Judge not, that ye be not judged

Unless you're at a homebrew competition.

The Kansas City Bier Meisters hosted their 27th Annual Homebrew Competition this weekend, and Mr Wort Hog and I both had an opportunity to participate in judging. The competition was held at the Holy Field winery out in Basehor on Friday night and Saturday, during which about 30-35 judges tasted, judged, and ranked submitted beers, ciders, and meads.

Here are the basics on how a competition works:

• Homebrewers submit their beers to a specified location, assigning each submission to a competition category such as Robust Porter or Doppelbock - or something special to the competition such as "lawnmower beer" or "eis-anything"
• Judges sit in groups by category and review the beers based on aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, and an overall impression. Each group has a head judge.
• Stewards are there to provide the beers and manage the score sheets as well as bring up any logistical issues with the organizers. They can also sample the beers being judged, if there is enough after the judges receive their pours.
• After each judge completes his or her score sheet for the beer in review, the judges discuss their findings and rankings then agree on a final numerical score. This process repeats until all entries have been reviewed. 

There's a lot more to it, but that's the general idea. More information on the process can be found in these quick guidelines or on the BJCP's website.

Friday was a fun introduction to the process, especially since I got to judge melomels (fruit meads). This category also includes pyment (grape juice & honey) and cyser (apple juice & honey), but we didn't have any cyser submissions this year. I did, however, get to try two pyments, which I thought were fantastic. One was made with Riesling and the other with Gewürztramier grapes, and both were sweet and light with a subtle - but recognizable - honey presence. I've been inspired to try making pyment, as I really enjoyed it; I'm a big fan of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, so I might try one (or both!) of those with some light honey such as Orange Blossom or Sage. The evening closed with several people sharing homebrew, mead, melomel (fruit mead), and a few commercial brews. One couple from Iowa brought some commercial chocolate porter and homemade berry melomel. Mr Wort Hog had suggested a while back mixing melomel and beer, and Friday's combo was a confirmation of how great idea that truly is.

Saturday morning started off with breakfast and a slideshow of Freestate brewer Geoff Deman and chef Rick Martin's trip to Belgium last year, where they walked us through some of the breweries and beer cafes they visited. They described how the brewing industry in Belgium is quickly becoming consolidated as larger breweries buy up the smaller ones, one after the other. Duvel Moortgat bought Liefmans (and closed it); they also own Ommegang out of Cooperstown, NY, Maredsous, and Brasserie d'Achouffe. InBev (formerly Interbrew) owns a ton of Belgian breweries now, including Leffe, Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Belle Vue, and a handful of others. So while these breweries in a country known for great beer get bought up by the big boys, small breweries in the States are popping up out of nowhere and taking on the conglomerates. It's an interesting time for beer, that's for sure.

The competition resumed and I judged German wheat & rye beers. It was a good reminder that German hefeweizen is really best when fresh; none of the beers we had were really outstanding. After lunch, the final judging session took place and I sat down with my group to judge categories 1 and 6 - Light Lager and Light Hybrid. I really wasn't looking forward to this category, but it ended up presenting two of my favorite beers of the day. Someone submitted a Standard American Lager that reminded me of Budweiser or Coors Original, both of which I actually quite enjoy. It was clean, crisp, lightly bitter, highly carbonated, and very refreshing. The other beer that really stood out was an American Wheat ale that was moderately hoppy - not too much so as to be out of style, but more than your typical bland wheat beer. It reminded me to pick up some Hop Sun once it's released this spring. As an added bonus, Dan of Gone Mild was in my judging group and we had an opportunity to chat for a while about blogging, local beers and goings-on.

Once judging was done, most of the group left for a tour and food pairing lesson at Free State; we stuck behind to relax at the winery and sample a bit of wine - though it's also possible that we forgot to buy tickets for the tour until after it was sold out. Oops. I really enjoyed the winery's Chardonel, which was similar to a Semillon or sweeter Sauvignon Blanc. Lots of green apple in this one, and it was inspiring to find a local white wine that was crisp and dry.

