New Brew News – November 6, 2017

Our Thoughts: In the world of beer, the Grand Cru is a bit of an enigma. It has no definition and is not technically a style. The term, which is French for "great growth", is more closely related to wine, usually referring to the highest classification of French wine and is also related to the land where the grapes are grown. Using Grand Cru on a wine label is regulated. On a beer label, it can mean anything. If you grabbed three different brewery's Grand Cru's, chances are you'd have three totally different beers. The term usually implies that the beer is the brewery's best offering, or it's an improved or modified version of an existing beer. One common thread amongst Grand Cru's is that they are typically Belgian style beers. Boulevard has taken the additional step of barrel aging their Grand Cru, which should be available in 4 packs of 12 ounce bottles sometime in 2018. We think this will definitely be worth the wait, as this is not a something commonly produced by large breweries and will be fun to see how Boulevard defines Grand Cru.

Our Thoughts: Since May of 2011, Mother's has been delighting Springfield with their love of beer, brewing and the community. With an already impressive year round lineup and highly sought after seasonal beers, they added the Backyard Beers series, which started out as tasting room favorites that were so popular, they decided to spread the love and put them in 16 ounce cans. Adding to the already quality lineup of blood orange saison, lime gose, cucumber saison and tart peach bier comes the new coconut extra stout. Look for sweet coconut flavors to balance out the roasty chocolate notes of the stout. Mother's sense of adventure in brewing has always delighted us, so this is a no-brainer to add to our list of must try brews.

Our Thoughts: German for herb, Gruit (or grut) is what was used in beer in the place of hops before Reinheitsgebot took effect and limited the ingredients to hops, water and barley. Gruit was usually a proprietary blend of herbs and spices such as yarrow, myrtle, heather, juniper and others that created a wide variety of aromas and flavors. Once using hops came into fashion and the Bavarian style of brewing became popular , the style all but faded into obscurity. Even now, there are very few commercial examples of this style. Luckily, a handful of breweries have rediscovered this ancient ale. Schlafly will be giving us a glimpse of beer from the Middle Ages with their own version of a Gruit, packaging it in 750 ml bottles. If you're a history buff and a beer enthusiast, you don't want to miss this one.