This time around The Session was all about charting uncharted territory.

We gave a very general call, asking for either travel stories, practical tips, or dream beer vacations… plus a beer description if it fits in anyplace, and we got a lot of delicious variety. Beer reviews were sprinkled thoughout. Quite a few bloggers did a little of each option, but here’s a rough attempt at classifying the tasty posts that emerged:

Tales of beer expeditions. What really happened on the road:

Rob writes about a Montana brewery visit – but his post is more on the craft of blogging and on reviewing a place based on only one visit, a pretty important insight.

Beer Odyssey Brian gives an example from Sun Valley, Idaho, of when travel plans go awry

The gun-totin’ New Mexico history is the star in this brew pub visit story by Derrick.

Beer Sagas gives general travel tips, specifics on Prague as a destination, and a lovely bit of international beer vocabulary – a Czech tradition, the dzban. Something like the American “growler” for take-home beer.

Touring the Texas Hill Country with its German beer heritage gives plenty for Don the Beer Brotha to work with.

Jay Brooks gives a quick overview of a life with a lot of beer travel, and singles out one special destination, in Scotland.

Peter of Better Beer Blog recaps a trip to San Diego, California he and Sam took last year.

Hey, wait a minute: We wrote about San Diego travels too, along with fleeting remembrances of the beers of the English countryside and Bavaria years before.

Ted remembers his hurricane evacuation beercation that ends with sumptuous notes on a bottle of Lost Abbey’s Judgement Day. Yes, San Diego again.

The Beer Nut posted, appropriately, from a pub in a foreign country, with tales of a mouthwatering tale of a trip to Copenhagen complete with notes on “Brewers United Belgian Stout” a Mikkeller-Xbeeriment collaboration.

Tips on how (and a little bit of where and why) to go:

Stan Hieronymus, founder of The Session (Beer Blogging Fridays), lists five specific great beer destinations you may not have thought about, and also encourages you to travel happily by seeking out national parks and always braking for good pie.

Jimmy of Hop Wild lays out some solid tips on preparation and beer hunting strategy.

Mario tells about a trip to Mt. Shasta and the seeking out of a small town brewpub as an act of familiarity and comfort.

Andreea gives practical, useful tips on making your beer trip to Belgium glorious.

Alan gives tips on the practicalities and challenges, including getting your beers over the US/Canada border.

Jon from the Brew Site suggests San Diego (imagine that!) and Portland as destinations and lists breweries to support his claim

Stephen includes travel tips, a description of entering an establishment in Belgium, and then throws in an evocative beer enjoyed in a Toronto pub.

Dreaming of the perfect beercation:

Steph Weber was the only blogger to write in this mode, with a carefully planned trip to North Carolina with both beer and childhood-memory destinations, and she closes with a beach sunset photo, the classic vacation keepsake.

This was a lot of fun. The most mentioned destinations are San Diego and Belgium. The most mentioned tip was to do your homework – get going on that research ahead of time. (Of course, some mentioned the pleasures of serendipity or leaving time to take suggestions on the fly from locals.)

The Session is a “blog carnival” group writing event originated by Stan Hieronymus. For an index of the Sessions see Jay Brooks’ handy guide. You can contact him to volunteer to anchor a future month. On twitter look for posts marked with the #thesession hashtag.

Next up will be “Beer Desserts” for the first Friday of August, hosted by David Jensen at Beer47.com . Sweet!

One of the great attributes of craft beer is that it continues to be primarily a local phenomenon. Travel for beer – or even just travel with hunting beer as a major component – is a pastime that won’t quit.

Our earlier travel adventures that were not primarily for beer, but with good beer quite available and appreciated, included England and Bavaria, both in the 1980s. We didn’t know enough about what we were enjoying to make any notes or seek out anything that didn’t just fall in our laps, but we knew enough to try a variety of offerings and pay attention. It was all part of our gradual beer education, in the context of some walking-centric vacations.

