Black Peak From ESE (Maple Pass trail). Corteo Pk in the foreground on left.

The name. The Mountain. Black Pk is the 17th tallest mountain in WA situated just W of Washington pass on Hwy 20.  Albeit a trek from Seattle, WA pass and its environs offers spectacular scenery, great rock climbing opportunities, and great destinations.  Black Pk is one of them, just past Heather and Maple passes.  The route past Lewis and wing lake and up most of the mountain is straightforward, while the final couple hundred feet is fun class 3 with just enough exposure to keep your mind on the task at hand.  Even if you don’t make it to the summit, the trails in the area are a worthy destination if you are venturing a ways out of Seattle.

The (made up) style. After brewing this concoction I asked myself, what type of beer is this since it doesn’t fit the mold of any style?  The best I could come up was a “black blonde” which also fits its namesake mountain.  We modeled this after a schwarzbier (also known as a black pilsner), which is a German dark lager that has the attributes of a pilsner but also contains just enough black malts to make it dark.  In our version we used an ale yeast.  Since a “pilsner” fermented with an ale yeast is usually classified as a blonde, by analogy we called this a “black blonde.”

The Beer. Black Blonde is a nicely smooth non-overpowering beer.  It has a nice balance between the residual malt sweetness,  light floral hop character, and minimal roast notes from the dark malts.  Don’t be put off by the slightly dark appearance, Black Blonde is not overly roasty, but rather a nice crisp, balanced character.

Park Butte area (with Mt Baker) still covered in snow. Railroad grade far left.

Easton Blonde

The name. The Route. Throwing a wrench in the cogs, this beer is named for our route up Mt Baker, as opposed to the mountain itself.  The Easton glacier sits on the S side of Mt Baker, and is one of the two most common routes up the volcano.  This was my first route up a Cascadian volcano.  While climbing volcanoes is not for everyone, the area still offers great accessibility and trails (park butte) in a gorgeous setting with a snow-capped mountain rising above you.  The common route to the Easton is “railroad grade”, the trail so aptly named from its pitch that would be perfect for a locomotive to climb slowly and gently, ending at the Easton glacier about 4,500′ below the summit.  The next 3500′ were full of meandering through crevasses adding what seemed like another few miles because of the meandering.  But after the “slog” there are some of the best views of the surrounding N cascades.

The Beer. Easton Blonde is a Belgian blonde, with Leffe blonde being the defining commercial example for the style.  Easton blonde has a slight sweetness to it, but is dominated by the peppery and phenolic notes that are typical of Belgian style yeasts.  These notes are complemented by the spicy hop aroma and flavor offered by noble hops. We added some sugar to the brew (which is standard) allowing for an increase in alcohol compared to our other beers, but retaining a dryness that allows for drink-ability.  The slight (at about 6% ABV) alcohol warming also increases the perception of the spicy, dry, phenolic character that defines the style.

Sunrise at the foot of the Easton

On tap:

Magic Brown, Hannegan Red,  Esmeralda (V2.0), Redoubt Red

NWP growlers only:

Agassiz Acai. Early Morning Stout, Maude’s mild, Esmeralda ale (v2), Kyes Kolsch

Upcoming hours:

Tue May 15th: Brewpub will be closed, but please join us at the Park Pub for a Seattle Beer Week event, brewer’s night!
Wed May 16th: 4:00-8:00 (Backfire moto)
Thur May 17th: 4:00-8:00
Fri May 18th: 4:00 – 8:00
Sat May 19th: 2:00-6:00
Sun May 20th: Closed; TBD

Approaching the summit, with Sahale in the background (in the cloud to the right) photo by K.C. Klein

The name. The mountain. Magic is situated right off of Cacade pass (near Sahale), but it is just S and E from the pass rising above Trapper Lake.  I climbed Magic Mtn on the front end of a week long trip, on the famous Ptarmigan Traverse – one of the most traveled climbing excursions.  The day trip to Cascade Pass is certainly one of the “must go to” areas of the N Cascades, with several options for continuing the trip, including over to Magic and it’s environs.

