Now as winter sets in it’s the perfect time to break away from your mainstream favourite and experiment with a few dark delights.

 

Australia’s wonderfully warm climate dictates that when we feel like a beer, we reach first for an ice cold frothy lager or light bodied ale. Such brands as Toohey’s New, XXXX Gold and VB are the most commonly consumed beers in our market, no matter what the season.

 

Yet beer is much more than the easy drinking and thirst quenching pale lager or ale. There is a dark side too to this wondrous beverage that Australians are only just beginning to appreciate. In fact beer styles are much more diverse than many drinkers realise.

 

There are at least nine major beer styles, their distinction being based not just on the classic ale or lager, and dark or pale colour division but also by the grain used (e.g. wheat or barley), the alcohol strength, and by the relative bitter versus sweet flavour of the brew.

 

The James Squire beer map is an excellent visual tool to compare beer styles. If you have this handy you will be able to identify the cluster of darker beers on the left side of the map.

 

Most dark styles originated as ales, however it is now quite common and acceptable for stouts or porters for example to be fermented with either ale or lager yeast. This is because in dark beers it is the rich flavours of special malts used which differentiate these beers from their paler cousins. The influence of yeast on the final flavour of dark beers is quite minimal.

 

Using roasted (un-malted) barley is what gives the deep black colour to stouts and porters and also adds roasted, burnt, smokey and coffee flavours to the beer.

The more moderately heated (toasted) malts like Crystal and Carapils, give deep copper to brown colours, and the sweeter, toffee, caramel  flavours more characteristic of amber and brown ales.

 

There are a number of variations of these coloured malts, which yield a variety of colours and flavours to the beers brewed from them. The red hued lagers of the Vienna style make use of a style of malt originally developed in the city of the same name.  Chocolate malt is a relatively heavily roasted dark malt, so called because it imparts a rich bitter chocolate flavour and aroma to the brew.

 

In general a higher total addition of the various malts are used for these more coloured brews, which results in beers with more flavour, body and mouth feel when compared to the easy drinking pale beers which often substitute sugar for malt.

 

Darker beers are also quite often higher in alcohol having been designed more for savouring, and discernment than thirst quenching refreshment. It’s hardly strange then that it should be in the middle of a chilly, rain swept winter, that both the male and female beer drinkers thoughts will turn to something a little more full flavoured and complex.

 

So, to add a twist to our 2010 Winter Release James Squire Malt Runner, we have developed a blend of no less than five malts, including three of the darker offerings (Chocolate Malt, Crystal Malt, Roasted Wheat) in a beer that is unashamedly focussed on the complexity that malt can deliver to the finished beer. The slight moderate bitterness (around 21 Bitterness Units) contributed by the US Citra hops plays only a secondary role. In conjunction with the slight acidity gained by adding cherry juice to the whirlpool at the equivalent of 10% of the final brew volume, it does help to balance the maltiness of the brew without yielding excessive bitterness. Try some of this one while it’s still about in the bottle shops as only 9000 cases are available nationally.

Listed below are a few more of the many darker offerings available to warm up your winter:

 

James Squire Original Amber Ale – 5.0% ABV, deep copper coloured ale with slightly nutty flavour and a mild citrus finish.

Toohey’s Old Black Ale – 4.4% ABV, a lightly hopped black brew with robust fruity ale flavours.

James Squire Porter – 5.0% ABV, hints of bitter, malty chocolate and a classic pillowy head.

Southwark Old Stout – 7.4% ABV, a deep, black bottomless brew with a roasted coffee aroma and warming port-like finish.

 

Cheers, Tony Jones