Everyone has a favorite, and co-worker Andrew Wolfe (you may recognize him from the Off Track blog) has a number of them to share with readers:
As with so many aspects of modern life, beer has gotten more complicated for the past few decades, and that’s mostly for the better. Some varieties have also gotten a whole lot stronger.
The alcohol content of run-of-the-swill American lagers tends to fall somewhere in the 4 to 5 percent range, and most imports and microbrews don’t reach far beyond that. Increasingly, however, ale enthusiasts can find brews that will sneak up behind you, kneel down and knock you on your can if you try to slurp them down like cold lager on a hot day. The alcohol content in these stronger styles ranges from a persuasive 7% to a whomping 18%, invariably with a flavor to match.
Here’s some favorite fortes, available at local specialty stores, such as Jasper’s or the Hollis Village Market, and occasionally your local market.
* Barleywine ales seem to vary more than most styles. The one thing they all seem to have in common is a strong flavor (nothing like wine, but tending toward sweet) and high alcohol content.
Harpoon makes an excellent variety, light and sparkling, with all sorts of what I suspect might be floral notes. I wouldn’t know from floral notes, though; I’m a beer drinker.Smuttynose Wheat Wine Ale is my favorite in the genre, better even than their standard Barleywine, which is just a bit too syrupy for me. The Milford-based Pennichuck Brewery’s Pompier Barleywine continues their firefighter theme, and actually tastes strongly of barley. It’s mighty and good, but it comes in really big bottles, with a price tag to match.
* Belgian Triple is strong ale for people who don’t like heavy, dark ales. They pack a punch, but the flavor tends to be light and fruity. I’ve yet to find a bad one, but my favorites, Brooklyn Brewery’s Number One and Victory Brewing Company’s Golden Monkey aren’t available in New Hampshire.
* Guiness is good for you, as their slogan said, but that’s because it’s weak. Imperial stout lives up to all the implications of its name, and Smuttynose makes what I think is both the best and cheapest around. It’s hearty and straightforward, with no extra fancy flavors. Pennichuck brewery also makes a very fine imp. stout, with strong coffee and chocolate flavors if you like that sort of thing.
* India Pale Ale tends to be just a tad strong, and some brewers up the ante. For the more potent versions, it’s tough to top Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute IPA… unless maybe with Stone Ale’s Ruination Ale, the most biter beer I’ve ever imbibed. Hardcore hopheads will love it, and Stone’s painted labels, depicting demons, make for the coolest bottles in the business. Smuttynose makes a good “Big A” IPA, too.
Other honorable mentions:
*Stone Ale’s Arrogant Bastard Ale: a bit like an old English Ale, but ever so much more so, to the point where it’s in a class by itself. We are not worthy.
*Dog Fish Head Immort Ale: this deadly potent (11%) ale has a smoky, peat sort of flavor that might appeal to Scotch or Lapsang Souchong drinkers. It’s a bit of an acquired taste, actually.
*Dogfish Head Raison d’ Etre: hard to describe, because it’s unlike any beer you’ve ever tasted. Imagine a cross between cinnamon raison toast and a mellow, brown ale.
Get your pen and pencil out. Here’s a few sure bets for you beer folk.
I’ve tried these in the last few weeks and really enjoyed them. They are all different, so what you pick depends on your mood.
Fuller ESB: English Ale with notes of caramel and toffee. Great finish. I’m not a dark beer fan but I was hooked after the first few sips. Drink out of a glass for the best flavor.
Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy: Another beer from the Wisconsin brewery. I’ve blogged about some of their other offerings recently, but since then this has appeared on the market. This very lemony beer would taste best on one of those hot July days. You could definitely knock back more than you should without much effort.
Sam Adams White Ale: I haven’t seen this on the shelves as of late. It looks as if it is getting replaced by their Summer Ale, but if you can find it, this is worth a try. I’m always looking for a good witbier and this one has strong notes of orange and coriander, just the way I like it. You just can’t beat a good unfiltered wheat ale.
On Friday, I headed over to the Wine Society in Tyngsborough for its Wild & Wacky brews tasting. We tasted a dozen different beers, which were from faraway locations such as Belgium, Germany and Japan, and ones closer to home, such as Colorado, Delaware and even Pennichuck in Milford.
Some of these beers were, by far, the strongest ones I’ve ever tasted.
For a $5 event, this was a fantastic deal. Not only did I get to taste a bunch of beers that, for the most part, I’d never heard of, but you can even apply that $5 toward a purchase. And it’s not like you’re going to leave without buying something, which makes the event FREE.
So what did I bring home? I bought five of the 12 we tasted:
- Fraoch (Williams Bros. Brewing Co., Scotland). A castle-shaped four pack of 11.2 fl oz bottles was $12.99. This was one of the lighter ones, at 5% alcohol. It’s brewed with heather, flowers and Scottish malt. It tasted slightly more like a wine, and it was one of the beers I tasted that I could drink more regularly than the others.
