I've noticed something: nothing gets more response than when I slag off American beer. Despite you telling me what you liked best were travel reports. Numbers don't lie. Me being nasty is popular.
I had great hopes of Deschutes Obsidian Stout. After the American Stouts I've drunk recently, I was hoping for another chance to pontificate on the inappropriate use of c-hops in Stout. Disappointingly, Obsidian was rather nice. Oh dear. What should I do? Lie and say I hated it. Keep shtum and passively give the impression I hate all American Stouts. As you can see, I've taken a third option: honesty.
Wow. But you do know this was brewed exactly to BJCP standards for the style, right?
ReplyDelete:-)
Ron - The beer seems to have a "world" appeal.
ReplyDeleteIt won gold in the European Beer Star comp in October, Champion Stout in the Australian International Awards and World's best Stout/Porter in the Beers of the World judging (that included you, as I recall).
My question, though, is: Suppose I'm a brewer in Oregon who wants to make a stout-inspired beer but I want to use local (therefore c-) hops. Does it become appropriate if I call it something else other than a stout? Is there no way I should do it?
I did play my part in the Beers of the World Tasting, in which Obsidian took part. I'm sure that I aided it's victory. But if you've ever judged in one of these things, where beers glide past, remembering any specific one five minutes later isn't easy. And they were tasted blind.
ReplyDeleteOregon brewer, local hops. A tricky one. I guess in the old days before easy transport of raw materials, brewers wouldn't have brewed Stouts, at least not Stouts as we know them. They would have come up with beers that better suited the local ingredients.
My objection is simple - grapefruit and coffee just don't work together, for me. You can't take the roast out, because then it wouldn't be a Stout.Can you see what has to give?
How the hops are used is another matter. I've had beers with the dreaded c's that I thought were great. Used subtly in combination with hops of a very different character. Brooklynette is a good example of American hops well used.
Yes, you can call a Stout soaked in grapefruit a Stout. Just as you can call a Rem Koolhaas construction a building. They fulfill their basic functions. But there's still somethimg just not right.