Past Newsletters

Vol. 5 No. 5

Brewery	Beers Featured
Avery Brewing Company	New World Porter
Otter Creek Brewing Company	Pale Ale
Otter Creek Brewing Company	Hickory Switch Amber

Avery Brewing Company

A microbrewery in the truest sense of the word, the Boulder, CO based Avery Brewing Company is family affair spawned by homebrewer Adam Avery who also managed to convince his father and sister to join him in his brewing venture. Adam oversees the brewing and packaging operations at the brewery while his father Larry runs the administrative side of the business. Sister, Angie is chartered with sales and marketing. Established in late 1993, the brewery has since expanded from an 800 to a 5000 barrels/yr. capacity to meet the growing demand for their full-bodied product line. Adam brews with a 7 Bbl. brewhouse, (3) 30 Bbl. and (1) 20 Bbl. fermentation tanks, and (1) 30 Bbl. bright tank.

Avery currently produces six year-round beers. Our panel has tried them all and we’ve got to tell you, they are some of the best English style ales being produced at a micro in the country. Currently the brewery brews a Brown Ale, an ESB, an IPA, a hoppy Red Ale, a Raspberry Wheat Ale, a full-bodied Stout, and the newly introduced New World Porter which you will have the great pleasure of trying this month.

For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (303) 440-4324 or check out their web site at www.averybrewing.com.

New World Porter

Serving Temperature: 45-50° F
Original Gravity: 16.0° Plato
Final Gravity: N/A
Int'l Bittering Units: 35.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.5%

You’re in for a treat. This is unlike any other Porter we’ve every tried. New World Porter has many characteristics of a traditional Porter, but is very much its own unique animal. This porter is dry-hopped with an abundant dose of two hop varieties: Columbus and Fuggles. Look for great head retention in this dark brown (almost ruby-red in under a light), medium-bodied Porter. Immediately look for a huge, complex nose consisting of definite roasted barley, black malts and big floral hop tones. We couldn’t wait to drink it. We found the flavor similar to the nose only more balanced on the roasted side. Look for a dry, lingering roasted and slightly bitter finish. Overall…Hell Yeah. It works.

Otter Creek Brewing Company

The Otter Creek Brewing Company’s founder, Lawrence Miller, was recently named young entrepreneur-of-the-year in Vermont for his efforts turning the brewery into one of the more successful in the state. Otter Creek is located just down the road from Middlebury College in the quaint New England township of Middlebury, Vermont.

Miller said his interest in brewing bloomed while he was an undergraduate at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he became a keenly curious home brewer. Upon graduating from college, he traveled to Europe where he learned as much as he could about brewing techniques. While traveling the Continent, he made long stops in Germany and Belgium, visiting breweries, studying beer styles and concentrating on old-world brewing methods.

Upon his return to America it was clear that he had to pursue his passion for brewing beer. In 1989, Miller moved to Middlebury, a beautiful college town known for its pristine natural waters -- and just right for the making of craft beer. He bought the best domestic malt and hops available and cultured his own top-fermented yeast. After purchasing equipment from an old brewery in Portland, Larry was ready to brew. The first of his unfiltered draught ales rolled onto distribution trucks in March 1991. In that first year, the brewery made a total of just 200 barrels of beer. Soon he was ready to expand the fledgling brewery. He hired a small staff and bought a new fermenter and filter, doubling his beer production. Seasonal ales were introduced during the summer of 1991, including the first of this month’s featured beers, the Pale Ale.

In September 1995, Miller completed the construction of a new brewery. The 15,000-square-foot facility is located on 10 acres just down the street from Otter Creek’s original location. The new brewery, which includes a custom-designed 40-barrel brew house, will allow the brewery to ship beer to neighboring states.

For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (802) 388-0727 or check out their web site at www.ottercreekbrewing.com.

Pale Ale

Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
Original Gravity: 13.0° Plato
Final Gravity: N/A
Int'l Bittering Units: 23.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.2%

Brewed with ample pale malts and a huge dose of Cascade hops, Otter Creeks Pale Ale is a filtered golden amber colored ale. Immediately note a big, almost exotic raw hop character in the nose which dominates any malt undertones. We found the body to be much more balanced than the nose would indicate, offering both a sweet maltiness balanced nicely with a slightly citrusy, floral hop character. Note a slightly sweet, dry, clean finish. Overall, a great interpretation of a style that has a very broad definition.

Hickory Switch Amber

Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
Original Gravity: 12.5° Plato
Final Gravity: N/A
Int'l Bittering Units: 18.0
Alcohol by Volume: 4.4%

Another unusual beast this month. This unique, medium-bodied beer is brewed with malt that is carefully and traditionally smoked at the brewery. Look for a hint of hickory smoke and a mostly malt-dominated nose in this filtered, brown-to-ruby-red ale. Note a sweet malty body with a hint of hops in the background. The dry smokiness comes back and lingers in the finish. The ale’s vinous notes and dry smoky flavor complement the underlying caramel and malt flavors very well. Overall, another non-traditional smoked ale as the smoke character doesn’t dominate all other characteristics. We really liked it.

Ask Murl

Dear Murl,

I was kickin’ back in my favorite blues bar, the New Dolphin Inn, last weekend and decided to venture out and try one of several malt liquors that were on hand behind the bar. Several things followed my consumption of a couple of tall boys: I found rhythm and became a dancing machine, my dance partners looked considerably better than they had only hours before, and I woke the next morning (or perhaps early afternoon) feeling as though I’d been beaten up side the head repeatedly with a large, blunt instrument. My question is a simple one. What the hell is a "malt liquor"? Is it different from beer and why don’t I ever want to have one again?

Brock Knockle
San Diego, CA

Yo Brock!