The beer.  Springtime is tricky for us, especially in Seattle. The first week of April brought near freezing weather and recently it has been warm and pleasant. We decided to cover all bases and made a brown and hoppy pale.  However, Magic Brown itself can fit the schizophrenic weather perfectly.  It is dark and malty for the cold, but it’s body is light enough that it will be great on a warmer day as well. Unlike the typical “brown,” we built this brown up to have some more residual malt character by adding some extra munich, caramunich, and other specialty malts, but keeping the overall alcohol content and roast character down.

Malt: ESB, Special B, Crystal, muncih, caramunich, carafa 2, flaked.  Hops: Apollo, golding.  British ale yeast.

Colchuck Pk from the lake in early spring conditions. Dragontail rising to the left.

The name. The mountain. Colchuck is part of the Stuart range, which extends from Mt  Stuart to Dragontail peak and the enchantments just SW of Leavenworth. The easy class 3 climb, although there are plentiful more technical established routes as well, starts at colchuck lake, climbs directly to the col between colchuck and Dragontail mountain and then heads to the summit.  If timed correctly, the descent from the summit can offer a 3000′ glissade back to the lake (hopefully not into the lake), or better yet, a nice spring back country ski. A great destination in itself, it is also a great side trip if you are camping at colchuck lake and heading into the enchantments (if Aasgard pass isn’t enough of a punishment for you).

The beer.  Magic Brown is our darker offering (glass half empty) for this tricky time of season and Colchuck is our lighter offering, for those optimistic that spring is finally here.  Colchuck is a light pale ale with just enough malt character to support the hop aroma and flavor.  We used typical NW hops in this beer, leading towards a nice citrus note in the nose, perfect for a refreshing spring drink. The aroma has a nice, distinctive grapefruit character to it and is on the forefront but not overpowering.

Malts: Pale, ESB, Wheat, Flaked.  Hops, Apollo, Cascade, Chinook.  American ale yeast.

Ingalls and the lovely Stuart from the summit.

The story of two experiences. Esmeralda was one of January beers and as we described on that post, our experience on Esmeralda mountain has been different both times. Like our first time on the mountain, our first batch with the new brewhouse was  (albeit very successful based on comments) best described as a comedy of errors.  Running out of propane, not having the right adapter for the new and improved tank, fixing the adapter after 2 more runs to the store, realizing at 9:00 pm that we lost 50 pounds of corn, realizing that we ran out of our intended hops, and an overall 22(+) hour brewday to name a few.  Hey, sometimes ad-libbing like that makes for the best concoctions! So after modifying the system slightly, it was redemption time.  Similar to our gorgeous second attempt on Esmeralda peak, our second time on the brewhouse went much smoother with no issues to report. We’ll leave it to you to decide which version of Esmeralda is preferable! (and if you have a preference, please share)

The Beer.  Esmeralda is again a complementary beer to it’s mountainBeer partner Hannegan Red.  The unique character in this beer comes from the addition of corn and molasses.  The corn provides a nice sweetness and smoothness and complements the molasses notes.  (the corn was missing in the previous version and changes the character significantly, hence the desire for Esmeralda redemption).  Esmeralda was fermented with an English ale yeast adding a smooth fruity flavor on top, which does mask some of the corn and molasses notes.  A great beer with a unique sort of complexity.

Malts: ESB, munich, corn, special B, biscuit, carafa 2.  Hops: Apollo and Goldings. Fermented with British Ale yeast.  OG/TG 1.056/1.014 ~5.5% ABV

Shucksan and Baker from the Peak

The name. The mountain. Hannegan is a variant of the traditional Irish name Hannigan and one we found fitting for a celebration of the most popular of Irish holidays, St. Patty’s Day. Hannegan pass is in one of the most picturesque locations in the N Cascade.  From the pass, the views of the picket range and countless North Cascades peaks, including Challenger, Shuksan, Granite, and Redoubt, keep getting better as you climb the extra 900 ft to Hannegan Peak. The climb to the summit is an easy day hike not far off the Mt Baker Highway and highly recommended throughout the year. We summited Hannegan in July 2007 to begin a memorable traverse down to the Northern Pickets.

