I wasn’t planning on bookending a post from earlier in the year about cask beer, but there’s a lot to discuss. Unlike years past, where an update may just affirm declining sales and interest in cask beer, this year brought a roller coaster ride of good and bad news. This time, the most disappointing news provided a spark that generated a bit more passion, defense, and relevance to what has generally been seen as a dying method of beer production and service. We’ll start with that.

Cask Marque’s annual Cask Ale Week in England got off to a bumpy start in September when it was featured in a GB News story. For those unfamiliar with GB News (as I was), it seems akin to Newsmax. The response by many cask fans in the UK was highly carbonated. Fanning the flames, Cask Marque doubled down in response to critics and unapologetically said they were just trying to spread the word and grow appreciation for cask beer.  

Worse than this though was an offensive t-shirt that organizers created for the event that stated, “I identify as…a beer drinker”. According to this tweet by David Jesudason, the organization allegedly doubled down on this as well:

Image Source: X.

Though there were numerous events throughout the week, it felt as if the wind was taken from the sails and the whole thing seemed unfortunate. That said, there was a silver lining as there was some of the most passionate dialogue about cask beer seen in a long time. It almost made it feel relevant for a moment.  

In my earlier post, I mentioned a more positive initiative to promote cask beer by Black Sheep Brewery with their Drink Cask Beer campaign. News broke in May that the company was entering administration (which is like the UK version of Chapter 11). A few months later, there were some layoffs and the closing of a few of their pubs.

They’re still around though, and I’m rooting for them. Black Sheep Ale and Riggwelter were two of my favorites when I was getting into beer. It has been a very long time since I’ve seen those on shelves over here or at any pubs, and I miss them a lot.      

Image source: Instagram

I’ll wrap up my UK comments with two positive tidbits. First, CAMRA published a book in August by Des de Moor on cask beer. Cask: The real story of Britain’s unique beer culture, is a long overdue addition to the literary beer world. While the book could have been trimmed down a bit, it will be a huge asset to those learning about beer styles, service, and traditions, including those in the Cicerone program.  

I was happy to see De Moor present on the subject of cask beer at this year’s Beer Culture Summit, organized by the Beer Culture Center (which was up until recently known as the Chicago Brewseum.) The summit is a yearly highlight for legit beer nerds. If you haven’t attended in the past, keep an eye out for next year.

Second, Boak and Bailey think there may be some real traction with cask ale at the moment. In a recent post, they state, “are we imagining it or are classic British beer styles, and cask ale more generally, making a bit of a cultural comeback? For real, this time. Not just in the hopeful dreams of traditionalists.” For more insight, read the full post here.

Ruvani de Silva suggests this is the case in the United States. Reporting in a recent Washington Post article, she says that there’s “new interest” in cask beer engines in the US and a 50-percent increase in cask beer check-ins over the last two years on the Untappd app. Maybe our “hopeful dreams” are coming true.

There certainly seems to be interest in Portland, Oregon where Jeff Alworth has made several references to the growing popularity of cask beer over the last two years. This has apparently continued to grow. See Jeff’s tweet below from this past September.  Breweries like Upright, Gigantic, and Steeplejack are reliably serving cask beer. Away Days are as well, and they have even been holding bi-annual cask beer fests.  

Image Source: X.

Bill Arnott at his brewery Machine House in Seattle. Stop by for a mardle (look it up). Image source: Instagram.

Just a bit to the north, things weren’t looking good in my last update when I mentioned that cask brewing stalwart Machine House Brewery in Seattle was losing its original home and was unsure of its future. Fortunately, the brewery found a new space in the Hillman City neighborhood and is back up and running. Crisis averted.

Over in the Northeast, the New England Real Ale eXhibition (NERAX) was held in Boston earlier in the year. It was the first time the event was held since 2019. An unexpected delay with the organizers citing “numerous supply chain issues”, pushed the event back a few weeks. It ultimately went forward serving over 100 different beers in an array of styles to an enthusiastic crowd. They have announced that the 2024 event will take place once again in Boston from April 10th to the 13th. Find out more information here. 

The 2023 New England Real Ale eXhibition (NERAX) Boston. Image source: Instagram.

Cask event at Strong Rope Brewery, May 2023.

My earlier post mentioned a great little annual fest in New York at Strong Rope, and this was followed up locally by a couple of fun cask events at Fifth Hammer, including one I attended dubbed “Caskalot”. There was some great beer, and it was a nice, laid-back affair. I’d love to see more events like these.

