December 8, 2000 -- There was a coda to the beer tasting I hosted in October at the Sheraton Four Points LAX Hotel. (Please see http://www.worldofbeer.com/features/feature-200011.html for details.) It was the tasting that took place after the tasting.

One of the frustrating things about being the host of an event like the one in L.A. is that the tutoring of the tasting leaves precious little time for personal beer sampling. So while the audience is sipping and savouring delights such as Westmalle Tripel and Alaskan Smoked Porter, I'm up front gabbing away and growing very, very thirsty.

Thus I was very grateful to the Alesmith Brewing Company for bringing along several samples of their beer and a couple from the Solana Beach Pizza Port, which I was able to sample under more relaxed conditions later that night.

The Alesmith offerings were all massive brews: the 9.7% alcohol Stumblin' Monk Tripel; the 8.5% alcohol J.P. Gray's Wee Heavy, vintage 1999; and the 10% alcohol Belgian-style strong golden ale, Horny Devil. Pizza Port's were almost their equal in combined strength: SPF 45 Saison, at 6.7% alcohol; and at 11% alcohol, the Cuvée de Tommé.

With such potent brews -- all in 750ml bottles! -- and only one other person with which to sample them, I thought it best to open up the lot of them and sip our way through at random. Which is exactly what we did.

Problems were caused right off the bat by the J.P. Grey's when its cork quite literally disintegrated as I gingerly attempted to remove it from the bottle. While this did not bode well for the beer, I found to my surprise that it had aged quite decently. The malty esters (fruitiness) were dramatically low, particularly for a Scottish-style ale of such strength, but it did sport some dry complexity and notes of petrol and the beginnings of tanned leather in the body and finish. Perhaps not a beer at its best, but enjoyable nonetheless.

More impressive was the Horny Devil, a medium gold ale with a lovely and fragrant orange blossom and spice aroma. Obviously a big beer in many ways, the Devil showed lots of spice in both the body and finish, combined with evident alcohol and light fruit throughout. While it was billed as a strong golden ale (ie: in the Duvel style), I would better characterize it as a very large cross between a strong golden and a tripel. Beside it, the Stumblin' Monk tasted positively subdued, although it also sported a nicely spicy character and good alcohol structure. On its own, the Monk may well have left a very different impression.

The SPF 45 offered a beautiful aroma accented by the beer's added spices -- ginger, coriander, orange peel, black pepper, chamomile and grains of paradise. These were also evident in the body, which while very tasty, lacked the mild to moderate funkiness I consider essential to a saison. I definitely enjoyed it, and thought that it was an honest and worthy homage to the saisons of Belgium, but in the end was left wanting something more.

The final beer sampled was the description-defying Cuvée de Tommé, a "Belgian-style strong dark sour ale" aged in oak with sour cherries and intentionally dose with Brettanomyces, a strain of wild yeasts normally associated with lambics. Small wonder, then, that my tasting notes on it begin with "A very odd brew with no precedent that I can think of" and end with "A noble experiment." In between, there is reference to fruitiness (both from the cherries and malty esters), phenolic notes, an almost oily mouthfeel and big alcohol with aggressive flavour. This is the kind of wild, experimental beer that I love in theory and always enjoy sampling. As a taste sensation, however, I found it too confused and disjointed in its youth, although I would love to check back with it in a few years.

Footnote: If you live near or plan to be in the Los Angeles area on February, 21, 2001, please join me at the Sheraton Four Points LAX for another great tasting. This time, our focus will be on those monsters of the beer world, barley wines. For more information, call 310-649-7096.

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