Fragments we remember: While walking on the Coast-to-Coast trail through Northern England, coming off a ridge in the Lake District into some tiny village to the cozy B&B we had booked by phone the day before, we got out of our muddy boots and went over to the town’s only pub for the evening meal and a pint of the invariably delicious local bitter. What the hell was it? Who knows. All we knew was that after the next day’s walk that brew was no longer available and we had another offering in another village. All part of the sense of place.

Another year, we enjoyed a similar experience traveling from Frankfurt to Munich. Each night we’d have beers with our meals wherever we were staying, only to learn that the same beers were not available again the next evening in a new town. We quickly learned to revel in the expectation of sampling new and interesting beer each evening, served by publicans who were proud to offer them as their own.

It was on this trip to Germany that we enjoyed our first Monastic beer. Our research told us that a short train ride from Munich would leave us with a nice afternoon’s walk from the the train station to Andechs Monastery and Brewery. After a longer-than-anticipated, hot afternoon walk on country roads we arrived at the Holy Mountain less than one hour before last call. On a summer afternoon, the beer was a minor miracle, to be remembered vividly for years. In fact, Steve would not wait years. He arranged for his train connections 2 weeks later from Prague to leave him with a 4 hour layover in Munich which he eagerly used to re-ascend Andechs Mountain and enjoy a more leisurely drinking session. He met a German high school teacher there who was grading papers whilst enjoying some “holy lagers.” The teacher treated Steve to several rounds and bought him a six-pack to take as a house gift for the next stop on his journey.

Almost nine years ago we became acutely aware of the West Coast American IPA revolution, thanks to festivals hosted by The Bistro, one of the East Bay establishments that inspired the creation of our Beer By BART transit guide. The Bistro does an IPA festival in August and Double IPA in February. That year the two of us scouted hoppy beers and compared them intently, trying to cover the major Northern California producers we knew, and some unknowns, too. We took a regional approach, confident that the beers from our area are excellent. They are.

Then the report came back from the judges. The three competition winners that year were all from San Diego county. Huh, what? We scrambled to taste the offerings from some brewery called Pizza Port. The San Diego style was a citrus slap in the face — and an elixir of pleasure. Who knew back then? We were fast learners, and immediately started planning a long weekend on the southern border.

Magic Hour Frolic: San Diego in January

When the time came we checked into a hotel on Pacific Beach — unintentionally, though fortuitously setting up only a few blocks from a little tavern called the Liars Club. The Liars Club was THE local pub for San Diego craft beer. We made many a return visit in subsequent years. They moved from PB to Alpine in 2008 and unfortunately closed earlier this year. We still miss it.

We reveled in the joy of discovering Alesmith, Ballast Point and the Pizza Ports one at a time, getting leads from people in each brewery or bar about where to go next. Our first time was like no other expedition.

San Diego County is difficult to tour because the good beer places are spread out, and a designated driver (or a group that can hire a driver and split costs) may be the only good solution. In recent years the two of us have stayed in a different hotel each night to be walking distance from the final round at that night’s brewpub or beer bar. Winter is our favorite time for this excursion, when slightly warmer temperatures than San Francisco means more to us. Jeans and a hoodie on the beach, a January treat.

Brewery tour, at Stone, San Diego county.

We also brought back great treasures. San Diego beers were a rarity in the Bay Area so we always had unique offerings to bring to dinners and sessions with friends. It was easier to do this, pre-9/11, since carry-on luggage could include bottles of liquid. Now, even though many of those fine breweries distribute at least some of their beers around the state, the trip is still worth it. There are always special releases to try and fellow beer fanatics to meet. The hop shortage helped encourage breweries like Stone, Green Flash and Lost Abbey to experiment with sour beers just as we were learning to love them courtesy of Russian River, Marin, Drakes, Valley, Moonlight, Schooners and such in our region. A little bit of this new microbial magic makes it to the best bottle shops beyond their border, but often a special batch is only poured locally, or at a festival. Something hoppy, puckering or richly malty will warrant wrapping and packing. Bubble wrap never sleeps.

