Beer
Beer SHERBROOKE LIQUOR STORE
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Sherbrooke Was Doing Beer, Before Beer Was Cool
IntroductionS
THE AUTHOR
What you are holding in your hand is Alberta’s first guide to the world of beer. It is neither exhaustive nor complete – no guide could be. However, it is an honest attempt to show you the breadth of beer available in Alberta. More importantly, it is a booklet aiming to educate beer consumers about this wonderful beverage. As a local beer writer and educator, I agreed to write the guide for Sherbrooke Liquor because I believe it is a good vehicle for teaching more Albertans about the wonder that is beer. The guide is less about selling beer than it is about giving the consumer a road map to the varieties and styles of beer available. The guide's structure is simple. I outline most major beer styles in a short summary, tossing in a useful or quirky fact or two as well. I list a few examples regularly available in Alberta. The list is not intended to suggest the “best” versions of a style; I chose examples that I find interesting, creative interpretations, with an emphasis on breweries from Western Canada. See the lists as starting points for your journey through the world of beer. I hope you find the guide useful, learn a thing or two and maybe find your newest favourite beer. Cheers! Jason Foster onbeer.org
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Beer Basics:
Tasting Your Beer
Before we talk about specific beer styles, we need to first lay down some fundamentals. Here is a quick guide on sampling beer. MALT
Beer’s base is malted barley. Malt offers colour, body and sweetness to beer. It is the biggest ingredient and gives us the anchor flavour. It can be grainy, caramel-y, toffee-like, chocolaty or even roasty – all of those flavours come from the malt. You taste most of malt’s influence at the front of your mouth.
HOPS
Then there is hops. Hops are intense little flowers that create beer’s distinct bitterness. That smacking character in an IPA comes from hop additions, but every beer has hops. Hops can also create floral, fruity or earthy aromas and flavours. Bitterness is detected at the back of your throat, while hop flavour will be picked up around your cheeks and roof. YEAST
Yeast also impacts flavour. Different strains add different qualities – fruitiness, earthiness, spiciness or general funkiness. Yeast is unexpectedly important to a beer’s flavour and aroma. AGE
Most regular strength beer is best served fresh, and lasts no longer than 8-10 months. However, some beer, especially those that are higher in alcohol, can improve with age for years. TEMPERATURE
Finally, beer shouldn’t beer served ice cold, although the specific temperature is dependent on the style – ales warmer, lagers a bit colder.
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Sherbrooke Was Doing Beer, Before Beer Was Cool
Ale vs. lager
Our next task is to understand the most important distinction in beer – ale vs. lager. It is one of the most misunderstood categorizations around. Lagers can be light or dark; ales can be malty or hoppy. You can find the full range of flavours in both categories. Basically what separates the two are the species of yeast used and the temperature at which the beer is fermented. These are related things. ALES
Ales are fermented at room temperature, with a type of yeast that prefers those temperatures. The result of this process is a beer that seems fruitier and more complex. LAGERS
Lagers are brewed colder, at around 10 degrees Celsius, and then aged for a few weeks at near zero (a process called “lagering”, hence the name). Naturally lager yeast evolved to appreciate colder temperatures; an ale yeast would give up the ghost and drop out at these temperatures. It produces a beer that is crisper and cleaner. This is one of the most fundamental divisions in the world of beer, so it is good to know why.
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This guide is Published By
© 2013 Postvue Publishing All Rights Reserved, Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without the written consent of the publisher.
