• Editorial -- Time for Crazy Horse Malt Liquor to Just Go Away
  
• Kitchen Table Tasting -- Six Vintages of Niagara Falls Eisbock
  
• World of Beer Business Briefs
  

• Selected Events
  
• Taste of the Month
  
• Feedback
  
• Coming Next Month
  
• World of Beer Update
  

• February 1997
• January 1997
• December 1996
• November 1996
• October 1996
• September 1996

Stephen Beaumont's
Brewpub Cookbook

Unfortunately, we're running a little short of space this month, so I won't be able to offer another recipe excerpt until April. But be sure to check back then for another delicious dish AND ordering information!

Kitchen Table Tasting -- Six Vintages of Niagara Falls Eisbock

At 8% alcohol by volume and thoroughly filtered, Eisbock is not what you might call a superlative candidate for the cellar -- a couple of extra points of alcohol and/or some bottle conditioning would be preferred. But over the years, it has proven itself to be worthy of aging and so I continue to put bottles down and conduct annual vertical tastings. This year, as you by now have surely surmised, was no exception.

Present for this tasting were myself and my lovely wife, Christine, beer aficionado Alastair Fairweather, the brewer and part-owner of Toronto's Denison's Brewing Company brewpub and restaurant, Michael Hancock, and Michael's able assistant and award-winning homebrewer, Lorne Romano. The vintages sampled were, in order of tasting: 1996 (the current vintage); 1995; 1994; Eisbock Gold (the 1994 vintage aged an extra year in the tank at the brewery and further concentrated to 8.6% alcohol by volume); 1993; and 1991. The unusually dry 1992 vintage was absent because it had shown steep decline as early as 1994 and had therefore long since been removed from the cellar to be consumed while still enjoyable.

For those unfamiliar with eisbock -- the style, not the brand -- it is made by first brewing and fermenting a normal bock beer and then concentrating said beer by partially freezing it and extracting the resultant ice. In a traditional eisbock, the finishing alcohol content lies somewhere on either side of the 10% alcohol by volume mark, and so even at 8% ABV, the Niagara Falls Eisbock can be considered on the weak side for the style. Niagara Falls claims to have been the first modern brewery outside of Germany to brew an eisbock when they launched theirs as the brewery's second brand in 1989.

The Kitchen Table opinions of the 1996 Eisbock confirmed my thoughts from when I first tasted it in December of last year; namely that it tasted sweet, young and more than slightly immature. All of the tasters thought it alcoholic -- not a soft, warming type of alcohol, but a bold, intrusive style -- and most found it rather one-dimensional. Where there are these characteristics, however, I think there is also room for development and I will not be at all surprised if this vintage scores much better in subsequent years.

The 1995 vintage was day to the 1996's night, with a wonderfully full body and a smoothly drinkable and rather complex character. Time has been very good to this beer and tasting it was almost enough to compel me to pull some of my cellared bottles up for more immediate enjoyment. But the older vintages still beckoned, so the cellar door stayed closed and I will be content to wait until next year.

Both the 1994 vintage and the Eisbock Gold proved disappointing. The former had turned a bit musty and earthy and the latter had suffered badly from its cork finish, giving up a strong initial cork aroma, most of which we were eventually able to "burn off" through breathing, and a lingering cork taste. (The Gold was packaged in Champagne-style bottles and sealed with a cork, and I have accordingly stored my bottles on their sides.) It will be interesting to see next year if the corked nature of the Gold was an isolated case or if it carries through to the rest of my similarly-stored samples.

1993 was a near-consensus choice as the finest vintage of the tasting. In its complex aroma I picked up notes of rum-soaked raisins, toffee, cinnamon, very light roast and a hint of florals. Similarly, the sweetish body also demonstrated a pleasing complexity, and both Alastair and Michael even compared its creamy character to that of crème brullée. Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable vintage and one that I think still has a few more good years in it.

