For years, session beers — loosely described as flavorful lower alcohol beers — have been a hot topic among craft beer aficionados.

Malt Advocate magazine Managing Editor Lew Bryson even started a blog called the Session Beer Project.

Terrapin Beer Co.

But recently several companies, including 21st Amendment, Samuel Adams, Founders, Terrapin and Wild Heaven, have given a bigger boost to the cause with offerings that are rekindling the debate over the precise definition of a session beer.

According to the Brewer’s Association, a session beer is any style of beer that “can be made lower in strength than described in the classic style guidelines. The goal should be to reach a balance between the style’s character and the lower alcohol content. Drinkability is a character in the overall balance of these beers. Beers in this category must not exceed 5.1 percent alcohol by volume.”

Some British beer lovers think the definition should be something under 4 percent alcohol …

Continue reading Beer Town: Session beers breaking out all over »

Gil Kulers, CWE

2010 La Crema Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, Calif.

• $40
• Two Thumbs Way Up
• Lots of aromas of dark berry fruit with scents of cola nut and a subtle smokiness. Bold, bright flavors of raspberry, blackberry laced with minerals, cinnamon, clove and a dusty earth quality.

As with many human endeavors, reward follows risk. Sometimes the risk is riding your bike off the roof of a house and into the pool to gain YouTube infamy. Other times, it is making a multi-million dollar gamble by planting a vineyard where Mother Nature suggests you should not. In either scenario, you look talented or brilliant only if things work out just right.

Take Elizabeth Grant-Douglas, for instance. She and her cohorts at La Crema Winery thought it would be a great idea to tramp up to Anderson Valley in California’s Mendocino County to plant pinot noir grapes along the Navaro River. In addition to being steep and rocky, the slender valley acts as a funnel for the Pacific Ocean’s fog …

Continue reading Kulers Uncorked: La Crema Pinot Noir Russian River »

Call me a little slow, but sometimes it takes me a while to realize how much I like something. Then I need to figure out why I like it.

Rye is the most recent example.

I’m a big fan of rye bread, especially as a delivery system for corned beef or pastrami or ham. I’ve been mixing Manhattans with rye whiskey for years. And I’ve been drinking Terrapin Rye Pale Ale since it was first released in 2002.

But it finally occurred to me that I’m drawn to stuff made with rye in an almost unconscious way.

Founders Red's Rye

Put a beer menu in front of me, and if Founders Red’s Rye is on the list, I’ll be compelled to order it — maybe even in lieu of some beer geek rarity, like Bell’s Hopslam.

The same goes for rye whiskey. If a cocktail menu features a Manhattan, Sazerac, Toronto or Ward 8, I’m almost magnetically inclined to test the bartender’s skills.

What is it that I find so compelling about rye? Maybe it’s because rye adds a dry, spicy character that’s zesty and …

Continue reading Beer Town: I Heart Rye »

Rouge 66, the Beer Camp red ale we did at the Sierra pilot brewery in December, will be pouring at Brick Store Pub in Decatur starting at 6 p.m. on Thursday.

Adam Tolsma from Green’s, who also attended the camp, and I will both be at BSP for the tasting. And there’s a Left Hand Milk Stout tasting at Leon’s later, so it looks like a long evening of fun.

Here are the final Rouge 66 numbers from the pilot brewery:

ABV: 7.5 %

Original Gravity: 18.1 ˚P

Final Gravity: 4.0 ˚P

Bitterness Units: 56 IBU

Color: Mahogany

Bitter Hops: Bravo & Chinook

Aroma Hops: Chinook, Amarillo & Simcoe

Dry Hops: Simcoe, Chinook, Citra & Amarillo

Malts: Pale two-row, Patagonia, Caramel (45L) & Chocolate

Yeast: Belgian Yeast

Sierra will be doing at least one more tasting in the next week or so. Stay tuned for more details.

I’m excited!

— Bob Townsend, AJC Drink Blog

Continue reading Beer Town: Sierra Nevada Rouge 66 at BSP »

• 

  2010 Domaine Pichot, Le Peu de la Moriette, Vouvray, France 2010 Domaine Pichot, Le Peu de la Moriette, Vouvray, France

  

  By Gil Kulers, CWE, Kulers Uncorked

  $17

• Two Thumbs Way Up
• Amazingly aromatic with abundant floral, citrus and honey notes. It has rich flavors of apricot and ripe tangerine firmly supported by bright acidity. It also has a subtle herbal earthiness with notes of ginger and cinnamon.

Starting at about North Druid Hills Road and heading northeast for about 15 or so miles on Buford Highway, you can see restaurant signs in Spanish, Malay, Korean, Vietnamese and Bengali. This may be a bit intimidating for the casual diner, but it’s downright terrifying for wine lovers.

