The Beer Road

Taste enough beer and you will eventually hear someone say something along the lines of “Yeah, well, I’m just not into [insert any style of beer here]”, writing off perhaps an entire style in one fell swoop.  (Trust me, it won’t take long.)  It could be argued that the great expanse of hop forward beers may have this situation cornered with their long road to appreciating that bitter bite, a learning curve that for some might as well be as big as the arch in downtown St. Louis.  But you’ll also hear the same being said from time to time about darker beers, and predominantly among those, stouts or porters.  (Although for the record, there are plenty of these beers that sport a formidable hop presence.)

This always throws me for a bit of a loop. Without getting into the argument over those all too common myths regarding darker beers – that they’re all too heavy, or that they’re all fuller bodied than other kinds of beers, or that they always have much more calories than other types of beers – darker beers are often full of some extremely beloved aromas and flavors.  Rich flavors.  The best, richest, most chocolaty dessert like flavors.  Your favorite-morning-beverage like flavors.

Just consider for a moment the words often used to describe stouts, porters, or other dark beers:  Coffee like, Chocolaty, Roasty, Smokey, Rich, Intense…or “tastes like” liquorice, espresso, or even dark fruits (think dark cherries perhaps).  This doesn’t even begin to touch on their typically smooth as silk mouthfeel.  Nor does it begin to delve into how aging many of these beers in whiskey or bourbon barrels can add further complexity, or how simply adding oats to the brewing process can impart an even smoother body, or how adding lactose can add sweetness to styles such as Milk Stouts.  And we’re not going to even get into the breweries that toss peanuts or peanut butter into brewing their dark beers.

Often, we tend to write things off after one less than satisfying experience and then apply what we “learned” across the board.  If perhaps you’ve only had one, two, or even a handful of darker beers (stouts, porters, and the like) and haven’t quite landed a favorite, you may owe it to yourself to come out to Blue 5 Restaurant’s “Christmas In July” celebration tonight (starts at 5pm).  According to the restaurant, close to thirty dark beers will be front and center, and I am willing to bet you can find one or two that will envelope you in their rich, roasty nature.  (And might make you change your mind about dark beer – or any kind of beer for that matter – too.)

Check out this week’s earlier post, below, for a partial listing of beer to be featured at the event.  Beers will be available in both draft and bottle form!

Cheers!

Also, don’t forget this weekend to turn out for plenty going on at our local breweries in and around Roanoke.  Food trucks and/or live music have become regular fixtures for spots like Chaos Mountain, Soaring Ridge Craft Brewers, Parkway Brewing Company, and Sunken City.  Daleville’s Flying Mouse will be hosting a “ShrimpFest” out at their place on Saturday as well.

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Are you ready to indulge in the dark?  As noted in Monday’s post, Blue 5 Restaurant’s “Christmas In July”, the downtown restaurant’s annual summertime celebration of stouts, porters, and dark beers, kicks off Friday at 5pm.  Around 25 of these types of dark beers in all are apparently going to be making an appearance at the event (according to the restaurant’s Facebook page) but to get your mouth watering and ready for the upcoming dive into the overwhelming selection of velvety smooth, rich ales, below is a partial list of the ones that will be available.

Terrapin Brewing’s Wake ‘N’ Bake Imperial Coffee Oatmeal Stout

Three Brothers Resolute Bourbon Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout

Three Brothers Atramentous (Resolute Barrel Aged Sour Belgian Stout)

Allagash Brewing Red Howes (Stout brewed with cranberries)

Perennial Ales “17” Mint Chocolate Stout

Foothills Brewing Sexual Chocolate

Boulevard Brewing Chocolate Ale

Evil Twin Brewing Biscotti Break Porter

BFM (Swiss) La Mandragore Foreign Stout

Parkway Brewing Barrel Aged Belgian Dark Ale Magella

Again, this is only a partial list.  On the restaurant’s Facebook page, a listing of breweries likely to be represented also includes the likes of Founders, Schlafly, Oskar Blues, Smuttynose, Legend, Lost Rhino, and Starr Hill just to name a few.

In addition, the night will also likely serve as our first introduction to Hardywood Park Brewery, which recently announced it would begin distributing into the Roanoke area.  Representatives will likely be on hand, and it is rumored that not only will brewery logo glasses will be available for a limited time, but the brewery may also contribute to the spirit of the night with one or two of their own beers as well.

