CulturAle Press

Travel Book for Beer Lovers

  • 
  • 
  • Home
  • Books
    • Drinking In the Culture
  • Updates
  • Media Room
  • Reviews
  • Events
  • Beer Reviews
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

January 5, 2019 by Tupper Leave a Comment

only beer pub 27 IMG_3154

 At Pub 27 in Pompeii

Twelve Beers of Christmas #12:  Waredaca Brewing Blizzard Spiced Winter Ale, Laytonsville, Md.

Date:   January 5, 2019

The Story— We’re presenting our list of 12 great beers for the season.   Some are relatively easy to find, others are from our archives and beer vault.   Follow these posts for other beers in the series:   first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh,

If you’re disappointed in the less spicy, mellower direction that Anchor has taken in recent years, hop an Uber and head to Waredaca Beer Farm for a beer that evokes the spirit of Anchor at its best.

Waredaca started as a boys camp during the depression — in “rural Maryland” at the corner of Democracy and Old Georgetown Road where a busy shopping center — and a heck of a good beer store (Down Town Crown, Bethesda) stand today.

They moved the operation in the 1950s to a 230 acre farm in outer Laytonsville, which is even now authentically rural Montgomery county.  Eventually it shifted from a camp to an equestrian center, which it is today.  An in-law convinced the family to put in a state-of-the-art brewery several years ago and now the place is better known for its beers than its horses.

It’s an idyllic place to spend an afternoon in good weather– even when its crowded, which it often is, there’s tons of space outside and much of that space is kid friendly.  A pizza oven labors to meet the demand, but you can augment your beer tasting with some first rate local cheeses. In lesser weather the tap room can get crowded, but patience will get you a seat and a good selection of beers.

It’s a farm brewery and you should be prepared to sample beers with farm ingredients.  We’ve always found a few more or less standard beers, though, that make us happy we’re there.   On a February visit a couple of years ago, they still poured the winter ale Blizzard.  It was one of their best.   This week we had a chance to taste the 2018 version at the Pour House in Gaithersburg.   It was especially interesting since we had recently tasted the Anchor Christmas ale from three vintages. (see our report here)  Ellie thought the spices were over the top, which they are, but I thought they came pretty close to nailing the richness of spicing from the classic years of Anchor’s version.

They use four spices and they tell you what they are: ginger, cinnamon, clove and allspice.  Anchor, at its height, used a myriad of spices and have carefully kept each recipe secret.  The Blizzard is crisper and a bit more in your face, but it melds very well with the rich full bodied malt.

The Beer—All of the spices are identifiable and do a jazz quartet series of solos, but before it’s over, the rich deep malt has them playing together almost like a string quartet.  Spices subsume into a full bodied creamy malt.  A hint of black pepper late may actually be from the hops.  We think the spices are clearer here and the fruit may be a bit less prominent than in the 2016 version.  Our comment then: “if you pasted an Anchor label on it everyone would think it was great.”   We don’t need the label to respect it.

Value —  Excellent at the brewery.   Good at Pour House.   the nice thing about the Pour House, of course, is that you can visit several breweries without moving your car.

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.

It’s The Season!!   Through January 5th (Twelfth Night) we’ll give your this year’s list of the Twelve Beers of Christmas.  We’ve tasted close to 200 beers brewed for the season; they’re not all good elves, but a great many are as talented as Rudolph for getting us through a foggy winter’s night.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is is our response 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.”

January 4, 2019 by Tupper Leave a Comment

Twelve Beers of Christmas #11: Bøgedal No. 136 Christmas Edition 2008 Dark Ale, Vejle, Denmark

only beer pub 27 IMG_3154

 At Pub 27 in Pompeii

Twelve Beers of Christmas #11: Bøgedal No. 136 Christmas Edition 2008 Dark Ale, Vejle, Denmark

Date:   January 4, 2019

The Story—  We’re presenting our list of 12 great beers for the season.   Some are relatively easy to find, others are from our archives and beer vault.   Follow these posts for other beers in the series:   first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth,

Bøgedal is an artisinal farmhouse brewery near Vejle in central Denmark on the less traveled peninsula  – about as far from the water as you can get in this aquatic Viking legacy   They poudly maintain that theirs is “is the only commercial brewery in the world that maintains the Old Danish tradition of brewing Godtoel or “the good beer” which predates the industrial age. This traditional beer is strong and very rich with many of the natural sugars still intact.  By restricting the reliance on technology and without temperature control Bøgedal tends to allow the beer to live its own life and develop naturally. The brews are never identical, even when the same recipe is followed.”