Publisher, Sales & Marketing Manager Rob Lightfoot rob@postvuepublishing.com Art Directors & Design shawna@postvuepublishing.com Shawna Iwaniuk mike@postvuepublishing.com Mike Siek Content Creator: www.onbeer.org Jason Foster Creative Director: annam@sherbrookeliquor.com Anna MacLeod Advertising & Relationships: taras@sherbrookeliquor.com Tara Smith
Postvue Publishing
To have your guide or promotional product #200, 11230 119 St. produced, Edmonton, AB. contact Rob Lightfoot at T5G 2X3 rob@ 780.426.1996 postvuepublishing.com F: 780.426.2889 or 780.426.1996 rob@postvuepublishing.com
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Sherbrooke Was Doing Beer, Before Beer Was Cool
Pale lager
4 - 7 ̊C
What You Need To Know
Pale lager is the single most common beer style on the planet. The big corporate brewers make tons of the stuff, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be good. A quality pale lager should be light, crisp and offer grainy malt character. The quintessential easy-drinking summer beer. If Americanstyle lagers like Budweiser aren’t your thing, try a Munich Helles or a Dortmunder Export, two German styles that offer a full malt body and some hop character. The key to a quality pale lager is ensuring it is made only with Curious Fact malt – no corn or rice. Hop bitterness should be subdued and a crisp, sharp In the late 1700s, the emergence of bright, golden malt base should define the beer. beer turned the beer world upside-down. Advancements in kilning allowed brewers to prevent malted barley from becoming too dark, allowing for a new kind of light-bodied, golden-hued beer. The new development led to the gradual decline of darker beer, and eventually to the domination of corporate lager, at least until the rise of craft beer.
Interesting Examples
Alley Kat Charlie Flint Yellowhead Premium Lager Paulaner Munchner Helles Creemore Springs Premium Lager
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Pilsner
4 - 7 ̊C
What You Need To Know
Pilsner is the big sister of pale lager. Same colour, same basic process, but just with a lot more hops. Real pilsners are crisp, clean and offer a satisfying hop bite. They start similarly to a premium pale lager, but finish with a floral, sharp bitterness. There are two basic types of pilsner (or pilsener). Bohemian (or Czech) Pilsner accents the unique spicy, floral flavour of Saaz hops. German Pils is lighter, drier and slightly crisper. Many labels pretend to be pilsners, but the flavour will separate the au- Curious Fact thentic from the imposter. Pilsner was born of a citizen’s revolt. In 1838, the citizens of Pilsen, Bohemia despised their town brewer’s product. They overran the brewery, captured the brewmaster and rolled barrels of beer to the town square, where they proceeded to smash and dump every last milliliter, finishing by running the brewmaster out of town. They hired Josef Groll to re-create their town beer, and he created the world’s first golden lager, which was quickly dubbed Pilsener in honour of the town. Within a couple decades, the beer came to dominate the beer market in Europe.
Interesting Examples
Czechvar
Paddock Wood Czechmate Steam Whistle 8
Sherbrooke Was Doing Beer, Before Beer Was Cool
Amber & dark lager
6 - 8 ̊C
What You Need To Know
Most people associate lager with light and crisp. However, there is no reason why a lager can’t be dark. The Germans are particularly adept at darker lager. For example, malty with a reddish hue, the sister styles of Vienna and Oktoberfest accent the best in bready, flavourful lager. If you want even darker, turn to a Munich Dunkel or a Schwarzbier (German for black beer), which look like a brown ale or porter, offer a bit of roastiness yet don’t lose that essential lager clean crispness.
Curious Fact
Vienna is one of the original amber lagers – Oktoberfest is a stronger, festival version – created in the 1830s by Anton Dreher. Too bad Herr Dreher relied on industrial espionage to create his famous style. Dreher had visited England to learn about their methods and process. What he didn’t tell them was that he had a hollow walking cane that he used to surreptitiously steal samples of their fermenting wort for analysis once he got home. As it works out, that unscrupulous rogue found a way to create a wonderful beer style.
