British Beer Prices

Look at this list of beers from the Burton Bridge Brewery in Burton-upon-Trent and you'll notice that the price varies by ABV. This is something you almost never see in the US unless it is a huge 10+ percent beer. But why not, after all, higher ABV beers are more expensive to make?

One reason is that customers in the US would be confused, they are not used to thinking about beer this way. But the British are used to it, thanks to a large excise tax that is levied on the final alcohol content of the beer itself.  Below you can see the current excise rate. Note that lower strength beer (up to 2.8%) is taxed at half the rate, which is why you'll often see breweries brew a low strength beer in the UK so that they can sell it for much less money (I had a great one at Greene King).

Here is the current excise rate for beer in the UK (the current tax is the last column):

This is big, by the way, there is a VAT tax as well, but the excise tax for a pint of 5% beer is about 50p if my back-of-the-envelope calculation is correct.  So for the festival ale at Burton Bridge, about 50p out of the £3 price is for the excise tax alone. 

In fact this is such a part of British brewing that apparently the Bass brewery in Burton used to have an entire floor filed with excise agents who tested the beer and levied the tax on each and every barrel that left the brewery. 

The Burton Bridge Brewery is exceptional, by the way.  You won't find their beers here in the US, so you'll have to go to Burton-upon-Trent to try (which, sadly, is not a big draw - it is a charmless town) but if you are ever in the area, make a point of stopping in, you won't be disappointed.  Then, after, you can do as we did and head over to the excellent Coopers Tavern (in the shadow of the enormous Coors plant).

Honest Pints Indeed

This sign is in the Angel & White Horse, the Samuel Smiths Pub attached to the brewery.

Ahh Britain, the land of the marked glass and the truly honest pint. The 'traditional creamy head' refers to the use of a sparkler - something ubiquitous in the north, but absent in the south of England. 

And by the way, there will be much more on this, but Samuel Smith's is so traditional they still deliver their beer in hand made oak casks to local pubs using, yes, white horses that reside just beside this pub (in fact you can see the stables from the side window). And, much to my nose's dismay, they still keep a coal fire burning in the hearth.

Which only makes sense as they have a massive pile of it to fire the boiler for the brewery. Traditional indeed.

Like I said, much more on this later, but the Old Brewery Bitter, cask conditioned in oak, is exceptional.

Holiday Ale Festival

A generous benefactor (who shall remain nameless but to whom I am indebted) gifted me a VIP ticket to the Holiday Ale Festival going on now at Pioneer Square in Portland, and so I went yesterday to finally check it out.  I am slightly ashamed to say that this is the first time I have been but I have to admit that big beers are not my first love and the idea of spending hours sampling big beer after big beer has always been a bit daunting.  Plus it is not the cheapest of fests and spending hours under a tent in the cold winter is unappealing. But with the free ticket, a beautiful evening and a few good friends as companions I could not delay another year.

So let's get the preliminaries out of the way: the setting is immensely better than I though it would be - the clear plastic used in much of the roofing keeps the main areas light and airy and the lights of the tall Christmas tree are visible through the roof as well, which adds a nice holiday touch.  The tent is heated so it is very comfortable and you can find spots to linger in of varying temperatures to suit your preferences (closer to, or farther from, a tube emitting hot air).  There is a lot of stuff inside the tent and it does get a little crowded, but the smell of cinnamon and spices is ever-present and in toto it is a very nice environment indeed.

The beer is, however, big. There was one exception: Breakside's Cranberry Biere de Table which is a very flavorful 3.3% ABV beer. After that, though, you are hard pressed to find a beer under 7% and there are many that hit the double digits. Yikes. There is also an abundance of Bourbon Barrel aged beers. I am not a huge fan of Bourbon beers as I often find the Bourbon overpowering and in conflict with the base flavors of the beer. But I am a minority as far as I can tell and for the Bourbon lovers, you are in luck.

Given my resistance to Bourbon, however, I thought a few of the winners were Bourbon barrel aged beers starting with the Velvet Merkin from Firestone Walker. I didn't expect to like this because of the Bourbon and the fact that I am not a fan of their IPA which I find heavy and over-malty. But this beer is sensational - the Bourbon is almost overwhelming on the nose, but not on the tongue where is its very subtle and gives way to vanilla and has a wonderful creamy mouthfeel. But beware, it is a very drinkable 8.6% ABV.

Another big winner in my book is HUB's Kentucky Christmas which seemed to me a beer that has no right being good: it is, as far as I could tell, a big hoppy NW imperial IPA mixed with Bourbon - ick! But no! It is sensational. I have no idea why, but the citrusy hops dance with the hint of Bourbon in such a way that they are in rhythm and make a nice melody on your tongue. You must try this beer.

