Local Weather for Appleton, WI
21°
-6°
°F | °C
Cloudy
Humidity: 83%
Wind: NE at 14 mph
Tue
18 |
23
-7 |
-5
Wed
12 |
24
-11 |
-4
Thu
9 |
25
-12 |
-3
Fri
14 |
27
-10 |
-2
| Real Beer Man: Hey, get yer thing outta my beer! |
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Hmmm…If you can believe it, his enthusiasm actually put me off that one, at least until the horrible image of wieners in beer leaves my head. So let’s save Stingo for another day and look instead at what came in the mail recently. I love stepping outside my door and finding a box of beer sitting there. It’s even better when it’s a box of four very different beers. Because the season was coming to an end, first out of the box was Rosey Nosey, a lovely seasonal offering from the great George Bateman’s Brewery in England’s East Anglia. I’ve long been a fan of Bateman’s beers, and Rosey Nosey is no exception. Deep copper-hued, Rosey Nosey’s very appearance puts a glow in the room as you pour it out. American winter warmers usually come on strong with spices or malts, but Rosey Nosey is typically British in its evenhandedness – malt with ever-so subtle tones of dark fruits balanced evenly against two traditional English hops (Kent Goldings and Challenger) and American Liberty hops. This is another great session beer from Batemans. Next up – on another night – was Witte Noire, an imperial amber wheat ale from De Proef Brouwerij in Lochristi, Belgium. Ooh la la! What a treat. This is a temptress of a beer – soft, subtle, refined and delicious. It is, in fact, deceptively soft, courtesy of the wheat, no doubt. There’s nothing to indicate that it weighs in at 7.5%. Witte Noire makes other imperial ambers seem like unsophisticated country bumpkins. Sold in a 750ml bottle, Witte Noire is a beer to share and impress your pals. Like Champagne? Me neither. But I do like cider. The third bottle I pulled out of the box that appeared at my door was Aspall Cuvee Chevalier, a double fermented English cider, or “cyder,” as brothers Barry and Henry Chevallier Guild, eighth generation co-directors of the Aspall Cyder House of Suffolk, England, call their appley beverages. Aspall has been pressing apples since 1728, but it’s only been available in the U.S. since 2003. Cuvee Chevallier is a new product for limited release in the “Champagne season.” As I sipped at this elegant dry cider, I searched hard for apple. Apple is there, but so subtle you could serve it during the Champagne season and fool 99% of the drinkers into thinking they were sipping a grape product. I know I would prefer it during the Champagne season. And, finally, the coup de grace – Van Twee Belgian Ale, a brewing collaboration between Dirk Naudts of the De Proef Brouweri and John Mallett of Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo, Mich. It, too, is a 7.5% beer. Van Twee means “from two” in the Belgian language. The brewers decided to use ingredients native to their own regions in the making of this beer they call a “mash-up” of porter and dubbel styles. From Michigan came sour cherry juice and beet sugar for bottle fermentation. From Belgium came Belgian candy sugar and Brettanomyces yeast. For hops they used the relative newcomer (first released in 2000) Nelson Sauvin, a fruity hop from New Zealand. The bright sour cherry is obvious, but not overwhelming. As that flavor washes over the palate and recedes, chocolate shoulders in, followed immediately by a lingering coffee bite. Van Twee, indeed! All four beverages are brought into this country by Alan Shapiro’s SBS Imports of Seattle. Thanks, Alan! |
