Brewpot - Lancaster County Brewers

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Next LCB Meeting
Mar 30th
7:00 PM
Lancaster Brewing
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Treasury Report
$ 880.10
March 2005
Monthly Newsletter of the Lancaster County Brewers
Just One (more) Floyd
Hello beer friends,
The train trip to Philly on Feb
26th was a great success with 15
members and guests sampling the brews
of Philly. This was the best attended
(any) trip since I've been associated with
the group. We should thank Amtrak for
taking good care of us. In fact I think
they may have heard of us before because
when Lou and I mentioned what we were
up to the conductor said "Oh, a pub
stumble and tripping tour of Philly"!
(Luckily Lou & I left just before those
adjectives kicked in).
The members and guests, in no
special order: Lou T., Frank M., & guest
Mark, Bill L., Mike C., Bob & Karen
Hollman, Alex B. and fiancee Leigh, new
members: Rod Shenk & Barb Toews,
Michael Garland and guests Jason and
Jamie (as well as yours truly). And a fine
group of discriminating tasters it was,
counting the days until our next trip.
Tony at Eulogy mentioned a few other
places to consider: Skinners on Market,
Race St. Tavern on Race & Society Hill
Inn on 4th, anyone heard of these ?
Just One (more) Floyd
State Line “Big Beer” Tasting
Trash Talk
Lou and Bob’s Excellent
Belgian Adventure
The Real Beer Page
Blast from the Past
Upcoming Events and
Club Calendar
Volume 13, Issue 3
Last month we talked about
tasting "old ales" so Todd checked out
"ratebeer.com", see list below, and I
checked with Robert at StateLine. It
seems the descriptions of this style
include just about any taste except hops
and include many harvest, Christmas &
winter ales. What this boils down to is, I
didn't find many from the list but we'll
taste something.
On the beer horizon: "Pubs,
Prohibition & Piety" tour of
Lancaster to learn about early
brewing, speakeasies, etc. with lunch
at Lancaster Brewing. 2 dates: May 7
& May 21 9:30am to 1:15, cost $25.
I'll be going & will bring info. Wed.,
also visit www.myclipper.com
search for city tours (PS: Cindy did
"flavors" last year, enjoyed it).
And, the National
Homebrewing Competition in
Baltimore 16, 17 June is calling for
judges and stewards. We need to
participate, will talk Wed. Visit
www.brewingcompetition.com.
See you Wed., Cheers!
Floyd
Page 2 of 7
Ratebeer.com Top 25 Old Ales
1 Kuhnhenn Fourth Dementia Old Ale
2 Woodfordes Norfolk Nip
3 North Coast Anniversary X Ale
4 Ridleys Old Bob (Cask)
5 Portland Benchmark Old Ale
6 Greene King Strong Suffolk (Olde
Suffolk)
7 Fish Tale Old Woody English Old Ale
8 McNeills Old Ringworm
9 Southampton Old Ale
10 Harviestoun Old Engine Oil
11 Theakston Old Peculier (Cask)
12 Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Special
Reserve
13 Theakston Old Peculier
14 Yards Old Ale
15 Robinsons Old Tom (Cask)
16 Lancaster Winter Warmer
17 Broughton Old Jock Ale
18 Dark Star Dark Star
19 Full Sail Wassail Winter Ale
20 Goose Island Christmas Ale
21 Haerlemsch Old-Ale
22 Cottage Normans Conquest
23 DuClaw Old Flame
24 Emersons Old 95
25 Coniston Old Man Ale (Bottle)
Philly Train Trip
Page 3 of 7
IF YOU WANT TO DRINK IT RIGHT...
This guide is intended to provide basic guidelines with regards to the different
styles of beer glass in usage today. The Belgians believe that each beer should
have a custom-made glass, while other nations tend to use generic styles affixed
with the brand’s logo.
allow for billowing heads to form, but are kind of lousy for developing
aroma or discerning subtleties, which is a shame when you’re sitting in Im
Füchschen trying to wrap your head around their glorious brew.
Historically, drinking vessels were made from wood, leather, stoneware, or
whatever else may have been handy. The historical replica Fraoch Heather Ale
uses a traditional stoneware glass, and many Franconian lagers never stopped
(St. Georgenbrau Kellerbier, for example).
