Sometimes We Just Stay Home and Drink: #25: Belhaven 90/- Wee Heavy, Dunbar, Scotland

Date:  June 24 , 2019  —

The Story—Belhaven claims to be Scotland’s oldest brewery — it’s corporate existence dates from 1719 but some of the brewery wells are much older and nearby brewing traditions in Dunbar supposedly date back to 13th century monks.

It’s brewed under a variety of names in the last couple of centuries and existed though most of the 20th century as a maltster with a small brewing business almost as a sideline. (See Oxford Companion for more details.)  Today it’s owned by England’s Greene King, but still seems to turn out beers that are pretty similar to what they were brewing a generation ago.

At one point we believe the Wee Heavy was only brewed for export, but Greene King is now taking orders for it on line in the UK.   For a long time the abv was a modest 6.5%, but they upped it recently to 7.4% which still leaves it short of most American interpretations of the style

The Beer–  Very sweet and dark.  Some dark bread with a dark roast as well.   Something just short of smoke may be a hint of peated malt or it may just emanate from the evident very dark caramel flavors.  Balance is neither achieved…not attempted.  Ellie found it disturbingly similar to sweet Coke and kind of sticky, but we both rated it well above average — it’s close enough to the classic style to be worth a try now and then even if you’re not a big fan of sweet beers.

Value —  Good.   Maybe very good if you like very sweet beers.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

Sometimes we just stay home and drink beer — hundreds of them over the course of the year as we hunt for a new favorite.  The searching for the beer of the day never stops, so for a while, there will be fewer travel-oriented posts and just some to-the-point descriptions of beers we’ve enjoyed.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Sometimes We Just Stay Home and Drink #24: Stone Sanctimonious IPA, Traditional West Coast IPA, Escondido, California

Date:  June 23 , 2019  —

The Story—  Stone talks about their use of “retro” hops — Amarillo and Simcoe– though they do note that the “retro” here only goes back to the turn of this century.   Still in their words “Sometimes taking a step back and appreciating what we already have is another form of innovation.”   This kind of a good old IPA was pretty common 15 years ago but has been swamped by New England and Milkshake sweet-accented unfortunates.   Hooray for the good (15-year) old days and hooray for Stone.

The Beer–  Flavorful IPA with what do indeed seem like traditional hops in this fast moving market.   Citrus and citrus peel, with some oil and and the grapefruit and pineapple flavors grow as it drinks and warms.   You have to be OK with citrus flavors to enjoy this, but you don’t have to contend with the tropics or wild-grown acids.

The brewery gives absolutely no information about IBUs, which is a bit ironic since there seem to be of them.   But high IBU claims in beers like this tend to run to puffery and Stone’s silence is at least honest.  We’d rate the IBUs with a precise and scientific “lots.”

The bad news is that this beer is part of their Hop Worship series – to our knowledge it’s not scheduled for re-release and if you find it it’s 9 months old.   That would make it well past prime, though our sample was several months old and we enjoyed it hugely.  A beer this strong and hoppy will stay drinkable a long time, but won’t have the brace of fresh tasting hops the brewer intended.

We tasted Stone’s Idolatrous IPA from the same series when it was about as old as a Sanctimonious would be now.  I thought it was magnificent — still showcasing the berry fruit of the Mosaic and the sweet almost tropical fruits of the El Dorado.

Value —  Good to very good.   Stone rarely overcharges for their beers.  You don’t have to buy bombers of them anymore either.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

Sometimes we just stay home and drink beer — hundreds of them over the course of the year as we hunt for a new favorite.  The searching for the beer of the day never stops, so for a while, there will be fewer travel-oriented posts and just some to-the-point descriptions of beers we’ve enjoyed.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Sometimes We Just Stay Home and Drink #23: Shiner (Spoetzl) Homespun Cream Ale

Date:  June 22 , 2019  —

The Story— We continue our presentation of the handful of the more that 100 cream ales we’ve tasted that we’d like to taste again.  This one was a surprise for us.  Shiner used to be a cute hard-to-find Texas brewery that was a remnant of the German settlement of some of that state.  We’ve been to Spoetzl in Shiner and were impressed with the commitment to quality even in a brewery that had its toe squarely inside the mass market tent.