The Jones Wood Foundry in Manhattan’s Upper East Side kept its annual tradition of having a weekly cask beer program over the summer (though you can regularly find cask beer there throughout the year). I think in the past it was just for August. This summer, it started in June and ran through August. There were great pours by breweries like Dutchess Ales, Strong Rope, Wild East, Fifth Hammer and others.

This year, Jones Wood also began a cask-related blog on their website called ‘The Cask Whisperer’ by Nigel Walsh. It’s a bit of a hidden gem. This post in particular has inspired me to organize informal cask beer pub crawls. New Yorkers, keep your eyes peeled for that in 2024 if you’d like to join.

Also in New York, Wild East supported their increased production of traditional English-style Ales with the installation of a hand pump. Co-founder and head of brewing Brett Taylor told me they got their handpump from a pub in Sussex, England and they’ve kept the Marston’s handle that came with it. Every time I ask Brett how the casks are selling, he tells me they move quickly.

Marton’s handle on Wild East Brewing’s hand pump.

Instagram post by Delaware Supply in Albany, New York. Image source: Instagram.

Similarly, one of my favorite beer spots around, Delaware Supply in Albany, New York, recently burned through three Suarez Family Brewery pins (a 5.4-gallon keg for cask service) in less than two hours as noted in the Instagram post above. My home away from home brewery, Wayward Lane, started making some cask ale this year and also sent out some to Delaware Supply.

Suarez has made some great traditional British-style ales over the years, and it’s exciting to see them cranking out casks. Hopefully, they will keep it up and people will continue to take to them. Suarez no doubt helped guide a new generation of beer drinkers to lager (and has probably done the same with Dark Mild). I’m certain they can do the same with cask beer.

It would be interesting to see if they put some of their lager in casks too. I explored the idea of how great cask lager can be in Craft Beer and Brewing’s lager issue this year. If you’re not a subscriber, you really should sign up. It’s well worth it. If a subscription is not in the cards right now, the article just became available on the Craft Beer & Brewing website. You can access it here.

Elsewhere in print, Courtney Iseman had an article about cask beer published in the heavy metal magazine Decibel. It’s rad that Decibel published an article on this topic. I gladly scooped up a copy that came with a flexi 7-inch record. As a cask drinking record collector, this purchase was a no-brainer.

Image source: X.

I’ll wrap up with some thoughts on sparklers. These are the attachments that can be added to the swan neck of a hand pump to create a more robust head on a cask beer and better lacing. I’ve watched with amusement as people debate whether these should be used. This debate is primarily in cask beer’s homeland and is often noted as having a north/south orientation (sparkler in the north, not the south). Some are even getting sparkler tattoos.  

Black Sheep brazenly crossed enemy lines recently to serve their sparkled ales at a pop-up Christmas market in London. See the tweet above. They returned to the north unscathed.

I’ve found the debate a little ridiculous in the past, but I’ve been thinking lately that if it’s all in good fun (the Black Sheep tweet serving as an example), the debate should maybe be promoted more. It reminds me of the tremendously successful Miller Lite Tastes Great, Less Filling campaign, and it could be a fun way to generate interest and pride in cask beer. And, sparkler or not, if people are rallying behind cask beer, we all benefit.

(ed. It’s not that deep of a dive.)

Bar pies didn’t pop on my radar until around 2005 when I would go to a few bars in Brooklyn that offered them for free with each drink you bought. I didn’t think much of them at the time. They were just small pizzas that served a purpose. Good, cheap, utilitarian sustenance for when you’re out having a few drinks.

Since then, I’ve come to understand that bar pies are a thing with an interesting history, and they take different forms in different parts of the country. This means three regions, really. The tri-state metropolitan area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, the Midwest, with Chicago as the base, and the South Shore area of Massachusetts. (For the Midwest, they’re also referred to as thin crust pies, tavern pies, tavern-style, or just pizza, and for the South Shore, they’re called bar pizza.) Oddly enough, though New York and Chicago are well-known for pizza, they’re not known by many outsiders for bar pie-style pizza (and, as in my case, some locals may not even be aware of their existence).

I’m not sure exactly where the tradition of free bar pies came from, but the idea of offering free eats at a bar is obviously nothing new. It’s just another form of a bowl of pretzels or peanuts on the bar. Something that keeps people from leaving because of hunger, and on the salty side, so it makes them thirsty. But the free pies may have been, and are definitely now, more of an anomaly. Most places serving bar pies charge for them.

