, top-fermented beers of pale golden color with a long-lasting foam, and a very high alcoholic strength ranging from 6 to 9%. Examples of this particular style would be Duvel and Delirium Tremens.
• Sour Ale – Belgian red-brown sour ale, or ‘Flemish old brown’ is a unique style produced in the region of Roeselare, in the South-West of Flanders. The color comes from reddish barley malts used for its brewing, and from a long maturation in oak barrels. Red beers have a raw and fruity taste, sometimes not so far from Lambic and the derived fruit beers, although the manufacturing of these families of beers are completely different. They are often filtered and pasteurized, with an average ABV around 5.5%. Examples would be the Belgian Verhaeghe Duchesse De Bourgogne and the Belgian-style Nørrebro Viking Oud Bruin.
• Saison – Saisons, French for “season”, are regional specialities once typically brewed in farmhouses or small breweries in Wallonia, mainly in the province of Hainaut. Traditionally, these beers used to be brewed in the winter to be consumed during the summer. Saisons are typically golden to orange in color, fruity, yeasty, hoppy with moderate bitterness, and medium in alcoholic strength. Examples would be the Belgian-style beers Nørrebro Saison Lambic Pinot Noir and Ommegang Hennepin (a Cooperstown, NY-based, Duvel Moortgat-owned brewery).
• Lambic & Gueuze – Lambic is brewed from a grist composed of 70% barley malt and 30% unmalted wheat. Then the wort is exposed to the air which provides the wild yeasts that will start the fermentation process. Aged hop (thus less bitter) is added for preservation. Lambic is matured for at least two years in oak barrels. Young lambic is slightly sour, old Lambic has greater acidity. Gueuze is sour and sometimes harsh, usually without bitterness. The color is golden to light amber. Carbonation can be champagne-like. An example would be Boon Oude Geuze.
• Pils – A Pils is a bottom-fermentation (lager) beer, light straw to golden color and crystal clear. Hops are dominant with a slightly bitter taste and a long and delicate, almost floral flavor. The beer is always filtered and saturated. It contains an average 5% of alcohol. It is a highly thirst-quenching and digestible beer that one must drink cold. Examples would be the common Stella Artois and its superior American cousin Victory Prima Pils.
• Amber Ale – Amber Ales are somewhat similar to Pale Ales made in Great Britain. Some are labeled as Ale, others as Special to distinguish them from standard lager beers. They are top-fermenting beers with an amber color obtained by using a colored or caramelized malt. They are slightly hopped with soft aromatic hops, a yeast taste, and a spicy and soft savor. Their spicy taste is often derived from the yeasts used, but sometimes spices are actually added. The alcohol content is slightly higher than in Pils. Examples would be Dieu du Ciel Dernière Volonté and Ommegang Rare Vos.
• White Ale – White beer is usually brewed from equal quantities of pale malted barley and raw wheat, sometimes with the addition of oats. It is spiced with coriander seeds and dried Curaçao orange peels. Examples would be Alchemist Sterk Wit (2004 Gold at GABF) and Allagash White.
• Special – Under the type “Special”, unsurprisingly, we find a great diversity of beers that do not fall into a well-defined category. These beers are often the product of a brewing tradition attached to a given region, but some are on the contrary the creation of innovators. An example would be Gulden Draak.
• Fruit Beer – Fruits, juice or extracts have been added to beer for a very long time, especially with Lambic. Kriek (cherry) and Framboise (raspberry) are two traditional styles, famous in Belgium. Peach is also a common addition to this type of beer.
  Kriek is Lambic fermented with sour cherries, traditionally coming from Schaerbeek (a district of Brussels). The cherries are left in for several months, causing a refermentation of the additional sugar. Typically there is no sugar left at the end of the fermentation, thus traditional kriek has a fruit flavor without sweetness. A traditional example would be Lindemans Kriek and a non-traditional (gluten free) example would be Alchemist Celia Framboise (2009 Gold at GABF).

I can’t imagine anyone not being able to find something that they really like in all of that. Little question as to why it is relatively common to hear that someone likes “Belgian beer”. When you do hear that, of course, you can nod your head knowingly… and then scratch your head and wonder just which of the “Belgian” styles of beer they might be talking about.

I had the great pleasure to recently visit Stephen Wood at his Lebanon, NH homestead and the home of Poverty Lane Orchards. Poverty Lane Orchard produces the apples which are used to make the traditional, old-world style ciders sold under the name of Farnum Hill Ciders by Stephen and his family. Some of you may remember an excellent article from about a month ago by one of my fellow Hop Press writers, Joe McPhee, who wrote about his visit to Farnum Hill last summer in an article entitled “A different brew – Farnum Hill Cider” .

