Less brazen than brewers’ full-bodied porter, yet still rich, creamy and lactose-heavy for stylistic dry Irish Stout. Copious dark chocolate chalking and ample coffee bean bittering ascend above moderate charred hop toasting. Sticky anise upsurge intensifies sweet hazelnut and astringent walnut illusions. On tap, obsidian-hued dry body retains all its character, though roasted coffee influence is less persistent.
Rustic blue-collar moderation styled after Classic English bitter stays dryer and earthier than brewers’ Dog Soldier Golden. In bottled version, lemon-dried honeyed tea herbage grips vegetal gourd, squash, beet, carrot, and mushroom acridity. On tap, crude barley, alfalfa, buckwheat and wheatgrass grist imparts flaked cereal grain toasting.
PORTLAND, MAINE
Sometimes a little bit o’ luck is all ya need. Take Allagash Brewing owner, Rob Tod, who stumbled into the beer business washing kegs at Vermont’s second largest brewery, Otter Creek, in ’93. At the time, he didn’t know the biz well, but fell in love with brewing after two days of work. In ’95, Tod began Portland, Maine’s ALLAGASH BREWING, an astoundingly successful venture that has led to a lifetime commitment to making interestingly renowned libations.
“We did in on the cheap,” Tod explains as we celebrate Allagash night at Jersey City’s newborn Barcade, November ‘11. “Shipyard and Geary were already opened so there was a readied local market. After the plumbing and welding, we started with a no-frills draft only system with two fermenters.”
A big part of Allagash’s successful culture has come from crafting innovative recipes and styles that moved beyond the inaugural Belgian-styled novelties. Though limited in capacity, Tod never let his small space constrain the audacious originality of an ever-expanding lineup of gratifying suds. At any given time he may have five different beers barrel aging and then blended differently.
“We taste the barrel aged versions every six months and let them sit for a two-year period,” Tod says. “Anyone at the brewery who has an idea for a beer could brew one on a 10-gallon pilot system. Some have become full-scale beers.”
Allagash is constantly coming out with limited release beers (check the Beer Index), learning from each experience. As the only American brewery invited to Belgian brewfest, Allagash made several wonderful spontaneously fermented beers.
“We’re going back March 2012,” the proud entrepreneur indicates. “We re-created the Belgian yeast funk with Maine’s soft water, which is well-suited for our beers. Our Interlude and Confluence use brettanomyces yeast we found at the brewery growing in a batch of beer we cultured. We also brewed Thing 1 and Thing 2 for an event in Boston. We take the first runnings of a base beer and ferment separately.”
At Barcade’s Allagash Brewing Night, several sour ales and wild ales make the rounds with positive feedback coming from the packed house this rainy Thursday night. There’s typical Belgian-styled fare such as Allagash’s signature Curieux, Dubbel, Four, Grand Cru, Interlude, and White, plus previously untried offerings such as Victor and Victoria (Belgian Strong Ales) and Bourbon Black.
Even the industrious Tod has not tried every single beer he’s crafted onsite. Though he’s tasted Thing 1 and Thing 2 off the tank before carbonation and conditioning, the tall zymurgist has yet to try the finished draft version. Hopefully, tonight will be the right time to indulge. Cheers!
Easygoing Classic English India Pale Ale much darker and earthier than citric-pined West Coast style. Amiable brown-tanned medium body drapes peat mossy Fuggle hops atop cocoa-seeded chocolate malting and light iced tea sugaring. Ashen nuttiness, wet tobacco leafing and tart cherry tease supplement ancillary Cascadian dark ale tendencies. On tap, dried prune, fig and date illusions fill out bark-dried oaken cedar timbering.
Classic Christmas Ale better defined as nut-spiced brown ale since expectant winter seasoning lacks assertiveness and soft-watered flow lightens musty toffee malting. Medicinal ethanol prickle envelops sweet hazelnut surge and ancillary ginger-snapped cinnamon, nutmeg and clove spicing. Consistent, but not as rigorously full-bodied as better stylistic fare. On tap, earthen peat mossing and ashen cocoa malting contrast fig-spiced cinnamon-nutmeg sentiment and ancillary cherry pie remnant.
Deviously non-conformist ‘fall celebration’ better defined as adjunct red ale rather than marzen-styled castoff. Dewy meadow waft, resinous earthen mouthfeel and honeyed tea tonguing deepen caramelized rye sweetness above tingly ginger-cardamom spicing. Recessive purple grape, orange mist and lemon zest nuances plus tertiary toasted nuttiness nearly confound excessive flavor profile.
Despite generic white-labeled bottle, well-rounded medium body boasts an abundance of flavors. Mild grassy hopped bittering, wafting floral bouquet, and earthen wood-dried resin glazed by tropical grapefruit-peeled pineapple, peach, honeydew, strawberry and pear fruiting as well as citric clementine, naval orange, mandarin orange and tangerine tang. Honeyed toffee malts settle below to further sweeten abundant up-front fruited confluence. Hopheads unite for Pliny The Elder’s East Coast rival.
Because of its virtuous Imperial status, adventurous limited edition ruby-crimsoned full body is easily one of the best red ales marketed. Piney IPA fruiting leads the way above caramel-roasted pecan-pied almond toasting. Red grapefruit, cherry, apple, orange and melon juiciness provides tangy up-front sweetness reinforced by ripe prune-raisin-fig conflux and brown-sugared spices.