The Concept

The free bar pies I had back in the day were straightforward. Crust, sauce, and cheese on a small, thin, crispy pie served at a bar. That’s it. Occasionally a couple of toppings, but nothing fancy. At the places I used to go, a topping could cost you a buck or two.  

To me, the sauce and cheese on a bar pie, free or not, extends to the rim. That seems to be the norm. There are places though that serve them with a more typical crust depth. I’ve always thought of them as a slightly bigger, slightly better Mama Celeste (the frozen pizza that uses the imagery of a woman that resembles to the mother from The Godfather. Also, one of my favorite frozen pizzas growing up.)

Mama Celeste and her doppelgänger, Mama Corleone.

They’re usually individual pies that are 10-12” in diameter (you might find them bigger though, especially when they’re not free). They’re not meant to be a big meal, can be shared, and you’re not going there specifically for it, so they’re not the star of the show. That’s the idea anyway. Or at least my idea of what they are.

The Reality

The reality is that in many places, the pizza is the main attraction. They’re a full meal, rather than just a snack for people at the bar. Some places have become well-known for their bar pies because they’re really good, and their names tip you off to the fact that they’re not a typical pizza joint. Instead of having Italian-sounding names one would expect for a pizzeria, a few popular bar pie places in the metro New York area, for example, include Colony Grill (with a shamrock in its logo), Grand Street Cafe, The Mountain House, and Star Tavern.

Back to Brooklyn

Contrary to what I just said, most of the bar pies I had back in the day were at a place called Capone’s. An online post described it like this: “free pizza is hard to quibble with, especially when you're eating it off a century-old hand-carved bar imported from one of Al Capone's Chicago haunts. The Williamsburg native (ed. Brooklyn, yes. Williamsburg, no) is said to haunt this dive…” I don’t remember it being such a dive. That said, the picture of the entrance shown below doesn’t suggest it was a classy establishment. It was sparsely decorated. That I do recall.

Image source: 11211.info

I also don’t really recall the quality of the pizza. This is what happens when you have one too many Sixpoint Bengali Tigers or Blue Point Toasted Lagers. While I don’t remember if they were good or not, nearly twenty years later, I remember them because they were part of the experience. And I remember destroying them like a true gavone. Not the best look if you’re single and looking for some romance, which may have been the case for some, as one site described Capone’s as “Williamsburg's Meet Your Hipster-Chick Girlfriend Bar".  

My friend Paul made everyone look a little gavone-ish as it was customary for him to coerce people into eating an entire slice in one bite. Given the compact nature of bar pies with their small slices, this feat was feasible, but still a little challenging. It was an entertaining tradition. (Side note: the Yelp reviews of Capone’s are a fantastic time capsule.)

As real estate prices in Williamsburg have skyrocketed since that time, it’s no surprise that Capone’s is long gone. However, another place we would frequent was the Alligator Lounge on Metropolitan Avenue, and it’s still around. Their motto: “Free. Pizza. Every. Day.” It’s a laid-back bar with a pool table and an impressive-looking wood-fired oven. I’m happy it still exists.

Free bar pies in Brooklyn. Alligator Lounge on the left and The Charleston on the right, where they’re $1 after 7PM.

Nearby, The Charleston on Bedford Avenue has free pies up to 7PM. After that, they’re $1. It’s a similar scene to the Alligator Lounge. I’m not sure what type of oven they use, but they do have a dough mixer there, which is always a good sign.

Out in the burbs and beyond

Far from the LCD Soundsystem vibes of Capone’s, the previously mentioned Colony Grill in Connecticut is like an Irish pub/VFW hall with great pizza. Colony was opened by Irish-Americans in 1935 in Stamford, Connecticut. They claim that they wanted to sell the food of their immigrant employees, including Italians, and the bar pie was created to serve a pizza that could fit on a bar top. Their website describes the pies like this, “not too much cheese or sauce so that slices can be easily managed with one hand, fittingly leaving the other hand free to hold a glass.” They were a huge success and Colony now has nine locations along the East Coast.

Bar pies at Colony Grill in Port Chester, New York with my dad and brother.

Beekman Ale House in Sleepy Hollow, New York is a newcomer to the scene, opening in 2021. My friend Matt Di Gesu tipped me off to this spot, and he’s a trusted source for all things pizza. Matt is the founder/GM of Pizzeria La Rosa in New Rochelle, New York and he makes some of the best pizza around. People definitely go to Beekman for the pizza as it’s very good, but it is definitely still a pub that people frequent simply to gather at a welcoming third space.