Remote outpost on the San Diego county beer trail

Gail & Steve

The NHC is over, long live the NHC.

Last week was National Homebrewer Conference week, and it was more enjoyable than I ever could have expected, even after we volunteered to help out and made up specialized pubcrawl pages for the event, plus participated in producing a pre-conference tasting and judging event.

Some of the highlights included:

• Judge reception and dinner (thanks Sean Paxton)
• a Brewing Network pre-party at Linden Street brewery,
• personally judging some wonderful beers, then getting permission from Kevin Pratt to take a few pix including brief video clip of final round championship best of show deliberations  (avoiding recording any commentary on specific beers from the judges of course)
• a remarkable professional brewers guest night featuring all kinds of astonishing special beers such as the largest pouring ever of the Our Barrel Ale project from Anchor. Really one of the best festivals I’ve been at in a long time!
• the wonderful “Club Night” featuring food, costumes, drawings and pourings by home brew clubs.  That event felt like a community mardi gras, a very special party and meeting of the tribes.

I have not gone through all my photos yet, but more will appear. Here are a handful of photos plus the YouTube Video of judging that I made yesterday but didn’t have a chance to cross post here til now.

Serving from the “Ale Camino”

Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton made this dessert to pair with Russian River Damnation at the BJCP reception – he also cooked for the awards banquet.

The home brewing and beer judging community got to try local professional’s brewers’ special offerings.

Final round judging – sorting out the Best of Show finalists and going for the grand prizes

Steve and I had a great time, learning things, asking questions, seeing people I like, and trying amazing creative beers.

If you use this site, you may have wondered why we have had NHC pages up here on the Beer By BART reference site for months, when we are not a site that has a homebrewer focus. I first heard of the National Homebrewers Conference just over a year ago after the Longshot Competition when I ran into Jamil Zainasheff, whose name and face was not familiar to me at that time.  We had a brief conversation, and told him how much Steve and I love being part of the beer appreciation community and the much smaller beer & transit geek community,  and how excited I was to have judged my first BJCP-sanctioned homebrew competition.  He asked if we’d be willing to work on transit logistics for the NHC a year later. I was impressed at how forward-looking he was as an organizer, and said yes immediately.

What a lucky break!  I am not sure that I would have otherwise understood how much this event had to offer me as a still-new beer judge, a craft beer enthusiast and a beginning brewer.  If you ever have a chance, go!  (Consider it a remarkable form of Festival.) If you want to learn more about it, check out the American Homebrewers Association.  Steve and I were members long before I ever brewed a batch, because we wanted to support the craft, and get the brewpub discount card.  (In San Francisco, Rogue and 21A currently give a break to cardholders.)

For more photos from homebrew Clubs Night, click on this photo mosaic:

(Brewers costumed in the style of San Diego (ok, not actually a costume but a hardworking pourer), Old Arizona, Diablo, and in the “looking most like the club logo on his tee shirt” category, Mad Zymurgist attire.)
(Notes posted by Gail, this time)

Explore Beer By BART; see our list of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

Way back in the deep of winter, during SF Beer Week, we helped put on an evening of beer evaluation with one of California’s top-tier BJCP judge, David Teckam. We’re delighted to be doing this again this Tuesday evening at the banquet room at The Englander in San Leandro.  This time the seminars were set up for the week leading into the National Homebrewing Convention, so that some of the excellent homebrewers who are coming to town can participate.

The BJCP is the non-profit association of beer judges that defines the criteria for most homebrew and many pro brewing competitions, and has an extensive training and exam heritage for serious beer tasters.  However, doing a one shot public seminar is pretty unusual.  The beer week classes were full, so it’s not surprising that Tueday’s seminars are just about filled up, too.

