Everything orange

Aggregator moment, redux ...

Jersey John Holl writes at CraftBeer.com of Oktoberfest's seasonal competition, pumpkin beer.

And a swing by Iron Hill-Maple Shade this weekend revealed that brewer Chris LaPierre will be tapping a gourd full of pumpkin ale on Oct. 23rd. Three versions of the ale will be pouring that day.

Among the two imperial versions that day: A bourbon barrel-finished one that was brewed in September 2009 with molasses and Belgian candy sugar. It sat in the barrel a couple of months, Chris says.

And he notes: There's only one sixtel of it.

You, too, can brew

Friend of the blog John Holl steered us to this piece he wrote recently for his former task masters at The New York Times.

You can sit on the couch and have a commercial tell you all about (bland) triple-hopped Miller Lite (as if most beers don't get hops for bittering, flavor and aroma) or you can put on your work boots and find out for yourself, take at trip beyond the taste and aromas of the finished product.

Scott Cronick of The Press of Atlantic City gave that idea a shot, spending a day at the Tun Tavern in Atlantic City last month to help brewer Tim Kelly create a dunkelweizen that will be served at the Atlantic City beer fest March 2o-21 and, of course, at the Tun, under a tap logo that commemorates the occasion.

Scott has Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale on tap in his kegerator at home in Somers Point. So he's by no means a stranger to craft beer. And his interest in the brewing process comes mostly from a tie-in The Press has with the Tun for its weekend features supplement, At The Shore, which Scott edits.

Still, taking a turn at the mash tun and kettle as a brewer's apprentice did open Scott's eyes to a few things about beer that go beyond bubbles rising in a pint glass to buoy a head of foam.

Namely, there's the enzyme action that happens when hot water meets malted barely (and in this case wheat, too) to convert the grain's stored starch into malt sugar and collectively the wort; the rolling boil of that wort and protein changes that take place; not to mention the boil time necessary to let hops do their thing.

These are all things pro brewers know, and homebrewers, too, have memorized and can chew the fat endlessly over at Big Brew in May. But to the beer enthusiast whose compass doesn't point to beer geek, the experience is a little bit like pulling back the curtain on the wizard to discover some chemistry is responsible for his magic.

"I never realized how much of a science it was," Scott said. "It was eye-opening from a work perspective ... and how everything is so precise."

It's also like cooking and serving a big dinner: Someone has to clean up afterward. Like Scott did, digging out the spent grain from the mash tun. Anyone who has done that can tell you it's a bit of a workout.

But there's no shortcut to quality. And the same goes for brewing quality small-batch beer.

On Monday, Scott said Tim informed him the beer they brewed nearly two weeks ago is coming along nicely, with some aroma notes of banana and bubblegum that you may typically find with such a wheat beer.

All that's left is for the beer to condition a little more and it will be ready for the pint glass.

In the meantime, as part of the Press-Tun tie-in, you'll see mention of the brew in At The Shore. If it's a hit, other Tun seasonal brews and At The Shore tie-ins may follow in the dunkelweizen's footsteps.

Who's your guide?

It's none other than John Holl, the Jersey journalist who contributes reporting and analysis on craft beer to newjerseynewsroom.com.

The focus of John's efforts is a guidebook about craft and pub breweries throughout Indiana, another title in the Stackpole Books breweries series pioneered by Lew Bryson (who's also co-author of 2008's New Jersey Breweries with Mid-Atlantic Brewing News columnist Mark Haynie).

John is working on Indiana Breweries with Nate Schweber, a name you may recognize from the print and Web pages of The New York Times, where John also wrote for several years. Nate also fronts the band NewHeathens.

Publication of Indiana Breweries is scheduled for June 2011. John says the next few months will be spent touring Indiana and gathering string, then, of course, getting down to brass tacks and shaping their reporting into the book's chapters.

The Hoosier State is familiar ground to John, whose news reporting cred also includes a stint at Indiana's capital city paper, The Star.

" There are more than 30 brewpubs and breweries in the state, and I'm really looking forward to revisiting many of them. I was a staff writer for the Indianapolis Star in 2003-2004 and spent a lot of time driving the state and visiting a lot of fine breweries," he says.

Besides having a chronicler from The Garden State, Indiana beer has something else in common with New Jersey. Like Jersey, it sometimes doesn't command the attention it deserves.

"Indiana beer is often overlooked by people, who focus on beers from Missouri to the West and Michigan to the northeast, but the Hoosier state has some really great places," John says. "We're hopeful that this book will encourage people to hit the road and visit not only the breweries but the towns and attractions in the area."

Any Hoosier beers that would appeal to Jersey drinkers?

"I think there is such a diversity among the Indiana brewers that even people with very particular tastes will be able to find what they want," John says.