The Beer Road

Microfestivus Update, Or Wheat Beers 101

•June 2, 2010 • Comments Off

Time to add another brewery to the list coming to this year’s Microfestivus Beer Festival here in Roanoke. Just like the two other breweries I posted about a couple days ago, this one is also from the region. Joining Charlottesville’s Starr Hill and Floyd County’s Shooting Creek, Blacksburg’s Bull & Bones Brewhaus is bringing four of their brews to this year’s Microfestivus Beer Festival in Roanoke. According to the Square Society, who hosts the event, Bull & Bones is bringing their Sun Lit Wit (Witbier), Lunch Pale Ale, Strick’s India Pale Ale and Maroon Effect Brown Ale.

Ok, ready for Wheat Beers 101? Excuse me, Weissbier 101. In the earlier post, I mentioned that if you find yourself despairing for a thirst quenching beer the day of the event, both Starr Hill and Shooting Creek will be bringing their wheat beers, specifically their two hefeweizens – which can be refreshing, popular warm weather brews. The Sun Lit Wit is a wheat beer as well, but is a Belgian style called a Witbier. Both hefeweizens and witbiers feature wheat in the beer, and because of this, the two are very often confused with each other. In actuality, the two styles are very different. To very much oversimplify, witbiers use a different strain of yeast, the wheat is not malted for deeper flavor, and are also spiced, most often with (but not limited to) orange and coriander. They are commonly lightbodied, crisp with a good level of carbonation, and can be a touch tart or lemony in flavor. Hefeweizens are typically not spiced, and use wheat that has been malted, as well as a German ale yeast which helps to produce their characteristically banana and clove like flavor. Want to try a very good and commonly found witbier? Chances are you might’ve already tried one, or at least have seen it. Often, even larger supermarkets carry the widely available Hoegaarden Belgian wit.

When I get more information on breweries coming to Microfestivus, I’ll post it. The Beer Road wants the beer-curious ready to enjoy the Festival, and also to perhaps try something different this year, if the curiosity gets to you.

www.bullandbones.com

Posted in Events., The Road Map - One Guide To Better Beer, Style by Style.

Roanoke’s Microfestivus Line Up Begins To Take Shape

•May 30, 2010 • Comments Off

The folks over at Roanoke’s Square Society, a non-profit organization which hosts Roanoke’s annual beer festival/fund raiser Microfestivus, have kindly started sending me the names of the first breweries to sign up for this year’s event. So if you’re curious about good beer and live in the region, listen up, because it’s time to start planning, and not just to go. And not just to have a good time either, although hanging out in warm sunny summer weather while trying good beer with friends, I agree, is a blast and goes hand in hand, doesn’t it? But don’t forget that beer festivals like Microfestivus obviously offer you and your also hopefully curious friends some of the best opportunities to try something different than what you’ve had before – than what you always, ALWAYS buy, and hopefully then to find something that might really blow your mind. Never tried a Belgian Strong Dark Ale? Haven’t tried a wheat beer yet? How about that altbier over there brewed with flint corn? For area beer fans looking to try something different who don’t want to buy a whole six pack of it, Microfestivus is your chance to taste whatever sounds good to you without breaking the bank. And since the Square Society is sending me brewery information for the event, the chance to start getting curious about what to try starts right now. We’ll call it – not a To Do list, but a To Try list – and besides, getting a little sneak peek at any event’s guest list before it happens is just fun anyhow, right?