That’s what Matt and I recently did. We caught up with each other over a couple beers and some pizza. Others were doing the same. Some were watching a game on the tv. Some weren’t having pizza at all. In this situation, it felt unnatural to spend an extensive amount of time taking pictures. So, my one and only picture isn’t great, but I assure you, the pizza is (and so is Matt).

A very tasty bar pie at Beekman Ale House in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

I can’t speak to the scenes in the Midwest or the South Shore Massachusetts from experience, but Emmett’s on Grove in New York City’s West Village is making Chicago-style tavern pies and they’re fantastic. The restaurant opened after the success of the original Emmett’s, which serves a variety of Chicago dishes, notably deep dish pizza.

I would say the only significant difference between the Metro NYC bar pies and the Midwest tavern pies is the way they are cut. Tavern-style pizzas are cut in a grid pattern. One might argue another noticeable difference is that the Chicago bar pies are thinner and crispier. More of a cracker-style crust.

In Chicago, Revolution Brewing’s Director of Communications John Carruthers (@nachosandlager) began the charitable initiative called Crust Fund Pizza outside of his 9-5 at the brewery to support “the people who make Chicago a better place to live.” He makes tavern-style pizzas once a month and has raised over $60,000. He even landed himself on an episode of the Food Network’s show Chopped. Beer nerds take note: if you order and mention you’re into beer, he might through in some freebies for you. Check out his webpage and social media. Support if you can.  

Tavern-style pizzas at Emmett’s on Grove in New York City.

Crust Fund Pizza by John Carruthers in Chicago. Sources: Crust Fund Pizza website and John’s Instagram page, @nachosandlager.

Down to the crust

While I love places like Colony and Emmet’s on Grove, to me, a real “bar pie” will always be like the free pizzas I used to have years ago, or even at Beekman Ale House. They’re good pizzas at a place you’re hanging at with some friends having drinks. You don’t need to talk about the pizza or post pictures of it on Instagram. Like the drink you’re having, the pizza should be an accompaniment to good conversation, not the focus.

(Note: this post was updated to make reference to South Shore Massachusetts bar pizza, which was a glaring omission from the original version.)

Hoyt Avenue is Hit. Again.

Hoyt Avenue in Mamaroneck, New York flooded yesterday. Again. The street is the current home to Half Time Beverage and New York Craft Coalition (NYCC) (a new venture that includes Marlowe Ales and Barclay Brewing.) Without change, this won’t be the last time it floods.

But what level of change is needed and who is responsible? Do they need to install some detention basins to capture the water on the Hoyt Avenue property? Does the region need to implement green infrastructure measures to naturally cope with stormwater runoff? Does the world need to take actions that will meaningfully fight climate change? For a small brewery, there’s a lot that you simply cannot control.

One might say you can choose where to open your business, including areas not prone to flooding, but that’s easier said than done. For starters, there are local zoning regulations that dictate where land uses can be located. That immediately eliminates a substantial amount of land, and in areas that developed before the advent of rail and truck shipping, it often means being near a waterbody where industrial development was historically located.

Flooding in front of Half Time/NYCC September 29, 2023 (Image: Reuters).

In the case of Halftime and NYCC, it’s in the floodplain of the Sheldrake River. Not surprisingly, it has flooded in the past, including the four feet of water it brought into the space in September of 2021 thanks to Hurricane Ida. Back then, Decadent Ales occupied the NYCC space.  

The recent storm didn’t bring as much flooding to the Sheldrake floodplain. And while other places in the area like Brooklyn were hit hard, to my knowledge, Strong Rope and Wild East in the low-lying Gowanus neighborhood were the only breweries that reported flooding.  

Marlowe Ales hasn’t had it easy lately. After contract brewing with Twelve Percent Beer Project, the business found a home in Nyack, New York, but it was short-lived after one of the oddest closings the industry has likely seen. In the middle of service one night, the landlord had the business shut down after just six months of being open, leaving them without a home. But that’s another story.

Marlowe Ales posted these images on their Instagram account showing the clean up after the flooding.

A new opportunity sprung up with Barclay Brewing to take over the Decadent Ales space in Mamaroneck and the New York Craft Coalition was born. It’s in a location carved out of Half Time, which is a retail beer emporium with another location in Poughkeepsie, New York. The two breweries share the space, which includes a small brewhouse, as well as a taproom with a restaurant.

