Shift Your Lupulin Threshold

My brother was brewing a batch of beer some time ago, and became a little too curious about his hops.  He caught the fresh, grassy, citrusy aroma from the hops as he opened the bag, and thought, “They smell so good.  I wonder what it would taste like if I just popped one in my mouth.”

Big mistake.

Want to know what a hop flower tastes like?  Hops are bitter – very bitter.  So bitter, in fact, that if you ate one whole, you would probably taste bitterness and nothing else for about two weeks.  The end result of my brother’s experiment is that he developed a month-long aversion to all things hoppy and that he learned a valuable lesson about putting things in his mouth.

As amusing as it was to hear my brother relate this story about him, it illustrates just how diluted most hops are in beer.  Every beer fan worth his salt knows that hops contribute bitterness and flavor, but unless they brew, they probably underestimate just how diluted the hops are.

Hops in the final product of beer are usually measured in International Bittering Units, or IBU’s.  For an American Lager, such as Budweiser or Miller Genuine Draft, you’d probably see between 8-15 IBU’s.  That means that in 5 gallons of beer, you would have about 1 oz of hops. (This is dependent greatly on the hops, but I’ve assumed a 5% alpha acid hop, for all you hop fans out there who know what that means).  For an American Wheat beer, you could see anything from 15 to 30 IBU’s, and for an American Pale Ale, you’d see anywhere from 30 to 45.  IPA’s are the big boys, weighing in at 40-70 IBU’s, and sometimes more than that.  I have seen a couple of “Hop Monsters” reach upwards of 100 IBU’s, but once you get that high, it really doesn’t matter any more.

These IBU’s are usually contributed and calculated based on the alpha acids in the hops, which are held in the lupulin glands on the plant.  If you were to look at a hop flower, you would see what looks like a yellowish powder on the bottom of the hop.  These are the lupulin glands, which contain all the essential oils and tasties which we put in our beer.

Every beer drinker has a limit to how bitter they like their beer.  This is called their Lupulin Threshold. (Named for the lupulin glands.  Get it?)  If a beer fan develops a taste for more and more bitter beers, they experience what is called a Lupulin Threshold Shift.  So, where do you stand?  Where is your Lupulin Threshold, and can you remember a beer which triggered a Lupulin Threshold Shift in your tastes? 

Here is a brief list of some beers which have the right kind of hop flavors and balance to contribute to your first or next Lupulin Threshold Shift.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – Sierra Nevada Brewing – American Pale Ale – 5.6% ABV – This beer is a benchmark for American Pale Ales.  Weighing in at 37 IBU’s, this beer falls right into the heart of the APA range and has the flavor to back it up.  Some beer fans have been tempted to attribute this beer’s high ratings as sentimentality (Sierra Nevada was among the pioneers of the craft brewing movement, acting fully 20 years before most people even realized that there as such a thing as Craft Brewing), but the fact is that this beer is good.  Very good.  It pours a sparkling amber with a white head, has an aroma of lemon, grapefruit, and a little pine, and has a flavor seamlessly balanced between sweetness and bitterness with just a little spiciness.  5 out of 5 pints.

Schlafly APA – Saint Louis Brewery – American Pale Ale – 5.9% ABV – I just had a bottle of this the other day, and it is always a surprise to me.  Anyway, it pours amber in color with a quickly dissipating head, but it has a lot of carbonation, which gives the aroma a bit more punch.  While this beer has all the bitterness and hops flavor you would expect in an American Pale Ale, it is extraordinarily well balanced.  The fruity hop aromas and flavors are mixed with just the right amount of bitterness, caramel sweetness, and bready goodness to make a complex, delicious beer.  Pour this one in a glass and really sip and taste it.  You’ll find a lot of flavors in there.  You might detect some orange, pine, grapefruit, or herbal notes.  I think everyone who drinks it finds different flavors.  Try it and find out what you can find in there.  4.5 out of 5 pints.

