A Michigan Beer Tour: Part 2

by Matt Dunn

Jim Schembre runs a tight ship. Seemingly oblivious to the night of mass Two Hearted consumption at Bell's Eccentric Cafe', he insisted on a sales meeting at 8 am. That's hardcore. Not so many people made it on time. But hey, just because you're on the road doesn't mean you can't conduct business as usual- I guess.

Whatever. I got to sleep in.

After finally collecting everybody in the lobby of our hotel, the several vehicle caravan began to come together in the driveway. Sort of. Unfortunately, only the lead vehicle had directions from Kalamazoo to our next destination, Battle Creek. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the lead vehicle was piloted by Rick, aka 'I'm oblivious to the rest of the caravan'. So with only our van lined up in caravan formation, Rick peels out into traffic. What were we to do? We didn't have any directions. We had no choice but to follow, leaving the slower and weaker members behind to fend for themselves on the mean streets of Kalamazoo.

But do not worry oh yee sensitive Indianabeer.com reader, for there quickly ensued a veritable flurry of cell phone calls and a rather pleasant tour of the historic Kalamazoo residential district, ultimately culminating in a thin and trim 5 vehicle caravan. Once on the highway, after the previous day's very severe thunderstorms, our crystal clear blue-sky drive to Battle Creek was certainly enjoyable.

But there is no rest for the wicked.

As soon as we arrived at Arcadia Brewing Company's beautiful brewpub, around 11:00am, beers were served. My first brew was a hand pulled half pint of their English Ale. Hopped with all East Kent Goldings and weighing in at 5.4% abv, I could drink this stuff all day. Just a touch of fruity yeast character played nicely with some very pleasant tea like flavors. The whole thing wrapped up with a crisp and rather brisk hop kick. But if you really want to get your day started something proper, like the good doctor Schembre apparently did, you don't mess around with those English session ales, you go directly for the very nice 7% abv London Porter, cask conditioned of course. This beer is big, black and badass. Brewed with 15% beechwood smoked malt, it's rich, robust and really one of the better porters made anywhere in the worldÖin my humble opinion.

And get this: you know how the London Porter used to be merely a seasonal brew? Well, according to President and Brewmaster Timothy Suprise, "I own the brewery- screw it let's make it all year round." Three cheers and a hearty hurrah! Or some such appropriate English expression is encouraged here. So look for this brew at your favorite purveyor of fine beers- all the freaking glorious year round.

Arcadia Brewing Company is one of several breweries operating in the US that makes beer in a very specific English brewing tradition developed primarily by a man named Peter Austin in the 1960s. The famous 'Peter Austin system' has been evangelized here in the states by Brit ex-pat Alan Pugsley, co-owner of Shipyard Brewing Company in Portland Maine.

The brew house itself is distinctly British in that it shuns technological innovation that you might find in a modern German-made brew house. No colandria, heat recycling or wet mills here. And while the bricks and wood are pretty freakin' cool, they are just for looks. Before the advent of gas and steam fired kettles, most English breweries used coal to heat their water and boil their wort. The copper kettles were built into a rather large brick oven system that, at least in estate brewhouses, was centrally located and served the brewhouse on one side, a bakery on another, and sometimes a laundry facility on a third side. But now, with modern steam and gas fired kettles, not to mention superior metal working techniques, the bricks are unnecessary. Similarly, while traditional wooden cooperage was the norm for mash tuns and kegs even as late as the 1930s and 40s in England, it quickly gave way to aluminum and steel vessels.

Because I have them handy, I thought I'd throw in a couple pictures of two traditional English breweries.

From The Brewing Industry in England: 1700-1830 by Peter Mathias. This is a picture of a small brewery that most likely sold its beer at tied public houses or straight to customers at the brewery. It looks to be between 5 and 10bbl. Note the pile of coal and the shovel in the left foreground of the picture.