Good question. There seems to be much confusion with respect to the difference between a malt liquors and malt beverages. To answer your question, I’ve got to first let you know that the phrase, "malt liquor" is really just another marketing tool used to describe a category of beers that could be described as "fortified Bud". All malt liquors are also malt beverages. In many states, any malted beverage above 4% alcohol by volume cannot be labeled as "Beer". As what has become to be known as "malt liquor" is not really a stout, porter, ale, or any of the other style descriptors that could be used instead of the word "beer", the phrase malt liquor was developed. Your basic King Cobras and Old English 800s of the world are brewed with more fermentable ingredients such as sugars and adjunct grains like rice and corn. Bottom line? Cheaply produced, high octane rocket fuel that would serve you equally as effective and perhaps more kindly the next morning as a rust remover rather than a social lubricant. Bit of trivia on the two above mentioned products: Old English originally got its name as it used to contain 8 % alcohol by volume. Cobra got its name after product research uncovered excessive consumption of the product to serve as an effective repellent towards the obviously highly intelligent reptile.

Woof!
Murl.

Food For Thought...

New World Scandinavian Beef Stew

When you think Porter, you think about the big burley guys that the style was named after. And what do you imagine those guys put down after a long day of lugging stuff here and there, to and fro? Ya think they sashayed into the nearest salad bar or maybe skipped into Beni Hanas for a sip of Saki and some sushi? I don’t think so. Those boys were woofing down some stew. Thick, chunky, better-make-it-a-big-bowl, stew. And beef. And beer. Most likely the style named after their profession. So, in the spirit of the Porter, roll up your sleeves, get a big pot, enough beer to convince yourself that you can cook, and give this manly-man dish a shot.

• 4 lb. chuck roast, cut into 2" cubes
• 2 TBS vegetable oil 1
• ½ tsp corn starch
• 1 TBS water
• ¼ cup cream

Marinade:

• 1 cup Avery New World Porter
• ½ cup cider vinegar
• 2 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp ground thyme
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 medium carrots, sliced

Combine marinade ingredients in a large glass bowl. Add meat and toss to coat thoroughly. Cover tightly and refrigerate up to 3 days. When ready to cook, remove meat from marinade and pat dry on paper towels. Reserve marinade. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Brown meat on all sides. Add 1 cup of marinade. Turn heat to low, cover, and cook about 2 hours, until meat is very tender. Add reserved marinade, if necessary, to keep meat moist. Mix corn starch and water together to make a smooth paste. Remove meat to a serving dish with a slotted spoon. Stir corn starch mixture into pan gravy. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until gravy is thickened. Add cream and blend well. Pour over meat. The traditional garnish for this stew is sour gherkins. Serve with boiled potatoes and consider an Ale, Bock, Porter, or a Stout for your beverage of choice.

Source: Great Cooking with Beer; Jack Erickson; Red Brick Press, Reston, VA, 1989.

Norm's Corner...
As spoken by Cheers' Norm

Coach: What’s up, Normie?
Norm: My nipples, it’s freezing out there. Gimme a beer.

True Brew Facts

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOC. - It has been established that 100,000 premature deaths occur each yr. as a direct result of alcohol abuse, but a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that 80,000 people would die annually if all Americans gave up drinking. This is because alcohol consumption increases the levels of an enzyme t-PA which breaks down blood clots, a major cause of heart attacks.

ALL ABOUT BEER - The Yebisu Beer Memorial Hall in Tokyo, Japan, now offers an adventure which allows users to take a virtual reality tour you won’t want to miss! Wearing a new kind of "Beer Goggles", the user appears to actually flow with the beer as it passes through different stages of the brewing process.

JUiCE MAGAZINE - After consuming stale bread and dough, 3 Vermont cows died of alcohol poisoning. Investigators believe unbaked dough yeasts reacted with the partially digested material in the cow’s stomachs to produce alcohol. Rumor has it that the Pabst Brewing Co. is investigating the viability of this previously uncharted brewing technique with plans to market it as "Pabst Blue Bovine: The Brew that makes you Moo.

SECRET LIFE OF BEER - Among the forest tribes of Latin America the practice of exocannibalism, or the eating of one’s enemies, was commonly combined with brewing and drinking beer. Legend has it that you couldn’t beat the taste of human fingers with a cool skull cup of chicha beer. The Putumayo River tribes ate captives only after an eight-day beer festival where the prisoners, soon to be consumed, were kept drunk until meal time. These guys take the phrase, "marinating your liver" to an entirely new level.

BEER TRIVIA - The concept of the 6-pack was developed over the 4, 8 or 10-pack in the 1930’s when major brewing companies determined that six bottles of beer was the maximum number that a woman could carry home from the market at one time. Not my Molly. She’ll throw a pony keg up on her shoulder if need be.

KLOS RADIO - Certain remote Malaysian villages wash their infants in beer to discourage against disease. So, in theory, Body on Tap wasn’t such a new concept after all.

AMERICAN BREWER - Reuters reports that the Australian sex industry is cleaning up its act and seeks a ban on the export of bulls’ penises to Asia, where they are prized as an aphrodisiac. One Australian meat company alone, Tenor PTA, has flown 8,000 frozen bull pee pees to China. Typically, the penises are boiled for soup or ground into a fine penis erectus powder. So now you’re wondering, "just what the "H" "E" double hockey sticks all this has to do with beer. Well...to make full use of the Torro’s manlihood, the industry has been converting the scrotum sac into insulators for slipping over the base of cold beer cans. "We’ve dried about 1000 scrotums for beer cans," said Tenarra’s Fred MacDonald, "and they make great Christmas presents. They’re quite nice to touch." Do you suppose Fred knew the tape recorder was on when he said that?

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