16 July 2009

A game of two halves

After a wait of several years, I finally got to sit down recently with a bottle each of Anchor Small Beer and the brewery's Old Foghorn barley wine. For those who don't know, these two beers from the San Francisco brewery are made from the same mash, with Old Foghorn fermented from the high-gravity first runnings and Small Beer a product of running water through the grain a second time to wash out a lesser amount of the sugars for a weaker final result. Making multiple beers of descending strengths is a throwback to the days before commercial brewing, and Anchor are the only ones I know of who are doing it today.

I started with the Small Beer, which comes in a large 66cl bottle, with the tiny label accentuating its bigness. I figured that this 3.2% ABV ale wasn't one for considered sipping, so it all went into a large mug to be quaffed. Unfortunately, it proved an impossible task: this beer is far too fizzy for that kind of thing. Genteel mouthfuls are forced upon the drinker by the bubbles, making it entirely unsuitable as a thirst-quencher and a failure as a small beer as a result. But there is a lot going for it otherwise: the body is an attractive dark red-gold colour and the nose is redolent of a hoppiness I can only describe as "beery": that funky aromatic smell that I most associate with English bitters. We don't get much of the hop flavours in the taste -- instead there's a slightly severe acid bitterness which could do with being tempered by some malt sweetness. And there's also the rough carbonation, making it quite a difficult sup, all in all. The finish combines the carbonic dryness with the hops bitters to leave the drinker in need of something altogether more quenching afterwards.

I knew Old Foghorn wouldn't be it, fully aware that the 9.4% ABV monster would be as big and bitter as the day is long. But I was wrong. Yes it's a big beer, no doubt, but big in unusual places. The hops are out in force, of course, but they're remarkably fruity, imparting a kind of fresh orange juice flavour that's actually quite refreshing. The malt, meanwhile, puts an almost chocolatey base on this: biscuity sweet and not the syrupy soupy thing you sometimes get with strong beers like this. All in all it's quite easy-going. There's maybe a slightly off-putting cloying sweetness in the aroma, but none of that transfers to the palate: there it's a gentle soothing sipper with light carbonation and only a slight aftertaste, to keep the drinker coming back for more.

I honestly can't say I see any relationship between these beers. They're both very much hop-driven, and are hopped according to rather different recipes. Why they didn't think to put more late hops for flavour and aroma into the Small Beer I will never know. Still, Old Foghorn saves the day and I'll be having this one again.

19 comments:

  1. Don't fullers parti gyle?

    I too thought the over carbonation took away from the small beer, it was nice when I knock at good bit of carbonation out of it.

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  2. I thought about that about half-way down, specifically of Ron's anti-fizz stick, but it's about the only thing he's not currently selling on his website at the moment.

    And you're quite right: Golden Pride, ESB, London Pride and Chiswick are all from the same mash. Whaddaya know.

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  3. Maybe you need to reblend them and stir with a big spoon to dissipate the bubbles and make the perfect beer.

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  4. Yes. Look out for my upcoming post "How to ruin Old Foghorn".

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  5. Maybe a dash of lime cordial would have made it all more quaffable?

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  6. Possibly. Not something I keep round the house, though.

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  7. Party-gyling was common in commercial brewing until well into the 20th century. Graham Wheeler has an explanation somewhere or other of how regional breweries managed to sell a dozen different beers all made from the same mash. The Bitter was the same as the Best Bitter with more water in it, the Mild was the Bitter with more water and added caramel, etc.

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  8. I don't think it's far to describe something as "common in commercial brewing" when it only seems to have been common in a single country.

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  9. Barm its more of a case that there was less fermentables for a second runnings use to produce a lower gravity beer

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  10. Beer is a fairly simple drink of malt for alcohol and hops for flavour. Varying the proportion of water in a good recipe for a bitter ale would create a perfectly decent and quaffable version of either a 3.5% session bitter, a 4.2% best bitter, or a 5%+ special bitter. You might want to dry hop the weaker one to get it’s bitterness up and darken it slightly with caramel, to appeal to punters but otherwise you’d be on to a winner. If is saves costs and makes for a cheaper pint, where’s the problem?

    You may get a greater subtly over the hop resins by mashing an individual wort for each or more likely just a greater difference for difference sake, but can you say the price is worthy the value?

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  11. I'd imagine the problem with that would be to do with body. You'd probably be wanting to top up your non-fermentables alongside the water to stop the beer coming out, well, watery.

    I can't answer your value question. You're talking about the beer styles of a country I only visit a couple of times a year and which uses a different currency. I've absolutely no idea what constitutes "value" when it comes to a pint of novelty foreign beer like bitter, best bitter or special bitter.

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  12. I believe the problem with small beer is that the second runnings of the mash are more likely to contain compounds that might result in unpleasant flavours. For example tannins. Something to do with alkalinity, apparently. Let the final runnings gravity drop too low and the result might not be nice beer.

    I can see the fermentable/non-fermentable ratio might well be wrong too.

    Lime cordial might just be the thing in a case like that.

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  13. Writing from the San Francisco Bay Area, it's interesting to read how Anchor Beers play out on the other side of the pond. I've alway found Anchor's Small Beer to be more of a curiosity, sort of an historical example of how beer used to be made, than actually a beer someone would actually drink. As for Old Foghorn, it's one of my favorite barleywines.

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  14. I'm sure whatever historical period made beer like Anchor Small didn't force-carbonate it quite so liberally.

    Anyway, the last of the current set is still to come: I finally got my hands on a bottle of Anchor Porter this afternoon.

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  15. Woolpack that really an issue with fly sparing ,as ph drop tannin extraction rates increes. But parti guyl is an old version of batch sparing but you make two beer (or more) instead of combining both running to produce.

    But if the are sucesses pyles tannin and lipid extract may become an issue

    Fermentibility is aslo not really an issue as converion has taken place by the time you add the water for the second gyle. But some people add in some crystal malt or carpils to add a little body. Especially if the seconds runnings is from a big beer ,where the mash regime was designed for a more fermentiable wort

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  16. All of the anchor beers I have had so far have been way over carbonated. I am afraid your hate of over carbonated beers has rubbed off on me a little.

    I did like the small beer but it was not great.

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  17. Being the proud San Francisco beer nerd that I am... At first I sort of took offense at your review of the Small Beer, but then I remember I don't like the Small Beer either. So, even. I'm more of an Anchor Liberty and Old Foghorn fan. I'll trade you some of the Anchor for some hard-to-find Irish beers... ;-)

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  18. Thanks for the offer, but I'll stick with the off licence, thanks.

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