Past Newsletters
Vol. 5 No. 4
| Brewery | Beers Featured |
| Hill Country Brewing Company | Fault Red Granite |
| Hill Country Brewing Company | Balconies Fault Pale Malt |
| Old Dominion Brewing Company | Dominion Octoberfest |
Hill Country Brewing Company
Mike McHone, co-owner of Hill Country Brewing, has never entered his beer in an in any kind of a formal judged event. "We are too busy making beer," he said recently, "and we’re really small." Hill Country is about as small as microbreweries come, producing just 3,000 barrels of beer a year. The beers are sold in only in bars and retail stores local to the brewery in Austin, Texas. Nevertheless the beers produced by Hill Country are good enough to have attracted the attention of renowned beer critic Michael Jackson, who visited the brewery this spring, tasted its beers, and declared them "faultless." Quite a nice feature in the cap of such a young brewery.
The brewery has gathered its equipment across the country from former national, regional and micro-breweries. It is an eclectic yet simple brew house, comprised of old dairy equipment and a bottling line from the 1940s. For its first year and a half, Hill Country depended on volunteer labor, mainly homebrewers, friends and neighbors. Now in its third year, the brewery has 2 full-time and 2 part-time employees, including a microbiologist.
McHone and his brother/co-owner, Marshall, grew up in Austin, and are both passionate about protecting its environment. A percentage from the sale of every case of Balconies Fault Beers is donated to the Hill Country Foundation, a group dedicated to the preservation of the Texas Hill Country and its indigenous species. The Balconies Fault Beers are named for the geological formation created 10 million years ago when the earth's crust between Austin and San Antonio ruptured, creating the Balconies Fault Zone. The Balconies Fault marks the beginning of the Texas Hill Country, separating the Llano Uplift to the west from the Blackland Prairie farmland to the east.
This month, you’ll have the chance to sample two of the brewery’s flagship beers, Fault Red Granite English Brown Ale and Pale Malt Extra Special Bitter (ESB). Red Granite is an excellent representation of a classic English Brown Ale, while the brewery’s Pale Malt ESB is a classic British style bitter.
The Pale Malt label depicts Hamilton's Pool, a popular natural swimming hole and waterfall west of Austin. McHone said that Austin's two natural water sources -- the Highland Lakes and Austin's spring water -- make for especially good brewing. The Red Granite label shows Red Mountain, part of the Llano Uplift, which exposes remnants of an ancient granite and black schist mountain of the Ouachta Range, the oldest rock in Texas.
Serving Temperature: 45-50° F
Original Gravity: 11.3° Plato
Final Gravity: N/A
Int'l Bittering Units: 40.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.0%
The Red Granite is brewed with imported British malts, Fuggles hops and English "old stock ale" yeast. It is not pasteurized and has no preservatives. Look for good head retention in this amber-to-red colored, medium-bodied ale. Note a malty, somewhat spicy nose and a clean, crisp malty body, balanced nicely with a slight hop bitterness. Look for a clean, dry finish
Serving Temperature: 45-50° F
Original Gravity: 11.9° Plato
Final Gravity: N/A
Int'l Bittering Units: 30.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.2%
Brewed with British pale 2-row malt and Belgian specialty malts, Fault Pale Malt starts out with a floral hop nose. It is hopped in the traditional British style, using Fuggles and East Kent Goldings. To give the beer extra aroma, it is dry hopped in the secondary fermenter with East Kent Goldings. Look for a well balanced medium-bodied ale with a pronounced hop bitterness and a clean, crisp finish.
Old Dominion Brewing Company
Don’t drink more – Drink Better. So goes the slogan of the Old Dominion Brewing Co. The first microbrewery to serve our nation’s Capital was established in 1989. Dedicated to producing fresh, flavorful, full-bodied beers, they offer not only a high quality product but in a variety of styles as well. A privately owned brewery in Loudoun County about three miles north of Dulles Airport, the brewery produces twenty-two beers, many of which are seasonal beers only brewed several months out of the year, and one soft drink. The beers are sold exclusively only in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and in parts of Maryland.
Five basic ingredients are used in all of Old Dominion’s beers: barley, malt, hops, yeast and, of course, water. No adjuncts or preservatives are used and the beers are never pasteurized. In 1997, the brewery’s Dominion Lager won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival, as did its Tupper's Hop Pocket Ale. In 1993, its Hard Time Select won a bronze medal and the Octoberfest featured this month took the Bronze in 1996.
Head Brewer Dean Lake told us that the Octoberfest is brewed in tradition German style. He and his fellow brewers make it in late spring. The beer matures all summer in refrigerators, and is released in late September. "So the result is that you have a beer with a long maturation and conditions at cold temperatures," Lake said. "We sold out of it faster than ever this year," he added. "It's all accounted for." Lake said he enjoys the Octoberfest best with German food -- sausages and hot dogs -- and with meat and potatoes.
Although Old Dominion's Octoberfest won the bronze two years ago, the brewery is not smug about its brewing methods. Every year, Lake said, they experiment and change the Octoberfest recipe slightly, looking for novelty, perfection and creativity. This year, they used subtle German and Czechoslovakian Noble hops and added Munich malts. "They do a good job of giving it a nice pronounced maltiness and a subtle hoppiness, just enough to balance the malt," Lake said.
Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
Original Gravity: 14.0° Plato
Final Gravity: N/A
Int'l Bittering Units: 19.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.8%
Brewed with a heavy dose of Vienna malts and predominately hopped with the more subtle Noble hops, you’ll have an opportunity to taste a classic, traditional representation of a true marzen style Oktoberfest beer this month. Look for predominately malty nose with a hint of floral hops evident. The sweet maltiness of unfermented sugars comes through quickly in the body of this amber colored, filtered lager. It’s one of the more brilliant beers we’ve had the opportunity to taste. Very clean and bright. It sparkles from within. Note good head retention in this medium-bodied beer and a clean, crisp finish.
Ask Murl
Dear Murl,
Every time my owner cracks open a brew, my mouth starts to salivate. So to satisfy my slobbery condition, he indulges me by pouring some beer into his cupped palm for me to lap up. My question is this: Is beer OK for us canines?
"Kono" & Jim Harris
Denver, CO.
Dear Kono,
My gut reaction to your question is..." What are you kiddin’ me bro? Does The Pope where a funny hat?! You bet it’s OK for us!" But the legal suits we employ to sit around and tell us what we can’t do have informed me that comments like that might be slightly negligible on my part, so I made a few prank calls to several of my favorite doggie docs. I got comments like, "I can’t say that beer would be any better or any worse for dogs than it is for humans", "I would recommend alternative forms of stress relief such as feline chasing or rawhide chewies", and "Well, it is highly addictive and some canines have very delicate digestive systems."
Draw your own conclusions, Kono, but I’d prefer to think that an occasional brew (consumed in moderate quantities of course...especially for burrito dogs like Chihuahuas) would be acceptable for many dogs. I’m sure that there are a few pansies out there whose "delicate digestive systems" might induce adverse reactions generating business for their local carpet cleaning service, but this Big Dawg eats license plates for breakfast and needs a little Oktoberfest to wash it down with! Your best bet would be to consult your personal physician cause he knows your insides a lot better than I do...unless you were in that out of control party in the dog park last weekend. Take Care, Kono.
Woof!
Murl.
Food For Thought...
Hot Dominion Octoberfest Potato Salad
A hearty side dish, this warm salad combines red and white new potatoes with bacon and beer to create a new twist for an old spud.
- 8 each small new and white potatoes, scrubbed
- 5 strips lean bacon, coarsely chopped
- 1 lg. onion or 5 shallots, coarsely chopped
- 5 scallions, cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
- 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
- 1 cup Old Dominion Octoberfest beer
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- ¼ to 1/3 cup oil or bacon drippings
- paprika, salt, and pepper to taste
- ¼ cup toasted crushed walnuts
Lower potatoes into boiling water to cover. Add a teaspoon of salt and boil just until tender. Drain, cool slightly, and quarter but do not peel. Place in a hot covered pan. In a heavy skillet cook bacon until crisp. Remove and set aside on towels to drain. Remove all but 3 tablespoons of the bacon drippings and sauté onion in drippings until golden. Add scallions and caraway seeds, sauté for 1 min. Add beer to onions and simmer over medium-high until reduced by half. Pour in vinegar and oil and simmer briefly. Adjust seasonings. Add warm potatoes to sauce and simmer 2 mins., turning potatoes gently. Remove from heat and place in serving bowl. Sprinkle with paprika and walnuts. Serves 3-4.
Source: The Great American Beer Cookbook; Candy Schermerhorn; Brewers Publications, 1993.
Norm's Corner...
As spoken by Cheers' Norm
Coach: Whatcha up to Normie?
Norm: My ideal weight if I were eleven feet tall.
True Brew Facts
SOUTHERN DRAFT BREW NEWS - Beer makes you smart! Researchers at Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis have discovered that moderate drinking may improve memory and problem-solving abilities, according to a report in Health magazine.
CELEBRATOR BEER NEWS - It was the accepted practice in Babylonia 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the "honey month" or what we know today as the "honeymoon".
BEER: THE MAGAZINE - Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or finger into the mix to find the right temperature for adding yeast. Too cold, and the yeast wouldn't grow. Too hot, and the yeast would die. This thumb in the beer is where we get the phrase "rule of thumb".
BARLEY CORN - In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's".
ALL ABOUT BEER - Beer was the reason the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. It's clear from the Mayflower's log that the crew didn't want to waste beer looking for a better site. The log goes on to state that the passengers "were hastened ashore and made to drink water that the seamen might have the more beer".
BEER TRIVIA - After consuming a bucket or two of vibrant brew they called aul, or ale, the Vikings would head fearlessly into battle often without armor or even shirts. In fact, the term "berserk" means "bare shirt" in Norse, and eventually took on the meaning of their wild battles.
CELEBRATOR BEER NEWS - In 1740 Admiral Vernon of the British fleet decided to water down the navy's rum. Needless to say, the sailors weren't too pleased and called Admiral Vernon "Old Grog", after the stiff wool grogram coats he wore. The term "grog" soon began to mean the watered down drink itself. When you were drunk on this grog, you were "groggy".
BARLEY CORN - Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle", is the phrase inspired by this practice.
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Through our Customer Appreciation Program
Your name has real value to your friends, co-workers, and family members! Every time a friend, family member, or anyone else you know joins any one of our clubs, [or gives a gift] for 3 months or longer, we'll give them 50% off of their first month, but only when they mention your name. And we'll also give you 50% off your next month too which can either be applied towards your current membership or you can try one of our other Clubs out! (We can add one more month to your order at 50% off for prepaid memberships!)
The Fine Print: Members giving gift memberships do not qualify for referral credits and you can't give yourself a gift to qualify! This Program is mutually exclusive of any other promotions.
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