A Beer For All Seasons The greatest enjoyment of drinking beer is that it’s an ever changing pleasure affected by mood, thirst, food, and last but not least, weather. Those of us fortunate enough o live in the northeast or places where there are a distinctive four seasons find the weather equally as important as any other reason for a fuller appreciation of brews. Folks who live in Florida or Southern California, for example, where there are no seasons can’t completely appreciate the finer nuances of beer styles or seasonal offerings, because for centuries special styles have been brewed for the purpose of pairing the beers to the atmospheric conditions in which they were to be consumed: heavy, full bodied beers for the cold winter months and lighter, crisper beers to help endure the heat of summer. It’s tough to appreciate an Imperial stout while sweltering in 90 degree Florida humidity. For far too long Americans had few options other than just plain “beer”: standard, golden lagers mass marketed with silly commercials and catchy slogans but with no reference as to why the particular beer was suitable for anything other than watching sports, cutting the grass, or playing cards. To be sure, local, regional and even a few national breweries offered a few seasonal brews, such as bock, and many of them had year round specialty beers, which, while not seasonal, gave discriminating beer lovers an option other than the usual lagers. Ballantine IPA and the many Pennsylvania porters come to mind. But for the most part it was blonde lager that all tasted pretty much the same. The advent of the craft brewing industry resurrected seasonal styles that had been a mainstay of the European brewing tradition and today there are hundreds of American seasonal brews available to drink with the weather in mind. The fun of traveling around the country and making stops to find local brews has been greatly enhanced by what time of year you’re visiting a particular area. One can travel to Lake Placid, for example, and pick up a sixpack of Ubu ale anytime, but only the colder months allow the pleasure of finding Frostbite ale on tap, and a journey through Virginia during winter, spring, or summer would not be as pleasurable as in September, when the wonderful Dominion Octoberfest is available. Every season or month has a style of beer to go with it, so why not start at the beginning of the calendar year? “Winter” beers, especially barleywines and Imperial stouts have long been associated with long winter nights. Sipping from a snifter of Brooklyn Chocolate Stout while looking out the window at the snow covered frozen ground and a full moon through the bleak branches of the leafless trees is a calming pleasure that greatly alleviates the daily winter grind of scraping the windshield and driving through blackened slush. There is a definite reason for these styles of beer: one needs the full body and high alcohol content to see one through to spring, which introduces to several more styles. The most prominent spring style is bock beer, usually associated with a goat on the label. Originally a German style lager, bock beer was sold around Easter time by many American breweries. Unfortunately, a popular urban legend was that breweries cleaned their brewing apparatus in the spring and “the crap in the bottom of the brewing vessel” was used to make bock beer. This is, of course, just that. A lot of crap!. In Germany the stronger bock beers were brewed to enable monks to make it through their Lenten fasts. Even stronger doppelbocks probably took the place of both breakfast and lunch. Traditionally, doppelbock names end in “-ator”, (Salvator, Troegenator, and Celebrator to name a few) and because of the strength of these beers I’d like to suggest an additional appropriate name: “Drunkenator”!. Although not a specific “spring” style, in my mind since I only drink it then, another spring beer is Irish dry stout, especially popular around St. Patrick’s Day. Pints of Guinness or Beamish serve to lure real beer lovers away from ghastly green beer, also making it’s unwanted presence known at this time of year. Recently a few breweries, such as Sam Adams, sell spring ales. Though not bocks or stouts these brews seem to fit the mood for the appearance of crocuses and forsythias and the rebirth of life. In America , summertime is when the most beer is sold. Picnics, parades, the Fourth of July, baseball, hammocks, and lolling on the beach are all happily associated with suds. Standard American lager( lawn mower beer), usually canned or on tap, is a fitting drink for all those occasions, but also available are the many varieties of wheat beer, wit beer and hefeweizens, all designed to enable one to endure the often oppressive heat and humidity of everyone’s favorite outdoor season. With the advent of autumn come the Octoberfest and pumpkin beers. Octoberfests, originally called “Marzen” beers were brewed in March and lagered in caves until the cooler weather of fall arrived. These beers are full bodied, malty and are slightly more alcoholic. They’re perfect for the autumnal equinox, sitting at a picnic table under some trees and watching guys in lederhosen schtomp around to the sound of a Bavarian band blasting out “Hofbrau Days”. The most diverse of the seasonal brewery offerings start in November with the onslaught of winter, holiday and Christmas brews( more about that later).. The “holiday type of brew can be anything from spiced ale to barleywine to weizenbock to Imperial lager. A brewery can offer a once-a year special brew without any qualification as to what style it is. One only has to know that it’s a Christmas beer and meant to be enjoyed in the special ambiance of a yuletide gathering. These special brews should be appreciated for the times in which they are drunk: having a pint of Sierra Nevada ’s Celebration Ale while watching the fire, gazing at the Christmas tree while sipping Anchor’s Special Ale, drinking Sam Adams Winter Lager with Christmas dinner, or savoring Victory’s Old Horizontal on New Year’s Eve. Having covered the entire calendar of seasonal brews, we unfortunately have to face two downsides that come about because of the times we live in. One is that political correctness has not bypassed the craft brew industry. My collection of labels includes 107 that are associated with December and January beers. Of these, only 11 mention “Christmas”, the rest alluding to “winter” or “holiday” beers. A clue as to when the PC started is supplied by the Ballantine brewery of Newark . A specialty of theirs was Ballantine Burton Ale, stored for many years in huge oak barrels, then bottled and distributed free of charge to employees, customers and friends at Christmastime. I have three Burton ale labels in my collection and it’s interesting to note that the bottlings in 1946 and 1949 have labels that proclaim “Merry Christmas from your friends at Ballantine”, but by 1964 the almost identical label said “Season’s Greetings”. Although Anchor’s wonderful Christmas brew is called “Our Special Ale” all of their labels from the inception include the words “Merry Christmas”. Thank God for Fritz Maytag, the brewery’s owner. I can’t imagine people standing around toasting each other with a hearty “Happy Winter’! Second, in an obvious attempt of ‘one upsmanship” on the competition from other breweries, we are now subjected to seeing Sam Adams Winter Lager on the shelves at the end of September. (I tried my first 2007 offering in Chesapeake , Virginia in 85 degree weather with oppressive humidity.) Octoberfest beers are regularly appearing in August and this year was the earliest I’ve ever seen Sierra’s Celebration in New Jersey . Undoubtedly, spring bock will make it’s appearance in February and “Otter Summer” ale will be seen long before the dog days of summer. However, all is not lost. If they resist the temptation to sample them immediately, beerfans can buy them and wait until the appropriate time to drink them. Since Halloween has just passed and stores are already decorating for Christamas, it’s apparently time to check out the local liquor stores to see if spring bock beers have made it to the shelves. Can summer be far behind? Cheers! Dan |
Another two glasses up article from Dan Hodge! |
Someone has to say these things and it could only be Dan! |