A Regular Renaissance

I appreciate a really good beer. A rich malty stout on a cold Winter's day; an ethereal wild fermented Belgian sour with a beautiful meal; a big and unusual new style American micro-brew shared with good company; these are all good things. But everything has it's time and place, and when the hot humid Summer reaches full pitch, nothing satisfies quite like an ice cold, easy drinking, low alcohol "regular beer." Every year around this time I revert without compunction or regret to keeping my refrigerator stocked with plenty of such beer, usually canned. Schlitz was my old favorite, but in recent years it's been Miller High Life. This Summer, however, a few good local breweries have stepped up to the plate, and for the first time "regular" beer and "good" beer are actually the same thing.

Notch Brewing started in Everett Massachusetts just a few years ago. Brewer Chris Loring set himself apart from the crowd early on by proudly reviving largely ignored (by Americans at least) European styles of beer and brewing them in thirst quenching, low alcohol versions. After so many years of intensely flavored beers buried in extremely high levels of alcohol, he proudly rolled out a line of delicious beers all clocking it at less than 5% alcohol by volume. Notch Session Pils is just such a beer, a traditional Czech style pilsner. Light, clean, lightly hoppy and bone dry, it stands as a testament to what refreshing pilsner really should be. Easily drinkable straight from the can, this is the beer that convinced me not to drop back to American "macro beer" this Summer.

Jack's Abby of Framingham Massachusetts creates interesting beers that have their basis in the brewing traditions of Germany, but with a distinctly American flair. I'm not usually one for "classics with a twist", but Jack's Abby knows how to achieve balance, consistently putting their own stamp on  classic lager styles without losing sight of history. This Summer, as part of a benefit for the town of Framingham, they've introduced Framingham Lager. Essentially, this is the regular American beer, not a take on a German style, but rather a vastly improved version of whichever crummy beer you grew up drinking. Again, easily drinkable straight form the bottle out on the porch, it's also light and dry, just barely hoppy, and with a refreshing "dusty" quality. In fact, I imagine that this beer probably tastes a lot like Schlitz might have tasted in Milwaukee in the 1930s. Bonus points for the simple red white and blue label. A case of these and a bottle of Bully Boy Whiskey (more on that later) beats a case of Bud and a bottle of Jack any day, even if they are kind of the same thing.

No oily, citrusy hops, no intense body and high alcohol, no added fruit, nothing. Just an honest renaissance for regular beer. Oddly enough, in poking around the internet to see what others had to say about these beers, I was met with mostly mediocre reviews. Chalk that up to our collective need for everything to be a "thing" I guess. I find the directness and simplicity of these beers to be a welcome breath of fresh air in world full of exhausted taste buds. If you live around New England, seek these out. If not, be jealous of those of us that do. The Americans finally get it right.

British History

If you thought that #menswear culture was rarefied and nerdy, spend ten minutes talking to a beer aficionado. As someone who both works in the liquor industry and enjoys a wide variety of interesting beers, I'm practically drowning in it. 

The resurgence of a real beer culture in America has been a great thing to see. I'm just old enough to have started drinking just before it happened, and I can remember when no bar had anything more than Bud, Coors,and maybe Heineken (if you were feeling "fancy") on tap. Given the British roots that still have lingering remnants here in Boston, it's been gratifying to see what is really a return to the variety of well made beers we had before the "macro brewers" edged everyone else out of the market in the 1960s. These days the number of places offering a huge selection of all manner of things is a problem only in that its become difficult to decide what to order.

But as with anything of an artistic nature, with the flood of options came a sea of questionable choices.For a number of years, we saw the IPA craze offer us increasingly bitter, boozy, "hoppy" beers to lust after and brag about. For a time, it seemed like American brewers were locked in a contest to offer beers that were more intensely bitter than the next, pouring a tanks worth of hops into every glass. The result were many beers that were overly high in alcohol, unbalanced, and bitter to the point of being undrinkable, and yet, people were not only drinking them, but waxing poetic at great length about their beauty. It's not unlike the way in which Starbucks has convinced so many people that their coffee is "rich, complex, and flavorful" when in fact its burnt and overcooked, bitter and acidic to the point of being undrinkable. The upside of all this is that IPA exhaustion led me to rediscover the clean and direct perfection of German beer, a tradition grossly ignored in the craft beer resurgence.

However, in Winter I tend to gravitate toward the British tradition in brewing, rich malty beers with low carbonation served not quite cold. Despite the British provenance of IPA as a style, it can be hard to find a proper one. Enter Wigglesworth India Wharf Pale Ale, from Mystic Brewery in Chelsea, Mass. Mystic is an up and coming local brewery known for its Belgian style ales. Wigglesworth is a series of English beers they've rolled out in the last year or so. I can't remember the last time I really enjoyed an IPA, until now. The difference is that Wigglesworth isn't afraid to be subtle. Hoppy only just to the point where one might rightly use the word, it's got a good dose of sweet malt character to balance it's bitter side. I suspect it's more like what IPA tasted like in the nineteenth century than anything else in stores today, outside of Britain itself. Bonus points for naming after India Wharf, a nod to both the city of Boston itself and the British culture that birthed it. Just the thing to wash down a home made shepherds pie on a cold New England night.

If you live in the Boston area, seek it out. If you're visiting, take some home with you. 

p.s. Lots of great new items in the Shop this week.