Field Trip

Friday afternoon and evening blew in a wintry mix--which is the current weather euphmism for a nasty combination of snow, sleet, and rain, all accompanied by a driving wind. Two of my homies--let's use the names Benny and Swope' le manifique (SLM)--and I cut out of work a little early and took shelter from the storm at the Allagash Brewery. While there, we took a tour, learned about Allagash Brewing, sampled the wares, and stocked up for the weekend. It was well worth the trip.

I could, obviously, drill down scientifically and pontificate on the variety of BTF, PH, refractometers, airlocks, carboys and girls, carhops, fuggles hops, and diffusion stones used in the brewing process at Allagash. But you and I both know all that. We did, however, learn some stuff so I'll focus instead on what we learned.

Our tour guide was a lovely young woman who is extremely knowledgeable about all beer related issues. She was very impressive. Benny and SLM peppered her with questions and she had all the answers. Occasionally, I would test her knowledge by giving a false answer and she graciuosly corrected me and set SLM and Benny straight.

WHAT WE LEARNED

1. Allagash makes great beer--all of it Belgian Ale inspired. Belgian Ale includes a fairly wide variety of beer. It is unique and creative and full of hidden surprises like spices and flowers and fruit. Many Belgian beers have a significantly higher than typical alcohol content. Much of Belgian brewing was historically done by Trappist monks, who strayed from tradional monk activities such as praying and pedarasty to make some wonderful beer.

2. Allagash has several year round beers, including White, Dubbel, and Tripel. Grand Cru is an ongoing winter seasonal. They recently started brewing a stout (Black), and they now have a Four. They have several other special offerings, among them, the marvelous Curieux (which is the Tripel aged in Jim Beam barrels).

3. The White is far and away their most popular beer. I generally only drink it in the summer but found in sampling it at the brewery that it held up well despite the winter storm raging outside. The Dubbel is a wonderful malty full-bodied brew. Much of its flavor is derived from the five different malts used in the brewing process. The Tripel is less malty and not as dark and has a flavor quite different from the Dubbel. It also weighs in at 9% ABV. My favorite of the "regulars" , and the beer I went home with, is the Grand Cru--the hoppiest of their normal offerings. More on that (a new post) after I thoroughly sample it.

4. The brewery itself is a brand new, spotlessly clean, attractive facility in an industrial park. There are 11 employees and even our lovely tour guide is occasionally called upon to jump on the bottling line. Owner and Brewmaster Rob Tod joined the tour for a bit and talked some about the business side of brewing.

5. The Hops Crisis is real, and is a problem! Fires have destroyed hops crops in the west, our government has subsidised farmers to pull up hops and grow corn, the weak dollar and increased transportation costs have further shrunk supply. It takes three years for a hops crop to mature, so even if more hops were planted tomorrow, we're years away from an increase in supply. Brewer Tod told us that a pallet of hops which cost $3 not very long ago now costs $25. In addition, there is a glass shortage. Face it, folks, we're going to be paying more for our beer! This terrible news has yet to be addressed by any of the presidential candidates, to my knowledge.

After the tour, Benny bought some Dubbel, I grabbed the Grand Cru, and SLM seemed to have bought everything they had remaining, forcing our lovely tour guide to the warehouse to re-stock. We struck off for home in the storm, confident that even if we were snowed in for the weekend we were well-provisioned.