The Beer. Hannegan Red is typical Irish Red in honor of St Patrick’s day.  It has a very simple malt bill with just enough munich, crystal (80L), roast, and flaked barley to give it some color and a little complexity. With very little hop character (this isn’t your NW style red), the Irish yeast imparts more of an impact on the beer: a slight fruitiness but overall smooth, clean character.  Overall, Hannegan has an initial sweetness with light fruity notes yielding to an easy drinking pint, perfect for any Irish celebration.

malts: ESB, Munich, Crystal, roast, flaked;  fermented with irish ale yeast.  OG/TG 1.048/1.012 ~4.7% ABV

The objective from camp in waning light.

The name. The mountain. Mt Stuart is a massive mountain easily seen from the storied Enchantments, and from I90 ~13 miles SW from Leavenworth.  It’s the second tallest non-volcanic peak in WA and can be identified from nearly any high summit.  The mountain offers many types of climbs from a couple of approaches.  For example, the Cascadian couloir is a long, technically easy ascent on (blah) scree.

The West ridge is a (easy) technical route that is a lesson in high alpine route finding. And the N ridge is a great sustained mid class 5 multi-pitch rock climb.  All of these start in beautiful Headlight basin – worth the day trip in itself on a great trail.

We climbed Mt Stuart via the W ridge.  Fortunately we turned around on the first attempt as we would have run out of daylight and would have had to overnight high up on the mountain in rain with no gear.  Our return was more successful, but still made for a long day with the extra route finding high on the mountain.  Our decent down the scree-filled cascadian couloir made us glad we had done the more interesting W ridge.

The Beer. Since Mt Stuart is one of the most noticeable, bold, non-volcanic peaks in WA we tried to make the beer bearing its name similar.  We based this beer on last year’s recipe but reduced the munich malt and changed hop varietals (but the hops have the same characteristics).  This resulted in a slightly smoother, lower bodied beer while retaining the dark roastiness making Stuart Stout a rich, full bodied, deeply roasty interpretation of the style.  A fine beer to drink anytime, but best enjoyed in front of a fire on a cold rainy winter evening.

Malts: 2 row, roast, chocolate, crystal 40, wheat, and a smattering of oats.  Hops: Apollo for bitter, Fuggles for flavor.

Early Morning Spire (rt of center) from the N (across marble creek glacier)

The Name. The mountain.  Early Morning Spire is set in a magical location of the Eldorado, Inspiration, and Mcallister glaciers. It is actually situated slightly off the glaciers in Marble cirque.  Early Morning Spire offers great rock climbing in a remote place, so remote that it is best to take 3-4 days to climb (the approach is via Eldorado – nearly summiting – over a col into the marble cirque). While it has great rock routes, Early Morning spire can be done as a scramble, although getting from the glacier to solid rock might be treacherous depending on conditions.  The name derives itself from a group that had to bivy near the summit (cold, unprepared), which caused them to summit just after first light. What better of a beer style to have at first light than a stout? We couldn’t think of one.

The Beer. Early Morning Stout was brewed with the “American stout” substyle in mind.  It has a nice roast and chocolate aroma/flavor but also includes a significant amount of hops that are typically associated with our region.  The resulting beer has a pronounced chocolaty roast flavor (slightly less than its counterpart Stuart) but also includes a nice hop aroma and flavor in the background.  A smoother mouthfeel than Stuart, Early Morning stout has great flavors and not just a dominant roast character like its mountainBeer counterpart.

Malts:  Pale, roast, chocolate, carapils, wheat.  Hops: Columbus, cascade, palisade. Yeast: American ale.

Early Morning Spire and environs from Eldorado Peak

]]> http://www.nwpeaksbrewery.com/beer/early-morning-stout/feed/ 0 http://www.nwpeaksbrewery.com/beer/porter-vs-stout/ http://www.nwpeaksbrewery.com/beer/porter-vs-stout/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:49:19 +0000 nwpb_fanatic http://www.nwpeaksbrewery.com/?p=411 As a prelude to “stout month” and our releasing Picket porter back in December we thought it would be fun to write a “discussion” between stouts and porters.  Rest assured, if you asked 100 different brewers and/or connoisseurs to write this you’d get a 100 different responses, so take it with a grain of salt.

