Here in PA beer buyers get to choose between picking up a case at the state storedistributor or buying overpriced sixpacks at a bar. As a result we keystone staters take time getting to know a single beer before moving on to the next one. Case in point, over the last week we’ve worked our way through a case of the IPA-style Two Hearted Ale from Bell’s in Galesburg, MI and at this point I can say that I’m ready for a review.
When you have plenty of time to contemplate a beer named for a Michigan river and story by Ernest Hemingway the mind begins to associate things. If brewing is an art and all art is essentially a running commentary on other art, could one think of beer itself as a form of literary criticism? Last year the Lagunitas Brewery commemorated an unwelcome visit from the DEA with a brew formulated to reflect the experience. A pointless twenty-day shutdown hardly compares to forty years lost in the desert, but here you have an especially bitter beer serving the same purpose as bitter herbs and saltwater on the Passover holiday. The principle is there.
Two Hearted Ale seems bigger than it is at 6%, which you won’t find out from the bottle label. A touch of bitterness contributes, and despite subtle contributions from malt and hops the beer comes across as dry, almost to a fault. If it were a sentence Bell’s Two Hearted Ale would be about eight words long, emphatic, contain no adjectives and take three or four samplings before you get everything that it’s trying to say. You may not find yourself among the Snows of Kilimanjaro, but Hemingway has written things harder to get through than this golden straw-colored brew. A lingering head caps this brew with a hoppy nose, and leaves behind a slight lacing when it retreats.
For more reasons to find some for yourself, see BA.
p.lukasiak
Tim, you can’t possibly be from pennsylvania. State stores don’t sell beer. You buy cases of beer from beer distributors. ;)
Tim F.
Jeesh, of course. And I have to learn to proofread before posting.
Punchy
I don’t know where you find these. I’m guessing they’re completely local. I was hoping to debate Tim on the merits of putting fruity flavors in suds, but alas, a plane to Vegas is calling. And none of the damn casinos serve anything but cheap-ass beer anyways…
J. Michael Neal
Two-Hearted is fantastic.
Bob In Pacifica
I’ve been cutting back on my beer drinking for caloric reasons. Perhaps you could blog about diet sodas next week.
Just joking.
Phillip J. Birmingham
I was going to correct Tim: “It’s Kalamazoo Brewing in Kalamazoo.” It turns out events have overtaken me, and it’s now Bell’s Brewery (which is what everyone called it, anyway) in Galesburg.
Two-hearted is awesome. Clark Street Ale House in Chicago had it on hand-pull frequently, back when I used to have time to drink beer downtown.
Actually, any of Bell’s beers are good — I’ve never had one that sucked. Same for New Glarus in Wisconsin, although they don’t distribute out of state, which makes me glad it’s just a fifteen minute drive.
zzyzx
Completely off topic, but John would be amused by this at least. Ann Coulter interviewed by… Jambands.com. Read her love for the Grateful Dead.
That itself isn’t that unusual, but she mentioned being into SCI and they really have a hippie-dippie crowd (who I happen to love btw); I’m having trouble picturing her around people wearing fairie wings and/or hula hooping.
jambands.com/Features/content_2006_06_23.06.phtml
Rowe
the guy on the boat was drunk when he had his accident?
matt
do they still make “Redfeather” in you rneck of the woods? I loved that beer!
fwiffo
Actually, there are two of Bell’s beers which aren’t that great: Cherry Stout and Mocha Stout. But that’s only because they put not beer flavored things in those beers. And they make quite a few beers, all the rest of which are fucking awesome, so that makes up for it. Every single one of their beers is real ale (i.e. bottle conditioned and naturally carbonated, none of that foo-foo filtered bullshit).
Two Hearted is one of their best, and is probably my favorite IPA ever. Others I recommend include their Expedition Stout (a profound imperial stout), Olberon (a summer seasonal Hefe), Consecrator Doppelbock and the Double Cream Stout. That last one is a good gateway beer for people who normally don’t like stouts or porters. That’s not to say it’s not a serious stout – it’s just that it’s got some quality that makes it appealing to people who wouldn’t normally drink a thick dark beer. Also, be sure that if you pick up some Expedition Stout that you get some from the new plant. There was a batch a few years ago that didn’t carbonate properly and pretty much sucked, and I’ve seen a few of those around still. You can tell if it’s from the new plant because they’ll have a label on the neck of the bottle. The bad batch will have no label on the neck.
Try, if you can, to get your hands on some of their commemorative brews (every 1000 batches they make a special batch – it’ll be called something like “Bell’s Batch 6000”, which was a really good barleywine).
Gus
Phillip J. Birmingham. If you live near Wisconsin, I heartily recommend Bitter Woman IPA from the Tyranena Brewing Co.
Bob In Pacifica
Isn’t it time to start Sunday rum and cola blogging?