“Hey Chris, what’s in that barrel in the corner?”

“That’s some special distilled beer”

“Ooooooh.  Can we try some?”

“No”

This is not a brewery standing still either.  Chris showed us how he’s incorporating rice hulls to get better extraction from his mash.  A trick he learned from Brooklyn Brewing.

Homebrewers: want to know what temperature to ferment your belgian ales at?  Look closely and get out your calculators to convert from metric.

On piece conspicuously missing from the brewery was the bottling line.  Chris explained they had grown too big for it to fit in the same space.  So now all of the beer is loaded into trucks, and moved a to a larger facility on the other side of town for packaging.  Chris claims they now produce more beer than Orval.

After the tour, Chris loaded us into his car, and drove us around the local countryside.  Chris is extraordinarily proud of his local region – as he should be.

His favorite oak tree:

Back at the brewery’s restaurant, we piled into a booth to sample some beers and food.

Houblin Chouffe – Their Triple IPA.   Something akin to an American IPA, built on top of their classic belgian triple. I’ve had it in bottles in the US before – it’s vastly superior on tap here, with all of the delicate hop aromas in tap.

Local Ardennes Smoked Ham:

The classic La Chouffe Golden Ale:

And lunch.  Eli had the trout, I had the rabbit legs, braised in McChouffe (their Scotch style Belgian Ale)

For dessert, local wild berries – delicious with…

Dessert.  A Beer sabayon, with a scoop of ice cream hiding in the bottom.  When you order it, you can hear it being whisked by hand back in the kitchen.  A lot of elbow grease goes into this dessert.

PS – Need a place to stay nearby?  I highly recommend La Vieille Forge, located just down the street, who besides being great hosts, Pol and Tine homebrewers themselves. Try Pol’s Witte for a great belgian classic, brewed on premises.

The brewery doubles as a museum, which is a giant leap back in time. So why don’t you join me for a tour of the space – plus, there is a tasting at the end.

Ah yes, the tasting.  We tried two of their beers – a organic gueuze and their kriek -  which is made with cherries.   The gueuze is very dry and very tart, with a slight lemony finish.  At first sip, my mouth flooded with saliva, in response to the acid level in the beer.  The kriek is just as dry, but pulls a head fake as the sweetness of the fruit says “sweet” but the taste says “acid.”

Sadly, when it came to drinkable souvenirs, they were sold out of just about everything.   That’s OK, my bag was pretty packed with Drie Fonteinen anyway.

This trip wasn’t all Belgium – we also made a stop over in Italy, to eat, drink, and enjoy some time in the sun.  While researching beer in Italy,  I quickly found this NY Times article, extolling the virtues of the new Italian beer scene.  I was intrigued, and made it a point to check it out.

We were not disappointed. We visited Birrificio Lambrate a brewpub in a residential neighborhood, producing a shockingly large number of beers.  But first, a tour of their operations.

It’s a classic brewpub, with large pieces of equipment stashed in very small spaces. It’s a family run operation, and Alessandra, clearly the mother den of the brewers, gave us a tour.

Why do breweries, in any country, always seem to have people just sitting around, eating ice cream?

After the tour, it was time to taste.

They produce a total of eighteen beers regularly, with some being seasonals that come in and out.  They had nine beers on tap when I visited.  The range would be familer to any American brewpub regular.  An IPA, a pale, a wheat, an amber, and on and on.

I was a particular fan of their Pale, which they also offered on cask.   Many of their beers seemed to rely more on a back end bitterness, rather than the aromatic hop usage favored in the US.  Other favorites included their German style wheat beer, black lager and smoked beer.

It’s really a shame that this great brewpub is a world away – I’d rather it be around the corner from me. It’d fit right in with the brewing culture in the US.  But that’s what makes it such a unique offering – it’s creating these craft beers in the heart of the wine world, and doing it well.  They’re also bottling their offerings, and having them offered at local restaurants.  In fact, they highly recommended a local restaurant nearby for dinner.  It turned out to be one of the best meals we had in Italy,, and paired well with their “American” IPA.

First, a little background on the beer itself, just in case you’re unfamiliar: Orval brews and sells one beer, their Orval Ale.  It’s a light amber ale, with a hoppy bite, and finished with a touch of brettanomyces at bottling.  The resulting beer is alive within the bottle. When it’s fresh, itis hoppy, with a nice balance of body and bit of residual sugar.  As it ages, the beer evolves.  The brett lurking in the bottom of the bottle continues to eat the remaining sugar till it’s bone dry, and replacing it with a bit of farmhouse horse-blanket kick.  Comparing a fresh and five year old bottle is a study in evolution – both are great, but it wholly different ways.  At any age, it’s delicious with food.