Securing space for a small brewery that is affordable and allowed by zoning is not easy. Just like when people search for their personal home, there are some tradeoffs. Half Time’s space has a lot of positives going for it. The flooding was likely something NYCC was aware of, but accepted knowing that you will never find the perfect location.  

It’s unclear what’s next for Half Time and NYCC. Half Time has already reopened, but what are long-term measures they are thinking about to avoid future flooding on the site? Marlowe noted on their social media that the flooding damaged equipment, finished products, and raw ingredients. They’re closed until further notice, except for sales of products to go. For the time being, support for them/NYCC can be given by buying their beer and merchandise. You can do that here.

An earlier post had me flipping through an old book that brings up memories that are a bit nostalgic now. And though I’ve had Michael Jackson’s Great Beer Guide for around twenty years, it still fascinates me. I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite drinkware from the book.   

Published in 2000, the Great Beer Guide is a fantastic book and offers a nice snapshot of what the beer world was like at the time. It does this by offering a brief overview of 500 beers from around the world.

While many think of the United States beer culture as still being in the dark ages in the year 2000, there’s an impressive number of beers from the States represented in the book. Though Jackson may have been a bit polite in some cases, there are many that are or were, excellent.

In addition to the 500 brews, the book also provides some other thoughts about beer that he explores in greater detail in some of his other works like Ultimate Beer. This sharing of similar content may be because both of these books in particular were published by DK.

Though there are many iconic vessels in the book that I appreciate (Tripel Karmeliet, for example), I decided to share some less obvious examples here.

Enough of the background. Here they are.

Berliner Bürgerbräu and Dock Street

With their colored handles, these glasses give a little flair to glassware that you don’t find these days in the beer world. Though there are very slight differences, these two are incredibly similar in shape, which is also something I appreciate.  

Jackson explains that in the case of Bürgerbräu, the red handle was used for their Export lager, and customers would order a “robin redbreast” (Rotkehlchen, in German, which is actually the name of this particular beer.)

It would be cool to see breweries/manufacturers experimenting with colored glassware again. Perhaps gold or silver handles with a matching rim.

Fraoch And Grozet

Though these are not my favorite looking vessels, I greatly appreciate the use of materials (ceramic and leather) and forms that were in widespread use before the proliferation of glass. Outside of Bavaria, few beer drinking cultures were still using non-glass drinking vessels once glass became cheap and readily available.

Both of these brands are produced by Williams Bros. Brewing Company in Scotland (Alba Scots Pine Ale is another beer of theirs featured in the book.)

Fullers and Jennings

These mugs have a presence that are at the same time sophisticated and substantial. They just seem to command respect. Though the lack of curvature is not ideal, there’s something about them that draws me in.

Guinness

There’s nothing wrong with the classic tulip Guinness pint glass, but this stout pokal/goblet is a bit cooler looking and is a little more unique, which an iconic beer deserves. Guinness still sells a glass in a similar design, but I like the one in Jackson’s book better.

Hoepfner

I like the artwork on this glass and also the nonic-ish bump.

Königsbacher

Having a first and last name beginning with a K, I’m drawn in by this glass’ K stem. It’s surprising we don’t see stuff like this more often.

Mitchell’s

I don’t know why, but I was always fascinated by these plastic bottles in my early years of beer nerdom. And yes, this post is about drinkware, but I feel this is worth mentioning here.

I always kept an eye out for these bottles not realizing that there was zero chance of me ever finding them in a store where I lived. Though that’s the main reason I’m mentioning Mitchell’s, the branded glassware depicted with the beer is very nice.

Okocim

This Polish beer is depicted with the book’s only Tübinger. Not just any old Tübinger, but one with a lid (called a Zinndeckel in German). Not sure we need more of these, but still pretty cool.

St. Georgen Bräu

I’m admittedly a sucker for St. Georgen Bräu, and I love drinking it out of a stein in particular.  In this case, the shape and artwork all click for me. I’d love to get my hands on one of these.

Other observationS From the book

-        Black Sheep of the UK and Domus of Belgium have beers depicted in Weizen glasses.

-        The book is short on dimple mugs, particularly the Czech-style Tübinger (there’s just the Okocim) and British Dimple pots (there are none).

-        Despite the American notion that nonics are the ubiquitous UK beer glass, there are very few in the book. They include Fuller’s (for a different beer than above) and Woodforde (though there are a couple other nonics that are unbranded).