It’s not the language barrier or items such as tacos de lengua (cow tongue) that give diners and winers pause. It’s not really even the fact that these multifarious cuisines don’t boast a wine culture. Whether it’s Korean barbecue or chiles rellenos or southeast Asian vindaloo, the …

Continue reading Kulers Uncorked: Domaine Pichot Vouvray »

On a warm, windy 60-degree afternoon in early February, Freddy Bensch was basking on the new rooftop deck at Sweetwater Brewing dressed in his executive uniform — an open-collared short-sleeved shirt, shorts and flip-flops.

The Big Kahuna

“What a day,” Bensch said, taking a sip of his beer and gazing toward the Midtown skyline. “It’s fantastic, really.”

The 40-year-old Sweetwater owner/president and self-styled Big Kahuna may look and talk like a veteran surfer. But Bensch just landed on the 2012 Georgia Trend list of the 100 Most Influential Georgians, alongside the likes of Governor Nathan Deal, U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank.

“I think that was partly because we are a catalyst for people to become involved in important things like the environment,” said Bensch, who is an avid fly fisherman and outdoorsman. “We can bring those ideas to market.”

Asked about his outfit for the January ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton Atlanta, …

Continue reading Beer Town: The Big Kahuna celebrates 15 years of Sweetwater »

Gil Kulers, CWE

As anyone who has ever experienced a masterful food and wine pairing, the sum is greater than its parts. Great food and wine matches can happen by chance, but more often they come from seasoned pros who have a higher batting average in such matters. These heavy hitters, otherwise known as sommeliers, roam the dining rooms at your better, wine savvy restaurants.

But what if you want killer wine and food at your next dinner party? You could hire a caterer with a wine guy or gal who will work with the chef and choose spectacular wines for each course. While effective, this route may not fit in everyone’s budget. Further, what if you really want to do it yourself?

This was exactly the question Matt and Marie Fromme had when they walked into the wine shop a few weeks before Christmas. Midtown residents, the Frommes love to cook. As part of their dining club, they wanted to prepare multi-course dinner party for 14.They also wanted unexpected, playful and harmonious …

Continue reading Kulers Uncorked: Set Up A Wine Registry »

For someone who hadn’t quite tapped his first commercial beer, Twain’s new brewer David Stein had created quite a buzz.

David Stein. Photo by Dennis Malcolm Boyd aka Ale Sharpton

In early December, 28-year-old Stein took over from longtime Twain’s brewer Jordan Fleetwood, publicly announcing his plans to “make the best damn beer Atlanta has to offer.”

Some people may have found those comments a tad cocky, Stein admitted during a conversation at the Decatur brew pub.

“Partly, I’m young and inexperienced,” Stein said. “But I’m excited, too. If people know me, they’ll read those comments and laugh rather than think I’m being cocky. When I made the comment that I want to make the best damn beer in Atlanta, I was thinking that every other brewer in Atlanta was striving to do that, too.”

In late January, Stein hosted a small preview event at Twain’s, where he showcased seven new beers that will be part of the regular rotation, plus a pair of one-off …

Continue reading Beer Town: New brews at Twain’s »

By Gil Kulers, CWE, Kulers Uncorked

NO Vineyards & Winery Sauvignon Blanc, Lake County, Calif.

• $12
• Two Thumbs Up
• Pleasant aromas of green apples, pear and lemon curd with a subtle mineral quality. It offers flavors of bright citrus fruit (lemon, mandarin orange) and finishes with a light chalky, smoky note.

Even though they talked about reducing the influence of oak in their chardonnays 10 years ago, American winemakers nevertheless heaped the oak on poor, innocent chardonnay grapes. Who could blame them? The American wine drinking pubic loved the creamy, vanilla, buttery effect imparted by oak in their chardonnays. For the most part, they still enjoy these awkward, out-of-balance, food un-friendly wines.

All this makes the 10th anniversary of NO Vineyards and Winery this year that much more amazing. The brainchild of Atlanta residents Hank and Kathy Bremer, NO Wines make chardonnays and sauvignon blancs without oak (NO ostensibly stands for No Oak). Without the influence of …

Continue reading Kulers Uncorked: NO Sauvignon Blanc »

Essentially fermented honey, mead may be the oldest form of alcohol known to man. For devotees, it evokes images of Vikings and medieval knights, and it is thought to be the inspiration for the word honeymoon.

Though it’s appreciated in brewing circles, and deemed worthy of a separate category in the Beer Judge Certification Program style guidelines, mead remains a mysterious beverage — rarely available in bars and package stores, and barely a blip on the radar of U.S. alcohol consumption.

Monks Mead

Martin Key and Justin Schoendorf are well aware of that. But for more than a decade, the Atlanta homebrew partners have been perfecting their take on the ancient elixir, while doggedly pursuing their dream of producing a commercial version. Now the product of all that time and effort, Monks Mead, finally can be found on draft at several pubs around town.

Recently, I sat down with Key and Schoendorf at the Porter Beer Bar in Little Five Points, where we sipped slender glasses of …

Continue reading Beer Town: Monks Mead a modern take on an ancient beverage »