Summer Beer News in Brief

For today’s post, I’ll be talking about my favorite summer beer, Trumer Pils from Berkeley; a new sustainable beer initiative from Patagonia Provisions that fights climate change; and a seemingly weird beer from the British Isles called “Bishop’s Finger.”

Let’s dive in!

Trumer Pils

The only place I’ve consistently found this beer is at Whole Foods, though I’m sure that one or two enlightened local liquor stores in my neighborhood must carry it.

I was introduced to the beer by my Nor Cal beer guru, Sir Ted of Sonoma. Let’s say that about 10 years ago Eleanor and I were visiting Eleanor’s lifelong pal Kat, whose sidekick happens to be Sir Ted.

Ted and Kat met many moons ago in Berkeley when they were both working at culinary icon Chez Panisse. The four of us toured not only the city and its breweries, but also beautiful parts of the UC Berkeley Campus, which Sir Ted attended.

On their website, Trumer proudly boasts that their beer is “the world’s most-awarded pilsner,” with a red chyron crawling across the screen announcing “18X Gold Medalist.” What I didn’t know until delved deeper was that Trumer uses a 400-year-old recipe brewed in accordance with the “Reinheitsgebot” or German Beer Purity Law.

Not only that, but Trumer opened its Berkeley operation in 2004 as a “sister brewery to the centuries-old Trumer Brauerei in Salzburg, Austria.” Who knew? All I know is that, on a hot summer afternoon, at the end of a hard day (whether playing or working), the crisp, cold, deeply flavorful combination of water, malt, hops, and yeast, fermented for just three weeks cannot be beat.

Kernza® Lager from Patagonia Provisions

We were alerted to this initiative this past week by Instagram posts from @sierranevada and @russianriverbrewingofficial. Eleven craft breweries across the country were chosen to brew their own batches of Kernza® Lager. As the Sierra Nevada post put it, this initiative “is the start of A Good Grain Collaborative … that focuses on organic ingredients that combat the climate crisis.”

While I’m excited about Sierra Nevada’s Munich Dunkel, which features Regenerative Organic Certified Kernza, “a remarkable perennial grain that builds topsoil, enhances water quality and prevents erosion with its deep-reaching roots,” that’s only available in their taprooms. I’m not planning a visit to Chico, CA or Mills River, NC any time in the near future.

Fortunately, I, you, and all our environmentally-friendly and beer-loving friends and associates have access to Summerfest Summer Lager, which features a winter barley called Thunder. Grown by Western Rivers Conservancy, this barley helps “stabilize the soil and protect a vital steelhead spawning tributary along Oregon’s John Day River.”

This article in Brewer gives more information on Patagonia’s climate-preserving collaborations with craft brewers, including some of our favorites, like Russian River Brewing in Sonoma, Allagash in Maine, and Topa Topa in Ventura.

Bishop’s Finger

“A Rich, Ruby-Coloured Kent Classic”

A jet-setting friend — let’s call him Nate — recently sent this photo of a beer he happened to sample in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. I must admit that all kinds of unsavory puns came to mind when I looked at the label. Can’t believe stuff like that concatenates so easily in the mind!

Shoving easy puns aside, I looked into the brew and its name, and here’s what I learned.

“It takes its name from the finger-shaped signposts which pointed pilgrims on their way to the tomb of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury,” said the brewery’s website, adding that Bishops Finger “was the first strong ale to be brewed by Shepherd Neame after malt rationing was eased in the late 1950s.”

This next bit is a bit harder to swallow, and makes me suspicious not only that someone who writes for the Shepherd Neame website is having a bit of fun at the public’s expense, but that even the explanation of the name is suspect. “Uniquely, [Bishops Finger] is brewed to a charter which states it can only be brewed by the head brewer on a Friday.” Really? The rest of the sentence makes a little bit more sense: Bishops Finger “must be brewed using 100% natural ingredients, Kentish hops and barley, and the brewery’s own artesian mineral water.”

So, how did it taste, I asked Nate, my jet-setting friend?

“I recall it had the food-like mouthfeel of dark beers and stout and had a pleasing bitterness.  I was not overwhelmed, though it was mightily tasty, because I had wanted it to be my main quaff.”

For the record — and for the non-jet-setter — Faversham in Kent (where Shepherd Neame has been brewing at least since 1573, making it Britain’s oldest brewer) is about a nine-hour drive from St. Andrews, where Nate purchased his bottled Bishops Finger at Tesco.

The Cyclops rating (provided by Shepherd Neame on their website) describes Bishops Finger as having a chestnut brown appearance, with aromas of roast, toffee, and berries on the nose, and a taste by turns rich, fruity, and bitter. The ale comes in at 5.2% alcohol by volume (ABV). Tasting notes:

Fashioned on a firm, fruity foundation of Crystal malt, this rich, ruby-coloured Kent classic belies its burly appearance with a complexity of flavour. Mouth-filling fruit, prunes, plums and dried apricot spiked with palate-prickling pepper, cinnamon and a soft bitter blood-orange finish.

“Cyclops Rating?” I Duck Duck Go-ed it and it’s real. The British Guild of Beer Writers website confirms that “Cyclops Beer is a not-for-profit organisation set up by the beer industry to provide simple tasting notes which make it easier for consumers to select a beer which they will enjoy.”

I’m all for that. And on that note,

Cheers! Until next time,

— Chauncey B, aka, the So Cal Craft Beer Blogger

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Featured photo by Chauncey B. from a summer array on his BBQ patio.