6/15/2010 Mayfied Brewing Company 'Iconoclast' Beers

I'm proud to introduce a guest blogger this post. my guy, matt is a big fan of beer. not just any beer, but those microbrews, small boutique breweries. he managed to find some new beers on the market, and he promises to tell you all about them!



Hello readers, I'm privileged to be a guest blogger on my favorite dining blog in the world. It is my favorite, of course, because I'm usually along for all of these great meals that Libby blogs, but for today she's let me take over the reins to talk about some extraordinary beers that we tried. But first a little about myself.

Many years ago, I was a graduate student in the department of Microbiology at the University of Washington. Being a graduate student is a lot of work, and we all liked to bitch endlessly about it while down at the pub drinking a pint or a pitcher of the finest beers that Seattle had to offer. Back in the early 1990s, Seattle was a bit of a Mecca for hand crafted beer, and I was lucky enough to get to try the great brews of that time. Breweries such as Hales, Pike Place,
and Maritime Pacific taught me what good beer tastes like, and helped me to appreciate the complexity and nuance that this beverage can encompass.

Since the fermentation of beer is at its core a microbial process, and many of the techniques used are based upon similar techniques that we used in the lab every day, we students would often muse about giving up the day-to-day grind and just starting a brewery. And, indeed, many of my friends became excellent home brewers, and I recall many a fond saturday sipping a tasty homebrew with Brian Cantwell while playing Space Marines or some other nerd-based tactical warfare game. That was the life.

But we grew up. As much as I always intended to, I never even brewed a single batch of homebrew (though I suppose there is still time). We all graduated or moved on, and gave up silly fantasies of owning our own breweries. We were employed now, and would have to make due with the beer that we could buy.

Then along comes Facebook, and I reconnect with my friend John Alderete, a former fellow grad student. He's Dr. John Alderete, now, but much to my surprise, he didn't give up the fantasy of being a brewmaster. He's taken that dream and made it his reality. When I first heard that he has started a business called Mayfield Brewing Company I was intrigued. I was willing to bet he made some pretty good beer, and was determined to get my hands on some. I expected a fine, well-crafted beer that could stand with the best of what I'd sampled in my heyday of beer drinking, so I sent John a note to say hi and see about arranging some beer. Nothing could have possibly prepared me  for what followed.

"Hey Matt, it's John" the voice on the phone said. A mere 5 minutes after I'd sent off my note I was talking to John for the first time in years. And I listened with growing curiousity, and I will say a little bit of skepticism, as he told me about the beers his brewery produces. There are three Iconoclast beers, name Aurora, Eclat, and Nocturne. Each of them is aged 10 months or more in seasoned wine barrels, imparting nuances of wine and oak in each brew. They are very small batch, bottled only in champagne bottles (750 ml) and they retailed at a heart-stopping price of $43 per bottle. Seriously? $43 per bottle? Most people don't spend that much on their wine, much less their beer. Hell, you can get an adequate bottle of scotch for less than that. Additionally, as John told me, he is the only employee of the brewery. He does it all from the brewing, to the bottling, to the corking and the waxing. Is it worth all that time, effort, and for us consumers, money just for beer? Well, curiousity overwhelmed my skepticism. I needed to get some. And through methods that I will not disclose, I was soon in possession of two bottles of each variety of beer that Mayfield brews.


So I had my beers. Time to drink! But this was not an experience to enjoy alone, it was better shared. So, in addition to my erstwhile dining companion Libby Landy, the regular author of this blog, I asked my friends Lisa Rongren and Jake Kossof to join me. Lisa, the former sommelier for the Herb Farm Restaurant is now sommelier for John Howie Steak, (see previous blog entries for blogs on both of these fine establisments-both highly recommended), and Jake is the wine director for the Wild Ginger and the Triple Door in Seattle. I could not imagine a better pair of palletes to share this experience with.

   
So they arrived at my house for a late evening after an orchestra rehearsal. I'd bought a selection of varying and contrasting cheeses to try with the beer, and had chilled it to 55 degrees Fahrenheit as per John's instructions. Well, the moment has arrived. Lets drink!

Ok, a little easier said than done. The tops of each bottle are coated in wax, for a very elegant presentation. When the wax is removed, a traditional beer-style bottle cap covers the mouth of the bottle. Under THAT is a cork. Wow. Good thing we were sober :) Being the consummate beverage professional, Lisa quickly had the bottle of Aurora open and poured into glasses.

