What’s Brewing Bergseth Bros.
/in Uncategorized /by Brian FrankWeekly Online Newsletter Vol.110
We are excited to announce the Sweet Release of Lagunitas Brown Shugga’. We even included a Thanksgiving recipe – BROWN SHUGGA-IFIED BAKED CANDIED YAMS, along with some great videos from our Friends at Lagunitas.
Brown Shugga’, a seasonal brew from Lagunitas, was created in 1997 as the result of an attempt to rescue a failed batch of Olde GnarlyWine Ale by adding “boatloads of brown sugar”—or so the story goes, anyway. It was a hit and they’ve made it every year since with only one exception (the moving year).
Lagunitas, then in the process of building a new brew house, realized that they didn’t have the facilities to brew both their regular beers and Brown Shugga’ (which requires more time to make than the others). In its place they released an excellent IPA that they named Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale, with an apology for not brewing Brown Shugga’ printed on every bottle.
Brown Shugga’ – it’s less sweet than you’d expect, smooth and biscuity-tasting with a subtle brown sugar flavor and piney hops that kick in with a bitterness that intensifies for two or three seconds before starting to fade. When the beer is cold the hop bitterness is the dominant flavor, but it mellows out as it warms up, letting the malts come through more.
Press Play! #MouthFeels: Brown Shugga’
Press Play Again! Turkey and Brown Shugga’ Pairing – Happy Thanksgiving
BROWN SHUGGA-IFIED BAKED CANDIED YAMS
It’s that time of year again… The time to gather with friends and family to enjoy copious amounts of great food, fun stories and of course some ice cold brews. So we thought we would share one of our favorite holiday shareables that can easily be whipped up, and perfectly washed down with Brown Shugga’ Ale. How come you taste so good?!
Ingredients
- 5 medium-ish sized yams
- 8 tbsp salty butter
- 1 12 oz bottle o’ Lagunitas Brown Shugga’
- 1 tsp Crushed cinnamon
- ½ tsp Milled nutmeg
- ¼ tsp pulverized clove
- ¼ tsp powdered ginger
- 1 cup granulated shugga’
- ¼ cup brown shugga’ (the kind in the box, not the kind in the bottle…)
- 1 tbsp of the purest vanilla extract you can find.
Instructions
- Turn the oven down from 420 F to 350 F…
- Wash your hands… Then the yams.
- Peel those yams, then slice em into ½ inch thick slices
- Gently throw the yams into a 9”x13”ish baking dish thing.
- Get a medium sized POT and put the butter in it. Get it all melty over medium heat.
- Once the butter is melty, sprinkle in the white & brown sugar (Not the beer), ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and ground clove.
- Turn the stove off, then forget that you turned the stove off and check it again. Mix the ingredients, then add the ultra pure vanilla extract & all 12 ounces of the irresponsibly-sweet Brown Shugga’ (the beer this time).
- Pour that candied mixture over the yams (try to coat all the yams with the candied goodness).
- Next, turn the oven back on again… Cover the baking dish with a protective layer of foil, then bake the yams in the oven for 30 minutes. Make a foil hat to prevent alien brain control.
- Remove the yams from the oven, and baste them with MORE of the candied goodness.
- Cover the yams again, and get them BAKED for another 15-20 minutes.
- Carefully remove the yams from the oven, with both hands and let them sit for about 10 minutes before dividing them off to friends or family. Don’t forget to save some for yourself!
- Enjoy it best with a cold Brown Shugga’ Ale. Cheers!
CHEERS!
What’s Brewing Bergseth Bros.
/in Uncategorized /by Brian FrankWeekly Online Newsletter Vol.109
This week I decided to share one of my favorite winter beers and the most popular winter beer in the United States, Samuel Adams Winter Lager. Samuel Adams was the first brewery to ever release seasonal offerings. These beers quickly soared to the top based on their quality and consistency year after year.
Press Play to Watch Jim Koch Tasting Video
WINTER LAGER
German brewers were onto something centuries ago when they created rich bock beers for the winter. Our version is spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and orange peel for a deep flavor and malty finish that will warm you on a cold winter night.
CHEERS!
What’s Brewing Bergseth Bros.
/in Uncategorized /by Brian FrankWeekly Newsletter Vol.108
As much as I don’t want to admit it, I feel that Old Man Winter is digging in its feet for the season. The temperatures seemed to drop significantly over the last week and we saw our first few glimpses of snow.
