The theme for the February meeting of my monthly beer tasting group was “Category 23.” In the parlance of the Beer Judge Certification Program, category 23 is Specialty Ales. It is the catch-all category for any beer that doesn’t fit anywhere else, safe haven for the bastard step-children of brewing. It is here that one finds “imperial” versions of other styles, historical styles, beers brewed with unusual techniques or ingredients, and the cross-cultural twisting and blending of styles peculiar to particular regions. With beers in category 23 one enters the realm of adventure and experimentation where the only limitation is the depth of the brewer’s imagination and the level of the brewer’s skill.

The night began with on an equally adventurous gustatory note, a Crave Case and fries from White Castle. Although I really never eat White Castle, I did somehow manage to force down three or four jalapeno cheeseburgers in order to establish a good protein base for the beers that were to come. The hint of fiery spice that lingered after the beef(?), cheese, onions, bread and grease had slid away left me craving a quenching quaff of oddball beer.

The selection of beers, eighteen in all, was really quite good. As is to be expected with this category, there were a number of high alcohol beers, which made for a much louder evening at the end. The beers ranged from a gruit-like Danish ale to a Pilsner from Turkey. Among them were a few standouts. In my view the best beer of the night was Beatification from Russian River Brewing. This 100% spontaneously fermented ale (they call it a Sonomalambic) poured a brilliantly clear light gold. It was highly acidic, but not offensively tart, with bright pear and peach fruitiness and a background barnyardy funk. Delightful. Next on the list for me was an Oyster Stout from Hunter Beer Company of Australia. This was a rich, smooth chocolate and coffee stout with not a hint of acrid or bitter roast. I expected fishiness. There was none. Bittersweet Lenny’s RIPA, an imperial rye IPA from Shmaltz Brewing was another favorite with it’s “obscene” hop presence, huge rye spice, and big malt backbone.

One of the more interesting beers was Vildmoseøl from Danish brewer Wintercoat. The Wintercoat website describes this an an ale with peat-smoked malt, bog myrtle, and rowan berries. This beer had a huge spruce and spicy nose. The flavor combined a tangy swampiness (I mean that in a good way) with a lingering sugary sweetness. A most interesting and tasty beer.

The two most disappointing beers of the night, although not the worst, came from the same brewery, Southern Tier from New York. I find with this brewery that they either hit it out of the ballpark or swing and miss. Their Imperial Cherry Saison was heavy with an unpleasant smokiness and had very little cherry flavor. The Heavy Weizen, an imperial hefeweizen, was described variously by the group as “harsh”, “musty”, “alcoholic”, and “Lemon Pledge.” This was just an unpleasant beer. I thnk the worst beer of the night has to have been the Efes Pilsner. There may be a good beer underneath, but this bottle was so badly skunked and oxidized that is was impossible to taste much else. Fortunately it was the second to last beer of the night and our palates were probably already half dead.

Those in attendance were Mark Johnson, Chris Belsky, Al Boyce, Joel Stitzel, Gera Exire Latour, and Michael Agnew. The full list of beers tasted included Rose de Hibiscus from Brasserie du Ciel, Lake Superior Mesabi Red, Russian River Beatification, Southern Tier Imperial Cherry Saison and Heavy Weizen, Maple Oat Ale from Peak Organic, Hunter Beer Company Oyster Stout, Shmaltz Brewing Lenny’s RIPA, Rejewvenator, and Jewbelation 9, Flying Dog Imperial Schwartzbier, Lagunitas Cappucino Stout, Wintercoat Vildmoseøl, Neuzeller Porter from Neuzeller Klosterbrau, Wexford Irish Cream Ale, Efes Pilsner, Ettaler Klosterbrauerei Dunkeler Doppelbock, and Altenmünster Winterbier Doppelbock.

I organize a monthly beer tasting group. It’s a small gathering of beer-educated friends who get together once a month to taste beers and talk about them. Each month we have a theme. The theme for January was “cheap beer.” The assignment was to find beers we had never tried but might actually want to drink for $7.00/six-pack or less.
The search proved more difficult than expected. When I started looking I realized that I had not paid much attention to how much I had been paying for beer. Aside from the light lager offerings of the big three breweries, there isn’t much out there for under $7/six-pack. With beer prices rising, this will become even more difficult in the future. However, as the event drew closer, everyone got into the spirit and we engaged in a race to the bottom in terms of price. Prices paid for six-packs ranged from $1.99 to $6.50.
The results of the experiment were interesting. We tasted 15 beers that ranged wildly in both style and quality. The entire list is at the end of this post. I’ll go over the high and low points here. The best beer of the evening was Black Hook Porter from Red Hook, purchased for $6.50. Okay, so that price was due to a mistake by the retailer, but we still let it in. This beer was dominated by coffee flavored roast malt with some caramel and a generous helping of American hops to balance it all out. It was really tasty. The Black Hook Porter was closely followed by Schlafly Coffee Stout from St. Louis Brewing Company. This was purchased in St. Louis for $6. An oatmeal stout made with cold-pressed espresso coffee, this had a huge coffee nose and flavor and a rich creamy/greasy mouthfeel from the oats. The coffee character was too intense for some, but most of us liked it. Other beers of note were St. Benedict Winter Ale from Point Brewing ($5.25), a Belgian tinged, spiced amber ale, and Michelob Pale Ale ($6.99). This was surprisingly good with decent caramel malt and a good helping of cascade hops, especially in the aroma. For the price it was worth picking up.
The low points were the Twisted Tea and Baltika #9. These two “malt beverages” were headaches waiting to happen. The Twisted Tea was the lowest priced selection of the evening at $1.99. It had distinct citrusy green tea flavors that might have been good had it not been for the massive overload of sugar. If you like to drink REALLY sweet tea, this might be just the beverage for you. I think we emptied half a bottle for six people. The Baltika #9 was one of the more interesting beers of the evening. It was packaged in a 51 oz. brown plastic bottle for $2.85. This was an under-attenuated sugar bomb with fruity pineapple notes and a unique model glue aroma and flavor. It was a bit like drinking the syrup from a can of pineapple with a bit of rubber cement added for extra viscosity.
The surprise of the evening was Fat Cat Lager. Available in fine liquor stores for $7.99/twelve-pack, this Vienna style lager shocked everyone with the amount of flavor it had; and not bad flavor at that. Light caramel and toasted malt with subdued yet noticeable hops. It was a little on the sweet side and faded almost instantly into nothing at the finish, but we all agreed that if you are looking for a lot of beer for a little bit of money, this is a good choice.
The one general observation that we made during this exercise was how sweet all of these inexpensive beers were. There was a definite sugar buzz to be had in addition to the effects of alcohol. We speculated that it could be intentional under-attenuation to give these beers some kind of flavor that might otherwise not be there if they were allowed to ferment out more fully. It could also be due to the noticeable lack of hops that would have balanced some of the sweetness. Overall though, we were surprised at the diversity of beers and, in some cases, even the quality of beers that we were able to find for under $7.00.
The full list of beers included Sleeman’s IPA 46, Baltika #9, Leinenkugel Original, Carta Blanca, Chelada, Brau Bros. Scotch Ale, Point St. Benedict Winter Ale, Schlafly Coffee Stout, Lone Star, Black Hook Porter, Leinenkugel 1888 Bock, Michelob Pale Ale, and Twisted Tea. Those in attendance were Wilbur Ince, Al Boyce, Paul Dienhart, Jonathan Crist, Mark Johnson, and Michael Agnew.