I'm pretty sure that regular, or long-time (-suffering?) visitors of this honourable forum have been aware for the longest time of the interest for American craft beer, I share with some likeminded people, foremost amongst whom is my pal and companion CK, from the SloCKbeer. This individual more or less has instigated an annual tasting at his place, for sampling cerevisial delights from over the big pond. Now Carl has some advantages us mere mortals have to do without. First of all, he is reasonably sure of a professional position which allows him, to his own admission, inordinately amounts of free time. Even more important, he has carefully avoided the presence of MIO's, especially of the female gender, as well as pets and other demanding creatures at his residence. These unique circumstances allow him to roam the wilds of the craftbeerrealms to an extent, us mere mortals can only dream of.

As this esteemed gentleman, however, is of a generous disposition, he allows other people, as your unworthy typing-coolie, to sample some leftovers from the rich drinking tables he quenches himself at. Oh b*ll*cks, I'm talking nonsense again. Few people have made me sample more beers he got hold of, than Carl, that's the naked truth. And I must confess my co-judge has an extraordinary nose for the right titbits. Wherever I can, I bring him other beers to enjoy I found myself, but it is not easy, if not outright impossible, to match him bottle for bottle.

Whatever, last Sunday it was sampling time again. With a very restrained public, since our usual reporter, William-of-the-double-beerblog, had to remain home, in order to care for his good lady, who is indeed in dire straits. He had to cancel on the last moment, leaving only Lode-with-the-aptly-fluid-name and his spouse to join us, irredeemable sinners, in the foreign zythological reaches.

Traditionally, I'm the first to arrive. I leave you to be the judge what that says about me. Usually, the rest is late - let's keep quiet about what that says about them. The unavoidable, but quite enjoyable effect that has, is that Carl starts pouring out "aperitifs" for me, that can be quite interesting too. This time was no exception. And with some aplomb, he announced me a British beer, that even interests very experienced British… I viewed the bottle, and immediately, a little bell started ringing, upon which I asked CK if he had an open Internet line. He had, and soon my RB page confirmed me: Old Bear Duke of Bronte Capstan FS (yes. That is ONE beer) had been tried before. He eyed me strangely, but he had no idea yet how grave that link was going to become…

So he searched again, and handed me "Mor Braz Cidrée". Now there, I immediately recognized a new one - not in the least because I learned a lot about Mor Braz "brewery", and had, in fact, avoided them so far. Here was the opportunity, to try one of those beers that, if you believe their blabla, is being brewed with… seawater! As it turned out, some years ago already, Mor Braz isn't even a brewery. The beers are brewed in Belgium, somewhere, and they sport some seasalt. The "cidrée" has a nose of cider (not very good one, forget the Scrumpy), but the taste has nothing fruity, and is dull, dull, dull. OK, 't was a new one.

A thought for a moment that the third one, Breckenridge Avalanche, would be a have-been-there too, as I have visited that place a couple of years ago. But it would seem that I skipped this pushed bread-and-butter beer, so here we tried it on the spot. Nothing bad, nothing special. A faint hoppiness, all the same, could prepare us on the things to follow, the more as towards the end of the bottle, the 2 other tasters had arrived, and chimed in immediately. Nobody was put off by the beer, but all of us agreed we wouldn't buy a second one.

CK made quite a show of the next beer. In fact, at a certain point he promised me the keys to his cellar, provided I could guess what was the particularity of this beer. Not to mention the fact that the brewer is a bit of a case: won't (normally) allow visitors, chooses the pubs that can sell his beer, goes to control them, voluntarily limits his output, and since he does that, officially registered himself as a monk, and the brewery as an abbey!!! Brian Hunt, of Moonlight Brewing, is indeed a special himself - more power to him! The beer's name, not that we could read anything on the unlabeled bottle (actually, his beers are never bottled, and this sample was a world exclusivity, more or less) gives away a clue: "Working for Tips", is actually totally hop-free, and bittered by fresh redwood tips instead. I found indeed a dry, woody bitterness (if no resinous flavours at all), another taster complained of chemical flavours, if volatile.

Lode actually intercepted CK for the next one. Since the last had announced a hops orgy next, he suggested we first tried his beer (I had one with me too, but it never got opened. I don't think Three Philosophers will find itself out of place in Carls' cellar). Mind you, Lode had brought a special one: Cuvée Spéciale (told you so) 2004 from the short-lived St. Donat brewery in Mettet. As their regular beers were something of a rarity already, this one represented a true exception. Fruity, but obviously oxydized, and in fact, quite sweet. On we went.

Of course, if he didn't want to hear me say "Been there, got that", he ought not to bring forward outright classicals as Racer 5 from Bear Republic, oughtn't he? Then again, it is such a nice beer, that I gladly took a new sampling. Fine, truly. Now, he redeemed himself completely with Eel River Certified Organic IPA. Fact: never even had something from the brewery. Fact 2: Organic seems to equal bland. Why can't they try for something wild, instead? Tröegs Nugget Nectar "Imperial Amber" (Imperial WHAT??). Typical Cat's pee/valerian flavour and aroma. It is more than a usual Amber, but Imperial, puh-leaz! And by bringing on Bells Hopslam, CK proved he wanted hops, but certainly committed infidelity to the WestCoast. And the idea of not having had Hopslam yet, enfin!

As to rectify the shot - here came a very special one. Sierra Nevada isn't exactly unknown, but the Harvest series is already more out of the ordinary, and the Southern Hemisphere 2008, CK told us, is doomed to be a all-time one-off. Talk about too bl**dy costly affair… But a very interesting ànd pleasing beer, comforting me in my idea that New Zealand is the future for Humulus Lupulus. Then again, he missed the turn with Mad River Steelhead DIPA. And he was really getting exasperated with me when, indeed, Moylander IPA was ALSO a have-had. But those two last rang another bell: and this time JPP triumphed by pointing out WHERE he had had them. At the 100-taps display for the judges at the San Diego CBC - where CK was himself as well. AHA, the advantages of taking notes all the time: you remember where you had what!

CK pushed a great sigh when, at least the Hopsickle, also from Denise, was new to me. A very good double IPA, as to be expected from this source. Mandarine marmalade, does that exist? This is the fluid form. We ended with 2 again non-Californians: Southern Tier Un*earthly IPA and Imperial extra pale ale, AKA Hoppe. My good friend Andy from NY had given me 2 Southern Tiers sometime ago, luckily different ones. I found these a bit discreet, for all their imposing names. Maybe I'm to Westcoastened?

Whatever, by this time, the clock had moved to the time I actually had imagined to arrive home - and I was still in Kortrijk! So we made a hasty exit, CK again willingly driving me to the station. It was, once again, a very interesting, nay, exciting walk through the American world of craft beer. I cannot get enough of it! Big, big thanks to Carl, who is unsurpassed on the USA brewing lore - he's visited something of 300 USA breweries so far. I wonder how many American beergeeks can say the same.

On we go.

Joris, 08/07/2008

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