Let me warn you: For this tour, you’ll also have to let go of what you imagine a trappist brewery is like.  There are no monks in robes stirring mash tuns by hand.  No prayers were said, no rosary beads dipped in the wort.  Jean-Marie is a hired lay professional, as are all of the brewery employees.  They upgraded the brewery in a big way not to long ago, and the result is a serious brewery, producing a lot of beer.  Orval is available all over the world, and the only way that can be done is by making a lot of it.  This is a big commercial operation, producing beer in stainless steel fermenters and lagering tanks.

This gorgeous copper tank for example:

It’s just for display and no longer in use.  The beer is now brewed a few feet over, in stainless steel, curiously covered in fake-copper to give the appearance of copper tanks (I was not fooled.)

It’s every beer geeks favorite sport to complain that a beer “isn’t as good as it used to be.”  Whether or not these upgrades have changes the beer is for someone smarter than I – the current version is the only one I’ve ever known, and I’m rather fond of it.

On with the tour:

This is the last stop for the beer before bottling.  It’s where the Brett is added.

Even monks have to sterilize.

The bottling line is a beast.  Dirty returned bottles go in one end, get cleaned, washed, relabeled, and filled in the course of a few minutes around the conveyer belt.   I don’t know if it’s the biggest bottling line i’ve ever seen, but it’s certainly the most intense, pushing a phenomenal number of identical bottles through every second.

These monks also have a state of the art lab.

The finished bottles are then aged to allow them to carbonate.  Brewmaster and my wife pictured for scale.

After the tour, we were thirsty.  Jean-Marie poured us samples of Orval the way he likes it best: fresh on tap.  Orval can only be found on tap in two places in the world: at the official cafe across the street, and at the tasting room we were standing in.

If you think of the evolution of Orval in the bottle, the draft version takes places earlier in the timeline than is ever possible once it’s been packaged.  There is no brett, but replacing it is a surprising amount of hops, especially on the nose – there is a great dry hopping aroma that doesn’t survive the trip to the US in bottles.

Then, there is the OTHER beer that Orval brews: Petite Orval, a low alcohol version for the monks. Traditionally it’s just regular Orval, with more water.

We asked why this Petite Orval appeared so much darker than the regular version.  Jean Marie confided this was actually a test batch, where they had brewed it, from the start, as Petite Orval, and the extra color came from the balance of darker malts.

So how is Petite Orval?  If I’m honest, it’s interesting, and rare, but not particularly good. It’s low alcohol gives it a very thin body, and lackluster flavor, especially in the hops.  These bottles were about a year old, so the brett had eaten up every bit of remaining sugar. Jean Marie also broke out a seven month old bottled version to compare alongside.

The breadth of flavors from this one beer is amazing. It encompasses a whole range of beer brewing techniques, and at each stage, highlight different flavors.  The young, draft version highlights hops.  The young bottled version balances the hops with yeast character, and the older bottles show off brett’s ability to age a beer.

After our brewery tour, I sobered up by wandering the ruins of the old monastery , located right next to the new monastery.

Aaaaand we’re back!

Thanks to everyone for their outstanding suggestions and well wishes for my journey (and marriage!) We had one hell of a trip, but are now back to slowly reentering normal life, and sorting through the mountain of pictures.   For our first post back, I figure we’d start things off with a bang, and highlight one of my favorite places we visited: Drie Fonteinen.

Located in Beersel, just south of Brussels, Drie Fountain is run by Armand.  He specializes in blending ultra-traditional geuze and lambics.  These are sour beers, fermented using only local, naturally occurring yeast.  The resulting beer is sour, and aged for 1-3 years, then blended back together.  The final product is a tart, musky drink, with a phenomenal depth and complexity.   Once bottled, the beer can be aged again for yeast on end, as it continues to evolve in the bottle.

Armand is a joy to be around.  He exudes a warmth and enthusiasm that is reflected in his beers, and he excitement is palpable.  He made us feel at home almost instantly, and after a few minutes, began spinning yarns of his recent marriage, coping with the epic loss of his aged beer stores, as well as pouring his first great beer for his father.  If I could have snuck Armand back in my suitcase, he’d be here now.

But the beers- oh the beers.  We tried a variety of his geuze offerings, at different ages.  The favorite was a very special bottle of 2002 geuze which Armand opened for us, as well as some other belgian beer tourists.  The bottle was carefully laid on it’s side in a special pouring basket, so as to keep the sediment at the bottom.  Once the pouring started, it didn’t stop, which would have allowed the sediment to mix back into the beer.