Cascade's Sang Noir is great as well and so dry you can blow the dust off the top, but the complex and wonderful sour notes shine though - another Gansberg masterpiece.

Other winners to check out include Oakshire's The Nutcracker, Double Mountain's Chimney Stout and Fort George's Kentucky Girl.

But the champion of the fest for me was Ninkasi's The Little One. When I tasted this after a succession of humongous beers, I said to Jeff "finally, I get to drink some beer!" It is a small beer from the second runnings of their barley wine Critical Hit. It is 5.7% and delightful in every way with a nice Germanic hop note that distinguishes it from their popular IPAs. To me this is a lovely winter beer and I hope that next year they will have some more smaller winter warmers.

But there were some misses as well.

Bear Republic's Old Saint Chongo had an off metallic flavor that went away for me after a couple of sips and revealed a nice beer underneath, but assaulted others. I blamed the equipment, Jeff blamed the beer. Elysian's Bye Bye Frost was one too many byes: at 10.6% it is just stupid-strong. Would have been a great at 7.6%. Lompoc's Cherry Christmas was too much cherry and not enough Christmas. Widmer has been on a roll, but Peppermint Paddy Porter is a mint filled fiasco - think vics vapo rub and you get the idea. Upright's blend of an old ale and Biere de Garde didn't quite work for me but was interesting. And finally stay well away from Rusty Truck - there are off flavors and it is a mess.

So my hope for the next fest is a little less Bourbon and a more lower strength winter warmers.  So far the beer I have liked most recently was a fresh Winter Solstice from Anderson Valley - such a lovely and subtle beer with just the right hint of spice.  I hope local brewers will back of the big-is-better kick and start to rediscover, once again, the subtle, drinkable winter beer.

Oh and the VIP thing is pretty great, you can walk up to the main area and get any pour you want without waiting (but the same is not true at the smaller bars).  Also 20 tickets are enough for about three visits.  Worth considering if you are going at the heavy Friday and Saturday night times.

Finally, a word to the wise: even with little tasters, at 7 to 10% ABV, these beers get on you quickly. As the fest is at the heart of the city's public transportation hub, you should not plan on attending the fest and driving home.

Fresh Hop Roundup

A little late to this, but I have been busy with exploits that shall yield many intersting blog posts whenever I find time to write them - stay tuned.  I have been lax with the news of fresh hop beers, one of my favorite craft beer products, but I have now had enough that I am ready to give a short synopsis.  It is not a completely useless endeavor, I think there are still a number of them on tap and in the bottle so there is still time to get your fix in quickly before the winter ale season begins in earnest.

So let me start by saying I was a savvy consumer of the fresh hop beers this season and I did not make it to a fresh hop beer festival this year so I have not had a single fresh hop beer I didn't like.  But even though my sample has severe selection bias issues, might I be bold enough to suggest that the NW craft beer community is really starting to get it in term of brewing with fresh hops?  Perhaps.

While this might be true, my experience is that the best of the best come from the reliable top-quality brewers in the state.  In my book, Double Mountain lead the pack: this years killer green was amazing, a real hop bomb that was perfectly balanced (in the NW usage of balance) and yet the fresh hop characeter shone through but not in an aggressive way. I think it is the most accomplished fresh hop beer I have ever had (picture below from the Skamania Celebration of Beers event).

Many beer cognoscenti chose the Deschutes' Fresh Hopped Mirror Pond as their favorite (see, for example, Bill's much more thorough round-up) and though I agree with its excellence, it is not, for me, as transcendent ad Double Mountain's Killer Green (ed. note: I did not have the Killer Red this year).

Other winners: I thought, as always, Full Sails John Harris did an amazing job, this year the one I sampled was the one using Tettenanger hops - fantastic.  Another great one this year was Lucky Lab's The Mutt, which was surprisingly complex and well-rounded given the unknown provenance of the hops therein.  I think the Lab is getting pretty expert at The Mutt now and I really enjoyed the result.

Once again the good folks at the Great Northern Brewery sent me a sample of their Frog Hop beer and once again it was one of my favorites.  They go for a very light body to accentuate the fresh hops which are used gently but to perfection.  One reason for my love of this beer is that they use locally grown hops in the Whitefish Valley - which is what the fresh hop beer is all about: local, seasonal, fresh.

In fact, the Frog Hop was my inspiration for the Green Crown, which is what Jeff named our first attempt at a fresh hop beer.  We had no idea what to do, so I went for a light pale ale recipe, mostly two-row pale malt, with a little crystal and a hint of wheat for mouth feel.  Then it was all Cascade: wet home grown hops in the worth for a dose of first wort hopping, dry cascade for the bitter charge and then a bunch (completely unmeasured - we just dumped a bunch in until it seemed good, and then dumped a bit more...) fresh hops at the end.  From the picture below you can see from whence the name Green Crown came.  I am usually pretty critical of the beer I brew, but this one was a huge success - a wonderful light body upon which the fresh Cascades dance their little dance on your tongue.  Even Jeff, who deesn't think much of fresh hop beers in general, calls it a big winner. 