[This just in: SOLD out for June 16! This will be a lot of fun]

It’s fun to meet people who enjoy learning about beers.  Most likely we (Gail and Steve) will be helping or leading other such presentations after this one.  It’s [sold out] and set for 6:00 pm (intro) and 8:00 pm (advanced) Tuesday 6/16.

If you are interested, please act with all due haste.  There are only a handful of spots left as of today.

If you might be interested in one of these classes, or in other tasting events sometime in the future, please email us now.  We’ll get in touch with you when we do a beer education event.

beerbybart (at) yahoo . com

Explore Beer By BART; see our list of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

Will you travel for beer?

If you just wrote or read about the trek to the furthest brew pub in the last round of the Session, and you immediately thought of other beer destinations near and far, we want to hear all about the good ones that didn’t quite fit the assignment! Tell us about that beer trip.

If you see the words “travel” and “beer” and instead of your best tourist sagas you think of work or logistics, we want to know your tips and strategies on the road. (Perhaps for getting prized bottles home.)

And if you haven’t done much travel for fine beer, either for work or pleasure, but you have a trip you’d love to do, tell us where you’d like to go seeking the experience and the community of beer. Who would you want to meet at your destination, who would your travel-mates be, and what would you most want to taste when you arrived?

Details please, whichever way you take this! You’re welcome to pull out the vacation slide show if you wish. By all means have a beer that reminds you of the trip, and describe it if you wish. This episode of The Session goes up on Friday July 3rd, 2009. Finish early and maybe you can go someplace for the weekend!

-Gail and Steve

Visit Jay’s index to all The Sessions, and enjoy some delicious beer writing. To participate in the next Session, come back here to add a comment with a link to your Will Travel for Beer post on July 3, or email the link to us then at beerbybart [at] yahoo.com. Happy trails!

Explore Beer By BART – see our list of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

The year was 2002. Our summer vacation was to Norway. Much of the country is north of the Arctic Circle, and therefore gets 24 hours of daylight for at least some of the summer. There is a network of hiking cabins you can stay at all over the country. Viking sites and museums. Trains and boats galore. Fjords even!

Something that challenged us at that time was that Norway was known as a country with nothing more than weak modern international lagers, and huge taxes on beer, wine and alcohol of any kind. The extreme regulation of drink, and the prices charged in Scandinavian countries was something we had not known much about until we were preparing to leave on the trip.

When we got to Oslo, we did what we normally do when in unfamiliar territory, we asked locals where to get the best beer and if there was a brew pub close by. We were sent to several nice and friendly bars and thankfully to one lone brewpub.

The bars were fine, generally friendly and the beer was potable if not notable.

This little brewpub, however, (which we believe was northwest of the Slottsparken and the royal palace) and whose name we don’t remember, featured some tasty British style beers, brewed by an English woman who, unfortunately, we did not get a chance to meet. Our attraction to the pub was one of those “newfound oasis in the Sahara” effects. The place was modern, pleasant and friendly, had tanks in the corner, and it served ales. There is no way to “objectively” evaluate their quality now, from memory, but there wasn’t then either. The flavorful beers called us back again and again. We stayed late, into the couple of hours of deep dusk that was the extent of night at that latitude.

We are not now able to locate the brew pub on a current map nor can we find reference to its name. Does anybody know this place?

The trip was some kind of a turning point for us. The joy of good local beers (and to some extent wines), in their proper surroundings, in prior trips to England, Germany and other places in Europe and North America, was something we’d taken for granted, but not seen as a prerequisite to a great vacation. We hadn’t really understood that our love of good beers had become that important to us.

Could we travel to a no-beer destination? Sure. But now that would be a major point of contemplation and discussion.

Another thing that has changed is that less than ten years later, Norway is now known for some fine craft brewers such as Nøgne ø.

Being a beer tourist is a lot of fun and incredibly educational. That reminds us of another story… but that’s what the next Session is about. The wonderful pub that’s not as far, the beer destination that wasn’t a pub, the dream trip you want to get to someday…

You’re invited to July’s Session: Will Travel for Beer.

