CT Column 20/04/2011: Take note!

CALL me jaded, call me spoilt, call me hard to please, but it’s not often that a new beer comes along and really gets me excited.
Last week I tried a beer that truly got me going, Such was the intensity of the aroma I knew it was going to before I even got the glass to my nose, and then once I had sipped it I knew I was going to have to tell everyone about it.
The beer in question is fittingly called Nota Bene which is roughly Latin for ‘take note’ , and take note I did. Nota Bene is a rich golden coloured Belgian style abbey ale that treads a similar path to the Trappist classic Orval although controversially I think it does a better job, achieving a deft balancing act that leaves the beer both complex, challenging and incredibly drinkable. The beer combines a firm malt character with some spicy hop notes, and a dazzlingly complex range of fermentation derived flavours and aromas from the special range of yeasts that are used to ferment the beer to its 8.7%abv strength. One of the yeasts is a wild strain called brettanomyces which most brewers go to great lengths to keep out of their beers. Brettanomyces gives the beer a slightly tangy, funky, aniseed tinged, wild character that adds a huge amount of depth and complexity to the beer, if it was a wine it would be described as being ‘rustic’.
Nota Bene is brewed by veteran New Zealand brewer Ben Middlemiss. Back in the late 1990’s Ben brewed a very similar beer called Australis Benediction that captured the imagination of the beer writer Michael Jackson. Jackson ended up selecting it to feature at his World Beer Showcase at the University of Philadelphia in the year 2000 and included it in his influential Great Beer Guide. At the time this was a huge achievement and one which means Benediction is still in high demand in the United States. Benediction ceased to be when the Australis Brewing Co closed down. Now Nota Bene is here to continue the theme.
The funky Belgian rustic character of Nota Bene makes it a perfect match to pungent washed rind cheeses, which is exactly how I intend to enjoy my next bottle!
Ben Middlemiss Nota Bene is available from Hashigo Zake, The Malthouse , Regional Wines and online retailer The Beer Store.

The Great Brett Project

Brettanomyces is a word that will often strike fear into the hearts of brewers and vintners alike. This incredibly hardy, some would say indestructible, wild yeast is the bane of many a brewer, it is often the death of pieces of brewing kit, but is also highly appreciated by some for its funky sharp aroma and flavour. In the modern era it’s more usually associated with the sour ales of Flanders and the spontaneously fermented beers of the Senne Valley rather than English Ales. However as Mr Cornell recently taught me in his piece on the history of yeast Brett was originally isolated from English Stock Ales and indeed its name is Latin for British Fungus.
While I would never be so foolhardy as to introduce Brett into any of my vessels, last month I came across a unique opportunity. At the annual Belgian Beer Tasting at Regional Wines and Spirits one of the beers we tasted was Lindemans Geuze bottle conditioned and in 250 ml nip bottles I couldn’t resist taking the bottles. I will clean and sanitise the bottles to the best of my abilities, despite treating the bottles with caustic soda and Sodium Percarbonate I don’t expect to remove the Brett. Then I will bottle some of this year’s Merchant of the Devil Imperial Stout and some of Alfred’s Stock Ale, a strong barley wine named for my late grandfather who was a drayman’s son, and see what happens. The nips will have their bottoms painted red so that the Brett bottles don’t end up getting mixed in with my ‘clean’ nips.