I still have a few in my basement and to my surprise they are aging extremely well: I think the grassy notes have faded just a bit but the rest of the fresh hop sensation remains.  A fitting end to the season.

I can also attest to the fact that the fresh hop beer craze has hopped the pond.  The Dark Star craft brewery in Sussex did their own fresh hop ale this year with English hops:

This is super cool, unfortunately it was all gone when Jeff and I visited.  Note that at 6.5% it is an absolute alcohol monster relative to most English beer.  

Let the winter beers commence!

Far and Wide

If you were to find a far flung Oregon beer what would you think it'd be?  For me, it's Rogue hands down.  You find them everywhere, including, in my case, on tap at the Rake bar in London's Borough district.   What I would not expect to find in my wildest imagination is Caldera.  But lo! From a bottle shop in York, England:

A Tale of Two Brewing Businesses: One Macro and One Craft

I'd show you a nice glamor shot of their Boston brewery but...

Well, almost.  Boston Beer is the one company which I guess you could say straddles the line.  But, say what you will about the business model, Boston Beer is built upon quality beer, not light lager volume.

First, the big. Molson Coors is hurting:

Molson slumps in 3Q as economy saps beer money
By SARAH SKIDMORE, AP Business Writer – 1 day ago

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Molson Coors Brewing Co.'s third-quarter profit tumbled 23 percent as high costs and high unemployment among its core customers continued to take a toll on the brewer.

Molson Coors and other major beer makers have struggled in the down economy as young American men have faced particularly high levels of unemployment. The company, which makes products like Miller Lite, Coors Lite and Carling, also saw lower-than-expected sales in the U.K. And the industry is seeing consumers overall shift toward more craft beers, wines and spirits.

The company is also struggling with higher costs for commodities such as barley, aluminum and fuel.

"We have had the equivalent of an earthquake," Peter Swinburn, president and CEO of Molson Coors, said of the recession. "Our core consumer was hit overnight... It is very difficult to recover from that, it takes time to rebuild."

Next, the slightly less big. Boston Beer is not:

Boston Beer 3Q profit rises on higher revenue

BOSTON

Boston Beer Co., which brews Samuel Adams beer, said Tuesday that its profit grew in the third quarter as shipments increased.

The company reported net income of $16.3 million, or $1.19 a share, for the three months ended Sept. 24. That compares with net income of $15.4 million, or $1.09 a share, in the comparable period last year.

Net revenue surged 8 percent to $134.8 million from $124.5 million a year earlier, driven by a 7 percent gain in shipment volume.

Analysts were anticipating, on average, earnings of $1.13 a share on $131.9 million in revenue, according to FactSet.

"We are happy with the health of our brand portfolio and remain positive about the future of craft beer," said Jim Koch, chairman and founder.

Curious that the AP byline is Portland, Oregon. Where better to report about beer, I guess. Anyway, the empirical question that I still wonder about is whether the growth in craft beer is from new converts while those that have already converted reduce their overall consumption in the down economy, or is it the case that even craft beer drinkers are not reducing consumption? I suspect the former.

Pubs Getting in on Brewing and Where to Find Brew Dog

Here is a little tidbit from the Willy Week: Kells has applied to open Kells Brew Pub in Nob Hill and Old Town Pizza have applied to start brewing at their Vanport location.

This is interesting to me as most brewpubs start as a brewery pub combo or start as a brewery and then add the pub.  I wonder if the whole brewpub idea is becoming so ubiquitous that pubs are beginning to find it a necessary selling point?  It is one thing to be an avid brewer and figure out a business to support your hobby-turned-profession but quite another to be a successful pub and decide that you need to add on-site brewing.   Thoughts?

On another note altogether.  After my soccer game last night in Oregon City a few of us stopped in for a quick drink at the wonderful Highland Stillhouse.  I had already been eagerly anticipating a draft Bellhaven Twisted Thistle so that is what I got, but the beer selection was fantastic - everything from Ninkasi's fresh hop beer to a great cask offering (which escapes me at the moment).  But what really caught my eye was an extensive list of Brew Dog beers.  I suspect, though I didn't ask, that these are from the bottle.  And they don't come cheap: a glass of Brew Dog will set you back $12!  Still, if you want to see if all the fuss is due to genius at self-promotion or to great beer, here is your chance.  You can even enjoy you Brew Dog with haggis balls!  Yum. 

If you are a little more budget conscious, I do recommend the Bellhaven.