The day wound down with a Belgian-themed dinner and keynote speaker Stephen Pauwels of Boulevard. He talked to the crowd about Belgian brewing, a little history and folklore about Boulevard's beers, and a little on the Collaboration with Jean-Marie Rock. One thing I learned, and thought people might find interesting to know (especially those who think that corn & rice in beer is always a bad thing) is that the grain bill for Tank 7 is 20% corn. Pauwels reminded us all that Belgian brewers almost always use adjuncts (especially candi sugar), and that adjuncts definitely have a place in brewing.

After Pauwels' talk, the awards ceremony started and we found out that we took 3rd place in English Pale Ale for an Ordinary Bitter, 2nd place in Fruit/Spice beer for a Chocolate Russian Imperial Stout, and 2nd for a Cherry Vanilla mead. We also got an honorable mention for an English Mild. Not too shabby!

I had initially signed up to steward, but was assigned to judge instead; I was nervous about doing it but am thankful that I had the opportunity to do it. I enjoyed being challenged to define the characteristics of a beer, felt rewarded when my perceptions aligned with those with much more experience than me, and learned a lot about beer and mead in the process. I would highly recommend doing this next year to anyone with an interest in beer, mead or cider, even if it's just to steward. I met some wonderful people, tasted some amazing beer and mead, and gained inspiration for my own hobby. I wasn't really interested in studying for and taking the BJCP exam, but now I can't wait to take both the beer and mead exams. We'll be judging again next month at the Iowa Brewers' Union competition just outside Des Moines.

If you're interested in participating in competitions, you can find a calendar of national competitions on the BJCP's website. It's definitely a fun experience with a lot of interesting and exciting people, even if you're not a homebrewer.

All Work and No Play

... makes for a very boring blog. Except for when Mr Wort Hog posts.

In the past 2 months, I've been to Seattle, Detroit, Portland, Fort Worth, central Illinois, and now Miami - nearly all work-related. I don't normally travel this much and it's significantly affecting my blogging frequency as you can probably tell. I've cut back on my beer drinking as well - partly due to the amount of stress & travel, but also because I was pushing my body's ability to stay within my current clothing size. Time to scale back.

However, tonight I was in the mood for a beer (after what's already been a long week - and it's only Tuesday) but I wasn't in the mood for something heavy. I'm not typically a fan of hotel lounges, but I had to get out of my hotel room for a while (but not travel far) and figured I'd suck it up and spend ten bucks on a well gin & tonic. Or maybe just a Diet Coke.

Not this time!

Boston Beer Company to the rescue - I spotted a Sam Adams Light on the menu and thought it would hit the spot. I'm not a big fan of light beers, but there are a couple that stand out. New Belgium's Skinny Dip is pretty decent, but it's seasonal - and sometimes I want a light beer in winter to counterbalance, say, a Chocolate Oak-Aged YETI (mmm....) Sam Adams Light it is, then. For 119 calories, you actually get a really good beer. It has a nice, dry flavor that has a little bit of an orange essence on the finish from the Noble hops. There's also a prominent but light caramel flavor from the malt and none of that funky sweet adjunct taste you get from other light beers.

Does it taste like a 300ish calorie bottle of Hopslam? Well, no. Do I care? Not really. It's refreshing, flavorful, and a nice change from the winter beers I've been nursing this season. The body is still decent, head retention is quite good, aroma is pleasing. There is nothing offensive about this beer.

Of course, most 4-5% ABV beers hover around 150 calories per bottle anyway, so you could always just go for a Boston Lager, Anchor Steam, Schlafly Pale Ale, and so on; 30 calories less really isn't that much. That's half a Girl Scout cookie. 3 minutes of running. 1.5 ounces of Hopslam. Not much. But if you're looking for a good beer low in calories, Sam Adams Light is one worth your hard-earned money.

