Rye is a hardy plant. It's so stout, in fact, that you can
grow it in relatively poor soils and even as far north as the Arctic Circle. If
you go back to medieval Europe, you'll find lots of poor people eating rye
bread while those who were better off ate wheat. And the really well-heeled got
to eat white bread because they could afford flour made from wheat that was
shorn of its bran or whatever bits of the wheatberry gave a brown tint. Thusly
it's quite ironic that white bread today here in the States is cheap and
plentiful.
Today rye is most prevalent in northern and eastern Europe
with Poland and Germany, which only started growing more wheat than rye in the
1950s, being the largest producers. Now, I love rye so is it mere coincidence
that 50% of my genetic inheritance is Polish and German? Or that the great
majority of my ancestors hailed from northern and eastern Europe? I ask you.
Then we can eat
Secale cereale
Sorry there, Sting.
With my taste for rye, it is sometimes frustrating that
there are so few rye beers. I think every brewer I've ever broached this
subject with gave me the same riposte: rye is a pain in the ass to brew with. It
turns into this thick sludge like oatmeal so brewers need to be extra vigilant
and stir and stir until they can stir no more. Plus, I guess it's also a pain
to clean up. This behavior is apparently due to the pentosans, a type of
carbohydrate, in rye which can absorb a lot of water.
Today's brewers are beset with demands for ever more fruit
flavors and this, combined with rye's intractable brewing behavior, means that
there are precious few rye beers around. Not being much of an IPA drinker, I
largely avoid beers of that style including the ones made with my beloved grain
which means the precious is even rarer. So, when I heard that Chicago's
Revolution Brewing was going to release a rye stout last autumn, I made sure to
keep an eye out for it during my treks to Chicagoland during the holiday season.
I don't know much about Revolution but they seem to be the
New Glarus of Chicago. I believe they brew more beer than any other craft
brewery down there that isn't owned by AB-InBev so they're like the top dog of
the Chicagoland brewing scene. They brew a lot of IPAs and a lot of barrel-aged
stouts and their reputation is mostly based on these brews. Or so it seems to
me. Neither of these styles can accurately be called my jam so I have mostly
avoided Revolution's beers. But I've had a few of their other brews and I found
most of them to be good.
Repo Man is one of their limited release beers and was
apparently brewed back in the early days of the brewery. The name and its
funkadelic label refer to the classic 1984 film of the same name by Alex Cox
and starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez.
2 comments:
It is out again. Revolution's beers have been exported to a few countries, including Japan. The last five times I was in Japan, Japanese craft beer zines had advertisements for Revolution's top-selling beers (Anti-Hero IPA, Fist City Pale Ale), imported by Artisanal Quality Craft Beer Importers. I deduce the Brewers' Association's Export program had something to do with it. Myself, I was glad to see a brewery not located on the Pacific Rim or the Northeast Corridor getting exportation to Japan.
I do not go to Revolution's packaging brewery as much as I should. |={#
{C'mon, Pudgy, it's a two-block walk from the bus stop @ Belmont & Kedzie. Quit slacking.}
If Japan ever again lets in visitors from North America, I will investigate going. But I am also going to contact Revolution to see if it will let me check-in mini-kegs of its 'Deep Woods' beers for my two favorite Japanese craft beer bars.
My impression is that Revolution is doing well. Good for them exporting to another continent. I've never been there. And I just had my first Deep Woods beer. A review is forthcoming.
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