What do you think of the Holiday Samplers from SA?

I have purchased a case so far. I wish they would exclude the Boston Lager and Light for more of the Porter or Winter Ale. I am not a big SA drinker but I love porters and for an American porter I like SA next to the Sierra Nevada.

Reply to
mpomario
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"mpomario" wrote in news:x0jvd.651664$mD.530447@attbi_s02:

Eh, SA porter wasn't bad. Pretty good stuff, but not enough of a reason to buy the sampler for me as there's lots of other porters that I wouldn't have to deal with a light beer or ubiquitous lager for.

Reply to
Dan Iwerks

Not to mention the hideous Cranberry Lambic. Yuck. Of course the lambic name is all marketing, although this year during my customary "give it a try" from the holiday 12 pack I thought maybe, just maybe there was some kind of faint horsey-brett background in there somewhere. Then that nasty fake maple taste - like a stale long john donut that has been shat upon - washed over my palate dragging the screaming essence of shat upon cranberry with it. Every year it's about the only beer I actually really, truly, pour down the drain.

I really like the Fezziwig though, and I thought the Porter was nice - but why take up space with useless light beer and ubiquitous Boston Lager? Who knows...? They used to package Fezziwig in these cool curved

22 oz bottles (I think, may have been bigger though) - they should bring those back.
Reply to
Randal

Can you buy the fezzewig, porter or the other specialties by themselves? I haven't seen them.

Reply to
mpomario

There is. The Cranberry Lambic may be a travesty, but it's been getting consistently more authentic...as authentic as an American-brewed "lambic" will ever be.

-- Lew Bryson

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Author of "New York Breweries" and "Pennsylvania Breweries," 2nd ed., both available at The Hotmail address on this post is for newsgroups only: I don't check it, or respond to it. Spam away.

Reply to
Lew Bryson

I agree on the Lambic. Last year it was undrinkable. This year the nose is closer to a belgian and the cranberry punctuates with tartness pretty well, I thought.

Reply to
mpomario

What is a fezzewig?

I do like SA porter and thought this year's Winter brew is darn tasty.

Jon

Reply to
zeppo

The Fezziwig is a fine offering from SA. One of the best around and best in the holiday pack. Looky here.

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Reply to
mpomario

Reply to
Arptro

I enjoy a SA occasionally and would really like to try their Porter, but I refuse to by a "light" beer.

Eugene

Reply to
Eugene

Reply to
TOM KAN PA

I dunno about that one. Here is an email from Ken Andrews the resident microbioligist at tiny Bristol Brewing in Colorado Springs on their experiments with spontaenous fermentation and lambic styles. I tried the sour wheat and it was amazing and complex, very very true to style. He's been isolating wild yeast from Cheyenne canyon raspberries.

-------------

Glad to be able to share the excitement of what we have been doing in our S & B series of beers. We have eight such beers including 1) Oud Bruin, 2) Aged Pale, 3) Flander's Red, 4) Strong Dark, 5) Grand Cru', 6) Sour Wheat, 7) Aged IPA & 8) Cuvee' Special. All hand crafted in individual oak barrels, aged at least six months (some two to three years), gravity fed, hand packaged, keg Krausened during a secondary fermentation (lactic acid bacteria) and naturally carbonated. A few have been transferred to bottles, but most are still in the oak barrels they were created in.

To produce these beers, I took the microbes isolated from the Cheyenne Canyon fruit and created a cocktail of wild yeast (4 - 6 strains) and lactic acid bacteria (6 - 8 strains) with which we inoculated the oak barrels. Once a boil of these microbes had formed on the inside barrel surface, we added various mixtures of uncorroborated beers (brewing yeast fermented) to these barrels and let the wild yeast and lactic do their thing! Honey is added at regular intervals to stimulate Peddiococcus growth. With this style, long aging times result in important taste changes, so storing bottles for long times and tasting at a later date can be fun.

As to tasting any of these beers. We have one tap dedicated to S & B and we do very limited (one or two days) releases of each type. There is a legion of beer geeks who consume these beers ardently and none of the beers lasts too long. Nothing is on tap currently. However, I can think of two possible strategies 1) follow the events at Bristol brewing on our web site and any S & B releases will be detailed and make sure you are in the tasting room when the beer is released or 2) working with the brew house staff we can schedule a day/time when you will be at the brewery and we can arrange a tour and a special tasting independent of what's on tap. I'll double check this with our brewers, but I think it would be ok

You only hear of New Belgium because they market the heck out of their products on a national scale and we aren't near that stage of development yet, We will be some day I believe. Let me know if you want to visit BBC-

Cheers-

Ken.

Reply to
Randal

"Randal" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

It's a question of time. Lambic-brewing needs a stable endemic microbial population that is STABLE. And that cannot be rushed, it takes years to stabilise. But it will come in the future. However, SA Cranberry Lambic is as Belgian as mussels with ketchup and Freedom fries...

Joris

Reply to
Joris Pattyn

What makes lambic lambic, Joris? The mashbill? The airborne microbes? The fact that they ARE airborne? Where it's brewed? The microbes in the barrels the beer is aged in? The finished character? It's a broad question, but why not take a swing: what makes lambic lambic?

-- Lew Bryson

formatting link
Author of "New York Breweries" and "Pennsylvania Breweries," 2nd ed., both available at The Hotmail address on this post is for newsgroups only: I don't check it, or respond to it. Spam away.

Reply to
Lew Bryson

No one is questioning the non-lambicness of SA cranberry lambic.

What about my other post of the work being done at Bristol? Should it be "Methode Lambic" ?

_Randal

Reply to
Randal

Randal ( snipped-for-privacy@swbell.net) wrote: : No one is questioning the non-lambicness of SA cranberry lambic. : : What about my other post of the work being done at Bristol? Should it : be "Methode Lambic" ? :

No -- keep it simple and use something like "spontaneously fermented beer" or "lambic style beer"

There is no such thing as "Methode Lambic" whereas "Methode Champenoise" describes a specific set of techniques that can be used in the making of Champagne or sparkling wine or even beer.

Reply to
Bill Benzel

"Randal" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...

I think I need to taste first, before forming an opinion. All research is valuable, anyway. Joris

Reply to
Joris Pattyn

"Steve Jackson" schreef in bericht news:DRhBd.38046$Cl3.16708@fed1read03...

Ah, but that's where my time-factor comes in. Given time enough (for the sacrosanct stabilisation of the flora), I'm convinced it must be possible.

Well - I do not know about that!! Reason is that that is exactly the way the West-Flemish "lambic"brewers have proceeded. Where Bockor (Jacobins) have bought the vessels from Heyvaert, Van Honsebrouck (St. Louis) had done so already with the Van Haelen inventory. But seen the results of both, I have serious doubts about such a transatlantique venture. Remark that Peter Bouckaert took over the Rodenbach yeasts, but had Frank Boon bring over readily-made kriekbeer for his Transatlantique. Samuel Smiths have been doing the same in their experimental All Saints brewery: they sprayed the whole place full of De Troch lambic, at least that's what Michael Jackson tells! I shudder to think about sanitary issues...

Exact.

They have to try, and remember that 100 years is NOT a long time... Cheers, Joris

Reply to
Joris Pattyn

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