Collaboration Nation

Collaboration beers started making their appearance a few years ago - the first one I recall seeing was Collaboration, not Litigation by Avery and Russian River. (Still one of the best collaboration beer names yet.) If you don't know the story, here's how Avery tells it on their website:

The name of two intricate Belgian-style ales, created by us, Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing and Adam Avery of Avery Brewing. After becoming friends a few years ago, we realized we both had a Salvation in our lineups. Was it going to be a problem? Should one of us relinquish the name rights? “Hell, no!” we said. In fact, it was quickly decided that we should blend the brews to catch the best qualities of each and create an even more complex and rich libation. In April 2004, in a top secret meeting at Russian River Brewing (well, actually it was packed in the pub and many were looking over our shoulders wondering what the hell was going on), we came up with the perfect blend of the two Salvations. Natalie, Vinnie’s much more significant other, exclaimed, “We should call this Collaboration, not Litigation Ale!” “Perfect,” we shouted! We celebrated deep into the night (or is that morning?). Fast forward to November 14, 2006. After talking about it for over two years, we finally decided to pull the trigger and Vinnie made the journey to Avery Brewing to brew his Salvation exactly as he does in his brewery.

But they're far from the only ones. Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head put together a brew they called "Life and Limb". De Proef and Bell's got together to make their delicious dark Belgian ale with cherry juice. And we all know about Boulevard's latest collaboration between Stephen Pauwels and Jean-Marie Rock.

And another collaboration beer enters the fray. The brewers at Schlafly, O'Fallon, and New Albanian got together last fall to brew their own collaborative beer - a dry-hopped, oak-aged, smoked rye pale ale. Yeah, you read that right. Mike over at STLhops.com put up some pictures of the brew day a while back, as well as some information about the beer.

So what does a dry-hopped, oak-aged, smoked rye pale ale taste like? You can read about it on Hoosier Beer Geek. Or, you can go to Flying Saucer on Thursday and taste it for yourself. See you there.

What is an Imperial IPA?

In the spirit of Hopslam, let's explore what exactly an Imperial IPA is.

First things first, lets deal with semantics and the language police. In the context of beer, Imperial means, roughly, bigger. Double and Extreme mean, roughly, the same. So an Imperial IPA is a Double IPA is an Extreme IPA. These terms are all arbitrary. Now, the language police will tell you that imperial means related to an empire and that Imperial Stouts were so called because they were prepared for the Russian Imperial Courts. This is all true but guess what else is true? The American language is a living thing and when talking about beer, Imperial means bigger. I'm in ur language, bastardizing ur adjectives.

Now that we have that out of the way, it is useful to define an Imperial IPA in terms of what it is not. Trivially, an Imperial IPA is not an IPA, it must be bigger. But what happens if you just jack up the volume on the hops and the malt? Thats an Imperial IPA, right? Well, maybe not.

A bit of history is in order. At the turn of the 20th century (about 90 years before Boulevard invented beer, or something), Bass developed a high gravity pale ale called No. 1. This beer was effectively an English IPA brewed to a higher original gravity and with a commensurate higher level of hopping. Attenuation was fairly low (as is common for bigger beers) and the beer was left rich, heavy and somewhat sweet. This beer might have been been called Imperial IPA (if it weren't that American beer geeks did not corrupt the word until many years later), but it was called Barley Wine instead.

Fast forward to 1985. Ken Grossman's Sierra Nevada Brewing Company brewed one of the first extreme beers of the craft movement in the US (apparently following in the footsteps of Boulevard's Smokestack series, or something). This beer, of course, was Bigfoot the first American Barley Wine. Bigfoot followed in the mold of English Barley Wines except it was, generally, bigger and hoppier (and featuring American hop varieties). Since then many American Barley Wines have followed and they are all characteristically full bodied, malty sweet, extremely bitter, and featuring bold American hop character (unless aged).

