Some quick thoughts and a Cantillon Classic Gueuze

I've got a busy couple of weekends coming up (and one past) with beer tastings, and I wanted to get a few posts in during this time. Tomorrow night marks the 1st Anniversary of BeerThursdays, which promises to be truly epic with rare and aged beers being pulled from a few people's cellars. The following weekend I'll be hosting my second tasting (and only 8 months after the first one!) which will be coming mostly out of my own cellar, so keep an eye out for posts from me and Adam on some special beers in the near future.

And now on to the gueuze! It's safe to say I've been on a bit of a Lambic bender lately, so I picked up two bottles of this on my last trip to State Line knowing that it can disappear quickly, and I would want to age at least one. As I was listening to this week's Sunday Session from The Brewing Network, one of the hosts got talking about his love of gueuze, and how, in America, we usually get a smaller pour (8oz or so) because of the price of good Lambic beers here. It was really how he stated his point that got to me; that in Belgium you can go into a bar and have a "big glass of gueuze" like you would expect to have any other beer here. Fast-forward through a day and a half of "big glass of gueuze" running through my mind and I'm standing in my kitchen staring down a 375ml of Cantillon Classic Gueuze. This shall be my big glass of gueuze.

Poured into my Duvel Tulip, it sat, a hazy pale gold with bits of orange. A one finger white head quickly faded to a ring with a thin coating over the middle of the glass thanks to the etching in the bottom. The smell is sour and earthy with a grassy finish. There's also an really acidic smell that seems to fade as its allowed to breathe.

The first sip is tart, but balanced. The malt presence is a nice counter to the acidic sourness that dominates the finish. It seems less carbonated than I expected, but the carbonation that's there is sharp and helps to ease your palette into the complex flavors ahead. The earthiness of the aroma is back as I get further into the glass, bringing the grass with it. The balance stays throughout the glass, with each sip bringing malt, sour and slight hop character (Czech Saaz?) into alignment.

The swallow is delightfully dry; making it tremendously drinkable. More drinkable than any sour I've had, certainly more than the ultra tart beers of brewers like Russian River. I love those beers, and they have been a treat every time I open a bottle, but they are sippers. Gueuze is for having a pint with dinner, and I delight in that.

If this is the sort of thing I can expect to drink large quantities of on a regular basis in Belgium, I may move there and never come back. I hope I've effectively got everyone thinking about a "big glass of gueuze," and dare you not to go pour yourself one.

- Dan

Big glass of gueuze.

Clipper City Black Cannon

Black Cannon is part of the Heavy Seas line of Clipper City beers, a brewery which has established itself among my local favorites. Although they tend to not put out a lot of over the top beers, what they do offer is generally a good, flavorful example of the style that's well done and balanced. Black Cannon specifically is a Black IPA, sometimes called an IBA, and is one of the currently more trendy styles out there. As would be expected, the beer pours a very dark brown, nearly black, and supports a small light tan head with moderately low retention.

The first thing that I noticed upon pouring was a distinct hoppy presence, more reminiscent of the fresh hops that I often use in homebrewing than the more common aromas found in a finished beer. There's a poignant citrus quality to it, leading me to believe that it may be Amarillo or one of the West Coast "C" hops.

A touch of biscuit malt hits the tongue initially, with just a hint of acrid roast up front, followed by a strong mix of hop and roast bitterness in the back of the mouth. I felt like there might have been just a touch of a medicinal flavor as well that I couldn't quite put my finger on. While decidedly not a sweet beer, it felt only slightly more balanced to the hoppy side to me. One thing I will say is that the "black" flavors (roast, coffee, chocolate, etc.) don't come through all that strongly in this beer. If you were drinking this beer without seeing it, you might not even realize that it's not just a Pale Ale or IPA. That's not to say that those flavors don't exist in the beer, just that they are fairly subtle.

It's a little sticky in the mouth, while initially feeling fairly light to medium bodied and a bit dry, after swallowing it leaves an oiliness. Still, from the flavor and lack of heat, I never would have guessed that this beer was over 7% ABV. While it may not be the best Black IPA I've had, it has a strong and robust flavor while remaining fairly drinkable. I could see myself putting a couple of these away in a single night. In fact, something about it reminds me of my own homebrewed Pale Ale, a beer I can drink all night long without getting tired of it. While Black Cannon might not be in the upper echelons of Black IPAs, it's certainly a decent session offering if you want to try the style out.

- Adam

Championship Results

We recently were invited to enter the Master's Championship of Amateur Brewing based on our gold medal at the Happy Holidays 2010 competition in St. Louis for our New World Stout. This competition hosted winners in each category from select national competitions, sort of a "best of the best" event. We were pleasantly surprised to be eligible to enter, especially since this beer was not planned as a competition beer at all. What I mean by that is that we didn't even try to follow the BJCP category guidelines, which are the standard to which each beer in a competition is judged. This is done to take much of the subjectivity of tasting out of the judging process. Because it was the closest match in color, gravity, and flavor profile, we entered this beer in category 13E - American Stout. However, we were not completely within the style as we used English hop and malt varieties to make up our beer. Hence the name New World Stout, a beer with English hop and malt character, but American style boldness.

As I said, we did not actually place in the competition, however upon receiving our score sheets I noticed that we were awarded an Honorable Mention. This was thrilling for us because it means that out of the 30 or so other stouts we were competing with, all gold medalists, ours was still considered to be among the very best. In fact, upon reading the feedback that we were given, I found that the judges did not have anything negative to say about the beer other than they would have liked a more "American" hop aroma and flavor profile. This makes sense because we did not use a single American hop in the beer. One of the judges even commented that he would drink our stout any day of the week.

Although it is a little disappointing that we did not technically place in this competition, it's a comfort to know that our beer was so well received and that it's really only the specificity of the style guidelines that kept us from placing. They went so far as to say the whole beer was well made with no off-flavors or problems, just simply lacking the citrus quality of American hops. If we ever choose to brew this beer again specifically for competitions, we can simply replace the hops we used with American varieties, and I'm sure we'll have a winner. I doubt we will ever do that though, we brew our beer for flavor and this beer is pretty much exactly what we want it to be. Good work New World Stout, you've done us proud.

- Adam