Meeting the ambassador

2015 has already been busy beer-wise. So busy, I haven’t been reporting hardly any of it properly. I’ve still not got around to telling you about my time in East Anglia. Barley, malt and brewing records in 3 days.

I hope I’ll get around to that, but while it’s still fresh in my mind I’m going to relate what happened this week. On Monday, to be precise. When I was invited to an American craft beer tasting at the US ambassador’s residence in Den Haag. Even though it meant taking a half day off work, it wasn’t an opportunity I was going to pass up.

The American ambassador’s gaff is a rather elegant villa close to the Vredes Paleis in one of the nicer parts of the city. The street seems to consist solely of embassies or their residences. Funnily enough, not a bit of Den Haag I’d been to before.

Easy enough to get to, mind. Just jump on a 17 tram at Centraal Station and it takes you right there. Or close enough. I was early. Very early. With an hour to give a good kicking to, there was only one thing I needed. A pub.

In the 19th-century bits of Amsterdam you’re never far from a pub. But that’s Amsterdam. I’d taken the precaution of checking on a map for nearby pubs. There didn’t seem to be a great deal. So I keep my eyes out for suitable candidates as the tram rumbled closer to where I needed to make my exit. Zilch.

Things weren’t looking good. So I set off on a ramble. I came across a couple of boozers. Ones I wouldn’t have gone into. Even if they had been open, which they weren’t. Just when I thought I’d be wandering the streets for an hour, I spotted an Eetcafé. And look, there’s a Duvel sign. I was saved.

I plonked myself at the bar and had a look at the taps. No need to resort to Duvel: Kompaan Bok was on draught. Not had a beer from them before. And they’re local to Den Haag. I spent a pleasant 40 minutes of so reading the paper and sipping my beer. Far better than walking the streets.

I got to the ambassador’s residence bang on time, at 3 PM. Things kicked off at 3:15 with an introduction from the ambassador followed by short presentations by the Brewers Association and Bier&co, the two sponsors of the event.

Thankfully, beer was served while the talking was going on: first a session IPA, then Anchor Liberty Ale. They tided me over until the main event, six beers paired with what the Dutch call “hapjes”: bite-sized bits of food.

I’d tell you what all the beers were. Except I can’t remember them all. Couldn’t be arsed to take notes. These are the ones I can:

Alaskan Smoked Porter
Old Rasputin
Shipyard Export
Anderson Valley Amber Ale
Rogue Chocolate Stout

One of the eaty bits quite impressed me. See if you can guess what it is:

Hard to see in my crappy photo. Fish, chips and mushy peas. How cool is that?

The beer servings were as bite-sized as the nibbles. But with encouragement the servers would bump that up to  a gulp or two. And towards the end I encamped next to the Old Rasputin and was merrily pouring myself full glasses. Very nice it was, too. Full of that alcohol thing I like so much.

Beer-flavour stuff as well, obviously.

There were a fair few people I know present. I must say that Peter van der Arend’s bomber jacket and jeans combination wasn’t really in the spirit off business casual, the dress code. I’m surprised they let him in. Especially as he wasn’t on the guest list.

I’m not totally sure why I was invited, but I’m not complaining. Some free beer and nosh, plus a chance to peek inside the world of diplomacy. I’d do it again, happily. I didn’t get to talk to the ambassador, just stand within a few feet. That’s close enough for me.




Eetcafé de Klap
Koningin Emmakade 118-A
2518 JJ Den Haag.
http://www.deklap.nl/

Grätzer guidelines update

Now there's a surprise. I hadn't bothered commenting to the Brewers' Association on their Grätzer* guidleines, for the simple reason I didn't expect them to pay me any attention. But someone did**.

And blow me if they didn't change them. Take a look and see what you think:

"Grätzer
Grätzer (also Grodziskie) is a Polish-Germanic pre-Reinheitsgebot style of straw to golden colored ale. Chill haze is allowable at cold temperatures. The distinctive character comes from 100% oak wood smoked wheat malt. The overall balance is a sessionably medium to medium-high assertively oak-smoky malt emphasized beer. Aroma is dominated by oak smoke notes. They have a medium low to medium perceived clean hop bitterness. European noble hop flavor notes are very low to low, and low ester may also be present. Body is low to medium low. A Kölsch-like ale fermentation and aging process lends a crisp overall flavor impression and low degree of ester fruitiness. Sourness, diacetyl, and sweet corn-like DMS (dimethylsulfide) should not be perceived. Historic versions were most often bottle conditioned to relatively high carbonation levels.

Original Gravity (ºPlato) 1.028-36 (7-9 ºPlato) ● Apparent Extract/Final Gravity (ºPlato) 1.006-1.010 (1.5-2.5 ºPlato) ● Alcohol by Weight (Volume) 2.1-2.9% (2.6-3.6%) ● Bitterness (IBU) 15-25 ● Color SRM (EBC) 3-6 (6-12 EBC)"

Are they an improvement? Yes. A bit. It's nice that the classic 7.7º Plato version is now included. But unfortunately that's at the expense of the stronger versions brewed in the 1980's and 1990's. I don't seee why the strength range couldn't have been set to include both.

