After this year’s Great American Beer Festival, a brewery known in Chicago for producing some of the town’s strongest ales, Haymarket Pub & Brewery, is gaining national attention for its Defender Stout. The Defender took home a gold medal for the American-Style Stout category and a gold in that same category at the 2014 World Beer Cup earlier this year.
The Chicago Defender is a weekly newspaper founded in 1905 by an African American primarily for African American readers. We named the beer to pay homage to this long standing circular,” explains Haymarket Brewer Pete Crowley. “Most of our beer names are of historical significance to Chicago or more specifically to the Haymarket Affair of 1886.”
Crowley, who specializes in both American and Belgian-style beers, says that the Defender is originally based off of an English-style stout recipe that uses Simpsons dark crystal and chocolate malts and, of course, roasted barley. He Americanizes the recipe with American ale yeast and loads of Centennial and Cascade hops.
American-style stout, which is categorized by the Brewers Association as a hoppy, bitter, strongly roasted stout, likely came about as a beer style because brewers like Crowley were adding American ingredients to traditional stout recipes. Homebrewers can master this style, says Crowley, by brewing with less malt so that the barley and hops can dictate the beer’s flavor and aroma.
My advice is to not go nuts on chocolate and dark crystal malts and let the roasted barley shine,” says Crowley. “Get the beer as dry as possible and use the majority of the hops at the end of boil and in secondary,” he adds.