Single-wide IPA – Boulevard Brewing Company – India Pale Ale (IPA) – 5.7% ABV – What I love most about Single-Wide IPA is that it is readily available here in Springfield.  It has six varieties of hops in it, and weighs in at a commanding 59 IBU’s.  It pours a hazy orange with a rocky head, and has plenty of carbonation to carry the grapefruit and pine aroma.  The flavor starts out with a little bit of sweetness, but that is followed by a punch of hops.  If you’re looking to shift your threshold into the IPA range, you could do worse than to grab one of these.  4 out of 5 pints.

Bell’s Two-Hearted – Bells Brewery – IPA – 7% ABV – Where Single-wide has 6 flavors of hops, Bell’s has one.  It doesn’t lose any complexity or quality, though.  Two-Hearted is known as one of the absolute best IPA’s in the American market, and with good reason.  The all-Centennial hop schedule gives this beer a huge citrus and pine aroma.  Two-Hearted is a monster, but a delicious one.  Every drop of this beer is a grapefruit and citrus thrill, and finishes with a dry bitterness that leaves your mouth begging for more.  If you hadn’t noticed, this is one of my favorite beers.  5 out of 5 pints.

New In Town - SKA Brewing, Durango California

One of the most popular pastimes in Southwest Missouri in the summer is floating.  Getting out in a canoe or raft on Missouri’s waterways used to mean drinking whichever American lager you could stand to drink all day, since only cans were allowed on the river.  Because of an age-old stigma against cans (they, at one time, were known to add a metallic taste to your beer), microbreweries and beer aficionados alike dreaded the idea of high quality beer being packaged in cans instead of bottles. 

That was, of course, until a few microbreweries stopped and took another look at cans as a packaging option.  Packaging Technology has come a very long way in the past decade or two, and the cans that used to expose your precious suds to aluminum are now “specially lined” to protect your brew from tasting like the bottom of a Hot Wheel. 

In addition, in the everlasting pursuit of preserving the freshness of beer when it is opened by a customer, the cans make a huge difference.  You see, the two greatest enemies of fresh beer are ultra-violet light and oxygen.  Clear and green glass bottles let in a lot of ultraviolet light, causing the infamous “skunky” flavor.  When a beer has that flavor (and it’s not supposed to), it is considered light-struck.  If you tasted a Corona straight from the brewery and one sold to your in the store, you probably wouldn’t recognize the beer from the brewery, as that “light-struck” flavor is part of what you know. 

Oxygen is also a major culprit in spoiling beer.  Oxidation can cause a variety of effects.  For instance, in light-colored beers, the aroma can become more honey-like, or the flavor can become papery.  In darker beers, malty flavors (those that remind you of bread or toast) can be replaced by sweet sherry-like flavors, which may not be particularly pleasant, and certainly aren’t what the brewer intended.  Over time, oxidation can almost eliminate the good malty flavors, leaving behind undesirable alcohol by-products.  Independent of beer color, beers can also gain a metallic flavor or lose the aroma and flavor of their hops.  Oxidation is the main reason for the expiration dates on beer. 

Te solution of packaging in cans solves the UV light problem add greatly reduces the oxidation problem associated with beer spoilage.  The beer is not exposed to any light while in the can, and the amount of oxygen with which the beer can react is nearly eliminated.

As a result, there is now a growing selection of river-ready beers available at your local beer store. 

New Belgium led the packaging pack in our market, making their flagship Fat Tire available in cans some time ago.  Others have now followed suit.  For instance, Schlafly’s Summer Lager, featured in last week’s column, is now available in cans, and is a very good river beer, to boot.  This week, I’m featuring a set of beers from a newcomer to our market, SKA Brewing out of Durango, Colorado.

SKA Brewing has a few new beers available in town.  So far, I’ve found them at the Brown Derby International Wine Center, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them start cropping up at some stores with large beer selections in the area.  You may even be able to find them on tap at some local restaurants before too long.  The three I located at the Wine Center were Modus Hoperandi IPA, Special ESB, and True Blonde Blonde Ale.

