Style: Double Pale Ale
Color: Amber to Red
ABV: 10%
Price Point: $10 for 22oz
Technical Notes:
From the Middle Ages Brewing Co. Website:  “Brewed in the style of an American Double IPA in celebration of our 10th anniversary. This beer is golden in color, has medium to full body, intense hop bitterness, flavor and aroma. Ten additions of American hops are made throughout the brewing process.”

Hedonic notes:

The beer pours a deep red with a slight orange hue.  A slightly off white head forms and persists for some time.

Citrus hop notes dominate the aroma and are joined by a faint pine/grass like hop scent.  Sweet malt smells are reminiscent of caramel and form the backbone of the aroma.

As in the aroma, citrus hop dominates the palate.  A slight earthy hop note is present, in addition to a slightly stronger pine flavor than is present in the smell.  Sweet malt flavors are largely caramel-like and balance the hops very well.

The beer is medium bodied and has an appropriate level of carbonation for a double IPA.  Despite the strong malt flavors, the mouthfeel is not too sweet.  There is very little hint of alcohol though the beer is 10%.

Overall, Middle Ages’ X IPA is a very well-balanced beer.  It is not as aggressively hopped as many other double IPAs, but the bitterness is rounded out very well with malty sweetness.  The hop notes are largely citrus and pine/grass, with less earthy notes.  This nearly single aspect of hop flavor makes the beer seem a bit one-dimensional, but the properly proportioned malt flavor works to compensate for this shortcoming.

Rating: 2.5/5 Corks.  Though very well balanced and drinkable, the beer does little to set itself apart in a sea of American IPAs.

Science!
Hops are generally added to beer for two reasons: aroma and bitterness. These components come at different stages of the beer brewing process.

Isomerization reactions in the boil process make hop oils soluble and have profound consequences for beer flavor.  During the boil process, humulone reacts to form isohumulone, which is far more soluble.  One key difference is the absence of the aromatic ring structure, which makes the compound more stable in solution with water.

Beer bitterness is measured using international bitterness units or IBUs.  One IBU corresponds to one part per million (microgram per liter) of isohumulone.  This figure is typically measured using spectrophotometry or liquid-liquid extraction.  The precise value of this measurement is often of little importance since a malty flavor easily mask the bitterness.

Typical bitterness levels for India Pale Ales is often in the range 40-60 IBUs.  Double or imperial IPAs represent a wide range from 60 to 120 IBUs.  Most wheat beers are under 20 and lagers tend to be in the range of 10 to 30 IBUs.  These figures are in accordance with Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) guidelines that define style parameters.

Breakdown of these compounds is often blamed for stale flavors in beer.  Decomposition of isohumulone in the presence of oxygen and sunlight results in the formation of 3-Methyl-2-butene-1-thiol.  This compound imparts a distinct stale taste and skunky odor.

Other soluble compounds from hop oils are responsible for a substantial portion of the beer’s flavor profile.  Efforts to characterize the precise flavor contributions and taste thresholds hold promise for further understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of the brewing process.  Additionally, such knowledge enables brewers to very accurately plan the precise flavor profiles of beers.  Characterization of these compounds also has applications in beer haze and foam stability.

Fix, George.  Principles of Brewing Science.  Brewers Publications, Boulder CO: 1999.

Pozdrik, Richard, Roddick, Felicity A., Rogers, Peter J., Nguyen, Thang.  Spectrophotometric Method for Exploring 3-Methyl-2-butene-1-thiol (MBT) Formation in Lager. J. Agric. Food Chem. 53(17): 6123–6129. 2006.

Weiss, A., Schönberger, Ch., Mitter, W., Biendl, M., Krottenthaler, M., Back, W. Sensory and Analytical characteristation of reduced, isomerised hop extracts and their influence and use in beer. J. Inst. Brew. 108 (2) 236:242. 2002.

                          

Style: Belgian-style Wheat Ale with Traditional Spices
Color (light, amber, or dark): Light
ABV: 5.1%
Price Point: $7.50/750 mL bottle
Closure: Cork with cage. The yeast sediment in the bottom is a clue that this bottle’s carbonation comes from a fermentation in the bottle, thus the need for the extra pressure protection of the champagne-style cork and cage.

Technical notes: From the website: “Witte is brewed with malted and unmalted wheat, barley malt, a light hops addition and spiced with sweet orange peel and coriander. Though adding a slice of citrus fruit is common while enjoying a wheat or Wiess [sic] beer, we feel that Witte’s gentle spicing and slight tartness renders the fruit superfluous.”

Hedonic notes: Pours with a lot of long-lasting foam. (Some people think that the foaminess of a beer is indicative of its quality. I’m not so sure, but that’s fodder for another post.) Smells of a little orange at first, giving way to some spicy, phenolic, medicinal tones and finally some plain old grain/malt. On the palate, tart, with lemon peel and tongue-numbing clove*. Very refreshing and light. After a long while, some curry appears on the finish. Likely a great summer beer (whoops, it’s definitely fall. Maybe this should have been on sale!) I agree with the brewery’s assessment that a slice of orange or lemon would be a bit much.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 corks . It’s OK.

