Someone thought this might be a good addition to beer.
Last week was Vue Weekly’s annual Beer Issue. In recent years I have dominated those pages. This year the editors came up with some great ideas for articles that are best completed by others, such as a newbies’ day with a brewer. I still had two pieces in the magazine. One you can find here, and the other is still waiting for an online link.
The posted article is a bit of a look at the odd things brewers put into their beer. The beer highlighted, including Big Rock’s Rosemarinus, Wild Rose’s Gose Rider and Tree’s Mellow Moon, aren’t particularly out-there for anyone who has judged a beer competition (chicken beer, anyone?). Plus, a one-off beer recently released by Village Brewing (alas, after deadline for the Vue article), which has real prairie oysters (yup, bull’s testicles) added to it, blows them all out of the water with its oddness. In Village’s defence it was part of a larger annual charity fundraiser, so they haven’t completely lost their marbles.
But I digress. The purpose of the article was not to offer a litany of freakish beer to shock readers but instead to highlight there is more space for unusual ingredients in the beer market these days. Not only are craft brewers becoming more adventurous, but the unusual products are turning out to be quite popular.
I believe that 10 years ago the three beer I highlight in the article wouldn’t have even been attempted, and if they had the public would have rejected them. But after a number of years of lime, grapefruit, ginger and other non-traditional additions, consumers have figured out that strange ingredients can be very effective in beer. Today, they are unique but not outrageous.
The second of the pieces in the Beer Issue is a piece on homebrewing. I will post it if it ever appears on the Vue website.
July 10, 2013 at 8:15 PM
I’m not sure I’m capable of brewing a beer unless it has at least one odd ingredient. 🙂
July 11, 2013 at 12:24 PM
The ten year comment got me thinking so we looked. It was 11 years ago that we started brewing our Espresso Stout, not that Espresso is that strange an ingredient. But it was 10 years ago that we started brewing our Herbal Cream Ale, made with rosehips, fireweed, mint, and stinging nettle. Of course, it was just in the Yukon for quite some time. So the 10 year time frame is just about bang on for us.
Now that we do a real ale every Friday at noon in our store, the sky is the limit. There is a long list of ingredients we have used in those guys. Stop in any Friday, pick something up….next time you wake up in Whitehorse.
July 11, 2013 at 2:01 PM
Someone should brew a beer called ‘kitchen sink’ because good lord there are some bizarre and unnecessary beers out there these days.
July 12, 2013 at 8:26 AM
I wish more breweries would figure out how to consistently make good beer first before trying to put their “oh so unique and creative twist” on everything.
I’m sure it is very curmudgeonly of me to say, but I pretty much refuse to buy any of this nonsense. Unfortunately, it is a Bud Light Lime a Rita and flavoured vodka world that we live in…
July 13, 2013 at 10:58 AM
A fair comment, Mark, and I agree a lot of breweries are (metaphorically) trying to run before they’ve even learned to walk.
Having said that, I don’t think it necessarily applies to the breweries Jason has mentioned here: Big Rock, Village, Wild Rose and Tree all have solid, drinkable beers among their core brands.
Now, how these particular beers worked out for them is certainly a point of legitimate debate. Personally, I love Gose Rider (and it’s less an exotic experiment and more a replication of an old, obscure style); I thought Rosmarinus was interesting, though it’s not the stuff of repeat purchases for me; I can’t comment on Mellow Moon because I absolutely hate pineapple and can’t bring myself to try it….
July 15, 2013 at 8:42 AM
Yeah, I was speaking in more general terms, not blasting the specific breweries mentioned.
Plain old beer is a wonderful, complex and varied thing on its own. I find it kinda sad that the “market” doesn’t see it this way; every brewer has to have an angle or twist, and has to constantly be pumping out creative new products to remain relevant. As a result, the overall quality suffers. Some of the beers I have tried lately gave me the impression that more effort was put into coming up with a “hip” name and cool packaging, rather than just making good beer.
All that being said, I did try the Gose Rider at Beer Revolution and thought it was a decent witbier with a light touch of salty tartness.
July 15, 2013 at 9:52 AM
Totally agree with that, Mark. During my previous iteration as a beer blogger six or seven years ago, I called it “Lager Blogger” as an homage to simple, straightforward beer and as a nod to how underrated lagers seemed to be in geekdom.
I know exactly what you mean re over-emphasis on hip names and cool packaging at the expense of competent beer making: I recently remarked to a friend of mine in B.C. that Parallel 49 is one of the worst offenders.
July 18, 2013 at 8:00 AM
How do I find the full ingredient list of beers? Anyone????
July 18, 2013 at 2:03 PM
Alas, Robert, there is no easy way. In North America there are no regulations requiring brewers to indicate their ingredients on the packaging. Therefore it is entirely up to the integrity of the brewer. Most craft brewers will happily tell you the ingredients (maybe not amounts). The big corporate breweries – not so much. Sorry.