After the creamy complexity of the 1993, tasting the dry subtlety of the 1991 was a tough transition to make. This vintage has definitely changed through the years and now offers flavours quite removed from those of its youth. The tanned leather notes I often find in older beers were there, along with a smoky woodiness that was picked up by nearly all of the tasters. Different, yes, but highly pleasurable proof that this beer does age with grace and dignity.

A refreshing look at beer enjoyment in all its forms, complete with a chapter on matching beer to your favourite foods, a guide to drinking beer with the seasons, 29 delicious recipes that take beer into the kitchen and a whimsical look at pairing beer with music and the movies.

Stephen Beaumont
A Taste For Beer

Selected Events for March

London, England:
London Drinker Beer and Cider festival

A three-day fest running from March 19-21 at the Camden Centre on Bidborough Street. Features include a breweriana auction on Wednesday and live music on Friday. Call 01727 867201 for more information.

Kona, Hawaii:
The 2nd Annual Kona Brewers' Festival

The Celebrator Beer News and TWTravel present this one-day event featuring over 30 beers in a most hospitable setting. The date is March 15 and travel and festival info can be obtained from 1-800-495-8767.

Molson Pilot Brewery's Scotch Ale

This elusive brew was poured for me by a former employee of Molson who had been holding on to it for about a year. I and a visiting brewer tasted it blind and were both blown away by it's bold, spicy and decidedly Belgian character. Then our jaws dropped to floor level when we found out that this thoroughly enjoyable brew came from Molson!

It has been a tradition for some time for the Molson test brewery in Toronto to brew oddball and offbeat beers around Christmas. These beers, which have ranged from doppelbocks to lager-and-limes, have then been given away to employees as seasonal gifts. Having tasted a couple of years' worth of these test brews, I can safely say that they have never been terribly exciting beers...until now.

Although it was certainly Belgian in tone, this brew had been labelled a Scotch Ale. Neither of us at the table that night could quibble too much over that malapropism, however, as we were too busy savouring the full, sweetish and lightly peppery flavours in our glasses. Proof, I had to observe, that truly exciting beers really can come from large-scale commercial breweries, or at least from their test brewery divisions.

Editorial -- Time for Crazy Horse Malt Liquor to Just Go Away

In a Washington Post article dated February 18, Michael A. Fletcher writes of the continuing controversy over how Native Americans see themselves portrayed in popular North American culture. In particular, Fletcher focuses upon a brand of malt liquor brewed by G. Heileman (now owned by Stroh) under contract for the New York-based Hornell Brewing Company. The beer is called Crazy Horse Malt Liquor.

Leaving aside the greater issue of the positioning of malt liquor as an inexpensive inebriant, and the much greater issue of how sports teams and other consumer products employ often derogatory native imagery and occasionally racist terminology to sell their wares, let me turn your attention to the concept of using the name of a native spiritual leader to sell beer.

Can you imagine a Mother Teresa Dry? How about a Martin Luther King Jr. Ice Beer or perhaps a Prophet Mohammed Light? Each of those names would be viewed by the groups they affect with horror and outrage, and if any brewing company were to actually be ignorant enough to launch the brands in the first place, you can bet whatever you have that they wouldn't last long in the marketplace.

Yet because Native Americans are a relatively marginalized group, we as a consumer society have told Hornell that it is alright for them to co-opt the name of one of native culture's most revered spiritual leaders and slap it on the side of 40-ounce bottle of high octane lager. Well, it's not alright, and it's high time that we let Hornell, G. Heileman and Stroh know that.

The Crazy Horse Defense Project, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based national organization that is waging a campaign to remove the malt liquor from the market, has proposed a national boycott of another, more popular Hornell product called AriZona Ice Tea. I would like to go a step further and ask beer lovers everywhere to encourage the management of your favourite beer stores to remove Crazy Horse Malt Liquor from their shelves. Further, please tell the managers why you would like them to do this and encourage them to pass this information on to their distributor.