Interesting Examples
Brooklyn Lager
Paddock Wood Black Cat Lager Ayinger Oktoberfest www.sherbrookeliquor.com
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Bock
8 - 12 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
Bocks are big, rich, sweet German lagers that showcase the wonderful characteristics of malt. A longstanding German style, they come in three forms – the dark brown traditional bock, a golden Maibock (sometimes called Helles Bock), and a bulked up version, with up to 8% alcohol, called Doppelbock. The key flavour in bocks is a rich breadiness that should make the beer taste like a big slice of homemade, lightly-toasted whole-wheat bread. This is a rare style, and many breweries only ofCurious Fact fer it as a seasonal. Bock is German for “billy-goat”. Folklore says the name is the result of a drinking game by two medieval Dukes: after drinking two gallons of each other’s beer, they were required to thread a needle standing on one foot. The losing Duke blamed a local goat that had snuck into the courtyard and toppled him, prompting the victor to proclaim: “that goat (bock) that felled you was brewed by me”! More historically probable, but less entertaining, is that it is a corruption of the name Einbeck, the town in which Bock was first brewed.
Interesting Examples
Ayinger Celebrator
Paddock Wood Maibock Les Trois Mousquetaires Grand Cru Doppelbock ©iStockphoto.com/pablonis 10
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Hybrid beer
8 - 12 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
Here is where my ale/lager sermon falls apart. There is a class of beer that exhibit qualities of both styles. These so-called hybrid beer are brewed with a lager yeast but at ale yeast temperature (room temperature), and thus have lager cleanliness with a ale-like fruitiness. Some, like Cream and Blonde Ales, are light and refreshing. Others are a bit darker and more bitter, like Steam Beer and Alt. All of them share this indescribable sense of sharing both ale and lager qualities.
Curious Fact
One of the most popular hybrid beer is Steam Beer. It is the creation of German emigrants to California in the 1800s who wanted to replicate European lagers, but couldn’t manage temperature control, meaning their fermentations got too warm. Supposedly, it got its name from the over-active fermentation that resulted, which was so aggressive that people could see steam rising from the fermenter. Today, Anchor Brewing holds the trademark for the name “steam beer”, meaning anyone else must call their version “California Common”.
Interesting Examples
Anchor Steam
Les Trois Mousquetaires Sticke Alt Yukon Gold www.sherbrookeliquor.com
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Pale ale / bitter
12 - 14 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
“Pale Ale” might be the most mis-used label in all of beer. However, it does have a specific meaning. A pale ale is a hop-accented copper beer that is still balanced and drinkable. There are many interpretations of pale ale. English Pale Ales are softer, fruitier and more rounded. American Pale Ales are sharper and lean more on the hops. Belgian Pale Ales are less hoppy but make up for it by adding that classic Belgian yeast funkiness. Related to pale ales are bitters. Extra Special Bitter (ESB) is essentially the same thing as an English Pale Ale, with Ordinary Bitter and Special Bitter being Curious Fact smaller versions. The term pale ale is an historical vestige, because it is actually not that pale. They were borne in the 1700s when technology permitted the shift from wood-fired kilns to cokefired, which resulted in a lighter coloured malt. It was a clear break from beer of the day which were brown and murky. Pale Ale quickly rang the death knell for dark beer in Britain and continental Europe.
Interesting Examples
Alley Kat Full Moon Pale Ale Fuller’s ESB Wild Rose S.O.B. Mill Street Tankhouse Ale 12
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Have you met our family? yukonbeer.com
Drink Local Beer
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Scottish / irish ale
12 - 14 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
England is world famous for its fruity, hoppy ales. Fewer people know about Scottish and Irish beer. Both nations have their own, unique traditions. Both regions emphasize malt and downplay hops. Most everyone knows Irish Red Ales through Kilkenny, but, to be honest, it is not the best example of that creamy, soft style. Good examples accent caramel, toffee and a nicely dry finish. Over in Scotland, they emphasize rich, malty beer that might offer a bit of smoky, peaty character. In many ways, both countries Curious Fact offer the opposite of what England genScotland and Ireland are erally offers. not suited for growing hops – too northerly. Which means importing hops from England, which historically was both expensive and meant trading with an antagonist. As a consequence, both regions developed maltaccented beer. Fewer hops, more malt. Scotland, in particular, figured out how to transfer its skill in making scotch into beer, creating rich, silky, peaty beer that could easily serve as a base for a high quality scotch.
