Boddingtons opening the season

My aunt sent over a shipment earlier this year full of things she wanted to get rid of when she moved. Included in the package were assorted china pieces, clothes, and these - a set of beer glasses she bought but never used. She has a habit of doing that sort of thing. We're the ones that usually profit from it.

The first time I tasted Boddingtons . . . wow, must've been a good 6 or 7 years ago. That year, in the fall, a few of us decided to do Nuit Blanche, the all-night art festival spread out across downtown Toronto. I think we lasted until about 11:30 before we had to find a place to sit and eat. An unholy trinity of walking too much, eating too little, and sniffing too much second-hand weed along Queen St. I forget the name of the bar, but I had the mussels and two pints of Boddingtons. And it was great. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find it again until now - LCBO outlets sell them in 4-pack cans with the little plastic rattle-y things inside.

Chilled down, you pour slowly, letting the head of foam slowly settle in. Just lightly frothy, with a thick, creamy texture, that malty flavour, good finish. A great session beer, useful on the dinner table as well.

Would we do Nuit Blanche again? We watched what can only be described as an experience. Woman running, throwing herself around an empty dance studio, at one point letting out the most bloodthirsty, gutteral scream, and ending up underneath a grand piano, pounding the strings from below. Maybe all this art is just too highbrow for us. Or maybe it's all just some fucked up shit.

DF

The Celt Experience - beer and food

We want to take a look at these beers in a more natural setting; namely, the table. For individual tasting notes for each beer, refer here please.

It's almost a shame that beer is most often think of as being best enjoyed on its own. After all, few alcoholic beverages have the versatility to go with a wide range of foods as beer does. Wine certainly doesn't. Try to drink the wrong wine with the wrong dish . . . utterly disastrous. And unfortunately, wine and food can be tricky. Why do you think there are so many writers whose entire careers revolve around piece after boring piece about what to drink with what?

Just as the true winos have disproved the whole red meat with red wine, white meat with white wine absurdity, we have to get beyond the notion that beers are best ice cold and on its own. That's no good. So let's start now and make a conscious effort to drink good craft beers with food, and understand how different styles match different flavour profiles. Beer is versatile, so incredibly versatile with food. Savoury food, spicy food, all kinds of proteins, raw seafoods . . . start of meal, end of meal, and pretty much everything in between, beer can handle it all. The key is to know the style. And by style, we're really looking at the hop profile, the type of malt used, and what kind of roast was applied. So as long as we can identify the flavour profile of the beer, we can determine which ones to serve with any specific food.

Celt Experience Bleddyn 1075

Starting with the Bleddyn 1075, in the pale ale style. Really hop forward, with the bitterness rising on the finish. Bit of a higher alcohol too, at 5.6%, staying fresh and lean. With these types of beers, you want contrasting flavours. These bitter ales are really singular in both flavour and texture - those hoppy notes refresh the palate, and you want to eat food that wraps around that bitterness, not enhance it. So of course, common sense would dictate something either very rich, or very spicy. Rich dishes, meats or whatever you like, work because the beer cleans it all up in the mouth. You want your drinks to prep the palate for the next mouthful of food, letting you eat more than you should. Spicy foods - and whatever kind of spicy, chili peppers or peppercorns or whatever you're into - works extremely well. We do this poached beef tenderloin that's been tenderized in the pressure cooker, and eaten with a chili/garlic sauce. Spicy and almost numbing on the tongue, but a good pull of the Bleddyn 1075 cooled off the heat, with the hops taming that overt spiciness.

Not common, but I liked drinking this with seafood. We had these really fresh west coast shrimps, and simply poached them in salt water. Dipped in a savoury soy/sesame seed oil sauce, the hoppiness of the beer again seems to lift that marine flavour of the shrimp. With so many different flavours and textures of food around the table, a beer that cleanses and refreshes is very welcome indeed.

               

Celt Experience Golden (left) and Bronze (right)

With these softer, rounder ales, I found them more easy of a companion, just because the hops weren't so overt. We didn't exactly find the perfect food match (if such a thing even exists), but nothing didn't work either. The beers went lovely with the roast duck we were having, showing just as well with the homegrown bok choy and celery as well, cooked in the Shanghainese style. I love the warm roasted malt character, the roundness on the palate, and that slight hoppy lift on the finish. I'd imagine this to be excellent with a pan seared rib steak, whatever protein you like eating. The beers have an effect of both building up the savoury elements of the food you're eating, as well as finishing dry, key in refreshing the palate. It's that complementary thing you want to aim for - the beer and food aligning up in flavour profile.