Ithacork breaks into the world of beer (finally!). I don’t know how it took this long! The Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown makes some quality Belgian-style beers. I’m not sure of their nationwide distribution, but around here, beers like Hennepin, Rare Vos, and Three Philosophers are ubiquitous. Cooperstown is a little over 2 hours east-northeast of Ithaca (and on the way to Boston). Maybe I will stop by the brewery on my next trip with Sarah out to Plymouth.

*Science!
One way that beer brewing is different from winemaking is that brewers have a seeming ability to throw all kinds of fruit, spices, or other stuff (coffee, pumpkin, jalapeño, etc.) into their product and still have it be called beer. However, spice aromas and flavors in beer don’t always come from the spice rack, the mysterious East, or the sandworms from Dune. In the case of most Belgian brews, the yeast can add a spicy character as well. The molecule I’m talking about here is 4-vinylguaiacol (4-VG). It’s one aroma component of cloves, (the major one is eugenol, found as a lignin degradation product in oaked wines, but not common in beer) and if you are old, you may have smelled it at the dentist’s office (clove oil has a slight analgesic effect, so it’s used as a numbing agent).

4-vinylguaiacol. Descriptors: clove-like, smoky, curry

Brewers are generally very protective of their yeast strains, and many breweries propagate their yeasts from previous batches. In this case, only certain strains of yeast (called Pof+, or “phenolic off-flavor” positive) have the ability (activity of the enzyme Pad1) to synthesize 4-VG and its counterpart 4-vinylphenol (medicinal/Band-aid) from hydroxycinnamic acid precursors. 4-VP and 4-VG are also the aroma precursors of {Brettanomyces} aroma compounds 4-ethylphenol and 4-ethylguaiacol in wines. (Van Beneden et al., “Formation of 4-vinyl and 4-ethyl derivatives from hydroxycinnamic acids: Occurrence of volatile phenolic flavour compounds in beer and distribution of Pad1-activity among brewing yeasts”, Food Chemistry, 2007).

Basically, Belgian witbiers and German hefeweizens have this clove aroma because of the strains of yeast that are traditionally used to ferment them. PS: The difference between a witbier and a weizen? Witbiers are often made with unmalted wheat, while weizens are made with malted wheat.

                          

Appellation: Finger Lakes
Grape: Cayuga White
ABV: 11%
RS: 2.4% (wow, it’s been a while since I reviewed a non-dry wine, eh?)
Price Point: $9
Closure: Extruded synthetic (boo! If you’re going synthetic, then I much prefer molded to extruded, aesthetically speaking)

Technical Notes: Machine-harvested, crushed and destemmed. 19 {Brix} and {chaptalized} to 20, and fermented dry. Total acidity 10.1 g/L, pH 3.0. Filtered and cold-stabilized. Back-sweetened before bottling. (Thanks to winemaker Jeff Houck for the info. Follow him on twitter @LucasWineTalk)

Hedonic Notes: A tutti-frutti nose comes up, with grapefruit, apple, and canteloupe. On the palate, electric acidity is balanced by considerable residual sugar (aside: I always write tasting notes before I receive the technical info), with a loooong finish of mashed banana and a slight metallic note that may just be the tingling of the acidity on my tounge. Like licking the lid of a jar of baby food, or maybe a battery. A hint, just a hint, of labrusca creeps in on the finish, but it’s certainly not a dominant characteristic.

Rating: 3 out of 5 corks for a pretty good easy drinker.

Science! Grape Profile: Cayuga White

Listen up. Cayuga White is THE MOST IMPORTANT HYBRID in the Finger Lakes.
Cayuga White was released by Cornell in 1972 and has been the most successful hybrid wine grape Cornell has released (The others are Noiret, Corot Noir, Valvin Muscat, Melody, Horizon, Chardonel, GR7 (Geneva Red 7), and Traminette, along with a host of table grapes.) It is a cross between Seyval blanc (a French-American hybrid) and Schuyler (Zinfandel x Ontario). Many wineries sell it as a varietal wine, and it performs pretty well around here. It ripens reliably and provides interesting, fruity aromas with very little labrusca foxy aroma. You’ll find it all over the Finger Lakes, on its own and blended with other aromatic whites like Riesling, and in dry or semi-dry styles. Sometimes “cotton candy” is used as an aroma descriptor. Anecdotally, Cayuga White’s labrusca overtones increase with increasing ripeness. Perhaps the enzyme that synthesizes the foxy aroma compound methyl anthranilate increases with ripening time. That enzyme only been recently discovered, and looking at the expression vs. time data (Wang and DeLuca, “The biosynthesis and regulation of biosynthesis of Concord grape fruit esters, including ‘foxy’ methylanthranilate”, The Plant Journal, 2005, linked above), it seems that expression of this enzyme increases with ripening as well, so that makes sense.