Even though Lebanon, NH is only about 55 miles from my house and a place that I visit quite a few times each year, I had no idea that this orchard existed; nor was I aware of the wonderful cider produced by its owners. The orchard is not that far from town; very near the Lebanon airport, you take a winding road up Farnum Hill, past the Lebanon Police department and you can’t miss the prominent sign at the end of the drive. The property consists of all the things that you would expect there to be at a multi-generational apple farm… quaint older farmhouse, old barn and an open garage with tractors and other typical farm equipment. Stephen and his family no longer live in the farmhouse, which is now used as their business headquarters, and the barn no longer houses any farm animals (except for Newton, their very friendly yellow lab); it now houses the two businesses that Stephen runs; UnCommon Apples and Farnum Hill Ciders.

I spent a good part of an afternoon with Stephen talking about and tasting a lot of cider. After a brief tour of the property Stephen provided me with an overview of how Farnum Hill got to be where it is today. The traditional ciders that Farnum Hill produces have their roots, literally, in Europe. Many of the apple varieties grown at Poverty Lane to make cider with are from England and France, with a few American heirloom varieties mixed in. Most of them have names that are unfamiliar to the apple-eating public… Dabinetts, Yarlington Mills, Ashmead’s Kernel, Kingston Black, Esopus Spitzenberg and Ellis Bitters. These cider-destined apples make up about two thirds of the 15,000 trees grown on the 80 acre orchard. Stephen describes most of these traditional cider apple varieties as unpalatable as “eating” apples, but each of them has important contributing characteristics that can be used to make good cider.

During our approximately two and a half hour meeting, Stephen walked me through the 16-20 month process that it takes to produce most of the Farnum Hill ciders. This all began with a discussion of what makes a good cider. When I proudly proclaimed that I had made hard cider once and described how I went about it, Stephen was very quick to point out (gently) that, from his perspective, I screwed it up. My cider (a “cyser”, actually) contained honey and raisins in the recipe. The Farnum Hill ciders contain no such additions or adjuncts. He then told me that great cider, in his opinion, starts in the orchard. Stephen, not surprisingly, considers himself an apple grower first and a cider maker second. He was adamant that the goal of making good cider was to take the quality of the fruit from the orchard and to “touch it” as little as possible before getting it into the bottle and ready to drink. The cider maker needs to respect the fruit and ensure that the fruit is the focus of the end product and not what you do to it or add to it. While similar to the philosophy of wine makers, it is in distinct contrast to that of beer makers; where you (hopefully) begin with quality ingredients, but the process and what gets added to the beer likely defines the end product. Stephen laughed when he told me that beer brewers make terrible cider makers because they can’t resist the temptation to “touch it”. Unfortunately, I resembled that remark…

Once he had impressed upon me the fundamentals of what makes a good cider, we then moved to sample and taste many of the components that make up Farnum Hill Ciders. In stark contrast to what you find in the wine industry, with many wines focused on “varietals” of various types, all of Farnum Hill’s end-product ciders are “blends”; made up of, in some instances, many different apple variety ciders. The blending of the various cider characteristics from the apple varieties allows surprisingly precise control over the acid level, bitterness, tannin levels and fruitiness of the finished product. As with both beer and wine making, there is a fair amount of “chemistry” involved in the process of taking fresh fruit and turning it into cider. Stephen was quite knowledgeable about this scientific side of his business and even though I have a background (a college degree actually) in Biology/Biochemistry, he tested my rusty knowledge of this complex process. Our tasting began with some of the simpler cider components… specific blends of cider from apples that produce a desired effect; acid, sweetness, fruitiness, “funky” sulphide flavors and others. These would be combined with a cider “base” to create the desired final product. We moved quickly through these components to the tasting of cider in various stages of production “readiness”, including the base blend that will be used to produce some of his 2010 ciders.

Once he got me through the production process to the point where his products were bottled, we began to sample some of their commercially available ciders… Farmhouse, Semi-Dry, Extra-Dry, “sparkling”, “still” and even some of their specialty ciders; Ashmead’s Kernel ’08 Reserve and Kingston Black ’07 Reserve. With each tasting, Stephen pointed to the varying characteristics of each brand and related each of those back to the cider components that we has sampled previously. For all of you beer fans, the flavor profile of the Kingston Black cider surprisingly included just a hint of the flavor of dieceytl, the same“buttery” or “butterscotch” flavor found in certain types of beer. While not intentionally produced, it is produced naturally in the Kingston Black apples grown in this part of NH, it adds another rather unique flavor component to this excellent cider.

