Through his years as a professional brewer, former Stone Brewmaster Mitch Steele has done everything from hone the mass production of light lagers to design and brew acclaimed West Coast IPAs. He even wrote the book on the subject of IPA—IPA: Brewing Techniques, Recipes and the Evolution of India Pale Ale. His six-pack is similarly focused on that push-pull between intensity and drinkability. (Note that we interviewed Steele for this column before he announced that he was leaving Stone to start a brewery of his own.)
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Chico, California)
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the first craft beer I ever tasted. I was a student at UC Davis. We took a field trip up to Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, I tasted that beer, and it made me realize that I wanted to be a brewer professionally. It was a landmark moment for me. When that beer came out and when I tasted it—not to show too much about my age, but it was the early 1980s—there was nothing like that beer anywhere. The intensity of the hops character and the maltiness—the entire flavor combination was radically different from anything I had ever tried before.
My palate has changed over the past thirty years like everyone else’s, but Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is still what I consider a masterpiece beer—absolutely wonderfully balanced—and I would never hesitate to order one. That initial shock of hops character—so many brewers are doing that now that it has become more common—but the Cascade hops character is wonderful. The technical aspect of that beer and what Sierra Nevada has done technically continue to amaze me as a brewer.
Orval (Brasserie Orval, Villers-devant-Orval, Belgium)
I know Orval is on everybody’s list, but to me it’s the quintessential Belgian Trappist beer. The fact that they are making a fairly standard Belgian beer and then dosing with Brettanomyces in the secondary—to me, it’s just a wonderfully balanced beer. Brett is a hard thing to do right. If you’re not brewing the right beer style, it doesn’t taste good, and this beer is just the perfect beer to have that Brett going on. It’s a beer that tastes great fresh, and if you put it in your refrigerator and age it for a fairly significant period of time, it will change, and that’s a lot of the fun of Orval—tasting it and seeing how that Brett character changes the beer over time. This beer taught me a lot about what Brett can do in a beer. We’ve done only one Brett beer [at Stone], but with our Stone Enjoy After IPA, we took inspiration from the way Orval makes their beer and packages it. We didn’t copy their recipe by any means, but the idea of dosing Brett after primary fermentation and letting the beer condition in the bottle and develop those flavors—certainly that was influenced by the way Orval does their beer.
Visiting the Orval brewery is one of my bucket-list items.
London Porter (Fuller’s Brewery, London, England)
I’ve spent a lot of time in England—and in London particularly—over the past six years. I’ve toured Fuller’s Brewery three times and have absolutely fallen in love with their approach to brewing traditional British beers. I think they’re the best ones at it in the world. They’ve done a masterful job of combining the technology of brewing now with traditional English brewing techniques that brewers have practiced for hundreds of years. To me, the beers are the best English ales brewed now.
Fuller’s London Porter holds a special place to me. The very first trip I took to London with Steve Wagner [Stone cofounder and president], where we were out there to discuss brewing a collaboration beer, we went into a Fuller’s pub, and they were pouring London Porter from a cask. That was the one and only time I’ve found it on cask, and it was magical. It was one of those experiences where you take the glass, smell the beer, and you’re instantly transported to the mash tun. It tasted like dark roasted malt, and it was just amazing. Every real brewer and craft-beer fan has these seminal beer moments—where you taste a beer and it just blows you away and sticks with you for the rest of your life. The experience with Fuller’s London Porter was one of those, and I think it’s one of the best porters in the world.
Prima Pils(Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, Pennsylvania)
I spent fourteen years brewing lager beers. I have a very strong appreciation for the amount of technical quality and expertise that goes into brewing a great Pilsner beer. Prima Pils captures that. It’s a classic German Pils, but the other thing that really elevates it for me is the hopping approach to this beer. They’re using German and European hops, but they’re hopping it so that the hops are very pronounced—like an American beer.
To me, it’s a perfect flavor combination: It’s refreshing, it’s crisp, and it just has this nice hops complexity and hops bite that I think are absolutely perfect and balanced. I can drink Pilsners all day, and right now, this is my favorite of the Pilsners I drink. It’s the perfect combination of American and German brewing techniques. They pour it a lot in [the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens], and it’s a go-to for me.
When I’m talking to other brewers, we always refer to Pilsners as “the brewers beer.” That’s the beer made for brewers because you can’t hide anything in a Pilsner—you have to nail every part of the brewing process. And I think that’s why brewers have a special appreciation for the style.
Consecration (Russian River Brewing Company, Santa Rosa, California)
Vinnie [Cilurzo] is doing so many great things with barrel-aged beer, using wine barrels, inoculating them with all sorts of really cool microorganisms. All of his barrel-aged beer that have Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus fermentations going on are so wonderfully balanced and so delicious.
I mentioned seminal beer moments when I was talking about Fuller’s, and this is another one for me. The first time I had Consecration, I was at the brewery in Santa Rosa. When I tasted it, I was like “Oh my god.” Vinnie uses cabernet barrels and black currants with it. And it just has this intense wine-like character—like the perfect blend of a beer and an elegant red wine. It’s one of my favorites that he does. You get a glass of it, and it evolves as the beer temperature changes. Over the time you’re drinking it, it’s equally delicious but different from what you first tasted. To me, that’s the sign of a great beer—it tastes great at 40°F (4°C) and also at 50°F (10°C). Consecration is a classic interpretation of wine-country brewing. Vinnie nailed it. I think I bought a case the first time I tasted it.
Head Hunter IPA (Fat Head’s Brewery, North Olmstead, Ohio)
I have to have an IPA on my list! I have a few IPAs on my short list, and it’s extremely difficult to choose, but I’m going to have to say Fat Head’s Head Hunter. Matt Cole [Fat Head’s head brewmaster] is a good friend of mine—we’ve brewed together several times, and we talk all the time. This is a beer that’s won GABF gold and other awards several times. It’s passing through in competitions that feature hundreds of beers, it’s getting passed through by expert judges and brewers and winning. When you win once, it can be a fluke, but when you win multiple times, your beer really rocks.
Matt’s approach to this beer was to make a West Coast IPA even though his brewery is just outside of Cleveland. At the time he started brewing it, it was pretty unique for that part of the country. The first time I visited him in his brewery, I think we were brewing a dark Belgian-style beer or something. But when I tasted Head Hunter, I thought, “you nailed it.” It totally captured the West Coast vibe. It’s one that we can’t get in California, so when I do see it, I always order it because it’s a rare treat for me.
Some of the other IPAs that I’ve grown attached to—Russian River’s Blind Pig is my favorite IPA they do. It’s a great balanced old-school kind of IPA. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, with all the Centennial hops, is one of my favorites. It reminds me of Stone IPA, and I’ll say in all candidness that Stone IPA was one of my favorite beers before I joined Stone. The Centennial hops in an IPA are a wonderful flavor combination.
All of these beers have been inspiring to me—what the beers bring in terms of hops character is important and is one of those things I always look at. With the exception of London Porter or Consecration, which aren’t really hoppy, they capture a hops intensity or balance that really works for me. That’s something I always strive for when I do hoppy beers. I’m not sure how they’re getting what they’re getting, but my reaction is “this really works,” and that’s the intensity and balance I am looking for in my beers as well.