A
few years ago I wrote a blog about beers from the USA and included a
homage to Michael Jackson, the Beer Hunter, not the singer, and last
year was 10 years since his death. I meant to write again last year
but I wasn't so great with my ale blogging last year, so have decided
to make up for it now by re-writing the original! My interest in
beers brewed in the USA started in 1998, when I visited Chicago
whilst I was delivering a paper to a social science conference out
there, and I went to Goose Island for an afternoon. Goose Island was
a brewpub, and is now owned by one of the biggie brewers, but it
still brews in Chicago I believe.
Before
I flew out I was provided with some local information from a friend
who was married to a lass from nearby in Illinois, and I was very
happy with the visit to Goose Island (website). There were quite a
number of excellent real ales brewed on the premises, and all types
of English styles: IPA, Extra Special Bitter, Porter, Stout, Best
Bitter, they had the lot, and very nice they were too! The only error
I made there was to order 'chips' with my burger ("How would you
like your burger?" was a surprise question too) and being given
crisps, oh well, a learning experience. I also found out you could get
their beers bottle-conditioned, I drank one that was called Honkers back at the hotel where I was staying, although another learning
experience for me, they DO like their beer cold out there, the
Honkers was dragged out of a sink full of icy water!
Secondly,
a friend of mine, Anne, who's first wedding, at Wandsworth Town Hall
I was a witness at many many years ago, now lives in Florida, and she
sent Ken Wells' Travels
with Barley to
me as a present. It's an interesting read, and, although I haven't
been able to grab hold of any of the 'extreme' beers mentioned
therein, eg Dogfish World
Wide Stout,
weighing in at a hefty 23.6%, nor the same brewer's 120
Minute IPA,
packed with hops, and a meagre 18%, I did manage to find the 4
following weaker beers, available at the local supermarket.
You'll
notice that these are mostly IPA style, or APAs (American Pale Ales),
which was not such a hardship for me, knowing my preferences! The
first of which was the bottle-conditioned, and extremely well known, Sierra
Nevada Pale
Ale (5.6%).
I thought that this may not be that good, being as it's considered a bit 'run
of the mill' for American beers apparently, but it was bottle-conditioned, so...
Magnum
and Perle
hops are used in the brewing process, and it is finished with
Cascade,
so promising, and it definitely had the citrus fruit you would
expect. I got grapefruit in the flavour, and have seen another reviewer say
tangerine, whatever, it had a very nice flavour and quite bitter too, what a pleasantly surprising start! More at the brewers website,
if you want to research further.
OK,
I was getting into this now, I do love research, and I moved on to my
second choice, Steven Point (website) being the brewer, and their IPA,
which is actually brewed for the UK market, that's how popular some
of these beers are becoming! This is also 5.6%, and uses Magnum
and Perle
hops too, and dry hopped with Cascade,
so I'm guessing they're competing directly with the Sierra Nevada...
Indeed, I had already made a note of cascade hops used before
checking, so that hop's flavour definitely came through, a wee bit
apple in the flavour, hint of sweetness, and a bitterness coming from
the grapefruit flavour provided by the cascade hops. Not bad at all,
I wrote "goodish" in my notes, though not as much to my
liking as the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
My
penultimate beer was another IPA, this time brewed by Shipyard
Brewing Company (website) and 5.8%. The Shipyard version is a single hop variety, and even has
a subtitle Fuggles
IPA,
and yes, you've guessed, Fuggles
are the hops of choice for this ale. I've seen quite a few reviews of
this beer saying "traditional English style", oh dear, what
a shame, though I didn't catch the grapefruit taste others did. Maybe
I know the Fuggles
hop a little too well, but I did pick up a fruitiness, apple and plum
though for me! Another not too bad beer, but my IPA, or APA, of
choice in this tiny sample has to be the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, thank
you very much!
I
finished off my American beer adventure with the Shipyard Blue Fin
Stout (4.7%) a very different style of beer obviously. The Blue Fin
Stout is described as a "classic Irish Stout" and has
an array of hops used in the brewing process, Warrior,
Cascade, Tettnang and Goldings, though,
excepting 'Black IPAs", I have trouble spotting the hops in
darker beers. This was very enjoyable, though, with a subtle malt and
caramel flavour, and a nice dry roasted barley finish, 'twas a bit
like a traditional stout, indeed, cheers!
So, I
say a big "thank you" to the Yanks and their growing
influence in the world of brewing, particularly to their willingness
to chuck in loadsa hops, cheers m'dears!
Regarding
Michael Jackson, the "Beer Hunter", he was a well known
writer who loved many different styles of beer, including American and Belgian beers. A friend who works at
Fullers Brewery gave me a bottle of the 'Extra Special' Fullers ESB
Michael brewed for the American market, and it was very good too. Indeed,
another customer I knew asked why I hadn't got Michael to sign the
bottle label as he had (he was going to see if he could sell it on
e-bay). Silly man, I'd already drunk it the night before!
But
Michael did like to knock back pints of his favourite ale in a jug, the merely 3.5% Chiswick
Bitter brewed at Fullers in nearby Chiswick. His last evening on
earth was spent drinking Chiswick Bitter at his local pub, the
Andover Arms in Brackenbury Village near Hammersmith, whilst I was relief manager there...
R.I.P. Michael Jackson (1942-2007).
