Past Newsletters
Vol. 8 No. 5
| Brewery | Beers Featured |
| Brooklyn Brewing Company | Black Chocolate Stout |
| Brooklyn Brewing Company | Brooklyn Brown Ale |
| Chesapeake Bay Brewing Company | Chesapeake Premium Pilsner |
| Rock Creek Brewing Company | Rock Creek American Ale |
Brooklyn Brewing Company
In 1987, journalist Steve Hindy and banker Tom Potter quit their jobs and established the Brooklyn Brewery. Their initial goal was simply to bring good beer back to New York. They commissioned a fourth generation German brewer based in America to design Brooklyn Lager, their first beer. To find a recipe, brewer William Moeller consulted the notebooks of his grandfather, who had brewed beer in Brooklyn at the turn of the century.
It was hard going at first for the two. They made a test batch of beer in their Brooklyn basement, only to find that most distributors were controlled by the big breweries and uninterested in small, local brands. They bought a van and began distributing their own beer, however, hard-boiled New York tavern owners were skeptical about a full-flavored beer that cost as much as the leading imports and was unadvertised.
Slowly but surely, the lager caught on and soon they were distributing more than a dozen microbrews. With that success, Hindy and Potter opened a new microbrewery three years ago, some 20 years after the last of the great Brooklyn breweries closed up shop. The new 25-barrel brewery is one of the largest in the East. The stainless steel brewhouse is set in an 1860’s steel foundry in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn - a mecca for artists and filmmakers such as Spike Lee. The Brooklyn Brewery’s 50,000 square-foot brewing facility includes a tasting room, a 300-person party room, and a gallery for local artists.
In 1994, they hired the highly respected New York brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, to design their planned Brooklyn plant and oversee production at the Utica facility. In May 28, 1996, the Brooklyn plant opened. The first product was a Bavarian style wheat beer known as Brooklyner Weisse. Oliver developed other new Brooklyn beers as well such as Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Brooklyn East India Pale Ale, Brooklyn Pennant Pale Ale '55 and a range of seasonal and special products. Florence Fabricant of The New York Times has called him "one of the country's foremost experts on beer."
A native New Yorker, Garrett is widely regarded as one of the leading brewmasters in America. He co-founded the New York City Homebrewers Guild in the mid-1980's and later left his job with a prestigious Manhattan law firm to become an apprentice brewer at the Manhattan Brewing Co., the first brewpub in New York City. He designed the new brewhouse in Brooklyn. He has written for All About Beer, Cigar Aficionado and other publications. He is co-author of The Good Beer Book, published by Berkeley Press. Garrett was featured in an "Emeril Live!" segment and is the American Dairy Association's spokesman on matching beer and cheese.
For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (718) 486-7422 or check out their web site at www.brooklynbrewery.com.
Serving Temperature: 45-50° F
Original Gravity: 21.7° Plato
Final Gravity: 4.6° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 40.0
Alcohol by Volume: 8.3%
The Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout is a seasonal ale that is only available between October and March. It is a classic Russian Imperial Stout, brewed by Brewmaster Garrett Oliver. This highly sought after stout attains its strength by using the first runnings from two and a half mashes of grain, modeled on the beers made by British brewers for the Czar's Court in the Nineteenth Century. This beer was originally produced with a high alcohol content that allowed it to withstand the sea shipment to distant Baltic ports. Brewmaster Garret Oliver uses two-row English malts, wheat malt, chocolate malt, black malt, black barley, and roasted barley along with East Kent Goldings, Cascade, and Willamette hops. This Black Chocolate Stout is a wonderful winter warmer and a stunning accompaniment to a chocolate dessert. Velvety black in color, it had a dark chocolate and coffee aroma, a powerful warming palate, and a long, malty, fruity finish.
Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
Original Gravity: 15.5° Plato
Final Gravity: 3.4° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 30.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.5%
Brooklyn Brown Ale, made exclusively with American ingredients, won Bronze medals at the Great American Beer Festival in the Strong Ale Category in 1991 and in the American Brown Ale Category in 1992 and 2000. Brooklyn Brown uses two-row pale, crystal, chocolate, biscuit, and wheat malts to attain a complex creamy texture. It is more heavily hopped than its British forbears, using Cascade, Willamette, and Northern Brewer hops. This beer was first brewed back in 1990 as a holiday beer, but has since found its way onto the year-round menu.
This Brown Ale is tawny in color, with a big roasty malt background and a firm hop bitterness. There are hints of chocolate and coffee in the flavor and finish. This beer would go best with a steak or pork chop and even works well with a salad and vegetables.
Chesapeake Bay Brewing Company
Chesapeake Bay Brewing Company began brewing fine beers and ales in Raleigh, NC in the summer of 2001. The brewery was founded by Ernie F. Pride., a successful entrepreneur in other business ventures. The 22,000 sq ft brewery produces four different styles of beers, including a Pilsner, Pale Ale, Red Ale, and a Porter. The brewery is committed to producing fine products using the best malts from America, England, and Germany, hops from both America and Europe and priority strains of yeast. Distribution is limited to the Mid-Atlantic States at this time.
Pilsners are the most popular style by far worldwide. The style was originated Bohemia in a town named Pilsen by Plzensky Prazdroj. Their world famous style-defining brand in Pilsener Urquell. Pilsener means “from Pilsen”. A classic German Pilsener is very light straw/golden color and well hopped. Hop bitterness is high. Hop aroma and flavor is moderate and quite obvious. It is a well-attenuated, medium-bodied beer, but a malty accent can be perceived. Fruity esters and diacetyl should not be perceived. There should be no chill haze. Its head should be dense and rich.
