Strangely enough, Texas Brown Ale has its roots in California.
The theme of this week's column is TBA.
In this case, TBA does not mean "to be announced" but rather "Texas Brown Ale."
Two of my favorite breweries—Stone Brewing and Bear Republic, along with another smaller company, Fathead's—are teaming up to create a brew called “Bear Republic ⁄ Fat Head’s ⁄ Stone TBA." According to the press release, this particular beer "pays homage to a relatively little-known beer style called Texas Brown Ale, which, strangely enough, has its roots in California. It originated as a hopped up version of a brown ale recipe, and it got pretty popular with a group of NorCal homebrewers in the early 1980s."
“These California guys were tweaking an English-style brown,” explains Matt Cole, Head Brewer of Fat Head’s Brewery. “They added some Crystal and Chocolate malts, and supercharged it with a bunch of Cascade hops to get a bigger version with more hop forward aromas and flavors.”
As the story goes, this beer was popular but never placed in homebrew competitions, because there was no recognized category for it and it was too hoppy and bitter to be considered a traditional brown ale. But when a competition in Houston, TX, accepted entries for a style named “California Dark” category, the American Homebrewers Association followed suit soon after, although they changed the name to Texas Brown Ale.
The press release notes that the collaborators have added a few new twists to this relatively unknown style.
“Everyone got to add elements that they feel are special to them for that style of beer,” notes Richard Norgrove, Jr., Brewmaster at Bear Republic Brewing Co., who added brown sugar and molasses to the recipe for added complexity. “That’s what’s cool about collaborations. You get to work with two other brewers you respect, and you all have different thoughts and ideas on how to make a great beer together.”
The beer is 7.1 percent, alcohol by volume and will be available in Masachusetts and Vermont locally.
BEER NOTE
I sampled the Winterpillsner brewed by The People's Pint in Greenfield in honor of the new CD by the band Winterpills. While it's a delicious brew, it's not really a pilsner. It's a "pilnersesque" beer according to Woodley Wardell, director of sales for the People's Pint. No matter. It's scrumptious and bending the rules to make the beer fit the name of the band is fine with me. The beer is medium-bodied beer with a somewhat toasted malt nose to it. It definitely is hopper than most pilsners and doesn't finish as crisp as a true pilsner, but again, it's a tasty brew that I highly recommend.