As beers of different styles have distinctive characteristics, the appropriate
glasses for each style will be the ones that accentuate those characteristics. As a
rule, the more distinctive the beer, the more distinctive the glass should be. This
is why you find mainstream lagers served in stock glasses (or plastic cups, or
without bothering with a glass at all. But a unique product such as berliner
weisse demands an equally unique glass. Indeed, using the wrong type of glass
for some products will reduce the quality of the experience due to inappropriate
head formation, poor aroma release, or by failing to accentuate a particular
beer’s sparkling/cloudy nature.
At the end of the guide, we will provide some tips for taking care of your
glasses. But for now - the styles!
Flute
Tall, thin, footed with a short stem, often gold-rimmed. These glasses are
delicate, and show off a beer’s lean, sparkling body. This makes them
inappropriate for heavy, murky beers, but perfect for light, sparkling beers such
as fruit lambics and north German pilsners.
Lager glass
Short glasses, holding no more than 12 oz of beer. The are slightly wider at the
mouth than at the foot, with gradual, evenly sloping sides. This unpretentious
glass is a great basic drinking vessel, well-suited to pale lagers such as American
standards, dortmunders, and helles. Lighter Vienna, American darks, cream ales
and mainstream golden ales are also fine in this blue collar glass.
Kölsch/Altbier
Similar to the Lager glass, with straight-sided, and generally a little bit smaller.
The Kölsch glass in particular has a revolver-type look when six of them are
crowded onto a server’s tray. These are designed to be drained in a couple of
gulps, which is a good way to drink an Alt or Kölsch once you’ve written your
notes. Alt glasses are slightly shorter and fatter than the Kölsch glasses. Both
Shaker
The American microbrewer’s standard. A gently sloped 16 oz. glass made
for session-type beers. Ambers, English & American pales, and sometimes
darker session ales are typically served in these glasses, which are better
known for their durability, than for any particularly beneficial properties. It
is for that reason that some beer geeks have developed a hatred of the
shaker.
English pint
These have a similar purpose to the shaker in that they are made for session
ales, in this case bitters, milds, porters and stouts. There are a couple of key
differences. First, they pour a proper pint (and usually have a line indicating
where that is on the glass, just to make sure you don’t get ripped off).
Second, they have a bit more flourish than the bland shaker. There are
basically two variations. The first has a gentle curve covering the upper 2/3
of the glass - Guinness uses these. The second has a straight slope for the
bottom two-thirds, and then a bump near the top, flattening out at the mouth
of the glass.
Dimpled mug
A classic in North America, the dimpled mug is a large mug, with dimples,
and a handle. It is convex, with the mouth larger than the base. The glass is
thick, so bar owners love it. While the dimples make appreciating the
appearance of the beer more difficult, the wide mouth releases the aroma
just nicely. So while these mugs are most commonly used for raunchy
lagers, I would recommend them more for aromatic brown ales (especially
the hazy ones), bocks and other dark lagers.
Stein
Page 4 of 7
IF YOU WANT TO DRINK IT RIGHT... (cont.)
By far the most ornate beer vessels are the Bavarian steins. These are usually
ceramic, earthenware or stoneware, and are intricately decorated with scenes of
nature, castles, and villages. They come in a variety of sizes, usually 1/2L, 1L,
or 2L - the preferred portions of Bavarian drinkers. While steins do nothing for
the appearance of the beer, there is little question that these beautiful pieces of
folk art (even if they are made in a factory, they’re still pretty nice) are visually
appealing unto themselves. The aromatic aspect is admittedly not as strong from
these materials as from glass, but the taste is unencumbered. Thankfully, some
steins have lids, which you can use to trap aromas in so that when you open the
lid you get a big shot of malt (or smoke, if you are drinking rauchbier). The
added bonus of the lid is that you keep blackflies and mosquitoes out of your
beer if you’re camping (you northerners know what I’m talking about), and the
cigarette smoke out if you’re in a low-ceilinged cellar bar in Germany. Use for
any traditional German lager style.
Footed Pilsner
A small, almost straight-sided glass sits on an inch-long stem and foot. The
basest form of this glass is actually kind of dull, but thankfully brewers like
Christoffel have added tulipesque accents to liven things up. The basic footed
pilsner has a slightly bulbous bottom and narrower mouth, which makes it better
for drinking than for smelling, and places the most emphasis on the appearance.
It has a bit more style than some other glasses, so it is best used for pilsners, and
decent cream or golden ales than for the lowliest lagers.
Tulip
The most varied glass in the world of beer. This style of glass has been around a
while but only recently has found in a home in the eyes of beer-lovers the world
over. It is the ultimate beer-tasting utility glass. The bulbous bottom makes for
great drinking, the flared mouth allows for wonderful head formation and aroma
release, and while it is short enough to handle the biggest beer styles, it is tall
enough to service IPAs and other complex session beers. The Duvel glass is a
well-known variant of the tulip style, and the Ratebeer tasting glass is an almost
perfect example.