Midnight in July, 2002, Lofoten Islands, Norway. ( Ok, the brewpub was a little south, in Oslo, where there were a few hours of wimpy night. We don’t have a picture of it, so enjoy part of our outdoor adventure instead. Three shots taken between 11:00pm and 2:00 am, on the gorgeous islands we traveled to, just above the Arctic Circle.)

Explore Beer By BART; see our list of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

A few weeks ago we volunteered to help Derek Smith of Black Diamond pour at the legendary Boonville beer festival. Both of us like his beers and brewing sensibilities and we both have Fridays off now, so we packed up our tent and headed up in the morning, with a rendezvous about an hour and a half out, at Russian River in Santa Rosa. We were happy to see some familiar faces there, and to meet up with Derek and Jen. After some Consecration and food, we headed up 101 towards Boonville, home to the Anderson Valley Brewery, which hosts this annual festival.

It was raining already when we’d left San Francisco, and by the time we pitched our backpacking tent in the brewers’ encampment the rain was merrily soaking the ground. (Our small contingent from Black Diamond was sharing resources with a large, energetic contingent from Blue Frog who had already created an elaborate camp and a fire-circle.) While there was some disappointment at the meteorologic conditions, it was offset by good cheer brought by wandering about and seeing old friends including Mario, Peter and Sammy, and Jay (Each is a prolific Bay Area Beer Blogger.)

We savored some very tasty beers on the evening before the festival — one we both loved was a deliciously souring edition of Drakes‘ Batch 2000. At one time this was the more sedate half of a blended sour beer called “It’s Fity.” Now the portion we tried is getting its own complexity and funk, and was a treat to try. Most of the time the rain was light enough so that people could stay out around campfire circles. By the time we opted to try to get ourselves into our tent without introducing much mud, things were mostly quiet, with a few loud pockets of continued hanging-out.

The morning had a spirit of anticipation, with aromas of coffee and bacon drifting over the brewers’ camp. There were signs of some campers who had had rough nights. One guy told us he was too drunk to find his tent so he slept out shivering in a damp camp chair. There was widespread grumbling about the mess the last late-night partiers had made of the porta-potties, something on a different level of adversity than mere rain. The launch of the actual festival was still a few hours away.

What would it be like for us to pour at the festival? Gail has not served beer since she worked as a bartender in the early 80s to support her underground theater habit of that time, and Steve has only poured at private parties. We love to talk to people about interesting beer flavors, and in sharing the learning process for people who are trying new styles of beer, so we were eager to go. We walked the short distance down the road to the fairgrounds to help set up.

We had everything in place when fans of craft beer began streaming in. With Derek’s calm guidance, we started to pour Black Diamond’s Belgian Blonde, recently christened “Free Style” ale. This is a very drinkable, delicate yet complex beer, with delicate tropical fruit flavors from the yeast, clean almost honey-like malt flavors and slightly spicy hops all playing a part. The finish is lightly crisp, making another sip seem like the only possible response. It was fun to pour because it works for neophytes and those who have done a lot of focused tasting alike.

The IPA, now “Jagged Edge” in its new packaging, was similarly accessible, obviously tasty and well-crafted. It’s an English IPA, with traditional British ingredients including English hop varieties. This makes for different flavors and balance than the familiar West Coast IPAs many Californians know so well. We found that talking about the differences got some of the tasters reading the detailed description sheets Derek had prepared.

We also were pouring a special rye IPA made during the fall harvest with fresh “wet” hops grown near Clear Lake. Typically such a beer would not be available after harvest season, but the fresh-picked taste persisted in this complex brew, marked by many fresh leafy aromas and flavors.

