Red Sky at Night

Tuesday when I was out and about flogging Nora (the beer) at Baltimore's Max's Taphouse, I ran into Clipper City Brewing's head hawker Hugh Sisson. He was running the rounds in Bawlamer, proferring pre-release samples of his newest elixer, Red Sky at Night.

Wow, man! Think of a cross between a saison (the style designation with which Red Sky at Night is tagged) and a spicy strong Belgian golden/amber. It's hot 'n spicy, citrusy, yeastly appropriate, aromatic, and drier than you'd might expect from a big beer.

I believe it's 8.25% abv, hopped with Magnum and Styrian Goldings, and bottle-conditioned. The grist is Pilsner malt, Cara-pils, wheat (malt?), and candi sucre.

It's the third in the Heavy Seas line, joining Winter Storm "Category 5" Ale IPA2 and spring's Small Craft Warning Über Pils. As are its mates, Red Sky at Night is wrapped in a great graphics package - think Ralph Steadman without the fear and loathing.

Congratulations are in order for Hugh, Scott, and the whole gang out in Lansdowne. As Balto-beer scribe Sandy Mitchell would say, "Run, don't walk!" to your local beer emporium for RSaN. It should have begun to arrive in better beer stores Friday.

Hugh promises draft soon.

Cream Ale???

Those who know of my appreciation for British bitter might be puzzled by my high regard for cream ale. But I find sparkling ale (as it should properly be known) to be an historically American beer style, refreshing and character-ful in its own right.

The Association of Brewers publishes an on-line discussion forum for brewers and other professionals in the brewing business. A recent poster to the Forum asked about cream ale:

Monday, March 22, 2004 7:15 PM
Subject: Cream Ale

I am doing research on Cream Ale. Does anyone have a resource for history of the style, origin, brewing techniques etc? The web does not have much info. Any good books or magazines out there that do?

Here was my response to him.

From p. 56, The Essentials of Beer Styles, 1989, Fred Eckhardt:

"Sparkling ale originated in the late 19th century as a lagered, and bottled, ale version of the very pale Bohemian lager beer. Today the beverage which was originally called "sparkling ale" is not found as such, but is labeled as, and called, either American ale or cream ale, i.e., very pale, warm fermented (bottom or top) beer, which is cold lagered as lager beer. The term "cream ale" is often used instead of 'sparkling ale' as a name for this category. This is an incorrect use of that name because, originally 'cream ale' was the beer we (here) call blonde or golden draft ale. These are now brewed by the new micros, and served direct or bottled, filtered but without aging, in a manner very close to the classic 'cream ale' tradition of the late nineteenth century.

Alcohol content of American sparkling lager-ale is medium (4.5 - 5.6% abv)... This style when brewed with bottom yeast (common), is called "bastard ale" in old brewing literature, an apt title. Nevertheless, there are a few fairly good examples of this type with modest hop levels, and certainly with more taste than the American standard." [end of quote]

[now me]
The use of the word "common" intrigued me; I talked with Fred about it when I happened to meet him at a Craft Brewers conference in Austin in the mid-1990s.

Was that an adjective or a reference to the steam-beer style?

Both, he told me. He believed that cream ale was born as the paler version of steam beer, that is, cask-conditioned pale ale made with lager yeast. Whereas sparkling ale began as what we think of nowadays as "cream ale".

Follow Kolsch recipes - German malts, German hops, low to mid 60s F for fermentation, lagering in the low 30s - and you should make a damn tasty yet drinkable beer. The hopheads won't like it... but others will. Avoid American malts; you want that clean continental maltiness.

Or brew an ale version of pre-prohibition lager - use American 6-row but temper that with up to 20% cornflakes. Don't worry: the 6-row's maltiness will come through without a taste of corn. Frankly, I think that American malts give you more 'corniness' than a small measure of corn itself.

In my area, Capitol City Brewing (Virginia) and Brewers Alley (Maryland) have both won medals for their Kolsches. Clipper City (Baltimore) makes a fine Gold, which won a medal in the gold ale category at the Great American Beer Festival.

In the mid-90s while I was a brewer in Philly, I brewed what I called Blue Mountain Sparkling Ale.