When the weather turns colder my beer drinking habits tend to lean to the darker, richer, and fuller bodied beers. My classic fall/winter favorites include Guinness Draught, Guinness Extra Stout, Samuel Adams Cream Stout and Summit Nitro Oatmeal Stout.
I always include a mix of these classics in with a few newer beers, such as Lagunitas Brown Shugga, Fargo Brewing Roustabout Oatmeal Milk Stout, Rhombus Guys Brewing Into the Darkness Porter, Empyrean Long Route Peanut Butter Porter, Empyrean Dark Side Vanilla Porter and Fulton Worthy Adversary Imperial Stout.
I could go on and on with my list – Do not hesitate to ask your Bergseth Bros. Sales representative for a list of darker beers that we carry year-round and seasonally. Below is a great guide I found online explaining some of the more popular styles of darker beers.
A Guide to Dark Beers
Find the right beer for fall.
By JUSTIN KENNEDY Art by FELIX DECOMBAT
http://luckypeach.com/guides/a-guide-to-dark-beers-porter-stout-ale/
Between the cold days and the prolonged nights, fall and winter generally feel like a time for dark, warming beverages—hefty red wines, stiff brown spirits, and, perhaps most of all, robust dark beers. But all dark beers don’t necessarily fit that mold. “Dark beer” is an overly broad and inexact category encompassing everything from easy-drinking German Schwarzbierto bold Belgian quads. (And because of that breadth, there are plenty of dark—or darkish—beers, like Dunkels, Roggenbiers, Eisbocks, and wee heavys, not included here.)
Some dark beers are spicy and boozy; some are sprightly and refreshing. Here’s a guide to the gamut.
Porter
Porter dates back to eighteenth-century England, where it was by and large the most popular beer, a status it maintained up until World War II when lighter ales and lagers became ubiquitous. (The name porter probably originates from its early popularity among working-class dock builders and other haulers.) The beer’s dark brown color is the result of roasted malts, which were historically unevenly malted, lending an acrid, slight smokiness to early porters. The porter category is also a hybrid style: while most are warm-fermented with ale yeasts, Baltic porters are traditionally cold-fermented with lagering strains.
Modern English Porter
Modern English porters are subdued but robust, with a dry, almost acidic finish. Like stouts, porters have morphed and transmuted into myriad sub-categories and regional styles over the centuries, but the original is a mild dark beer with roasty flavors and gentle bitterness from grassy Fuggle and Golding hops.
American Porter
American porters are not quite as soft and sweet as traditional English porters; they lean toward the rich and complex end of the spectrum. They’re usually dark brown to black in color, with a strong malt flavor and aromas of coffee, chocolate, and sometimes citrusy hops. Most are around 5-6 percent ABV and medium bodied.
Baltic Porter
Baltic porter is a spinoff style of the original English porter. It took root in England around the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries, and was initially influenced by the hefty imperial stouts commonly exported to the regions around the Baltic Sea. By the nineteenth century, Baltic porters were also being brewed in the Baltic states themselves. This marked a turning point for the style, which then went from being a warm-fermented ale to a cold-fermented lager (the fermentation style favored in the Baltic region). Today, most Baltic porters are cold-lagered; strong ale-fermented porters are considered imperial porters instead.
Imperial Porter
Imperial porters inhabit a gray area somewhere between Baltic porters and imperial stouts. The term is sometimes synonymous with Baltic porter, but since most imperial porters are American-brewed, they’re usually top-fermented with ale yeast rather than cold lagered. Imperial porters are typically between 7.5 and 9.5 percent ABV and can be barrel-aged in bourbon barrels or wine casks.
Stout
Stouts are dark, robust ales who can trace their lineage directly to porters. The term “stout porter” was initially used to describe boozy, rich porters; it was eventually shortened to just “stout.” Today, the term describes a broad category of substyles that vary from frothy, sweet, and light to rich, robust, and complex.
Dry Stout
The most popular stout in the world is Guinness, the archetypal dry stout that’s dark and silky but also quite light in body and booze—only about 4 percent by volume. Like all stouts, the black color comes from dark-roasted malts that lend bitterness and a dry, crisp finish. Dry stouts like Guinness are often poured on draft with nitrogenated gas (rather than pure carbon dioxide), which imparts a gentle sweetness and an exceedingly smooth, creamy body. One subvariety is the oyster stout, made by adding calcium-rich oyster shells during the boil. The shells’ original role was probably as a filtering mechanism (much like the “protein raft” used to clarify consommés), but it also produces a pronounced, pleasant minerality.