Mmm. Complex bouquet. The taste of this beer was quite remarkable-light in body with distinct oak notes and I think I tasted a bit of vanilla at the end. Unfortunately, while I know what I like, I find it hard to put tastes into words. But it was delicious. This beer is aged in American oak barrels that previously held Chardonnay wine, and the white wine subtlety was clearly detectable. In fact, I felt that this beer could perhaps stand up to a slightly colder temperature-not ice cold like you might drink your Budweiser, in hopes of killing the flavor before you can choke it down, but perhaps a few degrees cooler to let the gentle, subtle flavors play on your tongue and change as they are warmed by your body heat. No matter. A very impressive start. I'd warned Lisa and Jake that I  might quote them, but the only quote I can remember for this beer comes from Jake: "Wow". Libby would later name this her favorite of the three.

But I'm not really too sure what I can compare this beer to. I have NEVER had beer like this before. It almost defies classification. I detected practically no hops in this beer, but I did not miss them. I matched nicely with the brie and the goat cheese, not so well with the Stilton. While it is labelled an Altbier, that really doesn't do justice to the brew. In fact, I'd prefer, gentle reader, that when you sample these beers as you surely must, that you not approach them with expectations or pre-conceived notions, as they will surely be put aside. John tells me that he is required by California law to put a particular variety of beer  onto the labelling, and his named varieties are more for legal compliance than for actual descriptions of what to expect from the beer. And while I think everyone would agree that the Noctura is indeed a stout, I'd just as soon call the other two ales and be done with it, for they are like nothing I've ever had before.

Far too soon, we'd finished our glasses of Aurora, and moved on to the Eclat. Though the picture does not show it too well, I found this ale to be richly red in color with (again) a complex bouquet. The taste of this beer was quite a bit bolder, with detectable but not overpowering hops. Also American Oak aged, this time in Cabernet/Zinfandel barrels, the essence of the red wine was also detectable in the lingering, complex taste. When I say complex, what I mean is a taste that has many different layers, and changes over time in your mouth. I've had many great beers that aren't complex-they taste like one really good thing, and that's great. But these take some brain power to enjoy to their fullest-the different flavors develop and change from the first inhalation of vapour to the final lingering hint on your palette. And that's a beautiful thing. If you like that kind of thing.

The Eclat was brilliant with the goat cheese, the cheddar, and not bad at all with the Stilton. At the end of the evening, Lisa would remark that this was her favorite of the night.

So far, the beers he'd had had been fairly light in terms of alcohol. I believe (just going from memory, as I'm to lazy to look it up) that the Aurora was about 4.5% alcohol, and the Eclat was 5.5%. Nothing too heavy. Time for the third bottle.

The Noctura stout weighs in at about 11% alcohol and is stout indeed. I'd really been looking forward to this one, because I love a good stout, and I've tried a bunch. So far, these beers have lived up to the hype-would the stout  do the same or would I taste bitter disappointment in my final glass? We opened and poured.

As soon as I smelled it I knew we were in for something special. Jake took a whiff of his glass and just started laughing. Laughing was all he could manage. It smelled so good.

Black as night with a firm head of tiny, substanial bubbles, you could tell by looking that this was not a beer to be trifled with. This was a beer of impressive body and doughtiness, and seemed to have an aura that said "Bring it." Jake tasted first. "Oh. Wow. Wow." I could see from the look on his face that he was impressed. Impressed isn't the right word-what do you say when a man who makes his living tasting fine beverages is speechless, even if for just a moment? I took my first sip:

Wow.

I took another sip. It's like if Guiness and Young's Double Chocolate Stout had had a forbidden romance, and their illegitimate love child grew up and hitchhiked in his youth, working at various stout makers in England along the way, before finally going to France and falling in love with a bottle of Petite Syrah, and THEIR child emigrated to America and absorbed the finest of the West Coast beermaking scene. It was the best stout I've ever tasted. By far. Nothing else has even come close.

Noctura is aged in French oak barrels that held Zinfandel/Petite Syrah, and the Petite Syrah influence is quite notable. There are exquitiste sweet, fruity, carmelly, and dark notes all over this liquid symphony. I wish I could describe the taste in words, but it cannot be done. It was a knockout with the Stilton, and great with the Cheddar as well.

So there it is. Lisa had been joking about 'The world's most expensive beer' but Jake informed me that it wasn't even close in terms of expense-there were plenty more expensive bottles out there if you really wanted to just spend money on beer. But is it worth the hype? Is it worth $43 dollars a bottle? 

Uh, yeah.