So what happens if you, say, double both the malt and hops in a typical IPA recipe? You get an American Barley Wine, a style already named and established before John Maier coined the name "Imperial IPA" and before Vinny Cilurzo coined the name "Double IPA".

So how do you make a beer which seems like a big IPA but is distinct from Barley Wine? Vinny Cilurzo stumbled upon the formula by accident when he added 50% too much malt to his mash and compensated with 100% extra hops, creating the now famous Blind Pig IPA. The result is a beer that is bracingly bitter with huge hop character, but lacking the heavy body and sweetness of a Barley Wine.

So this was the mold for a while (and still is on the West Coast). A beer of about 1.080, with about 8% ABV. Pale gold to light copper in color, dry in the finish, drinkable (at least to the initiated). Hop bitterness was extreme, and hop flavor and aroma were as high as possible. These beers were not balanced, that was the point.

Since then the range of beers carrying the moniker "Imperial IPA" or equivalent have taken on a broader range that include higher alcohol levels, higher finishing gravities, and more residual sweetness.

I've found that beers labeled as such fall into roughly three categories.

1. Original Intent Imperial IPAs: These are of the West Coast type described above. Members of this category are Blind Pig IPA, Pliny the Elder, I^2PA, and Hop Stoopid.

2. Midwest Maverick Imperial IPAs. These are a newer class of beers seeking to make their own mark on the style. Characterized by higher gravity and alcohol than their West Coast Rivals, these beers are a bit fuller in body and with perhaps a bit of residual sweetness. They are not full bodied, they are not cloying, and they are not syrupy. Most importantly they remain drinkable by the pint, despite their alcohol, and they clearly feature hops both in bittering and flavor. Members of this category include Hopslam, Maharaja, and Double Wide.

3. Incognito Barley Wine Imperial IPAs. These beers are characterized by, well, being Barley Wines. American Barley Wines have no limit on hopping, so it is not a style that can be out hopped. What turns an IPA into a Barley Wine is sweetness, fullness on the palette, lack of drinkability and anything vaguely resembling balance. The archtypal example of this category is Southern Tier's Unearthly. Many "triple" IPAs are candidates as well, including a thoroughly enjoyable example from Moylan's. At their best, beers in this category are excellent but have more in common with Barley Wine than Imperial IPA. At their worst, they are cloying and uninteresting. It might be useful for breweries to market these as IPAs, but it is more useful for the consumer to think of them as Barley Wines.

So have yourself a Bigfoot IPA, or a Pliny the Barley Winey or pee in glass and call it Imperial Light American Lager (only if you had rice for lunch). I don't care.

Hopefully it is at least mildly useful to understand that not all Imperial IPAs are like each other, and some of them are suspiciously like Barley Wines. At the very least if you find that the only Imperial IPAs you really love are the impostors, you may want to check out Barley Wines. Conversely, if you find yourself drinking a fresh American Barley Wine and wish it were a bit smaller and easier to drink, go get yourself a Maharaja or Hop Stoopid.

FAQ You

Local favorite Boulevard Brewing Company are fond of lecturing beer drinkers on what is traditional and what they are willing to do on their (apparently rarely edited) FAQ.

First, they claimed that they would never use aluminum cans as they were a "traditional brewery". This claim was removed from the FAQ shortly after Boulevard moved to the use of aluminum bottles (decidedly less traditional than aluminum cans). Savvy internet users will find slightly older versions of the FAQ on internet archiving websites if they wish.

Shockingly, they have not edited away they other two high and mighty claims they make in their FAQ which they have since violated.

In response to the question "Will Boulevard ever make fruit beer...?", Boulevard answers a terse "No". Boulevard has been making a seasonal beer with fruit added for over a year now.

Two other answers detail why Boulevard will not expand outside of the Midwest, but it has long been courting the West Coast with a substantial portion of its sales and market resources (while distribution mishap after distribution mishap plague the loyal Kansas City market).

