He came home to Madison and made a present of the Calamintha to the Gardens at Olbrich: Olbrich Porter by Working Draft Beer Company

 

Considering the widespread addiction to Girl Scouts Thin Mints cookies, I am somewhat surprised that mint isn't used more often in beer, especially dark beers which contain malted grains that add the taste of dark/bitter chocolate such as, say, the porter. It seems a no-brainer. However, I don’t recall ever having drunk a mint-laced beer that wasn't homebrewed. And that was but a single occasion.

The person who brewed the mint beer I was given - a porter! - remarked to me, "When you're sick of drinking the stuff, make ice cream floats out of it." This isn't surprising considering that mint is generally used to flavor sweet foods (and, yes, the beer did make a fine float). Think the above Thin Mints, gum, ice cream, and so on. I once had a co-worker from Morocco who told me about the tea that he drank at home. It was full of fresh mint leaves – and no small amount of sugar. Other drinks made with mint are also laden with sugar – see the mint julep and the mojito. What do you eat with the leg of lamb on Easter? Mint jelly. I suppose our tastebuds like a little something to dull the sharp pungency of mint.

But mint isn't always paired with something that is replete with sweetness. I recall having a meal at Kabul here in Madison which was minty yet not sweet. So mint gets in on the savory action too, though rarely, it seems.

Fairly recently, my Frau expressed a rather substantial preference for peppermint over spearmint, the two most common varieties of mint. Or was it spearmint over peppermint? I cannot recall. Regardless, I never knew she had strong feelings on this matter and the revelation made me consider the herbs. I mean, I don’t think I'd ever given much consideration as to how peppermint and spearmint differ beyond the color of the gum wrappers. It seems the biggest difference is that peppermint contains menthol whereas spearmint does not. Hence the former tasting like cold. (Think Ralph Wiggum, "It tastes like coldness!")

There are many varieties of mint including watermint, which is a parent of peppermint that I'd never heard of until just now. Another type of mint is calamintha (nepeta), which, in addition to being raised in areas around the Mediterranean, is also grown just a few blocks from my home at Olbrich Botanical Gardens and that is how it found its way into a porter brewed by Working Draft Beer Company called Olbrich Porter.

In addition to calamintha, the brew was also made with birch sap from the Gardens. Neither of these ingredients were familiar to me and so my curiosity was piqued. (Plus, proceeds from the sale of Olbrich Porter go to OBG, a worthy cause.)

 

While I was unfamiliar with some of the ingredients, it looked just like the porters I've known. My glass had a big, tan head that was comprised of large bubbles that reminded me of those you get with root beer. And they were loud. The liquid was a Stygian reddish brown. Tilting my glass just right, I saw that it looked slightly hazy. On first sniff, I caught a big wave of mint – shocking, I know – along with a pungent whiff of anise and a hint of the portery things like bitter chocolate and roasted grain. Upon taking a bigger sniff, the calamintha gave off an aroma like oregano. It wasn't strong, mind you, but it was there lurking in the background.

On first sip, I tasted a mellow fizz set against a very pleasant smoothness. Overall, the beer had a medium-light body. Like the aroma, mint was most prominent followed by anise with some faint dark chocolate and roasted grain flavors playing supporting roles. There was also a hint of sweetness but I am unsure how much of it was from malt and how much from the birch sap. I've never had birch sap (nor birch syrup) but apparently it has less sugar than its maple counterpart so I am guessing that either the sweetness was a combination of malt and birch sap or a lot of sap was used in making this beer with much of the water having been boiled off.

On the finish, those mint and anise flavors endured and were joined by the gentle bitterness and herbal flavors of some Brewer's Gold hops. I also tasted a little dark chocolate here.

Overall, I enjoyed this beer. I liked the minty sweetness and, as it warmed, the chocolate notes from the grains which got stronger pushing it closer into Thin Mint territory. But I am not the biggest fan of anise so this was not a beer I would care to drink all night long. Having said this, I do wish more brewers would explore the non-hoppy offerings of the botanical world. Hopefully Working Draft will root around Olbrich Botanical Gardens again for more interesting flavor combinations.

Junk food pairing: go to your local Asian or Indian grocer and get some curry flavored potato chips to go with your Olbrich Porter. At the last one I was at, they had a couple different curry flavored chips that Frito Lay dare not sell in mainstream American stores.