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It wasn’t that long ago that America was still in a sort of potable Stone Age. According to popular taste, tea and coffee were made from dust bags and flavored dirt, respectively, and wine was a funny tasting grape juice. In the last two decades, the American palate has been rapidly sophisticated, and now enthusiasm for these beverages has created demand for a higher quality that in other Western countries has long been considered standard. Wine stands apart because there are now many appellations within the states that produce exceptional wines domestically. It is somewhat ironic that beer—long produced in the states—seems to not have evolved quite as rapidly, or at least as visibly. Cost is no doubt a factor, and I’m not going to wag my finger and cry “philistine!” at those who cling to their PBR and Budweiser. We are in a recession, after all. I will only say that tasting these mass-produced, domestic brands long ago convinced me—and many others—that beer is about as appetizing as carbonated urine. More unfortunate is that those who love wine sometimes thumb their nose at beer as if it were “low-class.” That’s wrong for many reasons.

I may have shied away from the stuff, but I knew that brewing has been practiced for thousands of years, its fruits enjoyed by kings and conquerors, and that is a complex process mixing chemistry and instinct and a dash of dumb luck. I knew that—like wine—the taste of the beer would vary from batch to batch depending on the purity of the ingredients and the climate. I knew that some breweries embrace this unpredictability by brewing beer in vats open to the air and everything that happens to float in, including wild yeast and bird droppings. Others are so careful—nearly to the point of superstition—that they won’t even disturb a spider or clear the dust from the vat chamber, lest those elements be part of the mysterious, unwritten recipe for their concoction. In short, I knew that there was potentially enormous complexity to any beers that hadn’t been standardized to always taste the same. But where does a novice begin?

Fortunately for me and a few other lucky guests, Seattle-based brewer Mark Joy and his wife Alison Sheafor-Joy recently hosted a beer tasting at the studio of artist Anna Skibska in Fremont. Mark has been a homebrewer for over 20 years and Alison has been assisting and brewing for 10. Both are certified beer judges—yes, there is a national program and a test required to be certified—and they judge six to seven homebrew competitions a year. Mark’s brews have won multiple awards. This year, one of his beers was selected along with 8 others from a pool of over 800 in the Samuel Adams Longshot Competition. Immediately after the Senate legalized homebrew transport last year, they organized Beerstock 5060 (named after the Senate Bill), which hosts brewers from around the region. This year, their second and now annual festival offered 139 different brews.

To put it lightly, this couple knows their beer. They also knew that their guests were primarily wine drinkers, perhaps even averse to beer. In consideration of this, they created a selection that began with sweeter, more wine-like beers and gradually moved toward more robust ales.

1. Ancient Ale - Brewed by Mark Joy, created by the Anatolians
This was certainly the right way to begin to hook wine lovers. This recipe contains no hops, which are the preservative herbs that also give beer its bitter notes. This ale is closer to mead or melomel because it contains honey and grapes. In fact, this recipe is estimated to be over 4,000 years old. A bottle discovered in King Midas’ tomb contained trace residue of it, and researchers were able to determine even the proper proportions of the four ingredients: malted barley, honey, saffron, and Muscat grapes. At 7.1 percent ABV, it is perfectly situated in the twilight between beer and wine. This sort of concoction is known as a braggot, not a true beer as most people would define it. When Joy has submitted this brew to competitions, it is often placed into miscellaneous categories, alongside mead and honey beers, the latter of which do contain hops. The ancient ale is smooth and dry, with light carbonation and a very clean finish. Truly, it is still a drink fit for a king.

2. Dutchesse de Bourgogne - By Brouwerij Verhaeghe
This Flanders Red beer is said to most closely resemble red wine, which earned it the title, “the Burgundy of Belgium.” It is soured and aged in large French oak barrels for up to 2 years. The color is as deep and rich as the flavor, which has distinct notes of black currant, black cherry, and orange zest to brighten its complex maltiness. The Joys suggest pairing this beer and others like it with robust meat dishes, such as pork, beef, buffalo and barbecued chicken. It is actually less alcoholic than the first selection but at 6 percent ABV it is still slightly higher than most beers.

On that note, the tasting was well supplied with various foods to help cleanse the palate between tastings. The whole grain breads, seasoned young potatoes, and rye crackers all might have terrorized those who steer clear of carbs, but A) I don’t suppose those people would much want to be at a beer tasting anyways, and B) it helped soak up the alcohol, for we weren’t spitting what we tasted over those 3 hours. For some reason—and not just because it was so good—spitting beer just seemed a bit uncouth, however permissible spiting might be with wine.

3. Sah’Tea - By Dogfish Head
Dogfish Head is a brewery based in Delaware, and Joy lauds them as being one of the best in the business in America. Sahti is a Finnish style of beer that incorporates juniper berries, sometimes in place of hops. Most Sahti has about 8 percent ABV, but this version was slightly higher at 9 percent. According to Dogfish Head, this beer is “based on the traditional 9th-century Finnish recipe for Sahti in that we brew it with rye and juniper and heat the wort with wood-fired rocks. We break tradition by adding an exotic Black Chai Tea at the end of the boil.” And indeed, one does detect a distinct blend of chai spices, including ginger and nutmeg, that yet do not become overwhelming or compete with the rye and juniper notes. They all remain so subtle that they give it complexity without making it classifiably herbaceous, creating the most unique beer that I had ever tasted...at this point.

Apropos to unique beers, the Joys told us about some of their unique creations...and failures. Alison was particularly self-effacing, as she is the less experienced of the two, but her experiments with juniper and pumpkin—even candy corn for a Halloween brew—have yielded a few unique triumphs that have proved quite popular. They have not, however, dabbled very extensively in creating high alcohol content beers. Yeasts will die off when the alcohol content reaches a certain point, thus ending fermentation. Some brewers add increasingly hardier yeasts to consume more sugar and boost the alcohol content. Unlike vintners, who can add alcohol to create fortified wines with higher ABV, brewers can only rely on their basic ingredients and their various cooking techniques. In the end, the products of this little industry competition are often less appealing and more of a novelty.

