As with any commodity, buying wholesale wine can save quite a lot of money compared to buying in small volumes. It is only fairly recently that the concept of fine wine buying groups has emerged. In the past the most prestigious wines were only available to the most high-end buyers, who possessed the financial backing to establish exclusive relationships with the finest wine merchants.
With the help of Dr. Patrick McGovern, a biomolecular archeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, and one of the worlds most leading experts on ancient fermented beverages, they began to delve into the past of ancient brewing and resurrect the past. A tomb was found in Turkey which is thought to have belonged to King Midas. In this tomb Dr. Patrick McGovern found a drinking vessel that dates back 2700 years! Using modern technology they determined that the beverage within the drinking vessel was a beverage somewhere between wine and mead. Deeper analysis revealed that this beverage was made using white muscat grapes, saffron, and honey.
Midas Touch was the first Ancient Ale to be reconstructed. Dogfish Head liked the beer so much and the ingredients were easy enough that they decided to make this a year around beer available four packs of twelve ounce bottles. This beer is pretty incredible all around. Aside from the fact it?s a beverage once enjoyed by King Midas it definitely speaks volumes for how similar beer and wine can be.
Westvleteren
Another trappist beer, this beer was named?Best Beer in the World? by RateBeer.com and a slew of other beer related websites.
I?m not sure I agree.
Don?t get me wrong, this beer is nothing short of amazing, but the lack of availability is a bit of a party pooper for me. You see, this beer isn?t available in any stores. Naah, that would be too easy. The monks at the Saint Sixtus monastery do not give money to charity, like Orval does. They only want to brew and sell enough beer to get by. As a result, their beer can only be bought by calling the beer hotline (I kid you not). You provide your license plate and arrange a date and time on which you can pick up your brewskis.
I can hear you thinking, no big deal, I?ll just order a few cases. Wrong. You can only order one case a month. If you?re lucky, you can sometimes order two, depending on the kind of beer and depending on how busy the monks have been doing other trivial things, like praying and stuff. Plus, when it comes to communication, the Saint Sixtus abbey hasn?t quite made it into the 21st century just yet. No email, no cell phones, no Blackberries. They only have one phone line and, to add insult to injury, no call waiting. When I called them to get a case, I had to try a staggering 159 times before I didn?t get the busy signal and got through.
(For a while, there was talk of the monastery commercializing their beer and making it available in one of Belgium?s biggest grocery store chains. The monks were in dire need of money for the renovation of several of their buildings. Unfortunately the deal fell through.)
No wonder then that Westvleteren beers are a hot commodity on eBay. I?ve seen people ask as much as $200 for a 6-pack. Insanity. Especially in light of what I?m about to tell you about the next beer in the list.
In 2008 Dr. Patrick McGovern made another very interesting discovery. Pottery fragments from Honduras were found and using chemical analysis they discovered something very unique. The beverage that was held in these pottery fragments contained the earliest known alcoholic chocolate beverage known to man. Early civilizations used this beverage to celebrate special occasions. These pottery fragments dated back to 1200 B.C. Dogfish Head teamed up with the doctor again to recreate the past.
Theobroma translates to Food Of The Gods. To reconstruct this Ancient Ale Dogfish Head stuck with the data from Dr. Patrick McGovern and used Aztec cocoa powder and cocoa nibs from Askinosie Chocolate; award winners of Sofie medals and leading craft chocolate producers. They brewed the beer using ancho chilies, honey, ground anatto seeds (fragmented tree seeds). The beer itself pours a bright honey gold with little to no head. The aroma is bready and full of honey. The first sip reveals the flavor of honey, bready malts, and slight spice and earthiness on the finish. Pouring a bright gold this is a very different beer than just about any chocolate beer out there. Having tried this beer just the other day I would love to save a bottle and sip it on the steps of a Mayan temple on Dec 23, 2012. They release this beer in June.
The next installment of the Ancient Ales series comes from a 9th century Finnish proto-beer. A proto-beer is a fermented and carbonated beverage that is similar to beer as we know today but not made in the same methods. Before modern industrialization of the beer industry the beverages being brewed has to be heated using hot rocks. There were no copper or steel fermentation tanks only wood. Add hot rocks to wood and you now have a fire. Instead the early forms of brewing boiled the wort using river rocks that were heated to a blinding hot white. They would then drop these rocks into the wort in order to caramelize the wort. Sah?tea, the fourth installment to the Ancient Ales was done in the same method.
Before brewing began Dogfish Head made a black tea of sorts. Blending cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and black pepper they created this tea and blended it with rye and juniper berries which were picked from Finnish country-side. This became the wort. From here they heated river rocks till they were white hot. Placing them into metal wire buckets they dipped them into the wort and created a boil and caramelized the wort. For fermentation they used traditional German Weizen yeast. Weizen beers typically have a banana ester qualities on the nose and palate. They named this beer Sah?tea and it?s released in May.
This beer is ridiculously good. This Ancient Ale pours the same as most Weizen beers. Pale straw gold and slightly hazy with great carbonation. The aroma is that of cloves, cinnamon, and peppery spice. The beer tastes outstanding. Juniper, clove, cinnamon, and mild banana esters. Overall it?s very light in body and doesn?t weigh much on the mouth. Sah?tea is very drinkable and perfect for a great summer day.
Kwak
I?ve added this beer to the list mainly because of its original glass, rather than its taste. Legend has it that the glass and its holder were designed back in the 19th century by Paulus Kwak, the brewer and owner of a tavern, called De Hoorn (The Horn). The tavern was frequented by coach men who weren?t allowed to leave coach and horse behind, so Kwak designed the holder so it could be hung from the coach.
Overall this Ancient Ale is a spiced ginger beer. The predominate flavor is the ginger. There?s hints of sweetness that comes from the muscovado and basmati rice. The maze smoothes out the beer and adds a creaminess and the quinoa adds interesting spice notes. Overall this is an amazing beer that would pair perfectly with grilled vegetables on a summer day.
The Ancient Ale series is something so unique that there really is no category for these styles of beer. Each beer is released once a year and the allocation is very high. The demand for these beers far exceed the production rate. When these ales hit the shelves they sell out within the day if not the first few hours. For me the Ancient Ale series is a window to the past. It allows us to experience and enjoy what earlier civilizations were drinking. It?s a connection to something long lost and forgotten. Above all they are fun and that?s exactly what craft beer is all about; having fun.
Draag Team Network
Finding the Right Mesothelioma Attorney? Cheap DUI lawyer ? Why a Lawyer With a Small Price Tag Might Suck Criminal DUI Lawyer: Yes, You Need One
?
swtor medco medco nba 2k12 panera bread star wars the old republic release date star wars the old republic release date
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.