For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, check out their web site at www.chesbaybrewing.com.
Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
Original Gravity: 13.0° Plato
Final Gravity: 2.5° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 32.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.2%
The Chesapeake Bay Premium Pilsner is the flagship brand of the brewery. It is an authentic Czech style Pilsner – light in color, but bursting with hops. The Chesapeake Bay Brewing Company uses authentic German Pilsner malt and the finest German noble hops available to make this Pilsner. They also use traditional German brewing methods that include a minimum of 4 weeks of lagering. This beer will complement any food, but is essentially recommended with spicy foods.
Rock Creek Brewing Company
The Rock Creek Brewing Co. is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. Rock Creek’s brewery is a traditional English brew house, employing traditional brewing processes. The brewery moved its Pennsylvania brewing facility to Raleigh, North Carolina back in 1999. The Raleigh brewery is double the size of the previous one, and features a small tasting room and beer garden. Customers are invited to tour the new facility and sample Rock Creek’s 20 plus beers. Rock Creek also has food and drinks available at the brewery.
Currently, the brewery produces five year-round beers including: River City ESB, a full-bodied traditional "Extra Special Bitter", Black Raven Porter, named for Edgar Allen Poe's famous Raven - Richmond being the home of Poe - a deep, dark London style porter, Nuttrageous Brown Ale, an English-style nut brown ale brewed in the tradition of Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale, Rock Creek Red Ale which took the Gold at the 1997 World Beer Championships, Devil’s Elbow IPA, and Rock Creek Gold, a lighter-bodied Golden Ale. Rock Creek also brews an number of Seasonals including Wild Summer Passion Wheat Ale, a Raspberry American Wheat beer, Pumpkinhead Ale, a spiced pumpkin Ale, and Winter Passion Spiced Ale, a high gravity holiday Ale. Lastly, if you get a chance to swing by the brewpub yourself, you’ll be able to try one of two Cask Conditioned Ales, a Roasted Stout and/or an Extra Special Bitter.
For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, check out their web site at www.chesbaybrewing.com.
Serving Temperature: 43.-48° F
Original Gravity: 15.0° Plato
Final Gravity: 4.0° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 60.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.8%
The All American Pale Ale is a West Coast style pale-ale. It has a slightly darker color than a standard pale ale and is packed with Cascade hops from the Northwest area of the country. The flavor of this great ale will stand up with any food that you care to drink it with. The American Pale Ale has American 2-row pale malt and includes English crystal in the first load. They use whole centennial and Cascade hops throughout the boil.
Ask Murl
Dear Murl,
I’ve tried to research this one in several places and come up with Bupkus! So I’m thinking the Ole Malty Dog might be able to help as he’s pulled off some tough ones in the past. So here goes. For quite some time now, I've been looking for an old Hamm's Beer sign. I’m guessing it’s from the 60’s or so. It’s the one has a rotating scene that scrolls across the sign. You know, like a river and waterfall or something. I even think there was a campfire with moving smoke! It just kind of changed scenes too I think. I saw one the other day in this great dive bar off the beaten path in a pretty dicey neighborhood and offered the bartender $150 for it and he wasn’t having any! Any idea what I’m talking about or better yet, where I can get one of these classics?
Fred Stagman
West Chicago, IL
Yo Stag Man!
Great name pal! You going alone tonight, man? Yeah, I figured as much. Stagger Man would have been better though. So you’re from “Wego”, eh? Don’t know if you knew it, but I grew up in Wheaton and Glen Ellen. ‘Bout the only thing I remember about West Chicago was kicking your ass in football every year in High School! Go Wolverines! Sure, I was just the waterdog, but I had other important team functions as well…Like running over to the other team’s sidelines and sniffing their coaches crotches at critical decision points in the game so as to both distract them and publicly humiliate them.
Man, I know the sign you’re talking about. It’s great! I need one too! Classic stuff. We had one in our house in college over the bar. Spent many a late night sitting in the Lazy Boy with a bag of Doritos in one paw and half a brew in the other, completely mesmerized by that waterfall. They first came out just about the time television was making its way into bars and since T.V. was just in black & white, the idea was to create this sort of non-stop color commercial. Hamms, Storz and G. Heileman and other Midwest and Plains brewers issued signs with this kind of rolling scenery. Try the Kane County Flea Market! I bet you’ll round one up there. If not, go to Ebay or one of the other big auction web sites. And if you find a couple for under a $100 bones (literally), let me know.
Woof!
Murl.
Food For Thought...
Brooklyn Brown Meat Loaf
- 1 19-oz can of stewed tomatoes
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 celery stalk, diced
- 1 egg
- 1-½ cup cornflakes
- salt and pepper
- ½ cup Brooklyn Brown Ale
Place the stewed tomatoes into a sieve and gently mash them with a wooden spoon, releasing all their juices into a bowl beneath the sieve and saving the liquid for other uses.
Put the mashed tomatoes into a large bowl and, using your hands, mix in all the ingredients except for the beer. When everything is thoroughly mixed, add the ale and thoroughly mix it in. Place the mixture into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan and bake for 1 hour at 350 F (180 C).
Norm's Corner...
As spoken by Cheers' Norm
Coach: What’s shakin’ Normie?
Norm: All four cheeks and a couple of chins, Coach. Gimme a
beer.
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