Pripps Carnegie Porter 2004

Quickly: This porter makes porter make some kind of sense to us. It has to do with brine, with porters being the oceanic cousins of stouts - those which seem to just sit about all the time in undisclosed, landlocked locals (that said, using brewers liquorice in their 'Kalamazoo Stout' is another smarty move by the people at Bell's to get their stout moving a bit, a bitter twist in the finish to keep things clipping along).

So, we taste the ocean in this - minerality, the stuff that makes the shells of bivalves, musky sand-dried seaweed, the grosser things that look so pretty from afar, like, dead crabs or their dismembered claws. Anyway, three hundred stars to Pripps (apparently the oldest trademark in Sweden) from us humble folk down here at red room.

Achel Blonde

Achel Blonde Biere

(Shelton Brothers)

A beautifully balanced, fairly subtle representation of a trappist tripel ale. Almost reminds one of something more croation or czech, simply by way of color, viscosity and hops presence. The skunkiness is undeniably similar to that of the balsier pilsners.

What sets this beer apart however is the thick lacing and the almost striking lack of maltiness. It is a nice clear blonde (on the darker side of blonde) color, with lots of effervescence, oils and a certain mustiness in the nose that is vaguely suggestive of wet dog. It begins sweet, skunky and very crisp, and then opens up to reveal notes of apple skin and a hint of cinnamint.

This beer is a subtle, reasonably complex and very lovely representation of a style that can occasionally overwhelm me with attitude. It is a nice counter point to that of La Houblon Chouffe, though both are extroardinary beers. This particular line from Achel is fairly rare (even in Belgium), so make sure and try it before it disappears. If you're wondering where the only place in Arizona that carries it is: well, it is most certainly the Red Room.

Oak Creek, the smallest little smartie in the (domestic, southwestern) room

Quickly, another nod to Oak Creek for simply doing something interesting, notable if not noteworthy (but noteworthy!). I was at the brewery last year and spoke to the brew-master about what I felt was the odd, compelling, marshy 'textural thing' that seems to run through their entire line of beers (even the hefe! Ha!). He described this as the beers' 'German influence' which confused me at the time but now, thanks to a few new beers brought in by Diamondback Distributors (http://diamondbackws.com) i.e. Flensburger and Oxfordshire, it has started to make sense. So, yes, I didn't get it back then but we certainly did get it, like, ages before Eric Asimov decided to try to tackle the issue in the Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/dining/reviews/05wine.html). A bit spread thin these days?

So, what is the thing to get? It's some appreciation of what a classical session beer may look like. It has to do with water characteristics, viscosity and texture and the sense of locality rooted in the water weight (analogue being W. drinking a little king - "this is exactly what I imagine Cleveland to taste like"). But not water like "oh! Canadian glacier water," or "oh, this was frozen in the Alps, like, an hour ago." No, water like everything is standing still for a while and all the little hidden things have had time to grow a bit and, its, you know, some kind of melting pot, a marshy melting pot. Words here are viscosity (like the necessary viscosity of heterogeneous things in solution, everything bumping everything else forming the appearance of some thickness, again with the swamp metaphor), algae-moss, pond scum, etc. Physically this looks like trouble producing head in the glass, everything slow and lazy and preferring, in the end, to be rather flat.

So this is a whole family of beer I didn't get for awhile, those marshy thick-but-not-sticky German and Anglo pub beers. Hen's Tooth finds its way into this, definitely the Flensburger Beers and Oxfordshire "Marsh Mellow." I get that the latter is a horrible name but really it is perfect, perfectly smart about the beer.

So, Oak Creek channels this tradition in a way I haven't seen from domestic breweries down here. It puts their beer in its own class and we applaud them for that.

Tasting notes: peanut shells.

Oudbeitje

Oudbeitje:

This is imported by B. United (link listed) who pretty much seem to kill all the time, though their interest in southern Arizona is maybe, you know, not a priority, lack luster etc.

So, lambic brewed with strawberries. No carbonation, thick – ice tea maybe.

Image: the smallest greenest strawberry buried in a steaming pile of dogshit barnyard funk. Masterful really (doubters see, you know, Marquis de Sade, or G. Bataille).

There’s what? Corn Nuts, popcorn kernel shell, unripe wild strawberry, strawberry seed, strawberry greens. Battery-on-tongue, rubber, burnt rubber. The corn thing: knowing there is oil, fat, but being unable to get to it – one bites on that half-popped kernel and ouch! Seeking some fat, acquiring tooth ache.

Limited, we have twenty bottles which are all that are around as far as we know.