Past Newsletters
Vol. 9 No. 6
| Brewery | Beers Featured |
| Rogue Ales | Mocha Porter |
| Rogue Ales | Oregon Golden Ale |
| Casco Bay Brewing Company | Old Port Winter Ale |
| Casco Bay Brewing Company | Carrabassett Pale Ale |
Rogue Ales
Rogue Ales was founded in 1988 by Jack Joyce, Rob Strasser, and Bob Woodell. Founded in Ashland, Oregon in 1989, the original brewery was closed and relocated to Newport after it was destroyed in a flood. In May of 1989, Brewmaster John Maier made his way from the Alaskan Brewery in Juneau to the doorsteps of Rogue just as they were creating their first brew. And its proven to be a longstanding relationship as john has brewed over 30 million pints of beer for them since that time! When questioned about it, he could not comment on exactly how many of them were consumed personally.
Not unlike many brewmasters, John’s background is a little out of the ordinary. After graduating from DeVry Institute of Technology in 1975, he went to work for Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo, California. As a Senior Electronic Technician from 1975 to 1986, he worked on the radar system for the F-14 Tomcat. Shortly after leaving Hughes, he wised up and attended the Siebel Institute of Technology in Phoenix, AZ, where he graduated from their 50th course in Brewing Technology. He then worked as Assistant Brewmaster at the Alaskan Brewery in Juneau until 1989. John is widely respected in the microbrewing industry, winning countless awards, including 1988 Homebrewer of the Year and, in 1997, the first ever Russell Scherher Award which recognizes innovation in craft brewing.
Not only is Rogue’s Brewmaster a several-time award winner, their beers have won 12 medals at the Great American Beer Festival and over 170 other awards in other brewing competitions all over the world. You could say…Rogue makes good beer! Actually, you could say, they make damn good beer. The brewery itself has been awarded the Northwest Brewery of the Year two years in a row. With this many awards, you might think that they must only make a few different beer styles and focus on making them really well. Wrong! They currently have an impressive 23 beers in production. Too bad we can’t send them all to you!
For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (541) 867-3660 or check out their web site at www.rogue.com.
Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
Original Gravity: 14.5° Plato
Final Gravity: 3.5° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 55.0
Alcohol by Volume: 8.0%
We know you like beer. But if you like chocolate as well, you’re going to love this beer! Talk about tasty. The Mocha Porter, which was originally named New Porter paying homage to the breweries hometown, is a very dark brown, almost black, porter offering hints of ruby. Look for a creamy, thick tan head and an aroma that’ll fill your nose with chocolate, caramel, roasted malt, and a healthy dose of floral hops. Note a dark malt flavor, followed by a chocolate maltiness, ending with a nicely balanced, dry hopped finish. Overall, a delicious, impressive porter. Drink this one cautiously; at 8% ABV it packs a wallop!
Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
Original Gravity: 13.0° Plato
Final Gravity: 3.0° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 35.0
Alcohol by Volume: 6.9%
The first recipe crafted by Rogue, Oregon Golden Ale is made with Munich and 2-row Pale malts along with Willamette and Cascade hops, giving this golden ale its deep golden color. Look for a wispy, white head with low to moderate head retention. The aroma is rich and malty with hints of citrus and fruit. This brew starts off malty with a good balance of citrusy, bitter hops. Look for a lingering sweetness in the finish, coupled with a light herbal flavor. There’s a reason why this beer is still being made… it’s excellent! This golden ale would pair up nicely with baked chicken and rice.
Casco Bay Brewing Company
The Casco Bay Brewing Company was established in 1994 in the city of Portland, Maine. They have the distinction of being the third largest brewery in the state and the only brewery to offer lager style beers year round. Due to a large number of breweries in Maine offering British style ales, Casco Bay decided to offer American and European style beers instead. Although brewing lagers traditionally takes much longer than brewing ales, they felt that filling the niche was a winning strategy and man, oh man, were they right!
Mike La Charite and Bob Wade, the owners of Casco Bay Brewing, are both well-regarded home brewers and have served as judges at competitions such as the Great American Beer Festival. Mike, the president and head brewer, is an award winning homebrewer, Certified National Beer Judge, homebrew instructor, and founder of the largest homebrew club in Maine M.A.L.T. or Maine Ale and Lager Tasters. He is also a graduate of the Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology in Chicago. You could say he’s got beer in his blood…figuratively, and most likely literally as well! Quality control and such.
Mike and Bob are two guys who believe in staying close to their roots. Each year they take everyone who helps out at the brewery up to Mt. Katahdin for a few days of hiking, white water rafting, and of course, beer drinking. For those of you who think that working at Casco Bay sounds like a dream job, get in line! We've already applied ourselves!
For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (207) 797-2020 or check out their web site at www.cascobaybrewing.com.
Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
Original Gravity: 19.4° Plato
Final Gravity: 3.8° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 45.0
Alcohol by Volume: 7.2%
Old Port Winter Ale is a holiday seasonal ale, meaning it’s only available a few months out of the year. And as luck would have it, this just happens to be one of those months! Old Port is copper in color and will be slightly hazy. Look for a light, white head that leaves a healthy amount of lace on the edge of your glass. The nose is bold and filled with citrus and floral hops, with hints of grapefruit and caramel. Look for a semi-sweet malt flavor with a tasty hop bite. The finish has a good hop bitterness to it and lingers for quite some time. This is an excellent “warming up” beer for a cold winter night.
Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
Original Gravity: 13.0° Plato
Final Gravity: 3.0° Plato
Int'l Bittering Units: 25.0
Alcohol by Volume: 5.2%
Carrabassett Pale Ale is a traditional American-Style Pale Ale. Full flavored, yet light-bodied and easy to drink. Brewed with five different types of malts and four types of hops, this pale ale is surprisingly smooth. It’s slightly hazy in appearance and light amber in color. Look for a sweet pale malt aroma which is balanced nicely with a floral hoppiness. We found it to offer a perfect balance of flavor, beginning with a malty sweetness, moving quickly to a herbal, floral, citrus hop flavor, then finishing off with a light, drying bitterness. Sit back and enjoy this pale ale with your favorite cheese. Don’t have any? Check out our Gourmet Cheese of the Month Club!
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 Mocha Porter 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...
Casco Bay Ponderosa Ale & Egg Bread
As the holidays draw near, what better way to celebrate them than by enjoying great food and great beer, preferably at the same time! As most of you undoubtedly have pre-selected holiday meal main courses that rarely break genetic tradition, we opted to select a recipe this month that complements any homemade meal. This is a fantastic all-round bread, moist, finely textured, and replete with the essence of beer. The dough is easily formed into braids or dinner rolls.
- 7-8 cups bread flour
- 2 tablespoons dry yeast
- 1 cup warmed Carrabassett Pale Ale
- 1 cup warmed water
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 cup dry powdered milk
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 egg white beaten with 1 tablespoon warmed honey
In a large bowl, mix 1 cup flour and dry yeast. Pour the warm beer and water over, and whisk thoroughly. Allow to rest in a warm, draft-free spot for 15-20 minutes. Whisk in sugar, powdered milk, oil, eggs, and salt. Stir in remaining flour one cup at a time, using your hands when dough becomes heavy and stop when it pulls easily away from the sides of the bowl. Knead vigorously, adding only enough flour to prevent dough from sticking to your hands or the bowl. When dough is smooth and elastic, coat the inside of a lg. bowl with 1 tbspn. vegetable oil. Press the ball of dough into the bowl and turn it over, coating the entire surface with oil. Cover and allow to rise in a warm spot until doubled and then punch down, divide in half, and allow to rest 5 min., covered.
To shape into loaves, coat an area of the counter with a few drops of oil. Pat dough into an 8 x 10-inch rectangle. Starting at the narrow end, roll firmly but gently into a cylinder. Do not stretch the dough. Pinch ends and turn them under toward the seam side. Forcefully slam the dough onto the counter, seam-side down, 2 or 3 times to seal and remove lg. air bubbles. Place loaves seam-side down in generously greased loaf pans. Cover and allow to rise until doubled. Gently and generously brush tops with glaze. Bake at 350 for 30-35 min. or until tops are golden and bottoms are browned.
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.
For Members Only
Give Your Friends FREE Beer, Wine, Cheese, Chocolate,
Cigars & Flowers!
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.
Membership Q & A
Q: What can I do if I'm having difficulty receiving my shipment
at home?
A: You should consider having our discrete box delivered to
your work location or to a neighbor 21 yrs. of age that can receive
it for you. As your shipment requires and adult signature to receive,
it's always best to ship it to a location where someone will be there
to receive it for you. The box is brown corrugated cardboard and doesn't
say "Beer" on it anywhere.
Q: What should I do if I'm moving or want to extend my membership?
A: Please call us prior to the 5th of the month to make all
account related information changes such as address changes, membership
extensions & terminations, or gift accounts desiring to continue
their memberships. Address changes made after that time may require
a repackaging and re-shipping charge of $12.00. Additionally, if your
box is re-routed by UPS from an address different than what was originally
specified, you may incur a $5.00 re-routing charge.
Q: What happens if my shipment is damaged?
A: If your shipment arrives damaged, please call us immediately
toll free at 1-800-625-8238 and report the incident for a prompt resolution.
Q: What happens if my credit card is declined?
A: We will send you a courtesy notice asking you for an alternative
payment method and your order will be temporarily suspended until
we hear from you.
Q: What happens if I join under a special incentive program
and don't stay a member for the entire term committed?
A: Not a problem. Although we want to do everything we can
to keep you as a member, we will allow you to cancel your subscription
early; however, you will be responsible to pay for the item that was
given to you as part of the promotion. If you received a discount
based on a specific term, the amount discounted will be charged to
your card.