If you’re planning a float trip in the near future, pick up the sampler pack of these babies or just pick up a couple of sixers at the Wine Center.  You won’t regret it.

Modus Hoperandi IPA – SKA Brewing  - American IPA – 6.8% ABV – A very well-balanced IPA.  The hops in this coppery-colored ale are up-front without being abrasive.  The beer pours with a white head which dissipates quickly, and the aroma is great.  It has lots of citrus and floral aromas with just a little caramel around the edges.  The flavor is very clean, with very little yeast flavor, but a lot of great hop flavor without the punch-in-the-face bitterness a lot of IPAs pack.  The hop flavors in the beer are mostly citrus with a little pine and are supported nicely by caramel malts.  The finish is the taste of the hops just hanging out on your tongue.  As soon as you finish one taste, you want another.  4 out of 5 pints.

Special ESB – SKA Brewing – Extra Special Bitter – 5.7% ABV – Don’t be fooled by the name of this style. ESB isn’t really bitter in the way an IPA can be.  ESB’s are usually very well-balanced ales that are intended to be easy-to-drink and enjoyable.  This beer fits that bill very well.  Special ESB pours a nice amber color and has an easy aroma of toast and caramel. The flavor is really a balance of several flavors.  It’s easy to pick up the toast and caramel flavors, along with a slight and refreshing hops bitterness, but if you taste carefully, you may also pick up some toffee and a little bit of citrus, as well.  This is a very easy, non-offensive beer, and would be nice out on the river.  3.5 out of 5 pints.

True Blonde – SKA Brewing – Golden / Blonde Ale – 5.3% ABV – A decent example of an American Blonde Ale, this beer pours a light golden color with a white head.  The aroma has some cracker-like malt to it, but also some spices and some honey or honeysuckle. It has a very light body on the tongue.  The flavor is well balanced between bready malt, a little apricot, and some sugar and honey.  The flavor is not sweet exactly, but has the essence of honey throughout.  The finish is mostly the lingering spice and honey flavors.  Overall, a refreshing summer beer.  3 out of 5 pints.

5 Summer Beers You Should Try

Recently, while reading the TAG 5: Summer beers, I started compiling my own list of summer beers, and it’s now complete. This is not so much a list of my favorite summer beers of all time, but a list of my favorite summer beers right now. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to try each of these beers and let me know what you think of them. Each has something different to offer, and I strongly recommend to you that you at least try them, even if you don’t accept your mission to bars.

Summer beers should be flavorful but refreshing. The beer should be able to cool you off when sunning or swimming at the lake, or right after you’ve finished mowing the lawn or working in the garden. They should never be too strong, and anything over 6% ABV is probably pushing it (although Ranger IPA made this list, weighing in a 6.5%). The idea should be that these beers will cut through the heat of a late summer evening, when the air is close and the sun seems like it will never set.

These beers are also great for sitting outside with friends at night while cooking meat on the grill, or while just chatting in a circle under the stars.

1. Schlafly Summer Lager (a.k.a Schlafly Helles) – Schlafly Brewery – Helles Lager – 4.5% ABV – This beer is a fantastic summer beer. It’s a full-flavored lager beer with a good, slightly sweet, bready backbone and just the right amount of hops to balance without overpowering the flavor. This beer is a light straw color and crystal clear. Best thing about this beer? It comes in cans, so you can take it on the river. This beer is easily a 3.5 out of 5 pints on my pint glass scale.

2. Ranger IPA – New Belgium Brewing Company – IPA – 6.5% ABV – This beer is great. For the money, you would be very hard-pressed to find a better IPA, although there are some which can give it a run. The beer pours a clear golden orange color with a white, foamy head. The aroma from this beer is what sells it, as it’s full of delicious citrus and grapefruit with just a little freshly cut grass. The flavor is bitter (after all, it is an IPA), but very well balanced with a full bodied sweetness that shows through. The beer finished clean, leaving your tongue wanting more. This beer is currently one of my favorites and I rate it at 4 out of 5 pints.

