I am not sure what I think about all things organic. On one hand, I kept an acre vegetable garden from 1999 to 2002 that was an all organic effort and about 40% of our food came from it. On the other, organic / green / sustainable to a significant degree has about as much relevance as “new and improved”. It’s branding and, if you are honest, you know there is nothing as sad as branding. I recommend the Beer Nut’s take on this point in his post Eco-illogical.
Look, I am as left as they come (within reason¹) but when I heard about the plan for this month’s theme, I yawned. Why not “social responsibility and beer”? Why not “photos of tumbling puppies and beer”? Yet, when I met with Steve from Beau’s All Natural Brewing this week, I faced a guy half a generation younger than me whose family had dedicated itself to making great beer with top quality organic malts, local spring water and a dedication in two languages to the community in which they lived. Surely,² there must be some meaning in all this.
I imagine I am one of the few yet to have both style Beau’s makes due to the beer mule work Steve press ganged me into the other night. The bottle is a ceramic flip top and holds 750 ml yet sells for a reasonable $7.45 at the LCBO – and one with a logo that is totally Lik My Traktor circa 1992 yet also something like 1932, too. Heck, with taxes and tip I can share a growler of this stuff down at the newly refurbished Iron Horse on Wellington for under twenty.
But what about the beer? Their work horse Lug Tread ale is a kölsche, a radical idea for a traditional and largely rural market that, when you think of it, makes perfect sense for the eastern Ontario version of the Canadian palate. Using authentic ingredients the beer is somewhat perfumed on the snoot but also malt grainy with a nod to steely German hops macro-pilsner drinkers are so familiar with. It’s like the perfect Canuck combo of classic ale maltiness with lager zip. To my mind, the malt has a bit of stockiness (never a bad move in the land of the loon) with plenty of round rich biscuit and also bread crust. Very little by way of fruit notes. This beer is made of grain – just like the Canadian economy.
Their Bog Water is another beer entirely. Dark mahogany with a fine mocha head, it gives off the reek of the Canadian Shield via that little bit of bog myrtle in the mix. We canoed a bit on the Rideau last summer through lily pad patches and the scent of this beer is very evocative of that damn twiggy loamy experience – sort of parsley stem and rooty. In the malt there is demerara sugar and date as well as cola and a lighter grainy touch than with the Lug Tread. Like it plenty but this one is not going to be any kind of smooth transition for the Molson Canadian crowd. A thinking person’s brown ale that begs to be stored on bug laced rum cask for a while.
Does the organics of all this help? I have no idea. Do I like this beer? Sure do.
¹By which I mean I love the taste of a good rib eye steak, salivate at the idea of slaughtering a lamb and love the crack, crash and smash of the tree I just chain sawed falling to the forest floor.
²Yes, I will stop calling you that.
