Megan, Katie and I convened on the Lower East Side at Counter for what was hopefully billed as the city’s “first annual” Organic Beer Bash. It was set up like a wine-tasting, only featuring organic beers and ciders. At nine tables stood representatives from organic brewers across the country who would pour a sample into a non-biodegradable plastic cup (whoops) while describing the drink and fielding questions.
Stouts were in short supply, though I liked the Butte Creek porter, hailing from Chico, California, which featured a rich choc lately tang. And Wolaver’s, of Middlebury, Vermont, which was proclaimed to me the best organic beer brewer in the country by reps at two competing tables, had a deliciously dark oatmeal stout with nutty, cocoa notes. My increasingly sloppy annotations to my program indicate “goes well with fries” (they were made from chickpeas and beer batter) and “bitter, like Katie,” which I think was a joke because the beer actually was bitter. Wolaver’s Wit (wheat) beer sort of exemplified most of the other lagers and IPAs (India pale ales) I tasted today: a might too light with lots of conflicting, astringent flavors, often due to the utilization of a specific type of hops. In the case of the Wit, it was coriander and orange peel, but I think I merely need to develop my palate and appreciate these beers since I’m not used to tasting anything in a light beer but the sickly carbonated sweetness presented by the average American mass-market brew.