3. Boulevard Zôn – Boulevard Brewing Company – White ale (witbier) – 4.4% ABV – Flemish for “sun,” Zôn is a fantastic representation of the Belgian white ale style known as witbier. It is very cloudy and straw colored with a white head. The aroma is full of orange and citrus, with a little bit of pear. The flavor is very representative of a witbier style, which can be very hard to balance, but Boulevard does a bang-up job. There is orange and coriander mixed in with the lemony sweetness of the wheat malt. It has a nice yeasty flavor, as well, but the citric tartness cuts through it leaving a mildly spiced finish. 3.5 out of 5 pints.

4. Mueller Munich Lager – Springfield Brewing Company – Munich Lager – 4-5% ABV – This is a standard for summer in SGF. Spend an evening sitting outside at the Brewco sipping on this or their wheat beer, and you’ll have a good night. The Munich Lager is a great example of the style, and is clean and refreshing. It pours straw colored, but crystal clear with minimal white head. The aroma is mostly bread with a little bit of hops. The flavor is crisp and clean with a lot of carbonation to cut through everything else. The flavor is slightly grassy, but in a good way, and there is some slightly toasted flavors to balance everything out. This beer is easy to drink a lot of, so be careful getting home. 3 out of 5 pints.

5. Hazed and Infused – Boulder Beer Company – American Pale Ale – 4.85% ABV – My friend Brett might say I saved the best for last with this one. This beer is a great example of an American Pale Ale. They don’t bother worrying about clarity, so the beer comes by the haze naturally. The “Infused” part is a dry-hopping with Crystal and Centennial hops (a hint – “C” hops are usually very citrusy). It pours a hazy amber color with white head, and it has a VERY fragrant aroma that consists of a little bit of cut grass and a lot of citrus. It has a very full body and a pronounced citrus flavor which includes grapefruit, some lemon and lime, and a bit of pine in the finish. These hop-associated flavors are balanced by a caramel and toffee flavor from the malt. Crisp finish makes it easily drinkable. 4 out of 5 pints.

Think I forgot a beer or think I maybe haven’t tried one you love? Let me know in the comments or discuss them in TAGSGF’s forum. I’ll be sure to try and review as many beers as I can that are suggested. I’ll try to post a review per week this summer, so if you want me to review your favorite, please let me know.

 

Lessons Learned From Beer, or Get To Know Your Blog Author

Just as you would never trust a bald barber, you should never trust a beer columnist who doesn’t understand and appreciate beer. Therefore, I feel you should know a bit about me as a beer lover and about how I learned to love beer as much as I do. Hopefully, my passion and love for beer will affect you, and you’ll find a little bit of that passion and love for beer, too.

First, of course, I should say that I have been drinking beer for ten years legally, and a handful more before that illegally. I bought my first home brewing equipment when in 2000, and brewed a couple of batches of not-so-good pale ale before becoming disheartened and giving it up for a few years. In 2006, I took up brewing again, this time for real. I brew, on average, 2-3 batches of ale per month, and read and study brewing whenever I can. I study beer the way priests study the bible. They are never done learning, and neither am I. It is not uncommon for me to be seen spending my weekends and evenings reading brewing textbooks, and I even have a few stored in my iPhone so I can read them whenever I have a few minutes in a waiting room or while working out. I also listen to brewing podcasts on my iPhone or in my car when I can’t read.

According to my friends, I know way too much about beer for my own good. Fortunately, I like it that way. I like to think they like it about me, too.

Of course, this obsession with beer had to start somewhere. For me, it started when I was 18. I had a roommate in college who, with a six-pack of Blackened Voodoo, taught me that there was more to beer than light American lagers, and I never looked back.

