Falling Into La Trappe: The Lowdown on Trappist Beer and Abbey Ales

Justin Jackson
Beer History

Belgian beer is certainly special, with many of their traditional brands and styles being truly unique in terms of their flavor, ingredients and production methods. Most Belgians will argue that they have the best beer in the world and while I won’t be supporting that argument in this post I will agree that they have some amazing beers that simply must be on everyone’s list of beers to try. At the mention of Trappist beer one may conjure images of old, grey, balding monks in robes, stirring wooden paddles in cauldrons and happily downing hefty glasses of ale like Friar Tuck. In this post I would like to give an introduction to Trappist beer in terms of its history, rules, brands, and how they are different from other “abbey ales”.

Beer Foam

Beer Foam

Justin Jackson
Brewing Resources, Beer Books, Practical Home Brewer

We’ve all seen the server or bartender go through the painstaking process of slowly pouring beer from the faucet or out of a can or bottle into a nearly-horizontal glass, making every effort to not allow any foam to show up at the top of the glass. However, every brewer will tell you that foam is an important characteristic of beer that is supposed to be there. In some countries there is a clear line below the top of the glass, highlighting the level of liquid that you paid for (with room for foam on top). In other countries the liquid is meant to be held together by surface tension at the brim of the glass without a trace of foam.

In this post I won’t be sharing about how much foam each pint should have, but I will share some ways that brewers can improve foam in their beer. Particularly, I’ll share some takeaways from Dr. Charles Bamforth’s 2012 book, Foam, from the ASBC “Quality Series”.

Brewerism - Western Australia (Margaret River & Coast)

Justin Jackson
Brewerism

Australia is a land that has everything it needs to make world-class beer with hop farms in Tasmania, barley fields in Western Australia and a brewing history heavily influenced by British immigrants in the 19th century. While I’ve previously traveled to Tasmania, Melbourne and Sydney, this past December (2019) I made my first trip to Western Australia - home of the Margaret River wine region, a beautiful coastline, and other agriculture that has made it ripe to support an emerging craft beer scene. In this post I’ll touch on a few breweries I was able to visit in Margaret River, Fremantle, and the coast in-between. I’ll give you my general impression as well as a relative “grade” of the venue and the beer, and some justification for each.

5 Ways That Beer Explains the World - from Beeronomics

5 Ways That Beer Explains the World - from Beeronomics

Justin Jackson
Beer Books, Beer History

Beeronomics hit the shelves in 2017 and offers fifteen chapters of beer stories laced with economic principles that have shaped the world today.  This book has loads of interesting history of beer told through the eyes of economists who have delved a little deeper to reveal some of the economic drivers for everything from how hopped-beer came into popularity to the real reasoning behind the German Beer Purity Law.  In this blog post I will highlight some of the stories from the book that I found most interesting.

Seven Useless Facts I Learned from "Portland Beer: Crafting the Road to Beervana".

Seven Useless Facts I Learned from "Portland Beer: Crafting the Road to Beervana".

Justin Jackson
Brewerism, Beer Books, Beer History

As a brewer, I’m always interested in learning more of the science behind brewing and fermentation. As a beer enthusiast, however, I always love a good history lesson about beer and brewing. American Palate has published a series of historical books on beer and as I have traveled I have come across a few of the titles to supplement my, often dry, beer science knowledge with the more colorful story of beer around the world.

Having recently visited Portland, aka “Beervana”, and other parts of Oregon on a summer family road trip, I came across Portland Beer: Crafting the Road to Beervana at the locally famous Powell’s Bookstore. Needless to say I was happy to avoid another technical brewing text to go for a more enjoyable read to give me more of a background on this city that has come to be recognized as one of the hubs for craft beer in America.

In this post I wanted to filter out a handful of historical facts that I found interesting.

Brewerism- Portland, Bend & Beyond!

Brewerism- Portland, Bend & Beyond!

Justin Jackson
Brewerism

I ordered my first craft beer back in 2003 and while my love for beer has grown throughout my travels, it has taken me 16 years to finally make it to Portland, a.k.a. “Beervana”. I don’t have the hard figures on how many breweries are in Portland, and I’m sure that it is in a constant state of flux. However, it is safe to say that there are loads of breweries not only in Portland, but all across Oregon as well. So, this summer I made the pilgrimage for 10 days from Portland to the northern coast, through the Willamette valley, out to Hood River, down to Bend, and back in a trip that won’t soon be forgotten. In this post I will not be providing an exhaustive review of Oregon’s breweries. However, I will point out some highlights of this road trip through the Beaver State.

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