I'm pleased that it says 100% smoked wheat malt, though after all the discussion in the comments, I was starting to come around to the idea of  a percentage of barley malt being acceptable.

Some things are still just plain wrong. "A Kölsch-like ale fermentation and aging process", for example. I'm not even sure what the first half of that means, but Grätzer definitely wasn't lagered like Kölsch. And the classic version was a good bit hoppier than 15-25 IBU, more like 30-40 IBU. And I still don't get what "pre-Reinheitsgebot" means in this context. As Grodzisk/Gratz was only briefly submitted to it, the Reinheitsgebot is pretty irrelevant.

Overall, a slight improvement, but there's still some way to go. At least the Jopen version I was involved with is now just about to style. I can sleep easily.






* I'm using the word Grätzer for reasons of simplicity. It could just as well have been Grodziskie.
** Zafra Whitcomb

Isn't that a surprise?

This could be the least surprising decision ever. Even I predicted it and I'm no Mystic Meg:

"The board of directors of the Brewers Association (BA), the trade association representing the majority of U.S. brewing companies, has voted to change the BA's designation of "small" in its definition of a "craft brewer." The Association's board of directors also has revised its bylaws to reflect the change.

In the BA's craft brewer definition, the term "small" now refers to any independent brewery that produces up to 6 million barrels of traditional beer. The previous definition capped production at 2 million barrels. The changed definition is currently in effect and can be reviewed on the BA website, BrewersAssociation.org. The change to the bylaws went into effect December 20, 2010."

Whatever bullshit spin they put on it, the motivation is obvious: keep Sam Adams "craft". Without fiddling certain of their products out of their figures, they would have been over 2 million US barrels in 2010. The Brewers Association can't afford to have 2 million barrels of "craft beer" disappear. It would mean a big drop in "craft beer" sales in 2011. And they wouldn't want that, would they?

It's not the first time they've fiddled the upper limit for Sam Adams benefit. Though it may be a while before they need to again, what with the the new cap being so high. I can't help wondering what would happen if Sam Adams were disqualified as "craft" for some other reason, like an association with AB-Inbev. Would the Brewers Association change the rules again?

6 million barrels. I know it's not much compared to AB-Inbev, but it still isn't what I would describe as "small".

All five British beer styles

I must be prescient. How else can I account for my last post, mocking the Brewers Association 140+ "beer styles"? I wrote it a week ago. Because of a weekend break in England, I had five posts stacked up and scheduled to be published in my absence.

What did I notice on my return? That others had been writing about the insane proliferations of made-up beer styles. Good to know I'm not the only one wondering where it will all stop. Alan at A Good Beer Blog got me pointed in the right direction with his "Being a Hound Without any Sense of Style" post.

Jack Curtin touched upon the topic in a chat with Fritz Maytag.

Over at Yours for Good Fermentables Tom Cizauskas wrote a paragraph with which I wholeheartedly concur:

"Styles, now, at least in the US, seem to be determined by formalistic minutiae, and, once in place, fiercely defended by the killer phrase "not to style"."

A post called "What is the purpose of beer styles?" on Beervana answered the question in its title thus:

"The purpose of having them at all is to bring coherence to a vast diversity of beers--not to merely create a name for every single variation."

I spend a lot of time looking brewing logs, old adverts and the like. The information I collect from them is packed into spreadsheets. It's given me a lot of material to analyse. The more I look, the fewer styles I find. I'm left with just a handful.

Removing variations based on differing strengths or the addition of a special ingredient, this is all that remains:

Pale Ale
Brown Ale
Mild Ale
Porter
Strong Ale

You could add Lager to that, but I was talking in terms of indigenous styles.

Or maybe I should stop swimming against the tide and start campaigning for the recognition of some new styles of my own. Where to start? AK, perhaps. Followed by AKA, XK, XLK, Luncheon Ale, Family Ale, Intermediate Ale. Why on earth hasn't the Brewers Association picked up on these yet?

Imperialising

It isn't true, as some have claimed, that "Imperial" was only used to describe Stout. As with much Victorian beer terminology, it was erratically and inconsistently applied.

I stumbled across this wonderful example today in an 1868 price list: Imperial Table Beer. Let's see, Imperial means really strong and Table Beer means something safe to give to the kiddies. So how on earth can a Table Beer be Imperial? The price, 2s 6d for a dozen pint bottles, implies a gravity of 1060-1065º.

Funnily enough, Imperial Table Beer isn't one of the more than 140 styles officially approved by the Brewers Association. Though "Session Beer" is. Soon there will be more styles than exhibitors at the GABF. Or mybe that's the point: having enough medals so that everyone can win one.

If you're in need of amusement, take a look at the style definitions. They gave me a few good laughs. The Porter and Stout definitions are particularly hilarious. The german ones, too. Where do they get this shit from?