Beer Dork

“To fulfill good intentions, man needs plenty of time, patience, and good $%^&# beer.”
– Nigel Tanner’s friend

Top 50 Brewers in the U.S.

This is always an interesting list:

http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/media/press-releases/show?title=brewers-association-releases-2010-top-50-breweries-lists

Nicie Spicie

Short’s Brewing Company
Bellaire, MI
USA
http://www.shortsbrewing.com/

Style: Wheat
ABV: 5.2%
Comments:
With the end winter in sight, I’ll get back to business and start catching up on some overdue inventory. Were these my library books, they’d already be looking to take my card away.
I touched a bit on Joe Shorts Brewery in my review of their Pilsner a few months ago, and we’ve had some requests via Dork Mail for more from them—so trust me, they’re on the way.
Some time ago, I cracked one of their summer seasonals, Nicie Spicie, which—like most of their brews—defies easy definition. It’s basically a spiced wheat ale, with orange zest, lemon zest, coriander and peppercorn. None of these come through in any dramatic fashion, aside from a little citrusy coriander, but it is interesting, regardless of my aversion to spice and fruit beers.
It pours a deep yellow—kind of like extra Vitamin C in your first visit to the powder room—with virtually no head to speak of. Bright and clear, with a hint of lacy yeast at the bottom of the bottle, it has a very mild fruity nose and rolls over the palate with the aforementioned citrus spice. Thin in body and clean in finish, this does go nice with lighter dishes and drinks very easy, despite some mild astringency. The fruitiness is not extreme and it may appeal to some fruit beer drinkers without offending the sensibilities of those who are not.
Unfortunately, the “drinkability” is probably its most generous characteristic as I’ve certainly had better efforts among wheat ales, fruit beers, and from Shorts in particular. While this may have been due to a slightly aged bottle, this one was a bit of a disappointment.

Munich Dunkel

Frankenmuth Brewery
Frankenmuth, MI
USA
http://www.frankenmuthbrewery.com

Style: Dunkel
ABV: 5.1%
Comments:
Located in Michigan’s “Little Bavaria,” a Disneyland-style tourist mecca for the silver-haired crowd in northern southeast Michigan, Frankenmuth Brewery dates back to 1862 in various incarnations and under various ownership groups. The site has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, including a fire in 1987 and the infamous tornado in 1996. At the time, it was one of the nation’s oldest Privat Brauerei, selling nearly 30,000 barrels per year in 25 states, with a collection of pseudo-German beers, including a flagship Dunkel that would be somewhat akin to a Huber Bock, Shiner Bock or Michelob Bock—that is to say, non-Reinheitsgebot. Regardless, it was pretty good stuff for its time and often readily available.
Since the tornado destroyed the facility, there have been a number of attempts to reopen, restart and rebuild the place, including a contracting effort with the old Evansville Brewing Company, a short-lived brewpub (which could not distribute), and an effort by renowned American Weihenstephan Diplom-Braumeister Eric Warner, later of Flying Dog Brewery, who wrote the Classic Beer Style Series German Wheat Beer in 1992.
Last year, the place finally reopened as a microbrewery (which means they can distribute under Michigan law) concentrating on German beers. In my view, this is a welcome change from most craft brewers, who pretty much focus on ales, usually English style or occasionally Belgian.
I had a chance to taste a few of their brews at the Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Beer Festival in February, which were all very good. Yesterday, I had a chance to sit down with a full pint of Munich Dunkel, the lager style that “made Munich famous.”
Dark in color, it looks like any other porter or stout but with a cleaner aroma and mouth feel and a little less body that one would expect to find in a typical ale. It has a nice soft chocolate nose and drinks rather easy. There’s a light Hallertau hop presence to clean up the maltiness. Stylistically, its actually a little thicker than a typical dunkel would be, but this may be due to a bump in the chocolate malt to compensate for North American six row grains.
For me, this is actually a very nice session beer and my bias would rate this a little higher personally than I would for the average geek, because this is one of my favorite styles. That said, while very good, it’s not a perfect effort and probably not as good as the original Atwater Dunkel, back when they were importing grains in 1997-98 under their original brewmaster.
Sauber… or solid mugs for you Anglos.