This week’s list is a list of five lessons I have learned about beer, from that first blackened voodoo on up to more recent history. I have omitted Spaten Optimator from this list to make room, as I have already written about that beer in my last post, but this is a list of the five other most important lessons I have learned about beer, and the beers that taught them to me. Note: these beers are included for the lessons they taught me. These are by no means the best examples of these lessons or of the styles these beers represent.

“There is more to beer than light American lagers”

Dixie Blackened Voodoo – Munich Dunkel Lager – 5% ABV
Rating: 3 out of 5 pints
My roommate at Mizzou introduced me to this beer when I was “beered out” one weekend. What has followed since is a long education on the width and depth of the flavors which can be created in beer.

Blackened Voodoo pours dark brown with a slightly reddish hue. The head starts strong, but dissipates quickly after it is poured. The aroma is malty with caramel tones, and just a little bit of coffee. The flavor is very clean and crisp with a malty sweetness balanced with a very little bit of hop bitterness. The carbonation is very mild, but the mouthfeel is smooth and refreshing.

“Don’t fruit the beer”

Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat – Wheat Ale – 4.4% ABV
Rating: 3 out of 5 pints

Yeah, I know, you already know this beer, but many bartenders automatically serve it with fruit. The truth of this beer is that it doesn’t need it. Even without the added lemon, this beer has the citrus notes. Plus, the oils from the peel will cause the head to dissipate faster. Some even believe the fruit steals the beer’s body, too.

Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat pours a hazy golden color with a beautiful white head which lasts a long time. The aroma is of cereal and citrus, with just a little bready yeast in there. This beer is very easy to drink, but unless you have scurvy, don’t add the fruit. As a matter of fact, leave it out even if you do have scurvy. You can always eat the fruit and then drink the beer.

“It’s all about the balance”

Chimay Bleu (Blue) – Belgian Strong Ale – 9% ABV
Rating: 5 out of 5 pints

I include this beer because it is readily available here in Springfield, but I really learned this lesson while traveling through Belgium and Germany. One of the major reasons why Belgians make such amazing beer is because they are always looking to balance the flavors in the beer just right. They strive to balance the hop bitterness with the malt’s sweetness, and not to overpower the complexities of their yeast with any other flavors. It’s hard to make a beer that is both extremely complex and easy to drink at the same time, but many Belgian brewers are masters of the craft. This beer is a great example of that balance.

Chimay Blue pours a dark amber color with a thick, creamy head. When the head dissipates, there will be some lacing left on the glass, which is good. The nose has some dark fruit, including raisins, and also has a bold spiciness. The flavor is complex, but includes dark fruit (from the malt), a lot of spiciness (from the yeast), and a bit of bitterness (from the hops). The finish is the yeast’s spiciness with a lingering sweetness, and a little warmth from the alcohol (it does weigh in at 9% ABV). If it’s served cold, drink it slow. This beer improves as it approaches room temperature.

“Sometimes fruit the beer” or “It’s all about the balance, except when it’s not”

Lindemans Framboise – Lambic with fruit – 2.5% ABV
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 pints

Watch out. This one’s a tart one. My brother brought this beer to Thanksgiving one year and introduced my family to what would become a tradition for several years. This beer, which is extremely tart and fruity, is amazingly off-balance because of the punch-in-the-face that the raspberry delivers. For me, this brought with it a new level of appreciation for what brewers can do with fruit. A far cry from most of the “beers with fruit” out there, this beer’s tartness and fruit flavor will make you question what makes a beer a beer.

Lindemens Framboise pours a deep red raspberry color with a light pink head. The flavor is all raspberry with none of the sweetness. It’s very tart and a little syrupy, but finishes very clean. While technically a lambic, or sour ale, this beer does not have any of the unusual flavors exhibited by those beers. Instead, the raspberry dominates everything, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it makes this beer a good introduction to sour ales. If you try this and the flavor is too overwhelming, try mixing it half and half with Boulevard Wheat or another light wheat ale. I promise not to tell anyone. It’ll cut out a lot of the tartness and make it more palatable.