Thistle
A somewhat obscure glass, used by the Belgians for scotch ales. It is a footed
glass, with a short stem. The glass starts very bulbous, as though it were a
snifter, but then the upper half has straight sides that angle outwards. The mouth
is basically the same radius at the bulb at the bottom. While it has a funky look
to it, I’m not really sure what benefits it brings to the table otherwise - the funny
shape I think would make drinking almost awkward, while the mouth is not
wide enough to provide ample aroma.
Yard of Ale
In some ways, this is merely an elongated version of the thimble. True, is has no
foot nor stem, but is consists of a bulb followed by a long, thin, outwardly
sloping section, which in this case flattens out at the end. Originally, these were
passed to stagecoach drivers so that they could stop for a drink without giving
up the reigns (thus, the world’s first drive-through was an inn somewhere in
Industrial Revolution England). Because the bottom is both bulbous and
stemless, it will not stand on its own, and requires a wooden stand. The bestknown branded example if Pauwel Kwak.
Weizen
The classic German wheat beer glass is tall, narrow and flared at the top. This
design accentuates both the hazy appearance of a classic hefeweizen, but also
allows for abundant head formation. They typically hold 1/2L of beer. The one
drawback to these glasses is that with so much glass exposed to the atmosphere,
the beer warms more quickly than one might like on a hot summer’s day.
Page 5 of 7
IF YOU WANT TO DRINK IT RIGHT... (cont.)
Tumbler
Best known as "the Hoegaarden glass", tumblers are session glasses with
a very gentle straight slope, though the Hoegaarden glass itself has a
wider bowl at the top of the glass. These graceless glasses are used for
witbiers to highlight the hard-working farm origins of the style. To the
amazement of North Americans, they are also used in Belgium for
gueuze. We should all be so lucky as to have gueuze and lambic as local,
working class session brews!
Bowl
Used for berliner weissebier, the bowl is a low-slung, wide glass that you
could very much each muesli and yoghurt out of. This glass is all style,
but works well with the berliner weisse when that style is adulterated by
the woodruff or raspberry syrup. Then it is practically an alcopop, and
such an absurb drinking vessel makes sense. Jackson’s Ultimate Beer
book shows the berliner weissebiers in a stemmed version of the bowl
(almost a bolleke, which is really a cross between a bowl and a Trappist
glass), and the additional elegance of the stem seems to fit well a berliner
weisse taken neat.
Stem glasses
Surprisingly common, yet unknown style. These are typically shorter, smaller
with stems and the glass portion is slightly off-straight in its trajectory. They
usually have some convexity, but not much. Occasionally, they are dead
straight, with rounded bottoms to form basically a square. Celebrator and
Harvey Porter use these types of glasses.
Snifter
Whether a pure brandy snifter or a variant, these are used most commonly for
barley wines, eisbocks and imperial stouts. They are stemmed and footed,
bulbous at the bottom and narrowing all the way to the top. Because barley
wines often have little head formation, the narrow mouth is fine as far as that
goes, but still inhibits aroma a little bit, the tradeoff being the appearance of
elegance. Many snifter variants made for beers have wider-than-average
mouths for this reason.
Reprinted with permission from author, Josh Oakes.
Ratebeer.com
December 19, 2002
New Westminster, CANADA
Trappist glass
Bowl glasses with feet and long stems, Trappist glasses work well with
the complex abbey ales they are designed for. First, they have very wide
mouths, which allows the copious foam to develop without getting too
thick for proper drinking. These wide mouths allow the complex aromas
of abbey ales to fully realize. The deep bowl shows off the liquid well,
and makes even the murkiest Rochefort look damn fine.
Page 6 of 7
Philly Train Trip (continued)
Lancaster
County
Brewers
Page 7 of 7
Mar 30th Club Meeting Lancaster Brewing Company 7:00 pm
“Old Ale Tasting”
April 27th Club Meeting Lancaster Brewing Company 7:00 pm
Bob Hollman
3077 Bricker Rd.
Manheim, PA 17545
May 25th Club Meeting Lancaster Brewing Company 7:00 pm
Phone:
(717) 653-9796
E-Mail:
[email protected]
( Print this page and cut this table out to keep as a reminder of upcoming events. )
We’re on the Web!
See us at:
http://www.lancasterbrewers.com