Ruinous astringent acridity envelops indistinct crisp-watered copper-browned autumn seasonal too solvent for scattered flavor profile to overcome. Soapy brown-sugared molasses entry fades to phenol nutmeg-cinnamon-allspice-clove spicing and slackened prune-dried raisin-fig dalliance. Earthen bottom picks up nut-skinned pumpkin, squash and sweet potato nuances. On tap at Shepherd & Knucklehead, blander 2012 version scattered musty earthen soiling across lemon-soured gourd spicing, dissipated caramel malting and teasing butternut buttress. Advertised molasses sapping apprehended by watery orange-dried finish.
Perfectly straightforward sunset-hazed medium body stays crisply hop fruited. Piney grapefruit-peeled bittering glazes perfumed peach, pear, orange, and apple illusions atop sugary caramelized vanilla malting. Boozy juniper-ginned bitterness tags briskly resonating juicy-fruited finish.
OXFORD, CONNECTICUT
A respected 23-year military combat veteran in the 2nd armored cavalry regiment, new-sprung brewmeister Michael Mc Creary developed a love for English ales while running a sales force over in Europe. And now he’s importing English barley and hops to create his own crisply approachable British styled elixirs under the banner of CAVALRY BREWING COMPANY (closed May ’11)
“My policy is to make Cavalry a veteran-owned and run operation,” Mc Creary informs me as I peruse his 3,000 square foot warehouse space in an industrial mall along the rolling countryside of rural Oxford, Connecticut. “Right now I have only one employee for sales and delivery, but I’m about to hire another one.”
Starting January 2010, it took the industrious entrepreneur four-and-a-half months to assemble equipment and then fill brew tanks. Since then, he has crafted four flagship and two seasonal ales. In order to get his beers to truly emulate specific British characteristics, Mc Creary treats the local water source in order to mirror the ‘hard water’ from the Midlands of England. And from the taste of each dry-bodied potion, I’d say he’s definitely on to something. Each selection seemed to identify with the rustic tree-lined foliage surrounding this clean-as-a-whistle central Connecticut brewery.
As Led Zeppelin’s chilling “Heartbreaker” plays in the background, I sampled Cavalry’s lightest offering, Dog Soldier Golden Ale from the tap. Modeled after an English session beer, its grassy Fuggle hop earthiness and dry lemony orange interlude mellowed into a light rye finish.
Next, Hatchplug Ale, a Classic English bitter named after a first lieutenant, seemed not far removed from an easygoing Extra Special Bitter, with its earthen leafy hops and barley-toasted cereal graining picking up alfalfa, whey and mushroom illusions (finishing drier than Dog Soldier).
Taking its moniker from a World War II brigade, Marauder I.P.A. maintained an easy flow as well, but its bark-dried oaken cedar parch and desiccated date-fig-prune conflux leaned towards a Classic English IPA style instead of a citric-pined American takeoff. Fuggle-hopped earthen peat soiling and minor nuttiness underscore this medium-bodied delight.
“The biggest pain in the ass is bottling,” Mc Creary confesses. “I’d rather do kegs any day of the week and service local bars.”
Presently, he turns out about 180 cases per week and the rest is kegged for consumption. After he runs back and forth getting one of the brew lines ready for boil, Mc Creary serves up an experimental concoction just filtered, transferred and carbonated the day before. X Limited Edition, a Nut Brown Ale, brought mild tea-leafed hop-toasted ESB-like bittering to refined peanut-shelled walnut-chestnut-butternut illusions, ancillary autumnal foliage, and tertiary citric licks.
The Eagles revitalized sneer “Already Gone” blares from the speakers as I slip into Cavalry’s darkest ale selections. Nomad Stout places roasted hops and black chocolate malts into a sedate black coffee setting, picking up hazelnut along the way.
“That’s probably my simplest recipe given to me by Steve Potts of Bull Lane Brewery. I use a highly attenuated, very aggressive yeast for that Dry Irish Stout.” he offers while the opening riffs of Derek & The Dominoes esteemed “Layla” takes us back to the Seventies. “I like the malt-y front end of my beers. And I like to get a little hop bite at the backend.”
Though not presently available on tap, Mc Creary’s best bottled offering may well be Big Wally Porter, a creamy caramel nutty medium body utilizing whole bean coffee and designated after an Iraqi commander. Peanut, hazelnut and Brazil nut crowd the hop-charred cocoa bittering and dark chocolate confections.
“We have a Cask Wednesday in the middle of each month. It’s a traditional cask beer and we usually get around 25 people for the $5 tasting tour,” Mc Creary concludes.
Check out the Beer Index for all bottled reviews. Also, 20 miles west of Oxford is Danbury’s Fairgrounds Wine & Spirits, featuring a large selection of microbrewed beers.
Bland autumnal fare suffers from washed-out gourd spicing and soapy pumpkin-seeded vegetal astringency. Negligible white wheat wallow and listless phenol spicing get in the way of barren brown-sugared cinnamon-nutmeg blip, getting lost in a sea of bubbly hop fizz.