Interesting Examples
Yukon Red Ale
Traquair House Ale St. Ambroise Scotch Ale
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Brown ale
12 - 14 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
In this age of extra-hopped, wood-aged, spontaneously fermented experimental beer, brown ale may be the forgotten style. With long historic roots to England, brown ale quietly offers a beer that is darker and richer than a light beer without being filling or cloying. Brown Ales come in a range of brown shades, but all have a nuttiness, a light toffee and sugar sweetness, a medium body and maybe a touch of milk chocolate. No roast, no big hop presence, no intense flavours of any kind. In many ways it is a perfect gateway beer into bigger and richer things.
Curious Fact
Brown ale is the perfect example of how a little goes a long way. The recipe for brown ales are mostly identical to a pale ale or light lager. 90% of the grains are the same, with maybe some small adjustments. The main difference is 5-10% darker malts. Nothing too roasted, just some malt kilned slightly longer to add that chestnut colour and caramel and toffee flavour.
Interesting Examples
Howe Sound Rail Ale Nut Brown Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar
Big Rock Traditional Ale www.sherbrookeliquor.com
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Porter
10 - 12 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
This little-known style actually plays a huge role in the history of beer, as it is the launch pad for stout. Porters are bigger and fuller than brown ales, yet not quite as roasty as stouts. Expect lots of chocolate, nut, dark fruit Curious Fact and caramel flavours. You might also pick up slight touches of roastiness, but Porters were the world’s first mega-beer. Upon it shouldn’t be too big. They are rich and their introduction in midfull, yet dry out enough in the finish to 1700s, they quickly came prevent being cloying. to dominate the market. Brewers scrambled to figure out how to make more and more of the stuff. Porters were particularly popular among the English working classes, including longshoremen, teamsters and porters – which is how it got its name. The arrival of pale lagers killed off porter – it ceased to exist by the early 1900s – but the style has been resurrected by craft brewers around the world in the last 25 years.
Interesting Examples
Propeller London Porter Deschutes Black Butte Porter Uncommon Brewers Baltic Porter Fuller’s London Porter ©iStockphoto.com/Nikada www.sherbrookeliquor.com
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fu Russian Imperial Stout P.20
Stout
Old Ale
P.20
P.32
Bock P.10
Scotch Ale
P.14
Belgian Quadrupel
Porter
P.29
P.17
Scottish Ale
P.14
Brown Ale
P.15
Dark Lager P.9
Irish Ale P.14
Amber Lager P.9
Dunkelweizen
P.23
Belgian Dubbel
P.29
Belgian Blonde P.29
Saison P.24
Hefenweizen / Wheat
P.23
Witbier
Munich Helles P.7
Pale Lager
P.23
P.7
Cr 18
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ull
Barley Wine P.32
Imperial India Pale Ale P.26
A visual look at how the families of beer inter-relate. Find your favourites and explore new styles by moving around the quadrants. Sample a beer located near your favourite, or jump the fence by trying something in an opposite quadrant.
India Pale Ale
P.26
Pale Ale
P.12
Bitter
P.12
Belgian Tripel P.29
Hybrid P.11
•Sour Beer (p.27) •Oak Aged (p.31) •Gluten Free (p.33) •Fruit / Spiced beer (p.34)
Dortmunder P.7
Pilsner P.8
risp www.sherbrookeliquor.com
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Stout
10 - 12 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
The inky blackness of stout can turn some people off. But many, once they try it, realize its full flavour is unmatched by any other style. Darkly roasted malted and unmalted barley impart the stout’s defining coffee-like roast. Some are smoother, others sharper. Oats, coffee and even chocolate are perfect additions to a stout recipe. And then there is the alpha dog of stouts – Russian Imperial Stout – stout brewed at twice the strength. It may Curious Fact be the biggest, most complex beer style Stout is borne of a mistake, there is. or at least that is how the legend goes. Irish brewer Arthur Guinness made porter for a living. One day his brewer kilned the malt too long (at that time brewers kilned their own barley). The resulting beer was black as night and too roasty for a porter. Guinness, being a cheap man, refused to dump the batch, instead releasing it as “Extra Stout Porter”. The beer became a big hit and before long was known simply as Stout.