Please note that this is not an issue of freedom of speech -- I do not challenge for one second the right that Hornell has to call their products whatever they wish -- but rather, it is a matter of courtesy, decency and respect. It may be too late to undo the past four years of insult that the brand has foisted upon native Americans through its abuse of one of their most revered leaders, but there is still time to prevent further damage.

World of Beer Business Briefs

• According to a recent story by Sue Lecky in the Sydney Morning Herald, besieged number two Down Under brewer, New Zealand-based Lion Nathan, is gearing up to fight back against its number one rival, Carlton & United Breweries, the brewing arm of the Foster's Brewing Group. In recent years, the story says, Lion Nathan has lost significant market share to CUB and now commands less that 42% of Australian beer sales.

  A key to winning back some of that lost share, according to Ms. Lecky's interview with Lion Nathan's managing director of Australian brewing operations, Gordon Cairns, will be an increased emphasis on the advertising and promotion of existing Lion brands such as the flagship Tooheys line. Mr. Cairns is quoted in the story as saying that Lion Nathan's advertising budget will be increased by a "hugely significant" amount. In emphasizing this view, Mr. Cairns is further quoted as saying that "if you don't nurture brands, they die - and nurturing brands means continuing to spend."

  So head for the trenches, beer lovers of Australia and New Zealand, it sounds like the battle is about to be joined in full volume.

  	A brewery-by-brewery and beer-to-beer guide to the Canadian brewing industry, from Labatt and Molson on down to Horseshoe Bay Brewing and the Bushwakker Brewpub.
  Stephen Beaumont's Great Canadian Beer Guide

• India's huge United Breweries Group, led by its flamboyant CEO Vijay Mallya, has purchased a 45% share in five U.S. microbreweries (Nor'wester, North Country, Mile High Brewing, Aviation Ales and Bayhawk Ales, Inc.) and has consolidated them under the name of the United Breweries of America. That deal, reported in BeerWeek (http://www.BEERWeek.com) at the beginning of February, became final on January 30, 1997.

  Now comes word from the San Francisco Business Times that Mr. Mallya might not be finished. According to a story by reporter Steve Ginsberg, Mr. Mallya is anxious to expand his company's U.S. beer holdings and has set a goal of between 15 to 20 craft breweries for his final total. As for the potential acquisitions, Mr. Ginsberg speculates that none other than the Pete's Brewing Company of Palo Alto, California, may be a target.

• Speaking of Pete's, the craft brewing industry has been buzzing since the unexpected departure of Pete's CEO Mark Bozzini last month. The move came a week after Mr. Bozzini announced a cut in the company's projected earnings for 1996.

  In a recent San Francisco Business Times story by Clifford Carlsen, beer industry analyst Jamie England is cited as speculating that Mr. Bozzini's departure might not have been entirely of his own accord and that the catalyst for his removal could have been his decision last October to change Pete's distributors in several states, including California and Colorado.

  In Mr. Bozzini's absence, reports Mr. Carlsen, Philip Marineau will temporarily assume the company's CEO role and current CFO Jeffrey Atkins will take charge of the company's daily operations as COO. Mr. Carlsen also reports that the search for a new CEO has already begun.

• Finally, from the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times comes word that the Tampa-based brewpub chain Hops Grill & Bar is being acquired by Apple South Inc. in a deal reportedly worth $56.5-million. The Madison, Georgia-based Apple South is the largest franchisee of Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar and also runs 63 Don Pablo's restaurants, reports Kris Hundley in the Times. Although the new owner of Hops is reluctant to discuss the future of the brewpub chain, Mr. Hundley writes that the publicly traded company "clearly puts a premium on growth."

Feedback response has been so great this past month that I'm introducing a new letter-and-response format for this section. I hope that this will allow me to answer the maximum number of letters and get to as many questions as possible. Let me know what you think about the new look of Feedback and, by all means, keep those e-mails coming.