Now there is nothing wrong with Boulevard using Aluminum bottles, putting fruit in beer, and answering the siren call of the lucrative West Coast market per se. This does all raise several questions in my mind.

1. Did Boulevard ever truly hold the snooty values communicated on its FAQ?

2. If they did, why are these values so easy to abandon?

3. Does Boulevard truly value the craft beer ethos many see in its Smokestack series?
4. If so, how easily will Boulevard abandon that apparent value?

And as you may have asked yourself today as you stumbled over piles of 6 month old Seeyoulator and 10 month old Two Jokers (both highly regarded on the internet, but is nobody buying it?) to buy some Bell's Hopslam in the fleeting moments that your local liquor store had it available:

5. Is the Emperor wearing any clothes?

More Beer, Please

I've been anxiously awaiting packaged Free State beer for at least a year now and it sounds like this spring it'll finally happen. Around the same time, they're going to start distributing to Missouri. The new brewing facility is finally in operation, freeing up the smaller brew house for small-batch beers - which explains why we're seeing so many wonderful, different beers on tap these days. I'm excited to see them doing so well and can't wait to see Free State in more places, both in bottle and draft form.

Boulevard is growing as well; they just added three more fermentation tanks as part of a production expansion plan from 150,000 to 190,000 barrels annually. Compare that to Sierra Nevada's 680,000 or New Belgium's 437,000. Or, perhaps to Schlafly's 30,000 barrels of beer produced each year. Yes, Boulevard is adding more annual production capacity than the Schlafly brewery makes in a year. Crazy.

Speaking of the ol' Schlafly gang, I was excited to see Schlafly's Reserve series while in Oregon the past few days. Boulevard made its appearance there last summer with some Smokestack beers (both in bottles and kegs), so it's fun to see yet another Missouri beer make it over to the west coast. It'll be interesting to see how well they fare there given the competition, but I know at least Boulevard has a great reputation there.

And speaking of Oregon and Boulevard... It's no secret that Saison-Brett has long been my favorite Boulevard beer. I've never been a huge fan of Saisons (DuPont being my #1 exception), but adding Brettanomyces completely changes the style in a direction I highly enjoy. I was out in Portland this past week and picked up a bottle of The Bruery's Saison Rue. It's a Saison made with rye and Brettanomyces. Loved it; it's a bit drier than Boulevard's and has a tinge of spice from the rye. If you are in one of their distribution areas and you enjoy Saison-Brett, Saison Rue is another fantastic beer to try. I'd also like to just toss out a distribution request.

You know, because we can always do with more beer.

Friday at the Foundry

I'll try to keep this short. We went to The Foundry tonight (new website, by the way) and noticed something significant:  they've moved the McCoy's taps from the wall to the center bar island, opening all of the wall taps to third-party brews (finally!!). One of the biggest wishes we've had about The Foundry is that they'd open up more of their taps to non-McCoy's brews, because the McCoy's brews are on tap about 30 feet away. They had a better idea:  add more taps.

I sampled their 10th anniversary and Rye of the Tiger beers tonight (but closed out the evening with the always-favorite Maudite). The 10th anniversary was really good, but I wasn't in the mood for such a strong beer (Yes, I know, I got a Maudite. It's different. Honest.) The 10th is actually 3 years old and is quite boozy, warming, and a bit hoppy with lots of bread and caramel in flavor. There are some fruity esters, but they're not overwhelming. If you're looking for a balanced American Barleywine, I would recommend this one. It was served on tap at a good carbonation level and just a wee bit on the chilly side. Let it warm up before fully enjoying.

I tend to find McCoy's beers to be middle-of-the-road, but the Rye of the Tiger ale was also very good. No detectable off-flavors and a nice pale ale with the spiciness and mouthfeel you'd expect from rye. I do think this would have been better for the early-spring days of late March or early April, but it's a nice change from the heavy, malty brews of winter.

Cheers!