More Beer Lit For Beer Nerds (And Aspriring Beer Nerds)

So as to avoid any 2-year-old-smoking-boy type controversy, I will refrain from showing a picture of my son with his snoot in a beer glass. But, truth be told, he does like to take a whiff —that means smell, NOT taste—of what his dad is drinking. And, as detailed in my Brewtal Truth column in the June issue of Decibel, he likes to look at my various beer books, pointing out all the brews Daddy likes (Avery!) and doesn't like (Budweiser!).

Though he hasn't given it a thorough flip-through yet, I know he's going to enjoy The Beer Trials by Seamus Campbell and Robin Goldstein as much as I did. Aside from the usual basic information about beer styles and beer terminology, this 300+ page book features reviews/ratings of 250 beers from around the world—everything from Bud Light to Czechvar. The ratings are from 1-10 (though strangely there is nothing lower than a 3 or higher than a 9) and were done by a panel of Portlandites who tasted the beers blind and against other beers in their similar style. So, for instance, MGD wasn't rated against North Coast's Old Rasputin. It was rated as to its, ahem, quality as a pale American lager.

I liked the fact that the information about the beer accompanying the rating was generally good and presented in an irreverent, somewhat snarky way, but the comments on the label/bottle design were, for the most part, just pointless. Another slightly annoying thing was the constant complaints about the beers in the green and clear bottles being lightstruck. Because they rated so many beers sold in green or clear bottles (which allow light to enter and basically negatively affect the beer) the reader is constantly reminded these bottles are bad for storing beer for more than like 30 seconds. We get it! Perhaps the authors should have simply said at the beginning, "basically all beers we rate that are in green or clear bottles will be lightstruck to some degree, so let the buyer/consumer beware." Then they could have simply noted in the rating when the tasters detected it, rather than continually grousing about it. It really gets old.

Other than that, this is a good resource, and I like the way they established their ratings. I'll definitely use this as a reference for many years to come. Hopefully there will be updates and future editions.

Oly Delivers The Allagash!

I love the irony of a dude named "Oly" sending me a big effin' box of Allagash beer. Yep, it's one of the perks of this job. I not only got to interview one of my favorite bands about one of my favorite albums for Decibel Magazine (Trouble's Psalm 9, in issue #62, Dec. 2009), I got a full selection of Allagash's finest for my efforts.

So, what's the connection between Allagash and Trouble? A dude named Oly, of course. Jeff "Oly" Olson was Trouble's longtime on-again/off-again drummer. He's the guy who played on Psalm 9, so while I was interviewing him for that Hall of Fame article it came up that he worked at Allagash. When I finally was able to follow up on that hot tip, I interviewed him a second time—this time for my Brewtal Truth column in Decibel—mostly about beer and what he does at Allagash. Shortly thereafter a box of Allagashy goodness arrived that contained a bottle each of their Tripel, Dubbel, Black, Curieux and 4 bottles of the White. None of which I had tasted before. All of which (so far) are amazing. I've only tasted the White and the Tripel because I'm cellaring the other three for a bit to see how they age. That said, they may not last the year if the right occasion comes along to pop one or two open. I'll admit it, I'm weak that way.

As for tasting notes, well the Tripel is a thing to behold—a really well-built take on the mammoth Belgian style. There's tons of tempting fruit ester aromas and the taste is pleasantly (slightly) sweet and spicy, thanks to a decent dose of hops to balance everything out. The White would be the perfect beer to introduce a neophyte to the witbier style. It's just amazingly complex, refreshing and well-balanced.