APRIL 1998

VOL.3 NO.4

Looking At Lagers -- On the Road Again

(Due to circumstances well beyond my control, the vertical tasting of Vancouver Island Brewing's Hermannator had to be postponed this month. In it's place, our Kitchen Table Tasting once more takes to the road to sample a selection of brews from the US Pacific northwest.)

The setting was the abode of lawyer Gary Gillman, who made his KTT debut in last month's Eisbock vertical. Besides myself, also present were another lawyer (they travel in packs, you know!) by the name of Earle Straus and a musician, Rick Whitelaw. The latter two men were both beer enthusiasts, but not terribly experienced with styles beyond the standard lager-dark ale-pale ale experience.

First up was the Crystal Bitter Ale from Northern Lights Brewing of Spokane, Washington. This toasty and fruity ale was well-received by all in attendance, and generated interest from me for its nutty aroma, apple and peach fruitiness and good progression from the softly sweet start to the assertively woody finish. All in all, a great effort from a brewery I would like to get to know better.

Faring less well were two offerings from Prosser, Washington's Whitstran Brewing Company. The Belgian Style Brown Ale did little to captivate the imagination with its low aromatics and soft peach body, while the IPA put off the novice tasters, and me, with its aggressive and rather unbalanced hoppiness.

A trio of deep, dark and delectable brews from Oregon followed: Wild Irish Rogue from Rogue Ales of Newport, Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewing of Bend, and Portland Brewing's Haystack Black. Best received by the table of tasters was the Wild Irish Rogue, which got raves for its rich and roasty flavour. The Haystack was the consensus pick as the next best while the Black Butte unfortunately revealed some bottle staleness and so placed a distant third.

The evening ended with a barley wine tasting featuring two established northwesterners going up against an up-and-comer from the east. From Seattle and Portland respectively were the Old Bawdy from Pike Brewing and the Old Knucklehead from Bridgeport Brewing, while making the trip from Pennsylvania was the Old Horizontal from the two-year-old Victory Brewing. As all the barley wines were from the past couple of years, there was little in the way of age advantage to be had.

To my mind, the most complex of the three was undoubtedly the Old Bawdy, and it was also the one which generated the most positive reaction among the other tasters. A close second was earned by the upstart Old Horizontal, however, with its sweetness and fruit detracting a bit from its overall character, but likewise carrying it along quite nicely in the "dangerously drinkable" department. The Old Knucklehead tasted a tad medicinal to me; a quality that will likely mellow over time but which takes away from its desirability at a young age and diminished it in the eyes of the other tasters.

Overall, it was a most successful event, and despite the barley wine incursion from the east, showed that they still know how to brew things right in the great Pacific northwest.

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