Ottawa Foodies

Zymurgist - While visiting Beau's on the weekend, Steve related a story about the history of Bog Water style beer. Seems that in the earliest days beer was made with various herbs & spices (other than hops). And as it was at the time, the catholic church was sort of in charge of the economy, so they decided that seeing as alcohol was a sin (per se), then the act to making / selling / buying alcohol was money made from sin, so they decided to set up a tax system, and thereby control the distribution of alcohol... lets just say for arguments sake they were the forerunners to the LCBO of SAQ. When they set up this tax system, they taxed the ingredients the brewers were using... that is when the brewers started using hops, because it wasn't commonly used when the tax law was drawn up, and so it wasn't taxed. Hence more profit for the maker. And so over time the consumer's tastes changed, and hops became the standard fare.

Fascinating story...I know you tend to be the Foodie Beer Expert... so are you familiar with this history?

I agree with the other writer that it's good that the Myrtle does not take over this beer. I've never had a beer with it before, and in this one the bitterness, alcohol and malty sweetness are balanced every bit as well as the best hopped beer. Kudos to the brewmaster! It's a hearty, dark beer with a strong malt backbone balanced by the earthy spicy bitterness of the myrtle. Something a bit different, but entirely beery enough to just be beer!

I've heard it said of gruit beers (those brewed with an herb or spice other than hops to balance the malt and alcohol) that there is a good reason why brewers eventually universally settled on hops after centuries of trying just about every other combination of herbs and spices imaginable. The implication being of course that grout beers don't taste very good. Folks of that opinion have obviously never tried Beau's Bogwater! I look forward to having another!

YAY Elmdale -- I'll be right over! Here's the man responsible... the Master Brewer Matthew.

I do know that the church has always been heavily involved in one way or another with the production of beer, but have not heard this particular story. And with all due respect to Steve, I am always extremely skeptical about stories like this which come from breweries - even trusted micros. They tend to seriously over-simplify things like this (usually as a result of the marketing department, though that's not likely the case here). In fairness, within any given context breweries typically don't have time to tell the full story, or don't have an audience who really cares about it. And they will of course leave out parts that might mean they sell less beer.

One of the hugest factors that I've always read about in switching to hops was the fact that hops have natural antiseptic properties, and brewers noticed that beers brewed with hops would keep longer. This would of course be something that your local brewery making gruit beer does not want to tell you because they don't want it being misunderstood as meaning the beer they are selling you might be bad. Keep in mind that back when gruit was being used we didn't even know simple things like how boiling the beer kills germs and so forth. So I especially don't want to give the impression that Bog Water is any more likely to be bad than any other beer - because with a modern brewery it simply is not.

Here is a good little article from Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruit which confirms this story but also echos my comment on how this tends to get oversimplified.

Captain Caper...
See you tuesday for another pint....
Cheers

I got a whole mouthful of nicely toasted malt. A good balance of the bitters (springing from the sweet gale and almost burnt malt) and the residule sugars.

I certainly got the chocolate notes as well as the floral wiffs. In fact the chocolate notes were so present, for me, that I remarked to my friend "This beer is the first and only beer I would like to try a chocolate bar with".

There is a lingering complex finish that the brewmaster should be proud of.

Mind you, this brew is not for the feint of heart or should I say palette. It's a 'full meal deal' when it comes to the nose , the front and back end as well as the finish.

Like I find many of good dark ales, they are more for supping than quaffing. If I want to quaff, I'll go grab a Beau's LugTread.

A throw back to earlier times, Bogwater was released for Valentine's day (2008). It uses sweet gale harvested from Northern Quebec in place of hops and is a strong, brown ale.

Alongside dark, fruity German malts on the nose you get the myrtle. Spicy, very floral with an almost medicinal herbal note.

It's nice that the sweet gale doesn't take this beer over. Malts are blended very well to give you vinous, dark fruit and some chocolate sweetness with a bit of roasted bitterness. Sweet gale is interesting. Taste matches the aroma of the sweet gale very well, the bouquet-like floral note, the herbal spiciness. You also get some really forward pepper notes though. Beer does a fine job hiding its alcohol content. Last finish gives some really nice maple notes. Really interesting and refreshingly adventurous. Available in growlers and 750ml swingtops from the brewery and several local restaurants/bars.