It a balanced sour, with a lemony finish, and complex depth that keeps giving.  Another treat we tried was Faro – a lambic beer is kegged with a generous helping of fresh candi sugar, which ignites fermentation, carbonating the beer.  Too sweet for my taste, but interesting.   It served here using british style hand pumps.

Next door to the store front is the Drie Fonteinen restaurant.   Run by Armand’s brother, they offer outstanding food, as well as their beer offerings.  The geuze-steam mussels there were hands down the best mussels we had in Belgium.

Then, hiding at the end of the beer menu, we found a surprise.  (Warning – don’t look to closely at those prices, lest your head explode.)

A Geuze bottle from 1997?!  Yes!  It arrives at the table, already poured, but still covered in cobwebs.

The extra time actually mellowed the sour ale, giving it a bit less of a sour punch – letting the malt character show through a bit more. Phenomenal.

I think I’m going to like Belgium.

]]> http://beerandnosh.com/2010/08/drie-fonteinen/feed/ 10 http://beerandnosh.com/2010/06/cascade-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cascade-brewing http://beerandnosh.com/2010/06/cascade-brewing/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:15:05 +0000 Jesse http://beerandnosh.com/?p=2433 When I planned my trip up to Portland, there was one brewery above all others I was interested in visiting: Cascade Brewing at the Raccoon Lodge.  They brew inspired, sour ales that are uniquely American. Their beers have slowly been creeping into San Francisco area by way of City Beer Store and Beer Revolution (You can find their Apricot, Cherry, and Sang Rouge beers on well stocked local shelves.)  I imagined these beers came from a place lined with rows and rows of barrels, holding a huge variety of sour ales.  I was not disappointed.

Brewmaster Ron Gansberg gave us an outstanding tour, which included samples of their beers in all different states – from fermenters, to half-aged barrels, to finished product.  One or two were even “chunky.”  As Ron explains it, even after the beers have finished aging, it’s only partway there.  It’s the blending process that allows them to finish the product, and create a final brew.  These final products are all about balance – sweetness balanced with tartness, and the fruit balanced with savory undertone – these beers scream to be paired with meats that love fruit pairings – duck, lamb, and pheasant come to mind.

So join us won’t you, at a tour and tasting of the barrels at Cascade Brewing.   If your web-browser support scratch and sniff technology, now would be a good time to turn it on.

]]> http://beerandnosh.com/2010/06/cascade-brewing/feed/ 4 http://beerandnosh.com/2010/04/rich-higgins-social-kitchen-brewery/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rich-higgins-social-kitchen-brewery http://beerandnosh.com/2010/04/rich-higgins-social-kitchen-brewery/#comments Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:13:56 +0000 Jesse http://beerandnosh.com/?p=2389

Since he’s sitting around waiting for the ABC to approve their brewing license, it gives Social Kitchen + Brewery Brewmaster Rich Higgins a few extra minutes to talk shop about his new beers.  He’s very, very excited about these brews, and working hard to create a unique brewing point of view that is a matched fit for the kitchen located just below the brewery.  He hasn’t just been busy in the brewhouse leading up to this gig – besides brewing at Gordon Biersch and Thirsty Bear, (Thirsty Bear has a flash-based auto-music playing website.  I’m not linking to that crap) he’s also consulted on beer menus for Starbelly and Delarosa.  Now that he has the chance to design the beers to pair with the food – and he’s going for it full throttle.

The beer community has for a long time focused on extreme beers, with high alcohol and huge, tongue searing flavors.  A backlash has been building, and there has been talk for a while now of a big wave of sessionable, low alcohol, high flavor beers.  But no one has stepped forward to brew them in large numbers, or do more than just a limited run.  (The Bruery’s Berliner Weisse and Valley Brewing’s London Tavern Ale come to mind as notable exceptions.)  Social is clearly aiming to put session beers at the center of their house made beer program – and we’ll find out if session beers are worth the hype.

We sampled his brews quietly at the bar – behind us, the newly hired kitchen staff was getting extensive training on the food menu.  Rich said he had already done one two-hour session on the beers, and was going to be doing another one on the brewing process.  So expect a well trained, and informed staff. Under hushed tones Rich walked me though his lineup of five starting beers.

Social Kölsch 5% (Pictured with Rich above) – Light & refreshing – Kölsch is aged like a lager after brewing to encourage a more lager-like clean profile.