The first set of breweries and their corresponding beers to sign on may sound familiar, since they are almost all regional names. Charlottesville’s Starr Hill will be bringing several familiar beers. According to the Square Society, the Jomo lager, Festie Oktoberfest style beer, the very good Dark Starr Stout, and their hefeweizen, “The Love” will be there. Typically, Microfestivus usually happens on what seems to be one of the hottest, “um, is there a pool nearby to go jump in?” days of summer, and a darker, heavier stout may not feel like the best choice, but it’s definitely worth trying, especially if you’ve had the lager before. If you do want to go with something that seems more in tune with heat that’s causing you to sweat through your shirt, give The Love a try. Hefeweizens are a German style of beer brewed with wheat malt as well as barley, and are considered good hot weather thirst quenchers, due to their light body, typical banana-like flavors and crisp carbonation. They are also usually unfiltered, leaving some of the yeast in the end product. Other common flavor descriptors include clove, perhaps a bit of tartness, and may also have, of course, a yeasty flavor to them as well – which The Love definitely benefits from. Due to the yeast left in the beer they also have a cloudiness to them, and along with their color, which range from a wheat like golden to a lemony yellow, these beers also almost “glow” from your glass.

Floyd County’s Shooting Creek will also be attending once again this year with their solid brews. They too will be bringing a weizen style beer – their Wildflower Wheat – as well as their Red Tractor altbeir and Snapping Turtle IPA. The Wildflower is a hefeweizen variation called a dunkelweizen, a darker and “maltier” version of the former. Along with the usual flavors associated with wheat beers, such as the banana and clove mentioned above, dunkelweizens gain complexity from the inclusion of caramelized or roasted malts that give them their color and obviously, a resultantly roasty or malty flavor.

So now that you think you’ve got now a good handle on a wheat beers, and maybe you might know what to expect from an IPA (especially if you’ve been reading the recent Beerroad IPA related posts!), but have no idea what the heck an “altbier” is? An altbier is a German style beer, copper or amber in color, which uses ale yeast but is cold conditioned (cold stored, as you would with a lager) for longer periods of time than the typical ale might be. The resulting end product mellows the taste and yields a smooth tasting but flavorful beer. True to their aim of using some of their own farm raised product in each beer, Shooting Creek also uses flint corn in the Red Tractor brewing process, which adds a certain grain like flavor to this smooth, malty beer.

So what might it be? What might take at least some of the room in the fridge regularly set aside for the same ol’ same ol’? It’s time to start letting the thoughts stir around in the head – what doors might open, for those curious about different beer styles and the vast world of good beer? The styles, flavors, and variations are can seem endless. So what’s out there, other than your regular stand by? Festivals like Microfestivus offer the best chance for something to truly impress someone willing to try. Mark your calendars, and then start letting your curiosity (and your “To Try” list) build.

www.shootingcreekbrewery.com

www.starrhill.com

Thank you to The Square Society for the info!

Posted in Events.
Tags: Microfestivus 2010., Shooting Creek Farm Brewery

The Beer Road Goes To Charleston SC

•May 24, 2010 • Comments Off

A recent trip to Charleston, SC for my girlfriend and I was NOT a beer trip. Having spent years becoming entranced of Charleston through photos of its charming historical district and its homes, our taste buds watering at the idea of potential great southern and seafood meals, and last but not least, that simple, instinctive desire for a vacation that a year or more without one will give you – to absolutely get the heck out of town – led us there. Sure, we did some reading and some researching, and with the help of an absolutely amazing concierge at our hotel, we were well prepared for a blast. Soon, our itinerary included a couple guided tours of the historic district, reservations at a few amazing restaurants, and even a haunted “ghost walk”. But hey, this is a beer blog, and this is me, so when about a week before the trip my girlfriend found me looking up recommended places online to find good beer on tap in Charleston, followed by an exasperated “Oh, Lord…” the planning for (my) Beer Road to officially make its first stop in Charleston was also well underway.

As it turned out, our first night there gave me one of the best tastes of the entire trip, during dinner at a seafood restaurant in the historic district. On tap was “Hopart”, an IPA from Coast Brewing, a green minded and organic brewery located in Charleston (and fairly new as well, established in 2007). I had read about the brewery and specifically also seen numerous good reviews of the IPA before coming down, and being one to usually lean towards local or regional product, this was officially my first taste of Charleston – and it was good. Consisting of big citrus juiciness of mainly fresh orange like flavors through and through, with just a bit of bitter grapefruit, all the while being accompanied by a sidekick of a malt presence, it is full of bright flavor. I learned that the brewery is well thought of in the area, and that its other beers are just as tasty, but currently production levels can only supply Charleston. I hope this is a situation which changes somewhere down the road. For now, if you’re in Charleston, do as I did. Seek out the Hopart – it is very, very good.

