Microbrewed Adventures - Charles Papazian [63]
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CASTLE METHEGLIN
This is unlike any other mead you have ever made or tasted. If properly cared for, it will age well for 100 years. The gruit of herbs provides a unique blend, taking on the character of the combined ingredients. Individual herbal flavors will briefly emerge when tasting, yet it is the artful blend of these herbs that creates this most majestic of metheglin meads. Patience is a virtue surely rewarded with the eventual emergence of this golden elixir. The recipe can be found in About the Recipes.
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I often think of Colonel Gayre as I make my annual melage of meads. I also take heart in knowing that thousands of home mead makers throughout the world are now wiser and more aware of how the traditions of mead have contributed to our culture.
Dear Colonel, wherever you may be, know ye that a friend of mead is a friend indeed.
I REVISITED the castle with Sandra in 2003. Marion had sadly and quite suddenly died earlier that year. Reinold has since remarried and continues with the upkeep of Minard Castle. At the time of our visit, the closet of mead was still in good order. Having tried a bottle of 55-year-old brochet, I continue to admire the quality of what Lieutenant Colonel Gayre created.
CHAPTER 7
Beer Heaven Is in Germany
IN THE MINDS of the world’s beer drinkers, Germany is the center of the beer universe. Its reputation for upholding the 1516 Beer Purity Law, the Reinheitsgebot, serves as reassurance to all German beer drinkers that purity and quality will reside in every liter of beer brewed and enjoyed in Deutschland.
While the flavor and diversity of beer styles is limited in Germany, the pilseners, wheat beers, Altbiers, Kölschs, bocks and Bavarian light and dark styles are brewed with artisanal pride. Sadly in the last decade, the globalization of beer brands and economic pressures has stressed the fragile infrastructure of German small brewers. Their numbers have dwindled. The pressure to conform to the low taste profile of mass-marketed beers has resulted in the diminished complexity and flavor of many famous German beers from breweries both large and small.
German beer culture has not escaped the very real economic challenges of the early 21st century. Recently there has a been a small rebound in appreciation for passionately brewed German beer made by small brewers, but the struggle for survival continues and the German beer culture flirts precariously close to collapse. Two things may save what I have come to love about German beer: (1) Brewers will maintain their traditional standards and not compromise nor diminish the flavor and complexity of their beers, and (2) beer drinkers may learn that they must pay a small premium for beers whose character is above the trend toward less taste in beer.
My first tour of duty with the beers and brewers of Germany was in 1989. That year may have been the peak of modern German beer culture. The threats of globalizing beer brands had not yet aggressively appeared in Germany. Everywhere I went there was a sense of continuing celebration and a brewer’s pride. The anxieties for the future had not yet made their presence. Small countryside breweries created unique versions of classic styles of German lagers and ales, each having their own “house” aromas and flavors. It was a wonderful time to be traveling in search of the beers and brewers of Germany. Those times provided my valued first impression, which has consequently inspired me to champion the passion of the microbrewer and preserve the flavor and diversity of real German beer.
The Monastery at Andechs
SUMMER IN BAVARIA isn’t all sunny skies. In fact, when I was there in July 1989 it was cool, rainy and gray. I was making a pilgrimage to Andechs Monastery, Brewery and Beer House, west of Munich, easily accessible by the