 Most UK/Irish glasses are presented in tulip pints and shakers (aka, conicals.) This includes Adnams, Bank’s, Beamish, Cobbold, Greene King, Murphy’s, Pitfields, Sam Smiths, and Ushers for the former, and Bass, Batemans, Cain’s, Caledonian (Scotland), Charles Wells, Eldridge Pope, Highgate & Walsall, Hopback, King and Barnes, Marston’s, Shepherd Neame, Youngs for the latter.

 -        Of course, a significant number of US breweries are presented in shakers including the following: Alaskan, Anchor, Bert Grants, Fish Tale Ales, Geary’s, Great Lakes, Hale’s, Independence, Magic Hat, North Coast, Odell, Oliver, Portland, Pyramid, Red Hook, Rogue, Sierra Nevada, Southampton, and Tabernash.

 -        Malt Shovel from Australia is in a shaker as is Haecht from Belgium. Though it may seem odd for a Belgian brewery to be featured in a shaker, it is classed up with a gold rim.

-        There are a good amount of pokals in the book, including Ayinger, Bacchus, Bitburger, and Harvey’s.

 -        There are also lots of Willibechers, including Alfa and Brand from the Netherlands, Cristal from Belgium, Flatlanders, Gordon Biersch and Penn from the US, and Gambrinus from Czechia.

I’m curious what a 2023 edition of this book would look like. Probably a lot more British and Czech-style dimple mugs, Tekus, and snifter/tulip style glasses. What are some of your favorite examples of brewery drinkware past or present?  

Image courtesy of Stiegl.

It’s surprising that Stiegl Goldbräu hasn’t caught on with all the hype over lager the last few years. Austria as a whole seems off the radar for most beer drinkers. But the landlocked central European country makes world-class beer and ranks second in per capita beer consumption next to Czechia.  

I doubt many Austrians are bothered by this oversight. It seems they’re content to keep their beer to themselves (this is total speculation).

By and large, the beer style they drink is their version of Märzen, a version that differs from brews that bear that name in Germany. It’s an Austrian pale lager, and Goldbräu is one example that is available in the States.

Pale lager? That’s right. If you think Austrians are drinking amber Vienna Lager, they’re not. Not much, anyway. It’s an anomaly there.  

(For more reading on Austrian beer culture past and present, I recommend this post by Adrian Tierney-Jones and this one by Jeff Alworth.)

Tasting Goldbräu, one familiar with pale Czech or German lager will not find something vastly unfamiliar. Though proximity is no guarantee for similarity, the resemblance shouldn’t come as a surprise as Salzburg, where Stiegl is based, is just a few hours from Munich and Pilsen. There are subtle differences though.

Austrian Märzen is not Helles. It has a little more oomph. It’s not Czech pale lager. It lacks the character of Czech hops and likely has not undergone as much decoction. It’s also not a Maibock, lacking that deep malt character. It’s perhaps most like a modern Festbier, just a little lower in ABV.

Austrians love to use Austrian-grown ingredients, which helps distinguish their beer a bit. Goldbräu is no exception. The beer has been in production since 1912 and it features hops from the Mühlviertel region and barley from the Weinviertel region. Water is from the mountains around Salzburg.

It’s an all-Pilsner malt beer that is accentuated with a decoction mash. These days, that makes it different than most German pale lagers. Not the Czechs, though.

The beer is hopped with Magnum, Aurora and Hallertauer Tradition hops. Sure, these aren’t landrace varieties, which were decimated long ago, but as we all know, ingredients vary when grown in different regions.

The 12-degree beer (5-percent ABV) is spunded for natural carbonation and has an aroma with a touch of spice and citrus/lime. These carry through to the taste that’s supported by a pleasant bready/straw flavor. It’s crystal clear and has a nice bitter finish.

It’s worthwhile to note that Stiegl beers bear the “Slow Brewing” quality seal from the Slow Brewing Institute. The institute promotes properly brewed beer and breweries that incorporate sustainable business practices. The institute’s website states “the Slow Brewing seal of approval begins where the Purity Law ends” adding, “slow brewers are committed to slow fermentation and gentle maturation.” Cool.

Stiegl Pokal. Image source Stiegl.

Aside from the fact that all this adds up to Goldbräu being a fantastic beer, I’m drawn in by the brewery’s whole aesthetic. It feels timelessly cool. In particular, I love the brewery’s typography and its glassware. Especially its pokal-style Pilsner glass (see immediately above). However, the brewery would recommend you enjoy Goldbräu with their Stiegl Becher (see the top photo above), which is essentially the same glass. Still footed, but with no stem.

I’ve wanted the stemmed glass for a while, and my birthday is next month. Just saying.