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24-12-2022, 11:21
Visit the Fuggled site (http://www.fuggled.net/2022/12/fuggled-beers-of-year-dark.html)
Ah...you have to love a clear cut category. We move on beyond the vague orange/red/brownish world in to proper brown and black beers, the kind of brew you take a single look at and know you are drinking a dark beer. Dunkel, tmavé, schwarzbier, porter, mild, stout, those kind of things. Onward, into darkness we go...
Virginia
Dark Starr Stout - Starr Hill Brewing, Crozet
Inexorable Stout - Reason Brewing, Charlottesville
Porter - Port City Brewing, Alexandria
Honorable mentions: Schwartz Bier - Devils Backbone Brewing; Tweed Dunkel - Selvedge Brewing, Charlottesville.
There is a large dose of romantic sentimentality here. Many years ago I worked in the Starr Hill Brewing tasting room in Crozet, and each flight ended with Dark Starr Stout, still, even after several years of not being part of the core range, the most award winning dry Irish stout in America. When it was originally discontinued, I have to admit I had a chat with the brewers at Starr Hill and heavily based my homebrew stout on Dark Starr. Earlier this year they did a special run of Dark Starr, for reasons which escape me right now, but I knew I needed to get some. With it on tap in the new tap room in the centre of Charlottesville, I spent a very happy afternoon ordering a beer, letting it get to the right temperature and have near religious moments with what is, in my world, basically the perfect stout.
Rest of the USA
Dunkel - Von Trapp Brewing, Stowe, VT
Karlův 13° Černė - Schilling Beer Co, Littleton, NH
Dunkel - Olde Mecklenburg Brewing, Charlotte, NC
Honorable mentions: Rennsteig - Schilling Beer Co, Littleton, NH.
Another beer that made the trip from New England to Virginia in the spring, and if you know me at all it should come as no surprise that it was Schilling's superlative 13° tmavé, Karlův. Some may wish to quibble about me calling a beer a tmavé which the brewery labels a černé, but in reality there is no difference in Czechia other than the capricious whimsy of the marketing department. Karlův hits every high note of a Czech dark lager perfectly, marrying the rich maltiness with a clean finish that sits somewhere between a Munich Dunkel and Thuringian Schwarzbier. Eminently drinkable, and a beer that would more than hold its own in Czechia, it is another example of Schilling just getting things absolutely right.
Rest of the World
Hirter Morchl - Privatbrauerei Hirt, AT
O'Hara's Irish Stout - Carlow Brewing, IE
London Porter - Fullers, UK
It was on the strength of their lovely, lovely, pilsner, that the next time I saw beers from Privatbrauerei Hirt in my local bottle shop, I picked up a four pack of Morchl, an Austrian iteration on the Munich Dunkel style. While there wasn't the noticeable difference between the Austrian and the German that I saw with the pilsner, Morchl was a superb example of the dunkel style of lager. Hefty malt character that makes me think the grist is redolent with Munich and Vienna malts, married with a a clean noble hop bitterness and what you have here is the kind of beer that cries out for a biergarten in autumn, as golden leaves start to fall and you want something a touch richer to drink. As with the Hirter Privat Pils, this is a social beer than demands to be drunk in beautiful surroundings with great company.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibv2h1WwLcWr6KaDPdEcGJN74UeNH5Lh-ss3FOQMy6uLWs3qm5EGPl7sCzL7E_yAmUhkZlO0WZSS-XeAu5DQkdCXsIZaDTFBbIs4qs9JQrA-dxgLNqguGdWWwotY2M9TMnFFFyPJxyUxV29HH6XOib58qVgpW3 ez4SncfV0CyPLPB4DRA0rbmwSv3F/w150-h200/20220211_132459.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibv2h1WwLcWr6KaDPdEcGJN74UeNH5Lh-ss3FOQMy6uLWs3qm5EGPl7sCzL7E_yAmUhkZlO0WZSS-XeAu5DQkdCXsIZaDTFBbIs4qs9JQrA-dxgLNqguGdWWwotY2M9TMnFFFyPJxyUxV29HH6XOib58qVgpW3 ez4SncfV0CyPLPB4DRA0rbmwSv3F/s4000/20220211_132459.jpg)https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbg4NsT2TwTSpt5sekmfyiGxROtPYoMvkDqpgyge5P9 eUdVzYyO3EAog-Lpw4tM2RYSENJ2oDj-ITLw4-rf1fUkYbMYfttBevBwyAgy-5yiRMhHjQnwCj1IcHQM8-lpXn9Vbjr13QB3duqBFdcEXmVY8xFqmJCRGsdIcaneExai8i2i u884dUtTSi/w144-h200/20220417_203246.