The Cream Ale is clearly not one of the original German recipes that the Shiner folks brag about, but it’s a fine addition to a lineup that fits the brewery’s American home.  State laws make labeling in Texas is an exercise in misdirection.  Pierre Celis (who singlehandedly rescued the Wit style from obscurity and set the standard with his original Hoegaarden brewery) loved Texas, but railed against state laws that required him to label ales “bock”.

The folks at Shiner — typically for a German brewery– give the name of the town to the beers and the name of the company and the family name as the name of the brewery.

The Beer– It’s an ale, but it drinks like a German Helles  — lots of pale 2 row with a crisp and effective balancing tang.   Easy to drink, but not easy to brew since any flaw will scream from the well balanced and easy drinking sessionable beer.

Value — Very good.   It’s a quality beer priced to compete with the big boys.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

Sometimes we just stay home and drink beer — hundreds of them over the course of the year as we hunt for a new favorite.  The searching for the beer of the day never stops, so for a while, there will be fewer travel-oriented posts and just some to-the-point descriptions of beers we’ve enjoyed.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Sometimes We Just Stay Home and Drink: #22: Hop Farm F41 Cream Ale, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Date:  June 21 , 2019  —

The Story—  This certainly isn’t a stay at home beer.  We tasted it at the brewery in Pittsburgh in the upper west section that allows a three or four brewery crawl with a short Uber ride or two and some walking.

The Hop Farm Brewery isn’t a farm at all, but a welcoming beer bar with above average beers and a friendly atmosphere.  Locals we talked to loved it – and with good reason.  One of the good ones was a cream ale that was worth having more than one.  The 4.8% abv was certainly within specs but there was just enough hop balance to take it out or the cream ale gutter and make it a very pleasant beer.

The Beer– It starts with a chewy pale malt.  Tangy and slightly metallic on the finish with enough back bitter to cleanse.  Ellie liked its crisp finish

Value — Good. Maybe better than good, but we only tried a sampler size since we were on a multi brewery role.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

Sometimes we just stay home and drink beer — hundreds of them over the course of the year as we hunt for a new favorite.  The searching for the beer of the day never stops, so for a while, there will be fewer travel-oriented posts and just some to-the-point descriptions of beers we’ve enjoyed.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Sometimes We Just Stay Home and Drink: #21: Moustache Lawn Beer Cream Ale, Riverhead, Long Island, New York.

Date:  June 20 , 2019  —

The Story— This is another prize from our semi-annual beer gathering excursion from Boston to Baltimore.  We’re pretty sure we picked this up at Half Time Beverage in Poughkeepsie, NY. and we’re grateful for Half Time and a handful of other really good beer stores– for allowing us to try all sorts of breweries we’d never encounter any other way.     Moustache (sic), for example,  is located near the eastern end of Long Island; its taproom is open Thursday through Sunday but it’s well out of the way for us and we’re not likely to visit soon.

The Moustache can recalls the Utica Club Cream Ale brand of the late 1960s so evocatively that we’re pretty sure it has to be an homage to one of the great cream ales of its day.  While it’s hard to recall very precisely what attracted us to the Utica Club above all others (and especially Genesee), we’re pretty sure it was a mild fruity hop and very clean and mild malt.  Not much by today’s standards.   This one brings back the memories but with enough balance to hold its own in the current craft beer explosion.  Hats off to the Moustache guys for a fine beer in a nearly impossible style to do well.

The Beer– Hops show in the aroma and some in the flavor but only enough metallic biter to balance the tangy pale malt.   Nicely reminiscent of upstate New York in the 60s.  Also, props for not calling it a kolsch, which hundreds of breweries do with a hard to define gold ale.   It’s a lawn beer indeed, and I could sit in a lawn chair and drink this all day long.

Value — Good to very good.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

Sometimes we just stay home and drink beer — hundreds of them over the course of the year as we hunt for a new favorite.  The searching for the beer of the day never stops, so for a while, there will be fewer travel-oriented posts and just some to-the-point descriptions of beers we’ve enjoyed.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”