“It’s cool to try new things, but drink what you like, too.”

Boulevard Pale Ale – Pale Ale – 5.1% ABV
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 pints

I bring this lesson up, because I forget it often. I spend a lot of time brewing beer, trying my own beers, and trying out new beers. Sometimes, though, I just have to go back to what I know and love. This was never more evident than when I was with a friend the other day and we were talking about a new beer we tried. I mentioned that I wished that the bar we were at had Boulevard Pale Ale on tap. When he asked me why, I described the beer to him. He said, “Man, you love that beer. Your face just lit up when you were talking about it.” It reminded me that I hadn’t had one in a long time. I had a few this week. He was right. I love this beer.

Boulevard Pale Ale pours a slightly haze orange-copper color. It has a white head and a nice hop aroma. To me, the aroma is kind of grassy, but with some citrus, too. There’s just a little bit of caramel in there, too. It has a nice, malty flavor that is balanced very well with the natural grassy and citrus hop flavors. It’s light, though, so they don’t linger too long and finish cleanly. It’s pretty carbonated, but has a light feel to it, and it’s easy-to drink and balanced, so you can drink a few of them without being overpowered by hops.

 

How To Introduce Your Friends To Dark Beer

Every fan of craft beer who has tried to educate his friends about his passion for ales and lagers has heard it once or twice when offering a sample to a friend. It always makes us cringe a little, because most of us said it at one time, as well:

“No, thanks. I don’t like dark beers.”

“Whoa.”

It gives me chills every time. Fortunately, I know that the idea that dark beers have an unpleasant flavor – or even that they all share any kind of flavor at all – is a myth.

To prove it, here is a list of five dark beers that will surprise anyone that believes dark beers all taste the same, or that they all taste bad:

1. New Belgium 1554 – “Enlightened Black Ale” – 5.6% ABV – The style given to this beer by its brewer is “Enlightened Black Ale.” It’s an appropriate description, considering how well it can teach the lesson about appreciating dark beers. It pours dark with a slightly reddish hue, and has a decent white head. It has a great roasted grain and caramel aroma with just a little bit of fruit. It tastes very smooth and slightly sweet but finishes with a little bit of dark chocolate. It has a medium body and is everything you expect a dark beer not to be. This one is great for sitting on the deck with a fire going. 3.5 out of 5 pints
2. Ayinger Celebrator – Dopplebock – 6.7% ABV – One of Germany’s finest beers, this dark brown brew has a thick white head that leaves only traces after a minute. The aroma is raisins, bread, toffee, and caramel. The flavor is malty and chocolate, but not overwhelming. There are a few raisin and fig notes, and the beer is slightly sweet, but it finishes dry, leaving the drinker thirsty for more. 3.5 out of 5 pints
3. Unibroue Trois Pistoles – Belgian Strong Ale – 9% ABV – While this beer pours as dark as they come, the head is white and lacy. The aroma of the beer is full of raisins, apple, and spices, and the flavor is dark sugar with dried fruits, clove, and coriander. It has a thicker mouthfeel, but lots of carbonation lightens it up on your tongue. Overall, this beer is an amazing experience. 4 out of 5 pints
4. Schneider Aventinus – Weizen Bock – 8.2% ABV – Recently rated the best wheat beer in the world (2010) by ratebeer.com, this beer is the perfect example of how a dark beer can surprise you. It pours hazy brown with an ivory head, and has an amazing aroma of banana, clove, and a little bit of dark fruit. The flavor has chocolate and caramel mixed with notes of fig, raisin, and banana. The full body leads to a dry finish which only makes you want more. 5 out of 5 pints
5. Spaten Optimator – Dopplebock – 7.2% ABV – This is the beer that taught me that not all dark beers are created equal. This beer pours very dark brown with a little ruby coloring. It has a thin off-white head and a biscuity caramel aroma with toffee and molasses notes. The taste is very dark caramel and molasses with a smooth feel and a roasted finish. 4 out of 5 pints