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Unibroue

It’s that time of year again! With temperatures beginning to settle into the new season, that means the holidays are on the horizon.

As such, we’ve collected an array of interesting stories to engage your noggin and delectable brews to tickle your tastebuds in this, the 51^st issue of The Beer Connoisseur Magazine!

First up is our sit-down with famed Unibroue Brewmaster Jerry Vietz. The bowler hat-wearing icon delves into a wide array of topics, including his collaboration with Megadeth lead singer Dave Mustaine, the incredible acclaim that his beers have received over the year, as well as what he gets up to in his (rare) spare time.

After that, Michael Maloney explores 10 influential U.S. craft beers and how these beers have changed the course of brewing history.

Owen Ogletree drops by with an in-depth look at the role of yeast in brewing, exploring a number of different avenues involving this mercurial and fascinating organism.

Then, Dean Brightman continues the education kick with a definition of a coolship in The Function of a Coolship in Brewing Wild Ales. By the end of the piece, you’ll be an expert on this “giant brownie baking pan” for brewing beer.

Seth Levy jumps in with a treatise on the role that whiskey plays in barrel-aged beer, and then Jessica Zimmer provides a list of 15 winter warmer beers for the holiday season.

There is always something newsworthy taking place in the beer industry. That's why we dedicate Monday of each week to publishing the top stories from the previous week in our Industry News e-newsletter. Here you'll find a compilation of all the news we've covered since the last issue, with links to the full stories.

Industry & People

Heineken Goes 100% Plastic Free in the UK With Cardboard Topper

BrewDog Becomes World's First Carbon-Negative International Beer Business

We saddled up with the masterminds behind the highest rated brews and asked them about the inspiration behind the recipes. Follow the links below to the individual Q & A's, or you may access Q & A's from all editions here.

Holiday 2020, Issue 51

Garage Brewing Co. Brewing Team Talks 951 Blonde Ale

Judging Process
Our reviews are conducted in a single-blind tasting format. This method provides the best opportunity to rely on facts and to avoid favoritism, insuring a level playing field for all brewers. It serves both the industry and the consumer to have unbiased and objective scores from qualified experts. To best implement this approach, the Judges Review is open to those with established experience as a Master Cicerone® from the Cicerone® Certification Program or as a judge that has accomplished the rank of National or higher from the Beer Judge Certification Program. In the single-blind tasting format, judges are presented with a chilled, properly poured beer and given its style category. Scoring is then done on the following basis using a 100-point scale:

Score Breakdown:
100 to 96: World Class – You need this beer in your life.
95 to 91: Exceptional – Don’t hesitate.
90 to 86: Very Good – A brew to savor.
85 to 75: Average – Somewhat unimpressive.
74 and below: Not Recommended – Just walk away.

World Class (100 to 96)

When discussing the history of craft beer, it quickly becomes an existential question if one tries to identify when and where it all began. Like pinpointing the beginning of the universe, there are endless theories on where it all started and who led the way. Since beer is akin to alchemy and evolved with a blend of science, technology and artistry, it becomes clearer to express the evolutionary points in history with the beers that changed brewing history. Below is a list of some of the most influential and important craft beers in no particular order.

Heady Topper
The Alchemist

The holidays can be a bit on the stressful side due to the ordeal of finding gifts for everyone in your life, extreme outdoor decorating as well as visiting numerous parties. This article won’t do you much good with the first two priorities, but it should help keep you cool, calm and collected with delectable beer and food pairings for any upcoming party or family gathering.

There is nothing quite like an evening gathering of family and friends during the holiday season with an array of various holiday treats and dishes surrounding your guests while staying in a perfect, cozy holiday home.   Sounds of laughter fill the air, clinking glasses echo throughout your home, and joyous shouts of “Happy Holidays" reverberate in the hallways. Aromas of freshly baked cookies and the latest locally released holiday brews help warm the heart and provide you and your guests with ear-to-ear smiles -- all while snuggled up by a cozy fire, listening to the endless tales from last year and beyond.

All of this excitement, of course, presents guests with the opportunity to provide the best-quality foods and brews to help make the season merry and bright. Read on to explore a few options to bring to a holiday party with notable beer accompaniments.

For many drinkers, the closest whiskey gets to beer is in a shot glass next to a pint. Whiskey and beer are poised for a delicious collision, however, when innovative brewers and distillers collaborate to produce beers aged in whiskey barrels. Buckle in as we seek to understand the effect whiskey barrel-aging has on beer, answer essential questions about whiskey and explore innovations arising from the exciting fusion of barrels, whiskey and beer.

To start, let’s blur the line that separates whiskey and beer. These two beverages are best understood as brothers from the same mother. Both are born of the same source, fermented grain, but diverge as soon as they leave the fermenter. Beer continues its journey cold-fermented and is then canned and consumed. Whiskey, on the other hand, endures a trial by fire, is distilled, and is then confined to barrels for years before consumption.

Whiskey - A generic term for many different drinks.

In the course of my research, I realized that the word “whiskey” has just as much meaning as the word “beer” to a beer connoisseur. When we speak of beer, we’re aware of the distinctions between lagers and ales, as well as the numerous subcategories therein. Similarly, there are many dozens of categories of whiskeys (and even spellings of the word “whisky,”) but two common varieties stand out:

Unibroue in Chambly, Quebec, Canada is one of the world's most highly regarded brewers of Belgian-style bottle-refermented beers with a myriad of awards to their name over their 28-years of brewing.

Founded in 1992, Unibroue immediately made waves in the craft beer industry with a focus on traditional Belgian-style beers with incredible overall quality. Blanche de Chambly, La Fin du Monde, Maudite and Trois Pistoles are just a few of the extremely popular brews that Unibroue offers.

Unibroue’s offerings are known for being bottle-refermented, which means they continue to ferment and develop after being bottled. This process contributes to the impressive quality level and staggering complexity that each and every bottle of Unibroue beer possesses.

In 2003, Jerry Vietz joined Unibroue. Since his hiring, the brewery has experienced something of a golden age with a steady stream of award and accolades coming the brewery’s way thanks to Vietz’s stylistic experiments and boundary-pushing brewing talents.