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For those who still think rich, dark beers are only for the colder months of the year, Blue 5 Restaurant hosts an event each summer to help wash away such thoughts, and to help remind everyone that a great stout is a good idea no matter what the calendar might say.  (But we’re well beyond all that, right?)  This Friday, the downtown restaurant will kick off their annual “Christmas In July” at 5pm with over 20 stouts on tap, including beers from breweries such as Harrisonburg’s Three Brothers, Winston Salem’s Foothills Brewing, Terrapin Brewing, Heavy Seas, Founders, Schlafly, Evil Twin, Oskar Blues, Legend, Smuttynose, Lost Rhino, and Starr Hill.

Of course, it’s difficult not to wonder what the individual stouts from these breweries might be.  Would Three Brothers’ Resolute be a possibility?  Founders’ or Schlafly’s Imperial Stouts?  Considering some of the beers that have shown up at this event previously, such as Foothills’ Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout, it’ll be certainly be worth coming out just to check out the tap list.

In addition, there will be some “special surprise” stouts as well.  One also has to wonder if the recent news of Richmond’s Hardywood Brewery coming to Roanoke just might play into the event’s plans somehow.

Without a doubt, this is an event not to miss if you simply love a velvety smooth, blow your mind rich, deeply flavorful, chocolately, roasty, possibly barrel aged stout – or simply love great beer regardless of style.  Blue 5 puts away many of these beers throughout the year just to put them on tap for this event alone.  Trust me, should you still think that the coming of cold weather is the only time for a great stout, you’ll definitely be missing out.

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Here’s another post in what I’m calling the “View From The Road” series, taking a look at a singular beer to seek out and enjoy, but nothing so rare that you have to refinance your house to buy any, or travel to the opposite coast to find it. Cheers!

Could it be, after all this time, the name is still an issue?  After all, it still seems as if it’s easier to find discussions on what to “appropriately” call a Black IPA – a style of beer that for the record I prefer calling, well, a Black IPA – rather than to find much about the beers themselves.  But for whatever reason, there often seems to be a black cloud (yes, and I said black cloud) that perpetually hangs over the “style” for which we can’t settle on a name for, or for that matter, the origins of.  Whether it’s the name of the style (which I doubt) or not, time after time, I still hear folks saying they can’t find one they truly care for.  Personally, I think we still have a hard time getting past the obvious.  Introducing darkness to a beer that is usually hazy at the most feels a little unnatural, as if we’re forcing it into a situation it’s obviously not comfortable in.  Or more correctly, we’re not comfortable with the thought of such a thing.  In other words, calling a beer an IPA that is as dark as pitch feels a bit like we’re taking some revered, deeply respected actor whom everyone tends to like – let’s say, Harrison Ford himself – and forcing him into some unnatural circumstance, like shooting a TV spot for Hank’s Used Cars over on Main and 4^th.  It just seems wrong somehow, and immediately makes it uncomfortable to watch.  Or in the case of the Black IPA, to like what we’re drinking.

But perhaps our issue with Black IPAs is that there aren’t enough exceptional examples out there to start validly comparing one against another.  In most of the ones I’ve tried, it seems as if the two “sides” of the beer don’t play well together, and it turns out a little muddled, or the dark ale qualities seem to be almost an afterthought.  For my money, the better examples of Black IPAs come across as dark ales almost first, reminding you of Porters or even Dark Milds, the qualities of which (smokiness, light roastyness) at the very least match, if not step directly in front of, any typical IPA “attributes” (citrus or pine like for example).

Lucky enough for those of us here in Roanoke, such a quality version of the style is being produced in our own backyard.  A couple of months ago, Three Brothers’ Virginia Dark Black IPA showed up on draft in the Star City, and in the last week or so, bottles starting popping up on store shelves in spots like Sumdat and Wine Gourmet.   Here’s a quick breakdown of this tasty beer.

THREE BROTHERS VIRGINIA DARK BLACK IPA. (7.6% ABV)

Matched up step for step with a definite, earthy pine like aroma and taste from the hops, Virginia Dark rolls out a ‘just enough’ roasted graininess flavor with each sip.  Again, think of the roasty nature of a good Porter, or almost to a dry stout.  With a couple more tastes, you’d swear there’s a bit of smokiness in the background.  There’s a dryness that aids in the whole “earthy” feeling of this beer.  Given some time to warm a bit, the smokiness may come out a little bit more, but still, none of the other characteristics really back down either.  Somewhere in there, there’s a quick thread of citrus too.

Many Black IPAs seem to have two distinct sides that don’t mesh well, one featuring whatever characteristics that were given to it by the malt that was used, and that of the hops.  But in Virginia Dark, the two work together to bring about a beer which is full of earthy tastes and aromas and make one great tasting beer, no matter what you want call it.

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