For example, until very recently, the champion was UK-based BeerDog, which produced 12 limited edition bottles of 55 precent ABV ale, prematurely called The End of History. The bottles were encased in the taxidermal remains of roadkill, with the bottlenecks protruding from the whole creature’s mouths. If you think that’s unappetizing, then the price tag will really make you sick: $765 for one of the dozen 330 mL bottles that were produced. Typically, higher ABV beers are created by boiling off water, but in this case, the extra water was frozen off from hundreds of liters of beer multiple times. Still, it wasn’t enough to stay on top for long: Just a few days before the tasting, Dutch brewery t’Koelschip announced the release of a 60 percent ABV ale called Start the Future. Cheeky, aren’t they?

4. Chili Wheat - By Mark Joy
If anyone had mentioned the existence of chili-infused beer to me before this tasting, I probably would have wretched. I would have imagined the insipid flavor of a standard can blended with Sriracha. From what our hosts explained, that sometimes isn’t too far from the truth. There are, in fact, entire competitions devoted to chili beers, and entries range in heat from that of a cinnamon Tic Tac to that of a nuclear reactor. Last year, Mark sent his entry to one such competition in Florida, not even expecting the beer to survive the trip, and took the top honors. Though I’ve never had a chili beer before, I can understand why, because this one would be hard to top. Mark’s recipe is a Belgian style wheat beer infused with five varieties of carefully roasted chili peppers.  It has only the slightest kick, a subtle burn, and as for the flavor it is a playful marriage of fresh wheat and earthy greens. Because the chili flavors are so delicate, the beer is best enjoyed within 8 months of brewing, as the spice will rapidly fade after that. Once again, the ABV is slightly higher than standard at 8.25 percent.

The couple seems to have good luck with their Belgian beers. In conjunction with Skookum Brewery in Arlington, Washington, they created a Belgian blond ale called Kat’s Paw, named after Hurricane Katrina, as the relief efforts had become an important cause for them. The proceeds of their 350-gallon batch went to a charity fund, and the beer proved so popular Skookum Brewery owner Ron Walchers continues to brew the recipe on a regular basis. It was also the first homebrew to be served at the St. Edwards Father’s Day Brew Fest .

5. Kozlak - By Browar Amber
Kozlak is a Bock brewed in Poland. Bocks were first brewed in Einbock Germany, whence its name derives. This was the point in the tasting where we had subtly entered into lager territory. This sort of beer was popular during Lent for its relatively low ABV (6.5 percent) and high caloric and nutritive content, for the monks would fast from solid food, but not from liquids. That's my kind of fast. This beer burst with flavors of caramel and burnt sugar and only a little carbonation, contributing to a silky smooth feeling as it went down—far too fast. The Joys explained that most Bocks are seldom as sweet as this one, which is distinctively not hoppy. I am eager to try others after tasting this one.

6. Extra Large Big Hop Ale - By Mark Joy
In the brewer’s own words: “An over the top, award-winning American Barley wine featuring 10 different fermentables and 6 varieties of hops, one of which is our own home-grown hop mix we call ‘TettHallerWill.’”  In my words: “Yum.”

This is a strong beer. It is nearly 13 percent alcohol and a bitter bite. To be precise, it has 106 IBUs (International Bittering Units). I’ll put that in perspective: Indian Pale Ale is known for being very hoppy and bitter because when it was first brewed in England in the 18th century it was designated for shipment to colonial soldiers India and thus required additional hops to preserve it during its long trip. Both IPAs and Irish stouts generally have 60 IBUs at max, while a pilsner hovers in the range of 30. This makes it a very good sipping beer, which also allows one to enjoy the fruity esters of apricot, plum and fig that help balance the hops. The brewers suggest that it is best if aged for up to 3 years, which allows it to develop “a hint of sherry in the aroma.”

7. Latrappe Quadrupel - By Koningshoeven Dominus
Lucky number 7. I loved all of the selections for their utterly unique variations on the theme, some of which completely caught me off guard. This Belgian ale was no exception, for it utterly surprised me with a sweet flavor that I couldn’t quite place until someone exclaimed: “Bubblegum!” Yes, bubblegum, but not in a cloying way. It is foremost deep, malty, and aromatic. One smells the fruit notes before one tastes them, and all of it comes off mellow and rich and smooth to the last. At 10 percent ABV, it has more than double the alcohol content of most domestic beers, but it is practically a meal in itself and one gets the sense that one could drink bottles of it and only feel full before getting drunk. That’s probably a dangerous assumption to make, though.

Thus ended the night’s odyssey. Every guest seemed satisfied and those who were not fond of beer before were ready to explore more, provided they are of the same caliber. Mark Joy insists that it isn’t too hard to find good beers locally from breweries such as Dick Cantwell’s Elysian Brewing Company. Just as Washington has succeeded in viticulture, it is now proving itself as a center for fine brewing. One can only hope that the industry’s rather petty competition to create a higher ABV beer shifts toward the creation of a better light beer, though. I know that’s probably oxymoronic, even blasphemous to some. But I’m still learning, and if people are willing to drink a 765 dollar beer out of a dead squirrel, then a slightly more forgiving calorie count isn’t too much to ask. Until then, pass the Bock.
 

Alison Sheafor-Joy readies a batch of pumpkin beer. In addition to brewing, she puts her design talents to use, as with the logo for the couple's Beerstock event, seen on the glasses in the header image.