The festival takes place on the county fairgrounds. Because of the rain, this year many booths were set up inside a sheep barn! Mendocino County Fair is known for wool and apples, so lamb-judging is a big deal there. However, the aisles made for judging sheep in their pens were never made for a crowd as large as this one. Unfortunately, having brewers on two sides of the walkway meant that the festival-goers were crammed in like livestock, making it very hard for people to get to the next beer they wanted, and in some cases likely to chug whatever beer they could get close to. People were out of the rain, but that was the only advantage.

To wrap up what is getting to be a very long post, this festival is justifiably legendary, with an amazing line up of breweries, but it suffers a few of the classic festival dilemmas. Last summer we had read Jessica Jones’ piece on good beer festivals, which deserves to be remembered.

Her key observations include preventing crowding, (rain certainly makes it tougher) and the pros and cons of arranging the ticketing structure to avoid large percentages of binge drinking participants. For example, some festivals set the cover charge to include a limited number of drinks, then set a modest price for additional pours, so that when one is too drunk to go get another handful of tokens, one will slow down for a while. Fewer people who have consumed at the extreme end of their range encourages better community spirit among other things.

We’d add that it is useful to provide readily available drinking water. In addition, setting things up so it is clear that you have the option to dump beer you don’t want to finish, even if it is not “bad,” can help enhance a beer tasting session. A good festival means respecting ourselves and each other as well as the beers.

Choices can be tough for festival-goers when there are so many talented brewers on hand, and an unknown number of new or special beers to sample in one afternoon. This is a great time and place to be alive in the history of beer, and this gem of a festival proves what riches there are to enjoy.

Thanks to all the breweries who participated and to Anderson Valley, long a community leader, for gathering us together. And thanks to Derek Smith and Black Diamond for letting us experience the other side of the tap handles.

Steve and Gail

Explore Beer By BART – see our list of the Bay Area best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

Where in the world is Black Diamond Brewing Company? The name may remind you of the diamond-shaped danger signs that set off the steepest downhill ski trails. Perhaps you know about the old former coal mines on the slopes of Mount Diablo, now a regional historical park. Or maybe you remember going to Black Diamond when it was a brew pub in Walnut Creek. Relocated to north Concord and no longer a pub, this brewery was named for those historic mines, and their beers are becoming a favorite in the Tahoe area, enjoyed after the day’s last snowboard descent or summer hike.

Derek Smith of Black Diamond Brewing

Last week we arranged to go out to Black Diamond Brewing in their current location, a little more than a mile from North Concord BART Station. While they are no longer a brewpub operation, the brewery tasting room sported afternoon regulars chatting away over favorite special beers, such as an intensely chocolate Imperial Porter. People swing by to pick up cases and six packs of their Jagged Edge English-style IPA, hoppy Steep Trail amber ale and flagship FreeStyle Belgian blonde out of the tasting room, open afternoons Monday through Friday.

Black Diamond tap room

New packaging at Black Diamond

Derek Smith is now in charge of Black Diamond’s brewing, and his creativity is bursting forth. He’s been adjusting and fine-tuning the popular recipes, adding his own and is ramping up to start barrel aging some of his bigger beers for special releases. The Imperial porter, brewed with an array of roasty malts and sinfully rich Scharffen Berger cocoa nibs, is a likely candidate for this particular treatment. In contrast with the rows of gleaming tanks, the new second-hand bourbon barrels have an enticing decrepit look. Sometime next fall we should get to experience this next chapter in the barrel saga.

Bourbon barrels for beer aging

Closer in the future, Black Diamond will be at the Booneville festival, and the two of us are honored that Derek invited us to help pour their beers at this legendary outdoor beer festival. We’re packing our tent… Perhaps we’ll see you there.

To Be Continued!

Explore Beer By BART – see our main list of Bay Area good beer places with detailed transit info, and get out there to enjoy without driving.

So Thursday, April 16th, is not just the day after tax day. There’s this Beer Wars movie event. One night only. The trailer is all over the web and the events are all over the country. Some are near BART stations. The film chronicles the battles of craft brews to compete with the industrial giants, something very important to all of us who love adventurous beer.

