Past Newsletters

Vol. 8 No. 11

Brewery	Beers Featured
Crooked River Brewing Company	Irish Red Ale
Crooked River Brewing Company	Original ESB (formerly Settlers Ale)
MacTarnahan's Brewing Company	Black Watch Cream Porter
MacTarnahan's Brewing Company	Uncle Otto's Weiss Beer

Crooked River Brewing Company

The Crooked River Brewing Company, located in Cleveland, OH, gets its name from the Cuyahoga River. The word "Cuyahoga", which comes from the Native American tongue of the Mohawk Indians, literally means "crooked river." Crooked River is the first production and bottling brewery to operate in Cleveland since the Christian Schmidt brewery closed its doors for good in 1984.

If anyone was up for the challenge it was Brewmaster Stephan Danckers. His brewing credentials include a Masters Degree in Brewing Science and Technology from UC Davis. He also received a Fulbright Scholarship to Brewing Faculty at the University of Munich in Weihenstephan, Germany. The brewery at Weihenstephan is believed to be the worlds oldest, dating back to the year 1040. Danckers was the only Fulbright-Hayes grant ever awarded for the post graduate study of German brewing methods. He returned to the US to become the Brewhouse Supervisor at the Stroh Brewery Company in St. Paul, MN and Van Nuys, CA.

The notion to open the brewery was first spawned back in 1992, by Brewmaster Stephan Danckers and his partner, Stuart Sheridan. . The burning desire to produce a full line of specialty craft beers was all the inspiration Danckers needed to establish his own brewery. They wasted no time, in less than a year, they had found investors, designed the bottle labels, and made arrangements to convert the old Scottish Tool and Die building into the new 6000 barrel brewery. In 1994, they started to brew their first batches of beer. Twelve different versions of what would become their flagship beer, Crooked River ESB, were brewed before coming up with a formula that satisfied Stephan.

Today, Crooked River offers 6 year-round styles and five seasonal brands under the Crooked River brand. The company also brews special house beers for Cleveland's Jacobs Field (Ballpark Draft) and Browns Stadium (Stadium Lager). Both of the Crooked River beers featured this month have won numerous awards including Silver Medals at both the 1999 Great American Beer Festival and 2000 Nittany Valley Brewer's Cup for the ESB and a rating of "Highly Recommended" for the Irish Red by the Beverage Testing Institute in both 1999 and 2000. We know you're going to enjoy them!

For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (216) 771-BEER

Irish Red Ale

Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
Original Gravity: 14.0° Plato
Final Gravity: 4.0° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 18.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.4%

Crooked River brews this beer to highlight Cleveland's rich Irish heritage. The first thing you'll notice about this deep reddish brown ale is its wonderful, piquant, roasted malt aroma. Stephan uses 2-row pale, caramunich, biscuit, and wheat malts along with Cascade and Vanguard hops to produce this bold Irish Red. Look for loads of malt character in the flavor department too. You will notice, after you take your first sip, a sweet flavor at first, followed by a clean tangy hop character. Note a dry, lingering hop finish. Overall, a complex and flavorful brew that would go best with roasted chicken or your favorite veal dish.

Original ESB (formerly Settlers Ale)

Serving Temperature: 50-55° F
Original Gravity: 15.0° Plato
Final Gravity: 4.0° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 35.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.9%

Now this is what we call an Extra Special Bitter! This ESB is a rich, amber colored ale, brewed in the English tradition. There are so many hops in this beer, it borderlines on an IPA. One sip of Crooked River's Flagship beer and you'll understand why it is still on the menu. Note a strong, floral Cascade hop aroma. In addition to plenty of Cascade hops, Stephen also hops this ale with Yakima Chief Simcoe and East Kent Goldings. Look for a strong floral hop flavor with some sweet maltiness evident. Stephen brews this beer with 2-row pale, caramel 20, and caramunich malts. Overall, a flavor packed ESB that would pair nicely with a spicy Mexican dish or pasta covered with spicy sausages.

MacTarnahan's Brewing Company

MacTarnahan's Brewing Company, founded in 1986, is located amidst a beautiful 3-acre facility in Portland, OR. In their early days, some 16 years ago, their annual brewing capacity was just 1000 barrels. After several upgrades, the brewery can now produce quite a bit more, but rest assured, their commitment to producing flavor packed ales has remained in tact over the years.

