TERRE HAUTE — Honestly, when “Terre Haute” and “hip” get mentioned in the same sentence, the words “replacement” or “waders” are likely to be included, too.
But not when it comes to brewing beer.
Two beverages, crafted in the historic brewery on South Ninth Street, earned bronze medals at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival in Denver this autumn. Those Brugge brand, Belgian-style creations by master brewer Ted Miller and the crew at the Vigo Brewing Group impressed the judges in two categories of “sour” beer. Brugge’s Bad Kitty beer took bronze in the German Style Sour division, while its Diamond Kings ’09 medaled in the American Style Sour Ale competition.
Now, before you wince and say, “Ewww, sour beer,” lose the pucker and think twice. One sip might change your mind, and put you in high-minded company.
“Sour ales are really hip right now,” said Miller, the guy who three years ago brought Belgian brewing to the Terre Haute plant and former home of Champagne Velvet.
And, according to the Great American Beer Festival judges, the local brews are among the hippest of the hip. The East Coast types, even New Yorkers, and those brewing know-it-alls from Colorado? The Hauteans are right there with ’em. And that’s not easy.
“The beer landscape in the United States is so dynamic right now,” Miller said, and brewers — large and small — really know their stuff.
Brugge’s Diamond Kings ’09 made the top three American Style Sour Ales, along with Rosso e Marrone by Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. in New York (gold medalist), and Raspberry Torte from Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant in Delaware (silver). The Brugge Bad Kitty joined Berliner Weisse by Southampton Publick House in New York (gold), and NBB Love by New Belgium Brewing Co. of Colorado (silver) as the best German Style Sour Ales.
The September festival drew 3,308 entries from 495 U.S. breweries. “The Great American Beer Festival is the premier beer competition for the American beer industry,” festival director Nancy Johnson said in a GABF news release.
“It’s everything from the smallest guy to the big breweries,” said Micah Weichert, who served as the Vigo Brewing Group’s head brewer, when Brugge made Bad Kitty and Diamond Kings ’09.
Belgian beer making, by tradition, breaks traditional brewing rules. Miller loves coloring outside the lines with his tasty concoctions. While humbly deflecting praise for the award-winners to the entire Brugge staff, he admitted, “There’s a Ted Miller brewing style. There’s no doubt about it — it’s certainly my style, and my style is not conventional.”
The Bad Kitty, for example, “was sort of an experiment — a good experiment,” explained Weichert, who returned to his hometown of Kansas City to work in the 75th Street Brewery there. Miller, Weichert and their cohorts put the Bad Kitty through a secondary fermentation process, souring it with wild yeast.
Weichert aptly described the end product as “really zesty, tart, citrusy, slightly spicy and definitely with a strong sour edge to it.”
Sour is good. “These styles of soured Belgian beers have become very, very popular as boutique styles,” Weichert said. Miller suggests pairing a sour Bad Kitty with either sweet or sour foods, just as you would wines.
In a home taste test, my wife and I chose some Hershey dark chocolates. This Brugge brew, a distinctly unique drink with champagne-caliber carbonation, got two thumbs up from us.
The Diamond Kings ’09 represents the latest version of a beer Brugge brews annually. For the 2009 edition, they combined their Tripel De Ripple with their Thunder Monkey — a winter seasonal beverage, laced with nutmeg and cinnamon — and aged it in oak barrels with secondary wild yeast strains.
That yeast ingredient, properly known as brettanomyces, is the wild card for Belgian brewers. “If you get brettanomyces in a winery, it can bankrupt them,” Miller said. “Brewers like to play with it.”
Their fun resulted in a beer “far more complex [than Bad Kitty]. You can taste the age in it,” Miller said.
We Hauteans always knew our town was kind of like that — spicy, complex and well-aged.
Now, we can add hip to that list.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com
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