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbg4NsT2TwTSpt5sekmfyiGxROtPYoMvkDqpgyge5P9 eUdVzYyO3EAog-Lpw4tM2RYSENJ2oDj-ITLw4-rf1fUkYbMYfttBevBwyAgy-5yiRMhHjQnwCj1IcHQM8-lpXn9Vbjr13QB3duqBFdcEXmVY8xFqmJCRGsdIcaneExai8i2i u884dUtTSi/s2496/20220417_203246.jpg)https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8koIUeRawl2g5l91C961L5ho7rHVtLL7TW4H6CEJfF Zz-AwPvUhlu59nYNUhG6r8F2S_4x9Ge3ZzM8WjYWyr41kn9QtzbOf Z6_v0bA4TcmIAqsW8mNjWRrcNbu6NbCl8MbPGL8IBCvXE5ibWF Asx9eXfXM2azVaB7cG-JAnzeDXGSzTBoiUrS-TY/w150-h200/20221021_202207.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8koIUeRawl2g5l91C961L5ho7rHVtLL7TW4H6CEJfF Zz-AwPvUhlu59nYNUhG6r8F2S_4x9Ge3ZzM8WjYWyr41kn9QtzbOf Z6_v0bA4TcmIAqsW8mNjWRrcNbu6NbCl8MbPGL8IBCvXE5ibWF Asx9eXfXM2azVaB7cG-JAnzeDXGSzTBoiUrS-TY/s2372/20221021_202207.jpg)
There is something deeply alluring about dark beers, whether they be top or bottom fermented. Perhaps though it is the fact that my first legal beer was a famous Irish stout that colours my choice of Fuggled Dark Beer of 2022. However, the fact remains that Starr Hill Dark Starr Stout is a beer that I have loved for many years, and it's return this year was so incredibly welcome. That it was still the beer I raved on about to so many patrons at the Starr Hill tasting room in Crozet made me so happy, and I know that whenever it is on tap I will be making my way over to get myself a pint or three of the best session stout I have ever had.
More... (http://www.fuggled.net/2022/12/fuggled-beers-of-year-dark.html)
Ah...you have to love a clear cut category. We move on beyond the vague orange/red/brownish world in to proper brown and black beers, the kind of brew you take a single look at and know you are drinking a dark beer. Dunkel, tmavé, schwarzbier, porter, mild, stout, those kind of things. Onward, into darkness we go...
Virginia
Dark Starr Stout - Starr Hill Brewing, Crozet
Inexorable Stout - Reason Brewing, Charlottesville
Porter - Port City Brewing, Alexandria
Honorable mentions: Schwartz Bier - Devils Backbone Brewing; Tweed Dunkel - Selvedge Brewing, Charlottesville.
There is a large dose of romantic sentimentality here. Many years ago I worked in the Starr Hill Brewing tasting room in Crozet, and each flight ended with Dark Starr Stout, still, even after several years of not being part of the core range, the most award winning dry Irish stout in America. When it was originally discontinued, I have to admit I had a chat with the brewers at Starr Hill and heavily based my homebrew stout on Dark Starr. Earlier this year they did a special run of Dark Starr, for reasons which escape me right now, but I knew I needed to get some. With it on tap in the new tap room in the centre of Charlottesville, I spent a very happy afternoon ordering a beer, letting it get to the right temperature and have near religious moments with what is, in my world, basically the perfect stout.
Rest of the USA
Dunkel - Von Trapp Brewing, Stowe, VT
Karlův 13° Černė - Schilling Beer Co, Littleton, NH
Dunkel - Olde Mecklenburg Brewing, Charlotte, NC
Honorable mentions: Rennsteig - Schilling Beer Co, Littleton, NH.
Another beer that made the trip from New England to Virginia in the spring, and if you know me at all it should come as no surprise that it was Schilling's superlative 13° tmavé, Karlův. Some may wish to quibble about me calling a beer a tmavé which the brewery labels a černé, but in reality there is no difference in Czechia other than the capricious whimsy of the marketing department. Karlův hits every high note of a Czech dark lager perfectly, marrying the rich maltiness with a clean finish that sits somewhere between a Munich Dunkel and Thuringian Schwarzbier. Eminently drinkable, and a beer that would more than hold its own in Czechia, it is another example of Schilling just getting things absolutely right.
