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BY JEFF ALWORTH |
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The Holiday Ale Fest takes place Friday through Sunday at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Beer has a love-hate relationship with age; lighter, crisper beers or beers with delicate-aroma hop essence are likely to suffer from it badly. Bottle-conditioned beers and beers with high alcohol content, on the other hand, usually improve over time. Recently Geoff and Marcy Larson of Alaskan Brewing were in town to demonstrate this point with their oft-lauded (and very rare) Smoked Porter. Laying out a vertical tasting of five years, dating back to the 1993 bottling (and excluding '95), the Larsons let our noses and taste buds revel in the passage of time. In the '98 version, the smoke asserts itself on the front of the palate in a rough, almost campfirey way. Using the neighboring Taku Smokery, the brewery does its own smoking, putting a portion of pale and Munich malts over a red-alder fire to produce the signature flavor. The beer is thick and creamy enough to be called a stout, and the smoke flavor doesn't overwhelm the beer; it gives it an earthy, meaty flavor. As homebrewer Nick Bruels said, "It's such a nice porter, aside from being a smoked beer." Ah, but wait until you try an older version. Much as when ingredients cook together in simmering soup, with age the distinct flavors of malt, hops, alcohol and smoke melt into one another, producing an extremely smooth blend of flavors. Over the years different accents become more prominent and then fade away. For example, the '97 was, if anything, even more smoky than the '98. Going back further, though, the smoke begins to fall away, replaced by other flavors. In '96, it's plum, and back even further, in the '94 and '93, the beer becomes more sherry-like, with a creamy chocolate palate and hints of raisins and orange. And yet, according to the Larsons, in the 10-year-old beers the smoke reappears. Alaskan Smoked Porter isn't the only beer that ages well. Any beer with an alcohol level above 7 percent by volume will change over time, and bottle-conditioned beers are especially well-suited to aging. If you want to test this effect yourself, it is possible to find aged beer at specialty beer stores. BridgePort, Thomas Hardy and Rogue date their barleywines by year; Rogue also has additional aged beers in its XS (Extra Special) line, including its equally famous Rogue Smoke. With a bit of forethought, it's easy enough to lay away a few bottles of other beers for later tasting (the main difficulty is staying out of the stash before they've aged). Corked bottles should be laid on their sides to protect their seals, but store-capped bottles can be kept upright. Store the beer at relatively constant cellar temperatures. (No beer can stand up to very warm conditions, and refrigeration will inhibit the aging process.) Time will do the rest. Alaskan Brewing's
Smoked Porter, brewed once a year,
is always in limited supply. Short of going to Juneau, the best bet
for a bottle is Belmont Station (4520 SE Belmont St., Holiday Ale Festival Winter beers will be on tap--big, bold and hearty. The usual suspects--WasSail, Jubelale, Snow Cap, Jack Frost and Winternacht--are all represented, as well as some you may not have tasted. From Eureka, Calif., Lost Coast Brewery brings a nice brown ale, Winterbraun; Pike Brewing is sending Kilt Lifter (a beer as good as its name); the Sierra Nevada classic, Celebration, will be there; and Boundary Bay, from Bellingham, will offer a strong ale called Cabin Fever. Other treats, like barleywines BridgePort Old Knucklehead and Umpqua Double Red, are also available. In fact, nearly every one of these beers is a winner. In theory, standing in the December rain swilling beer may sound like a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon. But in practice, the fest's large tent and gas stoves should more than adequately meet warmth and dryness desires. If you're trying to break up a day of holiday shopping, a mug of winter ale beats the hell out of Orange Julius. Hair of the Dog 5th Anniversary Celebration The brewery will have a sale on its regular beers--Adam, Golden Rose and Fred--and offer an even larger discount on a slightly under-carbonated batch of Fred. Beyond that, Sprints said, "People are just going to have to come by and find out." Hair of the Dog Brewing Co. 4509 SE 23rd Ave. 232-6585 - - - - - - - - - - - -
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