Beers

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) today announced the winners of its search for the best real cider and perry in the UK.

The winners are:

Cider: Hecks Kingston Black – Somerset

Perry: Seidr Dai – Cardiff

Gillian Williams, CAMRA’s Director of Cider and Perry campaigning said: “Commercial ciders are enjoying something of a boon at the moment thanks to lavish advertising, but it should not be forgotten that exceptionally high quality real cider is still being made all over the UK. Just squeeze the juice out of the fruit and leave to ferment naturally. At its best it is a wonderful drink allowing the true fruit flavour to come through to the full.

Visit CAMRA for complete results.

In the name of public service, Channel 3 in Philadelphia compares light beers, enlisting beer columnist Don Russell to conduct a blind tasting with his neighbors.

Could they offer a solid consensus?

Our taste testers were pretty much evenly split, preferring the Miller, Heineken and Amstel Lite beers.

Only America’s number one selling beer, Bud Light failed to get a thumbs up.

Until somebody tells us the best light beer to drink we’ll have to stay with something heavier.

EPIC Pale Ale earns the Supreme Champion award in New Zealand.

Rogue Ales and Samuel Adams (Boston Beer) both picked up numerous awards.

All the results.

The Los Angeles Times points out that among nationally distributed American beers, only Samuel Adams produces a true bock. But those who care about the style care about the style.

Dan Gordon, director of brewing operations for the Palo Alto-born Gordon Biersch chain of brewery-restaurants, makes more bocks than anybody else in this country: an extra-strong Winterbock, Maibock (available in April and May, but only on draft at the restaurants) and the year-round Blonde Bock. “I’m a fanatic about bock,” says Gordon, who fell in love with the style while he was an exchange student in Germany. “It’s my pride-and-joy beer.”

Bocks, of course, come in many colors and flavors – and while the style may be neglected by national breweries, there are plenty of local and regional craft choices, plus some of the German originals.

A good way to toast spring.

Miller Brewing has kept its distance from the Here’s to Beer campaign designed to boost the image of beer.

That doesn’t mean the brewing company isn’t looking for an image updgrade. Citing a “consumer movement toward mainstream sophistication” Miller is partnering with GQ Magazine to promote Miller Genuine Draft with a “Summer Essentials” promotion. The program also includes a Miller Genuine Draft “take-one” mini mag that’s produced by GQ.

Nearly two million visitors a year flock to Bavaria’s Sacred Mountain to visit the Kloster Andechs, home to one of one of Germany’s last monastery breweries.

Distinguished Brand International is set to begin importing Andechs Spezial Hell Lager this month, although it will be from Canada rather than Germany. DBI explains: “Andechs Spezial Hell is being brewed under direct supervision of the Benedictines and in strict accordance with their purity law called, Reinheitsgebot, at Brick Brewing Company in Waterloo, Ontario. To optimize Andechs special flavor, it will be available in 20 liter kegs (5.28 gallons). The small kegs reduce oxidation, helping to ensure Andechs superior flavor.”

Benedictine monks began brewing at Andechs in 1455, but now only nine monks live in the monastery where 40 once toiled. They have turned the brewing operations over to secular workers, with all but the wheat beer produced in a thoroughly modern brewery built 20 years ago at the base of a hill the monastery commands.

At Andechs, the Spezial Hell is produced using a double decoction mash. “Andechs views decoction as essential, although it costs a lot of money in energy,” said Alexander Reis, the general manager of brewery operations. “It gives the beer a deeper color, more pronounced body and a maltier finish.”

The amber-hued Spezial Hell, taking its color from CaraMunich malt, is lagered 4-5 weeks. 5.8% abv, 22 IBU.

Heineken has just kicked off a national advertising campaign to support its off-premise launch of Heineken Premium Light. The $50 million national campaign began with gala events in cities across the country in March, followed by the off-premise rollout in April.

Heineken expects to sell 5 million cases of Premium Light in 2006. Like Heineken, Premium Light is packaged in a green bottle, but this one is sleeker (svelte, if you will). Using taglines like “Succumb to Smooth,” Heineken is seeking to create a Luxury Light segment of the beer market that includes both Premium Light and Amstel Light.

Premium Light targets domestic light beer drinkers, while Amstel Light continues to offer itself as an alternative to fuller-bodied import beer aficionado. Served cold you wouldn’t mistake Premium Light for Heineken itself, although as it warms it shows some of the same low-malt, grainy character as Heineken, though at lower levels.

Will it taste skunky (a flavor often associated with imports), as Heineken often does when its green bottle spends a little time in the sun? You’ll have to conduct that experiment yourself.

Advertising Age reports that Pabst Brewing hopes to revive the Schlitz brand using the same sort of retro approach that fueled a surge in Pabst sales.

