Chris O'Brien over at the Beer Activist is the host for this month's Beer Blogging Friday event. His topic for this edition of The Session is Organic Beer.
Prior to moving to North Carolina, I lived in Saratoga County, N.Y., a quick drive from the Vermont border. Vermont is one of those places that just feels a little different than most of the rest of the world. They still value family farms. They hold Town Meeting Day the first Tuesday each March to elect local officials, vote on budgets and generally have their say. In the fall, clubs hold annual Game Dinners, where everything from venison to moose and bear to rabbit is served up to raise money for local charities. Country inns are the place to stay and cheddar cheese is an art form.
I have been a fan of Otter Creek Brewing in the college town of Middlebury, Vt., since it opened in 1991. They have nice line up of brews, including a solid Copper Ale and my favorite, Stovepipe Porter. In the late 1990s they started to brew Wolaver's Certified Organic Ales in partnership with Panorama Brewing Company. In 2002, the Wolaver family purchased Otter Creek Brewing, formally uniting the two brands corporately.
For my beer for The Session #13 I decided on Wolaver's Brown Ale, which I found on tap at The Flying Saucer in Charlotte. The beer was a rich mahogany color and had a very mild, smooth flavor. The malt is firm in this beer, but not too sweet. There is a slight fruit element to the background from the ale yeast. The hops in this brown ale are respectfully mild and true to the style.
Wolaver's Brown is one of those beers you could easily drink over the course of an evening, feeling good about how it makes you feel and how it treats the environment.
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