Since the beers are unique, they receive unique numbers.   You can’t find the #136 anymore–the brewery is well past batch 500 now– but you can find a newer Bøgedal that will be just as good.

The Beer—  Soft herbal deep roast, spices, anise, bakers’ chocolate,  It’s vinous, orange and musty late.  Nicely complex, it ranked among our top Christmas beers.

Value —  Good.  The 75 cl bottles don’t come cheap, but you won’t have to refinance your car 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.

It’s The Season!!   Through January 6th (Twelfth Night) we’ll give your this year’s list of the Twelve Beers of Christmas.  We’ve tasted close to 200 beers brewed for the season; they’re not all good elves, but a great many are as talented as Rudolph for getting us through a foggy winter’s night.

We know, we promised a count down to the New Year with descriptions of some of our favorite beers from the last five years.   In those years we’ve published Drinking in the Culture, and gotten a good start on a drinking/sleeping guide to the Mid Atlantic and a guide to great beers is supposed “bad beer cities” — the tourist meccas of Europe. But goodness, Grinch, what about all the holiday beers??  So we’ll detour and pick up the top ten list in the new year.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is iour response 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.”

January 3, 2019 by Tupper Leave a Comment

Twelve Beers of Christmas #10: Straffe Hendrik / De Halve Maan Xmas Blend 2018.  Bruges, Belgium

only beer pub 27 IMG_3154

Twelve Beers of Christmas #10: Straffe Hendrik / De Halve Maan Xmas Blend 2018.  Bruges, Belgium

Date:  January 3, 2019

The Story—  We’re presenting our list of 12 great beers for the season.   Some are relatively easy to find, others are from our archives and beer vault.   Follow these posts for other beers in the series:   first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth,

De Halve Maan (Half Moon) brewery is one of the reasons to visit Bruges.  The brewery is state of the art, but they’ve preserved the old brewery that’s included in a fine brewery tour.  It’s not free, but it gets you a couple of glasses of Brugse Zot’s light and dark beers.   The brewery produces both Halve Maan and Straffe Hendrik beers.

We’ve tasted several Straffe Hendrik Quads.  The best, by far, was a 2013 that we tasted two years later.   This one, though, showed the same fine play of dark fruits and hints of chocolate and brought a nice range of barrel tastes to the table.  It’s a wonderful blend of barrel aged beers that have spent months on Bordeaux, Calvados and Rum barrels with young quad.

We bought this at Bethesda Market near the Sangamore Safeway in outer Bethesda Maryland.  Prices aren’t bargains there, but the premium price is the fault of Montgomery County’s distribution system — the last in the country to distribute beer and wine. We’re grateful to have a beer store just a couple miles from our house that stocks several hundred beers.

The Beer—  Rich and complex.  The brewery quads without the barrel aging complexity are enriched by wine and barrels.  Fruit is rich and dark with figs, dark berries, and red grapes with wood accents.  Some ending chocolate remains from the usual richness of the Straffe Hendrik quads.

Value —  Good.  No one discounts a beer like this.  Expect to pay $15 or more for the 75 cl. bottle

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.

It’s The Season!!   Through January 6th (Twelfth Night) we’ll give your this year’s list of the Twelve Beers of Christmas.  We’ve tasted close to 200 beers brewed for the season; they’re not all good elves, but a great many are as talented as Rudolph for getting us through a foggy winter’s night.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is iour response 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.”

January 2, 2019 by Tupper Leave a Comment

Twelve Beers of Christmas #9:  Wychwood Bah Humbug Christmas Cheer; Winter Warmer; Witney, UK

only beer pub 27 IMG_3154In truth, we

 At Pub 27 in Pompeii

Twelve Beers of Christmas #9:

Wychwood Bah Humbug Christmas Cheer; Winter Warmer; Witney, UK

Date:  January 2, 2019

The Story—  We’re presenting our list of 12 great beers for the season.   Some are relatively easy to find, others are from our archives and beer vault.   Follow these posts for other beers in the series:   first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth.

