TRUE BREW Beer – It’s Yours to Discover! JEFF O’REILLY
Sometimes sharing something new makes things better! One of my favourite things to do is to share
cool and interesting beer experiences with people, mixing education and discovery in similar doses with a smattering of responsible consumption and a huge helping of storytelling and laughter. I love to teach as much as I love to learn, and anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I am very much at home in front of a group – and even more comfortable if I happen to have a beer
in my hand. Recently I had the opportunity to host an awesome sensory discovery event for the Ottawa chapter of Barley’s Angel’s at my pub! “What’s Barley’s Angels?” you might ask. According to the website “Barley’s Angels is a network of chapters by and for women exploring beer around the world” so if
you have a wife/girlfriend/sister/cousin/friend/aunt/mother/daughter in your life who you think might like to hang out in comfortable settings with like-minded women exploring a “historic libation” while enjoying a wide array of different beer focused activities I would highly recommend pointing your favourite females in their direction. Outside of sporting a hilariously fun name The Barley’s Angels have been sharing their appreciation of beer locally since 2013 and this was the second tasting event I had created for them. The first one we did back in 2015 delved into the big “juicy tropical fruit flavours” lamented in the marketing of many popular pale ales and IPAs (none of which came from actual fruit being mixed in - but rather naturally from the hops used in brewing these beers.) For the January event I decided to investigate similar marketing claims made by breweries about their Porters & Stouts bragging about massive “chocolate and coffee” tastes and aromas. So, the exercise was three-fold; one - gather ingredients that would naturally create coffee and chocolate characteristics, two – display the ingredients used in brewing that would produce or support these characteristics and three – taste beers making these suggestions to see if we could identify and confirm said flavour, aroma and general disposition … this is a very tall order … I mean come on! Coffee and Chocolate are two of the most iconic foods and drinks out there! Some people can’t start their day without one while many would rather enjoy the second one than have sex! So, by breaking out things like cocoa, baker’s chocolate, milk chocolate, hot chocolate powder and dark chocolate – plus looking at some freshly roasted coffee beans and ground coffee not only were we isolating the essence of each item – we were also waking up our taste buds! Most of these beers were brewed with a variety of specialty malts that would project notes of chocolate sweetness (even though many of the “baking” type elements were anything but sweet) and the full roasty effects of freshly brewed coffee. So, by the time we get to the beer tasting we are all excited and ready. In choosing my beverages for this I wanted to find a nice balance of familiar and unusual – including the beer in this review (Clifford Porter) that I had never tried before, which is always exciting in these types of scenarios. Listed in no particular order (though we always contiinued on page 36
34 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
www.bounder.ca
Photo By JEFF O’REILLY
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