               

Celt Experience Native Storm (left) and Dark-Age (right)

These ales with the heavier roasts are bit trickier, just because they can almost be a blanket on the palate, covering up more delicate flavours. But then you don't want your food to be too rich; if the flavours are both assertive, you're creating a brawl in the mouth. And that's no fun for anyone. Some say these stouts go well with raw oysters on the half-shell. I disagree, but then again I'm with the winos who swear by Sancerre and dry white Bordeaux (oaked sauvignon blanc) with shellfish. These richer beers, to me, are perfect for autumn flavours. Game, if you can find it, seared quickly with some thyme or rosemary or whatever you like. Mushrooms, oh yes. And my goodness, if you can find truffles . . . divine. What I like about these two beers is that the textures remain leaner and more refreshing. Serving the same function as acidity in wine, it's the texture of the beer that really determines how well it will pair with food.

Outlining specifically the dish that pair with each beer is a pointless exercise, and something that only food/wine writer hacks and wannabes concentrate. Context of how (and when and why) the beer or wine is being drunk is all important, not to mention the drinker's personal tastes. What we can do here is discuss some of the broader flavour profiles that seem to complement each style of beer, with encouragement that everyone experiments to see what works. And that's really the fun part right? The point I really want to make here isn't necessarily that certain styles of beer should only be drunk with certain styles of food. Rather, it's to make clear that fine craft beers deserve to be drunk with a meal, with loved ones, and with a sense of adventure. That's my point.

For friends in Ontario, this was shared with me by Rubaiyat Wine and Spirit - the availability of the following beers through the LCBO are as follows:

Celt Native Storm Crafted Ale, LCBO Item #260299, will be released as part of the LCBO's Spring Beers on February 26, 2012.

Celt Golden Crafted Ale, LCBO Item #224600, will be released as part of the LCBO's Summer Beers on May 20, 2011

Celt Bronze Crafted Ale, LCBO Item #236091, will probably be included in their Autumn Ales released in September, although this is not yet confirmed.

DF

The Celt Experience - Crafted Ale

In November, I got a message about this beer. Turns out it was from Tom Newman, the head brewer of The Celt Experience. He asked if I would be interested in writing about their full range of beers, and how they each relate to food. Samples would be sent over for me to taste. Rubaiyat Wine and Spirit Merchants stepped in and offered to bring them in for me. Things always work out when you have friends.

At first, the plan for this piece was to focus on pairing each beer with a specific food or flavour profile. But over the course of tasting and then drinking them over (a simple Chinese) dinner, it became evident that simply talking about what food to pair with each ale was not going to present a complete picture. As a wine drinker, I think it's more meaningful to dig a bit deeper and really examine what constitutes a fine beer (or if there is even such a thing), and the situations which call for a corkscrew, or a bottle opener.

So we tasted through the beers, in order of texture - to make sure my palate would follow a natural progression, we started with the hoppiest, ending with the most heavily roasted ale. Since Tom was kind enough to send me two bottles of each beer, for a total of 10, I was able to set up one as a strict tasting, and the other to drink over food. And let's quickly get something out of the way.

The beers are extraordinary, absolutely captivating.

Fine wine has certain tangible characteristics. Balance in fruit, acid, alcohol, and oak. A fine and elegant texture, and length on the palate. Structure to allow for aging and further development in the bottle. And of course, the intangibles . . . that true and authentic expression of terroir, the inimitable personality and character of where/when/how the wine was made. So how do we define a fine beer? Surely a set of different criteria needs to be applied. Beer, by nature, is a simpler drink. More dependant on brewing styles than any strictly regional tendencies - vintages also don't apply, and in most cases, aging containers are best when neutral. I remember a particularly vile oak aged bottle of Innis & Gunn that managed to taste more of wood than beer.

