Come Autumn Come...

It's one of the those days here in Charlottesville, warm, cloudy and wet. It isn't actually raining at the moment, more that a damp murk has been drawn over the city. If it were about 30 degrees Fahrenheit cooler I would be sat here thinking about it being the kind of weather I grew up with in Scotland, and would be as happy as a pig in clover. I like cool, damp and dark weather you see, it is perfect pub weather - honestly, can you think of any place better to be during a downpour, or more likely back home, a steady soaking of drizzle, than a comfy pub with a pint of something good in your hand?

The problem though with such weather is that when you add in the extra heat and attendant humidity, my brain just turns to mush and I have problems deciding on what to write about. But as the weather has put me in mind of autumn and its delights, I have of late started stocking up the cellar with beers for the coming dark months - winter being my favourite season of all. As such, the following beers have been added to the cellar in preparation.

I have been on the look out for for a while, and so when I asked the Wine Warehouse if they could get some in, the good people there duly obliged. At the moment I have 4 bottles in the cellar, in due course I will be buying up some more of their stock to join the London Porter, Vintage 2008, 2009 and Bengal Lancer in the cellar. 

Ettaler Dunkel is very much Mrs Velkyal's beer, we had it when we went to The Bavarian Chef for a special occasion of some sort and she liked it a lot. Bell's is a brewery I really like (they bottle condition their beers!), and dopplebock is a style I am ambivalent about, so I am hoping to see a little light with Consecrator. What can be said about Samuel Smiths, other than it was ridiculously cheap for such a well regarded brewery?

Ok, so a lot of people think of K?lsch as more of a summer beer, but in my experience it has a malty sweetness which lends itself just as much to supping as the leaves change to amber as it does to refreshing yourself in the heat of a German biergarten. Doppelsticke is an extra powerful Altbier from the Uerige Brewery and Alt is again one of my favourite styles, and I love that bottle. Rauchweizen I have discussed at length elsewhere and the bottle of G?se is there because I want to try and get more of a handle on that style, which uses salt and coriander.

These bottles are just the beginnings of the dark nights cellar, sure there will be plenty of homebrew being stocked up, my imperial stout and spiced Belgian amber ale will make appearances, and come Thanksgiving the first of my 1 year in the bottle barleywine will be cracked open. Another batch of the peat smoked Mild previously known as Experimental Dark Matter will be in the works soon, renamed as Machair Mild.

Sure, there are plenty of sunny days to enjoy, but it is the dark and cool of a winter's beer that I am looking forward to.

Who Gose There?

It sometimes seems as though Reinheitsgebot is held up as some paragon of beer virtue, in much the same way as some people think all keg beers are inherently evil, and yet it was the misuse of the Bavarian Beer Purity Law which saw the decimation of the German brewing culture which had more in common with Belgium than Bavaria in the post unification years. The combined forces of Reinhesitsgebot and pilsner style beer wiped out practically everything except a clutch of beers including Altbier and Gose.

Last year when Boak and Bailey came over to Prague as part of their whistle stop central European tour, they generously gave myself and Pivní Filosof a bottle of Goedecke's D?llnitzer Ritterguts Gose each, mine of which sat in my cellar until very recently. Gose has a fascinating history, which you can read a bit about here, and has some distinctly non-Reinheitsgebot ingredients, such as salt and coriander. Thus it was with a great sense of curiosity that I popped open the bottle.

As you can see from the picture, the beer poured a light golden colour with a thin white head, which disappeared rather quickly. The nose was really unusual, spicy like a wheat beer, laced with citrus fruit, in particular oranges and also a distinct smell of sour milk - I have to admit that I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be that way and so I texted Evan to make sure. In terms of taste, again there was a citrusy twang, but like the flavour you get with soluble vitamin tablets, like minerals. The thing I found surprising was just how salty it tasted, almost as though the beer had been made with sea water.

Certainly a very interesting beer, but not one I could imagine drinking regularly. Having said that I will try it again when the opportunity presents itself, because I am aware that tastes change and you never know when it might just all click for me.