The problem for Schlitz and Pabst is that price apparently trumps retro, and sales dropped in 2005 when Anheuser-Busch cut prices on Natural Light and Busch.

So Schlitz – which was the nation’s third best selling beer just 25 years ago – is turning up the volume, including a reprise of the gilded bottle from the 1950s.

“They absolutely have to do something,” said distributor Don Faust Jr. at Faust Distributor Co., Houston. “If price isn’t going to get people to buy Pabst and Schlitz, the alternative has to be more marketing.”

We’ve got another suggestion. Change what’s inside the bottle.

Anheuser-Busch recently and quietly – we haven’t seen a press release – rolled out a beer called Wild Hop.

The San Francisco Chronicle invited two representatives from Whole Foods to join in a blind tasting, given that Whole Foods is the kind of store Anheuser-Busch hopes will sell Wild Hop.

Wild Hop finished last in the tasting, while Caledonian Golden Promise was first.

(Cyrus) Kayvan, who correctly identified it though he’d never tasted it before, called it “bitter, malty and watery.” (Forrest) Allen’s notes read “manure, very weak.” (Linda) Murphy detected “marzipan, fruity, piney” notes, and said the lager was “thin on entry and shallow on palate.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

New beers and seasonal returnees of note:

– Anchor Brewing in San Francisco brewed Anchor Bock for the first time in 2005. It’s back as a seasonal beer, officially available through May. Anchor makes the beer, like its famous Steam, as a hybrid – fermenting it with ale yeast, then lagering it at a very cold temperature.

– Lindemans in Belgium has added an apple lambic to a lineup that previously included Framboise (Raspberry), Peche (Peach), Kriek (Cherry), and Cassis (Black Currant). With Lindemans Pomme, fresh apples are added in the form of pure juice, contributing to a light body, a glowing golden color and crisp green-apple flavor.

Importer Merchant du Vin suggests pairing it with rich cream sauces, hearty soups, aromatic cheeses and spicy cuisine.

– Boulder Beer Co. in Colorado chose a less-than-traditional-name, Sweaty Betty Blonde, for the traditional Bavarian wheat beer that returns to shelves next month. The fifth release in Boulder’s “Looking Glass Series” of specialty beers, Sweaty Betty Blonde made its debut in 2004.

An e-mail similar to this arrives at least once a day here at Realbeer.com:

“I recently visited [fill in the city and/or pub] and had [fill in the name of the beer]. Since I returned home to [fill in the location] I haven’t been able to find the beer. Can you help me?

Signed, [Desperate/Thirsty/Impatient/Frustrated]

Because Michael Kuderka had a similar crisis a couple of years ago The Essential Reference of Domestic Brewers and Their Bottled Brands was born. (Yes, that’s a title long enough to make you as thirsty saying it as thinking about the words in it.)

“The concept for the book was the result of attending a beer festival at Waterloo Village here in New Jersey, back in 2004,” said Kuderka, who created the book. “At the festival my wife, Cathy, and I watched passionate brewers fill countless foam-topped glasses and we were able to tasted any number of fantastic beers, but when we attempted to find some of these bottled brands at our local retailers, we didn’t have a great deal of success.

“In some cases, we remembered the style of beer but not the brewery; in other cases, we knew the brewery but were not too sure about the exact brand. What was immediately certain, however, was that neither retailers nor I had a quick, easy way to satisfy my thirst for these new brands or to end my ongoing quest.”

Kuderka started by collecting data and logging it into a spreadsheet, but soon realized that compiling a list of all the domestic breweries and their bottled brands would require building a sophisticated database. The book reflects the depth of his information.

It is divided into six sections. Section I provides an alphabetical listing of all U.S. brewers. Section II features Color and Bitterness Comparison Charts, which should help retailers – sometimes as overwhelmed as consumers – understand the similarities in the appearance and in the flavor of styles. Section III opens with detailed descriptions of most of the styles from the color charts, then has a Beer Style Index that shows which breweries offer which styles.

Section IV charts what states breweries ship beer to, while Section V follows with a complete geographic index. Section VI then offers more detail on each brewery’s portfolio, complete with beer descriptions and labels.

The DBBB, and the companion web site, are designed for use by beer retailers, beer wholesalers, convenience stores, supermarkets, and restaurants, but will also be of interest to beer consumers.

Kuderka has targeted the 35,000-plus U.S. retailers of beer. “Eight-nine percent of the retailers we surveyed told us that they were looking for new brands of beer,” he said.

Kuderka quickly learned the U.S. beer landscape is still changing, so is providing updates through his web site, making additions to the database each month. A code providing one-year’s access comes with the book.

Does this mean we’ll no longer receive the “Where do I find this beer for my spouse’s birthday” e-mails? Probably not, but we expect it will improve the choice of what’s available on the local shelves for all of us.