So how is fine beer to be defined? Balance, for one. Malt, hops, the quality of the roast . . . no single element overriding any other. Texture is also important, as is a dry finish. One thing I also look for in beer is harmony of its elements. What you don't want to see is the beer falling apart in the glass, where the flavour of the roasted malts seem to drift out, sitting on the top like a thick layer of caramel. Quality of its head of foam, how it laces the glass. Hops are also important too, not only in quality, but in balance. There's been a (North American) trend of making as bitter of a beer as possible. Bitterness is good and proper for ales, but so is balance. It has to taste like it belongs, not a shock to the palate. And finally, fine beer is not skunky beer. Unlike wine, rusticity in beer is not an indication of fine character - it's a sign that something wrong happened during the brewing process. I can't drink Belgian beers anymore, because they still insist on convincing you that skunky brews are good. Whether it's an issue of hygiene during brewing, or bad yeast strains, or maybe something a bit more sinister . . . stinky beers are no fun for anyone.

It was an absolute joy to taste these beers. All organic ales, each is given a proprietary name relating to Welsh history. I tried to frame each beer by general type: the Bleddyn 1075, a pale ale; the Golden and Bronze, examples of more traditional English ales; the Native Storm, a brown ale; and the Dark-Age, a stout. All of them low in alcohol too, an important factor in determining balance. All the beers hover around 4.0% alcohol, with the exception of the Bleddyn 1075 at 5.6%. The bottles are nicely packaged in the 50 cL format and each different beer is distinguished by the label colour. The back labels are very informative, giving drinkers a bit of background on the name, as well as how the beer was made. For example, on the Bleddyn 1075:

Bleddyn ap Cynfyn was ruler of Gwynedd and Powys and probably of Cerdigion and Brycheiniog as well, and undoubtedly the most powerful Welsh king. After his death in 1075, his sons were too young to rule, and his dominions passed into the hands of a cousin Trahaern ap Caradog. This delicious pale strong ale has an original gravity of 1075 with a high mash temperature leaving a fine full bodied texture. Generous US and New Zealand variety hopping gives a very bitter tongue, which is complemented by a crisp sweetness and a delicious citrus and grapefruit aroma.

To begin, I want to first share my tasting notes for each beer. All the beers were tasted at a cool temperature, but were not chilled. Final thoughts to follow.

Celt Experience Bleddyn 1075

What I see as the pale ale of the lineup. Bright amber colour, with a great rocky head of foam. Fresh aroma, sort of that freshly cut grain; fragrant. Hops begin on the palate, roars halfway and continues to the finish - just a tremendous wall of bitterness. Harmonious indeed, great transition on the palate, very pure. Compact and austere.

Celt Experience Golden

More leaning toward a traditional style of ale? Round aromatics, quite open on the palate. Hops bring balance and complexity, but don't intrude. Linear, and very well made. Palate shows same impeccable harmony.

Celt Experience Bronze

Darker in colour than the previous two beers. The roasted character is evident. Balanced hops, which rise every so slightly on the finish. Dry on the palate, very fresh. Good amount of richness on the palate.

Celt Experience Native Storm

A more traditional English brown ale, with that round, malty nose. Follows on palate, which starts with some sweetness and a good amount of soft texture. Pleasant and friendly, a warming ale. Hops rise only on the finish, gently.

Celt Experience Dark-Age

The stout. Fresh aromas on the bouquet - roasted yes, but hardly like the mocha char I was expecting. That richness does come up on the palate, good texture, but lean. Hoppy finish, maybe not as much weight as a Guinness, for comparisons sake, but no less satisfying. Friendlier with food, certainly - much less likely to sit on top of the food and obliterate any flavours.

So at the end of it all, have we answered the question of what makes a fine beer, and what situation calls for beer over wine? I think I have a better understanding now, at least with the first one. Fine beer is balanced, it's complex, yet has to retain a drinkability. And Celt Experience has all of those characteristics. All the beers are well made, and most importantly, are genuine. There's a sensibility to them that makes them perfect for the table, unlike certain West Coast IPA's that look to blow your head off.

As for when to choose beer over wine? That's a silly question. It all depends on context - company, mood, season, whatever . . . and as long as there are fine wines and fine beers to choose from, we'll be alright. Much appreciation to Tom and Becky for sharing their beers with me, and a hearty cheers to everyone at Celt Experience.

DF