Daily Loaf

Michigan brewery, Jolly Pumpkin Artisanal Ales, has nothing to do with seasonal gourd beers and everything to do with open air fermentation, exotic French and Belgian yeast strains, oak barrel aging, and bottle conditioning. All their beers are funky, spicy, and sour, packed full of Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus goodness.

Maracaibo Especial is a 7.5% ABV Belgian inspired brown ale made from all natural ingredients — barley, wheat, hops, yeast, and water; brewed with cacao and spiced with cinnamon and orange peel. After fermentation, the brew matures in oak barrels for several months, and after bottling, it goes in the cellar for a few more months. The process by which it’s crafted is drastically different from the rapid, highly mechanized assembly line production of mainstream domestic; this type of beer simply has more soul. Read the rest of this entry »

Garrett Oliver is the man; the philosophy reflected in his book, The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food, speaks to my holistic sensibilities and makes my mouth water for fine brews and food prepared in the old school tradition — from scratch with fresh ingredients and no preservatives or other modern food science. But Garrett Oliver doesn’t just write rousing books; he also brews exceptional beer. Since becoming the brewmaster in 1994, he has propelled Brooklyn Brewery to high status among the top 40 breweries in the nation.

I love Brooklyn’s year-round lineup; the seasonal Oktoberfest Marzen is on par with the authenticity of Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest and the buttery, peppery Local 1 is the definition of Belgian strong light ale. The Brewmaster’s Reserves and Limited Releases — Black OPS, Blast Imperial IPA, Flemish Gold, Manchester Star, and Savoir Faire — are all crazy delicious. So are the innovative collaborations with Schneider Brewery — the Brooklyner- Schneider Hopfen-Weiss and the Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen-Weiss.

A new addition to the Brooklyn lineup — Local 2 — is a dark ale crafted from German pilsner malt, English chocolate malt, Belgian dark sugar, New York state raw wildflower honey, citrus peel, Belgian yeast, and hopped with Perle, Aurora, and East Kent Golding hops. After brewing, a secondary fermentation takes place inside the corked, 25 ounce bottle. Read the rest of this entry »