Local 2

Rating: 8.4
Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery
Glass: Chalice
ABV: 9.0%
Seller: Blue Dog Tavern (Chalfont, PA)
When Enjoyed: 11 April 2009

A new round of our continuing series of Brooklyn vs. Dogfish Head. In this round we've stepped up to the bomber class, today we have Brooklyn's latest installment in their bottle-conditioned series, a strong Belgian Ale called Local 2 and later we'll review Dogfish Head's berry fruit beer, Black and Blue.

The best way to sum up this beer is that it is a dark ale for white ale drinkers. Very rarely does a bold, malty, black as night ale have the adjective refreshing attached to it; this is one of those rare times. Typically, ales this dark are dark for a reason. Brewers like to showcase malt blends that pack lots of nutty, woody bready flavors together that make a high ABV beer enjoyable. Here, Brooklyn has toned down the ABV and added a citrus twist vis a vis an infusion of locally grown honey and hint of orange peel; flavors that are traditionally found in witbiers.

The up front citrus definitely softens the malt character a great deal, allowing it to finish smooth and without any alcohol or bitter aftertaste. In a way, the citrus flavors trick your brain into thinking this beer is a lot less heavy than it is. The downside to all this is, if you are a malt purist you have to dig real deep to get to the malt and yeast flavorings of this beer. While the beer is refreshing, surprising and mellow, it actually isn't all that complex. From the purist perspective, this might be a beer that would dissapoint a Belgian enthusiast but surprise an American one.

This certainly signals some exciting things on Brooklyns horizons. Along with a new line of reserve series, a double IPA and an Old Ale that are coming to a tap near you, Brooklyn is starting to dip its toe into the genre-bending tradition of American experimental brewing; a tradition that is mostly dominated by extreme beer types of the Dogfish Head ilk. That said, I would not be expecting a sextuple IPA's in the future for Brooklyn. Head Brewmaster Garrett Oliver is a man grounded in tradition and while willing to experiment, will do so with a firm grasp on classic tastes and a commitment to placing them in new contexts (ala Local 2) rather than just exploding our taste buds with Hop-Bombs.

The RD Night Out - Brooklyn Event at London Bar and Grille

In our continuing coverage of beer week, the Responsible Drunk headed out to the London Bar and Grill in the Art Museum district of Philadelphia on Monday night to sample some brand new Brooklyn brews and chat with Head Brewmaster Garret Oliver (pictured on left).


Brooklyn Brewery has been admired on this site for its consistency and stylistic discipline. This concept of a devotion towards a German style reinheitsgebot rigidity must not be overstated, however. More accurate would be to say Brooklyn attempts to blend that sort of consistency and discipline with truly American flavors, and the best argument it has presented so far was on display in two new beers premiered this week for Philly Beer Week.

BLAST! is a new double IPA that showcases Brooklyn venturing into Dogfish Head territory. The dry hopped Imperial Pale Ale has a super foamy head, a bright complexion and features a blend of 8 different hop varieties, including the vaunted and popular new SIMCOE(r). In the opinion of Mr. Oliver, its a powerful beer (8%), and judging by his brewing selection, I'd say that is a reasonable assessment. Surly there are more potent IIPA's out there, but this is pretty much what you would expect from Brooklyn in that department.

Local 2 is the second in a new series of 100% bottle conditioned Belgian style ale from Brooklyn. Last year they released a smooth, citrusy Belgian white which was more or less by the book (as Brooklyn is wont...). This year, however, Mr. Oliver has taken it up a notch. This dark Belgian ale blends honey grown in a local apiary with dark roasted caramel and other Belgian malts with a Belgian yeast that lends a special spicyness to a beer that is otherwise rich in fruit and chocolate. Pulling this brew off with typical Brooklyn consistency is truly a feat. When I asked Mr. Oliver about his inspirations for this beer, he said, "definitely Chimay Grand Reserve, like it used to be in the 80's" as well as Achel Extra, but he stressed the importance of adding an American flavor, hence the locally grown honey and the dry chocolate malt.

I'm sure we will be getting around to full reviews of these beers, as well as the solid Blunderbuss Old Ale which was also on tap, as soon as they are more widely available. Stay tuned for more updates on Philly Beer Week activities!

Orval Trappist Ale

Rating: 8.9
Brewery: Brasserie d'Orval (Guame, Belgium)
Glass: Tulip or Chalice
ABV: 6.2%
Seller: The Foodery (Philadelphia, PA)
When Enjoyed: 26 February 2009

Say it slowly now, brettanomyces. Yes, brettanomyces. This is the stuff classically unique beer is made of. Brettanomyces is a unique strain of wild yeast found only in the backyard of the Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Orval which is situated in the southern regions of Belgium and borders both France and Luxembourg. The inclusion of this sort of ingredient is truly what sets this beer apart from others. There is no other beer like it, which is perhaps why this bright, bubbly amber ale is Brasserie d'Orval's only brew, which even sets it apart from the other half dozen trappist breweries in Belgium and the Netherlands.

This brew, available only in the skillet-shaped bottle pictured above, pours smooth into any rounded bottom glass with a rich head that has a noticeable citrus fragrance. The carbonation is powerful and maintains itself through the whole experience. This is a quality that many American made Belgian Ales overlook, often they nail the ingredients and consistency but the potency is mitigated by a lackluster carbonation.

Orval is an eminently enjoyable drink, in the end, it does not bowl you over with ABV or malt content, nor does it offer a truly varied palate of tastes that its Trappist counterparts often do. It is stylistically unique in this way, as a relatively low alcohol amber with a relatively high hop content, it presents a truly unique flavor, but as tasty as that is, it is not something that will develop and improve over the course of the bottle. It is also worth mentioning that its low ABV and not-so-sophisticated malt makeup means that this beer will not age as well as the premiere tripel's and quadrepel's of other Trappist breweries.

What really makes Orval a valuable experience is that wonderful little organism brettanomyces. The yeast's effectiveness has the double effect of infusing Orval with its bubbly texture and augmenting its palate ever so slightly in the direction of a wheat beer. It serves as a welcome reminder that our best beers owe their quality to unique, tiny, living organisms.