Interesting Examples
St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout Yukon Midnight Sun Espresso Stout Half Pints Stir Stick Stout Courage Russian Imperial Stout 20
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Deliberately Different Beer
Rock Creek Cider 5.5% | Cider Grasshopper Wheat Ale 5% | German-Style Filtered Wheat Ale SAAZ Republic Pilz 4.9% | Czech-Style Pilsner IPA 5.5% | Dry-hopped India Pale Ale Warthog Ale 4.5% | Mild Brown Ale McNally’s Extra 7% | Irish-Style Red Ale Traditional Ale 5% | English-Style Brown Ale Scottish Style Heavy Ale 7% | Strong Ale Black Amber Ale 5% | Porter 22
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Wheat Beer
6 - 10 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
Despite its name, wheat beer is not made exclusively with wheat; barley remains a dominant ingredient. However, the addition of between 10% and 50% wheat will impart a softer body, some sharp graininess, a thicker head and the beer will likely be more hazy. If all you do is add wheat, it brings out an earthy graininess that makes the beer more refreshing. If you also add special strains of yeast you can produce either German-style Weizens (which come in light and dark) which accent clove, banana, vanilla or bubblegum, or Belgian Witbier which is Curious Fact zesty, citrusy, dry and refreshing. The traditional way to pour a bottle of German Weizen is to –before pouring– gently roll the bottle back and forth on its side to rouse the layer of sediment at the bottom (which is mostly dormant yeast). The yeast is an essential part of the flavour profile in a Weizen, but not with a Witbier, so don’t get confused. Oh yeah, and the whole lemon wedge thing – do so if you wish but Germans don’t serve it that way.
Interesting Examples
Wild Rose Velvet Fog
Unibroue Blanche de Chambly Weihenstephaner Schneider Aventinus ©iStockphoto.com/marilyna www.sherbrookeliquor.com
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Saison & Biere de Garde
12 - 14 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
These are two rare styles that are growing rapidly in popularity. They offer a unique combination of citrus fruitiness and peppery spiciness. Their finish is quite dry, making them quite refreshing. Saisons tend to be light, slightly tart and summery and can sometimes offer a bit of a hop bite. Meanwhile, Biere de Garde are maltier, often darker, and have a subtle musty, cellar character. Both offer unique flavour combinations, which may explain Curious Fact their growing popularity. These beer are also known as “farmhouse ales” because historically farmers in northern France and Wallonia (the Frenchspeaking part of Belgium) would make them in the spring and store them in cool cellars for drinking during hot summer months. Often the beer was allowed to ferment using wild yeasts found in the air, which gave these beer their unique flavour profiles. Today, of course, special yeast strains are used that are descendants of those wild yeasts.
Interesting Examples
Ommegang Hennepin Saison Dupont St. Sylvestre 3 Monts ©iStockphoto.com/YinYang 24
Sherbrooke Was Doing Beer, Before Beer Was Cool
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India Pale Ale
12 - 16 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
First, let’s be clear: Alexander Keith’s is NOT an IPA. India Pale Ales are copper-coloured and very hoppy. While there is a range of intensity, all IPAs accent their hop. In American versions citrusy, piney hop flavour and bitterness define the beer and the malt plays second fiddle. English interpretations are more balanced, which means a bit more fruitiness and dialing back a touch on the bitterness. Imperial IPAs, often called Double Curious Fact IPAs double everything. More alcohol, a Yes, IPAs are a creation of much bigger bitterness and a substantial the British Empire to help base beer to carry it all. Double IPAs are keep the Indian colony about sipping on a glass full of intensity. in its place. The beer was designed in the 1700s to survive the three month sea voyage from England, around Africa’s Cap of Good Hope to India. Alcohol and hops are both preservatives, so bulking up on both was a good idea. However, IPA outlived the British Empire because it was a much better idea. More hops, more alcohol. Anyone opposed?