I have to admit that time that we spent “sipping and spitting” our way through their cider making process was extremely enjoyable. Stephen has a remarkable amount of knowledge about both cider and wine making and was willing to share it all with me. It was evident that he absolutely loves what he does and this is reflected in both the quality of his product and in the success of his business. He expresses a business goal of continuing to produce high quality traditional ciders and to promote and encourage their production elsewhere. He feels that helping to grow the market for these ciders should, in turn, help him sell more of his own. A visit to the Poverty Lane Orchards Web site and the pages dedicated to the Farnum Hill Ciders will give you some sense of the acclaim that these ciders are receiving in the marketplace. You will find these ciders in small stores and cooperatives in the New Hampshire and Vermont as well as some of the finest restaurants in New York City. During our time spent together, Stephen not only managed to make me a “convert” concerning the pleasures of traditional ciders, but perhaps even more importantly for him, he has turned me in to “consumer” of his fine ciders and one that will definitely seek out his fine product to enjoy in the future.

History

The earliest IPAs descend from the pales ales that were being brewed in Britain in the the early 17^th century. These so called “pale ales” were brewed from malted barley that had been produced in a process that created a lighter colored malt; thus the name. The original “pale ale” was the October beer produce by the common folk of the region. This well-hopped brew was intended to be aged for 2 years after brewing. It is common knowledge that the East India Company traders worked with several brewers (Bow Brewery first; then the Allsop, Bass and Salt breweries) in the Burton region to “export” their more alcoholic and strongly hopped brews to the British colonies in India… and the “India Pale Ale” was born. The chemistry of the water found in the Burton region lent itself to producing this type of beer. Now this was before the Suez Canal, of course, so the journey from Britain to India was a long, hazardous one; traveling down the west coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope and back up the east cost of Africa to India. Refrigeration was not possible during this journey nor was it available once the beer arrived in India, so the beer had to be hearty enough to withstand the rigors of the journey and be drinkable once it arrived… something that could not be expected of most types of beers of the time. The preservative and antiseptic qualities of the alcohol and hops found in this type of beer helped it to survive this arduous journey relatively unscathed. The export of this IPA beer to India continued for about 100 years.

Modern IPAs

The modern IPAs tend to be classified as either “British style” or “American style”. Those that fall into the British category are likely to have lower alcohol content (OG less than 1040). Examples of this would be Green King IPA and Wells Eagle IPA. There are also some British brewers which are producing the more alcoholic “American style” IPAs; Meantime IPA and Dark Star IPA are good examples of these.

Since the original American style IPA, Ballantine IPA (out of production since the 90′s), we Americans have taken IPAs to new heights and have even evolved two basic types of American IPAs; “East Coast” and “West Coast”. Both of these can be still classified as IPAs, but the variation of hops between the two tends to produce citrus/grapefruit hops flavors in “West Coast” type and more woody/pine hop flavors in the “East Coast” type. Over time, however, brewers from both coasts and in between have produced many examples of both types for our enjoyment. I tend to prefer the “West Coast” style and the intense citrus/grapefruit hop goodness, but I am just not that picky about my hop-infused beers and most any good IPA will do it for me.

The “Double” or “Imperial” variety of IPAs (also refered to as DIPA or IIPA) are quite simply IPAs on steroids… more alcoholic punch (typically 8-14% ABV or more) and many more IBUs (International Bittering Units); a measure of the amount of “hoppiness” in a beer. For me, there is nothing better (beer-wise) than a properly chilled glass of a top shelf IIPA.

Some Examples of IPAs/IIPAs From My RateBeer collection…

If you look at the list of my RateBeer ratings, you will see that 107 of the 924 ratings are either IPAs (73) or IIPAs (34)… roughly 12% of my collection… and by far and away the most of any style or type beer that I have rated.

Some of my favorite IPAs (most of these tend to follow the “West Coast” flavor profile):

• Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
• Magic Hat HiPA
• Rogue Yellow Snow IPA
• Alchemist Rapture
• Double Mountain Hop Lava

For Double/Imperial IPAs, my favorites include:

• Alchemist Ouroboros

• Stone Ruination IPA

• Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

• Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA

• Rogue Imperial IPA

There is little doubt in my mind that there are still many great examples of this, my favorite, style of beer yet to be explored and, for me, it will be a worthwhile and enjoyable journey to find them and drink them ALL!