I posted a comment to a recent Boston globe article on craft beer.
The article is here

and the comments are here

Jeff was nice to reply, so I thought it appropriate to continue the discussion here; so here goes.
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Thanks for the reply, and pointer to this website. It is bookmarked. Also thanks for the tip on bottle condition offerings - I shall seek them all out.

Of course I'm glad to see beer being written about, but less than happy to see the emphasis on tuttie-fruity novelty and on the often self-aggrandizing pretensions of wine tasting. Do allusions to coriander serve to inform or baffle the readership? How about the distinction between “toffee” and “caramel”?

Whatever.

I have two reactions to your reply to my comments.

1) What I was actually pining for in my post was an unembellished live cask conditioned draught beer. Pilgrim of Hudson had a very acceptable offering but weren’t able to offer it in a 20oz or 16oz bottle. Their selling it in growlers meant I had to drink the lot within a day or two – which I found incompatible with holding a job. I know some of their guys went to Ipswich, but I haven’t found an equivalent beer yet.

I do brew my own from time to time at DejaBrew , but rounding up pals and the dealing with the overabundant results is more than I want to deal with.

2) The pedant stuff:

a) Regarding Grey lady additives, the article said "Lemon, orange, and grapefruit zest go into the brew kettle along with chamomile" Maybe that was a reporting slip, but as written it is a long way from "might have some spices ... "

b) I accept that the article does not say that the beers contain fruits etc, but I stand by my view that mere beer doesn't seem to be enough these days. The brewers certainly play up the off-beat flavors and ingredients.

DrinkCraftBeer.com is a rich source of examples:

- Founders Breakfast Stout. "Brewed with ... imported chocolates, Sumatra and Kona coffee. We’re actually not sure if this is some type of coffee cake or a beer.”
I was amused to find this description for its validation of my "cake beer" jibe.

- DogFish Head Pangaea : "crystallized ginger from Australia, water from Antarctica, basmati rice from Asia)" As if basmati would be distinguishable from Uncle Bens. This is just pretentious ad-copy even if it is the factual truth.

- Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock: "Sam Adams® partnered with ... The chocolatiers at Scharffen Berger ... made with cocoa beans from Ghana called forastero.
(Their full description is easily the most absurd description of a beer I have ever seen)

- DogFish Head Chicory Stout : "made with a touch of roasted chicory, organic Mexican coffee, St. John's Wort, and licorice root"

- Allagash White : "Brewed with ... special blend of spices"

- Black Butte Porter : “Our brewers enhanced this elixir with Theo's Chocolate cocoa nibs from Seattle, ... 100 pounds of Bellatazza's locally roasted coffee”

- DogFish Head Aprihop : “Brewed with luscious apricots”

- Post Road Pumpkin Ale: "Hundreds of pounds of pumpkins are blended into the mash"

- Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat : "Sam Adams Cherry Wheat® ... brewing beer with ... Michigan cherries ... touch of honey.

Anyway, thanks again for the reply and pointers

Liam
Aka Lt.Kije

Hey Liam, thanks for checking out the site! Glad to see the discussion on Boston.com can be continued. Sorry for the delay in response, life has been BUSY lately!

Anyway, the idea of cask condition draft beer is by definition tap beer. You have to drink it at a bar, the brewery, or have the tapping system at your home. Cask conditioned just means conditioned in the serving vessel, which means bottle conditioned beer can, in a way, be seen as cask conditioned. That said, traditionally it's not really thought of as cask conditioned, but is seen as live beer. It's definitely worth seeking out and is the same idea as cask conditioned.

Also, you don't need to go to DejaBrew to brew your own. You can brew in smaller amounts at your home fairly cheaply. Check out our how to homebrew in your kitchen article.

As for using terms such as toffee and pineapple to describe beer, these are flavors that people recognize. You can't say, you can really taste the Chinook hops... most people don't know what that tastes like. Using known examples to describe generally unknown details is a fairly excepted practice in nearly everything, from saying a car is candy-apple red to saying paint is sky blue. It's the same idea.

Lastly, while all those brews you cite use non-normal ingredients, the flag ship brew for all (or at least almost all) those breweries use only traditional ingredients. The flagship of Dogfish Head is an IPA that uses water, malt, hops and yeast. Sam Adams Boston Lager is a very German Vienna lager. Belgian brewing, which Allagash practices, traditionally for hundreds of years has added spices to beer. And as for pumpkin beer? It's been brewed since the founders of our country came here, since malt was heavily taxed and pumpkin provided cheap sugars.

A lot of American Craft Brewing is innovation, but a lot is also returning to the roots of America's (and other countries) brewing traditions. In a time when world renowned beer countries like Germany are moving more and more towards the Budweiser type conglomerate beer model, I'm glad to see American Craft Brewers innovating as well as creating great examples of traditional styles.

If you want tradition, you have plenty of examples available in Boston. Let me know if you'd like examples. Shoot me an email at Jeff [at] drinkcraftbeer.com. While they may be described in exotic terms, it's just so people can pick out flavors and appreciate the craft, it's not pretension.

In short, beer is meant to drink and enjoy... mostly socially. We're living in a beer renaissance! Let's enjoy it and drink craft beer!