Dogfish Head Brewing is not as much as an underdog as a few years back when the movie project began, but founder-brewer Sam Calagione is always fun and compelling. I especially like how the late Michael Jackson described Sam in writing a few years ago.

The special movie event includes a panel. It should be interesting to see what the usually macro-conservative Ben Stein has to say in the context of the craft beer world.

They have set up pretty good California distribution for this one night only film event. The SF peninsula, Marin county, the central valley … all have got Beer Wars locations. I wonder if this will bring out the hidden forces of beer fandom all over the land? Somehow I notice that for those in the central Bay Area — Oakland, Berkeley — there’s nothing nearby.

The obvious questions: What about BARTable destinations? Is there a place to see this movie and then repair to a very good beer before or afterwards?

San Francisco: only at SF Centre Century 9, at the Powell BART (and MUNI underground) Station. Walk only about 4 blocks to get a free pint of fresh local brew by showing your ticket at Thirsty Bear before hand (maybe ordering some tapas too) — or jump on the 6, 7 or 71 MUNI line to get up to Toronado for an after-movie get together that’s been announced in a few places online, probably not including a free pint, but with an impressive selection. Totally doable with $1.50 bus fare and a little motivation.

San Bruno rates high for convenience with a BJ’s brewpub and the theater both in the Tanforan center near the BART stop. (Psst: Some of the interesting seasonals and the IPA are actually brewed by other local craft brewers under contract. Sometimes those are worth exploring.)

Walnut Creek: You will have to walk about a mile from BART to the movie, but Pyramid Alehouse is on the way!

Hayward is the BART stop that scores really big here. The Century Theaters are a new complex at 1029 B Street, across the street from the historic Buffalo Bill’s brewpub, and just up the block from that esteemed beer bar and festival convener, The Bistro. It’s an easy walk from BART and the Bistro is directly on the way… and on the way back from the theater.

-Gail

Back to the BEER BY BART main directory.

Uncle Fudd, “Norwegian Farmhouse Ale” from Moonlight Brewing (photo by Gail, on draft at City Beer)

Brian Hunt has another original out on tap around the town, a improbable hopless beer with a new kind of balance and a whole new kind of tongue tingling. This is not a beer that is for everyone, though oddly enough the staff at Monk’s Kettle told me that it seems to please people who ask for “something light.”

Unce Fudd is a light colored beer with a good creamy body. The initial flavor is light grain, perhaps with a touch of very mild pear-like fruitiness. It’s a rye beer, and the rye tang seems to work with the creamy quality to give a very light cream cheese flavor. Sounds weird, but it is delicious. On the first sip there is not a lot going on in the finish, and I thought it was balanced towards the malt side. The trick is to have a glass, and then to notice the warm throat tingle.

The first time I had this beer I woke up hours later noticing that my throat and pallate were pleasantly warm. Warmth in beer is usually about strong alcohol, but this is a session beer, and the warmth was different. Very strange. Compelling. Something to repeat.

A week later I enjoyed a pint, followed with a sip of a very hoppy beer. The warm tingle on the tongue seemed mild while drinking the Fudd, but following it with a sip of IPA was an eye-opener. The strong hops were very irritating to the tongue following old Uncle Fudd. Next time the Uncle gets followed by a less hoppy Belgian, or another malt-forward beer.

Brian Hunt’s impish sense of humor comes through in the beer’s name, inspired by his mysterious ingredient, a new world cedar, the wood of the genus Thuja. Not a cedar barrel, Brian actually tossed the carefully selected Thuja branches into the stainless steel fermentation tank. Moonlight Brewing does it again.

Elmer Fudd would have loved saying that tree’s name. Evidently his Norwegian uncle would have asked for it in a beer. Try it if you want to taste something outside the beer flavors you know.

-Gail

Back to the BEER BY BART main directory.