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Stephen Beaumont's Brewpub Cookbook
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Bonus Recipe
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Kitchen Table Tastings
-- Special Edition: Barley Wines
The Bison Brewing Company
-- the West Coast's Most Eclectic Brewpub?
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Stephen Beaumont's Brewpub Cookbook |
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A Taste For Beer |
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Great Canadian Beer Guide |
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A World of Beer |
The Bison Brewing Company -- the West Coast's Most Eclectic Brewpub?
Ordinarily, I dislike writing a story about a single, solitary brewery. Unless a major brewing facility has been opened or a significant company restructuring has occurred, prompting the need for a review of the brewery in question, I rightly or wrongly believe that my readers' interests are far better served by a piece focusing on an area, region or style than by a look at a lone brewery.Unless that brewery is the Bison Brewing Company.
Having recently had my forth or perhaps fifth opportunity to visit the Bison, I now feel positively compelled to tell the world about this funky, fascinating brewpub. And the reason for this compulsion is the steadfast belief that perhaps more than any other brewpub, the Bison represents what pub brewing can, and to my mind, ought to be: experimental, innovative and honest..
Walk through the door to the Bison in Berkeley, California, and it will be immediately apparent that you have entered a place that is more than a little different. The bright, open bar area will likely be filled with patrons of all sorts, from multiply pierced poets to tired-footed tourists to bikers of both the Harley and Raleigh varieties. March upstairs for a game of pool and you will follow a handrail forged to resemble a long-fanged snake; remain downstairs and it will be many long minutes before your eyes cease their wander over the bric-a-brac adorning the walls and backbar of the pub; and head to the rear of the Bison and you risk stumbling into the sunken but wide-open brewery.
But it is not only the decor that makes the Bison unique. Brewer Scott Meyer's attitude towards the alchemy of malt, hops, water and yeast is as refreshing as his beers are flavourful. Take, for example, this excerpt from the December, 1996 edition of the Bison Floculator newsletter, explaining the new "Under the Wire Amber" and written by Meyer:
Every year about this time we get a wild yeast infection in one of our ales. In the past, we've always sold it. Last year it was "Wild Amber Ale," the year before it was "Mocktoberweizen." In all cases, the ales were first generation propagations from dry yeast pouches (the most likely culprit), but each was also co-cellared with Lemongrass Wheat Ale, which they all resembled in many ways. The characteristics are smoky, spicy, phenol aromas and tropical esters. I'm always tempted to dump it, but then people start thinking it's great with lemon twist and a splash of cranberry juice. It is, so far, actually more interesting than foul.
That one paragraph serves as a pretty good summary of Meyer's apparent feelings about beer, brewing and his customers; namely that the creation of small-batch beer should be a wondrous and fun adventure and that the informed beer consumer is a happy beer consumer. And when that informed beer consumer is sipping Bison brews such as the unusual Gingerbread Ale, the full-flavoured Toasted Oat Molasses Brown Ale or the wondrously rich Pecan Smoked Scotch Ale -- the vast majority of which, I should mention, are not affected by wild yeasts -- then that consumer is a very, very happy one indeed.
Bison Brewing is located at 2598 Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California. Their phone number is 510-841-7734.
Stephen Beaumont reserves all rights that pertain to the text of his articles, in any form that it appears.