Wychwood first brewed in 1983, in the early days of craft beer growth.  It’s now owned by the big brewer Marstons, but retains much of its character.  Since our first encounter with a Wychwood beer in 1990, we’ve tasted a good deal of mediocrity from them.  the brewery always seemed to rely on labels and branding as much as the beer behind the clever labels.   We think, however,  that their beers may have more consistency since Marstons’s acquisition, the The Bah Humbug fits the clever label pattern, but the beer within is one of the best the brewery makes.   A plus is that it’s relatively easy to find, at least in the Mid Atlantic area.

The Beer—  We’d like to re-try this along side this year’s version of Anchor Christmas.   Both self-identify as Winter Warmers and both show more malt than spicy flavors.   Wychwood shows some lemon-accented fruit that helps frame it as a holiday beer.  There are some herbal flavors along with a brown sugar sweetness.  It is, all in all, a nicely drinkable beer and the 5.0% ABV is modest enough to make this a part of a larger holiday tasting.

Value —  Good to very good.   We’ve found them for well under $5 for a half liter import.  Even a better bargain if you happen to be shopping in the UK.

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.

It’s The Season!!   Through January 6th (Twelfth Night) we’ll give your this year’s list of the Twelve Beers of Christmas.  We’ve tasted close to 200 beers brewed for the season; they’re not all good elves, but a great many are as talented as Rudolph for getting us through a foggy winter’s night.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is iour response 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.”

January 1, 2019 by Tupper Leave a Comment

Twelve Beers of Christmas #8:  Our Special Ale 2018 (Anchor Christmas Ale) | Anchor Brewing Company, San Francisco, California

only beer pub 27 IMG_3154

 At Pub 27 in Pompeii

Twelve Beers of Christmas #8:  Merry Christmas Happy New Year Our Special Ale 2018, 2013, and 2018.   (Anchor Christmas Ale) | Anchor Brewing Company, San Francisco, California

Date:  January 1, 2019

The Story—   We’re presenting our list of 12 great beers for the season.   Some are relatively easy to find, others are from our archives and beer vault.   Follow these posts for other beers in the series:   first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh,

We celebrate the new year with a small vertical tasting of Anchor Christmas Ale.  We try to stock up enough to taste a current version against the previous year and another from longer ago.   The current version is always our first new beer of the year.   Somehow we missed 2012, but otherwise we’ve tasted every version since 1986.

By the 1980s we had run into a number of brewers who recommended laying beers down for vertical tastings.   Eldridge Pope claimed its Thomas Hardy Ale would last 25 years — in fact we have 30 year old bottles that we try every year and they’re doing just fine.   Kris Herteleer took us through a wild ride of vintaged Oerbier when we visited him late in the decade.   But those were really strong beers.  Mark Carpenter, head brewer at Anchor, proved that though booze and hops help preserve beer, they aren’t essential.  One night at the Brickskeller he joined us with a lineup of 10 years of Anchor Christmas Ales that had been kept cool at the brewery.   It was probably the best vertical tasting of our lives.   Mark was able to guide us through the beers, pointing out how flavors had changed through age and how flavors changed through recipe revisions.

No one talks about this anymore, but from 1975 at least until the late 80s, the formula changed by adding one new ingredient and adjusting quantities of the others.  We don’t know when they gave up and played a subtraction game, but we know this year’s version is diminished in spice seems to rely more on specialty malts to achieve some of the complex flavors.

Scott Ungermann replaced Mark Carpenter as head brewer just a few years ago.  He trod lightly at first, but has moved lately to putting his own stamp on the formulation.   Alcohol is up and may move higher in future versions.  The first beers had an ABV of 5.5% and this year its either 6,7 or 6.9,  (Mensjournal.com quotes Ungermann as stating the former; the Anchor website lists the latter)  but either represents a fairly big step up.  Perhaps the higher alcohol will help this less spicy version mature as well as its older spicy brothers.

Another change over the year is in the branding.  Originally “Merry Christmas Happy New Year Our Special Ale” the brewery has come to call it simply “Anchor Christmas Ale.”   whew.

We understand why Ungermann and his crew have strayed somewhat farther from the tradition of this beer than they’d like to admit.   There are limits to what can be accomplished by dumping the kitchen’s spice cabinet into the kettle and tank and if Anchor hasn’t found those limits, it’s certain that a good many other brewers who followed in Anchor’s footsteps have.  Anchor probably had little choice but to do some exploring if it intended to craft beers that were distinctively different from year to year.   Still, we’re a bit nostalgic; Anchor not only defined the spiced brown ale style, but usually towered above imitators.   This year’s beer is very good indeed, but in achieving it, Anchor seems to have lost a bit of its identity.

