What’s On Tap – The California Beer Newsletter

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Glasses of Budvar Budweiser make a beautiful sight in a cafe in Europe.

Photo: Daniel Zolli.

WILLIAM BRAND: BEER OF THE WEEK

Make new friends with the original Bud
TALK ABOUT THE WORLD spinning ’round. There was a momentous piece of beer news last year for those of us who like great beer. The original Budweiser — labeled as Czechvar — is coming to the United States and the importer will be (drum roll here, please): Budweiser.

There are two Budweisers in the beer world: The world classic Budvar Budweiser (****) that has been brewed in a town in the Czech Republic for centuries and Anheuser-Busch Budweiser (**), long the world’s best-selling beer, brewed in St. Louis, Mo., since the 19th century. The two companies have been in courts around the world, battling for the right to sell Budweiser. A-B argues that it registered the trademark Budweiser in 1878 before the present Czech company, Budejovicky Budvar, was created. There’s always a local angle isn’t there?

This wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Kip Bruzzone, who owns World of Wine Limited in Lafayette, CA.

He discovered Budvar Budweiser in Prague as an exchange student and fell in love with the beer. During the course of a decade, he made friends with Budvar’s brewers and in 2000 won approval to import the beer here as Czechvar. Four years later, the brewery dumped Kip and signed on with a larger importer: Distinguished Brands International, Littleton, Colo.

Now A-B has aced Distinguished: A-B’s sales are nearly flat, and the company’s been scouring the world for premium imports to build income. The prospect of having its beer distributed nationwide in A-B’s distributor network was irresistible.

Anheuser-Busch has found a European champion this time. This is a ruddy copper beer with a spicy, malty nose from the Saaz hops and the Moravian barley. The taste is mouth-filling, malty, mildly sweet well-balanced by a hoppy dryness. It’s the kind of beer that drove visiting Americans, like Bruzzone, wild and helped ferment the craft-brewing revolution in America.

Try this: Pour yourself a glass of Czechvar and a glass of American Budweiser. Notice the difference in the pour, in the aroma and in the taste. If you like dry and kind of sweet and light, then Budweiser’s the one. If you like a full and hearty taste, you’ll really like Bud … er … Czechvar.

You can find more on the dispute and the history in my blog, Can’t find this beer? E-mail me at whatsontap@sbcglobal.net or call 510-915-1180 and ask for our 2008 Bay Area Retail Beer Store List.

“Hi Bill - Do you happen to know if there are any Oakland (or Bay
Area) stores that sell Dogfish Head IPA (60 and/or 120 minute)? I’ve read about these beers but have yet to find them anywhere. Any help would be appreciated. - Steve, Oakland”
“Hi William: I’m looking for Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA. I can’t find a distributor for this brand in the Bay Area. I was able to get a half case (12 bottles) of 90 Minute on the web for only $50 with shipping and handling. Odd how it came out to that even number? At $4.16 a bottle I’ve been very stingy with it. Drinking Bourbon is cheaper. Any ideas who has this in the Bay Area? It’s a killer IPA. - Thomas, Benicia”

Every week or so I get an e-mail like these, asking about Dogfish Head IPA and I tell them there’s good news and bad news. The bad news for the many fans of the increasingly famous, extreme beers made by this Milton, Del. Craft brewer is there won’t be any Dogfish Head IPA here in California at least until later this year.

Brewery founder Sam Calagione said the company’s aware of the interest and as production expands so will distribution. But it will be late this year before Dogfish arrives in the Bay Area, Calagione says.

Now the good news.

If you are a fan of killer India Pale Ales or think that a brutally hoppy beer might be your idea of nirvana, there’s no better place to be than right here at home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We’re living in the hoppy beer fatherland or should that be, motherland? IPA’s and their stronger kin, much like Dogfish IPA, abound here.

But wait, let’s jump back a couple of centuries: What is an “IPA?”

The style that became India Pale Ale got its start in England in the late 18th Century. It was a solution to a vexing problem: How to supply English troops and administrators in the Indian colonies with beer? Beer was important because regular water made people sick. Beer was boiled, so it was safe and everyone drank beer.

But by the time ordinary beer in its wooden cask arrived in India after a long sea voyage, it was past its prime, often undrinkable. A London brewer figured out that if the beer was brewed stronger and fresh hops and yeast were added to the cask, the beer would continue to slowly ferment and condition in the cask and arrive in India, stronger than ordinary English beer, but very drinkable.

About the same time, pale malts were coming to market and the new, copper-colored IPAs, made with pale malt, became a huge hit in the colonies and around the world.

‘But in the 20th century IPAs fell from vogue, washed away in a sea of light-tasting lagers. We know the drill: A little hops, a little malt, a whole lot of water and advertising.

It took one patriotic American brewer to seriously revive the IPA style. Fritz Maytag and Anchor Brewing, San Francisco, fired the shot heard ’round the world at the dawn of America’s bi-centennial in 1976. He called it Liberty Ale****. In a tongue-in-cheek wink at the British, Anchor used American Cascade hops.