From left to right:

Easy IPA 7% – Nicely halfway in between floral and citrus, this IPA has a punch, but not so much that it can’t play nice with food.  Simply screams out for fried food.
Old Time Alt 4.5% – Perhaps my favorite of the beers we tasted, it is akin to darker Kölsch.  The nose had huge oak aromas, although Rich swears the beer has never seen a barrel.
Rapscallion Belgian Dark 4.5%- Here is a great example of Rich delivering on the promise of full flavored session ales – this nutty dark belgian has great yeast character, but no alcoholic bite.
L’Enfant Terrible Strong Belgian Golden 8% – While this one has a lot more booze, it certainly hides it well behind clove and spice belgian phenolics.

But enough from me – here’s Rich explaining what he’s going for himself (please excuse the poor audio quality – it’s a working brewery.  Breweries are noisy.)

Rich is also working on making his beers truly vegan – which means no clarifying agents derived from animal sources (this seems like a good time to plug homebrewing – you ALWAYS know what’s in your pint).  So he’s working with new clearing agents (derived from seaweed) in a brewhouse that’s new to him – no small feat.  He showed me an example of the learning curve as he coaxes all of the impurities out of his beer.  Here is the Alt, with all of the sludge slowly falling out of solution.  Note: your final beer at the bar will NOT look like this.  See the junk at the bottom?  That’s what has to go.

Hopefully the ABC will finish processing their application soon, so Rich can unleash his Session beers on the world.

Want to know more about Social?  SFoodie’s Brian Yaeger has been all over it for more on the beers and food.

I’ve started to notice that some of my favorite breweries are hidden away in the least likely of places: small business centers, in nondescript white buildings, often joined on either side by auto detailers, clutch and transmissions specialists and furniture wholesalers.  It’s pretty far from the fields of barley and hop bines in beer commercials.  (Not that any of my favorite breweries run commercials.)  That certainly the case for The Bruery – located in the back of a small cul-de-sac, you can follow the steady stream of revelers carrying full growlers back from the loading dock.  Hiding just around there corner there are barrels, fermentors and brewers.

Once inside, I grabbed a pour of Melange #3 and introduced myself to head brewer Tyler King – who gladly gave me a tour of their facility.

In their small, space, he walked me, Eli, and eventually, some other curious imbibers around their facility.   The small space is packed with equipment, all of which is being run at maximum capacity. Their 15 barrel system is pumping out beer as fast as they can make it, and it isn’t even close to meeting the demand that has been generated for their brews – after only two years since they first opened the doors.

On tap in their tap room  (read: bar setup in the middle of the brewery) were selection of their regular brews, as well as some special one-offs.  One of my favorites of the night was a hand pumped cask of double dry-hopped Mischief. Regular Mischief is a nicely balanced belgian pale with a slightly bitter finish.  In the dry hopped version, cut grass and citrus run wild in the nose, creating a much more San Diego hops influenced beer.

“Want to try something fun for your blog?” Tyler asked.  (Pro beer blogger tip – the answer to question is always “yes!” )  He grabbed a bottle of sterile solution and walked me over to a fermentor, and pulled off two small samples. Out came a muddy, opaque brown beer.

The mystery beer turned out to be “mostly fermented” Black Tuesday.  The opaque brown character came from the yeast, still in suspension.  It’s taste was sweet, with a thick mouthfeel.  Tyler explained this particular batch was lower in alcohol (low = 15%  These things are relative) and destined for blending.

Our tour ended at their in-house lab.  Here’s Tyler’s brewmaster geekiness really began to show.  While sharing a bottle of Alaska’s Smoked Porter from 2006 (tastes like bacon), he explained the lengths they go to for quality control – including testing every batch for infection, as well as an in-depth sensory evaluation.  I remember at a talk given by Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada a few years ago, he talked about the importance of a lab.   Without it, you can never be really sure what’s going on in your beer, and that it’s going to end up in the hands of the customer the way the brewer intended.  Tyler takes the lab very, very seriously. Plus, it’s where they keep the yeast.

Tyler has a relationship with his yeast that would make most girlfriends jealous.  He knows how they’ll react to different treatments, how much booze they’ll produce, and how much abuse they’ll allow before giving up on chewing through the malt.  Much of this comes by way of the lab, and allows him to troubleshoot beers as they work their way through the brewing process.

It’s this kind of attention to detail that makes The Bruery’s beers really stand out. They’re adventurous to be sure, but by grounding that attitude in scientific detail and lab experimentation, they can also guarantee that the beer is consistent.  It’s helped propel their explosive growth for the last two years, and surely will continue to in the future.