Mac Tarnahan's Brewing Co. can truly be considered one of the craft brewing industries pioneers. Since their inception, almost 16 years ago, they have been focused on crafting delicious beers for a small, but growing, number of discerning beer lovers. The brewery offers many choices to those who recognize artful brewing and prized ingredients. They now produce almost ten different styles of beer. In addition to the two you'll sample, the brewery also brews MacTarnahan's Amber Ale, their flagship brand, Highlander Pale Ale, Bobby Dazzler Holiday Ale, Uncle Otto's Oktoberfest, Woodstock IPA, Oregon Honey Beer, and Zig Zag River Lager. This month, we had a tough time choosing which beers we were going to feature, but then again we had a great time sampling all of their beers so don't feel too sorry for us!

For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (503) 226-7623 or check out their web site at www.macsbeer.com.

Black Watch Cream Porter>

Serving Temperature: 38-43° F
Original Gravity: 14.2° Plato
Final Gravity: 4.2° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 28.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.3%

The Black Watch Cream Porter is a distinctively new style of porter, with a perfect balance between the classic Northwest and Celtic styles. MacTarnahans uses Pale, Caramel 15, and Caramel 40, along with Northern Brewer and East Kent Goldings hops to give this porter a well balanced, wonderful roasted flavor and aroma. Look for a prominent roasted aroma and slight caramel malty notes in the nose. When you take your first sip, you'll experience a rush of caramel maltiness, coupled with overtones of chocolate, ending with a clean dark malt finish. Overall, an excellent porter that would pair up nicely with pork chops or a big juicy T-Bone steak.

Uncle Otto's Weiss Beer

Serving Temperature: 45-50° F
Original Gravity: 12.5° Plato
Final Gravity: 3.0° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 10.0
Alcohol by Volume: 4.0%

This isn't your typical American wheat beer. Uncle Otto's Weiss Beer is a true Munich-style wheat beer. The use of wheat to brew a beer was not consistent with the inception of the 1516 Reinheitsgebot German Beer Purity Laws. However, wheat was reserved for use in the Royal Brewery. So for a few hundred years, wheat beers were actually consumed primarily by German royalty.

Fruit, spices, cloves, flowers, bananas; are all just a few of the words that come to mind when you bring this brew to your nose. We found the nose to be a pretty good indication of what follows in the flavor of this tasty wheat ale. This unfiltered, straw colored, wheat beer starts with a distinct malted wheat flavor, accented by a prominent spicy clove character. Try this one with some Sauerbraten or just by itself. If you've never had a German style wheat beer, then this is your chance to experience a great interpretation of one that we found to be true to style.

Ask Murl

Dear Murl,

It's hard to miss all of these Budweiser commercials that are talking about "Skunky Beer" and the fact that it seems to be mostly associated with microbreweries and their products. What up with that home-dog? What do they mean by a skunky beer anyway?

Jack McKenzie
Austin, TX

Yo Jakaroo!

It is more than just slightly ironic that the company that has elected to educate the general public about the nasty reality of contaminated beer also happens to be the one that, although its beer is probably not infected itself, still closely resembles l'odor de Pepe Le Pew the most. Skunky brew is beer that has been exposed to light and has developed a skunk-like smell and taste. Let's hope you've never actually tasted the nasty spew of Le Pew, but just smelling it oughta be enough to assist you in identifying beer that's been damaged in this way. The light causes a chemical reaction in the hops to create mercaptan, the actual component in skunk spray (It's twoo, It's twoo. Same stuff from Le Pew!). Most European lagers (and some European's I know) have this fault as they (the lagers) are bottled in green bottles. Brown bottles protect beer much better. In any case, if you think you smell Le Pew, there is only one thing to do … Don't drink it, Ace.

Woof!
Murl.

Food For Thought...

Black Watch Scandinavian Beef Stew

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

Marinade:

• 1 cup Black Watch Cream 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

Woody: Hey Mr. Peterson, Jack Frost nippin' at your nose?
Norm: Yep, now let's get Joe Beer nippin' at my liver, huh?

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