Porter:

The ‘traditional’ style: We may never know exactly what the original porters may have tasted like (see below), but today we characterize them as lightish (body) beers with a nice note of chocolate and sometimes mild roast. Porters typically end dry and slightly acidic due to the light body with the acidic dark malts. Porters typically are anywhere from 4-5% ABV for brown porters and up to 6.5% for the robust varieties.  One of the other defining characteristics is that the color and roast character derives itself from “black malt” (malted barley that has been highly roasted).

Stout:

The ‘traditional’ style: Stouts typically have a strong roast/coffee flavor and low hop profile. Chocolate notes may be present but not always. Unlike many porters, stouts tend to have a full-body mouth feel.  Similar to porters, stouts can be of the 4-5 ABV range (dry stouts like Guinness), or up to 7% for some other sub-varieties.  Additionally, while porters get their roast character from black malt, stouts get their roasty notes from roasted barley: unmalted barley that has been highly kilned.

Today’s styles:

We feel that when comparing the styles, that the largest difference is in the body of the beer supporting the roast character, with stouts having a little more of each. A secondary, more subtle difference is the source of the roasty notes (black malt vs roast barley). However, in today’s day and age with craft beer booming, the commercial breweries have been pushing the envelope with these styles (like all other styles), packing in more flavor, more ABV, and more twists. Thankfully most breweries don’t adhere to the above guidelines and we are blessed with a huge selection. But additionally, we feel that all bets are off as to what “defining style” a given beer is (in terms of porter versus stout) and that functionally the styles are merging together, or at least the thin line that separates the styles is becoming very blurred.

Interested in the histories? ….  The histories:

The porter history: The porter “style” is originally derived from what one might call a beer “suicide”, reminiscent of the middle school pass time of mixing different types of soft drinks from the soda fountain to find the perfect level of disgusting. The unique (and delicious) flavor profile of the porter’s predecessor, the “Entire” was created by mixing brown and mild ales commonly found behind the bar at British pubs. Rumor has it the London porters were particularly fond of this mixed drink, so when it was launched as its own style of beer by English breweries the name Porter stuck. When the American colonies were founded, the porter was imported from London brewhouses. But, as our founding fathers fought for independence, the channels of beer importation ran dry and American breweries had to quench the growing nation’s thirst. Historians have even uncovered letters from General George Washington admiring the virtues of his favorite porter brewed in Philadelphia. Thus, the American porter likely diverged from its original roots in the London pubs. The introduction of “black patent” malt is thought to have dramatically changed the makeup of most commercial porters. This new black malt could add the dark coloring and roasted flavoring desired in porters to a beer largely brewed using pale malts instead of the traditional brown malts. Because pale malts can have up to 30% higher efficiencies of extraction than the brown malts, brewers could save money by using fewer pale malts. This dramatic change in the grain bill of commercial porters likely explains the lack of full body characteristics of the porter in spite of the dark coloration of the beer. Similar to what we see with the progression of pale ales to IPAs, porters also experienced a substyle that was defined by an increase in ABV.  A baltic porter has a higher ABV and was developed from the robust porter for export, and subsequent brewing in, the region around the baltic sea. This substyle was undoubtedly influenced and inspired by Russian Imperial Stouts.

The stout history: It is widely agreed that the style now known as the stout likely originated as a “robust” porter. Technological advances in the brewing industry allowed much stronger porters to be brewed, at first for export but later for local British pubs. These more full-bodied beers were referred to as “stout porters”. The term “stout” was widely used throughout England in the 18^th century to describe a high-alcohol, bolder version of any beer style, the name gradually came to be most associated with the bolder porter style. The Irish dry stout was popularized by Guinness and this is still one of the most recognizable stouts commercially available. As the style became popular more breweries began brewing different versions and exports increased.  This resulted in the expansion of different substyles such as an oatmeal stout, sweet stout, foreign export stout that had a higher ABV to withstand shipping, and the Russian Imperial Stout that had so many raw materials that no commoner could afford and thus brewed only for the Russian Imperial courts.  Once in America the craft brewing community put its own stamp on the style (American stout) using traditional American ingredients (NW hops) and processes.