Beer & Me

Admittedly there’s quite a gap between them but there’s no denying that Schlafly is this Midwestern city’s second biggest brewer behind Anheuser Busch Inbev.

And the gap is growing smaller.

There are a couple of recent news stories that put an interesting light on the comparison of these two breweries. The first came out a few weeks ago when ABI announced a stunning 95% loss in profits for the fourth quarter of 2008. No, it’s not a typo. Almost universally the second line of the stories with this stunning news explains that the loss is the result of accounting for the purchase of Anheuser-Busch by Inbev. So, it’s jut an accounting thing, right?

Keep reading. Further down we learn that the mega beer company still lost 2% in sales last year. This continues a trend that we’ve been seeing for a while now - big beer continues to lose sales despite all of their efforts to turn things around.

Now, let’s look at Schlafly’s sales. They are going gangbusters. The regional brewer enjoyed significant growth in 2008, so much so that they are expanding their brewing capacity to 11,000 barrels more than the 24,000 they produced last year.

See, when Inbev bought A-B, Schlafly became the biggest locally owned brewery in St. Louis. It might still be the second biggest brewer but that distinction of locally owned is important to St. Louis drinkers. They might not have been given a vote when the Busch family was considering Inbev’s offer but they’re voting now with their dollars.

By now you have probably heard or read about the report from the Center for Disease Control warning that beer pong can contribute to spread of herpes. You have also probably heard that it was all a big hoax. I thought it sounded a little silly when I first saw it last week. We should all know better than to eat (or drink) off the floor and a CDC report telling us not to seems excessive. Here is where I might insert a joke or some snark but why should I bother when Stephen Colbert has already done such a good job?

It was last Friday. Jack and Joal, co-owners of Charleville Winery and Microbrewery, invited friends and regular customers to a private vertical tasting of the last three years of their wonderful English-style barleywine.

I’ve been a fan of this ale, as I am of many of the beers they brew there, since I first tried it. It’s got a huge flavor without going over the top. There are notes of warming alcohol in it but the focus of the beer is complexity and balance. When it’s on tap it’s what I drink when I’m there.

This tasting featured 2007, 2008, and 2009. I didn’t make notes but here are the impression I was left with:

2007 - It appears the recipe peeks at about three years. It’s hard to imagine it getting much better than this. It is rich and incredibly smooth. It was packed with dark flavors like toffee, caramel and chocolate but even saying that seems to oversimplify the experience of drinking it. I’m not sure how long will stay peeked but for now it is very solid and appears to have many good years ahead. Were they selling it I’d buy a case.

2008 - This vintage hadn’t quite come together. The hops edge was faded a bit but some of the more aggressive sweet notes (can one say that?) from the malt tipped the balance of the beer a bit too much for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was still very good and I’d be glad to have many more of these. But next to the 2007… Let’s just say it’s amazing what a difference a year makes!

2009 - Young, aggressive, wild. This one is barely out of the fermentor and still has some growing up to do. The hops are still huge and in your face, though more in the flavor than the nose. It’s very enjoyable but on a different level than its two older brothers.

2009 Cask - I spent about twenty minutes just smelling this one before taking my first sip. They add extra hops to the cask and it is apparent. Huge huge huge hops nose with those wild, uncontrolled malty and alcohol notes dancing underneath - it was a joy just to smell it. It tasted much the same. The cask took some edge off of the beer but it was still a very young barleywine. And now with all of those hops swimming around in my mouth… Lovely, lovely stuff!

12 West from Farmington catered the event and did a great job. I talked to the chef a little bit. He told me that a couple of weeks ago he came out to Charleyville and tasted the 2009 to see what he wanted to fix. He said that he kept thinking of earthy foods, especially mushrooms while he was drinking it. This is how he pairs, he told me. He focuses on the first flavors or ingredients that pop into his mind while he’s drinking the beer or wine. Then he constructs a menu around those tastes.

What he prepared were some very nice dishes including some little bite-sized beef wellington type morsels, an apple and mushroom concoction wrapped in something like a crepe, steamed asparagus with salmon. These all worked well with the beer and brought out various flavors. Even though the 2007 was my favorite I found that I preferred some of the other vintages with different foods. For instance, the sweeter 2008 went better with the apple mushroom thing and the wild 2009 was the best beer for the salmon.

He also prepared a stuffed pasta, the biggest item in the picture. It had tomatoes, spinach, ricotta, and a very spicy Italian sausage with shredded parmesan on top. I never would have guessed that it would work so well with barleywine but it did. Again, it was the sweeter 2008 that worked best with this dish.

I asked the chef about pairing with beer vs. wine. (I wish I could remember his name but I really suck with names especially when I’m distracted by so much good beer.) I told him that, as a beer writer, I’m always trumpeting beer’s superiority to wine when pairing with food and wondered what his opinion was. He thought and said that he agreed but the reason surprised me. It’s simply a matter of expectations - his and his customers’. Wine pairing has a mystique, a certain snooty cache and he feels pressure to get it just so. He said that he tends to try to overdo it with wine, trying to pack to many flavors into one recipe.

Beer is simple he said. He finds it easier to be inspired to one ingredient or flavor and run with that. He feels freer to interpret because the rules aren’t so set in stone.

It was my first vertical tasting and will not be my last. Had I an ounce of self control and more disposable income I might be able to start laying the ground work for my own.