From Country House Brewing in England: 1500-1900 by Pamela Sambrook. This picture is of the brewhouse at Charlecote estate probably from the early 1800s. It is a smaller brewery, less than 5bbl, and was only used to brew beer to supply the family and, more importantly, the staff. Note the wooden mash tun in the foreground.

However, the most famous characteristic of the Peter Austin system doesn't have to do with the actual brewery, but rather with the ingredients that come as part of the Peter Austin package. In addition to the best imported English floor malted barley such as Crisp Maris Otter, most folks (if not all) who brew on a Peter Austin system employ a very unique strain of yeast known as the Ringwood strain. Ringwood is a very English yeast. It flocculates quite well (drops to the bottom of the tank leaving the beer clear or 'bright') and can impart a distinctly fruity and bready character to beers that is noticeably absent in most American and Continental strains. However, the most notorious characteristic of this yeast is its potential to produce lots and lots of diacetyl.

Diacetyl is a molecule that can taste buttery or butterscotch like. There's a lot of controversy in the beer world surrounding the detectable presence of diacetyl. In many styles of beer it is generally considered a flaw, but in most English styles, some diacetyl aroma and flavor is not only traditional, but also quite pleasant. Of course some people are very sensitive to diacetyl and find even the lowest levels unpalatable. I feel sorry for those folks. I think appropriate diacetyl levels can make an otherwise simple and uninteresting beer truly special.

All this having been said, Arcadia does an absolutely wonderful job with the Ringwood strain. They make awesome English beers that are both very drinkable and interesting enough to make each session something new.

Arcadia is a decent sized brewery. Their Peter Austin brewhouse is a 25bbl system (1bbl = 31 gallons) and they are shooting to make 5000bbls of beer this year. Their longer term goal is 10,000bbls a year.

Before we leave Battle Creek, I'd like to offer just a couple more tasting notes. I have to emphasize how much I like Arcadia's brews. I already mentioned my practically unbounded adoration for their London Porter, but their IPA is freakin' awesome too. Sporting 60 hefty IBUs of Cascade, Fuggles, Columbus and Centennial hops, this beer doesn't necessarily taste distinctly American. You might think it would what with all the American C-hops in there. Here is a picture of a batch of IPA undergoing the traditional open fermentation. Doesn't it look tasty? Also, keep an eye out for 4-packs of Arcadia's DOUBLE IPA to hit stores in July. A traditional English brewery making a massive double IPA? I know, I know. But what can you do? I bet it'll be freakin' delicious.

I also said something about their Amber in Part I. I said it was interesting. I said they are doing something new, different, and really really tasty with their Amber. While this is true, it's also unfortunately true that they are discontinuing their very wonderful and very traditional ESB in a nod to American tastes and marketing strategies. What they did was tweak the ESB recipe and made new labels that say ëAmber' on them. Whatever. It's still a really good beer. Instead of the generous quantities of British crystal malts they were using in the ESB, Belgian Munich malt is employed liberally in the Amber and it comes through quite nicely. Really a tasty tasty beer. The rich, slightly sweet Munich malt flavor comes through in an impeccably clean fashion and is not cloying at all. Just a shade on the bitter side for an Amber, but I love that. It's an Amber that actually tastes like something and yet is still approachable and endlessly drinkable.

Then there's the Scotch Ale. A big, 7.5% abv caramel explosion of a beer. It's almost 100% Crisp Maris Otter floor malted barley, one of the best malts on the face of the earth. The color comes from an extra long boil and just a pinch of roasted barley. Man it's good. From such simple ingredients Arcadia has coaxed out a wild suite of subtle flavor dimensions that made me bow down in reverent supplication to the denizens of Battle Creek's most hallowed brewery. Well, not quite, but the beer is damn good.

OH- and by the way, this year's Whitsun is freakin' awesome.

So it looks like I have enough here to sufficiently bore you all. For that reason, and because part III was going to be short anyway, how about we just move the New Holland festivities to join Jolly Pumpkin and Grizzly Peak in part III? Sound good to you? Well, tough shite if it doesn't.