Microbrewed Adventures - Charles Papazian [3]
All-malt beer with distinctive varieties of hops and caramelized and roasted specialty malts provided the distinctive and traditional appeal of those original pale ales, porters and stouts. The microbrewed adventure was entirely distinct and different from what the forty-two existing American large and regional breweries were offering.
Now there are more than 1,300 microbreweries in the United States and the numbers are growing worldwide. While many microbreweries have grown in size and are sometimes called craft breweries, they maintain their passion for flavor, diversity and adventure.
The microbreweries of today, such as Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Dogfish Head Brewing Company, Deschutes Brewery, Left Coast Brewing Company, Stone Brewing Company, Brooklyn Brewery, Boston Beer Company, Rockies Brewing Company and Boulevard Brewing Company, are among the thousand-plus micro and craft brewers producing an amazing array of choice. It’s hard to believe that just twenty-five years ago the American beer market was dominated by Big Beer and offered virtually no other options.
Beyond America I have discovered tradition and an equal passion for flavor, diversity and creativity. The second half of Microbrewed Adventures reveals many of my most memorable travel adventures outside the United States, tasting exotic, classically traditional and pioneering beers—Andech’s German Monastic Bock, Leipziger Gose, Brakspear’s Henley-on-Thames Ordinary Bitter, Goose and Firkin Dogbolter, Zimbabwe Zephyr Sorghum Beer, fifty-year-old Cornish mead, spicy Dutch Zeezuiper and legendary Belgian ales and lambics, to name a few. All my microbrewed adventures were invaluable lessons, serving as inspiration for a beer drinker and homebrewer gone “over-the-top.” I hope you enjoy…
Ya Sure Ya Betcha
The Independent Ale Brewery/Red Hook Brewery
I ALWAYS SHY AWAY from the inevitable question that everyone loves to ask me: “Charlie, what’s your favorite beer?” I will always deflect the question with “It’s the beer that I’m holding in my hand” or “The locally made beer, and when I’m home that’s my homebrew.” One of the more memorable beers I’ve held in my hand—you could have called it my “favorite” at the time—was an American-made British-style bitter I enjoyed frequently on the rooftop of Boulder’s West End Tavern. It was called Ballard Bitter. Brewed by the Independent Brewing Company (now called Red Hook Brewing Co.), then located in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, Ballard Bitter was a wonderfully complex hybrid of American and British beers. I perceived a predominance of American Cascade hop character combined with a mellow background of English Kent countryside hop flavor. You could taste a complexity of hops. Not only that, but perhaps you could see the hops in the ever-so-slight haze that was likely a combination of hops, yeast and full-malt ingredients.
Gordon Bowker, co-founder of Red Hook Ale, introduces the brewery in 1982.
Gordon Bowker, co-founder of Red Hook Ale. By David Bjorkman.
Ballard Bitter was also blessed with one other “flaw” that I loved. It was called diacetyl—one of the textbook brewer’s deadly beer sins, producing a flavor and aroma reminiscent of caramel or butterscotch. Textbook brewers despise diacetyl in any amount whatsoever. I am not a textbook brewer, but I am a textbook beer drinker. I drink what I like. I like the soft integration of caramel-, toffee-, butterscotch-like flavor that diacetyl harmonically contributes to some styles of English and American ales. A balanced amount of diacetyl contributed to my enjoyment of Ballard Bitter. Yet despite good sales, this wonderfully balanced and distinct ale was eventually purged of its diacetyl by the brewery. Hop intensity was elevated and the brand renamed India Pale Ale–Ballard Bitter. The slogan on the bottle, “Ya Sure Ya Betcha,” remains, but it is no longer the Ballard I and thousands in my neighborhood enjoyed.
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ORIGINAL BALLARD BITTER
My attempt to recreate this beer is “Original Ballard Bitter.” Ingredient and process information