ST. LOUIS -- "Brewers in St. Louis are competing to create the next wave of "extreme" beers, including lemongrass flavored ales and a "barley wine" that contains 10 percent alcohol by volume. The craft brewers say it's getting harder to push the envelope when they create new beers, as the range of brewing creativity and boldness keeps expanding. But that isn't stopping them from trying.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that even the nation's biggest brewer is getting in on the trend. Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. just released a blueberry flavored lager called Wild Blue.
Extreme beers defy easy classification, but you know them when you see them: barley wines ranging above 10 percent alcohol by volume, ultra-hopped ales and wood-aged beers.
Although "extreme" beers often have been linked to strong alcohol content, brewers say the label also applies to offbeat ingredients and zany brewing and aging processes. Extreme beers can raise credibility and boost a little brewery's cachet among serious craft beer drinkers, those hard-to-impress folks who can casually discuss a brew's "balance," "gravity" and "hoppiness."
Anheuser-Busch, whose flagship Budweiser and Bud Light are 5 percent and 4.2 percent alcohol by volume, respectively, tested the upper range of its brewing spectrum last month, announcing it was selling a blueberry-flavored lager nationwide. Wild Blue, 8 percent alcohol by volume, is "not suited for timid or reserved beer drinkers," the brewer advised in a news release."
No, you know who it's suited for? Feckin' morons, that's who. Blueberry lager? Lemongrass flavored ales? I'm sorry, did I miss something? Is there something wrong with beer? Does a good stout, lager or ale really need its "envelope pushed"? And by the way, did we not retire the adjective "extreme" in 1997? Haven't the people at Anheuser-Busch done enough damage already? People, fight this nonsense. You want to do something "extreme"? Make a pledge to never go near this trendy crap. Go to your local tonight and have a cold pint of a well-made pale ale, or a creamy black stout, preferably one made by your neighbors and not MegaBeerCo International. Reject "offbeat" and "zany brewing processes." And you know what? While you're at it, tomorrow morning, stop by your locally owned coffee shop and have a cup of coffee. Not a triple nonfat vanilla hazelnut cinnamon decaf latte with whipped soy milk. A cup of coffee. Maybe a donut.
Seriously. Enough of this crap.
I now step off my soap box. I'll be at the bar if you need me.
15 comments:
All I have to say in retort is "Smoke Stack Series".
Retort noted. My reretort: All four beers in Boulevard's Smokestack Series are time honored styles of beer, some centuries old. There's not a blueberry or tuft of lemongrass to be found. There's history, rather than "offbeat" and "zany."
Lemon Grass? I'm gonna mow the yard after work and have a Boulevard Wheat before, during and after. I will avoid at all cost putting any of the grass clippings in my beer or any lemon for that matter. As for "lemon grass" there might be some of the growing in the back yard. There is some rather interesting plants the kids planted while in high school that they tell me not to mow and the missus hangs them in the basement to dry. I guess she is making plant arrangements out of them.
Blueberry Beer? Blue Berry Pie, Blue Berry Jam, Blue Berry Pancakes, do they make blueberry donuts? Blue and beer sounds as distasteful a combination as the sound of green beer. I bet the kids at Boulevard are laughing all the way to the bank with this stupidity.
To each his own I guess. There's just one Schlitz, yeah, yeah...
There was just one Schiltz, but I drank it. That's good beer.
I have a Schlitz-themed room in my house. I'm not kidding.
Blueberry beer? Blech! But I'm all for a pumpkin ale in the fall. That's about as far as my zany goes... with beer anyway.
Rerere...
A double IPA with a amped up alc% and they also have been messing with whiskey & bourbon barrel aging. Boulevard is not immune from cool stuff going on in the beer world. To be honest this strong beer trend has been fun, so lets all quit being sticks in the mud.
p.s. What the hell do you all think lemon grass taste like? your lawns? I think the favor of lemon grass would make a great summer beer. But anything is better than Zon.
I didn't say a word about amped up alcohol levels. I love a good, hoppy IPA that bites you on the way down. What I'm being a stick in the mud about isn't the revival, continuation or even tweaking of traditional beers like IPAs. It's the blueberry, citrus, lemongrass, green tea and God knows what else that are being thrown into beer in an attempt to be quirky and capture some elusive market share that rattles my cage. Maybe...probably...I'm a beer snob. Sue me.
I think a distinction being overlooked is beer snob has subclassifications, you just might be beer traditionalist. I for one like the adventure of new beers.
Much like the distinctions between Celtic Rock v. Celtic Trad. Did you ever see your self as more Trad than Rock?
Please don't get me wrong, Anheuser-Busch's blueberry sounds like ass. Not because of the blueberry, but the Anheuser-Busch trying to crush smaller beer market.
As soon as I posted the phrase "beer snob" I wanted to amend it to "beer purist." You're excatly right about AB, too. As if owning their ridiculous market share isn't enough, let's go kill the craft brewers. Reason enough not to drink anything they brew, no matter what kind of plant matter they toss in to it.
Trad vs. rock? You'll find equal amounts of each on my iPod. Personally what really excites me these days are the "neo-trad" bands I mentioned earlier, like Kila and Flook. Which, I suppose some might call the "blueberry lager" of Irish music...
I would like to end this on one final topic:
My comment is on the subject of lemon grass, in which I think it has been confused here with Wheatgrass. Wheatgrass drinks, and shots have been sold in health food stores for a number of years now. But Lemon Grass is much different, and provides a slight lemon background in many Asain dishes.
One of my favorite drinks in the summer is a Cyclist from Freestate Brewery. Half lemon-aid and half wheat state golden. Freestate in my opinion is the best local brewery, has also made a Lemon Grass Rye which Rocked Hard!
I'll leave all the fruit-beer combos to others. Ditto spiced ales, like Nutcracker.
I'll say this, on the subject of brewpubs. The IPA at McCoy's in Westport is amazingly good. Give me a couple pints of that and a bowl of their buffalo-sirloin chili and I'm set.
http://www.blvdbeer.com/zon.htm
Even the smaller, better breweries make mistakes.
Something we can all agree on. Bless you Boulevard, but Zon is piss.
Hey Danny, I do agree with one of the bloggers who likes to try different flavored beers. It's all good clean fun. I'm also one of those who likes a slice of lemon in my Boulevard Wheat and Sam Adams Cherry Wheat on a hot summer day is delicious.
And, for the record, I Love Boulevard and all they stand for and have produced, but Praise God; I thought I was the only one who thinks their Zon product is the most God awful concoction I have ever had in my life. - Gordie
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