The source of the information about Coast Brewing was the next great beer stop. Tucked away down one of the little side streets leading down towards the water is The Charleston Beer Exchange, “Charleston’s Craft Beer Store”, and a destination for any beer lover. The walls are lined with shelf after shelf of American craft beer from all over the country, and that’s just the beginning. The imports are towards the back, there are coolers as well, and over in one corner are the growler taps, about seven in all – in case you want to get fresh beer to take with you. The choices and variation was mind boggling. Now my girlfriend is not a beer person herself, so I slowly began to feel the weight of her thoughts beginning to float through the air towards me, something along the lines of “great, he’s going to be in here for the rest of the trip”. And I could’ve stayed in there for quite a while, but taking stock of the selection was not the best part. The two guys behind the counter were helpful, attentive, and again, were the source of the information on Coast Brewing. They also took time to discuss some possible upcoming changes in SC law that might finally allow breweries and stores like The Charleston Beer Exchange to have tastings on site.

The guys at The Beer Exchange sounded hopeful that the future of craft beer popularity in Charleston is on the upswing. But I wasn’t complaining. Between the Coast offerings and the available beers at a couple of other places in town – such as a local bar called The Griffon that we stopped into twice, which had such nice surprises such as Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute IPA, Foothills Brewing’s (Winston Salem NC) People’s Porter, Oskar Blues’ Mama’s Little Pils Pilsner and others, I was not lacking for things to try.

There were a couple other places boasting large, quality beer selections that both I had looked up and our amazingly helpful concierge at our hotel had mapped out for me, but unfortunately time ran out on the trip. However, if the guys at the Charleston Beer Exchange think that things are on the upswing, and based on the great time we had in the city, I can safely say the research will continue on the good beer situation in charming Charleston SC. And yes, I can already hear the exasperation coming from my better half – we’re already looking forward to a return trip.

Posted in Brewpubs, Breweries & Craft Beer Stores., Random Thoughts.

Hemp Flavored Ales. More Than Eye Catching Packaging.

•May 19, 2010 • Comments Off

Imagine this scene. A group of friends are sitting around a campfire, sharing stories, strumming a guitar and enjoying good music, each other’s company, and very much enjoying their favorite hemp-based recreational product. As soon as one of the friends finishes one, they reach for another…..beer. Yes, beer. Exactly what product were YOU thinking of?

I’m guessing hemp is more often a conversation piece for people who are actually drinking beer instead of an actual ingredient. But brewers will occasionally use toasted hemp seeds as exactly that. Understandably, one of these beers might be quickly dismissed by the novelty of it all, and yes, you’re more likely to be drawn into trying hemp flavored beer by that incredibly familiar green leaf that’s likely on the label, but consider trying it for the taste. Beers brewed with toasted hemp seeds as are usually described as having a very smooth and distinctively nutty or earthy characteristic, and a taste similar to pine nuts is sometimes used to describe it.

Recently, “Humbolt Brown”, a brown ale flavored with toasted hemp seeds brewed by Nectar Ales in California started turning up here in Roanoke in bottles. It seems fitting – on their own, brown ales can be earthy, nutty, and often have roasted malty, nutty or coffee like flavors. Adding the nut-like hemp seeds would only seem to add to the depth of flavor. So far I’ve noticed it at Awful Arthur’s in downtown Roanoke, and just happened to run into it, at all places, a 7-11 in south Roanoke.

So try and remove any stereotypical images that have so far popped into your head. These beers ought to catch interest from more than just the tie dyed crowd. The next time you and your beer loving friends are looking for something different to try, this one might be it, even if at first it’s just for the novelty. Try it for the taste, even if everyone somehow votes to put on Europe ’72 on the stereo.