I'm looking for low-cal. beer recipes. If you can provide some info on that I would appreciate it. Thanks
- Roger Shartzer

A lot of people have been writing in asking me for homebrew recipes which, I'm afraid to say, I just don't have! Not being a brewer myself, I think it would be rather presumptuous of me to open a homebrew section in SBWoB. I suggest instead that you try the Cat's Meow 3 at http://alpha.rollanet.org/cm3/catsmeow3.html.

I've just recently completed my first batch of "Pilsner" beer. I used a flour paste concoction to adhere my labels to the glass bottles, but to my dismay, as it dried, the labels fell off. What would you recommend I use to adhere my labels to my bottles. Thank you in advance.
- Murray Wolfe

Having no idea how to answer your question, I presented it to Marty Nachel, co-author of Beer for Dummies. Here's what he said:

"I don't suppose this is going to help Mr. Wolfe much, but all the homebrewers I know who make their own labels don't bother messing with glues and pastes. It's much easier to have labels printed on "sticker" type paper with a peel-away backing. Very clean and easy."

I have a thomas hardy's 1990. how is that year turning out?
- josh oakes

Just one bottle? What a shame! But seriously, the 1990 Hardy's I sampled in 1994 was already drinking beautifully, with a vibrant complexity and a full, alcoholic body. I would bet that your bottle (providing it has been stored well) will taste wonderful now or possibly even better, or at least differently wonderful, in a few more years.

could somebody there tell me anything at all about guinness oyster stout. a friend of mine used to get it in the early seventies in the midwest from a jesuit priest who would have cases of it brought over from ireland,but since then no one has seen or even heard of it.
thank you.
- paul donahue

I can tell you that it no longer exists, but am having difficulty finding out more about it. Please check back next month and I'll see what else I can come up with.

Hello from the Horse Brass Pub in Portland, Oregon. Will you be having a Links page? If so we would appreciate being included. You are currently on our links page at http://www.horsebrass.com/links.html.
- Joy Campbell

A number of readers have asked me about links, so I figured that it's time I came clean on the subject. Because this site is hosted by the Real Beer Page, it would be duplication for me to offer links of my own when they already have available a links page. (I know, it doesn't seem like much, but imagine if everybody on Real Beer offered their own links? Half of RBP would be links pages!) So while I am very grateful to anyone who likes SBWoB enough to give me a link, I'm afraid that I can't respond in kind. Sorry, but you can always check out RBP's links at http://www.realbeer.com/rbp/rbp.tunnels.html.

... just strolling through these great pages. Nice work. Keep it up! Thank You. We do some testing of beer-brands in Germany - even if we prefer foreign brands... Whoever cares for ... http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/8.html
- Johannes Wagner

This is for Clement Falter who wrote in looking for German beer info a couple of issues ago.

STEPHEN,ENJOY YOUR BOOKS AND YOUR ARTICLES, WHEN WILL WE SEE YOU IN THE FRANKENMUTH MICHIGAN AREA ?
- JAMES P. BROWN

Unfortunately, I have no plans to be in Michigan in the immediate future. But as long as we're talking about Frankenmuth, let me get in a quick plug for the upcoming 2nd Annual World Expo of Beer, taking place on May 16-17. (Please contact Vicky Hayden at 517-652-6106 for more info.)

I am a 23 yr old college student who enjoys casual drinking with friends. I'd be interested in a catalog of books, t-shirts, hats, etc. with the name and World of Beer logo.
- Troy Joyner

We haven't really entered into the merchandising thing here at SBWoB, so I'm afraid that I have no catalogue to send you. But what do you think, kind readers, would anybody else out there be interested in World of Beer hats, shirts, etc?

If you have any comments, questions, hints or tips for Stephen Beaumont's World of Beer, we'd love to hear from you. Although we unfortunately can't promise individual replies to everyone who writes, we will present your comments and answer some of your questions in this space each month.

Click Here: worldofbeer@worldofbeer.com.