At that point, most surviving English IPAs were subtly hoppy with lots of malt. Liberty Ale had both: It was satisfyingly malty with an intense zap from the hops. That beer set a generation of homebrewers on fire. Many went on to found craft breweries and an IPA became a craft brewing staple.

Fast forward three decades and we find a new generation of craft brewers on the job. And have they ever pushed the envelope. Enter: extreme hops, and - to balance all those hops - a whole lot of malt.

Sam Calagione and his Dogfish brewers are part of the revolution. But a lot of it is happening here.

Never tried a Double IPA. Here are three suggestions:

Pliny the Elder****, Russian River Brewing Co., Santa Rosa, CA. Pliny was a Roman naturalist and historian, who gave hops a name. The only downside to this very splendid beer is that it’s draft only. But any beer tavern worth the name stocks Pliny. If your local doesn’t, complain.

Pliny’s 8 percent alcohol by volume and 100 International Bitterness Units. Your basic Bud’s 5 percent alcohol and 13 IBU. However, don’t expect Pliny to be a bitter beer. Malt predominates and hop aroma is intense, but the mouth doesn’t pucker. Double IPA brewers tend to use only aroma hops and to add them very late in the brewing process and as dry hops in the fermenter. Ergo: aroma, but not so much bitterness.

Maximus, Lagunitas Brewing, Petaluma. One of the few Double IPAs available in bottles, at 7.5 percent ABV and 90 IBU, it’s a treat. This lat note. Maximus placed third in a New York Times blind tasting Jan. 9 (2008). Of course 90-minute IPA was first, a beer I’ve never heard of, Weyerbacher Double Simcoe I.P.A. from Eaton, PA. placed second. Fourth was the beer in a can: Oskar Blues Gordon from Lyons, CO. Personally, I think our own beer in a can, 21st Amendment IPA from San Francisco tops Gordon. But then, blind tatings can fool even the most expert expert.

Stone Ruination, Stone Brewing Co., Escondido, CA. 7.7 percent alcohol, 100-plus IBUs. It’s another over-the-top IPA.

This last note: The center of Double IPA heartland is The Bistro, a modest, but nationally important tavern at 1001 B. St. in downtown Hayward. Proprietor Vic Kralj had been holding an annual India Pale Ale festival for a while, when he noticed that some of the newer beers far exceeded the strength and hop bitterness of a typical IPA. His solution: The Bistro Double IPA Festival.

The eighth annual Double IPA Fest is set for Saturday, Feb. 9. (2008) Vic expects more than 50 beers from craft brewers here and around the U.S. Many will be bringing special beers, created just for the festival. No doubt, Dogfish 90-Minute will be on hand. Hours 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Dogfish e-mailer’s, here’s your chance. More information on this not-to-be-missed festival can be found at www.the-bistro.com.

This final note. If you’re interested in uber-hoppy beers and other extreme brews and in Dogfish Head, founder Sam Calagione has written the book: “Extreme Brewing: An Enthusiast’s Guide to Brewing Craft Beer at Home,” Sam Calagione, Quarry Books, Glouster, Mass., $24.99. It’s easily found discounted in most bookstores or order it online.

In the 19 years since Alaskan Brewing Co. founders Geoff and Marcy Larson conceived the first version, Alaskan Smoked Porter has become a craft beer classic

Note to all: This is the first of a weekly series. I’m starting with one of my absolute favorites. Got a comment or a beer that should be a Beer of the Week? Post it here.

KNOW SOMEONE WHO’S PRONE TO SHUDDER and say, `Oh - I don’t like dark beer!’ Don’t argue, serve a glass of Alaskan Smoked Porter.

On the surface everything about this beer is what dark beer haters mean when they shudder. It’s smoked; it’s porter, a strange name to the uninitiated, and well, it’s dark. Even the label info’s a bit weird. It says, “natural sedimentation may occur” and “enjoy it now or age it for several years.”

Whaaat?

In the 19 years since Alaskan Brewing Co. founders Geoff and Marcy Larson conceived the first version, Alaskan Smoked Porter has become a craft beer classic. It’s won more awards and medals in professionally judged contests like the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup than almost any other beer.

Released in December, it sells out rapidly. It’s made with a blend of five malts, including barley malt smoked over an alder wood fire at Taku Smokeries in Juneau. Hops are mildly spicy Willamette and piney Chinook.

This is a dark brown beer with a nose of smoke and malt. Taste is complex, a bit of smoke, lots of malt and intriguing notes of raisins and maybe sherry. It’s bottle-conditioned. A bit of fresh yeast is added to each bottle so that fermentation continues over time. As years past, the beer changes, becomes drier, more like a smoky old port or sherry.

Smoked or “rauchbier” is a German specialty. It’s an ancient style, going back to the time when all beers were smoky, because malts were kilned over wood fires. Now, they’re rare. Alaskan Smoked Porter is one not to miss. Buy one for the holiday season, a second to put away for a few years.

Alaskan Smoked Porter ****, Alaskan Brewing Co., Juneau, AK, 22 oz. bottle, $4.99. Available at stores with good beer stocks throughout the Bay Area. Can’t find it? E-mail us at whatsontap@sbcglobal.net , ask for our 2008 Retail Beer List.