- Hitachino Nest Beer, Ginger Brew (Kiuchi Brewery, Ibaraki, Japan). A 24.3 fl oz bottle cost $7.99, and it’s 7% alcohol. This was another lighter one that I liked. Other tasters could detect the ginger in the ale, but I couldn’t. It was still one of the more likable beers. Plus, I thought the bottle design was cute! (Side note: If you want to find out more about Japanese beers, the Wine Society is doing a tasting of ales and sake later this month. Check out Feast’s Events calendar for more details.)
- The Reverend, Belgian-style Quadrupel Ale (Avery Brewing Co., Boulder, Colo.). This bottle is 1 pint, 6 fl oz, and cost $8.99. This is where my double-digit alcohol purchases began, with this one containing 10% alcohol. It’s brewed with imported Belgian malted barley, dark Belgian candy sugar, Syrian Goldings hops and authentic Belgian yeast.
- Jewbelation Eleven, 11th Anniversary Ale (Shmaltz Brewing Co., Saratoga Springs, N.Y.). This 1 pint, 6 fl oz, bottle cost $5.50 and contains 11% alcohol. I have to admit that I bought this beer for the humor factor — after all, this He’Brew beer says it’s "The Chosen One." It’s a limited edition, brewed with 11 malts and 11 hops. There’s even fun facts on the bottle about the number 11. Our server said he preferred the 10th anniversary, but I’m unable to compare. I still liked it!
- Raison D’Extra (Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, Del.). This 12 fl oz bottle was $8.99, and at 18% alcohol, it was one of the last few we tasted, all of them from this brewery. It’s brewed with malt, brown sugar and raisins, and according to its Web site, it’s on "hiatus" from being made. It surprised me that I liked something made from raisins, but it was another beer that had more of a wine feel.
One beer I didn’t like at all was a smoky German beer, which I can’t recall the name of, because, well, it was long and in German. It was the smokiest of the few smoky brews we tried, but it honestly just tasted like a fireplace.
One beer we didn’t get to taste that they had hoped to have was the Sam Adams Utopia. This is supposed to be the strongest beer in the world — with 25 PERCENT ALCOHOL. But when they got their hands on one of these bottles, someone came into the store and bought it. A spur-of-the-moment $200 buy. Maybe next time!
With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, visions of Guinness are in most die-hard drinkers’ dreams. But what about it’s black and tan counterpart?
Bass has come up with a marketing tool just in time for the Irish holiday to make sure you don’t forget about them on this day.
The brolly is designed to pour the perfect glass of black and tan and with a little practice, I found it was much easier than using a warped spoon. (I know this pour isn’t perfect, but see how nicely separated the beers are.)
Then I started wondering what else I could make using Bass. Traditionally, Guinness gets all the glory. A quick search at drinkmixer.com turns up 58 recipes with Guinness while only three recipes had Bass in them (and two of those recipes also had Guinness in them). I decided to try the brown Betty punch (below) although I was a little weary of the contents, especially the warm beer part.
I enlisted the help of my roommate Sarah. The ingredients of the punch are more her style, especially the use of spices.
Needless to say, the drink wasn’t a hit with either one of us. I couldn’t really taste anything for the first few sips and after that it went downhill. Sarah said it had too much alcohol from the start, probably the result of the brandy, and even tried chilling the drink to see if it would make a difference. It didn’t.
At least it was worth the experiment, and I’m thinking that if you are a big brandy drinker, it might be worth a try.
If you’re a fan of Bass, two other drinks that might be worth trying, and can be found on the menu at Strange Brew in Manchester, are the radler, which is half ale or larger and half Sprite, or the snakebite, which is half ale or lager and half cider.
If anyone knows of any other good recipes using Bass feel free to post them below.
Many bars and restaurants around here fail to offer a wide assortment of Mexican alcohols. In fact, many locals maintain that Corona (ick) is the solution to many of life’s problems. I recently moved here from Southern California where I went to college. Without getting into much detail, I hold myself as somewhat of a connoisseur of the country’s proudest libations…with the exception of cheaper tequilas of course.
I had set out from my apartment near Downtown Nashua to meet up with a co-worker for a few cold ones. It was a breezy 28 degrees as I approached West Pearl, when I received a call from my inquiring co-worker. "Where are we going?", he said. I gave him the low-down. "Martha’s is a night-club, The Garden doesn’t serve Gin, Peddlers has a cover…," he interupted me. "Let’s go to Margarita’s!" It was settled.
As we sat, I quizzed the waitress on their beer selection. After she listed the typical, tiring list she gets to the good stuff, Pacifico. I immediatly interupted her because I knew in only a few minutes I was leaving the frozen tundra that is Southern New Hampshire and reconvening with good memories on the sand and in the surf. I plunged the lime and took my first, indulging sip. Never has Mexican beer tasted so delicious.
I highly recommend that you try Pacifico if you ever come across it. The Mexicans that brew it will be truely greatful and I run the possibility of having someone to enjoy it with by Springtime.
Just in case you’re a visual person like I am, here’s a photo. I like the big one.
