while ambling around the recesses of the net I found this load of micro news at
& if anyone from rfdb or alt.beer makes it out to DiamondBack - say hi to brewer Grant Johnson for me (I got to know him when we worked together in London a while back) cheers MikeMcGuigan ________________________________________________________________________________ by Willam Brand - Look what Santa's brewing for us this Christmas The holidays are coming and brewers everywhere have special beers already in the fermenter in preparation for the season.Making strong, interesting beers for Christmas is an ancient tradition, revived in America in the last decade by craft brewers.
To find out what local brewers are doing, I dropped in at Pacific Coast Brewing in downtown Oakland late Friday, and then checked out Black Diamond in Walnut Creek.
At Pacific Coast, brewer/co-owner Don Gortemiller said he's making a Holiday Imperial Extra Special Bitter. A couple of centuries ago, British brewers would attach the word "imperial" to a beer to signify that it was strong and meant for royalty.
But Gortemiller admits that he may be making the first Imperial ESB. It's made with dark malts and tests out at a head-popping 9 percent alcohol by volume. An ordinary beer is about 5 percent.
Imperial ESB will be ready for Pacific Coast's 15th annual Tasting of Holiday Beers set for Dec. 13. For more information about this event, call (510) 836-2739.
Out at Black Diamond on North Main Street in Walnut Creek, I sampled brewer Grant Johnston's excellent rye on tap, and learned that he's created a holiday barleywine. A barleywine is an English term for beers that are almost as strong as wine. His version is made with pale malts, so it will have a deceptively light golden color. Don't be fooled -- it's expected to be about 9.5 percent alcohol by volume.
As we're gearing up for the holiday season, I've sampled a trio of pre-holiday classics: Lagunitas' 10th Anniversary Decimator, New Belgium Brewing's Transatlantique Kriek and Terrible from Unibrou in Quebec, Canada.
Decimator, available now at good beer stores in the Bay Area, is a birthday gift from Lagunitas to all of us. Let me quote the mighty Petaluma microbrewery on this 7.8 percent tribute: "Strong, tasty, hoppy, weird, malty, sinewy." To which I would add: velvet malty taste, a bit sweet but well-balanced by a fine, hoppy follow.
As the brewers say, "Beer speaks, people mumble." Honest. Lagunitas Decimator () is sold in 22-ounce bottles for about $2.99 each.
Transatlantique Kriek from New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colo., is the most unusual beer I've tried in a while. The beer was crafted by a famous Belgian lambic brewer named Frank Boon.
Lambic is a tart style of beer fermented with wild yeast -- yeast that is naturally in the air, not a special brewer's yeast. It's a bit like San Francisco sourdough bread, which must be made here to be authentic. True lambic must be made within the Senne Valley on the edge of Brussels. Special yeast live there.
Transatlantique Kriek is a fruit lambic made with real cherries and fermented in oak barrels for two years. After fermentation it was shipped (across the Atlantic Ocean) to Fort Collins where Belgian-born and trained brewer Peter Bouckaert blended it with a special, golden, malty beer made with wheat and barley malts.
It's an enticing combination of malty, wheat flavors, a hint of cherries and a distinct sourness from the original lambic beer. It is truly one of a kind. Love it or hate it, you may never taste another beer like this one. Transatlantique Kriek () is sold in four 12-ounce bottles for $9.99. New Belgium says it will be arriving in Bay Area stores in the next month.
Then there's "Terrible." I understand that the word "terrible" in French has the same meaning as in English. However, it also has a slang meaning of "outstanding," or something like that. At any rate, Terrible is simply wonderful. It's a powerful 10.5 percent alcohol beer made with dark malts. It's meant to be savored slowly, not gulped.
It has a huge, fruit-filled nose of raisins, plums and sherry. A beer this strong tends to be sweet and malty, but Terrible is well-balanced. It has plenty of hops and a spike of alcohol to balance the malt. Simply put: It's an exquisite beer. Terrible indeed. Terrible () comes in a silk-screened, 750-milliliter (25.3 ounce) bottle, and will sell for $9.99. Look for it soon.
William Brand publishes What's On Tap, a consumer craft beer and hard cider newsletter. His column runs bi-weekly. ________________________________________________________________________________