Milk Stout
Milk stouts—sometimes called sweet stouts—are similar to dry stouts, but made sweet by the addition of lactose, or milk sugar. The lactose imparts creaminess and sweetness but doesn’t lend any additional fermentable sugars (saccharomyces can’t process milk sugar), keeping the ABV low and the beer relatively light and chuggable. Like dry stouts, milk stouts are sometimes served on draught with nitrogenated gas.
Oatmeal Stout
The addition of oats, rich in proteins and lipids, is yet another way to make a creamy-bodied stout. The style was popular in Victorian England, fell out of favor during the twentieth century, and is now somewhat common again with American brewers. In terms of sweetness and creaminess, it falls somewhere between dry and milk stouts.
American Stout
American stouts are distinguished—surprise! surprise!—by a pronounced citrus hoppiness. They’re often much roastier than dry, sweet, and oatmeal stouts, and a little heftier, too, with ABVs around 6-9 percent. Some are infused with coffee and chocolate, amplifying the roasted malt’s inherent flavors.
Export Stout
Export stouts—also known as foreign or tropical stouts—were originally hearty, high ABV stouts developed in the British Isles for export to the Caribbean and other tropical climates (the high alcohol and robust malts made them particularly well-suited for transoceanic voyages).The original was made by Guinness, first named West India Porter and later renamed the Foreign Export Stout, which dates back to the early 1800s. Export stouts are full-bodied and robust, with a more pronounced bitterness than dry and sweet stouts, and about double the ABV (around 5.5–7.5 percent).
Imperial Stout
Imperial stout is a rich, robust, and powerful beer usually clocking in between 8 and 12 percent ABV (but can sometimes go higher, up to 15–17 percent). The style originates in late eighteenth-century England where strong (>10 percent ABV) stouts were brewed and shipped to Russia and the Baltic states. Modern iterations are sharp and bitter but with a residual sweetness that can be harmonizing at best and cloying at worst. The style is closely related to—and a direct influence on—Baltic porters.
Strong Ales
Strong ales are made boozy not by fortification or distillation but by making an extremely sweet, sticky wort (unfermented beer). This results from a thick slurry of fermentable sugars—mostly from malted grain but sometimes from adjuncts like Belgian candi sugar—added to the brew kettle before the beer is fermented.
Old Ale / Stock Ale
Old ale is an historic British term for a vague category of dark strong ales (>6 percent ABV). They’re usually dark reddish-brown in appearance, with robust, warming flavors of malt and booze. As the name suggests, they’re aged for a prolonged time before being released. Historically, old ales were blended with younger, weaker beer, but now they’re most commonly bottled, sold, and consumed at full strength, with many American versions reaching well into the double-digit ABV range.
Barleywine
Barleywines are dark reddish-brown strong ales that originated in England in the mid-nineteenth century. The first commercial example to be called barleywine was Bass No. 1, a boozy, sweet ale meant to mimic the flavors of fortified wines. They’re nearly indistinguishable from old ales—some even argue the only difference is name—but barleywine is a much more popular term in America than old ale. They can age beautifully for many years, developing sherry-like aromas of toffee, dried fruit, and caramel. Most are well over 10 percent ABV.
Belgian-Style Dark Strong Ale (Trappist Quad)
This beer is exactly what its name implies: a dark strong ale made in a traditional Belgian style. Trappist breweries—a certified appellation that covers only monastic breweries within the Trappist order—usually call these quadrupels, or quads, following the nomenclature of Singels, Dubbels, and Tripels, a reference to beers of increasing strength. But the style isn’t codified, and breweries outside the appellation may also refer to them as quads or Belgian-style strong ales. Because of proprietary yeasts and idiosyncratic brewing methods, the characteristics vary from brewery to brewery, but in general, quads are rich, malty, and boozy (>10 percent ABV), with complex aromas of dark dried fruit and spices. They’re often chewy and full-bodied, though some are effervescent, even vibrant. Most are bottle-conditioned with added sugar and yeast.
American Dark Sour Ale
Though not a codified style, dark sour ales have become increasingly popular among American breweries. Most begin stout- or porter-like before undergoing some degree of wine barrel-aging, mixed fermentation (usually with brettanomyces), and bottle conditioning. The style is divergent, but overall dark sour ales are mouth-puckeringly tart, with funky aromas and rich flavors of char, dried fruit, and tart cherries.
English Dark Mild
Dark milds are traditionally low-ABV session ales. They’re typically brewed with chocolate or black malts and are gently hopped, much milder than pale ales and IPA’s. The style dates back several centuries to at least the eighteenth century. Like many other styles, they fell out of favor during the mid-twentieth century, but are experiencing something of a resurgence thanks to the craft beer boom of the last twenty years.
