What's Bob Drinking Now?

Pretty Things has been a favorite brewery for a while, now. St-Botolph's Town is in regular rotation in the fridge, and Jack D'or also makes regular rounds at our table.

When we saw the latest new pretty thing in the cooler at Good Beer, LOVELY SAINT WINEFRIDE, it was a given that we'd be trying it before long.

L-St-W is billed as a "brown lager brewed using a decoction method to mark the end of winter." Good timing, then, as the temperature is to climb to near 60-degrees this week!

The beer is a very dark brown color, as viewed from a wide goblet. The color reminds me of Turkey Pond in Concord, N.H., which has a slightly iodine color just on the top, super dark brown just inches below the surface, and then quickly brown to black. St-W has a modest, tan lace along the edge of the glass.

There is an assertive, bold, long lasting and consistent mild roast aroma -- it's strong without being acrid or burnt. There seems to be some real fruitiness, but from hops and not yeast? You don't expect that from a lager, unless it's fermented a bit warmer than usual -- and as their website notes, it was fermented a bit warm, "as low as 53-degrees" which might account for the dry frutiness, á la a Steam Beer or Kölsch.

The flavor is also roasty, and extremely chewy!  It's very malty, mildy roasty and bitter. And, again, not acrid bitter, but rather hoppy bitter. Perhaps the decoction mashing added a hint of darkened caramel flavor, mixing about the hop bite.

Of course, decoction mashing means that a portion of the mash is brought to a boil and then re-added back to the main mash, in order to step up the temperature to help activate different enzymes to convert starches to various sugars.

At 7% abv, it's not quite a session beer and not quite a 10-ounce pour, but it's a richly flavored solid dark-brown beer best savored with relaxed patience and prolonged enjoyment. Let St-Winnie bless your tankard!

Pretty Things In Brooklyn

WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 7/26/2011

On July 21, 2011 Dann, Martha and Jim of PRETTY THINGS were at BARCADE in Williamsburg to showcase six of their lovely beers. They told us about what it's like to be a brewing company without a brewery, and talked about the "brewing philosophy" of Pretty Things.

Martha, Dann and Sophie at the bar.

The latest PT beer on tap was AMERICAN DARLING (7%abv), a "summer lager" which is made with 100% Weyermann malt from Bamberg, Hallertau-region hops, and three yeast strains, and is lagered for 7 weeks. It was a fresh, clean, malty lager with significant hop bitterness. It definitely had a special something setting it apart from a typical pilsner beer. I'm guessing that the yeasts used contributed a LOT to its uniqueness.

Always an impressive list at Barcade.

We also tried the JACK D'OR saison style beer, which was quite refreshing on what was a blisteringly hot day. It had some assertive hop character and bitterness as well as spiciness, especially when compared side-by-side to the soft and malty FIELD MOUSE'S FAREWELL, which uses Strisselspalt hops from Alsace and Bramling Cross hops from England. (If I ever get pet mice, I'm naming them Strisselspalt and Bramling.)

The American Darling and Baby Tree.

The BABY TREE "quadruple" was also on tap. Made with 40lbs of dried California plums added to the boil, it's a 9%abv dark belgian ale, with delicious candy sugar/brown sugar/toasted caramel flavors -- not too sweet, but sweet enough to mask the high octane nature of this very-glad-it's-served-in-a-10-ounce-glass beer.


They also featured the ST-BOTOLPHS TOWN, which we featured in an earlier post.

Sophie passes on a 9% ale...

...but she won't turn down a 7% lager!

It's not always easy to find many PT's beers on tap in NYC, but you can search for them at BEER MENUS. Also, they'll be at the Cooperstown, NY fest, BELGIUM COMES TO COOPERSTOWN on July 30-31, 2011 and at the STAG'S HEAD in Manhattan on July 27.