Boutique Beers: More Taste, More Money

It’s possible to get good American beer--if you drink brews from the so-called micro-breweries. But these tend to be ales, not beer in the familiar lager style.

The micro-brewery business started as an outgrowth of home brewing, says Byron Burch, author of the book “Brewing Quality Beers.” Home brewing became popular in the 1930s when American beer connoisseurs objected to the lack of quality in post-Repeal commercial beer. Ale became the established home-brew style, because it’s far easier to make than lager beer, which requires long cold storage.

“The micro- and home-brew movements have been reactive,” says Burch, “sort of the equivalent to the British movement for real ale. It was a quality-oriented revolt. The people said, ‘One way or another we’re going to get “characterful” beers.’

“And in the last decade micro-brewing has really taken off.”

Another lingering consequence of Prohibition was restrictive laws that made it difficult for micro-breweries and brew-pubs to get started. The first legal brew pub to open in California since Prohibition is today celebrating only its 10th birthday. The Mendocino Brewing Co. opened its doors in Hopland, just north of Sonoma County, in June of 1982.

The first micro-brewery in the United States, New Albion, was opened in 1975 in Sonoma. In 1979, Charlie Papazian began the American Homebrewers Assn. in Boulder, Colo., which today claims a growing membership, many of whose members have gone commercial with micro-breweries.

Today there are about 250 micro-breweries in the United States, nearly 30% of them in California. Almost all specialize in richer, fuller-flavored beers and a few of them--including Anchor Steam of San Francisco, August Schell of Minnesota, and Sierra Nevada of Chico--have broad distribution. Burch says there is more individuality and even eccentricity in the micro-breweries’ products, much as in Europe, where, as he points out, “Each little town had its own style.”

In our blind tasting of some lager-type micro-brewery beers that are widely distributed in the Los Angeles area, the winner was Pete’s Gold Coast Lager, with its flowery, hoppy nose and creamy character with a lovely, delicate bitterness.

Ranking nearly as high was Baderbrau Pilsner out of Chicago. It was an exotic beer with smoked notes and hints of alfalfa. Also scoring well was Scrimshaw Pils from Fort Bragg on the Mendocino Coast, which offers a clean, crisp, lemony sort of aroma and a creamy-bitter finish.

Perhaps the best micro-beer for the average American beer-drinker’s taste, however, was Samuel Adams, with a wheat aroma and a strong hop flavor. It finished a tiny bit sweet to balance the appropriate bitterness. It is widely distributed and fairly consistent.

An exotic and intriguing beer was August Schell Pils, which was decidedly un-lager-like, but which impressed the judges with its toasted-smoky, bacon-y character that would go well with smoked foods.

Eureka Beer from Los Angeles was interesting with a buttery note in the finish, but a trace of ammonia knocked its score down a peg.

Not scoring well in this competition was Etna Export (a cooked character detracted from it), Alpine Village Hofbrau (the sour and tea notes were odd), Rhino Chasers of Chatsworth (a sweaty character was off-putting to two judges) and Sierra Nevada Pale Bock (“This isn’t a good example of Sierra Nevada’s beer; they really make good stuff,” said one judge).

The judges did not evaluate Anchor Steam because it was deemed too ale-like, but later all said it is a classic American micro-beer with great character and uniformity despite substantial production.

The price of micro-brews is about $3 a six pack more than American beers from large producers, but prices vary greatly.

In any case, make sure you are getting fresh products. In general, beer that’s been sitting around for a few weeks gets tired and loses its charm.