CHEERS!!
What’s Brewing Bergseth Bros.
/in Uncategorized /by Brian FrankWeekly Newsletter Vol.107
If you’re like most parents, you’ll plan on bellying up to the counter and picking through your kid’s Halloween candy once they go to bed. You may also be in need of a drink after all that trick-or-treating. We’ve got you covered, below is a great article and video from Molly Miller paring some Halloween candy with different styles of beer.
Press Play Below to Watch:
9 Must-Try Halloween Candy + Beer Pairings
By: Molly Miller
http://www.hgtv.com/design-blog/entertaining/halloween-candy-and-beer-pairings
After the trick-or-treaters are gone and the kids are in bed, there’s a good chance you’ll have some leftover Halloween candy sitting around. But before you sink into the couch with a cold one and a handful of candy, consider pairing your beer of choice with a complementary sweet. We promise it’ll make that extra candy (and the beer) taste even better.
Porter + Chocolate Candies
The porter’s roasty, malty notes make chocolate candies taste even richer and “chocolat-ier.”
IPA + Cinnamon Candies
Hoppy, citrusy, floral IPAs taste downright refreshing after throwing back a handful of cinnamon candies.
Oktoberfest + Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
A full-bodied, toasty and slightly hoppy Oktoberfest complements the richness of a peanut butter and chocolate candy.
Cider + Caramel Apple Suckers
Crisp and refreshing ciders can be sweet or dry and tart making them excellent companions to juicy, green apple-flavored lollipops with chewy, buttery caramel centers.
Raspberry Ale + Dark Chocolate
Tart effervescence from fruit lambics provides a sweet contrast to dark chocolates’ bitterness. There’s a reason fruit and chocolate pairings are so popular.
Pilsner + Red Licorice
With citrus and herbal notes, German pilsners bring out the fruity flavors in red licorice while hops cut the sweetness.
Pumpkin Ale + Chocolate Marshmallows
Warm and toasty with notes of clove, cinnamon and allspice, pumpkin ales are the perfect companions to this candy’s vanilla and chocolate flavors.
Cream Ale + Candy Corn
Candy corn’s intense sweet taste needs a light, refreshing, low-hopped brew, like a cream ale, to wash down all the sugar.
Saison + Gummy Candy
Chewy, fruity gummy candies need a slightly tart, semi-dry beer, like a saison, with only a hint of sweet fruit flavors.
Another Candy & Beer Pairing Chart from the kitchn
CHEERS & HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
What’s Brewing Bergseth Bros.
/in Uncategorized /by Brian FrankWeekly Newsletter Vol.106
It’s been almost a year since we launched Empyrean Brewing Company Long Route Peanut Butter Porter as a year-round brand in our market. The brand continues to amaze everyone with its consistently strong sales throughout the year. Most people are hooked after their first sip of this delicious beer.
I feel it’s the best thing that’s happened to peanut butter since meeting jelly, or in my case meeting chocolate. This beer magically incorporates the flavors of peanut butter with the richness of Porter. Its adult candy in a glass of beer – What could be better with Halloween right around the corner!
With the delightful aroma of a peanut butter cup, this beer maintains a porter backbone with twisting layers of chocolate, peanut butter and toast. Malt forward with very little bite, Long Route is 5% alcohol and 20 IBUs.
The Long Route logo features a meandering path, or labyrinth, which is an ancient metaphor for wholeness. As one walks the in and out following circular pattern in a meditative state, the labyrinth serves as a physical representation of the journey to the center of your mind and back out into the world with a broadened understanding of yourself.
“We chose the labyrinth symbol and the name Long Route because it fits with our brewery’s brand story that humanity is curious by nature.” said Rich Chapin, Head Brewer at Empyrean.
“We’re all on a pilgrimage towards enlightenment and eternal happiness. So why not enjoy that journey with a beer in hand?”
With the delightful aroma of a peanut butter cup, this beer maintains a porter backbone with twisting layers of chocolate, peanut butter and toast. Malt forward with very little bite, Long Route is 5% alcohol, 20 IBUs and 14.6o OG.
About Empyrean Brewing Co.
Founded in 1990, Empyrean Brewing Co. is the oldest craft brewery in the state of Nebraska. The adventurous spirit that launched Empyrean Brewing Co. created such beer legends as Chaco Canyon Gold, Third Stone Brown, Dark Side Vanilla Porter, Imperial Mango IPA, and a host of seasonal, specialty and limited release beers.
CHEERS!