70% German lager malt, 11% Belgian Munich malt, 2% Belgian Carapils, 17%(!) cornflakes. 25 BUs: Galena for bitterness, Mt. Hood for flavor, Spalter Spalt for aroma. American Ale yeast. 3 weeks lagering at 31*F.I mashed at 159*F for extra body to account for the easy fermentables of the corn. Interesting combination. It made for a malt-flavored yet lighter bodied ale with a hint of fruitiness and a present but not overdone spicy hop character.

[not in my reply to him]
During my recent maladventures in Sissonsland (2000-2001), one of my partners haughtily dismissed any talk of sparkling ale as "gay beer." Repugnant at face value, his statement was a nonsensical disregard of a substantial market.

I-95 Real Ale Boogie

I admit it. I did it. Yesterday, I did the I-95 Real Ale Boogie.

5:52PM
@Sean Bolans, in Federal Hill, Baltimore, Maryland.
RCH Old Slug Porter
a cask, served by gravity tap
Bartender Ken

Still a wee yeasty, but with wonderful dark chocolate, licorice and blackberry notes. In good condition with a foam collar that persisted to the end of the glass. Overheard at the bar: "One of the best cask ales I've had here."


7:29PM
@The Reef, in Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C.
RCH Pitchfork Bitter
a cask, served by gravity tap
Bartender Marcus

Bright deep golden, good condition. Malt color and character comes from only pale malt. Good orange-rind nose, some "distant wood" (I've appropriated that descriptor, if for another beer, from the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News), hints of grassiness and fruit candy. Hop character lingers.

-----more-----

My Father

On the 3rd of April 2002, my father, Albert C. Cizauskas, diplomat, economist, scholar, author, died after a courageous ten-year struggle with Parkinson's Disease. His powerful grace and courage under pressure while dealing with his ever increasing physical and mental disabilities humbled me. I miss him every day.

In these days of cynically motivated patriotism, I can proudly say that he served his country, his God, and his family. He and my mother had an abundant life together. Please read more.

Uber Pils

Sometime in late March 2004, after I had purchased a six-pack of Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning (brewed by Baltimore's Clipper City), I heard through the hop vine that the very same was on tap at Mahaffey's Pub in Baltimore Maryland's Canton neighborhood.

Small Craft Warning is a big lager, in the 7% abv range. Clipper City brewery owner Hugh Sisson amusingly calls it his Uber Pils. The nose is lots of sweet malt with spicy, resiny overtones. Deep golden color, lacy off-white head. In flavor, there are competing slugs of rock candy-like Euro-maltiness and piquant Euro-spiciness. A twitch of Ameri-whiff could be from the physical surfeit of European hops needed for balance; or, more than likely, it could be from a patriotic charge of US Amarillo hops. SCW finishes softly sweet with a loitering spicy hop character.

Small Craft Warning is a mighty tasty beer, and, I might add, a more drinkable (if dangerously so) rendering than the Imperial Pils from Dogfish Head.

While I sat there, pint pondering, in walked Philly Gil, supplies in tow.

Gill is a Baltimore contractor who on Thursdays and Fridays rids his tool kit of bull floats and nail guns and fills it instead with bread, meat, and Provolone cheese. These he purchases in Philadelphia and personally drives them down to Mahaffey's Baltimore pub.

Why the trek? Because, with these ingredients, Gil mans the Mahaffeys grill to bring gastronomical culture to Bawlamer - 'true' Philly cheesesteaks.

McGerks' in Baltimore's Federal Hill also lays claim to authentic, 'imported ingredient' Philly cheesesteaks. Maybe there's a cross-Harbor rivalry fomenting. But when it comes to the beer, Mahaffey's has the contest won.

An Impy Pils and Philly Gil's cheesesteaks - they might be perfect together.

Proprietor Wayne Mahaffey told me that his young beer bar recently had crossed a beery Rubicon. Hometown boy Brewer's Art Resurrection Ale had dethroned Miller Lite as the bar's number one tap. Mahaffey plans to celebrate by relegating the mega-swill to bottle-only status.

On handpull was a delicious IPA from Brewers Alley in Frederick, MD.