]]> http://beerandnosh.com/2010/03/the-bruery/feed/ 2 http://beerandnosh.com/2009/11/goose-island-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=goose-island-brewing http://beerandnosh.com/2009/11/goose-island-brewing/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:08:19 +0000 Jesse http://beerandnosh.com/?p=2133 While in Chicago, it seemed worthwhile to find out how they make beer in the Windy City.  Fortuitously,  when I happened to meet Goose Island brewer Tom Korder at GABF, I mentioned I was coming to town and would love to see the facilities.  He happily agreed, and met us with us on a chilly Saturday afternoon to see how their beer is made.

What I didn’t realize was that Tom had come in on his day off to give us an epic four hour tour, spanning two locations, barrel tasting, and vintage bottles.  So thanks Tom, for what very well might be the best brewery tour I’ve ever been on.

Read on for the epic post.  It’s going to be a long one, So I’d recommend pouring yourself a beer and getting comfy.  You can always jump into the full slideshow too.

We started out with a few pours from their tap handles, and a tour of the brewing and bottling lines.

After the bottling line, things started to get really exciting (not that bottling lines aren’t exciting.)  They work closely with the local Siebel Institute, a school  that has produced some of my favorite brewers (in-spite of my UC Davis leanings.)  They have a very small five gallon test batch system, as was as a larger experimental system.  This encouragement of trying new things has lead to some of my favorite Goose Island Beers.  He also lead us through the lab.  Never trust a brewery that doesn’t have a good lab.

From the lab, Tom grabbed his glass whiskey thief, and lead us to their barrel aging area.  Bourbon County Stout is aged in bourbon barrels, and these barrels are only used once.  This means they need a LOT of barrels to make this rich beer.  They also store them on end… which can lead to some leakage.

The beer pours like motor oil, and has a richness to match.  Thick, gooey, it’s a great after dinner night cap to enjoy with dessert.  Our tour completed, Tom lead us back to where we started, and started opening bottles. My favorite was a four year old bottle of Juliet, which is brewed with blackberries and aged in barrels.  After four years in the bottle, the beer had oxidized, lending it a mineraly, Bordeaux wine like quality.   Also good was Sophie, which is brewed with orange peels.  Sophie is the result of a brewer’s pet project, which was refined and grown overtime to become to full production beer they sell now.

Then it was time for part two.  We piled into Tom’s truck, and headed over to the Goose Island brewpub for more tours, more tastes, and lunch.  The brewing operation at the pub was a bit smaller, but just as diverse.  There were barrels and casks everywhere we looked.

The brewpub features an outstanding range of beers, and specializes in some cask offerings.  We ordered tasters of… well, everything, as well as most of the small plates menu.

Our favorites included the mussels, and sausage burgers.

Finally, we were done.  Well, nearly done.  Tom’s last act was to lead us across the street so we could pick out a few local bottles to try to smuggle home in our luggage.

We gathered our haul, put on our hats and gloves (it’s cold in Chicago!) and headed back towards the L station towards the loop.

]]> http://beerandnosh.com/2009/11/goose-island-brewing/feed/ 8 http://beerandnosh.com/2009/10/ballast-point-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ballast-point-brewing http://beerandnosh.com/2009/10/ballast-point-brewing/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:15:45 +0000 Jesse http://beerandnosh.com/?p=2111 While staying in San Diego, we frequented a small fish shack right on the harbor for breakfast. They dealt in heavy, cheap plates of food ideal before heading out onto the water to fish.  Not surprisingly, they carried a full time of taps for Ballast Point Brewery.  It’s natural fit – fishing and fish themed labels for a fisherman’s hangout on the water.  The brewery on the other hand, was no where near the water, and instead tucked into a generic looking building just off the air force base. But inside, exciting stuff was fermenting away.

Brewmaster Ryan Glenn gave us a stellar tour.  The brewery was hard at work – making a wide range of classic, and not so classic beers.  But the most exciting stuff, isn’t beer at all.

In the front corner of the brewery, there is a chain link fence separating off a whole area, and a sign clearly warning “No Beer Beyond This Point.”  Why the cutoff on carrying around a beer?  because of ABC restrictions – that space isn’t part of the brewery.  It’s the distillery.

Crammed into the tiny area is a still, surrounded by a small mountain of barrels.  Each barrel is carefully labeled, containing any number of aging experiments.  This is where Ryan’s pride in his work really shows – they’re doing exciting stuff, and they’re as far as they can tell, almost the only ones doing it. It’s fully cyclical too – as these barrels eventually give up their high proof contents, they’ll be recycled back into the brewery for aging beers.

The only problem is that aging spirits is a lengthy process.  Their first release, gin is out now.  But for the good stuff, we’ll have to wait a bit longer.