The Beer—  It takes a while for the whole performance of the 2018 to emerge: starts with big malt with figgy and chocolate puddings.  Discernible hops follow.  The spice is gentle and the beer is much more pitcherable (or magnum-able) than many of its predecessors.  It’s complex without being dauntingly spicy.  Both 2013 and 208 were in fine drinkable condition and shared much more with each other than with the 2018.   These were the intensely spicy Anchor beers that we’ve come to know over the past 30 years.  The 2013 was one of the most intensely spicy beers of the series and may have approached the “wall” for spiced beers.    The spices in the 2008, however, had settled into a deeper and less formidable background role with big rich malts more than holding their own.  We’ll be interests ted to see if a few more years allows the 2013 to settle into the same drinkable balance.

Value —  very good.   2018 was a year of scarcity for Anchor Christmas in the Mid Atlantic.   Most Virginia stores, if they received any at all, were sold out by October and most Maryland stores didn’t make it much past Thanksgiving.  Anchor could have jerked up the prices given that sort of scarcity, but didn’t, and we purchased a sixpack for $11.99 at Kent Island’s Winery — a good beer store better known for its selection than for bargain prices.

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.

It’s The Season!!   Through January 6th (Twelfth Night) we’ll give your this year’s list of the Twelve Beers of Christmas.  We’ve tasted close to 200 beers brewed for the season; they’re not all good elves, but a great many are as talented as Rudolph for getting us through a foggy winter’s night.

We know, we promised a count down to the New Year with descriptions of some of our favorite beers from the last five years.   In those years we’ve published Drinking in the Culture, and gotten a good start on a drinking/sleeping guide to the Mid Atlantic and a guide to great beers is supposed “bad beer cities” — the tourist meccas of Europe. But goodness, Grinch, what about all the holiday beers??  So we’ll detour and pick up the top ten list in the new year.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is iour response 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.”
Next Page »

What’s New Inside

 Gold Metal Winning Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale Returns!

Join us at Dynasty Brewing on July 17 between 3PM and 8PM to savor the first batch of Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale in almost five years.  We’ll be there signing books at a huge discount and the brewery will be pouring the beer that was created to be “Hoppy enough for Bob and balanced enough for Ellie.”

It hasn’t been easy to resurrect Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale, winner of a gold metal at the GBBF in the ’90s when well hopped beers were rare and almost non-existent in the east.  We’ve collaborated with Dynasty’s head brewer Favio Garcia, the brewer who produced the last batch of Tuppers’ Hop Pocket at Old Dominion to reproduce an authentic version of the original.    Dynasty is in Ashburn, Virginia– almost within walking distance of the Old Dominion brewery that brewed the first batch just over 25 years ago.

NOW PLAYING: on Beer of the Day—  Some great beers in the San Francisco Bay area.  Scroll down below this entry to find the featured beer of the day.   >>>>>

Later — in July we resume some great weekend destinations for beer travelers that we’ve found researching our guide to breweries and inns of the Mid Atlantic.  Whether you’re looking for a turn of the (20th) century 100 year old quaint and slightly rickety hotel, an engaging B&B or a magnificent survivor of the great era of railroad hotels, we’ve found hem– within walking distance of a brewery.   We’ll present more previews of the book’s best here rolling up to Pennsylvania before we’re through.

 

 

 

Beer of the Day

only beer pub 27 IMG_3154

 At Pub 27 in Pompeii

Far From India: India Pale Ales in the 21st Century.

Date:  March, 2019

The Story—

The Beer—

Value —

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.

In mid-March we’re taking a look at the incredible variety of IPAs.   The style is by far the biggest seller among craft beers in the US and probably in Europe as well.   Even century-old breweries in Reinheitsgebot-narrowed Germany are brewing IPAs (if the brewer calls it “ale” it doesn’t have to conform to the strict purity law).   But you have to ask these days: What is an IPA”?  We’ll take a look at almost a dozen recognized and semi-recognized styles of IPAs in the next couple of weeks.

 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.”

More Beer Reviews

Categories

  • Europe in Your Backyard
  • Hopping Around
  • Just Go

Archives

  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • July 2020
  • January 2020
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • June 2018
  • March 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015

Meet the Tuppers

About Bob and Ellie Tupper

Drink the best local beers—with the locals

Find the most scenic places to drink great beer

Visit historic breweries

Copyright © 2023 CulturAle Press · Designed by NewMedia Website Design