Interesting Examples
Red Racer IPA
Green Flash West Coast IPA Thornbridge Jaipur Dieu Du Ciel Corne Du Diable 26
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Sour ale
12 - 14 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
Sour ales break the beer rules, in more ways than one, to produce tart - at times puckering - beer with a velvety feel. Lambic is a family of blended sour beer that are spontaneously fermented and aged in oak-barrels for up to three years. Multiple years are blended to create Gueuze, which presents the tartness straight up, while the addition of fruit, including sour cherry (Kriek), raspberry (Framboise) or black currant (Cassis) balances the sour with complementary fruit sweetness. Flanders Sour ales come in two forms – Red and Brown (often called Oud Bruin). They are also aged in oak for up to three years, but are not spontaneously fermented. Both have a clean, balanced tartness while Flanders Reds are complex and red-wine like in their presentation, and Oud Bruins are maltier.
Curious Fact
Lambic are the only beer style that can legitimately claim a “terroir” like wine. True lambic can only be made in the Senne river valley in Belgium, as the beer is created by the wild yeasts and bacteria native to that valley. Brewers can make lambic-style beer elsewhere with a blend of yeasts and bacteria, but it is not quite the same as the real thing.
Interesting Examples
Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus Duchess de Bourgogne 3 Fonteinen Oude Gueuze www.sherbrookeliquor.com
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Belgian Strong Ales
12 - 14 ̊ C
What You Need To Know The Belgians brew beer differently than Belgian ales are special yeast strains that pery, clove-like esters. Lighter versions will balance the spiciness with some fruitiness and grainy malt, while darker versions will present with some caramel, dried fruit and malt sweetness. In theory, Belgian Strongs are divided by alcoholic strength – Blond Ale, Dubbel, Tripel, Quadrupel – but in reality there are myriad interpretations that combine colour, alcohol strength, yeast flavour intensity that defy easy categorization. All are complex, slow-sipping beer built for reflection and contemplation.
anyone else. Distinguishing produce strongly spicy, pep-
Curious Fact
Belgian strong ales are often called Abbey or Trappist Ales. Actually, to be considered a Trappist beer, the product must have been brewed entirely in a Trappist Order monastery with monks involved in the process and be strictly nonprofi. Only 8 breweries/ monasteries can use the Trappist moniker and label, six in Belgium (Achel, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, Westveleteren), one in Netherlands (Koningshoeven) and (as of May 2012) one in Austria (Stift Engelszell). All other breweries making Belgian strong ales must call their beer Abbey Ale.
Interesting Examples
Chimay White (Tripel) Unibroue Maudite St. Bernardus ABT 12 ©iStockphoto.com/ jpa1999 www.sherbrookeliquor.com
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Modern oak–aged beers 14 - 16 ̊
C
What You Need To Know
What is old is new again. Hundreds of years ago beer was stored in oak barrels, mostly because that is all they had. Scotch, wine, bourbon and other spirits still use wood aging to shape their flavour profile. For beer, stainless steel won out, until recent experiments with oak. Beer is aged Curious Fact in an oak barrel for a few weeks to a The secret behind few months, creating an earthy, woody, oak-aging’s effect is a sweet character that can often display combination of the wood notes of what was previously in the bar- flavour and the microrel (bourbon, wine, scotch, etc.). Barrel- organisms that live in wood. aging can have a significant effect on a It creates an earthy, musty, beer’s presentation. vanilla character that both enriches and shifts a beer. Innis and Gunn, one of the first modern oak-aged beers, was borne of an experiment at a scotch distillery to create a beer-aged scotch. The staff enjoyed the beer in the cask so much they started stealing volumes of it – so much that when it came time to add the scotch, no beer was left. That beer eventually became Innis and Gunn.
