I decided to take the blog on the road for this week. The Ginger Man, a bar down the street from the LIME headquarters, has a good selection of organic brews and featured the Butte Creek Organic Porter on draught. This was a great introduction to BC's different beers, and an opportunity to try my first organic from a keg. A few members of the LIME online staff joined me for this tasting.

Butte Creek offers 4 varieties of organics. We chose the porter because it was on draught, but they did offer all of the BC beers in bottles. Don't tell my boss, but I managed to sneak a 2^nd tasting in too—the Butte Creek Organic Pilsner, which Josh and I split.

The group was not full of beer connoisseurs... a few basic beer questions had to be taken care of. For example:

Q: What is the difference between the Butte varieties?

A: BC offers an ale, a porter, an India pale ale and a pilsner.

I could probably write a very long article on the differences of these (or all beer) varieties, but today let's just cover the basics of what we drank, and then we can tackle other varieties as they come up in future posts.

The difference between ales and lagers is the different strains of yeast used during the fermentation process. Ales use a top-fermenting yeast, which, along with the warmer temperatures it is brewed at, produces a lot more complex flavors and aromas. Lagers, which use bottom-fermenting yeast, tend to be brewed at a colder temperature and have a smooth and crisper taste.

Porter is a style of ale which has a dark color. It uses dark roasted malt for its brewing process and is brewed with soft rather than hard water. Originally, strong porters were called "Stout Porters," which was eventually shortened to just "Stout".

Pilsners are a lager brewed at cold temperatures with bottom-fermenting yeast. Most modern pilsners are very light and clear. I have a reviewed a few organic pils already in the blog.

Q: What are hops? They look an awful lot like Brussel sprouts

A: You will definitely know the difference hops make in a beer when you try your first real IPA. They add bitterness, additional flavor, and stability to the chemical composition of the beer. This wiki can give you the lowdown on the flower and the many varieties. I would not recommend using Brussel Sprouts in the brewing process. Ever.

Q: Does Kegging/Tapping the beer make it taste any different?

A: The keg, which I became very familiar with during my college years, is an economical way to distribute beer. I was actually surprised to see that the bar had this organic brew on tap. It goes to show you that these companies are really finding their niche in the market and getting good distribution. As far as taste goes, I prefer a draught beer, but it really depends on the quality of the tapping system of the bar. Not much difference should be seen from bottle to keg, but they always tend to be slightly sudsier with more head.

And now on to the review...

Name: Butte Creek Organic Porter (draught) and Pilsner

The Background: Butte Creek is a small California brewer with a production around 3,500 barrels a year. They began the operation in 1995. Both beers are produced with organic German malt and Czech hops. Their mission is to support earth-friendly agriculture. You can read the rest of their mission here.

What they say:

Butte Creek Organic Porter: BRONZE MEDAL WINNER 2002 CA Brewers Festival
This beer is a rich and robust dark ale with a crisp hop start and a smooth chocolate finish. A treat for any dark beer enthusiast.

Butte Creek Organic Pilsner: This European-style Pilsner is brewed with German malt and Czech hops. The result is a clean, straw-colored beer with a refreshing, crisp finish.

What we say: I will exclude all the "butt" creek jokes.

Therese - This tastes like Christmas. I'm as happy as a child on Christmas morning.

Annie - People who don't like dark beer would like this. Lot of flavor and not too heavy

Chris - Bold but surprisingly elegant.

Gary - It is whimsical.

Josh - Porter was great, the pilsner was a bit too watery.

Me - I absolutely loved the porter. Rich flavors with not much bitterness. I especially liked the chocolate overtones. I would get this again. I liked the pilsner but did find the initial taste too clean and watery. I didn't get a sense of the beer until the aftertaste, which was delicious.

Next up Wolaver's and the big hitters who are entering the organic market.