Rest of the World
Hirter Morchl - Privatbrauerei Hirt, AT
O'Hara's Irish Stout - Carlow Brewing, IE
London Porter - Fullers, UK
It was on the strength of their lovely, lovely, pilsner, that the next time I saw beers from Privatbrauerei Hirt in my local bottle shop, I picked up a four pack of Morchl, an Austrian iteration on the Munich Dunkel style. While there wasn't the noticeable difference between the Austrian and the German that I saw with the pilsner, Morchl was a superb example of the dunkel style of lager. Hefty malt character that makes me think the grist is redolent with Munich and Vienna malts, married with a a clean noble hop bitterness and what you have here is the kind of beer that cries out for a biergarten in autumn, as golden leaves start to fall and you want something a touch richer to drink. As with the Hirter Privat Pils, this is a social beer than demands to be drunk in beautiful surroundings with great company.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibv2h1WwLcWr6KaDPdEcGJN74UeNH5Lh-ss3FOQMy6uLWs3qm5EGPl7sCzL7E_yAmUhkZlO0WZSS-XeAu5DQkdCXsIZaDTFBbIs4qs9JQrA-dxgLNqguGdWWwotY2M9TMnFFFyPJxyUxV29HH6XOib58qVgpW3 ez4SncfV0CyPLPB4DRA0rbmwSv3F/w150-h200/20220211_132459.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibv2h1WwLcWr6KaDPdEcGJN74UeNH5Lh-ss3FOQMy6uLWs3qm5EGPl7sCzL7E_yAmUhkZlO0WZSS-XeAu5DQkdCXsIZaDTFBbIs4qs9JQrA-dxgLNqguGdWWwotY2M9TMnFFFyPJxyUxV29HH6XOib58qVgpW3 ez4SncfV0CyPLPB4DRA0rbmwSv3F/s4000/20220211_132459.jpg)https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbg4NsT2TwTSpt5sekmfyiGxROtPYoMvkDqpgyge5P9 eUdVzYyO3EAog-Lpw4tM2RYSENJ2oDj-ITLw4-rf1fUkYbMYfttBevBwyAgy-5yiRMhHjQnwCj1IcHQM8-lpXn9Vbjr13QB3duqBFdcEXmVY8xFqmJCRGsdIcaneExai8i2i u884dUtTSi/w144-h200/20220417_203246.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbg4NsT2TwTSpt5sekmfyiGxROtPYoMvkDqpgyge5P9 eUdVzYyO3EAog-Lpw4tM2RYSENJ2oDj-ITLw4-rf1fUkYbMYfttBevBwyAgy-5yiRMhHjQnwCj1IcHQM8-lpXn9Vbjr13QB3duqBFdcEXmVY8xFqmJCRGsdIcaneExai8i2i u884dUtTSi/s2496/20220417_203246.jpg)https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8koIUeRawl2g5l91C961L5ho7rHVtLL7TW4H6CEJfF Zz-AwPvUhlu59nYNUhG6r8F2S_4x9Ge3ZzM8WjYWyr41kn9QtzbOf Z6_v0bA4TcmIAqsW8mNjWRrcNbu6NbCl8MbPGL8IBCvXE5ibWF Asx9eXfXM2azVaB7cG-JAnzeDXGSzTBoiUrS-TY/w150-h200/20221021_202207.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8koIUeRawl2g5l91C961L5ho7rHVtLL7TW4H6CEJfF Zz-AwPvUhlu59nYNUhG6r8F2S_4x9Ge3ZzM8WjYWyr41kn9QtzbOf Z6_v0bA4TcmIAqsW8mNjWRrcNbu6NbCl8MbPGL8IBCvXE5ibWF Asx9eXfXM2azVaB7cG-JAnzeDXGSzTBoiUrS-TY/s2372/20221021_202207.jpg)
There is something deeply alluring about dark beers, whether they be top or bottom fermented. Perhaps though it is the fact that my first legal beer was a famous Irish stout that colours my choice of Fuggled Dark Beer of 2022. However, the fact remains that Starr Hill Dark Starr Stout is a beer that I have loved for many years, and it's return this year was so incredibly welcome. That it was still the beer I raved on about to so many patrons at the Starr Hill tasting room in Crozet made me so happy, and I know that whenever it is on tap I will be making my way over to get myself a pint or three of the best session stout I have ever had.
More... (http://www.fuggled.net/2022/12/fuggled-beers-of-year-dark.html)