Thursday, May 17, 2007
Iron Hill North Wales beer alert
Just a quick note: I spun over to the Iron Hill North Wales brewpub yesterday to meet with Dan "Get Your Butt to Ortino's" Bengel about the Session of Summer Beer Love Session Fest, and tried the new Saison. Wow, excellent beer. Not a session beer at about 6.2%, but very nice: spicy, dry as a bone, refreshing, and tasty. I bought a growler of it, and a growler of the Belgian Pale, which is tasting very nice (opened it up and had it for dinner with a mixed grill Cathy threw together: beautiful). Brewer Larry Horwitz said there's an inside chance that the BP might be joining the Iron Hill regular line-up: good idea. At 4.2% [not 3.8%, as originally posted; sorry] , it's very flavorful and definitely session strength.
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Some European loser on beeradvocate argued with me in a recent forum that all Belgian Pales or Belgian IPAs, that are made by American craft brewers, should not be included in the "belgian pale ale/IPA" style. I say they should. Why not? Why should the style only be beers made IN Belgium for the American craft drinkers? I don't get that.
It's the champagne vs. sparkling wine thing. Which I get, and okay, it's a good thing. But my problem is this: if we make a beer that's made just like a kölsch in every niggling detail, and the Kölsch Convention says we can't call it kölsch...what do we call it?
This is particularly pertinent (IMO) when you're talking about "Belgian IPA," which is hardly an established Belgian beer style with a long history and glorious tradition.
But Europeans have a completely different perspective on this issue. Arguments are often pointless: most European brewers have no desire to make styles from other cultures, so the whole idea is foreign to them...so to speak. But damn! What beers are we supposed to make? A limiting perspective, and you know how we Americans feel about limiting our brewing freedom.
OK but what if the whole concept behind a new belgian-brewed beer came from being influenced by American-crafted IPAs? I think this is how Hop-it evolved, right? (or if not Hop-it, than was it Chouffe Houblon)
Exactly.
But...if we weren't so hung up on nailing down everything into a style category (one of things about American craft brewing I don't thank homebrewers for), wouldn't they all just be "IPA"?
Larry said the Saison will be available in "overpriced, for geeks only" ;-) bottles in a few weeks or so.
Cheers!
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