Interesting Examples
Ola Dubh 12
Paddock Wood Barrel Full of Monkeys Imperial Stout Innis & Gunn Rum Cask www.sherbrookeliquor.com
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Barley wine & old ale
14 - 16 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
What do you call a beer that is made at 10% alcohol or more, can be aged for years, and is best served in a brandy snifter? Barley wine, of course. Put simply, barley wines and their relative, old ale, are big alcohol beer. But there is much, much more to it than that. Barley wines are rich, complex, malty, multi-layered creations that take much skill and finesse to produce. These ales should offer strong malt flavours, substantial body and a soft alcohol warming. Some interpretations may also be noticeably bitter. While the boundary is fuzzy, old ales (sometimes called Winter Warmer) tend to be a bit sweeter and often darker.
Curious Fact
Barley wines and old ales can be aged for many years, often improving over time. If you want to cellar your barley wine, keep it upright in a cool, dark space with minimal temperature fluctuations. How long can you keep it? Just like wine, it depends on the quality of the beer what went into the bottle, but many people have stored barley wines for 25 years or more.
Interesting Examples
Fuller’s Vintage Ale
Alley Kat Olde Deuteronomy Yukon Lead Dog Half Pints Burly Wine ©iStockphoto.com/DMP1 32
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Gluten–free beer
6 - 12 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
Gluten Free isn’t a style, but it is quickly becoming a huge market segment servicing gluten intolerant drinkers. Gluten-free beer is made from non-barley ingredients, such as rice, buckwheat, millet, sorghum and corn. For many years, Gluten Free beer was rather unappealing; it can be hard to replace the unique flavour of malted barley. However, in the past couple of years a number of breweries have stepped up to the plate and have started producing gluten-free beer that even a beer geek might appreciate. This has been aided by a recently developed process that can remove most of the gluten from the beer, allowing gluten-free beer to be produced from barley.
Curious Fact
The challenge in glutenfree beer is finding a way to give the beer some body and malty sweetness. Most non-gluten grains will ferment out completely. The challenge is keeping enough complex sugars in the wort to ensure the beer doesn’t get too thin. Not an easy task, but clearly one that breweries are slowly figuring out. Good thing for the celiacs and glutenintolerant among us.
Interesting Examples
Brasseurs Sans Gluten Pale Ale Nickel Brook Gluten Free Mongozo Pilsner ©iStockphoto.com/marilyna www.sherbrookeliquor.com
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Fruit and spiced beer
8 - 12 ̊ C
What You Need To Know
Any beer style can have fruit or spices added to it to shift its flavour, so the range of beer possible here is endless: from basic blueberry or raspberry wheat ales, to pumpkin beer, to chili lager to garlic beer. Then there is chocolate, coffee, vanilla, ginger, pine, heather and so on. If it is edible, Curious Fact chances are someone has put it in beer. The flavour of a fruit/spiced beer will While hops are ubiquitous be shaped by the base beer (wheat ale, today, at one time they were brown ale, amber lager, stout, etc.) and a relatively minor ingredient the specific characteristics of the fruit/ in beer. Before the 1400s, brewers used a wide array spice being used. of herbs and spices to bitter their beer, including henbane, wild rosemary, heather, ginger, spruce, juniper, woodruff, and bog myrtle among many others. Choice of ingredients was determined by what grew locally and by trial and error. So, in a way, spiced beer is a return to those traditional days of anythinggoes additions.
Interesting Examples
Cannery Blackberry Porter Mill Street Lemon Tea Beer Hog’s Head Death By Pumpkin Amber’s Australian Mountain Pepper Berry Lager
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Alberta’s Apricot Ale
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